I love Sideshow products, they're just soooo beautifully crafted but alas also sooo expensive. This one is definitely worth the $289 smack-a-roos I think.
First of all, an introduction: Mola Ram, if you don't know by now, is the main villain from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. 'Temple' is one of my all time favorites, in fact only surpassed by Raiders of the lost Ark. It's just such a fun and scary action movie.
The indian actor Amrish Puri portrayed the insane villain perfectly, and delivered a performance that everybody who has seen the movie will remember forever. Now who can't remember the Sacrifice scene where he tears a still beating heart from the chest of a hapless victim, while chanting loudly 'KALI MAAAA - KALI MAAAA SHUK TI DAEE'. When I was a kid, my father fastforwarded through that scene because he thought it was too graphic for me and my younger brother. But the image stuck with me for many years.
That guy Mola Ram is one twisted puppy! Not only can he rip peoples hearts from their chests he can also make them bust into fire! He also thinks that it's alright to abduct children to work in mines and make people drink some sort of halluciogenic so he can control them (as Doctor Jones experinced first hand).
He's the coolest and most scary villain Indiana Jones ever had to face. So when Sideshow released this cool figure I just had to have it!
First impression is that Sideshow has surpassed themselves, it looks exactely like Mola Ram in the movie, all the small details, like his gap between the front teeth is there, it's just perfect!
The standard figure comes with two interchangeable heads and two hands holding a human heart.
The exclusive comes with the skull chalice, but since he can't actually hold it I just went for the standart version.
It's a bit tricky to put them on since the small one won't fit over his head and neither will the big one when using the head with the skull helmet. So just drape them over the neck of the head before putting it on the body, be careful not to get the string below his neck.
I prefer the skull helmet head. It recreates the look from Drew Struzans poster perfectly. He has that same happy crazy look in his eyes! With the flaming heart in his hand he looks fantastic!
The other head is actually scarier, that one looks like it's from the scene where he makes Jones drink from the blood chalice.
Here are a few close ups:
The paintjob is spot on. I'm usually very critical on this point as I'm pretty good at painting myself, but this one looks very good! They took a cue from the Indiana Jones PF and glazed his eyes and mouth so they look wet, instead of just painting in highlights.
The clothes are topnotch, it's amazing how it looks exactly like the material in the movie, only scaled down. Awesome!!
The base is also great! It features some skulls and mumified heads - all of which are different sculpts! Very creepy
indeed! Perfectly in tune with the character.
All in all a great looking PF figure, they couldn't have done a better job. 5/5 stars
