Crimson Neo-Viper

Height: 10cm to top of head.

Articulation: 22 points total- ball-jointed neck; 5 points each arm: universal joint shoulder, universal-joint elbow, forearm swivel; mid-torso ball joint; 5 points each leg: ball-joint hip, double-joint knee, universal joint ankle.

Colors: Molded black, gray, gunmetal, clear, and transparent red(missile). Painted metallic red, silver, black, red and off-white (snake).

Accessories: Assault rifle, pistol, pike, hatchet x2, knife, case w/snake, missile launcher w/missile, stand.

Author: RAC

(more...)

Crimson Neo-Vipers are masters of power and lethality within the Cobra ranks. They guard the leaders of Cobra and willingly submit to agonizing procedures to obtain exceptional abilities and incredible endurance.

I like generic troops. Not quite sure why, since I don't do army-building- if I have two of a given figure it's because I needed a replacement, or there's some subtle difference that justified having two. Gotta have redshirts! ...and in this case I'm being a little literal.

The Figure

It's a repaint of the earlier Neo-Viper, as the name implies, and it's identified as a Royal Guard. Even though CNV name-checks the Crimson Guard, the Cobra-La Royal Guard of the 1980s was also armored in red (and totally looks like a Kamen Rider with the big googly eyes). Even with those precedents, I can't help but wonder if the red and black Neo-Viper, with its red and black outfit and pike, is influenced by certain other Royal Guards. Either way, it's a relatively sensible uniform with armored vest, boots, and gauntlets. I'm particularly impressed by the vest, with its organic-looking crosshatching. That's some very good, very detailed sculpting there. In fact, there's a lot of fine detail on the sculpt that the shiny red hides or dulls. I may ultimately get a plain Neo-Viper so I can get a better look.

The vest is removable, and underneath it is a textured shirt with some kind of armor over the right shoulder. There's a hole in the back for attaching backpacks (which is duplicated in the armor). The armor does restrict the neck movement, especially side-to-side where the chin hits and stretches the high collar. I'm a bit worried about that pretty metallic red scraping on me. The armor also blocks the tilt of the torso joint, though its quasi-waist swiveling quality isn't impeded in the least. In fact, since the armor hides the torso, that joint looks more like an actual waist than ever.

The arms are impeded a bit by the vest- they can't quite lay flat against the figure's sides. They do swing a clean 90 degrees out to the side despite the molded-on pauldrons, though. The elbows fall half a hair short of 90 degrees, and even though this looks like the big red gauntlets at first blush, it's actually not; it's something about how the joint itself is molded. The forearm swivel is at the gauntlet, so the whole thing turns instead of just the wrist.

The hips are enough to allow the Neo-Viper to kneel and sit without trouble, and the legs swing out to the side pretty far, but not quite far enough for a full split in case that matters to you. The right hip is a bit loose, which isn't too surprising since this mold has seemingly been used to death already. The knees are double-jointed as is normal for GI Joes from the 25th Anniversary line forward, and they fold tightly but not quite enough to completely fold the leg over- you get a tight V. The ankles are universal joints, and CNV can point his toes with ease, but doesn't lean into his step all that well.


Paint and Deco

The red parts of the figure are all a metallic red similar to what was used on the Iron Man movie line, though the result's a bit more uniform here. I guess Hasbro worked out all the kinks doing Iron Man toys! The tops of the boots are the only place that betrays the silver undercoat here, and only just barely. The belt is the only other painted area on the figure and seems clean enough. And don't miss the Cobra logo tampographed in black on the left shoulder. The accessories are sparsely painted, with the blades on the hatchets and bayonet painted in silver- but not the knife. On the other hand, the rings on the tiny snake are all painted very, very cleanly.


Accessories

Oddly, all the accessories except the launcher are sticky- I suspected it was leftover mold-release agent, but the stickiness isn't going away when I attempt to clean them. It's weird, but not enough to put me off the toy, and fortunately none of my subsequent Rise of Cobra purchases have had this problem.

-Rifle

At first I thought this was the MARS D57-B rifle listed on the package, but I guess that's actually the missile launcher. This is the OTs-14 "Groza," a Russian assault rifle- the placement of the magazine is wrong, but otherwise it all matches up. It can be identified as the 7.62mm version, as that's the one designed to use the AK-47's magazine and bayonet. It's also a bullpup rifle (the first of many, trust me), with the magazine behind the handgrip and curving down below it. This can make it difficult to get the rifle in the hand, but it stays once it's there. It's not really possible for CNV to shoulder it. However, a natural two-handed grip is still within the realm of possibility- I do wish the elbows had that wee little bit of extra range they lack. The barrel is very thin between the body of the gun and the bayonet- it's got a stress mark already, and I want to avoid bending it at all costs.

-Pistol

While the rifle (except for the bad clip placement), is kind of conventional-looking, this looks nice and futuristic. A small pistol with what looks like a laser-sight on the underside, it fits in the Viper's hand very firmly and securely, and looks good.

-Pike

A very basic polearm with a hook- presumably so it does more damage coming out than it does going in. There are a couple of thicker segments near the non-pointy end for Crimson Neo-Viper to hold onto, and again, he gets a good grip.

-Hatchets

Paired one-handed axes, suitable for chopping firewood or equipping a generic ninja in a Frank Miller or TMNT comic. They fit the hands best down near the base, and stay okay. They're actually the least secure fit of any accessories so far, but still decent.

-Knife

Also suitable for background ninjas. I've seen this type of knife somewhere before- the blade is perfectly rectangular. It's like a cross between a cleaver and a machete. Or perhaps an overgrown straight razor. It doesn't fit his right hand super-securely because of the extended trigger-finger, but the left hand was pretty much made for it. The blade should've been painted, though.

-Case and Snake

A slightly inexplicable addition! In addition to the three guns and three bladed weapons, you get a clear plastic case containing a snake. The pattern of rings suggests it's a Coral Snake which, seeing as it is pretty poisonous, would make sense. But I have no idea why this guy is carrying around a coral snake. The container has a handgrip in the top and a removable cap, but it has a few problems: for one thing, the other end of the container is hollow, and the handgrip is cut-out rather than molded on top, so you have to make sure the snake doesn't fall out on you or get tangled in the box. As I noted above, though, the snake is really nicely painted, and the handgrip fits securely once again. Odd, but I like it.

-Missile Launcher

A big, big gun. Hasbro has taken a lot of flack for including these weapons from people who don't remember what business Hasbro is in: to sell as many toys as possible to as many people as possible. And for now that still means kids. Since this selfsame crowd of people would wince at the very mention of action features, that means you get a big goofy missile launcher that you can throw in a drawer and ignore.

You're welcome.

The missile launches a solid six feet- it's a good modern springloaded missile launcher. It is unquestionably the worst accessory here, but remember it's a high bar. My problem with the big goofy gun is not that it's a big goofy gun but that, like The ROTS AT-RT Driver's missile launcher, the handgrips are soft plastic. They're not so huge the figure can't hold them, but they do make things tougher than solid grips would. Balancing with the thing isn't terribly easy, but if all else fails you have a...

-Stand

The stand is designed to look like a dogtag, which is why there's a Cobra logo and additional sculpted detail on the underside. The pegs fit the feet securely, and will stay. It's better looking than the 25th Anniversary stand style, and does its job, so what else is there to say?


Closing Remarks

A good start for my Rise of Cobra collection! Crimson Neo-Viper looks good, has a few minimal accessory issues, and in the ton of accessories the thing has, that's really very little to object to. There's nothing it flat-out can't hold, including the snake-in-a-box. For a ton of functional accessories, a fun, weird one, and a perfectly ignorable missile launcher, only wardrobe options lack- we'll have to turn to the Pit Commando for those. Crimson Neo-Viper is Excellent, and if Royal Guards, Vipers, or pretty, shiny red things appeal to you, you could spend eight bucks on something much worse.

-RAC