Is your bag pre-Funko? The heart plaque question

Same bag, two versions, two different plaques. One has a crown over the Y, one has a heart. Buyers treat that as the difference between pre-Funko and Funko, and use it to date a bag and to argue about whether something is a copy.

What is settled

Funko bought Loungefly in May 2017. That is trade press, announced at the time, and not in dispute. So a bag made well before 2017 is definitely pre-Funko, and something released in 2020 is definitely not.

What is not settled

The exact date the plaque changed. Collectors variously say 2018, May 2019 and 'pre-2019', and we have not found a primary source that states it. Those are community claims, and repeating them as fact is how the confusion keeps spreading. If you see a hard date quoted with no source, it is being repeated, not known.

Why people care

A pre-Funko bag is not automatically more valuable. What makes it more valuable is being scarce and wanted. Age on its own is not value, and a pre-Funko bag nobody is looking for is still a bag nobody is looking for. The plaque is a dating clue, not a price tag.

The mistake people make

Treating a mismatched plaque as proof of a fake. The changeover was a manufacturer change, and both versions are official. A heart plaque on a Funko-era bag is not evidence of anything except that you may have the date wrong.

What is missing from this post

The clearest way to show this would be the two plaques side by side, because that is genuinely the clearest way to explain it. Nothing in our current stock is pre-2019, so we do not have a heart-plaque bag to photograph. We would rather say that than post a photo off the internet and call it ours.

If you are trying to date one

Photograph the actual plaque and compare shapes with a dated example, rather than trusting a written rule about the year. And if you are selling, describe what is on the bag in front of you instead of claiming an era you cannot prove.