5 tips to start you collection

I’ve been collecting since September 2014 when I picked up chucky and peter venkman, now I’ve got 200 plus..but to be fair I don’t spend a great deal, I mean I spend about £40 to £50 a month and there’s been the odd special occasions where I’ve gone nuts, but my bank account is fine , space to put them isn’t , not big tips but this is how I do it..

1. Sell your shit (pardon my French) I’m guessing if your thinking of starting a funko collection, then you had previous collections , mainly film figures, TV memorabilia , am I right? Well look around you, what do you need? I had bluray box sets (there’s Netflix now) old figures, autographs , old iPods just loads of rubbish but expensive rubbish. I’ve sold over £250 worth of stuff in since September and I’ve spent it at stores like forbidden planet and popculture.

2. Subscriptions – if you want regular pops, can I suggest pop in a box http://www.popinabox.co.uk , a monthly subscription service , you can have up to 6 a month, if you can afford it, get 6 , I reckon you have a good chance to get an exclusive at least a few times a year, if not every month, do that and your up to 72 pops in your first year already , a friend of mine has just won a blue Cheshire Cat from popinabox , that’s worth up to £200 , so defiantly worth it.

Subscription boxes can be fantastic too, keep your ear out for exclusive pops, then just cancel the subscription when there are no exclusives , I’ve done this for lootcrate, And have got a lovely jokerbatman pop.

If your reading this today or before mygeekbox is released for June, they are also offering an exclusive pop this month – the first ever in the UK, for a reasonable price of around £17.

3. Check websites every day- always do this, popculture, popinabox and forbidden planet I recommend , because sometimes you can drop on, I got bane for 12.99 when I ordered around Christmas time, a previous hard to get pop, and beginning to look like that again, I also got a notorious BIG from the same place for 9.99 again quite hard to get now .

Popculture is a great website for cheap pops and exclusives , unfortunately they rarely have the sticker on , which for some collectors is a must .

4. Check forbidden planet and your pop shops regularly , wow I’ve been on shopping trips and found the genie, unmasked star lord, Thor with helmet, chase superman and greyscale Raphael for 9.99 in the past twelve months.
That would have cost me £50 in total , the price now is well about £200, you just have to be very clever.

5. This is a weird little tip but hey it builds your collection, save your change, aim for £10 and have a day where you just buy a random, I don’t have many local pop shops, but we have a smyths, and they store all the avengers , so for the last seven weeks I’ve bought one every Friday, just by spending £5 a day on groceries instead of £6 or whatever you do, it’s a nice little treat every week, I choose Friday , because Friday’s are already awesome .

6. Follow @funkdeals on Twitter, the guy shows you all the bargains from the UK, pops from £7.99 are always welcome .

Facebook have a good little swap and trade page called funko pop- buy, sell, trade uk nice little group with some cracking rarities on there.

Look at insanely retro on the web , and swap your pops and get some really good deals.

7. Have fun, it’s a fun harmless collection, don’t go mad, you can pay £100s for each pop, be wary, because that pop you buy for £200 one day maybe £9.99 next week at forbidden planet.

Look at me on Twitter , I’ll try and help @andmad54pop and be jealous of someone I follow, look at the collection of @funkoPOPFanUK

The MARVEL COLLECTORS CORPS

Well it was late but I’m a very patient man, but it arrived very safe and in perfect condition.
The second I saw the hulkbuster I needed this , living in the UK, there was shipping but in total it came to £28.
So let’s start with the box, the box is the best looking box in all the subscription boxes , even got a brilliant cartoon comic strip inside and yes I’m going to mark the box because I’m that sad, so that being .

The box 5 out of 5.

So when you first open the box your presented with a beautiful comic strip as I said, and you are presented by a captain America pin badge and a ultron patch , both with collectors corps on it, I don’t care much for these but they are highly collectable , especially the pin which seems to be the in thing, so they do no harm.

The bits 3 out of 5.

The first thing that jumps up at you when you open a 2nd part of the box is the hulkbuster pop vinyl, and boy is it good! It’s heavy, perfectly painted , sculpture is stunning and maybe one of the best pops ever created and that’s enough said really. A classic pop.

The Hulkbuster 5 out of 5

The Dorbz product is not something I’ll be collecting, not that it’s bad, it’s just the pop vinyl obsession is enough already, it’s a nice product and it’s always nice to have an exclusive . This particular one is a ultron box exclusive.

Dorbz 3 out of 5

The comic is again an exclusive , and it’s a good read, lovely illustrations and again a must have.

Comic 4 out of 5

The T-shirt is stunning, I got the hulk one , which if I’m honest is what I wanted and it’s already been worn well.
Great material with a nice design, definitely one of the better designs I’ve seen in a subscription box, I love it.

T-shirt 5 out of 5

Overall a great first box , next theme is Antman and I can’t wait, Another pop vinyl exclusive would be nice, a double pack maybe ? Most definitely five out of five overall , I reckon they will only get better too, well done marvel and funko.

THE Z BOX

Ok, so I’m super excited . Today I’ve ordered my first Z BOX from zavvi, now the thing is with these subscription boxes , they are all American and shipping is a pain in the arse..well UK people Zavvi have started the Z box, been going for a few months now and well it looks brilliant, there’s been prizes of t shirts, figures, comics , vinyl records (yes!) and more important for me FUNKO pop figures.
I hope zavvi are reading this and I’ll tell you why? At £20 I think that’s reasonable , I do…but man am I skint this month, so I’ve had stick stuff on eBay to get this…dedication? yes I think so.
So the morning of the 14/4/15 after weeks of trying to sell stuff I have , and placed my order this morning…very excited..

ZAVVI is there a more dedicated person than me?

This months theme is animation , and apparently there’s a guaranteed funko pop, so I’m sold already..worried I already have it though …oh god, what a nightmare that would be ..

The good people at zavvi have guaranteed some stuff from Pixar, big hero six , duck tales and a funko.

My guess is a big hero six pop, but we will see. Animation is such a huge potential for a great box and I am super excited. I think everyone should order this, who doesn’t love a bit of Disney, Pixar, South Park , family guy the possibilities are endless.

So in honour of Zavvi and the world of animation I will count down my top 5 animated films of all time, why do I do these things?? Added stress ..ok here it goes..

5. How to train your dragon – what a perfect film, the music, the animation, the voice overs, such a beautiful film and will live on forever as a classic, very underrated . Toothless is adorable and also a fantastic funko pop too.

4.The jungle book – great songs, again timeless, a film that is over 50 years old and has stood the test of time for so long, great characters , who doesn’t love baloo?

3. Toy story 2 – I don’t know why this is considered the better of the 3 , maybe it’s Jessie, the comedy, the beautiful annimation, but I just think it’s characters that have settled and we are all familiar with now.. Perfect .

2. UP – this is my favourite Disney film, it makes you cry , laugh and want to be part of their world. Visually is there anything better?

1. Spirited away – not only my favourite animated film of all time , but one of my fav films of all time, the Japanese anime has so many layers of beauty and characters that stand the test of time, it blows anything Disney have ever created.

Well everyone hope you enjoyed, what’s your favourite animated film? And more importantly enjoy your Z BOX!!

The rare and hard to get FUNKOS

I have a decent collection right? Nearing 100, I’m happy , but there’s always more..always.
For example I really want and need the Simpsons collection , but that probably will never happen or will it?? You see another one I really wanted was bane about 6 months ago, I desperately wanted bane , he’s not a great looking pop but I wanted him because he was retired and going for £150-£200 on eBay, and I bet people paid that with no worries. Six months later I have bane , I think I paid £16 , just before Xmas forbidden planet had bane on its main page , saying quick we have a few in stock very soon, get quick, so I did, and It arrived and yes it was good, but that few in stock are still in stock and freely available everywhere.
The Simpsons are a set of four going for about £50 to £150 each I think I’ll wait…
Rare pops are a good thing though, I cherish mine and they are my heart of my collection and I thrive that when I buy new pops there’s always that thought that this could be valuable not that I would sell.
As I look on eBay now I see a headless Ned for £350, a jimmy Hendrix for £200 and a bloody alien for £230.
Incredible really and there’s loads for £100 plus, the only one in my collection seem to be an unmasked metallic captain America and the genie for about £80-£100. I do wish I had the more expensive ones but cherish your collection.
Ok so you reading this now do you have Funko shopping regrets?? I have several, when I first started collecting , there was a shelf full of rocky balboa’s I left them there..now they are worth..well look yourself .
I had the opportunity for a headless Ned 12 months ago, I didn’t want it at the time, and yes I left it. There’s probably tons more, the wizard of oz collection was all in forbidden planet manchester after Christmas , again I thought I’ll get them next time, there was never a next time.
Now I shop and think, I think the film line will be valuable , not the 80s, but the films that come and go, the avengers is a good line, the Disney one offs like big hero six could be big for funkos, because people will stop buying them and then likely be discontinued .
Talking about Disney , well the early Disney are all valuable now , my claim to fame Is the genie , so think Disney when your buying plus they are lovely looking pops.
I also think TV series will be timeless, think of your favorite tv programs growing up and the merchandise surrounding it, and what it’s worth now , even 5 or 6 years ago, I have some pretty excellent LOST figures, now they are priceless , get your breaking bads and game of thrones because they are landmark television programs and will be in 30 years time too.
I’ve talked about in previous blogs , enjoy your collection , even if it’s not rare , I wish mine could be better but it’s mine , and it’s personal to me.

If anyone wants to give me a Stan lee though, you know where I am.

POP IN A BOX!

So when I was starting my Funko obsession, I would watch videos on unboxing services, the likes of lootcrate, horror crate looks impressive but to be fair all I would want is the funko, so it got me thinking is there a uk service, uk? Because the shipping fees are ridiculous.

So I came across Pop in a box!

Pop in a box is a fantastic monthly subscription service, that I adore! Fee starts at £8.49 which already is fabulous, why you ask?

1. Their website is revolutionary , genius idea, that you basically give a thumbs up to the pops that catch your eye, and you can also tell pop in a box if you already have a certain pop, so you will NEVER get a pop you own ! Genius.

2. They pretty much have every pop on their website, so even if it’s not in stock because it’s as rare as a good Adam Sandler film , you never know…it may come in and you have already said you want it.

3. You don’t have to have one pop, you can have up to 6 a month , which is sometimes better with a cheaper postage!

4. I’m sorry but what’s better than getting a pop every month and waiting for that surprise, not knowing what you get , Christmas is twelve times a year.

5. Not only do you get a brand new sparkling glorious Pop figure , you also get some popping candy.

6. The shop is pretty awesome too, I’ve ordered quite a lot from there, much cheaper than forbidden planet, order in bulk too, definitely worth it.
Also worth pre ordering items too before they likely sell out in shops.

7. The staff all seem very nice and very helpful, quick to reply with queries you may have.

8. The competitions are very good and quite frequent, so you have a great chance of extra pops arriving at your door.

9. 8,49 for one pop is very good . Many people post their pictures on twitter and from what I’ve seen a lot of subscribers get rare and valuable pops.

10. You can cancel anytime, not that you would want to.

So all in all a great service, especially if your just starting out or just wanting to add to your collection, I repeat who wouldn’t want a surprise gift turning up at your doorstop every week.

Bravo Pop in a box. Unboxing video soon!

https://popinabox.co.uk/user/login

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@andmad54pop

WHY DO WE LOVE FUNKO POP??

Ok so why does a 32 year old man write a post about toys? I’ve never done a blog in my life, now I’m doing a weekly blog about items I’ve only just started collecting, these toys must be powerful?

I collected the 1989 batman figures, WWF, teenage turtles, ghostbusters, thunder-cats figures when I was little, I remember as my mum said I ruined Christmas one year, because I went downstairs at 3am and opened all my Teenage Turtles figures. I remember my mum coming downstairs and held the blimp in my hand saying “hey mum, look what he got me”.
My biggest memory of growing up was having 100+ WWF Figures and being the envy of my friends, being proud that I had the demolition and rockers figures. I remember the happiness as clear as anything.
I’ve collected figures again about 15 years ago when I went through my horror films are awesome stage, I had a chucky doll, the McFarland Freddy Kruger and Jason mainly because I thought it , it can’t be toys because these characters kill , I’m not a geek I must be cool because everyone likes chucky and he is a toy so I’m doing no wrong!
Now just after my 32nd birthday, I’m married , got a mortgage , very good job, even wrote a children’s book! I’m officially an adult right? Well with my birthday money, I saw a chucky Funko Pop, and instantly smiled, and I had to have it! Weeks later, there was a Freddy and a Jason, I felt like the times I was at my most happiest, when I was buying toys! A major factor is how cool they are, they just look so well made!

Not only that though, we have reached a stage in all of our lives where Transformers, Turtles , Ghostbusters and Batman are huge again!
So why is it cool to collect these? Think about the happiest time of your life and it was Christmas Day opening action figures and watching Ghostbusters and Gremlins so what a Funko pop does is put you right back to that time, and what’s wrong with that?

There’s a Funko Pop for everyone , I collected all the Breaking Bad Pop figures because it was the coolest show ever, and I wanted a memento from that period of my life.
Many people love superhero films, so what’s wrong with having a little Spider-Man or Iron man on your desk.

Funko have created the most perfect product yet, they have transferred me back to the happiest period of my life, I don’t play with them like I did when I was a kid, but I have a permanent token from my childhood in my bedroom, and it’s there always so bravo Funko.

Andmad54pop