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07-16-2009, 06:53 AM | #31 |
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In my twisted little GI Joe world, I look at Vipers as Marines or Stormtroopers, while troopers are the regular army... the support guys.
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07-16-2009, 07:02 AM | #32 |
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Location: Virginia
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Yeah, I tend to follow the mold of "Blueshirts = Basic soldier/do-it-all schmoe, Viper = Dedicated Infantry Trooper/Shocktrooper.
Of course, then the Resolute troopers had to come along and make it even more confusing.... Desert CG? He was made because he fit the theme of the pack and was an easy repaint, I'd imagine. The extreme conditions packs weren't exactly designed to create a bunch of all-new parts and molding. Besides, it's not uncommon for a military force to have different uniforms for different environments. Same with the Arctic Vipers. The packs were meant to basically be "troop builder" packs with a particular theme. Though I do think the bare-forearmed Viper SAW gunner in the Arctic pack was exceedingly silly. Personally, I think an Arctic CG could have been pretty cool. Then again, I just like the idea that Cobra Commander has a couple loyal "siegies" following Bludd around to help keep him in line. |
07-16-2009, 07:26 AM | #33 |
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I always figured blue shirts =army, vipers = marines.
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07-16-2009, 08:17 AM | #34 |
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I think that's a pretty good assessment but I also think that maybe the Vipers were simply an upgrade from the 'blueshirts'... but I can't really speculate. As far as the desert CG goes, I thought it was a little on the WTF side but I dig the figure sans the fact that they STILL packaged it with the M1 capgun... but Marauders Inc is only a few keystrokes and clicks away.
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07-16-2009, 08:25 AM | #35 |
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In my Joe-verse all Cobra agents are either Officers or blue-shirt troopers. Sometimes they put on their specialized gear or uniforms like Toxo-Vipers, Hyrdo-Vipers, Lampreys, Eels, Vipers, Tele-Vipers, Secto-Vipers,Astro-Vipers, etc. when their jobs call for them to do so. But, for example, I believe that a Snow Serpent will wear his officer or trooper uniform depending on his rank when he's not off on a mission in the cold.
The only exception are the Crimson Guard which have their own structure. Make sense? |
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07-16-2009, 08:31 AM | #36 |
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Location: Georgia
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I'm of the opinion that Hasbro would upgrade characters yet wouldn't confer with the story writers (at the time, this would be Hama for comics & file cards & whoever the cartoon production company at the time was) about it. Trooper/viper would be one example. Hasbro upgraded the trooper, but only gave vague descriptions (rank-and-file Cobra soldier) & left it to the others to figure out what to do with it. So you'd end up seeing the two side-by-side.
Scrap Iron/Metalhead (missle gimmick), Roadblock/Heavy Duty (heavy machine gunner), etc.. I'll bet they fully expected the older characters to be permanently retired for the newer ones & that the customer base would accept it. At the time, it probably sounded like a good plan that would let the line keep running indefinately. Things didn't quite turn out that way.
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07-16-2009, 08:39 AM | #37 |
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Quote:
The original Cobra Trooper had a friggin' Dragunov and garrotte wire. That some pretty black ops stuff right there. Vipers come with body armour and an assault rifle. That's just regular infantry. My assessment: The original Cobra Troopers were high-class, expensive private military (ie: mercenaries), hence the original figure. After '83 or so, when Cobra "expanded" (ie: more toys), the blueshirts began to deteriorate somewhat in quality as standards were lowered (this is the comic and, especially, the cartoon coming into play in my "Joe-verse"). Cobra was reorganized into Vipers (infantry) and other specialties - Televipers (comms), etc. Most of the original Cobra Troopers who were all hardcore and stuff ended up founding the elite units - the Eels/Snow Serpents and to a much lesser extent (ie: only the ones with extensive education and/or the potential for such) the Crimson Guard. Vipers aren't really elite at all, except in the case of some units, like maybe the Crimson Vipers. Just my take on the whole thing. You gotta figure that Cobra evolves as the years pass. I still like the idea of Blueshirts being a sort of utility uniform for almost all the Cobra soldiers of varying types.
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07-16-2009, 08:56 AM | #38 |
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I agree with this.
I always thought of the Vipers as the new recruits that already had a military background, and the troopers did not. The vipers where then promoted to the elites like the Alley-Viper, Range-viper, Tele-Viper, or Frag-viper. The trooper had the option for extra training to become any of the non-viper class like the Bazooka-trooper, Stinger-driver, or Under water-trooperor. The troopers that showed that they had the skills would be recruited into the Vipers. Any of the troopers that had a college education, they could be promoted into the Crimson Guard. Dont forget that no matter how big Cobra gets or how diverse there soldiers are they still need some at the bottom to clean the latrines. |
07-16-2009, 09:42 AM | #39 |
Ne Plus Ulta
Join Date: Jun 2009
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Quote:
I don't think Hama intended for there to be a real functional distinction between Cobra troopers and Cobra Vipers. I distinctly recall the Cobra troopers being referred to as Vipers in at least a couple of early issues (some two years before the Viper figure was even produced). It's possible that Hasbro picked up on the Viper label and ran with it, calling the next generation of army builder troopers Vipers, instead of generic "Cobra troopers." But they're essentially the same "character" if you will, just with updated uniforms and a distinct unit name.
Here's another example of how the fans have a better grasp of what G.I. Joe is than Hollywood. All those figures are hot and Hasbro should take a look at doing some of them |
07-16-2009, 09:53 AM | #40 |
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Quote:
Also means Bazooka would have been Zap in a football jersey, Beach-head would have been Stalker in a Baclava, and Sci-Fi would have been Flash in a spiffy neon green outfit. Last edited by Jmacq1; 07-16-2009 at 09:56 AM.. |
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