The Halo Funko POP! Vinyls seem like a weird thing to review, as you tend to either really like Funko’s super-deformed style of figures or not. Even so, what you see in the official glamor photos from Funko isn’t always what you get (as I learned when I reviewed the Metallic Red Hulk POP! Vinyl with its horrible quality control issues on Marvel Toy News). So, even though I really liked the looks of the SDCC 2013 Exclusive Funko POP! Vinyls Yellow Spartan Warrior, I had some trepidations about actually ordering it. Of course, being me, I bought it anyway…

The Right:

First, let me talk about the idea of a generic multiplayer Spartan Warrior in a niche color as a highly limited convention exclusive: brilliant. I love when companies give us Spartan merchandise in various colors as exclusives, as there’s a market for every possible Spartan armor color permutation–just not always a very big one.

Limited to just 480 pieces produced in the entire world, there’s enough of this Funko Spartan Warrior (Yellow) POP! Vinyl produced to satiate the demand of completists and players who just plain love yellow, while the edition size is also small enough that these won’t rot off the shelves and sit in warehouses forever.

In fact, the sell-through rate of the Funko Halo 4 SDCC 2013 exclusives is probably already 100%, what with the con being over for several weeks and all. Halo fans get a Spartan that normally wouldn’t be released at mass retail, Funko gets a little bit of extra cash and publicity for the exclusive–everybody wins.

Funko doesn’t always go all out with the packaging for their exclusives and variant POP! Vinyls, but they did a bang-up job on the box for their Halo 4 exclusives for SDCC 2013. Funko changed the packaging art on the front, top, sides and back of the box to reflect that this is a Yellow Spartan Warrior, as well as adding a sticker to the front, noting the limited number of this figure produced. This is much better treatment than many of their exclusives got (which in most cases was just a sticker and no changes to the original boxes at all).

I should probably talk a bit about the Yellow Spartan Warrior Funko POP! Vinyl figure itself, though: I love it. It’s not just that I have a thing for brightly-colored Spartans (orange is my favorite, not yellow)–it’s that this figure is brilliantly done overall. The figure features a surprisingly well-done DMR for this type of action figure, and includes one point of articulation: the Spartan’s head. Moving the head gives this guy more personality than you’d expect, and is sufficient flexibility for a vinyl toy like this San Diego Comic Con 2013 Funko Yellow Spartan Warrior figure.

I’ve had numerous issues with paint flaws and defects with Funko figures over the years (which is why I rarely buy them), but this figure is totally devoid of any kind of noticeable deco issues. The figure is bright and brilliantly painted, and I love the contrast of the black and yellow armor with the shiny silver visor.

Because the huge noggin is so central to the figure’s appearance from the front, you might think the back of the Funko POP! Vinyl Spartan Warrior is under-detailed, but it turns out that that isn’t true at all. There’s tons of sculpting work and black paint deco on the back of the figure–far more than I expected to find on the back of a vinyl style figure like this one.

The Wrong:

Nada. This is how you do an exclusive right. It’s a pity that McFarlane Toys couldn’t be bothered to bring us some cool repainted Halo 4 Spartans figures for San Diego Comic Con 2013, but Funko has my money now instead.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

The Yellow Spartan Warrior was a 2013 San Diego Comic-Con exclusive last month. It retailed for $15 plus tax at the show, and you can still get one of the 480 pieces produced for about $20-$25 shipped on eBay (at least for now–this will likely get more expensive as these dry up).

Overall: I’m sure some readers are going to grumble about me giving an ‘A’ grade to a Halo POP! Vinyl figure, but Funko did everything right with this release. Perfect selection for a con exclusive, logical limited number of pieces produced, great paint apps, terrific sculpt–the SDCC 2013 Funko POP! Vinyl Halo Yellow Spartan Warrior is a strong, well-done exclusive figure overall.

No complaints at all about this one, and no regrets about the ~$22 I spent to add it to my collection. If you like this style of figure and yellow Spartans, then you’ll love this. Nice work, Funko.

GRADE: A