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The Nacelleverse is Mooving Forward Featuring Brian Volk-Weiss
304 Plays4 months ago
Friend of the pod and Nacelle Founder, CEO Brian Volk-Weiss is back to give us an update on the Nacelleverse. From The Expanse and Biker Mice from Mars to the COW Boys of Moo Mesa, catch up on what's going on and hear all about the next season of Icons Unearthed: Spider-Man on this jam-packed episode!
Follow Nacelle on Instagram @toysnacelle and visit https://www.nacellestore.com to get your Roboforce, Sectaurs, Biker Mice from Mars, and Moo Mesa figures!
Watch Icons Unearthed: Spider-Man on VICE TV starting July 10th!
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
Podcast Introduction
00:00:03
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors.
Brian Volk-Weiss Interview Begins
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. What you are about to see and or watch, depending on where you're watching and or listening to us,
00:00:37
Speaker
ah is a our latest chat with Friend of the Pod, returning guest, one of our absolutely ah favorite people on the entire planet, Brian Voke Weiss, founder, CEO of Nacelle, Nacelle Toys, the nael the the Godfather of the Nacelleverse. I'm really, really excited to share this chat with you. We have updates on Biker Mice. We have updates on Moomasa, The Expanse, and of course it wouldn't be a chat with Brian without um tangents and industry stories and and and updates on the next season of Icons on Earth.
00:01:20
Speaker
Spider-Man. If you're watching this on YouTube, hit that subscribe button so that way you don't miss it when we post new videos.
Follow AIC for More Toy News
00:01:28
Speaker
ah While you're liking and subscribing to things, follow us at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram, on Twitter, or X, on TikTok, all the places. where we're constantly posting toy news, deals, availability, updates, anything and everything that we ah we think would help out the community. And if you're listening to us on ah um podcast streams, make sure you hit that subscribe button too. There, do that. Subscribe, rate, review, all the good stuff. So that way we get out to more people and we get more fun guests on the show. So I'm gonna stop talking now, housekeeping done. Let's cut to the conversation that we had with ah with Brian Voke Weiss. Enjoy.
The Expanse Kickstarter Insights
00:02:07
Speaker
So i Brian, since the last time ah we spoke, your Expanse Kickstarter launched and was successfully funded. ah Can you give us an update on where they are in the process? And and of course, congratulations on ah on an awesome ah campaign there. Well, thank you. Um, we were getting ah the the process is in full effect. I actually it's funny I posted this picture a couple days ago, but look at that still have them on my on my desk. Hello, got some prototypes.
00:02:38
Speaker
um But it's great. We're going back and forth with the factory on every every pretty much every step of the of the process. we um We've done, I think, three rounds of paint masters and we're getting close to what I think is the finished look. um the Test shots have been getting better and better and better. And um we we actually, I believe, ah have a surprise ah coming up ah hopefully next week as it relates to to the expanse that hopefully people ah people like.
00:03:16
Speaker
i um I've learned the hard way. ah Kickstarter and Reddit, they're kind of like their own religions. So you got to be very careful not to say or do anything that ah upsets their their religious beliefs. But so hopefully hopefully they like what we have coming up.
Toy Production Challenges and Logistics
00:03:34
Speaker
um The Biker Mice from Mars touched down earlier this year. How far out are we from getting their bikes in hand? um So, as you know, we've only been making toys for three years. If there is anything that's a part of this process that I'm like, why did all the people who made toys for the hundred years before we did not figure this out, it would be the boats. The amount of insanity
00:04:03
Speaker
about getting the stuff to our office once it leaves China, ah you you would not believe. like we We have a boat in the port right now that was like three weeks late on the water, by the way. like It left China. I don't know where it went for three weeks, but it fucking went somewhere. so It gets in three weeks late, then they're x-raying the boat, which is like, surprise. We were told that would be a week. We're going in. so Let's pretend we live in a world where they could just drop them in our parking lot from the factory. I could guarantee you 100% this year. Based on the bullshit with the boats,
00:04:50
Speaker
I'm hopeful it's this year, but they're they're in production right now. I mean, they're they're popping out of molds. As we speak, I saw a video last night or this morning um of of that process, which you will see on Instagram probably in a week or two. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, those biker mice figures are great. Can't wait to get there they're awesome the bikes to go with them.
Cowboys of Mu Mesa in the Nacelleverse
00:05:12
Speaker
But from, uh, from mice to, uh, cattle, uh, you recently launched the first wave of Cowboys of Mu Mesa. Uh, why is this line special and and really, how does it fit into your growing nacelle verse?
00:05:27
Speaker
So, I mean, this this is gonna sound so cheesy, but it's special because it's special. like there there it it is There's nothing like it. Like like nothing. So, it's it's so funny. Biker Mice gets so much credit for being funny. And it is. I mean, it's one of the funniest cartoons ever made.
00:05:48
Speaker
Cowboys and Moomasa was too. I mean, it was it was just as funny. And like, it gets no credit for how funny it is. And it's so unique. Number one, it takes place in the past. So almost everything else we're doing takes place in the present and the future. So it takes so we're dealing with all this like 1800s Jules Verne kind of stuff, which is awesome. They're cows. They're cows that love puns. um they it's it's And I'm a big like accessories guy. like I love accessories. That for me, by the way, I'm biker mice. If we can go back for a second. I'm a vehicle guy. like My GI Joe collection, as it relates to the figures, it's probably 5% complete. My GI Joe collection, as it relates to the vehicles,
00:06:41
Speaker
by 75 to 80% complete. um And as you know, rumor has it, vehicles are bigger than figures. So you understand the commitment to to vehicles. So for me with biker mice, I mean, I cannot believe we're making our first vehicle. That's crazy. Back to your most recent question about Moomasa. Yeah, it's it's perfect for us because it it is unlike, like to see terrible, next to max 89 or 100?
00:07:12
Speaker
like that what ah what a beautiful image that is, like of these completely different worlds, working together, fighting together, like that's what we're trying to build. We we were offered a pretty good IP recently, ah but we turned it down because it was too similar to one of our other IPs. So that's what I love about MoonMace. It's so, not by the way, it's not just original as it relates to our other brands.
00:07:43
Speaker
It's very original compared to every other brand. yeah yes You talk about the originality of it. um What's different about these figures than what you've previously done?
Innovations in Toy Design
00:07:55
Speaker
um they ah they are more They are bigger. They are more detailed. um And we're doing, we're we do we learned we did a couple little experiments with sectors and one with biker mice on the on the actual plastics that we use and how they get painted as, I mean, this is literally about paint drying, so I'm probably gonna make everybody super bored. um No, no, no, no, no, no, that's what they're here for. That's what they're here for. We're literally a show ah that's interested in watching paint dry.
00:08:29
Speaker
OK, well, as long as it's about toys. Not about a house. Who wants to talk about painting houses? um But so some of the stuff we tried, if you looked at Stelara's armor ah from Sektars, that was a real, for us at least. I mean, I'm sure Hasbro has been doing this for 20 years. But for us, that was a huge push forward as it relates to this very sexy thing called ah paint blending. So, um it kind of gives it this kind of like hologram look. So, um we are going to use that for Mu Mesa ah as a solid across the line and not as oh let's try it here let's try it there.
00:09:13
Speaker
little pinpoint experiment. so it And you you can see it, I think, in the stills we've released ah because the the the basically the way the plastic cools in the mold. You asked for it, guys. I'm giving it to you. That affects the kind of paint you can use. So because we changed a bit, the plastics we're using, the formula, it allows us to use, in my opinion, a better paint This is not the official term, but I call it Dick Tracy paint. Like if you remember the Warren Beatty Dick Tracy, it was like yellow is yellow, red is blue. So it allows us, so again, if you if you look at terrible, not to be confused with terrible bull from Roboforce, different spelling, um you you should be able to see. I mean, that that that is as red as red can be on a piece of plastic.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean that that that difference in plastic is, ah it's noticeable to going from, you know, like those original Robo force figures to the way that the, especially the the biker mice and the sectors feel you could, you could tell you guys have been have been busy in the kitchen. yeah we No, very busy.
Empire Strikes Back Trivia
00:10:28
Speaker
and It's interesting. you know Our kitchen, as you put it, for the most part, is in China. so you know I'm used to looking at rough cuts you know for over a quarter of a century. This is the same process, except it's a FedEx box shipped 3,000 miles. It's like really interesting.
00:10:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's like it's almost ah you know making that analogy going back to like when you know dailies needed to be shipped off, like overnighted somewhere yeah ah for review. Yeah. By the way, can I give you one of my favorite pieces of useless trivia? Please do. Absolutely. I love this story. This is literally in my top 10 favorite things I know. ah I don't know what your opinions are. I don't want to make an assumption. It is widely believed ah that Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie. So if you happen to agree with that or anybody who listens to this that agrees with that, the main reason why, and I know this will be controversial, Kirchner very deliberately when he made the movie did two things.
00:11:40
Speaker
One, he would delay sending the dailies back to California by about 12 hours and he would speed up the tearing down of sets by about 12 hours. So what that meant was every morning when he woke up and had, you know, 50 pages facts to him from George, Lucas, I don't know him well enough just to call him George. um That's a joke, I don't know him at all. I met him once, 45 seconds. But um so he'd get these crazy notes in the fax machine and he'd call George and he'd be like, hey man, these are great notes, I love them.
00:12:21
Speaker
We are going to have to rebuild the sets. So just so you know, that's going to cost the money to rebuild the sets. And we'll probably have to add three days, but don't worry. I'm going to do all your notes. And George was like, just keep going. Just keep going. Just keep going. And Kirchner very deliberately didn't shoot things that he didn't want in the movie. um And that, I believe, is a huge part of why that movie turned out the way it did. Amazing. Amazing. yeah Let me get that out there. That's a good one. So sticking in the lines of ah of of kind of a the film aspect of this, right? Like the the media outside of toys. um Part of the Nacelle vs. Oz, obviously bringing these these IPs back onto people's screens. um and And are there plans to do that with Moomasa? And is the idea to kind of pick up where season two left off or or you know start a whole new world of stories there when when that eventually does start moving forward?
Rebooting Classic Cartoons
00:13:21
Speaker
So first of all, Moomasa is in Roboforce, our first cartoon. So you'll even, we may or may not be dropping something at San Diego. So you'll you will you will absolutely, ah you'll probably have to hit pause, ah but you will absolutely see ah some hints of ah the ah the bovine the beautiful bovines walking around Detroit and Hawaii. But, um So they're absolutely in it. As it relates to, will we do a cartoon of it? Highly, highly, highly likely. To the question of, will it be season two following their season one? i My official answer is, I don't know. We have a lot of things to do between now and making Moomasa. But what I can tell you is, um if I had to guess, it's gonna be what we're doing with biker mice.
00:14:19
Speaker
We're rebooting it in a way that's like 80 to 85% what was done before us. We're just modernizing it. And then 15% is new stuff that we're adding to it. um Unlike Roboforce, which we just started over from from whole cloth, as they say. um I mean, there's every now and there's this guy, I don't know his name. There's this guy on the internet. mr the great he's He's my favorite. i'm not excuse me I'm not disrespecting this guy. I love this guy and I'm not being sarcastic.
00:14:57
Speaker
ah This guy, he is Mr. fucking Roboforce. This guy, like he knows everything about Roboforce. i mean i I've never seen anything like it. He has one of every... He has Roboforce prototypes. like It is the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen. And he puts these videos out you know about once a month, basically saying how he hates everything we're doing. um And and it's it's really interesting to me because He'll literally be like, you know, in the original cartoon hundred did this, and I can tell from this sneak peek that nacelles hundred is doing that.
00:15:41
Speaker
and i'm like The original cartoon you refer to, that was an unfinished 18 minutes ah that I think you could get as a DVD extra on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Circle of the Oos or something. It was like not a cartoon. There's no fan base except for this dude. Biker Mice, very different. Biker Mice has a rabid fan base that cares about the details, and we are going to be reverential ah to those details. ah But there were definitely some things that we you know had to be modernized a little bit ah for a 30-year-old cartoon. But our goal is, it's funny, um I saw JJ Abrams' Star Trek, ah believe it or not, because it got pushed back
00:16:32
Speaker
I saw it at least five months before it came out officially. Oh, wow. The reason I saw it so early was a girl I worked with had a friend who ah worked at Paramount and was a publicist. um And she she worked for me. she was She was someone I worked with, and she knew that I loved Star Trek. She got me into the screening, but her friend insisted that she be there with me for the screening.
00:17:04
Speaker
so we're So I think about this all the time. So we're sitting here in the screening, the movie starts, and I don't know if you remember or not, but the whole opening of the movie is basically watching ah Captain Kirk's father, not only are you watching Captain Kirk's father die, but his wife is also watching her husband die and it's it's gut wrenching. Yeah, it is. I am bawling my eyes out. I mean, I literally have, like, a stra a U of tears around the collar of my shirt, and I'm embarrassed.
Abrams' Star Trek and Biker Mice
00:17:38
Speaker
I'm sitting here with this girl I work with, and um' I'm crying my eyes out. She doesn't give a shit about Star Trek. She's just basically chaperoning me ah in the theater, and I'm, like, embarrassed. I'm, like, bawling. So at some point, I take a little look at her to see if she's looking at me, and er and and i I'm embarrassed.
00:17:58
Speaker
and she was bawling. And I suddenly realized, if you could make a movie, a Star Trek movie, that worked for me and worked for her. thats That's like winning the Super Bowl and and an Oscar on the same day. Yeah, for sure. and That's what we're trying to do with Biker Mice. and it's Listen, it's it's a short runway, but we want to honor the original, but it's kind of like Top Gun Maverick, um one of the greatest sequels of all time. It's a new movie.
00:18:34
Speaker
I just saw, um I have to give a plug for this. I just saw the new Beverly Hills Cop movie last night. Oh, how was it? Amazing. it is I'm excited to hear that. And and just like Top Gun Maverick, it it's a new movie. Everything's new, but it shows such reverence to the original. Like it was getting a new pair of shoes that feels like a comfy old pair of shoes. I know that's cheesy, but I can say it because I had nothing to do with making it. I cannot, but that's what we're trying to do with biker mice. And now a word from our sponsors.
Chubsy Wubsy Toys Promotion
00:19:18
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. Visit them in person at their brand new home at 101 Newark Pompton Turnpike Suite 1 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 dot.com. And tell them that Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:19:59
Speaker
And now, back to the show.
00:20:03
Speaker
Well, awesome. ah Yeah, for sure. So from both the primorphic animated content for television, which I think we made up a word there, but I'm okay with it. One on Earth thing, one of the most iconic characters of all time. Tell us about next season's Icons on Earth, Spider-Man.
Spider-Man in the Next Icons on Earth
00:20:25
Speaker
So the next season of Icons on Earth, which will be on Vice television in the United States, it's all about Spider-Man. And we cover um all the way up to Tom Holland's last film. um We didn't get into Venom. We didn't get into the Spider-Verse or anything. um So we covered Tobey Maguire through the yeah the end of ah you know the most recent film that came out.
00:20:55
Speaker
So, I mean, Spider-Man has had so many different iterations and it's a superhero that kind of resonates to a ah very, very wide audience. um You know, in all the conversations we've had, oddly enough, Spider-Man has never come up. What what what does the ah the wall crawler mean to you? What's your relationship with him? I will be very honest and and people are always very surprised to hear this. ah With the exception of Batman, And I am a massive Batman fan. It's the third biggest collection in my collection. um That's saying a lot because you should see my Star Wars and Star Trek collection. um I'm not a superhero guy. Like I'm not, never happened. Just never
00:21:40
Speaker
Never got into it. um yeah Do I love Guardians of the Galaxy 1? Yes. Do I love Thor Ragnarok? Yes. um Did I really enjoy um the the last Avengers film? Yes, I did. Do I watch Endgame on repeat the the way I do Top Gun Maverick? No, I do not. um But one of the interesting things about making documentaries about sometimes topics that you have no interest in is that you kind of get hooked. And I i wouldn't say that I'm now like a huge Spider-Man fan and I'm going to run out and like see every Spider-Man movie opening night at midnight.
00:22:26
Speaker
But for the first time, I get it. Like, I understand why he's the most popular superhero. I didn't understand that either, by the way. I always inherently assume Batman or Superman were the two biggest. It's Spider-Man by far. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I didn't know. So I get it. you know Everybody you know either wants to be him or be with him. And it's it's a very simple thing, but it's also an incredibly unique idea. so But I will say this. I do i will say this. i do have a may ah I probably shouldn't say this, but I do, and I'm not joking. I mean, I'm not joking. I do have a major regret about about about this this season of Icons on Earth, Spider-Man.
Critique of Madam Web
00:23:13
Speaker
Unfortunately, I did not see what is now one of my favorite movies of all time while we were making it. This this amazing movie called Madam Web, which you got if you have not seen it. um i i watch Here's what you gotta know about me as it relates to this topic. I watch Batman and Robin once a year. Amazing, I love it, love it. But you know it's bad, right? Yeah. Yeah, but Eric? It's endearing, it's endearing. Dave, I think we need a little intervention for Eric here. Well, yes, it's endearing, yes. But it's $150 million height dollar high school play. Oh yeah. It is awful. Madam Webb took 30 years. Someone almost caught up.
00:24:06
Speaker
Like it is so bad. It's be brilliant. my I just watched it on the plane. I was just traveling for work. I watched it on the plane. I i i couldn't wrap my brain around 90% of the decisions that were made in that film. Yeah. um I'd love to know the 10% you were okay with. yeah you know It mostly involves the decision of either, I would love i would love to know whether it was Adam Scott ah adam scott himself or his like his people that said, please do not include Adam in any of the promotional material for this film. Because I had no idea he was even in it, let alone the absolutely
00:24:59
Speaker
Bonkers story that he's Ben Parker and he's an em at ah there was just yeah There was so much going on in that movie and by the way to that point again I told you I'm not a spider-man guy Even I knew that was crazy like even I was like he's driving an ambulance that I I mean, the best part of it, and this is the biggest spoiler ever, but hopefully no one cares, they don't get their powers until the phone ends credits. Imagine Bruce Wayne walking around Bruce Wayne for two hours. It's so weird. By the way, I'm a huge quote guy. like i miss Everyone makes fun. I missed a quote. For the first time in my life, I have a two-hander.
00:25:46
Speaker
our head of distribution, her name is Anna, we now routinely will be in meetings and I'll just look at her and say, God bless you, Anna. And then two minutes later, she'll do a fake sneeze. Like I never had, so you you haven't seen it, Dave? david David's not seeing it. I'm dying. So that's when you had superpowers. I guess she can kind of see the future or something. I don't really understand what happened because they don't show it until the end of the movie. um But there's literally in the last minute of the film, she walks into an apartment.
00:26:19
Speaker
And she just walks in and looks at, ah what's her name? ah sit Was it Sydney Sweeney? Sydney Sweeney. Yeah. I think it was her. She was like, oh, good bless you, Anna. And everyone looks at her like, what? The whole audience understands, by the way. like Yeah. Yeah. And you would assume these characters have been with her much more than the audience. We've only been with them for 12 hours of ellipsis. But they all look at her like, Nobody sneezed. And of course, two minutes later, she sneezes. It's that, by the way, the whoever works at Pepsi should get the fucking Super Bowl ring of product placement. The entire panel takes place on a Pepsi billboard and and it lands on the bad guy.
00:27:10
Speaker
Like, it is spectacular. Anyway, sorry. Sorry to be wasting time. it yeah I'm obsessed. I've seen it twice. I saw it for the first time three weeks ago. I've already watched it twice. Oh, my God. the pe Pepsi for the win. um Yeah, it i I got off of the plane and and texted our our group that that Dave is on. I was like, if you guys have not seen this movie, oh, my God. Like, it's everything you've heard it is and probably more. um down to like the weird like ADR issues with certain scenes. like I like but they just...
00:27:47
Speaker
I like how did that make it through any sort of QA process? Like I don't. to To your point, like I'm surprised the actual movie theaters didn't like send it back. Like it's that off. Yeah. By the way, my favorite thing in the whole movie other than the sneeze was there in that right before they end up on the roof, they had the big battle in the and the whatever the bad guy. I mean, ah and dude, Dave, I'm barely exaggerating when I say this. A bomb blows up and he gets thrown through a brick wall. It's literally almost like the Kool-Aid man going through a brick wall and his silhouette is still in the bricks. Yeah, like Looney Tunes. Yeah, it's like Roger Abbott. Like all the bricks in the hole fell still glued together. Remind us one more time, where can we pre-order preorder Cowboys of Moomasa and where can we check out Icons on
Accessing Nacelle Products and New Releases
00:28:40
Speaker
Earth?
00:28:40
Speaker
Thank you. So Icons on Earth is going to be on Vice. It premieres, you know, I'm going to quiz you guys. Do you guys know when it airs? July 10th, I think b Brian's email said. Good job, Eric. Good job. I have it taped right here. So I wanted ah to to check your knowledge. So you pass. I'm going to send you a free expanse prototype. And then anybody who wants to buy Moomasa or any of the other stuff we make, go to the nacellestore.com and you will not be disappointed. And if you are, take a picture of your problem. We'll send you another one.
00:29:18
Speaker
Awesome. All right, Brian, thank you so much. Thank you, Brian. We'll talk soon. Thank you. Always fun. Bye, guys.
Conclusion and Credits
00:29:26
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes. Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
00:29:58
Speaker
don't try this at home void where prohibited and some assembly required each sold separately not a flying toy consult a physician if your toy run exceeds more than four hours
00:30:06
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial no derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.