Hector Ruiz is one of the titular protagonists of the 2009 revival of The Electric Company (often referred as The New Electric Company). He's the oldest member and the leader of the titular company which solves problems and helps people out around town. In addition to being able to create wordballs, his special skill is that he can capture any image in his mind, and project the image visually in midair, similar to a video camera. He became the owner of the Electric Diner after Keith's father, Leo Watson opened his own restaurant.
He was portrayed by Josh Segarra.
What Makes Him a Guile Hero?[]
In General[]
- His special skill is that he can capture any image in his mind, and project the image visually in the air with a hand gesture, which comes in handy very often whenever he needs to examine details of events or look in the background.
- Several episodes would showcase that he's an incredible basketball player and is very athletic.
- Trouble Afoot: He was once able to beat Manny in a one-on-one game, right when it seemed like he'd lose and made one hell of a comeback.
Season 1[]
- In the series premiere, "Skills", Francine would steal Keith's unique power just he's about to get inducted into the Electric Company. The gang knew Francine wouldn't willingly give back the power, although she may be willing to trade it for greater power. He'd give Keith the idea to pose as a traitor to the Electric Company as part of a plan get his stolen power back, and Keith would supposedly steal the Electric Company's powers. He, Jessica and Lisa would all play a part in the ruse by using their skills and having it seem like Keith was using them. Francine was willing to trade Keith's skill for what she thought was the Electric Company's stolen powers, only to find out too late the company tricked her into giving Keith his power back.
- Scent of a Human:
- When Annie gives Hector and the gang a note supposedly telling them where the new location of Hector's video shoot was, Lisa suspected the location's name was scrambled (it was and she'd change it back), but Hector prepared for if Annie were trying to trick the gang by not scrambling the message, and he'd take advantage of his dog instincts (Annie's uncle tricked Hector into getting hypnotized to have the mind of dog) to track down Annie's scent and find the location for the shooting.
- During Hector's music video shooting, Annie would continuously try to tempt Hector's dog instincts as attempt to mess up the music video, using various dog-related items. But instead, Hector incorporated the items as part of his rap theme for "100% Human", and have Annie unintentionally improve video.
- Call Me Tiki: When Jessica uses her recording playback powers to play back audio that was heard the moment the parrot got loose to look for some background clues, Jessica would detect the parrot's mating call, but Hector would shortly piece together that Manny Spamboni was behind the parrot's disappearance would, thanks to context clues, along with hearing some familiar laughter in the background.
- Scrambled Brains: When Lisa gets tricked into getting hypnotized by Sigmund and letting Annie switch brains/bodies with her, Hector and the gang would manage to track Sigmund down in an attempt to find a way to change Lisa back. And when Sigmund tries to flee during the team's first encounter with him, Hector tricks Sigmund into cornering himself by throwing a wordball that had Sigmund go in a certain direction that backed him into a fence.
- Game On: He was able to make it to the last world of Dino Braker -- where not even Manny was able to reach -- and eventually beat the game, becoming the new game king. And for bonus points, Manny would offer Hector his "game king" poster, but Hector would allow Manny to keep it, showing that Hector can still be humble in victory.
- Gravity Groove: When Francine tricks Shock into using Skeleckian Gravity Spray to make his feet very heavy (Francine disguised it as sunblock) as an attempt to sabotage his and Lisa's chances in the dance-off, Hector would encourage Lisa not to back out of the contest just because of the set-back and give Lisa some dancing pointers, addressing that Shock's dance pattern had changed, and so Lisa's had to chance as well.
- The Limerick Slam:
- Despite still being upset over losing the Limerick Slam to Manny, 7 years prior, due to being distracting by an unknown buzzing sound, he tutors Jessica with his knowledge on how to create proper limericks after she impulsively signs up for the Limerick Slam just to challenge Manny and try to come to Hector's aid.
- Upon Jessica claiming there was a buzzing sound distracted her, Hector would privately use his visual image projection power and notice that Manny was using a mini-remote controlled bug as attempted sabotage... and that Manny had done the same to Hector himself during that Limerick Slam. After realizing this, he decides to take Jessica's place in the slam, and this time, he'd grab Manny's mini-remote controlled bug from the air and recite his limerick without getting distracted.
- Pop Goes the Easel: When the rest of the Electric Company, along with Danny and Bendini (Calvero's long-lost brother) all get trapped in Bendini's unfinished series of paintings-- with the only way to get out being for someone on the outside paint the castle and complete the set -- Hector would realize the paintings were based on the neighborhood park and used the castle as a model. And after some motivation from Lisa, he'd paint a castle of his own design that stayed true of the spirit of Calvero's work, completing the set and freeing everyone from the painting world, including Bendini.
- The Flube Whisperer: When he, Jessica and Lisa are forced to turn to Manny for help in restoring a Skeleckian flube egg's biosphere temperature due to the latter's experience with electronics and technology, Hector uses reverse psychology on Manny to exploit his hidden caring side for weak and defenseless little guys that rely on comfort, in order to convince him to willingly help out Keith and the flube egg.
- Friends or Aunts: Lisa and Annie both get chosen to be constants in the titular game show, with Lisa choosing to bring Hector as her friend, and Annie choosing to bring her aunt Sandy as her aunt. When Lisa and Hector find out Annie's aunt was a hypnotist, they made sure to prepare themselves for if Sandy tries to hypnotize them, using hand mirrors against her to make herself sleepy -- though Annie's able to snap her out of it in time.
- Oh Danny Boy: He agrees to be Danny's new partner for the city wide ping-pong tournament when the latter asks the Company for help with Manny and Francine cheating in an attempt to represent the neighborhood for the tournament. He and Danny would even prove to be great partners, making it to the championship game and got along very well, with Hector in particular seeing that Danny wasn't as bad as the others made him out to be.
Season 2[]
- Madame President: When Francine signs up to be book club president -- despite her lack with experience with books outside of assigned homework -- and has to take part in a debate, Hector and Keith take advantage of Francine's desperation, as they'd become aware that she was eavesdropping on them and deliberately discuss false information about a book, anticipating that Francine would want to discuss the book to make herself look good, but wouldn't bother to read the book for herself or do any proper research.
- Bluefoot: When trying to prove that Bluefoot wasn't real, he comes across a man selling Bluefoot-themed merchandise, and with his photographic memory, he's quickly able to piece together that he was George Vlyer — the man who claimed he witnessed Bluefloot eating his flowers — as well as the fact that he lied about seeing Bluefoot, just so he could get everyone talking about him, and gain lots of money selling the merchandise. This is further proven when the marshmallow smell was really air fresher spray and "Bluefoot" was actually a costume.
Season 3[]
- The Junior Assistant: In contrast to Francine's "leadership skills" when having to make a batch of 600 Ronald cookies by 5:00 -- she was shown to be bossy, impatient, refused to collaborate, didn't take responsibility for her actions and jumped head first into her ideas, assuming her opinion was superior to her teammates'-- Hector was a calm, patient, supportive and far superior leader who actually listened to the others' suggestions, and thought his plans through, even coming up with an idea to use an exercise bike and a conveyor belt as part a way for he and the team to decorate the cookies quickly.