My biggest gripe with Funkp Pops is that shops like Forbidden Planet which used to have tons of cool things are now often 90% Funko Pops (or at least feel like they are)
And then they go out of business because are people actually buying enough Funkos to justify this type of footprint? I have seen so many “geeky” stores convert to full on Funko stores and then just disappear…
That's one of the reasons I stopped going to my local game shop. About 70% of the space that used to be actual games is now instead these dead-eyed plastic monstrosities.
I think Funko has saturated the market. They used to be cool, with figures of characters that probably otherwise wouldn't get any merch, or unique versions of fan favorites. Now, they just churn out anything they can get their hands on. I used to have subs to all their mystery boxes, and I would collect every figure for characters that I even remotely liked. Now, unless it's something really creative, for a character i really love, I pass.
I get the feeling they just wanted to sell Funko Pops without needing to source materials, manufacture, and ship real, physical figurines. So now they're just selling Funko Pops digitally.
On the one hand, it would be a bummer to make physical collectibles in to digital (think NFTS). On the other hand, Funko Pops seem to be a huge source of trash should they ever fall off in popularity, and this is coming from someone that does 3d printing.
A lot like Magic the Gathering has tried to do with Arena... which I've been seeing advertised a lot more lately and have to wonder if the game is dying now that the pandemic is "over". And rightly so. The digital boosters in Arena cost nearly as much as real boosters per card.
@@lacrossev When the pop figure bubble does finally pop, I don't plan on throwing away any of them. They have worth as nostalgia to me. I only have about 20, so I can understand people with 100+ not being as attached. But I think the nostalgia attachment will help when the trend dies, as opposed to beanie babies, which had so little worth that you couldn't even give them away
@@KiraMermaidSame, I’m keeping mine. I’m quite attached to them, and I’m not one to stop enjoying something just because it’s not popular anymore. 🤷🏻♀️
The problem with crossovers these days is that the thought process isn't "These two franchises have a lot in common and it would be interesting to see them together, let's combine them" to "Pour all the franchises we have the rights to in a big swimming pool and see what happens."
We get a lot of things that don't mesh well, like MMPR and Usagi Yojimbo and the this so called game. Funko Pops are going to damage the rep of crossover games no matter what it does
@@shadowednight1600 okay so from your perspective, LEGO Dimensions, and Disney Infinity are the most malicious games out there? Because they are a crossover games. And they are the only one thats actually good. Fortnite is overloaded with microtransactions, and doesnt really bring anything to the table in terms of crossover, aside from "yeah, this season we got this crossover character, who is a bit related to our season's storyline (and then the storyline is just big bad is happening, and players have to stop it).
Ummmm okay then, so I guess Steve from Minecraft has a tonne "in common" with the entire roster of Super Smash Bros.???? Crossovers don't NEED to mesh together PERFECTLY. Whether they do that or not, does not determine the game being great or not.
@@jdw3142 Crossovers are supposed to be the best of both things combining. Smash Brothers fails at this. Funnily enough, the show Runaways has my favourite execution of a crossover.
Would be a bunch of zombies with the same face, with the backstory of being manufactured in such a way that instead of eating brains, their only purpose in life is to siphon money from people who could otherwise be collecting something with more charm and is less garbage.
To be honest, that's the sort of clever joke I could have seen old Pixar making back in the day, but I doubt modern Pixar are creative enough to pull it off and actually make it funny. Hell, most of the people who work at Pixar these days probably grew up collecting Funko Pops and probably think they're the best things ever and utterly adorable, not the soulless dead-eyed space-wasters that they actually are!
I know it's illegal for me to comment without referencing Ellen being stood up rather than sat down, but I enjoy these single-topic video essays. It really shows off your writing talents.
I said exactly the same thing! I didn't even miss having an uncomfortable looking colleague trapped beside her. Well, not as much as I thought anyway 😅
Funko Pops in media are like silverfish infestations. You think that once everything looks okay, they’re gone for good. But they just hide in obscurity until it’s most inconvenient for you.
Thinking about the toy company with a hand in the licensed game dept: Lego - extremely sharp QA and very tight tolerances for acceptable quality. Physical products regularly gain value over time. Funko - known for being bought/shipped in bulk by collectors so that the boxes of some of the units will remain unmarred, with the crappier ones being returned or sent to a landfill.
Love the more journalistic style of this. Watching you all play games and makes lists is what got me hooked, but when you get more serious and critique stuff it is really great to see that side to you guys. I hope we get to see more of this!
This video is the first time in 2024 I've experienced someone mention Big Train without the conversation involving me having to explain it! The Stare Off World Championships still live rent free in my head. Thank you!
We forced our kids to watch the Fireman and Jockeys sketch because it lives rent free in my head to this day. (And of course the World Staring Championships, because it will never not be funny)
"I'm terribly sorry there, I don't understand a word of English. I wish I could tell what you're saying, but I didn't really pay attention at school, its quite funny actually"
They've used this format before, but it always had the added complication of Ellen having to stand on a box and/or Luke only being visible from the chin down.
It got ratings classification in Australia. M (Mature) Fantasy and Violence, not recommended for children under the age of 15. No mention of "In-App Purchases" or "Online Interactivity", so its going to be a tonne of "DLC Packs"
@@boxhead6177 I'll bet money they're going to tie in-game content with exclusive pops. It'll be like like Starlink or just amiibos, but with less style and shoehorned in to a game that just happens to have Funko pop skins.
That one single person who's seemingly in the middle of the Venn diagram between "Funko Pop collector", "Young Adult", "action game aficionado", "gore enjoyer" and "lot's of disposable income" is going to be so, so dissappointed...
I think that, similar to the way Funko reduce every character to a similar dead-eyed, big headed figure, the more crossovers there are, the more it damages the uniqueness of each character or franchise
I'm old enough to remember the rhetoric around Saturday Morning Cartoons just being 30-minute commercials for toys (with commercial breaks). This feels exactly like that, only instead of commercials in their Funko Pop commercial, they put microtransactions, so you can pay for the commercials in your Funko Pop commercial. Yo dawg...
So this is looking like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League on a much larger scale. Wider cast of characters, still a shooter in which every character has a gun, even the ones for which it really doesn't make sense.
Wow. It's rare that we see Oxtra assassinate a game like this. Not that they're wrong to do so. In fact, I really appreciate it. This game just looks... soulless.
@@Floymin she also said there were around 15,000 pops in existence and sounded like not having the majority of them in the game was an unreasonable or ridiculous thing.. of course we weren't going to have the majority of 15,000 in one game
I had a idea for a future list video. Seven villains who recieve no comeuppance. One example that comes to mind is Viridi from Kid Icarus Uprising, she causes just as much death and destruction as Hades, but never gets punished for her brief time as a villain.
The very idea that you shouldn't even open the boxes these horrific monsters come in is such a genuine slap in the face to anyone that cares about the planet. I genuinely hate it so much. And no, of course the things are not going to have value later on. It's a scam
To be fair, I remember Beanie Babies quite fondly. Mostly because if you're not a collector, they still make great toys (and were some of my favorites). Which is more than I can say for a Funko Pop.
My main problem with the game is that I just don't like Funko Pops - why would I want a bulky, cheaply made plastic figure that looks nothing like the character it's supposed to be? I have never understood the appeal - someone bought me an andorian (from Star Trek) and I just find myself resentful of it because it either takes up too much space or I have to take the time to get rid of it somehow, but I'm far too ethical to just throw away something made of 100% non-biodegradable plastic. I've already tried listing it on eBay a few times but these things are so abundant, that I can't even get rid of it for the minimum starting bid with free postage (so I effectively cannot even *pay* someone to take it from me). In short - I do not want a video game for these things. 😝
I find some of the more detailed ones are cute. I like my Dark Crystal Chamberlain figure because they had to keep his avian head shape, detailed robes, and all his wrinkles. All the rest are pretty ugly, though.
Pretty sure the Funko mobile game includes something that is pretty much an NFT now. I get their email blasts where they say if I get this collectible in game, I win the chance to buy it in reality.
Ahh, I missed having Ellen rant for 20 minutes at a time! Still oddly satisfying without an uncomfortable looking Tall-Ellen beside her. As for the game, hah! No chance, especially because Im just wanting to find out we'd need to buy the physical items to unlock specific characters in the future.
Funko Fusion makes me sad because it clearly just exists because money, not because someone had an interesting gameplay style idea or a good story to tell
For #2, its also important to mention Lego games spent years homing in and laser-focusing on a singlular license. This allowed the devs to better mix the charm and humor of the games with the feel and unique quirks of that license. Lego games were a fusion of the license and Legos. This just looks like a TPS with licensed skins.
I feel it's all about keeping an open mind. LEGO Dimensions was nearly the same concept (and some of the same developers) and people absolutely adored how it was executed.
Eh, could be worse. It could be one of those base game things like that Lego Dimensions or that one with the dragon toys where you have to buy separate toys at £10-£15 a pop just to put them on a base which get uploaded into the game.
True. Skylanders was pretty obviously doomed to fail and only really enjoyed what little "success" it did because of that awful mutant version of Spyro (and the utterly forgettable cartoon series they made to promote the game). At least Amiibos can be used across multiple games AND the actual figurines are pretty high-quality. That said, I recently heard the news that they're releasing an Indominus Rex Funko, and that each one will come with a code allowing the buyer to use her in their game. No mention of whether or not she can be accessed in-game without said code, but either way one would hope they're not making the special unlockable character a requirement to beat the game. 🤔
@@dyingstar24That's it. I thought it was called something to do with Sky in the title. Had no idea it had anything to do with Spyro though. Then again I never played either, only heard mention of them. ✨
@@submariNervousProblem is with Amiibo; isn't that restricted to Nintendo Switch? Regardless of quality, you'd still need a whole new piece of hardware to use them if you only have PC, Playstation or Xbox. 🥺 And true having an exclusive Funko pop figure with a code could be seen as cheap but unfortunately things with a separate code have been going on for years. But currently, since the game hasn't been released yet, we may be prejudging and she might be unlockable as standard. So those who don't pre order it have nothing to worry about and will probably just forget about the game anyway. I think that's kinda my main issue with the comments of this video; that people are judging like they've already spent £54.99 and played it... Meanwhile, it's not even out yet and it's clear that these commentators don't want it so they don't really need to worry surely. 🤔 I mean it's okay expressing an opinion but prejudging before the facts I can never be onboard with.
@@TheHufflepuffSaint Regarding the Amiibos' console-exclusivity, they're actually also compatible with a few Wii and 3DS games! (though I will give you the point for that one, since the eShop shutting down for all non-Switch consoles means fewer and fewer folks will be using them). That said, my point when bringing up Amiibos in the first place was simply that despite being restricted Nintendo console games, they still inherently have more bang-for-your-buck than the Skylanders figures since the latter are exclusive to one game and you never know when your interest will taper off. All THAT said, I do second the hope that the Indominus will be unlockable in the actual game, with the figure's code just being a way to get her right away (ngl the only reason I'm not buying the I-Rex figure myself is because the chase variant is ugly af and I don't want to risk ending up with that one lol. 😅) At the end of the day, it's as you said: We simply have to wait and do our best to reserve judgment until we know more.
While I do love TT Games, Funko Fusion is still the closest thing we have to a TT Games LEGO game right now since TT Games have been absolutely silent about their next project and Funko Fusion is made up of some of thier ex employees. While I don’t know how the game will turn out, this is all I have to fill the void TT Games has temporarily left me for I think 1-2 years, so for me I’ll play it, and I’ve already preordered it.
Have you played it yet? No. Perhaps, just maybe, you should actually play it first, before judging so harshly? I'm old enough to remember the same cynical criticisms being aimed at the very first Travellers Tales LEGO game before it released in 2005. Almost 20 years later, it's one of the best-selling and most loved video game franchises of all time. I really couldn't give a toss about Funko Pop figures, but I think this game is going to be a huge amount of fun. My Kids and I are really looking forward to playing this together in September.
I'm still amazed anyone buys these pointless wastes of plastic tbh. I understand collecting things, also figures - but these are just so generic and low effort.
This seems familiar. When, though? Ah, yes. The Beanie Baby craze! The Funko idea is the newest addition to the long list of incidents. History has a funny way of repeating itself.
1. Many of the characters have different weapons and playstyles 2. It's a lot more fun than many Lego games, because all lego games recycle the same puzzles OVER and OVER again. Sometimes even in the same level you have to repeat the same exact puzzle multiple times 3. It's a game, not a funko gacha simulator 4. There are NO MICROTRANSACTIONS in the game. There are some dlc packs, just like the latest LEGO Star Wars game.... This is not what MICROtransaction means 5. Grasping at straws Overall, this video is pointless and doesn't accomplish anything except to shit on a game that hasn't even released just out of (admittedly based) resentment for Funko. The game is not equivalent to irl funko collecting, and I have no interest in Funko pops. I will not be purchasing any paid DLC to play this game. All of your "points" can be easily debunked and discredited by anyone capable of rational, critical thought.
Well-stated.👏👏. Seems like the thing to do lately is to shit on video games that haven't even released yet. Unfortunately, a large majority of the people who come to RU-vid looking for reviews will see these videos and, instead of doing actual research and forming their own opinions, will be left with a sour taste in their mouths before even taking a bite.
This is why I love that OX are independent. You'd never get such a scathing yet sincere warning like this from "Official" journalist outlets. I had 0 plans to buy this, but hopefully it puts off a few undecided by showing it for the garbage fire of a cash-grab it really is.
There's going to be so much executive meddling and game-design-by-committee... this is going to crater so hard, we'll need a new scale to measure it with.
My favorite ones i have are my south park and twenty one pilots pops, i think they are just cool, cheap figures that look pretty similar to the characters.