My father grew up watching the original Addams Family television series. Not the films, not the animated version, not the Netflix show — the 1964 black-and-white original, which he watched as a child with his own father on a small television in their front room in Cork. He has talked about it my entire life. Gomez Addams, specifically — the exuberant, devoted, completely unself-conscious patriarch who loved his family with a fervour that was played for comedy but always felt, underneath it, genuinely moving. My dad has always said that Gomez Addams was his idea of what a father should be: enthusiastic, present, and completely besotted with the people he loved.
My dad turned sixty-five this year. I wanted to find him something that connected to that memory, to that childhood television, to the character he'd been talking about for six decades. The Funko Pop! Classic Addams Family Gomez Addams figure was what I found, and what happened when he opened it is the reason I'm writing this.
The Gift Problem
Finding the right gift for a parent's significant birthday is one of the harder creative challenges in adult life. You want something that feels personal rather than generic, that connects to who they actually are rather than who you think they should be, that says "I've been paying attention" in a way that a voucher or a bottle of wine doesn't quite manage.
My dad is not a collector. He doesn't have a shelf of figures or a display case of memorabilia. He has a study full of books and a small collection of things that matter to him — a photograph of his parents, a hurling medal from 1978, a ceramic mug his mother made. Things with stories attached to them. Things that mean something specific.
I wanted to add something to that collection. Something that connected to the Addams Family, to the childhood memory, to Gomez specifically. When I found the classic TV series Funko Pop! — not the film version, not the animated version, but the original — I knew immediately it was right.
Why the Classic TV Series Version
The Funko POP TV Addams Family Classic Gomez Addams Vinyl Figure is specifically the classic television series version — which matters enormously when you're buying for someone whose connection to the character is the original show. The 9cm vinyl figure captures Gomez in the authentic Funko Pop! aesthetic, with the signature oversized head and stylised features that make the range so recognisable, rendered in a way that's faithful to the classic TV incarnation.
The window display box keeps the figure protected while keeping it fully visible — which was important to me because I wanted my dad to be able to see it clearly without having to open the packaging. The figure arrives ready to display, which for someone who isn't a collector and wouldn't necessarily know the conventions of Funko Pop! ownership, is exactly right.
His Birthday
We celebrated at my sister's house — the whole family, a proper dinner, the kind of occasion that only happens a few times a year. I gave him the Gomez figure after dinner, wrapped simply, no elaborate presentation. He unwrapped it, looked at it for a moment, and then looked up at me.
"Where did you find this?" he said.
I told him. He looked back at the figure. He was quiet for a moment in a way that my dad, who is not a quiet man, almost never is. And then his eyes filled up, which I have seen happen perhaps three times in my entire life.
"Your grandfather loved this show," he said. "We used to watch it together every week."
I hadn't known that. I'd known my dad loved the show. I hadn't known it was something he'd shared with his own father, who died when I was four and who I barely remember. The figure had connected something I hadn't known needed connecting.
My sister, who had been watching from across the table, caught my eye and mouthed "well done." That's the best review a gift can get.
Where It Lives Now
Gomez sits on my dad's desk, next to the photograph of his parents. He sent me a photo of it the day after his birthday with a message that said simply: "He looks right at home." I've thought about that message a lot since. The best gifts find their place. This one found its place immediately.
He's watched the original series again since his birthday — he told me on the phone last week that he'd found it streaming and had watched three episodes in a row. "Still brilliant," he said. "Gomez is still the best." I told him I agreed, which is true, and which I now feel more strongly than I did before I bought the figure.
My Verdict
If you have someone in your life whose connection to the Addams Family goes back to the original television series — or if you're building a classic TV collection of your own — the Funko POP TV Addams Family Classic Gomez Addams Vinyl Figure is the one to get. It's beautifully rendered, faithfully classic, and it carries more weight than a 9cm vinyl figure has any right to carry.
Find it in our Toys collection and our wider Toys & Games collection. Some gifts are just right. This is one of them.
— Leo Fitzgerald
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