I saw this little charmer for sale a couple of weeks ago and just had to snap it up: it’s Pickle Rick from Funko Pop!’s Rick and Morty collection. Pickle Riiick!
The brainchild of Justin Roiland and Dan Harman, Rick and Morty began life as a pastiche of the Doc and Marty characters from Back to The Future (1985). The show first aired just over five years ago and the animated science-fiction cartoon quickly established itself as not only one of the funniest shows on TV, but quite possibly the smartest. It’s undoubtedly one of the most creative.
Rick and Morty centres around the adventures of nihilistic ‘mad scientist’ Rick Sanchez, literally the smartest guy in the galaxy, who travels to alien worlds and alternate dimensions causing trouble, getting drunk and generally pissing people off. Along for the ride is his hapless, but kind-hearted grandson Morty, who routinely pays the price for Rick’s amoral and egotistical behaviour.
This Funko Pop! vinyl toy is based on the episode Pickle Rick, from the show’s third season. Rick, in a transparent attempt to avoid accompanying his daughter and grandchildren to a family therapy session, turns himself into a pickle. He’s then accidentally flushed down a drain where he quickly builds himself an exoskeleton from various rat-body parts in order to escape. He then proceeds to get into a violent confrontation with representatives of an oppressive foreign government, before winding up at the very therapy session he had hoped to avoid. And at said session he is forced to confront the effects that his selfish actions have upon his immediate family. It’s a high-concept episode crammed with laughs, action, and a fair amount of self-realisation (that is quickly ignored). It other words, it’s a fairly typical episode of Rick and Morty.
Funko Pop! have released a selection of vinyl figures from Rick and Morty, including Morty and Summer, Rick’s other grandchild, and Beth, his daughter. They have also released this awesome Pickle Rick toy, numbered 332 from their Pop! Animation collection.
Pickle Rick stands at just under six inches in height and shows the character in all his rat exoskeleton glory. He holds his makeshift battery-powered laser cannon on his shoulder, and a battery in his other hand. The level of detail is high (I love the little rat brain on his back), and the paint work is pretty decent too. All told it’s a good toy and one that is easily up to Funko’s high standard. Funko have actually released two versions of Pickle Rick: this one with the laser cannon and one of him sporting a pair of wrist drills. I plumbed for the laser cannon variant purely because it was bigger (more bang for my buck).
Like the majority of other figures in their Pop! collection this Funko Pickle Rick vinyl toy retails for around £10 — but it’s becoming a little hard to find, especially the wrist-drills variant, so fans may not want to hang about.
Rick and Morty has quickly established itself as one of the smartest, most creative science-fiction shows on TV, and thanks to a recent 70-episode order from Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, it will be on TV for quite a few years to come. I suspect this Pickle Rick vinyl toy won’t be the last we see based on this classic episode, but for a tenner it is going to be hard to beat. Say it with me one more time: Pickle Riiiiick!
'TAIN'T THE MEAT... IT'S THE HUMANITY! 