I hate to think that I have too many things in common with Dwight
Schrute, the uber-eccentric beet farmer / assistant manager on The Office
who seems to thrive on making his coworkers’ lives difficult, but I can
come up with at least two odd interests that we share. We’re both fans
of LOST, and we both have a peculiar fondness for bobbleheads. So
while I have yet to see a character from my dearly departed favorite
drama bobbing along on Dwight’s desk, I have to suspect that he would
approve of the John Locke bobblehead just released from Bif Bang Pow!
John is the sixth LOST
character to get the bobblehead treatment, and like his predecessors,
he stands seven inches high. I’ve designated the piano as my bobblehead
display area of choice, so to the left, I have the trio released in
February, along with the shifty Ben Linus from last summer, and John and
Claire stand apart from the others on the right. This feels fitting,
considering that not only is John the only one of the bobblehead
characters to have interacted much with Claire (save Hurley, who hasn‘t
been released yet), he took a rather intense interest in her for about a
season, serving as a protector for her and her baby, Aaron. That role
came to be subverted in the sixth season, but as that’s not really
John’s fault, I prefer not to dwell on that too much.
LOST
is largely a character study, and very few characters underwent as many
strange twists and turns as John. I find it interesting that while the
other two bobbleheads in this second wave of 2010 depict characters in
their season six states, this one takes us back to the very beginning of
the show. John has always been a character who fascinated me more than
most, so I knew I’d have to snag him for my collection no matter what he
looked like, but I burst into delighted laughter the moment I saw what
this bobblehead would look like.
John Locke,
so expertly portrayed by the amazingly expressive Terry O’Quinn, has
taken part in many of the show’s most iconic moments, but all these
years later, one of my favorites remains the tiny scene from the epic
pilot episode in which renegade Kate looks up from her distasteful task
of swiping the boots off a fallen passenger to see John’s slowly
widening smile. In his mouth is a slice of orange, with the orange peel
facing out so that she sees only the peel instead of his teeth.
It’s a wonderful moment that reveals so much about John with a tiny
gesture. First off, we see that he is resilient and self-sufficient, as
he has procured an orange and neatly excised a slice with his knife, an
instrument which will come to be strongly associated with him. Second,
it shows that he has a sense of humor. While John is one of the most
tragic characters in the series, many of his lines and gestures are
subtly funny, especially as acted by O’Quinn. Despite his darker
qualities and unfortunate past, John is one of the characters who most
consistently makes me laugh.
At the same time, it establishes
him as someone who tries to help and encourage others. Though he
sometimes strays wildly from this role, season one finds him taking
every opportunity he can to mentor his fellow castaways, some of whom
react to him with as much disdain as Kate does in this scene. That’s
largely because there’s just something very strange about John Locke.
Most of the people around him sense that there’s something just a little
off about him, and it’s hard to dispute that when he’s sporting a big
orange grin and has a long scar running along the right side of his
face, punctuated by his eye. Creases and wrinkles in his forehead and
cheeks and around his eyes accentuate both his age and his joie de
vivre.
I’m so glad that whoever designed this bobblehead chose
this moment to capture. It’s quintessential John, and the figure brings
that across perfectly. We’ve got John Locke, standing tall on a vaguely
round base that looks like a patch of sand, grinning out at the world
with a beneficent, albeit slightly crazed, smile. This is a John
renewed, thrilled to finally find himself in a place that feels like
home and to be freed of the painful restrictions so unfairly placed upon
him. No matter how many times he stumbles in the episodes that follow,
some hint of this euphoric beginning is always evident.
The
words “John Locke” stand out in white with black trim along the front of
the base, while “LOST” is written across the back. John wears shiny
black shoes, or perhaps boots, with thick soles but no hint of laces.
His pants are khaki, while his checked button-up shirt is pale blue. His
left arm rests at his side, with his hand clutching the knife that he
has just used. His right arm is bent at the elbow so that the orange he
holds in his open palm rests right around the middle of his shirt. The
skin tone on his arms and head is natural, if perhaps a bit on the light
side; then again, I’ve grown used to seeing him tan from months out in
the hot sun.
Because John is bald, his ears stand out much
more prominently than those on any of the other bobbleheads. They seem
to have a slightly Elven quality about them when I look at them from a
distance, though upon close inspection they are more curved than
pointed. Whatever their shape, they stick out usefully; just give one of
them a little tap, and John’s head will start to jiggle.
John
is the first character in this series to also have been a part of the
McFarlane toy line that, sadly, ended prematurely a couple years ago.
Those incredibly detailed figures also came with sound chips, and that
spoiled me a bit. That said, it would be a little strange to hear John
speaking when he clearly has his mouth full of fruit. Though he’s harder
to come by these days, I do heartily recommend the McFarlane
John Locke action figure for its intricate details, its poseability and
its quotes from the show. I’m still amused whenever a push of a button
causes a resounding Terry O’Quinn snarl of “DON’T EVER TELL ME WHAT I
CAN’T DO! EVER!!”
I’m less impressed with what I’ve seen of
the new action figure forthcoming from Bif Bang Pow! It’s not nearly as
detailed, and the hinges look extremely clunky. What’s more, you have to
buy him with Hurley, and though I would suspect that any big fan of the
show wouldn’t mind that in theory, this Hurley is downright
funny-looking. It makes me sad that these figures look so much less like
their on-screen counterparts than the McFarlane figures, mostly because
there’s a set featuring Jacob and his nemesis, as depicted in the
opening scene of the season five finale. Those are two characters I’d
love to have, but the resemblance just isn’t strong enough for me,
especially when it comes to the Man in Black; if I could purchase Jacob
separately, I might be seriously tempted to buy him.
All this
is to say that while there are other versions of John available, one of
which is well worth having, I still heartily recommend the Bif Bang Pow!
bobblehead, which retails for $13 at Entertainment Earth or $15 at
ABC’s LOST store. This is a fun and finely crafted figure
capturing one of his most iconic scenes; of all the figures in the
series thus far, I think it does the best job of giving us a specific
character-revealing moment.
John Locke is a hardy fellow, but
he’s certainly not invincible; by the same token, this resin figure may
become cracked if you’re not careful with him. He does come in a large
box with molded plastic so that he can be moved safely, and of course,
you can keep him in the box at all times if you prefer, though given
John’s long, ugly history with boxes both on and off the Island, this
seems rather cruel. I’ll take my chances with keeping him on the piano,
in easy sight of the kitchen. If anything ever mysteriously disappears
from the fruit bowl, I know who my prime suspect will be...
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