NECA Week: The Lone Ranger Rides Tall In The Saddle

Disney’s Lone Ranger hits theaters in a matter of weeks, and the 7″ scale action figures from NECA have made their way to retail.

I’m still not feeling Disney’s reboot of The Lone Ranger.  It seems so fundamentally flawed, I don’t know if I’ll even bother seeing it in theaters.  But NECA did such a bang up job on the new movie figures I had to pick them up.  The series keeps things simple, with just the Lone Ranger himself and Tonto, and both figures are fantastic.

The Ranger is the best of the pair, featuring an excellent portrait of Armie Hammer and a perfect realization of his on screen look.  The masked hero is very well articulated, and he’s a lot of fun to pose.  I wasn’t sure how I would feel about his jacket, which is flared at the bottom, but it lends itself so well to a variety of action poses that I’m glad they went this way.  The Ranger includes his twin silver guns, each with holsters, and his white hat, which fits very well on his head.

I hate the design of Johnny Depp’s Tonto, but NECA’s sculpt does a great job of capturing the look.  With his caked on facepaint and bird-topped headdress, Tonto looks like a reject from one of the later Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but the likeness to Depp is great and I love the rich texture of his war paint, which is cracked and grainy and awesome.  There’s an impressive amount of detail in this sculpt, from the beads and feathers in his hair to the leather-like texture of his pants and moccasins.  Tonto includes a tomahawk and a knife which fits into a sheath on his belt, and the figure is as amply articulated as his partner.

Even with my very mixed feelings on the movie, I have to admit these figures make the absolute most of the questionable designs of the film.  There’s a simple coolness to having such well done figures based on these awesome characters, and even if they’re not based on the best adaptation of the legendary heroes, Lone Ranger and Tonto still earn a place on my shelf.  It seems like once a year, NECA picks up a property that does absolutely nothing for me, and leaves me thoroughly impressed by the end result of their toys.  The Lone Ranger fits that bill to a T, and while I’m still not sold, I will say that having these figures in hand, playing around with how cool and fun they are to pose… I feel I’m more likely than before to give this latest big screen version of the Western a shot.

NECA’s Lone Ranger Wave One is available now.  Check out your local Toys R Us or NECA’s eBay store to get yours today!

Check back all this week for reviews and more from NECA!