As collectors, we like to find things that are a little bit different or unique. Many collectible manufacturers like to take advantage of this by created limited availability variants that we all know as a “Chase”. The problem is, sometimes these variants make us stop and scratch our head or shake our fists in rage. These are the top 10 laziest Chase variants, according to the Pop Collectors Alliance.
10. Weaponized Rick – Open Wide.
When looking for a good Chase the main thing I want is something that stands out and is a little different. If I took the sticker off, can I tell the difference? Weaponized Rick is probably the most standard variant that could be imagined, just paint his mouth different. Yes, it stands out from the common variant but it’s just a different paint job on his face. Unless you are a hardcore completionist I would say just get the Chase. At least it looks more interesting than the standard version. If you are holding a gun, chances are you are going to be shouting something.
9. Peggy Bundy – It’s Just a Color Swap!
After the ‘ole change the mouth trick, the next laziest thing that you will see on a Chase is the pallet swap. Sometimes this is done well and makes the item actually interesting. For instance, let’s change up all of the colors and make them look crazy. This is something that I can get behind and possibly will drive me to hunt down a Pop! Other times it comes across as stale and lazy. Enter Peggy Bundy from Married with Children. The only difference between the common and the Chase is the fact that her shirt is switched from tiger stripes to leopard print. Is this different enough to show effort? It’s hard to say but a change in pose would have been appreciated if we just get a wardrobe adjustment.
8. Baby (Baby Driver) & Lorraine (Atomic Blonde) – It’s Just Glasses!
We move from “oh you just changed the color of a shirt” all the way over to “just slap some glasses on (or take them off). Adding an accessory just seems to be the biggest cop-out you could muster up when trying to come up with an interesting alternative to a figure. In this case I couldn’t make up my mind which was worse, adding glasses to a fairly plain character or removing them. The Chase for Baby from Baby Driver is probably more of an annoyance to me than Lorraine, mainly due to the fact that removing an article of clothing shouldn’t constitute for something special. ADD GLASSES TO THE FIGURE! Why isn’t the common without glasses? I would have been fine if they added more sun glasses. Give him 7 pairs of glasses. Maybe, just one pair of oversized clown glasses. This makes no sense to me at all, but this isn’t the first time this complaint appears, trust me.
7. Daryl Ward – A Wand or a Shotgun?
I want to start this off by saying I have no idea what Bright is other than Netflix giving Will Smith a reason to make Bad Boys with Orcs , I think. I really don’t know and that’s just a snap judgement. What I do know is whoever this Daryl Ward is he has a very poor sense of what a good weapon might or might not be. The Chase of this man replaces a very sensible shotgun with a very small and brittle wand. This seems like another tale of “we got the work orders switched for the Chase and the common”. Wouldn’t it seem more fitting that the limited edition of this item be the one with the stronger weapon? It might help if I actually understood the story but as an outsider looking in, this is lazy and wrong.
6. Leatherface (Pretty Woman Mask) – “You got a little ketchup on your face”.
I love bloody Pops or blood splattered anything, really. When it’s done the right way, it really adds a lot of action and excitement to a Pop! When it’s done wrong, well you get the recently released Leatherface from the Hot Topic 2018 Horror Box. The description says blood splattered, but it comes across more like cut while shaving, or just learning to airbrush. There is so little red paint flicked on the figure it’s nearly unnoticeable, which is too bad because this Pop! had a lot of potential. Keep in mind the glam shots contain 100x more blood than you will find on the actual Pop! Definitely still an awesome figure, just a terrible Chase.
5. Jake the Snake Roberts – OK, This is getting a little ridiculous.
I love wrestling with every fiber of my being. I have watched some form of wrestling from the age of about 5 to now. I love everything there is to love about wrestling, so maybe my frustration with this Pop! is a little exaggerated but THEY JUST CHANGED THE COLOR OF HIS PANTS AND SNAKE! There is so much that could have been done with Jake the Snake but just wasn’t. This one feels like a total miss for me, hence the number 6 spot on my list. Don’t you worry they get much worse. Oh, and by the way Funko, we don’t like pallet swaps on Chases, please do more.
4. Sub-Zero – And now we get into the dark place.
Up until this point we have been complaining about pallet swaps and strange uses of accessories. Sub-Zero is an entirely different story all together when it comes to the lazy Chase. Over the years Mortal Kombat has done some crazy and interesting things in their games. Funko should have 17 crates full of potential ideas for a Sub-Zero Chase. Can you guess what they did? Whatever you say you are wrong because I am not even sure what they did with this figure. When I first picked this guy up I thought that someone swapped a fake sticker onto a common Pop! No, there is just so little different from the common it makes your brain hurt. So what did they do differently? There is a blue ball in Sub-Zero’s hand. Yea, that’s it, it’s just a ball. I guess that makes sense. UGH!!!! Next.
3. Luke Skywalker on Speeder Bike – The name on the box is different.
This Pop! both should be higher on this list and lower at the same time. Honestly this isn’t a bad Pop! at all. It’s actually a very well made and super detailed version of a great scene from my favorite Star Wars movie. The problem I have here is that the Chase looks identical to the common. I don’t see a difference at all. What could I possibly mean? Well you see the common of this Pop! is actually Princess Leia, the Chase is Luke Skywalker. The same speeder, the same clothes, and nearly the same face. The only difference is that the box has a different name and a sticker and Leia has eyelashes, this is crazy. This was also one of the first ultra common Chase variants almost making it not a variant at all. Someone, please stop this madness.
2. Gollum – … and that fish.
This should be no secret if you have ever listened to the podcast (new episode every Friday on all major streaming platform) you should know how I feel about Gollum with the fish. This is the original lazy Chase Pop! Funko just took an incredibly dull sculpt of one of the best characters in fantasy and gave him a fish. Why not a pile of gold, or give him the face of Smaegol, or turning invisible, or literally any other number of creative ideas. The only solace I have regarding my dear friend Gollum is that Funko did right their sin by making a cloaked variant. It’s unfortunate that this stain exists. I shall just look away and pretend it never existed in the first place.
1. SGT Johnson – What is that in your mouth?
I honestly could not decide between Gollum and SGT Johnson from Halo as being the laziest Chase but the one thing I kept coming back to: it looks like a hamster dropping in his mouth. I am aware that is very uncouth and slightly disturbing but this is a terrible excuse for a Chase. It couldn’t have taken longer than 5 seconds to come up with the concept for this variant. Honestly, this couldn’t have been more than an inside joke, right?
Stu (product designer): Oops you knocked the cigar out of his mouth.
Terry (office funny guy): Guess you can make the broken one the common. Bwahahaha [laughter trails off as Terry walks to the bathroom].
Stu (amazing product designer): Common you say ……….
Is this even real life? Where am I and where did all the amazing Chases go?!
What do you think is the laziest Chase that Funko has produced? Is our list on par with your feelings or did we get it totally wrong? Let us know in the comments below. Make sure to check back every Tuesday for a new Top 10 list. Also make sure to check out our podcast and other unique content.
