1988 Tiger Rat (Tiger Force)

All seven Tiger Force vehicles (five from 1988 and two from 1989) were repaints. The Tiger Rat is a repaint of the 1984 Cobra Rattler.

Tiger Rat courtesy of the Yo Joe Outlet. Please visit them on eBay.

NOTE: Although the box art showed Bazooka riding in the back seat, and he's pictured above, he did NOT come with the Tiger Rat.

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Creator Commentary: The Inspiration for Tiger Force!

First, Kirk Bozigian confirmed that the Tiger Force was inspired by the NATO Tiger Meets, where the NATO jets are painted like tigers (more on the annual Tiger Meet here).

Then Joe Touart found a picture of a German supplied Portuguese FIAT G.91R-3 Air Force jet from 1987. (more info on the 1980's Força Aerea Portuguesa and the original photo can be seen here).

The similarities between the Tiger Rat and this Portuguese jet were unmistakable: white nose with three whisker dots, brown around the mouth, yellow all the way back.... I was 99% certain this is THE jet that inspired the Tiger Force deco. 

Then Kirk confirmed that Greg Berndtson (who designed Tiger Force) had that same photo hanging on his office wall! 

It's pretty cool that a couple Joe nerds and the internet could connect all those dots 25 years later!

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Of the 10 Tiger Force Joes, 8 were pure repaints. Skystriker and Duke were a mix of a couple previous figures' parts.
Skystriker combined Thunder's head with Wild Weasel's body.

Tiger Rat blueprint/instructions courtesy of Tim Dz.