Definately not solid gold.

Posted by Cereal Killer from 162.10.138.197 on May 12, 2000 at 03:45:25:

In Reply to: Was the golden idol made of gold? posted by Henry Jones on May 11, 2000 at 13:49:27:

First, the movie never really comes right out and says the idol is solid gold or even gold at all. I have always noticed that it seems mighty light to be solid gold. Indy and Belloq heft it around as though it weighs about eight pounds (which a solid resin prop would just about weigh since that's what my Maltese Falcon weighs). I'm not sure this is a film flub though. I mean look at the smaller clues. First, they don't say it's solid gold so it could really be anything. Second, when Indy uses the bag of sand as a counter weight. If he even suspected that it was solid gold instead of wooden and covered with gold (like the Ark) he wouldn't have removed sand from the bag. He would've had to put more sand in. Third, and most telling if you ask me, Indy tells Marcus that the only place Belloq can sell the idol is in Marrakkech. This tells me that its only value is as an artifact. If it were made of solid gold it would've been more valuable for its gold content and Belloq could've sold it anywhere.

Incidentally, a couple of weeks ago I saw on ebay a guy was selling replicas of the idol that were absolutely perfect. He also had perfect replicas of the headpiece to the Staff of Ra. I was gonna post about it but when I went looking for it on ebay the next day the auction was over and the pictures were gone. They were expensive (bidding was up to $150+ on both items) but a dedicated Indy collector would've been impressed.

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: First, the movie never really comes right out and says the idol is solid gold or even gold at all. I have always noticed that it seems mighty light to be solid gold. Indy and Belloq heft it around as though it weighs about eight pounds (which a solid resin prop would just about weigh since that's what my Maltese Falcon weighs). I'm not sure this is a film flub though. I mean look at the smaller clues. First, they don't say it's solid gold so it could really be anything. Second, when Indy uses the bag of sand as a counter weight. If he even suspected that it was solid gold instead of wooden and covered with gold (like the Ark) he wouldn't have removed sand from the bag. He would've had to put more sand in. Third, and most telling if you ask me, Indy tells Marcus that the only place Belloq can sell the idol is in Marrakkech. This tells me that its only value is as an artifact. If it were made of solid gold it would've been more valuable for its gold content and Belloq could've sold it anywhere.

: Incidentally, a couple of weeks ago I saw on ebay a guy was selling replicas of the idol that were absolutely perfect. He also had perfect replicas of the headpiece to the Staff of Ra. I was gonna post about it but when I went looking for it on ebay the next day the auction was over and the pictures were gone. They were expensive (bidding was up to $150+ on both items) but a dedicated Indy collector would've been impressed.

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