Ever wonder how Slip stream can get his X-30 shot out from under him, or Steeler can get his Mauler shredded by the Thunder Machine, and then turn around and have a clean and fresh new ride for the next mission. Well maintenance and repairs are part of the answer (Cluth, Har Top and Toolbooth work wonders in the Motor Pool bays), but the other part is that when the Joe team is fielded with a new piece of equipment, they will usually get several prototypes or test articles, sometimes a pair or three, and sometimes up to half a dozen or so. So when the BF 2000 team was formed, the team not only had their primary vehicles, but also had a couple of spares provided by the manufacturer in storage on the lower levels of the pit. After a particularly hairy mission involving an experimental fuel cell, Hardtop started looking for something to augment the Tiger Ray both on the water, and on the fens and swamps of the everglades. The old Vindicator Hovercraft fit the bill. Named in honor of the former fallen pilot, Hard Top pulled it out of mothballs and began to fix it up. Outfitting it for maritime duty, Hard Top pulled off the Anti Armor main guns and replaced them with Fire and Forget ship killer missile pods and installed a new electronics and communications suite. The Tiger Blaster is a dedicated naval escort for the Tiger Ray and also capable of taking the fight from the open sea and onto beaches and swamps. The hovercraft can also be used for high speed diver insertions and extractions, quickly zipping in to within a few miles of the coast of Cobra Island, dropping off Wet suit and Torpedo and then zipping back out again. GPS and satellite tracking technology allows pinpoint timing and pickup of the divers in the open ocean.

CrossHair: Hey Hard Top, Does this thing still do that "future fortress" thing?
Dial Tone: Dude, we don't talk about that.
Cross Hair (mumbles): Doesn't talk about that or anything else much I guess...

Originally I wanted to do both a TF Vindicator and TF Blaster (I may repaint later), I could not get my hands on a Blaster figure in time, so I crafted the "extra prototype" story to rationalize the existence of the hovercraft. Naming it after the fallen Blaster was a bonus. I envisioned Hard Top coming back from the Escapade in the Everglades mission with a desire to have a wingman for the Tiger Ray capable of hitting the Dreadheads on the swamps and fens versus being stuck in the middle of the channel in the Tiger Ray. I could not find a pair of front guns no matter how hard I tried, and eventually had to stick the DTC Hiss missile pods on it, which required only a bit of drilling to widen the peg holes.