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"We do this perfectly every time," or The Baseball Toys Episode.
404 Plays6 years ago
On this episode of Adventures in Collecting, Dave and Erik talk the latest news from this past Triple Force Friday, 2019 New York Comic Con, and Mattel's WWE announcement. Along with their recent hauls, the brothers Weinbrecht tackle the long, and sometimes strange, relationship between Baseball and the toy industry – discussing Kenner's Starting Lineup and bizarrely intricate Talking Baseball, to McFarlane, FUNKO, and more!
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram & Twitter
Intro by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction and Promotion
00:00:00
Speaker
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00:00:30
Speaker
Hi, Dave. Hi, Eric. Hey, Dave. Do we curse on this podcast? Yes, Eric. Yes, we do. Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast.
00:00:51
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.
Podcast Expansion
00:01:05
Speaker
Welcome to episode four. Welcome back. Thank you for joining us again. Yeah, I'm here. He's back. It's me. He's back. And I promise you, it is not Heather doing an impersonation of Dave. Although I'm sure it would be fantastic. She refused. She refused. So just some housekeeping before we get started with our normal programming.
00:01:30
Speaker
Dave and I are both very excited to announce that we have joined the non-productive Network, so they're a really really great network of nerd chic podcasts everything from Saturday Night Live to Dungeons and Dragons to comic books to They do video games It's a really great network. They have a really great group of podcasts, and we're really happy to be with them and
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty great to be on board, and we're looking forward to kind of getting out there to more people with the nonproductive network. So thanks for having us. Yeah, so I guess also hello to the nonproductive network. Hello, nonproductive network.
October Themes and Goosebumps
00:02:14
Speaker
The other piece of information or other little thing I wanted to mention actually was this is our first of two episodes in the spooky month of October So happy October Dave. Yes. Happy October And while we're talking about spooky things I wanted to mention another podcast that's out there Host co-hosted by a very good friend of ours We'll call him Dave P because we don't want to confuse him with the Dave that you're you're hearing today but uh
00:02:43
Speaker
Their podcast is called Calling All Creeps, and it is a deep dive into the Goosebumps series. Their last episode, they had a chance to meet Arl Stein, the man himself, along with one of the key artists behind a lot of the covers. Not all of the covers, but a lot of the covers from the Goosebumps series. It's a really great podcast. They're a riot. We're hoping to get Dave P on here at some point to join us.
00:03:12
Speaker
Yeah, definitely check them out if you're into funny shit and or goosebumps. Yeah, we're going to hopefully just kind of up the ante on the amount of Dave on this podcast. We're going to go all in Dave. So all the Dave, all the Dave, all the Dave.
00:03:35
Speaker
hashtag all the dave yeah if you want more dave on this podcast please be sure to uh to tag us in your posts on instagram and uh hashtag all the dave or if you've had enough and it's like i've had enough either it'll the hashtag will work either way
00:03:56
Speaker
Before we get into the main topic, let's just do a quick recap of the news. I'll kick it off.
NY Comic Con Highlights
00:04:04
Speaker
Last week, if you've been keeping an eye on our social media, which by the way, if you're not at AIC underscore podcast to follow us on Twitter and Instagram and all that good stuff,
00:04:18
Speaker
We were posting a lot about New York Comic Con reveals and Triple Force Friday. So I had a great time on Triple Force Friday. I hit up a couple of Walmarts, a Target. I talked to some really great people. It was really cool.
00:04:35
Speaker
to see ... It was a smaller group than usual, but it was really great to see some enthusiasm about the Star Wars franchise and the toys and all the new things that were out. There were some really great Target exclusives with the Futura, right? Yeah, Futura.
00:04:53
Speaker
Futura brands, they did some cross-promotion with Funko, and they had an exclusive Darth Vader and some exclusive clothing and Boba Fett, and they were really, really great. There was also the giant fucking 10-inch Boba Fett's, which they were only allowing one per customer, which was very good of Target, very frustrating for some of the people that were there.
00:05:19
Speaker
But it was great. I got a chance to talk to some people, multi-generational, which was great. There were people there that were older than I was. There were people there with their kids. It was a good time. And I was also able to find everything that I was looking for. So I got all the vintage collection guys that I was looking for, which was great.
00:05:40
Speaker
And I have to say specifically that new Rey is just, it's unreal. It's definitely my favorite figure in that scale. I would say it's a tie between the new Rey and actually, which surprised me because it's kind of like my least favorite look for Luke. I absolutely love the Jedi or the Rebel pilot Luke. They did such a good job with it. The head on mine is a little janky.
00:06:06
Speaker
It's a little loose, but otherwise it's awesome.
Marvel Legends Speculation
00:06:11
Speaker
The other piece of news that I wanted to mention was just all the cool shit that came out of New York Comic Con. So in terms of Marvel Legends, I'll kind of stay in my lane on that. But we're finally getting a Stan Lee Marvel Legends figure. There was a rumor going back that he was going to be a Build-A-Figure, and there were some rights issues.
00:06:31
Speaker
Hasbro surprised everybody by bringing him out and it's an awesome MCU look. It's it's the Stan Lee from the first Avengers film. He comes with the chess set. He comes with a very, very tongue in cheek autographed, you know, air quotes autographed Captain America shield for him to hold. I mean, the guy is just he is a legend. So the fact that they've finally turned him into plastic is is
00:06:58
Speaker
It's only appropriate at this point. Yeah, it's a great looking figure.
00:07:02
Speaker
Yeah, and it looks like it's going to be super easy for everyone to get. It was originally available for preorder first on Target. It's now on Hasbro Pulse. It's on Amazon. I'm sure it'll be on Walmart soon, if it's not already. But it's due out sometime next year in the late winter, early spring. I'm seeing anything from February through April at this point, depending on who you preorder it from.
00:07:29
Speaker
As you know, if you're buying these things, those dates tend to change, so just keep an eye on it. But it looks like they're going to make it so that everyone who wants one can get one, which is awesome. The other big Marvel Legends reveal was the Marvel's first family, so new looks for the Fantastic Four.
00:07:48
Speaker
You've got Mr. Fantastic, you've got Invisible Woman, you've got Thing, you've got Johnny. The whole gang is there and they all look awesome. They're in their new looks, their modern comic looks.
00:08:05
Speaker
Of course, the big bad himself, Dr. Doom, Marvel Legends collectors have been clamoring for him for years and years and years. Hasbro has not touched him. As of yet, the newest Dr. Doom he gets is back from the Toy Biz days, so people are very excited. I have to say, it looks incredible. They had actual
00:08:28
Speaker
Final figures with them at New York Comic Con to show was they weren't like paint samples So it's how they're actually gonna look and they looked fantastic no pun intended the other figure in that wave is is she Hulk also looking great the the build a figure, you know to be determined so I Honestly the size that thing was I'm still kind of shocked that he's not the build a figure I wonder who it could be
00:08:56
Speaker
Hmm. Yeah, I mean, your guess is as good as mine because they kind of hit all checked all the boxes and hit all the characters you'd want to see in a Fantastic Four series. So who knows?
00:09:12
Speaker
Yeah, my gut for some reason, since they're being so coy about it, my gut is Modoc, because that's been another one that people have really wanted the Marvel Legends line to revisit, seeing as how he has not had a figure since Toy Biz line. And that's definitely one you can't do as a single-pack card. I mean, he's just a monstrosity of a monstrosity.
00:09:33
Speaker
I mean, there have been some pretty out there buildafigs, but at the same time, there have been some ones that would be like, wow, I'm surprised this isn't a regular kind of regular issue figure.
00:09:45
Speaker
Well, I don't want to steal your thunder, speaking of Buildafigures, but I'm going to pass the ball over to you for some news because you have an interesting Buildafigure announcement too,
WWE Wrestlemania Toys
00:09:54
Speaker
huh? Yeah. So on WWE.com this past week, the WrestleMania, this year's WrestleMania 36 figure line was posted. You got to see all the prototype images and the packaging images.
00:10:14
Speaker
a lot of cool stuff coming from that line in both battle packs, in basics, and in elites. And we'll start with the elites because that is where the build-a-figure lies. You have four figures in that WrestleMania 36 elite line. You have Booker T and Mick Foley and Kofi Kingston and Wilk and Matt Hardy. I think I said all four.
00:10:35
Speaker
I think you did, but I'm staring at you incredulously. What is a Woken, Matt Hardy? If you go back to Matt Hardy at the end of the last impact run. Oh shit, am I going to get deleted? Yeah, that's what it is. It's the deleted thing, but it's WWE's version of the deleted character.
00:10:58
Speaker
And they're all WrestleMania themes, so these are all their kind of key WrestleMania appearances, which is nice. Kofi's being last year where he won the WWE title. And what's awesome is they all come with a part for Build a Figure, which there hasn't been with the elites in a while. And the Build a Figure is a first of its kind.
00:11:21
Speaker
flashback for 80s referee Danny Davis, which is fantastic. Oh my goodness. Yeah Now is that I'm trying to vision that is that blue shirt referee blue shirt referee, right? So it's gonna be fantastic Definitely intending on
00:11:38
Speaker
picking up all of those figures. I definitely for the things that I was looking to collect, we're looking for Booker T, Kofi and Foley for sure. But I mean, Matt Hardy just to get the rest of the referee is like a layup in my opinion. Now, I've
00:11:57
Speaker
I've not really delved too deeply into the toy photography slash display world of WWE figures. I kind of know what I know based on our conversations. Is that something where people buy a ring and kind of set them up or do they leave them in boxes? Because I can imagine if they are taking them off the card, having a referee has been a missing piece in many people's collection.
00:12:26
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. There is definitely a figure photography community out there. You know, you can buy guardrails, you can buy announce tables, you can buy like cardboard crowds and cardboard stages and things of that nature. So it's out there. And it's definitely – there's definitely an audience for it.
Figure Photography Community
00:12:47
Speaker
And in some instances, it's just going to be cool to have a referee, to be honest.
00:12:51
Speaker
Especially that referee like that's iconic. The only thing it's gonna be unfortunate is if I remember Was it like on the left breast they had the WWF back in the day? Not then not then. No, it was just blue shirt. Okay Now what's cool with Danny Davis is to at one point for a lot of people who was the first modern referee that turned heel and Actually became a wrestler which was interesting. Yeah, but we're just getting the ref version. That's cool your battle packs
00:13:20
Speaker
There are three battle packs in the set. The first one is Kane and Daniel Bryan when they were Team Hell No. That's gonna be from WrestleMania 29, which was in the Metalands. It was at MetLife Stadium. Then you have Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton.
00:13:39
Speaker
You also have Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns. Those are the three battle packs. The basic line is Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, Batista, Stephanie McMahon, Shane McMahon, and The Rock. And it's a cool looking line, but the elites are kind of the
00:13:58
Speaker
the real big story there because there's a lot of really cool leads there and a lot of wrestlers that haven't had figures in a while. Like there hasn't been a new Booker T in a long time.
00:14:10
Speaker
So we have a super cool topic and it's a big one and we have a lot to talk about. So let's roll right into our halls. I mentioned a lot of mine, you know, from Triple Force Friday, I was able to get Rey, Zori Bliss, the Jet Trooper, the Sith Jet Trooper, the Knight of Ren, and
00:14:33
Speaker
a surprise by I wasn't intending on getting him but when I saw the Luke Skywalker in Rebel pilot gear, I had to pick him up. So outside of that, I've still been backfilling a little bit of my Marvel Legends collection. I picked up the
00:14:48
Speaker
from somebody on eBay. I got a really good deal on the Eric Killmonger from the Everett Ross 2-pack. He looks great. Very, very cool figure. I wanted that one because I wanted both the Michael B. Jordan head and the masked Panther, the anti-Panther head.
00:15:10
Speaker
And I also picked up today. I got MJ and the Spider-Man in the yellow coat from Washington, D.C. from Homecoming. I couldn't pass it up, and I'm actually looking at the Spider-Man right now, and I immediately, since I have a plethora of Spider-Mans at this point, I already have him just kind of laying down with his hands behind his head on his back, kind of like the poster. But that's all I've got.
00:15:39
Speaker
I got a couple things. I got some stuff. I picked up. I walked into a Target looking for WWE Network spotlight figures. Found none of those, but miraculously, as if it knew I was going to be there, I found a Haunted Mansion Target-exclusive Chrome 3-pack.
00:16:00
Speaker
of the three hitchhiking ghosts, which was something I was very much looking for and very much figuring that I was never going to see, let alone own. So I picked that up. Very good. I also picked up, I did find a WWE Network Spotlight target figure at one point. I found Big Daddy Cool Diesel.
00:16:21
Speaker
which was a really cool figure. I don't have a Diesel or a Kevin Nash, so now I do. Yeah, both boxes checked. Yeah. And to be honest, as much as I love the NWO stuff, and I actually prefer his Wolfpack look to his NWO look with the red and black, but if I was going to go with a quintessential Kevin Nash figure, I think I would go Diesel. Yeah, probably.
00:16:45
Speaker
Because that whole like diesel, razor, Ramon era, like those two guys together, that was that was a lot of fun. And did you pick up anything else? Well, I think today I picked up Tommaso Ciampa and the Miz. You're welcome. You picked those up for me. There were ones I was just kind of, yeah, I'll get them at some point and.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they had that whole wave at my local Walmart. As soon as I saw the whole wave stack there, my gut, I ran right to them because I was like, please, do they have his Pat Patterson? Yeah, I'm still looking for that Pat Patterson and in turn, we'll be looking for that Jerry Briscoe when he comes out as well. Are you going to do Gorilla Monsoon? Yeah, I want the Gorilla Monsoon. That was like...
Nostalgia Dive: Kenner and Home Alone
00:17:30
Speaker
I wish the Bobby Heenan was a little easier to get now too because...
00:17:34
Speaker
And I like that the gorilla, nice touch, the gorilla monsoon comes with a changeable jacket. Yeah, and that's cool. That's how they do the ultimate arms, where you can just, the jacket is already on the other arms, and then it's that plastic jacket. Yeah, I was very impressed when I saw that. Because you need red tuxedo gorilla. Oh yeah, you have to. I don't know who else is gonna put that other tuxedo on him. Like, when I think of him. It's the red jacket. Yeah, always.
00:18:02
Speaker
So I think it's a good time to move on to our main topic, right? Yeah. So I'm really excited about this one. The normal convention of thinking is that you have nerd shit and you have sports shit. And you're jocks and nerds, going back to just the cultural isms of pop culture. The two groups have always been separate. But people in the know,
00:18:31
Speaker
are more familiar with is we're all one and the same. So as much as Dave and I drool over Star Wars and WWE and comic books and movies and all that stuff, we are just as much into sports. And I know we are not alone with that. And there has been a collecting culture with sports probably for longer than there has been in a quote unquote pop cultural sense.
00:18:59
Speaker
going back to the cigar baseball cards and the honus wagners of the world and things. With the World Series, very, very quickly approaching and both the American League and National League Championship Series is happening now, we thought it would be a great time
00:19:23
Speaker
to talk about baseball toys. It's relevant and we realized as we started doing research into what we could possibly talk about, there is a shit ton of things out there to talk about. There are a lot of baseball toys. Thank you for listening. Have a good night.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yes, that's it. We're done. We're done. Yeah. Lots of baseball toys. Any questions? So I'm actually going to pass the floor feather over to Dave because my introduction to baseball toys came from him.
00:20:07
Speaker
take it away as the older brother. That's going to be the case for most of these. There's been in our collecting lifetime a litany of really sports toys, but mostly baseball toys. I think the main starting point for that
00:20:30
Speaker
was Kenner's starting lineup line. And it's still something to this day that has a very iconic nature to it in the sense that it was, you know, it was all baseball poses. There was a couple different pitching poses. There were a couple different hitting poses. There was a fielding pose. There was a sliding pose. There were some poses that made absolutely no sense.
00:20:56
Speaker
You know what it was? There were poses that made absolutely no sense when you were a kid because you'd look at it and go, nobody throws the ball this way. But you had to realize or swings a bat this way. But then kind of later on, you realize, oh, wait a minute, they're just put in the box that way.
00:21:12
Speaker
And you actually have to maneuver the baseball player to make the pose make sense. You know, things you learn later in life, right? So it was a pretty iconic line of figures, especially, I'll say in our fandom being New York Mets fans, because these dropped in 1988, at the height of
00:21:35
Speaker
you know, that that small kind of 85 to 89 Mets run, where they were good for a sustained period of time. And, you know, you'd have players like Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, Howard Johnson, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, they were all of the
00:21:57
Speaker
Mets players that were in that 1988 line, which was crazy because they were wearing the 1987 away jerseys, but... Yeah, they made some decisions with that first point. Yeah, the crazy decision was like, so, and I think this took a while to even fix if at all. The original 1988 line, both the Mets and the Yankees were wearing away jerseys.
00:22:25
Speaker
Um, because no jersey had pinstripes. But some had piping. So there were stripes in the jerseys.
00:22:35
Speaker
It doesn't surprise me. What we know now about Kenner, especially from documentaries like The Toys That Made Us, where you see that the guys that were working on these were literally four dudes in an office. On a shoestring budget. Yeah, so thinking about it that way, like, oh, okay, that actually kind of makes sense. Those were simpler. New Jersey's required cheaper paint apps.
00:23:00
Speaker
Yeah, like when you see the original Jawa was like wearing a sock. Yeah, that's amazing. Yes. By the way, if you're not following the toys that made us on Instagram and you are a toy collector, you are you are really, really missing out. They are an extremely active account for a show that has two seasons and like what like.
00:23:20
Speaker
10 episodes. I think that third one's coming. Third one is coming. They've been hinting at Power Rangers, which I'm really excited about. I think wrestling is one for next one too. Maybe. Yeah, they're a great follow, but anyway. But enough about them, more about us. Those starting lineup figures were great and they ventured into all sports and they were around for
00:23:43
Speaker
Geez, the better part of a decade at least? Yeah, it went well into the 90s. Might have even gone into the aughts a little bit. Really? Yeah, I feel like that ended in like 2000, 2001. But they were so limited and difficult to find at that point.
00:24:02
Speaker
Well, for those of you that are maybe not familiar with the name, if you saw these figures, you would definitely know what they were. I know I very closely associate them with the movie Home Alone. There's that one scene where after Kevin has kind of settled into the fact that he is home alone, he sets up those sports figures, those Chicago native sports figures on the laundry shoot.
00:24:30
Speaker
And with the door propped open and he takes them all out with the BB gun, those are starting lineup figures. And I think most of the sports, probably not hockey, but I can visualize the Chicago Bulls jersey and I think there's like a Cubs jersey in there. Yeah, I don't remember. I think so. There might have been a bear in there as well. Oh, yeah, maybe. Yeah, he takes him out with the BB gun.
00:24:49
Speaker
But like those are those starting line of figures like with the base glued to one of their feet and you know Kind of in some sort of athletic pose Yeah, they were cool figures. I like them They were very good and They also spawned one of the I'll say craziest tabletop games
00:25:10
Speaker
electronic tabletop games of all time uh starting lineup talking baseball oh we're gonna get weird now so brief history lesson there were those calico um little kind of traveling tabletop electronic games where it was just basically red lights that would signify
00:25:29
Speaker
the ball or the player or whatever the case may be it was it was like an Atari 2600 game that you would take with you and play football but there were no players there were no like there was no specific player to it it was just you know
00:25:45
Speaker
You hit the button for hit and stuff happened. Yes, kids. You had to use your imagination. So with starting lineup talking baseball, what you had was you had this little stadium and it would spin. There was actually a little kind of spindle at the bottom where you could
00:26:01
Speaker
because it was like a Lazy Susan, kinda. And after each half inning, you had to switch. So if you were hitting one half inning, you had to turn it to do the pitching part. And on the stadium, and it was in the shape of a stadium, on the field, you had a light for first, a light for second, a light for third, and then nine lights for home plate.
00:26:26
Speaker
that signified the strike zone. And you had to, based on where the pitch was, decide if you were going to swing or not. And it would flash. And so you had, as it was in each part of the strike zone, you had to, on a specific flash, hit the ball. It was insanely advanced for what it was, in all honesty, because
00:26:52
Speaker
Built into the game, you had the American League All-Stars for, it had to have been like 1988 or 1989, and the National League All-Stars. And then you had a cartridge for Hall of Famers. So those were the three teams that you had that came with the game. And they came with square baseball cards.
00:27:12
Speaker
And we'll get to the importance of the cards in a moment. But eventually what you could also do, because there were 26 teams at the time, and it of course was not an even number, they had different cartridges for the different teams. And it was, I want to say three to four teams per cartridge. And I had them all. I had the entire league at the time. And...
00:27:36
Speaker
What you would do is, in order to play a game, you could either play as the All-Stars, and that was the default, or when you put a cartridge in, you had to type in the number for which team you wanted to play as or play against. And they weren't the official Major League Baseball teams, that was not the license they had, they just had the Players Association license.
00:27:55
Speaker
Which was weird because for the figures, they had both. Yeah, so this was a dual partner, or I should say a two-partner product. So Kenner, as we mentioned, had the starting lineup figures. Kenner partnered with Parker Brothers to produce Talking Baseball. So the starting lineup figures,
00:28:18
Speaker
They utilized the actual MLB license, so they were able to have the jerseys, the logos, all that. The talking baseball did not have that license, so the players were, their likenesses were there, their names were there, but they were all wearing like, like if you had the Mets and you had Keith Hernandez, it was Keith Hernandez. In a blank blue hat. Exactly.
00:28:41
Speaker
So that was how that worked. Now the game itself on each side, whether you were the pitching side or the hitting side, you had a keypad and then you had other keys around it and it was like a regular telephone keypad. So it was 1 through 9 and then 0. And then you had
00:29:01
Speaker
different things like steel, swing, pinch hitter, pinch runner, et cetera. And on pitching, you had the different pitch selection and all this different stuff. Now where the cards came in was each player had a number. So if you wanted to pinch hit for somebody, you had to hit pinch hit and type in the number of the player you wanted to have pinch hit or pitch or whatever the case may be. Part Dungeons and Dragons, part baseball,
00:29:29
Speaker
part computer programming. Incredibly deep game for what it was. To build the lineup, you needed a slide rule. You needed a fucking abacus. Now, I was reading articles about this, because when Dave mentioned this, I'm sitting there thinking, I don't really remember this. And then as soon as I saw a picture of it, I was like, oh, this is that thing that was like a talking baseball game that I could never figure out. Duh, talking baseball.
00:29:57
Speaker
But now keep in mind you were like by the time you started playing with it. It was you were like a hot four years old yeah, so but it's funny because like the article all the articles written by You know your contemporaries Were hilarious because it was people kind of like waxing poetic about how ahead of its time this game was and how in-depth it was and how much fun it was but the fucking problem was you could never find another person to play with because no one else took the time to learn how to play it and it was
00:30:27
Speaker
By the time you figured out how to play, it became so easy to cheat at it because you could take over at any time instead of playing with the computer. So you could like, all right, Daryl Strawberry's up and I have two men on base with two outs. I'm just going to throw fastballs.
00:30:48
Speaker
Yeah. And if you hit it in the right place, like, lock home run. Yep. So. Yeah. And so that's the other place where that's the other thing the cards played into, right? So the cards had stats on them. So of course, like, you know, your your names, your big name players, like you knew what their strengths were if you were a fan of the sport at the time. Well, it was like a proper baseball card in the sense that it just had the previous year stats on it and then what you needed to do to put them in the game.
00:31:17
Speaker
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure from what I was reading, again, I never actually played this. I remember it being in the living room, but I don't remember ever attempting to actually play it. But from what I was reading, the stats on the card, to your point, if you needed a ringer, there were certain players that were programmed to be better than other players.
00:31:46
Speaker
just in terms of if you are making contact with the ball, I don't know how the game kind of, I don't know what the algorithm was for it at the time, but from what it seems is like if you had a player, if you were playing with the Cooperstown team, you were playing with the Legends team and you had Babe Ruth, you were more likely to hit a home run with him on contact.
00:32:11
Speaker
Yeah, most likely. The other thing, too, and I'm looking at them now, when you had the individual teams, they were like almost like Drew Struzan paintings of the players. Yes. And then the All-Star team was…
00:32:26
Speaker
It was pictures. Yeah, the starting lineup and the talking baseball, those were kind of like, you know, again, we know that, you know, collecting and baseball goes way back, especially with cards and things like that. But I feel like that was really the moment that, that like action figures and sports kind of took off.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah. And from there, there's a huge, huge, huge baseball industry when it comes to toys. Look at the stuff that Funko's doing, right? So they have, of course, the mascots out. I have to mention, even though I know it will bring a deep pain to you, the original Mr. Met. Oh, yeah. I should have bought that city field the one time.
00:33:12
Speaker
And they have since produced another one, but it is not that it looks it actually looks better because I like the blue jersey on him better, but he doesn't wear that. Yeah. Yeah. Unless they do. Mr. Met wears the home pinstripes. Yes. It's.
00:33:27
Speaker
But also, they do players. And Funko being based out of Seattle, they have a deep connection with the Mariners fans out there and the involvement in the stadium and some of the minor league teams. For those that follow baseball, a man that will go down as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history retired this year, Ichiro.
00:33:54
Speaker
And on his final home game in Seattle, Funko, they were the stadium giveaway. And they gave away echiro pops. And of course, in true Funko fashion, there were chases. So some people got, I think it was an all gold or an all bronze or something like that, echiro, which
00:34:17
Speaker
I think I didn't see a picture of the the chase one, but I saw a picture of the the standard one and it looks great I mean, it's it's just what you'd expect but they also have They have to be Bruce that recently came out one was in your comic-con exclusive They have the mascots as we mentioned, but they also do some players. So I know we probably sound like broken records at this point with the Mets stuff but Noah cinder guard has had two treatments if you want to call it that and
00:34:44
Speaker
Yeah, and that's kind of one thing where I wish they could do more or would do more. The two series of players have been like home and away. So the first series was Noah's Cindergarten, a home jersey. The second series was Noah's Cindergarten, a way jersey.
00:35:05
Speaker
You know, Aaron Judge in a home jersey, Aaron Judge in an away jersey. Yeah, there's two Max Scherzers. There's... Yeah, but that one, the Max Scherzer one, I think that as much as I am not a fan of his team, I actually liked that pop because they did the two different colored eyes on it, which is pretty cool. Yeah. And then, you know, you had kind of some...
00:35:29
Speaker
happy accidents, we'll say, like John Carlos Stanton was originally supposed to be a Miami Marlins pop vinyl. However, he got traded before the first series came out, so he's John Carlos Stanton with a goatee, which would not fly on the New York Yankees because of the no facial hair except for Mustaches policy. Yeah, yep, yep. So, you know, like, I would like more players. Like, I would love to see a
00:35:57
Speaker
You know, back to another Met, like a Piedelonzo. Give me... Mike Piazza. I mean, if they do a more kind of classic players, absolutely.
00:36:09
Speaker
I feel like there's a good market for that. Vlad Jr. Oh, you know who else did that recently? I'm just thinking of now. Was it Super 7? Didn't they do like baseball legends? Yeah, they did. They have a first series of baseball legends and mascots, which at San Diego Comic Con, I know they showed more legends and more mascots. So far, the only mascot that's out is the Philly Fanatic, which of course, legendary mascot. Yeah.
00:36:39
Speaker
and then a couple of legendary players. Yeah, and that's another line that those things are so cool. Yeah, they're cool. I love what they're doing. They're really cool. They're like that old school small GI Joe figure. Yeah, yep. But then you had, for a while, the McFarlane.
00:37:00
Speaker
baseball figures. That's actually where my absolute favorite baseball figure I have ever seen was the McFarlane, Arizona Diamondbacks, Randy Johnson. I just remember the first time I saw that figure, and Randy Johnson's one of those athletes where he kind of
00:37:22
Speaker
He surpassed just being a great athlete. Yeah, he had a presence. He was this intimidating presence. I mean, the guy exploded a pigeon. Accurate. And if you have not seen that, I'm sorry for the pigeon, like RIP Pigeon, but it's one of the craziest baseball clips you could watch. Please pause this podcast at this moment, go to YouTube and just type in Randy Johnson Pigeon. It will come up.
00:37:52
Speaker
And it will blow your mind and then come back and finish this with us.
00:37:58
Speaker
But it's crazy. For those that remember the movie Little Big League, they rolled him out in the villain role where he gave it as a closing picture. Imagine this, the movie made Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson the villains of the film. By the way, the fact that that team never won any World Series together is just kind of
00:38:23
Speaker
off a pseudo adjacent topic, but they had some superstars on that team and never managed to do much, unfortunately. By the time he was sort of winding down his career, he went to the Arizona Diamondbacks and kind of had a second wind there. He was not winding down his career at all. Yankees
00:38:44
Speaker
was when he was one. Yeah, he was at the height of being Randy Johnson in Arizona. You're right. You're right. Yeah, no, he was Pete Randy Johnson there. But I remember seeing that McFarlane figure and thinking like, oh my god, look how far they've come with likenesses and being able to nail somebody's appearance and just seeing that figure in Toys R Us next to all the other stuff that was going on and thinking like, this is the future.
00:39:10
Speaker
I can't wait to see what other brands do to try to compete with this. Granted, those figures were truly collectibles. They weren't action figures. They were meant to be taken out of the box, set up with their little set piece. I think he came with a pitcher's rubber and a little mound.
00:39:33
Speaker
And, you know, he had a very distinct style too, especially the way he finished and followed through on a pitch. And I think that's what the figure was. He was kind of like hunched over and bent down, like with his head out, but like his hand down, like he had just finished a pitch. Very impressive figure. Yeah, and those definitely captured a lot of
00:39:58
Speaker
what made the player the player. Like you caught a lot of their personality. Like if there was somebody who had a specific kind of wind up, they would capture that. More specific swing, they would capture that. And that was pretty fantastic. It also was one of the first
00:40:19
Speaker
figure lines. I mean, I guess there's always been variants in some form or fashion. But the you know, you that was really where you got to see a lot of chase variants, where, you know, the chase variant might be an alternate jersey or, you know, an alternate. Well, it was generally not an alternate pose. It was usually an alternate jersey jersey or some sort of like facial touch up like maybe they had eye black on on one and not on the other, you know,
00:40:46
Speaker
Yeah, but it was mostly like, you know, if the main figure was in a road jersey, the chase might be in a home jersey, or vice versa. Yeah, so that was pretty cool too. And they had, if you had a figure or a figure, if you had a player who had more than one figure cross many series, you know, you'd have Mike Piazza swinging a bat or on his backswing on one, and then Mike Piazza catching
00:41:15
Speaker
on the next figure, or you might have a picture in a windup in one, and then a picture in his follow through in the next one. There was a great one of, I think, Mariano Rivera coming out of the bullpen, was I think one, which was pretty cool. Yes. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. His little set piece that came with him was the- Was the bullpen doors. Was the bullpen doors. Yeah, that was pretty neat. Yep. I remember that.
00:41:39
Speaker
Or it wasn't maybe not the bullpen doors, but the background was of coming out of the Yankee Stadium bullpen. Yeah, like it looked like the wall. Yeah. Yeah. But they also did, you know, one of the things we sort of mentioned with the ETRO pop, there was a McFarlane Stadium tie-in too, right? Like a giveaway.
00:41:57
Speaker
I don't think it was a giveaway so much as it was just a stadium exclusive toy. And I don't know where else they did this. I don't know if it was just something that was, and again, we're going back to Met stuff because that's what we know. Man, all of our listeners in Philadelphia are going to be like super pissed.
00:42:18
Speaker
if they're there. It was David Wright and Jose Reyes. They had two separate years. I don't know if one was a Citi Field and the other one was Shea Stadium. I know at least one of them was a Shea Stadium.
00:42:35
Speaker
but they were mini versions of the figures. And that was one thing they did too, was they would take all of the detail that was in the regular figure and shrink it down to like a mini figure, which was insane because it kept all of the details as well. And all the decoration and everything was accurate in that considerably smaller size.
00:43:01
Speaker
and they did those as stadium exclusives in some instances. I know you were able to get them as well, but they were also stadium exclusives, which was nice. Yeah, and I could speak to the detail on not those two specific figures, but I actually ordered it by accident a few years ago. I really wanted a Ray Lewis MacFarlane figure.
00:43:25
Speaker
And I found it on Amazon and didn't do the due diligence of looking it up. And I was like, oh, man, that's really cheap for like a six inch McFarland Ray Lewis figure that's out of print. It showed up and it was about three inches tall. But it's the most detailed three inch tall figure I've ever seen.
00:43:43
Speaker
Yeah, I still have mine in the packaging because they were the stadium exclusive and I think that is part of the charm of those little minifigures is kind of where I got them. Yeah. Yep. I actually ended up, mine came with a, my Ray Lewis one came with a Jeremy Shockey Giants figure, I think it was. It was a little weird. Was that from the Super Bowl? I think it might have been.
00:44:09
Speaker
It was a weird little two-pack and you know being in in New Jersey. I am surrounded by Giants fans So I found somebody in the office I was just like hey you want Jeremy Shockey for your desk So they took them I mentioned my favorite baseball figure So I'm gonna put the spot. I'm gonna put you on the spot. What's what's your favorite baseball toy Dave my favorite baseball toy? I
00:44:39
Speaker
That's a tough one. Part of me wants to go with the starting lineup because the starting lineup figures because they were first. I know you love that, Greg Jeffries. Greg Jeffries. Yeah, because I played second base when I was a kid. He was like the new rookie second baseman that didn't pan out for the Mets, but it was still kind of cool.
00:45:03
Speaker
And who wore your number too, right? Well, that's why it's my number. That's why nine is my number. And my number is nine because it was your number. Oh, thank you.
00:45:16
Speaker
I'm going to go with starting lineup just because it was first, and I remember trying to find as many of them as I could. So I feel like we'd be remiss without signing off without a little baseball prediction, Dave. So we're both huge baseball fans, right? We have the perfect timing here. We're recording this episode right before the ALCS and the NLCS series starts.
00:45:46
Speaker
We've got four teams left. We've got the Nationals, the Cardinals, the Yankees, and the Astros. Who do you think are the two teams that are going to make it to the World Series? And who do you think is going to win? Let's go American League. Okay. First and foremost. And this isn't who you want. It's who do you think is going to do it.
00:46:08
Speaker
Conventional wisdom has, for me, a Houston and probably Washington World Series. I do think Washington's better than St. Louis, but that's like asking me what my favorite vegetable is.
00:46:27
Speaker
The one that's not green. I don't like any of them to be honest. You could go in for a carrot. I could eat a carrot. I put lettuce on my sandwiches. So you're going nationals, Astros. Who's taking it?
00:46:48
Speaker
I feel like the Astros pitching is just gonna be too good. And with that said, you know, game one of the Yankees series is probably gonna be like eight, two Yankees. Because that's how un-against conventional wisdom the whole playoffs have gone thus far. So I'm gonna go with, I'm still, you know what? I'm gonna go Yankees and Washington.
00:47:19
Speaker
With the Yankees winning. All right. I am also going to take the Nationals out of the National League.
00:47:31
Speaker
And as much as I actually really, really love this Yankees team, like they've had a really great story this season. They have played through injury. It's been a lot of fun to follow them kind of like on the side. But the Astros are terrifying at the same time. So I'm going to go
00:47:56
Speaker
Houston Nationals but I'm gonna go Nationals winning the World Series and the only reason I say that now is I feel like they've had this kind of like fire
00:48:14
Speaker
coming off of, you know, a bunch of seasons with Bryce Harper and him kind of being very vocal. And, you know, I just I feel like that team wants to win and win without him. But I'm gonna go I'm gonna go Houston Nationals with with the Nationals taking it. You're welcome, Tyler.
00:48:40
Speaker
And and with that by the way, you're welcome Heather's boyfriend. Yeah. Oh damn it. You're right You're welcome Heather's boyfriend. I messed that up for we're not editing that one out. No, that's that's gonna Editing what we do this perfectly every time
00:48:56
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:49:12
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.
00:49:36
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.
00:50:06
Speaker
you