Immitation is the highest form of flattery, or so the old saying goes. Well today, as I continue on with the second installment from the look at the cool stuff I got from the toy show this past weekend series, I give you Rambo.
Played by Sylvester Stallone who you may remember was number 6 on my list of celebs with the greatest number of characters that have been made into action figures, click here to see for yourself.
Anyway, the Rambo franchise seemed to be such a big money earner that back in the mid eighties Coleco made a whole bunch of toys. These included a few 6″ figures of this real-American hero.
From a playing point of view these figures are just about as good as they would ever have needed to be. They articulate but not a great deal, they are big but not huge, etc. Plus they had great accessories, belts, guns and of course his trademark bowie knife… NICE!
Given that I already have these guys obviously I didn’t just buy them again. So what did I get? How about a super sweeeet bootleg of the big guy himself.
I think I tell you about how much I love these illicit items every time they appear as part of these posts. I can’t help it. This Rambo fake is no exception, in fact this may be one of my favorites.
Check out those pants… pulled all the way up like those on your typical 90-year-old. Awesome. They actually remind me of the pants on the Arnold Schwartzenegger character Matrix from the movie Commando (click here and see). I can’t be certain that these pants actually came with this figure originally, in fact by virtue of the fact that they look like they have any production value leads me to question it though. Frankly, if truth be known I don’t care, why would I? How absurd would it be to worry about non original pants on a fake original? Exactly.
The one reason I feel like those pants may be the real deal is because of the overall production value on the figure is a little higher than you would normally expect to see. So maybe the manufacturer was new to this bootleg game and got a little excited and didn’t cut all the corners that his competitors would have. Whatever the reason though, I am glad.
The face was clearly sculpted to look like Sly, a fact that is often overlooked so as to save a few bucks.
I like that there is a faint hint of 5 o’clock shadow matched up with a face whose features were sculpted with a little bit of a heavy hand. The resulting head looks distinctly Neanderthal. This fact make me love it even more.
His gun is interesting, and I would guess it is a redo of an exisiting weapon from another toy. Because of the precision required to make the original sculpt of a rifle the bootlegers frequently just straight up steal the guns to save time, effort, and of course money.
The bare figure is exactly that… very bare, with the exception of course of his boots which are painted on. Here in lies some of the best features of this toy. First off the articulation. Basically all that really moves are the pair of shoulder joints allowing his arms to rotate in large circles. The waist moves about an 1/8th of an inch and that is it, this leaves the legs completely fixed in place. Next is his size, at 8.5″ tall and a full 5″ at his widest point he quite impressive.
The other highlight is his extra large, dare I say puffy, nipples. Epic! He must be cold or something.
Let’s face it, this toy was never going to win any awards… but neither were the legitimate ones. As bootlegs go, this piece was well made and quite different from a lot of other fakes you see out there.
One thing I would love to see is a packaged version, not because it would have revealed the manufacturer because it wouldn’t have. Nope, because the toy would have probably been given a silly name like Rimbow, Rambon or something else equally ridiculous. I laugh every time I see one.
The only thing to make this piece even better was the price, yep… I paid a full $5 for this guy. Crazy, crazy I know, but sometimes you’ve just got to pull out the big guns and splurge for the sake of the collection.
See you tomorrow for more treasures.
Flickr = 28,134
There are currently 54 items listed on the ToyNerd Exchange check it out
Get your official ToyNerd merchandise here
The pants are awesome. You have to love bootlegs. I vote for Rambon as his name.
With his pants pulled up high like that & Stallone turning 64 in a few weeks perhaps it should be dubbed “Grampbo”. Those kids from the neighborhood know that they’re not getting their football back when it lands in his yard!
I can’t wait to see Stallone’s next film the Expendables which he wrote & directed. Even if it’s a total train wreck it’ll be awesome to see that scene with him, Arnold Schwarzenegger & Bruce Willis. Plus costars Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, Danny Trejo, Randy Couture, Eric Roberts, Charisma Carpenter, & even Brittany Murphy (in her last role).
http://expendablesthemovie.com/
Ha! Grampa Rambo! I vote we call him Rainbo!
Also, he carried a survival knife, not a bowie, that’s a totally different knife. Often a bigger knife if you can believe it.
A knife expert huh? Do you also subscribe to Guns & Ammo and Soldier of Fortune magazines?