Last night I watched It Follows. Great movie if you are a horror fan, but after watching I got to thinking about Funko’s Horror lines. I find that, though they have made a decent amount of characters, they do not have a lot of variants like they do with other characters. For instance, characters like Batman and Iron Man have a ton of variants, but Jason Voorhees, arguably the most popular horror icon, only has 3 Pop! figures, and that’s including his chase figure. The other two would be the common figure and the ultra popular SDCC unmasked Jason. There are two more of him in the horror Mystery Mini line, one being Jason from the NES Friday the 13th video game, which I think is great. Funko will be releasing a second set of horror Mystery Minis soon. I may be missing some, but that’s 5 from 2 of Funko’s biggest lines. I counted 22 for Batman just from Pop! figures. Obviously I realize Batman is going to have more figures than almost anyone, but I think Funko needs to do more with their horror line, specifically with Pop! figures since that is by far their most popular line. Here are a few ideas I have that I think would do very well.
Let’s start off with Jason. As stated above, there are 3 Jason Pop! figures and 2 mystery minis. Unmasked Jason is a big step in the right direction, but there are several things that can be done with him. Who else would love a Jason X figure from that uber cheesy movie? How about a 2-pack with Jason’s mother and a young Jason? They could even do something similar to what they did with their Jaws-Quint ReAction figure (I would be remiss if I did not mention there are currently 2 Jason ReAction figures: regular Jason and Toy Tokyo exclusive NES Jason). There could be a Tommy Jarvis-Jason pack with Tommy stabbing Jason, or even a 2 pack with some of Jason’s more iconic kills. There are too many to mention, but I would love the sleeping bag smiley face kill done by Funko. I said earlier I would focus on the Pop! line here, but some of these 2-packs could be done well in the ReAction line if the Jason-Quint pack is an indicator of future figures. How about a Freddy vs Jason 2-pack ala Batman vs. Superman?
Freddy does not get nearly the love he should from Funko. He’s part of the big 3 of horror icons, but he only has 2 Pop! figures, 2 ReAction figures (one being the NES figure), and 1 Mystery Mini. Freddy has so many different looks Funko could probably do a whole line with just him. They could start off with making the more demon-like Freddy from New Nightmare. He is by far my favorite Freddy, so I would love to see this. As with Jason, I think 2-packs with Freddy could be killer (see what I did there?). Television Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street 3? A 6 inch worm Freddy Pop!? The possibilities are endless.
Well, we might as talk about the third horror icon from the big 3: Michael Myers. Michael is in the same boat as Freddy: 2 Pop! figures, 1 Mystery Mini, and 1 ReAction (actually 1 less than Freddy). I don’t think there could be as many variants here as with the other two, because Michael Myers does not have many looks and is pretty straightforward. There could possibly be a variant for the Rob Zombie movie Myers. There could certainly be plenty of the kill 2-packs mentioned to go along with the other big guys.
I understand not making as many horror figures as certain comic characters. People eat up the comic variants, and there are SO many because of years and years of comic backlogs. I think Funko is missing out on a cash cow with these guys though. They are the modern day Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolfman. Funko has done a Pop! line of Universal Monsters, and they have done a good job. All of the figures are very well done, and most of them have some nice variants. Some of the horror Pop! figures were very early in Funko’s Pop! lifecycle, so I hope they do revisit this again like they did with unmasked Jason.
Instead of just complaining about what Funko should do with the horror figures, let’s see some of the cool stuff they will be doing very soon. As stated above, the second series of horror mystery minis should be released soon, but I have yet to see a due date. One Pop! I’m excited about is Pinhead, which is due out in August. This figure comes complete with pins coming out of his face and a puzzle box! I’m surprised it took this long to make him. Also due out in August is Nosferatu. I usually don’t find the older monsters frightening, but this guy looks pretty wicked with his all white eyes and razor-like teeth.
I’ll end this column with a few pipe dreams. I would love to see a Cujo figure with a flocked variant. I think people would be foaming at the mouth at the SDCC to get him. How about Reagan from The Exorcist with a pea soup and/or spider walk variant? This one actually might not be a pipe dream. I could see her being made. Jack Torrance with axe would make me drunk with envy over anyone who had it (Ok, I’ll stop). There are too many other movies to name. Poltergeist, The Thing, Psycho, Candyman, The Ring, Jaws (not just ReAction, a 6 inch Pop!!!). All of these movies could have several figures from them. I just wish Funko would see this!
AHEM.
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