The vehicle comes boxed in a great looking package with the traditional Indiana Jones style deco and a great art rendering of this rather unique looking vehicle in action. The back panel shows off a photo of the toy itself and points out some of its features. As with all three of the vehicles in the line, the box is designed to convert into a diorama, along with a bonus fold up cargo crate, which is a great little bonus if you’re willing to mangle the box, which I am not, as the box is otherwise fairly collector friendly. The toy comes with the two blades detached and you can easily take them off again to fit it back into the box for storage.

Basically, the Jungle Cutter is a military-style tracked vehicle with a plow and two monstrous circular saw blades on the front. The treads are molded and the vehicle rolls along on wheels that are concealed underneath. Rolling the vehicle along causes the front blades to spin, which is a pretty cool feature. The sculpting on this thing is really nicely done. There are a lot of panel lines and simulated hatches, including sculpted latters leading up to the control cabin. The front of the vehicle has two molded rollers with simulated grinding teeth to chop up whatever trees it sucks in and two chutes on the back to spit out the sawdust. All of the military markings and lettering are painted onto the toy and there are no stickers to be applied.

The control cabin has a seat that will fit most of 3 3/4″ figures, a control panel with levers and one side has a flexible plastic tarp with a window, while the other side has a molded rolled up tarp to allow for easy access.

The spinning blades are spattered with paint spray to simulate mud, as is the plow. The Jungle Cutter has one really weird action feature, where pressing one of the smokestacks will shoot the plow off like a missile. I’d like to think that this is some kind of misguided attempt to simulate the vehicle exploding, but more likely Hasbro intended it as some kind of goofy secret weapon. It’s all good, though. So long as you don’t hit the fire button by accident, you can pretend it doesn’t exist.

The Jungle Cutter retailed between $20-25 originally, which is about what Hasbro was asking for their Star Wars ehicles in this same size class. It’s not bad, as this is a good sized toy. Nowadays you can still pick it up in that price range from online retailers, or if you hunt hard enough, a lot less. The sculpt is very well done and I really like the way the blades spin when you push it. It’s certainly a cool and unique vehicle and considering its scale, it offers up all sorts of possibilities for customization across other lines. I can easily see Cobra modifying one of these things for some evil scheme of deforestation.

[And that wraps up Indiana Jones week. Obviously, this has been only a small portion of the line and its toys. I will most certainly be revisiting it again in the future to look at some more, but I want to get a few odds and ends in over the weekend before the new week starts on Monday. -FF.]

“Russians… I hate these guys.” Oh, wait, that was the Nazis. It’s kind of hard to hate on the Russians. I’ve devoted a great deal of my academic studies specializing in US and Russian relations and studying Russian history in general, and it’s tough not to be sympathetic toward them as a people. Bottom line, they don’t make great evil demons like the Nazis do. Nonetheless, considering the context in whichKingdom of the Crystal Skull took place, I think the Russians were a natural choice for the new baddies of the film, even if they couldn’t possibly manage to fill the Nazi’s jackboots. But enough about that, let’s look at the figures…

Ok, so Dovchenko wasn’t all that memorable a villain. He was certainly no Belloq and no Mola Ram. I guess he was at least on par with Vogel from Last Crusade, who was pretty forgettable himself. I’m guessing most people probably just came away remembering Dovchenko as the guy that got eaten alive by ants. Still, all in all I think Igor Jijikine (Russian character actor and sometimes video game voice contributor) did a fine job playing him. And honestly, I thought his “oh, for love of god, shut up!” line was probably the best in the movie. Although that might be saying more about the movie than the actual line.

Like a number of the Indy figures, Dovchenko’s sculpt is excellent from the neck down, but has some issues with his head. The head itself is pretty well done, and a fairly good likeness, but his sculpted officer’s cap is just way too big. It looks like Jiffy Pop is about to burst up through his head. Ok, maybe it’s not that bad, and in fairness it only looks really bad when staring at it from directly in front. The uniform is nicely recreated here and overall, I’m pretty fond of this figure even with his big hat. I would note that the sculpting on the sleeves does unfortunately inhibit the elbow joints quite a bit. Dovchenko came with an automatic pistol and an AK-47 with a collapsed stock. The AK-47 is a particularly nice accessory, complete with a detailed sculpt and paint apps for the wood.

Next up is Irina Spalko. I don’t really care for Cate Blanchett as an actress, and I really didn’t like this character in the film at all. Her Russian accent bothered me a lot more than Harrison Ford’s did in K-19, and that’s saying something considering all the flack poor Ford caught about that performance. Anyway, I couldn’t figure out whether Lucas and Spielberg were trying to make Spalko into some kind of sexy femme fatale, but with that bizarre Romulan haircut, I was having none of it.

Nonetheless, Hasbro did a very good job bringing her to 3 3/4″ figure form. Considering Hasbro’s past issues with female head sculpts, Irina made out pretty good here. The likeness is passable and the paint apps are fairly neat. Her uniform is also really well done right down to the fine detail on her buttons and belt buckle. I really like the scabbard too, even if it doesn’t actually hold her rapier. Spalko comes with an automatic pistol and her rapier. The rapier is pretty close to the one that came with one of the Mutt Williams. Whatever I think of the character, I’ve got zero complaints about this figure.

I had originally planned on looking at the Jungle Cutter vehicle today as well, but I didn’t have time to photograph it, so there’s a good chance I’ll be doing that one tomorrow to end out Indy Week. There’s always a possibility I’ll get really motivated and even toss it in as an extra bonus feature, but to be fair, Friday I hit the corner pub pretty hard after work, so chances are I’m only going to get one more entry in before turning things over to the weekend.