G.I. Joe: ARAHC - Man O War

I am going to profile the Man O War in the same way I did the Locust, breaking it into five different catagories: Presentation, Assembly, Construction, Playability, and Color Scheme. So, here we go:

Presentation: First of all, the Man O War, like The Locust really jumps off the shelf due to the colors and box art. The explosions really catch the eye, the logo is well placed and the sub seems to leap right out of the box! The figure is in good, clear view so as to hopefully pick one that isn't too, too muddy from paint wipes. Overall, very good presentation, in my opinion.

Assembly was quick and super easy, as expected for such a small vehicle. A few simple snaps and locks, only a couple stickers and this baby is ready to go! No problem pieces or instructions. Everything went together quickly and easily!

Construction: The Man O War is constructed very well it seems. I have never owned The Barricuda, so I am not sure how it compares, but to me it feels solid and well put together. It is somewhat tough to get the spring loaded missle to stay in the launcher, but that is a small gripe.

Playability: One of the most important aspects of a G.I. Joe vehicle, if you ask me, and unfortunately one in which this particular vehicle lacks somewhat. First of all, as a submarine, it is tough to play with. There aren't a whole lot of subs for it to go up against. This wouldn't necessarily be a big deal, except for the fact that there is also very little interactivity between figure and vehicle. Once you get the figure in there, removing him is a chore, so there really isn't much of a way for them to interact with eachother. As a result, my Lamprey never goes inside, he is just waiting for his chance to be put in charge of my Moray while the Man O War sits on a shelf, driverless. This is not to say that the MOW is a hunk of crap, it really isn't. It's dive and surface feature seems like it would be very cool, and I will hopefully be testing it at some point. Also, the design is pretty cool and I think it actually works a LOT better as a Cobra sub than a Joe one. My last little gripe is that I cannot for the life of me figure out why Hasbro would release two such completely different vehicles to combat eachother. Despite what Lamprey's filecard says there is really no way to have a decent pitched battle between a helicopter and a submarine. But anyway, the toy is still nice, and with a couple SHARCs from the Hasbro Canada promotion, I will be able to have some decent battles.

Color Scheme: The color scheme on this thing is very, very nice. I got the black top, silver middle, black bottom version and I am very happy that I did. In this color scheme, this sub is a lot nicer than the other way, in my opinion. The red meshes much better with the black than it would with the silver.

All in all, this wouldn't be my number one choice for an introductory Cobra vehicle, but I guess it suffices until we get the HISS Tanks!