Funko Land of the Lost SDCC Exclusive Glow in the Dark Sleestak Funko, 2013
Day #748: September 16, 2013
Glow in the Dark Sleestak 240 Pieces
Land of the Lost SDCC Exclusive Bobble Head
Item No.: No. 8295 Manufacturer:Funko Includes:n/a Action Feature:Glow in the Dark Retail:approx. $10 Availability: July 2008 Other: Cheap!
Welcome to Glow in the Dark Week! Let's waste time by looking at five great but totally unrelated items cast in glowing plastic. For whatever reason, green is the go-to color for most glowing toys but a few do exist in blue and red, too.
This SDCC exclusive Glow in the Dark Sleestak was limited to a paltry 240 pieces - in theory. That's what the box says - but there's a steady supply of them on eBay and even Amazon so either a) that's a total lie, or b) nobody cares. After the 2013 line at the Funko booth wrapped around several aisles, it's possible it could go either way but it's worth noting that 240 pieces used to be a bit of a struggle to sell so it's entirely possible that, sadly, just nobody cares about this item.
The sculpt is good, the detailing is nice enough, and the paint job is better than most glow-in-the-dark figures get - which is to say, no detail whatsoever. Some dark green gives the plastic some character, which it sorely needs as most glowing plastic tends to suck the detail right out of the piece - I don't know the science behind it, but it certainly seems to gobble up whatever light you might hope to see in a normal room.
At over 6-inches tall, it's a nice big chunk of vinyl for the money. It's not so realistic that it seems off, and in many respects it's right at home with other vinyl designer Kaiju toys. The retro nameplate on the base is cool, and the graphic design style of the box is quite charming and similar to other 1960s/1970s remake items from around this time.
The Sleestak's glow ability is weak - if you leave it under a black light or even the sun, charging it only brings a minimal level of glowing. Compared to my shelf of glow in the dark toys, this and Funko's Pop! Vinyl Mike Wazowski are the two least impressive glowers in the lot. If you turn on a light bulb - a normal one - and charge the entire shelf, the other toys' light will drown out this one. When glowing alone, I needed to amp up the light in Photoshop to make the figure as bright as the picture here. It's a perfectly nice figure, but its glowing prowess is pretty awful.
For the glow in the dark connoisseur, this may be insufficient to get your motor running. It's not an age thing either - I had this and most of my glow in the dark toys boxed up until shortly before I took these photos, and it's just an unfortunate weak specimen. Baggs from Glow Ghosts looks great after all these years, and that includes a second specimen I found at a Goodwill shop. If you so decide to chase this one down, do it because it's a neat TV artifact - the glowing feature could be better, is all I'm saying.
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