Head: RoC Sgt Stone
Torso, arms: 50th Spirit
Legs: 50th Dusty (2x left lower leg with feet swapped accordingly)
Harness: 25th Snake Eyes
Weapon: Vintage Dusty

The New Sculpt era (2001-2006) was a particular time in Joe's history. On one hand, the lines released during those years - GI Joe vs Cobra, Spytoops, Valor vs Venom and DTC - have a bad reputation because several figures had strange proportions and accessory selection were sometimes bizarre. On the other hand, a lot of great ARAH type figures were released and new enduring characters like Kamakura and Bombstrike were created during those years.

I got back in to Joes as an adult in 2004-2005. The Toys R Us exclusive 6-Packs and the KB toys Operation Crimson Sabotage were what drew me back in. After that, I started picking up various Valor vs Venom figures and Comic Packs. By the time DTC was released, I was buying all the new stuff that was coming out as well as a lot of stuff that I had missed out on since quitting Joes in 1987. That included Spytroops and GvC.

Even after the 25th and Pursuit of Cobra and all the other Modern Era lines, that I now exclusively collect, I still think the New Sculpt lines (and the TRU exclusives in particular) had some of the funnest figures and concepts. That's why I love recreating them as ME customs. It allows me to try to recapture the fun aspects while attempting to fix the flaws.

One of the first "flaws" that I fixed was to omit Snake Eyes from the group. I was not crazy about the idea of having him in almost every pack at the time. Also, I found some other Joes to include in the squad instead.

I think we can all agree that creating a Desert Patrol Squad without Dusty would be useless. Unfortunately, the original set's version of the desert specialist was... bizarre. It consisted of Stretcher's head and Lowlight v2 body painted in a way that was not consistent with the sculpting. It made for a strange figure and one that had no traits in common with Dusty.

To fix this, I turned to Yojoe's Unproduced Archive and found a version of Dusty v3 with the same chocolate chip camouflage as the rest of the set. Apparently, this figure was meant to be released around 2000 with the other ARAH repaints we were getting at the time. I simply adapted the parts recipe as well as the color pallet and matched everything to the team and presto, a better Dusty for the squad.