Fundays goes Nationwide!

In 2002, there was a party.

This party was held at a Donut Shop in Universal Studio’s City Walk in California. It was for the fans of a small toy company known as Funko, popular for selling bobbleheads of some of Pop Culture’s favorite items. The 2002 catalog features nary a pop (still over 8 years away from their first), but instead featured bobbleheads such as Colonel Sanders, Alf and The Beatles.

By all accounts the party was a success, because the next year they had a party again, this time in Los Angeles. By 2005 the party had found a new home; San Diego Comic Con.

Since then, and with the explosion of the Pop! line of toys, so did the stories about Fundays. Website forums talked about things such as prototypes being thrown into the audience, cans of corn being chugged for prizes and extremely limited Freddy versions of popular characters being handed out like Halloween Candy in something known as a Box Of Fun – an exclusive product given out to attendees.

So for the past few years the entire event was shrouded in mystery; how to buy tickets, who gets invited, what new products will be teased? Blurry cellphone pictures were the best you could ask for, with screenshots of items that would be coming soon. Nothing was for certain other than it was a growing gathering of Funkos biggest Fanatics, and that attendees (and attendees only) usually walked away with rare pieces to show off.

Until now.

Something was different about Fundays 2018 right from the beginning. Weeks before SDCC 2018 Funko was advertising that this Fundays would be different – and a promise of a live stream, something that had never been done before this years event. Why would they stream it? Speculation run rampant online; they’re presenting a new line, they’ve taken over a bunch of Geoffrey the Giraffe Pops and will be plunking them on random Pop! bodies (like Iron Man), or they’re going to be announcing an entire series of Pokemon Pops.

What we got was so much better than any of those possibilities.

Funko smartly decided to include EVERYONE in their party this year, via the live stream. For any Funko fan San Diego Comic Con week is a crazy one, and as Funko as realized, it’s crazy for those attending the Comic Con and for those thousands of miles away from San Diego, traveling from store to store to fill their collections with exclusives or waiting patiently on their computers for the next item to drop.

So, weary from the clicking, we joined the live stream en masse, unsure what to expect as we peeled back the curtain to reveal Fundays to the world.

We were greeted first with the sounds of commercials, theme songs and jingles from 1980’s pop culture. The theme of this Fundays was a 1980’s prom, with a heavy Stranger Things tie in. Hilary and Sully hosted the event, in full 1980’s prom fashion, and they did a great job ushering the feed back from Yoko and the rest of the social media team as they showed off some of the events going on.

These events included the Can of Corn challenge. In this much discussed event group of 7 or so funatics were challenged to eat an entire can of corn in a few minutes. (It was nice to learn the “can” is actually a plastic container. Those that could accomplish this feat were given protos and the one that completed it the fastest was given a slightly better proto. One shown on the live feed included a Balrog and a 10″ T-Rex proto figure.

Then the action swung back to Sully and Hilary as they explained what a proto is, and what happened next was nothing but shear magic by Funko. The two continued their presentation with a live unboxing of a Box of Fun.

The Box of Fun this year was a cute locker that held 3 pops. The outside of the locker was adorned with “stickers” from Stranger Things, helping to complete the high school feel of the evening. Inside each box was a Freddy Funko dressed as a recent Pop! release (the ones shown on the feed were both Freddy as Kurt Cobain), a glow in the dark 8-bit Freddy and a Freddy Chrome. The two opened the boxes (and applause to them for doing that while holding a microphone!) and afterwards announced that, for the first time ever, not only would the attendees be able to get a Box of Fun, but that using the codeword “RADICAL”, ANYONE WATCHING COULD BUY A BOX OF FUN FOR $50.

Again, we should repeat that… anyone watching could purchase a Box of Fun, the coveted Box of Fun, the Box of Fun that all Funko fans clamor after, the same Box of Fun that had just shown 3 figures ranging from limited to 500 to limited to 1000 pieces… the type of Box of Fun most of us would only DREAM of opening. That same Box of Fun was available for us to purchase.

The greatest thing in recent Funko history happened next. Because of the nature of the event, it was clear who was watching; the fans. If announced previously that the Box of Fun would be for sale there would’ve been hundreds of thousands of people at their computers, waiting to buy this highly limited item. Instead, it was for the fans. Minutes ticked by as the news spread, slowly at first. Fans called fans, instant messaged them, posts were flying on message boards and Facebook pages all screaming the same thing – GO GET YOUR BOX OF FUN!

CEO (and Superintendent of the High School) Brian Marrioti knew who this night was for. Not just for the hundreds packed around the tables at the event, but also for those huddled around the glow of a laptop, or under the covers as their spouse slept as they watched from their iphone, or those groups that watched the party together streamed to their TVs. Those that attended the party couldn’t be disappointed either, as new boxes were passed around with a Stranger Things theme, and inside were exclusives that won’t be in the Boxes of Fun appeared continuing the tradition of items ONLY released at this event. It’s hard to please everyone, but this time, they sure did.

Funko is for everyone.

The party kicked into high gear soon after. Brian Marrioti and team took the stage for an epic night of partying and future releases. The images flew by, and fans, giddy with their Box of Fun purchases, ooed and awed from thousands of miles away.

Celeberties took the stage, from Metallica’s Kirk Hammet (who gave some signed pops away and announced a few new monster mashup pops), to the Hebrew Hammer, to Zack Ryder (as a Ghostbuster!) to Freddy Funko himself – who at one point donned a Purple suit and did a great Prince. However when David Harbour, Stranger Thing’s Sherrif Hopper, took the stage it was the moment that solidified Funko not only as a toy maker but a major player in the current world of pop culture. Not only did they introduce Maya Hawke, playing a new character named Robin, but they gave away a limited edition of her character (and the popular Steve) direct from Stranger Things own trailer that dropped mere days ago.

(Side Note: This was a clear sign that Funko is closely tied with these powerhouses of media, gone are the days of a figure being released 9 months after last season as Funko waits to see new characters along with the fans. These TV and movie studios are allowing more and more access to Funko to get the items we want in our hands as the media is being released.)

In the end, Fundays officially wrapped up with a heartfelt “Thank You” as Funko celebrates it’s 20 years of fun. It was a great night for Brian and company both on the stage and off. In fact, if you had to place this year’s Fundays event on a scale of 1 to 10… it was an Eleven.

Below are some images of merchandise, protos and Freddys shared to our Facebook page: