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Hasbro Mail Away Sixth Scale Ark of the Covenant

Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant

I love mail-aways.  They remind me of days gone by when I was much younger and a lot cuter.  So when Hasbro offered three mail-away offers with their Indiana Jones figures, I jumped on them.

One is for the Adventure Heroes, one is for the 3 3/4" standard line, and the one I'm reviewing tonight is for the 12" figure line.

To get this mail-away, you collect the stickers from four of the first series 12" figures.  Send them in with $10 for shipping and handling, and voila! You get the Ark of the Covenant, the critical relic of the first film.

All three of the mail-aways seem to be shipping right now, so you best get moving on gathering up those stickers and sending them in, lest you end up doing the Ebay boogie later on.

Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant

Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant
Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant
Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant
Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant
Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant
Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant
Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant

Packaging - ***
They could have just shipped this in a plain white box.  That's how most mail-aways get handled.  But instead, they come in a box printed up to look like a crate - how apropos! The box protect the contents pretty well, and looks good doing it.

Sculpting - ***1/2
This is a very well done Ark, with nice detailing on the various carved images.  The pseudo relief carvings on the sides look great, and the detailed work along the top edge of the lid is very, very well done.

There are a few areas where the sculpt seems a little soft.  The 'poles' along the sides that allow the Ark to be carried show plenty of detail, but that detail is softer than some of the other areas, with a bit more of a generic look.

Inside the Ark is sculpted sand, very close to the bottom.  That's a nice touch of course, but pretty much expected with any version of the Ark.

The scale is extremely good.  I was surprised that this Ark is large enough to fit in very well with the Hasbro Indy.  The Sideshow Indy is a little bigger, but the Medicom versions should be perfectly in scale with this Ark as well.

This Ark is designed to be displayed with the poles in place.  As I recall from the film, there were metal rings on both sides of the Ark, and the poles were slide through them by Indy and Sallah to lift the Ark.  Here, you attach the long ends on the poles to the more ornamental sections of the poles.  These more ornamental sections are part of the permanent sculpt of the Ark.  I'll discuss this further in the Design section.

Paint - ***
If but for one issue, this category would have garnered another half star.

The gold plating (do they call it gilding when it's plastic too?) looks excellent on the exterior of the Ark.  It's consistent and very bright, and it seems to hold up to handling and play pretty well.  The consistency of the coverage is impressive, even with the detailed sculpting, and the lines or circles created by the manufacturing process are all well hidden.

The reason the Ark loses a half star here is because the ornamental sculptures on top are NOT plated.  Instead, they went with a gold colored plastic.  That means they do not have the high shine of the rest of the Ark, and while they did a pretty good job matching the overall color, it's still very obvious in person that they are not the same.  I'm not sure why they made that choice, but it was a disappointment.

Design - ***
As I mentioned in the Sculpt section, the real design issue here is whether you have the poles or you don't.  Some of the Arks we've seen - including some of the smaller ones from Hasbro - have not had the poles or rings at all, some have had the rings, and now we have our first true sixth scale version with the poles.

I suspect the issue for folks won't be that they got one with the poles, but that with the poles is the only choice.  Has Hasbro placed rings on the sides and gone with full poles instead, this Ark would have been perfect.  But considering that this is a mail-away, I'm not surprised in the least that they chose to go with the permanently sculpted poles.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
While this will work with higher end displays, it's first and foremost for kids.  The exterior plating looks like it can hold up to rough play (I even dropped it on a concrete floor and didn't find any damage), and it can hold a fair volume of kid provided sand.  Let's just hope nobody ends up with a melted face.

Value - ***
The score here depends on whether you wanted four 12" figures or not.  I did, so getting this guy for $10 is a steal.  I'm assuming though that you had to spend some or all of the $80 on the figures against your will, thus lowering this value score a bit for the average consumer.

Still, I'm going with the *** because of the comparison with other mail aways and BAF's that require similar investments.  For example, to build Foom you have to spend $120...50% more than this very cool sixth scale accessory.

Things To Watch Out For
Not a thing.

Overall - ***1/2
This guy is good enough to display with my Sideshow Indy figures or your Medicom Indy figures, and not feel bad about it at all.  Sure, there's a few things I'd fix (and I bet there's a few you would too), but the overall quality is still very nice, and it makes a great diorama piece.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ***
Design - ***
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy -
Rush out and grab those four 12" figures, and get those stickers sent in!

Related Links -
Since the movie hit, I've reviewed a ton of Indy product:

- the last was the cute little Adventure Heroes.

- then there's the Kotobukiya Indy and Professor Jones Sr, the Blockbuster exclusive DVD case, the 12" German and Cairo Swordsman, as well as both 12" Hasbro Indy's.

- in the smaller scale, I looked at some of the deluxe two packs and several of the single pack figures, with a few more over at QSE.

- 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.

Discussion:
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Hasbro sixth scale Ark of the Covenant


Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford.

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