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The Toy Association 2021 Toy of the Year Awards
405 Plays5 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik talk the latest news, toy hauls, and roll out the red carpet to talk the 2021 Toy Association Toy of the Year Awards! Who got snubbed? Who stole the show? WHO WAS BEST DRESSED?!? Listen now!
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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 to Adventures in Collecting
00:00:02
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. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:31
Speaker
We're back. Hey, what's up? We're back. Dave, it's been, here we are again. We've made it through another two weeks of living life.
Episode Recap: No Guest, Toy Fair Absence
00:00:45
Speaker
And not to bury the lead, but we don't have a guest this week.
00:00:48
Speaker
Yeah, no guess this week. Thanks again, last episode, for a friend of the pod, Zach, from Zach Oat from Diamond Select joining us on the pod. That was a super fun conversation. I hope you guys all enjoyed it. We had a blast with him. We did. It was a lot of fun.
00:01:07
Speaker
And we're excited to see a lot of the stuff that he's talking about. None of those reveals have happened yet. We haven't seen any of the additional Lord of the Rings or the big new brand reveal that he hinted at. But we are watching closely. We're watching closely.
00:01:26
Speaker
On today's episode, we are going to tackle news and hauls, which there has been a lot of both of those things. A lot of new pickups, I know for both of us and a ton of news. Ton of. Well, we haven't talked about hauls in like months, so I mean, yeah, it's been piling up. And then we are recording this late Friday evening. Today is Friday.
00:01:55
Speaker
February 12. And we should have been gearing up for the 2021 toy fair in New York should have been happening this weekend originally. So the 2021 toy of the year that the toadies just happened this afternoon. And there were some interesting results from the toy of the year.
00:02:20
Speaker
event, virtual event, first time they've ever done a virtual one. And I figured we just kind of go over some of those, the highlights from the show, if you will, which was very nice.
Walmart's New Collectibles & Toy News
00:02:31
Speaker
I enjoyed it. Okay. Um, but yeah, so let's, let's kick it off with, uh, with some news, uh, Dave. So I'm, I'm going to kick us off here with, uh, with some news from, um,
00:02:46
Speaker
from actually the Walmart collectibles section of Walmart. So I'm sure a lot of you out there that have been toy hunting.
00:02:56
Speaker
Wait a minute, the Walmart collectible section is in Walmart? Yes. OK. Yeah, I'm saying specifically the Walmart collectibles because that's the hashtag, right? Hashtag Walmart collectibles. I'm sure a lot of you have seen that new section over in that entertainment area, right? Over by the vinyl and the Blu-rays and the CDs for people that still buy CDs.
00:03:25
Speaker
So we have learned that that entire section is actually being.
00:03:33
Speaker
handled by a company called Collection Obsession. They are a new distributor. They haven't been around for very long, but they have kind of taken up the responsibility, worked a deal out with Walmart that they're actually the ones that are stocking that section with the NECA, MEGO, Bandai, Loyal Subjects figures. So really interesting, you know, we've we connected with them, we've
00:04:00
Speaker
We've been having some conversations with them about kind of the process and how they're handling that. But it's just really interesting that a lot of this new product now that we're hearing about, so oil subjects just showed off three out of the four of their upcoming
00:04:18
Speaker
Garbage Pail Kids statuettes that they're putting out that are they're actually WWE inspired so there's so there will be an Andre the Giant, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Macho Man Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior will be in the first wave of those and they're small I don't I don't have the actual scale handy I'm looking to see if I can find it and I'm struggling but uh
00:04:41
Speaker
They are small, I would say no more than four or five inches tall, but really cool 3D models of Garbage Pail Kids cards from tops, but in statue form. And along with the loyal subjects, Garbage Pail Kids,
00:05:03
Speaker
Uh, products. They've also been showing off a bunch of other stuff that's going to be coming to that section, including a relaunch of a super nostalgic, uh, toy that I had not thought of in a long time, but Boglins. Yeah.
00:05:18
Speaker
Um, those were fun. The little, uh, puppets, little, you know, goblin puppets or Boglin puppets. Yep. And they're, and they're designed, uh, by the original, um, the original designer, which is also super cool. Um, I believe eight of them, um, from the pre-orders that went up earlier this week, um, will actually be signed by the creator of, of Boglins. Um,
00:05:47
Speaker
Which is another, you know, a cool addition to, uh, to owning something that's, you know, straight out of, I believe there came out in like 1986, 1987. So a little bit before my time, but, um, really cool.
00:06:02
Speaker
They have the original packaging, the original designs, all of that. So if you head to your Walmart and you see that collectibles section over in the entertainment area, Collection Obsession, they're the ones that are responsible for making sure that there's a ton of cool stuff there for you to buy. Indeed there is. Dave, what
AEW Wrestling Figures Discussion
00:06:26
Speaker
do you got? Why don't you hit us up with maybe some wrestling updates first?
00:06:31
Speaker
I mean there's a lot, there's a lot that's happened. Where do we want to start? Oh boy, alright why don't we do AW? Okay, so really in a very short time and we're talking like
00:06:53
Speaker
Um, you know, and within the past two weeks or so, three weeks, um, we not only learned of a W series, um, unrivaled series four, but we saw the pre-orders go up. Um, pretty much soon after they were announced. Um, so we saw Matt Hardy, Cody, um, Sammy Guevara.
00:07:21
Speaker
Who else was in the series for? Santana and Ortiz, and... It all kind of blends together for me now because they announced so many at once. Yeah, and Matt Hardy. Matt Hardy, that's right. And Matt's your chase. And Matt Hardy is the rare, and Cody is the chase. Yes. Yes, yes. So those are really cool. And then we had the...
00:07:48
Speaker
ringside exclusive Cody from when he won the TNT title, which is significant because if you look at it, it's the original unfinished TNT title. So it's the all silver. It's just the silver and red. None of the gold accents are there. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, and then you forgot to mention the wave of all Cody's. The wave of all Cody's that Britt Baker announced. Yep, and Faro.
00:08:17
Speaker
Right. Farrow, Farrow roads. Yeah. And then, um, then we got series five announcements. Now those have not gone up for pre-order yet. Um, but we got the announcements for those. We saw some renders. Um, we have SCU, which of course is Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian. Um, hopefully since they were the first AW tag team champions.
00:08:46
Speaker
We may see them with the tag team titles, hopefully. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. We have another tag team. We have the Jurassic Express, AKA Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy. So that's really cool. And then John Moxley and Hangman Adam Page. Moxley is the chase and Page is the rare. Yes.
00:09:14
Speaker
And then we also saw that there was an ounce that there's going to be a Dr. Britt for a ringside exclusive two-pack and an unmatched figure, I believe Jeremy had said. Yes. Yeah, so Jeremy was doing his best, put on his best troll hat on social media, which I got a big kick out of.
00:09:43
Speaker
getting getting involved with Photoshop on his on his computer and using the the body of I want to say it was the ultimate warrior and just throwing Cody head on it and making it look like Legends warrior yeah and making a fake two-pack to kind of Head fake everybody so that was that was very that's very good. I got a nice little little laugh out of that and
00:10:10
Speaker
But we are in fact getting a Britt Baker figure, two of them, which is important. Yes. She deserves to figure. And then we have, oh yeah, absolutely she does. Then we have just two great regular series as well.
00:10:31
Speaker
You know, people are getting down on the repeats, but, you know, that's gonna happen. You're gonna see the big names be a part of multiples of these series. It's kind of like, you know, Seth Rollins and AJ in WWE elites, like these characters that on TV that are the main event characters, they're gonna be represented more often than not in the figure world.
00:11:01
Speaker
It just is. I mean, that's a tough thing to get down on, because regardless of what figure franchise you're talking about, whether it's Marvel Legends always having a Wolverine or a Spider-Man, or the DC Multiverse is basically a Batman line at this point. But there's always a Batman in
Toy Character Reuse & Popularity
00:11:25
Speaker
the wave. Even Spin Master's four-inch figure, she's always a Batman.
00:11:30
Speaker
you know star wars there's always a luke skywalker or you know there's always a stormtrooper there are just figures that need to be kind of in those waves because you always have to remember that like yes you are a collector you know we're we're you know
00:11:48
Speaker
Whether you're an adult collector or, you know, a kid playing with these toys, you never know when your first wave might be, right? So like, maybe you were, you, I mean, AEW is a little bit. Oh, geez. I forgot. I forgot Kenny Omega for series four, by the way, of all people. AEW world champion, Kenny Omega. Uh, yeah.
00:12:08
Speaker
And right now, probably one of the most fun heels in wrestling. Certainly one of the most talked about being everywhere, you know? Yup. Yup.
00:12:21
Speaker
But yeah, going back to your point, the reuse of those figures, not only is it something that I'm sure saves on cost, but also you never know when it's somebody's first wave of action figures. And you've got to have your big names available at any given time, whether it's the top wrestler or the top superhero. These aren't just for us. There are kids that actually
00:12:51
Speaker
you're gonna play with these and you know, maybe they want to have Cody have an outfit change or have Kenny Omega have an outfit change or have never seen a Kenny Omega. Yep. So, yep. And those it's, you know, a W, especially those first two waves have been so difficult to come by. Like I saw so I know you've seen so far as to say the first three.
00:13:16
Speaker
Well, I know you've seen them in person before after, you know, extensive hunting. I saw my first AEW figures in person since I saw prototypes at last year's toy fair this week. And it was a, a Rio and a, a POC. That was it. The rest of the rest of the wave was gone. And as I was standing there taking a picture and posting about it, somebody bought the POC.
00:13:40
Speaker
It was, you know, gentleman walked up and he was like, you're taking a picture, you gonna buy that? I was like, nope, all
New Releases from Tracker Collectibles & Loyal Subjects
00:13:46
Speaker
yours. But yeah, and then I went back, you know, two days later and Rio was gone. So, you know, but yes, to your point, there have been complaints about reuse, but you're gonna see that, or you're not even necessarily reused because they're new in a lot of instances, new sculpts, new outfits and everything.
00:14:09
Speaker
you're gonna see characters and personalities over and over again in different toy lines. It's not something that's unique to wrestling, so people need to. Yeah, I think even the Kenny is a new head. Yeah, it is, based on the look. The Cody looks like it is, at the very least, it's the Blood Brothers head. Yeah, I mean, if you're gonna have a gripe about one figure, I guess it's okay to have a gripe about there being too many Cody Rhodes at this point.
00:14:39
Speaker
but at the same time, he's kind of the face of the company, so. Yeah. What are you gonna do? It would've been like being mad that there were too many stone colds back in the 90s. Yeah, or the rock, right? Yeah. Okay, so hopping away from wrestling to something that we talked about a few months ago on the show. So we had Peter Goral from,
00:15:09
Speaker
killer bootlegs fame. He announced on the show that he was going to be the CEO of
00:15:21
Speaker
Tracker Collectibles, which is the action figure toy collectibles division of Scout Comics. Tracker has been announcing and showing off a lot of the digital renders and in some cases prototypes of their first few toys.
00:15:41
Speaker
And among them is the first Tracker Collectibles Phantom Starkiller figure. And it looks fantastic. So it's going to be a 5POA, 3 and 3 quarter inch type figure. Much like the Super 7 reaction figures, but designed a little bit differently. Instead of having the kind of
00:16:08
Speaker
What do you call it? A telescoping sword built into his arm like the original Kenner figures. He's going to have the sword separately as an accessory.
00:16:20
Speaker
Detailing and deco is a little bit different. It looks more like a modern a more modern Kenner figure so think like past like the 78 Star Wars and think more like you know like a kind of superpowers or You know Even like some of the Kenner Batman stuff see I was gonna say is it to me it looks more like like this would be the power of the force Phantom Starkiller and
00:16:46
Speaker
It could be, yeah. You could go that late into Kenner's run. I think that's also a fair assessment. But definitely chunkier, definitely a little more deco than we've gotten so far on the Super 7 figure. So really excited to see as they make more figures from the comic. And of course, as Scout releases more issues of the comic, I'm really excited to see
00:17:13
Speaker
What they continue to put out speaking and speaking of figures that are in kind of that scale we mentioned before the loyal subjects
00:17:24
Speaker
they have announced some more best action figures. So we've now seen, in Wave 2, we've seen Aang from Avatar the Last Airbender, Buffy and Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Ace Fairly is the latest music edition. So we're now, if you were able to find Gene Simmons, which we are still struggling to locate,
00:17:54
Speaker
you are now halfway to kiss once you have Ace for Ellie. So I'm really excited though. You know, these figures do look great. There were, you know, the spike and vicious that I have from Cowboy Bebop or, you know, who was out lightning? Yeah, you have you have lightning. Lightning was cool. We've also we picked up Naruto for
00:18:19
Speaker
friend of the pod Dave creepy and Jay so they're they're great looking figures and you know they they have a ton more in store for us as we uh as we we keep going with with that line um yeah the lightning one is super cool Dave uh so outside of AEW um why don't you tell us a little bit about what zombie sailor has been up to
00:18:43
Speaker
Oh, okay.
Retro Style Wrestling Figures & More
00:18:45
Speaker
Um, so friend of the pod zombie sailor. Um, speaking of kind of partnering with the original artist has partnered with Hasbro designer Ron Rudette to basically kind of pick up where Mattel was leaving off in a way with the retros. Now these aren't going to have the, uh,
00:19:11
Speaker
The action features, we'll say. Correct. But they are going to be similarly styled, as we've seen from the prototype images. So of course, we have Matt Cardona, Brian Myers, and Smart Mark Sterling. There is also Dan Housen. Love that Dan Housen. Love that Dan Housen. We also have Sabu, which is really cool.
00:19:40
Speaker
Um, we also have bruiser Brody, so we're getting another bruiser Brody figure in the near future and, um, announced this week. Um, Dino Bravo. So first ever action figure. Yeah. A lot of, um, a lot of cool choices, very much kind of in different eras, which is nice.
00:20:03
Speaker
Yeah, and, and the figures, uh, you know, are kind of like, so they're styled in that, that, you know, Hasbro retro or, um, you know, Mattel retro style or like the cello toys who have been doing them too.
00:20:16
Speaker
But it's like almost like a cross between them and the glue ones because of, you know, without those action figure action features and kind of the way that they articulate that they are the gloops didn't articulate. Yeah, I'm not going to be static like the gloops. No, but for some reason, like just kind of looking at them.
00:20:34
Speaker
Thinking you know what what is one of those? You know those Hasbro or you know style figures without the action feature it almost brings it a little bit closer To the glue because it kind of gives them that that static like a base because their legs aren't gonna move right they're gonna in a lot of Instances there were Mattels really or I mean not Mattels Hasbro. Yeah, it's true. I guess I don't know why why I get I get glue vibes from
00:21:02
Speaker
From seeing maybe it's just like the models. I don't know, but they look fantastic either either way you look at it and Josh has been holding them up and taking pictures of them like with both Mattel retros and original Hasbro WWF figures and they I mean they fit right in and I can't wait to see like some of the painted protos and
00:21:25
Speaker
It's a very exciting venture. And I know he was saying pre-orders soon, but he hasn't put up a date yet. Yeah. And they will be all, all of the orders will be exclusively through zombie sailor toys. So like it's, you're not going to find these, you know, at like Pro Wrestling Tees or any of those, you know, Entertainment Earths or any of those other websites, the sales are going to be done.
00:21:50
Speaker
Strictly through my zombie. Yeah zombies storefront so More to come on that we will of course You know keep you guys updated which by the way if you're listening to this for the first time hello welcome to adventures in collecting Make sure you're following us at a I see underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter because all the stuff that we talk about on the show As we start to collect these news that these pieces of news and like as things come out We make sure that we post the links and and all that good stuff on a on a daily basis
00:22:20
Speaker
And maybe someday you'll see us open them on YouTube. Yeah, that too. We mentioned Pro Wrestling Tees, and we've been talking about wrestling figures, so I feel like it's a good segue for the AEW micro-brawlers. Yeah, and those are through the Powered by Pro Wrestling Tees, AEWshop.com. So those are up for pre-order already, I believe. They still will be by the time you listen to this.
00:22:51
Speaker
Yes, I'm just looking that up right now the date. Yeah, through the 18th at 1pm. And they have and they're going to be 1799 each. You have Hikaru Shida, John Moxley, Brodie Lee, Chris Jericho, Orange Cassidy, Dr. Britt Baker and Darby Allen.
00:23:16
Speaker
Solid solid first wave of those micro brawlers and those things are insanely popular. Yeah, they've definitely Spiked in popularity with the six different macho man. Yep Yep, and I throw brawlers that were last week. I think they could they could safely thank Matt and and Brian for For a lot of that hype I would say that definitely has as a role. Yeah, I
00:23:44
Speaker
But they are really cool looking. I mean, they are. And there's so many of them now at this point. Yeah, there's impact ones. There's a lot. Yeah.
NECA's Universal Monsters & Mattel's WWE Figures
00:23:56
Speaker
So one of the things that I'm really excited for, I just think it looks gorgeous, is what NECA just recently announced. And again, NECA announcements are kind of seemingly every day at this point, whether it's a new Ninja Turtles thing or whether it's a new
00:24:17
Speaker
New Predator or Alien figure that they're putting out but the thing that they just announced I think is one of the coolest announcements they've made in a while to celebrate the 90th anniversary which will be I looked this up on November 21st of this year.
00:24:35
Speaker
the Universal Pictures Universal Studios Boris Karloff Frankenstein turns 90. So they have released an ultimate Frankenstein's monster. And it is in grayscale. So the figure is in black and white. Looks like it walked right off of right off of the screen.
00:24:55
Speaker
And it comes with chains and multiple heads, and it comes with little crushed flowers. It is an absolutely gorgeous piece. And just today, actually, Randy Falk from NECA was doing a little Q&A on Twitter. And he announced that, or kind of teased, that the mummy will be next. So it seems as if they are slowly going to start
00:25:25
Speaker
Introducing the universal monsters into their their ultimates lineup, which is is amazing It's been a while since we've had really good kind of 112 scale Excuse me not 112
00:25:43
Speaker
No, 1-12th, yeah. 1-12th scale, Universal Monsters, the last company that did it was Diamond Select, and it's been quite some time. So it's exciting to see some more Universal Monsters coming back into the mix. And Frankenstein is actually available for pre-order now on Entertainment Earth and a couple of other places. We have the link to it posted, again, on our social media. So if you're looking to pick up Frankenstein, you can either just search for him or head on over to our page and grab the link.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yeah, I'll do one more wrestling thing because there was a lot. So we got to see prototype images of Elite 85, I believe. Yes. Yes. Yeah, it was Elite 85. And they are up for pre-order already. So we got Firefly Funhouse Bray Wyatt, which is cool.
00:26:44
Speaker
New Liv Morgan in her gear when she first came back. Carrie Anne Cross, which is awesome. Aleister Black, who is the chase. Becky Lynch and Boneyard match Undertaker. Then they showed the two-pack, the next two-pack, which is Jeff Hardy and Triple H from SmackDown when
00:27:11
Speaker
Triple H and Jeff Hardy had the Intercontinental title match on SmackDown, I believe it was in 2001. And then we also saw Ultimate Edge and Ultimate Randy Savage from Ultimate Series 8, which are amazing looking. I think the Edge is awesome. Oh yeah.
00:27:30
Speaker
Yeah, I love the we were discussing the blown back hair, whether it's supposed to be Midspear or part of that Royal Rumble entrance. But I think either way you slice it, people people are going to have fun photographing that that figure. Yeah, if you didn't get the recent Elite Edge, you you should get that ultimate one because it is signifying last year's Royal Rumble, the 2020 Royal Rumble when Edge came back. Just a great figure.
00:28:00
Speaker
great-looking figure. And also Ringside, probably to go with the, I'll say to go with the Firefly Fun House, Ray Wyatt and Legend series 10 John Cena announced, I think, one of the coolest things of all time. For some reason, it's been getting some some hate online. I don't know why, because I think it rules. And that is the Firefly Fun House match NWO John Cena.
00:28:30
Speaker
I remember saying when that happened, we could, you know, play back the tape if you want, but I wanted the NWO John Cena. I was just gonna say like, I remember when that happened, both of us were like, this would be a hell of a toy. Yeah, I mean, you could do both of them, you could just do Cena, whatever, but it's it's great.
00:28:52
Speaker
Yeah, it is. It is a fantastic and it works great as it is as an exclusive too, because it comes in that nice box that folds out. Speaking of which, more pictures of WrestleMania 12 Ultimate Warrior 2, which is also a ringside exclusive, as is John Cena. And it comes with the WrestleMania 12 entrance fold out, which is cool.
00:29:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's it is a but both of those exclusives are there. They're making making good use of the fact that, you know, that they're exclusives, you know, they don't have to worry about shelf space. Yeah, it's definitely like I'll say the Cena more so maybe in this product or in each product. But I think it's great.
00:29:38
Speaker
So the other thing that I wanted to mention before we closed out on the news was a recent crossover addition to Fortnite, a game that I spent a lot of time on, was Snake Eyes. So GI Joe's Snake Eyes was added as a playable skin in Fortnite and in
00:30:02
Speaker
what I could only kind of form into words like the most toyetic thing possible they took the classified skin or the GI excuse me the Fortnite skin and they made Hasbro made a one-off super limited Fortnite GI Joe snake eyes and it is it is his
00:30:26
Speaker
It is his actual skin from the Fortnite game. He comes with specific Fortnite accessories. He was up for pre-order. He is going to ship next January.
00:30:44
Speaker
So it was it's a very very much so an advanced pre-order, but I Of course had to get I had to get it had to scoop that up So you know he'll be he'll be coming next year If you do the pre-orders like you know if you do a super 7 pre-order or anything Or the boss fight pre-orders you know that these the turnaround isn't right away So yeah
00:31:09
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not scoffing at the turnaround. If anything, it's great too, because it's in order from Hasbro Pulse, so they don't charge you until it ships. So it's like, basically I bought myself a birthday gift for next year. Yeah, like I pre-ordered Papa Emeritus. I don't know when it's coming, but I'm sure it'll be awesome when it does. Yep, yep, still waiting on those New Japan figures. Yeah, New Japan, still waiting.
00:31:39
Speaker
Um, you know, spawn is supposedly shipping soon. Yeah. We just got an email about that that, uh, that, uh, that we're, he's moving forward. Speaking of things that are shipping, by the way. Um, what was it? Legends series eight? No, at legend series nine. Uh, shit, all of them. Wild, wild stuff.
00:32:04
Speaker
You missed the, and apparently it happened for most people. So like the cancel train did not roll into station with that, which is awesome. Good for them. Well done, Target.
00:32:18
Speaker
Um, Dave, actually there was one more wrestling thing. I feel like we should mention, um, we should, we should probably mention before we move out of news, the, uh, the, the junk shop dog news.
Collector Highlights: Recent Acquisitions
00:32:29
Speaker
Yeah. So, um, this past weekend, junk shop dog, um, announced the next, um, Sofubi series two figure, which is going to be dynamite kid.
00:32:43
Speaker
No, I still feel like we've definitely talked about Sofubi before on the podcast, but we have to assume that there might be somebody who has no idea what a Sofubi is, Dave. It's a soft vinyl figure. Literally two points of articulation, the arms move. Some of them don't, but they're very stylized. They're not very big. I want to say they're like...
00:33:12
Speaker
Five inches maybe? Yeah. If you want to see more, the Bruiser Brody unboxing was put up this past Wednesday. You can check that out. Yes, it was. On YouTube, Adventures in Collecting on YouTube. I love how that shameless plug just kind of like trickled out. It was good.
00:33:41
Speaker
Um, so yeah, they're, they're, um, you know, mostly Japanese based figure, um, whether it's wrestling figures or otherwise. Um, but they're, you know, like, if you think of copies or char pros or anything along those lines, that's that style figure. So it's almost more a statue than action figure.
00:34:06
Speaker
So that'll be another one for for pre-order I'd imagine soonish again another one where a junk shop didn't say the date but You know, I would got him. I've got to imagine he'll do another like limited run one maybe he won't I don't know but uh, I definitely will order one
00:34:27
Speaker
And I believe he has, outside of Dynamite Kid, I believe there are two more to this, what he's calling Series 2, because it's technically a continuation of the Poppy line. Yeah, Poppy. I believe he has two more coming outside of Dynamite Kid as well, so stay tuned for additional announcements.
00:34:50
Speaker
Yeah, so let's move into into halls if because it's been a it's been a minute remember what I bought recently So I'll start us off. I'm because I haven't been able to put them down our friends our friend Justin and our friends over at blue friend brands Bandai Namco collectibles they sent us over to SH figure arts Dragon Ball Z figures
00:35:19
Speaker
So something a little out of the norm for us. I loved Dragonwall Z when I was a kid. I rewatched it several times as an adult. But they just released a new version of Piccolo that he's kind of V2. It's the second version, same figure. But he has, instead of having the manga, original manga,
00:35:47
Speaker
colorway he has the colorway from the TV show so it looks and it is fantastic there if the review and unboxing has not dropped yet on YouTube is coming very soon but it is a fantastic figure they sent him along with a
00:36:04
Speaker
Sun Goku again from from Dragon Ball Z so that way I could do some some fun scaling and photography with them so big big thanks once again to Bluefin these figures are incredible you know Tamashi Nation's SH figure it's um they're they're fantastic so that was one thing that I picked up and then um I
00:36:27
Speaker
I actually, Dave, we have not talked about this. I didn't mention it at all to you, but I did a little Mercari scooping and I grabbed two Marvel Legends that I didn't realize that I wanted until I kind of remembered that they existed. I grabbed the Winter Soldier, Winter Soldier, so the
00:36:50
Speaker
the Marvel Legends Winter Soldier, the Bucky. This is pre-face printing, so it does not have the Sebastian Stan likeness. However, it does come with two head sculpts. So the second head sculpt is the masked one. So it's just neat. I realized as I was, you know, we've kind of been rewatching some of the movies with Maddie.
00:37:13
Speaker
that I did not have a Winter Soldier that had the red star on his arm. I only had the one with the Wakanda arm. So I started looking for my villain's shelf to see if I could find a Winter Soldier, and I found him for a decent price, so I picked him up. And then I realized that if I'm gonna do figure photography with the Winter Soldier, I need the stealth suit cap.
00:37:39
Speaker
Because it was, you know, I have like the regular red, white and blue, you know, the, the end game. Look, I have the infinity war one with the, with the Wakanda shield and the beard. I have, you know, kind of the.
00:37:51
Speaker
uh... the world war two caps like i i have enough of him but i realize that if i'm going to do figure photography for the winter soldier i needed that stealth suit so i was able to find that figure complete which i apparently is like not easy to find uh... i paid a little bit more than i kinda want to for a loose figure but he has a lot of accessories got a lot of different hands again that's pre face printing but you can always do you know uh... a head swap
00:38:16
Speaker
and one of the unmasked Steve Rogers, you know, newer Steve Rogers heads. They fit perfectly on them and look great. So yeah, I added I added those to Marvel Legends along with Hawkeye. I finally got the Age of Ultron Hawkeye.
00:38:37
Speaker
It's super weird that over the years, the amount of films that Jeremy Renner has been in and has played Hawkeye in, there are only three Hawkeye figures. There's one from the first Avengers, which was part of a Walmart exclusive line that was like,
00:39:00
Speaker
Really early. It's it's not even if they are technically Marvel Legends figures, but they're not labeled Marvel Legends. They're labeled like Avengers superhero figures or something like that And that one super hard to come by it's he's got like the sunglasses and he's got the the shield costume from the first Avengers film then there was the
00:39:24
Speaker
the one that was part of the Amazon or Toys R Us multi-pack, which is the one that I have, that's again kind of the same thing, he's got that purple and black MCU costume on, no sunglasses, again, pre-face prints and older figure, but it does look great, the likeness is very accurate. And then we didn't see another Hawkeye figure until Endgame, when they gave us the Ronin figure,
00:39:54
Speaker
And then included the Hawkeye head in the Target exclusive Time Heist suit pack that had him and Black Widow in the non-film accurate Time Heist suits.
00:40:09
Speaker
So, you know, what everyone really has been doing as of late is taking the time heist head, putting it on the Ronin figure and calling it, you know, modern Hawkeye. But yeah, so I'm super stoked to have those three kind of older Marvel Legends that I didn't think I was going to be able to find added to the to the roster. You have a growing MCU roster. Nice. I have a lot like.
00:40:37
Speaker
I can't talk about all of it, so I'll do some highlights. You had ordered for me the gold label McFarland Batman, the Walmart one. Did you open that yet? No, not yet. I was going to plan something for that, but I haven't done it yet. I also got Superman Red Sun, which I think is awesome.
00:41:09
Speaker
The Damien Wayne Robin, DC Multiverse, and I also got the Curse of the White Knight Asriel because I was like, wow, that's just basically an Asriel figure as if it was Asriel from the 90s. So I was like, okay, this kind of fits in the things I would want from these figures. So I picked it up and that figure is awesome. It's unreal, isn't it? The cape is so good.
00:41:38
Speaker
Yeah, I like it a lot. But I remember the exact discussion with you, I was like, that's basically just as real, like it's not even really that specific to that comic book. Correct. If I didn't want it to be. Yeah, I actually also picked up the Damien Wayne Robin. I saw him in person and I I caved. I wasn't originally going to get him hoping that they would make, you know, kind of a.
00:42:08
Speaker
an Arkham Asylum Robin. Oh, like a Tim Drake Robin? Yeah, it's such a good figure. It really is. His little his like little like, I don't even want to call it a smirk, his like angsty grimace. It's just fantastic. Yeah, it's really good. What else have I picked up? I got the
00:42:38
Speaker
Shayna Baszler, Amazon exclusive fan takeover figure. Um, that literally came today. It's a good figure. It's a good figure. Um, I got the Inverto Carrillo Basic because, um, that'll go with like the cruiserweights that I have. Um, I got that Marvel lucha libre, um, Amazon collector core box, which we talked about on the latest episode of what's in the box.
00:43:09
Speaker
I'm available only on Instagram. AIC on your podcast. What else did I get? That's really the big stuff. Found the Target exclusive Andy Bernard sumo pop. Andy in the sumo suit from the office. That's really it to mention. You know, we talked about
00:43:38
Speaker
AEW Series 2 and Series 3 that came from Ringside. That's really all I've ordered for a while from there. Yeah, the only other thing that I wanted to mention that I picked up, which, again, was something that I was not going to pick up until I saw Toisha's review of it on YouTube, but I grabbed the Creep Show Creep.
NECA Creepshow & Toy of the Year Awards
00:44:03
Speaker
And I have to say, it's an awesome figure if you're into Creepshow and you like that mascot and you like horror figures. Whether you like the shutter TV show or whether you like the original two films, it's the Creep. It's awesome. He comes with a little Creepshow comic book too, which is a great accessory. But if you are just looking for a 1-12th scale zombie,
00:44:29
Speaker
This figure is amazing because the cloth goods come completely off very easily. Like you don't have to fight it. And they did not skimp on any of the sculpting underneath the cloth goods. So like when you take the robe off, you just have like a really creepy, awesome zombie.
00:44:48
Speaker
So if you are looking for any kind of dio pieces or you want zombies for your Ash Williams to fight or Resident Evil figures to fight or really anything, you just need a creepy zombie for your dio or for your photography. It's an easy spend. It's awesome.
00:45:11
Speaker
I can't recommend it enough. And for a figure that's so kind of like slight and frail, it actually has a really great center of gravity and stands and poses really well. So kudos to NECA on that. I think that's really all I have to mention. So so why don't we why don't we why don't we flip it into the the toy of the year then? OK.
00:45:36
Speaker
So, um, as I mentioned at the top of the show, uh, you know, this, we should have been gearing up for what would have been, uh, the 2021 New York toy fair. Um, something that I know both of us were extremely excited for.
00:45:52
Speaker
but, you know, we'll see what happens next year. One of the things that kicks off the New York Toy Fair every year is the Toy of the Year awards. Normally it's a closed event that they hold at a Marriott near
00:46:10
Speaker
near the Javits Center in New York. So this year they made it a, you did have to RSVP to it, but you could stream it. So we, you know, I watched the stream of the awards. And there were some fun, some fun things that won. I'm not going to go through all the categories because I believe there were like,
00:46:32
Speaker
almost like 17 of them, but some notable things that won. So the Mattel 11 inch, really to scale child plush, Baby Yoda plush, the first real like Baby Yoda doll that you could get, the first real big like piece of merchandise. I'm actually looking at mine right now. One plush toy of the year, which I feel like was kind of a given.
00:47:02
Speaker
The and you'll notice a theme here. So the Mandalorian Lego Star Wars Razorcrest, one construction toy of the year.
00:47:17
Speaker
And then innovative toy of the year was Hasbro's the child animatronic toy That's the one that does like If you've seen it in stores, it has like the the Mandalorian necklace it when you pat his head he does stuff Yeah, he does the magic hand thingy
00:47:38
Speaker
yeah so I and then moving on to Mandalorian the license of the year which I thought was a fun award so like the some of the other things that were in this category were like Marvel paw patrol
00:47:56
Speaker
You know, uh, just kind of like general baby shark, I think was one of them. But, uh, Star Wars, the Mandalorian, uh, one license of the year. So I, I, I mean, I think that's, that's fair to say that any, any and all Mandalorian license stuff. 2020 was the year of baby Yoda. So a hundred percent, a hundred percent. Um.
00:48:21
Speaker
lego also uh you know i mentioned lego for the the construction toy of the year dave but lego won a couple of additional things as well um lego won play set of the year with the lego super mario bowser's castle boss battle expansion set yeah i see every time i see that i want that um especially since i have lego mario so yeah that i mean
00:48:47
Speaker
That whole endeavor that they launched with Mario, I think, is one of the most interesting things that they have done. And I mean, LEGO is always doing crazy new stuff, whether they're dabbling into the art world or automotive world or whatever. What they did with Mario, I think, is really special. And I think they're on to something there. And LEGO did have another victory as well.
00:49:15
Speaker
the Lego Ideas Grand Piano, which is an incredible set if you've not seen it. That is very cool. One specialty toy of the year. It looks like they got collectible of the year too for the character packs. Yep, that's right. Actually, yep, the little blind bags. Oh, it's the blind bags, not the different suits? No, it's the blind bags, the character packs.
00:49:43
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. I've picked up a couple of those too. So the ones where you could have like Bullet Bill or the flying, I'm trying to zoom in here to see what they actually, the like little octopus thing. Yeah, any of the little kind of ancillary villains that you'd run into in the stages.
00:50:09
Speaker
And then I wanted to call this one out because I thought this was interesting because I recall us both at the Spin Master booth at Toy Fair last year. Do you remember the Paw Patrol display when they walked us through the Paw Patrol stuff? Yes. And they showed us that all-terrain vehicle that had a plane that launched off the back. Oh yeah, that was cool. That one preschool toy of the year.
00:50:39
Speaker
That's cool. So it was nice to see that. They were very excited about that toy. So before we get to action figure of the year, the last one I wanted to mention was Vehicle of the Year. And this was another really cool category it had. There was another LEGO one in there. I want to say the LEGO Lamborghini was in this. But the vehicle that won was the Playmobil Back to the Future DeLorean. Oh, interesting.
00:51:05
Speaker
Um, which is an awesome, an absolutely awesome toy. Playmobil is one of those companies, again, that's just kind of been around forever, you know, making really cool toys, but they've, they've done, they're like low key awesome with their crossovers. Um, they did like a whole NHL crossover a bunch of years ago where you could get like a Zamboni. Um, they, they do, they do a lot of really fun things. So I was excited to see that, uh, that they picked up a W for that, uh, for that vehicle category.
00:51:38
Speaker
All right. So action figures, right? Um, so there, there were two really big, I would say like you would think would be front runners in this category, um, would being the, the four inch spin master Batman figures and the McFarland toys, uh, Kickstarter spawn. Um, neither of those one.
00:52:07
Speaker
The Fisher Price Thank You Heroes line. One action figure of the year. Yeah.
00:52:19
Speaker
Very cool. Very cool line. Like they are real life heroes. I'm going to go out. I'm going to I'm going to say this right. I'm going to I'm going to go out and say this right now. I'm I am actually happy that the the that the spawn did not win this category. I'm sure it is going to be an incredible action figure. It's probably going to be one of my favorite action figures of all time, but not enough people have it to vote on that yet.
00:52:50
Speaker
I mean, there there are not really does. There have only been a couple of review copies of that figure, and even the review copies are early prototypes. They're not they're not the final thing. This is not me mongering in a way to say like, you know, I don't think people are going to get their figure. You are absolutely going to get your figure.
00:53:15
Speaker
I mean, it sounds like very soon, too. Yeah. The shipping updates have been incredible and transparent. And I am still just as excited as I was the day I backed that. There are three highly anticipated groups of figures that are shipping soon. You know, the boss fight, lucha brothers, those new Japan super sevens and spawn.
00:53:39
Speaker
Yeah, I hope my fingers are crossed that one of us is on that is on that first four for containers that are that are filled with spawn figures. So like, yeah, I mean, I it's not going to be based off of like, did you order within the first hour? You know, like, no, it's I'm sure it's totally random. Yeah.
00:54:04
Speaker
And I, listen, I love those Fisher price. Um, thank you heroes line. If you, if you're unfamiliar with it, it is, um, there, it, it, it's a doctor. They're frontline workers. It is their frontline worker action figures. Um, totally get why they won, but I do kind of feel like the spin master Batman figures or, you know,
00:54:28
Speaker
Probably the the obvious choice there in terms of if it were any other year, right? Yeah, so good on
00:54:43
Speaker
You know, good on the, uh, the, the board there for, for making the, uh, the valiant decision. Oh, no, wait, those are more like, I guess, Imaginext. Yeah. They're, uh, they're, they're less little people, more, um, more like Imaginext. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Those are great, actually. They're awesome. They're awesome. I 100% get why they won. Yeah. Like they're.
00:55:07
Speaker
it made like people who are superheroes toys that are super hero. I mean, I they're they're real life heroes. You can't be upset that that one, especially with the way I'm just looking at them now. Like, again, they're great. Yeah.
00:55:22
Speaker
makes complete sense. If there were any, they are a product of the year that we just all went through and what we're continuing to go through, and those people should be celebrated. Funko's even doing it now. I saw some of the frontline workers, Funko's. Oh yeah, those have been out for a bit, but they're great too.
00:55:42
Speaker
Yeah. And then the last two awards, we have the Toy of the Year, and then we have the People's Choice Award.
People's Choice & Toy of the Year Winners
00:55:51
Speaker
So the People's Choice Award went to two separate things. It went to a board game, Story Time with Chess, but it also went to the McFarlane Toys, Kickstarter, Spawn, Action Figure. So it did get decorated. I guess for being the, you know,
00:56:10
Speaker
kind of highest, fastest growing Kickstarter? This one was purely based on the user vote. So they tallied votes through a couple of different channels and the user votes, those two things got the most user votes form.
00:56:32
Speaker
And then the Toy of the Year was the aforementioned electronic child, Baby Yoda, from Hasbro. So two awards for Baby Yoda, or three awards for Baby Yoda, including Toy of the Year. And it's fun, because I'm looking at the list. It's like I have the Mattel one. Maddie's got the Hasbro, Baby Yoda. We've got Spawn coming.
00:57:03
Speaker
I feel like this award show never really gets a lot of attention, because it's really behind closed doors. And if you're not at toy fair or working within the toy industry, I think it kind of gets lost in the shuffle. But I think it was nice to have a little more exposure for it, see some of these other, because I started looking at some of the other toys that were nominees. So I think it's good for the industry to open this up and let us
00:57:33
Speaker
End users, if you will, get to see the awards. Yeah, that's cool.
00:57:40
Speaker
So with that, Dave, I think we have some really exciting stuff planned for the next few episodes of Adventures in Collecting. So definitely stick around. I don't want to spoil anything, but we have some fun surprises. We have some fun special guests planned for the next few episodes. So with that, Dave, let's sign it off, and we'll see you guys next time. Bye.
00:58:09
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.
00:58:25
Speaker
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00:58:49
Speaker
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