1988 AGP (Anti Gravity Pod)

I quit collecting Joe in 1988.  I bought three figures.  But, that was it.  My younger brothers, though, did continue to acquire Joes throughout the year.  In the end, they acquired a good chunk of the 1988 figure catalog.  But, they did not have the same fervor for vehicles that I had when I was their age.  So, 1988 vehicles were few and far between in our household.  One that was acquired was the Anti-Gravity Pod or AGP.  This was a ridiculous design that was cool because it was new.  And, bad guy aircraft had been sparse outside of huge items like the Night Raven and Mamba that looked great but weren't all that much fun to actually play with.  My final Joe playing days of childhood had heavily focused on small aircraft battles between Sky Hawks and various Cobra drones that were vastly outgunned.  With the addition of the AGP, the bad guys finally had a weapon hat was superior to that of the Joes.

Childhood paints our memories of toys.  And, things like this AGP, which are, objectively, terrible can become beloved playthings just due to the fact that they are all you have.  And, that's the story of the AGP to me.  Upon its arrival into our home, I found it an excellent weapon to defeat the Joes.  My friends down the street, who had exited Joe and toys before I had, were more harsh in their appraisal of the AGP.  They pointed out the absurdity of the contraption.  The made fun of the colors.  And, most importantly, pointed out the absolute certain death that awaited the pilot since the entire ship was, basically, a glass cockpit with the pilot's entire body exposed.  It was this point, though, where I was able to exploit the AGP's weakness as a juxtaposition to its strengths.

The one thing I loved about the AGP was that it was heavily armed.  The Night Raven drones only had two, small guns.  The Mamba drones had even smaller guns, but did have some small missiles.  The AGP, though, had two massive guns on the front that could rotate 360 degrees.  On top of that, it has 4 large, golden missiles that looked strong enough to shoot down any Joe aircraft.  The cannons were absurd.  But, they were deadly.  The flimsy Skyhawks, that could withstand a full brace of fire from a drone, were blown to bits by the heavier weaponry of the AGP.  In fact, the Joes' introduction to the AGP was when a single one destroyed two Skyhawks in just two shots.  Both the Skyhawks were disintegrated with no hope that the pilots could have survived.  And, suddenly, the tide of the war between the factions had turned.

In short order, though, Skyhawk pilots learned that the AGP's superiority in firepower and speed were more than offset by the fact that a single burst of cannon fire to the front of the ship would shatter the canopy and instantly kill the Nullifier flying the aircraft.  I even explained the Nullifier's armored appearance by saying the pilots had to wear heavy armor to compensate for the lack of protection from the huge glass that encased them.  So, the Joes learned to attack the AGP head on.  The Nullifiers, fearing certain death, would then break their formations in an effort to create more difficult angles for the Skyhawk cannons to hone in on the cockpits.  While this was effective in keeping the pilots alive, it was not all that conducive to destroying the attacking Joes.  The Nullifiers turned to expensive and more easily dodged missiles to incinerate the Skyhawks.  In extreme situations, this was warranted.  But, more likely, the ordinance was wasted and all the combatants returned home with empty fuel tanks and no confirmed kills.

During a pursuit of the Cobras back to their base, though, the Joes also learned that the comically large engines were rather inefficient.  As such, even slight damage to them would cause the pods to lose power and be forced to land.  Just a couple bullets to the back of the engines could send an AGP into a freefall resulting a crater forming fireball on the ground below.  All of these flaws made AGPs relatively ineffective against Skyhawks.  So, they were scrapped as air to air combat weapons and used, instead, to support ground operations.  The rotating cannons could strafe the ground and were powerful enough to even destroy some Joe vehicles.  Here, the AGPs found a bit of a second life.  Though, the thin airframe was still susceptible to ground fire and infantry supporting AGPs could often be counted on as guaranteed casualties of any encounter with the Joes.

As my childhood ended, though, this was my take on Cobra as an organization.  They were willing to sacrifice large quantities of troops since they were an expendable resource.  Cobra's vehicles were designed around a single purpose.  The STUN was fast.  The AGP was heavily armed.  The SMS was powerful.  But, that singularity of design meant that each weapon they introduced was also heavily flawed.  And, it was because of these flaws that even Cobra's vastly superior numbers could not easily defeat the Joes.  Had Cobra reused Joe equipment, things might have gone better.  (Though, I was out of toys when the Python Patrol and their repainted Joe vehicles debuted.)  But, a lot of Joe vehicles have flaws, too.  So, maybe that wouldn't have been the case.

I have one main childhood memory of the AGP.  We took it to my grandparents' home in the summer of 1988.  Here, it battled my Hit and Run who was scaling the ivy covered, limestone terrace walls that defined their backyard.  In the course of the battle, Hit and Run won and the AGP crashed into a patch of ivy near the wall.  I went inside with the toys still out there.  When it was time to leave, I grabbed the AGP out of the ivy and completely forgot about the perfectly camouflaged Hit and Run who was still hidden in the ivy on  the wall.  Hit and Run stayed on that wall for months.  When we finally returned to my grandparents' house in the late fall, I found him still hanging in the green ivy.  So, for this reason, I still forever link Hit and Run to the AGP.

Since 1988, though, the AGP hasn't much mattered to me.  I did acquire a complete one in a lot in the late 1990's.  So, I still have two of them as my childhood one is still around, too.  But, things like the Firebat are superior to the AGP and I was able to get some of those in the Hasbro Canada find in 1999.  So, the AGPs have mostly just sat around for more than twenty years.  Every now and then, I've tried to get it out for a profile.  But, those attempts weren't successful until now.  Heck, one of the photos below was taken 4 houses ago.  That's how long I've been hoping to get around to an AGP profile.  And, now that I've done it, I'm not sure the AGP's fate will be improved.  There's just better Cobra aircraft to battle the small Joe flying machines.  

The AGP was just released by Hasbro.  While many Iron Grenadier vehicles went to Brazil, the AGP was not among them.  After it was discontinued at retail, though, it was available as a mail away for a short time.  In 2005, the club produced a low quality AGP repaint.  It's nearly a full mirror of the colors used for the 1988 release.  Collectors were disappointed in it as the materials used for it weren't great, the colors were odd, it didn't have a pilot and many were expecting a different vehicle to be used.  So, there's just two releases of the toy.  Which, is probably enough.  The design is odd enough that the AGP would not have been a well received retail release.  Especially, with so many other, better vehicles that Hasbro could have used in the 2000's.

AGP's aren't expensive.  Dealers sell nice, complete ones for $30 or less.  You don't find too many complete ones left to the open market, though.  As the missiles are often missing, the engine coupling is often broken and the canopy scratches easily, $30 is probably a fair price to pay for a truly mint specimen.  Most of the market interest seems to be focused on the Nullifier and you'll see mint and complete figures actually sell for more than his mint and complete vehicle!  As the colors are a good match for the 1988 Astro Viper, though, that figure becomes a much cheaper alternative to fly the actual AGP should you choose to acquire one.