Fortune and glory! Like many of you I will be swinging out to a theater tonight to catch the opening of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and to help everyone gear up for it, I've been looking for something tech-related that I can write about. Fortunately, Hasbro has released a line of tech toys including a life-sized whip with "whip cracking" sounds, a 30 cm figure with whip action, and sound-enabled Mr. Potato Head who stars in Taters of the Lost Ark. I've had a chance to test them all out to see if they're actually worth buying and how inventive Hasbro has been with this hot license. Indiana Jones Sound FX Whip $25 Ages 6+ Requires 3 AA batteries (included)

After testing their first prototype with kid focus groups, Hasbro decided their first whip design was too long and had to shorten it. Even still, what sits on store shelves now is over 40 cm long, more than enough flail about and get that rolling movement going with a snap of the wrist. The whip itself is merely a cloth sleeve filled with polyester fibres and so it's realism is limited to just the pattern printed on its surface. It's so soft and gentle, you'll be hard pressed to do any damage to anyone or anything, which is the idea. What makes up for that is the sound-activated handle. When you press the button along the side of the handle, the whip will let out one of many different "whip crack" sounds. It's very convincing and when you combine it with the physical movement of whipping the cloth sleeve about, it won't take much to fool others into thinking the cloth whip itself is making the noise. There's a switch on the handle that allows you to set it from "demo" to "play". On the demo setting it actually plays the Indiana Jones theme song while letting out a series of different whips. The play setting will let out just the whip sound on short presses of the whip button, the full theme song sequence if you hold it down for longer.

On the downside, because the whip is made of cloth it comes with a massive set of mattress tags attached which tends to spoil the overall effect.

Conclusion - Although you won't be able to do any tricks with it, the whip is safe enough to use on your friends, makes a really cool whip crack noise, and does the trick for any play-acting funs, whether little kids re-enacting the movie in their backyards, or adults looking to for something adventurous for this year's Halloween parties. Indiana Jones 80 cm Adventure Hero Action Figure $30 Ages 5+ Uses 3 A76 (LR44) batteries (included)

With incredible detail and a solid likeness to Harrison Ford (outside of anything from Sideshow Collectibles) I was a bit disappointed to see Indy armed with old-fashioned ball joints, the kind that tend to let hands flail about on wrists, arms to swing wildly, and elbows to take on painfully broken angles. It reminds me of the old Spider-Man and Evel Kneivel dolls from the late 70's. But all was quickly forgotten once I pressed the button on Indy's back. Right up there with G.I.Joe's Kung-Fu grip, Spidey's web-crawling action, and the Shogun Warrior's missile-launching fists, Indy comes with a fantastic whip-cracking movement. His arm pulls back and he rips off with his rubber whip with fantastic action, while the doll lets out a great whip crack sound effect.

Each time you press it you get a different whip sound. You can totally walk around with Indy in your hands and use him to whip and harass your co-workers. Do it right and whip can even sting a tiny little. The doll also comes with detailed fedora, satchel, and gun holster. Speaking of which, I'm a bit disappointed that Indy's right hand isn't actually shaped to hold the gun, as if the plastic pistol was added in as an after-thought. While a few niggling details tend to spoil the over all effect, the "whip-cracking" action more than makes up for them.

Mr. Potato Head: Taters Of The Lost Ark $20 Ages 2+ Requires 2 AAA batteries (included)

Everyone's favorite dress-up spud continues his movie tie-in series with this sound-activated edition. When you press his fedora he plays the first opening bars of the Raiders theme song. I wish it played a longer snippet of the song personally, but as this is designed for little tots as well as big kids, I can easily see how a small toddler could drive his/her parents insane if it played the full track. The costume pieces are great, once again there's great detail on the fedora, I'm guessing that every toy designer was told they had to get the fedora just right as it seems to have been a focus right across Hasbro's entire line. The whip is great, but the real bonus is the little golden spud idol. As far as mix-n-match pieces, the only extra part included is an alternate grin. Again, like the other toys, it's the sound effects and the attention to detail that really make this worth its price.