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Legends Among Us: Talking Giant Man and More with Hasbro's Dwight Stall
600 Plays1 year ago
There are legends, and then there are Marvel Legends. Completing the set of the Android, the Alien, and the Wizard, we are joined by real life Wizard and Marvel Legend Dwight Stall from Hasbro to talk all things Marvel Legends, HasLab, toy design, and even an impromptu "What if" we could build a soccer team from Marvel characters.
Follow Dwight on Instagram @stalldwight and keep up with all of the Hasbro goings on @hasbropulse!
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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
Summer Activities and Promotions
00:00:01
Speaker
The summer is here. That means outdoor festivals, comic-cons, and the perfect weather for toy hunts. As the weather heats up and you're out there enjoying yourself, stay hydrated with our show's sponsor, Liquid IV. Liquid IV hydrates two times faster than water alone and three times the electrolytes of traditional sports drinks, and it's easy to use. Just rip open a pouch, pour one of their delicious flavors into a water bottle, and shake it up.
00:00:30
Speaker
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00:00:56
Speaker
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Introducing the Podcast and Guest
00:01:17
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:01:47
Speaker
Hi. Dave, are you having a marvelous evening by any chance? I would say it's somewhat legendary. Is it now? Yeah, I think I know why. I think I know why. Eric, do me a favor. Please don't bury the lie.
00:02:09
Speaker
Not gonna do it. Not gonna do it. This is, Dave, this is going to be legendary. For decades, this week's guest has been designing figures for the Marvel Legends line at Hasbro. Hot on the heels of their announcement of the latest Has Lab and largest Marvel Legends hero to date, Giant Man, we are thrilled to welcome Hasbro's real life Marvel legend, Dwight Stahl, to the podcast. Dwight, welcome to Adventures in Collecting.
00:02:38
Speaker
Thanks Eric. Thanks Dave. Appreciate you guys having me out.
00:02:41
Speaker
It's been a while since you've been on, and this is the first time you've been on Solo. You've been on in one of those rapid-fire roundtable fan-stream follow-up things, but this is the first time we've got you, so we've completed the set now.
Dwight's Collection Interests and Projects
00:02:59
Speaker
We're not allowed to say the big three anymore, I think, officially, but we've had Dwight, Ryan, and Dan on now.
00:03:10
Speaker
So you had the you had the and you had the android in the alien and now you get the wizard there we go. Well before we hop into. You know what how you how you got your start toys and your your car travels through has bro as this is a show about collecting the first thing that we ask all of our guests what are you currently collecting and what are some of your recent pickups.
00:03:38
Speaker
Um, my current collecting habits have been curbed a bit of late. Um, but I am still very much into my Lego minifigures. Um, I have a pretty massive figure collection, uh, in my basement, uh, probably well over, I don't know, probably well over a thousand of them. And, uh, they're just like my favorite little thing. They're just the, the look of that, they have something that has had such a, um,
00:04:07
Speaker
maintained look over the years while they've added embellishments and things to it but when the primary DNA has been the same for so long it's so fun to have something that you know I might have had as a kid and to be able to buy things today that still look perfectly in scale and you know it just builds that same collective kind of thing and while I obviously didn't collect them as a child I had a handful and it's just a it's been a fun hobby so
00:04:33
Speaker
Just this past week my daughters were kind enough to pick up three or four blind bags of the marvel minis and i was able to secure and storm from their new series so that's my most recent toy purchases very cool yeah it is something about seeing them all i'm trying to remember samuel hat maker so samuel hat maker he was one of the contestants on.
00:04:59
Speaker
I think it was the first season of, uh, of Lego master. Uh, we follow him on, on Instagram. He had like a display that, you know, one of those ones that's like, it almost looks like a curio, like all the, like the individual like cubes lined up on his wall and like seeing them all together. It actually is really to your point. Like it's fun, how kind of uniform, but different they are. So like it is, it is really cool to see all the mini figs together.
00:05:28
Speaker
Yeah, I built a bunch of bleachers for all of mine, because the problem with a figure that's so small, it's like, how do you display them and get credit for all of them? And for a long time, I just had them on plates, but the ones in the back got lost. So after many years of just kind of looking at the problem, I decided to buy buckets of bricks and I built a bleacher system. So they're all on elevated tiers. So everybody in the back still gets just as much screen time as the front rows, which is, you know,
00:05:57
Speaker
Uh, big waste of time, but, uh, it was, it was a, it was a fun project to undertake stadium seating for your mini fix. Perfect. Now, do you also do like the big like sets and projects or is it just the mini fix? I used to, um, if something catches my eye, I'll go out and grab it. I've been eyeballing the, the, uh, RMS Titanic, uh, for the last year and a half. But.
00:06:26
Speaker
I'm also trying not to actively work on a divorce. So I'm weighing the purchase of said ship versus the happiness of said wife. And the wife is definitely winning out on that one. Yeah, I feel you on that front. I feel you see it. I have the significant other where we enable each other. So like, all right. I got you the Ghostbusters firehouse. She wound up getting me like old Trafford. So like. There you go.
00:06:56
Speaker
You're the 89 Batmobile like there is so we're and I know she wants the Batman Returns one and we get each other the minifigures and try to collect them all together. So it's it she's like just like, OK, whatever you want to get. Yeah, it's funny because I don't care about. Cars really at all, yet the last two large Lego set purchases that I bought were Ecto one and the 89 Batmobile.
00:07:26
Speaker
So those two I have in the basement and I love them. The problem for me is outside of the, I think, I think the reason why I'm still sticking with my Lego minifigures is while I, Hey guys, even I don't like the prices of things. While I don't like that they've crept up the $5 a piece. It's still a manageable thing that I can.
00:07:48
Speaker
you know, grin and bear the purchase of, but outside of those, my passions are so expensive. I have to be very, very select. Like I said, I'm talking about like a, what, almost a $700 titanic. I love myself. Those, uh, uh, polystone side show, uh, statues, you know, I've got a collection of, uh, WWF, WWE belts and I'm, and I've been eyeballing the AEW championship to add to that. So.
00:08:18
Speaker
When the things that I like go from $5 minifigures to multiple hundred dollar things, I have to be very cautious and selective as to what I want to waste my money on. Cause I have a child in college and another one on the way and you know, you know, life. Yep. Yep. Kids, man. Kids.
00:08:40
Speaker
Glad to hear that there's a fellow Lego fanatic among us, another one to commiserate with over space and display space.
Journey into Toy Design
00:08:52
Speaker
But yeah, so pivoting into kind of your story here, Dwight, how did you get into toy design and what led you to your career with Hasbro? Okay.
00:09:07
Speaker
I always loved action figures when I was a kid. I played with action figures probably longer than most of my friends did. They were jumping off into sports and RC type cars and stuff, but I still just love playing with my GI Joe figures and things like that.
00:09:22
Speaker
Um, I remember the last two I bought were the Crimson guard and snow serpent from the GI Joe line. And I had pretty much outgrown plane with toys. I think that was 87. I had pretty much outgrown plane with them at that time, but they were so cool. I had to have them. So I bought them anyways. Then one, you know, you eventually put your toys away. I hadn't thought about them for ever. And I ended up getting into, um, industrial design at the university of Cincinnati.
00:09:53
Speaker
And with that program, it's a program that has the co-op to it, which is once you get into that level of school, which I think it was sophomore year, junior year, something like that, you go to school for a quarter and then you have to get a job at a professional, um, place. Um, and I, I had a couple, uh, jobs, uh, you know, at different like graphics firms and doing bottle design and light design and stuff like that. And that was fine. But then.
00:10:22
Speaker
I was lucky enough to land a co-op at Kenner, which was one of the companies that Hasbro owned in Cincinnati. And, uh, I just kind of got my foot in the door there working on starting lineups, um, and, uh, GI Joe 12 inch figures. So it just kind of re sparked that love for toys that I hadn't thought about for, you know, 10 years or so. And I started picking up a lot of, uh,
00:10:49
Speaker
uh, McFarland figures at the time, they were, you know, just killing it with their spawn figures and their comic figures, like dark child and, or that was, that was more, I think, right? Yeah, I think so. So, you know, picking up all those beautiful, beautifully sculpted things and it just kind of re sparked that love for toys. And I just never left. Once I graduated, um, I reached out to some of my friends who had made the transfer to Hasbro in Rhode Island.
00:11:17
Speaker
And I said, Hey, I need one more co-op to finish off my, uh, collegiate career. Do you guys mind bringing me up to do that? And they did. And I just never left. Um, I was hired as a temp when my co-op expired and then the temp, uh, fell into a full time gig on BTR, which was one of our earlier versions of a brick system like, uh, Lego.
00:11:43
Speaker
And from that, I just kind of bounced around from a few different brands over the years from G.I. Joe, Transformers, Star Wars, and eventually when the Marvel license came to Hasbro, they tapped me to join that team. And I've just been there ever since, back since 2006. As someone who's been long tenured on Marvel Legends, you mentioned back since 2006, what are some of your favorite designs?
00:12:13
Speaker
Um, I love the version two juggernaut that we did. Um, the redesign and shaping of the helmet kind of completed that. Jim Lee era kind of looked to him and he kind of had a little bit more of that capcomy feel, which I absolutely was a massive fan of. So that version of juggernaut was absolutely amazing. I love some of the newer things we've done, like the spider verse figures, uh, that are done in that more animated style. Um, the.
00:12:44
Speaker
Miguel Spider-Man 299 in particular. He's got that awesome, you know, really super heroic V-shape in size to him. So that was kind of fun. When you can do things that are a little bit different out of the norm spiral that we did most recently, the original one was a lot of fun to do, but the challenge of the look of a female form with six arms and to get all of that
00:13:10
Speaker
functional material to shove into a torso and make it playable and Look really really amazing was a was a really fun challenge and I think the kind of aesthetics of some of those odd things are always kind of a Different treat to try to tackle Now you mentioned the I love that you you mentioned the kind of Capcom essence of of juggernaut because you guys are
00:13:36
Speaker
Previously in a different scale when when the marvel figures were still in in three point seven five You had some of those those capcom two packs and those are some of the coolest two packs ever every now and then I still see one kind of like to show up at like a toy show or Yeah, and then I loved those designs too. I mean that's
00:13:53
Speaker
Honestly, as much as I read comics as a kid and still do today, I was introduced to a lot of characters through those games, both Marvel vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom. Both of those series introduced me to a ton of characters that I was unfamiliar with.
00:14:14
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Even even me at that time, they were, you know, when you were playing the when Shuma Gorath came out for the first time and I'm like, what is this thing? I don't know. But it was so weird the way it would walk on its tentacles. And the moves were just so crazy and varied. It was it was the same way. Same thing. It was fun to check out these things from pieces of Marvel lore that I had never ever opened or cracked a comic for and kind of
00:14:42
Speaker
see that there's this bigger, broader, more, uh, insanely wonderful universe to, to, to learn so much more about. And, and, you know, kind of speaking of that insane universe, there are so many different characters, you know, an absolute ocean of characters out there. And, you know, there have been characters that you, you guys have tackled, uh, you know, kind of several times now you actually, you brought up a great example in spiral. Um, have there been designs, you know, specific designs over the year that, you know,
00:15:11
Speaker
over the years that haven't worked out, you know, and, and, uh, have you had the opportunity to kind of go back and, you know, revisit some of those that like really stick in your head as one. So it's like, I wish we could have done this at the time, but the technology or, you know, budget, whatever it was, have, have you had a chance to kind of revisit those? Sometimes. Yeah. And I still got a handful that I'd like to get to. Um, for instance, uh, I guess a good example is, uh, there's a jumping off point would be something like a shocker.
00:15:41
Speaker
The first time we did him, you know, he's a lower tier character, right? We use our old Buckycat body as the base for it. You know, like we do with many of our figures, we have the base clean systems that we can use for different designs to allow us to make more figures for you guys throughout the calendar year by using a very thoughtful existing tooling library.
00:16:07
Speaker
So we had made that shocker and he had like new knee pads and elbow pads and forearms, I think, and probably a head. But the figure itself was basically just what you already have. And then just a couple of years ago, we got to revisit that character and we wanted to do it from scratch because the quilting pattern of his costume was so unique to that character. It was really fun to revisit him and give him a
00:16:33
Speaker
You know, his just, uh, desserts the way, you know, he should have been, um, I hope to actually be able to revisit him at some point now that he exists and I don't have to spend the money on the tooling. I'd love to go back and throw more deco on him and, uh, get all of that, uh, all those recess lines, uh, painted out and bring him back out for like a super version. But spiral was a good example of, I really enjoyed the first one we did, but.
00:16:59
Speaker
You know, she definitely could use an upgrade. And I think the next one that I want to do the most that I've been thinking about for a long time is Green Goblin, like classic Green Goblin. Um, cause he's also been done just using existing parts and such an iconic character.
00:17:13
Speaker
Um, arguably Spider-Man's greatest villain, you know, definitely top one or two, depending on how you, you know, want to, you want to swing there, um, definitely deserves a all unique new body, uh, sculpt and maybe something more premium with the, uh, glider itself to have some thrusters or, or, or whatnot to it. So that's definitely one that's on my, um, short list of, uh, characters that when the opportunity arrives, I want to.
00:17:41
Speaker
Revisit and give you guys a all new hopefully totally badass green goblin Yeah, that that shocker one too is something that uh, you know I I really appreciated instead of having the swappable hands the like full Swappable gauntlets on him like I thought that was a really cool ad and something that I you know Kind of something new that you guys had never really done before on a figure and I thought you know kept the lines nice and clean on his on his hands and
00:18:09
Speaker
You know, you didn't have like, like breakup at the wrist with the gauntlets. It just, it was, it was a really cool touch to that figure. Thanks. Yeah. We don't, we never liked to, um, just think that what we've done today is good enough. You know, I think that's one of the hallmarks of the legends team and, um, the challenges, you don't always have figures that are a hundred percent like what you had in the past. So if there's something that you love from the past, you know, that's wonderful.
00:18:39
Speaker
But we're always looking to what's that next thing that we can incorporate into our figures to improve them. You know, the photo reel that we've been doing on the faces that we now moved over onto the classic figures, you know, has really brought those heads to life in a new way that for a while we were like, I don't know if I want to do this technology there because it's going to make them look so different than what you already have in your collection.
Innovations in Toy Design
00:19:06
Speaker
But the more we thought about it, we're like, well, let's test it and see what it even looks like. Because we knew what it would look like when you're trying to do someone from the MCU. But we didn't know how it would look to translate plastics. And you guys can have a counter opinion if you so choose. And that's 100% fine. But we thought that it looked so good that we were so happy we made the jump. Same thing with the pinless technology on the arms and legs, where we can to do those types of updates.
00:19:37
Speaker
We got it, you know, we got a few more of them in the works for things that you guys haven't seen yet that, uh, hopefully when we get to announce them, you guys will appreciate, uh, those kinds of improvements as well. Yeah. The, the photo real is like, like you said is it's, it's fascinating, right? Cause you know, it's, I'm very open with the fact that, you know, the majority of my collection, I kind of focus on MCU and Spider-Man, the animated series, like those are like my two, you know,
00:20:03
Speaker
places of focus for Marvel Legends. So obviously, you know, I was seeing the benefit of that, that face printing like from jump street, you know, as soon as you guys started using it, it's like, wow, like this is any, and it gets just keeps getting better and better and better and better. Like I'm looking at my, my little villain shelf right now. And like, I have like a little mini Jeff Goldblum and a little,
00:20:24
Speaker
You know, many, uh, JK Simmons and, you know, it's just so on and so forth. Like each figure, they just, Benicio del Toro, like they, they look exactly like little versions of their, you know, their, their real life, you know, flesh and blood characters. So when you guys, you know, started saying on the live streams that you were going to be using it for the photo real tech for comics, I was like, how does that work?
00:20:48
Speaker
work because you don't get a 3D scan of a 2D panel. So like how do you decide like, I don't even know how to word this question, how do you decide where that modeling kind of comes from? It comes from the brilliance of our extended team. Tony was our painter who worked with us for many years making many of those figures at your
00:21:13
Speaker
referencing, and he is leveled up, so to speak, and he doesn't do a whole lot of painting for us anymore. Every once in a while, I get a chance for him to come back and work on something special if I really, really beg and plead. But his immense talent, he was able to imbue into his replacements. And Kristin is our new model artist who runs Marvel, and she is a, you know,
00:21:41
Speaker
She's a master, you know and and the the way she can apply those files for the faces is You know bar none some of the the best applications I've ever seen on this scale for this price in particular And she deserves a lot of the credit for how that final book, you know comes together that's the part of the magic of the Marvel team is
00:22:09
Speaker
We have so many component. There's a lot of incredibly talented people at Hasbro style, but the people we have on the Marvel team, not only are they incredibly talented, but they have such passion for these projects and what they do. And if you have that extra something special, you know, that there's undefinable things, you know, it just makes the, the work so much above and beyond. And I think that shows.
00:22:38
Speaker
on some of those types of little extra bits of labor of love that the team puts into it. And that's one great example of that extra, you know, passion really coming out into, you know, into that final toy form for all of you, you know, awesome fans to collect and add to your shelves. So is it just more of like, like
00:22:57
Speaker
You know, a question, I guess it's more of like a question of like leveling up, right? Because you're, you know, I guess the answer to what does this look like in 3D is like, this is what it looks like. And it's the incoming what's comes out of the package. Because, you know, if it's something for decades, near, near 100 years of just like, hey, this is
00:23:20
Speaker
stuff that is you've only looked at flat ever in minimal colors and all that. So like I guess does that add to the challenge because you're almost like creating this like you're creating the textures like in a way. Yeah, I would say it definitely does. The some of the challenges are
00:23:44
Speaker
trying to find out what the back sides of some of these things look like, too. You know, when you're using different artists, you know, 80 years ago to today, you know, they, you know, brand Bibles weren't created for every character, right? From every artist's interpretation of the character designs.
00:24:04
Speaker
So sometimes you get something that's really hot or special or you want to revisit and it's a bloody nightmare to go through, you know, piles of comic ref. I will say the Marvel Unlimited app helps a lot with with you having a source to go through so much of it.
00:24:21
Speaker
That's a, you know, a wonderful tool. But even that is not, you know, complete. Right. So to try to find some of those things is it can be a real challenge, especially when you want to make this thing fully realized, not just from the front, but, you know, as a fully fleshed out 3D thing. You mean Jack Kirby didn't draw turnarounds of every character he ever drew? How rude of him. How rude. Smacker. So so Giant Man, let's let's get into Giant Man.
00:24:51
Speaker
Giant Man has the opportunity to now finally come to life in his real form. True to scale, an actual Giant Man in 1.12 scale.
Designing Giant Man for HasLab
00:25:06
Speaker
What led to the decision to go with Giant Man as the latest HasLab?
00:25:11
Speaker
Um, a big part of it was the anniversary year we're living in, uh, knowing that we had this big anniversary program for the fall with, you know, all of those, uh, amazing items that are out there now, the Hulk and banner, the super to good black widow, Hawkeye on sky cycle, et cetera, et cetera. You know, we were like, well, let's keep this Avengers train rolling. And what better way to zigzag a little bit and to give you something that can go.
00:25:39
Speaker
one on one toe to toe with a sentinel or a galactus that you may already have in your collection. And that would be to go for the biggest hero we've done to this point, which is a 24 inch giant man. You know, those kinds of things compiled with
00:25:56
Speaker
I know that there's a lot of people who are like, I'm very happy with the toy business one I have, the builder figure from the end of their run. And that's wonderful. If you're lucky enough to have completed that figure, that awesome figure for the time and when it was created, that's cool. I'm very happy for you. But that was over 10, 12, I don't know how many. It's been a while. It's been a long while. It's been a generation since that was made. And there's so many more collectors out there now today
00:26:26
Speaker
or fans even of the character as he's made appearances in the MCU, you know, and just, you know, it's time to try to do something that's, you know, to get that character out there on a meaningful, massive scale, you know, for the next generation. And if you want to support it, awesome. Please jump on board and come along with us for another fun, amazing ride. But, you know, if you guys are happy with one you already have, by all means, that's, that's 100% okay as well.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, he was, he was, like you said, it was towards the end of the run. So, I mean, he was tough to build back in the day. And I mean, he commands quite, quite a penny on the aftermarket. Yeah. Yeah. But, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's a world of difference though. You're looking at a 24 inch figure as opposed to a 12 inch one, right? I mean, like you said, it's, you know, he's, he's meant to go toe to toe with some of those previous centerpieces that you guys have put out.
00:27:26
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. So what have been some of the challenges with designing Giant Man, adding tiers, but keeping him at a very accessible price? Yeah, that was that was a big part. Before you even talk about Giant Man itself is what did this thing offer? You know, what will we going to do with him? You know, and
00:27:49
Speaker
trying to learn from previous campaigns, you know, what we did, what worked and what didn't, you know, all goes into it. So we kind of wanted to stay clear of the six inch figures this time. Um, they were very polarizing. Um, and, uh, honestly, uh, all of the campaigns we've done, you know, um, having characters like, uh, Bastion who you had never had in the Sentinel.
00:28:11
Speaker
having cancer like morgue in, uh, in Frankie Ray and with Galactus and then having characters like the goblin queen and Mephisto, uh, in part of the, uh, health charger. We saw really interesting opinions, uh, online, you know, some people were super excited to have the opportunity to get those characters. Other people were upset about, you know, holding, they would say holding hostage those types of characters in a big campaign.
00:28:40
Speaker
And we're like, okay, well, let's not do that this time. Let's just focus on making giant man himself the centerpiece. Let's get that price down, you know, and, and give them just this big, massive 24 inch awesome figure without any of that other stuff that has so many polarizing opinions. You know, uh, I know, you know, we've been reading all the boards. We were like, Oh, waspin, uh, Hank should have been included in here. And you're like, okay, cool. We could have done that.
00:29:09
Speaker
But that would have made the campaign 250 bucks, you know, you know, and for some people, that's perfectly fine. Right. But we wanted to once again, you know, money's tight now, you know, it's not this, you know, the economy's.
00:29:24
Speaker
doing, but it's not, you know, we're not all like laughing and rolling and screwed your McDuck money. So, you know, we wanted to make sure we had that thing at a price point that was as accessible to as many people as possible. So that's kind of where we focused on the tiers with some extra little bits and pieces that we could throw in there to have a little bit of fun, to have people have the ability to make other variations of them, just because that's kind of
00:29:48
Speaker
Uh, you know, something we've done with all of our has lab campaigns. Um, and it's, you know, for people who are the ridiculous, awesome super fans who are going to buy more of these things.
00:29:59
Speaker
Now you can have a good versus evil out of the box with the zombie tier and the scroll tier. Beyond that, challenges for the actual item itself was the V-harness was getting that design so it worked to function properly. Typically it would have been attached to the belt, but because of the size of this figure, that wouldn't have looked good and the belt would have ridden up when you're trying to articulate this thing, because the articulation on him is
00:30:27
Speaker
really, really, it's super articulated level articulation on a 24 inch figure. The only pieces that aren't there are the forearm and calf breaks because of the design of the scalloped boots and gloves. But you know, it has everything else including toes and butterflies for the first time, as well as you know, ridiculously articulated fingers.
00:30:50
Speaker
Um, and a gorgeous, uh, you know, when we talked earlier, we're always trying to make those new things. What else can we do that we've never done before? The new eyes on this figure are, uh, spectacular. They're, they're clear. Um, and they're painted from the backside. So the best, uh, example that I can call out is like doll eyes that you, you know, you might've seen, you know, on your, your, your sisters or your, you know, uh, dolls that you had when you were a, you know, a young, a young boy or girl, um,
00:31:19
Speaker
And that kind of level of realism on this eye is really going to take a figure of, you know, of that size to the next level. So that when you look at him, it doesn't look like it's a, you know, painted piece of plastic. You know, I look at Fin Fang Fume on my shelf and I'm like, I hope that I get to do something like that with him, you know, at some point in the future, because these new little evolutionary steps in the, you know, in, in toy making allow us to do new great things every time. And.
00:31:47
Speaker
Those were some of the challenges as well as I guess the last one probably would have been just modernizing the classic design. You know, how do you take a design, maintain what it was in the comics all those years ago, but make it look like it's believable that it would exist in your Legends collection of today.
00:32:06
Speaker
And that's applying all the textures and the detailing and the logos and the zippers and all of those extra little things that you don't necessarily think about. But if a figure is going to be two feet tall, you're going to be looking at this thing in a way different than you would a six inch action figure. So let's make sure that everything is thought about and really put in there so that all the attention to detail and love that we all have for the figure really comes out at the end.
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's cool to see like, you know, now having, having seen a Sentinel in person, having seen Galactus in person, like looking at, you know, the, the model, both of the, you know, on your live stream and, um, you know, and, and Ryan had it at D 23 and the pictures that were coming in from there, it almost looks like a giant Vulcan body. Like it has like all of those same, like, you know, articulation points and cuts and every, and it, it's just like,
00:33:04
Speaker
It looks like this thing's like, I can't wait until, you know, we see, you know, further along and start to see this thing really start to move. And, and, you know, it just, it's very impressive. Very, very impressive. Thanks. Yeah. We got a, we got a great model in, uh, just this past week. So when I have a moment to breathe, I plan to take a lot of pictures of that thing, uh, doing all that type of stuff, posing it out really awesome to, uh,
00:33:28
Speaker
to get the pulse to post or, you know, or throw up on an Instagram for you guys to check out because, you know, that's, you know, part of the fun, uh, for me is just being able to take a moment to geek out and try to just enjoy the, you know, the process in the middle of it, instead of waiting for it to be over and just running on to the next project. Um, I had a blast with the engine of engines last year.
00:33:54
Speaker
just taking that thing out to a parking lot in a baseball diamond, you know, in the evening during my kid's soccer practice and just, you know, laying around in the dirt and in the gravel and having parents look at you like, what is wrong with this grown man, you know, crawling around like an army soldier out in the middle of nowhere, taking pictures of a glowing car. Yeah. You know, you, you look kind of like a moron, but you know, I've been called worse by better people, so I can deal with that.
00:34:25
Speaker
Hey, but you know what, you know, at the end of the day, you were the only person that was, that got to, you know, that got to, to, to lay on your belly in the middle of a field and play guys with, uh, with the engine of engines. So, you know, that's a sad, that's a sad fact there. It's a sad fact. It's a sad fact, but it's, it's something that you get to keep forever is you got to do that. You got to do that. And now a word from our sponsors.
00:34:59
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.
00:35:15
Speaker
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00:35:39
Speaker
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00:36:09
Speaker
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00:36:15
Speaker
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00:36:44
Speaker
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00:37:15
Speaker
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00:37:44
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. And now back to the show. So you kind of alluded to the fact that from a campaign standpoint,
00:38:09
Speaker
that you've learned from previous HasLab campaigns and that kind of informed some of the decisions you made in structuring the campaign for Giant Man. Was there anything from an engineering or design standpoint that you took away from the Sentinel and from Galactus that kind of helped or improved design techniques for Giant Man?
00:38:33
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. Um, we, we look at all of the previous campaigns that we've done as well as the partner ones that are, uh, you know, our friends and GI Joe and transformers and. Ghostbusters, et cetera, et cetera have done because there's such great learnings to be had from everyone in these campaigns because it's still relatively new, you know, and there's still a lot of things we don't know. So, you know, for instance, one thing that we haven't talked about yet, or at least I haven't made, I must not have made perfectly clear is all of the joints on giant man.
00:39:02
Speaker
from the ankles, knees, hips, elbows, shoulders are all going to be ratcheted similar to the glactus figure. So they'll be able to click into position and really hold those positions for a very, very long time without the fear of them getting weak or not holding whatever pose you want. So taking learning from that for the structure was key.
00:39:30
Speaker
faceplates for galactus would just pop in mouths, but these are going to feed inside of the mask. So we are working right now to make sure that the skin, which will be a PVC skin, which is the red mask, is rigid enough that it won't tear or rip in play.
00:39:50
Speaker
but flexible enough that you can pop the head out of it because what we did for Galactus was the inspiration but it needs to be tweaked and some of the early models we got in don't work so we're like okay that's fine you know we've got a year let's uh let's get this thing figured out you know so we spent uh you know the last few months kind of tweaking things and every time we get a model in we keep trying to uh
00:40:16
Speaker
tests, you know, try to find the failure points so that we can be aware of them and work through them so that we can make sure that the final experience for all the fans who hopefully back this and hopefully when it gets funded, you know, won't have any of the growing pains that we've had through the first, you know, six months of the campaign, which is, you know, a chunk that you guys don't even see because that's all even before the teaser launch dates.
00:40:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's it's it's always cool to see you know, to your point, you know, you mentioned that with these has labs and, you know, we've been, you know, we've chatted with other people from the Marvel team from the Star Wars team, and we know kind of like has lab exists kind of as its own business unit, with like its own like resources, right to it to a certain degree. So it's interesting to see how
00:41:06
Speaker
you know, the GI Joe team leverages things and you know, the Star Wars team leverages things and now you guys and like just kind of seeing how everyone does kind of have this collaborative like learn from each other spirit. You know, it's it's it's a it's a very cool. Yeah, it's awesome. It's a very cool process.
00:41:24
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know if it's learning so much as getting pissed when they think of something that you didn't think of. And it just grows that little, like, uh, that really hardcore in the center of your gut that you're just like, Oh, I can't believe they came up with that first, you know? So, you know, sure. Learning. We'll, we'll go with learning.
00:41:43
Speaker
Dwight, I don't know. People can't see on the camera, but it looks like you might have like a chip or something on your shoulder. I'm not sure. That doesn't sound right. But yeah, it is. It is. It is cool to see from the outside, you know, and, and, you know, especially seeing pictures of all you guys from San Diego Comic Con all getting put in the Cobra clutch and knowing that there's, there's a lot of like fun crossover.
00:42:12
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah, we got some great people that work on all the different brands and, you know, getting a chance to be in a building that you're so close to, so much creative, you know, genius. And seeing what the young kids, I say young kids, you know, because I'm getting to be the old man. But seeing what the next generation brings is really exciting too, you know, and it's like when they come at you and they're hitting you with
00:42:40
Speaker
Different questions on different perspectives that you haven't thought about or when they're bringing different pieces of Marvel lore that was really important to them that I miss out on because of I was, you know, in a different point in my life and I wasn't paying attention to those things is great because
00:42:57
Speaker
you bring all that stuff together and that's how you get a really successful team when you got a nice mix of you know um seasoned vets and uh passionate uh young designers and team members you know you kind of if you're not
00:43:13
Speaker
The key is not being so stupid is to think you have all the answers yourself and to know that together as a team we're going to succeed way better than any one person's opinion, which is key. But if you're willing to realize that you don't have all the answers,
00:43:32
Speaker
you got a really good potential at Hasbro to get most things right, or at least step forward on the right foot to lead to hopeful success.
00:43:45
Speaker
So before we head into our typical Q and a section, Dave, Dave has, has prepared something a little bit special for this, this interview, because we know that there is some, um, some additional crossover, right? Between, between our likes and your likes. So, so Dave, why don't you talk about this, this first question that you have here for, for Dwight. I'm glad you mentioned team. Cause I'm going to, I'm going to pull up our team here.
00:44:13
Speaker
Um, so we, um, we know that like us, you're a big soccer fan. Um, so if you could field an 11 character Marvel lineup to put onto the pitch,
Marvel Characters in Sports and Wrestling
00:44:28
Speaker
who would it be? And what is your formation? Okay. All right. Well, that's fun. Um, if you're going to, okay. All right. So I can give you that answer, but
00:44:41
Speaker
If you're going to build a team, you got to start with a coach, right? Okay. Okay. So if I'm going to throw a coach out there, someone who has the foresight and insight and ability to know what's going to happen out in that pitch, I'm going to take Charles Xavier as my coach. Okay. And I'm going to build from, I don't go with a,
00:45:03
Speaker
I don't go with, it's Marvel. So I'm going to go with an offensive minded team. So I'm going to go with a four four two. Okay. But I'm going to start with defense and then work forward. Okay. My goalie would be the blob.
00:45:15
Speaker
Okay. Cause he's immovable and he would, now he would block the entire goal or most of the goal anyways, making penalty shots impossible. And, uh, you know, the ability to get a ball past him while he's, uh, you know, not the most agile, I think his bulk would really, really serve well. Blob is in goal. Then, uh, my two defenders, one would be quick silver.
00:45:43
Speaker
so that he has the speed to negate any clever attacks coming at him. Now, mind you, this team would have to get along, and I'm sure Charles would be able to manage that. But my other defender would be Gravitron.
00:46:01
Speaker
So if he's able to, Graviton's able to manipulate things coming at him, he can either slow down adversaries or adjust the ball's density and stuff to help keep things on track. Now, in my midfield,
00:46:24
Speaker
you got to have some magic users because you just don't know what's coming at you and you got to be able to protect your boys and ladies from whatever's out there. So I got on my left and right mid, I got Dr. Strange and the Scarlet Witch. I think those two together can cover any outer threats that might mess with what's going on on the pitch.
00:46:45
Speaker
Now, my center midfield, I have two. Because first, to have a successful team, you have to have a field captain. You have to have someone that you can rally behind, that you know that that person is going to take you home for the win. And that's where Captain America goes. One, he's a perfect physical specimen. And two, you know, he is going to be the person out there that's like, I am going to lead by example, come with me, and we're going to win this game.
00:47:10
Speaker
And then next to him, you got to have a defensive mid that is a stone wall for your opponents to break upon. And that's where century would go. So he's got the, you know, he's got the, uh, power and he's a little bit crazy. So you just never know when you might need that guy out there that can just go out there and get a yellow card if need be, uh, by taking somebody or taking someone down a level, right? All right. Strikers.
00:47:40
Speaker
Domino as my left wing, put a little bit of luck on your side is not going to be a bad thing. Now to counter Domino on the left, I've got Ultron on the right because he's never going to get tired and his brain would be able to figure out all the trajectories and things that would be needed to have perfect passing and so on and so forth.
00:48:06
Speaker
You need some perfect specimens just to be able to run, run, run and get shit done. So I got Power Princess as my center, one of my two centers.
00:48:16
Speaker
And this is a curve ball for you, but technically it still counts. I have Lionel Messi as my, uh, other one because I did my homework and I found that he was in Marvel comics did make some little, uh, snippets for him, uh, and other players for the, uh, FIFA 18 world cup. So technically.
00:48:43
Speaker
I think I'm still covered there. And if you have the opportunity to put Leo on the pitch, why wouldn't you do that? So, so, so, uh, messy Marvel legends, when from, uh, from, uh, from, from, from your mouth to, uh, to the, the, the, to the, you know, to the goodness of the, uh, universes, I would absolutely lose my mind to get a chance to make that action of a year. Oh my God.
00:49:09
Speaker
So we, we had put together started at a four four two. Yeah. That's where we started. And, and Dave is, uh, Dave is going to, Dave is going to walk us through the adventures and collecting team. I am going to say before we announce, you know, our team, I'm pretty sure we're boned, but I would like to continue with forward with what we had picked. Yeah. So, um, yo, I, I, we went four, three, two, one. Um, so.
00:49:39
Speaker
Coach Nick Fury because he's got the answers. I like that. And I and I feel like we've got a bit of a more, I'll say defensive squad. He's a good motivator, Nick. That is a good motivator. He knows he knows defense right as as the head of shield. So our back line is.
00:50:04
Speaker
Um, so we went with, um, Robbie Reyes and, uh, Mark Spector on the sides, on the outsides as your, as your backs. Um, just basically, you know, like pen and stare and the ability to basically those, those mystical powers in order to prevent, prevent anybody coming up the, up the wings. Um, and you need.
00:50:33
Speaker
two of the biggest bodies you can get and plugging up the middle. So of course you have Hulk and Thing. How are you going to get through a literal brick wall? That's a pretty terrifying defensive center, yes. Yeah, and now if you happen to, similar to the Blob stopping everything in sight, I think Reed Richards would be able to also do that. I like that.
00:51:01
Speaker
I like that. It's the same benefits with added agility. Yeah. Now, the mid-feel, this is where it gets a little interesting because I kind of want, I like that D-mid strategy too, but I feel like
00:51:20
Speaker
similar ideas, but he's someone who's a bit more, I'll say generous. He's not going to be someone who's going to kind of go up the field and try to score himself. He's going to want to distribute and kind of watch both ends. And that's where Steve, Steve Rogers fits in with us. Um, as that like six now on the wing, you want two people who are veritable sharpshooters to get crosses in. Right. Um, so who better than a black widow and Kate Bishop?
00:51:51
Speaker
I like that. To get those crosses in, pinpoint accuracy. So then we've got our front two and it's kind of like that whole like two people up front that could score and play off of the center forward, but still be able to do well themselves. Speed, agility, Peter Parker and T'Challa. I like that.
00:52:15
Speaker
And, you know, it's like you have Messi. We needed that Zlatan. And who is going to be Zlatan? That Zlatan, Messi type of player. Of course, Tony Stark. I like that. I like that. I think the only heel you have that I think the only foil you didn't think about is how clumsy Peter Parker is.
00:52:38
Speaker
It's true. Which version? He could be either there as you're like, he's going to be your saving grace, or what the bleep just happened, Peter? Why did you take your eye off the ball? The kid in the audience who was dropping his ice cream cone, he could have bought another one. You didn't need to go over there and save the ice cream cone for that kid.
00:53:00
Speaker
I'm a Red Bulls fan, so I'm just used to that. So I needed part of it in the squad. We welcome the abuse.
00:53:17
Speaker
I would like to say that it is not the Tom Holland version, the spoiler secret breaker. It's not that version of Peter Parker. We're going classic Peter Parker. So a little less, or a little more reliable, a little more consistent Peter Parker. I want to see this happening. I think the only thing we need to come up with is what's our multiversal coin toss for Steve Rogers, right?
00:53:44
Speaker
So we can have that Steve out there, you know, I think that's the only that looks like that's the only hiccup that we have to settle and then we can make this thing happen. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Or it's just like you flip the coin and one of you gets gets bucky and the other one gets cap like that's there you go. Yeah. And then I either either way you get you get it you get a cap but that that's awesome. So I will or Sam or that's right or Sam or Sam.
00:54:12
Speaker
I think we have some win-win scenarios here. Yeah. I am so happy with how this worked out, by the way. This was good. That was a good question, Dave. Thank you.
00:54:30
Speaker
So the other part of the crossover, so we also know that you're, you're a big wrestling fan and Marvel has actually, you know, just, just recently we, we got these figures, um, actually last year we had a friend of the pod was, was in Mexico and happened to find.
00:54:48
Speaker
these AAA Marvel Lucha Libre figures, which are now available for pre-order in the US for the first time on Entertainment Earth. So if you did not have a friend in Mexico that was able to find these for you, they're really awesome figures. But which characters from the Marvel Universe would you want to see in a squared circle? OK.
00:55:16
Speaker
I got I got something that's not normally what you would want to see, because normally two big, big men going at it doesn't work. Normally, but with the Marvel caveat, which brings that extra agility and stuff to those big guys, I would like to see from my ultimate throwdown juggernaut versus Hulk in a squared circle. Just just a big old meat match.
00:55:43
Speaker
Just a big old meat match. Every now and again, Goldberg and Brock Lesnar works and you don't know why. Yes. Yes. So that that would be my that'd be my beef match. And then my more. More style, a little bit more flair, a little bit more could play off of each other. I went with a wrestler.
00:56:08
Speaker
ish from the Marvel universe and champion of the universe. Okay. And have him go against Spider-Man.
00:56:18
Speaker
So someone who's got the strength to hold up against a giant Titan of that size, but all of the agility and amazing stuff. And Spidey's got a little bit of a background in wrestling as well. So I think champion of the universe versus Spider-Man for the Intergalactic Championship would be pretty impressive.
00:56:41
Speaker
So, so I did, I did two matches as well. I did a men's match and a women's match. Nice. Um, so my men's match is Batroc the leaper versus Spider-Man.
00:56:53
Speaker
For the very same reason, I want that work rate match. I want, you know, like I want these guys, like I want to, I want to see movement. I want to see, you know, uh, tope suicidas. I want to say I want, and that's, you're going to get that out of the two of these guys. Like you're, you're going to get that match. That's, you know, it's going to be wild. And which was funny with GSP as a bat truck in the MCU. It's true. It's true. I didn't even think about that when I was coming up with that answer earlier today.
00:57:20
Speaker
But yeah, that would be fun. And then my women's match would have to be Yelena versus Natasha. It's like the best of the best. No like real superpowers, right? You just have two people that are trained to literally kill people and get away with it.
00:57:46
Speaker
you know, fighting each other in a ring. I just think the two of them, like, I have to, I have to imagine that like, Elena's probably like a submission specialist. Yeah. So you're going to have a little bit of a clash of style there, but like, that's going to be your, your, my matchup for men's and women's. I think, I think you have to add a stipulation to that. I think that has to be like a 60 minute iron woman match. Yep. Yep. That would be, you know, cause I don't, I don't
00:58:16
Speaker
I don't think you can, I don't know if there's a better women's match than that. That's, that's up there. Yeah. I mean, it's true. Like you would, you would definitely need a stipulation for it. It falls count anywhere or something. So that way they, the two of them could really just go like full tilt. Yeah. Dave, what about you? Do you have, do you have any match ups in mind? All right. So I'm going to go with one that's like specific to me.
00:58:45
Speaker
Let's get Robbie versus Danny Ketch. Robbie Reyes versus Danny Ketch versus Johnny Blaze. Let's just make it happen. Triple threat. The promo package is definitely using Highway to Hell, right? Like it's definitely like the lead up. And in Hell in a Cell? You could do it that way. I mean, yeah.
00:59:13
Speaker
Now if we were gonna get a women's match in there, I'm between two people. The one that I am for sure on is Scarlet Witch. But do I want Agatha Harkness or do I want Jubilee? I guess we could do another three-way match. Although Jubilee isn't really a magician. You can get magic in there though. I can get magic in there, but I feel like it's like different magic at that point.
00:59:39
Speaker
A giant sword that you can conjure versus literally anything that that Scarlet Witch wants to do. Then again, I mean, even though Dazzler isn't like, it's just fun to have Dazzler in anything. Dazzler versus Jubilee. There's your match. Dazzler versus Jubilee. There we go. Fireworks. Yeah. It's part rock concert part.
01:00:05
Speaker
Part disco tech, part exploding barbed wire match. Yeah. 50,000 blue offers for the entire audience. For the bombast and nothing more. Because I feel like all magic could just get like... I feel like it would almost be a draw. Stop turning things into other things and fight. Yeah. Yeah.
01:00:30
Speaker
I like the women's hook though, so I'm going to throw in a bonus pre-card match of She-Hulk versus Titania. Classic matchup. Classic matchup. Nothing out of the norm there, but I would like to see that inside the ring. Yeah, if provided they could keep it in the ring. That's going to be the issue.
01:00:56
Speaker
Well, you can tell I like I went full like 80s. What's my 80s? WWF bombastic like card match there. Well, I mean, Dazzler always had those Alondra Blaze or Alondra Blaze, I should say, had always had Dazzler vibes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm picking that up or Medusa. I always go with Alondra Blaze, but the more more famous name.
01:01:23
Speaker
Um, so this, this takes us into our, our Q and a Dwight. So, um, we, we know that, uh, you know, having access to you is, is privileged. So we want to make sure that we get our, uh, our listeners and our followers questions in here, along with some, some fun curve balls. Uh, Dave remind our, uh, our, our listeners and our followers, uh, how do they submit questions for our interview episodes?
01:01:53
Speaker
So, when you see that we announce a guest on Instagram, first off, make sure to follow us, hit that follow button, and then like the guest, and then add a comment, or look at the story. There'll be a little block in there where you can type in a question. I was gonna say type in an answer. No, that's for our guest to do, verbally type in an answer. And then,
01:02:21
Speaker
you know you'll hear this podcast you'll hear the results of your question on your favorite podcast source but also on youtube where you can smash that subscribe button and hit the little bell for reminders that there's new content and. I think that's all the internet you're starting to get angry there at the end like i kinda like the energy of this when you're really like.
01:02:46
Speaker
You're like ramped up. This is good. I felt like I was like Greg Graphen. I'm like admonishing you from stage. Well, if you could dial back the admonishment and start doing Dwight off with the first question, that would be great. I would love to.
01:03:07
Speaker
At New Jersey devs fan on Instagram asks, did you ever imagine when you went into this career that you would become a public figure in the process?
Becoming a Public Figure in Toy Design
01:03:17
Speaker
What did it take to get you out in front of the camera?
01:03:23
Speaker
The first part of that is no. Um, I did not expect that this is where I would be, uh, all these years later, but I will say that so much has evolved about the profession over the years that if you're willing to pick up the ball and run with it, there's a lot more things for you to do outside of what your typical nine to five would be. Um,
01:03:53
Speaker
You know, in the past we had, you know, you would present on the contours or senior management review reviews. And then obviously the pandemic changed everything where, you know, how can we reach and interact with our fans, you know, of the product and.
01:04:13
Speaker
You know, we had to look at things differently. And one of the things that was so, you know, that popped up and became so popular were the team's calls and the zoom calls and being able to talk like we're doing right now and get a chance to have these interactions with people who love the same stuff you do, you know, um, and I, I strongly believe in many instances, if you love what you do.
01:04:41
Speaker
And if you want to portray the way you want it portrayed, then you got to do it yourself, you know, and if that takes you out of your comfort zone, um, sometimes that's, you know, the only way to do it. You know, um, you know, I look at, you know, I, I look at, I haven't gone back and watched, but I lived through them. And some of our early things were kind of painful, trying to figure out how you talk. Cause I.
01:05:08
Speaker
I like this where I'm talking to you two gentlemen, but in some of those early ones, when you were talking to nothing and they were like, Oh yeah, we're just going to present stuff. And I'm like, whoa, what, what? It just stopped. I don't, it's just not how, it's not how life happens. And it's not like, uh, you know,
01:05:31
Speaker
you don't you're not trained for that and it's very it was very awkward to be hey man check this out it's gonna be freaking awesome and you're like i sound like a total piece of garbage spewing off you know catch phrases and lines and i'm like this is weird it's like because i love when i talk to people and you get to really feel what's going on and you get to feed off of them you know the good and
01:05:52
Speaker
and the bad right i mean no trust me there's been plenty of bad about this uh evolution as well when uh you know the nameless masses can say whatever they want and you can't you know respond to them there's been a lot of evolution to these types of uh of things you know um you definitely develop a uh a thick skin or you better if you want to survive because you know
01:06:20
Speaker
people's out there can be horrible from time to time. If you've ever noticed that small little piece of the internet, you know, we leave the comment section off. When we watch the live streams, we just turn that off. It's on my TV. So I don't see that just turn that off. Yeah, so I mean, it's, it's, it's fun, though. I mean, I think, I think, like I said, I think it translates to any
01:06:43
Speaker
you know, profession about, you know, whatever it is you do, you know, it's like, you gotta be willing to evolve with the times or get left behind. And, uh, you know, that's, that's all part of it. You just gotta figure out how to roll with it and you got to figure out who you are. And you gotta be, you know, if you gotta be honest, you know, the fans know more about this stuff than we do, you know, and I've been doing this for a long time, but there's people out there that know every dark corner.
01:07:12
Speaker
of Marvel Universe, you know, they know stuff that I, you know, won't know for 20 more years if I study every day. And you know, you got to be honest, you got to talk from the heart, you got to have passion about it. But if you have those things, and if you can take the heat, because even if you think you're doing the right thing, you're going to get a lot of, you know, slack. So you got to, you know,
01:07:35
Speaker
Be like a duck. You got to let that shit just roll off your back. And if you can do that, you'll be fine. But it's definitely been an interesting evolution over the past few years to this new world. The guy who puts Gravitron on his back for in a starting 11 is talking about not knowing deep cuts in Marvel. Jeez.
01:07:57
Speaker
Well next question comes from mutual friend Emily Bader from Hasbro and she asks, how do you make sure all of the figures in your office don't fall down and cause a giant avalanche? She's asking for a friend.
01:08:11
Speaker
That's easy to cheat. Are you kidding me? Cheat to win, baby. All those figures that you guys see in my office, all of them, at least one of their foot is glued to a plexi stand. You know, which I know the toy purists out there are screaming, you did what? That figure's worth blah, blah, blah. And you did what? That office is...
01:08:37
Speaker
is amazing. I absolutely love my office space, but it is a working archive. So every figure that's in there, me and my engineer can gather and look at it when we're trying to figure out what's next to do and what we have in our library. What do we need? What can we use? What can we pull? So that's why we try to keep everything in there to have as an archive. So it is a working tool. And because of that, I've treated it as such. My collection at home,
01:09:07
Speaker
I take a little bit better, you know, care of because I would not want to do that to my toys. And I wouldn't recommend that necessarily to anybody because, well, usually hot glue is pretty easy to remove. You know, it's just kind of can be messy, but they're all glued a little clear stands so that if they fall over, it's much easier to put them back up and they kind of it creates that.
01:09:33
Speaker
Interlocking kind of system that kind of keeps everybody in place. Yep. Yep. Very familiar with with You know, as long as you don't touch anybody they don't they don't they're all keeping each other up Yes
01:09:49
Speaker
Friend of the Pod at Super Action Stuff asks, how do film date changes affect your release schedule and design planning? For instance, with the current industry strikes, do you have contingency plans in place should the 2024 slash 2025 releases get pushed?
01:10:09
Speaker
Uh, there's always something to contend with. Uh, you know, nothing's ever, uh, what is it? The, the, the best laid plans, right? Yeah. Uh, always, uh, somehow managed to blow up on your faces. And I think that's pretty much just, uh, that's definitely toy development 101. Um, you can have the most glorious thing laid out in front of you. You got this roadmap that you're like, Oh, this is going to be killer. And then.
01:10:37
Speaker
An actor gets injured on set or a writer's strike or, you know, global pandemic. What's in a generation global pandemic? Yes. So, yeah, you know, we don't.
01:10:53
Speaker
develop like extra things to put into place, but Marvel in particular has more flexibility than many brands that are heavily entertainment driven because we have such a deep well of comic and
01:11:14
Speaker
Previous animation and even previous MCU things that we haven't yet tapped into like, you know There's still plenty of figures from phase one two and three that we haven't addressed So, you know we have the ability to come up with a story
01:11:31
Speaker
And to pivot to some of those other things on and there could be some delays because of that but we also have the ability to do pre-orders nowadays which which also can be nice so even if you can't have the product on shelf when you might want it because of.
01:11:47
Speaker
delays you know you can still develop product and and and pre-sell it you know in a similar type of window as long as things aren't too crazy but you know sometimes you know you just got to roll with the punches and and do the best you can uh but you know that's yeah and i'm sure uh next year will hit us with a whole new surprise of something else to to be to contend with too please i hope not
01:12:13
Speaker
Yeah. I've not really enjoyed the, there's always something these days. Yeah. And that's like, that's, that goes beyond the toys thing. Like I just, we need a break, man. We just need a break. Agreed. All right. So the last question in our Q and A comes from once again, mutual friend. And this time a fellow Marvel legends team member, Ryan Ting asks,
01:12:43
Speaker
What do you call a dense bread roll in the shape of a ring that is made by boiling dough and then baking it? I'm not gonna fall for this, that son of a... I'm gonna say I call it delicious. That's what I call it. Absolutely delicious. Sometimes with blueberries, sometimes with cinnamon and sugar, uh, malted on top. Delicious. That's what I call it, you punk.
01:13:11
Speaker
I don't know whether I want to ask you the context of this now or save it for when Ryan is standing next to you at New York Comic Con and you can maybe hurt him a little bit. I don't know what the better ask is here. I can't hurt anything anymore. If I want to have a throw down, I need to convince whoever I'm going against to give me 15 minutes to stretch. That's the only way that I have a chance of a successful defense of my title.
01:13:43
Speaker
Oh, all right. So the, the real question there though, is, or is cream cheese or butter? Oh, for me, it's a butter. I actually, I'm a big fan of, uh, doing a little bit of a great jelly on one half and a little bit of butter on the other half toasting it up, putting it together. Ooh, choice. That's, that's my favorite. Like I just was sick or I am currently sick, like thing to have where it's just like either toast or an English muffin or.
01:14:12
Speaker
Um, the aforementioned bread ring. Um, you just become a 12 year old again, right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I just want the prices right at noon and my, my bread roll with butter and jelly. Rest in peace, Bob Barker. Yeah. Seriously. More one out. Guy got as close to a hundred as he could without going over.
01:14:37
Speaker
I'm the rare, here's the thing with this. I'm the rare New Jersey native that prefers butter because A, it's easier to eat when you're driving because you always get cream cheese with a side of the bread ring. You do not get bread ring with a little bit of cream cheese on it. It's always too much and if they toast it, then it goes everywhere.
01:15:03
Speaker
And then you have to wash your car, like afterwards. I'm going to call it bread ring forever now, but not like a bread ring, just bread ring. Do you want bread ring toasted? I'd like a Taylor ham, egg, and cheese on bread ring, please. I'm hopping on this wagon because I don't want to make anyone mad. I don't want to upset anybody. Perfect. Perfect. All right.
01:15:27
Speaker
Bread ring. Like, there you go. There you go. Bread ring. That's a t-shirt. Put that on. Bread ring. Bread ring. Okay. Well, that wraps up our Q&A section and takes us to the last thing that we do with all of our guests before we let them leave, before we free them from our clutches. Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast James Lipton and Ask Dwight our final question?
01:15:58
Speaker
Why, yes, I would. The final question that we ask all of our guests, what is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection? It can be one of each or it can be both. OK. If I'm going to go with favorite, it's got to be something that I cherish enough to put around me that I see every day. I have one
01:16:23
Speaker
figure in one statue if i'm allowed a little bit of a leewin leewin see uh so behind me i have a sideshow statue of the dark lord sauron it's one of the few things that my um lovely wife has allowed me to have on the main floor of the house so i have that sitting above my uh television and i absolutely love having him up here and then in my
01:16:51
Speaker
And my mother's china hutch, God rest her soul. Uh, I took out all of her plates and I've put my things in there. So I'm sure she's not overly happy with me, but she knows I love her. I have different action figures in my championship belts in there. And in there I have, uh, square Enix judge master gabbard action figure. Um, it's just such a glorious piece of plastic.
01:17:22
Speaker
that I had to just always have that to just appreciate and look at. It's just so damn beautiful. Awesome. Yeah. What's, what's your favorite belt? Um, I currently have three and I don't know if I could pick between them. I have the winged eagle. I have the big gold and I have Austin smoking skull. Okay.
01:17:47
Speaker
So those are the three that I have today. And I'm, like I said, I'm really eyeballing the AEW one just to kind of complete the, the, I say complete the collection. Hopefully I can stop with just that last one. So that's, that's kind of where I'm, that's where I'm at now.
01:18:05
Speaker
awesome yeah i i also it's funny i also have that one piece that was allowed to not like my collection literally lives in my my office it's it's a part of it behind me but most of it's in front of me here but i have one piece that's allowed in like our our living room by our tv and it is a it's uh one of the diamond select premium statues it's the uh the
01:18:31
Speaker
one sixth scale Boba Fett from Empire Strikes Back where he's like walking on the the freezing chamber steps but we're a big Star Wars house as well so I get a little like I get a little leeway in that department but yeah that's that's the one piece like it's the only only thing in the living room that's it's like that and then just you know the the normal I'm doing heavy air quotes the normal stuff that you'd find in it in a living room
01:18:59
Speaker
the we're not that weird people. So you get to the officer, in my case, the basement. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, oh, we're we're we're looking for a house that will full fully own our weirdness. Yeah. And it's it's a great time right now to be house house hunting. I know. It's my favorite thing.
01:19:25
Speaker
Yeah, just the, that adds to it, doesn't it? The market's just perfect. This is a perfect time to buy a house right now in September of 2023. Great time. Definitely a buyer's market.
01:19:41
Speaker
Well Dwight, uh, you just made him so depressed. Dave's just like, yeah, this is, this, this is not how I wanted this body. He has to end up. Thanks for getting me that before I go to bed. See, we talk about it all the time though. That's a thing. Like it's literally like the butt of every joke. I'm just going to get this and make me feel better. There you go. Oh, the nice, the orange one. Yeah. Yeah. The blue one's over there too. Well,
01:20:09
Speaker
Dwight, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us tonight. Please tell our listeners where can they find you on social media, where can they find out about the HasLab, and where can they stay up to date with all of the goings on at Hasbro. Awesome, yeah. You can find me at atstaldwight on Instagram.
01:20:31
Speaker
Um, we have the has lab campaign currently running over on the Hasbro pulse. So if you are in the market for a 24 inch giant man, please come check that out and join us on this campaign. We're almost, uh, 50% there. Um, we will be at New York comic con and a few weeks so you can see it in person. And before that, uh, we have pulse, calm, uh, pulse pulse con.
01:21:00
Speaker
coming up this coming Friday. Awesome. Yeah. And we'll, we'll be sure to share links to all of those things in the show notes. So you guys can follow Dwight if you're not already following him and definitely check out the has lab and the, uh, the Hasra pulse YouTube channel where, uh, where you can watch by the time this airs, you can watch the replay of, of pulse con. So, um, Dwight, thank you again so much for joining us. Uh, Dave, uh, why don't you send us home?
01:21:31
Speaker
Excelsior.
01:21:51
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.
01:22:14
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.