A Look Back - The Killer Whale - GI Joe 1984

The Killer WHALE (Warrior: Hovering Assault Launching Envoy) is easily one of my top five favorite "classic" GI Joe vehicles. Something about it was just a whole lot of fun. There is a command post for the Whale's captain, Cutter, and a co-pilot. Two machine gun mounts allowed two more troops to defend the Whale and the body opened up for a small strike force to prep for assault.

This picture is from yojoe.com's page for the Whale - an excellent example of a minty fresh Whale.
Many years ago, much of my GI Joe collection was put into storage or sold off. The Whale was not going to be sold. It just went into storage and didn't handle storage very well.

Here is the sad condition of the Whale after taking it out of storage. Dusty, dirty and in unknown condition. I had removed many of the pieces and stored them in the cabin.
Pulling everything out of the cabin revealed some surprises and some bits of tragedy. Inside the cabin were all the parts of the Whale - machine guns, cannon, depth charges, missile launchers and the fan assemblies. Plus two Mega Vipers and one Annihilator, all three with decayed o-rings.

The worst part of the condition of the Whale was the vertical blades of the fans. The thin plastic tabs had become brittle and had broken. Plus some the bottom tabs of the blades had popped off. Sad shape.

I was determined to salvage these blades because parts for the Whale, especially the fan parts, have become very expensive.
I used small strips of plastic glued to the blades to secure the two parts of the blades together. Blue painter's tape secured the blades while the glue dried. After much cleaning, the Whale began to look more like its old self.
Once everything was back together, the Whale was back in shape and ready for combat missions against Cobra. The Killer Whale easily makes a transition to the modern era Joe figures. These pictures feature an assortment of 25th Anniversary, Rise of Cobra, Resolute and some simple customs.

The Whale is currently back in storage, but a much more secure storage with attention to the delicate nature of the fans. I really need to bring it back out and take some pictures with the new Pursuit of Cobra figures.
The Killer Whale is one of the high points of the Real American Hero era and works great with all incarnations of GI Joe figures. If you have one, keep it, treasure it - it's an excellent vehicle!