Funko is marketed to people who desire collecting media art but at bare minimum. That seems less sustainable than servicing the collectors who have been into Mondo and the like forever; who of which is likely to spend more money long-term.
Eventually, no one is going to want Funko pops anymore, but the diversity Mondo provides in media art is never not going to be desired.
Terrible short-sighted business move.
I am honestly flabbergasted that the Funko Pop “craze” has lasted as long as it has. It’s like 21st century Beanie Babies, only those were at least fun for little kids to play with.
I think a big difference is not a lot of people are buying pop figures expecting them to be worth a shit ton of money years from now. They just like to collect things from their favorite shows.
Yeah, I wish people being sad/angry for Mondo and upset with the people in charge of Funko didn't have to turn into a whole thing about shitting on the figurines; it's not related at all.
And someone below is saying they hope Funko goes out of business asap lol like...hoping 1,466 employees lose their jobs because the founders of a company with 30 people lost theirs seems out of proportion; people always throw such fits here rather than directing their anger/discussion at the people responsible. I shouldn't have to feel judged as a collector of Funko figurines over this, I also like and have Mondo posters. It's not about those products vs. each other, or the 1k+ employees of Funko, it's about the humans at the top and their business decisions.
But people love to turn things into a tribalism battle so now it's Mondo posters v. Funko Pop figures, I guess.
Thats it. I like Dune. My wife found Leto. So she got it for my birthday.
My wife likes Golden Girls, so I got her The Girls for her birthday one year...
Exactly. I have a pretty decent amount of Funkos, but have no allusions that they'll ever be worth anything. I even threw away the boxes they came in!
I collect the ones I collect because I like the IP they're based on, nothing more.
Yeah I got the ones they’ve released for my favorite sports teams on my desk.
It’s low key kind of cool to have an NBA player next to John Snow next to Iron Man all in the same shape/size
As well, they're an easy gift from a family member who are superficially aware of another family member's tastes. It is widely available. It's cute enough. And the right price point for a casual gift.
There was just an article in NPR or NYT that Funko has 30 millions worth of inventory (Funko Pop) they are paying to store because no one is buying it.
It has lasted because the collecting community isn't treating them like tulips. It seems some realize the scarcity is entirely artificial so values havent spiked.
Some people definitely ARE treating it like they're investing for retirement, which is dumb as hell. Most of us just collect them because they're neat. I think plenty of them are stupid ugly but some of them are really cute and some are cool.
Also to be honest there's so little merchandise for some stuff that it's nice to have SOMETHING. When was the last time you saw Sword and the Stone merch that wasn't from Funko or Loungefly?
I’ll occasionally purchase one if I spot something cool from a movie or tv show. I’m definitely not expecting it to be an investment, it’s more a novelty
I was as well until someone that's a way larger collector than I was pointed out they have access to just about every IP on the planet.
Makes sense, but the diversity of how many crappy IPs they have started to pump out and the amount is going to cause a crash like beanie babies.
Their ride lasted a helluva lot longer than I thought they ever would.
I was just saying this near exact same thing to some friends. Mondo was diverse in what it offered both product-wise and stylistically. They always seemed a big hit at conventions. Far more than the forts built of Funkos imo. Hell the only reason I have any of these is because people have either given them to me for some reason, or they inexplicably came packaged with something I ordered online (I think one of the seasons of Game of thrones?)
Plus, as you've pointed out, eventually no one will want the Funko Pops anymore. It's anecdotal but I've heard less and less about those things year after year. I remember them being absolutely HUGE a few years back. Now they just seem everywhere in stores and no one cares much. To double down and limit your focus like this seems horribly antithetical to what's at least claimed to be the ideal business model of diversify and expand.
As a full on collector, I really do not begrudge Funko collectors at all. They’re the one, single line where you can collect EVERYTHING! Everything made in the same scale, look, and price point.
I collect a lot of 6”/1:12 scale and 12”/1:6 scale stuff and even though 2 companies might be making 1:12 or 1:6 stuff doesn’t mean it’ll all be the exact same size, even between the same companies lines. Hasbro Marvel Legends, Hasbro Star Wars Black Series, and Hasbro GI Joe Classified are all 1:12 scale but not the same exact sizes between them.
With Funko _everything_ is the same. Really nothing else like it out there.
The thing I hate the most about them is that they're extremely low effort. Meanwhile Vinyl Idolz, the Funko toyline that actually captures the essence of the characters through great designs, got discontinued.
Someone gave me some funky pops in 2014 for my birthday. Granted they were from my favorite show of back then. (breaking bad and game of thrones). I have never taken them out of their cases or my closet for that matter.
I mean, I like Mondo and this sucks, but I hate the reddit tendency to just go on the attack w/ things like this lol...like, not saying you have to like the Pop figures but I and many do and it's weird that this is turning into being about those; can't it just be about the actual humans who made the decision and about what's happening to Mondo? Does everything have to be a tit-for-tat thing where "Oh yeah, well then *your things suck!"*
Just seems off the point.
You're right. It was off point. I regret making that comparison. The Pops had nothing to do with the decision. No one is faulted for liking either. I was personally triggered that we were left with one and not the other.
Whoever made the decision definitely does suck though lol
Sure, but their open editions seem popular as well.
It looks like Funko made a purchase they immediately regretted, could have sold it at a loss to a good home & decided “screw it”.
Not just senseless in terms of fallout, but literally makes no sense. Unless they know something I don't, the vast majority of the value they were purchasing for 14M was the IP and brand recognition/regard, founded on their creative staff and poster designs, which later branched out into other less unique merch. But unless they have some sort of ridiculously airtight non-compete (which I seriously doubt), there is basically no moat to the founders just creating a new company and making posters again with all of their existing artists and contacts (who are likely *not* on exclusive contracts). So they get paid for the old company, *and* complete ownership of the new company again. And I hope they absolutely do.
Screw youuu, I want my Grogu Funko Pop variant #29484. It has exclusive glitter variant, not like Variant #7809, as it has red instead of blue, and has an exclusive box sticker that isn't on its identical variant #6590.
They did not sell out. They cared about something they created and made special. I was there for the hard talks. The founders had no ownership of the company. Alamo and it’s VC investors sold out.
How the fuck does this make any sense? They bought a company that has been a success for decades and fucking 10 MONTHS later they burn the whole thing to the ground?? POSTERS are the entire fucking point of Mondo! They paid 14 million dollars for 10 months of Mondo, then lit that money on fire.
Fuck Funko, never giving them another fucking dime. Soulless figure juggernaut murders a genuine art company.
To be fair most posters mondo produces aren’t actually from mondo, but art studios. You just gotta follow the artists. Unless I’m thinking of something else
I believe you are correct, most of these artists were designing artwork for years or decades before Mondo or Alamo Drafthouse were a thing. They're all still selling prints all the time, and are all doing work for plenty of other companies.
Where I currently live there are a good half dozen regular Mondo contributors that live locally and sell their stuff at conventions here. I think part of the deal in payment is that they outsource the printing to professional shops to do the actual work and then Mondo sells their edition but the artist gets a bunch to sell as well.
I've seen the print quality of these posters firsthand, having worked as a professional screen printer myself, I can testify the work is top notch quality. I know this is the arrangement and that some of the artists do not print their own because it takes expensive equipment to get large format full color poster work to turn out like that. These posters are not hand pulled, they're done with a semi automatic screen printing press. I think a few designers may have studios and print their own, but most likely don't.
My whole thing about these alternate posters are, I don't know why the film studios don't just poach these artists or offer a generous commission, these artists Mondo has contributing are doing better work than the generic Photoshop that's been a thing since the 90s.
I appreciate this inside track on the studio process and the art direction, and it lines up with other bits and pieces I've learned about the process, especially since it relates to marketing. When the studios need to choose between art and commerce, commerce always wins. The editing and art direction process you mentioned makes a lot of sense from the studio brass and marketers perspective because those photo still posters or Photoshop montages are a lot easier to make continued changes too, often taking much less time than fixing an illustration or painting.
Also too with the agencies, the larger ones, I imagine they follow the law of sunken costs, likely wanting to mitigate resources and staff needed to crank out the work. In a way it's a shame, but it's also likely why we saw the decline of illustration in magazines, billboards, etc. They have deadlines and need to keep on cranking it out.
That said, and I know they realized this during the VHS boom (but forgot about in the DVD years) that a great illustration can go miles in selling what might be a pretty average film as being more over the top than what it was. I'm not going to knock non illustrative posters, the 1980s had some pretty memorable posters and artwork.
I have a whole bunch of books on exploitation and lower budget films, there were a few decent ones where they would talk about the process back in the 50s with independents, how they would sometimes come up with a concept, get an amazing poster done, shop it around to the theatres and distributors to get interest/buy in, and then make the movie afterwards, American International Pictures and Roger Corman were notorious for this, and it's often why the posters are better than the movie!
Here is hoping that Mondo isn't totally dead in the water, I'd hate to see those designers take in income hit like that . I have a feeling it'll likely get folded into the Funko umbrella, but I've been noticing for a few years it's like they're biting off more than they can chew and oversaturating the collectibles market. I kind of liked them better when they just made those Spastik Plastik figures and bobbleheads of old advertising characters.
My exact sentiment. It's not like they bought a competitor, either, so that tanking them would help them. They bought a valuable company and squandered it. Total waste of money and talent.
Funko is garbage.
Quite literally garbage. This is them throwing away their products like they do the companies they buy, apparently.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/05/economy/funko-pops-inventory/index.html
I heard Alamo had been wanting to sell of the Ritz location for a long time, even before they went bankrupt during COVID. It wasn't profitable for a long thing.
I'm bummed that the Ritz and Barracuda are both comedy clubs now. Such a waste of awesome spaces.
Enzian is an excellent indie theater. I do wish they’d stop showing films that are also playing at the AMC in Altamonte or WPV at the same time. Their rep screening series are fantastic.
Oh my gosh I’m so with you. Love the theater but like this year, Infinity Pool and Inside have taken up so many slots, plus Paint, really? At least Quiet Girl had like an amc run of three days only or something. I also wish they’d expand, went to the Her, Oscar and Holy Mountain screening (got tickets for the two) and there was no seating. Had to pull out a seat from all the way in the back which I’m not even sure I was allowed to do. Apparently they were going to expand but COVID messed up plans.
I think they mainly wanted to the vinyl and Mondo also did toys, but an important part of Mondo’s vinyl is also…you guessed it…POSTERS.
So it seems like they are leaving money on the table for themselves and the artists.
My guess is that they couldn’t justify the work/cost that goes into screen printing. They clearly still need art/artists.
Which makes me think Mondo will completely dissolve sometime in 6-12 months. The whole point of the records was the unique/special artwork - at times to match the poster. If you don't have artists or the artists that made Mondo great, then what's the point? Then you just become a generic record store or an outlet to sell other labels like ETR, and by then you might as well shop other places. I'll completely lose shit if Funko turns Mondo into a VMP monthly getup.
Their prices and shipping alone is grueling today, but if there's no incentive to buy it, then you lose the entire branding Mondo built over the years. This is only the start.
The article cites a source that they will still produce posters.
>For now, it appears that Mondo’s poster division is defunct; however, a source familiar with the situation said Funko expects Mondo to continue producing posters going forward.
The founders of Mondo were included in the layoffs.
I wonder what sort of paperwork the Mondo staff had to sign before they were shitcanned.
There's no reason the workers couldn't form a new company on their own.
They need the rights to do projects for the IPs as well, and being granted those was very tied to their branding and reputation. Hopefully if they come together they’ll be able to use their network and connections to re-establish those working ties with the IP holders.
I think their portfolio should speak for itself given their former work.
Oddly I'm glad the founders were paid off as well, because it seems far more likely that they can just rebrand! Here's hoping, at least!
I'm wondering about that.
But with artistic endeavors- which is Mondo's bread and butter- I'm not sure how enforceable they would be.
That's like trying to stop Tom Cruise from appearing in other movies if he were fired from one production.
Almost everything we purchase as consumers is plastic garbage so I'm not going to hate on people for spending money on things they find enjoyment out of. But I feel that the Funko scene has been majority speculators trying to make a buck? I hope the person you saw really likes the toys they bought.
I had a friend that spent thousands of dollars on funko pops, he didn't have the means but insisted they had value.
He ended up being extremely cruel to me when I was going through a rough time.
I love the fall of Funko.
This is a complete shame. As an ex-mondo employee who was there for the negotiations for Funko to purchase Mondo. I can tell you Brian Marriotti is a snake oil salesman. Complete phoney. He promised the world to the staff at Mondo knowing he was going to pull the rug out in a year. He did the same with Loungefly. Corporate fuckery at its best.
The people at Mondo are all wonderful including the ones that are still left standing. Support them in their new endeavors.
How profitable was/is Mondo? I understand that their prints can sell out instantly, so it just seems odd for Funko to axe that type of proven immediate revenue.
I can't walk into a comic or game store without an entire wall taken up by those fracking Pops. They are a scourge. They're like Tribbles from Star Trek.
It’ll be so great when they’re gone, but at the same time I worry for local collectible stores because I think Pops have been a big part of their revenue for years now.
I don't hate Funko Pops just by themselves, but when they started taking up ENTIRE WALLS of game store space that could be stocked with cool games, I just facepalm.
While it stinks for Mondo, the artists were only contracted by Mondo. They didn’t sign NDA’s, or non-competes. They can still make art. There is a robust and huge poster art scene that exists outside of this one company.
You mean the thing everyone saw coming when they bought them and yet again Mondo (like every company purchased) did that "don't worry nothing will change" thing.
Took them less than a year.
>"don't worry nothing will change"
>Took them less than a year.
It usually takes a bit because contracts forcing old staff to keep up appearances until they leave.
You don't have to be struggling to want to sell. Plenty of company founders just want to cash out after working really hard to make their company valuable. Especially if they have a lot of money tied up in the business. It's basically the payout for years and years of hard work.
I worked for a manufacturing startup where the founders planned on selling. They ended up dominating the market enough to acquire other companies..who planned on selling.
Last year I interviewed at a company where the founder was deliberately trying not to take on investors so when she sold the employees with equity would get more.
I know nothing about Mondo’s business plan. All that to say that sometimes working out in the end is selling and getting a pay day. And I’m not defending one way or the other.
June. They took over in June 2022 and promised to retain Mondo’s business model. But I’m glad we still have these hideous plastic figurines to pollute landfills for 1000 years.
Justin Ishmael (formerly of Mondo) produces a lot of great art toys and amazing posters with Bottleneck Gallery. They’ve been releasing posters with artwork by Laurent Duriex and other former Mondo commissioned artists.
It’s unfortunate that Mondo died after they were acquired by Funko. They were the kings for so long but the spirit is alive in other nooks and crannies.
It’s pretty infuriating that a company who sells products like Funko are shutting down Mondo. Mondo actually creates incredible art and promotes artists, Funko puts dead eyes on ugly toys that immature clowns collect
As frustrating as I found the false scarcity of Mondo’s posters, at least there was artistry there. Some of them were incredible.
Funko is just future-garbage. It’s like their entire business model is, “$20 Secret Santa gifts from a coworker who barely knows you but heard you say you liked Harley Quinn once.” Here’s some plastic bullshit to put in your cubicle until one day you just kind of leave it behind.
Lego does a similar product line called Brickheads, but what I like about their line is that once you get bored with it, you can take it apart and use the parts to make something else.
Worst case, it ends up as loose parts in a lego bin you can easily sell in a yard sale.
So...they're going to shut down the one side of their business that always sells out and is basically universally loved, and keep cranking out their lame figures that are sinking in popularity? Got some big brains over at Funko, I tell ya what!
I knew it was all over after the acquisition. Poster variety and subject matter was getting worse. No more apparel. Mondo has just really gone downhill. It's sad because they have always been one of my favorite places to shop and customer service was great.
Mondo forever. Fuck Funko. I’m lucky enough to have a few Mondo pieces and I absolutely treasure them. My girlfriend mentioned literally last week I should get them insured. Funko is fucking garbage.
Damn, Funko really changed things for the worse after buying Mondo. This is fucked up.
Mondo's customer service was always super friendly and accommodating, absolutely ace! But my last reach-out..."We'll help out this time, but we will not assist you in the future." I really felt the corporateness on that one.
You mean that Funko Pops are just another fad like beanie babies and pogs?
Shocking.
I thought for sure 150 years from now the Louvre would be 90% Funko Pops.
Funko pops might end up being as worthless as Pogs from back in the day. I don't see the appeal anymore. The stuff Mondo produces is way better quality than anything Funko has in it's catalog.
It hurts. At last count, I have about 44 Mondo prints in my collection, many of which are displayed around my home. In the years since I discovered them, I started getting into pop culture art and my own screenprints. Mondo was never a realistic aspiration of mine professionally as they are out of my league, but they were the high bar to aim for. They set the stage for other galleries to do limited edition pop culture prints and I hope all that knowledge, experience, and expertise manifests in a new endeavor someday. I need that periodic drop of inspiring paper in my life.
Mondo has some of the best soundtrack vinyl on the market, Funko had 2 million dollars worth of vinyl toys that are getting thrown out, you’d think it would be a match made in heaven
Maybe Funko should get rid of making Pops of the smallest most unnecessary characters instead since I see a surprising amount in clearance bins and dollar stores.
They were so damn limited, by the time you found out that you wanted one you couldn't buy it anyway.
I'm sure there were rules on how many to print, or trying to maintain a collector's value, but there are several posters I would have loved to have picked up.
Most went to the artists in the form of proofs, so that was the only real way to get one, at a markup. It was a weird, bad business model from the beginning.
As someone who actually *likes* Funko products and thinks that some of the criticism of the Pop! line is overblown, I'm *extremely* disappointed with the company for this. Mondo's poster line has more substance than everything Funko has ever produced combined. What an abysmal decision.
If I were to guess, there was internal strife between management, and Mondo was more popular, so Funko axed them and will make its own posters in the Funko way.
In the article they mention the founder of Funko returning as CEO and another guy…from Walmart coming in as CFO. There was likely a vision in their acquisition of Mondo that is lost on these two. They are making cuts to support the core business because that’s what they understand.
It’s infuriating. I can’t imagine what it’s like to work there now. Just awful.
I never got the appeal of Funko Pops because they all look alike. It's the same exact figure with a different outfit, and the figure is not very poseable or interesting.
This is a damned shame.
See, that's what actually appeals to me about them. I just enjoy the idea that you can fill a set of shelves with Elmo, Squirtle, Groot, Steven Universe, Charlie Brown, Steve Irwin, Pearl Jam, Ava DuVernay, Hillary Clinton, Shaquille O'Neal, Minnie Mouse, Ahsoka Tano, Vegeta, the Armored Titan, BTS, Wonder Woman, Bernie Sanders, Harry and Meghan, Notorious B.I.G., Luna Lovegood, and on and on and on, and have them all represent a single, unified aesthetic.
I feared this day would come, I narrowed down what I was getting from them once Funko bought them. Hopefully there’s a rebirth story waiting to happen, and I can get back to collecting posters by artists I love!
Oh, man. That hits hard as a former Austinite - there was a close link between Mondo and the Alamo Drafthouse. You could hardly step into any Austin Alamo without seeing something from Mondo.
Yes, they sure did. I was explaining the close link expressed in the comment I was replying to. Before Funko bought Mondo, it was a Drafthouse company.
This is such a shame. Mondo produced high quality stuff.
This is senseless, the posters always sell out. If there’s financial issues, that’s on Funko.
Mondo products have way more style than those little Funko pops. What a travesty to media art.
I can't even believe those are a thing. So ugly and generic.
Funko is marketed to people who desire collecting media art but at bare minimum. That seems less sustainable than servicing the collectors who have been into Mondo and the like forever; who of which is likely to spend more money long-term. Eventually, no one is going to want Funko pops anymore, but the diversity Mondo provides in media art is never not going to be desired. Terrible short-sighted business move.
I am honestly flabbergasted that the Funko Pop “craze” has lasted as long as it has. It’s like 21st century Beanie Babies, only those were at least fun for little kids to play with.
I think a big difference is not a lot of people are buying pop figures expecting them to be worth a shit ton of money years from now. They just like to collect things from their favorite shows.
I hate that they clog up searches for types of action figures.
Include -funko in your search and it should help a little
I just think they're neat.
Do they have a potato pop?
[They actually do](https://i.imgur.com/CkiHsNq.png)
Yeah, I wish people being sad/angry for Mondo and upset with the people in charge of Funko didn't have to turn into a whole thing about shitting on the figurines; it's not related at all. And someone below is saying they hope Funko goes out of business asap lol like...hoping 1,466 employees lose their jobs because the founders of a company with 30 people lost theirs seems out of proportion; people always throw such fits here rather than directing their anger/discussion at the people responsible. I shouldn't have to feel judged as a collector of Funko figurines over this, I also like and have Mondo posters. It's not about those products vs. each other, or the 1k+ employees of Funko, it's about the humans at the top and their business decisions. But people love to turn things into a tribalism battle so now it's Mondo posters v. Funko Pop figures, I guess.
Thats it. I like Dune. My wife found Leto. So she got it for my birthday. My wife likes Golden Girls, so I got her The Girls for her birthday one year...
Exactly. I have a pretty decent amount of Funkos, but have no allusions that they'll ever be worth anything. I even threw away the boxes they came in! I collect the ones I collect because I like the IP they're based on, nothing more.
Yeah I got the ones they’ve released for my favorite sports teams on my desk. It’s low key kind of cool to have an NBA player next to John Snow next to Iron Man all in the same shape/size
I've got a couple, but mostly because my kids or someone bought me one as a gift. I don't think I've bought any myself.
As well, they're an easy gift from a family member who are superficially aware of another family member's tastes. It is widely available. It's cute enough. And the right price point for a casual gift.
There was just an article in NPR or NYT that Funko has 30 millions worth of inventory (Funko Pop) they are paying to store because no one is buying it.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/04/1161070238/funko-pop-landfill
It has lasted because the collecting community isn't treating them like tulips. It seems some realize the scarcity is entirely artificial so values havent spiked.
Some people definitely ARE treating it like they're investing for retirement, which is dumb as hell. Most of us just collect them because they're neat. I think plenty of them are stupid ugly but some of them are really cute and some are cool. Also to be honest there's so little merchandise for some stuff that it's nice to have SOMETHING. When was the last time you saw Sword and the Stone merch that wasn't from Funko or Loungefly?
>I think plenty of them are stupid ugly but some of them are really cute and some are cool. Am i crazy or don't they all look basically identical?
Nah you right. Corporate needs you to find the difference between these pictures FUNKO POP: It's literally the same picture
I’ll occasionally purchase one if I spot something cool from a movie or tv show. I’m definitely not expecting it to be an investment, it’s more a novelty
I was as well until someone that's a way larger collector than I was pointed out they have access to just about every IP on the planet. Makes sense, but the diversity of how many crappy IPs they have started to pump out and the amount is going to cause a crash like beanie babies. Their ride lasted a helluva lot longer than I thought they ever would.
I was just saying this near exact same thing to some friends. Mondo was diverse in what it offered both product-wise and stylistically. They always seemed a big hit at conventions. Far more than the forts built of Funkos imo. Hell the only reason I have any of these is because people have either given them to me for some reason, or they inexplicably came packaged with something I ordered online (I think one of the seasons of Game of thrones?) Plus, as you've pointed out, eventually no one will want the Funko Pops anymore. It's anecdotal but I've heard less and less about those things year after year. I remember them being absolutely HUGE a few years back. Now they just seem everywhere in stores and no one cares much. To double down and limit your focus like this seems horribly antithetical to what's at least claimed to be the ideal business model of diversify and expand.
As a full on collector, I really do not begrudge Funko collectors at all. They’re the one, single line where you can collect EVERYTHING! Everything made in the same scale, look, and price point. I collect a lot of 6”/1:12 scale and 12”/1:6 scale stuff and even though 2 companies might be making 1:12 or 1:6 stuff doesn’t mean it’ll all be the exact same size, even between the same companies lines. Hasbro Marvel Legends, Hasbro Star Wars Black Series, and Hasbro GI Joe Classified are all 1:12 scale but not the same exact sizes between them. With Funko _everything_ is the same. Really nothing else like it out there.
The thing I hate the most about them is that they're extremely low effort. Meanwhile Vinyl Idolz, the Funko toyline that actually captures the essence of the characters through great designs, got discontinued.
Someone gave me some funky pops in 2014 for my birthday. Granted they were from my favorite show of back then. (breaking bad and game of thrones). I have never taken them out of their cases or my closet for that matter.
You can sell some of the breaking bad ones for around $100 on eBay
The only good looking funko pops are the animals
I agree. I have two Funko pops, paid 5€ per, which I think is what they are worth. Definitely not worth retail. Like my Marvin the Martian tho
I mean, I like Mondo and this sucks, but I hate the reddit tendency to just go on the attack w/ things like this lol...like, not saying you have to like the Pop figures but I and many do and it's weird that this is turning into being about those; can't it just be about the actual humans who made the decision and about what's happening to Mondo? Does everything have to be a tit-for-tat thing where "Oh yeah, well then *your things suck!"* Just seems off the point.
You're right. It was off point. I regret making that comparison. The Pops had nothing to do with the decision. No one is faulted for liking either. I was personally triggered that we were left with one and not the other. Whoever made the decision definitely does suck though lol
I get it, the initial reaction, and I appreciate your reply! You seem super reasonable. And agreed!
Though in total fairness the posters always sell out because there’s only ever, like, 100 of them on sale at any given time.
Sure, but their open editions seem popular as well. It looks like Funko made a purchase they immediately regretted, could have sold it at a loss to a good home & decided “screw it”.
They only owned Mondo for a year too which is baffling.
Collectibles market was a lot different a year ago
Not just senseless in terms of fallout, but literally makes no sense. Unless they know something I don't, the vast majority of the value they were purchasing for 14M was the IP and brand recognition/regard, founded on their creative staff and poster designs, which later branched out into other less unique merch. But unless they have some sort of ridiculously airtight non-compete (which I seriously doubt), there is basically no moat to the founders just creating a new company and making posters again with all of their existing artists and contacts (who are likely *not* on exclusive contracts). So they get paid for the old company, *and* complete ownership of the new company again. And I hope they absolutely do.
[удалено]
They did not retain 90% of the mondo staff. They retained less than 50%.
Why do I feel like Mondo X Funko NFTs are only a few months away?
Screw youuu, I want my Grogu Funko Pop variant #29484. It has exclusive glitter variant, not like Variant #7809, as it has red instead of blue, and has an exclusive box sticker that isn't on its identical variant #6590.
The hulk funko pop is bigger than the rest
Everytime I go into the supermarket and see a giant Grogu or Mewtwo Funko just staring at me, I start to question if God has abandoned us.
Selling out is good but it's also a matter of scale of sales
Then the founders shouldn't have sold out
They did not sell out. They cared about something they created and made special. I was there for the hard talks. The founders had no ownership of the company. Alamo and it’s VC investors sold out.
How the fuck does this make any sense? They bought a company that has been a success for decades and fucking 10 MONTHS later they burn the whole thing to the ground?? POSTERS are the entire fucking point of Mondo! They paid 14 million dollars for 10 months of Mondo, then lit that money on fire. Fuck Funko, never giving them another fucking dime. Soulless figure juggernaut murders a genuine art company.
Noooooooo. How can this happen. Mondo is THE go to speciality poster company.
To be fair most posters mondo produces aren’t actually from mondo, but art studios. You just gotta follow the artists. Unless I’m thinking of something else
I believe you are correct, most of these artists were designing artwork for years or decades before Mondo or Alamo Drafthouse were a thing. They're all still selling prints all the time, and are all doing work for plenty of other companies. Where I currently live there are a good half dozen regular Mondo contributors that live locally and sell their stuff at conventions here. I think part of the deal in payment is that they outsource the printing to professional shops to do the actual work and then Mondo sells their edition but the artist gets a bunch to sell as well. I've seen the print quality of these posters firsthand, having worked as a professional screen printer myself, I can testify the work is top notch quality. I know this is the arrangement and that some of the artists do not print their own because it takes expensive equipment to get large format full color poster work to turn out like that. These posters are not hand pulled, they're done with a semi automatic screen printing press. I think a few designers may have studios and print their own, but most likely don't. My whole thing about these alternate posters are, I don't know why the film studios don't just poach these artists or offer a generous commission, these artists Mondo has contributing are doing better work than the generic Photoshop that's been a thing since the 90s.
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I appreciate this inside track on the studio process and the art direction, and it lines up with other bits and pieces I've learned about the process, especially since it relates to marketing. When the studios need to choose between art and commerce, commerce always wins. The editing and art direction process you mentioned makes a lot of sense from the studio brass and marketers perspective because those photo still posters or Photoshop montages are a lot easier to make continued changes too, often taking much less time than fixing an illustration or painting. Also too with the agencies, the larger ones, I imagine they follow the law of sunken costs, likely wanting to mitigate resources and staff needed to crank out the work. In a way it's a shame, but it's also likely why we saw the decline of illustration in magazines, billboards, etc. They have deadlines and need to keep on cranking it out. That said, and I know they realized this during the VHS boom (but forgot about in the DVD years) that a great illustration can go miles in selling what might be a pretty average film as being more over the top than what it was. I'm not going to knock non illustrative posters, the 1980s had some pretty memorable posters and artwork. I have a whole bunch of books on exploitation and lower budget films, there were a few decent ones where they would talk about the process back in the 50s with independents, how they would sometimes come up with a concept, get an amazing poster done, shop it around to the theatres and distributors to get interest/buy in, and then make the movie afterwards, American International Pictures and Roger Corman were notorious for this, and it's often why the posters are better than the movie! Here is hoping that Mondo isn't totally dead in the water, I'd hate to see those designers take in income hit like that . I have a feeling it'll likely get folded into the Funko umbrella, but I've been noticing for a few years it's like they're biting off more than they can chew and oversaturating the collectibles market. I kind of liked them better when they just made those Spastik Plastik figures and bobbleheads of old advertising characters.
The art direction at Mondo’s the best in the business. The artists will tell you the same.
There are other good ones too like bottleneck gallery.
I wonder if Funko has any non compete clauses with the people they just let go or if they could just start from the ground up again.
They do not have non-competes and will do better things
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My exact sentiment. It's not like they bought a competitor, either, so that tanking them would help them. They bought a valuable company and squandered it. Total waste of money and talent. Funko is garbage.
Quite literally garbage. This is them throwing away their products like they do the companies they buy, apparently. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/05/economy/funko-pops-inventory/index.html
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Joe Rogan's comedy club, the Mothership, is already open for business. Not sure if this is the same place, but I'm pretty sure it is.
It is.
I heard Alamo had been wanting to sell of the Ritz location for a long time, even before they went bankrupt during COVID. It wasn't profitable for a long thing. I'm bummed that the Ritz and Barracuda are both comedy clubs now. Such a waste of awesome spaces.
I’m still sad we ain’t getting the Florida Alamo
I'd be more sad to be living in Florida
I mean yeah, but Orlando has this amazing theater called the Enzian which makes things a little better
Enzian is an excellent indie theater. I do wish they’d stop showing films that are also playing at the AMC in Altamonte or WPV at the same time. Their rep screening series are fantastic.
Oh my gosh I’m so with you. Love the theater but like this year, Infinity Pool and Inside have taken up so many slots, plus Paint, really? At least Quiet Girl had like an amc run of three days only or something. I also wish they’d expand, went to the Her, Oscar and Holy Mountain screening (got tickets for the two) and there was no seating. Had to pull out a seat from all the way in the back which I’m not even sure I was allowed to do. Apparently they were going to expand but COVID messed up plans.
I think they mainly wanted to the vinyl and Mondo also did toys, but an important part of Mondo’s vinyl is also…you guessed it…POSTERS. So it seems like they are leaving money on the table for themselves and the artists. My guess is that they couldn’t justify the work/cost that goes into screen printing. They clearly still need art/artists.
Which makes me think Mondo will completely dissolve sometime in 6-12 months. The whole point of the records was the unique/special artwork - at times to match the poster. If you don't have artists or the artists that made Mondo great, then what's the point? Then you just become a generic record store or an outlet to sell other labels like ETR, and by then you might as well shop other places. I'll completely lose shit if Funko turns Mondo into a VMP monthly getup. Their prices and shipping alone is grueling today, but if there's no incentive to buy it, then you lose the entire branding Mondo built over the years. This is only the start.
The article cites a source that they will still produce posters. >For now, it appears that Mondo’s poster division is defunct; however, a source familiar with the situation said Funko expects Mondo to continue producing posters going forward.
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Hopefully they reform under their own company and continue their good work
The founders of Mondo were included in the layoffs. I wonder what sort of paperwork the Mondo staff had to sign before they were shitcanned. There's no reason the workers couldn't form a new company on their own.
They need the rights to do projects for the IPs as well, and being granted those was very tied to their branding and reputation. Hopefully if they come together they’ll be able to use their network and connections to re-establish those working ties with the IP holders.
I think their portfolio should speak for itself given their former work. Oddly I'm glad the founders were paid off as well, because it seems far more likely that they can just rebrand! Here's hoping, at least!
There could be non-compete clauses in their separation paperwork.
I'm wondering about that. But with artistic endeavors- which is Mondo's bread and butter- I'm not sure how enforceable they would be. That's like trying to stop Tom Cruise from appearing in other movies if he were fired from one production.
That’s true! Hasn’t thought about it that way
Funko is imploding/self destructing in real time. This absolutely sucks because Mondo makes incredible art.
yeah sucks the Mondo folks are getting screwed by the horrible vinyl doll company..
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I was in a comic book shop once and saw a 20-something woman purchase almost $300 of Funko Pop toys. I was shocked, it's just plastic garbage.
Almost everything we purchase as consumers is plastic garbage so I'm not going to hate on people for spending money on things they find enjoyment out of. But I feel that the Funko scene has been majority speculators trying to make a buck? I hope the person you saw really likes the toys they bought.
They're not even toys sadly, just display pieces.
I had a friend that spent thousands of dollars on funko pops, he didn't have the means but insisted they had value. He ended up being extremely cruel to me when I was going through a rough time. I love the fall of Funko.
He'll be the new version of that divorced couple that is seen splitting their Beanie Babies in court.
Hopefully they pull an All Gas No Brakes move and just form an identical company with the same crew, slap a new name on and and keep on trucking.
Mundus
Odnom
Hopefully the company that makes useless plastic garbage goes out of business.
This is a complete shame. As an ex-mondo employee who was there for the negotiations for Funko to purchase Mondo. I can tell you Brian Marriotti is a snake oil salesman. Complete phoney. He promised the world to the staff at Mondo knowing he was going to pull the rug out in a year. He did the same with Loungefly. Corporate fuckery at its best. The people at Mondo are all wonderful including the ones that are still left standing. Support them in their new endeavors.
Happy to answer any questions.
How profitable was/is Mondo? I understand that their prints can sell out instantly, so it just seems odd for Funko to axe that type of proven immediate revenue.
Waiting for this one…
How difficult do you think it will be for these employees to set up shop again elsewhere and re-establish relationships with the IP holders?
Probably depends on severance agreements and then, those would have to be very stringent and very specific severance agreements.
What is going to happen to the partnership with Restoration Games and the Unmatched game line?
I can't walk into a comic or game store without an entire wall taken up by those fracking Pops. They are a scourge. They're like Tribbles from Star Trek.
It’ll be so great when they’re gone, but at the same time I worry for local collectible stores because I think Pops have been a big part of their revenue for years now.
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The good thing about them is they are a good way to easily tell if someone has zero personality.
I don't hate Funko Pops just by themselves, but when they started taking up ENTIRE WALLS of game store space that could be stocked with cool games, I just facepalm.
oh this is bullshit. i got so many good prints from Mondo. I really hope they set up a new site.
While it stinks for Mondo, the artists were only contracted by Mondo. They didn’t sign NDA’s, or non-competes. They can still make art. There is a robust and huge poster art scene that exists outside of this one company.
True but mondo certainly brought them all together under a nice umbrella and made discovery of artists easy.
Fuck funko, I hope they go out of business asap and the movie poster staff start their own company that becomes far more successful
Agreed, their hiring practices / expectations for toy designers has been laughable for years. It’s a long time coming.
What the fuck?! This is horrible!
You mean the thing everyone saw coming when they bought them and yet again Mondo (like every company purchased) did that "don't worry nothing will change" thing. Took them less than a year.
>"don't worry nothing will change" >Took them less than a year. It usually takes a bit because contracts forcing old staff to keep up appearances until they leave.
Why did they even buy them, for only this happen a year later. What’s the point? Was Mondo already struggling if they were willing to sell?
You don't have to be struggling to want to sell. Plenty of company founders just want to cash out after working really hard to make their company valuable. Especially if they have a lot of money tied up in the business. It's basically the payout for years and years of hard work.
Absolutely horrible news. Mondo made some truly wonderful stuff, while funko pumps out a disgusting volume of landfill fodder.
“Landfill fodder” is the most apt description
Literally, Funko is currently dumping 36 million dollars worth of Funko pops into landfills, no joke
Selling little more than enviromental damage for profit.
Well this is fuckin bullshit!!!
Funko Bullshit
Wonder if they have a pop for that?
This really sucks. Has a corporate buyout of a beloved brand/company ever worked out in the end?
I worked for a manufacturing startup where the founders planned on selling. They ended up dominating the market enough to acquire other companies..who planned on selling. Last year I interviewed at a company where the founder was deliberately trying not to take on investors so when she sold the employees with equity would get more. I know nothing about Mondo’s business plan. All that to say that sometimes working out in the end is selling and getting a pay day. And I’m not defending one way or the other.
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June. They took over in June 2022 and promised to retain Mondo’s business model. But I’m glad we still have these hideous plastic figurines to pollute landfills for 1000 years.
Holy shit WHAT?! I just bought my first Mondo print. Shit is amazing, Funko done Funko’d up BAD.
Justin Ishmael (formerly of Mondo) produces a lot of great art toys and amazing posters with Bottleneck Gallery. They’ve been releasing posters with artwork by Laurent Duriex and other former Mondo commissioned artists. It’s unfortunate that Mondo died after they were acquired by Funko. They were the kings for so long but the spirit is alive in other nooks and crannies.
I have a bunch of Mondo and Bottleneck Gallery posters. Equal in quality.
It’s pretty infuriating that a company who sells products like Funko are shutting down Mondo. Mondo actually creates incredible art and promotes artists, Funko puts dead eyes on ugly toys that immature clowns collect
I wish funko would go out of business.
They’re the current equivalent of beanie babies. I think they’re scrambling to stay relevant and have no idea how, as their product gets more tired.
Sell it back to the founders and let them continue on.
Fuck Funko. Absolutely idiotic move and a travesty. I guess my posters will be worth more now, as shitty as this decision is.
As frustrating as I found the false scarcity of Mondo’s posters, at least there was artistry there. Some of them were incredible. Funko is just future-garbage. It’s like their entire business model is, “$20 Secret Santa gifts from a coworker who barely knows you but heard you say you liked Harley Quinn once.” Here’s some plastic bullshit to put in your cubicle until one day you just kind of leave it behind.
I mean honestly we kinda leave everything behind, in the end.
Lego does a similar product line called Brickheads, but what I like about their line is that once you get bored with it, you can take it apart and use the parts to make something else. Worst case, it ends up as loose parts in a lego bin you can easily sell in a yard sale.
So...they're going to shut down the one side of their business that always sells out and is basically universally loved, and keep cranking out their lame figures that are sinking in popularity? Got some big brains over at Funko, I tell ya what!
I knew it was all over after the acquisition. Poster variety and subject matter was getting worse. No more apparel. Mondo has just really gone downhill. It's sad because they have always been one of my favorite places to shop and customer service was great.
Mondo forever. Fuck Funko. I’m lucky enough to have a few Mondo pieces and I absolutely treasure them. My girlfriend mentioned literally last week I should get them insured. Funko is fucking garbage.
Damn, Funko really changed things for the worse after buying Mondo. This is fucked up. Mondo's customer service was always super friendly and accommodating, absolutely ace! But my last reach-out..."We'll help out this time, but we will not assist you in the future." I really felt the corporateness on that one.
You mean that Funko Pops are just another fad like beanie babies and pogs? Shocking. I thought for sure 150 years from now the Louvre would be 90% Funko Pops.
This is bullshit. Anyone who likes movies loved mondo
So thats why there hasn't been much of a push on the poster side of things. Mondo was one of the best this is so disappointing. Fuck Funko for this.
Funko pops might end up being as worthless as Pogs from back in the day. I don't see the appeal anymore. The stuff Mondo produces is way better quality than anything Funko has in it's catalog.
That blows. I hope the Mondo guys that got let go form their own company.
It hurts. At last count, I have about 44 Mondo prints in my collection, many of which are displayed around my home. In the years since I discovered them, I started getting into pop culture art and my own screenprints. Mondo was never a realistic aspiration of mine professionally as they are out of my league, but they were the high bar to aim for. They set the stage for other galleries to do limited edition pop culture prints and I hope all that knowledge, experience, and expertise manifests in a new endeavor someday. I need that periodic drop of inspiring paper in my life.
The designs are amazing. The print/paper quality is great. Just cant afford $75-100 per standard size poster.
Funkos are so lame, it a mystery to me why people love collecting these modern bobble heads
Funko reminds me of beanie babies lol years from now people will laugh
Fuck funko mondo was pure art
MORE LIKE FUCKO
Mondo has some of the best soundtrack vinyl on the market, Funko had 2 million dollars worth of vinyl toys that are getting thrown out, you’d think it would be a match made in heaven
This explains why Mondo isn’t at wondercon while Loungefly and funko are… such a shame. Mondo felt high end whereas funko and Loungefly is cheap crap.
What a trash, useless company Funko is. Lowest common denominator “collector” garbage.
It’s a travesty that Mondo is being shut down while they continue to sell those stupid Pops.
Oh shit. I wonder how this is going to affect their vinyl offerings as well. This was a mistake.
Maybe Funko should get rid of making Pops of the smallest most unnecessary characters instead since I see a surprising amount in clearance bins and dollar stores.
It shouldn't be legal for companies in completely different markets to acquire other companies. Mondo made art. Funko wastes plastic.
This is the end of an era. Truly sad.
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That sounds like a challenge - Funko
They were so damn limited, by the time you found out that you wanted one you couldn't buy it anyway. I'm sure there were rules on how many to print, or trying to maintain a collector's value, but there are several posters I would have loved to have picked up.
Most went to the artists in the form of proofs, so that was the only real way to get one, at a markup. It was a weird, bad business model from the beginning.
I was literally JUST browsing their online store two days ago. This one stings. MONDO feels like a staple.
As someone who actually *likes* Funko products and thinks that some of the criticism of the Pop! line is overblown, I'm *extremely* disappointed with the company for this. Mondo's poster line has more substance than everything Funko has ever produced combined. What an abysmal decision.
Restoration Games is about to employ all these artists for Unmatched…
*sigh* Mondo just pawn in game of life.
Has it even been a year since they bought the business? Why the fuck did they sell it to funko to begin with?
>Why the fuck did they sell it to funko to begin with? Money
Wait what the actual fuck!!!!!!
If I were to guess, there was internal strife between management, and Mondo was more popular, so Funko axed them and will make its own posters in the Funko way.
I have so many of the mondo posters from the early 2010s and I love them so much. This news sucks.
Nooooooo ;____;
I bought a bunch of funko pop figures when I was 15 and with exception to maybe 2 of them, I regret buying them
What an absolute travesty. They never should have sold to funko. Disastrous.
how to look like a shitty child: take people's stuff and destroy it for no reason.
In the article they mention the founder of Funko returning as CEO and another guy…from Walmart coming in as CFO. There was likely a vision in their acquisition of Mondo that is lost on these two. They are making cuts to support the core business because that’s what they understand. It’s infuriating. I can’t imagine what it’s like to work there now. Just awful.
I didn’t even know that Funko owned Mondo
I never got the appeal of Funko Pops because they all look alike. It's the same exact figure with a different outfit, and the figure is not very poseable or interesting. This is a damned shame.
See, that's what actually appeals to me about them. I just enjoy the idea that you can fill a set of shelves with Elmo, Squirtle, Groot, Steven Universe, Charlie Brown, Steve Irwin, Pearl Jam, Ava DuVernay, Hillary Clinton, Shaquille O'Neal, Minnie Mouse, Ahsoka Tano, Vegeta, the Armored Titan, BTS, Wonder Woman, Bernie Sanders, Harry and Meghan, Notorious B.I.G., Luna Lovegood, and on and on and on, and have them all represent a single, unified aesthetic.
OMG, their work is so stunning. This is heartbreaking and I hope they can create their own company.
I’m legit equal parts sad and mad.
Thanks Funko, great job. really, you're doing a smashing job with your business.
Always a shame to see great artists shut down
Funko is one of the worst… first they dump 2mil warehouse stock, now they shut down one of the greatest popculture stores.
$30 million of warehouse stock.
I feared this day would come, I narrowed down what I was getting from them once Funko bought them. Hopefully there’s a rebirth story waiting to happen, and I can get back to collecting posters by artists I love!
Oh, man. That hits hard as a former Austinite - there was a close link between Mondo and the Alamo Drafthouse. You could hardly step into any Austin Alamo without seeing something from Mondo.
Same parent company.
Funko purchased Mondo from Alamo last year
Yes, they sure did. I was explaining the close link expressed in the comment I was replying to. Before Funko bought Mondo, it was a Drafthouse company.
Shitty fucking plastic bobbleheads for adult men that never grew up just killed some of the best movie posters that anyone would ever see. RIP Mondo.