“I've seen things too, Indy. The only thing worth believing in, ever... is cash.”
Helena Shaw is part of the second full general release wave of the Indiana Jones Adventure Series from Hasbro and taken from her debut in the franchise in the 2023 release of The Dial of Destiny. Helena is packed in the standard Adventure Series packaging with the travel map details on a sandy finish, utilising images of the figure and accessories in the absence of a window. The side art is consistent with the other figures in the wave and overall series, while the other side panel carries details of this wave’s Build-an-Artifact.
Helena is of course a brand new figure, modelled predominantly on her adventurers outfit from the final segment of Dial of Destiny as she and Indy head to Sicilty and the Ear of Dionysius cavern. This outfit is executed in colour cast items starting with a flesh-coloured torso, overlaid with a softer rubber white shirt tied at the waist. The upper arms are sculpted and cast in white to match the shirt, while the lower arms are flesh-coloured plastic with the shirt sleeve cuffs painted white which does create a minor colour variance. The legs are sand brown plastic with two-tone brown boors with intricate stitching detail sculpted up the front.
The head sculpt is a great likeness to Phoebe Waller-Bridge, going as far as capturing her expression of mild but restrained amusement. The smoother lines of the Helena head sculpt does not allow too much facial detailing via the photo-print technology but we do get an application on the eyes and lips - with the hair then cast as an individual brown section and fitted and glued into the head.
Helena, like all the Indy figures is created with pinless articulation and comes with a reduced set of 19 points of articulation with this figure dropping the thigh swivel as we have recently seen also in the Black Series line. Helena also gets a smaller and less wide-ranging set of butterfly shoulders, while all the other key joints remain as standard.
Accessories are very much aligned to the corresponding Indy figure from the same wave, with the pair sharing the same cast torch accessory in dark silver that can be held in either hand. Like Indy, Helena also gets a backpack of gear - although this is a different piece shaped specifically for Helena’s body with a cast brown central bag section, a small cream-painted section of protruding rope with silver clasps and the handle of a general non-removable tool sticking out the top section. The bag is fitted with two semi-flexible straps for sitting over Helena’s shoulder and keeping the bag securely in place.
In a line dominated by Indy figures, the addition of Helena within the Dial of Destiny series adds some variation to displays and portrays a character equal to Indy in the franchise in figure form in a way that pays homage to the actor and her mannerisms, with a well-sculpted likeness, great costume design in 6-inch scale - albeit lacking a bit of weathering - and a decent set of accessories. The big miss across this figure and Indy is the lack of the actual Dial of Destiny artifact itself in a line that has prided itself on bringing us accessories or build-an-artifact sets to recreate the key archaeological finds that Indy- and in this case Helena - are seeking in their adventures?
Keep Track of all the Indiana Jones Adventure Series from Hasbro at our comprehensive
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...