Mutt Williams

Hasbro has had some major problems with their newer movie lines. Their Spider-Man 3 and Rise of the Silver Surfer toys sold terribly, so stores were reluctant to order Transformers movie toys, leading to some truly epic shortages. The brisk TF sales meant that Iron Man toys were (mostly) plentiful, but unfortunately, it also gave retailers the confidence to put in huge orders for the Indiana Jones line. Deep in the Peruvian jungle, Mutt and Indiana Jones attempt to escape the Russian soldiers holding them prisoner, but find that the jungle holds dangers of its own. The pair must brave quicksand, snakes, and terrifying giant insects before they can make their way to their final destination: the Lost Temple of Akator. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a fine entry in the film series, and Hasbro made the right choice by including Raiders of the Lost Ark toys, but a variety of factors conspired to keep the toyline from hitting big. But whatever your opinion of how things were handled, you can't claim that all the toys were bad. Mutt is rocking the casual look for this figure, having shed his tough-guy leather jacket somewhere in the jungle, leaving him in his gray T-shirt, rolled jeans and Beatle boots. His shirt is sculpted well, though judging by the photo on the back of the card, it should probably bunch more around the armpits. You can even tell there's a body under the cloth. One of the problems with the Indy toys was that the likenesses weren't up to the standards we're used to. Hasbro has spent years working with the factory that makes the Star Wars toys to ensure the likenesses are the best they can be, and since they couldn't very well shut down SW production for a few months, Indy was made at a different factory, which didn't quite have the fine control to nail the look. That said, Mutt features a pretty decent likeness of Shia LaBeouf, though it is perhaps the Shia of five years ago, not the Shia of today. Sure beats the hell out of any Harrison Ford they gave us, though. Articulation is as good here as it is on the rest of Hasbro's 3¾" toys - and nothing at all like Mattel's embarrassments. Mutt has a balljointed head, swivel joints at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles, and hinges at the shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles. Everything moves well, but there is a bulge in his right bicep where the internal peg seems to be distending the plastic. Mutt has two accessories: his switchblade knife, and a large green snake. The knife is okay, but the snake is one step above the kind of prize you get for winning 10 tickets at the bowling alley arcade. Yes, it's directly out of the movie, but come on. Like all the Indiana Jones figures, this one also includes a cardboard crate with a hidden artifact inside. This Top Secret crate, #9905321, contains the Eye of Horus, a protective talisman common in ancient Egypt. And also a system of measuring fractions. There were two Mutt Williams figures in the basic line: this one and another in his jacket. Did the world really need two Mutt Williamses? No, not really, and that's why you can still find them on the shelves now, months after their release. You'll notice, though, that the shirt version is harder to find than the jacket version. Why's that? Well, I imagine a lot of people bought this one for the same reason I did: not because they wanted a figure of Mutt Williams, but because it's the perfect base for a custom Sam Witwicky. Jeans and a t-shirt? Hell, stand him next to Bumblebee and you're halfway there already. The Indiana Jones figures were slow sellers, which is kind of a shame. Recognizing the problems with the toys, Hasbro was working to correct them with later releases, but now we'll probably never see those.

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