Funko Made Cereal

Funko made cereal. Of course they did. When a company realizes collectors will buy a $15 toy even if they hate it, branching into breakfast is inevitable. The boxes come with Cuphead in red, Mega Man in blue, Gollum in green—the same characters you’d already have on a shelf, now printed on cardboard.

What gets me is how naturally this works. Pop culture isn’t something you search out anymore. It’s not a hobby corner or a niche interest. It’s the default environment. My breakfast now has a licensed character on it. I’m eating video game properties. There’s nothing strange about that anymore.

I’ve been collecting since I was a kid—toys, records, art books—always at the edges of normal life. Now the edges have collapsed entirely. There’s probably a kid somewhere right now who doesn’t know that liking these characters used to be considered weird. They’re just pouring them into a bowl. In five years there might be more Funko properties on cereal boxes than actual cereals.

Part of me thinks it’s funny. Part of me thinks it’s sad. Mostly I’m aware that I’ll probably buy whatever they release next, pour it into a bowl, and feel nothing about how strange that would’ve been ten years ago.