While recent Mega Joe builds have focused on getting the GIJoe motor pool filled out, Cobra was hard at work on some new hardware too.  Not to be outdone, they needed an upgraded HISS tank to replace the sad Kreo version.

While the scale is a bit on the large side, I wanted it to not be dwarfed by Mega’s M1A2 tank or some of the larger scale tanks available from various chinese brick manufacturers.  Sure, some of those are a bit large for Mega scale figures, but in general, I like a little beefier hardware.  While I haven’t compared directly, this HISS tank design is likely just a little larger than the original 1:18 scale Hasbro version from 1983.   But it fits the larger look often seen in the Real American Hero cartoon from the 80’s, and it’s definitely more imposing than some little scout vehicle.

Overall, it was a fun but challenging build.  The tank was designed in three distinct sections and then assembled.  The lower tread section, the turret & troop transport section, and the cockpit section are all modular and can come apart without too much effort.  Thus I built them like an assembly line and put the big sections together at the end.

I know updates have been slow, but more figures and vehicles are in the works.  Hopefully I’ll shorten the time between posts substantially.  Until then, collecting is half the battle!