LOST is a dangerously compelling television show. I tend to
lament the fact that, after looking forward to the show for half the
summer in 2004, I didn't actually start watching current episodes until
this year. I missed out on a lot of anticipation and speculation, and
despite my best attempts to remain ignorant, I found out about most of
the major deaths before I managed to watch them. This week and next, I
can wait anxiously with the rest of the country to find out whether all
of my favorite characters are going to make it to the end of the season.
In the meantime, I just acquired a set from the McFarlane line of
action figures capturing the first season's enigmatic cliff-hanging
moment.
I first learned about McFarlane's LOST line
when I received the fantastically detailed Charlie for Christmas. Also
in the series are Locke, Hurley, Jack, Kate and Shannon. Each of these
six-inch figures comes on a plastic base and includes a prop or two and a
photographic backdrop helping cement the character in a particular
moment. For Charlie, it's shortly after the crash, when he's sitting on a
piece of wreckage and writing on his fingers. For Hurley, it's the
triumphant announcement that he has built a golf course. For Locke, it's
peering intently down at the hatch, whose contents at that point remain
a mystery. With this deluxe set, our island friends still don't know
what's inside, but they're a lot closer to finding out, having just
blown the door open with dynamite.
While none of the
stand-alone figures is so much a plaything as a display piece, they all
have some degree of articulation and are not rooted to their bases. The
hatch set includes Locke, Hurley, Jack and Kate, but they are stationary
and much smaller. Jack and torch-wielding Locke are crouching near the
hole in the hatch's center, gazing into its mysterious depths, while
Kate, torch in hand, takes a step onto the hatch and Hurley hangs back.
Since Kate and Hurley are standing, they are removable, but Locke and
Jack are embedded into the surface of the hatch. The scene is almost as
wide as three of the figure bases put together, and in fact this base
has separate pieces to it, though you can't really tell once it's all
assembled. The curved jungle backdrop stands taller than Charlie's but
not quite as tall as Hurley's, and nothing within the diorama peeks out
above the top of the cardboard.
As usual, I have someone else
to thank for getting the scene all set up for me. I think my brother's
biggest challenge was getting everything out of the box, where it was so
tightly packaged in plastic and secured with plastic wires. To his
consternation, the backdrop was rolled up with the photographic side
facing out, so he had a little trouble bending it the other way so that
it would fit into the plastic constraints that allow it to slide neatly
behind the base, which is made of sturdy plastic and features some very
realistic-looking foliage and dirt surrounding the cylindrical top of
the hatch. Leading inside is a ladder, but after only six
battered-looking rungs, there's a floor. We're supposed to imagine that
the hole goes on from there, of course, and that isn't too much of a
stretch, especially if you have the lights turned off and are trying to
peek inside with the blue-ish white light blazing in your eyes.
Yes, this set has a light-up feature, which is pretty nifty. It
definitely adds to the enigmatic nature of the scene, and it's easily
accessible with the flick of a switch inside the hole. Unfortunately,
this light is really the only interactive aspect of this set. It has no
moving parts, no props and, perhaps most regrettably (though it no doubt
made my brother's job easier), no sound clips. I really love being able
to press a button and hear quotes from three of my favorite characters,
so I miss that here. I know the Jack and Hurley figures have lines from
this scene, but surely they could have incorporated other lines from
this scene - or had those figures say other lines, because they had an
awful lot to choose from, after all. Or if they didn't want to have the
figures up top saying anything, we could've gotten a nod to the season
two opener by having a button blasting Make Your Own Kind of Music
or featuring some sort of panicked mumbling from one Desmond Hume. Then
again, the voice boxes require AAA batteries and the light switch AAs,
so I suppose maybe they didn't want to make people get two different
types of batteries. But that little added expense would be worth it in
order to make the scene as vibrant as possible.
When I went to McFarlane Toys to find a picture I could link to for the suggest-a-product form (thanks to MaryTara
for adding this!), I discovered that series two is quickly approaching.
The first series arrived in December; the second graces us in July, and
unless the list is incomplete, there is no set comparable to this one
(a shame, since a logical possibility would be the inside of the hatch
shortly before its implosion and would probably include Locke, Desmond,
Charlie and Eko, a fantastic foursome indeed). Additionally, while the
first series featured six "fan favorite" characters, the second only has
four: Sawyer, Sun, Jin and Eko. All are terrific characters whose
figures I wouldn't mind owning, but with so many brilliant folks on the
show, I can't see why they made fewer this time around. I'd say there
are at least a couple dozen characters deserving of the action figure
treatment. Then again, it's probably best for obsessive but not
particularly wealthy fans like me not to have too many come out at
once...
I picked up the hatch set half off at Toys R Us;
usually it goes for $30, while the figures cost about $17. It's
definitely worth the $15 I paid for it, and devoted fans probably won't
mind shelling out the full $30, especially if they can think of a more
appropriate place to display it than the kitchen table, which is where
mine is currently situated. As for me, I'm happy to contemplate the
mysteries of the island while munching my breakfast cereal, grateful
that, unlike "Henry Gale", I have milk to go with it and that,
realistic-looking as this diorama is, I am unable to detect anything
that might be a piece of the ill-fated Arzt. No matter where you choose
to place this set, you can enjoy this fine example of McFarlane's
craftsmanship, reliving one of the series' most iconic moments during
the long wait between next Wednesday and the premiere of LOST's fourth season in January.
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