Heavy Duty GI Joe Classified Series Prototype Test Shot Head Sculpts

Check out the Heavy Duty GI Joe test shots for the upcoming GI Joe Classified Series figure that was announced at SDCC 2024

Heavy Duty’s trademark was filed for renewal back in July 2023 and he was also announced as a name only reveal at SDCC 2024, Heavy Duty is slotted to come to the GI Joe Classified Series in the future. Thanks to gijoe_forever for posting pics via Shaw Liú, we get to see what Heavy Duty’s head sculpt looks like! Double the pleasure, double the fun, he’ll come with two head sculpts. Featuring his classic baseball cap backwards head sculpt, he’ll also feature a head sculpt without a cap. Given the loadout that the vintage Heavy Duty figure came with, we can expect something similar to how the Iron Grenadiers Heavy Metal was produced so we are looking forward to his release but also more prototype shots coming before he’s officially revealed.

Here are the side profiles of the test shots and you can already see the stitching in the baseball cap.

Lenny said at the SDCC 2024 panel that if there is anything that was not realized in Heavy Duty’s vintage design, it will be in the Classified Series!

Heavy Duty Trademark Renewal

We’ve been covering Mattel Masters of the Universe trademark renewals for quite some time. Today, we focus our attention to Hasbro’s trademark renewals and we’ve discovered that they recently started the process for renewing a trademark for the GI Joe character named Heavy Duty. Hasbro filed this application back on June 13, 2023 and this could mean one of two things. First, companies will renew trademarks because they do not want to lose the naming rights to the figure. Second, it could mean that they are renewing the trademark because they have a figure in the works and this is just a formality. We like to think it’s the latter so let’s take a closer look at the Heavy Duty character and some custom concepts

Heavy Duty Vintage GI Joe Figure

Heavy Duty was released in 1991 and his figure was 100% original with no shared parts with other figures. Although the 90’s is where GI Joe went off the rails, the 1991 figure assortment gave us some cool versions of the some characters.

Heavy Duty came with a green backpack, a green launcher base, a red missile site, a black center mount cannon, two green spring-loaded side-mount missile launchers, and two light green missiles. The two missile launchers attached to the sides of the ammo box. The gun barrels attached to the top of the ammo box, the backpack attached to the bar at the back of the ammo box, and the site fit into the backpack’s post.

His file card reads:

“A classical guitarist in his spare time, HEAVY DUTY sees little difference between playing Bach’s “Two Part Invention in D Minor” and operating his Man-Portable Heavy Weapons System. They both require right and left hand independence, exceptional hand-eye coordination and the ability to concentrate simultaneously on two or more complex operations. To him, playing Bach correctly and hitting a distant, fast-moving target are two sides of the same coin. It also represents his cultural refinement.”

“Let’s say you zap a laser-guided missile at a tank. You try to keep your laser-guided designator dot on that tank for the entire run of the missile while that tank commander is popping caps at you. If you move, the laser dot disappears from the tank and your missile wanders astray. Heavy Duty carries enough extra firepower to shut down the enemy while his missiles are running. And Heavy Duty doesn’t duck for ANYBODY!”

Heavy Duty GI Joe Classified Series Custom Concept

Hasbro has not announced a figure of Heavy Duty for their GI Joe Classified Series so we often look to the customizing community for some inspiration as to what a Heavy Duty figure could like. The image on the left has Heavy Duty in classic v1 vintage color scheme and his classic baseball hat turned backwards. The image on the right reuses the Cobra Island Roadblock figure as this version of Roadblock was often referred to as the Heavy Duty for GI Joe Classified Series given his unique look.