The Funko Wishlist

I'm now more than four years into collecting POPs, and the range that's on the market has absolutely exploded since those early days. Still, there are some figures that I would love to see them produce. Granted, many of these are highly unlikely, and are probably best relegated to customs, but Funko have managed to surprise us before -- so I'll throw the ideas out there and hope for the best.

Rat Fink

In their early days, Funko produced a very extensive range of Rat Fink Wacky Wobblers and other miscellaneous merchandise -- the company had different owners at the time, and their releases were very heavily based around the weirder side of Americana, particularly pop culture mascots. But when Funko was sold in 2007 to its present owners, there was a bit of a shift in focus to more mainstream pop culture, which has only been heightened since the POPs came to the forefront of their range.

So by doing some Rat Fink POPs, Funko would actually be coming full circle. But even more than POPs, I'd love to see a Mystery Minis set that incorporates Rat Fink and some of his Weird-Oh buddies -- along with their vehicles too.

Carl Jung

Funko has dabbled in real people from time to time, though they have primarily been sportspeople and musicians. But what if they branched out to other fields? Along with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung is one of the two grand old men of psychoanalysis -- and he'd be a great addition to my shelf, though I concede that market for old dudes in suits may be a limited one, the success of the Bernie Sanders figure notwithstanding.

It seems likely that if Jung ever was done, he'd be part of a two-pack with Freud, given the two men's close association earlier in their lives. But if they ever do make him, ideally it would be based on Jung in his older years, when he really did become a senex. Ideally he'd be paired with his pipe, and possibly his Red Book/Liber Novus.

Egyptian Mythology

Though we've had a POP from the original Universal Monsters film The Mummy and there are more on the way from the 2017 remake, I would love an Egyptian mythology-themed line from Funko. The POP! Asia line has already demonstrated that mythical creatures can work -- and Ancient Egypt's animal-headed deities would be ideal for the format. Anubis, Osiris and Horus would be the bare minimum -- but imagine an Ammit, or a POP! Ride of Ra on his solar barque? This could be an amazing range, it wouldn't even need licensing costs, and you could have more obscure deities via simple repaints.

Naturally, such a line could be expanded to other ancient cultures -- why not also have a Zeus, A Cernunnos or a Thor? Or even go a bit left of centre, and produce something from the Aztecs or Sumeria? The sky is the limit (ha!) on this one.

Hellraiser 

Pinhead is the face of the Hellraiser franchise, but the franchise has a ton of interesting Cenobite designs. NECA has been the only company to ever really capitalise on these other characters, and their action figure line was released more than a decade ago.

Customisers have already given a few characters a whirl, and they seem to work in the format. So what's stopping Funko? Probably a couple of things -- licensing costs are bound to be one, but I suspect another reason is that Hellraiser is a graphically violent film series.

Pinhead's design is fairly unsettling, but it's probably the least gruesome of any of the Cenobites -- specialist retailers won't care that much, but mass market stockists might not be so keen to risk the prospect of little Timmy accidentally picking up Chatterer or Angelique, and the bad press that could follow. Nonetheless, it would be good to see Funko expand beyond just Pinhead variations.

So who or what would you like to see Funko make in future? Throw your two cents in the comments below.

Wacky Wobbler – Rat Fink

Company: Funko

Year: 2000/2005

These days, Funko are far and away best-known for their distinctive POP! range of vinyl toys, which they’ve been pumping out to great success since around 2010. But before that particular cash-cow made its way into the paddock, Funko was founded as primarily a bobblehead company – one that was intentionally retro in its outlook. The company’s first ever toy was a bobblehead of the Big Boy restaurant mascot (who’s probably best known to Australian readers via his Simpsons parody, Lard Lad).

The next few years saw Funko enjoy a reasonable level of success, though they weren’t making waves in the same way as some of their designer toy contemporaries like kidrobot. The emphasis was primarily on retro mascots released under the Wacky Wobbler banner*, like Big Boy, Count Chocula, Tony the Tiger…and the subject of today’s review, Rat Fink!

Now Rat Fink is one of those characters that virtually everyone recognises, but unless they’re of a particular age, they rarely know his name. Drawn by the now sadly departed Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Rat Fink emerged out of the Kustom Kulture hot rod scene during the 1960s, an ugly (but endearing) anti-Mickey Mouse. He’s adorned countless t-shirts since, and spawned his fair share of associated merchandise – not to mention the considerable influence that Roth’s art has had on various underground art scenes.

      

Rat Fink is typically depicted in a sketchy-looking hot rod, one hand clutching at an impossibly-angled gearstick – but here he’s travelling on foot. At a guess, the figure is based on this art, though if there’s someone out there who knows better, please mention it in the comments below. The sculpt is solid, rendering Roth’s art nicely in slightly simplified 3D. He’s technically a bobblegut rather than a bobblehead, but we won’t bandy semantics here.

There were a huge amount of Rat Fink Wacky Wobblers produced. The one reviewed here is the most common colour and mould, but there were a few different moulds and dozens of different colours produced as well. Many of them were limited edition or convention exclusives; for a more comprehensive list, check out Pop Price Guide. Personally I’d be quite keen to get my hands on a glow version of any of them, but a quick look at eBay seems to suggest that virtually all of the figures go for pretty silly money these days. This version has a copyright date of 2005, but it seems that it was originally released around 2000 -- as you can see in the pic, Ed Roth contributed some notes to the back of the box, and he passed away in 2001.

And on that note, how’s the paint? Pretty ordinary. It’s never been one of Funko’s strong points, and the additional detail in the sculpt certainly highlights its inadequacies. But considering they’d only been a company for a few years at this point, it’s acceptable, if not ideal.

Overall? Rat Fink is a cool piece of Funko history, and quite fun in his own right. I found him at a shop in Surry Hills and paid a little more than he probably cost at retail back in the day, but certainly not an outrageous price – if you want one, I’d suggest you do the same. My wife described him as “disgusting” and didn’t really want to look directly at him, which means that Funko pretty much got it right. He’s accompanying all of my horror POPs at the moment, which is probably the best place for him. Now I just hope we get an update of him in POP form – maybe as a POP ride? C’mon Funko! 

*Funko’s Wacky Wobblers line still exists, though in a greatly reduced capacity. It’s nowhere near as comprehensive as their POP! range, and now tends to focus more on comics and movies. But for aficionados, NECA also produces some bobbleheads in a very similar style.