1984 Copperhead

When I look back at my Joe collecting adventure of the late 1990's, I rarely find a figure that was really important to me back then that I don't also still use fairly frequently, today.  Sure, some of them aren't nearly as important as they were back then.  But, I usually still use them with enough frequency that they appear in a variety of settings.  One figure, though, that has fallen through the cracks is the 1984 Copperhead figure.  I have no idea why.  Really, Copperhead is the most brightly colored Cobra released before 1986.  So, I should love him and use him all the time.  But, the character rarely appears in my photos.  

Part of this is that I only one of them left.  The other, though, was that, aside from his Water Moccasin, there wasn't much in the line that really blended with Copperhead's look.  Copperhead's origins in the  swamp, though, lead to him often being tied to Zartan.  The Swamp Skier matched Copperhead's colors.  So, Zartan and Copperhead being besties seemed logical enough.  The next best option was the 1986 Swampfire or the hard to find Sears Dreadnok Ground Assault vehicles.  And, through these, many collectors reinforced the association between Copperhead and the Dreadnoks.  And, to this day, you'll often see Copperhead among Zartan's minions.  In fact, Copperhead has found a bit of a second life as a Dreadnok or Dreadnok adjacent character in many collections.

I, though, was never a huge Dreadnok fan.  Instead, I made Copperhead more of a swamp based bounty hunter.  He worked for Cobra.  But, was far more dangerous than a run of the mill swamp scavenger.  He carried a lot of gear that made him intimidating.  And, he saved a cabal of Cobras from capture on more than one occasion when he was able to devise some genius way out of a hopeless situation.  But, that was the extent of Copperhead's value.  He wasn't into political intrigue.  And, he didn't really get involved in the Cobra politics and allegiances of the day.  He was a guy hired to do a job.  He did it well.  And, he then disappeared back into the swamp while he awaited his next pay day.  

When I was a kid, I took advantage of Copperhead's lack of accessories and outfitted him with some junk weapons that I had lying around.  Instead of Joe weapons, though, I found an odd combination of accessories from other toy lines.  The first was one of the weird backpacks from the A-Team figures.  There was one pack that was perfect for Copperhead.  All the packs were cast in red plastic with black, hard plastic straps that went over the figure's shoulders and around his waist.  It was a unique design.  But, I found one mold that fit Copperhead, nicely.  It had three missiles, bullets and 5 grenades sculpted on it.  I thought the gear fit with Copperhead.  Along with that, I had an old holster from the Endor Princess Leia figure.  The latch end of the belt, though, had broken off.  I was able, though, to affix it behind the straps of the backpack so that it appeared as a chest holster for Copperhead.  I had the Leia's Endor pistol, too.  And, it looked great with Copperhead.  This allowed the chest holster to actually work and brought a huge sense of depth to the figure.  So, my Copperhead found quite a bit of use with these accessories that made him more combat ready.

My childhood Water Moccasin was a piece of junk.  It was rare to get a poor quality controlled G.I. Joe toy.  But, my Moccasin was one.  The pieces didn't fit in several places.  And, it broke very quickly.  As such, it didn't get much use.  So, Copperhead's role of the driver wasn't all that important.  That allowed me to explore the figure on his own and never tied Copperhead to his role as a driver.  Since he never appeared in the comic, Copperhead was an easy character to create on my own.  I had no pre-conceived notions about the character that I had to reconcile with the gear and role I had given him.

And, this is the main reason Copperhead has disappeared from my collection.  He didn't have much in the way of characterization.  (I'm still unclear as to if he even appeared in the Marvel comic run.)  Without depictions, Copperhead just wasn't going to stick around.  So, he fell off my radar.  And, in the past two decades has really become an afterthought.  Even as I enjoyed the "Dreadnok" colored Eels and Cobra Troopers, it never really occurred to me to match them up with Copperhead.  I didn't see him as a leader.  Maybe that will change now that I have some figures to match up with him.  

Copperhead was, originally, only available as the Water Moccasin driver.  But, he then found a second life as a staple of the mail away Joe premiums that were offered by Hasbro direct.  Here, bagged figures were offered for many years.  In fact, you could still get bagged Copperheads from Hasbro Canada through 1999.  So, the figure is far more ubiquitous than you'd otherwise think.  And, due to the late date of his mail away offers, it's not uncommon to find a nice Copperhead among lots of otherwise, all 1990's era figures.  

There are a lot of Copperhead figures.  There are three variants of the original figure.  Below is the green and blue version.  It is the best version.  But, also the most common.  There are two other variants where the bright green on the helmet is just the same color as the rest of his helmet.  There are two shades of color on this variant.  These were earlier versions that were fixed to look better.  The mold was then used for the Python Patrol series in 1989 before going off to Brazil where the Python Patrol Copperhead was released again, but with extremely slight color variants from the Brazilian paint and plastic.  The figure never appeared again.  There was probably at least one nice repaint left in the mold as we did see a grey Python Patrol design as well as a red dominant figure that were released in later iterations of Joe figures.

Copperheads are not expensive.  At least, the green striped helmet versions aren't expensive.  Even with some notoriously common paint rubs, mint figures are still fairly ubiquitous.  The mail aways really solved the supply side of the issue with this figure.  You can get nicely conditioned figures for well under $20.  Most of them will even include a filecard.  There aren't many 1984 releases who go that cheaply.  And, best of all, Copperhead is worth it for that price.  He's a neat figure who now has lots of companion pieces to help make him useful.