As I mentioned in my Bullseye review, this was one of the few things from series 1 that I did not have as a kid. The Air Raid Helicopter looks to be the "flagship" vehicle of the C.O.P.S. line, and I think it's a testament to how the toy retail environment has changed recently that we even got a vehicle of this size back in the day. I seriously doubt we would see anything quite this large for an un-tested toyline in this day and age.

The Air Raid itself does make some mild sacrifices, though, for working with a 6-inch figure line. Mainly, it's probably not quite as big as it should be, but for a future-based vehicle, that might not matter quite so much. The twin cockpit format is really neat, and even though the overall design of the copter is somewhat "stubby", it's still very effective. The overall feel of the copter is thick and sturdy, and the figures fit in it really well. It's almost designed like an jet plane, with a nice streamlined look, no tail rotors, and some pretty big looking thruster engines on each side. The helicopter blades are somewhat short, like the rest of the vehicle, but it doesn't seem like that should effect the speed or design of the aircraft at all.

The shape of the front canopies is probably the most interesting part of it, with the two "bubble-like" cockpits in clear blue and red glass. I love this twin cockpit format, it really adds a neat distinctive look to the helicopter and gives it some "character". The weapons are all pretty effective, too, with a very nice chin machine gun, a wing/thruster mounted firing system (where the caps are fired) and even the small little siren underneath the rear tail all add a little something. All in all, it's a very neat aircraft, and one of the cooler of the vehicles for the toyline.

They can run a little pricey, though, so you may want to take your time. I've seen bidding wars drive the price of this item (especially a complete or MIB specimin) to more than it should really be worth. Still, though, this thing is worth at least a small investment, and I think you'll be happy with it, especially if you get the excellent Bullseye figure along with it.

Please note - these images are placeholders and are currently of an incomplete Air Raid helicopter. It should have a siren under the rear tail, a machine gun in the front, between the two cockpits, and obviously, the roll of caps will go on the peg and feed into the mechanism underneath the rotors. I wanted to get this page up, but as soon as I get pictures of a complete Air Raid, I will post them in here.

I will NOT post an archive section until I have a complete specimen to display.