 This episode of HCC 788 brought to you in part by the Dicast Enterprise. Join us each week as we discuss the sexual proclivities of Commander William T. Riker. The bravado comedy of Lieutenant War. And the adorable monkey shines if one Wesley the sweater crusher. Or maybe we'll just talk about the golden girls. Or hairstyles. Or cartoons. That's equally likely. We also like G.I. Joe. There, we tied that in nicely. Well done everyone on that. By all our play sets and toys. Commander 788 here, back for so great talk here to love G.I. Joe. Horizon! March, March! Wait a minute! Ready! Ready! Ready! Silence killed. Hello everybody, hooded Cobra Commander 788 here and I am in my closet. I am in total darkness. I've been in here for 24 hours. At least I think it's been 24 hours. It's hard to judge the passage of time when you can't see anything. I'm in the closet because this week I am reviewing the Night Viper and I wanted to get some real Night Viper training as it is depicted on the file card. The Night Viper's have a pretty hardcore training regimen so I am avoiding all light to see how long I can take it. Before we get started I wanted to thank my daughter Victoria for drawing a couple of the thumbnail illustrations for my videos. Those are the title card images that pop up when the video shows up on YouTube. Thank you Victoria. I'm really excited about reviewing this figure. It is not one that I had as a kid. I was out of G.I. Joe by the time. But as an adult collector I really like it. So let's take a look at it. HCC 788 presents the Night Viper. This is the Night Viper Cobra's Night Fighter from 1989. This figure was first available in 1989 and was also available in 1990. The figure was discontinued for the year 1991. This is the only version of the Night Viper in the vintage line. There was no replacement for the Night Viper in 1991. However in 1990 we did get the Night Creeper. But the Night Creeper was a ninja. He was not a Night Fighter in the same vein as the Night Viper. The torso, waist and legs of the Night Viper were reused for the 1992 Helly Viper. And I cannot applaud the reuse of parts in this case. The Helly Viper is probably in my top 10 list of ugliest action figures ever made. Night Viper was released the same year as G.I. Joe's Night Force, the Toys R Us Exclusive Subteam. Night Force used existing figures and recolored them for night fighting. So Night Viper's are the perfect enemy for Night Force. Let's take a look at the Night Viper's accessories starting with his Night Vision goggles. And the goggles consist of two parts. There is the visor which is attached to his head and is hinged. So you can flip it up to see his mask underneath. Very nicely done. You can remove the visor very carefully. Just be very cautious about that. It could snap. But you take that off and then there is another part to it. This removable Night Vision scope which pops right on there. This Night Vision scope has a clip on it. But it doesn't really seem to have anything to clip to. That's just an extra bit there. I think it would have been nice to have something to clip it to. But really nice two part Night Vision visor. This Night Vision goggle assembly may be based on the real world AVPVS-7 single tube Night Vision goggles. Those were in service in 1985. So they would have been around in 1989 when the Night Viper was issued. Now let's take a look at the Night Viper's weapon. And his weapon is what the card contents call a gun with night scope. And that's not very descriptive. This rifle does have a scope on it and a very straight stock and no grip. I've not been able to identify a real world weapon that this is based on. It has a strap so you could sling it over Night Viper's shoulder. But it has another way to store the weapon on the action figure. These two holes in the side connect to these pegs on the leg of the figure. And so you can sort of holster it that way and it actually attaches to the action figure. The Night Viper was not the only figure in 1989 that had a rifle that attached to the leg like this. The 1989 Rock and Roll version 2 also had a rifle that attached to his leg in exactly the same way with a couple pegs. This method of attaching the accessory to the figure is a little problematic. Those pegs are very thin and very easily broken off. You have to be very cautious with those. However, they were trying to add a new feature and a new way to holster the accessories. And so I can appreciate that. You can fit the rifle in the Night Viper's hand despite the fact that there is no good obvious grip on it. However, since that stock is so straight, it limits the ways you can pose the figure with it. Night Viper's final accessory is his backpack. And this is a pretty good backpack. Lots of nice detail. Excellent detail on this backpack. It has some technology there. It has a couple antennae so it looks like it's intended for communications. Really nice and fitting backpack for the Night Viper. Now let's look at the articulation for the Night Viper. He had the standard articulation for figures by 1989. So he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow so he could bend at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the biceps so he could swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of the Night Viper starting with the helmet. And the helmet is non-removable, which is standard for Cobra. We don't expect Cobra to have removable helmets. But this is a wicked cool helmet and mask. We have green in the back here. The rest of the helmet is black. You can see his eyes there. The Night Vision goggle would come down to cover his eyes. And just really, really nicely done. You have the knobs there that the visor attaches to. You have to be careful with those. Those can crack off. Looking at Night Viper's chest, he has a green uniform and this is a nice color for his job. This would still be pretty well concealed in the dark. He has a black strap with a black knife on it. Really nicely detailed. Some shoulder pads. The detail goes around to the back. And then on the front, he has this light green Cobra symbol. And this almost looks like it would be glow-in-the-dark paint, but it is not. I checked. His arms continue that dark green uniform. And on his right arm, he has what looks like shells for his shotgun. He has elbow pads, which are very nicely sculpted. He has black gloves with some additional detail on them. And then on his left shoulder, he has a patch. Looking closely at the patch, it looks like it is a skull with a dagger and a lightning bolt through it on a black shield. And this is probably the unit insignia for the Night Viper's. And it's a pretty good one. That's pretty awesome. On his waist piece, he has a black belt. It goes all the way around. Then he has a bronze-colored belt buckle. And that's just a little splash of color. It doesn't hurt. Then going down his legs on the inside of his thighs, he has that green uniform color. And on the outside of his legs, he has black, ridged armor or padding. On his right leg, he has the holster for his rifle. Those two very thin pegs that will break off easily, so be cautious with those. Then on his left leg, he has what looks like gas canisters that connect to a hinge at his knee. Almost looks kind of robot-like. Then on his left shin, he has an extra green knife. And then, of course, he has green and black boots. I want to make a special note about the coloring on this figure. The green that they chose for the Night Viper is just beautiful. It is deep and rich and the perfect color to offset the black details. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have something important to take care of. Somewhere in here, there is a tiny little white mouse. And he is my friend. But I've lost him. I don't know where he went. Now, I know some of you are probably thinking, he's going out of his mind. How does he know the mouse is white when he can't see anything? I know because he told me. Duh! Mortimer! Mortimer! Where are you? Where are you, buddy? Let's take a look at the Night Viper's file card. And the file card has his faction as Cobra. It has a portrait of the Night Viper here. And that portrait does not quite capture the awesomeness of the figure. But it's okay, I guess. It has his codename as Night Viper and he is the Cobra Night Fighter. This top paragraph says, A Night Viper's helmet is a miracle of electronic miniaturization. Aside from its wide-angle, third-generation image intensifier, directional sound amplifier, and laser-range finder, the helmet boasts a passive infrared detector that can spot the body heat of a squirrel at 100 yards. The Night Viper's helmet combat suit and weapons are mostly made of synthetic composites that reduce the wearer's own infrared signature and defy most ground radars. This first paragraph is entirely about the Night Viper's equipment. It doesn't tell you anything about the Night Viper itself. This second paragraph says, Night Viper's are always in training and never see daylight. They live in windowless barracks with no interior lights. They spend most of their time trying to sneak up on each other. All you have to do to knock one out is to shine a flashlight in his face and burn out his sensors. The problem is, you have to find him first. This second paragraph of the file card about the Night Viper's training is pretty cool, but the problem with it is it wouldn't really work. The Night Viper's are in total darkness all of the time and being in darkness for an extended period of time has some pretty severe psychological effects. Effects such as hallucinating and totally losing track of time, sleeping for 12 or 13 hours when you think you just took like a 15 minute nap. The Night Viper's training would not turn them into elite soldiers. It would slowly drive them all insane. Instead of turning them into awesome night fighters, they would all go mad and be completely useless for combat. The Night Viper had limited G.I. Joe media appearances. In the cartoon, he appeared in the Deke animated series, in the Operation Dragonfire mini series. Unfortunately, he came along too late to appear in the Better Quality Sunbow animated series. In the G.I. Joe comic book series, the Night Viper first appeared in issue number 94 in the Snake Eyes trilogy. Snake Eyes gets plastic surgery to repair his damaged face. The Baroness attacks on a vendetta against Snake Eyes. She is assisted by Night Vipers and Alley Vipers. While I have them together, let's do an impromptu comparison between the Night Viper and the Alley Viper. These figures were released the same year, and in their overall design, they are not all that dissimilar. However, in their color schemes, they could not be more different. Looking at the Night Viper overall, this is a talk-tier figure. Of course, he looks awesome. Even though the Night Viper is kind of a latecomer in the 80s, he could be among the all-time great Cobra Troop builders. He has a really great geared-up look with the helmet attachments and the rifle and the backpack. A squad of Night Vipers could sweep into a Joe encampment, and no one would know until it's too late. It's too bad the Night Viper came out after the end of the Sunbow animated series. It would have been nice to see how Sunbow would have animated these guys. They should have been used in the comic book more, too. I guess I have to do the end part myself. Please like this video and subscribe on YouTube. Like the Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. Support this channel on Patreon. Your support keeps me from killing him from making big Joe purchases. You could save this man's life. Visit HCC788.com. Thanks for watching. I'm not going to say that catchphrase, because it's stupid. See you next week. Night will fall soon.