To be completely honest, I wasn't aware of the Cobra Vipers' existence until the 25th Anniversary line came out. The G.I. Joe toys that we had as kids consist mostly of Battle Force 2000 characters and the neon-colored figures that fans would later love to hate. Though we enjoyed our Joes back then, I never thought that we were actually missing out on a lot of good stuff. The classic Cobra Viper is probably one of the most sought after army-builder figures, and it's because the design of the figure is so iconic you just have to own some. So, when I first met the Cobra Viper while I was expanding my 25th Anniversary collection, I instantly got hooked. The G3 figure looks nice, but it suffers from a lot of fundamental errors that later turned the figure into one of the most-lambasted G3 figures ever. I was able to look past the faults of the G3 release (permanently angled hands, removable goggles that won't stay in place, bad ankle articulation), and I, even up to now, consider the figure as one of my favorite figures from the TFAC era. Responding to criticism, Hasbro tried to make improvements on the base figure on later releases, and they somehow got the figure right. And now, with the POC line consistently giving us modern takes on our favorite characters, a new Cobra Viper has emerged, and this new figure puts every single variation that came before it to shame.
