Last week Funko officially announced their plans for Funko Fundays 2017 over on their blog, with tickets going on sale this Wednesday, May 17 at 10 AM PST. They’re coming in at $140 (plus an additional processing fee) per ticket with buyers limited to purchasing only two.
This year’s Funko extravaganza will be held in the Seaport Ballroom at the Manchester Grand Hyatt on Friday, July 21st with the celebrations kicking off at 8:30 PM. Fans of the Funko brand and their numerous, stylized vinyl brands are in for a lot of crazy fun and coveted, exclusive giveaways.
By all accounts, Funko Fundays is one hell of an event.
But, as you can probably tell from the title of this post, it can be incredibly hard to attend. We’ve been trying for years without any luck and we hope every summer that this will finally be our year! (But we’re not holding our breath.)
What is Funko Fundays?
If you’re not familiar with the Funko Fundays of years past, or you’re new to Funko collecting, this is basically a fan-oriented celebration of the brand. It’s a chance for Funko fans to get together with the folks behind the company and go nuts. There are contests, food, and tons of awesome giveaways. Everyone who attends is guaranteed to walk away with some pretty great swag. And since it’s not really tied to SDCC, anyone can attend – even if you didn’t get badges.
When you walk through the doors you get a “Box of Fun” with a handful of exclusive items. Then, over the course of the night, the Funko team gives away an insane number of addition exclusives, themed Freddy Funko pops, extremely rare prototype designs, and more.
There’s a reason fans gets so excited about this event. You can walk away with some seriously awesome (and very limited) goods. You more than make up the value of your ticket in exclusive pops and Funko products simply by walking in the door.
If you want to see a great little sneak peek at the kind of shenanigans that go on, Funko did a recap on their blog of last year’s event and I am insanely jealous of everyone who got to attend.
And if you’re wondering what kind swag you’ll get, search the Pop Price Guide website for the Funko Fundays exclusives. While they giveaway a lot of Freddy Funko related items, that’s not their only focus. For example, last year they gave away Batman and Deadpool Mega Dorbz (and I have coveted them from afar ever since).
Funko Fundays is an incredibly entertaining night full of Funko fun. Also, apparently there’s a lot of canned corn chugging? Yeah, we don’t know what that’s about.
Why Are We Unlikely to Get Tickets?
The reason we don’t know what the whole corn thing is all about is because – as I said earlier – we have never been able to get tickets to Funko Fundays. In the five years that our editorial team has been trying, the furthest we’ve ever gotten in the buying process is adding tickets to our cart. By the time the cart refreshed, the event already was sold out.
Tickets sell incredibly fast – and by fast I really do mean within seconds. I’ve seen estimates from last year that they sold out within ten to thirty seconds after the ticket sale link went live.
Now, Eventbrite (the website that Funko used to facilitate sales in past years) usually gives you a couple minutes to finalize your purchase. So the tickets weren’t necessarily sold within those ten seconds but all the tickets were effectively assigned to cars. Meaning that unless someone messed something up or didn’t purchase their tickets fast enough that was basically it.
With Funko becoming incredibly popular every year, the Funko Fundays tickets become more and more scarce.
What Can You Do to Up Your Chances?
Unfortunately, there’s really not a whole lot you can do to make your chances any better.
If you’ve got your credit card and billing information saved on Eventbrite then you might cut down your checkout time – assuming they even use Eventbrite again this year. But since they usually hold the tickets and give you time to checkout all that really does is help eliminate the chance that you won’t checkout before your time runs out.
Buying in groups is usually the tried and true way to beat the odds when it comes to SDCC but it doesn’t apply in this case. If you somehow manage to get tickets you’re only allowed to buy two and they can’t be transferred. The tickets are both bound to the person who purchases them.
As Funko describes it, the first ticket is assigned to the purchaser and the second ticket acts as a +1 reservation. So if the first person who buys your ticket isn’t able to go you’re going to be out of luck. And if you can’t go yourself, you can’t give the tickets away to friends. All you can do is ask Funko for a refund. (Though if your +1 isn’t available, you can always bring someone else since it’s just your name on the tickets!)
The only folks who really had a leg up this year are the folks over on the Funko Funatic webforums. Funatics were given the opportunity to enter a lottery enabling them to purchase Fundays tickets ahead of the general sale. Newer members weren’t eligible, however, and the requirements just to enter the lottery included at least a year old account and a certain number of posts.
Now, while these things might limit all of our chances to get tickets, I actually like these policies. I think it’s cool that the Funatics get an extra shot at tickets. And I really like that Funko limits ticket purchases to just two per person — and that the person who buys them has to actually show up in person. They want to fill seats with as many actual fans as possible which is really cool of them.
I just wish one of those fans was me…
What If You Do Get Tickets?
Well then you’re a lucky bastard and I hate you. Okay, not really. But I will be insanely jealous because years of heartbreak is hard and I really want to go.
Anyway, here’s some things to keep in mind.
On that Friday, make sure to be at the Manchester Grand Hyatt before the event kicks off at 8:30 PM. Doors are going to open at at 6:45 PM and you need to show up with the people you want to sit with because table assignments are going to be done differently this year.
You’ll be assigned a table at the door so if you’re not in line with your friends you’ll get stuck with strangers. Funko has already said there’s not going to be any seat saving once you’re inside. And make sure your +1 is with you if you’re the ticket purchaser because you won’t be able to pick up their Box of Fun for them if they aren’t with you.
Be ready to be silly. It seems like the people who chug canned corn (again with the corn) and aren’t afraid to scream loudly have the best chance at getting additional prizes.
Also, think about how you’re going to get your haul home. The items you get at Fundays are going to be worth hundreds of dollars the second you walk out of the Manchester Grand Hyatt ballroom. You’ll want to make sure they don’t get damaged while you’re at the convention or while they’re on their way home with you.
Fans who are flying in and who managed to get Funday tickets may want to think about where the nearest post office or UPS Store is and mail their haul home insured, rather than put them in their checked baggage.
What Else Does Funko Have Planned?
If you’re not able to get into Fundays you’ll have some other opportunities to pick up some Funko items at the convention. At the moment we don’t know much about what Funko has planned for SDCC 2017 but most likely it’ll similar to what they have done in past years.
They will undoubtedly have a booth where they sell exclusive pops. Entry will likely be regulated by lottery to some degree. Last year they did a Sails Pavillion ticket distribution for booth access, but at NYCC they did an online lottery ahead of time, which seemed like a pretty awesome idea. With any luck we’ll see them use that method for SDCC this year and save everyone a lot of trouble!
They may also bring back their pop-up shop which was located off-site last year. While they didn’t have much that I was interested in they did have an awesome $40 Captain America Eorbz that I will forever regret not trying to get (because it now goes for around $500 on eBay). The items at the pop up shop were a little more brand oriented, though it had a number of exclusives you couldn’t get anywhere else and people were lined up outside each morning waiting to get in.
We also suspect that we’ll see some more Conan pops being released this year! For the past two years Funko has teamed up with Conan O’Brien and released a series of four Conan O’Brien pops – one for each day he films in San Diego. Since Conan is coming back again for another four day run we’ll undoubtedly see more Conans given away.
In the past we’ve seen Batman Conan, Joker Conan, Ghostbuster Conan, Stormtrooper Conan and more so we can only guess what ones we’ll get this year. While the pops are usually given away at the Conan filmings, last year they also gave them away in random drawings in one of the Manchester Grand Hyatt ballrooms as well, which gave a lot more people a chance to pick them up. And they gave them away to viewers at home each night, too!
If you’re going to try for Funko Fundays tickets this year we wish you the best of luck! We’ll be trying, too, though we’re keeping realistic about our chances.
Don’t forget: the tickets go on sale THIS WEDNESDAY at 10 AM PST. You’ll have mere seconds to sign up so cross your fingers and get ready to add those tickets to your cart ASAP.
Let us know how it goes and whether or not you get tickets. And if you’ve been to Funko Fundays before and have any tips for people, chime in below in the comments!
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Got lucky and got tickets, the last two times I have had more luck on the app than the computer. I usually have phone, tablet and computer going. ~kim
Have fun!!! I was trying on my phone and I think Sam was trying from a computer, we both failed…
I am sorry about that. Having them tweet out the link was a curve ball. Its just who saw it first. I also heard several people got tickets after 8 min or so when the time limit to check out expired. You always have to keep trying after that initial sold out status. I think some people actually just searched for Funko on Eventbrite instead of waiting for the link to be tweeted out thinking that the couple seconds it went live before the tweet would be enough. It really is just dumb luck (kind of like the hotel lottery for SDCC).
Question for you though. All the other big cons (NYCC, ECCC, SWC) had lottery for the Funko booth all days. I have heard rumors that SDCC doesn’t want to allow Funko to have a lottery everyday even though in my opinion it would be better to know now then have to camp out to do (what essentially is a lottery) iPad draw everyday. Do you think there is any stock to SDCC not allowing it? ~kim
They posted it to Twitter and Facebook simultaneously supposedly. Unfortunately, being on my phone is what hindered me the most I think. Otherwise, Iw as right on top of it. I even saw more tickets around the 13 minute mark, but again – clunky phone, just wasn’t fast enough! I definitely would’ve been better served using my computer, but alas I was at work.
Honestly, I participated in and loved the NYCC lottery last year. It was good to know beforehand with the ability to plan around your booth time and there was absolutely zero stress involved. I got all of the exclusives that I wanted and I was in and out of the booth within 20 minutes.
I’m pretty sure last year SDCC had a “lottery” of sorts, maybe you’re mentioning it with the iPad draw? I didn’t participate, but I think it has to do with who owns the convention and how they want to handle it? I have heard rumblings that there’s a lottery-type thing for Preview Night at the very least (based on offering first dibs to Funko Funatics like they did with Fundays).
Do I think there’s stock/any good reason for SDCC not to allow them to hold the same kind of lottery as NYCC? Not really. Maybe they’re trying to cut down on scalpers who would enter the lottery multiple times or use other people’s lottery tickets by forcing them to be there in person? Or if they start doing it for Funko, they might have to start doing it for Lego and Hasbro and everyone else who does lotteries on-site? If I think of a better reason, I’ll let you know lol
I think doing it for all those places would eliminate the cluster you see waiting outside all night. Its not like SDCC has to do anything the companies handle it. And just like PN last year they can required ID when picking up the wristband to eliminate scalpers. Especially if you have to put your first and last name in when registering no exceptions. I can’t think of a good reason to not be open to it like the other conventions other than to make yourselves look popular by having people lined up all night. I might just bombard them with tweets until they answer me but I doubt they would ever say that out loud. It would make people angry. Yes there is a lotto for preview night I think some going to the forum people first. I checked and Funko did say in the forum that SDCC will only allow them to do lotto PN they aren’t open to any other idea for any other day and that ReedPop is a lot more open than SDCC. I bet they seem more organized too. I wonder why that is lol. ~kim
The NYCC booth is definitely more organized/less stressful than the SDCC one in my experience. It still doesn’t make sense that CCI won’t let them do lotteries beforehand for every day, especially with the way they seem to be moving away from all-night camping for things like Hall H with the wristbands. Maybe they don’t have the same website infrastructure as ReedPOP that would allow them to run the same type of lottery? There aren’t any other lotteries run by CCI that restrict based on having a badge as far as I can think of. I can’t remember how the preview night lottery works, is it in person or online beforehand? Because if it’s online, then there’s really no reason?