Lynnwood’s Funko turns bobbleheads into big bucks

LYNNWOOD — Sean Wilkinson has gone from designing bobbleheads in a basement nearly 15 years ago to being the creative director of a fast-growing toy empire.
Wilkinson never believed his job working for a company called Funko would last. When he started, Wilkinson helped design a bobblehead for Big Boy, the national burger restaurant chain, whose icon is a boy dressed in red-and-white checkered overalls.
“We were just a mom-and-pop shop with two artists,” he said.
Now Funko is one of the booming businesses in south Snohomish County with licensing contracts with Marvel and DC comics, Disney and Star Wars. They go after the hottest popular culture trends of the day, making bobbleheads for hit television shows including “The Game of Thrones” and “The Walking Dead.”
And Funko’s sales have skyrocketed.