MARCUS BRODY

INDIANA JONES: ADVENTURE SERIES (HASBRO)

In the more than a decade that I’ve been running the site, I’ve mentioned Indiana Jones only in passing, and only, like, three times at that.  I guess it’s just one of those franchises I’ve never had a major connection to.  Like, I’ve seen all the movies, and they certainly have their moments.  Last Crusade is genuinely just a good movie, which I do really enjoy, but outside of that one, they’re all just fine enough, I guess.  I’ve tried on the toys a few times in the past, and I just always wind up falling right back out of it.  I ended up passing on Adventure Series, Hasbro’s 6-inch line from 2023, pretty much as a whole because I couldn’t ultimately see myself sticking with it.  That being said, in all of the toy coverage over the years, we’ve never gotten a figure of my favorite character from the films, Marcus Brody, played by Denholm Elliot, whose other roles weren’t really keen for action figure coverage either.  There’s a sincere lack of Trading Places action figures is all I’m saying.  Hasbro did actually offer Marcus up for Adventure Series, though, and I got one, so I’m looking at British-guy-in-a-suit Denholm Elliot today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Marcus Brody was released in a Fan Channel-exclusive Indiana Jones: Adventure Series two-pack, alongside a variant of Rene Belloq.  It’s a multi-pack of guys in suits.  Odd choice, especially since the two don’t share any scenes in Raiders.  I think they interacted a bit in the expanded universe, so maybe that’s what we’re going with?  Look, it got us a Marcus figure, so I’m not gonna stress about it too much.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  His articulation, which is pretty typical for the line as a whole, is a lot like the modern Black Series set-up, which works pretty well, and also makes a fair bit of sense.  It’s not, like, super great for crazy posing or anything, but it works fine for the type of character Marcus is supposed to be.  Marcus’ sculpt is a pretty respectable one.  It’s again got a Black Series vibe to it, which works fine by me.  The head’s got a pretty respectable likeness of Denholm Elliot, which is the most important part.  The suit sculpt is a little softer, but it does alright.  The multi-layered construction definitely works well.  The color work is generally basic.  The most in depth work’s on the face, which is using the printing.  Most of the rest of it’s molded plastic.  It’s generally clean.  There’s not a ton going on, but it’s accurate.  Marcus is packed with an apple (our second one of those in this scale from Hasbro, though its a different mold than the one packed with He-Who-Remains) and his large book, which opens up to a fully detailed interior page.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Marcus is my favorite part of the franchise largely because of Denholm Elliot in the role.  I’m a big fan of Elliot’s other roles, especially Trading Places and Noises Off, so the prospect of owning a figure of him was definitely a cool one.  I wanted to snag this figure, but the two-pack set-up was tricky, especially because I didn’t really want Belloq.  Matty wanted to go into a Gamestop a couple of months ago, though, and they happened to have the set on clearance, which made the whole thing easier to justify.  I offloaded the Belloq, and now I’ve just got a Denholm Elliot figure, which is pretty nifty.  Now, if I could just manage to find 1/12 scale figures of Eddie Murphy and Jaime Lee Curtis, I’d be all set for my own Trading Places set-up.