Australian retailers appear unfazed by financial hardship at US toy giant Funko, which faces “substantial doubt” about its ability to stay in business.
Funko is the company behind Pop! figurines, a range of vinyl models available at toy and gaming stores across the globe.
Those block-headed collectibles became a craze in the mid-2010s, as fans of Star Wars, TV shows like Stranger Things, and video gamers stocked up on officially licensed models.
They are a common sight at stores like EB Games, and its sister brand, Zing Pop Culture, which counts standalone stores in shopping centres across Australia.
Other major retailers, including JB Hi-Fi, stock Funko Pop! figurines. So too do independent businesses, like Geelong’s Popcultcha, which stocks variations spanning Marvel superheroes to Doctor Who.
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Pop! figurines retail for around $20, making them a popular stocking-stuffer ahead of Christmas, while diehard collectors can drop hundreds on larger or limited-edition Funko models.
Funko considers tariffs and debt arrangements
Despite a global fandom, the company creating those figurines revealed financial hardship in its most recent quarterly report.
Documents filed with the US corporate regulator on November 6 note “substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern,” driven by the US’ new tariff regime and the terms of a working capital deal.
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Funko “sources, procures and assembles inventory, primarily out of Vietnam, China and Mexico,” the report said, citing three nations facing extraordinary new tariffs signed into effect by US President Donald Trump earlier this year.
“The effects of recently implemented tariffs, and the potential imposition of modified or additional tariffs or export controls by other countries, continue to have an adverse effect on future net sales, margins and profitability.”
Funko has significant traction in regions not affected by those tariffs, like Australia, and “will continue to pursue strategies to grow those markets”.
However, net sales outside the US and Europe fell 10.8% to US$21.3 million ($32.85 million) in the September quarter 2025, compared to US$23.9 million ($36.86 million) in the prior corresponding period.
The business said moving some manufacturing out of China, reducing overheads, undertaking another capital raise, or refinancing its debt arrangements could alleviate some of the pressure it faces.
Models still on shelves for Christmas
Should Funko significantly shrink or cease operations, small Australian retailers would need to find new ways of serving casual collectors and pop-culture-obsessed clients.
Diehard collectors may focus their efforts on the Funko Pop! aftermarket, where some limited edition figurines change hands for hundreds of dollars apiece.
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For now, the supply of Funko Pop! figurines to Australian retailers is not in danger, and hundreds of variants are available to Australian consumers in the lead-up to Black Friday and Christmas.
Even so, retailers big and small may need to contend with changing consumer appetites and what some analysts call a glut of less-popular figurines.
Stefan von Imhof, who analyses collectibles and other alternative investment assets through the platform Alts, said some of Funko’s challenges were a long time coming.
“One takeaway at the time was clear,” he wrote Monday, referring to a 2022 report on Funko’s extraordinarily large range of models.
“Funko massively overproduced, flooded the market with endless variants, and created a collector ecosystem where only a tiny fraction of pieces hold any real long-term value,” he wrote.
“What we are seeing now looks like the downstream effect of that manufactured scarcity dynamic finally catching up to them.”
Another challenge faces Funko: Labubu dolls, from Chinese rival Pop Mart, which this year became a global phenomenon and carved into Funko’s target market.
Beyond Pop Mart’s standalone Australian stores, some Australian stores that built their reputation on Funko Pop! sales now carry Labubu blind boxes.
