Review – DMS-One Duster (Camo and Medic)

Designer/Resin * Year: 2010

Earlier this year I pointed at the DMS-One Duster resin toy (first mentioned here), and at the time I said that I would keep my eye on it. Well, I did more than that since I now have two of these toys — Camo and Medic — and they’re two of the heaviest resin toys in my collection. I don’t know what kind of resin was used to create these monsters, but they’re amazingly heavy for their size.

And they’re neat.

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Click to expand the photo in a new window.

A “Platform” Toy

Much like the Ashley Wood Bertie (review here) and Square (review here), these Duster toys are presented as a variety of different paint styles on one basic, identical body sculpt. This is a fairly common practice in the designer toy world, where money is tight and artists don’t have enough cash to spend on creating lots of new molds so they get as many different “colorways” out of one design as they possibly can. This approach to toy design works best when there are slight variations in the sculpt/physical design of the toy . . . the Duster achieves this variation with the addition of two rubbery hoses to the Camo unit.

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Click to expand the photo in a new window.

Camo

First up we have Camo — who, as of this writing, is still available — our green Duster resin toy with the hoses. The first thing you notice when you go to stand the Camo Duster on his own is that his feet are spheres that he cannot stand on without using his massive right hand for balance. I never noticed it in the photos online, but this toy must be stood leaning slightly forward so that it can use its finger/hand to stabilize it. You could probably use some tacky material on the feet to tilt the toy back a little so that both its hands are off of the surface, but it will never stand only on its feet without assistance.

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Click to expand the image in a new window.

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I really can’t decide what this toy is meant to be. In a Q&A with the designer at ToysREvil we learn:

“Duster is my first robot unit and functions to collect dust samples from nebula storms in the Desert region, by far the most toxic and dangerous region of Planet 44. These samples are then returned to my New London lab for analysis, the Desert region must be made safe for future generations as the colony expands.”

“Five years since the original prototype my work continues with the Duster units, I have been assigned with adapting them for use in other regions of the planet. Recently the Camo units were deployed to the Deep Forest region for analysis and the Medic units to the Desert to aid and repair the Original Dusters.”

So they’re robots, but they almost have a bear-like shape to the head, which had me thinking that they’re possibly armored or robotic bears. No matter what’s under that suit, though, it’s a cool design.

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Click to expand the photo in a new window.

Camo, as you can see in the pics, comes in a green design that’s a blend of sprays and drybrushing with painted details. It’s possible the lettering, numbers, and skull design are all stencil work, but it’s also possible that the artist just puts a hell of a lot of time into painting each of these resin toys. Either way, the paint is well-applied and gives the toy a rough, weather-beaten look that actually goes quite nicely with the rough, rugged sculpt.

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Click to expand the image in a new window.

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Medic

My package also included Medicwho is also still available — a white and red robot with the familiar Red Cross markings that identify him as a medical unit. I think Medic here is a large part of the reason why these resin toys have been marked as similar in style to Ashley Wood’s World War Robot* series; when you’ve got weather-beaten robots with a medical unit there’s just no way to avoid comparisons to today’s top robot toy series.

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Click to expand the photo in a new window.

Medic here, like Camo, is a brute of a toy at only about 3.25-inches tall. The heft of these guys is shocking — especially if you’re used to handling 3-to-4-inch resin toys — and I know part of that is because of the squat, thick design, but there’s something else going on here. I have no clue what brand of resin is being used, but this feels much heavier and rockier than the other resin toys in my collection.

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Click to expand the image in a new window.

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Coming from the same mold as Camo, one thing about Medic’s off-white, dirty color scheme is that you can more easily see the mold lines on the body. And they’re in weird, unexpected spots for a toy that looks like it’s a one-piece design. Without any articulation, and no signs of glue, it’s odd to find multiple mold lines running in various directions. It’s almost like the artist created a five or six-piece mold that slides together and then has resin poured inside . . . but I can’t find a part on the mold that looks like the pour point. I would love for a look at the mold for this toy, because either a lot of work is being done to hide where parts go together or something unusual is happening behind the scenes. Unusual, but with a great result. The mold lines actually fit in well with the rugged design of the toys.

UPDATE: Daniel Goffin (blog, Twitter) sent me over a link to this post at his blog where he discusses the Duster creation/mold process. Awesome stuff, and handy to read if you’ve got any interest in how resin toys are made.

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Click to expand the photo in a new window.

Medic’s light color also shows off all of the little air pockets that mar the surface of the toy, places where air bubbles were trapped during the production process. Studying the air bubble markings — which all appear on the bottom of the toy — we know the resin poured into the bottom of the toy. This makes me think the tip of that massive hand is where the resin was poured into the mold. I may be wrong, but that looks like a great place to hide any imperfections that would come from overfilling the mold.

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Click to expand the image in a new window.

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Click to expand the image in a new window.


So Who Would Enjoy This Toy?

If you’re a fan of posing and playing with toys then the Duster resin toys aren’t for you. Bulky, able to stand in only a single position, and without any articulation at all, the Duster design isn’t a piece you’re going to actually “play with” in any serious way. No, this toy is definitely for art lovers and fans of rough, abused robots. I’d say that anyone who is collecting Ashley Wood’s robots would enjoy having at least one of these in their collection; the Dusters make excellent companions to Squares.

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Click to expand the photo in a new window.

Closing Thoughts

Grimy, dirty, and rough, the Dusters are tiny — but remarkably heavy! — resin toy robots that look great when displayed with other toys. Mine are currently sitting with my Squares and Large Martin and they fit in perfectly with those World War Robot toys.

The DMS-One website and DMS-One store are the places to go to grab these or to see more photos of the toys. These aren’t the greatest resin toys I’ve ever bought, but the design is neat and I’m happy to have a couple of these in my growing collection of resin toys.

UPDATE: For other thoughts on this resin toy see this post at Reduced Figuration.

*Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.


Philip Reed is happy to buy the occasional resin toy because a lot of the designs are a bit bizarre and because purchasing these directly supports artists.