Funko and Loungefly didn’t just bring new products to Star Wars Celebration, they brought an experience. Following the successful booth at WonderCon, which was themed to Freddy’s Beach Bash, this iteration of their Star Wars Celebration booth featured large-scale photo opportunities and a hyped-up master of ceremonies, with chances to win prizes in addition to taking home some unique collectibles.
To see all of the Funko releases from this event, click here. As with past convention exclusives, Funko opened an online lottery in advance of the convention and attendees knew whether they would have the opportunity to visit the shop or not in advance of the start of the 4-day weekend event. For anyone who wasn’t able to get an in-person shopping time, products were also made available on Funko.com on Friday, May 27th. While many of the figures have already sold out, a few are still available to order.
This was Loungefly’s first time having its own presence at the convention, with one side of the Funko booth dedicated just to the new bags and pins launched at Star Wars Celebration. I got to speak with Derrick Baca (VP of Merchandising) and Liz DeSilva (VP of Creative), who start planning for conventions like Star Wars Celebration a year and a half ahead of time. They chose to focus on something new (Star Wars: The Bad Batch), but also wanted to tap into attendees' classic love of Star Wars. This was accomplished through refreshed adaptations of R2-D2 as a dome-style handbag, which was an early touchstone of the Loungrfly brand, as well as a new C-3PO mini backpack and wallet. Click here to see all of the Loungefly debuts from Star Wars Celebration.
(Loungefly/Disney)
The first Pop-in-Bag release was Boba Fett in a Slave I bag, released as a convention exclusive in 2022. For Star Wars Celebration, they went back to Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing from A New Hope and created a dome that could hold an exclusive diamond Pop of R2-D2, which was this year’s big item. With Loungefly based out of California and Funko up in Washington, these types of collaboration efforts take more than the usual amount of collaboration, but with this release already sold out, it was well worth the effort.
Be on the lookout for more great products from Funko and Loungefly.