Funko is a pretty controversial company among toy collectors, by which I mean collectors more like me and less of the “casual” variety. Their primary line is the Funko Pop Vinyl line, which amount to small uniformed statues. Funko has also had a few “actual” figures recently in their Funko Legacy line, which so far has mostly been Firefly or Game of Thrones related, though they did a set of Bethesda related figures for Fallout and Skyrim as well as The Book of Life and The Rocketeer. These figures are done in a style very similar to what NECA does for a lot of their lines. Six inch figures with mostly decent articulation and a pretty good attention to detail to the source material. They also seems to have inherited a lot of the issues that NECA figures often have however in stiff or fragile joints and sometimes dodgy sculpt choices.
There are 6 total figures in this line and 5 characters. Jayne Cobb has a version with and without his iconic yellow and orange knit hat from the show. Having one version with a swap-able head or hat accessory would have been cool but I guess it was easier just to do two versions. The Hat version is a store exclusive, but as near as I can tell, it’s exclusive to everywhere, that the regular figures are found anyway.
I’m going to touch a bit on each of the figures before wrapping up with some thoughts on the set as a whole.
Malcolm Reynolds
Malcolm, the captain of the crew, is probably the most well rounded figure of the set. This is good since he’s probably the most desireable figure of the line up, being sort of the main characters. The articulation is good, the sculps is good and looks like Nathan Fillion. He has a bit of an issue in his design where his hips are a bit too wide, but it’s an issue that spans across the line and isn’t exclusive to this figure.
He includes two accessories, a shotgun and his pistol, both of these guns can be held appropriately and both can be stored int he holster on his leg (individually, not together). The paint is a little spotty in a few places, but this is also an issue that runs across the line.
Zoë Washburne
Zoë is almost as nice as Malcolm in terms of well roundedness. The sculpt isn’t quite as nice in the face and head but it’s still recognizable as the character. She has a pair of guns, one of which has holster attached to her belt. Her hips also have some of the wideness issue that Malcolm has, but her proportions make her look less pear shaped than Malcolm, so it’s not quite as noticeable.
Wash (Hoban Washburne)
What use is Zoë without her husband? Wash is probably my favorite figure of the line. The sculpt all around is pretty good, though I’m not sure why is face is so heavily washed. His hair is a little odd, but overall, his outfit does a good job of hiding the major sculpt issues present int he other figures (goofy elbows, weird hips). He portrays the nerdy goofyness of the character.
To just drive this home, while Wash doesn’t include any weapons, he does come with two small dinosaur toys. Wash was shown playing with these toys a few times up on the bridge of the ship, where he spent a lot of his time. His hands are both sculpted to allow him to hold both dinosaurs well, which also gives him some kind of fun “claw hands” for regular poses as well. The dinosaurs themselves are very nicely done.
Kaylee
So, moving on to the bottom of the barrel zone, I’ll start off with Kaylee. I want to like Kaylee, and she is so close but there’s just a few off putting things and one bad experience that has pulled her way down in my book. First, the sculpt is a little iffy. The face is a too puffy and mine has a bit of a derpy eye going on. Her accessories are irritatingly light as well, especially given she is the smallest figure. She only has her wrench, which works, but a few more tools, or maybe a chunk of machinery as a prop would have been a nice way to offset the value proposition here.
My main issue comes from her hands. While across the line, I’ve had to deal with a few stiff joints, one of the hands on my Kaylee broke right off, with almost zero “effort”. I glued it back on, so at least she has a hand, even if it’s now stuck in one position, It’s still an irritating issue. She feels like she is more prone to this issue since her arms are considerably skinnier than the other figures in the line. A couple fo more accessories and less fragile joints, and I probably would completely overlook the slightly off face sculpt.
Jayne Cobb
Then there’s Jayne Cobb. I debated a bit on which version I wanted but ultimately opted to pick up the one with his hat. I don’t need two Jaynes and the hat is a fun and memorable piece from the show. Jayne really solves a lot of the issues that the other figures had, and I suspect part of this is due to his two figure release. In terms of “background” in the design and budget area, the dual release should have effectively double the budget for this figure’s design. The joints look better, partially due to his larger size, but he also includes three accessories, his knife, his pistol, and his gun, Vera.
My issue with the figure is that I can’t get him to hold Vera. It’s a nice looking gun, and I’ve seen where other’s have gotten the gun into his hands, but the hands on my Jayne are too stiff and tight to fit the larger gun into either hand. I also worry about breaking the gun as well.
Which leads me into the overall line, and it’s many issues. These are relatively cheap figures, at $20 each (less these days since they are on clearance anywhere that still has them). Still, there are wonky quality issues across the board. The paint on all of these figures have some issues, it’s not clear how much is just shoddy work and how much is intentional to make things look “dirty”. There are ugly plastic seams plaguing almost every figure as well, especially on hands and arms where there is flesh tone paint. The joint designs are functional, but very ugly, just take a look at the elbows on Jayne and Zoë, or the wrists on all of them. These figures really feel like they could have benefited from a higher price point, put towards polishing them up. The basic idea and execution is there, everything just falls short in some pretty major ways. The details on Kaylee’s overalls and Wash’s shirt both are great, and the two mini Dinosaurs are really good, it’s a shame this level couldn’t have been executed consistently across the line, especially since this is essentially Funko’s “Collector” level line.
The other shame is that the line is effectively dead as near as I can tell. We’ll probably never get River, or Simon, or Inara, or Sheppard Book. Which is a bit of a shame because Firefly is a fun cult series that really could use a nice set of figures.
Are the figures worth picking up? At this point they can be had pretty cheap, they aren’t the best, but if you’re a fan of the show it’s likely the only chance you’re ever going to have to get figures from the show, and at sub $15, most of the figures are worthwhile. Wash and Malcolm are pretty fun figures to add in with say, Star Wars Black figures. Jayne and Zoë are both allright, though flawed a bit. Kaylee, not so much, at least the one I have isn’t great.