The Mondo space at SDCC 2022 | Source: Madeleine Buckley, The Toy Book/The Pop Insider
While Funko’s clowning around at WonderCon in Anaheim, California this weekend for its Fun House activation, staffers in the company’s Mondo division aren’t laughing.
Confirming industry rumblings of recent days, The Wrap broke the news yesterday that the company has laid off a significant portion of staff from Mondo, the maker of collectible movie poster prints, vinyl records, and higher-end action figures. Mondo Co-founders Mitch Putnam and Rob Jones got the axe alongside Creative Director Eric Garza.
Funko acquired Mondo from the Alamo Drafthouse last summer, at which time the Mondo team released the following statement, previously reported on by The Toy Book:
“We have always loved following our passions and doing things our own way, and we’ll be forever thankful to the Alamo Drafthouse for supporting those passions and helping us grow into what we are today. But we needed a bigger boat… and that’s where Funko comes in. They understand what Mondo is today and are eager to help us become the company we want to be.
From the outside, Mondo might seem like it is changing… but on the inside much is staying the same. We remain the same team, and our goals remain unchanged. We are still the same bunch of weirdos who share an undying obsession with popular (and maybe less popular) culture, and a craving to make cool stuff with the best artists in the world.”
— Mondo, June 13, 2022
While initial reports indicated that Funko intended to scale back or even halt Mondo’s poster business, sources tell The Toy Book that the poster business will continue.
In an interview with our sister publication, The Pop Insider, at Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC) last summer, Mondo Director of Marketing Brandon Wainerdi expressed excitement for the Funko acquisition and the possibilities that it might bring.
“It really is just an incredible time for the company. And we’re really excited for fans to see, what we still have got going. Because we are the same team,” he said. “The entire team came over, and so it’s just us still doing what we love to do and hoping that people love what we do still.”
Last fall, Jeff Pinsker, a fixture in the specialty toy and game space, returned to University Games following a stint as President at Mondo where he led the company through its sale to Funko.
At its Investor Day presentation in New York City last September, Funko leaned into its successes and plans for future growth, stating that the company was on track to hit $2 billion in sales by 2026. During that presentation, the company mentioned that it had three additional acquisitions on the horizon that have not yet been revealed. Sources tell The Toy Book that at least one (if not all) of those deals has closed and that some additional news is looming in the near future. Given Funko’s recent, and shockingly erratic, chain of events — including a tumultuous Q3 last year, a leadership shuffle in November, and massive organizational, leadership, and logistics woes that led to losses and layoffs despite consumer demand and a write-down of more than $30 million in unsold product — nothing should be considered “official” until it’s formally announced.
At press time, at least two of Funko’s other divisions that were formed via acquisitions appear to be sailing right along, including Funko Games and Loungefly, both of which are featured in The Toy Book’s 2023 State of the Industry Q&A series that appears in The BIG Toy Book, available now.
Last spring, The Chernin Group (TCG) made a $263 million strategic investment in Funko in a secondary transaction. Under the deal, TCG and its investor consortium — including Disney Chairman and CEO Robert A. Iger, Rich Paul (CEO and founder of Klutch Sports Group, Head of Sports at United Talent Agency), and eBay — took a 25% ownership stake in the company. TCG has found success with other companies in the pop culture space, including Exploding Kittens and Crunchyroll. TCG’s investment was made by purchasing 80% of ACON Investments’ shares in Funko.
We have reached out to Funko for official comment and will update this story should they respond.
