Episode 115 – The Funko Fair 2023 and So Much More

00;00;14;09 - 00;00;35;23

Ricky

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pop Collector's Alliance podcast, Episode 115 The Funko Funhouse and so much more. Eamonn Holmes Rick, as always, joined by my co bearded co-host, Captain Strong, Mr. Viper. We are right at the finish line this week, but we are getting it done with all of the technical difficulties. How are we doing this evening?

00;00;36;02 - 00;00;45;25

Piper

Feels like the good old days because nothing ever goes right. The internet's too slow, the internet's too fast, the computer's on fire. It doesn't matter. It's always something.

00;00;47;11 - 00;01;07;17

Ricky

But it's good to be back again. And, hey, we were three episodes in a row, and there's so much news this week that we'll get to this episode. We're going to talk a little bit about some of the fun at the Funko Warehouse. Funko Fair 2023 and I end on a little bit of convention talk for this week.

00;01;07;23 - 00;01;35;03

Ricky

So just kicking it off, I don't know if you have had your head under a rock somewhere in the ground. You haven't heard of it, but some of the latest news and if you follow people on YouTube and other places, you've heard that basically what we said from the very beginning with Funko, in the end of it appears that Funko has in fact released the crackin on the NFT is at the warehouse.

00;01;35;03 - 00;01;48;23

Ricky

They did a sale, I think it was February 9th through the 12th in Arizona, Buckeye from that's my old stomping grounds and they were selling things and there happened to be a couple of tees on the shelves there.

00;01;48;23 - 00;02;13;16

Piper

Piper So well, there was other stuff that was a little tell me more concerning then the Nfts because I think that there's a legitimate reason for it, and I think we could get into that here in a second. But there was a lot of stuff, like there was stuff from Fright Night, like they had this soda packs that were only available at Fright Night.

00;02;13;17 - 00;02;43;07

Piper

To me, I'm a little more irritated about stuff like that, especially if I was a convention goer that had to fight my way into getting tickets to get into Fright Night or get into like fun days. And then they just ended up selling that stuff off anyway. But yeah, I did not foresee this. I was I was hoping that especially the NFT stuff, that this did not happen because we proposed this at the very beginning.

00;02;43;07 - 00;03;02;17

Piper

We said, okay, what is has Funko going to handle this? You know, because it will all dive into this. But so we said, how is Funko going to handle the net fees, especially since they're supposed to be numbered and, you know, it just things went sideways. It seems.

00;03;02;17 - 00;03;23;12

Ricky

Yeah. Not only that, one of the things that we had proposed early on in the beginning is that when Funko comes up with these ideas, right funko like we said on previous episodes, they have to order for long lead items because the shipping and manufacturing pipeline, for lack of better terms, has B become so much larger than it used to be.

00;03;23;12 - 00;03;40;02

Ricky

The timelines have shifted, so one of the things that empties do is, hey, we have a set quantity. We know more than likely we're going to sell out of. These people may not redeem all of them, but they're going to produce those for, for example, say, 2000. Freddy's on any given release or whatever the number happens to be.

00;03;40;14 - 00;04;02;14

Ricky

So they have to produce them because they have to anticipate or have a stock that says 2000 people redeem it. We got to send it there. And we always said, well, they should publicly destroy them or do something that shows that the remaining 10% or 5%, whatever it is, will never get its legs up and walk out into, you know, society.

00;04;02;22 - 00;04;21;19

Ricky

And we talked about different avenues that would happen. One would be like employees would be given these items, they would put them on like a fun days event where they hand them out all of the opportunity. They could do it, but never in a million years would I think that they would be publicly sold.

00;04;21;29 - 00;04;22;27

Piper

At a warehouse.

00;04;24;07 - 00;04;29;25

Ricky

Is that even a store? I mean, there's a store in there, but it's not, you know what I mean? So, yeah.

00;04;30;09 - 00;04;53;09

Piper

I and I think there's a lot of people that are very like up in arms about this. They're really upset and they're like, oh, these numbers don't mean anything. But I think the thing that people need to realize, okay, so for instance, let's just talk let's look at Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, right? That was the first set. And there was a there was Leonardo's, the heat vision that Leonardo that they did get sold.

00;04;53;16 - 00;05;14;17

Piper

Okay. So the thing you have to remember is first from that set that was so new. No, not not everybody had jumped on board yet, Right? There was a lot of detractors. There's a lot of people that were not they were okay with this whole concept and they thought it was like a scam or whatever, whatever their opinion is.

00;05;14;17 - 00;05;46;20

Piper

And some of those people stole that opinion. But there were roughly 13% of the Nfts were never redeemed, the legendaries were never redeemed. Now all the Leonardo's were okay, but let's just look at the legendaries. Okay? So that's I believe it's either 400 or 600. I think it was 600 went unredeemed from that first set. There was a couple that were burned for each one, but across all of those legendaries there was, there was 600 of them.

00;05;47;07 - 00;05;49;06

Piper

I think I'm just going to go with that number.

00;05;49;06 - 00;05;50;07

Ricky

It's a large quantity.

00;05;50;07 - 00;06;12;00

Piper

It was, yeah. So it was something 13% of the all of them that were out there because there is 2000 for each or like 1600 for each one took 999 of the Leonardo's. Okay. So there's that. The other thing that people have to realize is the tracking of this only goes so far. So like we know how many nfts were minted, we know how many were burned and we know how many were redeemed.

00;06;12;19 - 00;06;37;06

Piper

But that redemption is not necessarily people checking out with drop and having them sent. It is just they had it. They were deemed it for the coin. And whatever happens, that coin, I mean, the transaction and all that stuff. But as far as like the checking out and actually processing of that pop, we don't know how many of those were actually distributed to people's households.

00;06;37;06 - 00;06;57;20

Piper

Right. So of those 999 Leonardo's, who's to say that 200 of them didn't ever go anywhere and they just sat in this warehouse. So that's why I'm really not bothered by it, because now if they were producing more then the 999, that's where I have. The problem is not the fact that these got out into the wild now.

00;06;57;20 - 00;07;16;08

Piper

I mean, the method in which they did, I think it would have been better if they would have just done like a lottery or something like that, that I would have set much better with me if that was the case. But, you know, you know, they did it how they did it, and I'm okay with it now, going back through, looking at some people's holes that they got, there are some older ups.

00;07;16;08 - 00;07;37;07

Piper

I'm like, man, like, there's a bunch of Freddy's and stuff. There's some like stuff from Hall H this past San Diego Comic-Con that just never got into production. Like there was a Freddy from that and then the Leonardo from that. There's a lot of things that should have been out there and they should have there should have been another method of getting these to fans, and they did not go that route.

00;07;37;07 - 00;07;45;09

Piper

They went the easy, Hey, let's set up a garage sale and whoever can make it here can buy the stuff.

00;07;45;09 - 00;08;05;11

Ricky

Very interesting points. And I tend to agree on the NFT level, right? Like there's an amount, it's on the sticker. People can get upset and rightfully so. That's your opinion. You can do that. I tend not to. I tend to side with you more of like, Hey, there was 2500 of them. If there's 2500 of them out there.

00;08;06;05 - 00;08;34;26

Ricky

Oh, well, but from a consumer base standpoint, if there's a large enough amount of people that were upset about it, you may have trouble in the future selling those items or having people be as motivated to sell it. So to end the NFT discussion here, two quick things. So drop who manages everything, the redemptions and the shipping as a funko subsidiary or subsidiary or partner?

00;08;34;26 - 00;08;54;18

Ricky

I don't know what it is, but the basic they put a statement out on their discord and I think may have put it out on social media. And the statement from Funko says to our fans, we are aware of the situation in which unclaimed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle digital part physicals were incorrectly processed and accidentally made available for sale to employees.

00;08;55;01 - 00;09;14;26

Ricky

This is an unfortunate situation that should have never occurred, and we are taking the necessary steps to determine how this happened and ensuring it doesn't happen again. The integrity of this program is the utmost important to us and we're working on recovering the product so they can properly be processed. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we resolve this.

00;09;15;07 - 00;09;18;02

Ricky

So to not break that down too much.

00;09;18;22 - 00;09;19;14

Piper

I mean, though.

00;09;19;27 - 00;09;24;08

Ricky

So it just basically means, hey, we're sorry it's not going to happen again, but how many times have they said that?

00;09;24;22 - 00;09;57;22

Piper

Well, so but they're only saying that for the Leonardo's right. There's a lot of other nfts that were sold there. There was I saw people that pulled the Freddie's bumblebee. I saw some people that had the Freddy as Captain Cutler from Scooby Doo. So like, it's not just those, it's, it's not just like one isolate instance and they even had it up on there's some people posted photos of the like priceless and NFT pops we're listed on the price list.

00;09;57;27 - 00;10;15;08

Ricky

I'm glad you mention that because that's where I was heading. So that being that so people are going to say that. So this is what I initially agreed with that at first. And I agree with your statement where you said, Hey, other nfts were sold, but I don't think Funko is going to come out with another announcement, say, hey, all these other items are sold.

00;10;15;16 - 00;10;22;12

Ricky

I think the Leonardo thing is like sort of like painting with broad strokes to say, okay, we know that Nfts were sold and.

00;10;22;12 - 00;10;36;09

Piper

That's a big deal because it was a great piece. It wasn't a legendary, so it was a legendary one. The Freddie's not that big of a deal, but it's because the fact is a very high dollar pop that they sold for, what, $20, 15 bucks?

00;10;36;21 - 00;10;56;04

Ricky

And so my initial thought was in that same realm that was like, well, they planned it because Gasol Kast even said that on their YouTube video. They were like, well, they had it must have been premeditated because they had it on the sale sheet. Now this is what I think each one of those stores has. A manager. Yeah.

00;10;56;07 - 00;11;16;28

Ricky

So that manager is like a fast food restaurant or any, you know, chain a place that you go. They have a certain limit of control that they have over things in. The list that they showed was kind of generic. It didn't look like a typical funko, you know, pamphlet they hand out at HQ or someplace like that. It was just like printed out in a paper.

00;11;17;05 - 00;11;28;01

Ricky

So in my mind I was like, okay, well, do I think that's premeditate ED Not from a standpoint of funko, but maybe that manager was like, Hey, we're going to have NFT pops out, so I need to make sure a price is on it so people know.

00;11;28;13 - 00;11;38;24

Piper

So Eric, the night shift manager, went into Microsoft Word and typed up a price list the night before and was like, Here we go. This will make our lives easier.

00;11;39;04 - 00;11;48;14

Ricky

That's what I think. Yeah. I honestly think that because of the caliber of things that we've seen in the past, that's my that's what I think. I mean, I'm giving them a pass on that.

00;11;48;25 - 00;11;51;11

Piper

Where I don't giving them the benefit of the doubt.

00;11;51;23 - 00;11;52;15

Ricky

Yeah, big time.

00;11;52;15 - 00;11;53;18

Piper

Touting their benefits.

00;11;53;18 - 00;12;03;17

Ricky

But this also like reminds me of our video Farouq Toyota out in front because this is like I just.

00;12;03;17 - 00;12;04;08

Piper

Say quality.

00;12;05;09 - 00;12;07;25

Ricky

Not the night manager but the used car salesman is like.

00;12;08;05 - 00;12;16;14

Piper

We got in f pop, we got Fright Night Pop, $15, $15 here, 15 to come on down to the warehouse and all this.

00;12;16;29 - 00;12;31;18

Ricky

Because from the standpoint of burning down inventory. So here's what's crazy, right? Because remember when who was it toI Tokyo and the blue Batman's. It was like they're hoarding these blue Batman, these blue metallic Batman.

00;12;31;18 - 00;12;32;17

Piper

Oh, I still think they are.

00;12;32;19 - 00;12;45;05

Ricky

Yeah. And galactic toys did that with, you know, Enron and some of their exclusives. They would sell them on eBay. They because they're sold on the site. But here they are for $50 on eBay and they hoarded to drive the price up. Funko did the exact opposite.

00;12;46;10 - 00;12;49;06

Piper

Screw this need to make a profit. Yeah, well.

00;12;49;06 - 00;12;55;20

Ricky

They're just like, well, they could have been like they could have held them and been like, well, or even put them out for $150.

00;12;55;28 - 00;13;05;19

Piper

I mean, they got that deal with eBay now so they could just upload them on their eBay account and put them up for auction. Like, Yeah, yeah. So if it's like, I got it, it's a poor one, right?

00;13;05;28 - 00;13;27;25

Ricky

I mean, and even at an elementary level, you could have they could have done so much more to garnish business out of it. This is why I don't think it was purposely done because they could have put out mystery boxes and sold tons of inventory for these things, like, here's a hundred bucks are guaranteed an NFT pop, you're guaranteed of Fright Night Pop, whatever they wanted to do to strategize it, this is just like pure.

00;13;27;25 - 00;13;50;16

Ricky

I don't want to say stupidity, but it, it, it like is like on the fence of that, right? Like it one step to the right and falling off because I just think it's so I mean, there's no strategy behind it. It's just like, hey, we're putting stuff out on our shelves and they've done this in the past with things like they'll have an event, They won't tell anybody what's releasing, and then at the event they'll like do something special.

00;13;50;26 - 00;14;03;28

Ricky

And this is what I would consider something special along the lines of what you had a problem with. Like we're putting out Fright Night Things or, you know, HQ. What they'll do in Seattle is, you know, the old Beetlejuice or the Jason Voorhees.

00;14;04;09 - 00;14;04;17

Piper

Yeah.

00;14;05;05 - 00;14;24;06

Ricky

They'll throw one of those chases out like every now and then, even though it's a Yeah. So it's like almost a little worse than that level. But I don't believe that there was malice behind that. But I will tell you one thing, when it's raining and it's pouring outside, bad news for you. This does not lighten your load one bit.

00;14;24;19 - 00;14;42;02

Piper

No. And I do I think that it was one of those like snap decisions. They're like they probably had a meeting and they were like, okay, we're overloaded. We need to get rid of stock. And they did not think about it. They were just like the people at the warehouse. Like, All right, let's just do a sale. And that was their decision.

00;14;42;02 - 00;14;53;13

Piper

They ran up corporate and they're like, Yeah, sure, whatever. And who knows, maybe people higher up didn't know what was be thought of as commons their liquidated. Who knows really it's honestly it seems like.

00;14;53;22 - 00;14;55;06

Ricky

A fun go janitor idea.

00;14;55;06 - 00;15;04;22

Piper

Dude at funko it definitely seems like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing or doesn't care. One of those two things.

00;15;04;25 - 00;15;06;16

Ricky

I think you're right. Exactly.

00;15;07;04 - 00;15;26;13

Piper

So I mean, I get the head too much stock. It was stuff that probably came from from know Everett or from Hollywood. And they were just keeping it there and they needed to make room because, you know, we got 10,000 new pops that are coming out this year. So they needed the space for it. So they just got rid of a bunch of stuff.

00;15;26;13 - 00;15;51;12

Piper

Now, I guess I'm going to stand by. I think that it should they should have done it in a lottery where you put your name in a lottery and then you could check all the ones that you're interested in. And then they they draw people and you could win it. I think that would have been a ideal situation for everybody if Funko didn't want to dig down into the let's do a mystery box or like, let's sell stuff for like way more than we should on eBay.

00;15;51;26 - 00;15;57;28

Piper

I think that that would have been the better option because let's be honest, how many people live in Arizona?

00;15;58;25 - 00;16;00;03

Ricky

I did it one time.

00;16;00;09 - 00;16;01;21

Piper

43 people live.

00;16;01;21 - 00;16;02;00

Piper

There.

00;16;02;17 - 00;16;03;27

Ricky

But we're still in Arizona.

00;16;04;02 - 00;16;05;22

Piper

Florida, too. I know, I know.

00;16;05;22 - 00;16;07;21

Ricky

But Arizona and Florida, what's worse?

00;16;08;16 - 00;16;18;08

Piper

Oh, God, Florida by a million miles. Arizona's not much better. But I mean, at least you don't hear about Arizona. Man in the in the news. Yeah.

00;16;18;08 - 00;16;19;28

Ricky

Yeah, that is that is that. Yeah.

00;16;20;21 - 00;16;25;05

Piper

Man's hand chopped off by brother in law's sister.

00;16;25;19 - 00;16;45;07

Ricky

There you go. I think one thing to that I want to hit on and you hit on a little bit was the Everett situation because when we were up at Funko HQ they have that little stockroom room in the back and it's actually bigger than what you'd think. And I would think that especially in and I'm breaking down their statement, right?

00;16;45;29 - 00;16;50;26

Ricky

The integrity of this program is of the utmost importance to us.

00;16;51;01 - 00;16;52;28

Piper

There are four in a PhD program right?

00;16;52;28 - 00;17;14;10

Ricky

Yeah. Yeah. Referring to the NFT program. The integrity of that program is of the utmost importance. I repeated that. Why would you then just like lazily put them in a warehouse? I mean, maybe it's the help they're there for. It's easier to distribute from there, and I get that. But my point is, is if you're going to hold on to them, they need to be like, like Best Buy, right?

00;17;14;10 - 00;17;45;04

Ricky

Like that laptops up on the shelf behind the key and no one can touch them, you know, something like that. Like, why are you holding on to them? That's what I'm wondering. Like, why are these products being held on to if we know that people aren't redeeming them Now, personally, I don't really care. 999 Who cares? Does it suck that somebody's got them for 15 and we spent, you know, X amount of dollars, X amount of time collecting all of the different tiers of cards, you know, and rarity to get the the Freddy Funcoes and things along that line.

00;17;45;04 - 00;18;08;11

Ricky

Yeah, it's frustrating because there's a lot of money that's involved in that and if somebody gets it for 15 bucks, kudos to them. It's not their fault, but it can be frustrating. So I'm a little more on the lines of upset from a product protector standpoint to say that you care about integrity, but in reality you're just like, Oh, I have a sale and the vertex in the corner, like, who's got a good idea.

00;18;08;11 - 00;18;14;15

Piper

Versus a good idea? Vale Put everything on the field, all of the product. I don't care what it is.

00;18;14;26 - 00;18;19;01

Ricky

You know, I don't I don't get that logic. It's such a funcao janitor thing to do.

00;18;20;18 - 00;18;41;16

Piper

Yeah. I mean, we're not there. We're not, we're not on the inside. So it's very difficult to to make those calls. And maybe there is legitimate cause that we just don't know about. And I think that people are too quick to jump to, like gloom and doom. This is the end. This is the end of the phone. Funcoes Shut up.

00;18;41;19 - 00;18;48;00

Piper

Exactly. People just like sit back and relax, have fun. And a hobby would be a yes. Yes. Such a negative. Nancy.

00;18;48;04 - 00;19;19;24

Ricky

I love reporting on it because it's so easy for us to talk about it. Right? It's just fun to be tongue in cheek. But yeah, there's just so many people that and we talked about this before the podcast that they get in this mode of they're in an echo chamber, right? I mean, I've seen like some of the weirdest things about people selling a pop, causing 296 like comments when Juno was selling his Freddy Venoms for a certain amount and then people calling him not a collector, right?

00;19;19;24 - 00;19;23;21

Piper

Like or a dude is the most collector of of everyone.

00;19;24;01 - 00;19;27;10

Ricky

Yeah, exactly. And there's this whole discussion ensues.

00;19;27;20 - 00;19;39;20

Piper

When have you seen a human that puts metallic blueberry and metallic Count Chocula next to their toilet? He does not care.

00;19;39;20 - 00;19;40;01

Piper

Yeah.

00;19;40;09 - 00;19;55;28

Piper

This is a man is on another level. He just. It's the flex is what he he likes. He strives for the flex. And you know what? And you know what? Good for him. You know, that's just a bunch of people salty that they didn't get it. Freddy venom. That's what that is. They can't afford a $32,000 pop.

00;19;56;00 - 00;20;13;16

Ricky

Yeah. And the thing is, they were pointing out like the whatnot auction was like, oh, it's only 19,000. Don't overpay. Don't overpay for what someone's put. Other people will pay what they're willing to pay, period. At the end, it doesn't matter if it's Funko pop or if it's a collector's card, they will pay what they're willing to pay.

00;20;13;29 - 00;20;23;00

Piper

The one on whatnot was Toy Tokyo. That's who sold that one. And I believe it was not in the best condition I think it had.

00;20;23;00 - 00;20;24;13

Ricky

I think there was damage on it. Yeah.

00;20;24;13 - 00;20;35;28

Piper

Yeah. So and the ones that like the top one that you know had was like very, very good. And I that's the one he was selling for like I think 32,000 is the top number I saw.

00;20;36;20 - 00;20;55;16

Ricky

Yeah. And if you see like when we talk about value and how it relates to these limited pieces, I saw you like comment something in a Facebook group this week. We were talking about eBay. Like, like what are the sale? What's the true price of a pop? And you're like, well, you can't there's so many elements of what a true price of a pop is because eBay is like, this is the the bell curve for a pop.

00;20;55;16 - 00;21;16;08

Ricky

Like all pop with a certain amount of damage will be this value. The average of the best most meant pop to the worst garbage like my top is ripped off the top of the pop and you have this average and people I don't believe people understand that as much as they go and look at something and they say, well, you know, I derive value from this average and not what it is.

00;21;16;08 - 00;21;36;14

Ricky

And if somebody like Juno or anyone for that matter, that you say have a one in 12 ready somewhere, if you want to sell it for $100,000 and you get $100,000 for it, more power to you. Like I don't care about that aspect of it. And it's just like anything else. Like hard times come or you need to buy two diesel Escalades, you know.

00;21;36;21 - 00;21;46;05

Ricky

You know, it doesn't matter what it is if you can get a price for it, regardless of what eBay or anything else, as if somebody is willing to pay it, that's what it's worth. The end period that no, no discussion.

00;21;46;18 - 00;22;03;06

Piper

Well, like I've had conversations with with customers in the store because we had the we had the fanatics they out the pink T-Bone Right. Not the chase one. Right. The the car. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Which come it was filled. They only did like 400 of those. I think it was 410 or something.

00;22;03;08 - 00;22;04;11

Ricky

Like super limited.

00;22;04;17 - 00;22;27;21

Piper

It was very small and you know it's TPG had it at $240 and we had it here in the store for 500. And I would ask people, have people say like, well, it's it's it's more I mean, you guys are asking way more than what's on PG like. Well, you know what, go find another one. Go find one that you can hold in your hand and look at.

00;22;27;29 - 00;22;28;27

Ricky

Good. Yep, yep.

00;22;28;28 - 00;22;46;29

Piper

That's because there's not enough data like people talking about that. I mean, we can get in that in another episode. We could go like ten episodes deep talk about like doing like data driven pricing and like, like pricing models and stuff like that. If you want to get like super nerdy about it, but you know, people don't get that.

00;22;46;29 - 00;23;17;02

Piper

People don't understand the scarcity, the scarcity aspect to something. If there's 24 of a pop or 12 pop or four, you sell it for whatever somebody is going to pay for it. There is no there's no guide that you can go, and that really comes down to anything that's numbered. Like if you feel like if it's not something that's running around all over the place, that there's like eight more of them for sale in your town or like, you know, 50 of them on, on eBay, you really kind of have to go based on a little bit of gut.

00;23;17;02 - 00;23;35;14

Piper

But, you know, also based on like how easy is something to get, how good a condition is it? And that's just kind of that's people want a quick, easy I want to look at a website and it's going to tell me what I'm expected to pay for that. And that's that works fine if you're talking about like commons and vaulted items and stuff like that.

00;23;35;14 - 00;23;40;09

Piper

But it's there's something that there's just not enough data behind and you got to throw that out the window. Man.

00;23;40;20 - 00;24;09;03

Ricky

Yeah, I agree. And I think one thing and we'll close out the NATO discussion because this ties to the value apparently funko values those in at $15. That's their value. You know they're eBay sale. It sold for $15. Now we got to put that value on a no, I'm joking. But to sum it all up in general, where people are with, you know, eBay sales or whatever it is, there's so many examples of those, the scarcity of a specific item that you can use.

00;24;09;03 - 00;24;33;20

Ricky

And I think in this case from an NFT perspective, when you talk about scarcity and limited items and we're releasing more into the wild, quote unquote, I'm somebody early on in my collectors days and maybe people listen to the podcast can relate. I was such a purist in the way that I was like, Collecting is this way and it needs to be that way.

00;24;33;28 - 00;24;58;20

Ricky

And you would get so upset when you would see somebody come in and flip things. And that's like the creation of the no flip zone and don't be wrong scalping. I still disagree with like, you shouldn't buy everything of one product like Flipper Grandma did. But, you know, I've, I've kind of cooled down a lot in that and tried not to be so judgmental on how somebody collects because the way that you collect is on you.

00;24;59;00 - 00;25;14;08

Ricky

And if you want to sell items to pay for other pieces in your collection, vice versa, you have an opportunity to do it. It's not even it's that way in every world like cards and things like that. So as it comes, as we wrap up the nfts collect the way that you want to, I'm not going to sit here and judge you.

00;25;14;08 - 00;25;17;26

Ricky

I'm not going to go on YouTube and blast you and Instagram where.

00;25;18;07 - 00;25;24;02

Piper

You know, phone goes dead and you know, if you your body is your terrible, you burn in hell.

00;25;24;10 - 00;25;29;01

Ricky

Like I'm not that person. So anymore maybe back in it, maybe back.

00;25;29;02 - 00;25;29;06

Piper

In.

00;25;29;15 - 00;25;41;01

Ricky

Circa 20 1617 I was that person. But I think that now I've kind of, you know, do your thing and however you want to utilize information, do it and that's it.

00;25;42;21 - 00;25;43;16

Piper

That's it.

00;25;44;04 - 00;26;00;18

Ricky

That's all we going to have to say about that. So I'd like to remind everybody here now call to action if you like the podcast, subscribe if you're listening to the podcast or not subscribe, subscribe. And if you like what you hear, write the podcast, you can do it on Apple.

00;26;00;18 - 00;26;02;11

Piper

Only five stars, though It's super.

00;26;02;12 - 00;26;28;24

Ricky

I'm not asking for a five star review anymore. Give me a three star. No joke, No, Give me if you have time, please throw a rating in there. If you have even more time, type up a ten word review for us. It helps us out. It helps what we do. Also, anything that we discuss here, you can always contact us on Instagram, Twitter at Pop Alliance Pod, Facebook.com Slash Pop Lectures, Alliance, Be a part of the group Search Pop Collectors Alliance and the groups.

00;26;29;01 - 00;26;46;16

Ricky

Join our group. Be part of the discussion. We want to hear what you guys think about all this. Like, it's always interesting for me to put on Facebook. Look at a chain where somebody goes, Oh my God, this guy's just trying to make profit and then pull out my bucket of popcorn and read the 271 comments. So do us a favor and give us feedback there.

00;26;46;23 - 00;27;07;08

Ricky

So Nfts selling at dead. Farooq, you know, they're they're in the dumpster. But moving on to what we had already mentioned is the millions of products that are going to be released this year. Now, before we even get into it, like we love Toy Fair. When Piper and I got to go back pre-COVID to fairs, it was amazing.

00;27;07;16 - 00;27;08;05

Ricky

I loved it.

00;27;09;07 - 00;27;30;03

Piper

I got really scared because I saw Kenny Omega and Hangman Page. I followed them around a while. I was too scared to talk to them. We got to meet some really cool people from like all these brands of toys that we love and we followed for years and years. And it was a I actually felt like we were legitimate when we were there.

00;27;30;03 - 00;27;41;12

Piper

Like we we have no business being here. Well, now we do because we have a store. But like then we were just like to two ghouls walking around a graveyard.

00;27;41;18 - 00;28;00;23

Ricky

But we were important. It was it was a great time and I miss it. I think this year they're doing toy fair, but it's like in the fall. So maybe a return to normal, but it funko is kind of pulled out of all of that in general and kind of shifted to this funky funko fair thing where they're releasing product over a period of time.

00;28;00;23 - 00;28;23;13

Ricky

Now, this year was a little different. I think the past, it was like all done in a week. This year it was done in three releases, three Wednesdays, like January 15th, the 23rd, and like the 1st of February or something like that. But they released them in increments and just like every year when they release them, we like to wait for everything to come out, the dust to settle a little bit and then us to give our opinion on some things.

00;28;24;14 - 00;28;31;12

Ricky

We'll start with the easy questions like we normally do. Piper I'll I'll take the first one and then let you. What was my.

00;28;31;12 - 00;28;36;00

Piper

Favorite? Let's do this. Wait, wait, let's do it. Let's let's break this down by because it's automotive.

00;28;36;00 - 00;28;37;05

Ricky

Stuff we're doing. Audible.

00;28;38;03 - 00;28;39;05

Piper

Audible. All right.

00;28;39;08 - 00;28;42;03

Ricky

Favorite thing of day one, and we'll just start there.

00;28;42;12 - 00;28;48;27

Piper

Yeah, we'll go through. We'll do this for each day because there's so much stuff. I think that we those should be are their own entities.

00;28;49;19 - 00;29;14;08

Ricky

Okay. Yeah, that's perfect. I think that maybe we let's. Yeah, let's start with day one favorite release of day one. I would say when I look at it, one of the, the nicest things that I like and no one's going to think that I'm going to predict this for day one. But it was the five nights at Freddy's mystery minis because it made me believe that they're still alive.

00;29;14;23 - 00;29;35;06

Ricky

There's still cooking mystery minis. We don't get as many releases as we used to just because the shift has been sort of away from them and focus more on soda because it's a similar concept. While you may not get the rarities that you get in mystery minis, I was pleasantly surprised to see that that is at least still on their radar.

00;29;35;06 - 00;29;55;00

Ricky

I don't want them to go to Dawber's mode and never see them again because I like daubs. But mystery minis were something that at least from a hunt perspective, it was always fun to see in the stores and it, you know, if you get mystery minis back, I know that there's a lot of mystery mini collectors. It could sort of revive some aspect of going out and hunting.

00;29;55;00 - 00;30;04;12

Ricky

I may not like the line of five nights at Freddy's, but I do like the fact that Funko is going back and releasing mystery minis.

00;30;04;12 - 00;30;05;04

Piper

Two things.

00;30;06;08 - 00;30;06;26

Ricky

Two things.

00;30;07;26 - 00;30;14;21

Piper

Lord of the Rings, Civil War. That was Peak Mystery Mini.

00;30;15;10 - 00;30;15;23

Ricky

Really.

00;30;16;14 - 00;30;35;04

Piper

Though, I'm like, What? What? Those are the two lines that okay, because you collected mystery minis before you and I met. Yeah, so did I. And then. But those were the two lines that you and I, whenever we would go out, that's what we would always hunt for. And it is, it's just like it's burned in my brain.

00;30;35;04 - 00;30;39;19

Piper

And that's really what made me love the, the chase for those.

00;30;39;28 - 00;30;43;25

Ricky

Yeah, I agree. I love the Lord of the Rings, the ring wraiths like trying to get.

00;30;43;25 - 00;30;59;04

Piper

A Yeah, I almost have a complete set up here at the store from when we were collecting. It's just a Ziploc bag in the back room and civil war. I never came close to finishing that one because I just got 38 ebony models and I threw them in the trash.

00;30;59;12 - 00;31;01;11

Ricky

Oh man. Because the weights were so close.

00;31;01;19 - 00;31;03;20

Piper

And like half of them were like the same weight.

00;31;03;25 - 00;31;15;01

Ricky

I miss those days of walking around with a scale and like, you're a drug dealer, you come in with a little pocket scale cups for you over. What are you doing? A measure and toys, bro. You know my back.

00;31;15;13 - 00;31;19;24

Piper

Now, the only people you see doing that are Lego collectors trying to find the Minifigs.

00;31;20;00 - 00;31;44;10

Ricky

Yeah, I know. Which is crazy because I'm in that world too. Not as much as I used to be, but I had every set from series one to, I believe 19 and then the Harry Potter sets. So crap. It's very interesting to see how people like had taken that hobby or that aspect of it, because I'm always in there feeling them because you could feel like the little rubber pieces and things like that that would distinguish the big giant pizza.

00;31;44;10 - 00;31;45;02

Piper

Man Yeah.

00;31;45;07 - 00;32;06;16

Ricky

That's, that's my favorite. Like the people in suits. Yeah. So you talk about a line and within a line that you collect. I know we're rabbit hole. I'm. But I love the people in suits. That was my favorite Minifigures all together. Just people in suits. Yes, but yeah, I was happy with mystery minutes. What was your favorite on day one then?

00;32;06;21 - 00;32;23;09

Piper

So day one, I'm going to have to say it's something that I generally would not buy myself, but I was very excited by it. But the the Banksy pop art covers. Oh, I thought those were very, very cool.

00;32;23;20 - 00;32;25;08

Ricky

I think they call it Brandel ized.

00;32;25;16 - 00;32;45;26

Piper

Yeah, there's two of them. They did. They did The girl with balloons and then they did the the tagging robot. Both of those. Awesome. Again, I'm not I don't have a lot of stuff hung up on my walls. I mean, we do here in the store like I have some of the comic covers here in the store and I think I'll probably end up buying a case for each of these just so we can hang one of each in the store.

00;32;46;06 - 00;33;10;27

Piper

But yeah, I love these. I think they are very it's very outside the box from what Funko normally do. And I think that it is something that I would love to see more of this kind of like pop art stuff. They, they expanded it to outside of Banksy to maybe other, you know, graffiti artists or even even stuff like Andy Warhol or Basquiat or, you know, there's a there's a huge range of things that could go.

00;33;11;07 - 00;33;30;15

Ricky

Yeah, and there's like a ton of niche things because you could do like one or two of every one and like end it. But still have a complete, you know, library of what you could release, which is, you know, I love the art pop, I think they do. One of the things they do great is are those lines.

00;33;31;01 - 00;33;44;21

Ricky

Yeah. One of the things that was clear from day one as we we follow the trend here in all the days is that Funko is invested in soda, they say. So this is not going anywhere.

00;33;45;14 - 00;33;58;04

Piper

And I we say that now, but Funko has a they have a syndrome. They have a problem where they'll be like dump everything into one pot and then they will kick that pot over.

00;33;58;04 - 00;34;09;05

Ricky

Yeah, I agree. And some of some of the times it's some of the times they're hits, right? Some of the times they're not like heroes world. We can rattle off a bunch of things that didn't work for them.

00;34;09;13 - 00;34;14;16

Piper

But I love Heroes World. Yeah, that's such a good game. What New World?

00;34;14;22 - 00;34;18;12

Ricky

No, I'm talking about the line that they did of the little mini figures with those.

00;34;18;19 - 00;34;21;14

Piper

Okay. I was. I was thinking of the marvel.

00;34;22;14 - 00;34;23;16

Ricky

Yeah, I juvenile world.

00;34;23;19 - 00;34;27;12

Piper

I'm thinking of Battle world. Okay, never mind. Yeah, those are dumb. I know what you're talking.

00;34;28;06 - 00;34;52;26

Ricky

Is it dumb? But. But, but sometimes you'll. They'll just come out of the blue and they'll just throw a little dinky release out there of this. But, but again, they're just one of the things that is crazy about all of this is that, um, at least is here to stay. Now, like I said earlier, I hope it doesn't replace mainstream anymore because I still think that there's a place in the world for them and it's unique to them to be able to do molds.

00;34;52;26 - 00;35;14;22

Ricky

One of the things I like about the plethora of products, if they come out with sodas and things like that, while they may be different figures, it's an opportunity for them to create new figures within that license that you may or may not want to see. So they're solely invested. What was we'll go to day two. What was your favorite in day to.

00;35;14;22 - 00;35;35;07

Piper

Okay, so day two, I don't know that I really had a big favorite and now I'm going to say I've seen a lot of these already just through our account with Funko. So we've I have actually have some of the a number of the six already on order for the store. So I knew a bunch of the stuff.

00;35;35;07 - 00;36;14;17

Piper

But so as far as like shock I don't think or like anything I was like, Oh that's amazing. I think the big turning, not for me, but for just fans and collectors in general. I think the big thing from Data is definitely all the one piece stuff because we get so we talked about it last week. We get so many people that come in asking for one piece stuff and for a really long time that said, I mean, there is they had a decent number, but they're older, they're harder to find and they would sprinkle in ones here and there like you get a car exclusive or you'll get like a hot topic exclusive.

00;36;14;17 - 00;36;29;17

Piper

But now they're actually, I feel properly stalking that IP with some really, really well-designed pops, a lot of exclusives. I think that was the big hit for day two. Yes.

00;36;30;00 - 00;36;38;10

Ricky

Yeah, I agree. I was going to go one piece as well. I like to see the mix of chases. So we got a lot. We got like dark chases.

00;36;38;14 - 00;36;45;24

Piper

Almost everyone had a chase with Ellie. I I'm, I'm not buying a lot of these. I'm sorry. I'm getting like two cases of each.

00;36;45;24 - 00;37;06;13

Ricky

I think the Chalice business model was that God threw us a chase. Deer, pop gods, we need a chase so we can bundle it together and sell six at a time. But no, I mean, I think one of the interesting things that I took away from that is the not so mystery. Mystery minis on the one piece that are exclusive to five and below where the, you know, windows open on the tiny box.

00;37;06;13 - 00;37;07;00

Ricky

I don't know what the.

00;37;07;00 - 00;37;08;06

Piper

Heck those mean.

00;37;08;10 - 00;37;13;15

Ricky

It's just not even a product line. Like what is the is it a mystery mini I what is it like. Does it make sense.

00;37;13;25 - 00;37;25;20

Piper

Yes they are mystery minis but they have been re boxed for five below, which is should be five above because there's nothing in there that's below $5 anymore.

00;37;25;20 - 00;37;26;13

Ricky

But yeah.

00;37;27;02 - 00;37;45;21

Piper

No. Because I have some of the what if I think it's the what if mystery minis. It seems they're the venom venoms ones. I forgot which one it is, but they are the same exact ones that are at five below. But there's just I think they took out the Chase's like they don't have the one in 70 two's doing it.

00;37;45;22 - 00;37;46;04

Piper

The one in.

00;37;46;04 - 00;38;06;16

Ricky

Twelves behind this. I mean, but it looks like it's packaged in a way that that's where they want to move to this. I didn't like when loyal subjects did that. It was just like, what? Because at least the loyal subjects would put black or, you know, screens on them so you wouldn't see what the possibility of those four six in there were on.

00;38;06;21 - 00;38;32;01

Piper

Yeah. On some of them like. So you knew. Yeah I kind of like that exact like oh I need to get this specific one and I can see it. But then if you want to play the gamble and be like, okay, well this some mystery in this one. Yeah, I don't know. But the whole thing with five blow, I think five blow actually produces the packaging and repackages themselves because they do that with a lot of products.

00;38;32;08 - 00;38;55;01

Piper

They're not specifically made for five below. They are repackaged, they have like a packaging department or whatever within the company. So I think they're just buying a ton of mystery minis, open them up and then putting them in new boxes so they can sell them as new. And so there's you don't have to worry about that like, oh, we're only buying 19,000 of this, you know, victimized.

00;38;55;01 - 00;38;57;19

Ricky

Tharoor Yeah, no, I agree.

00;38;57;23 - 00;38;57;27

Piper

No.

00;38;58;12 - 00;39;13;17

Ricky

No, no, no. I mean, it's certainly a new way of looking at things. And if anybody out there works at five and below and can give us the inside scoop, we're always more than willing to hear it. Day three So this was easy and hard for me. Day three was all about, oh.

00;39;13;24 - 00;39;14;18

Piper

So easy.

00;39;14;18 - 00;39;35;23

Ricky

What we do in the shadows. And I did. But I did close. I can't. We'll call it One Bee was the Willow movie I love when I was a kid. I love the Willow movie. I don't know why I love the you know, that they're they're still going back and getting these sort of niche licenses. And I know the new show came out so they have the show.

00;39;35;23 - 00;39;42;27

Ricky

But, you know, this is specific to the movie, which was nice for me to see. But what we do in the shadows. Yeah. Number one.

00;39;44;26 - 00;40;14;17

Piper

Kind of backwards for me. What we do in the shadows is a close second runner up, mainly because they only they there's well, one, there's not a ton of stuff and they haven't announced any exclusives other than like a glow in the dark like five pack. Right. I think that's the only exclusive that they announced for it. WWE Anything wrestling that is an immediate A-plus win win win in my book because I like meeting men slap and meet.

00;40;14;25 - 00;40;43;26

Piper

That is one of my life wrestlers. This is a quote from Biggie Anyway, so yeah, we got Cody Rhodes, which I have already preordered for myself. Ted DiBiase with the Chase was lazy because it's almost the same exact one as before. Now they just slap some glitter on it, so and not so much. Then there's a actually there's, I'll say there's a bunch of them that they have not announced yet that are coming later this year.

00;40;43;27 - 00;41;11;09

Piper

Just a little heads up there. And then they did the Mr. T and the Hulk Hogan comic WrestleMania covers. I guess it's like a poster. Yeah, very strange. But I was very excited about all the WWE stuff. I'm glad the same thing. I'm glad that they are not abandoning that. I mean, there's a lot of money in wrestling, there's a ton of wrestling fans, but they def I can see Funko being pushed out by like, you know, Hasbro and whatever.

00;41;11;17 - 00;41;17;29

Piper

But I'm glad, I'm glad they're sticking with it and they're putting out some actually pretty decent pops now.

00;41;17;29 - 00;41;35;22

Ricky

I agree. That's that's a great point. The wrestling pops that I like are attitude era most time is Cody Rhodes even wrestling talk rabbit hole for 2 seconds is his transition to WWE is he like is he doing well there they have him like on for lack of better terms undercard.

00;41;37;02 - 00;41;45;24

Piper

No, no, no, no. He's definitely not the undercard. He won the Rumble, so he's going to WrestleMania. So he will he will face Roman Reigns.

00;41;45;24 - 00;41;46;03

Piper

For.

00;41;46;11 - 00;41;54;11

Piper

Both of the titles. Um, I would love to do a wrestling podcast. You know, I could sit here and talk for like 4 hours.

00;41;54;13 - 00;41;55;26

Ricky

So it's good that he's doing well.

00;41;56;07 - 00;42;17;20

Piper

He got a boo boo. He ripped his pec off of his body and he it took like a year to recoup from that. And now he's back and he's had some I don't know if he said any matches. I'm not avid WWE watcher. I like every other wrestling totally. But I do like the you know I will still support all my my favorite Russell boys and ladies.

00;42;18;01 - 00;42;19;05

Ricky

Yes.

00;42;19;05 - 00;42;19;22

Piper

Yeah there we go.

00;42;19;25 - 00;42;41;17

Ricky

So you know lots of releases here. They had more Star Wars things along the line. I don't wanna get into all of them, but I would say anime anime heavy, Star Wars heavy and going back to their true lines like Marvel and things along those lines, it was good to see a mix of exclusives. However, I don't know how that's going to work anymore.

00;42;41;17 - 00;42;54;01

Ricky

It's that whole dynamic has changed. But let's go with let's, let's combine all three days because I think this is easier. Or what was your least favorite release in the mix?

00;42;54;23 - 00;42;59;12

Piper

Oh, there's that one. I got a lot. I got a lot in here that I don't care about. Well, let's.

00;42;59;18 - 00;43;04;13

Ricky

Let's let's talk about the one that you really don't care about.

00;43;04;13 - 00;43;07;01

Piper

And that's another one that doesn't make any sense.

00;43;07;01 - 00;43;07;28

Ricky

Yeah, let's do that one.

00;43;08;25 - 00;43;14;29

Piper

Uh, okay. So I think probably a.

00;43;16;08 - 00;43;19;01

Ricky

Like which one does not make any sense since.

00;43;20;22 - 00;43;37;02

Piper

So for me, what absolutely 100% does not make any sense is Gilligan's Island. Why was why is that Who, who is that for? Because that's like my dad. My dad would be into that.

00;43;37;07 - 00;43;45;27

Ricky

And I'll tell you, it's for it's for the target clearance shelves and then six months later, they'll be all worth $100.

00;43;46;16 - 00;44;09;20

Piper

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So that's to me the dumbest thing. I also don't see the there's a couple of like the rocks ones that I don't get, not that I don't get. I just don't think that they're going to sell like, super, super Well yeah. And they're all albums like the TLC, TLC, the Megadeth one probably will sell.

00;44;10;02 - 00;44;29;20

Piper

I don't care for it just because I'm not like a big Megadeth fan. Yeah. And then the other one was, Oh, Cher, and then there was a Cyndi Lauper. So I think the Cyndi Lauper is just a pop. I don't think it's an actual album cover, but those rocks are always that's something that's always eluded me. And I don't I don't really get it.

00;44;29;29 - 00;44;59;06

Piper

And I know we got some patrons that are like a 100%. They love the rock stuff. I've had people come into the store that are specifically looking for like insane grails. Like I had a guy that came in Louis looking for the chaste. Elvis Presley's like the old, old school. Yeah, those are like, thousands of dollars. So, like, I know that there's a market for those I just don't know how many people my parents age are really looking for.

00;44;59;06 - 00;45;19;08

Piper

Like Cher pops. And side note, Cher was the first real concert I ever went to. I was forced to go, so that doesn't apply to anything. But anyway, so yeah, those are the ones I'm kind of like they're I will close this out with. Why is Funko still making gold figures?

00;45;19;27 - 00;45;24;27

Ricky

I don't know. They had that release after the Super Bowl for the Kansas City Chiefs, one that was like a limited of like five.

00;45;24;27 - 00;45;26;23

Piper

$200.

00;45;26;28 - 00;45;27;10

Ricky

Yeah.

00;45;27;10 - 00;45;29;01

Piper

And retail, it.

00;45;29;01 - 00;45;52;11

Ricky

Sold out because I guess exclusivity. I don't know I don't, I don't enjoy the gold line as much. It's just one of those things like if I see the gold line, I just it's so closely related to the vaulted vinyl or whatever. It not vaulted vinyl. That's the protectors vinyl idols that I really liked. I like the vinyl idols.

00;45;52;11 - 00;46;00;18

Ricky

Make it goofy. These they're trying to be serious with this, but for some reason, to me, the figures look off, if that makes sense. I think they look weird.

00;46;01;05 - 00;46;03;00

Piper

They don't. We can't sell them in store.

00;46;03;08 - 00;46;05;10

Ricky

Yeah, it's. It's weird.

00;46;05;10 - 00;46;23;04

Piper

I've had two. I've had two here forever that I stupidly took on a trade. They're both basketball ones like Zion Williamson and the other ones. LeBron. And they're both chases. Can't get rid of them. Nobody cares. Everybody asks about like, Why do you have those? I'm like, I don't know. Why have those? It's an accident that we accidentally have those.

00;46;23;04 - 00;46;26;24

Ricky

I will pay you $7 to take this out. This is the worst case.

00;46;27;06 - 00;46;31;25

Piper

So I don't know, man. I don't that that's that's where I'm at. So that's the low point for me.

00;46;31;25 - 00;46;52;29

Ricky

I think mine's pretty easy. You know, I didn't really have too many complaints with things. I know that some of the ninja items people love. I agree with you on the Rock Pops, because those album ones where you have a vinyl in the background and they're like display like the TLC one, it's just like, how many of those can you put in your house?

00;46;53;17 - 00;47;06;23

Piper

But you need a dedicated room. Like, okay, so if you were a musician and you have like a band room, right? I get that, especially the Walmart exclusive ones like the double. So you have like the whole band on one side and the other album cover on.

00;47;06;24 - 00;47;08;07

Ricky

Well, that's the TLC one. Yeah.

00;47;08;24 - 00;47;09;29

Piper

Is it TLC one that big?

00;47;09;29 - 00;47;10;14

Ricky

Yeah, it's that.

00;47;10;17 - 00;47;13;02

Piper

If it was a because they do some smaller ones too.

00;47;13;03 - 00;47;15;03

Ricky

No it's it's the big SUVs.

00;47;15;03 - 00;47;30;25

Piper

Throw that in the garbage. I'm not one to be like that. I'm not one to dump on because I know there's a lot of work that goes into these. I think a lot of people don't necessarily realize that, but there's a lot of work that goes on these and I like them, but that's just like I get that being a niche thing.

00;47;31;18 - 00;47;34;09

Piper

They are making a lot of them. A whole lot of them.

00;47;34;09 - 00;47;54;02

Ricky

Yeah. And I just don't like from a collector standpoint, it's hard to incorporate that into like my collection. For example, if I was a rock collector and let's say I had everything to this point and then I still want to be a completionist how do I fit this in there? So I mean, not a real issue with it other than it becomes cumbersome to like keep up with it.

00;47;54;02 - 00;48;12;06

Ricky

I think the biggest thing that I had a problem with was the puzzles. I just don't know if Funko has the fan base to sell the level of puzzles they're putting out there, and maybe they do. Maybe that's something that they're like, Oh, well, this is going to be good for us and they're going to get the energy and enthusiasm behind it.

00;48;13;00 - 00;48;33;24

Ricky

But again, it's something that I don't personally do puzzles, so I know that some of my friends do puzzles, so maybe they're excited about it. But I think pop is like a niche thing. But even when you go into like Walmart toy stores that ever exist anywhere, you know, Barnes and Noble, the puzzle sections aren't as big as they used to be.

00;48;33;24 - 00;48;49;08

Piper

So I think more okay, I get them producing the puzzles because they, they have board games and it just seems like a natural progression to go into that because it's kind of in the same realm. I think the selection of like what the puzzles are about is a little weird.

00;48;49;24 - 00;48;51;07

Ricky

Well, kind of all over the place.

00;48;51;24 - 00;48;54;13

Piper

Well, it's Jurassic park, so. Okay, I get that.

00;48;54;13 - 00;48;58;09

Ricky

SpongeBob provides Marvel. Ted Lasso.

00;48;58;12 - 00;49;07;16

Piper

Ted Lasso doesn't make how many people want a Ted lasso puzzle that does not have the actual actors on it.

00;49;07;17 - 00;49;12;21

Piper

Dear Santa Claus, all I want for Christmas is a ted lasso puzzle.

00;49;12;21 - 00;49;13;25

Ricky

You know, nobody's doing.

00;49;13;25 - 00;49;32;14

Piper

This, okay? This is for this is for grandparents that have kids. That's either they're kids or they're kids. Kids are into funko and they want they see them and they're going to buy them so they can have a puzzle for them to do when they come visit for like the holidays or something like that.

00;49;32;14 - 00;49;33;07

Ricky

Oh, I mean, I know that's.

00;49;33;07 - 00;49;33;22

Piper

Who I am.

00;49;33;27 - 00;49;52;12

Ricky

I know that there are puzzle enthusiasts out there. Like, are there a couple of our friends are, you know, Keith and Tina shout out on the podcast and Ray and Chad on the podcast. Yeah, they're they're like, But I don't know if this fits their niche because I've seen them do like 1500 piece puzzle like crazy puzzles and things like that.

00;49;52;21 - 00;50;09;07

Ricky

I mean, maybe if it's something that you collect, you love because I know that they like friends and shout out to them here, I get that right. Like it's a very niche market. And that's why I say like, if it's so niche, why are we producing a large amount in what we release? But like you said, you made a good point.

00;50;09;09 - 00;50;15;15

Ricky

It's a transition from board games to this. So I, I understand it, but you know, for me personally, it's not my favorite.

00;50;16;18 - 00;50;29;19

Piper

Now. I don't I mean, I'll hate it, but it's not I'm never going to spend money on that. And I think that's a lot of people are just going to like it's going to be shelf warmers for sure. As they say, it's you got a brick on your hands.

00;50;30;01 - 00;50;32;17

Ricky

Yeah. And one of the things I would love to be able to.

00;50;32;17 - 00;50;38;20

Piper

Do I'm sorry I said that I feel bad for saying that, but I feel gross.

00;50;38;20 - 00;50;41;03

Ricky

All the you talk about the high boy stuff, use a.

00;50;41;03 - 00;50;44;12

Piper

Shoe boy word and I just don't. I'm sorry. It's okay.

00;50;44;12 - 00;51;00;08

Ricky

Publicly, we'll let it pass this time. But but to your point and to anything like if you look at the releases and let's take Funko fair today versus what Toy Fair released like let's say five years ago, completely different, right? It's almost.

00;51;00;08 - 00;51;00;23

Piper

Like good.

00;51;01;03 - 00;51;21;12

Ricky

The some most of the things are in a good way but there's so many things that I don't connect with as a collector so I'm not going to judge them. Right. Like it's STEM appealing to other people, like the comic books with figures and things like I know that there's a great market out for that. I like the diorama, like the connection pieces where you have like a background.

00;51;21;12 - 00;51;42;20

Ricky

I think it's my Hero has two of the pieces that they announced and you know, in that direction of like making displays and kind of like evolving the pop line to be more, you know, what's the word detailed in nature that you can connect all of these pieces and it's a new way to collect like I don't hate that.

00;51;42;20 - 00;52;02;21

Ricky

So I get it. But there's so many avenues and different things that I don't like just for my own reasons. And it's like, you know, I'm the guy that's like, don't come in here and say that this is all great. I've been with Funko since 2013, you know, but I am happy that they have the product line that they do, and they've changed as much as they did.

00;52;02;21 - 00;52;27;01

Ricky

I just hope that they can get to a point where they say, you know, this is our product line and we're not going to keep throwing darts out there because I don't know if Hasbro and places do that as much as Funko does, and maybe it's because they're more established. But you don't see Lego going out and saying, hey, we're going to we're going to go out here and we're going to create like all like 72 product lines.

00;52;27;01 - 00;52;49;28

Ricky

It's like, okay, we have like five main lines. Duplo regular Lego expert, and then the mechanical ones that you can control with remote things like that. You don't techniques. Yeah, yeah. And so they have those main lines that you stick to in Minifigures. So but that's incorporated into their main line. So you know, I'd like this Funcoes portfolio to be a little more focused I guess.

00;52;50;20 - 00;53;13;10

Piper

Well, no, and I think that comes down to licensing, right? Because if you look at Lego, Lego knows what makes them money and they focus on those lines. Harry Potter, they got Marvel, Star Wars, DC, they got Star Wars, and then they have like Lego City, Disney, all the other. Yeah, they do some Disney stuff too. Yeah, like the the Princess Castles and stuff like that.

00;53;14;14 - 00;53;30;18

Piper

And then Lego Friends, that's the other one. But that's like their own thing. And a lot of that stuff, like Lego City techniques, the architecture, stuff like all those, they fall into a very specific things. The only time they really step outside of that is when you're talking about Lego ideas, and that's like a once a year kind of thing.

00;53;30;18 - 00;53;31;06

Piper

And those are the.

00;53;31;11 - 00;53;34;18

Ricky

But those are really cool though. Like, I like the concept.

00;53;34;21 - 00;53;38;09

Piper

Oh, you like you look at the Winnie the Pooh one that they did you look at Back to.

00;53;38;09 - 00;53;44;22

Ricky

The Future Ghostbusters, you know, even the Beatles. Yeah. I mean, they so like did so many good ones.

00;53;45;07 - 00;53;48;09

Piper

They're smart about it and then they they're hyper focused, right?

00;53;48;18 - 00;53;48;29

Ricky

Yeah. Yeah.

00;53;49;00 - 00;54;08;29

Piper

The same thing with Hasbro. Hasbro has very specific IP that they deal with because their high dollar IPRs like it costs them a boatload of money, I'm sure to be able to do all this, all the Marvel stuff and to do Star Wars and to do wrestling. So they, they know they stay in their lane because that's where their money's at.

00;54;09;02 - 00;54;45;00

Piper

Funko is more of a licensing company now than they are a toy company. They're so focused on acquiring as many licenses as they can, and they do take a shotgun approach. And for better or worse, I really don't know. I mean, obviously it's working out for them. They made, what, $1,000,000,000 last year. So it's good for them. But yeah, I, I get it I don't I would much rather than focus on doing I like the new stuff but I wish there was more focus on established lines things that puts you in there that's you get into the danger of that and then you get people complaining like, oh, there's 1800 different.

00;54;45;00 - 00;54;48;28

Ricky

I don't even talk about IP, but more along the lines of, Hey, we have just.

00;54;48;28 - 00;54;49;17

Piper

Like Pops.

00;54;49;20 - 00;55;14;22

Ricky

We have, you know, pop rock albums and then just define what that is. I know you always have to grow, so don't get me is like, I'm not giving business advice. It's just for me. I like that their portfolio is expanding, but it's like I said, it's like a lot of like throwing darts on a wall sometimes because you'll see a line or a product that they come up with that they immediately go away from.

00;55;14;22 - 00;55;31;21

Ricky

And I know that they're trying to strike gold every time. But I think if you run into the problem of if you're so focused on expanding a portfolio, then you can't even keep your app values up to date and all the little things that interact with your customers like Lego, look at their portfolio and they still do ideas.

00;55;32;03 - 00;55;58;22

Ricky

People submit them, people vote on them. And that's an interaction, right? It's just like Banco seem like a company that did what they did. They interacted with their fans very well and now they're doing so much trying to grow everything to scale that they lose some of that connectivity that they had before. And a lot of it is because you're just focused so much on growth growth, growth, growth, growth, which you should as a business.

00;55;58;22 - 00;56;35;01

Ricky

I'm not condemning them for it, but it they aren't focusing on growth strategically. If you get what I'm saying. Like there's just too much throw everything we can out there. We're going to make a billion of these things and put them out there and not enough like, hey, let's do this set, but make sure everything that we've said in the past and all the product lines and things that we've done and apps and whatever is working like our house is in order before we try to expand so much because it just seems like, like we said earlier in the episode, you're doing so much when bad news happens, it's raining, it's pouring, all of this

00;56;35;01 - 00;56;40;08

Ricky

stuff is happening at once and collectively it just seems like, Hey, we're just going to keep pushing and pushing.

00;56;41;03 - 00;57;06;13

Piper

Well, it's kind of like if you if you think back to when we were at Toy Fair in 2020 or the world collapsed, they that's when they really had that momentum to be like, okay, we're more than just a collectibles company. We want to be a toy company. And that's when they had like the pick your nose figures that I didn't never see coming.

00;57;06;13 - 00;57;09;10

Ricky

I still have three of them to go.

00;57;09;17 - 00;57;32;28

Piper

They had those and then they had the the one with the build of imaginary unicorn. Those we have some of those here in the store which we've never been able to sell. They've, they did like they, they announced like 15 new product lines that year and they didn't do well because they wanted to make the ship and it had to do with going public.

00;57;32;28 - 00;57;48;14

Piper

Great. So once they went public, they had this like there was this expectation from investors. They were like, okay, you need to grow now. You need to make money, you know? And they tried to do that. They're still trying to do that. And not that they're not making money, but they have a lot of things that are failing.

00;57;48;14 - 00;58;01;11

Piper

And I know that's kind of part of like business and evolution and growth. It's like you have to try new things. You can't stay stagnant. But at the same time, you just let's let's use our brains about some things and see like is anybody going to want this thing?

00;58;01;23 - 00;58;23;07

Ricky

Yeah, this is our Yep, yep, no. And that's the thing that I take away from this is that, you know, the culmination of where we are in everything that's happened in Funko in the last month, it just, it's a, you know, a period of downturn in the public eye for them. But hopefully they can grab the reins and sort of push through.

00;58;23;14 - 00;58;37;29

Ricky

I'm excited for some of the things. I also think that the Funko candy is a health hazard. Like you said, That's something that Macaulay Culkin would throw across the floor with burglars coming to his house and they'd slip and fall like I just did when.

00;58;37;29 - 00;58;39;16

Piper

We when we first.

00;58;39;16 - 00;58;41;13

Ricky

Saw it. That was that. That was quite there.

00;58;42;00 - 00;58;46;06

Piper

Yes. In 2020. And they're just now like I haven't seen any up until this point.

00;58;46;15 - 00;58;50;00

Ricky

Well, it's probably because the candy manufacturer.

00;58;50;00 - 00;58;51;12

Piper

They bought the candy manufacturer.

00;58;51;13 - 00;58;59;25

Ricky

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They probably just didn't get it off the ground in time because of COVID, because it was right there. Right. Remember, it was like, Yeah, just saw it.

00;58;59;25 - 00;59;09;00

Piper

And we at that time we were like, Oh, no, about this man. Like again, who is this for? That's this this fungus slogan.

00;59;09;00 - 00;59;09;25

Ricky

A lot of kids.

00;59;09;25 - 00;59;10;04

Piper

Around the.

00;59;10;10 - 00;59;13;23

Ricky

Nation waiting for people to break in their house so they can put a goofy gag on them.

00;59;14;21 - 00;59;20;02

Piper

Funko Who's this for? Seriously? We're asking, who is this for?

00;59;20;08 - 00;59;21;12

Ricky

Yeah, no.

00;59;21;27 - 00;59;24;16

Piper

That's a new slogan I want to make. I'm put on a shirt of a It's okay.

00;59;24;17 - 00;59;29;13

Ricky

There you go. Funko. Who is this for? And then put a pop TV on it.

00;59;29;13 - 00;59;30;02

Piper

Yeah, right.

00;59;30;17 - 00;59;48;02

Ricky

Oh, man. So that's funko fair 2023. You know, I sort of glaze an overview of it, but a lot of good products in there and again, I would say on par with of the recent releases. And as we move forward, you know, certainly give us your feedback on what you like to didn't like continue the conversation.

00;59;48;02 - 00;59;49;26

Piper

Unless it's in opposition to what we're saying. Yes.

00;59;50;11 - 00;59;51;12

Ricky

You must agree with us.

00;59;51;26 - 00;59;55;22

Piper

But this echo chamber is for for us and us alone.

00;59;55;22 - 01;00;18;04

Ricky

Yes, we have the mikes. You don't know. I'm joking. But seriously, let us know what you think and feel. The Funko Fair 2023. It's all done and over with. We're I know that people have preordered pops and things along those lines, so we're looking forward to them coming out, seeing some of these products in person. And I know personally what we do in the shadows is going to be in my collection, so I can't wait to get that in my hands.

01;00;18;04 - 01;00;21;21

Ricky

I love the show. So Funko Fair 2023, blah blah.

01;00;21;21 - 01;00;22;19

Piper

Blah blah blah blah blah.

01;00;23;15 - 01;00;39;12

Ricky

Moving on. One of the things we're getting a little long on the show, but I wanted to close out with and it's more along the lines of I don't know if this is conjecture or rumor. I don't like to speak a lot about conjecture on the podcast because I think it does disservice to Funko, it does a disservice to our fans.

01;00;39;22 - 01;01;03;04

Ricky

But I am interested in this topic from the standpoint of convention. So Emerald City Comic-Con, we know, is coming up right around the corner of March. It's it's here, it's back to its normal timeframe. We're back to normal convention rhythm. I am concerned because I haven't heard about Broncos Emerald City Comic-Con presents yet, and some people have said they're not going to be there.

01;01;03;11 - 01;01;17;15

Ricky

They may set up a tent and we had talked about this last year. Is that do we think that that's where it's headed? I don't know. We still have a couple of weeks like normally by this time, though, what was it normally like three weeks a month out there already telling us what's going to be there?

01;01;18;06 - 01;01;18;25

Piper

Yeah, usually.

01;01;18;25 - 01;01;35;02

Ricky

And I don't, you know, Google search it yourself, but I don't see anything. Funko Emerald City Comic-Con 2023. Besides the one exclusive they have, what are they called, the Cosmo or the the mascot for Emerald City? They do.

01;01;35;02 - 01;01;35;15

Piper

Crusader.

01;01;35;16 - 01;01;37;15

Ricky

At Crusader at the Glow in the dark one.

01;01;38;17 - 01;01;40;23

Piper

There's a glow darker black. I think it's black lack light.

01;01;40;23 - 01;01;41;12

Ricky

Yeah, you're right.

01;01;42;00 - 01;01;46;19

Piper

Yeah. Which I like those. Wish I'd never gotten rid of.

01;01;46;23 - 01;01;47;23

Ricky

The black light, pops.

01;01;48;15 - 01;02;05;17

Piper

No, no, no, no. The Crusader at I won one in a raffle because they didn't get them out in time for Emerald City. One year that we went and they funko emailed me, they're like, Hey, we pulled your name for this. I didn't know I entered into it. So I got one and then I sold it. Now I regret it.

01;02;07;02 - 01;02;25;09

Ricky

Yeah, I don't I don't know what's going to happen and I just, I hope that even from that perspective, I can get my hands on one of those like I have. I think I have one somewhere deep in my collection. And it was like the first or second iteration of it, The Crusader, not the Crusader at But.

01;02;25;15 - 01;02;27;04

Piper

Yeah, I know they did both of them.

01;02;27;23 - 01;02;32;15

Ricky

Do you think what do you think they're going to do for Emerald City?

01;02;32;15 - 01;02;56;07

Piper

I think they're going to do an online event and then they may do maybe they do a pop up. I don't know, like it's so hard because, like, maybe they're just keeping things under wraps and then they're going to announce at the last minute, which I think is stupid if that's the case. But, you know, I think at the absolute least they will do an online release like they've done for like fun con in the past.

01;02;56;07 - 01;03;07;11

Piper

Yeah. And then they'll they'll probably do something like they'll do a pop up or maybe they'll do something at HQ. Yeah. Yeah. We've waited in line at HQ before for, for product drops.

01;03;07;11 - 01;03;21;09

Ricky

Remember the good old days, Piper, when we went up to HQ that time we had the pre-party, and then you had tickets to the booth and you were just like, Man, I'm on top of the world. And nowadays I was like, Well, maybe not.

01;03;21;09 - 01;03;31;11

Piper

And oh man, that's where I got my whole def notes set. It was just sitting there on the shelf and I paid like $12 each for. Yeah, it was amazing. And now they're like $200 each.

01;03;31;15 - 01;03;32;28

Ricky

That's that crazy point.

01;03;32;28 - 01;03;34;13

Piper

Of my life is crazy.

01;03;34;24 - 01;03;55;24

Ricky

And crazy. I will say, you know, the good old days because you had how many events do we have with the Emerald City Comic-Con? We had the Funko pre-party. We had like Funko line at the convention, and then you had the Fugitive Toys Party, which is no longer you know, those were the days, man. I mean, just from camaraderie, being around people and fellow collectors.

01;03;56;02 - 01;04;20;10

Ricky

And in that situation, like, everybody's happy. We were at HQ for that, the party at these toys, I mean, it was all great. Like, I don't even care if I got a producer. They're like, if you're just. And even the last time I could have gotten a promo, but I'd suck too. Choose them. One line. I thought I had a good one, but I should have just been like, Nope, that's not true.

01;04;20;25 - 01;04;22;11

Ricky

And then it just went with.

01;04;22;19 - 01;04;23;23

Piper

Like, Oh yeah, you got it.

01;04;23;23 - 01;04;26;02

Ricky

Wrong and got a promo. But I felt.

01;04;27;05 - 01;04;29;10

Piper

Like I am actually a horse rancher.

01;04;29;25 - 01;04;30;25

Ricky

And I.

01;04;31;00 - 01;04;32;11

Piper

Would never know.

01;04;32;11 - 01;04;38;18

Ricky

Yeah, I have a mom, I have a dad, and I'm a horse rancher. Uh, I'm going to go with horse rancher.

01;04;38;28 - 01;04;44;02

Piper

Strong said my dad's dead.

01;04;44;14 - 01;04;47;07

Piper

So I give you a phase. I'll give you that photo.

01;04;47;19 - 01;04;49;02

Ricky

The things we do for predators.

01;04;49;23 - 01;04;53;00

Piper

Thanks, Backstab. Thanks for taking one for the team.

01;04;53;01 - 01;04;58;00

Ricky

What would you do instead of a Klondike bar for a Funko promo, I would say my dad is dead.

01;04;59;25 - 01;05;00;15

Piper

Words don't mean.

01;05;00;15 - 01;05;18;15

Ricky

Nothing. So I mean, I think that. I think you're right. I think that from the perspective of doing funko fair. What I mean, not funko fair, but the the pop up shop or whatever they decide to do and function or however they're going to call it, you know, whatever unique name they come up with, I think there's going to be a presence there.

01;05;18;22 - 01;05;46;17

Ricky

I mean, for them, I think the only reason they wouldn't do something is that their supply chain was so jacked up they couldn't get enough pop in for a convention event. And maybe they're just like, okay, we're going to do a things. So you don't see the typical like 27 to 50 releases for Old City Comic-Con. It's normally the lighter of the shows, but more importantly, like saving it for San Diego or New York City Comic-Con, where you have a lot higher attendance at those events.

01;05;47;26 - 01;06;04;13

Ricky

So interesting to see what will happen this year. Let us know what you guys think. I know that we have a lot of patrons and fans. If you're not a patron, go to Patriarchy slash Pop Collectors Alliance. Choose the tier That's right for you. I know we're going to have some updates and some we're doing great giveaways this month.

01;06;04;13 - 01;06;23;29

Ricky

We're doing a great giveaway. It's something from my own hard work that I did in the NFT realm of getting the Freddy Funko Bob Ross. So if you're not a patron, go to patriarchal slash pop collector's line to be a part of that. Give away $25 here every month. We do a great giveaways. We're going to finish the year out with really good giveaways.

01;06;24;17 - 01;06;24;28

Piper

Do it.

01;06;25;11 - 01;06;58;10

Ricky

Do it. And I think that wraps it up another great episode next week. Tune in. We're going to talk about collectors fatigue. I think it's something that everybody experiences throughout their collecting experience and give some of mine and Piper's stories on ways that we've experienced, that things that we've done. I mean, we've been collectors. This isn't even applied to strictly Funko, but we've been in out of collectors in various realms over the years and sort of how to deal with it right?

01;06;58;10 - 01;07;15;04

Ricky

I think that everybody gets to that unique situation where you're just like, I'm so bummed on Funko. I want to get rid of everything. I'm tired of looking at these pops in my house or I'm so tired that I can't get a boom toy release or whatever it is, right? So next week, tune in to that. That will be collectors fatigue.

01;07;16;03 - 01;07;20;26

Ricky

No other calls to action. You have anything you want to shout out tonight, Piper?

01;07;20;26 - 01;07;31;04

Piper

Um, go. Go check out a store PC toys dot com though. Just spend your hard earned money on some cool plastic man.

01;07;31;20 - 01;07;34;20

Ricky

There you go. And always remember to eat a full breakfast.

01;07;35;25 - 01;07;36;14

Piper

That's true.

01;07;37;16 - 01;07;40;17

Ricky

It's the most important meal of the day. Even though. I never.

01;07;40;17 - 01;07;45;04

Piper

Eat it. Just give it a jerky for breakfast.

01;07;45;04 - 01;07;47;02

Ricky

And on that note, I'm Rick.

01;07;48;05 - 01;07;48;17

Piper

Piper.

01;07;48;20 - 01;07;49;13

Ricky

Good night.

01;07;50;29 - 01;07;55;12

Piper

And don't play in the street at nighttime. Daytime fun.

01;07;55;22 - 01;07;57;27

Ricky

I love you. Bye.