It’s the Monday of “SDCC Week” and basically if you are heading to SDCC, you are frantically running around the house looking for your battery charger you never put in one place or wondering if you can fit 100 Pop Stacks in your carry on.
For those not attending SDCC this year, you are just as frenzied trying to balance your real life with your searching for Funko exclusives life. In this article I’m going to help you guys. Sorry Brad. I don’t know where your charger is.
Wait, There are Funko Exclusives at SDCC?
Yes, of course. If you haven’t seen them, you need these two links. One is our page that shows you every exclusive and the other is our handy dandy spreadsheet that has information and links to the SDCC exclusives as we find them. You can sort them by retailer as well.
Check these links out before proceeding. Are you ready?
SDCC Is Here But Be Warned…
The first thing you must realize is that there is no set time or day for all stores. Some retailers are consistent from year to year. Some retailer managers and IT guys are just getting out of counseling from the debacle that happened last year. Then there is an unnamed retailer who doesn’t care if you get any sleep nor do they care that every single year their website implodes as soon as SDCC Funko exclusives go on sale. But for the most part, things are getting better. Well, I hope.
The information I am typing below is what we know as of Wednesday July 17th at 7am ET. Things might change and we’ll do our best to update immediately. You can also follow us on Twitter @PopVinyls for up to the minute changes. Make sure to also keep checking our SDCC Exclusives Spreadsheet which we will update continuously.
Below I will list the day items will be released in stores and online. I’m listing all times in Eastern so please check your time zones accordingly. Most of my information below is in regards to online releases. For people going to your local retailer, please check your local store for opening time. Do not trust the store websites! Some stores will open early for this event. Call your local store to confirm time! As for online release times, I’m just basing my “guess” on historical data with each retailer and any new info we have discovered. Things can and might change. Be ready!
Thursday
Box Lunch and Hot Topic – These two companies have worked hard over the years and SDCC releases have went pretty smoothly. “In the past” these exclusives went on sale at 12:00am-12:45am ET so that’s what I’m guessing for this year. If you value your sleep and have stores nearby, then check with that store for their opening time and be there earlier on Thursday and start the line.
Barnes and Noble – I’m going to get mine in stores on Thursday but I’d expect them to drop online between 12am and 3am ET before your stores open that day. And if you’re like me that means you might freak out and stay up late to get these online even though your store is 5 minutes away.
Funko-Shop – These items will be dropped on Thursday 10am ET . At this point it appears they will all drop at once. We will
Gamestop and ThinkGeek – If I am correct, ThinkGeek’s online presence is now at Gamestop.com so online buyers be aware. Gamestop does a pretty good job with online releases as well. Gamestop could drop the SDCC any time between 12am and 3am ET.
Target- I’ve never tried to find Target SDCC exclusives in stores in the past but Target has really upped their game this year so I might. However, their online exclusives sell very easy and their website can handle the traffic. The good news is that Target NORMALLY releases it’s exclusives online between 9am and 11am ET. If we find out different information, we’ll let you know.
FYE- In the past, FYE has been consistently inconsistent with the exact release time. Thankfully this year, FYE has decided that their releases will go on sale at 9am ET.
Friday
This is the first year that it seems some have moved to Thursday while some have stayed on Friday. Maybe this is good. Maybe I’ll be an emotional wreck by Saturday.
Entertainment Earth – Entertainment Earth has advertised their Jaws Eating Quint and
Man Thing exclusive going on sale at Noon Eastern Friday for weeks. While they did allow a few early sales in the past day or so, we expect them to restock. Also be wary of them changing to Thursday as well. Just keep an eye out!
Walgreens- First things first, I’ve never heard of a Funko SDCC exclusive being in stores. If you want these, you need to get em online. If I recall correctly, these have went online in the past between 6am ET and 9am ET. Hopefully I can get you better information later.
Thursday or Friday
These stores we aren’t 100 percent sure about when. Some of the retailers might not be sure yet either. Here’s what info we have right now.
Amazon – Amazon, for whatever reason, has always allowed a “backdoor” option that gave people the chance to add an exclusive directly to their cart even though you could not search for it. This year was no different. We are uncertain how many sold this way. We still expect Amazon to restock these items some time Thursday or Friday.
Walmart – Surprisingly, these will also be in stores. We have seen photos already of “aisle displays” of all the SDCC exclusives. I do not expect every Walmart will get these. However, if you are interested in them, you might want to take the picture below to your store and ask your Toys/Electronics/Random Manager if they’ve seen this in the back. Walmart has sold some of these online already but we expect them to consistently restock every few hours once they go back on sale. We’re just not sure if this is Thursday, Friday, or both. Grab me a Bazinga shirt!
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Toy Tokyo – Probably the most difficult exclusive to get outside of SDCC are the Toy Tokyo Exclusives. Although, boss man Levi does a great job of picking out some of the better ones. Do not expect these exclusives to pop up online during SDCC. It could be next week, later, or not at all. Hopefully we can get you more information later.
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That’s all we have for now. We hope this information is helpful to you. But don’t be too scared. I’ll be up most of the night prior to these releases to help everyone. For the quickest way to get information make sure to follow us on Twitter @PopVinyls and send us any questions you have there!