G.I. Joe Spy Troops Vehicles - Polar Blast

Man, I don't know what's in Hasbro's water these days, but I hope they keep it in there for a little while!

The vehicles used to be the sore spot of the new sculpt Joe figures. Travesties like the Assault Quad, Missile Storm, Road Rebel and Battle Blitz quickly soured many Joefans on the concept that small vehicles could ever be cool again.

Would we ever again see the likes of a Claw? A Ferret, Armadillo, or even Destro's Despoiler? Is Hasbro still capable of making small vehicles functional, yet cool at the same time?

After the Treadfire, I had a little more optimism...then came the Desert Coyote, and I was even happier. Now we have the Polar Blast and I'm firmly convinced that Hasbro's vehicle designers still got it in 'em! This little snowmobile kicks ass!

First of all, I'm not a huge fan of arctic craft...even living in Vermont, which seems like an eternal winter some days, I don't have a love for the snow and don't orient a whole lot of my Joe adventures around it. That being said, though, I still really enjoy a lot of the snow vehicles. Stuff like the Snowcat, Polar Battle Bear, and especially the COBRA Wolf really rock and almost make me want to jump out in a snowbank and play Joes. Well, this little vehicle has that impact on me, too.

The Polar Blast is a small, two man snowmobile that takes obvious influence from our favorite snowcraft, but really turns things up a notch. Like the Desert Coyote, it uses a foundation based pretty firmly in reality and just adds all sorts of cool twists and turns to make it unique and interesting.

Sometimes the guys at Hasbro aren't so successful, but in this case , they've hit a real home run.

First of all, it's a sleek, but realistic vehicle. The front is nicely sloped, but rounded like most of their vehicles are these days. What's different here, though, is the rounding makes sense and doesn't look just plain silly.

Perched right atop this sloped front is a pretty nasty looking weapon, obviously a large chain-gun type of thing. I could see this little marvel of COBRA engineering seriously tearing up a G.I. Joe arctic assault squad and barely leaving enough for the wolves to dine on.

There is a small windscreen behind the cannon, which looks just as it should for a snowmobile, and a nice handlebar is behind that, with easy access from the Snow Serpent. Again, it all looks realistic, yet different enough to be a decent COBRA vehicle.

The neat and really different thing about the Polar Blast, though, takes place after the front seat. There appears to be a second seat facing the rear where another COBRA trooper can sit and fire the rear-facing missile launcher. Next to this launcher is also what look like a large turbine, which could be almost a propulsion unit for the snowmobile to give it a good boost of speed when rushing across the arctic tundra. Little touches like this that separate this from your run-of-the-mill snowmobile are what make these new little vehicles great.

The action attack also works pretty well on this particular vehicle. If you turn the handlebars, it spins the front gun and turns the skis as well, making a firing noise. The rear weapon I had a hard time activating, but it seems to move back and forth while the rocket fires. All pretty neat and non-invasive.

The crowning touch of this little vehicle is the Snow Serpent himself. While I'm personally not a huge fan of the new sculpt Snow Serpent, this is a great update with some nice new color choices of white and gray. It's different enough from the original to be new, but it still maintains a great arctic appearence.

If you like arctic vehicles, this one should be a definite buy. It's an awesome little snowmobile that will put up a good fight with any Joe snowcraft you currently have. It comes with a decent figure and has a lot of play value for not a lot of cash. You should grab the Desert Coyote first, but if you have an extra $10-12, make this one a close second.

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