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Hot Toys Rambo 1/4 scale bust

   

"The following is a guest review.  The review and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the guest author."

Jeff Parker is back tonight with another Hot Toys review, but this time it's their new large scale bust of Rambo!  Give us the scoop, Jeff...

Rambo has a pretty voracious following, not quite up there with Star Wars or Batman but if you can make a good quality Rambo product it seems to sell pretty damn well. 
Hot Toys (HT) has already given us 5 versions in 1/6 scale as well as a Col Trautman from First Blood, you can see them all here.

My favourite so far was the First Blood, Rambo (M65 Jacket version), there was a subtlety in the sculpt on Stallone’s face in that version that really seemed to capture something of the dejected underdog he played in the movie. But now Hot Toys busiest sculptor, Yulli is back with another very impressive version! 

The bigger scale has given her better scope to show off her talent on texturing facial skin, and this time it carries on down to his chest and shoulders. So if you’re already groaning under the pressure of what is the never ceasing onslaught of Hot Toys 1/6 figures. Can you afford to jump in on another line… or more importantly can you afford not to!






Packaging: ***
Like the Gentle Giant mini-bust boxes this is designed primarily to protect the bust in transit, so you get a pretty hefty thick oblong cardboard box that has the bust sandwiched between two, shaped, Styrofoam layers. The front of the box has a window to see the figure, under which is the Rambo III logo and an image of Afghanis on horseback taken from the movie poster. The other three sides have images of the bust with production credits on the back. This is a straightforward box, no real frills, but does its job well.

Sculpt: ***1/2
This IS Sylvester Stalone, no two ways about it! 
Every time Yulli works on Stalone, she gets better and better, and the increase in scale allows for more texturing on the skin, even finer detailing on the hair and the fact it’s a bust means we get his chest and shoulders sculpted too. They’ve gone for a nice steely/determined expression that’s not too aggressive or scene specific, but neither is it too bland. I haven’t given this a perfect score as to me it looks a little like his eyes are ever so slightly too close together. 
It has to be said, Stallone has an ‘unusual’ face, doubtless this has been part of his appeal over the years, this was due to an accident at his difficult birth, the forceps used altered the shape of his skull and damaged his facial nerves leaving part of his face, tongue and lips paralyzed (hence the ‘Elvis’ snarl and slurred speech), so he makes for an interesting subject when sculpted. I’ve shown this to a lot of people and many don’t agree with me on the eyes, so perhaps I’m wrong. But he’s been sitting directly in front of me, on my desk for the last fortnight and the more I scrutinise this the more impressed I become with the general sculpting, texturing and paint, but I still feel his eyes need to be a millimetre further apart. His headband, which has two ribbons hanging down on the left hand side isn’t cloth, but soft sculpted plastic, this is flexible enough not to hinder the posing of the head, but is firm enough to hold its shape and look to scale.

There are some great shots over on the SSF boards by MaulFan, and his use of dramatic lighting helps highlight a lot of these details greatly.

Paint: ***3/4
Great skin tones with lots of variations in colour, nice subtle airbrushing is used to highlight muscle tone on his body, form on the face and his 5 o’clock shadow. There’s some very accurate brushwork on the lips, eyes, eyebrows and his scars, and a few prominent veins are also picked out in very subtle and understated colours. Virtually faultless in my opinion, just short of full marks as I feel a little detail in the hair would have brought it to life more, there’s a ton of detail on the sculpting of the hair, and the play of light and shadow do a great job. But I still feel if there had been a little more variation in its actual colour tone it could have lifted it even higher.

Articulation - **
Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t really be a criteria for a bust, but HT have incorporated a relatively well-concealed joint at the neck meaning you have a limited range of movement. 

Up, down and tilting is restricted to a couple of millimetres but it can turn a full ‘Exorcist 360 degrees, should you want to .

Accessories: N/Aish
Nothing here can really be classed as an accessory as such, well, he has no arms to interact with anything anyway. 

He has a display base bearing the movie title and his character name, this can rotate so as to face the body left or right (in fact you can lift the bust clean off of the stand, should you wish to display it some other way).

He also comes with his jade carved Buddha medallion but I consider these all ‘parts’ of the general sculpt and his overall design. I’m glad they gave him the pendant as a separate piece, and didn’t attempt to carve it as part of his chest. This approach looks much more convincing!

Outfit- N/A
Well, I say not applicable, but he does have his headband!

Fun factor- **1/2
This isn’t one for playing with, it’s purely for your dedicated Rambo fans to stick on their desk or shelf. 

For those people who have a problem with displaying ‘Man Dolls’ this is the perfect alternative, but for me, as much as I like this, I’d rather have the full figure to stand on my shelf!

Value: ***1/2
Sideshow have him in stock for $49.99, that seems like a pretty fair price for a product of this quality, if it could have come in nearer $ 40 to $ 45 then it would’ve been top marks (If you check some of Michaels sponsors below you’ll find it nearer this price). 

I know some people they have an issue with busts not being polystone, but this is still a hefty lump of plastic, and some of the finer details seem to transfer better in this material than they do in resin/polystone! 

So for me it’s no issue and gauging the quality of this next to my GG Sandtrooper bust (The only one GG poly that I have) then the quality of sculpt and paint prove this is the way to go!

Overall: ***1/2
This is another damn fine sculpt of Rambo from Hot Toys, every new rendition brings them a step closer to perfection. I’m more of a 1/6 aficionado but seeing the quality of this has made me realise I definitely want to get the upcoming Predator and Batman TDK busts they have in store for us! 
I’m especially eager to see how Heath Ledger as the Joker turns out in hand as the proto shots look amazing. 

So not a fully perfect score but that’s down to my issue with his eyes, you may not have this issue, and whether you do or don’t, there’s still no denying this is a top class piece of work, that deserves a place in any hardcore Rambo fans collection.

Score Recap:
Packaging- ***
Sculpt- ***1/2
Paint- ***3/4
Articulation- **
Accessories- N/Aish
Outfit - N/A
Fun Factor - **1/2
Value- ***1/2
Overall- ***1/2

Where to Buy -
SST the official importer have him on in stock for $49.99 and some of Michael’s sponsors also have him for over $10 cheaper, 

Sideshow 
$ 49.99 - PRE ORDER

Amazing Toyz
$ 44.99 - PRE ORDER

Dark Shadow
$ 45.00 – PRE ORDER

Or you can use Michaels sponsor MyAuctionLinks.com to find a good deal as well.

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Figure from the collection of Steve and Evan Jones.

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