>>10265923I wasn't even aware of Sgt. Savage until I was an adult because all my toy money was going to Star Wars in the mid 90s. The figures are bigger than standard GI Joe, but both the original and modern 25A figures will fit inside of the Panther just fine, and since it was built for a bigger line it looks great as a tank in the same class as the Mauler.
The way I see it, the HISS is really more of an IFV than anything else, and the DTC HISS and the Haslab HISS seem to confirm this with their design being very troop-transport friendly. It looks like something that's meant for shuttling troops around the battlefield quickly, but it does not have a central cannon and the guns on the turret are too small to be a main battle tank.
I think ideally, GI Joe's answer to the HISS should not be a conventional tank like the MOBAT (which is a toyetic version of the M60 Patton, which in the early 80s was still the USA's main battle tank) or the Mauler (which is likewise adapted from the HSTV-L prototype, which in the mid 80s looked like it might replace the Patton but ultimately the M1 Abrams filled that role), but rather a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. A GI Joe version of the BFV would be an excellent match against the HISS tank and fill the same role for the Joes.
Neither the Mauler or the Panther are big enough to be modern MBTs, but in the 80s they would have been. In the absence of something bigger, the Panther could be Cobra's MBT with the HISS being deployed alongside it as the IFV, while on the Joes side the Mauler would be their MBT and a Joe-version of the Bradley as the IFV. And if you fielded an M1 Abrams as the Joe's MBT and something of equivalent capability for Cobra, the Mauler and Panther could still function as light tanks having less armor but more maneuverability.
I really wish I could find a sci-fi tank about the size of a 1/18 Abrams, that would either fit Cobra figures or could be modded with hatches gunner positions and stuff, and paint it black.
