Didn’t take Gyre-Viper long… just mere hours after posting images for the HISS Scout, he’s also gotten some images online at HissTank.com for the Wave 2 Mech, the Cobra Minotaur. The highlight of the Minotaur for most folks is probably the Desert Scorpion, and there are certainly plenty of images of the figure as well. A surprisingly effective figure based on the limited parts choices available.
Check out the mirrored images below. The current release status of the Wave 2 Mechs is unknown. The reason I say that for the Mechs and the Alphas is twofold… first of all, I believe Gyre-Viper was told by his Asian contact that these samples were for “canceled product”. Not only that, but I don’t see much sense in rushing out the release of the figures, then staggering the vehicle releases back another 2 months, with no figures to compliment them.
It’s highly possible that these will see the light of day at some point, but personally, I don’t have a real good feeling about it. Alpha’s have been sort of clogging shelves, and judging by the fact that PoC Vehicles are already abundant in ROSS stores doesn’t speak well for the future of PoC vehicle releases at mainstream retail.
Time will tell. Hopefully we’ll get some intel in New York in February.
no images were found
desert scorpion is neat.
Its a shame if we won’t see any vehicles moving forward with the line. I for one enjoy them and purchased everything POC had for vehicles, even the reissues, I didn’t have any of them already with exception of the AWE Striker( but really who doesn’t have one of those at this point)and Skyhawk (ghosthawk, which was a retooled from even the 25th version. One of the biggest draws to the vehicles for me is the figs that come with them for the most part. And the Minotaur would not have been an exception as the Desert Scorpion is pretty cool considering it seems to be one big kitbash but cool none the less.
I don’t understand where things are clogging shelves. Wal-Mart hasn’t carried any of these in my area. In fact, one Wal-Mart in my area (which use to carry lots of joes until PoC) hasn’t carried any PoC at all. The Targets are all sold out and the KMarts haven’t had anything either.
What shelves ever got these to begin with? We must have gone back to the horrible distribution problems of old. All Joes go to a few stores somewhere else in the country.
It does seem to be a distribution issue as I hear a small group of fans saying that the vehicles are everywhere, while about 90% of Americans and Canadians are still asking where the hell they are? They showed up for one week and those sold and well, we haven’t seen anything since.
It does seem that Hasbro is releasing them to only a few places in the States.
My Walmart got in one order of PoC wave 1. That’s it. They’ve tried to get more, I know the manager, but there is not enough product around for them to get any.
With the recently announced Target buy-out of Zellers I’ll finally get a Target in my hometown as well which will hopefully improve my Joe hunting chances. As is, I’m still forced to buy 90% or more of the new Joe stuff online for higher costs. Extra cash which is NOT going into Hasbro’s pocket because of their crappy distribution.
I do hope they improve things soon.
As for this and the HISS Scout….meh.
Yeah, I’m not really seeing any clogging either. In fact, things have been pretty smooth. I haven’t had to scramble to get toys and beat scalpers to the punch. Everything has been stocked regularly and bought at a regular pace. The vehicles came and went…but no more have shown up. I’ve been waiting on that vehicle with the Alley Viper and the new VAMP for awhile now, but I’ve seen nothing. Only one clearencing any vehicles is Meijer, and they’ve only got one HISS tank to clearence. Guh…I hope we aren’t doing another one of thier weird little hiatuses.
I’ve noticed the same thing too. No clogging here (except for a couple Doom Cycles at one store). The single packs, the alphas, bravos, mechas, all cycle through fairly quickly whenever they restock, even though nothing has ever been on sale around here in East Coast Canada since PoC started.
After cancelling the HISS Scout and Cycle armor once (since they were scheduled for RoC) it would suck if they did so AGAIN. Only four vehicles left for the planned PoC – surely they can get them out there!
Will they ever be released, and if they are will they be to regular stores or discount/close-out chains? That’s what I have been feeling for a long time now with G.I. Joe product. It took Target, Walmart and Toys R Us a full year after the DVD release to clear out Rise Of COBRA merchandise, as if they were WAITING patiently for Hasbro to gear up for the follow up that never came. Some of this stuff is taking so long to get to retail that even Halo merchandise is more plentiful. The other problem is media exposure, does Hasbro realize that they keep on letting momentum slip away from a market that NEEDS speedy follow-ups?
If ONLY G.I. Joe had a comparable game to the Halo series to keep it’s consumer market awareness up.
Toys R Us shelves are clogged with RoC vehicles here.
Vehicles aren’t really collecting dust here, either. You can usually find some, but it’s not like they’re falling off the shelves. I thought Target was dropping the Alpha vehicles at one point, as they disappeared and their shelf space was dedicated to something else. Turns out the DCs just didn’t have them to ship to the stores, so they replaced it temporarily to prevent having empty space during the holiday season. The stores where they went missing all have some now.
And while my local Wal-Marts clearanced off the wave 1 mechs, at least two have space for Alpha and Bravo vehicles and eight pegs for carded figures on the post-holiday planogram. All eight pegs are empty at one of those stores, but I’m hoping that will change soon.