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| How awesome would it be if I put a gas engine in this puppy? Very. |
"Cobra Island is surrounded by open beaches which are at the very least, hostile environments for tanks of any sort. The Hammerhead was specifically developed to function in shallow coastal waters, sand and scrub vegetation. Sacrificing heavy armour protection for speed and agility, the Hammerhead requires a driver with lightning fast reflexes and exceptional peripheral vision"
-courtesy of the 'Decimator' filecard, which then segues nicely into a description of ol' Decimator and his spiffy helmet, which incidentally resembles a Hammerhead shark's head. On a side note, I like the fact that the filecard is very hardware-orientated. Vehicle operators in the Joe line were always 3rd or 4th tier characters. Few people would list a vehicle driver as one of their top fives, except perhaps Wild Bill. As a result, I would far prefer their filecards to have maximum content on the vehicle, and less on the driver's personality. Hasbro finally gave us both with their run of 25th anniversary vehicle re-issues, which had a filecard for both the driver and the vehicle. But if I had to choose, I'd take info about the vehicle over info about the guy behind the wheel and how he held a record for traffic fines or a penchant for being lucky. Wank.
So like the Bugg, the Hammerhead's primary occupation is to maintain security around Cobra Island's coast. Like the Bugg, it can deploy scout craft to help it facilitate this function. But while the Bugg had a two man pod that detached and two jetskis that could be pulled out of storage, the Hammerhead can deploy five smaller watercraft, one of which apparently can also fly. That gimmick is getting old, fast.
So the Hammerhead drives out of its holding area, hits the surf, submerges and then launches two 'sea net penetrating, low noise attack sub[s]', two 'surface skimming, diversionary sea sled scout craft' and one 'airborne/undersea command module with pivoting radar unit'. These craft essentially split the Hammerhead six ways (five detachable craft and the remaining wheeled-vehicle) and thereby increase the amount of coast any one Hammerhead can police. But they are not without a few drawbacks. The Hammerhead has to drive into the surf to deploy them, unless all of them can 'fly' from the beach into the water. How then does the Hammerhead wheeled vehicle return to the beach? The only propulsion I could detect on the craft was in the form of the attack subs mounted on either side. Once they go, does the Hammerhead 'drive' along the sea floor back to shore? Does it sit there and wait? Does it emerge and the pilot deploy an outboard? Or row?
Having everything then re-attach is also problematic and probably time consuming as vehicles jostle into very specific places in varying and often difficult visibilities underwater.
What are the pro's of this badboy? Big tyres with high clearance. Great fun for skidding around on a sandy beach.
It carries a decent amount of ordinance, even if they are all small and lumo green. It dawned on me that I've had this vehicle in my collection for almost 20 years and not lost a single one of her 22 projectiles. So don't knock the colour choice! 14 torpedoes spread over the detachable vehicle fleet, two surface to surface missiles mounted on the white subs in spring-loaded launchers and four missiles that are held in an elevating housing beneath the black command sub. I like to think of those as surface to air missiles, giving the Hammerhead a bit more bite. Also, if they can be launched from a submerged position, the Hammerhead would have a very effective element of surprise over attacking aircraft.
The weapons that puzzle me are the two 'twin bow laser cannons'. They are fixed zero degrees forward but can pivot up and down. So the driver can pick off targets above or below the bow, but only when they are directly in the path of the vehicle. Rather limited use there.
The hull of the wheeled vehicle is grey and has flares in front that emulate a hammerhead shark. It serves no purpose I can think of but it does give the vehicle a unique look. I do like width it gives the craft, which then flows into the subs. The Cobra sigils on the hull and detachable craft have a hammerhead shark swimming through it, which is a nifty tradition I'm glad the Hammerhead continues. I wished the Bugg had a similar gimmick. The Hammerhead also can deploy a diver or pick one up using a decompression chamber located aft of the missile silo. It's pretty cramped but can adequately hold one man standing. I wish the cavity was expanded on, as there is a little more space aft of the chamber which I can only imagine is unused. It would be nice if the diver could access this area. It even has molded hatches, but they a) go nowhere; and b) are the wrong way around. The small maintenance hatch leads aft. And a large, man-sized door leads to the missile silo. Boo.
The glass canopies are lumo green, which I think has a nice aesthetic contrast with the subdued greys, blacks and off-whites and all of the driver positions on all the vehicles have good visibility (for fantastical Cobra vehicles) certainly better than the Bugg. And the Decimator driver's helmet makes full use of the bubble canopies. It gives the wearer a 180 degree view at all times in almost complete darkness. This allows the Decimator to keep his eyes on a target at all times while speeding around on the beach. Too bad his guns can't be aimed at anything on the Hammerhead's flanks.
So which is the preferred vehicle? Bugg or Hammerhead? Both have nostalgia factors in their favour. For the Hammerhead, I was fortunate enough to be let loose on Hamley's toyshop in London at the age of eight and grabbed the biggest box I could throw my eight year old arms around. The flight from London to Cape Town was spent constructing the various craft and I was loving it. As soon as I got home, my best mate stopped over, we finished off the decal placement and his envy was apparent. I remember it was raining that day. So I have no historical bias. But I'd have to go with the Bugg. I don't like the fact that the Hammerhead is just a massive collection of smaller vehicles. I acknowledge the fun - I acknowledged it all my youth as they all swooped through the skies as aircraft. But the split apart feature hurts the remainder's weaponry and its function (how does it move through the water without the subs?). The individual vehicles are rather cheapish shells with few parts and not a great deal going for them, I have difficulty accepting how they dock with the main vehicle, the laser cannons on the main vehicle have no rotation to engage anything other than targets in front...
But it's helluva lot more fun to race along the beach. I do love those big six wheels. Just make sure you deploy the subs first, or some tight turns will shake 'em loose.
It carries a decent amount of ordinance, even if they are all small and lumo green. It dawned on me that I've had this vehicle in my collection for almost 20 years and not lost a single one of her 22 projectiles. So don't knock the colour choice! 14 torpedoes spread over the detachable vehicle fleet, two surface to surface missiles mounted on the white subs in spring-loaded launchers and four missiles that are held in an elevating housing beneath the black command sub. I like to think of those as surface to air missiles, giving the Hammerhead a bit more bite. Also, if they can be launched from a submerged position, the Hammerhead would have a very effective element of surprise over attacking aircraft.
The weapons that puzzle me are the two 'twin bow laser cannons'. They are fixed zero degrees forward but can pivot up and down. So the driver can pick off targets above or below the bow, but only when they are directly in the path of the vehicle. Rather limited use there.
The hull of the wheeled vehicle is grey and has flares in front that emulate a hammerhead shark. It serves no purpose I can think of but it does give the vehicle a unique look. I do like width it gives the craft, which then flows into the subs. The Cobra sigils on the hull and detachable craft have a hammerhead shark swimming through it, which is a nifty tradition I'm glad the Hammerhead continues. I wished the Bugg had a similar gimmick. The Hammerhead also can deploy a diver or pick one up using a decompression chamber located aft of the missile silo. It's pretty cramped but can adequately hold one man standing. I wish the cavity was expanded on, as there is a little more space aft of the chamber which I can only imagine is unused. It would be nice if the diver could access this area. It even has molded hatches, but they a) go nowhere; and b) are the wrong way around. The small maintenance hatch leads aft. And a large, man-sized door leads to the missile silo. Boo.
The glass canopies are lumo green, which I think has a nice aesthetic contrast with the subdued greys, blacks and off-whites and all of the driver positions on all the vehicles have good visibility (for fantastical Cobra vehicles) certainly better than the Bugg. And the Decimator driver's helmet makes full use of the bubble canopies. It gives the wearer a 180 degree view at all times in almost complete darkness. This allows the Decimator to keep his eyes on a target at all times while speeding around on the beach. Too bad his guns can't be aimed at anything on the Hammerhead's flanks.
So which is the preferred vehicle? Bugg or Hammerhead? Both have nostalgia factors in their favour. For the Hammerhead, I was fortunate enough to be let loose on Hamley's toyshop in London at the age of eight and grabbed the biggest box I could throw my eight year old arms around. The flight from London to Cape Town was spent constructing the various craft and I was loving it. As soon as I got home, my best mate stopped over, we finished off the decal placement and his envy was apparent. I remember it was raining that day. So I have no historical bias. But I'd have to go with the Bugg. I don't like the fact that the Hammerhead is just a massive collection of smaller vehicles. I acknowledge the fun - I acknowledged it all my youth as they all swooped through the skies as aircraft. But the split apart feature hurts the remainder's weaponry and its function (how does it move through the water without the subs?). The individual vehicles are rather cheapish shells with few parts and not a great deal going for them, I have difficulty accepting how they dock with the main vehicle, the laser cannons on the main vehicle have no rotation to engage anything other than targets in front...
But it's helluva lot more fun to race along the beach. I do love those big six wheels. Just make sure you deploy the subs first, or some tight turns will shake 'em loose.
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