 Hello and welcome to Cobra Convergence 3, week 4. This week I'm reviewing Heat Viper. The theme this month is underrated villains. When I put Heat Viper on the schedule, I had a very definite idea about why he was underrated. That was months ago. I can't remember why I thought Heat Viper was underrated. I kept Heat Viper on the schedule because I knew it would come back to me. I still don't remember. And now it's too late to change the schedule. And at it here, it's time for another vintage Cobra toy review. I hope you're enjoying Cobra Convergence this year. Cobra is taking over the world in July. Just like they always wanted to. Special thanks to David Fishner for the title card art. He's supported the channel on Patreon for a while. Turns out he can create some wicked, cool art. I'm glad I discovered that. Thank you, David. It's my turn to pick up the Cobra Convergence baton. This week I am looking at Cobra's Bazooka man, the Heat Viper. This is a figure with a lot of fans. I see all the love Heat Viper gets out there in the jovers. This is actually kind of a popular figure. I'm supposed to be reviewing figures that are underrated this month. For the life of me, I can't think of why Heat Viper is underrated. He's popular. For those who like the figure, he's not underrated. He's just rated. And those who don't like the figure may think he's overrated. But underrated? Yeah, I screwed up. To make matters worse, I'm not as big a fan of Heat Viper as a lot of you out there. This is always the riskiest video to make. When I have to say, hey, I don't like the thing that you like. But hey, I'm not worried. We've disagreed about things before and we're still friends. On this channel, you can expect to get my frank and honest opinion even when it's really, really, really unpopular. Let's heat up the convergence with HCC 788's review of Heat Viper. This is Heat Viper, Cobra's Bazooka man from 1989. This figure was first available in 1989 and was also available in 1990 and was discontinued for 1991. At first glance, this figure may look like a flamethrower operator and the name Heat Viper makes it sound that way. But this big weapon he comes with is not a flamethrower. Heat is an acronym that stands for High Explosive Anti-Tank. There was another version of the Heat Viper in the vintage era issued in 1993. That one looked very different from the first version. As bright as version two is, it's actually slightly less colorful than version one. As a Bazooka man, the Heat Viper is an anti-armor specialist. The first Cobra agent to fit that specific role was Scrap Iron from 1984 with his big two-missile anti-tank weapon. Scrap Iron was not a trooper though. He was an individual character. He also primarily worked for Destro. Technically though, there was a Cobra that came with an anti-tank weapon before Scrap Iron. A couple of them actually. In 1982, J.C. Penney released a Cobra 3-Pack, which included two straight-arm Cobra soldiers and one Cobra officer. One of the Cobra soldiers was packed with Zap's Bazooka. It had either the standard thin-handled Bazooka or a dark green Bazooka. The dark green one is extremely rare. You may not consider the J.C. Penney Cobra trooper to be a predecessor to Heat Viper since it's only an accessory's variant to the standard figure. In 1983, before Scrap Iron was released, Major Blood had what could be considered an anti-tank weapon, a rocket pistol. Another predecessor to Heat Viper could be the 1985 Snow Serpent, which came with an anti-tank missile. Of course, Snow Serpent wasn't an anti-armor specialist. He was an Arctic trooper. Heat Viper was Cobra's first dedicated anti-armor trooper that wasn't an individual named character. In 1990, there was a new enemy anti-tank specialist, Heavy Metal. According to his file card, Heavy Metal was not a Cobra agent. Like Scrap Iron, he worked for Destro. On the GI Joe side, Heat Viper would have had several counterparts. The first was GI Joe's Bazooka soldier zapped from 1982. Oh, alright. Zapped from 1982. After that, in 1985, GI Joe had the missile specialist Bazooka. That would be a little confusing. The figure called Bazooka did not come with a Bazooka. Also in 1985, Footloose had a law rocket, but he was not an anti-armor specialist. In 1987, Fast Draw had rockets that could be used against tanks, so he sort of fit that role. You may consider these to be anti-aircraft rockets, though. One notable GI Joe anti-armor specialist that came after Heat Viper was Salvo from 1990 with his massive multi-missile launch system. I'm not even going to attempt to put that in his hand. I will save that for the review. Let's take a look at Heat Viper's accessories. First, notice I have Heat Viper's weapon in his left hand. That's because it fits the figure best in the left hand. Heat Viper doesn't just have a weapon. He has a whole weapon system. It's connected to the figure in two different places. It all fits better when he's carrying his weapon in the left hand. That's also how the card art shows him holding it. Let's start by looking at what the card content simply call a Bazooka. To even look at it, first we have to disconnect it in two different places. It is oversized. It is light gray. It has the word fang in cartoon letters on one side. It has the grip on the top. That may not seem right, but that is how the figure is supposed to hold it. When the Heat Viper is holding the Bazooka under his arm, the fang letters are right side up. A real-world Bazooka was a shoulder-fired weapon. That helps the operator aim, placing his eye next to the long axis of the tube. The Heat Viper fires from the hip and has an elaborate electronic targeting system to compensate. This Bazooka has two pegs. It has one on the side and another one on the top angled toward the back. This one on the side connects to this long tube which the card contents call an eyepiece. It pegs into the side like that. The other one connects to a length of black standard GI Joe hose. When Heat Viper is all pegged in, he is entangled in his own weapon system. This is almost as cumbersome as fast draws weapon system. There's a lot of detail in this accessory. I can't fault it for that. It's designed to be impressive. It's also heavy which creates a few problems. First the figure will tend to be off balance. That problem isn't quite as bad as I expected. He will stand with a figure stand without too much trouble. Second, it puts a lot of weight on the arm joints. They'll wear and get loose over time. Third, Heat Viper needs a good strong O-ring. If he has an old worn out O-ring he'll topple over. This weapon is massive. It's also the only weapon Heat Viper came with. He had one job and that's all he could do. Contrast that with 1989 Frag Viper. He had a weird grenade throwing weapon but he also had a submachine gun for close quarters fighting. Now let's take a look at what the card contents call an eyepiece. When you hear the word eyepiece, what do you think of? A monocle maybe? Definitely not a large gray hose that attaches to your head. It's light gray plastic the same color as the bazooka. It's flexible. It pegs into the side of the bazooka and the other end pegs into the side of the figure's helmet. When it pegs into the side of the bazooka the details match well. You would almost think it's one piece. The file card explains what this does. We'll get to that later. Next we have a medium length of standard GI Joe black hose. This was not listed on the card contents. It's easy to forget. It's another connector from the bazooka to the figure. As we saw earlier one end of the hose connects to the bazooka. The other end connects to a peg on the right shoulder of the figure. As for what this connection does, the file card may be hinted at what its purpose is but it's not exactly clear. Next we get to the backpack. A bizarre looking backpack. You wouldn't expect a backpack like this on a bazooka soldier. It's light gray the same color as the bazooka. It has a couple spiked antennae and then on one side it has pipes like a hot rod engine. For a bazooka man you would expect the backpack to hold his ammunition. Oh no he has another way to carry his ammo. For his final accessories he has these. The card contents call them bazooka shells. Attached to his boots he carries six bazooka shells. Three on each leg. I know these are supposed to be bazooka shells but to me they look like tiny little bombs. This seems to me to be the most nonsensical way to carry explosive ammunition. When they're on the boots you just stare at them and wonder am I really seeing that? Did they really design it that way? Yes, yes they really did. To make this decision even harder to process heat viper cannot use his bazooka shells. They do not fit in his weapon. They don't have any actual play value other than to peg them on the figure. Later figures like 1990 Rampart could place their rockets in the launcher. With a weapon the size of heat viper's they could have hollowed it out so he could place the bazooka shells in the bazooka. Since they didn't they could have just molded the shells onto the figure rather than make them removable. Since they are removable they are just extra bits that can fall off and get lost. Let's take a look at the articulation on heat viper. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe 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 that allowed him to bend his 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. 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 can 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 heat viper and let's start by looking at the dominant color. No no no no Heat Viper is orange. I've seen this color described as yellow, but to my eye it is definitely orange, though closer to the yellow end of the orange spectrum. Looking at Heat Viper's head, he has an asymmetrical helmet. It is orange. It covers his entire head, except for the right side of his chin. For some reason, that's the only part of his body that does not require protection. He has a silver elliptical shaped section on the right side of his helmet that represents a mirrored faceplate. He has no eye port on the left side of his helmet. The eyepiece connects to the left side of the helmet, so apparently the heads up display inside the helmet is on the left side. The helmet is very stylish. There's no doubt about that. It's just so very, very weird. Looking at his chest, fortunately the chest isn't too strange. You have the base orange uniform, probably a jumpsuit. You have a purple textured stripe down the center on the front. You have a painted purple stripe down the back. He has gray straps that go over his shoulders and under his arms, and those continue to the back. This would be for his backpack. There's a texture pattern on those straps and some additional detail as well. A couple of pouches here in the front. There's a raised piece on his right shoulder with a peg. The black hose attachment pegs in there. There's some additional buckle detail on the straps in the back. Other than that, they're pretty plain. Plain is fine. There's nothing all that peculiar on the chest. His arms feature long sleeves with purple stripes down the outside of the arms. Unfortunately, because of the articulation, the purple detail could not continue over the arm swivel. So the purple stripe stops at the swivel and then picks up again at the forearm. He has purple pockets on each upper arm, and he has gray gloves. Note the paint wear on his left glove caused by his bazooka accessory. The grip is a tight fit in his hand. On his waist, he has a plain gray belt with no detail at all. He has a purple stripe down the center in the front and the back. His legs continue that orange jumpsuit. He has purple stripes down the inside of each thigh. He has double straps around each thigh. And on his right thigh, he has a silver pistol in a purple holster. This pistol would have been nice to have as an accessory since Heat Viper only came with the one big weapon. He has tall purple boots, and on three sides of each boot, he has pegs for his bazooka shells. And they really stick out. Without the shells on, you can really tell there's something that's supposed to be there. On his purple boots, he has gray soles, toes, and heels. Well, that was really something, wasn't it? Let's take a look at the file card. This file card has Heat Viper's faction as Cobra, has a portrait of Heat Viper here. Note the differences between the artwork and the figure. Looks like the silver was gonna be on the left side. His code name is Heat Viper. He's the Cobra Bazooka man. This top paragraph says, the new generation of Cobra anti-tank specialists are equipped with the latest hyperkinetic, high-speed, wire-guided armor-piercing technology. Do you think that's easy to read on camera? No, it is not. The harness-supported launch tube has active heat vents and an infrared suppressor to cut down on detection hazards. Cut down on detection hazards, that's a good idea. But your guy is wearing orange on the battlefield. He can be seen by the naked eye from miles away. It says harness-supported launch tube, but there is no harness on the figure. There's a small chance the backpack is supposed to be the harness, but it doesn't work very well for that. Active heat vents, is that what the backpack does? Is that what these exhaust pipes are for? The backpack has a tailpipe, so do the hot gases travel from the Bazooka through the black hose to the backpack and out the exhaust pipes? I really don't know, I'm just trying to make sense of all this. The siding system is fiber-optically linked to the operator's helmet, which contains rangefinders, trajectory computers, and image intensifiers. This allows the heat viper to fire his weapon from behind cover under adverse visibility conditions. Say that five times fast. It says the siding system is linked to the operator's helmet. We knew there was something feeding into the helmet, so that must come through this long gray tube. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, you gotta hand it to these guys. It takes a lot of nerve to squeeze off a handheld rocket at 60 tons of rolling GI Joe armor and sit still while holding the tracker sights on target to guide in the projectile. If he misses with the first shot, there isn't a GI Joe worth his salt who will let the poor fool try for seconds. A proverbial world of hurt is gonna hit that cobra like a ton of bricks. The last paragraph paints a colorful picture of heat viper in the field. Well done. Is the battlefield advantage of this complex system worth the size, weight, and potential failure points? I don't know, but I also don't think cobra cares. Cobra commander ordered this new toy. He got a bulk discount and his troops are going to carry them. Looking at how heat viper was used in GI Joe media, he was only animated for commercials, so no cartoon episode appearances to show you. Looking at how he was used in the GI Joe comic book published by Marvel Comics, he only has a couple notable appearances. His first appearance was an issue number 96. His sole purpose was to fire a missile through a barricaded door. He was on the cover of issue number 130. He participated in the invasion of GI Joe's secret desert base, the pit three. Almost no media appearances to talk about. You're not making this easy on me, heat viper. Oh, looking at heat viper overall, I have to be honest, I don't like this figure. I like the idea of the figure, but the execution leaves me scratching my head. That's a terrible expression that makes it sound like the figure gave me headlights. The accessories are numerous and unique. I can't complain about the number and the quality of the accessories. They're just so strange. That bazooka doesn't look like any bazooka I've ever seen. It's huge, it's difficult for the figure to hold. It's a left-handed weapon, which just looks odd. It connects to the figure at his head and shoulder. He's wired up like a Christmas tree. That's not even the weirdest part. This guy has bombs on his shoes. I know they're supposed to be bazooka shelves, but they look like little bombs. This guy could explode just by walking down the street. Careful, don't trip. So take away the accessories and what do you have? You have a really strange figure. I don't mind the figure for the most part. No, it doesn't make sense, but Cobra uniforms often don't make sense. The colors, as loud as they are, they do kind of go well together. Cobra has never done camouflage very well anyway. Would Cobra send an anti-tank trooper into the field like this? Yes, of course they would. Minor changes on the figure would improve it. You might even make it into the top tier. As it is now, I can only maybe barely squeeze it into the middle tier by a hair. One thing that you could change to improve the figure is just make him a flamethrower operator. You wouldn't even have to change his name. That bazooka is just a made up thing anyway. Just call it a flamethrower. Have that hose connect to tanks on his backpack. You could ditch the little bombs and I could appreciate the figure in that role. Or, if you need him as an anti-armor specialist, you could put his ammunition on his backpack instead of his boots. The bazooka doesn't absolutely need to connect to his body. That weapon system is way too cumbersome. Just take half a step towards sanity and you can have an excellent figure. That was my review of Heat Viper. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you again, David Fitchner, for the title card art. We still have more Cobra Convergence for you. On July 25th, we have Brian Shearer. He is a real life GI Joe comic book artist. That is special. He has his own YouTube channel. He's posted some impressive videos of his drawings. He also has his own comic book called William The Last. Make sure you check that out too. Then on July 27th, we will be getting a Cobra Convergence video from SEO Toy Review. SEO stands for Super Exciting Outrageous and that's a good description. Kevin has an excellent toy review channel with professional level quality. We're not done. On July 28th, we will get a review from Mr. 1013. He reviews modern figures. He can keep you current on what's happening with GI Joe toys. If you collect modern GI Joe, his channel is a great resource. Cobra Convergence 3 will conclude with my video on July 29th. This month, I asked you to make your own Cobra creations so I could put them in a montage at the end of my videos. And my goodness, you guys did exactly that. You've sent me so much stuff and thank you for that. Thank you for participating. If I missed anyone's contribution, I apologize, but I've done my best to make sure I get to everything that was sent to me. That montage is coming up in this video in just a few seconds. Please stick around for that so you can see what your fellow Cobra fans are doing. Thanks for watching. And hey, thanks for sticking by me even though I didn't like heat fiber. Out of curiosity, what's my subscriber count now? That's it. I quit shutting the channel down, pack everything up, turn the lights off. I'm putting all the toys on eBay. He's not quitting. He's just being a baby. I'm the worst reviewer ever. Please, fine. Go check out the other Cobra Convergence videos. See you next week. You're one and only major blur reporting to ACC and for Cobra Convergence 3. Going right along with the theme of underrated Cobra agents and things. The truth is the honor to be featuring the 1987 Cobra Jetpack. The skies are the limit, but not for Cobra agents where we flying. Hope that everyone enjoyed their flight with Cobra Skies and over and out, man. And I'm assigning it because I know the Crimson Guard big shots got this day not wearing helmets. I think they like the wind blowing through their air while they up in the sky.