Packaging - German ***1/2; Swordsman ***
Just like the two Indies, these two figures differ on how 'collector friendly' the packaging is. You can easily remove the German without tearing anything up, and if you really feel the need, can get him back into the package with some semblance of the original look. That's not possible with the Cairo Swordsman, as one of his deadly snakes is sealed to the cardboard insert. This is where the difference in the score for the two comes from.

Otherwise, they both have the attractive, thin, stylish look that is different and yet well designed. There's some personalization on the back along with info on the other figures in the first wave, and they both have the nifty passport style book and sticker for the Ark redemption. If you didn't read my review on the 12" Indy, the redemption works as follows - collect four stickers from the 12" figures (any of the figures - all the stickers are identical) and stick them in a pass book. Fill out your info, include a check for $9.99 shipping and handling, and in 3 months or so you'll get what appears to be a mighty nice looking sixth scale Ark. I've sent mine in - have you?

Sculpting - German *1/2; Swordsman ***
I already ranted on why the quality of a head sculpt should have little to do with the unit cost and actual final price of any mass market large run figure in my previous 12" Indy review, so I won't beat that dead horse. Suffice to say, that even though this is only a $20 figure, I'm not buying that means it can have a crappy head sculpt.

The German is a fine example. Rather than try to do anything realistic, they popped on an old Joe head. This is a smooth, non-textured face, with elongated unrealistic proportions - great for a mid 90's toy, but not something that looks right standing next to even the Cairo Swordsman or the whipping Indy, let alone a Sideshow figure.

His hand sculpts aren't an issue though, because a) they are much more in scale than the meat hooks we got with the Indy and b) the are articulated to hold the accessories. He also stands great on his own in plenty of poses, so the sculpt doesn't interfere there.

The Cairo Swordsman has a much better head sculpt (please ignore the paint - we'll get there in a minute), and it actually looks like they gave it a decent shot at approximating the character from the movie. I couldn't find a real close up still of the character, outside of the one used on the actual box, but the shape of the nose and placement of the eyes, along with the expression, do a reasonable job of approximating the actual character from the film. While the head sculpt isn't SS or HT quality, it's actually good enough (with a reasonable paint job and wearing the all important turban) to pass as a bad guy with the more expensive figures.

His hands are also the articulated style, so they work a whole lot better than what we saw with the two Indys. Again, he stands great on his own in plenty of poses. Both figures are shorter than the usual current sixth scale figure, standing at just around 11" tall.

Paint - German *1/2; Swordsman **1/2
Neither of these figures have an outstanding paint job, and the poor German is just atrocious.

The hair line is terrible, with slop down on the forehead, and the yellow paint coverage is very inconsistent. I suspect they thought that might make it more 'realistic', but it just looks poorly painted. The eyes and eyebrows are okay, but even the skin tone is mismatched with the color of the body.

The only other area with much paint on the German is the hat, and again, there's way too much slop, particularly on the white used to highlight the edging and roping. They were clearly outsourcing this work to the drunken clumsy lemurs.

The Swordsman has far less slop, but has a completely different annoying issue. The hair doesn't have issues with the consistency of the coverage, and the hair line is nice and clean. But he is shiny - very, very shiny. The skin tone appears to not be paint, but rather the head was cast in this color of brown, which gives it that cheap, plasticy look. Even considering that, the finish is a higher gloss than you'd expect. I suppose you could assume he's sweating - it was mighty hot in Cairo that day - but for me, that doesn't cut it.

Articulation - ***
Now here's a category that I'm happy to report goes way up from the previous two figures. Why? Because without the action and sound features, there was no reason for them NOT to use the superior 'super articulated (SA)' bodies. These are Hasbro's best 12" bodies, and it's nice to see both of these characters have used it.

There's a ball jointed neck, jointed at the torso, and the head tilts, turns and moves forward and back quite well. It still has the same post at the top of the neck though, so if you wanted to swap your whipping Indy over to an SA body, it would be quite possible.

There's ball jointed shoulders and hips, cut biceps (just above the elbow) and thighs, double pin elbows and knees, pin and post ankles and wrists, a cut waist and a rocker (ab crunch) chest, and a pin joint through the fingers. The first finger is articulated separately from the other three, allowing him to point.

These joints are tight, with a very good range of movement. These aren't as good as the Hot Toys or Medicom bodies of course, but for a $20 toy, they're damn good.

Accessories - ***
Neither figure comes with a ton of stuff, but the work here is surprisingly good. If you've ever had Hasbro or Action Man figures before, then you know that all too often the accessories were big and clunky. That changed in later years, particularly in the Joe line up, but they were still known for that in the minds of most collectors.

The weapons are very realistic, especially the German's guns, and more in line with 21st Century quality. And by that I mean the company, although I suppose it makes sense in the context of time as well.

The German has two guns, a Luger and an automatic rifle. The sculpt on both of these is excellent, as is scale. It's not quite as detailed as some of the weapons you get with higher end figures, and the paint work is more basic, but considering the price point, I was surprised by the quality. The Luger has a removable clip, and fits in either his hand or his holster, and the rifle has a removable clip, elastic strap with metal rings, a moving ejection/chambering mechanism (I believe that's what it is) and even a folding stock!

I'm also counting the holster and plastic pouch as part of the German's accessories. You're probably going to dump the pouch although the sculpt is pretty good, because the paint job isn't particularly realistic. It's another of those plastic pieces cast in a particular color, with just a few paint details added. The color they chose is rather odd, and not very attractive or realistic.

The holster is a bit better, even if it is over sized. The Luger fits nicely inside, and the harder plastic (it's not rock hard, but hard enough to maintain the unique shape) works well. The post closure also works better than I expected, since these are usually easy to open and then impossible to close.

That's four accessories for the German, but the Swordsman only gets three. One is critical of course - his huge scimitar shaped sword. The scale is pretty good, but the sculpt is quite basic and lacking in details. The paint job doesn't help any, with a very basic black and brass looking handle and a 'weathered' blade. This weathering doesn't work for me, and I think going with a consistent dull silver color for the blade would have been better.

He also comes with two deadly snakes. How do I know they're deadly? Because is says so right on the package! One is a cobra, the other a rattlesnake. I really like the sculpts on both, particularly the cobra, but the paint jobs are very toyish and sloppy. There's only one or two paint ops on them, and these are done in a very hurried, messy fashion. With better paint jobs, these snakes would be better than the ones Gentle Giant gives you in their expensive Indy crate. I've included a photo of these two snakes with a couple of those snakes for comparison.

The best part is that both of these types of snakes were present in the film. Sure, not with this particular scene or character, but getting them somehow is better than not at all.

Outfit - German **1/2; Swordsman ***
The German outfit consists of the hat, boots, tunic, pants and belt. The Cairo Swordsman is a bit simpler, but not much, with a turban, robe, boots and sash.

The German's boots are perhaps the highlight of his outfit, although we may have seen these before - there's been so many Hasbro 12" figures over the years it's pretty much impossible to keep track. The sculpt is basic but accurate, and they add to his appearance rather than detract.

On the opposite side is the awful hat. I already mentioned the terrible paint work, but the sculpt is oversized as well. In fact, there's a soft foam band inserted inside the hat so it will even fit on his head. It doesn't help that he has the weird elongated head sculpt that makes the hat look even bigger (a rounder face could handle it better), but the hat is still pretty atrocious all on it's own.

The rest of the uniform is good without being outstanding. The belt fits well, and has a thin velcro closure around back. The shirt and pants are well tailored, and made from good quality properly proportioned material. There's metal snaps holding things closed, and metal 'buttons' on the front of the shirt. I do wish they'd used something different than the metal snap on the pants (or a smaller snap) because it tends to pooch out the shirt and belt, but it's not a major issue.

The big problem is in the iron on patches, which look cheap and toyish. I didn't expect embroidered patches at this price, but the collar patches and wings on the right arm are particularly distracting.

Now, there's also an issue with authenticity. The smaller 3 3/4" figures they've done so far for Raiders are called "German Soldiers", and I have no issue with that because the ones they've done (from the Cairo/desert sequences) WERE really just German soldiers in desert gear. Just because they were German soldiers, doesn't mean they were Nazi's.

However, the 12" version here is clearly supposed to be a Nazi SS officer. Some folks are likely to take issue with the lack of any sort of actual logos on the uniform - any sort of lightening bolts or swastika's have been removed. Some of the details that are missing are merely a function of the cost of course. For example, while the epaulets on his shoulders are actually pretty accurate, they lack any of the gold 'buttons' that would have been present. There's also some sculpted details on the hat and belt buckle that are so small, trying to make them look like much of anything is really a mute point.

There are other altered areas that were clearly done that way for marketing reasons though. For example, on the left shoulder the eagle with swastika has been altered into some sort of wings with a circle emblem, and the collar patches are as non-distinct as you can get.

On the plus side, they did include the 'Deutschland' band on the left wrist, and did a very nice job with it. They also managed to do a great job on the color of the uniform, and while some might take issue with this genericizing of the costume, I don't see it as a huge issue.

The Swordsman outfit is a little less toyish (due to no annoying iron on patches), at least to me, and therefore scores a smidge higher. The turban/face covering is actually pretty complex, and you should be able to get a pretty good look out of it with a little effort. Thankfully, they went with a cloth turban, instead of some sculpted plastic. Out of the box, the loose piece of material on the right side of his head will stick out at a weird angle, but you can tuck it down so it hangs flat, or go with the water treatment and soak it and reform it the way you'd like.

It appears as though the piece of cloth that covers the face may have been spot stitched to his robes, but mine had broken free right in the package. You'll probably cut any such stitch anyway, because you'll want more flexibility in how the material hangs. The tailoring, scale and quality of the robes are very good too, with hemmed edges everywhere. There's even a thin liner at the wrists with snaps included so that the cuffs can be tight around the figures wrists, much like in the movie.

This swordsman is going commando under the robe, but he does have on some terrific boots. It's a very good sculpt and fit, and I don't remember seeing these boots on any other figure before. They have a very 'desert' feel to them, and I'm pretty impressed that they went through the effort to include such a good boot sculpt.

The final piece of clothing is his red sash, made from a very nice, soft material that hangs well. There's a velcro closure that's pretty well hidden.

Action/Sound Features - Bupkis
Woo hoo! No action features to get in the way, which is just fine by me. It means we got the better articulated bodies, and while I think Sound Features can be pretty fun, most Action Features just end up lame and unused.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
The SA body, along with good outfits and accessories, make these pretty sweet for kids. If you want them to grow up appreciating how terrific sixth scale figures are, then they need to have some they can drag around the backyard and battle with now, and the pickings have been mighty slim for the past few years. Get a couple of these guys and a whipping Indy for them, and they'll follow in your footsteps. 

Value - ***1/2
Twenty bucks? Considering that most 6 - 7" solid plastic barely articulated and likely to have almost no accessories figures these days are $10 - $15, getting these at $20 is downright amazing. Now, they don't have the expensive action and sound features of the Indys, so they aren't *quite* as amazing in this category, but that's not necessarily a bad thing overall.

Things to Watch Out For - 
Not much.  Everything was very sturdy for normal play, and the mass market quality is probably pretty consistent.

Overall - German **; Swordsman ***
When I looked at these figures, I took two scenarios into consideration - first as a toy for your average 5 - 9 year old, and then as something that could be used as an addition to your display with the higher priced Indys.

In either category, they both have the same pluses and minuses. On the plus side, you're getting very good bodies, accessories and outfits for $20. This is particularly true with the Cairo Swordsman, who's only real major issue is the shiny paint and slightly more toy-like sculpt.

Unfortunately, even when I cut the German some slack on his iron on generic patches, he still has that God awful head and paint job. Even the average 8 year old is going to find that too goofy looking for their tastes.

So the final judgment? Pick up the whipping Indy and Cairo Swordsman for your kids to recreate that classic scene from Raiders. Both figures have a high play value and look good enough for kids to enjoy.

If you're a collector and can't afford the higher priced Indy's, you might be able to get by with the whipping Indy, particularly if you swap out the body. And if you're a collector looking to add some villains around your Sideshow or Medicom Indy, you really should give the Cairo Swordsman a second look. While he has some issues, for $20 he will actually be a decent addition to your display, at least until Sideshow gets around to producing one.

The German? I like the uniform, guns and body, but right out of the box nobody can handle that head sculpt and paint job. If you're a collector who doesn't want to spend $60 or more a pop on the Dragon or BBI Germans to add to your Indy set up, you might be able to get by with several of these IF you have access to some better loose heads that you could pop on the body.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - German *1/2; Swordsman ***
Paint - German *1/2; Swordsman **1/2
Articulation - ***
Accessories - ***
Outfit - German **1/2; Swordsman ***
Action/Sound Features - Bupkis
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***1/2
Overall - German **; Swordsman ***

Where to Buy -
These will hit major retailers like Target and Toys R Us by the end of the week, but you can also order them online from these sponsors:

- CornerStoreComics has the first two waves listed at $90 for the sets of four.

- Amazing Toyz also has these first two waves listed at $90.

- Urban Collector has each wave of the first three waves on pre-order for $99 each. That's $25 a figure.

- Entertainment Earth has each of the waves listed at $99 each as well - again, that's $25 a figure.

- For the UK collectors, Forbidden Planet has them as singles for 17 - 18 GBP each.

Related Links -
Just last week, I checked out the first of the deluxe two packs, and not too long ago, I reviewed one of the new LEGO Indy sets, as well as the disappointing Gentle Giant 7" version of Indy.

Disney has done a few other Indy figures, including this wave of small ones.  If you're looking for something a bit bigger, check out the very cool sixth scale Grail diary, or this sixth scale figure.