2016 Tank Commander - Black Major Exclusive

There are hundreds of paint jobs available on the 1983 Cobra Trooper mold.  Some are great.  Some are terrible.  And, most, are just there.  They're neat enough designs.  But, they don't really transcend the others.  Many of them, though, serve a specific purpose.  There is one area where a certain color scheme is completely necessary.  But, then, doesn't really make much sense in any other context.  Such is the fate of the 2016 Tank Troopers.  Black suited figures with red trim is a fine design that is also not all that exciting.  But, when paired with specific Cobra vehicles, the Tank Troopers are great.

The idea of having Cobra Troopers in color schemes to match any vehicle or specialty figure seems great.  And, back in 2010, it really was.  Collectors could get Troopers to match some of their favorite Cobra figures and vehicles.  As the decade crawled on, more and more Troopers were released.  And, with that, came some diminishing returns.  Now, in 2024, there are Cobra Troopers for every occasion.  And, you'll go batty trying to get squads of them all.  I find it better to pick and choose and focus on designs that really speak to me.  Among my preferred color schemes of Python Patrol, Swamp Troopers and Soldados, I also have a small cadre of these Tank Trooper figures that are cast in red and black.  

The reason for that is because of the 1985 Sears Exclusive SMS.  This special repaint of a Hiss Tank and MMS was meant for the Crimson Guard.  However, I've never felt that the CGs really matched the tank.  Simultaneously, the blue Cobra Troopers and Officers were not great matches for it, either.  But, with the advent of these Tank Troopers, I finally had an adequate crew for one of the key vehicles of my childhood.  The red black perfectly matches both the SMS and the 2004 Operation Crimson Sabotage.  On top of that, they are also really nice matches for the 1983 Hiss and even the Stinger.  In short, they fit with Cobras 1983-1985 vehicle aesthetic.  So, if you have a soft spot for those early Cobra designs, the Tank Troopers are the crew you wished you had back when you were a kid.

The Cobra Trooper remains the best incarnation of Cobra's classic bad guy.  Vipers are just too well equipped to see them as foot soldiers in an upstart terrorist organization.  But, guys wearing blue shirts and pants with a mask over their face gives the appearance of affordability that would have been imperative in Cobra's early days.  In case you think they aren't dangerous, though, each trooper carries a piano wire on his arm.  These are men of no moral compass who view murder as a matter of their job and nothing more.  Those who place such low value on human life would have been attracted to Cobra by the pay and sphere of safety that Cobra could provide.  

The fact that things like this were incorporated into a children's toy is amazing.  The early Joe team wasn't shy about making the good guys be good guys and the bad guys be bad guys.  The 1980's were the decade of clear heroes and villains.  The notion of the anti-hero would only become pervasive in the 1990's...mostly as a way to evolve the simple tropes of the prior decade that were no longer drawing in audiences.  Now, we have sympathetic villains and heroes who, frankly, have character flaws so deep that they really should be villains.  But, the early Cobra was designed in the vein of Hydra and other Nazi-derivative villains of the post World War II era.  And, the Cobra Trooper is the textbook example of this.

There really isn't much more to say about the Cobra Trooper mold.  I've looked at tons of colorings of the mold.  And, I have several more sitting in my draft folder that will appear in future years.  The mold remains the same.  But, the color schemes offer chances to use the mold in more circumstances and have some nice color matches with additional members of the Cobra hierarchy.  While we really don't "need" any more Cobra Trooper color designs, the fact is that must have colorings still continue to appear.  And, I often find that that there are lots of designs that I never thought I wanted until I saw them.  Once in hand, I have yet to be disappointed.

The Cobra Trooper is Black Major's most used character.  There are at least 4 different incarnations of the mold.  You can tell the differences by the foot pegs, backpack hole and even the head.  The Tank Troopers are earlier molds.  But, the quality is still high.  They don't have the floppy joints of some 2010 era releases.  They hold their weapons well.  (These figures actually include the standard Dragunov rifle, an Officer AK-47 and a backpack.  You'll often find current sales not including all the proper gear, though.)  And, best of all, the paint masks are simple and effective.  It's hard to believe these figures are coming up on their 10th anniversary.  But, the fact that new Cobra Troopers have already been released this year shows the enduring appeal of the mold.  And, it's a safe bet that as long as factory custom figures exist, new Cobra Troopers will be among the releases.

The Tank Troopers were not popular upon their release.  You could buy sets of 4 or 5 Troopers and one Viper Pilot for under $25.  Resellers would offer even better deals if you made a bulk purchase.  Now, you can barely get one Cobra Trooper for that amount.  But, 2017 was a very different time in the Joe world.  The documentary hadn't pulled in fly-by-night scalpers and pickers.  And, the pandemic hadn't destroyed all the collectible markets and created an unsustainable zeal for nostalgia.  So, these aren't $5 figures any more.  But, they are also not expensive.  You might have to wait a while to find the figure, especially if you want a set.  But, you should be able to find them in the $15-$20 range with prices going lower if you can find a full team.  

Black Major Viper Pilot

Factory Custom figures generate a lot of passion in the Joe world.  Collectors, in general, fall into three camps.  The first is the anti-everything guys.  They just hate the notion of factory customs and don't want any to exist.  These collectors usually either see themselves as "defenders of Hasbro" (like Hasbro cares!) or they are "serious collectors" who believe that toy collecting is a pursuit on par with feeding the hungry in terms of its value to society.  This group is extremely small, but overly vocal.  And, they have created echo chambers in large segments of fandom to reinforce their unpopular opinion.  

The second faction is larger.  They are collectors who are OK with factory customs that are of figures Hasbro never released.  But, are not OK with figures that reproduce Hasbro designs.  These guys are fine with a Crimson Cobra Trooper.  But, go apoplectic over a Cobra Blue trooper that is an homage to the 1983 release.  The final and, fortunately, largest group are collectors who are fine with the customs and are happy to have them available.  The customs fill in gaps that Hasbro never addressed while also offering them the ability to army build or simply acquire figures that they would otherwise never have a chance to own.  For this profile, I'm going to review a figure that tends to really piss off two thirds of these groups: the Black Major Viper Pilot.

There are multiple production runs of the Black Major Viper Pilot.  The sample I'm reviewing is from the first production run from around 2009, 2010 or so.  This is notable because the figure features a mold that is slightly smaller than the production Hasbro figure.  And, as such, the peg holes in his feet will not accommodate any figure stand pegs.  More importantly, the figure can not wear a backpack.  This seems innocuous until you realize that this also means that he will not work with the Cobra CLAW or even the classic glider.  This leaves this Viper Pilot as a ground trooper.  (Though, he can work in the FANG.)  But, that's not a terrible fate.

Like everyone else, I use the silver logo Viper Pilots as squad leaders for the Cobra Troopers.  Unlike most collectors, though, I'm not a big fan of the Cobra Officer mold.  So, I actually have more Viper Pilot derivatives than I do Cobra Officer figures.  So, for me, Viper Pilots are more important since they really represent the leadership of the Cobra army's backbone.  They serve as the field commanders for the more common red logo-ed Cobra Troopers.  Even in cases where other types of troopers are in the fold, the Viper Pilots retain command.  He looks really good leading a pack of 1986 Vipers.  But, due to the fragility of the original figure, I rarely take him out for use.  This Black Major version, though, has found himself a nice stand in when I want to use a slightly different classic Cobra trooper without risking damage to a vintage Joe that's hard to find.

The Viper Pilot included no accessories.  But, through the years, you will often find Black Major Viper Pilots offered with either the black AK-47 or the classic Dragunov sniper rifle.  It's nice to get a weapon with the figure just because my main use for him is as a leader for the red logo'ed Cobra Troopers.  You can assign the weapon to him or not. But, due to Black Major, these weapons are now both relatively easy to find and cheap on the secondary market.  They are not close to the vintage weapons and are easy to spot.  So, no worries on that front.  But, you can now get access to high quality weapons for the Viper Pilot that were once overly desirable and expensive.

Some people hate figures like this.  I love it as this figure is easy to distinguish from the original but still lets me use a Viper Pilot without worrying about dropping my original when I want to get a photo of him in action.  It's a placeholder that lets me use the figure.  Many will scoff at this as a valid reason for wanting a figure like this.  Mostly, though, those collectors are only worried about the value of their collections.  While they'll claim that customs like this Viper Pilot drive down prices, most of the evidence proves the opposite is more likely true.  Collectors who are willing to drop major money on a Viper Pilot aren't going to spend less since this figure is available.  Instead, more collectors have access to the Viper Pilot and can expand their collections.  This is a good thing.  

The intent of these figures is not to deceive.  It is to expand.  You'll note that no one really gets up in arms about this figure because none of the big collectors were able to buy up hundreds of loose Viper Pilots in order to corner the market.  They only got mad at Starduster because there's a few guys who have dozens and hundreds of that figure stashed away to pay for their retirement or some other bullshit.  I find that anyone who says they're looking out for you in the community is actually looking out for themselves while keeping you a potential future customer for their overly marked up goods.

We are now in an era where mint Hasbro Viper Pilots are $150 to $175 figures.  In this market, that's actually kind of light as gem Viper Pilots are actually harder to find than Stardusters.  But, it's still a super pricey figure and one that, due to its fragility, doesn't lend itself to anything other than careful display.  Black Major Viper Pilots, though, have also become harder to find.  Despite there being two separate production runs of the design, you don't find them all that often anymore.  You'll see some being offered at astronomical prices.  But, they don't sell.  This is, probably, around a $30-$50 figure and you might be able to find him cheaper...especially if you're doing a bulk buy.  At 20% the cost of an original, this is a good way to get a cool update to the classic Cobra Trooper in your collection.  But, it's still a price that I find high for a factory custom figure.  But, the Viper Pilot holds a mystique over the collecting world.  And, you tend to pay for mystique...even if the figure does't otherwise warrant the price.

The Commander's Entourage

Cobra Commander arrives with his personal entourage.

1983 Viper Pilot - Around the Web

On the surface, the Viper Pilot is just a slightly repainted Cobra Trooper.  But, that silver logo makes all the difference.  And, the figure's general rarity has driven him to be well considered by collectors.  Here's some of the best content on the web for the character:

Viper Pilot Profile

Viper Pilot at JoeADay.com

Viper Pilot at Half the Battle

Viper Pilot at 3DJoes.com

Viper Pilot at JoeWiki

Viper Pilot at Cobra Temple

Viper Pilot at JoeDios.com

1983 Viper Pilot

There is Karma in the collecting world. The people who try to screw you over are usually fleshed out very quickly. The good guys, though, make themselves known from the first as well. I've bought and traded online since 1993. In all that time, with all the transactions I've conducted, I went until the Spring of 2000 (nearly 7 years) before someone screwed me. Perhaps I had a false sense of security after all my successful transactions. Maybe I wanted the deal to happen so badly that I ignored that little voice in your head that usually saves you from making mistakes. Whatever it was, in December of 1999, shortly after I opened this site and mentioned that I wanted a Viper Pilot, someone emailed me. They offered me a loose, mint, complete with filecard Viper Pilot for $25.00 shipped.

I felt this was a good price, but not out of whack enough to set off any alarms that this might not be true. I asked for a picture of the figure, and they came through. I checked Ebay for any auctions that might have been using the same picture they sent. I also checked YoJoe.com to see if there were any bad trader warnings about the seller. Alas, I found none. The deal seemed fine. I sent the money. They acknowledged that they recieved it. A week later, I had paid by check, they emailed me saying they had sent out the figure. 6 weeks passed. No figure. I emailed them and asked what had happened. The guy responded three or four days later to say that he had sent the figure to my old address that was on my check. (I had moved about a month before this transaction took place. However, I learned a valuable lesson. All checks I now send out have my old address scribbled out and the accompanying sheet I sent has my correct address, as well as the item description and price, highlighted in orange marker.) However, I had mail forwarding and was receiving all the mail that was being sent to my old address. I figured, okay, maybe it will take a little longer. 4 more weeks passed. Still no figure. I emailed them again. I never received any response. I am currently in the process of taking legal action against them. (One of the benefits of having attorneys as friends!) The bottom line is that I was not going to get this Viper Pilot. The thing that really cheesed me off, though, is that while I was waiting, a mint Viper Pilot sold on Ebay for under $10.00 because someone mislabeled it. I didn't bid on that figure since I figured I had one in the mail. Alas, the Viper Pilot was not to be....

Despite being screwed, I continued to trade online. In June of 2000, I acquired a lot from a collector. This lot is amazing. On top of the bucket of figures he sent, was the Viper Pilot. I nearly had a stroke. I truly believe that Karma works in the Joe world. I have talked about this to collectors before. Many of the good ones seem to think the same thing. If you hold yourself to a higher standard, it will always pay off in the end. At any rate, this is the end of my little morality tale. I will now focus on the task at hand, profiling the Viper Pilot.

In 1983, G.I. Joe took off. The line exploded past its shared mold beginnings and started blossoming into the fabulous toy line that inspires to this day. While most of the toys released in 1983 are awesome, there were two notable exceptions: the Falcon and Viper gliders. These fragile pieces of styrofoam crap were terrible. The didn't fly, broke easily, and weren't all that fun to begin with. The commercial showed kids throwing these things for yards upon yards. They had the gliders doing loop-de-loops. They looked like a great toy. When you got these things out of the box, if you could without breaking the fragile, compressed styrofoam wings, the lame toy couldn't hope to live up to its hype. The gliders wouldn't fly. They couldn't do loop-de-loops, and the figures would certainly not stay attached to their gliders like their commercial counterparts. The end result is that the Tan Grunt and the Viper Pilot usually took at least a couple of hard dives onto grass, rock, or pavement and were devastated as a result.

The basic blue Cobra mold is one of the best simple designs the line ever had. They were easily distinguishable as the enemy, came with cool accessories, and were faceless minions who didn't pigeon-hole the line into an easily stereotyped villain. The early days of the comic had all the Cobra specialty troops as variations of the basic blue uniform. If these figures ever become cheap again, I'd like to pick some up with which to customize many of those early specialty troopers. I think the primary reason G.I. Joe became the success it did, is because the the villain was so good. Cobra was the perfect enemy who was able to mirror Joes' moves. Many Cobra figures are still among the most popular figures of the line to this day. Cobra is just a good foil to Joe. They had dynamic personalities who were more interesting than the heroes'. Much like Milton's Satan from Paradise Lost, it is the evil characters who grab our attention. Sure, we root for the good guys, but the dynamic villain is why we watch. Without Cobra, there would not be G.I. Joe. I'm glad Hasbro seems to have realized that with their newly announced 2000 releases.

The primary reason I chose the Viper Pilot to showcase is that he is the most obscure of the three blue Cobras. I am very happy that we got basic Cobra blue Vipers in 1998, but they don't really satisfy my desire for more of these early figures. I always preferred the mold of the Cobra Trooper to that of the Officer. For some reason, I felt that a guy who has a gun on his chest, and comes with a sniper rifle would be a more elite soldier than some jobber with an AK-47. Of course, that is not how the hierarchy works, but I still use the Cobra Officers as cannon fodder while the Troopers are a bit more elite. Had I had a Viper Pilot when I was a kid, I'm sure I would have used him as the leader of the Cobra Troopers. Now that I have one, though, I just can't bring myself to use him. Most of my old blue Cobras are packed away. The later Vipers are just more fun for me to use. I've decided, though, that if I ever come across a Terrordrome, I am going to man it with original blue Cobras like they appeared in the early Terrordrome stories in the comic. I just think the base would look far cooler with tons of blue Cobras, blue Tele Vipers, and a few Crimson Guards milling about at the whim of an original battle helmet Cobra Commander.

Viper Pilots are very, very difficult to find, especially if you want one with a perfect Cobra symbol. I know my mother discouraged other parents from wasting money on the gliders. You can be sure she was not alone. The toys were so cheap and inferior that people just avoided them. Many people started with the Joe Falcon glider. Once they found out what a piece of rubbish it was, they never went back for the Viper Glider. That is why the Tan Grunts exist in a disproportionate number to the Viper Pilots to this day. Another reason is that the silver Cobra rubs off very easily. Once it is gone, the figure is indistinguishable from a normal Cobra Trooper. Many of the old, beat up Cobras that are missing logos were once pristine Viper Pilots. As such, finding a figure with a perfect logo is now nearly impossible. You will notice the extensive wear on the logo of my sample below. I was just happy to find one. Getting a perfect logoed sample will take some doing. Still, even figures like the one you see here command a premium. Many people are missing the Viper Pilot. He only appears for sale every so often. A figure like mine, which has some logo wear, but is otherwise perfect with very tight joints, will still run you over $20.00. Of course, the Cobra trooper and Officer are starting to reach that price level for loose, complete, mint samples themselves. As the entire genre of the old blues continues to gain in popularity and rise in price, expect the Viper pilot to lead the way in both price and scarcity.