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The 2025 Halloween Special: Five Nights At Freddy's with Jazwares' Aaron Margolin
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It's our annual Halloween special and we're headed to Hurricane, Utah for a stay at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria with Jazwares' own—and friend of the pod—Aaron Margolin! Hear all about the growing Five Nights at Freddy's toyline, plush, and maybe even grab a super exclusive reveal from the brand manager himself. Scare yourself up a good time and kick off Halloween week with well over an hour talking about the FNAF fandom!
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
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Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Intro and NY Comic-Con Recap
00:00:03
Speaker
you living oils and rules get your parents permission check your mailbox and grab your shopping cart it's time for the adventures in collecting podcast
00:00:17
Speaker
i'm eric and i'm dave welcome to adventures in collecting where we talk toy news culture and hauls along with our journeys as collectors
00:00:31
Speaker
on the evening of October 26th, Jazzwear's Aaron Markman recorded with Adventures in Collecting. He was never heard from again. This is that recording.
Halloween Special and Giveaways
00:00:42
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting, our Halloween special, Dave. Yeah, we are.
00:00:51
Speaker
Comic-Con is over. We survived. we We did survive. Yeah, that was a lot. That was a lot. I hope i hope everyone happened. I hope everyone enjoyed the Comic-Con. Action. Comic-Con coverage. 16, 16 videos in three days, Dave.
00:01:08
Speaker
It gets it gets busier every year. And yeah, that's great because yeah New York needed needed to be like cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you to everybody that tuned in for that, by the way. um you know, super appreciated. i You know, wouldn't wouldn't be the the same, ah you know, if if you guys weren't watching. So, yeah, ah we we really appreciate everybody that tuned in. And yeah.
00:01:34
Speaker
And for we we got a lot of new friends um over over Comic-Con weekend. So yeah you are if you're watching and or listening to us for the first time because you you jumped on at New York Comic-Con, welcome. Or you met us for the first time.
00:01:48
Speaker
You picked an amazing episode to start watching for your first episode. Our Halloween special is always something that's very special to to us. Something that we look forward to doing every year. yeah We do love Halloween, so. So um we do, of course, have a special guest for Halloween this year. he is ah a returning guest. We will we'll bring him on in just a moment. But um as as it is still October spooky season, we have our monthly giveaways are still live.
00:02:19
Speaker
And that's right. I said giveaways. We do have two this month. It's treat or treat. It is treat or treat indeed. So you you still have time to enter to win both of these ah giveaways. So one, this first one here is from our friends.
00:02:37
Speaker
Rocky horror font. Yeah, it's a spooky font, um but it's totally the Rocky horror font. I'm excited. Revival's coming up soon.
00:02:49
Speaker
That ticket's going on sale this week. Yeah. Yeah. um Yeah, so this is from our friends at Carve the Five. ah This is ah ah friend of the pod, Kyle Wadaga and Brian Liu.
00:03:01
Speaker
um This is their ah their little side hustle, ah Carve the Five. So three and three quarter inch, Night Demon, Axe Wielding Eugene. Perfect for the spooky season.
00:03:12
Speaker
Perfect spooky season giveaway. So that's our first one. And then our second one is I double feature from retro realms.
00:03:23
Speaker
Uh, this is the Halloween and, uh, Ash versus the evil dead double feature, uh, for the Nintendo switch. And we have partnered with our friends, uh, locally, local, uh,
00:03:35
Speaker
locally operated i ah friend owned video game store. So Electric Town LLC here in New Jersey. We partnered up with them ah to give away this copy of ah Halloween and Ash vs. Evil Dead.
00:03:51
Speaker
And it's awesome. I cannot beat
Halloween Plans and Events
00:03:54
Speaker
the Ash vs. Evil Dead. I forget the name of the developer, but they're doing the I think I said this before that. Retro Realms.
00:04:02
Speaker
um They're doing the Hellraiser one too yeah that's coming out. Yeah, I beat the Halloween one. um It was it was difficult. The Ash versus the Evil Dead is punishingly difficult. And it's got that very old school side scroller beat him up, I guess you would say.
00:04:20
Speaker
um No, not beat him up. That's the right. It's like a platformer more. Yeah. Yeah. Side scroller platformer. Think like ghouls and ghosts sort of game. um But you get to wield a chainsaw and a shotgun with ah Ash Williams. So it's pretty it's pretty groovy.
00:04:36
Speaker
One would say, um, yeah, uh, really, really cool. Uh, lots of fun. So, you know, go and, uh, and follow us at a IC underscore podcast where, uh, you can enter to win these, look for the pinned posts, um, catch up on all the New York comic con goodies and, uh, and win yourself for all of our Halloween fun that we're going to be having individually.
00:05:02
Speaker
Yep. Yep. um I'll be in L.A. as you hear this. And I i actually ah i hinted at this in our stories, but keep it keep your eyes peeled ah for a.
00:05:14
Speaker
um For those who have been with us for a long time, know that a few years ago and for a few years in a row, I did the 31 days of Halloween toy photography.
00:05:25
Speaker
um As time has kind gone on, that is that has become quite the undertaking. So i took last year off. Um, and this year I am doing something a little different, but there will be a photo series, of a toy photography series leading up to Halloween that should have started already by the time you're hearing this. So, um, just keep an eye out for that. I'm, I have something pretty cool planned.
00:05:48
Speaker
So I'll be at how did this get, I'll, I'll, I'm sure how did this get made in John Carpenter? We're great. And I'm getting ready to go to end, uh, HHN. yeah. Yeah. Well, speaking of Halloween Horror Nights, Dave. Yes. One of the houses that I inevitably saw on on Saturday.
00:06:05
Speaker
So you are you're coming to us live from ah from Hurricane, Utah.
Special Guest: Aaron Margolin from Jazzwares
00:06:09
Speaker
Yeah. On the way into um Los Angeles, i I stopped for pizza. Needed a slice. It's not open.
00:06:18
Speaker
A slice in a show. Just don't take any late night security jobs while you're there. It's um it's a layover at the Hurricane Airport. um So if you read the description of the show and the title,
00:06:31
Speaker
um You know what you're about to get into here. So ah we have are are super excited to welcome back our our friend, a longtime friend.
00:06:42
Speaker
we Last time we had him on, we celebrated, i think it was the 25th anniversary of Pokemon. or the 20th anniversary. but it was an It was a Pokemon anniversary. It was. So from ah from from Pokemon now to Five Nights at Freddy's, a franchise with over 10 years of lore and and really, really engaged fandom,
00:07:05
Speaker
uh jazz wears back at toy fair announced that they would be producing uh collectibles and toys for five nights at freddy's so we are so excited to bring back on our friend uh senior global brand manager at jazz wears aaron margolin hello Hi. Welcome back to the show, buddy. Yeah, welcome back. What's up, guys? Hey. Oh, my goodness. It is such a pleasure to guys. Eric, Dave, Dave, I know that you're calling in from a remote, remote location way out in Utah.
00:07:39
Speaker
Um, we're, we're kind of all around the U S right now, Colin and I guess, but, uh, thank you so much for having me on. Always a pleasure. It's been a long time. Uh, Eric, I think you're right. I, it has been since 2021, I believe. Um, so yeah, four years since we've, we've, I've last, uh, jaunted on over to, uh, the adventures in collecting podcasts, but man, oh man, does it feel good to be back?
00:08:03
Speaker
Brief video appearance at toy fair, I believe, but that was like a wave. Yeah. Yep. ah Well, before we hop into everything, ah congratulations are in order.
00:08:15
Speaker
ah Aaron, you're you're you're entering the the world of being a married man. ah Congratulations with your engagement. Long time coming. ah Congrats. Thank you so much. Your reveal, everything was so just...
00:08:30
Speaker
Wow. Thank you. I'm very excited. I'm very, very excited. It's, ah ah you know, i talk about my career a lot, but my my real passion is is loving my fiance and then and then my career.
00:08:42
Speaker
Yes, there you go. Yes, welcome to Team Engaged. We're happy to have you aboard. Thank you. Thank you. um So before we we actually you know hop into the offering, because there's a two things.
Aaron's Journey with Five Nights at Freddy's
00:08:56
Speaker
There's a lot to talk about and we have a lot of questions from from the community to answer. I'm actually super stoked on that. it's Yeah, there is a ton, a ton of questions.
00:09:09
Speaker
um And I will apologize in advance. There were so many questions we just can't get to them all. um But I did my best to look at ones that were either super unique or ones that um people ask multiples of.
00:09:27
Speaker
who And i kind of just cut out the questions that were like, when is this character getting made? When is this character getting made? Because. I have an answer, by the way. I have an answer for for for for those. that i can blanket answer that one really quick. If if you're asking, when is you know this character going to be made? When is this character going to be made?
00:09:46
Speaker
ah By and large, the answer is, and it's not true for everything, but... Stay tuned. That is oftentimes what I like telling people. Just stay tuned because we have lots of plans. So so we can get that one out of the way.
00:09:57
Speaker
There you go. um But before we hop into everything, I just want to tell everyone, make sure that you stick around to the end. So we usually don't do this like teaser thing in the beginning, but Aaron has promised us that we have some cool reveal at the end. So just stay tuned. Make sure you stick around. Oh, yeah. um So before we hop into everything, tell us a little bit about your kind of like connection with Five Nights at Freddy's. Like how what what does the the brand kind of mean to you? How did you know ah how does it you know work with with your personal experience?
00:10:31
Speaker
So, um, yeah, so what's so interesting is, ah I'll actually, I've told the story a few times, I'll give a little bit more nuance, um, in in this telling because I think a lot of people, so a lot of people know that, like, my experience in toys started mostly with Pokemon and then Halo.
00:10:49
Speaker
Pokemon and Halo are games that I grew up playing, right? I'm 30 years old, so I learned how to read using Pokemon effectively because I was like, I can't play Pokemon unless I know how what I'm reading. um And then Halo, I grew up like I was like the perfect amount of time to be playing like in my friend's basements yeah multiplayer. But i was in college right around in college when the first Five Nights at Freddy's game came out.
00:11:13
Speaker
And so it wasn't one of those things where it's like, I grew up playing Five Nights at Freddy's. But what I can say is that when Five Nights 1 came out, that was the, you know, I was one of the first adopters to Five Nights fandom.
00:11:28
Speaker
So when Five Nights came out, I was just about in college. um And I historically, i would say i'm I'm not a big fan of horror in general. Before that time period of my life, horror was not really like a big thing. I like thrilling stuff, but like I think when I was a kid,
Childhood Fears and Horror Films
00:11:47
Speaker
I had a really wild imagination. So like the one quick story I'll say is like when I was like eight years old,
00:11:53
Speaker
a kid at a summer camp told me the synopsis and it was like wrong now i've i've seen the movie a synopsis of friday the 13th um and then immediately blended it with a with um uh nightmare on elm street so that was like a weird double feature in my head that was one movie um and i couldn't sleep for i literally couldn't because i'm like Yeah, this sucks because then he started appearing people's dreams halfway through the movie, like telling my dad why i couldn't sleep. um
00:12:25
Speaker
But i so I hated horror as a kid. I didn't like it as a teenager. um But then when I was in college, I think I started warming up to it a little bit more. I went to to school for um film writing.
00:12:37
Speaker
and And the lovely thing that a lot of like screenplay writers will say is that like horror is actually the most fun genre to write because you can really let your imagination go wild. And it's one of the last bastions genre wise that you can do something like really experimental and fresh and it doesn't cost you like 200 million dollars.
00:12:54
Speaker
I'll have a little dead. Right. Great example. So so I was at that perfect time where horror was starting to kind of. come into my life as like a creatively, this is kind of really fun. And, you know, I, I can watch a horror movie and then it doesn't become real in my head. I still get freaked out by like alien because it's palpable, but, um, uh, you know, I think I was at the right time when, when yeah five nights one came out.
00:13:18
Speaker
Um, I really was like, hey, this is interesting because I think it's it's one of those lovely instances of, hey, the animatronics at you know um ah these restaurants, these themed restaurants growing up, not just Chuck E. Cheese, but Rock of Fire Explosion, stuff like that. yeah um Pretty creepy, right? It's like, yeah, they are creepy. What if they tried to kill you, right? So it's one of those like, why didn't, it's the Jackson Pollock situation where it's like,
00:13:45
Speaker
Anyone could have come up with that. Yeah, but you know what? Scott Cawthon did. And so when it came out, I think I, you know, ah genuinely, I think it's like Markiplier, the Let's Player, when he started playing it and then the game theory started coming out, that's when I started like really...
00:14:02
Speaker
like looking at it as like, Oh, what is this? Is this something that like, is an interesting new video game? Lo and behold, very interesting new video game. And then from there, it is the mystery. It is the lore, the prestige lore from five nights, one all the way to five nights for that original year and some change run.
00:14:21
Speaker
of games getting released and the story getting uncovered and the participation as a fandom that that that that people experience of unpacking what happened, what is the story, what is the mystery and the intrigue,
00:14:35
Speaker
Absolutely enraptured me. um As someone who loves deep diving into lore, I never experienced like so that with something like that with horror. So from Five Nights 1 onwards,
Five Nights Community and Recommendations
00:14:46
Speaker
I was a fan. And one of my favorite earliest memories is is i started I played Five Nights 1, couldn't really get into it, but I loved watching people play it. And then Five Nights 2 came around, and I remember gathering my roommates in college around the living room in the apartment that we lived in in Chicago, Illinois, being like, guys,
00:15:04
Speaker
we're going to take turns playing this. And like, I was holding them hostage for like 15 minutes before people were like, okay, Aaron died. You jump in now, you know? and And that was like, I love that experience um because there, there's a communal aspect to five nights, both that you can have couch co-op a little bit, right. Take your terms, but then also just the community. So that's where it all kind of started. And I've been a five, I've never fallen off of five nights um since, since Genesis, which,
00:15:32
Speaker
ah For a game that's been around, an IP that's been around for like 10 years, that's actually ah ah pretty impressive. I've never like grown out of it or like, you know, when a new game comes out, I'm like, and let's see what kind of lore expansion has happened here. What new characters have been made?
00:15:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. And I mean, it's got to one of the things that's really interesting about the lore is from the perspective of like horror storytelling. It has a little bit for everybody. There's a little bit of body horror. There's a little bit of the you know ah supernatural stuff. Yeah. yeah a little bit of science fiction.
00:16:02
Speaker
Like it it has a little bit of everything to kind of. tug at the the heartstrings of like the the core horror fan i mean dave and i are long time long time horror fans i mean for like if you were to tell me here like like let me um uh i i have like a really quick thing too because the books go even deeper too so like uh eric what is one of your favorite horror movies Oh, my God. It's a hard one, know.
00:16:31
Speaker
Dave, you're next. Just off top my head. I'll go John Carpenter's The Fog. Yeah. The Fog. Okay. So Twisted Ones. um That is going to be going my recommendation to you. I believe there's a graphic novel adaptation. I can't remember. But Twisted Ones, ah that's where you really start getting into the – um Five Nights doesn't it touches on the Eldritch a little bit, but like Twisted Ones is really cool because you get like full monster.
00:16:57
Speaker
um Let's even call it body horrorness. It's not as Lovecraftian as the fog gets. Right. But like it touches on that. Dave, what's your like a favorite or one of your favorites? Dawn of the Dead.
00:17:08
Speaker
Dawn of the Dead. um Oh my God. I mean, geez, I think like kind of everything a little bit Dawn of the Dead, but like, I would even say from a, oh, this is like a weird one, but I think that Silver Eye, so there's a book called Silver Eye the first novel adaptation.
00:17:21
Speaker
um You get a little bit of the eeriness that Dawn of the Dead kind of touches on. um And then also, I mean, I think as a whole, Five Nights, like the greats, ah any, you know, at Romero, but like, like fallout uh with like joshua sawyer's uh criticism of like capitalism and stuff like that really half of five nights at freddy's is also like hey the the working conditions in this location are rough isn't that funny right like it's like that's like so many of these zombie movies are like consumerism stuff like that so highly recommend if you want to read that's my favorite book in the in the series but um that's what i love about this ip as you as you mentioned eric like
00:18:00
Speaker
there is something for everyone. And I think as it's grown, it's become this like, hey, there if you love um you know underwater horror stuff, like there's a there's a book or like there's like a like a part of a level in one of the games that kind of like,
00:18:16
Speaker
harkens back to this classic, you know, ah you know like a Loch Ness Monster-y thing if you want to go back into old folklore. So I totally agree. I think that's one of the beauties of this brand is that it starts becoming horror incarnate rather than just one thing. Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:32
Speaker
yeah And there's just so many different sub-genres that it's great that it can kind of touch yeah upon all of them. um So... Let's get into the line.
Jazzwares Product Line Discussion
00:18:41
Speaker
Jazwares has four different collectible types at the onset of the line coming out.
00:18:47
Speaker
um Talk us through this initial offering. Yeah, so ah we just launched full chain at many retail stores for a while. We were kind of just a specialty stores. We set a little bit at Target in July and people have been super excited about like those initial releases. Now we have our our kind of full first go at the line at retail right now across the US, i'm starting to show up in stores internationally.
00:19:11
Speaker
um so the four tenants of our first release wave, let's call it the fall 25, you know, release, whatever. um Our mainline figures, what we're calling our world of figures. So that is the um the are these articulated figures will put in front of me, articulated figures, fully articulated, right? um The Twain and Métrancs are in the first wave.
00:19:32
Speaker
And then, you know, one of the cool things being that they are action figures, right? They have a feature, the jump scare feature that is in every one of them. A little bit less with Mangle, but Mangle specifically is a take-abart, put-back-together experienced character.
00:19:46
Speaker
um So there's there's a feature to it. They're action figures. But the reason why they're called World Of is that they're in scale with each other. um Obviously, with One Wave, it's a little hard to tell. But as we expand on more, I think people are going understand, like, oh, that's why we're calling it World Of.
00:20:03
Speaker
Since we are post-San Diego Comic-Con, I can mention... you know we we're doing set packs. We're doing like um environment set packs. ah The first wave we announced at Comic-Con ah this year being the Five Nights at Freddy's 1 office. So like characters are in scale to how they look in the games.
00:20:19
Speaker
um Smaller, bigger animatronics we'll see in the future, or stuff like that. So those are $10 figures, action figures, Going into the next thing, we have the Endo Series. So that's the collector figures, the Endo Series. I oftentimes let's say like, that's my baby. Because when we were pitching for the IP, I was like one of the lead people on that pitch. And I was like, I want to do something that no one's ever done before that feels inherently, um to use the Jeremy Padower-ism, toyetic.
00:20:47
Speaker
And he has many, right? But toyetic is just one of the best things around in the industry to describe like, is this truly natural as a toy. So the Endo series, which are collector figures, right?
00:21:00
Speaker
um They're the ones that are a little bit higher detail, i would say, than World of. They have different articulation. I mean, one of the big things that like our World of figures can have neck articulation because of the mechanism. These don't have mechanisms. So like, yes, they have full articulation on the neck, floor articulation everywhere because they're the endoskeletons that come ah that are in the inside of a lot of these animatronic characters.
00:21:25
Speaker
And then for me, it was like, what can we do that is inherently toyetic well endos and then the costume pieces for the characters. That way we can have things like natural recessing that exists. Normally you would have to do like scribe lines if you're, if you're wanting save money or like recesses in the tool, that's just a natural thing. And then you can also have like these moments of ah magic of like when you're kind of constructing um these figures or deconstructing these figures. And I'm going to open up Bonnie's face a little bit here.
00:21:55
Speaker
um But sorry. I forget that because Bonnie's ears clamp on there. It actually stays. There we go. But you have these like cool little moments of of of magic of just like you have the skeleton and then once you put it on, you've got this like Vader ahset getting his helmet assembled situation where i's like oh that's Bonnie.
00:22:17
Speaker
um ah Customizability, stuff like that. so So it is a collectible figure. It's also kind of a construction figure in a way, right? There's a bit of construction to it. You can mix in my... parts, et cetera.
00:22:28
Speaker
um But this is a $25. You get one endoskeleton and then two um costume variants. So in the case of our first wave, you've got the classic animatronics that show up in Five Nights at Freddy's 1, and then the withered versions that show up in Five Nights at Freddy's 2. The third part of our line Going into the world of plush, our eight inch plush, really our mainline plush because we have a 20 inch one as well.
00:22:54
Speaker
ah These are the ones that are like stylized to look like how the plush look in the games in the price corner. ah We do change a little bit of the stylization from some previous partners as well as like um they're kind of in some of the games that have more bulging eyes. We kind of stick the eyes more embroidered into frankly, amplify the cuteness factor, differentiate from what's been done before, and it allowed us to do glow in the dark eyes, which I know fans have been really
Product Affordability and Collecting Philosophy
00:23:22
Speaker
digging.
00:23:22
Speaker
So all of our, actually all of our products on on the line right now have glow in the dark eyes, but the plus you can like really, really see it. 8 inch and then we just released a 20 to plush that like people are going crazy over at Target which has been so awesome because don't know if listen like you guys I know you're horror fans and like you guys know everything toy horror and toy especially for kids and mind you this is an all ages IP some retailers get a little nervous about it so it's been lovely to see that like hey if you put a plush and mind you it's not creepy it's very cute of a horror character
00:23:57
Speaker
at Target, in the toy aisle, in the video game aisle, wherever, people are going to show up. So it's been really lovely to see that. And then the fourth part of our line are mini plush. So they're they're the stylized plush that show up um ah in, we have blind boxes in the um non-blind versions. So they're completely organic stylizations.
00:24:16
Speaker
Actually, all of our plush have been designed by one incredible designer who I spent many years working with On the Pokemon brand, um she is tremendously, tremendously talented. Her name is Melissa Nawas.
00:24:28
Speaker
ah She um was the designer for our 8-inch plush, as well as the complete stylization of the mini plush. So it's, don't know, kind of like chibi, like very condensed versions of characters.
00:24:42
Speaker
um You know, we have a lot more stuff cooking, but ah for plush, it's really cool that we can kind of point to all of our plush designs. Like there's the one designer who's really left her mark of authorship um over uh such a lovely aesthetic that blends in the fidelity of referencing the game while also kind of making um her own stylistic choices and i think fans have really resonated with uh what we've done plush wise yeah and i mean that's something that you guys over at jazz wears are yeah very known for very much crushes plush like they're
00:25:16
Speaker
You know, they're the the kind of top flight, as it were. Yeah. ah Plus, it lends itself really well, again, to the property, because in game there are, you know, there are plush items that you see. And I mean, if you're if you're, you know, if you go to any of the restaurants that have that kind of experience, right, like those characters are readily available as plushies. like it all kind of it's very.
00:25:40
Speaker
It's a very like on brand, right? Or can be won via tickets or a club, you know, like, yes, yep, yep, yep. Um, so something that kind of runs the gamut through all of these pieces, Aaron, is, is the concept of value.
00:25:55
Speaker
Um, yeah and you guys are keeping the prices down on, on these, making them kind of very approachable, um, for outside of the obvious reasons of like, Hey, you know, things that are cheaper are or cheaper is the wrong word. Things that are of a certain price are more affordable. Right. You know, generally what's, what's something like what what's,
00:26:17
Speaker
maintaining such a low price point mean for this this kind of line so um i feel very passionate about this uh uh i'm passionate about a lot of things but um and and thankfully working on five nights has allowed a lot of passions to kind of cross over um i know that you know saving money is on the top of mind for most people i would wager um uh things fluctuate, times change, stuff like that. But I think one thing that I think is incredibly important, um and I might non sequitur in a little bit just to kind of really drive the point home as to why it's important to me, um is it is important that if you have a favorite character in a IP, no matter what it is, Five Nights at Freddy's, Pokemon, Digimon, WWE, favorite age wrestler, favorite anything,
00:27:09
Speaker
It is very important to me, if I am a part of a team that is making decisions, and it's important to a lot of members on of my team, that your favorite character is available to you um to have as a plush, to have as a figure, because I firmly, firmly believe that every character in a beloved IP like Five Nights at Freddy's has at least one person in the world who says, that is my favorite character.
00:27:37
Speaker
And if that person cannot afford their favorite character to have on their shelf or in their collection or on their bed, to me, I find that to be something that needs to be amended.
00:27:51
Speaker
um I think that no one should ever have their favorite characters gated out because they can't afford it. And even more importantly, especially for a brand like this where, yes, of course, adults love it.
00:28:02
Speaker
Kids like it too. Allowance money purchases. That is what I oftentimes say is that I want to make a line that ah a kid of any age, you know, an adult kid or a kid kid can save up their allowance or it doesn't break the bank for them so they can have their favorite character as a part of their collection.
00:28:21
Speaker
So we do, you know, we are working on some stuff that's like higher price point, like super collector, of course, but it's, we're never going to make a character where it's like, Hey, so like, you know, classic Freddy's only showing up as the $3,000 life size. We're not, we're not working on that. We're not.
00:28:38
Speaker
But like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I never want to gate someone out when it comes to that. um The non-secretary was going to mention is I was doing an event um where I was a speaker and a very um passionate adult collector was talking Oh, God, it gets me, like, angry and a little upset thinking about it even. So so he was talking about how um he collects a lot of these, like, like um older brands, let's call it, right? Like, you were sorry, not older, classic golden age brands, let's call it. G.I. i Joe, Transformers. of I mean, we're getting, Power Rangers is getting there right now.
00:29:14
Speaker
These are, like, classic action figures. Masters the Universe, right? So he was talking about how... um His purchasing power is stronger than that of a child's. Specifically, that when something limited gets released, he knows that he can buy that faster than a kid can.
00:29:34
Speaker
And I didn't really know how to contribute to the conversation after that because, and mind you, this is not someone who works in the toy industry. yeah I couldn't fathom feeling um satisfaction out of being able to verbalize, well, I can buy something faster than a kid can.
00:29:52
Speaker
And that a kid's going to be allowed out. like so So it's very important to me, and it's one of the reasons why we try to make sure that our products aren't just at one location. They're at a lot of different locations. Exclusives happen, but like widely available exclusives, right?
00:30:05
Speaker
yeah i I never want to be someone who says... Hey, that favorite character of yours, we only made a thousand of just that character. Sorry, you're out of luck because a bunch of people who have disposable income could spend that money immediately. And you had to maybe wait for payday or maybe you had to save up your allowance.
00:30:23
Speaker
ah Personally, like my philosophy is let let everyone be able to participate in celebrate because that's what the fandom is all about. That's what being excited about something like Five Nights at Freddy's is all about. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:36
Speaker
Yeah, it makes perfect sense. um You know, because we've all we've all been there at some point in our lives or still are or anything along those lines. Like, you know, we've we've saved change to kind of go up to the store.
00:30:50
Speaker
and And we say it all the time, like regardless of what key character it is, whether it's Freddy, whether it's, you know, Spider-Man, Batman, whoever. Right. That that.
00:31:01
Speaker
that Freddy figure is going to be somebody's first Freddy. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's going to be it's going to be the first figure that they buy. Like they're the likelihood of that being the thing. Right.
00:31:16
Speaker
So making it something that is approachable and something that's readily available not only is important to the success of your line. Right. and Like the success of your ongoing relationship with with, um you know, the five nights of Freddy's franchise, but also like the continuation of the thing that we love, which is collecting. Right. If we're if we're not fostering the a availability of these things for the next generation to enjoy them, we're going to be the last generation that enjoys it.
00:31:43
Speaker
Right. and then and Yeah. Yeah. yeah And those main characters always have to be around like the game is five nights at Freddy's. Right. If Freddy's not on the shelves, like how long is somebody going to be willing to wait around for.
00:31:56
Speaker
you know, one of the main four characters or one of the main five characters, you know there's always got to be one of them in a series. And no blink and you miss it, right? Like, and and and mind you, like these things do happen, right? Sellouts happen within, you know, hours for a lot of big, passionate fan bases, the products that come out for them. But like,
00:32:16
Speaker
You know, that doesn't mean that it's so like, well, we only did this by sorry, yeah you're out of luck. You know, I'm going to try to make sure within my power that that doesn't happen. And as far as what I can see for the future, like if there's something that someone can't get a hold of, like it'll come back in a different way. You know, maybe it's not what I can always promise is like.
00:32:36
Speaker
Listen, it might not have the the sticker on the forehead or the embroidery on the butt or whatever it is, but that character, because that's what's important to me is like that character. Don't worry, it'll come back in some way, shape or form.
00:32:49
Speaker
So Jazzwares isn't the first company to tackle Freddy and company in toy form.
Lessons from Previous Toy Lines
00:32:53
Speaker
um Was there anything you learned from previous toys that helped you inform any decisions that you made with the World of and Endo series, respectively?
00:33:03
Speaker
Ooh, yeah. Um... so Yeah, so I want to definitely give my respect to Funko, U2, Sanshi, GoodSmile, definitely Hex.
00:33:16
Speaker
Dako and his team, are they make such good work. there i' And again, respect to all of them. I'm a big fan of what Hex does because I think it's so unique. um But there's a really wide ecosystem for FNAF products.
00:33:30
Speaker
um I think that for us, learnings-wise, seeing what we can do within the advent of our line, um character completion is like a really big one, um especially as, ah you know, when the last major ah partner got the Five Nights license, um Five Nights was not as much of a household name as it is now, right?
00:33:55
Speaker
um it was It was way harder, i think, for them to get like substantial retail space and get that reliable retail buy-in because ah horror again boring boy that that is not a common thing so i think time has passed where now everybody knows what five nights is right um yeah so hopefully that's not really the case with us um in the future like it's been great so far it's a movie year i think like as the line continues to perform we should continue to get that great support um So with that said, like if we do one character in a grouping, we try to complete that character collection immediately within the wave or what I often tend to say is like within the year.
00:34:37
Speaker
um And I think that other companies haven't really had the luxury or really the ability to do that. So that was like one big one. um i think that like displayability and playability being hand in hand for both the Endo series and the world of figures was very important.
00:34:51
Speaker
um To me, as um it was super important for the entire team, I'll i'll say this, like, this is a constructible figure. I'm shaking it pretty violently. Nothing is falling off. I'm bending things.
00:35:03
Speaker
I can put pieces apart and and and, you know, put them back together and all that stuff. Nothing is falling apart. I can, this is a collector figure that I can play with that hasn't necessarily been the case for previous partners for one reason or not.
Live Unboxing of Endo Series Figure
00:35:15
Speaker
And like, For me, it's like if if your play is meant to be played with, then it shouldn't just be falling apart. So that that was one thing where I remember a very early, early, early call with my designers was like, hey, if we're going to do a collector figure that literally has pieces that clip on.
00:35:34
Speaker
they can't just like fly off there. There were some, there were some other lines in the past um that ah definitely have been known for like, I'm not even talking about five nights, like other action figure lines where it's like, yeah, man, those figures look good. And then as soon as you articulate it the shoulder falls off. So um that was like priority number one when it comes to playability of what, like, Hey, what can we do? That's like different and new.
00:35:57
Speaker
And now a word from our sponsors.
00:36:05
Speaker
This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
00:36:22
Speaker
Visit them in person at their brand new home at 101 Newark Pompton Turnpike Suite 1 in Little Falls, New Jersey, or online at chubzywubzy.com.
00:36:34
Speaker
That's
00:36:40
Speaker
And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:36:46
Speaker
And now, back to the show. Well, speaking of the endo series, I've got brand new endo of classic Freddy and with and ah Withered Freddy.
00:37:00
Speaker
And I thought that this would be a fun opportunity to open it up while we have you. actually take a look at it because I haven't gotten hands on with these yet. my goodness. Yeah. So I found this in ah in Walmart in the new like, I think it's the bloody disgusting.
00:37:15
Speaker
Yeah. With the PDQ that has those fun to see. I didn't know that they were going to do that. That's fun. So I did see this and i was like, I'm going to grab it and save it for when we have you on.
00:37:29
Speaker
um i think the other cool thing to having seen the movie now, like the fact that the designs are so similar, like they're they did a good job of sticking to the like standard game design.
00:37:45
Speaker
so that way you could say like, oh, this is the game, but it also is the movie. the Jim Henson company. I mean, yeah and, and, and for those of, you know, you guys know, like I'm a big old fan of ah Muppets in general. Like I love me some Muppeteering. My first job um in general was working for the puppeteer for cookie monster. ah So like I have a, I have a massive historical love for ah puppeteering and Muppeteering. um Yeah. When I found out that they were like brought on board for the movie, I was like, those designs are going to be,
00:38:18
Speaker
razor sharp and they're like so lore accurate. Obviously, I think Scott, ah Scott Coughlin, the creator, like had so much input and you can just see like love in every stitch and every little bit of felt and in every bit of ah wire and plastic. um Yeah, I think None of our it's weird. None of our um figures are are technically the movie versions. Right. But because they're so one to one um in many ways, not in every way, but in many ways, um a lot of people are like, oh, it just it does feel like it's also like bringing the the movie to life as well.
00:38:52
Speaker
Yeah. So the endoskeleton alone, like i'm I'm just enjoying the amount of that's going on here. I mean, like, yeah ah knees, hips.
00:39:06
Speaker
You got double barnet torso a double barbell. is pretty great. Yeah, got a sweet torso wiggle. um I love the double barbell at the hips. That's not something that you see a lot in the drop. Yeah, the drop-down hips. were up down Um, it was, it, it, it really, not only was it fun to kind of be able to do that, but also, and giving that major credit to, uh, the two designers for the first wave of endo series.
00:39:32
Speaker
Uh, you have John Rosella, uh, who is a tremendously talented designer and designer. Um, uh, and then, Mauricio Martinez, uh, who is, or Marcella, I'm tired. Um, Marcelo Martinez, ah Mark, ah who is actually was a big fan of our Halo line um and was a toy photographer. and And he was like, hey, I want to be a designer at Jazzwares. And this was like years ago.
00:39:56
Speaker
And I was like, yes, like, let me do whatever I can. um and he crushed it with these. Like, he's done such a great job. But I think because of the passion, specifically around his time working he'd done some Halo stuff, mech suit things, right? Drop-down hips are really great to be able to get good range of motion, right? And so for these, and I just picked up Freddy and tore his head off, um but for these, get doing this allows like way, way more range.
00:40:24
Speaker
Also, it's a fun little additional bit of articulation to have ah given it. I also like um I'm noticing as i this is fun to put together, by the way, um I'm noticing on the legs, which is actually a a fun little thing, is there's ah they key in.
00:40:40
Speaker
yeah That's what I wanted to ask. could So there's like so there's little holes here. oop that's it. There's little holes and they match They line up with the holes in the individual pieces. Yeah. yeah So that way they help you line them up and actually and know that you're here. Here's a here's I was going to ask if it did that. So thank you for showing that, Eric.
00:40:59
Speaker
Here's a little tip for you for you kids at home. because not a lot of people know this. going to put a light on this and see if hopefully it shows up. Here, I'm going to actually turn. This is an AIC exclusive right here.
00:41:13
Speaker
Okay. Because I have not seen this be widely broadcast by the fan base, but don't know if you guys notice, um there is an R.
00:41:26
Speaker
And that stands for right. And there's an L and that stands for left. And we we have marked every piece to be correlated to the the, just because I know it can get a little tricky, especially when it's like, is this the withered one? Is this? So um little little pro tip, ah we have coordinated all of the pieces ah that are right and left. I don't think we've done it for the faces because there's only one head for these guys.
00:41:50
Speaker
see yep you can see it in there too yeah the r is in there that's awesome yeah right now i'm i'm using just the fact that it stayed organized in the tray yeah as ah as i'm pulling it apart um for the non freddy fanatics right for those who just maybe as someone who occasionally you're like is this this one no but this is and has been caught in public doing that and i've been like sorry like sometimes just have to okay
00:42:18
Speaker
And then the feet just pop off. Oh, the one thing that I know that people have had a bit of a hard time with and I were looking for maybe ways to kind of modify things is I know it is a bit hard to get some of the feet on. Sometimes it's easier for some.
00:42:33
Speaker
um And we are working on maybe doing a little bit of tooling refinement there. um That's also just to make sure that it doesn't fall off. That's like, like, cause, cause when you have a foot that swivels like this and has like heel articulation, it's not a lot, but it does have heel articulation.
00:42:49
Speaker
Um, we want to make that it didn't just kind of fall off. So it was kind of finding the good golden middle path, you know, between like, is it loose enough, but is it not so loose that it's like falling out?
00:43:01
Speaker
So, um, so far so good. I haven't had any issues with, with the feet though. Everything, everything, ah went right on easy peasy. Um, but yeah, and, and just to talk a little bit more about these keyed in pieces, um, they are different shapes. So like you can't mess it up.
00:43:17
Speaker
Um, you can see like on the arm, there's like a, on one side, there's like a, a vertical line. yeah And then on the other side, there's more of a or or square. Yeah. where yeah So, you know, not only which side, uh, is which, but also which they also peg in, which is cool. Yeah.
00:43:35
Speaker
Which back and which front you're working with. do you yeah Do you guys remember when we launched Halo? um a Lovely, good friend of mine, and I don't know if you guys have interacted with him, um DM Galloway, the stop motion animator. We did stop motion for Halo.
00:43:51
Speaker
So um the stop motion animators have been coming out for these, which like for me, you know, I got a big passion for animation. But there is a animator.
00:44:02
Speaker
That one that you posted on Yeah. on Yeah, yeah. so cra So not only that here, and I'll i'll i'll i'll just show it. So Endertrapp, who's like this great animator on YouTube, did full animation. So these are action figures and they're articulating great.
00:44:19
Speaker
But the stuff here, actually, I'll get closer. He did a transition between this and our vault exclusive. Look at this. Ready? Oh my god. oh I'll play it again. Yeah, play it again. Play it again. Check out the way that he did a transition between Withered Freddy and um ah Phantom Freddy.
00:44:37
Speaker
Or, yeah, Shadow Freddy. that's so good. And so I love that stop motion animators are actually having a really easy time animating these, and I was like, all the cards, all the cards, that's what I wanted.
00:44:50
Speaker
So as I as I finished putting together this. ah Yeah, just seeing that that exoskeleton or that endoskeleton is just like it's pretty complex for. Yeah. And for twenty five bucks for twenty five. dollarss death Right. Yeah.
00:45:04
Speaker
So I know ah we'll get into some more um questions from the community a little bit later. But ah one of the things that did come up is are there plans for like an endoskeleton 2.0?
00:45:18
Speaker
Endo 2 with the ears on the side. Yeah. um Yes. So we did announce Wave 2 is coming in 2026 in the spring of 2026 at San Diego Comic-Con this year.
00:45:32
Speaker
um The only image that we showed was a kind of blurry-ish image of Endo 2. I love Endo 2. Endo 2 has like exposed ribs. It's a little more animal is and like animal featured because it has these ears on the side.
00:45:48
Speaker
um These are the endoskeletons that within lore are the ones that um the toy animatronics are in. ah Depending on who you ask, sometimes the withers are, but for many, many reasons, decisions were made to have the Endo ones for our Endo series.
00:46:03
Speaker
um But yes, so Endo two is going to be coming out in early next year. It is so cool. It is a phenomenal Endo piece. I think that the interplay between Endo one and Endo two, I just love them because they've kind of got that the charisma of like a cartoon skeleton.
00:46:20
Speaker
Right. Where they like they're just fun and look like goofy looking guys. Endo two looks amazing. um And I really think that people are going to be very pleased with the characters that come with Endo two. it Some will be surprises. Definitely will be surprises and potentially even some um out there choices.
00:46:44
Speaker
And then there's going to be some character choices that people be like, yeah, of course, ah it's Endo two. So I just want to show this
Future Plans for Collectibles
00:46:51
Speaker
part off here. So the jaw, the way that it ports in, I actually didn't realize that the little mouth on the inside opened. Once you port the jaw it actually lets you open.
00:47:04
Speaker
The inner jaw, the the the skeleton's jaw as well. I'm almost I think and I think that's one of the the creepy things like about it is the two mouths.
00:47:15
Speaker
He is very, very alien like, which, by the way, Mr. Coughlin is a big alien fan. um i don't. hall many of the like Rockafire and Chuck E. Cheese old school animatronics having a recessed jaw.
00:47:30
Speaker
I think that's an homage. I think that's a bit of an homage to the Alien series, which I am so happy that we got to have the double articulation within the mouth because that's, you know, it's not something that we have with ah the toys just because that's the it's the nature of the action figures. So we were able to kind of reach reach that level of detail with the $25 figures.
00:47:52
Speaker
This thing yeah that looks incredible. This is so cool, Aaron. Oh, my God. Yeah, he did an amazing job. I love the eyes look and it moves.
00:48:03
Speaker
So it moves like. So one of the things that I like to call out about certain action figures are. like great, like you can, you can move a superhero action figure. you can put them in superhero poses. Like they, they move the way that you'd expect them to.
00:48:21
Speaker
And then there's action figures that like have almost like too much going on. It's like, yeah, I would never be able to do that. I can't remember when Superman got the owl powers where he could go full 360 on his head. Like this moves like an animatronic would like, it has that kind of like,
00:48:42
Speaker
stiff jointed, like, well, the only limit is what the costume pieces. Exactly. Yeah. Because the endoskeleton is like, you want full crazy articulation. Like nothing's limiting the skeleton, you know?
00:48:55
Speaker
Yeah, but once you put the like, like even like the hit points. Right. So like, you you ah you saw before how you we were articulating that the the um the waste like all the way. But now that the costume is on, the costume blocks it in the parts where a costume would block it.
00:49:14
Speaker
It moves like a mascot. Aaron, this is. this Yeah, it's like it's the difference between, you know, the Terminator and the the the skeleton endoskeleton. Yeah, it's it's it's just like what physical limits exist as opposed to like the toy limits, which listen, that happens. It will happen. It happens for every toy line. it was just really cool to be able to be like, there's a reason why we're limited as opposed to like, it's not a manufacturing thing. It's like, no, it's like a it's like a real world thing. Yeah, as it should be.
00:49:42
Speaker
Right. Exactly. Yeah. Well, this is fan. This is fantastic. I'm so happy. the The smile on my face is real right now. Yeah, dude, when you were smiling, put that face on, i was like, oh Eric's liking this. This is great.
00:49:55
Speaker
I was a little like, oh, God, I hope it's all good. No, it's it's just one of those things where, like, I I love i mean, i love toys. That's why we're here. Right. But like, yeah, getting getting to kind of experience something for the first time is I think is is really important, even as an adult, because like it reminds me stuff like this reminds me of like why I started playing with toys in the first place was just like.
00:50:22
Speaker
The way that something feels, the way that it looks, the way that it moves, the you know the feel it has in your hand. like This has like a cool feel to it. um Yeah, it's just it's a really good execution. It stands really well. I can't wait to shoot this.
00:50:37
Speaker
Oh, man, you gotta tell me whatever you make. I'm stoked. That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. and And I'm so glad that you were able to... I think it's fun that it's like you were able to just put it together and like that was five-ish minutes or so. And like obviously, we were having a conversation, but like I didn't want it to be too hard for anyone. And frankly...
00:50:55
Speaker
I should not even say like I didn't want to be too hard. Like our designers were so but John and Mark and Tyrone keys also oversaw the development of that first wave.
00:51:05
Speaker
um They were so considerate to the to the to the builder let's call it or to the fan like like that this is not hard this is it's very easy to do it it's intuitive um and especially you know i i don't want to give people ikea stuff be like put it together here you go right like It's very intuitive. It's very intuitive. Here's an Allen wrench.
00:51:29
Speaker
Yeah, right that's right. That's right. did you did Now, do you have a screwdriver? or um But no, really, like the designers did an amazing job of being considerate to to those who are going to put these these guys together.
00:51:41
Speaker
So both the the endo and world of figures clearly focus on play. There's play elements to both either either in the the action features of the world of or or like the build ability, which, you know, everyone just saw.
00:51:55
Speaker
um Are there plans for a more kind of detail focused like adult collector um addition to this this world you're creating? um Yeah, yeah. So, so ah in the very early days, because i I hyper fixate on my job, because I love my job and I love, um you know, especially knowing that the fan base cares so much like there's literally no greater incentive to me as an individual than like knowing like, okay, like what decisions are made as as a team, you know, whether they're my decisions, the team, the decisions of the company, the decisions of the team, like everything has an echo, right? Like a resonance to it.
00:52:37
Speaker
um So really early on, I mapped out a very, very big plan for this line. um Yeah, this is like a little over a year ago. um And things have, you know, the the plan has changed, of course, plans always change in toy, especially as like times change and certain expectations change.
00:52:56
Speaker
um But I would say that the vision that I have and the vision that my team has um is like. It's like 20% on display in what we have on offer this year. So so what we have out yeah is like 20%.
00:53:12
Speaker
um And when I say that, I don't mean characters. I mean like literally types of product. So there is a lot more coming. um I really, really believe in Five Nights. We really, really believe in Five Nights.
00:53:25
Speaker
um So I've gotten lots of DMs and I've seen lots of comments that like fans have been asking for that, like higher end collector figure that you would see from like Jada or NECA or Figuarts, right?
00:53:38
Speaker
um yeah and And the only thing I can really confirm and share is a You haven't even seen half of what we're cooking for the future.
00:53:49
Speaker
And B, I'll do my tried and true. You got to you got to stay tuned. But like we see it like absolutely have been seeing it and know that there is a big, big, big, big plans in the future. That is that there's the most detail I can give at this juncture, I think.
00:54:07
Speaker
All right. Although just seeing how those endos move like that's pretty collector friendly. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Definitely. And I'm just trying to see if I have something else that I can grab just to kind of show you guys for people that haven't had these in hand yet, you know, just scale.
00:54:22
Speaker
i mean, here it is next to, you know, like a Marvel Legends figure. So it's they, they, they are a good size. Like it is like collector size. Granted, you know, something, you know, an animatronic would be like color then at a little, yeah. Cause Peter's pretty short. So listen, like we, if we were going to do something that's like,
00:54:43
Speaker
collector, collector, collector, right? this And really it's a new wave of collector. I think that that's important is that a lot of people are like looking at, like, just cause I love NECA so much that like NECA. Something else from like a video game universe, know, you could see that just in terms of the scale, like it it does, if you had, I'll put it this way.
00:55:01
Speaker
If you had, which I do in this little corner of my display here, um just a video game corner where I have characters from video games, this will fit fit in Although, you know what? Like, I'm just thinking to, you know, theme park, anything.
00:55:16
Speaker
Yeah. The animatronics aren't that that much bigger, you know? They don't get power over you. and the movie In the movie, even in the movie, The only big, I mean, there's, okay, so there's like characters like DJ Music Man and Security Breach is like 12 feet tall.
00:55:33
Speaker
But the only the only animatronic that is like really, really big um are there A lot of the ones from the Sister Location game, there's a character called Circus Baby who's quite... like She's like large she she kind of because she's got like pigtails and stuff like that, so she's pretty big.
00:55:48
Speaker
And then there's a oh i got an amazing amalgamation character, not to be confused with a character called Amalgamation, called Ennard. And Ennard is made up like of a bunch of different endoskeletons, like body horror together. the Have you guys seen Ennard? You guys would love Ennard's character. I see.
00:56:06
Speaker
I would love to shout out the the the person that I watched. it I watched a one-hour YouTube video that was like a walkthrough of yeah i the entire And some of the things that they were showing in that video completely blew my mind. And yeah, that that character. Ennard sick.
00:56:24
Speaker
Ennard is like tall and like a bit lanky. But like by and large, because most of the animatronics, especially for – Um, uh, if you get to like the older models, the spring, the spring lock models, um, they're supposed to be people inside, right? Like, like the, you know, uh, Henry, Emily and, um, William Afton were supposed to be able to like jump inside of these, these costumes. So like, it makes sense that they're like, they're like people plus, right. They're supposed to be like six foot six foot five. I think I want to say he's like Freddie's height.
00:56:54
Speaker
Yeah, on spoiler alert, yeah if you watch the movie, you can see bringlock situation Matthew Willard get inside one of them. yeah that's um But ah yeah, i' like I said, um um I'm blown away, but I'm also really excited to see what that other 80% is.
00:57:12
Speaker
Get ready. therere A lot of it is spring. 2026 is a big year for ah
Q&A with Aaron Margolin
00:57:18
Speaker
the brand. And like as more stuff comes out to within like new games and new additions to the IP, like I'm so excited that we're able to kind of like we're we're in such a good time for five nights.
00:57:31
Speaker
Like right now is so good because I think a lot of people weren't so sure about the movie before it came out. Meanwhile, like i we were like pitching for the IP when the movie was coming, when it was about to come out. And I had to tell a bunch of people, just you wait, just you wait.
00:57:44
Speaker
And then it made 300 million at the box office. And I genuinely had to be like, okay, I actually didn't think it was going to be this big. Like this is way, I thought it was going to be like 150. big. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah Well, it was one of those ones where i was like, there's no way this doesn't take off. Like, yeah, it's going to be a big day. And the movie coming out this year, guys. Oh, my goodness.
00:58:05
Speaker
Oh, yeah. i'm i don't I'm really looking forward to it. um And I'm also looking forward to our big reveal. But before we get to get ready, it's we do have some Q&A to get through. Like I mentioned at the top, I
00:58:20
Speaker
we had a ton of ton of questions submitted and we've already been talking for an hour. So let's let's bang through some of these. um Dave, do you want to take the first one here? Yes, um because I've been practicing this name in my head for the past 15 to 20 minutes.
00:58:36
Speaker
um I'm already on my third pronunciation, but I think this is right at Pandy Insta. I almost called you Pandanista. But is that like is that like a clash album?
00:58:50
Speaker
I thought it was just somebody who's like, like a fashionista, but for pandas. OK, fair, fair. OK. All right. What's pandanistas? Yeah.
00:59:01
Speaker
Pandy insta. Yeah. Pandy insta. Insta. Asks, are there any characters from Five Nights at Freddy's that are off limits?
00:59:12
Speaker
Oh, OK. okay Okay, that, okay, it's a hard question to answer. um I do firmly believe that, as I said, every character, there's at least one person out there um who's, that's their favorite. for the um ah For the sake of giving an answer, there is an animatronic.
00:59:36
Speaker
Yeah, okay. There's an animatronic called Suicide Bot that shows up in the books. Yeah. Um, I think I'm not gonna say never.
00:59:49
Speaker
I think there is a low chance that we make an action figure of Suicide Bot, though technically it wouldn't be hard to kitbash because Suicide Bot effectively looks like Endo 2 with a knife.
01:00:07
Speaker
So for the suicide bot heads out there, please don't dismay. Um, endo two might be a kit bash away from your favorite, um, child murdering suicide. Bad is a rough character so that I will, it's a, it's very cool in the book. It's really cool in the book. What is the whole, the, the lore of it, but, um, yeah, probably no suicide. but Hey, listen, that's what, if, if, if you're worried about retail, picking it up, that there's always Jasper's vault.
01:00:35
Speaker
That's right. Yeah, yeah. dont you don't have to You don't have to worry about keeping retail partners happy with that one. ah Fair enough, though. All right, next one. So this is one of one of the ah the two questions in our Q&A that does not have to do with Five Nights at Freddy's. This is an Aaron question.
01:00:52
Speaker
Oh, okay. okay um friend of the Friend of the pod Toy Fars asks, Will you ever make it to Fort Worth, Texas? Yeah. Oh boy. Oh, finally. Hey, finally a real question, huh?
01:01:08
Speaker
Uh, uh, I'm going to have to give some background on this one for those who do not know. Um, if you follow me on social media, uh, specifically, uh, either Twitter, uh, or AKA X the everything app, um, or Instagram.
01:01:24
Speaker
Um, I, I do, there's, there's a, ah good amount of recurring bits that I've done for many years. Uh, I used to do a lot of just comedy and I am a, um for a lack of better words, historically I've been a shit poster a majority of my adult life.
01:01:38
Speaker
I'm a goofy dude. um You know, take everything I say with a grain of salt unless I seem really serious about it. ah One of the main bits is I have, and by the way, it's not a bit, by the way, it's this is very serious. um So to take this with no grains of salt.
01:01:53
Speaker
I've been trying to get to beautiful Fort Worth, Texas for like four years now and um I have tried flying there multiple times. I've tried taking the train. I've tried taking buses, taking cars, walking there, trying to go there in my dreams.
01:02:06
Speaker
At every turn, i end up getting rerouted ah through one way or another. um Sometimes I show up in Korea. Sometimes I show up in Italy. Sometimes I show up repeatedly at San Diego Comic-Con.
01:02:18
Speaker
Honestly, It's a nightmare. All I want to do is see the golden shores and um long waving grass of Fort Worth, beautiful Fort Worth, Texas. um The answer, Toy Fars, is I don't know, but one day i will reach heaven on earth, ah beautiful Fort Worth, Texas. Thank you. that was ah That's a real question that I'm so happy to answer.
01:02:42
Speaker
That was a Hot Ones level question. Yeah. Doing that show. Doing that Sean Evans research. I'm going to add one. I'm going to add one level to this question. And it's it's not a question. We're just going to move on after I say this. the The reason the reason why you you haven't gotten there yet. I'm pretty sure I know why.
01:02:59
Speaker
Move on. His name is Mr. Peanut. um Don't see. That's another. that then That's not a bit. I hate that. Yeah, we're not talking. We're not going down that rabbit hole. um Dave, take the next one. da um Here's another one. I almost said it incorrectly that that that random nam three asks, how will future waves work?
01:03:23
Speaker
And are you going to go in game order or just figure it out as you go? ah Just feel it out. um To answer the question. So, yeah so yeah, the first two waves generally for most, you know, like, like if we're going to tent pole the, the ah line three of the four next waves, like eight inch plush end of series and world of core figures um have been announced wave two Comic-Con.
01:03:49
Speaker
um So we announced those. um They are the characters from If it's not Five Nights 2, it's Five Nights 1. If it is not Five Nights 1, it's Five Nights 2. um And that's across a few mediums.
01:04:03
Speaker
ah ah to To not reveal anything too much, we're going to be really shaking things up after Wave 2. um And really, i don't even have to say after Wave 2. I would actually say starting in like spring 2026. um Spring 26 is going to have like a lot of surprises. We're gonna be jumping around a bit.
01:04:18
Speaker
um don't yet Don't get used to like chronological order. ah With that said, I've said this on you know many interviews before, and I absolutely stand by it. like I have gauged out our current contract.
01:04:33
Speaker
if everything goes according to plan, we should have all of the main cast of characters ah completed in one way, shape, or form, you know whether it's Endo Series or World of or both, um buy-in of contracts. So look at the entirety of the franchise. There may be some exceptions, and there may be like like out of my hands, out of my team's hands.
01:04:55
Speaker
um We obviously want to make sure we have great partnership with Striker Entertainment and Scott, um whatever they want. But just so everyone knows, like there is going to be hopping around. But like for instance, if we end up doing like ah ah Five Nights at Freddy's 4, the Nightmare animatronics and World of, and it happens before FNAF 3, please don't think that we're never going to do the Phantom animatronics because like we we we take the core series very seriously. We want to make sure you have good representation across the entire history.
01:05:25
Speaker
Awesome. Um, at Carlos Revao asks, is there any update on five nights at Freddy's role play items and, or dog toys?
01:05:37
Speaker
oh um So roleplay wise, I think that trickles more into costume, which is a little bit tricky because we don't have the costume license. Another company does.
01:05:49
Speaker
um we're doing We're looking at potential exploration roleplay opportunities that like are within our contract. So there's there's a little stay tuned. Um, dog toys. I mean, i don't really know. i every once a while I do consult with the Jazz Warriors Pets team.
01:06:06
Speaker
I did consult on like the Pokemon line. um I'll talk and I'll see if there's any sort of, you know, update I can give or that I can feel comfortable giving, uh, given like, you know, clearance. But as far as I know, um, either it's not within our contract when it comes to the role play stuff, or, um, I, I am not privy just because I'm, I'm mostly oversee, you know, that the mainline business jazz horse.
01:06:31
Speaker
I think that's the first time anyone has ever asked about toys on the show. nay Hey, Hey, dog toys, that's, there's some cool stuff in dog toys. Yeah. Um,
01:06:43
Speaker
Friend of the pod at Nostalgic Adam asks Jumbo Golden Freddy plush when? adam can text me. He has my number. Adam Adam was one of the first people I told when I got engaged. I don't. um Well, Adam, i will use this platform to say that you you.
01:07:06
Speaker
You have been spoiled. No, Adam's been like one of the greatest champions of this line and his partnership, especially at Comic-Con was like so it was so exciting. I love that man. Genuinely, he's truly wonderful friends. Yeah, it's a good guy.
01:07:21
Speaker
um And and he his content is so good. like He makes such good videos. I digress. ah Jungle Golden Freddy Plush 1, who knows? Stay tuned. um We have been so, oh my God, so excited and so happy with how people loved the classic Freddy's. So like, um listen, what I can confirm is you and me and everyone would be shocked if we didn't do another 20-inch Five Nights at Freddy's Plush. So stay tuned.
01:07:48
Speaker
Yeah. um And also just shouts to Adam ah for helping spread the news that you were on and yeah help us collect some of these questions. So i awesome member of the community and we're we're very very fortunate to call him a friend so very much so thanks for helping adam um next one comes from max art 135 uh when will we see five nights at freddy's products in brazil uh we also just alongside with this question we got separate questions about availability in the uk and argentina
01:08:23
Speaker
Yeah. um Okay. So I've tried really hard to like publicly post like where certain – it gets a little hard when it comes to certain regions. Like Argentina is a really great example of like – full transparency, like I don't really know off the top of my head many of the biggest toy retailers in Argentina.
01:08:42
Speaker
um I'll give a lightly blanket statement and I'll get a little bit more specific here. So so the question specifically was which – it was Brazil. Brazil. Okay, so Brazil. So Latin America and South America have been really big focuses for me. I think that they've been incredibly underserved when it comes to most toy lines, and especially Five Nights at Freddy's historically. Especially, like there's a huge passionate fan base in Mexico.
01:09:06
Speaker
ah There's a huge passionate fan base big time in Brazil. ah There's a big passionate fan base in Chile. I've gotten many DMs. So Big, big bit of importance that I do want to communicate is like I not only has it been something that I've been hearing, like I personally am very invested in getting the product out there um because ah sure, there's the businessman answer. It's like we want growth, but like legitimately, it's like there's fan bases that have not been able to get five nights product or like authentic five nights product.
01:09:37
Speaker
So in terms of Brazil. Hard question to answer for when it comes to a specific month because Brazil is historically a little bit harder to get into ah just in terms of distribution. What I can say is it is one of the number one priority regions for us.
01:09:51
Speaker
I do believe we are going to have placement before end of year. So I'm going to say for Brazil, December, if not spring of next year, just because sometimes in some regions it takes a little bit of longer longer time um Argentina, um again, can't really specify exactly location-wise what stores things are going to be showing up in. I do know that we are going to be distributing um through a larger distribution company that covers a lot of South America.
01:10:20
Speaker
um so Hopefully, we are able to um you know probably I'm going to wager it's a December, January timeframe for those. UK, way easier for me to answer.
01:10:32
Speaker
Game store, Smith store, Salisbury in some cases, when it comes to impulse purchases, we're already placing at a lot of places in the UK. That extends out towards ah the entirety of EMEA, let's call it. So you've got Germany, um ah places like, ah yeah, let's see, Germany and France.
01:10:50
Speaker
Actually, i can show here, I was recently in Scotland, which, as it is still a part of the United Kingdom, I can confirm ah that we do have product on shelf. We actually have our Squishmallows on shelf. I went to a specialty store in Edinburgh, one of my favorite cities in the whole world, where I saw our Five Nights at Freddy's Squishmallows for £12 each. So um we are setting right now in the UK.
01:11:17
Speaker
I did see some stuff in German toy stores as well. Awesome. Um, another very good, dare I say, best friend of the pod at Creepy NJ asks, firstly, congrats on the engagement.
01:11:35
Speaker
Thank you, Dave. Second, toys are OK, I guess. Thank you, Dave. um I tried to do my best, Dave, because he does like a guess.
01:11:45
Speaker
That was pretty good. It's pretty good. um But is there any brand partner news in the works for my favorite food influence? The world of fast dining and flavor dusted chips needs you.
01:11:57
Speaker
All right. Well, first, before I answer this, ah also love Dave, love, love, love, Dave. um I appeared on ah Dave's podcast ah Daycare Dittos a few times. And by the way, like Dave can throw the engagement congratulations at me and I will throw right back to Dave and Sarah.
01:12:16
Speaker
ah for their baby's first birthday, because I did recently see that. So congratulations to them. They're just lovely, lovely people. Okay. um And now I have to explain another bit of mine. If you follow me on Instagram, but there are two highlights, one of which is beautiful Fort Worth, Texas. texas The other one is sponsored taste test, which is like...
01:12:36
Speaker
It's like a mini series that I've started that I did, like, i want to say starting two years ago. um if it is delving into the realm. It's a little bit delving into the realm of like psychological horror where oh yeah I play a version of myself that is like taking on money to do very. These are very real products I'm reviewing um to answer that question. And just to give those who are not familiar a scope of what I've done a taste test of.
01:13:05
Speaker
I did the Mountain Dew Gelato that was sold at Taco Bell. I did um Coke flavored Oreos and Oreo flavored Coke. That way but was, I believe, the first one that kind of started delving more into like the psychological horror. That one genuinely, like I went back and watched those stories like multiple times when you did that. And then ah the the number one one that is truly the grossest thing I've ever tasted in my entire life is my my great friend, Adam Carl, who's the sound designer and a total ah masochist or sadist, excuse me, because no he's a sadist, ah sent me um and I did an episode on um just thinking about it makes me feel sick.
01:13:46
Speaker
ah Doritos. This is authentic and legitimate collaboration. Doritos tequila. which was truly one of the most foul things i've ever tasted. To answer the question, I am actually working on a long, like like ah a big episode of that.
01:14:02
Speaker
um I almost did the episode on ah Wendy's Baconator Cheez-Its, and then I found something more foul. So stay tuned on that one. Make sure you follow me on Instagram for total nonsense and adult man doing sketch sketch comedy and horror.
01:14:25
Speaker
Doritos Doritos tequila sounds like like Malort mints like yeah I wish it tasted like the Lord. I wish it tasted like Malort. It was it tasted like medicine that had gone bad.
01:14:40
Speaker
Like I still wanted you to do the ketchup, the ketchup ice cream. I've never, I've never tasted anything that was like wet ashtray before, but like Malort is it. oh and yeah, no, for sure. By the way, they do. um Old Bay vodka was on my list and then I really thought about it and I was like, that's just two ingredients for a Bloody Mary. That's actually not, that's not that bad. Boy.
01:15:06
Speaker
why All right. Our next one, Dave, I i spared you from from trying to figure this one out. I would have sung this like I think it's I think it's for we're going to go with that um at for asks, how many waves of figures will release a year?
01:15:26
Speaker
We've done it at three, right? whatever That's yeah. Yeah. ah Okay. So how many figure releases have we waived? Oh, wait. So the goal is the goal is at least two. It depends. It's going to depend on the year.
01:15:41
Speaker
um It's going to depend on the season. um ah Just full transparency. So like I would wager to say we're going to get no less than two a year. um I would like for at least three to four.
01:15:53
Speaker
We would like for at least three or four, but like two a year minimum. um and And keep in mind, like for the Endo series, um a lot of the new waves also include new Endos, right? So like Endo 2 being in wave two.
01:16:06
Speaker
um So yeah, ah speaking safely here, just to make sure I'm not confirming anything that maybe it doesn't become true later, probably two minimum a year. Right.
01:16:19
Speaker
OK, this is a fun one at Crafty Squids meme hellhole. as If Springtrap comes to the Endo series, will it feature Afton's corpse inside?
01:16:33
Speaker
Uh, honestly, the question at everyone's on the top of everyone's mind, and I'm not, not joking. Like people ask me that a good amount. Yeah. That's a stay tuned. Um, what I will say very confidently is like spring trap is an essential character for this, for five nights at Freddy's. We're going to absolutely do something for him.
01:16:52
Speaker
Um, I can't reveal anything officially just cause again, like I want to make sure that I'm abiding by, um God, you know, I really do. i do i do want to give more no no no i gotta i gotta i gotta abide by you know the rules here so uh that's a stay tuned okay uh caden kennedy caden underscore kennedy asks uh for future endo series releases will characters be cross compatible with uh older or other skeletons
01:17:23
Speaker
Yeah, so the answer is um the answer is yes and no. um Some will, some won't. A good example is like, If we ever end up doing the Nightmare Endo, right, from Five Nights at Freddy's 4, so that Endoskeleton is very unique. That Endoskeleton's build is really different than that of Endo 1.
01:17:41
Speaker
um I can't really promise that like the the classics are going to fit on the Nightmare Endo, but what I can say is that there is possible interplay between Endosuit pieces as far as like what we're planning. um Listen, like and I want to be very clear, like There are physical limitations, right? Like at the end of the day, even if like an endoskeleton is supposed to fit a specific character, um if the character has like spikes coming out of their nose and their ears, we have to make sure that we can physically make that and also make it safe.
01:18:12
Speaker
um But but there is some interplay between the two as far as what we've experimented with with Endo two. ah but yeah, I mean, there's definitely like we're going to try. But for some, it's just a matter of like logistics and and physical possibility.
01:18:28
Speaker
OK, I'm pretty sure you're at Eminem underscore six, six, six. um But with the ease being threes.
01:18:39
Speaker
I think that's that's how I would have read that, too. Yeah. Threem and Threem. Yes. um Do you think the vault exclusive Shadow Freddy will be re-released in stores?
01:18:53
Speaker
That's a it's a great question. Threem and Threem. um So ah not in stores for the US, Vault exclusives, as far as what i know, Vault exclusives are just going to be on vault.com. That is for the US and for the UK.
01:19:11
Speaker
Mind you, um I don't believe pre-order is up on the UK. I think we're going to be distributing in the UK when it is out at um on the the store page. For other regions, um I have already kick-started the conversations with regions, because please keep in mind, like you know if if this is like a French situation, like like they wanted in France, like we need to bring that item to French retailers, and then French retailers need to take it.
01:19:36
Speaker
like That's a big bit of importance. So like I always tell fans, like and and again, like I'm never someone who's like, go, you know, get a sales and stuff like that. Like I'm legitimately saying like, if you really want that product, and this is the same thing for like the Nightmare Own Plush that we do for Hot Topic and Box Lunch in the United States, tell your local retailer that you really want them to so so support that specific product.
01:19:58
Speaker
Cause it lets us kind of get do you know the the product there easier um because they know like, oh, people really want this. um so So we're having conversations about getting the vault items um in non-vault distributed areas.
01:20:12
Speaker
ah But ah that's kind of a, it's a conversation that goes kind of beyond just something that I can answer, but I can say that like we are having conversations about making sure that folks that are not in vault distributed regions can can get the vault products.
01:20:26
Speaker
All right. um And that does take us to the end of our Q&A. ah Everyone, thank you so much for submitting. Thank you so much. So many questions. um honest Honestly, we we had even more um that I think that's the best. But like, yeah, I think that's the most we've ever had in a Q&A section. So um shouts to everybody for submitting them again. Thanks ah you know to Adam and and and Aaron. Thank you, too, for for sharing it and and helping us collect some of these questions. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. um Before we get to our big reveal, big Halloween. Kids, get your masks ready. Get your masks ready.
01:21:05
Speaker
It's almost, what what's the time in it? It's almost 10 o'clock. It's almost 6 a.m. That went actually. It's almost 12 a.m. um Before we do that, though, ah some
Where to Find Products and Social Media
01:21:16
Speaker
plugs. Where can collectors in the United States, where can they find their Five Nights at Freddy's ah products?
01:21:22
Speaker
and um And where can they keep up to date with ah with you and everything going on with the line on social media? You can find our Five Nights at Freddy's products at your favorite local retailer. ah we We are currently at Target, at Walmart, at GameStop, at specialty stores such as GameStop, Hot Topic, Box Lunch.
01:21:43
Speaker
ah We will be showing up at grocery stores like Fred Meyer and Meyer and... um i think we I think we're going to be at like Publix and Ralph's ah towards more of the holiday season, um ah but you will be able to find us kind of a little bit everywhere. Obviously, we are on Amazon.com. We are on JazzWarsVault.com if you want that exclusive ah Shadow Freddy ah vault exclusive.
01:22:08
Speaker
um Yeah, everywhere oh ah Barnes & Noble. Everywhere where toys are sold, for the most part, you're going to find at least one or two of our available. Your greatest bet, though, is going to be GameStop, Target, and Walmart from now until the end of the year. And frankly, beyond that, we we we're getting some great support from retail. And that's all thanks to the amazing fan base for not just buying the stuff, but actually enjoying it. And that's you know the reason why we do it is for for people to enjoy it.
01:22:35
Speaker
um To find me, let's see. So I, ah for work-related stuff and the occasional bits, you can find me on Twitter, a.k.a. X the Everything app, ah at at Aaron underscore Margolin, A-A-R-O-N underscore M-A-R-G-O-L-I-N.
01:22:55
Speaker
ah For bits and occasional work-related stuff, you can find me on ah Instagram, a.k.a. Instagram, at...
01:23:07
Speaker
At the man with the red mane.
01:23:18
Speaker
Why did I make it so long? Mane like a beard. with the red mane.
01:23:24
Speaker
Well, and now that you've passed that quiz. and And I just wanted to shout one more time. i The if you are if you are watching or listening to this ah as it airs new, um the Halloween reset at Walmart, the horror section in the entertainment ah section of Walmart has the Freddy two packs in it.
01:23:46
Speaker
So ah the endoskeleton, ah the endo series, Freddy. So if you know, it's still up for preorder in a lot of places, um but Walmart's got it. So head over to your your local Walmart, the entertainment section and take a look.
01:24:01
Speaker
um It's there with all the other really cool horror stuff right where it belongs watching you.
Big Halloween Reveal Teaser
01:24:07
Speaker
um Yeah, so with that out of the way, Aaron, it's it's time. It's time for the big Halloween reveal. It's time, kids.
01:24:15
Speaker
um So you, the the the floor is yours, man. I'm just going to switch you over to full screen. Floor is yours for the big reveal. I'm going to hold on. I'm going turn my phone off just because I want to make sure that there's no... want make sure that there's no, like, prying ears here. This this is going to be an Adventures in Collecting exclusive.
01:24:37
Speaker
I'm going to ditch my NDA at this point. Guys, like I'm speaking full transparency here, like, because honestly, I'm so excited about this. um We've been working on this for years, for years.
01:24:48
Speaker
And I was told not to share it, but i I'm going to. I'm going to. And this this, honestly, this is like the biggest reveal of the entire line. So very, very soon, we are going to be releasing a...
01:25:01
Speaker
are
01:25:15
Speaker
Thank you for hanging out with us
Closing Credits and Engagement Encouragement
01:25:17
Speaker
today. Subscribe, rate, and review this podcast wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Learn more about him in the show notes.
01:25:29
Speaker
Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Danes. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Adventures in Collecting and on Twitter at AIC underscore podcast.
01:25:42
Speaker
Stop by and say hi. Show us your hauls and photos. Tell us your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it on a future episode.
01:26:02
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Hablaui. This program and many others like it on the Non-Productive Network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License.
01:26:14
Speaker
Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.