I've always wondered, is Destro V1 bare chested, or is he wearing a tan colored undershirt? The figure, or atleast mine anyway, seems to be a bit too yellow in the chest area to be bare chested. In the old cartoon, there is no doubt he's wearing a yellowish tan undershirt. In the limited number of Marvel Joe comics I have, he seems to be bare. I've always pretended that he's wearing a shirt. It seems a bit less disco daddy that way with the big red medallion and all. What do you think?

I would say bare chest. The big red (emerald?) medallion, the flared collar tight black body suit, and other Disco/KISS era accoutrements make me believe he'd have a bare hairy chest and his birthday zodiac symbol etched on that medallion. Think Larry from 3's Company meets David Bowie.

Also, why would the guy who color coordinates his collar and wrist missiles wear a tan shirt under a black,red, and silver outfit - clash!

_________________

I used to always think it was a shirt, but yeah it's a bare chest. Several things point to that. Early issues of the Marvel run show him bare chest too.

BTW, I never really noticed but what the heck is Torpedo running around in full gear in issue #16? I was just looking at the first few issues Destro was in and I guess I always overlooked Torpedo, flippers and all.

_________________

Bare chest. It was the early 80's. There were still some leftover disco influence...

He is so coordinated, agile and just downright BadA$$ he can do that!
I think it is a new martial art style - Weija-SCUBA-Do (you know back flipper round kick, shoulder scuba shrug strike, depth indicator whip and choke hold.....those kind of moves)

_________________

Dude you have to make the first scuba ninja custom!

_________________

I went for shirt, if you view my custom "Destro - Undercover Brother".

http://www.joecustoms.com/customs/customs_specific_item.php?kind=figure&alpha=D&page=3&id=6685

_________________

That says it all!

And yes, bare chest for sure. Never any doubt in my mind that it was anything but, even when I was a young child. It was still the early 80s, the 70s weren't that far away yet.

_________________

Based on the 25th version which has the bare chest I'd say bare chest on the original as well.

_________________

It was always a bare chest but everyone who watched the toon thought it was a shirt cause Destro sounded like a black man.

The toy I figured was a shirt, since he had a really off color tan/yellow whatever color that was supposed to be for his chest. In the comic it was obvious it was a bare chest but I always liked the tan shirt idea that the cartoon went with better.

_________________

I never equated having a deep voice as sounding like a black man. Like I've said before, always thought it was a bare chest. Of course, I read all the file cards religiously as a kid too, so I probably felt it was unlikely that it was a black man. Was the voice actor even black?

EDIT: Okay, guess he was. Still, never equated a deep voice with being black.

_________________

Bare chest, I think no one had the nerve to tell him that Disco was dead so he kept running around in his club outfit.

The cartoon I used to think shirt or not because he didn't sound Scottish as much as he sounded African American. Then I got thinking well maybe he's white but grew up in Africa where he picked up the voice and then moved to Scotland.

If you really have to wonder though just take a cartoon clip, find some old Disco music and presto you'll see that Destro loved his Disco a little too much.

He's bare chested, always has been.

Hasbro had to use thick yellowish flesh paint to cover the black which combined with his deep voice from the cartoon, gave rise to the tan shirt theory.

_________________