Vintage Cairo Swordsman

July 3, 2009 | By More


Cairo Swordsman, Indiana Jones®, Raiders of the Lost Ark Action Figures®, Action Figure Review

Today’s review continues with our recent Indiana Jones Retro Reviews.  We’ve already took a look at
Indy and Belloq.Cairo Swordsman, Indiana Jones®, Raiders of the Lost Ark Action Figures®, Action Figure ReviewThe focus for this is review is the Cairo Swordsman.  Indy was chased by a number of turban clad mercenaries through a Cairo marketplace in the original film.  One particular foe stood out.  The Cairo Swordsman.

He stood out for few different reasons.  One he was dressed in all black.  The rest of the gang was dressed in white robes with black turbans that covered their faces.

Second, he had an absolute wicked looking sword. I believe technically this is a scimitar, but we’re going to use sword in this review to match his name.

Lastly, he’s probably most remembered for the way Indy dispatches him.  After setting up what looked to be an incredible fight with a swinging sword, the hapless Swordsman is stopped by a single bullet from Indy’s revolver.  This scene would be mirrored in Temple of Doom with different results.

The original script had called for a big battle for the two adversaries.  However, food poisoning was rampant during the location shoot, which caused the cast and crew to find a quicker way around the Swordsman obstacle.

Cairo Swordsman, Indiana Jones®, Raiders of the Lost Ark Action Figures®, Action Figure Review

Appearance:

Yep.  he looks like the guy
for the film for the most part.  All ten seconds worth of
film we see him in.  Black robe, turban, and a red sash.
The thing is this guy’s look sets him apart from the rest of the
thugs in the marketplace scene.

I’m not normally a big fan of soft goods. But I have to say, Kenner pulled it off back in the day. Considering some of the later day Jedi Robes, this guy’s duds are pretty well tailored. The one down side of the robe is the huge snap on the side. At least it’s tucked on the side in the back. The one thing the robe does that isn’t perfect, is that it bulks up the swordsman. The guy in the movie doesn’t appear to be as bulky as this guy.

This is more evident without the robe. The swordsman doesn’t appear nearly as big without the robe. His head looks huge on the nearly naked body. Speaking or which, I doubt the swordsman would have been this ripped.

With the robe though, while not screen accurate, the swordsman appears to match up to my memories of what Indy’s sword swinging nemesis should be. He has so little screen time, It’s hard to get a good bead on him. I think the face might be a bit off, but does anybody really care? It’s almost like the head was made a little oversized to match the bulk of the robe.

Cairo Swordsman, Indiana Jones®, Raiders of the Lost Ark Action Figures®, Action Figure Review

Fun:

The swordsman shares the same articulation as Indy, Belloq and the rest. I can’t imagine why you’d put him on a horse, but you can.

His right hand is permanent posed in a complete circle to hold his sword. This limits his posability a bit, but most of the time he’s going to be holding his weapon.

Indiana Jones®, Raiders of the Lost Ark Action Figures®, Action Figure ReviewSpeaking of weapons, the swordsman comes with two a knife and his trademark sword. Matching this up with a Lucas film archive photos, it doesn’t do too bad. Especially if you consider other figures of his era. The sword and knife are molded in black with silver paint applied. How many Star Wars figures had weapons this accurate with painted details?

The knife reminds me a bit of the one Marion is threatened with buy another baddie. It’s a nice little added accessory, though.

Overall:

If you have seen Raiders, you’ll remember the swordsman represented by this figure. For a character with minimal screen time, he created a huge impression. While he’s probably not the most screen accurate, I would imagine he’s close enough to fool our memories of him.

There were quite a few of the white robed, black turbaned bad guys in the market scene. It seems Kenner would have picked one of those, since there are a bunch of them. If you want to change the swordsman, get the map room set. Give him Indy’s robe and voila! Another bad guy! Plus, you can swap Indy heads, and have a marketplace Indy, as well  (See Below).

Engineernerd Score: 90/100

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Cairo Swordsman, Indiana Jones®, Raiders of the Lost Ark Action Figures®, Action Figure Review

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