Head - Blowtorch modified
Chest,Arms, Waist, Lower Legs - JvsC Duke
Upper Legs - JvsC Tunnel Rat
Boots - BBI

Handgun and holster -Intoyz
various other parts from GiJoe, Intoyz and BBI figures

Duke always came across to me that he was this Ivy league type pretty boy who actually was a tough guy who just happened to be born into "ideal" circumstances with his family. However, he still had a code and a sense of honor and felt the best way to repay what he had been born with was to go and serve his country. That is why I like the character so much and why he always came across as heroic to me.

Because of that he has always been one of if not my favorite characters. It is ironic that back during the RAH days we had the same Duke figure from 1983 - until a new one was made in the early 90's I believe. When Hasbro relaunched GiJoe in 2001 we seemed to get a new Duke with every wave. Out of all of the Duke's that came out I think this one had the most potential and made the most sense. In Gijoe-world Duke is the leader who is charging up a hill with his troops. It made sense to me that he would be geared up. I love the original iconic look of Duke but for the modern age I wanted to try something different. First thing I did with my original custom of this figure was to get rid of the ridiculously HUGE gun holsters on his chest. They really served no purpose and only detracted from the figure as a whole. I also tried to remove alot of the bulk from the chest piece, so I trimmed down the sides by the waist and the shoulders quite a bit. I also trimmed his collar a bit and tried to follow how the character looked in SpyTroops: The Movie and also how his card art looked. It used to drive me crazy that the card art always represented such a great looking figure and Hasbro continued to not be able to translate the art to the figure. Other companies are capable of it but with GiJoe Hasbro "struggled" with this for the entire run of the relaunch fo GiJoe until they cancelelled, hiatused, whatever it's being called this week.

Regardless, my original version I liked alot when I first made it, but that is going back a couple of years now. It was one of the first GiJoe customs I had made in a while and I went from doing Star Wars customs to GiJoe. As I learned more about sculpting, epoxies, paints etc, I kept going back and trying out more and more things on the original version of this figure. I ultimately ended up replacing the clasp at the top of the Flak Vest, along with the belt at his waist. I then came across really great boots that came with an Intoyz military figure. They had the added articulation that the Hasbro produced figure had but were a much nicer sculpt. So I cut off the old boots and added these new ones. I also went about re-painting parts of the figure. I added some highlights here and there and also did some black outlining to bring out the detail in certain areas that I thought looked pretty plain. I had also originally had a canteen on his left thigh but the more I looked at it seemd to just be hanging there and not attached to anything. I decided to take it off and donate it to my Backblast custom and instead I put a pouch there from a BBI modern military figure. I also really wanted to retain the original color scheme that the first Duke figure had. I think alterations on a theme is a pretty good way to go for an update. So he is wearing a tan shirt, green pants with a camo pattern (to modernize it a bit) and lastly where the original figure had a green bandolier he now has a green flak vest. I also can't stand straps that seem to hold nothing. So I made a point to have his side straps lead to his right holster and his left strap hold some gear, ammo etc.