I never imagined that I would be writing a review of a highly articulated 6” scale action figure from Funko. Or that it would be from a line that I had dreamed about (and thought highly unlikely) since the franchise’s first television episode. Or that it would have been designed by one of the most acclaimed houses in the toy world – Gentle Giant – and therefore compatible with the correspondingly scaled Star Wars Black line.
Let’s
go ahead and get this out of the way – Funko started dropping
10-megaton geek bombs on the world late last year and hasn’t
stopped.
Starting
with the announcement of their partnership with Super 7 to produce
the Alien ReAction figures right up through the super-secret and
unbelievably fast release of their Game of Thrones 6” line, this
toy company that I have previously had zero interest in has been
making moves that have impressed the heck out of me and have the toy
collecting world talking up a storm. If I’m being honest, it’s
about the damndest thing I’ve seen since I started collecting toys.
I was
hooked on Game of Thrones
from the first episode. As early as the second I was imagining what
action figures might look like, what would be the best scale, and how
badly a line could be bungled. I thought the best scale would be
3.75” in the style of Hasbro’s Indiana Jones releases from a few
years ago. Those looked more realistic than most lines at that scale
and the size makes vehicles (horses and carts and such) and playsets
more likely. As far as how the line could be bungled I think there
are plenty of examples out there of entire lines that are poorly
made, poorly distributed, poorly planned, and/or just plain ugly.
It never
occurred to me that we might get super-articulated, highly detailed,
6” scale figures.
And certainly not from Funko.
As far
as the launch goes, I don’t know if Funko kept it secret as a
surprise for the release of the third season of the show on Blu-Ray
and DVD or if they’re just not very good at marketing. I have to
kind of doubt the latter. Either way, the internet was surprised when
the first wave of figures popped up on eBay, soon followed by the
revelation that they were available in Barnes & Noble stores. The
figures had a street date of February 15th,
but apparently a shocking number of B&N employees can’t read.
I
managed to order Daenerys – one of my top picks – from the
store’s website about ten minutes before she sold out. All of the
other figures were already gone. Luckily for me Phantomaniac and
super-pal Sally was able to get me the rest of the series, so those
reviews will be coming over the next few weeks.
FIRST
GLANCE
Once the
figures started hitting the internet I was hearing about quality
control problems. The main issue seemed to be the use of translucent
plastic pins in the joints. As any toy collector knows, such pins
tend to be brittle and can break easily (not to mention they can look
ugly depending on how they are used). I also heard about issues with
stuck joints – the most common problem plaguing modern action
figures. So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I opened
the figure up after it arrived on Tuesday.
I was
delighted to find that visually Daenerys was beautiful. As good as –
if not better than – any Star Wars Black figures I had seen (she
puts that hideous monkey-faced Leia to shame). The joints weren’t
ugly and the paint looked great.
PACKAGING
It
amuses me that this is almost exactly the same packaging as the Star
Wars Black line. Funko is not being shy about where their resources
are coming from. I like this window box design, as it looks nice and
is easy to shop (if not to photograph).
The
graphics are quite nice, with different glosses and a foil embossed
Funko logo to make it extra classy. The left side looks like a book,
which is neat:
The back is refined, with a picture of the character and a list of names of the rest of the figures in the series rather than pictures. This works for me, as it makes the packaging look less cluttered. There's no bio, but I can’t imagine anybody is going to buy these without knowing the characters intimately.
I find it interesting that the line is for 17+. Does that mean we can expect gory variants? A mid-coitus Lannister twins set? That redhead with a smoke demon pouring out of her cha-cha?
Of
course not, don’t be ridiculous.
LOOKS
Before I
get into the looks I want to mention how wonderful it is that we’re
getting properly scaled figures nowadays. Ever since I was a kid
scale has been an issue for me. It’s always bothered me when toys
within a line were not sized relatively to one another. I think it’s
part of the reason why I was never more into Transformers. I just
can’t deal with a pistol that is the same size as a
eighteen-wheeler that is larger than a jet that transforms into a
comparably sized tank.
But the
worst issue I had was when I was collecting wrestling figures. JAKKS
was terrible about scale. Rey Mysterio would be the same height as
Undertaker. It was awful. Mattel has mostly corrected those issues
during their time with the WWE license, so that’s nice.
I
mention all of that because this Daenerys figure is tiny and
rightfully so - Emilia Clarke is a diminutive 5’2” tall. I
haven’t gotten the other figures from Sally yet, but if they’re
true 1”=1’ scale they should all dwarf the Khaleesi. Well, except
for Tyrion.
I wasn’t
so sure about the face while the figure was still in the package, but
once it was out I could tell it’s a solid likeness. Not perfect,
but very good. The hair is a soft plastic that doesn’t interfere
with movement. It has great form and lots of detail. The braids in
the back look great and the paint is excellent. It’s worth
mentioning that the underside of the hanging portions is sculpted and
painted, as well. The paint on the face is almost perfect. The
eyebrows look good and I like how the eyes are cast off to the side.
Each of the colors in the eyes is placed perfectly. These were
important because Clarke’s eyes are probably her most prominent
features. The lip shading is a little off, as the bottom lip on mine
isn’t completely colored.
The torso sculpt is great. The figure has prominent collarbones and is well proportioned. The halter has tons of detail and looks like a separate piece even though it isn’t. The Khaleesi’s skin tone is appropriately fair with some washes to bring out the contours. The halter has a rough texture accentuated by a dark wash.
The arms have a great shape and match up to the shoulder sockets beautifully. Her right shoulder has a couple of holes in it where the dragon sits. They’re pretty ugly, but I think I would rather have these than a dragon with gigantic feet made to clip onto the figure. I can’t come up with a better way for the figures to interact. The elbow joints are about as concealed as you could want and the ball-jointed wrists are mostly hidden by the gloves. The pegs are just a tad too long though and are visible when the hands are posed certain ways. The hands themselves are posed in open clutches, so the figure could hold accessories if needed. The gloves have a ton of sculpted detail and a brown wash over the black paint to give them a worn look.
The
skirt is a soft plastic piece that does not interfere with posing at
all. The front is open and the sides are slitted to the point where
this figure could ride a horse if Funko decides to make one. The
shape and folds are well done and the paint matches up with the rest
of the figure as far as quality and look.
The legs
are proportioned well and the knee joints are subtle. The boots look
nicely worn and aged, but the ankles feature the age-old problem of
having hinges that are a different color from the surrounding
material. It isn’t as bad on Daenerys as it is on other figures,
though. It’s only visible from the back and the difference is just
a matter of shades of brown rather than light grey against black or
some other high contrasting discrepancy.
ACCESSORIES
Daenerys
comes with her red dragon. I’m sure it has a name, but I don’t
know what it is.
This is
the dragon in its infant form. It’s amazingly detailed for such a
tiny thing. The body is scaled and the wings have a leathery texture.
It fits easily and securely into the holes on Daenerys’ shoulder.
Obviously it would have been nice if Daenerys had come with all three dragons, but I’d bet money we are going to see more versions of her in the future. Say, two more? Undoubtedly Funko has plans to release all three infant dragons, as well as grown up versions down the road.
FUN
Daenerys
features basically the same articulation as the Star Wars Black
figures, which is very similar to current Marvel Legends. But since I
haven’t reviewed one of Funko’s Legacy figures before I’ll run
down the joints:
Head –
ball joint
Shoulders
– ball joints
Elbows –
swivel/pivots
Wrists –
peg joints
Hips –
ball joints
Thighs –
swivels
Knees –
double pivots
Ankles –
pivot/swivels
There’s
no abdominal joint and either no joints at the boot tops or they are
stuck so bad I can’t even wiggle them. I think the latter.
The
swivels on the elbows won’t budge, even with hot air from a hair
dryer. I plan on trying hot water since it’s easier to move a joint
while it’s under the tap, but I didn’t feel like drying the
figure off at the time I took pictures. This is a problem not just
because the joints should
move, but also because the forearms are turned the wrong way.
The left
thigh swivel was also stuck, but the hair dryer trick took care of
that.
All of
the other joints work fine and can hold poses. I’m pleased both
with the number of joints and the range of motion on each one (elbows
aside). The lack of abdominal or waist joints is fine by me because
anything other than a ball joint at the waist would have messed up
the figure’s nice profile.
Daenerys
was exciting to open and play with for a while; not just because it’s
a new figure from a new line, but because the design is well done.
She’s probably going to end up standing on my desk for a while. And
not just because I don’t currently have any space for a Game of
Thrones shelf. Dammit.
OVERALL
I got
this figure on sale for $17.99, but the MSRP is $19.99 because that’s
just how much these kinds of figures sell for now. As far as this
category of action figure goes, this is a very good one.
The
design of the figure is excellent. The sculpt and color are
wonderful. The issues that are present – the minor paint error on
the lip and the stuck elbows – are production issues and not flaws
with the way the figure was intended to be made. Coming from a
company that has never done anything like this before I think this is
an astounding first effort. Obviously having Gentle Giant involved
was a critical factor, but Funko made all of the right decisions as
far as how to create Daenerys Targaryen. I highly recommend this
figure if you are a fan.
4
out of 5
Despite the flaws present, this figure excites me tremendously for the future of Funko’s Legacy lines. Specifically their Firefly line. They have had their learning experience with these first Game of Thrones figures, so by the time the Firefly (or Serenity – whatever they put on them) figures come out all of the production issues should be ironed out.
These
figures are exclusive to Barnes & Noble through March 17th.
After that you should be able to find them at your online favorites –
BigBad and Entertainment Earth; probably Amazon – as well as some
brick and mortar retailers. Until then check in with Barnes &
Noble or their website. I was in one of the stores the other day and
they had Daenerys and Jon Snow on the shelf. I don’t know how fast
they can restock, but I would imagine they could get at least one
more shipment within 30 days.
In the show she wasn't so tall so being 5.2" could be a scale with other characters. Hope I can see this over at my location. Can't wait for April for the next season!
ReplyDeleteYes - the figure's height is accurate in relation to the rest of the line and the stature of the actress.
DeleteI love the show, but have no interest in collecting the figures (well, I might need the white walker). However, I really look forward to reading about the figures, so thanks for the review! Glad you got a good one, I've been hearing about the QC issues too, and I hope Funko gets it all figured out.
ReplyDeleteGood for them for stirring up some new competition in the action figure world.
Daenerys's arms ended up falling off at the elbow swivel and The Hound fell over and his scabbard and left leg broke off. I contacted allison@Funko.com and they are replacing any broken figures. I'm opening the rest right now.
DeleteAlso, eat a dick, Mattel.