I was at SDCC this year and I was amazed at how many booths had Funko pops, which was about 20-30% of the booths and there was a line for the Funko area, jam packed with people. I over heard people saying they found some rare ones or newly released that were hard to find.
A few years ago someone bought me a Squirtle Funko Pop, since Squirtle is the best, and I opened it and took it out of the box. They proceeded to freak out that I ruined is value by taking it out of the box…
Funko Pops are mostly ugly as hell imo. They try to capture a cute big headed aesthetic but went too far on the blocky noggins. I dislike how it makes the vast, overwhelming majority of characters look when rendered this way.
Nendroids are doing this same concept but infinitely better, with stands and articulation. And less ghastly proportions. That said, Nendroids are mostly limited to weeb shit, while anything under the fucking sun gets a funko pop because there is 0 design effort made.
I’ve gotten one as a gift, and it’s fine. But they absolutely are Beanie Babies. It’s not even a question.
Edit: collecting this shit is dumb anyways. Take shit out of the box and pose it!