Collectible king Mondo’s founders laid off a year after Funko acquisition

Funko has minimize about half the workers — together with the co-founders — of Mondo, the Austin, Texas-based collectible firm that Funko acquired lower than a 12 months in the past, in line with two studies and extra sources.

The layoffs spell an finish to a close to two-decade run for founders Rob Jones and Mitch Putnam, whose firm was greatest recognized for various film posters, vinyl music albums, and different collectibles tapping some of popular culture’s deepest fandoms. The Wrap and Gizmodo each reported the layoffs Friday afternoon; sources near the matter confirmed particulars of each studies to Polygon.

Mondo was based in 2004 as a t-shirt making subsidiary of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain. It grew to become recognized for its stylized reimaginings of film posters, starting with the screenings of a number of classics on the Alamo Drafthouse. A decade later, licensing agreements with Lucasfilm and Disney helped put Mondo foremost amongst poster-makers; quite a few prime artists got here alongside to work with Mondo.

A lot of these artists have been outraged by the unceremonious termination of Mondo’s management, and vowed to not work with no matter stays for Funko.

The Wrap reported that Funko “killed the poster division” of Mondo, forsaking its toy and vinyl document divisions. And people two may nonetheless be in jeopardy, The Wrap mentioned.

At the start of the month, Funko reported steep losses in its quarterly report back to buyers. That included writing off about $30 million (retail worth) value of big-head collectible figurines it couldn’t promote and sending them to the dump.