Ammo Dump (1985)

by KansasBrawler

After my last Field Report focused how much I appreciate a piece that can work well with other pieces on the battlefield with small changes, you’d think I wouldn’t be a fan of the Ammo Dump, but a surprising discovery caused me to completely re-evaluate my opinion of it. There’s not really much to describe here. The Ammo Dump consists of a large crate with string handles and an assortment of missiles and mortars plus a box of mortars, ammo can and a gas can. The cans and boxes do make a nice addition to the battlefield, however it is slightly disappointing that the missiles can’t be used on a vehicle. The lack the spaces cut into them for the attachment points on Joe and Cobra vehicles does limit some of the playability, and that’s a real shame in my opinion. However, there is an important piece of information that really changed my opinion on the Ammo Dump.

As I mentioned in my first Field Report, these battlefield accessories were all found in an unopened Hasbro mail away box sometime last year. I’d kept them in their bags as it was unclear whether these would have been in my collection or my older brother’s. This summer, my brother was able to spend quite a bit more time at home while he was job hunting and the two of us split the collection of battlefield accessories and assembled them one night. That same night was also the night we finished restoring a vintage Tomahawk that had gotten damaged over the intervening years. I had purchased replacement rotor blades and a back fin at Joe Con in 2009 and we had just finally had the time to fix it up. After my brother finished stickering up the Ammo Dump, I looked at the crate and said “Man, wouldn’t it be cool if it could fit through the loading bay of your Tomahawk.” He agreed and the two of us figured that since it was already up sitting with us, we’d try and surprise, surprise, you can actually fit the Ammo Dump crate in the back end of the Tomahawk. You can’t place figures in the back two seats, but the Ammo Dump fits in there almost like it was made for it. That little piece of information made me completely re-evaluate my opinion of the Ammo Dump. I’m pretty sure when we were divvying the six sets up the Ammo Dump was picked last because it didn’t really seem all that cool, but the fact you can drop it from the back of the Tomahawk and that the Tomahawk’s winch hook can catch and carry the handles nearly perfectly makes it something far more impressive to me than it really has any right to be.

As another sidenote, the Ammo Dump crate is also large enough to fit a Joe figure in, so if you wish to have someone sneak into a Cobra installation, what’s better than hiding inside a stolen Joe weapons cache…and what’s more dangerous, a crate full of explosives or a crate full of Big Brawler?