the Polar Battle Bear
The Polar Battle Bear is a 1.4-ton snow vehicle deployed by the Joe team for use during cold weather conflicts. Propelled by two powerful treads driven by a 160 HP, rear-mounted v6 engine, with steering controlled by two front-mounted skis, the Battle Bear is a one soldier power house - though it can carry two passengers in a pinch. The Battle Bear has these vehicular characteristics:
| Handling RV 10 |
Velocity RV 6 |
Durability RV 20 |
Protection RV 10 |
Bullet-Proof Windshield: the front of the Polar Battle Bear (and thus its driver) benefits from the presence of an acrylic composite, bullet-proof windshield. This windshield accounts for the Polar Battle Bear's Protection rating, which only applies to front-based attacks. However, the windshield offers the Bear's driver rank value 10 protection against physical attacks while driving it.
Heat-Seeking Missiles: mounted on the two steering skis, these surface-to-surface miniature missiles are quite effective in striking their targets in the icy northern (or southern) wastes. Each of these missiles can strike a target to inflict the listed damage, though if the Polar Battle Bear's driver strikes a single opponent with both rockets at once, they inflict +1 RS damage. These rockets have these vehicular statistics:
| Handling RV 30 |
Velocity RV 30 |
Durability RV 10 |
Damage RV 30 Slashing |
Quartz Halogen Headlamp: the front of the Polar Battle Bear is equipped with a powerful quartz halogen lamp, allowing its driver to see the terrain before him or her even in the darkest of nights. The lamp illuminates the area in front of the Battle Bear with rank value 20 light, and if used cunningly, it can be utilized to inflict a blinding attack upon an opponent.
Roll Bar: this special steel bar, wrapped over the driver's seat of the Polar Battle Bear, offers the listed Protection rating to its driver regarding rolls and crashes. It wouldn't shield them from, say, a bomb blast, but if the Battle Bear gets struck or toppled somehow, at least its driver will benefit from rank value 10 protection against the resultant damage applied to the vehicle.
Synchronized 50mm Cannons: fitted with a 650-round drum of ammunition, these twinned 50mm cannons can inflict devastating damage upon enemy personnel, vehicles, and fortifications. They can be fired to inflict rank value 30 Piercing damage per deadly burst, and can dish out punishment for quite a while considering the exceptionally large amount of ammunition available to them.
2002 Variations
the Rock Slide
About twenty years after they first fielded the Polar Battle Bear, GI Joe refurbished and reissued several of these vehicles as the Rock Slide. The primary change in this ride is that, aside from the addition of grayscale monochrome camouflage, the Joes exchanged its additional passenger room for an addiitonal weapon. This additional hardware functions as described below:
Rotary Multi-Missile Launcher: the chief difference between the Polar Battle Bear and the Rock Slide is, of course, this exceptionally large rocket launcher. This thing, about half the size of the Rock Slide itself, is armed with four powerful rockets, each of which is loaded into the firing position by a complex rotary system. The heat-seeking rockets launched by this thing have these characteristics:
| Handling RV 20 |
Velocity RV 50 |
Durability RV 20 |
Damage RV 30 Slashing |
2017 Variations
the Marauder Snowmobile
Fifteen years after the latest iteration of the Polar Battle Bear hit the streets, GI Joe's newly reformed Battle Force 2000 overhauled the concept from top to bottom. Rereleasing them as Marauders, to honor the previous Battle Force 2000 ride, these highly efficient snow combat vehicles are functionally the same, but are much more reliable and cheaper to produce, and now come in Battle Force 2000 colors.
Extra Goodies:
GI Joe directories featuring a version of the Polar Battle Bear:
| 1983 | 2002 | 2017 |
Return to the Battle Force 2000 main page!
Interested in using Technoholic content in your own project? Please read this beforehand!