Happy Friday, PV fans! A quick introduction before we get started: My name is Ian Luskin and I am a brand new writer here at popvinyls.com. My passion for collecting Funko products is fueled by my love of comic books and other sci-fi/fantasy properties like Star Trek and Lord of the Rings. I also love classical music and participate in scientific research (in case you din’t think I was nerdy enough already).
As a huge fan of everything Funko, I was really excited to read about all the SDCC exclusives that were being revealed in July. The catch? I live in New York, and the figures were three thousand miles away in San Diego. However, great news soon followed— GameStop had bought up all the leftovers of some of the exclusives, including my favorite, a three-pack of X-Men Dorbz. I bought them quickly, and they looked just as good in person as they did online. Here is a review of each individual figure.
This version of Wolverine is wearing the brown costume made famous by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee’s groundbreaking X-Men run in the ‘90s, whereas the regular Wolverine Dorbz uses the older blue and yellow design. I was initially hesitant about the shape of the fins on his mask, since they rise vertically instead of on a slant, as in the comics. Over time though, this feature grew on me because it fits the particular style of Dorbz very well. The details are also incredible, such as the small metal caps on his gloves that his claws extend from. As amzing as this one is, the set only gets better from here!
Iceman aka Bobby Drake was another staple of the Claremont/Lee run, which seems to be the basis for these three figures. I was very happy to see Bobby represented even after the strong backlash from certain fans following the recent reveal about his sexuality. Moving on to the figure itself, it includes some innovative design techniques that I have never seen in Dorbz. First, the different shades of blue and white fade into each other, as opposed to having strong borders. Additionally, the figure is transluscent, almost like looking through frosted glass. While the seam between the hair and the head looks a bit off, it doesn’t detract from the rest of the amazing attributes.
Lastly comes my favortie in the pack, Colossus. One of my favorite characters from the Claremont/Lee run, Pyotr Rasputin looks even better in Dorbz form than as a Pop! The way the hair piece is sculpted and attached to the head looks great, and the outlines of his costume are very clear with no paint bleeding over into the wrong area. What really makes this figure special in my opinion is the careful selection of the colors. The red and yellow parts are vivid without being too overpowering, and the choice to make his skin metallic rather than chrome perfectly reflects the dull shine of the steel that he is made of.
To sum up, this pack is not only awesome-looking but very loyal to the comics, which I know is important to a lot of collectors (myself included). It’s very unlikely that there will be any left in GameStop stores as it has been a few weeks since the release, but the pack is available on Ebay for anywhere between $25 and $60. Hopefully you’re as good at hunting things down as Wolverine is!
Travis Denman