Upgrades On A Character

So I’ve started my game and now can see some technical problems ahead. I’m using an engine similar to Zelda, and my character will be acquiring new armor, shields, and weapons (Armor, and Shield Pics Below). There is one shield per two upgrades of armor.

Instead of making several different Movie Clips with 12 different animations for walking, is there a way to do this by dynamically loading the shield to the armor with variables thus cutting down the animations to 2 total?

I have an idea or two, but thought I would check here before putting in the hours myself.