Though we
don’t see a ton of him in Season 1, Mr Clarke was a great character, and quite
integral to the plot of Stranger Things.
I suspect that if the show had been set in more contemporary times, the role
would have been played in a slightly more…creepy…fashion, but fortunately that particular trope
was avoided on this occasion. Mr Clarke is just a genuinely nice guy who wants
to encourage the kids’ knowledge.
This POP
showcases Mr Clarke about halfway through the series, when he demonstrates how
a door between the “real” world and the (theoretical to Mr Clarke) Upside Down.
The sculpt isn’t that exciting; Mr Clarke is just a dorky guy in a suit after
all. But the paint is really cool, specially the tampo of Mr Clarke’s diagram
on the paper plate itself! For this element alone, the figure is worth picking
up – with the caveat that you should only pay retail for him.
Even a
couple of years ago, Funko’s SDCC exclusives were pretty much repaints of
existing sculpts. They offered something unusual, but not totally essential to
consider your collection complete. But things have changed since those days;
now we see unique sculpts, and characters that don’t come out anywhere else.
Plenty of
people are happy about this, but personally I think it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
Mr Clarke isn’t necessarily a key character in Stranger Things, he is a
bit of a fan favourite, and I’m not sure that releasing him as an exclusive was
the best idea. Importantly, it sets a bad precedent for the way we may see
other fan-favourite characters released. Convention exclusives are fairly easy
to come by in Australia, but it’s not the same way in the US in
particular.
As it
stands, Mr Clarke is a cool POP – but not cool enough to pay crazy aftermarket
prices. Here’s to seeing more of Mr Clarke in Season 2, and hopefully that this
POP – or another version of him – gets a more general release in the future.
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