The renowned toy company, Funko, kicks off the new year with an NFT collection that is sure to capture the attention of a broader audience than its previous kid-friendly digital collectibles featuring Mickey Mouse and Powerpuff Girls.
This time, the animated NFT series will showcase characters such as Ali, Cho Sang-Woo, The Front Man, Young-Hee Doll, and other characters and elements from the immensely popular show, which garnered over 1.65 billion hours of viewership in the first 28 days after its launch.
"Secure your packs by joining the queue a few minutes before the sale begins on January 9th, 2024, at 11 AM PT for a random place in line," states the official drop website, emphasizing that NFTs will remain available for purchase even after the initial sale.
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In total, there will be 42,000 packs, each of which will comprise several NFTs. In the case of a Standard Pack, there will be five collectibles, whereas a Premium Pack will have seventeen items. This is a new rule that was not available for the Premium Packs with NFTs from previous collections, which had only fifteen items for the same price of $29.99. The number of collectibles in the Standard Pack and its price of $9.99 remain unchanged.
Squid Game Funko Pop physical collectibles
"Limited edition Funko physical collectibles have been exclusively designed for the Squid Game x Funko Series 1 release," the collection description on Droppp.io says. To redeem the physical counterpart, you will need to collect a Grail, Legendary, or Royalty set of NFTs.
It is expected that the most unique figurine will be the metallic Grail Front Man. Funko plans to provide 999 figurines of this type.
There are supposed to be three Legendary figurines: Player 101: Deok-Su, Seong Gi-Hun, and Masked Worker with Blood Splatter. The latter one is also expected to be metallic. There will be 2,000 figurines of each Legendary type.
Finally, the least rare figurine will be Freddy Funko wearing the Squid Game costume of The Front Man.
While this is the initial plan of the toy company, the physical collectibles represented on the website are not final.
Past Funko WAX NFT drops
Unfortunately, one of the most recent Funko’s WAX NFT drops has garnered attention due to its lack of success. Disney’s Mickey and Friends: Funko Digital Pop collection faced rather low traction, with over 52% of the packages remaining unsold.
Gastlecast, a YouTube channel created by avid collectors, reported that Funko had to extend the drop for an additional hour in an attempt to sell more NFTs. Surprisingly, even the Standard packages, usually sold at a lower price, did not completely sell out, which was quite unusual for Funko NFTs.
Read more: Over 52% of New Disney Funko Pop NFTs Burnt
While Funko NFTs showcased animated images of iconic characters like Goofy, Daisy Duck, Donald Duck, Pluto, Pete, and Minnie Mouse, which should have been anticipated by Disney’s fans, many collectors found the NFTs too pricey. Additionally, the concerns about the exclusivity of the physical figurines, which some collectors found to be indistinguishable from regular Funko Pops, also made Disney’s audience refrain from purchasing Funko NFTs. The same issue has already been raised regarding other Funko NFT collections including Power Rangers and House of Dragons.
The perceived lack of uniqueness and exclusivity, coupled with the belief that the NFT pops resembled common Disney Pops available in stores, contributed to the disappointment expressed by collectors.
Whether the new collection dedicated to Squid Game, which is currently regarded as the most-watched show ever on Netflix, will manage to improve Funko’s position on the market or not is yet to be revealed. The toy company has been issuing NFTs since March 2022, when it presented the Transformers x Funko NFT Collection Series 1 to its community.
Since then, it has already minted several dozens of NFT sets featuring characters from My Little Pony, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Avatar, Game of Thrones, Matrix, and many other films, cartoons, and video games. Some Funko NFTs are also dedicated to music bands, for instance, the Iron Maiden Funko Pop NFT Collection from 2022.
During its peak time, Funko was releasing new NFT collections almost every week, whereas now the company has slowed down launching one collection per month on average.