Rambo 4 Statue by HCG

[space ace]

Also heard somewhere on this board that Edinho was working on a Rocky wrapped in the American Flag ala the end of Rocky IV. I'd love a 1:4 Rocky & Appollo from the first film.

 

[Rocky1976]

Also heard somewhere on this board that Edinho was working on a Rocky wrapped in the American Flag ala the end of Rocky IV. I'd love a 1:4 Rocky & Appollo from the first film.

That Rocky IV 1/4 is probably going to be released in 2016, Edinho said he's very busy on other commissioned projects right now.

I'm with you on a Rocky in the white and red trucks from the first Rocky with Apollo. He said something about doing a diorama for the film "Over The Top." I don't thinks there's a collectors market for that film but I could be wrong. I would much rather see a diorama for Rocky, or stick fighting Rambo III or a statue of Rambo at the beginning of First blood in his green jacket, or a Rambo II statue of Rambo being electrocuted on that bed would be great lol.

 

[space ace]

That Rocky IV 1/4 is probably going to be released in 2016, Edinho said he's very busy on other commissioned projects right now.

I'm with you on a Rocky in the white and red trucks from the first Rocky with Apollo. He said something about doing a diorama for the film "Over The Top." I don't thinks there's a collectors market for that film but I could be wrong. I would much rather see a diorama for Rocky, or stick fighting Rambo III or a statue of Rambo at the beginning of First blood in his green jacket, or a Rambo II statue of Rambo being electrocuted on that bed would be great lol.

These are all great ideas-I agree, I don't think there is much interest in Over The Top (not for me anyway). Diorama from Rocky I is on a grail list for me-I'd also love a Rocky & Mickey pre-fight statue when Rocky is in his robe-for a visual reference, when Apollo is horsing around with Joe Frazier and Rocky says to Mickey "they must be friends"-to this day, that line still cracks me up.

 

[MaulFan]

What I love about Edinho is he works from his own fandom, I don't know of any pieces he's done specifically per a company's wish, at least the 1/6 Rambo was in progress well before HCG offered it, I was worried it'd be a private piece I couldn't afford.

I applaud if he wants to do over the top, he does small runs anyway, I'm sure there's 50 people out there or so that'd take it, if I had the money I would, it's a classic Stallone film, I'd have most of Edinho's pieces if I could afford them, the 1/6 Rocky 3/4 is one of few I'd pass on, never liked the pose on that one, the 1/4 scale is much nicer.

 

[Rocky1976]

What I love about Edinho is he works from his own fandom, I don't know of any pieces he's done specifically per a company's wish, at least the 1/6 Rambo was in progress well before HCG offered it, I was worried it'd be a private piece I couldn't afford.

I applaud if he wants to do over the top, he does small runs anyway, I'm sure there's 50 people out there or so that'd take it, if I had the money I would, it's a classic Stallone film, I'd have most of Edinho's pieces if I could afford them, the 1/6 Rocky 3/4 is one of few I'd pass on, never liked the pose on that one, the 1/4 scale is much nicer.

Over The Top is a classic Stallone film lol To each his own, I guess.

Btw did you guys catch the new trailer for "Creed?" I'm a huge fan but that trailer is god awful, never seen a trailer that was so uninspiring and showed zero excitement like that trailer, all the previous Rocky films had great trailers that pumped you up and got you excited to see the film, I hope am wrong.

 

[MaulFan]

The trailer itself was nothing special, but I do feel like the movie will have a pretty classic Rocky feel to it. I'll watch it, but good or bad, I don't see it as a Rocky movie so it won't taint anything like Rocky 5 did lol.

I still hold hope Rambo 5 doesn't happen.

 

[space ace]

There was a petition on line to get John G Alvidsen to re-visit Rocky V and make a directors cut. A workprint popped up and I believe you can watch it on youtube though the quality is awful. I don't know if the film could be improved at all, but it would be worth a watch if he did reassemble it. As it stands now, I've watched it once in the theaters upon initial release and never visited it again-it still sealed in my Rocky box set that I bought years ago.

 

[Rocky1976]

The trailer itself was nothing special, but I do feel like the movie will have a pretty classic Rocky feel to it. I'll watch it, but good or bad, I don't see it as a Rocky movie so it won't taint anything like Rocky 5 did lol.

I still hold hope Rambo 5 doesn't happen.

I am with you on Rambo V not happening, Rambo IV had the perfect ending, he comes full circle by walking down that road back home. Rocky Balboa had a great ending to the series and now by what I see in the trailer it looks like Stallone may have been better off leaving it alone. I think Stallone keeps going back to Rocky and Rambo because he just can't get anything else at his age. The Expendables movies are beyond horrible and so was Grudge Match, Bullet to the Head and Escape Plan. I love Nighthawks, Lords of Flatbush, Victory , Copland and Cliffhanger. I really thought after his performance in Copland that Stallone would get hired to work in Oscar caliber movies, but for whatever reason it never happened.

The fact that Stallone didn't write or direct Creed really showed in that trailer, I have seen all the films in theaters and the trailers leading up to the release of the films were always full of excitement and thrills, the trailer for Creed was very uninspiring.

So what are your reasons for not wanting Rambo V to happen?

 

[Rocky1976]

There was a petition on line to get John G Alvidsen to re-visit Rocky V and make a directors cut. A workprint popped up and I believe you can watch it on youtube though the quality is awful. I don't know if the film could be improved at all, but it would be worth a watch if he did reassemble it. As it stands now, I've watched it once in the theaters upon initial release and never visited it again-it still sealed in my Rocky box set that I bought years ago.

John Avildsen signed on to direct Rocky V from a script written by Stallone that had Rocky dying at the end, the studio didn't won't Rocky to die and he was forced to change the ending which had Rocky dying after the fight with Tommy Gunn, to this day Avildsen claims this change is what killed the film. Rocky V really isn't as bad as people think it is, it does have one scene that I consider one of the most moving and emotional scenes in all the Rocky films, it's the scene when Tommy Gunn drives away and Adrian gives Rocky a pep talk in the middle of the street about how he's losing his family. I give the film a C, about average.

 

[MaulFan]

See, I don't feel like Stallone returns to Rocky and Rambo for desperation, if that were the case we'd have Rocky 7. I think Stallone loves the character, in many ways it's himself, so he felt the story for Creed was good enough to appear but it's not a Rocky story, his story has closed, and Stallone has said after Balboa that he was finally happy with how he ended his story, but he's admitted for years that he wasn't ready to walk away from Rambo. I actually enjoyed his last films, Grudge Match, Escape Plan, Bullet to the Head and I love the Expendables films.

My reservations with Rambo 5 are because of how well wrapped up his story felt at the end of 4. I personally can't imagine what else you could do with the character so to m a fifth film would just be dragging it out. My only hope is that Sly is still wise to the poor ending Rocky 5 was and would only continue Rambo if there was a story worth telling.

As for Rocky 5, it's not a horrible movie, just a lousy way to end the series. The scene with Adrian in the street and the flashback with Mickey in the gym are some of the best stuff in the franchise. My only serious issue with that movie is the depiction of Rocky's brain trauma. Instead of maybe having him confuse names or maybe have more spasms like the shower scene, they just dumb him down to the point where it almost feels like they have no respect for the character. Rocky Balboa did a great job of telling a story with his life at a deep low point while honoring the established character.

 

[Rocky1976]

"Last Blood," the final Rambo film is suppose to have Rambo fighting the mexican drug cartel and Rambo from what Stallone said is suppose to die. Stallone said this is definitely happening with filming starting at the end of 2015.

Btw what do you think of no new Rocky collectibles coming from "Creed?" I was really hoping that we see lots of new collectibles from not only "Creed," but all the Rocky films to promote this new film. Jakks released their Rocky line to go along with the release of "Rocky Balboa." So I thought the same might happen for "Creed." Maybe we might see some collectibles at SDCC.

 

[MaulFan]

I imagine most companies just don't see it worthwhile. I hear NECA has plans to revive their line. As neat as JAKKS were, reusing bodies like they did led to some poor figures that only looked like Rodky in the head. Rocky has never had much so it's no shock to see nothing tied to a film centered around him. I look forward to new NECA, hopefully Rocky 2, I know they have more Rambos coming.

 

[Rocky1976]

I imagine most companies just don't see it worthwhile. I hear NECA has plans to revive their line. As neat as JAKKS were, reusing bodies like they did led to some poor figures that only looked like Rodky in the head. Rocky has never had much so it's no shock to see nothing tied to a film centered around him. I look forward to new NECA, hopefully Rocky 2, I know they have more Rambos coming.

Perfect assessment of the Jakks Rocky line, reusing the bodies really pissed me off, but it probably had to be done to make the line affordable and profitable. I agree with you that the head sculpts were very good on the majority of figs, you know the Paulie figure is probably the best in the line, the head sculpt of Burt Young and the body and clothing were perfect for a $8.00 fig lol. You can't beat the MEAT fig lol. I do give Jakks a lot of credit for taking a shot at a licence that had never been done before, the championship belt, boxing rings, and limited edition figures were all great. The one thing Jakks screwed up on is never releasing a championship belt for the figures, that being said, to release 60+ figs, and so many secondary characters, that will never be done again.

I hope Neca does Rocky II, they did a great job with Rocky, Rocky III and Rocky IV. I wonder why they stopped after doing Rocky IV and what was their reasoning for not doing Rocky II? The only complaint I have with Neca is I wish they would do Rocky and Rambo in 1/6 or 1/4, 6 inch is so small, I have the Ali and Hannibal Lecter talking 1/4 figs by Neca and there really great. Love to see a Rocky 1976 in street clothes in 1/4 with the talking feature.

With all my complaining I really shouldn't be complaining about the lack of Rocky collectibles, before 2006 you could probably only find about a dozen or so items, and now we have some great collectibles, but as a collector, you're never satisfied, and you're always hungry for more and on the hunt for the next new collectible.

 

[MaulFan]

I'm thinking NECA's sales dwindled, I saw Clubber, Drago and the blood spitting Rocky 4 warming a lot of pegs in stores. Probably why it's been dead until now with Creed out, NECA's fans and I'm sure want to do more but have waited for the right time. I'm still hoping NECA does Rambo 4, those figures seem to be doing well, I've never seen any but the 2nd First Blood figure in store, I had to get Rambo 2 online. Rambo has the benefit of guns to make him more marketable, Rocky is very plain as far as action figures and collectibles go.

JAKKS had balls, I'll give them that, they went all in, most companies wouldn't. I imagine the recycling really afforded them to take chances on more obscure characters and the meat is funny as hell. The Rocky 6 is one of the best Stallone portraits I've ever seen on anything, and the original Apollo, before Weathers got made, was great, I had it, got rid of it eventually.

I still can't get over this statue, it's right next to my computer screen at work and I find myself staring at it all day long

 

[Rocky1976]

What statue are you talking about?

 

[MaulFan]

The 1/6 Rambo 4 I just got back.

 

[space ace]

I sold my Rocky LSB from Sideshow a few years ago to fund another statue purchase. I figured I could always pick it up again down the line on ebay-boy was I wrong-every now and then I check and I never see one for sale. I thought it was a very underrated Rocky collectible.

 

[MaulFan]

I forget why but I had to cancel the Rocky LSB way back and still wish I had gotten it, though I had the T-800 LSB and had to sell that and miss that piece bad, one of my moat favorite collectibles ever but it was the most valuable at a time I really needed money.

 

[Rocky1976]

I sold my Rocky LSB from Sideshow a few years ago to fund another statue purchase. I figured I could always pick it up again down the line on ebay-boy was I wrong-every now and then I check and I never see one for sale. I thought it was a very underrated Rocky collectible.

I bought the regular one which had an edition size of 300 and the faux bronze which had an edition size of only 100, I never buy two of the same but when the bronze edition showed up on ebay for only $35 I couldn't pass, the bronze edition comes in a plain brown box. Both busts are great, and like you said, very underrated Rocky collectibles. It was released in 2007 and I remember they were available for years, I don't think it was a hot seller when it was released, amazing that you can't find a single one for sale now. It just goes to show you that even if you think something is always going to be available, you never know, I cancelled the Hot Toys Godfather and it's killing me to this day, so you're not alone.

You guys know what the Rocky LSB is worth now?

I have a master replica comic book scene cover statue of Hulk #1, beautiful piece that sold for $250 when first released, they didn't sell good for whatever reason, I bought one for only $60 on ebay four years ago from a closeout seller, right now they are going for $1,000+ go figure lol.

 

[space ace]

I'm not sure what the Rocky LSB gets these days-there's no way to really guage it-I check sold auctions periodically, but none ever come up. I bought mine in '07 (pre ordered) and it did take a long time to sell out. I have a few pieces in my collection that were either criticized upon release or took forever to sell out, but are now considered grails and command big bucks ( Big Chap Maquette, Aliens Warrior Maquette, KISS PF's). It's funny because I don't listen to the pre-hate or pre-hype-I buy what I emotionally connect to-specifically from my childhood in the mid '70's to late '80's. If it skyrockets in value, then hey-I consider it a bonus.