Halloween Outfits Now Available for Pop! Yourself Custom Funko Pops

While I definitely like Funko Pops, I haven’t purchased very many of them. I’m a bit of a completist, so really engaging with these things could be a bottomless pit of despair for me. However, one of the things that Funko has done that I think is really cool, is their custom Pop program called Pop Yourself. Through some fairly rudimentary choices, you can fashion your own Pop to look a bit like yourself or someone you know, and then have it manufactured and shipped to you. The prices is a reasonable $30.

I’m mentioning this here because Funko has just added some Halloween-themed goodies to the options for these figures. These include TOT pails, skulls, costume elements and more. Pop on over to https://funko.com/build-your-custom-pop to check them out and build your own Halloween Pops.

Which Witch?

When I was growing up, I was what’s now referred to as a “monster kid”. That usually refers to those of us who bought Famous Monsters magazine and were huge fans of the old Universal and Hammer horror films that were often being played on TV at odd hours of the night and day. I even had model kits of Dracula and the Frankenstein monster, but that’s a subject for another post.

I tell you all of that just to make it clear that, for me, Halloween was a year-round state of mind. That meant that I was into the goth/spooky/scary stuff anytime and anywhere, and one of the places where I exercised that affinity was in my choice of board games.

We had lots of board games. I guess they were encouraged because they gave us something to do that had some structure while also not requiring parental interaction. One of my favorites was Which Witch?

The concept of Which Witch? was to make your way through a witch’s house and make it to the top of the stairs without being knocked off the board by simple Rube Goldberg contraptions or turned into a mouse by the witch. It was just a luck-based game, but it had a fantastic 3-D house that you had to assemble prior to playing.

Since it’s initial release in the early 70s, Which Witch? has been re-released in several different forms, including one based on The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. They all have the same mechanics with different art, but the original will always be my favorite.

Who's Buying This Stuff?

Let me start by saying that I’ve bought a few high-end prop replicas in my time. Not many, but as a member of the 501st for many years, I became somewhat addicted to screen-accuracy. Some would say those purchases were a waste of money. I get it. Far be it from me to tell anyone how to spend their hard-earned cash. I say enjoy yourself while you can as long as you don’t endanger anyone or end up living on the street with nothing but a screen-accurate Boba Fett helmet to your name. Buy whatever makes you happy.

That said, I just want to know who the people are who are purchasing things like the 16” tall Charlie Brown figure from Super 7 shown above. Who’s spending three bills for good ol’ Charlie Brown? In a world where rents are going up, gas prices are breaking records, and the supply chain is in pieces, who’s going out on a limb and saying, “That’s for me”?

Make no mistake - Charlie Brown is a bargain when compared to some of the other items I’ve spotted for sale. Big Bad Toy Store currently has an Optimus Prime statue on preorder for $2899! WTF? A Transformer for $3K? No, thank you. How do you even have room in your home for these monstrosities?

Why do I care? Because I’m interested in understanding this megabucks collectible marketplace. These businesses have clearly crunched the numbers and have learned that there are enough buyers to make these products feasible. I don’t blame Super 7. The molds used to make this giant Charlie Brown are pricey, and that cost has to be figured into every Charlie they sell. The minimal market for these has clearly made that price higher since the tooling costs are divided between the number of units that are sold. But I still question who’s buying these?

It must be older, wealthier people who remember the Great Pumpkin TV special VERY fondly. I fall into that category, but you won’t see me buying this. Perhaps it’s people with so much expendable income that $300 to them is like $10 to me. I’m frequently shocked by the high salaries some people make for very little productivity in the world, but that’s another post entirely. I just see more and more of these ultra-expensive toys on the market, so my conclusion is that the market for this stuff is growing rapidly.

So, what’s my point? Halloween, to me, is about egalitarianism. Anyone can trick or treat and get free candy. Anyone can put together a Halloween costume with their wits and some trash. I love cheap costumes. I love cheap Halloween decorations. I love that people build elaborate haunts that are free for everyone to enjoy. I love that Target has a whole section of Halloween stuff that’s under $5. I love that poor kids can celebrate this holiday without feeling like they’re missing out. Hell, if ever there were a holiday made for poor kids, it’s Halloween! I don’t want my holiday turned into Christmas - that magical time of year when economic disparity rears it's head and tries to make everyone feel like reindeer turds.

Thingmaker Creepy Crawlers

image from auction

The original homebrew Halloween toy was the Mattel Thingmaker. Before 3-D printers, there was this toy. It was basically a hotplate with metal molds that you poured toxic “plasti-goop” into. Once the metal molds cooled, you could pry out your creations. Most were bugs but there were also expansion packs that included skeletons and other frightening additions.

I kind of glazed over one point, though. It was a hot plate. It got really freaking hot. 390° hot. Hot enough to burn the house down if left unattended, so certainly hot enough to inflict horrible burns. I got mild burns a few times but it didn’t dissuade me from making more bugs and skeletons. I have no idea how anyone thought this was safe for children, even in 1964 when the original was unleashed on unsuspecting children.

In later years, the heat was reduced and this toy was eventually reborn in 1992 as something very similar to an Easy-Bake oven. The plasti-goop had been re-engineered so that it only needed an incandescent lightbulb as its heat source. Ah, the advances of chemistry.

Word on the street was that Mattel planned to reintroduce the toy as a small 3-D printer, but they abandoned the project. I’m pretty sure that they learned that 3-D printing is usually lengthy and boring and the results are often disappointing, especially with a cheap printer. Lengthy, boring and disappointing are hardly adjectives successful toy lines share. Oh well, at least I still have my Thingmaker burn scars.

Boglins Are Back!

If you were into toys in any way during the 1980s, you knew about the original Boglins toys, designed by ex-Henson employees Tim Clarke, Maureen Trotto and Larry Mass. There were tons of them in a variety of sizes, designed to take advantage of the creature craze started by movies like Gremlins and Ghoulies. In a way, these were ripoffs of those creatures, but fun ones nonetheless. And they were made cheaper by the fact that Mattel didn’t have to pay any licensing fees.

Today’s Boglins are a bit more pricey, currently weighing in at $39.99 at The Big Bad Toy Store. I get nostalgia, but that price is a bit prohibitive for something that would sit on a shelf and gather dust. Still, if you’ve got plenty of money to blow, you could blow it on worse things than the Jack O’ Lantern themed Blobkin! Just don’t expect me to show up at your Halloween puppet show.