1986 Lift-Ticket

By KansasBrawler

The Tomahawk was one of KansasBrother’s big vehicles back in the day, so I’ve known about Lift Ticket for a while and I’ve always liked him. While I didn’t realize it at the time, I think subconsciously, my brain must have noticed that Lift Ticket and Sky Patrol Airborne shared bodies and that’s why I went after him. However, thanks to a nice garage sale find, I have my own vintage Lift Ticket and I couldn’t be happier. It’s a solid vintage figure and since it was a figure that belongs to KansasBrother back in the day, there’s a little bit of a tie back to him and our Joe collecting days as well.

Lift Ticket is a solidly sculpted figure. It looks like he’s wearing a flight suit with a little extra shoulder padding and a vest over it. The boots are a little short for my taste, but they still look natural. He’s got a pistol sculpted in the pocket on his left leg and there’s a knife sheath on his right leg. Up top, the vest is very well detailed with several pouches and a holster on the left side of his abdomen. There’s a flight wing pin on his chest and a sculpted radio transmitter up on his right shoulder so he can operate the radio somewhat hands free. Like the legs, the arms are fairly basic, though he’s wearing rather tall gloves and there are pouches on each forearm. If I’m being honest, Lift Ticket does fall a little short in the head sculpt department. First of all, he’s got kind of a doofus-y looking face. He reminds me a bit of Gomer Pyle and that’s not the guy you want flying your Tomahawk. The detailing itself is also quite soft. Like some of the modern Force of Battle 2000 figures, there’s really no distinct break between Lift Ticket’s helmet and his face. The detailing on the helmet itself is also rather soft and everything just looks too smooth. The goggles on the top of his head just look more like a weird lump than a pair of goggles sitting on top of a helmet. Considering how good Hasbro was at making heads by this point, Lift Ticket looks a bit more like a relic of 1984. His helmet has a small hole in the side of it where you can plug in his microphone. Of course, since this was an easily lost piece, my yard sale Lift Ticket was missing it, but it’s not that big of a deal to me.

Lift Ticket’s design is excellent and I like the colors Hasbro used, but at the same time, it feels like they had two distinct ideas for a color scheme and couldn’t decide which one to use, so they just used both of them. The flight suit is dark green with red on the padding and those two colors actually work well together. However, the light tan and black vest just looks a little off. I know his vest could be a different color, but it just seems a little clash-y to my eyes for some reason. I think maybe a little green or red on the tan vest would bring it all together a bit better. The silver detailing on the radio transmitter is excellent, though I’m a little surprised the pin on his chest didn’t get painted. Up top, the helmet is red with some black detailing and a little bit of silver on his face. Lift Ticket’s got Caucasian skin tone, but it seems painted on rather thickly, further exacerbating the soft detailing that already makes his face look a little off. Don’t get me wrong, Lift Ticket’s look is solid, but I think Hasbro could have done a few things just a little differently and made him an even better looking figure.

I’ve wanted my own Lift Ticket for a long time and now that I have him, he really was worth the wait. There’s a reason so many people consider him the quintessential Joe helicopter pilot. Sure, there was Wild Bill, but with the molded on cowboy hat, he looked just a little out of place in a helicopter. Lift Ticket, on the other hand, looks like a soldier and a pilot and he’s a perfect match for his vintage vehicle. The colors are still a little strange to me, but they’re not terrible. I’d just be more interested in knowing why these colors were chosen. I may not have gotten a Tomahawk until I was an adult when its modern version was released, but I’ve always liked the Tomahawk and its signature pilot and I’m pleased to finally have my own Lift Ticket after all these years.