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Here's to At Least One More - The AIC Year One Anniversary Special
395 Plays5 years ago
The boys did it! One full year of Adventures in Collecting! Join Dave and Erik as they're interrupted randomly by special guests calling in during the usual news and hauls, and as they relive five of their favorite moments from the first year. Who knows who it will be - tune in and find out!
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Celebrating One Year of Adventures in Collecting
00:00:06
Speaker
Toyabobs and Dads! Adventures in Collecting is about toys, but it might not be for your children. Especially if you don't like words like f*** or s***.
00:00:19
Speaker
Hey everyone, Toys just here, and I just want to wish Adventures in Collecting a very happy one year anniversary. Congratulations! You did it! They are the number one news... They are the second best, 37th best toy news source on the internet going today. Hands down, they do a great job.
00:00:38
Speaker
In all seriousness, thoughs, congratulations to you guys. I always enjoy talking toys with you. It's always been a pleasure. Always like what you do. Keep it up, and many, many more years of action figure goodness ahead for you. And until then, I'll talk to you guys soon. Adios. 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.
Meet the Hosts: Eric and Dave
00:01:06
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and hauls. Along with our journeys as collectors. And we're back. Welcome back to Adventures in Collecting, Dave. Hi. We're here. We are. And holy shit, it's been a year. Well, we're in different places still.
00:01:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's still a thing that's happening. But we did it. We're collectively here. We have been here. Still here. We have been here for a year now. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, we have. Who would have thought over here, actually? It was a year as of recording this past weekend.
00:02:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's wild. We committed to this and we really did it. I guess I'm not surprised, but I'm impressed. Yeah, me too. I'm impressed. Good job.
00:02:16
Speaker
Good job from me to you. Thank you. Good job from me to you.
Anniversary Episode Highlights
00:02:22
Speaker
I've spent a considerable amount of money this past year. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's the thing that happened. So before we jump into today's episode, or this week's episode, this big one-year anniversary extravaganza for us,
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah. Let's just, you know, we'll we'll talk about. Let's guess that toy. No, we're not doing that this week. You know, we'll talk a little bit about some of the things that we're going to. What's that? It sounds like a phone. Should I answer it? I didn't know we had a phone. I can't hear you, so yes, you should. Hello.
00:03:09
Speaker
Eric and Dave. This is Dave from Calling All Creeps podcast. Your most insignificant guest, the one who doesn't work for a toy company, isn't famous, important, or loved by anyone. But you know what I did love? Being on your podcast and talking about little plastic men that we get to play with on our shelves and in our hearts. I love you boys.
00:03:37
Speaker
to another year, to another decade, how about. Enjoy one year. I love you.
00:03:48
Speaker
Oh, thanks, Dave. Well, thanks, Dave. So, I mean, I didn't know we had a podcast phone. Yeah, it looks like we've got one. So you can call in at a number that doesn't exist, everybody. So I guess, you know, maybe Dave won't be the only person we hear from on today's episode.
00:04:13
Speaker
I've got a good hunch that we're going to hear from a few more. Yeah, I think that's fair.
Toy News and Announcements
00:04:20
Speaker
On today's episode.
00:04:23
Speaker
So on today's episode, we're going to talk, uh, we're going to do our news and halls. Cause there still has been a lot of news and, uh, a few holes and a few holes, but then, uh, we're going to take, take a little bit to, to kind of go down memory lane and talk about some of the things that, uh, that, you know, our observations throughout year one of the pod. And, and we're gonna, we're going to break down, um, in no particular order, five of our most favorite moments from.
00:04:52
Speaker
from year one. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so Dave, do you want to, do you want to kick us off with some news? Um, Walter as in, as in, as in Walter E. No. Oh, I thought maybe you were going to talk about the, the, the Walt Disney 65th anniversary pops that were announced. Oh, well we can talk about those too, but I was going to talk about the, uh,
00:05:19
Speaker
ringside collectible exclusive Walter. Oh yeah. NXT UK champion Walter. First time in the line, Walter. That's actually going to be a really cool figure.
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's a, it's a good, it's a great looking figure. Um, there was a lot of hype behind that release. Uh, they were, they were teasing it on, uh, you know, online, you know, leading up to it. So, uh, that was, that was really cool. But yeah, in the, in, in the other world of Walt's Dave, why don't you tell us a little bit about the, uh, the 65th anniversary, uh, Disney pops, Disneyland. Many pops across all.
00:05:58
Speaker
all like locations where you can normally get pops. Everyone's got exclusives. Every exclusive is seemingly kind of sold out very quickly. A couple highlights, there is a Hot Topic Mr. Toad's Wild Ride ride. The third in the Mad Tea Party collection, it was the Mad Hatter in a Mad Tea Party teacup.
00:06:27
Speaker
Um, you had the Disneyland train. Um, there are mystery minis for the anniversary. Um, there's another Matterhorn. I believe it's, uh, Donald in the Matterhorn this time. Um, lots of just a lot of Disneyland pops. Um, but I think the coolest one is, um, and this one, Oh, there's that phone again.
00:06:55
Speaker
Why don't you pick it up this time? Okay. Hello. Adventures in Collecting podcast, Dave and Eric. Hey, it's Jeremy Padour. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed doing the podcast. And boy, you guys are super talented. You're covering all the stuff that matters. And I'll tell you what, you're a collector base, are big fans, and count me as one of them. Thank you so much. Well, thank you, Jeremy.
00:07:24
Speaker
The godfather of wrestling figures himself. Calling into the pod. Thank you, Jeremy. That phone is unpredictable. You never know when it's going to ring. You never know. It caught me in the middle of talking about something. But yeah, thank you, Jeremy. And thank you again for being on. And we'll talk more about Jeremy later.
00:07:49
Speaker
Um, but yeah, there's going to be, um, actually speaking of first time in the line things, um, a Walt Disney pop that comes with Cinderella's castle or not Cinderella's castle with a sleeping beauty castle. Yeah. Super cool. And I think there's, there's another one that comes with sleeping beauty castle. It's Mickey. Yes. Right. Yeah. That one's a general release though. The, the Walt Disney one is a park exclusive. Yeah. Makes sense. Makes sense. Um,
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah, there's been a ton of pop news. As of today, actually, today, Wednesday, September 9th, as we're recording this, there was a big pop announcement for you that made you pretty excited. Would that be the It's Always Sunny Pops? Yes, it would.
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's going to be fun. It's kind of one of those those licenses that you've kind of sat there and wondered why doesn't this hasn't this happened yet? And kind of also like the the office ones.
00:08:51
Speaker
where we went from it didn't exist to there are like 30 now. I could see that happening with it's always sunny. But to your point, that's another one where like I'm shocked that it's taken them this long to secure that and get those out. Yeah. Any other news in the world of wrestling figures and things?
00:09:19
Speaker
I mean, we saw the prototype images for The Rock and Charlotte, Ultimate Editions, a whole bunch of prototype images for
00:09:33
Speaker
figures that are coming out but nothing that we haven't seen nor heard of yet Walter was the big one yeah we did we did also see the the I guess you could say the final prototype images or near final prototype images for of course the the Brian Myers and Matt Cordona
00:09:49
Speaker
Figures from super 7 though. Oh, yeah, of course. Um Yeah, I thought that we were gonna talk about that separately. But yes That super 7 pre-order went up. It is live It is something that you can still partake in as of listening to this episode. I believe it's through either the 3rd or 4th of October to pre-order both It's 45 for each or 90 for both
00:10:17
Speaker
The packaging that is showed is very cool. The Super 7 kind of ultimate sculpts are cool. Very much looking forward to those. They look great. The fact that they're holding little versions of themselves is super cool. It's their new gear. So
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah, those are definitely going to be awesome and kind of in the annals of what Super 7 has been doing for wrestling, whether it's the New Japan pro wrestling figures, whether it's the Andre the Giant, those look really cool. Yeah, I love the fact that they come with little figure versions of themselves too. It just makes sense. Yeah, absolutely.
00:11:02
Speaker
Um, also in the, in the world of wrestling prototypes, uh, you know, uh, are one of the people that we love to follow on Instagram. We love watching stuff. Uh, junk shop dog showed off the near final prototype of his, uh, his so fooby inspired, uh, bruiser Brody figure. Yeah. That's going to be a
International Toy Shipping Challenges
00:11:22
Speaker
must pre-order once that, that comes out at a great price too. I believe he was saying it was $30.
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah, $30 before, I don't know where he's having them produced, how the shipping is going to work out. I know he's based out of Australia, so shipping could be a little hairy. You could be looking at like 20, 30 bucks shipping, but I guess we'll see when the time comes. At least that's here for the US, but it is such a good looking figure. Yeah, it's really cool.
00:11:49
Speaker
Um, outside of the world of, of wrestling and pops, uh, McFarland has announced two more figures for the, uh, the Mortal Kombat, uh, wave. One of them was sort of kind of accidentally leaked in Todd's, uh, Kickstarter update.
00:12:07
Speaker
the Shao Kahn figure was kind of chilling on his desk and hadn't been announced yet. And of course, you know, eagle-eyed watchers picked up on that pretty quickly. But the Shao Kahn looks great. That's going to be... I only have two of the Mortal Kombat figures. This would be the third that I would get, because then I'd have the three characters. You know, if they made Agoro, I would consider it. But I have... that'll be Johnny Cage, Scorpion, and Shao Kahn. And I'm good for...
00:12:37
Speaker
for the Mortal Kombat figures, but they also announced Liu Kang.
00:12:41
Speaker
who looks awesome. Again, definitely looks like a hand painted prototype by the picture they showed. They're both due out in 2021. And then there is also going to be a bloody variant wave of Mortal Kombat 11 figures that'll have an alternate skin for the spawn Mortal Kombat figure that was such a big hit this year. And it will also have a scorpion and a
00:13:13
Speaker
All right, we got another one, Dave. Let's see. Let's see who this one is. Hello. Hey, everyone, this is voice and friend of the pod Joe is Ari wishing Eric and Dave a happy one year of podcasting. I know I'm ready to grab my shopping cart for another great year.
00:13:39
Speaker
Well, you heard it, folks. That's Voice of the Pod, Joe Azari. At Voices by Joe on Instagram for all of your voiceover needs. Thanks, Joe. Wow, this is just so much fun. I'm very excited to hear who's next. Yeah, it's crazy. If there's another call, I shouldn't say who's next. I don't know. Yeah.
00:14:00
Speaker
But thank you, Joe. Thanks, Joe. We wouldn't for for being Joe and for doing all of our intros and also for calling in. Yeah, this pod wouldn't be the same without Joe. So thanks, Joe. Yeah. So, you know, the that bloody wave, that bloody McFarlane Mortal Kombat 11 wave looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.
00:14:24
Speaker
Kind of sort of connected to spawn I guess you could say he has a background providing the voice for spawn for for Considerable amount of time including in Mortal Kombat 11. We're getting a new Keith David figure From from NECA. We're getting the the they live Figure yeah, that's that's really cool and it only comes with the
00:14:50
Speaker
the 400 piece box set that was put out with Shell Factory or Scream Factory and Sacred Bones Records. Yep, yep. And it is, you know, it is Frank Armitage himself in the in that purple sweater and the khakis. You can you can recreate the one of the greatest fight sequences in in cinema history on your shelf. Yeah, it's going to be that's that's fun. It's a lot of fun and it's still available, I think.
00:15:20
Speaker
Um, as of this recording, yes. Yes, it is. Nope. No, it is not. No. Oh, it was earlier today. So that's, that's it. It's gone. Yeah, it's gone. Bye. But still cool.
00:15:34
Speaker
Something else that's really interesting news from today is there was a little bit of a mishap with the release of one of the latest Power Rangers figures in the Lightning Collection from Hasbro. The Dino Thunder White Ranger that was available at Walgreens exclusively was actually missing paint apps from the deco on the helmet.
00:16:03
Speaker
A lot of people were very upset about it. Um, you know, it was a very, very stark missing thing. Personally, I don't recall this version of the Power Rangers. I'm kind of gone after Mighty Morphin, but as soon as you see the pictures and you see the toy, it's very obvious that something was, was, um, was missed. So they've actually started a, uh, they're going to make it right. Um, they issued a formal apology and they set up a website. It is consumercare.hazbro.com.
00:16:31
Speaker
If you go to that website, there's info there on how you can get a replacement helmet for your figure with the correct deco. So props to Hasbro for doing the right thing there. And making that right. Yeah, for sure. Have we talked about PulseCon? No, we have not talked about PulseCon, Dave. When is PulseCon?
00:16:59
Speaker
Looks like it's the end of September. Was it the 25th and the 26th? It is. So PulseCon is going to be the 25th and 26th of September, and it's going to feature all of the brands, including some special guests, Rumor,
00:17:19
Speaker
Rumor and logic has it that this is when some of those exclusives that we saw announced back during the virtual San Diego Comic Con, the Louis Tully set, the Lord Draken set, the various Star Wars sets. The Logan and Professor X. Yeah, yeah. This is likely when those are going to become available. They're starting to announce some talent for the event.
00:17:47
Speaker
Ernie Hudson will be appearing virtually at said event. They have all kinds of special guests lined up, apparently, that they're going to be announcing as we get a little bit closer. But it should be really exciting because all of their virtual events have been
00:18:10
Speaker
an incredible amount of fun, you know, throughout this whole, you know, quarantine and all of the first videos. Yep. Jackie Jennings, uh, we'll be hosting. Um, so it's, it's, it's going to be exciting. And I know that there's going to be a lot to talk about a lot being revealed. I mean, if you think about it, there's just some of the brands that they have under the, under the umbrella. You know, if you took even two or three of those alone, you'd, you'd probably be good.
00:18:38
Speaker
in terms of content. And especially, you know, with now New York Comic Con and New York Toy Fair not happening this year, I think you're going to start to see more of these. Yeah, I mean, this is the way to go, you know, without these these big in person events. And yeah, that's that's news in and of itself, Dave, those both New York Comic Con and
00:19:03
Speaker
the New York Toy Fair have have indeed both been postponed. They're not officially saying canceled because I believe New York Comic Con is going to try to do some kind of virtual events similarly to how San Diego did and
00:19:18
Speaker
And, uh, and yeah, uh, and, and toy fair has been postponed, um, potentially canceled. So, um, it's a big hit, uh, for the industry, of course, you know, that's toy fair holds a special place in our hearts as well. You know, that's kind of, uh, it was kind of our, our first big event. Uh, so was we were, I know we were both definitely looking forward to going back. So, uh, we'll just have to see what happens. Right. But, uh, you know, hopefully in safer times for sure. Definitely.
00:19:48
Speaker
Um, did you want to talk about the Joker? Oh yeah. Um, you know, I, I, before, before we, we split from the, uh, the news portion, um, the first of the McFarlane, uh, variants have been, have been released. So, um, people are finding the bronze joker, um, out in the wild. Uh, it's, I mean, this one differs from, uh, the Batman variants.
00:20:18
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that it's limited. Yeah, it's it's a limited figure. It goes back to Todd McFarland has a thing for for metallic clowns because this goes back to say, you know, variants are a big thing from McFarland toys from forever. You know, it's been different types of variants.
00:20:43
Speaker
But do you remember the gold clown one figure, the clown from like that series, that first series of of figures? Like I remember. I've never actually physically seen it, but it's kind of one of those things that like you've heard about. Yeah, it's an all gold clown. I believe Zap Comics actually has one. OK. But yeah, it's just a full gold clown.
00:21:10
Speaker
So now we have a full bronze Joker and it's cool because he kind of looks like like, you know, if you're thinking in terms of toy attic, you know, all the detail and paint and deco that we're used to seeing on the McFarland figures is.
00:21:22
Speaker
absent of this because it's fully bronze. But would you open it, you effectively can put him in a pose and you have a statue, like a bronze statue of a very good joker figure. So there definitely is some toyatic value to it outside of it being a thing that you leave in the box and feel lucky that you have a limited figure. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely, this has been
00:21:53
Speaker
Kind of the year of the limited figure too. Um, yeah. So why don't we, why don't we move into, uh, into halls? We can do that.
Toy Hauls and Collections
00:22:03
Speaker
Yeah. So do you want to, do you want to kick us off with what you've picked up? Um, yeah, I'm going to be jumping kind of all over the place. It's that phone again. It's that phone. Um, hello.
00:22:22
Speaker
Hi everyone. This is Khalil at casterscorner.com and the CornerCast Podcast. I want to congratulate Dave and Eric on making it one year with the Adventures in Collecting podcast. They are one of my favorite toy podcasts to listen to. I look forward to seeing what they have coming in year two and really can't wait to work with them some more because they've been great partners and collaborators and it was great meeting them at toy fair. They're great guys. So Dave, Eric, congratulations and look forward to many, many more years.
00:22:52
Speaker
Khalil. Khalil, that was awesome. Thank you.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we, we like, no joke, we would not be where we are doing this, uh, with the ease in which we, we, we have kind of settled into a groove without some of the advice from, from Khalil and Caster's corner. Um, you know, there, he's, he's just, he's wonderful. Um, you know, we, he invited us on his show. Uh, he, he really kind of showed us the ropes when we were at toy fair and he had no idea who we were. I had recognized him. Um, and.
00:23:26
Speaker
Yeah, super nice. Thank you so much for the kind words, man. Yeah. So where were we? So I was talking about stuff. Yeah. And things. Your hauls. That's right. So let's let's dive into what you've been picking up. I mean, it's been a while since we've talked about hauls. Two weeks. Well, there's a whole episode and or a blog post and
00:23:54
Speaker
all sorts of stuff about the AEW figures, but I finally got the five that are available, Cody, Chris Jericho, The Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega. And you can find out more about that story on our website. Yes, you can.
00:24:18
Speaker
Let's see what else did I pick up I picked some picked up some stuff recently more recently I got the target exclusive galaxies edge pop droids To go with my DJ Rex I got CB6B and the the r5 unit very cool I believe he's
00:24:46
Speaker
I'm sorry, he's M5R3. He's an R3 unit. Yeah, those are really cool. I actually had an opportunity to see them. I caught them on a restock at Target just earlier this week. And I also went a little Star Wars crazy that same day. I picked up the
00:25:08
Speaker
Got myself a little ready a little early. But it was very difficult to find last year, so I wanted to get it this year. The LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar. Yes, yes, very cool. Once again, another porg. But also Darth Vader in an ugly Christmas sweater. So I thought those alone were worth the pickup. Stay tuned. There might be some content revolving around that.
00:25:37
Speaker
when the time comes. Oh, the the the ever growing box of or pile of boxes that need to be unboxed. I also got the resistance I.T.S. transport. It is the basically the vehicle you're in in Rise of the Resistance. Spoilers. Well, it's it's what it's labeled as. So I know it is. I'm just being bitter.
00:26:08
Speaker
So those were awesome. Um, I picked up a couple other things. Um, and by I, I mean, well, I picked up actually one of them. Um, I got from the, um, basic series one 10 Mike Kanellis, um, more likely than not the only WWE figure he's going to have.
00:26:31
Speaker
I also picked up and of course by I I mean Eric picked up the running change for ravishing Rick Rude the Elite 77 the SummerSlam series. He is not wearing the robe. The robe is packed aside. Therefore, no kind of markings all over Rick Rude from the robe. Yeah, he's not headed. He's not headed to Davy Jones locker with the black spot all over him like the like the original one.
00:27:02
Speaker
Um, we also got Elite 78, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, R-Truth, Drake Maverick, and Naomi. Um, so pretty much got that, um, series and they all look fantastic. They're all great figures. Um, I'm really very much looking forward to the rest of those new day figures. I believe they're in, um, are they in 79 or 80?
00:27:31
Speaker
I want to say they're in 79. I think you're right. Um, Dave, hang on a second. Something weird is happening. Oh. The computer's making... hang on. What is this? Alert! There is an incoming message from this Orient too. Prepare to receive. Do you wish to hear the message? Yeah. Yeah?
00:27:58
Speaker
Hey guys, this is Yuma, your favorite intergalactic professional wrestler and toy collector. I just want to shout out to the AIC podcast, Adventures in Collecting. Congrats on one year of a fantastic podcast. Dave and Eric are great guys and it's a great listen. So never stop listening and never stop collecting. Whoa. Intergalactic message. An intergalactic phone call. Nice. Damn. I wonder how we got my IP.
00:28:33
Speaker
Thank you, Yuma. Thank you very much. An episode that holds a special place for me. That was my solo interview episode. So that was a lot of fun. I'd definitely love to have Yuma back on with both of us. That would be awesome.
00:28:52
Speaker
Yup, yup. Yeah, such a fun episode. He's a great dude, so thank you Yuma for calling it. Just generally one of the best dudes.
00:29:06
Speaker
or genuinely one of the best dudes, but also generally. Yes, both, both of those things. In terms of other stuff you picked up, did you happen to see that link I sent you? Because I sent you Spin Master, actually made a blue and gold Batman. I saw that. That looks really cool. I actually have Spin Master Batwoman, which I've picked up.
00:29:33
Speaker
I may pick that up. I'm trying to if I what I'm going to do with those is I want to really want to limit myself to one of somebody. Yeah. Because otherwise there's like there's 60 Batman. Oh, like the maker help me, man, because I've fallen. I've fallen and I can't get up. I'm really trying to like kind of be good in that regards.
00:30:01
Speaker
I'm just thinking of once you get a proper display space, how cool it would be to have like just like three blue and yellow Batman. Well, I'm not going to put them together. I'm going to put them with what everything else is. Yeah, that's true. Actually. Cause you have enough of, it's not like you only have a Batman shelf. Okay. Fair enough. You could, I think you could skip. I think you could skip.
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I did get the, I found the Captain Marvel Lego Polly bag. You did? Yeah. And I'm proud of you, because you only bought one. No, I bought two. Or bought two? Yeah. Instead of buying like the whole kingdom. Well, I didn't buy three. That's the important thing. I got one for me, I got one for my girlfriend, but I didn't get one for your daughter. Yes.
00:30:54
Speaker
Thank you. And not because I didn't want to, mind you. Yes, no, because we're under explicit instruction. And to be fair, she has the Captain Marvel ship that came out. So yes, which is very frequently played with and has been put together and taken apart many times at this point. Yeah. So that's gotten some mileage for sure.
00:31:20
Speaker
I got a couple of the new Nightmare Before Christmas Pops, the Sally, the
00:31:30
Speaker
Sandy Claws and The Jack. I got the Funko Shop exclusive zero artist edition. Oh, you were able to get that. Awesome. I was able to get that. That was one of the, that was one of the, yeah, one of the online ones. Um, yeah, I, uh, you said Oogie Boogie and I started thinking of, uh, or you said Santa Jack, excuse me. And I started thinking of
00:31:53
Speaker
Uh, my neighbor around the corner already put up his Halloween decorations. So like props to him. Oh yeah. I think I saw that when I was getting the stuff from you the other day. Oh, and I got the Freddie Blassie from you. You found classy Freddie Blassie. I had a really good run with wrestling figures for you the past two weeks. I found like everything. I think the only thing I missed were the Naomi chase and the Rick Rude chase. Yeah, which I may want the Naomi one because it's different enough.
00:32:21
Speaker
the gear. The Rick Rude though, I was kind of whichever one I found first. Yeah, I don't think you need both of those. The one with the intercontinental belt on his pants, the design on it is really cool, but I really don't think you need both. I think it'll be all right. So I had the...
00:32:43
Speaker
I guess you could say the depending on which side you look at it, the the misfortune or the the fortune of having a bunch of my pre-orders hit all at the same time. So I had stuff that was delayed from Amazon. I had stuff that came early from Amazon and then I had stuff that was like right on time. So I got the Amazon exclusive
00:33:06
Speaker
Wolverine from X-Men Origins Marvel Legends. I got the Domino Marvel Legends. We had spoken previously about Cable, but I recently picked him up. The figures from the retro Spider-Man wave that I had pre-ordered on Amazon all came in together. So Spider-Man, Green Goblin, and the
00:33:27
Speaker
I'm just going to call it the Gwen Stacy figure because it comes with Mary Jane's head, but she never wore the clothes that are at least as far as I can remember in the cartoon, never wore that outfit. I seem to always remember her being in like a yellow sweater with jeans, not like a gray or a green trench coat. So like, I think it's kind of weird that they made a Peter Parker's girlfriend two pack kind of sorta.
00:33:52
Speaker
I guess
00:34:08
Speaker
when they're they're amazing that that spider-man figure is figure of the year candidate the the new body that he's on the articulation the paint the poses you can get with that thing it's it's unbelievable it's it is a wonderful wonderful figure
00:34:24
Speaker
Same goes for the Fox versus X-Men Origins Wolverine. I actually got a chance to show that one to you. I'm just completely blown away at how good that figure is. Yeah, the new pinless design is very good.
00:34:41
Speaker
Yeah, between the pinless joints and the arms, and just the quality of the face sculpt for Hugh Jackman is just, it's like leaps and bounds. It's incredible. You look at what they're doing now with, and I'm staring at them right now, with Stanley, everything from Stanley on, so I'm looking at Stanley, I'm looking at Josh Brolin, Zazie Beats, Hugh Jackman, they look like little,
00:35:11
Speaker
Real people and at a 20 or you know, what the Fox ones, you know $25 price point It's it's just unbelievable the value that you're getting I've also been been I think I have a plan now for the spin master figures what I'd like to do I'm not getting any of the non Batman ones and I have a Batman a Nightwing and a Robin and they're great. I actually have several Batman now, um, I
00:35:41
Speaker
But I think I'm just gonna focus now on getting the rest of kind of like the core Batman villains. I picked up the deluxe King Shark because that's the only King Shark figure that has the great white shark head. All the other ones have a hammerhead head and I don't recall him having that. And I've also been watching the Harley Quinn show on the DC network. Soon it's gonna be on HBO Max. It's on HBO already, yeah. Is it? Yeah.
00:36:10
Speaker
Um, good. I can let that subscription go and just worry about HBO max. Um, but, uh, yeah, he King shark is one of the best characters on that Harley Quinn show. He's just, he's hilarious. So I needed the figure, but, um, I also picked up the Batmobile for those figures. Um, and I picked up from Costco, which was super weird because it's been such a long time since I've bought a toy from Costco. I picked up the.
00:36:36
Speaker
the 12 inch scale Batmobile that's supposed to go with like the shampoo bottle Batman. I actually, I actually did an Instagram live video, uh, opening it. Um, it scales wonderfully with the seven inch, uh, DC, uh, multiverse figures from, uh, from McFarland. So whether it's for your toy photography or display, if you have a display, it's big enough. Um, the deco on that, that spin master Batmobile is.
00:37:04
Speaker
awesome for that $20 price point. Plus if you have a little one, they get a Batman doll, a doll sized figure out of it. And my daughter loves the Batman figure. So it was a win-win for 20 bucks. She got a new Batman. I got a new Batmobile. Friend of the pod who you heard from earlier, actually Dave P made a very funny joke as I was unboxing and figuring out how that giant Batman fit in that way out of scale Batmobile. And it is quite like a bat coffin.
00:37:33
Speaker
It really is. It really is. Yeah, so that's. Yeah, that's it was very funny. I also picked up.
00:37:46
Speaker
I picked up two more Fortnite legendary series figures that I was waiting for. I was able to get Beef Boss, the hamburger man, and I finally caught Peely on Amazon. He finally came back in stock, so I was able to get Peely, so now I got the sweet banana dude with a shotgun. Can't really... It's that phone. I'm gonna pick this one up. Okay. Hello?
00:38:16
Speaker
Yo, what's up, guys? It's Mike DeCamp. Just calling in to say happy one-year anniversary. I'm so excited for you guys. I'm so surprised by all the growth. Well, not surprised. You guys are awesome dudes. The show is amazing. Thank you so much for your support on the lines and on the work. And here's here to many more.
00:38:40
Speaker
It's like he knew I was talking about Fortnite figures. Yeah. Yeah, so thank you, Mike. Mike's the only person so far who's been on the show twice. Our first repeat guest. Yeah, our first two-time guest. Very cool. Yeah, so thank you, Mike. I keep making those Fortnite figures and
00:39:04
Speaker
And make me assholes, please. So I think that's everything. Oh, no, you know what? I did pick up one other thing. I picked up the from five below. Five below. So so.
00:39:22
Speaker
Star Wars announced the kind of death of the five POA line, the five points of articulation, like four kids line. Um, they're doing a couple more sets to kind of like celebrate the saga as they're calling it. And, uh, and they're, they're retiring that line, which is sad. Um, you know, that that's what the figures have always been up until very recently. They're, they're focusing on the vintage collection. So, you know, collectors of that scale will still get new figures, which is still great. Um, you know, so it's.
00:39:52
Speaker
Hope is not, hope is not completely lost. But there was, uh, towards the end of, I want to say it was the last Jedi. Was that the last Jedi or Solo? Somewhere around that time. Um, there was a, a Wampa and Hoth Luke two-pack that was, that came out. It was in the same, uh, wave as the repack of Boletique and, um, and the Rathtar and, uh, Enfist Nest and, uh, and her speeder.
00:40:23
Speaker
And I never saw the Wampa Luke 2 pack. And that was the one I, I mean, I really wanted the Enfys Nest one. I already had two Rathtars and Boletique, so I was good there. But I really wanted another Wampa because the Deco on this one looked great. It had like blood, it had a removable arm. You know, the Luke looked great. I could never find it. I walked into Five Below.
00:40:46
Speaker
I'm looking for something completely unrelated. I think I was looking for like pool supplies, actually like a pool or something. And I saw a full rack of them for five bucks. Like, like. I'm telling you, Dave, this shelf was like 10 deep of these fucking things. And I had never seen them at retail before. That's that's how distribution works for a lot of stuff. I walked up to it and like.
00:41:16
Speaker
Like actually, like I, full disclosure, like, so bought it in an instant. Um, Turn around and walked out of the store and started walking towards Costco. Cause I was at the, the five below, uh, out in Wayne, New Jersey. Got about halfway over to Costco to meet my wife and my kid. And I was like, fuck, I forgot to get the pool noodle. And I was very too far and it was raining. So.
00:41:42
Speaker
I got a pool noodle on the way home, don't worry. But I didn't get it in that trip. But yeah, it was just mind blowing. And they also have been carrying, I didn't pick them up, but I posted a picture of it on Instagram, which by the way, if you are not following us on Instagram at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter.
00:42:01
Speaker
I posted pictures of those Playmation Ninja Turtles. Actually, I have questions if you're listening to this and are not following us on Instagram. They begin and end with how? Yeah, that's a good point. How did you find us? I would love to know. Please follow us on Instagram and let us know. And then tell us. I do.
00:42:22
Speaker
And not to go off on a complete tangent here, but something I did. Especially after I just did. Yeah, but you just reminded me of something. So we had somebody reach out to us, Dave, at TSP underscore CRO underscore AD reached out to us. And he just wanted to say much love. Your podcast is awesome. Much love from Australia. Well, thank you.
00:42:51
Speaker
right? How cool is that? And I'm not even gonna I'm not gonna do an Australian accent. I'm not gonna make an Australian joke about anything. I applaud you for making both of those decisions. Thank you so much. I mean, it's crazy to think that our podcast has reached somebody in Australia, like it's just a wild concept to want. Oh,
00:43:18
Speaker
Hello. This is always ready. Matt Cardona, AKA the thousand dollar broski, AKA the Michael Jordan of wrestling figure collecting. And I just wanted to say congratulations to adventures in collecting the other podcast, not the major wrestling figure podcast, but the other wrestling figure podcast. Check it out every single week. Congrats guys. Wow. Thank you.
00:43:48
Speaker
Remember that time that we were always ready? Yes. I think we'll talk more about that a little bit later. Yeah. The time I got you out of bed. Oh, my God. And turned around, looked at my phone, I was like, wait, what? Who's what?
00:44:09
Speaker
This is, this is happening. Wake up. Give me five minutes. Um, by the way, speaking of, of Matt Cardona, well, Matt, thank you very much for the con words. What they are doing right now with that figure Federation that the, the, the F W F those episodes on Wednesdays. They're awesome. I enjoy it. Are hands down my favorite thing in podcasting right now.
00:44:36
Speaker
Like, without a doubt, I get so excited for Wednesdays when I'm sitting at my desk working to get that notification on my phone that the next episode of the FWF is ready. Like, I get so excited. And when it comes to Matt's turmoil, we're definitely team turmoil, I could listen to that man yell for hours. Although I really did like the last thrill zone and this thrill zone where
00:45:05
Speaker
my two favorite thrill zone so far yes but no no no shade on on on thrill zone we we do not think it is the nyquil zone it is it is a good show as well i i think i think mark has it right where you know it really is like 5050 i mean you you could go either way it's really just kind of
00:45:26
Speaker
For me, I like Matt's energy.
Podcasting Journey Reflections
00:45:29
Speaker
That's what draws me to his presentation of his show. It's very contagious. But I've been really enjoying Brian's kind of nods to ECW.
00:45:41
Speaker
Yeah, he's there. It's so funny how differently they're programming and taking the approach to doing it. It's just it's wonderful. All right. So let's let's mark with the stomping paradise. Yeah. So so why don't let's move out of halls and let's let's move into year one, Dave. So when we started this, we had no idea what we were doing, like literally
00:46:09
Speaker
One might say we still don't. Yeah, I still don't know if we know what we're doing. But here we are. We're a year in. We've been to Toy Fair. We have. We we've reached people as far as Qatar and Australia, which is blows my mind. Yeah, it's
00:46:37
Speaker
It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy of anyone who listens wherever you are. And and just the taking this this hobby of collecting and and, you know, displaying toys and, you know, taking pictures of them for me has become a huge deal, you know, building building a light box and having fun with the posing and watching people like, you know, like Jay Hernandez and
00:47:03
Speaker
you know, some of the other photographers that we love, like Darth, Darth Dondatta and shooting the galaxy and Bob joint, uh, you know, all those guys, um, which by the way, if you are not following any of those guys and you like toys, do it at, at Darth Dondatta at shooting the galaxy at Bob joint. And, um, and at just Jay Hernandez, they are fantastic. They're like Kings of what they do. Um,
00:47:33
Speaker
meeting the people that we've met, like those gentlemen and the people that we've had on the pod has just been an absolute pleasure, like an absolute pleasure. Yeah, I mean, you know, go back to like the Instagram live video from Toy Fair of me talking to Eric from Boss Fight about, you know, the legends of Lucha Libre figures. Go back to, um,
00:48:03
Speaker
Just any of the discussions from Toy Fair, any of the clips? Yeah. And just getting a better insight into the industry and how some of this stuff works, like... Or even any of the interviews that have been, you know, since... Well, since day one, of course, but especially since March. We got another call, Dave. Hang on, let me pick this up.
00:48:34
Speaker
Hello. Hey, everybody. This is WeaponX Customs. Just wanted to wish the boys over at Adventures in Collecting podcast a very happy first birthday. And here's to many more in your second year. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with. WeaponX Customs, one of our earliest guests. And a super talented guy from the Great White North. And a great episode.
00:48:58
Speaker
definitely go back and listen to that, everybody. Go back and listen to every episode from everyone who's called in thus far and who may call in later. Because one of the things you'll see is kind of like the evolution of the show, but also just some really incredible stories, just some really great,
00:49:24
Speaker
chats and finding out just more about kind of the people that bring us these things that we love, you know? Like, I know we wanted to talk about the year. Did we really kind of, maybe in the first episode or maybe early on in one of the interviews we might have mentioned it, but did we kind of ever really kind of talk about how this happened? You know, Dave, I don't think we did. I feel like this would probably be as good a time as any to talk about it.
00:49:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this this show, we might have talked about it with on the Matt Cardona episode. Yeah, because I think came up just because of well, like we have we have our influences, right? They're in there. Yeah, they're them being an influence. I mean, toys are something that we know the two of us have been passionate about for.
00:50:21
Speaker
forever. I mean, some of my earliest memories and, you know, not to get not to get overly sentimental and mushy on you, though. You know, some of my earliest memories with the age gap between us when I was very little were the fact that you would play with toys with me, you know, like I wasn't
00:50:41
Speaker
cool enough to hang out with you and your friends when I was, you know, the little annoying brother. Um, you know, I got in the way, but like when it came time to take out the wrestlers or, you know, especially the wrestlers, but there were other figures too, like, you know, whether it was Batman or whatever, you know, that was when we sat down and like we weren't at each other's throats.
00:51:04
Speaker
as kids, as brothers can be sometimes. And that's how we were playing. And like I said, those are some of my earliest memories. And when I pick up those toys again, especially those Jack's Bone Crunchers, I'm right back there. The smell of those figures, I know it's a weird thing to say, but the smell of them, that plastic, the way that they feel in your hand, it's just, I don't know. It's something that means a lot to me, and I love watching
00:51:32
Speaker
You know, my daughter play with her toys. I love seeing this incredible community that's blossoming on Instagram, you know, where people are taking photos of their toys and like they have these photo challenges and they, you know, they're just doing so many incredible things with toys. It's awesome. So like, you know, we're clearly not the only people that are, you know, that are passionate about this and the people that make the toys are passionate. There's, there is this huge community, but, um,
00:52:03
Speaker
We've been talking about toys and the culture around them for as long as I can remember. Like, I mean, we're talking like decades. Yeah. And it's, you know, whether it was kind of going to Toys R Us' back in their KBs and asking if they have more in the back or, you know, just for example, buying a figure because I wanted it on my desk in college or, you know,
00:52:32
Speaker
finding out that that Funko Pops were a thing and now all of a sudden I have a ludicrous amount of them um you know to seeing things like retros because they reminded me of the um the old uh Hasbro's you know things like that and just you know that that coming together of it but
00:52:58
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's, you know, even remember, like, you know, there would be days where I'd be, you know, putting together your bat caves, um, or coming home from school and, you know, you know, booking a week or a month of, uh, of, uh, figure feds and busting out the spreadsheet. Yeah.
00:53:18
Speaker
I mean, toys have always been a part of our life. I mean, it's, there's nothing, you know, there's, there's no, there's no way around it. And I remember both of us at one point, uh, standing in Zap comics, um, last summer. So the summer of 2019, uh, standing there talking to Dave P going like, Oh, you know, wouldn't it be fun? You know, like to do a podcast about it and him just turning around and going like, just fucking do it.
00:53:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was with you. But after we had discussed it, because I think there was just one day where I was just like, hey, you know, there's this podcast that's about wrestling figures. We could probably do one about everything else. Yeah. And that that was always kind of the
00:54:09
Speaker
the, the thing, right? Because you, you have the things that you collect primarily and I have the things that I collect primarily. And since very little crossover, surprisingly. Yeah. Right. Right now, the only thing that's legit crossover is, um, the, the McFarland DC multiverse figures. Yeah. Cause.
00:54:32
Speaker
You have a couple of pops, but it's nothing. It's everybody who I know or who I is like in my kind of, kind of short range inner circle life group. Um, the only reason they have pops is because I got them for them for the most part. Um, with, with exceptions, of course, but.
00:54:57
Speaker
You have Blink 182, I got you those. So toys have just always been kind of this pervasive thing in our lives. And it just made sense after a while. Dave, you want to get this one? Yeah, I got it. I got it. Hello. Hey, everyone. This is Zombie Sailor from Zombie Sailor's Toys.
00:55:27
Speaker
And I just wanted to take this moment to wish Dave and Eric a very special, happy one-year anniversary for their podcast, Adventures in Collecting. Congratulations, guys. Many more years to come. Zombie! What a guy. What a guy. If you didn't listen to that episode, that was our episode right before this, actually. Yeah, it was last episode.
00:55:55
Speaker
Man, we gotta get him on that show. Yellowstone, right? Yeah, we gotta get Zombie on Yellowstone.
00:56:04
Speaker
Um, yeah, I'm super excited. Uh, by the time this comes out, um, you'll still have a month. Um, so if you're listening to this as it comes out a month from now, um, he'll be, he'll be doing his, his case, fresh mighty max sale. It's, uh, I think it's like in first week, October. Um, so definitely keep an eye out for that. That is actually, it's actually kind of crazy how that was the name that toy two episodes ago. Yeah.
00:56:32
Speaker
Yeah, and then we're talking to zombie about mighty max and now he's you know, he of course we were talking about it because he mentioned that's the next case fresh warehouse find. Yeah, but yeah. But yeah, I mean, that was that was really how we how we got into doing the show was was literally just
00:56:54
Speaker
you know, you had mentioned the the major wrestling figure podcast. And, you know, we had kind of tapped into a couple of friends to see if there would be any kind of interest. And and after a couple of people gave us the push, you know, that was it. Here we are.
00:57:14
Speaker
Um, so that being said, Dave, the, uh, the, the five, I don't want to say best moments because they're, I don't want to, it's like, I have a kid and another one on the way. So like, I can't have a favorite anymore. Um, but, uh, let's talk about just five really cool moments in no particular order. And there are a bunch too. Like, you know, there, everything is an honorable mention.
00:57:43
Speaker
Like, you know, we talk about how awesome the episode with Zombie was last week or, you know, the episode with Toy Shiz or the episode with. Brian Volkweis. Brian Volkweis. Jamie Berard. You know, all these different episodes, you know, or us being on the corner cast.
00:58:10
Speaker
Yeah, there was a lot to pick from. There's a lot to pick from. And... I'm kind of getting tired of getting interrupted. Let me pick this up, and then I'm going to unplug the phone, I think. OK. Hello? I'm Heather Antos. And I'm Heather's boyfriend.
00:58:32
Speaker
Fuck, I forgot what I was supposed to say. We'll leave it in there. And congratulations on one year anniversary. Here's to at least one more! By the way, by the way... Fuck, both of those are getting bleeped out.
00:59:01
Speaker
Yeah. Oh man. You know what? This works as a perfect segue. The first bit that I want to highlight is our first guest, Heather Antos, current senior editor at Valiant Comics. She was our first guest on the show.
00:59:22
Speaker
which is amazing. And she has such a cool past. And she does such great work. And she does a lot for women in creative industry. And she is such a strong individual and has this great character. And we love her to death. She's just an outright awesome person. Yeah. So early on, and I'm going
00:59:49
Speaker
I'm gonna cringe listening to an early interview before I like worked out all the sound kinks and everything but Heather and I talked about the kind of the dichotomy of girls toys and boys toys and Here's a clip from that interview Action figures were a very normal part of my childhood and so in my brain there really isn't a
01:00:18
Speaker
a wall or a barrier between what's meant for boys or what's meant for girls. That's very clear when you walk into a toy store or a Walmart toy aisle and you see, oh, clearly the boy isles, the one with Batman and Power Rangers and all of this stuff and it's black and blue and action.
Inclusive Play and Toy Design Insights
01:00:37
Speaker
And then the girls' isles all pink. But again, with Star Wars and the Marvel films,
01:00:48
Speaker
Wonder Woman and Batman with all this being in the cultural zeitgeist right now, those lines are getting blurred a little. And I think that is just so, so cool. You know, toys are toys. There's no distinguish between what a boy or girl can play with. And I think we're seeing that too with
01:01:08
Speaker
the new films featuring strong female leads, specifically in Star Wars, one of my favorite experiences I had.
01:01:19
Speaker
when Force Awakens came out. I was still working at Marvel at the time. And one of the higher ups and creator services brought his like four year old son around just to the different offices and to, you know, check out Marvel. And so he brought him to the Star Wars office and I was talking with them and I was like,
01:01:43
Speaker
uh asking him if he'd seen the movie and he said he had and i asked him whose favorite character was and he goes ray and his dad goes he even uh wants to be ray for halloween and i just thought that was so cool that you know here we have the future basically um and this little kid who doesn't see
01:02:08
Speaker
This is a girl I can't I can't like this character because I'm a boy It's someone who just sees a character doing cool things that he thinks is badass and so he wants to emulate that Yeah, it will it you know what listening to that wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be
01:02:28
Speaker
And, you know, by all means, everybody, and I've mentioned this before, if you're new to the show, go back and listen to these because, you know, maybe skip the episodes where it's just us. Fine. But, you know, if you want to go back and listen to the interviews, they're they're just, you know, it's it's hearing from just some truly amazing people.
01:02:54
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. But also listen to the ones of the both of us because... You know what? Just listen to them all. You can grow with us. Or maybe we didn't grow at all. Maybe I haven't listened to an episode in months and maybe we sound the same and I just think that we've gotten better at it. Who knows? Are you saying only my hair is what's grown? Yes. Yes. Only your hair. You have that quarantine hair.
01:03:25
Speaker
Yeah, I do. Dave, why don't why don't you hit us with a moment? What's another moment that jumps out at you? Oh, I think one of the kind of I think one of the cooler moments was an instance where we got to break some news. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And actually. I don't know if it kind of broke like right after that, too, for a lot of other people, but I know that
01:03:53
Speaker
you know, it was definitely something that broke with us and to kind of almost be referenced in a way was really crazy. But of course we're talking about the episode with, you know, an earlier caller, Jeremy Padour, where we talked about a lot of stuff. We talked about Pokemon cards and just kind of, you know, almost like collecting for value in a way. But also we heard that
01:04:22
Speaker
the UFC figures that were now out were going to be a little bit different. They were going to be in a smaller scale and that this first run of figures were almost going to be like a different wave because they wouldn't be in the same scale and they were going to kind of be
01:04:43
Speaker
a series unto themselves as they move back to that fight scale for every future wave. Let's hear it from Jeremy. Yeah. Yeah, and I'll actually break something with you on that. And I think that, again, this is about respecting the collector community, and this is about giving you a behind the scenes peek as to decisions that are made.
01:05:11
Speaker
So UFC wave one The scale of the figures are not in scale with the traditional wwe aw Scale it's not exactly scaled proportionally. They're more like five and a half inch and um We are going to celebrate that because there's there are japanese style figures that are in that scale
01:05:38
Speaker
So we're going to be calling that like the beta wave or the version zero wave. And it will be the only wave that we do in that scale. And it will be very limited edition in scope and in availability. And then after that, we're going to be able to go into wave one.
01:05:56
Speaker
with the more in scale to the traditional figures, it also gives us a little bit more flexibility in terms of tooling. Almost everything that we're doing is specifically for the character. But as you know, when you're developing human bodies, and especially when you're developing them more realistically, especially now versus the way we used to, they're a little bit more super heroic scale in size.
01:06:21
Speaker
that you can use parts and pieces and allows a much more efficient use, uh, across brands. But yeah, there's a little, there's a little feed for you there. We had something we haven't announced. Um, but it's something that I think will be fun. And I want to give you the rationale as to why we did make that change in the first place. And I mean, that for me was one of the more surreal episodes. Um, just because it was like,
01:06:48
Speaker
I can't believe we're talking to Jeremy Padour right now. Yeah. When, when we reached out to him on Instagram via DM, you know, to thank him for being transparent and being super nice and, you know, answering questions and being so approachable. And he was responded in seconds. And then I, you know, I always float the idea anytime, you know, we get any sort of a response from, from people in the industry. I always float the idea like, Hey, would you like to be on the show?
01:07:19
Speaker
And, um, and when he was like, yeah, let's set something up. I, I, no shit. I almost dropped my phone because I didn't like, I couldn't believe it was really happening. Um, this is just wild. Uh, you know what? Let's, let's stick with jazzwares. Um, and let's talk about Mike to camp. So we mentioned him earlier. He's, he's our first two time, two time, uh,
01:07:47
Speaker
guest on the pot, and he also holds the distinction of being the only guest that has made me cry during a show and not at tears of laughter. We've had people that have been pretty gut busting, but Mike's story about his favorite toys that he had as a kid
01:08:13
Speaker
Made made me and a couple of people reached out to us made made them real sad too. So Let's let's uh, grab the box of tissues and let's hear from from Mike to camp So my most special piece That's a tough one, you know, it's probably the mini go 12-inch magnetic Batman with flyaway action so
01:08:43
Speaker
When I was very, very young, that was something that was gifted to me by my mom. And Batman was something that to this day, I haven't had the experience of making a Batman action figure, but it's high on my list of priorities. So I got this, it was a tremendous action figure, the soft goods cape, a roto head, you know, and Batman and Robin, they have magnets embedded in their hands and feet. And the package had this,
01:09:12
Speaker
Incredible, almost like psychedelic artwork on it. Please Google it. I love it. He had this attachment that went onto his back underneath his cape, and you would thread two strings through it, one on the left and one on the right, and then you would tie them off to something. And then by pulling the strings apart on the far end, the figure would slide away from you and appear to fly away. That was the flyaway action.
01:09:41
Speaker
So I immediately took the figures, I had Batman and Robin, and I took them down to a playground by my house. And I was playing with them on the monkey bars and experimenting with what surfaces were magnetic, surfaces weren't. And I climbed all the way to one of those kind of domes apparatus that you can climb all over. And I stopped the figures up there and I started playing blah, blah, blah. And I left them there.
01:10:07
Speaker
Like my mom, the street lights turned on and I got the call out the window, get home or you're dead, you know, whatever. Um, and I ran home and I left them there and I lost them. They just, you know, that was it. And, uh, so eventually I was able to track them down and I spent, you know, way too much money on them to get the mint in the package. So that's probably the most special piece that I have because after I lost the action figures, I would literally just
01:10:35
Speaker
look at the box. I would just fantasize and check out the package and read it and reread it and hope that someday I would have those action figures again. I'm not crying again. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it.
01:10:54
Speaker
to spend time with Mike. Twice. Twice. Well, for me once, but yeah, it was, I mean, it was awesome talking to him. And it was one of those episodes where we could have just, we could still be recording it. Oh yeah. We could have talked for hours. We could have talked for hours and hours. It's, you know, we're, we're kind of very lucky to, you know,
01:11:22
Speaker
have been in contact with everybody who has been on our show thus far. But that was just a great episode. So Dave, who else would you like to highlight? Because I have a sinking suspicion I know who our fifth one is going to be.
01:11:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think it might be the same, but I think so. Who is your who is your next one? So I mentioned we'd talk about this before. It's not often that you get a text message from your friend. What's up, John Carlo? Yeah. Also, by the way, no, he gets more than a what's up, John Carlo. What a guy. Yeah.
01:12:07
Speaker
What a fucking guy. We got to get him on the show. John Carlo, if you're listening. I'm trying. You get it. You get your butt on here. But yeah, I get a text message from John Carlo after I've had a few margaritas. I was I was using Taramana, the rocks, tequila. And I get a text message that goes, what are you doing?
01:12:33
Speaker
And now granted, this is what, April? So the same thing everybody else is. Yeah. I'm sitting here. Why? What's up? What are you doing? And I'm like, oh, I'm having some drinks. Matt said he'd do your podcast right now. What? And he goes, yeah, he said he'd do it right now. And I'm like, I'm kind of drunk, but sure. Let me see if I could get my brother up. And he goes,
01:12:59
Speaker
What? And I'm like, yeah, I gotta wake Eric up. He has a small child, he goes to bed early. And John Carlo's like, well, all right, let me see if I can, if I can, you know, tell him like, give it like five, 10 minutes. Sure enough, we send, I send John Carlo the link to our Zoom. And all of a sudden, there's Matt.
01:13:30
Speaker
And it was like, it was one of those things where just the whole idea behind it and just the whole story behind it was...
01:13:39
Speaker
It was one of those things where I wouldn't have thought that it would have happened, but here we are. It's another surreal moment. We've seen the rest of these and what we'll see in number one. We know that Matt's into Ghostbusters. We know he's into Star Wars. We know he's into Disney. We know, of course, just the history with wrestling figures. Yeah, he's the Michael Jordan of wrestling figure collecting. He is.
01:14:08
Speaker
And, you know, one of them one of the things that kind of broke was that there was a second podcast coming. He had mentioned that in another interview that had happened, you know, that day, that day. OK. But, you know. There was going to be a second podcast to spin off, which turned into the F.W.F. that we talked about. But I think the coolest thing was.
01:14:33
Speaker
And it's something that I've heard him talk about on the Major Wrestling Figure podcast since, but simple question, what do you collect that we don't know about?
01:14:44
Speaker
And it yielded a pretty cool response. Yeah. Let's hear it from Matt. I think Arnold Schwarzenegger collection is one that people don't quite know about, but I have like different Arnold's from different movies and you know, whether it be last action hero or a turbo man. Um, and it's cool that he's had so many action figures. I mean, cause he is, if you think about Arnold Schwarzenegger, you close your
01:15:07
Speaker
I mean maybe not current day but like you know 80s early 90s he is a real life action figure so it only makes sense for him to be in so many toy lines so that's one of the people maybe might not know about a full tour of the toy room.
01:15:22
Speaker
You know the pods evolve so much and like we announced today on comicbook.com Even though mark is mad that I did it that we are gonna have a spin-off show in the summertime. So We've been doing the the fantasy fig feds on the patreon and it's gotten so popular That we are going to turn it into a weekly show. So There's gonna be double major to five
01:15:45
Speaker
You know, so cool. So yeah, I want, I was trying to figure out a way to segue into that, into that announcement. So thank you for doing that for me. Well, I'm the professional, you know.
01:15:56
Speaker
And that's what it is, right? It's like, it's nostalgia. And, uh, it's, and I'm not gonna lie, it's, it's fun as hell to do this. And, you know, I mean, listen, I'm not playing, I'm not on the floor playing out these matches. I'm not having Undertaker walk down to the ring, but when I, when I am booking the figures, I'm not booking the matches. I'm actually using the figure. So in that sense, I am playing with them, I guess. And then, you know, to do the figure photography, uh, it just.
01:16:21
Speaker
I, I'm not going to get into what we have planned exactly because Mark will get very, very mad. He's already very, very mad at me. Uh, but it's, it's one of those things that I think I really believe that it might become more popular than the weekly podcast. So fun fact, Dave, about that episode, something that I have not disclosed. Um, my pajamas consist of a t-shirt and my underwear.
01:16:48
Speaker
So when you woke my ass up, well, I hadn't actually gone to sleep yet. Like I was at that point where like I was fading, but I was like reading on my phone. And thankfully I was reading on my phone because my phone would have been in do not disturb and I would have missed it. Um, I would have called. So I was reading, I was on Reddit on my phone in bed.
01:17:11
Speaker
And I sleepily rolled over to my wife and I was like, I have to get up and record an episode of the podcast. And she just went, ugh.
01:17:25
Speaker
And I went, I don't know, I have to get up. We'll explain later. I don't have the time or energy to explain this to you right now. She was just like, whatever. And I got up and I like shuffled my feet to my attic where all my podcast stuff is.
01:17:44
Speaker
And meanwhile, the whole time, grumbling to myself, thinking, there's no way. This is really a thing that's happening. I'm going to set all this up, and it's not going to work. And what's Matt Cardona doing that he has time to do this, right? I'm just thinking, I'm cursing everybody under my breath. And then when he popped up, I was like, oh, I have to. Oh, we're doing this. I have to be in a good mood now.
01:18:09
Speaker
Okay. Um, no, but seriously, that was, that was an incredible moment. That was a super fun episode. Yeah, it's, it's a good listen. Like it's, it's a shorter episode and it came out on, um, it was the first time we had done like weekly for a while because we weren't expecting it. And we were like, well, this, this needs to go out like now.
01:18:29
Speaker
Yeah, we didn't save that one. That was as unplanned as the episode was, the release also was. So it popped up. Everyone's probably like, wait a minute, this isn't next week. What? I was so awake and energized at the end of the episode that I actually stayed up and edited it.
01:18:51
Speaker
Right. I was sober by the end. I stayed up and edited it. So not only did I record that in my underwear, I also edited it in my underwear. Fun fact. Have fun with that one, everyone. Yeah. You're welcome. So I think, like I said, I think I know where we're going with this one. So.
01:19:12
Speaker
You can go ahead and say it and I'll agree with you. Like I said, I think I know where we're both going with, again, we'll put it as our number one, but in no particular order. What's the last one we want to highlight, Dave? Speaking of impromptu interviews, have you ever kind of gone to your first ever New York toy fair and said, hey, is there any chance we can get an interview with Todd?
01:19:40
Speaker
In fact, Dave, that is something that I did. With you. And I went, I looked at Eric and I was like, there's no way this happens. And when the response was, can you come back in an hour? I think it was, that's what it was, right? It was, can you come back at two o'clock? I'll never forget. Can you come back at two o'clock? He could have said, can you stand on your head and piss in your own mouth? And I would have said, sure.
01:20:09
Speaker
You would have said, I'll give it a shot. I would have been like, nah, I know I can't. I know that that's not a thing I can do.
NY Toy Fair Highlights
01:20:18
Speaker
But yeah, the fine folks at McFarland, after giving us an amazing booth tour at New York Toy Fair, I asked their coordinator at the booth on our way out. I noticed that Todd was there. I think I actually, we actually saw him talking to, but in Pixel Dead, actually.
01:20:35
Speaker
Um, he was talking to a notable toy YouTuber, right? Excuse me if it's not Pixel Dan, but it was somebody in that echelon of toy YouTubers. And I just noticed that he was there and far be it for me to be the one to, uh, you know what, I'm going to quote, I'm going to quote our friend, uh, zombie sailor. You, you miss all of the shots that you don't take.
01:21:03
Speaker
Um, so we had to say something and yeah, they told us to come back at that point. It was like a two hour wait. Our legs felt like they were going to fall off. We were actually ready to go home after that booth tour. And we found stuff to do with the next two hours because we were certainly going back to talk to the Todd father himself. Um, a man who has been.
01:21:24
Speaker
to call him a luminary in both the comics industry and toy industry would be an understatement. I mean, the guy is he's he's toy. He's a legend. Yeah, he's toy royalty. I mean, he if you have not watched on sci-fi, it's available on on demand. Definitely watch the documentary. I think it's called Like Hell I Won't. And to call him just toy, toy royalty is like
01:21:53
Speaker
You know, comic book royalty, toy royalty. Yeah. I mean, the guy, not only is he the creator of Spawn, but he's the creator of of Spider-Man's modern spider webs. He's the co-creator of Venom. The art that he's done is so iconic. It's just, you know what? Just roll the part of the interview we're going to play.
01:22:17
Speaker
I've been talking about doing some crowdfunding stuff. And so we're going to be doing what I call masterwork. We talked about it last year. And instead of talking about the theory of it, we're going to implement it. So the first one is going to be the spawn. That page for Kickstarter will go up in about a month.
01:22:36
Speaker
Okay. But under the umbrella, which is masterwork, I can do the digitally remastered with the Kickstarter is going back to the original spawn from day one that put me on the map and doing the cooler version of it. What I should have done if I only knew better. Although we'll do the retro packaging and all this stuff and I'm going to re-ink it so it'd be like sort of, you know, retro chic, kind of cool. And then if you like it, I can do the whole series because there were six of them. I can redo all these characters.
01:23:06
Speaker
You mean when we like it? Yeah. But it also will allow me to do the seventh figure, if you bought six, I'll do the seventh figure of Tortured Soul. And the seventh figure of The Dragon, McFarlane Dragon, the seventh figure of you bought six, I'll do the seventh figure of Movie Maniacs, or the seventh figure of Twisted Oz, or whatever it is that I had done that put me on the map those first five, ten years, I'm gonna go back. And I'm gonna go, thank you for your patience.
01:23:35
Speaker
It only took me 20 plus years, but if you still have your collection, I'm going to give you another one that will go seamlessly into those other six because I'm going to match the packaging and the style of it, and it's going to go in. Not the spawn that I'm doing where I'm doing a digitally remastered. I can do better, but like some of the stuff that came out a little bit later, like the dragons, I'm quite proud of those. Even today, they hold up, right? I'm just going to add another dragon to it.
01:24:02
Speaker
You know, I'm realizing I could have picked literally any part of that interview. As a matter of fact, you did. Yeah, it just it doesn't matter. The whole interview was amazing. If you go back and listen to our our Toy Fair recap, our 2020 Toy Fair recap episode, you're going to hear from Mike Camp. You're going to hear from.
01:24:25
Speaker
wrestlers like Kenny Omega and Adam Page from AEW. You're going to hear from Brickmaster herself, Amy Corbett from Lego Masters, and she's incredible. But you're going to hear a full length interview with Todd McFarlane talking to two guys from New Jersey that literally wandered into his booth and got extremely lucky.
01:24:50
Speaker
He loves to talk. He is full of information. He's full of energy. He is like 12 years old at heart at all times, it seems. Um, yeah, just, I'm still, I still can't believe that that was what February. We had been a podcast for a couple months, a few months, five. Yeah. And like had a couple hundred followers at that point.
01:25:19
Speaker
on Instagram, which is kind of like our main place again. And they, McFarland just as a whole, didn't care. We were there. We had the media pass. We wanted to talk to them. They gave us the time of day. And, you know, it was, it was a shot in the arm for us because it really, they took us seriously and that still
01:25:43
Speaker
to this day means a lot. I think about that interview, I think about all the stuff over the years that I've owned. I'm looking around my office now, the non-modern spawn and McFarland pieces I have that I still hold near and dear. The fact that we were sharing a table with that man is still something that's really cool to me.
01:26:03
Speaker
Yeah, it was cool. You know, that was where we heard about the Kickstarter. And now that's that's a thing that we very much get to look forward to. Yep. November can't come fast enough. First of all, I'm ready for 2020 to be done. Let's put that shit in the rearview mirror. Everything can come can't come fast enough like anything. Yeah. Anything that's good. I'll take anything that's good.
Engagement and Future Plans
01:26:28
Speaker
Well, Dave, you know, it's
01:26:33
Speaker
It's been a hell of a year and we have so many exciting things to look forward to for, you know, the next few episodes coming down the, you know, coming down the pipeline. We're working on some really cool stuff. Um, we've got some ideas for other cool stuff. Who knows if it'll, if it'll actually work out, but if they're in this, we're going to put, we're going to put a call out to you. If you've made it to this point in the, in, in this episode of the podcast, we want to hear from you.
01:27:01
Speaker
We want to know what you think. We want to know what you want to hear from us, what you want to see us do, what you want to see us do with our YouTube channel, the stuff that you want us to talk about on the show, um, the stuff you want to see on Instagram. You know, we want to know what you like, you know, cause we're.
01:27:17
Speaker
We love talking about toys. We love all aspects of it. But if there's something that we're missing or something that you think that we should be covering, that we're not, something that you think is super cool, reach out to us. Let us know. When do you think we should actually do the Road Trip Toys episode? Let us know.
01:27:39
Speaker
But yeah, thank you to each and every one of you who has listened, who has commented, who has liked, who has subscribed, who has
01:27:51
Speaker
So everybody who called in today, a big thanks once again to to Joe, to Joe Azari, who has lent his voice time and time again for this podcast on numerous episodes. Thank you to our families who put up with this. Yeah. Big thanks to my my wife and daughter who who clear clear the area for me to record videos of me unboxing toys and to record this podcast.
01:28:20
Speaker
to my girlfriend who said, yeah, it sounds like fun. You should do it. And who goes sometimes goes, yeah, I always, you know, try to make a sweep through the toy aisle to see if any of those names on your list are there. But yeah, most of all, thanks to you guys. Thanks to the people that listen. We I mean, we probably wouldn't still be doing this a year and if nobody paid attention.
01:28:48
Speaker
We'd go back to just having our private conversation, so we're glad you enjoy them. Yeah, whether you've stumbled upon the show because someone you follow on Instagram has been on. Thanks for sticking around. Yeah, thanks for joining us for this year. And, you know, to quote Heather's boyfriend, here's to at least one more. Cheers to that. Here's to at least one more.
01:29:15
Speaker
That's gonna be the subtitle. Here's to at least one more if we ever make shirts. 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.
01:29:39
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.
01:30:03
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial no derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.