James Bouhuys

Revere, Massachusetts

What Funko lines do you collect? How many pieces are in your collection?

My wife and I mainly collect Pops!s but we also have several Dorbz, Pint Size Heroes, Hikari Minis, Mystery Minis, Pocket Pop!s and Pop! Tees. We currently have a bit over 1,000 Pop!s and over 1,400 Funko items in total.

How long have you been a collector?

I have been collecting since late 2013 / early 2014, I believe.



What are your favorite fandoms?

My wife and I look at Pop!s as representatives of ourselves, so it becomes hard to pick favorites since the ones that we collect represent us so well! My personal favorites are WWE, Horror, Ad Icons, Batman and Villains, and 90s Nickelodeon. My wife's favorites include Disney, Harry Potter, Minions, and anything flocked!

What was your first Funko item?

The first Pop! I ever purchased was CM Punk in his pink trunks from Hot Topic. I always looked at Pop!s and considered them but never had the desire to buy any until I bought that one. Ever since, I have not stopped.

What is your favorite Funko piece in your collection?

Choosing a favorite is tough! My most favorite would have to be the CM Punk from Hot Topic, which was my first Pop! This was not only the Pop! that started it all, but it was representative of my favorite wrestler and a person who's moral values match mine: being straightedge. Another favorite that I can't ignore would be my Unmasked Jason Voorhees from SDCC 2015. I had a college professor who would call me Voorhees because it closely resembled the pronunciation of my last name and that one always resonated with me. Plus, the articulation and sculpting on this Pop! is awesome!

Tell us your favorite Funko story!

My wife and I were heavily collecting prior to our marriage in July 2016. At our wedding, we even created custom Funko Pop! cake toppers! While on our honeymoon, it was also San Diego Comic Con week and many of the new and limited Pop!s come out in stores and online that week. If you don't buy them the day they release, for the most part, you're stuck paying eBay prices for them. With that being said, I was up at 3am EST waiting to purchase pops, neglecting sleep and rest, and we began talking about a bigger house and the possibility of a dog. I decided that I would create this budget / pop-tract for myself. She laughed and didn't think I would do it. The next morning when she woke up, I had it completed on my phone. Did I mention I don't sleep much? She had some qualms about some of the "exceptions" - mainly with the fact that there were so many but nevertheless, she signed it.



Fast forward a year and a half later and it appeared that someone came across my Pop-tract, which was posted on my Twitter on 7/29/2016. A Twitter user posted it on 1/18/2018, seemingly in an attempt to mock me for having a large collection and for having the inaccurate belief that my wife forced me to sign this as I had no control over myself. Ironically enough, the contract went viral and spread from Twitter to Instagram to Facebook and I began getting messages from friends saying it was popping up (no pun intended) on their Funko groups on different sites. I then saw an article created by syfy.com, geek.com, guacamoley.com, and even had celebrities like George Takei reposting the articles to his Twitter and his Facebook! I couldn't believe it! Within a couple days, I was contacted by VICE to do an interview, which they posted and then had CBC Radio's As It Happens contact me to do an on air interview with them! I could not believe how widespread the contract had reached and how curious people were about the facts about the contract, especially considering some of the things that people could say on the internet. Today, I was even contacted by a radio station in Argentina to do an interview about my Pop! collection!

I knew I loved collecting Funko Pop!s and the community of people that also collect but the overwhelming amount of support from those who also collect has been incredibly uplifting.

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