2006 SAW Viper, DTC

I’m a big fan of the DTC (Direct to Consumer) GI Joe line. The handful of times I spotted them at a TRU in 2005/06, they really caught my attention with the excellent character selection and retro styled packaging the line featured; in a way that the prior GI Joe lines had failed to do. Alas, I wouldn’t acquire any figures from the line at that time as I was already fully preoccupied collecting Gundam figures and Transformers.

A year or two after that I finally went down the rabbit hole of GI Joe collecting and picked up some of the DTC figures from years prior I had missed. Luckily for me, the lot of these figures were a simple task to acquire for small change online, giving me a healthy selection of modern styled SAW Vipers, Range Vipers, Snow Serpents and a few other figures to add to my newly growing collection of Cobras.

Apparently, the “New Sculpt” figures were at one time much the collector fad in the same vein as the Modern Era GI Joe figures. Like the early 25th Anniversary line, many of the sculpts did not age well, and once this format fell from favor, collectors were quick to dump their collections favoring only the vintage classics or the new modern figures.

I’m a really big fan of late 80‘s and 90‘s Cobras, but the 1990 SAW Viper is a figure I’ve never found it in me to love. Strange design, questionable colors, scrawny sculpt, terrible weapon… By far I think he’s my least favorite ARAH army builder. So for a figure to redesign in the DTC line, the new SAW Viper doesn’t have to do much to improve over the original.

The proportions and scale of the sculpt on this figure looks very reasonable. The worst I can say is that his head seems a bit tiny, but with his helmet on it looks passable. The chest and legs have a fairly bulky look that suits the figure well, and are a major improvement over the original figure.

The colors focus much more on black accentuated with maroon. I feel a little like this moves too far away from the figure’s original color scheme and actually makes this figure a little too realistic. Most wouldn’t view this as an issue, but perhaps keeping the purple instead of the maroon would’ve tied the figure back to the original a little more and given him some more of that 90‘s Cobra charm.

For parts, he includes his removable helmet and the original SAW Viper’s backpack, as well as a M249 LMG. Given that under the helmet all of the SAW Vipers end up looking like clones, I find this accessory somewhat redundant, but it acts as a play feature and I respect it for that. The backpack was a pretty decent choice in this case, as although I don’t like this part much, there again it ties him back to the vintage figure, which is needed here. Lastly, the M249 is a really nice sculpt and I dig the removable box magazine it features. I’ve come to associate this gun with the SAW Viper more than it’s original weapon, but that’s mainly just because the original was such a monstrosity.

If you don’t mind the construction, this figure provides a lot and acts as a nice alternative to the V1 SAW Viper. Like with many figures these days, finding them is not as easy as it used to be, but when they do show up, they remain dirt cheap. A carded figure can be acquired for as little as $7, and a loose figure or one in a lot may have the price drop to around $5. For that much, it’s definitely a figure worth looking out for.

direct to consumer 2006 hasbro cobra new sculpt viper 1990 gi joe

2006 Viper (Cobra Viper Pit 6-Pack)

I’ve thought about discussing this set for awhile, and being that my blog shares a name with this set, it seems right to talk about the Cobra Viper Pit at some point. The amusing thing is, I really just liked the name and thought it seemed unique for a Joe blog, but I’m not the biggest fan of the set. That isn’t to say I dislike the figures by any means, however.

The Cobra Viper Pit set and it’s Vipers are somewhat infamous in the GI Joe collecting community at this point. Namely, the reason for that is due to how incredibly fragile the figures are, and how poorly they’ve aged in comparison to other delicate feeling figures no one thought would last long.

The main problem with this Viper is that the crotch, sans modification, will almost be guaranteed to break. This is because the thighs are newly recast Viper thighs, while the waist is the same one from the BAT that Hasbro used on all Viper repaints from ‘97 onward. As it turns out, these parts are not a great fit, and the t-bar puts enough pressure on the crotch that sooner or later, it breaks.

The problem is compounded if you leave the factory o-rings in this figure, though twelve years to the release of the set and it’s mildly hard to find any still intact. Hasbro used undersized o-rings in these and they should be immediately replaced upon acquisition of the figure.

To correct the crotch issue, one can use a nail-file and grind down a portion of the inside of the figure’s crotch. This alleviates the pressure issue and seems to help the range of motion in the figure’s legs. I’ve owned four of these Vipers for about four or five years now with no problems thanks to this, though it’s a serious shame a figure needs modifications just to prevent it from breaking.

It should be mentioned as well, that these Vipers inherit the neck bar from the 1997 line, a modification intended to limit the head movement down to left and right like all of the pre-1985 figures. It’s dumb, and has been an annoyance on all of the Vipers released since then, and it’s present here too.

These glaring quality issues are a huge damper on what could’ve otherwise been one of the best GI Joe items of it’s era. A set of 6 Vipers, all in classic colors with decent parts and great painted details, it’s a premise that’s hard to screw-up, yet Hasbro somehow found a way to do just that.

The painted details of this figure is where they really shine in my opinion. The colors are very similar to the V1 Viper’s, but a lot of details are highlighted on this version that were easily overlooked on the original Viper. The goggle lenses, gloves, vest buckles, grenades, they’ve all been swapped out from large swathes of red and black for additional colors. I think it looks so good, I’d dare to say they’re an upgrade to the V1 Viper, visually.

The parts really aren’t bad either. 2000‘s GI Joes are known for coming with random, tired and terrible parts (good example: The Cobra Infantry Forces), but these guys come with a little variety of new and old guns in appropriate colors. Four of the Vipers in the set have Ambush’s bullpup in light gray, while the other two each got a black LMG from the DTC SAW Viper, and a light gray MP5 like the one from the DTC Range Viper. As well, the set included four backpacks from ‘92 Gung-Ho.

With all that said, these should be great figures. But, requiring modifications just to work as intended makes them a failure of a product. Still, I really like these Vipers and enjoy using them in photos from time to time. With current Joe market pricing, I see full sets of these, carded or loose, running between $30 to $50. Like all of the other mid-2000‘s GI Joe sets, the supply of these have really dried up, and prices have gone up accordingly. Personally, I think you’d be well advised to spend your collecting dollars elsewhere, as at the moment these just have too many problems and cost way too much.