 This video is voted on by patrons. They got to choose my final review of Cobra Convergence 7. I like to give them what they want. And this time since we're looking at a Cobra Wilderness Survival Specialist, I'm testing my own survival skills. I'm out here far from civilization, and I must survive only on what I can find in the wild. I hope I can survive to the end of the video. It's important to stay hydrated. Hello everybody, hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. It's my final review of Cobra Convergence 7, and some of you watching this help me choose what to review. Thank you to everyone who supports the channel on Patreon. You make these reviews possible. This time I am risking my life by surviving in the wilderness until the end of this video. It will not be easy. It's very hot out here. I could die. If I die on screen, that's good television. I'll get a lot of views out of it. The Range Viper is a unique and popular figure, and he has a horror theme, which is why he's usually reviewed around Halloween. He has a skull face and a brain helmet. The Range Viper is also known for his skill at surviving in the wild. He can live off of wildlife, build his own shelters, and even steal ammunition from the enemy. If he can do it, I can do it. It's hot out here. HCC 788 presents the Range Viper. This is the Range Viper, Cobra's wilderness trooper from 1990. This action figure was introduced in 1990 and was only available in 1990. It was discontinued for 1991. This is the only vintage version of the Range Viper. The figure was revisited several times after the vintage era, including the modern GI Joe classified series of 6-inch action figures. It's unclear who the designer is. Mark Pennington did some presentation artwork, but he had left Hasbro at the time and was working as a freelancer. The design has some of the organic elements we see in other Mark Pennington designs, but have not been able to confirm that he created the Range Viper. Range Viper's specialty is similar to GI Joe's Outback. They live in the wilderness, they live off the land, and they fight in harsh conditions. Prototype code names for the Range Viper included bush vipers, badgers, snake eaters, and dingoes, all of which sound vaguely sexual. The name Range Viper is probably a reference to U.S. Army Rangers. Army Rangers receive survival training in several environments, but they also have leadership training that the Cobra Range Viper seemed to lack. 1990 was a great year for Cobra specialized vipers. There was the Laser Viper, the Rock Viper, the Saw Viper, and also the Night Creeper who worked with Cobra. There was also Undertow, but he worked with Destro. 1987 Outback may have been the closest GI Joe counterpart to the Range Viper, but the 1990 GI Joe character that most closely matched the Range Viper was the concealment expert Ambush. Ambush had a personal connection with one specific Range Viper, which we will talk about later. Let's look at the Range Viper's accessories, of which he has many, and let's start with his primary weapon, this grenade launcher. It is in black plastic. It has a stock and a foregrip that is small enough to actually use. It has this large drum magazine on top, and you can see the grenades loaded into it. That is a separate piece which can be removed. This drum grenade magazine has a notch where it connects to the grenade launcher, and on the back it has a gear and chain detail that hints at how it's supposed to work. The drum loader just snaps onto the top of the launcher like so. It doesn't rotate or anything like that, but when it's all together, it looks like a very fearsome weapon. The next accessory I'm going to look at is the knife. I have the knife wedged in the backpack. We will need to take a look at the backpack at length later, but let's look at this knife first. This knife is in black plastic. The blade is wider at the end than it is on the base, and it has some spikes on the hilt and a black handle. The knife will fit in the action figure's hand, and it looks really wicked. I like it. The next accessory looks like another grenade launcher or a missile launcher, but it is neither. According to the card contents, this is a mortar, which it doesn't look like at all. This mortar is in gray plastic. It has some detail along the barrel, and it has a grip that is pretty thin and fits easily in the action figure's hand. It also has these two knobs that don't really connect to anything. It also includes a removable gray missile, the same color as the tube itself, or a mortar, whatever this is supposed to be. This is not one of these spring-loaded missile launchers we got in the later 90s. I played around with this to figure out how it worked, and I originally had the missile going in this end, the smaller end, with the grip toward the front. But I don't think that's actually how it's supposed to go. I think it's supposed to go in the wider end and slide all the way through the back, and it protrudes out the back. I think this is an FFT, or Finger Flick Technology missile launcher, which we did see in the early 90s. It does sort of fire with the projectile sticking out the back, and you just flick it with your finger. It's a low-tech way to get a firing missile launcher before the days of spring-loaded missile launchers. It's pretty weak, but it does kind of work. If this is, in fact, an FFT missile launcher, I don't think it's advertised on the packaging anywhere, which means it's a bonus feature. The next accessory is this black plastic hose connector. One end of it connects to a peg on the backpack. The other end connects to a peg on the back of the action figure's head. And that can be removed. This is a standard black, flexible plastic hose. Many G.I. Joe action figures came with black hoses like this. In this case, I'm not sure exactly what it does. It connects the action figure to the backpack, but what exactly is it feeding into the helmet? There is this tank on the top of the backpack, so maybe that's some kind of air tank, but it's not clear. Finally, we get to the backpack. This backpack is large. It is in gray plastic. It has a lot of detail, and it has some features you might not expect. It is surprisingly intricate. It has this tank at the top who knows what's supposed to be in that, and the peg for the connector. It has four antennae, two on each side, on the top and on the bottom, and they connect to these devices on the side. So this must be some kind of communication backpack. Do be cautious. Those antennae can break off. I have another backpack with the top antennae broken, and if you didn't know they were supposed to be there, you might not realize it's broken. There are two rows of replacement grenades for the grenade launcher, and I like that coordination between accessories. There is some electronic detail at the bottom, and then there's this slot which cuts from one side to the other. What is that for? I'll tell you what it can be used for. It can hold his other accessories. As earlier, I had the knife wedged in that slot, and you can hold the grenade launcher by pressing the foregrip into the slot, and he can hold two of his other accessories, which is possible, but that looks really awkward, doesn't it? This is often what collectors use it for, but the accessories fit in there so awkwardly, I can't say that's what it's intended for. But if it's not intended for that, what is its purpose? In case you're wondering if the mortar fits, first let's take a note of what a nice color match it is with the backpack, but it doesn't work on mine. Mine is just a little too thick to fit in that slot. Whether it's intended or not, this backpack does mean he can hold all of his accessories at the same time, despite coming with a lot of them. With the accessories out of the way, let's take a look at the articulation on the range viper. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1990, 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 that allowed him to bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep, so he could swivel his arm all the way around. This was an O-ring figure, meaning the figure was held together with a rubber O-ring 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 range viper. The range viper is supposed to be in the wilderness all the time. He is not camouflaged for it. Despite this, the colors are attractive and well-balanced. It's a good-looking action figure, even if he isn't well camouflaged for his job. I have to point out that on his head, he has a dark greenish-blue skull-like mask with red eyes very spooky looking. He has a band that's the same color that goes over the top of the mask to the peg connector in the back. The rest of the helmet is gray and it has this texture pattern on it that looks like brain. It looks like he has an exposed brain, but that goes all over the helmet down the back and the sides as well. This helmet is intentionally scary. It looks like something out of a horror movie and it's intended to evoke a fear reaction in any enemy that sees it. Moving on to his chest, he has a dark greenish-blue uniform with a dark blue undershirt. He has yellow rings around his arms. He has a gray strap over the left shoulder for the backpack. And that gray strap is a nice color match for the backpack. That looks really good. There's presumably another strap on the right side, but it is covered by these ammunition belts. These ammunition belts are highly detailed and painted gold. There's one that goes over the right shoulder across the body and under the left arm. There's also one that goes around the right arm. What is this ammunition for? It doesn't fit any weapon included with the figure. It's a great detail, but it should match an accessory. Otherwise, it's just decoration. Moving on to the arms. The upper arms are in that greenish-blue color. The lower arms are in the dark-blue color and he has gray gloves. With just the gloves painted, we have three colors on these arms. That is judicious use of paint and it's a lot of color variety. I think it looks good. On the waist, he has a black uniform and a yellow belt. The belt has three pouches in the front. There's another smaller belt under that that's gray. The gray belt has a pouch or something on the right hip and a black detail on the left hip. On the legs, he has a black uniform and I think black was an excellent color choice. I think it adds even more depth to the colors on this figure. There are no sculpted pockets or weapons on the upper legs, but on the lower legs, we have some gray knee pads and shin guards that continue over the top of the boots that has a slight texture pattern on those. There are short dark blue straps that connect the shin guards to the boots and we finish up with some black boots. Despite the oddities, this figure looks great. It's one of the favorites from 1990 and it's easy to see why. It isn't camouflage, but Cobra didn't do camouflage very often. The colors work really well together. The skull helmet is intentionally scary. The biggest oddity is the ammunition belt. It looks great, but why is it there? What weapon does it feed? There's also no Cobra emblem anywhere on this figure. Is Cobra trying to disown them? Are they really deploying them or are they just driving them out to the woods and leaving them like your grandpa did with his old dog? I hate to be the one to break this to you, but grandpa's old dog did not go to live on a farm to play with other dogs and let's face it, depending on where grandpa dropped him off, he was probably eaten by a Range Viper. Let's take a look at the Range Viper's file card. The file card has his faction as Cobra. There's a portrait of the Range Viper wearing his mean face mask. He is the Range Viper's plural and they are the Cobra Wilderness Troopers. This paragraph says, Range Viper's are usually committed to long-term operations deep within unfriendly territory completely cut off from communications or supplies, but he comes with a communications backpack. They have an unusually high tolerance for discomfort and can survive on a diet of snakes, grubs, roots, berries, nuts, and whatever slow rodents they can catch and your grandpa's old dog. They are expected to build their shelters out of indigenous materials, usually rocks and mud, and procure their own ammunition by way of hit and run raids on enemy ammo depots. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, Range Viper's are favorites of Cobra High Command since they're so inexpensive to sustain. Once they're in the field, they don't cost anything to feed, clothe, and arm. Range Viper's don't care who they shoot as long as they shoot at someone or something. That's why the Cobra High Command makes sure they stay out in the bush. Cobra just throws them out there and they fend for themselves. Cobra takes advantage of their wilderness survival skills to cut their own budget. They would be formidable enemies for GI Joe. They are resourceful and determined. Luckily I found this natural pond to cool myself off on this very hot day. Surviving in the wild sure is tough. Larry Hama was the writer of the GI Joe comic book series and the action figure file cards. On three separate occasions, Hasbro tried to remove that responsibility from him and do it in-house, and each time they discovered it's not as easy as it looks. On the Hasbro written file cards, they're filled with just fluff and promotional copy. File cards written by Larry Hama tended to be more colorful and imaginative. You can kind of tell which file cards were written by Larry Hama by which ones sound good. The Range Viper file card is definitely a Larry Hama file card. Looking at how the Range Viper was used in GI Joe media, they appeared in the Dieck era in the animated series. The first appearance was barely in the episode United We Stand. Range Viper appeared more prominently in the episode Pig Skin Commandos. That's the episode where they played a football game with tanks. Range Viper had the most screen time in the episode An Officer and a Viperman. Range Viper is a trooper, not a named individual character, so he was treated the same way as other Viper's were. They appeared when it was convenient, but they took a back seat to the main characters. But there is one named Range Viper known to her comrades as Range Viper 3, but her name was Evie. In the episode I Found You Evie, a female Range Viper named Evie was a friend of GI Joe's ambush. Their relationship was one of the most interesting and complex in the Dieck series and proves the Dieck GI Joe animation team was capable of good writing. I mean, it's no Pig Skin Commandos, but it's not bad. Because of Evie, the Range Viper had a more important role in the series than most other Viper's. The Range Viper appeared in a video game, but I don't usually cover the video game, so I will leave that to the experts. In the comic book series published by Marvel Comics, the Range Viper first appeared in issue number 113. That was an issue known for the death of GI Joe team members. The comic book series depicted death much more often than the animated series. Death is a consequence of war and that consequence was addressed head on. The most deadly Viper was the saw Viper, but the Range Viper had a notable kill of his own. In issue number 113 during the Benzene War, a frag Viper tossed a child into the middle of a firefight. Sneak Peek tried to protect the child, but a Range Viper shot him down. That was the death of Sneak Peek. In that issue, the Range Viper's grenade launcher is treated like a machine gun. It even still has the drum grenade magazine, but it shoots bullets. That's the same issue where most of Battle Force 2000 was killed. The Benzene War story arc resulted in more GI Joe deaths than any other, and it showed there are real stakes in these battles. The characters were not invulnerable. The Range Viper has it all, or almost. The figure is highly detailed. It's sharply sculpted. The plastic and paint color is excellent. There's so much to it, you just want to keep looking at it. The Range Viper is most famous for the Skull Mask, which is unusual even for Cobra. The Mask isn't for concealing his identity, or even for some tactical function. It's to inspire fear in his enemies. What the figure doesn't have is anything that indicates he is Cobra. Obviously, he looks like a bad guy, but there's not a small Cobra patch on the figure. The accessories are also unique and interesting, and he has a lot of them. He has two weapons for firing explosive projectiles. The Mortar looks more like a missile launcher to me, and it comes with a removable missile. Add to that the knife, the hose, and the backpack. It's a lot. Despite including a lot of accessories, he can hold all of them. Sort of. The knife and the grenade launcher can be wedged in the slot on the backpack, but it's an odd way to carry them. I'm not even sure that's what the slot is for. What he doesn't have is a weapon that would use the bullets sculpted on the figure. The role the Range Viper plays in Cobra has a lot of play potential. Cobra tosses them out in the jungle and forgets about them, and when G.I. Joe least expects it, they attack. The Range Viper is a fan favorite, which is why he was chosen by patrons for this review. In this case, I have to agree. Surviving in the wild sure does wear you out. This is my final review for Cobra Convergence 7, but the event is not quite over. We still have a couple presenters. We have podcasts from the pit and Agent Chuckles, and there's still time to get involved in the band video every week. There's one more to go. Check the website, ACC788.com to find out how. And, you know, like the video and the thumbs up and subscribe and subscribe and thumbs up. And the website in Cobra