“I don't believe in magic, Wombat. But a few times in my life, I've seen things. Things I can't explain. And I've come to believe it's not so much what you believe. It's how hard you believe it.”
The 2023 release of The Dial of Destiny, the fifth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, was certainly a key driver behind the development of the Hasbro Indiana Jones Adventure Series line, and figures from the new movie were always a given alongside the longer-established movies. The first Dial of Destiny releases arrived in August 2023 in the 2nd full wave of the Adventure Series, a wave that moved away from the initial established wave focusing on one movie, to a wave that was split with releases from The Temple of Doom and The Dial of Destiny.
The packaging remains the same with the recognisable sandy desert with red map lines as a base and the figure illustrated on the front and back in lieu of any window to the box. There is some lovely artwork on one side's spine, and the other side shows the checklist of the Build-an-Artifact for this particular wave - the Temple of Doom Skull pedestal for the Sankara Stones.
Indy is a brand new figure as far as I can tell, a small surprise considering there must have been the potential to re-use the trousers, arms, and maybe the jacket from the Raiders versions. Each of the key parts are cast in their base colour with a cream torso shirt piece, brown arm pieces, brown lower legs, and a soft rubber brown jacket. Weather in added to the jacket with wear marks added at the folds and exposed edges, giving it a very nice worn look. Paint application after that is limited to a lighter brown belt with a gold buckle.
The head sculpt is a new, older Indy, with a good likeness to Harrison Ford but nothing spectacular compared to some of Hasbro’s more established 6-inch collector lines. The base tone for the head sculpt is a bit more tanned than it perhaps should be and the face is also glossy with a sweaty appearance which is a shame. The photo-real face application adds in the usual eye and mouth detail as well as shading around the more defined age lines of Indy’s face. The hair is now grey and is painted up to and including the edges so no ugly flesh lines on the hairline edge. The iconic hat is an individual piece glued onto the head, a decision that seems odd considering the likes of Short Round and Toht have been given removable headwear. Like the jacket, the hat is weathered with lighter tan colour added around the edges for a worn finish.
Indy comes with 19 points of articulation on an entirely pinless body. The joints are standard fare, with single knees and elbows as well as ball joint hips and shoulders, and butterfly joints sitting under the jacket to support the arms with even more wide-ranging poses. The neck is dual jointed adding more emotive options for the head and removing any visible joints.
Indy comes with his satchel bag, this time a fully separate item rather than sitting under the coat as seen with the Raiders release. Again, this is new with the satchel larger than the previous versions and coloured a muddy brown with a couple of silver button details and a dark brown flexible strap that allows it to sit over either of Indy’s shoulders and hang at his hip.
As we would expect, Indy comes with his whip although only the wound version. This is also a new cast piece, differing in sculpt to the original Raiders and Temple of Doom figures. The colour on this Dial of Destiny version is nicer with a darker brown finish and the Hasbro team have resolved the way it hangs on Indy’s belt by losing that fiddly and unworkable flexible strap and employing a plug-in option as we often see with Lightsaber hilts in the Star Wars line. While the furled whip is a nice piece, the figure does lack an unfurled option for more action-orientated poses which feels an odd decision.
What we do get instead is the exploration gear that Indy and Helena procure in Sicily before heading to the Ear of Dionysius cavern. This is made up of a simple hand torch cast in silver with limited sculpted detail and the ability to be held in either hand. There is then the more impressive backpack which is a deep brown base colour with sculpted rope and tool detail, the rope painted in a soft off-white finish. The backpack sits on two flexible straps that hook over Indy’s arms and sit naturally as though the piece were part of the figure itself.
While this is yet another Indy in the line (the 9th with the 10th also on the way) the final look of the figure with the whip slung on the belt, and the backpack on the shoulders, is certainly a different look and reflects Indy’s journey through the saga to the final scenes in The Dial of Destiny. It's not a stand-out release, but you can see small improvements and tweaks as we progress through the newer figures and conscious decisions to drive new sculpts and parts even when existing ones might have done the job.
The Adventure Series is never going to be a deep-dive line like Star Wars and the Dial of Destiny figures may well end up being limited to this Indy release, alongside Helena from the same wave and the upcoming figures of Renaldo and Voller. To that end, Indy is an acceptable representation of the Dial of Destiny, although one that is not selling overly quickly - that honour is falling to Short Round from this particular wave.
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...