Christmas came early this year with the delivery of the first G.I. Joe Classified HasLab vehicle, the H.I.S.S. Tank. The set includes a massive vehicle with multiple customization options and four figures and is so well packed that opening it all itself was quite a process. Let’s take a look at the H.I.S.S. Tank!
The set came double boxed with an outside carton with caution warnings and an interior box with plastic corners to protect the edges of the box. The actual box is also wrapped in plastic.
The efforts at protection were successful and the box itself is a real thing of beauty with a wonderful mural painting wrapping around the sides, a cool logo on the top, and a beautiful drawing on the bottom that recalls the old blueprints on the G.I. Joe vehicles back in the vintage days.
Inside this box are two smaller boxes, the larger of which contains the tank and a thinner box with all the figures. The thinner box also includes an instruction manual and a sticker sheet.
All the pieces of the tank are wrapped individually in plastic and protected surrounded by an egg carton like packing material. The whole thing reminds me of Laura Palmer. It’s a tank, wrapped in plastic.
The tank comes with two different windshields, a shield for the turret, two sets of tread covers, additional cannons for the turret, a nose gun, and two racks of six removeable missiles.
With the plain windshield and smaller tread covers on, you can create a very clasically styled H.I.S.S.
I think both styles of tread cover look nice on a more classical H.I.S.S but the red on the larger one compliments the the more red and black styling of the additional accessories.
With the larger covers, extra weapons, and paneled cockpit cover make for a more modern look.
The missiles attach to the round hatches near the rear of the treads. The covers flip open and the missiles attach in the socket.
The main cannons swivel independently and are ratcheting. The below photo shows the extreme ends of movement for the two cannons pointing down and swiveling all the way back to point behind.
The missile pods contain six missiles on old school dog bone shaped pegs. They stay on well, but they wobble a bit on the peg.
The missile pods can extend outward from the body of the tank and swivel around.
The shield for the turret provides the gunner with a bit more protection. It just clips onto the turret, but stays on there well. The extra turret guns (called “Hissrupter” on the blueprints) plug into holes on the turret itself so they swivel and hinge up and down and can use the blast effects from the line. The main guns (Double Diablo Cannons) have a handlebar that swivels that the gunner can hold. I didn’t find any blast effects that worked with the main guns.
The turret can pop out so you can see into the inside which lights up red when you open the back ramp. In the back there is a seat that raises up and a down a little and a rack that can hold weapons. It’s a perfect spot for the Tactician figure, though I kind of wish he had a terminal or computer of some kind he could use that attached to the rack.
The windshields hinge upward to allow pilot access and pop on and off with a little effort, but are a little scary to swap. It’s just a peg, so I worry about snapping it. The more modern version has some paneling detail and gull-wing style doors that hinge open.
The cockpit has light up monitors and two articulated controls. The cockpit has a five point harness that splits at the buckle in the middle and can peg back together. There is some slack in the waistband, but not at the head or the middle belt, so it’s tough to get the driver all strapped in and the buckle closed.
The light up feature has eight settings that are triggered by a single button underneath the cockpit. You basically have to cycle through the eight to get to the one you want. It does shut off after about ten minutes and I feel like it adds a lot of polish to the whole look
There is also a removeable panel behind the cockpit that reveals a motor painted in a shiny metallic silver with red plastic hose details.
The tank treads have excellent detail and are rubbery and actually roll if you push the tank.
There is a tow hook hidden underneath the back deck that hinges open.
The chin gun (called twin Hissintegrators in the blueprint) swivels where it attaches underneath the nose and hinges up and down. There is a purple metallic oxidation effect on the barrels of the chin gun and the main guns and the barrels don’t hold the standard blast effects.
The ladders on the sides can hinge down.
The three crew member figures come in a plastic free style box with a footlocker and figure tray inside. The Driver and the gunner have art from the outer box on the front.
The Tactician’s box features art and signature by Ron Rudat, one of the original designers of the G.I. Joe line.
Cobra Commander comes on a very nice retro card. It’s so nice, I’ve decided not to open him up for now, so I apologize if you clicked on this hoping for pictures of this figure in action.
The Driver and Tactician are based on the same body and has a larger build, but the basic uniform feels akin to the Cobra Troopers from earlier in the line, except he’s straining them at the biceps. The boots are some sort of crazy high tech armored thigh highs that have a lot of nice detail.
The chest has a soft overlay with a large cobra chest sigil. The overlay covers the shoulders and chest, but still allows for ab crunch movement.
The articulation is standard Classified style with:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Double hinged elbows and knees
- Swivel biceps, thighs, and ankle cut
- Ball and socket lower neck, head, and waist
- Hinged mid-torso, pecs, and drop-down hips
The gunner looks to use some parts from the Cobra Valkyrie with new head, legs, and overlay. Unfortunately, she inherits some articulation issues from the Valkyrie and the mid torso articulation is really stiff and doesn’t get much range of motion.
All three figures get a set of fists. The fists pop on easily and have no hinge articulation and only swivel. They don’t pop onto the right hands of the driver and tactician without removing their wrist device, but the gunner can keep her’s on with the fists.
The figures all come with a pistol and rifle with a bayonette. The pistols fit in the hands and holsters well. The rifle, to be blunt, is a pain in the ass. The grip is surrounded on both sides so it’s tough to get the hands in there and the hands are a really tough plastic. It’s especially tough on the larger hands of the males. The rifle has a removeable magazine that stays in securely.
The gunner gets a few more fun accessories including a shovel, a hammer, and a larger rifle with a big round magazine.
The larger rifle does work a bit better with the driver and tactician as the grip stretches the hands on the smaller gunner figure.
The paint is pretty solid on these three with some nice glosses and metallics, but there is a little slop on the mask of the gunner from the silver of the visor. It kind of gives the impression of a shiny nose in some photos.
Overall, this set is just overwhelmingly cool. The vehicle is massive, the size of a small baby, but still fits comfortably on my bookcase. It’s definitely a centerpiece type of thing and I’m trying to think of the best way to display this, especially with the fire team and SMS towable on the way.
I almost wish I had a second one so I could display one in the classic style and one with the modern touches and extra weapons. Opening this set was a ton of fun, it was so much stuff that it felt a little like one of those treasure surprise blind box things with multiple steps. There is so much here to see that I didn’t quite budget enough time to do it full justice in photographs today, but I’m sure it will feature in many more shoots to come.
