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Packaging - ****
If you like the Sideshow Star Wars boxes, you'll love these as
well. Magnetic closures, lots of great background text, nice
graphic design, and completely collector friendly. You'll be able
to take it all out and put it back later any time you feel like it, no
damage done.
Sculpting - ***1/2
This is one of the nicest Indy sculpts we've gotten. I don't know
what it is about Ford as Jones, but he's one Hell of a hard likeness to
capture. However, this time it's near perfect. There
are two portraits, one with the hat permanently sculpted on his head,
one without. That's a smart move, since it's nearly impossible to
sculpt a hat to proper size AND make it removable. The two heads
look identical to me, with the obvious exception of the hat. Indy has a
stern but un-constipated look, as though he's seriously considering his
options to get out of his current dilemma. There are also a
whopping four sets of hands. Two sets are fists, two sets are
gripping. The difference between the like sets is the addition of
sculpted/painted gloves. The sculpts work well on all eight hands, and
they are soft enough to work with the weapons, yet not so soft that
they drop them easily.
Paint - ***
Unfortunately, the excellent sculpt isn't held up by excellent paint.
It's good, it's solid, it's just not excellent. The work we
saw on the recent Clone armor Obi-wan was excellent, and even Gandalf
was nearly perfect. Unfortunately, Indy has a few issues. Sideshow
is going with unpainted skin on their recent heads, with the plastic
cast in a skin tone. This is a technique that Hot Toys has used
with great success at times. It worked well for Sideshow on
Obi-Wan, but here the plastic is a bit too shiny and obvious The
hair and hairline is good, but the facial hair is probably his biggest
issue. They went for stubble, but they missed it by *that much*.
Fortunately, the eyebrows, eyes and lips help make up for it a bit. He
does have the catch lights painted on, although they are getting
smaller every release. Perhaps they'll get so small they simply
disappear at some point. There's a nice gloss on the eyes and
lips, but the slightly glossy skin hurts the effect a bit. The
other paint issue is with the gloved hands. They are trying to
simulated leather gloves, but the paint work isn't quite there. There's
just a bit too much of the dark brown highlights to look quite right.
Articulation - **1/2
The biggest disappointment here is the Prometheus body. This body is
intended to bring Sideshow into the 21st Century in articulation, and I
think it can...if they can get past some of the current manufacturing
difficulties. You
may recall that I didn't have the issues with the joints being weak and
floppy on Obi-Wan that others did. They were a little loose, but I had
no problems posing him, and getting him to hold those poses for long
periods. Oddly enough, my issues with this body aren't quite the same
as I've heard from others either. Most folks have had lots of
trouble with the hips being loose, but I think had one of mine not
BROKEN, I would have had just as much luck with him as I did Obi-Wan.
Yes, the hips were a little loose, but I could still get him into deep
stances and keep him there without the need for a stand. You
might assume that my number one issue with the body is that it
broke, and you'd be almost right. Yep, I find it extremely
annoying when something like this breaks right out of the package, and
I'll be calling Sideshow tomorrow to get a replacement. However,
I had two other major issues that annoyed me as much or more.
While my hips weren't that loose, the neck was terrible! His head
flopped around like an old rag doll. It was particularly a problem for
the hatted head, since the extra weight caused it to fall forward
constantly. Now THAT was annoying.
I also found that the hands, which are designed to pull out of the
wrists, actually popped off the short wrist peg too easily, leaving the
long peg in the arm. The tiny, short peg that fits into the hand wasn't
able to keep it on, and in fact, the hands tended to fall off when
posing. Many of these
issues are manufacturing problems, not design flaws. Sideshow appears
to have a well designed body here, they just need to get the kinks
worked out. The question is, will collectors give them time? There
is one issue that the Prometheus seems to have that IS a design
problem. The shoulders are more narrow than the Buck (and the TrueType
as well), and I wasn't thrilled with the fit of the jacket because of
it. Accessories - ****
Ah, now here's a category where I can't complain. Yep, this guy
wasn't cheap at $90, but you get a treasure trove of extras. I
already mentioned the second head, as well as the 3 extra sets of
hands. There's also two whips, one coiled to wear on his belt, the
other uncoiled to be used in various whipping poses. There's a
strong wire that runs the length of this uncoiled whip, giving you a
tremendous amount of posing potential. There's also two guns, one
his standard revolver, the other the semi-automatic he acquires. The
revolver is sculpted with the hammer back, and the cylinder can pop out
to the side. The gun is already fully loaded as well! The pistol
has a removable clip, too. Both guns are excellent sculpts, and
Sideshow is second to none right now in weapons. Indy also had
the gold Fertility Idol. It's made from a lightweight plastic, so
it's easier for him to carry than the all metal one we got from Gentle
Giant. It's slightly smaller too, and this slightly smaller size seems
about right. What good would the idol be without the bag of sand
to swap for it? The bag is all one solid sculpted piece, and can
be held in any one of his gripping hands. There's a loose fedora
as well. Both hats have extremely well done sculpts, right out of
ROTLA. I consulted with my nephew Guy, a complete Indy nut, on the
costume, and he raved about the corners and blocking on the hat.
The loose version even has a cloth interior! The paint
leaves a little to be desired though, but they did try to give it a bit
of weathering and dirt. Let's not forget his man purse, the bag
he used to carry his loot. This one has two magnetic closures,
making it very easy to open and close. That's quite a bit of
stuff, but if you bought the exclusive, you also got the unlit torch
and dart. The torch and dart are right out of the opening sequence of
Indy, and make for a nice exclusive item - something cool, yet not
necessary. The dart fits in the side of the torch, but it's a tighter
fit than it should be. Take care when inserting it to avoid
breakage.
Outfit - ***1/2
The outfit consists of the pants, shirt, jacket, belt, holster/belt, and boots. There's
been much talk about the jacket. This figure was billed as a Raiders
Indy, but the jacket isn't pure Raiders, but more of a compilation. I
asked my nephew again to give me his opinion, as he is far, far more
acquainted with the various jackets than I. He felt that the
length was very much in line with ROTLA, but the larger pockets are
more in line with Last Crusade. The larger collar with pointed
ends is more like Temple of Doom, and the simulated snaps on the zipper
cover are also from Last Crusade. You have to keep in mind that
the jacket went through lots of changes, and the original Raiders
jacket ended up in all kinds of rights ownership Hell between Lucas,
the costume designer, and the company that manufactured them. I suspect
that this compilation version was what Lucas wanted for licensing
purposes. All that aside, the jacket really is nicely done.
The soft fake leather material is extremely thin, nothing like
the pleather Sideshow used in the past. It has a lining sewn in
as well, and the zipper, while non-working, is perfectly in scale. It
even has the pleated back! My big complaint though is the two
straps in back. These are done in a completely different material
than the jacket, that's not even remotely close in color. I have no
idea what they were thinking on that one. The pants fit well, and
have some dirt added around the knees. The main belt is the old
Boy Scout style, while the belt for the holster is the usual fake
leather. The holster itself looks a bit oversized, but the gun fits in
quite well, so I can only complain so much. I do wish it had a
magnetic closure though, instead of the hole and button type. I suspect
this one will break with time. The loop for his whip does have a
magnetic closure though, and it works fairly well at keeping the coiled
whip in place. Both the holster and loop can be positioned any where
you'd like on the belt, and this second belt is long enough to allow
you to put the holster far enough down on his hip to be out of the way
of his jacket. The shirt looks fine, but it is missing a button
in front. This is one of those Sideshow shirts with the elastic strap
that wraps around his crotch, keeping the shirt tucked in and in place. The
boots are even nicer than the jacket, since they don't have any weirdly
colored straps. The sculpt is dead on to the Alden shoes, right down to
the swoop cut in the soles.
Fun Factor - **1/2
If Indy didn't break a hip on me right out of the package (are we sure
this isn't the KOTCS Indy?), he would have been a whole lot more fun.
Even then though, the floppy neck would frustrate most kids
pretty quickly, even if they are just trying to pose him on their Indy
shelf.
Value - **1/2
I'm giving this guy an average value score, something that won't effect
my overall one way or the other. That's because although he's
$90, you can see where the money went in the excellent outfit and
accessories.
Things
to Watch Out For -
If you have the exclusive version, take extra care putting the dart in the torch.
Also,
there's a special rubber ring that fits inside the heads, over the neck
post. If it pops off when you initially remove the head, you'll
need to get some tweezers or needle nose pliers to pull it out and put
back for the other head to fit.
Overall - ***1/2
I waffled around a bit on this figure...first three stars, then three and a half. The
big negative here is the kinks with the new Prometheus body. Once the
manufacturing problems get worked out, Sideshow could have a very nice
replacement for the Buck, but until they do, Hot Toys TrueType and
Medicom's RAH are still going to be superior. I'm also not thrilled with the overall paint work. Both the head and the glove hands really need some extra attention. However,
the underlying head sculpt is great, and I'm betting we see some
amazing repaints of this guy. He also has a fantastic outfit and a
plethora of excellent accessories, making the $90 price tag all that
much more palatable. I was really hoping for a four star figure
here, perhaps the best 12" figure of the year. He's the best Indy
I've seen, but both the Gandalf and Obi-Wan that Sideshow recently
released are better than this figure, and they still have a ways to go
to topple figures like the Bank Robber Joker from the top of the pile.
Score Recap:
Packaging - ****
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ***
Articulation - **1/2
Accessories - ****
Outfit - ***1/2
Fun Factor - **1/2
Value - **1/2
Overall - ***1/2
Where to Buy -
You can check out one of these fine sponsors to pick them up:
- Sideshow has both the regular
and exclusive wait listed right now.
- Dark Shadow
has the regular for $82.
- CornerStoreComics
has it for $90.
- or you can search ebay using
the sponsor MyAuctionLinks.
Related Links -
There's been a ton of
product this year:
- there was the recent Medicom Professor Jones Sr.
- one of my favorite new Indy
collectibles is the Mighty Muggs from Hasbro, and I've reviewed waves 1, and 2. Of course,
they've already been canceled.
- for the sixth scale
collectors, I recently checked out the Hasbro
mail away Ark.
- on the cute side, check out the Adventure Heroes.
- then there's the Kotobukiya Indy and Professor Jones Sr,
the Blockbuster exclusive DVD case,
the 12" German and Cairo
Swordsman, as well as both 12"
Hasbro Indy's.
- in the smaller scale, I looked
at some of the deluxe two
packs and several of the single
pack figures, with a few more over at QSE. |
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