Critical Role, a voice-actor helmed Dungeons & Dragons game streamed to audiences weekly on Twitch, revealed the designs of 8 Funko Pop! figures depicting characters from their first campaign on Instagram this Thursday. Funko served as just one of the many licensing deals the web series entered into last year, marking “a major expansion of the Critical Role brand” and promising slew of new merchandise to fans, via Comicbook.
When Comicbook reported on Critical Role’s merchandising expansion last year, they cited Funko, McFarlane Toys, Penguin Random House and Ripple Junction among the show’s partnerships. The first Critical Role figure that Funko released was of the character Vex’ahlia, the ranger voiced by Laura Bailey (The Last of Us II), on July 22 as San Diego Comic Con exclusive through Best Buy. According to Comicbook, the Funko Pop! featuring Bailey’s character on a broom sold-out within 24-hours of going live.
Critical Role‘s Funko Pop! lineup, revealed Thursday, sees the first “mass release” of figures from the Dungeons & Dragons show and, if the solo Vax’ahlia collectible is any indicator, they will likely fly off the shelves in the fall, via Combicbook. The Instagram announcement, and corresponding blog post, from Critical Role showcased the 7 player characters available from the Vox Machina adventuring party: Grog, Vax’ildan, Vex’ahlia, Percy, Keyleth, Pike, and Scanlan. The post encouraged fans to “reserve your favorite party member (or collect ’em all)”.
Trinket, Vax’ahlia’s bear companion, is the eighth Funk Pop! figure featured in the release and the only one not available for pre-order. According to the Critical Role blog, the Trinket figure is limited-edition and will only be available for purchase in specialty stores once the Vox Machina figures hit the shelves in late September, early October. The blog post elaborates that the specialty shops consist of local businesses and small retailers, and they encourage fans to check with their local retailers (such as game shops and comic book shops) and support local business.
Funko boasts an ever-expanding line of collectibles for television fans, but Critical Role‘s marks the first instance in which actual-play Dungeons & Dragons characters have been given the Pop! treatment. Bleeding Cool remarked of this unique roll-out: “it is not often that custom characters get such a strong following that they get their own collectibles.”
Vox Machina’s adventures began as a Pathfinder game before pivoting to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons for the streaming show in 2015. Meaning, cumulatively, the actors who crafted these characters have played them for around 4 years. Imaginably, seeing their characters immortalized as Funko Pop! figures has been emotional for the Critical Role gang, and they took to social media to share their feelings prior to Thursday’s game session.
A near speechless Marisha Ray (Critical Role), who played Keyleth the druid, reposted the picture of the Funko Pop! lineup on Instagram, saying: “my D&D character is Funko Pop…. I… what is life?” Matthew Mercer (Overwatch, Attack on Titan), the Dungeon Master behind Critical Role, recalled how the cast use to joke “about a reality where such things would exist, critters showing customs of Vox Machina” (Twitter). Taliesin Jaffe (Critical Role), the player behind Vox Machina’s gunslinger Percy, remembered laughing alongside Mercer about such possibilities, specifically tweeting: “this was literally too-many margarita’s joke a few years ago.” Voice actor Sam Riegel (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) took to Twitter, with child-like glee, in a video showing off the Funko Pop! of his character Scanlon.
Funko Pop! figures are not the only fall items available for pre-order from the Critical Role team. Wednesday saw the announcement of Penguin Random House’s swag-filled pre-order bundle for the Critical Role non-fiction novel The World of Critical Role, which hits shelves October 20.
Critical Role streams, under a new, socially distanced layout, Thursday nights on Twitch.