One man’s schwag is another man’s prized collectible. Such is the case with the miniature toy replicas of famous people, whimsically known as bobbleheads.
A popular item in the 1950s and ’60s, bobbleheads experienced a renaissance after appearing as giveaways at baseball games in the 1990s, according to this Seattle Times story.
Today, these fun toys are big business. Funko, a Seattle-area bobblehead maker has gone from three to 17 employees, and from a 1,000-square-foot facility in Snohomish to a 17,000-square-foot warehouse in Lynnwood, Wash.
Funko is one of the world’s largest suppliers of pop-culture bobbleheads, this year shipping more than 900,000 units of about 70 models.
In the last five years, the company’s annual revenue has grown from $850,000 to an expected $10 million this year.
