1 History of Funko

History of Funko

It all started with a group of collectors and an idea that began with a large company that created a community of collectors. It began with the founding founder of Funko, Mike Beaker, who became friends with Rob Schwartz, one of the founding artists of Funko. Rob introduced Mike to the world of collecting. The Pop-Cultural items grew interested with both Mike and Rob collecting all different types of unique items. It was a fun hobby for them, and out of that, the Pop-Cultural item collection grew. They would go to yard sales or exchange meetings. There they would meet many other people, and this is how they met the second Funko founding artist: Sean Wilkinson, the third important member. Their collecting of fun

Funko Wacky Wobbler Freddy Funko items eventually led them to the business ideas. Among the numerous ideas, the bobblehead collection stood out, and the birth of Funko was created. The company was initially called “Brain Works” (Fun), but Mike wanted to include fun into the name. The importance of having Funko into the company was based on the idea of their Hobbies of collecting fun things. Fun Company came to mind, and then with the combination of Fun Company, the Funko brand was born. Rob Schwartz was an interior designer who created the sculpting of a bobblehead named “Computer Bob.” (Fun). Mike started his journey to find a vendor to buy or develop their bobbleheads, and he went to Sparky and other places. Mike, at the time, was determined to get a Big Boy bobblehead. Burbank, California, became the birth of the Big Boy Bobblehead, which started it all. Funko began in 1998 in Snohomish, Washington, After the successful release of the Big Boy bobblehead. The business began to rise in popularity, having big sales off Big Boy.

The Raise of Funko

After the success of Big Boy, the company began receiving offers to do bobblehead’s for characters like Betty Pop and many more. This started the era of Wacky Wobblers. Out of all the Wacky Wobblers created, the most successful one was with Austin Powers, which gained more recognition for the wobblers. With significant popularity from their products, Mike wanted to have a mascot for the company. He created a mascot that resembled himself and his favorite cartoon characters Squirt Boy and Big Boy, which led to Freddy Funko.

Every Wacky Wobbler that was announced was very special for the fans. Funko would host these special events called Funko Fundays. It would be a special event where they would reveal or giveaway bobbleheads. Most of the Fundays were chosen for lucky fans that would have special shows from the founder and creators of Funko. Fans received limited-edition event-only merch, i.e., Cereal and Wacky Wobblers. Funko contains many rights to different varieties of characters. Working with many characters, Mike

Box of Fun 2021 Fundays Mariotti & Becker 2-Pack

decided to create a character for the company. The original mascot was Freddy Funko, but they also made other characters, such as Diablo. Funko’s success was increasingly growing. Public media increased the growth of the company, and Wacky Wobblers began to appear in many magazines. The company that was functioning in a garage was now becoming very popular.

The Passing of the Crown

July 16, 2004, The third Funday Mike passed the “crown” to a friend. Mike had been running the Funko business for seven years. He was past the five-year plan that he had initially wanted to invest in the company. He had decided that if the company were no longer fun, he would retire. On Funday Three, while doing another event for the fans of Funko, Mike announced his retirement from the company Funko. However, he passed the crown to another collector and friend who is still the CEO of Funko. Mike decided to give the company to Brian Mariotti because he believed in him; he knew that Brain was a collector and had a passion for the company.

The New Era

The new era of Funko began, Brian Mariotti was having a difficult time running the company. Brain experimented with many different collectibles from 2005 through 2007, but most projects did not work. Even though he was living a dream of working for a collectible company, it was hard to find something new that would capture more attention than the Wacky Wobblers. The goals were big for Brain’s vision; even though he was not very experienced with running a business, he believed that his passion for collecting toys and love for Funko would help run the business. Brains thought that he needed to get licenses from a large-scale company like Star Wars. Then, in 2010, things changed with the creation of Funko Pops.