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​Preproduction: ​1986 Conquest X-30

Guy Cassaday (Vehicle Designer) discusses finding the inspiration for the 1986 Conquest X-30, the challenges involved in building it (including the rear landing gear), a cost reduced landing hook for the U.S.S. Flagg, and how automobile model kits made their way into the mold.

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​The 1986 Conquest X-30 was inspired by the Grumman X-29. Guy saw a tiny, black and white photo of the X-29 in Time or Newsweek and "that sparked the idea for me to create the X-30." The X-29 was an experimental American aircraft that tested forward-swept wings and canard control surfaces. The two Grumman built X-29s were flown by NASA and the United States Air Force from 1984 through 1991.

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​The image gallery below shows Guy Cassaday's early "X-26A" fighter jet illustrations. These pencil, pen and marker illustrations show the progression from loose, gestural drawings to tight line art that starts to consider the engineering challenges ahead. These illustrations show many ideas that were cost reduced out of the design, such as side fuselage lights, wing tip lights, variable sweep rear wings, and an arrestor hook for landing on the U.S.S. Flagg. The last two sheets show decal designs and include the insignia that would be used for the Conquest X-30. Roll over the images below to find out more, or click the images to enlarge them.

Sketches, page 1. Note the looser illustration style.

Sketches, page 2. Note the movable rear wings and landing gear, which were geared together and would move with a sliding mechanism similar to that of the Skystriker. Also note the arrestor hook. These features were cost reduced out of the design. This page is marked "concept 4."

This very tight rendering is dated 12-17-84 and signed by Guy Cassaday.

This detailed illustration notes (left to right): rubber tip, side fuselage lights, hinged canopy, intakes, variable stabilizers (front to rear), exhaust, wing tip lights up and down movement, and fuselage can articulate or sweep wings are variable.

Decal designs played with merging the G.I. Joe logo and the Air Force Roundel.

This decal design made it through to production and was featured on both rear vertical stabilizers.

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The Conquest X-30 was Guy Cassaday's first model build at Hasbro. He began by forming the shape out of wood. Then he used a vacuform machine to pull styrene down over the wooden shape. Then he cut the styrene pieces and began assembling the model. Once he had a working model that he was happy with, he turned it over to the model shop for slight adjustments. The model shop created duplicates for Toy Fair, for sales samples, and for engineering. Roll over the images below to find out more, or click the images to enlarge them.

This gouache presentation painting was created early in the design process by a freelance illustrator.

Costing model made of foam fuselage and styrene wings. Guy attached blueprints to the wings for added detail.

Here we see the upper vacuformed polystyrene. This type of sheet would be cut and assembled with other pieces to build the Conquest X-30 model.

Here we see another shot of the upper vacuformed polystyrene. This type of sheet would be cut and assembled with other pieces to build the Conquest X-30 model.

This prototype Conquest X-30 was built from scratch by Guy Cassaday. When building prototypes, they would typically only fabricate one of each piece that would be duplicated: in this instance they only created one bomb and one missile.

This early Conquest X-30 prototype shows green missiles and engine. These parts used the same mold, and were changed to yellow for the production release. Other notable differences include the missing rubber nose cone and the diagonal G.I. Joe logo on the vertical stabilizer.

This unadorned photograph was used to advertise the Conquest X-30 in Hasbro's Toy Fair magazine. Note Slip-Stream's peach helmet.

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Guy discusses where some details were lost in translation between design and engineering. He discusses the dynamic between designers and engineers at Hasbro in the mid- to late-1980s, and learning to get over these missteps.