Toys
The first figure to receive the designation Viper was the Viper Pilot (included with the Cobra Viper Attack Glider) in 1983. In 1985, Hasbro released the Tele-Viper (Cobra Communications) alongside other Cobra troops without the Viper designation, such as the Snow Serpent (Cobra Polar Assault) and the Eel (Cobra Frogman).
For the most part since then, most Cobra troops including drivers and pilots, have had the Viper code name attached to their area of expertise. The Cobra Soldier figure was the standard infantry trooper for Cobra, until 1986 when Hasbro released the Cobra Viper figure. The Viper's uniform featured a black flak jacket and a mirrored mask that resembled the battle mask worn by Cobra Commander. This figure was later released both as part of the Python Patrol and Sonic Fighters sub-lines of G.I. Joe in alternate colors, in 1989 and 1990 respectively.
In 1994 a new standard infantry Viper figure was released with an all-new look (purple armor with gas mask). In the G.I. Joe comic book series published by Marvel this version of the Viper was portrayed as being a yellow/gold color. This new uniform did not last long however and Cobra has since returned to the more familiar Viper look for its standard Vipers.
Read more about this topic: Viper (G.I. Joe)
Famous quotes containing the word toys:
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“Fashionable women regard themselves, and are regarded by men, as pretty toys or as mere instruments of pleasure; and the vacuity of mind, the heartlessness, the frivolity which is the necessary result of this false and debasing estimate of women, can only be fully understood by those who have mingled in the folly and wickedness of fashionable life ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“The Child’s Toys and the Old Man’s Reasons
Are the Fruits of the Two seasons.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)