This is the GI Joe Mega Marines Monster Blaster APC Armored Personnel Carrier from 1993. This vehicle was available in 1993 only it was discontinued for 1994. This is the only version of the Monster Blaster in the vintage era. It was re-released in different colors in 2004. The Monster Blaster was in the Mega Marines subset and it was the only Mega Marines vehicle in the vintage line. The Mega Marines fought mutant monsters, which is why the name Monster Blaster makes sense. There were four GI Joe Mega Marines, Blastoff, Clutch, Gung Ho, and Mirage. There were four bad guys, Cyber Vipers, Mega Vipers, Bio Vipers, and Monstro Vipers. The Bio Vipers and Monstro Vipers were oversized mutant creatures, a first for the vintage GI Joe toy line. The Mega Marines were led by Gung Ho, GI Joe's first Marine. His first figure was released in 1983. The uniforms, the name, and the general look of the Mega Marines seems to hearken back to the colonial Marines in the 1986 movie Aliens, but of course the colonial Marines looked like actual soldiers with futuristic uniforms. Mega Marines had Crayola colors and Play-Doh armor. Despite the name, Gung Ho seems to be the only one who is actually a Marine. Clutch definitely is not. The other two guys seem to have been recruited directly to the Mega Marines and did not come from the United States Marine Corps. There's a variation of the Monster Blaster. Some releases of this vehicle had the green colors reversed, with the dark green on top and the light green on bottom. I've also noticed on my example all the neon green parts are more yellow, but this is not listed as a variation anywhere, so this may just be discoloration. My preference is for the variation with the lighter green on top. The one with the lighter green on the bottom has all the interior parts in that lighter green, and I just don't think the interior seats look right in a lighter green color than the exterior of the vehicle. What review of a GI Joe APC would be complete without a comparison to GI Joe's first APC from 1983? The 1983 APC is larger. They're close to the same width, but the APC is longer. The 1983 vehicle has a more realistic military design with a faux canvas camouflage top. If you pull the top off you can see major differences on the inside. These two vehicles carry figures in entirely different ways. The 1983 APC has two long rows of seats for figures and foot pegs along the center aisle for even more figures. The Monster Blaster has a total of six seats in the troop carrying compartment. It does have some other seats on the vehicle, but then so does the APC. Where the Monster Blaster really wins is in armaments. It has guns all over it and one big main cannon. The APC has only one cannon on top. I have the instruction sheet and blueprints for the APC because I did open this vehicle and assemble it myself, and I made a video of it, so if you'd like to see this very Monster Blaster APC assembled check out that video. I will say the blueprint segment is more limited than what we typically got in the 80s. I have the box for the Monster Blaster, so let's take a look at that. It has the GI Joe logo, the Mega Marines logo. There is some artwork of the Monster Blaster and behind it is a green swirl. That green swirl was on other Mega Marines packaging. It was on the card for Mega Marines Gung Ho. On that box art, all four of the GI Joe Mega Marines figures are represented. Gung Ho is in front and Clutch is manning a rear gun, but Clutch should be driving. Mega Marines Clutch's file card says he is supposed to be the Monster Blaster APC driver. Even though he is the driver of this vehicle, he was not included with the vehicle. He was a separate single-carded figure. On the box art, we don't know who's driving because this is the driver's seat and we don't see anyone in there. Surprisingly, a couple of bad guys are in the troop carrying compartment. They are prisoners, perhaps? On the bottom of the box and on the sides, that artwork is repeated along with the text. And on the top of the box, we see that artwork again, but we also have the flag points. This was worth four flag points. On the back of the box, we have a photograph of a prototype vehicle. It is not exactly the same as the production toy. There are some minor differences. There are some molding differences and it is missing the pegs on the canopy for storing the extra missiles. The wheels appear to be screwed on and that is not on the production toy. Let's look at the parts and the features of the Monster Blaster. And I'd like to start by making a couple observations. First, the vehicle is bilaterally asymmetrical. This was common on 90s vehicles. It can add some surprises and intricacies to the design, but it doesn't always work, as with Destro's Dominator. Sometimes the two halves of the vehicle seem totally disconnected and don't work well together at all. It works better on the Monster Blaster though because it has this central cannon that kind of ties the whole design together. Since the Mega Marines was a colorful copy of Aliens' Colonial Marines, my guess is the Monster Blaster was supposed to be like the APC in that movie, but with more features and details to make it a more fun toy. If 80s G.I. Joe fans have a complaint about this vehicle, it is with the neon green color. The rest of the vehicle has great color. It would fit in with any era of G.I. Joe. The neon green just screams 90s. There have been some customs of the Monster Blaster that have changed the neon to a more subdued color, and it's a thousand times better. On the front of the Monster Blaster, we have this bumper in dark green with a couple sticker headlights, and there are steps on each side so you can climb in the vehicle. On the variant, of course, this bumper would be the lighter green color we see on the top of the vehicle. On the starboard side, we have this gun that serves as a hatch for this seat. This gun is articulated. It swings forward on this bar. It does not traverse, but it is nice to have some articulation here, and nice to have some cover for the passenger in the seat. The blueprints call this a front-mounted gunner's seat with targeting laser gun. The seat is dark green. It almost looks gray to my eyes. The seat is textured, and you may not be able to see it, but there is a texture on the floorboard as well that has minimal instruments on the inside, and it will fit one action figure. You can fit one action figure in the seat, and you can move that gun over to completely cover him. He does fit in there completely. There are a couple control sticks on that front-mounted gun, but the figure cannot grasp them sitting down.  You can fit the hands on them, and he can kind of man the gun that way. I really like this. They could have just put a hatch over this seat or a front mounted gun, but they did both. On the port side at the front, there is this neon green hatch with the Mega Marines logo. It is hinged at the front. You can open it by pushing forward at this tab, and that reveals the driver's seat. The seat is that same dark gray green color as on the other side. It has the texture, and the floorboard also has texture. It has instruments on both sides, and on the right side, it has a control stick. You can place the driver in the driver's seat. Of course, it should be clutch.  You can place the figure's hand on the control stick, but be careful with that. This time, the problem is not that the control stick is too thick, but it is very thin, and you might break the stick. With the driver in the seat, close the canopy. He fits fully inside with no problem, and there are slats on the canopy so he can see out and drive. There's also a viewing port on this faux hatch on the top of the body of the Monster Blaster, but the figure's head doesn't really go up that high. It's still a nice extra detail though. The main body of the Monster Blaster is in olive green, and it looks really good. It has panels and molded on hatches and technical detail all over it. The color is very close to the body of the male away slugger. On each side, there is a sticker with a number 7. Why the number 7? Well, the Mega Marine's figures all had numbers. Gung Ho had a 1 on his chest, and Clutch had a number 3 on his leg. But if that's what they were going for, there are a couple numbers missing. There is no number 5 and 6. On each side, there is a side rail in dark grayish green, and on each side rail there are 4 foot pegs, and that means you can put more figures on the outside. The foot pegs are far enough apart that you can put a figure on each peg, so potentially eight more figures riding on these two side rails. On each side, there are small steps that lead up to the troop carrying compartment. That is a really nice touch that easily could have been left off, and it's nice that they are there. The Monster Blaster rolls along on four black wheels. These wheels are plastic, they are held together on mushroom clips at the hub. They each roll independently. If those wheels look familiar, it's because they are a reuse of the wheels used on the 1988 Mean Dog, with the Mean Dog wheels being dark gray, and the Monster Blaster wheels being black. The Mean Dog wheels were also used on the 1991 Attack Cruiser, but this time in light gray. There is no detail on the underside, just the contouring for the interior seats. That brings us to the main feature on this vehicle, and that is this canopy and the main cannon. This large central cannon is attached to the canopy. They are both in bright neon green. There is a hinge at the back of the cannon on the body of the vehicle, so you can swing the cannon and the canopy up to open up the troop carrying compartment inside. There is a brace on the inside and notches on this central slot, so you can adjust the height of the canopy. The interior is that same dark grayish green color as all of the interior parts are, and on each side there is a front facing seat and two side facing seats. The seats are textured as is the floor, and although the seats are mostly the same on each side, the interior details and control panels are slightly different. It's very difficult to get the lighting down in there so you can see the interior detail, but there is some technical detail, and it is different on each side. As stated before, there are three seats on each side. One on each side that faces to the front, and two on each side that faces to the outside. There are no back pegs or straps to hold the figures in, but they do fit in there pretty securely. You can then lift this brace and close the canopy, and the figures fit very well inside. Let's take a moment to admire the canopy and the cannon. There is a ton of technical gadgetry all over both of them. On top of the canopy, on either side of the cannon, there are four bright green missiles. They peg onto the canopy with these dumbbell shaped pegs. They are the exact same color as the other parts on the vehicle. The blueprints call these monster annihilating heat seeking m44 missiles. There is a total of four of them. They do peg on quite securely, and they are all the same. And the cool thing about these missiles is you can really fire them. On the top of the cannon, there is an open slot. You can fit one of the missiles in that slot. The fins on the missile need to be on the top and the bottom, and you place it in back first, but it should slide all the way inside. At the back of the cannon, there is a cocking handle. Move that forward and over to close the breach and move the trigger button into place. There's a circular opening on the top of the cannon, and when the cannon is locked and loaded, there is a button that will appear in that opening. You will press that button to fire. To use this cannon, you just take aim and press this top button to fire. The closest 80s equivalent I can think of is the 1989 thunderclap. It had a very large cannon with an open breach. You could place a shell in that breach and close it, then pretend to fire, then you could eject the shell. That was a really cool feature, but the thunderclap cannon did not really fire and the monster blaster did. We are not done looking at features. If you move toward the back, on each side you have laser gun mounts, and each of those laser guns will elevate and will pivot. They won't pivot all the way around because they'll run into the side of the vehicle, but this is more armament. The monster blaster is heavily armed. On the inside of each of those laser gun turrets, there is a slot for an action figure. So those guns can be manned, one on each side, and an additional two figures that can ride on the monster blaster. At the very back there are a couple control panels, each with a couple control sticks. I don't know what they are controlling, but I guess you can pretend they're controlling anything. There's also a back platform with six foot pegs for a potential six more figures riding on this vehicle. I don't know if these foot pegs are thicker than the others, but my figures do not fit on them very well. The only thing missing is a universal toe hitch at the back, not that there was much to toe at the time, and there's so many other features I guess we can forgive that. Looking at how the monster blaster was used in GI Joe Media, it did not have any animated appearances. It was released after the animated series was already canceled. It was featured in a TV commercial for Mega Marines, but it was not animated for that commercial. In the comic book series published by Marvel Comics, it appeared in issue number 173. It was not used by the Mega Marines. It was driven by Big Ben with Ninja Force riding in the back. It crashed and did not survive the issue. The comic gets the layout of the vehicle mixed up a bit and assumes the front gun position is the driver's seat. Storm Shadow takes over driving duties from Big Ben between panels. I assume that was an art error that they fixed with a bit of dialogue. It's surprising the monster blaster got any media appearances at all. It was getting late in the series, and the Mega Marines didn't get much play anywhere.


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