You all have seen them. That giant wall of plastic toys in boxes. What are they? Where do they come from? How are there new ones every single day? Why are there actual conventions for toys?
Well, first of all toys aren't toys, they are collectibles. Everything you once thought was a toy- yeah go ahead and just get that out of your head. Look, I don't make the rules. Collectors are who they are. And, for most of the world, there are comic books and Funko. For me, personally, there's everything. But for the sake of me having other blog post ideas, this one is just going to be about Funko.
Funko. Fun Company. I was gonna go into the history but I don't feel like it. Ok, some dudes started making bobbleheads in their garage and now they own the planet Earth. There's a whole documentary just look it up. So, why collect them?
One word: nostalgia.
They. Make. Everything. If there is a movie, show, book, cartoon, a fleeting thought; it exists. Some of them are plain stupid. I'll admit. But there are a lot of cool ones. My husband and I started collecting them together and we now have well over 200. Some people have thousands. A lot of people try to collect every single one that exists, like (@) dis.trackers on Instagram. I swear they have magical connections and billions of dollars.
There are pros and cons for this hobby.
Pros: the hunt. It's always exciting to go into a store not having any idea what you're looking for. Most of the time, the Funko you want is the same one everyone else wants, too. You have to beat the stupid reseller scalper fuc*s that buy everything and post it on eBay for 5x the retail price. Sometimes more. Don't get me started on Pokemon, that's for another day.
When my husband and I go Funko hunting, we go to our local mall and hit these stores in this exact order:
Barnes and Noble
Hot Topic
Gamestop
Boxlunch
Target
Barnes and Noble has gotten very sucky with their selection and we believe they will stop selling them in the near future. The shelves are always practically empty.
Hot Topic is a huge hit or miss. The last time we went in there, I stumbled across a Hot Topic Exclusive GITD Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Blue Spirit and Kid Loki. Other times, there have been maybe 10 Pops on the shelf and they were all crap.
Gamestop is another hit or miss, that's all I have to say about that.
Boxlunch is a collector's paradise if you're into Disney and Anime. We always have a good time in there.
Target is a bigger hit than miss. We both work there so we see the stock every single day. Sometimes there's really good stuff, sometimes not. The usual. Normal. Always tons in stock, though.
When going Funko hunting, it's best to not go with a goal. Having a specific one in mind that you want will often lead to disappointment. It's best to go with an open mind. You may leave with absolutely nothing.
Cons: as I mentioned above, scalpers. If you want it, so does everyone else. If it's an exclusive, you better be fast. If it's an EXCLUSIVE exclusive as in you can only get it from an event, be prepared to pay $100+ for what would be a normal $8-$15 5-8inch figure. Big ones (10inch) are $30. Massive ones are $100 (they have a 30inch Batman and Pikachu so far). You get it. If it's rare, it will be more expensive. Out of curiosity I went to ebay and just searched "Funko" and sorted it most expensive to least and this was the result:
Once you get past the troll post and the signed ones, this was next on the list. I don't even remember this one coming out, but according to the seller, only 12 were made. So, rare= $$$. Basic science.
So, why Funko? Because it's fun. When you get an announcement of new ones coming out, it's always exciting. Sometimes it's a flop, but sometimes you want every single one. Anything Avatar: The Last Airbender is always a must have for me. For some people, it's Marvel. And boy do they have a ton of Marvel ones.
Comments