1988 Swampmasher

I was done with Joe in 1988.  My younger brothers, though, still picked up a few items.   Mostly, it was figures.  But, they did acquire a few vehicles, too.  And, pretty much all of those vehicles felt like upgrades over my prior year purchases of 1987 vehicles.  The Desert Fox was everything I wished the VAMP had been.  The AGP had size and heft for an aircraft while also being small enough to play with.  Then, though, there were some smaller vehicles that shouldn't have been a lot of fun.  But, they ended up being really great toys.  Among these was the Swampmasher.  It's a ridiculous design in offbeat colors that works nearly perfectly as plaything.  

The Swampmasher is just a weird design.  At its base, the vehicle is relatively normal.  But, the wheels are all on three wheeled spinners.  The idea is that the vehicle can cover any terrain.  But, as a toy, it's just kind of bizarre.  But, that's also what makes it fun.  The central body is, at its core, a square platform.  But, Hasbro layered details on top of that added visual depth and play features.  A driver sits in the main seat and has controls that he can grip.  There's a missile launcher that can elevate to shoot down planes or remain level with the ground to eliminate Hiss Tanks.  The front features a bumper and a non-working winch.  The back showcases a massive engine that is exposed.  There is a spinning dual exhaust pipe to give the vehicle some elevation.  On the back is a platform that can hold two figures.  And, there is a handlebar for the figures to hold onto.

The siren song of the Swampmasher, for me, though, is the mounted gatling cannon.  I loved the idea of gunners.  And, a vehicle with a big gun that could be controlled by a figure standing behind it wasn't a common feature on G.I. Joe toys prior to 1988.  The fact that the cannon was huge and detailed made it compelling.  I imagined the devastation it would wreak on any Cobras.  It's placement on the vehicle also allows for you to imagine that the vehicle driver is operating the cannon.  Or, you can place a figure behind it to act as a gunner.  (This was my preferred configuration.)  With the gun, the Swampmasher could be pursuit vehicle, something being chased or, just a stationary position with a massive cannon.  The thing about the cannon is that it was the central feature of the vehicle.  But, all the other small details help the gun feel like it should be there and is a realistic weapon to be on such a vehicle.

The fact that the Swampmasher has no protection for the operator made it seem like a Cobra design.  But, it also allowed me to purpose the vehicle for specific missions.  The Swampmasher wasn't a first strike vehicle.  Instead, it was a scout vehicle to get a small team of Joes into a position.  Here, the elevating cannon could be devastating against Cobra aircraft as they took off from a secluded airstrip.  Or, it would be a surprise element that would wipe out Cobra infantry as they started to advance on a Joe base.  It could even be an escape vehicle used to flee an operation, with the 360 rotating cannon able to fire behind the vehicle to cover the escape.  The weird wheel design actually did allow you to use the vehicle in water, mud, sand or other kid-friendly play environments.  And, for some kids, the wheels could have been the vehicle's signature feature.  To, me, they were just a bonus to the gun.

I would sneak my brother's Swampmasher from time to time.  It was a good way to showcase the 1988 figures he had acquired that I had "outgrown".  Plus, it was fun to mess with since you could create a quick, self contained little scenario and showcase things like the gun or wheels.  I don't really have any specific memories of the Swampmasher.  But, due to its late addition to our collection, our original survived relatively intact.  And, early in my collecting days, I acquired another one.  Since the vehicle isn't covered, takes up a small footprint and can hold figures in an unobscured way, the Swampmasher has been a staple of my photographs since the early 2000s.  I liked it since the colors were bright and fun and they helped offset many of the later run figures who emphasized in my writings of those early days.  Even today, I use the Swampmasher way more than classic vehicles I grew up with because it is so good at showcasing figures.

The one hindrance to the Swampmasher is that it can be a pain to get a figure into the driver's seat.  And, some figures won't fit at all.  (Looking at you, 1991 Tracker!)  If a figure has too many details on his leg molds, it's unlikely that you'll get him to fit into the seat.  And, it gets more problematic with later years.  A ton of 1991 figures would look great in the Swampmasher, but they won't fit into the the narrow leg slots.  My photos ended up limited because I couldn't get several figures into the vehicle.  But, 1988 figures tend to work fairly well.

The Swampmasher is in a weird place in the line's history.  It was released in 1988: a year that most "super serious collectors" consider an acceptable year.  But, at the same time, it's a weird design that uses bright colors.  The 1988 line vacillated between bright, oddball designs and classically colored vehicles like the Warthog.  It's a very schizophrenic year.  I will die on the hill that the 1988 vehicle crop is better than the 1987 series.  It's probably better than the 1986 series, too.  But, childhood nostalgia dies hard and the earlier years getting showcased in the cartoon will give them the publicity boost to erase any useful discussion about the merits of each years' actual selection of toys.  But, no one can realistically argue that the LCV is a superior toy to the Swampmasher.  

The 1988 vehicles saw wide reuse in other G.I. Joe markets.  To the best of my knowledge, the Swampmasher was not released in Brazil.  It did, though, find a second life in India.  Funskool released the Swampmasher for many, many years.  In the early 2000's, it was among the vehicles that were heavily imported by American dealers.  But, that stock has all dried up.  The Funskool release is very similar to the Hasbro version.  So, there's no reason to have both.  The Swampmasher would have greatly benefitted from a repaint.  There are excellent customs of it out there where it's painted up in a Dreadnok Ground Assault paint job.  So, the mold had some life that could have been extended.

Swampmashers sell in the $20-$25 range for a mint and complete sample.  There's actually a lot of them out there, too.  So, there's really no issue tracking one down.  If you want to save some money, you can both find some cheaper from time to time and also put one together from parts for a discount.  So, there's options for budget minded collectors, too.  For the price it's really a no-brainer acquisition.  It looks great on a display shelf and it can hold a lot of figures in the space, too.  It's a vehicle that surprises me with its versatility and usefulness.  So, I often choose it for photos over other, more popular vehicles.  Once in hand, I think you'll find the green and purple are less of a hindrance than you'd have thought and the Swampmasher is fun to have around.