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Episode 039 - The Fellowship of the Things w/Kev & Chris
41 Plays4 months ago
This week, we have two very special guests, Kev and Chris from the Scruffy Lookin' Podcasters! We corner the boys about everything "collecting" including toys fairs, where it all began, what's next, and so much more
A massive thank you to Kev & Chris for hanging out with us today. You can find their pod at https://scruffypod.com.
Connect with us via our website https://justshillin.com or send us an email/voicemail at feedback@justshillin.com
Rate and review us on your podcatcher and Goodpods!
Thank you to our good friend Chris Hall for the amazing cover artwork!
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Transcript
Welcome and Introductions
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another very exciting episode of Just Shillin. This is episode number 39. I'm one of your hosts, Sean Hoffman. And I'm your other host, Andy Bell. And today, folks, we've got some really, really special guests.
00:00:22
Speaker
that well Well, sorry, they're all right. They're all right. specialsh Quite special. Today, today where we are we talked about it a week or so ago, um but today we're joined by the UK contingent of the scruffy-looking podcasters. We have in the top right-hand corner of my screen, Mr. Kevin Warkar, but how are you, mate? Oh, mate, I'm all right. Glad to thanks for having me on. Good to see you all.
00:00:48
Speaker
Oh, dude, it's great. It's great to have you on. This is weird, isn't it? never yes You never know. if we If you come back in a month, you'll be recording more with us than you are your own pod. That'd be amazing. Well, that won't be difficult, mate. Don't worry. Shots fired in the beginning. Straight away. i i and And in the bottom of my screen, I have the illustrious and amazing artist that is Mr.
Birthday Celebrations for Sean
00:01:12
Speaker
Christopher Hall. How are you, sir?
00:01:14
Speaker
All good, mate. All good. If there's any games midweek, though, you thought you won't be able to get him on. No, that's true. That's true. That's very true. I always check that picture. Sorry, I dropped an F-bomb. I'm like, we're a minute in, aren't we? Am I all right? No, we fucked. Don't worry. OK, cool. Just checking.
00:01:35
Speaker
so jack in So because we have very, very important guests on this on this um on this episode, as ah regular listener i'd like to say listeners but as our regular listener would know,
00:01:50
Speaker
um we typically try to pivot the the whole conversation around what is a discussion, which is about what is important to them and the stuff that they love. um However, before we go into that,
00:02:03
Speaker
i want to wish I want to wish a very special person a very happy birthday today. It is Mr. Sean Hoffman's birthday today. He's looking beautiful. Before we carry on, carry on and i'm I'm really hoping the boys will support me on this and it all works out.
00:02:21
Speaker
ah ah Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy be birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthday!
00:02:35
Speaker
Happy birthday but to you. you a I'm not going to sync those up. I'm just going to let them be what they were. no No, no, just let them be. Let them be. it's it's it's like ah it's it's ah It's a new wave art form and everyone will be into it soon. The kids will be down with it. um I'm going to just cut off, Mike, a little bit. I've got you a few things. There's a couple of things, unfortunately, that are still in the post.
00:02:58
Speaker
Well, I have got you a few things that I wanted to to show you that i've I've got for you. Unfortunately, ah one particular ah um supplier has let me down a little bit in that they've taken a God's age to get some stuff over to me. But bear with me a second. Talk so much yourselves.
00:03:15
Speaker
ah Oh, so last you he always, he always wants to wait and then he, he walks away. Then he continues to talk. It's like, it's kind of a, it's out of a bit now that he does a really professional, a really professional intro as it all organized. And then anytime he's got something to show you just fucks off and then it's just, it's just out of reach. Just like, it's just right in the air. So first off.
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah. So first off, yeah, you and I aren't big readers. So I thought I'd get you into it. And I bought you recently a copy of Where's the Wookie?
00:03:52
Speaker
you know my You know my fun, you know you know my my my my my adoration of ah of a particularly fantastic walking carpet. So I got you where the work Where's the Wookie, which essentially is a children's picture book, ah which is a little bit like Where's Wally, um but you've got to find the Wookie in all of these pictures. So yeah you've got that coming to you.
00:04:16
Speaker
that is That is awesome because that is that is the best because growing up, somebody in my family bought, like as a family gift, like a giant Where's Waldo puzzle. It was the hardest thing i've ever we've ever done in our lives. like It was massive. I think this thing was like four feet wide or whatever that is in meters. like It was huge. And and everything everybody looked like Waldo. They were all wearing the same outfits, but you had to find the real one.
00:04:45
Speaker
ah Oh mate, I thought he was going to say that that piece was missing with World of One and you were just like, oh fuck. That'd be the best part. that I think it it took us weeks to find him. it was like but yeah Yeah, you build it and then you go, it's not there. Shit. off But he's a time. What a waste of time. God damn it. It's a bit like some of the puzzles I've dumped with you, Kev.
00:05:03
Speaker
yeah the motion yeah There might be a problem there might be one or two pieces missing right secondly secondly very quickly ah Found this last week when I went toy hunting with a week before last sorry when I went toy hunting with with Chris and and calf And I needed any Chris to confirm who your favorite Turtle was and he confirmed it was um It was ah It was Raphael. That was the statue. Put it that way. That's the statue. i love all Yeah. Okay. But you've got one nice favorite. That's, that's, I can tell. Oh, no, don't worry about it. What I got for you is something called a, a scalar.
00:05:45
Speaker
ah which basically is a model, a model, um I don't know, a caricature of of of of Raphael that you can wrap around your headphone cords or whatever. I don't really know what it is. I just saw it. Oh, dude, those are sick. I love that.
00:06:00
Speaker
yeah Okay, so you've you've you've got that. ah yeah They look at they're like they're like like they're climbing like a little thing of bamboo. they're like yeah Yeah, exactly. exactly nice and then last and then last And then lastly, for the moment, there is more to come. And I will definitely, definitely, definitely um make sure that you ah know what it is before I dump it off with you.
00:06:21
Speaker
But I took this inspiration from, well, A, I saw it and I covered it myself. It is it is vintage, so it has it's not in the most amazing of conditions. But I think it is based on, but from what I can see, I saw you on um a while ago now, on um ah Hawes' Discord for Blue Harvest. Coverting something that somebody
Light-hearted Banter
00:06:45
Speaker
had bought that straight back from the 90s to celebrate the first, I think it was his first 10 years of Return of the Jedi. And knowing that you're a design freak, I bought you the um an original, what do you call this? A folio, an envelope, a plastic envelope of Star Wars blueprints. So in here,
00:07:06
Speaker
yeah as opposed to it being, if you don't mind me, looking into it. So this takes me back to my design days because it's, um, it's off of it. ja fingers all over it Oh, it's opened it. God damn it. So it's already opened it. It's already opened it. But what you've got here is. not dumb you are the original engineering drawing drawings. I mean, these all fold out into A3 sheets, so I'm not going to open it up for you. But what you've got here is the original engineering drawings. And the way it used to work back in, I mean, certainly in my day when I was at the drawing board, you used to be used to basically use ink on a um ah like a film, like ah like a like a transparent film. film yeah and then you put that and And then you'd overlay that film onto a piece of ammonia paper and then run it. k Chris, do you know what I'm talking about?
00:07:55
Speaker
you'd run it through a a printer, which would take a copy of that of that original film. And that's what they've done here. And I have to say, they're in pretty good nick because typically what would happen is over time, the ammonia, which was used as the bonding agent, ah words would would would fade away, but they're in really, really good nick. So you've got about I don't know, 15 blueprints in all. um You've got R2, I mean, what is no, that's a tractor beam tractor beam generator. ah Again, doing it I mean, I could. um
00:08:32
Speaker
I bought you this present for your birthday, lad. Do you want me to fucking show it to you? I've opened it for you. I've opened it for you. And I'm going to show you everything, isn't it? On the audio medium. Well done, Andy. Gentlemen, you too always make me laugh. I mean, i mean i'm i um i'm you really are a couple of rib ticklers. But anyway, we we we we set a precedent so we set a precedence a while ago when it came down to ah my birthday. so So we've already set this precedent. So lay off layoff. Layoff. Right.
00:09:07
Speaker
Happy birthday, buddy. Thank you. Happy birthday, mate. Yeah. More to come, mate. Congrats. More to come. Right. Not far off the Big 4-0, are you, mate? Not far off the Big 4-0, I believe. Not far. Not far. But I'm hoping not too soon. Yeah, good lad. Mainly because I don't want to hear it from my partner. I don't want to hear it from her. She'd be like, oh, look at you, Mr. 40.
00:09:34
Speaker
Is she younger than you, mate? Yeah. Oh, mate, you fucked, then. Yeah, you fucked. Absolutely. But I think, by the way, that's what's funny. It's like she's choosing to be with me. So isn't that more on her than it is on me? Oh, totally not. I can't help being that age. Yeah, totally, mate. Totally on her, mate. Oh, can you relate? Can you relate, Kev? No, no, I don't know what you mean. No, I don't know what you're talking about. Mate, we've got 10 years, Emily and I. That's mad, isn't it?
00:10:02
Speaker
10 years difference mate. Oh bless you. Fantastic. There you go. She's only in it for your money you know. but
00:10:12
Speaker
You better tell her. Well all that 35 quid I've got in the bank mate. Is that what she's really after before mate? Jesus Christ. No mate there's no money involved. No money. Legend. All right so listen before we start the the meat and the potatoes of the of
Recent Adventures and Plans
00:10:31
Speaker
the pod. um Just let's have a quick round robin as to what we've been up to the last couple of weeks. Let's say a couple of minutes each, what we've been up to. Typically, ah we talk about the news, we talk about what we've been watching, listening, reading or playing, all that kind of stuff. But in the interest of making sure that we focus
00:10:50
Speaker
this episode on you guys, let's just do it quite quickly. And to give you an idea of kind of how it's how wish how it's done when we got guests on, Sean, do you mind going first, mate? What you've been up to, anything you're excited about, and so on? Well, first thing I'm excited about is, you know, well, first of all, thank you for all that the birthday wishes. I appreciate that and and the gifts.
00:11:14
Speaker
ah Second, who says who says that men only get flowers once in their life at their funerals? Madison got me some lovely fall-themed flowers for my birthday, and they're in my ah Han Solo geeky-tiki back here of him in carbonite, so yeah, that's why that's why those are sitting there looking all looking all awesome. So I'm excited about that. That's cool. ah Other than that, the only other thing I've really been up to is I did buy one leg of our celebration flights. Andy, I know we've been talking about that for a while.
00:11:43
Speaker
I bought ah bought the flight out there, which was not bad. um good reasonable yeah we Then we started looking into the flights back, and I think I might just live in Japan after that, because the flight the return flights are on unreal.
00:12:03
Speaker
and so that is currently well it is it's it's half the way you know it's It's half the way on your journey to New Zealand, so you might as well. i Do not, do not, not on my birthday, don't start that shit. don't she' She's probably, so she'll probably listen to this. so it so i like want it Don't encourage that. Well, what's the plan here then? So you go in to Japan, you go in Tokyo, are you going on somewhere else from there?
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, we're gonna I think the current plan is I'm gonna fly over first Yeah for the beginning of celebration. It's a couple days Madison will fly over later and then we're probably gonna spend another After celebration maybe another week week and a half there ah Depending we're still kind of sorting that out. Well, yeah kind of trying to figure out when good flights are because it's kind of run golden week and uh cherry blossom season and Yeah. If we could find a good return flight, then then we'll but we'll kind of book in it. But yeah, we're going to spend a little bit extra time and and head south and do stuff like that. Oh, sweet. So that's brutal at the minute there, the return. That's like. ah From what we were looking at yesterday, the return flights were five times the cost of the. Sweet Jesus. There. Yeah. as for Wow. That we may just stay for. Yeah, just.
00:13:17
Speaker
Just to abandon and everything back home and stay there forever. Just wait for it to come down. Just wonderful word of Japan. Why not? Just wait for the floodwaters to lower. You're fired. So yeahs and yeah, that's the that's the the biggest biggest piece of news. um Oh, my neighbors did piss me off, and so I'm putting my giant skeleton back up again this year, even though I told them all I wouldn't. ah So he's going back up. He's halfway assembled.
00:13:43
Speaker
nay there They started some, shakes they hate, they hate, they hate my skeleton. So I'm putting, he's going right back up and looking right at their house. Yeah. Yeah. Other than that, I'm in awe of you guys. Uh, we, we, uh, it could be where I live, but if it seems to be that we don't, the Brits do the trick or treat thing, but we certainly don't decorate our houses anywhere near as good as you guys. Would you agree with that boys? Uh, no.
00:14:12
Speaker
I don't decorate my house at Christmas, mate. For God's sake, I just don't do nothing.
00:14:20
Speaker
That's way, way, way too much effort. I mean, come on. I like to look at other peoples and go, they've made a great job of that, but do it at yourself. Okay. let me Let me rephrase the question. Do you have neighbors that decorate their house at Halloween? Oh, yeah. yeah Yes. They start putting them projectors up now, you know, that like beam. They like the really big thing over here at the minute. So you get like projectors that go on and then. I like the green and the green and red like ah yeah like lasers. And it's like one of those just all the time. Those are sick. Absolutely. So you get like loads of them. Same at Christmas. But yeah, I quite like looking at other people's, but I don't do it myself.
00:14:57
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah, i only I only put the gigantic skeleton up and then I usually forget to take him down before it snows. And so that's why he hasn't been up in a while because that the year we got like a million feet of snow, he got completely buried. ah Just his head was popping out. ah And so now he's back. um I've decided to ah dig him back out and put him back together again. But to your point, Andy,
00:15:18
Speaker
I think I think a lot of the the over decorating I mean decorating has always been pretty big over here for like Halloween and stuff but I do think since the trick-or-treating is like going down like it's all becoming like everybody's worried and so they're all like going to parking lots and doing like trunk trunk retreating instead of going to people's houses and so people are like well no one's gonna come to the house and get candy, then like we might as well just decorate like crazy to kind of feel the feel the spirit. So I definitely feel one going down while the other's going up, but got yeah. Got it. Yeah, excited. I'm with you, man. Excited to annoy my neighbors, so that's where I'm at. That's a pleasure, that's it. I enjoyed it with that. It's great, isn't it? Yeah, it's great. Good fun. What about you, Chris? What have you been up to the last couple of weeks? were you Anything you're excited about?
00:16:05
Speaker
um
00:16:08
Speaker
Give us a little. bad little Well, anything that got you excited, anything that you're excited about that's coming up, just give us a little snapshot in the life of Hall.
Rings of Power Season 2 Discussion
00:16:20
Speaker
Epic toy adventure, didn't we? The other weekend that we were at the NEC, which you guys have already talked about and I'm sure we'll talk about a bit more. so Yeah, that was rad.
00:16:30
Speaker
and I've got a daily, the daily grind mate working hard or hardly working. That's right. That's, that seems to be, um, what, what my life consists of. No, I've got fucking spinning plates, mate. Like always, Kev knows, uh, my life's magnetic.
00:16:49
Speaker
Mate, it's fucking legendary, mate. I love getting the messages and the updates of of yeah his kid's life and Chris's life and the absolute mayhem that it has involved. But yeah, it's great fun, mate. I love it every single day. I love it. I've got a 15 year old that's currently in Paris.
00:17:06
Speaker
So the first time away from home. So that's all a bit like, oh, we're all a bit anxious and following that. And then she gets back and some American and some Southern twat arrive this weekend. So that's going to be fun. And then you guys go. And then my 10 year old's off next week on his first trip away. So wow all sorts of stuff, yeah. So a lot of logistics going on, spinning lots of plates.
00:17:34
Speaker
multiple projects and they go as per usual. Some very exciting stuff, toy stuff in the works. But I can talk about that more at another point. But yeah. That's very cool. Finish Rings of Power. I know we briefly talked about it last week, Andy. When I last saw you. Mate, I don't know. Have you guys talked about Rings of Power? Obviously, I've not. Go for it. Go for it. Go for it.
00:18:03
Speaker
i don't I can't remember a series that took such a big upswing from series one to series two in recent years. I enjoyed season one. I thought it was a great introduction. Season two I thought was absolutely awesome.
00:18:21
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely awesome. The last two episodes just like, wow. Yep. The opening season finale. Has it finished? Yeah, because I haven't started it yet. I've watched season one, but I have got to get. Man, you are in for a treat. Honestly, Sean, I'm just going to kind of do that thing of blitzing it.
00:18:42
Speaker
like um just bomb get it all get it all done in one sort of blitz and just get it get it watched but chris you were rained about way the week yeah oh mate it's it's superb and i won't spend too much time on it because shawn has already heard this but you know do you remember when season one came out as it was the same time as the first season of um ah House of the Dragon came out at the same time. and I wouldn't say that they were being played off against each other, but from a personal taste point of view, I ended i ended that season. I mean, we we were starving anyway because it was during lockdown, but I ended season one of both of both shows really firmly in the camp of of of House of the Dragon. It's completely flipped on its head this year.
00:19:28
Speaker
um What I enjoyed House of the Dragon, I thought that the ending was kind of like, well, we we're know, we're not really, there's not they've been that much progression since the end of season one, apart from a bunch of gnarly outrageous shit, which Game of Thrones does really, really well. But this honestly, I i loved season two. I thought I can't wait for season three. I hope it's already, I don't even know if it's in development at the moment. I can't I hate the idea of waiting another couple of years for season three to come along because it it ended so perfectly. It really, really did. Yeah. So there's going to be more, isn't there, of rings of power? Oh, they have to yeah they have to. They have to. You haven't seen it yet, but they've left one monumental thing remaining that needs to happen. So okay um yeah yeah so so they have to. They just have to.
00:20:19
Speaker
Sweet. It's like being on Scruffy's This. i I say what I've been watching and then everyone else talks over at Tuppermiff for five minutes. Sorry, Chris. Have you been watching anything else, mate? I really enjoyed the season two of Rings of Karen. It's good that was... It's worked! Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I'm glad you enjoyed it too, Andy.
00:20:44
Speaker
and Yeah, so...
00:20:49
Speaker
It's good. No, when they ah when they first said there's five seasons, I believe, when they first announced the project, they said they were going to tell it in five seasons. So there's three more seasons to come. But like you, I hope I don't have to wait two years because. Yeah, there's some big things awaiting without be without going into it too much. Do you think you think we'll get five seasons? Or do you think it'll like to be I'd like to think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can't see them get into where we need to get to.
00:21:20
Speaker
in one seat one more season. Yeah, oh yeah for sure. Because there's obviously, there's a they said ah the when they announced the project, it will end with the prologue of the films, which is basically the moment that Isildur cuts the ring from Sauron's finger. Sauron's finger, sorry. And at this point in the series, Isildur's just like a little dweeb, so he's got to I can't see him like upscaling that watching one season. So yeah. No, it's not mean lots, lots of jigsaw pieces. We've got to fall in place and they before we get there, but you know, time will tell things change all the time. don
00:22:06
Speaker
thought we were going to get a Star Wars movie every year for the next 20 years of his lives, didn't we? How did that turn out? That's not turned out that well, is it? There you go. Yeah, no. Outside of that, mate, just usual YouTube. You know me, I don't watch a lot of series. I just spend my time listening to records, crafting and binging YouTube stuff. So yeah, I'm all good, mate. Talk to Kev. It's a peaceful life. Talk about what he's been doing.
00:22:34
Speaker
Kev. Kev, what have you been up to, Billy? Well, mate, just, well, like Chris said, we did the old toy fair, didn't we? Yeah. Yeah, it's really good, that toy fair, did you enjoy it, Andy? I really liked that toy fair, did you? I just thought I'd talk over Kev. Colby, do it. Do it, mate, do it.
00:22:55
Speaker
um Yeah, we've got, we're just preparing for a visitor. We've got, one like Chris said, we've got a visitor from the scruffy's heads coming to see us. So my house is a tip. I'm not ready for it, but we've got to get, I've got to get like, it's here for like four days. So we are, I'm like preparing for that and just getting ready for that. i Not to interrupt, but it is relevant. I said, I reminded Cheryl that Andy was staying over on Friday night the other day and she was like, what?
00:23:25
Speaker
Who's staying over? I was like, yeah. She's like, the house is a shithole. When are you going to sort this out?
00:23:33
Speaker
Mate, why do we do that? Like you think, like you live your daily life and then somebody's coming to visit and you suddenly think you've got to clean absolutely every sort of room. I'm like going for a second. It's like.
00:23:45
Speaker
It's fine, isn't it? It's not going to be going in most rooms. It's going to be like absolutely fine. I'm like, what do I need? I'm doing that thing of like, what do I need to get in? What's he like? What's he going to eat? What's he going to do on that lot? What if they open the refrigerator and pull the bottom drawer and notice that it's got a stain on there? They're going to judge me for everything. They might find a speck of dust somewhere. I'm like, what the fuck? Jesus Christ.
00:24:08
Speaker
It's like... Joe, by the time but the time that he lands, he won't he won't have time to listen to this. So I'll tell you the truth. I went out for provisions in air quotes earlier on. And I just came back with a crate of Stara Prav and beer. That was it. That was it. That was it. It was like, I just just looked at the shelves and I was thinking, does he like that? Oh, I don't know. it Does he like that? Yeah. Well, we're going out for dinner. We're going out for dinner for the first night before we come up to you anyway. so um I'll just get him some beer. What beer is he like? I don't know what beer he likes. Hang on a minute. We all drank star at celebration. I'll get some star. Yeah. Just had a panic attack. I need to get some beer. Fucking hell. Oh shit. I've got to get some beer in there.
00:24:54
Speaker
like i stop giving Stop saying this stop but saying things of what I need to get. and Oh my god. Oh my god.
TV and Movie Highlights
00:25:01
Speaker
So ah What else so we've got a horror con coming up in about a week, which I'm really looking forward to can't wait for that So we've been before it's called like for the love of horror, which is like a like a specialist horror con I've not got any guess book, but like car I just love looking around seeing what I shit there is to buy and stuff like that. So we've got that coming up. I've got a run of some gigs coming up. We get into like gig season and I see like a couple of my favorite artists. I'm going to be like, there's a little bit in October to November where I'm out four nights in a row. I'm 50 years old and this is absolutely going to finish me off. I'm like, seriously, I'm like, why have I done this? Cause like two of the nights
00:25:51
Speaker
We've got like, cause it's the Halloween, we've got, I've got a couple of movies booked. Like, you know, like Halloween movies. Like one of them, the show in Halloween, the original Halloween. Nice. On Halloween night. So Chris and I are doing that. And the guy who's doing it, Matt Ferguson, you get like a free art print with it. and We did like a Robocop one recently. This fucking art print was like off its head. It was amazing. ah The night before,
00:26:19
Speaker
I see Twin Peaks Firewalk with me. Twin Peaks is one of my favourite films, so they're showing Firewalk with me in the cinema. A couple of gigs after that, and it's just like, why have I agreed this? I've got a feeling that like, you know, and do you do that thing that like, I booked it and I'm doing it?
00:26:34
Speaker
And then when it gets to that point, you're like, oh, fuck that, I can't be bothered. And it might it might actually not, like, like, materialize. um Yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens. See what happens. um You'll be all right, mate. You can sleep when you die. Exactly, mate. And then school nights. Yeah. Oh, mate. They're all like, ah well what i think a couple of the gigs of Friday, Saturday. And then the films are like, so it's like, what have I got myself in for?
00:27:02
Speaker
And the gigs are like, the gigs are like two hour drive away and two hour back. You're like, what is going on in the mid-week? That's insane, isn't it? Trish said to me at work today, kav she's like, Oh, do you want to come and see bear tooth in a week? Um, next week we've got a spare ticket thinking it'll be rock city. I was like, yes, mate. I'm down for that. and go yeah She's like, Oh, it's, um, it's in Manchester. I was like on a Wednesday night. get for yeah buts just yeah That's a good show though. That's a good show. I will say that's a, that's a,
00:27:37
Speaker
They put on a, they put on a good one. Yeah. Worth it then mate. Worth it. There you go. All that's happening. Mid floor is mate. But currently I'm currently watching the big, my favorite show at the minute is the Penguin. um Nice. which um Absolutely fucking adoring. i Colin Farrell is off next level. um So yeah, what we three episodes in on that. Is it good mate? I absolutely love it.
00:28:05
Speaker
Episode three for me was when it's like I i even messaged Andy when I finished it I was like, all right It just crossed the threshold into like the shit's getting like yeah, like yeah, like yeah, it's good It's like the first it was like set up. It's like, okay. Yeah, it's it's good. But now it's like yeah, fucking watch it Oh mate, I was completely completely agree with that that third episode was like I've really I thought the first two were fantastic But like this third one is like, okay, this is sort of get in next level now. And um nice the bit with Sophia Falcone, who's brilliant, by the way, she that character is probably becoming my favorite in that show. I cannot look away. I'm just like, this is... ah Madison was sitting there with me and I was like, yo, this is my kind of crazy. yeah like I could watch this all day.
00:28:49
Speaker
And what a great job Farrell does behind all that makeup, a portraying light. Oh my god, he's like absolute brilliant. You take it you take it for granted after a while, you're like, dude, that makeup was probably half the budget and he's in it the whole time. yeah it's It's wild. it's It's a fantastic show. So, i'm yeah, with sit three show and we're down, three now in it, three episodes in. Yeah, and yeah so i've kind of I've watched the first two a couple of times, so I'm going to rewatch the third one because i kind of can't watch them till like monday nights here because you don't have a time difference and what have you yeah so i'm going to re-watch that again but this yeah i mean i'm so excited for
00:29:29
Speaker
Batman 2 to lead up to where this goes into that. So that's pretty much it. Is that the plan, is it? This leads up to the next? Yeah, Matt Reeves has pretty much said that the end of this will lead directly into the Batman 2. Nice. Is he involved in the series? He's produced it. He's like produced it and maybe I'm wrong but he might have written a sort of part because he's obviously going to tie in to the next one um because it's obviously like Oz's rise to power and him. I mean the comparisons with the Sopranos is just absolutely spot on here because it's you know there's even a little bit in it with like his mum
00:30:17
Speaker
You know, so it's like the Tony Soprano sort of comparisons are way on. And this show is definitely that because it's a gangster show and it's just leading. Oh, mate. How do I watch this, mate? And it's got the side characters, too. It's kind of nice. It's like it's not just about him and that Sicilian Soprano kind of stuff. It's like it's got other people that really kind of think bring that bring the extra weight. So it's not just that caricature the whole time. Yeah. ah the way I love pretty ah loved it this week, Sean, because they even mentioned about it, that he can't get made. And it's like that, you know, it's like you can't get made because of who you are. You're not Italian. And I'm like, Jesus Christ, this is so much soprano influence. its Oh, yeah. It's it's it's amazing. So, um but yeah, that's about it. You know, just like but Chris said, just daily things. Listen to records when I can and just, yeah, plodding on with stuff. It's a good life. It's a good life.
00:31:13
Speaker
I'll be quick because um it's been relatively simple for me this week. um Sean, I finished Outlaws at the weekend. So I finished Outlaws at the weekend. I'm still doing an hour or so. Boys, this is the um the star wars the new Star Wars game, yeah you both which I know you're both really into, into your game. Well, into that, mate. Yeah. Anyway, it's a it's a good yarn.
00:31:38
Speaker
It's a good yarn. It's a really, really good story. And the ending is nice. It's a good... Where's the set? Between Empire and Jedi. Okay. So it's set between... It's ah it's a young lady that is... um ah brought up in Canterbury, she's down on her luck. Her mum was a thief, was that was ah a thief, a mercenary, a a gun for hire. ah She bugged off and left left this kid um to fend for herself. So she grew up as an orphan.
00:32:13
Speaker
albeit under the protection of this guy that runs a bar in in Canto Bight. And then she eventually pisses so many people off that she's got to escape Canto Bight and she becomes part of the under underworld herself. um And so you spend the story um basically um doing work for the huts, the pikes,
00:32:34
Speaker
yeah more people yeah yeah yeah and other criminal criminal syndicates and and and ah making your way through this storyline whereby you know things happen yeah and you eventually end up, shall we say, free. um ah okay and and and the And the great thing about it is that there's some, what they call DLC or basically some expansions coming out as well. yeah yeah which should take the take the story a little bit further and I hope they keep doing it. i mean i'm um I'm already hearing, I was listening to Hawes and King Tom talk about their thoughts on the game earlier on this week and it's like, um
00:33:13
Speaker
ah talking about maybe s sequels, but I hope there's not a sequel. I hope there's not a follow-up. I just hope they they keep this like a little bit like GTA and they just keep it spanning and spanning and spanning. Because although it's an open game where you can go wherever you want, you can go and have, you know, you can go and take street sushi off the, of of a vendor in the street. You don't have to play the game the way that, the way that the game, you know, the game doesn't drive you to play a certain way. Yeah, exactly.
00:33:39
Speaker
um and um And I hope they just keep expanding on that because despite it being oh what they call open world, it's still relatively tight. You can only go to four planets. It would be nice if they started adding a few more planets and expanding the story, which is cheaper for the developer because they've already got the the main game there.
00:33:57
Speaker
and it means that we end up with this big and bright universe. It's not particularly... You want that MMO so bad. That's what you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. it's not it's not it's not It's not particularly taxing. It's not particularly it's not particularly difficult. It's not as linear as the Jedi Survivor game and the Jedi Fallen Order game. But that's me. Great game. Yeah, fantastic. but but um
00:34:29
Speaker
Yeah, but the but they but but but for me, it's like you go from A to B to C to D to E, and you finish the game. Whereas this, you can just go wherever you want. and i And I love that shit. And more than any other Star Wars game I've played for quite a few years, it's quite immersive. yet there's It's populated. There's a lot of people there. They're all doing their own thing and everything. And I i love that, as opposed to the people or the non-playable characters in the game serving a purpose for for you, for your game. And I love that. I love that shit now. So I finished that. Andy, sorry, to do you take different characters in the game as well? Or is it just purely her?
00:35:08
Speaker
You play her and only her, however, you you you buddy up because you're a criminal, you buddy up with a few, you pick up a few people along the way. Sweet, okay. yeah As part of your team to um to do a heist at the end, which I won't go into too much detail. I don't want to ruin it for Sean, but... do i yeah Do we get some classic characters, mate? In a spoiler-free way, is it is it impactful or is it pretty well isolated?
00:35:37
Speaker
like the story kind of arc, if that makes sense. The story is... Reminds me a little bit, not not of the content, but of the conclusion. Reminds me a little bit of that film that came out, or sorry, was meant to come out called Solo. and um Sorry, what? it hu pun Yeah, I know. It's a solo. What's that? Yeah, yeah in the, in the, she brushes with, she brushes with the
00:36:15
Speaker
the Galactic Civil War on more than one occasion. So while she's doing this shady stuff, she finds out that some of her clients may or may not be involved in the Galactic Civil War. And the conclusion of it um of of ah of the of the story suggests that maybe in the future, she might she might be part of it. Or on the other hand,
00:36:39
Speaker
If you choose not to, she can carry on being part of ah being a crib, being a thief. And her ship was in the background of the Rise of Skywalker the entire time. Yeah, but which one wasn't? You could spot them unless you had a like magnifying glass.
00:36:54
Speaker
so yeah Apart from that, a little bit of gardening, you know you know the gardening antics I've been on. In between um douses of rain, I've been doing a little bit of it garden gardening, getting it ready for um for the winter. um And then lastly, ah basically trying to get my head around the idea of having a visitor tomorrow. So I'm going up early in the morning.
00:37:15
Speaker
firing over to Heathrow because um Ed thinks I live near London despite the fact that I live near two and a half hours away. But anyway, I'm on my way to um um way to pick him up from the airport. He thinks everybody lives there, London mate. Don't worry about it. Yeah, yeah yeah exactly exactly. He thinks everybody lives there. there bringing him back here um again i hope he i hope i mean i' i don't think he'll listen to this before he before he i actually pick him up so um the plan is in the afternoon take him to a place called puzzle wood which is not too far away from me now puzzle was a filming location and it was actually used as um takodana in um
00:37:56
Speaker
Yeah, in The Force Awakens. Really funky looking place. It's also been used in like, The Hobbit. Was it The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings? Anyway, it's been used in quite a lot of productions. It's quite an ancient, it's an old mine. It's an old mine that's been kind of overgrown by these ridiculously old trees. So in other words, the... Magical, isn't it?
00:38:19
Speaker
It's mental that the roots of the trees have actually bust out of the ground and kind of found their way to um bust into the steps that the old the miners used to use in this in this old landscape. It's a beautiful place, absolutely beautiful, but very, very weird at the same time. So hopefully we're going to take him there tomorrow afternoon if he's got the energy. And then the evening... When we went there, Andy, we talked to kids. know what they They didn't have a clue where they were, what they were doing.
00:38:48
Speaker
<unk> Don't give a shit to Black Star Wars. And I was just walking around all the time going... Yeah, the girl appeared so much about. Brilliant. How did that ah did Shell take that mate? She just... Well, when i got that I got that Black Series Kylo Ren helmet when it first came out and I used to put it on all the time and she'd be cooking dinner and I'd walk into the kitchen with it on my head, just walk behind and be like...
00:39:14
Speaker
Oh, the girl I've heard so much about. She wouldn't even react, mate. She'd just carry on cooking. Not even turn and look at you, mate. Not even turn and look. We'll get it. I'm going to keep doing it until I get a reaction. You might as well do something. I love that though. I think that's my favourite Kylo Ren line. Not to digress a lot. Oh, the girl I've heard so much about.
00:39:39
Speaker
carry on the No, no, it's very good. Then, yeah, take him out for a bite to eat in the evening. And like I said to you guys offline earlier on, it'll be great to... He's like a spring of spaniel is our red. So I'm hoping I've tied him out by that point and he'll collapse and the jet lag will kick in and I won't see him till the following morning. At which point we'll get up slowly and make our way up north to see you boys. Yeah, sweet mate. Looking forward to it. Looking forward to it. Yeah, can't wait. Take your time, mate. I've got lots to do on Friday.
00:40:12
Speaker
No, yeah, actually, actually, Andy, take him out Friday and wear him out, will ya? Yeah. yeah but Thank you for a run on the Dales. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, he'd like that. Take him off the lead. He'd like that. He'd like that, Edward. He's a runner. He'll do it. So for people who don't know, he's not a dog. This is a person.
00:40:32
Speaker
and
00:40:35
Speaker
There's a person who is coming to visit. Yeah. I'll transport him all the way up in my boot, in the boot of my car, and then get into the dales and just open the door. There you go, boy. Go on out. Go on. I'll throw you a tennis ball. There you go. There you go. There we go, Ed. Come on, Ed. Come on, Ed. Come on. Off we go. Fetch. Fetch.
00:40:56
Speaker
um So yeah, that that's that's that, which is great. So, you know, living our best lives at the moment, all four of us, which is fantastic.
Toy Fairs and Collecting Journeys
00:41:03
Speaker
um We're going to move on to the subject. I can't can't get my head around the fact that I did my week in about five minutes. it's Normally I'm like an hour later, I'm still like talking crap. Well, we never noticed. um man And um and um yeah, so so so in honored tradition, um we typically try and choose a subject to talk to our guests about.
00:41:36
Speaker
And ah I asked you guys to come on because um I am in awe of both of you, of your knowledge of toy collecting, of no, sorry, of collecting in general, um but also you introduced me to something that I'd never ever experienced before, which is which is really about toy fairs um and what and what they are, what they're about, the type of people that are there. So rather than me do a really, really bad job of of explaining well what it's all about. I was wondering if you guys could maybe share a small part of this segment together ah and kind of explain to the team that are listening ah how you discovered these toy fairs, why you find them fascinating, what you get out of it,
00:42:31
Speaker
and really, I guess I'm trying to say what how why they've become part of yeah your life.
00:42:39
Speaker
how much Either one of you. spen at them How much is your collection worth? no we know and and and no what you're What's your favorite color? We're gonna do that. We're gonna move there in a minute. But in the meantime, I don't care who kicks off, but if one of you can explain to everyone, you know, these these toy fairs, which aren't, they're not a con. And I've tried to explain last week to Sean, they're not a con. It's something very, very different. So go on. One of you. Chris, do it.
00:43:06
Speaker
Okay, so toy fairs, like Andy just said, it's not a Comic-Con. There's no big corporate sponsors there. It's literally just tables and tables of independent traders selling anything from model kits to train sets to 80s action figures to soft toys, trading cards, Lego,
00:43:34
Speaker
um anything vintage, you can think of a nostalgic from our childhood. I would say that the demographic is very, very broad. You get your old boys that are Some of them probably in the late seventies, they were trained model model model train collectors. And then you get kids all the way down to my son's age that are there to collect Pokemon stuff, which is now believe it or not, vintage.
00:44:07
Speaker
Yes, we are that old. mad innet Pokemon is is now vintage. and And then obviously you get a massive selection of middle-aged men like us that don't want to go old and just want to buy plastic shit and relive their youth. But yeah, you've got you'd normally, like this the the variety of stuff there is insane.
00:44:32
Speaker
but you've got, you've got your big five IPs I'd say, which is Star Wars, Motu, Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, and WWE or WWF, vintage wrestling stuff. Um, yeah. And it's very, very different to a con. Um, the atmosphere is much better. The,
00:45:01
Speaker
The hunt is much better, but we can talk about the hunt much later because that's a big part of collecting. um And how did how did you come across some, Chris? So i I've always gone to Comicons since I've been weedweeb at school. It used to be a thing called memorabilia. Can you remember that, Kev?
00:45:26
Speaker
Oh, mate. And you see, mate, memorabilia, mate. Same venue as a toy fair, yeah. Memorabilia was great, wasn't it? That was like the early... In the late 90s, that was like the early beginnings of what Comic-Cons now are in the UK. The memorabilia show. um But yeah, I found out about toy fairs through watching YouTube videos. I watch a lot of toy collectors and toy hunters.
00:45:55
Speaker
and a lot of American ones and just sat there like, what have we not got this shit in the UK? This is insane. and And it turns out we have. a I found out about these the Birmingham one that we go to through a guy called Theo Kane.
00:46:15
Speaker
who does a channel called Slime House TV. He's one of my favorite YouTubers. He's absolutely awesome. a He does a lot of toy creating himself. um He's an independent artist. He covers all sorts of stuff on his channel. But when he goes on a deep dive and does a toy hunt, and the coverage, his videos are awesome, aren't they, Kev? They are brilliant. He is an absolute right dude, and he he knows his stuff. He's informative.
00:46:43
Speaker
he's knowledgeable and it's just great to watch it's just great to watch and it's great we sat watching him didn't we were like we we got to go to one of these shows so i think the first one we went to was up north wasn't it in doncaster Yes, mate. Yeah. so and that and i like they're They're part of the same chain. um I mean, the organizers, this this is a UK wide phenomenon. it's not it's not They're not all independent, are they? It's one it's one organization that's organizing all of them. There are a lot of toy fairs around the country, but the ones that we we've been to and the biggest ones are run by b BP toy fairs, yeah. Yeah. Right.
00:47:27
Speaker
And did you did you, so I met you guys at celebration for the first time. um And I thought you were right. And then we and then we met up. And then you spoke to us and thought, oh, shit. has to And that do takes two that buts i here then I spent some time with you and I thought, oh, reverse. Oh, shit. What have I done? This vehicle's reversing.
00:47:54
Speaker
um and then i and But the we we met in Leicester, didn't we? at Leicester Toy Village, which is the, um, is it Toy Village? but t to individuals taught yeah That was it. So my question is, which is basically a pretty much, um, um, a guy that, or a couple of guys that own, um, a store, um,
00:48:21
Speaker
and have a mass quite a prolific um ah presence both online but also in the in that in the trading community on on on vintage toys. did you did you did you just Did you kind of concentrate on the visiting stores before you did the expos or did you do the expos and then found these these little boutique kind of vintage stores? so which Which came first, the stores or or the or the fairs?
00:48:53
Speaker
and
00:48:56
Speaker
We went to Leicester store before we went to any of the fairs. Yeah. Again, we found we found the Leicester store through YouTube. That's Joe who runs YouTube. ah runs Joe, he runs YouTube. He's massive. No, Joe who runs Leicester Vintage Toy Store, he's got a YouTube series called Toy Shop on Tour.
00:49:18
Speaker
yeah The third series is about to drop. ah In the first series they go all the way around the UK from the Scotland right down to visiting vintage toy shops. And in the second series they do the same same thing in Europe, but they also occasionally go to toy fairs as well around Europe. And they're incredible.
00:49:42
Speaker
that like the knowledge of that of Joe is just it's unbelievable and he's such a good guy as well he's such a nice nice guy and like you say such a big presence in the UK collected scene but yeah we went I think we went to Leicester first before we did any toy shows is that right Kev? I think so mate because I think yeah i so from my point of view ah I think this whole toy thing is just like you both said a natural progression from
00:50:13
Speaker
doing the comic ops. The four of us know about them and I think we were getting to a point where we were getting like I know this sounds a bit cheesy, but like conned out, like comic conned out. They were getting the same. Absolutely. yeah we got bad and um And we got, look, Chris and I have been mates for but quite a while now. we We love the same sort of thing. We love the same sort of collected. And we were going to these, some of these comic cons.
00:50:45
Speaker
And I'm not joking, we went to like one in Sheffield, I think we were there for like 40 minutes, or 45 minutes. yeah And it was absolute dogshit. And we were just like, all we're seeing here is the same old Hasbro shite, like time after time, the same Black Series, the same, there was nothing. Walls and walls, Funko Pops.
00:51:07
Speaker
yeah felt like that was literally you know and it was just like well this is boring now this is not exciting and then like chris and i hang out like once or twice a week and it was literally him going let's watch some of these youtube videos i found these so he introduced me to it yeah through these youtube going Let's watch these guys. And we do it loads mate, don't we? light on a yeah you know yeah like Tuesday, Wednesday night. And then we saw these guys, those two in particular really do stand out of like, this is a vintage toy shop. Lester for us two is 40 minutes down the road. you know there are lot that There's not a lot of vintage toy shops in this country, but the ones that are tend to be like quite far away.
00:51:53
Speaker
you know there'll be on another side of the country but Lester was like this is right near us you know this is like 40 minutes away let's let's go and see it's got everything that we love you know there it's got vintage star wars but then all the other things as well it was different it was you know so i think that was the first we did wasn't it i think you were the first one was like the lester vintage toy shop where we met you but then Yeah, we started to look around, like Chris says, of like, there has got to be, like Toyfest, there's got to be another outlet for this. And then I think we've done it. It's interesting, isn't it? I mean, you've got, you've got, sorry to interrupt, but it is interesting. You've got these big MCM Comic-Con gigs that I've been to with you as well. And
00:52:46
Speaker
like you, I came out of the last one we went to last year a bit, not, I wouldn't say flat, but it was just like, I didn't get anything. I didn't buy anything. And I didn't buy anything. No, sorry, tell a lie. I bought some art for the girls. If you remember, I bought some art, some Studio Ghibli stuff for the girls. yeah but apart from but But apart from that, the actual event itself was unique. It was very cookie cutter. You knew exactly what you were kind of getting when it came down to to what was on offer there. And we probably spent three, two, maybe three hours there. And yet we came before last. We spent eight hours.
00:53:24
Speaker
eight hours at a toy fair. Eight hours, yes stuff speaks just speaks volumes. Well, I mean, that resonates with me as well because it's like, like have we guys have been saying about going to the cons. I feel like cons anymore have just become like the stuff that is good. It's like I do like them for art. Like I think that's one of the best places to like art and like supporting the artists and things like that. But that's pretty much only the only thing I really like on the floor of cons because I feel like the the vintage toys and stuff like it's the same big, sell at least here in the US, like it's the big same same big sellers, overpriced, Hasbro.
00:54:00
Speaker
this the this shit that's all got a ridiculous markup on it. Now you can get pretty much anywhere or it's like the big sellers doing exclusives that you can't really get anyways. Like it's like, Oh, we've got a, we've got a thousand of them. You got to go get a ticket. You had to do something online. You had to do some social media posts, whatever. So it's like, it kind of killed, killed that kind of hunt thing for me. But I have noticed that like, I have, I don't go to the toy firms like you guys are, but it's, it's something that definitely interests me because this idea of the toy fair or the the collecting it it it sparks something of like it once you realize what's out there like your my my imagination just starts going like you know what i would really like to have this one thing i used to have when i was a kid again
00:54:44
Speaker
Like when I'd like to have it pristine or like my Voltron back here. It's like I don't want the original ones that we had. I want like a new nicer updated version. And so it's like you can go out and find these stuff and really start to discover more naturally what is physically out there. And I think ah I'm sure you guys will get to the hunt like because once you know what you want then go finding it. But even just seeing what's available.
00:55:08
Speaker
because I think we all assume it's like, oh, it's old, it's not there anymore, or it's whatever, or it's in private collector hands. It's like, no, there's still a ton of stuff floating around. And so I think that's really exciting for me personally. yeah And even that goes like, yeah. Yeah, it goes twofold as well. Sorry. Yeah, like you said, you hit the nail on the head. but But there's also, for me with these vintage toy fairs, you have that side of it where Like, most toys, you know, me, Chris, Andy, will talk about, are you looking for anything? What are you after? And it might be, like, Chris will be like, I have this old wrestling figure or, like, it might be me going, oh, I'm after this old Batman figure or something or something like that. But what I love about them as well is seeing things you didn't even know were out at the time. You know, you'll see figures and you'll go, holy shit, what was this? I don't even remember
00:56:00
Speaker
And we'll be standing there like googling these in line looking at like because there's like an old vintage bloody commando figure or something or something like weird like that, like from from the 90s. And I love you've got both sides of it because you've got something that you remember that really like bizarre, weird shit that you can't even remember. Or do you go like, where did this come out? yeah When, you know, you know might be from Terminator 2 or it might be just from anything. It might be just like and a Muppets toy that I love because I love the Muppets growing up. It might be for Batman or it might be from something else. And you go, I don't even know, I can't remember this. Where did this come from? Where? Yeah. What kind of makes me feel like they're like little miniature museums. It's like, I don't necessarily want to go buy everything. I just want to like, I just want to see it and touch it. Like that's, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I can appreciate it. Yeah. And you'll always see things that are out your price range. You know, you'll go in there and you'll go like, what the, you know, you'll see, you'll see something. You'll go, what the hell was that? And it's like,
00:56:58
Speaker
You know, you'll Google it and it's from like the eighties or from the nineties and it's just like some amazing figure of something and you just go in like, that's, I didn't even know that existed. But then you'll see something that triggers something of like, holy shit, I remember having that. I bought that.
00:57:14
Speaker
You know, for them and it was, you know, that's, that's the, that's the killer for me is that, that, that you can't put a price on that at all. It's things from my childhood that have totally gone from my memory as a 44 year old man. And I can't describe the feeling I get when I'm walking around these fairs and I'll pick something up that I had when I was a kid that I have not thought about in 35 years, and know it just triggers like a core nostalgic fit and it's like, holy he shit, I had this when I was a kid. Do you know what I mean? Mate, we've been off our tits with it sometimes, aren't we, fine? I lose it, mate. I go nuts on it, mate. I've cried at these fairs because I've just been that overjoyed with light. I mean, talk about the hunt, like not the last one, but the toy affair, that one, the one before with the last one we went to.
00:58:13
Speaker
I've been after this Ultimate Warrior figure for years and it's always been a little bit at my price range and I thought I'm getting this. If I see it today, I'm having it. And that not only did I see it within the first 10 minutes of being in a show, I saw it dirt cheap as well.
00:58:32
Speaker
And I got it in my hand and you were looking at me, weren't you? And I was literally, I was shaking and I was like, teeing up in my eyes. What a dickhead. Do you know what I mean? What a knobhead. But it's fucking record mate. I love it, ah I do. I buzzed my head off. Fucking great. So I mean, what what was what was so funny about it is like the dealers there. And we finally saw, holy fucking shit. They've got the auto to worry. figure And I'm like,
00:58:59
Speaker
I watch me, and it's because a fiver, Chris is like, fuck it, a fiver, is that all he went? Oh no, sorry, mate, if I don't know it, we're that excited, I'd have made it a tenner, and it was like, fuck it. Chris is the only man, Chris is the only man that I've ever seen get something for nothing.
00:59:16
Speaker
because he shows such enthusiasm with it. Yeah, yeah, the like the not the last show, but this the the so but the show butt last that he went to, Sean, he picks up this this this this Jar Jar Binks head bust, this this this bust of Jar Jar Binks. Money box, mate. Is there a money box? Money box, yeah.
00:59:39
Speaker
And he's so excited about it. He's so excited about it that the guy's like, yeah, take off ah take it off me. you can yeah I promised myself, I promised myself, if somebody showed the slightest bit of interest in this, I'd give it them to them for nothing.
00:59:54
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, on a more serious note, these guys know what they're doing. I have no idea at all. We'll end the day and we'll show each other are you know what we've what we've come out with. And you've got the likes of Kevin and Chris saying, you paid that much for that? Are you an idiot? Are you an idiot? So they they know. no So despite all of this. That's me. I'm sure emotion too. i'm just Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your vibes. Despite all of this this this talk about you know just going with the emotion, they actually know what they're talking about anyway, which leads us on to our first question.
01:00:24
Speaker
um because I promised you i would I would try and crack on as quickly as I can an hour in. Kevin, I'm going to start with you, mate. Oh, go on then. I'm going to start with you because we started with um we started with ah um ah Chris and we're going to do a bit of a round robin here. I'm going to ask you three questions. The first question, which is to you, is when did you when did you start collecting?
01:00:49
Speaker
when you start collecting. It's a multifaceted question. In other words, it's two answers. When did you start collecting? And when did you restart collecting? Because if you're anything like most men of a certain age, you stopped collecting for a while. And then you started again. So don't tell me.
01:01:17
Speaker
What a dickhead. So, so I, I genuinely think from my point of view, like proper collecting. Yeah. Like, like genuine collecting started with the power of the force line. yeah Like 100%. Because I can't really call myself. So, like growing up, I love the kind of figures, but I wasn't collecting them.
01:01:46
Speaker
It wasn't like this is a conscious effort to collect, you know, add anything. um It was just, I loved them. They were the figures that I had. I put them away. But then it wasn't like, because, ah you know, from a Star Wars point of view, um there was nothing out there for ages. But then when the power of the Force line came,
01:02:12
Speaker
that that was where it was me as a conscious going, going, I am going to collect every fucking goddamn thing that I can lay my little hands on. like This is this is 96, is it, Kev? So this will be, yeah, three year before pre-chorus for special edition. That's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that I'm like 22.
01:02:37
Speaker
like disposable income. so but Yeah, that's pretty much i mean go chris Chris and I have talked about this that like from a you know from a music point of view and from a collecting point of view, 22, you've got no fucking kids in the world, have you? Everything's glorious. And at that time, because you got you you know you go through that little, I don't if anybody you know like with Star Wars, I went through that little lull because it wasn't out there.
01:03:04
Speaker
When those special editions came back and that power of the force line, that was me. I remember thinking, this is my, I'm going to collect these. I'm going to collect these figures. And then that's where my collection started because then it just went on to the episode one stuff, the episode two stuff, the episode three stuff, et cetera. And it just- Well, you and I went through the that some of the stalls.
01:03:32
Speaker
And I never, I never collected power of the force because I only knew power of the force as the wave ones, which were the big burly, ah the big muscle guys. so yeah we guys And I was, odd I was, I was walking along with you the other day and it was like, we were looking at some of the, I don't know if it's power of the force too, but, or, or just power of the force a later, later like a later, a later bunch of, of, of additions.
01:03:56
Speaker
But the sculpting on it was phenomenal. and they And some of the brushwork, the paintwork on it, you can't get to good that you can't get that much detail today. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it started as a real, like, shaky line, you know, it's like, yeah those wave ones were absolutely awful, just complete dog shit. But then as that line progressed,
01:04:19
Speaker
It just got better and better. It just like the figures got better and better. And then they did like the freeze frame ones where you'd have like the little freeze frame figures on it. So it have like, they'd have an OB1 before and an Anakin one. And it was like, they just got fantastic at that point. The little chip reader ones that had like the sounds on them. Yeah. The episode one stuff and everything was like, that was when I was like, I mean, that was, that to me is when I started collecting.
01:04:48
Speaker
because even though even that power of the force line when it came out I was getting everything I was like getting getting in like the vehicles the playsets and that was like my collecting went nuts at that point yeah well did you have as you carry on mate when you came back from America that time I went 97 went to America first time fucking 22 23 fucking gets to Florida The pound is up here, the dollar's down here, fantastic. Don't even go there, it was it was absolutely brilliant. There's all these people going, can you bring me some Ralph Lauren jeans back and can you bring me that back? I'm like, get fucked, I'll bring in loads of fucking Star Wars toys back with me.
01:05:33
Speaker
and that when i ah and Seriously, there was me, two mates went, and coming back, I'd filled my case with some figures. But I boughtre four ah brought the ATAT and the X-Wing. And we that ah they were my carry-on luggage to get together.
01:05:55
Speaker
um
01:05:58
Speaker
And we went through, and I'd got one, and my mates got the other, so I strutted through, and this line was like, are those for your kids back home? I'm like, no, mate, these are mine. Do you know what? I would have said yes.
01:06:11
Speaker
i should have yeah like yeah yeah yeah I should have been like, yeah, my little boy's gonna love these. He's gonna love these. Have you got kids? No. ah di if The little boy is me. I am him. but Yes. I am him as he is me. And it was just like, that was, so that is my absolute, when I started collecting. So did that, did you, was that consistent right up to the today? you You never stopped since or did was did you have a break?
01:06:41
Speaker
i low i I genuinely think i've but look my my my taste, I've changed what I've collected. you know I think we all go through little ups and downs with things and fads and things and whatever, but I've genuinely been collecting something. yeah Because i i started I then started to go back to the Kenner line you know or something like that, I'd start collecting that.
01:07:08
Speaker
I was collecting, you know, I started to, when vinyl, I've collected records nearly most of my life, which both Chris and I do as well. So there's always been some form of collecting since that in my life without, I don't think I've ever stopped and then gone back and things have changed, you know, and your your taste changed. But I think, I honestly think genuinely I've always been sort of,
01:07:33
Speaker
collecting something. When when I first when i first got got to know you, when I first met you, I think ah you were just coming towards the end of your autograph collecting. So that was a big thing for you for a while, wasn't it? that that is Yeah. I mean, that's that was nuts because that's just been that collecting. That's a separate thing. I mean, that was, I love doing that.
01:07:58
Speaker
I fucking love my autograph collection. and it in it but up and Andy, it's crazy. Have you seen it? um've I think I've seen a few, but not all of it. yeah ah let but let but but let me get but let me get let let me get Let me get this straight. you It's not just autograph collecting. You've met these people in person, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that that's the whole point one yeah yeah so that that that started back in, back in 99.
01:08:26
Speaker
So being that was like I was collecting Star Wars at the time. And ah Phantom Menace came out and the episode one stuff was I mean, I probably needed some psychiatric help at that point because it was that it was it but it was it was like the most excited I've ever been for a movie in my entire life to build up to like 16 years waiting for a movie. The episode one stuff was great. You know, I went over to the state. Do you remember Toys R Us?
01:08:55
Speaker
Mate, I went to the midnight opening, mate. I went to the midnight opening when we were little. I'm just talking about the merchandise. Yeah, for it was amazing. For episode one, it was like, there were two or three aisles, all Star Wars. It was huge. Yeah. Yeah. with I mean, I did that stupid thing, i well i which people know who listened to our pod. I flew over to the States to watch the Phantom Menace because we were getting it two months after them. Mate, I went to FAO Swartz. Jesus Christ. like It was... it was Absolutely. Talk about emotional about something. It was just like, this place is a amazing. But we I'd never really thought about collecting autographs. It wasn't ever conscious, but we had ah a store near us in Nottingham called Another World. ah And it was our i it was like... Poor one out for Another World. Because yeah that store was unreal, mate. It was such a good shop.
01:09:54
Speaker
So they they had a street in Nottingham and it had two of my absolute favourite shops of all time on it. Because just up from there, there was a shop called Selector Disc, which was my music collection. Preaching mate. Oh man. And then just down the just down the way, was this another world where it was all obviously geek stuff. Before it became Trendy if that makes sense before it became not yeah, I hope that didn't sound patronizing But before it became not at all before it became mainstream. Let's let's say that well Marvel's made it cool to be a geek, isn't it? Yeah, that's what yeah, but we come from a time pre MCU and another world was a prime example of Yeah, that that world and that fandom and
01:10:44
Speaker
contained in a shop in the late 90s. We're not malnourished anymore for geekdom stuff. Exactly. We don't have to go out let's find it. It's everywhere. Yeah. So that shop was yeah like a little safe haven, wasn't it, Kev? It was like... It was amazing. It was like three floors, three floors. Everything that I was kind of into at the time was there. you know and it was And I just remember, because I was obviously collecting, I used to get I used to get my figures from there, you know, where I'd get stuff. And they had a sign in the shop that Ray Park was going to do a sign in. He was going to be autographing things. And I i don't, that it wasn't like a conscious effort. It was just like, holy shit, I get to meet someone from Star Wars. I get to meet an actor and he's going to sign something for me. So I did it. I can't, I genuinely can't even remember how much it was. It was probably like 10 quid.
01:11:41
Speaker
like 10 pounds. It wasn't a lot. And he signed like a, I got an A4 thing signed and it was like, he put my name on it, had a chat, you know, he didn't send me no photos, thankfully. And then it was like, it was just like. It's a photo of his cock.
01:12:02
Speaker
ah And it so it was like, But it but it but it but it just it just kind of it just started something because it was then like, ah then it was, oh, there's these comic comms and you get yeah you get to meet actors and you get to meet stars. yeah And you get to meet people, you know, ever since I was a kid, I've absolutely, you know, Star Wars has been everything. And that was then it just started. It just, it wasn't like, I need to get this many, I've just wanted to meet these people.
01:12:36
Speaker
and talk about Star Wars and talk about their experience, but get their autograph. you know get And I always said i would it had to be me meeting them and they had to put my name on the picture. Yeah, i I respect that. I respect that because you're not you're not like every other truck, every other... Sorry, an awful lot of people out there that are just literally interested in the um No, you'll never get sold on anything like that. And it was just like that. So, you know, so I don't think I've ever not collected something since then. So, and then it's just progressed now because I don't. Hold that pin in that. We'll talk about what you collected today in a second. I want jump in on that autograph thing real quick too, because I think if you would have asked me, like this has become important to me in recent years, I think.
01:13:27
Speaker
Because if you would have asked me like two or three years ago, maybe i don't know how um five years ago, like autographs, i would I would have been that person who's like, therere they're whatever, they're fluff. I'm not going to go to a con and waste my money on... These are air quotes. I'm not going to go to a con and waste my money on an autograph. But I did it... What was it? In Anaheim for the first time. I don't remember why I did it. I think because I was there and they're like somebody was at a table and there was nobody in line. I'm like, hey, hey how can I do this? like I want to go like see them and that just like opened my world to it. It's like, Oh my God. It's not about the autograph for me. No, no. Like it the autograph is just a token in the memory of the interaction. It's about that. That brief interaction that you have with somebody and some of them are, some of them are
01:14:13
Speaker
ones that I will cherish for the rest of my life. And other ones are just like, well, you know you win some, you lose some. like I'm not gonna go do Ewan McGregor and wait three hours in line and be like, not even get to see, because he's got 500 people around. like I'm not gonna do that, but like in London, I saw Kelly Marie Tran, and it was the best like three minutes of that day of the con. because like like you could You could speak to him and be like, hey, I like i remember I told her, I'm like, hey, I'm just like really happy you're here. like I'm glad to see that you Like it makes me really, really happy to see you kind of come back and ah get all the love that you're getting. And then like, we actually spoke for like three or four minutes and it was, it was awesome. And it's like, Oh, I don't care. I don't know where the thing, this picture signed somewhere, but it's like, I don't care about the picture. I care about it's, it's basically, that's like the, the, the barrier to entry to get to have that experience with somebody that is meaningful.
01:15:07
Speaker
that's different than social media, that's different than, like I still don't do photo ops, like that's just like a, no thank you for me, but like the interaction of an autograph, especially the smaller people, like, Like the actress who voices Omega, the guy who did a Blacker Stanton. Like I got to talk to them for a long time because there was nobody there. You could just sit there and chat with them and they're happy, usually happy to do it. I don't want to speak for everybody, but I don't know. It's something I've completely turned around on. As I would have dismissed it before, I just think it's really cool. Dude, watching you at a convention is an experience in itself.
01:15:48
Speaker
I mean, we're we're all pretty much, we're kind of like, were but were we naturally as a bunch of friends, we're like we' like herd animals. We kind of stick together, but you just go off for hours on end and we'll see you later on. It's like, what have you been doing? Oh, I've met Kelly and Mary Tram.
01:16:01
Speaker
What else have you been doing? Oh, I'll talk about it later. I'll see you in another three or four hours. um No, it's an experience. I gotta go to a tiny panel for about boys. By myself. See ya. Chris. put Chris. Moving on, mate. We're still on question one. um Shit. Before you ask me the question, I just want to bounce off that because... It's the good stuff. Autographs were never something that ever interested me or...
01:16:30
Speaker
im I'm quite a socially awkward person at times. And I've always been afraid to like and talk to these people until I met this fucking guy. And then I experienced through him, I saw his interactions with people as I would cue and go to the table with him. And I'm like, Oh, they're just normal people that just so happened to be in these films. ah And then They just happened to be extremely good looking people. Good looking normal people. government Oh my god, Sean, some of them definitely aren't. oh Yeah, but some of them are, mate. I mean, I think i'm still like I'm still aroused from when I met you and McGregor and he put his hand on my shoulder.
01:17:20
Speaker
But the first like the first the first one, I ah couldn't pass up on meeting Warwick Davis. And Kev was with me and it it turned out to be like one of the best experiences In all of my fandom life. It was it's a moment. I'll never forget. It was just sort amazing Yeah, yeah and the way it all played out it was absolutely fantastic. So but it wasn't about Getting his signature. It was about
01:17:55
Speaker
for want for not to sound in cheesy, but collecting that memory. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. yeah yeah Honestly, interaction it's like ah it's a boundary. It's like a boundary of like, here's the beginning of the interaction and here's the end. It gives them something to do and a reason for you to like give somebody money. Like that's how I see it. It's like, it's, oh, hey, I need to do something. And then when I'm done, you need to leave because I need to go to the next person. It's like, it's a clear boundaries. But that's the same kind of endorphins or whatever it is that you you get from, um,
01:18:24
Speaker
when you go to a
Memorable Convention Encounters
01:18:25
Speaker
toy fair. I mean, you talked earlier on about the the the the shock value yeah and the and of emotional journey you go through when you see something that is made out of plastic that made you feel, you know, the that that brought you back to when you were five years old. There's no difference between those, that kind of feeling and then meeting someone like that that, you know, gives you that kind of warm fuzzy feeling or that, that, that, that buzz. It's not recorded. It's not, and no one else gets that exact same experience that you got. So whatever you put into it, you can potentially get out of it. Fuck me. No one gets my experience because they're inadvertently met RoboCop at the same time. Yeah. Unbelievable.
01:19:05
Speaker
um i like well I've told this story ah verbatim like millions of times but I'm talking to Wicket and Robocop walks over and starts talking like interrupting our conversation. and i'm i'm about to turn to I'm about to turn to this guy and be like, excuse me, I'm i'm like talking to Warwick here.
01:19:24
Speaker
and literally peter weller stood next to me like having a conversation with warrick and like apologizing to me for interrupting i'm like fucking know crazy yeah it doesn't matter what are the best ones we did though mate that was it do you want to spit in my face yeah oh sorry sorry the best ones we did no one of the best ones we did that one sort of thing but but it wasn't like ah just to finish that it wasn't ever Which is why I don't really sometimes get when people sort of send off for autographs because it's just like, I'm only going to get those autographs if I meet them. I mean, that has changed a little bit because it's obviously that's got more expensive and people are like, what's it but like? When I used to go to cons, you could get them for like 15 quid, 10 quid, and you could just have a chat with them and just like talk to them about their Star Wars experience or whatever it was. And it was just, yeah, that's.
01:20:21
Speaker
just collecting that was exactly like Krista just getting that memory of it and it was great and it's branched out a little bit now because obviously now loads of people do it so it's not just Star Wars anymore you start looking at other things and it's so that was all that's always been there that autograph on so very cool very very cool I'm glad we asked you the first question first anyway um eie yeah is that a ed stuck in at your door ma it' like come I think he was. I think he's been and gone.
01:20:53
Speaker
um
01:20:56
Speaker
Chris, ah yeah when did you start collecting? um And what was it? it's ah It's a running joke in my family that I like stuff.
01:21:10
Speaker
And I've always liked stuff. My mother's will be like, you fucking love stuff, don't you? Just surrounded yourself with stuff. And as far as it's from like a really early age, like obviously playing with toys as a kid, like Kev said, but not actively collecting them. I think the first thing I can ever remember collecting, seeking out to collect would be panini stickers. Me! I was just thinking that. Yeah. Yeah.
01:21:40
Speaker
Yeah. Like Panini is a sticker company in the UK that basically had lots of IPs. Football stickers were a big thing, but that never for me, because growing up was never into football. But the one the one I remember going crazy on, because I was just like mad into it at the time, was WWF.
01:22:02
Speaker
collecting wrestling stickers yeah and and trading cards. You get the album yeah with all the spaces in it yeah for the for the stickers. yeah So Sean, I don't know if this is a big thing thing in the States, rather than like baseball cards or like tops or anything like that, you actually get a book, a book with a bunch of information, a bunch of drawings and stuff. Then you'd get like a rectangle, a blank rectangle where the, there you go, where the sticker would go.
01:22:32
Speaker
Yeah. And they were massive, massive in the UK. It's a cool hobby. because As a kid in the eighties, your sticker album would be like ยฃ1.50.
01:22:45
Speaker
and you'd get two free packs with it and that'd start you off you get like six stickers in a pack and i think it'd be like 20p for a pack of stickers i remember getting a panned pocket money mate and going down to it local we had a quick save down the road going down there mate and buying five five packs of stickers Like ripping them open like, got, got, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need, need,
01:23:13
Speaker
and that school playground like trading with your mates like and you just go through him like god got you got any shinie but shiines meat because you'd always get a shiny for each page on the ah but yeah if i've actually looked up recently it was after i found that ultimate warrior figure ah the show Because that WWF sticker album is probably the only sticker album I ever completed. I did multiple sticker albums, but that's the only one I ever completed. And I wish I still had it. And I looked it up. I think you were with me, Kev, and I was looking it up online to see if I could see it. And again, I started tearing up, mate, when I was looking at these pictures, because it's just such a, like, a core memory. Do you know what I mean? It's just...
01:23:57
Speaker
Amazing I remembered all the spreads like all the photographs of like the restless posing and stuff Mad, but yeah, I remember 89 Batman that coming out. I was nine years. Yes, same like Madford like trading cards on that Never completed that set and I did the trading cards tops trading cards for the special editions as well in 97 But like when you're a kid, you've not got much money. So I suppose No. Obviously, I've always loved toys and action figures. Something that I've never, never let go of. And there's times that I've been collecting more, dipping in and out of it, like you say, and falling in and out. Every now and again, i like every couple of years or so, I'll be like, what am I doing? What madam but malla what why am I I got all this shit for?
01:24:52
Speaker
I got a bulk and then trim, bulk and then trim. Yeah. So i'll i'll I'll sell loads off and then build it back up and I'll sell it off and build it. And it's just like this toxic trait that I've got. but like Like not to get too depressive, but we've We've lost, me and my wife have lost significant people in our lives over the last few years. And we've had to clear out and get rid of like their life, basically. Do you know what I mean? Everything that they've... And sometimes I sit in this room and I'm like, fucking hell. If I was to go tomorrow, some poor bastard's got to sort through all this shit.
01:25:36
Speaker
Yeah, that poor bastard's me and I'm having it all. I was going to say, I was going to say, I was going to say, before Michelle walks in, he'll have stickers all over it, so don't worry about it. It's already sorted. It's everywhere on it. Yeah. Well, I think at the same time, dude, it's like, it's, that's, I think as long as you keep it in check, I think that's like the balance.
01:25:56
Speaker
Like, because it's, if you, if you let it get out of control, it does become like some of my extended family. And I've gone through similar things. And I think that's kind of what made me realize a lot of this. It's like, you can, you can end up with a house full of stuff, but like as long as you're like aware of like what it, what it means to you and what it is, and it doesn't just become a collection of physical items. Like I fully aware that like I'm, I'm literally just draining the emotional value out of all these items. And then when that's empty, it's like, it's time to,
01:26:26
Speaker
Pass it on, sell it, whatever it is. That's very much how it's been over the years, Sean. I've got mad into stuff and gone crazy on it. And then, like Kev said, my tastes have changed or a financial need's been there where I've had to get rid of that. Do you know what I mean? The fact that it sits on myself and makes me happy doesn't justify the fact that its monetary value is just sat dormant. Do you know what I mean? So there's been times where I've had to chop and change. um But it's better than having stuff hidden in closets or in boxes in the attic. Like, that's where I think it's really bad. It's like, oh, I have these things, but they're all they're put away. It's like, if I i need to see them to be able to drain the emotion about it. I'm putting in there. We all do, but we we all do. Wait till you come to my house. But I think it's the awareness of that, like that balance of like,
01:27:20
Speaker
Yes. Like, I'm not taking out a storage unit to fill with things that yeah I want to. I'd love it. I'd love to be Rancho Obi-Wan and be like, let's go. But yeah, that's the hard part. Yeah, Rancho Obi-Wan. That's crazy, isn't it? Yeah. Star Wars has obviously, that's always been my main source of collecting. ah Not so much these days, having in the past few years, well, the past year or so, thanks to someone.
01:27:54
Speaker
I managed to complete the Kenner run from 1978 to 86. Thank you, Andy, for helping me or complete that run. But to be honest, i don't I don't really care too much for modern Wars stuff modern source stuff these days. um Unless it's weird, weird like vintage.
01:28:13
Speaker
weird shit like Ewoks shoelaces from like 83 or Admiral Ackbar pencil toppers. Shit like that interests me. and But I suppose it's because like Kev, like collecting that Power of the Force line, something that would have been so readily available and having been steeped in fandom and collecting for so much of my life,
01:28:42
Speaker
You feel like it's, it's the weird shit now that ah we'll we'll get onto that, but it's weird. were both weird yeah sparks to memory But yeah, over it's been, out it's been, it's been ridiculous over years at times. I mean, I talk about Phantom Menace when that came out. I mean, it's a joke on our podcast, how much I love Phantom Menace, but it,
01:29:05
Speaker
I was 19, mate, when that came out. I was off my tits. Seriously, I went nuts when that film came out. And I bought so much shit as well. So much shit. I got my first job, my first part-time job, and I was just buying so much crap. And I was i would get like... and I go into the supermarket and like talk to the manager and shit and like get all the shop displays and I had this wicked like a walk as Chris. So I think that's ladies over there for you, for you, Sean. yeah Big like fucking Anakin pod racing head and Jar Jar and one of this big cardboard like shop display. I had it in my bedroom for ages at the moment as.
01:29:46
Speaker
What a twat, what a nutty. Yeah, that's that's all come and gone. And then the lead up to Force Awakens as well, that was magical for me. yeah I suppose there was there was quite ah there was a dip like mid-30s when I stuck like early 30s when kids came along.
01:30:04
Speaker
and And obviously you've got kids, you can't justify buying hot toys and shit like that and wasting your money on crap when you've got milk and nappies to buy. you know and So yeah, but I think when the lead up to Force Awakens, again, just went crazy again, mate. And after it came out, just bought so much shit.
01:30:30
Speaker
all sorts of shit. Yeah. Cause it was just exciting. It was just fucking so exciting that like, yes. I feel like that's also when like, that's also when other franchises really, like we, we reached that point of like the internet and like manufacturing, we were starting to get almost like boutique items too. And like a lot of that nostalgia product coming back out around that exact same time. So it's like, we were just getting hit from all sides of like, why yes, I would love a a modern masters of the universe figure that is highly detailed. why what That's exactly what I would love. And they were all just kind of firing all at the same time. And it's like, my bank account can't handle this. Yeah. Yeah, yeah exactly. I've collected so much so much stuff over the years. ah so lot My biggest collection obviously is, as you can see behind me, it's my record collection.
01:31:25
Speaker
Um, but that's been published started collecting records seriously in my late twenties. Before that, it was CDs that that got silly. Like at one point I had like 2,500 albums on CD, but space is a, is an issue in it space and storage. yeah I've got to the point now, like where I've, I've got just over a thousand records behind me and I'm running out of space.
01:31:55
Speaker
I thought a good solid home foundation would have been the biggest issue, not necessarily.
01:32:02
Speaker
they if they If they drop behind at any minute now, we know we're in trouble. Yeah. Sean, mate. Same question, Andy. Sorry. Yeah, no, no it was no, it's awesome. It's awesome. But I am going to have to be conscious of time. And Sean, i'll I'll try and be as quick as I can if if if you could promise me you can as well, mate.
01:32:23
Speaker
i didn I don't make promises I can't keep, but I'll try. Okay. Oh, am I going first? Yeah, absolutely. All right. Yeah. Okay. So I, after hearing you guys talk, like it's made me kind of realize a lot about my collecting. Um, I mean, I grew up, I'm the youngest. I have my, both of my brothers are about 10 years older than me. So I, and my mom is a, was an at home babysitter out of our home. Like, so she kept a lot of those toys. And so toys were always kind of a mast.
01:32:53
Speaker
being reused. So I think my kind of nostalgia for like older toys came from them, like inheriting out of the attic, like therere their metal Voltron toys, their GI i Joe figurines, or like all their little GI Joes and the Masters of the Universe stuff. And so kind of having that fascination at a young age of stuff that wasn't mine, but it's like, whoa, there's this whole collection that's now mine, kind of, kind of the babysitting, but mine by proxy. um And then kind of coming into, I think when it really started picking up was
01:33:27
Speaker
being the right age when like turtles, the turtles cartoon hit. And just being like, in the app, like that was my generation's like masters of the universe. It's like, we're about to sell a billion toys, and they're gonna like it. And so just kind of being bombarded by that. It's like, what's this character? It's like, it doesn't matter. It's a guy he's made out of pizza.
01:33:46
Speaker
Figure it out. It's just meant to be it's just meant to be sold and and then obviously Like that was a little bit of it being affected by power rangers things like that But then the one where it really kicked into gear was the same thing as you guys the special editions coming out in just that absolute bullets from like 97 through like 99 2000 where Just being absolutely bombarded like with the the star wars action fleet ah Those were huge for me the master power of the force figures just a different scale and price point it just
01:34:23
Speaker
being like, holy, holy crap, this is awesome. And that emotional connection, like, we talk about this collecting and stuff. And like, I think over the years, it's, it's taken me, I've kind of gone ebb and flow, like we've talked about of like, just bulking and being like, I just like all this stuff. And then slowly, over time realizing it's like, oh, I'm just doing it. I just like the emotional connection and the feeling to like, ah a time in my life or whatever a feeling I had when episode one came out or the special editions and the toys that were there and like,
01:34:54
Speaker
adapting my collecting to that. I definitely dropped off probably right around middle of high school, probably right after right around the time Revenge of the Sith came out.
01:35:06
Speaker
like kind of dropped off from then and then didn't pick it back up and try probably until like my mid 20s. Getting close by the force awakens coming out and that just kind of reawakening everything. And then also having disposable income yada yada yada like it just followed that curve and it's just exploded way like I think everybody else like when force awakens came out it's like I'm gonna buy I love all the black series. I think they are all great. I'm going to put them all on my desk and work I'm going to be that guy who has seven so Yeah. And you so then you slowly realize it's like, I don't even like this character. I don't even know who this is. yeah Like, like it just, why do I have all this shit? And then it, then it became get rid of all those. Okay. Bring all my old toys back, get the ones that I didn't get. And then.
01:35:55
Speaker
like hang those on my cubicle and then just weeding some of that stuff. And it's slowly adapted over time too, but it is funny how it changes and just the emotional connection and the changes that I see in myself and how I adapt. And now it's like, now I've run out of space. Clearly you can see I'm running out of space. So it's like, all right, now I gotta be more creative. I can't just bulk. I gotta get maybe nicer things or things that are,
01:36:22
Speaker
more special or smaller, higher detail things, not just the Hasbro stuff. i' like I can't get that anymore. I got it. Unless it's a HasLab. and like Then it's like, whoa, maybe. But those are still huge. But like that's where I can't do like Legos and stuff anymore. It's like the quality versus the build out, like the build time versus like the cost and size just doesn't fit. I got to get proto like I would love, i my I won't talk about my hunt stuff yet, but like, oh, that's just where I'm at. It's like, I think that's kind of the trajectory I've taken um with my, now i'm now I'm into signatures with my wall of my wall of signatures and stuff over there and just trying to not let it get out of hand. But yeah, that's where I'm at. Was that short enough for you, Andy? Did that make you happy? Yeah, that's very very good. Thank you very much. No, I'll be quick. My collecting ah started off from,
01:37:14
Speaker
a necessity more than anything else. um My, you know, we weren't ah My folks took me to see Star Wars in 78, because we didn't get it until 78 in the UK. Apart from, you know, unless you were based in London, we didn't get it until... You don't live in London? No, no, no. That's quite what it thinks. You don't know the Queen? No, no, no. And that got me hooked, obviously. And so, you know, I'd asked during, you know, for Christmas and birthdays and stuff, for stuff. And
01:37:47
Speaker
we we weren't We weren't well off. and so that was It was somewhat limited. I basically come from up ah came from parents that said, you know if you want you want ah you want any of this stuff, you're going to have to go and earn it. I got a paper round like a lot of kids did my age. ah so Every Sunday morning, I used to deliver Sunday papers to families and work.
01:38:12
Speaker
When I were a bat, I've woken up. Go get the bread. When I get the bread.
01:38:19
Speaker
he said I used to work 12 hours for a cup of spit. and Anyway, um yeah it was ah and I was grateful. um and i yeah yeah and know and yeah I'd work work a paper round. Back in those days, it was fortuitous because what I got paid was basically the same amount on a Sunday, which was two quid, or it was two quid, was the same price as ironically a ah kind of ah pallet toy.
01:38:46
Speaker
ah Star Wars figure. So you guys had Kenner in the States. We had a brand called Palatoy, which was identical quite frankly, but it was it was it was manufactured and and packaged by a a a different company in the UK called Palatoy.
01:39:02
Speaker
and And that's really how, yes, that's right. and um And that's how I kind of started my collecting, which meant an awful lot of the time because I was earning it, if you know what I mean. I was actually ah earning it myself. And then as you get older, um things get in the way, ah life gets in the way, and I came from my my peers stopped playing. um I probably was one of the last the last people I know that that still played and in speech marks, air quotes, sorry.
01:39:39
Speaker
um and It's a bit disappointing and I felt a little bit unfulfilled actually because and a lot of my friends were going on to get into sports, into into into the opposite sex, into music and the rest of it, but I still wanted to i was still
Evolving Collecting Habits
01:39:55
Speaker
fascinated with this stuff. Anyway, I kind of went underground, if that makes sense, especially when I went to university and I met Lucy and I kind of went underground with my fandom. So what I would collect would be books instead, stuff that I could pack away to your point.
01:40:09
Speaker
i so I've got three massive trunks of the of of EU books. um And so i i that was my that was my that was my drug for quite a few years, actually. And it wasn't until my kids were born and they were an age where I was looking after my kids on a Saturday morning because in those days Lucy had to was was working on a Saturday and night I'd look after the kids. But I introduced them to Star Wars and they started liking it. i mean that that They don't give two shits now, but but at the time they started really, really enjoying it.
01:40:45
Speaker
and As a result of that, I started buying some stuff and they would buy me for fathers you know buy for me for Father's Day a few things as well. It slowly but surely got to a point until I would say the early 2010s. Yes, of course, there's a lot more excitement around the time of The Force Awakens where in the early 2010s, geeks, it was quite cool to be a geek again.
01:41:13
Speaker
And so I'd actually go back to she went to my first con in twenty it was as late as 2010. I went to buy my, shall we say, modern, um my first modern figure in as late as 2010. And ever since then, I've kind of just carried on since then. I've diversified an awful lot. I i found that um I got a little bit bored with the they the style, despite my love of Star Wars, I got bored with the hype um ah for merchandise that was late to market, quite frankly. The biggest turnoff for me was not being able to speculate, I mean, to your point, Kev, about the power of the force. um An awful lot of that for the Phantom Menace came out before the film did.
01:42:00
Speaker
Uh, and it let you speculate who is captain panaka little did we realize that he's the most he's he's the most legendary um Starship captain of all time ever but the point being is Excellent Um, so yeah, and and it was it was it was yeah, I kind of turned him off a bit and then in recent years it's kind of been um i've Chewy has always been my guy, so I've always bought Chewbacca merchandise with a little bit of other stuff as well, typically associated with Chewbacca by hook or by crook, even if it's a very tenuous link. But the point being is that um
01:42:46
Speaker
And then I'd get different things manufactured by you know different companies. I got into, for a while, the Bandai SH figure art stuff because I thought it was better quality and most importantly, I'm more on point than the Hasbro stuff.
Bootleg and Unique Collectibles
01:43:01
Speaker
um But it it did it wasn't a it was ah it is at a point where it's it's very much ah in decline and I only get the stuff. I really do cherry pick and in recent months, I wouldn't even say years, ah these guys have introduced me to bootlegs and ah bootleg is my new passion and I can't think of...
01:43:24
Speaker
ah Honestly, it's it's it's opened my eyes to a new world where I'll end up probably having to sell the house because I can see myself doing some serious damage to my bank account because there's so much talent out there at the moment, and it's so relevant um in many, many ways that that that I love it. I absolutely love it. and I spent the company just making bootleg Chewbacca's and trick you into buying all of them.
01:43:49
Speaker
fine i'm there i'm there dude no worries no worries at all i'll die out that they they can they can be buried with me and me in my casket that's no but no problem at all what a brilliant idea shot what a brilliant idea shot i've just like i found this really cool shop i think buy this look buy this This one's pink. This one's blue. He's got a new hat. He's got a new hat. He's got a new hat. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Question two. Question two. I might combine these if it's all right with you. It might make sense. I'm going to combine questions two and questions three. So the question to you. I'm going to start again. There were three, but there's now 2.5. There's now 2.5.
01:44:36
Speaker
so Kev, back to you. What are you collecting today? And if money and space was no object, or wasn't an issue, what would be your holy grail? There's no space issues that Kev's asked whatsoever. We've got loads of room in here. We've got loads of room, mate. I mean, when Emily moves in, there's going to be fucking loads of room for everything.
01:45:08
Speaker
Got a very amazing fiance moving in soon. We've got loads of room. We've got absolutely tons of room. Right. Because she's not a collector, is she? No, not at all. No, neither of us. but We're both but're both not completely nuts for each other, like, with this. So, um... Collecting. Here we go. This is... but This bad. Why'd you click that, Kev?
01:45:33
Speaker
Oh, yeah, pretty little prick. yeah ah ah so oh like ah Well, my big thing now is a couple of things, three things really. um First off, what what you said Andy was kind of storm of thunder, and completely right. Bootleg toys have been a big thing.
01:46:01
Speaker
And that's all down to Chris. So we go to a couple of other cons. um look that You're welcome. yeah we go We go to a couple of set, not not vintage toy fairs, but like toy cons basically, ToyCon UK, where it's all just original designers and they do their their imagination, creativity, call it what you will, is incredible. And it's partly the reason as well why you get so bored with commercial toys because you just know they're just There's no real effort there. They just pumped out for a mass audience and so on and so forth. um I don't spend a lot on them because, you know, they are expensive. ah You know what I mean? as As we've both found out when we go there, we've had different for the best days ever.
01:46:55
Speaker
Oh, we've had some cracky days there. We've had some cracky days here. My big collection without doubt at the minute though is Godzilla stuff. Like a few years ago, um I've always loved sort of Japanese cinema, Japanese culture, never really got into Godzilla. And it was kind of, I don't know how long ago, maybe two or three years ago, um just started to watch the original Japanese Godzilla films.
01:47:25
Speaker
and just that was a rabbit hole then that I was absolutely deep, balls deep in at this point. because the I i love them ah love them and I love collecting them. I love the figures that are out and it just got a bit, it started to get a little bit nuts with it. so And then Like, I've also got... Sorry, I was just laughing at fucking... It's mad at you. I've obviously been on this journey with Kev, so this is really funny. Like, the first Godzilla figure he bought, it didn't just... but You know how sometimes you like you dip your toe in? It just went balls deep and like... Dropped a fuck ton of money on this massive Godzilla. It's fucking brilliant. Right, it was shit up, mate, wasn't it? Because we went to this toy shop up in... the
01:48:19
Speaker
Doosbury in it like a little bit. It's a little bit of a drive mate But but the reason that we went there just as a little I'll be quick this that like we'd seen him um On a YouTube channel on the Leicester vintage toy channel and he bought the biggest Godzilla collection the UK had ever seen um It was phenomenal like where he'd got like all this vintage Japanese toys and all these mad Godzilla stuff and And the guy from god from Leicester had basically he went up there and tried to buy it, offered him 10 grand, got nowhere. So we were like, we've got to go up there. And we went up there. ah Holy shit. It was absolutely amazing. So um yeah, I mean, that that is ah one of the things with the vintage toy fairs is that there's always a couple of sort of
01:49:11
Speaker
Godzilla dealers, if you will, Godzilla collectors, Kaiju collectors. um And it's also the reason I love the toy art ones as well, because you get a lot of bootleg Kaiju's Godzilla's. So that is my big thing. And plus, I've gone absolutely notes on fucking Japanese soundtracks like a knobhead. What a fucking day I just got.
01:49:38
Speaker
Honestly, i've always I've always collected records, I've always collected vinyl, but oh my goodness gracious. Well, Emily and I are going down to rabbit hole with soundtracks and it's just gotten ridiculous and we're just like proper collecting them. So that that's that's my big things at the minute. Andy, I can't hear you.
01:50:03
Speaker
Sorry, mate. And if money and space was no object. i
01:50:09
Speaker
that That indicates a plan. That makes it seem like there's that problem. I genuinely think that it wouldn't, I know this sounds like a deflection, but I don't think it would be much different to now, but I would be able to spend more money on it. I absolutely think it would be without question without question like vintage Japanese toys. that's kind i think i would i mean Some of the stuff you've shown me, some of the stuff when when I've when i've kind of tried to tried to kind of follow what the way your brain thinks and everything, when when we go when we go to these fairs. Don't do that. some the stuff youve more know my god no Even I don't know that.
01:50:52
Speaker
the but But some of the stuff you've shown me is phenomenal. But it's way out of my league in terms of price. I think it would be ah just like, okay, if I can get, you know, a vintage, just like an old vintage figure, like, you know, some of the old Japanese toys from the sixties and seventies or whatever it might be, there's the ball-marked ones, there's the um toy Tokyo like line and things like that, where I would just be like, okay,
01:51:23
Speaker
We watched a video once where a guy had like one of the first Godzilla toys, um which I think was a ball-marked one, wasn't it, mate? And it was just like, i would I would just be like, if money was no object, I would go and buy that. And I would buy that, you know, that range, that kind of toy tokyo, ball-marked range of like classic Godzilla figures. I would just go, because I've kind of,
01:51:50
Speaker
ah yeah You really think about it and you could go like ah all these statue routes, you know, and all these kind of hot toy routes and all these kind of stuff like that. But I haven't got a love for that anymore. I just haven't got a love for that anymore. I really love bootleg stuff where i'd be able I'd go down that route and I'd go down that vintage Japanese japanese toy route. And that that would be my... Good answer.
01:52:19
Speaker
Good answer. Chris, what are you collecting now? What are you collecting now? And if money was or space was no object, what would be your honey grail? What am I collecting now? Mate, what am I not collecting now? I was going to say, I can't even think of a theme. Mate, tell them about that mask from that film you've not seen.
01:52:45
Speaker
well
01:52:47
Speaker
I've never been like a completist. Like the, the only thing I've completed outside of that WWF sticker album is that the, 78 to 86 run of Kenner figures. Um, and they're still the last 17 with that as well. I'll never get all them because they're just silly. Um, yeah, so I've never been.
01:53:13
Speaker
wanted to complete lines. I just ah just like stuff that speaks to me. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. So I've never liked...
01:53:24
Speaker
I did go a bit mad with Black Series, but it weren't from a completist thing, it was just from a like an excitable thing, I think. Like Sean was saying, where it's like, ah it was just new and exciting. You don't know if it's going to dry up tomorrow. It's like, I got to just get it all I can. Yeah. um But now, I honestly, I collect all sorts of different shit now.
01:53:44
Speaker
um just stuff that i don't need basically but i absolutely do need it because it speaks to me and sings to my heart so this can range from a big thing for me at the minute is something called mad balls i don't know oh my god you guys yeah you guys know about mad balls um especially the mad balls head poppers they're like the little so mad balls first came out and they were like a bit bigger than a tennis ball sized ball in the 80s big in the 80s there was what were called gross out toys so there was loads and loads of different toy lines that were all gross like slime based or zombie based or things that could gross you out. Madballs came out of that but the second wave of madballs were called head poppers where they'd got little bodies and the
01:54:38
Speaker
the bull heads were like smaller than the original ones. And yeah, i'm I'm crazy into them, but that's, that's proven to be quite pricey. and So it's not something I've gone crazy on, but slowly but surely ticking that list.
01:54:55
Speaker
um
01:54:58
Speaker
Lots of horror related things actually. Michael Myers is my guy. He's my, he's my, he's my, my dude. So lots of Halloween related stuff. um Yeah. You've got some right course stuff with that, aren't you mate? Yeah. You went to that horror con the other week, didn't you? talk some I did. Yeah. Pictures. course of but yeah Records, obviously. I'm always collecting records. Um, but things that,
01:55:25
Speaker
like spark that memory of nostalgia or just things that I think that looks cool. I don't know what it fucking is, but it looks cool and it's going to look rad on my shelf. I like surrounding myself with cool shit because you're quite disciplined though aren't you?
01:55:46
Speaker
I like it being, do you think? We like to believe so. No, I do. Kevin, do you think I'm disciplined? No, no, no, no. Sorry. Sorry. Let me give some context here. I meant to be disciplined in the context of you buy everything, but at the back end, you're also moving your stock or you know your your you keep it moving at the back door as well that sounds wrong but you know what i mean it's quite it's currently i think after after next week's horror con there'll need to be a purge
01:56:23
Speaker
They'll have to be a rotate. See, all I do in those circumstances is the local charity get shop gets a ah gets a big box from me, whereas you actually make it work for yourself in that you can almost, I wouldn't say always, but you can almost fund this hobby you've got from what you're doing.
01:56:42
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. yeah I've got to the point. I'm sensible enough of that and if I know I can't afford something, I'm not going to buy it. know of I've got a budget when I go to these places and
01:56:58
Speaker
It is fun money for want of a better. I find myself at a point in my life where I have got, I'm blessed enough to be able to have money that doesn't need to support my normal life. If that makes sense. Not a lot, but it's fun money to like have a play with. um But yeah, I just, as a creative person, I hate calling myself that, and but I'm a graphic designer for a living. Outside of that, I do freelance illustration. i I'd say you're creative, yeah. ah bit A bit