If you’re a collector of unique vinyl albums, highly detailed action figures, tikis, obscure monsters, retro posters, or have visited an Alamo Drafthouse, you’re probably familiar with Mondo. This year the company has an official presence at C2E2 as part of the Funko Airways booth (their parent company) and we had a chance to chat with Peter Santa Maria, Senior Creative Director of Collectibles at Mondo.
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Laughing Place: I'm so excited to talk to you. Mondo's soft vinyls seem to embrace a monster/obscure theme. Is that intentional?
Peter Santa Maria: Well, it is a soft vinyl. Toys in general has its roots in toys that were made in the fifties, sixties, seventies in Japan, and for kids, because parents wanted something their kids wouldn't break. So over time, they became the sought-after collectible for fans of Godzilla and Ultraman and Kaiju and Japanese stuff, because they were that very unique aesthetic, design sensibility, tons of bright colors, and they were not made in large batches. So they became rare and hard to find, right? So they became very valuable and sought after, then companies sprung up, started creating new versions of them. When Mondo started doing it with Hector Arce, our other senior creative director, it was the first time that Toho—Godzilla's parent company—allowed an American company to produce soft vinyl.
What's been happening is that we have this, I call it a responsibility and an honor to introduce collectors to this world and find that there's so much in common with what they're already collecting. There's great sculpts, different colorways, chase versions, but yeah, it's like Godzilla and soft vinyl are hand-in-hand. But recently we've announced that we were going to be doing soft vinyl, retro style designs with Michael Myers from Halloween II, the Nightmare Soldiers from American Werewolf in London.
So it's basically saying there's an aesthetic from that era, probably mostly influenced by the restrictions of the capabilities of the time. And we embrace that like a lot of other companies have, but we're now trying to adapt it to IP outside of the Kaiju.
LP: Well, I know Juggernaut (X-Men) debuted earlier this year and there were limited pre-orders for that.
Peter: Yes, so Juggernaut's great because the aesthetic of Juggernaut might feel more in line with some of our sixth scale figures, but you're right, it's a soft vinyl figure. He's a huge chunk of vinyl. Soft vinyl's great because when you hold it, you know that you're not going to shatter it or break it. If you drop it feels like a toy. But for us adult collectors, because it's got all the detail, all the paint, but you're not worried you can move him on your shelf. You know what, I like it better on my desk. And it's like that sensibility is so satisfying to me as a collector. I want to move his arms and I don't need a thousand points of articulation. I just want to have a fun thing that sits there, but also looks badass. So Juggernaut is part of this line that we've been developing, officially named it recently called Mondo Super Vinyl.
And so when you see Scott Pilgrim, for example, in our show, he's one of those new large, oversized soft vinyl figures that has tons of detail. It's a presence in your collection. And so people who've been, for example, people find POP!s for a long time and you know that you love them. Something like this goes in there and it becomes a focal point of your collection.
LP: Do you have a favorite IP in the soft vinyl?
Peter: Yes. I mean, I'm a Godzilla guy always. That's my favorite. But I'm just so excited that we're now, I designed a Creature From the Black Lagoon figure. As an artist, I go by @attackpeter (Instagram). And so we did a stylized version of the creature that looks like my linoleum block print carvings in that design. And so with soft vinyl, you can be very experimental with the designs. So I'm just so excited that everything I loved about the Godzilla collectibles and those figures, we're bringing them to a new audience of fans who maybe they like Godzilla but not enough to buy a figure, but they love Michael Myers, or they love the Universal Monsters. And so they get to experience the form factor now.
LP: That's awesome. We've kind of talked about this a little bit, but from the news that I've been following this year, Marvel and X-Men in particular have been some of your biggest releases. How do you decide which characters to feature and when?
Peter: Yeah, I mean, honestly it is so non-scientific. We have a team, a small team that works on the figures at Mondo. And we have these meetings on Fridays at the end of the work week where we can just relax a little bit and we just sit and go, what would be awesome? And it's always driven by, my favorite character is so-and-so, and we haven't made Rogue. Rogue we just released recently and it was a big deal. And Rogue is, I mean, a lot of people love Rogue, but one of our internal sculptors, Alex Brewer, he goes by @fanplasticfour on Instagram, that's his number one. And he is like, “guys, I'm sculpting all these X-Men. I want to do Rogue, we got to do Rogue.” I'm like, “you're right. We got to do Rogue.” And then Rogue gets put in the line and that's how we decide. We trust that we are fans first.
And we are. And so that if we have an intuition or a desire or a gut feeling that maybe it's going to line up with a lot of other people too. So that's the idea, is to stay with a fan mentality and remember why we do what we do and then make the choices based on that. Omega Red from our X-Men line is a villain that was huge in the nineties in the comics and he was just so badass looking. But you don't see him a lot in anything now in shows or movies. But we're like, if we never get a chance to do this again and we don't do Omega Red, we're going to kick ourselves. That's how we decide.
LP: Is there anything you can tease about upcoming releases?
Peter: Yes, I would love to tease. Tomorrow, I don't know if you'll be at the panel, but I hope you are, because we are going to reveal something really outstanding that people have been asking for a long time. A brand new IP, a brand new figure line, it's like you're going to ask how could they have never done this before? And we're so excited to show it off tomorrow. And then later this summer, we have a brand new product category all together. And I've been saying, if you're someone who's a collector who loves unboxing videos, if you love watching YouTube content about figures and reviews, this is the product made for you. It's a product where the container is as important as the figures.
LP: That's awesome. That's so smart.
Peter: Yes. Yes.
LP: I'm excited to learn more. Before I go I just have to say, the first thing that I've actually purchased from Mondo is the That Thing You Do! Vinyl.
Peter: Oh my gosh. Yes.
LP: It's my favorite movie. And you guys put that together every-
Peter: “I quit. I quit.” [classic scene from the film]
LP: It's just, the packaging is perfect. I love the main photo that you have of The Wonders. Everything about it is wonderful.
"It's a Playtone record!"
Peter: I'm so happy you think so. We pride ourselves very much on our soundtracks and, like you said, the packaging design. It's easy if we want it to go the route, which we don't, of taking the music, pressing it on vinyl, and taking whatever assets, photos, art, the studio already has and just putting it together. People would buy it. But for us, it's like we want, when you put the record on and you listen to it, you really can sit down and have an experience. Then when your friends come over, “look, you need to see this.”
I mean, for us, that's our biggest thing. If you buy something from Mondo, we want you to have something that you can go to your friends, "You need to see this." Or they will ask you, "What is that?" And you can tell them. Because it's the social experience that is more important than any of the figures, any of the product. To me it's the music, we know it.
I'm saying, “I quit Mr. White,” and you know what I'm talking about, and we're laughing and fawning over that. The figures should do that, the posters should do that, the music should do that, or else there's no point in having an extra company making it. It's exactly that. In a world where everything's so divisive, there are new things that are still very unifying. So, those experiences are very important for us.
Awesome talk.
LP: Yeah. Thank you, Peter. It was good talking with you.
C2E2 is taking place at McCormick Place in Chicago from April 26-28, 2024. Guests wishing to visit the Funko Airways Booth will need to register their badge and make a reservation to shop. In addition to the show floor, select Mondo exclusives are available online directly through Mondo.
Looking for more news and coverage from this year’s event? Check out our C2E2 tag page for the latest information and follow us on X (Twitter) for more fun as it’s happening!