Indiana Jones

Boy, I never learn, do I? Indiana Jones faces an ancient cult that worships the god Kali by way of human sacrifice! Fun fact: the original Temple of Doom script was slightly less racist than the final film and managed to make Indiana Jones look more competent: rather than suggesting every Indian is secretly part of a death cult and having Indy just blindly stumble into uncovering it, he knew enough about anthropology to realize the fact supposed Hindus were feasting on non-vegetarian food meant something weird was going on. Just one of several omissions that would have made Temple of Doom better-received at the time. Very few of this figure's molds are reused from the first Indiana. This figure is based on Temple of Doom's bridge scene, so his pants are torn, and instead of a jacket, he's wearing his tattered shirt, with one missing sleeve, lashes across the back from where he was whipped, and the buttons undone to show off his chest. Honestly, it's just as iconic a look as the Raiders of the Lost Ark figure was... and an argument could be made that it's even moreso! It seems we're meant to believe Indy wears the same hat through every adventure, though in reality the style does change subtly from film to film. Like, compare this toy to the Series 1 release, and it's easy to see the brim is substantially wider. This is a new face, too, lacking the calm confidence seen before, instead displaying anger. That is absolutely an expression he displays while on the bridge, but it would have been better if they'd exaggerated it more - he needs to appear more unhinged for what he's about to do. Unfortunately for all involved, one of the reused pieces is that stupid belt. It's minorly better this time, because they actually had the sense to package him with the clasps closed (meaning the PVC had time to flex to that position as a default, rather than wanting to open), but there wasn't enough time for Hasbro to fix the design flaws that made it so bad in the first place: the pegs are still so soft that pushing them into the holes is a near impossibility, and they knock out of place far too easily. Plus, this is the wrong holster for Temple of Doom - wrong shape and wrong color - meaning the chance they had to improve the engineering when making a new belt was lost. Additionally, Indy had been through a whole lot by this point in the movie, and was looking pretty beat-up and filthy. This toy is far too pristine, lacking enough paint to make him look dirty (there are some slightly yellower splotches on his already-yellow shirt), so the effect is, overall, that of someone who put together a "Temple of Doom Indana Jones" costume for a Halloween party, not a plastic representation of the man himself. At least the articulation is good. Copying from the previous review, there's a barbell head, balljointed neck, pec hinges, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel/ hinge elbows, tiny balljointed wrists, balljointed waist, balljointed hips, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge knees, and swivel/hinge ankles. The main thing he needs to be able to do is lift his sword high overhead to threaten the bridge, and he can. But like before, be careful how you move his left leg, because if you bump that belt loop, it's coming undone. We get the same gun, full whip, and coiled whip as last time, plus the sword and his satchel. Like before, the red chosen for the whips is an odd shade, and the coiled one doesn't hang against his leg very well. The satchel is the same mold as before, which would normally be fine, but the entire point of the climax of the movie is that he's supposed to have three Sankara stones in that bag, and it's way too flat for that! The sword was bent pretty severely by the time I took it out of the package, but a bit of hot water has returned it to as straight as it ever was. Series 2 includes a Build-An-Artifact, the big skull-shaped altar Mola Ram kept the stones in. Indy includes the lower jaw. Which is a distinct enough piece that it will look pretty cool even if he's the only figure you get. While the first Adventure Series figures were all based on Raiders of the Lost Ark, Series 2 is a mix of Temple of Doom and Dial of Destiny - I actually saw the Phoebe Waller-Bridge figure at Target, once, suggesting that these did really make it to stores, if in exceedingly small numbers. That's more than we can say for Series 3! I ended up finding Temple Indy at a calendar store just before Giftsmas, and while he is slightly better than my other option, he's still not as good as he should be. -- 08/10/24

Tweet