“Valar Morghulis.” – Arya Stark
While the Starks have not enjoyed the best of fortunes in the Game of Thrones storyline, they have benefited greatly by the up-til-now lineup of the Funko Legacy action figure line. Dearly departed Ned and his bastard Jon Snow shot out of the gate in series one, and now series two has brought up two more entrants from The North. We took a look at short-term King in the North Robb Stark yesterday, and today we bring you a look at the Stark with the most complicated relationship with death, even though she is fortunate enough to still be alive. Arya Stark has now been immortalized in plastic, so no matter what her fate may be in the story, you can now have her on your shelf for all time.
Poor Arya, even though she has not met her mortal doom like her mother, father, and brother, she has not had an easy go of it in her short life. Sure, she grew up the daughter of the Lord of Winterfell, but her tomboy nature made it so she never really fit in the way she was expected to, which is to say like her sister Sansa. She has “wolf’s blood” as her father put it, and she troubled her parents and siblings with her reckless nature. Then, suddenly, she was whisked off to King’s Landing (losing her Direwolf on the way), only to be present for her father’s execution, smuggled out of the city in the guise of a little boy, ambushed on her way back home and taken as Tywin Lannister’s cupbearer, escaped to be overtaken by the Brotherhood Without Banners, held hostage by the Hound, got to the Twins just in time for the slaughter of her mother and brother, and is now headed for the far side of the world to unknown territory. Whew. To say that she has been in the sh*t for most of her young life is an understatement.
So she has had plenty of adventures that you can recreate with your little plastic figure. Funko decided to go with her “Arry” digs, which she has been wearing regularly since the second season. While they are not ornate or elaborate, Gentle Giant put a lot of detail into the fabrics and since her time has been rather wayward, there is a lot of weathering and fabric tears to boot. I cannot say that I am overly wild about this costume, but if you think about it, there probably are not many other options to use for Arya at this point in time, but it would be cool to get her Winterfell digs at some point so we can have all of the happy Starks together again. The costume design lends itself well to posing options as there is not much in terms of overlays or inhibitors over her limbs and joints.
Speaking of articulation, Arya has all of the points that you have come to expect from the Legacy line and they all function rather well. Since she was taught to “water dance” by her fencing instructor (and former First Sword of Braavos) Syrio Forel, you need the action figure to be able to pose in some elegant and slightly elaborate swordplay configurations. The figure does a good job of being accommodating and you can almost hear her tell the god of death, “Not today.” For the most part, the engineering on the joints is nice and tight (I had to loosen a few initially), but this particular figure has a overly loose hip and both ankles are kind of weak. Those are some crucial points when it comes to overall stability of a figure, so I am going to have tighten them up with the superglue trick or something of that nature. I don’t know if this is unique to my figure or if it will be widespread, but I am positive we will know soon.
Arya comes with one accessory: her Jon Snow-gifted sword Needle. More of a fencing foil than anything, the sculpt is nice here, and while the blade is extremely slender, I am not at all worried about it breaking as it feels sturdy, but not brittle. You will have to plan on having Arya always hold Needle, though, as, at some stage of production, we lost the belt loop that would have allowed for her makeshift sheath. This was present on the prototype at Toy Fair in February, but must have been cut during production because it is certainly not on the final figure, which is a shame because even though I would probably always have this version of Arya holding Needle, it is nice to have the option available.
Now, the hottest point of this figure is going to be the likeness to actor Maisie Williams. I have seen mixed responses in the short time that the figure has been available. Personally, I think the sculpt is there and Gentle Giant did a good job of capturing her in form and expression. It is a seeming tradition in action figure manufacturing to have challenges with female likeness; I am not sure if it is due to softer features or what, but figures based on females are rare between perfect representations. So, while I think the sculpt is good, there are a couple of issues that knock the likeness down in my eyes, and both of them are just in the production translation.
First, it appears that the factory set the figure’s hair piece too high on the head, resulting in rampant “five head” syndrome. That alone really throws off the likeness, so thankfully, the hair is a soft piece of plastic that can be easily removed. I was able to peel it off without having to use any tricks or tools and then reset it and glue it down in a more appropriate spot on the head. I have to say, it did WONDERS and I strongly recommend this procedure to anyone getting the figure. I am willing to bet that Robokillah will have video tutorial all lined up in the near future. The paint is also a bit of an issue with the likeness, and it is mostly around the eyes. Yes, you can see that my figure has some brown flecks on the face, but that actually does not bother me too much as Arya was pretty filthy during this stage. Rather, her eye paint is just a little offset, which affects her look a bit. Also, her eyebrows look be be set a little high too. It is not terrible, but I would be choosy in picking my figure if I were you because, again, paint seems to affect the female likeness a great deal. Hopefully concentration on eye paint will be a focus for Funko in the next series. They are so close, but it has to be perfect.
Additionally, Arya looks great when posed with the Hound, and that is what I was really looking forward to with this figure. I am excited for their plastic adventures since their time together on the show appears to be at an end. The fighting and sarcasm can continue to run amok on your toy shelf, and, if we are lucky, maybe we will get a Gendry and a Jaqen figure for her to pal around with eventually. I cannot wait to pair her up with Tywin Lannister for a bit; their scenes together are probably my favorite of the entire show.
If you’re into video, here’s Robo’s review on FwooshTube!
Overall, I think Arya is a solid addition to the Legacy line, but I don’t find her to be as strong of a figure as Robb, Drogo, or Jaime. She is still a great figure, but I don’t think Arya is captured as well as the other three I have looked at, despite being another step up from series one. I am positive she will be the most hotly discussed and debated figure of this series, so strap in and sound off in the comments below. Don’t worry, just because it is the end of the week doesn’t mean we are done yet, check back on Monday as we continue to run down the rest of Legacy series two.
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