German on Motorcycle

1989 brought us "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."  With this film, Indy met up with his dad and faced off in a race to find the Holy Grail before the German Army.  Sadly, kids of that era never new the joy owning action figures from the film.

Hasbro, however, made up for that in 2008 by releasing a slew of figures from the original Indiana Jones trilogy in order to ride the Crystal Skull wave of merchandising.  Oddly produced out of sequence with the Temple of Doom figures, The Last Crusade portion of the Indiana Jones line had some of the better pieces in the line, most notably Henry Jones, Sr.

The subject of this review is one of the German baddies that chase Henry and Indy when they abscond with a motorcycle to tour the German countryside.  Alas, the line has ended before we can get the sidecar bike the Jones boys had.  But, we at least get their pursuers.  (Marauder Gun Runners has a motorcycle with a side car I was thinking about getting for that purpose, but it's out of stock until April or May.)

Since this German is on duty in Europe, he's the only one we've seen from Hasbro that isn't in desert gear.  Even the Vogel produced is in khaki.  So, if you want a platoon of northern Germans for Indy to face, you're stuck with getting this version.

The good thing is that he's pretty well done.  There's a distinct head under the helmet that sports an vaguely army looking haircut.  The upper torso is the top of the jacket and has a nice bit of paint.

The long coat is finished off on the bottom with a soft goods skirt.  The cloth portion of the coat has two pockets sewn on to it.  I'd rather see a sculpted skirt, but since this fellow is riding a bike, this becomes a necessity.  The pockets just seem a little big, not horribly, just enough to be noticed. 

In between the two part so his coat is a a belt.  This belt is one of the highlights of the figure.  While he has an oversize working holster, it doesn't look as out of place as the Indy ones have.  The canteen and other detailing is well sculpted and painted. 

The main reason for buying this deluxe figure is to get the motorcycle.  The bike itself is a hodgepodge of good and bad.  The detailing is a mixed bag of fine detail and really soft detail covered over with a paint scheme that is a little inconsistent.

The non-removable gear strapped to the bike is an example of what is good with this two wheeled retro transportation.  The straps on the tarps are well done and the silver buckles on every thing really finish it off. 

The best example of what is a let down with this piece is the shifter on the side of the gas tank.  It looks like it was an after thought.  Light on detail and with no paint, it really looks out of place.   If they had left it off it the gas tank would've looked a whole lot better, in my opinion.

Again, on the plus side, coming down from the hand grips are small lines running to the front wheel and mid-bike to represent brake lines.  This really adds a bit of realism of the piece.

On the negative side, is the overall color scheme and weathering  The front fender shows silver nicks in blue paint that is not anywhere else on the bike.  There's no "dirt' on the front fender or wheels, but it's all over the back saddle bags.  In general, a very inconsistent paint design.

The figure fits on the bike well.  This is due in part to some articulation in the handle bars and the general articulation of the figure.  It's one of the better working figure/motorcycle combinations I've seen in person.  The bikes wheels do turn.  It is possible to get the bike to stand with the figure on its' two wheels, but it's much easier to pose them with the kickstand down. 

This is one of those items that I was a bit disappointed when I got it out of the package.  The opposite side has a big screw hole in the gas tank.  The overall detailing is less on that side, as well as having the big silver pegs glaring out at you. 

Speaking of glaring, the right side has a hole at the middle of the rear wheel axel.  My guess is this mold would have be modified to produce an Indy & Henry motorcycle and that would have been the sidecar attachment point.

There are three accessories for the figure, not including the bike.  A small Luger which we've seen with other figures.  A machine gun with strap that is similar to some of the other machine guns we've seen, except with a strap.  The strap is nice add on, to allow him to ride the bike and carry his weapon.

The last accessory is the helmet goggle combination.  The item looks fine to me from a head on view, but seems a little too short in the back.  That may be since he's a bit hunched to get him on the motorcycle and more of his neck shows.  The back of my helmet has a pretty good tool mark at the base that really detracts from the appearance from behind, as well.