The packaging for the Indy line is downright fantastic. The figures came on simple generic cards, but boy are they gorgeous. You got the iconic logo and Indy’s mug on every card with an illustrated whip snaking around the bubble. Each card uses a simple insert in the bubble to identify the figure and the film it’s based on. The bubbles are nice and big with room to show off the figure, often in a bit of an action pose, all the accessories, and the cardboard crate that included the “hidden artifact.” It’s unlike me to have a lot of carded figures from any line, but as it so happened it was cheaper to buy a whole case of figures to get the scarce Temple of Doom wave then it was to actually by those figures on Ebay, so I’ve got a number of these things kicking around.

First up, let’s look at Indy from Raiders of the Lost Ark. He’s in the iconic outfit with a jacket that consists of a rubber vest with the arms sculpted to look like the jacket’s sleeves. It works pretty well and looks fine. The fedora is sculpted onto his head, which also looks fine, but unfortunately limits the display value. The head sculpt is ok, not great, but I guess it’s passable for a figure in the scale. The biggest issue I have with this figure (and I do mean BIGGEST) is the massive holster on his belt. It was a good try on Hasbro’s part to give us a working holster with a flap, but it just doesn’t work on a figure in this scale. It looks ridiculous and spoils the figure. The accessories include a revolver that fits in the massive holster, a coiled whip which can be hooked on his belt, an uncoiled whip, and the Fertility Idol. The uncoiled whip is a great reason to own this figure, as most of the other Indys only came with the coiled one. The Fertility Idol is no slouch either. But thanks to that damn holster, this is not the definitive Indy you want in your collection.

Next, let’s jump ahead to Indy from The Last Crusade. He’s still in his iconic outfit with the same type of jacket sculpt and the fedora is still sculpted onto his head. The head sculpt on this one is marginally better and the paint on mine is pretty good, especially on the eyes. The big difference here is the chest sculpt, as he’s wearing a tie under the sculpted strap for his satchel. You’ll notice that the big holster issue has been fixed, and the figure looks a lot better for it. Besides, this figure doesn’t come with a revolver anyway. He does come with an MP-40 submachine gun and a coiled whip, which can be hooked onto his belt. I like this one much better than the Raiders Indy, it’s definitely a nice figure, but he’s lacking the basics in accessories and the tie is a little too scene specific to make him my go to Indy.

Jumping back to The Temple of Doom, we get the first major variant Indy. He’s missing his jacket, his outfit is shredded and he’s all beat to hell. It’s certainly not an Indy figure for all occasions, but it sure fits the character’s appearance by the end of the second film. There’s some really nice sculpting on this guy, like the bandages on his hand, the Sankara Stones inside the satchel, and the shredded fabric of his shirt. Once again, the fedora is sculpted onto his head and the head sculpt is about on par with the Last Crusade Indy. Not bad, certainly passable. This time around, Indy comes with a coiled whip and his machete. The machete is pretty soft and prone to warping, but it straightens out pretty well.

For figure number four, we appropriately come to the fourth film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and another one of the major variants. It’s Indy without his jacket as seen during the jungle chase. For the first time, we’ve got an Indy without his fedora sculpted to his head. In fact, this figure doesn’t come with one at all. The sculpt is pretty nice, though, with a lot of good detail in his outfit and a pretty good head sculpt to boot, complete with peppered gray in his hair to show off that this is geriatric Indy. This version comes with a coiled whip to hook onto his belt and the Soviet-issue rocket launcher.

And that brings us to my favorite 3 3/4″ Indy of the line, and yes he’s from The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull assortment. Now, I don’t have the same hate for the fourth film that a lot of people do, but it is at the bottom of my list. [It’s actually second to bottom on my list as it can boast being 100 percent Willie Scott free. -FF]  But the reason I like this figure so much is that it’s still the best generic and iconic Indy of the bunch. The sculpting on the jacket is easily my favorite of all the figures, and the huge revolver holster problem has been fixed. But best of all, the fedora is actually removable on this figure, which gives him a wide number of options for display. Yes, he’s got the older head sculpt with the grey hair, but then that could just be dust from all the tombs he’s crawling through. This version of Indy came with a coiled whip, a revolver, and a swappable left hand holding the Crystal Skull. The torch in the picture wasn’t included.

That’s not to say that these are all the Indy figures that Hasbro’s 3 3/4″ line had to offer. Indy was also packaged several times over in the Deluxe Assortment. Two of these figures included the traditional version with a little playset featuring some sort of trap to navigate. The other two? Well, we’re going to check out those tomorrow.

Its sad but true, there’s still fallout from Hasbro’s Indiana Jones toyline kicking around if you know where to look. I never saw one of these things at retail during the toyline’s lifespan, and then all of the sudden I stumble upon two of them at Ross’ toy graveyard for about seven bucks each. I was pretty excited to find it, because besides that elusive Vogel figure, this Troop Car was the last piece I needed to complete my collection. Couldn’t find it anywhere, now I have two. It never rains, but it pours.

The Troop Car is one of three larger vehicles released in the IJ toyline. The others included the German Cargo Truck from Raiders and the Soviet Jungle Cutter from Crystal Skull. The packaging is really sweet, and while they look like normal boxes, the inside trays actually convert to some cool little dioramas, provided you’re willing to trash the box to get it. The artwork on the boxes is somewhat reminiscent of the old Kenner line, only with a cool action packed illustration on the front and the toy images on the back, showing off the various features. In addition to the truck, you get three oil drums, a breakaway barricade, and a missile for the machine gun.

The toy itself is not as detailed as the Cargo Truck or the Jungle Cutter. Its a nice piece, but it just looks somewhat lacking. Some weathered paint apps or a sticker sheet would have gone a long way to helping it along, but then let’s remember that swastikas are a no-no. Still, what’s here gets the job done. There’s a spare tire mounted on the back, a decent looking grill and headlights on the front. The floor and runningboards are textured, there’s a clear windshield, steering wheel, and even a stick shift for the manual tranny.

The toy rolls really well and you can get it up to a good enough speed to really smash through the barricade and barrels. The machine gun on the back rotates and has a pegged platform to hold a figure. It also shoots a missile. Granted, that’s about all this thing does, but you can really load it up with figures. In addition to the gunner, there’s room for four figures on the seats and another four pegged on the runningboards. If you’re like me and acquired quite a few German soldiers from this line, you’ll have plenty of space for them on this ride.

My one big gripe with this toy is that the windshield and rollbar are made of soft rubbery plastic. I suppose its less likely to break, but if you store your car in the box, make sure its sitting upright or else you’ll get a little warpage like on mine. Thankfully it can be straightened out with a little patience and effort.

Overall, the Troop Car takes a backseat to the Cargo Truck as my favorite toy of the line, but then the Cargo Truck is work of art that’s hard to beat. This thing is not too shabby, though, and when you get past the fact that its a little bland, its actually a lot of fun. The bonus accessories are really cool and make great additions to display with the Cargo Truck and Motorcycle as well.