Funko Pop - Latest arrivals and news

What are Funko Pops !?

The Funko pops are miniature reproductions, or action figures, made of PVC plastic materials (to be precise, a quality defined by the company as "eco-friendly PVC"), of the protagonists of the most successful TV series, cartoons, films and anime, which in fact, a once they have achieved a certain notoriety they are judged worthy of a special collection by the now famous manufacturing company.

The History of Pop Funko in Italy and in the world

The story of Pop Funko begins in 1998 when a T-shirt designer and collector's toy enthusiast named Mike Becker during a while walking around the market, while looking for a vintage reproduction of the Big Boy restaurant mascot, he discovered that the object of his desires was only sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars, and annoyed by the excessively high price, he thought he could produce his own replica of the Big Boy in China, for an almost lower price than the original, and so it was. 

Some time after this first intuition, Mike launched the company Funko headquartered in its home in Snohomish, WA, began selling scaled-down figures of Pope, Dick Tracy, the cereal mascot General Mills Count Choucula and of course his first creation, the mascot “the Big Boy”.

Funko Pop and Italy: Here comes Brian Mariotti

In the following years Becker began to lose interest in the expansion of the company he created, being devoid of growth ambitions and satisfied of its current production, and later, during a slight phase of decline in the sale of its products I start thinking about selling the company to monetize. 

Just in that period he meets Brian Mariotti, former owner of a nightclub as well as a great collector of clear Italian descent, who immediately shows himself to be very interested in taking over the company, so much so that he to persuade the hesitant Becker to give him all of Funko, provided that a clause was included in the sales contract that guaranteed his former employees to keep their jobs in the company. 

The evolution of Funko Pop Vinyl in Italy and abroad

Mariotti had ambitious growth ideas for the company, he wanted to go further the simple "bubblehead" (i.e. action figures that are characterized by having the head attached to the body with a spring or similar, which allow it to dangle once it is touched) currently produced,  and begin to be a globally recognized brand.

For this reason, at the 2010 Comic-on in San Diego, he decided to debut a prototype on which he had immediately put the company to work, called Funko Force 2.0., a less detailed version of the previous ones, and the characters he decided to present as tests were Green Lantern, Batgirl and two versions of Funko Pop Batman.

Initially, the criticism of the longest-lived fans of the brand was very severe, but Mariotti did not let himself get discouraged and instead gave much weight to the enthusiastic reviews released by the faithful Comic-on goers, who until then had no knowledge of the Funko pop vinyl brand in Italy or abroad, thus deciding to put into production the new line of products he had in mind, which would be became the famous Funko POP Vinyl.

The birth of the POP Funko puppets!

Initially, the line of POP Funko puppets included the characters Funko Pop DC, Funko Pop Marvel and Funko Pop Star Wars, since the company already held such licenses. Subsequently the collection expanded first with the addition of further 25 licenses, to then also expand the sales points passing from just comic book shops and theme shops to more generic wholesalers and generic toy stores, while introducing eye-catching packaging that added further characterization to the product, making it mainstream even on online stores.

In a short time, the most devoted fans began to post entire conversations about the brand and their custom Funko Pops on forums and blogs , a very active community was thus created which contributed to expanding the company's reputation globally.

The decisive step to definitively expand the empire of pop puppets Funko it happened when the characters of the well-known TV series of “Game of Thrones” began to post photos that portrayed them together with their respective reproductions from the series Funko Pop Game of Thrones

From here the Funko products spread more and more on the market becoming a real cult, and this convinced licensors such as Marvel and DC wanting to become part of the tour, bringing the brand's resources to a whole other level, they thus began to create some previously less popular characters, such as the Funko Pop Joker or the Funko Pop Deadpool.

Funko POPs ai present day

Thanks to the vast choice offered, due to the fact that by now the Funko action figures portray an infinite series of characters from any background, as long as they are trendy , and thanks to the 9.99E product lines put on the market, which allow everyone to start collecting them quickly, Funko has laid the foundations for – in the words of its owner – to become a collecting drug. 

Although other producers could have produced Pop Action figures of the most famous, only Funko thanks to its ever-increasing agreements with the Licensors, has been able to produce a huge diversified collection, including for example Funko pop the walking dead, POP Funko Pokemon, Funko Pop Disney, without losing the value of the brand.

Mariotti summarizes the success of Funko in one sentence: There is or there will definitely be something in our catalog that will catch your eye, whether it's a Funko Pop Wednesday Addams, a Funko Pop Breaking Bad, a Funko Pop Harry Potter or any other piece in a collection, we are sure to find something in the latest trends that will let you make the first purchase. And once you're in the loop, we'll do our best to keep you in it!

Where to buy Funko Pop vinyl in Italy: Vendiloshop.it

For those who have always been passionate about these collectible action figures or for those who have already fallen in love with them simply by reading these few lines about their history, on the Vendilo San Marino store you can find a Funko Pop Shop with a complete list of all the action figures available and which can be purchased comfortably online and in complete safety. Furthermore, orders will be processed in just one working day, not bad right?

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