Rumbler (1987)
Here’s one for all you fans of figure recipes. Let’s see who went into making Rumblerstein. Footloose gave his head, Crankcase loaned his helmet. Heavy Metal bestowed his arms, torso, and weapon, and Bazooka provided his waist and legs. Wow.
This patchwork figure begs the question: was the R/C Crossfire a rush job, or was the figure a last minute addition to the vehicle. Up to this point, hadn’t all the vehicle drivers had some element of new parts?
I remember seeing the vehicle in stores, but not getting it because of the price tag. Rumbler seemed uninteresting to me as well. However, I thought the idea of a radio controlled Joe vehicle was great. I actually had a radio controlled Joe scale jeep that my parents bought me from the JC Penney Christmas catalog in 1984. Even though it wasn’t GI Joe branded, that thing saw a lot of use in my backyard battles.
Back to Rumbler, he would remain a bit boring to me, if not for his wonderfully hued pants. What can I say about them? I suppose I should have covered them as part of Nice Pants week. Actually, these pants are probably more impressive than any other pair. The other Nice Pants figures tend toward odd camo patterns and strange tailoring, but Rumbler eclipses them all. He takes Bazooka’s nondescript and sensible cargos to new heights by finding them in the most succulent shade of peach. Most impressive.
I don’t get it–they don’t look “peach-colored” to me…
They’re peach, all right. Don’t think he’d work for desert duty. Unless he hangs out with Spearhead, with his orange sherbert over peach camo.
When I saw this guy in the stores, I remember thinking it was totally a knock-off (nevermind the GIJoe logo on the box). But I was sure it was just a Footloose clone.
I’d have to see a sample in person for myself.
Not the best figure to include with an expensive vehicle, yeah. He’s just plain underwhelming.
As a kid, I was confused as to how the Rolling Thunder driver (Armadillo) ended up using the Rumbler moniker while this guy never showed up in any sort of media that I can recall. Heck, Claymore went on to become a huge favorite with collectors and he’s not that far off from Rumbler here in terms of parts use or shelf exposure.
I bought this little bastard at a cheap cost after years of search!!!
😉
I actually did not know Rumbler existed until I picked up one of the Bellomo guides as an adult collector. Same for Claymore…..that’s the neat thing about this hobby.
Not appealing, even if he is rare.
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Gotta agree, this is one of those rare figures that are hard to justify the price. I’m a completist, so I coughed up the money, but I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed when this one showed up on my doorstep. There’s just nothing new or exciting about him (peach pants don’t do a lot for me 🙂
I never had this one, but it looks like a nice figure to me.