High Speed Sentry, the backbone of Cobra

The Hiss tank is a classic Cobra vehicle. By the end of my first G.I.Joe collecting era, which was some point in high school, I think, I had three of these in my possession. I don't recall ever getting this item new, and I may have had 1 driver to go along with them. If I had to wager a guess I'd say the first one came from a garage sale. The second two most likely came from a large batch of toys I bought for $40 from a high school classmate. It was definitely an iconic vehicle from the comics and early in the animated series. I was always a fan of its design, and it was often featured in my one page doodles in grade school. It's second incarnation, as the HISS II, had a two man cockpit, that flipped down to allow you to load the drivers. It also had a flip down door in the back to allow 4 soldiers to be loaded into it. Overall it was a good redesign, the grey/blue coloration is probably its greatest flaw. I feel that Cobra vehicles should have remained either black, white/grey, or a dark blue I refer to as Cobra blue. Of the earliest vehicles the Hiss, and Stinger jeep were black, the Claw and Flight pod were white/grey, & the Rattler and ASP were Cobra Blue. Another good coloration for Cobra vehicles is Crimson. Cobra Commander's personal Elite Guard were the Crimson Guard. In the 00's a nice set that was exclusive to Kay Bee contained 3 Crimson Guards with removable helmets, a crimson Hiss tank from the original mold, and a crimson ASP. I'm not sure yet about the Hiss tank produced for the newest toy line, Pursuit of Cobra, at $25 I can't yet justify buying it.  One of the features that appeals to me the most is that it finally has movable rubber treads. The first version was in a burgundy color which wasn't too distracting. A second version of this newest incarnation is in classic black. I hope to have one of these in my collection within the next quarter. I hope to post a review after I own one. For the scoop on the first Hiss and later incarnations visit YoJoe.