My Least Favorite Accessories

The Joe line is nothing but a string of classic, amazing toys.  There isn't a year of the vintage line that doesn't have a treasure or two.  And, frankly, the same is true of the repaint era.  But, mingled among the awesomeness of the designs are some duds.  And, they start from very early on.  So, this time around, I'll be looking at my least favorite accessories from the Joe line.  To be fair, I'm going to limit some of the JvC era weapons and gear.  Because, that time frame did get a lot wrong.  And, you'll see that some of my dislike of vintage weapons was reinforced and even augmented by those weapons overuse in the 2000's.  

1984 Baroness Rifle

So, I've disliked the Baroness' rifle since 1984.  When my younger brother got her in the early part of that year at a Value City Department store (I got Firefly!), I didn't know much about the character.  But, they had three new figures and he chose the Baroness over Roadlock.  (My youngest brother got Roadblock.)  When we got the figures home, Firefly's amazing gear amplified one of the best figures in the line.  Roadblock's gear was an amazing feat of engineering that magnified an otherwise mundane figure into an all time classic.  And Baroness' gear...well...it sucked.  Her overly large rifle simply didn't work.  And, it was just that it wouldn't fit with the slightly smaller female form used for the Baroness.  It didn't fit any other figure, either.  From the small handle to the oversized stock, the gun was simply not one that worked well with any figure.  And, when you contrast this to how amazing the rifle looked on the Baroness cart art, it was impossible to reconcile the differences.  What should have been awesome was just worthless in actual plastic form.  And, when the comparisons that circumstances dictated would be against Firefly and Roadblock gear: Baroness' rifle simply stood no chance.

As her gun wasn't up to snuff, the Baroness figure fell to a similar fate in my collection.  Back in the mid 1980's, it wasn't common to have extra accessories lying around.  So, it wasn't like I could give the figure a spare Destro pistol.  Battle Gear did help this...to a point.  But, I never liked the pairing of the blue pistols from the 1984 Battle Gear set with the all black Baroness figure.  Plus, since her rifle stretched out her hands, she couldn't even hold the Destro pistol.  So, the Baroness became an afterthought.

Fast forward to the repaint era.  The first two uses of the Baroness mold included her classic weapon.  And, I'm OK with this.  While the rifle sucks, it was iconic to the Baroness.  So, including it with her wasn't terrible.  The softer plastic of the 1997 and later figures also allowed the figures to better hold the weapon.  So, it had a slight redemption arc.  But, then, inexplicably, Hasbro fell in love with the rifle and started including it with many other figures.  The worst example of this was the Viper figures in Waves 1.5, 2 and 7.75.  People army built these Vipers en masse.  And, they were stuck with terrible, terrible weapons that didn't really work with the figure and weren't even close approximations of the Viper's classic weapon's look.  

And, I ended up with dozens of rifles that were useless.  When you take something you dislike and circumstances dictate you acquire an absurd, additional among of that something...well...that dislike to turns to spite and then outright hatred.  So, there's no salvation for the Baroness' rifle.  It's going to hold my least liked accessory spot until the bitter, bitter end.

1982 Grunt M-16

What!  Yes, I know this is an affront to the very essence of the Joe line.  But, I've never been overly fond of the original M-16 that came with Grunt.  From the beginning, it was a thumb breaker with a thick, round handle and a short, fat stock.  It was, easily, my least favorite accessory from the original 13 figures.  And, time hasn't been kind to it at all.  

My biggest example of why Grunt's gun sucks is that in 1985, Hasbro made a far better M-16 that was included with Footloose.  This weapon was everything the original rifle was not.  And, it forever rendered Grunt's weapon obsolete.  Grunt's M-16 can really only be used by 1982 and 1983 figures.  Anything released after that is just out of scale for the accessory.  If you think about the timeframe, the M-16 should have been the de facto standard for all G.I. Joe figures.  Instead, this role fell to Snow Job's XMLR.  The original M-16 just didn't work well with figures.  Grunt gets a bit of pass since it was his.  But, when you realize how good all the original figures look with Stalker's M-32, the limitations of the M-16 become even more apparent.  I've never gone out of my way to pick up spare copies of this accessory like I have for every other weapon released with the original 13 figures.  It just isn't something I find value in.

1988 Voltar's gun:

I very much dislike this weapon.  It's not the gold color.  Instead, it's just the overall design.  And, the fact that it can't decide if it's a pistol or a rifle.  In general, I'm not a fan of larger weapons that lack stocks.  They are hard for the figures to hold.  And, they always pose awkwardly.  As a kid, I wanted to like Voltar's weapon because it was new.  But, as I was older and out of Joes when my brother brought it home, my critical eye was more fine tuned.  And, the weapon never clicked with me.

In the 1990's, the weapon found tons of reuse on various weapon trees.  It was always a disappointment to get a cool, new figure and find out one of his weapons was from Voltar.  In fact, I have quite a few trees (or, I did, until the dog ate them!!!) where the Voltar weapon was still attached even after I had removed all the other accessories.  I simply didn't care for the weapon and would rather have old, beat up figures with no weapons than take the time to give them the spare Voltar weapons that I had on the trees.  I loathe the weapon to this day and don't use it with any of the 1990's army builders who included it among their gear complement.  It always looks weird and detracts from any figure holding it.

1991 Grunt Rifle

Hmmm, Grunt appears twice in this list.  I wonder if there's something there in my subconscious about the character.  Or, if Hasbro just misfired on his various weapons.  It's probably not Grunt, though.  As, my introduction to this weapon was on the 1993 and 1994 weapon trees that I tracked down in the mid 1990's.  At the time, I loved the "new" weapons that I found on these trees.  Having missed most of the 1988-1992 Joes, all of his gear seemed like it was newly designed for the figures with which it was included.  There were so many good weapons.  But, this overly large weapon that had debuted with the 1991 Grunt was not one of them.  It was too large, difficult for figures to hold in cool ways and just a blocky, uninteresting design.  I loved having overly powered weapons during this time.  But, I could never reconcile this Grunt gun.  And, it seemed like every 1993 figure I bought included it.  So, I had a ton of them and couldn't use them.

This weapon's appearance also made me realize that one of the reasons why I had this weapon and Voltar's weapon so much was because they were so ubiquitous in my mid 1990's purchases.  At the time, the extra weapons from the trees were appreciated because I had a shoebox of dingy figures who lacked accessories.  The trees solved for that.  But, when I got duds like this Grunt rifle, it was a wasted slot and my older beaters couldn't be weaponized for use against my new acquisitions.

2003 Chief Torpedo Rifle

Be honest...you had no idea what rifle was even included with this figure until you went to the photos below.  And, in full transparency, I'm not 100% sure if the weapon actually debuted with this Torpedo figure.  I didn't want to expend the energy to be certain.  It was included with a ton of  figures in the 2000's and is available in a multitude of colors  Regardless, I despise this weapon.  The reasons, though, are more nuanced.

At its core, this weapon, actually, isn't bad.  The detailing is amazing.  The scale is right on: even for vintage figures.  It's a rifle/grenade launcher combo without being too overt.  In short, it should be great.  And, that's what makes it so maddening.  This was one of Hasbro's best efforts on newly designed weapons through 2003.  But, it had a fatal flaw that rendered it useless.  It didn't have a stock that allowed for a figure to actually hold it.  So, every time you want to use it, it flops around in the figure's hands.  And, the end result is just a ridiculous looking pose where the weapons is about to fall to the ground.

So, you got this amazingly sculpted, new weapon that was included with a ton of figures, but had no practical uses at all.  To this day, I cringe when I see this weapon  being used with figures.  It just looks so out of place.  I look back at that era and wonder what might have been.  Imagine the Neo-Viper's AK-47(ish) rifle, but with the level of sculpting and detail you see on this Chief Torpedo gun.  It might have competed for the best accessory in the line.  But, that wasn't meant to be.  There are some decent accessories from the JvC era.  But, this wasn't one of them.

Honorable Mentions:

1985 Tomax and Xamot pistol

The 2000's lead me to despise this weapon.  The pistol is comically large, doesn't look good with most figures and is out of scale for the figures with which it was always included.  But, you know who it does work perfectly with?  Tomax and Xamot.  As a kid, I loved this weapon for them.  I would only use it with them and they would only use  it.  To this day, Tomax and Xamot occupy a place in my display case: both with raised pistols to show them off.  So, you can't really have the Crimson Twins without the pistol.  And, I love it for them.  But, I HATE it for any other figure.

1990 SAW Viper Rifle

We now know that Hasbro screwed up the scale on this weapon.  And, it was not intended to be as large as it was.  It's still terrible.  And, there's really no redeeming it.  But, at least it was a production screw up instead of an intentional design.  Again, though, this weapon is made worse by the differences between it and the portrayal of the SAW Viper in various media.  In the comic, the SAW Viper loomed large for about a year.  He was always drawn  with more realistic weapons that made him look like a bad ass.  While the figure doesn't quite live up the comic image, either, the weapon included with the figure is a colossal  letdown.  Even in a smaller scale, it just  didn't live up to the visuals from the comic.  Fortunately, much better machine guns did come out, later.  So, if you can find some of those, they are a drastic improvement for the SAW Viper.

2004 Comic Pack Hawk Pistol

If you look at my list of favorite accessories, you'll see it's dominated by smaller pistols.  There was something about the delicate nature of such a small piece that captivated me.  In the 2000's, Hasbro introduced working holsters to the Joe line.  It was a concept I'd wanted since I was a kid.  Some of them worked great.  Others...didn't.  But, Hasbro did make a nice armory of new pistols.  Sadly, though, this 2004 version didn't work out so well.  It looks great.  But, the handle is just too big for figure's to use.  It will break vintage thumbs and stretch out repaint era figures.  The worst thing about it, though, is its legacy.  This pistol lead to factory custom makers using similar designs.  Instead of redoing something cool like the 1986 Hawk or 1987 Chuckles pistol, they reused large handled designs from the 2000's.  And, none of them can be used with the figures.  I have a bin full of these pistols that will either snap the thumb or simple not go into the hands of factory customs.  The weapons look good when they're lying around.  But, they are useless.

Before the end of the year, I'll wrap my favorite accessories.  The last entry includes some doozies.  In the meantime, let me know what weapons you hated.  You know you have them.  So, vent away.

2005 Heavy Assault Squad Snake Eyes - Around The Web

The HAS set has largely disappeared from the collecting conscience.  Part of that is just due to the late release date and collector malaise at the time.  That left the set as a clearanced out dud.  Few collectors bothered to stockpile extras...even at closeout prices.  So, today, few people have the figures from the set.  And, it's kind of pain to find loose samples when you're out and about.  Despite the set being one of Hasbro's worst efforts, the reality is that Snake Eyes and Roadblock are pretty good figures.  It might be blasphemous to suggest that this is the best paint job on the 1991 Snake Eyes mold.  But, I'll argue that point.

I often use the figure just because he's so obscure.  But, he's also solid and tends to get people talking a bit about him.  There isn't a lot of content on him out there, though.  Even back in 2005, few people bother to really review the entire HAS set because the Joe world was so dead after the "Hiatus" announcement.  So, check out what little I could find on the figure and enjoy one of those weird "end of the line" oddities who's a surprisingly quality release.

2005 HAS Snake Eyes Profile

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by General Liederkranz

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by corpscommandercody

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by Gen_Liederkranz

2005 HAS Set at Joe Battle Lines.com

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by Gen_Liederkranz

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by twindigtoys

2005 HAS Snake Eyes by Gen_Liederkranz

2022 Cobra Commander

In 1997, Hasbro planned to release a newly colored Cobra Commander figure.  The release was going to use the classic 1983 mold and color it a deep, dark Cobra blue and give it golden highlights.  It was both an homage to the Hooded Cobra Commander coloring and also a needed repaint of a figure that, really, didn't get a lot of use.  The Cobra Commander mold had been used for Chinese releases as recently as 1994.  Other figures in that series would later appear.  But, for some reason, Hasbro could either not locate the original Cobra Commander mold or it was damaged and unusable.  Regardless, the 1997 release of the character used the 1987 mold.  Then, for the next decade, Hasbro released the Cobra Commander character a multitude of times.  But, it was never in his classic 1983 look.  While Hasbro remade figures like Mutt, Lady Jaye and Scrap Iron, they never bothered to make a new 1983 Cobra Commander mold.  

The reasons for this are likely just tied to money.  Hasbro would sell 20,000 sets of 6 figures to Toys R Us if the Cobra Commander was an expensive, remade 1983 figure or if it was an easily accessible repaint of the 1992 Talking Battle Commanders mold.  So, they had no incentive to really revisit the original Cobra Commander mold.  I don't agree with the premise.  But, at least there's some business reasoning behind it.  Leaving one of the most iconic molds in the Joe line's history, though, did seem like a misstep.  But, the helmeted look was parroted in both the JvC era figures and the Anniversary style releases.

When Factory Customs became a thing in the late 2000's, the focus was on army builders.  But, one of the earliest figures made was a re-do of the 1983 Snake Eyes.  This figure was repainted into a variety of colors: almost exclusively as Cobra characters.  This release proved there was a market for underserved characters, even if they used molds that Hasbro had repainted nearly a dozen times.  So, the quiet calls for the classic Cobra Commander to return began.  But, the Joe market slimmed in the early 2010's and only a handful of new factory custom molds really appeared.  Around 2016 or so, Red Laser Army joined Black Major as a second factory custom faction.  RLA was heavily character focused and was glad to create obscure characters and figures for their library.  With RLA producing a couple of dozen figures per year, the calls for Cobra Commander to return grew louder.  But, again, they were simply not to be.

As 2021 ended, Hasbro debuted the Skystriker as a Haslab.  After a few slow weeks of sales, Hasbro tossed in a Cobra three pack of figures. Among them was, finally!, a 1983 Cobra Commander figure.  The Haslab figure was going to feature the poorer, but collector loved Mickey Mouse logo.  But, the appearance of the mold in this set all but guaranteed that we would see a wide release Cobra Commander in 2022.  And, in the late summer of that year, Hasbro delivered a carded Cobra Commander figure.  With it, Hasbro produced a toy that is very much the definitive figure for the character.

The original 1983 Cobra Commander figure is extremely well done.  However, as they head into their fifth decade of existence, the original figures have become overly brittle and tend to discolor with even a hint of heat or light exposure that occurred during their lifetimes.  So, premium Cobra Commander figures demand premium prices.  And, even if dropping over $100 isn't a concern for you, the reality is that the purchase is still going to be fragile and not something you're going to want to take out into the garden for some photos all that often.  Enter this 2022 version.  It's everything the 1983 figure is, plus a little more.  It is fresh and bright.  And, his thumbs are flexible and aren't going to snap with slight pressure.

The aesthetic of the figure is nearly identical to the 1983 original.  The bright blue is in line with the vintage color.  And, he features black and red highlights that offset the silver facemask.  The Pulse figure, though, also adds in some white details.  There is a white patch on his head.  And, his waist detailing is also white.  It's a small add.  But, it brings a ton of new color to this mold.  In comparison, the 1983 now looks a little basic as it lacks the coloring to really stand out.  It's a nice differentiation between the two figures.  It's different enough to matter.  But, it's similar enough that the figures are completely interchangeable.  And, for a modern remake, that works.  Had we gotten a dozen 1983 Cobra Commander figures released between 1997 and 2005, I'd be more critical of one that's such a close homage.  But, really, a new Cobra Commander to replace the original was badly needed.  And, Hasbro delivered upon that quite well.

This Cobra Commander is odd in that he is not carded with his classic "hair dryer" gun that appears on his card art.  Instead, he is given a new rifle that is based on a cartoon  design.  It's actually pretty nice.  Personally, I don't see it as a fit for Cobra Commander.  But, it does look excellent with the Baroness.  But, collectors were not to worry as the iconic weapon was still included in the total package.  All the Pulse releases included a tissue paper bundle of additional accessories with every 2 figure set.  And, for Cobra Commander, the extra gear was a wealth of amazing additions to the Joe line.  Sure, he got his classic pistol.  But, there were also 2 other pistols based on cartoon designs.  It also included Cobra branded binoculars, 2 computer pads that are detonators and timers and a golden Cobra staff.  Finally, the Commander features an abundance of gear that was worthy of and sensical to the character.  Best of all, none of it will snap his thumbs.

As this figure is a recent release, it's not really something that has tons of memories associated with it.  Sadly, missing out on this mold during the heyday of the repaint era prevented it from really mattering in my collection.  I was far more likely to use another Cobra Commander mold because there were so many of them and those figures weren't brittle or discolored like my 1983 version.  With this 2022 release in hand, though, I have found myself photographing it quite a lot.  The original Cobra Trooper mold is one of my personal favorites.  And, this Cobra Commander mold is the perfect complement to it.  So, I do use this Cobra Commander more than pretty much all of the other Pulse era releases because he brings life to photos using repaints/remakes of other, classic molds.  It's nice to be able to use Cobra Commander again, even if he was never a really big part of my collection.

I've been very critical of the Pulse releases.  I don't hold many of them in all that high of esteem.  It's not true for this Cobra Commander, though.  I feel he is, exactly, what the Pulse figures should have all been.  He is a solid replacement for a very expensive, brittle and easily discolored vintage figure.  Of the Pulse figures, only Stormshadow also fits those criteria.  (Only, Stormshadow got used quite a bit in the repaint era and has some alternative figures for collectors.  The Commander didn't.)  The Pulse era got a lot of things wrong.  But, they got this Cobra Commander right.  And, they should be lauded for that.  My lament is that we didn't get more figures like him in the series.  But, like the legacy of the repaint era, we do have to enjoy it when Hasbro got a figure really correct and hit on all accounts.

Of the three Hasbro Pulse figure packs, I felt the Duke and Cobra Commander was the best value.  The figures featured tons of paint applications.  And, the extra gear was abundant and matched to the characters.  The price, since you had to pay for shipping, was still, probably, too high.  But, it's also the reality of the collector based product.  Of course, though, the packs didn't sell through, even with a raised limit of 5 per collector.  Hasbro sold off their remaining overstock of the packs to other online retailers.  There, they still sit, unsold.  And, while I'd love to pick up a couple of extras of this pack, I just can't find $50 worth of value in having those extras.  I had hopes the overstock would show up at Ollie's in 2023.  But, they only got the leftover Wal Mart Hiss Tanks.  We'll see what 2025 holds.  At $18 or so for the 2 pack, I'd buy a whole lot of extras.  But, so would everyone else.  In the summer of 2024, the packs were dropped to about $30 by some online retailers.  Even the 25% discount wasn't enough to move the product, though.  And, I still have just the one loose set.

My fear on this figure (and all the Pulse era releases) is that they won't age very well.  The 2000's Joes are discoloring at alarming rates.  (I don't think there are any 2005 Scrap Irons left whose don't have discolored upper arms.)  And, many of the figures will crack now that they've aged a bit.  The soft plastic of the 2020's figures is similar.  So, I fully expect to find this Cobra Commander with dark upper arms or yellowed legs when I take him out for photos in 2031.  And, that is one reason I'm not too keen on spending a ton to acquire multiples of the figure.  I hope I'm wrong.  But, Hasbro seems more interested in selling remakes of existing figures to replace discolored versions from just a few years prior.  But, if Cobra Commander some day becomes available again, that wouldn't be the worst fate in the world.

Hasbro has, so far, released this mold twice.  While the Mickey Mouse figure from the Skystriker is considered the "premium" figure by the community, I also think that it exists in very similar numbers to this Pulse figure.  We don't know the Pulse figure's production numbers.  But, they were high enough to not sell out while also low enough for a few, small, independent toy dealers to buy up the remainder.  In the early 2000's, figures like this saw production runs between 16,600 and 20,000.  We know there were around 16,500 Skystriker figures.  So, I would expect this Pulse figure to exist in slightly larger numbers than that.  But, it will be interesting to see which figure commands collector attention in the future.  The Mickey Mouse figure holds cachet as people associate it with "rare" figures.  But, this Pulse figure is substantially better.  We'll see which wins out.

Since this figure's release, factory custom makers have also tackled the Cobra Commander mold.  There are now dozens of colorings of it available: with both helmet and hooded heads for each scheme.  Some are amazing, some are inventive and some are just weird.  But, if you wanted a rainbow of Cobra Commander figures, you now have options outside of Hasbro, too.  Super 7 has even tackled the character in multiple releases in the first few waves of their ReAction+ line.  Personally, I think the head is very off.  But, you might find additional value looking at the character in this new styled format.

With this figure still available for "retail" pricing, it's extremely tough to find open market sales.  If you do luck upon one, though, this Cobra Commander is pretty worthless.  You can get the set of him and Duke for under $20.  But, it might take you 6 to 8 months to find someone willing to take that kind of hit.  But, the 2000's era Toys R Us figures were often below retail for quite a while before they took off and are now overly expensive.  With this Cobra Commander being so well done, it's likely to have a following in future years.  But, nothing is going to happen until the retail stock is bought up and people who want the figure have no option but to buy second hand.

1986 General Hawk - Random Photos of the Day

I've recently been thinking about the 1986 Hawk.  He might be my favorite 1986 release.  There's a few other figures in that year that I really like.  But, the marriage of Hawk's character and a cool figure update for him resonates with me...moreso than even childhood favorites like Dial Tone.  In looking at the total year of 1986, I was surprised in that the class lacks a really amazing, iconic figure.  Instead, pretty much everyone released that year is above average.  (With some exceptions, of course!)  So, it's a great year where the 20th best figure and the 3rd best figure are pretty close in quality.  And, there's no clear cut number 1.  

As a kid, though, this Hawk was essential.  My Joe team finally had a leader who was worthy of fighting with them out in the field.  As I loved Hawk's pistol for other figures, I'd often give him Leatherneck's M-203.  I'd also remove his helmet as I didn't much like it back in 1986.  And, this figure was a younger, more dynamic Hawk who was capable of leading the Joes right into any firefight.  When I tired of that, Hawk could retreat to the HQ: where he was equally at home giving commands to the Joes still out in the bush.  So, the figure got a lot of use.

Today, that still stands.  I enjoy getting Hawk out for photo shoots.  I don't do it as often as I should because my nice one is put away and my spare has a loose o-ring that I really need to repair one of these days.  None of this figure's later homages were able to surpass the original.  So, I still turn to the 1986 figure when I want to use the Joe team's leader.  I was hoping a 2025/2026 repaint that was long rumoured might finally give my original figure some well earned retirement.  But, it looks like that product is dead.

Enjoy the photos below.  If you have another contender for top figure of 1986 (that isn't the BAT....), let me know in the comments below.

1986 Night Raven Drone

The 1986 Cobra Night Raven is an amazing display piece.  Based on the classic "Blackbird" design, the plane is one of the most visually stunning pieces of the era.  On the ground, it looks great.  And, there's a lot of play features to load the plane up, set up the pilots and work on the various engines.  But, once you button the plane up and want to play with it in the air, the Night Raven kind of sucks.  It's huge, bulky and difficult to maneuver, especially for a kid.  The Night Raven is one of those toys that is valuable in your imagination.  But, in practicality, it's not a great toy to zip around with in the backyard.  You couldn't hold both it and, say, a Skystiker to simulate air to air combat.  And, with planes, that's the real value of the toys.  So, as a kid, the Night Raver was a disappointing item.  But, there is a neat little add on feature that solves for all of this.  For some reason, the Night Raven included an attached drone that held a single pilot.  There's no reason for this item to exist.  But, it does.  And, it provided all of the usefulness for the Night Raven in my childhood collection.

As a kid, I didn't much like aircraft.  The reason was that, in reality, aircraft were the most valuable weapons to each side.  And, from their planes, the factions could bomb or missile each other into oblivion with no real drama.  I had an army of cool looking combat soldiers, jeeps, tanks and other oddball contraptions, though, that I wanted to fight each other.  Having an aircraft come in and obliterate all the Hiss Tanks or Maulers just seemed boring and anti-climatic.  So, I created circumstances where aircraft were largely useless.  I worked out a scenario where the atmosphere had been made too thick for large planes to get off the ground.  So, items like the Skystriker and Night Raven were difficult to use, expensive and not overly effective.  What did work, though, was smaller, lighter aircraft that didn't have huge range and lacked the ability to carry devastating weapons.  So, instead of a Night Raven bombing away an entire Joe base, I had Night Raven drones being used as glorified anti-infantry weapons.  They had to fly close to the ground.  And, their cannons were less powerful than those carried by most vehicles.  They could be shot down by an infantryman with a standard weapon.  And, with these guidelines in place, my aerial warfare was curtailed to toys that were more fun to play with than their larger, more realistic counterparts.

The drone was perfect because it could fit in one hand.  In the other, you could have a Sky Hawk.  And, you could then play out the most dramatic dog fight you could imagine.  In short, the drone was able to deliver the aesthetic appeal of the entire Night Raven in a small package that you could take on car trips so you had something to do.  The drone became the de facto aircraft for my Cobra forces.  The following year, Cobra, officially, became the faction of drones when the Mamba drones entered my collection.  I used them a bit differently.  But, all the drones were Cobra's way of using a crop of expendable pilots to take out Joes.

One of the more memorable stories of my youth was G.I. Joe Special Missions #5.  This was a dog-fight story.  It was better suited to Special Missions than the main book.  And, frankly, the story wasn't as good as the dog fight in G.I. Joe #34.  So, moving it to a secondary book made the comparisons moot.  But, the seminal moment of the story was when the Strato Viper realized he was trapped in the cockpit of his Night Raven as it sunk into the ocean.  He was carried to the bottom of the sea where he got to slowly asphyxiate in a cramped coffin.  This visual stuck with me.  And, it became a scenario that would befall both Joe and Cobra pilots in my childhood adventures.  Often the pilots would still have radio contact with the surface.  So, the rescue crews could hear them dying.  Other times, the divers would reach them in time.  But, they would then make an error during the rescue and the cockpit would suddenly implode when the pressure finally proved stronger than the glass and steel.  These adventures were a great way to combine air and sea figures and vehicles.  And, were very popular with me for that reason.

Joe pilots wore airmasks.  The Silver Pads Grand Slam (my childhood Sky Hawk pilot) wore Lifeline's air mask while in flight.  So, when trapped under the water, they would survive longer.  Usually, this allowed a hovercraft to reach them and winch them to safety.  But, not always.  Cobra's pilots were more expendable, though.  They lacked the extra survival gear.  So, it was less likely that their rescue teams would reach them before their air supply gave out.  The more likely scenario was that the Joes would arrive first.  And, they would endeavor to rescue the pilot.  Not to save his life.  But, instead, to gain a prisoner as a bargaining chip.  The real plum, though, was an intact drone that could be studied for weaknesses.  As most drones that were shot down simply exploded either upon impact or the fuel tank being breached by a bullet, it was rare for the Joe to get an intact specimen for study.  The intact ships they could salvage from the bottom of the sea were valuable.  But, if the pilots happened to run out of air before the wreck was pulled to the surface, the Joes weren't going to lose any sleep over it.

The drone has one large flaw: it has no landing gear.  The drone was never intended to really fly on its own.  And, as an add-in, it wasn't designed to stand on its own.  So, there's no real way for it to land.  As a kid, things like this would bother me.  But, with high quality toys, I usually found a way around such limitations.  And, the smooth underbelly of the drone allowed it to glide across my bedroom carpet.  So, I could accept that the drone could land with no wheels and was designed to withstand a skidding across the terrain as the bottom of it dragged the drone to a halt through massive friction.  More than once, a poor Strato Viper landed on terrain that was too rocky and either ended up as an end-over-end fireball or, was sliced to ribbons when he went through the windshield, head-first, when the drone stopped too abruptly on a piece of debris.  To account for small takeoff spaces, I had the drones designed to take off by flying in circles on the ground.  Here, they built up speed until they could get enough lift to fly away.  It was a dumb moment.  But, it allowed the drones to operate in far more areas and be far more effective.

My real final adventure with the drone was when I finally decided to use the Night Raven.  With it, I'd have the drone attempt on in flight docking onto the larger planes back.  These would be high tension moments as any wrong move would end both ships.  Sometimes, the drone was be successful.  Other times, it would turn off its engines, but not actually lock into place.  The poor drone pilot would then freefall to a fiery end unless he could restart the engines while in freefall.  The final scenario was the catastrophe.  Here, the drone would make an error and the entire Night Raven would be destroyed.  I imagined that the little drop down cockpit on the Night Raven had parachutes inside it that could be deployed in the event of disaster.  So, as the drone pilot killed himself, the Night Raven pilots could safely eject.  Or, in many cases, eject and discover in their own freefall that the parachutes didn't deploy.  Being a pilot in my childhood collection was a rough life.

In my early collecting days, I had designs on getting a small army of drones.  But, that never came to pass.  And, the two I had in my collection never really got used.  My acquisition of a Firebat pretty much ensured that the drone was never going to be used again.  So, my drones are mostly packed away.  They aren't great to photograph.  So, that really limits any use I might find for them.  They're one of those toys that I've simply outgrown.  The memories are still there.  But, today, I'd be hard pressed to think of a time I've actually used just the drone aside from the one time I took in out for photos you can see below.

The Night Raven drone actually has a bit of history.  It was used with the Night Raven.  But, then, in 1989, it was slightly modified and ported over to Joe.  This repainted, white version was included with the 1989 Crusader space shuttle.  The drone was meant to be an ancillary spacecraft that supported the shuttle.  In this context, it kind of works.  The drone is space-agey enough to pass as a small shuttle.  And, Joe always stretched the realms of realism (despite the lamentations of many fans).  So, it was a solid addition to the updated shuttle.  As the Night Raven drones evolved, there are construction variants on it, too.  Some of the connector tabs are different.  Some that work better are also more prone to breakage.  But, if you amass enough of these drones, you'll spot a few differences in the mold.

Night Ravens are an iconic piece of the Joe line.  As such, dealers will  try to sell high quality versions for over $200.  Left to the market, the real price is slightly more than half of this, though.  The Night Raven was produced in massive quantities and isn't hard to find.  Even the smallest pieces are readily available.  It's not all that easy to find drones on their own.  If you can, complete ones will run in the $20-$30 range.  Really, that's a solid price for a neat toy that can stand on it's own.  But, you're probably better off just buying a full Night Raven to get the experience the entire toy brings.  Then, you can take off the drone to your heart's content.  For me, the value in the drone are the memories it holds.  Without those, you might find more limitations from the design.