Collectible culture reaches new heights with local enthusiasts, businesses and charitable organizations
Knoxville, Tennessee has a strong case when it comes to being the country’s Funko Pop! capital.
First, the world-record holder for the largest Funko Pop (stylized with an exclamation point) collection lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Secondly, the largest retailer of Pops in the Southeast recently moved into the first floor Candy Factory Lofts building just outside World’s Fair Park.
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a nonprofit which collects donated Funko Pops and distributes them to hospitalized children with chronic illnesses is headquartered in Knoxville.
If I lost you back at “Funko,” please allow me to explain. Think of your favorite character, person, entity or mascot (except for UT’s Smokey, more on that later) in the realm of pop culture. If you’re like me, you’re thinking Hermione Granger. If you’re the world-record holding Funko Pop collector, you might be thinking Jason Vorhees. If you’re into “Star Wars,” Fortnite, “The Office,” WWE, the Kool-Aid Man or just about any other pop culture personality, there’s an associated vinyl figurine, produced by a company in Washington state, that might interest you.
Local NBC affiliate WBIR made the case for Knoxville being the Funko Pop capital of the world last year when it profiled the Guinness record holder for the world’s largest collection of Funkos in November 2020. At that time, Dave Mebane had amassed an assortment of 7,095 of the figurines; as it now stands, he owns close to 8,000. I caught up with him recently to discuss his collection.
BLANK: Right off the bat, what’s your favorite?
Dave Mebane: My favorite Pop is the first one I ever bought: Jason Vorhees in the mask with a bloody machete. When I saw that, I knew I had to have that. My other favorites are a lot of the Pops that I have [had] signed. The memories of meeting them, talking to them … I love to meet the people who played the character.
What was your Funko Pop gateway? What got you started?
I’ve been collecting toys for close to 25 years. Specifically, I started with horror movie toys. I’d go hunting on the weekends, and when Pops came out, I was on it. I started with horror movie characters, then there was “Breaking Bad,” “Game of Thrones,” “Sons of Anarchy” … eventually, that just led to buying all of them.
I like having cool things around me at all times, and toys are that for me. I can just walk into my Pop room and get lost. I had to break down my bedroom suite about three years ago, and that’s where the Pops live. As of now, it’s nothing but Pops! It took about 17 hours to count them all for the world record, and I’m still getting my house back to normal.
Are there any Pops that still elude your collection?
I regret not buying Beavis and Butt-Head when they first came out! I saw them and didn’t buy them, and now they’re pretty rare. I could’ve had them!
Would you agree that Knoxville is the Funko Pop capital of the USA?
It easily could be! I don’t often go to other cities to buy Pops or see other people buying them, but Knoxville does have the biggest toy store in the Southeast, if not even bigger. I don’t know if there’s more Pops per capita, but I know there are several people … that could rival my collection quantity here in Knoxville!
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Speaking of that biggest toy store in the Southeast, I also touched base with Mike Hermann, proprietor of Tall Man Toys, which relocated last year from a small storefront along North Gay Street to the more spacious confines at 1060 World’s Fair Park Drive. Hermann shares his journey from being a simple purveyor of toys to accidentally becoming a Pop destination.
BLANK: Did you mean to become the biggest? How did you get here?
Mike Hermann: It kind of just happened. Our older store had inventory quantities in the top five – maybe 8,000 pieces. But it was a very small fraction of the size of this place. This is the largest brick and mortar, and we keep more than 10,000 Pops in the store when inventory is complete.
Knoxville and its customers sort of demanded this. There are so many collectors who wanted a store like this – not off to the side, but right in the center of town. The fact that we’re here in this old, iconic building that could’ve been a brewery or a coffee shop … that says a lot about Knoxville as an epicenter for collecting.
Tell me about the Knoxville Funko Pop community. Who walks through your door on any given day?
All ages, all walks of life. Not just kids, and not just adults. Not just collectors; plenty of people who are buying their first Pop, either for themselves or as a gift for a loved one. Beyond coming into the store, the Knoxville community has really supported our Pop Swaps, where local collectors and enthusiasts meet up and trade Pops between each other.
Why do you think these collectibles resonate with so many people?
There’s a Pop for everybody. People come in and they say, “I don’t really do pop culture stuff.” Then they find one and exclaim, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t know they made a toy of this. This is the ONE pop culture thing I like!” Beyond the big licenses like “Harry Potter” [and] “Star Wars,” you get these college kids who come in and see a “Sanford and Son” Pop and say, “Holy cow, I watched this show with my dad! My dad is gone now, so I’m going to get this and keep it for him.” No matter how niche, there’s always someone who is a superfan.
How would you recommend how someone could get into Funko Pops?
Think of your favorite TV show, sports figure, superhero. Whatever you’re like, “I really like that. I want to have a little desk item that doesn’t make me look like [I have] a crazy collection, it just makes me look like I like this.” For example, there are tons of versions of your favorite characters. You like Harry Potter? There’s one of him with his cloak or his broom. You don’t have to get every figure, just the one that you like.
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You might be thinking to yourself, “I might actually be into Funko Pops.” But don’t worry: If you go crazy and buy too many, there’s a great organization where your unwanted Pops can find new, meaningful homes.
Randy Lee co-founded the organization POPS! For Patients, the only grassroots organization working with Funko Pops to brighten the lives of chronically ill patients across the country. The Knoxville-based outfit accepts donations of unopened boxes of the collectibles and other like merchandise, which it then distributes to children’s hospitals around the United States. I recently spoke with Lee, as well, about his mission.
BLANK: What’s it like on a Pop delivery day in the children’s ward?
Randy Lee: The kids absolutely love it. When we visit, we do our best to bring people who cosplay, even as the characters whose Pops we’re delivering to the kids. These are kids who spend whole periods of their lives in the hospital. And for the last 17 years, I’ve been a parent of one of those children.
I know it’s hard for people to see these kids like this. And the parents, it’s hard for them, too. But when we go in, we talk to these kids like they’re regular people, like there’s nothing different about them. Not everyone can handle that, and that’s okay. At this point, it’s part of my life.
I know that giving them a Pop isn’t going to fix anything major about their situation, but it makes them happy for at least the time we’re in the room. And that’s what it’s all about.
It seems like you didn’t always intend to start a charitable organization, but it happened through a series of helping hands! Tell me about the POPS! For Patients journey.
POPS! For Patients co-founder Krysten Barrera managed Hot Topic at East Towne Mall [Knoxville Center]. We got to know each other as customer and manager over our shared love of Pops and our experiences with our kids; she also has a child with a lifelong disability. We became friends, and she talked about going to Vanderbilt for her son for his next appointment. At the time, we were both collecting and had too many Pops. We talked about how we could unload some of the Pops they no longer wanted to keep. She recommended, “Why don’t I donate them to Vanderbilt when I go up there?”
We start doing this, and before we knew it, six months had gone by. The hospital asked, “Do you have a name?” We came up with POPS! For Patients and started doing social media and joining groups to talk about the work. And it caught on.
Five years later, we’ve collected and donated close to 40,000 Pops and spawned numerous offshoots all over the country.
How has the pandemic impacted your ability to bring Pops to patients?
The hardest part is that we can’t visit the kids anymore. We donate Pops to the hospitals, and they sit in quarantine before going to the kids. But it’s not the same. The folks who cosplay and interact with the kids make it so much fun for them.
Looking ahead, I don’t know how we’re going to get back to our visits. We will keep donating Pops, but with the health of the kids and how the pandemic is going, our future is a bit uncertain.
Though you can’t visit the kids, I’m sure the Pops they receive bring them a lot of joy. How can local folks here in Knoxville get involved with POPS! For Patients?
Donate your unwanted Pops! We’ve even received valuable Pops in the past, something that’s autographed or rare, and we’re able to trade those Pops with Mike Hermann at Tall Man to get a much larger quantity of inexpensive Pops so we can reach more kids. We raise money once a year at our rare and autographed Pops auction, but other than that, we just collect Pops and deliver them to kids, all year round.
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Of all the things Knoxville is known for being – scruffy, the Maker City, Marble City – would you agree that it has poised itself to be the Funko Pop capital of the USA? This writer thinks so.
You can learn more about Dave Mebane’s record on the Guinness World Records website. Visit Tall Man Toys & Comics in downtown Knoxville. And you can donate collectibles to POPS! For Patients via their website, popsforpatients.org.
