I don’t know whether it’s the fact that I’ve been restricted to buying non-O-ring Joes for the past couple months or what, but Wave 5 has pretty much knocked my socks off. Every figure seems to come packed full of character, sculpting and terrific color schemes, and I really see a lot of these updates kind of overshadowing their original incarnations.
As I’ve been known to do with these new releases, I’m going to start at the bottom and work my way up until I get to my favorite new figure of the bunch.
Here is my choice for the best figure of Wave 5! I’m sure it’s a real surprise, considering my choices of Rock Viperand Laser Viper in previous installments. In all honesty, though, this figure was a great choice by Hasbro and I’m very excited about it.
Of course, there is a downside here. Because of retailers’ lack of desire to sell this last Wave of the "Real American Hero Collection", Wave 5 was almost scrapped altogether. Instead of doing that, Hasbro decided to offer the figures through online retailers such as Small Joes, The Store on 44, or The YoJoe Depot. While I am very happy they did this, it is not good news for collectors, since now these figures may be VERY hard to find. Small Joes has already gotten their assortment in, and even though the heavy web traffic through their servers through a loop, they still sold out of the Serpentor/Shock Viper packs by very early the next morning. I was one of the lucky ones and was able to score the packs you see profiled in these very pages. It all doesn’t help that the Serpentor/Shock Viper includes and always popular "Army Builder" or Cobra Trooper, which will fetch even more demand. It is unfortunate that not all collectors may be able to find as many of these guys as they’d like.
But back to the figure…this is the consummate Cobra Trooper. Very reminiscent of the Cobra Viper, Hasbro had a brainstorm when they decided to use an old Joe mold to create this new, very cool Cobra soldier. This is another one of those ’93, ’94 molds that got overlooked when in the stores, but with some color changes and a line-up change, this guy gets the recognition he deserves. Granted, though, Ice Cream Soldier was pretty much doomed from the start with the silly name and the blinding colors, but the mold itself is a great one, and it really works as a Cobra Viper.
Speaking of the mold, it’s a beefy one, which gives the Shock Viper some nice bulk…also, the helmet is pretty evil looking and I LOVE the black faceplate. The round grenades going down the chest straps are a cool touch and the significant padding that he has really makes him seem like a frontline shock troop. Even little things like the padded boots and the armor plated right shoulder really make this figure shine. I only wish he was more available, so I could buy a couple dozen of ‘em!
Next we have the colors. As I’ve said many times, Hasbro has been consistently impressing me throughout the 2000-2002 line with their fantastic uses of color schemes, and yes, even the infamous paint wipes. This figure’s dull blue and red coloring is only made all the cooler by the liberal application of paint wipes spread throughout. It gives him a fantastic gritty look to him, that really lets me picture him in the midst of the battle field.
His accessories are also very, very cool. Unlike what his filecard says, I cannot fathom using this guy solely as a flamethrower. I think he does have some background in that, but primarilly, he will be using that terrific black machine gun that he comes with. An EXCELLENT choice by Hasbro!! He's also sporting the trademark Cobra sigils on the shoulders, which is a nice touch.
All in all, this figure has really impressed me to no end. He can serve so many purposes! I LOVE what Mike of Mike’s G.I. Joe Page has planned for him, I may steal some of those Cobra Secret Gestapo ideas myself! Check out his page to see what I mean.
The Shock Viper can really be very versatile…either as an Urban strike squad, Cobra’s Secret Police, or a frontline shock trooper, Shock Viper has so many different possibilities. The way he’s going to start in my world is as a multi-purpose heavy weapons trooper…he can use his included flamethrower or machine gun, and can either serve as a Viper Squad’s heavy hitter, or as an elite team of shock troops, heavily trained and drawn from a pool of Night Vipers or Alley Vipers to be a powerful strike force on the front lines. Really there is so much that can be done with him, that he makes a terrific asset to the Cobra team.
