Sunday 6 August 2017

A Funko Pop Q&A with UnionJackGamer...


Click me to visit Jack.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with Funko, or their Products. Funko is an American company that manufacturers licensed Pop Culture toys. They are most known for producing thousands of licensed plushes, bobbleheads, action figures, and other items such as Headphones and various miscellaneous toys and memorabilia. Typically over 50% of their revenue comes from the sale of Pop Vinyl Figures alone, which a large majority of them are bobbleheads.

We asked Jack from UnionJackGamer 10 Funko/Pop Vinyl related questions, and you can find the answers to the questions asked below. Take a second to find Jack on YouTube, subscribe to his content and watch a video or two. Check out his link below.

*You can also catch Jack in Episode #4 of DweeKast, coming to you on Tuesday 08/08/2017*


1. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

"Well, I'm 29 I live in Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, which barely anyone outside the U.K. knows about, I've been collecting Pops now for about 4 years. And I have been on YouTube for 18 months now".

2. Why Did you start collecting Pop Vinyls? 
"Well, it started back in April 2014, oh so it’s actually 3 years I’ve been collecting them. So I wanted something to decorate my first car with because I just passed my driving test, and I bought the Batman from Dark Knight Rises and the Superman from Batman Vs. Superman and they were to decorate my car with and I Super glued them to my car which I know looking back now was such a stupid mistake but yeah that was why I started collecting them and then it just grew from there".



3. How many Pops do you have in your collection?

"I've just run off and counted them all actually. Including purchases that I have not yet shown on video 243. So just a small amount really".



4. Do you display your Pops? If So are they displayed in the box or out of the box, why? 
"Yes I do I display them just behind me in my videos, they're all in the box, I don't do out of box collecting, my boyfriend does though, but yeah I just prefer the way they stack in boxes it's just a lot easier for me. I totally appreciate how boxed collectors do, but for me, it's just easier because of the volume to keep them in the box".


5. What is your Favourite Pop and why? 

"That is my ninth to tenth generation Doctor Who Pop, so that's when the ninth Doctor regenerates into the Tenth so the pop is actually the tenth Doctors head mold in the ninth doctor's clothes and it glows in the dark because of the regeneration energy and that is my favorite, but I have to say a very close second is my Power Rangers twin pack".

6. What is the most you've spent on a single Pop? 
"Right now that’s interesting because people think I spend hundreds, hundreds on my favourite pop. No no I haven't no and the most I've spent on a single box pop, so just in one box of a pop is actually my 8 pack Rouge One Set (Star Wars) but I know that doesn’t really count because there's actually 8 Pops in the pack and that was £56, actually I had a voucher so it was £50. Now just for one single pop, it was my glitter Baymax which is £26. A lot of people think that I must spend like hundreds on Grail Pops, I don't, much rather wait for Funko to do remoulds, which they will at some point as opposed to spending hundreds and hundreds of pounds when it's not really necessary really because Funko are doing re-releases all the time. Ask my boyfriend that though he once spent £140 on one Pop".

7. What will be your next Pop Purchase?
"You know you've caught me at a very good time just as I'm recording, I’m editing this then I am off out Funko pop hunting. I am on the hunt for a Justice League Batman, failing that I'm going to see if I can find any Chase pops, failing that, I'll be ordering the Blue Ranger plush Funko from Forbidden Planets website, so there's always something I'm buying".

8. Do you think any Pops are Over/Underrated, which ones and why? 
"I think the one that is overrated the most is actually the Qui Gon Jinn from NYCC, if that was just a normal star wars pop it would still be on the shelves, but because they are limited to 2000, Star Wars fans went mad and this then limited the price, and now the prices are flipped. It was unnecessary really, they should have just made it to like you know the Megazord at 8000 pieces so it was easily accessible if you were committed to it as opposed to going crazy over it, so I think it's kind of overrated because in terms of the pop it's not actually anything special it's not painted in a special way it's not in any different kind of box or anything so that's my overrated one. 

My underrated ones are actually the Big Bang Theory ones, Big Bang Theory is a great show and is a great show of Geek culture. They made that line of pops and now they've just they've stopped and now that they've gone on to retired flipper prices, and there doesn't seem to be any plans to bring them back so I'd say they're my underrated ones because they have some great you know designs they have like you know them in the Star Trek suits as variants and some of them are I think like holographic And that is if to show they're on the Star Trek part, sorry I don't watch Star Trek by the way I’m a Star Wars person, So yeah those would be my my choices".

9, What Pop(s) would you like to buy that aren't currently available? 
"Oh God, I'm going to try not make this a 20-minute long answer. Well the top top top top top one of course and I've said this on numerous numerous numerous occasions is Final Fantasy pops, you could literally do so much with those characters and the fan following is there and they will buy them.

I think the issue is with licensing because like other toy manufacturers do those and I think as Final Fantasy has built that relationship over time it's kind of hard to go well we're going to go with Funko now when they've been doing merchandise for years whereas Funko you know is kind of new to this game and only really upped its game in the last you know 4 to 5 years and Final Fantasy has been making merchandise since back in 1996 and 1997, even earlier in Japan.

 I think it would be quite hard for them to do but in terms of the actual Pops themselves, I mean you could do a normal cloud variant just in his purple Suit and then you could do a chase variant in his Advent Children Suit, you could do lightning again in the similar costumes or the chases so you could do lightning from thirteen just in a normal, Army Garb. 

You could do a chase version of her in lightning Garb. the list is endless of what you could do with these Pops and people will buy them, whether I see the light of day, or this ever happening I don't know. I tweeted to funk every week on the Q&A and you should as well if you are listening to this but that's certainly the line I want the most. 

I just want to finish off collections. I really want the metallic Black Ranger because I have all the other metallics except that one. I want to see something with the new moulds White Ranger I'd like as well. I need them to release the yellow metallic ranger in the U.K. because that was a GameStop exclusive inside their mystery box, so I need Funko to do that for me, please. 

I'd Also like to see a Rita Repulsa pop, I’ve seen some kind or image for it but I don't know if it's just a custom, a Zordon Pop as well and Dragonzord Pop and I just think that would then round off Power Rangers very nicely we don't need to do anything else, we'd like them to, but we don't need them to finish off our collections perfectly.

So yeah I told you, trying not to make this a 20-minute answer, it's two and a half minute one".

10. The Last one is a tricky one if you were a Pop, what would be your accessory and why?
"Well there is actually a pop version of me and it is on my Facebook, it is my profile picture. My accessory I guess would be... I have a custom Digivice that was made for me, for anyone that doesn't watch Digimon the Digivice is like the link and kind of helps them Digivolve between their partners and the Digimon and I have a blue one with a red strap made for me. The casing of the screen is actually a Unionjack so that would probably be my accessory, I know that's not very Funko related but it is very me really, so yeah that would be it".

If anyone was wondering about a few of the terms Jack was talking about, I'll briefly explain them below. 

Chase: A Special Variation of a Pop Vinyl, this is usually a different coloured paint, or a different accessory to the standard Pop Vinyl, there is is usually 1 Chase in every 6 of the same Pop.

NYCC: This is an annual Comic-Con where Funko usually make and sell exclusive variations of Pop Vinyls specifically for that show, they are very popular and usually particularly hard to get a hold of in the U.K. 

Flippers: These are people who sell Pop Vinyls for an inflated price, they would buy it for the Retail price, and sell for a huge amount of money (£300-£400, in Qui Gon Jinn's Case).

Grails: These are regarded as Pops of very high value, usually very limited in numbers, and worth a lot of money. My personal grail would be A Holographic Darth Maul (But I don't have the £1200 to pay for it). 

Want to know anything else? Don't hesitate to ask :) 

A HUGE and personal Thank you from me to Jack, for spending a little bit of time answering these questions, take some time to visit his YouTube Channel, and subscribe away:






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