This thread has been a long time coming. For those of you lucky enough to have never seen these things before, Funko Pops are a brand of pop-culture figurines produced by Funko. There is not a better example of pandering to the lowest common denominator then these figures. They typically retail for $10-$15 a piece. Here are some good examples of how ugly these things are.
Now you might be thinking, no one actually buys this beady eyed souless garbage right? Wrong. Funko Pops has a massive consumer base which consists of shameless 20-30 with disposable income and die hard fanboys that have to have their favourite shows merch no matter no ugly it is. Observe.
But that's not even going into the real exceptionalism. There are people who will hoard 100's of these things and never take them out of the packaging. They stack one box on top of the other, slip them into a "pop protector" to make sure it keeps it's market value (AKA: nothing) and call it a collection. Some people take it so far there plastic collection takes over there room/house and they are forced to sell their prize collection for fuck all.
Then there are monthly subscription boxes, one being"Pop in a Box", a service which sends you 12 Funko Pops that you never wanted in the first place for the low, low price of $95! They sometimes even send duplicates in the same shipment, just to add an extra layer of fuck you to the consumer. Here are some examples.
That about covers it. The Funko Pop community as a whole is pretty exceptional, with people in there late 30's filming themselves "hunting" for these things at there local Hot Topic / Target but there are too many examples for just one post. Here is a video of your typical Pop enthusiast to end off.
The especulative toy market might be retarded at core, but I've heard of people who actually profited from it.
That was with higher quality anime figurines from Glorious Nihongo, though. The higher production values (and thus higher initial price tag), limited stock and rabbid nature of the fanbase helps. Also the companies who produce them have been around for a while and really know their shit.
Are there actually "rare" Funko Pops or does the company saturate the market with every model? Are there high profile bids for Funk Pop collections?
The especulative toy market might be exceptional at core, but I've heard of people who actually profited from it.
That was with higher quality anime figurines from Glorious Nihongo, though. The higher production values (and thus higher initial price tag), limited stock and rabbid nature of the fanbase helps. Also the companies who produce them have been around for a while and really know their shit.
Are there actually "rare" Funko Pops or does the company saturate the market with every model? Are there high profile bids for Funk Pop collections?
Funko is doing the whole 'Beanie Baby' thing of 'rare' figures, only making them for a limited time and then just never making them again, which makes people go apeshit and buy tons of them.
From what I can tell there are a few "rare" Funko Pops (The $13,000 Clockwork Orange Glow in the dark figure being the rarest)but truly rare Funko Pops are pretty much non-existent. Funko likes to throw a bone to the aftermarket by producing hard to find Chase figures to go with their normal counterpart, however the price difference between them is negligible. The market crash is approaching too, to many people are buying up shit tons of these things thinking it will be a great money maker in a few years. This guy has a good video on the topic (If you can put up with the incoherent rambling parts).
I have several friends who own many of these, in one case hundreds. And...I never understood what the appeal was. They're kind of cute? But wtf are you supposed to do with them?
My cousin and his new wife even put these things on their wedding registry.
I have several friends who own many of these, in one case hundreds. And...I never understood what the appeal was. They're kind of cute? But wtf are you supposed to do with them?
My cousin and his new wife even put these things on their wedding registry.
They're plastic shit to clutter up your desk, complicate moving to a new place, and be worthless the second you buy them. They're basically marketing nerd culture manifest. Someone saw the plastic shit that got given away as preorder bonuses with games and said "Fuck that noise! We can SELL this crap to these morons for more nerdbux!"
Somehow Funko managed to get a contract with every place on the planet that might possibly have something to do with even a specific Pop character. I swear I can't go anywhere without seeing the ugly little bastards anymore. And since Gamestop made that media merchandising deal they've shitted up my local Gamestop too. They have them shoved in every corner available. They're like the toy version of filler episodes except everyone wants them.
There are actually rare Funkos and they can go for absolutely ridiculous prices. I laughed pretty hard at the price comparison to Nendos and Funkos in OP's post because some of the prices I've seen for these things have been through the roof once they've gone out of stores. This one actually has box damage and its still selling for 129 fucking dollars. And its just their Mad Magazine ripoff mascot dressed as Dr Strange, not even a recognizable character. This one here isn't even finished and its 515 dollars. So while its true that some of them are pretty cheap, ranging anywhere between 9 bucks to 20 bucks, there is definitely a community of people who are willing to pay highway robbery prices for this garbage.
Only time I went out of my way to buy a Funko was the Shadow and Chao pop because it's honestly the funniest thing to me that this edgy brooding complex character of mass destruction keeps a cute tiny harmless chao.
When I was younger I did go out of my way to get the 3 Sonic funko pops that now I look at with utter regret and disgust. For some reason one of the sellers I bought it from stuffed the box with shredded paper and the box was damaged (From Amazon too). If I ever find out that Autist's name I'm going to dox the shit out of him for my mistake of buying this shit.
theres only ONE funko pop i want and thats hannibal lector... although i will probably never get it because I'm not willing to actually spend money on it.
