Star Trek 'Potpourri' Spotlight- Nodniks!

Item Name: Star Trek Nodniks
Manufacturer: Funko



Funko released these little guys in carded pairs: Kirk & the Gorn and...



...Spock and a Klingon.

The Rundown: Bobble bobble! I mentioned in a previous bobbly spotlight that I'm not a huge fan of bobble-heads, but if you are and you prefer something a little on the smaller side...well Funko has just the product for you! Nodniks are Funko's brand of smaller bobble-heads. They stand right around 4" tall, have articulated arms and feature non-descript bodies with painted on detailing.



The Trek releases come in pairs (in fact all the different licensed Nodniks I've seen have been packaged in pairs). Captain Kirk comes packaged with his "Arena" nemesis, the vile Gorn captain...



...while Spock and "Klingon" fill the other slot. I'm fairly certain this Klingon is Kor and I'm not really sure why they didn't label him as such. Much like minimates, the likenesses are painted on caricatures of their screen counterparts. I don't really feel Funko did quite as nice of a job as AA/ DST does on the 'mates line though. The faces just look odd to me for some reason. Maybe they tried a little too hard to make them realistic when they should have 'tooned them up a bit more.



So should you get them? If you're a bobble-head fan, of course. But if you aren't (like me), the only real selling point is the price. I paid $7 per pack, making each character only cost a measly $3.50. That's just the right price for an oddity on my desk.

-James

Star Trek 'Potpourri' Spotlight- Kirk & Spock Bobble-heads SDCC 2009 'Beaming' Exclusives

Item Names: Captain Kirk & Spock Wacky Wobbler Bobble-Heads
Manufacturer: Funko



The Rundown: My friend Bob goes to San Diego Comic-Con every year, and every year he does me a solid and scrambles to pick up everything off of my exclusives shopping list. Well, he got back Wednesday with a bag-load of goodies for me so you're going to see a mini-streak of SDCC '09 exclusive item spotlights in the next few days. Today we're looking at the Funko 'Beaming' Bobble-heads.

Let me start by saying I'm not a huge fan of Bobble-heads. The only ones I own are the Trek ones and that's only because they are Trek. I don't really understand the appeal, but who am I to judge?



So these SDCC versions of the Funko Kirk and Spock bobble-heads use the same bodies as the regular release Kirk & Spock but with a big difference; the bodies are molded in a translucent yellow plastic and instead of speech effects, the bases emit a beam of light to simulate the beaming effect! The light is activated when the head is *ahem* bobbled and then automatically shuts off after a few seconds. I gotta say...it's really pretty cool looking, especially in the dark.



So with these having big freaking heads, you'd think the likenesses would be pretty dead-on, right? Nah, not so much with Kirk here. Sure, they were going for a slightly caricatured version of the Shat...but this turned out looking more like Phil Hartman to me.



Spock thankfully fared much better in the likeness department. It's a pretty good Nimoy, though it does look a bit old for a TOS Spock.



There's the back of Kirk's box. Note that Funko didn't splurge on a new box for these versions. The box still lists the bobble-head as having voice sound effects. Don't be fooled! These don't talk!



...and there's Spock's box (that rhymed). Again, note the sound effects listing.

So there they are. Do you need them? Unless you're a crazy completist or a bobble-head nut, probably not. I will say though that do make nice display pieces and are actually far cooler in my opinion than the regular releases.

If you do decide to go after them, they are both still available from each of their exclusive retailers. Kirk was released through Forbidden Planet and is listed as having 1008 made (odd number). Spock was released through Entertainment Earth with a production number of 1500.

-James