Folklore Funko Pop: Belsnickel is NIGH!

Like many television viewers in the mid-Aughts, NBC's The Office was must-see viewing. I, however checked out of regular viewing shortly after Micheal Scott (Steve Carrell) left the show in 2011, which is when it apparently got weird. Really weird.

With Carrell's character out of the picture, the show's focus shifted to other Dunder-Mifflen employees, most notably Dwight Schrute. I recall reading somewhere that producers were hoping to successfully spin the character into his on show, set on the Schrute family beet farm. If only that had happened, who knows what kind of wacky Pennsylvania Dutch/German folklore, real and imagined, could have found its way onto our televisions! As it stands, at least we have Belsnickel who made his The Office debut in the 185th episode, "Dwight Christmas", which aired in December 2012.

Fast Forward to 2019 when Netflix and other streaming services have allowed "old" (or in the case of classic comedies such as The Office, timeless) shows find new audiences. While in one English class last week, I mentioned in passing that I had recently come across the Funko Pop! TV: The Office - Dwight As Belsnickel pop at a local Target. I shared that though I was unfamiliar with who Belsnickel was in the context of the television show, a quick check on the cell revealed him to be a holiday folk character so, naturally, I bought it. Simply mentioning "Belsnickel" to my students prompted a few to go into the character's back story as a result of their having seen The Office episode in which he had appeared. Cool!

Because my students were more much knowledgeable than I about such things, I, like Oscar in the clip above, needed to return to the internet for more info. One online article, "Yes, Belsnickel is a Real Thing, and No, it's Not Just from 'The Office'" by Helen Ehrlich, is especially illuminating, though brief, and offers some additional background information on the folk character. Given Belsnickel's renaissance in recent popular culture (apparently "Dwight Christmas" is among the series most popular), along with that of current holiday darling Krampus, perhaps a return to the old ways is not really that far off. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, after all, first appeared in 1939, so Belsnickel and his cadre of creepy holiday tricksters have a significant head start!

Tales from My Funko Pop Shelf 1

Target Exclusive Aggretsuko (Date Night) and Fallout 76 Mothman boxed...

Tchotchke, whether ceramic figures, thimbles or salt and pepper shakers, each Funko Pop in my burgeoning collection has a story behind its purchase. Sometimes it is an extension of appreciation for a recent comic book title or film or, more often than not, it is because the character appeals to a sense of nostalgia. Occasionally it is simply random purchase due to its design. More anecdote or vignette, than full bore "story", as a means of writing practice, I thought I'd share some of the personal backstory behind some of the more interesting Pops in my collection beginning with two of my more recent additions.

Though not of the Point Pleasant variety, I came across the Fallout 76 Mothman at a small boutique-style store in a local mall. Background regarding the character within the context of the game was not included on the box, so in my head it will continue to be a tribute to one of America's premiere cryptids. As a child, copies of my father's Weekly World News were required breakfast-time reading, so my appreciation of this American original began at a young age. I am unfamiliar with Fallout 76 and it's accompanying line of Funkos, so it was nice to come across something new and distinctive in the wild. Additionally, because I always seem to miss out on reasonably priced versions of the multitude of Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti exclusives released as part of the "Funko Myths" line (at increasingly exorbitant third party prices), I did not want to pass this up. More insectoid than the slightly more humanoid Mothman of cryptozoology legend, the bright red eyes and imposing stature remain consistent with the Mothman of Virginia folklore thereby deserving of a spot on my shelf.

Not too long ago I came across the anime-esqu stylings of the Evan with Higgedly Funko Pop of the Ni No Kuni: Revenant Kingdom line on the discount table at a local rpg store. On a recent stop at Target, the Aggretsuko (Date Night) exclusive caught my eye. Since my manga collecting days of youth (okay, more like my early twenties) I have always appreciated the anthropomorphic chibi design of some Japanese characters. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the character design, Aggretsuko was developed by the same company that spawned Hello Kitty, Sanrio. Season 1 of the web show on which this series of Funkos is based, Aggretsuko, currently streams on Netflix, so I was able to catch a few episodes following my purchase. The narrative background provided therein only increased my appreciation of Aggretsuko. The descriptions from the Sanrio website follows almost word-for-word that on the Funko box that describe her as "a single, 25 year-old red panda. Yet despite her cute appearance, something deep within her is filled with rage." That perfectly describes the show. The juxtaposition between the overall character visual designs, post-collegiate angst, and death metal is an incredibly entertaining one. That fact that Aggretsuko carries her own mic to nightly decompression sessions of karaoke only takes things the next level of excellence. Of course, now I need to tack down the Aggretsuko (Rage) Funko to balance out my own collection.

... and unboxed!

Random Funkos: Ni No Kuni Trio

My name is Jean-Paul and I have way too many Funko Pops. While hardcore "collectors" will argue that one can never have too many of any given collectible, I am confident that I indeed do. Just ask my wife. But that self-knowledge has yet to stop me from picking up random plastic figures that I come across.

A personal "first": individual plastic baggie 

around Tani's ponytail possibly to deter 

rubbing against the "buddy" while shipping?

For example, the trio of Ni No Kuni: Revenant Kingdom Funko Pops I recently acquired via post-holiday discount table at my local gaming shop. While visiting the store with my brother, who lives out of country, I came across these three anime characters with whom I had zero prior knowledge of them or the fantasy world from which they came. I simply liked their design, so I took them home on a lark, a decision that was aided by my brother kindly "donating" a portion of the gift certificate for the store my wife and I had gifted him the previous day to the cause. The reduced pricing, roughly 60% off retail, only increased the appeal of an impulse buy...

The initial aesthetic appeal of Tani, Evan and Roland was based solely on the Miyazaki vibe they elicited. In fact, it occurred to me that Tani might be the closest we get to a Princess Mononoke figure given the war paint and animal skin attire. A quick check of Wikipedia confirmed that I wasn't that far off.

Apparently, Ni No Kuni is a series of role-playing games set in a fantasy realm with characters that employ magical abilities during gameplay. The smaller characters that came with each Pop, dubbed “Higgedlies” on the packaging, are familiars that can be tamed for suitability during battle. The animated sequences and artwork for the games were both inspired by Studio Ghibli's other productions. Not surprisingly, "[T]he character development was intended to make children empathize with the characters and for adults to relive their adolescence." It is probably too late in a post about toys to be embarrassed about that fact that I first saw Princess Mononoke in theaters during its initial U.S. when I was in my late twenties.

In all likelihood I will never have the opportunity to experience the rpgs and videogames that spawned these beautifully designed characters, I will continue to appreciate both their Funko Pop translations as these three take their places on my rotating wall of figures.