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.
I agree that it's good to have a couple of these guys sitting around the various terminals of the Terror Drome. Other than that, though, I've never been a fan. That big ol' head is just too much for me. The purple shoes have always been a pet peeves of mine, too (not sure why...just don't like 'em).
ReplyDeleteI wish they'd gotten the comic pack treatment back in the early 2000's. It'd be interesting to see the figure with a smaller head and the slightly modified comic book color scheme.
With all of that said, that first pic with the holographic Cobra Commander is brilliant. Such a great way to use a niche figure.
Forgot to mention...the arms do have a fun use. You can swap them out with 1986 Viper arms to give the Viper a slightly different look (it works well with arms like Scrap Iron's, too). Just a fun little LBC/modification that can break up a group.
DeleteGreat idea!
DeleteThe Tele-Viper has always seemed like a rushed figure. The head and torso have a weird feeling of inadequate sculpting in comparison to the rest of the 1985 releases.
ReplyDeleteI have one of these, and a Python Patrol version and I’m reasonably content with that. I really like the concept, but the figure doesn’t really stick the landing
Also, has anyone ever noticed how dry and boring the Tele-Viper's file card is? It's 100% technical specifications... absolutely none of the flavor found in file cards from his contemporary army builders (such as the Crimson Guard file card). Very weird and out of place in the overall context of the 1985 file cards.
ReplyDeleteI guess Larry didn't like them either.
DeleteI can't hate on Tele-Vipers. They're the technological backbone of Cobra. You definitely need them to man consoles and keep Cobra communications going. It's a shame the nose is blue on so many of them.
ReplyDeleteThey might be a bit nerdy, but that comes with the territory. I guess Techno-Vipers were the more badass, less dorky version of Tele-Vipers.
I always found it interesting the Tele-Viper was before just the standard Viper. Also, his shelves were rolled up. I always thought the head was slightly off, in any case. Kind of made it feel like he was "inflated." I did like Sunbow was the text rolling across their visors. That was neat.
ReplyDeleteTele-Viper suffers from the support personnel bias that some fans have. They like every Joe to be a realistic combat-ready bad@$$. And they want every Cobra to be much the same. It's kind of a juvenile outlook. I should know, I got into Joe more in 1986 and wanted to army build Cobra, but never got more than one Tele-Viper, I adopted by brother's after he quit toys and sometime later got a used one from a garage sale find of loose figures my dad (RIP) got, good thing that accessory pack had all of Tele-Viper's gear. So I did have 3, mostly by luck/happenstance.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, Telly's head is big and has an ugly face. is uniform seems meant for the base and not the battlefield. No sidearms, short work boots/shoes.