Hello! I'm still alive! I've been collecting Mystery Minis, especially FNAF and Horror stuff, the past year or so since I lasted posted (which was a little over a year ago). I do collect a lot! I sadly don't have much time to post or talk about things these days- this is a good thing! Bad thing for the blog, but good thing for me being busy!
Why I am posting today is to address a trend I've noticed lately for Funko Mystery Minis within the horror themes. Before I do that, I'd like to reflect on Funko Horror Mystery Minis and then talk about what is happening now. Let's dive right into my extra special long blog post!
Part 1- History on Funko Horror Minis: Funko released their Horror Classics Mystery Mini back in 2014, and it was fairly popular from what I saw online and within the toy collecting spheres. Series 2 released in 2015, and then Series 3 in 2016. It sadly stopped after a Walgreens exclusive wave in 2017. This was bittersweet because we got a few new minis, but it ended unceremoniously amidst it ongoing popularity. I suspect it had a lot to do with licensing costs/issues and the main artist no longer working for Funko. It was sad to see it go as it was one of my favorite toy lines to collect. However..
In 2018 we got a new series of IT Mystery Minis for the remake movie, followed by another series for Chapter 2 in 2019. Those both had their various store exclusives. The year 2019 also brought us a whole series of Universal Monsters Mystery Minis and its black-and-white Walgreens exclusive wave (*shakes fists and babbles in-comprehensively at the Walgreens exclusive wave*). Not to be forgotten in 2018 was a solo release of a Jason Voorhees (from Part 2) in a Hot Topic Funko Mystery Box set (we'll come back to this later). The Walking Dead and Stranger Things both got their own on-going series's of Mystery Minis throughout the years, with Stranger Things still going to this day! Speaking of to this day..
Part 2 - The Modern Funko Horror Minis: In Halloween 2024 I saw these cool pull-back racer car horror move toys by Zoom Hero (not Funko btw). It reminded me of the Horror Classics Mystery Mini line. They were all Warner Bros. characters, mostly from the Conjuring franchise. I like the Conjuring creature designs, so that made me happy. Ah, nostalgia..
Then upon a second visit to Five Below later that month, I saw a box with Annabelle in it and a big 'Funko Mini' logo on the front. Huh, that's funny. This looks like a Mystery Mini... WAIT WHAT! Yup, that is right, Funko released a line of Warner Bros. Horror Myster- ahem, I mean VINYL Minis! And they were exclusive to Five Below! They have Pennywise, both the original (1990) and remake (2017), Regan (1973), Annabelle (2013), The Nun (2018), and La Llarona (2019)! I couldn't believe my eyes. This was like a dream come true (fun fact: I sometimes have dreams about finding new Mystery Mini series in the wild- little peak into my psyche *wink*). Granted they were in the newer style (which I do like the style of) and there weren't as many to select from, but man whatever- I'll take it! They aren't in the Mystery Mini box this time, they are these fairly newer Vinyl Mini boxes that started around the 2020/2021 timeframe (I believe). I think Five Below is one of the few (if only) retail store I've seen the Funko Vinyl Minis sold in. Personally I prefer these over the blind box approach since you can get what you want.
Was I in the Twilight Zone? How come no one online talk about them (well maybe one person that I could find)? It surprised me and I am sure I'm not the only one! I didn't even see Funko promote them. And recently I learned they did the same for a Gremlins series (just bought those today). There is a Hocus Pocus series out too (need to hunt them next- come, we fly)! I wish more people knew about this and celebrated a soft return of the Horror Classics Mystery Minis, because I'm celebrating! I wanted to talk about these back in October 2024, but I was too busy at the time. The Gremlins and Hocus Pocus releases this year got me excited, so now here I am! They all have the same design style too, so it is easy to mix them all together and have the collection look consistent. That is one thing that bothered me about previous Mystery Minis past 2017 was that they were inconsistent in design. I hope they stick with this new design for all Horror-related Funko Minis going forward in my opinion.
To make things even better, they recently released a new Horror Mystery Mini set under the title 'Universal Horror Mystery Minis'. I didn't see much buzz about this announcement either. This time it isn't only the classic monsters (although Dracula and the Wolf Man are included), it is mostly modern characters. Specifically, it has characters we haven't got before, like Chris from the movie Get Out (2017) (personally my favorite mini so far, how creative), and M3GAN from the titular movie M3GAN (2022)! I hope there are store exclusives to help buff up the character selection. It would be nice to get old, modern, and everything in-between like we did before. Then later we can get a Series 2! Perhaps Universal horror means new Jaws, Insidious, The Thing, etc. minis?
Update: I learned there is a new Beetlejuice series coming out soon as well. They all look very good!
Part 3 - Speculating & Hope for the Future: This takes me to the third part of this post on what I think is happening. I think the problem with licensing really did have the biggest impact on stopping the Horror Classics Mystery Mini line back then. That is why we got that stand alone Jason figure in 2018 due to the big license debacle surrounding Friday the 13th at that time. It is also why we have been getting movie or tv show based releases as their own series.Funko kept churning out new Horror Funko POPs, yet no Minis to accompany most of them. I'm sure it is expensive to have all those licenses mixed and matched in one product. It seems that instead of a mystery mix up for all horror figures going forward, they are taking the safer approach of releasing them in their own series/sets based upon licensing. Warner Bros. goes with Warner Bros., Universal with Universal, etc. I personally am fine with this, as long as we keep getting Horror Minis! In fact, I hope we get more Warner Bros. figures this year like we did last year. And how about a Tristar Pictures series so we can get Candman, The Blob, and Monster Squad? Or MGM to give us Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Pumpkinhead, and Killer Klowns from Outer Space? Ohhh, even better- a Killer Klowns from Outer Space Mystery Mini set! ....No, no wait, no Funko you forget you read that and stop salivating over 1/72 store exclusive Klown minis, I need that money to pay for food and shelter!
Anyways, all joking aside- I am pretty excited about this approach! If this is the solution for Horror Classics Mystery Minis continuing, then I am all in! It allows for less licensing headaches, more variety in the singular franchise, and more options to build out a collection!
Thank you for reading! I hope you are all doing well out there! Have a great day!
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