Well, I've never really been a huge fan of the Snow Cat, in all honesty. Sure, I've lived in VT for most of my life and there's usually snow around, but I just didn't really find a place for it. It's a cool vehicle, for certain, I guess I just wished it was an all-purpose one and not relegated to arctic use. It's got some neat functions and features, but I just never wanted to use it really. I'd rather use the Mauler, AWE Striker or Night Rhino.

The being said, combining this fact with the sub-standard figure that comes with it, made the prospect of me buying this item pretty dim. I actually found one at a TRU, but didn't buy it and decided I would instead just find someone with an extra figure to sell or trade, so I could at least have the figure (as cruddy as it may be). Well, my wife was taking a trip to the "big city" and to my shock and surprise came home with a Snow Cat! She said she hadn't seen it and thought I might be looking for it. I was pretty pleased, and sat down to put it together.

Twenty minutes later I'm a born again Snow Cat fan! I don't know where in the process of assembling this thing I had my revelation, but I now really really like this vehicle! Its sleek angled canopy...the mix of regular tires and massive tank treads. The nicely styled rocket launcher and back paneling...everything just comes together really nicely! Not only that, but this new Snow Cat seems even cooler than the original. I LOVE the arctic camo paint job. It gives it some flair that the original doesn't have, and that combined with the color of the missiles make it the PERFECT compliment for the G.I. Joe Rockslide, which came out last year. I think it's really neat that Hasbro so obviously styled them similarly so that they could be used together.

The lack of Ski-pedoes on this new Snow Cat doesn't especially bother me either. They're a neat concept, but believe it or not, I actually like that large sound attack cannon BETTER. I'm not sure what it is about it, but the massive machine gun looks really cool where it is, and gives the Snow Cat many more options for defense and offense. They re-worked the missile launcher as well, which works fine for me. The new missiles are an odd blue shade, but it's better than the yellow, and I like the style of these new missiles almost as much as the old. Not quite, but close enough... :)

Combine this all together, and you get a really terrific new arctic vehicle! This new Toys R Us Exclusive has even made me a bigger fan of the original, and I finally see where the draw of this vehicle is. It looks like it's got some speed...some strength and power...this thing has it all.

But there are a few drawbacks here...the stickers are awful. I really, REALLY wish Hasbro had gone with clear stickers on this vehicle, it would have made a world of difference. The white ones block out part of the cool camouflage, and just stick out like sore thumbs on the black parts. Does not really work for me. Also, the figure. Yikes. He's got Snow Job's mold, White Out's colors, and Frostbite's name. Oye! This will never be Frostbite in my world...the only decent version of that figure is the '85 one...the mixture of white and green is a little weird to me, even though he mixes well with the '94 Windchill. It's nice to see at least a little splash of color, but they should have either named this guy Whiteout again, or gone with a different figure entirely. As it stands, I'm not sure if I'll ever use this figure in an arctic environment unless I'm just in a weird mood or something. :)

Despite the lackluster figure and the stickers, though, I think this is really a very neat vehicle! I actually like the Sound Attack addition and the new changes...the top rocket launcher is blah, but is easy to get rid of. All in all, anything that you DON'T like about this new vehicle can be changed. Buy it, get some old parts lots off eBay and make it your own...one way or another, this vehicle is worth a purchase.