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The Sofubi Revival: An Interview with Junk Shop Dog
416 Plays3 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik head to Australia (virtually!) to chat with the man behind Junk Shop Dog and the Sofubi revival - Adam McFarlane! Hear about how Junk Shop Dog went from vintage claim sales to creating their very own toy line, and so much more!
Follow Junk Shop Dog on Instagram @junkshopdog
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Hey, everybody.
00:00:33
Speaker
We're back, Dave. And you know what?
Exploring Wrestling Figures
00:00:36
Speaker
We're just going to keep the wrestling figure juices flowing with today's episode coming off of our last interview with Mattel's Steve Ozer. So we have another guest today, Dave. Yes, we do. And we shouldn't bury the lead at all. I think we're beyond burying leads.
00:00:57
Speaker
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right.
Introducing Adam McFarlane and Sofubi Series
00:01:00
Speaker
Today's guest has helped raise awareness of, and has brought Japanese wrestling figures and other merch into the lives of many. He is currently working on bringing the Sofubi Pro Wrestling Series 2 line to life. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, Junk Shop Dog himself, Adam McFarlane. Adam, welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me, fellas.
00:01:25
Speaker
Oh, it's our pleasure. We're super excited to add another country and, in fact, continent to our list of places we've interviewed people from. So thank you for taking the time to join us today. Yeah, I'm glad these time zones actually don't work too badly. I'm sitting here mid-morning and, yeah, very proud Australian here.
Collecting Journey and Australian Scene
00:01:52
Speaker
Awesome. So before we jump into the meat of the interview, we ask all of our guests that come on the show, what are you currently collecting? Well, I'm actually pretty sitting here pretty pleased with myself from a Japanese figure.
00:02:11
Speaker
perspective in that I've pretty much collected every Japanese figure I badly want. Just finished my 1960s bullmark collection and I've got a full set of poppies, so I'm pretty content. However, the hunt never ends, so I'm currently chipping away at a loose Hasbro collection of all things.
00:02:41
Speaker
Oh, nice. Very good. I mean, that's a rabbit hole. Dave, you have quite a few of those yourself. Yeah, mine are all my old ones, though. I wouldn't say they're certainly collector grade, but I still have all my, or if not all of them, most of them, of my childhood ones.
00:03:03
Speaker
But I always say, especially when I see your Instagram page, the danger of jumping into the Chara Pro and Poppy Realm is just...
00:03:19
Speaker
something that I see and I'm like, oh, I always want to dive in, but I'm just not quite sure where. So, you know, you are quite literally a world away from us here in New Jersey. So what's the collecting scene like there? It is basically a world away, I think you'd say. There's a really high
00:03:49
Speaker
thirst and demand for current wrestling figures. Basically, the rarer or the collector's edition and most of the standard Mattel releases do fly off the shelves from your big box stores. I guess we're not as fortunate in that we don't have as much
00:04:12
Speaker
of a history in wrestling figures. LJNs were massive. Hasbro's were big, but the releases were not, it was not a complete set put out here in Australia. So there's fond memories without there being a lot to find in secondhand stores, flea markets, you know, op shops. But I think there's a small but, small but tight,
00:04:40
Speaker
Collecting community it is mainly centered around the American lawns. However Yeah, I mean we we have we we follow a couple of other toy bloggers on go on Instagram obviously and There's a there's there's actually one that we were we're pretty familiar with out of Australia Aussie toy recon And they always
00:05:05
Speaker
show these pictures it's like you know we don't have toys or us and and we don't have like toy stores anymore really like big box toy stores it's only toy sections in places like target and walmart and every now and then they'll post a picture of like these amazing just like aisles of toys at you know some some big retailer and i i get misty eyed over it
00:05:29
Speaker
It's a bit of feast or famine really. We do have some cool toy shops. We don't get the same volume or amount of wrestling releases that you guys do in the States. I know a lot of collectors down this way do tend to scrape and claw and do whatever they can to get particularly the legends or the retros or whatever.
00:05:59
Speaker
Yeah, they have to go that extra mile to get them. So speaking of collecting and, you know, collecting habits, what brought you into the world of figures like the Chara Pro's and Popey figures?
Discovering Japanese Figures
00:06:14
Speaker
Well, actually was at one point trying to collect Hasbro's Mintong card and was going through any means necessary to acquire them and happened upon
00:06:29
Speaker
some Japanese sellers that had some really dirt cheap carded Hasbro's and I think those sellers started to drift onto eBay and a lot of those Hasbro's ended up being sold through there. But prior to that, there was a lot that were able to be found relatively cheaply.
00:06:57
Speaker
And from there, I did start to see these Japanese figures that I'd not seen before, and that being the standard Carapro line.
00:07:12
Speaker
I mean, particularly for those of us that do love Japanese wrestling, both modern and going back through the years, there were a lot of gaps filled in your collection. An official great murder figure, a bunch of enoki figures.
00:07:34
Speaker
Bruiser Brody, Abdul of the Butcher. There was this line that covered so many different facets of Japanese wrestling with a whole bunch of crossovers. So after, you know, I grabbed a few of those for myself and going through some Facebook groups and talking to other collectors, it seemed like there was somewhat of a thirst to have these figures in their collection. And at that point, a lot of people weren't
00:08:03
Speaker
familiar with ways to get them outside of eBay. So we were just trying to bridge that gap ourselves, you know, help our own collection and help out a few collectors as well from there. And I think, you know, a lot of people were, I guess, somewhat aware of that Hulk Hogan poppy figure.
00:08:27
Speaker
But, you know, digging a little deeper and seeing this, you know, this soft vinyl poppy line and I was just fascinated by the.
00:08:36
Speaker
the 10 wrestlers that were in that line, the colors, the card with the bright pink. Just everything about it I found so fascinating and was lucky enough to finally get my hands on one of those figures. And I was, you know, as much as you can be with a piece of plastic, I was, you know, just spellbound.
00:09:01
Speaker
So yeah, the collection and fascination with Poppy started there and that was a couple of years before we started to release our own line. You mentioned before how you guys were collecting and you'd be helping other collectors. How do you come into the figures and collectibles that are part of the claim sales?
00:09:28
Speaker
because I know the claim sale has become almost the biggest way that these get into everybody's hands. It's just a matter of... Well, I guess there's a couple of ways to go about it. We were finding there were people and websites where they were getting rid of their collections or selling in bulk, which was not really...
00:09:57
Speaker
a sought-after way in Japan. As you would know, space is at a premium in Japan and a lot of people weren't prepared to buy big lots of figures.
00:10:11
Speaker
because they wouldn't have the room to display them all. As a result, there were some absolute gems in those lots that we were prepared to buy those big lots and piece them out. That was something where if it was a big enough lot, we were even prepared to go on an auction site or whatever.
00:10:33
Speaker
Yeah, so I guess it was just getting those contacts over there and finding ways to uncover toys that have been sitting in toy shops and wrestling shops over there and I guess making that connection between the Japanese-speaking sellers and the English-speaking buyers.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah I mean there is something absolutely captivating about those figures like there is a certain charm to them but I think part of it too is seeing them on card like like especially when you know you are posting pictures of like really crisp mint you know
00:11:18
Speaker
versions of those figures with like clear bubbles and like you could tell that they were very well cared for like you felt like you were like even you know on our end just kind of scrolling through our feed like your eyes is immediately caught by one of those figures yeah and and it's funny because the the Carapros in particular the bubbles and cards are really flimsy so as you say that you can tell that they've been very look well looked after and and I mean some of those had never left the store though they were basically
00:11:47
Speaker
you know, consignments from, you know, old wrestling stores where they never got rid of, or, you know, they were bought by someone who, you know, left him in a box for a couple of years. And, you know, subsequently, we picked them up. So I guess it is a reflection of how careful and delicate Japanese people are with with their and other people's belongings as well.
00:12:10
Speaker
For sure, for sure. And I mean, you mentioned that this initial interest and bridging the gap for collectors, bridging that kind of like language barrier and everything, eventually led to the creation of the Sofubi Pro Wrestling Series
From Collector to Creator
00:12:29
Speaker
2. How did you go from selling these classic figures to a niche part of the community to making your own?
00:12:39
Speaker
Well, it had been in our heads for a little while. And I say, you know, a couple of months, we went to Japan and, you know, we saw these, you know, not just wrestling as in Poppy or Medikom soft vinyl, but just seeing all the different types of soft vinyl and, you know, just being fascinated with the decoration. I always did feel without, you know,
00:13:07
Speaker
making that link to actually doing it ourselves that it was a real shame that the poppy line did only have one series. And I guess we were just trying to think of new ways to go about our business. We were really fortunate in the sense that
00:13:30
Speaker
We already had a relationship with Mrs. Barbara Goodish, the widow of Bruiser Brody. So when we did think, oh, hey, let's give this a go, he was the perfect topic in the sense that he fit in perfectly with the timeframe. We knew that he would suit the aesthetic.
00:13:57
Speaker
And after, you know, a bit of back and forth with Mrs. Gudish, we did discover that, you know, all the other Japanese figures with him on, all of his Japanese figures to that day had no royalties paid. So in a way, we could right or wrong in that regard as well.
00:14:23
Speaker
I mean, you can always dream big, but we weren't sure that it was ever going to go past the first figure. So it kind of started there. And it was only after we released that figure that we thought, well, let's aim for five. And now it's gotten to a series of 10 with just that one released figure.
00:14:51
Speaker
So you mentioned that you had a relationship with Bruiser Brody's widow, Mrs. Goodish. How did you guys start that relationship? Well, it happened a couple of years prior. I just heard her talking on a podcast.
00:15:12
Speaker
I knew that we had some mutual friends both in America and in New Zealand, which is where she's from, Dunedin in New Zealand.
00:15:23
Speaker
Um, as is my wife, uh, Portia, who's the other part of this, uh, junk shop dog team. And we were living in New Zealand at the time. I just reached out to her just to, you know, just to say g'day and, and, you know, talk and we would talk from time to time. And that's, you know, around the time we, we decided to, you know, dive headfirst into this figure project, I just put it to her, you know, uh, do you know these figures exist?
00:15:50
Speaker
What can you tell us about them being the the car pros and the the medicoms and she said oh I've never actually seen them before you know I've not been paid for them and that's when I put to her well how about a project where you do get paid and It went from there
00:16:07
Speaker
So now one of the coolest parts of that this project thus far and that first bruiser birdie figure was the silver variant. I got it. I got it. It's awesome. I love the the representation of the chain in the figure will each release have that limited variant. And then there was other merch that came with it like pins and shirts or that went along with it.
00:16:33
Speaker
No. So not every figure will have a variant. I think...
00:16:40
Speaker
With the contract and royalty discussions with some of the Japanese talent, as well as the fact that the variant wasn't taken up in Japan, I think there's not as big a thirst for the variant figures over there, particularly in the silver style.
00:17:04
Speaker
There will be some, that's not to say that there won't be variants of the Japanese wrestlers. We do want to keep it somewhat special. We don't want to do one of every wrestler, but we can say that Dynamite Kid will have a variant. We can say Terry Funk will have a variant. And there will be one other wrestler in the line.
00:17:28
Speaker
further down the Series 2 track that will have variants, but they may be limited to Japan. Very cool.
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the idea of getting into variants for these, uh, you know, for these, uh, these legends really, I mean, they've had so many different iterations of ring gear and, you know, especially if you're talking about somebody like Terry Funk, you know, and a history of the char pros doing like bloody versions. I mean, they're the, the kind of, you have a lot of options to play with for sure. Yeah, that that's right. And it does give us the opportunity to.
00:18:08
Speaker
I give hardcore collectors something that they're going to lap up and enjoy. But as well, there's also that aspect of offering ring gear that is obscure enough to warrant a variant but may not warrant a full release.
00:18:26
Speaker
We now know that there are 10 wrestlers coming. What's the plan for releasing these? Are they going to be individually staggered? Are you going to release them as a wave? What's the plan? Well, obviously, a lot of it's dependent on the progress of the production.
00:18:50
Speaker
where these are plans not 100% set in stone, but at this point, our next wave, I mean, undoubtedly our next wave will be Dynamite Kid and Bull Nuck and All. So they'll be sold together. Still not a firm release date, but we are hoping to
00:19:16
Speaker
have those in our hand in the next couple of months. That'll be followed by a bumper release of Terry Funk, Road Warrior Animal, Road Warrior Hawk, and then the final release of the series will be Giant Barber, Tiger Mask, and Great Sasuke. Now, will Hawk and Animal be single cards or will they be as a tag team? They will be single cards.
00:19:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just hearing the names of all of the talent all at once, like it's.
00:19:56
Speaker
It's just you have so many like even even for somebody like me who admittedly like my knowledge of Japanese wrestling personally is it goes nowhere near as deep. I mean, I'm a novice but like I I recall you know, it's like somebody like um bull not not gonna for for for example, like I remember I
00:20:19
Speaker
when she was wrestling in the WWF in the early stages of their women's division with the tall blue hair and she was so intimidating. You look at her now and she's a semi-professional golfer. She's unrecognizable compared to her in-ring persona. What was it like working with somebody like her to create this figure?
00:20:49
Speaker
Oh, an absolute honor, really. You've kind of pinpointed how we want to go about making these figures.
00:21:02
Speaker
an accessible line for both Western and Japanese collectors. So we do understand there are going to be some figures that may not appeal as much to Westerners as they do Japanese collectors, and there'll be some that don't appeal to Japanese collectors as much as Westerners. But we feel, at least in the first series, that there's a pretty good balance in terms of crossover, in terms of name value,
00:21:32
Speaker
Um, I mean, even, even 10 Ru great Sasuke, you know, both wrestled in the WWF, um, giant Baba, you know, had his fair share of matches in the States. So we think it, we think it's a good mix and we are really thankful, you know, to our friends in Japan at how Ming, uh, not only how did they stop the bruiser Brody figure and they'll be stocking, um,
00:22:00
Speaker
our future releases, but they've also helped us be that go between both in terms of contact and in terms of the language barrier in dealing with those wrestlers. But to a person, all 10 wrestlers, it is an absolute honor. And it's quite mind-blowing that we are able to release figures of these people. But I guess just going back to another one of your points there,
00:22:31
Speaker
Making it accessible hopefully for us gives Westerners a chance to see who these people are and that they may have heard of and maybe get on the YouTube and have a look at or get on New Japan World or
00:22:51
Speaker
you know, see who these people are and see them for the great wrestlers that they are. And some of the matches, you know, particularly, you know, from the 80s and 90s are just phenomenal, featuring a lot of these wrestlers. So, you know, there's this, it's never too late to get into Japanese wrestling. And we hope that in some small way, you know, we can we can help people, you know, take a look back at the history of Japanese wrestling and maybe make fans out of them.
Impact of 'Dark Side of the Ring'
00:23:20
Speaker
And I think between this toy line and honestly, the timing couldn't have worked out better for you because you had this latest season of Dark Side of the Ring as well, especially with the Bruiser Brody episode, introducing people to a part of wrestling that I think I don't want to say forgotten, but a part that is not as well known as some of the other mainstream stuff. So it really is incredible what you're doing.
00:23:51
Speaker
Oh, thank you. Yeah. And for me, like I'm thinking automatically, like, OK, the possibility of dynamite and tiger mask like. That was like huge. And I think they wrestled here like by us at at the garden back when I was very young. So, you know, just thinking of stuff like that. I think Sasuke did the initial light heavyweight tournament. He did. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, like,
00:24:19
Speaker
Um, and then, uh, Bull Nacano was wrestling a lunch with Blaze. So, I mean, like, everybody's been here. Um, so yeah, definitely that, that bridge between, you know, for, for everybody, um, in the West, everybody out here in the US is, is totally there and it's definitely accessible. Yeah. And that, that's the aim. And look, we get that, you know, there are going to be some more obscure
00:24:49
Speaker
releases and hopefully by then at least there's the investment emotionally in the line that people are prepared to give some of the more obscure wrestlers a chance.
00:25:08
Speaker
The figure announcement process has been a lot of fun to watch. And you said how you worked a little bit with Barbara Goodish, but what's it been like working with the talent or their families as far as everybody else goes? It's been fantastic, actually. It's in the sense that the people that we've been working with have become friends of us in the process.
00:25:37
Speaker
I honestly don't feel like it's these tense business style negotiations. It's predominantly been people that want to prolong the legacy of that wrestler in question, particularly when those wrestlers have passed away. I mean, obviously we have Dynamite Kid.
00:26:07
Speaker
coming out in her next release and to deal with Bronwyn Billington, who people have gotten to know through Dark Side of the Ring subsequently, we've become really good friends as a result. Obviously, you want to do well and be successful, but
00:26:29
Speaker
I mean, the most heartwarming part of this is the fact that we have been able to make so many friends as a result, both in the States and Canada and in Japan as well. And that goes for the collectors as well, people that drop us a line we've gotten to know, wrestlers, collectors. It's been pretty amazing the amount of friends that we've made going through this process.
00:27:00
Speaker
From our perspective as two toy bloggers, it's been a whole lot of fun watching you go from having these regular claim sales and texting each other back and sending stuff to our friends. We're like, look at this figure. Oh my God, a Bob Sapp figure. Looking at these things that we haven't seen in a very long time, or in some cases, ever. Every time that Zandig figure comes up, I'm always like, ooh.
00:27:32
Speaker
But, you know, seeing it go from that to you creating this these figures and, you know, and having these announcements from, you know, from the talent, it's, it actually is like it brings joy to us too, because, you know, it's kind of like,
00:27:49
Speaker
watching one of us level up, right? And it's been great watching it. Your joy definitely comes through what you're posting on Instagram and stuff. So all of that's very, very obvious. Oh, absolutely. And that's very much one of our aims is to make people feel like they're along for this journey with us. Obviously, with some of those names, you have to pinch yourself
00:28:19
Speaker
Um, you know, that you're working with them and, you know, hopefully I'm not given too much away. But when, um, when in our inbox arrived at, you know, video from Terry funk for someone like me, that's, you know, that was, that had me in tears, you know, just, just the, the joy and excitement of, of.
00:28:38
Speaker
And he was very funny. I hope I'm someone that respects the values and the history of wrestling to have Terry Funk saying your company's name and working with you. It's surreal. It's crazy.
00:29:00
Speaker
And hopefully, as you said, the people that follow us and have followed us for a long time, the people that we talk via instant message on Instagram and Twitter and everything, hopefully they do feel Latin. We want people to be excited for us because we're just as excited
00:29:21
Speaker
You know, as that Terry Funk moment, when people start to get the figures, well, that makes us just as happy because people are enjoying them and it's something new and different. Yeah, I could go on forever about how cool this is because, yeah, there's just so many facets to the joy that we're getting out of this, I guess you would say to sum up.
00:29:48
Speaker
Yeah, and especially somebody like Terry Funk, who's just, you know, the original person who's reinvented himself so many times over his career. You know, whether it's from the like retirement match with with the forever speech or, you know, even the deathmatch stuff in Japan, like,
00:30:11
Speaker
coming back as Chainsaw Charlie. It's just like yeah there's so much so much stuff to to kind of cull from that it's you know the possibilities are endless. Let's just say that you've mentioned Dark Side of the Ring and you've mentioned Terry and let's just say we're not done with Terry yet.
00:30:30
Speaker
All right. All right. Oh, that's good. That's a good, that's a, so, so speaking of excitement and things to come, um, have you kicked around ideas for a series three yet or will the next run of figures be based on another line, another form factor? No, we, we, I mean, the, the poppies themselves are far and away my favorite figure line. Um, so we,
00:30:56
Speaker
This is definitely our love in terms of figures. I don't think we'll be moving away, at least initially. Yes, we are planning the Series 3. Yes, we have got some names on paper. Yes, we're very excited about some of those names. We want to keep doing this for as long as
00:31:23
Speaker
people are interested in the figures. Obviously, we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves in terms of putting them out. We do want to put our money where our mouth is and we do want to show people that these figures are fair to income. But just to give you a little bit of insight into the process, it does
00:31:49
Speaker
It can take six months to a year to fine-tune a figure down to getting it in our hands. That hopefully explains why there's been such a long time between the Brody release and Dynamite Kid and Ball coming out is simply because we weren't that sure that Brody was going to do well enough for us to justify continuing. Now, it absolutely has.
00:32:17
Speaker
The downside of our, I guess, caution is that there's so much of a gap between the next couple of figures.
Future Release Plans
00:32:28
Speaker
Now, hopefully we'll never have to do that again in terms of wait that long. So the aim is to have staggered figure releases every three to four months. And ideally that will continue into, you won't have to be waiting a year
00:32:47
Speaker
for a Series 3 or anything. So basically once we've got the 10 figures into production for Series 2, we want to start working on production for Series 3.
00:33:04
Speaker
And hopefully in the not too distant future, we'll start naming those wrestlers. And we haven't got a full set of 10 yet, but we're actually pretty close in terms of the planning. And we do believe that some of those names are as big, if not bigger than what we've already got.
00:33:28
Speaker
Now, I don't want to pressure you to spoil anything, but continuing with the kind of trend with the 10 that are in series two, are these going to be wrestlers that have never been featured in this style of figure before? Yes.
00:33:51
Speaker
Predominantly, most of these guys will not have had a Poppy figure. Obviously, Terry's been the exception thus far, and yet there will be guys that will appear at a later date that may have been featured before. Obviously, there's no pens or paper there, so don't take that as a given. But we do see there being some of the original Poppy
00:34:19
Speaker
figure wrestlers, be it in a similar style or maybe some other wrestling attire. We do see them popping up at some point if we can make this series as successful as we hope. Awesome.
00:34:40
Speaker
So actually before we hit you with our last question and wrap up this interview, we posted a story and sent out a tweet, asking if our followers, our collective followers had any questions for you. And we do have, we have three for you.
00:35:01
Speaker
Um, so one question is directly from a specific person. Um, and then the other two, uh, we got a few questions that were very similarly worded. So we just kind of smushed them together to make two, uh, questions out of it. Um, Dave, do you want to hit, uh, hit us with the first one here? I do. Um, at the Berg five 11 asks, are there any figures that didn't exist when you were a kid that you are determined to make as an adult?
00:35:31
Speaker
Oh, that's a good question. I guess it's a bit tricky in the sense that we found this love of Japanese figures at a later date. And because it's kind of our niche, it's our pigeonhole, we're more trying to cover that.
00:35:55
Speaker
So, and I don't know, I've mentioned various aims that we have through this series, but another one is making sure that there are, you know, there are wrestlers that didn't get a figure for whatever reason, and they are covered off. And I think you'll see that a little bit in series three. There's a couple of names that are almost over the line that absolutely it's a crying shame that they didn't get a figure.
00:36:24
Speaker
Um, and you'll, you'll see them in figure form in, in series three. Um, in terms of, uh, stuff from our childhood, um, I guess it would, it would have to be some sort of side project because, um, we weren't massive wrestling figure collectors as, as kids. So it might be, there might be some gaps in the market later on, but they wouldn't be wrestling related. Gotcha.
00:36:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we're not all, it's not all wrestling figures all the time here with us either. So, you know, we're a little bit of Star Wars, a little bit of Marvel Legends, we do the NECA stuff, we do some of the Batman stuff, GI Joes, so, you know, we're a little bit all over the place too. Yeah, Funko, which is like everything, so.
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah, well, and that's it. I mean, you know, if we were to branch off and this is this is just, you know, spitballing and pipe dreaming, it might might be something, you know, probably probably outside of wrestling and something maybe a bit bit more related to our location being Australia. Interesting. All right. OK.
00:37:38
Speaker
Our next question is a combo question. We've got a bunch of questions about this. Are there any shipping challenges you face coming out of Australia? Absolutely. I really appreciate that people have invested in this line because we do understand that people are paying
Challenges of International Distribution
00:38:08
Speaker
that additional cost of postage. For a Brody, it's $29.99 for the figure and $16 for postage. So you're paying an extra 50% worth of postage. And look, we get that there's no getting around it, but we also appreciate that people are prepared to go that extra mile to do that. But yeah, there's obviously
00:38:38
Speaker
There's that side of things and look, we're exploring as many ways as possible to bring it down as far as possible. The good news is going into the bull and dynamite releases, I'm not sure we can bring the cost of one figure postage down at all, but what we can do is bring the postage of two plus figures down. So if you get bull
00:39:05
Speaker
and dynamite, we think that it might be around the same cost as getting one figure sent. So hopefully that'll be music to the ears of international collectors. I mean, the States is a challenge. The UK is even more expensive.
00:39:27
Speaker
and some of the other areas around the world, these guys pay a lot of money to get these things sent to them. So we really do appreciate that. And I guess the other thing is we have got a, on the broader side of things, we've got a real appreciation for what figure stockists do in terms of getting these figures to us to start off with. So basically to give you some insight,
00:39:57
Speaker
The figures, once they're ready and packaged and boxed, do take another six to eight weeks to get to us from China. That six to eight weeks is absolutely excruciating, to be honest. Look, we totally get why retailers like Ringside Collectibles do what they do and why they charge that extra money. It's completely justified because
00:40:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's so much difference, you know, something taking a week as opposed to taking six to eight. But obviously with the volume that we get of these figures, it's not justifiable to charge people that extra money. And I guess we just have to be patient, but hopefully that gives you a bit of an insight into how nuts it drives us when, you know, knowing that the figure's ready to go, but we've still got to wait another two months to put it out.
00:40:56
Speaker
And that's part of why we're a little bit reluctant to put that release date out for Bull and Dynamite simply because we want to make sure it's on the boat before we say anything. And you know too, I think that's where having a little bit of a gap in between the releases, I think that might actually help because
00:41:20
Speaker
It is, to your point, you're spending almost half the cost of the figure itself to ship it out to somewhere like the United States. And when you have, first of all, a product that delivers on the promise that it makes, which is what you totally did with the Bruiser Brody figure and I'm sure that
00:41:41
Speaker
We're both sure that that trend is going to continue. But, you know, when you have the gap in between the releases, it kind of gives collectors time to like, you know, it gives their wallets a chance to refill, if that makes sense. Right. You know, having having the release is a little bit more staggered than something like, you know, like WWE elites that are like every month.
00:42:05
Speaker
Or even what Jazzwares is doing, it's relentless. It's nonstop and it's always happening. This is clearly a more specialty product anyway. So I think having that gap might help with that.
00:42:24
Speaker
shipping quandary and and i'll say this too where we're in a new golden age as far as wrestling figure collecting goes um you know something like this like supporting this line for me was a no-brainer just because it's kind of one of those where else are you going to get this like this fills in a gap
00:42:44
Speaker
And it's a gap we're not getting in any other form or fashion. So being able to support something like this, no matter what the shipping cost was, for me was just like, yep, I'm in. And that's that, like, don't get me wrong. Hopefully the product does make it a no brainer for people, but we do appreciate the links that people go to. And we understand that not everyone has a whole bunch of money to spend on
00:43:14
Speaker
on wrestling figures every month. So it's good to know that the gap between releases does give people a little bit of time to recoup, but hopefully we can keep those gaps a little shorter just so people don't forget about us.
00:43:32
Speaker
All right, and Dave, do you want to hit us with the last question for the Q&A here? Sure. Do you have any plans to make a wave of more modern talent in the classic form? And I know you were hinting at stuff for wave three, and it definitely got the wheels spinning over here for sure.
00:43:53
Speaker
I think, I wouldn't say there's plans. There's definitely been discussions. And even to the point where there were some modern talent that we had spoken to, I think it's something that we will see at some point. Not that we're necessarily the same kind of figure, but
00:44:23
Speaker
We're very much a niche product like a Medi-com and they they've released wrestlers from all sorts of errors and and we're thinking there's We don't want to limit ourselves. I guess is what I'm trying to say. I Think I've said in the past that there's there's no there's no real restriction in terms of who we do. We just like to Have them look like
00:44:52
Speaker
they did when they wrestled in Japan. So the only thing is, if they've wrestled a match in Japan, well, that's good enough for us. And we'd like to have them look the way that they did when they wrestled matches in Japan. Obviously, we have in mind some modern names that would suit that, that were big names in Japan, or even are at the moment.
00:45:19
Speaker
So yeah, I think it's a never say never and I think it would be part of the evolution of the line to start to incorporate some more modern names as well.
00:45:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. Because just thinking of the idea, this has come up a couple of times on the podcast, but in the past, where it's kind of like what's old is new again. But seeing some of these other product lines, whether it's MeeGo bringing back their cluffed 8-inch action figures from the 60s and 70s, but making
00:45:57
Speaker
Modern characters like from modern horror movies like Hannibal Lecter and you know Leatherface in that style and seeing like a modern character in that style is really neat or even you know back when the the retro the the Mattel retros were initially out it you know seeing somebody like a
00:46:16
Speaker
you know, a Roman Reigns or a Bray Wyatt in the style of those 90s or 80s and 90s Hasbro WWF figures was really neat. So like just thinking of the idea of seeing some modern talent in this style could be a fun experiment. Absolutely. And hopefully, you know, much like the way that we're trying to with people like, pardon me, with Ball, you know, trying to give her a figure when she
00:46:46
Speaker
absolutely deserved one back in the day. Maybe there are some wrestlers that may not be plentiful in terms of their figure releases or at least putting them in a tire or a look that people have never had access to. I actually have another question before we go to the last question.
00:47:10
Speaker
Um, the carding was iconic on the originals. Um, it's iconic for series two, but I know you mentioned, uh, being a fan of the Hasbro's and, uh, those had a tendency to change packaging. Um, you know, think of the different card colors. Um, do you see yourself staying in the pink color scheme or adapting something where it's like a different color for each series?
00:47:35
Speaker
A very good question and absolutely something we've talked about, but I'd be lying if I said we'd made our minds up in terms of where we're going to head with it. I know I'm pretty confident that Series 2 and Series 3 will stay with that pink and much like the Hasbros, they stayed with that blue for at least, I think it was up until Series 5 off the top of my head.
00:48:03
Speaker
Yes, there's absolutely discussions on whether we should change it up and have a bit of fun with it. Not yet, but we may do later down the track. Well, with that, that brings us to the end of our Q&A and would like to thank everyone for submitting their questions. And Dave, it's time for you to ask the last question. Yes. The last question to all of our guests.
00:48:34
Speaker
What is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection? It can be one of each or it can be both. I might give you one of each. My favorite piece is a giant barber figure made by Bulmark in the 1960s. It's special in the sense that
00:49:01
Speaker
It was the first bull mark we got our hands on, which for mine is the first wrestling figure series. I bought it in Japan. So it was part of our travels, Portra and I, traveling to Japan and seeing a bunch of wrestling and buying soft vinyl. So it has a lot of sentimental value, as well as being the first bull mark in a figure that
00:49:30
Speaker
that I've since completed. That's a damn good question as to the strangest. I don't think we have any left, but the IWA Japan soft vinyl figures,
00:49:59
Speaker
are probably some of the strangest that I've seen, in the sense that they're basically monsters, science fiction monsters, that had a very short run in IWA Japan, which most people would know as being the promotion that had the Kawasaki Dream Tournament with Terry Funk and Cactus Jack in the mid-90s, but they've
00:50:28
Speaker
sort of stayed alive since, and they had this very odd run of figures that I can send you some images of once we get off the chat. Yeah, they just don't seem to belong in a wrestling collection, but yeah, probably the strangest things I've ever seen. I just Googled one. I found a Chupacabra one. Yeah, yeah.
00:50:56
Speaker
Wild that yeah, that does I would not think in a million years Dave I'm gonna said this to you now I would not think in a million years that this was a wrestling figure I would have thought it was something out of like Ultraman or Absolutely, or even like like he almost looks like a Gamera Villain. Oh Wow, that's awesome But um, I mean the joy of
00:51:25
Speaker
Being able to buy these big lots of figures is there's some really strange ones that pop up. We've got a Stan Hansen figure that is real soft vinyl style in the sense that it's a flouro orange with a metallic blue paint. There's girls dolls of...
00:51:52
Speaker
of female wrestlers from the 2000s. Beauty Roads, we've got one of those of the Kaneko Man anime figure that was so heavily based on Dusty Roads. Yeah, there is some really unique things that are made in small quantities in Japan. Being the home of Soft Vinyl in particular that you look at it once and you just think,
00:52:22
Speaker
How, why was this sold? How was this sold? And how can I find one? I think I have to call out one of my favorite lots that you had posted. I'd have to, I'd have to scroll back to find it again, but I think you had, I want to say they were a Jushin Thunder Lager, um, like claw machine. Yeah.
00:52:43
Speaker
like plush figures almost. That was weird. Those were weird looking. I need to find a whole bag of them. When you were initially saying monsters, I was thinking of like when Corporal Kirshner was Leatherface in Japan, but like I wasn't expecting like Tupacabra, that thing.
00:53:04
Speaker
Awesome. It's almost that on steroids.
Unique Wrestling Figures Collection
00:53:09
Speaker
Sadly, a lot of those guys never did get figures.
00:53:17
Speaker
the Crip Keeper and Leatherface, but you never know. Maybe down the line if we can get enough interest. Well, I think once you get into the niche within the niche, that has a Comic Con release written all over it, some super limited
00:53:41
Speaker
kind of thing. And of course, I almost forgot to mention the homeless Antonio Anoki figure. He dressed up as basically as a homeless person to raise awareness for homelessness in Japan, which is a really large problem, but he's a real champion.
00:54:04
Speaker
of that cause and gets out there and raises money and, you know, gets hands on in terms of feeding the homeless. So there is a carapril and it's a great figure of him in basically a, you know, a homeless costume. I don't know if you can say that, but that's the best way to describe it.
00:54:25
Speaker
Yeah, it would be one thing if he was wearing the costume as a gimmick, but the fact that he did it to raise awareness, I think we can call it a homeless costume for that. I think that's fair. Well, listen, it has been absolutely awesome having the opportunity to chat with you, Adam. Before we let you go, let us know, where can we find you online? For sure.
00:54:52
Speaker
Obviously, our biggest outlet is our Instagram at junkshopdog. It's the first place where we put announcements. We've still got a few bits and pieces that we're clearing out as we make the full shift from vintage to our own figure line. And we'll try to
00:55:15
Speaker
put some cool pictures of both our releases and pictures of the people that we are releasing through their careers as we shift away from that vintage. But it's Junk Shop Dog on Twitter as well and Junk Shop Dog on Facebook. So drop us a line for whatever reason if you want to talk wrestling figures, if you want to ask us questions about our line. I can't guarantee we can answer everything because some stuff's a little bit confidential.
00:55:43
Speaker
If you're looking to get into collecting Japanese figures, even if we can't fix you up with Karapros anymore, we're more than happy to help with as much information in what is a very fun rabbit hole to jump down. Adam, thank you again so much for joining us and everyone be sure to keep an eye out for release dates. Thanks, Adam. Thanks, Eric. Thanks, Dave. Appreciate it.
00:56:09
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:56:26
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.
00:56:49
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.