1985 Tele Viper - Random Photos of the Day

The Tele Viper should be a staple of everyone's Cobra army.  And, to a degree, he kind of is.  Pretty much everyone has a couple.  But, they have never taken on the army building cachet of other 1985-1989 Cobra figures.  On the surface, the Tele Viper is done up in Cobra blue with purple highlights.  He matches two of the three classic, Cobra colors.  He was released in a key year and was a staple of both the comic and cartoon.  His gear is very well done and matches the figure, perfectly.  

Every station in a Cobra base or vehicle should have a Tele Viper manning it.  But, that's never occurred to any great degree.  You'll see a Terrordrome with one or two Tele Vipers in it.  But, you'll never seen the entire open bay being operated by a Tele Viper army.  As one off figures, the Tele Viper is a welcomed addition in every collection.  But, he's just not a figure that collectors swarm to like they the equally photogenic Vipers and Crimson Guards.

I suspect part of that is related to Tele Vipers not being "combat" figures.  (You can argue Crimson Guards aren't, either.  But, that doesn't seem to matter to anyone.)  So, they never got the "rows of figures on a metal shelf in an unfinished basement" treatment that was afforded to more revered army building figures.  And, with that, the Tele Viper simply became somewhat of an afterthought in the collecting world.  

It doesn't help that the Tele Viper is weirdly sculpted.  His head seems too big and all his parts just appear to be mis-apportioned.  The figure still works.  He's just not at the same level of parts cohesion that you see on Eels or BATs.

Despite my feelings that this figure is underappreciated, I don't really use him, either.  Over the years, he's just appeared in a handful of photos.  And, there's many times when the Tele Viper would have greatly enhanced a scene, but I simply chose not to use him.  I guess the Tele Viper is a figure that I want to like a lot more than I actually do.  That's OK, though.  It leaves a very useful figure as one that's not overdone.