Toy Bender

With the lack of children in the house, it makes it a little easier for the wife and I to spend a little extra on toys to donate for kids. We got together our pile this year and in the spirit of bragging about how good we are, I thought I’d share them here:

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I know it’s been awhile since I’ve done a “Hasbro Answers” type of post, but damn it’s a lot of work and I’m ultra lazy. I was looking through the latest one and I saw an Indiana Jones question that I missed when I went an ranted about how the Indiana Jones line is as good as dead:

IndianaJonesCollectors.com: Will we see a vehicle, deluxe set, or exclusive of Henry and Indiana Jones with the motorcycle and sidecar as in The Last Crusade?

Hasbro: Unfortunately, while a motorcycle with sidecar was planned, it will not make it out.

Oh man, how damn depressing can you get? You might as well stick a spoon in my eye, Hasbro! A motorcycle with a sidecar would have been so sweet for my Indiana Jones figures. I also might have used it in conjunction with my G.I. Joe 25th Snake Eyes with Timber. You can’t deny the awesome that is a dog in a sidecar.

That’s it, the Indiana Jones toy line is as good as dead. Cool Toy Review’s questions to Hasbro regarding the line pretty much a confirmation that the Indiana Jones toy line is over:

Cool Toy Review: Is the German Mechanic figure shown in the second Raiders of the Lost Ark wave scheduled for January going to include any accessories (wrench, removable hat and shirt etc…)?

Also, would it be possible to see a picture of the stands that will be included in this wave as well as Mola Ram without his head dress?

Hasbro: Right now, we are not going to be revealing any more details or information on this wave due to the likelihood that it will not make it out.

Cool Toy Review: What is your internal “doomsday date” to determine the future of the Indiana Jones line at retail? Or, what specific date in the coming months is the “point of no return” for Indy’s future? Will there be enough time to “rescue” the line to produce and distribute post-Temple Of Doom/Wave 4 if the Indy line indeed starts to sell at a faster pace?

Hasbro: Right now, it’s highly unlikely that the line will continue significantly beyond the holidays this year.

The writing is pretty much on the wall for this one, kids. If you’re not familiar with why the line is tanking, I’ve worked out the reasons.* This is also an expansion of a comment I made on a Topless Robot post that put the blame on collectors for the death of the line.

Also, please keep in mind that there’s a good amount of conjecture, but I’m willing to bet that I’m right on my educated guesses.

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Yeah, yeah it’s been awhile. Frankly though, you can get overwhelmed with nerd questions, but they’re back finally. This round is kind of ho-hum, but there’s some interesting stuff in here if you’re into Star Wars or Indiana Jones toys. If not, read it anyway!

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One thing I go crazy for at cons are the dioramas that are sometimes displayed by toy makers in order to impress you with their cool action figures. Hasbro has done some of the best I’ve seen with G.I. Joe (although nothing has beaten the Lego ones I posted pictures of oh so long ago). At the San Diego ‘08 Comic Con Toy Bender’s official photographer, Scott McEachen, got a few shots of an Indiana Jones diorama that was teh awesome pants.

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Here’s another round of quick news items that have come out of the San Diego Comic Con. If you require more of my patented in depth opinions, don’t worry. I’ve got picture posts on the way that are loaded with all kinds of sweetness for your reading pleasure. Until then, enjoy these links!

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Ever since the release of the last Indiana Jones film and the subsequent release of Indiana Jones Lego sets, there’s been all kinds of new Indiana Jones Lego goodness. Two sets that I found on Brother’s Brick that rocked my socks were by a fellow named Brian Williams.

Check out this Flying Wing from Raiders of the Lost Ark… ahem I mean Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark:

There’s no way you can get any better than this. I doubt that even Lego could put out a set that looked as close as this does to the plane seen in the film.

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Star Wars Nerd Questions is back, baby! This time there’s not a lot of ultra nerdy questions, but there are a lot of valuable info dispensed by Hasbro about both the Star Wars and Indiana Jones toy lines. In fact with this round there was more Indiana Jones toy questions than usual, so those of you wondering why the sculpting on Indy sucks will get their answers. Enough with the jibba jabba though, let’s get on with it!

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A fellow by the name of Nick From Texas sent me a link to this pretty cool Indiana Jones toy related video on Slashfilm. Since I can’t embed Slashfilm videos here though, I found the same video on YouTube. Watch it here or click on the above link for a much higher resolution. Anyway, the short film recreates on of the most famous chases in film history found in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but this time it’s done with action figures and vehicles from the latest toy line by Hasbro.

Man, this thing is fantastic and a perfect use of many of the new toys. I found myself wanting to buy the German truck even though I’m not sure what I’d do with it aside from let it collect dust. I’ve got to hand it to Probot Productions, they sure know how to make a good toy video.

Thanks Nick!

This video has been making the rounds lately, but if you haven’t seen it yet check it out. It answers the questions, “What if you had five million Lego blocks and too much time on your hands?” The answer is quite simple, make a giant Lego boulder and have it chase you down a hill while you pretend to be Indiana Jones:

I’m surprised this went as well as it did. Somehow having a giant uncontrollable object rolling down a hill in a heavily populated area doesn’t seem like the brightest idea in the world to me. I think if I was the mini-van owner that I’d be seriously pissed at something like this, but I guess we’ll never know what happened since the video stops at that point.

Because you demanded it (well one of you anyway) I decided to share my thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I’m calling it my “thoughts” and not a review, because I mainly don’t feel like doing a true review and I also feel a bit biased. You see, I am a fan of Indiana Jones to begin with and I went into this thing with the goal of liking it, no matter how bad it was. (Although to be fair I went into The Phantom Menace feeling the same way and I’ve never liked that film, so it’s hard to judge how much my preconceived emotions affected me while watching this film.)

First though, I’d like to warn you that there will be MINOR spoiler stuff. It’s so minor though, you’ve probably already seen it reading about the film or buying the toys.

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If you didn’t know, the Indiana Jones toy line has some neat mail-away offers available. I actually didn’t know exactly how many there were until I sorted them all out. If you’re too lazy to do the research, I’ve compiled a list of all the Indiana Jones toy mail-aways that are currently running. WARNING: Spoilerish material ahead if you have not seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

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Indiana Jones has never gotten the toy success like other movie hits like Star Wars. While Hasbro is making up for lost ground with its Indiana Jones toy line, but way back in the 80s Kenner had a short lived Jones line followed by an even shorter lived line from LJN. Here’s an amazingly well preserved television commercial for the old 3 3/4″ figures from Kenner:

Click on the more link to see the ad for the Kenner 12 inch figure!

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In honor of the unofficial Indiana Jones themed week(ish), I ran across this image of Harrison Ford, aka Han Solo and Indiana Jones, with some Indiana Jones toys in his arms. Does this mean that Harrison Ford is a toy collector? Or does it mean he’s some crazy narcissist that must own any and all likenesses of himself?

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Over on the Lego blog Klocki they have a neat Indiana Jones themed Lego contest going. For the contest details, head on over there. The prizes include a couple of free sets. The best prize is a Temple Escape set that’s signed by the designer. The real prize for fans of Legos and Indiana Jones is the images of sets that should come out of this contest. The first small dio out is by a fellow named Piotrek Builder and it recreates a scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:

This is the memorable scene where Dr. Jones Sr. shows us just how bad ass he is; he can take down a German fighter plane with an umbrella and the aid of some unfortunate seagulls.

Be sure to keep checking out Klocki for more entries to the contest.