Dusty Trail Action Series 1: The Outlaw action figure review by Andrew Lenahan

Figure: The Outlaw
Property: Dusty Trail Action Series
Series: 1
Keywords: Historical figures, wild west, western, American west, outlaw
Company: Dusty Trail Toys
Release year: 2003

Series Overview:
Bucking the industry trend of using licensed properties as the basis for toy lines, Dusty Trail introduced its Action Series: a line of figures who, though realistic, are not based on any particular person or existing character. Series 1 is a motley bunch, including a pirate, an old-west outlaw, a modern SWAT officer and matching criminal lowlife, and two World War II soldiers.

Character Overview:
Much like The Captain, I wonder why a generic character was used. This could have been an opportunity to create a new character, or to make an interesting historical figure based on a real-life outlaw, perhaps along the lines of Todd McFarlane's stylised take on Billy The Kid. However, the packaging gives several paragraphs of information on The Outlaw, but no name or any background is given.

Action Figure Sculpt and Paint: 7
The packaging does describe The Outlaw's pose: he's just left a saloon after cheating at cards, then turns to shoot someone pursuing him. Although by no means a poor sculpt, he's just not up to the high standard of the rest of the Dusty Trail Action Series. His pose seems contrived and unnatural, and the bottom of his plastic coat is thick and bulky (why not use a thin rubber coat like The Captain had?). This is also the only Action Series 1 figure with paint problems. His tan is every uneven... on his left hand, for example, all his fingers are a pottery-clay red colour, except his index finger, which is much paler. On his right hand, the palm and fingers are very dark, but the back of his hand is lighter. Most bizarrely of all--and I'm not making this up--he has bright hot-pink nail polish on! Either The Outlaw accidentally borrowed his preteen niece's makeup bag, or there was some sort of paint application screw-up. I was also somewhat disappointed by the lack of dirt on this figure, with only some speckling around his boots. He looks rather clean for a wild west outlaw. On the positive side, though, his facial detailing is excellent.

Articulation: 4
Like most of the Dusty Trail Action Series figures, The Outlaw is articulated only at the neck, shoulders, and wrists, and can only really pose in one position. And it's a fairly silly-looking position at that.

Accessories: 7
The Outlaw's main accessory is his base, which has two areas: a very well-sculpted sand/dust street area, and a slightly raised wooden sidewalk area. The wood plank effect is good, with a detailed texture, but not nearly as convincing as The Captain's wooden-looking base. His only other accessory is his trusty Colt pistol, which fits perfectly in his right hand.

Packaging: Above Average
The Dusty Trail action series uses packaging like the recent McFarlane figures. I like it there, and I like it here too. It shows the figure well, it's sturdy, and won't get damaged easily.

Overall score: 6.5
Though this is clearly not a must-have figure for most people, it's still one of relatively few good wild west figures on the market, and would make a decent little display piece for western fans. It's worth noting that there's a companion piece to this figure, a lawman, in Dusty Trail Action Series 2.

Availability:
Originally sold at a fairly hefty $12-15 (a bit more than McFarlane figures of similar size and quality), Amazon.com (link) currently has them for $7.99 each as of this writing. This is quite a good price.