The idea of Game of Thrones figures in a 3-3/4″ scale sounds a pretty good one. An array of figures based on characters from all over the world of Game of Thrones, complete with their various iconic accessories. Daenerys with her dragon eggs, Arya Stark with her sword needle, there were so many possibilities for which much loved characters could appear in plastic action figure form. Instead, we got Jon Snow and a whole load of wildlings…

I have mixed feelings about Funko. Sure, they release some interesting toys based on movies and TV series that don’t usually get much in the way of merchandise, but they’re also responsible for the minimum effort, pop vinyl figures which I just can’t abide (and I really like cutesy deformed action figures). I’ve also experienced quality issues with some of my Funko purchases before. I don’t mind paying £12 for a ReAction Malcolm Reynolds Firefly figure, but for £12 it would be neat if it didn’t fall apart like mine did upon removing it from the packaging.

As time has gone on, Funko do seemed to have sorted their shit out a bit, as the more recent stuff I’ve bought seems to be far better in terms of quality. I recently reviewed some of their Savage World Mortal Kombat Figures and overall I was pretty impressed with them. Anyway, today I’m looking at their Game of Thrones 3-3/4″ figures released back in 2016. You’ll have to excuse the old towel in the background of the figures, I honestly thought it looked pretty snow-like when I was taking the pictures, but in hindsight, I can see that it just looks like an old towel.

 

 

Jon Snow

 

 

I don’t think this picture really does much to show what this figure truly looks like. In person, the face looks like a Jon Snow that knows even less than nothing with the kind of blank, gormless expression that would suggest he wasn’t betrayed and murdered with blades in the chest by his mutineering Knights Watch, but by repeated blows to the head with hammers, and when Melisandre brought him back to life, she didn’t quite manage to bring him all back.

For a 3-3/4″ figure though it really doesn’t look too bad though. These figures sport a little more articulation than the ReAction figures, being able to move at the knee and elbows as well as the shoulders, hips and head. I discovered after I had taken the picture of Jon Snow that you can actually remove his fur cloak by pulling his head off, which makes him a little more poseable, as he’s very constricted with his cloak on. He comes equipped with his sword with a very basic little direwolf pommel on the hilt, which is a nice, charming little detail.

Being released in 2016, Jon Snow now seems to be a little more expensive that the other figures in the line. I paid about £13 for him, where as most of the others are about £5 now. I’m guessing he’s more expensive as he is an actual, likeable character whereas most of the others I couldn’t care less about. But we’ll get onto that in a bit.

 

 

Ghost

 

 

Where would Jon Snow be without his faithful woof? Ghost was probably the second most expensive figure after Jon Snow, probably because the two display well together. I can’t really find anything to criticise about this figure. It has pretty limited articulation but it’s a direwolf, I don’t exactly want to pose it doing anything other than standing there looking like a direwolf.

 

 

Ghost does look a little small in my opinion, as in the series I was sure his head was about human shoulder level, but I guess this figure could be a representation of when Ghost was still a pup. I won’t think too much into it.

 

 

Samwell Tarly

 

 

Sam is one of my favourite characters in the show. He isn’t a capable fighter or particularly handsome like his pal Jon Snow, but he is a decent, kindhearted soul who is very much an underdog that you can’t help but root for.

For the most part, this figure is a pretty good representation of Sam from the series, the only issue being is that this figure doesn’t look as chubby as the actual onscreen character. I can forgive the inaccuracies though, as historically figures of characters with a wider frame have often been slimmed down to work into 3-3/4″ figure scale. Remember Dennis Nedry, the chubby guy from the original Jurassic Park? Kenner  removed any trace of the characters flab for the toy release, perhaps because they figured that kids wouldn’t want to buy a character that was fat. I for one would have just bought him just to feed to an ink-spitting Dilophosaurus, for which he needed no athletic ability. Maybe it was just to save on plastic costs. Who knows? It’s not like they couldn’t do chubby figures well, as the Rancor keeper from 1983’s Return of the Jedi was pretty good.

Anyway, Sam looks a little slimmer than how he looks onscreen but in spite of that, he still looks pretty accurate, and his face is pretty much spot on. He comes equipped with a crossbow which I don’t remember him using very much, but as an accessory, it isn’t the worst. It just isn’t a Dragonglass dagger, which he used to kill the Whitewalker.

 

 

White Walker

 

 

I love this figure. I think anyone who has read any of these posts for a significant amount of time will know I have a large amount of admiration for toys based on undead things. I don’t know if it’s the frozen blue colour of the skin, or the piercing, unyielding, dead eyes but it just looks awesome.

The White Walker comes equipped with a spear which is perfect for skewering Free Folk and Knights Watch alike.

 

 

 

Night King

 

 

I wasn’t that impressed with the look of the Night King when I watched Game of Thrones. He looks like what I imagine Darth Maul to look like if he came in some new ‘ice blast’ flavour. I also had a few issues with this figure, as upon removing from packaging I noticed the left arm was weird at the joint. You can see in the picture that the plastic peg is sort of sticking out and the figures arm is squashed as though it had been stood on. It isn’t hugely noticeable, but it does make the arm harder to move. If I hadn’t had problems with previous Funko ReAction figures, I probably wouldn’t be as annoyed. I could try and contact Funko but I don’t know what the process would be or if they would even care. I haven’t had the best of luck with American companies giving a shit about of their product flaws outside of the United States.

Mainly because I’m not keen on the design, and the fact it has a knackered arm, I don’t feel too excited about this figure. Oh, and it also doesn’t come with any accessories which doesn’t exactly do the figure any favours either, as I really like accessories.

 

 

Ygritte

 

 

We are fast entering the realm of characters I don’t really give a shit about. I gather that Ygritte was an important character in the development of Jon Snow’s story arc, but she wasn’t particularly funny, or likeable. She was good with a bow and just told Jon Snow that he knew nothing a lot. I appreciate that she was an important character, but if you are making a set of nine Game of Thrones figures, are people really going to want to buy her? The answer is no they are not, as there are tons of her keeping the pegs warm in my nearest comic book/collectable shop. Do you know what the annoying thing is? The 3-3/4″ series has been canceled now, due to poor sales. Why didn’t they sell? Because characters like Daenerys, or Brienne of Tarth, The Hound or Bronn were substituted for just  a bunch of Wildlings that no-one really cared about. Supposedly Funko were going with a ‘northern’ theme, so all of the figures they released were of characters above and around the wall, but considering that there were so many interesting and likeable characters all over the GoT world, it seems strange they would just limit themselves to characters based around the wall when there are probably only two or three that are decent. So it looks like it will be a while until another company makes a 3-3/4″ Daenerys.

Enough ranting anyway. Ygritte actually does look how she does onscreen so despite my not really liking it, it is a good figure. She comes equipped with a bow which is to be expected really.

 

 

Lord of Bones

 

 

Despite my not really wanting the wildlings as figures, I can’t deny that The Lord of Bones looks badass in his skeletal attire. The detailing of this figure is pretty impressive as well, with a powdered snow effect being applied to his fur jacket and legs.

The Lord of Bones comes equipped with a Havok Staff that he stole from Skeletor a staff adorned with a ram skull, just in case his love of bones wasn’t already apparent.

 

 

Styr, Magnar of Thenn

 

 

“Hooray, another wildling” said no-one ever. I don’t really remember what happened to this character in the show, though I do remember him being a tall, cannibalistic asshole. Perhaps he died at the battle of Castle Black? I really can’t remember. He was quite a good villain though, as there are quite a few assholes among the wildlings, so it really takes a special kind of asshole to stand out, and Styr certainly did that.

Styr comes equipped with a massive axe which seemed to take me a  few attempts to get  this figure to actually hold.

 

 

 

 

Tormund Giantsbane

 

 

If I had to choose just one wildling character to be made into a figure (and I really wouldn’t mind just having to choose one) it would be Tormund. He starts off as a bit of a dick, but definitely becomes more likeable as the series progressed, to the point where I actually became concerned he might die in a few of the conflicts.

As a figure, he isn’t particularly exciting but he does look pretty accurate to his onscreen appearance. He also comes with a short sword/machete which I managed to promptly lose, but luckily managed to find again.

 

That wraps up all of the loose figures anyway. There was one more figure released though, but he was only available as part of this display set.

 

 

The Wall Display

 

 

For my really only liking half of the figures released in the basic line, I do think this display set is pretty neat. It comes with Tyrion Lannister, a figure I think should have been released without having to buy a £30-40 display stand. I managed to get this set reduced to £20 at the comic book shop that also stocked the whole load of Ygritte figures so clearly people weren’t going mad for these sets either.

The overall style of the box reminds me of the vintage Kenner Star Wars playsets, where the figures are all stood around doing things that never once occurred during the movies. Here you can see the Tyrion figure pretending he is Donkey Kong, throwing down barrels at Ygritte. He has already managed to foil the Night King, who is trapped under one of the barrels.

 

 

Putting together the wall was a complete nightmare. The little wooden platform atop the wall required assembling and the plastic felt like the tackiest, most fragile plastic I’ve ever seen in a toy that originally cost upwards of £30.  I finally got it done though and it does look pretty good, although it’s a very scaled down wall which does make it feel more like a vintage Star Wars style set, which  were often scaled down just for practicality.

 

 

 

The set comes with three barrels and a whole load of pegs for you to stand up to 25 figures on. Unfortunately the line never got to anywhere near that amount of figures unfortunately, but I guess you could always stick a bunch of other figures on there. The best part of the set is that it comes with Tyrion Lannister.

 

 

 

Tyrion comes equipped with a goblet, which is a perfect accessory for someone whose specialty is drinking and knowing things. He also comes with a fur coat which can be removed by taking off his head. This is definitely one of my favourite figures of the line, and it’s just a shame that you could only get it by buying this set. This line would have probably sold pretty well if it had single characters like Tyrion available for purchase.

How does it look as a display stand anyway?

 

 

 

It looks cluttered! I don’t know how you’re supposed to be able to fit twenty-five figures on it. There are pegs on the little ice ledges, but that doesn’t mean you can effectively stand a figure on each peg due to the wooden platform at the top. I think it’s definitely more of a playset than a display stand, but perhaps selling it as a playset to adults wouldn’t work very well from a sales point of view. But then, from a sales of point of view, this whole line was already screwed because it didn’t feature any characters that people actually wanted.

So my overall thoughts on this line? The figures aren’t bad at all, and I really like simple style figures with just a small amount of articulation. The line could have been so much better though, and it really doesn’t look like they’ll be releasing any more figures. Perhaps with the release of the final season of Game of Thrones next year they might revisit this line, but I won’t hold my breath. Funko are absolute masters of doing just one series of figures from a specific line, and then annoyingly never ever touching that line again, leaving sets looking half complete and lacking core characters.

For all my criticisms though, there aren’t many companies doing retro style 3-3/4″ figures. Funko along with Super7 seem to be the only two really doing it, so kudos to them for that. It just seems that Super7 are a bit better at planning their lines and actually releasing figures that people are going to want!