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The Plunderbeaks Have Landed! A Chat with Ricky from Plunderlings!
160 Plays1 day ago
SURPRISE! The latest addition to the plunderverse are here! Friend of the pod and returning guest, founder of Plunderlings himself, Ricky is back to show off his new feathered friends. Get the full download!
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Adventures in Collecting'
00:00:03
Speaker
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. I'm Eric.
00:00:15
Speaker
And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Where we talk toy news, culture and hauls. Along with our journeys as collectors.
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Hi, Dave. Hi, everyone. Hi, Eric. How's it going? I'm good. How are you?
00:00:40
Speaker
You're back in the you're back in the blue void. It's like that time when when John Oliver was in the was in the void and the void was in his like basement. Yeah. Or whatever room in his house.
00:00:51
Speaker
Yeah. I see you're murdering your thirst. I am. So that's good. That's good. Orange today. Well, let me take care of some housekeeping while you clear the, uh, the plunder frog from your throat.
Annual Holiday Giveaway Details
00:01:05
Speaker
um we've got, uh, we've got our, our annual holiday giveaway is live over on Instagram. in there So there's a, there's a lot in here. There's a lot in here for you to win. I'm not going to read off, uh, everything that's in here, but, um, I will call attention to the fact that, uh, some of our, our favorite, uh, toy lines of the year are represented here, um, in this, uh, in this giveaway. as well as a hundred dollar gift card donated by, uh, by friend of the pod friend of the toy community, D Blake makes. So there is a hundred dollar gift card in there for you to spend at the D Blake makes a shop.
00:01:45
Speaker
Get, get all the the signs and, and he's got accessories for toys. He's got, he's got all kinds of things in that shop. So you've got a hundred dollars to spend there, which, which you would have seen some of at legions con.
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. ah There's also some store exclusives in there. So there's exclusives from Ringside, Fanatics, the Tamashi Nations New York store. um Yeah, lots of lots of really cool stuff in there. And you have until the end of the month to enter to win this. So the smallest bop it.
00:02:19
Speaker
Uh, 1231. So you literally have until these the last day of the year to enter. And that is at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram.
00:02:30
Speaker
Uh, you can head on over there, look for the pinned post and, um, and enter to win this entire holiday in a box. So, uh, yeah, follow the rules on there. you have until 1231 to enter. We will announce the winner in the new year. Literally. You will find out in 2026 if you won.
Toy Line of the Year Tournament
00:02:47
Speaker
um also while you're on our instagram keep an eye out we have begun the tournament the the archie tournament the fifth annual tour tournament to to crown the uh the toy line of the year so uh we are it do we have completed round two as of the recording of of this how this say by the time this airs we might be pretty deep Round two has not been revealed. Round two will have the round two results will have been revealed by the time this, this airs and will probably be ah in round three or four.
00:03:21
Speaker
So um just keep, keep an eye out on, on Instagram again, that's at AIC underscore podcast ah to, to vote in the stories and help, help determine who is the, ah what you think is the best toy line of, of 2025.
00:03:36
Speaker
um I think that is it in terms of housekeeping at as of this moment.
Interview with Ricky from Plunderlings
00:03:43
Speaker
So ah I think it's time to bring on our guest. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned Legion or i you mentioned D. Blake makes because I talked to him at Legion's Con and I talked to today's guest at Legion's Con. Eric, take it away.
00:03:58
Speaker
Yeah, so a returning returning guest, friend of the pod, um I would like to say that we've been down since day one with ah with our our guest ah from from small beginnings and and and massively successful Kickstarters to just straight up reaching the point where he can drop a a new product in stock, shipping in time for the holidays. Shadow drop as they call it in the video game world.
00:04:26
Speaker
Yeah, shadow drop. I like hot drop. Is our hot drop still a thing? It's like a sneaker drop. Yeah, it's like a sneaker drop. Yeah, this is a beak drop is what it is. This is this is a beak drop. um We're going. So, of course, our guest needs no real introduction. This is ah this. It's always it's always a pleasure chatting with ah with Ricky from the world of Plunderlings. Ricky.
00:04:52
Speaker
Plunder Beak himself. Welcome. Welcome back to the show, buddy. Hi, Eric. Thank you. Thank you guys for for having me on. Yeah, man, it's like I said, it's it's always a pleasure. And this was a shock to even us. Like we let, you know, again, peek behind the curtain. We we talk outside of your appearances on on the show, and we didn't even know that this was was dropping, um which I love when we still get surprised by things that that's always that's always fun. You kind of left it as like an illusory like soon at Legion's Con, but
00:05:26
Speaker
Didn't know how soon, so yeah pretty awesome. It was a surprise to me too, to be honest. It was kind of one of those ah ah impulsive decisions ah that that were made. and i'm a little nervous about it because it's also the first time i'm doing it without a Kickstarter. um and so But I'm trying something different. and And yeah, basically I had it in stock and I thought, you know, try to get people before the holiday starts might be might be more fun than than waiting for a Kickstarter.
00:05:54
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, they they are here, man. So the Plunderbeaks are officially here. They are, as you said, in stock for the holidays at plunderlings.com.
Innovative Design of Plunderbeak Figures
00:06:05
Speaker
But outside of the kind of obvious avian theme of of these three new figures, what really makes the Plunderbeak different from a Plunderling, a Plunderlong, or a Plunderstrong? And tell us a little bit about kind of what Gap ah these guys fill in your in your story? Yeah, I mean, there's two sides. i mean, there's ah there's a mechanical, technical side that I think makes it different and interesting compared to everything else that we're offering. And then there's, I can get into to my headcanon and lore stuff that hasn't really been put out there as much. But mechanically, basically the wings, I think add a lot to it. I've always really liked it.
00:06:49
Speaker
toys with wings, but was kind of frustrated with the different options that ah existed. So more than anything, I was excited to try my hand at making a interesting, fun, articulated wings. And I went through a lot of iterations. I can show you a couple here that I have ah with prototypes. But um yeah, I retooled them three times before before I ended up with the with wings that actually thought that worked.
00:07:13
Speaker
But here, I'll just show it real quick here. So this is the first Iteration was pretty straightforward, but it's just ah two ball joints here. And then i decided to, that it would be interesting to have them be able to like, ah and and the whole point with these ball joints, by the way is that they're modular.
00:07:28
Speaker
So you could make the wings smaller. which is one of my biggest complaints about Toy Sims. You don't have all that shelf space and sometimes you want the wings to be able to fold up on itself and sometimes you'd like them to be bigger. And also they add a lot of weight to the figure as well that makes it top heavy.
00:07:42
Speaker
So try add different things. And then the second version, ah which again was retooling, so it it was quite expensive, but I was was really trying to hard get it right. I just lifted the the bottom one up and then so this could articulate like that.
00:07:57
Speaker
um And then i think it was at ah San Diego Comic-Con. I was showing it to June and also Wade from Unparalleled Universe was there. He asked about doing double ball joints, something that been thinking about, but I was worried that maybe pieces would be too small.
00:08:11
Speaker
But we ended up trying that. And what's interesting about that is that you kind of can do both. So it can fold in over itself like that. yeah Or you can like have it half on, half in two different directions. So you can also have...
00:08:24
Speaker
the the like accordion ah possibility. And because it's double jointed, it could completely fold over itself as well. And so it's got a lot of options. But then the issue with this one is that all the weight relied on this very last double ball joint. And it just like when you had it in hand, i have an earlier version here. Wait second.
00:08:44
Speaker
tell me if ah and then anyways it it It was just too much weight to be trusted in that one joint. Yeah, it starts to get floppy. Yeah, exactly. So then on the final version, it was pretty much the same except the one difference that we did was that we took the the last um joint and just made it a ah ball that stuck onto the onto the figure and that gives it enough support. And so again...
00:09:09
Speaker
The factory definitely thought I was ah not okay, and they were probably right. But I was really trying to to get it there, and and and it took three, actually think that's four, four iterations to kind of get it to a point where I felt like it was ah it was fun and it would hold its own weight and that you had a lot possible options.
00:09:29
Speaker
And ah yeah, that's pretty much what what makes it different in terms of the mechanically. but Yeah. and And having seen it um most recently and it's like final iteration seeing that and seeing the modular aspect of it really for me is kind of like that that game changer because it's of all the things that we've seen in toys like that's not something we've seen really ever if thought if often at all so I think that's like the coolest part of it
00:10:02
Speaker
Yeah, and and wings are kind of one of those things in nature that are almost kind of magical, right? Like where, you know, when when a bird puts its wings away, they disappear. Like they yeah literally become like flat and within, and there's only so much you can do with plastic, right? Like other companies have done things where you pop the wings off and put on a folded mechanic or, you know, something that does kind of collapse them to a degree.
00:10:26
Speaker
and you know, this is just a really cool the The same way that Plunderlings has kind of had this this now long history of of engineering ah kind of leaps. This is just another one of those engineering leaps that you guys have pulled off.
00:10:41
Speaker
ah Thank you. but Basically, I'm hoping that it's fun. That's what it comes down to. I'm trying to make something that's both poseable, playable, and and and more than anything fun. And another detail that people might not realize right away, that they're reversible. So they have the same color on both sides, which originally they weren't. But the idea here is that if you can have you can just basically mix and match it. Depending on what direction you want the socket to go in, you can put it on the other side. And and those are the different ideas.
00:11:06
Speaker
But yeah, that's pretty what I have. About the modularity, I could show it a little bit better, maybe with a a full figure to kind of explain that part a little bit more. So um yeah, absolutely. me see All right.
00:11:23
Speaker
OK, so I have to build it real quick. OK, I'm just going to put one wing on so you can kind of get the idea with it.
00:11:34
Speaker
All right. Yeah, it's it's already crazy to see how far you've come since we first saw these back at what, Toy Fair? Yeah, it might have been a while. It might have taken me a little while to get there. But OK, so this is the the full wing, right, which I was showing you earlier. That's totally extended. And again, you can you can angle it however you like and have it, you know. And then if you want a more medium-sized wing because you don't want it to be in full soaring mode, you can take the the middle part out.
00:12:05
Speaker
and just put it like that for example and now you have a smaller wing or if you want it to go away completely um you can put it on like this and so now it's like a little cape yeah and so it requires a little bit of imagination like what happened there you know but you know transformers do stuff like mass shifting and stuff like that so i feel like i feel like it's okay Well, it also, like i said, with that the concept of wings, I mean, when they when animals fold up their wings, they do.
00:12:34
Speaker
It's like ah it's like a Doctor Who syndrome, like it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Right. Like, you know, when a when a vulture folds its wings, especially some of these larger birds like a pelican or, you know, um their wings really do just disappear and become part of their body. So it's it's not even really ah a you know, suspension of disbelief. It's a translation of like a thing in nature to plastic. So. Yeah.
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah. That's really cool. so the idea With this, when you have just a little cape on, it could be like ah you can get into the swashbuckling poses and have them fighting and ah and not have to worry about the wings and having them be in the way or taking up too much shelf space.
00:13:10
Speaker
And so that's that's kind of it. That's what I think makes it different on an engineering level. So from engineering level to let's jump into that headcanon. So like we know that storytelling has been something that's been really important in the plunderlings, you know, the plunder verse, um you know, what, ah what is their story? How did, how did the, ah the plunder beaks come into your story here? Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:34
Speaker
With the world will the building part, I always think but kind of almost like ah like almost like an open world video game. So like the Plunder people, the Plunder folk, the Plunder strong, the Plunder long, the Plunderlings are all part of like the crew that you can build out. They're all you know playable characters, to say it like that.
00:13:50
Speaker
And then ah the Plunder beak are more like scavengers and they're in the Plunder long. They'll start circling your ship from above and they'll swoop down and maybe try to steal the stuff that you have. And so basically they're they're just overall bad news.
00:14:07
Speaker
um You know, they're a little bit less, ah I'd say a little less less intelligent, but they're they're more kind of like like enemies, you know, think of the moblins or something like that. That's kind what thinking Obviously people can do whatever they want with them, but I see them more as being like rivals to pretty much all the pirates because they like to steal from,
00:14:27
Speaker
the, the people who are stealing. Got it. Got it. So they're the pirates of pirates. Exactly. Exactly. Well, the only thing what they can carry though, because they don't have a ship or anything and they just try to fly off. And so that's kind of, kind of where they're at. Awesome.
00:14:43
Speaker
So, um, you know, we talked about the, the engineering aspect of it, but from kind of that first iteration all the way through to the end to now, um, what are some of the details, um,
00:14:56
Speaker
you know, we saw the wings, but what are some of the other details in the Plunderling or in the Plunderbeak that you're most proud of? whether it's sculpting engineering yeah I think the the wings were the the hardest thing to figure out, but we also managed to get things that with sebadom, he helped out. We also managed to get articulated mouths working with an articulated tongue. So usually Plunderlings come with three different expressions, but in this case, he only comes with one head, but you can get a lot of expressions out of it. You you can have kind of a, you know, the closed mouth, the shouting, and then with the tongue out, it could be kind of more like, you know, like getting hurt or something like that. So, and all three of them, even this one with has a smaller beak also has the,
00:15:38
Speaker
the articulated tongue so we're really trying to you know push the limits lets see I don't know if the focus is working yes you get articulated tongue technology um so and they also have articulated toes this time as well so that's that's also something you can do
00:15:57
Speaker
Yeah, I thought that that was actually interesting, right? Because like you've done, you know, ah the the previous have always had interesting feet, right? So like the plunderlings have like, you've done the the hooves. I'm trying to grab my hooven guy here. Like you, so you've done these different types of feet. I thought it was really interesting that instead of going for like webbed feet on the the birds that you went with like boots, um that just a cool, you know, aesthetic choice, a little little bit maybe unexpected. Yeah.
00:16:26
Speaker
Yeah, we we did design some talons, but at the end, the boots felt like they fit they fit better. um So, yeah, but but maybe eventually we'll do some talons with like gripping stuff. but ah But I think the boots kind of ah added more personality to it.
00:16:43
Speaker
So, you know, from more kind of like mythical beasts and, you know, ah kind of gremlin-like stuff, designs for the for for the plunderlings, strongs and longs. What made you kind of go to birds for this this next ah this next creature?
00:17:01
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a little bit, ah was a little worried how people would react. I feel like everything else pretty obvious in the sense of like, you know, there's different like archetypes of ah of ah fantasy worlds that we're kind of ah drawing from.
00:17:13
Speaker
But the birds and the frogs is kind of like a lateral step. you Yeah. um It's not really ah something that ah that, you know, people weren't begging me for frogs or for birds. um But we want just keep the world interesting, keep it fresh and and really expand on the...
00:17:30
Speaker
on on the creatures that that live there. um and And more than anything, I thought the designs were But... um but ah Yeah, were're we're still, ah again, it's still a work in progress. where we have i have We have a whole animal ah book.
00:17:50
Speaker
ah We have like 100 different, I think 100, maybe, no, yeah, I think 100 different animals designed already with like bio. Oh, wow. How to roll it out in a way that's not overwhelming. and But yeah, ah it's...
00:18:06
Speaker
Again, it's just kind of about fleshing out the the universe a bit and taking in unexpected directions. and And I think that's what keeps it exciting and fun because... um I don't know, a big part of what the feeling that i I tried to capture with it was when I would go to the toy store as a kid and would just see all these unexpected things on the toy shelf and didn't really know what it came from. and I just liked the way it looked and and could kind of like infer things from the the design and and that that sort of unexpectedness. um
00:18:37
Speaker
I want to try to keep that that aspect of it alive and and maybe not make it too too predictable, maybe where it could go. Yeah, I mean, that's one of those things that's definitely lost, right? Like I recently saw one of those memes floating around on was either Instagram or TikTok and it was like just a a jump cut of, um what do they call it? ah Millennial dread, I think they is is the actual term for it because it's like kids will never know what it's like to only be able to be on a phone in a certain room because the cord only goes a certain length. they're like, rent a video at Blockbuster. And one of them was walk into a toy store and see something you didn't know was coming at like completely unknown special. And, know, we've, we've talked about this at length, you know, with you about being an original IP gives you the opportunity to deliver on those types of surprises that like, know,
00:19:31
Speaker
you know, ah these some of these legacy IPs, love them hate them, can't do, right? Because there's only a certain roster of characters that they have to choose from. So if you make one of those those characters, it's like, oh, I know that character. Great. This is like everything is new each time, brand new, from the ground up.
00:19:51
Speaker
um So it's cool that you get to deliver on that. But I think the big thing, too, is like you see... the plunder beak and the um frog. of And you know what they are. Like, if you are familiar with the plunderlings universe, you know that these belong here. Like they're a part of this. They have that still that's,
00:20:14
Speaker
distinct style that separates the whole universe from yeah anything else. I mean, it's just like when you hold these two next to each other, like they couldn't be more different in terms of color palette, you know, ah but like they fit like there's little those little details, little shapes of things that you know, the way that they articulate where you see a plunderling, you know, I hate using this word, you see a plunderling product and you realize like, oh no, that's, this belongs here. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it's the body type, the style, like just the kind of curvature of, you know, joints and things like that. That's like the plunderling style. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, there's definitely ah um lots of pros and cons with working with an original IP rather than something that's pre-existing. Obviously, the harder part is is kind of a swimming against the current in terms of collectors really wanting to find things to celebrate their their childhood and things like that. and and and And with built-in communities already around certain IPs, this is a little more of like an uphill battle to to try to
00:21:22
Speaker
get people to to to take a look at something that that they're not going to recognize from their childhood. But at the same time, the advantages are that, yeah, like you said, where this could go is a little more open-ended. I do think that ah like the legacy IPs kind of become like checklists and people just become like, well, where's this character? Where's this character? And you know where it's going to go. you know it still might be surprising in terms of when you get it.
00:21:44
Speaker
But again, there's only so much available. And then a lot of times with the design decisions too, ah there's a lot of freedom with ah trying to design the figure around the articulation or the the shapes, the silhouettes that you're looking for um that might be more fun for a toy rather than trying to capture accuracy. and That's one of my complaints about modern toys a little bit that kind of really chase after this sort of like on-screen accuracy um because I feel like the the the design decisions that were made for
00:22:16
Speaker
the shows aren't the same reasons why we make those design decisions for for toys. like um ah But yeah maybe maybe i differ a little bit with with a lot of collectors, but I really enjoy the fact that that the Ninja Turtle toys looked a certain way and that the TV show looked a different way. you know and There's a lot of decisions that made the toy better, like hiding all these sculpted details and in weird places, um the making them beefier makes it more fun to hold. Having a really big expression also makes it something that's more ah ah fun to handle.
00:22:49
Speaker
um and in different positions. um And then for the show, of course, it makes sense to soften them up a bit to have on on a kid's show less details, so you can't animate that, adding pupils so you can know where they're looking, which is more important when you're looking at a a show, rather than a toy doesn't matter, right? Like, no matter where you put the pupils, you're always going to be kind of mistaken. That's part of the reason why the Plunderlings don't have any on that front. So you can also just imagine where they're looking. And that's something I liked about the original Turtles as well.
00:23:19
Speaker
Yeah, and I think the, the honestly, like, the to use a very cliched term, the proof is in the pudding, but, like, when you see, i mean, how many conventions we've been to where we you've also been there with the table full of everything, and you just see people who already know the product, the product, already know the universe, and come up and love it and compliment it, but then you see, like, parents with kids who this is brand new to them,
00:23:46
Speaker
and are just like blu likes blown away, like with the, oh, this is cool. Like, I want this. And kids will just sit there and start playing with them and like, oh, stuff, you know, hats pop off, but they're magnets so they could pop right back on. Like everything is just so, I want to say welcoming to like everybody, collectors of all ages, all types. Like it's super easy universe to get into. And I think that continues on here.
00:24:18
Speaker
Yeah, so think yeah yeah but part of it is to make it accessible. But again, it's it's been, um now having done it, or having gone through, I know why a lot of people don't. um Because it it is kind of ah a hard corner to be put in where it's like, okay, it's a collector product at a collector price.
00:24:36
Speaker
but not quite ah geared toward what most people want to collect. But again, rather than trying to capture a specific IP from your childhood, I'm trying to just capture that feeling.
00:24:48
Speaker
um Or you know at least that feeling that I remember, that it was, ah the the fact that it was fresh made it exciting. And the fact that I didn't quite know what it was, there's a mystery to it. All that was part of the feeling. It's not so much trying to relive that exact like oh I remember when I found that exact you know X-Men or whatever toy. I'm trying to kind of capture that that that more vague feeling of ah of just being kind of delighted by something new and that you can kind of take home and and discover and and make up your own stories as well.
00:25:26
Speaker
And now a word from our sponsors.
00:25:34
Speaker
This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
00:25:51
Speaker
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00:26:03
Speaker
That's
00:26:09
Speaker
And tell them that Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:26:16
Speaker
And now, back to the show. Well, speaking of capturing feelings, we'd said it at the beginning, you know, capturing that feeling of like, oh, this isn't an open pre-order that's going to ship in six months. Like seeing that something pops up in stock, which like we mentioned, the Plunderbeaks are currently in in stock and and ready to ship on plunderlings.com. What's the behind the scenes reality of of getting something like this you know out the door?
Behind-the-Scenes of Plunderbeak Production
00:26:51
Speaker
Production scrambles, surprises, you know what's what's this process like of like actually dropping something in stock? Yeah, this is going to be the first time for me to not go through the whole Kickstarter campaign first with like stretch goals. The reasons are kind of convoluted and maybe confusing how I ended up getting here. Basically, a big part of it was the tariff scare after Liberation Day and hearing about all these changes, I decided to go ahead and put in the order for the product that
00:27:27
Speaker
um because at least um the I had an idea of what it was like and I was worried that things were going to change in the future. And so I kind of took a risk, ah both both financially and everything, to to to put in the order to start the manufacturing process.
00:27:43
Speaker
um hoping to have the Kickstarter launch earlier. um But then ah the Kickstarter also kept getting delayed and there's always other Kickstarters happening too and I don't want to step another project's feet. And so basically these came in to the US and I was mostly and i wasn't still wasn't quite ready to launch the Kickstarter and it felt kind of silly to sit on this ah on this product.
00:28:09
Speaker
um and you know and to then launch a Kickstarter for something that was already manufactured. right um Because and again, I wasn't doing the The Kickstarter, I know you you need those funds usually to to make the product. In this case, it's it's the same situation. the only difference is that there's debts and loans and stuff like that to figure it out. i was hoping to to to have the Kickstarter then reimburse those, but but the truth is Eric took the risk. And so um it was it wasn't necessary anymore to go through that hoop. And and honestly, it was just kind of a last-minute decision. to just go ahead and offer them. And the big thinking was that let's try to get them to people before Christmas. I'm going to doing all the filming myself, so ah please be patient. I'm going to spend all next week ah packaging these up, and I'll pay for the fastest shipping that we can to to try to get it to people before Christmas. But all kind of depends on the on the on on USPS at at that point.
00:29:11
Speaker
Well, really cool. I mean, it's it's not something that we see very frequently now. I mean, you yourself, even as a collector, it's rare that, you know we get us so what do they call it now in the business, right? See now, buy now. um You know, it's it's rare that that that that happens, especially with ah an indie company. I mean, geez.
00:29:29
Speaker
jeez yeah It was definitely stressful. I understand why, again, why, why, again, it's not done frequently. I probably wouldn't have made, knowing everything I know now, I might've done things differently.
00:29:40
Speaker
Um, but yeah, if, if it works, uh, I'll keep doing it like this, you know, um, because, uh, so yeah, so, but, uh, um um The difference this time, though, is that the fact that everything's just available now um rather than doing it through Kickstarter route. my my My one concern is that ah maybe less people will hear about it because the Kickstarter gives you like a whole campaign and a whole you know month to get the word out. So I appreciate you guys having me on and and helping me spread the word where I can.
00:30:12
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So speaking of the what's coming up next, at Legion's Con, you showed off the frog inspired creatures with now the plunder beaks out joining the plunder longs, plunder strongs and plunderlings.
00:30:27
Speaker
When can we expect to see the the amphibious creatures? Right. So, the umal yeah, um they I don't have a date for them yet. Despite that magazine cover saying that was coming in the summer. um I'm going to try to get them out soon as possible. that they that They still haven't arrived. um So I also want to give people some breathing room you know after they get these to to not overwhelm people with too much stuff. um But yeah, there yeah i have them I have one here, a prototype here, just kind of show what it looks like.
00:31:05
Speaker
So they have these masks and then this is what their face looks like. And again, and then they have kind of like this tadpole like head with four arms. Again, very unusual, but they have a lot of interesting articulation. They can swivel the waist, they can swivel on the on the top here.
00:31:24
Speaker
and And yeah, you can get them in interesting like swimming poses. And for me, ah you know,
00:31:33
Speaker
Lore-wise, these are kind of like the the the traders of the of the world, like the people that you bump into and like maybe buy purchase wares from and stuff like that. They're kind of like ah alchemists and potion makers. and and And then there's also an articulated tongue, well, it's a posed tongue that then you can snap on weapons to. So in total, they can hold five weapons at any any given point. They could hold one weapon in every arm and the weapon on their tongue as well.
00:31:59
Speaker
But those... ah Yeah, those I need to first got to figure out, see how well we did with the Beaks. And and then ah they will be coming out again because i'm also already committed.
00:32:11
Speaker
ah to having manufactured those, um the question is just it's just a matter of timing. and Got it. And then again, don't want to make it sound too dire, but it comes down to going to do things in the future will 100% depend on how these beaks and frogs do doing it like this.
00:32:30
Speaker
um Because the great thing about Kickstarter, again, isn't just the whole campaign aspect of it. But it really help helps mitigate your risk because if you don't get enough orders and you really don't want to even be producing, you know, like because the MOQ is the minimum order quantities from the factories.
00:32:48
Speaker
or so are so large that unless you can prove to yourself that that you can hit those numbers, it doesn't make sense to pay for the whole the whole run.
00:32:59
Speaker
um so Here I'm just kind of betting on ah the the quality of the figure speaking for itself, the fans getting the word out, people getting excited about it, um you know rather than actually kind of testing it through the Kickstarter to make sure the pre-order numbers are there before committing to a production.
00:33:17
Speaker
I mean, i think it's an interesting time, one, for for plunderer the Plunder universe, right, like in in general, but also like us as collectors. Like I think there's generally, you know, this understanding of of a little bit of like fatigue with, again, some of these kind of legacy brands. Yeah. And I feel like you know where you're coming in at with the price of these of of the beaks you know being $30 USD a piece um and also being something different and fresh and unique, I i think it's a very advantageous experiment, honestly. It's a great price.
00:33:59
Speaker
And you're you're betting on yourself and, you know, speaking kind of candidly, you know, as, you know having had multiple conversations with you, this brand is
Future of Plunderlings: Community and Product Quality
00:34:08
Speaker
strong. Like, and for a brand that doesn't have a comic book, it doesn't have, you know, a TV show yet. Mm-hmm.
00:34:15
Speaker
you know It doesn't have any of those kind of so supporting multimedia assets. the the The figures are just so good. and And Dave kind of mentioned it before, but every time somebody sees these, like when they come up into my office here at you know at home and they see these, it's the first thing. like There are four plunderlings on my desk at any given time. It's the four that I've kind of been showing here on camera, surrounded by literally like couple hundred other figures.
00:34:45
Speaker
The first thing pre-existing IP to the first thing that anyone ever asks about ever. And I'm not kidding. Every time it's like, oh, what's that?
00:34:55
Speaker
And then I explain to them and I show them the magnetic hats. And it's just like you did at New York Comic Con that one time when we were in the middle of a conversation and that little kid walked up and was like, dad, what's this? And like, you took the hat off and you're like, look, it's magnetic and you can put this on his back and he can wear this and you can switch this. And oh, by the way, you can take the hat off and put it on the little, the little hatchling. And he was just like,
00:35:17
Speaker
I need this now. Like, and that kid was like, what, eight, nine? um Yeah. So I think, you know, kudos to you, man, for for for betting on yourself. I think I don't think enough people have the confidence to do what you're doing here. And, you know, I think as soon as people realize, so as soon as people start to get these in hand and start to see pictures of them and start to see how they look with the rest of the universe, know,
00:35:47
Speaker
I think they're going to move. Thank you. yeah Yeah, hope so. And um and yeah, um I've gotten a lot of support from the community. And and that's what, honestly, I'm not naturally confident person. So that's that's what gives me the confidence to keep pursuing it and that there's something here. And then there's stuff that people people are enjoying. um And yeah, if I can make ah people happy and I can make toys, that's that's that's it. That's all that's all I ah really want to be doing. Thank you.
00:36:20
Speaker
Yeah, even with the the frogs, like those coming, like there's more engineering marvel there, like with the be able to with the double torso and like ever all of that, the multiple arms and the hat and mask. Yeah, like it's, you know, there's more great stuff coming.
00:36:38
Speaker
think Yeah. I think there's a, there's me a lot of cross play between them too, because ah we would try to match all the colors so you can mix and match them as well. So if you really wanted to, you could put different heads on them. So you could have like a flying plunder long or stuff like that. I can't, you know, I don't, I don't necessarily agree with that lore wise, but you know i can't stop you from doing what you want to do with your toys. So, um so yeah, i think there'll be a lot of cross play there. And yeah,
00:37:06
Speaker
and And again, these are for me, it's been amazing to be able to do this. and And even if this is the last group that I do, which I i hope it won't be, but it will ah it will be awesome to have been able to create this this world and get it out there and and have people react the way they have.
00:37:21
Speaker
Stop. Don't talk like that. Don't talk don't talk like that. um But we can't. and not When, not if. that's Exactly. well it's It's just getting tougher. I mean, I'm sure you hear from other companies, too. It's getting tougher with the tariffs and yeah and the the cost of manufacturing going up. And people are are being more careful with their money. And I totally understand that as well. you know ah So.
00:37:42
Speaker
um Yeah, but let let's see, but ah I don't know, maybe, I'm not sure what the other toy companies you had on are saying, but it there is kind of been a little shift in the general sentiment and and I understand too, you know there's only so much you can collect, you know and I'm just hoping to to make the shortlist of a lot of collectors you know and you have to end up choosing, because I have to choose too as a collector.
00:38:09
Speaker
Well, that's one of the things that's also, you know, i I guess you could say economical about Plunderlings because you can certainly army build and, you know, get a ton of them and and have like a whole army of them. Or, you know, there are only so many characters available so far. And if you are just getting, you know one or two of each type and each color, you know, it's really not that much in the grand scheme of things in terms of real estate, you know, collecting collecting real estate. So...
00:38:38
Speaker
But speaking of the plunderlings themselves, it's been a while since we've seen any you know new additions to their to their ranks. um Are there any plans to bring any new kind of ah colors or or even ah you know potentially form factors like genders or anything to any of the existing ah characters?
00:38:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's definitely the next stage that we want to get to after this. For me, for me this was kind of like a sidestep again. like you know there's like ah There's the the Care Bears and the Care Bear Cousins. you know And so for me, these are I call them off the the Plunder Primos. like These are are kind of like a side characters, but i want to come back to the the main cast and expand that and expand the the the the types of bodies that we're using and um i'm I'm pretty far into development with some of them. I'll probably show them a bit later. I want to try to, i need to stop myself because I always ah over ah overshare the plans and then then it takes a long time to actually get there. So I'm trying to practice a little more discipline there. ah But yes, that that would be the next stage after the frogs would be to come back to the plunderlings and and finish the plunderling, the plunderlong, the plunderstrong and finish kind of fleshing out that that roster, if you will.
00:39:52
Speaker
Very cool. Well, as as Dave said, you know it's not a we are not an if podcast. We are a when. So we are excited for when um you get to you get to explore that that arena.
00:40:05
Speaker
Great. Yeah, hopefully, I mean, um if if all goes to plan, we're we're looking more likely ah the the plunder frogs in the first half of the year. And then, ah again, with that one, maybe that those closer to the end of the year. um Whether we do a Kickstarter again, go back to that way of doing things, or or just do this where we we put in the order and we we eat the cost up front, knowing that we'll have the support when they when they come in stock.
Crowdfunding vs Direct-to-Consumer Sales
00:40:34
Speaker
um then then that might be the new way to do it. I'd rather do like that as well because i the Kickstarter, again, for all the great things about the the crowdfunding, um it's also, I feel like, a lot to ask of people to to pay up front for something and then have them wait a year or maybe two years and not really know exactly what they're getting. i do also like the transparency of just being able to ship this and have the reviewers review the product in hand and, and then people make their decision whether they want to buy it or not. um Have it, it's a little more of ah a simple transaction rather than kind of like selling, selling hopes and promises. Yeah.
00:41:09
Speaker
yeah Well, you know, to your point. Not to mention though too, like you get, when people go up to the table at like a Comic-Con or Allegiance Con or, you know, any, any of the places where, where you have the table, it's,
00:41:22
Speaker
Now if it's like, oh, the plunder beak, well, we got wait for it. Well, no, it's here. Like, you can get that now. Like, literally as you're holding one. Yeah, yeah and and also the, um I'm also hoping that people will be able to to kind of, when they get them hand, I feel like that's when they really kind of understand the the product more. Because I feel like fix pictures only go so far that when you can actually pick them up and and play it with them and see how they're how they're built, I feel like that's a big thing that kind of changes people's idea on on on what it is.
00:41:56
Speaker
And I have to say, for people that maybe, know, first of all, if this is the first time you ever heard about Plunderlings, congratulations on being under a rock for five years or so. I was going to say welcome aboard, but.
00:42:09
Speaker
But also welcome aboard. But they hold up really well over time. Like, there are lots of little joints on these. And, you know you can see, like, you know, grab somebody to just kind of compare to. I've got an SH figure out here, so. you know, like in terms of size next to a 112 scale figure, like these are, are, you know, smaller, but these joints are just the way that they were when I got this figure.
00:42:35
Speaker
However long ago this was, this is now years. I mean, this does not, it moves exactly the way that it needs to. And it stays that way. And, you know, I, not the same, the same can't be said for a lot of other toys that are out there. Like these, I cannot stress enough how well engineered,
00:42:53
Speaker
these figures are like, please believe me, these these these do hold up and they're, you know, like I said, they're they're statement pieces. yeah The other thing, too, is Eric Eric's like, you know, somebody who does you know photography and poses poses things. Well, like I can pose these.
00:43:15
Speaker
It's true. Somebody who's like figures usually just stand there. um But it's yeah, like they're the pictures definitely show you what you can do with them.
00:43:28
Speaker
But they also when you hold them, you like, oh, I can do this. Yeah, ah we've probably talked about it before, but feel like there's um there's a specific point in articulation that ah that that that we're trying to hit because I do think it's possible to get too articulated. um ah like it's ah There's lots of little details, but for example, like we could have made this ah two pins so that um It could rotate from the the elbow or the bicep, but we made it a square pin, so it only rotates from the bicep because, um again, why having just a spinning bicep isn't really something that you can do anatomically, right? It only adds to...
00:44:16
Speaker
the complexity of something of emotion that isn't organic, you know? um So I, you know, love articulated figures, but I do believe that you can get too articulated and then you kind of ah lose the plot in a way in terms of like what, what how this figure is supposed to move.
00:44:34
Speaker
And we were trying to kind of hit that. that sweet spot where you can do pretty much everything that you want to do with it, but have it still feel sturdy, something you can put in your pocket and, and something that moves naturally. Cause there's a lot interesting articulation methods that, that sometimes even with the the wings that we came up with, but at the end of the day, if if, if you can't move it in a way that, ah that,
00:45:00
Speaker
feels normal and to say it like that, that like, if that was your, you know, ah it becomes like a puzzle that you need to kind of like figure out, which again, can be fun, but it's just a different, it's just a different, yeah it's cool when things move, but does it make sense? Yeah. The example I always like to give people is ah you could see,
00:45:20
Speaker
on like a, like if you, if you were swinging two-handed, a large two-handed object like this, your, your abdomen's only going to go to a certain point before you stop. Like you can't go past that point. And if you look,
00:45:34
Speaker
That's exactly what's going on here. Like you get just the right amount of contortion on that to make that swing look natural. And it'll hold that pose. Like if I put this, I can't show you because where my camera is, but like if I put this down on my desk, and you know swive swivel the feet like he will stand in that pose holding this very top heavy mallet um it the the proportions and the center of gravity on these are are insane i literally just put it down and stay i didn't even need to move the feet um yeah it's do yourself a favor if you're if you if you're starting to
00:46:15
Speaker
starting to feel that collector fatigue and you're like, I need something to kind of spark myself. I, you know i want to see what something new is. Take, take a $30 roll of the dice on one of these plunder beaks and just have fun.
00:46:31
Speaker
Like sit down, crisscross applesauce on the floor or at your desk and just open it and have fun. Like you will have fun. I, I can promise you, you will have fun.
00:46:43
Speaker
um these these toys are fun toys are fun right as yeah as Ralphie once said them um but yeah so uh Ricky I know you're a busy guy it's your day after launch you probably have like 13 interviews today um remind our our listeners our watchers where can they uh stay up to date on plunderlings and where can they get their plunder beaks ah Yeah, they're two places right now. We have them on our plunderlings.com as ah ready to order. And then on Big Bad Toy Store, they're for pre-order. um So they might take a little bit longer to fulfill, but i know are a lot of people like to do their pile of loot and everything. But on plunderlings.com, we're going to start doing fulfillment on them next week. We're just going to let the orders come in, and the next week will be ah we'll be fulfilling those, again, trying to make that...
00:47:36
Speaker
that close to that Christmas ah deadline. So hopefully there's something fun under the the tree. And to stay up to date, we have a mailing list um and and the Instagram, which we need to update more frequently, but that's the best places to to hear from us.
00:47:53
Speaker
Awesome. Well, we we wish you the best of luck, Ricky Claus, in fulfilling those those holiday orders. um and And yeah, where i I know I'm super excited to get my beaks and I got my order in like lickety split. The moment those went up, I texted you, maybe cursed a little bit and then ordered it. All three. um But yeah, ah Ricky, thank thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. And ah yeah, we'll we'll put links to where you can get your plunder beaks in the description below in the in the description for the the podcast. And ah yeah, I think with that, Dave, get us out of here.
00:48:36
Speaker
Go ah go get your plunder beaks. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review this podcast wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it.
00:48:50
Speaker
Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Learn more about him in the show notes. Our music is Game Boy Horror by The Zombie Danes. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Adventures in Collecting, and on Twitter at AIC underscore podcast.
00:49:08
Speaker
Stop by and say hi. Show us your hauls and photos. Tell us your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it on a future episode.
00:49:21
Speaker
try this at home void where prohibited and some assembly required each sold separately not a flying toy consult a physician if your toy run exceeds more than four hours
00:49:29
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Hablaui. 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.