The Shadow-Viper is definitely one of the more infamous of the Built To Rule figures. Ever since he was spotted on eBay even well before the second wave of BTR was officially announced, fans around the online community really liked what they saw...of course as weird as it might be, it would seem that a lot of people's favorite mold figures over the past few years, have come with obnoxious BTR pegs slapped on their arms and legs. Thankfully (as you can see in the pic below) those pegs are pretty easy to cut off...but, still.
In fact, I would make a bet that the Shadow-Viper figure was far and away the most maligned figure when it became evident that the second series of Built To Rule would be very hard to find. There were two figures people were complaining the most about...AVAC, and Shadow-Viper (who are, ironically, pretty much the same figure with some minor tooling changes).
Is it because they're merely army builders? Because they actually have some cool design elements? I think it's both, actually, and I find that I do like the Shadow-Viper, even if his name doesn't really match his overly bright appearence.
But in order to get this Shadow-Viper, you gotta pick up the Night Prowler...and trust me when I say, the one and only reason you should want to buy this mini-set is for the figure. There is literally pretty much nothing to this BTR set at ALL. It's almost non-existent.
First of all, the Night Prowler is kind of marketed as a small infiltration go-kart type of thing. It's one of the really small sets, like the Rapid Runner w/ Torpedo, so there is really nothing to it. That's a bonus in some ways, because if you can find it on the shelf, you can get the set for like $2.00, which is a good price for stocking up on Shadow-Vipers.
The Night Prowler is a red mini-vehicle with gray rollbars, struts, and four small tires.
And nothing else.
Nothing else at all. Well...except a missile launcher. ;)
That's right...no steering column. No controls. No pedals or any way of controlling this vehicle at all. In fact, the figure just pretty much lies in the empty go-kart shell, with no ways to steer or otherwise control this vehicle at all. The Night Prowler is really less of a "prowler" and more of a "skater"...it has tires and a board, but not much else.
It's almost like Hasbro knew that the main draw to this set would be the figure...and they would have been right.
While asthetically the vehicle LOOKS all right, it's just really tough to get behind it's lack of basic function. It doesn't even have a secondary mode, although even if it did, I'd be afraid to see what it was.
Now regardless of how the vehicle comes across (and even regardless of how silly the figure looks in it) I can heartily recommend picking a few of these up, especially if you can find them for $1.99. The Shadow-Viper figure deserves to be the main draw for this mini BTR set, and I don't think you will be disappointed if you pick this up.
First of all, the mold is actually pretty nicely in proportion, especially for a new sculpt figure, with decent-length arms, fairly normal legs, and a nice streamlined mold. The detail work is there in spades, too, with quilted and padded material nicely applied on his arms, intermingled with a mesh detail that always looks neat.
A simple belt of pouches around his waist adds some great detail there as well. The cloth detailing on his legs looks realistic, and works perfectly with the layered armor on his shins...and all of this looks remarkably fine with the BTR pegs hacked off with an exacto. Definitely, though, I'd say the winning components of this figure are the head sculpt and torso.
With a very uniquely designed and sculpted head, the Shadow-Viper immediately as a distinct appearence. It almost looks like a rebreather unit, and is just a nice unique facemasked look. The torso is also a very simply, but effectively sculpted chest armor...it's molded nice and tight to the torso and looks great. The entire figure looks great.
All in all, from a vehicle standpoint, there is nothing redeeming about the Night Prowler at all. It's basically got nothing to offer. However, the figure is terrific...it's a great one, and I'm thrilled that Hasbro got these out there somewhere. He's affordible, nicely sculpted, and has an interesting paint scheme.
The Shadow-Viper is definitely one of the more infamous of the Built To Rule figures. Ever since he was spotted on eBay even well before the second wave of BTR was officially announced, fans around the online community really liked what they saw...of course as weird as it might be, it would seem that a lot of people's favorite mold figures over the past few years, have come with obnoxious BTR pegs slapped on their arms and legs. Thankfully (as you can see in the pic below) those pegs are pretty easy to cut off...but, still. 
