Night Attack Chopper

This is the Night Attack Chopper.



2002 seems so long ago! Most of the original new vehicles and figures that started coming out at this time did not have my interest ('02-'05 or so). A few vehicles made the cut during these "new sculpt" years in my collection, though. The NAC was really THE last of that crop of vehicles that stayed in my collection from those years. Of course, it is gone now, sold or traded, and I'm doing just fine with my Tomahawk.



The thing is really a nice toy, though. The action and sound features are really not my the big draw on the toy for me, but on this heavy chopper toy it really worked out.
The lower tail end is a handle, and there is another "flip-down" handle up front. This thing is very user-friendly in that manner (two-handled gunship!). With the trigger pull, the rather large multi-shot launchers would extend out to attack mode. Then with each trigger pull, EACH side's pods would fire some rockets until they were empty.

That was fun, I did enjoy that.

I also liked to spin the rotors with the tail trigger. The chopper really puts the user of the toy in control in that manner.

The details were pretty decent, too. I don't think the details were better than the Tomahawks, though. As I made my decisions on what to keep, I found there were some vehicles that filled a space between model and toy. While the details on the Tomahawk (and other ARAH vehicles) are a little more fragile, they weren't as "blocky" or "rounded" as the NAC.

I would say the NAC would easily last in one piece though because of its' "rounded" and solid construction.

And it's a pretty sleek mutli-role chopper. I think it fits closer to the gunship role more than any other, though. The chin-turret is very nice, but I didn't like that it was limited only side-to-side movement. But I very much did like the "sensor nose cone" with the light, it really looks like it belongs.

I know, I'm nit-picky.

And at first, I really disliked the rotor design. It grew on me, though. However, even as thick and rather sturdy as the blades were, one of them was stressed with just a few removals where it connects to the rotor hub.
Of course, the sound attack feature made it on board. I didn't mind the actual thing, and I actually liked the idea of customizable side weapons pods. But, there's only a few of these sound attack weapons that really looked good and made sense. (Scarletts' crossbow, for instance, did not make sense to me on here, even though it seemed like the side sound stations were meant to be used by the cockpits passengers in back; by hand; see that handle in the pic below?)

The cockpit was my favorite part, three figures, so it was a real crew. Even a joystick.

The rear compartment was the big let-down, though. This is where I think a GIJOE vehicle could have separated itself from the pack of other toys. Without the sound attack gear, and especially without the lower front "handle" that was hidden in flipped up position, this would have been one awesome unique helicopter. And the big wing pylons and rocket pods helped block access to the rear compartment some. (and the non-removable mini-rocket under the pylon didn't add anything to the vehicle for me)

The deal-breaker for me keeping the NAC was really based on the landing gear looking like an afterthought of design. The running board with the figure peg was alright. But essentially, the lack of "feet" swung the vehicle into my "trim" list.

Who was the pilot on your NAC?

I don't think I really picked out any one figure to take on the NAC as "owner." I guess, somewhat like Devils Due: Amercia's Elite, I did have Flint ferrying an elite team around on missions. And that really sums up the mission roles that I put the NAC out on, just simple raids and attacks.


Still, the NAC was a pretty fun chopper. I never did get either of the other variants, but nearly 10 years later, I wouldn't mind seeing a re-tooled NAC hit the shelves at retail again, with all the little things tweaked that I mentioned I didn't care for much. (it's nice to dream... :) )

Omega, so that's what is...

Updated at the bottom
I'm still excited for S.K. Omega, just as excited as I was in 2010. Any little bits of news or discussion on this new line interests me, even just little random things.

If you don't know about them, this was a new line that I pretty much read about at GeneralsJoes.com originally. There is a lot of information at GeneralsJoes.com as well as other links that give other glimpses into what's happening in that whole realm of getting a new toy line off the idea board.

I thought the podcast that discussed a little more about "what we know" was good conversation. The guys really touched on the process that goes into making a product that I found interesting.

This "process" was something that I wanted to be a part of (and still do), and my interests in toys (namely GIJOE) is the whole reason I chose where I was going to go for school (major) and ultimately how I ended up at this point in my life.

No, I'm not part of any production "process." As things evolved in life, I ended up on a different path. I hope to get back on the path, but when the path is rocky and unpredictable, I figure I should be in no hurry. I'll most likely give it another go eventually.

I'm looking forward to hearing the next episode of WOJM on S.K. Omega.

Even if it takes Molten Monkey Intl. a while to get things off the ground and into my hands, I'm still going to be here.

The Hive still looks very appealing to me, as does the Owl. As much as I'm not in the toy market to accumulate things, these are things I like the look of so far. Plus, I hope they work and blend seamlessly into my mostly o-ring style GIJOE collection.

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updated

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So, the WOJM podcast is here. Still sounds like a lot of fun stuff to look forward to!

I wasn't giving it heavy consideration, but, yeah, I wondered what the "S.K." stood for.

NOW I KNOW!

Random Helicopters and gunships thoughts

Moving forward with my collection, the GIJOE team here is going to be a very mobile team. I think the best way for the figures to be "mobile" in regards to my vehicle collection, is by using helicopters.

I find helicopters to be neat machines. A week or two ago, I attended a small fly-in at the local airport. There were planes of all sizes, from home-built stunt craft, to those passenger carrying brush planes with the big landing gear tires (like you might see on the Flying Wild Alaska show, if I remembered the name right of that show right..).

The best part of that little fly-in for me was watching the Robinson R44 that was available to take rides in. I didn't take the ride, but watching that little 4-seater helicopter zip around was just as fun. A very agile craft.


For my GIJoe team, I'm planning on using the Tomahawk as the main mode of transport. Most fans probably do this, too. It's a great helicopter, and a fun, detailed toy.

Now, when it comes to moving the Joes in the air, I've been considering bringing back a gunship. Essentially, this would be another helicopter, but it would be the helicopter that is there for battle. The Tomahawk can hold its own in most cases, but consider that Cobra has the Fang II's here, as well as a DTC HISS with some missiles, well....it might not be wise to allow the Tomahawk fully loaded with Joes to take them on. (plus, I have the Renegades Black Dragon coming in...)

I had the Dragonfly for most of my life up until just a couple weeks ago. For a 1983 vehicle it never really seemed too old feeling to me. Where it was falling in "like" for me was that the pylon weapons didn't have much "heavy" to them, where in real life a gunship like this would most likely have multiple rocket pods and twin rack TOW missiles. And I would have liked to have had a more detailed chin turret gun, too. But, it really is a helicopter that works with the '82-'84 figures best. I want just a little more "beef." Something that kind of fits in the middle in the '85-'94 span of years for figures style-wise.
I'm very surprise that Hasbro didn't re-tool a Dragonfly like they did other vehicles, like the Water Moccasin/ Sting Raider that essentially made the vehicle a little larger. (Fang vs. Dragonfly: how "anniversary" would that have been?)

And there are many other helicopter options out in the Joe world to choose from.

I don't think the Retaliator is going to be one I'll choose, though. This is a helicopter I haven't seen much discussion about online over the years. It's got a nice looking front end, but the crane/claw/tail end might not be my cup of tea. Without seeing much said about it online, and for me not seeing it in person ever, makes it hard to really get a feel on this craft. Anybody have one of these?

The Locust is another one I've never seen in person. This little bird has my interest lately. Just for the small size this little flying gun platform could be the answer to my wants. It could be used for those days when I just want a small mission, or if I want somebody to just go scout ahead for Cobra. For the size, it's packing the guns, though!
(And it would be shelf-space friendly.)

Of course, I could always get a Razorblade back in the collection. This one has been gone for almost 5 or 6 years now.
It wasn't that bad of a little 'copter. I thought the spring-fire launcher was rather well hidden (and black missiles, too). And while I never did use the string feature, the little backpack figure rescue catcher thing is a unique item. In my imagination, the string slider part was like the secret spy ball on real helicopters, that thing held all the top-secret "black box" surveillance gear.
Style wise, the Razorblade looks like a solid armored battle craft. There is very little "sleek" about this thing. It was really built solid.
The one area about the craft I don't like is how the landing gear attaches to the body. If this thing was ever re-tooled, if the added an Apache looking in style hull bottom with some lowering wheels, I think this would be a more accepted toy.


Options that I know I don't really want are the Sky Hawk or the Sonic Apache AH-74. I traded my Apache for a FANG II. The only regret I have about that trade is that apparently the Apache has (or had) more dollar value for some reason. I could have sold it and bought more FANG II's with the cash, rather than just a straight trade. I still don't see the value in the Sonic Apache, though, it's one vehicle that I don't miss at all.


The Mudfighter is another craft that I could use for my "gunship" role. Being a propeller driven craft, it wouldn't need the runway like the "big fighter jets" and would be very supportive with the extensive payload of bombs.
Perhaps I should try to hunt one of these down along with a Locust?
Anyone have a Mudfighter, what do you think about this little plane?

What other "VTOL" or helicopters am I forgetting about? (No, the POC Dragonhawk is not an option ;) :) .)

Or maybe I don't need a gunship and my Joes are just fine with the Tomahawk?


Or, maybe like suggested on a thread at JoeDeclassified.com, I should look for the Halo: Reach Falcon? (I won't really, but wow, that is a nice looking machine! Poor Joe gets this.)

The Skystriker that is coming out

I'm just not excited about the Skystriker that is coming out.

I don't think I've every really, really, really wanted a Skystriker that badly at any point in my collecting, though.
It was more where I would have liked one, but at the same time, that "would have like to have" feeling really applies to almost everything. I would have liked, and would still like, to have everything.

On YOJOE.com, there was a thread where before we knew of the possibility of a new Skystriker, it was essentially asked how much would one pay to get them out on the shelf.

In it, at much higher price points, I said I was interested in it. But what would have garnered my interest in a higher-price-point Skystriker would be in the extras that would really add to the plane.

Now, the F-14 Tomcat is very much the basis for the Skystriker. And while the new on is nice, I'm not big on the single-seater. I would have preferred the twin-seater. But then the modern figures would get cramped, so I totally understand that. And the cockpit details look pretty good on this new Skystriker, too.

What would have really sold me on the Skystriker, though?

Getting all the little parts that interacted with the plane from the U.S.S. Flagg, that's what!

I'm talking the tow bar, the fuel car and tanker.

I'm thinking tail-hook.

I'm thinking boarding ladder.

All the things that would compliment a Skystriker on the ground being added into the package would have really been the kicker that would have sold me on this new one.

The optional stickers that are present are nice, though.



What else would have sold me?

Well, on top of a unique night interceptor/ fighter paint job, and everything else I mentioned above...

TWO pilot figures and at least one ground crew figure (to move the fuel, the bomb/ missile rack trailer, etc., etc.


But with everything I would want in a Skystriker, well, I would have essentially ended up with something between what we have now, and this. Or even this at BBTS.

I would guess what I would have done would have pushed the new Skystriker into the $100-plus range.




And I don't want to be a complainer, but I was hoping that there might be a "new" mutli-role aircraft that would be put out. Maybe not an F-22, or F-35, but something fairly accurately scaled that might reflect what our global pilots are flying these days.

But, it's all good. There's a lot of people that won't have to pay an arm and leg to get a Skystriker now.

That's where the fun is, we get to play, just like back in the day!!!

Cobra Transport Helicopter

These are scans from the Marvel GIJOE comic I did a few years back.

I might be wrong, but I would think a majority of Joe fans would like this in toy form.
I know I would!!!

It would only be a little bit bigger than the N.A.C., I would guess, but imagine the fun possibilities of having interchangeable equipment, such as a big clamp for carrying a HISS or Paralyzer. Or even an armored troop-carrying deployment compartment. OR......????

Other Types of craft:

 

 

1991 GIJoe rise of the action accessories

This is what the GIJoe team had in 1991.

This is an older picture I took in 2009, most every figure stayed pretty much the same since them.
The only additions I made that are not in the picture are, Skymate. I also did not put in my Talking Battle Commander General Hawk in the picture.

There's a lot of things going on with this years assortments. In 1990, it was really a solid release of figures with a lot of accessories. With the exception of Rapid Fire (and Capt. Grid-Iron, to an extent), nothing was too far out there in 1990.

In 1991, I think a few figures really carried similar 1990 stylings. Dusty, Sci-fi, Red Star, Heavy Duty, and Hawk, really carried through solid design form and a good amount of accessories that ranged from specialized weapons to removable headgear. I don't have the 1991 release, but Low-light is another figure that has a lot of gear, and really seems to fit in with the 1990-style figures. Lots of gear and rather simple, solid figure design.

However, 1991 was also the introduction of the spring-fire missile launcher figure accessory. While I am not a fan of these, and they were on Transformers years prior, SOME of these are pretty darn good.

Red Star's RPG-style launcher is really a nice looking launcher. Heavy Duty's "man-portable" weapon system is fairly technical looking, and I thought it was interesting that the missile-tubes were also used on the Sonic Apache!

Sci-fi got a launcher, but in his case, it seems like this accessory was less a rocket-shooter, and more a true "energy" blaster. The yellow rocket (actually "energy?") makes me think this.



Was 1991 more a transition assortment....

Some figures had a little less "1990-style" to them, too, but these were still fairly straight-forward figures, except their accessory list included some kind of new-specialized equipment. And these figures also bring in some of the "neon" that is often moaned about, but more in the guns and such. The figure package backs often led me to think this, like the back here, you can see which 1991 figures are on it, and which are not....

Mercer for instance, is really straight-forward, despite the "orange" weapons. The backpack with the mechanically moving missile tube that swings out to the side is where the specialized accessory angle starts to come into play.

Snake eyes also gets the same straight-forward figure-style, but instead of "just" a backpack, he gets a spring-fired grappling hook launcher with a string. Spring-fired, but it's not a missile. Would you say it is an "action accessory?" Snake eyes also has the "orange" weapons.

Tracker brings an orange weapon into play, too, as well as oars. Instead of a spring-fired action accessory, Tracker gets an inflatable raft. To me, this is an "action accessory."

Grunt falls close to feeling like a 1990 figure, but like the 1992 Duke, his "elbow-out" arms have sort of bugged me. His (to me) Army football pants really feels like this guy did leave the team and is not just getting back from his engineering college days, and as "Infantry Squad Leader," the guy feels like he could be a leader of some sort.
Grunts "action accessory" is some kind of huge massive mortar tube, or some kind of huge massive anti-armor bazooka. And the gun, which is also huge, attaches to the massive spring-fired launcher. But he does have a removable helmet, but I'm not sure if he would fit with the accessory spread of a 1990 figure, or if he is more a step into the realm of a 1992 figure (where spring-fired action became the norm).




Rise of the "action-accessory" and other gimmicks


This is where the often-called gimmicks really start to kick in, and these often get separated out with their "sub team" labels.

I'm talking the Super Sonic fighters, where Zap and Psyche-out are actually really good figures, but unlike their 1990 Sonic Fighter counterparts, the Super Sonic Fighters got sounds AND LIGHTS to compliment their original weapon accessories. Unlike the 1990 Sonic Fighters that simply got a sound-emitting backpack and re-issued weapons, these 1991 Super Sonic Fighters actually have some unique equipment to employ.


Of course, the other action features that are out this year are the water-activated-battle-damage Eco-Warriors. While this color-changing feature was more known to me with Hot Wheels color-change cars, they put it on the action figures. This is something I did not mind. This was kind of neat in that I could use "toxic sludge" to fight with. The "toxic sludge" was actually water. And the figures got mini-squeeze-activated water gun backpack accessories.

And while I'm mostly talking about the figures, and limiting myself by faction (Joe or Cobra), I think a good note to make is about the vehicles that also contained these same features were out there. The Septic Tank and Eco-Striker both have water shooting capability.

The hole in the plot, though? Is the stuff that the "good guys" are using an anti-toxic-sludge "sludge?" In reality, it's all water getting shot around, but, are we fighting sludge with sludge? (Like in Ghostbusters, positively charged slime against the bad ghoul?)



And the "action accessories" don't stop there!!!

If you remember the motorized action packs from 1987 and 1988, "action accessories" are obviously not a new concept in the GIJOE line.
Heck, even 1984's Deep Six figure was a whole "other" type of figure.
Now, do you remember the motorized vehicle packs?



When does an accessory become a vehicle? When it is the Air Commandos or Battle Copters!

By itself, I guess I never considered the battle copters a vehicle in a sense, like I would consider the Dragonfly a vehicle. I've never had the opportunity to try on of them out, but I'm more the guy who would NOT be sending my GIJoe figures up into the air outside. I would be more worried about losing them or their guns!
To me, the Battle Copters really feel like more of an "action accessory," big ones.

And this applies to how I thought of the Air Commandos, too. I've never had the chance to fly these, either. Nor have I even seen an original glider from the very early days of GIJOE, but, even the 1991 gliders don't feel like "vehicles" to me. And I'm not the type of collector/ fan/ person that would be tossing his vehicles around.


Where 1990 was a straight-forward year for the most part, 1991 really starts to split things up where a lot of it fits great with the 1990 figures, but the others sit firmly in with what we got in 1992.

While I very much enjoy all things GIJoe, I will admit that even in my own thinking, I tend to stay between 1985 and 1991 for most of it.... and with my recent organizing project of a small team, I find really taking a close look at the whole and seeing what I really like about each.

28

Seems like just yesterday I was questioning if it would be hard to live with just 60 figures for my Joe team. But, even still, I did just trim those previous picks down from the 50 I had more recently to just 28 figures.

In some ways I miss everything I ever had, even stuff I just recently sent out the door. I really do like having the space, though. I can move a little more freely, and I am looking forward to reducing my GIJOE team in many ways.

If you remember, I picked out an "A-team" that was going to be my team, but, I felt like I was missing something there. And this is something I've been questioning in my head for awhile, can I really do without?

But as I look at the shelf with the 28 figures, it is still a good number of figures! Shoulder to shoulder, they really take up about a 3 foot wide space. And it's still 28 figures I have to move with my two hands, after all, these are "action" figures.

I still feel some hesitation on what I might be potentially trading out, and I question if what I've picked will be fun and versatile enough for my future adventures.

28 figures really seems good to me now. It's not too small, like an original 13-style force, but not too big, like 120-some.

I can make FOUR teams of 7. And I've found that if I ever was picking out figures for adventures, it was usually a smaller squad such as this that was present.

Plus, I was thinking about the 1983 APC, it held 28 figures. I don't have my APC anymore, but maybe there is some mysterious force telling me that 28 is the way to go and I should get my APC back? (no, there isn't, and I'm not.)

But here is the breakdown for the 28-man team:

'86--2
'87--5
'88--7
'89--2
'90--4 (that's a huge drop from what I had before in'90!)
'91--2
'92--1
'93--ZERO
'94--2
Modern oring--3


So, the numbers for year really changed from previous picks. 1988 came out surprisingly ahead in the picks. And while '92 is still way low, 1993 ended up with no representation at all, which was kind of how it was maybe, as I was lumping '93 and '94 into a "battle corps" category.

Well, I think 28 figures will be THE number I'm going for, but we'll see if I don't edit what I've chosen before I let you all know "who" is in.