Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
AIC NEWS: Week of June 8, 2026
1 Playsin 7 hours
Welcome to AICNN (Adventures in Collecting News Network) where toy news matters! On this very special extended edition of your AIC News Brief, we're covering the top toy stories you need to know headed into the week of June 8th, 2026.
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube
Start creating a podcast today with Zencastr! Learn more.
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
Proudly part of the Non-Productive Network
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Merch Promotion
00:00:03
Speaker
AICNN, where toy news matters. ai cnn where toy
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome back to AIC News. Give us a few minutes and we'll give you the goods. Welcome to everything you need to know for a new week headed into toys.
00:00:25
Speaker
Let us start off with just a little bit of internal housekeeping. Of course, our t-shirts are still for sale. So if you want some AIC merch, want to support the show, we've got a bunch of shirts that ah can emblazon your person with um adventures and collecting related things uh so whether that's our actual logo whether that's some funny puns based on some toy things that you may or may not love um you can visit all of that at aic uh i'm sorry aicpodcast.com forward slash links you can find a link to our uh merch shop straight through there
00:01:01
Speaker
um As well as, ah speaking of of of things that we're offering, um alongside our t-shirts and other merch, we have our
Giveaway Announcement
00:01:10
Speaker
monthly giveaway. So this month being June and being ah the celebration of all things Mandalorian and Grogu, we are giving away two, not just one,
00:01:22
Speaker
but two copies of the Mandalorian and Grogu vintage collection, deluxe figure. Uh, we have partnered with our friends at SW TVC. Uh, so we are collaborating on this giveaway and you have the entire month to enter. So you can look for our pinned post at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram, follow the instructions there.
00:01:43
Speaker
and give yourself a shot at winning a really, really great Star Wars Vintage Collection set of ah The Mandalorian and Grogu. So one of my favorite releases of the year so far. i am happy to share not one, but again, two. So we will select two winners at the end of the month. And we'll get those out to you. So thanks again to our friends at SWTBC for ah for collaborating with us this month. We absolutely love them. We look forward to SWTBC March Madness
Star Wars Two-Pack Reveal
00:02:12
Speaker
every year. So, um yeah, again, you have the entire month of June to enter to win that. So let's hop into some news. And while we're talking about our friends at SWTVC, they hosted a live show over the weekend ah featuring Friends of the Pod, ah Chris and Brandon from the Hasbro Star Wars team, and they got the exclusive reveal of the next Walmart two-pack. This time it features two characters from Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, and that being Anakin and Cody, and this is supposed to be Anakin during his ah his Order 66 heel turn, and ah and Commander Cody. on that new ah Clone Wars or a Clone Soldier, Clone Trooper ah body. So this will be available this week, actually. So June 11th at 10 a.m. Eastern Time exclusively.
00:03:07
Speaker
on walmart.com. So make sure you come back to at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram, and we'll have the links as soon as that goes live. And once again, shouts to our friends at SWTVC on the really cool reveal.
Blockies Model Kit Launch
00:03:20
Speaker
Sticking with Star Wars, our friends at Blockies have their new Mandalorian and Grogu model kit up for pre-order. This is at Big Bad Toy Store. ah You can also get it in stock right now like literally right now, as you're hearing this at Chubsy Wubsy Toys in Little Falls, New Jersey, or you can visit them at Again, you know, we love Chubsy Wubsy. You're used to hearing their ad placement during our longer episodes. um He's got that blocky set in stock and along with Bo-Katan.
00:04:00
Speaker
So if you want to see how the Mandalorian and Grogu model kit works, is assembled you can head on over again to our instagram where we just posted a new instagram reel it's also on youtube shorts uh it gives you a uh a speed sped up build um time lapse if you will as well as showing you off how uh some of the posing is so a really really cool figure set i personally love the fact that you get two grogoos You get one that is modeled to fit on the ah the back of the jetpack, and then you get another that ah you know can can kind of stand freely. I think that's really unique. So really, really cool set.
G.I. Joe Announcements
00:04:39
Speaker
From Star Wars to G.I. Joe, it Yo-Joe June, which means that BMAC and Dan Larson will be coming to you every week with some new G.I. Joe news. So the first week, they they started off with a bang, not only showing ah updated pictures of Chabang,
00:04:56
Speaker
and Scarlet Ninja Force, which went up for pre-order on Target.com as an exclusive tubeback. They also showed us the Battle in the Box ah that we saw back at New York ah yeah new york Toy Fair. um We saw Deep Six, and most importantly, we saw, finally, the most requested figure on all everyone's G.I. Joe list, King Cobra Commander, of course, in his dress ah head covering yeah we'll go with that um his hood he's wearing a hood uh but it it looks fantastic you're getting uh cobra commander in those bright royal blues with the gold accents the a sweet throne um this did go up for pre-order on hasbro pulse and fan channels and very quickly sold out so hopefully um with the amount of people that wanted it at the gate they make it available again at a later date
00:05:51
Speaker
But ah that that was ah part of the big announcement. And then we also got some render reveals of Action Man. So shouts to the UK fans out there. V2 version of the Vamp, as well as Grand Slam. And then name only reveals ah the next legacy i character. So again, this is like the real life heroes line. EMTs, police officers, ah firefighters and such. um This is a avalanche response unit so will go really well with the whole winter theme that they've been crafting over the past year or so and then they showed off a name only reveal for dusty so BMAC and ah Dan Larson will be coming to you live weekly throughout the month so I think that gives us ah four live streams if my math is correctly oh my might actually be five this month because just because of the way that the month works um that I'm not entirely sure of but They will be coming to you weekly on Hasbro Pulse's YouTube channel.
00:06:54
Speaker
And of course, we will make sure that we're covering all of the news as Yojo June rolls on.
Toy Pre-Orders Overview
00:07:01
Speaker
Before I kick it over to Dave, one last thing. um Some other new pre-orders of note that went up on Big Bad Toy Store this week. You have the Mezco 112 Collection Thor, Classic Marvel Thor. You have the next wave of Godzilla ah Ultimates, which look incredible. They include Mechagodzilla and two versions of classic Godzilla, one being the 1954 debut Godzilla. They all look fantastic. Those are up for preorder at Big Bad Toy Store.
00:07:30
Speaker
You also have Zangief from Street Fighter II in Jada's collection. That is up for pre-order. And four new Hasbro the Black Series Star Wars releases based on the Droids cartoon. So you have recolored versions of Boba Fett, the Stormtrooper,
00:07:47
Speaker
R2D2 and C3PO all on um retro card backs inspired by the art of the droid series. ah They look like the old Kenner backs, which is really cool. So um those are all up for pre-order on Big Bad Toy Store. And again, to find those pre-orders, you can go to AICpodcast.com forward slash links.
00:08:10
Speaker
And ah before I kick it over to Dave, Shouts to our friend, newest friend of the pod, um Quaid, who ah who was on the show last week with the Tide Realm Corsairs. The Kickstarter is fully funded. um The pirates are coming to life. Quaid, we are are super excited, super happy for the great news and can't wait to get our pirates in hand. Dave, over to you.
New Wrestling Figures
00:08:37
Speaker
Are you a fellow New York basketball fan looking to celebrate cursing a new enemy? Are you not a New York basketball fan and are looking to curse your enemies? Well, thanks to our friends of the pod at Collect Major, you can do both by getting your hands on the latest Danhausen Big Rubber Guy.
00:08:54
Speaker
This Big Rubber Guyhausen is $49.99 and is available at CollectMajor.com. Danhausen ships in June. Staying in wrestling news, two separate toy lines are about to take things to the extreme.
00:09:09
Speaker
Collect Major has announced the first two extreme big rubber guys. You can relive one of the greatest feuds to grace the corner of Swanson and Rittner with Tommy Dreamer and Raven.
00:09:20
Speaker
Both figures are $49.99. Tommy Dreamer is in stock now, and Raven ships in July. You can get these extreme icons at CollectMajor.com.
00:09:32
Speaker
Zombie Sailor Toys is also going hardcore for Series 6 of the Wrestling Heels and Faces line. This extreme wave contains the following South Philadelphia legends. The
JNL Toys Kickstarter Teaser
00:09:44
Speaker
franchise Shane Douglas, the Queen of Extreme Francine, the Sandman, Too Cold Scorpio, Roadkill, and a first-time figure for Masato Tanaka.
00:09:55
Speaker
This series launches this coming Wednesday, June 10th at 8pm Eastern. Stay tuned to Zombiesailor.com and Zombiesailor social media for more info.
00:10:07
Speaker
Friend of the pod Jason Langston has announced the start of the JNL Toys Icon Collection in a big way. The first figure in the collection is a first-time, officially licensed, 1-12 scale figure of the legendary actor Toshihiro Mifune.
00:10:24
Speaker
The iconic star of some of all-time great director Akira Kurosawa's films like The Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, Rashomon, Yojimbo, and many others will be coming to Kickstarter later this summer.
Closing Remarks
00:10:52
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Hablauwe. This program and many others like it on the Non-Productive Network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.
00:11:20
Speaker
Bye.