Friday, January 29, 2016

139 Clobber

Clobber is a parody of Lawrence Tureaud, better known as Mr. T.

One popular character portrayed by Mr. T was Clubber Lang in 1982's Rocky III. 

Clubber = Clobber.

When Spin Master bought the Tech Deck property from X-Concepts, they introduced us to Clobber as the new spokesperson.  He appears in (and narrates) the TDD commercials.

Clobber has two versions.  One was available within Spin Master's first Street Crew series of single-pack figures. Here, he looks just like Mr T.  This "regular" version of Clobber is quite hard to find.

The second figure is exclusive to the Vanformer playset.  Here, Clobber is dressed in a Hot Dog costume.  This version of Clobber is very easy to find, due to the apparent prevalence of the Vanformer.  Remember that Spin Master was really trying to take the Dudes from a line of affordable, collectible figures to a line of expensive playsets and gimmicks. This didn't really catch on, and the Vanformer "warmed the shelves" at many stores before finally going to deep clearance.  As such, the mass-produced Hot Dog Clobber is still very easy to find on eBay.

It is also interesting to note that the Vanformer itself is a parody of a vehicle from a popular franchise associated with Mr. T.  It mimics the iconic van driven by The A-Team.  Of course, Mr T. played Bosco Albert "B. A." (Bad Attitude) Baracus on this T.V. show.

Props to TDD for all the radical 80's references.

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