Predator diverges from the usual ’80s action movie in one interesting way, which is reflected in the Dutch figures in waves 8 and 9. In the usual ’80s-styled action movie, the muscled good guy spends a decent amount of time “suiting up” for the final battle where he kills everyone. From Stallone in Rambo to Arnold in Commando, they end up well-armed with big loud guns to kick enemy tail.
In Predator, Arnold spends the movie getting stripped of all of his weaponry, friends, and protective gear. The fully armed Dutch of the first firefight ends up reduced to handmade weaponry and mud to fight the titular Predator.
Jungle Patrol Dutch has lost the protective jacket and his big “stick around” knife, and is down to his camo shirt and vest. He’s still well-armed and prepared to dish out violence, but the situation’s already shifting, the scenario changing. The jungle is getting dangerous. The jungle is alive.
Jungle Patrol Dutch features a new torso with removable vest, a new lower right leg without the sheath, and sculpted sheath straps. That’s a nice touch that could have easily been fudged, but they kept it accurate, and that’s always appreciated nowadays where reuse is so rampant.
This face sculpt is sans cigar, which means it’s the more iconic Arnold sculpt. I don’t really know if NECA’s sculptors sculpt at a two-up (twice as large as the figure) or at real size, but the skin texture and wrinkles in the face are exceptionally well done. It would be hard to have a more evocative Arnold sculpt outside of Hot Toys, and at this scale that’s very impressive.
Since these are bare arms compared to the sleeved arms of the Jungle Extraction Dutch, you’d expect them to have more range of motion, but they actually have about the same. That’s not a bad thing; if anything, it speaks to how well done the articulation on the sleeved arm truly is that there’s no noticeable improvement. Either version of Dutch can grip his gun comfortably without issue.
Without the heavy jacket impairing the torso articulation, Dutch is freed up for a bit more backward and forward motion, which facilitates a more dynamic range of poses.
I think if I could ask for more articulation, it would be in the wrists. They’re ball-jointed and are suitable enough, but while the Jungle Extraction wore gloves which hindered a bit of the poseability, there’s not much more range in the gloveless hands of Jungle Patrol Dutch. It’s not like they can’t do anything I really need them to do, but a bit more would have been ideal.
The sculptwork on the new torso, face, and arms is all great, with plenty of wrinkled fabric and textured skin. The camo paintjob on both shirt and pants is clean, with no bleed to mess. There’s a grimy feel to the skin, like Dutch has really been out sweating in the hot, dirty jungle all day.
Because I neglected it in the previous review:
Dutch’s package.
It’s hard to choose, but I think I like Jungle patrol better than Jungle Extraction. The more stripped down he gets, the more kinetic his action figure looks, and while the previous one is all business and in control, this one seems like the situation is getting away from him, and the jungle is getting angry. It’s only going to get worse for our hero and our toys, and that’s where the fun is found.
