When it was announced that a Funko Captain America: Civil War Falcon POP Vinyl would be released as a Hot Topic exclusive, fans rejoiced… and simultaneously grumbled, as the Falcon was the only not-dead movie Avenger to not get the POP Vinyls treatment yet. Well, Falcon finally hit stores within the past week, and while I might have been better off paying five bucks more to get him on the aftermarket, I dropped two hours round trip to hunt one down instead…

The Right:

My finger was getting very itchy to buy a Funko Civil War Falcon POP off of eBay for 17 bucks shipped, but I wanted him immediately, so my impatience won out and I went on a road trip quest to hunt one down this week.

Mathematically, I’m pretty sure I spent more in gas than the $5 markup driving several hours to pick the Falcon up, but whatever–I waited two years to add an MCU Falcon to my vinyl figures collection, and I was not gonna wait another couple days just to save a few dollars (and hours). Anyway, I’ve got him now and he is excellent.

Obviously no movie Funko POP Vinyl is going to have an accurate likeness to the movie actor being portrayed, but I’m really pleased with the recognizable caricature features of Anthony Mackie present here. While some actors are totally in recognizable in POP! form, this is clearly a cutesy version of Anthony Mackie, and I think it looks great.

One advantage to the first Falcon Funko POP Vinyl being from the Civil War movie is that his Civil War costume is a lot more colorful than the Winter Soldier version. As such, the figure has more paint applications than you’ll typically find on a Funko POP, with a nice mixture of white, grey, silver and red on the costume that looks really sharp.

As the Falcon’s whole deal is that he can fly, Funko was nice enough to attach this vinyl figurine to a (non-removable) clear flight stand. As such, Falcon can hover about an inch above his comrades, which sets him apart nicely in a lineup. And because it’s clear and not black, the flight stand doesn’t distract from the figure at all.

Finally, my favorite feature of this Civil War Funko Falcon exclusive POP is his goggles–they’re translucent red! Way back when, Funko would have painted these an opaque red and called it a day, but now we get clear red goggles with masterfully-painted eyes behind them. The translucent red glasses pop (so to speak) more than any other aspect of the figure, and really make it feel special.

The Wrong:

This will have no effect on the scoring, but let me just say it outright: making a unique character’s debut POP Vinyl a store exclusive is a crummy thing to do. I don’t love the decision to make Falcon a Hot Topic exclusive at all, as doing so is causing the figure to be heavily-scalped and hard to find for collectors who actually want Sam.

That said, I really don’t have any complaints with the Funko Falcon POP Vinyl figure. There are zero quality control or paint app issues with mine, he’s very stable on his flight stand, the likeness is clearly there… exclusive or no, this is a rare perfect Marvel POP! Vinyl.

Also, does anyone else think it’s a tad silly that Disney won’t allow companies to sell their Giant-Man toys just yet, even though Giant-Man is plastered all over the back of the boxes for these Civil War toys…? Ha.

Overall: Funko made us wait two years more than I wanted for our first POP Vinyl of The Falcon, but it turns out that this figure was worth the wait. From the high level of paint deco and sculpting detail on the costume and wings, to the awesome flight stand and translucent red goggles, this is an MCU POP figure at its finest. This figure should have been a mass release, because it’s one of Funko’s best this year.