Black Dragon(fly)

M.A.R.S has given us the BLACK DRAGON. A tilt rotor attack craft, armed to the teeth.
It is fast, agile and hostile. The Dragon is a small ground attack craft, it carries mini gun in it's nose, a retractible cannon and a decent bomb load. The twin tail allows a margin of safety from damage.
The plane is capable of VTOL or rolling take offs. It noisy as the two 10 foot three bladed props spin in counter directions but at an insane RPM. The Dragon is not intended for use in civilian roles or in airports close to human habitation. But ease of use on the ground is very good,sweep the wings back tilt the rotors and a crew of four can handle the plane.There is no stealth features built in, it depends on small size and speed for survival. It's crew of 1 flies by wire and and thrugh the use of sensors and Flat panal displays. The Black Dragon. M.A.R.S industries Mustang of tommorrow.

So the 10yr in me says "FREAKIN' COOL!!!!" This thing LOOKS awesome. Tilt rotors, sweeping wings (ok for parking only) button deploys weapons, opening cockpit with a good looking figure.
All black, no stickers is a drag..but it's really cool!!!

The 47yr old says, Dragon? Dragonfly maybe.Flimsey wings, useless hard points on sweeping wings but the real steel (or carbon fiber) can't sweep and fly, the rotors don't fold (PTE has folding rotors on all it's helos)
The chin gun sucks, the snap open gun really sucks and the bombs just tumble out of their suit cases. Retractable landing gear looks neat, until you realize the bicycle style tandem gear is un balanced. Thankfully M.A.R.S. provided non rotating half wheel skid things on the suit cases to balance the Dragon. Hmm...This thing looks like a gull winged sailplane with engines...
A crew of 1 flies it, and evidently he won't be over worked, since there is nothing in the cockpit with him but a joystick he barely reaches. Course, he doesn't have to reach it, since he can't see out. Yup, the same devious designer who laid out the HISS and the Ghost Hawk, cocooned the pilot into this thing. And worse, getting out and avoiding a firey death is going to be tough. The solid steel or carbon or whatever canopy opens forward, agaisnt the wind. And if the luckless Viper GETS it open, I think he stands up and pops his 'chute, like the great p38 ace Richar "Dick" Bong. heh heh, he said "Dick and Bong. a Dick Bong"....
About the decals. There are none. Part of me says FANTASTIC! So I can do what I want which translates into "I leave the damn decals off anyway". Another part of me says POOP! I bet they had some great decals planned for this thing.
Another thing before I go. I thing the bomb suitcases should have bee turned the other way, they look better. Also, this ting looks about the size of a Global Hawk. Which is how I intend mine to be used, as an UAV for Cobra.

So, it's been a while, Life got in the way of playing..
But lucky me, I have a son and a wife who enable me.
So, let's see, I got a New Viper with shiny face, A Stalker, a Black Dragon , a Punisher figure, another Rocket Duke, a wolf hound on sale at Tuesday Morning and a Polar Sharc. The last two were 23 bucks total.

So I'll talk about the figures now, and get back to a 10 yr old in a 47 yr old body later.
So let's see. Sgt Stalker....Are kidding me? This guy is really cool, can't say enough good things about him, great look. Great gear. That's it. That's all the good things I have to say about him.
The colors COULD be worse, but then, they could be a lot better...Now, sculpt wise,everything is cool,even his "Revolutionary freedom fighter power to the people" head. Sucks as a Joe figure head though. Looks good on several other black bodies. Just not as a joe.So he gets the older Stalker head.

Viper with the shiny face...This is another slam dunk. Except for the head. I'll keep it, it's pretty darned neat.but I think it'll be replaced with just about ANY other Viper head I can find. But this guy ROCKS!

Black Dragon Pilot. Not bad, usable. HEAD SUCKS! What is up in Hasbro? They seem to kill good figures with odd heads. But I'm odd, I see most folks are lovin' these heads.

Wolf Hound Driver. Great looking dude. GOOD head. And that's about it. Blah figure for any use except snow. Can't wait for snow.

Polar Sharc driver. I was handed one of these figures last week, and then I got a complete sub and driver set. More on sub later, but the figure? Not bad, swapped one head ,left the other. Blay figure for any use except snow. But hey, that's what snow is for.

The Rocket Duke, is well, a Duke. Head swapping madness continues...

Punisher. This guy looks pretty good. And is almost useless. Weapons are badly done and too big.
Articulation sucks and can only be made better with work.. The head is good, but the neck post is different. drats! I tried to put a trench coat on him, but he's too muscled up.

Which leads me to a new figure I made. Ta black snake eyes body, a blue lined cobra commander coat and a ROC Zartan head. Paint Zartan's hair black and BAM! You got a Punisher. Well, you gotta make the skull shirt. but there you go...


Now except for the Staker, all figures are colored fine. All have good articulation (that I improve with a hobby knife). All come with fantastic sculpting. The gear is excellent.The weapons that the new guys come with are cool, the Viper's rocket launcher is cool, the rocket is removable. Very nice... Stalker has the COOLEST pistol and silencer set up. Too cool!

I've finally seen an Iron Grenedier or what ever he's called. Meh. and a Toxic viper or Bio viper, whatever...Meh...but I'll likely get them both.