“Surely, more than once you have gifted a Funko in complete doubt of what to buy for that friend of yours whom you don’t know so well either. Does Jaime like Marvel? A Loki Funko. Does Marisa adore ‘BoJack Horseman’? Well, one of Mr. Peanutbutter. And off you go. If you believe that there is a Funko for every character that has ever existed in pop culture, you are very mistaken: there is more than one Funko for each character, and many are repeated.”
Don’t get offended
Funko started in 1998 as a piggy bank factory. As you can imagine, a piggy bank factory in the late ’90s was not a guaranteed success, and it was on the verge of bankruptcy until it saw, thanks to the license to make bobblehead figurines of ‘Austin Powers,’ that the future lay in toy and doll collecting.
However, Austin Powers cannot be considered the first Funko Pop: in 1998, they made the mascot of the Big Boy restaurants. They only produced 450 units, and it is one of the most coveted by collectors. Then came the continuous successes and non-stop licenses, from animated films to DC, including Willy Wonka and product mascots. It has been 25 years since the nightmare began, and how many Funko Pops do you think you can buy?
The number of Funko Pops exceeds any figure you may have thought: 15,654, including metallic editions, XXL figures, keychains, and all the different lines by the company. Imagine trying to fit them all in your home. Just the basketball player figures amount to 123, and there are over 300 based solely on ‘Star Wars.’ Excluding Marvel and superheroes, the largest number of Funkos are centered around television: 1,260 figures, only one more than the ones based on movies. This is truly a collection for the most devoted fans.
Moreover, there are figurines of which there are only 10 copies, and they cost a fortune or have something special about them (for example, they glow in the dark). With so many versions available, even the most hardcore collectors have “only” managed to acquire 7,000 different figures. That’s less than half of the total! Just imagine entering a room filled with thousands of lifeless eyes staring back at you. Chilling, right? Or should I say, “escafunkíos.” The next time you receive one as a gift on your birthday, remember there are still 15,000 more out there. Don’t try to collect them all, for the sake of your wallet.
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