Funko Pops, to me.
I understand that some of them are fairly overpriced, but I also really like them as is. It doesn’t work on all characters, but it sometimes work on a lot and there’s so much representation and variety that it’s good to have a few.
If people want to talk about waste of plastic and vinyl, they should bark at the companies who make teeny tiny figurines that serve no purpose and have so little detail that spending any money on them is a waste.
Imo they aren’t getting nearly enough of hate they deserve. I’m not against figure collecting in general but FP are the ugliest motherfucking thing i ever seen in this department, for the same amount of resources, labour and energy they could produce something much better. In fact, a consistent long serie of figures faithful to the original (not ultra-deformed) across so many franchises would been great, but alas only thing there is are those unholy abominations.
I also take issue with buying something that does nothing. “Oh I’m going to put this on that shelf and never touch it again”. It screams cash grab. They’re made of brittle plastic so you can’t play with them. And as you say, they’re ugly.
I would argue that collecting things having purely aesthetical value is also legit, though there is an issue about manufactured demand and role of merchandise in popculture, but fair enough.
I hate to be that person, but the singular of “series” is “series”. There is no singular called “serie”.