It takes something pretty special to make Justin Ishmael buy a toy in a Target these days.
He doesn't often see the quality he wants in his pop-culture goodies at mass-market retailers, which is why the CEO of the Alamo Drafthouse's popular art gallery and online store is spearheading a new foray into action figures, statues and toys for connoisseurs of collectibles.
Mondo's already created a burgeoning business with limited-edition posters and records, but Ishmael also doesn't want to get in a rut.
"I've never ever, ever wanted to be the poster company. I want to be the good stuff company," he says. "We're fans who've made it and are making stuff for fans."
The first wave of toys will be on display this week at Mondo's booth at Comic-Con in San Diego beginning Wednesday, including a 16-inch figure of the central robot from The Iron Giant, a vinyl figure based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman's first drawing of a Ninja Turtle, a "Lil Mikey" vinyl figure based on a Mondo TMNT poster by artist Mike Mitchell, and a sixth-scale action figure of legendary director Alfred Hitchcock.
Ishmael hopes to have preorders for all the toys up on the redesigned Mondowebsite in August and September, and have them in fans' hands by Christmas.
Toys are just one more avenue that Mondo is exploring as it continues to build its fan base as well as its brand. The company hosted a Disney gallery event during South by Southwest this spring, it founded the clothing line Mondo 237 (inspired by the colorful carpet patterns from The Shining) and their first convention MondoCon debuts this fall in Austin, and will run concurrently with the Fantastic Fest film festival.
Using the word "expansion" with its new toy effort makes the whole thing sound really corporate, Ishmael admits, "but it's really just our shelves aren't full enough. We want to make more toys for us, I guess."
While the limited-edition posters are normally gone within minutes of being announced via social media, Ishmael envisions having collectibles like the Iron Giant figure and the 6-inch replica of the Iron Giant's bolt from the 1999 movie available for a bigger audience.
The Iron Giant was an example of a popular movie without much tie-in merchandise — and is a favorite film of Ishmael's — so he thinks people will love an action figure with 30 points of articulation that lights up, has a magnetic "S" from a "Seafood" sign to put on his chest, and has an interchangeable dented head and weaponized arm to make a "War" version of the character.
Mondo has its choice of licenses but they picked Iron Giant "because it's an incredible movie," Ishmael, 30, says. "It's not like it's an anniversary. This could be the year after the movie came out, we would be trying to do this."
Mike Mitchell's "Lil Mikey" artwork for Mondo is being turned into a vinyl figure.
With its posters and other merchandise, Mondo has also become "a safe haven for artists who have ideas for stuff," Ishmael adds, and projects such as Mike Mitchell's "Lil Mikey" artwork can inspire a toy.
Folks like Ishmael who grew up TMNT fans in the 1990s will remember the ice cream bar of yore with the crooked gumball eyes that little Michelangelo is eating in the poster, and when Ishmael first saw it five years ago, he wanted to see it in reality.
Being true and honest to what he and his team enjoy — and what they turn into various creative Mondo projects — is important to Ishmael, as is a sense of respect for history and creators.
Hitchcock's family has seen and approved his action figure — which comes with infamous movie props such as a butcher knife, raven and seagull — as has Eastman for the toy based on his first Turtle drawing from 1983. Director Brad Bird and Warner Bros. gave Mondo animation files to authentically re-create Iron Giant.
Especially with Mitchell's Lil Mikey, "an artist made that," Ishmael says. "We don't know what the back looks like or the sides, so having him there is very very important to get it just so.
"The last thing I want to do is send Mike Mitchell a figure and he's like, 'Oh. What a bummer.' That'd be worse than death."
If the first wave of toys is successful, Ishmael wants to be versatile with its projects, going from something like Disney to possibly Game of Thrones and then on to a horror franchise — he has a wish list of stuff, includingBatman: The Animated Series from the '90s, that he feels have potential.
Ishmael plans on talking with toy collectors and retailers about what they'd like Mondo to do next, and he feels its fans are needed to make the company better.
"Our fans are really smart. We can't fool them by putting out something that's bad," Ishmael says. "They're not going to be like, 'Oh yeah, cool, we're going to buy that anyway.' We're going to hear about it, it's not going to sell out. It happens often."
His dream is to one day branch out from limited-edition merchandise and be the company that puts high-quality, detailed and innovative toys in places such as Target so collectors like himself don't have to settle for what's there.
"I want to be Todd McFarlane for this generation of toys and get it to where it's not OK to put out crappy toys," Ishmael says. "If you put out crappy toys, they won't sell because there's all this good stuff next to it."
