#583 G.I. JOE - ASTRO-VIPER and TOXO-VIPER (1988)

SPANISH G.I.JOE CHEWING GUM

This topic was discussed very intensely in the Spanish G.I.Joe Message Boards "Casa Slaughter", but now this site has disappeared.

The chewing gum could be bought in sweet shops and bakeries for 5 pesetas each (0,03 Eur). There was only one flavour: strawberry and each chewing gum included one sticker. It was wrapped in a pink paper decorated with some figures based on blistercard illustrations.

 

Those stickers could be collected in a paper album that had roughly the size of a sheet of paper, and could be bent in two, resulting a small booklet with cover, interior (2 pages) and backcover. The album was, of course, free, and most children had a few of them. I had 6 or 7.

The 39 stickers had to be sticked on the inside pages. These were the 36 figures available that year, plus three stickers with the emblems of G.I. Joe, Cupra (the Spanish Cobra) and Tiger Force. Each sticker represented the toy figure equipped with all weapons, and had a characteristic background colour depending on the faction: blue for G.I. Joe, grey for Cobra and orange/yellow for Tiger Force.

In case you got to complete the album, you were promised a big prize. For one album you could choose two figures (theoretically one good guy and one bad guy) and for two albums you could choose one out of three big vehicles: the Tomahawk, the Phantom X-19 or the Rolling Thunder.

That was of course an almost impossible task. Despite buying chewing gums by dozens, there was a sticker that was really difficult to obtain: Toxo-Viper. During many years I thought that this sticker did never exist. The chewing gums were a big success, but I never met anybody who got this particular sticker. Years later, on the internet, I met a guy who said that he completed one album and received two figures. I do not doubt this is true. According to what he told me, he found the sticker somewhere on the street, completed the album, sent it, and got two random figures, not the ones he asked for, and not even a G.I.Joe and a Cobra, but two Cobras.

Toxo-Viper obsessed many kids back in 1990 (in Spain the American figures from 1988 came later), everybody looking for that sticker. Me too, and finally, I bought the figure in rage. The figure is simple, has plain colours, and also simple accesories. The best of Toxo-Viper for me are the concept for the figure and the helmet, which has an amazing design. The backpack has at the side two containers which are sometimes broken and the gun has a peg for the cable that is also fragile. Otherwise it is a rough figure.

The second figure presented today is Astro-Viper. This figure was also in the album, but the sticker could be found normally. Although both figures were released in the U.S. in 1988, Astro-Víbora belonged to the 2nd Spanish series (1989, but was also available the following wave in 1990) and Toxo-Víbora to the 3rd series (1990). This figure also has an amazing helmet and a cool backpack. The backpack has 5 parts: main body, two arms/control handles and two lasers. The two lasers are very fragile, and are almost always broken. The peg to insert it in the main part is too fragile. The colour scheme is also amazing in my opinion.



Watch out! Joe's laser artillery!

As a bonus I include here the spanish filecard for Toxo-Viper and another one (I think its Norweigan or Swedish) for Astro Viper.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: ASTRO-VIPER and TOXO-VIPER
• Toy Line: G.I. Joe (Wave 7)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 9,5 cm (3 3/4'')