San Diego Comic-Con 2026 runs July 23 through July 26, with Preview Night on July 22, and Funko's Booth #5341 is once again the center of the con for figure collectors. This year's lineup spans Absolute Batman, Invincible, One Piece, Persona 5 Royal, Baldur's Gate, Masters of the Universe, Street Fighter, and more, with several pieces limited to as few as 100 units.
Most SDCC exclusives never get a general restock. Once the show's five days are over, whatever didn't sell at the booth or through the online exclusives portal is effectively gone, which is exactly why these pieces tend to hold or climb in value faster than a standard retail Pop. That also means the packaging condition you lock in during and right after the show is often the condition that piece keeps for good.
This guide walks through what's confirmed for SDCC 2026 so far and how to prioritize display and storage once you've got exclusives in hand.
A standard-release Funko Pop can usually be replaced if the box gets crushed in transit. A convention exclusive limited to a few hundred or a couple thousand units generally cannot. Between booth traffic, travel home, and shelf storage afterward, an unprotected exclusive has several chances to pick up corner dents, window scratches, or shelf wear before it ever reaches a display case.
Collectors who plan ahead usually separate exclusives from general-release Pops the moment they get back to their hotel room or unpack at home, rather than letting them sit in a convention bag with everything else.
Most of this year's lineup releases in the standard 4-inch scale, including the Absolute Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman set (limited to 1,000 units each), Orko from Masters of the Universe, Dame Aylin from Baldur's Gate, the Persona 5 Royal Joker and Loki Pops, and the daily Invincible variants, several of which are capped as low as 100 to 500 units depending on the day.
Best protection option: a standard 4-inch PET protector is the fastest way to get a box off the show floor and into safe condition without changing how it displays.
Several of this year's pieces release in larger formats, including Legendary SpaceGodzilla, Legendary M. Bison, Ultra Pop Ultimate Freddy with Sword, Ultra Pop Radiant Black, and Legendary Malice from Marvel Rivals. These bigger boxes are harder to store safely alongside standard-size Pops and are more prone to window flex if stacked.
Best protection option: a 6-inch protector sized for larger-scale Pops keeps these pieces from being squeezed in with standard 4-inch boxes.
The One Piece Rides Tony Tony Chopper Brachio Tank V is this year's standout Rides-format exclusive. Rides boxes are long and top-heavy, which makes them more vulnerable to crushing than a standard Pop box if they're tossed into a bag with everything else from the show floor.
Best protection option: a Pop Rides protector is built for this longer box shape and keeps the vehicle window from taking pressure damage.
The Royalty Pop 2-pack of Forky and Karen Beverly from Toy Story 5 releases in a wider box that holds two figures side by side. Multi-packs like this are easy to underestimate since they don't look as fragile as a single boxed figure, but the wider window means more surface area exposed to scratches.
A handful of pieces, including the Persona 5 Royal Grail Pop Violet and the Grail Pop Kitsune Franny, are only available at the physical Funko booth rather than online, which makes them the scarcest items in this year's lineup by definition. If you're lucky enough to land one of these in person, treat it as the top protection priority before it even leaves the convention center.
If you're coming home with more than one exclusive, a reasonable priority order looks like this:
If you're bringing exclusives home from SDCC 2026, these EVORETRO protectors cover the formats in this year's lineup:
SDCC 2026 runs July 23 through July 26, with Preview Night on July 22.
Most are not. Once booth and online exclusive-portal quantities sell out, these pieces typically don't return to general retail.
Booth-only Grail Pops and the most tightly capped daily variants (some as low as 100 units) are the highest priority, since they're the hardest to ever replace.
Yes. Legendary and Ultra Pop-scale figures need a 6-inch protector rather than a standard 4-inch one to avoid pressure on the window and box.
SDCC 2026 is shaping up to be one of Funko's most collector-heavy years yet, with edition sizes on some pieces small enough that a single day's allocation sells out in minutes. If you're lucky enough to bring any of this year's exclusives home, the box condition you lock in during the show and the flight or drive home is usually the condition that piece keeps long term.
Match the protector to the format, prioritize the scarcest pieces first, and the exclusives you waited in line for will still look show-floor fresh months from now.
If you want to learn more about protecting and displaying Funko Pops, these guides may also help:
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