Review: Game of Thrones Legacy: The Hound

Everyone watches Game of Thrones, right? I mean, if you add together all those who watch on TV and those who buy the DVD and those who...acquire it...though other means, you more than cover the entire population of the planet, right?

What I'm basically saying is that no introduction to The Hound is necessary, so we can skip straight to the figure itself.

The Game of Thrones Legacy line is heavily influenced by the 6" Star Wars 'Black' line from Hasbro - same scale, similar packaging. What I've found from fiddling about with the Hound, however, is that these figures are remarkably similar to the old Lord of the Rings line from Toybiz. You may remember those figures from the large armies that, much to your annoyance, adorned the shelves of your postgraduate office.

But probably not.

The armour looks similar to the LOTR stuff, the articulation is similar, the smell (the Hound stinks when you first get him out of the box), even down to the ropey-looking beard which has been clumsily painted on. The beard, in particular, is why I would recommend picking up this figure (and other beardy ones in the line) in person, after a careful inspection of the alternatives on the shelf, in order to get the best looking one. While it's likely possible to get them cheaper online, there is a great deal of variance from one figure to the next and some look pretty terrible.

Much like the early LOTR figures, the likeness to the actor isn't amazing, though it's clearly reconisable as the character. The hair is a bit flat on his head, which is due to the helmet. The signature burn on the Hound's face is barely visable due to the hair. The helmet itself looks great. It's made of a very thin flexible plastic, meaning it's easy to get on the head, however it retains its shape and I have little fear of it breaking.

The armour looks good, with a simple but effective paint effect. I'd advise caution with the swords as, mostly due to their long length, I can see these being easily broken. Annoyingly, due to the shape of the hand, the Hound can only hold one of the swords. The other one simply won't fit. In what appears to be a common problem, the sheath on The Hound's belt came off very easily and had to be glued back on. It was a simple fix, but a bit annoying considering the price.

Despite the bulkiness of the armour, it doesn't really hinder the articualtion in any way. The shoulder pads are made of a very thin and flexible plastic, as are the elbow pads. A word of warning - the forearms on my figure were rotated the wrong way so the joint wasn't visible (it was hidden beneath the elbow pad). I almost snapped the joint by trying to force it to bend the wrong way. If you can't see the joint, rotate the limb until you can see it. I've heard of problems with 'stuck' joints, specifically at the feet, but I've had no such issues and all the joints have been perfect.

Much like those early LOTR figures, there's much room for improvement with this line. The LOTR line, however, did come on in leaps and bounds as time went on and I suspect the same will happen with these figures too - the second wave of figures is already looking promising. This is Funko's first attempt at action figures and it's a great start. I will keep an eye on future figures with great interest.