Funko Mondo CEO’s statement is optimistic but very wrong

Days after several core members behind Mondo’s success funko were firedfunco CEO issued a statement explaining what’s next. And it’s not great.

“Mondo’s poster business will continue, period,” CEO Brian Mariotti. This is stated in a message circulated on social networks.. “We believe that the release of extremely limited edition posters, most of which do not exceed 150 copies, unfairly limits the access of fans. Many of these posters are bought for the sole purpose of selling them at a much higher price to fans who really need them. The posters are created by some of the finest artists working today. Our goal is to increase circulation (limited, but not overlimited) to allow more fans to take part in this world-famous pop culture art expression. We also believe expanding the reach of pop culture to include TV, sports, anime and music will create an incredible appetite for Mondo fans and pop culture fans alike.”

This is only part of the statement, which you can read in full below.

Obviously, there’s a lot to discuss here, and the main takeaway is that Mariotti seems to be not only missing the point of Mondo entirely, but lying about it. First, the limited edition posters made them look cool. Low supply equals high demand. Yes, it sometimes led For unscrupulous and greedy secondary market, but the same can be said for the limited edition Pops released by Funko. You have a massPops market and then super-limited. Guess which ones fans want more?

Also, the Mondo posters were very Very rarely in runs of 150 or less. Was of course some, but they were is almost always set to this number for a very specific reason, such as the property or performer has not yet been proven. To say “most” Mondo posters less than 150 is just outrageous not trueeven if you go back to its earliest days. “Some”, maybe. “Majority?” No. Really under Funko Mondo started doing more time-limited releases, allowing however many fans they wanted to buy the poster for a set time.

Increasing the circulation of posters also leads to very important quality issues. This is another reason Mondo’s mileage is usually less than traditional poster: bBecause every screenprinted by hand. The screen printing industry is already overwhelmed with limited edition posters. If Mondo wants to increase circulation on them, you can imagine what it is or you have to create your own own screen printing business or go back to a different print quality that the fans don’t want. Higher output will result in lower quality.

However, there is one very, very true statement here: “The posters are made by some of the most amazing artists working today.” That’s for sure. But Mariotti doesn’t dive into the fact that many of these artists were raised and nurtured by the same people who were fired from the company. Plus a few of them io9 first reportedthey said would not work for the company again without these employees.

That there will be a big investment in the vinyl side, that’s cool. And more flexibility about working with “dream licenses that Mondo wanted to work with for a long time but couldn’t due to financial constraints before we acquired them” sounds good. But Mondo is already worked with Star wars, Ghostbusters, Back to the future, Jurassic parkStudio Ghibli, DC, Marvel… what else could it be?

All in all, it’s not a strong, reassuring statement as Funko thinks. If anything, it shows a misunderstanding of what Mondo originally stood for.

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