Jodorowsky – El Topo Figurine by ABKCO X Unbox Industries

Unbox Industries first came to my attention last December through the release of their “Weedian” figure.  The vinyl statuette was an impressive one, modeled after Arik Roeper‘s now-classic interpretation of the cannabis-puffing desert dwellers featured on his cover art for the 2012 Southern Lord Records reissue of the 52-minute single-track opus, Dopesmoker  by pioneering stoner-doom outfit, SLEEP.  Now the “globally based prototype team” and toy manufacturer has hooked up with ABKCO Music & Records to embark on a series of “licensed limited edition figurine” releases paying tribute to the work of the legendary Chilean filmmaker and cult icon, Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Aside from being a director/writer/producer/actor/spiritual guru/author, Alejandro is also composer/musician known for scoring his own films and, over the last couple of years, ABKCO has reissued a pair of soundtracks for what are, arguably, Jodorowsky‘s 2 most well-known motion pictures: El Topo and Holy Mountain.  Not only that, but ABCKO is also responsible for both the release of Jodorowsky‘s 2013 award winning return to feature film, Dance Of Reality, and its accompanying soundtrack (scored by his son, Adan Jodorowsky), as well as a 2007 box set collection of Jodorowsky films (Fando y Lis / El Topo / The Holy Mountain).  Jodorowsky and ABCKO‘s collaboration with Unbox Industries — a company that is also currently in the process of releasing “a series of figures from the incredible 1973 animated feature ‘La Planete Sauvage’” — is an anything but a baflling marriage.

Today, the full details of the very first offering in this Jodorowsky series have now become available.  Limited to 200 units, the cold cast figurine is of El Topo (The Mole), the mystic gunslinging title character played by Alejandro in the groundbreaking 1973 film that earned the auteur the title of “The Father of the midnight movie.”

The following description comes via the product page:

Classic Americana and avant-garde European sensibilities meet Zen Buddhism and the Bible as master gunfighter and cosmic mystic El Topo, played by Jodorowsky, must defeat his four sharp shooting rivals on an ever increasing path to allegorical self-enlightenment and surreal resurrection.

The cold cast limited edition statue a full 14 inches in height and distress brown in color, features exquisite detail and is packaged in a specially crafted wood embossed box. Each piece bears the replica signature of Alejandro Jodorowsky & is limited to a run of 200 pieces.

The highly respected sculptor Andrea Blasich worked closely with ABKCO and Jodorowsky to ensure the figurines are as realistic as possible to their characters from the films.

Specifics about the entire Jodorowsky series have yet to be revealed at this point, but we do know that there will be at least one figurine honoring The Holy Mountain.  It also wouldn’t be too surprising to see something pertaining to Fando Y Lis, being as it’s the remaining title in the trio of movies included in the ABKCO box set.  But what other characters will we see represented from Alejandro‘s surrealistic and polarizing catalog, overflowing with brilliant, affecting visuals and refreshingly unorthodox casting choices, such as dwarf and amputee actors?  Seeing as the project is listed as being, “based on the film works of one of the world’s most unique & provocative creatives” we can assume that there is no intention of venturing into the extensive interconnected science-fiction comic “Jodoverse” that he’s been crafting for decades, which includes The Incal, The Technopriests, Megalex and Metabarons.  And, although we can hope, it’s probably also fairly unlikely that we’ll see anything related to Jodo‘s unfinished 1975 film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, which predates the David Lynch version by 9 years and has often been referred to as the “greatest film never made.’

Time will tell what’s next, but for now, all you big shot cinephiles with expendable cash can pre-order your El Topo figurines from Unboxed Limited through THIS LINK, while available.  They’re gonna set you back $200 + shipping and will begin mailing out in November.

Check out the product images below.