Misfit Robot Daydream: Sundry Monday! "Taste the Rambo!" as NECA's First Blood Rambo Goes Head to Head with Clubber Lang!

On Wednesdays and Fridays, I review retro 3 3/4" action figures, but on Mondays I dip into my toy box and pull out any random toy or collectible that strikes my fancy. Today I'll be looking at two 7" figures from NECA: John J. Rambo from First Blood, and Clubber Lang from Rocky III. I pity the fool who doesn't read on past the break!

Packaging, front and back.

Both figures come packaged in the same style of clamshell that's pretty standard for figures from NECA. It does the job, even if it's nothing special. Rambo comes packaged with a bunch of cool accessories, including a walky-talky, a handgun, a rifle, a knife, and (my favorite) a knife-on-a-stick. Clubber doesn't come with anything, which is dissapointing by comparison. To be fair though, Clubber is wearing boxing gloves, so he wouldn't be able to pick up anything anyway.

The Clubber Lang figure looks wonderful. I'm not really a big Rocky fan (I like the movies and everything, but I don't LOVE them), but I'm a huge fan of Mr. T, and this figure does not disappoint me one bit. They've given him a glossy look to his skin, simulating working up a sweat in the boxing ring, and that works really well. I'm not going to list it all, but the figure has plenty of articulation, and you can get a lot of great poses out of him.

This is how Clubber's boxing opponents see him right before they lose consciousness.

A knife tied to a stick. The coolest weapon ever?

First Blood Rambo looks great, too. His face might not be QUITE as close to Stallone's as Clubber's is to Mr. T, but it's still very good. You're not going to mistake this guy for anyone else. The paint job on this figure is incredible. They made him bloody and dirty, like he's been surviving out in the woods, and it came out looking really good.

Like Clubber, Rambo has plenty of articulation, and can make all kinds of cool poses. He also comes with an alternate hand, so he has one with a trigger finger for his gun, and one with a closed grip for holding his knife and spear. His dirty poncho is made of a soft and flexible rubber, so it doesn't hinder the figure's movement.

Both of these figures are favorites of mine. Pick up pretty much any 7 inch figure from NECA that they've released in the last few years, and it will almost always be a great figure. I've got more figures from their Predator and Prometheus lines that I haven't opened up yet, so those will probably be popping up in future installments of Sundry Mondays. That's all I have to write for now, but there are still a bunch of pictures to look at, including an "epic" Rambo vs Clubber battle that I staged so check them out. Oh, and some of the Rambo vs. Clubber photos have alternate text if you roll over ithem with your mouse.