Night Viper

Night Viper is a Maximal or Predacon from the Beast Machines portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Ironically, not a member of Cobra.

Night Viper is the stealthiest Maximal on Cybertron. His abilities include supersonic speed and plasma venom blasts that short-circuit Vehicon circuitry, and if you cook him, he can emerge unscathed after shedding his damage like discarded skin.

Fiction

3H comics

Shortly after Cybertron's Great Transformation, the Quintessons orchestrated a planet-wide invasion. While Judge Brinn led a team of Sharkticons through the lush, technorganic wilderness of Ankmor Park, Night Viper attacked, strangled, and killed the accompanying scientist Extempaxia with his deadly fangs. The Sharkticons retaliated by charbroiling Night Viper with their flamethrowers.

The remaining Quintessons laughed at how easy it was to burn these reformatted Transformers in their semi-organic state, but their glee was short-lived. Night Viper shed his burnt outer layer like a skin and assassinated the remaining Quintesson judge, verbally mocking them for their hubris. Wreckers: Finale Part II

Wings Universe

Night Viper joined Primal Prime's Wreckers, dealing with navigation and repairs. Apelinq's personal logs, 2014/06/18 He noted in the Rodimus Major's logs that he did not fully trust Buzzsaw, given the experience of the previous iteration of the Wreckers with "former" enemy agents. Apelinq's personal logs, 2015/01/07

Beast Wars: Uprising

Night Viper was on the Predacon team in the fateful 1924th Games, which were interrupted by Lio Convoy's assassination of Supersonic and call for an uprising against the Builders of Cybertron. Broken Windshields He remained behind with some teammates, declaring a victory for the Predacons. Head Games

Night Viper remained an ally of Queen Rage, one of the final Champions of the Games, when she declared herself ruler of Triax and started to expand the borders of "Rageland". During the Vehicon Apocalypse, he defended Rageland alongside the queen's military commander, Manticon. Derailment

2005 IDW continuity

Night Viper was one of Onyx Prime's Maximals. After his master invaded Cybertron and felled Metrotitan, Night Viper was sent out of Nemesis under Liege Maximo's command to root out the Titan's companions. The Hallowing

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Night Viper was a Maximal with a serpentine alternate mode. Technorganic Secrets

Toys

Beast Machines

He's coilin' a cobra.

• Night Viper (Basic, 2000)

• Known designers: Takashi Kunihiro (TakaraTomy), Junichi Akutsu and Tim Bradley (concept art)

Part of the third wave of Beast Machines Basics, Night Viper transforms into a midnight blue, blue-gray, red, and yellow technorganic cobra. His snake-mode head is spring-loaded; pressing on the clear-yellow part of the hood directly behind it launches it forward slightly, opening his jaws to bite. The sides of his hood form arm-mounted shields in robot mode, the right shield being armed with a flip-out scythe blade. His left shield contains his spark crystal.

• More information on Night Viper at TFU.info

Notes

• Night Viper's control art depicts him as having a melee weapon hidden in each shield. The right contains a scythe as in the finished product, while the left was designed to have an anchor-shaped blade. The reasons for the omission are purely conjecture; possibly it was cut to make room for the hidden spark crystal, or for simple budgetary concerns.
• Cobras are not vipers, being in entirely separate taxonomic families. It would be like calling Tigatron "striped dog".
• Night Viper shares his name with the Cobra Night Fighter, codenamed Night-Viper, which was released in the G.I Joe toyline in 1989.
• Night Viper was originally planned to be a Predacon who joined Optimus Primal's team of anti-Vehicon Maximals, but for unspecified reasons, possibly that a "heroic" Predacon in Beast Machines would have been too complicated for the toy bio, the Predacon background was dropped. It is still evident, however, in Night Viper's reptilian alt-mode, a trait more characteristic of Predacons than Maximals. Over a decade later, the Predacon origin was picked up and utilized for the Beast Wars: Uprising incarnation of Night Viper.