For those of you that aren’t day traders or don’t read the Wall Street Journal, our pals at Funko LLC have recently been acquired by a company named ACON Investments (they make Igloo products like beach coolers). ACON’s business is acquiring businesses and according to Ken Brotman, a Founding Partner of ACON, Funko has positioned itself as “the fore-runner in the pop culture space” and ACON is looking forward to taking “Funko to the next level.”
Prior to acquiring Funko, ACON's other major move in the pop culture marketplace was investing in Spencer Spirit Holdings in August of 2007. That doesn’t sound terribly interesting to the layman, but Spencer Spirit Holdings does business as Spencer’s — the only mall store where mom can buy a vibrator and pass it off as a gag gift. What’s also interesting is that over the last few years Spencer’s has shifted focus away from selling collectibles, toys, and figures. Years ago you’d think Spencer’s was the only source for supplying every suburban wannabe Goth-girl with a Living Dead Doll, but now their focus is more towards apparel, jewelry, barware, and gag gifts. Part of Spencer Spirit Holdings is also the Spirit Halloween Store and ACON’s direction has helped boost their numbers to over 1000 nationwide.
I imagine the partnership will be mutually beneficial and I can predict with utmost certainly this: Funko figures and toys will be back at Spencer’s. This move basically gives Funko a direct outlet for selling all their lines and I would suspect bobble heads and POP! figures will be filling the stores soon. This also could be an interesting situation for Spencer’s biggest competitor in the teen apparel market: Hot Topic. A large portion of Hot Topic’s non-apparel merchandise is toys and collectibles, much of that produced by Funko. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see all of Funko’s products vanish from Hot Topic’s shelves so Spencer’s can be your only place to get your Funko figure fix. Stay tuned here for more updates and like us on Facebook for even more!