By Loran
No matter what the environment, Cobra’s got a specialized trooper just for that purpose. Whether it be the city, the desert, the arctic, or the jungle, chances are, the Joes are going to find more than just a bunch of blue-suited Cobra rookies. These are the guys they really need to watch out for.
If I didn’t know any better, at first glance, I would’ve pegged the Jungle Viper for an updated Night Viper figure! This suits me just fine, because I was never able to build up a huge platoon of those guys. It’s good to see Hasbro giving us updates of the lesser-seen troops for the late years of the line; even with a new name, we can all tell what it’s supposed to be.
The Jungle Viper doesn’t need to go over-the-top with his camouflage-just simple green and black. It’s simple and effective. I feel any sort of camouflage color scheme would just clutter the design and distract from the great detail this figure. I would have liked to see more of the smaller details painted, but I can understand why they chose not to do that.
A lot of the green parts are covered with a very subtle black wash. It really makes the parts seem more “three-dimensional”. Hasbro’s been getting very good at this lately.
The head sculpt is another great masked trooper head, augmented by the night scope visor. The visor clips on the side of the head like a LEGO minifigure’s visor. It can stay up or down without really moving-something I wasn’t expecting. For some reason Hasbro opted to give these figures blank, lifeless white eyes. I can’t really think of any reasons why they went that route, but it makes him look downright creepy, and certainly not the kind of Cobra you’d want to come across.
His articulation is surprisingly unhindered by any of the padding, though aligning the waist one can be kind of tricky. Surprisingly, he has the new-style hinged wrists, effectively making him the first figure to utilize them! They both go in different directions, though, and the right one doesn’t seem to be sculpted well enough to make full use of it…
The Jungle Viper’s main weapon is a GIGANTIC cannon/sniper rifle! This thing is awesome-it reminds me of the Gundam Ground Type’s 180mm cannon from The 08th MS Team. It can separate into three pieces though there doesn’t seem to be any place to store the pieces. You can even plug it into his back, though it looks quite uncomfortable.
Of course, he comes with a pair identical pistols that both store in holsters.
But the main event of the figure is the wacky cybernetic-ghille suit. Wow, this thing is pretty absurd and awesome at the same time. Most of it plugs into the backpack plug of the figure, with two pieces attaching to his arms. It gives him some serious poseability hindrances, but not quite as bad as Ripcord because he can still sort of move. Still, it’s a very unique accessory and would make for some awesome dioramas.
The Jungle Viper was pretty high on the list of anticipated Pursuit of Cobra figures and he most certainly delivers. The design manages to update a classic figure while still being its own character. Some may find the backpack gaudy, but I like it. It really works with the “ten minutes into the future” thing the line has. I’m not going to go overboard army-building this guy; I’ll probably stop at three. He’s definitely worth picking up, and if you’re a fan of off-the-wall Cobra troopers, he’s for you. If you see him at FPNYC, look into his soulless eyes… you won’t be able to resist them.
