Funko Pop! Vinyl Figures
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About
Funko Pop! Vinyl Figures are chibi-style minimalist vinyl figures made by the United States-based company Funko Culture, which feature characters from a variety of notable franchises. Online, some have criticized Funko toys as being inferior to Japanese Nendoroids, claiming the latter have improved detail, expressions and variability.
History
in 1998, Mike Becker founded Funko, who subsequently launched bobbleheads, toy banks and puppets based on nostalgic characters, including Big Boy Popeye, Dick Tracy and Count Chocula. In 2005, Funko was sold to former nightclub owner Barian Mariotti. In 2010, Funko debuted the Funko Force 2.0 product line at the San Diego Comic-Con (shown below).[3]
Overwatch Line
On February 24th, 2016, Funko revealed a line of toys based on the Overwatch characters Tracer, Reaper, Widowmaker and Winston (shown below).
On May 21st, 2017, voice actor Jonny Cruz uploaded an unboxing video for toy based on the character Lucio from Overwatch (shown below). Within five months, the video received over 11,100 likes and 5,600 retweets.
Unboxing Lúcio Funko Pop with Jonny Cruz
— Jonny Cruz (@JonnyCruzzz) May 21, 2017PlayOverwatch</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Blizzard_Ent?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Blizzard_Ent pic.twitter.com/N2c0g4ZEKu
Team Fortress 2 Line
In August 2017, Funko introduced a line of toys based on characters from the game Team Fortress 2 (shown below).
Online Presence
On July 25th, 2012, the /r/FunkoPop[4] subreddit was launched for discussions about the toys. On November 1st, 2013, the similar subreddit /r/Funko[6] was created. On November 29th, 2016, YouTuber TheMontoGawe uploaded a montage of animated promotional clips for Funko toys titled "Funko Pop Movie: DCMarverse" (shown below, left). On January 24th, 2017, YouTuber CollinTV uploaded footage of a Funko doll bleded in a blender (shown below, right).
Reception
On September 6th, 2015, Redditor Ricrac722 submitted a post asking "What's the deal with the Funko pop figures?" to /r/OutOfTheLoop.[5] On February 29th, 2016, NeoGAF Forums[9] member Boss Doggie submitted a thread titled "So uh… what's the appeal of Funko Pop figures?," in which several users replied stating a preference in Japanese Nendoroids. In February 2017, the NendoVsFunko Twitter[7] feed was launched, which compares Funko toys with Japanese Nendoroids.On September 28th, Mashable[8] published an article praising Nendoroids as superior to the Funko Pop! figures.
Search Interest
External References
[2] Funko Wiki – Pop! http://funko.wikia.com/wiki/Pop!
[3] RollingStone – The Incredible Rise of Funko Pop!
[4] Reddit – /r/funkopop/
[5] Reddit – Whats the deal with Funko pop figures
[7] Twitter – NendoVsFunko
[8] Mashable – Iron Man, Wonder Woman, and more adorable Nendoroids for your desktop collection
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