 The Vietnam War was over long before GI Joe returned to toy shelves. Vietnam influenced GI Joe in a lot of ways. In traditional warfare, cavalry troops fought on horseback. In Vietnam, the US Army started using helicopters rather than horses to insert troops into the field and to provide close air support for them. The air cavalry was born. For a fast-strike special mission team like GI Joe, the ability to quickly drop troops into combat zones and to take them out again is vital. In 1986, they got a helicopter that could fill the role of the air cavalry. It's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review. GI Joe has had a lot of great vehicles, but the helicopters deserve special recognition. Ever since their first helicopter, the Dragonfly, in 1983, GI Joe has dominated the air. In 1986, while Cobra was still making do with many gyrocopters, GI Joe got an upgrade. The Tomahawk was more than just an attack helicopter. It was a transport, a cargo, and rescue chopper too. It could do anything you needed a helicopter to do. The pilot of the Tomahawk was Lift Ticket. He is the first, and as far as I know, the only, Joe, from my home state. That's right, he's an oaky from Muscogee. Or really from Lawton, which is not anywhere near Muscogee. The point is, he's from Oklahoma. Let's see if an oaky can fly a whirly bird. HCC 788 presents Lift Ticket and the Tomahawk. This is the 1986 Tomahawk helicopter and Pilot Lift Ticket. This vehicle and figure set were first introduced in 1986. They were also available in 1987 and were discontinued for 1988. The Tomahawk is a massive helicopter. The main body is large, and it's extended even farther by the rotor blades. For the most part, in this review, I will keep the main body in frame, but those blades, as you can see, stretch beyond the frame of my camera. The Tomahawk was an upgrade from GI Joe's first helicopter, the 1983 Dragonfly, which was already an impressive helicopter. The Tomahawk had nearly all the features of the Dragonfly and a lot more. One feature it didn't have is the blade spinning mechanism. The Dragonfly's blades would really spin, not the Tomahawk. The Tomahawk takes its name from a single-handed axe used as a tool and a weapon by Native American tribes. In the early 80s, GI Joe ruled the skies. They had a jet fighter in 1983 when Cobra was still using gliders. Cobra didn't get a jet until 1984. In 1983, GI Joe also got an impressive helicopter, the Dragonfly, and they got an upgrade in 1986 with the Tomahawk. What helicopter did Cobra have at the time? Not counting Dreadnought vehicles, they had only the 1983 Fang. And that is unfair. Only in 1987 did Cobra get a helicopter that was remotely equivalent to what GI Joe had in the air at the time with the introduction of the Cobra Mamba. Like the Tomahawk, it was a two-rotor helicopter, but the rotor blades were in a different configuration. Also, like the Dragonfly, the Cobra Mamba had a mechanism for spinning the blades. We will take a detailed look at the pilot lift ticket later in this video, but let's set him aside for now so we can take a closer look at the Tomahawk. I do have the instruction sheet and the blueprints for the Tomahawk. I will be referring to this when describing some of the features. Let's start by noting the Tomahawk is in desert colors, and it has a painted camouflage pattern. It has a tan base color with a gray pattern painted on it. Paint was unusual for GI Joe vehicles. Most vehicles were not painted, so this is special. I'm very happy with this color scheme. I think it looks great. Let's look at the parts and the features on this monster starting in the front, and let's look at the chin gun. This turret, mounted directly under the cockpit, has a gatling gun on the starboard side of the turret. The blueprints call this a six-barreled XM179 20mm cannon. It can pivot, but not all the way around because it runs into the front landing gear. The gatling gun is on the starboard side of the turret, and on the port side it has a targeting system, and that is actually synced with the gun. The gun can move up and down, and the targeting system will move up and down as well. I think that's a great feature. The Dragonfly helicopter had a similar chin gun, and I love these. I think these are great features on GI Joe helicopters, and I really like this for the Tomahawk. Next let's look at the clear plastic canopy. I did try to clean this up, but with all the handling and moving around I have to do for the review. It gets a bit smudgy, so I'm sorry about that. It has this large canopy covering the cockpit. It also has clear plastic panes on the underside. This would enable the pilot to see what's directly under the helicopter. So a lot of range of vision for the pilot, and a lot of clear plastic here in the front of the Tomahawk. This canopy is hinged at the very front tip of the helicopter. You open the canopy by pulling the top of the canopy down. That hinge is a weak point. The plastic can wear down, and the canopy will come off. That is a frequent break point, so be cautious about that. Inside the cockpit there are two seats. They do not have back pegs. Each seat has a control stick. There is an instrument panel, and as you can see there is a sticker for some additional detail. The cockpit is pretty good. To place a figure in the cockpit you just move the figure into a seated position and place him in the pilot's seat. There is no back peg, and there is no seat belt to hold the figure in place. However the control yoke will move into position over the figure's legs, and that will hold him in pretty well. Also the control stick is small enough that it will fit in the action figure's hand. I tend to put the pilot in the port side seat just because I am American, and that's where the driver of an American car would be. There's plenty of room for two action figures in this cockpit. Each seat has its own control stick, so it could be piloted from either seat. Next we have the stabilizer wings. There is one on each side, and each of those wings has three white bombs. They are all identical, and they peg on with a dumbbell shaped slot that goes all the way through the bomb. The blueprints call these external ordinance free fall dumb bombs, meaning they are unguided bombs. You just drop them and let gravity do its thing, and wherever they land they blow up. In the front section of the tomahawk we have an intricate set of engine covers. We have two on the side, and we have another one in the middle in front of those other two. And you have to remove these in the proper order. To remove the side panels I find it's best to pull up from the bottom, and they should pop out of the tabs, and you can take those off. Those tabs can be a bit delicate, so be careful about breaking those. Once these are removed then we can remove this central engine cover. Having the central engine cover is a bit trickier. It is tabbed at the front on a very thin tab. You kind of have to just pull it up from the back, and then work that tab out carefully. You can see how thin it is. That can break very easily, that's another frequent break point. But once the engine covers are removed you can see all of this wonderful engine detail. This front engine is a separate piece in black. It has some intake turbines, and I think this is a great looking engine. Having it as a separate piece with a separate color of plastic really adds to the color depth of the overall vehicle. On the sides we have dark gray plastic pieces for exhaust pipes, and there are holes in the side engine covers for those pipes, so that's nice. The actual engine detail on the sides is just molded into the body of the helicopter, so it is all that same tan color. Now it's time to look at the twin rotors. This is what makes the Tomahawk really special. It has two rotors, one in the front and another in the back, and each one has five blades. On my example the rotor in the front spins really well, the rotor in the back does not. This configuration is similar to the Boeing CH-47 Chinook, a tandem rotor heavy lift helicopter, and that's definitely the idea they were going for with the Tomahawk. The Chinook takes its name from a Native American tribe, so like the Tomahawk it also has a Native American inspiration. These counter rotating blades eliminate the need for a tail rotor, but the Tomahawk still has one. In this ring it has a knob that allows you to spin the blade, and the rotor housing will also tilt. This tail rotor would be a nice feature if it were needed. Aesthetically it looks great, but as a practical matter it's not really necessary. I have to point out a major problem with these rotor blades. You will find many examples of the Tomahawk with the blades very badly bent. Drooping blades is very common on Tomahawks. Gravity causes the blades to bend and hang at extreme angles, making them useless. You can't spin them because they will run into the body of the vehicle. It is possible to straighten the blades, but removing them from the rotor risks breakage. The blades on my Tomahawk are pretty straight, and I have to thank someone for that. Byron Kellogg, a long time friend of the channel, sent me some straight Tomahawk blades to replace my droopy ones. I suspect the drooping blades are not solely caused by gravity. Gravity is usually blamed, but I think storage is a problem. With the blades, the Tomahawk has a huge footprint. If you are storing the Tomahawk with the blades on, it's difficult to find a box that will fit it. I suspect a lot of Tomahawks got stuffed into boxes that were too small and the blades were bent to fit. If the Tomahawk lives in that box for, oh, say, 20 to 25 years, those blades will be stuck that way when you pull it out. Let's look at more armaments. The Tomahawk has another set of missiles, these large white missiles. There is one on each side. They are both identical, and they peg in with the standard dumbbell-shaped slots. The blueprints call these air-to-ground anti-obstacle missiles. This is what the Tomahawk would use to take out tanks or other Cobra ground vehicles. Here we have another feature that sets the Tomahawk apart from the old Dragonfly helicopter. We have what the blueprints call a six-person capacity staging slash storage area. This compartment can be used to transport troops or small vehicles. It's what allows the Tomahawk to fulfill its air cavalry role. It is an open bay on both sides. You can see all the way through the helicopter. There are no doors that cover these open areas, so this is open all the time. Inside that carrier compartment it has a texture pattern on the floor. The floor is dark gray. It also has five jump seats in light gray. It has four to the rear, and they face back-to-back, and then it has another rear-facing jump seat in the front. Even though the blueprints say this has capacity for six people, it only has seats for five, so I'm not sure where the sixth guy is supposed to go. These jump seats connect to the floor. They are removable. They have a back peg to secure the figure on, and they have a texture pattern. They connect directly to the floor with no leg clearance, so the figures have to sit in their straight legged. With the seats removed, it creates a lot more space in there, so you could transport a vehicle. But there aren't actually very many vehicles, even the small vehicles, that will fit in that space without being partially disassembled. In my review of the LCV recon sled, I did demonstrate how you could fit that vehicle in this compartment. With the seats removed, you can see the cargo area is open all the way to the cockpit, which is cool, but you can't really do much with that space because it is very deep in there, and it's hard to reach. Also in this bay, there are two weapons, one on each side. The blueprints call these laser-enhanced NVS or night vision system 50-caliber machine guns. They will rotate, but they will not elevate. They are molded in this position where they are tilted slightly downward. These would be used to cover troops on the ground or to cover the helicopter as it takes off or lands. I really like these machine guns. It gives the Tomahawk the look of a gunship. You would have to attack the Tomahawk from behind because that's the only side where the Tomahawk doesn't have weapons facing. These machine guns can be operated from the jump seat. They don't have a grip, but they do have this tab on the side that can fit the action figure's hand. But that puts the figure's arm at an awkward angle, so I don't like to use those. But Beechhead can rotate this gun and use it from his seated position. This whole configuration reminds me of the Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, another helicopter with a Native American-inspired name. Colloquially, it was known as the Huey. The Huey also had a cargo slash personnel carrier space amid ships like this, but it also had closing doors. Many closing doors would have helped the Tomahawk, but for a helicopter with this many features, I don't think I can complain about that. There is one more feature of that cargo area that we need to look at, and that is in the very back. It has an opening loading ramp. That loading ramp has a texture pattern on it. It looks really cool. In theory, this loading ramp should allow personnel and equipment to be loaded onto the helicopter. But in practice, it doesn't really work very well because that space is actually very narrow and short. So you can't really fit very many vehicles in there, even small vehicles. I did show in my review of the LCV Recon sled how that vehicle could be driven up that ramp, but you still had to raise the back end of the helicopter to give it a little extra clearance. This is a really nice idea, but not all that useful in practice. Let's flip the Tomahawk upside down because there are more features on the bottom. We have landing gear with rubber tires. We have one in the front and two in the back. Those wheels roll pretty well. The landing gear is not retractable. Of course, the Tomahawk could take off and land vertically. It does not need a runway, but these wheels would allow the Tomahawk to be pushed in and out of hangers or to be moved into position on the helipad. Also on the underside, we have this winch. It is in a dark gray tray that slides into the underside of the Tomahawk. It has a gray hook that looks like it's the same hook as on the Dragonfly helicopter except in color. The hook is tied to a black line and there's a wheel on the bottom of the tray. You can turn that wheel counterclockwise to play out that line so you can pull the line out and hook on to whatever cargo you want to carry. Then by turning the wheel clockwise, you can reel that line back in. That is a feature that was carried over from the Dragonfly helicopter. It also had a working winch. As you can see, that is the same hook except in dark gray. I'm glad they carried that feature over to the Tomahawk as one of the cooler features on the Dragonfly. If they didn't have a working winch on the Tomahawk, it would have been very conspicuous in its absence. This winch works fine for cargo, but I would really like to see a retractable line from the troop carrying compartment so you could lower the joes down to a landing zone. On the tail of the Tomahawk, we have a couple stabilizer wings. They don't really do anything, but they look good. And then here in the very back, we have another set of removable engine covers directly under the rear rotor blade. There is an engine cover on each side. They are removed by pulling up from the bottom. It reveals some additional engine detail. Let's show each side. Each side has additional engine detail. And then in the very back, it has another set of exhaust pipes. And I think that finally rounds out our look at the parts and the features of the Tomahawk. Wow, that was a lot. There are so many great things on the Tomahawk. If I were to complain about anything, I guess it would be the white missiles and bombs. The white doesn't really go with the rest of the vehicle. But it's easy for me to overlook that because there are so many great things on the Tomahawk. Even though it is not based exactly on a real-world vehicle, it does have a very realistic aesthetic and I love that. In 2013, the Tomahawk was reissued as part of the GI Joe Retaliations series. It was renamed the Eagle Hawk and it added some minor improvements to the original. In 2015, that version of the Tomahawk was reissued in Tiger Force colors as a Jocon Convention exclusive. It was renamed the Tiger Hawk. I've decided not to cover those versions in depth. This is a review of the vintage toy, so I don't want to focus too much on the modern era. Other reviewers are better at covering modern toys. Let's take a look at the pilot lift ticket. This is the only version of lift ticket in the vintage line. There were later helicopters in the vintage line, so there were opportunities to give us an updated lift ticket action figure, but we did not get one. The Dragonfly wasn't only an impressive helicopter, it also had an impressive pilot. Wild Bill was a colorful character with an over-the-top personality. Did the Tomahawk have a pilot to match? It depends on how you measure these things. The lift ticket action figure has great sculpting and paint, maybe better than Wild Bill, but Lift Ticket's personality couldn't fill Wild Bill's hat. Let's take a look at Lift Ticket's accessory. He came with only one, and it is a notorious one. He came with a black microphone that was removable. It attached to a hole on the molded-on helmet on the figure's head. The microphone has an angled peg. It fits in that hole, and I've got to say it does not fit very securely. This is a frequently missing piece. Honestly, this microphone adds very little to the action figure. It should either have been simply sculpted onto the head, or if they really needed a separate piece, it should have been glued in. I honestly and truly hate this microphone. There was a moment when I was preparing for this review, when the microphone fell off of the figure and down into the Tomahawk, and I wasn't sure I could get it out. It took a lot of struggling to retrieve the thing. If I had not been able to retrieve it, there's no way I would have been able to replace it in time to do this review, and that would have made me very upset. With Lift Ticket's only accessory out of the way and in a safe place, let's take a look at his articulation. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1986, so he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Lift Ticket. The entire body of Lift Ticket minus the head was recolored and reused to make the 1990 Sky Patrol Airborne action figure. Looking at Lift Ticket's head, he has a molded on and non-removable helmet. It is red with a black liner and black chin strap. He has black goggle covers with a silver inverted V shape paint application. That molded on helmet is large and wide. It has the shape of an American football. Given its shape and color and Lift Ticket's birthplace, it really should have an OU stamped on the back of it. The size and the shape of this helmet are realistic. It looks like a sound protective helmet that's worn by real helicopter pilots. He has an expressive face. He has what I believe is supposed to be a snarl, but it comes off looking more like a goofy grin. And with the slightly droopy eyes, Lift Ticket just looks kind of dumb. On his chest, he has a tan vest with silver pilot's wings on the left side of his chest. On his right shoulder, he has a silver device with a cord. This looks like a communications handset, but he already has a microphone on his helmet so I'm not sure why he would need that. He has a black pistol holster on the left side of his chest positioned for a left-handed draw, suggesting that Lift Ticket is left-handed. Then he has three black pouches on his chest. On his arms, he has red shoulder covers with sort of a checker pattern molded into those. He has black pouches on his forearms, on each forearm. Then he has black gloves with some additional molded-in details on the gloves. On his waistpiece, he has a black belt with pouches on each hip and a sculpted-in belt buckle and some detail on it. It's not a bad belt, not the best by any means, but it is adequate. On his legs, he has green trousers, the same green color as on the arms. On his right leg, he has a silver-handled knife in a black sheath and a thin black band that goes around his leg. On his right leg, he has an unpainted pistol holster with a black pistol in it. This is the second pistol on his left side, so they are heavily implying Lift Ticket is left-handed. Moving down his legs, he has red knee pads, real knee pads. That's very nice, I like those. He has green pouches on the outside of his lower legs and then we finish it off with a pair of black boots. I have to say the color choices and the color balance on this figure are excellent. Lift Ticket is not a ground troop, so I don't mind the red. Red for a pilot is fine. I think this figure just looks really good and really well designed. Let's take a look at Lift Ticket's file card. His file card has his faction as GI Joe, has a portrait of Lift Ticket here. This would have been from the artwork on the front of the box for the Tomahawk. It has his codename as Lift Ticket with a hyphen. He is the Tomahawk pilot. His filename is Victor W. Sikorsky and his name has a couple allusions to the history of the helicopter. Igor Sikorsky, spelled with a Y, was a Russian American aviator and a pioneer in the development of the helicopter. He founded Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923. His company developed the Sikorsky R-4, the world's first mass-produced helicopter and the first helicopter used by the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942. His primary military specialty is rotary wing aircraft pilot. His secondary military specialty is fixed wing aircraft pilot. So he can fly both helicopters and airplanes. His birthplace is Lawton, Oklahoma, making him the first and as far as I know the only Joe from my home state. His grade is W-02. That should probably be W-02. He is a warrant officer. The file card later explains he went to Flight Warrant Officer School. As a warrant officer, he joins GI Joe's other warrant officers, including 1983 Wild Bill, 1983 Torpedo, 1985 Flint, and 1991 Major Altitude. This paragraph says, Lift Ticket was one of those guys who joined the Army to get out of his hometown. Oh come on, Lawton can't be that bad. I mean I think I've only been there like once in my life. It was years ago, but I think it was okay. Lawton does have a military connection being located near the Fort Sill U.S. Army post. The big difference with Lift Ticket is that he scored so high on his aptitude test that he qualified for West Point Prep, OCS in parentheses officer candidate school, and Flight Warrant Officer School. Nobody in Lawton ever suspected he was that smart. Apparently, neither did Lift Ticket. He opted for Flight Warrant Officer School over the others, thinking it was the only one that offered training applicable to civilian employment. This suggests a very high IQ, but maybe he doesn't make the best life choices. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, Getting into a target area is comparatively easy. You wait until dark and get sneaky. Now getting out, after some caps have been popped and a can of firefight's been opened, well that's another story. All you can do is squat on the LZ in parentheses landing zone, and hope that whoever is driving the extraction chopper is skillful, persistent, lucky, and bulletproof. Lift Ticket satisfies the first three requirements, and he's working on the fourth. Looking at how the Tomahawk and Lift Ticket were used in G.I. Joe Media, Lift Ticket and the Tomahawk made their first animated appearance in the miniseries Arise Serpentor Arise Part 1. That miniseries introduced a lot of new characters and vehicles for 1986. Lift Ticket had the most screen time in the episode Million Dollar Medic. That episode isn't even focused on him, that's a lifeline episode. Lift Ticket appeared sporadically in the Sunbow Animated series, he did not carry over to the Deke series. This is one instance when a character was used a lot more in the comic book than he was in the cartoon series. Lift Ticket and the Tomahawk first appeared in the G.I. Joe comic book published by Marvel Comics in issue number 49. Lift Ticket was not colored correctly in that issue, but it was a great issue for a debut. G.I. Joe attacked Cobra's secret base in Springfield. It was a major battle with nearly every Joe participating. Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book, used Lift Ticket a lot in the comic. I don't know that he necessarily liked Lift Ticket, but I think he liked the helicopter. The Tomahawk saw a ton of action in the comic. The Tomahawk was brought in any time G.I. Joe needed a heavy lifter or a troop transport. Lift Ticket even got a chance to shine on his own. In issue number 73, he flew a captured Cobra Mamba to insert Falcon's Recon Team on Cobra Island. That was just as the Cobra Civil War took off. The Tomahawk and Lift Ticket appeared in the comic book long after the toys were discontinued. It's easy to understand why. The Tomahawk is just so useful. It is versatile. It can be an attack helicopter. It can be a rescue helicopter. It can be a transport helicopter. It was used in all those roles in the comic book. The Tomahawk's final appearance was in issue number 125. That was in the Eco Warriors story arc, well into the 1990s. Looking at the Tomahawk overall, it is a top tier vehicle. Top top top. It has the size, it has the features, it has the style to impress anyone. It isn't perfect of course, you'll find a lot of droopy blades on Tomahawks. It has a couple weak points that easily could have been reinforced. It would be nice if the loading ramp and the cargo and transport bay were big enough to accommodate more small vehicles. And I would like a line for repelling troops down to the landing zone. But there's a point at which a vehicle has so many features that asking for more is just being greedy. The Tomahawk is well beyond that point. Lift Ticket is a nice figure, if not very memorable. I'll put it in the middle tier. It's well sculpted, realistic, and the colors work well. The worst part is that damned microphone. I hate the thing, I don't know why they bothered with it. Removable microphones are a plague in vintage GI Joe. If I had a time machine, right after I killed Hitler, I would go back and force Hasbro to glue those things in. Sadly, Lift Ticket doesn't live up to the style and personality of Wild Bill. Lift Ticket is more realistic, but Wild Bill is more fun. So the Texan beats the Oki. Oh well, at least we beat them at football. Sometimes. And that was my review of the Tomahawk and Lift Ticket. I hope you enjoyed it. I wanted to give you another big vehicle early in the year. You know what, so far this year we've looked at a lot of GI Joe, but we haven't looked at Cobra yet. I think next week it's time to do that. And maybe time to have a guest too. Don't forget to like this video on YouTube, subscribe to the YouTube channel, hit the notification bell and share this video, that's what helps this channel grow. I have to say a special thanks to my patrons. You guys keep the fuel in the tank and I am forever grateful. If you like these videos and you'd like to support the channel in that way and maybe get some special perks, make sure you check out my Patreon. I am on social media on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website, HCC788.com. We've got a new t-shirt up in the shop, so make sure you check that out. I'll be back next week with a Cobra toy review. I'll see you then. And always remember, only GI Joe is GI Joe.