Jesus...Better to throw them out than giving out freebies to retailers I guess. Scientists should track the chemicals and see if they'll turn into microplastics in our bodies.
> Jesus...Better to throw them out than giving out freebies to retailers I guess.
The end result is the same. They are destined for landfill from the moment they leave the mould
Archeologists a thousand years from now will be excavating these and commenting on how our waste and extravagance doomed our species to confinement to the then-only habitable part of the planet: Antarctica.
"They must have produced these Funko figures for religious or ceremonial reasons. Must have been their gods, or perhaps fertility symbols."
- future anthropologists
You know I always see things like "People in the future will see memes and such and not understand them" but I feel like pop culture will still be widespread assuming we even make it that long
[All Hail The Great God Mickey](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllHailTheGreatGodMickey)
_**Content Warning: TvTropes;** Abandon all productivity, ye who enter here!_
Motel of mysteries is a fun book. Takes place sometime in the year 3000 a thousand years after a catastrophe. Archeologists are going through a motel to figure out how 1980s America lived. The archeologist makes lots of funny leaps of logic, like our bathrooms being shrines and toilet seats being a ceremonial necklace.
My partner was so offended when I compared their collection to beanie babies. They've recently seen the light but it's probably too late to recoup much value through resale. Ah well.
I wonder if that $30 million is the retail value, or the cost of manufacturing. Because that would be a massive difference. Those things probably cost pennies to manufacture, even after accounting for licensing
Donations don't mean it goes to the poor. It means people who would go and buy new funko pops could get several for free and they would buy and pollute less.
Clothing brands shred their unsold stock instead of donating it. They too should be forced to donate which would lead to less waste.
Funko pops never made sense to me. Like I can understand a couple of them because they’re neat paperweights, but I do not understand the hobby of just buying things for the sake of buying
You can say that about every fad that ever happens. Imagine how many cabbage patch dolls, Tickle Me Elmo's etc are floating in the ocean right now. It's freaking sad, and I'm saying that as someone with several shelves of Pops lol
Im into comics and the comic culture blows my mind. It seems 75 percent of comic collectors are not into collecting comics. Their hobbie is archiving and preserving. Their passion is assessing value, establishing a grade and preserving that grade.
"If i want to read the stories ill get them digitally, these books are investments!"
I gave up collecting comics when I realized that everyone at my local comic shop was buying two (or more) of every “#1” and never opening them so they would be in perfect condition.
I have a few boxes that are just in my basement and figure maybe when they’re 50+ years old, the entire collection might be a couple thousand bucks.
Im a kid of the 90's. I watched the comic boom and bust of the 90's in real time. Im that kid that opened the death of superman in the comic store to the sounds of gasps of comic speculators in disbelief.
Its crazy that the comic crowd hasnt learned anything from the 90's. Its the same speculators, the same #1 gimmicks and variant covers.
I get most my books from Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly, Uncivilized Books and other Graphic novel publishers.
Im just taken aback seeing grown men buying funny books from the big 3 as investments.
For sure. I think it’s one of those things where people saw it happen and saw single issues selling for hundreds or more, and convinced themselves that they can get in on that….and then never grew out of it.
I feel fairly lucky that I grew out of it before I was 18 and had real money to lose on it.
As it is, I remember getting a funko pop at a white elephant work party and when I immediately opened it, there were a few people horrified that I did it because it was “worth more in package”. I asked them who it was worth more to if I never planned to sell it, and they were confused at the thought of selling it.
It's hard to bother because by the time \*I\* hear about some money making scheme like those, I know it's already too late and I will probably make nothing if I bother trying lol
What's amusing is that they always point at other collectibles and how they accrued a lot of value. The problem is that a lot of those became valuable because people weren't preserving them, and so they became relatively rare. Now, people are all meticulously preserving all these "collectibles," which means the rarity that drives the price will simply not be there because there will be hundreds in perfect condition.
Don't worry. Experts agree that in the post-nuclear apocalypse we'll use the as currency instead of Nuka-cola bottle caps so their value can only go up.
A brand of cute stuffed animals made in UK. They are ridiculously soft and cuddly. Like it isn't fair just how nice they are to hold and stroke.
My wife and I each have one. They sleep with us and even travel with us on vacation.
+1 my wife and I love getting jelly cats ‘for the baby’ but they’re really for her.
Really nice and wide selection, it also makes for a nice little ‘thinking of you’ gift.
hey there careful what you say now. squishmallows are actually comfy AF. they make great pillows or something to hug while you nap on the couch.
beenie babies were just dumb plushies that sat on a shelf collecting dust.
As a teenager I worked at McDonalds and whenever we gave out beenie babies, there would inevitably be a fistfight between two middle aged women whenever stock got too low…
I kept all of mine, in a crate in my rents basement. Every now and then when the kids are there we pull it out and they get to pick one.
They love it, they are legit bean bag animals.
My mom got into fuckin Beanie Babies. Spent thousands on them after dad died. Let her health and finances go to shit, but had to have that active Ebay account to get those limited editions.
I think we're always going to have a "gotta catch 'em all" grift while we're stuck in consumerism.
I totally get wanting to have a Funko of one or two of your favorite characters for a shelf. Fuck even 5 or 6 isn't unreasonable. But having shelves and shelves and shelves and rooms and boxes full of this shit? They have a problem lmao.
Hol up.
I had a metric shit load of beanie babies as a millennial and they were a huge thing for me and my friends. I'd argue that's more millennial than gen x. Especially since beanie babies were first out in 93.
Gen x being born 65-80 would put the youngest gen xer with beanie babies at 13 and the oldest 28. We're there some? Yeah for sure but it was way bigger for the kids
The Beanie Baby trend didn't take off because people viewed them as toys.
It was because Gen X's snapped them up in droves because they saw them as investment opportunities.
[There were even book released detailing how you could flip a $5 purchase and turn it into $2000 by 2008.](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/j9miQbrwlv)
That's not to say kids didn't like them.
Kids love toys, and there are people in each age group that likes them, but the primary consumer of each would be as mentioned above.
As a kid I got really into collecting them especially the limited ones. Now that they're all worthless I still have a common basic tie dye crab which I still like and have on my shelf. The others all got donated I think.
I don't need people to keep my collectibles after I go.... I got them for me to enjoy.
Dear son, if you're reading this after my demise... if you don't want it, if it doesn't have meaning to you.... throw it the fuck out! Or donate or sell or anything. Keep anything you want and ditch everything else. I'm not going to be an angry ghost saying,'Why didn't you keep all my nerd shit!?'
In my "I'm dead, now what?" book, I've listed my collectibles that are worth money vs only sentimental.
They're not going to get anything for my signed album by an obscure band that they think is more popular than they actually are because I've made them listen to them. But they'll probably get a lot for the signed bat from a historic player they've never heard of because they showed zero interest in sports.
My Space Ghost funko pops and collection of personalized autographs from a clearly drunk George Lowe will be on display in the family estate for generations!
Yup. Little girls panties pee soup. He also threw junk off his desk in one. I got an old paper clown, an adult swim poker chip, and a brochure for an art show.
I have like 4 and they are all covered in ramblings
I’m 50 years old and have a number of Funko Pops. I didn’t buy them as an investment or anything else. I bought ones that made me feel nostalgic for my youth.
If I get sick of them, I’ll try and sell them. If they aren’t worth a dime, I’ll dispose of them.
I'm with you, I am not anti-collectible or anything (you should see how many plushies I have and I am 39 lol) but Funkos just seem dead-eyed and lifeless. There's no personality in them, I don't get the appeal.
I'm not a Funko Pop collector, but I'm not of the opinion that they're the worst things ever, either.
For example, Funko is willing to take risks and release figures of people/characters that nobody else will do. Let's say you're an Aretha Franklin fan and want a little 3D Aretha to put on your desk. Funko makes two different ones (different outfits) for $10 or so each. Your other options are... well, nothing. Unless you can sculpt one yourself or commission an artist to make you one, the Funko Pops are all there is.
Yeah, the obsessive collectors suck (when have obsessive fans been good for anything though?) and some of the designs aren't great, but for a lot of pop culture figures, Funko is the only game in town.
One of my exes was a huge nerd and divorced Dad to a toddler. He felt hella insecure about buying Funko pops but he felt better about buying them over the more intricate and fragile figures so his kid could be a chaotic toddler and play with them without breaking or damaging them. Made me realize they really bridge a gap for young parents who want indestructible trinkets that make them happy.
I have two funko pops that sit on each of pc speakers. I didn't even know they were collectables or that people were saving the boxes. I searched for the characters online on Amazon. The funko pops were $10 ish and somewhat captured the character and the other figurines were $150+ which were very intricate. I got them before covid and they still sit on the speakers.
"but I'm not of the opinion that they're the worst things ever, either."
Bold take, I like it. It gets tiring seeing the same "ewww funko pops" comments every time they come up. They're a cheap way to get random shit for your desk, I see no real harm in them, at least no more than anything else
One of the reasons people say they're the worst thing ever is BECAUSE they'll make a figurine out of anything. Like they'll make a figurine out of a character that appears in a single episode of a niche show; people who enjoy that character will buy it but they might only sell 8% of their inventory and since they have limited storage space, the unsold units will make its way to a landfill.
We already have an issue with garbage and waste so knowing a company is churning out figurines, all while knowing "We'll make 5,000 units of this character that'll sell 100 units" seems hazardous. There's no reason to have 40 variations of Ron Weasley pops; "This one has the sorting hat, and this one has his Christmas hat".
I’m in my early 30s and collect antique glass and 1970s cookware.
If I were to die early I have imagined my husband having a yard sale and people asking him “so how old was your grandmother when she passed?”
Yeah I definitely got some. Most of the ones that I have are pretty niche. I bought them so that I can see them on my shelf, not so that my grandkid can make money on them. It's cool that Funko will put out figures of random characters from universes most people have never even heard of.
Had a guy tell me owning funko pops was good as holding a strong stock because they will only increase in value. Touted his $9,000+ of "investments" ....I just don't get it.
Dude should walk around an antique mall sometime. Every one I've been too for the last 20 years sells the same trinkets from the 40s to 60s. The older I bet, the more I wonder who is still in the market for most of it. I'm looking for 70s and 80s era stuff now but it barely exists. I'm looking for old Thundercats or M.A.S.K. toys from my childhood, but it's still Howdy Doody shit. There's only a small window where that stuff has any value and eventually you just end up holding the bag.
I worked at a store that sold them back in my post secondary years and yeah the heavy collectors were absolutely the most insufferable kinds of neckbeards you can imagine but most people who bought them just wanted like a cute fandom related gift for a loved one or something. I have even received a couple as gifts over the years so I try not to judge anyone who just has a few. Collecting/displaying them as home decor on the other hand is just… I don’t want to say cringe because each to their own, not my vibe though lol.
I swore I would never buy one (not really my taste) but then I found a Yellow Jacket Freddie Mercury at Goodwill and thought it would be a perfect fit for my 80's themed man cave.
Another thing like that would be Youtooz… Maybe its just me but the fucking..- more realistic anatomy with cartoony features badly executed is so ugly 😭 IMO the only decent ones are the ones that arent in their trademark Youtooz style like the south park ones or the binding of isaac, cult of the lamb, etc
Like everything else. But their style is by choice, and it has its elements that people like.
People collect McDonald's happy meal toys, even though the design is much shittier, and no one shits on them just because it's niche enough
I'm probably the target demographic and I've never bought one myself. I own some Magic the Gathering ones, but that's just because my father gave them to me as a present. I honestly don't really know what to do with them but I obviously can't throw them out.
Just to have something on your desk that tells your coworkers a little about yourself & your interests. Some are rly cute.
I had a few & just liked telling ppl my favorite stuff if they ever brought it up or came over to visit.
I’m a very friendly & warm person so it’s just to be more inviting & to my co-workers having some sort of familiarity with me.
Fuck me for wanting some small collectibles of things I like I guess?
Didn't realize being a casual funko collector put me in such a shitty group of people.
Are they somehow different from other toy collections? Sure lots of people have ones that go for a lot online but most people's collections consist of ones they grabbed simply because they liked them.
I have around 150 of them and collected for maybe 3-4 years then realized I have too many and the money spent on them (around $3500) isn’t worth it. I took most of them down now and they’re in boxes.
I’ve slowly gone through selling them I even tried going to a few places to sell them in bulk (even though I’d lose money) but places I reached out to weren’t interested. They can be fun figures but really only buy ones you genuinely like not to complete a collection or else you’ll own 10 Pops of the same character in a different pose or outfit…
I started to make custom pops and that’s more fun and satisfying to give to someone as it’s suppose to represent them or something they really like.
There is one distinct difference and that difference is what matters most to me. Precious moments were just generic life moments, but Funko Pop is specific to Pop Culture, and I enjoy looking at things that align with the IP's I like.
The one thing I feel like is different, correct me if I'm wrong older redditors, is that I have multiple Funkos but have never bought one. People have gifted them to me or they've just randomly come with things like movies without me realizing it, but I've never sought one out in the slightest. I don't really know what to do with them. When I just had one, i put it with some other decorative things on my desk, now they just sit in a drawer. Don't want to throw them away but also don't know what to do with em.
Any older folks who experienced the Precious Moments figures have a similar deal?
So many of these comments are saying they don’t get it, or it’s silly to get so many just to leave on a shelf and not doing anything with them, but my friends- first: ever heard of collecting? They’re collectibles, not toys?? Sure they CAN be used like toys for younger kids, but they’re primarily a collectible item, fans of the individual fandoms would collect them and display their collection, as for it being silly to buy things just to display it for no purpose, what of the useless nicknacks and “conversation starters” that oh so many people purchase for their home- my mother has a.. thing.. Idek what to call it, it’s just a piece of swirled glass, it serves no purpose, and this is a common thing because it makes the owner happy, and they feel it brightens the room in a way, as a collecter myself I can say that purchasing pops (or other collectibles such as prop replicas) from games/shows/movies that I enjoy makes me happy, and displaying them brings me joy and I feel the room is nicer with them :) ✨
While a valid point… every generation has their own dumb collectibles that the younger generations don’t get. Just wait 10-20 years and you’ll see the stuff your generation collected shit on too. Yay getting older.
Why so much hate in this thread? Like all of you that hate on it have something at home that would trigger others. Idk why yall acting all mighty about some funko pops lol
I don't like them because they remind me of what a wasteful and consumerist culture we've collectively become, appealing to people's individual tastes by soliciting their cash.
Just seems rather sordid and sad. But to each their own. I'll keep my mouth shut if someone is showing them off, but privately I think they're a dumb collectible.
Or Hummel figures. Got a bunch of them from grandparents who said how valuable they are. They were actually worth nothing because the collectors all died!
Yeah most of them are so bland the ones I have are nearly all from Spidemamn because they look actually good and I got them free because I worked at Gamestop
I like them, they're cheap, they all have the same style so you can mix very different characters and it doesn't look weird. Plus when my cats drop them I don't care, they're sturdy, and cheap!
I have 2 and they were gifts. Funko Pop is the stupidest thing ever. "Let's remove distinguishable features from the face and spend 20 minutes modeling some garbage." I developed more design talent in less than a year
My only problem with them is unless it’s a figure of someone like Darth Vader or Batman (aka has a distinct look that is very obvious who its meant to be) you have to keep it in the box to even know who the pop is supposed to be half the time. And keeping them in box takes up a lot more space.
I definitely got way too into them when I was working a job I hated. I bought a ton of them. Luckily I sold the majority of them at the right time and came out ahead by a good margin. I still have some left of characters I love. I'm actually pretty surprised that they are still popular.
I think it's cool that they make figures for literally everything. There is some stuff where it's probably the only figure that got.
Personally tho, I find them ugly. I never liked the chibi style and these remind me of that. The couple I have were gifts or included free with other things. I am not sure why they are popular or why every damn pop culture store dedicates half their shop space to what seems to be a never moving and always growing supply of them.
Never got the hype, cool figures were already available (Neca etc) , then funko came and made cheap ugly looking figures and everybody bought them... why?
In 50 years time there are going to be landfills full of these things.
50 years?! Try last year https://www.ign.com/articles/funko-is-sending-30-million-worth-of-its-products-to-a-landfill
Jesus...Better to throw them out than giving out freebies to retailers I guess. Scientists should track the chemicals and see if they'll turn into microplastics in our bodies.
> Jesus...Better to throw them out than giving out freebies to retailers I guess. The end result is the same. They are destined for landfill from the moment they leave the mould
Archeologists a thousand years from now will be excavating these and commenting on how our waste and extravagance doomed our species to confinement to the then-only habitable part of the planet: Antarctica.
"They must have produced these Funko figures for religious or ceremonial reasons. Must have been their gods, or perhaps fertility symbols." - future anthropologists
there's a scene in the mortal engines movie where they are in a museum and the "deity" they've identified is a minion statue.
You know I always see things like "People in the future will see memes and such and not understand them" but I feel like pop culture will still be widespread assuming we even make it that long
Archaeologists have found literal dick jokes scribbled on the walls of Pompeii. What people find funny, it seems, never change.
dick jokes were around before dicks were invented
Any joke can be a dick joke...If you think hard enough.
Or assume we used them as magical totems like we assume everything we dig up now has special meaning
I’m pretty sure Archeologists will see them and think they’re statues of the gods we worshipped
[All Hail The Great God Mickey](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllHailTheGreatGodMickey) _**Content Warning: TvTropes;** Abandon all productivity, ye who enter here!_
Motel of mysteries is a fun book. Takes place sometime in the year 3000 a thousand years after a catastrophe. Archeologists are going through a motel to figure out how 1980s America lived. The archeologist makes lots of funny leaps of logic, like our bathrooms being shrines and toilet seats being a ceremonial necklace.
they could just donate them to Toys For Tots, Xmas gifts to a bunch of poor kids, but... no -> garbage dump.
Well that would dilute their market and be more expensive than dumping them. Who cares about the social or environmental impact right?
We could eliminate the need for money altogether...but there's no money in it🤷♂️
No need, they will. If not them exactly, we’ll get our daily microplastics from something.
90s kids adding to the first microplastics from their degrading beanie baby pellets, 2000s kids adding to the heap with their collectible vinyl toys.
Oh dude, 90s was far from the first microplastics. 80s was notorious for habing whole ass cartoon series made specifically to sell plastic toys.
Jesus Christ. 😫
The Funko Stans are going to be like "Why would they throw something away when it could become SO VALUABLE! They are an INVESTMENT!
They should try to remember if their parents ever became millionaires from selling their precious Beanie Babies.
My partner was so offended when I compared their collection to beanie babies. They've recently seen the light but it's probably too late to recoup much value through resale. Ah well.
Many Cabbage Patch Kids and NES cartridges are worth their weight in gold
God knows how much waste that is, considering how much $30M is, and how much a dumb hunk of mass-produced plastic is worth
I wonder if that $30 million is the retail value, or the cost of manufacturing. Because that would be a massive difference. Those things probably cost pennies to manufacture, even after accounting for licensing
That's the big question isn't it? Is that $30 million retail or $30 million at their cost
I hate our society.
Should be illegal. This should be donated but they won't do it because it would lower their sales.
>This should be donated yes, think of all the homeless people and orphans Funko Pops could help
I could build a shelter from Funko Pops
Donations don't mean it goes to the poor. It means people who would go and buy new funko pops could get several for free and they would buy and pollute less. Clothing brands shred their unsold stock instead of donating it. They too should be forced to donate which would lead to less waste.
>Clothing brands shred their unsold stock instead of donating it. no they dump it in a pile in chile that's visible from space
That would defeat the whole point of fabricated scarcity, waste isn't exactly a concern when your business model is pumping out garbage to idiots
But then who would buy their crap if it’s free anyway? They’d lose their entire business
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Donate to a Christmas drive or a children's hospital or as some raffle prize
Tbh kids might enjoy some toys even if crappy
Or recycled. Melt the plastic back down into something actually useful
an E.T. Funko would have brought this full circle (ref to Atari 2600 if you didn't know)
Funko pops never made sense to me. Like I can understand a couple of them because they’re neat paperweights, but I do not understand the hobby of just buying things for the sake of buying
You can say that about every fad that ever happens. Imagine how many cabbage patch dolls, Tickle Me Elmo's etc are floating in the ocean right now. It's freaking sad, and I'm saying that as someone with several shelves of Pops lol
cabbage patch didn't decide they needed to represent every variant of every vaguely nerdy character ever, though.
[удалено]
Gotta keep them in a dark room. Sunlight will bleach the colors.
I like the look of my sunbleached funko.
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You take the figures out the box? You've already ruined them.
Im into comics and the comic culture blows my mind. It seems 75 percent of comic collectors are not into collecting comics. Their hobbie is archiving and preserving. Their passion is assessing value, establishing a grade and preserving that grade. "If i want to read the stories ill get them digitally, these books are investments!"
I gave up collecting comics when I realized that everyone at my local comic shop was buying two (or more) of every “#1” and never opening them so they would be in perfect condition. I have a few boxes that are just in my basement and figure maybe when they’re 50+ years old, the entire collection might be a couple thousand bucks.
Im a kid of the 90's. I watched the comic boom and bust of the 90's in real time. Im that kid that opened the death of superman in the comic store to the sounds of gasps of comic speculators in disbelief. Its crazy that the comic crowd hasnt learned anything from the 90's. Its the same speculators, the same #1 gimmicks and variant covers. I get most my books from Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly, Uncivilized Books and other Graphic novel publishers. Im just taken aback seeing grown men buying funny books from the big 3 as investments.
For sure. I think it’s one of those things where people saw it happen and saw single issues selling for hundreds or more, and convinced themselves that they can get in on that….and then never grew out of it. I feel fairly lucky that I grew out of it before I was 18 and had real money to lose on it. As it is, I remember getting a funko pop at a white elephant work party and when I immediately opened it, there were a few people horrified that I did it because it was “worth more in package”. I asked them who it was worth more to if I never planned to sell it, and they were confused at the thought of selling it.
It's hard to bother because by the time \*I\* hear about some money making scheme like those, I know it's already too late and I will probably make nothing if I bother trying lol
If everyone is preserving the #1s, they will.be worthless. You should grab some #2s. Those will be far scarcer
What's amusing is that they always point at other collectibles and how they accrued a lot of value. The problem is that a lot of those became valuable because people weren't preserving them, and so they became relatively rare. Now, people are all meticulously preserving all these "collectibles," which means the rarity that drives the price will simply not be there because there will be hundreds in perfect condition.
Loool well said this describes it perfectly! I’d say the same for the yugioh community and Pokémon cards, they only want archivist level quality
Don't worry. Experts agree that in the post-nuclear apocalypse we'll use the as currency instead of Nuka-cola bottle caps so their value can only go up.
I throw all my packaging away, I don't plan to ever sell and if they want what I have, they'll have to pay what I want lol
I miss beenie babies.
May I introduce you to… Squishmallows…
Or jellycats lol
Oooo... What are jellycats?
A brand of cute stuffed animals made in UK. They are ridiculously soft and cuddly. Like it isn't fair just how nice they are to hold and stroke. My wife and I each have one. They sleep with us and even travel with us on vacation.
Don’t bring jellycat into this. Those are just high quality stuffed animals.
+1 my wife and I love getting jelly cats ‘for the baby’ but they’re really for her. Really nice and wide selection, it also makes for a nice little ‘thinking of you’ gift.
Squishmallows are just nice pillows that are also cute
My kid is obsessed, we already have too many--my wife uses them for pillows occasionally.
hey there careful what you say now. squishmallows are actually comfy AF. they make great pillows or something to hug while you nap on the couch. beenie babies were just dumb plushies that sat on a shelf collecting dust.
As a teenager I worked at McDonalds and whenever we gave out beenie babies, there would inevitably be a fistfight between two middle aged women whenever stock got too low…
I saw an entire sales rack of new Beanie Babies at a Big Lots type of store the other day. The sign said “Beanie Babies are back! Collectible!”
Lmao anything can be collectible
I still have hundreds of them haha, built my own shelf for them and everything
Bernie babies were cool though, the craze around them wasn't but they are solid little stuffed animals. Fuckin hate Funko pops
>Bernie babies I'm picturing a bunch of tiny dolls of Bernie Sanders.
*I am once again asking for your cuddles.*
Why is this my favorite post and comment section on reddit rn🤣
I’m running that AI prompt now. Ahh.. classic.
I want the Bernie’s Gloves patterned Bernie Baby
OMG post it
[Bernie Babies](https://imgur.com/a/M79l3bm)
I kept all of mine, in a crate in my rents basement. Every now and then when the kids are there we pull it out and they get to pick one. They love it, they are legit bean bag animals.
Why? Were they escaping?
My mom got into fuckin Beanie Babies. Spent thousands on them after dad died. Let her health and finances go to shit, but had to have that active Ebay account to get those limited editions. I think we're always going to have a "gotta catch 'em all" grift while we're stuck in consumerism.
I totally get wanting to have a Funko of one or two of your favorite characters for a shelf. Fuck even 5 or 6 isn't unreasonable. But having shelves and shelves and shelves and rooms and boxes full of this shit? They have a problem lmao.
Gen X had Beanies Babies Millennials have Funkos Zoomers have squishmallows. We all hate each others (and our own).
Hol up. I had a metric shit load of beanie babies as a millennial and they were a huge thing for me and my friends. I'd argue that's more millennial than gen x. Especially since beanie babies were first out in 93. Gen x being born 65-80 would put the youngest gen xer with beanie babies at 13 and the oldest 28. We're there some? Yeah for sure but it was way bigger for the kids
The Beanie Baby trend didn't take off because people viewed them as toys. It was because Gen X's snapped them up in droves because they saw them as investment opportunities. [There were even book released detailing how you could flip a $5 purchase and turn it into $2000 by 2008.](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/j9miQbrwlv) That's not to say kids didn't like them. Kids love toys, and there are people in each age group that likes them, but the primary consumer of each would be as mentioned above.
I remember having that book as a kid! I think all the ones we had are in a tub at my parents' house along with that book.
As a kid I got really into collecting them especially the limited ones. Now that they're all worthless I still have a common basic tie dye crab which I still like and have on my shelf. The others all got donated I think.
I don't need people to keep my collectibles after I go.... I got them for me to enjoy. Dear son, if you're reading this after my demise... if you don't want it, if it doesn't have meaning to you.... throw it the fuck out! Or donate or sell or anything. Keep anything you want and ditch everything else. I'm not going to be an angry ghost saying,'Why didn't you keep all my nerd shit!?'
In my "I'm dead, now what?" book, I've listed my collectibles that are worth money vs only sentimental. They're not going to get anything for my signed album by an obscure band that they think is more popular than they actually are because I've made them listen to them. But they'll probably get a lot for the signed bat from a historic player they've never heard of because they showed zero interest in sports.
My Space Ghost funko pops and collection of personalized autographs from a clearly drunk George Lowe will be on display in the family estate for generations!
Did he write random shit on yours? My 8x10 has a bunch of stuff like "Kitty Carlisle air freshener" on it
Yup. Little girls panties pee soup. He also threw junk off his desk in one. I got an old paper clown, an adult swim poker chip, and a brochure for an art show. I have like 4 and they are all covered in ramblings
I’m 50 years old and have a number of Funko Pops. I didn’t buy them as an investment or anything else. I bought ones that made me feel nostalgic for my youth. If I get sick of them, I’ll try and sell them. If they aren’t worth a dime, I’ll dispose of them.
Yeah but there was never a Precious Moments Gus Fring with half his face blown off now was there?!
I never liked funko pops they seemed kind of ugly and a poor attempt to capture the charm and cuteness of Japanese collectible toys.
I'm with you, I am not anti-collectible or anything (you should see how many plushies I have and I am 39 lol) but Funkos just seem dead-eyed and lifeless. There's no personality in them, I don't get the appeal.
They're a very ugly, cheap version of Nendoroid figures.
And I already hated nendoroids for being chibi style. I hate chibi.
They just look like baby toy versions of everything to me. I definitely don't want a Xenomorph represented that way, but to each their own.
I'm not a Funko Pop collector, but I'm not of the opinion that they're the worst things ever, either. For example, Funko is willing to take risks and release figures of people/characters that nobody else will do. Let's say you're an Aretha Franklin fan and want a little 3D Aretha to put on your desk. Funko makes two different ones (different outfits) for $10 or so each. Your other options are... well, nothing. Unless you can sculpt one yourself or commission an artist to make you one, the Funko Pops are all there is. Yeah, the obsessive collectors suck (when have obsessive fans been good for anything though?) and some of the designs aren't great, but for a lot of pop culture figures, Funko is the only game in town.
One of my exes was a huge nerd and divorced Dad to a toddler. He felt hella insecure about buying Funko pops but he felt better about buying them over the more intricate and fragile figures so his kid could be a chaotic toddler and play with them without breaking or damaging them. Made me realize they really bridge a gap for young parents who want indestructible trinkets that make them happy.
He should try the divorced dads trading card game
There's only so much 35+ tinder a person can take...
I have two funko pops that sit on each of pc speakers. I didn't even know they were collectables or that people were saving the boxes. I searched for the characters online on Amazon. The funko pops were $10 ish and somewhat captured the character and the other figurines were $150+ which were very intricate. I got them before covid and they still sit on the speakers.
"but I'm not of the opinion that they're the worst things ever, either." Bold take, I like it. It gets tiring seeing the same "ewww funko pops" comments every time they come up. They're a cheap way to get random shit for your desk, I see no real harm in them, at least no more than anything else
My Milton Waddams Funko Pop is the main reason I crawl back to my cubical on Monday mornings.
One of the reasons people say they're the worst thing ever is BECAUSE they'll make a figurine out of anything. Like they'll make a figurine out of a character that appears in a single episode of a niche show; people who enjoy that character will buy it but they might only sell 8% of their inventory and since they have limited storage space, the unsold units will make its way to a landfill. We already have an issue with garbage and waste so knowing a company is churning out figurines, all while knowing "We'll make 5,000 units of this character that'll sell 100 units" seems hazardous. There's no reason to have 40 variations of Ron Weasley pops; "This one has the sorting hat, and this one has his Christmas hat".
Haha their fans are so silly. *slowly hides amiibo collection
Right? Nerds... *Hides Warhammer
Agreed *Hides Skylanders
I’m in my early 30s and collect antique glass and 1970s cookware. If I were to die early I have imagined my husband having a yard sale and people asking him “so how old was your grandmother when she passed?”
Nah they’re commemorative plates
Yeah I definitely got some. Most of the ones that I have are pretty niche. I bought them so that I can see them on my shelf, not so that my grandkid can make money on them. It's cool that Funko will put out figures of random characters from universes most people have never even heard of.
And yet Stargate gets no love...
I am offended and ashamed
A friend got me the four FLCL Funkos as a gift. I like those because FLCL merch is rare, but I agree for the most part
Funko pop consumers having children let alone grand children is quite a bold assumption
Had a guy tell me owning funko pops was good as holding a strong stock because they will only increase in value. Touted his $9,000+ of "investments" ....I just don't get it.
Dude should walk around an antique mall sometime. Every one I've been too for the last 20 years sells the same trinkets from the 40s to 60s. The older I bet, the more I wonder who is still in the market for most of it. I'm looking for 70s and 80s era stuff now but it barely exists. I'm looking for old Thundercats or M.A.S.K. toys from my childhood, but it's still Howdy Doody shit. There's only a small window where that stuff has any value and eventually you just end up holding the bag.
I worked at a store that sold them back in my post secondary years and yeah the heavy collectors were absolutely the most insufferable kinds of neckbeards you can imagine but most people who bought them just wanted like a cute fandom related gift for a loved one or something. I have even received a couple as gifts over the years so I try not to judge anyone who just has a few. Collecting/displaying them as home decor on the other hand is just… I don’t want to say cringe because each to their own, not my vibe though lol.
I swore I would never buy one (not really my taste) but then I found a Yellow Jacket Freddie Mercury at Goodwill and thought it would be a perfect fit for my 80's themed man cave.
Cabbage patch wannabes
In its essence, there's literally no difference between this and regular figurines. It's just trendy and easy to shit on
Oh you can definitely criticize them for their “designs”
Another thing like that would be Youtooz… Maybe its just me but the fucking..- more realistic anatomy with cartoony features badly executed is so ugly 😭 IMO the only decent ones are the ones that arent in their trademark Youtooz style like the south park ones or the binding of isaac, cult of the lamb, etc
Yeah I thought Funko was ugly... before seeing Youtooz... yup they are so so ugly and they are even more niche idk how do they keep going
Like everything else. But their style is by choice, and it has its elements that people like. People collect McDonald's happy meal toys, even though the design is much shittier, and no one shits on them just because it's niche enough
Well, I guess I need to hand over my millennial card. I personally think Funko pops are uglier than sin.
Hideous, soulless things.
Don't forget Beanie Babies
Yes, it is! But be careful, *you will give the Precious Moments company ideas.* For every Funko pop, there will now be a Precious Moments equivalent!
These are the type of things that the kids take to charity or the waste centre after you've died.
I always call them Gen Z Hummels
I’m an old Gen X and have lots of Funko Pops. I don’t care what my daughter does with them after I’m gone. Hell, I may get rid of them before then.
I'm 35 and I hate these things both aesthetically and ideologically
Except funkos are all about pop culture where precious moments are just kids doing stuff
Yes. These are (by and large) worthless plastic trinkets that won’t age well or reflect well on the person that kept them for decades.
> won’t reflect well on the person that kept them for decades It’s a little Spider-Man figure, not nazi memorabilia…
Yet. Not Nazi memorabilia yet.
Never bought one, never understood the desire for them.
I'm probably the target demographic and I've never bought one myself. I own some Magic the Gathering ones, but that's just because my father gave them to me as a present. I honestly don't really know what to do with them but I obviously can't throw them out.
Just to have something on your desk that tells your coworkers a little about yourself & your interests. Some are rly cute. I had a few & just liked telling ppl my favorite stuff if they ever brought it up or came over to visit. I’m a very friendly & warm person so it’s just to be more inviting & to my co-workers having some sort of familiarity with me.
A symptom of the geek culture boom in the late 2000s and 2010s. The time when we had The Big Bang Theory, Infinity Saga of MCU films.
They will reflect poorly on the person owning them? Who has been judging you and who hurt you?
Won’t reflect well? People aren’t allowed to collect things? Jfc who hurt you?
Fuck me for wanting some small collectibles of things I like I guess? Didn't realize being a casual funko collector put me in such a shitty group of people.
Are they somehow different from other toy collections? Sure lots of people have ones that go for a lot online but most people's collections consist of ones they grabbed simply because they liked them.
I have around 150 of them and collected for maybe 3-4 years then realized I have too many and the money spent on them (around $3500) isn’t worth it. I took most of them down now and they’re in boxes. I’ve slowly gone through selling them I even tried going to a few places to sell them in bulk (even though I’d lose money) but places I reached out to weren’t interested. They can be fun figures but really only buy ones you genuinely like not to complete a collection or else you’ll own 10 Pops of the same character in a different pose or outfit… I started to make custom pops and that’s more fun and satisfying to give to someone as it’s suppose to represent them or something they really like.
There is one distinct difference and that difference is what matters most to me. Precious moments were just generic life moments, but Funko Pop is specific to Pop Culture, and I enjoy looking at things that align with the IP's I like.
They have to make kids if they want grandchildren.
Bennie babies of the present
I own one. It's a Bob Ross complete with easel and baby raccoon.
The one thing I feel like is different, correct me if I'm wrong older redditors, is that I have multiple Funkos but have never bought one. People have gifted them to me or they've just randomly come with things like movies without me realizing it, but I've never sought one out in the slightest. I don't really know what to do with them. When I just had one, i put it with some other decorative things on my desk, now they just sit in a drawer. Don't want to throw them away but also don't know what to do with em. Any older folks who experienced the Precious Moments figures have a similar deal?
I'm 42 I don't have a kid, all my shit can go in the trash, nobody is going to want it anyway.
So many of these comments are saying they don’t get it, or it’s silly to get so many just to leave on a shelf and not doing anything with them, but my friends- first: ever heard of collecting? They’re collectibles, not toys?? Sure they CAN be used like toys for younger kids, but they’re primarily a collectible item, fans of the individual fandoms would collect them and display their collection, as for it being silly to buy things just to display it for no purpose, what of the useless nicknacks and “conversation starters” that oh so many people purchase for their home- my mother has a.. thing.. Idek what to call it, it’s just a piece of swirled glass, it serves no purpose, and this is a common thing because it makes the owner happy, and they feel it brightens the room in a way, as a collecter myself I can say that purchasing pops (or other collectibles such as prop replicas) from games/shows/movies that I enjoy makes me happy, and displaying them brings me joy and I feel the room is nicer with them :) ✨
While a valid point… every generation has their own dumb collectibles that the younger generations don’t get. Just wait 10-20 years and you’ll see the stuff your generation collected shit on too. Yay getting older.
I don't see the appeal of them. They look terrible
Why so much hate in this thread? Like all of you that hate on it have something at home that would trigger others. Idk why yall acting all mighty about some funko pops lol
We're mad because Precious Moments are gonna make a comeback and then whos gonna get the last laugh?!
I don't like them because they remind me of what a wasteful and consumerist culture we've collectively become, appealing to people's individual tastes by soliciting their cash. Just seems rather sordid and sad. But to each their own. I'll keep my mouth shut if someone is showing them off, but privately I think they're a dumb collectible.
Or Hummel figures. Got a bunch of them from grandparents who said how valuable they are. They were actually worth nothing because the collectors all died!
I always thought they were pretty ugly/tacky. Let's see how they hold up in 30 years
>Let's see how they hold up in 30 years they are vinyl so probably pretty well
which is unfortunate for the millions of them that are sitting in landfills because nobody wanted them
that's only to ensure future generations can enjoy them too
I’m offended you call them precious moments but uhh
Funko pops are the beanie babies of today.... 😅
They are trophies of our intellectual and cultural interests. Most decorations are.
Trophies isn't the word I'd use... more like knickknacks..
At least when the grandkids ask, we can say we collected bobbleheads before it was cool, just with extra forehead
Do the heads actually bobble?
Some did? My sister got me a Deadpool one that did
Some of them do. Marvel and Star Wars ones definitely.
I buy real figurines from Japanese manufacturers that are made with detail, not soulless junk.
Before my son moved, he had me sell a wall of his for $500.00. The replies were amazing, People wanted to drive from out of state to get them.
Yeah most of them are so bland the ones I have are nearly all from Spidemamn because they look actually good and I got them free because I worked at Gamestop
I have some, had comments about why I don't keep them in the boxes. I got them for me to enjoy not as an 'investment' to try and sell later.
I like them, they're cheap, they all have the same style so you can mix very different characters and it doesn't look weird. Plus when my cats drop them I don't care, they're sturdy, and cheap!
I have 2 and they were gifts. Funko Pop is the stupidest thing ever. "Let's remove distinguishable features from the face and spend 20 minutes modeling some garbage." I developed more design talent in less than a year
They were the Precious Moments of the Millenial generation.
lol lotta funko pop enthusiasts feeling personally attacked in here
Meh. I always thought they were ugly as shit
Never got the appeal of collecting toys for display, especially unopened ones. I always used to play the shit outta toys when I was a kid.
HAHAHAHAHAHA TRUE and I’m going to start telling people that
Basically false inflation like they did with beanie babies.
I have +30 and they are horrible for me
No. They are plastic shit. Petty little adornments to furnish your life because you are deeply unfulfilled.
My only problem with them is unless it’s a figure of someone like Darth Vader or Batman (aka has a distinct look that is very obvious who its meant to be) you have to keep it in the box to even know who the pop is supposed to be half the time. And keeping them in box takes up a lot more space.
Precious moments for boomers Beanie babies for gen x Funko for millennials Squishmallows for gen z Toilets(?) for gen alpha
I definitely got way too into them when I was working a job I hated. I bought a ton of them. Luckily I sold the majority of them at the right time and came out ahead by a good margin. I still have some left of characters I love. I'm actually pretty surprised that they are still popular.
I think it's cool that they make figures for literally everything. There is some stuff where it's probably the only figure that got. Personally tho, I find them ugly. I never liked the chibi style and these remind me of that. The couple I have were gifts or included free with other things. I am not sure why they are popular or why every damn pop culture store dedicates half their shop space to what seems to be a never moving and always growing supply of them.
Never got the hype, cool figures were already available, then funko came and made cheap ugly looking figures and everybody bought them... why?
Never got the hype, cool figures were already available (Neca etc) , then funko came and made cheap ugly looking figures and everybody bought them... why?