Funko Pop Mania!

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By Joshua Adrian Aristoza

Funko Pop! is the vinyl designer toyline that is quickly becoming the thing that pulls in everyone into the hobby of toy collecting. Who wouldn’t want to collect their favorite characters from movies, TV shows, comics, and anime rendered into a cute, big-headed, bobblehead figure that can fill your room and empty your wallet at the same time?

I personally don’t collect Pop!s myself, but I’ve noticed the need for people to have a “Pop!elganger” (as the Funko website puts it) of themselves that they can display and take photos of together with their collection. With that, I decided to delve into customizing the little figures into personalized Pop! people!

Normally, Funko Pop! customizers start with a good base figure, one that has the pose, accessories, and build of the person they are looking to copy, but since I have minimal or any idea what Pop! figures are available that I can use, I decided to use a Funko Pop! DIY blank body as a base. This is the main reason why my Pop! customs take a bit more time (and money) to make than my normal customs, since I usually have to sculpt the base body from scratch, then add on all the details such as the hair, clothes, and other accessories that they may have. After all the sculpting done, comes the painting process, which is a bit harder to do in such a small scale.

The people who commission me for personalized Pop! figures normally ask for a custom box as well, but I outsource the vector design of the Pop! art to my friend at iGeek/Jpops.

All in all, personalized Pop! figures aren’t the easiest customs that I can make, but seeing happy responses from the people who had them made for their loved ones makes the all hard work worth it!