Mold: Dino Valley 2 Cargo Helicopter
Chin Gun: The Corps Raft Turret Guns
Windshield: Drink Mix Container
Cockpit Consoles: Brackets from True Heroes toys
Decals: Cobra Skycrane from Toyhax/Cobrastickers

Paints: Spray Enamels (purple, matt black and gunship gray)

This helicopter has been holy grail for Joe Collectors for decades. We first saw it in the classic G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Yearbook #2 story, seeing it deploy a squad of Cobras on a train car carrying a top secret laser held by the Oktober Guard. It appeared periodically throughout the comic run, dropping off tanks and gear to Cobra forces in a variety of settings. It has been a glaring hole in the line since the ARAH run, and now the modern era.

I had been after this helicopter for a few years. It went out of production in 2005, then quickly dried up on the secondary market. Occasionally they appeared on foreign sites or eBay for astronomical prices. I posted how this was my holy grail on the G.I. Joe Discussion FB group, and someone reached out to me who had TWO. I made him an offer, we agreed and in a few days I received this bird.

I had already planned in my head that this custom would be a light purple, a departure from what other customizers had done in the past. Cobra Blue is the safe bet, but I wanted mine to be true to the comic origin. I already had a set of Cobra Skycrane decals from Cobrastickers, which made them for those customizing the Eagle Hawk. For pilots, I had been eying the Gyrator kit from Raginspoon, so decided on two pilots - Gyro-Vipers.

Here is the final work - I decided to not do doors because the figures were hard enough to get in the pod as it is and liked the open cargo look for fast deployment. I added a windshield and consoles in the cockpit. Most importantly, I added a massive chin gun from a CORPs raft I picked up at Walmart. The Skycrane can carry a variety of Cobra vehicles - from Cobra HISS tanks to the Rage. It is essential to rapidly getting Cobra weapons to the battlefield!