Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Staying Home with Toy Shiz: The Social Distancing Toy Collector Edition
406 Plays6 years ago
On this episode, the brothers Weinbrecht welcome their VERY special guest Toy Shiz to the show! Find out how he got started, what's changed about the toy community over the years, how we're all dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it's affecting the toy world. Plus learn about some of the more weird parts of his collection!
Follow Toy Shiz @toyshiz on Instagram & YouTube
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
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
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Tone Setting
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, Dave. Hi, Eric. Hey, Dave. Do we curse on this podcast? Yes, Eric. Yes, we do. Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast.
Bonus Podcast and Etch Man Interview
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:38
Speaker
We're back. We are. Well, it's been an interesting time because we had our first bonus pod last week, which was some additional toy fare coverage. We had that cool little interview with the amazing Etch Man. Yeah, that was really cool.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah, it was, it was really neat, especially on the, you know,
Guest Appearance: Toyshes
00:00:58
Speaker
he was just. Watching him sketch people was crazy, but I'm burying the lead here because we have a very special guest with us today. We do, we do. Um, today's guest needs absolutely no introduction here in the toy world. And chances are, if you're listening to this podcast, you've no doubt watched at least one of his videos on YouTube or, or seen his posts on Instagram. We're of course, of course talking about toyshes.
00:01:22
Speaker
Hello. Thank you for having me on. And yes, you better have all watched at least one episode or else my metrics will tell me otherwise. No, but thank you guys. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for coming. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us, man. Everyone staying healthy and alive. I'm hoping. Yeah. So far, so good. That's good. I think that the name of this episode should be podcasting at home with Tuishas.
Remote Recording Challenges
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:52
Speaker
Healthy podcasting, social podcasting. Yeah, so we were talking just before we pressed record, but this is an interesting episode for Dave and I as well, because we've never done this podcast remotely, and I'm currently sitting in our normal space alone. And Dave is probably trapped in his room somewhere. Oh, as I've been for the past 10 days or so. And I'm actually on the beach in California right now, just chilling out. So it's perfect.
00:02:23
Speaker
I did bring the garbage out today, so that was exciting. I moved the car. That was my exciting adventure today. Oh, I should do that. I'll just flip it onto the other side of the street later, I think. Well, before we dive too deeply into all of the
00:02:43
Speaker
the effects of staying at home on the toy world.
Toy Collecting Highlights
00:02:47
Speaker
But before we dive into all the topics and ask you all the fun, fun questions, we always like to ask our guests, what toys are you really excited about right now? And what's your latest pickup? Oh, well, okay, the latest
00:03:03
Speaker
Latest pickup, Amazon, I didn't think it was coming because, you know, they keep saying, oh, Amazon's not sipping, or shipping non-essentials, but that Venom, the Marvel Legends, the fan channel one, showed up at my door yesterday, so I took a look at him last night. It's a great figure, it's the monster Venom repainted, so it's not a whole heck of a lot different, but
00:03:27
Speaker
I like it. I'm a big Venom fan, so he's very cool. And things I'm excited about coming. I like that new Toei Spider-Man that they showed up, the Japanese Spider-Man. Hell yeah. Yeah, that's really cool. The Emissary from Hell himself. Right? Yeah.
00:03:49
Speaker
Somebody sent me the images and I'm like, finally. You know what I mean? You'd think there'd be a ton of figures for this and there's really not. I think they nailed it. I would have preferred the black mark, the spiderwebs on them. But I think he looks great. I love that iteration of Spider-Man.
00:04:13
Speaker
And I love all the pieces that come with him, too. So the wrist gear, the wearable wrist gear, you can get the mech that he pilots. Yeah. They went full in on that little line. I know. And I'm glad they do that. You know what I mean? Sometimes you get a basic version or something like that. And they go, oh, we decided to do another one. It was version two. And then version three, you're like, oh my god. Just give me the one straight out the gate. I only need one. I don't need five of these things.
00:04:42
Speaker
You
Spider-Man and Power Rangers Connection
00:04:43
Speaker
know what? I'd be willing to bet that there was a little bit of a rise in popularity of that Spider-Man following the toys that made us documentary or the when they showed like the Power Rangers stuff, because I honestly, I had no idea that that thing existed until I watched that episode of the show.
00:05:01
Speaker
It's so interesting to know that whole story that with Power Rangers, with this Spider-Man show, it heavily influences and then Super Sentai. It's like things that you would never think go together, but ultimately you're like, oh yeah, that totally makes sense. I had never known I needed to see that until I saw that it exists. Yeah. It's a bat poop crazy show, but it's amazing.
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah, it is absolutely wild. Absolutely wild. 100% wild. And having SH Figuarts make it, that's the brand that should be making that toy for sure. Yeah. And with it,
00:05:46
Speaker
with the character rumored I mean it's like heavily rumored and I think the director you know posted a teaser about it if I remember correctly but uh for spider verse two I'm sure we will see a lot more of that that's on the docket to make so to speak you know like hey push this
00:06:03
Speaker
character, so I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. I mean, especially with 2099 being the Stinger character, like if they could bring that back too, that would be fantastic. Yeah. Like two
Spider-Man Unlimited Discussion
00:06:15
Speaker
of the best kind of rando Spider-Man. I wouldn't mind a whole 2099 line, like Ghost Rider, Hulk, all those characters that were wild in the 90s. Punisher, the Doom one, like they were all crazy. Yeah.
00:06:29
Speaker
Shit, while we're talking about that, I want the, uh, the ultimate spider, the, um, unlimited spider, spider-man unlimited, the one that was like the pseudo-sequel to the animated series. Yeah. Kind of like a hybrid 2099 looking spider-man show is awful. It's like super weird. And there's like, it's the worst. Yeah, it's not good. It's like, it's like the Island of Dr. Moreau in space. It's very strange.
00:06:54
Speaker
I'll tell you, when I was younger and it was at San Diego Comic Con, it was right after the original Spider-Man the Animated Series had finalized and I was at Comic Con and somebody goes, oh, have you seen that they're doing a sequel to Spider-Man the Animated Series? And I'm like, no way. Because what happens to Mary Jane and all that kind of stuff.
00:07:17
Speaker
They go, oh, it's at the booth. So they point me in the direction to go over the booth. And I remember looking at, they had all the character designs on this wall. And I'm like, what am I? Even as a little kid, I was like, what am I looking at here? They had the Green Goblin. And I'm like, is that the one from the show? And then Spider-Man had a new costume. And I remember the guy telling me about it. He's like, yeah, it's going to be great. He's going to go up against this new
00:07:42
Speaker
Bestial you know what I mean? I'm like what? Yeah, it's bizarre. Yeah
00:07:49
Speaker
It's not very good. No, not at all. People got mad at me. I posted about that. They go, it's like the best show ever. I'm like, are we talking about the same show? You know what I mean? Yeah, when I saw it was on Disney+, I actually, like I'd been watching, you know, standard deaf copies with my daughter showing her, you know, the Spider-Man cartoons. And when I saw that they had added that to Disney+, at launch, I was like, oh, you got to see this. And I remembered it completely different from when I was a kid.
00:08:18
Speaker
And I turned it on and she was like, can we watch the other Spider-Man daddy? Why are you doing this to me? Which is funny because the first ones I went to were Spider-Man and his amazing friends, because that's what I remember. That was my first Spider-Man cartoon. And it's still weird. That one holds up though. It holds up, yeah.
00:08:43
Speaker
And talk about two figures that we need. That would be a hell of a two-pack for Marvel Legends, getting the other two friends. Right. Yeah, wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind actually completing certain teams once in a while. We get them every once in a while, like Alpha Flight and things like that.
00:09:04
Speaker
Yeah, that would be that would make for a great the shelf candy. Yep, for sure. So yeah. So speaking of going back, let's go back to to
Toyshes' Instagram Journey
00:09:13
Speaker
before there was toy shows. How did you start this? Um, honestly, you know, I've worked in, you know, marketing and everything for for quite some time. This was like,
00:09:27
Speaker
I think we're going on almost four years now, something like that, but it was more like, okay, I'll start an Instagram, like a funstagram, you know what I mean? Where you just, here's all my dumb toys that I play with, you know what I mean? And this is what I have. And you just kind of like, oh, show off, I guess you could say.
00:09:46
Speaker
I like to invoke a lot of humor and you never really have to take this stuff too seriously or else it gets really weird. You have to have fun and you've got to be engaging. That's what I try to usually bring to this is just like, here's what's in everybody's collection. Everybody's got different stuff, but it's really cool because sometimes I see a lot of people's photos.
00:10:11
Speaker
and you're like on ebay late at night and you're like I did see that one guy had one I need one you know what I mean so it's cool to see everybody's uh collection so when I started it I had no idea that it would eventually turn into this you know what I mean it turns into like here's news and you start working with different companies and it's I'm very thankful for everything and I appreciate everyone's support and everything else and
00:10:34
Speaker
You know, it's, it's been a blast. I can't, you know, to go from, here's my fun in the Instagram. And then now I'm at toy fair. You know, it's, it's amazing. So very appreciative of that.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, you, you do a great job of, of doing just that, of kind of working that humor into it. I mean, even, even right out of the gate, your, your name, you know, the fact that it's toyshes and it's kind of a play on words and, you know, it looks like the old toy biz logo, like the humor is there at the get go. And I think, you know, I mean, that's one of the reasons why before, you know, Dave and I started this podcast, I, you know, I was following you and getting toy news from you. So, I mean, it's.
00:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was like a Comic Con, maybe the previous San Diego Comic Con with like WWE, the WWE panel, I think was where I was like, oh, I've heard of this account. Yes, I need to watch it. I always joke with the WWE wrestling guys and everything. I'm like, I'm sorry if I ever, because for me, wrestling, I was never butched into wrestling figures. I had some of the older ones from the 80s. My brother had some.
00:11:40
Speaker
I watched it when Stone Cold, The Rock, and everything else, so every time I see a new wrestler, I have to look it up and be like, okay, this is that person's name, because I'm used to, because Stone Cold says so, and The Rock, and Triple H, and all that kind of stuff, which I'm not really doing that anymore, I guess. I try to cover wrestling as best as I can. I always joke around with the Mattel guys, I'm like, do you hate me yet?
00:12:07
Speaker
I mean, I would say it's you do well. That's kind of like where Eric left off too. And it's, you know, that's me picking up kind of the current stuff for him for us. Yeah.
00:12:22
Speaker
Well, I'll ask you in wrestling and all the figures and stuff, have you collected it for like years and years or is it something like relatively new or have you like kind of started and you stop this? You know what I mean? Like because I know there's like I mean, what are they on 107 waves or something like that now or? Yeah, 107 of the basic and I think it's like 75 of the elite. And I'm just back into it.
00:12:46
Speaker
when those retro ones came out, the ones that looked like the old Hasbro ones. Oh, yeah. And then now that those don't exist anymore, just picked up back onto the elites. But my wrestling figure shopping was for actually for Eric when when he was younger. Hmm.
00:13:03
Speaker
Yeah, I was big into the, really into those Jax, those Jax Pacific waves, you know, like the first ones, the bone crunch in action, I think they were, was where the lines, but yeah. But like back, same thing, back when like, you know, we still had Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels and Triple H and Stone Cold and Rocky Maivia, you know, before he was even The Rock, like that was really the heyday for me. So I can relate a lot to what, you know, what you're saying when it comes to wrestlers, especially
00:13:32
Speaker
When we went to Toy Fair, unfortunately, Dave couldn't be there both days. I was there Saturday and he was there with me on Sunday. Of course, Saturday was the day that we had the appointment at Jazzwares. He's hardcore prepping me before I went into the booth because I hadn't even walked by it. He's like, do you know what the wrestlers look like? Do you know which ones are going to be there? Thankfully,
00:13:54
Speaker
They had a piece of paper on the wall outside that showed you which wrestlers are going to be there. And I just sent him a picture of it. I was like, I think I can manage. I got nice. Yeah. That's all you need. As long as they got posted pieces of paper, you're set. You just wing it. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. I know all about the stone rock and Steve Austin and all that. Of course. Yeah. But yeah, for me, it was mostly pops up before that, before I got back into like the Mattels and stuff. Oh, okay.
00:14:24
Speaker
I mean, I do talk about them every once in a while. Usually the ones that I think are like cool because there's thousands of those things and they pop up, there's like a new one every day. Like here's Monday's seven pops that we designed, but I never have gotten into pops. I have one or two, they've been like gifts and stuff that I've kept, but I know people love those things and they, you know, I can appreciate a good looking design toy all the time. I can confirm it escalates quickly.
00:15:12
Speaker
But, you know, there are, you know, it's a great point because like companies out there like Funko, you know, you have these kind of shared licenses across these different brands and there's so many different aspects of the industry to cover. So like when you're mixing in humor and then all of a sudden you kind of have this journalistic, you know, pseudo like marketing role with the account, you know, how, how does that like, how does that develop?
00:15:20
Speaker
It escalates to the point where you can't stack it anymore and it falls over. That's how quickly it escalates.
Creating Engaging Content
00:15:37
Speaker
How do you go from being the guy making jokes about stuff that's on your shelf to the guy that's breaking stories for literally the internet? I don't really have an answer. I don't know. Let's say working for an old marketing agency, I was the guy that would literally call up models and schedule them and then do craft services table and organize photo shoots and stuff.
00:16:07
Speaker
it kind of developed from it. You kind of have to have like this, like I call it like Hollywood kind of like, Hey, yeah, you gotta, you gotta use, gotta be engaging. You don't want to write like, Hey, it's Spider-Man and he's coming out. You know what I mean? Like, Oh, okay. You want to be able to, to tell everyone real quick, you know what I mean? Like here's Spider-Man, here's a, you know, the price that doesn't always work. I don't really like to talk about price slot because that changes so often. You know what I mean? Especially when, uh, you know, a major thing that I like to post about is when their sales and
00:16:38
Speaker
My main thing is helping people locate those things. I like when saving people money because there's so many good things, but if you can save cash, that's all the more important I feel. You don't have to blow a bunch of money on $80 figures when they're going to end up being like $5 at Ross. We've all been there, I'm sure. No, I've always said it's important that if you want to catch people's attention, you just got to be clever or
00:17:07
Speaker
at least let them know that you know what you're talking about. A lot of people, when I write something, they'll say, oh, no, it's this. And I'm like, I don't really know how to answer you because I've never heard what you're talking about. And then sometimes I'll go look it up, too. And I'll go, I can't find what you're looking for, or else I'll go, oh, I guess there's that one instance that I think, what did I call? I posted about the McFarlane Arkham Knight.
00:17:36
Speaker
Figure and they go. Oh, no, it's Arkham Asylum Batman. It's not Arkham Knight. I'm like, I know I was trying to be like You know like Dark Knight. Yes No, you can't say it's a completely different costume. Like alright video game Batman it is Yeah, I actually saw that comment and I was just like oh, come on you don't understand a good play on words guy like Come on, just leave them alone but in all honesty like when I do talk about
00:18:02
Speaker
Things like that like I'll go it's for me in my head. It's the video game Batman. You know what I mean? Like it's If you saw that costume and any variation, I would go that's from the arc of night series That's from rock steady games and blah blah blah, but that's the quick for me. I don't need to go too crazy with you know, I mean again and taking it too seriously like Come on, you know what I'm talking about
00:18:27
Speaker
Well, I mean, that's that's one of the one of the downsides of being on the Internet and being noticed, right? You're going to you're going to get the people that are going to nitpick and troll a little bit like it's going to happen. You know, being out with with friends sometimes and, you know, somebody will write something and I'm just like, yeah, this is what I'm dealing with today. And they'll all laugh. They're like, I don't even know what that means. I'm like, good. I'm glad you don't. I do.
00:18:51
Speaker
For better or for worse, I understand. Yeah, right? Consider yourself lucky. A lot of my, I'll be honest, a lot of my friends, they have. I mean, this is something I've always enjoyed. I like, you know, nerdy stuff. A lot of my friends don't. So when they go, you know, they come over, they go, oh, wow, look at all this, these toys in your collection. That's amazing. You know, and they always are curious. They want to know more, but as soon as they walk out, they're like, so what do you want to do today? You know what I mean?
00:19:20
Speaker
Yeah, they leave your hobby at your door. Yeah, and that's totally fine with because it's it's you know, I think over a lot of people, including me, it's like it's your own personal time. This is your space. And you can dwell on it, have fun. And then you just you can leave and go do other things. So the thing that I get that I love, actually, that I actually do love is people come up to me. Oh, check out what I just got. And they'll like show me a picture of something. And, you know, it's like, oh, that's awesome. So that, you know, bringing that
00:19:50
Speaker
out of people has been fun. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you know, people send me stuff a lot. They go, Oh, look at this. I got the mail. And sometimes I love when people send me like really old stuff or things that I don't have, you know, and they're like, look what I got. I'm like, Hey, that's, that's a nice, nice score you got there. You know what I mean? So I enjoy thoroughly.
00:20:12
Speaker
You know, even like, I think, you know, everyone's main thing today or the last couple of days has been the new GI Joe from Hasbro. They're all getting steak eyes, but everyone kind of takes the photo in a different way and it's fun. You know what I mean? And people send videos of unboxing.
00:20:26
Speaker
You know, it's, everyone gets to be who they want to be and just have fun with it. You know what I mean? And that's, that's what I like to see. And the other thing that's interesting too, with like the, the flood of photos. So whether it's, you know, uh, snake eyes now, um, you know, red Hulk, you know, a couple of weeks ago, it's interesting. It's interesting to see people taking photos of that figure.
00:20:50
Speaker
with other figures, right? Because you kind of have an idea of scale and how they look next to other stuff. But people have some weird shit in their collection. And when you see that figure next to something that you don't see every day, it gives you a different perspective of like, whoa, OK, awesome. So that's how that would look with that. And that's one of the things that's so cool about your kind of flow of Instagram stories is the way that you share those photos, it really gives you some insight into like,
00:21:18
Speaker
either A, oh, I've never thought to pose that thing like this, or B, I need that in my collection now, because I didn't know it existed. And sometimes, from collecting as long as I have, a lot of times if you're messing with a joint or something like that and you go, okay, no, I know better, years and years of doing this,
00:21:42
Speaker
If you push too hard on stuff, it's going to break off. Well, for instance, the other day when I did, I talked about the rocketeer figure from Diamond Select, I was pulling on the jet pack and I go, nope, that's not going anywhere. I watched somebody else's review and they got it off. I'm like, good to know that it comes off. I tried it myself, pops right back on.
00:22:05
Speaker
It's helpful to really watch other people, because you miss a lot of things. As detailed as you think you are, you're going to miss stuff no matter what. And that's what's kind of fun is seeing other people. And then I go like, oh, I guess I could have pulled a little bit harder, you know what I mean? Like, point of almost breaking the pack off, but whatever.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah, I'm always worried about that too, especially with, um, uh, some of the McFarland figures. So like, I just got the, the scorpion cause I wanted something to eventually pause, uh, pose with spawn when, when he comes in the mail. So I got the scorpion figure and I'm, I was trying for the life of me to get his, um, his like scabbard into his belt.
00:22:46
Speaker
And it just was not going in and I was like, well, I guess it's this is just it's not happening and then I went on YouTube and found a video of somebody doing a review of him and Showed like how very specifically you have to like notch it in and as soon as I saw the video I was like, oh Didn't think that it would ever have plugged in like that. Yeah
00:23:07
Speaker
goes that was that's even like when opening stuff like when I opened up that Eric saw this when I opened up the Jewish and Thunder Liger Storm Collectibles figure, his arm came off. I'm like, oh, this just goes right back in. But like, you know, at first, the first time you open something, it's like, yep, this is made of glass. And yeah, to be careful when I open it. Now, if you watched how I just like rip through elites, it's just like how
00:23:34
Speaker
How do they come out of the package that way? And it's just, you know, they do, you know, it's this is how you open it. That rocketeer and the Tron figures might be what finally gets me into those diamond figures because those are unbelievable. Yeah, the the rocketeer that, you know, they showed that off at Comic Con last year. And I remember talking to the Diamond Select guys and going like.
00:23:58
Speaker
That's what I want to see. With Marvel Legends and the Star Wars and everything else that you're used to, you know they're going to deliver good stuff. But it's when you see that really odd-end movie, The Rocketeer, who not a lot of people know about, even to this day. But I was a huge fan of that when I was a little kid. And to have that figure, I got the Funko one before this one showed up.
00:24:24
Speaker
Just to kind of look at it in general because I heard so many good things and bad things about the Funko But I like the more obscure type figures these days You know what I mean like a lot of what naked does a lot of what McFarland does you know with with especially the video game stuff? I don't know anything about cyberpunk 2077, but the figures look rad. You know I mean that and that's really all Sometimes it all really matters is maybe you don't need to know about the property itself But if you have a really cool looking figure
00:24:53
Speaker
cares you know the rocketeer is definitely one of those oh yeah absolutely it's just i mean there's some of the the kind of detailing that goes into the diamond stuff is unreal the gum on the backpack was a awesome touch oh yeah that was super cool it's it's those little things like that and a lot of and i was on one of those people because i was like oh he doesn't have his uh
00:25:19
Speaker
Gun, you know, but even in the movie he has it for like a split second anyways, but it kind of completes the look But I understand, you know a lot of you know, Disney's mandate, you know characters can't have guns I get it but he comes with a trigger finger hand so You could go and you're actually figure box pile or whatever all the accessories I'm sure you know, we all have a red skull somewhere so like that He's got plenty of those types of guns. So and it works, you know, I mean it
00:25:46
Speaker
As long as that hand was there, you can make it work around those sort of limitations. And I like what Diamond does. So we were talking before about just some of the comments and things like that.
Information's Impact on Collecting
00:26:00
Speaker
You've been doing this for a few years. How have you noticed the community change as far as collecting goes?
00:26:07
Speaker
I don't know if I'd necessarily say it's changed in a huge difference, but I know that just more with the flow of information, and one of the things that I try to really emphasize is I don't have a website. A lot of amazing toy sites do, and you can go on there and you have message boards. I strive to be more like if you're driving home and you see something I post and you're like, oh, Target's right.
00:26:34
Speaker
off the, you know, off ramp right there, I could go, you could get every, you know, have the barcode or have the DPCI or SKU or wherever, what store you're going to, and just kind of make it more accessible. You know what I mean? And, and that is what I hope is helping, you know, just with people finding their stuff. I get a lot of people saying, you know, thank you so much. I didn't know this was coming out. You know, I didn't know where to preorder this.
00:26:57
Speaker
And that's also a big thing too, is that, you know, while majority of people have been collecting toys for years and years, you do get a large number of people that, let's say, for example, like the NECA Ninja Turtles stuff, never collected like a NECA figure, don't know what the company is, yada, yada. They go, I saw these Ninja Turtles. Can you help me find them? And I go, oh yeah, you know, Target.
00:27:20
Speaker
for these, Walmart for these, online, blah, blah, blah, they go, oh, thank you. So hopefully just in saying not a huge change, but I guess the change in how information is shared and so readily available, that's how I hope that the landscape has changed in recent years.
00:27:39
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like like leak culture has kind of dominated the internet, you know, whether it's product leak, whether it's, you know, set photo leak, you know, there's just kind of this, um, we, we actually talked about it with, uh, with Greg Gregory Titus, the, the guy who does the box art for the black series figures. And, you know, he was saying that, you know, it's, it's like a culture of, of leaking stuff and kind of controlling that. And, you know, it's, some of them are.
00:28:08
Speaker
Intentional some of them are actual leaks and it could be challenging to be reporting stuff during that time because you know at the same time You know, we're collectors, right? You know We want to make sure that we're doing what's right by the companies that are producing the stuff that we're collecting So it's a sometimes I feel like it's a it's a dangerous line to tow It's it's something that and in all honesty I have I myself in in the things that I present I have
00:28:37
Speaker
made it a priority to change a bit in not like you know you hear stuff a lot and you hear it like months in advance but to I guess in a way like kind of you would say ruin it for the company maybe they have like a big rollout you don't need something that they've working hard and everything else so you have to keep that in mind at least that's what I do from now on you know I can't always say I did that because I you know starting out I was like oh this is exciting but you get to know these people that work in
00:29:07
Speaker
the industry and it's more for, yes, you could talk about, I label it as like spoilers or something like that, but I always say take it with a grain of salt because you never know what can happen, what can change, things change all the time. We see it all the time. You know what I mean? Oh, I heard this is going to go well.
00:29:29
Speaker
Maybe I always say, well, maybe we'll see what happens, especially with like a new Hasbro, uh, has lab, the Sentinel or, you know, whatever it's going to be, of course. Uh, but, um, you know, a lot of people, Oh, it's this, this, this is like, well, step to wait and see, especially with the landscape of the world right now, we may not see this in time. You know, we may not see a lot of things, uh, in time for, for the time being. So everything's kind of on hold.
00:29:59
Speaker
I think the other thing that you bring up too, that's like a really good point is we've gotten to the point where everything is in so many different places that it is a bit difficult at times to kind of figure out what is coming out where. Yeah, it I mean, as you guys well aware, I mean, it's what is it? It's only
00:30:23
Speaker
It's almost April and how many Marvel Legends figures waves are out or how many different, every company is nailing it. Not one company is dropping the ball. There's so much good stuff and it's continuous. Every week, like you said, last, let's see, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, it was Red Hulk. Now this week is like Snake Eyes. Every week is like a new figure, new company of what they're rolling out. But that's really fun to just,
00:30:52
Speaker
You know, that's that's the figure of the week, per se. So speaking of speaking of a figure that's been been causing a lot of waves, actually, you had a recent very successful giveaway with McFarland toys and their their new very, very highly sought after spawn figure. I've never heard of this. What are you talking about? That's a weird the Mortal Kombat 11 spawn. I couldn't I have no idea this is news to me.
00:31:22
Speaker
So, so in case you missed it, which if you did, I'm deeply sorry. Go back and watch the YouTube videos because you did a great job with them, especially seeing those old spawn figures. They're great. Thank you. I immediately went on YouTube or went on eBay to try to find that clown four figure because it's unbelievable that like pizza box and everything unreal. Yeah, that one. I have a few other
00:31:48
Speaker
clown figures, I mean, they progressively got better. I think four is my favorite, but it's also the best one because was it clown? I think it's clown five. He's like shoeless and he's the way he's posed. This one is just like kind of like a, it's a good pre-posed clown. It works with a lot of things and he can hold stuff.
00:32:11
Speaker
That's why. It was kind of hard picking which spawn figures to do because there's so many great ones, but I was like, let's do some villains. You know, if everyone's going to have this Mortal Kombat 11 spawn, then I'm going to go back and tell them like, Hey, if you're missing now, Bolger or Violator or clown or Jason wins something like that. Like these work with this new figure. So go back and, and get them because there's no sense in waiting for them to make new ones when there's already these great ones out already. Yep.
00:32:40
Speaker
I just remember overkill being like the heaviest figure of all time. Oh, yeah. And especially, yeah, the big one overkill to the one I looked at, like he's massive. And in my video, I was telling everybody, like, this is what you got for 20 bucks. And sometimes on clearance, you know, there's a there's a head of their head of their time, so to speak. And, you know, using that kind of loosely because it was a great time, especially for toys back in the day. But
00:33:08
Speaker
Articulation wasn't where people would necessarily want it these days, but growing up in that era,
00:33:18
Speaker
articulation to me is always second. If the character looks like what it's supposed to look like, that's what matters the most. And those definitely did. And I think what was it? Eric, I think you had it where his head popped out. Yeah, the the original overkill from like that first wave, he had a button on his back and his head would launch out like a rocket. And it was it came out with like velocity.
00:33:44
Speaker
And those toys were like LJ and Andre the Giant Heavy, you know, like, oh, it was like a brick. Each one was like a brick in a package. Basically, it was different. I remember, you know, seeing the clams, the original clamshell ones were I can't remember them seeing them on the store shelves, let's say like Target. But it was like when they did.
00:34:03
Speaker
Like the series four or five you start seeing more and like retail and things and you know You start going like oh like that's a lot of stuff. I think they were a big Suncoast video thing by us Yep, that's that's where I remember getting mine was video. Yeah. Oh, yeah, most Tower Records The warehouse yeah, cuz none of the actual like toy retailers wanted to carry them because they were super violent and scary and weird and you know, yeah, I remember
00:34:34
Speaker
When I was a little kid, I was with my grandmother and I got the gravedigger. And then like a week or two later, the planet of the symbiotes came out. I think if that timing is right, but I remember my grandmother saying, like, why do you like all this weird, like evil stuff? And I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, it's cool. I'm like, look, this one's got its tongue out. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's, it's appealing to kids, but I don't think retailers knew exactly the, the,
00:35:01
Speaker
storyline behind Spawn a lot of the times. I remember hearing a story even about the animated series, Fox Kids, if I'm not mistaken, wanted to do Spawn, the animated series, Saturday morning. Todd McFarlane was in an interview saying, have you guys watched Spawn before? Do you know what Spawn comics are about and everything else? It just doesn't work. What kind of cartoon could you possibly get out of that? That's why HBO
00:35:29
Speaker
just nailed it. You could do everything in anything in that format. You could do anything on HBO. Yeah. That was a great series. It really was. So how did that contest with McFarlane and WB Games? How did that come up? I will say that, I mean, it's nice talking with certain people in different companies and such. And one thing that's really funny to me, and I'll just say this loosely,
00:35:59
Speaker
for people that you grow up with, especially in like grade school, high school and stuff, you know, relationships matter and you never know when those are gonna come up again, just FYI. So I will say just that in a mysterious way that, you know, it worked out and in knowing people in that industry. So it went off without a hitch and I thank you everyone who watched. I mean, we gave out two
00:36:24
Speaker
full platinum Mortal Kombat games. We gave away two signed Spawn figures, which was amazing. Just in talking with the McFarlane toys, it was something we had kind of talked about. And then it was like, well, let's do two of them. And I was like, all right. And they're going to sign it? That's amazing. You know what I mean? So yeah, I couldn't have asked for a better thing, especially
00:36:47
Speaker
now with what's going on in the world, just a little bit of a break and having something fun to do, I think is very meaningful.
COVID-19 and Social Media's Role
00:36:55
Speaker
I know a lot of companies are doing giveaways now and everything else. It's nice that everyone's just helping each other and just having some fun as best as we can because the world is the worst right now.
00:37:11
Speaker
Well, I mean, right now it really is a super weird time to, to literally do, um, anything, whether, whether it's, it's, uh, you know, get food or, you know, something so trivial, trivial as go into a toil and see if there's something in stock.
00:37:29
Speaker
Um, and we've seen, you know, you, as soon as Instagram launched kind of their, their stay home, stay at home, um, sticker and platform and that, that kind of whole message. Um, we saw that you jumped in and we instantly were like, that is a fantastic idea. And like.
00:37:44
Speaker
you know, started adopting it and, you know, trying to make it as forward as possible because it is important and, you know, it's global. This is really like in, I feel like in our generation, this is really the first kind of like global thing that is impacting everybody like this and is dangerous and people for whatever reason are not listening. Yeah. And I say this in like the most humble way possible. It's like, it's something you have to learn that, you know,
00:38:12
Speaker
When you get to a certain point of saying, you know, you can influence people, quote, unquote, oh, this toy came out, go buy it. You learn that whatever you write has impact. And, you know, for me to continue to say, yeah, like, send me your store finds, like, it's actively promoting people going out, you know, oh, this is okay. It's not okay. This isn't serious at this point. So that's why I was like, okay,
00:38:41
Speaker
No more, and I'm not doing this as a popularity. This is a real thing. Do not go out unless you have to work or get food or essentials, something like that. I appreciate everyone who always sends me their store finds and stuff, but until this is over with, I can go out. I'm feeling it. I have target fatigue. I'm getting the shakes. I hear you.
00:39:09
Speaker
So it's just my way of doing it. If you're going to go out, I mean, I'm not going to get upset with you. It's not my business. But you know better, or at least I hope so. Don't go out looking for toys. Don't blow a bunch of money. You know what I mean? If you don't have it, just save your money. Just stay home, enjoy with what you have. And I'm sure a lot of us have tons of stuff.
00:39:38
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, it's it's one of those things where like, I feel like if you have any sort of platform right now in any field, in any sort of social media influencing field, it's it's like almost like a duty at this point to make sure that, you know, you are sending that message and making sure that
00:40:00
Speaker
you know, even a small audience that listens to you comparatively is doing the right thing. And, you know, I'm happy to say that, you know, since you've started posting stuff like that, I've seen a whole lot less, at least in our feed of people, you know, taking pictures of things in Target and Walmart and stuff like that. I don't know if you're seeing the same thing. No, I am. Yeah. And I'm actually glad because all in all honesty, you know what I mean?
00:40:28
Speaker
If they're setting less, then hopefully that means you're not going out. You know what I mean? And that's a good thing. At least till we see how this is going to go. Now, we've heard, okay, two weeks. We'll give it two weeks. I think, what, April 12th? I mean, I can't say either way on how that's going to go, but don't get your hopes up about anything. I mean, this could get incredibly worse or it could get better.
00:40:53
Speaker
but just enjoy what you have at home and talk to your friends and your family. I've talked to so many people on the phone and it's like a break from reality in a sense. You can relax at home to the best of your ability and get stuff done. I've been doing yard work for the last couple of days. I go outside every day, clean the yard. Just do the things and then you come back to collecting and we'll be better than ever.
00:41:20
Speaker
Well, you know, it's funny. You, you started, um, you started that collect at home, uh, kind of hashtag that people were hopping on and it gave me an idea. I, I, you know, my daughter's school is closed. I'm I'm working from home. So my, my lunch breaks are basically, you know, just family time at this point. So I took her into the basement and, um, grabbed one of my old bins of like just kind of random toys that I had saved and
00:41:46
Speaker
her eyes lit up and she was she it was like taking her to a toy aisle and you know breathing life back into my like original toy biz incredible Hulk like the old old ones the you know Captain America some of my old Batman the animated series figures she found my my Batman returns Batmobile the one where like he hit the button and it splits into three pieces oh yeah
00:42:13
Speaker
So like she is loving all of these toys to the point where like her new toys that she, you know, has gotten over the past couple of years, she's not playing with them. She's playing with my old stuff. And I, I love the idea of just kind of like, you don't, some people, you know, pack stuff away, you forget what you have and you know, this gives you a chance to go back and enjoy it again. So, you know.
00:42:36
Speaker
I love the message and I hope other people really are catching on to it and discovering the weird old stuff in their collections. Yeah. Well, thank you for saying that. I'm so glad that you guys were able to do that and she could enjoy that. That means a lot. I have been seeing a lot of people doing that very thing. Oh, I went in my basement and I found this old box or I opened this thing. It's been on my shelf for years.
00:43:03
Speaker
an old invaders in figure the other day because it's been it's been sitting there and I'm like how fitting now to open up a germ fighting invaders it you know I mean it's like it's it's everyone I think it does does you good to kind of just slow down it like I said it Red Hulk was last week spawn was the week before you know I mean like it's important and I get to that point too there's so much stuff that
00:43:29
Speaker
back in the day, you'd open something and you get to play with it for a bit and then you got to wait six months for the next round of Spider-Man toy biz figures to come out or something like that. You have this time to enjoy them and that's where a lot of my memories come from too, especially when I do old retro shoes videos. If I have a good memory I can share or something like that, I like to do that because
00:43:51
Speaker
you had a lot of time to kind of dwell on it whereas today life goes so like so fast you know and this is coming out and now the new spider-man now the batman you know it's like everyone just like slows down just a bitch for the time being even if it's just for another month or so like at least we got this time to all kind of you know see how things were in a slower capacity so
00:44:15
Speaker
So you I mean, that invader Zim find is a is a find and a half. But what are some of the kind of more bizarre, weirder kind of eclectic things that you've come across as you've been finding your old stuff? You know what? I pulled out some real monster figures the other day. Yes. I don't I don't have them all. So I've been kind of like
00:44:43
Speaker
going on, you know, sites and stuff like trying to collect them all. Who was the guy that was basically just armpits and legs and held his arms? Crumb. Crumb. K-R-U-M-B-B or something like that. Ickis and Oblina. Like the line, I remember the line being, I got them at Toys R Us and I remember I bought them because I didn't, there was no new Spider-Man figures out. I'm like, wow, I got to buy something obviously with this gift card.
00:45:11
Speaker
that I got, because you find money in your hand when you're a kid and you've just got to blow it. But I mean, I'm glad I still have the ones that I have. And Crumb actually, his armpits smell, which is awesome. And each one has a, it's gone, it used to be terrible. I remember opening up the box and it was like, they put something in there. It was kind of like a stink ore. I was going to say stink ore, yeah.
00:45:39
Speaker
So it's probably along the same thing, but it's, I mean, I don't think, I can't tell you the last time, I don't think any companies really do that anymore. But it's, each one had like a function, you know what I mean? Like, oh, Blyna kind of expands and Ickes' mouth opening, his eyes get all red. So they're cool toys, you know what I mean? And it's something that's, I mean, when was the last time anybody talked about all real monsters, you know what I mean? Like, I would like to see that come back. That was a fun, interesting show.
00:46:09
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I guess, uh, off the top of my head, those were ones that I pulled out. Uh, I got a lot of weird stuff. I'm like looking around my office right now. I'm like, uh, I don't know. Ghostbusters. Well, even those are coming back. Yeah. Yeah. The, um, both in the real Ghostbusters form and those new, uh, the new, uh, Hasbro ones, the, uh, the six inch guys, the real ones are awesome. Like I, I'm considering.
00:46:38
Speaker
Oh, you're talking about the Walmart re-releases, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Seeing those on display, just being at the Hasbro thing with the Ghostbusters set up and stuff, I was like, wow.
00:46:52
Speaker
This is, Ghostbusters to me like is probably like, you know, like I was totally like, that's my go to like, I'll take everything Ghostbusters. It's just, that's where all my memories, you know, growing up and collecting toys and, and everything else kind of starts. But to see that at toy fair again, you're like, Oh, wow, this and especially the real Ghostbusters all lined up and everything else. That's really cool. So
00:47:16
Speaker
So I have to ask you, um, what's, what's, what's coming from choices? Anything, anything fun in the works that we should keep an eye out for? Um, well, I'll tell you a lot of stuff is a little bit on hold, just in sense of, um, like any more giveaways for just a sec until things go back to normal. Um, but, uh, as far as what I'm doing, um, just as like a solo entity, uh, you know, I'll have tons of video. I mean, I get at work.
00:47:45
Speaker
in the mornings and I work a little bit in the evenings and stuff. In the time between, I'll find a time to do a video or I do one at night for bed or something like that. There's a lot of time to do a lot of stuff right now, so I'd say take advantage of it. In that sense, you all have tons more videos coming, in the sense of collected home and stuff.
00:48:07
Speaker
There's not a lot of new toys to be had at the moment. The Marvel Legends Black Widow stuff came out. That's right around when this whole thing started happening. I was like, I don't want to go outside right now. The heck with this. Those toys can wait. There's so many things in my collection that I want to go over. If you guys have any suggestions or any toy lines, you know what I mean?
00:48:29
Speaker
That's what I like to do. I like to say, you know, what do you guys want to see? And I look at YouTube a lot too, because I love watching other people's videos and going like, oh, they had the same kind of experience or they like this figure. And usually I do a lot of toys that have never shown up on YouTube before. So that's my contribution sometimes to those one or two people that want to see that video. I would love to see more of that more of that, uh, our real monster stuff. Okay. All right. Definitely do that. That sounds wild.
00:49:00
Speaker
I'll tell you what, I'll definitely do that. I got like one or two left to get and then, cause I love to do like, I like doing full collections usually, like when it's a small, cause there's only, there's like seven total that they ever released. A bunch of stuff didn't get made. I don't think the line did too well, but they're interesting. You know, there's, they're well sculpted. They're interesting toys. So I will definitely put them on the list.
00:49:26
Speaker
And for those out there that do not know where to find you, which I can't imagine anybody who's listening to this doesn't know where to find you, but remind our listeners, where can they find you? I make it real easy every time. It's Instagram, Facebook, what am I, YouTube, Snapchat, if I still run that, I don't know anymore. Just toy shoes, T-O-Y-S-H-I with a Z.
00:49:50
Speaker
And, uh, I just thank you guys for having me on. This has been an absolute blast. Thank you so much for joining us today. You know, really appreciate it. And, um, like always, we'll keep an eye on everything that you're doing and can't wait to see what comes next. Thank you and stay safe out there. Just be healthy. All that, all that jazz. And hopefully, uh, we can all meet up at Target one of these days.
00:50:15
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:50:32
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
00:50:55
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. 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.
00:51:25
Speaker
you