G.i. Joe Classified # 115 Franklin “Airborne” Talltree
Hailing from a rich Navajo Native American family, Franklin Talltree took sky-diving lessons when he was younger. He would eventually enlist in the army and underwent airborne training and even pass the Arizona State Bar exams to become a lawyer, before joining G.i. Joe as an Airborne Infantryman.
In the ARAH cartoons, it’s revealed that Airborne is a bit psychic and has extrasensory perception, which allows him sense things that happen near him. He also shares a psychic bond with his younger brother, Tommy. However, none of these elements appeared in the Larry Hama Marvel Comics runs.
I gotta say, I am loving the headsculpt here. You can clearly make out the Native American features on this guy! Certainly way better than Lt. Falcon.
Airborne’s helmet features attachable night vision goggles. Cool! Too bad they can’t flip up, so they’ll have to be removed when not in use.
He comes with two different skydiving goggles. The wrapped one is for placement on the helmet. The “wrapping” is for protecting the goggles from dust and scratches when not in use. Too bad it isn’t colored yellow to match the Sunbow animation models.
The alternate “smaller” goggle set is meant for “wearing” on Airborne’s head when he skydives.
Airborne comes with a backpack. This is the same one we got with Wave 1 Duke.
Unfortunately, due to Airborne’s vest, the pack doesn’t plug in all the way now like it should and tends to fall off easily. It’s annoying but the good news is, in the cartoons, Airborne was never shown wearing a backpack most of the time anyway.
For weaponry, he comes with a sidearm with a silencer and a knife. The knife can be sheathed on his vest, while his sidearm is holstered on his right thigh with the silencer.
You can actually transfer the silencer from the submachine gun onto the pistol. I have no idea if this is actually a thing you can do in the real world? Are silencers transferable between different classes of firearms?
Airborne comes with a submachine gun for more firepower.
Removable ammo magazine, as usual.
With the Joe logo backdrop.
In the Marvel Comics G.i. Joe saga, Airborne appeared often in the early issues. He mostly functioned as a co-pilot for the Dragonfly, helping out Wild Bill on various missions as the helicopter’s gunner. He also was the co-pilot/ gunner for the Tomahawk when the team had to rescue Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow in one adventure.
Overall, another great release from the Classified line. I love the sculpt work on his face and the little added details like the night vision gear and his vest. While Airborne was never really that popular among fans (he was pretty dull and only had speaking lines in two episodes and was generally relegated to background character for most the series), at least we have another classic Joe airman added to the roster, just in time for the upcoming HasLab Dragonfly chopper.
Funfact: Airborne was voiced by Peter “Optimus Prime” Cullen in the A Real American Hero cartoons.
Hasbro’s oddball codename for Airborne is “Barney”, presumably from the old Hanna-Barbera Flintstones cartoons.
From what I can gather, he seems to be the last release that features oddball codenames printed on his shipper box. His wave-mates all have their actual names printed on their respective shipper boxes now.
Gold
