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Last week, it was reported that Mondo, the high-end collectibles company known for their poster and vinyl record releases, was undergoing some restructuring, with co-founders Mitch Putnam and Rob Jones and senior creative director Eric Garza getting laid off. This resulted from Funko, who purchased Mondo last June, reporting a net decrease for 2022, confirming that they’d be cutting 10% of jobs company-wide.
While some believed the layoffs at Mondo would lead to a complete shutdown of their poster division, Funko was quick to state that “the poster business will continue,” with CEO of Funko Brian Mariotti releasing a public statement earlier today, promising fans broader and larger edition runs as part of a much different business strategy.
“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.”
While giving more fans a chance to grab limited-edition posters and avoid paying markups through a third party seems commendable, the statement leaves little merit, especially when criticizing Mondo’s previous business strategy of “extremely limited runs.” After all, this is Funko, the company known for pushing limited edition POPs! and other collectibles that have had limited fan access for years, with availability often depending on location or retail/convention exclusivity.
There’s also a question of quality, as Mondo’s previous releases were screen-printed by hand, favoring the lower production numbers. Fans knew they’d be getting a cool, limited print that they’d be more than happy with. Funko’s need for “larger edition size runs” had led many to worry that future releases will see a dip in quality and possibly, much like POP! vinyl figures, will lead to oversaturation.
Oh, and then the most critical aspect of the posters, the artists, with some of those who previously worked with Mondo, publically denouncing Funko after the most recent round of layoffs, with today’s press release, providing the company no favors.
As a Mondo artist since 2011, I’ll NOT be working with this corporate reanimated fake versions of Mondo. I’d rather work totally for free with the original founders.
— Craig Drake (@CraigDrakeArt) March 30, 2023
👎
— Mike Mitchell (@sirmitchell) March 30, 2023
…with what artists??
— Lyndon Willoughby (@Willowstration) March 30, 2023
You can find the complete statement, which also provides a seemingly positive update on the expected growth of their vinyl record and collectibles divisions, below:
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