nando820

Does anybody here collect these? It seems to me they release 20 every week. And I seen one of almost every property out there. $10 for a short statue that doesn't move its crazy to me. I seen some collection videos of those in YouTube and its walls full of these small boxes, because I guess you are not supposed to take them out either.
Does anybody know how many have been made? it has to be in the thousands. I wonder if anybody is trying to collect them all, including all the exclusives which every retailer has, it must be exhausting.

Maxflier

I don't get it, they look goofy af with the big heads. No idea why this is a thing.

Dan

Capitalism + Fandom gone wild.

TomOpus

I don't but I know someone who does.

wishbone

Seems like a variation of Super deformed toys.

cultshock

I don't get them either. I collect toys (not these though) and when I go to shows I see some dealers with tables full of them, but never see anyone buying them. I guess someone must though, because they keep pumping these out. The huge range of licensing involved is impressive, but these don't appeal to me at all.

Red Hood

The reason for their mass appeal is their cuteness and the licensed properties they have acquired. It appeals to kids and adults, men and women. And they are mostly cheap. The only downside I have seen about them is people have found out that with the boxes they take tons of space and without the boxes they are worthless. The bubble on these is bursting though. Lots of retailers have tons of them and are unable to unload the least popular characters, even when they sell them for under cost. There's a huge saturation on the market too, so the collectible aspect of it has lost its appeal. People often compare them to beanie babies but in reality, Pops has not only outgrown that market, they have been smart enough to keep acquiring licenses for very low cost.

Funko hasn't been able to be truly successful with any other product line. They tried doing other things like Dorbz, retro action figures and the only other closest thing they have been able to make it a hit is the blind boxes for different properties. They are almost smaller versions of POPs, but with action poses.

Obi-Wanma

I have about 10 of them on my desk. I'm kinda picky about what I grab though. Some designs look better than others. All of mine are OOB.

mrhan

People collect them for the same reason people collect anything else. Just something to do I guess. I'm sure others think it's weird to collect movies and don't get it either. I have a tiny car collection and most people don't get that either. You only really need one.

fujishig

It's the uniform look and the vast array of properties they have... I mean, if you're a fan of, say, Coming to America, they're coming out with Pops of those, so they have some super obscure stuff, and they make so many that they rotate them out all the time so they become collector's items. I do give them some credit in that at first glance, it seems like a lazy way to just use a single buck to produce a ton of figures, and I think that's what it started as, but they do unique sculpting across most of the figures' bodies, not just the heads. They are still really ugly for the most part, though.

The best ones (to me) are the ones that aren't human and/or can absorb the black soulless eyes look without looking too off. For instance, I searched out the porg one for my son and that looks, well, like a porg, it doesn't even have that weird rectangular head.

But like anything "collectible" there's a breaking point, somewhere between "I'll pick up one or two and it'll look cool on my desk" and "I have shelves full of unopened Pops and boxes in storage."

I do like some of Funko's other lines, though. Their mystery mini lines are more on the SD side of things and less on the black eyed alien look, but blind boxes are the devil, so screw them. But they have a new line at Target called Hero World which are non blind boxed figurines, and are basically what DC heroes and Power Rangers would look like if they had crossed over into Disney Infinity.

Josh-da-man

Yeah. I don't get the appeal. They're kind of dumb looking, and, unless it's something with a really specific look or uniform, they don't look like anything.

And the more I look at them, they also start to look creepy as fuck. Little dead-eyed, faceless figurines that look like they might come to life and kill younwhile you sleep.

I don't know anybody who collects them. They're all over the place, but I've never seen anyone buy one, and it doesn't look like they sell many. The displays in stores always look untouched.

Troy Stiffler

Easy. They're cute. And they find niche figures to do. Where else can you get some Arrested Development toys to display?

funkyryno

I bought a few of these for my kids of characters they like. They're cute and are good at catching dust.

Leaving them in their boxes seems kind of ridiculous.

fumanstan

Yeah, I don't think it's that hard to understand. They're cute characters and collectible like any other toy or item. I do think they've gone overboard and it was more interesting when they were more "limited" as far as what properties they had figures of. Definitely oversaturated now.

I have a few figures of things I really like; a Kobe Bryant, some Overwatch characters, and my wife has a Lilo and Stitch figure at home.

General Zod

hdnmickey

So I take it a lot of you would have no interest in this place?:

https://www.funko.com/about-us/news/...own-everett-wa

Odlly enough I thought exactly the opposite. And it's getting a ton of visitors. Will be interesting to see if more locations are ever opened. The one in Everett makes sense given the plant is just in a different part of the same city. I know a few folks that work at the plant and they love it.

Red Hood

One funny/cool story is that James O'Barr, the creator of the Crow, hates these POPs. But instead of being dickish about it, he asks the owners of the Crow POP if he can draw and improve them. And he does this:

fujishig

If you showed me just the figure, out of the box, I'd have a hard time guessing what it is. So maybe that's a reason to keep the boxes, though it kind of defeats the purpose.

General Zod

Funny you say that.. Mine is still in the box or I wouldn't know who it was either. I think they didn't do a good job with it.

This Weird Al one coming soon is better..

joe_b

My brother gave me the Elvira Pop for Christmas. Since I'm a horror junkie, it's nice that he at least tried to get me something spooky (even if it was a cheapskate gift). Sadly, he has no clue how much I loathe the design of these things. I didn't want to be rude by telling him that, but I donated the thing to Goodwill the first chance I got.

Why So Blu?

I have both of these:

JoeyOhhhh

As someone who likes to collect stuff, I never understood the appeal of these. They all look soulless, but I appreciate they way they tackle so many licenses.

I've received a few as gifts by people who aren't in the loop at how much I dislike them

fujishig

Ah, I forgot to mention, that's the other big reason these sell, people trying to get the geeks (sorry!) in their family or friends gifts.

In a similar vein of "I don't understand it, but people get them for geeks as gifts" I present to you, loot crates.

MarkitZero

My daughter wants to get Bob Ross and my youngest has the Napoleon Dynamite set (lacking Kip)

Inhumans99

I am happy to pick up a few that catch my eye whenever I go down to visit my parents in Los Angeles and hit my local LCS. I do not collect like a fiend, but I do have several such as:

- Standard Lilo & Stitch
- Bebop and Rocksteady (which out of the blue turned into two of the more valuable Pops I own, and they are not store exclusive versions of these characters)
- A free Dr Strange Pop and Beast Pop from my Disney Rewards points
- Donkey from Shrek
- Peter Parker in and another figure out of his Spider-Man outfit from Spider-Man Homecoming
- Gamorrean Guard (which is just cute as the dickens and was a favorite Star Wars figure/character back in the day)
- Deadpool SDCC 2016 Exclusive dressed as a pimp (bought on sale)
- Olivia Moore (from iZombie) with White Hair SDCC 2016 Exclusive (bought on sale)
- Belle from live action remake (I had to get a Belle to pair up with my Beast)
- Remy from Ratatouille

I also have a few others in my collection. I have to be picky because I have lots of other pop culture ephemera in my apt and space is at a premium (I am also trying keep some parts of my apt clutter free).

ETA: My mom picked up the soft Chewbacca, I picked up a Scrooge McDuck for my dad (he love the character, and the Funko Pop looks fantastic), and my dad picked up Pete's Dragon for my mom (it is large than usual Funko Pop but an awesome Dragon regardless). Almost forgot but my dad also picked up one of the dragons from Game Of Thrones. Some of the Pop sculpts are really well done, and unlike Hot Toy/Sideshow figures are much more affordable for the average joe.