ZORRO — ALEJANDRO MURRIETA

HERO H.A.C.K.S. (BOSS FIGHT STUDIOS)

Oh man, two figures from films with James Horner scores in the same week?  Should I go on?  Maybe some Rocketeer or Wrath of Khan? Titanic if I dare?  Not Avatar, though.  Never Avatar.  Can’t do it.  I haven’t talked directly about Zorro as a concept here on the site.  Honestly, that’s largely because, do to the somewhat confusing and complicated nature of the Zorro licensing making it hard to do a ton of figures.  Like, they’re out there, but it’s always a bit of an ordeal.  There have been a great many incarnations of Zorro over the years, and, by far, my favorite incarnation is The Mask of Zorro, 1998’s reinvention of the franchise starring Antonio Banderas as the successor to the mantle.  Despite the film’s success in the ’90s, it got no direct tie-in figures at the time.  Thankfully, Boss Fight Studio stepped in for the save, and put out their own version of Alejandro Murrieta in figure form!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Zorro — Alejandro Murrieta was released under the Hero HACKS branding, as part of the second round of figures celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Zorro franchise.  He was released alongside Elena from the same film.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  He’s using Boss Fight’s H.A.C.K.S. set-up for his build and articulation set-up, though the articulation’s evolved just a little bit from the Vitruvian figures I looked at way back when.  Largely, it’s the hips and ankles that have seen re-works, to offer a slightly better range of motion.  It certainly works well.  The sculpt looks to be an all-new one (though it’s possible he might share parts with the other Zorro’s; having not picked them up, I can’t say for sure).  It’s certainly solid.  The articulation on the elbows is a little obvious, presumably to give him better range, but otherwise things are pretty well worked in, and the proportions are well balanced.  The outfit is also nicely detailed.  The masked head doesn’t have a spot-on Banderas likeness, but it’s not too bad, especially for the scale.  You can definitely see who it’s supposed to be, and they got the spirit of the character down.  The hat’s removable, but surprisingly well scaled to the body, and it stays in place without too much trouble.  The cape’s a little bulky and static, making deeper lunging poses a little difficult, but, again, given the scale, not bad at all.  His color work is a lot of black, as expected.  It’s got all the details it should, with some pretty sharp accenting.  The only area that’s a little sloppy is the face, notably the eyes, but generally things look okay.  Alejandro is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and open gesture), an unmasked head, his sword, two whips (one coiled and one uncoiled), and a display stand.  The unmasked head is an okay sculpt, but feels a little too kempt for Alejandro in Mask, feeling more like his Legend of Zorro appearance, which I don’t think any one really wants.  The sword is nice, and can be stored on the belt as well.  The coiled whip can also be stored on the belt…sort of?  The loop is really soft, so it winds up falling off really easily.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mask of Zorro is definitely a favorite of mine, especially when I was a kid.  I even had the poster up over my bed for, like, 15 years.  I’ve wanted some form of Alejandro as Zorro since the movie came out, honestly, but there was nothing but an unrelated Zorro line at the time.  I made due, but it was never really what I wanted.  I recall these figures being shown off, but I wasn’t able to get one when they dropped.  I actually got to mess with the 1/6th scale version of Alejandro a few months back, but he was just too expensive, so I had to pass.  Then, as luck would have it, this one landed in front of me, which was cool, because it was the one I wanted in the first place.  He also wasn’t crazy expensive, which certainly helped.  He’s a very nice, very fun little figure, and I’m glad to finally have him.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.