I have very personal feelings about this figure. I've had it on PO since it was first announced. I wasn't happy at all with the likeness, but decided to take a gamble, because HT almost always comes through in the end and it was Indiana Jones(!!!). I've been hanging on to hope ever since, even when things were seeming more and more grim with each successive display of the proto at every Con this year. There were assurances from Arnie Kim that the sculpt had been fixed, and likewise with Superman. So when I saw the revised Chris Reeves sculpt, my heart jumped up into my throat - there's hope for Indy after all! Then the in hand pics trickled out, and I felt crushing disappointment that this is what we are "stuck with". To say it is a disappointment is an understatement. After a few days went by, my immediate visceral emotional response has had time to resolve itself into something more objective. There are things to love about this figure: the outfits are beautiful and lovingly detailed. The base and backdrop look cool. Tanis dig costume will look great with the map room dio (think I may dress up my SS Indy in this costume?). There are lots of nice goodies included. The muscle body is okay, maybe a bit bulky and the wrists look chunky and awkward, which affects satisfactory posing options. But the face is undeniably off, no two ways around it. There are elements of Ford in there, but it's like a cake where somebody threw in salt instead of sugar - the taste is just plain off. So, I'm bummed and very irritated with HT that they make a great looking New freakin' Goblin, but chose to sleepwalk through INDIANA JONES. Yet I can't bring myself to cancel the order, not as some sort of noble protest that will likely be ignored by HT (who honestly knows if they ever had plans to do Indy figures beyond this one?). There is enough here for me to consider it a worthy purchase - as other have pointed out, if I just picked up the parts I liked, I'd still likely pay a comparable price to the entire figure. And I've just held out hope for this fig for so long that I can't let go. Is that weird? I have confidence that I'll be able to find an acceptable pose that accentuates the best elements of the figure while disguising the flaws and I can "live with it". But it's sad that the best defense for this thing is that "it's the best Indy figure out there." That's damning it with faint praise, like "it's the best work of art in a kindergarten class". There is no definitive Indy figure out there, every single one has serious flaws...maybe they should have left it alone at the Toys McCoy one. A Hot Toys DX Indy should be the standard, there should be no need for any other Indy figure - but that didn't happen, so it's a bitter pill to be sure.
Good call!
