 Commander 788 here. It's week two of forward and we're gonna take a look at this is a figure that I sometimes forget I even have He's like a blank space on my shelf. I see that he's there, but I don't notice him But today he gets to shine. It's your day in the spotlight televiper. So that was my review of the 1985 televiper I hope you enjoyed it. If you did. Oh, I haven't done it yet. Sorry. I forgot HCC 788 presents Televiper This is the Cobra communications trooper from 1985 the televiper the televiper was available in 1985 and 1986 and was discontinued for the year 1987 the closest thing to a replacement for the televiper in 1987 was the Technoviper the technoviper was a technician not a communication specialist But he was about as close as you could get to the televiper in 1987 in 1988 The python patrol televiper was issued using the same mold as the original televiper But with different colors as a communications officer The televiper is the Cobra equivalent of a breaker and dial tone on the GI Joe side and like breaker The televiper did not come with any weapons all of his accessories are related to communications The televiper is the first Cobra figure to be called Viper So he is part of the Viper Corps although the basic Viper figure was not released until the following year in 1986 there were other Cobra army builders in 1985 there was the Crimson guardsman the snow serpent the Cobra eels and the Lamprey but none of these were called Viper except for the televiper later Cobra army builders tended to get the Viper suffix It became kind of standard But I kind of like the 85 lineup for being a little more creative in their names I've always wondered if the Viper was initially intended to be released in 1985, but was pushed to 1986 for some reason let's take a look at televiper's accessories starting with his handheld device here and The contents of the card on which he was packaged call this a VS 11 scanner This looks like a gun, but it isn't it's a communication scanner And this could probably be used for microwave communications Microwave transmission would be aimed directly at the receiver since microwave requires a line of sight Propagation which could prevent the enemy from intercepting the transmission when this thing showed up in the GI Joe comic book It was used in various ways including as kind of a portable TV In some issues it was shown as having a TV screen inside this circle here I can't think of any benefit of building a TV screen in the shape of a rifle like this watch my YouTube videos Watch them. I say this raises a good question to ask the viewers if you were of an age to get this toy as a child How did you use this accessory? Was it a scanner? Was it a microphone? Was it a camera? Was it a TV screen? Or did you use it as a gun a grenade launcher? What did you think this thing was since the televiper didn't come with any weapons? I can easily see kids just using this as a gun the televiper comes with a standard black hose that connects to the Nub on the bottom of the grip of his communication scanner and the other end of that hose connects To a similar nub on the bottom of the backpack. Let's take a look at that backpack. It is black It has some pretty sleek lines and some detail up here It has an antenna and it does have that nub where the hose plugs in and that is small and can break off So watch out for that. That is pretty tiny. I think this backpack is just okay It's kind of plain and since this is supposed to be a high-tech backpack I kind of prefer it to have more detail Something akin to the backpack that came with dial tone which had a lot more technology and gadgetry sculpted onto it That's it for accessories. So let's take a look at televiper's articulation He had the standard articulation for 1985 G.I. Joe action figures That means he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down his neck was on a ball joint He can move his arm up at the shoulder about so far and swivel at the shoulder all the way around He had a hinge at the elbow allowing him to move at the elbow about 90 degrees He had a swivel at the bicep 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 little bit. He could move his legs apart about so far He could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of the televiper starting with his head And his head has this sculpted on helmet that's not removable and it's pretty large and the helmet actually makes his head look pretty big There's some fair sculpted detail on the helmet and there are a couple points here on the chin that are probably supposed to be microphones He has silver goggles and in the G.I. Joe cartoon series his goggles had kind of a funky feature But I'll talk more about that later. The flesh color of his face is painted on the base color is blue So whenever you have a painted face like this you always run into problems with paint wear especially on the nose His teeth are painted white and I appreciate that they painted that detail in on his chest He has a blue shirt and over that he has a purple vest with a couple pockets And then it has this quilted diamond pattern that continues around to the back his arms feature that blue shirt with rolled up sleeves Which is very informal for a cobra trooper one thing that is weird about these rolled up sleeves is he has pockets on the Outside of these sleeve rolls. So how exactly does that work? I mean are these on the inside of his sleeves on his left arm He has a very tiny cobra symbol which unfortunately Overlaps the sleeve roll a little bit on his waist piece He has a black belt with a silver belt buckle and looks like that's supposed to be a cobra head And there really is a very minimal detail all the way around this his legs continue that blue uniform And they also continue the sparse detail He has purple pockets on either leg Those are have a little bit of detail on them and he has a stripe sculpted down each leg His trousers are pulled down over his boots and he has purple boots check out these purple boots They don't even really look like boots. It looks like he's wearing purple Reeboks There's nothing on this figure that really jumps out at you It's a base blue figure with a little bit of purple added and there really isn't very much contrast between the blue and the Purple so your eye just kind of overlooks it so from a distance He just looks like a plain blue figure with this plain blue uniform I see the televiper as Cobra's answer to breaker both in their matching specialty and in the fact They are both utilitarian and minimalist the following year in 1986 GI Joe got a new communications officer dial tone and dial tone had a lot of equipment Lots of detail lots of sculpted technological gadgets on the figure and I kind of wish the televiper had gone that direction I do appreciate that the televiper brought back Cobra blue that classic blue color from our first Cobra figures the Cobra trooper And the Cobra officer from 1982 let's take a look at the televiper's file card And this file card was printed on the back of the card on which the figure was packaged You can see some of the artwork from the front of the card there It has this faction as Cobra. It has a portrait of the televiper It says he is Cobra communications and his codename is televiper's plural file name is classified And of course we're not talking about an individual here There would be a lot of televiper's primary military specialty is communications secondary military specialty electronics birthplace various countries This long paragraph says these are the RTO's in parentheses radio telecommunications operators of the Cobra ground forces They carry a standard modular radio pack that contains as a main unit a VHF transceiver equipped with an automatic frequency hopper A crypto unit and passive jamming and anti-jamming devices The televiper helmet contains high resolution earphones with overload dampers and two sets of voice actuated microphones The interior of the helmet offers an alternative LED readout triggered through the optional computer pack Optional transmission modes include microwave beam and laser both available as add-ons to the basic pack Well that's all nice but this file card is mostly about the televiper's equipment not the televiper It reads like a sales manual G.I. Joe is getting too close to our base Televiper Yes commander Contact Destro immediately Oh sure thing right away One ringy dingy Two ringy dingy Destro Cobra commander would like to speak with you will you accept the call Uh I can't talk right now I'm polishing my helmet I'm afraid Destro can't talk right now he's polishing his helmet This is unacceptable get him back on the line now Oh I'm afraid I couldn't do that we have shift change in five minutes What? Televiper I order you to call Destro back or I will have you eliminated Oh no I would hate to be eliminated I guess you'll have to figure out how to run all this equipment by yourself Maybe you could try tying two Dixie cups together with a string The televiper core we don't care and we don't have to The televiper was fairly liberally used in G.I. Joe media though he was never the main focus In the G.I. Joe cartoon series he first appeared in the episode Rockets Red Glare in the 1985 season The televiper was only a background character but they didn't have that funky thing they did with his goggles In the cartoon they would show LED messages scrolling across the televiper's goggles But they would be mirrored so he would be seeing from the outside what the televiper would be seeing from the inside of the goggles That in itself is kind of weird but what's even weirder is it would scroll messages of what the televiper was thinking Like when he got hurt it would say ouch Ow hey my background works the same way The televiper did appear in the G.I. Joe comic book series as well but again only as a background character But he did appear fairly frequently throughout the run of the series Communications is a pretty useful specialty so there were plenty of opportunities to use them Taking a look at the televiper overall this figure is easily overlooked It's bland and uninteresting You play as an important role within Cobra but there's nothing about the figure that really stands out There's nothing specifically wrong with the figure It's not outlandish It's not a bird man or an alien or anything like that But there's nothing really right about the figure either There just isn't anything there It's like it was intentionally designed to be dull If there is another figure that is as forgettable as Xandar This is probably it Any communications officer is going to be a background character He's a support troop He's not in the vanguard of the assault But that doesn't mean the figure can't be done well One of his G.I. Joe counterparts, Dial Tone, I think was done well I think the best part of the figure is the rolled up sleeves Which Cobra figures usually didn't have It gives him a little more character and it shows that he works for a living He's not the leader of anything He's a worker bee and he rolls up his sleeves and gets the job done And probably doesn't get a lot of glory for it I think the televiper was surpassed by the 1987 Technoviper Another technician I wasn't a big fan of the purple color But the colors did have more contrast He had a more distinguishable uniform And more sculpted detail 1985 was a great year for G.I. Joe And a great year for Cobra But the televiper was one of the weakest figures of that year So that's it That's week two of Cobra Month The televiper No! Cobra Month has to be awesome This just isn't working Computer, end program Computer, I need a plan That will make Cobra Month Even better than last year Why are you asking me? You are the reviewer? Don't sass me Computer, create a program That will finish Cobra Month In the most exciting way possible Program, it will require two weeks to process Two weeks? Alright, fine You get started on that In the meantime I'll be back next week And we're really gonna ramp it up I'm gonna do a Cobra figure That people have been requesting and really want to see That was my review of Televiper I hope you enjoyed it If you did, make sure you leave it a thumbs up on YouTube And make sure to subscribe on YouTube You don't want to miss anything from Cobra Month Like me on Facebook Follow me on Twitter Share this video And I'll see you next week And remember until then Only Cobra is Cobra