Have you heard of those people who watch NBC’s The Office over and over on Netflix? My wife and I are two of those people. We love The Office.
I was pretty excited when I read Funko was making The Office Pop figures. I love The Office and I like to collect Pop figures. I liked the idea of two of my favorite things combining. I pre-ordered the basic set of figures from Shumi. Then, Funko in its ultimate wisdom decided to make The Office figures available exclusively at certain retailers. They released an exclusive Prison Mike figure at Hot Topic. I was able to easily get one. Who doesn’t have a Hot Topic at their local mall?
They also released an exclusive Jim as Dwight at BoxLunch. Like most Americans, we don’t live near a BoxLunch. The nearest one is over 60 miles away. If I wanted one in a mangled box, I could have ordered one from their website. I would have had to do it fairly quickly because BoxLunch sold out shortly after the figure went on sale.
Sometimes determining your timezone is… hard?
Yesterday, I got an email from Funko telling me they were selling an exclusive The Office Pop figure of Jim Halpert as a 3-hole-punch. I wanted one, but I didn’t understand what time it was going on sale. I knew what PST means, but I didn’t think Funko did. PST refers to Pacific Standard Time. Funko’s headquarters is in Everett, Washington. Although they are in the Pacific timezone, they are not currently in Pacific Standard Time (PST). They are in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT).
I asked Funko for clarification on Twitter, but I got no response.
I went to the website when I thought the figure was going to be available, it was already sold out.
I immediately checked eBay and there were 186 of these figures available. They were priced anywhere from $35 to $60. The figure was $15 on Funko’s website.
Considering how Funko’s business is based entirely on fans and collectors, it’s quite remarkable really how unfriendly they are to both fans and collectors. Whether it’s awarding exclusives to retailers who don’t have a national footprint (BoxLunch) or releasing an exclusive figure on their website and then being quite vague with when it was going to be available. If they don’t know what timezone they’re in, all they had to do was use a JavaScript timer on their website showing a countdown clock.
Funko could have done that, but they chose not to. They act like they just don’t care.
In conclusion
I’m at the point where I don’t trust Funko. Contrary to the company’s name, collecting their products is quickly becoming no fun. I don’t think they’re a company I want to spend my discretionary, stupid money on. I’m not saying I’m going to get rid of every Pop figure I own. I’m going to scale back on what I buy. Before I spend money on something produced by Funko, I’m going to think long and hard about it.
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