There's something funny about the fact that the big final scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is him insisting that a woman named Elsa should "let it go."
In the final challenge to possess the Grail, Elsa volunteers
to choose the true grail from a table strewn with deadly imitations. She chooses a golden, bejeweled cup for her benefactor, Walter Donovan, who drinks from it deeply, eager to taste immortality. Unfortunately for Donovan, Elsa's choice proves to be either poor or malicious, as he swiftly ages until reduced to a pile of ash.
Malicious. It's malicious. If you watch the scene in question, she hands him the cup and as he turns away, she looks at Indiana and subtly shakes her head, letting him know she intentionally picked the wrong one. Why? Isn't that the question of the hour! Was it really just that she cared about finding the Grail more than anything else, and that's why she jointed the 1930s Republican Party? She did seem upset watching the book-burning rally in Berlin, but like Indy said: you stand up to be counted with the enemy of goodness, your excuses cease to matter. Was it the redemptive power of love? That does seem like exactly the level of cheesy these movies go for, but ultimately all we can do is guess what she was thinking. Maybe it's just that she's only out for herself no matter what, and it was easier to betray Donovan first and Indiana later.
Elsa was played by Alison Doody, who, in addition to having a name that's silly fun to say, is also the only woman to appear in both
an Indiana Jones movie and a James Bond movie: she was henching for Christopher Walken's Max Zorin in 1985's A View to a Kill as the ridiculously-named "Jenny Flex." (To which Roger Moore replied "Of course you are." That doesn't make any sense as a quip, no matter how you try to parse it.) The figure's hair is molded as a separate piece and glued into the head, but it doesn't quite work right. Like, remember mid-to-early-2000s NECA, when all their figures had that sort of "wig" look to them? It's like that, except from a company that has a track record of doing better than this. It's possible that boiling her head until the glue weakens enough to remove and reposition the hair would fix the issue, but perhaps not.
This figure shows Elsa at the end of the movie. She was always very fashionable and put together, so there were lots of options
they could have given her. Heck, maybe that's why this one is officially identified as "Dr. Elsa Schneider (Grail Temple)": you know, planning ahead for when this line was a huge success and they were making several other Drs. Elsa Schneider. This one is wearing a baggy white blouse with a black collar, a black camisole with fancy trim along the upper edge, black gloves, high-waisted black pants, and black leather boots. Her hair is a very complicated up-do, and the sculptors have even bothered to give her a few loose strands of hair falling out of place. Shame it doesn't fit her head better. It's funny, though, that this figure does a better job creating her big, poofy sleeves than the Marvel Legends Shadowcat did. Wonder if a custom would be possible?
Dr. Schneider is articulated as well as the rest of the Adventure Series figures: swivel/hinges at the ankles, knees, wrists,
elbows, and shoulders; swivel boots; balljointed hips, waist, and neck; and a barbell-jointed head. Most of the figures in this line have had balljoint wrists, which are never as good as swivel/hinges, so it's nice to see Elsa gets an upgrade, even if it doesn't make any immediate sense why she would, and if it's a bit too late to do anything to save the line. Similarly, while a barbell head isn't the greatest choice in the world, they at least had the sense to design her hair to sit a little bit away from the neck, so she does have the ability to look up fairly well. Better than a lot of figures that get this type of joint, for sure.
This toy includes an alternate head, and it doesn't have the same hair problem as the standard. Primarily because it shows
Elsa wearing her little tank commander's cap. We also get a pair of goggles, which can be slung arund her neck, or worked up to actually cover the toy's eyes. They're molded from translucent red plastic and the the frame and strap are painted: silver for one, tan for the other. Other than that, her only accessory is the False Grail, the same piece that already came with Donovan, which is disappointing, but logical: it's something they both use prominently, so it would be unfair to anyone who only gets one of them if it were only available with the other. You'll be able to tell them apart, though, because hers actually gets a little bit of paint for the gems.
Her part of the Grail Table Build-An-Artifact is the same Indy had: one of the stands for the table. It's done in three pieces, but unlike Marion and Toht's panels of the Ark, it's not identical mold to what Indy had; for whatever reason, Hasbro opted to make them different shapes.
Maybe Elsa would have really turned her life around if she hadn't been caught in the grips of Grail Madness. She'd turned against Walter Donovan, which we can read as her turning against the Nazis, and now she'd seen the power of the cup, so maybe that would have set her right. But hey, too little, too late. Which really sums up Hasbro's Indiana Jones Adventure Series as a whole, doesn't it? Little improvements here in Series 3 can't make up for what happened in Series 1.
-- 11/30/24
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