A bronze piece, about this size, 
with a hole in it, off-center,
with a crystal. – Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark

Review by Iain Delaney: The Headpiece of the Staff of Ra is the secondary Maguffin in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s the item that guides our hero, Indiana Jones, to the location of the titular Lost Ark of the Covenant. Indy first finds the headpiece in the possession of Marion Ravenwood at her bar in the Himalayas and takes both of them on his quest in search of the Ark.

42 years after the film’s debut, Hasbro Toys has put out the “Staff of Ra Headpiece”, part of their “Indiana Jones Adventure Series” of collectible toys. The Staff of Ra Headpiece is available in various toy stores, online shops, and directly from Hasbro Pulse. The list price is $50.99 (US).

The packaging is a simple cardboard box covered in images and graphics. There’s a large picture of the headpiece on the front and next to it is a still from the movie of Indy using the headpiece in the map room at Tanis. The back of the box has more pictures and descriptions of the features of the headpiece. The box notes it uses plastic-free packaging, which is a nice innovation after decades of injection molded plastic and tie downs or twist ties.

Inside the box is a cardboard tray holding the three pieces of the toy and the instructions and warnings that always come with an item like this. The three pieces are the headpiece, a piece of the staff about four and one-half inches long, and a base made to look like a small piece of the floor of the map room. Let’s look at each part.

Although it is detailed and screen-accurate, the headpiece appears plastic to me. A coat or two of bronze paint would have fixed this, but the lighting effects make it nearly impossible to do this after the fact. Still, it looks pretty good. The detail is all there, with the inscriptions, the phoenix (I think it’s a phoenix, the movie didn’t specify) and the crystal in the center. The size, from what I can tell, is the same as the movie prop and the proportions are similar.

The staff is a clever little piece of trickery that lets the headpiece light up by channeling light from the base to the headpiece. It has a notch on the top that the headpiece slots into and a socket on the bottom that plugs into the base. There’s a concealed triangular push button on the staff to turn the lighting effects on and off.

The base itself is another piece of plastic, molded to look like sandstone. On the underside is a battery compartment for 2 AA batteries. You’ll need a small slot or Phillips (cross-point) screwdriver to open the battery compartment, which is pretty typical for higher end toys.

With the batteries installed, assembly is very simple. The headpiece clips into the top of the staff, and the staff drops into the center hole in the base. Now the center jewel and the individual markings light up, as if each was separately lit. It’s a very impressive effect. The light turns itself off after about fifteen minutes; I assume to save battery life. This means you can’t use it as a night-light, which is too bad.

The only thing missing that I can think of is a chain so that you can wear the headpiece around your neck. It would make a nice cosplay accessory, so I guess the right kind of chain, plastic or metal, would work.

Overall, I’d say this is a very nice, screen accurate display piece; easy to find and reasonably affordable. The only way you could do better is to buy a real metal replica from Etsy or a similar website, and then you’d be missing out on the lighting effects. If you have room on your shelf next to your worn fedora and bullwhip, I strongly suggest considering the Staff of Ra Headpiece.

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Iain Delaney was born in the UK but moved to Canada at an early age. The UK heritage explains his fascination with British TV SciFi, including Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, UFO, and, of course, Dr. Who. After fumbling through high school, he fumbled through university, emerging with a degree in physics. With no desire to pursue graduate studies he discovered that a bachelor’s degree had little to no job prospects, so he took up a career in computer programming. In his off time he reads, watches TV and movies, collects toys, and makes attempts at writing. To that end he has a small number of articles published in role-playing game magazines and won two honorable mentions in the Writers of the Future contest. He is working on an urban fantasy YA trilogy and entertains delusions of selling it to movies or TV.