"Lost" Indiana Jones Tough Sergeant figure FOUND!

[Lance Quazar]

Okay, gang, this is truly an extraordinary piece of Indiana Jones collecting news!

Now, we all know about the "Final Five" unreleased second wave of Raiders figures we will sadly never own.

However, a SIXTH missing figure has been discovered! That's right, another figure in this awesome line we thought we'd never see....

until now!

This is a version of the "Tough Sergeant" character from Raiders. You know, the German soldier during the truck chase. The bad-ass
who punches Indy's wounded arm and then throws him through the window, only to meet a similar fate!

Well, I managed to get my hands on this prototype and it looks great.

But there's even MORE good news!

In a joint partnership between myself and customizer extraordinaire Bantha 5, head casts of this lost treasure are now available!



In all likelihood, this will be the last "new" Indiana Jones figure you'll ever get your chance to own!

So don't delay. To order, contact Bantha 5 at:

ryan@midishaw.com

Please put tough sergeant in the title.

Here are some more pictures for your enjoyment -

[vmf214]

Wow the likeness is uncanny. Neat!

[Razor17019]

Okay, gang, this is truly an extraordinary piece of Indiana Jones collecting news!

Now, we all know about the "Final Five" unreleased second wave of Raiders figures we will sadly never own.

However, a SIXTH missing figure has been discovered! That's right, another figure in this awesome line we thought we'd never see....

until now!

Lance,
What are the other 5 figures we aren't going to see?

Dare we ask where your friend got this prototype head?

How much is he asking for them?
Razor

[Jesse James]

There was a wave of figures pictured that was due out this year, but which were cancelled along with the line overall. Included were Toht who even had a melting extra head, the German Mechanic, etc. These and the above mentioned "German thug" from the truck chase were all pictured/mentioned in one of the old IJ threads here at one point or another, actually.

I forget which of those IJ threads it was in though.

The last wave was pictured as well, not just mentioned, as these figures were sculpted and prepared. It's rumored the German SOldier from the chase sequence was part of either a "battlepack" planned to include a repaint of the truck and Indy w/some other Germans, or to come in a later wave.

EDIT: HEre's the image of the "last wave".



This was 2009 Wave 1... Other figures were 100% confirmed to be coming via Hasbro's Q&A which included Col. Dietrich from Raiders as well (who also would've maybe had a melty head?).

It's a crying shame that line died. Hasbro was doing knock-out work with it.[/img]

[flayrah]

I have no idea how people get their hands on prototypes/one-offs and samples, but some turn up from time to time on e-bay, always being sold from China. Don't know if the sellers are factory workers, engineers, artists or people who go through the trash, but somehow they get the pieces.

All of the confirmed figures must exist in some form, it's just a matter of where they are and in what condition. Toht was produced, in a way - with a different head as an exclusive Cobra Commander.

[Jesse James]

Confirmed doesn't necessarilly mean made in that they're tooled and all. Those figures pictured from 2009 Wave 1, could be pure prototypes that weren't really produced, but your'e right that at least the body for Toht got produced. It's my guess that wave was tooled but not produced... Dietrich and others were confirmed through the Q&A but never pictured due to the line's death.

Doubt they got beyond the planning stage, perhaps some preliminary sculpting, on those.

Sometimes things people list as prototypes are actually test shots... Test shots are basically as the name suggests, more or less a test of the mold with whatever plastic's handy. That's why you sometimes see goofy colors on things people are selling or showing as "prototypes". True prototypes are usually resin casts of the original wax sculpt of the toy, and are sometimes hand-painted and such.

I think there was probably a decent ammount of stuff that was sculpted and tooled and ready to go for IJ in 2009 but the line's failure obviously ended that. Hasbro had mentioned they were looking closely at doing battlepacks, there was talk of more environment type sets because they claimed environments were more important to the IJ property, and of course there were tons of figures they said they'd like to do, or they were definitely going to do in 2009... It sucks thinking about it really, in a way, because their last wave (TOD wave) was so damn great, and that pictured cancelled wave of ROTLA figures is just sickening to think we'll likely never get them. My figure shelf will never be complete without Toht, German Indy, Marion in her dress, and the German mechanic.

[Lance Quazar]

Hasbro admitted they had all the tooling done on the final Raiders figures. Ridiculous they remain unreleased, especially since Toht's body made it out last year.

I do think a battle pack was probably the most likely destination for the unproduced Tough Sergeant figure. Damn shame.

I'm not the expert Jesse James is at all, but two Indiana Jones collectors over at the Raven managed to get their hands on full sets of the five unreleased figures.

They call them "test shots", they are unpainted and are in weird colors, like my German Sergeant.

They look spectacular, but the selfish creeps won't share them with anyone.

I found my figure after those guys found theirs and was determined to try to make these as available as possible to the frustrated fans like myself who are saddened/enraged by the line's cancellation. I am not going to see one single dime of profit off of this.

If interested, contact Ryan at the above email, he's the one making the casts.

The price is EXTREMELY cheap, so don't delay! I don't know how many he is planning on making......

[Jesse James]

I've been to the raven and I bet I could guess who at least oen of the guys is.

There's a couple real tools hang out there. People who basically I'm glad not to have to deal with on other boards since they're really only into IJ crap. The test shot could get damaged, but probably not if someone were careful, so I can see some of their hesitance to let them go, however if I had them I'd probably take them apart to be cast simply because everyone wants that wave so bad.

[flayrah]

Interesting information about the figures. Does anyone know of vehicles that were next in line to be produced?

[vmf214]

Personally I wish they'd released stuff like this in the beginning instead of so much CS stuff and I know it was "proper" and all since the toys went with the new movie, but...that Toht with the melting head would've been a big hit imo.

[Jesse James]

Unfortunately though, a hit with who exactly? And that's most likely adults who Hasbro really felt this line couldn't be sustained by just them. Everything hinged on KotCS's success, and the subsequent toy line that went with it being successful. The movie was financially a success as it made a ton, but kids didn't latch onto IJ for the long haul.

Add in some probably bad decisions with the distribution... It was a disaster at retail then. Sold well for the Summer, but died quick come fall. That sucked.

Vehicles Hasbro mentioned were them looking at how they could do the Flying Wing, repaints and a sidecar for the motorcycle (desert and green/grey decoes were mentioned), the "sea jeep" or "seep" from KotCS was mentioned since it was more prominent than the cutter thing which I think had a longer fight thing planned, but dropped from the movie ultimately.

There was talk of jungle Belloq, Fedora guy from TLC, Desert Belloq, German Pilot, and so forth... All talk though, no images of any of it surfaced, just that Hasbro had really high hopes of expanding things, and making new indy figures like Club Obi-Wan Indy in tux, Red gown Willie, Chinese gangster figures... They made Satipo for the next wave so I think more figures from the opening of RotLA were going to happen too. Who knows... It's depressing to think about too much.

[Razor17019]

Lance,
Hey I sent an email to your friend yesterday morning and have not hear back from him yet. You might want to give him a heads up people are asking about this prototype head he has.
Thanks,
Razor

[Lance Quazar]

Thanks, Razor.

But I think he's been quite inundated with requests over the past couple days.

I'm sure he'll get back to everyone soon enough.

If you don't hear anything in, say, a week, then definitely let me know.

[Razor17019]

Lance,
Your friend Ryan got back to me. Yes, very reasonable price for the head.
He also offered me chilled monkey brains cast too. Do you know if a pic is posted somewhere of the chilled monkey brains cast?

Do you think he may offer a painted version of the head?

[panzertruppen]

I would have liked to see the line continue, but it was never to be.

[Lance Quazar]

Lance,
Your friend Ryan got back to me. Yes, very reasonable price for the head.
He also offered me chilled monkey brains cast too. Do you know if a pic is posted somewhere of the chilled monkey brains cast?

Do you think he may offer a painted version of the head?

Hey, glad to hear it.

I don't think he's doing painted heads, just due to the overwhelming demand the heads have received and how time consuming and painstaking the painting is.

I can't speak for him, but that's my distinct impression.

Here are some pics of the monkey brains:

[Razor17019]

My chilled monkey brains and "Tough Sergeant" head arrived today.
Very cool!
Thanks for letting us know about this!

[Jolly Roger]

last new Indy toy until Indy 5 comes out

[Jesse James]

Lance is a good guy for making it available, and I was disappointed to see this putz on another site tearing Lance apart over making the figure available... It's over on a board called TheRaven or some such. All Indy stuff.

The guy's a really arrogant ass, to put it bluntly.

Now, I cannot deny there are legal issues to making that headsculpt available... Technically in every way it's illegal, and LFL/Hasbro could both come down on anyone duplicating it, but still I think Lance was doing something nice for the community that Hasbro let down... I'm disappointed to see though that there are "collectors" dumping on him as well over it.

Ultimately releasing the item shouldn't impact the value of the original, as is being claimed, as it's possible to tell the difference between test shots from injection molded plastic, and reproductions from liquid resins... Weight alone usually can tell you what's "real" and what isn't.

Lance, just wanted you to know I and Rob (Kneel before Zod) aren't the only ones noticing you did something good for others. Just letting you know man.

[Lance Quazar]

Hey, thanks Jesse!

Yeah, that guy is a real dick, but I've decided the best way to deal with him is to ignore him.

Petty and pathetic in the extreme. But what are you gonna do?

I hope you enjoy the head, I was delighted to be able to do this for the community, I only wish I had managed to get the other figure figures, too!

Thanks again, I really appreciate your comments!!

Ryan painted me a full on custom of this figure and it looks great, I'll try to post some pictures of it soon.

[Jesse James]

I haven't picked up one unfortunately. The IJ line is dead to me right now... I'll let you know if I ever happen to pick up the lost wave though, for sure.