Review : Tyrion Lannister (Series 1) Funko Legacy

Funko have emerged as a prolific collectible company as of recent years, with their very popular POP range and their extensive Reaction range which covers numerous licences. Their legacy range was their first foray into the "realistic" action figure market and they announced in 2014 that their first licence under the Legacy banner would be HBO's Game of Thrones.

Like many fledgling ranges, I hung back for about a year waiting to see what Funko would put out. So far we have had 2 waves of 6 figures, and a couple of exclusives. Upon the receipt announcement that wave 3 is being sculpted, and the price of the current two waves being relatively low (especially on import from the US) I decided to pick up one or two and see how things go.

My first figure is Tyrion Lannister who we will be looking at here. Tyrion was released in 2014 and came in a standard version (reviewed below), an SDCC version of the same figure with a scar on his face. And finally a US Walgreen Exclusive "Hand of the King" version which I review a bit further down (click here)

Tyrion is the 2nd figure from wave 1 and comes in a tan coloured box very reminiscent of that used by Hasbro on the Black Series. Front and left side (as you look) are adorned with the Lannister house crest, and the rear contains details of the other 5 figures in the wave - although they are simply listed and not pictured like you would expect?

Once out of the box Tyrion is a nice figure. The GoT figures are sculpted by Gentle Giant so the sculpt is pretty impressive for a 6" figure. The figure is sculpted in 6" 1/12 scale and Tyrion is obviously sculpted to his correct height from the show and stands a tad under 4 1/2". The head sculpt is a great likeness to Peter Dinklage and there is enough detail down through the armour and clothing. The breastplate has a sculpted Lannister Lion and a chain necklace, both of which are a little soft on the sculpt but do the job. Work your way round the figure and there are plenty of other details including the armour straps, bracers and boots.

Paint was pretty well applied across the figure. I didn't find any significant bleed, but there was a couple of splashes of paint on my figures nose and hair which had to be scraped off carefully. If there is any criticism of the paint is that in places it looks to be applied too thick. When you look at the Lannister Lion and the chain on the chest details seem to be lost under the paint.

Articulation starts at the ball jointed head which can rotate and look up and down. The shoulders are articulated and the armour has been designed so that as you raise the arms the shoulders slot under the armour rather than restrict the movement. The elbows are jointed and there is a wrist swivel. For such a small figure there is no chest or waist movement, but the legs are full articulated. The bottom section of the armour is done in a softer plastic to allow the legs some wider movement, and with a knee joint and shin swivel and jointed ankles there should be the opportunity to get Tyrion to stand and pose really well.

Yet here are my biggest two issues.

The first is the fragility of the figure. I am always wary of locked joints and never apply any degree of force to a new figure and instead take them off for a steam bath. On this one I simply pushed the left leg which simply dropped off. This is not an isolated incident and was rife within the early figures in particular. I hope Funko will come good on future waves with better quality plastic/joints. The second issue is one of balance. Tyrion is a squat figure and should therefore stand really well due to a low centre of gravity. Yet the figure's feet seem to have been sculpted with a rounded sole and therefore it takes an absolute age to get Tyrion balanced. The usual answer would be to put him on a stand, but Funko haven't added any peg holes to the feet.

Tyrion comes packed with a battle axe which is well sculpted, well painted and fits snugly into his hand - you cant ask for much more.

In summary the sculpt is impressive, the paint is adequate, the articulation is well thought out and no-one can deny this is a good looking figure. Sadly an action figure, and particularly one that is rated as 17+ and sold as an adult collectible, has to stand up on its own. The fragile joints are also a real concern.

I have thought long and hard over how to score Tyrion. In the end it came down to the issues and how it lines up with other similar size collectible ranges. Without the broken joint issue I would have scored Tyrion a 4 out of 5, but I can't look past the damage and unlike my recent Ant-Man review the damage is not an isolate issue, but a clear weakness across the line if you read the online feedback.

I am therefore going to score Tyrion a 3 out of 5 and would warn anyone purchasing these figures to be extremely careful with the joints - I for one will be steaming all future figures straight after opening.

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