It’s time to venture back to Westeros and visit with Funko’s line of Game of Thrones action figures. This time we’re checking out Ned Stark, who might not be at the top of everyone’s list because he’s been absent from the show for two whole seasons now. What? That’s not a spoiler! I didn’t say he was dead! Oops. Anyway, a big part of why I’m collecting these goes beyond my enjoyment of the books and the show. The truth is the history buff and me just really likes the idea of having some nice medieval style figures and Ned Stark certainly fits the bill.

There’s the packaging, we’ve seen it three times now, so I don’t have a lot new to add. It is quite attractive with a simple, but effective deco. Ned comes with his scabbard attached to his belt and his two swords beside him. The package is totally collector friendly, and when you open it up you will likely be treated to an assault on your olfactory senses of a like you have never dreamed possible. In other words, these figures stink!

So far I’ve looked at a couple of figures in full armor, Jon Snow in his Black Watch garb, and now we’re seeing a figure in a plain medieval style ensemble. Ned wears a quilted tunic, which is extremely well crafted in soft plastic so as not to interfere with the leg articulation. Beyond that we’re just looking at a long sleeve shirt, trousers, and high boots. Ned has his Hand of the King pin affixed to the breast of his tunic. There’s nothing flashy or even terribly exciting about this figure. I can’t point to any particularly wonderful paintwork or outstanding attention to detail, but there’s nothing wrong with him either. I dig it because of its simplicity. He just looks like a Feudal Baron, which seems appropriate for the rather spartan stylings of The North.

While the outfit is beautifully done, the portrait on this figure is easily the weakest of these figures that I own. I suppose I can sort of see Sean Bean in there… somewhere, but it is by no means a slam dunk portrait. The hair is rather bland and looks like clay and the paintwork on the face is pretty poor, particularly the beard. It just looks like a mess. I will say that the sculpt looks better from certain angles and it most definitely looks better in person than under the close scrutiny of a zoom lens.

Once again, I scored a figure without any articulation issues. Ned had no stuck joints or anything like that. The points here are all good and serviceable. The arms have ball jointed shoulders and elbows with both hinges and swivels in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double-hinged at the knees, have swivels in the thighs, and both swivels and hinges in the ankles. There’s a bit of a swivel in the waist and the head is on a ball joint… so you can easily pop it off. See what I did there? I do wish there was a little more play in the elbow joints, as he can’t really hold his larger sword with both hands.

And speaking of swords, Ned comes with two. He has a regular sword that fits into the scabbard on his belt. The sword slides in easily and so far the scabbard hasn’t torn off like the one did with my Hound figure. This sword has a pretty simple cruciform style hilt with a brown wrapped grip and copper colored pommel and crossguard. The larger sword is Ice and it’s fairly similar to the smaller one, but big enough for two handed use. I have to say I really love the swords that come with these figures. They look great and the blades are stout enough so they don’t warp like crazy. Plus, I dig functional scabbards on my action figures as much as I love functional holsters… and we all know how much that is! Lots!

All in all, I’m happy with Eddard here. The portrait could have been better, but overall the figure is quite nice and I’m very pleased that I haven’t been encountering any of QC horrors on the last two figures I bought. There are still two more figures in this first wave, and I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to be a completist or just wait for some more of the characters I really want like Bronn, Baelish, The Onion Knight, Stannis, Jamie, and Breanne. Either way, you can bet I’ll be coming back with more features from this line eventually. I’m also getting really excited to see Funko’s Legacy Collection expand to some of those other licenses they promised. *cough* Firefly! *cough*