Mike Becker and the figure he couldn’t buy
He was looking for one mascot he couldn’t get his hands on. He ended up with the whole world collecting pop culture centimetre by centimetre.
Mike Becker was a T-shirt designer and an avid collector. One day he was looking for a figure of the Big Boy restaurant-chain mascot — and couldn’t get it anywhere at a reasonable price. Instead of paying a fortune, he decided to produce his own. In 1998 he founded Funko in Snohomish, Washington — literally in his own home. The first figure was that very Big Boy: handmade, small scale, pure passion. “I thought to myself: there must be a thousand other nutcases like me,” Becker recalled. He wasn’t wrong. Today those “nutcases” 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 garage outfit. The risk paid off: from his driveway he shipped 100,000 units. “A truck driver would call me and tell me to have a pallet jack ready. I asked — what’s a pallet jack?” he recounted. Funko was in the game for good.
The birth of POP!
In 2005 Becker sold the company to Brian Mariotti, who had a vision of an entirely new figure design. In 2010, at San Diego Comic Con, he presented the prototype — a flattened head, big 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 over a thousand.
How to spot an original
The main series
Worth knowing
The most expensive figure in history — a Willy Wonka set from 2016 — sold for 210,000 dollars; only 10 were made, hidden in Funko chocolate bars, literally like in the film. The Clockwork Orange series from 2012 was to be destroyed at the licence holder’s request — the CEO saved only 24 pieces, signing them personally; one later went for 60,000 dollars. And among collectors an eternal debate rages: in-box or out-of-box? The box protects the value, the figure out of it looks better on the shelf.
The whole Funko POP! collection is waiting here — pop culture in vinyl.
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