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Androids, Aliens, and Wizards: An Interview with Hasbro's Ryan Ting
454 Plays4 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik head chat with one member of the Hasbro Marvel Legends team's Big 3 - Senior Manager Global Brand Development and Marketing, Ryan Ting! Hear about the behind the scenes process that brings figures to life, Galactus, and so much more!
Follow Ryan on Instagram @Ryan_Ting
Back Galactus and find the latest from Hasbro over at hasbropulse.com
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 to Adventures in Collecting Podcast
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. Hi.
00:00:32
Speaker
We're back, Dave. We are back. And you know what? We're just going to keep the guest train rolling. We have another guest. Yeah, no more leads. Yeah, no more leads. No more burying them. I wonder if, now, this is an actual question, Dave. Do you think there will ever be another episode where it's just you and I again? I feel like it's a thing of the past at this point. Yeah. I mean, we may have a comeback episode at some point.
00:01:03
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna put a solid prediction on it, it'll be a bit.
00:01:08
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.
Interview with Ryan Ting - Marvel Legends Team
00:01:10
Speaker
So today, Dave, we are headed back to our friends over at Hasbro. The Marvel Legends team there has quite a tall task on the day-to-day. Chief among them is cranking out figures to keep MCU, comic book, and cartoon fans happy with a steady flow of characters to collect. Joining us today on the pod is a member of the big three and is either a wizard, android,
00:01:35
Speaker
Or Alien. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting Hasbro Senior Manager Global Brand Development and Marketing for Marvel, Ryan Ting. Hey Eric and Dave, thanks for having me. Can't wait to chat it up with you. So, I mean, I know this has come up multiple times. Do you think you are the wizard, android, or alien?
00:01:59
Speaker
So we were getting ready to do our very first fan first Friday after that, the first episode of Falcon of the Winter Soldier. And I just kind of threw that in at the very end because I was like, oh, there's three of there's three things and there's three of us. So I'm glad it's become a thing. I've kind of forced it. I think it's more fun to let the fans decide. I like hearing the different arguments for how we could all be one of the three. So I don't know. What do you guys think?
00:02:24
Speaker
You know, I think I go back and forth between you and and Dan whether which one is the Android and which one is the alien because Dwight is Certainly the wizard like he is okay. He is definitely the wizard
00:02:38
Speaker
I mean, he's got the castle drapes behind him at most times. He's the wizard. Or he's in the dungeon basement with his Captain America shields on the wall. And he can conjure weapons at his will. He has those hook swords at the one time. He's definitely the wizard. OK, that makes sense.
00:02:59
Speaker
But in terms of Android or Alien, you and Dan both have qualities that I think could factor into either one of those distinctive categories. Yeah, I'll take it. That makes sense. So before we jump into everything, the first question we ask all of our guests is tell us a little bit about what you are currently collecting. All right.
Ryan Ting's Personal Collection
00:03:21
Speaker
So what am I currently collecting? Well, recently, I
00:03:25
Speaker
back to the WWE new generation ring crowdfund just kind of out of principle. We can talk more about it. I'm a big wrestling fan for growing up as a kid. I kind of casually follow it now. Don't really have too many wrestling figures, but I thought that this was the chance to just start a bigger collection. You need a place to display them all. So I backed that, those guys, Steve, Bill, Rob, that whole team, we know them a little bit. We see them at cons over the years, we chatted up on social.
00:03:53
Speaker
Those guys did an amazing job with the campaign just from a marketing perspective, which I was paying particular attention to. So congratulations to them for their success. But I definitely backed that, got the early bird special, the Macho Man package. That was number one. Recently I got this week an email from Super 7 that the Wave 3, I believe it is, right? Yeah, Wave 3, the TMNT Ultimates is shipping. I should be getting mine this weekend. So that's a line that
00:04:21
Speaker
I'm pretty much a completist on. Actually, I am a completist on, is the TMNT Ultimate. So I've gotten pre-ordered every figure or received every figure thus far. It's just easier for me to keep up with. I do love the NECA Movie Turtles stuff. So I have most of those. The NECA animated things are a little harder for me to keep up on. But I did get the Android Krang body. And I have the first couple of two packs that came out a few years ago. So I do love Ninja Turtles a lot. I go way back with the brand.
00:04:51
Speaker
on that one. And then lastly, what's the last thing I was going to talk about? Oh, friends of friends of Hasbro Transformers. So I have a pretty decent Transformers collection as well. And the thing that has just really appealed to me recently is their exclusive headmasters kind of in the old school packaging. For some reason that just really struck a chord with me. I know they're not the tooling isn't exactly the old figures. It's kind of the more modern figures, but in that retro packaging and like I feel like
00:05:19
Speaker
I wanted them as a kid and maybe didn't get them, so now this is my chance to have them all looking pretty, mint on card, mint in pack, on the shelf. I'm staring at a bunch right now. I really love those. Yeah, I feel like we've seen a lot of your collection stuff on social media and, of course, behind you when you do the live streams, but I don't think I've heard you talk about Transformers. I think that's a new one for me. Yeah. So, I mean, as a child of the late 80s,
00:05:47
Speaker
I played with a lot of these brands that we all did, from Transformers to G.I. Joe, Star Wars. I had a little He-Man back in the day, but what has really followed me as an adult collector is Marvel, first and foremost, but then also Ninja Turtles and Transformers. Those are probably my big three collecting brands, if we wanted to say, but I'll dabble in some other stuff, too. Definitely the Ring was a big one for even us here.
00:06:18
Speaker
I mean, that for me was just one of the coolest things that's come up for a while.
Ryan Ting's Career Journey
00:06:24
Speaker
So you've been in the toy industry for nearly 10 years now. Tell us a little bit about your history and how you found your way to Hasbro. Yeah, so I'll try to make this not too long. It's hard to believe it's almost been 10 years, but I was in business school out at USC.
00:06:41
Speaker
in Los Angeles and was looking for summer internships and Mattel was right down the road. And, you know, I have been a lifelong toy collector and enthusiast. So I thought, Hey, that would actually be cool to do marketing, which is what I wanted to do coming out of business school for an industry that I was so, you know, personally affecting. So I, you know, looked into some, some things around there, ended up not getting that internship. I had my heart set on at Mattel for that summer, which was heartbreaking, but in the long run, I think worked out for the best.
00:07:08
Speaker
allowed me to get some other experiences at some other toy companies. So I ended up interning for LeapFrog, which is like kind of a children's and developmental toy company for the really young ones. And then I did a little stint at Spin Master 2, which was also located out in LA and was fortunate that after graduation, there was an opportunity through some of the networking, some of the people I had met at those previous companies for an in at Hasbro.
00:07:33
Speaker
And they said, we have a associate brand marketing position on the Monopoly brand. Are you interested in hearing more? And Monopoly is huge. We all played it growing up, and I was definitely interested. I flew out to interview, and it was a whirlwind. And we actually moved back to the East Coast very quickly after I was done with my business school program. And I started in June 2013 on Monopoly. Spent a couple of years there, just kind of learning Hasbro, learning the industry, working on a great
00:08:01
Speaker
very popular, the number one family gaming brand. And then throughout, again, through some conversations and relationships I had built up in those couple of years, there was an opening on the Marvel team in 2015. So it was right about the time that the Avengers Age of Ultron was about to hit theaters. So I was fortunate to latch on and meet Dwight and the crew and Ben and everyone that we talk about all the time and just kind of
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah, just assimilate right away into that. And it's got to work on the 2016 line, which was already in development at the time. That was the Civil Captain America Civil War. And I think Ant-Man, I want to say. And then, yeah, it's been a whirlwind ever since. I've been fortunate to be continuing and doing what I'm doing on the Marvel Legends brand in terms of product development and marketing. The business has grown nicely over the years. Yeah, you can see we're putting out
00:08:55
Speaker
more items than ever it seems almost every year.
Development of Marvel Legends Brand
00:08:58
Speaker
And it's all kind of, I understand how lucky I am to have that opportunity because, you know, the Legends business and the MCU was all kind of peaking around that time. And the fans have been great in supporting the line and it just allows us to do more. So I'm loving where we're at. You know, we've got Dan joined, Dan Yoon joined the team a couple of years ago and has really hit his stride. And we are the big three as you talked about. And that's just the,
00:09:25
Speaker
the three of us who are on the camera, but it's really a greater team effort of everyone from engineering, packaging, you know, back in Rhode Island here.
00:09:35
Speaker
Yeah, we've made the joke several times with guests in the past that Hasbro kind of has this dream team situation going on over there between the different brands, whether it's what's going on for G.I. Joe or Transformers or the Marvel Legends stuff. What I'm always curious about when we talk to people who have kind of been in the toy industry for a while and have kind of had these touch points with other brands
00:10:03
Speaker
Do the experiences you had at like something like leapfrog and something like monopoly that are very different from what you're doing now, you know, end result wise, do any of those prior touch points inform any of the decisions, any of the kind of thought process that you have now? Probably not in a very divert or I should say overt direct way.
00:10:30
Speaker
My internship experiences was basically just a way for me to get a sneak peek into how things work. I had no idea what a project manager was when I was at Spin Master. So when I went to go talk with the project manager there, I was learning a lot. I think for Hasbro specifically, working on Monopoly, which is a franchise brand as the company likes to term them.
00:10:54
Speaker
You get a lot of visibility into what's possible from a marketing perspective because they have a lot of resources and it's a very high visibility brand. So that probably helped a little bit in terms of working on another big brand like Marvel where we are a licensee of Marvel. So of course we work very closely with Marvel and Disney, but they are also a powerhouse in their own right and have a lot of resources available to them on that end. So that informs some of the marketing. But I think if I were to reflect back on those
00:11:23
Speaker
instances which are more kid-focused brands, that's kind of a good foundation you need because as a fellow collector, you don't want to get too up in your head about designing products only for yourselves or letting your own biases affect a lot of the strategies you want to pursue. So it's good to keep an open mind and consider the kid consumer as well. We know that there are some kids who
00:11:47
Speaker
who collect legends to, whether they do it on their own or whether they are introduced to it by a parent or an older sibling or someone of that fact, but trying to make sure you're addressing as many consumers as possible while, yes, it is a collector-focused brand, but we had to bring up the next generation behind us.
00:12:05
Speaker
I can tell you from from experience, so Dave and I, our cousins, son, I was just about to say the same thing. Yeah, his collection rivals rivals mine for sure. And I mean, he is bashing them together and, you know, burying them in dirt and really like playing with them the way that, you know, kids play with things. And he has an absolute blast with them. And he does the, you know, comic characters and movies as well. So like it's
00:12:34
Speaker
It's a fair mix between the two. Yeah. Even my six year old, he, he's been surrounded by Marvel his whole life because I've been, you know, working on the brand and he, yeah, I think he casually likes the fans, but he, he found his own thing, you know, over the years, whether it was Thomas, the tank engine or, you know, like Disney, Pixar cars, but now he's coming around finally to, to Marvel. We're watching more.
00:12:57
Speaker
movies together and some of the Disney Plus stuff and he'll just kind of come up to my third floor here where I kind of been working from home for the past year and a half where I have all my you know personal collection and he'll just he'll just kind of stage these battles and it's really fun watching him pose figures out. I just have to not I bite my lip when certain accessories go missing or certain things like get mixed up because I'm very you know as collectors are very particular about that kind of stuff but
00:13:22
Speaker
It's a, it's a happy trade-off. I'm glad he's, he's getting into more action figure type things as opposed to like, you know, little cars, which is a little, a little younger, um, play pattern. But, but yeah, he's, we'll be, I'm sure we'll be scoping out the pegs together in a couple of years for, for the latest figures. So outside of being a founding member of the big three over at Hasbro alongside, uh, Dan and Dwight, what does your current role entail?
00:13:50
Speaker
So I'm going to borrow a little bit from a friend of your pod, Steve Ozer. He actually did, I think described the role of a, you know, global brand manager and marketer and, you know, on these brands like better than I could. So it is, yeah, so like we kind of, if, as it was described to me once by someone else, like marketing at Hasbro is the center hub of like a wheel and you've got all these spokes going out, we don't actually,
00:14:19
Speaker
control anything directly, but we oversee everything and make sure everyone is aligned. So we work very closely with all the cross-functional teams, design, engineering, model shop, packaging, digital legal QA, everything you could think of and really rally everyone together to deliver compelling, awesome product on schedule, on time. And then the second part of that is the marketing piece where we develop the marketing assets, whether it's
00:14:49
Speaker
product photos, digital spots, TV commercials, if you're more in the kids' realm, where they still do a lot of television spots. And then now, increasingly, in this pandemic era, you've seen with the Pulse live streams, the sort of direct-to-fan marketing has been such an important aspect for all the brands. And so we really spearhead that and plan things out and work carefully with the Pulse team, things like live streams, pre-orders, digital comic-ons. So definitely a lot to keep our
00:15:18
Speaker
to keep busy. At the end of the week, you're exhausted. But at the same time, you wish you had two more days because there were so many things that you wanted to get to and didn't quite get the chance to. But it's been a great ride. And I'm loving every minute of it.
00:15:31
Speaker
So one of the more interesting facets of marketing for us is the idea of kind of like pitching something, you know, pitching a product. And, you know, we know through some conversations offline that you've been a part of quite a few pitch meetings over the years. But why don't you tell us a little bit about the time that you brought a frozen burrito to one of your pitch meetings? Definitely. Yeah, we do get to pitch ideas. You know, it all starts when we
00:15:59
Speaker
want to plan the next year's line or two years down the line and then we need to get internal management. So just as a quick aside, a lot of what we do is selling internally before we ever get to talk to you guys, the fans, because we need to make sure that our strategies are sound, things cost out. We check all the business boxes and then we get to do the really fun stuff, which is reveal the figures. But there's all this upfront
00:16:24
Speaker
kind of work and negotiation that has to lead up to that because we ultimately do need to make products that, um, the regions can sell to the different retailers. So to answer your question, yeah, I've, I've been, I've been a part of some fun pitches. I've seen a lot of great pitches from the talented, uh, design and marketing teams over the years. But what the example you're referring to is, um, a couple of years back, we released these Deadpool chimichanga collectibles. They were little slug stylized figures and just very, you know, very Deadpool.
00:16:54
Speaker
The unboxing experience was meant to be that of a chimichanga, because we know he has a penchant for Mexican food, Tex-Mex food. So yeah, so this was the idea to go in and say, this is really an experience, right? We wanted to make the packaging look like a chimichanga, and you open it, and there will be little sauce packets on the inside that would have stickers, and you'd have your little figure in there as well. And so we had a meeting in this big conference room, which is called The Tank.
00:17:23
Speaker
in Hasbro. It's the biggest conference room. It's where we used to do all those in-person meetings. And at various points of the year, you would have the executive teams in there. You would have Brian Goldner or John Frascati in there just sitting front and center waiting to be wowed. So I got this idea that I should actually get a real life frozen chimichanga and do a skit with it, basically. And I had to drive around and find one. I couldn't really
00:17:48
Speaker
I had to go to several different convenience stores. I think I ended up getting one from like Walgreens or CVS. And then I kept it in the freezer at work for the whole day. And then it got to the afternoon. And then I took it out and just kept it in my pocket. It started thawing a little bit. But yeah, I went into my pitch and I said, oh, here's Deadpool. He's one of the most popular characters. He breaks the fourth wall. And we all know he's a fan of Mexican food. And I had a GIF or a clip from one of the films. And then it was just sitting in my jacket pocket
00:18:18
Speaker
And then I took it out for the moment of glory. I opened it. The plastic was a little hard to open. So I think I perforated it to start with. So I wouldn't be fumbling up there in front of everyone. So then I opened it. And then just kind of, yeah, gently, but to effect, kind of plopped it down on front of me in the table. And it made that nice sound that you would expect a somewhat frozen chimichanga to make on a hard office table. And then, yeah, I think it got some laughs. And it was on.
00:18:48
Speaker
It was on brand, it was on product, and we ended up making that product. It didn't get as widespread as we would have liked to for a lot of reasons. The PDQ that the Chimichangas came in was very long horizontally, so it was tough at retail, but I definitely had seen them at GameStop and at other retailers. So that was just a really fun thing that I'll always be able to tell that story of that time.
00:19:14
Speaker
threw down a frozen chimichanga in front of the chairman of the board, essentially, of the company and lives to tell the tale.
00:19:23
Speaker
Yeah, I always think of that story because I have a little Deadpool from that line sitting on a brain with skewered tacos and chimichangas on his katanas. And every time I look at that little Deadpool, I think about, I literally just picture you just plopping the thud of a semi-frozen burrito on a boardroom desk.
00:19:45
Speaker
One of the things that I kind of pride myself on is in these types of presentations and also in the fan first streams, just to kind of like think of like, what is like the craziest thing I could do? You know, that would be funny or entertaining or whatnot. So actually in addition to just having a frozen chimichanga, I went down to the cafeteria and I got one of those recyclable lunch trays. And then I went to the model shop and I asked Tony or someone of, you know, one of Tony's team, could you, could you spray paint this in red for me? And they kind of looked at me.
00:20:16
Speaker
sideways and like, why would you want to do this? And it's like, oh, it's for a, it's for a skit I'm doing. It's like, okay. So they spray painted Deadpool, like candy, apple, red, the lunch tray. And then I went to the cafeteria and, um, they have various beverages and I found a glass bottle, some kind of cherry soda that was also red. So I had this whole setup. I had a lunch tray. I had a cherry soda. I had a little, um, a paper like sandwich boat, like, you know, you would, you would get.
00:20:41
Speaker
And then, yeah, so that's what I kind of threw the chimichangan. I really wanted to make it a complete meal experience to sell the idea in. None of this is surprising. And all of it is awesome, by the way. So earlier this year, you guys revisited some of the classic MCU characters with the Infinity Saga line. How did you decide the time was right to fill some of those gaps?
Revisiting MCU Characters - Infinity Saga Line
00:21:08
Speaker
Right. So starting in 2018, we had the opportunity to celebrate the Marvel Studios first 10 years. And we were basically tasked with creating this program for a big campaign that Marvel was celebrating. And so we did a whole bunch of items there. And it's become a regular part of the business where we start the year planning, all right, what's going to be our big celebration or anniversary? It's a place for us to do some higher price point items to do a bunch of new characters or refresh characters. So every year,
00:21:38
Speaker
As you guys know, we've had a big fall program. It was the MCU 10th and then it was the Marvel 80th, which was more of a publishing initiative. And then last year we were able to do something for the X-Men, the Fox X-Men franchise, because it was their 20th anniversary. And now this year is the infinity saga. We were in the early planning stages of what our fall campaign would be. We were coming off of San Diego in 2019, the last time we were out there.
00:22:04
Speaker
And that's when they unveiled, Kevin Feige and everyone on stage unveiled the Infinity Saga branding for the first three phases. So yeah, we pitched the idea to Marvel and said, look, there's tons of movie characters that we haven't been able to put out, that fans have been asking for us constantly. They're characters we would selfishly like to do. Does this make sense as a theme? And then I think they kind of took that back and it aligned to some of their home entertainment initiatives and the release of Disney Plus.
00:22:32
Speaker
where now all the Infinity Saga pretty much is available constantly for streaming. So they align to us. And it's one of those things where some of Marvel's other CP partners can jump on as well. And so everyone has been kind of celebrating the Infinity Saga this year. And then we will flash forward to next year, whatever the big celebration to be announced is for that. And the Infinity Saga has been a great program for us doing things like
00:23:00
Speaker
you know, Iron Monger or that Mark III Iron Man that we've never really had in Legends or crazy things like Surtur or fan favorites like Quicksilver has been really fun. And yeah, it's been kind of quiet on the MCU front in 2020, right, with nothing, no new content really. But everyone is familiar with the Infinity Saga films previously, and hopefully they are enjoying all the offerings that are hitting right about now.
00:23:26
Speaker
Yeah, the infinity side of figures, I'm actually looking at, I'm looking at your baby right here, Quicksilver. It's, as a primer, primarily in MCU and kind of film verse collector, it's been awesome to kind of fill some of those gaps, like to finally have, you know, an iron monger and really Quicksilver, those were the two I was kind of most excited for, and then Happy, who is shipping, he is on his way, he'll be here tomorrow.
00:23:54
Speaker
I'm really excited and hopefully this isn't the last time you guys go back and revisit because there are still obviously some key characters that we haven't yet seen yet from those early films.
00:24:07
Speaker
But speaking of MCU, it is always interesting to see how you guys get these figures out, whether it's going back and filling gaps with a special line like the Infinity Saga line, or like what you did with the Disney Plus wave and the Shang-Chi figures this year, where you had a full wave of MCU with the Disney Plus wave building the wingsuit, and then kind of mixing in some Shang-Chi figures with that Mr. Hyde build-a-figure wave.
00:24:36
Speaker
How do you guys determine the balance between, you know, having a full film or MCU wave versus mixing it in with a comic wave versus, you know, having full comic waves? Yeah, it's kind of a case by case basis. Going back a couple of years. I want to say almost every wave was like a mix between MCU and comic. And then we had some examples like the second Black Panther wave was all movie. I think one of the
00:25:05
Speaker
I think the last end game wave, the one with the bro Thor builder figure was another all movie wave. So it just kind of depends for new properties like Shang-Chi, which was a, you know, Shang-Chi and Black Widow were separate cases too because the films were supposed to come out earlier. We developed the product earlier and the movies got pushed back. But back when we were developing that Shang-Chi wave, you know, it was just kind of going through the reference and seeing which characters we had reference for, which character like,
00:25:34
Speaker
of the plot that we were able to hear, you know, and what's important, you know, like why is Death Dealer important or whatever? Like you knew you were going to have Wenwu and Shang-Chi and then Shaoling, his sister, I believe it is. Looking forward to Shang-Chi, by the way. Yeah, I think we probably for that case didn't have the best reference to do a full movie wave. And then also it's kind of the balance of we still want to appeal to
00:26:00
Speaker
comic collectors as well and we'll never, if as long as Dwight and Dan and I and the rest of the team are kind of on the brand, we will continue to advocate for those long time legends collectors and to get some comic characters in there. With more and more films and now streaming, there is pressure and expectations to support the studio initiatives and justifiably so because those are such big productions, right? They're like, each movie is the next biggest thing.
00:26:29
Speaker
The Eternals trailer just dropped recently, so everyone's getting excited for that. But yeah, trying to maintain that balance where we can, and that's how you get a Mr. Hyde builder figure. Does it make sense in the world of Shang-Chi MCU? Maybe not, but it's a cool figure, and hopefully the comic fans will go out and get them.
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah, and it's always funny, like I have a friend of the pod and a good friend of ours who works at a local comic shop at Craig's Stuff. He's not really a movie collector, he is a comic collector, so like we have this cool, like,
00:27:05
Speaker
symbiotic relationship where he got all of my Mr. Hyde build a figure pieces and you know we kind of just trade stuff back and forth it's it's good to have a comic first buddy yeah that sounds like a very good setup and now a word from our sponsors
00:27:25
Speaker
So, I mean, I guess another question would be just kind of what, you know, determines what a wave will be like, you know, when we had, you know, the recent X-Men wave, what kind of goes into to that planning? And do you ever see it kind of going out of like comic books and MCU into some of maybe older TV stuff or like I know the the Marvel Lucha Libre thing exists. Like, do you ever see those kind of coming into play?
00:27:55
Speaker
I think for us, the big focus is our MCU movie and a little bit of video game. You've seen some things from like the Spider-Man PS4, the Miles game, sequel, things like the big Avengers console game from a couple of years ago. Those other kind of niche areas of like old school Marvel TV or other things, they're all technically possible. But just the reality is sometimes there's additional business considerations where we would have to cut separate deals
00:28:24
Speaker
which is fine, and we've done those in the past for certain items, but it's just a lot more work. We often don't have the bandwidth to do that. I think we will when it makes sense to. In terms of how the waves are determined, it's just a constant negotiation both amongst internally of our team and then also working with our partners, Marvel.
00:28:48
Speaker
and by proxy the studio and what they would like to see. So we try to make as many people happy as possible. Scheduling is a big point too. We have to hit certain dates for retail. So it's all kind of this very complicated equation. It's that, is it always sunny in Philadelphia, that meme where it's like drawing the lines and all the things on the board. That's basically our life day to day. Every week we have a design call with Jesse and it's like, all right, let's talk about this wave.
00:29:15
Speaker
We thought we had it settled, but someone wants to see something different. So how can we make this happen? And then at a certain point, we do need to cut it off and go into sculpting and cut tools on it. But it's never a dull moment. And it's kind of an art as well as a science, I'd say.
00:29:33
Speaker
And we learned from, you know, we had Tony on the show, some of the, you know, then the conversation goes into the kind of engineering of things where it's like, well, you want this, but we can't do it. Or, you know, how do we do this thing that we've never done before? And, you know, he mentioned the kind of friendly wrist slapping that goes on during the process.
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if you guys like big sports fans or do you follow any? So yeah, so I'm like a big NBA fan and I just I so I was I was thinking of an analogy and it's like I just laugh when I when we see all these comments where it's like or message board post and it's like here's the wave you guys should do and it's like all unique characters all different body types and
00:30:17
Speaker
It'd be like, you know, for the NBA, it's like, Oh, here's my like starting five that I would want to pick without regards to things like salary cap or free agency or, you know, real world constraints, because, you know, do you want to like, yeah, it would be great if LeBron KD and like, you know, uh, Yannis and everyone was on the same team, but like.
00:30:36
Speaker
Is that really helpful discussion? Because it cannot happen ever. Not even in the Olympics, right? Because all these players now, there's so many who are international. Not every good player is even American these days. So that doesn't even work. So I just kind of chuckle when we see those. But it's good that fans are passionate and so eager to share their ideas. We do love them. It's just kind of, yeah, there's other factors that go into it that I don't know if they
00:31:04
Speaker
Understand or probably they or maybe they don't even appreciate it But uh, yeah, listen and every now and then you guys you guys do come to the you know Come to the plate with something like that. Like I I was making the the joke on Instagram Yesterday actually that this month has been a month of just like massive action figures Because I was looking at one point at my desk and it was like I have iron monger I have serter both completely new sculpt like from the ground up on on both of those figures and then you know like
00:31:34
Speaker
King shark and violator from you know, McFarland toys and it's just like this Sometimes they do give us really big stuff that we've been asking for for a long time. So yeah, I mean nothing makes us happier when we get to To deliver a brand new sculpt something on the level of that iron monger or assertor You just have to balance not everything can be that unfortunately as much as we would love to so that's where you get some some countermeasures right in the infinity saga program such as
00:32:02
Speaker
the Infinity War Captain America, which is some reuse, but also some new important head sculpts as well, things like that.
00:32:11
Speaker
So one of our favorite lines and definitely one of my favorite lines is the three and three quarter retro line. And it's been fun to see the releases just keep on coming. When we had Steve Evans on earlier in the year, he mentioned that the line exists around that early 80s time period, that real kind of Kenner heyday time period. As the line grows, are there plans to give more modern characters the retro treatment or are we going to stay in that kind of early 80s time period?
00:32:39
Speaker
Yeah, so first off, thank you for your kind words about that line. I will talk with anyone about this line forever just because it was such a labor of love, honestly, to get it off the ground. I worked closely with Tony at the time who was pitching in for Marvel Design and then Ben and the packaging team. It's been such a relief and a joy to see that it's resonating with certain fans. So yeah, the line will continue.
00:33:07
Speaker
We've had four waves for 2021, so there will be more in 2022, for sure. Stay tuned. I think we'll probably be doing some reveals soon now as we're kind of getting into the back half of the year. But to your question, Dave, about modern characters and that look, that is something that we knew we wanted to do at some point, and we'll have to find the right area. It was kind of a thought experiment, this line, because you've got
00:33:33
Speaker
the Kenner purists out there who are like this doesn't make sense because Kenner didn't have the Marvel license and we have to kind of say no like that's that's not the point this is kind of a hypothetical thing right we're paying homage to to the Kenner brand and all the things they've done with Star Wars because Kenner is inherently Hasbro you know we're able to put that logo on the pack and it is this kind of fun what if you know what if Kenner made Marvel toys in the early 80s as Steve described
00:33:58
Speaker
Um, would love to see some modern characters in that aesthetic, but we couldn't really launch with modern characters and old school designs because I think that would have been even more confusing for people. So we've tried to keep, you know, that first year and probably, you know, the, the next coming waves to those traditional characters who were running wild in the eighties, um, that timeframe. But I would love to get to like a Deadpool on that card is kind of a no brainer. You could have some really good fun with him as he breaks the fourth wall on the packaging. And then there's a lot of new modern characters.
00:34:28
Speaker
who have been created since then who would look great on this, right? From like, that talks about Miles Morales, Jane Foster Thor, you know, characters who would really love to get to as well. So time will tell on that, but we'll continue churning out the retro-inspired characters for the time being. Yeah, like for me, I immediately thought of the Secret Wars figures when I had a kid, or when I had a kid, when I was a kid, jeez.
00:34:55
Speaker
Uh, yeah, so I thought of those and, um, Eric, please leave that in and, um, you got it, uncle Dave. Um, so I immediately thought of the secret wars ones and like, I didn't, it didn't matter that Kenner didn't make those because like you were saying, you guys made a, um, your own version of an issue of what if, before the,
00:35:18
Speaker
show came out so it's you know what if Kenner made these and what would they be and they've just been for me outstanding like it's down to the packaging like it it hits me in the the retro feels where exactly what I'm looking for with something like this so yeah I mean like any character in this size is something that's just like yeah let's let's do it bring it
00:35:44
Speaker
Yeah, it was a bit, it was a bit of a gamble. You know, some fans have asked, well, why didn't you just do like the toy biz five inch scale or, you know, the, uh, the Mattel secret wars, uh, style, like which predated, uh, the toy biz nineties line. And I think we, we wanted to venture out and just try something a little, a little more outside of the box, you know, for better or for worse. Uh, I think it has turned out, turned out well, we have seen in Star Wars and Marvel doing the retro.
00:36:12
Speaker
Carded styled six inch figures have been very popular Because you know both Kenner Star Wars and Hasbro Star Wars as well as you know Marvel has had such iconic looks over the years I'm staring at my gambit and rogue and there's a Captain America right next to them and then there's the dr. Doom Fantastic Four behind me. So those in six inch have worked really well So, you know, even though those people are like, oh well those figures, you know, we're never highly articulated six inch figures It's like yeah, we get it but we're trying to strike that balance of
00:36:41
Speaker
of nostalgia. Yeah. And I would, you know, personally, I would love to see the three and three quarter line grow into like rides and playsets and stuff like thinking about how cool, uh, like a ghost rider would be with like a retro style, uh, motorcycle or like the fantastic car, even like there, those, that three and three quarter inch scale. Um, I feel like gives you guys so many options to where you can go to kind of grow the line outside of just the figure offering.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah, we'd love to get to that point too. Once the world is established, right, we have enough characters kind of there. You know, I've pitched Thanos copter repeatedly, and it appearing in the Loki show as kind of a live action version, but as a nod back to that comic kind of panel, that silliness, you know, that'll only help my pitch moving forward. But yeah, like, I've been a fan of the Super 7 reaction line going back to the very early days
00:37:41
Speaker
When there was like the the first movie characters that they that they released and now they've really grown that and I'm a cool I'm a dabble in that too I have some I have the you know Ninja Turtles and a couple of the transformers from that line and it's just it's just so It's just so evocative and it's like when you hold that blister card in your hand and there's the blister there and you see the figure it just kind of immediately transports you back to the childhood to your childhood even though It's not a one-for-one recreation, but it kind of brings you back. It's it's that familiar space, right?
00:38:12
Speaker
Yep. And, and nostalgia, man. I mean, regardless of what industry, business, whatever you're in, nostalgia sells, whether you're, you know, rolling back the, the Froot Loops box to the way that it did, you know, even in like the early nineties or whether it's a soft drink or an action figure or a movie poster. I mean, that, that nostalgic aspect of things, but we all like to think back to the times when we were kids. And I feel like you guys are definitely capturing
00:38:39
Speaker
capturing it with that line and like you said some of the other card art that you're doing for the larger figures. Yeah and when immediately when you mentioned those I thought of like the toy biz with Captain America with the shield with like the projectile shield and Punisher with like you could put the roll of caps in the back of him and he had the cap gun type of thing. Yeah. Like that's just you know it's
00:39:05
Speaker
The retro packaging is one million percent doing exactly what, you know, you could have ever hoped for in the fact that it's just like bringing these memories back. Some fan asked a while ago, are you guys going to do a Punisher on the retro card with with the caps again? And I was like, yeah, I don't I don't think so. I don't think I don't I don't know if that passes the old age grade anymore right for a four plus, but
00:39:34
Speaker
But yeah, we'll have the memories forever for playing with those cap gun type figures. So from some of the smallest offerings currently at Hasbro to the largest ever Marvel legend, tell us about how you guys decided to bring Galactus to life.
Creating Galactus for Marvel Legends
00:39:51
Speaker
Yeah, we've talked about it a little bit in the past, but like when we were evaluating how to launch Haslab with Marvel, there were the two obvious options to us, Galactus and the Sentinel.
00:40:02
Speaker
And then I think we decided to do the Sentinel first because last year was again that X-Men, the heavy X-Men themed year. So the crowdfund took place in that same year as we were going heavy on comic and studio X-Men. And also, yeah, we're X-Men fans and I think there was a troop builder aspect. We were excited to explore right off the bat. We weren't being patient. We wanted just to come out with that and the Sentinel went great.
00:40:27
Speaker
Uh, it was a great success. And so it was onto the next one and, and a Glock, this, the timing worked out actually, because 2021 is the 60th anniversary of the Fantastic Four. So it's kind of a nice little nod. And then we were able to craft the line around, you know, we had a Fantastic Four retro wave, um, and some other, some variants planned, uh, this year, which are, which are up now for pre-order. So it all kind of coalesced in that way. Um, but yeah, those were the first two we wanted to do right out the gate. There's great precedent from ToyBiz having deluxe style playsetty figures almost, and then
00:40:57
Speaker
Toybiz in their original Legends line, they were amongst the first Buildafigures. I believe Galactus was the very first Buildafigure, if I have that right. So yeah, it's just kind of a nice nod to that. And yeah, can't wait to have both of them. Honestly, the Sentinel, they sent an email out saying for North America consumers through the Pulse that they would start shipping in mid-September. So can't wait to start seeing everyone's unboxing and video reviews for that.
00:41:27
Speaker
It's really an impressive engineering feat. And then we turn our attention to Galactus. We've got a little bit of time left before we can come on. And we've been answering a lot of questions this past week about Galactus, if you guys have any on that. But just the process of bringing him out. Super important character, obviously, for Marvel. And Dwight and the team did an amazing job of kind of classic Kirby-inspired
00:41:54
Speaker
Aesthetics with the more modern design. It's not right. You know a Kirby ripoff entirely There's a lot of modern touches there, but it's got all the great articulation and posability and just the sheer the sheer scale of it when we a friend Dave white took those photos to launch the campaign we gave him that that Fantastic Four read and he was taking pictures of like him like clawing on Galactica's boot and you just can't kind of see wait a minute How big is this thing actually?
00:42:21
Speaker
So yeah largest Marvel Legends figure ever and most complicated one ever and hopefully Fans will fans will love it when he ships a year from now When when when some of our friends get get there is I'm definitely going to send them some some size 2t clothing I Really want them to just dress. I want them to dress Galactus like a like a kid from the Walmart section. I
00:42:47
Speaker
I thought about taking a picture because I have a prototype Sentinel at home I've used for some live streams and I wanted to like put a diaper on him and be like, this is my baby. But I thought, oh, maybe Marvel wouldn't appreciate me doing that. So I'll just, I'll figure out some other, some other fun pictures to take. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's bigger than the size of a, of a newborn for sure. It seems like a little toddler running around.
00:43:11
Speaker
Now, at the time of this episode airing, listeners will have just about a week left to back the Devourer of Worlds. And outside of Nova and the mysterious yet familiar shadow, are there any additional unlocks to look forward to? Well, yeah, this is kind of a day by day discussion with me and Dan and the Pulse team on what to reveal when. We would love to drive Galactus as high as possible. We do have some kind of tricks in the bag, but I think
00:43:41
Speaker
And it might just be a personal opinion, but I kind of feel like we are not a typical independent out of the garage Kickstarter. No offense to all those, you know, independent people, but it's like, I feel like for those types of projects, the reason why they have a whole menu list of options from $1 down to the very ex most expensive, you know, tier is because they, they, they're trying to drum up as much excitement as possible. Maybe it's something that has never been done before, right? Maybe it's something of their own creation. But when you've got these kinds of big players,
00:44:11
Speaker
like Marvel and Hasbro, and we have business constraints and logistical concerns. It's a bit challenging to put out everything at the same time. I don't think that's the best consumer experience necessarily. That's just my opinion. So we're just trying to do it in the way that generates different periods of excitement here and there. When this episode airs, we're going to have a fan first. Thurs?
00:44:41
Speaker
Yeah, Thursday event coming. So we might talk some more about some things there. But it's just a constantly evolving process. And we'd love for as many fans who can back Galactus to pull the trigger and get on board. We know it's a sizable investment. And so we appreciate the support. I think the product at the end of the day is definitely going to be worth it. He is humongous, right? We've talked about it. And he's just so impressive. And he's going to be a great centerpiece to any Marvel Comics fans collection.
00:45:10
Speaker
So we posted a story on Instagram and a tweet and post and everything to collect some questions from the Marvel Legends community. And we have a little bit of a Q&A prepared for you. All right, sounds good. Dave, would you like to do the first one?
00:45:31
Speaker
I would. At Dreadnox asks, with the recent releases of former Build a Figure figures like Vulture or Thanos, as Deluxe standalone releases, what are the chances of some older Build a Figures like Fin Fang Foom getting a re-release? So when we put out
00:45:54
Speaker
build a figures as kind of deluxe figures we typically try to do that when there's a notable update to be made like we've done with with kingpin is my go to example the kingpin on the oversized retro card it was you know different different different costume different like ascot piece around the neck there and it was on a blister card which was vastly different we do that
00:46:17
Speaker
For a lot of reasons, sometimes it's if the people or fans coming new or didn't get to get every single Build a Figure piece the first time around, this is their chance to go get it. We want to make collecting as fun and as accessible to people as possible. But we also appreciate the collectors who have the original and want their original to be special. And so we'll never put out the exact same thing as a re-release. There's always some updates made to it.
00:46:46
Speaker
In terms of older figures, I think if we were ever to do a Fing-Fang-Foom, we'd want a do-over and to make them even bigger. Looking at how we've done Sentinel and Galactus, I don't think that old Fing-Fang-Foom kind of stands up anymore. And it might honestly not even exist. Tuning gets scrapped from time to time over the years if it hasn't been used. So our engineer has to constantly check what from the old, old days, the pre-Return of Marvel Legends in 2012, I think,
00:47:16
Speaker
you know, what still exists from before then, not everything does. But yeah, maybe Fing Fang Foon could be a great candidate, I'll say, for a Future Has Lab. Friend of the Pod, Toyfars asks, what's your favorite breakfast cereal, 90s cartoon, and window covering? That's three very interesting questions.
00:47:45
Speaker
For breakfast cereal, I don't know. I'll just pick one at random. Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I don't know. I probably wouldn't eat much of it today, but as a kid, that was probably one of my faves. With or without shrimp? If you're going to pick Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Definitely the shellfish free option. Yeah, no, it's crazy. I was going to call it a choice, but Eric had to go do that. Yeah, I had forgotten about that until you brought that up. That was wild. 90s cartoon.
00:48:15
Speaker
You know, boring answer, but like I'd say the X-Men animated series, I would program my mom's like VHS machine for, for the Saturday mornings and, uh, and then watch them back over and over again. Uh, so that would have to definitely be my favorite and window coverings. I don't know. Dwight is, is the master of that. I don't even know. Like when we moved into our new house.
00:48:37
Speaker
Uh, there were no window coverings. And so we had to be adults for the first time and actually go buy blinds and, uh, was an overwhelming experience. So we just settled on whatever kind of, uh, style and, and we're just going to live with those forever because I don't want to go blind shopping again. Fun fact. Um, whenever my wife wants to, um, really like get under my skin, she will threaten me with, with window treatment shopping.
00:49:06
Speaker
That's effective. That's got to be really effective, right? I hate it. To the point where it's like, we recently changed our curtains in our bedroom, and I was asked, do you want these or these? And I was like, whatever ones go up faster, and we don't have to have this conversation. I don't know why it bothers me to the length it does, but it is the worst part of owning a home to me, is the window treatments. Yeah, it's got to be up there, right?
00:49:36
Speaker
That and roofs from what I hear. Oh yeah. Yeah. Roofing is bad. Um, but thankfully there are people that specialize in, in, in roofing and, and we'll get up there and, and take care of it. And I don't have to threaten myself with falling off the roof. So yeah. And I thank you both for the preparation. Um, so I know what to look forward to in the future.
00:50:01
Speaker
Uh, so this one comes from a few people who all asked basically somewhat something resembling the
Galactus Haslab Project - Backer Goal Decision
00:50:08
Speaker
same thing. Um, the backer goals for Galactus are much higher than previous has lab projects. How did you decide on 14,000 as the funding? Yeah. So we've, we've talked a bit about this in the interviews this week. So just to reiterate that there, the kind of, you know, company sponsored answer is if you look at the public comments in the second quarter's earnings report, you know,
00:50:29
Speaker
the executives of Hasbro speak to rising freight costs and input costs that are affecting just the toy industry as a whole, and has a downstream effect on pricing in general. So that's number one. I think there's obviously real world factors. If you open a newspaper or open a news website, there's so many things going on that are affecting all industries. Like if anyone has tried to buy a car recently, I think you have similar shortages of things.
00:50:58
Speaker
Yeah, the Sentinel was developed on its own timeline in its own point in time with shipping costing various variables there. And at the time, yeah, 6,000 backers was enough that we needed to get it off the ground. I mean, also that was the very first has lab. So we were very eager to have it succeed. It, I think exceeded our expectations and the speed with which it did so was surprising. And also for Galactus factors have changed. So that's kind of how we.
00:51:28
Speaker
Ultimately ended up on that 14,000 backer minimum threshold and a $400 price point. You know, I've spoken to how these, those two variables are kind of a seesaw where that if one goes up, the other can go down and vice versa. So yes, the 14,000 is a lot higher than 6,000. However, at the same time, we were also trying to not have the price point get completely out of whack. Right. Galactus is bigger and more complicated than the Sentinel.
00:51:56
Speaker
You know, they both have similar electronics packages and that. Um, so we wanted to kind of keep the increase on price to that $50 level. So 350 to 400. And we were trying our hardest to not have that price point spike up to 500 or north of 500. If it did, then the number of minimum backers would have been lower. But in our minds, you know, once you start going over 400, you start to get over 500, the, um,
00:52:23
Speaker
what's like the pool of people who can actually realistically swing that starts dropping a lot. And at the end of the day, we do want to hit our business goals. But we also want to bring this dream project to as many fans, as many shelves, collections, houses as possible. And it's all factors leading into that. Yeah, that's what I would say. It's very easy for fans to do the simple multiplication, right? 6,000 times.
00:52:53
Speaker
350 does not equal 14,000 times 400, clearly not. But there's other factors that go into it and we're doing the best we can, I assure you.
00:53:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's evident across the board, right, with, you know, like you said, with news, you know, the cost of shipping, the cost of plastic, you know, all that stuff is readily available to consume, again, kind of agnostic to industry. So, you know, we're seeing price increases, we're seeing shipping delays, we're seeing all kind of the fallout from, you know, the wider
00:53:29
Speaker
news as a whole. So it definitely makes sense. There's clearly logic to it. Yeah, for those fans who are trying to kind of like, I don't know, assume or project what our intentions were, I would just say that we would love to make for every one of our items, right? We would love to make it as readily available and as possible. So if we could have done
00:53:56
Speaker
for fewer than 14 easily, and still maintain the price point with where we want it to be, we would have. So but just a lot of variables and factors kind of change year over year, and especially in such a tumultuous world that we live in now. I mean, normally, right, there's, there's inflation increases every year in a normal year of x% and then also, you know, the factory increases for things like labor, like these are things that
00:54:23
Speaker
Our standard in every year, but given how everything is so out of whack you've got you've got Containers being trapped in canals for crying out loud like messing everything up like who knows what's around the corner, right? Yeah, we're trying our best. We appreciate those people who have backed it if people say I would love to but look I just really can't that's too much, you know for me right now, then I respect that too and and hopefully
00:54:53
Speaker
more people or the most amount of people who can back Colactus will and be happy in the end. Next one up is from at RT De Silva. Have you guys considered MCU army builders for the Pulse exclusive line like Chitauri Warriors? Yeah, we've definitely talked about MCU troop builders from the Avengers 1 Chitauri, right, who were like flying around on those
00:55:21
Speaker
those little things with black fighting Black Widow in the air. And then you've got all the great new villains we saw in Infinity War and Endgame for Thanos' forces. Those, as we know, would be like all new sculpts. So if and when we do them, they probably wouldn't align with the current pulse strategy of army builders, which are very comic inspired. You know, some are new, some are reissued. You're like aim troopers. You're a Hydra soldier is with a few new ones sprinkled in from including like the Hellfire.
00:55:51
Speaker
uh, guard. Um, but yeah, I think we would definitely consider those. They probably wouldn't be pulse exclusives. We'd have to make a bigger deal out of it. But, um, yeah, they'll, those fit under the umbrella of the infinity war, right? So at some point down the line, uh, maybe you'll see an outrider or a Chitauri or what have you at Caesar. Ruben Castro Lopez asks, do you foresee the return of variance or chases to the Marvel legends line? Yeah. So I've actually,
00:56:21
Speaker
been thinking a lot about this myself. I keep up to date on what some of the other toy rands are out there doing some gold label or chase variants, one of 5,000 type deals. We have to explore it. I think it's a different day and age now versus 10 years ago where variants would just magically appear on shelves in a world of e-com where
00:56:49
Speaker
We're all consumers on e-comm and Amazon or what have you. When you get something and it's not exactly what you wanted or there's something wrong with it, it's not a good experience. We have to find the right balance of how to handle the e-comm distribution piece of it because once you start to have two versions of something, someone's going to get what they don't want. They either wanted the chase and didn't get it or someone might get a chase and not understand that it's a chase and say, why does it not look like the main picture? That's a challenge.
00:57:18
Speaker
And then also, just managing the consumer sentiment. I think on some levels, Chase adds excitement to some collectors. But it's really frustrating to some others who really want something and can't get it. They feel like they don't have a chance at ever seeing it at their physical store. And unfortunately, the secondary market prices get out of control. So just from my perspective, if we were to do a variant, it would be like not
00:57:44
Speaker
the default look of a character, it would be a very special kind of look that maybe isn't the most wanted one. So therefore, if there was a smaller supply and you actually didn't really care too much about that look, then you wouldn't have to worry about killing yourself to get it. So just, yeah, constantly exploring those kinds of things. Early in the Marvel Legends run, this is pre-2014, there were kind of variants or chases back
00:58:11
Speaker
right when it was only Marvel Comics, comic legends. But kind of those times are different right now. And just internally, the way our systems work, we have to track every single figure uniquely. And they can't share any, like, you know, packaging or item numbers or things like that. So that becomes a challenge. But we shall see. I did a little bit of the variant in the retro three and three quarter line when we released the foil two pack. And so you might see
00:58:41
Speaker
a little bit more of that in the 3 and 3-quarter line, but no imminent plans in 6-inch, but we will continue to look at it. So we're going to combine questions from Friends of the Pod at Geeky Fresh.
00:58:57
Speaker
and the great Tonino, we know your love for Marvel trading cards. Will we see the current upper deck collaboration at GameStop continue? And what is your all time favorite Marvel trading card? So the upper deck collaboration that was launched this year through a partnership with the GameStop US team really enjoyed seeing the fans surprise and delight to that because it kind of came out of nowhere.
00:59:26
Speaker
right in an age where every figure is revealed so far ahead in advance. That'll depend on kind of our U.S. marketing, whether the GameStop program continues will depend on our U.S. marketing and how they want to work with the GameStop account. But I think it was a great relationship builder with upper deck. And, you know, me like as a trading card super fan, I would love to get cards into the product. There's because Hasbro, right, is a master toy license for
00:59:56
Speaker
Marvel Hasbro can't do things in other categories like t-shirts or trading cards because there are those partners, right? Who have those rights? So that's why brands like transformers can throw in effectively a trading card But some of the other partner brands can't but if we were to work through upper deck who are the official licensed partner Maybe there's potential so not promising anything. I have some you know exploration to do there but the good news is that
01:00:23
Speaker
at least via the GameStop deal, the teams were able to knock one out of the park there. And so there's a track record for success to build on, potentially. For the second question, at the Great Tanino, he's an awesome follow. I recommend everyone go follow him. Yeah, what's my favorite all-time card? I don't know. Tough to say. I think my favorite set of all time is the 1992 X-Men Impel Series 1.
01:00:52
Speaker
with the, you know, the magneto teal box and the Wolverine purple box. So pretty much anything out of that set is, is just the best. And I love it. Um, and my, my fantasy is to, at some point when I have the time to go around and do this is to try to get a build as much of a complete set of that series card with the toy biz symbol on the back, because you'll remember, right? And those cards were packed in.
01:01:20
Speaker
With toy biz they were special printed and they actually had kind of a toy biz watermark on the back So I wonder if it's even possible to go and get a complete set not including the holograms I don't think the holograms are done like that, but like the base set With all toy biz on the back that would be a dream project of mine sometime I got to imagine it's gonna be tough to find those things in good shape I'd have to just buy the toys probably to guarantee like
01:01:47
Speaker
Like so when I go, I go back and get a bunch of those toy biz figures because I like to tie them into our marketing like right when I did. And we do the Fantastic Four or like the Gambit and Rogue. And I'm clicking on the eBay links and I'm like zooming in and I'm trying to determine which card is behind them. Sometimes you can definitely tell, sometimes you can't. And I've definitely made a purchase decision based on what card is in, is with the figure, packed in with the figure of course. There you go. Two birds with one stone.
01:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, I like how that X-Men series to had those like you could put a couple cards together and get like a diorama Yeah, that was the danger room. It was like the nine the nine pocket page danger room set That was the first time I had ever seen that in a trading card set and then they ended up doing that for Like the spider-man set a couple years back and then one of the Marvel Universe. I think it was series series four
01:02:43
Speaker
with the silver surfer, like the whole set was done in nine card layouts. So yeah, super, super awesome.
Ryan's Favorite Collection Piece
01:02:52
Speaker
And the last question here for our Q&A comes from at Janie J. Liu. And she asks, if your son and your sentinel fell over or got hurt at the same time, who would you check on first?
01:03:09
Speaker
This is a great hypothetical question that definitely didn't happen last week. But yeah, I mean, I would first determine, based on my son's cries and whining, whether there was a serious injury or not. If there was a serious injury, would clearly tend to him first. But if I hypothetically determined that, you know, he was gonna be okay, and it was maybe just a startling surprise for him, I would probably run over
01:03:38
Speaker
and pretend like the Sentinel was a baby, and ask the Sentinel if he was okay, and then check on my son, who I knew was okay. That's probably how I would play it out. Probably. Yeah. My son loves to come up here and pose the figures out now, and the way he considers playing with it is kind of standing them all up, and he's really proud when he can stand a figure up, because some of the figures are hard, especially the female figures are kind of challenging sometimes, with the balance in that, so he loves to stand things up, and then I,
01:04:08
Speaker
Later in the day, go look in the other room and there's like 25 figures all standing around in a circle. It's pretty cute. And yeah, I'm glad he's playing with figures. I'm glad my daughter's not the only one that does that because I will oftentimes, so I'm working on the second floor and my daughter will be downstairs playing on the first floor. And oftentimes I'll open the door leading out of the attic space here.
01:04:34
Speaker
And I'll hear that it hit something and I'll see like a domino effect of me knocking over, you know, a series of like 10 action figures that she's lined up on the floor. Oftentimes they're all in line waiting to get into the princess castle in her room, but they will be queued up as if they were at Disney World from basically her room almost into the living room. So. That's awesome. I don't know what it is about it, but these kids like standing things up.
01:05:02
Speaker
I've seen it, and I love it. And Ryan, with that, you've survived the Q&A, man. That's it. Oh, that wasn't that painful. That was good. So before we let you go, we do have one last question for you. And I'm going to hand it over to Dave, as he is the James Lipton of this podcast. And he closes us out with the final question.
01:05:26
Speaker
Yes, the final question. The final question that we ask to all of our guests, what is the strangest and or favorite piece in your collection? It could be one of each. It can be both. So I was thinking about this. I know that this is the way to close out the podcast. So yeah, I mean, there's answers where there's you could have like a prototype figure or a figure that never shipped.
01:05:52
Speaker
Or something like that could be one answer. Another answer could be like it's a really something really valuable, right? You know you have a gem mint 10 something or other sealed right away. Shouldn't really have as much so my answer kind of a unique spin on it is. I have and it might be. It might not be surprising, but like when I play with Legos as a kid, I liked building things and like never taking them apart because once it was built like I would want to keep it like that. If it was something I made, I was very proud of it. I never wanted to disrupt it so.
01:06:21
Speaker
You know, when my parents were moving out of their house years back and I was going through a bunch of all of my old toys that I wanted to keep, obviously I wanted to keep everything. I came across this Lego spaceship that I built and, you know, must've been very young. And it's just made from a mix and mash of random pieces. There's like some very old Lego space characters. There's some figures from like a medieval set. It's just a complete mix and mash, but I was super proud of it at the time and I always kept it intact all these years.
01:06:50
Speaker
And I'm actually staring at it right now. I have it still. We'll never take it apart. And I don't know. It's something that I made. It's something that reminds me what it was like to be a kid. It's something that evokes a certain level of joy just when I look at it. So yeah, that'll be my answer. It's just this random kind of worthless Lego thing that a little kid made, but I've kept it together for over, gosh, probably well over 30 years at this point.
01:07:18
Speaker
And it's just kind of a nice reminder and a nice perspective for me. Well, it's not worthless to us, Ryan. You're going to have to send us a picture so that way we can see. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I will. Yeah, it's funny. It's not even well constructed. It's just whatever random colored pieces. I didn't even think the effort to like, oh, maybe I should hunt out all the gray pieces so it looks cohesive. But it is symmetrical. And it's got two seats.
01:07:46
Speaker
for kind of a driver and then like kind of a gunner guy or someone in the back. And so, yeah, I'll take a pic and send that around. Awesome. Well, with that, Ryan, thank you so much for taking the time to join us on it on Adventures in Collecting. Please let our listeners know where can they find you on social media and where can they hear about all of the fun new Hasbro stuff? Yeah, so I am on Instagram a little bit here and there at Ryan underscore Ting.
01:08:14
Speaker
And then I'm also on Twitter, although I'm not nowhere near as good as Twitter as Dan Yoon is, but I am also on the Twitter there, also at Ryan underscore Ting. So I'll post, you know, I won't really post like reveals there. People love to hunt my pictures and see, you know, hints at new things, but, you know, I definitely prefer to have the Hasbro pulse and the official channels for new reveals. So what I like to do is just post kind of, you know, in-hand stuff.
01:08:41
Speaker
uh, of, of figures that are already revealed just to give, you know, a greater look at things or, you know, snapshots from my personal collection. Um, and then also the Hasbro pulse, you know, uh, that's where we do all of our official marketing. And, um, Marvel has a group, the Marvel legends fans are great on the pulse. So keep that up. We, we want to strive to be the number one Hasbro pulse brand. So we don't want to give up that championship belt anytime soon.
01:09:04
Speaker
Um, but yeah, that, that's about it for me. You know, I appreciate you guys. Thank you again for carving out time, you know, during the day to record, uh, you know, uh, for my benefit. So I appreciate that and keep up the good work. You guys, uh, have a really awesome podcast. I honestly mean that I listened to a bunch of them, you know, very insightful questions, clearly very knowledgeable and passionate collectors. And that's what it's all about. So, um, appreciate you guys. And, uh, I will be listening to all future episodes.
01:09:31
Speaker
Well, thanks again Ryan and guys make sure to check out Ryan and the other two members of the big three If you're listening to this episode the day it goes live on August 26th, which is this Thursday 11 a.m. Eastern there will be a live stream with potentially more news and reveals So make sure you check out Ryan and the team there
01:09:55
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
01:10:11
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
01:10:35
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.