Head, helmet: Renegades Ripcord
Torso, arms, legs, vest: RoC Strato-Viper

The Bronze Bombers was a short-lived toy line produced by Olmec. Two "waves" were produced. The first one, released in 1988, consisted of a dozen different figures and 2 small vehicles. The figures had similar molds to Galoob's A-Team figures from the early '80s and were of lesser quality. In 1997, Olmec acquired several GI Joe molds from Hasbro and produced a 12 figure boxset consisting of recolored vehicle drivers like Motor-Viper, Skidmark, Darklon and Strato-Viper. A year later, Olmec filled for bankrupcy and Bronze Bombers line disappeared.

I was not back into Joes when Olmec released their Bronze Bombers multipack in 1997. Apparently, it flew off store shelves and it's easy to see why. All of the figures in the pack make excellent additions to the ARAH Joe ranks and great custom fodder for easy head swaps.

For this project, I looked at all the figures in the pack as candidates for customs. I picked Roughshot because of the color scheme, but made a few changes. First, I added some bronze accents that were not on the original figure. These accents are included in all my current and future Bronze Bombers customs as a way of tying them all together. Second, I added a pilot helmet to define a specialty for the character. Down the road, I may look at giving him a plane or a helicopter to pilot, but I'm liking the jetpack for now. Now that I've dipped my toes in this team, I am planning to make the rest in the future.