Written by It is not looking very promising over at Funko.
Funko, the parent company that acquired Mondo back in 2022 (the company responsible for “Masters of the Universe” 1:6 scale figures and soon to be offering high-end “200X” 1:10 Scale Figures) is facing an uncertain future.
So far the pop culture collectibles company has been unable to stop their revenue from falling into a third year in a row, resulting in a reported whopping 80% stock price decline for Funko.
And if that wasn’t daunting enough, a law firm Pomerantz LLP is also reportedly investigating claims on behalf of people who invested in Funko regarding concerns that the collectible company may have allegedly engaged in securities fraud (schemes aimed to manipulate investors through false information) and other alleged unlawful business practices.
After announcing the departure of CEO Cynthia Williams early last month, Funko has appointed another new CEO to hopefully stop the bleeding, that person being ex-Netflix executive Josh Simon.
Can this new CEO turn the tides for Funko? Only time will tell, but the remedy will reportedly include and/or already has included selling off almost $40 million of Funko’s common stock and laying off around 20 percent of their workforce.
We’ll see you next time.
Scum companies going to do scum things. Would be nice if they could sell the mondo part, but doubt thats gonna happen.
No offense to those who do collect Funko pops, you do you, but as a toy collector, but I’m sorry I have to go on a rant because I absolutely despise them. Extremely lazy design philosophy, makes hundreds and hundreds of them out of characters and character variants literally no one ever asks for, most collectors keep them in the box…..I get collectors wanting to keep stuff MIB but really? These things? Yeah they’re going under right now, but I don’t understand how they were a huge success in the first place when you COULD NOT escape them. Mountains of them at Targets, Walmarts, Gamestops, Hot Topics, even just local retro games/comic/toy shops.
And I know I’m not the only guy with this exact sentiment.
Maybe the reason why Funko as a whole company is declining is because they keep wasting most of their money and resources into unwanted POPs and people are finally getting sick of them.
Mondo legit has kickass looking figures that I will never be able to afford collecting.
That being said, yeah like in any massive corporation situation like this, it’s bad that all the employees being laid off. Hope they can find better work elsewhere.
Agreed 100%
They’re so cheap to produce* that they’re cheap for stores to buy and mark up to all fuck. Even at deep clearance they turn a profit. So per case they’re worth a fortune in that sense. In short, a wide spread brings both parties out on top. Funko is only failing after a couple of decades because of greed/expansion. Just look at how many imitators they have!
* No weight when shipping. Little paint. They’re caricatures so you only pay for the rights to use a logo, little else.
I so full heartedly agree with your rant; like you said, you are not the only one. I can add even more to this by saying how this whole form factor being at the core of Funko Pops is where the culture begins. It is a form factor depicting popular characters in this so called “kawaii”, “chibi”, “Deformed”, a caricatural version basically, all of which is solidly anchored within the Japanese pop culture. All the way since the 80’s. This cultural current has grown to such a proportion that years ago it entered the global consciousness, and found its way across the board in virtually every fandom. And most people love it, it cannot be denied. I actually happen to reside in Japan for 17 years now, and this aesthetic is so pervasive, it has overgrown any other single interpretation in regards to form factor.
I believe it will take decades before we have a chance of seeing this design trend disappear. Labubu has taken the helm, from China. It’s a never ending story of repetition and formulaic garbage.
No offense to those who do collect Funko pops, you do you, but as a toy collector, but I’m sorry I have to go on a rant because I absolutely despise them. Extremely lazy design philosophy, makes hundreds and hundreds of them out of characters and character variants literally no one ever asks for, most collectors keep them in the box…..I get collectors wanting to keep stuff MIB but really? These things? Yeah they’re going under right now, but I don’t understand how they were a huge success in the first place when you COULD NOT escape them. Mountains of them at Targets, Walmarts, Gamestops, Hot Topics, even just local retro games/comic/toy shops.
And I know I’m not the only guy with this exact sentiment.
Maybe the reason why Funko as a whole company is declining is because they keep wasting most of their money and resources into unwanted POPs and people are finally getting sick of them.
Mondo legit has kickass looking figures that I will never be able to afford collecting.
That being said, yeah like in any massive corporation situation like this, it’s bad that all the employees being laid off. Hope they can find better work elsewhere.
Finally, the Funko Pop fad is fading. I fully agree with the sentiment above. Pops are a blot on the toy collecting landscape. It reminds me of the Beanie baby fad in the 90s, 00s.
They were everywhere, then suddenly the craze died and retailers were lumbered with masses of unsellable stock.
@froginsox I think it’s time for a new recycling bin.
Hopefully Funko can sell off Mondo if things get rough so they can continue their work. I’m not sure who would end up buying them, but hopefully someone gets to scoop them. I’d be really upset if their lines ended prematurely. There’s a lot of cool figures that they have coming down the pipeline. As someone who works in finance I’m not too concerned by the law firm investigation. Its likely upset investors that are putting the lawsuit up to try and recoup some of their losses. I’d be surprised if it ended up going anywhere.
I never really understood the appeal of Funkos, I guess they are so simple that it fits the taste of a very broad audience. Not just nerds or even toy collectors.
Folks who don’t really collect any real action figures, they love Funkos. Very simple caricatures appeal to the most people, more so than detailed figures.
I agree with the “rant” from a previous commenter. It’s a strange property. Keeping these very simple things in package…? There are soooo many of them. They don’t contribute much good to the toy market, just take up space.
But yeah, cheap to produce, that makes sense, it’s profitable.
I have to admit I got a few, mostly MOTU, but I won’t be sad to see them crash. Kind of a get rich quick scheme lol Maybe not so quick.
Sad for the people who lose their jobs of course, people who lose money, and concerned for Mondo. Perhaps they can become independent again. Or NECA swoops in? They are backed by big $$$.
Lemme just say the one company I’m really proud of that has never sold out to Funko no matter how much money over the years they may have offered them is Nintendo
Even with them finally loosening up in recent years on with non-game stuff like Movies and theme parks, Nintendo is still strict when it comes to who they make merchandise of their characters
They could’ve started making Funko Pops with the Mario Movie but no. Why? Because I feel like having funko pops of a humongous franchise of “How low can we stoop in terms of merchandise? We could make forty variants of Luigi destined for the bargain bins!"
Basically I really respect them for having that merch restraint. There are Pokemon Pops but merch for that franchise is done by a separate company.
While we’re on the subject, my dream Transformers Collab figures for years that is unlikely to happen has been Nintendo. Mario as his Kart. Ganondorf as his huge beast form. Kirby in his UFO form. Samus as her Gunship. Fox as his Arwing. R.O.B. Some original alt. mode designs for some characters. Basically a whole sub-line like they did with Star Wars and Marvel in the mid-2000s, not just a one or two off and maybe even a kickass tie-in game.
But I digress.
Well…. I can’t say I’m surprised by this news.
I could be wrong, but it seems very unlikely that another company will want to acquire Mondo, unless they are willing to take a risk on niche products that require a lot of development time, cost, and licensing. Oh, and they price their figures out of the reach of many of the fans they claim to love.
Alamo had to part with them because they were not making enough to remain profitable. It seems that if Funko is going to cut its losses, Mondo will be a prime target to let go.
(I’m not entirely sure, but I believe Mondo are the most expensive products to carry the Funko branding.)
Depending on which direction this whole mess goes, my biggest worry is whether or not The Goddess will still show up in a decent time frame… and in the (likely) event that I need to contact CS, will anyone even be there to help?
Regarding funko, pops, the thing that makes them appeal to such a broad audience is that they’re all the same regardless of what franchise they come from. So you can get your favorite character from any franchise in a collection of things that match.