Funko Pop! Television Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Vinyl Figure Funko, 2016
Day #1,396: February 10, 2016
John Oliver Pop! Television #312
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Pop! Television
Item No.: No. 6007 Manufacturer:Funko Includes:n/a Action Feature:n/a Retail:$9.99 Availability: February 2016 Other: The One, Only
I need to preface this so I don't get dismissed as being too hyperbolic. This John Oliver may be the worst figure paint job I've seen since starting this column. This has nothing to do with the program or license, or the concept, or even the engineering. I assume I just must have got a reject tossed in the box - maybe yours is better.
The roughly 3 3/4-inch figure is designed well and whoever mocked it up did a pretty good job. I don't know if "arms folded" is the best expression of the British comedian (last of The Daily Show), but it works for him - Oliver's considerable charm is surprisingly completely eliminated by this format. His face and grin, plus his distinctive body language are eliminated by the design. I can't say "it's unquestionably John Oliver" but I can say "this definitely looks like a stylized figure of John Oliver," because "white guy in suit with glasses" could be any of a number of people. The hair isn't quite right, but it's OK. The glasses seem too thick, but they're the basic shape they need to be. I should also note, this figure has molded separate frames with no lenses. This is different than the Bob's Burgers figures Linda and Tina, which have clear lenses and white "eye" lenses, respectively - the Pop! application of spectacles is not a consistent one.
None of these issues sink the figure - the shoes, pants, shirt, and general form all look more or less like the guy on HBO every week. I can't really vouch for the shoes, to be honest, but it's all very John Olvier-esque. If you told me it was someone else and they put the figure in a John Oliver box, though, I'd believe you.
The figure is marred by the worst paint and glue job ever. Ever. Maybe there are worse knock-offs, but this one has visible glue around the bridge on the glasses and sloppy edges along the painted parts. What's more, the figure seems to have been packaged while the paint was still wet - there are at least a dozen spots on his hair alone that look chipped, peeling, or generally just painted without any real sort of care. And I freely admit, maybe I got a bum one. It happens - Toys R Us handed me a bum Sega 32X from the clearance pile marked "RGD" which I later found out was "Returned Goods Defective," despite having dozens of them I just drew the short stick. Maybe China sent over a bad John by mistake - so far, this is the only one I've seen as the thousands of Pop! figures are kind of hard to find unless you're buying on the internet.
You can see some of the hairline slop and general problems below, but rest assured that the sloppy line looks better with human eyes than under the harsh lights of the camera and the new lighting rig I have set up. The rest of the hair looks worse - you can't see the big, peeling chips that look like this figure was given to a kid and worn off through a few years of play and badly patched by said child. I'm a fan of this TV comedian/satirist so I was actually pretty excited to see him as a figure. I've got more than a few Pop! figures and have heard a few complaints about quality control, but most of them have been pretty good or the paint slop has been benign enough (or just on the back of the figure) so it was not a huge problem. In the case of Mr. Oliver here, I'd advise you to pick yours up either a) in person, so you can examine it in the store or b) somewhere with a liberal return policy. I've had figures with some imperfections, but this one bugs me. As I write this I'm considering returning it to the place of purchase, but I do not yet know if my results are typical.
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