Funko Releases Statement on The Future of Mondo, Says The Poster Business Will Live On
Last week it was reported that Funko has laid off several employees at Mondo and shut down its poster business. Some of the people who were laid off included Mondo co-founders Mitch Putnam and Rob Jones, as well as Mondo senior creative director Eric Garza.
It was reported that “They killed the poster division, which is a shock considering that’s how Mondo started, along with a division meant for cutting-edge experiences and products called The Lab, which was run by Mondo co-founder Rob Jones, who was also laid off during the process. Mitch Putnam, another co-founder, also got the axe. As of now, the only two divisions of the company that remain are the toys and records divisions. But insiders tell TheWrap it’s unclear how long those divisions will remain as part of the Funko portfolio.”
Well, Funko has now released a statement addressing the future of Mondo saying the poster business will continue. The statement reads:
Funko has been obsessed with Mondo and the amazing products that they produce for years. We believe Mondo is a pop-culture tastemaker and always has their finger on the pulse of everything that is cool.
Since there is a lot of misinformation about the recent change in leadership and the poster division of Mondo currently out there, I can tell you that our strategy is very clear.
While we did reduce our overall workforce by about 10% across Funko, the majority of the company-wide layoffs weren’t in Mondo.
The Mondo posters business will continue, period. We feel that making extremely limited runs of posters, most of which are 150 pieces or under, limits access to fans unfairly. Many of these posters are bought with the sole purpose of flipping them at a much higher cost to fans that really want them. The posters are created by some of the most amazing artists working today. Our goal is to make larger edition size runs (limited but not ultra-limited) that allow more fans to participate in this world-class expression of pop culture art. We also believe that broadening the pop-culture scope to include TV properties, sports, anime, and music will have an amazing appetite from Mondo fans and pop-culture fans alike.
Funko will be investing heavily in the production of vinyl records in the near future, allowing Mondo to deliver records to more fans. We currently have plans to build an almost 70,000-square-foot record pressing factory meets record store of the future meets live music event space in San Diego. The space will have a 4,000-square-foot dedicated Mondo art gallery as part of the vision.
Funko is also going to great lengths to invest heavily in some of the most amazing licenses around to build out the portfolio of pop culture for Mondo’s high-end collectibles division. These are dream licenses that Mondo has wanted to work with for a long time but was unable to due to financial restrictions before we acquired them.
We are 100% committed to providing all the support we possibly can for the folks at Mondo, so they can continue to make amazing products that reach a larger and more diverse Fanbase through expanded licenses, better distribution, and a better overall experience for their fans.
Brian Mariotti
The Mondo co-founders were the heart of Mondo and it’s still sad that they will not be steering the ship anymore. But, Funko is looking to expand the band and make it bigger, making it so everyone will get a chance to own these cool collectibles. I personally kind of liked the exclusivity of the posters with the limited runs. I never flipped any of the posters I bought, but I also do like that they are super limited and worth more than what they were when I bought them.
But, cool art is cool art, and if they continue to bring in great artists to deliver cool art, the fans will keep buying it. What are your thoughts on Funko’s big plans for Mondo?