Westeros

As season 4 approaches, the licensing juggernaut that is HBO’s Game of Thrones keeps on moving as well. Things are heating up significantly in the toy area (keep reading for a contest to win some of the figures!), as figurines and miniatures based on the Game of Thrones license have proven very popular. Leading the way, of course, has been Funko‘s POP! series of figures, which are being released in new editions with some regularity. Funko has been expanding, however, in two directions.

First, to really encourage the collecting craze, Funko has created its new “blind box” minis in the same style as the POP! figures. The “blind boxes”—named for the fact that you never know what you’re going to get—are going to lead to a lot of collecting and trading. The other direction Funko has gone, however, is creating the first-ever 6” collectible action figures for the series. Not yet really released, Toy Ark spotted early photos of the figures via an eBay auction of someone who had gotten a hold of them early. The initial series of six figures include Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister , The Hound, a White Walker, Daenerys Targaryen, and Ned Stark.

They’re not the only ones getting into the smaller-scale game, though. ThreeZero, Kong Kong-based maker of highly-praised, high-end designer figures, has received a license to product figures based on the show These figures—12” in size—are articulated and highly-detailed. The first hint that ThreeZero had the license was this image showing a worktable in their shop, featuring some of their Walking Dead figures… and a notable set of black-and-red clothing that could only belong to Tyrion Lannister. Since then, the full Tyrion figure has appeared at Japan’s Wonder Fair 2014.

Last, but not least, there’s Dark Horse, whose exceptional statues and busts have earned them well-deserved plaudits. While they’re still creating larger statues—we have their Tyrion at the Blackwater, which is an exceptional piece of sculpting—they’ve also moved toward more affordable figurines. Their Daenerys Targaryen (seen above) and Jon Snow figures were just the first wave. Dark Horse and HBO have just announced the next wave of figures, due in July of this year: Arya Stark, Robb Stark, Cersei Lannister, Jaime Lannister, and a White Walker. You can find images of the first four below:

We expect to be hearing a great deal more about these and many other figures come the New York Toy Fair, which opens on February 16th. But until then… lets have a contest, courtesy of the fine folks at Dark Horse! Follow us at Facebook, Twitter, and/or Google+, and send us a comment—via tweet, post, or Facebook comment—featuring the hashtag #GOTDH. Please, only one entry! We’ll choose two winners on the 16th, who’ll get a Daenerys or Jon Snow figure from Dark Horse, and announce them shortly thereafter, once we get in touch with the selected winners and make sure we’ve their mailing address.