When you think of Cobra's top underwater specialists, who do you think of? Cobra Eels, logically. Okay, who else? No, not Undertows. They're cool, but they were traded to Cobra by Destro. They were originally Iron Grenadier troopers. And no, I don't mean the Electric Eels, either. I'm talking about the Hydro-Vipers.

Introduced in 1988 (Happy 20th, as of this writing!) the Hydro-Vipers were an early experiment in genetic engineering for Cobra. According to their file cards, these so-called "Demons of the Deep" were officially listed as Cobra's Elite Underwater Troopers, and they were qualified Cobra Eels who had undergone a variety of surgical procedures to make them even more deadly underwater soldiers.

Hydro-Vipers were surgically altered to better withstand nitrogen narcosis and other effects of deep diving. They had synthetic webs planted between their fingers and chemical injections to stimulate subcutaneous fat production to provide natural insulation against the cold of deep water. That these procedures were known to be psychologically destabilizing was probably of no great concern to Cobra.

An unnamed respondent stated on their official file card: "I'm sorry, those guys just aren't human anymore. They have a handshake like a dead mackerel and they leave damp spots on all the furniture. I realize that they are virtually unbeatable in underwater combat, but so is a great white shark -- and I'll bet the shark is friendlier!"

What gets me is why anyone would offer a handshake to someone like this... Don't get me started on "damp spots on the furniture..."

The figure had an interesting design, and clearly for all of the surgical and genetic alterations Cobra carried out, they also wanted these guys to look as intimidating as possible. Hydro-Vipers are outfitted in a purple diving suit, with a scaly vest. Although the basic head of the Hydro-Viper is human-looking enough, they came with a mask that certainly explains that "Demon of the Deep" designation. This frightening-looking thing, molded in red, has a thoroughly inhuman face and long, pointed "ears". Hasbro did a really good job making this piece. It has actual eye-holes, and it snaps onto the Hydro-Viper's head very effectively, and one can even see the Hydro-Viper's eyes through the eye-holes. Nicely and very accurately done!

One very interesting structural note about the Hydro-Viper is the left hand. Unlike the usual hands for a G.I.Joe figure, which has the fingers together and slightly curved inward so it can hold onto its weapons and accessories, the Hydro-Viper's left hand was designed with its fingers spread outward, to display the synthetic webbing mentioned on the file card. It was one of the VERY few times that a different sort of hand was used in the original Real American Hero line (and switchable B.A.T. parts account for the rest), and although admittedly the Hydro-Viper can't hold anything in that hand, it's still very interesting.

My one complaint about the Hydro-Viper was the very strange Cobra emblem placed on the upper right arm. It barely looked like a Cobra emblem. It was two tapered half-circles with a couple of eyes at the top and three stripes running all the way across through the middle. It looked, really, like a young child's version of the Cobra emblem. I was annoyed enough with this that I cleaned them off the Hydro-Vipers that I bought. Not every Cobra soldier by 1988 had a specific Cobra insignia on him, and I sincerely felt that the Hydro-Viper was better off without this mess. No one was going to mistake him for one of the good guys, anyway.

The Hydro-Viper's accessories were almost as interesting and unusual as the figure. He came with a pair of swim fins that were almost as weird as the mask, clearly designed to look like an organic part of the soldier; a backpack with a couple of hoses that could attach to the eerie face mask; a harpoon gun; a jagged dagger that looked a bit like a lightning bolt, and a black manta-ray. Nice pet to have...

The Hydro-Vipers arguably aren't Cobra's most popular undersea division. Most fans tend to prefer the original Cobra Eels, and that's understandable. They look more like realistic enemy divers, and that's what a large percentage of G.I.Joe fans want from their figures.

On the other hand, if you saw something this weird and ugly coming up behind you underwater, there's no question it'd be pretty alarming, which would give the Hydro-Viper a brief advantage that the more conventional Eels might not have.

Anyway, the Hydro-Vipers are clearly proof of Cobra's willingness to do just about anything to their troops to ensure victory, and they could also be considered some of Cobra's earliest genetic/surgical tampering that led to some of the strange stuff we encountered later on.

I hope you have enjoyed this profile of COBRA'S HYDRO-VIPERS