Funko

After years of flooding retail shelves with Pop! figures for literally any licensable property, Funko hit a reckoning around 2023 with inventory write-downs, workforce cuts, and leadership changes that forced the company to admit its distribution model had outrun actual demand. Its push into smaller, cheaper lines like Bitty Pop and continued licensing sprawl across every fandom imaginable shows a company still betting on volume even as it publicly talks about discipline.

Our take is that Funko's core problem was never the product, it was treating every license as equally worth a figure, which diluted the thing that made Pop! collectible in the first place — scarcity and curation. What we're watching is whether Funko can actually hold the line on more limited runs and exclusives long enough to rebuild secondary-market value, because the brand's survival depends on collectors believing a Pop! is worth hunting for again, not just buying on sight.