This week you cannot talk about Disney without mentioning the big Star Wars Funko Pop! leak. Amazon pushed out their preorder page for Star Wars: The Force Awakens too early. Funko has had the daunting task of contacting several sites asking them to remove any pictures of these leaks, so I will not post the pictures. It just made some wonder if this leak could have been in any way deliberate.
NO! Hypethetically, why would Funko ask Amazon to push these images out early? Well, the answer is pretty obvious. If you look at almost any Star Wars, or toy-related site at the moment, you will see some kind of new Star Wars products being shared, and some of these are the latest Star Wars Pop! figures. Fans are on the edge, waiting for the newest of the new. This is good for Funko since every Star Wars fan, Pop! collector or not, is going to want to see these figures. This may entice quite a few people to buy these Pop! figures when they are released in September. The leak could be good for Amazon since a lot of people may just order from them as the first retailer to consider when seeking these Pop! figures out.
Do I think this was done purposely? No, because Disney does not seem to be happy right now. I have actually seen webmasters ask people not to post these pictures. Some might say Disney told Amazon to do this, but I can’t see it. Star Wars fans love collectibles, but I would venture to say that a majority collect Hasbro. That’s not to say a good portion of these fans don’t collect Funko, so they will now share the marketplace when it comes to Star Wars figures.
I guess I’m being a bit of a (reverse) conspiracy theorist by wondering these things, but I’ve seen other Funko leaks and these thoughts cross my mind. I remember the Age of Ultron Unmasked Iron Man being leaked months ago, and, sure enough, now he is an Amazon Exclusive. There was also the Unmasked Captain America leak. Some say these leaks come from the Funko factory workers in Asia, while others think retailers occasionally release information too early.
I know Disney has to put on a certain face when things like this happen. They basically act like it was a mistake or that these images are not real. Disney may actually be upset about this, but I doubt they are too angry considering the press these figures are getting. Just like Marvel and Funko probably were not fuming mad whenever those Age of Ultron Pop! leaks happened. What will the next major leak be? Probably a huge annual event like The Force Awakens or Age of Ultron, and this makes perfect sense. Fans love these movies, and leaked information tends to come from blockbuster events. If someone is going to leak secret information, they want to make sure the risk is worth it, but I will always have that one question at the back of my mind. Are these leaks happening because of excited fans, or because Funko or Disney wants them to?
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*** In all fairness to the properties listed above, we have confirmed that these images in question were circulated by mistake. We remain excited to see the finished product in a month's time or thereabouts.