There were a lot of vehicle drivers in the Joe line. There was nothing better than getting that one-two punch of vehicle + driver. Double the excitement, double the fun.
Most vehicle drivers were fine on their own. Even those who are closely associated with their vehicles were fine going on missions without their ride of choice. Wild Bill will always be connected to the Dragonfly, but he was fine on his own. Steeler looked great behind the wheel of the MOBAT, but he could join the battle without a couple tons of steel wrapped around him.
But to me there were two Joes so intrinsically connected to their vehicles by the nature of their uniform that to have them separated seemed to go against the very foundation of reality. Am I being too dramatic? Maybe. Maybe not. Knowing might be half the battle, but the other half is DRAMA.
Deep Six and his pressure-protecting diving suit was one of them. He looked and felt like he should be behind the controls of the SHARK at all time. The other, and the subject of this article, is Ace.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should say up front that I never had the Skystriker, and as a result, I never had an Ace figure. I had the option at one point to get the Skystriker, but I think I chose something else, something a little more ground oriented. Something I could have more fun with. As a kid, the jet felt a little more limited in terms of how much fun you could have with it. Sure, you could swoop and strafe and bomb things, but jets are so fast that it almost felt too temporary a thing. It was, in a sentence, too much work to play with a jet. You have to move faster. You have to hold it just right, so that it looks like it’s going on a bombing run.
I don’t know, man, it all felt a bit much.
As a result of this completely bizarre hang-up, I did miss out on having Ace, but in the end I was ok with it, because without one, the other feels incomplete. At least, that’s what I told myself, but I always hoped that Ace would get a single release as one of those mail-away offers. But it was not to be. Because of that, I’d kill for a Classified version of him. I’m older and wiser (more or less) and can separate the man from his jet.
As the pilot of the Skystriker, piloting the Skystriker was a thing that he did in practically every form of media. In the cartoon, Ace piloted the Skystriker, blowing up enemy vehicles with just enough explosive force to allow them to safely parachute out of their exploding Rattlers. I don’t ever remember seeing him outside of a plane. I’m sure he was, but it always seemed like the only time he showed up was in the cockpit, as if he slept, ate, and pooped there, just waiting for Hawk or Duke to say “OH SHIT, RATTLERS.”
Then he was all “Woo-hoo, now it’s Ace’s time to shine.”
Ace needed a flight suit and helmet to pilot a Skystriker, something none of the other Joes needed, as if to spit in the face of G-forces and oxygen deprivation. Take that, science.
While it was never explicitly stated in the cartoon, Brad Armbruster (Ace) would end up as part of Earth Force in the Inhumanoids cartoon, going by the name Sabre Jet. At no point did he ask D’Compose why he sounded like Cobra Commander. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t feel ashamed.
In the comic, Ace…piloted the Skystriker. Again, it was a thing he did. But it was worth it, because Ace piloting the Skystriker meant he was the star of a great single-issue adventure (#34) where he partook in a dogfight with Wild Weasel, with tons of technical details about jets, and a pitch-perfect ending. It’s one of the greatest single issues of the original run.
I never had the Rattler as a kid either, although I did end up getting Wild Weasel in one of those previously mentioned Mail-away offers.
Cutter could be separated from his WHALE, and Keel-Haul could be used away from the FLAGG (I was given the opportunity to have that massive mammajamma when I was a kid, but I turned it down, knowing it was just too damn big and too damn expensive) but Ace always felt like he could only be used inside the Skystriker. It’s weird kid’s logic, but it was what it was.
