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Writer's pictureShannon Parola

Our Story

Updated: Jun 11, 2023

"I'm with you until the end of the line" - Captain America: Winter Soldier

Source: Blurred Line Photography for The VIParolaz

Andy and I been first started dating in 2005 after an epic first date and got married finally in 2016 with a Marvel themed extravaganza. We have two senior dogs named Crush McLovin and Coco Chanel that are spoiled rotten. We are very lucky to live in the sunny Bay Area in California not far from my parent's 20 acre garlic farm in Gilroy. We spend a lot of our time there on the weekends getting into shenanigans. Otherwise, we can be found at home watching Netflix, playing video games, or rearranging our giant pop collection!


The Beginning of Andy's Funko Collection

Our Funko collection started in 2013 on Andy's desk at work around the same time I started the nerd site, The Game of Nerds. All it took was a Rick Grimes, Thor, and Tyrion Lannister and he was hooked on Pops. It wasn't until he was given an "intervention" that the collection finally came home for good. At first, it really was a giant wall of pops above our bed because that's the only spot we could place them. We were living with my parent's house in a tiny bedroom with two dogs while finishing up our bachelors degrees. When we moved back out after graduation and my celiac diagnosis, the collection rapidly started growing. Slowly our two bedroom one bathroom apartment was full of pops but they were starting now to be broken up by sections. Every time we moved the set up would change and the pops would have to be rearranged. We are currently in a 1100 SQ ft apartment (2 bed/2 bath) with just over 1200+ Funko Pops and other collectibles. Andy is constantly joking we need a bigger place and we've only been here a couple months.


Funko Picture of the Day - Shelfie Winner

The VIParolaz started a joint Instagram account for us. I was constantly being bombarded with messages and requests on my private account where I had shared a lot of my nanny kid's photos. Andy really wanted to share his Funko collection as he started meeting more and more people in the community. It wasn't until we won Funko's Photo of the Day Contest - Shelfie Challenge that we started to realize we had something special. So over the past few months on Instagram, people have been asking us to share our growing collection, display hacks, and other Funko adventures! I've even been sharing some of my gluten free advice and cooking. It's honestly been a wild ride so far and we can't wait to share more with you. Feel free to follow us on Instagram for daily updates and subscribe below to our monthly newsletter about what's going on in our crazy lives.

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