 Byron! Byron! Byron! You can't scare me with your Aliviper costume anymore, Byron! I can't? That's right! I've been facing my fears. I've been getting hypnotherapy from Crystal Ball. I've been centering my chi. I now have nothing to fear from your vertigo-inducing uniform. Well done, my friend. I'm proud of you. You've beaten your own El Guapo. Well, that's weird. Something's coming through the G.I. Joe Secret Communications Network. Oh, it's just an action figure. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994, and this week we are looking at Cobra's Urban Assault Trooper. When Cobra would take over a city and rule it with an iron fist, these are the guys Cobra would send in to crush any resistance. Thanks to Chris from the YouTube show Comic Tropes for drawing the title card image for this video, and thanks to my friend Byron, also known as JoeMotionVideos82, for returning for another Aliviper review. I can't think of a better way to do an Aliviper review than to have as many Alivipers as possible, and I'm reviewing two versions of the Aliviper in this video, so you get double the reviews. HCC788 presents Aliviper version 2 and version 3. This is the 1993 and 1994 Cobra Urban Assault Trooper, the Aliviper versions 2 and 3. Version 2 was on the pegs in 1993 only. It was replaced with version 3 in 1994. Version 3 was on the pegs in 1994 only. 1994 was the last year of the vintage G.I. Joe, a real American hero, toy line. As you can see, there is a lot on camera here. We are looking at versions 2 and 3, and version 3 has a variation in both the figure and the file card, so there is so much to cover here. Version 1 of Aliviper was released in 1989. It had a unique mold and accessories. Version 2 was half of a new figure. The upper half of the figure was new, but the lower half of the figure reused the legs and waist from version 1. Version 3 completely reused the mold from version 2. Aliviper is billed as Cobra's Urban Assault Trooper. His first version had riot gear, including a riot shield and a face shield. He was equipped more for crowd control than for urban assault. That figure had a wild zigzaggy orange and blue pattern. The closest G.I. Joe equivalent to the Aliviper would have to be Shockwave, G.I. Joe's SWAT Trooper from 1988. I will start by focusing on the 1993 version 2 figure. After we've taken a good look at that figure, we will turn to version 3 and look at the differences between them. I have the full card back for Aliviper, thanks to Chris Pierce, who sent it to me, so we can see how this figure was marketed back in 1993. We see the G.I. Joe logo here. He is Cobra, the enemy. Then we have the Battlecore logo here, and Battlecore back in 1993 and 94 was just the main G.I. Joe action figure line. It wasn't part of a sub team. The name Battlecore comes from a proposed sound making gimmick that was supposed to debut in 1993. It was going to be called Battle Scan. Well, that gimmick didn't go through, but the name sort of did. Battle Scan was changed to Battlecore. Although it's ripped off here, Aliviper was number six in the Battlecore series. Now we have some card art here, and this is some pretty typical 90s card art. I don't like it as well as the 80s style card art, but it's okay. It's definitely dynamic. It's got the red lasers in the background that indicates an enemy figure. Notice that the shield on the card art is in red, but on the figure, of course, it's just all black. So not bad, not as good as the 80s, but acceptable. Flipping the card around to the back, we have the cross cell, and it has nine of the Battlecore figures that were available that year, including Aliviper number six. This was not all of the Battlecore figures for 1993, not by a long shot. 1993 had a huge number of figures released, and a ton of them were in Battlecore. It does also advertise the other subteams. Well, it has an advertisement for Battlecore there. It has Ninja Force and the Drug Elimination Force. This figure is worth one flag point, and that is a 90s style flag point. It's got an advertisement for a couple of these small vehicles, and then, of course, it has the file card. These 90s file cards had a list of the features on the figure and the accessories. I will be referring to these features when I talk about the accessories later in this video, but we're not gonna take a close look at the file card for now, we'll save that for later. This figure came with a mini comic. Some of the figures of that era were packaged with these. This was sent to me by Chris Pierce from the YouTube show Comic Tropes when he sent me this figure. So thank you for that, Chris. Chris actually reviewed this comic on his own channel for Cobra Convergence a couple years ago. I will put a link to that video so you can see his review of this tiny little comic book. Let's take a look at the accessories for Aliviper. A lot of his black accessories came on a plastic frame like this, and the purchaser would have to cut the accessories off of the frame himself. I'm not a fan of these. I think these accessories trees are kind of lazy, but the Aliviper wasn't quite as lazy as a lot of other 90s figures. Not all of his black accessories came on this frame. He had a face mask and he had a backpack that was less common with these 90s figures, and at least black is appropriate for this guy. Most of the accessories issued on these plastic frames were reissued accessories from earlier action figures, and that's mostly the case with the Aliviper, but that's still not as big a problem with this figure as other figures because of the accessories they chose to reissue for him. Let's start by looking at his shield because that is the most interesting accessory. It is in black plastic. It is a big Cobra emblem. It clips onto his arm with a clip on the back, and this, I think, looks absolutely great. The file card calls this a Cobra laser-proof shield. I like this better than the Version 1 shield, even though it would be less functional as a riot shield. I just think it looks cool to have a black Cobra emblem as a shield. Next, let's look at this submachine gun. This is almost a straight reissue of the Version 1 submachine gun, but there are some differences. That Version submachine gun was kind of weird. I mean, it looks cool, but it has some quirks, and most of those quirks are copied over to this reissue. It has this kind of magazine out to the side, which goes outside the arm, makes it a little difficult to have the figure hold the gun. But again, it kind of looks cool with a big scope on it, a short barrel, but it's not exactly a reissue of Version 1. Here is that Version 1 submachine gun. Even though they are both in black plastic, the Version 2 submachine gun is much glossier than Version 1. Version 1 is more of a matte finish. Also, the Version 1 submachine gun had a small foregrip in front, and they've changed that for Version 2. They have thickened that. I don't think that can actually fit in a figure's hand now. It almost looks like another magazine out in the front of the gun. He came with another weapon, this black rifle sort of thing with a vented shroud. This is a reissue of the gun that came with 1986 dial tone. This accessory was reissued many times, including with Super Trooper and Rapid Fire. Ali Viper had a black face shield. It has some eye holes so you can see through it. It also has some fangs and some horns. It looks really fierce. I think it looks great. It can be flipped up to reveal his mask underneath and his eyes. It has holes on the side that fit on pegs on the figure's head. It can be removed. It is a separate piece, but I don't like to take it off because I'm worried about breaking it. So just taking a look at this Ali Viper figure that does not have the mask, you can see where the pegs are, where the mask pegs on. This face shield is an update of the face shield on version 1. Same basic idea, but the version 1 face shield is in those wild orange and blue colors. No eye holes on the version 1 face shield. Not sure how he's supposed to see through it, but it would flip up like on the version 2. That brings us to the backpack. Backpacks were too rare on 1993 figures. It's nice to get one. It is an all-black and it has some amazing details. It has a molded-in non-removable crossbow, has some grenades and some technical gadgetry and a molded-in Cobra emblem. Like the submachine gun, this is a reissue of the backpack that came with version 1. It is almost identical. You can tell the difference though. The version 2 backpack is glossier and the version 1 backpack is more of a matte finish. Finally, we look at the missile launcher. This is a spring-loaded missile launcher. These came with a lot of 90s figures. It was a new gimmick in the 90s and a lot of fans really like these. It is in yellow plastic. It has a black trigger in the back. It has a gatling gun underneath the missile launcher portion. It has both a grip and a clip on the side. And I don't find either of these to be a very good fit with this figure. The grip is just a little too big for this figure's hands and I don't want to break his thumbs. I have seen some collectors clip this missile launcher to the wrist of the figure, but that doesn't fit very well for me either. This missile launcher was shared with another character. This was also used for 1993. Dr. Meinbender version 2. His, of course, was in purple with a yellow trigger. Eleviper included two black missiles. This missile launcher would really fire these missiles. To operate it, you would just press the missiles into the barrel of the missile launcher with the notch side down. Press back until it clicks. Let's test this out with our favorite target, Dr. Meinbender. He doesn't mind. He's made of plastic. You just take aim and press up on this trigger in the back to fire. That's a pretty darn powerful spring in this thing. It didn't have any trouble knocking over Dr. Meinbender. By the way, Dr. Meinbender's purple missile launcher included yellow missiles. So if for some reason you want the missiles to match the yellow of the missile launcher, these are interchangeable. So you can just use Dr. Meinbender's missiles on himself. Look at this, Dr. Meinbender. You're going to get hit with your own missile. The final accessory should never be forgotten. It is the figure stand. It is in black. It's a standard issue figure stand, but I'm always happy to get these with 90s figures because 80s figures did not include them. This I think is the best innovation of the 90s. Let's look at the articulation on Ali Viper and I will use this figure that does not have the face shield in the way. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1993. He could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up with the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend the arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. This was an O-ring figure. The O-ring looped around the inside and 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 look at the sculpt design and color of Ali Viper version 2. Only half of this figure is new. The entire bottom half of the figure reuses the mold from version 1. But what a difference a color change makes. Let's look at Ali Viper's head using the figure that does not have the face shield attached. The Ali Viper has a black helmet with a streamlined shape. It has a couple pegs for attaching that face shield. The helmet goes under the chin and has a couple fangs on the chin piece. It also wraps under his eyes. Under the helmet, he has a yellow mask that covers everything but his eyes. I think this helmet and mask look great. It is reminiscent of the version 1 head but it looks more fierce and menacing. On his chest, he has a black vest over a yellow uniform. On that black vest, he has what at first looked like shoulder pads to me but upon closer inspection, they look like pouches but they look like they're upside down. He has a gold collar and a gold zipper that runs down the center of his chest. He has a gold handled knife in a black sheath across the chest. He has an unpainted pouch on the right side of the vest and on the left side, he has a gold grenade. The file card calls this a Cobra canister grenade. On his arms, he has long yellow sleeves. He has black bands around his upper arms molded into the right side black band are the letters UA which I assume mean urban assault. Molded into the black band on the left arm is a Cobra emblem which I think is nice and it's reminiscent of the Cobra emblem molded onto the right arm of version 1. He's wearing black gloves that partially cover his forearms and he has elbow pads. These lower arms are similar to the lower arms on version 1. So similar, I'm surprised they didn't just reuse the lower arms from version 1 rather than sculpt new ones. The waist piece is a yellow uniform with a black panel in front. It does not have a belt. There is a black band around the torso but no belt on the waist piece. This is the same waist piece as version 1. You'll notice on version 1 it has these molded in seams but the camouflage pattern just goes right over them. On version 2, they painted the inside of those seams black and that looks really good and it even accentuates those details. His legs feature a yellow uniform on the upper legs and each of those legs has black tiger stripes on the outside and inside of the legs and I think those are awesome. All the details about this figure make him look like a predator. He has a black painted pocket on the left thigh and he has tall black boots and black knee pads. Once again, these are the same legs as version 1 but notice a couple paint differences other than the tiger stripes. That pocket on the left side just has the camouflage pattern on version 1 and it's fully painted in on version 2 and I think that's better. I think that adds a bit more depth to it. Also on version 1 the black boots stop when they get to the knee pads. On version 2, the black goes all the way up and includes the knee pads and I think that looks better too. One downside of this is the entire lower legs are molded in black plastic and that means the hinge is black too. So we have a color mismatch in the hinge on the upper and lower legs and that doesn't look too great. In my eyes, the black and yellow make this figure look like a hornet. It's a bold color choice and intimidating for the enemy. The file card tries to call this urban camouflage which it most certainly is not. Cobra gets a bit more leeway than G.I. Joe when it comes to colors but the important thing is that it look cool and this looks cool. All that went out the window with version 3. Ali Viper version 3 from 1994 uses exactly the same mold as version 2 but with different colors. However, there is a variation on both the figure and the file card so we have two figures and two file cards to look at for 1994. This is close to being just a color variant of version 2 but not only the colors were changed the packaging, the file card and the accessories were changed too. I think that qualifies it as a separate version but it is similar enough to version 2 that I think they should be reviewed together. What they've done here is taken version 2 and just done a color swap. What was once black is now orange and what was once yellow is now light blue. The only color they share between them is the gold paint applications. I think they were trying to take it back to the colors of version 1. Version 1 of Ali Viper was a fairly popular figure so it makes sense they would try to do that. The oranges between the figures are similar but the blues are not. Version 3 uses a lighter shade of blue than version 1. Overall, version 3 looks like a pastel version 1. The accessories are mostly the same as version 2 but the black accessories are now orange and the missile launcher is now light blue. The missile launchers are functionally the same and the missiles are interchangeable. But there's something missing on version 3. Version 3 does not have the backpack so it's not just a color swap you get fewer accessories with version 3. It's unfortunate they made the accessories the same colors as the figure. Choosing a different complementary color or just keeping the black accessories tree would have provided more color interest to the figure. It's true this figure doesn't have fewer colors than version 2 but version 2 has black and black can still have some depth without adding a lot of other colors to it. Just a quick demonstration to show those missiles are interchangeable. Here's where we have to look at the variation of version 3. Some version 3 alley vipers have exactly the same paint applications as version 2 meaning they have the tiger stripes on the leg but the paint is orange instead of black. I presume these to be the earliest releases of the figure. Other version 3 figures which I presume to be the later released ones do not have that tiger stripe paint application. There's another difference between these two figures. The one with the stripes has a country of origin stamp that says made in China. The one without the stripes has a country of origin stamp that says made in Indonesia. Honestly, those orange stripes are kind of washed out by that light blue so they don't make that much difference anyway. So it's no big loss to lose that paint. There's a file card variation that goes with each of these figures and we will take a look at those in a moment. Let's take a look at alley viper version 2's file card. His file card is a rectangle with rounded edges. It is different from the 80s style file folder shape file card. It's got a portrait of the alley viper here copied from the artwork at the front of the card and it has those list of features. I won't read through those. I did refer to some of those when I talked about the figure and accessories. It has a closer portrait above the other one. His code name is alley viper. Primary military specialty is urban assault troopers. Secondary military specialty is parasite driver. The parasite was a cobra vehicle from 1992 that was discontinued for 1993. So this was not available at the time this card was issued. We have a quote here presumably from an alley viper. It says we aren't afraid of taking over any city except maybe some parts of New York. Why New York? If they're in the Marvel Universe too many superheroes there. This paragraph says the alley vipers are an elite contingent of ruthless marauders and true masters of brutality. This first sentence is sort of reworded from the version one file card. Despite their destructive powers and feared reputations Cobra was dissatisfied with them and recently outfitted a new breed of alley vipers that make the old ones look like nerdy wimps. As a nerdy wimp I resent that. Extensive physical and terrorist training programs are standard for these vicious vipers and they soon become skilled villains and dangerously full of hate. Full of hate they must be Star Wars fans. You definitely don't want to invite one of these gorillas to dinner or anywhere else. This is the second time the alley vipers are referred to as gorillas. They are also called gorillas on the version one file card. Now let's take a look at the version three file cards starting with the file card that came with the variation that had the orange stripes. The colors are not updated from version two. It still has the version two black and yellow colors and the text is mostly the same as the version two file card. The list of features is almost the same as version two but version three omits two of the features. It does not have the viper toss hurling attack boa or the urban camouflage. There's one other text difference I noticed on the version two file card where it says standard for these vicious vipers and they soon become skilled villains. On the version three file card it breaks that up into two sentences standard for these vicious vipers period they are skilled villains. Other than that the text appears to be the same. They are even still advertising the parasite even though the parasite had been discontinued for two years by the time this figure was released. Finally we get to the file card that came with the variation that did not have the orange stripes. That card had the country of origin it said printed in Hong Kong figure made in Indonesia. On the file card that came with the figure with the orange stripes that is blank. The text is otherwise the same. Looking at how Ali Viper was used in G.I. Joe Media they were used a few times in the deek era of the animated series. They were featured in the first deek G.I. Joe mini series Operation Dragonfire. They were in their version one uniforms. After that appearance they showed up sporadically they didn't usually have much importance and they were mostly in the background. To my knowledge they only appeared in their version one uniform. Looking at the comic book series published by Marvel Comics the first appearance I can identify is an issue number 92 in the version one uniform. In issue number 94 they were part of the Baroness's raid to capture snake eyes when he was getting plastic surgery. They were occasionally in the background. They took part in Cobra's Invasion of Millville in issue number 100. In the Benzene War a few of them were on the team that pinned down a squad of Joes and eventually killed Sneakpeak in issue number 113. Their appearances in the comic book were sporadic like in the animated series. Occasionally in the comic when a group of vipers would be standing around in the background sometimes an alley viper would be among them. They did appear in their version two uniforms in issue number 139 and they look really good. It's nice to see that update in the comics. However that issue also included transformers and that's all I have to say about that. Looking at the alley viper version two overall I think this is an excellent figure even with the bright yellow. Yes, Cobra gets a bit more leeway when it comes to bright colors and the yellow is offset with black and it looks cool. The alley viper's face mask has been updated to look more fierce with fangs and horns. His shield is now a black Cobra emblem and with his tighter stripes it adds to the appearance of a predator. For the most part his weapons are appropriate. I wouldn't normally give a figure credit for coming with the same accessories as an earlier version but keep in mind this was 1993. A lot of figures came with a frame of generic accessories that often had nothing to do with their specialty. At least the alley viper came with his traditional gun and backpack. As for the spring firing missile launcher it depends on if you're a fan of that gimmick. I know a lot of kids like them. I don't need it. The 1994 alley viper is a different story. I understand they were trying to go back to the version one colors but the version three colors are just a bit weaker. The alley viper looks less fierce with those colors. Also even though they gave us mostly the same accessories in those garish colors they didn't give us all the same accessories. They shorted us a backpack. That makes version three with or without orange stripes my least favorite alley viper. That was my review of the 1993 and 94 alley viper thanks to Byron aka JoeMotionVideos82 and Chris Pierce from Comic Troops. Oh no, I forgot to check on Byron. Hmm, must have scared him off. No problem. I know a guy named Crystal Ball who can cure him of that fear. See you next week everyone. Thank you for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, I'm making more like it. So please give this video a thumbs up on YouTube. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Hit the notification bell so you don't miss any future videos and share this video with your friends. That's what helps this channel grow. You can find me on social media, on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website, hcc788.com. If you want to know if I've already reviewed a vintage GI Joe item that's a good place to check. Special thanks to all my supporters on Patreon including the names you see on the screen now. Support on Patreon helps keep this show going. So if you like this show and you'd like to support this show in that way please consider checking out Patreon. You can get some special rewards including early access to reviews and you can find out how to decode the secret messages you see in these videos. Thank you for joining me on this adventure of collecting vintage GI Joe toys. I'll see you next time and until then remember only GI Joe is GI Joe.