“There were five stones in the beginning. Over the centuries, they were dispersed by wars, sold off by thieves like you.”
One of the key components of the Indiana Jones Adventure Series from Hasbro is the inclusion of a ‘build-an-artifact’ within the general release waves allowing collectors to assemble larger diorama pieces for their display. The first of these was The Ark from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the second is this Skull Temple from The Temple of Doom.
The pieces of the Temple are spread across the five figures of Wave 2. The biggest piece, the rear section, is packed with Short Round. Helena Shaw gets the upper part of the skull, Temple Indy the lower jaw, and Dial of Destiny Indy gets the snake to sit on top. The Sankara stones themselves are included with Hypnotized Indy and are a set of six - three normal, and three that are glowing.
Assembly is simple enough, but instructions are provided on the inner cardboard tray of each of the Wave 2 figures. The plastic is soft where it needs to be allowing the two halves to be combined and then the lower jaw slotting into position. The snake fits on top with a slot and socket that line up to hold it in place. I had hoped the base of the piece would be open to allow a light source to go inside - but the piece is fully enclosed once assembled save a small gap under the chin.
The paintwork is basic with the skull cast in a brown muddy tone with rock-like texture, and then a black dry brush added to bring out some detail. The snake contains a bit more decor with the cream stripe along the body, painted eyes, and mouth - although the fangs which you’d assume should be white are painted the same pink flesh tone as the mouth.
Height-wise the Skull reaches just over the waist of a standard 6-inch figure and up to the neck when the snake is placed on top. You can finish your display by adding the Sankara stones to slots on either eye and in the nose where a circular segment is included in the sculpt to hold the stone. I use the word hold loosely as the design purely relies on gravity to hold the stone in place, and getting them in there is tricky - I ended up using a pair of tweezers. The stones are shaped differently, which is impressive in itself, and the sizing needs to be lined up with the smallest stone fitting in the nose. The standard stones have a marbled decor and do include the three lines painted on the largest. The glowing versions are cast in a translucent orange with a bit of a darker wash to dirty them up.
With the piece assembled, it does look the part and displays really well alongside Short Round or one of the two Temple Indy’s - but probably needs more figures to give it context as we saw with the Ark of the Covenant and the inclusion of Belloq and Toht. There could certainly have been a bit more consideration around how the stones fit into place, and while I didn’t expect a light-up feature, leaving the base open for a small LED to be installed would have been the icing on the cake.
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...