Last week the sometimes annual event known as Star Wars Celebration descended upon the city of Chicago. Tens of thousands of Star Wars fans, and collectors, took the city by storm and couldn’t be deterred even when the city did it’s best impression of Hoth with inches of snow falling – the crowds were out.
And when there are crowds of fans and a Funko booth nearby, you just KNOW what’s coming next; long lines.
This year Funko debuted 8 exclusive figures, 6 blue chrome each with a limited edition size of 2500, and 2 non-specified editions of a Darth Maul and Watto figure (both of which were shared with different a different sticker.) In order to purhcase these figures however, not only must you be an attendee of Star Wars Celebration Chicago, but you also had to win a lottery.
Not many people did, and the online buzz was noteworthy. People complained about them spending lots of money and time without even a chance to purchase the merchandise they wanted, and as Thursday morning the yellow tape was pulled from the line and the Funko booth opened the crowds were only missing pitchforks to start their riot.
Our reporter, a non-lottery winner himself, was among those in that line and sat in it for hours that day, hoping beyond hope that they would get a chance to buy, but there was not much communication. Our reporter left after a few hours because of a scheduled autograph session, and when we checked later it was chaos – there were two lines, neither official and both told not to bother, as without a lottery win NOTHING was guaranteed.
However, by the end of that night those that had the patience to wait it out were rewarded, at least 100 people were able to get in and buy what they wanted, and the others were told to try back the next day.
The rest of the convention ran much smoother for Funko. Now armed with a better idea of the geography and size of the line they, along with the ReedPop staff, were able to manage the standby line each day as it formed literally 20 minutes BEFORE the doors opened. The standby line was under instruction to wait, and after the 2 lottery winner openings each day they would be allowed in to purchase what was left. With 5 days of the convention and 2500 pieces, Funko sold 500 of each exclusive Blue Chrome pops per day, and likely less of the Darth Maul and Watto (Maul seemed to sell out first daily.)
In a private interview with Chris Sully, marketing manager of Funko, our reporter asked about their procedure. They released no solid numbers, intentionally, but it was clear that there were less lotteries than allotted pops, and if we had to guess there is even the possibility that the lotteries given out each day were only half of the 500-per-day limit. Sully, as he’s known to fans, told us they’re constantly looking at ways to get more product into more of their fans hands by adjusting numbers and procedures. This echoed the sentiments from Orlando’s event in 2017, without a single actual non-shared exclusive, where our reporter was told that’s part of their experimenting process; discovering what should be shared, and what shouldn’t.
If they aren’t perfect at it two years later, they’re as close as we’re going to see. In fact, an off-the-record comment indicated that another major retailer came by the Funko booth for line-management advice, and by Sunday they too seemed to be adjusting to doing things the Funko way. For good reason too, other booths with exclusives were experiencing a myriad of their own issues; angry customers without the ability to purchase even if they were willing to stand in line, confused consumers looking at product on the shelf that they couldn’t purchase, or worse – an empty booth with no “buzz” as no one would stop to purchase the exact same merchandise they can get (cheaper) at any toy retailer. (looking at you LEGO!)
Funko had a line everyday, and people without lotteries got to purchase every day. Surely, it took a chunk of time, but if the Funko exclusives were truly on your agenda, they were (fairly) easily had.
Oh, and on a side note, when Funko says “everyone is a fan of something”, it truly shows by their customers – stop by a booth next convention you see them set up at, and talk to them about what makes you happy, you should find that they’re as big as geeks as you are and it makes the entire experience that much more fun.
Good job Funko, you’re doing it right.
Matt Norris