I was at SDCC this year and I was amazed at how many booths had Funko pops, which was about 20-30% of the booths and there was a line for the Funko area, jam packed with people. I over heard people saying they found some rare ones or newly released that were hard to find.
A few years ago someone bought me a Squirtle Funko Pop, since Squirtle is the best, and I opened it and took it out of the box. They proceeded to freak out that I ruined is value by taking it out of the box...
People thought they would be worth something? I thought we were all leaving them in their boxes because it's the only way to keep them from falling over.
I think bobble heads can be kind of neat especially for niche communities but the pure volume of them combined with the artificial scarcity is off putting.
I'm also not a fan of their appearance but I think that's a separate more subjective issue.
It's just a normal collecting sub-culture. The vast majority of people that have them have a handful, but of course you're going to have people that want to have complete sets.
Is that unpopular as an opinion? I've heard it said a lot tbh, though I don't agree that it has the same level of hype and over inflated secondary market.
Funko Pops are mostly ugly as hell imo. They try to capture a cute big headed aesthetic but went too far on the blocky noggins. I dislike how it makes the vast, overwhelming majority of characters look when rendered this way.
Nendroids are doing this same concept but infinitely better, with stands and articulation. And less ghastly proportions. That said, Nendroids are mostly limited to weeb shit, while anything under the fucking sun gets a funko pop because there is 0 design effort made.
I've gotten one as a gift, and it's fine. But they absolutely are Beanie Babies. It's not even a question.
Edit: collecting this shit is dumb anyways. Take shit out of the box and pose it!
Vinyl dolls with big, boxy heads and small bodies. Kinda cute, but mostly they end up barely looking like what they're supposed to be. There's exceptions though, and they're very good about releasing obscure characters eventually.
Because I'm into comics and similar "geeky" things, I used to get them as gifts fairly often. Had to put a stop to it because they take up room fast, and there's stuff I'd much rather display than hyper-cartoonish dolls. That being said, I very much enjoy my Godzilla, Cthulhu, and Squirrel Girl "pops"
Ahhh, I've seen them when browsing games at my local bricks and mortar. Indeed, they are incredibly generic. Not a lot of effort goes into them. Thanks for the information.
A fading search engine that shoves ads down your throat before giving not mediocre results.
It is also, apparently, a way for people to be rude without good reason on forums based around human interaction by telling people to gtfo and not interact.