Yes, I’m still in the midst of convention decompressing and gathering information together to get posted, but I just had to get this nugget out there, since I think a lot of fans will love checking out these images.
Gyre-Viper of HissTank.com posted a metric ton of pictures of recently acquired HISS Tank as well as both the G.I. Joe and Cobra Mech Suits for the upcoming Pursuit of Cobra line. Yes, they are as sick as you think they are, especially that HISS. Amazing stuff. The thread can be found here, and I’ve mirrored nearly three dozen pics below as well.
In an effort to tie this back in to the convention, too, I did want to just take a minute and say one of the highlights of the Con for me was getting a chance to meet and interact with Gyre-Viper as he prowled the sales floor or the hallways of the hotel. I’ve seen my fair share of fans from all walks of life, and many of those fans I run into who buy the pre-production items have a craving to be “first”, to wear it like some sort of badge of honor. But Gyre-Viper has a palpable thirst for knowledge, an amazing respect for the G.I. Joe brand, and a healthy desire to see G.I. Joe succeed, which drives him to collect the way he does. He obviously has a deep appreciation for what the toys are all about now, but he also is extremely fascinated with how the production process happens, and with the history of G.I. Joe over the past twenty-eight years.
It was a blast meeting with him and shooting the breeze for a little while, and it always excites me when someone who hasn’t been around all that long can motivate other folks to get excited for the product, and who has an obvious energy himself.
Gyre-Viper, you da man! Keep it up, bud.
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Interesting post. The vehicle I care most about in this line paired with two of the four “mechs” which I care least about…lol. (I just can’t stop thinking Robocop when I see these things, it’s just not GIJoe)
Kickstart and Cyber-Viper look cool at least.
Unfortunately these pics do not really reveal anything I would actually be interested in knowing, like what gear (if any) do the drivers come with? Do they come with stands? Do the PoC stands have the characters names on them? That sort of stuff.
The little fold-out is weird. Instead of showing the figures you can collect they have an entire page with painted versions of them??? And not even like the very cool art of the packages?? Odd choice.
These things do look amazing in packaging though. That HISS especially. I really need to move somewhere bigger so I can properly display these things :/
By the way, if anyone wants to share the secret of how one gets their hands on a packaged PoC HISS this early in the year…..I’m all ears 😀
If only the guys at hasbro would refit the Dragonhawk to carry those into battle then it would be epic, (it’s cool to see these for the new figures and all, but transporting them into a battlefield should have been something that should have been explored.
Yeah, tkprime, the S6 Dragonhawk would have been awesome as a new vehicle for the PoC line. Even so, I could totally do without these goofy Mechs.
Like Hawkwinter said, they seem more Robocop than GI Joe. Although, come to think of it, they also remind me more of the Aliens movies, and when you consider so many of these PoC guys resemble the hell out of some Aliens/Predator type characters, it isn’t much of a stretch that they come off as more sci-fi than Joeverse. The HISS, I like, but I’ll be painting mine black, as I do not care at all for the dull dirty look on a HISS, desert or not. Unfortunately, I’ll likely end up buying one of those crappy Mechs just to get a Desert Scorpion, maybe two, and then chuck the mechs into the bin for recycling.
The Avatar “Scorpion Gunship” will be pulling duty with me as a lesser version of the Dragonhawk, since the two share some similarities, and Wally world has reduced the prices on them.
i apologize for the missing gear bits … I literally had just gotten home from
joecon but couldn’t help myself… I had to post pics of what I’d gotten in the mail
while I was gone… and didn’t really go all out like I normally do.
here’s some pics I posted months ago when I first got the
test shots/protos etc of the mechs and drivers etc.
I think since I’ve posted so many stages of these sets that
I got kinda lazy with this batch of photos.
so here’s an old thread that has the accessories.
http://www.hisstank.com/gi-joe-news/gi-joe-movie-2/gi-joe-pursuit-of-cobra-retooled-sigma-6-iron-hammer-mechs-and-jurassic-park-gi-joes-in-hand-9247/
I think that without a lot of supporting gear and characters/troops, I don’t much care for the H.I.S.S. myself but it does look like a pretty cool toy. It is not the direction I would have gone with the thing, but then it ain’t my company. Personally I am very tired of renaming every rebooted battle tank “H.I.S.S.” or “HISS” when they could just as well come up with a new name. This tank is similar in shape but it is more of a mecha without the armor to keep from being Swiss cheese.
I like the HISS, but I’d like it more in black as well. As for the mechs…meh. I’m all for mech warfare, and bought three Avatar suits for Joe use, but these are pretty weak, IMO. The weapons seem overly bulky and fairly useless, and the cockpits make the suits seem less “suit” than “Skyhawk with legs”. Too bad, but I actually don’t think these’ll have a place in my Joe Universe, and if you knew my love of Giant Robots and mecha, you might be surprised at that.
I seriously don’t get the need for another black HISS.
The original is black and it is a perfect design. They will never design a cooler HISS so why try and make the new ones look like the old ones, further showing how they fall far short of the awesome original. We just recieved a brand spanking new original version of the HISS in the 25th line, so seeing them branch out and giving us a desert-ized version is just awesome. And the mini-sized version in the HISS Scout is totally cool for Urban settings. Strangely no one complains about that. So I’m guessing the real problem is that they didn’t call it the Cobra Desert HISS.
“I seriously don’t get the need for another black HISS.” – Hawkwinter
I don’t think I’d classify it so much as a “need” for another black HISS, so much as a preference, but that’s just me. I’ll add also that even if it did say “Cobra Desert HISS” on the card or box or whatever, I’d still go paint it black.
Granted, these new HISS Tanks ARE inferior in design to the originals, and they likely never will design a cooler HISS than the first one. Even so, these are not bad at all, considering what they are. Personally, I would have done something a bit different with the design and actually flip things around from the original somewhat and combine that with elements of the new and old together. Still may not be quite as cool as the first HISS, but would at least offer a certain amount of flavor to an existing design basis.
For an urban concept, I’d like to see the Mini-HISS packaged with an Alley Viper and a ton of optional gear with a price point of maybe $8-$10 in stores, or if nothing else add in some of the old set components from stuff like the Outpost Defender, but instead of sandbags, have the little broken brick wall to pose them behind for cover. There are lots of ways Hasbro could package and market that Mini-HISS for us to get our hands on it, along with other cool stuff, instead of it coming with a lame@$$ CC. At least it seems to fit with the Urban/Alley Viper better, at least theme-wise anyway.
Speaking of Alley Vipers, it might also be cool for Hasbro to release some sort of troop builder “Evolutions” type pack, featuring the various 25th Def. of Cobra Island Alley Viper up to and including these new PoC Alley Vipers, in a 3-pack set. They could do BATs and Cobra Desert Troops (Desert Scorpion, Desert Viper and so forth), along with some others.