Mondo? Mond-no. (And/or Mondon't).

I'm pretty sure the first thing I ever got from Mondo was a gift in 2016 of Madballs' Slobulus, Skull Face, & Horn Head released in Vinyl.  Unlike a lot of the more modern-era Madballs items, these are pitch-perfect.  If they're not from the original molds or 3D scans or something, they may as well be.  They're effing perfect.  And Madballs' original creator James Groman was involved.  Super-kudos all around.  I'm a fan.  I'm in love.  Let's go team!

I'm positive the first thing I bought myself from Mondo was the original 1:6 scale deluxe B:TAS Batman in 2017.  It was the first thing my smartphone ever showed me in an ad / news story that I wanted to buy.  "Thanks phone!"  Again, it's beautiful and all good stuff.  And I couldn't wait for them to bring out a Joker to go with him!  

So I waited.

(Over the years, they came out with 1:6 scale X-Men animated figures & 1:6 scale Masters of the Universe figures.  More recently they've come out with 1:6 scale Spider-Man animated figures & 1:6 scale Thundercats figures.  But for now, let's get back to Batman.)

They came out with (in semi-best-remembered order) Mr. Freeze.  Catwoman.  An alternate version of Batman.  A re-release of Batman (kind of undermining my first/original, thanks).  Harley Quinn.  Poison Ivy.  And maybe then they brought out Joker.  In 2022.  FIVE YEARS LATER.  But okay.  I get the 1:6 scale limited deluxe.  

And when I got the package in the mail it rattled.  (That is NOT a good sign on what's supposed to be a high-end item.)  Some of the ton of interchangeable parts had come loose, probably because they skimped on the inner packaging.  (I should note that at some time in 2022, Mondo was bought by Funko.  It seems at least plausible that was a factor.)

(If the second O has a crown, the quality might have gone down.)

I kindly complained.  I got a 20% refund.  But to say that this was disappointing - after waiting like five years and paying like $250 - is an understatement.  And knowing it was limited to 1000 total and was sold out meant a deluxe Joker that could double as a maraca was the best I could do.  There couldn't be a replacement.

I was let down.  But they handled it promptly and reasonably.  Accidents can happen to anybody, and I'd had nothing but good experiences with them previously.  So I was open to buying more stuff and just doing my best to let go of the whole Joker-getting experience.  At some point they brought out others.  Bane.  Scarecrow.  A black/white release of 3 previous characters.  Man-Bat (who was really hard to resist buying).  And a Clayface that I almost broke down and bought, but I just really dislike the way the knees are so obviously action-figure-y.

I got the Attack Peter Godzilla Museum statue.  It's awesome.  

I got the deluxe Skeletor.  Awesome.  

I saw a James Groman Reptar on some site I'd never heard of called Culturefly, so I bought that.  "Cool - maybe there's an alternative to Mondo coming up."  It turns out that Culturefly is just another offshoot/subsidiary/whatever of Mondo/Funko.  So yeah.  (And I've had some problems with Culturefly too - but anyway.)  And there's an at least similar-ish situation with Godzilla.com, but I digress.

Back to Mondo proper.  Then they're bringing out Attack Peter Godzilla vinyl figures of Mechagodzilla NOT IN SCALE with the original Attack Peter Godzilla statue.  That's a punch to the gut.

I picked up the Blue Urban Aztec Godzilla.  Beautiful.  Planned on buying the Green/Yellow one but hadn't realized it was only for sale on Godzilla.com.  And I almost paid scalper prices until I found out what looked yellow in the pictures was actually more gold.  So now the promotional hi-res photos are not necessarily accurate and/or color-matched?  WTF?

I picked up the original version of James Groman's Werewolf by Night.  Nice.  And the psychedelic variant - amazing.  BUT the package was delivered with a hole punched THROUGH THE BOX.  Thankfully it missed the figure, but it was legit sketch.  It was like somebody jousted this thing with rebar.  Which would suck no matter what.  But it wrecked the outer packaging - and for a company that prides itself on how undamageable their shipping materials are (and which I paid like $20 for it to be shipped), it's just a super-failure that it was even delivered to me in that condition.  So again I kindly complained.  I got no response from an actual person (even to this day) but I did get an email notification that they were sending me a replacement box.  Which I got and was in okay shape, so whatever.

Next up, they're bringing out The Real Ghostbusters figures.  

They originally say they're going to be 1:6 scale.  Makes sense.  They'll be really cool big, and will match the SCALE for EVERY OTHER ANIMATED FIGURE THEY'VE MADE.  Then they said, "Oh!  Um, we didn't mean 1:6, we meant 6" scale or 1:12 scale," and I'm hoping that's wrong and they bring out 1:6 guys.  NOPE.  They're coming out at 6" scale - a size that RGB figures have been made at before (if not exactly, still fairly close and definitely multiple times).  But at least they're making the 4 Ghostbusters and 4 Ghosts.  But to get the Ghosts (the characters there haven't already been toys of), you have to buy the 2-pack of one 'buster and one ghost.  You can buy just the 'buster solo.  But if you want the ghost, you have to buy the 2-pack.  At a cost of 202.00.  Which is 101.00 per figure - for a 6" scale figure.  And in the case of Sam Hain (ghost #1) he's more a poseable statue than a figure due to limited articulation.  Sam Hain's a solid pick, but damn.  I'll be tempted to pick up the Egon / Boogeyman 2-pack, because I'm 99% sure the only official Boogeyman toy for RGB that was ever made was a Toys R Us exclusive MiniMates figure.  (And I also really like Egon.)  Then they're doing Winston with Sandman.  OK.  Again, Sandman's solid, but who knows how the articulation will be.  Then lastly Ray who - ask anybody who loved these shows "Who should the 4th Ghost be?  After Sam Hain, Boogeyman, and Sandman, who is the best, scariest, creepiest character" and they will tell you "The Grundel."  I would have bought ANY Ghostbuster I didn't want in order to get a Grundel figure.  So who is the fourth ghost?  Ghash.  Who is Ghash?  Exactly.  A one-off character with a big dumb mouth that I don't even remember, probably because I blocked him out because he's so stupid.  So here you've got the size fumble, the bundling fumble, the pricing fumble, AND the ghost #4 fumble.  That's a LOT to get wrong.  I'm very let down here.

Whatevs.  I'm going to pick up the Patina Urban Aztec Godzilla and a recolored James Groman Reptar when they post their con exclusive leftovers.  

But when those go live, they don't have a link or a splash on the site.  So I had to manually look up and find the items, and I still got both added to my cart, but in the few seconds that I clicked through my already-logged-in Paypal payment via my already-logged-in Mondo cart, I was notified both items were no longer available.  HOW CAN IT BE IN MY CART AND ALSO SOLD OUT?  WHY DO YOU HAVE A SYSTEM THAT DOESN'T DEPLETE LIMITED # ITEMS AS THEY'RE ADDED INTO PEOPLE'S CARTS?

Then they have a Pink version of the Groman Reptar coming up.  

 (I really wanted this Player-Two lookin' SOB.)

So limited that they won't even say how many.  Ends up being a run of 50.  Same story.  In my cart, click to pay and I'm told it's sold out.  Within 10-15 minutes there are at least 6 posted (basically 1/8th of the entire run) for at least 2x retail on ebay.  And I tell Mondo.  AND THEY DO NOTHING.  A lot of companies will cancel orders for people who are clearly buying them to flip like instantaneously.  But they did nothing.

And their banner ads show items that've been sold out for weeks, if not months.  BOO.

So, I am no longer a fan of Mondo.  There've just been too many last straws.  I'm not issuing a flat-out ban or anything.  If Attack Peter or Urban Aztec or James Groman comes out with some cool thing that I want and it happens to be through Mondo, I'd be willing to buy it because in spite of it being Mondo, I like that artist.  I'm willing to support some of my favorite artists, even if it's through a company I've grown not particularly fond of.  But even then, I'm only buying A) limited print run items, that B) don't come with a ton of interchangeable accessories.  

And I guess I ought to be prepared for that it may arrive at least moderately rebarred. :(