Wubba lubba dub dub!
I knew I wanted Rick and Morty action figures after watching just a few episodes of the first season. Fortunately for me, the show quickly achieved cult status, and now, headed into season 3, it is among the most popular adult cartoons ever made. Joining other mature animated shows like The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Rick and Morty now has its own line of modestly articulated figures.
Creating licensed action figures has been a winding road for Rick and Morty figure manufacturer Funko. In 1998, Funko started as a small collectible company producing bobbleheads before striking figurative gold in the form of vinyl toys. In February 2014, Funko dipped its toes into the collector action figure market for the first time with highly articulated Game of Thrones figures. Branded as the “Legacy Collection,” Game of Thrones series 1 hit with mixed reviews. The figures had potential, but their clear plastic joints were prone to breakage.
Funko seemed to right the ship with Game of Thrones series 2, correcting the clear joint issue and improving sculpts. Fans were left waiting for series 3 when the Game of Thrones line disappeared as suddenly as it started. Funko has attempted to revitalize their Legacy Collection with properties like Fallout 3, The Rocketeer, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Firefly, but figure quality has wavered, never quite reaching the heights of Game of Thrones series 2.
Funko has all but abandoned the Legacy Collection in favor of cheaper, less articulated figures like those in their ReAction line. These Rick and Morty figures are more articulated the standard ReAction figures, though they don’t come close to the glory of the Legacy Collection. They’re also substantially cheaper than the Legacy Collection at about $11.99 a pop. I suspect that they were inspired by the aforementioned adult cartoon figure lines.
The packaging is eerily similar to the World of Springfield figures by Playmates and Mezco’s Family Guy line. The back of the box features the full wave — Rick, Morty, Mr. Meeseeks, Mr. Poopy Butthole, and Birdperson — and the BAF, Snowball in his mech suit.
Rick stands at about 5.5 inches tall to the top of his hair and includes Snowball’s right arm, a flask, and a portal gun. Rick’s sculpt is very good, although I think his bald spot should be larger and it took me some time to get used to the bulging eyes. I never thought of the eyes as three-dimensional objects until I had the figures in hand. I had assumed they’d be flat against the head. The paint is fair for the price; his belt buckle is a bit of a mess and there’s stray blue paint on his lab coat.
The articulation signals one of my two major issues with these figures. Rick has a ball-jointed head, hinge-and-rotate arms, single-jointed elbows, swivel wrists, hinge-and-rotate hips (pegged at a 45-degree angle), single-jointed knees, and swivel ankles. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how much of a pain in the ass the hips are. Both Rick and Morty have severe issues with looseness. Freeing up the hip joint can be frustrating, but that doesn’t compare to how frustrating the hips are once they’re flopping around.
While the articulation is my first major issue with these figures, my second, the face sculpts, are equally egregious. If you had to pick a single expression for Morty, Funko probably picked the right one. He looks scared and clueless. Rick, meanwhile, looks like he’s in a vegetative state, and that couldn’t be further from his character. I would’ve preferred something angry, amused, or determined.
It’s clear to me that Funko is copying the World of Springfield formula, but I wish that wasn’t the case. These figures may work for non-collectors or those who want to leave them MOC, but I think of what could’ve been. I gladly would’ve paid $20 a piece to get multiple heads, bicep swivels, wrist hinges, hips pegged at a 90-degree angle, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, and rocker ankles. They could’ve dumped the gimmicky BAF, too.
Instead, we’re left with perpetual mediocrity.
Morty stands at about 4.5 inches tall to the top of his hair and includes Snowball’s left arm and a laser gun. Morty’s sculpt is also pretty good despite the fact that I had the same problem with his bug eyes. Morty’s paint is cleaner than Rick’s, although there is slop around the eyes and shirt sleeves.
Morty has the same articulation scheme as Rick, minus the ball-jointed head. Morty has a swivel head, hinge-and-rotate arms, single-jointed elbows, swivel wrists, hinge-and-rotate hips (pegged at a 45-degree angle), single-jointed knees, and swivel ankles. His legs are as frustrating as Rick’s, if not more so.
All in all, these figures have me pondering Funko as a whole. Funko Pops are perhaps the most successful collectible since Beanie Babies, and I would expect them to take risks elsewhere while they’re raking in profits, but that doesn’t appear to be Funko’s MO.
I was ecstatic when Funko announced the Legacy Collection, as the more competition at the $20 mass retail price point, the better. The Legacy Collection seemed like a labor of love until rumors swirled about Funko employees blaming customers for quality control issues. Funko lost a lot of goodwill among the hardcore collecting community at that time, and in my case, they still haven’t regained it. Funko seems to make decisions based on the bottom line (to an even greater degree than most), and the cynic in me sees this as an attempt to replicate the long-running World of Springfield line.
Funko is unlikely to address my concerns about the articulation going forward, but I have no doubt that they’ll release additional versions of Rick and Morty featuring a different expression on each and every one. You know what they say … “Rick and Morty, forever and forever, a hundred years Rick and Morty.” Whether that’s acceptable to you (and whether or not you’ll buy them) is dependent on who you are as a collector. There is no right or wrong answer.
These figures are a decent value, I just can’t help but wish for more.
