1993 Alley Viper

This week, we're doing a tag team profile with the Attica Gazette.  Someone mentioned the 1993 Alley Viper somewhere and RTG came up with the idea to both look at this figure at the same time.  So, check out his review of the 1993 Alley Viper.  

There are 36 single carded Battle Corps G.I. Joe figures that were released in 1993.  (Plus some variants.)  Of those, I found half of them at retail between 1995 and 1996.  Those I never saw fall into two categories: repaints of 1992 figures and Cobra army builders.  The repaints make sense as the ensuing 25 years have proven out that they exist in smaller quantities than the rest of the figures.  The army builders, though, were popular.  As someone who had grown up with Joes, this seemed odd to me.  As a kid, Cobras were no more difficult to find than Joes.  And, I always picked a figure based on how cool he was overall.  Affiliation be damned.  (I bought Airtight over the Crimson Guard in February of 1985!)  So, the idea of buying a bad guy just because he was a villain was foreign to me.  But, at the same time, I was starting to get the army building bug from the Star Wars line.  And, as such, I hoped to find the missing Cobras at some point.  But, the search proved fruitless.  Staring at me from the cardbacks of the figures I did find were the Flak Viper, Eel, Headhunter and the subject of this profile, the 1993 Alley Viper.

I never had Alley Viper's as a kid.  They debuted in 1989 and both I and my brothers were done with Joe at that point.  I did encounter the figure that summer when our family went to visit some friends who had younger children.  But, that was fleeting.  My real introduction to the Alley Viper came in 1997 when I found an original at a local comic shop.  From there, I began to army build the character when I could.  This 1993 version, though, again proved elusive.  I managed to acquired one or two in large lots of 1993 figures that I was prone to buy.  But, that was it.  Complete, high quality figures were a tough find and you rarely saw them for sale.  By the time the figure started to become available, I was out of the Joe buying game.  Even today, the figure is under-represented in my 1993 army builder collection.  He's outnumbered by Cyber Vipers, Eels, Snow Serpents, Flak Vipers and even Headhunters. 

Back in the late 1990's, the general consensus was that the Joe line "ended" in 1987.  And, anything released after that magical year was suspect.  There were exceptions, though.  Shockwave, Hit and Run and the Iron Grenadier were all acceptable figures to own for the "real" collector.  Bright colors, though, were to be avoided at all costs...except for the original Alley Viper.  You'd have people lamenting the "neon" releases of 1993 in some forum post while espousing the virtues of the 1989 Alley Viper in another.  But, people do not, generally, recognize their own contradictory statements in any aspect of their life.  Regardless, the Alley Viper was a character who was acceptable in bright colors.  And, by extension, any later Alley Viper was also "OK" in bright colors since he original  paved the way.  This same courtesy was not afforded other figures, of course.  But, the Alley Viper character has always gotten a pass when it came to bright coloring.

And, with the shackles of "neon" cast off the character, many army building obsessed collectors of the early 2000's were welcoming of the bumble bee colored Alley Viper as a cool alternative army.  While you didn't see dozens of them in rows on a metal shelf in someone's dingy basement, you did see guys with 2-6 of them who would use them to draw attention to an otherwise mundane story.  Even as excellently colored Alley Vipers saturated retail stores and even hit clearance, you'd still see some photographers turn to the 1993 Alley Vipers as an alternative to the retail homogeny.  The figures were much cheaper than 1989 Alley Vipers.  And, they carried the "vintage" cachet that many people craved in order to give their collections authenticity.  So, the 1993 Alley Viper became one of the only acceptable army builders released that year.

Personally, the original Alley Viper was the character's entry point to my collection.  I was able to get a couple of mint and complete 1989 Alley Vipers early in my adult collecting days.  Along with the Range Viper and Annihilator, they made up my Cobra army.  The Alley Vipers were the infantry in the urban death squads that Cobra used to terrorize little towns in middle America.  In 1997, Cobra saw these towns as a way to instill fear in an American government who they could not, otherwise defeat.  In 2025, Cobra would find these towns a hotbed of recruitment for its cause.  But, back then, the Alley Vipers would mow down innocents as Cobra just eliminated thousands of people in short order.  They were ruthless, efficient and well equipped for mass slaughter.

Due to the quick strike nature of the Cobra attacks, bright colors were justified.  The Alley Vipers were trained to pretty much kill anything that moved.  So, Cobra gave them bright orange uniforms so that they'd hesitate when they saw that color so as to reduce friendly fire casualties.  Cobra didn't want to leave any evidence of their attack behind.  So, dead Cobras were a major liability since they had to be carried out of the scene.  The orange uniforms helped to mitigate the casualties for the Cobra attacks.  (Hapless, pre-9/11 rural police forces weren't going to kill any military grade attackers.)  As the 1993 figure entered my collection, he filled the same role.  The yellow was just another variation on the Alley Viper theme and didn't hold any special significance.  You'd often see collectors attempt to rank their Cobra armies by color.  There were some times when I'd somewhat see the 1993 Alley Vipers as a small, specialized team within the larger Alley Viper corps.  But, that made little sense since the character is already so specialized.  So, these killer bees were just an alternate look for Alley Vipers as their reigned terror upon rural America.

As my Cobra army expanded, so did the intricacy of the urban attacks.  HEAT Vipers, Incinerators, Frag Vipers and even Crimson Guard Immortals were added to handle different elements of the attack.  And, as the idea began to snowball out of control, I pretty much dropped the entire idea from my imaginary world.  By the time I had a small army of 1993 Alley Vipers in my collection, their main purpose was passe.  So, instead, they were just a cool visual to toss into a photo or something.  Only, I never really did that.  Looking back through 25 years worth of photos shows that I've never really used this figure.  I took one photo in 2017.  But, he never even appeared in the background prior to that.  This is surprising to me since I've always liked the figure.  When it came time to choose an Alley Viper for photos, though, the 1989, 1994 and even the 1997 were always the go-to choices.

So, what do you do with this figure?  I have a couple of them.  But, I'm past the point of actively trying to build an army of them.  So, instead, I'll have to be content to pull them out on a rare occasion and use them as some brightly colored background filler.  The figure is visually distinctive and is fun to have around.  But, as Alley Vipers go, I'll take some other versions as my preferred look for the characters.  And, that seems to be the figure's general place in the collecting world.  Everyone seems to kind of like this coloring for the Alley Viper.  But, no one actually uses it.  Instead, you'll see 1989's, 2002's and even, occasionally, some 1994's.  The 1993 remains unrepresented among the Alley Viper content.

The Alley Viper's gear is spectacular.  It's great because the gear is black in color, it's plentiful and, the mask, backpack and primary rifle all hearken back to the 1989 release of the character: tying the two together. The superfluous spring loaded launcher, missiles and stand are just filler for the Alley Viper.  What really makes him pop are the new, fang inspired mask, his rifles, the backpack and a new riot shield that is shaped like a Cobra, but is more compact than the 1989 shield.  The Alley Viper includes a black version of Dial Tone's rifle.  It's an extra, but makes it easier to outfit extra figures.  The main rifle and backpack are almost direct copies of the 1989 Alley Viper's gear.  The rifle, though, is a new mold that features a blocky front stock instead of the round peg from the 1989 figure.  The backpack is different, too in that the grappling hook is not removable.  It's a small detail.  But, now that collectors have co-mingled armies and accessories for decades, you do find the wrong gear with the wrong figure from time to time.

This Alley Viper features just three colors on the body: yellow, black and gold.  The yellow and black is a visual contrast that makes the figure stand out.  The golden highlights, though, add a bit more life to the mold and make the Alley Viper appear to be a more thoughtful release than a figure like the 1993 HEAT Viper.  You'll note the black stripes on the leg.  This the paint mask that was used and then not used on the two 1994 Alley Viper variants.  There is no doubt that Hasbro was saving money on paint masks with the 1993 Alley Viper.  His arm insignias aren't painted.  And, his lower legs are cast in black plastic and feature no paint applications: a notorious cost cutting measure that plagued the Joe line of the 2000's and again in the 2020's.  But, on this mold, the sparse coloring works.  The yellow and black are stark contrasts that make the figure pop.  It is tough to match him up to vehicles or playsets.  But, the overall look of the figure is strong enough to find a place.

It's important to also note that the Alley Viper's crotch is notoriously brittle.  This is a figure you'll often see with a broken waist piece.  Which is a real buzz kill when you find an otherwise excellent figure that's plagued by this major affliction.  His thumbs can be problematic, too, just due to his rifle and the way kids would force it into his hands.  In all my years of seeking out 1993 army builders, the Alley Viper is the one figure most prone to breakage.  So, be sure to check for stress points should you come across a good looking figure when you're out and about.

This exact Alley Viper configuration appeared twice.  There is this 1993 bumblebee release and the orange 1994 repaint (which has a striped leg and non-striped leg variant)  The Brazilian Mortifero figure that is nearly identical to this 1993 Alley Viper paint job features most of the mold but different legs.  After that, the figure was given legs from the 1984 Duke figure and then released in 1997, 2002, 2002 again, 2003 and 2004.  The dark blue 1997 version is my favorite, but was only available with the Rage.  The first 2002 version, in lighter blue, is the most common and is an excellent update to this mold that was widely available and was hoarded by collectors of the day.  The Red 2002 repaint was shortpacked in his case, but was both easy to find and unpopular and remains so today.  The almost Estrela blue version from 2003 was packed with a repainted Viper in the infamous Wave 7.75 (dubbed the "Army Builder Wave") from 2003.  It saw a short shipping window, but was easy to find for about a month or so.  Again, collectors amassed huge numbers of them.  The 2004 all black version is probably the second best (I'll accept arguments that it's the best, though.) coloring.  It was only available in a Toys R Us 6 figure pack that included two other army builders and three characters.  Due to this release vehicle, many collectors bought a few of this version, but not the large numbers of the two-pack figures from prior years.  All of these later repaints are probably better than the 1993 figure and are fairly common.  For an army builder, they are the way to go.  

Black Major even made his own version of the 1993 Alley Viper mold.  You can get the figure in a panoply of colors.  But, oddly, many vintage Alley Vipers are cheaper than the Black Major figures.  But, there's some solid paint jobs among the factory customs that are worth exploring.

Pricing on this figure is all over the place.  In general, you can routinely get a mint and complete figure for $20-$25.  But, for some reason, you also see mint and complete figures in the $10-$15 range, too.  And, you'll see figures sell within a day of each other at each price point.  The Alley Viper is certainly more common than my 1990's era frustration would attest to.  And, the figure is relatively available: probably to a greater degree than most of the other 1993 army builders aside from the HEAT Viper.  But, the fact that this mold was, basically, repainted in far better colors many, many times during the collector heavy repaint era has also helped temper demand.  It's one thing to pay a premium for a Cyber Viper that never appeared again and another to break the bank for an offbeat coloring of a great mold when the better repaints are far cheaper.