Jungle Disguise Dutch

While there's some disagreement as to whether NECA's "Jungle Encounter" or "Jungle Patrol" Dutch features the more iconic outfit from Predator, there's no question about which Dutch figure true fans of the film were eagerly anticipating: Jungle Disguise Dutch. JDD was the first Dutch figure NECA showed off when they announced they'd be making figures of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Predator protagonist, even though it's pretty much the last major costume change Dutch experiences in the film. As mentioned in previous reviews, Dutch loses clothing gradually throughout the film until he ends up here: naked from the waist up and covered in mud and dirt and leaves. Basically, when Dutch dons his "Jungle Disguise" it represents the point in the film where $#!* gets real. He's bringing the fight to the Predator instead of running and hiding. Well, he is hiding: the "disguise" is a method he inadvertently discovered to block the monster's infra-red tracking ability. JDD, from the waist down, is made up of the same parts sculpturally as Jungle Patrol Dutch. Same goes for his arms between the elbows and hands. What's new is everything else: the head, the torso, and the upper arms and hands are all covered in textured muck and grime. It looks really good. The mud is caked on and cracked, and there are lots of fully sculpted leaves mixed into the pitted and bumpy mud texture. Even with the texture, the face is still very recognizable as Arnie, in fact this is my favorite likeness on any Dutch figure thus far. The dirty bits thin out from the shoulders to the biceps, so that the transition to the clean lower arms is smooth. His new hands are sculpted for his makeshift melee weapons, rather than to hold his assault rifle like the previous Dutch figures. NECA faced a tricky task with the paint: since he's really just covered in mud, it would be easy for the details to get lost in a monochromatic paint sludge. But there are a lot of subtle shades and variations in the paint scheme that make the detail really pop. There are dark browns, greens and oranges to break up the medium brown monotony, and you can even make out the details of his camouflage-patterned pants underneath all the grime. He even has a little trickle of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. JDD is articulated at the same joints as the previous Dutch figures, and that's a good thing. The joints are nice and tight with a wide range of movement, but still integrate into the sculpt nicely. I'm not sure if a different factory handles NECA's Dutch figures, but none of my three Dutch figures have any of the stuck or loose joints that I've dealt with on other NECA lines, like Aliens, or hell, even the non-Dutch Predator figures. One way in which JDD blows the other Dutch figures out of the water is his accessories. So far every Dutch figure has been armed with an assault rifle/grenade launcher combo, pistol, and small knife. Jungle Extraction Dutch got an extra big knife, but Disguise Dutch gets a huge complement of all new gear: the improvised weapons he made to combat the Predator. He's got the bow he made from bending a bundle of branches, with a complement of arrows too that can fit in a small loop on the bow. There are four arrows total: three with pointed tips, and one with an explosive tip. He's got two staffs: one makeshift spear (with a knife tip that matches the blade of the small knife included with the other Dutches) and a staff with an explosive tip on it. He's also got a torch with a translucent orange plastic flame effect, and a little man-purse that straps across his torso. All the accessories are very well detailed, looking like lashed together sticks and branches. It's not often that a figure totally lives up to the hype surrounding it. Jungle Disguise Dutch is definitely one of the few that does. His impressive sculpt and paint detail, combined with his solid articulation and comprehensive accessory assortment, means he's pretty much a perfect figure. -- 10/18/13

Tweet