Dr. Henry Jones

1989 saw Indiana Jones return to the silver screen for the third time.  "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" put Indy in situations reminiscent of the first film.  He was fighting Nazi's, searching for a Christian relic, visited his students, etc...  The big twist in this film was the introduction of his father, Henry Jones, Senior. 

For the 5 people reading this that don't know, Indy's full legal name is Henry Jones, Junior.  This leads to a little in joke at the end of Last Crusade where Henry Sr. says, "We named the dog Indiana."  At the time Raiders was written, George Lucas's dog was named Indiana. 

Henry Sr. was portrayed on screen by Sean Connery, who is 12 years older than Harrison Ford.  The on screen chemistry makes up for it, though. 

I have to say, this is another of those figures that everybody will want because of who he is.  But if you think about it, Henry is basically and older guy in a suit.  He doesn't have a whip, or body armor, or a gun.  For a character to make an "action" figure of he seems an odd choice.

That being said, he's a figure of a man in a suit that is well done.  There's no mistaking who this figure is intended to be.  All of the key trademarks are there.  The three piece suit, bow tie, and old man hat. 

The first thing you will notice out of the blister however, is his height.  He's probably a tad taller than he should be.  According to what I could find on the web, Mr. Connery is about an inch and a half taller than Mr. Ford.  At this scale, that would be fairly negligible.  The only thing I don't currently have to compare him to, is a straight legged Indy figure.  So maybe he's right, maybe not, I'll let the you judge.

I was initially concerned that the hat was a permanent piece sculpted to his head.  Even my first gentle attempts to remove it were thwarted.  It finally did pop off and I found the reason for the solid attachment.  There's a plastic skull cap underneath it.  I would imagine this is to keep the paint on the hat from coming off on his bald head.  (I actually put the little cap back under the hat for my display.)

With the hat off, you can get a look at the Sean Connery likeness.  Out of all of the Indy figures I've seen or have, this is the best likeness so far.  There is no doubt this is the former James Bond.  Under the glasses are some small squinty eyes, as well.  The eyes on the IJATLC figures look much better than most of the initial waves.  Overall, great looking melon under the floppy hat. 

Three small issues, though,  The beard is just a little sloppy.  I think it could have been a bit better, but I'm just glad to see the variety in color accounted for.  The second is the flesh color they used for his head.  It seems a bit too light and a bit too yellow.  Lastly, the way the ball joint works, he can't look up.  Even saying he can look straight ahead is a bit of stretch. 

One of the things that impressed me the most with Henry was his legs.  Specifically the integration of the knee joint.  Considering the recent Star Wars figures I 've looked at, Henry's knees rock. 

Overall, the rest of the body is pretty decent.  There is some slight mismatch in the colors used in the various pieces, however.  I'd think these are mainly due to the different materials used.  I would imagine there's some customizers out there that will completely repaint him for perfection, but it's not that distracting for me.

Henry's hands are a concern for me they are sculpted a bit on the big side.  He doesn't a have a real good grasp on his accessories due to this.  His left hand appears to be sculpted with a trigger finger, as well.  I wonder if these are reused hands from somewhere?

For a figure of a guy in a suit, Henry is pretty well articulated.  He's got all the articulation you would want in an Indy figure.  As mentioned above, the knees especially, are well blended.  The articulation of this figure really doesn't detract from it at all.

Apparently, since Dr. Jones is articulated like a GI Joe figure, he has to have as many accessories as one.  Glasses, hat, diary, suit case, Luger and an umbrella.  The glasses are a bit milky, but are some of the better glasses I've seen done at this scale.  They also fit his head very well.  The hat doesn't fit quite as well and seems a bit tall, but then again, it's not a hat I'm a fan of.

The suite case is a nicely done little piece,  I thought it would open, but doesnt appear to.  It has to small sculpted loops at the top for the umbrella (See Bottom Picture).  The umbrella has well done paint and really knocks it out of the park for an accessory at this scale.  The Grail diary isn't quite as nice.  The paint on mine looks a little gloppy, but it's definitely one of the items this figure had to have. 

I have to applaud Hasbro for including so many key items with this figure instead of trying to milk collectors to buy a repaint figure with different accessories.  The Luger is in better scale than Indy's pistols, too.  (I still suspect an open umbrella variant somewhere along the line, maybe with painted on bird poop.)

Lastly, Henry comes with one of the more recognizable "relics", the Holy Grail  It's a well done piece at about an inch high.  I don't have an complaints about, but I don't really have a use for it either.  I'm starting to get this little collection of relics that are out of scale with one another, and I can't figure out what to do with them.