Pop Vinyl shop at EMP

Packaged as ‘Funko Force 2.0’, the first figures produced were unveiled in 2010 at San Diego Comic Con and included the figures Batgirl, Green Lantern, and two variants of Batman. Originally the distinctive plastic figures were not shipped in the iconic white boxes that they now come in and arrived in plastic clamshell packaging instead.

Freddy Funko is the official company mascot of Funko. He typically has red hair and freckles, however his signature feature is his gold crown, which makes him easily identifiable no matter how he is disguised! Since his first appearance in 2011, Freddy Funko has taken on the guise of many different characters from a variety of different franchises, such as Game of Thrones, Frozen, Disney and many more.

A lot of Funkos are common and you can pick up a brand-new standard figure for less than £15 - or even £5 in the EMP online sale. Exclusive and popular figures are usually available for around £35.00 and super-sized ‘life-size Pops’ have a price tag of over £100. But you can expect to pay a lot more than £100 if you want to add a limited-edition figure to your collection. ‘Funko Flippers’ are people that buy limited edition funko pops at a low price and then ‘flip’ them for a much higher price - often in the thousands.

There are now over 8,000 different Funko Pop figures worldwide and the ever-growing range means that there are new designs for fans and collectors to look forward to every week.

Yes! Funko pops are sold in specially designed display boxes, which means that you can see the figures clearly without taking them out of their boxes. If you plan to flip Funkos then ideally the packaging should never be opened, however many collectors will pay a fair price as long as a figure has been kept in a good condition and comes with the original packaging. But even if you don’t plan to sell your Funkos and your collection is just for fun, it is still advisable to keep the packaging.

Value can change over time and it is impossible to say whether Funkos that are valuable today will still be valuable in a few years time. If you plan to become a collector then in order to maintain their resale value, you should consider keeping your Funkos in their boxes and out of direct sunlight. A bookcase or a shelf is the perfect place for your collection and the figures can be stacked in rows up to two-high without damaging the display box - although if you own a lot of Funkos you might need to allocate a large space!

Some Funko figures are worth thousands of dollars and a glowing Alex DeLarge Clockwork Orange figure sold for over $13,000. Generally, the worth of a figure is very subjective and simply depends on how much the buyer is prepared to pay. Usually, the rarer a figure is the more valuable it becomes.

Online resources such as the Pop Price Guide or the official Funko app are available to help you keep track of your Funko figures and can provide an approximate value for each Pop in your collection.

The 5 most expensive Funko Pops to date are:
Glowing Alex DeLarge Clockwork Orange Funko - $13,000
Freddy Junko (Bloody Jamie Lannister) - $12,100
Glowing Freddy Funko - Count Dracula Chase edition - $10,000
Red metallic Stan Lee Superhero - $8,800
Freddy Funko as Venom - $7,900

If you’re looking to start a collection that might become valuable in the future then it is a good idea to start by collecting an entire series of characters. Once you have purchased your first figure, look on the back of the box to find out which other characters are part of the same series. However, even though some rare items can attract high resale prices, we do not recommend that you think of Funko figures as an investment. These cute, (and sometimes creepy), little action figures provide a dose of nostalgia for any fan and make every day a little bit brighter.It's best to focus on what interests you the most and love these cool collectable figures for what they are.

Funko Pop figures are available for almost every franchise imaginable, but what if your favourite character hasn’t been moulded into plastic yet, or you want to see them in a different outfit? You can try customizing a Funko yourself by using the blank DIY POP! figures that are available directly from Funko Inc. at a cost of around £12 each. If you are not very good at drawing and painting then if you are prepared to pay a little more, an approved Funko Pop artist can make a completely customized funko for you instead. Most third party artists will sign the figure on the foot or somewhere on the box to show that it isn’t an original Funko.

Yes! Well sort of. If you have ever wondered what your Pop!elganger would look like, then wonder no more. You can now create a Funko of yourself online using ‘Pop! Yourself’. Over 1 million unique combinations of hair, eyebrows, clothing, and accessories are available for anyone that wants to style themselves as a digital Funko figure.

Every Funko Box has a number on it, which relates to the mould used within that series. For example, if the box is printed with #1, then it was the first mould used for that series. If you find two figures that have the same number on the box but look different but then they were made using the same mould but have probably been painted differently. The number sticker might be part of the appeal for a collector and therefore should not be removed from the box if you plan to sell your Funko.

For regular cleaning, canned air is good, or a block of melamine foam (a sponge-like cleaning material). Both of these methods are chemical free and highly effective at getting into tiny grooves and crevices. If you use a wet cloth make sure that you dry your funko figure properly afterwards to prevent it attracting even more dust and dirt.

Pop figures have very large heads and small feet which means that it can be difficult to stop them falling over sometimes. Some Funkos include a stand, which can usually be found inside the box. But even if a stand is not available, most stability issues can be solved by placing a bit of blue tack under the foot of the figure.

The easiest way to ensure that your Funko pop is genuine is to only shop from licensed sellers or online marketplaces. EMP is supplied directly from Funko Inc. and we guarantee that all the Funkos in our online shop are authentic.

Poor manufacturing is a sign that a Funko isn’t genuine and you might be able to spot a fake simply by the quality, but, there are other ways to check as well. Genuine Funko Pops have a serial number on the foot, base, or under the head of the plastic figure and if you can’t find one then it’s almost certainly a fake. The serial number should also match the code on the bottom of the box and if it doesn’t, then again, it is probably not a genuine Pop. The code on the bottom of the box should also contain information about where the figure was produced and a date showing when the figure was made. Something else to look out for is whether the licensing information (e.g. Disney, Marvel, DC, etc), is missing or incorrect.

Funko Pop! Chase figures are probably the holy grail of every Funko collector. A Chase item (also known as a Chase Pop) is a rare variant of a Funko that is different in either very slight or moderate ways - like having a variant cover on a comic. Not all figures are available as chase variants and they are sometimes only released in very limited numbers, making them even rarer and therefore highly coveted by collectors. Chase figures have a special sticker on them and what makes these figures so popular (and valuable) is that they cannot be purchased online.

If a Chase edition of a figure is available, obtaining one online requires a bit of luck because they are sent to customers at random when they order the regular version of a figure. Chase figures can only be bought directly from physical retail outlets (e.g. local toy-stores) and finding one can sometimes require a lot of effort. When a Chase figure has been purchased offline from a physical store it is known as a ‘Wild Chase’.

Mystery minis are variety boxes from a series, which have random characters or effects in the box. Although Mystery Minis are not usually exclusive, the boxes often contain rare or exclusive figures.