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Thread
: Lines/Colors/3D
The GI Joe/Cobra Concept Art & Filecard Project
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05-27-2010, 02:09 AM
zuludelta
EQ-Viper
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 4,343
Random Musings IV:
Something I haven't touched on in this thread (or at least I don't remember touching on it) are the GIJOE vehicles. For many Joe fans, the vehicles were almost as important an aspect of the GI Joe experience as the action figures and the characters based on those figures. Not for me, though. For the longest time, my favourite "Joe vehicles" were a beat-up Fisher-Price truck that belonged to my baby brother and a styrofoam crate (that came with our Betamax) that I used to pretend was some sort of hovercraft personnel carrier.
I've thought of various modern-day analogs of the standby Joe vehicles. The original 1982 VAMP, for those of you who don't know, was based by Ron Rudat on the
1977 Lamborghini Cheetah
(a prototype military vehicle that itself was based on the 1970
FMC XR311
) The following is a partial list of the candidates I considered for my version of the VAMP:
RSOV (Ranger Special Operations Vehicle)
: a modified Land Rover Defender 110 used by the 75th Ranger Regiment, based on the specialised
Land Rover Wolf
utility vehicles used by the British SAS.
IFAV (Interim Fast Attack Vehicle)
: a modified Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen 290 GDT used by USMC Force Recon companies and MEU(SOC)s.
RG-31 Nyala
: a South African MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) 4x4 vehicle used by numerous armed forces and PMCs. USSOCOM uses variant version known as the Mk5A1S.
Panhard VBL
: The Véhicule Blindé Léger (Light Armoured Vehicle) is a light armored scout/attack vehicle primarily used by France and Greece (as well as certain NATO units operating under the ISAF) that bears a striking resemblance to an "uparmored" VAMP. The VBL is fully amphibious, capable of swimming in smooth/sheltered waters at speeds of up to 3 knots.
The more I thought about it though, the less it made sense that an intelligence/recon unit like how I'm re-imagining GIJOE to be would be tooling around in vehicles that are so conspicuously military in nature. I decided to dig around the 'net for any evidence that special operations forces might be using COTS (commercial, off-the-shelf) vehicles in combat zones. I found these pictures of alleged US Special Forces and their Northern Alliance brothers-in-arms using Toyota Tacoma and Toyota Hilux crew cab pick-up trucks in Afghanistan:
The choice of the Toyota Tacoma (and its international version, the Hilux) makes sense when you think about a recon/intel unit trying to blend in with the local population. The Tacoma/Hilux's worldwide popularity makes parts procurement and replacement in the field comparatively easy and it has a reputation as a particularly durable and relatively fuel-efficient vehicle. And the fact that it uses gasoline, instead of military-grade JP-8 fuel, means that users can gas up at local stations (gasoline engines are also quieter than standard US tactical vehicle engines, which are basically diesel engines modified so that they can use JP-8 fuel).
Anyway, I still haven't settled on a "named" vehicle for the GIJOE team (in fact, I don't know if I'll even make a chapter on vehicles in the reference bible). All I know is that if I do choose one, it's going to be an NSTV (Non-standard Tactical Vehicle) like those Tacomas/Hiluxes above.
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