You can find these guys at major retailers right now, but the prices vary wildly. I've seen them from $7.50 to $9 each, and whenever a mass market item has that kind of price spread, you know you're getting gouged.

Packaging - ***1/2
I like the look of the new packaging, which combines a retro movie feel with the newer style, to allow them to work for any of the films. They are a little prone to peg damage, and MOCers will probably have issues storing them, but they do a good job of calling attention to themselves on the peg and selling the toy.

These also include the cool mail aways, and I love mail aways. Here, you collect six stamps from six figures, stick them in the small passport like booklet, and send it in for a free Kingdom of the Crystal Skull figure. Well, it's free after you bought the six figures, and send in the money for shipping and handling.

Sculpting - Swordsman ***1/2; Belloq ***; Marion **1/2
Very observant readers (or those anal retentive enough to go back and check) will notice that this Marion has scored a half star lower in this category than the deluxe two pack Marion. And yet, they are exactly the same figure. Has the mad cow taken over Michael's brain?

Well, it may have, but that's not the reason for the score difference. Unfortunately for poor Marion, she's the kind of girl that gets less attractive with time. The more I've gotten to know her, the less I like her. Alot like my first wife. Who is probably reading this, and now I'll have to keep an eye on our pet rabbit for the next week.

The sculpt's biggest problem isn't the head sculpt, although it's not terrific (we'll get to the paint in a minute). But it's passable for this scale. The weird leg pose is what really irks me, and with the lack of any worthwhile leg articulation, you're stuck with it.  And there's something else I didn't really notice at first...I don't pay much attention to action figure crotches, but I have noticed that there's just something so...wrong about Marion's.  This is the Cairo outfit, and the irony is not lost on me. 

Out of these three, the Swordsman is clearly the best. The head sculpt actually approximates the character quite well, and the pre-posed nature of the legs isn't as much of an issue. The detailing on the clothing is reasonable, and the scale is quite good. The hands work well with both posing and with holding his sword.

The third figure is Belloq, not exactly one of the most exciting characters in Raiders, but a critical bad guy. He's wearing his fancy Jewish robes here, preparing to get his head exploded. He doesn't look a whole lot like the actual character, at least from the facial sculpt, but the outfit is nicely done. He poses well too, and again, the scale is good. The hand sculpts work well for posing and holding accessories, but there are mold lines on both hands, hurting the appearance quite a bit.

In fact, that's one of the pluses so far of this line. The scale of figures to each other is varied and actually pretty close to reality, making the overall display a lot more visually interesting. Out of these three, obviously Marion should be the shortest and is just over 3 1/2 inches tall, with Belloq in the middle at just under 4 inches, and the Swordsman at 4 1/2 inches tall and the tallest.

Paint - Swordsman ***; Belloq **1/2; Marion **
The Achilles heel of this line so far is the paint work. Some of it, particularly on the bodies and costumes, is quite nice. Unfortunately, the work on many of the faces is not up to par though, hurting the overall line quite a bit. Hunt for the best you can find on the shelf, because there appears to be quite a bit of inconsistency between individual figures.

The Cairo Swordsman sports one of the better paint jobs of the series. Sure, the work on the robes and body isn't exactly difficult to pull off, but at least it's consistent. And the work on his eyes and beard is much better than some of the other less fortunate characters.

Speaking of the less fortunate, there's Marion. Yep, she scores lower in this category the second time around as well. The googly eye thing is really getting to me, and the sloppy lips and hairline is unacceptable even in this scale. The work on her costume isn't bad, particularly with the fine pattern on her shirt, but the most critical aspect remains the face, and there they dropped the ball.

Belloq falls in between. There's some slop on the chest plate details, although this is tough to see in normal, 1:1 scale in person. Some of the other work on the costume, like the pattern, is excellent, and even the eyes are fairly clean and even.. But what's up with those eyebrows? How did he get them to sit on the outside of the cloth hat that wraps around his head? Now that's a Hell of a trick!

Articulation - Swordsman, Belloq ***; Marion **1/2
None of these are super articulated, but Hasbro has had enough experience with articulation in this scale to do a pretty good job.

Marion is the weakest, and again she scores lower this time than the first time I looked at her. This is also because of the damn leg pose, and the lack of leg articulation to do anything about it. She has what is probably a ball jointed neck, but the hair keeps it from doing anything more than a cut joint would do. She has pin/post shoulders and elbows, which work like ball joints and give her qutie a bit of movement in these locations. There's also the cut waist and cut wrists, and the T hips. She's not going to do much, pose-wise.

The other two figures also lack leg articulation, but both are wearing skirts, so any leg joints would be pretty worthless anyway.

The Swordsman has the same neck as Marion, and his is inhibited by the costume. He has the pin/post shoulders and elbows, as well as the cut waist and T hips, but lacks the cut wrists as well. So while he has less articulation than Marion, he scored better...why? Because even with less articulation, you can get much better poses. This is because his sculpt and articulation work together much better than Marion's.

Finally, there's Belloq. His ball jointed neck isn't great, but it certainly works better than the other two, and he has the same pin/post shoulders, elbows, cut wrists, cut waist and T hips. Coming up with poses was pretty easy, although getting him to stand on his own was more tricky than either of the other two.

Accessories - ***
Here's the real saving grace for all the figures in the line, but these three in particular. Hasbro has included artifacts with each one, packed in a small cardboard 'crate'. These are NOT packed randomly - buy Marion and you'll get the Staff of Ra headpiece, for example.

The scale on these is all over the place if you take the whole bunch as a group. But several of them are actually more in scale with the 12" figures than the smaller figures, and those are the ones I'm personally most interested in.

The Cairo Swordsman comes with his sword of course, which he can hold just fine, and which looks reasonably good. His artifact is the Terracotta Warrior statue. Now, this is not actually in scale with anything, since the real Terracotta Warriors are life size statues. But if you can bring yourself to ignore the real statues, this one can pose as a normal sized hand held statue with the sixth scale figures. The sculpt is reasonable, with some nice weathering and softness to the details, just like a truly old, worn statue.

Marion comes with the same oversized frying pan and sword that she had in the deluxe set. Again, if that was it, she'd be scoring a lot lower here. But she also has the Staff of Ra head piece, a critical element in Raiders. The sculpt and color are quite good here, although it's actually a bit TOO big, even for sixth scale! It should really be slightly bigger than the palm of the hand, and this one is maybe 20% bigger than that. But since we haven't seen any sixth scale releases offering this as an accessory yet, it was a must buy for me. And that meant I got stuck with another Marion.

The only thing you might have issue with is the color of the stone. This stone should be an amber, and should be the usual amber color. This one is red though, but technically that's still screen accurate, as it glows this red color when Indy uses it in the Map Room. The only bummer is that there are no holes in the base, so there's no easy way to attach it to a staff. That's why God invented power tools.

Finally, there's Belloq. Again, his only character specific accessory is his funky staff, and the sculpt and paint job are reasonable. The soft plastic that they've used tends to bend, but a little hot water/cold water and you can get it fairly straight.

His artifact also works with 12" figures, although whether you need it or not is up to you. He comes with the Golden Fertility Idol, but since the Sideshow version will have one, the 12" Talking Indy already had one, and you can even get one in the Gentle Giant crate if you're lucky (I wasn't), then you very well may not need it. The one that came with the 12" Talking Indy is oversized, much like the usual Hasbro sixth scale accessory. The one that comes with Belloq is just a little undersized, but that makes it appear less toyish as far as I'm concerned. I also like the sculpt on it a bit better.

Value - **
The usual going rate on these seems to be around eight bucks. Ouch. The deluxe two packs run $10 - $11, and are actually a pretty good deal considering the current market. But the only saving grace these figures have is the included artifact, which helps them score even worse in the Value category.

Fun Factor - Swordsman ***1/2; Marion, Belloq ***
Since the Cairo Swordsman is such a recognizable villain from the first film, kids are more likely to get greater play value out of him. Yea, Belloq was a villain, but Indy isn't going to enjoy kickin' his ass quite as much. And Marion? You don't really want your kids play acting the relationship between her and Indy, now do you? Eh, she can always wack somebody with her frying pan.

Things to Watch Out For - 
Not much. You'll want to watch the paint ops on these and all the 3 3/4" Indy toys, particularly on the faces. While most of the work on the bodies and clothing has been good or better, the faces have been a real crap shoot. And I mean crap.

Overall - Swordsman, Belloq ***; Marion **1/2
Belloq almost dropped another half star, but in the end the outfit was done well enough that he survived with three stars. The Swordsman is clearly the winner of these three, and although his artifact isn't really in scale, you can pretend it is if you ignore history.

The only reason to buy Marion is if you're a) a completist or b) want the Staff of Ra headpiece. It was worth it to me to pick her up even though I had the deluxe version just to get that artifact, but I suspect that's because I'm c) deranged.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpt - Swordsman ***1/2; Belloq ***; Marion **1/2
Paint - Swordsman ***; Belloq **1/2; Marion **
Articulation - Swordsman, Belloq ***; Marion **1/2
Accessories - ***
Fun Factor - Swordsman ***1/2; Marion, Belloq ***
Value - **
Overall - Swordsman, Belloq ***; Marion **1/2

Where to Buy -
I picked these up at K-Mart, and you should make a special note of it. Right now, if you buy $20 worth of Indy toys, you get a $5 'reward' off the price. This wasn't shown anywhere around the toys, but it automatically happens when they ring up. On top of that, when I paid for mine, another $5 off any Hasbro toys purchase of $20 or more was printed up, and this can be applied to figures already on sale. I'm off to K-mart again to pick up some more single carded figures on the cheap!

Related Links -
I've already covered a number of new Indy products:

- I reviewed the 12" German and Cairo Swordsman, as well as both 12" Hasbro Indy's.

- in this scale, I looked at some of the deluxe two packs.

- There's a number of cool Lego sets, inlcuding this one.

- Gentle Giant did a 7" version for the Disney parks. 

- Disney has done a few other Indy figures, including this wave of small ones. 

- and if you're looking for something a bit bigger, check out the very cool sixth scale Grail diary, or this sixth scale figure.