Funko Fanatics POP up

By Cassidy McNea

Every nook of Stacy and John Romien’s house is filled with toys.

Cute, large-headed, vinyl figures based on pop culture characters and people are organized into sections: a Disney section in the living room, a Batman section in the bathroom, a Friends section in the kitchen and at least ten more sections around the house.

All of these toys are made by the company Funko and the figures are called Pops. They are each about four inches tall and feature large round heads, solid black eyes the size of a dime and on most, mouths are nonexistent.

John’s t-shirt has the Funko logo on it and Stacy’s features a Pop version of Maleficent. The couple has been collecting for two years and own a collection worth almost $20,000.

“There are ones that are out of the box, I have a grandson, so those are the ones he plays with,” says Stacy. “He’s three and he will say, ‘Take my Pops down grandma,’ but he knows he can’t touch the other ones. It was really easy to teach him that he couldn’t touch the expensive ones or anything in a box.”

They are not the only adults who collect these figures. They run a Facebook group with their neighbour who they refer to as the “godfather” of Pops. The group is made up of more than 300 members who post Pops they have acquired, ones they have for sale and offers of trades.

Funko figures pop up in the most unlikely places, from bookstores to drug stores. Jesse Nasr, a retail manager, says he gets shipments of about 300 Pops per week and sells around 1,000 a month at $12 a figure.

“There’s enough stuff to relate to somebody. The market is so vast everybody can get something,” says Nasr.

Nasr does not collect the figures himself.

He used to, but he says with collections constantly growing and the fact they cost almost a meal each, he cannot justify it.

“They are cool but they all kind of look the same. I mean, only the very different ones are worth looking at. I just appreciate them for what they are at a distance now,” says Jesse.

Nasr gets at least 20 regular customers per week, searching for exclusive Pops. Many of the regulars are close friends with Stacy and John.

In fact, the Romiens have a lot of Funko friends, a whole network of people in different locations who pick up exclusives for each other.

“There is an exclusive Target coming out next week so I have have two of my American friends on it to get there and get it for me,” says Stacy.

With Pop collecting there is always a new figure coming out and according to Nasr, plenty of variations. Windsor ComicCon had multiple vendors selling figures ranging from $10 to more than $50. Collectors track the prices online. But it is not all about the money.

“If the value of these went down to to zero tomorrow I’d still keep these,” said John. “It’s something we enjoy, it makes us smile and we’re happy.”