I'm going to scan some old photos of vehicles that I don't have any more.
The 1992 Cobra Parasite is a vehicle I bought off the retail shelf on May 24, 1992 for $9.99 at Kmart.
I have various pictures with the Parasite in it that will be on the old 35mm film or somewhere in old digital somewhere that I may dig out later. Below is one from 35mm film taken about 2003 or 2004. I can't remember for sure right now but I think I this one ended up being traded to fellow collectors at a small meet up a couple months after the 2005 G.I.Joe collection.
So I guess the Parasite was in my collection for at least 12 years. This is a vehicle that could definitely get loaded up with figures. In some ways the interior was almost luxurious compared to the 10 figures that rode the outer boards.
Here is the Parasite next to the 1992 G.I.Joe Patriot. I didn't see the receipt as I looked right now to see exactly when I bought this one, but the photo is from that 2002-2004 range as I can see my old cardboard box storage box covers that were slowly replaced by Rubbermaid containers. The overall size is somewhat comparable to each other and these felt like "retail shelf" counterpart vehicles in a way to me.
Around this 2002-2005 range I was somewhat getting the urge to get more realistic vehicles into my collection. At the time I had fortune to get more vehicles like the Thunderclap and the Rolling Thunder, and these were more "real world" in design and overall colors compared to these two vehicles. In an effort to get more of the Rolling Thunder-like vibe vehicles and also more figures, I started to trade more items from the 1990's to do so.
Today, I still have the old "custom" Parasite and thought I would pull it out to toss some of the details in photos onto the internet here. This is a second "goodwill store" find from 1996 that was missing some parts and I had spare paint sitting one day.
I like the rear gun but always wondered who operated it. Years back, my imagination had the crew inside the Parasite having more control over the vehicle, even one station inside the compartment was the "driver seat," freeing up the front gun turret figure to be fully focused as just a gunner.
The interior of the Parasite has some interesting detail. The spacing between the seats almost feels like there should be some extra gear that would fit here. The interior floor even has the tread detail.
The turret weapon is huge and not too outrageously detailed, the upper 4-barrel gun can elevate to an almost straight up position really giving it a great amount of range.
The suspension stands out much more with different color compared to the all orange body unpainted.
