What makes Funko Pop!s AWESOME?! And BAD?!

[TurkishDelight91]

In my incredibly short 5 month life of collecting (for now), I collected many things and grew a pretty good collection for the time being, making me develop into a Sonic virgin quite fast. It all started when I went to a kid's clothes/toys store, at that time I was DESPERATE for Sonic merchandise, I loved the series as much as I love it now, and I was starting to get hangry for ANYTHING, but NO STORE (i knew) had Sonic merch, because in south-east Asia, Sonic isn't the most popular or profitable franchise (even if the movie helped a little), it was night time, my family got some of that juicy BK, but I couldn't wait for too long so I went on a dry hunt, I asked the cashier if they have any drop of Sonic toys, but they didn't (NO the Monopoly doesn't count), so I went on a long tangent on why I love the series and why I'm so surprised that they didn't have any toys... But then the cashier stopped me, he told me that he found a small Sonic figure at a store that is just around the corner, I knew the store, but I never spent too much time on it (I did meet some incredible people that I still spend lots of time with, and I still visit the store every day to spend an hour or two there), so I was very excited! The store was closed, it was 9pm, and my burger got cold 

The next day I went to the store, and I found it, A SONIC WITH RING FUNKO POP!! I was so happy and excited! I only has 5$, so I told them that I'd come back with my dad to pay the rest for the figure, I didn't, well, I told my dad to go, but I was too tired to join, I ran quite a bit for 2pm weather... And 5 months later; I hate it, it's so creepy, dull, uninspired, light, hollow, and it doesn't look good at all, especially compared to other merch I collected along the way, like the F4F Sonic (with checkpoint), the Jazwares Tails, or the Sonic Mania collector's edition statue, overall, really not satisfied, I bought a few other Sonic Funko Pop!s, like Shadow, and Tails (30th anniversary), I do quite like Tails though, he looks cute.

After my purchase (and me being much more knowing of that store), I started to notice that funko pops are INCREDIBLY popular. I do have my reasons for why it's this way:

1. The price point is good, they're cheap!

2. The ungodly amount of collaborations there are with other franchises

3. The fact that they are small and simple

4. The amount of exclusive variants

5. How accessible they are.

 

I would love to hear opinions on this!!

[Azure Blue Tori]

Honestly, I don't get the Funko Pop craze. It's that same creepy, blank face put on a bunch of licensed characters. That Sonic, for instance, looks like his ice cream face.

[Solister]

For me, I think one of the main pros is that there are basically ANYTHING out of it. Sonic, almost every Star Wars character you can think of, a lot DC and Marvel characters, Harry Potter... anyway, you have some cute characters and a bunch of nerds with money willing to buy them. I just would disagree a little on the price, because at least here, due to licensing likely, things are usually a little expensive (or I'm broke af).

So yeah...

They do have the pros of having lots of variety, as well there'll always be a store in a mall which have it.

Though I still see more cons. I think by now, I have already seen 20 variations of Sonic funkos and almost every of them looks exactly the same. And as mentioned, their face don't look any cool for me. I do enjoy their Rock Candy editions, though Lara Croft is the only one I have and interests me (Worth every cent invested):

[JezMM]

I can't stand them to be honest.  I find the art style to be completely lacking in charm - taking all these franchises with distinct aesthetics and sanitising them down into this bare bones, blocky, soulless look just isn't for me (based on the fact that, y'know, that's what I think when I look at them).

I want to say "when I buy merch of a thing I like, I want it to look like the thing I like" but I'm sure there are some bits of merch I own where the characters are somehow stylised - so I guess instead my condition is probably more "if they are going to be stylised, I want it to be a style that feels true to the series to the degree that - if it isn't already - I'd be perfectly accepting of that style appearing in the actual media".  If a new Sonic game had the characters look like pop figures, I would hate it, because I hate the art style lol.

Final note - it would've been hilarious if the Mike Wazowski Funko Pop just had a single black beady eye in the middle of a vast green void in order to stay true to said art style, but they don't even have that sort of integrity!

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

I find them ugly and creepy. The style is just not appealing. Some individual Funko Pops can look OK, but even then I would rather have merchandise that actually looks like the character. However, I will say that it still amazes me that we actually have Super Tails merch, so that's one thing I'll give them, I guess.

[batson]

I'm a bit of a toy collector, but Funko Pop is not for me, for several reasons. Firstly, I'm mostly just interested in vintage toys, which I personally choose to define as from prior to the 2000's. Secondly, I'm mostly interested in actual toys, you know, playthings, as opposed to decorative figurines. And if I am to buy a modern decorative figurine, it pretty much has to be something that simply looks insanely good, like something with a ton of well sculpted detail (I've had my eyes on a few Jason Voorhees figurines for instance; a good example of a character where vintage toy versions doesn't exist for obvious reasons).

[Meta77]

I used to collect them for series I really enjoyed like tmnt and sonic but once you realize how dumb they are looking at a stack of them they go down as one of those look back on it years later i cant believe i wasted money on these. As someone else said they all have the same exact temp let with the same black yes (sometimes they are green!) with the same mouth less expression, just slap on the series of the month and bam a new wave of 5 to 7 pops.

[KHCast]

I got a few of them for Kingdom Hearts, and I’ll be totally honest, some of them don’t look too bad. 
 

 

But that’s really only a few of them. And the last one I only really mind due to the effort put into it, and how Sora’s actively doing something, so it doesn’t look boring. Most of them I’ve got, are more or less lifeless eyed figures with nothing really exciting or cute about them. 

[Tornado]

It's Fortnite but the art style is even worse, it costs more and you don't even get a game to play.

[RadicalLaRuby]

Not a fan. I usually see people go crazy when they see "X" character in whatever store I'm in. I'm only impressed at times, for the wide, even obscure range of series they cover. But overall, they look boring, and as someone else mentioned, kinda creeps me out. 

[Mr. Ion]

I guess they're fine, they never really bothered me and I find the franchise crossovers cool but I never really gravitated toward them. At the moment I'm kind of annoyed at Funko Pops, I was at a GameStop recently and I bought my sister a 12 dollar Funko Pop. Like I was fine buying it but I think 12 bucks is a little overpriced for a figure that has no articulation? In any case, I suppose they're not harmful. If you're curious, the Funko Pop I bought was the character "Cotton Candy" from the classic My Little Pony series.