FREE FALL
By Thomas Wheeler
It's a strange thing in my opinion, but there have been precious few G.I.Joe figures over the years that have specifically been listed as parachute specialists of one sort or another. In fact, I can only think of three -- Rip Cord, the 1994 Flint, who stretched the definition a bit by being listed as a "Desert Paratrooper", and this guy -- FREE FALL, who was specifically listed as a "Paratrooper".
Okay, technically you had all of Sky Patrol that came with silver mylar parachutes, and there was a mail-order Parachute Pack that anybody could use, but I can remember as a small child, long before the Real American Hero came along, spending time in the backyard tossing this pre-posed, unpainted, more or less human-looking lump of plastic with a plastic parachute attached to it as high into the air as I possible could and getting a huge kick out of watching the parachute open and the toy drift slowly back to the ground.
Given the small size and relatively light weight of most 3-3/4" G.I.Joes, you'd think that doing more of them with parachutes would've been obvious. Certainly there's enough demand for such activity. Virtually every year for the past half dozen or so, there's been an official "Parachute Drop" activity at the G.I.Joe Collectors' Convention, and I've always been of the opinion that the only reason there wasn't one at the Contemporary Resort in Walt Disney World was because Disney didn't want G.I.Joe dropping onto the Monorail track -- a legitimate concern, if such was the case.
But there's only ever been two in the line officially listed as such -- okay, two and a half. I have a real struggle counting that Flint. And Sky Patrol. But that's still a pretty meager number given the vastness of the line, and except for Sky Patrol, which was a specialty team and cost more, none of them came with working parachutes.
Which, frankly, might have been the explanation. It might simply not have been possible to pack a working parachute in with a standard-assortment figure and keep that figure in the assigned budget for the rest of the line. Budget-wise, I'm sure it makes sense. But it's still unfortunate.
Still, it's good that we got a few parachute specialists in the G.I.Joe line, and I'd like to use this time to have a look at FREE FALL.
Free Fall was introduced in 1990. Now, a lot of collectors tend to think that the latter years of the original run of the Real American Hero were filled with neon costumes and debatable concepts. And it's true, there was some of that. But it wasn't across the board. There were some very impressive and very decently military-looking figures in those years, and Free Fall easily fits into that description.
Free Fall is wearing a mostly golden-tan uniform, clearly designed as a jumpsuit, with dark green splotches of camouflage sprayed onto it. It's really a very impressive color design. It's distinctive, standing out just enough from the crowd to give Free Fall a suitable air of individuality, but it's not so peculiar as to be outside almost anybody's definition of what makes a reasonable G.I.Joe. The suit is long sleeved and long legged, and clearly looks intended to be protective from the fierce winds that are encountered when skydiving.
Free Fall is wearing grey gloves and grey boots, and is also wearing a complex grey harness to which, logically, a parachute pack would be attached in the real world. There is a small holster in the center of the harness.
Free Fall's helmet is removable, so the character has a full head sculpt. It's relatively nondescript, but it's a nicely designed head. Free Fall is blonde, a relative rarity among G.I.Joes, especially in the later years, and his facial expression could probably best be described as "calm assuredness". If you jump out of airplanes on a regular basis, brother, you'd better be able to remain calm, especially if you're jumping towards a battlefield.
Free Fall's accessories included a rifle, a green helmet that pretty well matched the green camouflage on his uniform, a black air mask to attach to the helmet, a backpack designed to look like a parachute pack, and an air hose to attach the air mask to the helmet.
Free Fall's file card identified him as one Philip W. Arndt from Downers Grove, Illinois, and explained that Free Fall managed to get through some of the toughest Paratrooper and Airborne Ranger training the military has to offer, pretty much with a smile on his face the whole time. His background and character attributes list a Master's degree in Eastern Philosophy (which I would personally wonder what it has to say about jumping out of airplanes), and the fact that Free Fall is honest to a fault, although it also indicated that he has an ego "about as big as the Grand Canyon". I've been to the Grand Canyon. That's pretty danged big.
Ego notwithstanding, FREE FALL is really a superb G.I.Joe figure, one that I tend to think is often overlooked in the collection for no other reason than the year of his origin. I don't recall him getting a whole lot of time in either the comic book or the DIC-produced animated series (although I seem to recall he was in the opening credits), but far too many collectors, in my opinion, tend to think somewhat less of the figures that came out in the early 1990's. I personally believe that to be a generally unfair assessment, and it's certainly unfair in the case of FREE FALL, who is one cool G.I.Joe that's ready for action and works just as well in a military setting as any of his earlier team members.
You can read more of Thomas' articles at
MasterCollector.com and in the G.I. Joe Collectors' Club Magazine.