For the GI Joe Fans: The Mauler Actually Existed!!

[tmanthegreat]

I was looking through one of my tank reference books, The Illustrated Guide to Tanks of the World, when I came across this reference (see below) to an experimental US tank from the early 1980s known as the High Survivability Test Vehicle. To me, it looks an awful lot like the old 3 3/4" GI Joe "Mauler MBT" tank from 1985, as well as the chasis for the "Equalizer" tank from 1989.



GI Joe Mauler tank, photo from www.yojoe.com


GI Joe Equalizer tank, photo from www.yojoe.com


On the Mauler, especially, you can note the similar chasis, side skirts, crew positions, hatches, gun and turret. These were two of the best tanks in the old GI Joe line, IMHO, and it seems that they were in part based on actual vehicles

What do you all think?
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"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

[FieroDude]

Birddog was telling me about coming across this in one of his books (likely the same one), and it blew me away. The MOBAT was obviously intended to be a roughly 1/2 scale Abrams, but I always thought the Mauler was a fictional tank. Instead, it turns out to be a real test platform that was apparently also rather successful! And from the pics, it looks to be close to accurate 1/18 scale! Makes me regret selling mine a few years ago. Hmmm... Heeeeere e-bay...
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Verraten und verkauft,
zu lange vertröstet zu lange belogen
Verraten und verkauft,
Durch den Dreck und über den Tisch gezogen.
H.R.K 1993

[grunt1]

What a find.. Looks pretty spot on to me.. Nice detective work!
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[Morian Miner]

That's what I miss about the old GI Joe stuff - the either tried to look like real stuff, or at least didn't go with too sci-fi of a look. Thats why I like the Humvee they just did - just a good ol' realistic vehicle. It always surprises me how many fans prefer that GI Joe not be realistic, and more sci-fi.
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Sometimes, the mind needs a shovel, rather than a pencil and paper, to express itself.

[tkjaer21]

Sci-fi and neon is what really killed the GI Joe line off in the early 90's. I guess if there was a cartoon for the Battle Corps and Eco-Warriors, then perhaps it may have helped a little. One thing that I could not stand was the fact that in the ARAH Cartoon, was the fact that they had lasor rifles instead of bullets. I also wish Duke had died in the movie.

[Rowsdower]

Yea the neon colors and sci-fi crap almost killed Joe for good back in the 90's. What I always liked was how they took a real life vehicle and made something similar but with a lot of artistic liscense. The Rattler/A-10, Dragonfly/Huey Cobra, Raven/blackbird with drone, Tomahawk/ Chinook, etc. etc.
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[Birddog]

[ChairmanMilo]

Every country with the industrial capacity to design & build tanks seems to have experimented with low-profile models at some point in history. The British and Americans even put Strv 103s in trials back in the late 1960s.

From what I can remember, the vehicle was a technology demonstrator, of which the two major developments were the small calibre (75mm) HV gun - the ARES, also used in the HIMAG - and the low profile. The 75mm gun was sought after by several Western European countries, but the American governments in power back then (Carter and then Reagan) were so protective of the technology involved... that no one ended up using it for anything. The closest thing that ended up seeing service is the 60mm high velocity gun the Israelis developed and fielded in upgraded Shermans. These tanks are still in service with Chile, believe it or not!



http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/vehicles/tanks/sherman/M-60.html

So yeah, looking back, I'm impressed at what GI Joe used to be armed with back in the day - the 'day' being anything before the late 1980s.

[Birddog]

I finaly remembered to take a picture of my combined Mauler-Equalizer today. I put the turret of an Equalizer on the chasis of a Mauler to get working treads. Now I have to do some more detailing then repaint and weather it.



I'll post more pictures when I finish it. The other Joe vehicle I'm working on customizing is the Wolverine. I'm going to try and give it a working tread system too.
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Go Ugly Early in 1/18!!

Still waiting and wishing for a 1/18 A-10 Warthog.

[Rowsdower]

[Birddog]

[aferguson]

this is hilarious.......i would never have believed it. The Mauler is real. Hmm....maybe all the other Joe vehicles are real too then....maybe the toy designer worked for the dept of defence.
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Looks like the world still needs a 1/18 scale Mosquito.

[Morian Miner]

If you go back through alot of the older stuff, you usually can find a real world prototype, even if it was just a one-off model. Unfortunately, the would undersize them.
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Sometimes, the mind needs a shovel, rather than a pencil and paper, to express itself.

[VMF115]

Was the Cobra Hiss based on a real tank?
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I keep waiting for Rod Serling to step out of the shadows, lean on something, and explain that we are all in the "Twilight Zone".

[Birddog]

Funny or not, it would make sense that they chose to give GI Joe a line vehicles based on "actual" yet still experimental vehicles. That is generally what the Joes used, experimental hardware. Most of the vehicles that came out had and "X" designation in the nomenclature if I remember correctly. As to how Hasbro got the design for them, I'm sure that back in the early 80's there were pictures of this tank floating around in Science magazines or military focused media available to the public somewhere. I can remember seeing pictures of the X-29, which was an experimental platform, in magazines during the early 80's while it was being tested. It became the X-30 Conquest in the GI Joe line around the same time. Either way, it's cool to know that some of the vehicles did have a real world representation to some extent...
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Go Ugly Early in 1/18!!

Still waiting and wishing for a 1/18 A-10 Warthog.

[Birddog]

[Rowsdower]

Cobra Rattler = bizarro A-10 with three engines a laser turret and rotating wings for VTOL!

Oh and switchable panels for battle damage IIRC.
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[Panzer_M]

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r191/birddog_76/Mauler-Equalizer.jpg

The guns and radar looks like the Bundeswehr's Gepard FlakPanzer.

[Panzer_M]

GI Joe also did:

Apache, too small though.

F16 too big

[Fox Tare-28]