About 20 years ago, Brian Mariotti, a pop culture enthusiast with a background in nightclubs, bought a small bobblehead company from his friend Mike Becker. Within a few years, the company and its new incarnation, Pop! Vinyl became a household name: Funko.
Sold to private equity firm, followed by historic (unsuccessful) IPO quite as planned), a series of acquisitions of adjacent businesses, and millions of Pop! Then vinyl records came along and Funko became a billion-dollar company. But, as the misquoted Shakespeare famously said, “The head that wears the crown is heavy,” success brings challenges and changes.
Last year, Mariotti faced what’s often called “retirement,” which for those in some industries doesn’t last long, especially in the toy industry. He emerged at New York Comic Con (NYCC) this fall, launching a new company rooted in a passion for pop culture fans, supported by familiar faces from years past, and with allies from the fashion and entertainment worlds cooperate.
Thrilljoy and its core product line PIX! embrace “the thrill of the chase” and “the joy of community.”
The Toy Book caught up with Mariotti at NYCC to experience Thrilljoy’s new world, from conversations in the sprawling booth next to Funko, to debut panels and packed rooftop parties in the concrete jungle of Manhattan.
James Zahn (The Toy Book): You’re reimagining the collectibles experience a little bit.
Brian Mariotti: I think so. After Funko, retirement didn’t do me any good. About the third week, I thought I was going to kill myself, so I gave up. After thinking about building the world’s largest pickleball court, nightclub, and sports bar, I couldn’t find the right location in San Diego, so I just said, “Well, I love creating pop culture toys and collectibles, so maybe I’ll go back To that topic. Maybe I can do it where I’m self-funded and can do whatever I want and have crazy ideas and not have to answer to anyone.
Five months later, here we are.
JZ: At the licensing show, we crossed paths, but there was no interaction. We went in opposite directions, and you walked very fast…
BM: With my car sample!
Jiang Zemin: Yes! You have a team and [Thrilljoy co-founder and CCO] Dolly Ahluwalia [Former Funko Senior Vice President of Licensing & Innovation] With you and a small group of people. Is this the beginning?
BM: I went to China with some design ideas to see if I could implement them at what I thought was a fair price. When I got back, I told Dolly, “We have six days and I think I want to go to Vegas for the Licensing Expo. I have some samples. What do you think? She said everyone is booked, but We made some calls and everyone said yes to our top brass.
We went to Warner Bros., Netflix, and Paramount, and we got the most amazing response to what we showed them. We told them we came to them in the first place because we were thinking about opening this thing at New York Comic Con and only had five months to do it, so we had to move on. They’re great partners, and here we are.
JZ: Speed to market is something we talk about a lot in the toy industry, and now we talk about it a lot in collectibles and games as well. The traditional process is always set at this 18-month baseline, you scaled it down once at Funko and now you do it again. Now that you know this can be done in five months, will this become the norm going forward?
BM: I think so. We always plan, we can go back and say we’re going to make three of my favorite cereal monsters from a certain brand in the ’70s and plan ahead. But if something happens, say wild robot – What a wonderful movie – If there was a big moment in pop culture, a zeitgeist, could we move mountains and get something done? I think the answer is yes, we can do it in less than five months.
JZ: Now, let me ask this about the guy standing next to us, life-size Blue. What can you tell us about this person?
BM: We love mascots and we love Freddy Funko. I’m obsessed with the snowman on the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland and Bumble in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, so I’ve always been a snowman kind of person. He’s a snowman, has horns, and wears a Thrilljoy jumpsuit. Blue considers himself the King of Pop Culture and knows everything about pop culture. We wanted a brand mascot that would interact with all of our brand licensing, so you’ll see a lot of that in our Mega PIX! We’ll be previewing the collection at the event, and all products will be available for purchase in the next 3-4 weeks. We wanted to showcase the look of a 12-inch, highly articulated, magnetic accessories, deluxe packaging, highly stylized vinyl figure.
We did Bloo x Ninja Turtles, Bloo x Freddy Krueger and Bloo x Blue Eye Samurai. We love the idea of Bloo wanting to work with all of our amazing licensing partners. We are excited about who Bloo is, he is our guy!
JZ: Taking a step back, you mentioned three cereal monsters earlier, why are the other two always left out?
BM: Well, I won’t leave them out! If we were talking about the same thing, which was “Yummy Mummy” and “Fruit Barbarian”, we might be…
JZ: Oh, we probably do.
BM: These characters are well represented in Funko, so these five characters [of the General Mills Monsters] — I know there’s a new one, but I didn’t count her because I didn’t know her…
JZ: Ghoulia Apple – something, I believe… [Note: It’s Carmella Creeper]
BM: It’s “Fruit Brute,” “Yummy Mummy,” “Franken-Berry,” “Boo-Berry,” and “Count Chocula”—always the five.
JZ: Shift the focus from the company background to the core product line PIX! You have developed it so that it can be displayed alone or in a package. Can the numbers come out?
BM: No, they can’t.
JZ: So they’re still in some kind of shadow box?
BM: This is a good way of looking at the problem. I watch PIX! As a 180 degree diorama. To me, it’s all about storytelling. I didn’t want to show up in front of the licensing people in Las Vegas with just one character. I want to show them ways of storytelling in pop culture that we can immortalize.
Picture frames tell a story. Van Gogh’s gorgeous golden frame looks like it would be in a museum. The blue-eyed warrior’s black bamboo frame was splattered with blood. Huckleberry Hound has a cartoon frame with colorful stripes that match the interior. So the frame is storytelling, there are two places on the frame where we can put the date, the character name and the license, so that’s the storytelling. Art is storytelling. Sandwiched between two pieces of acrylic and magnetic material, the raster authenticity card tells the story. The box opens with a magnetic closure, you pull out the blister and out comes the PIX!
We want all of this to be in one format because there are a million different companies doing data, and many of them are doing it really, really well. We want to be different and unique.
Whether it’s LeBron James breaking the scoring title, Patrick Mahomes winning the Super Bowl, or Michael Jordan pitching for North Carolina as a freshman A winning goal, a musician, a band or a moment, it’s all what we want to capture PIX!
While the Thrilljoy model is primarily direct-to-consumer through PIX!, MEGA PIX! and Thrilljoy Threads (ultra-limited fashion items), Hot Topic and BoxLunch have also joined as retail partners to expand the brand’s reach.
Combined with premium packaging and pricing, the “thrill of the chase” is a key part of the Thrilljoy experience, and an element familiar to those who have followed Funko’s growth. Every Thrilljoy PIX! The collectible gives fans a one-in-six chance to get their hands on a limited-edition Chase variant. The company also launched SUPER Chase merchandise, with only 98 pieces released for the special event. And, for truly rare occasions like NYCC, Thrilljoy’s ULTRA Chase items are limited to just 24 pieces.
From left to right: Brian Mariotti, Dolly Ahluwalia, MD Young, Eric Peng Cheng and Karissa Marston
From left to right: Brian Mariotti, Khleo Thomas, Adam McArthur, Sal ‘Kickstradomis’ Amezcua and Karissa Marston
Thrilljoy Team at NYCC.
Joining Mariotti and Ahluwalia, Thrilljoy partners include former Loungefly executive Karissa Marston as director of marketing, Undefeated owner Eric Peng Cheng and MINDstyle International owner MD Young.
The company’s inaugural Fan Advisory Board includes three people who hold shares in the company, including Khleo Thomas, Sal ‘Kickstradomis’ Amezcua and actor Adam McArthur.
Starting next month, the company plans to roll out limited-edition products with weeks themed around Harry Potter, Scooby-Doo, MTV and more.
Additionally, speed to market is an important factor for Thrilljoy’s upcoming Moo Deng collectibles. According to Mariotti, each Moo Deng PIX will receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale! It will benefit the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Sriracha, Chonburi Province, Thailand.
Follow the company at Threatjoy.com
