Funko

Following on the heels of Funko's Marvel Collector Corps subscription box, the collectible company slid comfortably over to Disney's other big pop culture phenomenon, Star Wars, for its latest venture. The Smuggler's Bounty adheres to the formula established by the MCC, and gives those who subscribe a handful of exclusive items, including shirts, pins, patches, and a few coveted, limited Pop figures. With so much hype and hoopla surrounding the arrival of a new Star Wars movie for the first time in 10 years, Funko positioned itself well to capitalize on all the excitement. However, despite the promise the Smuggler's Bounty held, the First Order box, based on the villains of The Force Awakens, it lacks the significant punch of its Marvel brethren. In fact, were it not for the inclusion of the first fully-chromed out Captain Phasma, the Smuggler's Bounty would have been a great disappointment.

There are still people out in the world that dare venture into the cold dark retail black hole that is Black Friday. To them I say, "Good luck, and godspeed." I am not one of those people. No matter how good the deals get, after working the "holiday" for so many years, I'll never step foot in a store again on the Friday after Thanksgiving for the rest of my life. Now, if you are one of those people, and in particular, one of those people with an expressed interest in going to Gamestop stores on Black Friday, you'll find Funko's got something special in store for you. For the first time ever, Funko is releasing mystery box, which will be exclusive to Gamestop retail stores. The box is set up much like the Collector Corps and Smuggler's Bounty subscription boxes, though there's a bit more variety in the brands involved with this Black Friday special. Each of the boxes is guaranteed to get you two ReAction figures, a Pop Keychain, an Pop Pin and one of five different limited Pop figures. Available only within these boxes will be a Batgirl, Batman (1989 movie version), Blackest Night Superman, Fallout Power Armor or a color variant Claptrap.

If you thought Funko's plans for the Batman: Arkham video game series was going to be limited to a series of Pop figures, you were wrong, buck-o. The Caped Crusader and his rogues gallery are way too popular to be contained in just one figure line. Time and time again, from just about every company that makes anything Batman-related at all, they try to inject the Dark Knight into as many formats as possible. That's why it's not at all surprising to see Rocksteady Studios' take on the characters appear as Mystery Minis. The stylized vinyl figures are much smaller than your standard Funko Pops, though it doesn't appear as if these Mystery Minis will come with any sort of rare figures. Typically the line has a variety of characters with some interesting variants short-packed to entice you to buy more of the blind box figures. However, like the Avengers: Age of Ultron Mystery Minis, it seems that there will be just 12 of the Batman: Arkham figures from across the whole franchise, included. That means with a 1:12 ratio, you should be able to get a whole set in just one box.

The fourth of five planned Marvel Collector Corps subscription boxes arrived this week, and this time Funko's diverted attention away from the goodie-two-shoes of the Marvel U for once. The Villains box is the first to arrive with such a broad theme, but even though Marvel's got a steady stream of movies and events constantly happening, Funko was eventually going to have to step outside the existing comfort zone created in the Collector Corps. While the Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron boxes were nice, there's a lot more to Marvel than just its movie brands. The last box, which was inspired by the Secret Wars comic and event, was a promising glimpse into the future that Villains maintains, even if it doesn't exceed expectations. The broad vision for the Villains box may just have been its undoing, as there is strong variation in this box, but it's a lack of laser-focus leaves it ending up a mixed bag.

With October just around the bend, that means it's time for cooler weather, cooler costumes and the biggest comic book convention on the east coast. Yes, New York Comic Con is bearing down on us faster than we're prepared to deal with it, but that's okay. We'll make do. In addition to incredible amount of stuff happening at the show, there will be a lot of great stuff up for grabs. As busy as Funko was at San Diego Comic-Con, its plate looks to be equally as filled at NYCC this coming year. This week, Funko is unveiling all of its planned exclusive items, with a new batch coming every single day. While the availability of each is likely to be a bit more open than it was at SDCC, these things will still be limited. If you're hoping to get any, definitely plan ahead and around any and all panels you hope to make it to this year.

Have you guys heard about the Stars Wars? Have you also heard about Funko Pops? These are two things that seemingly came out of nowhere to dominate store shelves, social media, and websites over the past few days, and quite frankly we're alarmed. But because we don't want to look like we're behind the times, we've snapped up a bunch of these Star Wars: The Force Awakens Funko Pop figures to giveaway to the loyal readers of ComicsAlliance and ScreenCrush. The whole first wave of figures has been rather hard to find all in one place, but through the grace of the internet god's favor, we managed to procure all your favorite heroes and villains from the upcoming movie nobody has seen, such as Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma and Rey. We've even got some of the classic heroes who actually have proven their worth already in Chewbacca and C-3PO, but we know everyone is really after that cute little BB-8. For all we know, that guy is just a mini-Death Star, and the real villain. You can't prove us wrong. Deal with it.

I'll save you the trouble of having to read an introductory line like, "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if a million wallets suddenly cried out in terror." Ha, no I won't. You just read it. Boom. Roasted. That's how you Star Wars. Okay, now we can get real after I got that out of my system. It's hard not to go for the easy joke sometimes. Teased during San Diego Comic-Con, Funko officially unveiled its new Star Wars subscription box service today. Dubbed Smuggler's Bounty, the service will work just like the Marvel Collector Corps subscription already offered starting earlier this year. Rather than loaning out its highly lucrative brand to other subscriptions, Funko will be dropping exclusive Pop and Mystery Minis, as well as t-shirts, into its own proprietary boxes. Every two months, you'll get a new box of stuff based on a particular theme (in this case from the Star Wars universe) for $25, and then the cycle begins again.

I was skeptical about the mystery contents of this month's box when Secret Wars was announced as the inspiration. Basing a collectible delivery around an untested crossover event with little knowledge as to how the storyline would be received seemed risky. Additionally, where the films reach a massive audience globally, we all know comic books themselves top out in the hundreds of thousands in sales. Depending which sales source you believe, Secret Wars has been the most popular book for the past few months, but even still, that concept hasn't reached as wide a consumer base as Age of Ultron or Ant-Man. As the first box in Funko's Marvel Collector Corps to not be based on a film property, no one really had any idea what to expect from the Secret Wars box. To be fair, there have only been two boxes in the subscription service so far, with both having arrived at the same time as one of Marvel's cinematic escapades. There won't always be a movie to base one of these themed boxes around, but if the Secret Wars box is any indication, that won't be a problem for Funko.

The great thing about the Batman 1966 licensing boom that we've been in for the past year or so has been the variety of collectibles commemorating the fan-favorite series. For a long time, we just didn't have much to work with when it came to the Adam West/Burt Ward era, but now we've got action figures, banks, miniature cars, statues, comics and all kinds of other random stuff. While we've seen Funko's Batman 1966 Pop figures and Dorbz on shelves already, the creatives at Vinyl Sugar will introduce Vinyl Idolz based on the Bat-family this fall. The Batman '66 wave was teased earlier in the year, but didn't have any prototypes or release date mentioned at the time. The Vinyl Idolz line has already offered such pop culture icons like the characters from Seinfeld, Ghostbusters and Hot Fuzz in its strange-yet-appealing Family Guy meets Aardman Animation style, and the campiness of Batman '66 helps the characters fit right in without missing a beat.

There are a few things you need to know about Agent Coulson, but the thing you need to know most of all is that you don't touch his car. Lola's a special lady car, and a man and his car shall not soon be parted... that's how that saying goes, right? Probably. Anyway, Lola. She's a car. Now she'll be a toy. This October, Funko is releasing Coulson's signature ride as another of its Pop vehicles. The line has included the TMNT Party Van, Deadpool and his Chimichanga Truck and Marty and the DeLorean, so obviously Lola is the clear front-runner for the best-looking of the bunch. The new Funko fun doesn't stop there however, as there's also going to be the world's first ever Billy Zane Pop. Technically, it's just a Pop of the Phantom, Lee Falk's legendary hero of the jungle, but this is probably as close to relevance as Billy Zane will get in the 21st century. One can only hope the rest of the Defenders of the Earth will eventually make the cut as well. I mean, Funko's going through properties at an incredible pace to keep up with demand, so it only makes sense that one day soon we'll be seeing a Mandrake the Magician Pop.