Exclusive Interview: Dave Beré, Vice President Of Pop! Yourself And Retail At Funko
Image Source: CultureSlate
Chicago Comic Entertainment Expo (C2E2) happens every year in the Spring in the wonderful city of Chicago. It has celebrities, plenty of vendors, and various artists and comic book creators, who all come together for one fun-filled weekend. This year was extra special, as Funko made their return to C2E2. It’s been a few years since Funko was last at the convention, so it was nice to see them return, this time with Loungefly and Mondo. Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dave Beré, who is the Vice President of Pop! Yourself & Retail. We spoke about the company, their return to C2E2, and the Pop! Yourself line of Funkos.
CS: How did you start working for Funko? What made you want to join the team?
DB: Oh that’s a great question. I was a toy buyer at Target, prior to joining Funko and that job was really awesome in so many ways, but what I discovered was “this is it, this is what I wanna do for my career”. Being in the toy industry, being in the collectible industry, being close to entertainment and pop culture, so when the opportunity came up to work at Funko, it was a no-brainer. As for why I wanted to join Funko, it’s the people. There are so many unbelievable people here, so many visionaries and creatives, that I just wanted to be a part of it. So, it’s pretty awesome.
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CS: So Pop! Yourself is a few years old now, How did the Pop! Yourself idea come to fruition?
DB: The best part about it, is that it came from the fans. We’re in the business of connecting fans to their heroes, through the different licenses we have. The number one thing fans asked for was “How can I myself become a Funko pop”, and it's something that we incubated in our stores, and it was the number one item. We were really excited, and it was always in our plans to launch it on Funko.com. It’s a complex operation, to get it live and to scale, but I am so happy that we did and it obviously has really resonated with fans.
CS: What has been your favorite part of the Pop! Yourself experience?
DB: I love it because it’s people and how they experience life, and as we figure out that assortment, it’s going to continue to evolve. Seeing what people do and how they identify themselves outside of licenses. Whether “I’m a coffee drinker, so I’m going to put a coffee cup in my hand or my cell phone”. I think that’s always really interesting and recently we’ve done different seasonal things, and it’s been awesome to see how they’ve gravitated towards it, for like a Valentine's Day gift, or we’re in Mother's Day right now. It’s been awesome.
CS: How do you decide on what franchises to pursue?
DB: We listen to fans, first and foremost, what resonates with them, where is the conversation happening, and I think because pop culture is ever-changing and ever-evolving, it always gives us new things to create into, but it always starts with the fans, which is pretty cool.
mage Source: CultureSlate
CS: Is there a franchise you want to work with that you haven’t?
DB: I think the obvious is Nintendo. Those characters are just so iconic, and so awesome. It’s the ones fans have asked about, that we haven’t done yet.
CS: Is there a certain Nintendo character that you would like to see?
DB: My kids would want me to say Princess Peach, but I’m a classic, I just like Mario.
CS: Are there any Funkos coming out that you can talk about and are excited about?
DB: Yeah, from a Pop! Yourself standpoint, we have a lot on the docket. We’re doing Mother’s Day, you know Father’s Day is right behind. We have a whole assortment we’re dropping next month, that 100% came from fans, which comes from some social polling and some other things we did, in the Fall, so we’re really excited about that. From a core Funko Pop perspective, I think there’s a lot of anticipation around this show, with the airline theme, and Frannie coming into the fold for the first time.
CS: Funko is now a staple of the convention scene and it's been a few years since Funko has been at C2E2, how does it feel to be back?
DB: We love it. There’s so much good energy here, and this is what we knew. We have so many fans in the Chicago area, so many fans in the Midwest and we spend a lot of time in Southern California, there’s great shows there. We spend time in New York, but we really just wanted to meet fans where they are, and hopefully, this is something we continue to do or continue to come to C2E2, but also look for other shows throughout the country, outside of those markets that we’re traditionally in. We’ll still do those markets for sure, but it’s been awesome. The fan reception has been great and the energy, you can just feel it here today, it’s awesome.
CS: If you could be any Funko Pop, which one would you be and why?
DB: I’m going to give you my favorite and I’ll tell you why. So my favorite is, Michaelangelo surfing from a few years ago at San Diego Comic-Con. I love it for a lot of reasons, one, it reminds me of the Playmates action figure that came out of the surfer sewer Mikey. Two, I love it because I think he’s holding a pizza box and Ninja Turtles is the reason why pizza is my favorite food, so I would say that. I would like to be that character so I could eat pizza and fight crime.
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