Megadestroyer

Although this quite impressive vehicle name was not listed anywhere in the credits or in the screenplay, Hotwheels did manage to produce "Megadestroyer" miniature versions of this battle tank from the Mega-flop movie Megaforce. Ten of these vehicles were originally produced for the film and only three are rumored to remain. One was put up for auction in late 1998 in Los Angeles, the second was purchased by an Army Navy store along the beach in Balboa, California where it remains today, and the third was purchased by Code One Custom Auto several years ago from Fantasy Cars Ranch. These vehicles were built by moviecar designer, John Rimpaw in California who constructed them on custom made dune buggy chassis with VW Baja 1000 racing engines mounted in the rear. These tanks are extremely light as all of the armor plating is actually molded fiberglass. The bottom of the tanks are completely covered in ½ inch aluminum plate as these vehicles were required to do many jumping and crashing stunts.

On board weapons systems included: Two propane firing machineguns mounted inside the hood A 50-caliber propane gattling gun mounted on the right side A propane cannon on the left Three miniature Phoenix missiles in a variable trajectory launch rack mounted on the roof A "Stealth Nose" Roof mounted scanning radar tracking unit Armored plated wheels Variable color smokescreen A Laser emitter mounted on a telescoping "Scorpion Tail" mounted on the rear end (A service station attendant in western Pennsylvania, upon inspecting the tank, once seriously asked Paul, if he was in town for the hunting season).

While most of the tanks were eventually used in other productions, few were used as anything near resembling their original form. The body of one of these tanks was removed and replaced with a sheet metal body, painted gray and used in a rock video for the band Quiet Riot. The Megadestroyer purchased by Code One Custom Auto had been recently used for a Virgin Records commercial that also featured the TAC-COM vehicle from Megaforce as the hero of the commercial. The plot of the commercial was to have the Virgin Records "Tank" destroying the competion. The Megadestroyer was repainted white with brown patches, making it resemble a "battle cow" and affixed with a fiberglass replica of "Nipper" the RCA trademark dog. During the commercial, it was "blown up" by the TAC-COM and the head of the dog shot into the air. Probably why this commercial has not found it's way into mainstream televison. Interestingly, while the "Lightning Bolt Camo" paint schemes of all of these vehicles appear to be the same, they are not. Each vehicle uses a different color combination following the same pattern. This holds true for the armored Delta MK 4 Cycles as well. Removal of the "cow" paint revealed that the included doors had come from another tank.
Originally, only one door was designed to be functional, the other was simply a design on the other side. An accident during shooting involving a stunt man being trapped inside a vehicle that had been rolled over prompted the refusal of the stunt team to drive the tanks until they were modified with an additional exit. Code One purchased this tank and restored it to its original paint scheme and operating condition. All of the weapons systems were found to be intact with the exception of the Scorpion tail Laser. The FX team removed this accessory for the reasons described in the information provided on the Delta Mark 4 Motorcycle. Code One is currently producing a replica unit made from design specs of the original.