I have found that one of the coolest aspects about collecting Funko’s Pop! Vinyls is how to diverse the line can be. Your favorite characters from television, movies, and comics are interchangeable with a beloved musician, wrestler, or even an advertising icon. Everyone has their own wish list of figures they’d love to see, and with the ever-expanding waves of exclusives, chases, and even the Specialty Series, I don’t think anything is too much to hope for now.
The cult animated series Archer soon returns for its eighth season on April 5th. Funko has teased us for two years running about the possibility of seeing our favorite spy team appear in Pop form, and it remains one of my most highly anticipated releases. I assume we’ll see most of our favorite characters, and maybe a few of the secondary ones, so for the purpose of this list I’m going to focus on several variants I would love to see. Are you ready to ride into the Daaanger Zone?
5. Queen of the Martians Cheryl
In a show filled with characters of questionable morality and sanity, Cheryl Tunt stands out as the craziest amongst them. While I’m sure her Pop will feature her normal orange-shirted office attire, with some glue to sniff and maybe- if we’re lucky- her pet ocelot Babou, I would love to see a Queen of the Martians version, featuring her gown cobbled together from junk and spare parts found around their space shuttle
4. Tactleneck Archer
I’m not saying I invented the turtleneck, but I was the first person to realize its potential as a tactical garment. The tactical turtleneck. The… tactleneck! This one isn’t as farfetched as some others on the list, but I need a version of Archer in his black turtleneck and night vision goggles.
3. Fight Club Pam
Pam Poovey is the dolphin-puppet-wearing Human Resources director, but she is also one of the toughest characters on the show, moonlighting as an underground fighter. And that’s a version of Pam I would love to have too: sporting a bloody tank top, bandaged hands, and Lord Byron’s poem Destruction of Sennacherib tattooed across her back.
2. Lingerie Lana
With Jessica Rabbit, Lana Kane is easily one of the sexiest animated characters ever created, a fact that is undermined when the others constantly mock her for her gigantic hands and size. A running gag on the show often has her stripped down to lingerie (or in case, stickers) and giving her a machine gun in lieu of her usual TEC-9s. Who wouldn’t buy that?
1. Velociraptor Archer
Most of you will probably be very confused upon this suggestion, and I understand this definitely has a limited fan base, but I get goosebumps just thinking about it. As a fun extra released on the original Season One DVD release, they redid the pilot episode “Mole Hunt”, replacing the Sterling Archer we know and love… with a velociraptor. And it is hilarious. Even all his dialogue is replaced with raptor growls and hisses, while everyone else carries on business as usual. If you haven’t seen it, I really suggest you do. Call me a madman, but I would love to see a Pop velociraptor sporting a tactleneck and holding a gun and a martini. That deserves to be in my collection.
So, as always, I would love to hear what you think. Is there any variant Archer designs that didn’t get any love? What (and who) else would you love to see from the series?
Matt Norris