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So Real It's Like Being in the Ring: An Interview with Squared Circle Toys' Daniel Friedman
434 Plays4 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik sit down with Daniel Friedman who, with a decade of work as a freelance graphic designer in the toy industry under his belt with brands like Jazwares, Boss Fight Studio, and Mattel, is getting ready to launch his own wrestling figure company. Hear about the launch plan, his previous work, and even about some of the time he's spent in the ring as an independent wrestler!
Follow Daniel and Squared Circle Toys on Instagram @squaredcircletoys
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:02
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. 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, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Hey, everyone.
00:00:33
Speaker
We're back. Uh, it's been, uh, it's been a roller coaster of just fun guests just kind of screaming through here and we're continuing the, uh, the guest train today. Yeah. Um, yeah, now that we're, uh, we're starting off year two with more guests. Oh yeah. True. Yeah. Uh, happy, happy two year anniversary, Dave. Thank you.
00:01:00
Speaker
I completely, I completely forgot that that was a thing that happened.
Anniversary Celebration and Guest Introduction
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah. Two years, two years of adventures in collecting. Who, who knew that like, you know, I feel like year, year two was, uh, was a lot of guests. Whereas like year one was pretty much just us. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but you know, I think that's awesome. I enjoy the guests. I really have, yeah, I have no.
00:01:31
Speaker
No follow up to that. Just like, yes, that is, that is accurate. Yeah. Yeah. That's wild. Well, speaking of guests, Dave, uh, Daniel Friedman has been working as a freelance graphic designer in the toy industry for nearly a decade, contributing to lines from toy makers like boss fights, studios, jazzwares, and Mattel. He's getting ready to launch his own wrestling figure line via Kickstarter called ringside chaos. Daniel, thank you for joining us on adventures in collecting and welcome to the show.
Daniel's Journey and Inspiration in Toy Design
00:01:59
Speaker
No, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on, guys. Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you. We're fans of your work. And I feel like you're one of those creatives that's very low key with the work that you've done so far in the industry. So I'm excited. Dave and I are excited to get some of that information out there and raise awareness about the new venture you're starting. Yeah, absolutely.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yeah, I've been for just shy of 10 years a decade. I've been involved in graphic design. I'm actually a freelance graphic designer. Then I've worked on some pretty decent projects for some, like you mentioned, a few different companies. But, you know, with all that knowledge I gained, it's time to start my own. I was gonna say before we get into the meat of everything, the first thing that we like to do for all of our guests just to kind of
00:02:57
Speaker
Get a get everybody comfortable and settled as we ask everybody right now. What are you currently collecting? Well, we'll start with the big one which is professional wrestling figures Right now I mean anything from the Mattel jazz wears boss fight Either the Super 7 New Japan line, you know, I've got a
00:03:23
Speaker
other stuff. You know, I collect some Funko Pops, Hasbro's Power Ranger line. Can't really dive too deep. The pockets are very, very short at the moment. So I sort of pick and choose things that I see that really catch my eye. Maybe one figure of like a neck is set or something here and there. But I can't really dive deep into like a lot of collections.
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah, and especially now, I mean, there is just so much out there. Oh, absolutely. Across the board. Yeah, I feel like, you know, especially dabbling in those genres myself, you know, I feel like every other week, there's either an elite or a unrivaled or unmatched line coming out. So yeah, I can barely keep up with wrestling figures and let alone just diving into, you know, different other, you know,
00:04:21
Speaker
like Ninja Turtles and then the stuff that Nick has put now. And it's just it's there's so much. There's so much that I want. But, you know, I got to pick and choose what I can. It's a good problem to have if you think about it. It's a great time to be a toy collector because there's just so much that you can dip your toe in and or dive head first in and get all this cool stuff. So what
Nostalgia and Influence of Wrestling Figures
00:04:47
Speaker
got you into the toy business?
00:04:50
Speaker
So I've collected, well, I guess you could say I've played with then collected. My big thing is my main collections are wrestling, like I'm more involved in wrestling than really like comics or other stuff. Really, it's professional wrestling. So what got me into toy business was just the love of wrestling figures. I used to
00:05:15
Speaker
get the bone crunchers and the Hasbro's when I was younger and literally take white out markers and paint and just start doodling on some of the figures that I had extras of and just try to create my own. And from there, it's like, you know, I always since I was a kid, always just wanted to be a toy designer. And I just
00:05:36
Speaker
what the routes of, you know, just trying to make that, that dream happen. So here we are almost 10 years later, and I've been designing toys for, you know, a while now. So it's I've, I've, I've designed hundreds upon hundreds of different action figures. So it's, it's a pretty amazing experience and pretty amazing time I've had.
00:06:01
Speaker
It's so funny. A lot of the, uh, the creative minds that we've, you know, we've, we've had the, uh, the privilege of talking to here on the show. Have this kind of relationship with like a brand and almost every single time it's like a toy attic brand that, that takes it there. I mean, we, you know, we, we grew up, you know, Dave started
Designing for Boss Fight Studios
00:06:23
Speaker
with the L J N's of course, but like the bone crunchers really liked that for me.
00:06:28
Speaker
That was my bread and butter with the, the wrestling figures. I still have the majority of, of my bone crunchers and they're very floppy these days, but, um, you know, it's, it's kind of amazing how toyetic wrestling has always been. Oh yeah. I mean, I actually have two older brothers and they're the ones who got started on the LJN line.
00:06:50
Speaker
So guilty by association, I had, you know, my, my father and my two older brothers who loved wrestling. So I was right there sitting, watching and playing with their toys. Um, I myself grew up more on the Hasbro line. Cause that's when I really started to really want my own and really new professional wrestling. Cause I was.
00:07:15
Speaker
I was born the year that I forget if it's 84 or 85 when the LJN started, but I was born in 85. So I don't have a lot of fond memories of my brothers really playing with them. My fondest memory started like 89, 90 when those Hasbro started to come out. And, you know, from there, I, my brothers,
00:07:36
Speaker
sort of, you know, went their separate ways in terms of professional wrestling. They watched it here and there, but they didn't, you know, didn't buy the toys anymore, didn't collect or anything. But I stayed with it through the Hasbros, the Jacks, BCA's, the Titan Tron Lives, Ruthless Aggression, classic superstars, the Just Toys Bandoms, you know, the Gloob, the WCW stuff, you know, and I'm obviously still collecting until this day.
00:07:59
Speaker
Yeah, and you're seeing a lot of that come back to like, you know, especially the, that Hasbro line. I feel like when people talk about wrestling figures, that Hasbro line made such an impact on so many people that, you know, now of course, you know, Mattel bringing back with, with the retro line, you know, again, and you know, you, then you have people like cello toys and zombie sailor that are making their own retro inspired.
00:08:21
Speaker
lines
Evolution of Wrestling Figures
00:08:22
Speaker
based off of that Hasbro line. And those figures are still just as kind of collectible and sought after as they ever were, if not more in some cases. Absolutely. It's like the kids who were playing with those figures back in the day are now all grown up and are actual toy designers now and reliving that nostalgia from their past. Which is amazing.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah, and that was really kind of I would want to say the first like cross generational line because it was like for me who was
00:08:55
Speaker
getting kind of I don't want to say too old but like you know reaching that kind of middle school high school point where the Hasbro's existed um but then Eric you Eric's seven years younger than me that that was like almost like his kind of gateway into it and then he continued on through the
00:09:16
Speaker
the Bone Crunchers and Titan Trons and like, you know, I would kind of get stuff for him and kind of, you know, play along with it. That was the way of like my old, you know, being the older brother playing with my younger brother would be to play with wrestling toys with. Ultimately, like my time was like LJN and then Hasbro and Gloob and we had that Hasbro and Gloob kind of crossover.
00:09:43
Speaker
You also took such good care of your toys that by the time I got them seven years later, it was like I felt like I was getting new toys. Mine were very played with though, you know? But they were together. They were all in one piece. That's true.
00:10:00
Speaker
So one of the brands that we mentioned at the top was Boss Fight Studios and they of course have a ton of lines and IPs that they work with. But what goes into creating kind of establishing a design strategy for a line like Legends of Lucha Libre or the Hacks line?
00:10:21
Speaker
It basically starts with the person in charge, Erica Rania, who is an amazing artist, an amazing designer, just a flat out really good guy. It's his brainchild, basically. Everything that's going on with their legends line with a few of their other lines is all him. And as a freelance graphic artist,
00:10:44
Speaker
I'm basically sent the bullet points of what to design and what they want to see from how they want to see the figure look in the end. So they basically send me images of, let's just put it this way, the Penta and Ray Phoenix, their first two figures that they put out.
00:11:08
Speaker
Eric did most of all that stuff, but I worked on the DIJ face printing and all the tattoo artwork for those two figures. So they just give me the bullet point and say, Hey, here's the images. Here's the best images that we have. Can you recreate this as best as you can? And we'll go from there. And with something like that, like a duty, uh, do you ever get a chance to work with, um, you know, with the talent directly or.
00:11:36
Speaker
in order to make sure that you're producing the most accurate product that you can.
00:11:42
Speaker
Honestly, no. I never, I can say that I don't think I ever worked with talent at all besides just like local people here and doing my own thing. It's just basically handled by everyone involved on both sides at the top. I'll just hand in all the work, basically what I did and they'll come back to me saying, hey, this person said they want this fix or change the color this or that and just go to work, fix it up and send it right back.
00:12:10
Speaker
So in terms of the intricacies of something like the detailing of tattoos or ring gear, or in the case of those two figures, Penta has the secondary head sculpt with the ripped mask and everything. Is it really just kind of then...
00:12:29
Speaker
based on the reference materials and the samples that are provided and you just kind of do your best to recreate given the samples that you have? Absolutely. They supply me as best as they're given as well in terms of high resolution. It could be action shots from the event that that took place at. Some companies will actually give you
00:12:52
Speaker
studio shots so you can get really really good details of their tattoos and recreate them as best as perfect as you can because they're just such good pictures and then sometimes you're working on a figure that you don't have any reference and you gotta go on a website or google images and just try to find you know that.
00:13:15
Speaker
that specific date
Ringside Chaos - New Figure Line
00:13:17
Speaker
that that wrestler wore that gear. So sometimes it can be challenging. But for the most part, a lot of these companies, a lot of the wrestling companies do supply the toy companies some pretty decent photographs and digital photos.
00:13:33
Speaker
I've have been out of wrestling and wrestling figures for a little bit now. And I've recently like literally over the span of the pandemic have gotten fully back into wrestling after like being out for probably 15, 16 years. That's good to hear. And it's just, I mean, the product, the product on especially the, the AW product and even, you know, much of the talent that's that's in WWE, uh,
00:13:59
Speaker
is just so interesting and I was grasping for content and things to kind of keep me distracted from the world around me, I guess you could say. But like, the figures have come such a long way, especially in like, articulation aside, because like, I have Marvel Legends figures, so I'm used to kind of that and NECA figures. So I'm used to like the six and seven inch, you know, highly articulated kind of set up like that.
00:14:27
Speaker
that I feel like is kind of a given, especially at that $20-ish price point. But the detail, the way that the faces look, the detail in the tattoos, I'm just fascinated by how that process actually happens.
00:14:45
Speaker
You know, it's funny for a $20 figure, there's a lot of detail that does get taken out of a figure to hit that price point. So you'd be surprised on how much more detail the figure can be. Like if you look at the Ultimates, the Ultimates, you know, for the Mattel line, obviously it's a higher price point, so they're able to add soft goods, they're able to add more.
00:15:05
Speaker
deco hits on the figures because the price point is a little higher. But for a basic elite $20 figure, there's so much more that actually goes into the figures that obviously has to be taken out just to hit cost.
00:15:20
Speaker
But even I was just posting a picture today of the basic Chelsea Green figure. And I opened her and was surprised because I also do, because of just kind of having a history with those old Jax figures, the basic articulation still feels like a lot of articulation for me.
00:15:42
Speaker
in a lot of cases but like I noticed on the back of Chelsea's arm like even just kind of this really really tiny if you didn't know to look for it you wouldn't even see it tiny little tattoo that was included on the back of that figure and you're looking at a figure that's a $10 price point that has a really great likeness has solid articulation and has great you know paint hits in detail
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's that's like stretching the budget. But if I'm not mistaken, I think that line may also not have a complete six figure series. I think something I think somebody I think Andrade was taken out.
00:16:22
Speaker
Um, because of his time going, obviously leaving the company and all that, I think I could be wrong. I think that's what happened, but I think it was. Yeah. Um, I mean, to, to hit budget on certain lines, I think some, some characters might have less deco because they need to add the deco onto a different character. Um, yeah. And.
00:16:46
Speaker
That's from what I gathered, obviously, with me. I basically just do the graphics. So there's a lot of insider knowledge that I don't have, but just doing my own thing now, I can sort of gauge why some things do happen now and why some things have to be eliminated. Because the more deco you add, just the higher and higher the price is going to be at the final.
00:17:14
Speaker
Well, yeah, even like the, you know, the Penta and Ray Phoenix from from Boss Fight, like just an incredible like the tattoo detail is just incredible on those. And it's one of those things where you look at and you go like, all right, this is, you know, definitely kind of well spent putting with all of this that can be put into it. Mm hmm.
00:17:38
Speaker
So we talked about some WWE figures just briefly. Tell us about your time working on an established line like WWE. Well, I mean, it's pretty amazing because that was really one of the first lines that I was able to work on as a designer is the WWE line from Mattel between the basics and the elite line. That started about nine years ago.
00:18:06
Speaker
just amazing. Some of the characters that I watched, some of the wrestlers that I watched when I was younger and everything, and I'm designing the figures. I think one of the first sets I designed had some of the characters that I watched when I was younger.
00:18:23
Speaker
I also was training for a while as a professional wrestler. So I was an independent wrestler for at least about 14 years, uh, up in, uh, North Jersey wrestling for the IWF. Um, and I was able to wrestle with some legends and fast forward a few years later, I'm actually designing some of the graphics that go onto their figures, which was just mind boggling at the time.
00:18:50
Speaker
And then when I actually saw those figures in the store on the shelves, I was like, wow, somebody's got to pinch me. Cause I was like, is this real? So it's, it's just, you know, it's just been amazing. Um, just from the get go, you know, I've worked on so many different, you know, figures for Mattel. Um, and one wrestler in particular, um, Darren young from the prime time players.
00:19:18
Speaker
He's actually, I went to middle school and high school with him. He's another New Jersey local. And he's actually the one who sort of broke me into becoming a wrestler and sort of got me my training. I was going to say IWF, yeah. Yep, that's where I trained as well. And I got to work on several of his figures, which was absolutely amazing.
00:19:44
Speaker
You know, this is the same kid who was a year older than me who went to the same school, you know, we hung out and everything and just amazing that, you know, he's on WWE TV, he became a tag team champion and I'm designing some of his figures, which was just, that was awesome. It was just like an amazing feeling. Just, you know, amazing kind of small world too, where, you know, we're all kind of North Jersey based.
00:20:09
Speaker
North Jersey based people. Unfortunately, I traveled a little bit, a little down south though. North Jersey was a little too much for me and starting a family is a little too congested. You know what I'm talking about. I hear you. I'm still North Jersey, but I moved a little bit further west in the area of North Jersey, so I'm a little more removed from the
00:20:39
Speaker
the city traffic and whatnot.
Impact of Wrestling Figures on Collecting
00:20:41
Speaker
There you go. The throws of three and 46, you know. Oh, Clifton. What kind of makes you go from from 12 years of actual of pro wrestling training to go into to design?
00:21:00
Speaker
Well, I actually retired myself about four years ago, just a lot of aches and pains and knee injuries and missing ACLs and MCLs and this and that.
00:21:14
Speaker
Like I said from the get go, pro wrestling has been a passion for mine. It's my love. It's something that I wanted to do, something that I wanted to be in. So when I got the first side of training, I was like, I want to do this. I've always wanted to do it. Even when I was a kid, I was trying to figure out how to go about it. And then that's when I found the school up in North Jersey.
00:21:36
Speaker
Um, but I was still wrestling and working on the, you know, working on the toys. So I've been about 10 years working on toys and I started training, uh, 2004 and I retired myself about food, like I said, about four or five years ago now. So about a good 15 years. So in that time I was designing wrestling, you know, watching this and that. So like my world was wrestling at the time. So it was just crazy trying to bounce it all.
00:22:05
Speaker
You were literally living, breathing, eating, wrestling in all facets. Basically, yeah. So what was your ring name? What would you wrestle under? I could not come up with a good name at all. I couldn't come up with anything, but I had long hair, tattoos, typical biker looking guy. So my promoter gave me the name Harley Brian.
00:22:34
Speaker
I didn't, it didn't really fit. I didn't really like the name. So I just, my brilliant brain was like, why don't I just change my name to Brian Harley? It sounds like it flows better and I can't come up with a frigging name. So for a good 15 years, you know, in the New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Indies, I was Brian Harley or just Harley at sometimes.
00:23:00
Speaker
And you mentioned you got to share the squared circle with some legends. What was your most memorable match? Oh, it was a... I actually had two sixmans. One of them was with Honky Tonkman, the other then with Tito Santana. I guess you could say they were very well rounded on the New Jersey indie scene at that time.
00:23:26
Speaker
Um, uh, but just, you know, just wrestling tune to names that I've watched when I was younger was just amazing. But I wrestled so many different other people in like battle royals and other just singles matches in here and there. But those were just really, they were just fun. You know, you didn't really have to do anything crazy there. They just go out there and have fun. And that's what we did.
00:23:48
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah, I honestly, we prep for all of these interviews, and we like to try to find out everything that we can about our guests. But you totally caught us as two wrestling fans off guard with this, and now we only want to ask you wrestling questions. Hey, that's perfectly fine. We can steer the ship in another direction, but as long as we come back, it is what it is.
00:24:12
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you know what it is, it is, uh, we're all in the same lane here. So I feel, I feel like, uh, you know, we've talked a lot about wrestling figures and, you know, obviously now your time in the ring and, and how much wrestling means to you. So I feel like this next, this next question kind of answers itself, but, uh, you know, what, what really inspired you now to take all of your work, you know, that you've done in the past and, and, you know,
00:24:39
Speaker
again, your time in the actual ring to create the ringside chaos line.
00:24:47
Speaker
It was really more so, this has been about a five, six year process for me really, and this is the first year
Enhancing Figure Photography with Ancillary Characters
00:24:57
Speaker
that has really gotten off the ground. I've wanted to do something like this for a long time, but more so, it started out as wanting to create a second brand. So if you think back five, six years ago, we didn't have AEW, we didn't have the New Japan figures, we didn't have
00:25:13
Speaker
the boss fight we didn't have figures ink we just had Mattel yeah so it's like there's so much untapped talent out there but at the time I just I didn't really have an avenue to go down you know I didn't have my own funds you know it it cost a decent penny to create something you know off the ground
00:25:34
Speaker
And it does take a while. The toy industry is very, very crazy. And to finally have something going after five, six years is amazing. But like I said, it started out with wanting to do like my own version of classic superstars and my own version of flashbacks, you know, signing people, you know, to deals in this net, sort of like what zombie sailors doing right now, like cello toys is doing right now. But just more of a modern style. And
00:26:02
Speaker
You know, it took it was a long process. Unfortunately, it just didn't pan out. And now you got, you know, the jazz was a W line. You got the New Japan line. You got, you know, obviously you still got Mattel. We got the figures toy company with their ring of honor line and their rising stars and cello and zombie and everyone pretty much doing something now. And then I was I got inspiration to do more so the ringside chaos line because I'm looking around and I like a lot of
00:26:32
Speaker
figure photography is just starting to creep up. You see a lot of people starting to, you know, take photographs of their figures, you know, not just wrestling stuff, but, you know, the, the Marvel legends and the NECA stuff. But then you'd see figures of wrestlers as a security guard or a staff or a referee, like a fit Finley as a referee or like Randy Orton as a security guard or this and that. And I was like, well, we all know that that's fit Finley and we all know that's Randy Orton just dressed up, but it's like,
00:27:01
Speaker
What if somebody just created a line of just characters that can just make those photographs or make people's collections just that much better? It doesn't have to be of a specific person, but it could be that that character is like a modern day referee, a classic referee. You know, we had the Jack's Bone Crunching referee. We had a few Earl Hebner referees, but we haven't really had anything that modern besides the Danny Davis Mattel figure.
00:27:31
Speaker
Um, but now obviously we have the ref Aubrey figure from, uh, jazzwares, but you don't have any, you know, you don't see referees event staff security guards just to make those photographs look really that much more spectacular.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, and as somebody who is now dabbling in in photography that I have to say it's when you posted those initial pictures of these and before I knew it was even you I just I saw somebody had shared the ringside chaos picture sounds like I have been wanting this for a long time like you know, it's it's great to just have like a generic referee or even like, you know,
00:28:15
Speaker
To your point, like a security guard, event staff, like having those characters really kind of fills out the scene and makes your picture. All the more believable, like you, you know, creating the, the scene that you're trying to create or really even in a display. I mean, think about how many people like you see these pictures. Um, you know, the, the really big collectors out there that the fig heels and fig vaults, and they have these massive displays with like many rings and you know, all these detox that are filled with figures.
00:28:45
Speaker
Figuel, man, Figuel has an amazing look and I want to go visit that place. It's like a museum. Yeah. It would be, though, amazing, though, for collections like that, for each like era of ring. Like you have your blue shirt ref, you know, maybe you need like three or four of them. Maybe you need, you know, three or four of the like the zebra striped ref figures. It's like there really is a need for those ancillary characters.
00:29:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think everyone needs about five of each figure, I think. I think we can, you know, I think five would be a nice well-rounded number. All right. I see what you're trying to do. The other cool thing too is just like the graphics that you've kind of put along with them evoke that kind of that ringside series from the from the Bone Crunchers.
00:29:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's paying homage. Yeah, absolutely. You know, some people got that subtle in, you know, obviously, I mentioned that on somebody else's podcast a few weeks ago, but yeah, the people who do follow if you collected wrestling figures from the was it 96?
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, you had the ringside collection from Jack specific, you know, that first series that had a sable sunny Vince McMahon and the referee. And it's basically this series is paying homage to that because it's sort of, you know, that's where the brainchild came from. It's like, you know, it's I have the fondest, it's weird. I have the fondest memory of going to my KB toys in Westfield.
00:30:18
Speaker
when I lived in Union. So I went to the KB Toys and Westfield and I remember just walking in there not knowing anything about the series and just seeing that series on the shelf. And I think series five was along with that with Flash Funk, Sid and all that Ken Shamrock. But I remember because that package stood out to me, the purple, the black, the white, the red. And you didn't really have those characters.
00:30:44
Speaker
Until now, it's like, you know, you always had just the wrestlers, but you never really had like an announcer or a manager and boom, you got that. And then you also had the, the manager series with, uh, Mark Marrow and Sable and then Paul, not Paul Barrow, was it, um, Clarence Mason and Crush and all that stuff. So it's like Marlene and Goldust and Bob Backlund and Sultan. Bob Backlund, Sultan. Yup. Or well, yeah, I think it was Paul Barrow and mankind too, right? Or is that, yes. Yup.
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, I remember like we we went full in depth like we had like spreadsheets and like we we would we would make make our own cards and like events and stuff. And when those figures came into our possession, it was like the stories that we could tell. Oh, yeah, became so much more intricate and in depth because now we had like, like, like,
00:31:40
Speaker
I could vividly remember before having a Vince McMahon figure like Vince, like Vince would would just be talking off screen like like in our heads. Like it's like Vince is just yelling from the back, but like now we have a Vince figure. Mm hmm. And like he goes. Those didn't exist since the LJN's like you had, you know, all the managers in the LJN's and like Vince and me and Gene. Mm hmm. Slick, you had Slick too. Captain Lou.
00:32:09
Speaker
Freddie Blassie, Johnny V, like everybody. And, uh, that wasn't there all through Hasbro's and Galoob's. Nope. Yep. And, and now, you know, and it was great too. Cause like the timing with television at the time was, was pretty quick. Like, so when Sergeant Slaughter came out and he had like the notes in his hand and, you know, all of those, those ringside figures were, were pretty current. They got them out.
00:32:36
Speaker
you know, relatively in time with what you were seeing on TV. So like, you know, whether you were trying to copy the stories that you were seeing, you know, or making up your own, you know, you had the inspiration.
From Graphic Design to Toy Production
00:32:48
Speaker
And I feel like that mindset, we've talked about this before, like this kind of like, how do you, how does play graduate with you? You know, so like, obviously, like when you're a kid, you play with them because you, you know, you lay on your stomach on the floor and you bash them together. But like, as an adult,
00:33:06
Speaker
And as a collector, you have this kind of elevated state of play. So whether it's designing the display to pay homage to a certain era, whether it's a display that pays homage to just a brand in general, or you're doing this photography, you need these pieces. To steal your own words, you need to fill the gap. You need to have these characters in your collection.
00:33:34
Speaker
Absolutely. Like, even if you don't do photography and you display your figures, you know, you have, you know, you can do diesel in his pose where he's, you know, lifting his fist and whatnot. And, you know, what if you really, you know, just, just you have the ring and you let you say you have Bret Hart and Cheryl Michaels from their Iron Man match in there, you know,
00:33:56
Speaker
Oh, why don't you have the referee in the middle, you know, holding the hands or whatever, you know, you know, as a tie in the beginning, you know, just both men win or whatever, but it's like you can display that too. Yep. And, and with the new gen arena coming out now, like you can have your, you can have your, your security staff, you know, escorting, you know, uh, talent to the ring. Like there's, there, there really is a lot of, uh, it really does give you a lot of options. Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
00:34:27
Speaker
So how did you decide on the looks for the figures that you've shown off so far like for me? I saw the event staff and I immediately thought like Meadowlands event staff, you know, it's Well, then there you go you just answered your own question I Went to almost every single event at the Meadowlands You can't really tell but if you look at that tag the the lanyard Mm-hmm
00:34:56
Speaker
The little blue logo on the top is actually the Continental Airlines Arena logo. I'm currently zooming. Excuse me while I zoom. It's difficult to tell, but yeah, that's the Continental Airlines Arena logo. Amazing. I'm glad you went with that and not the Brendan Byrne. Oh, the Brendan Byrne. I don't have as many fond memories as the Brendan Byrne than I do as the Continental. Even the Meadowlands, I have more memories of.
00:35:22
Speaker
Yeah, but not the eyes eyes center. No, definitely not the eyes. But yeah, I mean, it's basically I wanted the figures to fit inside the current offerings, which are, you know,
00:35:41
Speaker
Super 7, Mattel, Jazzwares, you know, I wanted to complete because those lines are what's really feeding the collections right now. Like don't get me wrong, people still have their Jax collections and everything, but these lines are growing and they're continuing to grow. Like those Jax lines from the past, the Hasbro's and everything, they're not growing. Yeah, we're going to have like Chella and
00:36:05
Speaker
zombie doing their own things and Mattel with the retros again, but it's not going to be the initial ones from the past. But all these lines are growing and Mattel has such a big, well-rounded group of wrestlers already that there's so many different characters like the events that the security guard and everything that will fit into what they're already offering.
00:36:30
Speaker
So I just figured it would make more sense to design the figures more so around the looks of
00:36:39
Speaker
and the articulation style of what Mattel and Jazzwares and Super 7 are really offering right now. It's like the best of all worlds rolled into one right there. And it's just basically, you know, like you said, it's like the metal as event staff. That's my fondest memory, the yellow shirts and everything. And then a security guard. So that event staff figure, that's actually me, just an event staff shirt. So people be,
00:37:06
Speaker
be aware that you're going to be buying at least 10 of those figures just because you have to. We're going to have a bunch of Dan's. Absolutely. I have to get a little fine point Gundam marker and write Dan on one of the nametags. There you go. But like the security guard, obviously, you know, you always have the security guards roaming around there too, you know, their basic black shirts and everything. And that's just pretty much just, you know, it's
00:37:38
Speaker
Really just what I I frequent the message boards everywhere and you know wrestling things calm and wherever I can go and on Instagram and everywhere it's like these are the things that the people are looking for but no one's really out there doing it and that this is this is what I'm going to be doing because this is what the fans want and there is a market it might be a niche market but there is a market for
00:38:01
Speaker
and you know from from what I've seen you know after I put the pictures up and everything you know it seems like a lot of people are really really happy you know obviously it's not perfect it's not going to fit somebody else's you know style and second it is what it is but for the most part it's a lot of a lot of good feedback and a lot of people that are pretty happy that something like this is happening. And now a word from our sponsors.
00:38:30
Speaker
And now back to the show.
Future Plans for Ringside Chaos
00:38:33
Speaker
So what's it like going from being in kind of the graphic design role in the action figure world to like actually having to deal with the engineering of articulation, deciding on proportion and things like that?
00:38:53
Speaker
It is a little learning curve. Obviously working on figures for the past 10 years and being a lifelong collector. Excuse me. I sort of knew exactly where I wanted to go with the figures. I knew what type of articulation I wanted. I knew where the articulation I wanted it to be. And just pretty much just knowing what the collectors would want. Because I am a collector myself, so this is what I would want.
00:39:23
Speaker
Um, uh, but there's, you know, there's little things here and there that, you know, I learned from the sculptor. Uh, I'll shout him out. Brian Beatty. Um, he is well known in the toy industry and he has dabbled in customs and stuff in the past. Um, creation crib. Um, so he has helped me in and to understand some things that I didn't even know that goes into designing a figure. So.
00:39:53
Speaker
It's, they're, they're little subtle things, but it makes a big difference. And, you know, it's clear that based on those, uh, you know, the, the images that you shared that like, you know, where these guys will fit in and, and, you know, seeing a lot of like familiar enough looking articulation systems, you know, things like you said, that were that as collectors, you're kind of used to seeing. Yeah. All right. So now it is time for Q and a.
00:40:25
Speaker
Our Q&A is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy 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. Visit them in person at 106 Main Street in Little Falls, New Jersey or online at ChubsyWubsy.com. That's C-H-U-B-Z-Z-Y-W-U-B-Z-Z-Y.com.
00:40:54
Speaker
Tell them adventures and collecting sent you. So we posted a story and a tweet and post announcing that you were going to be on the show and we collected some questions from the listeners and followers. The questions this week
00:41:16
Speaker
are, we got a lot of questions that were kind of similar, that were asked by several people. So rather than making them specific, we just kind of combined them into, let's see what we got here. One, two, three, four questions for you. So Dave, do you want to go ahead with the first one?
00:41:38
Speaker
Sure. So first question is, Ringside Chaos looks awesome. Will there be any female characters? In the first series, no. This is basically the initial launch. If you notice that the characters all basically share the same body mold, body style.
00:42:06
Speaker
I'm putting every penny that I have into this. This is my own money. And to tool up a lot of new parts would just be astronomical in price. It would not be worth it at all. So off the bat, you're getting a lot of the characters that are basically sharing the same body. I have more characters in line. And as long as everything goes well,
00:42:34
Speaker
There's a reason why I put Series 1 on the artwork, because I would love to do two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine more sets. And females are definitely on the list. As long as this thing can take off and do what I want it to do, the sky's the limit on characters. And there's definitely a vast amount of females out there that would definitely benefit from this type of series.
00:43:02
Speaker
Awesome. Going along with the idea of new characters, are there plans to make generic fans?
Reflections on Toy Projects
00:43:13
Speaker
It is in my notepad to possibly do something. As of right now, the main focus is just to get the...
00:43:25
Speaker
I guess you could say main characters of the ringside personnel first, but there have been some ideas. So I'll talk to you briefly about the shirt.
00:43:42
Speaker
it's the same mold but the collar piece is going to be separate so it's going to be one figure can have like a long tie one figure like you see the referee the um the retro referee has the bow tie and most of the other ones have just a basic you know two three button collar
00:44:01
Speaker
So that piece is a separate piece. But underneath that, the basic shirt has just the basic round shirt collar, like on a regular t-shirt, which you can definitely create just a basic t-shirted individual. And the thought process was, hey, we'll see how this first set or two goes. But I got the cost and the tooling.
00:44:27
Speaker
where I needed it to be. And as long as I got that, there's no reason why we can't make fans or we can't make marks or however you want to call them. Somebody likes to call themself. He might listen to this, but one person who does know about this set likes to call him fat mark number one or fat mark number two.
00:44:56
Speaker
So we'll see if we can get to that point. Yeah, I mean that talk about an easy way to sell a bunch of them at once, right? You make just kind of generic fans and make some different ethnicities and you're in business there.
00:45:16
Speaker
Which is a big question that I saw about ethnicities. Obviously, we definitely will be doing that. That's also, you did see the Brian Beatty figure who was actually that detective, the police officer.
00:45:34
Speaker
So yeah, and there's definitely more characters planned who are different ethnic backgrounds as well, which I'll talk a little bit more about that just so briefly, but there's going to be stretch goals. The first four initial figures are going to be the two referees, the event staff and the security guard. And then as long as we can hit the goal on that, we will definitely be unlocking
00:45:58
Speaker
That police officer and then a few other characters who are from different ethnic backgrounds as well Well that leads into our next question dave Yeah, um, what will pricing look like for ringside chaos series one? Um, I don't really want to give an exact number because i'm still fine tuning things with the factory right now but it's going to
00:46:25
Speaker
it's going to be in a range of obviously this is not a brick and mortar type product this is not going to be a mainstream line so the price is going to be you know a little bit more expensive than you know let's just say an elite but it's going to be a
00:46:46
Speaker
It's going to be a very feasible figure to purchase. It's not going to blow the budget and it's not going to be astronomical like a lot of the stuff that you see right now that has so much deco and other companies who are obviously signing contracts with names to balance the budget. But when I do have a firm grasp on what we're doing with the factory, everyone will know the exact pricing.
00:47:17
Speaker
And right now it's not going to break the bank. What's the target date at this point for the launch? I'm pushing for end of September, possibly the beginning of October, the absolute latest. I wanted to have something
00:47:39
Speaker
a week from now, but just things just happened that just was out of my hands out of my control. Unfortunately, it just had to be pushed back a little bit. But I, I want to have something set in stone for the end of September, no later than like late the first week in October. But when I do get that information, I just have to have a final chat with one of the factories and then I can go from there.
00:48:04
Speaker
Awesome. Because that has to balance out exactly the final price that I'm going to put those up for order. And the last question here is, in your 10 years as a designer, was there ever a toy that you worked on earlier in your career that you would want the opportunity to revisit?
00:48:29
Speaker
Oh, yeah, there's plenty. There's plenty of characters that I worked on in the past who have, you know, went their separate ways, excuse me, went their separate ways of the company that they used to work for, who completely changed their look, who aren't even in one of the major organizations right now who are just doing independence and everything, but they still have some pretty decent looks who just would love to just just redo their looks.
00:49:02
Speaker
And there's characters who really didn't even have like, I know this really isn't a part of the question, but there's even characters who haven't had figures since like a Titan Tron live line or even like a Hasbro line or just toys line that would benefit from modern day figure who would even make a modern day figure look amazing.
00:49:25
Speaker
like one of the one of my biggest wants i don't know if he signed to any deal or not but gangrel gangrel is such a toy edit character and he's such an amazing looking character and i've i've met him in the past and done wrestling shows with him and he's just really really cool guy and just have a modern-day figure of that character would just be amazing yeah that would be especially with the the you know recently in the uh...
00:49:52
Speaker
Dave, help me out. Was it the Legends line where they got the brood Christian out? No, that was just a regular elite. Yeah. Yeah. Flashbacks or whatever. But like, you know, having that figure now like recently in people's collections and especially with Edge having just done the at SummerSlam did the the the you know, the kind of the brood entrance.
Conclusion and Social Media Links
00:50:14
Speaker
Yeah, he's he's ripe for a for a modern figure. Flashback or otherwise.
00:50:22
Speaker
Absolutely. I was I was anticipating that Real Scan Gangrel that they teased in one of the toy magazines. I forget if it was Tomarts or one of the other toy magazines from like the 90s. When Jack started to do the Real Scan technology, they posted a picture of Gangrel and it just looked awesome and never saw the light of day, unfortunately. It was yeah, it was a Tyentron life. Yeah, it was a
00:50:49
Speaker
those all white Titan Tron live shirt, you know, he had the I think he didn't have like those weird knee and leg gauntlets that he wore, but he had that that the tongue sticking out the blood coming out and the blonde hair and just it looked awesome. Yeah, I remember his bone cruncher and that was a
00:51:07
Speaker
That was an absolutely awesome figure. Some of those likenesses still are... It's amazing what they accomplished with those Bone Cruncher figures. Some of them were cartoony, but man, they were freaking awesome looking for the time. Yep. For sure. Well, with that, you have survived the Q&A. This was a brief Q&A, but we got through all the questions. No massive curveballs for you, right?
00:51:34
Speaker
No, I think we did pretty good here. I don't know how you guys feel. All right. All right. So the last question before we wrap things up, I'm going to toss it back over to Dave as he fulfills his role as this podcast's James Lipton and asks our final question. Yes. So the final question that we ask all of our guests, what is the strangest and or your favorite piece in your collection? It can be one of each or it can be both.
00:52:04
Speaker
Well, I can't really say that I have strange things in my collection. Unless you're talking about some of the customs that I've done over the past years that are just weird and odd and just put together and just half done and not even completed. I feel like I'm Sid from Toy Story with all these weird things. I was just about to say, what are you, Sid? Is there a doll with, like, connects arms under your bed?
00:52:34
Speaker
scaring my kids with those. My favorite piece right now. It'll change in another week when I get the first sort of prototype paint master of the event staff figure that will be my favorite, even no matter how it turns out, because it's me. So that'll be amazing. But
00:53:03
Speaker
You know, I do have one thing that I missed early was I had the original manu prototype from the Jacks Rufus aggression adrenaline line. I've parted ways with it a few years ago. And that's something that I miss dearly. But, you know, it's it's it's in better hands now, you know, for, you know, where I was at the time. But
00:53:26
Speaker
Um, I missed that and I wish it was back in my collection, but you know, I I showed this on another show. Um, I have the uh Jack's ruthless aggression shark boy figure that was supposed to come out in the tna Impact series two figures that goes to like wall greens into the dollar stores So I have one of the only like two or three that are really known uh, but i'm uh
00:53:53
Speaker
I'm a big fan of Crush Brian Adams. And my favorite figure in my collection right now is my original Demolition Crush Asbro figure from the two-pack. Do you still have his helmet? That was a great two-pack. With the helmet, yes. You can't forget about the helmet. The original one, it's beat to hell, but it's mine. It'll always be mine. It'll never leave my side.
00:54:19
Speaker
I'm sorry. I'll never leave my totes or my collection. It's not at my side. I don't have it on my nightstand or anything. But it's in my collection. I do remember those figures. And I definitely, I know my Hasbro one, I definitely lost the helmet for sure. My brother had the smash figure. I don't know what happened to that helmet or that figure. I mean, I do have a smash one still. But I don't know what happened to that specific one. But I made sure I kept my crush on his helmet.
00:54:50
Speaker
Yeah, I had both smashes, so it was cool to have an extra helmet or I'd give it to Axe every now and again. Yeah, I think that's what happened too, because eventually we just had one smash and Axe and Crush, and we had three helmets. So I'm like, hmm.
00:55:08
Speaker
I, my older brother was able to go out and do his own thing with his friends and everything. So he may have gotten another two pack. I didn't even know of her. Somebody else's, he stole it from a friends or something. Who knows? But we ended up with all three members of demolition actually having their helmets. So school, schoolyard action figure trades, man. That's how I got my bone country diesel. I forgot what I traded for that. I think I traded like, uh, I want to say I traded like Pokemon cards for diesel.
00:55:38
Speaker
I definitely lost out on that deal. You lost out on that deal now. Back then, I feel like I did all right. Dan, thank you so much for taking the time to be on Adventures in Collecting with us. Before we let you go, let our audience know where can we find you on the internet and where can we find more about Ringside Chaos?
00:56:06
Speaker
Uh, on my Instagram, it would be at squared circle toys. And then my Twitter is at squared circle and J. Um, the website is not live yet, but it will be squared circle toys.com. That's going to go live roughly about a week or two before the launch, just so we can put some news and updates up there as well.
00:56:27
Speaker
Awesome. And as stuff comes out, you know, we'll be sure to share it and get it out there and, and, and amplify it. We're super excited for this line. We can't wait for it to launch. And, uh, and, you know, we're, we're excited to see, uh, how well it does when, when it does amazingly and gets fully funded and unlocks all the goals. Absolutely. Everyone buys five of each character, but 10 of the, uh, event staff.
00:56:53
Speaker
Yes, there's no doubt. There's no doubt that those those stretch goals are going to be unlocked. But there's a lot of I'll leave you guys with this. There's a lot of people asking for specific characters in the line. And let's just say when we launch, you'll you'll you'll see what's going on. All right. I think that's a good place to little teaser. I think it's a good place to leave it. Yeah, we're going to go. We're going to go back in time a little bit.
00:57:18
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:57:35
Speaker
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00:57:58
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.