A to Z Challenge Day 22: VAMPs, Vehicles, Vipers!

One of the early vehicles for the GI JOEs was the VAMP, which is sort of a cross between an original Jeep and a Hummer.  The VAMP was first green and then there was a brown one that both came with Clutch as its driver.

The VAMP was shown somewhat often in the Sunbow series and in the comics, but it was replaced by new vehicles.  The same for the comics.

The first batch of vehicles in 1982-1983 were fairly realistic, largely based on actual military equipment, though I'm pretty sure the military didn't have a jet pack launching pad.

Over time the vehicles got less realistic:

But they always had neat-looking planes that were often based on actual ones, or ones like the "F-19" that were fabled to exist.  Actually if the designers had seen the F-117 they probably would have designed something like that.

Small vehicles for one or a few guys weren't enough, so they developed some more deluxe ones.  There was the playset of the COBRA Terrordrome:

There was also the GI JOE Space Shuttle, the Defiant, which came out long before Deep Space Nine:

But there was nothing bigger than the USS Flagg, which was a GI JOE aircraft carrier.  The toy was over 7 feet long!  The size and cost made it impossible for kids like me to have, but some lucky kids did have it.

Since COBRA had a snake theme I guess it made sense that their generic troopers should be called Vipers.  Though the Vipers didn't actually show up until the 1986 series.  Before that you just had the generic COBRA trooper and COBRA officer.

But as you've already seen "Viper" then became a whole set of characters:

• Alley Viper
• Aero Viper
• Astro Viper 
• Flak Viper
• Frag Viper 
• Gyro Viper
• HEAT Viper
• Hydro Viper
• Ice Viper
• Laser Viper
• Motor Viper
• Night Viper
• Range Viper
• Rock Viper 
• Sludge Viper
• Star Viper
• Techno Viper
• Tele Viper
• Toxic Viper 
• Track Viper

And so On...