Pursuit of Cobra Steel Marauder

I remember when the Steel Marauder and the Cobra Deviant came out at regular retail. I thought that they looked pretty cool, but didn't really want to drop $19.99 for each of them. All I needed was a little patience!
After last Christmas, i went by one of the local Walmart stores and they still had a couple of the mechs - one of each. A quick test scan - $9.99 each! Sold!
A few days ago, actually on Father's Day, I stopped by the nearest Ross store and spotted both at the low price of $7.99 each. I didn't really want another Deviant - weapon arms are a bit lame, so I picked up another Steel Marauder.

The GI Joe mech is a decent toy. Hasbro used the mech from the small Sigma 6 line amd upgraded the cockpit to allow the bigger Joes to fit inside. With the claw arm and the multiple missle launcher, this thing is much more formidable than the Cobra mech

The driver, Kickstart, is pretty decent. Another Franken-Joe from Hasbro. I didn't realize that Kickstart actually makes use of Airborne's head. Great job by Hasbro with the reuse.

The mech looks formidable and ready for a fight. One interesting element of both mechs is that the arms are interchangeable. You can switch out the arms with the Cobra Deviant mech or, in the case of multiple mechs, arm them with specific weapon arms.

Here is a close-up shot of the cockpit of the Steel Marauder. Very detailed and a great use of the control arms. The Deviant mech is the same.

Both of my Joe mechs together. If you notice that the one on the right is missing a missile, I have it -somewhere. I remember seeing it in an odd place amongst all of my Joe storage - I'll find it eventually.
With both arms switched to the missile launchers, this mech can pack a serious punch!

The two claw arms together looks pretty cool as well. Much better than the Deviant mech!

Now this is a bit much. Just a little too excessive! The arms start to sag at the connection points and I'm sure that there would eventually be too much strain on the conncetors. Okay for one picture, but don't leave them like this!

I have always been a fan of mech suits, even back to the days of Playmate's Exo-Squad line. Playmates did an outstanding job with those mechs, smaller scale with even more articulation. Hasbro did a decent job with their two mechs. Perhaps Hasbro will revisit this vehicle with the new movie line?