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Being the Elite: Talking AEW with Jazwares' Greg Mitchell
463 Plays4 years ago
This week, Dave and Erik are joined by Jazwares Vice President of Global Brand and Strategy Greg Mitchell to learn about his history with toys and talk all things AEW Wrestling Figures!
Follow Jazwares on Instagram @jazwares and @aewbyjazwares for the latest news.
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
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Transcript
Managing Art Supplies and Introduction to Let's Make Art
00:00:01
Speaker
I've got kids at home, Dave. Yes, you do in fact have children. They love doing arts and crafts, but it's a pain by the time I go into seven different drawers for the supplies they need and get everything ready, the interest and their attention is gone. Well, that's a waste of time. Have you heard of Let's Make Art?
00:00:22
Speaker
Is that the company that offers art subscription boxes for both kids and adults, complete with step-by-step instruction supplies and access to free video tutorials? Yes, never heard of them.
00:00:34
Speaker
Well, with subscription options, one-off project kits, art boxes, and more, let's make art takes the guesswork out of arts and crafts and lets you get right into the fun part. As a listener of adventures and collecting, you can visit zen.ai.ai to save 20% at checkout. Again, that's zen.ai.ai to save 20%.
00:01:03
Speaker
Your coupon code will be activated at checkout. Now let's make art. 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.
Welcome to Adventures in Collecting Podcast
00:01:26
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and hauls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Hi. Dave. Hi. Greg.
00:01:52
Speaker
Hi. We are back, Dave. I love it. Yeah, we are. And you know what, Greg, already let the cat out of the bag, and we're not going to bury the lead. We are not alone. No, we are not alone.
Featuring Guests from Jazzwares
00:02:07
Speaker
Joining us today, well, first of all, to give a little primer, you know that in the past, if you have listened to the show, we've had quite a few folks on from jazzwares ranging from
00:02:22
Speaker
Jeremy Pedour, to Mike DeCamp, to Aaron and Scott on the Pokémon team, to Magic, working on the AEW figures, to Enrique, another Fortnite person. So we're going to continue that trend by growing our, we're collecting
00:02:43
Speaker
jazzwares luminaries. Let's put it that way. So, as you know, jazzwares continues to produce some of the most hotly collected products out there from Pokemon Halo, Fortnite, Micro Machines, and the Toy of the Year award-winning Squishmallows to, of course, AEW Wrestling Figures.
00:03:00
Speaker
And with that, they claim a lot of people's display and collection real estate, right? So joining us on the pod to talk more about the world of AEW following their recent deluge of announcements is Jazwear as Vice President of Global Brand and Strategy,
Greg Mitchell's Collecting Journey
00:03:17
Speaker
Greg Mitchell. Greg, welcome to the show. Hello again for the second time, but for the first time. It's a pleasure to have you join us.
00:03:30
Speaker
Thank you. It's my pleasure to be here. The esteemed lineage of other jazzwares brethren have graced these podcasts airwaves and I'm proud to be a part of it. Well, before we jump into all the things that are going on at jazzwares and all the fun announcements, the first thing that we'd like to ask all of our guests before we get started, as this is a show about collecting, what are you currently collecting?
00:03:56
Speaker
What do I collect? Funny you should ask. I could say I collect lots of action figures, but it would kind of be a cheat because I essentially acquire them for work. We do competitive samples, competitive studies. The whole team is geeks for a whole bunch of stuff. It's easy to say figures because I get to do it for my job.
00:04:18
Speaker
If I collect anything personally, weirdly enough, I didn't get into this knowingly. But it turned out I have a pretty good collection of t-shirts and streetwear stuff that I never set out to go, I'm going to collect these. But just by being in the right place, right time, investing in the right things, or just buying because I like to wear it, I've got what I'm told is a pretty formidable and impressive collection of t-shirts from a Baiting Ape Supreme.
00:04:46
Speaker
concert shirts from the 80s and 90s, some of which I kept all the years, some of which I reacquired after foolishly letting them go at one point. But not sneakers. I can't handle a sneaker game. It's too nuts. It's too competitive. It's too expensive. And God only gave me two feet, so I can only have about 10 or 12 pairs of sneakers at a time.
00:05:06
Speaker
So the t-shirts, you mentioned a couple of different subsects of t-shirts. Do you have one that you prefer over the others? I keep asking myself that because every now and then I start thinking, I should probably thin this closet out and maybe sell some of these. And I always go, yeah, I'm going to do it. And I look and I go, but I got to keep this one. And I got to keep this one.
00:05:31
Speaker
Does it sound familiar to anyone who buys toys and maybe has a garage where there's no room for your car or your tools or your wife's stuff, but there's boxes of very well-curated, alphabetized, temperature-controlled toys? That's what my closet is turned into, as well as some plastic bins out in the back.
00:05:51
Speaker
The short answer is I like them all and I guess I could part with some of them, but I do have some grail pieces that I'm particularly proud of and that the occasional, you know, clothing weirdo goes, damn, where'd you get that? And I get to tell them a little story. And it's kind of fun. It's the same thing as the thrill I got of collecting records for so many years. And then of course, collecting action figures for so many years.
Greg Mitchell's Career Path to Toy Industry
00:06:11
Speaker
Do any of the concert shirts stick out? Like what's like the top piece?
00:06:17
Speaker
Those I'm a little more emotional about, so I'm super stoked to share those. I've got a 1989 Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation tour t-shirt. I think that was from Madison Square Garden. Or as I like to call it, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis with their very famous singer. Because if you know anything about Jam and Lewis and Flight Time Productions, they created an amazing sound that was close to Prince's in his prolificness and also from Minneapolis. And Janet's career would not have been the same without Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
00:06:47
Speaker
a really weird one-off ride Hot Chili Peppers t-shirt that was only sold I think at six concert dates when they were warming up for their very first dates ever with Dave Navarro as their guitarist and I think it was also sold at Woodstock 94. That's a super rare one. I would probably never part with that one unless someone really you know could help pay a medical bill or quit a kid through a semester of college.
00:07:09
Speaker
And, of course, I'm really proud of my Slayer, Ashley Titan shirt I wore at Fanfest a couple of weekends ago. Jericho made a point to remark about it backstage, and then, of course, he rechristened me as Slayer Guy at the event itself. So that was awesome. It was Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer, of course. And what you're probably getting is I've got a pretty diverse palette of music that I love. You are amongst friends.
00:07:34
Speaker
Yes. You mentioned several artists in a very short period of time that all mean quite a bit to Dave and I, including Prince and Slayer. So yeah, you're in good company. Indeed. So before we dive into all of the fun AEW figures that Jazzwares is working on, tell us a bit about your history in the toy industry and how you came to work at Jazzwares.
00:08:03
Speaker
Oh, that's that's always fun to recount because one of the things I'm amused by and also in a weird way proud of is I definitely didn't take the linear path to get where I am. I went to school for college for journalism. My goal was I was going to be my my ideal for myself was I was going to get like a job working like for Rolling Stone or sort of spin or some music magazine because it would fuel my lifelong passion and love for music and being involved with even peripherally in the music business. But of course, I would be
00:08:33
Speaker
constantly working on the great American novel that would naturally
00:08:36
Speaker
following the huge footsteps of Douglas Cowling and Brett Easton Ellis and David Foster Wallace. And naturally, I was like, yeah, that's a whole different life that I'm not able to pursue. And my journalism degree actually parlayed me into an internship at MTV News. So I got my music proximity itch, and I still held the idea that I could be a writer and maybe even use MTV as that platform, because MTV News wrote stories all day long. They wrote news and specials.
00:09:06
Speaker
And I did TV from the age of 19 through just about 30.
00:09:12
Speaker
I talked my way into my internship at the age of 19. I was not blessed by the school to do so. And I eventually never actually got credit for it because I was only in my sophomore year of college and juniors and up for the ones that did internships, but you kind of couldn't stop me from trying. And MTV liked me. So they only hired me on as an intern. They hired me on to work permanently after that. And yeah, I was in the MTV family for, let's say 1995 through about 2003.
00:09:42
Speaker
Did you get to hang out with Kurt Loder? I did. I've had Kurt Loder redline my scripts. I've watched him light one cigarette off the other while sitting in his office and he was the only person in the entire building who was quote unquote allowed to smoke because the 90s and Giuliani era of New York City
00:09:59
Speaker
Smoking was banned pretty much everywhere except bars and even eventually then. But Kurt Loder was a rock and roll royalty and he was allowed to smoke in his office. But yeah, I've had Kurt Redline scripts for me and also also tell me very off the record stories about what Axl Rose is really up to down at the Rock and Rio Festival in Brazil. And you know what Madonna was actually like.
00:10:21
Speaker
It was great. It was very fun. It scratched my music itch. It really developed me as a creative thinker and as a writer. I did everything from an intern to production assistant to I've got several dozens, hours of uncredited, barely credited and definitely non-union writing credits for MTV news and special shows that were so much fun. And
00:10:44
Speaker
And around that time, I ended up falling in love, marrying a great girl and thinking, great, we're going to be young, wonderful, fabulous couple in New York. And then we had the most wonderful of surprises about a year and a half later of the arrival of my first son. So I had to basically stop doing the crazy hours, being in a production truck shoot, shooting an REM show down at the Bowery at 3 AM and get a little bit more of a stable existence to pay the bills, but also to be a good young family person.
00:11:11
Speaker
at an age where none of our friends had kids. There was no rule book or playbook, and we had to basically figure it out on an MTV salary. Viacom is a very big, vibrant company with lots of different interests and holdings, and a perusal of the
00:11:27
Speaker
The employment job opportunities handbook they had there that they published every couple of weeks showed me that there was a weird, neat, new, fun job I'd never considered before. And that was Nickelodeon was hiring attention geeks and toy collectors. And I was like, I am geeks and toy collectors. And they were essentially hiring a licensing coordinator to work for Nickelodeon consumer products.
00:11:51
Speaker
Um, this was at the heyday of SpongeBob had just premiered and was really getting into consumer products, um, Dora the Explorer, you know, winding down a bit of the blues clues years. And they needed a young scrappy, you know, person to come in and be a coordinator to help the licensing team. Um, you know, basically license and approve and product develop with, you know, their great partners like Mattel and Hasbro and, um, several other toy companies. And that was my.
00:12:21
Speaker
Another thing like my 19 year old MTV news internship, I just kind of willed it into existence and talked my end of the job with relatively little to no experience other than I buy toys and I have opinions on them and that worked.
Working on Power Rangers Brand
00:12:33
Speaker
So, um, I was now in the toy business and very, you know, licensing side of things. And, uh, I loved it. I was really good at it. And I think it showed they fast tracked me and nurtured me and couldn't say enough about the Nickelodeon family and how they
00:12:49
Speaker
When they find talent or they identify talent, they really go out of the way to nurture it and grow it. I had so many good bosses and teammates who made me who I am in those formative first couple of years. It was great. I got to meet Todd McFarlane and work with him personally through that. I got to meet Mez from Mezco and work with him on that because I was a dork and a collector.
00:13:10
Speaker
Not only did I get to work on the big picture Hasbro board games master partnership or some of our other big ticket items with Mattel and Spin Master and Jack specific, but I also was able to parlay my interest in collectibles and pop culture to do things like work with Art Asylum.
00:13:26
Speaker
Work with diamond work with Palisades toys rest in peace to the homies Really great companies who we could do things like a beforehand there weren't a lot of licensing deals anymore, you know for cult favorites like invaders in and Renee Stimpy and with the momentum that we got we actually took control over a lot of the Paramount and Comedy Central stuff So I got to work on stuff for Dave Chappelle. I got to work on South Park and
00:13:52
Speaker
know, just really good fun times that made me smarter, took advantage of what I brought to the table, but then made me a much better, more evolved, smarter, hardworking version of myself. And that's what you want out of any job and in any experience. So that was wonderful. And then by hanging out with all these great people, I realized they're, they're the ones making things happen. They either own the toy company,
00:14:14
Speaker
or they're making it happen from the manufacturing side or the marketing side. And I got slowly seduced by that side of things to where as much as I love the licensing part, the funny thing about being in licensing, you get to see what everybody's doing. You go to a toy fair, you have your own licensing show.
00:14:29
Speaker
You can see what every person has in their showroom. And if you're a toy geek, it's like Christmas, Hanukkah, every other birthday you ever had combined into one week at Toy Fair. On the manufacturing side, you're more control of what you do, but you also live in that bubble of, here's what I'm going to be doing for my company and here's what our initiatives are.
00:14:50
Speaker
That really intrigued me to be able to be a toy maker and not just a toy partner. So I stuck my finger out in the air and said, hey, I might be interested in maybe moving to LA and working with some great companies that are partners of ours. And I got three offers, two of which were written, one of which was a verbal offer. And I went with Jack specific. They were a billion dollar company at that time. They were crazy. They were run by.
00:15:17
Speaker
really diverse, amazing executives like Jeremy Padour and Michael Rinsler and one of my current bosses, Gerhard Runkin. And they had all the momentum in the world at that moment. And they were one of my crazy partners when I was at Nickelodeon. So they kind of knew I was a big toy dork. So I went there, had six glorious years there working on amazing, really crazy, diverse portfolio of products. If anyone at Jax does, they're very entrepreneurial. They really just dive into things and try new, crazy things.
00:15:47
Speaker
I walked out of that job with 13 toady nominations, toy of the year nominations and zero wins. But, uh, I got to work on and market and brand and connect with consumers on products that really sold really well, but also gave them really fun toy experiences. Um, I loved it and I didn't work on a singular license brand that you guys maybe would have been like, Oh yeah. Did you work on WWE? Nope. That was Jeremy's world. Uh, but I learned a lot from him.
00:16:15
Speaker
You know, he took me under his wing and helped me try to apply creative thinking and problem solving and just connecting with people the way he did on WWE with my projects.
00:16:25
Speaker
And thank God he did because my next big thing was Power Rangers. And that was definitely career changing and life changing. And that meant everything to every job I've had since then. The ability to work with a iconic property, a very evergreen one, but also one that you had to figure out new ways to kind of connect with consumers, connect with the fandom, bring new things to the market that would excite them instead of just kind of doing the same old product line every year. And holy cow, did I love doing that.
00:16:54
Speaker
I learned so much about the fandom and how to work with fandoms and how not to work with fandoms and then also proud to say helped grow that business exponentially because we had a lot of good things working for us. We had the legacy collection which was really tapping not just Mighty Morphin at first but eventually.
00:17:13
Speaker
You know we had the legacy figure series that you know in turn turned out very similar and a predecessor to has rose lightning collection as well as like you know die cast.
00:17:25
Speaker
one-to-one warfers that were produced in 2014, but looked like the premium version of the thing that you got for Christmas that one year in 93, 94, or if you save up your money and you didn't get one then, you got one now. And diecast megazords, the talking Sabbath sword that we did, that one-to-one bunch of awards for San Diego Comic Con exclusive of the year, and I think that was maybe 14 or 15.
00:17:51
Speaker
So proud of the work there, Japanese company, which is super eye-opening and enriching for me to be a part of, and then a fandom of Power Rangers that gave me so much insight as to how fans like me and fans who are different and younger than me think, want to play, want to collect, and want to commune together. It changed my life, and I love it to this day. Yeah, and to your point, Power Rangers is just one of those brands that
00:18:17
Speaker
much like Pokemon is something that I don't think will ever go away. Whether it's people enjoying the source material of Super Sentai or when it comes over to the states, Power Rangers proper, but that is definitely a brand that will be around for a long time for sure.
00:18:41
Speaker
Yeah, there's a it's a it's a Hall of Fame brand for sure. And I was just there's there's only one small window of time when I wasn't actively buying action figures or collecting. And it was around that time that I'm in college, naturally, my finances are directed in, you know, not starving to death, still buying occasionally some records or a cool t shirt.
00:19:03
Speaker
But my toy collecting was pretty much iced at that point. But to pay my bills, I was also a kid's day camp and babysitting counselor at one of the kosher hotels up in the Catskills. And these kids are running around going, I'm the Green Ranger. I'm Tommy. I'm the White Ranger.
00:19:21
Speaker
and kung fu fighting each other. Now, naturally, I'm in charge of these kids, and their parents are going to break my arms if they let them break their arms. So I'm breaking them up and going, what are you talking about? We're Power Rangers. And I'm literally like, what is a Power Ranger? Is that like a Ninja Turtle? And it was the first pop culture toy moment that I literally felt excluded from because I was just at an age and an interest level and a survival slash thriving in New York City as a young 18, 19-year-old that I couldn't embrace it.
00:19:51
Speaker
And to me Power Rangers is always a weird thing that just missed me. They missed me with that SHIT. And then talking to people and realizing what Power Rangers was to them.
00:20:02
Speaker
and realizing that there's an entire generation of kids for whom that was their Star Wars. That was their 1982 GI Joe. That was their 1984 first wave Takara Transformers brought in by Hasbro. And it just clicked. And I really started working with the fans closely to understand what they want, how they wanted it, what Bandai America was doing right or wrong.
AEW Figures and Greg's Role
00:20:25
Speaker
And again, it's relationships and a perspective on toy making and
00:20:44
Speaker
on AEW figures. You want to talk about a rabid fan base. We're wrestling fans. It doesn't get much more energetic than wrestling fandom. You've kind of become the face of AEW reveals, especially over the past few fan fests. You've alluded to what it's like
00:20:57
Speaker
human bonding that I take with me to this day.
00:21:08
Speaker
You know working and then kind of getting in touch with the fan base, but what's it like to deliver? These these reveals in front of an audience be it be it virtual or otherwise It's it's fun. It's
00:21:21
Speaker
For us, we're proud of what we do. We're proud to show it off so that there's that very base energy to it, right? And we can't do this for a living without fans and collectors, right? Like the fact that you guys love this line and you buy it, and some of you even buy more than one of them, that justifies not only our hard work, but it keeps us very happily and gainfully employed doing something that we love. So there's always a matter of pride in what the work we do, but there's also pride in sharing it because
00:21:48
Speaker
you know, action figure fans in general, and I think even some sub-genres, wrestling being one of them in particular, there's an emotional connection there that's really palpable and important. You know, wrestling is real human beings. I can't show Pokemon its action figure. We're doing a beautiful job that I'm super proud of too on Halo, but I can't relate to Master Chief on a level like, hey,
00:22:12
Speaker
I know this isn't your first action figure, but how do you feel about it? And I think fans connect to wrestlers in a way that we all know that there's, you know, there's, there's, there's works, there's ribs, there's kayfabe involved in that, but they're human beings and we love them and we sometimes hate them.
00:22:27
Speaker
We're buying plastic small versions of them and we're expressing our fandom through that So be able to share that with with fans. It's just so gratifying. We love that Sometimes we have to do them through, you know Instagram and Twitter because we're not on site for an event
00:22:44
Speaker
And there's always that anticipation of making sure the images look great, hoping that you guys really love how they look, and then bracing ourselves too for feedback ranging from either constructive feedback that we're always happy to learn from to outright haters and people that just want to talk shit all the time. Pardon my French. And again, I've learned working with fandoms that that's all part of it. Everyone's expressing themselves. Everyone deserves and has the right to express themselves. And how we take that information and what we do with it
00:23:14
Speaker
helps reinforce the bond that we do have with the fandom in the community. So even if it's bad feedback or if it's sketchy feedback or we question the source of the feedback, it's feedback. We have to listen to it. You can't cherry pick it and you can't be deaf to the bad stuff and only spark to the good stuff. And that's important to us. So the reveals, whether they're digital or they're in person, and in person, there's definitely an energy to it. It's fun. And I was an only child, so I learned to be a ham at a young age. I don't mind being in front of
00:23:44
Speaker
crowd of 25 or 25,000. It doesn't upset me. If anything, it makes me go, how can I connect to these folks with something that they love? It's not me. I'm a vessel to deliver it to them. It's this action figure. That's what they want. And they're fun. It's so much fun to do that. It's one of the pleasures of our jobs. Yeah. And to your point, one of my fondest memories, I have to say my instead of our. And Dave, I'm not doing this to rub it in. I know you've heard this story like a million times.
00:24:13
Speaker
right after we had kind of started doing this podcast and doing the blog, we managed to get to go to New York Toy Fair, the last one that happened before all of the pandemic and the cancellations and everything. Oh my God. It seems like mere months ago, and it seems weirdly like six years ago. It's such a weird word we're living in. But I'm so glad you were at that one. That was an electric toy fair.
00:24:37
Speaker
So we didn't know anybody. We did not know anybody. I didn't know that you needed appointments for things. I had never been to a toy fair. I was literally like a lost soul wandering around. And I wandered past the enormous, I don't want to call it a booth. It was much larger than a booth. The enormous jazzwares experience, we'll say that, right? And at the time, this is,
00:25:04
Speaker
you know, pre-pandemic, you know, nobody is in lockdown yet. Like it was like knocking on the door, you know, it was coming. But I had been out of the loop for wrestling for day of what, like at least
00:25:21
Speaker
10, maybe 15 years at that point? It had been a while at that point. It's probably closer to 15 at least.
AEW Figures Launch and Impact
00:25:30
Speaker
So I walk over and I'm looking at the call sheet and Dave is like, jazzwares, they're making AW figures. And I was like, I don't know what that is.
00:25:38
Speaker
And he's explaining to me via text message because he's at work and couldn't get off for the day for this. And he's like, well, who's going to be there? So I'm looking at the sheet and like, you know, I see names on there that I recognize that, of course, not there that day. I was like, OK, I know who Dustin Rhodes is. I know who Chris Jericho is. Like, you know, I know who Cody Rhodes is. Like, I know I know these names, but today some guy hangman and some guy Kenny Omega are here.
00:26:05
Speaker
And Dave is sending me pictures of what they look like and he's like, read this real quick. You know, like this, I literally was, was terrified because I'm walking into this booth and I know that they're going to be in there. And then I, it started to kind of dawn on me what was happening that like.
00:26:21
Speaker
I was like, oh, this is a real rival, like a WWE rival product. And these guys, this is their first ever action figure. So I was fortunate enough to do a very brief interview with Adam Page. And he's sitting there holding his very first action figure. And I had the opportunity to ask him, what's this like?
00:26:50
Speaker
You could tell that he was just kind of infatuated with it and that the energy around that booth was like, you know, the hair was standing up on people's arms. It was electric. And then, of course, Kenny Omega grabs a Nerf rifle and starts barreling. I remember that. And I'm sitting there trying to give the interview and I'm like, I don't know who that guy is over there that's shooting this guy, but like, we're just sitting there and then all of a sudden they run off together and they're having like a Nerf war in the middle of the booth.
00:27:19
Speaker
Eric's like, yeah, this guy's and I'm like, oh, the best wrestler on the planet is shooting. At the time, there were there were tech champs, I believe. That's right. So, you know, obviously, like, you know, I get back home and I showed Dave the video and he's like, you got to put that online somewhere. And like we barely had a YouTube channel. And to this day, it's still like our top.
00:27:39
Speaker
Watched video because I think I titled it like like Kenny Omega attacks Hang hang man Adam Page at New York Toy Fair or something like that predated the heel turn yes, I got But but the the point of that story was the the coolest part about that was
00:27:59
Speaker
Regardless of the fact that I I didn't know who it was at the time and like I would love to go back and tell past me some things that I know now and be like Maybe ask these questions, but like just getting to experience You know somebody experiencing their toy for the first time of themselves Was was amazing. It was an absolutely amazing experience That's so great. That was a very that was a very electric week because Exactly what you're saying
00:28:29
Speaker
Atlanta dynamite, right before New York Toy Fair, I went to Atlanta and I brought the first wave of figures with me under lock and key. In fact, I think the screenshot you used to hype the podcast day was me actually about to enter Jericho's dressing room with his figure for the first time.
00:28:50
Speaker
And I brought them there to show them because we wanted to do something special. And as you saw, they actually created a video package that aired on TV to reflect it. And it was, I'm proud to say, I think no one's disapproved me yet, but I'm also not a braggart. So I'm open if anyone can correct me on this. But to this day, I think it's still the first action figure line ever to be debuted on primetime television.
00:29:14
Speaker
Um, I went, I went to each of the talent, uh, who were in the first wave. So it was Cody, Brandy, Matt, Nick, um, uh, and Kenny. Um, and who am I forgetting? Sorry. Oh, and Jericho. It was, it was only his thousandth action figure. It's why I forget it. Um,
00:29:32
Speaker
But they had seen an iPad, like, OK, so your figure's coming out like this. They're looking at a 2D approval picture. So yeah, tell them to move this. Or can they get that paint, that deco on my trunks better? But they had not seen anything physical. I had the pleasure of basically bum rushing each and every one of them and getting their very first live reactions to their figures on camera. And you nailed it. Half of those guys were not more. It was their first ever action figure.
00:29:57
Speaker
To have that moment with them, and I continue to have those moments with these guys every time we show like a Ricky Starks or a Thunder Rosa, to see there with my teammates shoulder to shoulder to give them that experience and watch their faces. Most of these folks 35 and under, they grew up on the Jack specific figures.
00:30:13
Speaker
So there's this lineage there to the work that my team from my executive vice president level, Jeremy, down to us in the trenches working. There's a history and a legacy here that we bring to the table that's really special. And I hope people see that and feel that in each figure because to give a grizzled veteran, Jericho, who's had a thousand figures to have him say, this is probably the best, if not top three figure out that you guys have ever made for me.
00:30:39
Speaker
to tears in the eyes of a young talent who's getting their first toy ever. They made it. They're in AEW. They're on TV. They have an action figure. It's an amazing experience. We took that energy into New York Toy Fair. I'm so glad you felt the energy there. That booth was literally rocking at its foundation. And that was critical, too, because
00:30:58
Speaker
on a macro level, that was the first toy fair post jazzwares buying us Wicked Cool toys and buying Kelly toy. Kelly toy being the largest plush manufacturer in the world and naturally the brand Squishmallows rings a bell, right? So we walked into that knowing that it was a crossroads for the company and for everything to kind of hit on every cylinder the way it did and to have folks like you walk out of that with that experience.
00:31:24
Speaker
It we ache for another toy fair like that. And same time, we're like, God, how are we going to top that one? Yeah, I just remember like the next day we got to go back and take a couple pictures real quick. And I just remember seeing them going, oh, oh, yeah, this is this is going to be something like I was seeing them like kind of being very excited and kind of looking forward to when, you know, the chase was going to happen, like
00:31:52
Speaker
actually then going out and getting them and then I remember that video package too and I just remember going alright this is this is gonna be something nice glad we gave you that impression and hopefully we're living up to that every month since then two years ago it's crazy to think that that was two years ago mm-hmm oh yeah I remember going out the weekend they they hit New Jersey and just like alright time to find these looking for that shipper yeah
00:32:20
Speaker
Oh, man. Again, I learned I'm a student of the game. I learned when to open my mouth. I learned when to shut it. Man, we had we had a pretty good certain idea. That thing was going to be on shelf. I think August 3rd on Walmart floors. And boy, I think didn't start showing up until about two weeks later after we TV advertised on dynamite programming there. Tony Shavani was his voiceover coming August 3rd. And a week later, no pallets. Two weeks later.
00:32:47
Speaker
We see a pallet in LA. There's a pallet in Montana. And then finally, by September, they all made it. But there was never a moment where every... God, how many was it? Almost 3,000, 2,500 stores. There was never a moment where
00:33:02
Speaker
the Walmart pallets were all on the floor at the same time. So our sales were these very weird staggered blips every week that a pallet would arrive in a store in the middle of the country. And it lasted all the way till about the middle or end of September. But the intel was that if the pallet got there on a Monday, it was stripped completely clean by Tuesday. Like those things didn't last. And some people were saying, can I take this home? Or it was getting thrown out in the dumpster and people were just taking it from the back of the store. Yeah.
00:33:32
Speaker
by Tuesday. I would say if it was showing up on Monday, it was done by Monday. Yeah, at least in this area for sure. I never actually saw one filled with figures. Dave was fortunate enough to have seen one. I saw one full that they brought out and I was like, all right. This is probably one of the coolest things I've seen.
00:33:53
Speaker
It was a wonderful problem to happen. Walmart was a great partner. By the way, when I say that it didn't set on time, it was not any person or thing's fault. It was just a crazy crashing of a number of circumstances that eventually paled in comparison to what we all went through because of all the COVID stuff happening. But anyway, we were fortunate. It was a hit. And we've been sprinting to keep up every wave since then.
00:34:23
Speaker
So we've seen, speaking of keeping up, we've seen the AW line innovate design when it comes to something like Orange Cassidy's pockets.
Innovation in AEW Supreme Line
00:34:31
Speaker
Now we're seeing the next step in that innovation with the Supreme line with more interchangeable parts and more intricate ring gear. What can we expect from this new line moving forward?
00:34:42
Speaker
Unrivaled Supreme is definitely something we're really excited about. We've been kind of nurturing it for a while. If you're going to make a deluxe figure, what would it look like? What would it need to do different from Unrivaled or its little brother-sister unmatched? What would you pay a little bit more for?
00:35:02
Speaker
Funny enough, I think I might mention the ringside, so I won't I won't believe it. But like you get to that point where you're doing the line architecture, like, well, guess we'll start doing two packs because we can, you know, it's twice the price, but you're getting two figures for it. And sure, we could do that. But I think it was just that same fork in the road of going, what can we do to constantly challenge and innovate ourselves? You know,
00:35:22
Speaker
We've gotten a number of waves under our belt now for unrivaled. Now we've got a match coming. We've worked with a couple of different factories. We've calibrated and fine-tuned. We're working with the better partners now than maybe in the first wave or two, as good as those figures came out. How do we keep upping the game and how do we keep upping ourselves? This is not a cruise control brand. Therefore, we're not going to treat it like that. And I think just, yeah, how could we take
00:35:47
Speaker
unrivaled figure and make it somehow better, but not at the expense of an unrivaled figure. And again, we're all collectors, right? I mean, if I do buy action figures for pleasure, a lot of it I'm going to admit is a dork for this stuff, but it's not anime figures. So I'm a big Figma fan.
00:36:06
Speaker
I'm a big fan of a lot of the Japanese manufacturers who make hyper-articulated figures at different scales. Our design teams, Sandro, Ray, Magic, who you all know, they devour great figures and learn from them too.
00:36:24
Speaker
And you know, AW deserves the best. So we figured, OK, if we're going to charge 40 bucks for figure, it better deliver on a number of fronts. And what helped fuel that is, AW wrestlers are so generous because their gear is across the board great. Like, yeah, Orange Cassidy, you might notice this denim is either a little more bleachy or less bleachy than it used to be. But there's a lot of great costuming and a lot of great deco and textures and colors and sequence.
00:36:52
Speaker
And there's economics to making action figures. So for a $20 figure, you're going to be able to fit so much soft goods or so much deco on top of everything else you're putting into it, which is great articulation, the best head sculpt we can get per figure. So that opened the door for us, too. When we teased Britt, Cody, Kenny, and
00:37:13
Speaker
Malachi at Fanfest, what I hope came across is that it's like getting two and a half, maybe in some cases, three action figures in one. And part of that is not just extra heads, meaningful hands. We're not just going to go hand crazy. I think that's a good lesson. We've learned a couple different brands like, yeah, we make hands. Well, make sure the hands do something.
00:37:34
Speaker
And then the costuming, the outfits, whether it's soft goods or whether we can really just really truly deco paint the hell out of a vinyl or plastic accessory. Everything about the Unrivaled Supreme series should be a very logical, plus-up evolution of what we love and are proud of, of both Unrivaled and Unmatched.
00:37:55
Speaker
I have to say that the thing that I was most impressed with, so like obviously seeing, you know, a Malachi Black figure and, you know, he has such iconic entrance gear and, you know. Yeah. When I saw the antlers, I was like, I was floored because that's not something you'd expect to see in a regular package. The thing that actually caught my attention was the fact that the Kenny Omega figure, like I can't recall an action figure and I may be wrong.
00:38:24
Speaker
But I can't recall an action figure, let alone a wrestling figure that came with basically two sets of of heads depicting two different just types of facial hair and hair. Isn't that great? So like, you know, to that point, like I'm sitting there thinking like, okay, I have I have a 1B Kenny, you know, that that that series one Kenny, you know, from that Toy Fair experience, that was like the Kenny Omega that I needed in my collection. It's like,
00:38:50
Speaker
you get this Kenny and you effectively do get like, do get like three figures out of it, you know, between the two different the two different
00:39:02
Speaker
the two different pants in the ring gear, and then the four different heads, and then the entrance jacket. It's like you can recreate so many different looks there. And the storytelling of that figure is you almost are taking the ride of when Kenny became champ, and then what essentially happened to Kenny, or he did himself during his tenure as champion. Short of throwing a Don Callis figure in there, you almost have your
00:39:28
Speaker
soup to nuts evolution of Kenny into the ultimate heel champion in a single package and Again, we didn't charge 60 bucks for it. We charge 40 bucks all those figures. I mentioned I love I love selecting nendroids and figmas, you know, I pay 60 to 80 bucks for those That was a model for us to kind of hit with you know facial expressions and you can swap the face plates out and whatnot but to be able to give that kind of storytelling of a snapshot of the one of the greatest wrestlers of all time in what was essentially the craziest
00:39:58
Speaker
Marquis year of his life and for his character as a championship reign and the company's growth while with him as champion It's so neat to get that in a single purchase That and you know even like somebody like Brit where you have you basically if you're if you know You're a kid and you're playing with these toys with these figures you have pretty much your interview Brit and your ring Brit in one toy and
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah. We're stoked to give you that. Glad you're recognizing it. Glad people are reacting well to it. Even down to the details, we can give her the Gucci belt. We did give her two interlocking Bs for her belt buckle. It's like little bits of detail that we're not going to license Gucci, but you still get that same feeling of that spritz belt right there. And she loved that little detail too. She's like, oh, I get it. I'm not going to pay Gucci. I want the royalties. And she laughs, but she gets how the business works.
00:40:56
Speaker
And it's brand new. There's never been like, okay, we're gonna switch out the legs, like the lower half of this figure. Just the fact that there's just so much going on, even down to the packaging, like the way it looks, if you don't open it, it's still gonna be something that's like wildly just beautiful to look at.
00:41:16
Speaker
So we gave you a sneak peek of that packaging on screen. I think when we, you know, the next public forum we have there, we'll show you some actually like packed out near production samples. That packaging, I think, I hope I put the packaging team over well enough at Fanfest. The packaging is just as important of a presentation as all the stuff that you just talked about that you're getting with the figure. We went that with a very serious notion of like, this has to look great at a retail shelf because we're asking you to pay more for it.
00:41:45
Speaker
It's a new unproven price point and format for us, the business stuff. But then when you get it home, if you don't want to open it, it better look good on your shelf too. I've bought a lot of figures that are very generous with body parts or things you can swap out and do things or dress them up differently. But the figure is not the focal point in the package. They're usually off to the left, maybe off to the right. And they're essentially festooned with and surrounded by
00:42:11
Speaker
dismembered body parts or a tucked up shirt. And I really wanted to see if we could take the electricity and excitement of that Cody Rhodes TNT title night ringside exclusive we did where Cody's essentially at the entrance ramp with the entrance portal behind them from dynamite.
00:42:31
Speaker
And how do you then translate that into a multi-pack like this? And Chris and Steve, our packaging team, they're so good, they knew to move the extra ancillary stuff to the sides, like an angled, not quite side, but still sort of front panel. So when you look at it, you just see a beautiful figure in all its glory, but if you slowly tilt it left, you slowly tilt it right, oh my God, oh my God, look how many heads they gave me. Oh crap, there's a championship belt and a shirt and a set of legs.
00:42:57
Speaker
It makes it beautiful to look at. It makes it nice if you don't want to open it and you want to display it. And it gives you a true sense of like, man, I'm really getting a lot of stuff here for my dollar. So the other thing I wanted to mention too that I think is, because like you mentioned, the idea of those Figma figures. I have, I'm actually, you said that and I'm staring at my Legend of Zelda link, Figma figure. But the thing that's kind of unique about
00:43:24
Speaker
at least I feel about the, the, the jazz where his wrestling figures is kind of, even prior to this, the Supreme line announcement is kind of the hot swap ability of them. Like the fact that you can pop, you know, if you had without any kind of like boil and pop, like, you know, it's just that, that ball joint, but like, you know, if you had bought, you know, one B Kenny and you know, you had bought unmatched one Kenny.
00:43:49
Speaker
And you wanted to put unmatched one Kenny's, you know, torso on the one B pants, you know, to give him a different, you know, add play value, right? Give him a different look for, you know, either the photographer you're taking or maybe your fig fed.
00:44:01
Speaker
Um, you can, so I like the idea that this line is going to show more people that maybe haven't explored that option yet. That like, these are things that you can do with these figures that, you know, is something that's unique to the line. And as soon as I saw the extra legs, that was the first thing I thought I was like, they're embracing this. Like, why are you guys excited?
00:44:23
Speaker
We'll definitely show some more progress in the coming months, but the reaction has been strong. We're happy for that. Like any new baby, you've got to bring some market. You just hope everyone reacts at the shelf and peg level, too, because knock wood, we've got placement at all of our major retail partners. They see the power and electricity of AEW right now, too.
00:44:49
Speaker
It's a great place to be right now because we're doing great. Mattel's doing great. Wrestling's in that first phase of the rebirth cycle it does every 15 or 20 years. It's exciting to be a contributor to that. All the Mattel guys are friends of ours, so we're excited that they're also driving their part of it. It's a great place to be. What retailers are seeing is that, hey, nice. We got another strong revenue stream in wrestling figures again where
00:45:16
Speaker
You know, one time it was one player and, you know, really came down to who was on screen that week and, you know, what was the case pack strategy? Now it's like we've got, you know, two really strong players and people who love wrestling, making two lines worth of wrestling figures together. So it's really cool place to be. And now a word from our sponsors. And now back to the show.
00:45:41
Speaker
So one of the more fun crossovers for the Jazzverse AW line, and especially considering that you guys have the embrace kind of the chase and rare aspect of things, was to include the now wildly popular Upper Deck cards in Unmatched 3 and in the upcoming Unrivaled 9. Are there plans for any kind of other crossovers in the future?
00:46:07
Speaker
Blue Sky, it's wide open. We have a really just fun, good, mutually beneficial burgeoning relationship with upper deck. AEW has, you know, they're not out there, like other licensors can do and getting every deal they can or listening to every
00:46:24
Speaker
you know, potential product I did. They're scaling their business up in really smart fashion and tapping upper deck, tapping us, you know, all the little things we're hearing in murmurings like little tees we've been getting about a video game. These are the right moves for them as licensor. And as such, they were smart and
00:46:42
Speaker
just great partners to make sure that we in upper deck had a chance to meet each other, work together. And I think we're all excited about what we can do together. And our initial conversations were not just about what we can do now, but what we can do to grow each other together. So looking forward to defining what that potential is and sharing with you guys too.
00:47:03
Speaker
So pro wrestling rosters are an ever growing and changing landscape. And, you know, we've seen unrivaled and unmatched become more widely available on shelves. So how do those things factor into the series lineups?
Roster Changes and Figure Strategies
00:47:19
Speaker
And is there more of an opportunity to kind of dive deeper into the roster?
00:47:24
Speaker
Yeah, a couple of different facets at work there for us. One is, you're right, there has been more of a loosening of the log jam of a lot of the global logistics and shipping and port stuff where we would ship a wave on time. But if it sat on a boat, or if the boat sat in the port, or if the boat finally got to port, and then the trucks had a hard time getting to Target or Walmart's distribution center, and then Target and Walmart are experts in logistics getting the stuff from their DCs to their stores,
00:47:52
Speaker
Sometimes you have a lag in weeks there of when a wave could potentially premiere or they'd be nothing for a couple weeks and then boom, you walk in and there's a full set planogram. The fact that that's changing is good. It's helping us and it reflects all the hard work that everyone from a logistics standpoint, production standpoint, retail standpoint does to get products out there. It has not been easy the last two years and I'm proud of what we've done to succeed in that two years.
00:48:20
Speaker
with very few horrible hiccups, so good on everyone there. Another part of that is I think where we really smartly picked our battles was
00:48:31
Speaker
Yeah, we could ship more unrivaled waves and maybe ship them even quicker. But would that really solve the problem of having great sales? And to your point, getting the roster out there in a meaningful way where you can have a great mix of, it's my first ever action figure. Ooh, this is now the new best Dustin Runnels figure you ever had. And unmatched gives us that opportunity. The fact that you can go to any Walmart or Target any week of the year,
00:48:58
Speaker
and know that there's either a fresh unrivaled and an unmatched I might have picked through a couple weeks ago, or vice versa, means it gives you guys more engagement and excitement to go and look for your favorite figures. And it means we can also get deeper in the roster. Yeah, we're always going to have you know, the joke was we acknowledged it at the
00:49:16
Speaker
I had the first fan fest last year. You can do too many Cody's. The only person who didn't think we did enough Cody's or too many Cody's was Cody himself. And he occasionally will still text me a joke like that. But the fact is, you need your A plus stars in every wave. But you also do want to get deeper in the roster. People rejoiced when they saw that dark order wave. It wasn't set out to be a dark order wave for wave three of unmatched. But it just made perfect sense. And again, to make sure that you can get
00:49:45
Speaker
John Silver in there and Uno and Anna J, all anchored by, of course, the great late Brodie Lee. It just made sense to go for it. And what it does now is it reinforces all y'all's notion. And what we believe too is like, well, we got to complete the Dark Quarter at some point soon, don't we? And that's what unmatched and unrivaled living in a parallel existence does for us. And it's great. It makes sure that you guys every four to six weeks have something new to look at and buy. And it's not just the same stuff that's been sitting there.
00:50:12
Speaker
or maybe we didn't pick such a hot wave and maybe there's some peg warmers and you guys suffer for it because the new stuff doesn't make it in time. So I'm really proud of how meaningful and sincere and intelligently we went about that strategy and I'm glad it's paying off.
00:50:27
Speaker
Yeah, we like to call it here the Batman rule. Every wave or the Spiderman rule, every wave has to have that anchor character regardless of what brand you're producing for. Absolutely. There always has to be a Batman or a Spiderman on the shelves.
00:50:44
Speaker
so yep any given point it's someone's first exposure they watch their first episode of dynamite or or they're buying their first wrestling figure so you want to make sure you've always got someone in there that they recognize or or stand for but but as we're learning because a w so unique some people's first
00:51:01
Speaker
hero in wrestling is Orange Cassidy or Danhausen and that's such a super neat weird place to be because you would normally think it's like you know put another Jericho in there get another Cody in there and we're gonna do that but when you have like this tidal wave of outcry for where's my Orange Cassidy where's my hook
00:51:21
Speaker
Where's my Danhausen? That's endemic of what AEW does differently from everyone else, that they're either capturing the right independent wrestling stars and bringing them to a larger, grander stage, or they're helping
00:51:36
Speaker
make stars either directly or inadvertently by having them in AEW. And I love that because now I'm like, oh boy, now I get to lick my lips and rub my hands together and go, okay, team, who do we want in this wave? Is it time to send Hook? Is it time to ask this great star to maybe change their outfits a little bit so they can get that second or third figure? It really helps. And again, just having more figures to do that with across, unravel them unmatched makes that a reality.
00:52:05
Speaker
So speaking of the talent itself and the choices that you have to make, going back to the idea of having that chase and that rare, that one of three and one of 5,000 respectively, how do you guys go about making the decision which wrestler gets the chase or rare rub?
00:52:28
Speaker
It's, like a lot of things we do, it's a total democracy. You've got people on the brand who love it, eat it, breathe it and are very knowledgeable and both about action figures in general, but about AEW. So we've had out of left field contributions. We've had the most, yeah, duh, that makes sense. And plus, you know, it won't cost us an arm and a leg to make it literally figuratively because, you know, the same body, but we'll change the head, we'll change the shirt.
00:52:54
Speaker
There's a democratic alchemy that goes into it that then syncs up with what AEW's interests and priorities are too.
00:53:04
Speaker
Anna J gets her first ever action figure, and surprise, you're also a chaser or rare. I think we did the same with Ricky Starks and Thunder Rosa a couple weekends ago. And for Magic and Ray and Sandro, it's a matter of what kind of creative playground can we do here to make them look different, but also be smart, intelligent, toy company where we're not spending
00:53:28
Speaker
tons and tons of more dollars to make a chaser rare, but we're maximizing, you know, manufacturing and cost efficiencies, but also making something that you guys look at it and go, Oh, yeah, I can see that it has the same torso, but you don't think it at first, what you think is like, Oh, my God, I can't believe they did the pants or the trunks from that event, and also change the face and gave them something to wear on their head or a championship belt, too.
00:53:51
Speaker
And that's fun. It's fun to figure those out. It's fun to see who gets the chase or the rare. And it's fun to creatively problem solve how to make it a meaningful figure because we never rest on our laurels like, ah, it's a chase. They'll go nuts for it. No, no, no, no. It's got to be a meaningful chase for you to go nuts for it, not just because it's an investment purchase of one of 3,000.
00:54:10
Speaker
Yeah, and you know, you kind of see, you know, kind of like things that you remember when it's like, Oh, yeah, I remember that when that happened on, you know, the pay per view or on the show. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, we do not have we do not have a generically outfitted figure in the line. I don't believe I think everyone is matched to an event and an airing of a pay per view.
00:54:29
Speaker
an episode of Dynamite and now, of course, you know, airing of Rampage. That's cool. There's a there's a history and a lineage to what AEW's growth was with these stars. And truthfully, again, it means you get multiple bites at the Apple with great talent because they often change up their stuff. And, you know, they did something amazing on an episode of Rampage and they won a title on the episode of Dynamite. And it's more more for us to give you guys. So, you know, you think of many of the iconic moments that AEW has had in its short history.
00:54:59
Speaker
you know, even something as amazingly iconic as the first dance with CM Punk, which have stood out as something that, which have stood out the most as something that needs to be immortalized in plastic. That still needs to be or has been? Either one.
00:55:16
Speaker
Well, the Hazbin is a fun one. If you play back footage of Jericho's backstage banter, the 91, the championship at all out, if you look really carefully in the shadows, you can actually see me in magic hiding. We had not announced that we were AEW's partner yet, but we were basically attending the
00:55:37
Speaker
the pay-per-view under cloak and dagger, to A, scan the roster, B, be there for what was essentially their second biggest pay-per-view, and to immortalize that moment of Chris Jericho, which of course became the ringside exclusive, a little bit of the bubbly.
00:55:53
Speaker
Um, so we have personal connection to that one. We were there and saw it live happen. Uh, I believe what he said. Nice hat idiot. He was pointing in my general direction. Uh, Jericho Jericho has cut at least a half a dozen promos on me in my short life with him. So it was possible. Um,
00:56:11
Speaker
And the fact that we were able to give that out there as our first kind of big marquee exclusive, pretty much in parallel with the shipment of Wave One, that was great. It also, funnily enough, and Jericho was the first to point out to it, it was also our first structural run with a factory we never worked with. So we got some very interesting DIJ prints on those faces and some melted head sculpts coming out of the factory that
00:56:36
Speaker
Knockwood we were able to make good on and get people replacements and and customer service the heck out of the issue but it was a neat weird bubble of time it was a successful product ringside loved it to death the fans loved it and every now and then I get a text message like what happened to Jericho's face and you know we fixed it. As far as you know. Ascendant opportunities like moments we wanna memorialize.
00:57:01
Speaker
We have the most fun and frustrating time where we'll Monday morning quarterback every episode of a pay-per-view, a rampage and a dynamite. And there are so many moments we go, oh my God, we gotta make that. And then we just continuously do the gut check of like, okay, is the orange juice match between Jericho and Orange Cassidy truly gonna live on in our minds forever? Or is it just another fun thing that we're reacting to? And we have to play those scenarios out for
00:57:30
Speaker
what they really are. You know, we really sat there scratching our heads going, God, do we tool new tuxedoed bodies for for Max and Jericho for their for their dinner debonair. It was such a cool segment. And you go, gosh, will this resonate in three months, six months, nine months, 12 months. So we constantly ask ourselves that. But, you know, there's a lot of wonderful moments that we can memorialize.
00:57:57
Speaker
and some that we've started to and maybe haven't completed yet. And I'll leave that as a dangling dot dot dot that you guys can speculate and banter about between now and Double or Nothing Fan Fest. There you go.
Honoring Owen Hart and Wrestling History
00:58:10
Speaker
Speaking of things that have been dangling in front of us, you recently announced that after two decades, the collecting world is finally getting a new Owen Hart figure, a modern Owen Hart figure.
00:58:21
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about how this opportunity came about and what can we expect from this relationship? Are we looking at just one figure? Are we looking at potentially more than one figure? We're just curious.
00:58:35
Speaker
Sure. There's a lot of, there's a lot of inside baseball that got us at this point. Great people talking to each other and understanding each other and having a mutual interest in really just making the most out of one of the most legendary, iconic and beloved wrestlers in the business. AEW makes us proud. They really pick great partners and are so thoughtful and sincere in everything they do. So, you know, whatever, whatever
00:59:04
Speaker
They worked out with Martha Hart and the foundation. We're so proud to be able to share in it. A figure is long overdue. Naturally, we will be playing in the sandbox that we should be and are allowed to, which is celebrating Owen's career when he wasn't in certain leagues or promotions.
00:59:25
Speaker
And I think what we showed you is hopefully just the tip of the iceberg. Nothing I can tell you concrete just yet, but just know that it's a dream come true for Jeremy. We all grew up watching him too. And so it's a point of pride to do him justice, but also to work with such a lovely family who always resisted opportunities and licensing previously to never do any injustice to a wonderful man's legacy and a family's legacy.
00:59:55
Speaker
We take that with the same sincerity and heart and pride and humility that we did working with the Brody Lee figure and his family. To be able to do that and make toys, again, it's humans, it's connecting with humans, and it's bringing magic to shelf. It's such a great, fun place to be, and we're proud to be there. And we'll have more to show you soon.
01:00:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's one that I know, you know, we speak on behalf of many, but, uh, you know, it's one of those things where again, to that point, like we grew up watching Owen, like whether it was, you know, Owen, you know, in, you know, the, uh,
01:00:41
Speaker
the WWE as the multiple different facets of a character that he was, he was a huge part of our childhood. And we always had figures of him growing up, whether it was the
01:00:57
Speaker
the jacks bone crunchers. Yeah, it was the bone crunchers. It's been so long and as an adult collector and kind of look at the scope of things, I'm looking at my luminaries sting right in front of me and I can't believe that in
01:01:17
Speaker
you know, in 2022, not only in 2022 is Sting, you know, taking, uh, taking bumps off of balconies on pay-per-view, but like the fact that there's a brand new Sting, uh, you know, or, or the, the Lionheart Jericho that's, that's coming out the Corazon de Leon, right? Um, you know, it's, it's one of those things where it's, it's so great that, you know, somebody is paying tribute and honoring the legacy.
01:01:46
Speaker
of Owen Hart with a new figure and, you know, and getting it into collector's hands. So super exciting. Yeah, right on. It's cool and fun and proud and humble to be a part of that. And yeah, again, the fun part is too is
01:02:05
Speaker
But you guys, I get to see what everyone comes up with from the packaging standpoint, from a design standpoint, the palpable excitement and pride everyone's taking in putting this together. And growing luminaries into something where could it be its own brand one day? Right now, it occupies a little slot within the unmatched waves.
01:02:27
Speaker
if there's an opportunity someday to work with more legendary talent, if AW continues to bring in luminary-level talent in their current stage and age, they're worth making figures of. And if they also bring with them likeness rights and trademark rights to
01:02:44
Speaker
earlier versions of themselves at various points of their career. We're going to keep looking for those opportunities because there's a wrestling fan who wants to celebrate that and we're definitely the right partner to do it. So who knows, it could continue just being like a one-slot thing every couple months or if the rights open up or if there's other opportunities to make Luminary its own special thing, we'd be there for it.
01:03:10
Speaker
So before we head into our Q&A, the one thing that we wanted to mention is we've talked pretty much solely about the work that you do on the AAW line, but there is quite a few brands that you also work on over at Jazzwares.
Managing Multiple Toy Brands at Jazzwares
01:03:28
Speaker
Do you find it difficult in your role jumping in and out of all of those different head spaces? Like, you know, today I'm thinking about Master Chief, and then today I'm thinking about Chris Jericho, and tomorrow I'm thinking about Pokemon. Like, is it a challenge to kind of get your brain in the right spot to work on each of those brands individually? Unequivocally, absolutely, concretely. Yes, it is. Very hard. And I love it.
01:03:58
Speaker
It's, it's, it's privileged to do this. And it's like, I need a job where it'll drive you crazy. If you don't have the right mindset, there's some days you're more tired and depleted than others. Um, and I loved, I loved your, your chronology of things just changed day to hour to 90 minutes. And it's the same sensation. I'm literally by noon, I've probably had three or four different brand meetings where I've got to think like,
01:04:22
Speaker
a vehicle collector for micro machines, or I've got to tackle an issue with Fortnite, or learn what's coming down the pipeline from 343 on Halo. And the end result is it's tiring, it's exhausting at times, but it's also exhilarating. It's so much fun. And thank goodness I'm not a solo act. I've got some of the best folks I could potentially but positively ever ask for as teammates, as supporters, as bosses.
01:04:52
Speaker
You know, that's one of the things about jazzwares is like, we've got a really great family of workers who love what we do and care about what we do. And we all support and encourage each other. Um, so I got a lot of wind in my wings. Um, I've got a lot of caffeine in my system and, um, I've learned to live on like six hours of sleep a night and it's not bad. It's okay. It's not terrible. The worst is when it's Saturday or Sunday and you still wake up at six and you can't save that extra hour or two because your brain will let you.
01:05:22
Speaker
So with that, it's time to head into our Q&A segment. 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.
01:05:45
Speaker
Visit them in person at 106 Main Street in Little Falls, New Jersey, or online at ChubsyWubsy.com. That's C-H-U-B-Z-Z-Y-W-U-B-Z-Z-Y.com. And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you. So as you know, we posted on Instagram and Twitter, and we collected some questions from the fan community for you here.
Q&A Session with Greg Mitchell
01:06:12
Speaker
I will give a shout out before we
01:06:15
Speaker
Before Dave hits you with the first question, you actually already answered the original first question for our Q&A, which was from at Figvault. He wanted to know if there were any plans to expand the luminaries line past just one figure, you know, every other so unmatched wave.
01:06:35
Speaker
you literally just answered that. It's almost as if you knew the question was coming. How about that? So, big vault, thank you for the question and you got your answer. So, with that, Dave is going to hit you with the new first question of our Q&A.
01:06:53
Speaker
Yes, at prophetically speaking, at prophetically underscore speaking asks, do you have any idea as to when unmatched series four will be going up for pre-order? And are there any more fan fest events planned for 2022?
01:07:11
Speaker
Gotcha. When it comes to, I can always talk in general sense of like retail set dates, like when you can expect like a wave to maybe hit a Walmart target. When it comes to pre-orders, that's usually at the discretion of the retailer, right? So if Jonathan in Ringside Collectibles wants to activate a presale, he'll typically know when to do that and we'll simply wag the dog on that kind of situation. The second part of the question was, are there any more Fanfest events planned for the year?
01:07:40
Speaker
We would love to support a FanFest anytime that AEW wants to have one, so stay tuned. You've heard us allude to some potential future ones. AEW will always say when they're happening and if they're happening, but just know that we'll always be an active participant and would love to be a part of the FanFest experience any time of year.
01:08:02
Speaker
Next question comes from at joeybeansli. I don't think it's Beansley. It might be Beansley. I'm going to go with Beansley. at joeybeansley asks. I was thinking he's from Long Island, but... Joey Beans Long Island?
01:08:17
Speaker
Could be. Joey, if you listen to the show, drop us a line. Tell us whether it's Beansley or Beans L.I. Is there anything you miss from your time working on the Power Rangers brand, and is there anything from that time that you bring to the table working at AEW? Yes and yes.
01:08:39
Speaker
I talked earlier about the ability to commune and connect with the Power Rangers fandom. So I definitely take that into my current role in life too. So many good lessons learned there, so many relationships even. I still talk to a lot of Power Rangers folks. It's always a pleasure. When it comes to...
01:09:06
Speaker
When it comes to actual product stuff, I try to think too, like it's almost like a job interview. Like what did I do in Power Rangers that wasn't just spreading joy and all that, but like, you know, what, what really moved the needle there. And again, I had a great team, so didn't do this solo, but we had an opportunity to take what was essentially what we called like the TV line, right? The toys that mimicked what you saw in the Nickelodeon students.
01:09:28
Speaker
And that was like the bread and butter of the business, right? But how can we grow that? And I think working with my teammates to create the legacy series across multiple formats, like again, props and replicas, zords and mega zords. And of course, what eventually became the legacy series figures. That was wonderful because for the company, it provided another great revenue stream of products that people really wanted and that hadn't had the opportunity to get before.
01:09:56
Speaker
But it was done again with sincerity and meaning. It was stuff that we weren't out there for a wallet grab. We went out there strategically and thought, how do we get the stuff that means the most to fans that either they wanted again as a grown up or they never got as a kid at Christmas for whatever reason. And we were all super proud of that one. That's a nice career highlight there.
01:10:20
Speaker
Um, friend of the pod at the man with the red man asks exactly how many fights have you been in and how many of those have you won? That's a great question. Junior year, I would call that one a draw. Um, I think I won for spirit and moxie, but I don't think I actually, you know, won the fight if you're going to actually, you know, have a ring judges there. Um,
01:10:48
Speaker
And then I actually give, I'm actually proud of myself for getting out of fights rather than getting myself into them. Um, my sense of reason, my gift of gab and my sometimes sense of humor got me out of more scraps and into them. So, but thank you, the man with the red me. So I have to dump this one back on, on Aaron here. Um, sorry.
01:11:14
Speaker
So for those of you who don't know the man with the red mane is fellow jazzwares friend Aaron and You know, I'm gonna ask you Greg who would win and fight you or Aaron?
01:11:28
Speaker
He's like a tall tree, so I'd have to work the knees and the shins in a way that would prevent him from using his size advantage against me. He is probably quicker because he does have at least, oh gosh, he's at least 15, if not more younger than me.
01:11:47
Speaker
stamina, endurance, and speed may be his. But quick bursts of low profile ground-based attacks might actually get me at least the hell out of the situation, much less to assured victory. He looks spry, but he does look like he would go down if you get him in the knees. So I think that's a good strategy.
01:12:07
Speaker
Well, now that I've broadcast this head strategy, I'm going to have to think of a secondary contingency plan because he now knows, he's basically scouted me now, so I have to come up with some other things. All right, the next question. Thank you, Aaron, for absolutely derailing the Q&A segment. I appreciate it, Aaron. It's like a meeting at the office, so thanks.
01:12:31
Speaker
The next question comes from at fig heel. So far, Owen is the only announced talent not on the AEW roster getting a figure. Are there plans to add additional non roster talent for future figure opportunities? So I have to say I think and this question has kind of like people have been dancing around this question like when we posted you were going to be on everybody like the the
01:12:56
Speaker
The question that everybody wants to know is like, is the legend or is the legends line coming back? You know, with with Jeremy behind this and the superstars line, the classic superstars line, I really think that everyone who just was like chomping at the bit to see if that's going to get revived in any way, shape or form.
01:13:15
Speaker
Yeah, understandable. The fact that there's interest in a groundswell for that speaks to the legacy, of course, of those very venerable shingles that Jeremy helped create, God help us 20 years ago, was it? But also that there's an appetite out there for wrestlers to be immortalized in plastic in some shape or form, regardless of where they worked and who wrote the checks at night at the promotion.
01:13:39
Speaker
What I can say now is this, where AEW's master action figure partner, our commitment and our focus right now is making AEW and AEW affiliated figures. So if there's a luminary who walks onto the roster,
01:13:55
Speaker
but brings a pedigree and years worth of potential figures with them that are in no way, shape or form Stanford related, we're there for it. But we're open-eared to the fact that there is an interest in wrestling legends and our ability to faithfully make them and put them in your guys' hands. We'll always be open-eared towards that. But right now our focus is naturally on
01:14:20
Speaker
fulfilling our great partnership with AEW and what their priorities and what their roster needs are. If you can make one Pokemon a wrestler and one wrestler a Pokemon, who would they be and why? Oh my gosh.
01:14:38
Speaker
I definitely feel like I needed to prepare for this one, but maybe the impromptu answer will be more interesting as a result. I would think, so I like wrestling for in-ring, the pro wrestling aspect. I also like people who look great on TV and could cut a great promo. And I also like factions. So I would love to see Squirtle
01:14:59
Speaker
premiere in AEW, but also in pretty short order, as long as the writing was there for it and the talent was there for it to also then have him to bring Squirtle Squad. I think it would have the potential to rival only the inner circle as far as faction supremacy in AEW's short existence. And, you know, as evidenced by my ink and my constant mentions of Squirtle, he's indeed my favorite. The sunglasses rule.
01:15:28
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, he's my man or my Squirtle. And I'm sorry, did you also do bring that into like, and who from AWS should go into the world of Pokemon? Yeah, like who would make which which AWS superstar would make a great Pokemon? Oh, you know, there's that business in license, I mean, it says now serves our madams.
01:15:51
Speaker
The Pokemon world is the Pokemon world and interlopers and outsiders don't commingle with trainers or Pokemon in this world. But we're having fun on a podcast. So who looks like they give you a Pokemon? Who acts like they give you a Pokemon in the AW roster? Well, do you want me to give you my answer? So who I would pick? Yes. Wardlow.
01:16:13
Speaker
Ooh. He would be a great Pokemon. The moment you said it, I could see not just what he could look like, but even his potential evolutions. That was good. I was going to go for very low-hanging fruit and say the singular visual of just a bunch of cute, cuddly Pokemon all sleeping on it, lying on his back, Snorlax. I would love to see Keith Lee laying down in the middle of a tranquil forest with a number of smaller Pokemon all just curled up and cuddled up on this big giant cell.
01:16:42
Speaker
That's amazing. He would be a great Pokemon too. That's a great answer. I could actually think of one that I would pick too. Go ahead. Love to hear it. You know, sometimes you know that Pokemon can be very nice. Oh God. But they can also be very evil. So I think, you know, Danhausen would be able to put a curse on the Pokemon.
01:17:12
Speaker
That would be a good offensive attack. Danhausen used very evil. It was very effective. Yes. Have you been cursed by Danhausen yet?
01:17:25
Speaker
No, my interactions with him have been nothing but like charming and positive. I think he's excited to potentially have an action figure. So he's been nothing but a sweetheart and like very collaborative and cool and like, you know, hey, and you know, he tells me his real name. Let's talk. So no, I have not been cursed yet. That said, you know, once we're out there near the ring, and if it really, you know, makes sense. Like I said, I've had many promos cut against me. Why wouldn't he too?
01:17:55
Speaker
Hey, if you don't make a figure soon enough, he may curse you. That's like one of the things that I think- But that would be self-defeating because he should want me to get the figure to completion with my team before cursing me. If it doesn't turn out good, yes, he has every right to curse because we deserve it. But we'll make a better one next time. That's how we do.
01:18:16
Speaker
So with that, Greg, you have survived the Q&A. Thank you to everybody who submitted questions. We hope you liked the answers. Thank you to everyone but not Aaron. But everyone but Aaron. So with that, Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask Greg the final question?
Exploring Power Rangers Figures and Designs
01:18:40
Speaker
I sure would. So the final question we ask all of our guests
01:18:46
Speaker
What is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection? It can be one of each, or it can be both. Look at every bad guy figure we did for Power Rangers, Bandai, Dino Charge figures, or Dino Supercharge. I always loved the costume department at Toei and how they just basically
01:19:13
Speaker
free-range some of the most disturbing weird bizarre bad guy alien monster costumes for your typical quote-unquote villain of the day or villain of the week in any given Sentai and hence Power Rangers episode and it seems like the creative team that was there during the Karuja seasons which turned into Dino charge definitely had a
01:19:35
Speaker
free range to basically create whatever they want. And I don't know if that was just pure imagination, if there was absent and peyote involved, but there was an amazing array of like, wait, they made a creature out of that. And I was so excited by how truly bizarre and stupid some of them looked. I mean, stupid affectionately, that it was a pleasure to make action figures out of them. And we also hadn't done bad guy figures, I think in a couple years prior, you know, to my, me and my team's arrival. So it was a fun to get bad guys in there and be, we went for this most.
01:20:05
Speaker
Awful wacky off the wall ones. So yeah, search search Dino Dino charge villain figures and Dino supercharged villain figures and there's some real winners in there. You're the one that comes to mind if I'm recalling correctly. I think there wasn't there a guy that was like a walking maze. Yes. Yes, and there's like a guy that's like.
01:20:31
Speaker
How do I describe this? I'm trying not to Google. I'm trying to just go off my memory. I don't remember names of anybody. Trust me, whatever your memory is, it's not going to be any weirder or less accurate than what the actual crazy monsters actually were. Wasn't there one that was like an anthropomorphic pirate ship? Yes.
01:20:50
Speaker
You have a good twisted memory. You could probably go overseas and work for Toei. There were some bizarre Power Rangers villains, but you're right. They were on a different sort of something for some of the ones from that era.
01:21:07
Speaker
And my cynical mind was always like, oh, they must just be going back into like, you know, like the warehouse and just pulling random pieces from other existing monsters from from 25 seasons prior worth. But a no, that actually undercuts the amazing amount of weird creativity that every
01:21:23
Speaker
production team in Japan had. And two, they're so heavily foam-based that most of those things don't actually survive more than like five or six years in storage before they start disintegrating. So it's almost like they are forced to reset their brains and go, how crazy can we get this year? And they're not just doing it for Sentai, they're also doing it for Kamen Rider. Now granted, they're a little bit more aspirational, aged up and maybe more mature, right? Because Sentai is considered maybe like, you know, quote unquote, the more preschool gateway show.
01:21:51
Speaker
and common writers more for like six, seven, eight year old boys. So they're a little more aggressive looking, they're a little bit more evil looking, but they do that for 40 episodes, like every year for two long running series, like just the boundless creativity and insanity going on over there. I'm in awe of it. And I was glad to make some of it in plastic.
01:22:13
Speaker
Yeah, like eventually you get to the point where it's like, all right, we need a bad guy. You know what? Sports. Just. Yeah. Yes. He has a basketball backboard for the shape of a head. But don't worry. It doesn't stop there. We're also going to integrate every European, Japanese and American sport, even if they aren't native sports to the country you're watching this show in. Yeah, it's and it's funny because like I I really have not watched Power Rangers. My indoctrination of Power Rangers kind of stopped after I have an ooze.
01:22:43
Speaker
But like, I remember when those figures were coming out, just seeing them on shelves, honestly, and going like, is what? What is this? Yay, that was me and my team. Well, congratulations, because
01:22:58
Speaker
you sure jumped out on the pegs there that's that was that was for real a thing sports the bad guys sports wasn't it like yes game face I think his name was that one I for some reason for the name I think you're actually right yeah because they would have some naturally Japanese name but then when Saban would do the the localizations of them in Tournament of Power Rangers yeah like they basically rescripted everyone's names and
01:23:21
Speaker
They're typically like very on the nose, understandable to a child type of name. So game face or teacher, you know, the, the, the creature with a blackboard head and a little, you know, naturally graduate cap, I think on the left or right corner of said blackboard head. And, uh, and I think he had a Gatling gun that shot chalk. Yeah, that sounds better. Dave, I hope you're looking these up on your phone right now.
01:23:49
Speaker
I missed so much and I'm just like, why did I miss this? This is amazing. Even if it's just to be in the sphere of what this is.
01:24:04
Speaker
And that's just the year I worked on it where I was able to bring villain figures back into the assortment. So it just wasn't, you know, the five or six Rangers in a case pack. There is literally 25. And now at this point, what 28, 29 seasons worth of these. So if somebody out there is archiving this on a website.
01:24:20
Speaker
And has like, because every villain had a production photo from its episode. And we would go through these catalogs, you know, that we would get because we would always get the series one to two years after they had aired. So we had a veritable resource and lookbook of villains. And we would just amuse ourselves going through them. I mean, I was going back to catalogs going back to like the 80s. And just the again, insane amount of creativity that went into these things and just like the
01:24:45
Speaker
the open brained approach to how do I make a really bad, bad guy that doesn't terrify people, but also definitely confuses them. And makes you a little face rules. It makes you a little uncomfortable. Like just ever slightly uncomfortable. A fencing helmet on his thigh. That's amazing. Oh, yeah. Dude, where's the fencing helmet? Oh, I forgot it. We'll stick it on the thigh naturally.
Wrapping Up and Promotions
01:25:13
Speaker
kaiju creation man and you know this entire episode we so unfortunately we we have to say goodbye for the for now but we didn't even get into Akita we didn't get into any of that stuff we're gonna have to have you back on and and and talk more about it but before we let you go Greg can you remind everyone where can they find out the latest from jazzwares and find out the latest about the AW figures on the internet
01:25:37
Speaker
Sure. I mean, I think our most active handles would be on Instagram. So jazzwares on Instagram, you'll get a little taste of everything we do. You know, you will not be surprised to find a Coco Mellon post right next to a really beautiful and aggressive photo of, you know, Master Chief mid battle. But you know, it's what makes us such a cool diverse company. And then if you want to follow, we're trying to get more constant and frequent news. So be patient with us. But AEW by jazzwares is the other Instagram handle that
01:26:04
Speaker
We're trying to populate with stuff that you're not going to see everywhere else. But then again, in partnership, naturally, ringside collectibles is a wonderful job of covering us. Jeremy Padauer's personal Instagram and Twitter accounts are always a goldmine of not just wisdom and advice, but also, hey, guys, you want to do a reveal? And naturally, you can then barrage him with it. Yes, show us wave seven. Show us wave 14. Those are always the fun ways to get us.
01:26:33
Speaker
It's all good. And where can we find you on Instagram? I unwittingly gave over my Instagram account to my career probably about three, four years ago. So I'm just a little Gregory underscore K underscore Mitchell. Well, Greg, thank you again so much for coming on the show and answering our questions and answering some of the fans' questions.
01:26:58
Speaker
It's a pleasure. Thank you everyone for their interest and their support. And yeah, keep your eyes and ears open. There's a lot more coming down the pipe and definitely some reveals and announcements coming out that we're excited about. And it's always fun to get those in front of you. So thank you.
01:27:14
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
01:27:31
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.
01:27:54
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. 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.
01:28:27
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.
01:28:56
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.
01:29:08
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.
01:29:30
Speaker
That's z-e-n-c-a-s-t-r dot com slash pricing and use promo code AICPOD.