Alley Viper (2010)

Yesterday I covered a modern interpretation of a classic Cobra trooper, one that wasn’t a direct copy of an old figure into the modern aesthetic. Today’s figure goes a different route towards remaking something that came before.

The Alley Viper of 1989 was an odd duck, to say the least. Not a bad figure, just incredibly outside of the norm for the established look of Cobra troops. When the 25th anniversary series came along, its primary reason to be seemed as a tribute line; to make highly detailed and more articulated versions of Joe toys of the past. The Defense of Cobra Island Alley Viper was one of the best executed of this concept.

The Pursuit of Cobra line answered many fans’ wishes when it repainted the orange and blue modern version of the urban attack trooper in a more subdued color scheme. It makes for a more believeable figure, but thankfully also doesn’t throw out the wierd elements that made the figure fun and unique in the first place.

There’s just enough red to give it some interesting color, and those funky stripes add a touch of unexplained oddness. It’s road stripe camo! Makes perfect sense for an urban trooper. Like many Pursuit of Cobra figures, there’s a ton of accessories. If you’re not a fan of suspending your disbelief of a helmet visor that’s not clear and doesn’t have an opening to see through, there’s a more traditional helmet included as well.

13 comments

  • Just got this figure. Love it! I really dig the darker and tamer colors. They really match the rest of the POC line.

  • I’ll admit, this was probably about the last figure I bought out of the PoC wave 1. I was very happy with my orange version (since I had the original 1989 as a kid) and didn’t feel I needed this one. However, with as plentiful as it was in Kansas, I kept seeing it on the pegs and broke down and bought it…and I couldn’t have been happier. The additional gear (the alternate helmet and gas mask) and the retooled backpack that actually holds the grappling gun really sold me on it since I could kit this version out differently than the orange version I love so much. I’ve kind of started using this guy as my “night ops” Alley Viper while using the orange version for the day-to-day operations. It’s a striking mold with great (which just shows you how well reuse can be done in the Joe line) and the color scheme is different enough that it doesn’t really bother me too much that I already had the orange version in my collection before picking this one up.

  • I’ve got to get one of these babies at some point.

  • I’ve been a fan of the Alley Viper since V1. I know the helmet’s shield gets pointed out for being strange because it is solid, not a transparent plastic like a SWAT helmet or having eye holes like the V2 mask, but to me it makes sense as a blast-shield. Need to open a door with explosives or toss a couple flash-bangs into a room? Just flip down your blast shield for optimal protection. Flip it back up to clear the room. Works well enough for the trooper’s specialty, protects the face and eyes/vision. But yeah, still strange but looks cool.
    I always guessed the TARGAT’s face-shield served the same function for atmospheric re-entry.
    By the way thanks for all the fun posts, I really enjoy the blog!

  • Alley Vipers have to be loud bright orange like v1.

    The PoC version and every other color scheme have just don’t seem right to me at all.

  • Decent figure, but the black “riot trooper” from the same POC line is a much better interpetation of an urban Cobra soldier.

  • At first I didn’t like this figure for some reason. Maybe I was too attached to the neon colors, but once I found two of them at TRU and opened them up, boy was I wrong! This is a great figure from POC.

  • Can’t argue with Ben’s reasoning behind the face shields. That makes me see the Alley Viper and TARGAT in a whole new light as those solid visors never made much sense to me back in 1989.

  • I just couldn’t stop buying these! Such a great update to one of my favorite OG figures, I still dig the orange/blue but this just makes so much sense, throw in all the gear and it’s a full on win for me!

  • I can never hate on any Alley-Viper (well except that V vs V new sculpt one, due to the proportions).

    This guy is great, Pity his masked head is small and makes the red helmet look too big for him… and it sits lower on the head than the 25th flavouring. I am looking forward to adding a few Retaliation Alley-Vipers to the mix.

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