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What is it with Cobra and dirty swamp-people?
An inveterate gambler, Copperhead has gambled his
way into hacking through the swamps in the service of Cobra - likely to pay off his misbegotten debts.
Hey, nice! That matches his info from his original 1984 filecard. Copperhead never really got much play in Generation 1 - some of the "mid-tier" Cobra soldiers (that is, the ones who fell in between the faceless masses and the big stars of Cobra Command) got a little bit to make them stand out, but Copperhead didn't. Given his familiarity with the swamps of the Florida Everglades, he would have been a good go-between to link the strict hierarchy of Cobra with the wild anarchy of the Dreadnoks. You know, like he was a Dreadnok associate before getting caught by police and enlisting in the Navy to avoid prison; after leaving the service, he fell in with Cobra (to cover his extensive gambling losses), and when his new bosses needed more muscle, he suggested his old gang.
You gotta wonder how Larry Hama decided which Cobras
would be individuals, and which would be types. That is to say, Copperhead wears a face-concealing helmet, the HISS Drivers wear face-concealing helmets; so why is he the only one who looks like him, while there's a literal army of them? It must just have been a passing fad: after Copperhead (and Wild Weasel) in 1984, it took until 1990 for there to be another "faceless" driver who was also an individual.
Copperhead has always been portrayed as one of Cobra's bigger agents - oh, not to the extent of Road Pig or anything, but
definitely "the team muscle" before Big Boa came along. Think of him as "evil Gung-Ho": a weird swamp-man, who's big but not as big as The Big Guy. The Arlen Pelletier sculpt is muscular, but not huge, which may be why he wears bands around his biceps to make them look bigger. Aww, he's insecure! The tank top has a sculpted edge, though it's easy to overlook thanks to the harness around his chest. He wears big boots, and has padded panels running all the way up the insides of his legs. What are those protecting him from? They'd make more sense for a biker than a boater. That and the bolted-on crotchplate. The tube running across the front of the mask looks like a rebreather or something, and is a feature that didn't exist prior to Generation 3. Way to combine the eras!
There were two variations of the G1 Copperhead available in 1984; one had more paint apps than the other. The rarer version had gloves (and armbands) the same color as the rest of his clothes, and no light green apps at all on the helmet. The Classified version leaves the arm-accoutrements black, but does put a couple dark green
patches on the backs of the hands. They could have taken a cue from the Sunbow cartoon, and given him gloves that leave his thumbs exposed for some reason; that would have been a visually interesting touch. His belt buckle, a serpent writhing around behind a skull, is silver, as are the small grilles in the openings of his mask. He's also got a silver Cobra logo on his shirt, but it ends up behind the harness, so you'd have to cut that off if you wanted to see the logo properly. A new feature for the character is the tattoo on his inner right forearm, a piece that hints at his time playing cards: an ace of spades, torn in half, with the words "CAN'T MISS" wrapped around it.
Copperhead is the first Classified figure I can remember who has all four levels of ranking in their stats: Naval Pilot 4,
Light Weapons 1, Hand-to-Hand Combat 2, and Jungle Combat 3. Presumably that last one is because of swamps, but wouldn't Naval Combat make more sense? The figure has a barbell head, hinged and balljointed neck, swivel/ hinge shoulders on pectoral hinges, swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, hinged chest, balljointed waist, hips that are a balljoint mounted on a hinge, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, swivel shins, and swivel/hinge ankles. His armbands want to fall down to the elbow when you're playing with him, so you might want to put a drop of glue behind them to keep them in place.
His accessories are very simple. Of course, as a vehicle pilot in G1, he didn't come with anything back in the day, so even this small assortment is an improvement. There's a small pistol that fits in the holster on his right leg, a short machete that can be carried on his left hip,
and a holster that plugs into his back to hold the large revolver with an optical sight on top. There's also a small holster on his chest harness, but it's non-functional. While the pistol could really be for anyone, the revolver and the machete really suit him. Getting the holster latches to plug in can be tough, but once you do, they'll stay in place fine. The one on his back is even detailed with six spare bullets for the gun sculpted and painted on the outside.
Copperhead was never utilized very much in either the cartoon (the temple in the art on the front of this box is from "The Jungle Trap," the biggest episode he was in) or the comic, possibly because he was only available with a vehicle and so any stories that featured him would also have to find a way to feature it. Thus, a lot of kids back then never got a toy of the character until he joined the Python Patrol (for the extra paychecks, since he still didn't have enough money to cover what he owed). Handily, that version of the character has been released almost simultaneously with this one as a Target exclusive, so if that look appeals to you more, it is available. Copperhead's a nice figure, with some minor updates that make the vintage design even better today than it was back then.
-- 01/05/24
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