I recall an article in Lee's or Tomart's a few years ago with some pics of concept art of various vehicles. One in particular struck me as being very cool, where the HISS II was much lower and sleeker than what we got; and the 'jaw' cockpit slid down instead of folding down from a hinge. Anyone got a scan or a link to this pic, or any others from the article?

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I don't know if it is the one you are thinking of but they also handed out some vehicle concept art at the Orlando convention that had a Hiss II in it. Unfortunately I don't have it here with me.

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I think you're thinking of the concept art for the HISS, not the HISS II, but I could be wrong. I remember that from an article in Lee's with the guy who developed ARAH originally as a vehicle line. I think the concept was for a two seat cockpit, and it was definitely boarded from underneath.

As for a scan, would you believe I threw out the magazine last week?

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Yup, from the date on this pic, they were working on the I still; but this definately has more in common with the II. Thanks to Jay West for pointing me in the right direction.

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I wasn#t 100% sure when I posted a reply on Joebattlelines, but yes, I was also of the mind that this was HISS I artwork, not the HISS II.

Repeating, mostly for members who don't visit the other site, that this concept art for the HISS was used notably in Marvel #16. Hawk and Destro duke it out on a much larger back section of the HISS, while the Commander's turret seems to be more in the middle of the tank. Also, Dr. Venom exits (or is it enteres) the cockpit via a very similar hydraulic lift system.

I've no doubt the artist for Issue #16 was using this concept art as a reference while drawing that issue.

Yup, Edger. It makes me wonder how many of you guys would recognize the II as being superior to the I in every way save nostalgia if we'd gotten the original II design first. Certainly makes me salivate at the idea of having gotten the II mold re-released and repainted as many times as we've had the I shoved down our throats.

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Wow, very neat to see the concept art. For you guys with bad eye sight, the date on the drawing was 1/26/82. Pretty cool.

I always enjoyed that concept art. One interesting thing I noticed was the wheeled HISS in the upper right. If you look at the wheel undercarriage design, it bears a strong resemblance to the STUN undercarriage that was later released. I have that STUN\HISS on my custom to do list but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

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Ronin that is the one I was thinking of, also dated 82 by the way. I just loved the rat-pac drums rolling of the back. That would ahve been a bad ass feature.

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One wonders if the SwampMasher's tri-wheels idea also came from the second upper-right pic.

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