Grail Knight

Indiana Jones returned to the big screen after a hiatus in 1989.  This time the McGuffin was the holy grail of all relics, the Holy Grail.  There have been numerous films and TV shows that have mentioned the Grail.  Spock went "In Search Of" it. Monty Python went skipping through the English country side to look for it.  Dan Brown gave us a new way to look at it in "The DaVinci Code."

However, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" gave us an action filled romp with Nazis on one side and sworn protectors of the Grail on the other.  The final Protector of the Grail was a centuries old knight kept alive by faith and the Grail's powers.  This knight had aged significantly over the years and provided little physical challenge to Indy or the baddies.  However, he did provide some narrative to forward the story along.

I don't know what it is about Hasbro and old men.  The odder thing is that we keep buying them.   The knight shown in the film shows the centuries of age.  Kudos should go to Hasbro for actually making this figure like that.  It would have been easy to make this guy a heroic knight capable of fighting side by side with any of your Jedi figures.  Instead they made an aged protector.

The first thing I noticed was this guy does not stand straight up.  He has a bit of a hunch to him.   Couple with this is a head that seems to always be looking down.  While the head is ball-jointed, the neck is a little long and comes out an angle instead of straight up.  While this helps portray his age, it limits the motion of his head a bit.  Also, I remember the chain mail on his head being a bit looser.  This head armor looks just a tad too tight.  There is also some bleed through on the back of his head where the silver doesn't quite cover up the flesh tone underneath.

Two crosses are done as raised elements on the knight's  cape.  These match the one he has on his chest.  All three of the crosses look like they stand out a bit too much, almost like there made of something solid rather than cloth.  The cape does have a nice flow, though.  The ties in the middle don't look like a perfectly tied costume piece.  They are off to one side and the string are uneven.  Very real world. 

Under the robe is a suit of chain mail covered with a padded tabard over top of it.  There are a couple of belts wrapped around his mid section holding up his scabbard.  The belts have a section hanging down on the right side. 

The coat is fairly well done.  The padding looks like padding and not just pinstriping.  The only issue I really had with it, are some small pin hole looking spots around the cross.  Looks like a flow problem in the mold.  The casual observer probably would never notice them, however. 

The chain mail is done fairly well for this scale.  The texture is compete and follows a pattern.  I know I've seen some more generic figures where the chain mail seemed to be more random texture than anything else, but not with this guy.

The only real bothersome issue I have with the grail knight is both good and bad.  It's his pose.  I understand the age factor is a part of that.  I think it's great they tried to include it.  However, I've had some trouble getting this guy to stand on his own.  Mainly due to his center of gravity and the position of ankles.    I think he needs just a little bit more of an arch to his back.  Ironically, when I was trying to take the bottom picture, I struggled to get a shot where he was holding the sword straight out in front of him, much the same as the knight in the movie.

Of course no knight would be complete without a sword.  The grail knight comes with a pretty nice one.  The hilt has some detailing with a  nice gold color.  The only real problem is that it's flexible.  Once I got mine out of the package, it had a noticeable bend to it.  The sheath on the knight also is not made to fit it.  It has been sculpted shut. 

So can this Grail knight let you enact a stop motion battle with the vicious Chicken of Bristol?  Somewhat.    He's missing some of the articulation that has been otherwise standard in this line.  There are no ankle or wrist joints.  Oddly, There are no hip joints either.  The lower legs fit into upper legs that are sculpted into the lower body piece.

Of course the Grail Knight would have been incomplete with the item he's been protecting, the Holy Grail.  It's a simple cup with gold on the inside.  It doesn't quite have the pottery look it should, but at this scale it's not too bad.  It may actually be a tad oversize if anything.  It would have been nice to have a few of the false grails as well, like the one with Elsa, but this one is a must for this figure.

Out of all of the 'relics' that the single carded figures have came with, this one is my favorite.  Probably, if for no other reason, it's almost in scale with the figures.  The relic is a representation of Sir Richard's shield.  It is one of the markers Indy is searching for in his quest.  The piece is nice with some weathering and sculpting on both sides.  It has straps sculpted on the inside, but they are flat to the shield.  If they had been made so a figure could at least hold it up, this piece would have rocked.