LISTENING TO | JOSE MARI CHAN - CHRISTMAS IN OUR HEARTS

Jose Mari Chan.

I think he's one of those Funko Pops that you need to keep inside of the box.

For some reason, it feels as if he has the Vince McMahon body and the John F. Kennedy head.

With that said, I never blind-bought a Funko Pop in Shopee as quickly as I did since like... forever. As mentioned in a previous blog, most Pinoy Funko Pops except Darna and the Jollibee characters have this thing in which it's hard for them to look cool outside of the box.

With Jollibee, the mascot is an iconic symbol. Sure, they buried Mico to obscurity and I guess Lady Moo, Chickee, and Twirlee need a bit of fandom love as well but the main mascot of the food chain has stood the test of time.

And say what you will about Darna but it's really hard to envision her as Darna nowadays given how she's so popular in the Philippines and how badly Wonder Woman is presented to a worldwide audience before Gal Gadot.

Trese and the UAAP mascot Funkos of Ateneo and La Salle are cute... but I quickly got tired of them. I got Trese because of FOMO and I bought the mascot pops just in case Funko would a UST Growling Tiger version.

With that said, I love the Jose Mari Chan Funko. If I attempt to construct a Christmas tree, I would have this Funko as part of an ornament (not on the top though - because Jose Mari Chan himself thinks it's a bad idea). Moreover, he's not just the dude with a hit song that stood the test of time. Jose Mari Chan is an iconic OPM icon whose albums Christmas in Our Hearts and Constant Change rank one and two in the all-time best-selling OPM albums list. Heck, before Seiko used Michael Learns to Rock songs in their movie trailers, they used Beautiful Girl to kickstart Gretchen Barretto's turn from teenybopper to film goddess. And while Beautiful Girl is a jam, Can't We Just Stop and Talk Awhile is my favorite JMC song.

And now, this is the first day of September.

Whenever I see boys and girls...