Cyber-Viper (1993)
You may think I’m crazy, or that I simply have no taste, when it comes to my appreciation of the more strikingly colored 90’s GI Joes and Cobras. Considering how many of them that I’ve already covered, I should probably pace myself. I wouldn’t want to run out of them too soon, and be forced to write about more 1982 to 1985 figures. Who wants to hear about those dull toys?
I’ve resisted the urge long enough. I just can’t keep Cyber-Viper under wraps any longer. Just look at this figure. Is there any other that more perfectly distills what was going on in the 90’s Joe line? In an attempt to recapture the kid demographic, and regain Joe’s domination of boys’ toys, anything was tried. At times it imitated, at times it baffled, and at times it utterly failed. But a few times the product transcended the gimmickry and outlandish color to produce some of the finest and most creative molds of the era. You just have to look past the eye-popping color combos.
The Cyber-Viper lacks the bulked out properties of many of its companions. It’s a trim, exciting sculpt that is absolutely loaded with detail. There were misses and hiccups along the way, but in general, the Real American Hero line, even during the periods that are less popular with collectors, was an incredibly diverse and high quality product. The modern figures are highly detailed and meticulously sculpted, but to think of the amount of tiny detail that was put into this figure almost twenty years ago is amazing.
Design wise, the Cyber-Viper is a wild and wonderful figure. It speaks directly to the GI Joe kid in me. Can you imagine the excitement of a Cobra monster wrangler and cyborg trooper rolled into one? How much cooler would it be to stick moldable bio-armor (or Play-Doh to you and I) on a toy? Fun stuff.
Given more support in terms of media (comic, cartoon) I think the Mega Marines concept could have performed better. But by that time, RAH Joe was on his last pegs. While I would have loved to have seen a lot of the later molds repainted and re-released, part of me is glad that they only exist in their fabulously ridiculous original forms.
I like this figure, and think in a different color scheme (like its fellow subset-mate the Mega-Viper was) it would be a hit.
This is a great figure. Repainted in Cobra blue, it would have been a great V2 Tele Viper. But, this guy stands on his own. He was an odd duck in the comic. I’ve always linked these guys to the Detonator due to their comic appearance. I have a small army of them and wish I had a few more. But due to write ups like this they have gotten pretty pricey and hard to find in recent years.
Terrific colors!
Gotta love those 90s Joes, Rob. The mold behind it is really solid, just tone down the garish green and yellow and it works okay. I loved the Mega Marines as a kid but I passed on this guy for some reason…I don’t know why. But look at him, you’ve got to admit one thing–for all his flaws, he’s definitely unique (unlike the modern Cyber-Viper).
This is one of the last Joes I ever bought (along with Monstro Viper) as I didn’t stick around for 1994. I loved him then and I love him now. I wouldn’t change anything about him.
I bought mine on E-Bay about a week ago. The figure is just awesome although I´m not a fan of the bright neon colors that dominated the 90s. For some reason I´ve always thought that the Mega Marines were created to compete with Kenner´s Aliens toyline from the previous years. There are a lot of similarities.
The only boring thing with collecting Joes are that it has become a quite expensive hobby. (Especially if you don´t live in the states)
Can´t see myself army-building for years to come ;/