Tag Archives: Jon Snow

#3309: Jon Snow

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

JON SNOW

GAME OF THRONES (FUNKO)

Wait, a Game of Thrones review….What year is this?  If it’s anything later than 2019, this just doesn’t seem to track.  Huh, I’m getting reports that it’s later than 2019.  Yeah.  Not tracking.  Look, guys, I haven’t bought anything since Game of Thrones went off the air, and I’ve honestly moved past it, but, the thing is, I’ve had this one item just sort of lingering for a while and I feel like I just need to get it done and out of the way finally, so it can just, like, stop staring at me and making me feel bad about my life choices.  Just…okay?  So, please enjoy this Jon Snow review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jon Snow was one of the 9 figures that made up the first (and only) series of the ill-fated smaller Game of Thrones line from Funko, which came and went in the last chunk of 2016.  All of the figures were centered on the Wall, for which they also did a playset.  It was, perhaps not the best choice, seeing as the two seasons that surrounded this set’s release moved the action away from The Wall for the most part, but planning and production times on toys being what they are, I suppose there was only so much Funko could do.  Jon is unquestionably the biggest name of the single carded figures, rivaled only by Tyrion overall, but he was stuck with the big, expensive playset.  Jon was based on his mid-run Night’s Watch look, in the Seasons 2-4 area.  It’s a definitive look for him, and one that tied well with the overall theming of the line.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Of the four figures I own from this line, Jon’s the best articulated, just in terms of proper clearances and stuff on the joints.  It’s not anything crazy or anything, but he poses well enough for what you’re getting.  His sculpt’s a pretty basic one.  This whole line was sporting much more dialed back sculpts, which honestly felt like an odd choice for a property like GoT, but I myself didn’t hate the concept.  Admittedly, Jon’s got a look that works alright with the style.  The body captures his outfit pretty well, and it’s even got a removable cloak, which gives him some more options.  The head’s certainly got one of the weaker likenesses, though.  The other three all had some sort of distinctive trait of their actors present, but there’s really really not a lot of it Harrington coming through here.  Like his larger counterpart, however, it’s possible this might be more of a paint thing.  The paint on the face is certainly an improvement on the larger figure, but it’s still a little off; those eyebrows are still not Harrington’s.  Otherwise, things are generally okay.  The detailing on the fur of his cloak in particular is quite nice.  Jon’s packed with his sword Longclaw, which is a decent enough little piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked this figure up back in 2017, when he was roughly a year old.  I’d gotten Ygritte, Tormund, and the Wall, and I kind of wanted a Jon to go with them.  So, when I found him at a small game store in College Park called Pandora’s Cube, I went for it.  Now, you’re probably asking yourself “Why wait this many years to actually review him, Ethan?”  Valid question.  Ummm, I forgot about him.  No, really.  I took photos of him, and had actually planned on reviewing him to coincide with the series finale in 2019.  But, in the two years of waiting, and the ensuing excitement surrounding Avengers Endgame and it’s tie-in product around the same time as the GoT finale (to say nothing of my own diminishing interest in the show as the season wrapped up), I just forgot to review him, and post-finale, I had little calling me back.  But, I had the photos, and he was sitting there, and it’s honestly been nagging at me for a bit.  So, you know, there it is.  Yay.  Review done.  Boy, I sure hope there aren’t any other items I’ve been putting off lingering somewhere…

#1025 – Addendum: Jon Snow Quick Fix

Posted by Ethan Wilson in General and tagged with , , ,

 

In my review of the Jon Snow Legacy Collection figure, I touched on how much of an effect a bad paint job can have on a figure. My initial opinion of Jon was rather low, given his almost complete lack of resemblance to Kitt Harrington (Tim and Jill pointed out that he actually looked a fair bit like Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham, an assertion I agree with). While writing the review for the figure, I noticed that the paint on the eyebrows and beard didn’t at all follow what was sculpted, so I did a quick photoshop just to see what the figure was supposed to look like. And that made me realize that the figure could be better than the final product ended up.

JonFixed1

As I showed with my Aliens customs post, I used to do a fair bit of customizing (though, I’ve sadly gotten away from it in recent years). So, I dusted off my old paints and set my sites on improving this guy. A quick skin tone touch-up and some new eyebrows later, I can’t help but feel that this guy is, like, *a lot* better. The whole shape of his face is different, the likeness is better, and his proportions even look a bit less out of whack. He’s not a perfect figure, but he’s certainly much improved from where he started. Imagine what someone with more talent than mine could do!

JonFixed2

#1025: Jon Snow

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

JON SNOW

GAME OF THRONES: LEGACY COLLECTION

JonSnow1

Welcome back to Westeros Week everybody! In any long-running series, there are inevitably the breakaway hit characters. Characters who start off as just a member of the ensemble, but become slowly more and more prominent, until they’re a major character. While he was certainly set up as an important player from the very start of the series, Jon Snow wasn’t one of the leads. He’s off on his own, with hardly any input during the show’s first season. Heck, Kit Harington was ninth billed during the first season (and he didn’t even get a credit all to himself; he shared with Harry Lloyd). In season 6, he was fifth billed, and he had a number of episodes devoted primarily to his story. Not bad for a bastard! Now, let’s look at a one of his action figures, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

JonSnow2Jon Snow was released in the first series of Game of Thrones: Legacy Collection. He was figure number 1 in the line, because Funko knows what’s up! Jon Snow is seen here in his standard garb following his acceptance into the Night’s Watch, which is a good look for him. The figure is 5 ¾ inches tall (which is about right for Harington), and he has 26 points of articulation. Jon Snow has some of the better articulation in the line. Everything is pretty smooth and solid. Unfortunately, the articulation comes at the price of the sculpt. Jon Snow has easily the weakest sculpt in the line. The body is the worst offender yet in terms of the narrow shoulder issue that plagued these guys. Jon Snow’s not a huge guy, but with the big fur collared cape and everything, he should definitely be a lot bigger than he is here. Most of this line has stood out for its attention to detail on the costumes, but Jon Snow doesn’t quite live up to the rest of the line. Most of his clothes are rather plain and untextured, and the fur on the cape in particular just looks too even and artificial. Also, while just about every other figure in the line has managed to do a decent job of hiding the mid-torso joint within the clothes, Jon Snow’s joint is just there, for the whole world to see. It honestly looks a bit like he’s wearing a belly shirt over another shirt. Not ideal. The last part of the sculpt is the head. It really doesn’t look much like Kitt Harington. That being said, it’s hard to say how much of the issue is the JonSnow4actual sculpt and how much is just poor paint choices.  It definitely feels a bit on the large side, though. The paint on Jon Snow is…well, it could definitely be better. The face is the worst part. The beard and whole mouth area are just really odd looking, but the most annoying part is the eyebrows. Those aren’t Kitt Harington’s eyebrows, and if you look closely, you can see that they were sculpted correctly, but the paint just totally ignored it, which throws the entire likeness off (it improves quite a bit if you fix them). The body fairs a bit better, since it’s mostly just straight black with a few details here and there. It looks like they tried to do an effect similar to what we saw on Robb’s cape, but it didn’t work quite as well this time. Jon Snow is packed with his sword Longclaw, which is one of the cooler swords the line gave us.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was a birthday present from my parents, who helped me complete my GoT set. Jon is one of my favorite characters on the show, so I definitely wanted to get a figure of him. However, I purposefully held off because I knew this wasn’t one of the line’s stronger figures. It’s kind of a shame, because the rest of the line is pretty strong, and I’d love to have a Jon Snow of an equivalent quality. Purely looking at the quality of this guy just as a cool action figure, he’s not bad. The poseability makes him one of the more amusing figures from the set to play with. However, he kind of fails as a figure of Jon, and he almost feels like he’s from an entirely different line than the rest of the figures.

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