Review – G.I. Joe Hazard-Viper
I’m not sure if the new Cobra Hazard-Viper* is controlling or just creating the upcoming Zombie Viper action figure (San Diego Comic Con photos here), but either way the look of this new action figure had me snagging it as soon as I spotted it in Wal-Mart. And while it’s by no means a perfect toy, it’s cool enough that I’m going to keep my eyes open for more of this newest wave of G.I. Joe action figures.
Starting With the Bad
There are a couple of problems with the Hazard-Viper that keep this from being perfect and stop me from trying to find one or two more so that I can assemble a diorama. For one, I encountered the same problem with the hood that Iok did (see his review at That Figures), namely that the hood doesn’t seat comfortably in the neck ring of the torso accessory. You can force the two parts together, but it seems that turning the head immediately pops the hood out. It’s a minor issue that can be solved by shoving the front of the hood in the neck ring and leaving the back hanging loose, but it’s annoying enough that it’s worth mentioning.
The second major complaint is with the toy’s hands. In this Hazard-Viper review at cooksux.com CookSux writes:
The Hazard Vipers use the same arms as the 30th Anniversary Cpt. Ace… for better or worse. The hands are terrible for this figure. His left hand is good for holding nothing but a pistol, and this makes the other items pointless.
And what’s even worse is that the Hazard-Viper’s primary weapon — the backpack/rifle contraption that is shown perfectly in this review at generalsjoes.com — doesn’t fit all that well in either hand. As you can see in my photos (and the photos in the reviews already mentioned) the weapon kinda hangs there and doesn’t snap in neatly. Yeah, these hands simply suck.
Moving to the Good
Despite those issues, the Cobra Hazard-Viper* is a fun and well-designed action figure. I don’t have a Volcano Viper so I’d never had a chance to play with this design before, but after seeing the Hazard-Viper and the Volcano Viper I’ve gotta say that I much prefer the orange hazmat-like look to the Volcano Viper’s darker colors. And the bulky soft-vinyl torso covering combined with the flared design of the pants and the hood all come together to give the toy a lot of depth; G.I. Joe figures these days are making great use of accessories to change the look of the toys completely and I’m hoping that Hasbro continues to improve on everything they’ve learned over the last five years or so with the G.I. Joe series.
Acceptable Paint
I know “acceptable” doesn’t sound like all that strong of an endorsement, but if you’ve been buying action figures then you know that acceptable is actually a lot better than we get from some companies. The choice of colors for the Hazard-Viper, as I mentioned already, are fantastic, and what little paint apps there are work well and are for the most part clean. I don’t have any complaints at all with the paint.
Brrraaaiiinnnnnssssss!
It’s mostly the Zombie Viper that got me to start taking a really close look at the newest G.I. Joe action figures, but if the Zombie Viper can avoid the problems I’ve got with this Hazard-Viper — especially the inability to neatly hold the included accessories — then I’m going to want more than one Zombie Viper. And as I play with the Hazard-Viper I am actually starting to think that even with the toy’s problems I should grab one more to go with the shelf that houses an army of Zombie Vipers.
Closing Thoughts
Any toy that can have problems holding its weapons but still be fun is truly remarkable, and the design team at Hasbro should be thanked for giving us such a neat design. I sure wish they would have solved the hand problem before releasing the toy, but as long as everything they learned working on this action figure improves the upcoming Zombie Viper then I’m happy to live with this as an exercise in improving the overall G.I. Joe series.
The movie a few years ago really damaged by interest in G.I. Joe, but between this Cobra Hazard-Viper* and the Tales from the Cobra Wars short story collection (review here) I find that I’m paying more attention to G.I. Joe these days.
And that’s a very good thing.
Philip Reed thinks he may just have to review another G.I. Joe toy this weekend. After all, the Hazard-Viper needs to get out there and start interacting with the other toys in my collection.
This guy is just too cool looking, I have to buy one! Now if only I can find one…
The reviews convinced me to finally pick up this figure, and it certainly is cool. It is too bad about the main weapon, but I think it has more to do with the arms than the hands, plus the stock on the gun. Not sure why they designed it that way when it would obviously be a problem.
Nice review, I too like the Orange color a lot.
In response to stack32, The main gun was originally released with an Arctic Destro that came out earlier this year (and can typically still be found at Target) so it probably wasn’t even designed to be used with these arms, hence why it doesn’t fit perfectly.
@Mario! – I’ll shoot you a message if I spot more of these. It’s the least I can do after all the help you’ve given me this year.
@stack32 – I love how the toy is so much fun that basically everyone who has one is happy with it despite the flaws. That’s a sign of an excellent design.
@Dib – Thanks for dropping by! The orange is neat, but as I play with the toy I realize that a really intense yellow would have probably popped more and worked with the hazmat concept. But knowing Hasbro there’s a good chance we’ll see a yellow version as an exclusive at some point in the future.