pics @lemmy.world

1mo ago

The fate of all things is alike. Irrelevance.

70 comments

Speaking as a ~~hoarder~~ collector of many strange things, I still can't comprehend the appeal of Funko Pops. Even if you're super into whatever franchise the model in question is from, surely there is a better way to express it than by way of deformed simulacra with dead, soulless eyes. Just saying.
- Thank you, I utterly despise those things. The most blatantly cynical corporate cash-in on nerd nostalgia.
  
  Soulless mass-produced slob. The AI of the figurine world if you will. The Corporate Memphis of the physical world.
- A student gifted me a Funko Pop at the end of the last school year. She designed it on their website to look like me, holding a game controller and complete with my signature long hair and fun button-up shirt. I thought that was a very cool gift. 🙂
  
  Anything that someone personalized for you is cool by definition. But, every generic marvel or wharever funko pop is trash.
  
  Definitely, I would cherish that forever. But overall Funko Pops are so unbelievably dumb. I mean I still have some pogs somewhere, but I was 10 and they were cheap cardboard.
- One of the most bizarre gifts I've ever been given was a random Skyrim funko pop. I don't really do collectibles, and I hadn't played Skyrim in a couple years at that point.
  Then I found out that the person who gave it to me has a massive collection of Funkos. They can't even display all of them because they're stacked several layers deep all the way to the ceiling
  
  You know how gacha games exploit the same psychology as gambling addiction? I’m convinced Funko pops are like that, but for hoarding. I don’t know what it is about the brand, but you so rarely see people with just a small collection of them. It’s either none or 500.
- Funko pops are the modern lawn flamingo or garden gnome. They’re tainted things, too corporate to be kitschy, and far too uninteresting to be worth calling a knickknack. I instantly judge anyone who owns one for their future contribution to a far-off landfill.
  
  I put my foot in my mouth once, because my sister had gotten me one. I held onto it for a bit but got rid of it, forgot she had given it to me, and at some point voiced how they’re just garbage 😅
- They really are extremely tacky.
  Wait... I know that username!
- Ah yes, but in addition to being hideous it’s also expensive and made of plastic! 😬
- I'm a Halo ~~hoarder~~ collector, and I think I only have 4 of those ugly Pop vinyls. They're all Halo ones but they don't have the dark soulless beady little eyes the rest of them do. Two of them were gifts anyway so I didn't give them much money.
  They're ugly and tacky to me.
- I've got only one, it's in my PC, and it's not a 'proper' funko
- The appeal is pretty easy. You can collect items from any fandom you can think of and have the style of the figures match each other almost perfectly and look 'natural' together. The style chosen has a lot of detractors, but even some that don't necessarily appreciate it are willing to compromise if it lets them make a little action scene of thor fighting vegeta.
  That's me, I'm the one who compromised.
- It's mostly the design of the fucking things, I'm sure they'd be more acceptable of they were at least appealing.
  (I'm going to be extremely hypocritical here as I do this with my Amiibo) but the culture or keeping it in the boxes never really made sense to me in regards to Funko. What purpose does it really serve when there's a lot of Funko that have little to no value boxed or not? Part of me thinks it's because they're easier to store in the boxes and because you don't actively play or use them (like you would with Amiibo.) But what gets me is the # of Funko collectors that open their figures is microscopic compared to the people who have entire walls lined with boxes of the things.
  Another brand I see them compared to often is Nendoroids, which are less TV and movie characters and more anime and video game figures. But very few people keep those boxed, because they're pose-able, therefore more owners purchase them with the intention of displaying them in a variety of poses as opposed to keeping the boxes for anything other than storing the accessories.
- I own one. It's the Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine. I saw it at Barnes and Noble and thought it was cute so I got it.
  I don't really get why people would collect tons of these things, but I didn't understand baseball cards or beanie babies either. ¯(ツ)_/¯
- The dodgy western knock off of nendoroids
- The appeal is $$$. I know someone who collects those. I thought they were stupid until he needed some extra money and took one of his hundreds of bobbleheads, put it on Craigslist, and had $750 more the next day than before he sold it. This was a long time ago too, so it was probably $1300 worth of today's money.
  
  Ah same appeal as beanie babies when you could do that with them on eBay.

Oldie, but goodie:
- For the uninitiated: you're looking at a court divorce in progress, where these two fascinating individuals are splitting the perceived value of their combined Beanie Babies collection.
  Source
  
  I'm gonna tell my kids this is how we used to play Pokemon before video games exist.
  
  Wonder how that all worked out in the end?

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Ozymandias

I mean I get your title, but it really seems like you're at a thrift shop.
Speaking of, those Legos would be coming home with me.
- Yeah, legos might have some kits that are themed based on fads but the underlying concept is timeless and they are made to last.
- I spy some good pieces in there as well. I’d certainly be digging through that bin.
  
  All Bionicle pieces would be mine
- I gave my entire collection of Lego to my friend's kid. Pretty decent amount. But those two green flat boards there on top? I want them even now.
- I was wondering how much. Do I fill a bag for $3 or something?

The whole point was to put this in your cubicle so you could pretend you had a personality that was more than being a cog in the machine. Then the pandemic happened.

Excuse me sir, Lego is never irrelevant. My wife had to stop me from buying more cause I got about two Rubbermaid full of pieces and figures. I use them to make scenes for the season or holidays
- Seriously. Lego will be played with even when I'm a old boomer in 2070s yelling about our AI president and being against human-bot marriage.
  Don't know about funkopops. They look like beanie babies to me.
  
  Lego is great for the elderly as well. And patients suffering from Alzheimer's. So yeah I'm gonna be in a retirement home doing Lego and playing video games
  
  Why would you be against human-robot marriage? What do you have against the robosexuals?

lego blocks will never be irrelevant!
- Yeah, like seriously, how are they pricing those lego bricks?
  
  Based on the fact that they have used hot wheels for full retail price, there is a reason the Lego bin is still full.

Stupid fad can't die fast enough

Those Pop figures sure do look alike when you take them out of their packaging. I can't really tell what any of them are supposed to be at a glance.
- Prime tat.

We were born of stardust, and to stardust we will return
- *microplastics

Seeing this reminds of a very shameful period in my life.

McKay's?
- Sure looks like it.
- That's what I thought as well! Not the Knoxville one. Must be one of the other locations.

Loose Pops! Sounds like the name of a discount chiropractor

You can inbox Funko Pops? I don't think I've even seen one out of its cardboard and plastic prison.

We were fairly into these maybe 8 years ago or so. My biggest gripe are the bobble head ones. They're so much shittier. And all of the Star Wars ones are bobble heads.
The most recent one I got was from my friend who hates them who I got one for as a joke a few years back. He liked Nightmare Before Christmas a lot as a kid. I found one that was Oogie Boogie with the sack off, so just the bugs. It was pretty unique and interesting. I'm sure he probably trashed it at some point or has it in a closet. He got me one of Laura Palmer from Twin peaks on a body bag. I never keep mine in boxes, I think it's too weird, but I kept this one in the box because I don't think anyone would recognize it otherwise.
Am I open to getting more? Eh, maybe. They need to be pretty unique for me to even think about it though. It's pretty cringe to have them now lol. Plus, we had a real problem of people just getting us a bunch of them because they knew we collected some. People finally stopped, but ik scared it could start again if we get new ones.

they are so fucking ugly though

Do you think they go through those Pops first to make sure they're all worthless, or do you think you might find a treasure buried in there?
- There's no room for treasure, it's too full of funko pops.
  
  Well some of those are very valuable. Probably not any of the ones in this bin, but some are.

70 comments