 This is Airborne, G.I. Joe's helicopter assault trooper from 1983. He was first available in 1983 and was also available in 1984 and was discontinued for the year 1985. That is to say there was no new helicopter assault trooper in 1985. However, if you see Airborne as a paratrooper, there was a new paratrooper in 1984, Ripcord. If you see Airborne as a basic infantry soldier, there was a new infantry trooper in 1985, Footloose. There was one other figure called Airborne in the vintage G.I. Joe line, but I would not call it a second version of this Airborne. The 1990 Airborne was not the same character, it was a new guy with Airborne's codename. The 1990 Airborne was part of the Sky Patrol sub-team, so he came with a working silver parachute. As a helicopter assault trooper, Airborne is often paired with the G.I. Joe helicopter from that same year, the 1983 Dragonfly helicopter. The Dragonfly did come with a pilot, Wild Bill, but you will often find Airborne in the gunner's seat. Indeed, his file card suggests that is the proper place for him. Airborne was the first Native American G.I. Joe. The second was Spirit from 1984, and although these guys share some colors, they have blue and tan, other than that, there really isn't very much similarity between these two figures. Spirit has a much more stereotypical Native American look. Let's take a look at Airborne's accessories, and let's start with his weapon. This is his XM16, which may be based on the XM161E, which was an early variant of the M16 rifle. This one has a bayonet and a collapsible stock. There is a fair amount of detail on the accessories, certainly pretty good for the time. Airborne's XM16 is at about the same scale as the M16 rifle that came with the 1982 and 1983 Infantry Trooper Grunt. I think that rifle is slightly underscaled. It looks a little bit too small. Airborne's rifle was very popular. A reissue of that rifle came with the 1987 Mailway Exclusive Steel Brigade. The Steel Brigade rifle is almost identical to the rifle that came with Airborne. It is in a very slightly lighter gray colored plastic. Another issue of that rifle, an even lighter gray plastic, came with the 1985 Tactical Battle Platform. Then the rifle was issued in blue for the 1985 Rifle Range Unit. Then there was a very light gray, almost white accessory pack version. And this would be a pretty good rifle to give to an Arctic Trooper. Next, let's look at Airborne's helmet. And this helmet is very similar to the standard GI Joe helmet in light green. But it has some great additional sculpted detail on there that I really love. It's got some goggles and the strap that holds the goggles on. And it looks like there's some cloth folds in there. Just a really beautiful helmet. Finally, let's look at Airborne's backpack. And I also really like this backpack. It has a sculpted bed roll here, an entrenching tool. When we were kids, we used to pretend these backpacks were parachutes. Airborne's backpack, like his rifle, was very popular and got reissued many times. And sometimes the reissues of that backpack were almost identical to the original. For instance, Duke came with the same backpack in almost exactly the same color. One way you can try to identify a real Airborne backpack is by matching the colors. The Airborne backpack should pretty closely match the color on the figure as well as Duke's. The Duke's backpack should pretty closely match the color on that action figure. However, this plastic can yellow over time and with sun damage. So matching the colors doesn't always work. Another way you can identify an Airborne backpack is by looking at the backside. Airborne's backpack has this cross pattern. Duke's backpack does not appear to have that, at least not any issue of Duke's backpack that I've been able to find. So that cross pattern appears to be unique to Airborne. Airborne's backpack showed up on Steel Brigade. Steel Brigade borrowed a lot from Airborne. The backpack was also issued with version 2 of Duke, Tiger Force Duke. There was also a brown accessory pack version of the backpack. Let's take a look at the articulation on Airborne. He had the standard 1983 G.I. Joe articulation. That means he could turn his head from left to right and 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 at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. That was a new point of articulation in 1983, referred to as swivel arm battle grip. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. And that allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Airborne starting with his head. And his head has a fairly plain head sculpt with short black hair. His skin tone is slightly darker than that of Caucasian G.I. Joe action figures. And I think that is intended to reflect his Native American heritage. The coloring here is a little bit odd though. It is darker, but it looks to me like kind of an olive tone. On his chest, Airborne has a light blue vest over a light tan shirt. Some green straps. He has a knife and a grenade. And I do like this chest. I know collectors have mixed feelings about this blue vest. Some love it. Some don't. I'm okay with it. It probably would have been better in another color. But in 1983, I thought the blue made the figure stand out and look special. Airborne's chest was used for version 1A of Steel Brigade. And the vest on Steel Brigade was done in green instead of blue. And so this gives you an idea of what Airborne would have looked like if they had gone with green instead of that light blue. And I think this would have looked very nice on Airborne. Airborne's arms have that tan shirt and he has forearm pads and I like that a lot. And he has rank chevrons on his left arm. There is a variant of this patch on Airborne's arms. Some have thick stripes. Others have thin stripes. I guess this rank insignia is right for Airborne. He is a sergeant. But for some reason the chevrons are upside down. It also has what looks like maybe an eagle wing detail on it. And maybe this designates Airborne as a paratrooper. But it does not look like an army parachutist badge. Airborne's arms were reused for the 1984 scrap iron, just recolored. If you turn them around, you can see those forearm pads. Changing the color of these arms really changes their look and character. This is a good reuse of parts. On his waist Airborne has tan trousers and a brown harness and this is probably intended for use in repelling out of helicopters. His legs continue that light tan color. He has an unpainted pistol holster on his right thigh with a black pistol. He has a pocket on his left thigh. He has knee pads and this is one of the features that really sold me on this figure when I picked him up way back in 1983. I think these look great. He has some standard army combat boots in gray. Airborne's lower legs were reused for scrap iron, recolored of course. Again another very nice reuse of parts. Once again Airborne's parts show up on steel brigade. Some versions of steel brigade used both the upper and lower legs of Airborne. All versions of steel brigade used the lower legs of Airborne with those boots and knee pads. Let's take a look at Airborne's file card. This file card of course was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged. You can see some of the artwork from the front of the card there. It has his faction as GI Joe. It has a portrait of Airborne here. It says he's the helicopter assault trooper codename Airborne. File name Franklin E. Taltry, primary military specialty, Airborne infantryman, secondary military specialty, helicopter gunship gunner. I think this right here indicates that Airborne should fit very well in the gunner seat of the Dragonfly helicopter. Navajo Reservation covers portions of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. It's mostly in the northeast corner of Arizona. This paragraph says Airborne's parents are oil-rich Navajos who indulged their eldest son with skydiving lessons. Taltry also studied law and passed the Arizona State Bar Exams. Joined the Army and opted for Airborne training, commenting, I'd rather jump out of airplanes than write legal briefs. Graduated top of class from Airborne School, Fort Benning, and Fort Benning is where the US Army conducts the basic Airborne course. Qualified experts use helicopter chain gun M16, M60, M1911A auto pistol. This bottom paragraph says Airborne jokes around and gets loose, but he's serious too. Dead serious. You look at him sometimes and he's looking right through you. Must be the Indian in him. The Navajos call it the far-seeing look. Spooky. Airborne did appear in GI Joe Media, though I wouldn't say he was a star. He had a few appearances. In the animated series, he was mostly in the background and usually did not have any spoken lines. There was one episode that focused on him, Operation Mind Menace, and in that episode, again we have supernatural elements. Cobra kidnaps Airborne's brother, who has psychic powers. In that episode, Airborne is not figure accurate. He's shown wearing some kind of blue jumpsuit. In the comic book, he first appeared in issue number 11, which introduced a lot of new Joes for 1983. I liked that appearance. He piloted the Falcon glider, even though the toy came with version 2 of Grunt, not Airborne. In that issue, he corrected Snowjob when Snowjob asked if Taltry was an Indian name. Airborne said no, it's a Native American name. I liked that. Airborne appeared with Spirit in issue number 31, where they surveilled Snake Eyes in the High Sierras and intervened when Snake Eyes was attacked by Destro, Fred, and Firefly. There were other appearances in the Marvel Comics series, but he was usually not the focus of the story. He was usually seen in helicopters, either as the pilot or a gunner.