[46 Zone]

Walmart actually came through and shipped my Retro Hiss Tank with driver ordered in July!!! I'm not going to review the Hiss Tank, as I plan on trading it for another Retro Hiss Driver. Anyway, here is the review:





For some reason he is considered a Cobra Trooper instead of a Hiss Driver per his "Foot Stand."





I sold off my 25th Hiss Drivers, but I have a ROSS exclusive Hiss Scout driver which has the same build as the 25th Driver. I like the Retro build better, as it has the better torso and arms. I like the Retro better than the POC and 50th Hiss Drivers for the same reasons. The 25th IG/Armored CC torso and arms are so outdated now.











The Retro head is a little smaller, but I still like it. It still is in great proportion with the torso.








He can drive the POC Hiss as well!!! I like it a lot, even though you can't see him with the lid closed.





The biggest issue I have with this figure is that the legs are permanently abducted. That is the closest I can get his feet when he's standing. It's like his junk is so huge that he needs to keep a wide stance at all times. You can see how most ME figures (SE) can stand with their feet under their shoulders.








You can see the inside piece of his thigh is shaved flat, which causes it to flare out when all the way on the T-bar. I guess you can fix it by dremeling the groove (seen in the 2nd pic) down further towards his feet. I just don't know if you can preserve the cup part of the socket that the T-bar fits in. I may try it once I get a few more of these figures.





The knee piece is very wide, when compared to a 50th figure. Don't know why they did that. I guess that wider knee could work for Retro Destro, if you sculpt the front part of the knee to look like a knee instead of a knee pad. That way, Destro will have non-flimsy knees. I don't have the skill to dremel and sculpt a knee from that knee pad.





The webgear/armor is a loose piece, but it's basically glued on. You can see where that bottom strap sits in the back armor. I tried to pry it apart to see if it was held with a peg, but no, it's glued on. I'm sure you can heat it up and pry the glued pieces apart to get it off, but I don't want to do that right now.





My figure has some QI issues. You can see the back belt loop is not painted. You may be able to see some red coming though on the edges of the front armor in the blue part.





Looks like the upper legs are molded in red, and the knees didn't get painted all the way.





Unfortunately, this figure will not be able to drive a 25th Stinger. The abducted hips give him the worse case of Diaper crotch.


Pros:

- He has a great new head sculpt that keeps proportions with his torso.
- You just can't go wrong using that torso for ME figures.
- The new armor piece is great!!! I see this armor showing up in multiple figures such as a new Major Blood, Flash, GS, and others.
- I think his feet are new pieces as well. They are definitely bigger than the 25th Hiss Driver feet.
- He is a pretty good update that keeps the overall "vintage" look of the Hiss Driver!!!
- We have new 4" ME figures on the shelves in a retail store!!!


Cons:

- His stand should say Hiss Driver, not Cobra Trooper. Don't know how that could have gotten past the Mustache?
- Why not use the POC CT/Shock trooper forearms and hands? They are so much better than those Zartan forearms that Bobby used in the SDCC MHQ set.
- Why glue on the armor? I'm sure they could have made a slot for that lower strap to slide into a slit on the armor. It just helps customizers when you can make things removable.
- I like the look of the upper legs, but that is total fail to engineer the inner piece so flat, that it causes the severe abduction of the hip. I'm sure this has been determined already that you need a certain shape of the inner socket to let the legs sit properly. Again, how did the Mustache miss this?


All-in-all, I'm glad to have this figure, but it could have been done better. It is so close to "Ultimate" status, but the engineering of the hip sockets is a total fail. Why spend money on a part that doesn't fit properly on the figure? These hips make me think about the upcoming Fang and Fang pilot. Those are fail's too.

[LockOn]

Thanks for the review!

[sbartek1974]

Awesome review bro!

[Cross Country]

Cheers bro. Appreciate you. Well done.

[stljoe]

Nice review. Can't wait to find these.

[ARBCO Avenue]

Nice review 46, great pics and info

[jlw515]

Great review. Now that I've seen that new head sculpt next to the older 25th head sculpt, I think I like the older sculpt better. I like that used the Shocktrooper torso and upper arms, but think they could have simply repainted the Night Viper build and had a nice figure.

The vest looks new and honestly, IMHO, is the best part of the figure. Hopefully some custom site does a soft resin cast of the vest.

Jason

[biggs]

Thank you for the review, and the detailed pictures. And a special thanks for not making it a YouTube video.

I'm not really sold on the figure itself. Liking it a lot less than i expected. The colour especially is just off. I might stick with my old kitbashed one, but we'll see.

[46 Zone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by biggs

Thank you for the review, and the detailed pictures. And a special thanks for not making it a YouTube video.

I'm not really sold on the figure itself. Liking it a lot less than i expected. The colour especially is just off. I might stick with my old kitbashed one, but we'll see.

Nice. I may consider those legs if I can't figure out a way to make the Retro legs stand straight. I got to get another driver first.

[ARBCO Avenue]

The leg issue makes me think that a completely new HISS Driver was designed, then corners were cut.

A wider T-Bar would work, but the upper thigh would be too wide at the hips.