Hooray for talking Indy!

During a trip to Walmart, I gave my son the choice of which 12" Indy figure I was going to purchase. I wanted the Swordsman, he wanted talking Indy. He won out. I brought Indy home and my son sat and hit the talking button until he heard all the phrases. That's the best part of this figure.
I scraped together some new clothes and set him next to my own custom Indy. Poor fella, I thought, he just can't hold a match to my Indy.
After a few days, I noticed that he wasn't that bad. Okay, he is still funny looking. The hat sculpt is a mess. The idol and the holster are still oversized.
But he does talk and he has this Clint Howard/ Ron Howard charm going for him with my Indy.
So hooray for talking Indy!

I reserve the right to change my mind later on....

He looks like Danny Devito next to the others.
But at least your son is playing with him... Start them young. My two-year old (next month) daughter loves R2.

I liked the talking Indy too. Sure it's not high-end, but it's a damn fun toy. "No ticket!"

Too bad that rubber will likely rot off his face in no time.

What's Indy say?

And is it Harrison?

Wor-Gar said:

What's Indy say?

And is it Harrison?

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It's Ford, the lines are taken straight from the movie.

I don't remember all the lines off the top of my head (he says quite a few), but here's some of 'em.

"Fortune and glory kid. Fortune and glory."

"Why'd it have to be snakes."

"Archeology is the search for facts." (you can actually hear the chalk hitting the board from that scene)

"That's why they call it the jungle, sweetheart."

And of course, "No ticket!"

Its definitely sounds like him for the most part... a few lines sound like someone else, but I think that might just be a problem from when the pulled the voice from the audio tracks.

It's lines of dialogue ripped directly from all 3 previous films.

(BTW, I already pulled the eletronics out of mine and I'm currently figuring out to McGyver it into my Sideshow Indy when it comes)

IrishJedi said:

It's lines of dialogue ripped directly from all 3 previous films.

(BTW, I already pulled the eletronics out of mine and I'm currently figuring out to McGyver it into my Sideshow Indy when it comes)

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That's what I'd like to do. Only tricky part is figuring out how to put a "button" on him to activate it without having a big trigger.

Maybe a wire running into his jacket pocket -- 'just squeeze' kind of thing.

How big is the electronic voice chip plus speaker?

Wor-Gar said:

That's what I'd like to do. Only tricky part is figuring out how to put a "button" on him to activate it without having a big trigger.

Maybe a wire running into his jacket pocket -- 'just squeeze' kind of thing.

How big is the electronic voice chip plus speaker?

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It's pretty small. And the activiation switch isn't that big, either. The trickiest part will be finding an alternative power source than the AA batteries (or finding somewhere to put those). I'm on the case.

IrishJedi said:

It's pretty small. And the activiation switch isn't that big, either. The trickiest part will be finding an alternative power source than the AA batteries (or finding somewhere to put those). I'm on the case.

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Include directions... and a blueprint.

I'm sorry, but...is that...

Is that a Harrison Ford in "Witness" custom I see?

Don't get me wrong, "Witness" is a great movie. I just don't think I've ever seen a custom John Book before. Cool.

Yep, that's my custom John Book. I also made a Harrison ford custom as Col. Mike Barnesby from the "Guns of Navarone 2." That will get changed eventually.

The talking Indy looks like he's just been punched in the mouth and is getting ready to spit out his teeth.

A decent figure for the young fan...


For the price point and the purpose, I think this is a pretty good figure. The "talking" feature works well (although the "working" mouth is a little creepy looking), the outfit looks good and has hearty construction, the accessories are well done and the packaging is handsome and collector-friendly (easy-lift lid,more rubber bands, just one wire)...in fact, the only "break" in packaging required is cutting the blister to get the idol.
Is the likeness good? I'd say good enough for the target audience for this figure (kids)...the head is a little too wide (probably to accommodate the mechanics underneath)but it looks like the character. The body is okay... a little limited in articulation, but again...good enough for a young fan to have fun with.

I've got Sideshow's version on order...but until then, this one is fine...but when Sideshow shows up, this decent figure is off to my young nephew...hopefully to spark his interest in 1:6 fun and collecting...

Good job, Hasbro!

The annoying thing to me is that they only include the idol and leather jacket with this version and not the whipping Indy with the better sculpt.

A little OT, but I would just like to add that I popped the head off Whip Action Indy last night, stripped the factory paint off, and sprayed a coat of primer on. I have to say the sculpt is not bad at all. I'm honing my painting skills and I thought this would make a great project to keep me busy until Sideshow Indy ships. But I have to give it to Hasbro, these are great toys.

WIP

Hasbro has taken a beating from collector's over the years, a beating that they have deserved to a certain extent. I mean, sure, they didn't set out to please the adult collectors with the 12" line, but alot of their tactics were lame & repetitive. As a customizer, I've enjoyed Hasbro's figures over the years alot more than I would if I was just a collector. I enjoy the challenge & I enjoyed having customizing parts options with the figures..well.. up until the point that they started re-using so many parts & when they started all the molded-on clothing crap.

Sure, it's fun to say that the Talking Indy looks like Emilio Estevez, Treat Williams or even the evil sensei of the Kobra-Kai in Karate Kid but that's simply because it's Hasblow and their track record has been sketchy for quite a while now. Really, it's not that bad (I want to repaint his eyes and see if that helps any, he looks cross-eyed & goofy a bit), it still looks like Indy. For me, I was very excited to see 12" figures back on store shelves. It's nice to again have affordable customizing fodder without paying all those outrageous shipping charges. Even better, I actually like the figures. The whipping action Indy sculpt actually blew me away & looked way better than the proto I had seen before. It looks to me like the sculptor took some inspiration from the Arnie Kim sculpt. I also like that they are making some collector-friendly packaging. I gotta give Hasbro some credit for these figures, I haven't been this impressed with Hasbro since Ultimate Jango & Dooku. More importanly, it's nice to think of a new generation of kids being able to have Indy figures instead of just Dragonball Z, Naruto, Pokemon and any of the other imported force-fed mass-marketing nonsense.

There are some things that I don't like, but at their pricepoint I won't bust their balls too much (I do hate the drawn-on details on the shirt!). So far, I bought 3 of the 12" figures (Talking Indy, Whipping Indy & Cairo Swordsman) I used parts from all 3 to make one nice Indy (used the SA body from the swordsman). The leftover parts went into my parts drawer & once I buy one more figure, I'll have enough stamps for the Ark, so I'm happy. I'm trying to decide if I want to repaint the whole figure & weather it, etc. Maybe sometime in the future.


I wish Hasbro would actually make a small series of high-end figures along the lines of Sideshow's stuff. The Super-articulated body could be nice with some tweaking (it needs to be taller & they desperately need new handsculpts) Imagine a whipping Indy sculpt on a refined SA Hasbro body with clothing similar to the Relic Hunter figure...that would be a pretty nice looking high-end figure and could go for at least $65-$75.

die said:

I wish Hasbro would actually make a small series of high-end figures along the lines of Sideshow's stuff. The Super-articulated body could be nice with some tweaking (it needs to be taller & they desperately need new handsculpts) Imagine a whipping Indy sculpt on a refined SA Hasbro body with clothing similar to the Relic Hunter figure...that would be a pretty nice looking high-end figure and could go for at least $65-$75.

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You just described the SSC figure. Mission accomplished.

Actually, The SSC figure is $90 plus whatever shipping costs are (probably over the $100 mark, right? I'm not going to find it locally). What I was suggesting was something a little cheaper & more available like at Wal Marts, Targets & TRU's. I'm interested in getting 12" figures back on store shelves & saving those hundreds of extra bucks I kick out for overpriced shipping & handling fees.

I just used Indy as an example of what Hasbro "could do", but I still wouldn't mind a high-end Hasbro Indy. I like the fact that there are more options for Indy stuff these days & I still enjoy my custom Indy as well as my new Hasbro Indys. Oh, and I'll get the SSC figures/PF one day too.

Stores like Wal-Mart, Target, and TRU are not interested in carrying 12" figures in the price-range you're talking about. It's either high-end 1/6 figures online or under $20 cheapies at mass retail.