German on Motorcycle

June 28, 2009 | By More


German Soldier, Motorcycle, Indiana Jones®, Last Crusade®, Hasbro, Action Figure Review

German Soldier, Motorcycle, Indiana Jones®, Last Crusade®, Hasbro, Action Figure Review

1989 brought us “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” With this film, Indy met up with his dad and faced off in a race to find the Holy Grail before the German Army. Sadly, kids of that era never new the joy owning action figures from the film.

Hasbro, however, made up for that in 2008 by releasing a slew of figures from the original Indiana Jones trilogy in order to ride the Crystal Skull wave of merchandising. Oddly produced out of sequence with the Temple of Doom figures, The Last Crusade portion of the Indiana Jones line had some of the better pieces in the line, most notably Henry Jones, Sr.

The subject of this review is one of the German baddies that chase Henry and Indy when they abscond with a motorcycle to tour the German countryside. Alas, the line has ended before we can get the sidecar bike the Jones boys had. But, we at least get their pursuers. (MarauderGun Runners has a motorcycle with a side car I was thinking about getting for that purpose, but it’s out of stock until April or May.)

German Soldier, Motorcycle, Indiana Jones®, Last Crusade®, Hasbro, Action Figure ReviewAppearance:

Since this German is on duty in Europe, he’s the only one we’ve seen from Hasbro that isn’t in desert gear. Even the Vogel produced is in khaki. So, if you want a platoon of northern Germans for Indy to face, you’re stuck with getting this version.

The good thing is that he’s pretty well done. There’s a distinct head under the helmet that sports an vaguely army looking haircut. The upper torso is the top of the jacket and has a nice bit of paint.

The long coat is finished off on the bottom with a soft goods skirt. The cloth portion of the coat has two pockets sewn on to it. I’d rather see a sculpted skirt, but since this fellow is riding a bike, this becomes a necessity. The pockets just seem a little big, not horribly, just enough to be noticed.

In between the two part so his coat is a a belt. This belt is one of the highlights of the figure. While he has an oversize working holster, it doesn’t look as out of place as the Indy ones have. The canteen and other detailing is well sculpted and painted.

Fun:

German Soldier, Motorcycle, Indiana Jones®, Last Crusade®, Hasbro, Action Figure ReviewThe main reason for buying this deluxe figure is to get the motorcycle. The bike itself is a hodgepodge of good and bad. The detailing is a mixed bag of fine detail and really soft detail covered over with a paint scheme that is a little inconsistent.

The non-removable gear strapped to the bike is an example of what is good with this two wheeled retro transportation. The straps
on the tarps are well done and the silver buckles on every thing really finish it off.

The best example of what is a let down with this piece is the shifter on the side of the gas tank. It looks like it was an after thought. Light on detail and with no paint, it really looks out of place. If they had left it off it the gas tank would’ve looked a whole lot better, in my opinion.

Again, on the plus side, coming down from the hand grips are small lines running to the front wheel and mid-bike to represent brake lines. This really adds a bit of realism of the piece.

On the negative side, is the overall color scheme and weathering The front fender shows silver nicks in blue paint that is not anywhere else on the bike. There’s no “dirt’ on the front fender or wheels, but it’s all over the back saddle bags. In general, a very inconsistent paint design.

German Soldier, Motorcycle, Indiana Jones®, Last Crusade®, Hasbro, Action Figure Review

The figure fits on the bike well. This is due in part to some articulation in the handle bars and the general articulation of the figure. It’s one of the better working figure/motorcycle combinations I’ve seen in person. The bikes wheels do turn. It is possible to get the bike to stand with the figure on its’ two wheels, but it’s much easier to pose them with the kickstand down.

This is one of those items that I was a bit disappointed when I got it out of the package. The opposite side has a big screw hole in the gas tank. The overall detailing is less on that side, as well as having the big silver pegs glaring out at you.

Speaking of glaring, the right side has a hole at the middle of the rear wheel axel. My guess is this mold would have been modified to produce an Indy & Henry motorcycle and that would have been the sidecar attachment point.

German Soldier, Motorcycle, Indiana Jones®, Last Crusade®, Hasbro, Action Figure ReviewThere are three accessories for the figure, not including the bike.
A small Luger which we’ve seen with other figures. A machine gun with strap that is similar to some of the other machine guns we’ve seen, except with a strap. The strap is nice add on, to allow him to ride the bike and carry his weapon.

The last accessory is the helmet goggle combination. The item looks fine to me from a head on view, but seems a little too short in the back. That may be since he’s a bit hunched to get him on the motorcycle and more of his neck shows. The back of my helmet has a pretty good tool mark at the base that really detracts from the appearance from behind, as well.

German Soldier, Motorcycle, Indiana Jones®, Last Crusade®, Hasbro, Action Figure ReviewOverall:

I’m torn on this one. The figure is pretty good for a generic soldier. But, the bike has enough inconsistencies that my overall feeling of the piece was mediocre. In the hands of good customizer, I’d imagine the bike could really shine.

There’ve been a number of motorcycles through out most of the Indy and Star Wars films. There was a motorcycle with sidecar in Raiders during the truck sequence. So this piece wouldn’t be entirely out of place with your truck and staff car. Just swap out the soldier for one of the
desert ones.

Engineernerd Score: 80/100

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German Soldier, Motorcycle, Indiana Jones®, Last Crusade®, Hasbro, Action Figure Review

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Comments (3)

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  1. Josh Maxwell says:

    Great Blog post. I am going to bookmark and read more often. I love the Blog template

  2. Jason says:

    I got two on clearance, opened one and quickly placed the German soldier on a 1:18 Vespa scooter. I laughed so hard, he has stayed on the scooter ever since. I placed an OD green C3PO on the bike, and pictured Kryten’s first apperance on Red Dwarf, street cred that 3PO needs.

  3. Isobel Shaw says:

    i am a motorcycle fan and i am a collector too. motorcycles are really beautiful and a great mode of transport.~~*