Posted in: Collectibles, Funko | Tagged: funko, Funko Fundays 2023, sdcc 2023

Funko Fundays At SDCC 2023: Everything Is Fine At Summer Camp

We spent a wild and wacky night at Camp Fundays with Funko at SDCC 2023 last weekend, and it was an exhausting adventure.

Funko Fundays is always one of the hardest events to attend at SDCC every year and with good reason. Not only does the company go out of its way to take care of the attendees, many of which include employees and some of the biggest diehards of the brand, but there is big money to be made. These Pops, Sodas, and more become some of the rarest and hardest to find in the market, and the demand for them starts weeks in advance. Over 3,000 people came to this year's show, which was held outside on a beautiful night at The Shell behind the convention center.

Funko, No Matter How You Feel, Treats Their Collectors Right

When you entered the party, activations ranged from photo ops with Freddy Funko and inside a box. As usual for this event, the crowd was divided into four teams, set to compete against each other for prizes. The team I was assigned was the Popawaka Lumberjacks, and we had the coolest hats at the party, if I do say so myself.

Every attendee receives a Box of Fun containing exclusives: three limited Pops and three Sodas this year. It's completely random, and though I never have luck with these sorts of things, I scored big time. All three of my Freddy Pops were limited to 250, and one of my Sodas was the Darth Vader to 1000. Within about three seconds of opening the box, I started to get trade and cash offers. The big secret that is not a secret at all about this party is the trading and selling going on. $1000's of dollars are in that room, and it is changing hands all around you. Epic trades as well. You can see who the flippers and actual traders and collectors are instantly.

Celebrity guests are also a huge part of the proceedings, as they help the Funko team, led this year by "Chip Chipper" and "Activities Director Dale," play the games with the crowd and announce new Funko Pops. This year was…random, to say the least. Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias makes perfect sense, as he has more Pops than any other celebrity. But then they brought out AJ McLean from the Backstreet Boys and Corey Feldman. AJ is a huge collector, but Feldman had the crowd scratching their heads.

A special shout out right here to Chipper and Dale (Get It?). Both were in the promos leading up to the show and as hosts, they did such a phenomenal job, especially Chipper. How he didn't pass out from doing that camper voice, he was doing all night; I will never know.

The State of the Union was made by Brian Mariotti, who, a week before the show, announced he was stepping down as CEO, and you can tell he was emotional about it. New announcements included new Pops for D&D, WWE, Stranger Things, One Piece, and new Marvel Holiday Pops. Loungefly also announced new lines for Nightmare Before Christmas and Goosebumps.

Even more Funko gifts were handed out during the party; some were won by us Lumberjacks. We made an inflatable Smore faster than the other teams and won a Freddy as Spock, and our table, #52, got loud and was randomly selected to get a silver anniversary Freddy. The other freebies were given to everyone at the show, including four different Bigfoot deluxe Pops at the end of the show. I got the Yetti, the one that I wanted. The new Blockbuster line was represented by a figure of Brian, which they surprised him with, and some new Star Wars game as well. We also got a plastic Pop protector sponsored by eBay. For those in the crowd that didn't know they were a Funko partner, that elicited some laughs.

At the end of the show, however, everyone left happy. Well, everyone who ended up getting the rare brown suit Wolverine giveaway. Damn you, Wolves! A mass of trading and selling took over, with the two Wolverines being the most coveted Pops.

Look, Funko is not exactly setting the world on fire right now, with their CEO stepping down, the stock price being as low as it is, and interest waning on the product more than ever. But for one night, at the biggest gathering of pop culture in the world, nobody cared and had a really good time. Funko always goes above and beyond at these events for their fans, which is to be commended. The camp theme was perfect; getting to meet the people who designed the looks and sculpts for the Pops was great, and a good time was had by all. At the end of the day, that is all you can ask for: Team Lumberjack, table 52 for life.

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