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Grab a Slice! Action Figures, Gaming, and the Passion of Creating Toys with Toy Pizza's Jesse DeStasio
469 Plays3 years ago
This week Dave and Erik are joined by Toy Pizza's Jesse DeStasio to discuss his passion for creating art through toys, the history of Knights of the Slice, and his latest project, Card Slicers now live on Kickstarter.
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Back Card Slicers: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cardslicers/card-slicers-quick-combat-with-dice-and-cards?ref=discovery&term=Card%20Slicers
Visit Toy Pizza online https://toypizza.com and join Jesse's Patreon https://www.patreon.com/jessedestasio
Use my special link zen.ai/AIC to save 20% off your first order at Let's Make Art. Coupon is activated at checkout!
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
Organizing Arts and Crafts
00:00:01
Speaker
I've got kids at home, Dave. Yes, you do in fact have children. They love doing arts and crafts, but it's a pain. By the time I go into seven different drawers for supplies and get everything they need, the interest is gone. Well, that's a waste of time.
Introduction to Let's Make Art
00:00:19
Speaker
Have you heard of Let's Make Art?
00:00:22
Speaker
Is that the company that offers art subscription boxes for both kids and adults complete with step-by-step instructions, supplies, and access to free video tutorials? Yes, never heard of them.
00:00:35
Speaker
Well, with subscription options, one-off project kits, art boxes, and more, Let's Make Art takes the guesswork out of arts and crafts and lets you get right into the fun part. Let's Make Art Simple.
Adventures in Collecting Podcast Introduction
00:00:49
Speaker
Together, visit Let'sMakeArt.com and use code AIC to save 20% off your first order.
00:01:25
Speaker
are you ready kids? Get your parents permission, check your mailbox and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the adventures and collecting podcast.
00:01:37
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
Jesse Dostazio's Toy Community Journey
00:01:55
Speaker
Hi. Dave, we're back. Yeah, we are. It's been a couple of weeks.
00:02:04
Speaker
Yes, it has. Yeah. We're starting to get back into like a normal, normal groove where it's like full length episode news, full length episode. Uh, you know, for a while there we had like, we had some, some weird weeks where we had like these long interviews and you know, I like this rhythm that we're in here. I like it. Yeah. We're, uh, we're getting back into, uh, kind of a normal, a normal thing.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah. Let's, let's, let's hope we can keep it that way. Yeah. Um, and speaking of normal things, Dave. Um, Eric's not going to bury the lead. That's your damn right, Dave. I am not going to bury the lead. Um, yes, we are back again with a, with a guest this week. Uh, our guest today has, has long been an esteemed member of the toy community and going back to his start at play along toys back in 2003, since then he's worked on products for companies like jazzwares and mezco.
00:03:02
Speaker
before starting his own line, Knights of the Slice under the toy pizza brand. Just a couple of weeks ago, Knights of the Slice added a new element to its universe with the successful launch of card slicers on Kickstarter. We are, of course, thrilled to welcome Jesse Dostazio to the podcast. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting Jesse. Thank you. Thank you. It's wonderful to be here. A slight correction.
00:03:26
Speaker
I take issue with being an esteemed member of the toy community. I've always seen myself as a maverick and an outlier, so no thank you with the esteem. Missed me with that. So notorious? Yeah, that's a little better. Sure. All right. That's a punch here. Here we go. We like that. Well, welcome to Adventures in Collecting. We're super excited to chat about what you have going on. Thank you.
00:03:52
Speaker
Before we kind of get into your story and everything that you're working on, the first question we ask all of our guests, as this is a show about collecting, what are you currently collecting?
Entering and Rising in the Toy Industry
00:04:04
Speaker
Not much. I really am having a crisis of collecting.
00:04:13
Speaker
Part of it is when you make stuff, there's nothing more exciting than the stuff you make. And that doesn't matter if it's comics, toys, short stories, whatever the case may be. And maybe not for everybody. Maybe just for me or people on the spectrum at the exact degree I am. Nothing gets me more excited than getting a test shot or a paint sample of my toy line. And it sort of spoils the
00:04:42
Speaker
the hobby of going to Target and just picking out a mass market toy and bringing it home. So I'm really not collecting very much right now. I'm selling a lot, trying to clear some space. Just off the top of my head, just looking at what's in front of me, what's on the table, Super 7 TMNT Ultimates. I think that's a fantastic line.
00:05:06
Speaker
I tracked down all the Buzz Lightyear figures. I think that's fantastic price, fantastic figures. And the, I always mess up the name, but the mech assault monster hunter Marvel figures. Oh yeah. Those are super cool. Yeah. Has a nice, nice sort of nineties toy biz feel to them. Just, you know, I think part of what, why I'm so fatigued with just the hobby in general is
00:05:34
Speaker
It's all more of the same and it's all just stuff based on style guys. There's very little in artistic interpretation and I don't think that's a controversial statement. Um, so when I see something like the Mecca salt line and the monster hunter sub line from that line, uh, you know, immediately it just fires the synapses in my brain because, uh, you know, we've all seen wonderful, beautifully engineered real scan.
00:06:00
Speaker
likeness of every Marvel character there is But you know, I think the soul craves a little bit Some difference, you know some variety Yeah, that that line came out of nowhere and is clearly marketed to like that that core kids, you know part of of the you know, the the world but some of those lines right now that like that line is
Creating Knights of the Slice
00:06:27
Speaker
the, man, I'm blanking on the name, the one that's everyone's finding a Dollar Tree. Oh, Final Faction? Yeah, Final Faction. Like, there are a couple of like, these outlier lines out there that are doing some really cool things at retail. Yeah. And, you know,
00:06:48
Speaker
Final faction is absolutely great. You know, I was the sort of kid that had Remco figures versus GI Joes, right? So there's something really fantastic about being able to walk into a dollar tree or family dollar. I forget which one. And for like five bucks leaving with an entire battalion, like that's, that's a great proposition. You know, it's, and clearly like,
00:07:15
Speaker
It strikes me as those figures in that line being a labor of love, being made by people probably our age who grew up collecting the same toy lines. And while you have your sort of budget dollar store figures and you have a line like the Buzz Lightyear line or like the Monster Hunter line all aimed at kids and all at a more economical price point, I just find myself having way more fun and being drawn way more to that than
00:07:42
Speaker
the sort of sameness of the quote unquote adult collector sort of, uh, you know, lines. Yeah. I mean, those are, they're pretty great and. You know, it's good for everyone to have something, you know, there's, there's an entry point at any level for everybody, which I think is really cool. Yeah, absolutely.
Exploring the Glios Joint System
00:08:06
Speaker
So tell us a bit about your journey. How did you get your start designing toys?
00:08:12
Speaker
Um, how did I get my start design twice? Well, uh, I definitely conned my way into the industry. I, uh, was reading toy for a magazine one day. I was going to school for animation. And in the toy for a magazine, there was an ad for armies of middle earth, this three inch, maybe two inch, uh, toy soldier line based on Lord of the rings. And I saw in the, in the corner of the ad, there was an address that was a couple towns over from me in Florida.
00:08:42
Speaker
And so I looked up the company on the database at my school and I got the CEO's name and number and I cold called him and said, I wanted to interview him for my school newspaper, which did not exist. And, um, the thing is you can't bullshit a bullshitter and, uh, the CEO, he was, he was great. He was very friendly. You know, he, he let me ask all these questions and then he's like, you know, like, okay, what's the real deal? Do you, would you like to work?
00:09:11
Speaker
here, would you like an internship? Like, you know, is that something you're interested in? I'm like, yeah, great. Absolutely. This was a, an entire facade. Um, so it all started there. I just, you know, I worked for free. I, uh, bartended till about three or four in the morning. I got one or two hours of sleep, drove an hour down to school, uh, sorry, drove an hour to play along. Worked for, I think three or four hours left at noon time and then went and did
00:09:40
Speaker
double classes at night. And it was a lot of really unfun work. It was
Balancing Licensing and Creative Control
00:09:46
Speaker
a lot of Care Bear package comp manufacturing. Um, but every now and then I get to work on something from Lord of the Rings. I got to see it like all the, um, all the reference photos, you know, they would, they were still on CDs at that time. And it was just like a thousand photographs from every angle of every single costume, every character, a bunch of characters that didn't make it into the film, you know, um,
00:10:11
Speaker
Just kind of like getting a little piece of the behind the scenes magic. Um, and it all, it just went from there. It just was slow, incremental. You know, I was an unpaid intern. I managed to work my way up to a paid part-time employee, then, you know, just bounced around, had, had a lot of very fortunate, very lucky breaks. And, uh, yeah, somehow I ended up here. I don't quite know why or how, but.
00:10:42
Speaker
So from play along though, your journey kind of bounced you around from both toy industry jobs, licensing industry jobs. You spent some time at Jazzwares, yes? I did, yes. Jazzwares was the second company I found out that lived not too far from where I was, which was crazy because it wasn't LA or New York, it was South Florida.
00:11:08
Speaker
But lo and behold, I had sort of, uh, I had left play along out of frustration and I also had my own art show and I was trying to launch my own characters and my own toys. And it was obviously a huge conflict. Right. And so the
Card Slicers Tabletop Game Development
00:11:27
Speaker
powers of peace said, look, you can either work here or you can work on your own stuff. And being, you know, 21, 22, I was like, well, then I will go.
00:11:37
Speaker
I'll leave here and I'll go work on my own stuff. But ultimately, it was kind of, I made the right call there. So I completely lost my train of thought here. What was the question? Oh, jazzers, right, right, okay. So I decided to be a starving artist, because that's very glamorous, especially being so close to Miami and the gallery scene and all those cool skinny people who smoke indoors.
00:12:06
Speaker
I made an honest effort to just be a painter and sort of do gallery shows and kind of have toys on the periphery because that was an easier sell to galleries than just some guy who likes painting and isn't terribly good at it.
00:12:29
Speaker
But as you kind of learn, like being a starving artist means you starve and you're not eating and you can't afford rent and you can't fix your car. So, um, on the eve of my show opening, uh, I got a call from the CEO of jazz. Whereas I had sent a resume. I reached out to a couple of different channels and, uh, you know, he invited me to the office and.
00:12:56
Speaker
Uh, okay. Quick sidebar here. Sorry to derail everything. If you guys watch the rest of development at all, are you familiar with that show? Yes. Yeah. Okay. So when Michael
Listener Q&A with Jesse Dostazio
00:13:06
Speaker
gives Joe all these tips and he goes into the boardroom at a real estate company and he literally fires off all of his ammunition in a second, right? Yeah. All this year's worth of work that Michael put together.
00:13:22
Speaker
You know, Joe just goes in and he's like, uh, do this, this and this. That was me walking in jazz works. I literally just had a list and I said, here's what you should be doing. Here's the license you should go for here. Like no self preservation, no idea of how to monetize that. No, I just was a complete babe in the woods. And I just walked in and like basically handed them, you know, some good Intel, some probably, you know, just fan boy stuff.
00:13:47
Speaker
But, um, they could have just taken that stuff and ran with it, but they offered me a job and, uh, they didn't have any action figure people and they were having a lot of traction with mega man. And it wasn't a brand that they understood or anyone in house really knew or was particularly animated by. And so I got a relatively senior position with really only one sort of, you know, a legit industry credit under my belt.
00:14:18
Speaker
And, uh, you know, I, I happened to flourish in that position, like every, really every sort of bullet point career wise up until a few years ago was me faking it until I made it. And you could still kind of coast by in that. This is like, uh, kind of pre nine 11, like, you know, before, um, many of our, uh, sort of, uh, global meltdowns. Um, but you can get away with it. You know, if you had charisma and.
00:14:48
Speaker
you had a college degree, there wasn't a lot of scrutiny. Probably just because I'm a white male with a full head of hair. I would like to acknowledge that. But jazzwares gave me the keys of the kingdom. Nobody else wanted to do the work for action figure stuff or just weren't really nerds. They weren't going to target on their toy break to look for Marvel Legends and stuff like that, on their lunch break rather.
00:15:16
Speaker
Toy break, lunch break, it's all the same. I mean, to me, yeah, exactly. And, you know, it was just like right place, right time. I understood intrinsically Mega Man. It was like my favorite game. I used to, when I was a kid, I made clay Mega Man figures. Like I was obsessed with it. Absolutely. So it was sort of like they, they lucked into this person that had the expertise that they sort of needed.
00:15:46
Speaker
Now, speaking of video game properties, when I was kind of looking back at the, doing my research before having you on, you worked on another video game title while you were at Jazzwares. And I think this is actually a criminally underrated line, especially seeing as how many people have taken a swing at this type of game. But the Mortal Kombat Deceptions line,
00:16:16
Speaker
How did that come up and what was it like getting to work on some of those super iconic characters? I loved it. Midway was still Midway at that point. They hadn't been absorbed by Warner Brothers, so I would go out to Chicago and sit with the team. They were rightfully antagonistic towards toys and merchandise. I think that's actually the right position as a creative you should take to this stuff.
00:16:46
Speaker
And in fairness, the first series of Mortal Kombat that we did was not good. They were customs that were just thrown together for a toy fare display. And then somebody in the company sent them over and had them tooled. And it was not the finest footing. But once we got away from that, we started to use sculptors. It was very early in the sort of digital realm. So there wasn't a ton you could kind of do
00:17:14
Speaker
with 3D files, but we had access to them, we had better reference. And I look at like we did a two-pack for Sholin monks that was Liu Kang and not Shao Kahn. Kung Lao. Kung Lao, thank you. And those were like a big radical departure, a real huge step up.
00:17:36
Speaker
uh, in terms of toy making and articulation. And we weren't competing with Marvel legends, which was huge at the time, but it was like a, a good proposition for the price. It was, you know, we were sort of in, uh, you know, somewhere in the realm of what final faction is doing or what like the spin masters, Batman line is right. Like the spin masters, Batman line, I love it to death. I think it's a great line.
00:18:02
Speaker
It's not trying to be McFarland, right? It's very clearly delineated. It's a value proposition. So we were always the value proposition, but, uh, you know, I think we managed to really grow by leaps and bounds and make better figures. They weren't the hot, the top end. They weren't, you know, better than Marvel legends at the time or something you would buy in Japan. But for the proposition, you know, I still stand by a lot of that product. I still think it's really great. And if you look at.
00:18:31
Speaker
jazzwares today, complete transformation where they are making some of the best toys out there, especially in the three and three quarter inch scale. I mean, their Fortnite line, uh, is incredible and it's never ending and it's, you know, Oh, I guess it will end at some point. And there's other people obviously making figures now, but, um, you know, it's day and night, just their process and the product that they're making. Um, it's great. You know, I commend them for, for, uh,
00:19:00
Speaker
really taking a big glow up, as the teens say.
00:19:06
Speaker
Yeah, but you know, to that point, they're still, you know, in some aspects, like they're Pokemon figures, for instance, like it ranges from something that's they do have those kind of value proposition figures that are like sub $10 price point figures where, you know, you can walk into a store, grab, you know, six figures and leave with a mini collection and, you know, be out of there really under $50. Whereas you can also get, you know, a $20 six inch or seven inch scale.
00:19:36
Speaker
you know, wrestling figure, payload figure. So it's, it really is interesting kind of that, uh, the dichotomy between the two of those, those, you know, kind of approaches. Or even like the little Fortnite ones. Yeah. I mean, Dave and I are, we love the, the micro, the micro Fortnite line. Yeah. Those little mini guys. Those are great for sure. Um, so in 2018 you launched Knights of the Slice. What inspired you to make your own toy line?
00:20:08
Speaker
Boy, what? I mean, I had always been toy making, right? For myself. Now, largely that was not for public consumption. That was like me customizing my own characters, utilizing just whatever was on hand.
00:20:26
Speaker
So while like professionally and publicly, I was not making toys, it was always going on in the background and it was always sort of a discipline I understood. Um, and you know, something I, I wanted to do, uh, when I started working for Frederick studios, uh, we just kind of happened into doing a toy program, toy pizza, and it got a really huge initial response. It was really.
00:20:57
Speaker
Uh, it was probably the most successful thing I had done creatively and personally. Um, I think in many ways, like toy galaxy perfected the idea of what we were kind of trying to do. Like, you know, I really, I take my hat off to Dan and Greg. I think that they, they have truly like gone the distance and been able to survive in the YouTube environment. Like I, I, when I watch your program, I'm like, yeah, this is what we could have been if we were.
00:21:26
Speaker
little more dedicated and just, uh, weather the sort of storms, but anyway, um, so we had some success with toy pizza. We, it was the biggest critical mass of people watching what I was doing. You know, uh, that I had ever experienced, uh, for my own output, like, you know, things like mortal combat and mega man, they have huge fan bases, but that's not something I've created. They're not there. People aren't buying those toys to like, you know, because of me, it's because of the brands.
00:21:56
Speaker
Um, so, you know, we, we got like 10,000 subscribers on YouTube and it was really looking like it was going to launch into the stratosphere. And it seemed to me like, well, we should probably do something with this, this audience. We were getting requests all the time to like do t-shirts and do posters and like, you know, the, the, the sort of howls you get in the comment section of YouTube that don't mean anything and never translate to sales, but
00:22:25
Speaker
sure enough, people were sort of like interested. And it was a, it was an experiment. It was saying, okay, if there's 10,000 viewers on YouTube, uh, in 2017, 2018, what does that translate to in terms of like customers? Like will they follow you somewhere and will they want to have a totem of the experience in their hand that they carry everywhere with them?
00:22:53
Speaker
So, uh, obviously like still being a frustrated creator and still wanting to do toys. It seemed like the perfect intersection. Like we could launch our own toy line and we could promote it through this weekly, sometimes twice a week program. And this will be a million dollar idea. Um, not quite that we, you know, we didn't approach it quite that cynically, but, um,
00:23:21
Speaker
So we did it and we, we, you know, the idea was like the toys I wanted to make are pretty much the toys I'm making nowadays, right? Pretty weird, esoteric things, just misfits that don't belong anywhere and are straight from my brain. Um, purposefully we tried to come up with a visual language that would make sense to a younger generation than us, you know, cause I grew up
00:23:51
Speaker
with like old school tokusatsu programming, you know, bad dubs and VHS tapes from flea markets. Uh, I was the generation before power Rangers, which I think is probably like the most recognizable tokusatsu program. So, you know, we decided like, okay, viewership and consumerism, it comes in waves, right? So what is important to the younger generation? Well, they all grew up with power Rangers. They all grew up with.
00:24:21
Speaker
Uh, big, bad Beetleborgs, like all of this, this slate of live action characters in costumes fighting big Kaiju. Like that's super important. And we were watching the trends in the algorithms of YouTube and how that stuff was performing. And so, you know, it was a bit of a departure for me because I just want to do my own crazy characters. Uh,
00:24:46
Speaker
but I had to sort of be thoughtful, like, okay, what are we constructing here? What is the ideal mascot for toy pizza? What is the, you know, for Sega, who is our Sonic? What does it, you know, what does that construct look like? And, you know, in working with some great artists that we love fine at the time, my very crude drawings were brought to life as this, what we call now the classic knight.
00:25:14
Speaker
And the campaign did really well. I think we funded in 24 or 48 hours, something like that. And you know, it was a great experience and then it became almost a near-death experience and then it bounced back. We sort of like, with anything you do, especially in crowdfunding, you're never really asking for enough money. There's always stuff that comes up.
00:25:43
Speaker
So we had a shortfall. Uh, we had a retailer that picked up the line, the line bombed fantastically. It was, it was, you know, being clearanced out. Uh, and this retailer was going to come and ask for markdown money, which basically be us giving back the money that they purchased the goods with. And, um, lo and behold, you know, a couple of weeks or maybe a few days before they were going to hit us up for the markdown money that
00:26:11
Speaker
that retailer went out of business. Now, I'm not saying that my line put that retailer out of business, but it didn't hurt. It didn't help the cause in any case. So, you know, there's been all these points where, you know, the wave sort of ebb and flow and the annihilation of Knights of the Slice has come very close many, many times and it still kind of bounces back.
00:26:40
Speaker
We get, you know, a new blood of customers and, uh, it just kind of keeps progressing. So the very long winded way of saying, um, you know, I just wanted to make toys. No, I mean, that's, that's, that's part of the process, right? Like, you know, we're, we're always interested in kind of where the motivation kind of comes from. Right. Um,
00:27:04
Speaker
And speaking of that motivation, you mentioned that a lot of these characters come straight from the depths of your brain. But how do you kind of form the ideas that kind of drive this eclectic mix of characters in not just a toy line, but this larger world that you're building with Knights of the Slice?
00:27:30
Speaker
Well, before I hop into that, just briefly, I do want to say that, you know, Knights of the Slice in particular, it doesn't exist without Glios and the Glios system and Matt Dowdy and his creations. He, he developed a universal joint system that, you know, a dozen or more toy lines all utilize. And that means all the parts are swappable and usable. And at some of the low points of Knights of the Slice, it's been Dowdy's Acumen and
00:27:59
Speaker
and foresight that had sort of helped it persevere. And, you know, there was a juncture point where Nights of Sights was not going to be a Glios line. We launched without that being a definite thing. And really, the line was initially saved and saved many times since.
00:28:15
Speaker
through that. So I think that's important to acknowledge. And now you can remind me of the question because I do not remember. Well, actually, before we get into that question, for those that may be unfamiliar with what the GLIO system is, you kind of alluded to it being an interchangeable joint system, but maybe can you give us a little bit more information about it for those that may not know?
00:28:41
Speaker
Absolutely, you know, I think probably the best touchstone is to just go to O'Neill design and check out what's on that site but Glios You know this system the pagan whole methodology of these toys this is all because of one guy just tinkering in his garage Matt Dowdy's he's a mad genius and You know through sheer force of will he brought
00:29:11
Speaker
his creations into the world, you know, by going to China, by meeting factories, he could have been swindled. He could have been, you know, any number of fates could have fallen him, but he persevered. And so like I'm standing where I am because he did all that legwork and he figured out the factory. He figured out the system. He, you know, it's all, I'm sort of playing in his sandbox. So, um,
00:29:38
Speaker
You know, I think that's a, it's a huge crucial piece of the story. And, you know, Knights of Slice or some toy line of mine would probably exist if, you know, Dowdy was never born, but it would not be what it is. And it wouldn't be as good as it is. So, you know, I would encourage people go to an L design, pick up a couple of things in the store. There's links there to all the other creators.
00:30:05
Speaker
Um, I wouldn't be surprised if there's been probably like 20 different toy lines that have utilized, uh, the GLIO system. So it's, uh, I, you know, in some regards, it's kind of like the best kept secret of toy collecting because it's so indie, it's so small batch. Uh, but once you kind of dip your toe into this world and you start seeing, Oh, this is a buffet. I can have some armivores from, from, uh, this company and I can get.
00:30:35
Speaker
my, uh, mighty maniacs over here. Like it's, it's a, it's a wonderful rabbit hole to go down. And the best part is you're supporting all independent creators, you know, just people like me, uh, pissing away their life savings, uh, to, uh, to make action figures independently. Well, thank you for, uh, for, for clearing that up because, uh, yeah.
00:30:58
Speaker
Any, anything to kind of foster, uh, more of the, the, the world of kit bashing and creation is, is, uh, you know, we're all for that. Yeah. I mean, if, you know, like I'm, I am more of a kit basher than a customizer. I always have been, especially, you know, going back to Frankenstein. GI Joe's, like we all had a shoebox full of. Joes and pieces that we were never going to put back together again. So.
00:31:24
Speaker
The, the ability to just sort of pop off and pop on different parts without having to paint or sand or prime, like that's my sweet spot. That that's what really speaks to me. Um, so to be able to do that across a dozen different toy lines. And I mean, I have in my own toy line, I have 13 different styles, 14 different styles of figures. So it's sort of like, it's all the fun parts of customization.
00:32:10
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:33:02
Speaker
Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $700 on average, and those savings add up. Imagine what you could buy in the future. The graphics are so real on this video game console I bought with the savings from Switching to Progressive 10 years ago. I can't tell what's real and what's the game, which I think is what people want. You know, in the future, which it is currently.
00:33:22
Speaker
So switch to progressive and save big because those savings can add up in the future. And now, back to the show.
00:33:37
Speaker
So back to the original question. So now the Glio system, you have these different parts to play with. Where do you come up with the ideas for the characters in this world that you're building? Right. OK. That was the question. So a lot of the characters that are in Knights of the Slice are from my childhood. And for some reason, I saved every drawing I made, every short story I wrote.
00:34:06
Speaker
every comic book I did. I even have like some very, very early pixel art comics made on a Macintosh computer, just a, you know, green and white screen. Um, and I find that to be a sort of endless well of inspiration. And I, I try to, I don't think I, you know, I don't think most people have better ideas than when they are a kid and they, they're not sort of.
00:34:34
Speaker
jaded or formed by the world. I think like that's a crucial time and you sort of, you know, everything about the universe, uh, intrinsically or subconsciously. I think you unlearn all that stuff as you become educated in many respects. So I go back to that all the time and we're going to talk about card slicers. Card slicers originates in my childhood as well through
00:35:01
Speaker
drawings and things like that. But yeah, like, you know, I guess Rex Gannon is sort of the de facto main character of Knights of the Slice for this phase anyway. And that's a childhood character of mine that I just used to draw on the margins of notebooks. There's a ebook on my store right now called Harley and Marley. It was a creation of mine in middle school and in high school. Instead of paying attention in class, I was
00:35:29
Speaker
doing just these very quick little sequential comics and ended up with all these pages of them. So I've collected those and made fingers based on those characters. So, you know, I think my stuff, I'd like to think my stuff stands out because it's uniquely me, right? There's no other combination of
00:35:54
Speaker
people and life experiences that would produce the Knights of the Slice line. It's all incredibly tied to my brain and my unconsciousness and my id. So I think hopefully that just will give you something that doesn't look like anything else or you don't experience in the same way you experience
00:36:20
Speaker
Uh, just picking up whatever the Disney plus Marvel series six inch figure of the week is like, you know, I think this is a, a sort of direct line to my brain and, uh, is formed by everything that I've gone through in my life and all the inspiration I take. And, uh, hopefully that puts you as a customer, as a collector.
00:36:46
Speaker
Uh, in a bit of a different head space, it's just, you know, hopefully it's cultivating a different kind of vibe. Well, we talked about this when we had, uh, Ricky from the plunder links team on, um, where it's interesting. Cause like, you know, there's, there's really two types of toy lines out there. There are toy lines that are, you know, new ideas. And then there are toy lines that are, you know, for the lack of a better term, you know, and, and,
00:37:14
Speaker
This is no knock to them because I'm surrounded by toys that are cashing in on nostalgia, but they're cashing in on nostalgia. Or a license or something. Sure. And there's something that's interesting and I draw as different as the plunderlings and the knights of the slice are. There's something to me that's wholly kind of similar about them, where it is more than just a toy line. There's a story, there's a world, there's a universe that's being built. It's an original idea.
00:37:44
Speaker
But there is something that's like, I can't put my finger on it. It's on the tip of my tongue familiar about them too, at the same time. Sure. Yeah. Well, look, I'm, you know, it's, it's flattering to be, uh, regarded in the same light as Ricky and Plunderlings. I think they're, they're fantastic. Um, part of what you're probably experiencing, but can't articulate is.
00:38:09
Speaker
the creator to consumer connection, which is a phrase I just made up, but I'm gonna trademark. I think that's pretty good. I think that we, you know, Culture at Large is consuming these gigantic group projects from a corporate slant, really. Like every film that's streaming is a production of an army of people. There's very few sole creator voices
00:38:38
Speaker
in our society at all. Everything's a big production. Everything's a big process. So when you see something like Plunderlings, or you see Knights of the Slice, or you visit one of our booths at a New York Comic Con or wherever, it's a bit different of an experience than just going to Target and picking up the Batman figure that
00:39:06
Speaker
that's just been stocked on store shelves. There's a little bit of mojo there. You can imagine a single person behind this project. If I'm being highfalutin about it, I like to think of each individual night of the slice as being a little work of art.
00:39:31
Speaker
That's not entirely true. And I'm certainly not doing all the labor involved in the art, but it is a artistic expression of mine and it is a relatively affordable one. And every now and then I look at one and I think I've actually achieved something beautiful or something aesthetically different. You know, when I see them stacked on a shelf, uh, every now and then I don't recognize it. I'll walk by quickly. I'm like, what is that? Oh, wait, I know what that is.
00:40:01
Speaker
And, you know, all that stuff is, it's much more of a kind of a magical response, you know, instead of just pressing the feeder button on your Netflix controller and just watching whatever series you're supposed to binge watch because that's what everybody's talking about.
00:40:20
Speaker
You know, maybe in some ways it kind of shakes us up from just this doldrum, this routine. And really, I think, you know, soul creators and their voices when they're not inhibited are the thing that can kind of shake us from that, you know? Yeah, that sounds good. So you talk about, you know, the process and kind of
00:40:48
Speaker
you know, that art making process. You've been a part of the entire process along the way, whether it goes for licenses, design, and placement at retail. How does all of that help inform the decisions you make with Knights of the Slice? I would say it makes me treat all the things you listed as antagonistic forces towards Knights of the Slice.
00:41:17
Speaker
Uh, and let me explain. So I, I have, you know, I try to be friendly with as many independent toy makers as I can. And historically there's been quite a few that really hit something good. They had a great design. They had a great line and inevitably what happens is they, uh, they hear the siren call of Hollywood, right? For adaptation or.
00:41:42
Speaker
animated series for live-action movie and all that stuff is very flattering but Your full-time job becomes chasing those opportunities not making toys and not pushing your art forward so Having worked in the world of licensing having understood how film distribution works having been in a thousand pitch meetings having read hundreds and hundreds of scripts like all of that is
00:42:12
Speaker
I don't want to say forbidden for Nights of the Slice, but I look at all that stuff as being directly antagonistic to what I'm trying to do, to where I'm putting my life force. Now, look, maybe one day I'll become a sellout and there'll be a live action Nights of the Slice film in 3D IMAX and I'll retire to some third world country. But for the time being, all those opportunities to me are just a distraction at best and at worst they are
00:42:42
Speaker
What could be the death of what I'm building? Um, so, you know, I've been lucky enough to operate in those systems within Hollywood and within licensing. And I understand how to generate revenue for IP holders and things like that, all the nuts and bolts of the bigger entertainment world. Um, but if it's taught me anything, it's to stay the hell away from it. And the same goes for retail. Uh,
00:43:12
Speaker
Like I don't want Knights of the Slice in retail. I don't want it in Target. I don't want it in Walmart. If they came knocking, would I do it? Sure. Absolutely. I will secure that back. But for the time being, um, I know how destructive those things can be. If you're building something slowly and cultivating it, you know, I think that, uh, part of the American dream is like, well, you get a film franchise and you get
00:43:40
Speaker
You get your ideas in Walmart and Target and you're set. And that's sort of the be all end all goal, the scalability of your idea. But for me, I see all those things as being the antithesis of being able to do my art and construct the world that I'm building. And I'm sure too, to a certain extent, it boils down to control as well. I mean, this is something that you've
00:44:08
Speaker
It goes beyond the term ideation. This is something that you've said already that's inherently part of your brain and part of who you are. I would imagine that once you start to bring these other parties in, you start to lose a little bit of that line and get a little bit further away from it than you would be in your current situation.
00:44:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've seen that on the licensing side of things, right? I've seen creators lose complete control of their IP. I've seen creators freely sell their control of an IP and cash in. And I've seen creators think they have a different deal than they do and they get left out in the dark inevitably. I've seen it all. And I've seen creators who have exploited their rights and it has been for the better.
00:45:00
Speaker
Peter Chung the creator of Ian flux is on patreon. I really recommend people follow his patreon. It's really fantastic He shows a ton of great stuff. He also did a lot of work on very early transformers and transformers the movie He said You know, he was asked about selling your rights to something or doing work for hire and he said, you know MTV owns Ian flux and
00:45:26
Speaker
Maybe I don't feel great about that now, but I never would have gotten the chance to make the series and I never would have gotten my name out there and I wouldn't be where I am now. So I don't want to say that like you should never exploit your rights or you should never cash in. You should never better your life through your work. But I do think it's a calculus, you know, and ultimately.
00:45:50
Speaker
Once you do that deal, the reins are out of your hands. You know, there's very few sort of deals across the entire spectrum of entertainment where the creator, a first time creator specifically can retain any rights and have any kind of a decent production. It's just not, you know, that's not the way the, uh, the scales, uh, tip.
00:46:15
Speaker
So speaking of, of expanding, you know, the world that you're in, uh, you mentioned it before, but you know, from, from action figures now to, uh, to tabletop gaming. So, uh, tell us a little bit about your latest venture card slicers. Card slicers. Well, you know, this does sort of, uh, play into the idea of the child mind and, and creativity because, uh, when I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to play dungeon dragons. So I.
00:46:45
Speaker
designed what I thought was dungeon and dragons. Like I tried to reverse engineer like a UFO crash or something. Um, and I found recently my, my old handwritten notes and it was not good. It was not like there's no game edit there. It's like, I did not, I just didn't know what I didn't know. And, um, uh, but certain aspects of it were actually quite clever and endured.
00:47:11
Speaker
And in play testing it as an adult, I was like, wait, actually, this is pretty clever. Like the, the untrained mind really can come up with things that, uh, you know, somebody who rigidly studies a discipline will never discover. You know, I'm, I'm going through this with music and music creation. I don't know how to play music, never had a lesson, but I've spent the pandemic.
00:47:37
Speaker
teaching myself tricks and shortcuts to construct a song, despite not knowing anything. And there is something about the, you know, the, the naked, dumb mind that you can kind of create something that, uh, indoors. If you take it under an expert lens, you know, uh, cause now I'm an adult, I've played lots of
00:48:04
Speaker
dungeon dragons, lots of card games, lots of RPGs. And the basic mechanic I came up with for card slicers, um, you know, some 30 years ago, it holds up, it still works. I play tested it last night with some new people. It's still there. Like there's magic there. Uh, so, um, you know, I decided to
00:48:30
Speaker
To put this together to kind of go out there as a uneducated game maker and as a first time game maker and just a bad pun, but roll the dice and people seem to have responded really well to it. Uh, I, you know, I would be lying if I said.
00:48:50
Speaker
that this isn't anything other than I just really like foil cards and I want an excuse to like make a bunch of them for myself and put them into screw cases and just stare at them. Um, this is kind of like just literally, I wanted an excuse to, to run stuff like that, you know, like, um, pandemic wise, I went through a big card phase and, and, um,
00:49:16
Speaker
the 90s Marvel cards were taking off. They were doing crazy, crazy business with grading and things like that. And I never cashed out, but I did start to go through my old binders of cards. And I was like, there is something, this is treasure. Like there is something intrinsically very appealing and very precious to this Wolverine hologram that's been sitting in a Ultra Pro case for,
00:49:41
Speaker
you know, 30 years, it still shimmers. It still has its, you know, it's vibrance to it. Um, and I just wanted to sort of recreate that feeling, uh, with cart slicers. And, you know, as far as I'm concerned, I think it's done that.
00:50:02
Speaker
Now, did this game originally, you know, going back to when you, when you came up with it, you know, like you said, 30 years ago or so, was this originally, did it, did it involve the characters that kind of are in Knights of the Slice now? Like those, those characters that, you know, have kind of stayed with you or was this, you know, a totally separate idea that, you know, has now been married to that? This kind of predated a lot of my, a lot of the characters that have been
00:50:30
Speaker
regurgitated you know for contemporary times. Largely like card slicers back then I think I called it like dice combat or something completely generic and untrademarkable. It largely was one a sort of blatant ripoff of
00:50:50
Speaker
the imagery I was seeing of Dungeons and Dragons. So, you know, things like Dragon Lance book covers and things, you know, just like your standard completely pedestrian run of the mill tropes that you would expect to find a dwarf with a horned helmet, a lot of like golden axe ripoffs too. So nothing, no flavor or nothing remarkable in terms of aesthetics or characters or things like that. There was also, I found a page where I had attempted to utilize Star Wars with this game engine to like,
00:51:20
Speaker
Because I also wasn't allowed to play the Star Wars RPG. I was obsessed with Wedge Antilles. I don't know why. I guess because he had no real story within the movies. So he seemed like a blank canvas. So he was like a character. And there's what limited pre-internet knowledge there was of all the different alien races and stuff like that. There was a module, I guess, I built.
00:51:49
Speaker
around that as well, uh, not licensed from Lucasfilm. So I think you're the first crew. I mean, we've had many creators on that have, you know, profess their love for the, the, the toyetic nature of Boba Fett. But I think you're no, I would say, Dave, can we confirm that the first that has lots, lots of respect, much respect for the love of wedge, but yeah, you're definitely the first.
00:52:20
Speaker
Nothing wrong with that. Absolutely. I always kind of looked at, he had the one scene and I'm like, who is this guy? And why don't we know nothing about him? I'm going to go even a layer deeper because as much as I loved Wedge until he's in creating stories about him, I I'm trying frantically to look up the name, which I'm going to butcher, but, uh, or in Marco or or in Mako.
00:52:47
Speaker
who was pruned face in Return of the Jedi. He had a split second of screen time. I had the action figure. I was obsessed with him. And I remember I did not have America online and I was on the phone with my mother.
00:53:03
Speaker
And I was asking her to look at this AOL message group and recite to me everything. They were like very early in AOL, people started to like compile Star Wars. Like there was a big Star Wars message board. And so they, there was like an alien races message board category. And I would have her like read over the phone what she was reading on the screen. And I was like writing down, okay, or in Marco, he's a spy.
00:53:28
Speaker
and he's nicknamed Pruneface. And so he had a big expansive sort of involvement in this as well. And still a character this day I don't think gets his due. I'm ready for the spinoff series. He is bound to show up somewhere outside of the war room in Return of the Jedi for 30 seconds. Not even 30 seconds, for three seconds. I think there's two of them also. Who knows who this other Pruneface guy is? He's hanging out somewhere with Yaddle, the other one.
00:53:59
Speaker
Justice for Seattle. Justice for Seattle. So crowdfunding continues to be a successful path for makers and artists. Why did you decide to go that route for card slicers? Well, it's interesting. You know, we have done several private crowdfunding just through our e-commerce without using an outside platform. And we've done them successfully, thankfully.
00:54:29
Speaker
There's definitely like a calculus that has to happen if I'm going to use a third party. Originally, we did private crowdfunding just through our audience because Kickstarter was, their workers were unionizing and Kickstarter was resisting the unionization efforts.
00:54:49
Speaker
And I grew up in a union household, so I pulled my action figure of the month campaign. I didn't pull it, but I didn't launch it. It had approval, and I could have launched. And essentially I said, no, that's not a good situation. I don't want to be a part of that. So since then, they have recognized the union. Lo and behold, Kickstarter has not burned to the ground. They seem to be doing really well.
00:55:18
Speaker
When it comes to something like card slicers, which is outside of our core competency, I mean, we make, uh, four inch action figures and whenever we do anything even remotely outside of that category, it does a fraction of the business. So, uh, to me, it seemed like, well, cards and card gaming is hugely popular on Kickstarter. Um, if it's not their, their biggest category, I'm sure it's, it's on the shortlist.
00:55:46
Speaker
Uh, there's an enormous audience there, the sheer amount of backers and even a mediocre card campaign dwarfs anything going on toy related. Uh, you know, this seems like the right kind of project that can get additional eyeballs and sort of tap into a new audience. That's not already built in for us. Um, so, you know, it, it was a lot of calculation and look, they take
00:56:16
Speaker
a hefty fee out of what you earn. So, uh, there's definitely a downside to it. I would also say just looking back at previous campaigns, I think we're a little light on the usual sort of organic discovery that you benefit from on Kickstarter. I chalk that up to probably there's thousands more campaigns than, you know, when we did our initial campaigns. Um, but at the end of the day,
00:56:45
Speaker
It is a fully funded campaign. It continues to sort of, uh, earn above and beyond that funding line. I think we'll close at, you know, probably double of the ask. And, uh, we have definitely sort of taken in new customers. I've seen people discover us on Kickstarter, uh, purchase something from the store, become a patron, which is always like the high tier of, you know, customers and what you sort of would like to see everyone ascend to.
00:57:14
Speaker
Uh, so there's, you know, there's a ultimately quite a benefit. Um, so, uh, yeah, you know, if you have the fan base and you can kind of quietly fundraise by yourself, there's great advantage to that. Um, but I'm, I'm not too proud to say like cards, not our expertise. It's something we sort of, we need to lean on a bigger community for it. We need to activate.
00:57:43
Speaker
you know, new eyeballs in order to, to be successful and, um, you know, touch wood it's, it's happening. With that, it's time for us to head into our Q and a section.
00:57:58
Speaker
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.
00:58:15
Speaker
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. And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you. So this part of the show, we asked
00:58:34
Speaker
We ask you questions that were submitted by our followers. If you would like to ask a question on a future episode of Adventures in Collecting, make sure you're following us at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram. It's where we post these notifications that we have a guest coming on and give you the opportunity to ask questions as important or silly as you would like to make them
00:59:00
Speaker
Of course, you know, we're here to have fun. So we've got a good mix. We've got a good mix of three questions for you today, Jesse. Dave, would you like to do the first? Yes. At Dylan underscore Wheel Lock asks, who would win in a trucker arm wrestling match? Sen 5 or Cromega?
00:59:24
Speaker
Um, Dylan's name sounds like he's a Autobot, right? I think we can all acknowledge that and hold space for him. Um, so this is a, this is a classic sort of, uh, Joseph Campbell style question. This is man versus machine, right? The cybernetic send five versus crow mega. I throw back a, a sort of early proto human with a modern day intelligence. Who would win in an arm muscling match? I mean, probably like.
00:59:55
Speaker
I'm guessing the machine would probably have more PSI in their grip and their strength, but could the heart of a near prehistoric type of human overcome that just through sheer willpower? This is a bigger question.
01:00:18
Speaker
Uh, capable of answering this is a question we all have to look inward and, uh, settle with our own internal, uh, you know, the, the two fighting wolves, we're going to have to consult them. It's I'm a mere mortal. I can't, uh, I can't weigh in. I would just like to point out that.
01:00:36
Speaker
This question could have been who would win in an arm wrestling match, but, uh, this, this follower specified a trucker arm wrestling match. Oh, so we're talking over the top stop, right? Yeah. Okay. So it's Cro-Mega in that case. I didn't understand. I didn't understand the parameters. Yeah. It's Cro-Mega. Yeah. I'm assuming like the bar at the beginning of over the tower and like when they first start the road trip and over the top.
01:01:01
Speaker
Does, here's the real question. Does Chrome mega have offspring that's watching the arm wrestling match? Um, he doesn't, but he does have a hat. He turns backwards. That's all right. Well, there we go. And that's the net there's the, there's the answer. All right. Our next question comes from at PK underscore mates 13. Uh, and they ask, so what is a rift killer? What is a rift killer? So canonically.
01:01:32
Speaker
A riff killer is essentially a suit of armor made out of space junk that is piloted by lots of tiny microbes that have a sort of hive intelligence. So the more of them you get together, the more intelligent a riff killer could be. Now it's not uncommon for these... You can sort of imagine an ancient suit of knight's armor having some bacteria in it that was able to
01:02:03
Speaker
uh... manipulated joints and walk around and and have a certain sentience it wouldn't be unlike that it is not uncommon in the world a nice and slice for uh... government agencies are paramilitary forces to capture these rip killers and then kind of utilize the shell as a sort of armor which bestows unspeakable power to them so um...
01:02:28
Speaker
You know, this is all well-documented. There's a BBC documentary. Richard Aperl did the narration on the lifespan of the Riff Killers. It's all out there. Just do your research. And Dave, would you like to do the last one? I would. A friend of the pod and previous guest at Toy Fars asks, pineapple on pizza, yes or no? All right, so I'm not here to yuck other people's yums.
01:02:58
Speaker
I think, and look, I am, uh, I am fairly Italian, not entirely full-blooded Italian, but I, you know, just go my last name. Italian enough. I'm Italian adjacent. Um, I should be able to culturally weigh in and, and be the arbiter of what's okay and desirable on a pizza. I'm not here to do that. I'm here to tell you, you guys can eat what you want to eat.
01:03:25
Speaker
You have my blessing. You can collect whatever shitty toy lines you like. You don't have to buy nights to slice. If you like the mind-numbing experiences of just buying the same Optimus Prime over and over again, year after year, do it. I'm fine with that. I actually have enjoyed pineapple and ham on a pizza.
01:03:46
Speaker
I know it's sacrilegious for a lot of people. It's not the worst experience. It's not something I would order regularly. If somebody has a slice, I might indulge. I think there are bigger travesties out there in the world. I'm at peace with people's topping decisions.
01:04:10
Speaker
You know, I, I don't, Dave, I don't know if we've ever discussed this, but like I've also had pineapple and ham on pizza and it's not. Awful. Like, I mean, again, it's one of those things where I'm not going to go to a restaurant. Well, first of all, I have to, I have to provide context here. I can no longer eat a traditional slice of pizza. I unfortunately have, I have a tomato allergy that I discovered like basically when I was 30.
01:04:38
Speaker
Um, so my pizza now is like, I can only eat white pizza, which I don't know if it's actually even pizza. I think it's just bread with cheese on it. Um, but when I could, it's fine bread with cheese, when I could eat pizza, um, I did have, uh, a slice of pizza with pineapple and ham on it, thinking it was going to be the most brutal thing I had ever eaten. And I was, I was pleasantly surprised. It's not terrible. I mean, it's, it's one of those things.
01:05:08
Speaker
Uh, you know, we're sort of like supposed to instinctually recoil from, but it's not that bad. You know, it's like, um, what are those sandwiches Elvis liked? Is that peanut butter and banana? Yeah. Yeah. Peanut butter, banana and bacon. Yeah. It's great. Those tastes great. It sounds weird, but it's not that bad. Sweet and salty always works. Sweet and salty does work. Um, I just don't like, like.
01:05:39
Speaker
The tomato sauce. With the pineapple, like I. I mean, it's a lot of acidity. Yeah, for my sweet. Yeah, yeah. I think you. Yeah, that's a fair point. Yeah, but yeah, if I'm going to if I'm going to do like.
01:06:02
Speaker
Like I even like, like if you caramelize a pineapple, like grilled pineapple, like it's delightful, but so it's not even like the cooked aspect of it. It is, it is a lot of acid because pineapple is very acidic, tomato sauce, very acidic. It's just, it's a lot of acid. It's a lot of, there's a lot of acidity going on with that combination. Well, thank you to our, our favorite Frenchman in, uh, in Norway.
01:06:30
Speaker
for, for, for asking the pineapple on pizza question. Let me tell you two countries who should not weigh in on this pizza conversation at all. He has no business. I've seen, I've seen Scandinavian pizzas. Okay. It's a. It's not pizza. You know what you're going to toy farce. You're going to have to comment when this episode goes live and there's an Instagram post, you're going to have to comment with like the craziest Scandinavian pizza that you've seen.
01:06:57
Speaker
I will give credit though, I was told this, I think it's a lie, but I did go to Stockholm one time. I went in the winter, which I would not recommend. You get about an hour or two of daylight. I was told that the reason there's Swedish meatballs is because the Italians were like some of the first explorers and they brought that over.
01:07:19
Speaker
to the credit of that trip, I did have some pretty good pizza there. But I've since been told that that's complete bullshit and that's not why there's Swedish move balls and things like that. So it's under contention, but I would likely carve out Sweden with an exemption of pizza because I've experienced some pretty decent ones there.
01:07:42
Speaker
Well, with that, that finishes our Q&A section and leads us to the final question of the podcast. Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask our final question? Yes, I would. Our final question that we ask to all of our guests, what is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection? It can be one of each or it can be both.
01:08:13
Speaker
Um, boy, uh, strangest piece. I, the one that pops out a lot for me that we did a toy pizza episode on is medicine, some frontier, the doctors without borders. They did a toy line and the sales from the toy went into their organization, which, you know, uh, seems to do some pretty good stuff around the world. Uh, but we sort of found the figure without any context.
01:08:42
Speaker
and it was very puzzling to us and it is just a starving african child with a stretcher and it has like exposed ribs it it seems like such a bizarre thing we didn't know what it was so we sort of made a video and then people were you know who had it collected that line and knew what it was explained that no no actually this is like you know they managed to do some good with that line but um
01:09:08
Speaker
I would say that's, that's probably a contender. It's a pretty odd thing. You know, I can't point to any other toy lines that feature such things. That's a great answer. And I'm looking this up now and I, I, I see it. That is, that is a, if you were to find that out of context. Right. Right.
01:09:29
Speaker
your mind would go to very bad places very, very fast. I would imagine, especially if you found one loose, like not right. It's an, it's an emaciated African child. So what, you know, I didn't know what to make of that. Yeah. Yep. And, and yeah, and it looks like there's a, there's a doctor too. There's a, there's a little bit of a line of these. This is interesting. Um, yeah. So chalk that one up on, on the list of things that I, I am today years old.
01:09:58
Speaker
that I learned that that, that the doctors without borders organization had a toy line. Yeah. There you go. I, I, I challenge anyone else to out weird that. Yeah. I mean, we, we've had some, some unique answers, like some, some definite, like one of one type situations. Like we, we had, uh, we we've referenced it before, but when we had Marty Abrams on from Migo, he has a, what did he say it was eight, is it 18 or 24 karat gold Caesar head?
01:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, just like a pure gold Caesar head. Yeah, from from from Planet of the Apes. But like, you know, it's one of his one of the amigo sculpts. It's just a solid gold head. Well, that's that's yeah, that's definitely more rare. Well, listen, Jesse, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show before we let you go. Please let everyone know, where can we find you on the web?
01:10:54
Speaker
Where can they back card slicers and and where can we get Knights of the slice? Okay, so this will begin our lengthy plug section. So Card slicers currently on Kickstarter as of the recording of this. I think there's 10 days left So we're just about to enter the final week. Just look up card slicers on Kickstarter plenty of different options for tiers you want to back and
01:11:20
Speaker
There is one tier where you get a action figure and a card of that action figure. So that one's obviously in high demand. So check that out. This Saturday, I don't know when this airs, but I'll be at Shop the Curiosity in Danbury, Connecticut. I will be play testing an early version of card slicers so people can
01:11:41
Speaker
Come and see that and also buy some Knights of the Slice and buy some vintage toys. Patreon.com slash Jesse DeStasio. That is the hub. This is the world's best toy community. It's completely closed off behind a paywall and that's why it's so good. I love the Patreon experience. I post a ton of behind the scenes stuff. You also get free action figures. If you sign up for the higher tiers, you can enter into the action figure of the millennia club.
01:12:11
Speaker
Every two months you get a two-pack of unique figures. Also a great place to like, if you're a creative person, share your artwork, share your comic books, find collaborators, get feedback on the projects you're working on. It's truly like a well-groomed, well-behaved, positive force on the internet, which is very rare these days. So I greatly prize our Patreon space and the patrons who back it.
01:12:40
Speaker
I twitch.tv slash nights of the slice. Once a week we do live streams. Usually it's to coincide with a store drop.
01:12:48
Speaker
This is where you will see me experimenting with music in ways that some would find unseemly or unpleasant But I don't know of a lot of other toy brands that are offering so much free entertainment so check out twitch and Watch our madness inducing live streams that can be a lot of fun And then of course toy pizza comm or nights on the slice comm it'll take you to the same place there are
01:13:14
Speaker
At any given time, a dozen different figures in stock, multiple different styles, usually everything's 30 bucks or less. And, um, there's a lot of eBooks and comic books and stuff, a lot of background material that you can read also. So, uh, you know, if you are, um, if you were confined to a couch due to a back injury,
01:13:37
Speaker
This is a great, I have so many things you can do on the computer to bring the toy pizza and Knights of the Slice experience right to your laptop. So there's no reason to ever heal up. You don't have to leave the house. You can stay right where you are. You can never move. Just sip on your slurry juice and hit the buy button. And that is, that's all the life you need. I will keep shoveling all of this content down your throat, whether you want it or not.
01:14:04
Speaker
uh toy pizza con irl in real life first time we're able to get back together in three years uh this is happening july 16th at happy valley barricade in beacon this is a bar arcade with vintage games perfect setting uh it's going to be me it's going to be the glios group uh we have some special guests plunderlings are going to be there our good friends
01:14:29
Speaker
It's just gonna be people selling toys trading toys playing card slicers spinning the wheel of knights playing vintage arcade games eating pizza Hopefully not spreading kovat. We'll see But yes, July 16th beacon, New York That's that is the big one. I should have led with that So I believe that's everywhere. You could find me a toy at toy pizza on Instagram Etc, etc
01:14:55
Speaker
So if you are listening to this podcast and you just fell down a large flight of hard stairs, just lay there at the bottom. That's right. Take your phone and visit toypizza.com. Start your journey. Yeah. And know that Medecine's Song Frontier are on the way. Well, with that,
01:15:18
Speaker
That's a wrap. That's all we have for you tonight. Jesse, thank you so much for coming on the show and taking us through your journey through toys and filling us in on Knights of the Slice. Dave, do you want to sign us off? Hi, everyone.
01:15:39
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.
01:15:56
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.
01:16:19
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.
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Speaker
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Speaker
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