TSS Review: Funko’s Sonic the Hedgehog ‘Pop!’ Vinyl Figures

For 15 years, Funko have been making products based on characters from pop culture. Their range is expansive with hundreds of franchises and over a thousand different products. They’re also no stranger to the Sonic brand. A few years ago they made several Sonic toys based on their Wacky Wobblers line, so it’s not like this is the first time they’d had a go with the Sonic license.  However, it is the first time that they’ve used the Sonic license for their ‘Pop! Vinyl’ line. Now the Funko Pop range has a certain ‘style’ to it, so how do Sonic, Tails and Knuckles look after their Funko Pop transformation? Well…

Oh my…

If you’ve not seen Funko’s Pop! Range before, these might come as a surprise, but I assure you, these are very much in line with the products Funko make. As Sonic fans, have they done the characters justice? Well, aside for their art style, is there anything about them that doesn’t resemble Sonic, Tails and Knuckles? If you took the box away and they were just sitting there, would someone not be able to look at them and say, ‘Aren’t those the Sonic characters?’

We’ve start by looking at Sonic. There’s no way to ignore this, Sonic looks… really angry. I’m not sure if this might put some people off since typically Sonic usually looks laid back and relaxed or has a happy expression on his face, angry is normally for random cut scenes or comic books. So to see a figure of Sonic looking angry is a bit different. Although not unheard of. The Nendoroid figure has the option of making Sonic look angry, however with no customisation on the Funko figure, you have no option but to get an angry looking Sonic.

Though I think I know why he appears angry. The clenched fists by his sides isn’t what does it, there have been official images with him standing like that with his fists clenched and he doesn’t look mad.

It’s the eyes.

His eyes are slightly closed which makes him look angry, I suspect had they been fully open he would look much friendlier. Aside from his angry stare, the Sonic figure has had a lot of care put into it, his paint work is very good, especially on his shoes where it’s easy for mistakes to occur. However, he does have a few issues. Mine has a tiny scratch on his forehead and his chest paint isn’t done very well at all, you can see the blue primer under it. But otherwise, it’s very well done.

There is however one small problem. Sonic’s feet are not quite level, so he has a constant wobble, even the slightest vibration and he’ll topple over, you’ll need to stand him up on a very level surface and may need to use some tape  to hold him in place.

None of the figures have any points of articulation except for their heads, however on my figure, Sonic’s head wouldn’t turn, I was eventually able to get it to do so by applying force, but be careful as you can easily break the figure by doing this.

Moving onto Tails now. Ever since his creation, there has been a joke which has followed Tails around since creation, why does he always look so cute? And it’s the same with this one, there’s something about the way he looks which somehow makes him appear cute. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, it’s probably something to do with his eyes, unlike Sonic, his are fully open and with those huge wide black eyes, it reminds me of when my cat comes into my room, looks up and me and meows.

As with sonic, Tails has a look of detail on him, even down to where the white meets the orange body, it actually looks like fur.

But… Tails does have a lot of paint errors, now these might be exclusive to mine, but given what they are, I would not be surprised if similar errors appear on other versions of him. First of all, his glove, it almost looks like he has a hole in it, there is a huge patch of paint missing and you can clearly see the orange base under it.

Another issue is his right eye, there is a tiny white mark on it which shouldn’t be there, the eyes are supposed to be completely black. It’s small and you can’t see it at a distance, but it’s there.

The big problem comes with his back; he has a lot of white/silver paint smudges all over his back and the back of his head. Tails has no white patches in these areas, so I assume this is something that’s occurred in the manufacture process, odds are it’s going to be repeated on other versions of it.

The last figure in the line is Knuckles, aside from his abnormally large forehead, Knuckles is surprisingly the best figure of the set, in terms of quality at least. He has two errors that I’ve noticed, the first is on his eye, it’s another scratch like Tails has, and the second is on the back of his foot, a small paint smudge. Otherwise, he’s absolutely fine.

One thing about Knuckles which deserves more praise are his shoes, when you think about the colouring on Knuckles, his shoes are the most complicated, especially when it comes to colouring done by a machine. Yet with the exception of the small smudge on the back, they’re perfect. They’ve even put on the small studs on his shoes; they’re not painted on, but individually cut parts of the plastic mould.

Another positive is his tail, a large number of figures and statues often make his dreadlocks so long that it obscures it, not this one, partly due to the oversized head, the dreadlocks are long but they don’t obscure his tail in any way.

One common feature about all the figures that surprised me, they’re light, very light in fact. I do not own any Funko products and I was expecting these to weigh quite a bit due to the size of their heads alone. But the plastic is very light weight and feels almost as light as a typical action figure.

There is one downside to owning these figures and it’s probably something that will be unique to Sonic fans. That being, there’s only 3 of them, if you collect Funko figures then this isn’t an issue. However, for collectors of Sonic merchandise, you can’t escape the thought that when these three are on display they do look a little lonely. I wish there was also an Eggman, Metal Sonic and maybe an Amy figure just to expand the range more. So when the figures are on display, it looks fuller than the 3 which we usually get.

However, despite the fact it’s Sonic, Tails and Knuckles again, due to the design of the figures they’re certainly strong enough to stand out even in a large collection, but that said, it’s crying out for expansion. Give us some characters who are not Sonic Tails and Knuckles since we have a lot of these already.

The figures are priced at around £9.99 each, are they must own? Erm… yes? Well, for me, I love merchandise which is a little different or unique, so for me, absolutely this was a must buy. But I think it depends on how much you collect merchandise and what you do with them. These figures are strictly a display piece only, they’ll look great grouped together and will stand out. However with little articulation, if you don’t like their default pose there isn’t much you can do about it.

That said, they’re not bad, in fact they’re really well made and the presentation in the box is really nice too. They follow the Funko style but are easily identifiable and will certainly stand out amidst even the most diehard of display cases. The main problem seems to be the lack of variety, it’s Sonic, Tails and Knuckles again, though if the range is going to be expanded and I really hope it is, it will only look better with time.

Or look at it this way; imagine if Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were Wisps, I imagine they’d look like these.

Should you buy them?

I’d say they’re worth a buy if you can afford them or just happen to really liked them. At only £9.99 each you’re not going to have to break the bank for the full set. There’s no reason why you should avoid them in terms of quality, just depends how much of a collector you are, if you don’t collect every single piece of merchandise, then it’s probably something you’d want to miss. But if you’re looking for something different or a talking point in your collection, it’s a definite pick up. But what you see with these is literally what you get, they’re display pieces and they don’t have any party tricks other than any setting/scenery you chose to build around them.

Rated: Thumbs Up

Still not sure? Check out my video Unboxing & Review of them.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_SzTL-UjXs

Thinking of getting them? Or do you have any? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.