Jungle Viper

June 1, 2011 | By More


Jungle Viper. The concept seems simple enough. A Cobra troop outfitted to be effective in a jungle environment. To me, this brings to mind a dude with dark camo and some lightweight armament, maybe a machete or rope. I’d even throw a lion in there. What we got, however, wasn’t that. In the package, I thought this was going to be called a Cobra Vulture Trooper.

Appearance:

For this section I’m just going to speak of the general figure and not the addons.

And without his accessories, the Jungle Viper looks more Mortal Combat than GI Joe to me. I don’t know if it is the funny body suit or the head or black and green colors. He just reminds me more of an MK character than a Cobra trooper.

The head is a full mask. Entirely black except for the eye holes. The forehead is sculpted so that he has high arched “evil” eyebrows. One thing they did do that is kind of cool is that there is flesh tone painted and visible around the eyes. The eyes are a bit odd as they are solid white with no pupils. I just don’t understand that. If they were white lenses in a mask, I’d get it. Or eyes with pupils, I’d been fine. But, I can’t imagine a covert Cobra  would want to make his eyes more visible either by bad science or contacts.

Past that, the body is sculpted to look padded in various areas. This has got to be an incredibly hot outfit to wear hunkered down in a jungle. With very little skin showing, I’d imagine there’s quite a bit of sweating going on.

The middle of his chest has some sort of ammo pouch done in green. They are too big for pistols and too small for his rifle. Maybe some sort of cooling pack. They look good enough, I just don’t understand how they relate.

The other detailing is mostly armor pieces. Shoulder and knee pads. There’s a loose pieces that has the hip armor, back and neck piece. It’s clever, I didn’t initially realize how it was fit on there. There’s even a nice looking holster on one side.  I almost forgot he’s got wrist gauntlet pieces, too.

And that’s where it starts to go askew for me. The gauntlets look pretty good. But…each has a big ball sticking out of it for the camo piece.

I have to say the head piece falls in the same category for me. It’s just too unwieldy to be practical. Flipped up, the visor makes him look more like a Ray Stantz than dangerous Cobra agent.

One last thing I really like, though. His right ankle has a working holster on it, similar to a Biker Scout. Really well done, looks like a real holster.

Fun:

Obviously, Hasbro was thinking that Cobra needed to update the classic ghillie suit to something technologically suitable. I’m not so sure.

The “leaves” are ball jointed pieces that all snap together or on to his wrists. There’s a small back piece that has the first two joints for the shoulder pieces and one for the head. The pieces all have some paint on them and look fine from that point of view.

My problem is they look to too much like some sort of Transformer metal plate construct. I just really wish they had went with more of an organic look.

Now, let’s talk about elephant number two. His rifle. How could this possibly be a stealth weapon? It’s got freaking skis on it?!?! The thing is so massive, it’s in two pieces in the blister. I get sniper rifle, but come on.

His left wrist has added articulation to it, so I’m guessing they were going for sniper. However, the only way I could see this gun working like that is if he was in the prone position. The suit is made for standing up though, and his head won’t go back enough to allow him to lay prone.

The dual pistols he comes with on the other hand are nice. Nothing fancy, just plain matched automatic pistols. Hasbro, take not, matched pistols like this are cool. They make more sense, since character would only have to carry one ammo type for both. Remember this.

Overall:

I’ve struggled with this one. I got this figure because the blister was just so packed. I also get the concept, Jungle sniper laying in wait for a target. But, the metal looking leaves and giant gun just don’t work for me.

The figure itself isn’t too bad. He’s sculpted well. He has a realistic look for a Cobra trooper. I just can’t get past the big ball joint peg sticking out of his wrists.

Decent concept, just the execution is a bit off.

Engineernerd Score: 80/100

 

 

 

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Comments (4)

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  1. Newt says:

    See I’m glad you’re with me on this one. I loved the concept here and it just looked like such a cool figure in the package and well, in certain poses. However once I really got him out and messed around with him, he just felt clunky and overloaded. The suit reminds me of modern Vulture more than any useful disguise…

    I do wonder if maybe his suit isn’t airconditioned though, haha.

  2. Errex says:

    Excellent review. I had rather high hopes for this one, but in the end I don’t quite like the execution of the camouflage bits. Might as well keep hoping for a proper Night Viper update down the road.

  3. Name in process... says:

    About the eyes, here’s what Hasbro told Joesightings.com – “On the JUNGLE VIPER, his irises and pupils have been diminished by long hours of wearing the advanced optical network attached to his face and eyes.”

    The full answer is at -http://www.joesightings.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10630&st=0#entry90214.

    It’s kind of cool.

  4. Engineernerd says:

    After seeing his gun on Sons of Guns, I decided to look a little deeper. It’s a Lahti L-39. It fires 20mm rounds. More of an anti armor type gun. It also weighs about a hundred pounds and has me convinced this would not be a good jungle weapon. I just can’t see why you would need to have a long range heavy weapon in that environment.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahti_L-39