Review of Night King - Game of Thrones
Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

One of my very favorite Game of Thrones figures from ThreeZero is the White Walker, so it's no surprise that I pre-ordered the Night King the second it was available. It's taken awhile - doesn't it always? - but he's finally joined the rest of their releases! As the leader of the Army of the Dead, and the first to be turned into a White Walker by the Children of the Forest, he plays a critical role in the tale, making him an excellent choice for the line.

He just started shipping in the U.S., and with current issues within the logistics industry, it may take awhile for him to reach everyone. He cost around $190, depending on the retailer.

Packaging - ***
Nothing too exciting, with some basic embossing on the slip cover. The bluish color of the lettering is a nice touch. The box is collector friendly of course, and you can remove everything and put it back without any damage. There's also some simple instructions, which are useful for understanding one of the accessories.

Sculpting - ****
There's something weird about this figure, and the previous White Walker had the same issue. However, I didn't notice it then, and I almost docked the Night King a half star over it. What is it?

It's not the detail work, that's for sure. The texture and craggy design of the face is perfect, with a dried out husk appearance that mimics a frozen body nicely. The horns on his head form a sort of crown, and the pissed but not over the top expression emote his seething hatred held in check with self control. This detailing continues on the neck and hands, and the overall appearance is almost seamless.

It's also not the accuracy, which looks spot on to me. I compared with a number of photos, and they've captured the screen look, particularly from later seasons, extremely well.

So if they hit on realism, expression, and accuracy, where did they miss? Both this figure and the White Walker are a huge 13" tall. They tower over the other characters, who are all scaled around 12" pretty well. When I had just the White Walker, I wasn't too nonplussed about it. But having this guy now, I started to wonder if that really made sense.

At 13" tall, he's be about 7 feet. I don't recall him being that big...so then I tried finding some stills of him near other people. He's around other White Walkers, and is taller than they are, but we don't know how tall they are either. The scene in which he kills Theon is shot in such a way that he does tower over him, and could easily be that big. But the actor that plays him is actually only a bit over 6'.

ThreeZero made him this big on purpose. The body is unique for the White Walkers. So I'm going to assume they did this knowing what they were doing, and not by accident, based on how big he's supposed to seem, and not how big he actually was. And because of that, I didn't dock them for the extreme height. Does that make sense?

The sculpting on the various accessories and plastic outfit parts is excellent as well, as you've come to expect in this series.

Paint - ***1/2
The frosty, frozen skin looks good, but not quite as impressive as the work on the White Walker. There's fewer highlights, less white due to the lack of hair or a beard, and it's a little too consistent this time. There were even some white speckles, almost like snow, on the first White Walker, and those are missing here as well.

Still, the overall paint effect works great, and the wear and aging on the plastic costume pieces looks fantastic as well. The eyes are glossy, creating their own natural catch lights, and the blue color looks quite accurate.

He has two translucent blades as well, and you know I just love well done translucent plastic.

Articulation - ***
While all the usual joints are here, getting extreme poses was tough in this armored costume.

The neck works well, with plenty of tilt and lean. You can use it to add some personality to any pose. The torso can turn and lean as well, with some basic restrictions caused by the armor. You can break up straight lines through the upper body at least a bit.

The shoulders, elbows and wrists work as expected, but two handed weapon poses were tricky. The hips, knees, and ankles allow for short to medium stances, but deeper ones are blocked a bit. Even though the boots are two piece, I couldn't get quite as much rocker movement out of the ankles as I'd like.

Accessories - **1/2
The only place where this figure comes up a bit short is on his Accessories.

There's one extra set of hands, and they swap easily. He comes with open hands, and there's a second set of fists to hold the weapons. All the hands have their own wrist pegs, always a plus.

There are two weapons. One is a spear, critical to a particular scene in the show. The second is a sword, and there's a set of sculpted leather strips that attach to the hilt. You can attach these with them flowing out or down, depending on whether the sword is in his hand or on his back. Refer to the instructions if that's not clear.

This sword has a cool curved blade, and I believe this was his weapon in an earlier season - maybe season 6? There are two loops on his back which can be used to hold this sword, but take some care and follow the instructions.

And that's it. While it's pretty light, I have to say the price point is low enough that I'll be cutting them a lot of slack in this category. They gave us enough to make him look great on the shelf, and they kept the cost below $200 - I'm not complaining too much.

Outfit - ***1/2
The outfit consists of the boots, pants, shirt, skirt, torso/shoulder armor, and vambraces.

The quality of the material is quite high, with good construction and stitching. There's wear and aging added that looks extremely realistic, and the tailoring and fit to this body is excellent.

The sculpted armor pieces blend in perfectly with the cloth bits, and the final look is pretty much seamless. My only worry with the costume is those two loops on the back used to hold the sword. It's a tight fit - which it needs to be to work - and I fear they may break or wear out over time.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
You've already got Arya, now you have her perfect shelf mate!  Or you can pair him up with the White Walker, looking down on your GoT heroes with loathing.

Value - ***1/2
We don't get a lot of great sixth scale figures for less than $200. I'm very happy with the work ThreeZero is doing with this license, and it means I'll be more than happy to jump at their work with other new licenses in the future.

Things to Watch Out For -
As I mentioned, I'm a little worried about the straps on the back used to hold the sword. Take some care when putting it in place, and I'd leave it there once you have it the way you want it.

Overall - ***1/2
I'm really happy with the Game of Thrones line overall. ThreeZero has done a great job with the license, and while not every figure was a home run, the complete set makes for a terrific display. We still have Bran and Joffrey still coming, and hopefully we'll see more pre-orders coming along soon.

It's also great to get villains like the White Walker and Night King in the series. Too often we get plenty of heroes, and not enough characters for them to face off against. There are plenty of other great character choices too, including Tormund and Theon. C'mon, ThreeZero let's keep it rolling!

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***
Accessories - **1/2
Outfit - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***1/2
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other ThreeZero GoT figures include the second Jon Snow, Tyrion from Season 7, Brienne, Cersei Lannister, a White Walker, Arya, Daenerys, the Hound, Jaime Lannister, the first Tyrion, Ned, and their first Jon Snow.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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