dolls

Funko literally produced more dolls than it could afford. And now it faces the biggest crisis in its history

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It seemed that this moment would never come, but it did: the Funko Pop They are in crisis. In popular culture everything is cycles, and if now it is an inevitable topic in the conversation the “superhero fatigue“, after having lived through years in which it seemed that there was going to be nothing but superheroes in the cinema, now it is the turn of the Funko Pop. All after an overwhelming success, which has turned these dolls cut from the same pattern into inevitable passengers in any conversation about the pop panorama. The data. The company recognized in its last quarterly report that there are “substantial doubts” about its ability to continue operating for the next twelve months. Funko carries $241 million in total debt while maintaining just $39.2 million in cash reserves, a ratio that puts the company on the brink of the financial abyss. In the second quarter of 2025, Funko lost $41 million, and although the third quarter showed an improvement with losses of less than one million, these contrast with the $8.9 million profit in the same period just a year earlier, in 2024. The reasons. Sales fell from 292.8 million to 250.9 million year-on-year, a 14% drop that originated mainly in the US market. In 2023, the company destroyed between 30 and 36 million dollars in excess inventory, literally sending millions of figures to landfills because it was cheaper to eliminate them than to pay for storage. The crisis has multiple culprits: the Trump administration’s trade tariffs have hit toys with the nature of Funko hard: cheap items made abroad. But the fundamental problem is structural: overproduction. Funko has systematically and for years produced more than the market has been able to absorb, believing that demand would be infinite. This has led to the company’s debt growing from 182.8 million at the end of 2024 to the current 241 million, an increase of 32% in less than a year. The signs told us. There were different crises that made it clear that problems could come for Funko Pop. In 2021, the pandemic led to a boom and the company achieved record sales of one billion dollars, an increase of 58% over 2020. But like the entire economy that emerged during the pandemic, it was temporary. The post-pandemic drop (losses in the fourth quarter of 2022 of $47 million) should have served as a warning. Then, in 2023, the massive destruction of inventory confirmed that Funko Pop was generating material beyond its capabilities. 40 different Grogu dollsIf nothing woke us up before, it should have been a warning to sailors. And what about collectors? The company crisis is not just a problem of corporate mirage: it is the collapse of a dangerous aspect of collectingwhich is done by mere accumulation of assets that it is believed that it is going to revalue in the future. We have seen exclusive figures for the San Diego Comic-Con that They were resold for 200 or 500% above their original price (and the same phenomenon repeated at the recent Comic-Con in Malaga). And we have seen sets reach impossible prices (especially mythical isWilly Wonka quele in 2022 which reached $100,000). Now, second-hand sales platforms show Funkos that sold for $200 languish at $10. Even discontinued figures can be found at bargain prices, all due to overproduction, which made the “exclusive” or “limited release” label lose its value. There are those who compare what is happening with the phenomenon of Beanie Babies, highly coveted a couple of decades ago by collectors in the United States, and whose bubble ended up exploding. Plastic mountains. AND eye on environmental impactwhich goes beyond a few (many) collectors with shelves full of products that have lost their value. The aforementioned between 1.4 and 3 million vinyl figures that were sent to landfill They were only the first phase of mass destruction. The material Funkos are made of, PVC, can remain in landfills for centuries because it is not biodegradable. And hundreds of millions of units are produced every year, which in the United States are deposited in landfills perfectly legally (in countries like France, companies were prohibited from destroying unsold non-food merchandise, forcing them to donate or recycle). Header | Photo of Z Graphica in Unsplash

McDonald’s has a problem in Japan with the dolls of ‘One Piece’ and ‘Pokémon’ of the Happy Meal: they sell too much

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McDonald’s is running in Japan with a reception of such caliber for his Happy Meals that he is being forced to cancel promotions early. First with letters from ‘Pokémon‘And then with dolls from ‘One Piece’the traditional gifts of their children’s menus are being grass of collectors that are generating A crisis not only foodbut also of image. What happened. This last August McDonald’s He has been forced to cancel a promotion: They gave cards Pokémon with his Happy Meal, but franchise collectors were presented at restaurants to buy large amounts of menus, interested in the cards and with the intention of reselling them, as collected a company statement. Then they got rid of food, which led to a “massive food waste”, only three days after the start of the campaign, on August 11. Some solutions. To solve the problem, before the definitive cancellation of the promotion, McDonald’s established a maximum of purchases per person, but the collectors raffled the ban on tail several times. The hamburger chain also asked the country’s online sale platforms that they did not accept, or at least they will limit the Pokémon cards to carry the McDonald’s seal. None of that was enough and forced the chain to suspend the promotion in record time. One Piece, again. The phenomenon It was repeatedin a very short time, with ‘One Piece’. The popular anime series was going to be subject to the next promotion of Happy Meal, but seeing what happened with Pokémon, the chain has momentarily canceled the campaign, which would have started on August 29. McDonald’s is facing a dilemma: to make toys attractive enough to sell hamburgers, but not so much to generate problems. It is not the first time. Pokémon may seem almost isolated (after all, according to experts, We talk about the object collectable more expensive in the world. But it is not the first time that this happens to McDonalds, which has already been seen in similar situations on other occasions: the K-Pop group BTSFor example, launched a menu in 2021 in 50 different countries. In some as Indonesia there were problems of minor stocks and disturbances. In 2015, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Independence of Singapore, McDonald’s launched some hello kitty dolls in limited edition, dressed in typical costumes of the country, which caused very long queues and existent problems. Finally, and leaving Asia, in the United States in 2022 McDonald’s announced a menu In collaboration with the urban clothing brand Cactus Plant Flea Marketwith four characters dressed in firm’s clothes. On the same day of the launch the menu was already exhausted. China is guilty (says Japan). There is another example of frustrated promotions that has a lot to do with it: in May of this year, McDonald’s canceled a Happy Meal promotion where they included dolls from the ‘Chikawa’ manga series. They disappeared in hours And the chain detected that it could be due to the posterior resale among collectors, in fact also observed that it was organized purchase networks. According to Some clients came to comment on social networksthey were Chinese resellers who used the orders via mobile to exceed the maximum of four orders per person that allowed McDonald’s. Many of the Happy Meals items later appeared, in effect, on China’s sale and collecting websites. Header | McDonald’s In Xataka | ‘Pokémon TGC Pocket’ is breaking it and rightly: Pokémon’s card game is thought to the millimeter

Chinese dolls of sinister smile are breaking it in Spain. They are called Labubu and they are already falsifications and scams

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Rabbit ears and a very sinister smile. So are the labubu, some small collection dolls that, following the wake of successes like Sonny AngelThey are invading everything. After its success in China, the fever for these collection dolls has left their borders and has arrived in Spain. And with it the inevitable is also coming: falsifications. Context. Labubu are an original creation of the Hongkonese artist Kaising Lung, marketed by Pop Mart, which also markets Other similar collection toys lines. These are small stuffed animals with a keychain hitch, which are usually hung from the bag or backpack. When we buy one, several designs appear on the side of the box and you can touch any of them. This surprise effect and the gamification of the purchase have caused them to become an object of desire for collectors around the world, getting to pay authentic fortunes For them. Viral success. Although there were long before, the Labubu boom occurred in 2024. In China they generated the whopping 3,000 million yuan (about 355 million euros). 2025 is even better For these little elves. Only in China the growth is 100%, but in the rest of the world it would already be in 480%. There is a key factor in this global success: there are more and more celebrities and influencers who show their labubus in public. The first Celebrity that popularized them It was Lisa, from the K-Pop Blackpink group. Now they are hanging from Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Madonna or Kim Kardashian bags. The fever arrives in Spain. We said there is an invasion of Labubus and Spain was not going to be less. At the end of last year They opened a store in Barcelona and the tails to buy one of these dolls were kilometer. In the official store they are exhausted and, although there are other stores that sell Labubus in Spain, the same thing happens: almost all They have hung the ‘out of stock’ poster‘(Yeah, Also Amazon). With this panorama, the sale platforms are being filled with Labubus, with an increase in searches for 856%. Falsifications and scams. Stock -free stores and demand for clouds are the perfect ingredients for counterfeiters to fall in action. According to a Kaspersky reportit’s already happening. Fraudulent websites that sell counterfeit figures have been created and, in addition, they steal data from the users they buy. They always recommend buying official distributors, but since in Pop Mart Spain there are hardly any stock, many users go to Wallapop, Milanuncios or Vinted. There are many available, many of them original, but here another problem is presented: the price. Normally a Labubu costs between 15 and 30 euros. Taking advantage of scarcity, many vendors They swell prices. Precedents. Collecting Figuritas is no news. A few years ago we lived the Funko Pop Fever. In 2019, the North American company He presumed to have tripled its value, Although a couple of years ago we knew that their finances did not happen their best moment. Labubu fever takes advantage of the wave generated by a more recent phenomenon: The Sonny Angelsthose Japanese dolls that many people had glued on their smartphones and that were also a problem by The amount of falsifications that circulated. In ambiguity is success. Although similar to the Sonny Angels, Labubu are pioneers in one thing: it is the first time that China “colonizes” Europe with a cultural and consumerist phenomenon of this type. According to This Chinese journalist, The secret of success would be precisely that Labubu does not seem something Chinese. Its ambiguous design makes it more consumable by a massive audience. The corporate image of its parent company, Pop Mart, is also more ambiguous or “less China”, something that according to this journalist is intentional and would have a goal: “There is less likely that there is a violent reaction if Beijing does something wrong.” And China became cool. They told it in This Economist articlewhere they explore the change of image that China has experienced since the West in recent years. A clear indicator is the success of Chinese cultural products such as The movie Ne Zha 2or video games like ‘Genshin Impact’ and ‘Black Myth: Wukong‘. Tiktok’s success, his leadership in industries such as The electric car or the drones They have contributed to improving the image of the country outside their borders, something that coincides with a growing United States Negative Vision Under Trump’s mandate. Image | Declan Sun in Unspash In Xataka | A new potentially disruptive scenario opens in global energy: China has touched the oil in oil

What are the Barbie dolls that you could sell for $8,000?

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Barbie dolls have not only been a cultural icon, but also a highly coveted collector’s item. Over the years, some barbie dolls They have reached surprising prices in the market. If you’ve ever wondered how much a vintage Barbie might be worth, the answer is that some models They can sell for up to $8,000 and even more.depending on its condition and rarity. Here we will tell you the characteristics that this popular doll must have to be worth so much. Barbie’s story begins in the 1950s. It was created by Ruth Handler and manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, officially debuting on March 9, 1959 at the International Toy Fair in New York. Since its launch, Barbie has been a trend-setting figure, but what many don’t know is that Some of the doll’s early models now have incredibly high value on the collectors market. The original Barbie is easily recognizable by her platinum blonde hair and black and white striped swimsuit, which was popular in fashion in the late 1950s. Although At its launch it cost only $3 dollars, today a 1959 Barbie in excellent condition can be worth up to $8,000 dollars or more. At high-end auctions such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Heritage Auctionsimpressive prices have been reached, with a sale that reached $27,450 dollarswhich shows the value that the doll still has today. Other Barbie models that can generate profits Not only the original 1959 Barbie is valuable. Over the years, certain models have increased their value considerably. Some of the most notable ones include: Happy Family Midge (2002): circa $100 dollars. Barbie and the Rockers (1985): $170 dollars. Totally Hair Barbie (1991): $270 dollars. Color Magic Barbie (1966): $750 dollars. Barbie Marie Antoinette (2003): $3,000 dollars. Karl Lagerfeld Barbie (2014): $5,275 dollars. Celebration 2000 Barbie (2000): $11,000 dollars. As we can see, the values ​​vary considerably depending on the era, the edition and the exclusivity of the model. For a Barbie doll to fetch a high price on the collectors market, it is essential that it be kept in excellent condition. The most valuable dolls are those that still have their original packaging and all their accessories.. The rarity and age of the doll also play a crucial role. The older and more unique the Barbie, the higher its market value. Additionally, collectors look for models that are as close to their original condition as possible, without significant modifications or damage. If you have ever stored a Barbie in good condition or have one in its original packaging, It might be time to investigate its value and, if you wish, consider selling it.. Barbie dolls remain a highly collectible item, and with a little luck, you could be in possession of a piece worth a small fortune. You may also be interested in:

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