To clear up confusion, the one pictured is the POC Alley Viper. The 25th one was orange/blue and didn't come with the additional Resolute helmet/goggles nor gas mask. FWIW mold reuse is expected for the Classified line and inevitable, whether mold reuse becomes as common as it was in previous lines may just be a matter of time. The design team is getting around it by using soft PVC overlays for some of the figures. Hopefully we'll see more unique tooling due to the higher(compared to previous smaller scale Joes) price point.
While I like that Trooper I prefer my Cobras a little more flourish. I use “25th” as shorthand for all the modern figures of that body type. It’s much easier than referencing every subline. It needs a term like o-ring.
I don't think the Alley-Vipers were intended to be as bright as the figure wound up being. However, I also don't think the intent was for them to be subtle when they stormed an urban area. That's why they got a shield, a helmet and very loud rifle. Shock and awe!
I always used "modern era" for the line beginning with the 25th and proceeding through the last of the GIJCC. I think "modern era" was a thing. I don't think I was he only one using it.
I can appreciate both the original brightly deco-ed Alley-Vipers and the more subtle POC Alley-Viper. I'd buy both. Hopefully they are tricked out with gold highlights like everything else in this line appears to be.
That works well. I get confused about was is POC and isn’t. I think the bright orange and blue is ridiculous BUT in hand it’s a lot of fun. I kind of like when COBRA breaks out the crazy colors. One of the coolest aspects is all the crazy factions and uniforms in the Cobra ranks. What makes Cobra work great as a toy line is they are mostly troop-builders. Joe really only has the Steel Brigade unless you count stuff like Tiger Force which frankly needs a color / style concept make-over. Cause Tiger Force sounds cooler in theory than practice.
Hopefully, this new Alley Viper amalgamation will have bright orange and blue highlights at least, circa 1989.
Everything has looked pretty much exactly like the art. I think the Alley Viper and Gung-Ho are the best looking designs on there.
The designer said they went with trying to combine the best elements from the Alley Viper designs. The mask is V1 with the fangs from V2 added in. I’m glad they did keep the eye searing Orange/blue colour scheme. It’s one of the few hold outs from the 90s Joes I don’t mind. From the art, looks like they have Duke’s rifle which I’m wondering if it will be the new Sunbow gun. Also I’m wondering if they have a rifle type attachment for the crossbow. Scarlett’s has that part which separates and could attach to a longer piece.
Word. Remember those DOCI/AOCI 7packs? Those packs were one of my top 5 fondest memories of the whole 25th experience.
Yeah finally got a Chuckles and Recondo. I loved Chuckles as a kid because he had a holster, sort like I loved Flacon because he had that badass knife holder on his backpack. I think Recondo is a really underrated Joe too. The DOCI was the shit though way better than the Joe pack... Lamprey, Alley Viper and my absolute favorite, favorite Cobra Trooper from the “Modern” era the Range Viper. I love that damn Range Viper.
Wowzers! You had the Rolling Thunder?! I’m so jealous! Back then, Joes were hard to find in my country so I had the choice of Rolling Thunder or the Battle Force 2000 vehicles (that could form a base)...if I had know how lackluster that base was...I would have opted for the former... Up till today, I’m impressed by the missiles with the missile gimmick! Thanks for posting the picture...as much as I like the Alley Vipers, I would prefer Cobra Vipers or Cobra Troopers...
Same here for sure. Most of my Joe memories are from the cartoon during ‘85 and ‘86 and those are the characters I’m most interested in. I’m hoping for the blue uniformed generic troopers (or at least something close to them).
Yeah the Rolling Thunder was a ton of fun. It should still be in our old house. Need to check back on how complete it is next time I'm in the area.
I remember buying them from Smalljoes and ordering 2 sets of each for my brother-in-law and I. I ended up with 3 of each of the troop builders except on the Lampreys. Ah, good memories.
On the subject of Alley Vipers, I rarely liked second versions of characters as well or better than the original characters, but I actually liked the version 2 of the Alley Viper from the original line a lot! I’m not sure I like it, overall, more than the original but I thought the color scheme maybe looked a little more menacing.
I might be one of the only Joe fans that never cared for any Vipers. Give Crimson Guard and regular Cobra Troops over Vipers all day.
Yeah, I could go in for many Alley-Viper repaints. I don't believe we ever got a V2 deco in the modern era line. I could use one of those too.
