Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
A Bunch of Barmy Bits and Bobs with Hasbro's Steve Evans
722 Plays3 years ago
A return 3 years in the making! Friend of the pod and Director of Design and Development of Marvel at Hasbro, Steve Evans is back to discuss the status of the Kenner Retro Marvel Legends, his contribution to the relaunch of the retro Indiana Jones figures and so much more.
Follow Steve and Hasbro on Instagram @mrstevie18 and @hasbropulse to learn more!
Use our special link zen.ai/aicpod and use aicpod to save 30% off your first three months of Zencastr professional. #madeonzencastr
Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping with promo code AIC at MANSCAPED.com
Save 12% at BlendJet - use our special link and the discount will be applied at checkout! zen.ai/aicpod12
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
Proudly part of the Non-Productive Network
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Zencastr Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Dave, you know why I love using Zencaster? Is it because the recording quality is better than other methods of recording a podcast virtually? Nope. Is it because they offer a free version for hobbyists just getting started? No, not that. Is it because it's super easy to use for everyone and none of our guests have ever had an issue using it? That's not it. Is it because they offer automatic post-production and transcription services? Negative.
00:00:29
Speaker
Stop burying the lead. Why do you love Zencaster? It's because Zencaster is all of the things you just said, Dave. Well, and they sponsor this pod. That's right.
00:00:41
Speaker
Adventures in Collecting is powered by Zencaster. How about your pod? Get started now with Zencaster and use our code to start podcasting today. Visit zencaster.com slash pricing and use promo code AICpod to get 30% off your first three months of their professional plan or try it for free.
00:01:03
Speaker
That's Z-E-N-C-A-S-T-R dot com slash pricing and use promo code AICPOD. 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.
Hosts' Return and Inside Jokes
00:01:30
Speaker
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, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:01:49
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Dave, we're back. We are. And no one's going to know why we're laughing. And you know what? That is just amazing. That's just absolutely perfect. And that's for us to know and for you all to never, ever know. Well, we had to be here. We're back. We're back, Dave.
00:02:14
Speaker
We are. And this is an episode that's been a long time coming. So as usual, I'm not going to bury the lead. It's a long time past and a long time coming. I like that. Yeah. I like that. That's very existential of you, Dave. Thank you.
00:02:36
Speaker
Very existential moments with Dave. That's what's happening right now. Yeah, I felt like a sports announcer for the first time in a while. Good. Good. I like that you bottle that energy, save it, and let's spread it out throughout the show. It's like a little spritz bottle. You got to spread that out through the length of this episode.
00:02:58
Speaker
Um, but let's, let's talk about today's guest this
Guest Appearance: Steve Evans from Hasbro
00:03:01
Speaker
week's guest. Uh, this is, this guest is returning. This is their second time on the show. Um, and, uh, it's been nearly three years, uh, since he's, he's been on and a lot has changed since then.
00:03:15
Speaker
You know, the, the, the global pandemic being, being one of those things, of course, but, uh, making his return to the show, uh, as friend of the pod and, uh, and frankly, to the toy community at large, uh, Marvel director of design and development at Hasbro, Steve Evans, Steve, welcome back to adventures in collecting. Thank you so much for having me. I tell you, there's a lot of difference between those three years. Number one, I can see you both, which is why we're giving like a bunch of video.
00:03:47
Speaker
Last time, last time we spoke, I literally had my laptop. I think you were my first proper interview outside of like cons and things like that. And I remember I was upstairs in my closet and I had my laptop really close to my face. I had it on the shelf and I was like so stressed about the quality of the microphone and I couldn't see you and I was nervous. I turned all the lights off in my closet and just spoke to you. So I've come out of the closet.
00:04:12
Speaker
the last three years and I can see you both, which is way better. I love seeing both of you. I especially, uh, I love it. We're just getting like a bunch of idiots, which is great. Thank you for having me back. I am deeply, deeply honored. Well, I mean, it's thank you for taking the time now twice to be on, on this show. So I know we thanked you, you know, way back three years ago, but three years ago,
00:04:39
Speaker
We were literally just sending people cold messages on Instagram and like, Hey, you want to come on our little toy podcast and talk to two people who like have never been anywhere in the toy industry. Don't do anything. We got to go to toy fair once. Yeah. And, and now, and now it's like, you know, it's, it's, it's been an incredible journey for us. And, you know, you are, you are one of those, one of those early guests that gave us clout. People are like, Oh, Steve was on the show. Yeah, we'll do it.
00:05:09
Speaker
So, you know, thank you. Really? Oh, seriously, I've seen you've been building your followers. I had a, you know, obviously I kind of interact with you in some way almost daily, which is great. So I'm glad, I'm glad, you know, you guys are nice bunch of guys. You ask good questions, you ask friendly questions, but also difficult questions and tricky questions, which you should do. You absolutely should do. So, you know, I keep going, keep going onwards and upwards. And you got some really fancy microphones, apart from Dave, who's got one from rock band.
00:05:46
Speaker
It's a toy and video game like toy video game podcasts or so. He's just on brand. He's just very on brand brand. He's trying to also could not go to the store at the time.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, we were trying to problem solve this goes back. So yes, Dave has been using the same microphone for three years. Yes. It's now become like a good luck charm. Yeah, pretty much.
Steve Evans on Toy Collecting and Nostalgia
00:06:10
Speaker
But like when we were when we originally started recording in the same room, like he used to be sitting, you know, 20 feet away from me on the, you know, on the couch over there. And when the pandemic split us up, it was like, Hey,
00:06:24
Speaker
Do you still have that rock band microphone? Because I'm pretty sure if you just plug that into the USB port, you're good to go. And sure enough, we've been good to go for three years now. So wonderful. But Steve, as you mentioned, we do like to ask some questions on this podcast. Anyone that follows you on Instagram knows your collection is constantly growing. What are some of your recent pickups? Yeah.
00:06:53
Speaker
It is growing and it shouldn't be growing if I'm honest. My original criteria for collecting was recapture your youth, Steve. You're nearly 50. Remember the good times. I went back and I collected all my old ET stuff. I obviously had all my old Star Wars stuff. I collected some old Batman, Superman stuff. Now I've got a lot of the stuff that I had as a kid and now I'm
00:07:18
Speaker
I don't know, expanding my addiction to be perfectly blunt and it's like, okay, what are the toys I didn't have that I would have liked?
00:07:25
Speaker
as like a young boy or early teen. That's legitimate. That's legitimate. You can do that. So, you know, I used to babysit for a couple of friends when I was about 14, something like that. And they had like real Ghostbusters and Thundercats and He-Man. And I was too old for toys at that point in time. But I kind of liked them and sort of played with them with their toys. So now I kind of expanded. So I got like a really sweet Lion-O.
00:07:55
Speaker
I'm from lj and with the other one you put a little battery pack in his back his eyes light up and it's like no one's touched it and the sword is really straight as i picked up when i was picked up a human and skeleton or,
00:08:09
Speaker
picked up things like I'm waiting for it to come in actually moment black hole like amigo black hole line because like I started watching again and it's a it's a terrible movie oh yeah but it but it's the story I quite the premise I quite like it's just acted like super wooden but anyway no no no disrespect to my good friends at Disney but um I always remember the Vincent I always I like the bots as kids I was like that's
00:08:33
Speaker
They look cool. They're like R2, but they fly. And so I picked up a really, really nice Vinson because he usually gets worn out on where it's got Vinson at the front of the number, whatever it is. I guess worn out, but I picked one up with a stand that was like, again, like no one's touched it. So I got a few of the other figures as well. And I'm hunting down old Bob, which will be more difficult.
00:08:54
Speaker
But not as difficult as a humanoid, which I found out is like $1,500 loses. It's insane. But anyway, so I picked up a few black holes, Thundercat, T-Man, Bill and Ted's, you know, I loved Bill and Ted's as a movie, and you know, it's Kenner, so I picked some of those up. So I'm kind of, I'm cheating my own rules in terms of collecting, but like, so what, what are you gonna do?
00:09:18
Speaker
Well, my wife doesn't know, so... My mum's 3,000 miles away, so she ain't gonna tell me off, so... Yeah, that's what I'm buying.
New Collecting Interests: Pez Dispensers and Indiana Jones
00:09:26
Speaker
That's what I'm buying at the moment. Oh, and Pez. I'm collecting Pez's at the moment as well. I was gonna say, you recently posted that you were getting into the Pez game, so... Yeah, like, I watched that Pez outlaw on Netflix. That was amazing. I love stories like that, where it's just sort of like...
00:09:44
Speaker
just the fabric of the community. So they're really cool. I really like Pez's. There's something about them. There's something about the cheap semi-translucent plastic that I just really like. And I like bright colors as well. So yeah. I think aren't we like here on the East Coast, the Pez
00:10:01
Speaker
factory museum is close by. It's in Orange, Connecticut. I encourage you to go there. I wouldn't class them as competitors at all, but you should go there. It's a really good kind of history and it's fascinating history. Some of the innovation that they've done is really cool, like how they just make
00:10:21
Speaker
I hate the candies that taste horrible, but like some of the innovation they've got in terms of like how they dress the pairs is and they do different things with it. That's fascinating. I love it. And it's a, the community is huge. It's a huge community. So anyway, I'm not a pair said yet, but I'm a Pez pretender. A Pez poser. Yeah.
00:10:45
Speaker
So we talked about, you know, kind of that retro, um, nostalgic feel and in toys, what's old is new again is, is an adage that always comes into play. Um, we talked about the three and three quarters Raiders of the Lost Ark figures last time. Um, and your collection, how does it feel to have seen them brought back to market? Oh, like, you know, obviously.
00:11:10
Speaker
I know a lot of things that happen before they happen and before I can talk about them. And I just remember, you know, I remember kind of kicking off the Star Wars retro line. I remember talking about and saying, Hey, we could do retro figures in the old kind of style for Star Wars. We could bring some of the old original ones back. So people who can't afford them or find them can get them, but also to do new characters. And, you know, so that that's always been a thing for me. But then, you know, I got into India and collected all those from my 82, 83. And
00:11:41
Speaker
I was reading up about it and in England we didn't really have them to be fair. It was very difficult to find Indiana Jones figures in 82. I think I had a talk. I think that's who I had. But I remember reading about it and going, I'm going to buy The Lion. I'm going to read by it. I'm going to buy Temple of Doom. I'm going to buy Crusade. When I looked, I was like, crap. They didn't do any. What? They went to LJN, which
00:12:08
Speaker
I like LJN's Thundercats line and the ET line, but I didn't like their Templar Doom line. I didn't like it. I wanted three and three quarter inch figures to continue. So I want to build out that world. So I was like, ah, that's crappy. And then when I heard that we're doing another Indiana Jones movie, they're doing another Indiana Jones movie. I was like, hey, you know what's really cool? What could be really cool? We should do the...
00:12:37
Speaker
And it wasn't necessarily my idea, I'm not claiming that, but they were like, yeah, I know, we're thinking about it. I was like, oh, tell me you're going to not just redo, tell me you're going to do new figures. And they're like, yeah, yeah, we're going to do new figures. I was like, yes, at last. So I was over the moon and they were very kind because they gave me early samples or samples to have.
00:12:59
Speaker
That's because I gave them my original ones to scan, which I did with the Star Wars ones, the original first two waves of Star Wars and the Empire retro were scanned from my, well, you can see them, but no one else can. Behind me, they were scanned from those actual figures. And they did the same with Indiana Jones, the first wave of the Raiders figures. So it's a sort of the grand and the grandfather of the new retro way. But the new stuff I love, that's what I'm excited about.
00:13:27
Speaker
Yeah, I was gonna say that's that's a unique, you know, obviously, you know, you being at Hasbro, you get an opportunity to work on these these products. But like, it's so unique that, you know, those molds are, you know, obviously long gone, you can't hang on to everything forever. So the fact that you were able to take your original, you know, Kenner releases and bring them bring them to work, bring your toys to work. But like,
00:13:53
Speaker
have them effectively cloned into series one.
00:13:59
Speaker
Forever. That was kind of a, you know, I collect loose because I can't afford to really buy everything in pack. And I believe in toys being posed and looked at and felt and smelled, which sounds weird. But I'm a stickler for quality. Like I don't just buy anyone's like indie, the thumb breaks all the time. I don't know why. I don't know why it's super brittle. There's something about it. But like, I would say like 80% of all the loose ones have their thumbs broken.
00:14:25
Speaker
I searched and searched and searched, and I found a really good one. I'm like, okay, it's got to be a standard, which is great because when they're scanning it, they don't want chunks and things. I don't know if they can fix it, but I just like the idea of there's my pristine loose figure that you can actually scan and move the arms and scan and get all the details you need, and then you make a new one. I know that every new one out there is based on the one that I hunted for with great particularness over the years. It's kind of cool.
00:14:54
Speaker
It's very cool. It's very cool. And then it's awesome. You know, same goes for us. I mean, we're, we're excited for those new characters. Like, you know, I've, I've always been a temple of doom guy. I mean, it's just like, I know it's, it's not everyone's favorite movie of the, the franchise, but like short round getting, getting one of those kind of style figures is like so awesome. It's just so cool. Or even like last crusade, like, you know, Sean Connery. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:25
Speaker
The dog was Indiana. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say as someone who had like a couple of them and I don't even know how I wound up with them because, you know, I know they definitely weren't bought for me when I was one. Um, so I don't know if they were still around or if like whatnot, but yeah, like I had a couple of them. So it's good to be able to kind of re recollect. Yeah. Yeah. And you have like a, I don't even,
00:15:54
Speaker
Remember you having Indy? Like, I think you had... I had the mechanic. And you definitely had Bellock. No. No? No, I think I had, uh, Todd. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always mix up their names. It's terrible of me, but yeah. I was gonna say, the guy in the back. I think I had the...
00:16:13
Speaker
I think I had the Temple of Doom indie though. Yes that you did because that one got a lot of play from me with that little action feature and his like weird like permanent bent arm. Yeah the arm that just did this. I was always impressed though that the one hand had like the like it had like it was like bandage wrapped.
00:16:33
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, the tapes. The taped hands. I thought that was awesome. See, now I've got to buy that now, even though I said I didn't like them. Maybe I should get one, get them to have a look at them. And there's also those ones they didn't do, didn't they? They did a Willie Scott that they never released. Correct. They did a few. And I think they did like a cloth whip with it. Yeah, and I mean, the one that you had, at least by the time I got it, the hat was long gone. Indy never had his hat. So when I was playing with it, which is like blasphemous, but yeah.
00:17:03
Speaker
I would be curious to see. I have not. I've not looked ever, I don't think, on the aftermarket to see what those even go for. If you could even find an indie with like with his accessories and stuff. Mm hmm. He had the the the like ouch to. Yeah, he had that. Yeah, he had the the bag that he has that he keeps the stones in the car stones. Yeah.
00:17:26
Speaker
Um, so from, from, uh, from Indy to Marvel.
Marvel Projects and Creative Challenges
00:17:31
Speaker
So when we had you on last time, you were not yet with, with the Marvel team. You were, you were still on the star Wars brand. Um, or you had maybe just gone over to more. Was I, was I just in.
00:17:45
Speaker
I think I must have been, otherwise you wouldn't want to speak to me. Because I left Stoles and I did some time in consumer products, which is where we license out our brands out to other people that make like theater rides and skateboards and stuff like that. I did a stint there and then I came back to Marvel. So it probably was just coming back onto Marvel. Yeah, you had just gone back into Marvel. So now that you've been there for a few years,
00:18:09
Speaker
What are some of your favorite projects you've gotten to work on there? That was not a weird question. It's a common question, but it's one I find always difficult to answer in just one thing. I enjoyed Galactus. I came in when they were getting on with the Sentinel.
00:18:28
Speaker
Um, but I was there for sort of all of Galactus. I mean, that was cool. And it was, you know, I gave Dwight a hard time about, I said, make sure the bloody knees don't give away. I want those knees to click. And I gave him a hard time on that, but Galactus was a good one because that was, I think that was, that went really well. Um, I enjoyed planning and convincing a new Epic four inch line, you know, getting that underway. Cause the kid line was six inches. Well, as well as legends. And I was like, kind of the same, but.
00:18:58
Speaker
one's got less articulation why don't we just change the scale that took a little while to kind of get through um so that was i enjoy that i hope that does well um there's lots that i can't even talk about like it you know i'm always i'm a year and a half ahead so a lot of stuff a lot of stuff i
00:19:17
Speaker
alike, we haven't released yet or about to release. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of cool stuff. Mostly on the kid line, you know, Dwight and Ryan and that they, they, they run the legends line. I come in and cause trouble once in a while and sort of say, let's not do that all I have about this. But that runs on its own mostly. But the kid line is the one where I sort of
00:19:41
Speaker
try and mix things up as much as I can. Maybe I'll get more involved in the fan line, mixing up a bit more. Ryan's going, oh no. But yeah, but I think practice and the four inch line, I think so far that I can talk about are the projects that I've kind of had most interest in doing and getting out the door.
00:20:01
Speaker
Yeah, and we'll get more into that four-inch line, but there was also another kids line that launched recently, those little guys, right? Yeah, stunt squad, super cute. I like things like that, where you just do something for kids.
00:20:19
Speaker
It's just silly kid play. We're all in this because we loved it when we were kids and the things we loved as kids were silly little play things. Now everyone gets super serious about it, but you can't forget what it was really about at the very beginning. The good thing is those little figures, I really like them. I've got them in my cabinet. I'm going to always pronounce his name wrong. John Somareva.
00:20:45
Speaker
Ah, I'm sorry. I always get his surname wrong. Who's a well-known, you know, character designer and artist. He drew them up and designed them and we, you know, sculpted them. And I think they're really cute. And like, if you want to collect those as little kind of squishy, super deformed little characters, how about it? That's good. I don't care how old you are. You can, you can buy them to play with them, like fire them up against the, against the things and make the little booby traps and contraptions work.
00:21:12
Speaker
Or you can just click the figures and have a little lineup, as I have. Yeah, they're great little desk toys. Yeah, they're really cool looking. Yeah, I always have to fidget. Well, people can't see it. I have a Captain America Legends torso that I'm clicking here that I just constantly always fiddling with, and silly little figures and bits of blue tack.
00:21:38
Speaker
Yeah, just fiddle with them. That is now two episodes in a row where Captain America's body parts, Marvel legends, Captain America body parts have, have come up on the, on the show. Cause remember Eric, our last guest, Eric Arana, uh, it was talking about Captain America's, uh, pants. He has, he has just legs. He has Marvel legends legs of.
00:22:02
Speaker
like a paint variant that he did for Captain America. So he gets around. He's not just America's ass. That was my American accent, by the way, because if I say America's ass, I feel people won't understand what I'm talking about. Yeah, he's obviously America's torso and legs as well. So with with the word, we talked about toys for kids with the word kiddo being such a huge part of the toy world right now.
00:22:32
Speaker
Is it challenging in today's market trying to strategize lines that cater to the adult collector while also appealing to kids? Yes and no. It shouldn't be because of what I've just said, where we love toys. And there's this sort of innocence about them, which I think a lot of people, if they're done right, like. And I think we are all big enough now.
00:22:59
Speaker
men and women to kind of admit that we like toys, right? It's not that embarrassing anymore. I don't think it is. So it's all right to like toys. And you can like toys, whether they're collector toys or kiddie toys, or goodness sake, preschool toys, like some of the preschool stuff is like flipping brilliant, like the design and the way they're finished and the and the madness of the of the plastic I love. So
00:23:25
Speaker
We don't try that hard at the moment to kind of do both.
00:23:32
Speaker
Now, some of you, or some of you listening might go, ah, it's a load of rubbish, Steve. You keep going on about this four-inch line being epic, and then the stunt score is like, yeah, that's all right. I don't expect hundreds and thousands of collectors to suddenly pounce on it and collect them all. All I'm saying is like, hey, these are for kids, all right? So judge them as kids' toys, but we're all here because we loved kids' toys, and kids' toys are kids' toys. So if you like them, cool. Have them. I like them. You can like them. You don't have to. I don't care. It's up to you, whatever you wanna do.
00:24:02
Speaker
We just, we don't purposely go out and try and design for both. It's one or the other because otherwise it gets complicated with how you set it into retail and how you actually market it. It just gets too muddy. We do it for kid or we do it for adult fan. And if kids love adult stuff, because a lot of kids buy legend stuff, we don't market kids really.
00:24:24
Speaker
then great. And if here's the four inch line list or the stunt squad, and if you're a 38 year old female, male, male or whatever, and you like them, buy them. That's fine. It's cool. But they're not. They're not. They're for everyone. So that's so so naff. They're E for everybody. But
00:24:44
Speaker
But that said, there is an interesting demographic, which I call the fledgling collectors, which are kind of, you know, kids traditionally play, physical play, till they're six, seven years old, then they get either into sports and video games, and then they kind of go out playing and they, in their teens, they go do other stuff, they focus on sports or they're on video games, but they don't play with toys, they don't play, they display, where some people say, oh, well, I like that character, I'm going to grab that character, I'm going to display it on my shelf.
00:25:12
Speaker
And some may or may not then graduate to collectors where they go, okay, I'm going to collect this line or collect this character. So this is weird little dip from the age of about nine to kind of 16, 17, the teenage years where
00:25:31
Speaker
I think maybe I could do a little bit more specific designing for them, but it would have to be on the more collector side because I want to bring them into the collector community because I want that community to grow and it only grows if we bring new people in, bring new generations in. That's why when I see people like yourselves with a family affair with kids and they're sort of
00:25:52
Speaker
They're bestowing their collector thoughts onto their sons or daughters, and I see them interacting. And I see kids having their own toy collector podcast or not podcast, like YouTube channels. That's great. That's the perfect storm. So to answer your question, it is difficult because it would be difficult to do it. We don't do it. It just happens to happen when it's a perfect storm. And that's great. Yeah. And I mean, there's been those lines that are
00:26:21
Speaker
kind of surprising, right? Like, you know, every now and then there comes, especially, you know, like you mentioned that, that age group for a while, there was that whole trend. What was it called game to life? You know, it was all of those videos, toys to life. Yeah. Where it was those video games that had, you know, toys with NFC chips in them. And, you know, they interacted with the video game. So like it gave,
00:26:45
Speaker
You know, that really that age group, something to say like, I'm playing a video game with my friends, but like, look at my shelf and all of my, you know, my little figurines. That was a great observation that they did. They came in, whether it's, you know, oh, we can say the name Skylanders or Infinity, you know, like, they were huge, you know.
00:27:05
Speaker
I was looking at Infinity Figures the other day, actually. I can't remember the designer's name. Ah, the artist's name that designed those. But they're beautiful. Infinity Scots, I think. And the way they almost have a polystone, maquette kind of feel to them. I was looking at a Peter Pan one. I'm a big Peter Pan fan and I grew up on Peter Pan and I was like,
00:27:25
Speaker
I was going to buy Peter Pan Infinity, but it was part of Infinity III and it was canceled. Supposedly, there's never any sold, but they had some samples made and they go for not crazy money, but like $400, like a single bit. I'm like, but I have to get a good one. All the ones I've seen have got chips out of them. I'm interested in that fledgling collector aspect. I don't know what I'm going to do on that, but I'm going to find out more about it.
00:27:54
Speaker
See if we can get, get young, get kids into collecting because it's a, it's a fun, it's a fun luck. So, you know, speaking of that group though, you know, you guys recently, you know, announced that the, the, you know, port, pour one out for one of our favorite lines, the, uh, the, the retro 375, uh, counter line is, is at rest.
00:28:16
Speaker
sleeping. It's only sleeping. With the focus now shifting to the four inch Epic Heroes line, what was the kind of decision behind the pivot of letting that one take a nap while the other one...
00:28:30
Speaker
Well, so I got to put you up on that one, I'm afraid. Sorry, Eric. So they are different. And you can say, ah, he's lying, blah, blah, blah. But I don't need to lie. They're different. They're very different lines. Like one was for fan retro.
00:28:47
Speaker
375, and we were going with that. While that was still going, I was already planning the four-inch line. It took a while to get that in. That's a kid line. That's 100% kid line. That's not replacing the 375. That's replacing the six-inch figures that we used to have for kids. If you remember, there were five-point articulated six-inch figures. I looked at that and go, well, they're the same as legends. Kids are buying legends
00:29:10
Speaker
if they want a big figure, but the fans aren't buying the six-inch suit, the sort of poorly articulated one. Maybe they'll go for four-inch ones. And for the four-inch ones, it's like I wanted to get more vehicles and playsets and world building in for kids, because it's important. That's what they do. That's how they play. And we couldn't do that at six-inch. It was just too big and bulky, really. And it takes up a lot of shelf space. And like everything, it's more expensive. So the four-inch line was
00:29:36
Speaker
a way to tackle that for kids. And that is its primary reason for kids to play world building. And if adults who like four inch or three and three quarter inch like that, they go, yeah, cool, I'll buy that too. I promise you, it wasn't a replacement for 375 because they existed in our minds at the same time.
00:29:57
Speaker
It's just that when you get to some things, you have to try lots of different things out, which, you know, I can't talk about, but like, and, you know, different priorities come up and it's like, okay, well, we need to put our eggs over here. Okay. Well, what's gonna, what's gonna move? Well, let's rest that or move that or cancel that. And I know a lot of people say, Oh, what's this rest word? And it's like,
00:30:15
Speaker
when it come back, I can't guarantee it. But in my mind, it's we do that all the time happens all the time happens in our industry happens in Hasbro, and it happens with other companies as well, where it's, it goes away and comes back. I've, I've certainly got a lot more heart for it. And I know, there are lots of things that we're, we have planned or had planned. So, you know, we'll see. I still like it. And it's, it's a great little line. And I'm very appreciative of everyone's
00:30:43
Speaker
Support of it, you know, it's it's a niche in a niche, you know, it's it's it's it's a slice But I great fun. It looks great. I ain't got like 50 figures like That's that's a lot like you can look at like Look at the secret walls Secret walls again or superpowers and stuff like that. That's More than that. Yeah, it's not a swap. I promise you
00:31:10
Speaker
Well, we just wanted to clear that up. There's been a lot of like, this is not a...
00:31:18
Speaker
We wanted to make that clear that it wasn't it wasn't a like for like, yeah, cuz I mean, it's like, like you said, you know, it's about it's about world building for for kids. And I mean, that's, that's the best way to that's what made, you know, Star Wars so successful back when that you know, when those figures first came out in 78, you know, there were three and three quarter inch figures when everything else was
00:31:41
Speaker
Effectively doll size prior to that and it allowed for vehicles and playsets and you know the things that Let you kind of live in that world. So it's great to see you know those those kid You know kid focused lines go back to that scale I mean I still consider that to be like the golden the golden scale for action figures and I think they look cool. I Like him in my cabinet. It's that's that's good
00:32:09
Speaker
So yeah, we'll see how it goes. You know, every, everyone's always trying new things and trying different things and mixing things up. So we'll see how it does. I think the, the response so far, certainly from, I haven't heard from the kids yet cause I haven't seen sales on them cause it's too early, but like a lot of the sort of, um, you know, the anecdotal from, from the fans are like, yeah, cool. Okay. Yeah. I like these. Some people don't like them. That's fine. They're there. They may not be for you. That's totally fine.
00:32:36
Speaker
I mean, in our local targets, they're moving, you know, I, I've seen, I'm trying to think I've, I've seen iron spider and I've seen venom and I saw them and then have not seen them again since. So, I mean, I was going to say, I've not seen them. Yeah. Like I've actually been, I've, I've seen them not be there. I was shipping.
00:33:02
Speaker
they've seen the ghost of the epic. Yeah, like I've basically seen where they would be. But yeah, they are cool looking figures. And I mean, it's, you know, yeah, I, I was gonna say I want to grab one just to like, have it. We all I mean, we all come from that.
00:33:22
Speaker
you know, that, that, uh, Kenner background with the, with the action figures playing when we were little. So, I mean, seeing figures in that style again, like, like just the fact that they're that size, that they have like the clip on accessories and stuff. Like it's just, it's very, you know, it's something about it. Yeah. Cool. Well, I'm glad you like them. Let's see how everyone else feels about. That's cool. Back to what we talked about earlier. What's old is new again, you know? Yeah.
00:33:51
Speaker
And now, a word from our sponsors. 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.
00:34:16
Speaker
Visit them in person at 106 Main Street in Little Falls, New Jersey, or online at ChubsyWubsy.com. That's C-H-U-B-Z-Z-Y-W-U-B-Z-Z-Y.com. And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you. Level up your collection with CGC, the world leader in pop culture collectibles grading.
00:34:41
Speaker
CGC recently launched its video games division with experienced, knowledgeable, and passionate graders to help you maximize your value on all the games you love. Ready to give your games an extra life? Submit today at CGCgrading.com. That's CGCgrading.com. Face it. Shaker bottles suck. Your shakes always come out clumpy and they're a pain to clean.
00:35:11
Speaker
You're right, Dave. That's why I decided to ditch my shaker bottle for good and get myself a BlendJet 2 portable blender. It makes perfectly blended shakes in just 20 seconds. BlendJet 2 is portable, so you can blend up a smoothie at work, a protein shake at the gym, or even a margarita on the beach. It's small enough to fit in a cup holder, but powerful enough to blast through tough ingredients like ice and frozen fruit with ease.
00:35:39
Speaker
BlendJet 2 is whisper quiet so you can make your morning smoothie without waking up the whole house. It lasts for over 15 blends and recharges quickly via USB-C. Best of all, BlendJet 2 cleans itself. Just blend water with a drop of soap and you're good to go. With an array of colors, patterns, or even Disney-inspired designs to choose from, show off your personality while you're blending up something delicious on the go. What are you waiting for?
00:36:10
Speaker
Go to blendjet.com and grab yours today. And be sure to use the promo code AICPOD12 to get 12% off your order and free two-day shipping. No other portable blender on the market comes close to the quality, power, and innovation of the BlendJet 2. They guarantee you'll love it or your money back. Blend anytime, anywhere with the BlendJet 2 Portable Blender. Go to blendjet.com
00:36:39
Speaker
and use the code AICPOD12 to get 12% off your order and free two-day shipping. Shop today to get the best deal ever. This is a public service announcement. Manscaped now has beer products and is going even further with their brand new Weed Whacker 2.0.
00:37:07
Speaker
Go ahead and tell the world the leaders in below the waste grooming are traveling north of your South Pole with their revolutionary grooming products. The new Weed Whacker 2.0 and their new beard line confirms they have all the best tools for your hygiene toolbox.
00:37:25
Speaker
It is time for you to upgrade your game. Go to manscaped.com and use our code AIC to save 20% off and get free shipping. The brand new Weed Whacker 2.0 offers improved blades and skin safe technology with a no tugging guarantee. It's never been so painless to mind your manholes.
00:37:48
Speaker
And now that you have your face looking great with the beard hedger, you have to try Manscaped's Performance Package 4.0 for the full body grooming experience. And this just in, the Performance Package 4.0 now comes with the Weed Wacker 2.0 and all of the other below the waist grooming products that Manscaped is known for.
00:38:11
Speaker
We love the full suite of grooming tools from Manscaped. It's never been easier to take care of our hair. What are you waiting for? Save on Manscaped today. That's right. Get 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com when you use code AIC. Always use the right tools for the job with Manscaped.
Unconventional Characters and Fan Reactions
00:38:38
Speaker
And now back to the show.
00:38:42
Speaker
And speaking of things that didn't work that now work, Aunt May. So we finally are getting a new Aunt May figure. It's been a long time coming. Her last figure prior to this one was
00:39:00
Speaker
Terrifying. Um, I, Dave, Dave actually gifted it to me for Christmas, uh, a couple of years ago and hanging from the ceiling over your bed. So when you woke up, she was staring at you. I, I actually was laughing so hard when I opened it. So first of all, he got me, he got, it's mint in that box. When I opened it, I actually couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard. Like I, like the laughter.
00:39:27
Speaker
Had like took over my body before it could come out of my mouth and I just started sweating and like Christmas morning Surrounded by my wife and and at what at that point just one child, but like literally could not breathe I was laughing so hard just seeing this terrifying thing in front of me, but That being said you guys got Aunt May out again. So yeah How did how did you make that happen?
00:39:54
Speaker
It's funny, it's such an end joke. I can't remember the players, but I know obviously it's like there's Ryan, there's Dan, there's Dwight, there's engineer Rob, who I don't think many people know about, who is as involved as Ryan and Dwight. And it's obviously Jesse from Marvel.
00:40:12
Speaker
And I think it's like two camps. There's a camp that hates it, and a camp that loves it, or loves the character, or thought it was a good idea. I wouldn't say I was brought in as the mediator to make the deciding vote, or cast the deciding vote, but it was like, I love that kind of stuff. I was just like, yes, do that, that's hilarious. That's brilliant, I love it. Again, the colour, it's just a crazy sort of pastel green.
00:40:37
Speaker
I was just, yeah, get that old lady down. That's fantastic. Why not? Because you've got to, you know, it's like, you know, legends is, legends is unique in the sense that we do a lot of figures a year. Like, that's a lot. Like, we'll do like 170 odd figures a year. Yeah. You know, with two packs on the exclusives and stuff.
00:41:01
Speaker
And you've got to mix it up. You've got to have the A-listers. You've always got to have a Spidey out. We know that your X-Men are always going to work. Then we've got to do our movies and entertainment because we're supporting our Disney partners. We've got to have stuff coming out.
00:41:16
Speaker
And it's no surprise. We do a lot of retooling. We do a lot of redecoing and stuff like that, because you have to. The legend's promise is here is the Marvel universe, and you can go deep. And you can go deep. And I know prices are going up and things like that. But it's affordable. You can go deep, and you can get there. You're not paying like $100 for a single figure, and there's only $20 on offer. There's like $170 a year on offer.
00:41:44
Speaker
And you've got to go deep cuts. You've got to do these weird things. You've got to do this left field stuff that just adds a little bit of flavor to it. And again, not every figure is going to register with everybody. It's just impossible. And it shouldn't be like that. So we bring stuff out. We redeco. We bring out these kind of weird figures that you're like, oh, mate, why did you do that? But then you also have people go, oh, mate, that's amazing. That's hilarious. Or like, well, I've got that figure already.
00:42:12
Speaker
someone else might not have that figure. You've got to build this community. You can't just provide for the static community. You can't, because I hate to say it. We're all getting older. We're all going to die, especially my age. We're going to die. There's going to be no one left. We have to bring new people in. We have to. I never make any apology about that attitude, because it's really important.
00:42:34
Speaker
So all I hope is that there's enough figures and enough A-listers, enough deep cut core comic characters, there's enough reintroductions, there's enough Aunt May's and that kind of stuff for everyone to kind of feel as if they can own a little bit of the Marvel Legends line. And that's really the kind of ethos that we have and we make no
00:42:59
Speaker
We make no secret about that, but it's like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't like to just go back to do legends like 20 a year. I don't, I don't know. It's just, it's the, the fan base is too big and, and I love it and I love the fan base, but I'll never be able to, or we'll never be able to please everybody all the time. It's just impossible. And it's like, we can try as much as we can, but it's not going to happen. So if you love Aunt May, thank you. I love her too. And some of the team love. And if you don't like Aunt May, that's all right.
00:43:25
Speaker
I do. A lot of people don't. So it's all cool. It's all good. There'll be someone else along very soon that you will like, promise. I mean, it's one of those things like, you know, I see it all the time, you know, in like the comment section and everything where it's like, you know, who wants, you know, I feel terrible saying this, who wants an old lady in a suit?
00:43:46
Speaker
You know, like, or who wants, you know, last year when you guys put out the net and Peter Tupac, you know, two plain clothes, you know, obviously Peter Parker, but like, and his friend, the guy in the chair, you know, but, you know, and again, I look at it as like, you need them. Well, it goes beyond that too, because like,
00:44:08
Speaker
And it always, for me, it always goes back to Star Wars, right? Like one of the fun things about collecting Star Wars figures was you could have the, the alien that's in the scene for like you blink and you miss it, you know, but like now you have that in figure form or, you know, the, the wrestling figures we collect, like, you know, I have guy in underwear in three different colors, underwear, you know, like it's, it's just, it's.
00:44:34
Speaker
It's those little tiny changes in those little tiny additions that make the collection cool. And like, you know, you can have Spider-Man fighting every, every bad guy. Like, you know, you could say about any superhero, right? Like a superhero is only as good as the villains that he has to fight. So whether it's Spider-Man, whether it's anyone from the X-Men. So it's cool. You have this menagerie of villains, but like, who is he saving?
00:44:59
Speaker
on your shelf. Like he's fighting villains for, for what reason? Who are they attacking? That's why you need your Aunt May's. You need your, you need your Gwen Stacy's. You need your, your Mary Jean's. Like you need those sometimes you just need the hood and have just dude yelling, dude yelling, which is, yeah, it's funny. Cause when I was just thinking of thinking back and kind of, uh, parallels to that, it's like who wanted yak face?
00:45:28
Speaker
Who wanted Yak Face? Like clearly, no, not a lot of people, because they only released it in like Europe or France and Canada or wherever it was. And it's like, again, like, oh, that's that, that's that goat looking guy, like Yakie. Now you go and ask the Star Wars fan now, hey, do you want Yak Face? Yeah, have Yak Face. Oh my God, that's amazing. It's one of the best ones ever. And it's just because it's such a great looking figure. So it's, it's,
00:45:54
Speaker
It's a moment in time, but that moment can change 20, 30 years later. Like, I don't know whether Al May is going to be a classic in 30 years, who knows, but you never know. You never know. And it all depends on how many we make and how many sold and what people do with it. You know, so you've got to have story that, you know, this whole collecting thing for me is like a story over our lives. It lasts years and I've been collecting, uh, I've been 30 years, 35 years or something. And.
00:46:23
Speaker
Every story has to have pace. You've got to go high, you've got to have loads, you've got to go quiet times and loud times. If it's all the same, and it's all, it doesn't become a story, it doesn't become important to you, I don't think. I know if I say to everyone, all the people listening, hey, if I only gave you the figures you liked all the time, that would be a boring collection, wouldn't it? And they would go, you're an idiot. No, they wouldn't, it would be fantastic. I'd get everything I want all the time. No, that's not true. You wouldn't, you would not get the same
00:46:52
Speaker
You wouldn't get the same experience as if you had things you didn't like, things you do like, things you got really easily, things you got really difficultly. It's a real cliché. It is a journey. It really is. I believe it. Things you didn't know. And then there's also that other category, things you didn't know you wanted until you saw them. Saw it now. A lot of times those figures pop up where you're like, damn, I didn't
00:47:15
Speaker
No, I wanted that figure until I saw that it existed. You were talking about the LJN indie from Temple, from Doom. I'm like, I've never wanted it. I don't want that. I didn't like it at all. As a young collector, I was like, oh, why did they change the scale? And then you're talking about it, and I'm hearing your stories about it. I'm like, damn it, maybe I should look into that. Ah, no, some more.
00:47:41
Speaker
You know, that's it's, you know, you either collect everything or you collect for a character, you collect for like a genre, like Aunt May fits into like animated Spider-Man or just Spider-Man or, you know,
00:47:54
Speaker
Anything. You need it, man. You need it. As far as I've got, I've got a few Marvel legends, but it's because we do so many a year. That's a bit, I don't know how many there are out there. I'm sure someone out there knows. I actually don't know how many there are. I know Dwight's got most of them in his, in his office and it's just like, my goodness. And it's quite intimidating for me to get into. Cause I'm like, I kind of want to collect them, but I don't know what to do or where to start. And I'll be honest with you when the Aunt May and Doc Ock pack came out, I was like, I like those colors. Ah.
00:48:23
Speaker
I might get the, I may just get animated Spider-Man. Maybe that'll be my little, my little slice. And it's like, I want all those weird characters in that slice and out may fit. And there may be some more coming out a little strange. So, you know, it's, it's, it's just so personal. Collecting is, it's weird because collecting is so personal and yeah, it is so
00:48:51
Speaker
community. There's so many people like you. I don't know how, how can there be so many people like you when you are so unique? I don't get it. I don't know how it works, but it works. Somehow it happens. I don't know how, but anyway, I'm happy that it does. Yeah. Like, fortunately, like, especially when it comes to like legends, I'm lucky I'm, or I'm fortunate that I cut myself off at one character. Otherwise I'd be like Eric with all the MCU ones. And I'd be like, well, there's like 16 Wolverines and I like them all. Like.
00:49:21
Speaker
I just have my handful of ghostwriters. Marvel Legends Day is a slippery slope. It's very slippery. That's why I went all in on the three, seven, five. And boy did you. You have everyone. Yeah. And they're all opened. Do you? Do you have both? Do you have the two storms? Flack, eyebrow, and what eyebrow?
00:49:50
Speaker
No. Oh, I can see his face. It's a shame. It's a shamelessness. You couldn't see Dave's face there. There's this sudden look at panic across his face like what? Yeah, that's the only official variant in the 375 storm. She originally had white eyebrows. And when I looked at him, I was like, does she have white eyebrows? And now I got a look. And like JB, who just died and goes, well, yeah, in this in this in this edition, this comic, she got white. And I was like, yeah, but like, mostly it's black. And he was like,
00:50:20
Speaker
Yeah, I was like, so let's switch it over. Let's do it black. We can do a running change. It's a simple thing to do. And that's the only thing we've, that's the only official variant. If there are other variants where the colors are off or something, if that's a factory mistake, but that is the only variant. So you've got to get the two, you've got to get the white and the black. And don't ask me which one is rarer.
00:50:43
Speaker
Because I think it might be the black because I think there was enough made in white and then we made some in black. But I don't have the numbers on that. But there we go. The chase is on. Thank you. And do you like your Ghost Rider? Have you got your Ghost Rider 375? I just got it yesterday. I love it.
00:51:03
Speaker
So you talked about the kind of personal nature of the hobby, and you've actually taken it a step further and have gotten into customizing toys
Customization and Creative Content
00:51:15
Speaker
yourself. And you recently started your Bits and Bobs videos on Instagram, which are hilarious. The end results of those are a combination of impressive and hilarious.
00:51:29
Speaker
What have you learned about that experience, just kind of picking random toys and making something out of them? Yeah, I've learned that Americans love the British words, like barmy box of bits and bobs. Most people are going, what? What the hell is barmy? What's bits and bobs?
00:51:50
Speaker
I did it for a shtick originally. It was just like, oh, I'm just going to do this. This will be great content, hilarious. And when I picked my first lot out or my second lot, and I was like, crap, what am I actually going to make with this? I got a horse, or like I got a giraffe, tricentenal, and I can't remember what the other one was. I was like, ah. But I always find that
00:52:18
Speaker
Creatively, it frees your mind by forcing your mind to think a particular way. So if you're given a limit, I always believe that limitations actually
00:52:31
Speaker
foster really great creativity. So I like putting limitations on creativity and ideation because they're like, blue sky, do anything you like. It's like you kind of drift off and you kind of just get lost in yourself. But if it's like, okay, here's the problem or here are the ingredients, make something from it. It's actually a really good way to really make yourself think differently. So
00:52:53
Speaker
getting some weird things and kind of going, okay, what do I, what's my, I always work with an attitude. Am I going to be funny? Am I going to be kind of weird? Am I going to be super serious? And I really enjoy it. It's very therapeutic. It is really therapeutic. Going from that squid giraffe kind of warrior to then go to like a Hulk. And I'm going to make a Hulk like he's, I was watching Band of Brothers. I'm going to make a Hulk like he's from Band of Brothers.
00:53:16
Speaker
and very different tonally but it's really good and so it helps me creatively it helps me just think differently because sometimes your brain gets stuck in day in day out work and life and all that and it also helps me you know with my craft you know I mix because I'm taking different things I'm doing a lot of molding with kit bashing and painting
00:53:40
Speaker
And it's not just one or the other. I'm not like casting and molding one thing. I'm breaking bits and adding and casting heads and adding this and kit bashing and painting and airbrushing. And then one of them I'll go, I'm not going to airbrush at all because I can't be bothered to get my airbrushing kit out. So Hulk, I'm just going to paint that. So therefore it's going to be a little, it's going to be a lot more like painting a war hammer. It's going to be a lot more brushy and dirty. And that's where I got into the band of brothers. So.
00:54:10
Speaker
It's this weird menagerie of forced focus, but just problem solving. It's really cool. I like it. It's good. I don't know whether the results are that good, but I don't care. It's not why I'm doing it. I'm not doing it to sell the things or win custom awards or anything. It's just, it is literally just a little bit of sanity in this crazy, crazy world we live in.
00:54:33
Speaker
Well, I hope you keep doing it because it's fun. They're fun as hell to watch. So yeah, I got a box full of crap and it's because they are picked randomly and there's stuff in there. I'm like, hope I get, hope I get that. And I never do. So I will get there eventually. None of it is fake at all. I promise it's all totally random.
Upcoming UK Trip and Audience Q&A
00:54:52
Speaker
So Steve, um, you are going back to the UK. Uh, tell us about that upcoming trip.
00:54:59
Speaker
Yeah, so originally I just turned 50. That's very kind of you to say. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. You don't look a day over 49.
00:55:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. So I just turned 50 and originally I wanted to do a European toy tour. I wanted to go. I wanted to stop off in London, see my friends. There were a lot of friends having a 50th birthday party. I wanted to make sure I went to that, see my mom. And then I wanted to go across to France. I wanted to do like Park Asterix down in like Paris, then go up through Belgium and do the Smurf.
00:55:33
Speaker
Asterix Museum, then I wanted to go through Holland and go across to Hamburg. There's like a miniature of Wunderland place, which is like the world's largest miniature city there. And then I wanted to go up to Billund and kind of visit some friends at Lego. And I got a friend in Norway. So I was going to do all this huge European tour. And then one of my kids is in college and that's expensive.
00:55:58
Speaker
And then I was like, ah, crap, I can't afford it. So I had to scale it down. So I forgot the European and I just did a UK tour. So I'm going to go into the UK for a couple of weeks and I'm going to spend some time with my mum. I'm going to zip down to southwest Wales where the Evanses come from, where my father's ashes are scattered.
00:56:16
Speaker
and kind of just pay some respects to him. And then I'm going to go and see some friends and I'm going to stop off at some recommended toy stores and comic book stores that my Instagram community have recommended with like Nerd Base and some other ones. I'm also going to the Museum of Brands, which is in London, which is a fantastic place, which basically
00:56:40
Speaker
collects packaging and products from all the decades from Edwardian up to right now. I went there in the 90s when I was doing graphic design down in Brighton in England, doing my degree. I remember going there and it had been around a while, but it was relatively new and it's still going. This museum is run by this guy called Richard Opie. He's quite famous. He's a custodian of product and packaging. I look around there and I can see all the packaging from all the decades. It's fabulous.
00:57:10
Speaker
So I'm just gonna, and then I'm just gonna bum around and just kind of have some fun. And I'm going down to Star Wars Celebration. Gonna, gonna go there as a fan. Very cool. Won't be doing any panels. I'll be, I'll be pestering my Star Wars, uh, Star Wars, uh, friends and heckling them from the crowd, probably. I won't heckle you, I promise. Um, but that would be cool as well. So yeah, I'm just two and a bit weeks of just geeking out, catching up with friends and, uh, yeah.
00:57:38
Speaker
Well, if you need another place to visit, I'm sure it's been recommended, but I hear great things about, uh, Lester vintage toy shop. Yeah. I hear about, I'm not going that far north. I'm almost, I'm going up towards Birmingham to, uh, meet someone. I'm meeting a lot of people from Instagram that I've never met before, like in person. So, um, hopefully they'll be cool or I'll be murdered. But, um,
00:58:04
Speaker
It'll be good fun. Yeah. I've heard the other list, the toy shop is good, but I don't think I'm going quite that north. Who knows? Maybe after Birmingham, I'll shoot across. It's just up in the, up and east a bit, I think. Yeah. I think, uh, I just saw, uh, um, Dan, Dan, Dan who reviews, uh, yes, was, was over there as I saw he was posting pictures of their, their displays in shop and it looked pretty impressive.
00:58:27
Speaker
I'm going, yeah, I'm going to Nerd Base in Battlesbridge, which is a brilliant name. What a great name for a place. And I think In-Demand Toys, I think, is up in Norwich. I'm going to do some stuff up in Norwich. Very cool. And then some London stuff, and then Birmingham. So maybe I will try out Leicester.
00:58:44
Speaker
Well, what do you say, uh, we do some, some Q and a, we take some questions from, uh, from our followers. So, uh, if you're, if this is the first time you are listening to adventures in collecting, welcome. I hope you're enjoying this. Thank you. Yes. Yes. I hope you're enjoying this episode. Um, make sure that you're following us at AIC underscore podcast, because every time we have a guest, we will post and give you the opportunity to, uh, to ask our guests some questions. So, uh, we have.
00:59:12
Speaker
three for you today that we have, we have, we have, uh, kind of, uh, yeah, filtered here. Um, Dave, would you like to do the, the first question? I would, um, friend of the pod at toy farce asks in your expert opinion, are GI Joe's Dr. Mindbender and action man's Dr. X the same person?
00:59:38
Speaker
I like Toy Fast, funny, funny, funny account. If you're not following Toy Fast, please follow Toy Fast. Although they do take a couple of little pokes at me once in a while, all the legends, but it's all been good fun. I don't mind a bit of that in good fun. It's a good sport. I've been thinking about this because I just got... Emily left me a Mindbender San Diego Comic Con sample.
01:00:03
Speaker
think that's been announced. Yes, it has been. Yeah, I'm looking I'm looking at mine right here. He's okay, great. So I opened it up and I went, Oh, he's just like Dr. X. I used to work on action man back in England when I was a Hasbro. So the new action man, the sort of sporty action man hit in 93. And that's when Dr. X was
01:00:23
Speaker
introduced, and Dr. X was his big, and he wasn't that muscular, but he's like big handled by a moustache, balding, or he did have a little rat's tail at one point, and cybernetic eye, or he had an eye patch. He's changed his design over a period of time. And the mind bender, if I remember correctly, was like mid to late 80s. He was like 86 or something, something like that. Similarish in terms of cybernetics and genetics and cloning.
01:00:52
Speaker
I don't think they're the same person.
01:00:54
Speaker
And I can't prove that because I don't know anyone on Action Man that I can ring up and say, hey. But clearly, there was some design cues there, I would say, that Dr. X, they were like, well, dude, Dr. Meinbender, there are reasons I won't go into in terms of why that name wouldn't work in England. Those of you who are English will understand why. So they clearly changed the name. But again, I think there was design cues. But I don't believe, no, Toy Fast, I do not believe they are the same
01:01:25
Speaker
same person or same character. Okay. There, there you go. Yeah. Our next one comes from at one 18 archive, by the way, another awesome account. If you're not following one 18 archive, um, when will we see the next wave of, uh, of epic heroes?
01:01:46
Speaker
So we've got the Spidey first wave. And it's funny because we all talk about them in waves, but they're kids toys, so they're never called waves. So, well, I say that. So we've got Spidey, the first lot of Spidey out. We've got the Mechasaur stuff out, which is basically the Avengers. And we've got another lot. We've got some more Spidey coming out later on in the year. Is it the question, when's the next one? Yeah. Where are we now? March. Oh, it's pretty soon.
01:02:16
Speaker
I would say before I'm back from the UK, I'll be posting some details about some new four inch. All right. Well, yeah, I think that's right. And it's like, I'm not announcing them because they're kid line. They don't, they don't priest pre-orders or anything like that. They just go to stores. So as soon as they hit stores, I'll post pictures and stuff. Yeah. I think this is going to be one of those ones where,
01:02:46
Speaker
There's going to be more adult collectors of this lawn than was probably anticipated. It's just, I've got a feeling. But the fun thing is, I don't know whether you call this fun or not. There won't be pre-orders, there won't be big announcements, there won't be part of live streams. They'll be like the old days. They'll just hit stores. You'll just go in and go, oh, look at that.
01:03:10
Speaker
So again, I think that's a 100% is. I think that's a huge thing kind of going for it. To our younger audience, there was a time before the internet when you would just walk into a thing called a toy store and there were new toys there. You could also have ended that sentence as there was a time before the internet.
01:03:38
Speaker
Precisely. Precisely. All right, Dave, you want to do the... Pretty soon. Do you want to do the last one here? Yeah, I could do that. So lots of people asked some form of this question. The Star Wars fandom is complicated and you have a deep connection and a long history with the franchise and the fans. Do you ever think you'd return to working on the Star Wars brand at Hasbro?
01:04:07
Speaker
Complicated is a good word. It's a very generous word. Yeah, listen, I make no, I'm not shy about saying that the Star Wars community is complicated, passionate.
01:04:20
Speaker
can be gracious, can be ungracious. I'm part of it. I've been part of it 30 odd years. So it's like I feel in that as well. I'll always take the good, the bad and the ugly on Star Wars and anything I work on. So again, no secret. I love Star Wars. It's my thing. It's the thing I grew up with. It's the thing I play with the most. I was a Star Wars kid from the age of five till about 13, which is 12, which is probably older than
01:04:45
Speaker
than I should have done in those days. And I rediscovered it at the age of 18 or so. And I've been there ever since. I love Star Wars. I love it with a passion. And would I go back to it? Yeah, I absolutely would go back to it.
01:05:01
Speaker
Vicky, who leads Star Wars at the moment, she's a design director. She's done the same thing. She was on Star Wars in like 2003, I think, for like Attack of the Clones and just a range of the Sith and she's back on it. She's been on it the last sort of four years or so. So Hasbro is like that. We move around a lot. So I have no plans to go back to it at this precise moment. I've got too much to do on Marvel.
01:05:26
Speaker
Um, but who knows? I, I, at this moment, I don't think I'm leaving Hasbro as there's still too much for me to do. I'm still too interested. You know, the day I, the day I leave my job or any job is when I wake up and don't want to go. Or I'm on board. That's the worst thing. You don't want me when I'm bored. I hate being bored. So to answer your question, yeah, of course I would. Why would I say no, but no plans to at the moment. I'm I've got my hands full with Marvel.
01:05:55
Speaker
So the pod bay doors are always open, one could say. Yeah, always. And that is very much the Hasbro culture. A lot of lateral kind of moving and trying new things out.
01:06:08
Speaker
Well, with that, you've survived the Q&A, the fan Q&A. We did it. And as is tradition on this podcast, we do have a final question, but since you were one of the first people to get the final question three years ago, we had to come up with a new final question for you. So Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton?
01:06:35
Speaker
and ask Steve the alternate final question. Have you ever heard of inside the actor studio? After this, don't stop literally like we're recording our ass. Don't stop right now and do it. But once we're done, just look up
01:06:57
Speaker
You're a Simpsons guy, right? That's another one of the things that you really look up. Yeah, we had that in England. The Simpsons in England. You have cars?
01:07:12
Speaker
So look up The Simpsons Inside the Actor's Studio. That's like probably the most famous episode of it. It's a show that was on, god, I think it was. Monorail's the most famous one. It was on Bravo, I think. Yeah, I think it was on Bravo, way, way, way back. But look up The Simpsons Inside the Actor's Studio. And if you like that, then just buckle up and go down the rabbit hole with it. All right. Sorry, Dave. You were going to ask a final question. I will look up. I know. That's OK.
01:07:42
Speaker
So since we've already asked you the final question, we ask all of our guests a different final question for this appearance. If you could bring any property to life in the three and three-quarter scale, what would it be? Do I have to run through a deep, sexy voice?
01:07:59
Speaker
No, but that'll all makes sense once you watch that. It's amazing what a rock band microphone could do for you, Dave. The dynamic range on a rock band. No, that's literally my best James Lipton. This question. There's so many. This is one of the questions that will change monthly. But at this point in time,
01:08:24
Speaker
Again, this isn't very American, but it's apt to my, it's apt because it harkens back to my European tour intent. Asterix.
01:08:34
Speaker
If you know Asterix, there are lots and lots of characters. There are like tens and tens and tens of characters. And I would, not quite as many as Marvel, 8,000 or whatever it is, but I would love a Ghoul village full of Asterix, Obelix, Gellifix, Dogmatix, Geriatrix, White and Statistic. A three and three quarter inch scale, quite plump because they're all kind of drawn, most of them are quite sort of bulky.
01:09:00
Speaker
It would almost be like a village of Gamorian guards. It would be brilliant. I would love that. Like cartoon accurate asterisk, three and three-quarter inch. It doesn't have to be super articulated, just nicely sculpted, super accurate to the comic. And then I buy villages and fencing.
01:09:21
Speaker
Ah, Romans. It would be brilliant. That at this point in time would be what I would want because I've just bought the whole set of Asterix books. I found on a popular third party sales place and they cost me like $3 each. Oh wow. It's about 30 odd.
01:09:39
Speaker
And they haven't been read. They're still just unopened. And they're from 1969 up until about 1982, I want to say. So, Asterix. Yes, I love Asterix at this moment in time, this month. So that's what I would do, Dave. Yeah, awesome. All right. Yeah, and those other figures that you... I think they were by a French brand, right? Yeah, Rance, yeah. Yeah, those are pretty cool.
01:10:06
Speaker
They're brilliant and they're like that sort of six inch scale, but they made one, two, three, they made about four or five.
01:10:14
Speaker
I'm looking for, there's four of them, not nearly enough. I need more. I need the full village, but that would be too big at six inch. So give me three and three quarter inch asterisks, please. Thank you. Please. And thank you. Yes. Dear licensor, please. You know what? That sounds like one of those, uh, one of those licenses, like, um, Oh my God, I'm just, I'm blanking on the, on the name, plastic meatball.
01:10:45
Speaker
Yes. That's, that's got, that's got plastic meatball written all over it. So now you say my second choice. I want, they did a great line with, um, the cereal line. Yeah. They did with, um, Sam and Tony, the tiger. Yeah. I need you meatballs, plastic meatball to go and do count chocula and, um, uh, Frank and Barry and Boo Berry, please. Thank you.
01:11:13
Speaker
Yeah. They know who I am and I know who you are. So come on. I'm looking at their hoggle right now. I love their labyrinth figures. Yeah, I've got a bunch of their stuff too that I like. I have a big thing for serial mascots at the moment. I don't know what it is. I got some old 90s Frank and Barry kind of little giveaways and things. I just love the character design. I love serial design, especially in America. I came to America in
01:11:39
Speaker
I came in like 77 because I saw Star Wars, but I was five, so I don't remember it. But in 83, I came back and I remember as a 10-year-old going into the supermarket with my mum and dad down in Florida.
01:11:51
Speaker
And the cereal aisle, I was blown away. I was like, what is this place? Because in England, we got boring cereals. We had Weetabix and things like that. But it's so colorful, and they got marshmallows in. So I was just enamored with cereal and the way, as a culture. It's just really weird. So I have this thing about cereal mascots. I read about them. I've got books on them.
Collecting Cereal Figures and Instagram Goals
01:12:14
Speaker
And it's very odd. But I love it. And the culture of breakfast cereal. And those look like they hop right off of the box.
01:12:21
Speaker
Mm-hmm. They're really good figures. Yeah, there's a bunch that they can make, you know, to like the deep cut of like the Quisp guy to like, you know, Captain Crunch. I mean, they're... I need Captain Crunch. I need three and three quarters Captain Crunch. I need Snap, Crackle, Pop. I need all of that. Yep. Yep. Yep. There's a ton. There's a ton.
01:12:42
Speaker
And I think the ones that, all the ones they've done so far have been Kellogg's, right? Yeah, I think they're all Kellogg's. The other ones are General Mill. Is that right, General Mill? Yeah, General Mill's is the Halloween cereal. And Fruit Brute is the wolf, right? Fruit Brute is the wolf. Fruit Brute, yeah.
01:13:05
Speaker
But they could do Snap, Crackle, and Pop. Those are Rice Krispies or Kellogg's. Fingers crossed. Well, Steve, before we let you go, thank you again so much for joining us on the show. Please let our followers know where can they find you on social media and where can they find out all the good Hasbro stuff.
01:13:26
Speaker
Well, I'm easy. I'm easily found. At Mr. Stevie 18 on Instagram, that's the only place I really am. I kind of say some things on Facebook or like join forums and communities there, but I don't post on Facebook or I do, but that's just for family. So Instagram, Hasbro, you can always go to Hasbro, imaginatively, or at Hasbro Pulse on Instagram, which is always good.
01:13:56
Speaker
So yeah, I look forward to seeing you. I'm doing all right with my followers. I'm trying to get to 18,000. That's my big number. 18 is my family's special number. You can ask any mic. I'm going to bore you with the facts now. So my mom, when I was two, said, how much do you love me, Steven? Because she's the only person on the planet that calls me Steven. And I said, 18, my mate, because it's the biggest number I could think of. So 18 has since then been the biggest number you can have.
01:14:25
Speaker
For my kids, I love you 18. So to hit 18 on Instagram is a big number for me. So hopefully I'll get there soon. But maybe I'll have a suitably big giveaway. I don't know. Maybe I'll have a think about that. Or maybe you could just give away 18 things. I could give away 18 paperclips. 18 razor crests. No. 18 sail barges. 18 sail bar. I don't even know there's 18 left.
01:14:54
Speaker
anywhere that isn't already owned. Can you imagine 18 of those just in one spot? Imagine going to be shipping them. You could build a small home out of 18 of them. Yeah, that's a hundred. Yeah, it's about, it's like, because I've shipped them before, it was like $150 to ship in the States, just by going down the post office. So big. So big. We'll see. Well, anyway, that's where you can find me.
01:15:20
Speaker
We'll make sure to put links to all of that, uh, in the show notes. So, um, everyone get, get to tapping over there and, and let's get, uh, let's get Steve up to that, uh, that 18,000 follower Mark and, uh, Steve have a safe trip, uh, back, back, uh, you know, across the, uh, across the ocean there. And, uh, and we'll have to not wait another three years to have you back on. We got to do it a little bit sooner than that sooner than three.
01:15:47
Speaker
It takes it takes a few years for me to gather some new things to tell you that's interesting. So I appreciate, listen, first of all, I appreciate you having me back on. And second of all, I appreciate that you're still doing it. All right, three years is a long years now. There's a long time no matter what you're doing. So I'm glad that you guys are doing well and that your your podcast is going from
Closing Remarks and Podcast Licensing
01:16:08
Speaker
strength to strength. So keep going onwards and upwards. I'm going to be by Dave and you bloody microphone.
01:16:16
Speaker
No, no, it's good luck. It's good luck. It's good luck. It's enough for GoFundMe. Dave, send us home. When you get those toys, everybody, make sure to let them breathe. Yes. Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
01:16:46
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
01:17:09
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.