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The Ghosts of Christmas Past Vol. 1
412 Plays6 years ago
On this special holiday episode of Adventures in Collecting, Dave and Erik cover the usual toy news and hauls before diving into Round 2 of "Name That Toy!" This episode's main topic is "The Ghosts of Christmas Past," where the brothers Weinbrecht discuss two of their favorite memories from childhood Christmases.
Special thanks to Matt Cardona (WWE Superstar Zack Ryder) of the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast for the awesome intro - Listen to the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast here or wherever you enjoy podcasts!
Thanks also to all of our friends, family, guests, and collaborators in 2019 - this year was really special for us and we're so happy to keep bringing you this podcast! Happy New Year - we'll see you in 2020!
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter
Intro by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Theme
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, Dave. Hi, Eric. Hey, Dave. Do we curse on this podcast? Yes, Eric. Yes, we do. Hey, guys. This is the $1,000 broski, the Michael Jordan of Wrestling Figure Collecting, Matt Cardona. And you're listening to the Major Wrestling... Wait, what? This is Adventures in Collecting? Is this the Bootleg Major Wrestling Figure podcast? Are you serious, bro? Enjoy the show.
00:00:28
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your sleigh! 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.
Holiday Special Introduction
00:00:56
Speaker
Happy holidays, everybody. Hey. We're back. Yes, we are. I mean, I was here last episode too, but you're back. Yes, I'm back. Happy holidays, everybody. Yeah. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, our special holiday edition. This will be airing today is the 23rd. So happy Hanukkah, first and foremost. Christmas is right around the corner and we had a special guest in our intro.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, what a holiday miracle. We had Santa. Santa was there. Yes, but who else was there, Dave? Oh, well, of course. Much thanks to Matt Cardona of the major wrestling figure podcast for that intro. Very cool to hear from Broski.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And we, we love scratching that figure itch. Yeah. So, um, and, and I've been letting them breathe lately. Yeah. Um, no, but seriously, super, super big thanks to Matt Cardona. Um, and of course to a friend of the program, John Carlo. So yes, thank you to both of them. And, and Santa Claus, uh, was being portrayed in the beginning there by our Santa Claus.
00:02:15
Speaker
Sure, Santa Claus. We'll stick with that. Read the show notes. Read the show notes. So before we jump into the...
Movie and Toy Release Discussion
00:02:25
Speaker
Also, thank you to our friend of the program, Joe Azari, for having that word with Santa Claus.
00:02:35
Speaker
So before we jump into today's holiday topic, which is going to be ghosts of Christmas past, Dave and I are going to take you through some of our, well, one moment each from our childhood of Christmas morning and like a toy that was really, really important to us, our really good memory of a toy like that. Before we hop into that, you know, of course, we're going to do the news and halls, but we need to address the elephant in the room, which is the rise of Skywalker.
00:03:05
Speaker
Um, we are recording this on Friday, the 20th. And at this point, um, I have seen it twice. I have seen it once cause I have. And you know, it's still really early, you know, it's only going to be the first weekend. And I know there's a whole lot of people that are not going to have a chance to see it for work and, you know, travel obligations and everything. So no spoilers here. We're not going to talk about anything that happened in the movie. Um, but just
00:03:31
Speaker
you know, a quick top line. I really enjoyed it. Talking Star Wars critique with me is very difficult because I'm a little bit of a homer for all of them. The books, the comics, the TV shows. But I really enjoyed it. And I'm really excited for some of the potential action figures that could come out of this movie. Yeah. There are some really cool moments, you know, variations of things. I just I'm I'm very excited. I'm very satisfied with the end.
00:04:01
Speaker
It was, it was very fun. I enjoyed the movie a lot. Yes, there are a couple of things that I didn't love wholeheartedly. But I would say like I would not tell somebody that I didn't like it. Like I really enjoyed the movie. It was a lot of fun. There was a point where I was like, oh, they might lose me here. And then it was redeemed. So yeah, I enjoyed it.
00:04:30
Speaker
So I think overall both of us are saying go see it. If you're a Star Wars fan, go see it.
00:04:35
Speaker
So to hop into news, just some really cool things that happened in between the last episode and this episode. Hasbro released some glam shots of the upcoming Cosmic Ghost Rider and Squirrel Girl for the Marvel Legends line that we had mentioned. We post the pictures on our Instagram, which by the way, if you're not following us yet there, it's at AIC underscore podcast.
00:05:06
Speaker
The shots look awesome. I'm not super familiar with Cosmic Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider has never really been my wheelhouse, but it looks really cool. You know, don't know a whole lot about the character, but yeah, he looks awesome. And the Squirrel Girl, of course, looks awesome, comes with the moped. Speaking of the major wrestling figure podcast,
00:05:31
Speaker
They had a limited release of Remco style action figures on Ringside that sold out in just a few minutes. Yeah. The
00:05:46
Speaker
I think the timing from official release, not pre-release, was 23. Yeah, I mean, and they're super cool figures. They did a really cool commercial, like 80s, 90s style commercial for it, which was really awesome. They're those classic Remco, what is it, AWA style figures with lucha masks, and they look really cool. Yeah, I was fortunate to be able to order
00:06:16
Speaker
Order one. The other the other limited thing that happened the other day, for those that follow what the what Funko is doing with their with their kind of pop up shop website, you know, they have those those random drops where they kind of announced them on social media.
00:06:33
Speaker
There's been a lot of talk about some of the recent ones not selling out, you know They're either producing too many of them, you know, whatever anybody has to say about it But they put out a hundred dollar 18 inch Adam West style Batman pop that sold out in less than two minutes. I believe there were only 700 of them and
00:06:54
Speaker
produced. So I don't know whether that was a reaction to some of the fan response to how that process has been going or not, but still show that even with a product with a pretty big price tag on it, that if it's a limited quantity item from them, it's going to go. And honestly, it is a cool looking pop. I actually tried to get it for myself.
00:07:21
Speaker
I don't. 18 inches is a lot. I there's just something about like, I love the Adam West Batman. The cowl is is yeah, with like the lines on the eyes and stuff like just the way that that's designed. I tried to get it. I couldn't. So but for news, that's all I got. I mean, that's that's pretty much it.
00:07:45
Speaker
ringside is shipping ringside collectibles is shipping the Just got the email notification that the Jushin thunder Liger storm collectibles is in stock so hopefully that means that
00:07:59
Speaker
all retailers will be getting that soon because that's a phenomenal figure. Um, and does that, is that like the, cause I know super seven was doing new Japan figures too, right? Yeah. I think there's a difference. And I think we talked about this when it was announced that the licensing is different because, uh, Jushin Thunder Liger is a manga character first. Yes. But in scale wise, they're going to scale with, uh, same scale. Okay. Cool.
00:08:23
Speaker
Um, did you have any other news? That's all I got. Um, slow heading into the holidays. Yep. Usually the
Toy Acquisitions and Deals
00:08:30
Speaker
case. Um, halls wise, uh, you know, uh, I got a couple of the things that I ordered on Cyber Monday, um, finally came in. Um,
00:08:40
Speaker
I was able to get the Captain America and Peggy Carter 2-pack, which I was really excited about. Agent Carter, Peggy Carter, she's one of my favorite characters in the MCU, and the Haley Atwell sculpt and face print on her is just, it's incredible. It's one of my favorite ones. I was also able to pick up
00:09:02
Speaker
The something I did not think I was going to get, I actually should have gotten it today. But unfortunately, the Walmart that I shipped to store was closed because the power went out. So I checked the FedEx tracking and it's sitting there. I just they haven't sent me the email to pick up yet. But they marked down the Java's Palace playset, the vintage collection one to twenty five dollars.
00:09:27
Speaker
And it comes with two carded vintage collection figures along with the actual playset. And at twenty twenty five dollars, I could not pass that up because directly to the left of me here, one of my display cubes is permanently return to the Jedi. So I'm going to judge some things up there. But we'll do once I get that in, we'll we'll do an unboxing of it and I'll take pictures of it set up with all the other figures. I'm very excited to get that. But that's that's pretty much been my halls.
00:09:57
Speaker
I got four weeks worth because you know we're going back to a Couple episodes ago that have been just kind of writing stuff down and good lord am I an embarrassment? Why don't why don't you keep it tight tidy it up a little bit Just just kind of like um some shit together. Yeah, so one of the things I got was I picked up the
00:10:25
Speaker
the Amazon exclusive micro maniacs battle game on, um, because it comes with two extra figures. Uh, so now you have two of the rings. I returned the other one. Okay. Um, but the, um, the standard one that you'll see in the store is Braun Strowman and Finn Balor. Um, the Amazon one came with a repaint of Daniel Bryan and a repaint of the macho man.
00:10:55
Speaker
So that was cool. Then I picked up a couple of other just kind of things like I got the Survivor Series, Walmart exclusive, Jeff Hardy and Don Morocco, which was neat. I also picked up the Diamond Dallas Page Elite. I picked up
00:11:20
Speaker
The Bash at the Beach Network Spotlight 3 pack. I found a Carl Anderson Elite, which now I have to find Luke Gallows, which apparently is difficult. I found... So Series 72 and 73 of Elites are starting to make it out to stores, which is cool. I found the Series 72 Rey Mysterio, which is the one I was looking for.
00:11:45
Speaker
And then Ringside had their, Ringside Collectibles had their annual Black Friday, Cyber Monday, like in credit sale. I called it in credit sale. They can use that next year if they want. But I went kind of bonkers. I got The Dude Love Elite, which I believe was Elite 62. I got the Elite 63 Sammy Zine.
00:12:14
Speaker
Elite 65 Rusev, I got the Shayna Baszler Elite, Elite 67 Velveteen Dream, I got Cedric Alexander Elite, I got WrestleMania 35 Scott Hall, last year's Survivor Series Bobby Roode, I got a Drew Gulak Basic,
00:12:34
Speaker
Elite 66 Kurt Angle, I got the Nia Jax Elite, I got the ECW but the WWE version of ECW, Matt Hardy Elite, which is a ringside exclusive, and the Brian Kendrick, like THE Brian Kendrick WWE ringside exclusive Elite. So there were some insane deals going on, they were blowing out some stuff, so I definitely picked up
00:13:02
Speaker
stuff that I was looking for that I had been holding off on. And finally picked it up. Oh, that reminds me, speaking of blowing stuff out, I did get two other things. I spent a grand total of $14.
00:13:17
Speaker
on the Hasbro Toy Shop's eBay page. They have an eBay store, like an official eBay store. I got the Black Series First Order Riot baton, normally $200 for $9. And I got my co-pilot Chewy, that like for real pets, Chewy, for $4.
00:13:43
Speaker
And the the latter of which will be a Christmas gift for for Maddie, but um Yeah, I they had some ridiculous like crazy blowout sales on their eBay page The mace windu black series lights the force effects black series lightsaber the obi-wan episode one I couldn't pull the trigger fast enough on those they sold out before I could get them but um even like the Darth Maul sabers and
00:14:11
Speaker
Um, where if you buy the two of them, you can screw them together. Um, they had them all for like $9 a piece and they had, as far as I can tell, everybody that ordered them got them. Like nobody had their orders canceled or anything. It was, I don't know whether it was a mistake that they just flew with or whatever, but I've now been, you know, pretty consistently going back and checking the Hasbro toy shop eBay page.
00:14:36
Speaker
I mean, from the sounds of that warehouse sale, it doesn't sound like it was on accident. And then that's the other thing. So that warehouse sale, so that was on...
00:14:45
Speaker
I want to say like a Thursday, Friday, the weird eBay blowout thing. And then the following Tuesday, Wednesday in their warehouse in Pennsylvania, they had a two-day sale. You had to go in person, no cash. You could only pay credit.
00:15:09
Speaker
And they had crazy discounts. I mean, they had like current run Black Series figures for like five bucks. They had some of the Black Series wearables, like the props, the Stormtrooper helmets, things like that for like 10, 20 bucks. It was crazy. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go. It was just far enough away from us where I couldn't sneak away after work. It would have been a six hour ordeal, at least for me. And during the week, that's just
00:15:39
Speaker
That's just not doable. The other thing that I completely forgot to mention, as Dave was mentioning blowouts, I cannot caution more about making offers on things on eBay because I got handcuffed to one. I'm glad I got it, but I've spent a little more than I wanted to. I picked up the Mbaku Build a Figure for 40 bucks.
00:16:07
Speaker
So, you know, not too bad. You know, I don't want that whole wave. And I have the figures that I have from the wave already that I had bought at toy shows and things like that that I had already gotten, you know, far less than retail. Yeah, that was one I've been telling you you need for a long time, too. And he's really good. It's such a good it should have been a standard series figure. Yeah, it's really good. They did such a nice job on on not just I mean, the faces at this point saying that the Marvel Legends figures have have great faces is kind of redundant.
00:16:37
Speaker
But they did such a nice job on his the texture of his clothes. He has so many like layers on and they just the way that they're the way that they're sculpted, they don't inhibit his movement. Like he looks he looks fantastic. I don't have him out at the moment. But yeah, he looks great. So that's news.
00:17:00
Speaker
Well, that's not new. That's false. Yeah. Um, I actually have another, we have another segment. Oh, oh, that's right. And I, I, I, I, I have clues. Oh shit. Yeah. Let's time to guess that toy, Eric. All right. Cue the music. Is that, is it guess that toy? Is that what we call this? I forget. I forget what we called it.
00:17:25
Speaker
Hang on, let's look it up real quick so we can get it right. No, who cares? Let's guess that toy this week.
Guess That Toy Game
00:17:31
Speaker
Guess that toy. All right. So if you don't remember the rules, I forgot that we had a game after I did all this stuff. I did prep. So Dave, so last time we did this, the toy was Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. Dave is going to read me
00:17:53
Speaker
I have eight clues. Okay. So Dave is going to read me clues and I'm assuming you did it, you structured it the way that I did. So like the clues get more broader as, as they get, as they go on. Oh, mine are there. Wait, you mean they get more narrow as they go on? Yes, they get more narrow. Yeah. Cause this first clue couldn't be the first two couldn't be more broad. Okay.
00:18:12
Speaker
So they get narrower as it goes as it goes along. If I can't get it after the clues that Dave gives me, I lose right now. Dave is winning one nothing. I lose. And then we will flip it to you guys on social media. We'll put it up on Instagram. And if you get it.
00:18:32
Speaker
We'll figure out something. I have some, you know what? I actually have some really cool buttons that they gave away at the Toys R Us store opening at Garden State Plaza that I've been hanging on to. Maybe we can send you a button. I don't know. We're mentioning it on social media. We'll figure out something. I'll even give you a nice clue that I didn't write down, but I think you're going to get this. All right. So without further ado, oh, name that toy. That's what it was. Name that toy. Name that toy. Cue the music. Guess that toy.
00:19:01
Speaker
It's a toy. Alright, so, clue number one, are you ready? I'm ready, Dave. It was, the first clue is, it was created by the company Amtoy, owned by greeting card company American Greetings. All I remember from American Greetings is when mom used to work for them. Keep going. Clue number two, it's currently in its second revival produced by Just Play, Inc.
00:19:33
Speaker
Woof. Next. Had two straight-to-video cartoon releases at the height of its popularity. I'm just gonna take a guess. It's not Care Bears, is it? It's not Care Bears. Okay. Had a short-lived comic published by Marvel.
00:20:01
Speaker
and it was under their kids line at the time. Ah, keep going. I think this next one is the giveaway. Was originally a popular foam gross-out toy in the 1980s. Foam gross-out toy. Garbage pail kids? That is incorrect.
00:20:30
Speaker
Boom gross out toy. Spawn the series of copycat toys in the same genre. I don't know, keep going. Really? Okay, I didn't think we'd get this far. Are these bad clues or are they good clues? I don't, I mean they're good clues, I just, you're stumping me, I can't think of what it is.
00:20:57
Speaker
Oh, okay. Only survived its initial run for two series and had a larger sports related super series. Are these those balls with the faces on them? Mad, mad balls? Yes. All right.
00:21:15
Speaker
That one gave it away, the sports one, because I remember the big football sized ones. They had a football one. And then the last clue was Kid Robot has made a series based on licensed horror characters, as well as reproductions of the original series. Aren't they doing something with Mondo?
00:21:34
Speaker
or they were at mondo con or something there's been a lot of so those aren't quote unquote part of the revivals okay um but they're like licensed reproductions yeah i know madballs were fun i remember those and what i forgot about
00:21:52
Speaker
because I had madballs as what I was gonna do from when you told me I have to do one for this episode. Okay. I forgot Yuma and I talked about him. Oh.
00:22:06
Speaker
You know what? Your clues were so abstract that my brain didn't even go there. You had the clue number nine was going to be this was discussed by Yuma and I on last week's episode. You briefly you you threw me into a direction that I was I was not thinking madballs because I did not know the history of the like the American greetings connection there.
00:22:28
Speaker
actually had no idea so that like it completely sidetracked me my like mindset wise I had known the kid robot repros but yeah and then the horror themed ones I almost was gonna get one as like the prize for you
00:22:45
Speaker
Which would have been the prize for whoever answered it, in all honesty. Oh man, I should have gone back to Mom's house and dug up the Captain Power figures. That could have been your prize. Here are your own toys. Here are your toys. I went downstairs and found them. All right, so we're tied. One, one, one. One, one. All right. I was surprised we went that far. I thought the popular gross out toy was going to get you there.
00:23:12
Speaker
Well, that's why I was thinking American Greetings. I remember there was Garbage Pail Kids. Well, Garbage Pail was tops. Yeah, but that was tops. Yeah. And they were just cards, or eventually maybe figures, but... I thought they had toys. I know some of their toys were more recent. Okay. Yeah. Well, Tide, one-one. Yeah, that was a good one. All right, well done, Dave. Hey, I'm proud of myself for... I am proud of you. Thank you.
00:23:39
Speaker
So speaking of nostalgia and toys that we had when we were kids, it's a perfect segue into our holiday
Favorite Christmas Toys
00:23:47
Speaker
topic. So welcome to the the ghosts of Christmas past. Yes. So I actually struggled with this a little bit. I have a couple of things as it was my idea, I did not. I had a couple of things going against me. One, first and foremost,
00:24:09
Speaker
Christmas and my birthday are a month apart. So I have a very hard time remembering what I got on Christmas versus what I got on my birthday for the larger part of my childhood. So much so that I actually sent out a text message to both mom and dad. Really? And I said, Hey, do you guys remember me being particularly excited?
00:24:32
Speaker
About a gift or something you know christmas gift or like was there something that was really hard for you guys to find that you know you remembered. And the funny thing is so again there's an age gap between dave and i just like seven years. It is exactly seven years. It was funny because both mom and dad were like. You wanted that game boy and the original nintendo.
00:24:57
Speaker
It's like, nope, that was Dave. And Game Boy came out, I think I got it after my birthday. And then we started going through things and they were like, yeah, we always remember that you wanted wrestlers and Batman figures. That's accurate. And then mom goes, yeah, you wanted that thing with the different parts where you put it together and it makes a big robot. I was like, Power Rangers. She was like, no, I think it was Voltron.
00:25:20
Speaker
Nope, that was our other son. Nope, that was Dave. Glad you guys remembered me. But no, eventually the conversation I had with mom is actually how I got to mine. So I'm- Yeah, Game Boy was a summer thing, so I definitely bought that. Yeah. On my own. So I am going to say, since it was your topic, you go first. Okay. So...
00:25:43
Speaker
But for me, there's a lot, and there's going to be kind of crossover down the road with, you know, maybe starting lineups or things like that. But I'm going to go with one of the first big ones for me and emphasis on the word big because they're large figures. And that would be going back and getting
00:26:07
Speaker
a whole bunch of the early series LJN, WWF, WWE figures. I think they were wrestling superstars was the line's name. And I mean, the cool part with those was, of course, they were the huge figure. They had the card on the back that you could cut out and it had the stats for each wrestler.
00:26:37
Speaker
you had the poster that was in it, um, which A, I wish I kept them, but B, I wish I didn't hang them up on my wall because they, they fetch a pretty penny these days. Yeah. With all the blue, blue tack. Yeah. Um, with like, you know, fun tack oil stains on them. Um, but yeah, um, it's,
00:27:03
Speaker
They were great figures because even though they didn't move, they played well because you could do wrestling moves no matter what position they were in. Like body slams were always easy. You could always drop kick people. Like you could, you could have a reasonable facsimile thereof of any wrestling match with those figures.
00:27:27
Speaker
Yeah, and they talked about that too. We mentioned it a little bit on the Toys That Made Us episode, but that was a conscious decision when they were designing them to place them in poses that could stand, but also were wrestling conducive. Yeah.
00:27:44
Speaker
And they were managers like I remember as a kid just flipping out over Managers, I got like I got Bobby Heenan. I cut Jimmy Hart. I remember the Jimmy Hart one Yeah, and like they were bad guys so they weren't like characters I inherently loved but I was just excited because I could play I think the syndicated show was championship wrestling that was on Channel 9 and then I
00:28:13
Speaker
you know, prime time and all that stuff in WrestleMania so I could like make my own WrestleMania or...
00:28:20
Speaker
Well, at the time, that was really it. There was WrestleMania. Now, those figures were single-carded. I remember seeing pictures, I know just from context how they were packaged. Do you remember how they were wrapped for you? Did anyone try to fool you over, like throw in two in a Macy's box? I mean, you couldn't. They were so big. Yeah, and they were clumsy if you tried to put two of them together.
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah, but yeah, it was just like large wrapped single carded figures The ones that were actually interesting were the the tag team two packs I think as a two pack. I only got one Proper two pack and that was the killer bees and they came with so originally the only title belt you got was with Hulk Hogan you got the
00:29:13
Speaker
up until 1984, when he won the world title, you got that belt. So I think of it as like the Bob Backlund title, Iron Sheik title, because Hogan didn't have it for a long time, then he had the next one.
00:29:31
Speaker
But you got that title. With the tag teams, they came with a brown version of that, which was not the tag team title. You just got a brown version of the world title, which was weird. But eventually when I broke my regular world title, the brown one became just the next world title.
00:29:50
Speaker
Now, did you get the ring with them as well? I know I got the ring. It probably was a Christmas gift as well. Because that thing was huge. The thing was big and it wound up becoming the initial Jack's rings, which was weird because they did not scale. They looked like kids in there. Yeah, it was...
00:30:15
Speaker
The other thing too is I got the original impale ring, the impaler ring, before it got recalled and got those caps put on it, which you saw on the jacks rings, because some kid got hurt really bad falling on it.
00:30:31
Speaker
The impaler rig. Yeah. And I remember, too, by the time we were playing with it with the Jax figures, it had like duct tape in the middle. Oh, yeah. I would break it. Yeah. I mean, those guys, you slam them in the middle hard enough. They're going straight through. Yeah. But yeah, I remember we were constantly like duct tape. It looked like it looked like a ring in like a boxing training academy, you know, like just like a ring that's there to use. It looked like a taped up in the ring.
00:31:01
Speaker
Yeah, those were fun figures and they lasted. And the ropes would always get like droopy. So you had like you just keep winding them. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, like at one corner, you'd have just this ridiculously kind of knotted up rope. Yep. That at that point could never come off. The only way that that's coming off is if you got scissors. Yeah, if you cut it off. And the Hasbro rings did that to any rope like that did it.
00:31:29
Speaker
Yeah, because I mean, all of those, for anybody that has ever been in a wrestling ring, even at like an indie show or anything, those ropes really do not give, like they have no give to them. I almost hurt myself real bad getting in one. I mean, they hurt.
00:31:47
Speaker
If you ever go to a small indie show in like a, you know, like a gymnasium or like a YMCA, like one of those real local ones, like sometimes you'll get, get ones with like, you know, like, like legends that that come around and do a show like that. If you have the opportunity to, which a lot of times they don't care, sometimes the photo ops are even in the, yeah, usually they'll do like an intermission photo op with whoever the big
00:32:13
Speaker
Headliner is yeah, I I cannot recommend more to you to do two things If they let you get in the ring and just press up against the ropes Like don't run into them just lean on them and like press into them and feel how firm they are And then just like fall on your fall on your ass on the ring
00:32:32
Speaker
I don't know if they'll let you do that. But if time, space, and allowance is there, because it will give you an appreciation for what you see on TV. Even if you get in the ring for the photo op and you step foot on it, you'll realize that it's not what you think it is.
00:32:50
Speaker
So when you know with the toy rings and everything those basically like They're they're basically like shoelaces, you know around the rubber rubber. Yeah There's springing like either they're meant for you to you know Pull the figure back against the ropes and kind of give them a little bit of a launch So, you know, it's just not conducive for those ropes to last very long. No
00:33:13
Speaker
And then I'm sure like some of them dry rotted and stuff like that. Yeah. Um, yeah. So for me, it was those LJN figures. They were awesome. Um, they still are awesome. Um, I would collect them if they were a not so expensive. Well, I'm sure you still have a bunch of them. I probably do. I definitely garage sailed a bunch.
00:33:37
Speaker
Um, you might've done it on my behalf at one point, but, um, mine were also so beat up, like so played with that it didn't matter. I always liked, um, one of my, you had George the animal steal, right? I did. Yeah. He was always one of my favorites. Cause he had a lot of them. Yeah. I had a lot of them. I never had all of them. Like I never had the British bulldogs. Um, and I never had some of the later ones, but I had.
00:34:03
Speaker
if the vast majority of them. And I don't remember, did they scale with each other? Like was Andre bigger than everybody?
00:34:12
Speaker
In theory, like a little bit. Or did they just make them more crouched? Andre was slightly bigger, but in the grand scheme of things, everybody was roughly the same size. Yeah, I remember them enough, like if I close my eyes and really think about it, I can remember holding them, but when I was playing with them, they were so big.
00:34:38
Speaker
They were monstrous at the time for you. Like I almost couldn't like didn't have the faculties to like maneuver them. I was so tiny when I was playing with them. Being so I cracked mom in the face with one one time on intentionally. Yeah. Yeah. No, those those were cool figures. Did they have any other like accessories other than the ring? There was the steel cage, which I never had. Wow. It was the big blue cage.
00:35:08
Speaker
It was the some of the that was really hard to find, but that was really the accessory. Gotcha. It was just the figures were there were there any that like.
00:35:22
Speaker
You remembered you really wanted and never got like British Bulldogs. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Those are, those are super cool figures. My, my Christmas memory, I'm also going big, but in kind of a different way. So the figures for this were the standard, uh, four inch, you know, five inch figures. Um,
00:35:45
Speaker
outside of Star Wars and and eventually the Jax, you know, wrestling figures. My other big thing was Batman. Well, I loved Batman. I remember that as a kid, everything Batman. You know, I remember my earliest memory of the Batman figures was actually the Batman Returns figures. The that line, the Michael Keaton ones, not the original movie.
00:36:12
Speaker
The toy biz ones, you know, I think you had those you had them too, but I I remember playing with them But I don't remember them being new for me like I remember like I can remember the box art for like the And the penguin the the penguin was the superheroes. Yeah, it was the superhero spectrum of painted black and black white and red you Um, I I will say this you did have them new. Okay
00:36:37
Speaker
But, you know, Batman, regardless, I remember loving the Batman figures, you know, watching the cartoons and the, you know, when Batman Returns came out. I remember that being like, you know, a really big deal. But by the time Batman Forever came out.
00:36:53
Speaker
That was like toy height for me. Um, and I remember that line of Batman toys was crazy. There was always really cool. Like the, I always wanted the Batman that was in the movie. So like always wanted the one that looked like the Batman in the movie, not the one with like the purple and yellow, like, you know, pop out wings and stuff like that. Like when, like there was a green Batman.
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah, it was like, what is he doing? And it's always like, you know, like Mountain Batman and like Arctic Batman. Yeah, it's cool because, you know, it's a way it's a way to sell alternate colors. And sometimes some of them had like a loose comic connection. The coolest one, I remember there was one that was like a dark blue and charcoal one. And that was like, I think that was a Batman Returns one. And I was like, I want that one. Yeah, because it was Michael Keaton wearing a comic book Batman, which was awesome.
00:37:48
Speaker
But the Batman Forever line, that was when they started to do a really great job of nailing likenesses properly in that scale. The Tommy Lee Jones two-face looked like Tommy Lee Jones. The Jim Carrey Riddler looked like him. The Val Kilmer face was good. The Chris O'Donnell face was good. They were all there.
00:38:13
Speaker
The coolest thing about that was the Batcave. So the Batcave for that year, and this was a Christmas gift. As soon as I, this is the conversation I had with our mom and thank you, Tree. She remembered me getting this Batcave, the Batmobile and like a slew of figures that came with it. So it must've just been like the Christmas of Batman.
00:38:38
Speaker
It was a three tiered cave system, so it was these three platforms that looked like.
00:38:47
Speaker
Cliffs almost and they had and they have flat platforms and they Connected the bottom one was lower than the middle one and then the higher one was higher than that But they connected with a zipline so you could go all the way from the top of the top one to the bottom Yeah, and the bottom one had the rotating Pedestal on it for the car to put the bad
00:39:09
Speaker
That Batmobile in that Batman forever movie though, you know now if you look at it, it looks kind of silly But like at the time that was the coolest Batmobile that the toy for that Batmobile was really fun And when you rolled it it had the little sparker in it so like the little engine made made color It was just that that's a light. Mm-hmm it had it had an elevator that what you could do is you could put Bruce Wayne in the bottom of the elevator and
00:39:37
Speaker
When you pulled it up and twisted it, you could have Batman in the top of the elevator. So you could put Bruce Wayne into the bottom, pull up the elevator. And as you twisted it to pull it up, the it revealed that Batman was in there so like he could change while he was.
00:39:52
Speaker
you know, going into the Batcave, there was this whole like, like it had these three pegs and we'll post pictures of all the stuff that we're talking about, but it had these pegs and it was the whole like compute wall of computer systems that he had. It was just that it was the Batcave and it was massive. I mean, it took up.
00:40:15
Speaker
much space. But the thing that was really cool about it too was the platforms all opened so there was storage. So you could keep all of the Batman figures in the cave part. You could but that's not what the storage was for. The only reason I know this is because I put it together. Oh okay. Yeah.
00:40:38
Speaker
It was storage for itself. Oh, so it was like collapsible, like, like, like, what do you call those Russian dolls? Yeah, it was like, you know, think of it like paint buckets. Yeah. You put the big one, the medium one and the big one and then the small one and the medium one. And that's how you stored it. Ah, yeah, we never got that far with it. I kind of, once that thing kind of went up, it stayed up.
00:41:04
Speaker
Yeah, and I would just kind of I would just kind of drag it around like disconnect the the The two pieces for the the zip line and just move it to a new location. Yeah, that was a cool bat cave. Um, I remember also putting together your Batman Returns bat cave or maybe it was the Batman and Robin bat cave where it was just the two-sided
00:41:26
Speaker
No, that was also, I think that was also Batman forever. That because there was like the deluxe Batcave and then there was like the one that was just like the computer console. It was the computer console and then the little kind of like the flippy door, like the doggy door. Yep. Or no, that might have been, that might have been Batman and Robin. Maybe.
00:41:51
Speaker
No, I didn't have a lot of toys from Batman and Robin. Then it was Batman Returns and Batman Forever, but you had... I know I had two different Batcaves. Yeah. Yeah. But they were definitely different movies. Yeah. Because the Batman, I remember...
00:42:05
Speaker
I don't think he came, the Michael Keaton came with the one Batcave but I remember it was a really cool toy because it was Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne and he had this like striped t-shirt on but his head would push in like he could push in his head and clip the cowl onto the top of it.
00:42:22
Speaker
Yes, because it was no, it was a he came with the costume that you can clip on the suit. Yep. And you'd clip on the gauntlets and the boots and the cape. But the head, instead of like fitting over his face, pushed his head in almost like one of those
00:42:39
Speaker
Like I guess like a Power Rangers, but like his head actually would go inside of his chest so that way the Batman head could clip on with the cape on it. Yeah, that was a cool figure. But yeah, that Batcave was phenomenal and I got mileage out of that thing because they never made another Batcave that was as cool as that and it became the Batcave for
00:43:03
Speaker
the Batman the Animated Series figures. It became the Batcave for all of the fun crossover play that I used to have where, you know, Spider-Man would come and help in Gotham City. I remember one time I had Venom and Carnage take over the Batcave. You know, it's just it's just the way that it was. Everything was in the same scale. You know, so it was great playing with those figures together. But I as soon as mom said that, I actually could remember
00:43:31
Speaker
opening that box and flipping the fuck out because that also had like I Just remember going into stores and seeing it and was one of those toys that seemed like it was it was too much It was too big. It was too expensive. It was never gonna happen. Yeah, and on Christmas morning Boom, it was there and it and the Batmobile with it. It was just it was awesome Yeah, it was probably like
00:43:58
Speaker
a solid $100 toy back in the day. Like that would be a kind of that would have cost like a Nintendo. Easy, easy. I mean, there was so there were so many moving. There was there weren't any electronics with it, but there were so many moving parts that it was just it was it was a killer toy. And like I said, that was one I remember when I sold that.
00:44:19
Speaker
at a garage sale. Oh. So I, I originally had it just kind of sitting in a, you know, like one of those Tupperware bins. Um, you know, when I was in college, not sitting in itself, not sitting in itself, not, not stored the way that it was intended. Um, and nobody knew what it was. So the garage sale kept going and going and going. And finally I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna put this thing together so people could see what it is.
00:44:44
Speaker
Literally the moment that I put it together, a guy walked by and bought two things from me. He bought the Batcave and he bought the entire bin of Jax figures that had out. Josh Condick, I don't know where I don't know what you're up to these days, but hope you're still enjoying the wrestlers in the Batcave.
00:45:03
Speaker
But yeah, so I mean, I think this is a fun way to go about looking through the history of us and stuff on Christmas. It would be awesome. I know they exist in some capacity. I know dad loved filming Christmas mornings. Those VHSs have to be somewhere. I'm good with them staying wherever they are.
00:45:26
Speaker
Well, if I find one that has me in it and it doesn't prominently feature Dave, I'll be in it regardless. So we'll we'll pre screen it. We'll see if we can find anything that's that's worth worth sharing. That's not going to that we don't mind having on the Internet. But I don't even know where those tapes are, to be to be perfectly honest.
Listener Engagement and Wrap Up
00:45:46
Speaker
I was going to say you probably had them last, so.
00:45:49
Speaker
But in terms of Christmas stuff, we would love to hear from you guys, from our listeners. Share your favorite Christmas memory with us. We'll leave a post up on our Instagram and stop by and share your
00:46:10
Speaker
your favorite holiday memory, your favorite toy. Maybe it was a gift that you got for somebody. Maybe you got a super hard to find toy for a loved one and you made their Christmas with it. We'd love to hear your stories as usual. But with that, this is our last episode for 2019. Wow. It's the last one of the decade.
00:46:36
Speaker
Wow. It's also only, I think, the seventh, eighth, ninth, I don't know, of the decade. So, you know, we're new. But, you know, going into 2020, you know, just a quick thank you for all of you that listen to us, you know, every other week. You know, we love, you know, it's just the interactions that we were getting on our Instagram and the nice comments that you guys leave on the reviews and everything.
00:47:05
Speaker
It's great to see that people are enjoying listening to listening to us. Yeah. It's it's really nice. And, you know, going into 2020, we're going to keep doing it and we're going to keep giving you more stuff. And, you know, we have some really cool guests planned and interviews planned. And thank you to everyone who's contributed thus far. Yes. We can name everyone. Yeah, go ahead.
00:47:29
Speaker
Joe, Joe, Joe Zari, you know, in the show notes, we always include a link to his stuff. His voice work is incredible. He's also an incredible artist. Check out his his Instagram page and and check out all the cool stuff that he's up to.
00:47:44
Speaker
Thank you to Dave from Calling All Creeps Podcast and ZAP Comics. Thank you for coming on for our Halloween episode, which at the time of this recording has been our most popular episode to date, which was a lot of fun to do. Thank you to Heather Antos.
00:48:03
Speaker
being our first interview guest. It was so awesome having her and hopefully we'll get her back on again someday with the two of us. Yeah. Thank you again to Yuma for being our second interview. And he's out in outer space somewhere, so I don't know if he'll ever stop in, but we'll probably do another interview again at some point. I heard he had a very successful landing in China. Yeah.
00:48:32
Speaker
That was more excited to see that too. And keep an eye out for him. Championship wrestling from Hollywood and bar wrestling. And who spots he's in the most. And I think you can find if championship wrestling from Hollywood doesn't air in your area. I was just looking it up. You can subscribe to it on Fight. Fight. F-I-T-E. Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:54
Speaker
Um, but yeah, we have, we have so much cool, cool stuff planned for 2020. Who else do we have? Well, thank you to, um, of course, Matt Cardona again. Oh, yes. Yes. At major WFPOD. Yeah.
00:49:09
Speaker
And, and you might know him as also as, you know, as Zack Ryder from the WWE. Yeah. At Zack Ryder. Uh, and his, and his, uh, his partner, Brian Myers. Yep. Brian Myers, Curt Hawkins. Um, yeah. Uh, we, we, I feel like we're forgetting people. Are we? I don't think we are. I think we got everybody. Okay. I think so. Thank you. Yeah. It's mostly been us. Thank you to Heather's boyfriend.
00:49:38
Speaker
Yeah, sure, we can thank him now in advance for next year. Yeah, for next year. He'll be on early next year. He'll be on. It's coming. But with that, have a happy holiday, have a happy new year. Oh, thank you to Nonproductive. Oh, yeah, of course. Of course. Yeah, thank you to Frank and James and all the guys at Nonproductive. We're so happy to be a part of their network.
00:50:04
Speaker
and all our friends and family that have listened and given advice and given their thoughts because it's kind of what's made the show change over this short time. So thank you. Yep. Dave, have a happy New Year. Yeah, you too. Thank you. We'll see you in 2020. Yep. See you next decade.
00:50:27
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.
00:50:43
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
00:51:07
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.
00:51:37
Speaker
you