Viper Soldiers of Istanboa – Cobra soldiers from the Hasbro G.I. Joe toy line
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Viper_Soldier
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Street_Viper
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Strato-Viper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_(G.I._Joe)
https://www.yojoe.com/action/86/stratoviper.shtml
The various Viper soldiers are the Street mobs/creatures that your wizard must battle in Istanboa. Please note their uniform colors.
COBRA (sometimes referred to as Cobra Command) is a fictional terrorist organization and the nemesis of the G.I. Joe Team in the Hasbro action figure toyline G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, as well as in related media.
Cobra was first introduced during the launch of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline in mid-1982. The toyline was accompanied by a Marvel Comics series, written by Larry Hama, and an animated television series by Sunbow and Marvel Productions. However, the origin and portrayal of Cobra has differed in each of them.
Marvel Comics invented the Cobra concept, with the name having been proposed by Archie Goodwin (another writer at Marvel Comics). When Marvel first proposed the concept, Hasbro was reluctant to make toys of the villains for fear that they would not sell. According to Jim Shooter (then Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics), “later … villains became 40% of their volume.” Cobra’s iconic logo was later created by Hasbro designer Ron Rudat.
The vast majority of Cobra is made up of legions of uniformed soldiers. Nearly all of them appear masked in order to be anonymous and widely diversified according to specialties and functions. One pertinent to this article are:
Cobra Troopers – These are the basic infantry soldiers introduced in 1982, equipped with normal military gear (as opposed to the more hi-tech gear of the Vipers), with Cobra Officers as the field leaders. They are featured on both the cartoon and comic series.
Cobra Vipers – Introduced in 1986 as a replacement for the Cobra Troopers, these infantry soldiers complement the Cobra Troopers in both the cartoon and comic series. The concept, originally introduced in 1985 with the introduction of Tele-Vipers (communication experts) quickly evolved into a suffix for all future Cobra troops (such as Air-Viper, Ice-Vipers, Motor-Vipers, Techno-Vipers, etc.). With regards to the original adjective-less Vipers, Hasbro has often alternated between establishing the Vipers as the entry-level position into Cobra, or for them being the elite of Cobra’s ground troops as far as them being equal to or above the regular blue shirt troops.
Strato-Viper was released as part of the fifth series (1986), packaged exclusively with the Cobra Night Raven. He was also sold in 1987, then was discontinued domestically in 1988.
The current list of all the (known) Mirage references can be found here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Viper Soldier, Street Viper, and Strato Viper images are from Wizard101, and are copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment
All Cobra images are copyright Hasbro
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Vulcan Stev's Database 