Cobra Rat (1992)
What’s the goofiest Cobra vehicle ever made? The one vehicle that doesn’t seem to come together as a concept yet is awesomely, stupidly lovable? The Buzz Boar? The Pogo? Those two are probably the most ridiculously specific yet pointless vehicles, to be sure. But for sheer bat-excrement insanity, it doesn’t get much more bat-excrementally insane than the Cobra Rat.
The 90’s vehicles trended toward a cheaper product. Many of them were designed as single molded pieces rather than the multi-piece kits of the past. The most involved that these vehicles got was to simply snap bits on to them. Another change was the quality of the stickers. Instead of the old plastic based clear stickers, Hasbro changed to paper. The sticker design reflected a change to 90’s sensibility. The Rat’s deco makes it looks like it would be at home in the Ninja Turtles’ motor pool.
So back to the vehicle’s purpose. The box touts it as an attack hovercraft vehicle, but I think that when the Cobra temple’s lawn gets a little unkempt along the driveway, they also bust out the Rats to do a little edging. Check out the weed whackers on the front. Heck, they even show it trimming weeds on the front of the box. Add in a firing rotor on the left side of the vehicle and Cobra can do some serious long-distance landscaping.
The Joe line has always had it share of vehicles that bend the rules of plausibility, but the Rat takes plausibility, cuts it off at the ankles and fires a spinning rotor at its face.
I was just watching an auction for this vehicle and couldn’t get over how much it sucked. Just a single piece of neon orange plastic with some black attachments and the corniest stickers ever. Other vehicles of the era like the Badger, Brawler, and Battle Wagon could have been a lot cooler if Hasbro hadn’t stuck to these lousy production standards.
When it came to the design and exceution of the Rat, it seems the team at Hasbro was just writing this stuff in. The overall design isn’t terrible, but the execution is. The hollow single stamping body makes it feel incredbly cheap, and the gimmicky spinning rotors of death never worked properly.
I did like the dual barrelled mini guns mounted on each side.
I agree, the Rat ends up as a joke primarily.
I just got one of these at a thrift shop, and you know what…I like kitschy little vehicles like this. I see this as a vehicle that gets deployed in swampy or marshland areas–the sawblades on the front are designed to clear pathways through foliage.
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It’s in my personal tops list for worst classic RAH vehicle more often than not.
And when I bought it new, I had had such high hopes for it, just look at that box art!!!
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Love your blog Rob and now and then i like to read your older posts. I don´t dislike the RAT, it has it´s uses in my collection. I had to get one for my 1990 lampreys, i think they go very well toghether, if i can i will get a pair more to patrol the swamps.