Pat Wagon? H-Wagon? Manta? What are the differences?

[shaolin_monkey]

The vehicles Justice Dept use have always confused me. Some are used to collect perps, some are offensive, some are at the scene of riots, some are airborne, some are ground based, some just seem to provide surveillance.

Which are which?!?

Could someone help me get to grips with the vehicles and what they do please?

Is there a write-up somewhere? Or could someone give me a quick summary with links to pictures or pages from the progs?

[Spaceghost]

As far as I can remember, Pat Wagons are specifically for picking up perps, 'H-Wagon' is a catch all term for any hovering (H) vehicle, and the Manta is the big flying death saucer thing with what looks like a Judge's helmet stuck on top for a cockpit.

Just from what I can remember from reading, so apologies if it's vague.

[pauljholden]

When I was a tiny Earthlet is used to confuse me deeply why H wagons were called that. (And believe it or not, you've actually finally cleared that up).

I *wanted* them to be the shape of the letter H (this was, at a time, when I was trying to get people to use H as my nickname, since I hated the nickname that was foisted on me, though now I'm older and wiser I see the many drawbacks of the nickname "H" when you're from Northern Ireland*)

When I drew the recent dredd strip, I finally got a chance to make the Tex-City H wagons an actual H shape. SO IN YOUR FACE YOUNG ME!

-PJ
*In my naivity it never occurred to me that the pronunciation of the letter H was a commonly used way to distinguish who was protestant and who was catholic in 80s Northern Ireland.

[I, Cosh]

*In my naivity it never occurred to me that the pronunciation of the letter H was a commonly used way to distinguish who was protestant and who was catholic in 80s Northern Ireland.

Never heard this one but then I've never had that strange ability to determine sect from name*.

I just always thought it should be the same as H-Blocks! Because there are blocks in MC1.


* Genuine quote from a girl I knew at university on first meeting another friend of mine: "K*v*n MacDonald?! With a name like that you must be a fuckin' fenian!"**

** To be fair, she was right.

[Dunk!]

In my youth I assumed Pat Wagon was a play on "Paddy Wagon" the American slang for a police van due to large amount of Irish immigrants on the force - though I may have been labouring under the impression it was a "Patty" Wagon originally.

The H Wagon reasoning is a revelation.

Dunk!

[Echidna]

H is for Hover and Pat is for Patrol, right? Or is that just my own headcanon?

[Dandontdare]

H is for Hover and Pat is for Patrol, right? Or is that just my own headcanon?

^ this. I've always thought of them as patrol wagons and hover wagons - where the name Manta came from, I've no idea. "manta prowl tank" is also rather odd phrasing now I come to think of it - does a tank prowl?

[Dunk!]

Patrol Wagon - that makes sense. Stupid younger me.

Dunk!

[Frank]

"manta prowl tank" is also rather odd phrasing now I come to think of it - does a tank prowl?

In the same way an Opel Manta basks in shallow waters, hoovering up plankton. Mankind has a long history of attaching meaningless mood names to technological creations.

shaolin _monkey: do you want a picture of Carlos's Manta (striped like a flat fish) or absolutely everyone else's Manta (asymmetrical tank without wheels)?

The Manta got its own introductory story, fixing the name to the characteristic Ian Gibson touch of the judge helmet turret. Pat wagons, H wagons and everything else in Megacity One look different every time they appear.

Can't wait to see how the Manta looks when rendered in Sculpey ...

[Fungus]

Good thread 
Manta was clearly based - I felt - on the Manta Ray;
Pat Wagon your generic Paddy Wagon (but 'patrol' makes sense I see...);
H Wagon does Hover but that only dawned on me after encountering a few (which is so much better than a Tharg-Note explaining everything);
and don't forget Meat Wagon... felt like the punchline to many a tale 

[Lobo Baggins]

The vehicles Justice Dept use have always confused me. Some are used to collect perps, some are offensive, some are at the scene of riots, some are airborne, some are ground based, some just seem to provide surveillance.

Which are which?!?

Could someone help me get to grips with the vehicles and what they do please?

Is there a write-up somewhere? Or could someone give me a quick summary with links to pictures or pages from the progs?

'Wagon' seems to refer to any Justice Department ground vehicle; Pat Wagons patrol (we see them doing this in 'The Day the Law Died' and 'Necropolis'), and Dredd will occasionally send for a Catch Wagon when he wants perps picked up after he's arrested them or a Meat Wagon if they're already dead (I don't recall ever actually seeing one of these in the strip though).  There's variations including the floating, riot control Pat Wagons seen in 'Block Mania' and Med Wagons (ambulances) also occasionally turn up.

There's also a Heavy Tank Division ('Heavies', we see them in 'Necropolis'), and small, one person Interceptors.

[Lobo Baggins]

H-Wagons are aircraft.  These vary in size and appearance quite dramatically - Ron Smith and Brian Bolland tend to draw small, flying saucer-like vehicles with a crew of to or three with larger, boxier transporters and freighter-like larger vehicles (there's a submersible H-Wagon in 'Pirates of the Black Atlantic' which is actually a bit H shaped if you squint a bit); Carlos Ezquerra draws sleek, fast vaguely manta-shaped black and white attack ships (we see loads of them in 'The Apocalypse War').  There's also another vaguely H-shaped long range H-Wagon on 'The Alabammy Blimps'.  Brendan McCarthy draws H-Wagons that look like Eagle spacecraft from Space 1999.  There's also a couple of flying personnel transporters visible in 'Necropolis', and a heavily armed H-Wagon Gunbird turns up in 'The Taking of Sector 123'.

Manta Prowl Tanks were introduced in 'Rumble in the Jungle'; they're larger, mobile command centres with a crew of eighteen.  However, they don't appear to be particularly fast or manoeuvrable, but are very heavily armed (we see about a dozen demolish the ruins of a citiblock in 'The Warlord').

[Frank]

Manta Prowl Tanks ... don't appear to be particularly fast or manoeuvrable

... yet they're small enough to fit down a sewer!*


* See Michael Carroll and Paul Davidson's New Tricks, prog 1884. John Wagner and Greg Staples think Mantas are suitable for kicking in doors (Dark Justice, 1912)

[ZenArcade]

I thought Pat waggon was some futurese for Paddy (Pat) waggon. The term comes from the pick up waggons used in america for lifting drunken rowdy types (ie the local Irish contingent).
I had always thought of the Pat waggon as a prisoner pick up vehicle.
Judges on foot and bikes are the basal patrol element. It escalates up to Manta prowler for local heavy tactical support and finally H waggons for a really, really bad situation. Z

[Colin YNWA]

Patrol Wagon - that makes sense. Stupid younger me.

Dunk!

No he wasn't I assumed the Pat related to Paddy Wagon... oh hold on the young me was pretty stupid too actually...