Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Funko Pop!

Go To

  • Archive Panic: They've got a few for everything. EVERYTHING. In fact, many are people are surprised that Nintendo is one of the few companies that haven't licensed their franchises to be in the lineup.note 
  • Broken Base:
    • The D.Va pilot figure included with the Pop of her MEKA is smaller than usual (in order to limit the MEKA's size), undermining the figure's compatibility with the rest of the Overwatch line. Some people don't mind this since the Pop on its own is a fantastic collectible, while others dislike that D.Va wasn't scaled properly and would have preferred a larger, more expensive MEKA so that D.Va herself would have been the same size as the other heroes. A full-size pilot D.Va was sold later in 2019, thus satisfying both camps.
    • Metallic Toucan Sam. This got some fans angry. He was limited to 1000 pieces, a fact that wasn't announced until he came out. There was also a portion of profit donated to charity, which is baffling for a limited edition item.
    • Funko's Lilo & Stitch Pop figures are very hyper-fixated on the latter title character; while this is undeniably because of his incredible popularity, there are several Lilo & Stitch fans, both of the franchise as a whole and of just the original film, who are annoyed that almost all the Lilo & Stitch Pops are just different variations of Stitch, especially the surprisingly large amount of figures based on brief scenes from the first film alone. How bad is it? At Funko Fair 2021, the company announced that they would be making eight new Stitch figures, two of which are variants of Stitch with his claw on the record player with the only differences being whether his mouth is open or not. Prior to January 2023, when Reuben was announced during Funko Fair 2023 to finally be getting his own Pop figure, only Lilo, Angel, Scrump (if "she" counts as a character), and Pudge (of all characters) have each received at least one figure (not including keychain variants),note  while Stitch has over thirty figures so far.
  • Fandom Rivalry:
    • With Kidrobot, though mostly on 4chan.
    • With Nendoroid, though most of the hatred comes from the Nendoroid side. Nendoroid fans hate Pops due to most of them having identical faces which often go into Unintentional Uncanny Valley territory and not being posable, as well as their ubiquity making them appear to be figures for the Lowest Common Denominator. On the other hand, Pop fans argue that Nendoroids are overpriced compared to Pops, and enjoy the fact that Pops have a wider variety of licenses.
  • Hype Backlash: They have a mixed reputation among certain nerd/fandom communities, with many disliking them for seemingly embodying the perceived consumerism creeping across nerd culture and others for their apparent Lowest Common Denominator appeal and general dorkiness (as shown in this oddly mean-spirited Clickhole article). Interestingly, more than a few of the people who vocally hate on the figures and the people who collect them secretly own some themselves (especially if it's of a lesser-known character who almost never gets any merch). Also see It's Popular, Now It Sucks!.
  • It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: More than a few people tend to hate Pops because of how ubiquitous they are, for making figure collecting mainstream, and for overshadowing other vinyl figure lines.
  • Misaimed Merchandising:
    • The Red Knight Pop from Dark Souls III. While the figure itself isn't this, the description on the box is weirdly cheery, given the famously Crapsack World of the source material.
    • Making Pops of the 2016 American presidential candidates just seems... bizarre. Not helping matters was that the 2016 election was one of the most controversial elections in then-recent years. It didn't help that Pops of more past and future politicians were released, some of which are considered legitimate war criminals.
    • Hot Topic has an exclusive translucent Pop of Bing Bong from Inside Out. The translucency was intended to indicate him being an imaginary friend, but it understandably ticked off a lot of people who actually saw it, considering his fate in the movie of getting forgotten, leading to him vanishing.
  • Moe: Some characters look downright adorable Popified, such as SpongeBob, Rocky the Squirrel, Doraemon, Snoopy, Olaf, Baby Groot, Vanellope... It helps that a majority of these characters are Moe to begin with.
  • Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The 2017 Mrs. Potts figure. The molding and paint job is quite detailed, which contrasts harshly with the face made of simple shapes, especially since some of the paint lines look like they might or might not be a nose.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Five Nights at Freddy's Pops being recommended for ages 8+ may be pushing it a little, but seeing an ages 3+ label (and not the "safety tested" one) on Pops for Cowboy Bebop, Borderlands, Overwatch, Game of Thrones and freakin' Alien: Covenant is just baffling.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The Pops are largely targeted to adult collectors and Horror Films and adult-skewing media are largely represented, but this can pop up from time to time, usually with the demographic labels on the front of Pop boxes. Seeing 14+ warnings on Pops for Animaniacs, Steven Universe, and Scooby-Doo is just strange. More recent Pops have done away with age labels, possibly signifying this is dying down.

Top