I recently treated myself to a couple of hours to check-out the latest toy-themed documentary, Making Fun: The Story of Funko Pops on Netflix (as I write this, I'm still making my way through season 2 of The Toys That Made Us). There's a couple of things I'll have to confess before I go any further into this post: 1. I'm not a vinyl toy collector. There are a few toys that I think have a fantastic design and certainly wouldn't mind owning, but I also aspire to a certain level of minimalism in my life (I'm not great at this mind you, hence it's being aspirational). 2. I'd always taken Funko as some sort of corporate juggernaut, but the company's origins were a lot more DIY than I would've guessed. It didn't take long into the toy documentary before I was happy for the success of Mike Becker, Funko's once Chairman of Fun, and the scrappy little art toy start-up he'd built, Funko.
Watch Making Fun: The Story of Funko Pops Here
I found myself delighted by the delight and passion of Funko's fans, self-identified as Funatics, and in such trying times as we now exist in, basking in this global community's collective joy was a welcome breadth of fresh air. What I enjoyed about Mike Becker and later Brian Mariotti's running of Funko was that they approached their stewardship of the company largely as fans first, steering the company in directions that has consistently make their collectors thrilled with Funko.
While I'm not likely to rush-out and buy a mountain of Pop Vinyls anytime soon, I'm glad that they can make so many fandoms happy with their little beady-eyed, square headed art toys. The Netflix toy documentary had a couple of emotional moments, but it was a "feel-good" piece through-and-through. If you could two solid hours of joy and camaraderie and you might enjoy a toy documentary, I definitely recommend you give it a watch!
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