What are Mystery Minis and why people collect them.
Mystery Minis are Funko’s way of saying you want to collect pop culture and don’t want to spend the $10 – $15? Here is our $5-$8 solution for you. Most popular Pop! lines are complemented with a Mystery Mini line.
Mystery Minis are a Flippers Paradise which cause these items to become more difficult to locate in the wild. If timed right they can purchase all rare items in your area in a 24/48-hour period. Don’t panic the Pop Collectors Alliance is here to help you find those items you need to complete your collection while avoiding and combating flippers in your area. Our main purpose is to inspire true collectors to help your local collecting community.
Mystery Minis have many variants and come in three main categories:
Common: Purchased at most locations that carry Funko Products
Exclusive (with an occasional Convention Exclusive) Only found at the following locations: Walgreens, Hot Topic, Target, Walmart, GameStop or Barnes and Noble. Note: Hot Topic are typically the rarest.
Subscriptions Exclusives – Found in Smugglers Bounty, Disney Treasures, Marvel Collectors Corps or DC Legion of Collectors subscription boxes.
NOTE: Sometimes BLU-RAY or DVD or other collector’s exclusives boxes may contain a Mystery Minis
Ratios, Ratios, Ratios and Layouts:
Mystery Minis come in the following ratios currently:
1:6 1:12 1:24 1:36 and 1:72 (some older Mystery Minis Ratios included a 1:144)
We’ll do our best to sort these numbers out for you. Mystery Minis are broken down into a case which hold 12 Mystery Minis (6 on top, 6 on the bottom) and a larger Ship Set which are 6 cases totaling in 72 Mystery Minis (6 Case x 12 Mystery Minis each). The picture is beginning to come together.
What do all these numbers mean? This is beginning to get confusing?!?! No one told me there would be math…..
If you break the numbers down further you see that one Ship Set contains 6 Cases where the ratios are divided. This is reflected in each case being divided into a certain order based on those ratios. I’ll use a visual aid here.
Cuphead has a really great example of a standard case. These ratios would be divided throughout each case in what’s known in the collecting community as a LAYOUT. Each spot is assigned a Mystery Mini depending on the ratio and these layouts are repeated throughout the ENTIRE 6 Case Ship Set.
Let’s break down the case by Layout
NOTE: LAYOUTS ALWAYS VARY PER PRODUCT. THEY EVENT CHANGE THE LAYOUT TO HAVE MULTIPLE PER RELEASE.
TOP ROWS OF CASE
BACK
| Top Back Left 1:6 | Top Back Right 1:6 |
| Top Middle Left 1:6 | Top Middle Right 1:6 |
| Top Front Left 1:6 | Top Front Left 1:6 |
FRONT
BOTTOM ROWS OF CASE
BACK
| Bottom Back Left 1:6 | Bottom Back Right 1:6 |
| Bottom Middle Left 1:12 | Bottom Middle Right 1:12 |
| Bottom Front Left 1:72 / 1:72 / 1:36 / 1:36 *******CHASE********* | Bottom Front Left 1:24 / 1:24 |
FRONT
You notice the one that is labeled CHASE. This is what some collectors refer to as the chase spot. This means out of a 6 Case Ship Set: Two Cases contain a 1:36, Two Cases contain the other 1:36 and the last two Cases contain 1 of each of the 1:72s. Now the math adds up.
To close out on ratios and layouts I want to point out that early in collecting boxes came in cases of 24. Funko quickly realized that collectors learned the layouts, so they decided to make multiple layouts for each release making it even more difficult to locate items. With ratios remember that not all ratios are created equal a 1:72 Hot Topic exclusive is far rarer than a Target 1:72 because only 642 Hot Topic stores are in the US while there are around 1800 Targets in the US. This results in different values for each and these can skyrocket quickly.
Hunting Tips
In Closing…..
Don’t use this information to scam people around you. The strength in collecting mystery minis comes from the community. If you find an extra use it as trade for something you want or help out a fellow collector. Many people become greedy very quickly and forget what helping each other is all about. So don’t be a ____ and help each other out.
