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From Lord of the Rings to Inside the AEW Ring and Beyond w/ Diamond Select's Zach Oat
832 Plays3 years ago
Returning guest Zach Oat of Diamond Select Toys is back following a slew of new announcements at SDCC including AEW, Lord of the Rings, Jean Claude Van Damme, Marvel, and more!
Save $5 off of your Magic Spoon order - visit magicspoon.com/aic and use code AIC at checkout!
Follow Zach @zachoat and Diamond Select Toys @collectdst on Instagram
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
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Transcript
Nostalgic Mornings with Magic Spoon
00:00:02
Speaker
Dave, remember the feeling of watching Saturday morning cartoons with your favorite bowl of sugary cereal? Sure. Well, what if I told you that you could recapture that feeling, but without the guilt of eating cereal, it's bad for you? I'd say you must be talking about magic spoon. That's right, Dave. And now you can get a variety pack with four featured flavors, cocoa, fruity, frosted, and peanut butter. This pack has zero grams of sugar,
00:00:30
Speaker
13 to 14 grams of protein and only four net grams of carbs. Each serving is only 140 calories. They're keto-friendly, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, and low carb. My favorite flavor is the Frosted.
00:00:46
Speaker
spice up your peanut butter cereal by slicing up some fresh banana in it. That's what I did. Go to magicspoon.com slash AIC to grab a variety pack and try it today. And be sure to use our promo code AIC at checkout to save $5 off your order. And Magic Spoon is so confident in their product, it's backed with a 100% happiness guarantee. So if you don't like it for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked.
00:01:14
Speaker
Remember, get your next delicious bowl of guilt-free cereal at magicspoon.com slash AIC, and use the code AIC to save $5. Thank you, Magic Spoon, for sponsoring this episode. 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.
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting
00:01:45
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. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Hi. Dave, we are back. We are. And you know what, Dave?
00:02:17
Speaker
In the time-honored tradition of adventures and collecting, what should I not do this week? Go swimming 15 minutes after reading. I mean, that is summer appropriate, so that's great advice. But I was thinking something a little different. Is it burying the lead?
00:02:45
Speaker
Since you did it in the form of a question, I feel like I should be doing my best Alex, Alex Trebek, but I can't. Um, but yes, I am not going to bury the lead because of course we are back mustache. So I do. So I could be nineties Trebek. That is true. Um, anal bum cover. Uh, we, we do have a guest, a guest joining us today, Dave. We do Eric.
00:03:11
Speaker
And he is a returning guest so yes so coming in I'm still gonna say we're coming in hot off of San Diego Comic Con because it was a big deal this year there were a lot of fun reveals it was it was cool comic on there there was in fact a comic on so I am going to I'm gonna I'm gonna keep with that vernacular and I'm gonna say coming in hot
00:03:33
Speaker
Off of the return to Comic Con and some huge announcements company wide. I mean, we've got a 40th anniversary. We've got tons of new licenses and a big splashy pro wrestling license. I'm joining us once again on the pod. We, we welcome back our friend, Zach oat of diamond select toys. Zach, welcome. Welcome back to the show, man.
00:03:59
Speaker
Thank you for having me back. I feel so honored being brought back.
Zach Oat's Comic Con Highlights
00:04:03
Speaker
Usually I'm not invited back to many places. I find that hard to believe. How could you not be invited back, dude? I guess I make myself unwelcome wherever I go. Well, certainly not here. We are super stoked to have you back on, especially with all of the fun announcements that we just hinted at. But before we dive into all of that,
00:04:33
Speaker
It's a bit of a cop-out to say that I collect a lot of DST. I collect a lot of stuff. I collect Pops, I collect Transformers and G.I. Joe and everything. But in terms of what I actually, the amount of room I have, I don't have a lot of room to actually collect stuff. I don't have a storage area. And my shed is full of DST stuff that I've collected over the years. But Mini-Mates, whenever a new set of Mini-Mates comes out, I go crazy for them. I do collect Matchbox and Hot Wheels, so I've got a big wall full of them.
00:04:52
Speaker
What have you been collecting these days?
00:05:04
Speaker
I collect the dorbs by Funko, a small stuff that I can fit into my collecting nook. But big stuff I just don't have any room for. Unless it's something really cool that we made that I just have to own. But yeah, I'm gonna cop out and say DST items because we do a lot of different stuff and it's all cool.
00:05:26
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that that could be a you could be worse off I mean that you have a lot to choose from lots of lots of fun IPs and form factors and stuff Yeah, that's that's uh Speaking of the matchbox and Hot Wheels though. Have you seen they've gotten into the fingerboard decks? They've been putting out a skateboards now
00:05:47
Speaker
I have not. I haven't come across those yet. I know they do a lot of different crazy stuff like to do like the Lego brick building ones. I really like the realistic cars more than like really fun crazy cars. But yeah, you know, I'll if I see a bat, I'm a sucker for a Batmobile. So anytime I see a Batmobile, I'm sure to pick it up. But you know, if I'm not buying them new off the rack at like
00:06:09
Speaker
you know, Dollar General or Dollar Tree or something like that, then I'm looking at bags at the thrift store and seeing if there's any cool ones in there. I like finding old ones. It's a fun hobby I do with my son. He loves Matchbox too. But I do love action figures. I have a lot of DST figures that I'm always setting up and taking pictures with. So I'm still a non-car toy guy at heart. So for those who aren't familiar with you or who missed
00:06:39
Speaker
The first time you were on, Zach, remind our listeners what you do over at Diamond Select.
00:06:45
Speaker
My title is Marketing Supervisor, so I oversee stuff that we do for social media and advertising. I write a lot of copy in terms of catalog and packaging and ad text and stuff like that. I reach out to a lot of influencers and celebrities. I work with a lot of reviewers.
00:07:14
Speaker
Every now and then they let me take pictures of stuff or do like a TikTok and something like that. But for the most part, I do a lot of editing and copy editing and writing. But it's something different every day because like you said, we have a lot of IPs and we have a lot of different categories of product. So we mentioned it at the top in the intro, but San Diego Comic Con just recently wrapped and
00:07:38
Speaker
And it was back in person. So what was it like being there? What was the vibe? What was the energy like? You guys had an awesome looking booth that we saw via photos. But just tell us a little bit about the Khan experience for you. It was a good show. It was maybe a little more sedate and quiet, apprehensive than past years.
00:08:03
Speaker
But we had some good sales, and we had a lot of good response to the stuff we showed off. And yeah, yeah, some good interviews with people. We had a good event with the AEW wrestlers that came by our booth. And yeah, it was a good show. And then in the evening, you're on your feet all day, but then in the evening, you get to sit down and have a nice dinner with your friends and coworkers. So it's not all work, but it was,
00:08:32
Speaker
It was a good show, good show for the company. Yeah, your con offerings this year were awesome. That whole VHS set, the two Cobra Kai figures and the Bruce Lee and the John Wick and those VHS style, almost like Disney style clam shells were fantastic. Oh, thank you. Yeah, they did really well at the show. I think we sold out of Bruce Lee and John Wick and I think we only had a few of the Cobra Kai's left at the end. We also sold out of our
00:09:01
Speaker
are a Nightcrawler statue in his X-Force outfit. And what else did we have there? We had a great animated-style Spider-Man bust that did really well. And there were a couple of things that didn't make it. We had a really cool Phoenix Gallery diorama that just, with all the transportation issues that have been going on since COVID, just didn't make it there in time.
00:09:22
Speaker
You know, just shipping shipping issues. But but we're going to have some cool exclusives at New York Comic Con. So hopefully, and we've also been launching a lot of things for the 40th anniversary of Diamond. So there's been a lot of exclusives this year. We just missed out on a couple of San Diego, but hopefully people like what we're offering. Yeah. And ahead of the big event, Diamond revealed that it obtained the license to produce AEW collectibles. The CM Punk and Sting two pack, I think, were
00:09:51
Speaker
were Comic Con, right? How did that come about? That, I think it happened because, you know, when it comes to licensing, the people who work for the different companies, you know, to work with the licensees, you know, they move around a little bit, you know, they'll move from company to company. And when you work with somebody at one company, then they go to another company,
00:10:12
Speaker
You know you they bring that relationship along with them so you know you if there's somebody you've worked with in the past and you know you're more likely to work with them in the future and i think a w is looking for you know somebody else to partner with on merch in addition to you know their great success with the jazz where's line and. And i think they just.
00:10:33
Speaker
They liked what we did, they liked our action figures, they liked our statues, they liked the whole Mini-Mates line. And yeah, we got a couple different categories with them. We're gonna do Mini-Mates, the Mini-Mates four inch figures that we did the exclusive two pack for San Diego. Those will probably be more exclusive style offerings.
00:10:53
Speaker
But the mini mates are going to be offered at stores. The gallery dioramas, we showed off a couple new ones at the booth. And we've got like three or four more in development. And then I think we're also working on some higher end resin items as well. So we'll see how those are going. I think the first one is designed. And I'm not sure how often we're going to put out a resin piece, but we've got a lot of gallery dioramas lined up.
Rise of Wrestling Collectibles
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's, it's so awesome. Cause like we're, we're in this really kind of this, uh, this, this wrestling collectible Renaissance right now, you know, whether it's, you know, indie toy makers out there, like, like zombie sailor and, and Chella.
00:11:36
Speaker
you know, to, you know, like you mentioned, you know, what, what jazzwares is doing with AEW and of course what, what Mattel continues to do with WWE. And now you guys coming into the fold with these, you know, with, with your, your gallery diorama pieces and, and of course the, the, the mini mates and Vinny mates. It's just like, there is a, a sort of wide selection of wrestling collectibles out there. And I,
00:11:59
Speaker
completely forgot to mention the trading cards too, are back like they've never been before. So it's wild to see all of the different collecting opportunities for wrestling right now.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yeah, and I've seen a lot of quotes going back and forth between AEW and WWE saying that each of the others is glad that the other league is doing well. And I think it's a case of a rising tide lifts all boats or however they say it. So as you get more and more interest in the two leagues and they're going head to head and each one is making the other one do better, you're going to get more cool products to go along with that.
00:12:40
Speaker
And that goes for the indie wrestling too and the classic legends that you're seeing in those smaller toy lines. So what's your, do you have like a background in wrestling or are you a fan just out of curiosity? Because Dave and I are both, I would say at this point, Dave, I'm probably as avid as you are. But we watch weekly. What's kind of like your relationship with wrestling?
00:13:09
Speaker
Um, you know, I wasn't, I grew up in the eighties, but I wasn't really big into the rock and wrestling thing. You know, I don't even think I really watched the cartoon. Um, it was, I knew who everybody was. Um, but, uh, you know, I wasn't necessarily like a watcher or a fan. I doubt my parents would have let me watch it when I was a kid.
00:13:25
Speaker
But I started watching it in the 90s, WWE and WCW with friends and playing the wrestling games in the late 90s, early 2000s.
00:13:42
Speaker
When AEW started, I was like, oh, that's something I can get on board at the ground level because I hadn't watched WWE in a while. I used to watch it with my boss at Wizard Entertainment. We'd go over to his house for the paper views. I mostly watched the paper views. And then when AEW came out, I watched the first episode and I thought it was great. I saw a lot of wrestlers that I really liked. And I didn't really get on board watching it regularly for a while. But once I found out we got the license, I started back in on it.
00:14:11
Speaker
I've been kind of hooked. I've been watching AEW with my kids and they love it. And yeah, we've all got our favorites, but primarily AEW. I don't really watch WWE right now, but I try to keep track of what's going on over there and who's hot and who's getting toys. But for the most part, I'm all AEW. Yeah. And a really cool like gallery diorama piece to kick it off with, with CM Punk and his kind of signature, you know,
00:14:41
Speaker
cross-legged in promo pose, which very awesome, very cool to see. Yeah, that one came out really great. It was designed by Gabriel Casada. He does all of our dioramas for AEW. And we had Jon Moxley on display as well. He's still being revised, but he's going to be, I think, probably the second one. And then we've got a few others that are
00:15:15
Speaker
I don't know how many we're gonna have on preorder before we release punk we don't like to have too many in the preorder hopper we like people to be able to.
00:15:25
Speaker
see how one does before they have to order the third one. So with all the delays in terms of manufacturing, it makes that a little bit more difficult because you don't want to stretch it out too far. But the second one looks great, I think, with Moxley standing on top of that divider. And then the third one's going to be even cooler. So hopefully, everybody likes that one as well. And the statue is going to be
00:15:54
Speaker
It's going to be somebody we've done a gallery of, but it's going to be a very cool piece. So hopefully people dig that as well. I'm most excited about the Mini-Mates really, because they're a lot of fun. You know, to get all that little detail of the tattoos in on those two inch figures, it's really amazing, you know, the design that goes into the pieces.
00:16:12
Speaker
And they're gonna be they're gonna be come with a lot of wrestling gear and be able to pose them in all sorts of poses you come with chairs and tables and bats and stuff like that and We're working on some bigger things to go along with that. So hopefully people people dig that Yeah, I was gonna I was actually gonna say, you know with with the mini mates and kind of just the nature of of wrestling figures, you know whether regardless of scale
00:16:38
Speaker
It's going to be interesting to see how people kind of fit those diorama pieces into their displays, you know, their wrestling displays, but you know, with, with those mini mates, I mean, like the world is kind of your oyster, like rings and entrance stages. Like at that scale, you have the ability to kind of make, you know, anything play play sets. Really? I mean, what would it boils down to? And that would be, that would be incredible.
00:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, you can definitely do a lot more when you're dealing with that smaller scale. And, you know, you can set up so if you're a wrestling fan, you don't you're a little uncomfortable setting up a lot of wrestling figures on your desk at work, you know, you can set up these little guys and maybe unobtrusively put them in a corner and, you know, have them doing moves when you go when you're on your break and stuff like that.
00:17:23
Speaker
they're a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of my mates and they're interchangeable too. So hopefully there'll be some stuff with like, we're doing an orange Cassie where he'll come in his jacket, but then you can switch it out and have him be bare chested for when he wrestles. Oh, that's awesome. Very cool.
00:17:40
Speaker
Earlier this year, Diamond also announced a partnership with Jean-Claude Van Damme, and we saw a great looking piece by Ayman O'Donohue and Rocco Tarnamela go up for pre-order. Will there be any JCVD action figures coming?
00:17:55
Speaker
Yes, I'm not sure if we ended up putting out a press release about that. I think we did. But we're going to be doing a lot of different types of products for that. I don't know if we're doing resin pieces, but we're going to do some action figures for sure. I think we're pretty close to offering the first one. And I know it's been pushed back a couple of times just because we're working on wrapping it up and getting it approved.
00:18:24
Speaker
but it should be offered before the end of the year, the first fandom action figure. Awesome.
Jean-Claude Van Damme and LOTR Figures
00:18:30
Speaker
I cannot wait to see that, especially like I love the Bruce Lee ones so much that like it just feels like that's a matchup we never got on screen, but deserved. So like that's going to be like, you know, I know you can't say my fingers are crossed for like Bloodsport.
00:18:53
Speaker
Yeah, there's just so many options with him. Timecop is another one, right? Like all those different looks that he had in the 80s.
00:19:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure exactly how our license works in terms of the different outfits that we can do, because obviously the different movies are all from different studios. But the deal we had with Bruce Lee was we could really make him in a variety of outfits based on his photographic archives. So there were costumes we could use from different movies, even though we weren't necessarily licensing other characters from those movies.
00:19:30
Speaker
So I think the Jean-Claude Van Damme might be sort of similar. So you'll see a lot of outfits that, you know, go fit in with those movies. But we're not going to see like any bolo figures or anything like that to go along with them. At least not at first. If the line does really well, you know, maybe we can look at that in terms of expanding. But I'm excited. I just watched Double Impact again after a long while and it still holds up. It's still a great film.
00:19:56
Speaker
I saw your post. Yeah, I mean, you got to give a guy credit for playing two characters in one movie that are so vastly different. Yeah, I mean, I was really impressed. I think of him as being sort of, before rewatching it, I thought of him being sort of like, I don't want to call him, I don't want to say he's one note. I thought of him as being like, he has a type he plays, that sort of,
00:20:21
Speaker
you know, innocent, but, but, you know, very dangerous person. But he really does play two completely different characters in that movie. And he does a great job with it as well. You know, the effects are, you know, leave a little bit to be desired. But the, but the performance I think is really great. I will say if you're if you're diving into his catalog and rewatching some things, if you have
00:20:45
Speaker
If you have a certain memory of the Street Fighter film and how that all played out, just let that live in your head the way that it is. Don't go back and rewatch that one. No shade to anyone involved in making that film, acting in it, but just don't let that live in your memory as exactly how you remember it, because I promise you, if you rewatch that one, it's tough.
00:21:18
Speaker
I'm not a huge gamer, so I'm not entirely sure that I have actually seen the Street Fighter movie. I'm a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme, but I don't think I've actually seen it. I recently, only recently, like in the past year, watched Mortal Kombat for probably the first time. And that one I think definitely doesn't necessarily hold up as well. But Street Fighter is one that actually might need to go watch because I just don't think I've seen it.
00:21:39
Speaker
It's not a fun rewatch.
00:21:47
Speaker
Okay, fair enough. If you've never seen it before, it's definitely something that's worth watching at least once. Just for the sake of having been able to say that you watched it. Yeah. I've probably shamed myself by saying right now that I haven't, but I want to be completely honest here. I want to come clean. I don't want to have any sort of regrets.
00:22:11
Speaker
D movie confessions with adventures in collecting. We have a spin-off, Dave. We have a spin-off. Yeah. So from Inside the Ring to Lord of the Rings, the super popular Lord of the Rings line continues on with the Boromir and Lertz figures that you guys showed off during the con. Can we expect more figure announcements for Lord of the Rings in 2023?
00:22:41
Speaker
Yes, I don't know if we'll have another assortment offered we're gonna offer that assortment pretty soon I think we're just waiting to hear on approvals for Boromir But I don't know if we're gonna we're definitely an offered for the end of the year I don't offer a second next is the next assortment series six before the end of the year, but But I hope we'll have it Offered in early 2023 because it's we then we've got several waves in development. So
00:23:10
Speaker
I don't know where all of them are in the design stage, but we've got a line plan that goes out several waves. So hopefully people will be happy with the characters we've chosen. Our primary goal is completing the fellowship, but we also want to mix in some key characters, especially bad guys. So yeah, I don't think we'll see, we'll definitely see a couple of the series released in 2023. Whether or not we'll see them both offered before the end of the year, I'm not sure.
00:23:40
Speaker
Now the Sauron build a figure was a lot of fun. I mean, it's an awesome figure, you know, kind of watching something that scale come together. Are there plans to do something like that again in the future waves or are these going to kind of just be two figure collections kind of going forward?
00:24:00
Speaker
As far as I know, we're not going to be doing more builder figures going forward. We have talked, I think we've talked about this in the past, we have talked about larger scale figures.
00:24:12
Speaker
as separate releases. I think we're still looking into that, whether the cost of doing some of those things is pretty high, whether you're doing it as a diorama PVC or a resin statue. They're both pretty expensive pieces to make just due to the scale involved.
00:24:31
Speaker
But I think we are we haven't given up on it. So I keep pushing for it. I think we're going to you know, we're going to keep thinking about it and hopefully we can figure something out. I don't know if we're going to look into doing some sort of crowdsourcing crowdfunding. But that would be that would be my my thought as far as making something like that happen. But we'll have to see.
00:24:54
Speaker
yeah i mean there's there's definitely precedent you know i in in the industry for for things like that because with the amount of detail that uh... you know that that a man and uh... and gentle giant are putting into these things i mean i'm i'm sitting here i'm i'm looking at golem you know perched on his rock as as i'm saying this but uh... you know i i think that uh...
00:25:18
Speaker
the fan base would love to have some of those bigger pieces, you know, like a, like a cave troll or of course, like we mentioned, you know, last time we had you on like, like Balrog, you know, it would be, it would be awesome to have, um, you know, have pieces like that to go with this collection. 100% agree. Absolutely.
00:25:37
Speaker
So two, with the new Prime series coming out, does this line, is it really locked into the first three films? Or can collectors expect to see maybe some new characters as that Prime show comes out?
00:25:58
Speaker
We're focusing on the first three movies for now. There's a lot of characters still to be made. A lot of characters people want. We're never going to do the in-depth number of figures that ToyBiz did. They did like 100 different figures and characters. But we wanted to hit all the key spots.
00:26:23
Speaker
I think if we end up doing that, I think we will see how it goes and we'll look at it down the road. I know that if, you know, if the line keeps going and is successful, we definitely want to do some stuff for the Hobbit as well. So we'll see how that goes and then we'll see how the show goes. And, you know, I'm sure we'll be able to to talk to them about possibilities in the future. Awesome. Yeah, I think people are just going to be excited to hear that there are
00:26:50
Speaker
You know, kind of future plans and like, you know, there, there's, there's a, you know, there's a, uh, an array of figures coming because I think that's always the fear, right? Especially something with, you know, to, to that point, you know, with the, the kind of scope of characters as the, the Lord of the rings kind of lore that like all of a sudden it's like, you know, the team's not going to be complete and you know, something happens with the license or, you know, the gears kind of switch and move to some, you know, some other part of the property.
00:27:19
Speaker
So I think people are going to be really happy with that news. Good, good. I mean, I think people definitely, you know, I think as long as the sales stay there, we'll be able to get to, you know, all the characters people want. Obviously, you know, I think Lertz and Bormy has a strong wave, and I hope people want to get those two figures just to make them fight. So I'm hoping that'll be another successful wave for us. So far, we've been doing real good. So fingers crossed it keeps going.
00:27:49
Speaker
And now, are there plans to include, you know, kind of holes in Boromir so that way we can just kind of fill him with arrows or? Well, we're going to fill him with magnets and we're going to put metal, metal on all of the arrowheads and just throw them at him and they'll just stay right there. No, I'm not aware of anything like that, but but you've got me thinking now and I'm going to make some suggestions.
00:28:13
Speaker
Hey, listen, you guys did that awesome Previews World exclusive of the clear variant Frodo and Gollum, a Boromir in a box just with a bunch of arrows sticking out of them. That's got con exclusive written all over it, just saying. We'll take no credit for it if it happens.
00:28:39
Speaker
Uh, I think, uh, I think San Diego 2023 is shaping up real nice. Which is like peak Sean Bean because he never makes it out of a movie. Yeah. You got to commemorate that somehow. The best Sean, I mean, Sean Bean's a wonderful actor. I'm sure he's a lovely human, but like in terms of.
00:29:02
Speaker
his appearance in fictional, you know, fictional stories. A Dead Sean Bean is kind of like, it's a common card. If it were trading cards, a Dead Sean Bean would be like the most common of trading cards. Yeah, a character, a movie in which his character does not make it to the end of the movie. I think that was like a thing for a while. Like an early internet meme. It was an early meme.
00:29:32
Speaker
Yeah. Where every, every time he announced he was in a film, like the question was like, Oh, well, we know who's not making it to the end of this one. He's such a tragic figure. Yeah. And, and, and, and he's such a lovely actor too. Like he's great and everything that he's in. It's just, he's, he's always, he's always biting it. All right. So with that, uh, we're going to head into some, uh, some Q and a.
00:30:02
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.
00:30:19
Speaker
Visit them in person at 106 Main Street in Little Falls, New Jersey, or online at ChubsyWubsy.com. That's C-H-U-B-Z-Z-Y-W-U-B-Z-Z-Y.com. And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:30:36
Speaker
As we always do when we have a guest on the show, uh, we posted announcing, uh, said guest and we give our followers a chance to submit questions. So, um, if you would like a chance to submit questions for a future episode of adventures in collecting, uh, make sure you're following us at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter, because when we do have a guest, we'll put a post and a story up, uh, so that way.
00:31:02
Speaker
You can submit questions. And today's questions, you will hear, let's see, how many do we have? One, two, three, four, five, six questions from followers.
Fan Queries on Upcoming Releases
00:31:14
Speaker
Some of them are kind of like an amalgam. But Zach, are you ready for some Q&A? Dave, would you like to do the first one? I would. Many have asked this question.
00:31:28
Speaker
Do you have any status update on the invaders Zim figures that were announced? Yes, I don't know if I have a timeline I don't know if I have like a new release date or anything like that but I know that we have run into some problems with manufacturing because well, you know the as awesome a designer as
00:31:50
Speaker
as a Jonin Vasquez is, the limbs of all the characters are very thin. And when you're showing off a resin figure, you know, they'll stand up. But when you're making it out of PVC plastic, then you run into support issues. So we're trying to make them look good and stand up properly. And I think that we're working on that product problem right now, and hopefully we'll have an answer in the next couple of months, and we'll be able to figure something out before the end of the year.
00:32:19
Speaker
So I'll keep everybody posted. We'll keep everybody posted online. They may have already solved the problem for all I know. I'm not involved in every aspect of production. A lot of them I'm not involved in at all. But I will keep an ear out and try to get the word out to people. Awesome. So our next question we actually already answered, I'm just realizing as I'm going through here. At Craig stuff, friend of the pod asks,
00:32:48
Speaker
Are there plans to complete the fellowship for the Lord of the Rings line? Yes, that is the plan. That is 100% the plan. We've got a line plan set out to, I think, wave series 10 and the fellowship factors in every wave, I believe. And hopefully people are cool with the rollout schedule and the rollout speed. So stick with it and you will have a fellowship.
00:33:16
Speaker
So remember, Lord of the Rings Collectors, the figures arrive not early or late, but precisely when they mean to. That's what it is. At Gizmodo Rama asks, with the recent announcements of re-releases, is it at all possible that we see a re-release of the real Ghostbusters figures?
00:33:40
Speaker
Let's see I guess we've announced the Pacific Rim uprising re-releases and we've announced them while we were always putting out Muppets best ofs and Nightmare before Christmas best ofs As far as I know we do not have any current action figure plans for a real Ghostbusters There the license it was with others I don't still is with others, but I don't think we have any plans to reissue them in the near future. I
00:34:09
Speaker
But that doesn't mean that we can't consider it in the farther future. So again, we'll have to keep you posted. But right now, there are no current plans. All right. Our next one comes from at bison1780. And they ask, does Diamond Select ever consider revisiting a figure, like for instance, Green Goblin, to update articulation?
00:34:36
Speaker
We often consider revisiting characters that we think need a new version. If it's something that makes sense or is a different costume that we can do or something like that. We've done it with Spider-Man, we've done it with
00:34:53
Speaker
We've actually done it with Green Goblin. We did a classic Green Goblin that was not very posable. Came with a Spider-Man tied up in a rope. And then we went and did a modern Green Goblin that was a lot more posable than that one. Whether we would revisit Green Goblin a third time, not sure. You know, we've done a couple different thors, comic thors, three different comic thors. We've done
00:35:18
Speaker
We are looking at other characters that need revisions and need new versions, but I think getting another Green Goblin very rarely will
00:35:31
Speaker
Not at all will we go back and add articulation to a previously released figure it's gonna take up and it's gonna be one more new figure we can't make that year and it's going to You know With our a lot of different contractual considerations to bring it to account I can't talk about too in-depth but But it's unlikely we would go back and add articulation to a figure we've already released I'll just put it at that
00:35:58
Speaker
But whether or not, you know, a new Green Goblin might happen down the road, if it gets a new costume, a new look, new artist, Disney Store wants to do a Green Goblin, you know, then I never say never is what my boss always says. Chuck, who, some people use that as a punchline a lot, but it's, it's, it's true, you know, whoever thought that certain things would happen and then and then they do.
00:36:24
Speaker
So we get a lot of questions about if or when particular characters are coming in select form.
Marvel Character Selection Process
00:36:31
Speaker
Can you tell us a little bit about how these characters are selected and if there is a preferred way to make requests for characters known?
00:36:39
Speaker
We have looked at past polls. There was a poll on the foosh a while back that we revisited for some characters not too, too long ago. Titanium Man was one that had gotten a lot of votes way back in the day. And then no one ever made him. No one ever made a classic Titanium Man. So we did.
00:37:00
Speaker
And it turned out really great and a lot of people wanted it and it sold real well. There's another poll that they did on the Marvel Select collector group on Facebook, which they actually did in response to the titanium man because they didn't think the titanium man was a very good choice. So they started their own poll.
00:37:19
Speaker
And and it There's a lot of characters on there that we wouldn't necessarily consider right off the bat like I doubt we'll ever do a Galactus or a Sentinel just cuz Again contractual stuff, but I think if it doesn't fit into our packaging Current packaging then it's probably not very likely But but they had a lot of great suggestions and we've looked at a lot of those some of those higher up ranking characters are gonna be made and
00:37:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think somebody was asking about the FF, whether we're going to do more FF. I may be jumping ahead to the next question, but they've definitely been considered for future releases. So I can't get too in depth to it, but we know people want the rest of the FF. And we know people want more X-Men. We've got an X-Men in the works for sure. And yeah, I think we saw that the titanium did really well. So we're going to see what else we can do that might go along with it.
00:38:18
Speaker
So so in terms of like just sticking specifically to marvel for a moment. Like the character selection process is it is it kind of like. Situations where you know marvel reaches out and says like this characters are priority you know whether it's something that's that's movie related or or.
00:38:40
Speaker
Or even something that's going on that's hot in the comics? Or is it more like you guys just get to decide based on the catalog of characters, if you will, which ones you guys want to make, which one the designers are interested in? How does that process actually work for Diamond Select?
00:39:03
Speaker
Um, it is a lot of what we're interested in. Um, you know, if something is really hot in the comics, you know, we may want to wait and see if it's got like, you know, sticking power, whether it's going to stay around for a little while before we, you know, rush out and make a figure of it.
00:39:17
Speaker
Uh, but, um, very rarely does Marvel come to us and say, Hey, why don't you make this guy? We do, um, listen, you know, to some of our customers when it comes to like the Disney store. Um, you know, if there's somebody, is there somebody that they want to have a figure of and we'll, you know, look into doing it for them. Um, but, uh,
00:39:36
Speaker
But usually it's we ask if we can do somebody and then they see if it works into their scheduling and their plans for the character and that sort of thing. So sometimes it doesn't work out with movie characters. If it's a question of timing, whether it's going to be able to come out at the same time as the entertainment. But there is a certain
00:40:03
Speaker
amount of fan wish listing that goes on, not just in the fan base, but inside the office as well. So every now and then I get to throw in my two cents about who I think would be a good choice, not only based on fan votes, but also based on what we've done and who would make sense to pair up with them.
00:40:26
Speaker
just who would be really cool and who would make sense for the line, who we could put a lot of detail into, who has not been done in our line before, what area of the Marvel universe could stand to be expanded in the Marvel Select line. There's a lot of factors that go into it, but we really do try to listen to the fans whenever possible, whether it's directly them saying they want this Marvel Select or whether it's
00:40:51
Speaker
based on popularity of certain characters in the comics. Awesome. And our last Q&A question comes from a friend of the pod, creepy NJ. He says, I loved the build a diorama waves from past releases. Do you think that will ever make a return? Let's see.
00:41:21
Speaker
We've partially shifted a lot of our packaging away from select packaging, which allowed for a lot of that stuff, to deluxe packaging, which is a little bit more streamlined. A lot of people thought the select was a lot of wasted space, but it did make a lot of stuff possible.
00:41:40
Speaker
With the cost of everything going up, doing larger scale dioramas like that is not as feasible anymore, but we certainly haven't ruled it out in the future. I'm not sure who I can point to as us doing something in the future that might have that, but we do want to make more Night Before Christmas characters. We've talked about that, and those have often had the diorama element.
00:42:03
Speaker
Whether we'll do Marvel Select figures that have more diorama elements, I'm not sure. We'll have to look and see if the next X-Men can come with some more of the Danger Room diorama. I'm not sure what else to point to as being diorama-based. We tried to include accessories. Wouldn't that make sense whenever possible? And some of those can be on the larger side, depending on what they are.
00:42:29
Speaker
I don't want to say we're getting away from it, but it certainly doesn't make as much sense as it used to financially and just logistically. With that, that wraps up our social media Q&A. So thank you to everybody for submitting your questions. And Zach, you made it through it, man.
00:42:51
Speaker
We did it. Thank you. That was painless. Thank you guys for submitting questions. I really appreciate it that you actually wanted me to hear me talk about something. Of course. I don't know where all of this insecurity is coming from here, Zach, because you're a wealth of knowledge, man. I appreciate that.
00:43:13
Speaker
So we had to, we had to make a last minute pivot here because we have a final question that we ask all of our guests, but we have not had a repeating guests in the capacity of this interview. Like we've had, we've had guests that have been on before that have come on with like other guests with them, you know, have like kind of brought others with them. So.
00:43:34
Speaker
We haven't had the chance to ask a final question to the same guest twice. So Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask this alternate final question? Yes, we will enter the multiverse of final questions.
00:44:01
Speaker
Last time we had you on, you answered that your favorite slash strangest piece in your collection was your toy fair Zach is Iron Man. So this time we ask, what is the one toy or collectible you've always wanted but could never get? Oh, gosh.
00:44:25
Speaker
Well, when I was a kid, I always flipped through my dad. I grew up near Rhode Island.
00:44:31
Speaker
My dad knew some people at Hasbro and so and he went into toy fair a couple of times in New York and he brought me back in 1985. I want to say Hasbro toy catalog and I flipped through that thing for hours until the spine dissolved and it was just a pile of pages. But you know, I admired all the big GI Joe vehicles and all the big Transformers vehicles and cities and dinosaurs that there were. So I mean, I think I in the back of my head, I always wanted a USS flag, but
00:45:01
Speaker
but I never had anything that big. I think the biggest thing I had was the armored personnel carrier, which was very cool, but certainly not USS Flag size. I think I might've even known somebody with a flag. I'm not 100% sure about that.
00:45:16
Speaker
But if there's one I really wanted to get, a toy I really wanted to get that I could never get, it would be anything from the unproduced line of cops action figures.
Zach's Cops Collecting Memories
00:45:27
Speaker
I used to have a full collection. I've paired everything down when I was a...
00:45:32
Speaker
move into a new place, but I used to have the complete cops collection, everything they released. And we did a big story in Toy Fair magazine about the cops series and how there was, you know, all the stuff that didn't get made. And we found, you know, catalog pictures of what almost happened. And there's so many great characters that would have shown up in that unproduced series of cops and crooks. And
00:45:59
Speaker
If I could go back, I would buy back all my cops figures and I would somehow track down those prototypes and try to get at least one into my collection. I had the privilege of interviewing some of the artists behind that line, Bart Sears and Richard Marstage, who both did character designs and packaging artwork for the line. And it was one of the pinnacles of my career to be able to put that story together for Toy Fair.
00:46:29
Speaker
Man, that toy line, I don't know a whole lot about it, but I have very fond memories of that one dude with like the pink shirt and the white pants.
00:46:41
Speaker
the beard and like the beard like I don't know what character it was but like that was such a cool action figure that like ended up in kind of like the the miscellaneous bin he was a driver that was turbo two-tone and he drove one of the Kirk's Kirk's vehicles he had like a crazy handlebar mustache kind of thing or like you know the connected to his sideburns and
00:47:05
Speaker
Yeah, he was definitely a cool looking character. I thought you were going to say the guy in the purple suit buttons McBoomBoom, because that seems to be a lot of people's favorite. But yeah, there are a lot of great ones. I do have one cop's figure left from my collection, which is Barricade. And he was he was like the cop SWAT guy. And he had like a big he had a shield, a riot shield. And he had a gun that they all have fired caps. They all had caps in them. But they get a gun that was like a like a battering ram for knocking down doors and stuff. But he's one of my favorites. I still have him.
00:47:35
Speaker
But they were they were great toys and they were great character designs and the cartoon was Okay, it was an okay cartoon, but it was it was a it was a toy line They never really had as a kid even though I watched the cartoon But then when I grew up I and I had money I bought myself everything I could all these years later. I finally know the name of that figure and I Spotted spot-on turbo turbo two-tone
00:48:02
Speaker
I have no idea what I used to call him back in the day, but like that, that figure, um, I figured just kind of fit in to wherever it could. I think I also had the blonde guy with the blue jacket. Berserker. Berserker. Berserker. Yeah. He's a, he was, uh, I think the nephew of big boss on the crook side. He was a, he was, he was kind of, he was the dopey, the dopey, creepy, kind of crazy member of the crook gang.
00:48:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's Dave. You definitely had that guy too. I'm looking at the picture. I had both of those. Oh man. I didn't, I actually, it, the, the, those were, those were Hasbro. Yeah.
00:48:44
Speaker
Yeah, they were Hasbro. They were done kind of in the same style as GI Joe in terms of articulation. They had a lot of the same articulation. The figures were a little bit, you know, bulkier. I mean, obviously they were five inch scale, but they were six inch scale. But they were also like a lot more muscular for the most part. They varied. They had some skinny bucks and they had some muscular bucks. And then they had some big fat bucks. But they...
00:49:10
Speaker
They were definitely a Hasbro item. I don't think they were around when I had that catalog. I think they were a later release, but, um, but I definitely watched the cartoon. It might've been going out of toys by that time. Looks like, looks like 1988. That's, that's crazy. I think that I, yeah, I mean, the, the colors alone are just on, on some of these, like the colorways on these figures are just so wild.
00:49:35
Speaker
Like so so very much exactly what I'm thinking of. Yes. A lot of pinks, a lot of light blues. I mean, the cops were a lot of dark blue, but Dr. Bad vibes had some pink on them. I'm pretty sure from the brick side and a lot of a lot of popped collars going on. Dr. Bad vibes. Oh, man. What? Yeah. What a what a what a good what a good figure line.
00:50:02
Speaker
Well, Zach, as always, man, it's an absolute pleasure having you here and chatting toys with you. But before we let you go, remind our listeners, where can they find you on the internet? And where can they learn more about Diamond Select Toys? I'm on the internet as Zach Oat. I'm on TikTok. I'm on Instagram. I don't really go on Twitter very much.
00:50:30
Speaker
But Instagram and TikTok, I try to post stuff regularly, my toy photography and other stuff. But DST, you can find at CollectDST on Twitter and Instagram, and I think on TikTok as well. And the website is diamondselectboys.com. We overhauled it about a year ago, maybe a little less. And it's a lot more user friendly and
00:50:54
Speaker
Pretty much everything that we make is on there unless it's an older item that's sold out So definitely if you're looking for something DST check it out. Yeah, the new website rules by the way, that's oh excellent Yeah, that was an awesome. That was an awesome change
00:51:09
Speaker
Um, yeah. So Zach, thank you. Thank you so much for, uh, once again for, for coming on the show, we'll make sure we include, uh, links to the diamond select website as well as, you know, all of the social handles you mentioned in the show notes. So those folks that are listening, uh, you know, make sure you hit the show notes. You can just hit links. That way you don't have to go crazy type and stuff in. Um, Zach, thanks again, man, for, for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. It's an honor. Dave, would you, would you like to send us home?
00:51:39
Speaker
It's time to go home, everybody.
00:52:02
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.
00:52:25
Speaker
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