Alley Viper (Retaliation)
Well, the second G.I. Joe movie came and went, and the only good thing I have to say about it is that at least I got a few cool toys inspired by it, even if the Alley Viper I’m reviewing today did not really appear on screen.
In fact, there were very few action figures actually developed using the movie costumes, but I am rather glad Hasbro selected Alley Viper to round up the toy line.
First thing off is that this is not a plain repaint of any Alley Viper released previously. Some of the pieces are the same, but the Retaliation Alley Viper is kit bashed from at least a couple other figures that have nothing to do with Cobra.
The end result looks actually very cohesive and is also helped by a newly designed (I think) piece of webgear.
Articulation is as good as one would expect from a modern G.I. Joe figure not meant to represent a ninja, which means Alley Viper has the following:
• Pegged hinge shoulders.
• Pegged hinge elbows.
• Swivel wrists.
• Floating torso.
• Ball jointed hips.
• Double hinged knees.
• Pegged hinge ankles.
As usual, the webgear prevents the torso joint from having a full range of motion, but overall the Alley Viper is as versatile as one would expect.
Since the only Alley Viper I had any awareness of was the one released in 1989, the color scheme in the 2013 version represented a definite improvement for me, even if red doesn’t quite strike me as a very tactical hue to wear.
The Retaliation Alley Viper is molded entirely in a dark red color, with a few uniform elements painted in black and some gray urban camouflage patterns applied over the red sections.
The overall paint applications looked consistent from sample to sample, but a lot of the figures I saw at the store had differing degrees of strabismus, which is something you may not care about since this guy will probably spend most of his time wearing a helmet.
The really cool ting about the Alley Viper is the amount of gear he comes with. The package included as helmet with a flip-up face plate, a piece of webgear made from black rubber with a sheath for the included machete, a submachine gun, an assault rifle, a small knife that goes into another sheath molded onto the figures forearm, a tonfa baton and a riot shield with a clip inside to store the baton.
Despite all this gear, Alley Viper also includes the action accessory of a spring-loaded projectile launcher and a projectile with a zip line attached to it, as well as a small printout with instructions on how to use the contraption.
Even though Hasbro has not been delivering knockout hits in these first waves of Retaliation action figures, I’d say that this Alley Viper is certainly one of the more enjoyable ones I have gotten so far.
Errex Score: 95/100
Category: Featured, GI Joe, Toy Reviews
I really like this figure as well, it kinda boggles why they keep going with bright colors for these guys, not that it doesn’t work, it just seems to fly in the face of reason. That said I picked up a couple to add to the ranks of my troops, the thought was to maybe use as a specialist of some sort. Oh and that web gear I believe first came with PoC Jungle Duke, I know it’s bee used a few times but it really nice.