Ace (2004)
Since the 80s, Ace has been one of those Joe driver (or in this case, pilot) mainstays that you can be sure will make an appearance in whatever current form GI Joe takes. He’s been around for most of the various reboots and scale changes over the decades, even making it into the modern era along with a remade Skystriker.
For Valor vs. Venom, Ace came with the Tigerhawk, a nice little mini-rig of a GI Joe vehicle. The thing had a pretty neat barrel roll feature that allowed it to spin in one’s hand at the press of a button. At the same time, it produced a nifty jet engine sound. The VvV vehicles still manage to make me smile when I pull them out and play with them–I mean when my son plays with them. Yeah, that’s it. Anyway…
Ace is your basic pilot, albeit in a more modern outfit more akin to his 90s appearance than the space suit like number from 1983. It’s also somewhat heartening to know that Mr. Armbruster has maintained his hair color fairly well through the years. This particular figure also had a neat desert repaint, a repack with Slipstream in a Toys R Us version of the also-cool Thunderwing jet, and a discount store single pack. Sheesh, the man sure got around.
I got mine with the Thunderwing jet and while I passed on him before with the smaller jet, he was a great addition there. It was nice to get two pilots to fill what I recall was a two-seat aircraft. It’s a nice, serviceable flight suit and while it’s rather simple, it’s still a great look.
He was packed with the Thunderwing too?
Yeah, I think it was sort of a Toys ‘R’ Us exclusive thing the way the description on YoJoe reads. The only place I ever saw it at retail was at TRU so I can’t attest to that fact for sure but I do remember thinking it was a sweet deal because I’d read some reviews of it before and it clearly only had Slipstream included as a pilot so I remember being pretty stoked to get a bonus Ace figure for the same price.
Thats funny, i thought Matt Tracker came with the Thunderhawk
The oxygen mask looks less like an MBU-12/P than something Ace happened to swipe from a Space Jockey…
Nice colors!
That air hose looks like an elephant trunk!
In 1982, I signed up for the G I Joe fan club.
In 1983, a Joe was released with the same last name as me. Coincidence that Ace is my favourite Joe? I think not!
I like this version of Ace quite a bit. Im especially interested in the white paint scheme they did for him sometime during the VvV era ( i belive it was anyway) as i think it makes for a reasonably close Sunbow Ace homage. And as a kid i always wished they would remake an Ace figure that resembled his animated counterpart a little more than what we originally got with the Skystriker.