Monday, May 12, 2014

Funko Pop Toothless Figure Review


Haha, I'm still trying to spoiler dodge, but I'm doing a terrible job of it! I expect that later today or tomorrow the HTTYD2 art book should come in, and when it does it will be a massively immense struggle for me to NOT take ANY peeks! But I will stand strong! That book only gets opened after I've seen the film on June 13! In the mean time, I did snag this beautiful Funko Pop Toothless, and I thought I might as well make a little review of it for those of you who might like to know whether you'd like to buy one of these for yourself. Click the "read more" to see more photos as well as a few notes on this nice little collectable.




Probably the first thing I should note is that all of these photos can be clicked on and opened in a new tab for better resolution, so it you are wanting to get a closer look, I'd suggest that. I'll start with pictures of the packaging. It's very intentionally trendy, only showing an image of half of Toothless's face on the front. 


One of the side panels is transparent and allows you to see Toothless's profile. Again, this is kinda nice and a little fancy, though to be honest I bought this online so I was not drawn in by the packaging! Again note that the small image of Toothless there only shows the top of his head, not his whole face. 


The back is really something! It shows the rest of the vinyl figures available from HTTYD2 along with a fairly decent HTTYD2 description. The orange looks great with the reds, blacks and whites. And yet again the main image of Toothless only shows half of him. The orange background is actually a bunch of faded map tie bits... which I assume come directly from Hiccup's maps in the second film. This is certainly a nice detail.


If you turn the box to the left you finally get to see a full illustration of the vinyl in a decent size. He stands out nicely against that fiery red, don't you think?


And here's the top of the box. Toothless's eyes peeking up with that speech bubble over his head strikes me as being quite charming! This is my last image of the box, so I'll wrap up here with my one minor complaint. The packaging itself, though nicely illustrated, is rather flimsy. The whole thing was made of very thin, bendable cardboard as you can see from the above image, and it kinda hurt the crisp aesthetic. That said, this is definitely one of the more artistically and eye-cathcingly packaged HTTYD products out there.


Now onto the figure itself. I will say to start, this thing isn't really a toy. It is made of vinyl which gives it a really lovely matte finish, but it also scratches easily and shows finger prints. It has NO play features. But this is almost the major attraction! Unlike most of the other HTTYD merchandise which is geared towards younger children, this product is certainly aimed at teens or older individuals.


It makes a really fun display piece with all its big-headed, empty-eyed quirkiness. I have never bought a Funko Pop before, but I like this one.


The front of Toothless's head is nicely captured. Obviously it is flatter than in the films, but that is all part of the art style. His head spikes look great (although since there are only seven he doesn't have enough of them... I believe in HTTYD2 Toothless has nine head spines). I wasn't sure how I would feel about the soulless eyes, but I think they help to make this toy distinct from the rest of my collection. Also, his nose is extremely cute and well captured. It could be one of my favorite elements of this whole thing.


Here's a side view of his head. Not much to say here. The ears do stick back a nice distance from his skull, which is a plus. He doesn't have the three new little nubs under each chin, but that is forgivable (BUT, I am a little sad to say I've yet to find a toy with those nubs included, and I really like the way they look, so I hope they'll show up eventually).


And from the back! I'll give you better shots of his body later on, this is meant to show you his head. As you can see his largest ears have those neat little bumps! I was impressed by that attention to detail. I believe the HTTYD fandom has named those bumps "sub-nubs", so for those of you who like them, they are there.


Now onto his body... which is small in comparison with his head, but it is PACKED with detail. His red tailfin is thankfully on his left side, and it also is painted with the updated white skull from HTTYD2. Just like on the actual Toothless, this splash of red color is a welcome tidbit for the eye. His tail is cutely "stubbified" for this design, but it still includes both the top and side spikes both only in their proper areas. The wing finger count in his tailfins is accurate and the shaping is perfect.


His posture here is to die for! I don't even know why, and I don't think my pictures do it justice, but when you hold him it is gorgeous. It's a mix of rigid alertness and this adorable relaxed feeling. I don't quite know how to express it. His toe count is accurate. His wing finger count is one off. Easily forgivable, though I'd love to see a stylized thing be stylized and include all the details accurately.


He's got the cutest little tummy on him! This is one reason I like his posture. His front is kinda upright and alert, but his stomach and hindquarters are stylized to look just a little chubby and it makes him feel really cute. His arms lack the large, knife-like spines. But, as you can see from here, his gliding wings at the base of his tail are accurate. 


He is wearing his harness, and it looks great on him. It is a medium brown, and it has little metalic bits painted onto in a reflective silver. It all looks very good. He's even got the straps around his neck which looks a little like a collar and is also accurate to the saddle's design.


Well, this gives you a fair look at his haunches, which are rounded and as I have said, make him feel really cute. You can also see this little nick in the bottom ear on the right. I honestly don't know what that is... it could be a mistake, or it could be that Toothless's ear in the second movie has such a scar. Also, you can see very clearly that the saddle design is that of HTTYD2 and not the first movie.


Here's a quick size comparison between the Funko Pop version and one of the Spinmaster minis. I would presonally recommend both of them. The Funko Pop costs around ten dollars right now, and I'd suggest buying them before they become hard to find. 


And, like all other Funko Pops (I assume), Toothless's head can turn. It is the only real "feature" of this merchandise, but it is welcome enough. Considering he looks great, is not expensive, and is immediately recognizable, I would recommend this vinyl figure to any HTTYD fan who is a teen or older. It is a great little display piece to put on a desk or bedside table, and it is funky and stylized enough to keep the haters off your back for owning toys from a so called "kids film". Hope this review wasn't too boring or drawn out. It's good to have enough time to blog again!


No comments:

Post a Comment