Photo courtesy of http://www.oafe.net/blog/2014/07/sdcc-2014-day-1-wednesday/
With the 2019 San Diego Comic Con less than a month away, fans of all various toy and collectibles lines are already going ape shit trying to plan out their course of attack. Ya see...San Diego Comic Con, or SDCC, is known for its exclusive merchandise. Basically the toy companies create an exclusive product that you can ONLY GET THERE at the show creating instant panic to nerds across the globe. Often times it results in those specific toys fetching some major coin on the aftermarket and include long lines, raffles, greasing palms, cutting, crying, and sacrificing your first born in order to obtain the plastic goodness in the special box with that oh too familiar logo slapped on the box...something akin to this.
I’ll be doing a recap of lots of the cool merchandise you’ll be able to pick up there in the coming weeks before the show...for the 1 or 2 people here who might actually give a rats ass.
The good news for most of these collectors...much to my dismay, is that half of these “exclusives” released at the show...end up being not so exclusive. In recent years, we have seen countless toy companies throw up their exclusives on their website to offer up to non attendees. Hell, Mattel even has been know to blow out their leftovers to discount outlets like Big Lots. There’s nothing quite like getting up at 5 am to be in a line at comic con to hope to snag a ticket that allows you to get into the Mattel booth...just to wait another 3 hours in their actual line to obtain that oh so special hunk of plastic shit for $60...just to see them blown out several months later for $10 at your local big box discount outlet!!!
I kinda hate the trend that has now almost become the norm. The one that calls itself a SDCC Exclusive...meanwhile it’s available at your local mall’s Hot Topic. Kinda defeats the purpose and is a slap in the face to those that fly to San Diego. Going to Con is not cheap. Between the ticket, hotel, airfare, food, parking, rental car, the product, and shipping it all back home...it is a truly costly endeavor. Never mind the time eaten up obtaining these things. It used to be a reward for the conquest of making it out to the convention. Now...not so much.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s great for those that are unable to attend. It’s just not great for those actually going through the motions and actually making the trek. But that’s not the point of this piece here so please excuse my side tangent.
Today I’m here to show ya how to get those pesky elusive Funko Pop shared exclusives. In recent years, Funko has teamed up with various big box retailers to share their “exclusives”. So places like Walmart, Hot Topic, and Barnes & Noble along with a bunch of others, will get in small quantities of specific Pops for those unable to attend the show. These will usually have a different sticker on them which allows insane people to see the difference between ones obtained at the local Walgreens versus one snagged in San Diego at the Funko booth. Often times the SDCC sticker one will fetch more moolah because...well...insanity.
Here we see a rough expectation of what to expect regarding the SDCC Pops. This could change but the folks who put these things together are pretty thorough and eat, breathe, sleep, and shit Funko...so I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s mostly accurate.
SDCC runs Wednesday July 17th until Sunday July 21st. Usually the stores sharing in the Pop madness will put their product out for sale on that Thursday the 18th but YMMV so be sure to bother the poor underpaid clerk and ask them like the other 400 rabid collectors in your area doing the same thing!!!
So will you be trying to snag any of these this year?!? How about you @deadspace, @dfinney, @chef-funko, & @reseller?!?
Happy Hunting!!
Blewitt