 Hello everybody, HoodedCobraCommander788 here and I'm back with another vintage GI Joe toy review. But before we get to that, I wanna remind everybody that I will be giving away this GI Joe 1982 Ram motorcycle when this channel hits 100 subscribers and we're getting pretty close. The pace is picking up. I'm gonna hit 100 subscribers pretty soon and when I do, one of my viewers will get this Ram motorcycle for free. So watch for my 100 subscriber video when it comes up. But we're not here to look at the Ram motorcycle this time, we are here to look at the MOBAT tank. This is the GI Joe MOBAT tank introduced in 1982 as part of the first series of new GI Joe vehicles when the line was relaunched in 1982. It was also sold in 1983 and 1984. In 1983, there was a slight change to the driver. He got a new point of articulation on the arm. The 1982 version just had these straight arms with only the hinge at the elbow. But in 1983, they introduced a swivel at the bicep. The MOBAT was discontinued in 1985 when it was replaced by the Mahler MBT tank. The moniker MOBAT stands for Motorized Battle Tank and it was intended to showcase the motorized feature of this toy. It does have a motor in here and it can move on its own powered by two D-sized batteries. The design of the MOBAT tank is based on the real world M551 Sheridan tank. And it is a pretty good representation of that real world military vehicle. The Sheridan tank was in service from 1969 all the way to 1996. So it would have been a well-known military vehicle at the time this toy was made. I'm gonna take a closer look at the driver Steeler a little later in this video. So I'm gonna set him aside for now. Let's look at the parts and the features of the MOBAT starting with this top turret here. It does turn a little bit, not very much. It doesn't traverse all the way around, but it is the control mechanism for the motor. It also features this 50 caliber machine gun which has a cap on it. This cap is one of the most frequently lost parts of the MOBAT tank. You can find MOBAT tanks pretty easily but finding one with this gun cap can be somewhat difficult. You can see it has a little hole there and it corresponds with this little knob here, the bottom of it, it kind of slides on there. But it does not snap in place. It can easily be taken off and that's why this thing is frequently lost. On the underside of the tank is another frequently lost part, the battery cover. Underneath here we have the Hasbro logo and copyright information and this battery cover which you can take off and to take it off, you've gotta kind of push it forward and pull it down at the front at the same time. It's got these tabs here that hold it on and another one in the front. So take it off, just kind of carefully push it forward and pull down on the front. Inside we see the position of the batteries and the connectors here and the other set of connectors for the batteries is on the battery cover itself. So the tank needs the battery cover to operate. You can't just duct tape the batteries in there if you don't have the battery cover. Without the battery cover, the whole mechanism doesn't work. On top of that, if you're lucky enough to have the battery cover, sometimes the connector is missing. I'll demonstrate how to put the batteries in and how to operate the motor a little bit later but for now let's look at the rest of the tank. The MOBAT has these rubber treads and these are real treads. They're not the fake treads that you get with a lot of GI Joe tanks. These are real rubber and the tank rolls on them. It has these holes that go along the tread and that is for the teeth on the drive bogey and that just kind of holds that in place, make sure it doesn't slip off. Earlier versions of the MOBAT did not have that. It was just straight rubber across. They put these holes in later versions which I think is just to secure it on a little bit better. One nice sculpted detail on the tank. These are intended to be replacement treads. So you could pretend, you know, if the enemy took out the treads of the tank, the tank driver could repair them with these replacement treads sculpted onto the body of the tank. Nice feature and nice attention to detail. In the front, the MOBAT has this big boomstick, this 130 millimeter cannon. It has on here this infrared spotlight thing and the cannon itself has this collapsible feature. You can push it in like that. You can pull it out. I'm not really sure why it has that feature. I guess you could simulate recoil but it might've been just so it would fit in the box better when it was on retail shelves. The main turret can traverse all the way around and the main gun can elevate a little bit, not very much. In the back, the MOBAT had a standard universal GI Joe tow hook and that tow hook could be used to tow smaller towed weapons like the whirlwind here with rock and roll manning the gun and that was a nice play feature. The tank could be utilized with other GI Joe toys. On the top, it has this cup where the driver stands. He doesn't really even sit in there. It has a couple of knobs, joysticks, I guess for him to control the tank and Steeler stands in there and as you can see, he stands all the way up. He cannot retreat into the tank. There's no hatch on it so he can't really take advantage of the armored nature of his vehicle because he's completely exposed up there. I mean, you shoot that guy up there on top and you completely take out the tank. The MOBAT was treated a little differently in the comic book. It was a three-person vehicle and even the sculpting on the toy, it looks like it has a couple hatches here in the front which of course are too small to fit any action figures and they're only molded on there. They're not real hatches but they couldn't make this toy work that way because under that is the battery compartment so there really isn't any room for any other action figures. The toy only accommodates one action figure. It doesn't even have any foot pegs for any other action figures to ride along. The 1983 GI Joe headquarters command center had a section that was specifically made to fit the MOBAT. It fits perfectly and the gun turret fits through this slot in the wall. I'll go ahead and demonstrate how you put the batteries in and then I'll show you how the motorized function works. As I said before, push forward and pull down at the front to pull the battery cover off. We got two batteries, two D-sized batteries and this one goes that way and top one goes the other way and we put the battery cover back on lining up these tabs with those tabs and you slide it on there. Again, being careful not to break any of the tabs there you go and with those two D-batteries it adds quite a bit to the weight of the tank. It's much heavier now. To move the tank forward you push the top turret forward like that. Stop it by pushing it back to the middle and move it backward by pushing the top turret back. The tank also turns by turning the turret while it's moving forward right and left. Backward, right and left. Can the MOBAT tank climb over books as it's advertised on the box? Well, not really. The battery cover in the front actually gets in the way of it climbing over objects. It can climb over objects in reverse because it doesn't have a battery cover in the back. Forced a little bit better. Let's take a look at the tank driver, Steeler, starting with his accessories and he comes with this submachine gun, this Uzi which is a really nicely sculpted replica of the real world Uzi submachine gun. It is the same Uzi that came with the 1982 and 1983 Snake Eyes. I think it's interesting that both of these characters were paired with the same submachine gun accessory. I really don't think Steeler needs it. I wouldn't have thought that he would come with a gun. I mean, he came with a tank and he has a cool helmet and visor. So really, I'd rather have this gun for Snake Eyes but they did give Steeler this gun. He also had a combination helmet and visor can pop off like that. It has these little knobs here that fit in the ear holes of the helmet to snap in place. And this is a nice science fiction looking visor. It's supposed to be like an infrared and binocular visor. So it's kind of high tech, not your typical GI Joe visor. And last, he has a helmet, a helmet that snaps onto his head. This is a standard GI Joe helmet in light green that is supposed to be kind of close to the uniform that he's wearing. Unfortunately, this is slightly off, maybe slightly discolored. There were some later GI Joe action figures that had light green helmets like the 1983 Duke and the 1984 Roadblock, but it was a slightly different color than this. And here's a 1983 Duke. And you can see, well, I don't know if the camera's picking it up, but there is a slight color difference. The 1982 Zap also came with this helmet. Let's take a look at the articulation of Steeler. He had the typical articulation of 1983 GI Joe action figures, which means he could turn his head left to right. He could move his arm at the shoulder about so far. He could swivel his arm at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow so he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees and he had a swivel at the bicep so he could swivel his arm all the way around. He was held together with a rubber O-ring so he could move at the torso a little bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. This is the 1983 version of Steeler because he does have that swivel at the bicep. The 1982 version of Steeler would have had just the hinge at the elbow like Zap here. Those were referred to as the straight arm version of the figure. Let's take a look at the sculpt color and design of Steeler. Steeler was molded in this light green plastic and for some reason this light green plastic they used for the action figures in the early 80s was extremely fragile. It's sometimes hard to find an unbroken Steeler, especially the original 1982 straight arm Steeler. It's hard to find them without broken parts. Another figure that was molded in that light green plastic was Zap and you have all kinds of problems with Zap being broken. It's very hard to find him without broken pieces as well. In 1983 when they added the swivel arm you can see that the color on the lower part of the arm is slightly different and I think they may have done that to make it a little bit more robust and a little less fragile. Like a lot of GI Joe characters from that 1982 line Steeler reused a lot of parts from other action figures. For instance, his head is exactly the same as flash, even the same hair color. His waist piece and legs were the standard waist piece and legs used by a lot of GI Joe action figures in 1982. For instance, Steeler, same waist piece, same legs and Steeler is also in that light green plastic. So another one that you need to be really careful about. Very easily broken. Steeler does have some unique parts though. He actually has more unique parts than a lot of the other GI Joe action figures in that 1982 line. He has a unique chest with a black strap and holster and a pistol that is painted with gold metallic paint. He is the man with the golden gun. He also has an undershirt that is also painted in that gold paint. This metallic paint that Hasbro used, it did rub off very easily. So you need to be careful about that. You'll often find figures with that gold paint rubbed off. Another place where he has a gold paint app is on his arm. There is a very hard to see gold bar that is supposed to represent his rank as a second lieutenant. He's the only figure from that 1982 line who displayed his rank on his uniform. His black holster strap continues to his back and he has a unique set of arms with black gloves. As I said before, standard waist piece, some nice black pouches on his legs and standard boots in black. Let's take a look at Steeler's file card. The file card was printed on the back of the box that the MOBAT came in. On the other side, there's nothing. It's just the back of the box. On the file card, it has a nice portrait of Steeler. This would have been from the artwork on the front of the box. It has his faction as GI Joe. He's the tank commander code name Steeler. File name Ralph W. Pulaski, primary military specialty armor, secondary military specialty artillery transportation, birthplace Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh is known as the Steel City and it also might be an allusion to the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. In this section, it says Steeler comes from a blue collar middle class background. He put himself through college on an ROTC scholarship and work as a heavy equipment operator, familiar and proficient with all NATO and Warsaw Pact AFVs. AFV is Armored Fighting Vehicles. Graduated armor school, top of class, special training, cadre, XAFV project, artillery school, AFV desert exercise, covert ops school, qualified expert, M16, M1911A1, Mac 10 and Uzi. And of course he comes with the Uzi. I'm not sure exactly what it's referring to when it says cadre, but it's not the only GI Joe file card to mention that. Hawke's file card also says he's served on cadre. I don't know exactly if these are related, but in 1982, Hawke and Steeler were the highest ranking members of the GI Joe team. This bottom section has a quote, but it doesn't say who it's quoting. It says, young, reckless, often clashes with authority and parentheses, superior officers, but he's one tough soldier. So what do I think of Steeler overall? The character never resonated all that much with me. In the early GI Joe comic books, there were some attempts to sort of make him a field commander for the GI Joe team, but that role was quickly taken over by stalker who fit that role much better than Steeler did. I do like his blue collar working class background. He's kind of a tough guy from Pittsburgh. Looking at the MOBAT overall, however, it does have some knocks against it. Of course in 1982, it was probably the coolest of all of the new GI Joe vehicles. I mean, it was a tank and it was motorized. How do you beat that? But the driver does stick halfway out of it, so that's one flaw. It would be nice if the driver could at least retreat a bit deeper into the tank. Also, it accommodates only one action figure. No other action figures can really ride along on this. It has a gun cap that is very easily lost and hard to find. And one big problem I have with the tank is that even though it has this nice motorized feature, if you don't have batteries in it or if your batteries have run down, it doesn't really move. I mean, you can kind of push it forward slowly, but it doesn't roll freely. It'd be nice if there were some way to kind of just disconnect the motor mechanism so you can just roll it along without the batteries. But without the batteries, it's just kind of dead. One upside to other GI Joe tanks that had fake treads is that they could still roll around with no batteries. Despite those knocks against the MOBAT, it's undeniable that this is a great looking piece on the display shelf. I mean, I like the contrast between the light color on Steelers uniform and the darker green on the tank. That looks really cool. And just look at all this sculpted detail. That is amazing. This looks good for any era. If you think about it, I mean, look at this. You have some tools on there. You have an aid kit, some nice stickers. It just is a really good looking tank. And if you're not playing with it, if you're not, you know, moving it around and using the motorized feature on it, if you just have it on display on a shelf, it looks great. It really does. That was my review of the 1982 and 1983 MOBAT tank and its driver Steeler and his file card. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you're thinking of getting a MOBAT tank, I hope you found this video informative. If you liked it, go ahead and give it a thumbs up on YouTube and make sure you subscribe. I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy reviews coming up. You do not want to miss them. And make sure you like the Facebook page. You get some updates there that you don't get anywhere else. I'll see you next time. GI Joe is there. GI Joe. GI Joe is there. Enemy blockade. Send in the GI Joe motorized battle tank. You can make it go left, right, forwards and backwards. The GI Joe battle tank. Smash the blockade. What a tank. Each soul separately. The GI Joe motorized battle tank comes with GI Joe. Batteries not included.