Rampage Toy Review: Lizzie

I recall the video game Rampage from way back in the glory days of video game arcades. Hey, I was there when the arcade cabinets first appeared! I played Death Race, Asteroids, Space Invaders... so many awesome arcade games!

Rampage was an awesome game that showed up back in 1986. It was a great three player game as well! The purpose of the game was to take control of one of three giant monsters. George, the giant Kong-like gorilla, Lizzie, the Godzilla like beast, and Ralph, the giant werewolf creature. The goal was to simply smash the city around you while avoiding being attacked by humans and each other. Once you lost all of your energy, you reverted back to a human form which could then be eaten by your opponents. It was later adapted into a console game that was fairly successful.

With a blast of originality, Hollywood decided to resurrect the concept into a movie. Add Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and you've got an instant blockbuster. Does the Rock ever turn down a script? I like the guy myself. Larger than life in his personality and he seems to be a pretty damn decent human being.

With the movie, usually there's a toy line to accompany it. Lanard, the toy company usually associated with The Corps line of military figures, plus a whole load of other toys, secured the toy license for the movie. This comes after their snag of the Kong movie from last year (?).

Lanard's figures range from a breath-taking two points of articulation to pretty decent near high quality GI Joe articulation. The vehicles are often odd and goofy looking, with some amazing bright spots as well.

Rob, over at joeaday.com usually does an annual post about the Lanard Warehouse Sale. Awesome stuff to check out!

Anyway... Lanard has the Rampage toy license and pictures of the toys have started popping up across the interwebs. The stuff looked really cool and I was anxious to see them in hand.

Just recently, I went to my local Walmart, which seems to be the main store to buy Lanard stuff, and spotted what appeared to be their first shipment of the Rampage toys. 

Apparently George, the gorilla, is the main creature character of the movie. George is a gentle albino gorilla that gets mutated into a giant Kong-like beast. The initial concern about the toy was that it first appeared to be a repaint of the Kong toy. That toy looked very cool, but was disappointing, at least to me. Arm and neck articulation, nothing else. Kind of boring. The Mega-George is nicely articulated and can be posed in a standard gorilla movement position.

I think that I would like to eventually pick up the Mega George, but we'll see. Only $19.87! So very awesome, but he's also so very huge!

The smaller $9.84 sets include a figure, some accessories, and each of the main beasts in their original form. Ralph is a wolf, while Lizzie is an alligator. Maybe... Maybe not... Probably not.

For the $14.92 price point, we get the next stage mutation for George, Ralph, and Lizzie. George just gets bigger; Ralph and Lizzie get bigger and uglier. After looking through everything, I decided on Lizzie as my first purchase of the toy line. 

Holy crap, Lizzie is just awesome! I like a good action figure, but I've also got a weak spot for a well sculpted alien or monster. There's so much photographic potential in this beast! 

I had to do a quick shot with Lizzie and some of my Renegades. More to come eventually!

Next up is a much closer look at all the monstrous glory that is Lizzie. I took a bunch of pictures, so I'm going to just make a separate page for those, rather than load this post with pictures. Click here for more pictures!

The Corps! Lanard 2003

Normally, the figures from Lanard are not much to talk about. Limited articulation, odd sculpting and oversized features. For this particular crew of Corps figures, all of that applies, but these guys are still pretty dang cool!

I bought these guys way back around 2004. The GI Joe market wasn't that impressive at the time and these troops were just the low priced military figures I was looking for. I think they were less than a buck each and I believe the single carded Lanard figures may still be just under a dollar.

There is merit to these figures though, but they sure aren't GI Joe. They have swivel necks, decent arm articulation, waist movement, jointed knees, and t-crotch articulation. Not great, but they are toys after all. Clunky, oversized features. So what's so cool about them? The frikkin' paint apps! The detailing of the paint jobs on these guys are just amazing. For such low cost figures, the paint apps are very nice. Layers of fabric, creases in faces, paint on all of the sculpted details. These guys really look pretty cool as long as you take them for what they are - toys.

I'm pretty sure each of these guys are specific characters, but I don't recall who they are and don't really want to try and figure them out. So just gaze upon their awesomeness!

The Corps!

That loveable, oddball, military toy line is at it again.  Largely known for their brightly colored, poorly articulated figures and their garish, misshapen vehicles, Lanard is at it again with a few gems. 

These two ladies... 

I don't think there have ever been any female characters in the history of The Corps. This is a first for Lanard and these lethal ladies seem to be a pretty big hit among the GI Joe collectors. Usually found at Walmart, The Corps has been a staple of the boy's toys aisle for quite some time. They were around way back when I worked at Walmart. Walmart seems to have a good relationship with Lanard to keep the Corps presence in the toy department. Maybe Hasbro could take a lesson? Didn't Hasbro have a military toy line once upon a time?

The most attractive feature of The Corps line from Lanard is the price. Each of these three-packs were under $7.00. For the most part, nearly all of these figures are disposable. 

The male figures in the 3-pack on the left are pretty lame. The guy all the way to the left has an amazing three points of articulation. The guy in the middle has decent upper body articulation, but the legs have the t-crotch syndrome.

The 3-pack on the right isn't much better. Same t-crotch articulation on the guy on the left. The guy in the middle has five whole points of articulation. I'm pretty sure that the male figures will be headed to the trash. I may try to salvage a couple of the heads and see if they would work with some Joe figures. The weaponry and gear are pretty lame and will head to the trash bin.

The two ladies are quite different. They have the traditional o-ring style of articulation. Pivoting knees, ball and socket hips, a slight waist articulation, swivel shoulders and elbows, and a ball and socket neck joint. Both figures share the exact same body mold. Different paint jobs and different head sculpts give the characters separate identities.

They have specific names, but I don't recall them at the moment. The two ladies are a bit too cartoony to integrate into my main GI Joe line, plus they are a bit too tall in comparison to Joe figures.

So why did I buy them? I'm pretty much a sucker for decently made female action figures.