Review – Night Attack Chopper
The year 2002 was a brave new one for GI Joe. Hasbro was attempting to relaunch GI Joe in its classic 3 ¾ inch size with new sculpts of old characters in the Joe vs. Cobra line, which later gave way to Spy Troops and Valor vs. Venom. The initial vehicle offerings weren’t much to write home about unless you missed out on their original incarnations (and yes, I was quite happy to finally get my hands on a Hammer…er, I mean, Brawler, as well as Destro’s Dominator). The next few releases didn’t excite me that much, either. I wasn’t thrilled by the Rockslide or the Mantis, and the Desert Coyote was just ok.
Then one day, I was walking by the Joe section in Wal-Mart and spotted the Night Attack Chopper. I eagerly picked it up and looked it over. I remember my hands trembling as my excitement grew, and I quickly hauled it to the counter to take it home. When I got home and got it out of the packaging, I wasn’t disappointed…I held in my hands the greatest Joe chopper since the Tomahawk. Considering the Tomahawk’s revered status among Joe fans, that’s a pretty bold statement…but one I believe the Night Attack Chopper backs up with ease.
The Night Attack Chopper is pretty darn big for a Joe vehicle. If you count its nose gun, it’s even longer than the Tomahawk, if not quite as tall. Overall it measures in at just a shade over 23” long by 10” wide by 7” high (16” wide if you count the blades). The Night Attack Chopper is painted in a black and green camo scheme, with gray accents, and satin gold main and rear rotor blades and rear horizontal stabilizer. The color scheme looks quite nice, and seems quite realistic…especially compared to some of the OTHER color schemes we’ve been subjected to over the years. I would argue that dark gray or black rotor blades would give it more of a stealth appearance, but the gold is far from terrible, and does just enough to set the chopper’s colors off instead of looking tacky.
The key word in the NAC’s name is of course, “Attack.” And boy can this chopper ever bring some heat down on Cobra! Protruding from the nose is a big honkin’ chain gun, which can rotate in almost a complete 180-degree arc in front of the chopper. (For the record, it can sweep BEYOND 90 degrees to the left, but only about 80 degrees to the right…the ammo drum on the side of the gun gets in the way). The chain gun is quite detailed too, with individual barrels molded into it, as well as an ammo drum on the right side. Running from an ammo drum to the chain gun’s chamber is an ammo belt and those bullets look BIG…they’ve gotta be at least .50 cal.
Progressing to the rear of the NAC, there’s more armament to either side of the cockpit. The left side sports a Vulcan minigun, which also has its own ammo drum and belt running to the chamber, and the right side has a…well, I’m not sure exactly what kind of gun it is, but it’s BIG. In my opinion, the neatest features of these two guns is their handles…the minigun features one at its rear and a flip-up one just behind the barrel, and the cannon on the right has a handle that can be flipped up or down. One of my biggest complaints with the “Sound Attack” weapons the JvC line featured was that most of them were regular Joe weapons with that stupid “Sound Attack” piece tacked on. Even if the weapons looked ok attached to the vehicles, they looked ridiculous when removed. Not so here…though the weapons still have that big “Sound Attack” piece, it looks more like a mounting piece for the weapons to go on the chopper than anything. I can just envision the NAC getting hit and going down, and a big Joe like Roadblock or Heavy Duty ripping the weapons off the side to hold off hordes of advancing Cobras!
Back to the weaponry…at the end of either of the NAC’s wing is a missile pod, and each pod contains 5 missiles. The pods rotate and fire Gatling-style. There is also a small, non-removable missile under each wing, between the fuselage and the missile pod on the end of the wing. The small missiles seem almost tacked on as an afterthought, and I wish they were removable. There’s also a “Sound Attack” storage slot on the end of each wing so the NAC can be even MORE heavily armed.
The NAC can haul a decent amount of Joes around, too. Flip up the cockpit, and there’s three seats…one for the pilot up front and two side-by-side at the rear of the cockpit. The pilot’s seat has a nicely detailed stick protruding from the console, and the console itself has a sticker to resemble controls. The pilot’s seat flips forward to access the two seats in the back. Additionally, the running boards to the rear of the cockpit can each hold two Joes. Finally, sliding back the cargo doors on the side of the fuselage (directly under the wings) reveals a jumpseat that faces to the left side of the chopper…though more Joes could be stuffed in that area, as well as a decent amount of cargo. So all in all the NAC has space for 8 Joes, though probably two more could be stuffed into the cargo area.
The Night Attack Chopper has play features galore, too. Pulling a trigger in front of the rear vertical stabilizer spins the rotor blades and makes a “chopper in flight” noise (it also lights up a little red light on the FLIR on the NAC’s nose). There’s a small button on the left side, near the rear of the main fuselage that controls the “Sound Attack” feature. The “Sound Attack” weapons slot is on the left side of the cockpit (any weapon put here will make its respective sound effect play). There’s a flip-down handle underneath the main fuselage. Flipping it down and pulling the trigger gently makes the wings snap out from the sides of the fuselage into “attack” position. Pulling the trigger again fires two missiles, one from each missile pod. When done blasting away, simply snap the missiles back into their pods and turn the cranks at the pods’ rear to reload. And finally, in a feature I just love, the right side of the NAC has a small handle on a rope at the rear of the right turbine. Pulling on the handle pulls out a long black string, right at 2 feet worth! This is perfect for those emergency extracts while blasting through a hot LZ! Cleverly, the retraction mechanism for the rope and handle is hidden in the turbine’s rear exhaust port (turn the whole port to crank up the rope).
As you can probably tell by now, I flat love the Night Attack Chopper. The color scheme, armament, and carrying capacity are all augmented by the neat features such as the firing missiles and rescue handle/winch, along with the best integration of “Sound Attack” into a vehicle ever. I wasn’t too fond of “Sound Attack,” especially when it was simply tacked on to otherwise classic vehicles like the Snow Cat, Rattler, and Conquest…but when it was included in a vehicle that was designed for it from the start, it augments rather than hurts the vehicle. The front and rear rotors spin easily and freely, and I also love the way the wings snap out into attack mode, and I love the way they fold in either for storage or so the NAC can haul some serious ass to the target.
The NAC does have a few flaws, like just about every Joe vehicle. Some people won’t like the design of the rotor blades…it’s definitely unique, and seems almost convoluted to me. They attach at the rotor cone, then go back at an angle before finally turning out and away from the fuselage at another angle. This design is mimicked in the rear rotor, as well. I don’t see this design being the best for longevity or the easiest to maintain. I also wish Hasbro had made just a little better use of the space in the cargo area behind the cockpit…like another jumpseat or some storage compartments. The chin gun is easy to knock off, though this was probably designed with durability in mind…drop your Night Attack Chopper without destroying the chin gun! Finally, in the 8 years that I’ve had it, I’ve NEVER been able to get the stupid rear horizontal stabilizer to snap in straight. This may just be a problem on my NAC, but I can also see it getting bent during storage.
If you want a Night Attack Chopper, be ready to drop some serious bucks. Loose examples will run you $40-50, while new in the box will cost you $80-100. However, I think the NAC is one of the very few post early ‘90’s Joe vehicles that is worth dropping some serious cash on, along with the Patriot Grizzly. Its combination of size, features, playability, and troop-carrying capacity make it an all-star in the Joe vehicle lineup, and it deserves its place alongside the Tomahawk as one of the greatest Joe choppers ever. If you don’t have a Night Attack Chopper, I highly suggest you start looking for one. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!
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