Power Team Elite Blackhawk/Combat Helicopter
Available as always through G.I. Joe HQ
So Hasbro hasn't produced a transport copter in several years...since 1985, to be exact. So you love military-realistic vehicles to supplement your Joe armies, or to branch out into some non-Joe things as well.
These days transport copters and the infamous "Blackhawk" goes completely hand in hand. It's what immediately comes to mind, and for good reason...it's a terrific aircraft.
Now if you want the ultimate in military realism, you might be tempted to look for a BBI Blackhawk...1:18 scale, as realistic as it gets and very nicely weathered to look as if it came right from the airfield...but it's also brittle, non-playable, and the price tops out at around $70.00.
Then you have the PTE Blackhawk.
Originally called the "Combat Helicopter" it would appear that M&C Toys got the license to the darker name, as the package now proudly proclaims "Blackhawk" on it. It looks to be the same basic copter that the original Combat Helicopter was, which was close enough to a Blackhawk to work for me any way.
While this copter is definitely not 100% to scale realistic with all of the accurate features of the real Blackhawk, but it's got the basic look and functionallity, and I think would work very well in the G.I. Joe element, and in the Power Team element, too.
As for the execution of the copter itself...it's really, really nice.
Slightly more expensive than the Combat Tank the Blackhawk is a pretty nicely sized helicopter, and best of all, it's also very, very light. Without the hefty electronic features of the Night Attack Copter or the thick, hard plastic of the BBI Blackhawk, all that's left is thin plastic and a hollow copter, which makes for a transport that you can whip around the backyard pretty easily.
The shape of the copter is pretty accurate to how the Blackhawk looks, with the rounded canopy, front windows and the overall streamlined shape. The propellors are nicely detailed as well, and spin nice and freely, allowing for even more fun play.
The Blackhawk has it's nice landing gear intact, with rubberized wheels and solid connections to the main body of the copter.
The surface detailing is intricate, like the Combat Tank, with metal plates in the right spots and a ton of bolts and different trimming bringing even more life to this helicopter transport.
All doors are also easily openable and the interior holds a ton of figures. There are three rows of seats for passengers and two seats for pilots. If you crammed it tight, you could potentially fit up to 12 figures in here, although the quarters would be VERY tight.
One of the downsides to the vehicle is the lack of detail in the cockpit. It really just looks to be mostly flat surfaces with some divots and chunks missing here and there. I don't really see any realistic dials or levers or joysticks, but really, this is a minor issue when you look at the price point, and at the overall picture.
Coloring on the Blackhawk is...well...as you would expect, black. It's a nice dull black shade and looks like black metal as it should. The lower front windows of the canopy are slightly frosted and looks cool, and the ARMY stencil on the tail comes across well. The coloring is authentic and realistic, and is terrific.
From the intakes near the propellors to the front landing gear and the rear rudder, this copter is nicely detailed down to the letter and really great, especially for the price.
Not to be content with merely releasing a cheap, affordable vehicle, M&C Toys also crams a load of other things into this package. Four figures are packaged here, including three Delta Force operatives and the Blackhawk pilot. The ops also come fully equipped with two tac vests and a trio of great, different machine guns.
As is par for the course with PTE, the figures are nicely detailed, and like one of the figures that comes with the tank, they added some facial hair to one of them, to differentiate him slightly from a previous release.
Along with the figures and gear, this set also comes with two oil drums, two crates and two gas cans...just more cool diorama accessories to add to the growing pile of great things to use in my dio-stories.
Like the tank and a lot of the rest of PTE's offerings, the Blackhawk continues to impress with very scale and accurate representations of military offerings for a very budget price. A nicely constructed, fun vehicle, with a load of figures and a ton of gear for less than $20.00 seems almost too good to be true, except that M&C Toys does it on a regular basis.
I definitely look forward to seeing what else they come up with, as this is another checkmark in the "win" column, in my mind.
