German Soldier w/ Motorcycle

Indy was the name of the caaaaaaaaaaaat!

German Soldier with Motorcycle is from Hasbro’s 3.75″ scale Indiana Jones line. In conjunction with the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull tie-in, Hasbro also released figures for all the Indy movies, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark etc. Of course, the movie didn’t do nearly as hot as everyone was hoping for, and a lot of the Indy toys went on clearance, which is where I got this guy.

I’ll get it out of the way now, this guy has “Star Wars Construction”. If you’ve been reading my reviews, you might notice I’m not a huge fan of the Star Wars 3.75″ scale figures. But that said, there are occasional gems there. So the question is, is this German Soldier with Motorcycle amongst those rarity of rarities?

In short, yes.

In long, here’s why.

Say what you will about Hasbro, but whoever they have sculpting their 3.75″ figures, is pretty dang good. And the German Soldier is no exception. He’s sculpted with the regular bang up job Hasbro does for figures of this scale. Heck, even his head is quite good, with a well defined facial shape. But probably the coolest thing about him is the cloth used for part of his uniform, which looks very “real” despite being of this scale. Normally, cloth capes or uniforms tend to flare out at this scale, since they lack the weight to be held sway by gravity. But German Soldier’s clothes hang very well.

Oh, and the Motorcycle is pretty dang awesome too. Not only is it very well detailed, but the paint apps is amazing, with lots of rust and aging. All the more impressive, since Hasbro’s “Hasblow” moniker is usually earned due to shoddy paint work.

Accessories-wise, German Soldier with Motorcycle comes with a pistol he can holster, a rifle he can swing over his shoulders and the helmet is removable. Not a huge plethora of Nazi goodies, but pretty darn decent.

But now we come to the figure’s most potentially crippling flaw. Articulation. Well, I’m happy to report that GSw/Mc uses the standard Stormtrooper articulation model. Which is to say he’s well articulated at every point save for his hips, which are mere swivels and therefore totally kill the model’s ability to be kickass.

Note I say, “model’s ability to be kickass”, not “figure’s/German Soldier’s etc”.

Y’see, this is where unfair double standard creep in. On a regular Stormtrooper, the fact that they have the extremely limiting swivel hips utter kill them for me. However, the reason for that is because, although Stormtroopers are meant to be mere generic goons, they’re also meant to be fairly dynamic in their posability.

With other Star Wars figures like the Yuuzhan Vhong for instance, or in this case, the German Soldier, their character doesn’t really require them to be able to strike a particularly dynamic pose. As such, I am more forgiving of such figures than I am of most Star Wars figures, despite their damn stupid hips design.

Overall
Great looking figure with a fantastic bike. Try to get this guy on clearance. It shouldn’t be too difficult. If you find an Indy Jones figure at all, chances are it’s on clearance. The main figure is pretty decent, but it’s the totally awesome bike that you should be paying for.

Pros: Look great. Incredibly awesome motorcycle.
Cons: Same engineering as Star Wars Troopers.

3.0 out of 4.0

———————————–
0.0 – 0.0 = I’d pay to get rid of it
0.1 – 0.5 = I’d give it away
0.6 – 1.0 = I wouldn’t take it for free
1.1 – 1.5 = Very Bad
1.6 – 2.0 = Bad
2.1 – 2.5 = Average
2.6 – 3.0 = Good
3.1 – 3.5 = Very Good
3.6 – 4.0 = Excellent