Funko Merch Getting the "Atari E.T." Treatment

[Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast]

www.ign.com/articles/funko-is-sending-30-million-worth-of-its-products-to-a-landfill

Funko, the toy and collectible manufacturer best known for its Funko Pop Vinyls line, is sending at least $30 million worth of its products to a landfill.

As reported by Kotaku, Funko revealed during an earnings call that it has so much idle stock sitting in warehouses that, financially, its best option is to throw $30 to $36 million worth in the garbage.

"Inventory at year-end totalled $246.4 million, an increase of 48% compared to a year ago," Funko said "This includes inventory that the Company intends to eliminate in the first half of 2023 to reduce fulfilment costs by managing inventory levels to align with the operating capacity of our distribution centre. This is expected to result in a write down in the first half of 2023 of approximately $30 to $36 million."

[Mozenrath]

Wasteful, literally, but not unsurprising. I'm sure plenty of people are still buying Funko Pops, but they add up in warehouse space, and I think Funko probably overreached in terms of how many series it tried to do, plus how many variants they put out. Collectors themselves only have so much space, after all.

[chrom]

Why not donate them to charity?

[Push R Truth]

"plastic collectors items" that are so numerous and un-valued that they are being destroyed en masse thus making them less common and raising their collectors value is an ouroboros of capitalist bullshit

[Vice honcho room temperature]

I would love a run down of what series and characters are most being thrown away

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Mar 4, 2023 19:45:46 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Wasteful, literally, but not unsurprising. I'm sure plenty of people are still buying Funko Pops, but they add up in warehouse space, and I think Funko probably overreached in terms of how many series it tried to do, plus how many variants they put out. Collectors themselves only have so much space, after all.

A Funko for every got-dang thing, constant variants, and releasing wave after wave after wave of licenses. That's not a good recipe for success, I mean, 90s comic books I'm looking in your direction.

It's best to wait and pick up Funkos at clearance from places like Gamestop, unless it's a Funko you've got to have like the Jackie Robinson sliding into home from Wal Mart.

[Mozenrath]

Mar 4, 2023 19:52:31 GMT -5 chrom said:

Why not donate them to charity?

I am sure they might be to an extent, but they're not really "toys", exactly, so they're probably not really suited for that purpose. Kids love them, I am sure, but you can't really play with them.

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

So the Funko bubble is bursting or they'll just start producing them in smaller numbers to artificially inflate value?

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Mar 4, 2023 20:17:38 GMT -5 Jedi-El of Tomorrow said:

Mar 4, 2023 19:45:46 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Wasteful, literally, but not unsurprising. I'm sure plenty of people are still buying Funko Pops, but they add up in warehouse space, and I think Funko probably overreached in terms of how many series it tried to do, plus how many variants they put out. Collectors themselves only have so much space, after all.

A Funko for every got-dang thing, constant variants, and releasing wave after wave after wave of licenses. That's not a good recipe for success, I mean, 90s comic books I'm looking in your direction.

It's best to wait and pick up Funkos at clearance from places like Gamestop, unless it's a Funko you've got to have like the Jackie Robinson sliding into home from Wal Mart.

I mean only at some point one can only buy so many 10 dollar pieces of plastics. The big problem is when you license everything in order to hit on the few things you are gonna have a run when you don't hit on any or only a few

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Mar 4, 2023 20:12:50 GMT -5 Vice honcho room temperature said:

I would love a run down of what series and characters are most being thrown away

... then buy up as many of the remaining Funkos of those characters, wait 20 years, then try to sell them at HUGE profits?

I like your style.

[Big DSR Energy]

A couple years back I worked at a DVD/CD store that also sold Funko Pops. Well, they housed Funko Pops, but didn't actually SELL all that many. I think I bought a couple. So this comes as no surprise.

[tirtefaa]

Funko has done some great work, but it seems over reliant on their Pops. I mean, that will have it's audience no matter what, but I think over time it's going to be a lot like Beanie Babies, where only a select niche group of fans collect.

It's too bad they gave up on things like their Disney Afternoon figures since those were very cool.



Would have been cool to see the Beagle Boys, Monterey Jack, Kit, Don Carnage, Wildcat, the Fearsome Five, even the Goof Troop characters.

They made Huey, Dewey and Louie as well, but they were pretty bland, and just color swaps.

[The Unconquered Sun]

Would it be in bad taste if I got a Whitney Houston one and put it in the bath tub?

[ayumidah]

Friends and I were talking pre-pandemic about how we were just waiting for them to start filling Dollar Tree shelves with unwanted funkos, heh. So yeah, not really surprising.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

If you shoot wildly at every target you're going to miss most of them. Funko license everything, including things there's no audience for so this was inevitable. That, combined with never ending variants made completionism near impossible so they burned out the collector side of things, and the majority of casual buyers will only ever want one if the things for the novelty, as the base design isn't that appealing.

They made these things completely unrecyclable, multicoloured painted plastic with a metal spring and overproduced them to a stupid degree, their inevitable bankruptcy can't come soon enough.

[Deleted]

Mar 4, 2023 20:12:50 GMT -5 Vice honcho room temperature said:

I would love a run down of what series and characters are most being thrown away

Stuff that made you go "wait, they got a Funko Pop?" like Son of Zorn.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Not at all shocked because tons of stores just seem to always have an endless array of them that they never, ever sell.

Personally never seen the appeal anyway, find the art style offputting and think similar concepts from other brands usually look better, but they did definitely have a market... right up until they badly oversaturated it by putting out everything they possibly can. Like at the point where you're doing, say, the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka you're just printing this shit because you can get the license.

[Finish Uncle Muffin’s Story]

I feel like we'll be here in a few years talking about how the value tanked on 90% of Funkos. I wouldn't be shocked if they're no longer a thing by 2025-2026.

[chrom]

They made Funko's out of anything.

Who would want one of Horsea?

[Lizuka #BLM]

Mar 6, 2023 11:45:11 GMT -5 chrom said:

They made Funko's out of anything.

Who would want one of Horsea?

I feel like this thing would eat me.