The Cobra High Speed Sentry. Or H.I.S.S. Or the Missing Cobra H.I.S.S. III.

 

Growing up on reruns of the old Sunbow cartoon, the H.I.S.S. tank was front and center for the action.

It wasn't until 1991 that I had a Cobra H.I.S.S. through the mail-in catalog.  With the cartoon advertising and staring at the pictures of the toy on the insert catalogs, this was THE vehicle of Cobra for me.  It some ways even at the time I finally got one I kind of did feel like it was underwhelming.

Maybe it was because at that time, the Mobile Battle Bunker was my "main battle tank" for my G.I.Joe force.  Sure, none of these are tanks.  Even though the Track Viper file card refers to the H.I.S.S. II as a main battle tank lineage.   I had to work with and enjoy what I had at that time.

Pound for pound, the Mobile Battle Bunker steamrolled the 1991 mail-in H.I.S.S..  Heck, Fast Draw was more than a match for that H.I.S.S., let's be honest.

But when it comes to the "High Speed Sentry" part, the cartoon and media uses the H.I.S.S. a lot but the Cobra STUN is often left in the mid-'80's and doesn't seem to get as much of a nostalgia driven recycling.  It's a "high speed sentry" as well.

And I never did buy that "H.I.S.S. III" as that was simply a regular H.I.S.S.  My one and only H.I.S.S. II didn't stick around long.  In some ways I found it clunky and it nose-dived a lot.   As cool as the drop down canopy was along with the slide out troop tray seats, I found myself preferring the 1990 Rage and 1991 Paralyzer much more.  (Although the Track Viper is my favorite "tank" driver.)

The "D.T.C." HISS or 2005 HISS is my favorite HISS.   No acronym.  Some might say HISS V but unofficially.  And there's the H.I.S.S. IV, which despite the super organic and snake like body, has the obvious tread lineage.  I prefer the "Strike Hiss" naming of this one, and that may have been in the trading card game or a comic, I don't know.   I really liked this one and this was my main big gun for Cobra.  I even did a custom armament on a 2nd one I got.  In the end, as a person who is somewhat on the edge of homeless during a divorce, real life strikes, and it's time to refocus and get lighter for the next life move.  Whatever that may be.

The Pursuit of Cobra HISS and Retaliation HISS took the form into a more monster tread vehicle area and I was never able to pick up either of these at the time they were out in the stores.  I wanted a black one and after we knew what box code to look for to figure which one was inside a box, I waited for one to make the rounds in the store.  Of course, it never did.

Here we are today.


I was thinking about it and starting to draw some a little bit.  With pencils, pens, paper.   I used to do this more way back in the day and I had fun with it.  Just doodling.   Nothing super "good" or anything but something to have fun with.  Before I tossed these, I scanned some to preserve something that no one on the planet really would care about.


I liked how G.I.Joe had a progression in the G.I.Joe A Real American Hero line.  We had version 2, 3, 4, or figures.  They weren't just generic army men redone in some different uniform but they had character built into them.   1989 Stalker is my favorite Stalker, for example.  Great sculpt, awesome mission gear.  Adds to the 1982 Stalker figure seven years later.   It's original and fresh.

Same with vehicles.  The Cobra H.I.S.S. II.  Or Fang II.   I like these.   

They have the acronyms and we can definitely debate on whether the acronyms apply to what they are.  Such as the 1983 Fully Armed Negator Copter versus just "Fang" for the Fang II.


But in action, what does Cobra do.   Cobra comes at you with hiss and a fang, a rattler, or a stinger.  Unlike the acronym W.H.A.L.E. or M.M.S., for example, is a strong military way of doing things, Cobra may be more of an entire battle system of action.   Then maybe there is an Arbco or Extensive Enterprises selling these things and that's where the acronym is applied in a fictional world.  


Either way, this is all getting to me thinking about the H.I.S.S. III.


Something is missing and I feel like it would be a fun thing to play around with today.  Where would a real original and new "H.I.S.S. III" fit in in the original A Real American Hero line if YOU could go back in time.  What would it look like?


Me?

Using the STUN high speed sentry description, I'm going to step back and maybe wonder if the STUN wasn't a 1983 HISS replacement.   Then maybe that wasn't very successful and it moved into Python Patrol in 1989 for that reason.  And also to make room for the H.I.S.S. II.

Older H.I.S.S. tanks were used in 1991 for the Septic Tank.  

Thinking in lines of progression, the Cobra H.I.S.S.II should have been the main battle vehicle and if it was successful, like the 1983 H.I.S.S., it should have been around more often.  Right?

But in 1990, the Rage seemed very present as well as the 1991 Paralyzer getting some media use, too.

So, if the years in between the "high speed sentry" vehicles are equal, we should have seen a H.I.S.S. III in 1992.


That didn't happen.


But what if it did.  Can you play vehicle designer and create a vehicle that would fill the role of the H.I.S.S. and make it fit for 1992?


Will your design fit for the later G.I.Joe versus Cobra H.I.S.S. IV and 2005 Cobra HISS?

Back in 2004 or picture of a G.I.Joe room

This was 2005.   After some years in the "college apartment," and post 2005 G.I.Joe Convention with the Steel Brigade Sky Hawk on the Transportable Tactical Battle Platform. Maybe it was nearing into 2006, I'll have to think about that some.

That's my old "childhood" dresser, it's now in my daughters room at the marital residence.  That's a dresser my mom got on the cheap and stained for me back in the 1980's.

I had the gray shelves from before, possible back in the mid-90's.   I bought the two white plastic shelves for the vehicle display shelves.   I like a matching set of things and I had wall bracket shelves but I didn't want to put holes in the "brand new" rental construction we were renting in.

On top of my old original 1983 Headquarters I had a foam core "roof" of sorts built on top.   At this point in my life I was only a couple/ few years away from my college education and I had somewhat hoped to get back into school to keep on going on the Toy Design path.

Unknown to me was that the person I settled for as a mate was a covert narcissist and I had already been hooked with marriage and the next goal post was pregnancy.  This room was my son's first room for the first year of his life (born in 2006) and most of my G.I.Joe stuff was organized into Rubbermaid containers.  

My collection never recovered and about 19 years later after this photo was taken only one of those A.W.E. Strikers remains.

It was good collection and I don't where to go or if there is a higher purpose to life but I am looking at some old photos and sharing some online elsewhere, too.   There's a lot of good stuff.  It's not as flashy as the latest, greatest, or the biggest.

Here, I don't know if I should attempt to rebuild my collection.  I miss it but I am also a little more picky as to what I have.  I am not going to settle for some beat up worn out loose product that is, frankly, overpriced.   On the other hand, to get what I want is going to take more effort or, the MIB route, which is even more costly.  

Originally I scanned this photo to share some thoughts on a type of shelf that makes a good display with the Headquarters and Battle Platform.  Looking back, I like this a lot now.  I ultimately picked a lot of steel shelves for my former basement HQ, and I didn't get that much farther past that point.   But here, I like this HQ and the roof that I had entirely forgot about.   That shows a former me and the creative side I used to have.  

Narcissistic abuse is no joke and they do not teach this in school.  As you read this on a random G.I.Joe blog, unless you have the experience, you might not even understand what that means.  And that's okay.   I am starting to understand it more and I now pick up on it with people I meet.   It is a problem on this planet. 

But here in my old G.I.Joe room photo.  Or, well, it wasn't even a full room, it never got that far.   I can see my creation and now I can revisit it and I can see what was good and now I have the experience of multiple iterations of a "G.I.Joe room" or space and all the hundreds of items I have had. 

What was good, what was fun, and what got tossed into the Rubbermaids or storage boxes that rarely saw the light of day.

Perhaps I will rebuild my G.I.Joe collection.


Perhaps it should start with the rebuilding of the Pit at Icebreaker's HQ?

G.I.Joe Classified Clickbait or what's left of a life's worth of collecting G.I.Joe

There's a season for everything.  This autumn is like the last one.  Taking in some growth this year, enjoying the abundance, while also shedding that which no longer serves.

First up, this is what's left of the HQ.  That's my first G.I.Joe vehicle, the Cobra F.A.N.G..  Thrasher may be my original Thrasher from the 1980's.   I'm not sure.  That's a different Thundermachine I do believe, though.  Still no antenna but a steering wheel is there.  That 1993 Cobra Commander is my favorite version and a figure that I bought off the pegs new.  The Iron Grenadier Destro is a figure that came from my best bud (who I more recently just got together with after 22 some years) and I would like to get it back to him.  He doesn't know this yet.  It's one of my favorite figures, too.

Other than that, it came to a very hard trimming a little over a year ago.  Just when I thought it was a very small and tight collection, I got even smaller.

So there's a little sentimentality in the photo.  The one Headhunter remains.  It's not an "army building" season for me right now.  I won't be having any mass battles and it took me a long time to get that little Headhunter army built up.   And I like the Dreadnoks, and these are figures I really like.  They have some character/ personality.

The remaining three G.I.Joe figures?  It's not my original Low Light, but that's a figure that is just cool and was in my "original" childhood collection.  Shockwave is pretty nice and the Night Force version is just better.... and pairing them with my amalgamated Snake Eyes, it's three bad guys that go bump in the night.   And they get the 2001 A.W.E. Striker.

The Thundermachine and A.W.E. made the cut as they have wheels that steer.   It's a shame as 1985 and 1986, so long ago, are some of the few vehicles that have this.  And the real rubber tires on the Thundermachine, not the fake soft plastic they have now, but real.
 

What did it look like before all this?

A lot of figures.

I divided up small sections to organize my G.I.Joe team.

Here is the command staff.

For my vehicles, I created crews.

There was general infantry breakdown here.  Land, sea, and air, G.I.Joe is there.

And specialized squads.  The "security" force stood out to me as the most fun.   Even though they all were.   The arctic squad was a no-brainer, but also that one was very fun.