Customer Reviews

The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I gotta admit, despite being probably the world's most devoted Indy fan, when I first saw The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones, I really didn't think too much of it. With the impending release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I fully expect to see a virtual tidal wave of movie tie-in merchandise leading up to the May 22nd Premiere. Some of it cheesy (see my blog review of the Indiana Jones Adventure Spoon!) and some of it great. This is definitely in the "great" category.

But, as a devoted Indy fan, I bought it anyway (could I do anything else?) and it's really a clever idea. It's not a book but a scrapbook. The premise (such as there is) is that the KGB some how came into the possession of Dr. Jones Jr's diary in Peru, South America, in 1957. It was later inherited by the mythical "Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation" and was consequently released to the public. This is all established by a sort of page seal that fits over the front cover. The back has a little more of the "back-story" on a label designed to be cleanly removed. This is intentional as the book itself is made out of a faux leather-type material and has an elastic band to keep the book closed. It's obviously been designed to resemble Dr Jones, Sr's Grail Diary seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Special Edition).

The inside of the book contains only a minimum of text, mostly being devoted to hand-drawn maps, taped in "letters," pictures, and memorabilia of the kind that you'd expect from Jones' adventurous life.

It's really a clever idea, pioneered by similar products like Lucy & Desi: The Real Life Scrapbook of America's Favorite TV Couple.

This is definitely a must-have for any fans! It'll take a place of honor next to my Indiana Jones Khyber Bowie Knife!

This Lost Journal is essentially a small coffee table book that's made to look a cross between a diary and a scrap book. It's very pretty and any Indiana Jones fan will enjoy it immensely if they have no misconceptions about what it is.

What it is NOT is a diary prop. The simulated leather cover is nice enough, but the effect is spoiled by a colorful Indiana Jones logo that's printed on the spine and a very unauthentic sticker with the book's description glued firmly to the back. The book is replete with inserts -- photographs, news clippings, documents, maps, etc. -- but they are all printed, which gives it a very stylized appearance. Granted, actual loose inserts would have driven up the price significantly, but the kind of person who is likely to buy this would probably pay extra for the added realism. Many of the pages have an annotation (shaped like a business card) by "The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation". These annotations add nothing to the journal and the fact that they're written in English ruins any intended feeling that this is a recovered document. Clearly, writing them in Russian would have been useless for most people, so they should have just left them out and let the journal contents speak for themselves. Lastly, the contents themselves are just random snippets and souvenirs arranged chronologically. There's no sense of direction or purpose, which is what makes this a scrap book rather than a journal, despite the attempt to make it look like the latter.

Even with all these little complaints, it's a fun little toy and well worth the $25. In fact, it's cheap enough that one could buy a second copy to cut out various inserts to create or supplement a realistic Jones journal.

Meant to be a reproduction of the journal given to him by his father in the first episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, this book chronicles some of the adventures of Indy from age 9 onward.
I was disappointed to see how little of the series was touched on in it, but happy to see some events from the 1990's novel series and the Dark Horse comics Fate of Atlantis included.
While this is a book I will definitely have lots of fun looking at while watching the films, it could very easily have been two or three times thicker.

This book is a must for all die hard Indy fans "but" I found it to be just a bit less then what I had expected. It would have been nice to see some removable pieces (rubbings, notes, drawings) to make it complete. It won't take you long to read (10 minuets) but you will find yourself going thru it again and again. B+ ~Randiana Jones~

The premise behind the journal is that it was given to Indy by Henry Jones Sr to record his experiences. What you get is the highlights of Indy's career from early (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) to the films and a little in between (continuity from video games). The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull pages are a bit light especially the stuff about Mutt Williams (I'm avoid spoilers, but I find it hard to believe that Indy makes just one comment about him). The pages have illustrations from the movies, including grail diary pages, translations, and little notes from the KGB people that have supposedly found the book.

This is a must for Indy fans.

My 6 year old son is a huge Indiana Jones fan. He loves to dress up and pretend he is Indiana Jones and he loves this journal. It looks like it could have belonged to Indie. I'm so glad I bought it. It was one of his favorite Christmas presents.

This is a neat little book that has the "look" of Indiana's journal from the movies. All the other reviews are a good indication as to the quality of the book. I would like to add, the adhesive sticker on the back is easy to remove. Some people had expressed concern that it might not be removable. I took the label off, with no residue left behind. It helped that the book was warm from being on the porch after the delivery for a while.

surprised to find this is not just an empty journal but has lots of great inserts and a good closing strap. better for the older Indy fan but my 10 year old loved it as well for dress up play and reading.Plus that it fits in the indana jones satchel sold separately.Indiana Jones Satchel

I was not a fan of Indy 4 (Indy and the Kingdom of the Shallow Cash In) and initially guessed this was going to be Indy 4-related garbage to rake in more cash.

I have also been working on recreating Indy-related props and was googling around the internet. Some of these guys spend a lot of time and money making painstakingly accurate props, "Grail Diaries" and so on... and the most serious Indy prop-maker I found is Anthony Magnoli -- the author of this book!

All that to say, if you are an Indy fan you can buy this and enjoy it with the knowledge that it was composed not by some cheeseball author between more 'serious' projects, but by someone who's probably spend thousands of hours lovingly recreating pieces of Indy History down to the smallest details.

The book is fun and the author can be trusted. Get this!

My son LOVED this for Christmas. It looks just like a journal and has very cool drawings and writings in it. It even has two pages ripped out that Indy took out in one of the movies!!! VERY Awesome!!