A bit late, but anyway
I read through those questions, but I must say, that my point of view is very close to Frank's...
You know, a friend of mine - collecting almost every series of toys (then selling it out after a month or so, but nevermind) - was a bit turned on by Joes and bought four sets of Viper Pit, Cobra Imperial Procession and Joe Heavy Assault. To make long story short - when he was selling the stuff, I bought 5 Vipers from the pit set, but didn't believe much in his saying that they are a bit junky.
Well - I got them in my hands...
Why, for heaven's sake Vipers were:
- unable to move their heads?!
- had somehow springing legs, that could be positioned ONLY to make figure stand straight?!
- having a spots of paint here and there
It's a question of quality and WHAT comes to the customers. Jeez, he got it straight from the US, so a history, that stuff which is exported to other countries is of lower quality is out.
You know, I'm also a modeller, so I picked my scalpel and in hour's time i trimmed some STRANGE plastic from the ball head (yeah. Ball head. Which was casted in a way, that disabled moving it in ANY direction), and I also trimmed a LOT of plastic in the crotch part, which was blocking legs and the fastening hook...
Ok - now the Vipers are in perfect shape, like the old ones. But, can anyone tell me, why is it so? Why I'm forced to spend additional hour of trimming and cutting to have a figure of decent quality? If it was a one time flaw... But I seriously doubt if any of the so called major Hasbro lines are made better.
In such case - I'm not buying 25th's - because I don't like them. I'm not into Sigma 6. And so - I will NOT be buying newer releases - even based on old moulds - because they suck.
I'm only saved by all those, who sell the good, old Joes. Which are pricey and it's quite hard to make a little army building. Especially with budget of about $150 per half a year for Joes. (Ok. $100. Count out the s&h)
What a pity... Those Pit Vipers were a nice idea - why, instead of giving such junk, they haven't thought of SAW Vipers Pit or others?
Yes, I know I got lenghty, but this bothers me a lot. I would love to ask anyone from Hasbro 'bout that, but they won't bother answering I'm afraid.
Or maybe I'm the unlucky guy who got this cursed pieces? (Yeah, I bought 5 out of 24 and ALL of them were faulty :P )