Decepticon
Viper
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the original Combiner Wars Powerglide. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original Combiner Wars Powerglide here.)
Viper is a bit of a crossover
toy, with his paint job being heavily based on a Cobra Rattler plane from
G.I.JOE. Thus, his primary color is a rather Cobra-y dull dark blue, with
his secondary color being a bluish gray that's also dull and a bit dark,
but light enough to provide some contrast while still keeping some "color
continuity" by still being bluish. By itself, though, these two colors
make for a fairly dull color scheme. Thankfully, Viper has a fair number
of paint apps to break up his dull plastic colors. There's some silver
on the rear thrusters, for example, and some silver on the robot shoulders
and around the Decepticon/Cobra combined logos on his left wing and on
his robot chest (which is a pretty darn cool insignia, I must say). There's
also some gunmetal gray on the cockpit windows, though it's a bit dark--
I would've preferred if they had been silver, for better contrast. A white
"ZO6" emblem is on his right wing, which is apparently a reference to the
Cobra pilot Wild Weasel. What really helps the color scheme catch the eye,
though, is the red-- on the aforementioned emblems, as well as on the chest
and face in robot mode and targeting reticle in weapon mode. The red contrasts
GREAT with the dark blue and gray, to the point where I wish it had been
used a tad more. The copper used for the "missile pod" details inside the
arms is also a nice color which adds some more variety to the toy. Last
and least, there's a bit of black on the robot eyes and tip of the nosecone--
but on such a dark shade of plastic, it doesn't do much.
Viper has a new headsculpt,
with a head that looks very much like someone wearing a pilot mask-- a
more robotic version of Wild Weasel wearing a pilot mask, apparently. Anyways,
it looks good and helps fit in with the "drone" nature of the toy, though
due to the red contrasting so brightly against the dark blue plastic, even
when his head is mostly "hidden" in vehicle mode the red bits poke out
just a little.
Viper is a rather unexpected
crossover toy in a Transformers mainline, and thus JOE fans might want
to pick him up even if they aren't all that crazy about Transformers, given
how little said fans get these days anyways. As a toy by itself, Viper's
main colors are dull, but the red and bronze help break up his colors,
in robot mode especially. Still, a little more paint couldn't have hurt
him in vehicle mode. My favorite release of this mold, by a hair.
Review by Beastbot