The
Nitro Viper was one of my first profiles. At the time, we were only six years removed from his retail release and the figure was both relatively unknown and hard to find on the second hand market. In the 16 years since that original profile, though, the figure remains relatively unknown and somewhat hard to find. I guess not that much changes. The Nitro Viper, though, is a figure's who has remained a fun part of my collection. The bright orange base color isn't for everyone. But, when you accept the fact that he's bright, his integration with his vehicle and the stark, contrasting colors create a figure that is very useful.
The Nitro Viper is a straight repaint of the
1989 Track Viper. As molds go, the
Track Viper was decent, but flawed. The Nitro Viper retains those original qualities, but covers them in a bright orange wrapper. But, the result isn't as bad as you might think. The orange is a solid contrast against the black and silver details. The figure has a "shiny" appearance and is a perfect match for his vehicle. The dark black contrasts so well with the orange and silver that the figure pops in any display. He's hard to integrate with earlier Cobra vehicles and figures. But, he actually matches up quite well with most of the Cobra hardware produced after 1991.
In the fall of 1996, I was finishing up my final semester of college. I had a good amount of spending money from the summer before and, for the first time, had a car on campus that I could use to get out of town. Many nights, I would run some toy rounds at the local stores. My college town only had a Wal Mart and it was usually picked clean by up all night students. But, a short drive away took me to Hamilton, Ohio where there was another Wal Mart, a Meijer and, in an older, run down building, one of the few remaining Hills stores around. Here, I would shop for groceries while also searching out the new Star Wars figures that were being released. Joes were a rare find by then as most stores had long clearanced their remaining stock. On my final way out of town just days before Christmas of 1996, I stopped at said Hills store. The toy aisle was nothing more than boxes haphazardly strewn onto shelves. Most of the toys were older items that had not sold and closeouts of unpopular toy lines that traditional retailers had not bothered to purchase. Here, I found a
Talking Battle Commanders Stalker figure. (Actually, three of them.) It cost me $4.95, but I hadn't found any Joes for months and figured I shouldn't pass an opportunity by. With him in hand, I strolled to the very back of the store. Here was an aisle full of every knick knack imaginable. It was heavily stocked with toys that had been opened. There I found my first
Detonator.
The box was opened and there was no figure inside. Even for $10.00, I couldn't bring myself to buy it with no figure. I stopped by the store a few more times in early
1997 on the occasion that I went to visit friends still in school. That Detonator was always there. Now, I regret not buying it. The vehicle is very nice and I'd like to have more than one. But, who knows if my fascination with the Nitro Viper would have ever occurred had I first acquired his vehicle.
That fascination began simply enough. In the spring of 1999, a Joe collector discovered that
Hasbro Canada still had overstock G.I. Joe mail away toys. There were huge amounts of figures and vehicles, all available for insanely cheap prices. I dutifully checked off the figures I wanted and mailed them a check. A few weeks later, a package arrived at my apartment. In it were most of the figures I had ordered. But, also a few replacements for figures that were either not available or had already sold out. Among the replacements were an
Air Devil, Cloudburst and my first Nitro Viper figure. At the time, I was obsessed with finding
1994 Star Brigade Roadblock figures. For some reason, the orange and black combo enthralled me. Finding a Cobra in a similar color scheme was an amazing discovery. But, I had just the one figure. I couldn't bring myself to remove him from the plastic mailer bag.
This began an obsession to find as many Nitro Vipers as I could. But, it was 1999. Finding any lots of Joes made after 1991 was actually pretty hard. While you'd see many Night Force and V1 Steel Brigade figures all the time, you might find one or two lots of
1992 or later figures in any given month. Pretty much the only way to get a Nitro Viper was to buy an overpriced dealer's boxed Detonator and pay $20 in shipping to boot. Near the end of the year, though, I found a huge lot of 1992 and 1993 figures. I was mainly interested as the lot contained
Headhunters. But, also in the menagerie of neon goodness were both a Detonator and my first, loose Nitro Viper.
The Nitro Viper had two early appearances. In the
1993 G.I. Joe product catalog, the figure was blacked out. The figure model that was used for the silhouette was the
1991 Toxo Viper. It's possible that a repainted Toxo Viper was considered for the driver. Both have the large face shields. Frankly, seeing the
1991 Toxo Viper in bright orange with black highlights and a silver facemask would have been awesome. But, it might also have just been a placeholder. The Nitro Viper appears again in some Hasbro product photography. This early figure features more silver paint on the figure's chest and more closely matches the artwork on the Detonator box. It's likely the additional paint applications were removed to save money on a low production run figure. This more silver Nitro Viper appeared on the photo of the
Funskool Detonator, too. This sometimes leads new collectors to believe that Funskool produced not only a Nitro Viper, but also an
Alley Viper in close to 1993 paint schemes. Funskool produced neither figure, though, as they reused Hasbro stock photography for the box of their Detonator release. (The Funskool Detonator only included random pack in figures that were also produced in the regular, carded Funskool line of the time.)
The Nitro Viper mold was sold by Hasbro to Olmec toys in the mid 1990's. At the time, Hasbro had used it twice and had no intention of ever producing classically molded G.I. Joe figures again. Olmec used the mold in the infamous
Bronze Bombers set: as the body base for a few good guys. As such, there are four uses of the body for collectors to track down. Though, just two of them are Hasbro produced and include the head. The original paint job of the Track Viper was decent and the Nitro Viper is fun. In Cobra blue, this figure would have made a great driver for an updated Hiss II or even original
Hiss. The mold is simple and isn't the type of thing that warrants being out of his vehicle. But, there are two solid versions of the figure for collectors, so that's something.
Nitro Vipers used to be stupidly cheap, but really hard to find. Now, they are still relatively affordable. While many dealers will try to get $25 or more for a mint and complete figure, the reality is that the market price seems to be between $8 and $10 if you can find them out in the wild. The Nitro Viper didn't have a legitimate filecard (A collector wrote one that Hasbro "sanctioned" in a toy magazine and that will sometimes attract a good price but the figure does not have a Hasbro produced filecard.) so the figure is complete with just the pistol. You still don't see tons of Nitro Vipers for sale. Many that do see were sourced from the Hasbro Canada Find in 1999. So, a lot of these were pumped into the collecting community and made more available than were they only available with the Detonator. Personally, I like army building the figure and wish I had more. I have a soft spot for the 1993 and
1994 figures due to my searching them out as a young adult. That makes the Nitro Viper more forgivable to me. But, more and more collectors have found the figure fun and interesting. If you can find a cheap one, you should buy it and see if you feel the same.
