Mike86

Kind of a weird fit. Mondo is more of a limited artsy company whereas Funko mass produces a bunch of stuff. I haven’t bought anything from Mondo in quite a long time. I have some prints that I need to eventually frame and get hung up.

Red Hood

Alamo still had a lot of issues running Mondo, from customers using bots to buy limited edition items to a high overhead in production cost. Funko buying Mondo gives the division/company a boutique label while being able to produce things with lower costs of licensing due to already having relationships with Marvel, movie studios and production companies. The only thing they need to tie up would be a relationship with the artists themselves who create all the artwork for their products.

Why So Blu?

As long as the high quality is kept in place it should be a good fit. At least now more folks will possibly have a better chance at actually acquiring something without it selling out in 30 seconds.

Neil M.

Biggest improvement they could make is to keep variants limited and make all regular prints timed editions.

Mike86

That would be a good idea. The way most Mondo prints are sold now is such a pain in the ass. You have to be lucky enough to snag one. Doing a limited variant release would still be a way to keep that aspect but make it less frustrating for those who just want the print.

Noonan

RIP Mondo posters. Funko just laid off most of the Mondo staff. Poster division killed.

Josh-da-man

https://variety.com/2022/biz/news/fu...se-1235290645/

From last year, right after the purchase...

candyrocket786

With all the other arthouses producing prints/numerous variants and the various G-14 Classified groups making their unlicensed versions....it was only a matter of time.

The Spectre

I knew this was going to happen. Public companies that mass market their product dont give a crap about boutique labels. Once Funko said they had to destroy over $30M in inventory I knew layoff and cuts to Mondo were going to come

Mike86

My guess is that Funko will still produce posters under the Mondo name but they’ll probably be way more mass produced.

The Spectre

The problem is that artists aren’t going to work for this new version of Mondo. Many of them have gone to social media and express their disappointment about the news and publicly say that they won’t work with a Funko team that fired the founders of Mondo, who were the heart of the company

Dan

they’ve already kind of been doing this. Much like other companies, they just put up a preorder now and will print however many are needed instead of printinga set amount before they even announce them. Less risky to fund production with preorders. Sites like ism8bit were notorious for taking months longer than advertised to finally ship their stuff. I stopped supporting Limited Run Games for the same reason. Who wants to wait for a ‘special’ higher priced physical copy of a game ten months after everyone else has finished playing it… makes no sense
/rant

nando820

Sucks but those posters were priceyyy

John Galt

This sucks to hear. They really hadn't been releasing posters as frequently as they had in the past, so I'm sure the writing was on the wall for those guys.

I wonder what type of Non Compete clause they had to sign during the buyout or as part of their severance agreements? They already have the contacts and support of the artists; it wouldn't take much at all for them to start up a new company to start producing posters again.

candyrocket786

..
And how would it be any different from the companies already out there like GMA, Bottleneck, Hero Complex, Vice and others?

I don't believe all of these artists were exclusive to Mondo either.

Draven

The Mondo founders should 100% just go start a new poster company and work with their existing artists. There cannot be a lot of overhead for that kind of business.

stingermck

Wooof. I wonder if the toy division is next. Im currently collecting their He-Man 1/6 line.

Geofferson

Mondo wasn't what it used to be for a while but will still be sad to see it go. I followed them quite extensively in the early days and attended a couple of their events at their Austin gallery. Am sure folks will land on their feet but will be interesting to see what happens to the limited edition movie poster industry.

Why So Blu?

It was easier to snag some of their Mondo vinyl releases than the posters. Granted, Waxworks is an even better vinyl label than Mondo ever was.

devilshalo

I always got pissed at their tiki mug "variant" repaints.

fujishig

Update and it's exactly this.

They want to produce more, which sounds great until you hear this:

Josh-da-man

How would people feel about Funko-Mondo doing limited run silk-screened prints, say in the 150-500 numbered 24" x 36" pieces, and then issuing unlimited runs of the same posters printed as regular posters, at 12" x 18" or 18" x 27" either simultaneously or at a later date.

Artman

I'd be for limited initial runs followed by timed editions. Looking at my Mondo account, I've managed to snag five posters over the last three yrs - but that's only because I've been working from home lol. I first started collecting about 5-6yrs ago and I told myself I wasn't going to get into 24" x 36" and then that size just exploded...and now I'm ordering a second Baroque...

Why So Blu?

Full on pivot to vinyl.