 It's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review, and as I said last week, this time we are going to look at the bad guys again. It's time to look at Cobra. We are going to look at the 1983 Cobra Viper Glider, and the figure that came with it, the creatively named Viper Pilot. HCC788 presents the Viper Glider. This is the Cobra Command Attack Glider, the Viper. The Viper Glider was available in 1983 and 1984, and it included an action figure, the Viper Pilot. Not the most creative name for a figure. The Viper was the Cobra counterpart to the GI Joe Falcon Glider, which was available at the same time. And the Falcon Glider also came with an action figure, the second version of Grunt. The name of Viper's was reused in 1986 for the Cobra Infantry Trooper called Viper's. And I think the Viper action figure is a much cooler toy than the Viper Glider. So I think the lesson here is to save your cool names for cool toys. Don't waste them on throwaway toys. Looking at the Viper Glider, I'd like you to notice something. The color on mine is faded. And here where it is dark blue, that originally would have been black. My Viper Glider is also missing a black rubber band, which was used to secure the figure on the glider. Now those rubber bands are usually missing because they are rubber bands. They're made out of rubber, and they tend to dry out and disintegrate over several decades. The Viper Glider did come with a figure, the Viper Pilot, and we are going to take a close look at that figure later. So we're going to set him aside for now so we can take a closer look at the Viper Glider. The Viper Glider is a hang glider, and hang gliders do exist, but they're usually used for sport, not for military purposes. Real hang gliders look different from this, but the Viper Glider is shaped this way to be functional as a children's toy, not to mimic a real world hang glider. In 1983, the Cobra Air Force consisted only of the Fang Helicopter and the Viper Glider. In 1983, G.I. Joe had the sky striker, this huge combat jet, and you might call that an unfair advantage. The G.I. Joe cartoon and comic book got past this problem by inventing aircraft for Cobra that did not exist as toys. In 1984, Cobra got a couple new aircraft, the Cobra Rattler and the Claw powered glider, and both of them were superior to the Viper Glider in pretty much every way. Let's take a look at the parts and the features of the Cobra Viper starting with the main body. And this main body has this camouflage pattern, and like I said, this is supposed to be black instead of dark blue that has faded. We have a couple Cobra stickers on it, and this whole body is made out of foam board, and it is extremely fragile. It has some creases along the back edge for flaps, and you're supposed to be able to bend these flaps to make the glider do tricks in the air, but do not bend those flaps. If you try to bend those flaps, they will break. The camouflage pattern is on the top side. It is not on the bottom side. On the bottom side is just the plain light blue, and we have the Cobra stickers similar to the other side, and we have some black and red stripes here over the flaps. Attached to the main body, we have a couple fins, and this one's kind of damaged, so I'm going to look at this one over here. We have a Cobra sticker, we have a sticker that says Cobra Viper, and they are removable, they do just slot in, but you have to be very careful. This is foam board that we're talking about, and this can just crack off incredibly easily. These fins are made of the same foam board material as the main body of the glider, and it has a camouflage pattern on only one side. It doesn't have it on both sides, and the left and the right fin have the camouflage on opposite sides. So if you need to replace one, you need to pay attention to whether you're getting a left or a right fin. They are not interchangeable. Next we have this support frame, and this is really the only plastic part of the toy. I'm going to attempt to remove this very carefully. You have to do this very carefully indeed. You are dealing with a very fragile material that is under pressure. This support frame has three prongs, and the two outer prongs fit on the top side of the main body, and this middle prong slides on the underside of the main body. And these outer prongs are raised at the end, and this fits in with these two circle shaped holes on the main body. This support frame, as far as I can tell, is identical to the support frame on the GI Joe Falcon glider. On the frame we have what the blueprints call 30 caliber rapid fire mini machine guns, and they are just sculpted on the outer prongs. Honestly, I did have the glider when I was a kid, but I don't even remember these. They really don't stand out. We have an impact strip, which is just a thick bar here. So when you throw your glider, you pray that it lands on this and not on the fragile foam. This little indent is where you're supposed to put the rubber band, which again I don't have. Finally we have the backpack for attaching the figure. The backpack fits in the hole in the back of the action figure. You press that on carefully with this figure, and it does hold him on pretty securely. With all there is to the Viper glider, it is a very simple toy, but it has a bonus feature. It flies. It's a working glider that will soar when thrown in the air, and it will carry an action figure. Let's take a look at the Viper Pilot, and the Viper Pilot was an exact copy of the 1983 swivel arm Cobra Soldier released the same year. Now there was an earlier version of the Cobra Soldier, the straight arm version, that did not have the swivel at the bicep. The Viper Pilot is a copy of the 1983 swivel arm version of that figure. The only difference between them is the color of the Cobra symbol on the chest. That silver Cobra symbol did appear on another action figure available at the time, the Cobra Officer. The Viper Pilot did not come with any accessories. The Cobra Soldier did, he came with a rifle, but the Viper Pilot did not. So let's look at his articulation. The Viper Pilot had the typical articulation for 1983 G.I. Joe action figures. That means he could turn his head from left to right, he could lift his arm up at the shoulder, he could swivel his arm at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow, he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep, 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. You could move his legs apart about so far. You could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and you could bend him at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of the Viper Pilot starting with his head. And on his head he has a blue non-removable helmet with a black mask. It's a very simple design but effective and I like that black mask. I think it makes him look like a bandit. On his chest he has a blue shirt and this shade of blue is what is most thought of as Cobra blue. He has a color, he has a couple black straps and on this strap there is what looks like a gun. And thanks to some concept drawings that have been published, we know what this is. This is a grenade launcher. The straps continue around to the back and then also on the chest of course we have that notorious silver Cobra sigil. This silver paint is notorious for wearing away very easily. It's partially worn away on mine. In fact it can completely wear off and be totally gone. And that silver symbol is the only thing that distinguishes the Viper Pilot from the regular Cobra soldier. It is very difficult to find a flawless chest emblem. In fact it's so difficult that reproduction Viper chests have been made. So you have to watch out for that if you're looking for a Viper on the aftermarket. You could get one that has a reproduction chest. Now a worn symbol like this may not look the best but at least it's more likely to be authentic. If the symbol is perfect, watch out it could be a reproduction. That silver Cobra symbol can completely wear away and you're left with something like this. A Cobra soldier with no emblem at all. Now the red chest emblem on the regular Cobra soldier, the paint can wear but that red paint was much more robust than the silver paint. So if you run across a Cobra soldier with no chest emblem on it at all, it was probably a Viper Pilot. I don't think a Viper Pilot without the silver symbol should command very much value. The real value is in that silver symbol. His arms continue that Cobra blue shirt and he has blue gloves that match the color of his uniform. And on his right arm we have what concept drawings identify as piano wire, probably to strangle his victims. And these two bullet shaped things are unidentified but they are probably grenades for his grenade launcher. His waist piece features a black belt with a circular belt buckle. He has a couple of pouches on each side. The belt continues around the back. This waist piece has been used on a lot of action figures including of course the Cobra soldier and the Cobra officer and the his tank driver and the 1988 Tiger Force Duke and some versions of Steel Brigade. His legs are blue and on his right leg he has a pocket. On his left leg he has a dagger or a bayonet. On his knees he has knee pads and I have mentioned before I really like knee pads. I think knee pads just gives a figure a nice geared up look. His boots are black and pretty plain. I have to point out something. The Viper pilot is an exact copy of the Cobra soldier and he shares one of the Cobra soldier's little oddities. The Cobra soldier's toes tend to point inward on his feet and the Viper pilot's toes do as well. This is not a factory error. This seems to be the case with all Cobra soldiers. It's just kind of a strange quirk with this sculpt. The Viper pilot is done in the same basic design as all of the early Cobra army builders which is to say they're all the same color and they all have the helmet and the mask. If you were looking at these from a distance it would be hard to tell them apart. So I would suggest if you're wanting to get one of these as a collector really familiarize yourself with the subtle differences between these figures. Let's look at Viper pilot's file card and this file card is very similar to the Cobra soldier's file card or just Cobra as it says on his file card. There are just a few minor textual differences between the two. This file card was printed on the back of the box in which the Viper was packaged. It's blank on the other side. It has as faction as Cobra. It has a portrait of the Viper pilot here. It says Viper pilot codenamed the enemy and of course that's not really a codename. The figure that is known as the Cobra soldier also did this. His file card just said Cobra not Cobra soldier and it had a codename the enemy. It's really very nonspecific identifiers. There are really only three textual differences between these two file cards. The first being in the title. The second being in the secondary military specialty and the final difference being in this paragraph. It has this final name as unknown. This is an army builder. This is not intended to be an individual. He is just one of the many. Primary military specialty infantry. Secondary military specialty Viper pilot sabotage. And that is a difference from the Cobra soldier's file card where it says his secondary military specialty is just sabotage. Birthplace is various countries. Again, this is not describing an individual. Great is E4 or equivalent. This file card does not have the usual lines that divide the sections as most file cards do. This paragraph says one of the nameless faceless legions of Cobra command. Each Cobra is highly skilled in the use of explosives. All NATO and Warsaw packs small arms, sabotage, and the martial arts. Graduated Cobra Viper school. And of course that line was not on the Cobra soldiers file card. Qualified expert Scorpion VZOR61 machine pistol. Draganov SVD sniper rifle. Uzi submachine gun M16. The Cobra soldier did come with this modified Draganov SVD sniper rifle mentioned on the file card. The Viper pilot of course did not. The bottom section is a quote. It says, Cobra's swear absolute loyalty to their fanatical leader Cobra commander. Their goal to conquer the world for their own evil purpose. So generic bad guys. This file card reads like a Cobra soldier version 2 file card but the Viper pilot is not version 2 of the Cobra soldier. It is a separate unit and specialty within Cobra. Despite being a ring eating toy, the Cobra Viper did make some GI Joe media appearances. In the GI Joe cartoon it first appeared in the 1983 miniseries A Real American Hero Part 2 where Duke used the Viper glider to escape Cobra's mountain temple and he is pursued by other Viper gliders. It made a few other appearances in the cartoon here and there but not many. In the GI Joe comic book the Viper glider first appeared in issue number 11 and it was even on the cover of that issue. The Falcon glider first appeared in that issue as well. If the Viper glider was ever used again after that I don't remember it. In both the TV show and the comic book the Viper pilot does not appear to be distinguished from just a regular Cobra soldier. Looking at the Viper glider overall this is not a very good toy and it's frustrating for collectors because not a lot of them survived being played with. They're very fragile and they were designed to be thrown in the air. So what did you think would happen? Most of them ended up broken so the prices on these tend to run a little high even for imperfect examples like mine. The Viper pilot is also frustrating. The figure is nothing special. It has no original parts. They basically just stamped out more Cobra soldiers and put a silver logo on them but that silver paint wears off so finding a good condition Viper pilot can be kind of difficult so the prices tend to run kind of high. So if you want to get a Viper glider and a Viper pilot in good condition you're going to end up paying a lot of money for toys that just ain't that special. Although it looks kind of cool on display with the Falcon glider a lot of collectors will not consider it to be worth the investment. After all if you get one intact you run the risk of accidentally breaking it yourself. And for the Viper pilot what you're really paying for is that silver paint. You're going to pay a premium for a few millimeters of silver paint and that's not fun. How would I rate these toys? I'm going to put the Viper glider in the bottom tier. I mean this toy is really cheesy very flimsy. If you were playing with this as a kid it might have provided a few minutes of fun before it broke. It's harder to rate the Viper pilot because he is basically a Cobra soldier and I do like the Cobra soldiers. I like those old blue shirts but I don't like that easy wear silver Cobra emblem. I'm not a fan. So I'm going to put it in the middle tier. I guess. That was my review of the 1983 Cobra Viper glider and its pilot. Aren't you forgetting something? What? That's right. It's the younger version of you. Now you've told all the viewers that the Viper glider can fly but you didn't show them. Now hold on. I already demonstrated that when I showed that the Falcon glider would still fly and the Viper glider is the same toy as the Falcon glider. I do not need to repeat that experiment. What's the matter? Chicken? Yes. I am a little worried about damaging the toy even though my example is not in great shape. It would cost a bit of money to replace it and I do not want to replace this toy if I break it. Other GI Joe toy reviewers would do it. Whatever. I think my viewers understand and are on my side. All right. I'm set up in my backyard and it's a bit breezy which is making me nervous. What I intend to do is send it sailing in that direction not too high and not too hard because I don't want it to sail over the fence. And the figure that I'm using for the pilot is actually my Viper pilot that already has the silver Cobra symbol rubbed off on him. So not much damage can be done to this. So I'm going to try this one time. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, great. Hopefully he will land safely on the grass. Are you ready? That was my review of the 1983 Cobra Viper glider. I hope you enjoyed it and do not try that at home, kids. Trust me. That is the glider's final flight. Don't forget to thumbs up this video. Share this video. Subscribe on YouTube. Like me on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter. That's what keeps this channel going. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next week. And until then, remember, only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe.