Funko Pop! Planning to Send $30 Million of Merch to the Dump
Toy brand, Funko Pop, announced this week that they will be dumping nearly thirty million dollars’ worth of inventory into landfills this year. That’s right folks, these collectable dolls are finding their new home in the dump. Instead of giving them to kids in hospitals or children in poverty, Funko Pop decided to take the bold route on this one, and it’s a decision that has left fans of the figures very confused.
The decision was made after Funko announced that there was a combination of waning demand for the toys and a surplus of inventory. The company had to rent a warehouse to fit the excess figures that weren’t being sold on shelves. At the end of 2022 alone, the company had an inventory worth nearly $264 million dollars stashed away. The company decided to dispose of the overloaded inventory, beginning with older figures that are lacking in value.
Funko Pop started their journey in 1998 as an attempt to create nostalgic toys, beginning with a variety of bobble heads. However, it wasn’t until 2010 that the modern Funko Pop figures made their first appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con. The four figures displayed at the time included two Batman figures with one being metallic and the other nonmetallic, a Batgirl figure, along with a Green Lantern figure. The figures were an instant hit among collectors. The figures made their shelf debut in 2010, and quickly rose to fame.
The collectable figures were featured in nearly every department store in the country and in the Philadelphia region. As of 2023, there are over 8,300 different designs of Funko Pop figures, from Superheroes to historical figures, the options are vast when it comes to picking your dream Funko Pop. There are rare Funko Pops that are worth tens of thousands of dollars, and then there are the average Funko Pops that are more easily found in stores and online.
Hold on to your Pearl Jam, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Metallica, and RUSH dolls tight! Who knows the fate of those special little figures.
Collectors and spectators are all wondering the same thing; why throw them away? Give them to people who genuinely want them. Think about it, wouldn’t you rather give the figures to collectors rather than them rummaging through a landfill to find an Iron Man Funko Pop from 2013? That makes more sense to us, but then again, we don’t have nearly $270 million dollars’ worth of Funko Pops in a warehouse.
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