Subscription cornucopia gift boxes built around Funko products seem to be popping up more and more these days. And I usually find them pretty easy to ignore because they often include so much random stuff that doesn’t interest me, but this time they got me. The January Smuggler’s Bounty box was Empire Strikes Back-focused, and in the teasers late last fall they showed off the main attraction here — a Funko POP! tauntaun with Han Solo. Well, that was enough to snare me, and after ordering a box around Black Friday back in November, my box finally arrived late last week. So let’s rip into this sucker and see what’s included!
The box is pretty nuts. It’s huge and it looks just like this when your mail carrier drops it off. There’s no outer box to protect it (or to hide it, as it were), so all your neighbors will know you’re getting a big ‘ol box of Star Wars goodies.
The first thing that’s visible when the box is opened is a pair of decorative Star Wars accessories. We get a Yoda patch and a Lando Calrissian enamel pin. I have to admit that while I normally do not care one bit about trinkets like these, the Lando pin had me let out an audible “Oh, cool!” I have no idea what I’m going to do with either of these things, but that Lando pin can go anywhere! So far, that was the nicest surprise of this set.
The real booty is deeper in the box, and this is what we get: the aforementioned POP! tauntaun with Han Solo, a plush Wampa, and a pair of Darth Vader/Stormtrooper socks. Socks?? Yup, socks. I don’t think that could have been any more random. I guess this is the first time socks have ever been included, and previous offerings came with t-shirts. I have to say, though, that I think I will actually get some use out of these socks because I doubt I’d ever wear a Funko POP! t-shirt, Star Wars/themed or not. So yeah — socks. My feet will be embracing the dark side.
The tauntaun is awesome and is definitely the star of the show. Now, I don’t normally collect Star Wars POPs!, but a tauntaun in any tangible form is going to pique my interest, and that was definitely the case here. The sculpt and paint live up to Funko standards, but I’m a little surprised the tauntaun’s head does not move at all. It looks as though it should at least swivel like a standard POP! figure, but, alas, it does not (at least mine won’t budge at all). Han Solo is a bobble-head, so his head is continually knocking around. And he cannot be separated from the tauntaun. He’s just there, riding, searching for Luke forever. He also comes sporting his famous parka — in brown. Brown was the original color of his coat, but through filters, etc., it often looked blue in the movie. The original Kenner figure had a blue coat, and countless iterations that followed came with blue coats, but here we get the original brown — and I have to wonder if the “exclusivity” of this set is tied to the brown coat, and perhaps a blue coat version will be released at retail later. We’ll see, I guess.
The plush Wampa is roughly in scale with the POP! set, so if you’re inclined to “play” with these figures, these should be all you’ll need for some snowy backyard Star Wars adventures. The Wampa is so goofy-looking in the most charming way, and, like the Lando pin, this was a very pleasant surprise for me when I opened the box. I honestly can’t remember if at some point I knew this guy was included, but I placed my order so long ago that I had totally forgotten about it, at the very least.
The next Smuggler’s Bounty box is set to drop in March, and it looks to be REBELS-themed, based on an ad that came in my box. This set I’m not so sure I’ll need, so fortunately you’re not automatically signed up for future boxes just because you bought one. I’ll wait and see what some sneak previews reveal, but, for now, I think REBELS will be a skip for me.
I am, however, thrilled with my Empire Strikes Back set. Their sets often stick around for a bit, so if you didn’t preorder one, you may still be able to get a set directly from Smuggler’s Bounty.