Cobra Viper - 30th Anniversary

The year 1986 was a great year to be a G.I. Joe collector. One of the best Cobra troop builder figures arrived on the scene - the Cobra Viper. The new look of the Cobra foot soldier was vastly improved over the plain Cobra trooper from 1982. A new helmet, improved sculpting, simply, effective accessories - you know you needed a bunch of them to fight against G.I. Joe.

With the rebirth of GI Joe in the 25th anniversary line, the viper was reborn as well - much to the scorn and derision of GI Joe fan. Odd sculpting, poorly poseable legs, and those hands - those horrible hideous hands. Was the viper to be lost forever and only remembered as this 25th anniversary nightmare?

There was a new attempt at retooling the viper, but it was not much of an improvement.

Fortunately, Hasbro revisted the Viper for the Pursuit of Cobra line after the Rise of Cobra movie line. The sculpting job was incredible, but still the fan boys were whining. The new version was not close enough to the look of the original viper. Fan boys wanted the red gauntlets. Also, due to poor distribution and running changes, that blue gloved viper was very difficult to find.


Thankfully, Hasbro reissued the Viper as a part of the 30th Anniversary line, now with red arm guards, similar to the 1986 original, and an assortment of weapons. The body made use of exsisting pieces from other Pursuit of Cobra/30th Anniversary figures and the vest of the 25th Viper. Nearly everything worked. Joe fans now had an awesome update to the classic 1986 Viper. The new Viper came with 5 different weapons that could be used to create quite an impressive Viper assault team. Something about the way the arms moved and the size of the traditional Viper rifle made it very difficult for the Viper to hold his new version of his traditional assault rifle. With a quick comparison to the original, it is quite obvious that this new 30th Anniversary figure is a worthy successor to the original 1986 version.

Cast out the sad 25th attempt and embrace the 30th goodness!

A great alternative to the Viper's assault rifle is this one produced by Marauder Gun Runners.
An exceptionally sculpted assault rifle, it works extremely well with the new Viper. Two problems - I don't think Marauder is producing the gun any longer and I only bought two.
Damn...

No worries, Marauder Gun Runners has a huge assortment of weapons that work great with all of your GI Joe figures.