Today marks the release of Hurley,
the latest album by Weezer, which features Jorge Garcia’s smiling face
on the cover. I was thinking about that when my brother suddenly veered
from his traditional birthday dinner plans last night, suggesting we go
to Outback Steakhouse instead of Red Lobster. There’s a goofy moment in
the two-hour premiere of LOST’s sixth season in which we overhear
the Sideways version of Hurley, owner of the Mr. Cluck’s Chicken
Franchise, agitatedly discussing the possibility of litigation involving
his new Australia-inspired chicken meals, with the implication that
Outback isn’t too pleased with his new ad campaign. We don’t get to
actually see the ad campaign on the show, but we hear it referenced and
see him in costume in posters around the restaurant, so now I can’t help
linking Hurley with the Outback. Apparently neither could whoever
designed the Hurley bobblehead from Bif Bang Pow!
After I
bought the Ben bobblehead released last year and the Richard, Daniel and
Dr. Chang bobbleheads released this year, I hoped that more would
follow, so I was glad to catch wind of the new series, of which Hurley
is the last. However, I was a bit perplexed by his appearance. Hurley is
one of the most iconic characters in LOST, but it’s not because
of his Chicken Shack. It seems a little odd to model him after his
Sideways incarnation, especially when the commercial this bobblehead
references only aired at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. Granted, anyone
who’s a big enough fan to buy this bobblehead has probably already
watched the ad on Youtube, but this certainly isn’t Hurley as we usually
saw him.
What’s more, as Garcia himself pointed out on his
blog months ago, no one ever refers to Mr. Reyes as Hurley, including
himself. In his life as a placid fried chicken magnate, Hurley is always
“Hugo,” so it seems that the name on the front of the base should read
“Hugo Reyes” instead of “Hurley Reyes”. Still, LOST is a
television show about a group of people who crash on an Island en route
from Sydney, so depicting Hurley in his Outback garb is a nice way to
nod at that continent’s importance to the show.
Like the other LOST
bobbleheads, Hurley is about seven inches tall from the top of his head
to the bottom of the base. Unlike the others, however, Hurley wears a
hat, which adds a couple of inches to his height. In terms of girth,
owning a fried chicken franchise seems to have worked wonders for his
figure; he’s robust but far trimmer than either of his action figure
counterparts.
Hurley stands on a square black base with his
name on the front and “LOST” on the back, both in white. The top of the
base features a black and white checkered pattern, though oddly, the
pattern is sustained in the back four rows but not in the front one. The
front portion of the top of the base also features a red banner of
sorts that has a picture of the Mr. Cluck’s smiling chicken head on the
left and the words “Mr. CLUCK’S CHICKEN SHACK” on the right. A similar
chicken head that faces the opposite direction appears on the pocket of
Hurley’s shirt. Of course, I’m sure he would be happier not to end up on
someone’s plate, but humane Hugo does go out of his way to say that Mr.
Cluck’s uses free-range chickens. This was the chicken I thought would
be gracing the “free” keychain that ABC used to lure me into purchasing
my bobblehead from the official LOST store; alas, what I got was a
scary-looking naked rubber chicken that appears to be an egg-laying
zombie rooster. But I digress...
Hurley is quite dapper all
dressed for an Outback adventure. He looks like he conquered the
walkabout John Locke intended to take and is now a master of his own
destiny. “On a recent vacation to Australia, I had a dream while camping
under the stars of the Outback,” he says on that obscure commercial. “A
dream... of chicken.” Well, we all have different dreams, I suppose. At
least the new meals are healthier (roasted instead of fried), and he
uses the profits from his franchise to fund numerous charitable causes.
While the smile on his face would not be expansive enough to earn
bobblehead Hurley a spot on the cover of Weezer’s new album, it’s clear
that he’s content.
Hurley wears mid-tone brown boots, grayish
khaki pants and a dark brown button-up shirt that matches his Outback
hat, which has a wide brim and a mid-tone brown strap with white
stripes. His hair is thick, wavy and not quite shoulder length, and he
has a thin mustache and a short but extensive beard that covers the
lower portion of his face and extends to the area of his ears, which are
invisible behind his hair. His left arm rests at his side, holding a
boomerang, while his right is bent as he clings to the didgeridoo slung
over his shoulder with some thick rope. I have serious doubts as to
whether good ol’ fun-time Hurley would have the dexterity to properly
use either of these, but Sideways Hurley isn’t nearly so bumbling, so
maybe he managed to get the knack. More likely, he just thought they
looked cool... and they do!
The brim of the hat is handy
because all you need to do is tap it, and Hurley’s head will begin to
bobble. Because of that hat, he’s the tallest bobblehead in the
collection, and I don’t see that distinction being threatened anytime
soon, since headgear of any kind showed up very rarely on LOST.
While I get the impression that Bif Bang Pow! intends for the line to
continue, I haven’t heard any word on what characters might be next, but
I’m very glad that Hurley got the bobblehead treatment. Or at least
Hugo did.
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