Why Pop?

We're not talking about soda, folks. This forum is dedicated to Funko's stylish Pop! series of vinyl figures, with or without springs.
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Squird
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Why Pop?

Postby Squird » Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:35 am

I just saw the Avengers Mighty Mini Muggs at TRU and thought they looked pretty good and that got me thinking. Muggs and Mez-its and Pop aren't all that different from each other. They're about the same size, all going for a stylized look,, price points are about the same.

Why has Pop prevailed?

Please discuss.
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Meth68
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Why Pop?

Postby Meth68 » Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:46 am

I think pop are "cuter" not so hardcore fan looking, for lack of better words. For example my gf does not like them at all yet loves pop.

A better question is why don't any of the 4 TRU near me not carry pop? :(
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby rjquintsr » Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:58 am

I think the Funko has alot more detail to each figure 8-[ Mighty muggs all same shapes.
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edorice
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby edorice » Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:12 am

Nice points on the cuteness and the detail. I first noticed them at Barnes & Noble right before Christmas. I pretty much went gaga over the Disney Pops, I've always like the Disney villains. There was great display at the time and my husband surprised me with three of them Christmas day. He says I came home babbling about Pops when I got home, I don't remember all of that. I think that different genre's are very appealing to different people. I will never be a completist because I would never collect the horror movie Pops!, but it's awesome that there different things to fall in love with.

My family has gotten into them now. My oldest daughter wants to me to get all of the Wizard of Oz. My husband went nuts over Edna at the Disney Store yesterday. We already have five Star Wars figures. If they make Star Trek Pops! it's all over for my bank account! [-o<

Although I am very impressed with the expensive Disney figurines that sell between $200 to $1000 bucks, that's just not reasonable or responsible for my lifestyle. I have two kids in private school that I plan to send to college, so food and education trumps that every time.

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Re: Why Pop?

Postby gbjgonzo » Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:47 am

I love POP because of the detailed features and they are the right size IMO. I did like the Mighty Muggs at one point but they didnt have any disney figures at the time, which is one reason why I love POP so much. I did buy two blank mighty muggs and made two customized of my gf and I.
POP is more diverse (Tupac, Ozzy, Disney, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, etc) than Mighty Mugg hence targeting a larger audience.
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby Squird » Sun Feb 19, 2012 11:17 am

I agree on the detailing being a big plus. It looks like future pops are getting even better. Like Leatherface's chainsaw (best accessory so far!).

I know when Muggs came out, I really liked how they stylized the paint aps. Even the latest iterations have some nice touches like the highlights in Thor's eyes being lightning bolts.

My beef with the Mez-Its is the freaky looking heads and the overly jagged paint jobs. Trying too hard to be edgy, IMO.
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby floydnjanicefan » Sun Feb 19, 2012 11:48 am

In addition to how cute they are, I love that for once I can have consistent looking figures across so many licenses. I've always collected figures, but having Disney figures that stylistically match my Star Wars, DC, Muppets, Wizard of Oz and countless other figures is just so exciting to me.

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Re: Why Pop?

Postby Meth68 » Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:04 pm

floydnjanicefan wrote:In addition to how cute they are, I love that for once I can have consistent looking figures across so many licenses. I've always collected figures, but having Disney figures that stylistically match my Star Wars, DC, Muppets, Wizard of Oz and countless other figures is just so exciting to me.


Actually I forgot to add this also. The uniformity of them are great to collect. Being the same size for the most part is nice when you display them. And even just a tiny size difference works (like beast) for characters that are meant to be larger.
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby yellowrice » Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:27 pm

Great question for discussion Squird.

IMO, I think with the face being simplified make them cuter, while appeals to a bigger audience. The detail of the figures bodies are sculptured versus Mighty Muggs and Mez-It's painted smooth body. Plus I believe they do a great work on details such as blood on Leatherface and even a sock on the back of George Sanderson. It's what seperates good and great.

That being said. Funko also was able to get Disney licenses to attract not just Disney collector's but a more female and children audience, and I think that plays into a factor for them to collect other Pops! And now they expanded to almost anything that they can get, ex. Basketball Pops! for the Mcfarlane collector's, Ugly doll's, Yo Gamma Gamma, and Sanrio for kids. As well, they create minor characters even though not everybody will want one.

In the end, Funko know's their audience! Grease Fans, DC, Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, the list goes on and on. So like I said before, Funko hit a home run with Pops! :cheers:
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Why Pop?

Postby FunkoNewb » Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:59 pm

Like everyone has said, I think it's all the different licensing and different characters for all collectors to enjoy.
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby DocRamon » Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:25 pm

yep... licensing is the big thing here. funko already had a lot of the licenses in place from their wobblers and such. they're able to make a lot of different characters from a lot of different franchises. muggs are hasbro, and thus reserved to a very limited handful of characters -- star wars, marvel, indiana jones, gi joe, transformers.

hasbro doesn't want to pay for the rights to make toys based on friday the 13th, or big bang theory, or run dmc -- because they can't do anything with them aside from collector lines. hasbro makes consumer-friendly lines that appeal to children, and muggs were just something that they could easily tack onto that.

funko, being a line focused more on collectors, is able to diversify.

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Re: Why Pop?

Postby Pumpkin King » Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:49 pm

I don't think Pop has prevailed per say. Mighty Muggs are very popular. Although MMs only covered SW, Marvel, Transformers, GI Joe and Indiana Jones. One thing Pop does have going for it is licensing like Disney and more. Mez-its, while close to my heart since Mez is a friend of mine, just did not take off. Although I LOVE the Hellboy line dearly. In all honesty I would pick a Mighty Mugg over a Pop any day. Especially if they were the full sized version.
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby groundhog7s » Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:53 pm

I think everyone has nailed why they appeal so well, but no one has mentioned the obvious idea of Brian using a large mind control helmet to get people hooked on these. It's really the only logical explanation for their mass appeal. I'm just thankful he's somewhat benevolent and didn't use the helmet for more nefarious purposes.

And as to MMs being better than Pops, as a fan of Muggs since they debuted I love Pops much more. If anything, Funko won't stop making these with no explanation only to release tiny amounts of product sporadically over several years.
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Squird
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby Squird » Sun Feb 19, 2012 6:35 pm

Licensing is a good point. Funko does DC and Marvel. And everything else under the sun. Having all the characters on the same platform is pretty handy when you're trying to build the very best Justice League of Avengers that you can. And having them face off against Jason, the Joker and KISS is a lot of fun.

How'd you find out about the mind control helmet? You have to get at least one star before you can know the secrets of Funko. Who finked?
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby groundhog7s » Sun Feb 19, 2012 7:58 pm

I'd tell you how I found out, but I'm thinking it got erased by Brian's mind-eraser.
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Re: Why Pop?

Postby Capt Hook » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:00 pm

I'm like everyone on here has said. Why I like them is because there cute there the right size and they have different body parts then your Muggs or what Disney has with there Mickey Mouse shape Vint. I do have some of them but to me they look ugly and they all look the same. There like the Muggs but with Mickey shape face but with POP they have them looking like who they are sopost to be like Ariel looking like Ariel,Michael Jackson looking like Michale Jackson,Kiss looking like Kiss and so on. So that is why I like POP! more then any of the other stuff that is sopost to look like them. I even got one of my friends hook into them to.
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