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Launching an Indie Toy Company: Scrambled Eggs Creative with Michael Gulen
62 Plays1 hour ago
Michael Gulen is a 25-year toy industry veteran who has worked as Design Lead at McFarlane Toys and Super7 — helping bring countless collectibles to shelves all over the world. Now he's launching his own company—Scrambled Eggs Creative—with a Any Means Necessary Kickstarter collab that translates artist Shawn Coss' drawings to toys for the first time. Hear about the project, his history, and more in this episode!
Back the Bag Lady Companion on Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scrambledeggcreate/i-am-not-broken-the-bag-lady-vinyl-companion?ref=3yw2g9
Learn more about Scrambled Eggs Creative https://www.scrambledeggscreative.com/
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube
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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 Podcast
00:00:03
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.
00:00:15
Speaker
And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Where we talk toy news, culture and hauls. Along with our journeys as collectors.
Solo Hosting and Episode Teasers
00:00:28
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. i We're back. I don't have ah Dave with me today. Flying solo ah in terms of hosting duties. However, i i do have a super fun guest to bring on here.
00:00:48
Speaker
um Minimal housekeeping. ah that This...
Planning Ahead and November Giveaway
00:00:52
Speaker
this ah this afternoon recording this a little bit more in advance than we normally do um because of some travel related things that are happening because Dave is out and then I'm out after this.
00:01:06
Speaker
So ah this is called planning ahead. But the problem is i don't know what our giveaway is for November yet. But this will air. And there will be a giveaway. That being said, um said giveaway, whatever it is.
00:01:22
Speaker
First of all, congratulations to those of you that won the October giveaway. You were selected a couple days ago, and I hope you're enjoying your prizes. um Secondly, i the giveaway for this month, whatever mystery future Eric is going to post on Instagram, will be pinned at the top of our Instagram page. So at AIC underscore a podcast on Instagram, you will find a pinned post for what will likely be actually i think I do know what it is. I think it is Jazwares AEW Chase Billy Gunn.
00:02:01
Speaker
Unrivaled Billy Gunn. That's actually what it is. Because November is Billy Gunn's birthday. And why not celebrate... one of the most ageless professional wrestlers of all time. So that's right. I do remember what it is now.
00:02:17
Speaker
It's all coming back to me. um Yeah. So you can head over to at AIC underscore podcast, look for that pinned post and ah enter yourself in to win a, an AW unrivaled chase Billy gun.
00:02:32
Speaker
um I don't have a picture of it yet. Because it hasn't happened, but it'll happen. It's there al already. this is It's so strange doing this without Dave. The banter, I feel like I'm talking to myself.
00:02:44
Speaker
So I'm going to stop and I'm going to bring on our guest now because that's going to be a whole lot more interesting than me talking in
Interview with Michael Golan
00:02:51
Speaker
circles. ah Today on Adventures in Collecting, i am joined by a toy industry veteran who has spent more than 25 years shaping some of your and my favorite collectibles.
00:03:03
Speaker
From McFarlane Toys to Super 7 and now... He's crafting something under his own banner. So Michael Golan, founder of Scrambled Eggs Creative, has taken everything he's learned from decades in the toy world and poured it into his latest project and collaboration with any means necessary.
00:03:22
Speaker
I am Broken, the Bag Lady, Vinyl Companion. Michael, welcome to Adventures in Collecting. hey Thank you. Nice to be here.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, no problem. Thank you for for saving me from myself. Yeah, um you can actually talk to me now. it's It's great. It's great. I'd much rather talk to someone else than myself.
00:03:44
Speaker
um But ah yeah, seriously, I've been following your work for a long time. im Very excited to to chat with you here. I think we may have met like very, very quickly, briefly at something at the Javits Center. Possibly, yeah. At like the Super 7 booth. I think it was the year that the Mothership Project started.
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, i was I was at the booth the entire time for that. We also did a panel. Yep. But it's nice to actually be able to sit down, get some some real time with you and chat because ah there's a lot to talk about. So um before we we jump into the the main topic here, this is a show about collecting and collectibles.
00:04:24
Speaker
So ah tell us, what are what are you into right now? What's what's getting you excited in the toy and collectible world? You know, it's it's funny. ah Throughout the years, I've just... Collected a lot of different things, you know, Star Wars, He-Man, whatever.
00:04:37
Speaker
um Since I've been working at Super 7, I was basically lead design on G.I. Joe. So I took a deep dive into the vintage stuff. Nice. And right now I'm just kind of going through the Action Force UK stuff.
00:04:52
Speaker
specifically Red Shadows. OK. Anything Shadow, you know actual licensed stuff, bootleg stuff, superset like anything, and just building my army of Red Shadows.
00:05:04
Speaker
So that's fun. And I've always kind of had a soft spot for Battle Beasts back when I was a kid. So every now and then I see them at like a swap meet or something, I'll pick them up. But not not super die hard because those things are expensive. but expensive and they're hard to come by in good shape. Usually the, the, um, the mood, mood ring, heat sensitive chest piece. They're gone or they don't work or they're burning. Yeah.
00:05:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We, I was at a, um, I, Man, I want to say not this past summer, the summer before that, I took a drive up to Connecticut um to shop the Curiosity toy show. okay And there was a guy at a table there um that had...
00:05:53
Speaker
he had to have two 300 battle beasts just like full full table laid out i was i was like oh is this the moment in my life where i get back into battle beasts this is this is how it happens i think i would have spent my mortgage on that and just been like come home very happy and they and they were in like varying yeah you know stages of of decay um but But still, like it was just cool to see that many. I was actually talking to um Dan Larson and like the out of the corner my I saw them and I was like, you're going to have to excuse me for a moment.
00:06:32
Speaker
I'll be right back. I picked up a box of just, you know, somebody selling their junk and there was like a couple Battle Beasts, He-Man, whatever. And one that I never had before was a Visionaries.
00:06:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Nice. And it had like the emblem on the front. And I used to love those holographics. i It was like the holograms. so i Not that i'm starting to collect those, but that's like on my interest list. of I might jump into it. I like collecting stuff that's limited. like It had a limited run. has a finite amount of stuff to collect.
00:07:05
Speaker
Yeah. Getting into new stuff's hard, because you don't know. if It's just going to keep going on and on and on. It's true. It's very true. um Yeah. like space, but also some of these properties and IP is like, I'm like, I'm a big star Wars, Marvel legends, NECA horror.
00:07:24
Speaker
And every time, especially with like the, the NECA one's always funny because I love horror movies. And there aren't like that many horror icons, right? Like things that you would expect there to be figures of. But then like a new movie will come out and all of a sudden the door is swung right, right back open. and i'm like, well, OK, I guess I need every Terrifier figure now.
00:07:47
Speaker
yeah um Isn't Trick or Treat doing some of those too? Yeah, Trick or Treat has some really cool 5-inch retro, yeah like what if Kenner did Terrifier figures effectively. um Which, listen, I mean, they made Alien, they made Predator figures. They were definitely doing stuff that was not kid-appropriate. So, you know, it's it's it's out there.
00:08:10
Speaker
But yeah, the the the the retro stuff is is awesome. and and And, you know, Battle Beasts in particular, that's something that I am... It comes up so frequently on this show.
00:08:21
Speaker
And every time I am so blown away that nobody has tried to like properly revive that yet, especially with like the craze of like blind box, blind bag, you know, collectors like putting those things in blind boxes where like you don't know what you're going to Like I'm going to be crazy. Super seven talked about doing I think there was a licensing issue.
00:08:44
Speaker
where they didn't know who had 100% of the license. I think, like, Hasbro thought they owned it, but then maybe they didn't own 100%. So I thought there was a licensing issue because we had talked about it at one point, but it came and went.
00:08:58
Speaker
That was a few weeks ago. hu Yeah. I mean, that would make sense. the The licensing thing is a big hurdle to get over, especially, you know, some of those older, older brands.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah.
Toy Design and Industry Experience
00:09:11
Speaker
A lot of companies went out. We were, i was talking with a friend about the, uh, the inhumanoids, not inhumanoids, supernaturals, the ones with the full hot ones.
00:09:20
Speaker
And they were owned by Tonka, but then they were bought out by somebody else, maybe Hasbro, but nobody really knows who has the license. So you don't Yeah. And mo last thing you want to do is go down the road and then all of a sudden yeah having spent all of like the development money on it to not be able to do anything with it.
00:09:37
Speaker
That's happened. That's happened before. Ugh. Nightmare. Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of what I mean, too. I'm into the retro stuff. I like some of the newer stuff. You know, I'm not to pat myself on the back. I like the new the G.I. Joe O-rings here.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah? Just because... oh ring You know, it's like we grew up with At least I grew up with it. you know It's so much fun. And to make it like the cartoon, which I also grew up with, it's just like the best of both worlds.
00:10:08
Speaker
Yeah, that has been really cool to see those reaction pluses do some of the kind of wonkier Sunbow stuff. Like the Zartan from Cold Slither and Cobra Commander and like the cape. and um Yeah, the the the characters from the the either the the movie or the Sunbow TV show. i mean that's For most people, I think...
00:10:30
Speaker
especially like of a certain age, right? Like that is aesthetically has become what G.I. Joe is, it's either the comic book or the TV show. um So to see, you know, everybody that's in, you know, playing and like kind of the G.I. Joe universe to be pulling, you know, ah inspiration from that is is really cool to see.
00:10:49
Speaker
Yeah. thanks valent time coming That was part of the contract with Super 7 because that going back to your talk about the mothership, we originally designed the mothership to be for reaction.
00:11:00
Speaker
And then part of the agreement was, no, we're gonna get into Reaction Plus and this is gonna be our debut. ah So we debuted like a, it was a Mothership pilot. yeah we created We actually created that from ah from scratch and then it was based off the Viper, but kind of its own thing.
00:11:22
Speaker
And then the agreement like furthered along saying, no, you can only do Sunbow that's not vintage, you know, has to be sunbow and it has to be stuff that hasn't been done before is what they said.
00:11:35
Speaker
Screw the issue, you know, we've designed stuff that has been done before, but looks like the cartoon. So I really enjoyed that. That's a lot of fun. Yeah. So so speaking of ah of of what you're working on, um let's talk a little bit about Scrambled Eggs Creative.
00:11:53
Speaker
Very, very cool, cool name. A lot, lot, you a lot to think about visually with that. ah How did you come about that name and and what does it really kind of represent to you and in terms of what you're doing?
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, that's a funny one because I kind of I threw that around for a very long time. I would I would come up with a name and I would ask my wife, like what do you think it is? It's terrible. I would go back and forth, you know, and I wanted something whimsical, but I wanted something memorable. Like I used to be Gullen Proto.
00:12:28
Speaker
But like, that's not memorable. Like, yeah, it's my name, but nobody's going to remember that. And I was looking around and everybody was doing their own thing, like Smith design or whatever. It's just kind of like, no, I want something fun. Like, you know, like you have super seven or plastic meatball or something goofy like that.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah. Then at the time we were you know, at the time we would, we just had our baby and we were kind of going, we went through a big IVF journey to have our our daughter.
00:12:58
Speaker
And we always called her the little egg that could. And it's kind of like i wanted to mix the egg part of it in there. But then I did like little egg and I did a cracked egg and design. I'm like, this just looks weird.
00:13:10
Speaker
So I kind of went with just scrambled eggs because everybody loves scrambled eggs, but they do it their own way. you know And it's kind of like, that's what we can do. We can do the funny stuff. We can do the serious stuff. We can do the disgusting stuff, whatever you want.
00:13:24
Speaker
And it's all kind of under that that realm. It does have a more playful feel because I feel like working with clients, you know to to come out with something really grotesque as your mascot or something might might push people off. But um that's kind of kind of where I went with it.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. So first of all, congratulations. I'm I am all too familiar with with ah the IVF a journey. jerusalemly so like i can Yeah, it's it's a it's a brutal it is a brutal process, but it's worth it in the end. Right. yeah um absolutely But ah but yeah, no, that that's super cool. and and And to your point, like, you know, scrambled eggs is about making them right. Like like you said, everyone does it a little bit differently. So. You know, i do plain Jane with ketchup on top, and my wife hates it.
00:14:14
Speaker
She makes them with, like, cheese and something a little more okay built up, and I'm just like, no, I don't need that. you know, it's kind of like everybody has their own thing. Personally, I'm a little bit of Tapatio hot sauce and everything bagel seasoning.
00:14:29
Speaker
yeah throw a Sprinkle a little bit of the everything bagel seasoning on top with the hot sauce. where we We're cooking. We're in business. can do that.
00:14:38
Speaker
So, you know, you've you've worked for ah some pretty big names in the toy world. Like, you know, we've been talking kind of a lot about Super 7 and, um you know, you worked at McFarlane i here in the the secret satellite office in New Jersey for for quite some time.
00:14:53
Speaker
um what ah What experience from those years kind of shaped your approach when it came time to to start your own creative adventure here? That's a good question, actually. i and mean, I worked at McFarlane for...
00:15:08
Speaker
18 years, 19 years. 1999 is when I started in New Jersey office. um And if you know McFarlane, they kind of, they started with the monster stuff, the spawn stuff, the grotesque Clive Barker stuff.
00:15:22
Speaker
That's why I got into toys, because I loved, the first toy I remember buying from McFarlane was the, it was a Wetworks Vampire, I think it was. okay And it was just cool. you know It was different than everything else out there.
00:15:35
Speaker
so I went there and you know, we eventually picked up sports and movie titles and all that, but it was always... The one thing I learned from Todd was really just capture the details, but capture the essence of the character.
00:15:50
Speaker
You can sculpt the character perfectly, but there might be something missing, which is why he always did the poses, you know, the the spawn with the arm up and the cape flowing. ah kind of really captured the character. And that's one thing I wanted to take from that was capture the character.
00:16:07
Speaker
um Super 7, on the other hand, was more of... the nostalgia, like not specifically nostalgia, but what sparks that interest and joy when you hold something like a figure in your hand, like when you were a kid, you know, I i pick up a battle beast, but I remember in my head playing with them when I was 12, you know, yeah same with GI i Joe and just those memories come flooding back. And that's, that was amazing.
00:16:37
Speaker
Amazing to pick that up from Super 7 and Brian and everybody there just kind of like pushing that nostalgia. I've learned so much about toys I didn't even know existed. You know, a lot of the Japanese and the Toho and all that had no idea that stuff even existed and it was neat to learn all that stuff. So I kind of wanted to take those two worlds and bring it together.
00:16:58
Speaker
So when you look at the visuals of the new project they have, it's kind of a little bit of both. in there so yeah yeah i mean that that was one of the things that kind of i think a lot of us went through a phase in like the the late 90s early 2000s where because of what mcfarlane was doing uh and um and you know what you guys were doing there with those kind of you know, the, the twisted, you know, um what was it? The Alice.
00:17:31
Speaker
so put Yeah. Yeah. Twisted Alice and, you know, the movie maniacs and even, you know, the stuff that was going on with, you know, the, the different spawn lines at that point, it made it feel less like you were buying a toy and more like you were buying an art piece.
00:17:47
Speaker
yeah And I think for for a lot of us, that was like a new kind of way to look at it and a way to kind of like graduate to, to a degree. Right. At the time it was like, there was the toys and I think like sideshow and a couple other people were making the high end sculptures, but you know, at 20, 25, 26, I can't afford a 200, $300 statue every month.
00:18:11
Speaker
And the great thing about the McFarland stuff was it was an affordable statue. Yeah. Yep. And they're accessible. Yeah. Toys rest had Yep. Yep. I used to get mine at either Toys R Us or um from Mill Creek Mall, Suncoast or yes, Suncoast video. Yeah. yeah yeah Used to have them.
00:18:31
Speaker
But like, yeah, I mean, it was the amount of detail that was in those things, even even i mean, some of them still hold up so well today. Like. you know, 20, 30 years later.
00:18:43
Speaker
Um, and you must the comic covers to me are like, we're the epitome of, of Todd stuff. Like when he started saying, just make this cover and that cover and this cover. And we wouldn't make it exactly like that. And it was just, they're timeless. I mean, cause the comics are timeless.
00:18:59
Speaker
So yeah. And you guys had some heavy hitters there, like a lot, like, especially in that, that New Jersey office, like people that went on to, you know, continue to, to, like yourself, you know, influence the design aesthetic of the toy industry. So it's funny. It was a small at the time. Even now, it's it's a small industry. You know, it's you had a couple of the big companies. But when I started McFarland, they were they were sort of big. They were like the little medium pond. They weren't a Hasbro or Mattel.
00:19:31
Speaker
NECA wasn't around at the time. None of these other guys were around at the time. So it was a very tight group of artists. You know, and then when they started breaking off and doing their own thing, the horsemen did their own thing, like that was groundbreaking.
00:19:47
Speaker
And then you had a couple other studios do that. You'll find it with other studios that are out now, they're break offs from Super 7 or Hasbro or wherever. You know, it's yeah it's kind of cool. But it's really like, as far as like sculptors and designers, it's probably the same 100, 200 people that have been doing it for for years Yeah, like we always run into ah um one of – personally, one of my favorite sculptors across the acrossing ah entire industry, Gene St. Gene. Yeah. um You we always run into – I knew you were going to say his name too. Really? Yeah, I just knew it.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, we we run into him, another another New Jersey guy, but we run into him at like local shows. And it's just yeah like, again, you know, some of the stuff that's out there, like you like you said, like, you know, you guys have been doing this.
00:20:33
Speaker
It's just kind of you move around from place to place and, you know, carve out your section somewhere. and Yeah, I will say the the one hit of reality is when I go to like,
00:20:45
Speaker
the local antique mall and I see stuff that I've worked on and it's like five bucks firm. Like they won't take less than five bucks. yeah All right. But like I worked on that. It's so weird. It's like, am am I an antique now?
00:21:01
Speaker
No, you're not an antique, but some of the things that you've worked on yes might might be... Yeah, because what what's what's the rule? is I know the rule with cars, right? Like you become a classic car after 20 years. right, cars after 25 years.
00:21:14
Speaker
So, yeah. So if if you've if you've got some 25-year-old pieces out there from McFarlane, you can get special you can get special plates for them. It'll be great. Yeah.
Starting a Toy Company
00:21:25
Speaker
But yeah, after, after, so after you know, 25 years of designing, you know, toys for for other companies, you know, what was really kind of your turning point where you're like 2025, here we are. it's It's time to do something like that's like mine, that belongs to me.
00:21:41
Speaker
Honestly, it's it's funny. It's really just the state of the industry. um kind of I don't want to say forced my hand, but it kind of put a fire under my butt to kind of do something.
00:21:53
Speaker
When I left McFarland in 2018, which is when the New Jersey office closed, I tried to do my own thing with some colleagues. We had an investor.
00:22:04
Speaker
um There's a couple things in my portfolio, like the Taylor Swift and Mark Tremonti sculptures. um That just didn't pan out. That was right before COVID. covid And we kind of had this business plan together. we had these prototypes.
00:22:19
Speaker
We went to go have meetings, and it kind of just dissolved because everybody wasn't really doing anything for that. But in the meantime, I was freelancing for Super 7. Got hired on freelance for that because we worked remote for Super 7 for years.
00:22:33
Speaker
And then was laid off in May from that, um again, due to tariffs and pricing issues and all of that. so I didn't specifically want to start my own thing and say, I'm making my own company. It was more of backup plan for starters.
00:22:53
Speaker
Looking for full work, just not getting anywhere in the industry, like having a couple interviews, but somebody with 25 years of experience, they really don't. they're not chomping at the bit for some reason to get to somebody like me when they can hire somebody a little younger, a little cheaper, whatever it is.
00:23:13
Speaker
yeah So I just kind of, in my head, I was like, well, let me try this again. I'll start something new. I'll have some of the same colleagues help me. you know group of people have new colleagues that I have from Super 7 at this point.
00:23:26
Speaker
And just kind of set myself up for when the industry comes back, I'm there for, okay, maybe Hasbro, Super 7, Valverse, they don't want to hire anybody immediately, but they're looking for freelancers.
00:23:41
Speaker
And I'm a one-stop shop. Like, I can take your idea and do concept all the way to final production, basically. um So that's kind of the idea, just kind of as a backup plan, but it's kind of snowballed very quickly into doing my own thing with a license and...
00:23:59
Speaker
licenses hopefully we'll see in the next month or two and it express some other stuff so um yeah so it's really exciting we we like to say at adventures and collecting we're not an we're not an if podcast we're a when podcast so when when you get those other licenses yes i'll be back and talk about it and now a word from our sponsors
00:24:27
Speaker
This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
00:24:43
Speaker
Visit them in person at their brand new home at 101 Newark Pompton Turnpike Suite 1 in Little Falls, New Jersey, or online at chubzywubzy.com.
00:24:55
Speaker
That's
00:25:01
Speaker
And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:25:08
Speaker
And now, back to the show. First of all, like, you know, it's it's tough as I like to think of of our podcast and yeah what we do on social media as as toy journalism.
00:25:22
Speaker
you know I try to stay – we try to stay as objective as we possibly can, report what's going on, you know give people the platform to have you know these open conversations where they get to talk about their passions and stuff, which means that we've made a lot of friends over the years. you know we've we've We've met a lot of people. We've – from from all all different types of companies. So – when everything started to go kind of sideways um in the past year or so, it's been very tough to watch as you know our our friends and people we have ah so much respect for have been put in a situation where they're struggling. you know um So it's really, really cool.
00:26:01
Speaker
to see you know somebody like yourself venture into this new kind of realm and create something really cool, which is you know kind of what led us to having this this conversation today and and and to talk about your your collab with ah with any means
Collaboration and Mental Health Messaging
00:26:18
Speaker
necessary. So yeah, um yeah tell tell me a little bit about ah the ah the project.
00:26:27
Speaker
all right, yeah, so again, like I said, it kind of snowballed. Like, I didn't expect to pick up a license so fast. I thought I would just do a lot of design work, whatever.
00:26:38
Speaker
I have a friend, ah Bart, who runs a licensing firm. And just random one day said, hey, you got anything interesting? You know, I'm technically a startup. Yes, I've been, my pedigree is 25 years, but I'm i'm a startup. um And he said,
00:26:56
Speaker
He introduced two licenses. One was a little bigger, little bit out of my scope. Not that I couldn't do it, I just kind of was, wanted to stay away from it for now.
00:27:08
Speaker
Any means necessary to me, was just amazing. It reminded me of the old Todd McFarlane stuff. It reminded, like he was just fresh on the scene. And that's what I loved about Sean's stuff here, with any means necessary, Sean Cost.
00:27:23
Speaker
um it's And I like the fact that it has a message behind it. His whole message behind his artwork is mental health awareness. So he, all his drawings are based off of whatever disorders are out there or depression, whatever you can think of that's affecting basically everybody in the world.
00:27:47
Speaker
He's doing this pretty dark art. It's his way of expressing it. But to me, with my background and then obviously everybody goes through this kind of stuff, it really just sang to me, you know, and looking through his artwork I was just blown away by it.
00:28:05
Speaker
So one this one specifically, he had kind of on a back burner for five, six years. He had drawn this character, written up a little story of her um which you can read in in the the Kickstarter campaign.
00:28:23
Speaker
And it's just kind of something he just kept falling back on. And when I first had my meeting, he was like, this one's cool. I don't know if it's a toy or whatever. He's like, I got more popular designs, but this one sang to me because it was just, it was different. It was unique. It was colorful for one.
00:28:42
Speaker
Um, And as the toy maker, I mean, you know, and as you're familiar with repaints and recolors, to me, it it'sang it's saying it's a fresh palette. I could do so many different things with her, put so many different messages on her, and and really just get different stories across. And that's kind of what we did for this first Kickstarter was started with the, what we're calling prototypical, the blue and white, but then, you know, for the toy lovers, we have the glow and the dark.
00:29:13
Speaker
um The Happy Pills, which is kind of a different story. Yeah. The Bright Yellow. And then ah came up with the Shadow one just because of I love translucent toys.
00:29:25
Speaker
But on the other hand, it's it's again, it's got its own story of being in the shadows, you know, feeling like you're always stuck there and and and not important, that kind of thing. Well, first of all, I mean, the the story behind these, you know, meant mental health is extremely important, especially in, you know, today's landscape of things, regardless of of ah any sort of affiliation. it's It is we need to take care of ourselves and each other. So, you know, kudos for for helping, you know get that message out there.
00:29:56
Speaker
But but also, you know, I just love the. the the detail here because there's something sort of creepy about it. There's something sort of uplifting about it. um And it's, you know, to to to use a sometimes overused word, it it is very toyetic, you know, for something that, i you know, has such kind of a heavy um undertone to it.
00:30:19
Speaker
And the colorways are crazy cool. Thank you. that That's kind of why we lean towards the the wording of it's a companion. You know, we we're calling it a ah vinyl art toy because we need to tell the masses what it is.
00:30:36
Speaker
But we're calling it a companion because, you know, there's that sense of loneliness everybody has. And to be able to have something in your hand and hold it, even if it is a plastic toy, again, calling back to nostalgia, sometimes you're holding a He-Man figure or something, but you remember a great moment with your parents or something, and it's...
00:30:54
Speaker
it's just healing you know it's it's for lack of better terms um so this one really spoke to me like he he sean was on the fence about it but then once i showed him the sculpture he had a sculpture done a few years ago and it was very art toy it was very not that there's anything wrong with that but it was very clean very straight and my mcfarlane background was like nah we can make this creepier you know like let's just detail and make it creepy. And i kind of i sat down with my colleagues, Ramsey and Dave, and we really just kind of looked at it and said, how do we make this art toy, but how do we make it super cool and detailed and grotesque and and kind of work in the realm that we're familiar with?
00:31:41
Speaker
yeah That's kind of where we got there. And I showed Sean the new sculpture and he's like, oh yeah, that's it. like It just clicked with him immediately. there's There's a saying I know I'm going to I'm going absolutely butcher it, but it's like, um you know, sometimes there's there's beauty in like in horror.
00:31:59
Speaker
And that's definitely what's happening here. And I mean, you could see, you know, in kind of your the washes on this and, you know, the the just the details in the dress. And it's, you know,
00:32:12
Speaker
both beautifully sculpted, but also kind of raggedy and, you know, and frayed and her story. I mean, that's her story. Yeah. she's like She's she might be grotesque or disgusting to other people, but to some in herself, she's beautiful. She's unique. You know, it's that's kind of the story behind her. And I think everybody can relate.
00:32:33
Speaker
Yeah. In any way, is as confident as you are, there's always that little part of you that's like, yeah, maybe not. and And also, I'm i'm happy to hear there's another translucent toy lover out there. It's one of i my... Translucent and Glow. I had to hit them both in the first campaign.
00:32:50
Speaker
you translucent For me, it's it's translucent then glow, like like in terms of like, so I'm i'm glad I'm glad the options there. um so Kickstarters yeah are are as much a about community as they are about kind of the funding of projects.
00:33:06
Speaker
um How has the response been so
Kickstarter and Community Response
00:33:09
Speaker
far? and And what's it what's it been like connecting directly with ah supporters for for something with you know such an important part of your career here? Yeah, um it's been great. Everybody who has backed it or reached out or in Sean's community, like I'm on his Discord and Facebook group, they love it. They love what it is and what it represents. um I think we haven't fully funded yet. We we have another nine, 10 days to
00:33:39
Speaker
um We're very close. I don't see any issue why we wouldn't. um But I think because it's so different you know than the normal toy, it's its own IP, it's Sean's thing.
00:33:53
Speaker
I think his fans kind of, they gravitate to it but they don't really know what to do with it because they're not toy people. Yeah. And the toy people like it, but they're like, don't know, does it go with my Marvel guys? I don't know. you know So it's it's kind of in between. And I think there's going to more stuff going on in the next week that I'm going to post showing it with other figures and stuff just to kind of show you where it is in the realm of other toys.
00:34:19
Speaker
um But that's kind of where we're at. they The people love it. It's just a matter of getting them to back it. Yeah. Yeah. Once it is, once it's back, this is the beginning of many things. i signed ah two-year license with Sean um for not only vinyl toys, but we have resin, action figures, blind box, and plush.
00:34:43
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm already working on plush. Hopefully be out soon. um I have designs for all the other ones. um So as long as this goes over smoothly and everybody loves this stuff, then we'll get into the really detailed. I started with this because the price point is nice.
00:35:02
Speaker
To go into resin, you're talking to $200 for retail. Action figures. I can do a $30, $40 price tag, but the tooling cost on that is so high that I didn't want to start with that either and just put myself on hold.
00:35:18
Speaker
you know yeah This one is a happy medium, and I do think, um I think you said it before, it's kind of like it's a vinyl toy, but it's an action figure. it's kind of a little of both.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah. and And I mean, that's that's kind of what I what I was going to get at next. I'm glad you mentioned the the the plush and you know blind box things, because this this piece, especially at at eight and a half inches tall, you know, with the kind of amount of detail and everything that's on there, it feels like a a place that exists somewhere between the designer art toy and kind of like the mass market vinyl toy scene, like the stuff that you're seeing at like Pop Mart and, you know, and places like that.
00:35:59
Speaker
um Do you see this as kind of like the direction or maybe like the the place that that scrambled egg ah is going to exist in terms of offering?
00:36:10
Speaker
Yeah, think it's definitely one of the categories. I kind of liked exactly what you said. It's kind of a the best of both worlds there. I mean, I'm trained. for mass market design. yeah When I started with McFarlane through Super 7, I'm trained to do the costing, the pieces, the tooling, all that you know intricate stuff as I'm designing.
00:36:32
Speaker
But then there's always been that art toy lover in me. I've dealt with the art toys. I've made the art toys. i've Recently, I did one for Guerrilla Nems.
00:36:44
Speaker
That's just fun, goofy stuff. And it was kind of like, but it's it's not
00:36:50
Speaker
It's just as difficult to make that stuff as it is to make mass market stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it's more challenging because it's the pricing on it you know If you're doing 200, 300 pieces, that's a lot more challenging than doing 2,000, 3,000 pieces because it costs it.
00:37:04
Speaker
So, yeah, I kind of wanted to meld the the best of both worlds with those with those designs. And you know I'll always have that super detailed background from McFarland in me, and I don't think...
00:37:18
Speaker
I think there's only one struggle I had at Super 7 with simplifying everything and yeah and wiping the detail. i really When I first started, I really struggled. I'm like, I don't understand what you mean. Don't make it look cool. Like, I don't get it.
00:37:30
Speaker
But then I understood where they were going with, no, it's super cool because it's simplistic and it's nostalgic. And then I totally got it because, again, I jumped into that world. And, you know, this just kind of meets in the middle, you know.
00:37:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Why are all these surfaces smooth and and don't have a dark wash on them? What's happening? ah where Where's all the detail? Yeah. um No, but but you it's it's it's really interesting. So like having, you know,
00:37:59
Speaker
Having seen what you've done at McFarlane, you know the the detail, the grime, the grit and, you know, kind of the simplistic things at Super 7, this really does. This project does exist in the middle and you can see both parts of your 25 year career like kind of coming together here, which is really, really interesting.
00:38:18
Speaker
Like it's it honestly it is it whether. you're familiar with the source material source material or not. I mean, this is something that which is why I asked that art toy question, because I feel like art toy collectors, they're a little more open to just getting something that looks cool, right? Like they're not they're not trained to you know, be adherent to like an IP or a franchise or something like that. Like if, if they see a piece that speaks to them, just like ah anybody who's buying anything in like the art space, you know, whether it's a painting, a sculpture, you know, if you see something that speaks to you, you get it. And I feel like this is something that is shouting with a megaphone to to people like that.
00:39:04
Speaker
Cool. Thank you. so So, um, But yeah, ah you know, that brings us kind of to today,
New Intellectual Properties in Toys
00:39:11
Speaker
right? Like where where we are today. um When you look at what everyone else is up to, you know, the all of these independent creators, platforms like Kickstarter, i you know, limited run designs and storytelling, what kind of has you excited most about the the the future of the toy industry?
00:39:32
Speaker
and I think... IP, just new IP, things that don't exist. you know it's ah Don't take this negatively. I don't want to sound negative, but how many Batmans, how many Spider-Mans, how many Wolverines can you have in your collection before you kind of...
00:39:55
Speaker
get tired of it i don't know like that's kind of my collecting it's like if i'm gonna get an optimist prime only need one or two maybe if he's got a totally different look i don't need 50 because he's got a double joiner here what you know that's just that's just me as a collector there's a guy out there yelling i have 50 batmans and i want 51 i get it but you know it's to me it's like all right but like that's what's exciting about this it's like You've never seen this before.
00:40:25
Speaker
You don't have anything to compare it to. You don't have, you know, I do it myself. You know, I buy a toy and then I'm comparing it to something that had already exists. And then it kind of like takes that magic away of why am I collecting this?
00:40:40
Speaker
If I don't really like it, why am I buying yeah But this to me is it's so new. And in his artwork, if if anybody listening gets a chance to look through his library of artwork, it's just fantastic.
00:40:52
Speaker
It's very Edward Gorey, Tim Burton-esque, really creepy stuff, but it has a really sharp edge message to it. And that's what I really like about it. And just looking through the library, I can't wait to tap into some of that artwork that he's got going on.
00:41:08
Speaker
um It's going to make great product. Some of it is so crazy. i don't even know how we're going to make it into product. We're going to try. um but yeah, I mean, that's really what kind of excites me. And that's what I really loved about the, like you said, the art toys.
00:41:23
Speaker
Some of them are just so crazy and off the wall. even Even like there was a whole enamel pin scene. Yeah. Getting away from toys. I i would make enamel pins.
00:41:35
Speaker
I have another company that I make like tchotchkes and stuff and sell on Etsy. And we got into the enamel pins and just seeing artists just make product out of their 2D art. and make a bit of a living off of it or a hobby out of it. To me, it was so cool to see what they could do with all that.
00:41:53
Speaker
And it was just so unique, you know? Yeah. So unique. Oh, I'm a sucker for first for some enamel pins. I've got, I don't have enough jacket for the amount of pins that I have not stuck to jackets.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, but the, yeah, it's it's, I'm also excited for those those new fresh IPs because, yeah even outside of just doing you know the toy podcast and being kind of exposed to all the news all the time you know it is the the stuff that gets me excited is like you know jada putting out tony the tiger and like i actually have the the monster cereal ones too Yeah, like like those kinds of releases and, and you know, that's that's another reason why I'm i'm a fan of NECA's horror stuff, because like I said before, it's like, you know, now I have an art the clown figure and he's got an actual trash bag filled with weapons of yeah violence. You know, like it's never going to get that anywhere else.
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah, like that's that's the cool thing about toys is like you can have that balance like people who want He-Man and Wolverine and Batman and Spider-Man. They have those options. They're always going to be there. There's always going to be an opportunity for somebody to grab a Spider-Man figure.
00:43:11
Speaker
But in the same breath. they can also have a really cool art piece or something that's completely new and fresh or a plunderling or any of the, i like the Jersey devil figure that I just got from, from, uh, horsemen, yeah good which I never thought a million years, like as, as soon as they announced that, i was like, Oh, New Jersey native, I need this. Well, they're from New Jersey, so they had to do it. Yeah.
00:43:35
Speaker
Yeah. It's, it's perfect. but um It's true. It's, it's, it's funny though. Like I, The ones that have been done before, like you know like I said, Batman, Turtles, whatever, I love seeing those that are fresh takes on.
00:43:51
Speaker
When you see like art versions of those or just like, oh, this is the Frank Miller Batman. like That doesn't look like any other Batman. like Those things, to me, those things ring out, and I would probably buy or collect those.
00:44:08
Speaker
Some of the other stuff I might. you know it's just like But again, how many can you have? Well, I always keep this near me because yeah this Kenner Batman in a in a... The last thing Batman should be wearing.
00:44:22
Speaker
that the Arctic one? It's the Arctic one. Yes. Because to to this day... Batman in a white suit feels just so wrong, but I always keep this figure within arm's length of me at my desk because this figure taught me one very important thing at the ripe age of like seven, that colorways are cool.
00:44:46
Speaker
Yeah. And if you like a thing and it comes in a wacky colorway, like keep an eye out for that and i and i I love that and that's eventually why I fell in love with Sofubi stuff and know like to to to have like a day glow orange Godzilla you know that like to to take it back to Super 7 you know that that the um the burning God's Ultimates the burning Ultimates Godzilla that's just a translucent translucent orange Godzilla perfect but just on that's that's lighting up there's what they have yes
00:45:22
Speaker
so yeah But even like these guys, the mummy boys, where is I've been picking up those just because it's it's a fun character, but he comes in like a billion different colors. yeah Yeah, and I love that. I love the opportunity to just add that kind of splash to the display, to the, you know, um unfortunately, you know, another ah part of the the pandemic and and the tariffs and everything, or really the tariffs, not so much the pandemic, but when Super Plastic kind of let like had that fire sale of everything that they had in their warehouse. I picked up their gorillas figures, the vinyl gorillas ones. And, you know, I have now have a day glow pink, green, blue and orange.
00:46:06
Speaker
you no Yeah, it's great. It's great. looks So it looks bizarre next to the Razor Quest, but It's great. It's great. i love it. um So remind our our listeners, our followers, ah this is going to be airing on November. If you are listening to this on the date of airing, it is November 3rd.
00:46:27
Speaker
So you only have a couple days left to back. Three days at that point. It ends on November 6th. um There will be late pledges allowed.
00:46:39
Speaker
as long as it funds. Again, we're only like $6,000 away. I don't think we're not going to hit it. um So after November 6, you can still come in and pledge late. You won't be able to get the specials or the super secret stuff that's in there.
00:46:53
Speaker
um But everything is is still available. Yeah, and and we'll just kind of ah just take us real quick through the the different options one more time. i'm gonna If you're watching this on YouTube, there you can you can play along and and see what we've got here. but ah Yeah, just go to Kickstarter and Google bag lady and itll Bag Lady Vinyl, and it comes up like the first name.
00:47:16
Speaker
Yeah, so our prelaunch was kind of our own website. We advertise, you come to the website, you put your email in for the mailing list, and we sent you a special link that gave you the super discounted price on basically everything that we have available.
00:47:35
Speaker
So you get all four figures, the stickers, the enamel pins, ah the art prints, which Sean did, which are brand new art prints um for this Kickstarter exclusively for us, a signature certificate, a funny prop bag that's actually going to be screen printed. This is I Am Not Broken.
00:47:55
Speaker
So that's kind of everything that's available at one awesome price. like You're not going able to it that cheap anywhere else. Yeah. and And then there's as as it is with you know every other Kickstarter, right? Like those are your options in terms of backing. So you can pledge to get one, two three, all four with pins with tickers the collector in me set it up where you can't just back the glow or the translucent.
00:48:27
Speaker
You have to go through. the tiers to kind of get to it. You can cheat it by, if you pledge the prototypical, you can do an add-on for the shadow trick know so you and if you just want to translucent. But I had somebody ask, like how do i just get the glow? I'm like, well, you got to buy the two-pack.
00:48:45
Speaker
Because that's kind of, again, it's the collector in me. It's going to make it more scarce. It's going to make it a little bit more of fun to collect.
00:48:54
Speaker
But yeah, everything's going to be available as add-ons. We did also add on um two exclusive art prints from Sean, too, that are new art. These two here, they're 11 by 17, think. Yep. Very cool.
00:49:06
Speaker
ah by seventeen i think
00:49:10
Speaker
very cool Very, very cool. the The guy cleat prints, the larger ones, which are his new artwork, which is ah with the one picture on the left. I think if you go to the next picture, you can see that. or It's down further.
00:49:23
Speaker
um Those are available as like high-end guy cleat prints. One's going to be standard. One's going to be foil. They're available as add-ons too. They also offer wholesale stuff, six packs at a discounted price.
00:49:39
Speaker
We are talking to a couple of distributors who are looking at picking up the product. um They're pretty excited for the whole gambit of 2026, 2027 product, not just this one.
00:49:51
Speaker
um But they're they're interested in pretty much all of it. So the stretchs stretch goals are fun. and This one was another art piece of his that really sang to me was the Heartbreaker.
00:50:06
Speaker
um She has a new accessory here. She's got the bloody heart in her hand. um So that's going to be available if we get to 70. um Then I think later on, there's accessory packs and different heads.
00:50:20
Speaker
ah The accessory pack here, just different weapons you can put with her. different things. Great. Yeah, different different heads and arms and stuff. Very, very cool. Well, we'll make sure to put the link to this in the description.
00:50:35
Speaker
um We all know in terms of ah you know how Kickstarters go and everything, ah those last 48 hours are absolutely clutch. you know people People tend to either back really early or um or wait till the absolute last minute.
00:50:52
Speaker
Yeah, the first 24 hours was amazing. Then I was like, oh, OK, we'll see. Yep. And everything plateaus off for a bit. And then with, you know, with with, you know, 36 hours to go, they everyone likes to make every creator sweat.
00:51:08
Speaker
Yeah. Instead of just getting it out of the way early. But um yeah, so we'll make sure that we put a link to the ah to this in the description. So that way, if you are listening, if you are watching, um you can simply hit the link and and secure your ah secure the bag, as as the kids say these days. like that.
00:51:29
Speaker
Michael, ah where can folks keep up to date with you on social media? i am scrambledegscreative.com. Creative.com, Scrambled Eggs Creative on Insta, and then Facebook as well.
00:51:43
Speaker
Awesome. Well, listen, thank you so much for taking the time to chat today. This is an amazing project, and i can't, again, not if, when. Can't wait to see this cross the finish line, and I can't wait to see what you next and have you back on to talk about it.
00:51:58
Speaker
Thank you. I love it. Thanks for having me It's been awesome. All right. And with that, folks, we will see you next time.
00:52:07
Speaker
Thank you for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review this podcast wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Learn more about him in the show notes.
00:52:21
Speaker
Our music is Game Boy Horror by The Zombie Danes. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Adventures in Collecting and on Twitter at AIC underscore podcast.
00:52:33
Speaker
Stop by and say hi. Show us your hauls and photos. Tell us your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it on a future episode.
00:52:54
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Hablaui. 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.