Temple Trap Indiana Jones

I've mentioned it several times before, Raiders of the Lost Ark is probably my number one favorite film of all time. I was pretty excited to hear about the Indy new film, and the promise of figures from it. To hear that Hasbro was going to go retro and make figures from some of the past films as well, was a bonus.

Then I saw the pictures from Toy Fair. I have to say I was optimistic that the figures would improve by the time they hit the shelves. When they actually hit the shelves, I was under whelmed when I saw them in person. But to be fair, I've picked up a deluxe Indy and a two pack.  This review will center on the Indy.

This is the "Temple Trap" Indiana Jones. It's take from the Fertility Idol scene that opens the first film. That one scene is one of the most iconic for Indy. It's often imitated and lampooned. It's definitely more memorable than the musical number that opens Temple of Doom.

The Indiana Jones figure included here is a basic vanilla Indy. He's got the fedora, leather jacket, and standard adventurer clothing. As with most figures there's some good and some bad.

I'm going to start with something I thought was bad, and realized it wasn't after some thought. The figure comes with a whip, but the holder is sculpted shut. If you think back to the film, Indy left his whip at the pit him and duplicitous Satipo swung across. There's another deluxe figure that recreates that moment that attaches to this one.

One thing that is missing with this figure is his trade mark bag. I know the single carded figure gets one, but I would imagine to cut costs on the deluxe version they didn't include the bag.  Ironically, the deluxe version with the horse comes with the a bag (and painted gloved hands.)  At least they didn't try to include a bag that would hold the sandbag.

While the sculpting on the body on this figure isn't quite up to the best of the Star Wars releases we've seen, it's not the worst either.  I would imagine sculpting a guy in leather jacket and khakis is easier than a creature like Hermi Odle. 

I have to say, I saw one of the single carded Indy's in the store with a holster that could hold his revolver, and I much prefer this one.  The oversized "functioning' holster just looks too cartoony. 

While the body sculpting is decent, the face went horribly wrong.  It's almost like they sent a picture of Harrison Ford's stuntman to make him from.  Maybe it's from years of looking at vintage Han Solo figures, but I like the vintage likeness a bit better (See bottom picture). 

The head paint aps are a mixed bag as well.  I thought the maybe the freakishly big whites on his eyes, throwing his face off.  When I Photoshopped them down a bit, it didn't get any better.  (The digitally changed one is on the right.)  One thing I was impressed with was the beard.  It's subtle and looks about right for a figure of this size.  It's a far cry from the Vintage Indy in German Disguise. 

The body paint is a mixed bag as well.  The layering of color on the jacket is good approximation of worn leather.  The hands peeking out of the sleeves are painted to the edge of the cuff.  No sloppy wrist paint is an advantage of cut wrists, which this figure doesn't have.

I don't know if it's weathering or not, but there's some stains on the front of his shirt that look like my shirt does after eating a Klondike bar.  I haven't seen another of these to compare and see if it's on all of them yet.  But, I'd check out the paint if you're going to pick this guy up.

Overall, this figure looks enough like Indy to be recognizable.  However, the colors seem a bit off.  The pictures of the Raider's jacket I've seen lean more towards black than the full brown of this one.  Also, Indiana's pants seem too dark.  I actually think the color scheme of the vintage Indy figure might be a tad closer. But, then again, I always thought Han had a blue coat on Hoth.

Since Indy is bit under-articulated, the main piece of this the temple trap base.  Does it make up for no knees wrist or ankles.  Well, maybe. 

The idol sits on it's pedestal in the middle of some floor tiles.  On each end of the base is a spooky carved Mayan-esque face.  Remove the idol incorrectly and it snaps shut.  In this case, the sandbag is not the key.  Turn the pedestal base and you can lock the faces down.  Replacing the idol re-arms the trap. 

The pedestal is probably the closest part of the base to the film.  A little HO scale lichen on this would improve it's look.  That's where the similarity to the film ends.  There were obviously no carved heads on the floor.  While the green tiles are approximately the correct shape for the ones that trigger the deadly wall darts, the rest of the tiles don't follow the floor pattern in the film.  They also included a skull and some bones on the base, which I don't recall from the film.

As with most playsets, scale is a factor with this one.  The pedestal goes to Indy's knees.  It should be a bit wider and come to about to his waist.

The idol is off as well.  And that's not including the freakishly long trigger post that makes this idol useless for any other display.  Time to put those engineer skills to use.  To be in scale with this idol, Indy would need to be about six inches tall.  I based this on Mr. Ford being 6'1" at the time of Raiders and the dimension of the idol found in Lucasfilms archive book.  The form of the idol seems off as well.  It's a bit too narrow compared to it's height.  Remember, in the film, Belloq palms the idol when he raises it in the air.

Indy's accessories don't fair much better.  His pistol does have a painted handle, but in his hands looks like a Dirty Harry gun.  It's just too big.  On a side note, I wonder if we'll ever see Indy with the automatic pistol he had in Nepal.  Which in itself is odd, because he packs a revolver when he's talking to Brody.

The whip due to the packaging is misshapen.  It's also an incredible pain in the butt to get free.  I'm not intending to use it, so I'm not going to worry a lot about it.  It seems out of scale as well.  I'd guess the string used for the vintage Indy's weapon was closer.

Lastly, there's a sandbag to place on the pedestal.  I've never been able to figure that one out.  I've got a resin replica of the idol, and it weighs a good amount.  If the idol was solid, there's no way he came close to having enough sand in it, even before he takes some out.  The bag itself is okay, but again, the scale seem on the big side.  It fit in his bag of tricks, remember?