Man, I've really reviewed Five Nights at Freddy's merch a lot, seeing as how I've never actually played the games... aaaaand don't wanna, because that kinda stress is something I don't need in my life. But I will gladly watch you give yourself a heart attack any day! Ha ha, but seriously, they're good games. And Funko has a full-sized line of 6" figures out there, though it has just hit series 2 - series 1 contained the FNaF 1 gang plus Springtrap as a build-a-figure, Series 2 is focused (mostly) on FNaF 4 - you know, the one with the friggin nightmares. And since those designs were fantastically horrifying, I went ahead and snagged myself the set! Like a silly person, I forgot to photographt he packaging - basic blister packs, good at what they do - but still, the figures are here. Let's take a look at Nightmare Freddy, first!
SCULPT: **1/2
I'll be honest, I love Funko. But all the same, sometimes it's hard for a company to try new things outside of their comfort zone. They've had probles with "normal"-styled action figures before (their early Legacy toys had serious QC errors), and although these figures don't break on a whim, they ain't perfect. On the surface, Nightmare Freddy is quite well-sculpted - he's clearly the character from the fourth game, after all. But it's got a few clear issues. For one, the lack of negative space is weird - where the original had a tattered hide or open mouth, this figure has olid, painted-over black space. of course, the toy would likely be more expensive with actul 3D sculpting, but this is still an issue, especially in the mouth. You can make it look good with the right posing and lighting, but it is a flaw. An the thing is, other than that, this is a pretty decent representation of the character - he's certainly nightmarish enough. It's just not quite there yet.
PAINT: ***
The paint is pretty good on this figure - although nightmare Freddy only had a few colors, this one maintains exactly the right ones - the eyes in particular are nicely creepy. The only thing is that the paint is not consistent from figure to figure, and you should compare samples in the store - you'l find more than a few with random flaws if you aren't careful. Thankfully, most of them are good.
ARTICULATION: ***1/2
I am a amssive fan of figures bending and coming apart rather than breaking or snapping into pieces. And thus, the exact setup of these figures - ball oints for the limbs, that pop off rather than break - is fantastic! Most of Nightmare Freddy's joints are simple ball joints, excepting his neck and waist. Those ones feel like they should be ball joints, though - and his movement is oddly restricting in a few ways. You can pose him pretty well, but you can't put him in a proper jump scare pose, which is unfortunate.
ACCESSORIES: ****
Aside from the Build-A-Figure piece (it's a leg), Nightmare Freddy comes with one of his Freddles. A nd yes, he should have come with three, but this one is quite sufficient - it looks nice, although not 100% accurate, something that was also an issue with the McFarlane Freddles. Oddly, those ones may be closer to the original, and they're almost the same size.
THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Thanks to the specifics of his limb ball joints, Nightmare Freddy is pretty durable. Just don't damage the neck joint by mistaking it for one, okay?
VALUE: ****
All of my criticism is moot when you realize that this is a $10 figure. Value like this is utterly fnatastic- and it's better-quality than some $15 toys, too.
WHERE TO BUY
Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us, Gamestop - pretty much anywhere.
OVERALL: ***
Poor Nightmare Freddy ain't perfect. But it's not a bad figure, either - and the thing is, the low price kind of justifies all the missteps. You aren't paying for anything high end but you're still getting for a pretty decent toy. Again, it's not perfect - but it is sufficient, and kind of fun once you're playing with it in-hand. It's also durable enough to survive kid treatment, which is a major plus.
