I consider Arnold’s roles as the eponymous killing machine from The Terminator, Dutch from Predator, and Matrix from Commando as the “Great Triumvirate” of Arnold roles. I know that leaves out plenty of other movies, but those three are the tops for me. Arnold is not a man of broad acting range, so what this all boils down to is big, muscled guy doing cool things and killing people. Two had been accounted for, and now, finally, we’ve got a Commando figure.
Commando is a divisive movie. It’s one of those “love it or hate it” deals: unrepentantly over the top, lacking any semblance of logic or tact, replete with constant one-liners, and a high and random body count in the triple digits. All of which means it is the ’80s at its most awesome. It currently holds a 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, which means math tells us that 31% of all reviewers are wrong about how undeniably awesome the movie is. In short, if you do not like this movie, you may actually be a corpse and don’t know it. I’ll send flowers.
John Matrix — though he cinematically predates Dutch — is basically Dutch with a kid. A bit quippier maybe, but the two roles are very close: badass special forces slab of beef. So With this figure we get some smart reuse of Dutch parts with a sprinkling of differences to make an entirely new version of essentially the same thing … that’s not the same thing. Confused? Probably. Basically, if you’ve got a Dutch figure of the several they made, then you know what to expect out of this figure. Same, but different.
His arms have a decent range of motion, allowing him to hold his various weapons, of which he comes with a nice array. Like all self-respecting ’80s action icons, this movie had a “suiting up” montage, so we’ve got a sheath and a holster and sculpted grenades and more grenades and shotgun shells and two sculpted knives on his back (I kind of wish they were removable also) to properly show off the John Matrix’s final assault on the bad guys that took Tony Micelli’s daughter. Or, his, if you want to get technical. Arnold was going to show them who the boss was either way.
The likeness is Arnold. The eye paint can sometimes be iffy, but mine has a decent intense thousand-yard stare going on, just like in the movie.
While I will never turn down a good Bennet figure (maybe he can come with a chunk of pipe), I’m just glad one of the best action movies of the ’80s has a great figure.
DisThunder will now tell us all about all of those lovely guns he comes with.
As nice as this figure is, there’s no denying that under that assault vest, he’s basically a Dutch variant. And while that’s okay, it means NECA had to go go the extra mile to make him truly John Matrix. And how would one do that? With Gunz, baby.
Let’s start with the little guy — I was totally ready to bag on NECA for re-using the Desert Eagle .357 that Dutch came with, but then I watched the movie again and saw … yep, there’s John with a DEagle. Touche, NECA.
The other easy spot for reuse would have been on the “pig,” the M60 John uses to get out of the tool shack during his assault on the villa. I had expected Rambo’s M60E to make a reappearance, but instead, NECA did the M60E3 with the carry handle instead of the vehicle mount that Rambo’s had. Not too shabby.
The big surprise in John’s arsenal box had to be, for me at least, seeing the Valmet M78 included. The Valmet is a Finnish version of the RPK, which is the heavier-barreled machine gun build off the AK-47 platform. The Valmet has some structural differences, and some minor cosmetic ones, but in the 1980s these were regular stand-ins for the Soviet guns, since they were much easier to get. John’s has the proper never-ending 30 round mag and the folded bipod under the barrel. This one is a really cool addition.
But the real star of the set is the M202 FLASH launcher. Used by Cindy first — only girl on the planet who thinks shooting a van with a rocket launcher is a good way to rescue someone — and then by John in the assault, the FLASH made it’s movie debut in Commando. And NECA really did it well in plastic, with the extending munitions tubes, folding handle, and the excellent firing effects. It’s worth mentioning the FLASH’s actual rockets are incendiary — it’s job was replacing the vintage flamethrower — so it literally spits hot fire. Again, great for killing bad guys, terrible for rescue missions.
You can buy this at Big bad Toy Store here
or Amazon here
