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What becomes of Johnny Quest when he grows up and is no longer a boy adventurer? Nothing good, apparently.
Son of the late, great, Jonas Venture, Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture
has a lot to live up to. With twin boys and a giant lab at his disposal, he's working with the goverment on such amazing projects as death rays, walking eyes, and other secret stuff we're not even allowed to tell you about just yet.
Okay, Rusty's kind of a blowhard, but he's not really all that bad as a scientist. Just... absentminded. He starts things and forgets to finish them. We're constantly told what a bad scientist he is, but he actually designs and builds some pretty fantastic devices - and the ones that fail tend to fail because of things that were outside his control (or because of his arrogance, not his lack of talent). Basically, his problem is that he lives in the shadow of his father, the famous Dr. Jonas Venture - everybody expects too much of him, rather than learning his limitations (and yes, that applies to Rusty himself, too).
Doc Venture's head is neither too pointy and thin nor too puffy and rounded. He's thin faced, but with a full cheek and nose. His head comes to a subtle point on top, and his beard curves off his jawline slightly. His eyes are relatively high on his head, and his glasses (a separate piece that unfortunately hides his eyes) taper nicely.
Doc is kind of a wacky character, but he's not cartoonish.
He's built from long, thin shapes, and has bad posture. Like Dean, Doc is slight of shoulders, still, he does have them. He's wearing his pink mauve jumpsuit speed suit (only the perfect habiliment for the science-minded man, who knows both comfort and ease and demands them from his clothing), which bunches around the waist where it's held in place by a white belt, and is sculpted with a pocket protector and four pens. He's wearing brown loafers, and his two-way communicator watch is right there on his wrist.
Like Dr. Mrs. the Monarch, Rusty Venture has arms that are just a little bit too long for his body. He also suffers from a neck that's too short - his head should be slightly higher above his shoulders, so the toy ends up looking stunted and goblin-like. Or like he's perpetually shrugging. That's mildly annoying. He has the same articulation as the other figures in the line: swivels at the neck, shoulders, waist and hips, and hinges for the elbows and knees. On the show, Doc has a wide acting range, going from the very subtle to the very broad, but the toy is kind of limited.
Doc does come with an accessory, however. It's the shrink ray first seen in
the Season 1 episode "Tag-Sale - You're It!" and then again in Season 2's "Escape to the House of Mummies (Part 2)" and a couple times in Season 4. The gun was built by his father, and Rusty can't seem to make it work right. Appropriately enough, the figure can't seem to hold it right: his hands aren't molded for an accessory. It's sculpted and painted well, just don't expect Doc Venture to point it at anyone.
It's easy to miss, but Dr. Venture's name is a joke. No, not "Rusty Venture," that's some sort of ill-defined sex act. Thaddeus. Nickname is "Thad." Thus, Thad Venture - th'Adventure. Cute. This Rusty Venture action figure is far from perfect, but he's good, and gets a lot better when you put him with the rest of the family. He was just a piece of stock art when these figures were solicited, but now that you can get him, it's great to finally have a real toy.
-- 07/29/13
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