Funko announces tons of new products and licenses every day, let alone every week. It can be a lot to keep up with. So we are here to help. Welcome to the Funko Round-Up! In this edition: more FunkO’s cereals, new horror Pops for your Halloween decorations, and a special Rock Candy to celebrate the MCU’s 10th anniversary. Let’s take a look!
In honor of Marvel Studios’ 10-year anniversary, spy,
assassin, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Avenger Black Widow
is getting the Rock Candy treatment.
Round out your Super Hero collection with Natalia Alianovna Romanoff
alias Natasha Romanoff alias Natalie Rushman.
I have always liked the Widow look from Age of Ultron, and this ROck Candy looks pretty awesome. I wonder why they don’t do a ton of Black Widow stuff. They always do a good job with her.
Four new horror Pops arrive as exclusives this fall. Cthulhu gets a neon green version exclusive to Books a Million, Jason in his baghead look from Friday the 13th Part 2 is exclusive to Walgreens, Michael Myers gets a bloody variant at FYE, and coming exclusively to Rhode Island Comic Con is a black and white version of Pennywise (the Tim Curry version).
And finally we have our next round of FunkO’s cereals! We loved the first wave, and the cereal was pretty tasty! Just like that first wave, this round will all be exclusive to various retailers. Batman and Batgirl will be exclusive to Entertainment Earth, Pennywise can be found at Hot Topic. Beetlejuice appears at BoxLunch, Cthulhu at Books a Million again, Cuphead The Devil cereal at Gamestop (instead of Hot Topic this time), and finally Huckleberry Hound on the Funko shop. I am really happy that these have taken off like they have, and it will be fun to continue collecting them.
The newest boxes of Funk-O’s will be available in August.
Words, Interview, and Photos courtesy of Bleeding Cool’s Jimmy Leszczynski:
I am vengeance, I am the night, I am talking to voice acting iconKevin Conroyat SDCC 2018.. Kevin has done a few other things, but he is mostly known for his definitive portrayal of Batman onB:TAS, and throughout the sprawling DCAU. He is most likely the voice you hear when you read Batman or anything, including this article, if you are me. Conroy leaps out of the Batmobile on his way to theBatman:The Animated Series (B:TAS)Blu ray release celebration to chat withBleeding Coolfor a few minutes.
The first question thrown to Mr. Conroy asks how does it feel to have fans tell you that they grew up with your voice, that they hear your voice when they read Batman? How does it feel to be so primarily associated with this iconic character. ?
“I’m so proud to have been a part of it for so long. It’s such an amazing character to be a part of. He’s so resonant in the culture. People love him. He’s the only superhero who has no superpowers. All he has is his wits. And his passion to do good. And that really resonates with people. I love being a part of the character”
B:TASfirst aired in 1992, slightly afterTim Burton’sBatmanhad swept the nation. We asked how did Burton’s vision and Michael Keaton’s performance affect Kevin’s portrayal. Kevin responds:
“I was not even aware of the Tim Burton Batman movie, which came out about a year before we did ours. I had not seen it at all. So I wasn’t colored by it at all. The only input I had in it at all was the Adam West show, from the 60s and when I toldBruce Timmthat at the audition he said ‘No, NO, NO, that’s not what we are doing!’ he said ‘We love him, we love that show, But that’s not what we are doing.’ He brought me up to speed on the legend of the dark knight, the whole Legacy of Batman. Bruce kind of educated me on that.”
Other notables had played Batman previously-Olan Soule,andAdam West, however Kevin was the first voice actor to use 2 separate voices for Batman, and Bruce Wayne. He tells us why he thinks this layer necessary,
“I said to Bruce Timm, because I had no preconceived images.
He the richest guy in gotham. The most handsomest. The most eligible bachelor. He owns half the city. He puts on a mask and no one knows it’s him?
Seriously? Is this a joke? Couldn’t we make it more, convincing disguise? Maybe I could use a slightly different voice, maybe I could do it closer to my own voice.”
27 years is a pretty long time to voice the same character. The stories have become slightly darker but Conroy’s dependable characterization and voice remains a touchstone for generations of Bat-Fans. We ask Kevin how has his performance changed over the years?
“The audience knows the character so well that if I wasn’t to be true to the character, if I wasto phone it in, they’d know in a heartbeat. They would nail me. The challenge to me over the years in all these different venues, he’s been to be consistent. To be fresh. I think having been a theater actor I’m used to doing a show 8 times a week, you have to learn to make it fresh each night. Each night the audience comes in, is the first night they’ve seen it. They paid 100 bucks for that seat, they want a show. So you always have to make it new. The challenge for me has been to keep him rooted.”
I learned early on is that Bruce Wayne is the performance, Batman is who he is.
Is who he became, out of this tragedy. He puts on a suit to face the world, and that’s the performance. –Kevin Conroy
It is truly a mesmerizing experience to talk face to face with Kevin Conroy. When he speaks his baritone tentacles creep down my ear holes and wrap themselves around my optical nerves, squeezing until-I think I actually see Batman. We also talked about why his favorite stories are the Bruce Wayne centricPerchance to Dream(S1: EP30) andMask of the Phantasm,how he knew nothing about the Batman character when he auditioned, and how Leslie Howard’sThe Scarlet Pimpernelinfluenced his Performance. Watch the entire video here, I challenge you to not get hypnotized by that haunting voice live. I know I did.
In late 2018, fans will finally be able to enjoy a remastered Blu-ray release ofBatman: The Animated Seriesfrom Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, no release date has been set yet, but Amazon lists the limited edition at $112.99. With 109 episodes, the moviesMask of the PhantasmandBatman and Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero,behind- the- scenes featurettes about the show, a collection of postcards depicting key moments from the series, and 3 Funko pops of Harley Quinn, Batman, and the Joker in theirB:TAScostumes- this collection is sure to be a cornerstone of any true Batman fan’s collection.
The Master of Suspense directed 53 films, won too many awards to mention and cemented his place as one of the most influential filmmakers in the world.
And now Alfred Hitchcock is available as a Pop! vinyl figure holding a movie clapboard for Psycho, arguably his best-known film.
