HCC788 - 1988 TOXO-VIPER - COBRA CONVERGENCE III - G.I. Joe toy review!

Thanks to Chris Piers for the title card art!

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Geoff Adams, Sean Dowling, Jason Galligan, Droidwhisperer,
Jeff Mills (Biggypines), Ryan Wagner, James Swindell, Brian Zahn,
Byron Kellogg, Michael Johnson, Ben Penserga, Mike Smith,
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Mark Taylor, John Logan, Judson Mabee, Donald Koehne, Brent McMillan

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HCC788

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JoeMotion Videos 82
(Rice Krispies Mail-Away Byronic-Viper)
YouTube
BLACK MAJOR CUSTOM GHOST ALLEY VIPER

Javier Gonzalez

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G.I. Gary Classic Toy Review – The 1989 Cobra H.E.A.T. Viper

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CYBER-TIGER RETRO TOY SHOWCASE AND REVIEWS
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Michael Johnson

Sources and Information:

Toxo-Viper (RAH) on Joepedia

Hazmat suit:
Image:

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic book series
published by Marvel Comics

G.I. Joe: Special Missions comic book series
published by Marvel Comics

"Field/Combat Army Rations. What Are Your Stories of Eating Chow?"
SFC Joe S. Davis, Rally Point, post by SPC Jan Allbright,
field-combat-army-rations-what-are-your-stories-of-eating-chow

Canadian Border Patrol
jeremyrowley

Music:
Chipper, Big Rock, The Snow Queen
Licensed under Creative Commons:
By Attribution 3.0 License

Elephants by Huma-Huma

Fight Scene by Audionautix

G. I. Joe is (c) Hasbro.
All copyrighted material is used for the purpose of
comment and criticism, which constitutes a fair use
of such material.

This video is (c) Bryan Lower.

[mattlerch]

I didn't use toxo-viper as his intended role. He was my underwater salvage and repair specialist. Part eel, part techno-viper.

[joshua]

My first batch of Joes was stolen at my school playground (largely due to my carelessness). My second childhood batch went to my cousin when I purged a number of toys. My He-Men, however, were my main focus and I literally still have dozens of them from childhood, most whole and at least a dozen with complete accessories.

[RogueTwo]

When I was young and would play GI Joe with my younger brother and one of his friends, the rolls of the Toxo-Viper and Airtight were actually reversed. Back in those days, my little bro and his friend would be the Joes, and I'd play the Cobras. And being little kids, they were under the impression for the first few years that the Cobras were actually lizard people, like the alien invaders in the TV miniseries V.

I tried to dissuade them of this, but between Cobra Commander's hissing speech pattern and the Joes constantly referring to the bad guys as snakes in the cartoon, they weren't buying it, and I eventually gave up trying. My brother and his friend, in keeping with V miniseries, had the Joes have their own version of the "Red Dust" biochemical weapon, which they used on Cobra all the time.

Airtight was in charge of dispensing it, and I took to saying that every Cobra who had a face-covering mask or helmet had an oxygen mask or filter built into their gear. When the Toxo-Viper came out, their job was to protect Cobra's forces and their civil population on Cobra Island for the use of that crap.

Of course, this was just around the time my brother finally accepted that the Cobras were not, in fact, snake people, and we no longer played with that friend of his after his family moved, and it became a moot point. But it still made the Toxo-Viper a special and useful figure at the time.

What happened to my old figures? I kept them for many years, until, suffering a great deal of wear and tear, I retired them in favor of the New Sculpt and RAH reissue figures of the late 90s and early 2000s. A few years later, having to move in a hurry, I had to dump a lot of stuff that wouldn't fit in the limited storage I had during the move. It was painful to let most of them go.

But here's the happy ending, my adult nephews, who were helping me move, and who had played with our GI Joes when they were young, saved them from the trash and kept them for themselves. And I'm pretty darn cool with that.

[brett]

I still have virtually all of them except for minor weapons losses and broken pieces. A complete set of '82-'83, but after that there were holes in my '84-'87 lines that I have tried to fill over the years. I was older when Joe restarted in '82, so I took very good care of them and packed them away nicely in High School where they waited until I was through grad school and had my own condo.

[christianbrix]

I still have almost all of my childhood figures, including the very first, Storm Shadow. He's very yellow, lots of paintwear and needs a new o-ring, but he's there. My mum got rid of the vehicles and playsets after I moved out though, as it was taking up too much space. It would cost a fortune to replace it now. Great review!

[cronocomics]

I had the chance to recover my childhood Joes from the person I sold them 30 years ago. When I met them after 3 decades I saw them very fondly but they were damaged to a point they were not desirable anymore, I did not buy them again, it was the end of an era and for me my joes are the ones I have now and I will take care of them for the rest of my life. It does not matter they were not MOC, I purchased the best I could find, they are perfect for me and they are MY Joes now, I love them and I will play with them until God gives me life.

[jscott]

My Joe's were all given to my sister's kids. Except my Dreadnoks ..which I have. But the figure that always means the most ... It's Destro. Mine was given to me at a carnival when I was 6. He was the coolest.

[TerryTurner]

Nice figure, the purple should have been a bluish dark purple. 👍

[chrisbrewer]

My old man when he sold his house decided to trash all of my childhood toys that me and my brother had collected over the years. Was a sad day when I found out he had scrapped them. Had 1 son and was expecting another, had planned on giving the Joes to them but alas it was not meant to be.

[redvitaminblue]

Sadly, the bottom half of Bazooka is the only action figure - of any toy line - that I have left from my childhood.  My dad threw all my childhood toys away when I was in college.

As far as the one Joe toy that I wish could have back... my 1985 A.W.E. Striker and the condition it was in when I first put it together, before accidentally stepping on it and breaking it the same day.  My heart still aches for that 6-yr old version of me.

[timf]

Sadly, most of my childhood GI Joe toys didn't survive their years of storage in my parents' attic. I found my lunchbox of Joes when we finally cleaned out the attic but unfortunately, most of them had suffered band rot with the O rings and I didn't know how to repair them at the time. It was disheartening to open the box and find so many of my favorite figures in pieces.

[Ostegoletric]

I don't have an of my old G.I.Joe figures...I had them up until my early twenties but i lost them in a apartment fire. My favorite figures I had that comes to mind is Salvo, Snakeyes, and Stalker. But if i can have one or two back again, it would have to be between Col. Courage, Barricade (Red & Gold variant), Snowstorm (white & Orange variant), & Ice cream trooper :)

[MartinKronstrom]

The Toxo-Vipers were soooo the ones cleaning the porta potty...while the Gyro-Viper were probably on canteen duty.

[Mlopez_]

I remember this guy and I know it wasn't mine. This review reminded me why.
All my old Joe's are gone with the wind. But my first favorite was Flint, until 1LT Falcon came along.

Great review man.

[Bud-gkbw]

I am now 41, and all my GI Joes (strictly speaking Action Force, as it was known in the UK at the time) are in my parents loft. Thanks to a generous uncle, it is quite a collection. After watching this great video, I feel lucky to still have it.

[lucasfurey]

I've never owned a Toxo Viper, I've always loved the idea of them though. I still have all of my childhood gi Joe's, I have most of them on display actually.

[jasonkerest]

You brought up a very interesting point which was one of my play story lines as a kid. Toxo-Viper doesn't have an Cobra insignia! In this era of GI Joe was the Cobra Civil War in the Comics and the formation of Destro & Iron Grenadiers. When I was a kid I further divided the Cobra's into the Loyalist who followed Cobra Commander **cough, Fred VII, cough, cough**, who all wore a Cobra insignia, and the Descenters, who did not have a recognizable Cobra insignia on them. These included the Dreadknocks (who were a sub-faction anyway), Raptor, Crystal Ball, Gyro Viper & Toxo-Vipers among others who all revolted against the then Current regime for unfair treatment of Cobra personnel and POW's and wished to aid the release captured allies... Basically this was a set up idea for the 1989 toys that were yet to be released. My collection went through an intermediary phase in 1987 and between using GI Joes as stand ins for Marvel characters, trading away, stolen, or swindled, or broken, my pre-1987 figures had been reduced to 1/3 of what it once was. I had lost Zartan by this point and I was hoping Zartan was going to be re-sculpted and released in 1989 so that he would have been the leader of the faction(side note: the leadership was not the best, Zarana Zanzibar & Zandar were prominent leaders from time to time). HCC 788, you said you were rough on your figures, I was ROUGH on my figures. Arms snapped off, knees busted, thumbs broke. I'd never let any character with broken thumbs in battle, they'd have to stay behind or man a turrent or something.
To answer your question which one action figure I'd want back the most from my childhood I'd say '85 Flint because he started the phase of GI Joe being exclusive - all other toy lines stopped dead in their tracks to me once the bobble-head GI Joes came out. So much so I felt I took GI Joe for granted i wanted to get as many of the 1982-84 figures, took advantage of all mail-aways and traded with other kids in the neighborhood. It's why I feel 1985 is the best year for GI Joe and 1988 is a close second. I explained to the GI Joburg guys that while a do love the 1988 line, it's close but no cigar when stood up to 1985; I feel that the bobble-head was a play feature that cemented what we look for in modern GI Joes whereas the 1988 line introduced the sub-factions prominently.

[ucitymetalhead]

To be honest I was a bit of a mad scientist as a kid and I really liked the toxo vipers they were a good fit for me and my little "chemical factory i made.

[njed]

I gave all old Joe’s to my nephew when I was maybe 15 he was like 4. I kept my Skystriker w/ Ace & my MOBAT with the 83 figures I owned at that time. If I can have one thing back...my MCC Mobile Command Center

[maxbrandt]

I have none of the toys I played with as a kid, all of them were donated or kindly given away to younger friends. If I could get back one toy from childhood it would be Optimus Prime, that was a fun one and one that a lot of kids aspired to own.