I feel pretty comfortable saying that there are many, many fans out there who would have been a whole lot more fired up about Built To Rule if it had been designed with vehicles like this in mind. The concept of "Lego Joes" really seemed to appeal to a lot of people, but they didn't especially want to see new vehicles, they wanted to see buildable, "building block" versions of vehicles that already existed. A Rattler that started out as a pile of navy blue blocks...a Skystriker built from the ground up out of BTR pegs and sheer will.
They wanted a random pile in front of them to start becoming something familiar as they built it, not just another random ATV, Jeep, or Amphibious Transport. And after building this H.I.S.S. for the first time, I can really see why. There was something immediately appealing about taking what was essentially a large pile of black bricks and actually constructing something that I recognized from my childhood. Really seeing how this was going to fit together to make something I knew and something I loved.
Granted the BTR H.I.S.S. is far from a straight up duplicate rendition of all of our favorite COBRA armored vehicles, but it uses enough of the same elements to really look like it belongs in that class, and it was a darn fun vehicle to build as well.
I wish it had come with a somewhat more interesting figure, but that's kind of picking nits, I think.
The H.I.S.S. is such an iconic classic vehicle, that I sometimes wonder just how Hasbro can hope to continue improving upon it and using it as inspiration without either growing stale or not doing it justice. Yet somehow, they always seem to take enough elements to make a new H.I.S.S. cool, yet still throw enough of their new stuff in there to spice it up. The jump from the H.I.S.S. to the H.I.S.S. II was a major one, and all for the better. There were some stumbling blocks along the way after that, but the DTC H.I.S.S. made the vehicle count again, and here, the Built To Rule one (while not nearly as impactful and interesting as the "real" versions it takes enough elements from them to really build upon the H.I.S.S. concept and creates a pretty cool new look on the classic tank.
Colors are the first things that strike you, and as it should be, it's a classic black from front to back, at least the armored componants are. The foundation is a nice slate gray, which doesn't take away from it nearly as much as I thought it might as I stared down at the pile of bricks in front of me.
Hasbro uses several different techniques in getting the satisfying result above, including using two different "foundations" joined together by a different connecting system to give you a longer, more angular base vehicle. The sloped armor front is a solid piece, but the undercarraige is made up of several different layered blocks which ends up being surprisingly effective.
The shape overall is very blatantly H.I.S.S. inspired, yet with the BTR format, it ends up looking almost more armored. Side panels are sculpted and layered in such a way to really have some depth and power, and while the vehicle is a little "stubbier" than normal, it still has some punch and still looks very cool.
I was amazed at how well the wheel system came out, with the bottom two wheels on your typical struts, but then the third wheel plugged into a strange connecting system on the side of the tank itself. Yet once you got all three wheels on, and the treads fed through, you got an immediate H.I.S.S. vibe...it definitely works. Not to mention how flat out cool it is with the real rubber treads moving along those three wheels. You get an incredibly cool "tank" vibe as you see the treads move along and I really love that Hasbro thought to include that feature with a few of these second series vehicles.
Size definitely does not matter in this case, as the H.I.S.S. was considerably smaller than I thought it would be. Still, the overall shape and design of the vehicle maintains all of the quality parts of the familiar tank, and some of the differences in color actually help it stand out even more. The gray, black, and red all blend pretty darn nicely together, and I find myself really enjoying this addition to my H.I.S.S. corps. I only wish I enjoyed the figure as much.
Really, I probably don't need to dwell on the figure here too much...I mean it's not a bad figure...the COBRA Commander it's based off of is actually one of the best new sculpt figures of the entire line. But, this figure does nothing that the others don't do, and in fact is more "rubbery" somewhat...and with the BTR knobs on his arms and legs, well, he's all sorts of useless, especially because the Spy Troops version of this figure has much richer blues and reds, and no knobs to worry about.
I really wish Hasbro had thought to package a H.I.S.S. Driver type of troop builder with this vehicle, because I think (especially with the cheap prices at the discount stores) that would have appealed to a lot of Joe fans out there. As it is, I think I'll use the Shadow-Viper has my H.I.S.S. Drivers, especially because their vehicles stink so badly.
But everyone knows what the H.I.S.S. looks like, right? So what about the H.I.S.S.'s alternate mode?
Funky, huh? Funky, yet still somewhat interesting.
It's a vehicle obviously built for speed with a somewhat low profile, a huge looking turbine in front, and a very cool angular spoiler atop the canopy. The sloped front leads right up to the sloped cockpit, and the spoiler sets off the aerodynamic look perfectly, giving this vehicle a somewhat "dragster" appearence, only with tank treads instead of oversized tires. As strange as it looks, I still kinda dig it. It's no H.I.S.S., but it's neat just the same.
Not entirely sure that it's worth the time to convert a very cool H.I.S.S. format tank into this pseudo dragster-tank vehicle, but this is at least a pretty neat alt mode if nothing else.
So, I think a lot of fans could have potentially gotten into this line had Hasbro used this theme throughout, although personally I prefer something new and exciting. This H.I.S.S. is still a very cool BTR item, though, with lots of play value, an interesting assortment of building blocks, and enough nice armored layers to hide all of those pegs and stuff and you end up with a very nice looking quality COBRA tank that actually fits in pretty nicely with other H.I.S.S. tanks out there. The design here works well, and even though I wish we'd perhaps gotten a better or more useful figure with it, overall, I think this set is remarkably successful, fun to build, and fun to use. The fact that it strongly resembles an existing COBRA tank is just a bonus.
I feel pretty comfortable saying that there are many, many fans out there who would have been a whole lot more fired up about Built To Rule if it had been designed with vehicles like this in mind. The concept of "Lego Joes" really seemed to appeal to a lot of people, but they didn't especially want to see new vehicles, they wanted to see buildable, "building block" versions of vehicles that already existed. A Rattler that started out as a pile of navy blue blocks...a Skystriker built from the ground up out of BTR pegs and sheer will.
