1988 Rolling Thunder

The Rolling Thunder obliterates everything it faces! Within its heavily armed shell lies two Lightning Rockets packed with cluster bombs.

The deployable six-wheeled ATSV (all terrain scout vehicle) ferrets out Cobra positions.

The “Turntable” magnetic array radar/multi-missile air defense keeps the Rolling Thunder safe from Cobra air attacks

The Rolling Thunder features several moving parts and removable parts, and the sculpt is incredibly detailed. 
Roll over the images below to find out more, or click the images to enlarge them.

The Rolling Thunder is one of the largest G.I. Joe vehicles ever. When fully extended, it measures over 3 feet in length!

The Rolling Thunder is bristling with offensive options, with guns and missiles galore adorning the various surfaces.

The foremost armament is a "hot point" chin mounted horizontally pivoting low level laser cannon.

The "hot point" laser cannon swivels and tilts.

Directly positioned above the cockpit is a dual barrel .50 caliber machine gun with positionable deflector screen.

The gun can be rotated 360 degrees at its base, though in practice it would probably not be productive to aim it toward the rear of the vehicle. The deflector screen can be pushed forward a slight bit, or it can be pushed backward with a greater range of motion.

Some wiring detail can be seen on the back of the deflector screen

There are two access points to the main cockpit, via the glass hatches.

Each glass cockpit hatch opens vertically from the side. The cockpit seats all sport the single waist-level seat belt, a feature shared with many vehicles from 1988 and 1989.

The "nose" sports some raised venting and other vertical line detail.

Armadillo mans this position in the box art.

Additional cockpit interior detail can be seen when looking into the cockpit from the side, as well as a vent grate. Guy Cassaday's Initial design called for a step ladder here, but that was priced out before production.

The front section also houses a fire control compartment, though this area can only be accessed from the top.

The fire control compartment contains a single seat and multiple consoles, providing space for up to three figures.

Each side is defended by two fully rotational forward mounted single seat laser cannons, with a cannon seat placed on top of every wheel group. Each cannon can pivot vertically, and the seat rotates a full 360 degrees at its base.

There are four cannon seats on the vehicle. Despite all four sharing identical tooling, the blueprints provide a unique description for the front seats and the back seats. Each cannon seat is equipped with the single waist-level seat belt, similar to the cockpit seats. The cannon seat can easily be removed from the main vehicle, though it was not specifically designed to do so.

The Rolling Thunder "rolls" upon four sets of two "roll over" land mine-proof extra heavy duty tires/wheels. The specific set pictured here is located toward the front of the vehicle flanked by two "super sidewinder" surface-to-surface tank destroyer missiles.

Shown here are one of the wheel sets at the rear of the vehicle. The rear wheel set sections only store one missile, whereas the front wheel set sections can store two missiles. Additionally, there is some dispute as to which actual missile should be stored in the rear wheel set section - both the line art on the back of the box and the blueprints suggest that the red missile should be stored here, while the package illustration, the TV advertisement, the 1988 catalog cover art, and the 1988 catalog photograph all clearly show the yellow missile stored here. Since both missiles use the same connection port, the choice of missile is left to the owner's preference.

The rear turret section rotates 360 degrees and provides some heavy firepower, especially via the massive short-barrel 90mm "short throw" cannon. Additionally, a single optically-aimed "right on" surface-to-air missile can be fired from atop the cannon.

Seen here is another of the red surface-to-air missiles. As documented in an earlier photo, there is a lack of agreement as to whether these missiles should be stored on the sides of the turret or near each of the rear wheel sets - the package art, the TV advertisement, the 1988 catalog painted cover, and the 1988 catalog photography all suggest the red missiles attach to the turret, while the blueprints and the line art on the back of the package show the other configuration. (Note that all sources confirm that a red missile should be placed on top of the large cannon.)

The turret base seats two figures and has some sculpted console detail for each operator. Note that there are no seat belts installed here.

The 90mm cannon contains many sculpted structural details that indicate the modular components that comprise it (though, of course, the cannon itself is a single plastic piece).

Each side of the turrent base is equipped with a multi-sensor communications/data-base antenna.

When the turret base is rotated facing the back of the vehicle, additional mechanical sculpting detail can be seen.

A "turntable" magnetic array radar/multi-missile air defense apparatus is positioned on top of the main body, directly behind the cab section. The apparatus features six small removable missiles in total.

The air defense apparatus can be removed from the main body and serve as a stationary missile emplacement.

The apparatus itself features fine sculpting detail, down to the nuts and bolts. The upper section (with the six missile arms) rotates 360 degrees horizontally along the base section.

The missile arm section can be removed from the base section without a great deal of effort, though this is likely not an intended play feature.

This smooth, rectangular gap is visible upon the top of the main body when the missile apparatus has been removed. There are small hook tabs along the sides of the rectangle, with these tabs helping to secure the apparatus to the main body

The vehicle's most powerful armament are the two giant "double team" solid propellant quad-thruster rockets. Each rocket stores a payload of six roll-out "firefly" free-fall cluster bombs. The cluster bombs are stored in groups of three across two compartment bays, with a curved glass piece covering each bay.

The rockets are stored within the main vehicle body on a tower apparatus. The apparatus can be accessed by pulling the turret base outward, deploying the ATSV ramps, and opening the two middle panels on the top of the vehicle.

The ATSV ramp is directly integrated into the rocket tower. While it may seem a bit dangerous to be driving directly above enormous rockets with massive destructive power (not to mention directly over the storage area of the cluster bombs), the design of many Joe vehicle features suggests that personal safety is not always given a high priority.

Some sculpted tech detail is present at the base of the rocket tower.

The rocket tower has been elevated to its ready position. This is the perspective as seen from the front of the vehicle.

The rocket tower has been fully elevated here as well, but this perspective is from the rear of the vehicle.

The storage bay has shaped cavities to fit the rockets when the tower is not currently deployed.

Wiring and cable sculpted detail can be seen on the underside, especially between the rocket storage cavities.

The middle section of the vehicle is colored differently (at least from the side perspective) than the main body.

Each of these side middle sections can flip outward to form a ramp, upon which the small ATSV vehicle can be deployed into action.

Be careful with the ramp sections, as the small pegs that connect each section to the main vehicle do not secure the ramp, and the section easily pops off even when simply moving the ramp into place. Thankfully, the sections can each be easily reattached.

The six-wheeled ATSV (all terrain scout vehicle) allows the crew to acquire advanced reconnaissance or assault smaller targets, as it is able to access tighter spaces than the main vehicle and do so with a lower risk of detection.

The ATSV is armed with front mounted "punch it" synchronized dual barrel .50 caliber machine guns.

The machine guns swivel left and right, up to slightly more than 45 degrees in either direction.

The ATSV is powered by a rear-mounted supercharged 250 BHP in-line four engine.

The ATSV's cockpit does contain some molded detail, especially along the sides. The cockpit is not equipped with a seat belt.

The bottom of the ATSV features some mechanical sculpting detail.

The Rolling Thunder is a formidable sight from ground level.

The Rolling Thunder is a formidable sight from ground level.

Roll over the images below to find out more, or click the images to enlarge them. Photos courtesy of Chad Hucal.

Front left view.

Left view.

Rear left view.

Rear view.

Rear right view.

Right view.

Front right view.

Front view.

Overhead view.

Overhead view, rocket tower elevated.

Front left view, rocket tower elevated.

Rear left view, rocket tower elevated.

Rear right view, rocket tower elevated.

Front right view, rocket tower elevated.

File card courtesy of Captain Chunk of OG13.

---

Creator Commentary

Guy Cassaday (R+D designer) discusses his inspiration for the Rolling Thunder, ​a Marine APC from the 1986 film, Aliens. 

Guy Cassaday discusses ​the juxtaposition of Moms protesting outside of Hasbro while he's inside developing a toy of mass destruction.

---

Instructions thumbnail images are below. Click thumbnails to enlarge them. Rolling Thunder blueprint/instructions courtesy of Tim Dz.

Rolling Thunder instructions page 1 (click to enlarge)

Rolling Thunder instructions page 2 (click to enlarge)

Rolling Thunder instructions page 3 (click to enlarge)

Rolling Thunder instructions page 4 (click to enlarge)

Rolling Thunder instructions page 5 (click to enlarge)