by Nick Lucier
IS THIS JUST A PAINT MALFUNCTION, OR ARE YOU HAPPY TO SEE ME? Paint flaws are a known issue with Funko products as most are hand-painted, some collectors very much dislike the flaws, others dont mind at all. Some paint flaws aren't too bad at all, a minor overlap (below) which is very common because these pieces are made by the thousands. Mind you, many other companies have these types of issues, but for collectors it's good to take a closer look at a few examples.
When making all these products you can imagine and almost expect to have a few issues such as overlapping, as well as other issues of being too top-heavy to stand by themselves. When a figure has a small thin body and big head it can obviously tip over and fall, this is a known factor with charaters such as Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas), Anna (Frozen), and a few others.
One of the biggest mess-ups is when the piece under the head is exposed, this happens when the head isn't glued on correctly and the disc is visible under the head. Other issues may include areas that are not painted correctly, where a part of the paint is not painted fully and goes into stores for sale.
Others include paint missing from an entire area - as you can see, there is no paint on the eyes of Predator (for example), showing what the piece actually looks like behind the paint. The other day, I saw a rather unusually crazy error, it had to do with a ReAction figure (see below) it looks like that it was never assembled when it left production and got sold as-is in the store. Looks like the "Death of Terminator" (or spare parts).
In some unusual circumstances, manufacturing errors may have a positive effect on the eventual collectable value. Some have increased in price due to such things, as some may have seen there was an error to include a Batman logo on one figures' chest and there is a Daenerys Targaryen with a Red Dragon circulating out there which in some cases could double or even triple the original value of the item. Proving that everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes wild imaginations work wonders even in the light of them.
This makes you wonder, what is happening in the Funko production warehouse, and will they ever lock down on the paint errors before they sell these strays, who knows. Funko, awe, oh!
(Ed. Note: Makes me think of the classic "Misfit Toy" sequence from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)