Dreadnok Air Assault VTOL Copter (1986)
When I started collecting GI Joes again in the early 90s, there were some toys from my youth that I had somehow forgotten about. The Sears exclusive Dreadnok vehicles were one memory that had mysteriously vanished from my mind. I know that I must have seen them in the Christmas catalog that year, as I pored over each store’s version of the wondrous toyriffic tome constantly upon their arrival each September. How I had blanked the sets from my mind, who knows? But when I spotted the ground assault set at an antique store, I remembered and knew they were something special for a collector of the weirder side of GI Joe like me. I scooped them up and set about finding the air themed set.
As repaints go, the Dreadnok sets are a dream for fans of the strange and unusual. However, if you’re not a follower of Zartan’s simple minded and destructive biker crew’s aesthetic, you may not find a lot to like. I for one am a sucker for odd paint schemes, especially when they’re applied to a very well known, and even iconic, toy. The Sky Hawk was ubiquitous in the Sunbow cartoon, and also in my Joe armory. As such, simply painting the one man VTOL fighter in shades of Color-Changing Swamp Skier Green and Grape Soda Purple may not float everyone’s boat. Rarity aside, I think it’s wild and wacky enough to be cool. The only downside, from a purely fiction perspective, is that it looks a little too bone stock for a Dreadnok ride.
For a while, I was a little surprised that the newly minted ‘Nok knockoff wasn’t given a specific name, then I considered that (aside from Buzzer) the group is about one tooth short of a full chainsaw. The boisterous boyos probably didn’t have the wherewithal nor the inclination to think up a clever code name for their purloined plane.
If I recall reading on Mike T’s profile of the Stinger from the Ground Assault set, both sets of vehicles were made of plastic slightly weaker than the regular vehicles, and they tend to break in certain places as a result. (He also suggested they might make good Python Patrol vehicles as well.)
In my experience, the light green plastic is much more fragile. The skids on this VTOL broke a lot, just like the kickstand on the RAM and the doors on the Stinger.
This, coupled with the fact that these sets were sold in limited distribution (only sold at Sears) makes a complete unbroken Dreadnok air or ground assault a rare set indeed!
Personally i love grape soda and cant get enough of it
I’m not aversed to each subteam or group having vehicles [beats walking] but the Dreadknocks having aircraft doesnt sit right with me. Most of them wouldnt be smart enough to use them.
The colours of this seem more fitting to a Viper squad IF you can overlook the lime green skids.
The only skyhawk i ever had was the original one. I got it from a thrift store in ’93 along with a box of other ARAH stuff and a castle greyskull. Only had it for a week before it was donated to “needy” kids [who lived in a three stroy house]
The problem with the Sears exclusives (and other store offerings such as the TRUs Brazil set) is that they went under most kids’ radars due to lack of advertising. Placing an ad in places like the G.I. Joe children’s magazine being published then, or even a paper slip packed in alongside every mini-catalog and mail-in booklets might have gotten more folks to know that certain stores were carrying special items such as these.
Boisterous boyos?! Purloined plane?! Is Stan Lee writing this blog?! 😉
Why haven’t these and the other Dreadnok repaints been redone in modern molds? I guess they’d wind up being pricey club exclusives at this point anyway…but at least there’d be less fragile alternatives.
I had the Dredknok helicopter.Way too fragile due to the plastic’s color changing feature, me thinks.
I remember a friend telling me about the Sears sets back in the day, and I totally didn’t believe him. Pink, purple, neon green?! No way! And I never saw them in a Sears store (were they only through the catalog?). In the world of Tiger Force, Python Patrol and Canadian repaints, the Dreadnok sets are pretty cool vehicles.
No, they were sold in Sears stores, too, ones that still had toy departments. I remember seeing them in 86-87 and not wanting them because they were repaints with no drivers included.
I didn’t go for re paints much either as a child. Alas, the completist adult got the better of me.
I much prefer my dreadnoks on their Harley Davidson 1:18 motorcycles!
Would dearly love to find these in good nick.
I’m most interested in that weird rocket ship with a claw symbol or whatever it is. What’s the story with that? I don’t remember ever noticing that.
Great colors!
I never knew of these until more into the age of collector hood online.
I have no experience with these, but above mentioned was the fragility of the green plastic, which immediately brought back memories of my Swampfires light green parts on the rotor and the gun breaking.
Would anyone have/ know of any pictures of these and the Thundermachine and Swampfires together?
No, not together….
I do have this awesome Drednok Thunder Machine Ground Assault custom!
http://arqspin.com/s/uxpvshbe5idq
”The Dreadnoks always trying to use G. I. Joe equipment against the joes.”