Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
From the Pinnacle to the Pit (of Toys) with Super7's Kyle Wlodyga
663 Plays2 years ago
We're headed back into the wild world of Super7 with returning guest and friend of the pod, Associate Design Director at Super7, Kyle Wlodyga! From updates on TMNT, Power Rangers, and Conan, to wild speculation on the future of Ghost's Papa Emeritus IV and questions posed by our social media followers, let's catch up with Kyle!
Follow Kyle and Super7 on Instagram @wlodygadude and @super7 and visit super7.com for the latest news across the brand!
Use our special link zen.ai/aicpod and use aicpod to save 30% off your first three months of Zencastr professional. #madeonzencastr
Save 12% at BlendJet - use our special link and the discount will be applied at checkout! zen.ai/aicpod12
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
Proudly part of the Non-Productive Network
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Zencastr Promotion
00:00:00
Speaker
Dave, you know why I love using Zencaster? Is it because the recording quality is better than other methods of recording a podcast virtually? Nope. Is it because they offer a free version for hobbyists just getting started? No, not that. Is it because it's super easy to use for everyone and none of our guests have ever had an issue using it? That's not it. Is it because they offer automatic post-production and transcription services? Negative.
00:00:29
Speaker
Stop burying the lead. Why do you love Zencaster? It's because Zencaster is all of the things you just said, Dave. Well, and they sponsor this pod. That's right.
00:00:41
Speaker
Adventures in Collecting is powered by Zencaster. How about your pod? Get started now with Zencaster and use our code to start podcasting today. Visit zencaster.com slash pricing and use promo code AICpod to get 30% off your first three months of their professional plan or try it for free.
00:01:03
Speaker
That's Z-E-N-C-A-S-T-R dot com slash pricing and use promo code AICPOD. Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast.
Meet 'Adventures in Collecting' and Guest Introduction
00:01:30
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Hello. Dave, we're here again.
00:01:53
Speaker
We are. And we are not alone. In this ether known as the void of podcasting sound coming to you. I'm real tired. Haven't heard that sort of nonsense since my philosophy class in college. Well, you know, sometimes nonsense is fun, Dave. But also, sometimes nonsense is business.
00:02:22
Speaker
and you make business out of what most people would consider nonsense. And that's what we're doing here. I'm real tired, guys. I'm running on very little sleep. As I've mentioned many times on this show before, I have two children. And one of them just doesn't like to sleep. So... To say I'm running on fumes would be...
00:02:52
Speaker
would be gracious. But we're here. And we are not alone, Dave. We're not. We have a returning guest, actually, with us today, making his second appearance on the show. He's designed some of our favorite toys for Super 7, actually, last year, a figure that ended up in both of our top 10s in Papa Emeritus.
00:03:21
Speaker
Uh, Kyle, Kyle Waddigo, welcome back to the show. Uh, and, uh, we're super, super excited to chat with you again. Hey guys. Uh, hello. I realize I'm waving and no one can see me just you. I guess I'm just waving to you. That's great. Uh, what's up guys. Um, also I would, I did want to ask, uh, did Papa emeritus the second make it onto your top 10 for 22 because Papa one made it onto your top 10 for 21.
00:03:51
Speaker
And, you know, it took me a second. I thought that I talked to you guys last year, but it's been more than a year. Yeah, it has been more than a year. No, he was in my, he was in my, uh, my top 10 of, uh, of, uh, he was, he was in mine. I had two, I had two super seven, uh, figures in my top 10. I had Optimus prime and I had, uh, had pop emeritus. So.
00:04:18
Speaker
Oh, both are water good joints. I'll tell you. Yeah. Awesome. Sorcerer Mickey made mine. Yeah. That was, that was your super seven entry. Yeah. No, mine had Papa emeritus and had optimus prime. So, uh, two awesome figures. I mean, uh, a giant robot with a surfboard and a basketball and, um, and, uh, uh, recently dearly departed
00:04:41
Speaker
character lead singer from a band. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I loved it. Papa too as well. But like, I think it was just like I was so floored by Papa one. Sure. Yeah. And there's a little bit, maybe a little bit more perceived value in Papa one because you get the two investments.
00:05:04
Speaker
versus the one, but you get the staff, which I learned recently for no reason, is called a ferula. That's the Latin version. The popes have their sticks and they're called ferulas. So there you go. Every day is a school day. He's a ruler with a ferula. That's right. Okay, I regret, I regret already telling the facts. Yeah. I have a habit of making people regret
Kyle Waddigo's Toy Collecting and Workspace
00:05:31
Speaker
things, Kyle, so.
00:05:34
Speaker
Off to a great start. What's up, everybody? It's okay. So speaking of, uh, of, of, you know, toys and, and figures before we get into your, uh, you know, what you've been up to at super seven since the last time we spoke to you, uh, we are all collectors and, you know, we like to talk about the things that we recently picked up. So what are some of your most recent pickups? Oh man, I have way too much.
00:06:00
Speaker
I have way too much stuff. Just today, I got the second three pack of Marvel Legends, the Gambit Banshee Psylocke one. So for my X-Men 275. So now that team is complete. That's like literally today. And then something I got last week that's been really sitting well with me is the Spider-Punk from the universe. I love this thing. And I had the first Spider-Punk.
00:06:29
Speaker
Uh, and I don't know what happened to it. And then I was like, Oh, maybe I should pick up another one of those. And it was like $200. And I was like, I don't need another one of those. Um, yeah, I think there's anything else, but I think those, those are the ones worth mentioning are the ones I can talk about. Fair. Yeah. That that's, that's spider punk. And honestly, the, the entire, um, I have the, that entire wave of the cross the spider verse figures. I have not opened.
00:06:58
Speaker
cyborg spider woman yet. But um, I love how those wonky skewed designs of those characters translate into the figures. They did a they did a nice job of, you know, of doing that. Yeah, I have 2099 here too because he seems like he's gonna be a big part of the movie.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yep. And he's cool, but this spider punk like out shines him like a lot. Can't see it here because this is a podcast and nobody can see this, but you guys who do have camera also can't see this, but this whole half. This half is like where I work and I do all my super seven stuff, but then this half of the desk is like technically my gaming computer, but it's just piled toys on top of each other.
00:07:41
Speaker
Cause I have a PlayStation five, so I don't really need to like use my PC that much anymore. And so it's really just figure storage on this side. And it's like, I don't know. I don't think I've cleaned it in months. So, uh, shout out to my toy designers out there who just have piles of toys for no reason. We know a thing or two about a pile of toys too. Do I? Yeah. Oh.
00:08:07
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, no, that those are some, those are some awesome, uh, awesome pickups. You know, what'd you guys get? What do you guys got? So most recently, um, I did pick up the, uh, the McFarland, uh, Batmobile and the, um,
00:08:24
Speaker
the 89 style, the Batman from the Flash. I got the Keaton as well. The Keaton Batman is great. It shows that they can sell a figure for their normal price with a cloth cape. They need to start just doing that. The figure moves so much better. And honestly, the material that they use for the cape is nice. It's almost like a jersey material.
00:08:52
Speaker
So you you hold it up to the light and you could see those like holes in it, but it drapes nicely Figures great batmobile. I think the Batmobile is awesome for a $60 Batmobile. Yeah, it's got that annoying gray canopy that uh, you know, everyone has been pointing out but uh honestly, it's like it's like the old-school counter Batmobile on steroids and that's exactly you know what you want and
00:09:18
Speaker
You know, it's a little tiny for the, the, their Batman. I actually find that the, the one 12 Batman fits better in it. So I don't have the Mezco one, but I have the SH figure arts and I, he fits in it beautifully. Like I think that, you know, actually works out really well. So those are like the two things that have just kind of been top of mind as of late for me. Okay.
00:09:41
Speaker
What about you? What about you? Um, so I got, um, I actually got a delivery from, from Orlando. Um, Oh yeah. Last week from a friend of mine who was out there and I happened to get, um, four reaction Tron figures. So I have the four single card figures. Okay. Good. They were, they were at the parks and I was like, can you please get me these? Not the, not the bike ones. No, they didn't have any more of those.
00:10:12
Speaker
Yeah, okay, all right. Yeah, I've been, anyone that goes, I let them, I ask, if you see these, please. Yeah, if it makes you feel any better, I also don't have those, and I work there, so. Yeah, they were up on Shop Disney for like 30 seconds. A hot second. Yep, yeah, that sounds about right, but yeah. We sort of expected that to happen, I think. Definitely.
00:10:38
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah. I mean, those Tomy, right? Tomy was the original, the original ones, the, the, the, the John Rancher crons. Yeah. Figures. So those are, you know, just seeing figures again in that form factor and, uh, you know, uh, it's just, it's, it's incredible. Like.
00:10:58
Speaker
I hope that that line characters that have not had figures. Yeah. Yeah. And even like, you know, you guys do such a good job over there of doing like the glow in the dark and like the light reactive figures like there's I feel like the world is your oyster when it comes to expanding that line and paint variance and plastic variance and and a whole second movie. That's right. I you know, I hope so. If if if somehow
00:11:26
Speaker
Tron becomes my segue into making Daft Punk figures. Like I'll take it. I don't, I don't care. Whatever it takes. Hey, they, they cameo. They're canon. I know. I know. I know. I mean, you, it's, it's, it's, it's a bummer. You have to do them in like their white outfits or whatever. They're white. They're wearing white. Yeah. Right. Yeah. But it's the same helmets. They're helmets. It's the same helmets.
00:11:52
Speaker
It's the same helmets. And then hopefully we can just be like, hey, look, we already have the heads tool. Just like, let us make the leather jackets or the like Seinfeld puffy shirts they wear when they're when they first become robots in discovery. I don't know. Daft Punk was sort of my ghost before ghost, where I like know all of their lore and that stuff. So that's definitely a bucket list to get ahead of questions that are coming in like an hour.
00:12:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's a concert bucket list for me. I always wanted to see them live. I don't know if I honestly, the way that they're talking, I don't know if they'll ever know. I don't think they ever will. Yeah. My my one of my biggest regrets in life ever, ever, ever was 2007. I was junior in high school, 17. So like on the cusp of like
00:12:44
Speaker
adulthood and doing your own thing and all that stuff. And I had a friend who had two tickets to this festival in Vegas called Vegas or whatever is stupid. It was some random festival, but it was electronic and Daft Punk was playing there. And he was literally only going to go see Daft Punk. And I was like, ah, well, I don't know. And my mom was like, I don't know if you should. And I was like, yeah, I don't know if I should either. She goes, but you can choose. She like.
00:13:10
Speaker
I don't blame her, but she kind of like mind tricked me like, oh, if you want to go. And I was like, ah, no. And I didn't go. And my friend had the best time of his life. I still like he bought me a shirt that I still wear. It has so many holes in it. It is beyond like repair, but still one of my greatest regrets was not going to that because they never played live again after 2007. Yep. Oh.
00:13:39
Speaker
I'm sorry for you. I've never been, I never was never that close to having the ability to see them. It was always just kind of like a pipe dream. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That would be, that, that would be a tough one for me. I don't think I ever really did have a like legit shot either, to be honest. And now I'm extra sad because I feel like I let both you guys down too for not going. Yeah. Yeah. We could have lived vicariously through your, your enjoyment of, uh, of, of Daft Punk, but
00:14:09
Speaker
Here we all are just being disappointed. I guess just making action figures will have to suffice. So, Daft Punk, you can make it up to me by giving us the license and letting us make your action figures. Daft Punk, if you're listening, first of all, thank you. Second of all... Why? Second of all, let Kyle make figures of you, damn it.
00:14:38
Speaker
All right, well, Making Figures is
Role at Super 7 and TMNT Figure Designs
00:14:41
Speaker
a perfect segue into this next question, which is remind our listeners because it's been a while. What do you cover over there at Super 7? Man, it's a wide breadth. I think I told you about when I first started at Super 7, the first year I worked at Super 7, I did like 30 brands or something like that. As we've grown, the amount of brands that I've on has gotten more and more siloed.
00:15:06
Speaker
a little bit. So I am now an associate art director. I'm not just a product designer. I kind of oversee how the lines are looked at and how they evolve and kind of do some of the line planning for some of the brands as well as the design part. And specifically, I'm in charge of Toho, Power Rangers, Heavy Metal, so like
00:15:33
Speaker
ghosts, we mentioned before, King Diamond, Cliff Burton, Motorhead, all those guys and Ninja Turtles, as well as some of the one off horror things. So if you're familiar with like our nose for ROT2 or a little mutant, I did those. And I'm trying. I realize I'm like looking around the room like a psychopath. Is it all like all around me? Oh, Conan, I do Conan as well.
00:16:00
Speaker
Uh, I can't believe I forgot that we just had a whole launch this week. Uh, but maybe, maybe cut that part. So, okay. We're going to talk about Conan. So yeah, I do, I do a little bit of everything. Um, I, I, those are the brands I mainly work on, but I'm in the conversations for Thundercats and GI Joe and basically everything ultimates now. Um, you know, I'm at least part of the conversation.
00:16:30
Speaker
in the peripheral saying, hey, what about this? Hey, what about that? You know? Yeah, so I own those, but I'm I got I touch a little bit of everything when it comes to old times. You got your hand in the pot. Yeah. Mm hmm. Getting burned.
00:16:51
Speaker
So you mentioned the turtles, so we'll start there. Super 7 recently revealed a new wave. Tell us who's in it and a little bit about what inspired the design for those. Oh man, now it's a test. Hold on. I did those so long ago. Hold on, let me... No, I know this. I know this. Don't I? I know this. Wave 10 is the red shirt Casey Jones, classic rocker Leo,
00:17:20
Speaker
Karai and Ninja April. Right. They get that right. Right. Ding, ding, ding. Cool. Perfect. Awesome. Nailed it. I remembered my own work. So those ones are those ones are unique in that like we're looking for some opportunities to like revisit older characters that were earlier in the line that, you know, perhaps need a refresher or
00:17:45
Speaker
just a different look. So like Casey Jones, like that Mirage look where he's got the red shirt and the blue pants and like the white Nikes and stuff is like kinda like in my brain is like the first comic Casey I ever saw. And so that just made a lot of sense. And you know, Casey was in wave four, we're now on wave 10 double digits. It's my first, it's actually my first double digit wave of anything. So that's pretty cool. But it's been six waves since Casey was available.
00:18:12
Speaker
So we felt that it was time to give him an update, give people another opportunity. So you get that new recolor.
00:18:18
Speaker
and you get a little bit more added value with the battle damage head where the mask is cracked half off. So that was fun. That is not from anything. We just made that up because we thought it looked cool. And then, let's see, April. Again, April was in wave three. A lot of people, one, don't have that figure, or two, weren't stoked on that first figure. And so we wanted to try and give it another chance to make something
00:18:46
Speaker
New with April, but it also still feels familiar. So a lot of people I've seen have brought up how, oh, this seems like, I can't, like, can someone tell me which vintage figure this is? Can't tell which one it is. It's not, we made it up. It just sort of looks like a vintage figure, which I feel like is kind of the, like, the best compliment I can get. Or it's like, oh man, that looks, that looks just like a old Playmates thing. It's like, but it's not. I made that all up. So that was a lot of fun. And she kind of gets her cool, like,
00:19:16
Speaker
uh martial arts training outfit which is sort of inspired from like a bunch of different uh touch points in the TMNT kind of lore where she she hangs out with these dudes who know how to fight like they're master ninjas so of course they're going to teach her how to fight so she can stop getting captured by treader foot soldiers or whatever so she's had like a few iterations where she learns how to do stuff and so
00:19:42
Speaker
Each of her accessories is like inspired by one of the turtles who taught her how to do stuff. So that's cool. That's pretty fun. Awesome. And then Karai, uh, kind of a fan favorite character that's never really had a toy ish before. Like, I think there's been some for like 2003 line, maybe even like rise or something like that, but nothing that looks like this where she's like in her black outfit with the red lining.
00:20:06
Speaker
kind of really inspired from the like city at war kind of books from Mirage a little bit. There's like that comic book cover where she's like holding the bow and like got her like leg up or whatever. It's pretty much like designed exactly off of that. Plus some like kind of vintage inspired ninja accessories and that fun stuff. And she's actually the one I'm the most proud of because when that that character got pitched to me by another coworker who loves turtles, I was like, ah, cry like who who cares? Like why?
00:20:37
Speaker
But then I like read more about her and then like saw more the designs like oh, she's just like she's like the badass foot soldier She's like cooler than shredder and she doesn't need all this fancy armor like alright fine karai rules and Turned out to be a lot of fun to work on And then lastly is classic rocker Leo, which is directly pulled from like a vintage toy Where he had
00:20:59
Speaker
This like crazy like bandana and like the guitar neck swords and all that. So we have all those like vintage hits, but then like, and those like notes that give you the nostalgia. But the thing that I'm most proud of about that guy. And I think that the thing that makes this the coolest Leo as cool as any Leo can be, uh, is the, uh, guitar body where you can slot the swords into it. And now it's like a double neck guitar, like.
00:21:24
Speaker
Robert or Jimmy Page played one of those. Yeah, that was that was the thought. So as cool as any Leo has ever been, he gets a double neck guitar. So and seen. Oh, that was that was a lot. You did it. You did it. We did. Yeah, you got there. Thank you. Take a drink. Take a drink of water. We got there. Take a deep breath. Thank you. No, I mean, it's it's really cool to see, you know, I think when the, you know,
00:21:52
Speaker
At least the perception, you know, from, from the outside in, I think, you know, when people think of the super seven ultimate turtles, they kind of think of it as this kind of one-to-one representation of like here, you know, here's the five inch figure I had in the late eighties, early nineties. Here's the seven inch modern articulated version of that figure. And I think there's, you know, it's.
00:22:16
Speaker
We've said it multiple times on the show, but like everybody's making something that's turtles related at this point, including playmates, you know, are, are still using those original, which, which we didn't actually know until we had them on the show that like, they're still using the original molds, like those original.
00:22:34
Speaker
uh you know uh plates like are still being used to make those figures which is wild when you think about the amount of plastic that's gone through them over the years well that's a testament to how just just how expensive it is to tool anything it is cheaper to use molds from 40 years ago than make new stuff guys yep so but i think it's interesting to see now you know as you know
00:22:58
Speaker
The line develops that you're starting to go into kind of these new original territories and start to kind of flex. Not just your ability as an artist, but also kind of that creativity of like, there's so much turtles out there. Yeah.
00:23:14
Speaker
What if this was this? And I mean, that, that leads us to the question of, you know, originally when this wave was announced, we saw a rat King and, you know, you and I actually had a very lengthy conversation about this, you know, a sidebar, uh, about how it was based off of, you know, the, the face was based off of the newer video game that, uh, shredder's revenge. It's an awesome design. Like, you know, I know that the internet kind of.
00:23:41
Speaker
ran with with sexy rat king which like he deserves everyone deserves to be sexy in someone's eyes in hindsight that act I actually really love that name and there was I think I don't remember who sent it to me was it you or did I find it but someone sent me the like Homer stupid sexy rat king and I was like I
00:24:00
Speaker
All right, that's pretty good. So yeah, I mean, internet's gonna internet and that's okay. And I think we talked about it last time where it's like you're working on this stuff and you put so much time and effort into it and you have an idea of what's worked in the past and what you think is gonna work for the thing you're working on right now. And sometimes you're wrong and that's okay. And I'm grateful to our fans for telling us how they felt about it and not just,
00:24:29
Speaker
Not just deciding to be dumb with the line altogether, but giving constructive criticism so that we have an opportunity to respond. And we did. So, uh, Brian Flynn, our, our great leader in his infinite wisdom, uh, decided that we were going to pull that one back and.
00:24:46
Speaker
rework it and put Karai back in, which I'm very happy about. Because like I said, she's my favorite one out of that whole wave so far. So, you know, it's good. It's, it stings at first, right. And I think, I think I was pretty emotional when I was talking to you guys about that stuff at the time. But in hindsight, it's definitely like, I don't know, it's a good, it's a good exercise. And, you know,
00:25:13
Speaker
responding to fans, working with the constructive criticism and also learning to like separate yourself a little bit. You know, I think you guys mentioned it before. It was just like, once something goes out there, like it's not yours anymore. Like the fans own it. Right. Yeah. And, you know, if the fans who now own this sexy rat king decide to just tear it a new one, that's their prerogative. Right. So nothing, nothing to be done about that. Okay. Yeah.
00:25:42
Speaker
And I think that goes for fandoms in general, regardless of what the fandom is. The internet has given, for better or for worse, has given everyone access to these communities and to these creators. And it's a direct feed to say whether they love something or they hate something. So it just is what it is. It is.
00:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, it also kind of speaks to the kind of wide variety that you can, or the many directions you can go with the turtles in the sense that, okay, we can just plug something in, but at the same time, it's like, here are all of these other things, aside from this thing that you know, that can be this, can be part of this line. It doesn't just have to be one thing, which,
00:26:34
Speaker
is kind of the amazing part of it. Like we were saying before, everybody's doing turtles, but to kind of bring it to a new place is interesting and exciting. Honestly, for me as a designer, that's the most exciting part. I realized that there's some people who are like,
00:26:59
Speaker
pushing back hard, I'm like, oh, this isn't the vintage toy, just redone, like I was promised in the beginning, but like, we've also been adding new accessories, adding new heads, adding new parts to these figures that like, while yes, they feel like they fit within the vintage realm, they're also completely new and they sort of take the figures into a different, like into a new direction. Like examples that come to mind are, like we've been doing this as early as,
00:27:29
Speaker
Uh, as early as like wave three with April, she had her like headset head that was never in the vintage toy. We had, um, the, is it wave wave five samurai Leo had the mask, which never in the vintage toy, but it turns it into a completely different figure. It feels even cooler, but it still feels like very vintage in the same lane.
00:27:53
Speaker
Ace Duck coming with the machine gun and the cigar head, which everybody loved, but that's never part of that character. We're just like, oh, that looks cool. Maybe what if he did this and we had that and then everybody liked it. But then there's kind of like a disconnect when it's like a whole figure, I think. But overall, I think I've seen more positivity for a brand new figure like Ninja April than something that was
00:28:21
Speaker
vintage expire, like, like rat king, where it was very much vintage, but there was like one tweak that they didn't necessarily like. And that's okay. Uh, to that point though, the gorilla gorilla and wave seven completely new. Everything about that is brand new. And I want to, one of the better selling ones actually. So who knows? And that's, that's all to say that even as much research as we do or you can do, like sometimes you just can't predict
00:28:51
Speaker
what's going to, what's going to work, what's not going to work. This is all a big experiment. We're all figuring out as we all go along. But, uh, that said, I'm still grateful for those people who have supported the line from wave one, because I've been with the line from wave one. So it's been a, it's been a crazy journey. Like I said, my first wave, my first wave of, or line of figures that are double digits, which is no small feat. Most, most lines don't make it that far. So it's pretty rad.
00:29:22
Speaker
That is a huge accomplishment. Huge 100%. Um, so speaking of, of our sexy friend Ratkin, um, what's, what does the future hold for him? What, what is that figure? If you can provide us with one, is there an update on what's going on with him? Sure. Um, you know, I can't necessarily speak to like the design specifically, but, um, we are taking a little bit more.
00:29:47
Speaker
uh, of a, of a reference point from the vintage figure that people kind of expect. Um, the, I can't really exactly say what he's coming with, how, how close it is to the vintage figure. Um, but I will say that it is going to be in wave 11 now. So, you know, it won't have to wait that long to see, uh, rat king. And that's, that's just the plan for now, you know, barring any acts of God or.
00:30:11
Speaker
you know, license or issues, scheduling issues, any of that stuff, just in our post-pandemic world, anything can happen with figures and things that are shipped overseas and logistics and all that. But that's the plan for now, is that he's going to join the rest of Wave 11 in the future, not too distant future. So from stupid sexy Rat King to sexy Conan,
00:30:39
Speaker
I think that worked.
New Waves: Conan and Other Figures
00:30:41
Speaker
We just recently got our first glimpse at, uh, at wave five of the, uh, the Conan figure. So, so tell us what's going on with that wave. Oh man. I'm going to, I'm going to try and keep it as.
00:30:52
Speaker
simpler than what I did with my Turtles one, because that was a lot. But that one is just a continuation of the Conan line. There's some familiar characters, but there's two brand new characters and they're people who have never had toys before, which I'm very excited to be able to bring to people.
00:31:12
Speaker
First up, we'll do the ones that you already know, which is Folsa Doom, who now comes with this beautiful soft goods cape that is wired. The whole wave is from the climactic battle scene, the Battle of the Mounds, where Conan does his prayer to Krom right before he goes and fights all those guys. One of my favorite parts of the movie.
00:31:37
Speaker
But Folsa Doom during that part is like up on a hill on a horse with this like black and red cape with like white trim and like these like gold frills and stuff. It's like very majestic. And he's just out there shooting snakes at the the princess who's chained to a rock. It's I don't know. It's kind of weird. But if you've never seen the movie and you're and you're hearing this and thinking this kind of sounds like a fever dream. Yeah.
00:32:05
Speaker
You're right. You're right. Yeah, exactly. It is. It's probably one of the best swords and sorcery movies ever in the best way. Hands down. So the thulsa doom more or less is the same as the first thulsa doom, except for he'll come with new hands. He'll come with his bow.
00:32:24
Speaker
and a snake to shoot out of it. And then he has the new the new cape and don't 100% hold me to this. But the plan right now is to update him to be pinless. Oh, wow. OK. So because that first original one had pins. But again, barring any any acts of God and other post pandemic weirdness that could happen. We'll see. That's the plan right now, though. I actually I prepared this because I wanted this is like
00:32:53
Speaker
So we talked about this a long time ago. My first time I came on here, uh, mythic legions, balleus, which is the brown horse, right? It was on my top 10 in 2021. Cause who knew that you needed like a good articulated horse. Right. Uh, cut to.
00:33:15
Speaker
I know that like, and when I got that, I was like, Oh, I know that they're going to do a black one eventually. Cause it's myth. And I was like, how sick would it be if you can have Tulsa doom on the black horse with the like Cape blown in the wind and all that stuff. So cut to me getting prototype of the soft goods Cape today. Oh, that looks awesome. Wow. And so, yeah, very excited about this. I have to send this back to the factory, but this was like,
00:33:45
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. It's like a weird phenomenon to describe, but it's like when you work on something or you think of it in your head as like a toy designer and then you like get to have it here. It's like, like literal dreams come true. Cause you're like, Oh, I thought of this cause I thought this would look cool. And then like, here it is. He sits on the horse and it works. Right. So love a wired cape. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, I was just pulling it up so I could kind of look at it while you were describing it too. That's awesome. So that that's going to be a lot of fun. I'll put, I'll put this.
00:34:14
Speaker
here so you can see it the whole podcast. And I do this at my own detriment because you've seen me talk with my hands a lot and I'm probably just going to smack and right off the horse. But we'll see how long that takes for me to do that.
00:34:29
Speaker
So, so we've got Conan, we've got folks. Oh yeah. Just yeah. Right. I didn't even, I just talked about folks to do. I haven't even gotten into the rest of the way. Uh, Conan, similar body, new armor, new likeness sculpts. You know, I, I, I love that head sculpt. It's one of the best head sculpts we've ever done. Uh, let's say, as I described it when we were working on, it's a head sculpt you can hear.
00:34:51
Speaker
Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm not going to like blow out your speakers by doing an Arnold impression because everybody has one and they're all correct. None of them are bad. Yeah. It's just guttural noises and it's like, Oh, Arnold, I didn't know you were here. Um, so that's fun. Excited to see that guy. That head, that head sculpt is incredible. That's like, if not, if I achieve nothing else, I made the like best looking, I helped direct the best looking, uh,
00:35:20
Speaker
Arnold Headsculpt, and that was sculpted by a guy named Tom, Tom Schunard, who is on Instagram. He's awesome. Super, super talented. This whole wave was sculpted in-house, actually, other than Folsom doing because he's a reissue. And the whole team crushed it. So shout out to them who had an awesome time sculpting all of the new Conan stuff. And speaking of new, two new characters. Jerry Lopez finally gets his figure.
00:35:49
Speaker
Supaty. He's waited a long time. That's right. That's right. I saw someone commented like he should come with a Jerry Lopez surfboard. And I was like, ah, that would have been great. But I might just give optimus a surfboard. Yeah, there you go. To Supaty. But yeah, Supaty is a brand new figure, completely new body, brand new armor pieces, new like leaner physique for the Conan line. And all of his accessories is like little, I think it's like,
00:36:19
Speaker
It's probably like a normal sized sword, but compared to like, you know, the Atlantean sword, it looks like a butter knife. His little butter knife like goes into his sheath. He like, it'll come with a real elastic string so we can like shoot the arrows and stuff.
00:36:32
Speaker
Um, yeah, I'm really excited about that one just cause that guy's never had a toy. He's always deserved one. And then last but not least is Valeria, who was like number one on my want list. Uh, after I saw that movie for the first time and she's in this like bright silver armor for, I think it's like a total of like seven seconds.
00:36:52
Speaker
Um, super worth it. And, you know, if anything, this, like, this will enable us to like, now we have these head scopes. Now we have these body types. Like now, like, now we can make like the, the rating party three pack. Cause we have war paint Conan, where's like war paint, super tie and Valeria and stuff. But that only works if these ones sell. So everybody go to super seven.com. Pre-order wave five right now. If you pre-order all four figures, you get.
00:37:19
Speaker
bonus battle gear, calling these the super pack. You get bloody versions of all of the weapons that come in this wave. Plus you get the father, the Conan's father's sword from the scene. Get the complete one before it breaks and then you get the broken one after. And so that when when he gets like when you have your your battle of the mounds recreation, you can have him do the like sword. Mm hmm.
00:37:49
Speaker
But you can put the arms up with both of the swords, right? Where he praises Krom or thanks him for granting him revenge, right? Is that what he was doing? He doesn't actually say anything. He just, yeah, he just brandishes. Yeah. He just brandishes. Good use of the word brandish. That was... My brain's not that fried. I could still get a couple good words out every now and then. I can word now.
00:38:18
Speaker
No, it's an awesome looking wave. Like I said, actually, the last time you were on that war paint Conan, you know, that that face that you could hear is like if that face, if you could hear that one, this is like could fill an arena. That's yeah. So OK, so that touches on like that's one of my favorite things working with this new sculpt team that we have internally is.
00:38:44
Speaker
We will I will take like I'll take those like that head sculpt. I found that head sculpt and I sent it to the sculptors and I was like, this is good, right? Just like put the helmet on this. And he was like, all right, cool, sure, whatever. And then like he did that. But then he was like, also, I I did this on my own time and I like updated the likeness. What do you think? And it was like. Can I curse on this? I don't know. Yeah, absolutely. Fuck this thing. This is incredible.
00:39:12
Speaker
This is Arnold. He's done that a couple times with stuff that I've done. It's like, oh, I'm really proud of this head sculpt. And he's like, ah, about to ruin your day. Let me show you how much better it could be. And I was like, I thought that was a good one. Dang it. He's the Pedro Pascal meme.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah. What if it were better? Yeah, exactly. Life is good, but it can be better. That's, that is a hundred percent. So it was very fun. Um, yeah, I'm really, I'm really proud of that head sculpts. And now I kind of wish we could just like go back and do that screaming Arnold head just for everything. Not even like old Conan figures, but like optimus prime, you get screaming Arnold. Papa emeritus, you get screaming Arnold. Like.
00:39:56
Speaker
Where can we fit? Yeah, everywhere. That's the that's the super pack incentive bonus for everything. Now, as you get another version of that screaming Arnold head from the pinnacle to the. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Oh, man. So anyways, I'm very stoked on code and my five and I think you should be too. Yes, yes. And and, you know, like Kyle mentioned, you know, the the
00:40:24
Speaker
Something that Super 7 has been doing lately, which is awesome is if you pre-order directly through them, there's that nice little bonus that's exclusive. Definitely check that out at super7.com. Yeah. We're going to see how this one works now. You've been doing some segue gymnastics.
00:40:46
Speaker
And it's, it's impressive. I was going to throw the pre-order due date in there too. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Go for it. Cause I don't know that. Yeah. Through Friday, June 2nd at 6 PM. That's right. That's right. Yeah. You heard it here first or I don't know. We, we said it first. Why did I say first? You heard it here 15th. I don't know. Yeah. You heard it here eventually. That's right. As, as, as our buddy Tuish's likes to say, it's one of.
00:41:11
Speaker
the best toy podcasts out there. We're one of them. Just one of, one of many. Um, so, so from, so from giant swords to giant monsters, there we go. Well done. That's a professional, everybody. We, there it is. We, uh, we mentioned that, uh, you know, you're, you're, I should say you mentioned, we didn't mention anything. You mentioned that, uh, that Toho is one of your, uh, wheelhouses there over at, uh, over at super seven and
00:41:41
Speaker
You know, what you guys have shown off so far, you know, we got to, I got to see a bunch of it at New York Comic Con. Uh, when you had it on display, uh, they're looking awesome. Uh, and, and, and, you know, as, again, as you and I have discussed at great length, how much I love all things Godzilla. Um, it's been a little while though, since we've had an update. So, uh, you know, where are we at with, with waves one and two? Um, and, you know, can we expect to, to see, you know, kind of anything?
00:42:10
Speaker
teased or announced in the near future? Yeah, I think we definitely can. I need to check the Super 7 preorder status page so I'm not giving out false information. But yeah, if you go to super7.com slash preorder status page, it'll tell you exactly where everything that you've preordered is right now. So for Toho, I have seen preproduction samples
00:42:38
Speaker
Which means that they're in production now, the factory, because that was a little while ago. So the plan is to have them leave the factory at the end of May and then ship to customers around mid to late July. So you'll start to see those hit around Comic Con time, I think, um, at the, at the very, Hmm.
00:43:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's probably at the earliest, if not a little bit later. Again, post pandemic, I feel like everybody kind of has their expectations in line of like, just delays.
00:43:10
Speaker
Big old asterisk on those dates. Yup, yup, yup. Then wave two, similar. I have not seen pre-production samples. I have seen a test shot here of Godzilla, but not Mechagodzilla yet. So that's a little bit behind schedule, but that pre-order came later. So the plan there is for that to ship out to everybody mid-September or so. So I think you can expect to start seeing that wider release in October or so.
00:43:41
Speaker
Um, then the Shogun Godzilla, which we debuted at Comic Con last year. Uh, I just, uh, sorry, I keep looking away from my mic. Uh, I just saw deco samples of the Shogun Godzilla and it works, which is pretty great. Uh, well, this is, this is the test shot, but here's the, oh, it's so big.
00:44:05
Speaker
Look at the functioning tongue. And then this I'm going to try not to shoot my eye out at the rocket fire. And he caught it. Yeah. Yeah. He recently got some like communication from the factory where they were like, we tried three springs. One of them shoots three feet. One of them shoots, you know, four feet. One of them shoots seven feet and you're like seven feet. I want to be able to like torture cats with this thing.
00:44:35
Speaker
So, uh, that's the plan. It works really well. Very excited. This like mechanism thing is great. It's all the nostalgic feels. Oh yeah. That's amazing. Very, very excited about this one. Yeah. My, my reaction show gun Godzilla is never far. Oh yeah. Here. He's never far. He's never far from my, uh, I realized we're on a screen. So this will give you a better sense of your, your scale. Right. Oh, that's awesome. So close. Well, he's like twice.
00:45:04
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah, that's fun. That's coming. And that'll be that'll be shipping out in August or so to people. So, you know, expect wide release September and then Toho wave three a little bit farther down the track, probably early December, realistically, like January for shipping on those. Just that destroy is so big. I don't I don't know how we're going to do that, but we are. So.
00:45:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'm I'm really excited to see those start to come and you know I know the way that you guys kind of work that the pre-orders just kind of end up keep coming So I was curious, you know
00:45:44
Speaker
Yeah, wave four is what's what's going on. They do keep coming. But typically the plan is we try not to have more than three waves kind of outstanding on anything. OK. And so once wave one kind of ships out around Comic Con time, you can probably expect to see wave four get to be revealed or close to revealed or a preorder date revealed around the same time.
00:46:11
Speaker
Uh, I, I, I, maybe I'm being too tongue in cheek here, but we'll probably show way for our con. So safe bet. Yeah. I mean, you gotta bring something from something new from tow. That's, that's true. Yeah. That's the expectation. Cause I think a lot of people, um,
00:46:31
Speaker
At least at last year's Comic Con, we're convinced by seeing them in person. Like we had Godzilla and Bialante and Burning Godzilla and Mechagodzilla and they're like, oh, they're huge. Got it. This this blows my my S.H. Monster Arts out of the water. Yeah, they're real big. Yeah. And that's and that's not to you know, I don't I typically try not to tear someone down to raise myself up. But like because I this whole shelf here, you can't really see it. All S.H. Monster Arts. I love it.
00:47:01
Speaker
But it's just like night and day. It's like. I see each monster arts bio goji is like six ish. It's like five and a half, six inches tall and ours is eight inches tall. Yeah, it's huge. So. Well, that's and I mean, that's the thing. That's the different. That's the you know, the the ultimate scale versus the yeah. Yeah, it's just the scale. Yeah. A one twelve scale. Mm hmm. Yeah.
00:47:28
Speaker
So excited. There's room for everyone. Everyone get in. Everyone get in the pool.
00:47:42
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.
00:47:59
Speaker
Visit them in person at their brand new home at 101 Newark Pompton Turnpike Suite 1 in Little Falls, New Jersey for their grand opening on Saturday, May 13th or online at ChubsyWubsy.com. That's C-H-U-B-Z-Z-Y-W-U-B-Z-Z-Y.com. And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:48:28
Speaker
Rewind and press play on your VHS collection with CGC. CGC is excited to announce our newest collectible vertical, CGC Home Video. As a division dedicated to authenticating and grading your VHS collection, our experts are ready to help you encapsulate your favorite video cassettes. Don't settle for static on the screen. Submit today at CGCgrading.com. That's CGCgrading.com.
00:48:58
Speaker
Face it, shaker bottles suck. Your shakes always come out clumpy and they're a pain to clean. You're right, Dave. That's why I decided to ditch my shaker bottle for good and get myself a BlendJet 2 portable blender. It makes perfectly blended shakes in just 20 seconds.
00:49:16
Speaker
BlendJet 2 is portable, so you can blend up a smoothie at work, a protein shake at the gym, or even a margarita on the beach. It's small enough to fit in a cup holder, but powerful enough to blast through tough ingredients like ice and frozen fruit with ease. BlendJet 2 is whisper quiet, so you can make your morning smoothie without waking up the whole house.
00:49:40
Speaker
It lasts for over 15 blends and recharges quickly via USB-C. Best of all, BlendJet 2 cleans itself. Just blend water with a drop of soap and you're good to go. With an array of colors, patterns, or even Disney-inspired designs to choose from, show off your personality while you're blending up something delicious on the go. What are you waiting for? Go to blendjet.com and grab yours today.
00:50:08
Speaker
And be sure to use the promo code AIC pod 12 to get 12% off your order and free two day shipping. No other portable blender on the market comes close to the quality, power and innovation of the BlendJet 2. They guarantee you'll love it or your money back. Blend anytime, anywhere with the BlendJet 2 portable blender. Go to blendjet.com
00:50:34
Speaker
and use the code AICPOD12 to get 12% off your order and free two-day shipping. Shop today to get the best deal ever. And now back to the show. So from Kaiju to Tokusatsu-based Blast, it's the 30th anniversary of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Super 7 is on wave four. Tell us about what is going on in Angel Grove these days.
00:51:04
Speaker
So it's a lot because, you know, we're not the only ones who are making Power Rangers stuff like I we mentioned.
00:51:10
Speaker
Stuff we just got in. I just got my my 30th anniversary lightning collection. Oh, the remasters. These are very cool. Um, but yeah, wave four just solicited and did did OK. You know, it's a slightly reduced wave just because we wanted to be focused on characters people really want. So like White Ranger and Tiger Zord and Madam Whoa, who has never had a toy before.
00:51:36
Speaker
That was a fun experience because I got to reveal that at Power Morphicon last year. And that was like a big like, I've never done a panel before that. So I got to like, and to reveal a new character who's never had a toy before, it was like something very special. And she's gonna be crazy because she's mostly soft goods. So it's gonna be wild. And also I wanted to,
00:52:02
Speaker
Not only because she never had a toy, but I, as a kid, she scared the, just the hell out of me. Cause like she transports the Rangers to like a nightmare realm where they like can't get out. It's like horrible. Um, so like, yeah, that, that needs a toy. Let's do, let's do that. See how many like therapy bills we get in the mail. I actually remember like.
00:52:27
Speaker
that character gave me nightmares. And I was like embarrassed to admit it to my friends like who watched Power Rangers, but I was like, yeah, no, this is this character is far too terrifying for after school television. Which is crazy, right? Because it's like kind of like compared to some of the wild monster designs, like it's pretty tame looking, right? Yeah, it's an existential fear. Yeah.
00:52:52
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, we're rolling on that. There's a wave five of reaction that's, I think, almost done. I'm not sure when that's supposed to be released, but I've seen tough shots of that. I'm not on reaction anymore, so it's harder for me to stay up to date on what's coming in reaction, but that was the last wave I did, so I know that one's coming at least. At least that's a plan. And then,
00:53:21
Speaker
Yeah, we're kind of trying to figure out what does the future of Rangers look like for us. I think in the near near future, you might start to see some convention exclusives.
00:53:34
Speaker
as I'm looking directly at one down here with my eyes. So I think you can expect to see that in a big convention that's coming up soon. But after that, kind of sky's the limit. I have plans for wave five and beyond, but we kind of just need to check and see how sales do. I think it's not that it's struggling. I think that there's just like, like you said, there's a lot of
00:54:01
Speaker
Not in noise, it's just everybody's doing some kind of version of the Rangers, right? So that those dollars are divided and that just you have to make, as a collector, you have to make choices, right? I'm just one of those unwise collectors who doesn't make choices and just buys everything. But I keep looking in the mirror and be like, why can't I buy a house? And not thinking, not doing enough introspection, so.
00:54:28
Speaker
You know, it's it's one of those things where you know, it's just It's not so much that There's noise and you have to make choices. It's that everyone is doing the kind of like How did I put this to somebody other day? Like when you had one of your your action figures as a kid, you know, just
00:54:50
Speaker
whatever, whether it was a Batman or a Bondi Power Ranger figure, simple, articulated wrestling figure, LJN. In your head, when you were playing with these things as a kid, our imaginations took over and our arm may have only been going up and down, but in our heads,
00:55:11
Speaker
that character was doing backflips and like, you know, like was, was able to bend in ways that was not possible. Like it just, our brains kind of filled in the gaps. And now here we are sitting as adults and like these figures can actually do these things now. Like they can actually bend and articulate and do all of these crazy, get into all these crazy positions that like the action figures in our imaginations could only do. So I think we're in a, like our
00:55:41
Speaker
age group, our generation, whatever, whatever term you want to use. We're in this very, very intense situation where everybody is just kind of like swinging for the fences. And it's tough to say no. It's just, it's very tough to say no.
00:55:58
Speaker
Yeah, you don't just have like we did where it was like you had there's one. Yeah. Yeah, there's one Andre the giant You know, there's one Power Ranger. There's one only one person is making Ninja Turtles. Yeah There's yeah, there's one. Yeah, Michelangelo. This is how you got it now. There's like you have the choice or you can you know, I
00:56:21
Speaker
Get what you want from yeah, I mean, there's no wrong I showed those those remastered lightning collection because I have all the other ones I Have I have the glitter yellow. I have the normal yellow and I have the two-pack yellow from Scorpina Did I buy this yellow too? Of course I did Because I can't I can't say no to a good power in your figure and she can go like this. That's that's right That's right. Yeah
00:56:49
Speaker
You know, you know, so, you know, something else that, you know, unfortunately, you know, the, the, the community lost, lost the green ranger. This year we lost Jason, David Frank, you know, very tragically.
00:57:05
Speaker
He has had such an impact on the collecting community, the fandom, his presence at cons, you name it, the guy's legacy is incredible. What has it been like as a designer to have the opportunity to continue carrying on that legacy through figures of featuring his likeness?
00:57:30
Speaker
I mean there there is no like comparison like what he did for like Power Rangers and just honestly just kind of like fan conventions and engaging with fans and like how celebrities view that like is
00:57:48
Speaker
There'll be nobody else, nothing else like, nobody else like him ever again, I think. It was the, it was the first of all, it was the first celebrity death I've ever cried over. So that was wild. Cause I remember cause I was getting ready to go to designer con that day and I like checked my phone and I was like, what? And I, I was late that day. I just, I didn't, I didn't show up on time. And they're like, what were you? And it's like, Green Ranger died, man. So.
00:58:16
Speaker
And people who, I wasn't working Super 7 booth that day, but like people who know me at work as the Ranger, they're like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. They even said, sorry for your loss. I was like, I didn't know the guy. But it was a big deal. Still is. When we were working on wave four, it was actually slated to come out a little bit earlier than this past month.
00:58:44
Speaker
We had we were actually working on the White Ranger likeness for wave four, like around the time that that happened. And it was like it was kind of hard because you're like you're looking at all of this reference of him, just picture after picture. It's like, oh, does his nose look like that or that kind of stuff? And it's like and like, I don't know, like it was it felt like a hole, but it like it also felt like
00:59:13
Speaker
You know, he was so important to this brand and to these fans like that, like he is Power Rangers. Like it's hard to say otherwise. And so doing him like justice and trying to make the best likeness for him and the best figural representation. I don't know. It's weird and probably a little bit selfish to say, but it helped me kind of like come to terms with it. And I say that and I say that it's selfish just because I didn't know the guy. I was just a fan.
00:59:43
Speaker
But like White Ranger was my favorite as a kid. I'll tell an embarrassing story in that I did not know that the Green Ranger was a thing until I was like 14. Because by the time I got into Power Rangers, it was like 1994, 1995, Green Ranger stuff was long sold out and he was never on the show again. So I was all about the White Ranger, specifically the Falcon Zord.
01:00:07
Speaker
Like that's how late I'm I got into Power Rangers because it was just like slightly like I was alive, but I like didn't have comprehension. And so like White Ranger, Balcon Zord, like that was my guy. And so it was like the one I've been like waiting to do super excited and then like, oh, he died. Yeah. You know, so if anything, like.
01:00:31
Speaker
I hope we did justice to him. And I know that the sculptor, same guy who did the Arnold head, is a huge fan. His name is Tom. He went by Tommy as a kid. So Tommy was his guy as well. And I know that he really wanted to do him justice. And I think he nailed it.
Designing Posthumous Figures and Emotional Impact
01:00:50
Speaker
So again, I think it's been cool to be able to try and honor him in the way that we know how, using the skill sets that we have.
01:01:01
Speaker
Um, and I'm not sure, I'm not sure that registers with people. Um, and like I said, I do feel weird about it a little bit, but at the same time, it's like, you know, I don't really have any other ways to contribute to his legacy other than action figures. And I was grateful for the opportunity to do so. Yeah. And I mean, I think too, it's important to recognize, you know, you're in a unique position where, you know, you are a fan.
01:01:30
Speaker
of the character, of the actor, of the person. And you have this opportunity to kind of translate the passion that you have for that character into something that is feasibly going into the hands of thousands of people. And I think that's really cool. And I'm right there with you. I was starting to kind of
01:01:57
Speaker
age out of Power Rangers, you know, as kind of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was ending, but like the height of it for me was, was that movie with Ivan Ooze and you know, the, and the White Ranger. Like when I close my eyes and think of the Power Rangers, I think of them, the movie costumes, those like,
01:02:14
Speaker
those bulky leather versions of them. The motorcycle outfits. Yeah. But that Falcon Zord was great as a kid. The thing I loved about that Zord for a moment, just as a tangent, I loved that when you folded the wings so that the rockets were facing forward, that you could also tilt the head down so it was looking down the barrel at its own. Yeah.
01:02:39
Speaker
So cool. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a big. That was that was my first lightning collection figure. I don't have many. But when they when they put out the White Ranger, the first time I was like, yeah, I need this. This is something. Yeah. He was my second one. First one I got was Zed, which was a gift from a coworker. And I was like, oh, this is this is pretty great. Like, do I like do I need Power Rangers again? And then I saw like what and I was like, all right, Power Rangers again. So.
01:03:08
Speaker
It was yeah, it was really cool. The it's funny that you mentioned the movie because that was also like peak Power Rangers for me, but not the actual movie. So I don't remember if I talked about this, but you guys remember this movie with Macaulay Coke in a long, long time ago in the 90s called the page master.
01:03:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Awesome movie. Great movie. Where's my page master reaction at? Anyways, but... You know, there's this company that... Have you thought of... Yeah. So I got that VHS as a kid, like the air-cushioned, white, plasticky, you know what I'm talking about. On that VHS,
01:03:55
Speaker
back in the day when you said VHS, there used to be trailers before the actual movie you watched. One of the trailers on the Page Master VHS was Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, the movie.
01:04:08
Speaker
And I mentioned it in the last time I was here, but I was never allowed to watch Power Rangers as a kid because my parents thought it was too violent. So it became like forbidden fruit. I got to go to my cousin's house. I got to go to my friend's house. I can just get it at all. Anyway, they still buy me toys. I'd still they'd still like let me dress up as a Power Ranger for Halloween, but I couldn't watch it. It feels ass backwards in hindsight. I'm not going to critique my own parents here, even though I just did.
01:04:34
Speaker
But, uh, twice in one episode. That's right. Yeah. Uh, I'm sorry, mom. Uh, but the thing with that is like, because of the, the only thing I had was this page master, I watched the trailer for the movie eight billion times. Like give or take it was like to the point where like that part of the, like the VHS is like worn down.
01:05:01
Speaker
Like it like started to get the lines and stuff because it was like so bad. But yeah, that trailer where they're like they're like snowboarding out of an airplane for no reason. It's a Van Halen. Yeah, it is the most 90s. Oh, man. So if pure 90s, if we ever make civilian Rangers, which I would love to do. You better believe that Tommy's going to come with a snowboard. Fall out of a plane with.
01:05:32
Speaker
The white the white white tank top. No, he he wears it's it's like a button up shirt that doesn't have sleeves. Oh, that's right. That's what it is. Yeah, it's almost like a crop top. It's weird. Yeah. Oh, man. So 90 for relax. This is for relaxing and lacrosse. That's right. Oh, man. Anyways, so RIP JDF.
01:06:03
Speaker
Mm hmm. Moving on to our love of music and that heavy metal category. One of the things that we all have in common or one of the things that we all have in common is our love for ghost. So. It's getting around that time. There's an EP coming out. How are we feeling about Papa For's outlook?
01:06:27
Speaker
As in like, okay, as in like, is he gonna bite it? 100% he is. I mean, it's the role, right? These guys are introduced into the band only so that they will die eventually. So I'm actually pretty stoked because I think I'm gonna be there for it too, so. That end of the tour in California? Yes, I will be at the last tour date where a Monomarth isn't playing and they don't let you have your cell phone in there.
01:06:56
Speaker
So something's happening. They're either filming something like a live set, which would be awesome to be part of, or it's going to bite the dust. Which means that they're also filming. Yeah. I don't know if they are, because they don't. Typically, they don't film that. It's usually fan footage that gets out of a papa's desk.
01:07:22
Speaker
That's true, actually. Now that I'm thinking about it, they've never done like a live DVD or anything. I'm of the so here. My theory is he's going to kind of Scooby do his way out of it. Explain this.
Speculations on Future Figure Projects
01:07:39
Speaker
So like, you know, it's almost kind of one of those like or, you know,
01:07:44
Speaker
like naked gun his way out of it, like they're gonna drop a safe and it's gonna fall right behind him and he's gonna be like, what? And somehow manage to get one more album out of this character. Could you imagine? I mean, out of pop before. Could you imagine, just for a moment, because I did not think about that. Imagine he escapes and he does a solo album.
01:08:08
Speaker
as as papa emeritus four but like like they do like a whole like spin-off yeah where it's like him doing like a solo album while he's basically being hunted because he's already only been they've been the only character that's had two albums correct that is correct uh yeah that is correct yeah i was i felt like nil technically but it's he's not the leader he only plays sax on prequel yeah right
01:08:36
Speaker
No, that's that's actually not that's actually not like a bad idea. Like I kind of like didn't feel like there was some some dude from the 60s like a Jim Morrison or like a John Lennon who was like went out into the wilderness and like recorded something and like started like drop. I can't remember who that is. Maybe I'm making up for like my own headcanon. But that is a great that's a great idea, actually.
01:09:01
Speaker
That would be that would be hilarious. Plus, like I absolutely they're they've really hit their stride with like with what they're doing on YouTube and the like the chapters and he's just such like he's such a good three. Yeah. Three I thought was going to be hard to be. But like this whole since. Yeah. The end of three. Like this has been peak storytelling for them. Yeah. I still think that aesthetically three is the best one.
01:09:31
Speaker
Personally, I agree. I like four. There are parts of four that I like. But I think that his like main blue outfit is like a little overwrought in my opinion. But I think that's part of the character is like, get the get the plastic surgery to make myself hot. Let's put as much gold and jewels on my thing as we possibly can. Right. Whereas the other guys were a little bit. Yeah, he's the 80s metal guy. Yeah.
01:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. I think two had the best like Pope gear and three has the best like dressed down. Oh, that like version that like major D outfit that he wears. Yeah. Yeah. That's that. See, I think I think three is is hands down. I think the best visually aesthetically. Yeah. Although for when he when he was still the
01:10:25
Speaker
the cardinal and he came out in the white suit for that one tour like that rule too so he was the first one to have like multiple costume changes which as a toy designer is like all right look at all these look at all these recolors i can do now yep but yeah very toyetic yeah very yeah say what you will you know whether you're a fan of the music or not and if you're not a fan of the music i'm i feel very badly for you but uh if
01:10:53
Speaker
You know, say what you want. They're very Toyota. Very Toyota. And I think we said this last time, too. The only the way you'll fall in love with them is the way Eric did, which is if you don't like the music, once you see them live, you're going to be like, I understand this 100 percent. That is like that is the conversion moment for so many people. And 100 percent was for me. I mean, I remember hearing a couple of the songs and going like.
01:11:19
Speaker
Eric was like, we're gonna, we have to go on time. Cause like, I just want to see Iron Maiden. I'm like, we are absolutely going on time. Cause I love this band and you will too after that. And I, man, I dragged my feet. I was like, I don't want to see them. This is going to be boring. I like, I had the only songs that I had heard were like,
01:11:38
Speaker
As soon as the square hammer hit to open, he was like, all right, we're good. Yeah. I think, I think that was like the only song that I had heard actually was square hammer. And I was like, it's catchy. Like I'm, you know, I'm a musician. So like I, you know, like I was like, I, it's fine. Like this is fine, but like, I don't, I'm here to see Iron Maiden. And when like, when their set was done, my reaction was like literally.
01:12:03
Speaker
Is that it? Like, they're not going to play longer? Like, I get like another hour of this, maybe? Great. Good. Are you guys going on this tour now? This one that's coming up, you think? So they're not coming, the closest they're coming to us is Camden, which is about an hour and a half to two hours south. Yeah. And it's a tough venue to get to. Is that enough for you guys? I feel like I drive that all the time being in California. It's two and a half hours.
01:12:32
Speaker
without traffic for me. And it's not in the best of areas. I mean, do you like ghosts or not? That's... Yeah. But we did see them... Unfortunately, I was traveling. I was on vacation the last time they came to the venue that we always go to for them.
01:12:56
Speaker
But I've now got, so my wife is, I've roped my wife in, and my seven year old that I mentioned before, she loves them too. Unfortunately, unfortunately I couldn't show her the latest music video, but. Yeah. I mean, yeah, no. She's heard the song. It was just the one part that I was like, nah, the whole thing. Nevermind. Yeah.
01:13:19
Speaker
Well, so it's a good thing. I guess Bridgeport's close to Connecticut. That's its same amount in the opposite direction. It's a good thing that Dave said, don't watch this with Maddie, because I totally would have just been like, oh, there's a new ghost music video. I want to put it on. I want to go. Oh, oh, I made a huge mistake.
01:13:41
Speaker
I have some things that I need to figure out how to explain. Yeah, but I think you're right. I think you're going to see something Kyle at your show.
01:13:57
Speaker
Oh, if you don't end up going, let me know and I can I can get shirts or merch or whatever you need to. OK, so we'll we'll definitely we'll definitely keep you posted. I would say that you should, though, because based on our this conversation alone, it's likely the last time you'll ever see pop before alive and then insert like, you know, dramatic hamster music.
01:14:20
Speaker
right here. So so you know, while the the the ghost offering, I've coincidentally, I've actually thought about September in LA. My girlfriend and I have actually thought about that. Well, you're gonna be when are you going to Vegas? Isn't that September?
01:14:45
Speaker
That's like three weeks later. Oh, okay. Well then can just walk from LA to Vegas. It'll take you three weeks Yeah Yeah, it would have been like since that's Tuesday. It would have been like a Get out Sunday leave like Wednesday So, uh speaking of of of ghost, uh, you know the the
01:15:10
Speaker
Ultimates that we've mentioned and you know, the reaction figures are having a blast but you know, they are they're not the only music figures you work on With Ultimates of Cliff Burton Lemmy and in King Diamond Are there more members of this plastic?
01:15:28
Speaker
super group on the horizon. You're just constantly collecting these iconic figures of rock and metal. So who else are we adding to this band? Do you have any hints for us? There's probably some future versions of existing guys coming.
01:15:49
Speaker
You know, like we mentioned, there's like seven papas we could be doing potentially. King Diamond has a lot of costume changes, as we illustrated with the first appearance Merciful Fate one, which we'll be shipping very soon.
01:16:08
Speaker
Very cool. Very cool. Excited about that. Soft goods. For those at home, I'm showing this off to them and you don't get to see. So, um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, Cliff Burton had a couple different looks as well. Lemmy had multiple different outfit changes. You know, what's, what's interesting about all those figures is that a lot of those guys, we've done their like early appearances.
01:16:34
Speaker
and not the ones that people necessarily know them for. Right. Yeah. Like I would say Cliff, we did the one that people know the day on the green outfit with the area base. Yep. But let me like everybody remembers like cowboy on me. Right. Yep. I was just going to say like, yeah, the. And solo King Diamond. Yeah. Yeah. Haunted groundskeeper King Diamond with his like lantern. Right.
01:17:00
Speaker
Um, so I think there's, there's some opportunities there. I think that, uh, you know, Slayer has some pretty cool mascots that could become a thing, uh, lately. Um, yeah. Uh, sort of at least sky's the limit in terms of like the stuff that we already have. Um, and, uh, I think that there are some like, not necessarily ultimates, but like there's some other.
01:17:22
Speaker
offerings in reaction that'll be coming soon that I think people are going to be really, really excited about. And typically what happens is we experiment with a brand in reaction. But when we get the license, we get reaction and ultimates. And we test the waters with reaction because it's a little bit smaller of a buy-in because after all, this is a business.
01:17:45
Speaker
Um, but if it goes off like, you know, a rainbow in the dark, then, uh, you know, Hey, maybe we should do an ultimate of this. Right. And that's exactly what happened with King diamond and ghosts and Lemmy and Cliff Burton. And so, you know, if you want an ultimate of certain characters that you like, if you see a reaction figure of it by that, cause that'll help you get more members of those super groups.
01:18:12
Speaker
Listen, at the end of the day, Kyle, I'm just a billion dollar baby. Just waiting for school to be out. I wish that we got a billion dollars for that one. I heard rainbow in the dark and I... That was intentional, sir. Did you now? Did you now?
01:18:35
Speaker
Yeah, but, but, uh, yeah, the one, the one that I honestly, like, I'm, I'm surprised with all of the, you know, the, the, the reaction. Cause I, Brian said the same thing when he was on the show that like, it's kind of like the testing, the testing waters, which makes complete sense. And I mean, that's very, very smart way to go about it. Um, I'm, I'm dying for, I was hoping when the Alice Cooper ones came out, like I was just hoping that they did really well. Cause that's one that I, uh, I would love, I would love an Alice Cooper ultimate.
01:19:04
Speaker
My, uh, my three favorite reactions that I bought were the, uh, not, it's not metal, but it's. It's phenomenal. I bought the sabotage. Those are great. Those have done well. I think, I think there's a, there's a potential there, especially just the kind of just normal dudes who sort of wear the same outfit. There's probably some reuse that can be done there intelligently to try and kind of amortize that, that tooling cost. But who knows? That was my designer brain.
01:19:33
Speaker
or cap on right there. What was I saying?
01:19:38
Speaker
But yeah, Alice Cooper would be awesome. Which which version of Alice Cooper would you want your ultimate? Because to me, I'm very boring. I would want the welcome to my nightmare like in the top hat because I love that. I love Drew Struzan and I love that like Lion Decker, Arrow Collarman kind of nod. But that's probably more of a reaction play than an ultimate. But I would want that. I mean, like, feed my Frankenstein era. Alice Cooper is probably the most toy addict.
01:20:08
Speaker
You know, I was thinking like constrictor areas of the Friday the 13th song. Yep. Because, yeah, I was going to say at that point, you know, he's got all the accessories. He's got the face paint is in like the, you know, the territory of being more toy addict. He's got the snake. He's got it. He's it's like he's fully access. Yeah. What's the one by the one of him in the straight jacket? Is that ballot of Dwight Fry? Uh.
01:20:38
Speaker
I had, you're making me have to look okay. Yeah. But there's also like Muppet show appearance where he's like in a full on Dracula outfit, which would be pretty sick. Honestly, what I'm realizing is that there's like other figures that I could probably just sculpt, uh, Alice Cooper head and put on to an existing figure. Like, like a naked Dracula can get an Alice Cooper head. And then now it's the Muppet show, Alice Cooper. Uh, who knows? Yes. Ballad of Dwight fry. That's that's right. That's right. It was the straight jacket.
01:21:07
Speaker
But if we're going to do a street jacket, I feel like I'd rather do peace of mind. Mm hmm. So who knows? Well, I mean, that's that's my number one metal metal request is like an ultimate Eddie, like killer's Eddie in the yellow shirt and the torn jeans and the chucks. Like that's that would be like if I if I could snap my fingers and bring one, you know, heavy metal ultimate into existence, it would be it would be. Oh, see, I go.
01:21:37
Speaker
I'd want the I'd go like live after death. I'd go like peace of mind, power slave. Like, do you do you guys not have the ones then? I so I have the trooper. I have the neck of trooper, which I love. Great, great figure.
01:21:56
Speaker
those earlier NECA ones, like they're almost in that like McFarlane statuary, you know, category, you know, they're, they're locked at the hips. They don't have, you know, the legs don't move. They're great sculpts. Like they look great, but like, I want them to be able to play a ball with the rest of the figures, you know? Um, so, um, and you know, the, the cloth ones, like the, the trooper, again, great figure, but it's eight inches tall, you know, it's,
01:22:23
Speaker
It's big. So it doesn't really scale right with everything. But isn't Eddie canonically bigger? Like if you're looking at the stage costume version of like the trooper guy, right? He's like 10 feet tall. He should be even bigger than that. Yeah, I guess you're right. OK. But yeah, I think the way that you guys handle the music ultimates and stuff outside of that, the cloth look, I think
01:22:53
Speaker
Yeah, I just I think Eddie would be a killer addition to the ultimate pun pun intended that time. I would love to make Eddie ace is high or power slave. Yeah, would be sick on it. Yeah, peace of mind to would be the red. Yeah.
01:23:14
Speaker
I feel like I want to just make like a base eddy body and then do like the stuff on top of it, just because then you have built in iterations, right? Like Senjutsu or the only one that doesn't really work like that is cyborg eddy. That would be a whole whole new sculpt. But how sick would that be? Somewhere in time, Eddie, that would be a stranger in a strange land with a soft goods duster.
01:23:42
Speaker
Even that even that new around the Book of Souls any like in like the tribal paint and everything awesome design. It's a sick design. I You know, the only one you can't really do is like nebulous cloud brave new world or Seven son, they'll act as Eddie right where he always yeah Yeah, yeah
01:24:01
Speaker
Who knows? Yeah, I mean, that would be a cool one. We've done Iron Maiden in the past, but I think some of the rights are a little bit not questionable. They're just with other people right now. So who knows where we'll have our opportunity one day.
01:24:20
Speaker
All right, so before we head into our last question, it is time for our Q&A. So if this is the first time you're listening to Adventures in Collecting, welcome. Hopefully you're enjoying yourself. You're enjoying this episode. You're enjoying our chat here with Kyle.
01:24:36
Speaker
Thanks for coming. Thanks for listening. But something that we do every time
Audience Engagement and Turtle Van Update
01:24:40
Speaker
we have a guest on is we'll post on Instagram and Twitter and we'll post that we have a certain guest on and give people the opportunity to submit questions and we will ask them on behalf of you. So if you're not there, smash that subscribe button and hit those likes. Hit the little hearts.
01:25:03
Speaker
answer the form that has the question and that way we could see your question and edit the Q&A. So you'll need to follow us at AIC underscore podcast in order to do all of the things that Dave just told you to do on the internets. So
01:25:28
Speaker
We have three questions. We've put this down to three. Yeah, we have three. So the first question came from a bunch of people who asked the same thing. And that is, do we have any updates on the turtle van?
01:25:45
Speaker
Yeah, so turtle van. We were reworking some of the tooling. There were some parts that we weren't 100% happy with. And for the price point, this thing needs to come out perfectly. So we were working on some of that stuff. And we just got the revised test shots of it. And
01:26:07
Speaker
One of the benefits of a post pandemic world is that we are all working remotely. I work in San Diego. Some of our team works in LA and our headquarters are in San Francisco. But when we have a huge team like that and everybody needs to take a look at it, sometimes that can take a little bit longer to look at stuff. We build this into the schedule to try and accommodate for that. But all of this is to say that right now the party wagon is on a road trip down to me.
01:26:34
Speaker
It flew from from our overseas partners to our headquarters where Flynn and Josh looked at it and had all of their comments. And then it started riding, riding the rails, hitchhiking like a hobo all the way down to L.A., where it looked at the production manager. It was at his house where he gave his notes. And then now it is, you know, bumming rides all the way down to San Francisco, San Diego so I can look at it and make my comments.
01:27:02
Speaker
And once we get to that, we'll get into deco sampling and all that fun stuff. And, uh, you know, all goes well. It should be shipping around early December, you know, January or so. Awesome. I'm very excited because I have not seen it in person yet. I've only done, uh, digital images. And so I, I sort of like when I saw the Godzilla stuff for the first time, like.
01:27:31
Speaker
At scale, I was like, oh, dang. It's really big. Well, it's a little bit of like, oh, well, what have I done? I'm imagining a very similar experience here because it's something stupid like 18 by 24. I don't remember. It's huge.
01:27:53
Speaker
It's like when everyone got that thunder tank. Yeah. It's like, Oh, yeah. It's smaller than a thunder tank. So I got that going for me, but it's not my mind. It might've actually, it might've actually taken the PC. Yeah. And it's, let me just make my notes to the factory. Like tires are really worn. It's like, cause you drove it here. Threadbare. All right, Dave, you want to do the next one? Yeah. So, uh,
01:28:20
Speaker
Speaking of vehicles, at JRaymond asks, what are the chances that we see more vehicles from Super 7 like the MMPR motorcycles?
Future Vehicle Releases and Hidden Figure Details
01:28:30
Speaker
Man, I would love to do the Battle Bikes. Those are some of my favorite vintage toys. I have all three of them. I need to get on my Shark Cycles, but those original Dino Battle Bikes, the red, blue, and black are so cool. I think that would be great. I think, you know,
01:28:49
Speaker
you would need to see just how far this line continues to go, just because like turtles didn't get their first vehicle till it was like, I think it was like wave six or seven, something like that. We're only on wave four here. Like we only have a core team for them all to be riding right now. So I feel like I'd rather deliver on those core, on that core team. So you have all six or seven Rangers in your display. They're like, okay.
01:29:16
Speaker
They look great posed together. Now what can they ride? Then you're like, then you're ready to get, get those vehicles, get those play sets, that kind of stuff. Um, so specifically MMP are, you know, I think it'll be a little bit more time before we get to do that, but I think you might start to see some other kind of bigger projects from us, uh, sometime soon.
01:29:37
Speaker
Um, you know, we have plenty of other, uh, of brands who that have, you know, vehicles that are pretty iconic, like Thundercats or GI Joe and that kind of stuff. So, uh, you know, I would say stay tuned because we we've always got something that we're working on. All right. And our last question comes from friend of the pod and frequent question asker, uh, at Ryan Ting. Good dude.
01:30:05
Speaker
and uh excellent dude uh has there been an example of a crazy callback or obscure detail uncovered when researching an ultimate that you've ultimately uh worked into the figure um and an addendum to this also he wanted to remind me to ask you if you even lift bro
01:30:28
Speaker
That Conan video will be the highlight of my career forever, I think. Let's see. That's a good question, Ryan. There's interesting details that you see as you're working on these older brands, especially ones that are aimed towards children.
01:30:56
Speaker
where they just they cut corners or whatever. And so it's like nobody cares. It's kids like no one's going to like worry about continuity or whatever. Right here. So I'm specifically I'm thinking like Power Rangers. If you if you two of them that come to mind for that, it's not like, oh, we put, you know, like Tommy's back tattoo or on a figure or something like that, that would be ridiculous. And licensure would say no.
01:31:26
Speaker
Um, but so like we were working on, uh, the Megazord for wave three, and there's some footage of like the Megazord where like you can see like.
01:31:44
Speaker
the dude's armpit who's like in the show like in the suit or he like fights this other robot that we were working on where like the robot comes the zord like comes out of the ground and it's like this super zoomed in shot and like the
01:32:03
Speaker
The mat that like head of the robot has like a triangular mask that like comes down to like a point for like the chin. And there's this it's just dark between the like chin and the like sides of the helmet. And in the dark sections you can see the dude's eyeballs.
01:32:21
Speaker
like poking through and so I like we worked on this sculpt and we haven't released this figure yet so people who are who know power and just could probably figure out who I'm talking about but I won't say but uh
01:32:38
Speaker
If the way that the head is constructed, you have to pull the face mask apart just for drafting and molding and all that. If this figure ever comes out, if you feel brave enough to rip the face mask off of this figure, you will see two sculpted eyeballs.
01:33:00
Speaker
underneath. You glue the mask on top so you can never see it. So it doesn't matter. So so that's fun. And Easter egg eyeballs. Yeah, yeah. And this was good. And that was like I stalled long enough because I thought of another example after that. So with also with Power Rangers, like if you look at King's Finks,
01:33:24
Speaker
Um, I realized that, you know, our friends over at Hasbro kind of caught some heat for like not painting their whole figure with like the wings or the face or whatever. And that's costing is costing. Like you, you make decisions as a designer that sometimes you even knew yourself are not stoked on. Um, so I get it. But, uh, if you look at that, that the reference of that character, you can tell that like, once the American production like company got that costume, like it started falling apart.
01:33:54
Speaker
Like there's like duct tape on it. And then they like spray painted like red or gold or blue on top of it to like hide that stuff, but it kept falling apart. And so like, as you go on in the episode, like his wings get more and more color because they're like trying to cover up the fact that it's just like deteriorating. And so for ours, we went with like the full color, like
01:34:22
Speaker
breathe on this thing wrong and it'll fall apart version. Cause it's like multi-color with all the blues and the reds and like the duct tape. So you can put duct tape on it, but like, you know, uh, you sculpted duct tape texture. We sculpted duct tape texture into the party wagon. That was like, that was a me thing. Cause I remember, I remember janky buses and how you just duct tape those seats. Um, but yeah, so King Sphinx, I think
01:34:50
Speaker
In a world at one point, what I'm trying to say is that Hasbro's lightning collection, King Sphinx, had the correct deco at one point, but then it eventually got so much color on it because it was falling apart in the American version that that's what people remember. So Hasbro was right all along.
01:35:10
Speaker
And then the last example I can think of that was for for you, right? Is we work working on the reaction? Toho Toho wave to guy again, like just came out. Super fun. I love that figure. I really like how it turned out. The wings that he has, it's like three. It's like three kind of saw blade looking things, if you're familiar with guy again.
01:35:38
Speaker
And that's a glue in piece as well. And the sculptor, this lovely woman by the name of Tessa, they said, you know, hey, look at this. This has to be molded this way. And they put like a cross, like a cross section on the back of the wings that would then lock into
01:36:05
Speaker
the body right just kind of like square peg square hole that stuff but it looked like it looked like a like a christian cross okay uh me being the idiot and metalhead that i was i was like this is all good this looks great but flip the cross upside down
01:36:23
Speaker
Uh, and they, they were like, what, really? I was like, yeah, do that. And they're like, okay. And so if you, again, are brave enough to destroy your own figure, you should be able to see an upside down cross on the inside of guy again. I'm sorry, Toho, please don't, please don't cancel our license for that.
Q&A and Guest's Dream Collectibles
01:36:48
Speaker
Awesome. Well, that, uh, that brings us to the end of our, end of our Q and a you, you have survived too. Um, you did it. You absolutely did it. And now you get one more surprise. Um, yeah. So as a returning guest, uh, you know, we, we have to kind of, uh, change, change our ending here. So, uh, Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcasts, James Lipton and ask.
01:37:18
Speaker
Our final question. Well, yes, I would. So as a returning guest, you have already answered the final question that we asked to all of our guests. So we have prepared an alternative final question for you. What is the one toy or collectible that you've always wanted but have never been able to own? Oh, man. This one's harder. I'm actually not that prepared for it.
01:37:47
Speaker
I think I have two answers here for you. And one of them is like a half answer because I had it, but then I had to give it back. So first one is the.
01:38:01
Speaker
Gargoyle's Castle Playset. I remember from Kenner, I remember wanting that as a kid, never got it, thought it was the coolest. Gargoyle's were my jam. You know, it's not to say that I was like Gargoyle's starved. Like I had the like the road ripper bike with Brooklyn and stuff, which was such a cool toy. I had like the like stone facade you could like pull off of it. Cause you know, the bikes are Gargoyle too.
01:38:29
Speaker
Um, that's right. But I remember wanting that castle play set and being like, Oh man, how cool would that beach have this huge thing? And I realized like, it's kind of affordable. It's like, I think a mint and box one is like 200 bucks now. So I can, I can, I can probably get it if I wanted to, but it's like, it's like, it's like, I almost don't even want it now. It's like,
01:38:51
Speaker
It's like it's better, it's better on the internet in the box what I think it is rather than like, oh, it's this, ew. So. Plus you probably don't have any of the figures anymore, so. No, I don't have any of my figures. That's another one of my big regrets was I think in sixth grade, my parents had like a garage sale and it's not like they took my stuff and sold it. They were like, oh, what do you wanna sell? And I was like, I don't play with these, take these. And it was like,
01:39:21
Speaker
everything I ever cared about now as an adult. So yeah, I did a bunch of that too. Unfortunately, we've all made that mistake. But the other one that comes to mind is the as I've gotten more into kaiju collectibles.
01:39:40
Speaker
Uh, I am starting to realize and sort of discover the world of X plus anybody who knows what those are. They're like big, huge vinyls that are as close to movie accurate suits as you can get like in hand. Um, and there's, there's quite a few Godzilla ones that I would of course love, like a burning Godzilla and stuff that go for stupid amounts of money now. But the one X plus that I've always wanted.
01:40:08
Speaker
is the X plus Dijujin, which is the Megazord from Power Rangers. They made it one time, like a few years ago, and it is now like $1,500 to $3,000 on eBay. And I am happy to say that I had a brief, what am I trying to, a brief stint with it.
01:40:36
Speaker
In that, uh, one of our associates who used to work at super seven with us, huge power ranger guy, uh, really, really great friend to, and very connected in the toy world. His name is Auggie Perez. Uh, he's a toy amigo now. Um, he knows just about everybody in the ranger world. And he knows this guy named Casey, um, Casey gall. I'm shouting you out because you're a huge help. Uh, Casey owned the X plus Dijujin and I wanted to reference the X plus Dijujin.
01:41:06
Speaker
as like my Megazord reference for my Ultimate, because I knew that that is like the best, most well-loved and respected version of the Megazord ever made. And so he was very generous in that he sent me his X-Plus diagusion, like basically free of charge and was like, send it back to me when you're done.
01:41:30
Speaker
I held onto that for like two years. I'm only mentioning this now because I like just sent it back like last week. And I had like major separation anxiety. And I asked him, I was like, hey, can I buy this off of you? And he just laughed it.
01:41:43
Speaker
So, uh, so I sent it back and I have a little, like, you can kind of see it here. There's like a big robot shaped hole in my collection where it used to sit for my reference shelves. So one of these days I will get that thing again, but it's, it's incredible. It's like, it's like 20 inches tall, comes with the sword and the shield and it's like, it's perfect. So what's larger, the hole left on your shelf or the hole it left in your heart? Uh,
01:42:12
Speaker
I think I think it's going to be the hole it leaves in my wallet when I eventually buy it because I for sure will. Good answer. Yeah.
Where to Find the Guest and Sign-Off
01:42:22
Speaker
Well, Kyle, listen, before we let you go, remind our listeners, where can they find you on the Internet? Where can they find Super Seven? Tell them where to go. So go to the Internet, specifically Instagram. I am what a good dude on there. I'm sure you guys will have links so that the
01:42:41
Speaker
Poor folks don't have to spell my last name, as difficult as that is. So I'm wadaga dude. I also started a toy photography account that I've been like messing around with called Kyle of Lute. Or Kyle O Flute, thanks to the enablers. I was gonna say, I thought it was Kyle O Flute. Yeah, I know. Thanks, Mike. So.
01:43:01
Speaker
There's that. I don't post there as much as I like to, but I'm trying to get more into it. I'm starting to buy dioramas and try lighting and that kind of stuff, just because I see all the amazing things that people do in the community. I'm trying to do it myself. And then Super 7, find a Super 7 on Instagram, super7.com, Super 7 YouTube channel. I think we have a TikTok now. Just, you know, anywhere that has internet, you type in Super 7, you'll probably find this.
01:43:27
Speaker
There you go. And as Kyle mentioned, we'll absolutely put links to all of those in the description so you don't have to worry about throwing consonants at a wall. All of the letters are silent. Good luck. Phonetics don't work.
01:43:44
Speaker
Yeah, but Kyle, as always, man, thank you so much for coming back on the show. It's always a pleasure having you. Let's not wait a year and a half until you come back on again. We could do these things sooner, you know? I'd hate for you guys to run out of last questions to ask. Oh, that's Dave's favorite thing to do. Yeah, there's, I already have. Okay, good.
01:44:10
Speaker
Yep. There was, there was two and a choose from it. Yes. It sounds like we have to do it again. Part three. Yeah. Part three, the rubber match. The trilogy. Well, with that. Yeah. I was going to say everybody, everybody won. Yeah. Brain soup. I liked it. It's, it's soup. It solidifies. It just goes back and forth. Dave, send us home. Are you on the square? Are you on the level?
01:44:40
Speaker
is your brain made of soup. Bye everyone.
01:45:01
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
01:45:25
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.