There are a variety of baddies facing off with Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” However, most of them didn’t seem truly evil. Belloq was delusional. Dietrich was just a cog in the German army. However, the Gestapo agent
named Toht was a charachter that seethed villany on the screen. For a character with relatively few lines and action sequences, he made himself a memorable spot in the Indiana Jones mythos.
Listed in Wikipedia as Major Arnold Ernst Toht, the German was portrayed on screen by Ronald Lacey. Toht is probably his most memorable role, but he also played one of the lead henchman in “Red Sonja.” (Ed. Note: I’m sorry to admit I went to the theater to see Red Sonja when it was released. I love the comic books and novel series, detest the film.)
 Appearance:
As with most of the vintage Kenner Indiana Jones figures, Toht is a good figure considering the time was made. For being a fairly generically dressed character, there are enough details that he can’t be mistaken for somebody else.
The first of which is his trench coat. Instead of sculpting the figure in a trench coat or making a soft goods coat, it is a separate piece. The outside of it is fully detailed. The piece is made from a harder plastic than you would think and retains its form when it’s not on him. The piece slides down over him like a sleeve. If I recall right, this is how he wore the coat for most of the warm environment scenes.
 The second thing that makes this figure unmistakably Toht is his right arm and hand. The arm and hand are sculpted in a Nazi salute. Fans of the film will recall Toht coming to Egypt and raising his hand to show a burned in imprint of the headpiece to the Staff of Ra. This figure’s hand has small details sculpted into to it to represent that scene. However, when you raise his hand up, if the trench coat is over his right shoulder, it will ride up and look kind of goofy. The other issue is that his right arm and hand are only good for that gag. But still, as one of the characters more memorable moments, it’s a good shtick.
 The red lapel pin doesn’t have any detail to it, but the splash of
red helps accent it. Reminds me of the one Donovan had in “Last Crusade.” The red hankie in his breast pocket was also used in the the film to wipe the sweat off his brow near the end of the film. All of these little things add up to make the figure come alive.
There are two small down sides to this figure. One is the paint. Anytime a figure is made with black plastic for the base and painted over, it’s difficult to get the paint of the lighter areas to come out nice. Toht’s head is a good example of this . The seam did not take the flesh tone correctly and a black line is evident. The bottoms of the sleeves are painted flesh colored and should have been white.
The second thing is that his scale is a bit off. With the hat on, I’d expect him to be a slight bit taller or even with some of the other figures in the line. However, he’s slight shorter than most of them.
Fun:
 Toht has similar articulation to that found in the rest of the
vintage Indiana Jones line. Head, shoulders, knees and hips. Like the rest of the line he has hip joints that
will allow him to ride the vintage horse. Why? Well, I’ll leave that to your imagination.
Toht comes with two accessories. The first being his trench coat, which is described above. A cool accessory I was hoping for in the modern line was his infamous coat hanger. (See Bottom picture.)
The second is a small pistol. The pistol is (I believe) a German Mauser. Ironically, considering the Han Solo pistols of the time, Toht’s is smaller and has a decent amount of detail. The bad part is his left hand doesn’t hold it very well or straight in front of him.
Overall:
While not the best figure in the line, Toht is a good representation of the nefarious German from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” He’s got the little details right, and that’s something that not all of his Star Wars contemporaries could say.
Engineernerd Score: 85/100
Discuss in our forums! |
