This weekend we spent some time checking out Megacon in Tampa, the first Megacon to take place in Tampa – but a sister to the ever popular version that takes over Orlando every year and cousin to Boston Comic Con and the Fan Expos in cities such as Vancouver, Regina, Dallas and more. Here is a report on how the Funko scene looked this weekend!
If you’ve never been to one of these conventions, and you’re at all interested in pop culture, do yourself a favor and find the next one in your area and go! Nowhere will you find a place as open to fun and the air of “be yourself” permeates every patron, exhibitor and overpriced hot dog the place has to offer. Where else can you meet a cosplay of the entire Suicide Squad one moment, be given amazingly motivational advice from Henry “The Fonz” Winkler the next, and of course wrap it up by spending all your cash on a variety of Pops!
The Pop scene in Tampa has recently taken off. With Tampa Bay specific Facebook groups such as Tampa Funko POP! Buy Sell and Trade growing daily, there is an energetic group of collectors that are committed to Funko collecting. With that, there was no shortage of sellers and resellers at Megacon Tampa to make sure that these collectors could get their fill.
With some larger companies, like F.Y.E., entering the show it was amazing to watch out quickly exclusives were snatched up by smaller companies in hopes of capturing some excitement of the convention and flipping some recently released exclusives for higher value. F.Y.E. reported to us that some Bistan and Olivia NYCC exclusives were initially available, all were sold out by the early Saturday morning.
Other pops quick to sell out were any that were related to the invited guests, likely to be autographed. Data from Star Trek, Batman Beyond and Rex from Toy Story were sold out by Saturday morning as well at one booth “Double Lucky Enterprises” the owner Debbie Paul told us. Still, smaller booths offered these pops later, but at increased prices vs Double Lucky’s $10 pop (or 5 for $45). Even though Rob Liefeld was signing much cheaper than any celebrity at $20 a Pop, and was signing at least a dozen every hour, the sheer number of Deadpool Pops released this year meant you could still find plenty of that character.
The signings were painless, aside from the $20 – $50 cost, as the lines were either not as busy or much better managed than the lines from Tampa Bay Comic Con. Gone are the days of being the first to show a celebrity a Pop made of themselves, instead they are as common as headshots. Still, we were able to chat a few minutes each with Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) and Mr. Liefeld as they signed Pops for us.
Sadly Megacon Tampa offered no exclusive Pop (or other Funko) items to the convention other than the “Angry Groot” which has been available at many places previously. However there were a variety of other hard to find Pops to be had. It was interesting to watch the recently released General Grevious Pop rise in price from Friday to Saturday afternoon and then lower and settle to a more reasonable market value by Saturday night into Sunday as resellers tried to recoup costs. Other hard to find Pops available were Zur En Arrh Batman, Beetlejuice Chase, and a slew of recently released exclusives. The real find was the variety of harder-to-find-yet-still-common pops at regular prices around $10 – $15. These included stuff you don’t commonly see on the shelves at your local Pop selling Big Box Stores, with pops like Carnage, Taskmaster, Cosmo, Golden Age Batman, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Bobs Burgers, and normally sold-out Disney characters.
All in all, if you’re a Pop fan, or just a Pop culture fan, it’s a great time to be one in Tampa – the market is growing, ans so are the conventions. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Matt Norris