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Wrestling with Box Art: Designing Toy Packaging with Jazwares' Chris Metzger
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You only get one first impression, and the packaging has long been that first impression in the toy world. Joining us today on the show is longtime toy packaging designer, currently at Jazwares, Chris Metzger! Hear about his long history in the business, where he finds inspiration, and get answers to your burning questions!
Follow Chris on Instagram @c_m_metzger and keep up with all of the Jazwares AEW goings on @aewbyjazwares!
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
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Transcript
Summer Activities and Sponsor Plug
00:00:01
Speaker
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00:00:56
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00:01:17
Speaker
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.
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting Podcast
00:01:28
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.
00:01:47
Speaker
Hi. Dave, we are back and it's been an exciting few weekends of wrestling here.
Record-Breaking Wrestling Events and Guest Introduction
00:01:57
Speaker
We're coming in hot off of some big record-breaking events, especially in the world of AEW, right? So as we try to do, we try to make the timing
00:02:11
Speaker
Workout doesn't always happen but sometimes we get very fortunate and and it does work We have somebody here who works very closely on on some a w Product one one could say yes So yeah, so we are we're growing our our collection of folks from the jazzwares team One one would say we're going we're going all out today. Oh, I like it. I'm all in on that
00:02:38
Speaker
had to do it had to do it yeah well you know you know yeah I mean you go one week and you know next month we'll be living a wrestle dream so true true that's right I forgot that they announced that actually yeah so yeah yet another pay-per-view
00:02:57
Speaker
We're going to roll things back here for a moment. First impressions, you only get one of those. That's the thing that's really unique about a first impression.
Chris Metzger's Career in Packaging Design
00:03:08
Speaker
Our first impression of any toy or collectible is the packaging.
00:03:13
Speaker
And for decades, today's guest has been designing some of the most iconic examples out there from Marvel and WCW during his days at ToyBiz to AEW and Pokemon today at Jazzwares. We are thrilled to welcome Jazzwares, Senior Director of Packaging Design, Chris Metzger. Chris, welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks for having me on, guys. Appreciate it. Yeah, man. It's one of those things where, like,
00:03:40
Speaker
You know, it's obviously when people think of toy design, right? They go right to the, the articulation and the sculpt and the, and, you know, and the, and the way that the figure looks and moves, but you know, the, the, the unsung hero is how, how that toy looks hanging on the pegs. Right. You know, my, my mindset has always been right. Um, the packaging is a product before the consumer opens it. Right. So you have to, you have to, you know, you have to have that, that hook.
00:04:07
Speaker
um that that first impression you know to kind of you know take the consumer in into the packaging right um so yeah so i always say like uh most of the stuff that i do ends up in the trash or in these days recycled which i think is a good thing right so consumers buy it bring it home um some unbox it some don't but uh yeah you're absolutely right you know the packaging is a is a big player there for sure
00:04:37
Speaker
Well, before we get into, you know, go, go deep into your history and design and, and, you know, how you got to jazz where, as we are today, uh, as this is a show about collecting the first thing that we ask all of our guests on the, uh, on the, on the show, what are you currently collecting?
Unique Perspective: Chris Metzger as a Non-Collector
00:04:52
Speaker
Well, fellas, you're going to be disappointed. I am not a collector at all. Really? Really? Doesn't have to be toys. It can be anything. No. No, not a collector at all. Wow. You know? I think that's a first. I think you are in a hundred and what are we on? 117, 18, something like that episodes. I think you are. We'll say four years. Yeah. You are the first person who is not a collector on the show. So please leave. No, I'm just kidding. Sorry.
00:05:21
Speaker
No, but what I could tell you, though, is is the sort of the toys that I was fond of when I was a kid. Right. Yeah. There's so many iconic things that folks collect now that that were my go tos and, you know, my favorites growing up. Right. So you had the 12 inch G.I. Joe's right. The stuff with the real hair scar on the face, that type of thing. And then the different sets of G.I. Joe with the the white tiger, you know, safari. Right. And the shark and amphibious vehicle.
00:05:52
Speaker
You had the the astronaut Joe with the with the small capsule that type of thing, right? And I was also into like the STP stuff the ripcord stuff, right? And one thing that was one of my absolute favorites was the ST STP smashing Bash Derby, I think it was called or smashing slam Derby so they had the you know, the ripcord guys and I guess there was a
00:06:16
Speaker
Switch or something on the bumper. So when the cars collided the hood would fly off doors would fly off the trunk would fly off and as a kid, I was a Totally into wacky packs. Oh, awesome. All right wacky packs and They had the ones it was you know, they had
00:06:36
Speaker
uh, sort of the, it was more of a fabric printed on fabric type of thing versus paper at that point. So, you know, you have your jean jacket and you would plaster all the wacky packs on the back of your jean jacket and that type of stuff. And so, but, but yeah, sorry to disappoint guys. I am not a collector. So I'm going to pivot on that question. When, when did you stop collecting? Like, do you remember, like, was there like a time in your life where like you can, you can vividly remember like separating yourself from, from toys?
00:07:10
Speaker
As a kid, you're not necessarily a collector, you just want to
00:07:16
Speaker
build out the play pattern, build out the fantasy, right? In this case, you know, G.I. Joe go on G.I. Joe with his ventures, you know, go with some things like even like the bionic man type of thing, you know, so the 12 inch action figure is good. G.I. Joe with the Kung Fu grip. And then it was the the I forget the company that did it, but there was Big Jim. I don't know if you guys remember Big Jim.
00:07:43
Speaker
With the muscle popping the muscle band, you know, it was pretty intriguing as a kid, you know One and done play pattern, but you know, you had to pop the muscle band every time, you know what I mean? Yeah Yeah, so yeah, like I said, you know, it wasn't necessarily collecting. We just sort of building out You know that that world, you know Where I grew up in New Jersey was just adjacent to the pine barren so it was this big sort of
00:08:09
Speaker
You know sand clearing, right? So we used to create and there was should be a washout where they The water came, you know through the sores through the sand, right? So that was our Snake River Canyon, right? So we used to get our evil cannibals out You know and reenact the whole Snake River Canyon thing But yeah, like I said, it wasn't necessary collecting was just you know Just doing cool stuff with your toys, you know and trying to recreate that moment
00:08:36
Speaker
So when did design come into play? How did you get into design or even specifically designing packages?
Career Transition and Early Packaging Work
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah. So I went to school initially for medical illustration, right? So I did two years of that.
00:08:52
Speaker
I'm like, geez, I'm pretty much in a pre-med program here. I was taking physiology, biology, anatomy, some chemistry. After two years, you know what? I saw these people, they're doing graphic design. What's graphic design? I don't know. It was 18, 19 at the time. I asked them a few questions. I was like, man, I'm switching my major to graphic design.
00:09:17
Speaker
So at the end of the day, when I graduated college, I ended up with a degree in graphic design. Did a couple freelance gigs here and there, but, you know, needed to make money. So I was working in a sort of cafe that was in the same office building as Tycho Toys, right?
00:09:39
Speaker
Some of their prepping salads, slinging salads, taking orders, that type of thing. And a friend of mine who was the manager at the cafe was like, um, Oh, you know, I know this person from Tycho Toys, blah, blah, blah. You should go, you should go talk to her. Right. So I go, I go talk to her and she was like, Oh, we're totally looking for people. Can you do, you know, this, that, and the other thing? Yeah. Sign me up. Never done it before, but yeah, I could do it. Right.
00:10:07
Speaker
Um, you know after talking to her she's like, can you start next monday? As a freelancer, right? So I I freelance there for
00:10:16
Speaker
Probably about six months and got hired full time as a designer, kind of worked my way up and ended up being the manager of packaging design thereafter. It was three years, four years, maybe five. So essentially the first real job out of school was with a toy company.
00:10:39
Speaker
Left Air, started my own business, had that for 20 some years, 25 years. Did a couple gigs here and there and ended up in jazzwares.
Evolution of Toy Packaging Design
00:10:50
Speaker
So like I said, the first job out of school was in toys and always been toys and kids entertainment ever since. So I mean, you've been, I mean, obviously hit the ground running there, but you've seen
00:11:07
Speaker
you know, in your time in toys, you know, going from Tyco to like, again, where you are now at jazz, where there's so many different IPs, so many different, you know, aesthetics out there. What are some of the major differences between, you know, packaging design when you got started to, you know, how it happens today? Great questions. There's actually, let me answer this in a couple different parts, right? So the first part would be,
00:11:36
Speaker
the way a package was designed, right? You know, insofar as technology is concerned, right? When I started, there were no computers, right? You had a drafting table, you had a T-squared triangle, ruling pens, rapidographs, you know, and you literally would design your package or lay it out
00:12:00
Speaker
All by hand, right? So you do your sketches on like tissue paper or whatever kind of figure out your design. There is no no online photo resources where you can kind of slug in something as an FPO and kind of work. You know, every every designer had this big set of barrel markers. It must have been
00:12:20
Speaker
I don't like ninety six different colors in this big marker set so if you wanted. You know what an illustration of a taco RC car would look like you have to sketch it out you bust out your markers you do the marker. You know marker comp kind of pasted into your mock up in your design that sort of thing presented the brand pages or thinking for design okay let's do it and then you have to do the mechanical right so you take a piece of board.
00:12:50
Speaker
Put it up on your drafting table, you know, to get your ruling pen, do all your stuff, put your T square. And the best part is, um, was the typesetting, you know, nowadays or whatever, you draw your text box, uh, wherever you want text on the packaging, blah, blah, blah. It's a little too big for it. You scale it down, you kind of shift it around. Well.
00:13:15
Speaker
When you're prior to computers you get a manuscript right from the copywriter marketing team or whatever and you send that out to a type setting house.
00:13:26
Speaker
And you'd have to expect the type. There was this whole thing called a Statler rule where you kind of can't characters kind of figure out what space gets in there. A lot of math is a lot of math involved. So anyway, you get your galley or whatever back from the typesetting house, you have to paste it up in mechanical and you're like, oh crap, it doesn't fit. So you're like, you're cutting out stuff. So, so yeah, I think, I think, you know, that's the biggest thing now. And one thing I think
00:13:54
Speaker
is important to know is you know during the time pre-computer you had to think right you had to plan out your design before you went and did it you know you developed it you put it in mechanical form then sent it out to do color separations and all that stuff you really had to think about what you're doing because like I said before you know if the type didn't fit oh crap I gotta get my exacto knife to you know put it in there or whatever
00:14:25
Speaker
So I think, you know, with the advent of computers, I think a lot of designers rely on the computer to figure out stuff for them. And sometimes they're limited by what the computer can do for them or what they know, right? So, you know, I think designers need to think
00:14:47
Speaker
Of the computer as a tool and like like i would like a t square or triangle or ruling pens or whatever back in the day right so you know your thing is i think what what's changed is you know i've seen a lot of designers fall into the the the trap of
00:15:06
Speaker
Having the computer design it for them rather than using the computer as a tool, you know and so that's that's in terms of design but in terms of You know the way the toy industry has evolved, right? I remember going to toy fairs, you know, jeez I've been going to toy fairs for almost 30 years in a row, right and and
00:15:33
Speaker
you know you have these companies that develop these great ip unique you know unique stuff right what was groundbreaking you know mechanism or whatever that they build a line on and then suddenly you know it changed it was like.
00:15:50
Speaker
The advent of like hardcore licensing for toys like you know following you know attend pool major motion picture you know all these evergreen properties right and suddenly the buzz at toy fair was
00:16:08
Speaker
uh you know who came up with this great invention this great unique product it suddenly switched to oh my god did you hear who became who you know who was the master toy licensor for Jurassic Park or something like that right um
00:16:23
Speaker
But early on in the licensing days, it was always like slap and adapt, right? They'd always just take, oh, let's put a ball and slap a Power Rangers logo on it. Let's, you know, a bad ball side. But, you know, I think though, I think the way, you know, the toy industry has evolved where there's more meaningful product development and packaging development based on licensed properties, right? You know, I think the days of slap and adapt are over.
Impact of Technology on Packaging Innovation
00:16:51
Speaker
Where they you know companies are now really embracing the brands and and pointing out very meaningful Packaging and product for sure. Yeah, I mean I think it's interesting too and you know correct me if I'm wrong here, but It's almost gone. We talked about packaging being the first impression. You know, but I feel like packaging has gone from
00:17:14
Speaker
you know, something that is very utilitarian, like what's the most simple way we can get the toy in this box and you know, to these like, you know, and I think back to some of your work, which will, you know, we'll get into but like, for instance, like the silver surfer packaging that you did when you're a toy biz, like the circular die cut box with the blister on it, like, you know, that is something that absolutely leaps off of the pegs at a store when you see something that's not in like that kind of rectangle with like,
00:17:42
Speaker
you know, rounded edges look to it. Um, so, you know, I'd, I'd imagine too, that, you know, do you think that that's really kind of technology that allowed
00:17:54
Speaker
You know, as the technology progressed and, you know, like you said, like the industry itself changing, is that kind of what changed the overall style of the packaging too? Like just to kind of keep up with the changes in the industry? Yeah, I mean, I think so. I mean, I think like early on, you know, to your point, you know, packaging was utilitarian, right? And you sort of had like.
00:18:13
Speaker
The me too stuff right my competitor blitzer car is a footprint of whatever dimensions and it's a square blister blah blah blah that we're gonna do it too right so i so i think you know it was probably in.
00:18:30
Speaker
I want to say like late 90s, early 2000s, there was this whole sort of revolution of like, all right, um, toy companies are now embracing the packaging structure. Let's do things differently, right? Um, to kind of get away from like the Migo mindset, right? Where it was just, you know, square cards, square blister. Um,
00:18:51
Speaker
And I think in terms of technology, using the computer as a tool or whatever, you could probably do multiple iterations of your design more quickly and improve them out more quickly.
00:19:08
Speaker
But if you go back to the silver surfer thing that was my first package that I ever say hey let's do it on a metallic substrate and we'll do it in five colors meaning four color process and then put in white to kind of mask out stuff and.
00:19:25
Speaker
where you want it to be solid and, you know, don't put white where you want the metallic to show through. So if you remember that pocket, silver surfer did have the four-color processing, but it wasn't blocked out of white. So all the, you know, the silver surfer-ness came through, right?
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you've speaking of Silver Surfer, you know, you've tackled everything from Spider-Man and Blade movie tie ins with Marvel toy biz to Pokemon and wrestling figures for a few different promotions now and a few different companies or a couple different companies. Are there any significant differences when it comes to working with all of these different IPs? Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Designing for Different IPs: AEW, Marvel, and Pokemon
00:20:11
Speaker
You know, a lot of times with packaging,
00:20:15
Speaker
If the IP is well established and kind of has their stuff together, they'll just throw out a style guide like here, here's the style guide that we need to follow. So we had the same visual retail presence across all consumer products, right? So if someone's doing bedsheets, stationary toys or whatever,
00:20:37
Speaker
There's a unified look across all brands, right? Sometimes you have Liberty and Leeway and the toy side to make the packaging a bit more toy-etic and that sort of thing.
00:20:51
Speaker
Um, but what I do like is, you know, i've worked on brands in the past like aw was one of them. Uh, initially like we really don't have a style guide. Um, whatever you guys come up with is, is fine. Um, and actually the same thing with the, uh,
00:21:11
Speaker
The WCW WCW stuff When I worked on you know worked with ToyBiz and just to clarify I did not work at ToyBiz I worked with ToyBiz at my own my own company, right and the same thing We really don't have a style guide, you know, what do you guys want to come up with? So we did and it was great to see that other Licensing partners at other You know manufacturers adopted our style guide
00:21:41
Speaker
that we did for toys across other product categories.
00:21:47
Speaker
Yeah. And a challenge, you know, and, you know, and there are challenges too with, um, um, you know, some, I'm just going to say it's some, some, some licenses are like, Hey man, love your work. You know, you guys are doing great to just do your thing. And there, and there's some other licenses are super, um, and hyper protective of their, of their IP and, and are just a bit more demanding than the others. So, but you know, that's understandable and you kind of sort of run the gamut there.
00:22:16
Speaker
So you mentioned some of those, those, uh, the wrestling packaging.
Favorite Wrestling Figure Designs
00:22:20
Speaker
So, uh, you know, the WCW smash and slam, uh, TNA impact, and now obviously AEW, um, what are some of your, your favorite designs, you know, in that kind of wrestling category?
00:22:33
Speaker
You know, it was funny, working with ToyBiz, we were doing a bunch of Marvel stuff, we were doing the Spider-Man stuff, and it was like, hey, we got this wrestling thing, you know, WCW. It wasn't really fun, whatever, you know, it's work, let's do it, right? So it really got into it.
00:22:54
Speaker
I remember one of their first offerings they did in the smaller figures, I think it was not quite six inch but in and around that scale, was like the smash and slam stuff.
00:23:11
Speaker
as a team, uh, the company where, where that I owned and work, we kind of came up with the whole structure of like the ring ropes in front in the, in the die cut, uh, the die cut ring ropes and the, and the insert, uh, trapped between the two plisters. And, you know, loved it. Everybody loved it. And I still, I still see people doing it to this day. And I like to think that I was the early adopter there, you know, so.
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, that would mean that was an iconic, uh, you know, the say what you will about how the figures themselves have aged, but like.
00:23:46
Speaker
The way that those were presented, the smash and slam and, and personally the ring masters, I loved the, the ring masters. But, you know, like, honestly, for the longest time, the only Chris Jericho figure that you could get the lion, the lion tamer. And I still have, I still have two complete two complete, uh, figures from that line. I have, I have Chris Jericho one and I have, uh, Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
00:24:13
Speaker
with the director's chair and the, you know, the, you know, it was so crazy. They, they had Goldberg, uh, like his signature moves, a jackhammer. So he was dressed up like a construction worker. Right. And then, then Scott, Scott Steiner, you know, as the gargoyle bulldog, whatever. And then, uh, Bret Hart was an actual hit man. Yeah, but you have to pinstripe, you know, 1920s Chicago gangsters, you know, suit, little on the nose, but it worked.
00:24:42
Speaker
Yeah, I remember seeing the Smash and Slams for the first time thinking like, oh, this is different. Like, I've never seen anything like this before. And I remember like the, you know, the impact ones with the big logo across the front. Yeah, just some great stuff. No, it was super fun. Yeah, that was, yes, really memorable times, you know, working with ToyBiz and, you know, you know, ToyBiz actually went through a couple
00:25:12
Speaker
uh, uh, pre-mutations, right? So it was, it was Toy Biz. Um, and then, you know, Toy Biz actually bought Marvel, then it was Marvel toys.
00:25:23
Speaker
And it's kind of just like oh wait let's be in the ip business versus the toy business. So they just were licensing all this other ip's out you know you know the biggest partner still to this day you know has bro and no it's just crazy and they were just making you know.
00:25:46
Speaker
more money, less risk and more money by not manufacturing anything. You know, I just licensed the other IPs, you know, I did. I just became an entertainment company. Yeah. Yeah. Marvel Legends. They're going strong. Yeah. Actually, the OG Marvel Legends logo. Not a great design to my mind, but my company had done that with the bars behind it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
00:26:15
Speaker
Like the OG bar. Yeah, they actually recently, Hasbro recently, I want to say recently, I think it's already like a year ago, did an anniversary line where they put out new versions of that first wave and they used the old logo on the packaging form. It was very nostalgic seeing it again.
00:26:37
Speaker
I don't remember like some of the uh the toy based stuff were the famous cover series yep yeah yeah worked on those and then uh not wildly popular uh fame marvel's famous couples right remember those wait so so did you work on the packaging for what is arguably one of the most infamous releases of all time and i wish
00:27:00
Speaker
Damn, I wish I had it, but that I had it with me. It's currently in my, in my, uh, say you better still have it. The, the aunt may figure famous covers that black and gold. Uh, yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Uh, and it kind of had to sort of the art deco kind of thing around it. Oh man.
00:27:21
Speaker
We can't escape that release. The release that it literally ruined Aunt May figures for Jesse Falcon. I know Jesse. For some of the Spider-Man toys that had a voice or whatever, Jesse was the voice of Spider-Man. Really?
00:27:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, next time we get his ear, we'll have to have him recite some lines for us. Some of the stories like there was really no recording studio. They would go into like some sort of like supply closet and like makeshift like recording set up. Like everybody be quiet. I got to record lines for whatever, whatever product that, you know, this sound is going to go into.
00:28:15
Speaker
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00:28:40
Speaker
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Memorable Moments and Feedback in Wrestling Design
00:31:26
Speaker
So whether it's based on look of a character or just being a fan, who are some of your favorite wrestlers you've designed packaging around?
00:31:34
Speaker
Um, it was actually funny. One memorable moment, uh, comes to mind. So I was in, um, I think so many of these fan fests and things. I think it might've been in Chicago last year, uh, maybe Vegas. I'm not sure. So, uh, one of the things that we like to do with these fan fests and we have these panels and stuff, we like to kind of pull in talent to kind of just.
00:31:59
Speaker
You know, have some great interaction, not only with us, the panelists, but with the crowd as well. So, um, so we kind of had like this little green room sort of pipe and drape things set up behind the panel stage and Sting was there and I'm not a mark at all, man. I'm just like, I'm like.
00:32:16
Speaker
I consider all the wrestlers that interact with just guys that I work with to do my job or whatever. So Sting is sitting there, I'm like Sting, I'm not that guy man, I'm really not that guy.
00:32:31
Speaker
You know, I've put you in a package 20 years ago, and I'm still putting you in packages today. Can I just get a picture with you? Right. Sounds like you did it, right. So like going from like the red face, the NWO red face thing, right, to the San Diego Comic Con exclusive with the coffin.
00:32:57
Speaker
It's just so trippy to just go from 20 years ago doing from one older version to a sort of contemporary version. And I did hear through the grapevine that Sting said when he saw this package. This is one of the best packages
00:33:20
Speaker
that i've ever seen that that i'm in type of things so well you so that was a you and the stinger drinking from that same fountain of youth because like you know you're you're still putting him in packages but he's still getting into packages yeah but but but i'm not jumping i'm not jumping off a 10-foot ladder you know into a table you guys what sick of 62 years old yeah
00:33:42
Speaker
I was going to say, I was hoping you were going to say Sting because it was like over three companies worth of figures. But either, or even Joe or like Christian, I think was one of those like multiple company guys, Jericho. It's got to be neat to see like them, okay, I worked with this guy.
00:34:12
Speaker
when he was, you know, 20 years ago and now just see them still at it or even like, you know, 15 years ago, whatever the case may be. Like that's, that's gotta be cool. And like a cool Testament to kind of the longevity of all of this stuff. Yeah, for sure. You know, for sure. And I think, um, what I like to see in the toy industry is you're absolutely right that the longevity in these evergreen brands, right?
00:34:38
Speaker
You know, fads come and go, you know, and, you know, something may be popular for, you know, a decade, maybe five years, you know, looking at like cabbage patch or whatever, you know.
00:34:52
Speaker
made its money, kind of going by the wayside, but I just love, love, love to see these brands that are just evergreen, you know, like Pokemon's, you know, one of those brands that I'm fortunate to work on, you know, so. Yeah, and I think it's a testament to not only the licensee and, you know, the licensors too, for just, you know, continue to make themselves relevant, you know, so.
00:35:22
Speaker
And you brought up Pokemon and I feel like as two very big wrestling fans, that tends to be our focus when we think about jazzwares right now, just everything that's going on with AEW.
Designing Pokemon Select Boxes
00:35:36
Speaker
But take a moment to talk about Pokemon as well. You designed the Pokemon select boxes that those super articulated figures are in.
00:35:48
Speaker
Um, that must've been a really cool opportunity because there's never really been Pokemon figures like that before. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. A big shout out to my team. Uh, John and Ryan on that one there too, but, um,
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's like, we were fortunate to sort of have that opportunity, right? So we had the main line, which is your typical read package or whatever. And then we kind of, you know, sort of have the, the, the plussed up characters with the super articulated or whatever, in our in our select collection, right. So
00:36:18
Speaker
You know the challenge there was how do we differentiate the main line packaging with the select packaging right so we employed you know most of the visual elements but just treated them in a different way right so on the. The main line stuff you know you have the.
00:36:36
Speaker
The red with dark red pokeball pattern field on there whatever so you know for a select we took like sort of the tone on tone dark red gray on there and rather than treating a full color character representation kind of the line art tone on tone thing to give it a more of a collector by but.
00:36:58
Speaker
But yeah, you know, Pokemon has been really, really supportive of jazzwares and kind of has let us go into categories and sub segments or sub lines where
00:37:14
Speaker
You know some of their licenses haven't gone before or I'm sorry some of the licensees have gone before so you know it's again it's so awesome to work with such an iconic brand when they go on a twenty five years now whatever yeah just over and.
00:37:31
Speaker
And it's a number one grossing IP ever, you know? So it's pretty amazing, right? So, you know, to me, it's kind of funny. It's just like when I first started my company and then since moved on to Jazzwares and others and ultimately Jazzwares, you know, people say, what's your business plan, right? And my business plan was simple.
00:37:57
Speaker
I want to work on brands that people have heard of, right? That better household name. Yeah. Because I remember when I was doing like freelance and stuff, did a couple, you know, stints at various advertising agencies. I'm working on like, I don't know what this was doing, you know.
00:38:15
Speaker
you know, ads and catalogs for, it was called the Schramatic 2000. What is the Schramatic 2000, you ask? It's basically a sausage maker. That's exactly what it was, you know, because they're planning to pay that. You know, I had a bigger hoppers than any sausage making machine out there.
00:38:38
Speaker
As a podcast that is very much so directed to a niche, that is a niche. Have you ever wanted to find out how the sausage was made? Exactly. A good segue. A good tie-in. But the one thing that I wanted to ask with Pokemon that I was just thinking about
00:39:00
Speaker
as you were kind of talking about kind of defining like style guides and using style guides, Pokemon has like a very distinct look at retail, like that red, that white, like the Pokeball colors, which is why I was so kind of blown away that, you know, I guess for the lack of a better term, like they trusted Jazzwares enough and they trusted the creative team enough to let you do like a, like you said, like that tone on tone, black and silver, like it's a very unique look for that brand.
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so that was a true collaborative effort there, right? So with TBCI themselves, jazzwares, and there was also a third party design shop that kind of
00:39:47
Speaker
Work through some design with us and us being the master toy Licency we are able to contribute to that to that You know end result there too. So it was a full-on collab You know the first go round With the packaging before it was refreshed to kind of had like that blue kind of energy fuel that came around and stuff That was all that was all jazz wares for sure. Yeah
00:40:14
Speaker
So I'm sticking in this kind of line of unique packaging. Let's go back to wrestling now. You've had the opportunity to design some pretty insane one-offs for AAW, especially for the ringside collectibles exclusives.
AEW Exclusive Packaging Creations
00:40:32
Speaker
The Bit of the Bubbly, the Jurassic Express, the Danhausen, and then the most recently revealed Death Triangle three-pack, a nice trifold.
00:40:43
Speaker
Where where do these ideas come from because they are like honestly, they're some of the some of if not the most unique packaging I think you know any collector has seen you know cross toys
00:40:56
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. You know, I think one of the advantages there is like, you're not beholding to a line look or, you know, you have to roll out, you know, various assortments or, you know, product categories for an entire line, right? So you don't have to translate Pokemon plastic to Pokemon plush to Pokemon select to the surprise attack game or whatever.
00:41:22
Speaker
These are those unique moments in time, right? So you can pretty much, you have court blocks, right? So your creative license is what you make of it, right? So I like to say, you know, a lot of these things design themselves, right? So a little bit of the bubbly, obvious. Let's make it.
00:41:42
Speaker
You know, let's make it a champagne bottle, right? So the biggest challenge there, like, you know, how can we mass produce this without being, you know, too, too costly or not get the end result that we think, you know, it ought to be, right? We want to preserve that quality and integrity of what we're trying to achieve here.
00:42:05
Speaker
So that was a lot of back and forth, a little bit of bubbly, for example. That was a lot of back and forth with our Asian team, the factories to kind of get it just right. You know, at the end, you know, I think the end result speaks for itself. It was an awesome package, right? To the Dan Howson one with the cape thing there, right?
00:42:31
Speaker
So Steve Dzak, who's on my team, he's a big Batman fan, so he was inspired by the Batman sort of thing. And he came up with design and said, well, this is one of those things where I don't think we can Frankenstein or cobble the photos together or the photography together based on what we get that's available to us from AEW with all their studio shots.
00:43:00
Speaker
you know, require a photo shoot. So one of the, again, one of the fan fest or whatever, you know, kind of went up to Dan Housen. I'm like, you know, Donovan, you know, showed him the concept. Can we do this? Like, yeah, dude, let's go up to see Speedy Speedy's the in-house AW photographers. You know, it's like, yeah, let's get it done or whatever. So kind of art directive and did the whole thing. And what's great about AWs is that, that relationship that we have
00:43:26
Speaker
not only with the AW management team, but with the talent itself, right? You know, Sammy's always hitting me up like, dude, when am I going to see such a package? I heard you guys are doing it. I'm like, dude, I can't. You know, or whatever. So, so it's really, it's a true collaboration, right? So, and I think, you know, in the end result, the packaging shows like, like we could have done that, that Dan Housen thing effectively.
00:43:54
Speaker
If we didn't have that access to the town, right? And it was not even skills like an impromptu thing like Donovan. Can we just like I showed the things that don't say, yeah, let's do it. Whatever you need, you know, and you know, it's awesome. Right. And again, with the death triangle thing.
00:44:10
Speaker
Um, I think one of those things like yeah, I designed itself, you know basing everything off off the triangle, right or whatever But I was thinking like what could be like a cool unboxing? Um, uh make it yet compact for for shipping, you know purposes But how can how can it be displayed on shelf by the collector? so we kind of came up with the whole trip that thing where
00:44:33
Speaker
they all kind of fold into this truncated triangle. When you fold them out, you get your three breasts. I can see all the figures that are more sort of horizontal, not as the shell-friendly format, right? So, yeah, and just screwing around and, you know, poking through some ideas and this is where we landed, right?
00:44:55
Speaker
And it kind of evokes their entrance too, which is pretty cool. Yeah. So are you ever given, you know, with these, these kind of one-off projects, like, do you have, you know, uh, obviously outside of like, you know, the inside baseball stuff about budgets and everything, but like, do you have a certain. Like, uh, like a list of constraints that you have to work with? Like you mentioned, for instance, like it being able to ship easy or it being able to display, like, are you,
00:45:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that that stuff comes with, you know, the end result, right? And then it comes with experience, right? And it comes with, you know, knowing the collector, knowing the retail space. And, you know, in this instance, it's sort of an ecom space with with, you know, Jonathan and Trevor over at ringside or whatever, but
00:45:47
Speaker
But yeah, you have to take all those things into consideration, right? So a lot of times what we do, we just kind of like, what can it be? We just throw in all the bells and whistles. And sometimes it's like, ah, we got to cut some costs here. We got to come in where we need to be price-wise, wholesale price or whatever. So there's things that you can do. So there's trade-offs. But sometimes,
00:46:14
Speaker
You try to make the best of those trade-offs. So, you know, I've done some packaging where I'm like, this is where it's gonna be. It's like, wow, man, it's way too expensive. So you have to pivot, right? But yeah, no, it's...
00:46:29
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of considerations, right? Especially to jazzwares is doing a whole sustainability sort of initiative here, right? So we're trying to cut out, you know, as much plastic as we can, you know, in our packaging and we're switching from
00:46:51
Speaker
switching from PVC to PET, which is a more widely recyclable material. You were switching from sort of petroleum-based inks to soy-based inks, that kind of thing. And, you know, minimizing a footprint of a package to kind of
00:47:14
Speaker
have a smaller case pack and you know a smaller case pack means you can put more master cartons in a container so you're more efficient there so you know and all that good stuff but yeah I mean there's a lot that goes into it.
00:47:32
Speaker
Like I said, like you said before, like the inside baseball stuff. Yeah. It's not like, you know, we run around, you know, in the studio with our berets on and our smocks and our paintbrush. And we go, nearly will. You know, you got to respect the business side of stuff, you know.
00:47:49
Speaker
Yeah, and we've had this conversation before with other people who work with professional wrestling talent with AEW and otherwise. It does kind of seem like a little bit of a blessing that action figure culture is so pervasive in wrestling.
00:48:08
Speaker
These superstars, these wrestling icons, whether they're new to the business or somebody like Sting who's been there for so long, becoming an action figure is like a badge of honor for a wrestler. So it's just great to see that.
00:48:28
Speaker
That excitement carries into the actual like business side of it where they're like, no, what can I do to help? How can I? Oh, exactly. They're so supportive. If, you know, if you need, we need to cut a video, you need reports or, you know, um, support something, you know, on my social thread, happy to do it, you know, that, that type of stuff. And you're going back like the whole badge of honor. I think we were in Orlando, right? And we showed Ricky Starks.
00:48:52
Speaker
Well, actually had a really good fight last weekend. I thought he did. Yeah. Yeah. Unbelievable. I know. Yeah. And I remember sitting in the hotel in Orlando showed him like I think was magic or Greg showed him his first figure and the dude just needed a moment and just started bawling. And it was just so awesome to see, you know what I mean? And he told this story, you know,
00:49:19
Speaker
Um, you know, it was just like, he didn't think it would happen. He, his career was kind of in flux and he kind of got signed to AW and now he has an action figure and it was like crazy, right? Um, yeah, but that, that strap and go back to the strap match. That was awesome. You know, I don't know if you guys saw the star casting where Danielson kind of crashed our, our star cast crashed, crashed our star cast.
00:49:48
Speaker
Yeah, no, yeah, he was those when he had that one part of the match when he had when he had Ricky kind of tied up in the corner and was just whaling away on him with that strap is just those are just some, those are some stiff shots.
00:50:01
Speaker
By the way for working basically to one arm because he's fresh off a broken arm. That's that's right. Probably still Yeah, no, it was good man. Yeah But yeah, but like going back to it's moments like those like, you know, I think you know the jazz wears a W Partnership is truly, you know an amazing one. It really is just having access to the talent You know
00:50:25
Speaker
It's like, you know, the talent to like, oh, here's myself. Hit me up anytime. You know, here's this, you know, it's like, where else can you get that? I don't think WWE is doing that, you know, with their talent for sure. But you know, the accessibility and it just makes our job easier, not only the product side and the packaging side, you know, it's just, it's a really, really fortunate situation for us for sure.
00:50:49
Speaker
So I think with that, it's time to head into our Q&A section. So this is the portion of our show where we have collected questions from our followers and our listeners. Dave, please remind our listeners, how can they make their questions available for these segments?
00:51:18
Speaker
So if you're listening to this, and you're not following us yet on Instagram, at AIC underscore podcast, or on YouTube at, is it Adventures in Collecting podcast, all one word? Yes. Okay. Or at Adventures in Collecting podcast, all one word. You should be. Because if you smash on those subscribe buttons and hit those likes for those videos, and on YouTube, hit that little bell. It'll let you know when there's a new video.
00:51:48
Speaker
But on the Instagram, and on the X, I guess it is now? On the X. X marks the spot. You can actually see who the next guest is going to be. And on Instagram, we put up a nice little story. And on that story, it says, do you have any questions for this guest? And you can ask that guest a question, but only
00:52:16
Speaker
And only I mean only if you subscribe because that's the only way you're going to see it. Dave I think that's your best one yet like like you you hit like a really you hit like a really good like cadence a really good momentum there.
00:52:33
Speaker
I think, I think, I think you're finding your way. I think you're finding your way. Well, I know what some of this stuff means now. So I, uh, I've, I've graduated to now I'm, I'm somewhat learned and, um, and here we are. Dave, you are enough. You are enough. All right. Uh, so let's, uh, let's somebody finally, let's jump right into this, uh, Q and a here, Dave, why don't you start us off?
00:53:03
Speaker
Yeah, and we're starting off with a friend of the pod at Toyfars. He asks, the AEW Supreme Packaging displays accessories in a very unique way. How did you wind up with the side display windows? Wait, like Dave, that was a question I was just still entranced by your...
00:53:25
Speaker
Me too. I think I went into the zone a little bit. Yeah, like you went to like a fugue state. It was. Yeah, we're doing something crazy. We were all just we were. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, that was a lot of back and forth. Right. So the idea was because of the Supreme, you know, elevated figure in terms of the accessories, you know, ring gear, that type of stuff.
00:53:54
Speaker
So we wanted to really show off that moment in time, right? So, you know, when the talent or the wrestlers coming down, you know, this is what the old stage would have the rounder tunnel opening, like kind of coming through the opening, going down to the ramp, to the ring. We wanted to capture that moment, right?
00:54:13
Speaker
And we really wanted to show off the quality and the attention to detail of the ring kit that the wrestler was wearing at that time. And you kind of see other competitors packaging who shall be remameless or nameless rather.
00:54:35
Speaker
they kind of did the value play. Here's our figure and here's all the stuff that you get with it, blah, blah, blah. So I think after going through with the team, we were like, hey, you know what? If we just kind of capture the moment with this figure, show the entrance gear as best we can, we don't want to muddy up the scene. And I was like, hey, what if we put the stuff on the sides? You still get to see all this stuff,
00:55:03
Speaker
But for the guy who's a, you know, a men on card collector or whatever and wants to put it on the shelf, put it in this man cave or whatever, you have this really nice presentation of the toy itself, you know. So it was just kind of like one of those things like, let's not muddy it up, right? There was not to say a lot of controversy at Jazzverse about that. We kind of worked through it and they were like, they kind of like
00:55:29
Speaker
I saw the light on this one and like, okay, we get it. Let's keep this stuff on the side. Yeah.
Design Considerations for AEW Supreme Figures
00:55:35
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's one of those more, again, like a, like a unique treatment where I think, you know, you, you mentioned, you know, kind of the value prop, but I, I think there actually is, I think that could, that could be said about this too. Right. Cause you know, you, you get kind of that threefold, you know, you get the, you get the, you know, the, the,
00:55:56
Speaker
The entrance moment captured, you get the really nice art on the back of the box that is commemorating that same moment.
00:56:04
Speaker
And then when you turn it around, you really can see, and it plays to the kind of unique build of the figures, right? Like there's really no other line out there that's doing the swappable legs and the, you know. Yeah. And I think too, like you mentioned, I can think of what looks silly if you see this sort of truncated, you know, figure, just the legs, you know? And so, and that was another reason to do it, you know, and it ended up, you know, in our favor, you kind of put that stuff to the side for sure.
00:56:32
Speaker
It's a super clean presentation and I like how it's kind of gone into some of the exclusives too. Like Blood and Guts has it. I think the initial podium TNT champion does too.
00:56:46
Speaker
Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Which I would imagine Sammy will as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very similar. And exactly, you know, it's one of those things that we always try to capture at the moment in time, but also, you know, keep the collector in mind. You know, it's just like, yeah, we're capturing that moment in time instead Polaroid, it's a snapshot, you know, rather than like, yeah, it comes with three heads, comes with three sets of hands, comes with the soft good, comes with this, you know.
00:57:14
Speaker
But I think having the collector in mind has served us well for sure. Now I'm sitting here laughing thinking of all the action figures I've seen over the years, especially recently where
00:57:27
Speaker
you know, people are like, you know, figure swapping and taking stuff out of the package. I could picture some, some parent looking at, you know, the, the Supreme, the Supreme packaging, were it not laid out the way that it was going. I can't buy this. Somebody stole half the figure. There's, yeah, exactly. No, it's so funny. You talk about like the whole like figure swapping, whatever returning back to the store. We've actually got,
00:57:50
Speaker
Um, you know, uh, not complaints, but issues raised to our, to our customer service department would feel like, uh, I bought this figure, but it's wearing, you know, a such and such shirt from WWE. Like either a, are they like, um, not necessarily as mistake. They thought they maybe have some sort of like factory mix-up thing at first. Like is the factory doing stuff for AWW and WWE and the WWE shirt?
00:58:19
Speaker
you know, like an AEW packaging. But, you know, but it was like the whole figure swap thing where people are just putting in whatever, you know, and returning it to get the piece or part or entire figure, you know. So actually, I just side question I just thought of. Speaking of like super unique stuff like the Supreme, I think kind of low key the that initial Cody TNT champion packaging is kind of one of the best because I kind of consider the packaging.
00:58:49
Speaker
like an accessory too. How'd you come up with that translucent, like the idea for the translucent background for the screen? Yeah, so that was like a really collaborative group effort there where you kind of like capture that moment in time, blah, blah, blah, you know, coming through the entrance. And, you know, somebody was like, hey, we should put like the thing behind something. What if we put it on acetate and print it?
00:59:13
Speaker
Kind of like an Easter egg. Don't promote it. You know, a couple people figured out like, Hey, if I put a flashlight behind it or put my phone behind it, you know, it'll kind of illuminate like the, the, the, uh, the older stage, you know, like when they had the big screen above the entrance tunnel. But yeah, no, it was again, trying to capture with the collector in mind, trying to capture that moment in time, you know? So onto our next question, uh, past guest and friend of the pod at nostalgic Adam asks,
00:59:43
Speaker
If you could design packaging for any brand or product, it does not have to be a toy. What would it be? That's a tough one because you know being the toy world all my professional life, but I would say like anything that's sort of Useful
01:00:05
Speaker
And, you know, can can benefit man in some way. I don't know what a product is, but, you know, just kind of promote the greater good there. Oh, you know what? I have an idea. Go ahead. What about a meat grinder? Dramatic 2000. I was expecting a real answer and I should have known otherwise. You reeled me in. You know, that's a tough one, you know, but, you know, I think just
01:00:33
Speaker
I just think the basic tenets of design to just hold true.
01:00:39
Speaker
be true to the brand, you know, don't leave Prague somewhere where it shouldn't be, right? I've always said, like, one of my long-standing tenets is, you know, don't try to shoehorn the brand into something to a place where it ought not to be, you know, just kind of let it land where it wants to land, not where it needs to land, right?
01:01:06
Speaker
And I think, like I said, if you try to shoehorn it into a space, it just gets kind of complicated, messy, and confusing. Good words to live by. Dave, do you want to do... Oh, boy. Do you want to do the final one? Yeah. Sure. This one does not mention a meat grinder, I promise.
01:01:28
Speaker
that we know our mutual yeah that we know of well that we know of um our mutual friend Aaron the man and the man with the red mane asks what's your best story you have from coaching rugby
01:01:45
Speaker
I would say not necessarily coaching rugby, but refereeing rugby, right? So I'm also a rugby referee, right? So the thing with rugby is, unlike football, soccer, or baseball, they're not called rules. In rugby, they're called laws, right? So the referee, or the sir, which is there, so I forget the rule number exactly, but there's a law in rugby that says,
01:02:13
Speaker
The sir, meaning the referee, is a sole judge of fact and law. That's a law in rugby, right? So basically, if the referee doesn't see it, it didn't happen, right? And so there's this weird kind of respect for the referee. Everyone calls him sir, right? So I was doing a high school match or maybe being a college match. I'm not quite sure what it was.
01:02:41
Speaker
something happened where I didn't think it was an infraction, so I let it go. So all I hear from the sideline is one of the coach or another player from the opposing team, yo, what the F, sir? So I was like, okay, I'll allow it. He treated me with respect. He called me sir, and I'll allow it.
01:03:02
Speaker
So, but he didn't use the, he used the full F word. That's the sweetest way to have cursed in anyone ever. Yeah. Yeah. What the F sir. I didn't, I didn't know that. I didn't know that referees in, uh, in rugby were called star.
01:03:20
Speaker
And there's only one referee on the pitch at any given time. You have the, the sort of ARs, which basically, you know, the equivalent of side judges in, um, soccer, you know, guys to fly. But yeah, you know, you're just one guy on the pitch covering, uh, what's it 50 meters by a hundred meters, you know, a hundred meters long, 50 meters wide. That is, that is a lot of ground to cover. Yeah. Significant space. So if I get yelled at with the F, sir, you know, just one guy.
01:03:49
Speaker
That's a t-shirt, to be honest. Yeah. Well, sir, you have survived our Q&A. We did it. And speaking of covering a lot of ground, we did just that. But before we let you go, we do have one final question. Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask our final question?
01:04:20
Speaker
Why, yes, I would. Now, we had to alter the final question due to the fact that Chris does not collect toys. However, we've come up with something suitable. So, sir, the final question that we ask all of our guests, what is your favorite and or strangest package that you've worked on? It can be one of each or it can be both.
01:04:47
Speaker
Well, it did one, which is not suitable for the air. Let's just say it's when I was doing a consulting gig for for Spencer's. And it was. And it. Without saying anything. Right. But. But I. So is that the favorite or was that the strangest? Uh. Faith Strange.
01:05:20
Speaker
But one thing that comes to mind is, you know, I think like one of the coolest things that ToyBiz had done with the WCW stuff, right? You know, you start to get like, you know, back to the San Francisco ToyMakers or whatever, when they were doing the WWE figures or whatever, like, they were action figures, right?
01:05:43
Speaker
They, you know, when WCW put the stuff in a truly innovative toy company and they had like, yes, you had mentioned ring masters, but do you guys remember gross outs? I do. All right. So, so, so like Sting, Sting had a mask on. You take out his mask. He was a zombie, zombie face. Um, I think there was a Goldberg where you squeeze his belly and his eyes bulge out. I do.
01:06:12
Speaker
remember these now. Yeah, because sting sting kind of looks like rat think. Yeah, yeah, like a shriveled old zombie. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yep. Yep. Yes, I remember. I remember them. So that was fun. And also strange because, you know, as I don't know, WCW at the time or whatever as a licensor, like, how would they allow that has nothing to do with wrestling?
01:06:38
Speaker
I remember the Sid Vicious one. I don't remember them being called Gross House. I just remember them being like weird monsters. But yeah, I remember the Sid Vicious one vividly. That thing was everywhere. Oh, like he's like Frankenstein. Yes. The top comes off and he could see his brain. Yeah. I think it was Goldberg whose eyes bulged out or something. There was one of them. But yeah, that was fun and strange.
01:07:05
Speaker
Yeah. Those, those are weird. And, and for some reason there, there is like a, a weird recurring theme where like a company tries to do zombified or like monster monster, um, versions of, of wrestlers. You know, at this point, uh, jazzwares is due like the cycle has, has completed itself. We're ready for the design. Hey, maybe we'll get the Texas chainsaw.
01:07:30
Speaker
Texas Chainsaw Matt. What did they call it? Massacre got Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yeah, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre death match. Leatherface. There's a three pack for you. Let's get... Leatherface is part of WCW Cannon. You know, I heard... Or I'm sorry, AEW Cannon. That reminded me of WCW for a minute. I don't know if this is true, but I heard Tony Khan was actually the one wearing the Leatherface costume. That's a prevailing rumor.
01:07:56
Speaker
I can categorically deny nor confirm that. But, you know, I think, you know, actually the funny you should ask that because we didn't inquire about that. But that was that was a promo for the video game. Yeah. Yeah. That was a paid promo.
01:08:16
Speaker
No, I say that was very WCW, but I enjoyed it because I when I was a kid, I felt like Robo copy it and WCW was the coolest. Yeah, that would make like for an awesome like San Diego Comic Con exclusive, you know, like, yeah, yeah, no doubt. And it was funny, too, because I know the guy.
01:08:34
Speaker
Um, uh, Dave, I'm off. His name is he's the, he's a licenser guy. He used to work at, um, uh, I forget the name of the movie company, but you know, he has his own lights around. He handles like all the horse, like, like leather face, Texas chainsaw, massacre, a bunch of other properties handles. Like, I was like, if we want to do it, I know the guy, we could probably get a deal. But, but alas, it was a promotion and nothing to do with the storyline or the show. Bummer. Bummer.
01:09:05
Speaker
Well, Chris, with that, we've reached the end of the interview here. Um, and before we say, before we say goodbye for now, um, can you tell our guests, uh, where can they find you online? Where can they find out about, uh, the incredible work that, uh, that jazzwares is, is doing. So I would say for AW stuff, I would,
01:09:25
Speaker
follow, uh, ew by jazzwares, um, and just jazzwares in general. Um, and for myself, I believe my Instagram handle is, uh, C underscore M underscore Metzger. M E T Z T U R. Yeah. Um, yeah. So that's where you can find me. Follow me. And do you have any more standup gigs coming up that you want to plug? Uh,
01:09:55
Speaker
Working on it, working on it. I was supposed to do one in Chicago with Bellcaster and the place where we were going to hold it, I actually had a gas leak. I find that dubious and suspicious. Well, we'll definitely keep an eye out for your upcoming gigs and we'll be sure to share them out there and we'll put links to all of the
01:10:17
Speaker
The handles that chris mentioned in the show notes so you can just go right there tap away make sure you follow everything i chris thank you so much for joining us tonight as an absolute pleasure and i can't wait to see what what you and the team do next. Yeah my pleasure fellas thanks man appreciate it dave send us home. Light the fuse bring the boom dynamite.
01:10:44
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.
01:11:00
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.
01:11:24
Speaker
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