Gotta catch ’em all? No wait, that’s not right…
The trouble with video game memorabilia is that a large portion of it is crap. There’s a Call of Duty: Black Ops III mini fridge special edition for crying out loud. What’s worse is the mini fridge is so crap that it’s actually cheaper to buy the game-and-mini-fridge bundle than it is to buy a good quality retail mini fridge. That must tell you something.
Fallout stuff, though, has a habit of being kinda cool. Case in point? The real-life Pip Boy 3000 you could get with Fallout 4. Even Fallout 4 Director Todd Howard had to admit it was a bit of a stupid gimmick but to be fair, when he said, “As far as stupid gimmicks go, this is the best fucking one I’ve ever seen,” he wasn’t wrong.
The Fallout 4 Pip Boy Edition is pretty much sold out everywhere, and it’s that sort of rarity – both of the merchandise, and of the game’s releases – that drives desirability. Desirability drives demand. And demand + rarity = shortfall. It’s a vicious circle.
It’s that sort of rarity and demand that leads to this being a frequent scene for Fallout collectors:
Yes, that’s right. You’re looking at nearly $250 US for a 5″ lump of plastic, that probably cost a few cents* to produce back in 2008. Well played, Bethesda. Well played.
The solution, then? You have to go third party. Thankfully there’s a pop-culture specialist manufacturer called Funko – who license everything from Game of Thrones to The Walking Dead, and from Disney to Harry Potter – and they make some pretty cool stuff.
And just look how cute their Fallout figurines are!
Our favourite has to be the limited edition glow-in-the-dark (presumably-because-he’s-been-so-heavily-irradiated-and-forgot-to-pop-some-RadAway-before-heading-into-the-heat) Vault Boy:
But totally not because he’s more limited edition than all the other Fallout figurines…
*You have to appreciate the irony that it’s the barter skill bobble-head…
Buy the Irradiated Vault Boy Fallout figurine on Amazon.
Check out the rest of the Funko Fallout Figurine range on Amazon.
