Rediscovering the 1990 G.I. Joe Retaliator: Sky Patrol’s Underrated Heavy Hitter

Story By Mitchell Smith

Welcome to The Outpost. Today I’m sticking with G.I. Joe 1990 and a really cool vehicle with the Retaliator. I had a Dragonfly, a Tomahawk, a Mamba, a Skystorm and a Fang 2 as a kid, but the Retaliator was just past my childhood. I never knew anything about it till I got back into collecting and watched the modern series which I only watched as an adult(I use that term loosely lol). I was able to pick up a couple parts lots recently and make one pretty complete Retaliator. I did have a couple Updraft figures so all I needed was the chopper.

Although Updraft is not listed as part of the Sky Patrol I think he is or should be considered part of the Sky Patrol. I do like the sub group so I consider him as such. The Retaliator has several cool features including a tow rope and a clamp that swings down out of the back portion to lift object or save Joes as depicted in the cartoon. I ended up needing one of the clamps for my better Retaliator and when I pulled the one off the other one I had, the tab broke off but it was for parts so I was ok with it breaking to complete one. There are a number of bombs but oddly enough there were no missiles on the Retaliator. This is a pretty good sized helicopter compared to the Dragonfly and the Tomahawk.

here was also a handle on the tail with various controls and a dial in the middle that turned the propellor. Im really curious if any on had this as a kid? Were the play functions really cool back in the day? Some do seem to stick a little now so I’m thinking a lot of these may have got broken in their hey day. Make sure to check back next week for the next discussion at The Outpost.