Review : Ned Stark (Series 1) Funko Legacy

Lord Eddard Stark is my third Game of Thrones figure from Funko, and was released in 2014. He arrives in a gray window box adorned in the bottom corner with the Stark House Wolf. On the rear you will find a picture of Sean Bean as Ned Stark and a list of the 6 figures that make up series 1, Ned himself is number 6.

Once opened Ned comes packed with two swords which we put aside for now and talk about a little later. Ned is presented in his Kings Landing, Hand of the King, outfit and for me I would have preferred the bulkier Winterfell cloak as seen on the Dark Horse statue. The sculpt is not bad, but not the best Gentle Giant have done. It is a passing resemlence to Sean Bean but is further hampered by some heavy handed paint on the beard. On the flip side the eyes are really well painted as are the subtle highlights in the hair.

The leather armour is pretty well done with a neat pattern in the armour and visible rivets. The paint on this is pretty impressive in the main with a base colour, a number of washes and then drybrushing of silver to pull out the details in the sculpt as well as making it look weathered. But then the figure goes from Hero back to Vilian with the hand of the king brouch completely obscured by thick heavy gold paint. Then there is the belt which goes around the waist and into a sheath - this is also pretty poorly painted and the silver paint has missed every rivet on my figure. Then you go back to great again as you find under the armour is a tunic which has a chequered pattern within the sculpt and again is painted to bring out the detail, but very subtly done. The legs are done in a plain trouser, but even though they are hidden under the skirt of the armour, these are also washed in brown to give a dirty weathered look. The outfit is finished with knee high boots and the weathering continues here, with more focus put on the feet to represent mud splashes.

I handle any Game of Thrones figure from Funko with great care after breaking my first one straight out of the box. But thankfully Ned is still in one piece and has a decent range of articulation. Starting at the head this is on a ball joint so can rotate a full 360 degrees as well as having a decent range of movement to look both up and down.

Shoulders are balljointed but are VERY stiff. I would recommend steaming these before trying to move them as the shoulders and hips are the weakest points and most likely to break with even a small amount of pressure. The elbows have a joint and the wrists have both a swivel and a pivot. There is however a couple of issues with this wrist articulation. First the peg on the pivot is a differnt coloured paint (it looks clear) to the flesh colour of the hand - so it just spoils the figure (I had the same issue on Tyrion). And the pivot doesn't actually move very much at all due to the sleeves of the tunic - it may as well have been left out which would have sorted both problems.

You can feel a wasit joint, but it doesnt move, so the next articulation is at the hips. These are ball jointed and again handle with caution. The hips give a real range of motion and coupled with the flexible lower skirt of the armour you can put Ned into kneeling positions or even doing the splits if he is inclined to do so. The jointed knee's support this movement further and there are rocker joints on the ankles to allow him to stand flat flooted and pretty stable.

Of the two accessories the smaller sword is the better of the two as it can either be held in hand or slotted away into the sheath. The larger sword, although relevant to the figure, looks oversized and I go back to my original point that had Ned been in his Winterfell cloak - then this giant sword would have looked fine.

This figure is a very odd one to score as there are some really nice touches like the weathering on the armour and under clothes, and then some real lazy painting on the beard and belt. Funko Legacy also lose marks for their ongoing issues with stuck and weak joints and even though I didn't break this figure I had to do some work to get him to move freely which shouldn't be needed. With better consistency in paint quality and better joints this figure would hit at least a four. As it stands he is a 3 out of 5,

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