The Steel Brigade is an international strike force formed to specifically shut down Destro and MARS, and stem the tide of WMDs, as well as conventional and experimental weapons, in the world. The SB is funded and overseen by The United Nations SB Committee, with major backing by the US, UK, and Russia. The SB Platform is a mobile, temporary strike base that is brought to bear upon confirmed MARS activity, and has the ability to be delivered & set up in a 2 hour time frame, and taken down & removed in one -- ready to go to the next site, or back to one of the international bases for repair/restock. The Steel Brigade is a revolving 15 member team, composed of 2 Base Soldiers, 3 Skyhawk Drop Pilots, a 5-man 1st Strike Team, and a 5-Man 2nd Team, or Clean-Up Crew.

Currently, the roster is comprised of:

Checkpoint (Base Soldier/Security)
Rook (Base Soldier/Interrogation)
Red Zone (Base Commander/Urban Assault Pilot)
Gung-Ho (Pilot/Recon/Extraction)
Dragonsky (Pilot/Flame Weapons)
Duke (1st Team Commander)
Roadblock (1st Team Machine Gunner)
Charbroil (1st Team Flame Weapons/Demolitions)
Beach Head (1st Team Assault)
Mutt (1st Team Assault)
Flint (2nd Team Commander)
Spirit (2nd Team Recon)
Tunnel Rat (2nd Team Recon)
Doc (2nd Team Medic)
Low Light (2nd Team Sniper/Jet Pack Pilot)

This GP Idea is the resulting combination of Christmas 1985 and the G.I. Joe Convention in 2005, with a little General Hawk thrown in for flavor. In 1985, my brother and I received the Skyhawk and the Battle Platform at the same time, forever cementing the two toys 'together'. Flash forward 20 years to the Con, where Master Collector released the SB Skyhawk Three Pack, along with the Steel Brigade Figures, and MARS Figures & Vehicles. We never had a Steel Brigade figure when we were younger, so I didn't have a frame of reference until MC broke it out, and then I took a little more info and ideas from G.Hawk's Hasbro SB/Plague review. Immediately after the 2005 Con, I knew exactly what I was going to do with the 3 Skyhawks & SB Figures: The Steel Brigade Transportable Tactical Battle Platform! I began collecting pieces from eBay & the Trading Post, all the while championing Narceron's Location is Everything GP idea to give me the impetus to get started on this project. Well, here is the result of all that!

This playset is based upon the Hasbro TTBP, with two extra landing pads: one 'fixed' near the crane (with access cut in) and one attached to the sliding drawbridge. The Jet Pack is nothing more than the Cobra flight pod thrusters epoxied (JB Weld) to the Silver Mirage Back Shield. The JUMP platform and control station are also epoxied to the base. There is a piece of the Cobra Surveillance Port epoxied to the back as a landing pad for the SB Hovercraft (salvaged from a Havoc). There are also various & sundry pieces scavenged from the missle, machine gun, ammo dump, and other small playsets to make up the different ammo boxes, gasoline drums and cans, missle launchers, missles, and boxes. My favorite part of this playset is the utilization of the FLAK Cannon in place of the platform missle launcher. I actually took this idea from an auction i saw on eBay, where the seller had put this gun on the platform, and then mistakenly said the toy was 100% complete! The Skyhawks are of course from MC, but I remade a bunch of the stickers for them, as well as all decals for the base and accessories. As a side note, I finally found a use for the extra Night Force & Anti-Venom figures I had -- just needed to buy up a pile of $1.29 BJ's Exclusive Roadblocks from eBay!

Additional Thanks go to Matthew, who provided me with the Steel Brigade logo waaay back when...Thanks!