General Funko Question

[MeWantMegos]

I think Funko is an interesting company and I admire their ambition. How did they go from the Retro Action style to a more realistic line? What is the evolution?

Is it simply that the Retro action was cheaper to do and fit in with a nostalgia vibe? And now that they are more successful and have a little more money, they can make realistic figures?

It's quite an evolution....to go from one style to another.

What do you all think?

[LordMudd]

The "retro" articulation was cheaper to do and probably made it easier to secure certain licenses.


CCC.

[ODBJBG]

Funko never only did retro stuff. The Retro Action line was in addition to other lines.

As an example, they produced both the 6 inch scale detailed Game of Thrones figures at the same time as their Retro Action 3 3/4 "retro" Game of Thrones figures.

Funko made this Rocketeer



And this Rocketeer



So nothing has changed. Funko could always do highly detailed figures. They just exploded with the retro line. Now they've scrapped that and are doing a line that's a bit more of a mix of the two. Detailed, but still retro enough to not necessarily be the type of figure you might expect from Hasbro.

[palitoy]

Funko licensed the ReAction brand from Super 7, who I feel had a better handle on it.

From what i know now, Super 7 has ReAction back and Funko is just doing 3 3/4" with more detail now. I think they're both producing nice product now.

[Werewolf]

Funko licensed the ReAction brand from Super 7, who I feel had a better handle on it.

I agree. Funko just didn't get the concept.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I have the Funko 6" Rocketeer. GREAT figure!

Chris

[palitoy]

I agree. Funko just didn't get the concept.

The man who oversaw the Alien line for Super 7 was offered a gig with Funko but he didn't want to relocate, it's too bad he maybe could have made it work.

[huedell]

I agree. Funko just didn't get the concept.

As stated in the other thread... I think it's pretty improbable that they didn't get the concept.

How clueless does one have to be to not understand that sculpts that look closer to the actors doesn't detract from retro 3 3/4 figures?

I mean, it's one thing to justify lower quality likenesses with the defense of how common that mindset was in the 1970's... but to actually think that doing a better job would HURT a retro line?

I mean... it's possible.... but IMHO that's a huge insult to Funko's intelligence.

[Spyweb007]

I like the Funko stuff, but the sculpts varied wildly from line to line. The Arrow characters were very detailed and well done right down to the likeness to the actors, the Star Trek figures were no where near as nice. The Rocketeer was good, but overall the sculpting was all over the place from very nice to terrible.

[MeWantMegos]

Thanks for posting the pics, which show how they took very different approaches to the same character. Very cool. I do like their Retro take on it.

Can you elaborate on this observation?

Now they've scrapped that and are doing a line that's a bit more of a mix of the two. Detailed, but still retro enough to not necessarily be the type of figure you might expect from Hasbro.

Would love to hear more about how they make more detailed figures that somehow retain the retro vibe and remain distinct from their competitors. Not to bring Batman into it too much (there's another thread on that) Their Batman figures are quite similar too Hasbro on first look yet their also somehow different.

[ODBJBG]

Well I mean it's all up to personal interpretation of course, but to me Hasbro tends to make very detailed, "realistic" figures. Certainly there's many, many exceptions to that, but overall if you look at most of their 3 3/4 output whether it's modern GI Joe, Marvel Universe, Star Wars or even lines like Indiana Jones and such, they had a high level of articulation, lots of accessories and really vivid detail for a small scale.

Mattel, IMO, doesn't have a distinct "style". Their 3 3/4 stuff isn't retro usually, it's just for lack of a better term... Crappy. They tend to cut corners at every corner and it's often reflected in their output. Their current/last 3 3/4 DC figures were all over the place. Some figures were quite detailed, while others were soft and clunky. They have a bit more of a style in 6 inch, but only when they have the 4 Horsemen doing the heavy lifting.

Funko's stuff, comes across as detailed, but still retro, not too articulated, but still articulated. Looking like the person and/or property it's supposed to, but not quite a miniature replica. To me, they remind me most of the old Kenner figures. Not the Kenner Star Wars stuff, which people often call the "Kenner style" but later Kenner 4-5 inch lines (which is where Kenner did their most work) that had a certain level of detail, but lacked a bit of realism. I imagine if Kenner was still around and hadn't been absorbed by Hasbro, they might have made toys in this scale that look like the upcoming 66 Batman line.

Again, this really only applies to Funko's latest output, the Batman figures and the recent Superman figure. How they'll turn out is debatable, but from what we've seen that's the vibe I get. Hope that makes sense.