Steel Marauder and Kickstart

by KansasBrawler

Shifting back to Joe vehicles, I have to cover my pair of sleeper favorites of the Pursuit of Cobra line—the two mechs. I’ll freely admit, I waited until they went on clearance to pick them up because I didn’t think they were worth the original price point, but at ten dollars apiece, they were totally worth the investment. I figured I’d start off with the better of the two mechs (and pilots), the Joe Steel Marauder and its pilot, a new character named of Kickstart.

Even though I never got into toylines like Exo-Squad that relied heavily on mech suits, I always thought they were a pretty cool concept both as a toy and as a possible thing in real life. When the Valor Vs. Venom added a pair of mechs to the line, I snapped them both up. It’s clear that the Steel Marauder owes some of its look to the Valor Vs. Venom Defense Mech. Admittedly, olive drab and black is not exactly the hardest color scheme to come up with for a Joe vehicle, but it works well and I think the Defense Mech would look pretty nice standing next to its bigger brother. Having begun its life as what was in my opinion one of the coolest pieces from the Sigma Six 2.5” line, I’ll admit the cockpit feels a little cramped to me. I appreciate they retooled it to fit larger figures, but I think it could stand to be a bit bigger since the top of Kickstart’s head pretty much butts right up against the top of the canopy. Even though the cockpit’s size leaves a little something to be desired, it’s very well designed and I appreciate that they used clear stickers for the ones that are supposed to go on the cockpit glass instead of opaque ones like both the Rise of Cobra and Retaliation lines did. Inside the cockpit, Kickstart has a pair of nicely articulated control sticks to run this beast and I applaud the Hasbro designers for giving a lot of attention to such an insignificant detail. I always like that so many Joe vehicles had something for the driver to put their hands on to make it look like they were actually driving the vehicle instead of just sitting in it. The pair of balljointed control sticks really looks like it belongs in a cutting edge military vehicle like this and it’s one of those little added details that Hasbro does that make me appreciate their design team. Another little added detail I like is the handle on the front of the cockpit. Though I still think Kickstart would appreciate a roll-away ladder like fighter pilots use to reach their cockpits, having that handhold on the front of the main body adds a nice level of realism to a vehicle that’s clearly at least 15 minutes, if not 30, into the future. Adding realism to a vehicle that is pure fantasy is what I appreciate about the Steel Marauder’s entire design. The body is solidly built and the legs look like they can handle the weight of this battlefield behemoth.

It’s odd to be talking about articulation on a vehicle, but the mech suit has a lot of good articulation. The Steel Marauder moves at the shoulders and legs and there’s a balljoint where the cockpit meets the lower chassis. In addition to the shoulder joints, the arms have joints that allow them to be either extended out wide or pulled into the side. For display purposes, I keep its arms tucked against the side so it’s not so wide, but it does add to each arms’ range of motion more than you’d think. The ratchet joints here are pretty tight so the arms can hold the pose you put them in very well. Honestly, the only place I’m a little disappointed with the articulation is in the legs. I understand that knee joints either didn’t cost out for it or they couldn’t find a way to make poseable knees that could reliably support the Steel Marauder’s weight, but I do feel it’s a little less cool because of the lack of knee joints. On the flipside, however, its ankle joints do give you a few more options for poses, I just think you probably could have gotten even more poses had it had both ankle and knee joints. I know, I’m a bit greedy when it comes to points of articulation, but here they make sense.

You can’t talk about the Steel Marauder without mentioning its weapons, and that’s where it really outshines its Cobra counterpart, the Deviant. Starting off small, the Steel Marauder as a nice pair of small poseable cannons on the front of the cockpit. They look like they’d be good for deterring any Cobra troopers that get a little too bold and want to try and take on Kickstart, but they’re definitely not the Steel Marauders main offensive weapon. These cannons are also shared with the Deviant, but that’s where the similarities in weaponry end. While the Deviant got the short end of the stick on firepower, the Steel Marauder can both speak softly but still carries a very big stick. The capture claw is a nice piece and looks pretty wicked. I really hope Kickstart isn’t planning on grabbing Cobra grunts with that thing since it looks like it could get pretty messy. An armored Cobra could probably survive the claws tender mercies, but with as sharp as the tines look, I think bare human flesh could be in for an unfortunate
surprise. Now, the Steel Marauder’s big stick is its large missile-firing Gatling gun. While I still see it more as a large caliber gun than an actual missile launcher, the design is still really impressive. It definitely looks like the Steel Marauder can pack a pretty serious punch on the battlefield. With its impressive mobility it can stand up to the likes of Cobra HISS tanks, but with its firepower, it could also easily be used to bust up Cobra emplacements to prepare for a Joe assault.

I’ve always thought a vehicle is only as good as its driver and while I was initially pretty uninterested in Kickstart, this figure has really won me over. On the surface, Kickstart is a pretty bland figure however, he’s also an example of how a FrankenJoe can be done right and look good in the line. The drivers during Pursuit of Cobra got a pretty raw deal, getting cobbled together out of parts that sometimes worked okay together but other times just looked ridiculous. Kickstart is probably my favorite of all the PoC vehicle drivers I have. While at his heart he’s just a Viper torso with Resolute Duke arms and legs and an Airborne head, those parts all come together amazingly well and make a figure that looks like a new character rather than a different head slapped on top of somebody else’s body (Tomahawk, I’m looking at you since the Joes obviously perfected cloning technology and decided to use it on Clutch of all people first). Changing Airborne’s hair color and lightening his skin really does a lot to change that head’s look and he looks like a relatively young soldier and new addition to the Joe team. That also explains his more standard military look. The Cobra Viper’s vest looks great on the body, however, it would have been nice had they found a way to get rid of the Cobra sigil on its belt buckle. It’s not that noticeable because the buckle and raised sigil are painted in all black, but it’s one of those things that once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it. That said, the vest does look nice in Joe colors and I appreciate that they went as far as to put the PoC-era Joe logo over his chest as well. The only real paint problem is mercifully very well obscured by the vest, but they did forgot to take the skin color down from his head onto his neck that can be seen with the shirt’s open collar. It’s not a big deal, but it is something I noticed the first time I pulled off his vest to get a better look at the parts used. His other accessory is a nice helmet with a pair of mounted night vision goggles on a hinge that can raise them from his face. It’s a nice piece that I think came from Desert Ambush RoC Duke…don’t quote me on that, I never bought that version but I recall a helmet similar to this with him. It looks good on him, but I do question why the pilot of an advanced mech suit would need a helmet with night vision goggles. I know very little about military hardware, but I’m kind of presuming that tanks and fighting vehicles that are tasked with operating at night have the equipment to do so built into them. The gear works from a soldier standpoint, but from a design standpoint it’s a little bit of a head scratcher. I also have to say that I liked the filecard’s characterization of Kickstart. While the PoC filecards pale in comparison to the Larry Hama filecards of old, it’s nice to get at least a little background information on the character. I appreciate that Hasbro made the guy whose job it is to pilot a high tech battle mech a hardcore gamer and someone who not only can fight but knows the technology behind his vehicle. However, the filecard does reveal one glaring omission in the accessories department. Considering it mentioned he carries the “820 selective-fire, long-range fully automatic assault rifle”, it would have been nice for him to come with one. I actually had to quickly check YoJoe while I was writing this to make sure that he didn’t come with a weapon and I hadn’t accidentally left it in the Ziplock baggie he was stored in for a while when I moved.

I’ll freely admit, I passed on the Steel Marauder and Deviant for a long time. They came out in 2010 and I don’t think I snagged them until the summer of 2011 while hunting for a 30th Anniversary Skystriker in my neck of the woods. In both Kansas (where I was when they first came out ) and South Dakota (where I was when I finally picked them up), the mechs seemed to shelf warm pretty badly. It’s kind of a shame because I liked the concept but honestly I felt they were just slightly overpriced and that’s why I kept passing on them. I think had Hasbro found a way to get them to the market at a $15 pricepoint like the alpha vehicles of the time, they would have sold like hotcakes. I honestly didn’t see much added value over an alpha vehicle that made the extra five dollars make sense. What really saddens me is that because these two sold so poorly, the second pair of Hasbro had been planning for the Desert Battle and Arctic Assault groupings understandably got scrapped and they looked like a bit better product and worth the full $20 price tag.