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I would argue that while I don't collect anime figures myself, a lot of them are at least well made and I can see the appeal. Can't say the same for Funkos, they seem really soulless.
Heck, stuff like Gundam are actual models that you can build. That seems fun.
I don't see the appeal of Funkos at all. What are they but uglier bobbleheads?
While the anime figures on the left are vastly more aesthetically pleasing, there's just way too many of them. Like you can't possibly appreciate each and every one of them when you can't even see the majority on your shelf, hidden behind all the other figures.
Just get the few characters you really like if you must, otherwise its just weird nerd hoarding
Anime figures can be so expensive and look really good. I've never seen a funko that made me think "wow, I should buy that."
I know a few people into gunpla, even built a few myself, but the only thing i actually own when it comes to figures is a metal gear rex. Fun figure, but holy shit does it take up a lot of room.
funko pops are one of the most dogshit 'toys' that humanity has ever invented. they exist purely for the pleasure of annoying nerdy 'gigglesquee' types.
:milhouse: Remember Alf? He's back, in pog form! (top comment is :chefs-kiss: )
Teddy bear non-unique NFTs
Like NFTs but there are tons of copy of each image. 💀
They are small plush animals filled with little plastic beads/"beans" rather than stuffing. They released like tens of thousands of them different animals with different names etc. sometimes cross-promotional stuff like beanie babies from cartoons etc.
When I was a very small child my favorite toy was a little husky beanie baby named "Nook."
Okay so the context here is that back in the 90s grifters pushed the idea that "collectables" would inevitably be worth huge amounts of money in the future bc some very rare comics and baseball cards were trading hands for a lot of money. So there was all kinds of fake artificial scarcity stuff; Magic the gathering cards, limited edition decorative plates, a bunch of other shit, and beanie babies.
Beanie babies were shitty little stuffed animals. There were hundreds of different animals in different colors and patterns. Some were "rare". and huge, huge numbers of people were convinced that these little shitty 6$ stuffed animals were going to become incredibly valuable in the future because people would want to collect them or some bs. It was a serious craze for several years in the 90s. People spent vast amounts of money to get a specific "rare" beanie baby they thought would go up in value. We're talking camping out in front of stores to get first pick out of the fresh delivery, people getting in to fights over children's toys, people stealing bags of these things and trying to pawn them.
Just absofuckinglutely ridiculous. Like NFTs but it lasted for a couple of years before everyone just collectively moved on.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beanie-baby-fever-in-1999_n_58af7d12e4b060480e0661fe
Not a long or substantial article, but it has the picture
How do you resell a funko pop? Are they not all mass produced and readily available to purchase?
this is going to sound absurd, but hear me out.
if you want little totems, go drop like $10 on some sculpy at your craft store and make some. if you really like something you make, put it in the oven and fire it. you could even paint it and do like faux aging effects like "washes" or dry brush "antique" metallics. you could literally make something incredible that looks like it was made out of some precious metal or prehistoric carved bone for like $8 in reusable tools and materials. and it will be primarily made out of a very abundant, readily available resource: clay from the earth.
the manipulation and creation process of small crafts for your own amusement is a major stress reducer and you won't be limited by IP licensing agreements. you can start something without even knowing what you're creating, letting it reveal itself to you over time. we also live in a moment where there are thousands of videos by incredible artists with hundreds of hours of experience demonstrating and sharing techniques literally for free.
there's a very real and ancient drive for some of us to adorn and ornament our spaces with little objects and companies+petroleum have hijacked it. but you can reclaim your imagination and transmute your stress into things that resonate with you and please you. and they wont be made out of fucking plastic, choking some animal in 1000 years. fuck toy walls.
well shit, don't get the sculpey, get water-based clay or whatever. seems like there are a lot of options available. my b.s. is mostly found rocks and sanded wood. my point is do your own tchotchkes.
Man I love crafting although I don't have any time for it any more. I wish neighborhoods had their own communal crafting/DIY spaces with tools, supplies etc. We should have those under communism.
go drop like $10 on some sculpy at your craft store and make some.
Super Sculpey, specifically. Original Sculpey is a nightmare to try to make into anything because every detail you add deforms the ones around it and the lightest idle touch in the wrong place can massively deform the whole piece, and Sculpey 3 varies wildly by color because the dyes affect how it works in more or less random ways. Super Sculpey, on the other hand, is pliable when worked but likes to hold its shape so detailing work doesn't deform the nearby details unless it's particularly extreme, and it won't just squish when you're turning it in your hands to work on it (though one still needs to be careful not to crush fine details, a light touch on bigger details usually won't squish them).
I've heard similar good things about some other brands too, but I don't have any first hand experience with them.
this is going to sound absurd, but hear me out.
Only to the people who suffer from being treat-brained. People have the capacity to create, whether it's wood carving, writing a novel, creating a mod, setting up a home garden, or any other DIY project. Treat-brainers have been fully consumed by commercialism to the point where people shitting on their precious treats "hate fun."
When I regularly collected comics I would checker them on my walls and ceiling, then occasionally swap them out with different ones.
it looks like shit when it's that many of them grouped up together. A shelf with 5 things could be quite distinct
they'll be worth a lot of money in the future
Capitalism has truly made us believe some unbelievable stuff. The reason Action Comics #1 ended up worth millions is because of the confluence of Superman becoming a huge pop-culture phenomenon and the original comic only having a limited printing on fragile/disposable paper - Funkos are mass produced with modern materials, and if the market for them runs out they will have zero lasting cultural impact that makes them collectable.
Maybe after all the oil runs out and we start feeding plastic into recycling machines to turn it back into oil (which will be preferable to switching to renewables under capitalism), the ones that survive will find some value as museum pieces.
There must be hundreds of thousands of tons of shitty little ceramic angel figures and commemorative plates choking the landfills after the boomers left all their weird kitsch to millennials who wanted none of it.
Another factor was the war effort. There was a huge campaign to gather and donate as much waste paper as possible because it could be used to make cardboard for moving supplies. Some of the first things that would get tossed out were old comic books.
Also just in general: collector's markets overall kinda seem to largely either be a grift or a way to do money laundering. I saw a breakdown on the "classic videogame" collectible market a while back and the rattings agencies who judge them and apparently a lot of the figures from that were also involved in the comic collectors market before the crash in the late 90s.
The short version is: most of the big sales events that happen where something like Action Comics #1 sells for a million dollars are essentially sales back and forth between a closely knit group that artificially inflates the selling point of the actual comic. That in turn creates a knock on effect where suddenly you have a huge people rushing into the market to figure out what their stuff is worth and it creates a huge bubble in the market. All the while the people who started the initial grift are making out early and everyone else is left holding the bag when the value collapses.
That wasn't the video game market, that was a company that started grading old games like MTG cards and then claiming they were worth six figures, which they weren't. It was creating something out of whole cloth and ruining it for everyone.
I'm sure they did it for trading cards also, but they've absolutely been doing it for classic videogames also:
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/grading-firm-wata-is-facing-a-lawsuit-for-allegedly-manipulating-the-retro-game-market/
And comics were a kid thing, so not a lot of intact versions that weren't also covered in leaded sugar/fucked up cus child
My coworker bought me a Rasputin funko after we listened to the Last Podcast on the Left series about him. He just vibes in his box at my desk
They'd have to stress how insanely low quality and kitsch it is. At first he might get a kick out of having a doll of himself being mass-produced
I’m going to assume you’re a Mr. Mime expert and ask a simple question I’ve never bothered to look up. Is it possible to catch a female Mr. Mime? Can I have a Mrs. Mr. Mime?
Fuck them both I only collect those biblically accurate adult happy toys McDonald's released last year for some reason.
Funko Pop Contract between an addict and his partner
https://imgur.com/2bDZCXh
that's the shot, the chaser is that said addict is a middle school guidance counselor
EDIT: I'm an addict too (just to something besides a branded consumer product), I'm saying it with compassion.
wasn't implying guidance counselor is a bad thing in any way, I just wonder if he's advising kids to collect funko pops
$1560+ whatever he spends on exclusive convention ones/year lmao
both are lame as shit, but i can imagine there's something aesthetically pleasing about the uniformity of the pops.
new guy type: guy who collects funko pops for the good of the planet because they are bound hydrocarbons which will never be released atmospherically
i unironically think 'carbon capture' should be plastic production but its all really firm bricks we go bury somewhere far, far, away from people. currently facilities take atmospheric carbon and process it to fuel which gets burned again ""neutral"", it cant be much further to just plastic it
In any given mall there are more funco than people and that terrifies me.
Yeah the mall by me is on its last thread with like two or three stores still open and there are probably still more Funkos than people.
Sometimes I feel jealous of the funko pop guys or weebs. They at least have some kind of passion, and they want to show it off. If I were to decorate an apartment it would be indistinguishable from a hotel room.
lmao same. My room walls are blank sans the old world map I bought at a yard sale for a dollar that still has the USSR on it.
