Kazim

Okay, get all the "Borat" jokes out of your system now. Leader of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, Kazim devotes his life to protecting the secrets of the Holy Grail. Again we see Target making highly unexpected choices for its exclusives. First it was a Temple of Doom figure, now a Last Crusade. Considering the way this line is going, these exclusives might be those movies' only appearance at retail, so that's a little bit nice for them, at least? But on the other hand, we still don't have a German Mechanic, a Cairo Swordsman, a Monkey Man, a Satipo, an Ark Ghost, any generic soldiers... there are many things they could have chosen to go along with an all-Raiders series, things that we're now unlikely to ever get. I mean, if Hasbro somehow manages to salvage this line and turn it into a success, I'll admit I was wrong, but for now? We're going to have forever-incomplete collections. When I saw this on the pegs at Target, I was mainly excited to see anything that wasn't Sallah; I honestly didn't even remember who Kazim was, he was just somebody new. Somebody new, wearing a suit and a hat, like almost every other character. Actor Kevork Malikyan had been scheduled to try out for the role of Sallah in the first movie, but a traffic jam made him an hour late. He's Armenian, which explains why the toy looks like Serj Tankian. The character has a large mustache, curly hair, and wears a fez, which had technically been banned in Turkey in 1925, so either he's very traditional or a bit of a rebel. For his suit, Kazim uses the same molds as Toht, just without the overcoat and now with a large red flower in his lapel instead of whatever Nazi insignia Toht was wearing there. That still means the narrow shoulders, but it also means you could use that jacket on this figure, creating an interesting new look for him. Besides, the paint makes a big departure and keeps the two from looking alike - Kazim's suit is dark grey with light pinstripes, rather than being solid black. It looks nice, but it does present a problem. Kazim has swivel/hinge ankles, swivel/​hinge knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, a balljointed waist, balljoint wrists, swivel/​hinge elbows, swivel/hinge shoulders, a balljointed neck, and a barbell-jointed head. The bottom of his neck is white, so he doesn't have the same issue with skin showing through his collar that Toht did, but instead there's something worse: the pinstripes on his suit are simply painted on, of course, but the paint doesn't continue inside the knee or elbow joints; so if you bend his limbs, there's suddenly a gigantic grey patch that there's no ignoring. This is particularly egregious because the shoulder joints don't have the same problem! Lift his arm, and the underside of the shoulder joint's ring gets pinstripe apps just like everything around it, so why don't the joints you're likely to see get the same attention? Although he's part of Series 1, as an exclusive Kazim does not get any BAF parts for the Ark. A shame, too, since this would have been an opportunity to give us the sand that's supposed to be in there. What we do get? Guns! There's the Haenel-Schmeisser MP28/II submachine gun he used during the boat chase, the M1916 Spanish Mauser he used to attack the German convoy, and supposedly the Mauser C96 he used to knock out Marcus Brody in the library. "Supposedly," because mine didn't include it! Or it fell out of the accessory bag before I saw it. Oh well. Those are all three guns he uses in the movie, so this is all you could want from him. (The match he strikes and throws into the oily water would be too small.) Kazim is a perfectly lovely figure... as long as all you want to do with him is have him stand around watching your other toys. That messed-up paint in the joints is a gigantic distraction, and nearly a deal-breaker. But even if you don't plan to build an Indiana Jones collection, the toy can still have purpose: just like Toht would make a great henchman for Red Skull, this could be a pre-Shadow King Amahl Farouk. -- 08/26/23

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