Airborne V.2 (Kind of...)
Blasphemy!! Abomination!! I am doing a profile of "Airborne" and it's not Franklin Talltree!!! Oh well, all kidding aside, I figured EVERYONE knows about the Talltree Airborne, I kind of wanted to stick with a more obscure character. So here, in all his glory, is Airborne, the Robert M. Six version.
This figure came out in Hasbro's "subteam phase" around the late 80's and early 90's. The company had dabbled in remolds/repaints before, but things really went wild in this period of time with Tiger Force, Python Patrol, Night Force, Slaughter's Marauders, etc etc etc...One of these subteams, and the only one with brand new characters and some new tooling involved was Sky Patrol. These were Joes all specialized in different parts of an airborne assault team, from communications to "parachute assembler". For the most part, in my opinion, Sky Patrol was somewhat dull. However, there was an exception.
All of the members of Sky Patrol utilized existing molds for the bodies, arms, and legs, using new molds for the heads to make the characters unique. It was really a great idea, and with the different color schemes, it was sometimes tough to see what the molds were to begin with. Airborne was Lift Ticket's mold, with a nice new, grimacing noggin thrown on there. Now, what makes this guy so cool you ask? No idea. I just love 'im.
It really pains me that Hasbro gave this guy the name Airborne, because he is the standalone member of Sky Patrol and really deserves his own identity. He has a nice mold, which looks somewhat blah on Lift Ticket (most likely due to that freakin helmet!), but on Airborne, it really, really works. The gray shades of camo work fantastically as well, masking him well against a gray, stormy sky, or serving as exceptional urban camouflage in some sort of town or city setting. There are some bright silver highlights, but they are small and pretty minor, so they only add to the fine detail and do not brighten the figure unnecessarily. In my world, Airborne V.2 is an "urban paratrooper" someone expert in low-altitude jumps, used specifically for very potentially hairy situations either heavily in enemy territory, or in a friendly city. He drops through the dusk or darkness, blending in well, and then disappears into the concrete jungle. He is an expert linguist and an accomplished master of disguise, using these abilities to blend into his surroundings if need be to escape or approach the target. More often than not, he drops in onto the roof and swings in, gun blazing!!
Speaking of guns...wow, this guy has some impressive weaponry! Oversized and excessive? Sure, but the bigger the better, right? This just adds to his role as an urban paratrooper, using this massive cannon to pound through walls and shoot right through enemy urban troops' layered ballistic vests. Then there's his helmet. It adds so much to the figure. A great red visor to give him the much needed thermal vision, and the helmet itself is rubberized for a much nicer contoured fit. It just completes the great overall ensemble.
This guy was a breath of fresh air amidst a grouping of wildly bright (chrome for crying out loud!!!) vehicles, and works real well in the Joe team mythos. He needs a unique identity, and perhaps in my dio-story, he shall finally receive one!
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