Here in 2016 copyright trickery with character names is a common occurrence, though one that Hasbro usually resolves with a “SGT”, “CAPT”, or “AUTOBOT” precursor. Or they just throw the code name in quotes within the character’s file name. Back in 1990, though, characters with similar names (or the same name as the case may be) seemed pretty strange. That was definitely the case with me when Sky Patrol debuted and my favorite figure in the subteam happened to share a codename with a pretty familiar character from 1983.

But this clearly wasn’t Franklin Talltree.

Poor Franklin seems to be in the midst of these kinds of weird naming issues. First, this Sky Patrol name steal, then, with the 2016 convention set, a new “Air Raid” comes along, which stole the name from the previous Rise of Cobra “Air Raid” who happened to be named…

Franklin Talltree.

Talk about an identity crisis.

Anyway. For this modern update to the venerable Sgt. Six (as I called him in my own little G.I. Joe stories) we get a pretty spectacular looking combination of really interesting parts. A brand new head sculpt tops the figure, though as what will be a running complaint throughout, I would have thought a removable helmet could have been squeezed in here somewhere. Evident from the first glance at the head (and a fact that the Collectors Club
even backed up) they designed this head with some future use cases in mind (namely Scoop) but honestly, I would have appreciated it far more if they could have worked out the helmet actually coming off.

Beyond that minor complaint, this figure hits all the right notes. Retaliation Firefly’s torso, 25th Anniversary Lift Ticket’s arms, and Shock Trooper’s legs all form a very nice base for the figure, looking unique and interesting. Several different textures are used, but blend nicely, looking reminiscent of the vintage version, but with plenty of modern twists. Articulation is excellent, and the look of the figure is, well…among the best of this year’s Convention set, to be sure.

Airborne’s paint scheme is pretty spectacular as well. With very tightly applied urban camouflage, he has the same spirit of the 1990 version, but applied to the figure in a much cleaner, more modern way, giving us an update to Airborne that is terrific all around. His colors are immediately evocative of the previous version of the figure, but far from repetitive.

Accessories

The Collectors Club, for whatever reason, split the Sky Patrol figures so three of them come with jet packs and three of them do not. Airborne is one of the latter, coming with a military backpack instead of the cooler looking jetpack, but still nicely equipped. He also has an assault rifle, knife, satchel (totally not a man purse) and the shoulder harness comes off as well.

Airborne is very nice. Great parts combinations, a nice looking new head sculpt, and immaculately developed camouflage all come together to form a great update to the classic Sky Patrol character. Great start to this thing.

Check out the video review for the Sky Patrol half of the boxed set below!