Drop Zone (1990)
The Sky Patrol figures’ packaging touted the “Working Silver Parachute” as a big selling point. Don’t get me wrong, attaching parachutes to toys and throwing them up in the air is fun as all get out. But for me, Sky Patrol is memorable for the figures themselves. Creative repaints, new interesting weapons and cool helmets come together to create what is my favorite Joe sub-team.
All of the Sky Patrol members were repaints of older driver figures. Hasbro simply added new heads, helmets and weapons. The weapons from the series included some of the most original designs up to that point, and although some of the rifles were outsized and saw re-release later, all were unique to the individuals at that time. Drop Zone was one of two Sky Patrol figures whose weapons attached to their bodies. The chest mounted machine guns are just the sort of crazy thing that works well in GI Joe.
The Strato-Viper mold is one of the most stylish Cobra outfits of the line, with its fitted style and double breasted jacket. Its use lends Drop Zone a dashing look that belies his file card bio, which refers to him as “a true GI Joe dogface.”
Sky Patrol is hands down my favorite sub-team as well. I wasn’t at all crazy about Tiger Force, Night Force, or Python Patrol, but these six characters felt new and exciting. I liked their appearances in the DIC cartoon and wish they’d made it into the comic. Drop Zone was the team’s blockhead but the figure looked too dapper to fit in that role. Instead, he has a Sean Connery flair about him. In fact, Hasbro outdid themselves on all six head sculpts, with DZ and Skydive standing out in particular.
That head sculpt is magnificent.
I love Sky Patrol team and vehicles: the Sky Raven is awesome!
Sky Patrol had a lot of potential. I loved that it introduced some cool new characters, and the figures had all new head sculpts. Two things that bothered me were the weapons, and the Back packs. Gimmicks aside they are pretty awesome!