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An Interview with the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast's Matt Cardona
420 Plays6 years ago
On this episode, the brothers Weinbrecht get a special phone call from the "Michael Jordan of Wrestling Figure Collecting" himself, pro wrestler Matt Cardona! Hear about his collection, what he's buying, what he's excited about, and his new spin-off podcast on this very special edition of Adventures in Collecting.
Follow Matt on Instagram @themattcardona and listen to the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast wherever you find podcasts!
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction & Surprise Guest Appearance
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, Dave. Hi, Eric. Hey, Dave. Do we curse on this podcast? Yes, Eric. Yes, we do. Hey, guys. This is the $1,000 broski, the Michael Jordan of Wrestling Figure Collecting, Matt Cardona. And you're listening to the Major Wrestling... Wait, what? This is Adventures in Collecting? Is this the Bootleg Major Wrestling Figure Podcast? Are you serious, bro? Enjoy the show.
00:00:27
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. 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.
00:01:09
Speaker
Hello? Hello. Hey, what's going on, man?
Matt Cardona's Journey to the Podcast
00:01:15
Speaker
Are we live? Are we rolling? We are, because I wanted to make the most of your time. This is Eric, by the way. Hi, Matt. What's up, guys? Hey, what's going on? So John Carlo told me your big fanny told me I should do your podcast. He said your last name is Wien, the Wiener? What's your name?
00:01:38
Speaker
Close, close enough. It's, it's wine bricked, but, but we could go with wean for this, for this evening. That's fine. And then he, he asked me if I would do your podcast and I said, okay, I'll do it right now. The guy's 10 minutes. And then he said, you weren't ready, but how are you a Zach writer slash macro fan? If you're not always ready. Well, here we are. We are, we are indeed always ready. We're, we are ready. Well, you're ready now best because I'm a nice guy and I, you know, I'll let you set up and give you some setup.
00:02:06
Speaker
it was friday night i was having i was always having margaritas all right i'll know what i'll cut that answer i'm a big margarita fan well do you listen do you guys listen to the major wrestler podcast yeah i just listened to bully right today i was just i just finished packing up all the may the fourth star wars hats because we do all this all the work in the house uh took me all day that's all done i'm about to put it outside uh the postal the postal server is gonna pick it up tomorrow
00:02:35
Speaker
And that's
Matt's Projects and Collaborations
00:02:36
Speaker
it. That's it until we have more merch coming. You know, I'm on your show. I'm going to plug all my stuff. Excellent. Go for it. So let's go. I mean, John Carlo, who, by the way, I thought his name was John and his last name was Carlo. I didn't realize it was one word. All one word. You know, he's like Madonna. That's right. So he, you know, he's a good friend of mine and I'm doing a little favor for him. So I'm here. I'm on the show. Much appreciated.
00:03:01
Speaker
And speaking of favors, thank you for for recording the bumper for us a few months ago back in December. So that was I have no idea that I did that. So you did. You were on the holiday show. Oh, wow. Yeah, you kicked off our Christmas episode. So so thank you for that. I feel like it was like Survivor Series weekend. Oh, OK. Well, I'm glad I could help you guys.
00:03:24
Speaker
So, uh, I really, I'm really into those, uh, those Remco style figures that, that you guys have been putting out with your, with your likeness. Is there any more of those coming? Well, we've done the ones that were masked and, uh, you know, people thought it was us. It wasn't quite sure, but we revealed it was us all along.
00:03:44
Speaker
So we will be releasing more without the mass coming very, very soon. But first we have the major recipe or podcast championship title with shirts for the figures. So there's two versions of those. So those will be for sale very, very soon. And you're still doing that through ringside. That is through ringside. And then we have a couple more two packs coming later in the year. Not going to spoil it, but I will say that one of them
00:04:12
Speaker
the gear kind of resembles what Brian and I wore at WrestleMania when we won the tag team titles. So since Mattel screwed us, we're gonna do ourselves. Yeah, those outfits very much so deserve plastic versions.
00:04:29
Speaker
Oh, for sure. I mean, let's let's get to to the important question. Are we getting the the smart Mark Sterling figure? You know what? We definitely want to get some extra characters in the line. I mean, because how many times can you get Matt and Brian repaint? You know, like how Mattel just makes same guys and those, you know, like how many AJ Styles or Finn Balor's are seeing this? Like, listen, we get it. Top picks. But we need we need the undercard guys, you know. So I would love to get a smart Mark Sterling or referee or Swagl or Heath, you know, but
00:04:59
Speaker
Let's see what happens.
RetroMania Video Game Excitement
00:05:01
Speaker
And you guys had some other really big announcements just today, right? You and Brian are rounding out the roster on a video game.
00:05:13
Speaker
That's right, the retro mania. I was a huge Wrestle Fest fan as a kid. It was such a great arcade. I would always love playing it. Even now, it's still one of those timeless games. So for this to be the official sequel, it's just something that I had to be involved in. And just, you know, we talk about figure fate on the show, but we were released from WWE. They're about to finish this game. The timing was perfect to slide right in.
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah, and I love the style of the game too, and you guys are amongst some pretty awesome names within that roster, so I was very happy to see that today. You'll finally get to see Matt Cardona really retire Tommy Dreamer. The moment we've all been waiting for. After everything about him talking about how much for the figures at Live 5.
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, listen, Tommy, I love Tommy, but he doesn't get it. This is a, it's a business and his toy business, you know, it's an investment. Uh, so when I bought that great Valentine, I spent a lot of money, but I bought a lot of other things with it. I sold those things, kept what I wanted and made money. So it's a business.
00:06:22
Speaker
You know, I love the sort of like toy slash figure feuds that you have going with some of the other names that are out there, like Sid Vicious. I saw he was posting pictures of figures and calling you guys out. How is that? How do those things kind of develop between you and some of the other pro wrestlers?
00:06:43
Speaker
Well, I don't think the Sid, I don't think he's trying to knock us. I think, you know, I won't get Sid on the pod. I would love to interview Sid. You know, Sid was one of my favorites growing up and to now that he's on social media for a while. And actually, I don't even know if for a fact that it's him or not. I don't know, because it's, you know, he was so absent from social media now he's all over it. But that's the coolest thing about social media, right? Like, look,
00:07:06
Speaker
through a mutual friend, you know, I'm on your podcast right now. I know you're a big fan. So now maybe I'll start listening to your podcast and I'll be a big fan of yours. You never know what could happen. That'd be awesome. Crazier things have happened. So now important question, because we know how you are with wrestling figures.
Toy Collecting Passion
00:07:23
Speaker
We know how you are with Ghostbusters. We know how you are with Star Wars. What are some of the other lines that you look at that we don't know about that are that are kind of unheralded? Like we know you're a big Funko Pop collector.
00:07:35
Speaker
What else is out there? You know, I love the NECA what they're doing with the Ninja Turtles. And they're also they do a lot of cool stuff like they did Home Alone figures. So I have those where I have like an Arnold Schwarzenegger collection. So I use a lot of the NECA figures. I think my Arnold Schwarzenegger collection is one that people don't quite know about. But I have like different Arnold's from different movies and, you know, whether it be Last Action Hero or a Turbo Man.
00:08:03
Speaker
And it's cool that he's had so many action figures. I mean, because he is, if you think about Arnold Schwarzenegger, you close your, I mean, maybe not current day, but like, you know, eighties, early nineties, he is a real life action figure. So it only makes sense for him to be in so many toy lines. So that's one that people maybe might not know about unless they had a full tour of the, uh, the toy room.
00:08:26
Speaker
Well, maybe maybe you'll be getting a new Arnold figure because they're they're adding him back as as he's returning as Dutch in the new Predator game So maybe they'll be making a new like aged Dutch figure. I think they're making a Dutch pop-final, too Really? Hey, I would definitely get that I do have the Predator the Dutch So I would love some some more I'll take it
00:08:52
Speaker
You talked brief on the Major Wrestling Figure podcast about some of your Disney stuff. I mean, what sticks out the most for the Disney stuff that you have? Like collectibles wise? Collectibles, anything.
00:09:07
Speaker
So I do have a Disney collection in my toy room of course you got to have the toy story Toys, you know, it would only make sense a toy room toy story figures But then when I was a kid I used to collect these I guess they're ceramic figurines They're not toys whatsoever and I would get those at the parks and then they would sell at the Disney Store so I have those and But they're not they're not toys. They're
00:09:34
Speaker
They're like, I guess they're adults. I mean, I don't know why a kid, you know, had these on display in his room, but maybe that's what they're for. They're for display. And they stop making those. But it's really like some late 80s, early 90s stuff. And, you know, nostalgia is in, you know, like, look, like look at all the toy lines that are out now, you know, Power Rangers, Star Wars, Turtles, Ghostbusters, like all these stuff from our childhood are, you know, they're toys like 30 years later. It's crazy.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, especially those, uh, those Walmart exclusives, the, uh, the real Ghostbusters, I mean, they're, they're almost, almost identical to the, the original releases. So what's, what's old is new again. I have a bone to pick with Walmart about that. I pre-order those on Walmart and now they're in the stores and I don't even have mine yet. So Walmart, if you're listening, I'm pissed off.
00:10:25
Speaker
I hear you, man. I have those plasma series pre-order too, and people are finding them at Target. That's another thing too, right? Same thing. I have those pre-order from Pulse, and they're at Target. What the F, right? Yeah, why bother with a Pulse subscription if I could be going out and getting them at Target? Right, right. The whole point of the Pulse is to get it early. Yeah, fans first. What?
00:10:52
Speaker
Another big question, another big parks question. I'm coming at you with Galaxy's Edge stuff. Okay. As far as the lightsaber goes, because I saw the video, I stayed away from before I went because I wanted to stay spoiler free. Yeah. What lightsaber did you end up making? I made, it's a purple one, so I don't know exactly what version it's called. There's like four different types you can choose from.
00:11:18
Speaker
Yeah, I did a purple one as well with the rank or tooth on the hilt. Oh, the rank or tooth roof. I got those rank or tooth rank or teeth, little like shot glass things from the cantina. Those are awesome.
00:11:32
Speaker
Man, you guys are just rubbing the salt in the wound here for me. My trip just got COVID canceled. I had the, I had the cruise and the Disney world trip all bundled into one and now I'm, I am delayed. So that was supposed to be my first, my first jaunt into a galaxy's edge. You're going to love it. If you're a star Wars fan, even if you're not, it's just so cool. And could there, could there have been other things added to make it a little better?
00:11:55
Speaker
Okay, maybe.
Galaxy's Edge Experiences
00:11:57
Speaker
But for what it is, it's pretty damn cool. I mean, the Rise of the Resistance ride is the best attraction, in my opinion, that Disney or any other theme park has made, ever. Agreed. And I load it up on porg merch, too. Oh, you're big porg mark, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Dave is the porg mark, Matt. Like, the porg mark.
00:12:21
Speaker
So how do you feel that the porg has been kicked in the nuts by the child? You know what? If anything is going to, the child is the best. You're having a bad day. You can just take a look at the child with the cup, and you're in good shape. All right, so you're cool.
00:12:40
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So we can have that on record, Dave. You are OK with the usurping of the porg status by the child? If anything can steal porg's thunder, it's the child. Damn. All right. I didn't think it was possible. So Matt, would you say just by far the Greg Valentine rhythm and blues is the craziest thing you have in your collection? Or is there anything kind of that's come near it that we haven't seen?
00:13:10
Speaker
I'm one of those collectors who shares. Listen, I respect people's privacy and there's a lot of collectors out there who keep things behind the scenes. I like to share and I'm not doing it to rub it in or to show off. I like to spread the knowledge because a lot of things I've posted are things that people have never seen before. So I want people to see these things.
00:13:33
Speaker
I'm not saying, look what I have and look what you don't have. That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to say, hey, guys, this thing was going to come out. And look, it never did. And here it is. And here are the pictures of it. Here's the video of it. That's kind of what we're doing here is just making people aware of things. But yeah, I don't think there's anything
00:13:51
Speaker
I think you've seen it all unless I don't know if I've ever shown my Hasbro unreleased Hall of Fame heads of macho man I think you have yeah, I think you've shown those yeah, I've been planning to do a video where I
00:14:08
Speaker
They're in these sealed cases. I want to break open the case and actually build a figure like on a GI Joe Hall of Fame figure. It's like I bought the GI Joe figures do a little customization thing. Obviously, it'll be a naked figure because I don't have the much romantic on clear clothes or the whole clothing clothes. But I think it'll be cool to see how they would have been and how they would have moved. And that's something I got to do. You know, we're stuck in this quarantine. I have all the time in the world. So I should probably bag it out soon.
00:14:34
Speaker
So something else that is kind of relevant for the time here, it was just your birthday. So happy birthday. Yes. Happy birthday. Thank you very much. We saw the awesome cake that you got. But did you get any new any new figs? Did you get anything to open? No, Chelsea knows that she can't get me any figs for my birthday because like I get what I want. Like, did figures come in the mail?
00:15:01
Speaker
And it just happened to be my birthday. Yeah, but I don't really get this figures coming every day. So every day is my birthday, you know. So, so speaking of things coming in the mail, are there any, are there any white whales, anything you're hunting? We, I know you've been posting a lot of pictures of looking for those, those ECW entrance rings and, and, uh, and some of those, those, uh, those Jack sets, but is there any, any big white whales you're trying to hook right now?
00:15:25
Speaker
I think we're at the point now where the things that I'm getting are things that I don't really want or need. But I'm kind of convincing myself to get because you know, like, it's an addiction, right? Like once, once you have every has grow, you know, then you're like, Oh, let me try to find some pre production stuff.
00:15:44
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, let's say for instance, there was like an orange car diesel prototype right there. Of course I'd want that. I try to, I try to get that. I do know that somebody has a unreleased just toys. Bendom dink. It was supposed to come with a ring. He has the ring and the dink. And I fair one you showed the picture of.
00:16:04
Speaker
Uh, I believe so. Yes. So I know who has it and I know he is going to sell it soon and I don't know if he's going to do like auction style or.
00:16:16
Speaker
if he's gonna be like a private, have people bid against each other, but I'm very anxious because I don't know how high that will go for. For instance, the USA Lex Luger that I lost a couple, it's a year or so ago on eBay, it went for like $8,000 and I thought it would go for like three or four. So sometimes you don't know the market for things, especially something that's never been sold before, so it's hard to say.
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, that's that's a great point along with the stuff that Jeremy Padao has been showing off those, those ultimate warrior figures. Um, you know, especially that, what was it? One of three. I mean, wild shit. I've never, I didn't know that figure existed until he posted that picture. Um, yeah. I mean, that one has been blowing my mind, but also he's, he's like giving away rare stuff too.
Rare Collectibles and Auctions
00:17:09
Speaker
Yeah. So that New York Toy Fair, the other warrior, I think it's like one of one hundred thousand. Yeah. So now I'm missing both those warrior Americans. I need to employ one. Dude, I was at live, too. I thought you were going to pull the trigger right there. Oh, no, no, no, no. Hey, spoiler alert. That was a little part of the act. OK.
00:17:35
Speaker
You think some guy who was just, he just had the warrior with him? Of course, no, it was a plan. It was to lead to the Chelsea seed where she gave me the old low blow.
00:17:45
Speaker
Oh, of course. I still thought you were going to make it happen, though. Oh, well, I mean, maybe one day he wants a lot of money for it. So you never know. You talked about you've talked about many times of just having everything and then just kind of selling it off. Like for a while, I was I was out of the mix. The retros were actually what brought me back in. And then it turned into getting your figure and Brian's your elites to bring to live to to get signed. And then the ball just kept rolling for me from there.
00:18:14
Speaker
After you had sold everything initially, what brought you back? Well, I didn't sell everything. I just sold bits and pieces. So like, for instance, I think it was once Jax lost the license, whatever year that was, was that 2009-ish? No, probably earlier than that, right? Do you remember? Do you recall? It was 20 years, right? So it was
00:18:41
Speaker
2008, 2009, yeah. Yeah, 2008, 2009. My math is awful at 11 o'clock at night. Yeah, so once that happened, I sold all the jacks, all the classic superstars. I sold everything except for my LJNs, my bone crunches, and my Hasbros. And then little by little, I started getting more things like, now you ask me what got me back into it. So I remember it was on the WWE Network at the time. It was the Monday Night Wars show they were doing.
00:19:11
Speaker
And that got me itchy to get my ToyBiz figures back. And then once I get the ToyBiz figures back, I really should get the ECW figures back.
00:19:21
Speaker
And then a couple of years ago, I was listening to Tony Chavani's What Happened When podcast. I was like, oh, that era, that mid-90s, oh, look at those, the San Francisco Toymakers back. And it just kind of spawned from there. And then eventually, Michael Jordan of wrestling for collecting. I need to have, I don't have every figure, but I need to have every, pretty much every line, something to represent each line, if that makes sense.
00:19:48
Speaker
Totally. Yeah. I, I am not a completionist. Um, but I do, I collect like the, the Marvel, uh, Marvel legends, specifically the MCU figures and you know, the, the Star Wars three and three quarter figures. And I don't try to get like every single version of Spider-Man or every single version of Han Solo or Luke. I just kind of try to get like each look represented.
00:20:11
Speaker
Keep producing a figure over and over again, you know, whether he's got five points of articulation or 20 It doesn't make a difference to me But if I have you know Luke in his day go by outfit, I got it. We're good, right? I feel you on that Yeah, so I mean, you know, that's that's the best part about collecting. It's like
00:20:30
Speaker
you can get as in-depth or as casual as you want. No one has a gun to your head says, you need to buy all these. There are some people saying that we make too much major pod merch. Well, you don't have to buy it all.
00:20:46
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Which, by the way, you do not make too much merch. I'm not going to name names, but there are places out there that make too much merch. You guys, at least the stuff that you're putting out, it may be more frequent than other people, but it's interesting. You guys always have nice little twists, whether it's a color combination or a throwback to something. It's always interesting.
00:21:09
Speaker
You say that now, but we got the summer stop to coming up. We had a lot of merch dropping, um, besides the t-shirts. So, you know, pro S and T is so great. It's a print to order business. So like we can put all these shirts up there. We don't have the stock in these, you know, it could be the worst shirt in the world. And.
00:21:24
Speaker
Literally one person can buy it and if if one person buys it success, you know I'm saying but like we know we're having Somewhere of stomp like the people love the TTD wrestling prints. We're gonna do a run of prints limited edition stomping paradise hats we're working on a Stang foam bat
00:21:47
Speaker
A lot of obscure things plus the figures that we've discussed I think there's another pop socket coming out. So we try to make things, you know For everybody and not just wrestling figures obviously like we would love to be You know banging out these wrestling figures, but there it takes a long time cost a lot of money So to make you know
00:22:10
Speaker
a pop stock of 15 bucks, maybe some of them get that, but then, you know, they can't get the, you know, the $100 stomp of paradise figures is too expensive for them. And that's fine. So that's why we try to make stuff for everybody's budget. Yeah. Well, speaking of, speaking of staying now that the sting figures canceled, there's a void that needs to be filled there. So nothing, nothing's happening.
00:22:33
Speaker
Maybe we need a Stang figure in his absence. I would love a Stang figure. I just think that that might be tiptoeing the line a little too much. Here's my show question for you. Especially a lot of this stuff is Heath related, but when you kind of
00:22:54
Speaker
are naturally, all of that stuff is organic that's kind of caught on. But when you and Brian catch lightning in a bottle with something, whether it's like with Who's Lucy or with Stang, is it something where it's like, yeah, I could see this going, or is it always just kind of catch you by surprise? Well, like you said, it's like something that you can't create things. Like the stuff, we didn't sit down one day and say like,
00:23:17
Speaker
Let's start the stomping paradise thing. We're just, you know, we're telling the story of the stomp figures. Then Brian said he would play like Thunder and Paradise or Stomp and Paradise. And I'm like, well, wouldn't it be cool if we did some some like fake TV intro and then that turned into merch and then that spawned into, you know, the second summer of stomp. So just things kind of just escalate and snowball. And like you said, like when we first started the show,
00:23:42
Speaker
I remember someone came to us and they wanted to make us like a jingle, like an opening jingle. And I said like, Hey, I appreciate it. But listen, we don't have like an identity right now. We don't have any like catchphrases. We don't have any like inside jokes. And Oh my God, now look, the whole, like the whole life vibe, obviously inside joke and a catchphrase, you know?
Podcast Growth and Fan Interaction
00:24:03
Speaker
So things just kind of, uh, you know, they just happen.
00:24:07
Speaker
Uh, when it comes, it comes, you know, there's another one, there's another saying right there, but when it comes, it comes. And, uh, you know, we're, we're both very creative guys, especially with Mark, um, helping us out and, you know, with the major marks.
00:24:19
Speaker
Even some of the major marks give us ideas for things, you know, like even this Neil 187 this heel character we built off this guy's meal Who was crying his eyes out on the Hulk still rules DVD? You know, we found him again we put him in the group he's a heel in the Facebook group We had him at the toy drive and he wrestled. It's like what is going on here?
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I feel like you guys often catch or catch that lightning in the bottle. And I think part of it has to do with the personalities and the people that are involved. I mean, you guys have such a dynamic bunch that, you know, the material, I'm sure kind of writes itself.
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, and listen, I can't think of anything where we're like, okay, let's make this a thing, you know, just super things happen and super things catch on. And then, you know, some things, you know, that were hot in the beginning, they kind of just fizzle off and we let them die or some things, you know, get, get bigger and bigger. Like the fig bath has gotten bigger and bigger, or, you know, I'm tired, I got bigger and bigger, but I'm sure if I, if I, you know, were to go through.
00:25:23
Speaker
some of our earlier pros and key stores and there's some things that never took off or was a temporary. Yeah i mean like on social media if you type in you know pound sign scratch the auto fill is that figure it. That's something that you know.
00:25:41
Speaker
That's our tagline now our slogan, but that wasn't something that was planned either just happened And you know what we started the podcast the first episode. It's just Brian and I talking for like 45 minutes we had no no format and that you know that came in time and You know the pods evolved so much and like we announced today on comicbook.com Even though mark is mad that I did it that we are gonna have a spin-off show in the summertime.
Fantasy Wrestling Figures Spin-Off
00:26:05
Speaker
So We've been doing the the fantasy fig feds on the patreon and it's gotten so popular
00:26:11
Speaker
that we are going to turn it into a weekly show. So there's gonna be double major to a five, you know? So cool. So yeah, I want, I was trying to figure out a way to segue into that, into that announcement. So thank you for doing that for me. Well, I'm the professional, you know?
00:26:29
Speaker
And that's what it is, right? It's like, it's nostalgia. And, uh, it's, and I'm not gonna lie, it's, it's fun as hell to do this. And, you know, I mean, listen, I'm not playing, I'm not on the floor playing out these matches. I'm not having Undertaker walk down to the ring, but when I, when I am booking the figures, I'm not booking the matches. I'm actually using the figure. So in that sense, I am playing with them, I guess. And then, you know, to do the figure photography, uh, it just.
00:26:54
Speaker
I'm not going to get into what we have planned exactly, because Mark will get very, very mad. He's already very, very mad at me. But it's one of those things that I think I really believe that it might become more popular than the weekly podcast.
00:27:12
Speaker
You know, it's one of those things where if if you even even as like a small child where you were playing, you know, with your wrestlers with with other figures and you kind of had, you know, bats between like The Undertaker and Batman, which we totally did when we were kids.
00:27:30
Speaker
Um, you know dave and I we had a spreadsheet and we kept track and wrote everything down Like, you know there I used to went back in the ljn days You know pick names out of hats and make my own like battle bowl. So yeah, right for sure
00:27:46
Speaker
And and it all, you know, it would not surprise me if this takes off like wildfire for you guys, because it is such a nostalgic thing and it's so much fun to see other people do it. Yeah. Yeah, I remember the first fig fed discussion on the show and I'm like sitting in my car nodding my head going, yep, 100 percent. Because it's something we all did and are collecting.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, it's just one of those things that like, you know, people, they know that, you know, when they're when they played with those figures, like they knew they'd grow out of it one day, but now to like, be able to like, rekindle those those memories.
Nostalgia in Collecting
00:28:27
Speaker
It's like a feeling that, you know, you can't, you can't get a time machine, you know, but when you listen to this pod, I think that's the closest you're gonna get.
00:28:35
Speaker
And I think the timing for it is perfect because people are scratching for new forms of entertainment, new forms of content right now harder than they have been in a long time because of the situation that we're all in. So I think another quote unquote type of sports entertainment through this action figure fantasy league is a
00:28:58
Speaker
an awesome opportunity for people to kind of escape into it. So yeah. And the thing is, is like if you like wrestling figures, you'll love it. But if you don't, you know, I don't want to I've already said too much. Fair enough. I've already said too much.
Finding Rare Collectibles Online
00:29:14
Speaker
Fine. So now going back into like, you know, even like the flea market days are going to like, you know, so many different stores. What has changed for you as far as how you find stuff?
00:29:28
Speaker
Um, like, cause now I will use the internet and then use these Facebook groups. So like, uh, like a Facebook group is where you'll find the rare stuff for me. Like eBay, you don't, I don't find, I haven't found any like prototype except for the joint, the clown orange card on eBay. They were all found through private sellers on Facebook groups.
00:29:52
Speaker
We've we've heard time and time again now that it once you get into the prototype market It's it's private faith private invite only Facebook groups and like once you get into one Then you can get into two and three and that's where you start finding. You know this crazy shit
00:30:07
Speaker
Well, I mean, and that's where it is. And because like people don't want to deal with the eBay fees, the PayPal fees has gotten ridiculous. And plus the tax, you got to pay the IRS, you got to pay micro time debt at the end of the year. You know what I'm saying? So if you can just do a private deal, you'll save money because you won't have the eBay fees, you won't have the PayPal fees. Everybody wins. Everybody wins.
00:30:33
Speaker
So what's the latest thing that you've gotten from one of those private Facebook groups? It's been a while since I've gotten something super duper rare. I'm trying to think. Yeah. I wish I could say I got something super cool, but.
00:30:51
Speaker
I mean, today I just got like, I got junk today. Today I got, the rarest thing I got today was a foam tag team title that was sold at the live events. It's one of the rare versions where they finally switched the black logo to the scratch logo. Like I'll post a picture, but it's not even that big of a deal. It's just for me, I collect the foam belts. So that was the one I was missing. Do the foam belts go next to the foam fingers?
00:31:18
Speaker
They're all just in my, in my garage. I have to say that's one of, one of my favorite things. Cause I, you know, I, I, I married for 11 years at this point. I've been with my wife for 15 years. We have a four year old, the, the collecting with.
00:31:39
Speaker
Like the relationship that you have with your significant other while you're collecting is such an interesting thing Because I literally see the same the same shit like when I see when I see you post pictures I'm like, ah, I've seen that face before that that face key I just saw that face when my evil dead two figures came Yeah, my girlfriend's like not I didn't see anybody that by those names in the store. I'm like, oh cool. Thank you for looking
00:32:03
Speaker
See, I'm jealous, she still looks for you. Jess is like, I went to Walmart and I'm like, did you go to the toy section? She's like, why would I do that? Well, yeah, you got to go to Walmart for those naked pigs, you know?
00:32:13
Speaker
Chelsea, she does not, you know, she's not a collector, but she should go with me for the steak and figs. She knows Walmart time, steak and figs. We just put up a YouTube vlog doing that. Um, but speaking of steak and figs, I actually go need to go eat my, my fifth meal of the day. So I'm gonna have to cut this conversation a little short, even though it went pretty long.
00:32:34
Speaker
Yeah, no worries. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time to to be on our tiny little show. And thank you for being an inspiration both to Dave and I. We love the podcast. We love what you do. You're such a huge part of the toy community. You know, we have we have a lot of respect and and and it's it's an honor to have you on the show. We are here doing this because of you and Brian.
00:32:55
Speaker
Oh my God, my butt is so wet from you guys kissing it so hard. But thank you so much. Thanks for listening. Thanks for supporting us. Because without guys like you, we couldn't be doing the show. So thank you very much. And good luck with this show. And best wishes, baby. All right. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Matt. See you guys.
00:33:18
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.
00:33:34
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.
00:33:58
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.