1987 Cobra Maggot
Although it gets somewhat away from any sort of real-world vehicle, a popular gimmick of the late 80‘s was vehicles that split into smaller items and battle stations. Within the sci-fantasy world of GI Joe, it works incredibly well and made for some classic vehicles, which includes the Mean Dog, the BUGG and the Maggot, among others. All of those toys represent vehicles that could never really exist, but are still very good just for the high amounts of play value they provide to a collection.
I really like artillery items. To me, these have been my favorite GI Joe vehicles since I was a kid, as it acts as a simple objective for either side to be fighting around. I don’t know if this was inspired by video games I used to play, or if I just have a better memory of a few game stages that lined up well with my imaginations, but either way, a vehicle like the Maggot was really all I would need for a play session. Of course I didn’t own a Maggot until I was 16, but that doesn’t matter.
The Maggot splits into three smaller items, which grants you an immobile turret, a front-cab, and a command station. Without the turret, the other two components don’t do a whole lot in a action-oriented sense, but it still provides some fun opportunities. Flipping out the legs and setting up the turret is fun, but the main point is that it reveals the computer station underneath. This is a well detailed and fun little compartment to stick a figure, and it adds a lot of play value to the Maggot as a whole.
With the turret on it’s own, one issue that arises it that it no longer has the ability to aim left or right. For that reason, I much prefer the look and function of the Maggot with all of it’s components together rather than them being separated. While I’m focused on the turret/main gun, something I find frustrating is that mine no longer holds up very well. The gun barrel is given tension by a clip in it’s socket, that I assume has warped just enough over time to no longer hold the gun up on it’s own. Frustrating, but it’s 36 years old, so what can you say.
The front cab is fun too. The idea of it just rolling off on it’s own seems a little funny to me, but I guess it could be used just for towing extra turrets, so one cab could move two guns from location to location. This part of the vehicle has two guns, and the removable engine cover (Under the cover, you can also see the main gun’s loading system, which is neat.). I wish the driver could be hidden a little better inside the vehicle, but it’s alright as is.
I think a strong appeal of the Maggot is the way it looks kind of similar to a WWII German self-propelled gun. The shape of the turret especially reminds me of parts of the Hummel and a little of the Nashorn, mainly for the open-topped design they went with. It does a lot to make the vehicle seem more realistic and grounded, which I think strengthens it’s appeal as something that’s both fun and reasonable looking (rather than something like the Mamba, which is fun, but definitely not reasonable looking).
You can get a complete Maggot for around $30 on a good day, and prices right now aren’t much worse than what I remember from over a decade ago. There’s a radar dish that goes on the front cab’s rear gun, which is usually missing, though it’s not something that seems to carry a ton of value either. There’s enough demand for it that reproductions exist, which of course is another option if you feel like going that route. Regardless, the Maggot is a fun toy that doesn’t cost a lot of money, which probably means it’s still underappreciated.
Nice pictures, but there’s rule about mixed action figure eras, you know? LOL.
Why not use the tradition tow hook and look, I guess it’s not firm connection like they wanted. I’d say the front detaches for scouting and target acquisition. It seemed to work okay, not like you were going to break it like the Sea Ray’s separating pieces.
I also rarely removed the turret piece for the same reason. Conceptually, everyone asks how does the turret get removed? Someone pointed out in some commercial there’s an animated big where the legs fold down and the bottom section drives out from underneath…but the toy doesn’t work that way.
Funny how the command part has no labels for the computer screen or anything. Also, there’s no where for the commander to ride in regular mode. Only seating for three, no foot pegs.
People also point out that’s the big gun is not a howitzer but an anti-tank gun…yeah, well. Take what artillery you can get. One might wonder where the ammo is for the big gun, it must not carry much.
That damn radar dish breaking off. If the vehicle has a flaw it’s that and I guess the yellow parts. The engine cover is hard to remove…or am I thinking of the Wolf where it’s near impossible, like it wasn’t meant to.
I wanted the Night Blaster but no TRU within a 120 miles of me back when it was new. I’d have used it with the Iron Grenadiers, though.
I wonder if they molds were MIA or neither the Club nor Hasbro thought fans would be interesting in a Maggot reissue.
100% wish the Club or Hasbro would have re-issured this thing, but in black or dark blue gray or red highlights…something in more traditional Cobra colors.
In my head canon, this vehicle is mobile artillery. It stays a long way behind the front lines and fires for effect. In that regard, the colors don’t matter. It won’t be near any Joes who can spot it.
Back in the mid 80s, Hasbro released three vehicles that *almost* match from a color perspective: The Maggot, the Sea Ray, and the Hiss II. All use the same “steel blue” color, though they use different secondary colors (yellow, salmon, and red, respectively). If you squint, it looks like Hasbro was building a small armory for a third bad guy faction. 1990 Overlord’s vehicle almost matches the main color of these vehicles too. Sometimes, I pretend Seprentor and Overlord founded “The Coil” after breaking off from Cobra, using these vehicles as the backbone of its land and naval forces.
That snow picture is great! Although the arctic is the one place I can’t see the Maggot working, with the open top.
Agree on the comparison of the Maggot to WW2 vehicles–there were so many open-topped self-propelled guns then. Unlike most open-cockpit GI Joe vehicles, there’s at least a plausible precedent for this one. The gun’s caliber seems smaller than advertised though, and laughably small when you compare it to the Slugger. But overall it’s far more realistic than a lot of its contemporaries. Since I was very young it’s always inspired thoughts about worldbuilding–who would man the 0ther 3 seats? Other WORMS, or (much easier to find and afford) other types of Cobras? Long ago I assembled a battery of 4 Maggots, with additional staffing from Techno-, Toxo-, and Motor-Vipers. After Black Major released his WORMS, I modified my organization and did a group portrait for Instagram: with vehicles yellowing, I reduced the battery to 2 guns, but I assigned two blue WORMS to each vehicle along with one Motor-Viper and one Techno-Viper, plus a bunch more support staff.
I like Sam Smith’s idea of making the gray Cobra vehicles into a force for Overlord. I had thought that you could see it as a reboot with gray as the main color, and red trim for the armor branch, yellow trim for the artillery. I thought about re-doing a Parasite in the same blue-gray but with light blue trim, for a third branch.