#1073 G.I. JOE – COBRA TROOPER and COBRA VIPER (1982 and 1986)

When I deal with the most popular toylines of the major toy companies, my blog receive almost no visits. Of course, everything I could say here about G.I. Joe has already been said somewhere else, or, if you are looking for some information, you have yojoe.com or many other sites to read for hours.

Still, I love to write about lines such as G.I. Joe and taking my figures out for a photo session, so this time I´d like to talk about the main characters of Cobra´s armies: the Cobra Trooper and the Cobra Viper. They are the infantry soldiers of the terrorist organisation, and where always present in the comics and the TV series. First the Cobra Trooper, who was one of the figures in the very first wave in 1982, then updated in 1986 to look less human and more like a sci-fi character. There is a second version of Viper from 1994, but this one is much rarer and I still don´t have it. In any case, the really remarkable ones are these two.

The Cobra Trooper was released, as I just said, in 1982 with straight arms, but the “updated” the following year with swivel arms, so this is the version in the pictures. It came with a black machine gun only. It is not to be mistaken by the Cobra Officer, which is pretty much the same figure, only with a silver emblem in the chest. Since we are going today for the “cannon fodder” only, I'll reserve the Cobra Officer for some other day.

 

The Cobra Viper looks much more menacing with its silver visor or helmet and has a much more detailed body sculpt. It seems to be wearing a special jacket (maybe bullet-proof), protective gloves and googles. This other figure came with a grey rifle and a black backpack. The dark blue is the same, as it is the corporate colour of Cobra and suits well for night actions or city guerrilla.

 

Both figures are highly interesting for collectors, as you cannot have only one, you need a bunch of them! In the community in which I used to participate many years ago, there were many advanced collectors who had 10, 50, 100 of each of these two for armybuilding. Crazy! Fortunately, they are not so scarce that they are impossible to find, with some effort (also economical effort), you can find one complete and in good shape. And if, not, they has been cloned and can be bought new, almost indistinguishable of the original ones.

Here is the Spanish fullcard of Viper (Víboras)

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: COBRA TROOPER and VIPER
• Toy Line: G.I. Joe
• Year: 1983 and 1986
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 10 cm approx.