Funko Japanese Catalogs

[renardchua]

I am slowly cleaning up my Funko stash here at home, and finally saw these again, so I think its time to do a simple write-up about these Funko Japanese Catalogs and the share the story behind with y'all.

As a background, my first instance of seeing these Japanese catalogs on-hand was probably in 2016 or 2017, when I was in Tokyo for a vacation, and passed by the toy shop called Toy Sapiens in Tokyo. Inside the store, there is a corner where you just get one (and of course, I took one). At this time, note that Funko is being distributed by Hot Toys Japan - so in the store, you would see predominantly Hot Toys and Funko items being sold.

All the while, I though it's the only catalog that was produced in Japan, but apparently they are not. I realized it then when I was reading Kroffty's thread on Funko Catalogs (must read material if you are a true Funko junkie - link here: viewtopic.php?f=72&t=86913) and noticed that what I had was a different year vs Kroffty's sample picture.

So, the collector in me tried to investigate and check if there are any - and tada, we are now here.

Currently, I have 6 different copies, which are from the years 2014, 2015-2016, 2016, 2016-2017, 2017 and 2018:


You can also notice that the Funko logo on the oldest two catalogs are using the old Funko logo, but 2016 onwards, it was already using the updated logo.

Here are also some pictures of the catalogs and some individually selected pages (where you can see the correspondence of the Funko lines that were released from those years.

If time permits, I can try to scan all the pages of these catalogs, so that you can see all of its glory.

2014 and 2015-2016 catalog:



2016 and 2016-2017 catalog:



2017 and 2018 catalog:



After 2018, it seems like Hot Toys stopped distributing Funko in Japan already, so it seems like these catalogs have already been discontinued. But of course, I am still on the hunt if there are still catalogs pre-2014, of if they got released 2019 onwards in some other form. If I manage to find some, will definitely update this thread.

Do also share if you have a copy of the said catalogs.

Thanks for the time!

[lazcommalisa]

Oh this is awesome!! Thanks for the share, was a cool read. The level of throwbacks with some of these products good luck on your potential search for more catalogs from Japan

[Hopesdenial]

Those are awesome. Thank you for sharing! Crazy to hear that hot toys was the distributor for Japan at the time. Side note - Love the Jaws Reaction figure in the one pic; one of my all time favorites.

[CaseyJones14]

These are very cool, thanks for sharing Renard! I've been meaning to track down more catalogs and this is giving me motivation

[Fnava87]

Thanks for sharing all this part of history very lucky you have these to match your passion for Funko

[thejosh2010]

That’s some awesome stuff Renard! Always adding to the list of things to find over here

[sealordbrian]

Those look awesome!

[Scotty]

Awesome Renard. I had to go back to kroffty's thread since I haven't read it in quite a while to refresh my memory--there is one in there. Totally forgot. Anyway, very cool share.

[sdcccrasher]

Thank you for the reminder of Kroffty's thread. What fun to spend time there again! And thanks for your addition to Funko Catalogue history!!!

[Tusken]

These are awesome and thank you for the share. It's like looking at a old Montgomery Wards catalog.