1987 Techno Viper

At a glance, I would’ve one time told you that the worst year of ARAH figures was 1987. It’s a very unique line-up of toys, as in the course of about three years you go from mildly realistic contemporary military costumes in 1985, futuristic sci-fi designs for 1986, and then you wind up on 1987, which mixes pulp fiction with super-villains. It’s an unappealing transition, but even among the wacky designs, there’s hardly a figure from ‘87 that’s truly bad (And that one figure is probably Golobulus.). A few figures are even stand-out classics, like Falcon and Outback; for the Cobras, it’s easily the Techno-Viper.

Besides that I like the figure a lot, I realize I don’t have many substantial observations to make about the Techno-Viper. I think part of that’s because I’m a little nostalgic for this figure, which is something I don’t often feel about GI Joes, or much of anything. This was one of the first Joes I bought when I got into collecting vintage stuff when I was around 15, along with V1 Major Bludd, a Lamprey and a Stinger Driver. I think that’s a bit of an odd scenario, since I know most of you didn’t buy toys as a teenager, and likewise, I think people are usually more nostalgic for their early childhood. For me though, it was a good time: toys were cheap, and I didn’t have much better to do than daydream about plastic terrorists from the Cold War, and occasionally take some odd photos of them while learning how to do that. I still sometimes think about that mish-mash selection of Cobras going on missions, only for the fact that I got them at roughly the same time.

There’s a lot going on with the Techno-Viper that makes him such a cool figure. I think first and foremost the idea is a lot of fun. They’re basically combat engineers and maybe a little more, which makes them versatile characters you can always pepper in to a few scenarios. As the only generic, single-carded Cobra in his year, having a guy who mostly only fills a support role seems a little tame, but he works as a nice replacement for the Tele-Viper who would’ve been discontinued by this point, and he’s a little more action-oriented than that figure too.

Another thing they have going for them is looks: The Techno-Viper is one of the most visually appealing Cobras ever created. The purple and dark-purple colors are really eye-catching, and do nicely to compliment Dr. Mindbender. It’s a really well painted figure, and all of the major details and elements present on the sculpt are highlighted with a few colors of paint. The only thing about the sculpt I’ve never been to keen on his his helmet: it’s a little soft looking and more vaguely shaped than what you see on his card art, the size and paint on it are still very good though.

Finally, his accessories are absolute winners. He includes a hydraulic clamp (usually called a claw, but I think the card calls it a clamp), a sledgehammer, a wrench, a plasma rifle, a backpack and two hoses that hookup his tools to his backpack. There’s a lot of fun that could be had posing him with his various tools, and it’s very nice they have thin handles that let him hold them really easily. Without his parts, this is still a very fun figure with some uses, but these accessories are really one of the main factors that make him stand out.

V1 Techno Vipers remain relatively affordable figures most of the time. In general you can get a good one, mint and complete for around $13; BiN’s commonly go for around $20. This figure is especially prone to elbow cracks, so you might want to look out for that when buying one. Oddly, I’ve noticed prices can be really inconsistent on some of these, where sometimes figures with a lot of damage will outprice relatively mint examples. In particular, the elbow cracks don’t seem to stop people from randomly paying way more for a figure.

1987 Techno Viper Links:

1994 Techno Viper

1994 and the Star Brigade line in particular are memorable for the amount of tooling Hasbro recycled during that period. One source of repaints came via the drivers for the obscure Power-Fighters, which included Gears for the Joes and a Techno Viper for Cobra. Just for being seldom seen and offering alternatives for some good sculpts, they’re fun repaints, though, that’s about the extent of what you can say about them.

Like a lot of collectors, I’m really fond of Techno Vipers. They do a great job filling a support role for Cobra in a way that’s a lot more fun than the Tele-Viper. I like Tele-Vipers too, but that figure is arguably the worst sculpt from ‘85, while the Techno Viper has little competition for the best Cobra from ‘87. Despite that, there’s only one solid variation of the Techno Viper, and it’s this repaint from the very tail-end of the line.

You never really see this Techno Viper or Gears very much, even by 1994 standards. I attribute some of that to the fact that the Power-Fighters never got out very well, and to this day are hard to find items. It’s also worth mentioning that on top of that, the Power-Fighters are awful toys, and the only reason you’d want the sets is for the odd repaint drivers.

The ‘94 Techno Viper is a solid recolor which for the most part, has darker colors than the toy it’s based on. It’s also a lot worse looking than the original Techno Viper, mainly because so many paint applications were cut for this release. On a figure like Gears, that really didn’t hurt the Barricade sculpt too bad. However, the V1 Techno Viper was a very detailed and well-painted figure, which makes this ‘94 release look much worse by comparison. There’s a lot of blank space on the ‘94 release, where the paint is so sparse he doesn’t even have a Cobra symbol. The helmet too, is a particular area where I feel the toy is bowdlerized compared to the original, featuring only two colors compared to four.

Early production samples of this figure feature all of the copper colors replaced with bright yellow. You can see pictures of this variant on the back of the box (3D Joes), which implies to me it was changed to copper a bit later in the production process. It’s a curious thing that they swapped the colors like that, though I must say I’m glad, because this figure would be way worse with the yellow.

In my collection, this figure has often had the role of an officer, a generic idea I often apply to one-off repaints. Sadly, there’s not much else to do with a figure like this. Army-building this figure is far from easy, likewise, there’s no other practical role or niche to put him in. So for that, he defaults to being a simple team leader. I enjoy him in this role, and have sometimes contemplated him being a unique character akin to Skullbuster. Still, I’ve never found him important enough to develop that idea much further.

1994 Techno Vipers are very hard to find, and costly too. Last one on eBay as of this writing sold for $92, probably a little more than it was worth, but it’s what you can expect to pay if you want one. These have always been on the pricey end, and I have to say I find it amusing how figures like this one haven’t increased in value parallel to V1 Cobra Commanders and Funskool Sky Divers. I suppose that speaks to how niche this figure remains, and for that, it’s pretty interesting.

When I was 15 I thought this was clever. Fun times.

The Viper Pit

Tag Archives: Techno-Viper

1987 Techno-Viper

1987 Techno Viper

1987 Techno Viper Links:

1994 Techno Viper

1994 Techno Viper

1994 Techno Viper Links: