These Are The Star Wars Funko Pops You’re Looking For!
There will always be Star Wars Funko Pops. When our drones explore the farther reaches of space, we’re bound to come upon a planet made entirely out of Star Wars Funko Pop figures.
There is also no end of Star Wars Funko Pop lists on the web; archaeologists speculate that the earliest Sumerian writing is cuneiform on clay tablets with a Star Wars Funko Pop list on them.
So what makes ours different? Why of course, we’re going to do this GeekyDomain style! Extra nerdy and witty. We have taken time and research to compile these pieces, selected because they deserve special mention on our own slice of Bespin Cloud Nine.
Star Wars Boba Fett Pop Vinyl Bobble Head
Boba Fett, despite his late-bloomer status in the ‘verse, will always hold a special place in Star Wars fandom. Not only because he’s the original bounty hunter of which we see a new archetype in The Mandalorian, but because of his quirky introduction.
He’s the only major character to have debuted in cartoon form, during the ill-fated Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) – please don’t make us blog that one next – in an animated sequence by Nelvana Entertainment. Nelvana deserves its own post someday, but we’ll yell real quick: Rock and Rule (1983), Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Debbie Harry! The movie Heavy Metal (1981) was supposed to be!
Boba Fett’s characterization in that cartoon was far off from how he eventually played out, but get a load of this: His actual first appearance according to the source of the Force was in a street parade!
Yeah, apparently the county fair parade in San Anselmo, California, where George Lucas lived, got to host a few characters including the first appearance of this armored dude who hadn’t even graced a screen yet. But as Duwayne Dunham, the person playing Boba Fett that day, points out, it’s a costume too cool-looking not to trot out.
Star Wars Endor Han Solo Pop! Vinyl Figure #286
You can search far and wide, but every time you find a Star Wars geek and ask them to list their favorite characters, Han Solo will at least be in the top 5. It’s Harrison Ford, after all.
First-gen fans, seeing the 1977 original for the first time while still unknowing of the franchise to come, saw Han Solo come onscreen for the first time and thought “This guy’s the actual lead man.” He nearly stole the whole movie.
You can tell how popular he was because The Empire Strikes Back gave Solo a much meatier role with most of the plot revolving around him.
You know how Ford got this role? He was in George Lucas’ previous movie, American Graffiti (1973) as hot-rod racer Bob Falfa.
Harrison Ford at the time was getting discouraged with his acting career and had turned to carpentry – carpentry! – to support his family, before landing the Bob Falfa role that encouraged him to hang in there with Hollywood.
Then he went on to work with Lucas’ mentor, Francis Ford Coppola, in The Conversation (1974), a political thriller that is too often overlooked today, before returning to read for the role of Solo. Anyway, we’re going with Han Solo in his Return of the Jedi outfit on the Endor sequence, because that long coat reminds us just a little bit of Dr. Who.
Star Wars Darth Maul Pop Vinyl Bobble Head
Look, sometimes you just have to concede to style over substance. Darth Maul is one of the most bad-ass looking characters in the entire franchise. That red striped tribal make-up makes him look like some kind of venomous natural predator. The ring of horns around his head resembles a crown of thorns, evoking religious fanaticism. He’s not just any Dark Side roustabout either, he moonlights as a crime lord – a peer to ol’ Jabba himself. You have to give the devil his due, actor Ray Park, who played Darth Maul, is a trained martial artist and stunt man, so Maul’s duels were bound to be some of the best fights in the whole franchise.
For a character that barely speaks, Darth Maul’s role in the films makes every second of screen time count. For instance, in The Phantom Menace (1999) during the tag-team lightsaber duel, they get into the corridor with the closing force field doors which forces a time-out. Qui-Gon, a sober Jedi master, wisely takes the time to kneel and meditate, resting and recharging. Maul on the other side of the force field paces back and forth like a caged lion, the embodiment of impatient rage. You take your good moments where you can get them in Phantom Menace.
Funko C-3PO POP
It’s funny how one of the characters who changes their appearance the most often in the franchise is a droid. You want him with red eyes? One red arm? One silver leg? Dismantled and riding in a wookie’s backpack? Extra chrome finish? You organics are so peculiar in your preferences, but very well then.
We had to hunt high and low to find Coke Classic C-3PO, trilogy 4-6. Appreciate him this way, before Disney welds mouse ears on him or something.
Anthony Daniels, the voice of C-3PO, is the only actor to have appeared in every single film and televised series of the franchise so far.
In contrast to most of the other cast members, Daniels seems to genuinely love being a big part of the franchise and has jumped at the chance to make appearances as C-3PO on Sesame Street or even on Donny and Marie.
As if playing the most famous droid in film history weren’t enough geek cred, he also played Legolas in the Ralph Bakshi adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (1978), making him part of two landmark geek franchises.
Funko Pop! Star Wars Smuggler’s Bounty Exclusive Count Dooku #233 Vinyl Figure
You know what this whole franchise needed five movies in? A touch of class, heck, even some decorum while you’re at it. After the bloated space slug Jabba and the slapstick Jar-Jar, we needed a character to bring some dignity back to Star Wars.
Count Dooku is one of the few characters in the whole Star Wars universe to actually salute his opponent before entering a duel, and wield his lightsaber like a medieval knight templar, not to mention fighting three Jedi in a row in Attack of the Clones (2002) and escaping without a scratch.
Oh, and with his agenda complete, too.
This is the late Christopher Lee we’re talking about, after all, so you wouldn’t be surprised if he did all of that one-handed while sipping a steaming cup of Earl Grey. As it is, the man had a career that would equal ten careers of his closest peers.
His near-simultaneous turn as Saruman in the Lord of the Rings movies does make it hard not to hear “Your love of the halfling’s leaf has clearly slowed your mind.” when he’s taunting Master Kenobi.
And after all that and his years with Hammer Horror as Dracula, you know what role was Christopher Lee’s personal favorite? Lord Summerisle.
Funko POP Movie: Star Wars Princess Leia Bobble Head Vinyl Figure
As we close, it’s good to remember the original Princess herself, the one who tied it all together in the first place. We admit it, we dig the Cinnabon hairdo.
The original damsel in distress who needed rescuing, it took her about twenty minutes of screen time to put the rest of the cast in their place with her sass, and whip out a blaster to dispense a Stormtrooper or two while she was at it.
The only character capable of yelling “stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder” without cracking up.
The late Carrie Fisher in her role as Leia Organa is the one cast member most sorely missed from the franchise.
Even outside Star Wars, she managed to kick it up and have a filled-out career; how many of us can say they were nominated for a Saturn, BAFTA, Emmy, Grammy, and Hugo awards in one lifetime?
Now go read her novel Postcards from the Edge, and marvel at how she could have easily not acted in a thing and still have been famous as an author, with her wonderful dark humor.
Ah, for our video of the post… what to do, what to do. We didn’t share this one yet:
