Over the years users have asked if we can also cover Customs. In that past, that was not really possible but now it would be easy and is some already done on hobbyDB, where contributors can add custom figures to the database and users can add them to their collections. You can do the same, i.e. use your PPG user account to log in to hobbyDB, add customs to your collection and they’ll appear automatically in your PPG Showcase.
These customs will all show on a Subject page called Pop! Customs, show the Artist (if known) and have the production status set as Custom –
As they are not marked as made by Funko in the Brand field you can always add the word Funko to any search which would then hide all Customs. We only had a 4 or 5 of these customs at the time of the migration but have had a lot of interest with 50 more being added already and possibly 1,000s more coming. We thus think it is time to ask you for a vote. We’d like to know if you’d prefer to see custom figures on PPG as they will show up in the search like other items do and make it a little bit harder to find your items.You will find the poll on your left-hand side. Given that you can find Customs on hobbyDB and add them to your collection there we would prefer to only show Customs if 75% of the folks are in favor of this. Over to you!
August 1. Thanks for all these many comments here and elsewhere. Here two quick qualifications –
- The way it is set up you will be able to add the word “Funko” to your query and not see any customs
- Fakes, imitations or whatever folks want to call those are not eligible (in fact we are working on a number of features to advance the fight against fakes)
- We would not add prices to most or even all of these as they are mostly one-offs (and our prices are market-based)
I don’t there is any true way to value a “Custom” and think it may just lead to more confusion when looking for a pop at times. Some people like to sell fakes as “customs” I love customs but don’t think they have a place on PPG I mean maybe just adding to a personal collection but that’s it. But just my opinion.
That is why we ask 😉
The ability to be objective is lost by many at the alter of Funko. And there’s a very big difference between a knockoff that’s being advertised as a custom, and a piece that’s been transformed by Metallic/GITD/Flocked etc. There are some amazing customs out there. There are also horrible Funko Grails. (Box Japanese Spidey Glow). The advantage that Funko has is primarily one of longevity and age. Just like the glue on old action figures, we have no way to tell what the half-life of a custom is going to be. But I own pieces that from a strictly artistic POV, are light-years ahead of what “comes out” of “HQ”.
I agree and regardless of outcome you can add them to hobbyDB and then add them to your collection (they will show in your PPG collection). Just contact us to become a Contributor.
I say no because I agree with the first comment saying it would lead to more confusion like say someone were to make a Batman custom and there are already like 40+ pages of Batman figures to look through would probably just make things more confusing overall
Searching for “Funko Custom” would stop any customs from showing up in your search.
Then let’s define customs.
That’s simple. Because what you are confusing them with are replicas of original Funko pops.
So adding a replica is not the same as a custom. Hope that clears up confusion.
Customs would be fucking awesome to own if mass produced!
Then it wouldn’t be a custom anymore. Also Funko would file a cease and desist immediately.
Great idea!! As someone who has customs, I love it!
Hopefully you won’t have customs added. I’ve seen many items people call “custom” but are exact replicas of original pops. It’s gotten to the point where people are calling fake pops “custom”.
There are pros and cons here, that is why we ask. Fakes would be excluded regardless of what we agree here.
I love customs and own a few so I think it’s a good idea.. BUT it should be done independently, like a link that takes you to a different database where you can manage them, If you’re all down to put in that work. But I believe in keeping PPG as a Funko OG database only, there are so many already that there’s no need to add customs. My biggest problem with the idea is that it will contaminate the overall feel of PPG including searches, complexity of what’s what, managing my collection and stopping people from entering non-funko toys.
Hi Ray, they will either be here or on hobbyDB. We would not want to create a 3rd place.
No, if they are not officially licensed products they should not be on the price guide. One people have customs made for there personal taste, and many times only have one made… so the guide could get flooded with a bunch of customs. Lastly if the artist that create the piece isn’t being listed in some way than it’s really is just going to waste peoples time.
That is one of the options (just reply No which is currently the winning camp). Re adding the Artist, that is of course much preferred. That being said if not know the information can be added later by another contributor. The wider question to us is what constitutes a custom (is splattering a little bit of red paint sufficient?).
I’d say some form of molding should be involved in a custom, otherwise it’s really just a repaint, and anyone can through on a little bit of “blood splatter”
Yes! This custom stuff is a horrible idea. Customs are works of art from a creative person. Value is so arbitrary and open to ridiculous interpretation. I own almost 10 customs, by 5 different makers, they are special pieces to me, and higher in value to me, not dollar wise, but in other ways.
There would probably not be values for most Customs as they are not getting traded.
No customs. If it’s not a licensed product it don’t belong on the price guide. Customs can be cool but there is no way to value them and usually being one offs or 1/1 this is not their place.
I vote no. Most customs are poorly done and there is no way to price them accordingly.
I have to say no. keeping track of our collections and finding new ones on the way is enough without sifting thru customs yet alone deeming what value to place on them.
No
That is what the poll is for 😉 The comment is more if you want to make a supportive argument (either pro or contra) or ask a question.
wheres the poll?
On the lower half of the left-hand side of this page.
I vote No on customs. There are already countless customs made and if they are included, they will just add clutter to the new site. Better to focus on the thousands of Original Funko Items. Thanks.
I VOTE YES !!!
The PPG serves to have and show our collection, if in our collection we have a Custom Pop I think it is fantastic to be able to insert it in the PPG.
And it is also a way to get to know people who make Custom Pops!
I hope this idea goes forward, I loved it!
I don’t think customs should be added to general search. We shouldn’t have to add “Funko” to differentiate real products from customs.
I think it’s ok for people to add customs they have to their personal showcases and collections but those shouldn’t spill into the database search.
15. I am totally okay with adding Customs in this website. And I do agree not to put prices in it so as not to confuse the public. After all, what is wrong seeing Customized Pops?
Absolutely not. They’re not official Funko. It’s blurring the line too much to add customs.
The majority of people on here I would say utilize this site for baseline Funko products. By saying “The way it is set up you will be able to add the word “Funko” to your query and not see any customs” it is really harming the majority in their search. If customs were to be added I would suggest making the query “Iron Spider-Man Custom” instead of making the majority of searches include ‘Funko.’
Personally, if the act of searching and adding to a collection does not change for the majority it really would not matter if this became an option unless you owned customs. To save time on developing this process, you could add a drop down or check box to each Pops page to select it as a custom. This would then nullify the price and could change the image to say Custom.
No way, no how. Would you dedicate a staff to go through and find the 1000’s of customs? This is a rabbit hole of hell, you do not what to go through. Not to mention, potential favoritism, bribes and interpetation it brings.
This would be done by Contributors. I am not sure why there would be bribes and the likes? Anyway, it looks like this is academic as we set a 75% Pro quota and it is more the other way around…
No for pricing, that would be just nonsense. But it would be cool to be able to upload a pic and add it to your showcase as a personal collection to show off.
No this is just..nonsense.
We are asking for a vote as a lot of people wanted to see customs. You can vote and/or leave a comment here but nonsense is just not very helpful for the discussion.
WTF? The PPG guys are building a free system to keep our collections, calculate values, are trying it seems hard to improve the system and start asking us for comments and that is what people write?
Custom pops is art, it is put into a place all it’s own judge on content and appearance. It’s tricky because how do you price a one of a kind or a set of three? The quality of the paint job is important, but we all know Funko don’t hire the best painters. But Funko has supply and demand based on the number of pops and the demand for that pop. And would the artists themselves have an influence on the pop price? I say yes and it would give better use to the diy pop line
Thanks for the comments. Just for the avoidance of doubt, we will still have to apply the same rules about values, they will have to be based on marketprices which will probably mean that most Customs will not have pricing.
I think that there is something that is being overlooked by a large majority of my fellow collectors. And that is that we are operating within a system that dictates value based on perception. Yes, it is true that the value of a diamond is also one that exists within a perception based system, but with diamonds, the fact that a value exists at all was established a long, long time ago. Funko started in 1998. So to act as if there is a real standard to place that value upon is ridiculous. The value is dependant, in a large part, on the differentiation between characteristics. The actual quality of which is suspect as we all know how bad the manufacturer standards were for the early Funko Pops. The point is that despite these things, we still ascribe value to these objects. So ignoring other objects that exist in the same spectrum, but are not wholly conceived by, and produced by Funko is a little childish. There are definitely some sub-par customs, but there are also some amazing ones. So we have to give a little leeway to artists who are creating because of, not to spite, Funko.
Here’s the real reality check. Having to put “Funko” in the search field seems crazy because this “guide” was seemingly created to catalogue exactly that, “Funko” products, but, Funko was not the first game in town. Other vinyl characters and bobbleheads existed before Funko, so to act as if they pioneered this is shortsighted. Can we add Vinymations to this list? (I bring up The House Of The Mouse). My point is that getting pedantic about the need to add “Funko” in the search field is only complicating things. We all know that we’re here because Funko found lightning in a bottle. So whatever the people here at The PPG/Hobby DB have to do to differentiate between products catagoricaly, is up to them. We just need to give them our opinions on the quality of these outliers, so that they can, in some way be accounted for by the people that do value them.
I vote YES!
some custom are AMAZING compared to the original Funko has produced.
I have one custom and that is my Hollywood Chester FLOCKED how it should of been done for the grand opening.
Gonna be a no for me, when you start mixing customs with official products in searches it gets way too confusing. Especially for a new collector that is trying to learn about pops they want.
As a customizer, I vote no. It’s just asking for confusion and trouble, regardless of how clearly labeled it is. There are way too many fair weather collectors/collectors that solely care about value and this is going to cause issues.
I would totally vote YES. After reading the comments, it seems like people are mainly angered that it would cause confusion or with the pricing. As you’ve stated many times there wouldn’t likely be a price listed so that solves that problem, and as far as confusion – come on! How confusing would it really be? Just like there is a spot that says if a pop is an exclusive there could be a spot that says custom and who did it.
I think that it would be a great added feature for many, and for the those that don’t want to use it, they don’t have to!
great questio but Then it wouldn’t be a custom anymore. Also Funko would file a cease and desist immediately.
Can you make me my birthday is coming up on Friday if you can make me that would make my birthday
You want us to add customs? Or send you one for your birthday… 😉
I feel like customs shouldn’t be for enhancing pops that are already there or ones that don’t exist. Like I had pat from train, Rob Thomas, and alanis morissette all commissioned for concerts to try to get signed. I failed but I still have matchbox 20 coming up with meet and greet tickets which is my best chance. But pops made of something created by Funko exactly the same are fakes.
Should be for that not shouldn’t.. they shouldn’t be made for having the same exact pop released by Funko to trick you into buying from them.
I am not following your argument, can you please explain it again?