May you all have a wonderful Christmas time and thank you so much for the continued support here on CBD!

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Did it snow yet where you live?
Well it did here last friday night but it’s already starting to melt again as I write this. It’s still chillingly cold though, and the topic at hand is certainly not going to warm you up.
The Sculpture Festival 2008 is in town and I wanted to share some impressions of my visit.
Some 50 professional artists from Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Finland, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and the USA recreated the Brother Grimm’s Tales in Ice. What these people do is basically take 200 tons of ice and 200 cubic metres of snow and sculpt away at a temperature of -8°C.
Then they have a lot of special lighting going on to achieve the desired effects like mirroring.
Very, very beautiful I have to say, not only if you like fairy stories or Swarovski figures.

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Well here we go for the second and final part of my Cinemaquette Indiana Jones review.

“Indy… why does the floor ‘move’?”

Firstly let’s get our bearings so we know what we are talking about here. The Indiana Jones Cinemaquette base follows in the tradition of the pieces before it. Simple, effective designs; themed to, and complimenting the character. The bases have an elegant nameplate depicting the character and the film the character comes from. A couple of things to note. Firstly, the nameplate, is gold, and thus follows the trend set by the Jack Sparrow Cinemaquette. I am not sure if Cinemaquette have been experimenting with different colours, or just feel that gold works better with some pieces. The upcoming Predator has a silver plate, whilst the Godfather is silver and Bruce Lee is gold. One thing’s for sure - the gold on Indiana Jones works nicely as it makes me think of the Golden Idol. The base is bigger than the ‘normal’ Cinemaquette base as found on every release apart from Volume IV - the Alien. The base measures around 40cm square, and is about halfway between the regular base size, and that of the Alien. The reason for the bigger base is to support the wider stance caused by the dynamic pose. Another thing to point out is that the nameplate on Indiana Jones bucks the trend of character name at the top followed by film underneath. For the first time the film appears at the top, with the character name below. There may be some significance to this, or it may just be a deliverate design choice.

Ok, the base is themed on the temple floor from the start of the movie. The screen grab shows you what to expect.

And here we have the base from the Cinemaquette.

I really don’t feel like I have to say much about this. The picture sums up the level of detail Cinemaquette went to in creating a base straight out of the film. I like the bases on these pieces for their simplicity, however, I don’t think a base on a piece has worked quite so well since the skulls on Volume III - the T800. There are a number of choices that Cinemaquette could have chosen for this piece, and I am glad they avoided anything to do with floors covered in snakes. The bases should never detract from the piece (something I am not completely sure Cinemaquette have observed with the upcoming Predator), and lots of little snakes could have turned out really bad.  As it happens, the detailing and the paint job on the base is exquisite. From the tiny leaves, to the bits of moss, and the dirt effect of the booby trapped stones - it feels like Indy is standing there, right in that temple. The underside carries the normal numbering and edition size information.

One very nice detail is the corners of the base. I only spotted this when I was watching the film the other night preparing this review. Lets take a look. Each corner is an exact copy of the pillar the Golden Idol sits on.  You can see the comparison pic below. Neat huh?

In short this base is really an ideal statement. It feels nice and chunky, and really compliments the statue well.

“Throw me the whip!”

Right, the accessories. In this section I’ll discuss the whip, the holster, the satchel, the journal and the pen knife.

Ok, the whip. The whip is a lot of fun. It comes detached from the main statue at the wrist, and is coiled up for transit. The wrist inserts in to the socket on the raised arm. The whip has some form of wire running through it, so it is bendable in to any position you see fit. It is worth investing some time to get the whip in to the right position for you. I took care to try and get all the ‘angles’ out of the whip, so it looked as natural as possible. I have seen some of these whips bent at quite unnatural angles, it is supposed to ‘flow’ like a real whip would, and not stick out at straight lines. Here is a close up shot of the whip end.
Here again you can see Cinemaquette’s crazy attention to detail with the way the whip terminates, first in an untangled section of whip, then finally the small black bit of whip on the end. Compare this with the real thing - the actual screen used whip from Last Crusade, and you get a good idea for the level of accuracy invested in the whip. The whip feels about the right length as well, and gets thick and thin in all the ‘right’ places.

Next up is the satchel. The colour of the satchel is well matched to the screen used one. I particularly like the piece of string that can be found tying up the front of the satchel, just as it does in the film. The back of the satchel also has this strange green disc, which you can see in the screen grab coming up in a minute. I have no idea what that is actually for.
The belt on the satchel is a little over-sized, and has been ‘aged’. One photo I forgot to get uploaded was a shot of the satchel on the Cinemaquette, but I’ll get that fixed up over the next few days.

The holster is perfectly scaled and holds the equally perfectly scaled .445 Smith and Wesson Revolver Indiana Jones uses throughtout the film. At first glance the holster looks quite ‘new’, but this is consitent with the film, where the holster often looks quite shiny and new. The holster has two fastening pins and one clasp. Once the pistol is inserted one piece of leather fastens across the side of the holster to hold the gun in place. Then the ‘lid’ of the holster closes down and is fastened in place. All very satisfying and realistic. Also worth pointing out is the whip holder on the gun belt. You won’t see it on any of the pictures in this review, because I didn’t realise it was there until after the pictures were uploaded! But the small leather loop that holds the whip on to the belt is all present and correct.

Also included with this piece is a replica journal (identical - even down to the colour scheme) to the one Indiana Jones is seen holding in the “Map Room” scene of the film. A perfectly scaled pen knife is also included. Both of these items can be placed in the satchel. I don’t have pictures of these bits rght now, but I’ll again update the review with some as soon as the pictures are uploaded.

 ”It’s being loaded on to a truck…”

And so we come to the final part of this review. The packaging is once again a stand out. Following the typical Cinemaquette template, the piece comes boxed in it’s own unique presentation case, with three internal layers of packaging. The top layer houses the COA. It is worth noting that the signature on the COA is a copy, taken from the master version signed by Harrison Ford. The second layer has the “Care & Assembly” booklet, the base, and the normal powder to treat the silicone (if excessively handled). It also holds the whip hand. The final layer has the statue, the fedora, the journal and the pen knife. All meticulously wrapped.  The outer box features a motif based on the temple floor, with the Raiders of the Lost Ark logo across the middle. This is packed in a plastic bag, then boxed in to an outer carboard box, which itself is then housed in a more sturdy thick cardboard box. My Cinemaquette arrived free from damage, and in excellent shape. Unboxing a Cinemaquette is always a pleasure, and this one is no exception.

In conclusion. This Cinemaquette is awesome. A really fantastic entry in the line, and without doubt my favourite piece so far. The likeness needs to be appreciated in person, as no pictures I have seen really do it justice. Seeing these pieces in person - looking at them for what they are, is the way to truely love them. If you are interested in the most realistic looking Indiana Jones, this statue is peerless. All I can say is buy it. You won’t regret it.

The Indiana Jones Cinemaquette is available from Forbidden Planet International and is priced at £1099.

http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=33542

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