General Ursus Planet of the Apes - BE@RBRICK
In the world of Planet of the Apes, humans are not the ultimate authority. Astronauts crash-land on a seemingly desolate planet only to discover that it is in fact inhabited by an advanced race of apes. With the ability to communicate using language and the use of basic technology, the apes have taken the position of dominant species. Humans are mere speechless, animal skin wearing slaves. BE@BRICK figures by Medicom Toys have brought the most fearsome character of all to its line, General Ursus.
Planet of the Apes x BE@RBRICK Collaboration Background
June 2019 saw the release of the General Ursus BE@RBRICK figure along with an unnamed soldier ape. In October of the same year, Cornelius and Zira figures were also released. The collaboration comes with licensing from Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, the owners of the rights to the Planet of the Apes franchise.
BE@RBRICK Planet of the Apes General Ursus 400%
BE@RBRICK General Ursus is just as menacing as in the movies. Wearing his trademark studded leather armor and crested helmet (with BE@RBRICK style bear ears) and standing at roughly 280mm tall he is ready to command. The detail with which his face is painted with deep shading around the eyes and mouth really brings out the essence of his gorilla heritage.
- Product Name: BE@RBRICK Planet of the Apes General Ursus 400%
- Manufacturer: Medicom Toy
- Specifications: Painted & articulated plastic figure
- Height (Approx.): 280 mm | 11"
About Planet of the Apes
The original Planet of the Apes is based on French author Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des singes. An English movie adaptation was released in 1968 to worldwide success. Achieving critical and commercial fame, the movie spawned several sequels including Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). There have also been a remake and a reboot, a television series, and an animation. The gist of the story is that three astronauts; Taylor, Landon, and Dodge wake up from a deep sleep following a light-speed space journey. One of the astronauts is dead due to a malfunction in the ship's apparatus. The ship then crashes onto an unknown planet in what appears to be the year 3978. The astronauts happen upon some extremely primitive humans right before a squad of ape soldiers attacks them. Killing one of the astronauts and taking the other two prisoners, they return to Ape City.
About General Ursus
"The only good human... is a dead human!" It’s clear what Ursus thinks of humans. A gorilla from the East Coast. He worked his way up through the ranks of ape society until he reached the position of General. Being General meant that Ursus answered only to Dr. Zaius and no one else. Ursus was possessed by a vision of total ape conquest and went so far as to launch an expedition into the forbidden zone without the permission of Dr. Zaius. This ultimately ended up in the destruction of Earth.
Other Important Planet of the Apes Characters
The Planet of the Apes franchise includes a lot of varied character types, from the war-mongering Ursus to the peaceful and pacifist Cornelius and Zira. The humans Taylor and his crew are simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and cause the events that lead to nuclear annihilation and Cornelius and Zira being sent back in time.
Cornelius / Zira
Cornelius is an archaeological scientist in Ape City and fiancee and later husband of Dr. Zira. Dr. Zira’s studies on humans and their behaviors were often found to be controversial; more so when she took to defending the human astronauts from the other apes. Cornelius nevertheless stood by her side. Cornelius himself did not necessarily agree with her findings or that humans were capable of anything near average ape intelligence though. Cornelius escaped from the Planet of the Apes with Zira before the detonation of the nuclear weapon in the forbidden zone that destroyed the world and sent them back in time.
George Taylor
George Taylor, born in the early 1900s was an American fighter pilot turned astronaut. Growing incredibly cynical of the world and his fellow humans, Taylor was enthusiastic about joining a deep space mission to find potentially superior life on other planets. The mission was a failure however as somewhere in space the ship went through a time jump and ended up back on Earth thousands of years into the future. He was shot in the throat and rendered unable to speak for some time while his wound healed. This led the scientist apes to believe that while perhaps of above-average intelligence, he was not so different from the mute humans that inhabited the Earth.
Caesar
Born Milo, Caesar is the son of Cornelius and Zira. While in space and traveling through time Zira was pregnant with Caesar. This led to him having the gift of premonitions and visions of the past, present, and future at the same time. He was able to see the revolution he would cause, the events that would happen after it, and the events that came before it. In the beginning, he was taken in by a circus owner called Armando. Dr. Hasslein killed Cornelius and Zira, but not before they switched the baby Caesar with a baby chimpanzee from the circus. When Caesar learned to talk and revealed his identity, Armando renamed him Caesar to hide him from his would-be assassins.
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