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Marvel Legends, Sports, and Stories: An Interview with Hasbro's Dan Yun
850 Plays2 years ago
This week Dave and Erik are joined by Dan Yun from the Hasbro Marvel Legends team! Learn about his history with toys and how he got his start with Hasbro. Then hear about the latest HasLab project, including the opportunity to clear the air regarding some misconceptions about the campaign, as well as some follower Q&A!
Follow Dan on Twitter @danyunistrying and keep up with the latest from Hasbro at HasbroPulse.com.
Use our special link zen.ai/aicpod and use aicpod to save 30% off your first three months of Zencastr professional. #madeonzencastr
This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/aic to get 10% off your first month.
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
Proudly part of the Non-Productive Network
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Transcript
Why Love Zencastr?
00:00:00
Speaker
Dave, you know why I love using Zencaster? Is it because the recording quality is better than other methods of recording a podcast virtually? Nope. Is it because they offer a free version for hobbyists just getting started? No, not that. Is it because it's super easy to use for everyone and none of our guests have ever had an issue using it? That's not it. Is it because they offer automatic post-production and transcription services? Negative.
00:00:29
Speaker
Stop burying the lead. Why do you love Zencaster?
Getting Started with Zencastr
00:00:33
Speaker
It's because Zencaster is all of the things you just said, Dave. Well, and they sponsor this pod. That's right.
00:00:41
Speaker
Adventures in Collecting is powered by Zencaster. How about your pod? Get started now with Zencaster and use our code to start podcasting today. Visit zencaster.com slash pricing and use promo code AICpod to get 30% off your first three months of their professional plan or try it for free.
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Speaker
That's Z-E-N-C-A-S-T-R dot com slash pricing and use promo code AICPOD.
Introducing 'Adventures in Collecting'
00:01:19
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast.
00:01:31
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. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Hi. Dave, it feels like we were just recording yesterday.
00:01:57
Speaker
Oh, technically two days ago, but it's close. They don't need to know that. Oh, it's too late. They know it now. Um, so, uh, what am I,
Meet Dan Yoon
00:02:10
Speaker
you know what? I just, I just feel like I, I need to bury something, Dave. I feel like, uh, I think you all are. That's the thing. I think you need to not bury something. That's right, Dave. In the grand history and, uh, tradition of adventures and collecting, I am not.
00:02:27
Speaker
than to bury the lead today. Uh, we are joined by a guest. Um, I guess that, uh, if you listened to the last episode of the podcast, you heard a teeny teeny tiny little bit of, uh, of, of his input about a certain, uh, engine of vengeance, uh, joining us today for the first time on the pod, we hit, we are collecting yet another, another, uh, card for our role decks from, from the Hasbro team. We are joined today by none other than Dan Yoon.
00:02:55
Speaker
of the Marvel Legends team. Dan, welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Yo, yo. What up, guys? Welcome to, or thank you, I should say, for inviting me. My bad. I didn't even know. Oh, it's your show now. All right. All right. Go ahead. I was welcoming you to my safe house. I know you guys can't see it, but I'm like surrounded by like a bunch of toys. And I just stepped on one of them. But, yo.
00:03:16
Speaker
I just want to say you guys are awesome. You guys have had other Hasbro employees here, right? And not only am I a fan of the podcast, just like as a fan, but all of my colleagues have only said great things about you guys. And it was awesome. Eric meeting you in person for the first time in New York Comic Con. So yeah, thanks for having me. Oh, man.
Dan's Collecting Passion
00:03:39
Speaker
so many kind things. It was a pleasure meeting you on your home turf in the greatest city in the world. And we'll get into a little bit of what I got to see on the show floor. But as this is a podcast about collecting and toy collecting, before we get started, what are you currently collecting? Yeah, so that's a good question.
00:04:08
Speaker
For me, I know we're talking about toys, but I collect a lot of sneakers, to be honest. I'm still a sneaker head. That's one of the things that I've... When I was a kid, I could never afford. So lately, I've been just trying to hop on some Jordan 1s, 4s, 3s, and 11s, and 13s a little bit.
00:04:28
Speaker
I collect a lot of like soccer jerseys too, like some of the old retro stuff. So I just got like an old like Highbury, like Thierry Henry thing that I found on eBay. I don't know if those are like legit. I don't know if you guys know that, but like, I mean, I collect kind of jerseys and kits. And right now from a toy perspective, you know, of course, obviously Marvel Legends, right? Marvel Legends. I support my other Hasbro brands too. Like I collect a lightning collection for Power Rangers.
00:04:57
Speaker
Couple of GI Joe's stuff because I think you know some of the animal accessories are super dope. You know what I mean like croc master and all that Let's see what else I'm a big And don't tell this to Hasbro. I like Bandai stuff a lot. So like I collect the DBZ stuff the Naruto stuff I used to collect some storm collectibles, but I
00:05:21
Speaker
I kind of had to sell those. I used to collect a couple of Mafex stuff, but now I'm like very picky, you know what I mean? Like I definitely have like Mike Jordan still, but yeah, mostly from a toys perspective, it's like Marvel Legends, anything Hasbro related. Yeah. So wait, we got to go back to the jerseys and because you're amongst friends here when it comes to
00:05:49
Speaker
to sports memorabilia as well. Yeah, I have gone down the AliExpress DH Gate rabbit hole for jerseys. I mean, sometimes they're just the ones I want are so hard to find that I'm cool with waiting six months for a $20 jersey to fall apart in the wash the second time I wash it. Yeah, I'm a big like, I mean, I got into soccer.
00:06:19
Speaker
young, but like I never had the beans of getting the kits, right? But some of like the old school, like even World Cup jerseys, like I love the France jerseys a lot, like Argentina, like Brazil. And so like once you fall in love with like the sport a little bit more and you follow some of the key players, like you can't just help, but like look at those jerseys and be like, yo, I want to collect some of these kits. You know what I mean? Then like,
00:06:43
Speaker
the international football scene was like how I got into it. But then once you go into like club sports, right? Like whether it be in the Premier League or I follow the league a little bit and this is crazy. You know what I mean? I know you two are more like MLS fans and unfortunately, and I'm kind of guilty, but like I'm not the biggest MLS fan. So you guys will have to educate me on that. But yeah, I mean, I know
00:07:08
Speaker
Like I was a Metro stars fan, which is now the Red Bulls. So I think if I had to choose like an MLS team, I would like definitely support Red Bulls. You know what I mean? Well, there's an easy solution to this. We're just going to have to take you to a Red Bulls game. Oh, yo, I'm game man. Like I really, I really need to get into it. Like I was supporting the Red Bulls when Thierry came in. Cause I'm like a big Arsenal fan. You know what I mean? And like.
00:07:31
Speaker
But I never got Skoda to see a game, you know? So yeah, I'm definitely down for that. Let's do it. He was so much fun to watch. He was. He was. Yeah. I mean... And the nicest guy during the meet and greets, too. I was just about to say that. One of... That was like right when I... You've been following a little bit longer, Dave, but that was like right when kind of the hooks dug in for me. And those meet team nights as like a season ticket holder.
00:08:00
Speaker
We're one of the, one of the highlights, like just like walking up to him and having, you know, a 45 second conversation with him and, you know, getting a picture and just so nice, so gracious. And I mean, dude, this is a legend. So, you know, uh, it was, it was a good time to, to, to get in, but yeah, we, we, we can make that happen then. We, we always have, we always have extra tickets and stuff. So we'll.
00:08:27
Speaker
we can make that happen. Yeah, absolutely. We gotta do like a Red Bulls and Revolution game maybe so that we can like maybe bring Dwight and Ryan, you know? All right. Yeah, those have, we get at least one of those a season, yeah. Yeah. At the arena, we can do that. Oh man, make them go on a little field trip. This is, I like this idea. This is good. This is a developing idea. I'm into it. Dan, let's do this. All right, let's do it, let's do it.
00:08:57
Speaker
So tell us a little bit about your journey to Hasbro. How did your career take you to your role with the Marvel Legends team?
From Military to Hasbro
00:09:04
Speaker
Prior to my life with Hasbro, I was in the military and I had a real big decision point in my life where
00:09:14
Speaker
I could have continued with my military career or I had to make a tough decision about getting out. For me, it was something that I needed to pray about a lot because I really did love being in the army. I loved being an officer. I loved that camaraderie, just that brotherhood that I had there.
00:09:38
Speaker
And so it was a real tough decision for me. Um, but you know, I, I think I made the right choice and I applied to some business schools. I came back for a brief period to New York to do some internships. And then when I got accepted to, uh, to Boston university for the MBA program, um, I studied there. I didn't know anything about business school to be honest. And then, uh, but I knew one of the big things that they teach you in business school is that like the first year you need to get a, like a summer internship, like an MBA summer internship, right?
00:10:08
Speaker
And one of the places that I was just very fortunate to get an internship with was Hasbro. And so Hasbro used to have this MBA internship where they would get full-time MBA students from a wide variety of MBA programs. So you had people from Dartmouth, Cornell, Northeastern, and they would be put into these brands.
00:10:37
Speaker
And once like a three month period was over, if you, you know, showed your skills and your acumen and things of that nature, they selected you and they offered you a full time,
Dan's Journey at Hasbro
00:10:50
Speaker
you know, offer so that after you complete your MBA, you can come back. And so my introduction to Hasbro was I was on monopoly and US games, which was so much fun. Like that, that culture.
00:11:03
Speaker
with games brands at that time was super, super fun. I didn't know if I wanted to be on another brand besides gaming because it was competitive. Everybody was always positive. Everyone was always having a blast. And that office specifically in Providence, they always had a culture of pranking people and stuff like that. And it was just so much fun as an intern.
00:11:32
Speaker
So in my mind, when I got the offer, I was like, Oh man, I'm definitely, you know, going to go back to games. Little did I know that, you know, I don't even have a choice on what brand I get put on. You know what I mean? Like they, so in my mind, I was like, all right, I'm ready for Hasbro. Like, okay. If they put me in a brand, maybe they'll put me on something cool. Like, you know, Marvel star Wars transformers. And the brand that they chose for us was like baby alive. Right. And.
00:12:02
Speaker
Which is totally different, man. It's not something that I'm used to. I never grew up with baby dolls and I was never surrounded by the end consumer of Baby Alive, you know what I mean? Honestly, my first reaction to getting that full-time offer at Hasbro at Baby Alive, I was a little hesitant.
00:12:24
Speaker
But no, it was like the best decision of my life because Baby Alive not only helped me grow as a marketer, because it forced me to adapt and learn about a whole different consumer that I'm not familiar with. It helped me learn about the toy industry. It helped me learn about product development from the beginning all the way to the end, that whole life cycle.
00:12:46
Speaker
And yeah, Baby Alive is actually super innovative in how they try to like come up with new toyetic kind of activations for each doll. So there was like a doll that had like an IR code kind of thing on like the forehead. So that like when a scissor accessory moved on the forehead, like the hair, the bangs would look like it would be cut. So it was like all this like really cool innovative stuff in like a $20 doll. You know what I mean?
00:13:16
Speaker
It was such an awesome team to just learn from. Um, I need to re sorry. So I need to rewind before I got into baby alive though. Like I also, I was kind of a nerd and I was like, yeah, listen, I don't really have that much toy experience. So I want to, I took actually a part-time gig with nerf.
00:13:35
Speaker
because I kind of told my Hasbro contacts at the time, like, hey, I know I got accepted, but I still want to learn more. And so I actually spent six months at Nerf, too. So for me, even before getting a Marvel Legends, I had experience from games, Baby Live and Nerf, and all those experiences were awesome. But in my heart of hearts, the brand that I really, really wanted,
00:13:59
Speaker
other than gaming at the time was Marvel, just because I was just so into Marvel. And so at the time in Hasbro, it's really about networking and making sure the senior leadership team knows if there's an available spot on a certain brand, that they know your name, they know your face. And so for me, I had to network with a senior person who was in charge of all action brands at the time.
00:14:29
Speaker
Like annoyed him basically every week to be like, Hey, can I meet with you? Can I like tell you my story and how much I'm a nerd for Marvel? Right. And I really think that if there's any spot available, I would love it. Right. And so one day I go to, uh, Barcelona. It's my first time ever in Barcelona. My girlfriend surprised me with like this trip and she knows how much I love soccer. Right. And that day.
00:14:58
Speaker
FC Barcelona was playing, I think, Olympiacos or somebody in the Champions League. And I saw Messi score, like, two goals, give it an assist, right? And I thought, like, this is, like, the best day of my life, right? I went to Barcelona, went to see the Sagrada Familia, saw a Champions League game, and, like, we were, like, front row, like, I'm, like, seeing Messi, like, I could see him breathing, like, you know what I mean?
00:15:23
Speaker
After immediately after that game, like that night when we're walking back to our hotel, I get like a voicemail from WhatsApp, right? And I never really use WhatsApp. And it's like this random number. And it's like, Hey, Dan, uh, this is blank. Like I don't usually call people on their vacation, but there's this opening on Marvel legends and I really want you to be on my team. And once I got that voicemail, I called him back and I was like, yes, please let me be on Marvel legends. And yeah, that was the.
00:15:52
Speaker
the beginning of my journey in Marvel Legends. It was like one of the best days of my life. I keep telling that to everybody. I've shared the story to other people before, but yeah, I genuinely mean it that it was one of the best days of my life, just because I was with the love of my life. I was in this beautiful city of Barcelona. I got to see Messi, which was one of my favorite teams. And yeah, it was starting my whole journey with Marvel Legends. It was really by luck and by God's grace. So yeah.
00:16:21
Speaker
Dude, that's awesome. That's an awesome story. So that's an amazing story. First off, um, I know I've said this to you before, but thank you for your service. Yes. Thank you so much. No, no, no. Um, but second of all, there actually is something that I would love to ask you, um, that has something that has come up and I know I just kind of thought about it now, but when you were in the service, did, were you also still kind of like actively collecting? Because the reason why I asked this is we, I know we have a few followers who are,
00:16:51
Speaker
and listeners, actually, who are in active duty. And we get messages from time to time that say, thank you, especially when we post pictures of the toy aisles and everything. So those who are deployed see those pictures, and sometimes we get messages like, hey, thank you so much for posting this. It makes me feel at home. I miss going up and down the toy aisle and everything, which I think is really sweet.
00:17:17
Speaker
Part of the reason why we love doing this is connecting with people. So it's amazing. But when you are deployed, did you have a way to continue collecting? Were you still getting Marvel Legends at that time? Were you finding ways to order them and have them waiting for you at home? What was that like? No. So to be honest with you, I couldn't collect at all. And I was just like, because when you're an officer,
00:17:45
Speaker
at least for me in my mindset. And I'm just like really bad at multitasking too. Like I was just so gung-ho and focused on like being the best officer I could be, right? And so I had to like drop a lot of the hobbies that I used to have, you know, because collecting in itself takes up so much time. And so I never, like once I became a commissioned officer, I just, I kind of became boring and like I dropped all of my other
00:18:11
Speaker
like loves and habits and I guess and I guess I just like trained my body did some jujitsu some boxing and things of that nature that like those type of hobbies and yeah I kind of fell off of
00:18:23
Speaker
all things. I watched and I read some comics, but yeah, once I became a full-time officer, I was fully invested in how I can make myself the best officer possible, if that makes sense. So sorry to disappoint you there. Hey, your focus is admirable. Yeah, for sure. I was just curious because you're half a world away from home and
00:18:47
Speaker
You know, I was just, I was just curious. So thank you for humoring me. No, no, no, no. But I will say though, like definitely in some of the forward operating bases, they were like, um, like USO kind of like outpost kind of things. Right. And that's where like the skype's were there and like people could talk to their loved ones. But like in this corner of every USO, there was like a section of like board games. You know what I mean? Like, so there would be a monopoly. There'd be like, um, things that like.
00:19:16
Speaker
servicemen and women could just spend some time like blowing off steam. And I will say like some of those games were like the best parts of like being in Afghanistan at least, you know what I mean? So in that sense, like anytime people brought toys, like actually, because like some of my soldiers actually did, I don't know if they were like hardcore collectors, but they would like look into that kind of stuff. So they would use their internet time to like look at stuff like that and or just play board games. So.
00:19:44
Speaker
I mean, I know some people do that. It just wasn't me. You know what I mean? Gotcha. So speaking of the toys themselves, and going back to some of the things that we saw at New York Comic Con, let's talk about this HasLab.
The Ghost Rider HasLab Project
00:20:01
Speaker
So what led the team to decide on Ghost Rider as the subject for the latest project? Yeah, so I think...
00:20:12
Speaker
So there are a lot of different stakeholders, not just, you know, myself, Dwight and Ryan when it comes to deciding anything. Obviously Marvel's involved in it too. I think for us, we knew that we couldn't top a Haslab like Galactus in terms of just like scale and like, like, I guess like IP popularity, like for me.
00:20:36
Speaker
And I think for Ryan too, like the Sentinel and Galactus were like for sure gonna fund because just on their like brand alone of a Sentinel and a Galactus, it would make sense. You know what I mean? And so I think we were challenged as a team and we also incorporated a new HasLab team that was not really involved in Galactus and Sentinel too. And so we were just trying to find new innovative ways to kind of like
00:21:07
Speaker
see what we can do. And I think vehicles is something that we've been wanting to do for quite some time. If you look at GIGO and Star Wars, they're like very much like vehicle-based brands. And so we kind of wanted to take our first foray into vehicles. And because Ghost Rider also from a marketing standpoint was having an anniversary, we really wanted to
00:21:33
Speaker
incorporate Ghost Rider in there. I personally already was familiar with Robbie Reyes as a character, and I thought he was a good idea. We already put out multiple motorcycles with Johnny Blaze. And yeah, we just thought that Robbie Reyes and this Engine of Vengeance would make sense in terms of timing. And yeah, we really also wanted to find a way to kind of
00:22:01
Speaker
put out this opportunity for these demon characters to like a Mephisto, like a goblin queen. And so we just thought that would be the best way to go. Yeah. I mean, it is, it is an interesting problem to have, right? When, you know, a sentinel and, you know, and Galactus, like you mentioned, the prior two projects are generally speaking,
00:22:27
Speaker
centerpiece products. Whether you're an X-Men collector, whether you're
00:22:33
Speaker
you know, whether you do, you know, kind of the nineties, animated stuff, the Sentinel fits right in there. And then, you know, Galactus being, you know, such a, a Jack Kirby, you know, piece for, for so many collectors, they, they really are kind of crowd pleasers. I mean, there's, there's no other way to put it. It's, it's, it's, you know, uh, and mass things that Marvel legends collectors have been wanting for a very, very, very long time.
00:22:59
Speaker
So yeah, I think I could see I could see how you guys are kind of putting a Hard a hard spot to follow that up. Yeah, and like to be honest with you, and I know this might sound Laffable to the normal like collector, but we were really considerate about not doing a project that would cost way way too much so for instance like just because like
00:23:28
Speaker
Um, a lot of people are taking like older objects as like the comparable item to like this engine of engines, right. And they're saying the price point or whatever is too high, which I can totally understand and see their point of view. Um, but I guess what I'm trying to say is like during this development stage process, um, any Galactus, which we sold for, I think. Like close to $400, right? Like that price for a Galactus at the time that we're developing now, based on the parameters that we have.
00:23:58
Speaker
it would have been over $500. So let's say like we chose like a different, like larger than life kind of character, even a Sentinel like that based on the parameters that we have now it would definitely be over what everybody is thinking. And so one of the other reasons why we did choose this vehicle was because we didn't think it was going to hurt consumers as much on the wallet. But obviously, you know, the fans are, you know, making it known that
00:24:29
Speaker
That might not have been the right decision too, but yeah, I still think there's a lot of great value in the engine of vengeance and hopefully people come out to support it. And yeah, nobody's forcing anybody. I know there's a lot of negativity towards it if I'm being transparent with you and honest with you guys, right? But yeah, especially people who saw it in person in New York Comic Con, I think they can kind of see the value of the price point and things of that nature.
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah. The one thing I personally will say is that it looks, and this, this sounds stupid. Like I understand this sentence sounds stupid, but it looks like a car. But I mean like it looks like a car, like it doesn't look like a toy car. It looks like a tiny real car. And in terms of just kind of even like the finish, how the light plays off of it, like it doesn't look like a plastic car.
00:25:26
Speaker
toy. It looks like somebody took a little like a hell charger and put it in front of the honey. I shrunk the kids drinking right now in a glass case. Yeah. And I was thinking that too, with all the tooling and everything, like just from having seen it in the launch video, like I was like, wow, this is this is there's a lot to this. Yeah. And like.
00:25:50
Speaker
A lot, I just want to shout out like this new Has Lab team that did a lot of the work on the vehicle itself. So Dwight did design most of the car too, but there's a new Has Lab team that, you know, like, I don't know if they feel comfortable with me saying their names, but like either way, like they incorporated a lot of their inputs into the car itself and they deserve so much credit for all the details that are inside of it. And yeah.
00:26:19
Speaker
Well, can you tell us about the project that may not be something people already know about the development process?
Behind the Scenes of HasLab Projects
00:26:25
Speaker
And I know you kind of gave a couple looks inside just kind of talking about the Haslab itself, but what's really something that, you know, even besides that, people wouldn't know just by kind of taking like kind of an overhead view of it. I think some misconceptions that people have is that like
00:26:48
Speaker
Like we've already tooled the vehicle, like cut steel and tooled the vehicle, right? And that's not really the case at all. So we only start tooling of the items once the crowdfund like funds or meets its goal. So what you saw there at New York Comic Con is actually just like two like homegrown like prototypes, Eric. So like we haven't really cut steel for the tooling.
00:27:16
Speaker
I think there was some, when I was reading some of the boards, they were saying, oh, they've already tooled it and whatever, but that's not the case. So I guess that's one misconception there. What else should I say that some people might not know? I just think people have this misconception that these decisions get made by just a handful of people. It's actually a lot of people. So when it comes to making decisions of pivoting for
00:27:46
Speaker
for like tiers or things of that nature, or even just like a social post about HasLab, it takes like a whole village to get approval for. So I think sometimes when people are like...
00:27:57
Speaker
Why don't they just do X, Y, and Z right now? Nothing is very that quick, unfortunately, when it comes to making a decision. But yeah, I don't know if that answers the question, though. No, totally. Absolutely. While we're clearing stuff up, something else that I saw pop up in the comments from our coverage of New York Comic Con, just because I saw it organically happen,
00:28:24
Speaker
Danhausen was not a paid spot. And people in the comments were trying to say that you guys hired Danhausen to come and promote the project. Danhausen is a big Marvel Legends character. Yeah, and he was just being Danhausen and wanted to come and look at the engine of engines. I watched it happen. Yeah, shout out to Danhausen for real, because like you said,
00:28:53
Speaker
I think I did see some of those comments too that like we paid like anybody to like promote it and stuff like that. But honestly, we're just so fortunate and lucky to have people like, like an eclectic group of collectors, right? So you have people like from Taboo and Ferromage all the way to Danhausen or to Brian Hoyer, like all walks of life. Like we have so many different types of collectors out there for Marvel Legends and Danhausen was just
00:29:19
Speaker
real avid collector who genuinely loves to collect Marvel Legends and he once he saw the project he was like listen I really want to just like be a part of it and just see it so can I just come through to see it and post stuff about it and we were like yes of course and and honestly like since I'm not like the biggest wrestling guy like on the team like that's like Dwight and like Ben and Ryan right
00:29:44
Speaker
So like, I always felt bad for Dwight because, you know, I've been bringing a lot of people like Farrah Montreux, Tampou with a hip-hop background. And so I was like, I got to try to give somebody that's like a wrestling background to kind of like make sure Dwight feels happy too. You know what I mean? So I think Dwight was really nerding out to me, Den House, and he was super pumped. You know what I mean? Yeah, I could tell. I could tell he was enjoying it. You could see from the video. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:14
Speaker
So, so one last thing about the, you know, the, the has lab before we move on to some other things, but, um, you know, should this project not get funded and let's all, you know, I think we're all in agreement that we want it to certainly get fun. Yes, absolutely. Um, what is the likelihood that we see Robbie, uh, the goblin queen or Mephisto in these looks or frankly, any other incarnation, uh, come to the legends line in the future?
00:30:42
Speaker
Yeah, so with these type of questions, I always feel like I need to clarify that my answer is based on this point in time, right? So at this point in time, basically for me, Dwight and Ryan, our perspective is like, if it doesn't get funded, we don't believe that there'll be another chance for Mephisto and Madeleine at least to be made again, especially not in the forms that we showed.
00:31:10
Speaker
Um, let's say for instance, though, like, and please don't quote me on this in the sense that like, I know nothing about the MCU, right? But let's say like 10 years from now, like Mephisto is like the main villain of something, right? Like we might based on that, be told to like make a Mephisto figure based on the MCU. But I'm pretty sure it's going to be like different than what you're seeing in, you know, the Hazlab project right now.
00:31:41
Speaker
And we try to set a very clear precedent that whatever is a tier or unlock in six-inch form for a Hazlab, it won't be made again. And that's because we want to keep those things precious. But in specific to the Goblin Queen and Mephisto,
00:32:01
Speaker
Yeah, we're not able to activate on those characters in any other form outside of Hazlab. And that's something that I feel like people are missing. I keep seeing comments that like just put out Mephisto in a deluxe format, but like there's a specific reason why we chose to do this Ghost Rider and these demonic characters. And that's because we thought.
00:32:24
Speaker
It's better to give you guys an opportunity to at least try to get these guys and the Goblin Queen instead of not having that ability at all. So you will not see Madeline in like that look, I would say, unless it's within this house lab.
00:32:42
Speaker
Hopefully that wasn't confusing, but yeah. No, I think you said a lot there. So I think for those of you listening that may require additional clarification, listen to that again and read between the lines. I think that's really what it boils down to there because... Everything means exactly what you think it means. Exactly.
00:33:02
Speaker
So yeah, like, and again, like I say this with a clarifier of like, this is just what I know right now. And I don't really, I'm like Jon Snow. I know nothing. You know what I mean? So like, let's say if something changes like down the line, um, it could change, but based on what I believe, what Ryan believes and what Dwight believes, like this is the only opportunity for you to get those kinds of characters in this, in those types of looks, if that makes sense.
00:33:30
Speaker
So keeping in Ghost Rider, because Ghost Rider is my favorite Marvel character. You do have a tattoo, Dave. I do, I do. Dang, nice, man. You guys showed me that in person one day. Yeah, for sure. At the game. So whether it's more retro cards or other spirits of vengeance, are there further plans for Ghost Rider in the future of Marvel Legends beyond the Hazlab?
00:33:58
Speaker
Yeah, so definitely I think, you know, one of the characters that we definitely want to put out there is Danny. I think Danny, one of the reasons why we didn't want to put Danny and his bike as like a tier, like I know that was like one of the theories earlier on, is because we feel like there will be a lot of mainline appetite for Danny Catch.
Future of Ghost Rider
00:34:20
Speaker
And so I think maybe not in the near future, but
00:34:25
Speaker
Definitely in the future, we will see Danny at some point and some of the other spirits of vengeance, potentially. But I'll be also honest with you, like, based on how this has lab goes too, that might also get impacted as well. You know what I mean? So like, hopefully people can read between the lines there as well for that answer. But yeah, like I think we do have plans for it, but I don't know how near future
00:34:55
Speaker
those characters will come out, if that makes sense. Well, let's hope you get the opportunity to put some more characters on that beautifully designed Toy Biz inspired retro Ghost Rider card back man.
00:35:10
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a big, I'm a big, big retro card, like six inch collector. So when we had the opportunity to make the Ghost Rider card, I think me and Dwight were like nerding out. Like we love that card. And yeah, we definitely want to hopefully have the opportunity to put some more characters on that card.
00:35:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's one of those things where I'm thinking like, okay, do I need to? Yeah, man. One in, one out. Come on. Yeah. Because I still have a couple of my old toy biz, my like originally on from that card, my Danny and human Johnny Blaze, but like, yeah, it's Johnny Blaze with the mullet and the trench coat.
00:35:56
Speaker
like that I love that I have such a great memory of those figures I seeing that card was like yes this this is awesome yeah and like honestly like I've been going back on ebay to like get some of the original like toy biz five inch stuff for like spider-man x-men and stuff like that and like putting those next to
00:36:16
Speaker
like the six inch ones that we've been putting out recently, like it really makes the shelf look awesome, like at least for me, you know what I mean? So, not that I'm saying you should do that, but I'm just saying it just looks nice, you know what I mean? Shouts to Harry Moore design on those parts. Yeah, straight up. Harry, yo. Prussian is awesome. He's awesome. And if there's one thing I don't need, it's definitely prodding to go back and do that with those writer figures, so. Yeah, I definitely don't need to
00:36:46
Speaker
to be told that's a good idea. And now, a word from our sponsors. This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement, searching for them at larger retail stores.
00:37:15
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:38:53
Speaker
That's better, H-E-L-P dot com forward slash A-I-C. And now back to the show. During PulseCon, the team announced that Spider-Man the Animated Series is getting the VHS treatment in 2023.
New Spider-Man Animated Series Line
00:39:12
Speaker
What was the thought behind the pivot and what does it mean for the Spider-Man retro card line?
00:39:17
Speaker
So I love the Spider-Man animated series. I kind of go back and forth every day. It's like a toss up between if I like that series more or the X-Men animated series. But I love both of them dearly to my heart. I think strategically, one of the reasons why we put a pause on the VHS line
00:39:39
Speaker
was because the VHS line currently to this point in time is a Hasbro Pulse and Shop Disney exclusive. And strategically, we know that we have an X-Men 97 show coming up in Disney Plus, right? And I think we just wanted to take a pause to see
00:39:59
Speaker
what it's going to be like. And hopefully I think that show is going to be awesome on Disney Plus, right? And yeah, we kind of wanted to just take a little pause and go to the Spider-Man animated series because we saw a lot of success with that. And so, yeah, we wanted to bring another sub line for Hasbro Pulse to chop Disney and just change it up a little bit with Spider-Man the animated series. It's one of those like every day when we have these like rap battles or breakdance battles with characters, it's like,
00:40:27
Speaker
Dwight already knows like I have like three characters from the TV show that I really wanted and I will say I think at least two of them are on are gonna be in the 2023 lines so stay tuned and I don't know what do you guys like this the cartoon or is it not for you or that's that's literally my favorite animated
00:40:51
Speaker
Look, it's for me, my, my two favorite animated series from when I was a kid are, uh, the Spider-Man one and Batman, the animated series. Those are my, those are my two favorite. Those are, those are the ones I, I, you know, I cut my teeth on there. They're actually what got me into reading comics. We're watching those shows. I just, I love the animated style. I love, you know, the toy business and Kenner figures that we all paired with them.
00:41:17
Speaker
And honestly, it's what gets me to break out of the bulk of my Marvel Legends collection being MCU. The Spider-Man, the animated series stuff gets me every single time. Nice. So I got to get you with the VHS 2-pack, man. So that'd be great. As soon as I saw that Venom and Carnage on there, I mean, I already have the, you know, I had the Pulse-Con Venom from, what was it, two years ago.
00:41:40
Speaker
As soon as I saw that VHS art with the two of them on there, and especially it looking like a double VHS, I literally was just kinda like, God damn it, come on, man. Yeah, for me it was X-Men, but Spider-Man was right up there too. X-Men, I'm a little bit older, so X-Men was first, but yeah, that was...
00:42:06
Speaker
those 90s Marvel shows were awesome. I even loved the Hulk one. You didn't or you did love the Hulk one? I did. I loved the Hulk one. Yeah. That was all right to me. Like, I think I forgot about when your first question was like, what do you collect? Like, I do collect anything that is like Batman, the animated series, like inspired. You know what I mean? So like, like anything that DC has on that, like, because I love that show too. I just think in the 90s, we had such great, like,
00:42:35
Speaker
cartoons it's so hard to like list them all or like rank them that's why I like it flip-flops for me all the time but like spider-man the animated series x-men the animated series Batman the animated series I think that Superman one is like really underrated too big Tom mm-hmm Fox kids just had it it was where it was at Fox kids programming yeah they just killed it um yo and my bad so to answer the second part of the question yeah I I
00:43:04
Speaker
I can confirm that the retro card Spider-Man line is not dead. Okay. Because I think that was one of the assumptions that people saw that you guys announced that the VHS was shifting that way. So I think a lot of people were concerned that that meant at least a temporary pause on the retro cards. Yeah, so I think that's a good way of saying it. There might be a slider delay, but I will...
00:43:34
Speaker
ease any concerns that if they had about like the retro card line dying for Spider-Man, I do believe I could confirm that. Well, there you go. And as I just mentioned, you know, going from animated series to MCU for a minute, the primary focus of my Marvel Legends collection, I'm actually almost complete, only missing a few MCU Legends, believe it or not.
00:44:00
Speaker
Uh, but we're, we're seeing, you know, newer characters like Jimmy Woo, which is awesome. You know, I love, I love the fact that we're getting some of these ancillary characters. Um, but you know, going back, we haven't seen characters like, like a whiplash or even like the Chitauri warriors yet. Um, is it harder for you guys to go back and get the rights to do older figures like, or older characters like that now?
00:44:22
Speaker
Or is it something that's available and you're kind of just waiting for the right time to slot it in? Like when you had those, um, those special executions for like the 20th anniversary of, of the, you know, and the 10th anniversary kind of lines. Yeah. I mean, I think it depends on the character. It depends on the actor and it depends on all of the, uh, the business stakeholders that we have to work with. I don't know if harder is the right adjective.
00:44:49
Speaker
I think it's just like a case by case basis. And that's when we have to really work very, very closely with like our older brother Jesse Falcon and in helping us in terms of activating stuff. I do think that, you know, we saw success with the Infinity Saga program. Hopefully you guys liked it. I mean, like, I think
00:45:17
Speaker
We saw great success with that and hopefully we can activate something like that without having to wait like 20 years for an anniversary. I think there will be more opportunities and hopefully you guys won't have to wait that long. But yeah, it's really just the case by case basis. Each actor sometimes has different rights.
00:45:41
Speaker
It's harder not because of the specific character necessarily, but it's harder because we just have to find the right delicate balance of how many items we want dedicated to like the new upcoming entertainment versus like what we want for like, let's say an animated series line or a comic line or things of that nature. You
Developing Marvel Toy Lines
00:46:04
Speaker
know what I mean? Because we don't have an infinite amount of items.
00:46:07
Speaker
So we always just need to find every year, like that delicate balance of what we can do. And to be, to be transparent, like the complexity of the character also impacts the choices too. You know what I mean? From a tooling perspective. And so that, that also is greatly impacting how characters get selected.
00:46:27
Speaker
Hey, listen, the way that I look at it from that perspective is you guys managed to get the ironmonger out there and that thing has like hydraulics. So the way that I look at it as anything is possible. Yeah, I mean, that's one of Dwight's favorite ones that we did from that year. So he put in all that love in there and you could definitely see it. And yeah, I was kind of questioning
00:46:53
Speaker
how that was going to work. But he killed it. Him and our engineer, they just killed it. I love that figure. Yeah, it's awesome. So now we're going to kind of... A lot of people will be happy about this, but we're not. So we are all mutual Mets commiserators right now.
00:47:15
Speaker
But now that Hasbro is dipping its toes into starting lineup, what are the chances that we get a future New York Comic Con exclusive Spider-Man in a DeGrom jersey or, you know, Lindor, whomever? Yo, man, like, let's take two seconds just to be like, whoo, this season, man.
00:47:38
Speaker
The way that we ended, I, I'm still recovering. I know we talked about it before, you know, recording this, but like, man, I'm still. How do you win 101 games and not make playoffs? Well, it's the playoffs. No, that's the playoffs. The playoffs were made. Yeah, I know. It's, Oh man. That's the, that's one thing I will this now with this new format, like the one and done wildcard game, since it's a series.
00:48:04
Speaker
It is the playoffs, sure. But I'll be fine sometime around like April 3rd, I think. Yo, for real. I'm just trying to get out of my system. But yeah, like, also, like, I pray that the Grom stays, man. If we lose the Grom, I won't be so sad. But either way, yeah, starting lineup is dope. And I would love to get Spidey and
00:48:33
Speaker
in a Mets jersey, that would be like a dream come true. I think to be honest, like the possibility of that is very, very low, right? But yeah, that would be like a dream figure, I think. I think the question would be like, which jersey would he rock?
00:48:50
Speaker
Like, you know what I mean? Like that in itself, I think would take me like weeks to just try to like pitch. You know what I mean? Well, it depends on what era of Spidey you're making too. I mean, like. That's true. That is true. Yeah. Cause MCU Spidey has, uh, the Mike Piazza pennant in his room. That's right. That's right. That's a good one. Oh man. So what do you think? Do you think Tom Holland is like, or Tom Holland's Peter Parker is like low heat, like a Turk Wendell guy.
00:49:15
Speaker
That'd be amazing. What chain did he wear? Like what kind of chain was that again that he used to wear? It was teeth of some sort. I forget it was like shark teeth or something. I think it was. I think it was shark teeth. Yeah. He's low key a Turk Wendell guy. How do you guys feel about the black jerseys? Be honest. I hate them. Really? Yeah. Not a fan. Not a fan. So I loved them when I was
00:49:41
Speaker
I love them in the era, like the original kind of debut era of them because we were good then. And then, you know, once the one city field open, I was like, all right, let's. This to me is like now. A bygone era in a way. Gotcha, gotcha. So let's let's kind of take it back to classic and then kind of build something new.
00:50:08
Speaker
So I actually love the blue jerseys. I was going to say those are my favorite, my favorite of the blue with the orange piping.
00:50:14
Speaker
Really? All right, so I'm about to disagree with you guys. I really like the Black jerseys, only maybe because it's for nostalgic reasons where I have good memories, at least a little bit, right? That's the same reason the 86 are my favorite of all time, those jerseys. Yeah, I mean, when I close my eyes and think of Mike Piazza or Robin Ventura, I picture them in the Black jerseys, without question. I'm one of those, every era needs its own thing.
00:50:43
Speaker
Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. I like this they're back. I like them as a throwback idea, but you know, I wouldn't wear them in the playoffs again after the last two games they wore them. I think the other thing that bothers me about the jerseys is that like the idea that the jerseys they wore when I was a kid are now old enough to be throwbacks, I think makes me really uncomfortable. I feel you. No, I feel you. All right. Well, I'm sorry. My Lindor t-shirt is the black t-shirt. So that's
00:51:12
Speaker
Dan, you have opened up a can of worms here, my friend. No, I apologize in advance for the podcast listeners because we're just going to be talking about sports for like another hour. But yeah, no, like to answer the question. Yeah, I would love Spider-Man rocking a Mets jersey. It probably won't ever happen, but yeah, I will, I will put that in my rap battles with Dwight and the rest of the team.
00:51:38
Speaker
Hey, as, as soon as that, I mean, we're right now we officially have, you know, the starting lineup is officially announced MBA and tease the NFL is coming soon. So once that major league baseball players association contract goes through, that's, that's when you start, you know, that's when you, when you throw the cardboard down in front of the white and, and, you know, and you start, uh, you start breakdancing in front of him for it. I, I I'll be honest with you though. Like if starting lineup does open up another like.
00:52:08
Speaker
And I honestly don't know, like if they open up another like sport, like I want, I want the Premier League, man. I want the Liga. Like I would love like Messi figure, like obviously in his Barcelona jersey, but like I would love like a Thierry Henry and like his Arsenal kit. Like, you know, that'd be dope. It would be great timing wise for the, I mean, I don't think they'd be able to get something together. I mean, who knows?
00:52:35
Speaker
But you know with the World Cup coming up, I mean that would be Yeah, national team jerseys would be awesome. That'd be dope. That'd be dope. You know pick a couple of countries because what the first wave of those basketball ones What is there seven eight figures? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know pick pick different countries and you know pick a star from each country So you got are you guys collecting star line? Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt a lot Are you guys NBA fans or how you guys feeling about star lineup?
00:53:01
Speaker
So personally, I am not a fan of players. I'm a fan of teams. The NBA is actually the only major sport that I don't follow. You can come at me when there's a Kenyon Martin and a Jason Kidd and Kerry Kittles. When we get deep enough to go back to that team, you have my buy-in. Get some Keith Van Hornen for you. Yes. Let's do it.
00:53:30
Speaker
I, I, um, the Knicks are bad, man. Every time I get hope and I'm like, Oh, I could, I could start like really following this again. Then they're just not good. I'm about to open up a beer right now, man. Yeah. Uh, you, you guys, I mean, we,
00:53:55
Speaker
Derek Harper is one of my favorite basketball players. Of course, Jordan. Everybody likes Jordan. No, I'm kidding. I know he's the greatest of all time, and I love his shoes, but as a Nick fan, I just hated him so much. That's all. I respected being that we could never get past the best player of all time. True that.
00:54:23
Speaker
My bad. I messed with a Ewing figure. I mean, absolutely. That'd be so good. I won like a Sprewell figure where he's choking out the coach. Littrell Sprewell. That's a name I have not thought of.
00:54:42
Speaker
That's the name I have not heard. We're really diverging, so I apologize podcast audience. This is still all toy stuff. So to answer your question, I'm not starting a lot of figures yet. I'm very excited for the football announcement because
00:55:02
Speaker
I feel like I am very well positioned for somebody who I think is a very good likelihood of winding up in that first wave because I am a Baltimore Ravens fan. That's the weird non-local team that I root for.
00:55:21
Speaker
which I'll, I'll, I'll tell you that story offline. We're like, well, we won't go, we won't go into that on the part. It's a long story, but, um, I think I'm well positioned as a Ravens fan. Cause I think if, if they are going to make, you know, another wave of, of eight or so figures, I would, I would venture to guests based on, you know, Jersey sales alone, that Lamar Jackson has, has a good shot of being in that first group and that I will absolutely get.
00:55:49
Speaker
I am a Bears fan, so I will not. Oh. Yup. Yup. You're, you're, you're, you're left out there, Dave. Sorry. Yeah. Wait, so I'm so confused. Wait, how are you? All right. We got to talk offline about this, but okay. Well, Dave's is an easy answer. Yours is great. Mine is easy. I was, I was four years old when they were in the Superbowl. Got it. Superbowl shuffle, baby. Yeah. That was very influential.
00:56:17
Speaker
Got it. Okay. That makes sense. Yep. Yep. You, you felt victim to very, very early influencer marketing. Yes. Yo, man. If we, if they do Ravens, man, I would love a Ray Lewis figure that could do the dance. That'd be dope. I, I have my McFarland Ray Lewis and his, in his all blacks doing the, doing the dance right. Literally directly to my left at this very moment. So that's, that's dope. That's dope.
00:56:43
Speaker
All right, cool, cool, cool. So speaking of other fandoms, this is another blue sky question for you, just because I think this could be fun. We know you're a big hip hop guy. If you could team up any one artist with any one Marvel hero for a Marvel Legends two pack of your dreams, who would it be? Who would you put together?
00:57:09
Speaker
This is so hard because I don't know if I want to do it based on like my affinity for the like the hip-hop artist or like just from a toyetic perspective. I think like from a toyetic perspective I would love like a Snoop Dogg figure with like Deadpool maybe because they both they both have so many like
00:57:29
Speaker
like versions of themselves. So like, it would be like a deluxe deluxe mega two pack. Cause like, there'd be so many different like outfits that they could do. They could, it could be like a whole wave of just like Snoop and Deadpool. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, and they're like, I don't want to say anything that would get me fired, but like, yeah, like the amount of cool accessories. So I was just going to say the accessories would be really interesting than that. Yeah. You know what I mean? It would, it would be fun. But, uh,
00:57:58
Speaker
And another team up I think that I would love is DMX with World War Hulk. Because you know how Hulk gets more and more powerful as
00:58:15
Speaker
like with anger, you know what I mean? And like DMX was not even like, I'll be honest, like rest in peace DMX, but like he wasn't like the best rapper, right? Like he wasn't the best lyricist or anything like that, but like he was like pure energy. He was like pure emotion, you know what I mean? And like that would be a cool two pack. And I've been selfishly wanting to get like a world war Hulk figure in the line somehow. So there we go.
00:58:39
Speaker
the way imagine that the way that the world gets a world war hulk figure is you also need a dmx figure
00:58:48
Speaker
Oh man. All right. So with that, we're going to head into our Q and a section here.
Listener Q&A
00:58:53
Speaker
So, uh, as always the case, when we have a guest, we post on Instagram that, uh, that said guests is coming on the show. Um, and we give our listeners and followers a chance to ask some questions. So, uh, if you want to ask questions for an upcoming episode of adventures in collecting, make sure you're following us at a IC underscore podcast.
00:59:13
Speaker
On Instagram and keep an eye out for those those posts because they're pretty regular these days Dave do you want to do the first one? Sure So friend of the pod Khalil at casters corner asks with Marvel Legends being out for so long now Do you think there will be any long-term negative impact or potential collector fatigue? From going back to re-release figures with improved features or deco. I
00:59:42
Speaker
Shout out to Khalil. I haven't talked with him in a while, but yeah, shout out to him. Hopefully he's doing well, healthy and everything. Thank you for the question. I mean, I don't know what long-term negative impact. I think that's harsh or hard to really determine. I would say anytime we try to re-release a character, we try very hard to spread out the amount of time it is. You know what I mean?
01:00:13
Speaker
Today when we're recording this, we kind of revealed like sort of a rerelease of like an old, uh, moon knight figure. Right. And I think it's one of the real rare ones where we didn't do too much new to it. Right. Um, but it was very like high in the secondary market and, um,
01:00:33
Speaker
And it just like that popularity of the character made sense for us to re-release that figure and it's been like a while. I think it came out in 2017, right? So we're constantly battling, not battling, but we're constantly trying to find that delicate balance of how to like appease to new collectors or the long-term hardcore collectors out there. Hopefully it's not like a negative impact because like,
01:00:59
Speaker
If you already have it and you feel like you don't need to buy it, you can just move on from it. I'm sure within the line, if that specific item is not for you, we will definitely put out another Marvel legend that is dedicated and targeted toward those long-time collectors. But I would say every time that we try to re-release figures, we also try to improve either the deco or add in some accessories. Hopefully that answers the question.
01:01:28
Speaker
All right, so this next one comes from actually a bunch of different people. So this was by far the most popular question. Is there any chance that retro carded releases in the future can ship in Psyoc boxes, especially when it comes to ones that are sold at Walmart?
01:01:49
Speaker
Thank you for the question, mass amount of folks. I definitely understand the issues that sometimes collectors get, especially when you preorder online from certain places. And as a collector myself, I normally always try to preorder all of our Legends figures just because I'm kind of crazy and I kind of want to experience it firsthand. And I have personally experienced firsthand how
01:02:17
Speaker
Sometimes retro credit figures, um, the card back gets like stomped on or folded and it pisses me off too. You know what I mean? Um, I will say though, that anytime that a Psyoc box is created, there is an additional cost to it. And it's like a very much a business discussion that needs to take place with multiple stakeholders, whether it be the retailer, whether it be our side, whether it be all these other, uh, behind the scenes type of players.
01:02:48
Speaker
But I will say anytime that there is a PSYOC box, there's an additional cost to that and whether or not that gets passed to the end consumer is up for debate sometimes too. So if you're willing to pay extra for a PSYOC box, then just know that that would have to be the reality. And I'm just realizing as I put this question out there, in case
01:03:14
Speaker
those of you that don't know what a sack boxes it's that it's that Brown shipper box that, uh, that sometimes it's not something that's unique to, you know, specifically unique to Hasbro. I mean, other companies like, uh, if you're a wrestling figure collector.
01:03:29
Speaker
Um, if you recently got the, uh, the, the new gen ultimate ring or you've ordered a, an ultimate edition figure from, uh, from Amazon, that kind of Brown. Chipper box, um, just adds an extra layer of cardboard to your, your delivery. But, uh, good to know that about the cost there, Dave, go ahead with the next one.
01:03:52
Speaker
Um, at Stewart green 2018 on Twitter asks, does the team have plan B waves planned if MCU content is pushed back delayed or canceled? Oh man, Stewart green. You don't understand how relevant this question is just today. Cause, oh man, uh,
01:04:16
Speaker
So we do not have plan B waves. Most of the times, if content gets pushed or switched up, we just kind of need to roll with the punches. And if it's not too late, we make changes. Whether it be character selection or potentially moving a whole wave to a different on-shelf date, that happened a lot with Eternals and Black Widow and Shang-Chi at
01:04:44
Speaker
like during the pandemic, to be honest. And yeah, like, we don't really go into the development cycle, thinking of a plan B wave, to be honest, we usually just try to shift around some of the other waves that happen. And you know, changes in content happen all the time. I was gonna say this, this is actually a good opportunity. I don't think a lot of people understand the kind of like, life cycle. So like,
01:05:12
Speaker
Just real quick, what's the general amount of time it takes from inception of a wave to production? What's that timeline roughly? I guess it ranges between, depending on the complexity, it can range from 12 months to 18 months, I would say. And there's a long, long process of going back and forth with when we get concept art for
01:05:41
Speaker
a lot of these new entertainment pieces. And there's just, it takes a long, long time to actually make these mass amount of quantities of these action figures. And so to your point, I don't think people realize how long it does take. So it can range between 12 to 18 months, I would say. So that would make it very, very difficult to have something plan B ready, because, you know, if a date shifts six months out, you're already halfway through the process.
01:06:10
Speaker
Yeah, it's very challenging sometimes. And so it just gives us an opportunity to really be really adaptive as a team. I'm not going to lie, it's frustrating sometimes. But it is part of the nature of this beast, you know what I mean? And yeah, that's a great question, though.
01:06:30
Speaker
All right, so this next one comes from Friends of the Pod, Justin and Dave from Bandai. And this is less of a question and more of a challenge, but they would like to formally challenge the Marvel Legends team to a friendly Nerf battle, maybe at next San Diego Comic Con. When the sun goes down, the Nerf guns go up. What do you say? Are you up for the challenge? Man, so shout out to
01:06:58
Speaker
Justin and Dave, to be totally honest with you guys, I just met them at San Diego Comic Con this year, and it's been a blast. We were talking about this as a joke. It would have been dope if we started almost like a Bandai versus Marvel Legends type of beef kind of thing to cause PR disruption, you know what I mean? And I joked. I was like, yo, I'm going to shoot you strays with my Nerf blaster, you know what I mean?
01:07:28
Speaker
those guys are awesome. I don't know if it's... I haven't really trained myself in marksmanship when it comes to a Nerf Blaster, but I have a lot of good friends at Nerf Team right now and they've been showing me some new innovation in their Nerf Blaster. So I'll give them... I'll make sure Justin and Dave, you know, they get
01:07:52
Speaker
like some of these off-brand Nerf blasters and I'll get like the high-tech newest Nerf produced blasters there are. I think, I feel like Ryan, myself and Dwight can like, I think we can take them on, we'll see.
01:08:09
Speaker
Yeah, and they can enlist either AJ or they have another Dave Clark over there for their number three if necessary. But you have a direct line to Murph the Nerf guy, so I don't know, man. Murph's got some secrets and you've got access to them. So I don't know if they're biting off more than you. I don't have the best relationship with Murph because he likes to do these sneak attack ambushes. And the first time I ever encountered Murph, he shot me in my behind.
01:08:39
Speaker
Randomly and like anybody anytime anybody surprised me down there. I'm just like, all right, we're about to get physical You know what I mean? But then like the tick tock guy was there like recording the whole thing So I had to like bite my tongue and like this whole bag and be like smile like doing a fake smile to be like Oh, that was fun. You know It could have been worse. It could have been gritty It's true He reminds me of gritty though so much but he does have a gritty vibe. He does have a gritty vibe well
01:09:09
Speaker
With that, Dan, you have survived the Q&A round. So congratulations. Thank you for all the questions. And that takes us now to our final question. Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask Dan the final question? Yes, the final question that we ask to all of our guests. What is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection?
01:09:38
Speaker
It can be one of each or it can be both. Oh, this is such a hard question. I know I should have prepared for this because I know this is the last question for every guest, but, uh.
01:09:52
Speaker
So I'm gonna say I, this is slightly embarrassing, but one of the oldest pieces that I have in my collection is a beanie baby named Blizzard. It's a white tiger with blue eyes. And I love it because one of my oldest
01:10:14
Speaker
like church members from my dad's old church she gave it to me and she gave it to me because you know how Beanie Baby's in the tag it has like um like birthdays yeah and like the birthday was matching my birthday and she said you're gonna be like a tiger when you grow up like always brave and courageous and like
01:10:34
Speaker
That's always stuck by me. She meant a lot to me. And for me, when I was growing up, we didn't, we didn't grow up super wealthy. So I didn't, I didn't have a collection of toys, to be honest with you. I had a hodgepodge of just like one off my toys. So I had a one Spider-Man, one like Robin figure, one, uh, you guys know dragonflies? It's like,
01:10:57
Speaker
Yeah, it was the boy version of the thing where you pull and it spins and flies in the air. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had one of those guys and I had Blizzard, the Beanie Baby. And Blizzard would be like the tiger that in my mind, he or she would...
01:11:18
Speaker
be the animal that guides everybody in our quests. And that collection of action figures, unfortunately, somebody stole my Spider-Man, I lost my Robin, and I think my mom threw away the Dragonflies character. And so the only thing that's remaining from that original collection is Blizzard. And so if I ever lost that, that would break my heart. You know what I mean? So for me right now, I would say that's
01:11:45
Speaker
the strangest and my favorite in my collection because it's like the most not action figure ish kind of thing there. So yeah, I think that's Blizzard is the one I still know exactly where it is and everything. And I want to really pass it on to you. If I ever have kids like I want to pass it down. You know what I mean? Amazing. That's awesome. Yeah, that's that's a great pick. Nothing. Nothing to be embarrassed about there. Not at all.
01:12:12
Speaker
Well, listen, Dan, it has been this has been awesome, awesome conversation. But before we let you go, tell us where can people find you on on social media? Where can they find Hasbro? And I think you have an announcement to make in terms of a little trip that you're taking over to to England.
01:12:33
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, where are you going with this? But yeah, for me, you can find me mostly for toy stuff on Twitter.
Dan's UK Visit Announcement
01:12:41
Speaker
I am at DanYoonIsTrying. I have an IG too, but that's mostly not toy related stuff and it's private, more personal, I would say. So don't try to find me there.
01:12:55
Speaker
Yeah. And the announcement that you're alluding to is, yeah, I will be in London for MCM London at the end of the month. And I'll be joined by my fellow Hasbro brothers and sister. I got B Mac from Transformers. I think Patrick is going for Star Wars and the one and only Emily will be coming for GI Joe. I'd love to meet and talk with some of the UK fans over there. So if you're nearby that last week of October, please come through. You know what I mean?
01:13:25
Speaker
Awesome. And of course, where can folks back that beautiful Engine of Vengeance? Yeah, the Engine of Vengeance is still going on strong until Halloween. Halloween is the last day to back it. You can find it at HasbroPulse.com. We also have an app, the HasbroPulse app, wherever you find or download apps, I guess.
01:13:50
Speaker
Want an Engine of Vengeance if you like the Goblin Queen, if you like Mephisto, if you like Robby Reyes, you know, come through, support it. I know it's still contentious, but it's honestly an awesome Hazlab and hopefully you guys will back it. Last plug that I want to just put out there is, you know, it's that time of season where a lot of charities are going to be looking for donations. So whatever local charity you have,
01:14:16
Speaker
If you don't decide to back the Hazlab, or even if you do back the Hazlab, I really encourage everybody to take some time to look at their local charities and support them.
01:14:26
Speaker
Awesome. Uh, Dan, thank you so much for, for taking the time to be with us. Uh, thank you, Dan. Great having you. Yo, no, no, for real. I, I really want to talk to you guys offline about more sports stuff later. And, uh, yeah, we'll definitely catch a MLS game and thank you so much for having me continue to do the good work. And, uh, yeah, everybody adventures in collecting podcasts. Thank you so much for having me. Dave, send us home. Bye everyone.
01:14:55
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
01:15:11
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.
01:15:35
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.