Why did they have to wait until just before the line was canceled to really get their "LASER BLAST" together?

Meanwhile, two things...

-Does this mean Hasbro still has the TTBP mold laying around? Because that seems like a reasonably sized playset that would be cool to see released (not as cost prohibitive as the Terrordrome, Flagg, or Defiant, at least).

-I really want that purple beetle-monster figure crawling out of the water.

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Probably. They had planned to recolor and rerelease it with an arctic theme as part of the Battle Corp line. Most of the molds from that time are still around, so I imagine this is too.

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Nice find!

I don't want anything to do with purple beetle monsters, but I would be all over a TTBP release.

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Anyone have an idea as to who the 2 figures were that would have come with it?

the concept art on yojoe.com also shows the set coming with a white locust, a white mudbuster and a polar bear.

i remember beach head being one of the figures, but this box is totally different.

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Looks like Big Ben and snow serpants, odd since we got these figures years later. but you can clearly read SS in the corner pic and that is no doubt BB on the other side.

Edit: Big as life on the close up of "Special Edtion includes Big Ben and Snow Serpants"

This artwork is a great piece of Joe history and probably underpriced considering what it went for. It is a great look at many of the figures that would have been part of the '95 line and also provides some insight into which of the '94 characters would have been carried over. (It also shows that Hasbro was likely to have made Dr. Mindbender's mutations a greater part of the regular line.) The inclusion of Big Ben and Snow Serpent is somewhat random considering the great characters on the artwork (and the fact that neither of those two appear on box.....), but their paint applications seem pretty weak, so I don't think we missed out on anything there.

This is just more evidence that '95 would likely have been a collector favorite had it ever come to fruition.

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So, dryhawk, buddy... if you read this whydontcha post some clearer pics of this thing for us?

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AWESOME!

The best part is the figures shown! I'd kill for that purple monster!

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You heard me.

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Wow, that is really cool. I would love to have another TBP myself. Since this was dated in 1994, there is hope the tooling for it still exists. There would be no problems with compatability with 25A figures, that is for sure. The only point of concern would be child interest since it is a playset and not a vehicle. I love playsets and I would love for them to release this one again. Do it!

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That is actually a mockup for a retailer exclusive, similar to the dino-hunters set, and was something entirely different than the repainted Transportable Tactical Battle Platform. (There was some sort of arctic theme being played out in 1995, including a repaint of the WHALE.)

From what I can tell, we DID get the Snow Serpent in 1998 (sans red lenses) and Big Ben is quite similar to his v5, 2002 release.

But anyway, this artwork is seriously one of the most historically significant pieces to show up in public and I'm thrilled to know that a responsible collector like Drew got it and will care for it.

more pics of this would be great, the joe community could use alot more info on pre production art and what not.

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Apparently, you should ask for stuff like this more often:

http://www.yojoe.com/reviews/figures/shipwreck95.shtml

This is another amazing piece: both the busts and the artwork. I can't get enough of the '95 stuff and seeing pieces like these come out of the woodwork gets me interested in Joes again.

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