The S.A.W.-Viper is a figure that came out after my time, so he was never particularly high on my want list, but the renders of this guy looked pretty great to me. They amped up the tactical gear and armor for this figure, but the outlandish colors and sci-fi helmet keeps it firmly entrenched in the heightened world of G.I. Joe. Let’s take a look at the G.I. Joe Classified S.A.W.-Viper!
The S.A.W. comes in the new standard box and the main thing that jumps out to me here is the kinda messed up inclusion of Doc’s helmet on the bottom right corner of the render since the S.A.W. Viper is the one who killed Doc (among others ) in a very famous issue of G.I. Joe A Real American Hero.
The Viper comes with a large rifle with a removeable mini-chainsaw, a pistol, a knife, removeable helmet, pack, and bullet belt. The rifle is not what I usually think of as a SAW, but I’m also not really a gun guy. It’s set up more like the way they have done Roadblock’s Rail and Gatling guns earlier in the Classified line with a large almost wand grip and a hinged stabilizing handle for two-handed firing.
The weapon has a removeable mini-chainsaw which kind of sits on the gun like a bayonet of sorts. It’s a bit on the nose, chain saw/S.A.W.-Viper, but I like that kind of thing. Plus it’s fun that it can be used as a short sword as well.
The gun has a removeable purple ammo case and can be fed by a belt that attaches to the pack. Again, not a gun guy, so I’m not sure if it’s right to have the belt feed and the ammo case attached at the same time, but it looks better to my eye, so I kept that on.
The pack looks like re-use from the recent Tiger-Force Roadblock and it stays on pretty well. The gun can attach to the pack on the peg for roadblock’s M2 stand by the hole for the chainsaw, but it looks pretty dumb because it was not intended for that and I don’t recommend it since it makes the chainsaw attachment a little loose. I do wish Classified would include some soft plastic slings for these bigger guns.
The knife and pistol are solid black plastic and fit well in the hands and included sheathe and holster.
The helmet fits on pretty securely and there is some give to how you position it so you can push it a little lower or higher on the head depending on your preference. I love the pop of bright neon green contrasting with purples of the outfit. The helmet does interact with the removeable collar piece a bit, but that is also pretty soft and not secured on, so there’s some give there.
Sculpting is fantastic on this guy. I love the overall super armored look he has and how they managed a way to do another balaclava head in an interesting and different way from the rest of them. The open mouth with audio ear-piece gives me generic action movie terrorist vibes and I wouldn’t mind seeing this released again on another figure.
I love the overall “tank” feel of this armored up look, but you can remove the collar, the shoulder pads, and the forearm guards to get closer to a V1 S.A.W.-Viper. The customization options appeal to me as an army-builder and I was thinking that I’d like to get a couple more to change up the armor and give a smaller weapon like Big Ben’s rifle and keep one guy fully armored up as a heavy trooper.
Articulation is pretty classified standard except he doesn’t have a swivel at the boot. The rest moves pretty well for such a bulky guy. The belt is separate from the vest, so you do get better ab crunch and lean back than I was expecting for such a bulky piece. The helmet does interact with the collar, but even without that there, his neck range of motion is not great. I did notice that I feel like the gun fits better left-handed because his right wrist hinges up down and left in/out. This allows you to move the right arm more across the body, but hinge the wrist so it can hold the supporting handle better.
Paint is standard stuff, though I think the Cobra symbol on the field of black on my figure is a bit misaligned and the very tip of his communication device has a bit of flesh colored paint slop on it. These errors aren’t concerning in hand, but do show up more on close up pictures.
Even though I tend to associate this trooper with one particular S.A.W.-Viper the customizing options make for a great army builder. I love the overall effect of the bulky armor and gun and the shockingly purple colors. The only thing I thing I think that’s missing that I’d like to see added would be a more character-specific portrait with a bit of an evil grin to represent the most infamous S.A.W.-Viper in Joe history. I think a gun that actually looks like an actual military S.A.W. probably would have been a nice inclusion for the fans who are super into the military side of things.
Source: Fwoosh
