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Mike Becker and the figure he couldn’t buy
He was looking for one mascot he just couldn’t get. He ended up getting the whole world to collect pop culture, inch by inch.
Mike Becker was a T-shirt designer and a passionate collector. One day he was hunting for a figure of the Big Boy restaurant mascot — and couldn’t find one anywhere at a reasonable price. Instead of paying a fortune, he decided to make his own. In 1998 he founded Funko in Snohomish, Washington — literally in his own house. The very first figure was that Big Boy: made by hand, in small batches, pure passion. “I thought: there must be a thousand other crazies like me,” Becker recalled. He was right. Today those “crazies” number in the millions.
Austin Powers changed everything
The breakthrough came when Funko landed the licence for Austin Powers bobbleheads. Becker had to put down a 5,000-dollar guarantee — a huge sum for a tiny garage business. The gamble paid off: he shipped 100,000 units from his own driveway. “A truck driver called me and said to have a pallet jack ready. I asked — what’s a pallet jack?” he said. Funko was in the game for good.
The birth of POP!
In 2005 Becker sold the company to Brian Mariotti, who had a vision for a completely new figure design. In 2010, at San Diego Comic Con, he unveiled the prototype — a flattened head, huge eyes, a minimalist face. The original name: Funko Force 2.0. Hardcore collectors were sceptical. The market said otherwise — and POP! became a global phenomenon.
He was looking for one figure he couldn’t buy. He ended up creating more than a thousand.
How to spot an original
The main series
Worth knowing
The most expensive figure ever — the 2016 Willy Wonka set — sold for 210,000 dollars; only 10 were made, hidden in Funko chocolate bars, just like in the film. The 2012 Clockwork Orange series was supposed to be destroyed at the licence holder’s request — the CEO saved just 24 pieces and signed them himself; one later sold for 60,000 dollars. And collectors keep up an eternal debate: in-box or out-of-box? The box protects the value, but an unboxed figure looks better on the shelf.
The whole Funko collection is waiting for you here — pop culture in vinyl.
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