Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- Crystal Skeleton with Throne mail away exclusive figure review.

Well hot damn, was that a long title or what?

After what seemed like an eternity (I sent away for this back in October you know) only to be told that I was to wait even longer (see earlier post about this) well FINALLY have the damn thing in my dirty mitts.

Before I jump into the figure itself just let me say this: Hasbro deserves some mega praise on their packaging. Unlike the old days of mail-aways, where the damn figure came shipped in a plain brown box… as if it was porn or something… sheesh. Reminiscent of the crates from the warehouse seen in at the end of Raiders and the beginning of Crystal Skull, the figure is shipped marked ‘property of Dr. Jones.’ It’s a nice touch and to top it off the box is extremely collector friendly as it’s easy to remove the figure and return it without damaging the box.


the figure itself, which lacks any paint apps. whatsoever, is quite a sight. Cast in blue tinted cleat plastic it had this toy collector’s attention right away. What can I say? I’m a sucker for both clear plastic figures AND skeletons. If you haven’t seen the movie yet then is may be a bit of a spoiler… but the eponymous skull goes to a nice shiny crystal skeleton, which later turns into an alien that vaporizes Cate Blanchett as he and his flying saucer take off.

GET THAT? Yeah, try not to think about it.

Back to the point. The skeleton sports a decent sculpt, though it comes off a bit ‘soft’ in the detail dept and the skull is a bit undersized from the monster we had in the flick. To be fair it’s been awhile since I’ve watched the flick and it is a skeleton. Articulation is shockingly above average as the clear bastard sports the following: Cut neck (might be a ball joint but it’s extremely tight) ball jointed shoulders and hips, swivel elbows, waist and get this: double jointed knees! Fuckers! We can get it on a 4 and half inch Indy figure (who never moved in the movie!) but their Marvel Legends line doesn’t? This just isn’t right man… OK glad to have gotten that out. The articulation is a nice bonus for a character that Hasbro could’ve easily have gotten away with making a statue out of. Word of warning – the plastic is a bit on the flimsy side so be careful moving him around, and while it can be done – I suggest keeping his head attached, as Wug will attest.

Rounding out the set is the skeleton’s throne. Yup it would seem that in alien spaceships, and no I don’t care about spoilers anymore. It’s in the video stores dammit! RENT IT! Anyways, for whatever reason his spaceship’s seat looks a helluva lot like a typical looking Mexican or South American piece of sculpting. It seems a bit small, but like I said it’s been awhile since I watched the damn movie… so take that as you will; as it is he fits fairly well in it, so it’s possible scale issue can be considered mute. It’s fairly well detailed and painted in a gold with what is either watered out red or copper over-wash. It’s a good piece but it would’ve benefited with the addition of a black over-wash to bring out the cracks in order to show some of the weathering and age.

So how’s he stack up? Overall?

In comparison to the rather mediocre Indiana Jones line, now appearing at clearance aisles nation-wide, this figure is a stand out. However that sadly isn’t saying much, that being said it is a nice little figure on it’s own. It’s a shame that this wasn’t released as part of the main line rather than as a exclusive. Perhaps had things been done differently maybe, just maybe, this line might’ve lasted a tiny bit longer whereas the reality being the line tanked due to a slew of boring character selections… but that’s a rant for another time.