One of my absolute FAVOURITE O-ring Joes was the Night Viper. I loved him so much that I frequently swapped heads for a cool-looking Joe (like Dial-Tone or Falcon) to make them like, undercover. Not even terribly sure why I loved it so much, just did.
So of course I was stoked when they announced a Night Viper coming out in the Retaliation line of toys. Thing is, I’d already had the parts and bits together for this project though. Plus, when I got a gander at the one they’d come out with, $40 on eBay and all, I saw just another kitbash with some cool colouring. Stupid Hasbro.
So I was even more motivated to make my own.
Recipe (body):
- Head – Night Adder
- Chest/Torso/Arms – POC Snake Eyes
- Upper legs (outer) – ROC Duke (Impact Armor)
- Upper legs (inner) – ROC Ripcord
- Knees – POC Gayass Tornado Kick Snake Eyes
- Lower legs – POC Gayass Whirlwind Kick Storm Shadow
- Feet – ROC Charbroil with bits I cut off POC Gayass Tornado Kick Snake Eyes shins
Recipe (gear):
- Visor – ROC Snake Eyes, bits and pieces, spotting scope from Marauder Gun Runners.
- Webgear – Bits and pieces, belt from ROC Snake Eyes, belt from ROC Impact Armor Duke
- Flashlight/Knife/Knife Scabbard – Marauders again.
- Rifle (w/strap) – ROC Grand Slam
- Rifle (painted) – Heavily modded crap gun from True Heroes set. Cut and glued in most of the stock, clip and scope.
Hardest Part – Carving and cutting and drilling and fitting that inner thigh piece to the outer thigh piece. The biggest gripe I have towards the ROC Impact Armor legs was the weird way it tapered in on the inner thigh. Ripcord’s inner thigh looked great there, but the holes didn’t line up, so it took a lot of work on that harder plastic to get it to fit.
Easiest part – Cutting up the bits from other backpacks and webgear and gluing the night vision head-scope thing together. LOVED making that sucker.
Biggest Fail – The huge gap at the top of his left leg. And making the foot armor thingo so thick that he can’t bend his toes up. Also was going to do ROC Flash’s head with ROC Charbroil’s helmet, where he could take it off and be all human underneath, but it was going to be too much work and I got lazy.
Biggest nail – The gear, I reckon. I love the headscope (except that it doesn’t go up far enough), the webgear, the flashlight and knife and the rifle.
Thanks again to Seebs for the old school Night Viper. Frickin’ LOVE that guy.