Now, the Kay Bee store was a new thing to me at this time. Prior to this, my "local" shop for Joes was Bob's True Value, and the next stop for even seeing Joes was the not-so-often-taken hour trip to the nearest Kmart.
Living in civilization at this time, however, I found Kay Bee awesome! Especially when there were such nice sales as buy 2-get one free, or some such promotion.
I'm fairly certain that Rock Viper was one of the very first figures I purchased there, taking advantage of one of those sales. Thinking about it now, I remember not only the pegs being full up on figures, but a bin of figures that was just outside of the store. My best bud at the time, the same best bud that gave me so many of his Joes, was also with on that day. (He must have been growing up faster, as he bought an NES game!)
(At some point, I also bought a Cobra Rage, and also had one of the most strong Deja-Vu experiences when I had it in a certain location in my new home.)
But, not all was well with this new purchase. The Rock Viper had a broken crotch and I didn't notice when I bought it.
And to this very day I'm writing about it, he still has a broken crotch:
I think for that very reason the Rock Viper has gotten MUCH less use over the year than if he had not had that broken crotch. Thinking back, my 1988 Hit-n-Run spent a couple Christmas' in the tree, and he even spent easily several months (perhaps years) hanging from a planter hook in my old room.
The Rock Viper, did not fair so well, despite having an excellent backpack with a grappling hook on a string. Of course, I think I made a vehicle connection between the 1990 Rage and the Rock Viper due to the maroon coloring at that time.
Other than that, I don't recall the Rock Viper having any big parts in play, or in set-up. But, this is a guy I would like to get a replacement crotch for, as well as add a few more Rock Vipers so as to have a small squad of mountain troops that will give my GIJoe team some trouble.
The Rock Viper really had a unique camo-pattern. How cool would it have been to have those rockets removable, I would think they are not too far off from 1991 "jet pack" General Hawk's sized rockets. And there's more on Rock Vipers leg to reload!
I did have the Python Patrol version, but this guy went out of my collection when I decided to get out of the "sub team" collecting end of it. And as much as I think the Python Patrol set was really near THE BEST of all the later o-ring multi-packs, I didn't like the gold on the Rock Viper here. I really preferred the more matte scheme of the 1990 version.
But, I really liked the overall mold of the Python Rock Viper, and I figured I would like my original one just as much if it had a fixed crotch!
Anyone have a Rock Viper crotch spare?