Whoo hoo! In the wake of all the dreadful news about the Indy line, I had a little good news this week - receipt of the wonderful "Temple of Doom" wave.
If this is indeed the last wave of this line we will see, Hasbro certainly went out with a bang, as this is collectively an absolutely outstanding wave of figures!
Many forum members have already posted in-hand pics and I will endeavor to do the same. Additionally, a nice visual guide can be found here -
http://www.wellofthesouls.com/TOD/index.html#
On with the review!
Indiana Jones
Many people think this figure has the best headsculpt of them all. I'm not entirely sold on that, but it is a great sculpt, robust and sporting clear, solid features not like some muddled, indistinct faces we sometimes get. Certainly far superior to the ROTLA basic figure.
I think he bears a closer resemblance to Bruce Willis rather than Harrison Ford, but it's a very good head nevertheless.
Indy appears as he did near the end of the movie, so there are some great details here, like the fragment of cloth (from his shirt?) that is wrapped around his right hand, along with tears in his shirt on the back from when Mola Ram's goon tore into him with his own whip.
There are sweat stains around the front of his shirt where it is open on his chest, a tear in his pants on the left leg and some other nice texturing and details. He is also very muscular, particularly his right arm, which, true to the end of the film, has no sleeve.
This Indy feels a little bigger than the other figures. Compared to TLC Indy, he stands about a quarter of a head higher, but his stance his less wide than most Indies so maybe they are roughly the same height if they were standing in the same manner. He definitely just seems like a slightly bigger guy in this version, though.
There are a few minor details to nitpick - the handle of his coiled whip is not painted a darker color like in the other version of the figure. I'm not sure which is more "screen accurate", but I do miss that detail.
Indy's shoulder back in this version has an awesome added feature - the bag itself opens revealing two Sanakra stones sculpted inside. Sadly, they are not removable, but this is as close to a properly scaled set of stones that we're going to find. I just love this extra feature!
However, to nitpick again, the strap on the bag itself is shorter than in other versions and I think it makes the bag hang a little too high.
Indy's bag should rest well below his belt line, but in this case, the top of the bag is just a little higher than his belt/waist, which feels off. A minor detail, but it bugs me just a little bit.
The articulation is everything you could ask for. He's SA with the exception of his right wrist. Given that his entire right arm is exposed, I don't really blame them for not putting in a cut wrist here. It would have been nice, but it's a forgivable oversight.
In terms of accessories, Indy comes with the aforementioned bag, coiled whip (no unfurled whip in the entire wave, but I think we all have enough by this point anyway) and his machete/sword. The sword feels just a teensy bit too short, but it's a cool weapon and he looks good holding it.
His relic is a very nice looking miniature Easter Island head which I like quite a lot.
Though I am also a big fan of the LC Indy, I think this one is probably the best Indy we have seen all around.
Willie Scott
Willie is a very lovely figure but she doesn't have a great deal of play value. While her head sculpt doesn't bear a great deal of resemblance to Kate Capshaw, it is nevertheless a very pretty, attractive face.
Sculpted into her curly-ish blonde hair are some nicely painted pieces of jewelry and her head is topped off with a great looking flowing softgoods veil which reaches almost all the way down to the ground. Maybe it's a bit on the long side, but it looks lovely.
Around her neck, Willie wears a lei and an elaborate, attractive and well-painted necklace. If you take her head off her neck peg, it is easy to remove the lei. The necklace can also be removed, though I would caution against taking it off and putting it back on too much, it will probably stress the necklace (given its snug fit) if it's abused too much.
Removing the lei and necklace exposes her rather impressive decolletage. In short, Willie has the finest breasts of any action figure since Aayla Secura - and maybe even better. Good work, Hasbro sculptors!
Below the waist, while the aesthetics of the figure are quite pleasing with a nice flowing skirt highlighted with silver ribbons, she comes up short in the articulation department.
She's really not far off from a "salt shaker", beneath her skirt her legs have zero articulation, not even ankles which would have helped her stand. It's a little tricky to get her to stand up straight. She can certainly rest on her skirt, but that gives her a little lean. It's a bit of an unfortunate shortcut. Knees would be superfluous given the rigid skirt, but ankles would have definitely helped.
Shortcuts are taken in her arms, as well, as she lacks wrist articulation on either arm and the wrists could easily have been hidden by the silver bracelets she wears.
My figure has an unfortunate extra swath of silver paint on her right forearm which I hope to remove, but fortunately the rest of her paint apps, on her eyes, face and even the tiny details in all her jewelry, is terrific. I'm very impressed with the necklace in particular and the silver jewelry "strings" in her hair. The painting on these extremely fine details is very, very clean.
In terms of accessories, she only comes with a small dagger and her relic, which is a large diamond of some kind. I personally find the oversized relics to be annoying and useless and this is, thankfully, the only dud in the wave. On its own, it looks nice, better than the Peacock's Eye diamond, thanks to a nice blue hue, but I have no real use for it.
In summation, she is a very beautiful figure with lots of fine detailing, but she definitely has limited play value. She is pretty scene-specific as well, her complete look representing her appearance just prior to her aborted sacrifice in Kali's lava pit.
Short Round
Though small in stature - and maybe just a little bit smaller than the character should be, Short Round is a fun figure, though not the best looking one in the bunch.
The sculpt is decent enough, but the face lacks the cuteness of the character. In my version, the face also has a few tiny hairline fractures here and there in the plastic which make it look just a touch weirder at very close distances.
Shorty is nearly super-articulated. His wrists are not articulated and his ankles swivel, but are not ball jointed.
His body sculpting and painting is good, but not extraordinary. He lacks the super cool details that Indy and Willie have, but that's partly due to the costume and partly due to the size of the figure. The plaid pattern on his jacket, however, is impressive.
The hat, sporting, alas, not the complete logo of the NY Giants, looks very spiffy.
Truthfully, though I like the character and I'm glad he was made, he's probably the least exciting character in the bunch. Nice, but not spectacular.
Short Round comes with the same dagger Willie does along with a rolled up bunch of "gear." In the movie, when Shorty escapes from the Thuggee chain gang, he brings this bundle with him when he finds Indy again in the temple.
The bundle presumably contains Indy's hat, which Shorty returns to him, though that's not visible here, along with Indy's jacket and tux which Willie was wearing earlier. Wrapped around it is the whip and Shorty can wear the bundle around his neck and over his back as he did in the film.
Shorty also comes with a very cool torch, handy for snapping your friends out of the Black Sleep of Kali. This is the one which was scheduled to be included with Sapito, which sadly won't happen. A very great accessory, much needed for the Indiana Jones universe and different from the torch included with the Sallah figure.
Shorty's relic is another winner, a miniature statue of Anubis. Perhaps it's supposed to be a mini version of the massive statues from the Well of Souls, as its arms are raised as if it's holding something up. Very cool nevertheless.
