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Toys on Film: Netflix's The Toys That Made Us Season 3
414 Plays6 years ago
On this episode of Adventures in Collecting, Dave and Erik talk the latest in toy news, their hauls, and introduce a new game, "Name That Toy!" In the first installment of "Toys on Film" the brothers Weinbrecht tackle Netflix's The Toys That Made Us Season 3.
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Intro by Joe Azzari
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Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction and Global Reach
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, Dave. Hi, Eric. Hey, Dave. Do we curse on this podcast? Yes, Eric. Yes, we do. Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast.
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors.
00:00:35
Speaker
All right, we are back. Yes. So thanks again for joining us on the Adventures in Collecting podcast. We're happy to have you back. I would like to give a shout out to all 11 countries that are currently listening to us, which is kind of really cool. Yes. Thank you, Modern Adelinex. Yeah, I have no words for that, so thank you.
00:01:04
Speaker
Yeah, so from I think we had people in Italy, we had people in Canada, the United States. There were 11 countries. I honestly, I can't remember which 11 they were, but off the top of my head, I should have made a note. I do have questions for all 11 countries, all representatives for 11 countries, mostly beginning and ending with why. The important thing is that they found us, and hopefully they're still here now.
00:01:34
Speaker
Yes, I'm also very sorry because I just kicked the microphone. You can leave that in because it's funny. I actually didn't hear it, so I think I think we're OK. I'll leave it in anyway.
Segments Overview and Toy News
00:01:44
Speaker
So before we jump into our main topic, which I realized a lot of the stuff that we listen to.
00:01:51
Speaker
It might be helpful to tell you what we're going to talk about later. So on today's episode, we're going to give you our news and hauls like usual. We have a brand new game that we're going to introduce. So fingers crossed we're going to see how this goes. And then our main topic is going to be the first in a series of topics that we'll cover down the line, but toys on film. So this week we'll be talking about the toys that made us season three.
00:02:19
Speaker
which just came out at the recording of this episode, which is, we are November 21st, was a week ago. And that's gonna be our main topic for later. But without further ado, let's hop right into the news. I'm gonna let the elder winebracked start us off here. Oh, okay. So in what would generally be not like a big news time,
00:02:48
Speaker
Mattel showed off in the UK at Wrestling Shop Live, or Wrestling Shop UK Live, a couple more images of new figures and new figure packs that were not at Ringside Fest. So we are looking at really elite 74 and 75 are two of the big things. It looks like mostly elite 75.
00:03:16
Speaker
And a couple basics as well. Basic Series 105. And we saw the Pete Dunn figure with the NXT UK title. Hurricane with a soft goods cape, which is cool. Andrade from Elite 74. He's in yellow and black. That's an awesome look. There's a really cool Elite 2-pack of Samoa Joe and Rey Mysterio.
00:03:42
Speaker
And then a couple basics, nothing insanely of note. Oh, there was the Mandy Rose Elite 2 that was pretty cool. Actually, the big one of note is we're getting a new R-Truth figure, which is awesome. R-Truth has been on TV a lot with the 24-7 title, so we're getting a new R-Truth figure, which is
00:04:02
Speaker
pretty long overdue and pretty awesome.
Toy Sizing and Scaling
00:04:04
Speaker
I would love an elite one, so if there, I think something was mentioned back at Comic Con, so there may be an elite R-Truth coming, which will be awesome and that I will buy, but there is a basic coming soon. So help me out, as somebody who doesn't watch wrestling all the time, the 24-7 title, what is that?
00:04:21
Speaker
So think of it like the hardcore title from back in the day where it was 24 seven rules except no weapons. So basically a match can break out anywhere at any time and anyone can win. So you can you can still end up losing or end or winning a belt in line at like Dairy Queen. But you can't beat somebody with a barbed wire bat in order to do so. Yes. Got it. Registered. Anything else in the way of news?
00:04:52
Speaker
Um, that's pretty much all I got. Um, there were some new WWE pops that were announced that look really cool. Um, I think the, the Naomi is honestly the highlight of it. That's the glow in the dark one. The glow in the dark chase. Yeah. That's, it's just a cool looking pop. So that's,
00:05:13
Speaker
That's really cool. Yeah, I also like the, as a fan of kind of like the attitude era of things, I really like that Chase Diesel. Yeah, that's cool. In the silver tank. Well, the Diesel is the regular, the Kevin Nash is the Chase. Oh, okay. So the Chase is the one with the NWO, or not, right? Is it NWO? Yes, the Chase is NWO. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very cool.
00:05:39
Speaker
Oh, that's the train. Oh, okay. I thought the spaceships were coming. No, no, that's later. That's later.
Figure Releases and Quality Discussion
00:05:48
Speaker
In case you're not aware or you may be able to hear that, literally, I am shaking right now. I live very close to a train tracks.
00:06:03
Speaker
I live very close to train tracks. It's not a commuter line, it's like a freight train. So where we record when that train comes by, it shakes. It's almost like in Mary Poppins when the guy fires off the cannon and everyone prepares to rearrange the paintings. It's really close. It's very, very close.
00:06:31
Speaker
Distracting and they are a little hauling everything Yeah, man it during the day when that thing comes by if you're standing outside like your clothes move. It's oh Yeah, the couch that I'm sitting on this shit was shaking the microphone could see the microphone move I was so thrown off by that
00:06:49
Speaker
You started giving me this look like something was terribly wrong and I that you know goes to show how used to it I am In the way of news for me We should probably keep that in too because that was actually pretty good. Oh a hundred percent um I think maybe this is gonna be to the episode that I edit nothing out of today We're just gonna let it roll. Let it roll. You know um
00:07:14
Speaker
in the way of in the way of news again today I keep forgetting the fucking date on November 21st I posted a bunch of stuff from our Instagram account which is at
00:07:29
Speaker
I see underscore podcast if you're not following us, but Tomahashi Nations via figure arts. I say figure arts. They posted a lot of new figures today, especially from their their upcoming end game wave. They have the final battle. Iron Man Tony Stark, which of course has a gorgeous Robert A. Junior head on it once again, beating Hasbro to the punch on that one. Come on, Hasbro.
00:07:57
Speaker
I'm staring at my end game Iron Man and really, really wish I had an official Tony Stark head to put on it. They have the new look, Captain Marvel with the short hair from the end of the film. Fantastic figure, by the way.
00:08:17
Speaker
Oh my god the effect pieces that come with it they have like like blue flame fists and these like awesome like lightning bolt energy things that go around her wrists it is a gorgeous figure and there's actually a ton of detail on that costume that I didn't realize when I was watching you know when I saw the film
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah, gorgeous figure. Iron Spider with the full mandibles and Tom Holland sculpt as well as swapped out eyes so that way you could do instant kill mode. And he comes with, it looks like two nano gauntlets. One that is just kind of like limp fingers and then another one that is like mid snap.
00:09:02
Speaker
It looks like it's the grandized size of it, so presumably it will fit on their Thanos figure that they have out already from Endgame. It definitely will not fit on Iron Man. And then they also announced a rescue figure, which looks incredible, and again has an awesome Gwyneth Paltrow likeness for an unmasked look.
00:09:30
Speaker
And then they unleashed Captain America as well, complete with Molyneur and crazy lightning effects, two shields, one that's cracked in half like it appears in the film, and another that's fully complete. So all of those figures are due out in...
00:10:10
Speaker
You'll probably be able to get away with Rescue and with Spider-Man, generally speaking, since they're a little bit smaller in stature to, you know, the Iron Man's and Thor's and Captain America's of the world. But unfortunately, those Captain America, the Iron Man figures, just be careful. They will look small if scale is something that
00:10:16
Speaker
between April and June
00:10:36
Speaker
you know, that you care about. If you're ultimately just playing with these things, it's not going to matter, but if you have them in a display, it will be noticeable. There are some great videos you can look up online. D-Star Toys on YouTube, they do a really great job of breaking down the scale differences between them. Yeah, that tends to be the case with the figure arts too. I think Ringside Collectibles just put up a thing, which is where we got the info for the stuff from the UK, by the way.
00:11:05
Speaker
They have a thing because there are there's a handful of WWE figure arts figures and they are not in Mattel scale. Yeah, which is unfortunate because they are gorgeous and they're expensive. You know, they run anywhere between, you know, 80 to $120 depending on the figure and what it comes with and, you know, whether it's the locks or not.
00:11:26
Speaker
And it's unfortunate that they don't scale well, but it's true. You could get away with characters that are generally smaller or characters that are generally much larger. Like, I have the SH Figure Arts Incredible Hulk from...
00:11:43
Speaker
Infinity War and he scales really well with with the Marvel Legends. I don't have him part of my main collection He's he's on my he's one of my desk buddies at work But and but he scales really well Thanos apparently from from what I hear scales pretty well as well
00:12:01
Speaker
But yeah, that's that's all all I have for news in terms of
Disney+ Launch and Baby Yoda
00:12:04
Speaker
new releases. But something that I guess we could say is toy adjacent is Disney Plus also launched in between the last episode and this one. So brief spoiler alert if you have not watched.
00:12:17
Speaker
the Mandalorian on Disney+. You might want to fast forward a couple minutes here because I'm going to talk about something that was revealed at the end of episode 1 and heavily featured in episode 2 and something that I literally cannot wait for them to make a toy of. And I speak on behalf of myself, my wife, and my child who would all like a version of Baby Yoda or Clone Yoda or whatever you want to call him in our lives. I literally, I have never anticipated a toy
00:12:47
Speaker
And I mean any kind of toy. I will take a plush. I will take a pop. I will take all of them I cannot wait for them to make a figure of baby Yoda because it is just I it's the fucking cutest thing ever and I see it on the screen and I just like melt and I Scream like when we first saw it in the the pod like on that reveal the three of us sitting on the couch and you know of note my daughter is four and
00:13:15
Speaker
So she screamed the same level that the two adults in the room, we were just like, AHHH! GIVE ME! WANT! WANT! Yeah, I need that fucking thing. Apparently he's in the park already. Really? Yeah. I could get a baby Yoda in the park? No, he's like in the park. Like? Like he's in Galaxy's Edge somewhere. No shit. Really? Yeah.
00:13:43
Speaker
I've seen a photo. Well, I need, when you go, I need a selfie with baby Oda. I don't know if it's in a location where you can do that.
00:13:53
Speaker
Okay, well, we'll see if things change. But yeah, definitely, I mean, again, Toy adjacent. There are a ton of toys being announced for the Mandalorian from the Black Series already being out in two different versions already. There's a third version that has yet to be revealed in the show, but kind of leaked out.
00:14:13
Speaker
There's the SH Figure Arts figure that just got announced today, the Vintage Collection figure that's coming. We're two episodes in. We still haven't met all the characters. So far, it's incredible. I don't know if you wanted to quickly weigh in on the awesomeness of the show or move on, but that's on you. I'd like a Werner Herzog figure.
00:14:34
Speaker
Did you hear him wax poetically about baby Yoda yet? Did you hear him wax poetically about WrestleMania yet? No, I feel like we have we have things that we need to exchange once we're done here Yeah, it's not even you just got to read it if you've ever seen I've not read that so oh, it's the mine is not a written piece It is him speaking
00:14:57
Speaker
About how like baby Yoda basically like brought him to his knees. It's on it is Unbelievable and apparently prior to this the man had never seen Star Wars yeah, that's he tends to kind of Just show up when when he needs to be and I think the term usually used for castings like him is stunt casting where it's like I just want to put this guy in the situation because I love him or you know or her and if if
00:15:28
Speaker
I mean, he's just textbook stunt cast and gone right, if that's the case, because that one scene that he's in is just incredible. His his like. It's the show is so good. Go and watch it if you don't have Disney Plus, I think they're still offering like a seven day free trial. Just just grab it and watch the first two episodes and you'll be hooked. And not to mention, there's a ton of other amazing shit on there that you could just watch all day.
00:15:55
Speaker
all things that are toy adjacent to, like the X-Men cartoon, the Spider-Man cartoon, it's wild. I'm gonna flip it right into hauls.
WWE Figures and Name That Toy Game
00:16:06
Speaker
Mine has been pretty light since the last episode. I have three new things. Two of which, if you're following us online, you saw unboxings of them. I got that Cave of Evil set, the Vintage Collection with Luke, Darth Vader, and Yoda. By far, hands down, the best Yoda in that scale ever, period. End of story. It's incredible.
00:16:27
Speaker
He looks just like he does in the Empire Strikes Back. It's a perfect Yoda figure. It's honestly worth it for that figure alone. The Darth Vader is really great. The little pop-off mask piece doesn't just kind of fall off of him. It actually stays in place. So if you are Sans' Empire Strikes Back looking Darth Vader, it's a two-in-one figure.
00:16:50
Speaker
Hands down. I mean, it looks just like him and even the Luke with those weird janky arms The moment you bend him at the elbows and his arms aren't hanging down alongside of him Even bend the elbows or just extend an arm out in front of him. It looks great So definitely pick that up if you collect that scale The other thing I got was the the Marvel Legends vision. So I finally have him From from the latest endgame wave. I'm just missing Valkyrie and then I can finish building bro Thor
00:17:20
Speaker
And the other thing I got was the Vintage Collection Shadow Trooper from the latest wave.
00:17:26
Speaker
Toy show. Oh yeah, that's right, we went to a toy show. I forgot about that. Yeah, we went to the toy show in Parsippany, which was awesome. I picked up a couple things from there as well. I picked up Maria Hill from that Toys R Us Shield three pack. I picked up Yon Reg, super dirt cheap. I think I got him for like five bucks. And I had picked up one other thing. What else did I pick up? I honestly don't remember.
00:17:54
Speaker
Ronin, didn't you? That's right, Ronin. I got Ronin really cheap too. How come I can remember what you got? I'm older. You're older, but being a dad is like, there are parts of my brain that are forever inaccessible to me from now on. They're just gone. I like fleeting moments and they're gone. But yeah, so that's what I got. On to you.
00:18:16
Speaker
Um, I got a bunch of stuff. Um, as always, I got, uh, the WWE elite, Adam Cole, um, of which, by the way, the series 70 and series 71 are starting to appear in more and more stores. So keep an eye out. Um, I was able to pick up, uh, gentlemen, Jack Gallagher elite. Um, and then at the toy show I got,
00:18:45
Speaker
Austin Aries, NXT TakeOver Elite, I got Dusty Rhodes Elite, Brian Pillman Elite, and Bailey Network Spotlight Elite. And then I also found... Happy Bailey is way better than heal Bailey. Just saying it. Yeah.
00:19:03
Speaker
And then I found Akira Tozawa online Picked it up damage packaging, which is fine because I took the figure out of it. So let him breathe
00:19:17
Speaker
Then I got a couple pops at the toy show as well. I got Gizmo from the Gremlins because I never had it for some reason. I got the Rock in his $500 shirt chase. I also picked up the latest Hot Topic exclusive, Jack Skellington. I got the Hot Topic exclusive, Invader, Zim, and Gur.
00:19:42
Speaker
How I found out that Baby Yoda is in the park is because somebody picked me up Chef Figment from the parks. Very cool. Very cool. So before we hop into our main topic, I did mention that we're going to debut a game. So this game, we're going to see how it works.
00:20:06
Speaker
So we're going to call it name that toy. And for this first installment, it's going to be my turn. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to read one by one. I listed one, two, three, four, five, six, seven bullet points. OK, good, because I had no idea. Yeah.
00:20:23
Speaker
So I listed seven. Yeah, I purposefully kept this from Dave. So one thing that you will notice by listening to this podcast is my brother is a near nearly endless encyclopedia of things just in general. If it's something that is in his wheelhouse, it is deeply in his wheelhouse. It's basically how I am with Star Wars, but with like half a dozen or more things. So
00:20:52
Speaker
I started off kind of easy. This is a toy that we both played with when we were kids. That's all I'm gonna say. But what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read off these seven bullet points. After each one, I'm gonna pause and you either take a guess or tell me to keep going.
00:21:11
Speaker
It's like name that tune if at the end of the seven bullets if you can't get it Which by the way if you cannot get this at the end of the seven bullets then this segment is No, I'm calling 9-1-1 because you need help Okay, no if Dave cannot get this We will throw it up on Instagram
00:21:33
Speaker
as a highlight, so that way people can guess. We'll make it a question on Instagram, and that way people will guess. If you are the first person to get it right, we'll name drop you on the next episode. Wins a free name drop. Eventually, maybe we'll have cooler prizes, but for now, you get a name drop and we'll give you a certified round of applause. All right, so let's get started. Name that toy.
00:22:03
Speaker
Based on a television show, these toys were produced in 1987 by Mattel as a license of Landmark Entertainment Group. Mattel 87. Yeah.
00:22:23
Speaker
That's a little bit too little information. Keep going? Yeah, you can keep going. The first line included six figures in the three and three quarters scale. Three villains and three heroes. Mattel three and three quarters. 1987. Landmark Entertainment Group.
00:22:53
Speaker
I feel like I should know Landmark Entertainment Group, but I don't. I'm calling it out for a reason. That's all I'm gonna say, though. Like, there's... Even when I read it... Now, granted, I know what it is, because I picked it. But when I read it, I was like, oh, that's funny. Like, I remember that. Keep going? Yeah, do one more. Alright.
00:23:19
Speaker
Also in the first line were two vehicles called the Power Jet XT7 and the Phantom Striker. Was it Captain Power? Holy shit. Yes, it was Captain Power. Wow. Man, I thought you were going to get it after the next one. I didn't think that one was going to give it away.
00:23:45
Speaker
What gave it away? Did you just remember the names of the ships? Yeah. Fuck. The interlocker, I think, was the other one, wasn't it? I just went with the first line. That was not part of the first line. Because the first line was those six guys, the two ships, and then each, there was a good guy power up station, like power station, and a bad guy power station. Yeah. It almost looked like a Stargate, the good guy one. A little bit, yeah.
00:24:16
Speaker
I thought of it, well, I guess it would have been around the same time, but it almost was like where Robocop would sit. Yeah. But Stargate's cool too. I had the good guy power up station. Yep. Yeah, the ship was, what were the names of the ships again? It was the Powerjet XT-7. Which was Captain Powership. Yep, and the Phantom Striker.
00:24:39
Speaker
Yeah, I had both of those. I don't think I had the interlocker, which was the other. It was almost like it was a ship that was on a tripod and it looked like... I guess it kind of looked like a video game. It looked like a Super Nintendo. So, do you remember the name of the bad guy?
00:24:59
Speaker
I don't. Alright, so I'm going to read the rest of the bullet points. You'll tell me and I'll be like that was him. Alright, so the rest of the bullets had Dave not gotten it there. The next one would have been the main antagonist was named Lord Dread. Okay. Alright, then the one after that, the bullet after that would have been the gimmick of this toy line was that when played along with an accompanying VHS, the ships and some accessories interacted with the TV.
00:25:28
Speaker
Yeah, and it was cool because they had actually like a TV, yeah, yeah, here it is, the interlocker. Yeah, I can't get a good picture of it right now, but. And then the last bullet. Yeah, see, it's sitting on like a tripod and it kind of looks like a Super Nintendo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The last one, which would have been the kind of layup if you had needed it from there, was the vehicles and ships also could be used as a form of laser tag.
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, I think was what it was called. I think so. I just wrote down Captain Power. And there was, so there were video tapes that were animated, except I think Captain Power was in them. There was like an intro to kind of set it up. And then Lord Dread was in it and it was like, you went on, one was a...
00:26:18
Speaker
training mission. The other one was like an intermediate and the other third one was hard. And you had like these reactive lights on the screen that either shot at you or you shot at it.
00:26:35
Speaker
There were these yellow flashing lights that came and they were the weapons that were being shot at you. And then the ships, when you shot the evil ships, they had red lights.
00:26:49
Speaker
And so you almost had to fly out of the way from the little light reactor that was on the ship from getting hit by the mast that was shot at you. Or you could just cover it with your hand. You could. And what was cool was on the back you had this button and it would do, do, do, do, do.
00:27:09
Speaker
I can still remember the sound. Yeah. And, you know, every time you shot something, you would get more power. But when it shot you, you would lose power. And if you lost power, enough power to like for the ship to explode, it ejected you out of the ship, which was fantastic.
00:27:29
Speaker
And then there was a live-action television show that was on weekend mornings, either Saturday or Sunday, probably both, that was a narrative TV show, but the characters wore reactive clothing, so you could just sit there and just shoot bad guys with your ship during the show. And it was so bizarre because it was
00:27:58
Speaker
Like you're watching basically a bad drama that you're shooting your ships at. Now what I didn't realize when I was doing research for this bit that the point of playing the VHS and also during the TV show was to get as many points as you could on your ship. So that way when the show was over, you and your friends could play laser tag because the points that you earned
00:28:28
Speaker
were ended up being your hit points yes and that was the only way to do them like if you fired up the ship it like by default gave you let's say like three but if you sat and watch the show you can get 99 like yeah and then you know you would
00:28:44
Speaker
Essentially leave the ship on wait for the show to be over and then do battle with your friends Well, no, there was a switch. Yeah, there was a switch on the ship where it you either had Infrared to shoot the television or like almost like a strobe light to shoot the other ship. Yep
00:29:05
Speaker
Which, honestly, we're going to cover this on a later episode. One of our mutual friends, Heather's boyfriend, he collects amiibos, the Nintendo amiibos. We're going to do a whole episode on gaming toys and that kind of thing. And while I was thinking about that... I think we've pretty much covered Captain Power. Yes, but there is a whole other world out there of... And the soldiers of the future.
00:29:29
Speaker
and history of games and toys kind of blurring the line between a video game and a toy. It's just when I was thinking about that topic for early next year, I started thinking about Captain Power. Literally, I was walking from my car into ShopRite one day, and I was like, oh, man, this would be an awesome idea for a little game. So next time, it's your turn. Did you just come up with what you thought of Captain Power and then came up with the game?
00:29:57
Speaker
I was thinking of the toys and video games topic. And then I thought of Captain Power. And then I went, oh my god, I wonder when the last time Dave thought about Captain Power. And then I thought about that game.
00:30:18
Speaker
I just like, yeah, you still continue to impress me all these years later. Your encyclopedic brain is crazy. All right, so for those of you at homekeeping score, Dave won Eric Zero. So the next time we do this, it will be Dave's turn to try to stump me with a toy. I think
00:30:40
Speaker
I think this will actually work out pretty well. That was fun. It aired from September 1st, 1987 to March 27th, 1988. March 27th? Yeah, it was... They took it off the air. It was an anti-birthday gift.
00:30:56
Speaker
Happy birthday. Hope you didn't want to watch more of this show. All right, so that being said, which actually works out to be a great segue, Captain Power, obviously a strong piece of nostalgia for both Dave and I. It's older than you. It is older than me by one year.
Review of The Toys That Made Us Season 3
00:31:14
Speaker
We watched season three of The Toys That Made Us, and it's going to be our first segment in toys on film.
00:31:25
Speaker
So the season is four episodes, four very, very big topics that we could very obviously spend entire episodes on. And we discussed that before getting into this. So this is going to be like a very top level review of the season.
00:31:44
Speaker
Our thoughts as we were going through it kind of jumped out. Because if you if you think that there isn't some point down the line where we're going to do at least one episode on wrestling toys, you're listening to the wrong podcast.
00:31:59
Speaker
But the four episodes, you can watch them in any order. There's there's no like frame narrative that runs through the season. This is the third season of The Toys That Made Us, which is a Netflix exclusive. That's where you can find it. But the four episodes were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
00:32:19
Speaker
Power Rangers, Wrestling Figures, and My Little Pony. Let's start with, we'll tackle them in order, right? So the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles one is technically episode one, I think, of the season. Just some takeaways from me.
00:32:37
Speaker
I actually had no idea that this was another one of those situations where I knew the Ninja Turtles started off as a comic book, as an independent comic book. I had no idea that the cartoon was constructed to support the toy line. I always kind of had assumed, unlike He-Man and Transformers, that the comic book led to a cartoon which led to a toy line.
00:33:04
Speaker
I had no idea that they, and I mean I guess that's different now, you know, like most of the toy lines that are out there that I could think of, most of them are kind of after the fact, you know, like a TV show comes out, they make toys. I think with a few exceptions, like those like LOL surprise things, you know, I don't think they have a TV show, I could be wrong, but
00:33:30
Speaker
I had no idea that the TV show was actually constructed to support the toy line because I mean, I remember watching it on TV in multiple, you know, multiple generations and seeing it kind of different over the years. I mean, that goes back even if you think of like the Secret Wars and super powers. They are comic book characters, but the toys were made to
00:33:56
Speaker
kind of they were made and then there was a cartoon made like Secret Wars was a storyline based off of the figures. Interesting. It's weird how how I guess like the the the 80s informed their the toys. I mean, there weren't networks dedicated to, you know, 24 seven cartoons. Right. So, you know, it was a driving factor. It was a place to kind of gather.
00:34:24
Speaker
and see all the commercials and stuff for the toy lines and everything, too. Yeah, cartoons were on Saturday mornings and sometimes after school. Like, that was... Now, one of my... one of my favorite parts from the Ninja Turtle episode, again, something I had no idea. I remember when the... I guess it was the second film, actually, Secret of the Ooz came out, but I remember those to... the figures that came out for Secret of the Ooz, they kind of had that, like, they're a little bit rubberier.
00:34:52
Speaker
Well, they were the turtles from the movie. Yeah, they looked like the Jim Henson turtles. Yeah, but I had no idea that the first movie was at one time the highest grossing independent film of all time. Yeah, I didn't think of it as independent, I guess, because.
00:35:09
Speaker
because it was the turtles. Yeah. Yeah, I just I had no idea. And that guy I should have wrote down his name. I wrote down really shitty notes for this. I'm sorry. But the guy who who approached the original creators of the turtles to kind of get them to to lend out the license to like that guy. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Like for a guy that was faking it basically until he made it.
00:35:35
Speaker
You know, he said he rented a suit. You know, showed up and was actually hawking this this giant foam turtle that they had made. Who was taking it like in the car with him and going out to toy manufacturers and basically being like, turn this into a toy. This is the next he man. The only other takeaway that I had from from it was I didn't know all of the drama between the partners who who created it.
00:36:05
Speaker
Um, I thought that that was really interesting, you know, how they kind of fell away and seems like maybe they're getting back together and they still maintain somewhat of like an independent comics rights to it. Um, they have a real, their story is to me was actually the most interesting part of, of the episode.
00:36:28
Speaker
Yeah, and I would say if you ever see, I've never seen Kevin Eastman at a Comic Con, but if you ever see Peter Laird at a Comic Con, great person to talk to. Oh, really? You've met him before? Yeah. Oh, awesome. Yeah, he does seem like a really nice guy. Yeah, he'll usually do. I mean, he'll usually be like just like he's been in like Artist Alley at New York Comic Con before. Just cool. Just there.
00:36:56
Speaker
Yeah. Did you have any other specific takeaways from that episode? It's funny when you see that Ninja Turtles line start to wind down.
00:37:07
Speaker
When you get like baseball turtle and stuff like that like that's and we and you had some of those like I remember you had those I had that was me okay because I know at some point our collections kind of like combined mm-hmm but we had like the techno-drome we had all of the like original tour like the basic line I had the first four yeah I had the first series easy first couple
00:37:29
Speaker
I remember Splinter with the soft goods cloak. April O'Neill was the short pack, couldn't find her. Yep, but we had her. We even had the van. We had the turtles van. Yes, they did. And that's one of the things that, in general, about the toys that made us, watching each and every episode, there was, with the exception of My Little Pony, but I'll get to that because I do have an interesting story with that.
00:37:59
Speaker
I remember at least something from all of the episodes. Like a fond memory about a toy from all of them. And it's interesting. Like it's interesting to see these, you know, and some of them pretty famous figures on there. Like I think Kevin Smith was on the, was he on the Turtles one? Like some of these collectors and there's a great,
00:38:28
Speaker
It was a great story from a collector turned creative in the My Little Pony episode, which was an awesome story. Yeah, that was cool. Let's just jump right to the My Little Pony one, because I just name-dropped it twice. The coolest thing from that episode was the story of the person who is now running the TV show.
00:38:49
Speaker
plus she created friendship is magic yeah yeah um she actually wrote and and they show the letter her mother had the foresight to create a copy of them before they sent them in she wrote a letter to it's hasbro my little pony is hasbro yeah yeah wrote a letter to hasbro
00:39:09
Speaker
because she could not find some of the ponies that she wanted. And in kind of a child's mind bartering system, she wrote this letter with ideas for new ponies in exchange for them sending the ones that she was missing. Hasbro, obviously, I'm sure they get a ton of mail. They can't respond to everything. They never responded to her, but that moment for her
00:39:39
Speaker
you know resonated and she stayed a collector and kept collecting them over the years even through like some of these like weird awful pony looking things that they made you know in like the 90s you know rough stuff but um
00:39:56
Speaker
She stayed involved and actually ended up being the person who created the modern My Little Pony and is still doing it, which is crazy. Great story. It's just one of those things where it's like, don't stop believing.
00:40:12
Speaker
It was great watching that with I watched that episode in particular with my wife because I know that she played with my little ponies when she was when she was a girl and Watching her watch the episode was What I'd imagine watching, you know, like the Power Rangers episode with me was like where when a pony would come up on the screen she'd be like I remember that one that was the flocked version and it was hard to find and like I
00:40:38
Speaker
You know, she gives me shit sometimes for the toy stuff. I mean, it's kind of natural. But like, it was fun to sit there and watch her kind of geek out about it. And of course, they got into the whole brony thing, which is a whole world in and of itself. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was interesting, too, to see the giant, my pretty pony, the original toy that was there.
00:41:03
Speaker
that it started off as like a creepy... Which reminds me of that Sven that's out now. Yeah! And it looks like... Sven's probably a little bit bigger, but like that thing was chunky. Like it was a big... It was a large toy. It was a big toy.
00:41:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's just it's that toy line. This is this is the Hello Kitty of of this season. Like it is just a weird. Like how the toy line was the inception of the toy line, the fact that like they were marketing it as like, no, we don't want girls to treat these horses as horses. We want them to treat them like people dolls and do their hair. And, you know, it's it's just a bizarre concept that landed and resonated with so many people.
00:41:49
Speaker
And I mean, there's a lot of people who have an affinity for horses, you know, the entire, like, equestrian lifestyle and all of that. So, yeah, I mean, I guess there's a market for it, but the fact that it landed as heavily as it did is still really cool. Yeah.
00:42:04
Speaker
And the one the one other thing I wanted to say about my little pony last year Hasbro did it must have been some kind of anniversary? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the 30th the 30th anniversary of my little pony probably Sounds like it would be
00:42:21
Speaker
Pretty accurate. Yeah. They did repacks in the original packaging of the original five or six ponies. Oh, that's cool. And I picked one up for for Maddie. And again, at that time, she's she's three, now four. It is literally one of her favorite toys. That's cool. And
00:42:43
Speaker
It's just so incredible to see a 30-year-old toy resonate with a four-year-old. Some of these things are timeless.
00:42:54
Speaker
One of the other episodes was Power Rangers. Yeah. And by far for me, this was the coolest episode. I had no idea that there were seven billion different crews of Power Rangers. So when I was in college, I had a friend that was super into common rider.
00:43:14
Speaker
And he kept saying, like, you should watch Common Rider. It's awesome. You should watch Common Rider. And finally, like, I kind of threw him a bone, and I was like, I will watch this just so that you'd shut up about it. I'm honestly sick about hearing it, hearing about it, and I'm watching. I'm like, this is...
00:43:29
Speaker
oddly familiar like these action sequences like feel very familiar and I asked him and I was like why do I feel like I've seen this before because he he literally sent me to like the beginning like had me going back and he was like oh I didn't tell you this is Power Rangers
00:43:47
Speaker
but like the original Power Rangers in Japan. They just reuse these action sequences, at which point my mind was blown. Because then, as they explained in the episode, the brilliant, brilliant mind of Hayam Saban was, I'm gonna take these action sequences, which are batshit crazy, and I'm gonna cut in. But more importantly, already produced. Yes, and I'm gonna cut in American actors,
00:44:16
Speaker
And it was seamless. I mean, it's cheesy, it's a little corny. In theory, you'd never know. You'd never know. And the fact that the thing that really blew my mind, so I already kind of knew that going into it, the whole thing with Stan Lee and Japanese Spider-Man was shocking.
00:44:38
Speaker
like i i wanted i want to watch it i stopped what i was doing and and audibly went what the fuck is going on right now i immediately said i needed to see that and yeah i and like
00:44:52
Speaker
What unbelievable dumb luck that the head of creative that was working under Stan Lee, ended up going to Fox Kids. And like, oh yeah, I know that show. Yeah. It's unreal. Power Rangers probably would not have existed without her. If she had not come across that twice and the second time been- And it still almost didn't. Yeah.
00:45:16
Speaker
Yeah, she said she put her job on the line to air it. It's amazing. And then on top of it, they had to pay local stations kickbacks from the toy line sales in order to get them to air the damn thing. Which is borderline unheard of.
00:45:33
Speaker
Yeah, this was a big episode for me because I feel like there's this this phenomenon that I'm starting to realize as I get older where I was watching that episode and watching the clips of the Power Rangers that they were showing and showing the toys like I remember the ones where you click the belt and their heads spin around and they change like I remember which were brilliant Yeah, I remember all possible to find by the way
00:45:55
Speaker
I remember all of the role-playing accessories. I remember the knife, the dagger flute. I remember the Zords. I remember they had these gloves that you could buy that had buttons and the fingers and thumbs so that they made punching sounds and stuff. I remember all of that.
00:46:14
Speaker
Apparently all of that and all of the Power Rangers I watched happened between 1993 and 1994 because then it changed to the next iteration of Power Rangers and I do not remember that at all like I basically They they made the show they killed Rita. They brought in Zed. I remember that. Well, they didn't kill Rita that like locked her in a
00:46:37
Speaker
that
00:46:52
Speaker
Then it was like the movie came out and I was done because I don't remember anything else that came after that. I don't remember Power Rangers in space. I don't remember the ones with the stars on their helmets. I don't remember the ones with the cars or trains. I feel like I was heavily, heavily, heavily into this thing for maybe a year and a half and then done.
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah, they were they were pirates. I saw like I don't remember it. Yeah, like some crazy crazy stuff and it's funny because like they they they track the the success based on the toy sales with it where it's literally like, you know
00:47:29
Speaker
The toys didn't sell well for the trains ones because you know who wants train wants trains they didn't sell well for the cars ones because if they're gonna buy car toys they're gonna buy transformers or Hot Wheels or my or you know micro machines, but um yeah it that that was a crazy episode and especially the relationship between the show and The toy maker with that one where it was kind of like part of their DNA to have
00:47:56
Speaker
Oh, what was the name of the company? Bandai. Bandai, thank you. To have Bandai producing the toys throughout basically the entire history of the show, including the Japanese Kamen Rider stuff, where now Hasbro has it, and they have the global license to it.
00:48:12
Speaker
It's just not Banzai anymore. And we've talked about it several times how gorgeous that the Hasbro line is for these figures. They're doing a great job with it. They're definitely doing it justice. But I felt kind of bad at the end of the episode. Then, of course, the last episode was the wrestling episode. Yeah. And the one thing that I found kind of craziest was that
00:48:40
Speaker
Basically every executive from every toy company that ever made wrestling toys has worked at every toy company that has made wrestling toys. And if they didn't work at a company, they started one. Yeah.
00:48:53
Speaker
Yeah, that that one. The first thing I said, my first note for the wrestling one is just glue. I forgot about glue toys. Oh, those WCW figures are great. And what's so this was my impression of this episode. And before we watched it, I watched it with my girlfriend and I said, I'm very curious to see how they do this in 45 minutes, because there is a lot.
00:49:19
Speaker
It is such a large spectrum. It's a wide net that you can cast in order to do wrestling toys because you have American companies, you have international companies, you have Japanese wrestling toys, you have Mexican wrestling toys, and all of these different companies from these different countries. So how do you do this? The focus was
00:49:42
Speaker
on American wrestling toys and American wrestling companies. And I think the smartest thing about this episode was it didn't treat it like it was good for people that knew what they were watching because it didn't
00:50:00
Speaker
try to over teach you about the history but it taught people who had no idea about any of it enough where they can understand what they were looking at and I thought that parallel was so brilliantly done that it was like
00:50:17
Speaker
I thought I was going to have to explain a lot more of, well, this is this company and this is what happened here, but they did it for you and it was great. And they had some really great voices thrown in there. I really appreciated the Cody Rhodes parts of it.
00:50:36
Speaker
you know him talking like having like a wrestler on there to kind of give some context even if you didn't know you know who Cody Rhodes was or you know the history behind his name and you know how he's kind of really a third generation wrestler it was it was really great how they didn't treat the the audience like they were dumb
00:51:00
Speaker
But at the same time... But they also didn't treat wrestling like it was dumb. Exactly. That's exactly what I was gonna say. They treated it like a business. Like, just like any of the other episodes. Like, this is a form of entertainment. You take that at that face level, and this is what was going on in that form of entertainment. Because during the 80s and 90s, there was a lot going on. And the toys really kind of almost dictated
00:51:27
Speaker
What was going on and I'm not gonna get too too much into this because this will go off into its own episode at this point yeah, but the fact that There were some cool things that I had mentioned Or that I had noticed That I mentioned like for example when they showed the AWA Remco figures Those are some of the most rare and most expensive wrestling figures out there Because it was
00:51:57
Speaker
Yes, they were national, but they were ultimately Midwest regional. And I remember finding those in supermarkets. So I have or had in at some point, like I had one of the Shawn Michaels figures. That is especially if you have the glasses and the t-shirt that came with it.
00:52:19
Speaker
That is a very rare figure. Well, didn't you have Hawk and Animal? I had Hawk and Animal and I had Paul Ellering. I had a bunch of figures of the AWA figures.
00:52:34
Speaker
There was one point where one of the LJN employees had the basic Hulk Hogan, which is, you know, series one, four LJNs, it's as common of a common as you're going to get, next to Demolition Axe, which is one of the rarer figures that was on that last LJN line, the Wrestling Superstars 89 that they mentioned. The black cards. The black cards. And, you know, you would think, oh, the Hulk Hogan figure is worth, Axe is worth so much.
00:53:04
Speaker
Yeah i actually like i remember each and every iteration of those figures for different reasons like my notes are actually really funny there that they're almost like. It's almost like a haiku it's like glue haven't thought of that name in a while lots of twists and turns i gave our mama black eye with one of those original ones.
00:53:24
Speaker
No, that was an LJN. Yeah, an LJN. One of the big guys. Well, the Galoobs in the LJN are different. No, no, no. The Galoob was my first note. That was my progression as I went through. But I remember those big, chunky LJN figures. And I always thought it was great how big those were. And the fact that one of the fun things that was revealed in the doc was that they weren't supposed to be like that. No, that was supposed to be the 2-up.
00:53:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So I also learned something new about toys that I didn't know that they make a giant mold of it in order to craft all the detail and then shrink it down. Yeah. Did not realize that that's how toys were made. I don't know if that's still the case, at which point there's where's my fucking Admiral Holdo three and three quarters inch figure shrink it down.
00:54:09
Speaker
I have a feeling with the fact that everything's rendered at this point. It's not necessary Yeah, they're not sculpting them anymore. Yeah, cuz those that was when they were doing actual sculpts. Yeah, we It's one of those things where they're doing that on a computer now
00:54:23
Speaker
You're right. But no, it was awesome to see, you know, I remember the ECW figures. Like, I remember all of them. And to the point of what they said on the show, the idea was that if you kept your figures in scale with the competitor figures, you allowed the fans to have the grudge match of their dreams. And I remember when ECW was kind of at that height of popularity before Vince bought it.
00:54:52
Speaker
and they started putting out those figures, I say height of popularity and like cult status, right? Well, for ECW, it was, yeah. But I remember how much we wanted like, wouldn't it be awesome if we had a Taz figure or like Tommy Dreamer or Sandman, like Sabu. Yeah. And we were able to get some of those guys. I think I still have my RVD somewhere.
00:55:14
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, all these episodes absolutely filled with nostalgia, like Dave said, especially with the wrestling one. And I promise we'll come back and revisit wrestling figures. But the plan is to go through some other really great moments in film and TV with toys over time. We'll revisit this topic. We have two other seasons of the toys that made us. With the success of this season, I can't imagine that there's not gonna be a fourth season
00:55:42
Speaker
in the works. There's nothing official announced yet, but there are an incredible amount of toylines that they can revisit and show.
00:55:52
Speaker
Captain Power. Captain Power. So I guess let's put a seal of approval on this. We're just going to do thumbs up, thumbs down. I can't think of anything more creative. So is this a thumbs up for season three, Dave? Yeah. I'm going to do the same. It's an easy thumbs up for me. Again, that's season three of The Toys That Made Us. It's available on Netflix.
Episode Wrap-Up and Listener Engagement
00:56:20
Speaker
With that, we're going to wrap it up for today. Thank you again for sticking with us, and Captain Power. 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.
00:56:48
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.
00:57:12
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial no derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.
00:57:43
Speaker
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