Saturday, February 18, 2012

Zombie Vipers

Great. Hasbro jumps on the stupid zombie bandwagon, right? Well, not really. They actually created a Toxo-Zombie back in 1992 as part of the Eco-Warriors line.
The zombies are back and ready to kick some ass.
The card art is exceptional for this creep. It really conveys the un-dead look and captures the ghoulish nature of the figure.

The file card conveys some interesting bits of information about the zombies. These aren't reanimated corpses, at least not from what can be interpreted from the file card. These are Cobra troopers that have been exposed to the mysterious Compound Z. They have been mutated into nearly mindless drones that can still fight. Really?
Why would Cobra waste perfectly good healthy troops and turn them into these things? Unless, perhaps, these are injured troops, maybe not worth the health care needed to restore them to full health? Whatever the reason, Hasbro came up with a kick-ass figure.


The attention to detail is exceptional. The sculpting is amazing, capturing the rotting, damaged flesh of the zombie. From the twisted hands right down to the toes!


Hey, you see those things hanging from the harness? Those are pipe bombs with detonators. Great, staggering, mindless drones ready to blow up in your face. Just wonderful.


Hmm... Mindless drones strapped with explosives. No, don't go political on this, let it go.
The zombie viper also comes with some extended mutant arms that look really cool. I just didn't get a decent picture of a Z with the mutant arms. It also comes with one cannister of Compound Z that plugs into the back of the harness and then into the back of the helmet. The original plans were for the Z's to have at least three cannister's, but Hasbro cut costs and limited it to just one. No worries, multiple Z's and you get more cannisters.

Personally, I like the Z's more without the extended arms just in their natural nasty state. More in line with a traditional view of a zombie.
I really don't know how to incorporate them in my twisted little Joe world back in the scary corners of my mind. Maybe just Cobra sceince experiments gone wrong? What ever. They are still a lot of fun and just creepy cool.

Nice! A face only a mad scientist would love!

Usually, I have been a bit obsessive about troop building, especially when it comes to the exceptional Cobra Trooper and Cobra Viper figures. Not so much with the Zombies. Yeah, they are pretty damn cool and it would be really cool to have a horde of them, but I'm okay with the four that I have.

Of course if I see them in the stores... Yeah, I'll probably buy them!