G.I. Joe vs. Cobra - Cobra Neo-Viper

Well, much like the CLAWS, when this figure first came out in Wave 1, I longed to see it in O-Ring fashion. The mold was cool, the colors were great, and the character idea was a pretty neat one as well. But back in Wave 1, this figure suffered some flaws with the articulation, which kind of limited the use I find for him. Would the O-Ring treatment here in Wave 4 change that, or is this new Neo-Viper like the new CLAWS, and still somewhat useless to me?

The answer is...well, mixed, actually. First of all, I have to say that the O-Ring treatment is a GREAT addition to the Neo-Viper and works far better on him than on the CLAWS figure. The Neo's arms are slimmer and more in proportion with his body, and the O-Ring looks natural on him and really helps him in a lot of ways.

But, unfortunately, he still ain't perfect. First of all, that awkward positioning of his arms makes it very hard to put him in any kind of "normal" position besides firing a weapon. He just doesn't look natural. His palms remain kind of outstretched and he looks kind of odd. And actually...that's about the only complaint. Sure, I would prefer he had more "Cobra-like" colors. The gray is kind of a different color, and don't get me wrong, it's not a bad color, it just doesn't quite fit the Neo-Viper as well as the blue or red did.

But that is kind of a minor issue, and overall, the figure does look a lot nicer with the added articulation. His torso fits into the O-Ring format well, and the figure is heads and shoulders about what it's predecessor was. Still, it's not a trooper I'm going to army build...

Another redeeming factor I need to mention, though, are his weapons! Hasbro really outdid themselves with the Neo-Viper's weapon assortment, I think. Sure, he has a forgettable Tele-Viper backpack and funky sound attack grenade pistol, but he also has an amazing AK-47 with bayonet and one of the coolest machine pistols I've seen in a long time! VERY awesome stuff! And like a lot of Wave 4, Hasbro did us a favor with these and didn't stick those sound attack tabs on them. Unfortunately some of the cool weapons in Wave 4 DID get saddled with them (see Dart and CLAWS for examples) but for the most part, we got some excellent weapons out of this assortment.

Overall, pair this figure with Wild Bill and you've got a can't miss 2-pack...definitely scoop this one up when you see it.