From Cabbage Patch to Rambo Doll

Coleco Industries Inc., the producer of the popular Cabbage Patch Kids, announced Wednesday that it has signed an exclusive worldwide license to market a doll and accessories based on the hit movie “Rambo: First Blood Part II.”

The first Rambo “action figure, action figure accessories and other play items” will be available for the Christmas season.

“Recent publicity on the movie and the character of Rambo shows that the character is emerging as a new kind of American,” said Barbara C. Wruck, vice president for corporate communications at Coleco. “He is a hero and a justice-seeking individual, and those are characteristics that we all want.”

The publicity Wruck referred to includes a parody by Johnny Carson of Mr. Rambo’s Neighborhood and the remark by President Reagan, which he believed was off the record, that after seeing Rambo, he would now know how to handle a terrorist situation such as the hijacking of TWA Flight 847.

The character, a Vietnam veteran portrayed by actor Sylvester Stallone, was introduced in the movie “First Blood.”

In the most recent movie, which has grossed $140 million since its release in May, Rambo returns to Vietnam on a mission to retrieve remaining prisoners of war.

Wruck said the company is not worried that parents will see the figures as war toys.

“Children since Day One have played cowboys and Indians, good guys and bad guys. It’s a way of expressing fantasy ideas about good and evil. It’s natural,” she said. “We believe that in the case of Rambo, the strength, the patriotism and the heroic attitude of the character is what will attract children.”

“Rambo” and “First Blood” are trademarks of Anabasis Investments N.V.