Funko Pop - Overwatch Reaper Blizzard Exclusive (520)

I'm aware of Overwatch but have never played it. I don't generally go for squad based games where you might have to actually talk to your teammates. Definitely more of a solo gamer here but I was definitely happy to have been gifted this Pop from someone that knows what I like.

If my quick, uninspired Google search is accurate, this seems to be some kind of alternate skin for the Reaper character and not what they normally look like in game. Which is a shame, I really want a 6" scale action figure of this pumpkin-headed badass! The "normal" version looks more like a sci-fi Death in black with a skull-like mask.

 

He's decked out in a windswept duster, some sci-fi body armor, and his gunbelt has a little skull and crossbones on the buckle. He's also dual wielding a pair of blasters. Ain't nobody smashing this pumpkin!

Not much to see on the back side but the "blowing in the wind" duster.

The best thing about him is the glow in the dark feature which lights up his orange skin and Jack-o'-Lantern features.

Star Wars Rivals by Funko Games

I first heard about Star Wars Rivals during the lead up to this year's May the Fourth "celebration." (May 25th will always be Star Wars Day for me!) From what I saw it was going to be a Walmart exclusive and in conjunction with the Fourth, they were supposed to have events or something to kick off the release. 

 

 Now that I'm actually reading the Funko game site, the starter set was available for pre-release online at Walmart starting 5/4 with wider availability in June. Still doesn't explain why I haven't seen any until a few weeks ago. Update: I stopped in Walmart today (7/27) and they had the starter set next to the action figures but the boosters are still in the game section...two aisles apart!

No Starter Sets to be found, just a lonely, single box of booster packs near the board game section. Luckily, you only need one Light Side and one Dark Side to play the game. 

 

We'll break it open after the...well, break. 

Haul-iday Highlights 2022

 Back from the holiday break with the annual showing off of holiday loot!

 

We'll kick it off with the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Funko Pops.

First up we have Groot and Peter Quill. Groot is looking better here than he did in the actual Special itself, I am not a fan of that costume. Quill's got a Santa hat (which you can't see much of here) and a wrapped gift. I'm glad they did these so I can bring them out every year to give a Guardians tweak to the holiday decorations.

Drax has his "little man" lawn ornament and I just love it! Also loving Mantis' festive headband. What I'm not loving? The fact that you can only get Holiday Rocket in an Amazon exclusive 5-pack. Booooo!

Funko's Return of the Headless Horseman Game

 If you're a fan of both Disney and tabletop games, you may have noticed Funko has been cranking out games like crazy. Most of them have been based on park attractions like last year's Haunted Mansion game. They've put out so many in recent years, I'm not sure if this is the first one not inspired by an attraction.

Now, I've only fully seen this one and the Haunted Mansion unboxed but I'm guessing they all have the same great level of art and care put into them.

 

Gallop on after the break!

Funko Soda - Doctor Strange & Gomez Addams

Up until this weekend, I had only owned a single Funko Soda...figure? Piece? Not sure what you'd actually call these. It says collectible on the can but that doesn't sound fun. Anyway! I decided to pick up Strange this past weekend and just couldn't let him leave the store alone.

One of the reasons I don't have many Soda figures is that they're not as ubiquitous as the Pops. You can find Pops almost anywhere and I've only ever found the Soda in one store, Newbury Comics. This is a New England chain of stores that started out selling comics (surprise!) and music. Now they carry all sorts of pop culture stuff. Think Hot Topic without the goth.

Haul-iday Report 2021

 Hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday/New Year. I've been catching up on other blogger's holiday hauls so I thought I'd join in, even if it's a little late.

This is not a personal photo but I wanted to find something fun to start off the post!

We'll kick it off with these awesome Adventure Time Matryoshka dolls. This is not an officially licensed product and I love it all the more for that. You can tell the artist used this actual set for inspiration because PB's pose is pretty much the same. But the "real" set only has 5 dolls while this one has 7. Finn stands around 5" tall to give you an idea how freaking tiny BMO is!

Nightmare Before Christmas - Making Christmas Funko Card Game

 If you've even glanced at the board game section of your local big box store, chances are you've seen at least one game put out by Funko. They do games now, because of course they do! From Funkoverse strategy board games to Disney attractions and other movie franchises, they are just cranking them out.

Since it's the holiday season (and I love the movie!), we're having some fun with Making Christmas, the third Funko game based on The Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

This was actually released a couple months ago and me being me, I pre-ordered it as soon as I saw it. This is a family card game for ages 6+ so it's fairly simple to play.

Among the game components are four pieces you assemble to make the toy workbench play area. The back of it features the artwork from the box.

Gather toys from Halloweentown for Jack Skellington to deliver on Christmas. But the presents are in pieces! Look for clever combos on the workbench that will help you put the toys together. On your turn, swap two toy parts and use assembled toys to complete goal cards. Then refill the workbench, goal cards, and the toy-building continues to the next player! Hurry to put the toy parts together and be the player that completes the most goals to win!

The goal cards are on the left and you score them by swapping two cards, either two on the board already or with one from your hand, to make a complete toy. Some goals, like the top one, only require you to make a horizontal or vertical match. Do that, and you get to make a second swap to try and complete another goal. When the last goal is completed, the player with the most goals wins.

Like I said, it's not a very deep game but seems like it'd be perfect for younger monsters or just some quick holiday fun. The artwork is perfectly spot on and the goal cards feature different residents of Halloweentown. 

 

The Funko board games are pretty easy to find but the card games have been hit or miss for me. If you don't want to hunt for this one, you can have Santa Jack drop it down your chimney via Amazon (affiliate link).

Funko's Boo Hollow Pumpkin Showdown Card Game

 It seems like last year's debut of the cute little Boo Hollow characters was a big hit. The gang is back this year with a lot of new merch including more blind bag figures, larger vinyl figures, plushes, and more. I was pretty excited to also see a new card game.

I've always been a game collector and a few years ago I got on a horror/monster collecting kick. When I started, games on those themes were few and far between which led me to eBay and collecting older board games. Then there was an explosion of horror games so I started focusing more on Halloween themed. So I'm always happy to see a new release!

A fun, fast-paced card game featuring the spooky-cute characters from Funko’s Boo Hollow! Play Pumpkin cards to throw Pumpkins at the other players, but watch out—they can play cards right back! Roll the special die to grab more Pumpkins, or dodge out of the way at the last second! Whoever gets hit with more Pumpkins takes a Hit card. Get hit three times and your out! Who will be the last one standing?

 

Thundarr the Barbarian Funko Pops

 Shortly after Funko started cranking out Pop figures, I had my heart set on ones based on my favorite Saturday morning cartoon, Thundarr the Barbarian. While I kept it in mind that they may never happen, over the years I figured they'd start running out of things people were nostalgic for and eventually they would come and they finally have...sort of.

 

 Back in February, Funko announced all the exclusives for their Spring 2021 VirtualCon and among them were these three I had been waiting on for years. Yes, my most wanted Pops were coming but they were going to be an online exclusive. In the span of a few seconds I went from elation to presuming I'd never actually see these at a decent price.

A couple weeks later, I saw something about being able to register ahead of time to order the figures. The only catch was you had to have been signed up two weeks before I found this info. Like Thundarr, I was going to fight on ignoring any obstacles in my way!

Hauilday Excerpts

I usually try to do the after Christmas post before the New Year. At least I think I do, I'm not going to go back and check. Here's a few highlights from my gift haul 2020.

Starting off with a couple of really cool shirts. I love the art style on the Strange one, plus is kind of a subtle reference that non-Marvel people will miss. We'll get back to Mando & Son, there's a lot more of them coming up!

I got my first Funko Soda ever. I've always held off on getting any of these because I usually want the 'regular' version and don't want to take the chance on getting a variant. I like the kinda chunky, solid figure design.

The other thing is a Disney's Haunted Mansion diorama set. I've seen pictures of these from the parks and was definitely going to pick one up on my next trip (Which would have been September 2020, thanks Covid.) It's part of the attic scene and there's lots of little bits and pieces to it. This will likely get its own blog post whenever I get around to putting it together. Looks very cool! I also got the Hallmark Hitchhiking Ghost ornament.

 

 

In recent years, the Disney Store has been selling these collector keys. They come in all sorts of themes and characters. This is a pretty cool set that covers a few different aspects of Disney. The Marvel one has Avengers symbols and the Star Wars one has Vader and Luke on it.
 

There's just something really fun about having a "Star Wars Christmas" again and this year was definitely one of those! On the Pop front, we have Moff Gideon with Darksaber and Mando & Son in the desert. Top right is a pair of Mando and IG-11 Cosbaby bobblehead figures. Not pictured, a Mandalorian 2020 wall calendar.

For when you need to shoot and capture your bounty alive: the Mandalorian Polaroid camera! It's the odd perfect combination of modern day Star Wars with 1970s technology. It might be the 21st century but the photos still look like how you remember Polaroids from back in the day.

 

 

The camera itself looks like it would fit right in with Mando's armor and even has a Mudhorn skull on the back. Do you remember the last time you had to look through a viewfinder to take a photo? Me either! My one minor complaint with the setup is the position of the shutter button below the flash. You have to pay attention to your hand position when snapping those pics otherwise you're going to get finger shadows on your subject. The original cameras didn't have a flash, or if they did it was on an additional part of the camera that flipped up.

The film has Mandalorian themed borders and graphics on it. What's really cool is that when you prep a new film cartridge, there is a film protector that gets ejected (bottom right). This one of the Armorer is numbered 5/8 so I'm guessing there's 8 different cards to collect as well.

So that's some of the stuff I got over the holidays. 

What kind of cool stuff did you get? 

Let me know in the comments!

Haunted Mansion - Call of the Spirits Game

 Just released at the end of September, The Haunted Mansion Call of the Spirits Game from Funko may be just the place to get your Mansion fix if you're missing the ride.

This is the fourth official board game based on the attraction and only the second that wasn't a Disney exclusive. The first was simply the Haunted Mansion Game in 1972 which is a work of art in and of itself. The Disney exclusives were re-themes of existing games: Clue (2002) and The Game of Life (2010).

Enough history, let us call in the spirits! I haven't had a chance to play the game yet but the art design all around gets an A+.

This is the inside of the box lid featuring the stretching portrait room. How perfect!

The interior sides of the box each have a different set of portraits that can be found in the ride. I also love the way the game board folds so that when you open the box, you are greeting by the Mansion and "Welcome, foolish mortals".

This is the back of the board, the back! How great is this scene?

And here is the front of the board with different areas of the ride. Madame Leota sits in the seance room in the middle. It has a rotating feature which is why you see that large circle opening on the back of the board. The endless hallway surrounds the room and connects to the ballroom, dining room, attic, graveyard, mausoleums, and crypt.

 

Players are represented by these bat stanchion tokens. If you're not familiar with these, they are in the ride's loading area queue holding up the chains. More info here. I love that they included this guy but why not make the player tokens Doombuggies?

To win, you move around the mansion socializing with the ghosts (collecting them). At the end of the game, you score points based on the sets of ghosts you have. Ghosts of the same color score more points depending on how many you have. Some special ghosts, like the Bride, don't have a set but score better if you collect specific other ghosts. The art on the cards does a great job of capturing the...spirit of the ride.

You didn't think there would be a Haunted Mansion game without the Hitchhiking Ghosts, did you? These guys move around the board haunting the players. Whoever has the highest haunt score at the end loses some of their collected ghosts.

Unlike other Funko games, I haven't seen this one hit a major retailer in my area yet. I couldn't wait so I got my copy from Amazon.

Click the image below to see all the participating Countdown bloggers!

Marvel Battleworld Game by Funko

Wow it seems like forever ago that I posted about any new toys. Let's see...that was...back in May with the Imperial Probe Droid figure. It's not like I'm not popping into stores to see what's up but it's definitely not as often and not as fun. It's more of a challenge to pick something up on a whim these days due to the longer check out lines. But I did spot the latest game from Funko a couple weeks ago and had to check it out.

Addams Family Funko Pops

I don't have anything against the Munsters but I'm an Addams man through and through. I feel like the Munsters get all the merch love but that's going to change! Whether or not the new animated movie is worthy of the Addams name remains to be seen but if nothing else, it's getting some new merch out there for the fans.

 

This black & white set of Gomez and Morticia is only available from Entertainment Earth.

When I first saw there were Pops coming based on the TV series, I wanted to get them all. But now that I have these two (the only B&W ones) it puts me in a pickle. If I want to get the whole family, do I only get the rest of them in color or do I need to get Gomez & Morticia in color as well? I mean, it will look a little odd to have just the parents in B&W wouldn't it? If the whole family was available in color and B&W I'd easily choose to get them all in B&W. Ah, the conundrums of being a collector.

You may notice the lack of two important family members on the back of the box: Lurch and Thing. They're supposedly only available from Funko-Shop online but I have yet to see them. There's also a Walgreens exclusive Uncle Fester with light bulb and a Gomez chase Pop of him with a sword.

As usual, Funko did an amazing job on these. The tiny details like Gomez's pocket square and jacket buttons as well as Morticia's jewelry and "spider leg" dress are all spot on.

Of course we probably wouldn't be getting these right now if the movie wasn't coming out. Naturally there are movie inspired versions of them as well.

Even though the animated versions are based on the original comic strip appearances, I'm probably going to pass on these. If I get any, it would be Gomez and Wednesday.

If you check out the other Countdown to Halloween bloggers by clicking below, a ghost may follow you home!

Marvel Collector Corps - Captian Marvel

Okay, last Captain Marvel post for awhile. I knew there would be a Funko Marvel Collector Corps box for Captain Marvel and when I saw it was coming with two exclusive Pops, I figured why not check it out.

Before we even get into the contents, check out the "stellar" art on the box top.

Carol is zooming around space among line art constellations that include Goose the cat. The art is that kind of off-white that looks like it would glow in the dark. Sadly it does not.

Alrighty, let's see what's in the box!

I think this is he first piece of glassware I've received in one of these boxes. The art really pops off the glass. When Carol first took up the mantle of Captain Marvel in the comics, I was not a fan of the mohawk look. It's grown on me over the years, even more so after seeing it in a live action movie.

Next up is the shirt that I'll be wearing when I see Endgame. Grown men should probably not use the phrase "totes adorbs" but I mean...it's Funko Pop art. I like that Goose is on the shirt but not really stealing the spotlight. It's funny that you just see him walking away.

It wouldn't be a good Captain Marvel box if you didn't have just a little more Goose in it.

The detail that goes into these Pops never fails to impress. They didn't need to include buttons on Fury's jacket cuffs or the wrinkles in his pants. And the tie is pretty great too. Of course, he's holding an itty bitty Goose which is too cute.

The last item is a glow in the dark Pop of power punching Carol. She's flying a bit off the ground thanks to a translucent base. I mentioned the extra details on Fury weren't really necessary but here, it's all necessary for her costume and it looks amazing.

I tried to get a shot of her glowing. It's not great but here it is.

Her eyes glow a little but not as much as her hair and power effects. I was a bit surprised that her her glows because I was only expecting the eyes and maybe her hands.

Overall, another solid Funko Collector Corps box! If you want to subscribe, it's now offered on Amazon. The next box will be Avengers: Endgame and include a shirt. Sign up for this box ends on 5/28. It's not a hard set subscription service, you can just order when you like the theme and cancel after that if you want.

Funko Smuggler's Bounty - 40th Anniv

What better way to wrap up a week celebrating Star Wars' 40th Anniversary than the Funko Smuggler's Bounty which happens to have the 40th Anniversary as its theme?

This was the largest box by far, and you'll see why. I was going for the opening crawl effect with the box photo, can you tell? There's usually an info card in the box that tells you about the items and what the next theme will be but my box didn't have one. I don't know if it got left out or if they stopped doing it.

The traditional Funko box pin and patch. X-Wing Luke looks a little...weird? Maybe he's talking to Obi-Wan's ghost.

Funko has a track record of debuting new types of items in their boxes. I'm not sure if this is one of them (because I didn't get an info card) but it's definitely the first Funko wristbands I've seen. Yep, they sure are wristbands that say Star Wars.

See if you're going to Funko-ize something, this is how you do it! I don't know about leaving these two characters on my dining table though, they might get into some shenanigans.

Who shot first, salt or pepper? Wrong! 

The correct answer is no one shot first. 

Han shot. 

End of story.

And here's why this box was so large! Not a Dorbz Ride but a full on Pop Ride Luke in his Landspeeder. I really wish I had a work space where I could put this out. It's just so much fun to look at! The used clear plastic rods to give it a hover effect.

The paint job is great. Not only the weathering but also in the detail on the exposed engine. And check out the ripples in the sand. Of course I can't look at this and not think of the original Landspeeder toy with its pop-up hood.

Well, that's it for the Funko Smuggler's Bounty for me. I've been wanting to cancel my subscription for awhile but every time I see the next theme I think "How can I stop now?" The next one is droids, not that I don't love droids! I just don't have the space to keep piling up all the boxes of stuff.

So May the Force Be With You, Smuggler's Bounty. 

I'm sure our paths will cross again in the future.