1986 Cobra Viper

For some reason, I’ve held off on writing about certain figures I consider important or prominent, as though I’ve needed time to come up with enough to say about a GI Joe toy as legendary as the Cobra Viper. Alas, between the blog being dead for the better part of a year  (Now going on two!) and it being this site’s 10th anniversary, I might as well chew on some thoughts about some classics I’ve left ignored. Also, after a decade putting a post about the Viper on the VIPER PIT seemed about right. Maybe.

Like many of the 1986 cast, the Viper is sort of a repeat of the Cobra Soldier. So there’s always been a slight divide between Viper people and Trooper people, usually having to do with what point you came into collecting at. Back when GI Joe forums were still relevant, it was funny seeing all the narrow-sighted criteria people would invent to justify what they do collect vs what they don’t, with the general theme being “I only like the stuff that was cool from before puberty, and not the stuff that was lame after gurlz”. Not that any of that’s really relevant anymore, as the modern o-ring collector seems so desperate for a hit of plastic even most of the neon-90’s stuff will find a home somewhere. Seeing the GI Joe community now versus how it was in the late 2000’s is somewhat jarring, as many of the people who are still around from back then seem to have totally reinvented their tastes. Then again, I don’t go to places like Facebook, so I could be missing out on a lot of the classic, abstract tom-jerkery that people invent to justify their tastes in toys.

For me, the comics and cartoons always showed them together, which is how I like it. Cobra troopers look basic and unskilled, like goons that are just given the bare-minimum and told to go commit crimes. Vipers however have much more sophisticated looking gear and uniforms; Nothing too fancy, but something more than the basic gear of their predecessor. In my head cannon, I like to imagine Cobra troopers as being the more organic, bottom-level enlisted soldiers, while Vipers have better gear and a minimal amount of training and experience. Assorted foreign interests pay Cobra to have Vipers do their bidding, while Cobra Troopers are more commonly criminals of 3rd world countries looking for a few dollars in return for some simple crimes. It’s much easier to move up in the ranks as a Viper, whereas Troopers are usually low-investment, unscrupulous criminals from around the globe.

The colors on the Viper mark somewhat of a change in the brand’s design philosophy. Red, blue and black are pretty well established classic Cobra colors, but the Viper uses red in far higher amounts than the trooper or See-see. Cobra colors were fewer and more solid with earlier figures like the HISS Driver or Crimson Guard, both of whom were bright red, but had more reduced palettes with fewer clashing colors, whereas the Viper is almost 50/50 blue and red. Again, the colors were used before, but the ratio seemed to change around this point giving the figure a bolder, but also less realistic look.

His sculpt is sharp and well done. He has a head roughly the size of any other ’86 release, which is fine, because he’s wearing a big clunky helmet unlike his contemporary Low-Light, who’s head is nearly the exact same size. I’ve always been fond of the torso’s detail and sharpness on the vest; the rest of the sculpt is similarly crisp. The 1986 line rarely had proportions on par with the 1984 line, but the quality and detail of the sculpts were showing steady progress despite the large amount of figures released in this year (Also, I’m conveniently ignoring Lift-Ticket with this statement.).

The Viper comes with a very basic rifle and backpack. I guess that’s an upgrade from the trooper’s one sniper rifle, but still not a whole lot. As far as I know, the Viper’s rifle is a mostly original design, and doesn’t appear to be cobbled together from other sculpts like Ripper’s gun or the Crimson Guard’s. The off-white color shows the detail of the sculpt fairly well, and it’s a nicely designed gun. “Iconic” is overused term in the modern lexicon, but I hold this design up there with Cobra Commander’s pistol, being somewhat the symbolic gun of Cobra. On a passing note, I’ve seen way more Vipers with broken left thumbs than other figures, which I suspect is from people (children?) trying to use the fore grip on the rifle. The backpack is big and bulky, and honestly I dislike it. The rigid look of it’s shape coupled with how badly it throws off their balance has me wanting to reach for any possible replacement any time I handle a Viper. You really only see this part in my photos just for the sake of authenticity, but I really think it makes them look worse.

The world had no shortage of Viper repaints after this release, with frankly far more of them than I care to list. Of course, the full sculpt with the legs was only intact for the Sonic Fighters Viper and Python Viper after this one. Sitting that aside, the remnants of the Viper mold was released by Hasbro another 9 times until 2006. Some of these recolors were more enjoyable than others, but the sculpt was mostly used to it’s fullest potential. Personally I’ve never even been eager to collect most of these Vipers, as I feel it is nicer to have 40 Vipers in 4 or 5 color schemes, as opposed to 40 Vipers in different colors each. Environment specific Troopers and Vipers were the collecting dream for years, but the law of diminishing returns comes into effect pretty hard here.

Mint, complete V1 Vipers hit around $30, more or less. These days I don’t find that a horrible price to pay, and it’s pretty much in line with the “iconic” army builders of the first few years. At the very least it’s nice these are a tad easier to get a hold of than a mint, swivel-arm Trooper; those not only being more seldom, but also more often in poor shape. Next year the Cobra Viper will be a 40-year-old action figure, given that, it’s not outrageous to pay a premium for such a figure. With that said, the collectible market is still overly inflated, so I think prices will continue to slump over the next few years.