Cobra Flight Pod (aka Trubble Bubble)

Just got this in yesterday...an eBay win. I had waited a bit to try and obtain one of these, and finally got one. See, Target had a bunch of G.I. Joe exclusives during the time of the first live-action Joe flick. They had several waves of four small vehicle and driver packs. The consisted of old, re-colored vehicles and new re-colored figures. There was one last "lost" wave which never actually got released at Target. Many of these ended up at Ross stores with the Target sticker still intact! Weird, huh? Anyway...I consider Ross and obscure store, but I knew one was in the Wilkes-Barre area of PA, so I hunted it down and found three of the four sets in that wave of toys. No flight pod. I would check back every once in a while, just in case, but no. I tried bidding on eBay auctions soon after I considered finding one on my own fruitless...never won one...until now!

Now, the Flight Pod is probably one of the most classic G.I. Joe vehicles from the olden days. Not just a classic Cobra vehicle, but a classic vehicle for the whole toy line and from the cartoon/comic. Man, I always remembered the "Trubble Bubble" from the cartoon. I always wanted one, but never got one...it was an older vehicle and not really available at the time my brothers and I collected Joe. It was one of those cool sci-fi vehicles that came across as so damn iconic! It's basically and one-man...uh...pod...that flies...hence the name. The canopy or dome opens a bit to place your figure inside. I had removeable missiles, a rotating gun, and a pivoting steering column. The front of the column also has two short gun barrels on it. Pretty well armed as well as cool-looking. The vintage Flight Pod also came with a big aerial mine thingie. The 25th Anniversary brought this toy back in its original white color, and later got released in a big Target set in blue...now it's in black with a red canopy! Super evil! Had to have it. Now I do. Admittedly, this color scheme makes it more of a night vehicle, if you wanna talk in terms of realism. The pilot is a repaint of the Elite Viper from the movie line. I really never liked this color scheme. Too "cherry red" for me...especially the pants! UGH! Remember when idiots in high school started wearing all those gonzo-colored camo pants? No? I do! This reminds me of those days. At least if Hasbro woulda kept the pants black with a few red highlights. Eh, whatever...as seen in the last photo, he does fit in with a lot of other red guys from the Cobra roster...most of them themed for urban assault. I did want to use this version of the Flight Pod as the personal vehicle for the red Pursuit of Cobra version of Cobra Commander, but just realized he has a very difficult to remove coat on! NOOOO!!! He cannot sit in the cockpit (and Elite Viper even has trouble sitting in that seat harness, too boot). Oh well. Still a really neat color version of a classic G.I. Joe vehicle.