For a moment there, Funko Pop! figures were everywhere. You couldn’t go to the barbershop or visit your co-worker’s cubicle without these big-headed pop culture cash-ins assaulting all of your senses. Like any fad, they’re fading out of public favor, and fast.
The company’s fortunes were literally in the trash recently as they had to throw out incredible amounts in excess stock, saying that they had too much inventory and not enough space to hold it all, per USA Today.
They got rid of the toys to “reduce fulfillment costs by managing inventory levels to align with the operating capacity of our distribution center,” which is corporate speak for “no one wants them anymore and we’re in big trouble because of it.”
Oh, and it cost them between $30 and $36 million to do it. This would be enough trouble for any company, much more so a company that’s dependant on people liking its product. Unfortunately, there’s more bad news for Funko.
Last year, Funko bought pop-culture brand Mondo, known for its posters, toys, records, books and other cool collectibles from popular franchises. Now they’re gutting that company, per The Wrap.
Funko laid off most of the staff at the Austin-based company, and even maybe killed the company’s poster division (which is what made it popular in the first place). Co-founders Rob Jones and Mitch Putnam were also axed.
The only divisions that weren’t cut were toys and records but it’s unclear whether Funko will jettison those as well. Mondo is a 20-year-old company and at one point was so successful there was even a convention called Mondocon.
It started as a rebel company making posters for pop-culture properties and often earning the ire of movie studios, but eventually the studios acquiesced and realized the immense potential of the company to reach fans.
The company was also basically printing money with its deluxe reissues of fan favorite soundtracks. It also produced an original album by Michael Giacchino, an Oscar winning composer famous for the soundtracks in Rogue One, The Batman and The Incredibles.
Initially, the Funko takeover of Mondo seemed like it would be a good partnership, but that didn’t last long. Co-founder Jones actually started up a side-project called The Lab, with esoteric ideas that Funko simply couldn’t support.
The out-of-the-box ideas that once fueled the company were tempered by corporate Funko and its endless need to make plastic figurines of every single pop culture thing in the history of the world. All good things come to an end.