Posted in: Collectibles, Funko | Tagged: collectibles, dragons, funko, Funko POPs

How Downsizing My Funko Collection Started Off My Dragon Obsession

The year was 2014, and my Funko Pop collection was moderately under control. I had a few here and there, but I could display them on one shelf, and it wasn't a big deal. This was the first time I bought one of the bigger Funkos, and it was the gold-covered Smaug dragon from Hot Topic [though I actually ordered mine from an Australian site that no longer ships to the United States because international collectors kept using them for exclusives] and he was instantly one of my favorite Pops in my entire collection. In retrospect, this was the beginning.

My collection, however, continued to grow and grow, but my draw toward the dragon Funko's continued. I wanted all of them regardless of whether or not I was familiar with the fandom at all. I thought they were all some of the best designs of the Funko's and always looked awesome and unique. As such, my dragon horde, as I would call it, was born. The dragons all got moved to a different shelf while the rest of my collection was so big that I started stacking boxes from the floor to nearly the ceiling. Without seeing a single episode of Game of Thrones, I decided that Daenerys had to be the one who looked over the dragon horde from the Iron Throne. At a convention, I decided to pull the trigger on the How To Train Your Dragon Funkos less than a month after it was announced that they would be vaulted. I got a chase Smaug for a reasonable price, and my small metallic Game of Thrones dragons was given to me by a dear friend as a gift. As the collection grew, I began to buy Titan's figures as well and anything I could find from 2014 to 2018.

My interest in Pops was beginning to dwindle, and I moved all of my Funko's from the wall into several large bags. I was going to go through them, it was time to downsize, but my love of dragons continued. The third How to Train Your Dragon movie had the 10" Toothless replace Daenerys as the official alpha of the bunch. My holy grail Funko became a reality when I decided to use my birthday money to get the Maleficent dragon that was limited to the Disney themed subscription box. To date, it is the most I have spent on one single dragon in this collection at just over $100. Dragon everything became themes in my life as my friends and family knew that if there was something dragon-related, I would want it. Yet my interest in Funko's as a whole continued to lessen, and there was nothing that appeared to me save for anything dragon-related.

The decision to downsize my Funko collection and hyper-focus on the dragons has made collecting more fun and less stressful. I don't dread Marvel or Star Wars movies coming out as I think about all of the Funko's I need to buy to round out my collection again. Now I just buy dragon-related stuff. My D&D dice bag is a dragon; a friend bought me a stuffed Toothless who makes growling noises to hug when I had a mental breakdown earlier this year because he thought it would make me smile, I got covered in gold glitter using a dragon's egg bath bomb. It brought back my love of collecting again and the sheer amount of joy I get when I tell people I have a dragon horde and show them a picture never gets old.

For the completionist of the world, a collection like mine is not possible, but for those looking for a more casual sense of collecting figures or anything else, perhaps focusing on something that both broader but also more specific is the way to go.

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