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The 2024 Halloween Special Featuring Monster High Creator Garrett Sander
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The 2024 Halloween special is here! This year we're excited to sit down with Monster High creator and designer Garrett Sander! No stranger to the grave and ghoulish, Garrett tells us about the origins of the popular line of monstrous and undead dolls, along with details about his latest project, Gravestone Guardians!
Back Gravestone Guardians here: https://www.gravestone-guardians.com
Follow Garret on Instagram @garrett_sander
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting
00:00:02
Speaker
you ready oils ands Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast!
00:00:17
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Where we talk toy news, culture, and halls. Along with our journeys as collectors.
Comic Con Experiences and Insights
00:00:44
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting the Spooky Edition. For the first time on camera, so you're seeing me do the finger thing that I always do when we take Spooky Edition. I guess everybody's not going to hear the bubble or they're going to hear the see that the bubbles are like not coming from anywhere. Yeah, I don't know if I'll include the laboratory bubbles this year. Maybe we'll just. I don't know. Well, okay then. If I did, they stopped right now. Yeah. They just, um they cut out. But we did just get back from Comic Con and boy are, my arms actually are tired. My physical, I had physical therapy today. So, um, from holding a bag of stuff. Yeah. Comic Con. You know, record, record breaking Comic Con.
00:01:35
Speaker
Like, legitimately record-breaking comic-con, the largest. And it sure felt like it, navigating it. Holy crap. And you weren't there on Sunday. Your body and Smolt tapped out. My body was DONE. Reasonably so. You did an extra day than me. Because you were there with Joey on Thursday. Well, if that works out. Yeah, it was perfect. It was perfect. But I have never seen the Javits Center so packed on a Sunday. Like Sunday's crowd levels were like Friday's crowd levels, which was just, and it was still like family day. So they were like Thursday's crowd. And Sunday was still technically family day. So there were a lot of families there in, in like, you know, in family cosplay and you know families in, in trying to enjoy the con. And it was just like still sardine city, but, um, yeah, I think, I think this year,
00:02:29
Speaker
is going to, ah this is a prediction. I think this year is going to make a lot of companies and brands reassess what they save for New York Comic Con versus like what they do at San Diego, because I think a lot of brands did not bring enough. Some like I think hit the perfect balance, but I think a lot of brands did not bring enough reveals with them to New York Comic Con, expecting the normal level of New York Comic Con and you know, you had Tom Hardy showed up out of nowhere during the the Sony panel and they ended up showing the the Venom movie. um Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio showed up out of nowhere to show at the Marvel panel had to show ah a trailer. So I mean like that they had like legit star power there. um you know Celebrities are rolling in and out of booths. You know for signings and stuff and and I mean it was just I've
00:03:20
Speaker
I've been going we haven't we've been going since we were kids. It's never been like this. It was it was I think it was like the best toy turnout to I feel for sure. Yeah, I mean out of like all of the big big brands i mean like more panels than we've ever had. Yep. Yeah, then we covered last year for sure. ye Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah, just hopefully next year ah read pop if you're listening don't put any toy panels on the River Pavilion, please don't don't do that. Or just make it not like smooth jazz in between and change it to the old setup where the stage was not, you know, it was not um like halo lit by the sun yeah all day. Cooking in a greenhouse listening to smooth jazz for six hours was really just not an ideal situation to be in. It wasn't great. But I mean, the information at the panels was great. Yeah.
00:04:19
Speaker
Shout out to all the panelists and moderators, but yeah, that was I was very happy to have had Excedrin on hand. Well, if if you are um if you are listening to this episode, ah once you are done with this episode, and if you want some more New York Comic Con coverage or maybe missed it, i our last episode ah was was chock full of it. so we've got over over an hour of New York Comic Con coverage, exclusive interviews, all that kind of good stuff. so And you can see it all on YouTube. Yep, booth tours. YouTube dot.com slash AIC underscore podcast. Nailed it. Nailed it, Dave. Good work.
Halloween Traditions on the Podcast
00:05:00
Speaker
But this is our annual Halloween episode. And I know for folks that have been listening to the show for or enjoying the show for a long time, every year we um we have a special guest on our our buddy, Dave.
00:05:14
Speaker
And, uh, and he dies, he dies every year and like magic, he comes back. Um, this year we're going to pull back the curtain and, uh, we are, we are, are happy to announce that for the second time, Dave has missed the, uh, the podcast for a, a significant life event. So first was his wedding.
00:05:34
Speaker
And now the second time he's missed his annual killing is because he is a new dad. So um congrats to two best friend of the pod, Dave and and his wife, Sarah on ah on a beautiful baby girl. ah We will kill you next year, buddy. Yeah. It's tough to kill someone in storyline when they're just married, but now that he's a dad, like, I don't know, it's going to be up to him now. He said he's willing to continue dying. um So we'll we'll revisit that next year. Yeah. but Again, this being an annual Halloween episode, we still want to keep the content, uh, spooky. And I think this year we can actually say that, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna make it spooktacular. We're, we're gonna, we're gonna go up a level from just spooky.
Meet Garrett Sander: Monster High Creator
00:06:22
Speaker
So, uh, today we're thrilled to welcome a guest who is no stranger to the eerie and the extraordinary. He is the mastermind behind the iconic monster Highline.
00:06:33
Speaker
a line that redefined spooky chic and made waves in the world of collecting. Now he's back with a hauntingly cool new project, gravestone guardians. Please join us and welcome the incredible talent, incredibly talented toy designer, Garrett Sander, as he shares the story behind his latest ghoulish creation and dives deep into what makes a collectible truly scream worthy. Garrett, welcome to adventures in collecting.
00:07:02
Speaker
Thank you both for having me, I really appreciate it. ah we are We are super, super excited. um Please do not scare us too much, just try us enough. Eric, that was a fantastically like Crypt Keeper-esque, like with the puns intro, so. I tried, I tried. i i was i was actually I was actually thinking when I wrote it, that very thing, I was like, yeah how would the Crypt Keeper do this? I wasn't gonna do the voice though. I was spare you all of that. As you get older, it's harder to do.
00:07:31
Speaker
All touch of area on ah the puns are very on par with Monster High, too. We had a lot of fun with the puns. so Yeah. Yeah. Well, we have, as you saw before we started recording, we have a little Schlechter in the house. So she's a she she was very excited to to meet Garrett. She was the green room experience this time around. So so before we dive into everything, ah as this is a show about collecting, and we can see Quite an array of things behind you there. ah What are you currently collecting? Sometimes it's hard because it's like, what am I not collecting? i if i If I like it, I usually buy it. But i'm really into even though I don't work on the brand monster anymore, I'm still really into it. So I collect a lot of monster high stuff, especially this collector stuff. So I was getting up to try and get
00:08:21
Speaker
get on the site and get those those dolls. um Marvel Legends, I've been in it from like the beginning, so continuing to get all that. So just saw the Sentinel and stuff like that, so super excited about all that stuff. um Saving somebody to order a couple extra, because you can't just have one of those. um And then, like I said, a little bit of everything. I'm rebuilding my toy biz collection from when I was a kid. I had a bunch of the figures from when I was little, but I've just been filling in the gaps and slowly collecting all the characters that I'm missing from the OG toy biz line, too. so Oh, that's awesome. Well, you're gonna you're definitely going to want that ah that new Sentinel, the the one that they revealed in your Comic-Con. That thing is awesome. The 97. Yeah, the X-Men 97 one. It's great. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, so um just kind of starting from the beginning, how did you get into the toy business and wind up at Mattel?
Garrett's Journey into Toy Design
00:09:10
Speaker
So when I went to school, I didn't really know that you could be a toy designer. So I actually went to USC as undeclared. I didn't know what I was going to do. And I went into I moved into the art. ah So I was getting like a BFA in art because I was looking at graphic design. And one of my teachers who taught painting, she was like she saw that I was into toys because she heard me talking about it. She's like, oh, I have a X student who works at motel would you want me to connect you and so she can act this together um and we we talk that coffee met and talk but i was still in school so i'm like i don't know anything's ever gonna happen but um a couple months later she's like would you like to come in just for like ah a pretend interview. I told everyone at work about you and they all want to meet you, but we know you can't work, but they just want to get to know you." I'm like, okay. um So I went in for an interview with this like wall of people that I was talking to. It was a little nerve-wracking, but as it was fun. It was a good experience like doing the interview process and stuff like that. um but um So I made lots of connections there. And then after I graduated, I think it was about a year after I graduated, they had a spot open up, a temp spot.
00:10:09
Speaker
And they reached out to me and said, hey, we have a 10-spot. Do you happen to be available? And I was. And I interviewed for it. And I got in. And so I started as a packaging designer at Mattel because my emphasis in art school was graphic design. So I actually started as a packaging designer and worked on the packaging designer for a couple of years. I worked on Winx Club, a little bit of Public Pocket. um Then I oversaw. I moved over to the My Scene team and I got to oversee the My Scene brand for a little while on that. And then ah after then being on the Meising team catapulted me into being in product design after I came up with Monster High. So perfect perfect segue there. Well, actually, Dave, before before the segue into Monster High, USC, you also spent some time there. i I was there for a month in high school. Nice. Did a little like short film program, which was fun. Great campus.
00:11:03
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's beautiful. And then, of course, once I was there, I found out you could do toy design. There's Otis, which is not too far away. So during the summer, I actually took a toy design course at Otis. And and that was really cool to do, too. so So very cool. So what led to the design of ah of Monster High?
00:11:20
Speaker
ah So being on the My Scene team, My Scene was called a Flanker brand because it flanked Barbie and it went after like a girl who maybe wasn't into Barbie. And so it flanks Barbie and goes after um the kids who maybe aren't into Barbie. And My Scene was, the sales are starting to slow, so they're looking for a new Flanker brand to sort of replace My Scene. And um so we went shopping with 12 and 13-year-old girls because they're sort of like the aspirational for the younger girl. And we went to a ah mall nearby, Mattel, and watched but gate they all got money. And we just followed them around the mall to see what they bought.
00:11:49
Speaker
And then they talked about why they purchased it and stuff like that afterwards. And one of the girls bought a Sklanimals plush. um And their tagline was, dead animals need love too. And I was like, well, what if dead dolls need fashion too? And we did like a line of dead dolls, you know, but it's like fashionable. And everyone, it's so funny. Oh my God, dead dolls. Can you imagine? Mattel's never going to make that.
00:12:07
Speaker
um So, but like I thought there was something there and sort of one of the marketing people and I just went home thinking about it. And originally I was like, Oh, what are you know, if they're all zombies, but then I knew one of the things too is like, we want to make sure that all the characters are very different from each other. So you wanted to collect all of them is like,
00:12:23
Speaker
how could be really different was like, well, lot they're all just different monsters going to high school together, you know, and like figure out how to be different from their parents. And so that night actually drew Frankie. And so that's why Frankie's birthday is actually the day that I drew her. So it was the very first sketch of her. So that's what her birthday is.
00:12:38
Speaker
um which is pretty fun. And went back, I was working on the idea, I was like fleshing it out a little bit. And then as I had like a little bit of a story, I was telling my co workers about it. And they're like, Oh my god, this is so cool. Can we help? And so we would get together at lunch, and we brainstorm a little bit more around it, they'll flush out the world, add more characters and stuff like that. And then it came time, like, they were going to be going into testing with the concepts, the product team had, because I was still in packaging at the time. But the product team and we said, Well, we have a we have this monster idea that we're working on. Can we show it to you guys? And they're like, Okay, so we showed in there, like,
00:13:08
Speaker
Well, we can put it in the test, you know, you basically matched all the stimulus that all the other stuff has. So you can go into the test with it. And ah so we' we're really excited. We were like, Oh, they're either gonna love it, or they're gonna hate it. Because like monsters in terms of like, when you're ranking things, what girls like, it's like at the bottom of the list, right above aliens. So like, everyone was like, this is never gonna happen, you know, but I think it was like put in the test, it'd be like, let's put this to bed, and then we don't have to talk about it anymore. But from the test, it it like skyrocketed, every group loved it, they wanted to know more, they're like,
00:13:38
Speaker
I want to go to Monster High. I want to know more about them. you know So that was really cool. And it was just a couple of black and white sketches and and some bios that we read to them. And so from there, it sort of blew up. So we started working on it in 2007.
The Rise of Monster High
00:13:50
Speaker
And then we just kept finessing and working on the line. And then it didn't launch until 2010. And ten man and and like do you have like a personal affinity for like horror and stuff like that? like so did Did this kind of come natural to you? or Was it really just kind of out of that moment of you know that the experience that you had with those the the test group? Yeah. i mean i When I was younger, I liked a lot of the more horror stuff. As I got older, I've gotten a little more squeamish for some reason. But I always loved the comedy horror. Scooby Doo absolutely loved it. That was like the introduction you know for like a little kid. Adam's family loved the monsters I loved, all like the Ghostbusters and stuff like that. I always loved the comedy horror stuff.
00:14:29
Speaker
Um, and so like, it was, that was sort of combining. It's like, it's funny horror, but I always loved the way the monsters looked. I also thought that the universal monsters stuff looks so cool. And so this was just taking how cool they are, but making them fashionably cool. Um, you know, as teenagers in high school and they deal with a lot of same stuff, you know, we did as teenagers, they're just monsters. So it's slightly different than what we had to deal with. So but how did it feel to just see the line initially explode in popularity?
00:14:54
Speaker
It was crazy because you never think this little idea that you had, like, one, it's going to actually get out there, um you know, and actually make it out into the world because there's so many concepts that happen, at especially at a big company. And then two, it just...
00:15:07
Speaker
how big it got from the beginning. like we couldn't They couldn't air the commercial because there wasn't enough product in stores. like There has to be a certain amount of product in store for a commercial there. They couldn't air the commercial because the product was selling out so fast. so and was just It was so cool and a little bit you know vindicating that you know this monster brand that a lot of people were like, I don't know about, just like went crazy and and blew up. so Yeah, and i mean just thinking about kind of like culturally at that time, like I remember you know in 2010 when they originally came out, like you had like the height of like the emo scene and like, yeah kind of like, you know, got this forever. Yeah, yeah. But it it was just one of those things where I remember, because in 2010, like, you know, me and my friends, we were already like, out of that doll age. But all of a sudden, like my friends that were Barbie kids when they were younger, were
00:15:57
Speaker
Like as adults or like, you know, like older teenagers, like young adults going back and buying dolls again for the first time. Cause they were like, these are like weird and cool. And, you know, ah again, that, could that kind of like counterculture at the time, you know, listening to my chemical romance and, you know, posing, posing, you know, Frankie Stein watching Rocky horror. Yeah. yeah yeah But yeah, that that aesthetic, I mean, to to this day, i you know it's still, it's it's stuck. you know And I love her love seeing it. And you know you got like like I said, you got a ah nine-year-old that it's brand new to her, and she's she's in love with it. And again, like all of the the fun little tie-ins, some of the things that you even referenced, like you know the Addams family and stuff like that now. So it's yeah it's it is a legacy. you have You have created a legacy for yourself there.
00:16:48
Speaker
Well, thank you. I think, you know, there are a lot of people who worked on it, too, to help it come to life. And that's was that was one of the fun things, too, is, like, everyone who joined was got so excited by it, and they just wanted to make it even better. And so, like, everyone worked really hard to get this out there and make it good. So, like, our entertainment team worked extra hard to get all of it done, because I think we had really great-looking animation for, you know, YouTube webisodes. It looked beautiful. The animation team loved it. Even, like, our factory, I got to go to the factory in Indonesia. And as I was leaving, they were like,
00:17:16
Speaker
the Factory workers want to know if you could sign some dolls for them and then no one had they had never been asked any designer to do that before so I felt honored you know like because they loved working on the product so much that they wanted to be able to get their doll signed too so like they were so excited to work on Monster High so that was always so much fun is like how excited people are about Monster High so it you know it just made me want to keep working harder too.
00:17:36
Speaker
And and i I read, and I don't know if this is if this is correct, but you have it you have a twin brother as well, correct? Yes. Yes, I am a twin brother. And he helped out with with one of the naming conventions, right, for for the Monster High? Yeah, he came up with our original tagline, Freaky Just Got Fabulous. So that was that was him. And I mean, he heard like all my ideas, and I'd bounce everything off him, because he was at Mattel at the time, too. So we've been lucky to work at a lot of companies together. So that's awesome. That's awesome. ah yeah A spooky family affair.
00:18:06
Speaker
yes Yeah. So before before we move into your current project, which we're super excited to talk about, um you're now at Just Play Toys, which is another another brand that ah you know we've we've had a lot of interaction with over the years, especially at some of the events that we've been to. um What are you working on over there?
00:18:25
Speaker
So I've got two products that are now actually brought them brought them with me since I'm at home. So one is, this is the Hollow Bright Lantern. um So this one is all about, it's basically a hologram pixie inside, but you can also make her come out. So I set her to triangle. I don't know how much, how well she'll show up on camera with the bright lights at her, but. She can do it. I did not click over far enough, Lacey.
00:18:51
Speaker
I tested it beforehand and it was working fine. oh It's because I opened her. But you see her in here and you get to play with her. And um before she comes out, you have to earn friendship magic. And so you basically interact with her a little bit back and forth. And then once you've earned enough friendship magic, it will actually unlock and you take her out. So you just turn the key and do this. I'm going to hit myself.
00:19:12
Speaker
and she'll pop out the top. And then that's awesome you can take the doll in and out as much as you want. And so when you put her back inside, she reappears inside the lantern and you can play more games there. And then your friendship magic converts to pixie points. So the more you interact with more pixie points, Erin, the more games and stuff you can unlock. So you can meditate with her. You can dance with her. You can make her food. You can chat with her. She has bedtime story. So it's like a whole little video game system in this little pixie lantern.
00:19:38
Speaker
Oh man, that's awesome. And that's out now. That's really cool. That's it that's available for people to to purchase now. Yeah. It's out now. So it's on Amazon, Target, and Walmart are all carrying it. And we actually we've won a couple of awards already, which is crazy. So this is the most difficult product I've ever worked on. um So it's been nice to see like it's gotten a couple, like I think, at the Good Housekeeping Award and stuff like that, too. So it's been pretty cool. It's been a very big learning experience, too, working on something that's complicated. But it was really fun. And then we have another small doll line that I worked on called made to order cup of style so this one I've already done but basically it's like inspired by Japanese ramen and so you open it up and what you do is you'll you'll add water and some paper noodles will dissolve away and you reveal like an actual doll but they've all got noodle hair so they're all by myself so this is this is Whitney wasabi so she's got like her little wasabi details all over her and stuff like that like her that's fantastic
00:20:32
Speaker
Yeah, that is. And then and then you can reuse the cup. There's a little noodle tray in here that the ah there's little chopsticks that you use to get everything out with. And you plug that back in and it becomes a little spa for her to hang out in with a little jacuzzi. So you have that to reuse, too. there There is nothing more fascinating in in toy to me, like as like out once you once you exit, like, you know, you're you're super articulated, like realistic detail world.
00:20:59
Speaker
The most fascinating thing to me is how everyone keeps coming up with new ways to do these kind of like unboxing, like line box sort of situations. And that is the first time I've seen a ramen noodle doll. And that is, that is high on the list for me as somebody who eats a lot of ramen.
00:21:18
Speaker
Oh, thank you. as very they're really cut They're really fun. It's a fun little process to do, like, because the chopsticks, there's a little, uh, like little holders on it to make it easy to use for kids. So if they don't use chopsticks, they can grab things out pretty easy and you fish out all the accessories and stuff like that. So it's pretty fun. We we had a good time on it. And it's teaching them a life skill of how to use chopsticks. Yeah. Super important life skill, like 100%. Hey, sometimes you don't have a fork, you don't have a spoon, but you got chopsticks. Yep.
00:21:48
Speaker
But ah no, that's that's super cool. and and And going from a company like Mattel over to Just Play, like is there you know a big difference in terms of you know like the development cycle or like the the amount of of kind of like leeway you have from a creative standpoint? ah Yeah, I mean i think we because it Just Play is smaller, we can move a little bit faster. So there's not as many like
00:22:12
Speaker
the the time between checkpoints is shorter because we don't have to have so many people look at it. So, um you know, with Mattel, it's just such a big company. So many people have to see stuff in the process sometimes that it can take a little bit longer. um There's good things and bad things with that, you know, sometimes even more time design, where sometimes you have less time design. So it's, you know,
00:22:29
Speaker
six of one, half dozen the other sometimes. But um I think at a smaller company, we do have a little bit more creative freedom, too. um So it's kind of nice because we have direct lines to the owner, like we talk right to him and stuff like that. So that's really nice. And they're very encouraging about, you know, ideas come from everywhere and stuff like that, too. So there's a lot of great collaboration that happens. Nice. So from the the the past to new, um tell us about gravestone guardians.
Introducing Gravestone Guardians
00:22:56
Speaker
ah So Greystone Guardian is something i worked I started working on. I was at Moose before just playing. When I left Moose, I wanted to work on something of my own. I was taking a little break in between things. And I've obviously always loved monsters, but I also grew up on He-Man and Shira. I loved them because ah not only was it cool, but they're also twins, like my brother and I. So, you know, it was really cool that He-Man and Shira were twins.
00:23:15
Speaker
And ah I've always loved the toys, how they look, and there was this research that's happening, you know, with origins, and there are all these other like, ah lines like Legends of Dragonore and stuff like that that were coming out, they're all on the scale. And I was like, oh, I'd love to create something that sort of matches into that, that I can combine my love of monsters and my love of like He-Man and She-Wear together. And so I was just bringing someone around one day, you know, like, okay, what if they're, Guardians, and they do this, and I was like, oh what if I just make them monster guardians? Because it was always like, sometimes like the villains were always so much cooler than the heroes, you know, because they got to be monsters. So I was like, why don't you just make the heroes the monsters too? So I started designing, you know, taking those classic monsters and creating what would they look like if they were, you know, intergalactic guardians protecting their planet from a, you know, an evil infestation of people coming in to try to take over their planet. And that's how Graceland Guardians was born, so.
00:24:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I love the aesthetic of them. The first thing I... Yeah, for sure. The first thing I thought of when I saw them was like, oh, it was like, this is Princess of Power. Like, this is true. It looks like that same kind of vibe, you know? ah the the The way the cutler cutlers pop, just the kind of ah the structure of the figure itself. So really, really, really novel ah in in that regard to kind of continue and in that that lineage. I feel like the articulation even is similar. Yes.
00:24:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Have the five points of articulation on there. Um, you know, I, I always liked it growing up like this simple pose, but I know I still love, you know, super posibility too, but there's something sort of nostalgic and magical about just that five points of articulation. Yep. re Retro has never been more popular. So yeah yeah that's a, so, so what led ah to the decision to take it to a ah crowdfunding platform?
00:24:55
Speaker
I've been working on it for a while and I had bought some customs. I don't know if you guys know Adam Shearer, customs on Instagram, but he does customs like Shearer figures, he sculpts as well. So he was like remaking because the Star Sisters neighbor came out. So he made the Star Sisters, he made Huntara, Octavia, all that would fit into the look and style of the original Shearer. And I bought some figures from him and one day I just asked, I was like, hey, would you ever be open to sculpting something? And he was like, yeah, sure. And so we got together with another friend, Patrick, and we started talking about the line and what we do. And you know, it just sort of became like, I'll just pay and have it done for me. But then they're like, hey, you know, like, other people might like this too. And so I started I started the Instagram for and started sharing like the process of like making a toy and how it works. Because I know, like, there's so many things you can't see about making a toy. But because this is mine, I can share everything. So I can share the sketches, I can share the mood boards.
00:25:47
Speaker
And I could share all that information with people so they could see what it's like. And then it was moving along and we really loved how she was turning out and thought, we see all these other, you know, crowdfunds happen. Let's give it a try. The worst that could happen is it doesn't happen, but at least we tried, you know, for something to happen. So we thought we'd give it a go. Yeah. And, and it's the, you know, the, the kind of roster that we had, we could see in, in, you know, some of the, the design work there, uh, but vampsephony.
00:26:13
Speaker
Did I get it right? Yes, yes, yes. Is the the the the character that is, there she is. Awesome. The one that's that's up for, ah you know, ah two back now with a both Tessa to unlock, right? um Yeah, and I have both Tessa here too. So this is ah both sculpted by Adam. They look absolutely amazing. So very cool. Yeah. I love her little troll hair. and We want to try to get some tinsel in that hair. So she's like got the electricity going through her hair. So.
00:26:43
Speaker
Man, seeing seeing them in hand, it actually, like they they really do look like they're right out of that era, too. It's perfect. Yeah, absolutely. I'm just thrilled how they turned out. like I have them on my shelf just so I can look at them, even when I'm working. so And I like, too, you know the the the packaging design, you know the the the coffin-shaped card back on the blister.
00:27:08
Speaker
Thanks. We're having a little crystal coffin that we want to have as the blister that holds him in place. I was lucky enough to get Simon Eckert was free, so he actually has done official Motu art and stuff like that. So he was able to do a drawing of M. Sefany, and he actually has a drawing of Bultessa that he did, too. So I'm going to be unveiling that one, too. So she's a stretch goal, but I'm going to unveil the art and stuff because it's just so beautiful what he did. So it just really brings the characters to life. I've been following him for a long time, too. So I was fangirling when I was like, Hey, can I get you to draw something? He's like, sure, that's a sweet time right now. No, that's awesome. That's it. That's very cool. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's like cool to see too, like you were saying, being able to take it, everybody through the process. Cause I think, you know, that's something that not a lot of people, as much as people kind of learn about the process, it's always good to kind of see more because I think it helps people kind of understand really just how
00:28:07
Speaker
Everything even from a crowd whether it's a crowdfunded project or just you know Kind of like a main big company project like this is the process but Yeah, either way. It's a it's a big process and it's a lot of work Yeah, and it's one of those things where there's a lot of assumption to you know Like yeah, I don't realize it's like snap your fingers and then and you know the toys on the shelf We've we know we've said this countless times on the show But like you know the average lead time even for like a big company like you're looking at like 12 to 18 months, right? So yeah you know and yeah And you're doing this you know pretty much by yourself. So it's quite a lift, quite ah quite a quite an undertaking. Yes, for sure. um But it's been so much fun. like i mean I know that I designed toys during the day, but it's really nice to be able to work at a company where I can work on my own stuff too. And you know they're like, yeah, sure, go ahead. like Because I went to the company, I was like, hey, I'm working on this concept. And as I was starting, they're like, yeah, you can keep working on it. It's not a problem. So it's really cool that Just Play is letting me to continue to work on it.
00:29:05
Speaker
And I'm having so much fun, you know, I've designed a whole bunch of characters for it and I'm working on all the villains now because Queen infestation is the villain. So all the villains have like a bug theme to them. So there's Queen infestation. So she sort of got like a cockroach theme to her. So she know they infested in the hundreds. And then there's ah General Adora. So she's got like a stink bunk bug theme to her. So she's like extra big and super strong. um So it's like O'Dora instead. And she has like pheromones that she uses. um Queen of Estacia can actually you know infect people and control them then. So it's sort of like the Borg in a way. Like she can infect them to get them to do what she wants and mind control them. And then ah General O'Dora has ah pheromones that she can use to get people to do what she wants. And then in the lineup on the backer kit, there's General Mothric.
00:29:49
Speaker
who is, these are all her children, all the generals are her children too. So, but he's like got like a moth theme to him and he has like light based powers. So, I'm having, it's such a fun, creating characters is also fun. It's like diving into the research and looking up all this stuff about like the different bugs and like what they can do is really fun too, so. So, in terms of mentioned, oh, go ahead Eric. Oh, I just wanted to ask one thing, one thing. So, in terms of the ghoul verse, right, as you're creating it, is there, are there plans to do kind of any other media with this? Like, you know, maybe a comic book,
00:30:19
Speaker
anything anything to kind of support this kind of big story that you're telling? For sure. I've been, you know, writing all this stuff down and I ah i want to do a comic book because that's sort of the easiest ah ah form to get out right away. I mean, would I love to be a cartoon? Of course. that would be you know but That's also a lot of money to do a cartoon. But I think a comic book is feasible. and And that was one of the things too, like if we could get to a certain point on the the crowdfund maybe there'd be like a little bit extra so week I could sneak in a comic book into the cost of stuff too. um If not, I plan on working on it anyway. But yeah, I'm working on like story options because I'd love for every, I always loved how every He-Man character came with like a different little mini comic. That was also the inspiration for all the diaries of Monster High was those He-Man mini comics. Like how can you give the people more information about something?
00:31:04
Speaker
Um, you know, but it's right there in the toy. They don't have to go online. You can get it right there. Um, and so I would like each character to come with like a little bit of a backstory about how they became a gravestone guardian. Yeah, that's so cool. I mean, that that's very much so that I still think like even in today's, you know, like how digital everything is and you know, QR codes and all of those things. yeah I think especially when you have a, you know, and we've seen it before in a couple of other, you know, indie toy makers, but like some form of.
00:31:34
Speaker
storytelling when you don't have access to that that media, right? So like we've seen um Jason at ah at Animal Warriors of the Kingdom with the you know the amazing comic that he has that that accompanies that. you know Even some of the stuff that Plunderlings have done, um you know just these kind of like little bits to kind of string people along, give them a little bit more to chew on and and kind of get into that world. um Yeah. Well, even some of the the Motu stuff still has comics, too. yeah my My favorite thing so far that Motu has ever done, and I was never really a ah big Motu guy. I think it was I was a little young for it, so it was kind of it was kind of ah gone by the time you i was I was ready to play with action figures. you know i played I played with Dave's, but um recently with the Ninja Turtles crossover, the little comic they included in that was just like, oh my God, this is amazing, like how they're actually making it like
00:32:31
Speaker
like quote unquote cannon in Yeah, it was like this is so, you know, batshit crazy, honestly, but like, I'm in like, he got Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Eric, for you, like the key man that was your age appropriate was like ponytail. He met the reboot. Yes. Yep. And sure was.
00:32:50
Speaker
oh
00:32:54
Speaker
And now a word from our sponsors.
00:33:02
Speaker
This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
00:33:19
Speaker
Visit them in person at their brand new home at 101 Newark Pompton Turnpike Suite 1 in Little Falls, New Jersey, or online at ChubsyWubsy.com. That's C-H-U-B-Z-Z-Y-W-U-B-Z-Z-Y dot.com. And tell them that Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:33:43
Speaker
And now, back to the show. So what's next after the campaign funds for for gravestone guardians? So if we hit that goal, we'll get to work on, you know, getting a femcithine out there. And actually, I already went ahead and unlocked two of the stretch goals. So there were variants of her. So there's the crystal variant where we'll mold her in like a ah translucent pink with glitter in it. So you have like the crystal version of her and then one will chrome her. So she'll be like all nice, super shiny. So her armor is all chrome.
00:34:10
Speaker
um So getting those three out and then working on, like I said, hopefully getting a comic in there and stuff like that. And then I'm going to continue working on getting the additional sculpts done. So, you know, I have Vamp's Efony and Boltessa done. um Adam's on board to keep sculpting everything. So ah hopefully, you know, I'm looking to probably do like Queen of the Station X. I would like to get a villain in there. um You know, and if this crowdfund does well, then maybe we can get another one, you know, in a little while's time once we've gotten all this taken care of to to get some of the other characters um into the world as well.
00:34:40
Speaker
Yeah, because we're a when it funds, not an if it funds. Yeah. yeah very exactly It's very important. It's very important. yes we we we only put We only put that good, successful energy out into the world. yeah we do not We do not operate in a world of ifs, it just wins.
00:34:57
Speaker
Just once, yes. So it's very exciting. it's It's been a lot of fun to work on um just living in this little Greystone Guardians world. you know And i what I love about this time too is there's so many creators who can like make their stuff happen too. And I feel like it's a really great time for the independent toy designers and the independent designers, like actual designers who've maybe been working in the industry for all getting to do like their own thing, like take that thing. You don't have to like filter through it through a whole bunch of stuff, you know go through a whole bunch of meetings. You can take that raw idea and actually get it out in the world. So that's what's really cool too. so i yeah I think the other thing that's beneficial too right now is like you know collectors have never been hungrier. yeah you you know there To a degree, we're all on kind of like like plugged into the back of our skulls, this you know nostalgia feed. you know like All the things that we've loved our entire lives either
00:35:48
Speaker
you know, coming out in some retro form or, you know, some modern twist, you know, and a new way. So like, it's like, what's a new IP, something new, a new property that that I can grab onto that, you know, kind of scratches that itch too. But we'll go with this thing that I have already. That's the other thing, right? Like it either scales with something that I already love or like,
00:36:08
Speaker
It is aesthetically similar to something that I already love. So this is, this exists in that kind of sweet spot where it's, it's doing a couple of those things. So it's, it's exciting. um Thank you. It's been, it's been so much fun. So, and I think just, you know, when you're a designer, just getting to get your stuff out there and just having people see it and look at it and, you know, getting likes, it's always nice that stuff too. so Now you mentioned like a couple other characters that you had.
00:36:34
Speaker
already kind of planned out is there more beyond that that are just kind of in like the almost like the gestation period or and even like stuff like you know in the playset idea or even vehicle idea like how kind of far down the rabbit hole does does gravestone guardians go in a way.
00:36:53
Speaker
Yeah, I've designed all the main Guardians as I'm calling them. I want to leave it open, you know, so that other Guardians can appear. um So there's Vampsephanie and Bultessa, but then there's also Skultania, so she's the Skeleton, and Ghostoth, who's the Ghost.
World-Building with Gravestone Guardians
00:37:07
Speaker
And then there's Rapture, who's the Mummy, and Rockandra, who's the Gargoyle.
00:37:11
Speaker
And then i have decided on some sketches and stuff and i post them online on instagram to like what castle gray stone could look like i'm so you're just a concept of like the sort of big coffin shape thing with giant gargoyle guardians out front and then it's surrounded by the forest of fright so like those open up to become play areas.
00:37:29
Speaker
And then it would come with the um guardian of the castle who is Diamond, but it's D-I-E-M-O-N-D. And so she's forged from the blood of all the original monsters to create the protector of the castle. um So, i you know, creating this lore and building this whole world has been a whole lot of fun. so And definitely thinking about vehicles. I'm not the best at drawing vehicles, so I've been thinking about them, but I haven't put this down on paper yet. But I think we could have a lot of fun with, like, how do they get around?
00:37:54
Speaker
Yes. Around Monstoria, which is their plan. so Some sort of coffin-based vehicle. Yes, exactly. Or hearse or something, yeah. Or hearse, I like that. Some sort of like flying hearse, that'd be great. Yeah. Yeah. So this next- Love some good lore. Absolutely.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. The next section here of our of our show, we know how important it is for our our followers, our listeners to get their questions in. um yeah Not everyone has the opportunity to kind of access the the amazing creators and and artists that we have on the show. So ah that we have prepared a few ah questions for you that we have or for you excuse me that we have ah we have kind of called through the many ah submissions that we got. so Before we jump into those, Dave, remind our listeners, how can they- It's been a while. I'm a little rusty. Now that I have a camera, I've got to have a thing to do. Yeah. Remind our listeners, remind our watchers, how can they submit questions for future episodes of Adventures in Collecting? Yeah. I'm going to look directly at you, all of you, especially you, but maybe also you.
00:39:08
Speaker
um now We have Instagram and X and TikTok and Facebook, and we are at AIC underscore podcast, also on YouTube. watch Watch the video portion of this so you can see that I'm pointing directly at you. And um you can follow all of those things. And when we have a new guest announcement, it's going to come up as a post on Instagram and it's going to come up with a story. And inside that story,
00:39:38
Speaker
there's going to be a little box that you can tap on and it's going to say, Hey, do you have any questions for this guest? In this case, it's Garrett. Um, and then you can send in your question like a bunch of people did. So I'm very proud of you, but specifically you for sending in a question. And, um, you know, we will read that question. We'll, we'll read your handle and sometimes I will stumble over them and that's okay. But, um, we will ask that guest that question.
00:40:08
Speaker
and Eric's gonna let us know how ah that's gonna work today. Nailed it. Dave, you nailed it. Thank you. it's been you've you've You've been spared of having to do that spiel for a few weeks. It's been a few weeks. It's like a month or so. Yeah, but you nailed it. You nailed it, buddy. um Thank you. All right, so our first question. ah Dave, I'm gonna take this one because this comes from Friend of the Pod.
00:40:32
Speaker
Elise explosion ah So fun fun fact about Elise here ah we went to college together and she used to host a at our college used to host a radio show and She invited ah my band at the time on to the radio show to to premiere our our song and we were trying to get signed and um I completely lost contact with her over the years and And then we reconnected over toys because she does some really cool unboxings and is like a doll YouTuber. So what awesome what a world, right? So yeah, a friend of the pod, Elise explosion asks, has the shift from 11 inch dolls to smaller figures presented any unexpected challenges?
00:41:22
Speaker
I would say not today. I think designing the past things getting smaller was a lot harder. But with the technology today, especially with like 3D sculpting stuff, we can look at things a lot faster. And I've sculpted. I've sculpted. I've designed some stuff when I was at Moose that were smaller dolls, too. So it's just learning through that. I was able to understand how to scale things down.
00:41:42
Speaker
And ah even when you're when you're starting at 11 inches, you're already so small, so starting even smaller, you can sort of take some learnings and so like that, and you learn what fabrics to use that will work best on it and things like that. um But it hasn't been a huge challenge. um there's There's challenges as you go smaller, just making sure you're picking out the right fabrics, and do the portions look right as it gets smaller, you have to watch that type of stuff. But um I haven't found any major challenges and in going down a little bit smaller for Greystone Guardians. All right.
00:42:10
Speaker
at Matt's underscore Luna asks, what advice would you give to new toy designers that are trying to get their foot in the door? Try to make connections. I know it's not always easy, but you know, we live in a digital age where a lot of the designers are online, so try to find them. um A lot of times they'll post their work and things like that, or you can search, you know, like toy designers and it'll come up on like some of the the art station type places, you can see what they're working on and just reach out to them. Now, everyone may not get back to you, but, you know, I got lucky and somebody who's working in the company was willing to talk to me. And so just making those connections always helps. And being, you know, a little open to talking to people and trying to reach out and get some feelers out there, um I think can do wonders of getting your foot in that door and just knowing someone at a company can get you an interview or or lead to them sending you to talk to somebody else at the company too.
00:43:04
Speaker
So we're going to, we can actually double down on that because at New York Comic Con, one of the panels we attended, like true, true story, Mont, from a Mondo toys. So at fanplastic fanplastic four. yeah and plastic floor yeah Yeah. So, um, he now works at Mondo because he designed really cool looking, the real Ghostbusters figures on Instagram and Peter Santa Maria at attack Peter saw them.
00:43:33
Speaker
They happened to be trying to vie for that license at the time. And they were like, Oh my God, look at these figures that this guy designed like on a weekend and gave him basically like a trial run. And now he's a designer at Mondo. So do your thing. Post your stuff online. That's how an illustrator that we have, whose name is Darko.
00:43:52
Speaker
He just posted fan art, and it looked so good and so close to what our actual art was, that we were like, we need more artists, because we Kelly Riley did all of our art, and she's so amazing, but we were bogging her down with so much work, because we had so many characters to draw. And so I just reached out to him them and be like, hey, would you be open to like you know doing a test for becoming an official Monster High illustrator? And he's like, yes. yeah so And then he's he's now known in the doll community for his amazing art. And you know he works for MGA and all these other company and Disney and all these other companies doing art for dolls.
00:44:22
Speaker
Amazing. Amazing. You never know everybody. You never know. And in so many of the shot and it is like, it's like a little family in this world. Everyone knows everyone. So, you know, if they see something, they're like, they're talking about other people. And so sometimes it gets around. So um there you go. Uh, our next one comes from, Hmm. I'm going to go with NYG model. Yeah.
00:44:44
Speaker
Let's go with that. atnygmobble asks, that's what I would have done. Where are the first Monster High prototypes today? So everything that we worked on would get packed up and put into the Mattel archives. So they're somewhere in the Mattel archives, but we would pack out and get everything packed up nicely and go in a box, get labeled, and then it would go off to the Mattel archives. So maybe they're living in the archives somewhere. So maybe one day when Monster High ends up in the street I think it's called the Strong, the toy museum in ah New York, maybe even rochester in Rochester, maybe when they get into the museum one day, maybe you'll maybe you'll get to see some prototypes. And like that was one of the exciting things working at Mattel because they did have an archive. ah
00:45:28
Speaker
Darren and I got to work on the She-Ra reboot, and we got to do the 2016 She-Ra Comic Con doll. And so we were looking for She-Ra stuff. And we found out that um when Scott Knightlich was there, he searched for all the He-Man, but they never did a She-Ra search. They never did Princess of Power or She-Ra. And so we had all these boxes brought out from the archive. We were just digging through them. We found the Star Sisters prototypes, like the actual prototypes. We found an actual yeah pan-painted ah proof for the backer card for them and stuff like that. We found the Whispering Woods playset that no one ever knew existed. We found Polaroids of it. And so we gave all those pictures to HeMan.org and they posted all of them. And we talked about it at one of the power cons, but that was really cool being able to go through the archives and see all that stuff. good Oh my God, we're holding the Star Sisters. yeah so maybe um the yeah you know A young designer, they just search for Monster High and somebody brings out the original prototypes and they're like, what? That's awesome.
00:46:20
Speaker
Yeah. um At Christina Romero Leyva asks, what do you think is the secret of good design?
00:46:35
Speaker
It's so hard because everyone has their own opinion, but I think a lot of times you know in your gut when it's good. I just felt like there was something with Monster High that was there and that's why I kept pushing for it. And when people would join, they're like, there's just something here that we love. And so I think sometimes there's just like this gut feeling that you can't really explain. You can't quantify or qualify really, but you just keep pushing and moving forward with it because it it just feels right. And I think if you... If you love something and you keep working on it, you're only going to make it better. Don't be afraid to change things, too. like Sometimes the first drawing that you do isn't the most perfect. Be willing to you know reiterate and look go back and look at it sometimes. and Even if it's so far along, you're like, I don't know if I could change it out. you know Sometimes changing it up will make it even even more perfect. so good old' The good old artist's intuition. Yeah. yeah
00:47:21
Speaker
All right, and our final Q and&A question here comes from at summer dolls and they ask, what are your thoughts on Monster High G3?
New Generation of Monster High
00:47:31
Speaker
I love that Monster High is continuing. Even though I'm not part of the brand, it's so cool. That's something I worked on and I helped build is still continuing on and there's a whole new generation of fans who get to enjoy it. They're also going to do a lot of things that we weren't able to do. So I think the brand is a lot more inclusive than we were able to be back then. There's so many concerns like, can we do this? Can we do that? It's not the right time. So it's really nice to see that happening in a lot of kid shows, especially on Monster High, because that's what Monster High was always about. It was, you know,
00:48:01
Speaker
There's these monster kids who can't hide who they are because they're literally monsters and so being able to be yourself be unique and be a monster that's what the brand is all about and so I'm enjoying you know it's fun to see somebody else's take on it so like how are the characters slightly different what's happening to it so you know it's it's a surprise for me too I get to learn about everything.
00:48:19
Speaker
relearn about the brand and you know it's one of those things like I still love you know cool fashionable teenage monster so I get to enjoy the brand again as well is it exactly what I would do no but I don't think it makes it wrong you know I think it makes it interesting and fun to see what somebody else is bringing to the table so I hope Monster Eye gets to continue on and what's nice about G3 is only reinvigorated G1 now we have this collector line you know where they're and we get the creep productions where they're remaking some of the original dolls so I'm that's really exciting to see Yeah, I mean, some of the stuff that's coming out through that Schlechter line, like on the Mattel Creations, like like the Addams family, the the the um the Wednesday and Morticia set, the RuPaul, like, I mean, they're they're like they're doing some insane collaborations. and Yeah, and Jenna Ortega Wednesday. yeah Yeah. Yeah. And Enid. It's really cool. its out
00:49:09
Speaker
Yeah, ah that's really cool to see because we actually pitched that when I was still at Mattel was doing like a selector line. So um it's really cool to see like it finally happened because I know that everyone who worked on the team was like so excited like we can do like, most times big enough, we should be able to pull on these, you know, other companies and go back into these monster horror movies and do what's the monster high version of them. So it's really cool to see it actually happen happen now. So My favorite's been Elvira, because I was pushing for Elvira to be involved in the beginning. We tried to get her to be a voice in the show. We tried to, you know, be have her be a character in a couple of the things. It just never worked out, but I was so excited when the Elvira doll finally came out. So. Yep. yeahp Cassandra is having, having quite a, uh, uh, career research and since mainly through toys, like we know yeah between that between would what Blaine's doing with her over at, uh, it's like, you know, she's,
00:50:00
Speaker
and Almost as big as she's ever been. Yeah, I've got I've got my a little of our there and there hule thing I'm trying to see where I bought all boys were there I bought the the Pride one over the summer and oh nice. Yeah, it's I've got that one somewhere, too It's awesome. I've got the other two the black and the red here. I think Pride's upstairs But i yeah, shouts shouts to Blaine, friend friend of the pod Blaine. And Elvira, everybody loves Elvira, too. Who doesn't love Elvira? National treasure, that woman is. um All right, so that that concludes our our Q and&A. you You survived the spooky Q and&A. um But before we let you go and and ah and let you out of the the creepy adventures and collecting dungeon, podcast dungeon,
00:50:50
Speaker
um I'm trying here. I'm trying at the very end. I was just going trying i'm gonna say I should have had like a creaky gate open and closed for the beginning and end of the Q and&A. Listen, like all of these wonderful ideas are edits that are just kind of beyond my my my prowess. I'll try. I'll try. Because you know the whole thing. So, Garrett, at the top of the show, he mentioned the bubbles and one year, the first year we did the like the Halloween episode, he was like,
00:51:17
Speaker
He was like, oh, ignore the rainstorm outside of the thunder, lightning, and the bubbles. And this was before we did video. And I'm just sitting there like, you son of a bitch, like looking up through sound libraries trying to find sound effects and stuff. But now we're on video. No, I was like, is there going to, I think I ever said, is there going to be like bubbles, like a laboratory? Yeah. And then they're guess what? And there were the whole episode. This guy, this guy put bubbles in like we were, like we were in,
00:51:45
Speaker
in a ah in an Ed Wood film. um that's really only needed was that All we needed was a theremin? That's a huge string over here. um So we do have a tradition here on the show before we let you go, i where we have a final question that that we ask all of our guests. um And since you are a new guest, you get the original, real final question. We didn't have to come up with some sort of alternate for you. so I had to try to remember it. You got this, though. You got this. Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask our final question? Well, yes, I would. Our final question that we ask all of our guests, what is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection? It can be one of each or it can be both. Oh,
00:52:42
Speaker
so hard. I have to pick one Monster High thing because I'm very proud of the black and white Frankie that we did for the first Comic Con. Just doing like the homage to the classic films and I got to design both the doll and the package for that one. So like it's sort of like the whole complete thing like the way it opens and everything like that. So that was really fun. So I love that I have that in my collection and it's in other people's collections too. I think my weirdest I would have to, I don't know that it's weird weird, but I have a couple prototypes from like toy lines that nobody really loved. I have a couple prototypes from Cass and Simeon the Space Monkeys. So I have the original like hand sculpted Shaolin where she had like white hair and she's in a different outfit and she's held together with rubber bands. So she's like Cass. And then I have a couple of ah prototypes from
00:53:27
Speaker
Ultra Force, um that Galoo blind, I don't think, I mean, I love i loved it as a kid. I don't think that many people bought it was on clearance at KB, but I have a couple from Ultra Force. So I have ah like the the wax of ah Queen Topaz because I got to meet the sculptor Scott Hennessy when I was at a convention. He was right next to me. And so I got to get get that from him. But then I didn't realize years before I got to meet him, I had purchased There was a character, I think it's Raven, the character's name is Raven. um She never got made and I have her prototype too. So it was like kind of this cool kid in the thing getting me like, oh my God, I have something that you sculpted. So um some of those early prototypes that I've got off of eBay forever ago when I was in college, just searching for our prototype toys.
00:54:09
Speaker
That's amazing. Another, another mention of Scott, Scott Hennessy, I think comes up more on this podcast than just about any other name that do often he is so nice. And he's so talented. I love on his Instagram feed, he'll just post like these random things he worked on, like, Oh my god, I had that, you know, so it's really fun to see his stuff. So Well, that that is that is awesome. ah Very cool. So before before we let you go, for real, ah plugs. So tell our listeners, our our followers, where can they find ah you on the internet and where can they ah support ah Gravestone Guardians?
00:54:46
Speaker
So I'm at Garrett underscore sander on Instagram, and then it's gravestone guardians one word on Instagram, too. ah There's a Facebook page for Greystone Guardians. I'm not on Facebook as much, but I'm trying to be better about posting to both platforms. ah Since now that you can tie them together a little bit better. And then there is a I do have a website for Greystone Guardians just sort of holds the bios for the characters and stuff like that. It's gravestone hyphen guardians calm.
00:55:09
Speaker
um And it's on BackerKit, so the crowdfunding's on BackerKit. I have a link in my stories and my bio on Instagram. Or if you just search gravestone guardians on BackerKit, you'll be able to find the campaign.
00:55:19
Speaker
Awesome. And we'll make sure that we put links to all of those things here in the show notes, so that way you can go down, click links, follow all that good stuff and and definitely ah support Gravestone Guardians. we're We're excited. Yeah, let's get more toys out there, everybody. yeah Thank you. Yeah, we want to save the, save the ghoul verse, so we got to get them happening. Save the ghoul verse. and And what, when do they have until, for this, ah this this campaign?
00:55:45
Speaker
November 3rd is the last day of the campaign. So it ends at November 3rd at midnight. So as of the airing of this show, you have just a few days left. We all know how these campaigns work. It's, there's a surge in the beginning and there's that big surge at the end. So we want you to take your energy and we want you to, to use it, to save the goal verse. Open up a couple pieces of candy. We know you got them. Yup. Take them out of the pumpkin, open them up, use that energy to back. Yup.
00:56:15
Speaker
Well, Garrett, thank you so much for for joining us on on Adventures in Collecting ah for our special Halloween episode. Dave, send us home. Let's get some more toys out there, everybody.
00:56:32
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes. Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
00:57:04
Speaker
don't try this at home voido prohibited in some assembly required each sold separately not a flying toy consult a physician if your toy run exceeds more than four hours
00:57:12
Speaker
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