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00:00:01
An Interview with Spin Master's Brock McLaughlin
424 Plays5 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik sit down with Spin Master Toys' Manager, Influencer and Talent Marketing, Brock McLaughlin to talk all things Batman, DC Heroes, one of the absolute creepiest toys we've ever seen, and SO MUCH more!
Follow Brock on Instagram and Twitter @brockmclaughlin and listen to his podcast What Dreams Cost wherever you find podcasts!
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
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Transcript
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:30
Speaker
We're back. We're back. Hey, I was, I was, I wanted to see, give a delay and, you know, see if everybody either. Ooh, is he going to say hi or is he going to say something different? And I chose something different today.
00:00:42
Speaker
You did? Look at you. Hey, Eric, I got a question. Oh, what's your question, Dave? Hey, Eric, are we going to bury the lead today? No, we are not going to bury the lead. Great question. Because as always, when we have a guest, there is no sense in burying the lead because chances are you already read the episode description and you know who we're about to talk to. But, um, but Dave, we have a special guest with us today.
Insights from Brock McLaughlin of Spin Master
00:01:06
Speaker
Awesome.
00:01:07
Speaker
So Spin Master is one of the world's most ever present toy companies, making toys for everything from stuff like Paw Patrol and Hatchimals to Monster Jam, Beyblade, and of course Batman and the other DC superheroes. So joining us this evening from Spin Master, we have Brock McLaughlin. Brock, thank you so much for joining us on Adventures in Collecting. Hey guys, how's it going?
00:01:34
Speaker
It is going great. We're buried in snow. You're up in Toronto, right? I'm in Toronto. I took a little walk around the block before we started this little podcast, and the snow is up to my knees. It's crazy. Oh, so you're also... Yeah. Do you want to build a snowman? I should have expected that. I really set that one up for you.
00:02:00
Speaker
Yeah, that'll get like the YouTube flag right there Yeah, we're not gonna be able to monetize this episode. Oh well So before we get started talking about all the cool stuff that that's been masters up to The first thing that we like to ask all of our guests is what are you currently collecting?
00:02:23
Speaker
Oh boy, other than memories and life stories, a whole lot of books. I've just dove in to just reading everything I can these last few months. And I mean, we're on lockdown. We just got put in lockdown until...
00:02:40
Speaker
March 8th we've been in lockdown for thanks since last March last February at this time so nothing much else to do but read I mean you can't go outside it's too cold so reading fantasy books like crazy so if there's a fantasy series I probably now own it or it's in my shopping cart waiting to be purchased.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, I've been following your reading escapades on Twitter. It's been fun. I've been getting book recommendations just by proxy, by seeing what you've been reading, so. Nice, I'm obsessed with The Wheel of Time right now. That's a good one. I hope you take our suggestion for The Dark Tower seriously, because that series is unbelievable. The Gunslinger can be a rough start, but the whole series on a whole, it's fantastic.
00:03:30
Speaker
I'm gonna do it. I think I'm gonna wake up tomorrow nice and early, just read through the Gunslinger, get it over with. I've read it before, I just don't like it. But I wanna start at the beginning and then go through the whole series. And I have all the books already, like I'm ready to go. I just need to like get through the slog that is the Gunslinger.
00:03:47
Speaker
It's so cool because that series, not to go off on a complete tangent, this could be like an entire other episode of the podcast, but The Dark Tower is really cool because it kind of connects all of Stephen King's books. Like there's like a little bit from every, it really kind of has that like shared universe feel to it. So if you are a Stephen King fan, there's a lot of like little breadcrumbs and Easter eggs throughout. Yeah, it's like his multiverse.
00:04:15
Speaker
Well, all those books are connected, right? Like, that's the overall theme, is somehow they all kind of connect in a really geeky, like, nerdy way? Yes. Yeah, there's a lot of the, like, Castle Rock connection. But this is, like, overt. Like, whereas the other ones, like, if you're a really big Stephen King fan and you can just kind of pick up on little things, like, this series actually touches on different aspects, like, specifically. So it's hard for me to find. Yeah, mostly it's a random location. Yeah.
00:04:48
Speaker
So other than the fantasy books right now, is there anything else that's filling up your shelves?
00:04:55
Speaker
Oh man, I don't have much room for much more stuff at this point. You know what, in my own spin master collection, I love our Batman line, and we'll get into that later, but I mean, that's a huge one for me. And then anything Kylo Ren related from Star Wars, I'm a sucker for that emo, hot top, big Star Wars cast member.
Unique Designs and Licensing with Spin Master
00:05:21
Speaker
Big, big fan. So yeah, I guess though it was like,
00:05:24
Speaker
There's a whole bunch of Funkos coming out. I'm really I want to jump on like the new Lord of the Rings one looks good and the new Star Wars ones looks good There's those weird like Valentine Day ones. I kind of want to jump on do like I I need a pink Darth Vader Who doesn't need a pink Darth Vader like the stormtroopers cool, too. Yeah Right. I thought they were cool people were dunking on them. I'm like this looks pretty dope. I
00:05:50
Speaker
And we've talked about this before, but it's really cool that the Lucasfilm brand is now allowing some of these toy makers to make these kitschy, weird versions of characters, like the Funko Pops for the different holidays. The Black Series had the holiday troopers, which were insanely awesome and weird. They were fun. Yeah. I wish there was a Valentine's pork, but... Well, you wish there was a pork for everything. Oh, wow. That's a good idea.
00:06:17
Speaker
Yeah, a porg for all seasons. Well, there was the holiday ones with the Black Series figures, so... Yup. Yup. They kind of just dropped the porgs, didn't they? Um, they were in... There was one in the Rise of Skywalker, and they were in the animated holiday special, so I think... I think they're gonna stick around for a little bit. I hope so. I mean, I got like a porg blanket and stuffed animals and porg toys. I got in my hands on as much porg stuff as I could, like right off the bat.
00:06:45
Speaker
Oh, you are among friends. Yeah, you're among company here. Cool, a bunch of porg that day. Yeah, I even got a porg, like my suction cup porg in my car. Dave, I think the only thing porg that you are missing at this point would be a tattoo.
00:07:06
Speaker
We talked about that. I remember what I had said was if Porg saves the galaxy, which I think Porg being in the Millennium Falcon was part of it, so it could happen someday. Brock, you mentioned that you started to build your Spin Master collection there on your shelves. Why don't you tell us a little bit about how you found your way into the toy world and into Spin Master?
00:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Funny enough, another toy company had reached out to me to shoot some toy photography and I completely fell in love with that. And the post did pretty well on social and Spin Master had seen that and called me up and recruited me in.
00:07:55
Speaker
And the next thing was history. I started in our social division and kind of moved around and now I oversee our influencer side of things as well as work with a great team on our trends and still social here and there. I mean, I can never escape it. I'm always on the lookout for what's hot on TikTok and YouTube.
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, it must be it must be really interesting, you know, like we had mentioned at the top of the show spin master produces toys for such a wide range of brands and dealing with kind of the social, you know, the ever changing, you know, social landscape, and you know, supporting those brands, what what is it like, supporting all of these different franchises from your role?
00:08:44
Speaker
I think it's a dream come true to be perfectly honest. I love it. I mean, when I first came in, we were working on the BB-8 remote control toys that are like life size BB-8. And I was like, wow, I get to like take one of those home and work on this campaign. Like I get to work on a Star Wars campaign like directly with Disney. I was like, I'm emailing someone with an at Disney signature, which I thought was super cool. I mean, it's been so fun. Like I get to work on
00:09:11
Speaker
a bunch of brands I grew up with and a bunch of brands that other kids are now growing up with, which I think is just, it's really cool. Like I remember Spin Master when I was a kid. I'm in my early 30s now as in, you know, AirHogs was one of the first big things I remember. AirHog, the pump rocket. It was so cool. And now I get to see those products every day and have an impact on them. And, you know, I've had my hands in like naming things and
00:09:39
Speaker
just overall, like how the marketing campaigns look for these products are really, really fun. And my voice is heard, which is always fantastic. So it was, you know, really interesting for us last year, going to Toy Fair and going into the Spin Master booth and seeing just the kind of
00:09:58
Speaker
Like it almost we didn't realize how many different brands and how many different sides of the business there were to Spin Master and It was just kind of like as we were taking a tour, you know Stop after stop.
Brand Diversity at Spin Master
00:10:11
Speaker
It's like Oh Spin Master does this and this oh my and they do this too and then Monster Jam and then Batman and then Beyblade like we were just kind of blown away by the by the wide array of things that Spin Master is doing and
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, even like taking taking us back to like tech deck, you know? Oh, man, I love tech deck. I used to make sponsor me tech deck videos way before YouTube, like just on an old VHS. I guess I would mail them in. I guess it would be mail to.
00:10:36
Speaker
wherever they were going at the time. So working on Tech Deck is super, super cool. It's so weird, like not being at Toy Fair, it just kind of hit me yesterday. It was not a thing going on this year. When I get an email from one of our influencers asking about, you know, our plans, if we had a press release or anything. And I'm like, oh yeah, we do. But it's just not as exciting as being in New York in a booth for five crazy long days.
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, we're Jones and for it hard. Yeah, it was a lot of fun last year.
00:11:09
Speaker
It is. It's so cool. I love meeting people. I love to get to know the people I talk to on a day-to-day basis and just see all the products and see what everyone else is working on. There's obviously things behind closed doors at Toy Fair that I'm like, oh, I wish I could get behind there. But everything forward facing is just so cool. Just walking in and seeing a 50-foot Pikachu just blows my mind.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, and even going into the Spin Master booth, we saw probably one of the favorites of what we saw at Toy Fair last year, which was the Batman and DC comic stuff. So how did Spin Master begin producing those Batman and DC comics toys?
00:11:56
Speaker
Nice segue there. Thank you. It was back in December 2018. We announced we had signed a three-year global licensing deal with Warner Brothers, which is super exciting. When I caught one of this, I was over the moon because I, like most, you know,
00:12:17
Speaker
people on earth love Batman. And like we got straight away to working on that collection and premiered it at Toy Fair in 2019 for the first time.
00:12:29
Speaker
Yeah, and it's one of those things where, I mean, I have an affinity for toys at that scale, right? Those three and three quarter, four inch action figures. But when these first started to pop up, I mean, it's just one of those things where it was a combination of kind of like all things.
00:12:49
Speaker
And, you know, one of the things that we noticed was a trend throughout Toy Fair last year and is a trend kind of throughout a lot of Spin Master's offering was that blind box, blind bag style toy. And the fact that, you know, you guys worked that into a Batman toy, I thought was very interesting. So it was that something that like on the on the the outside of the line, the team was like, yeah, we need to get one of those like blind bag, blind box elements into the toy. Or was it something that came later on in the development?
00:13:20
Speaker
I mean we work pretty closely with Warner Brothers consumer products on the details and designs of each of those items and then talking with the retailers on what they they were after as well. I do think it's really cool that my you know our four inch Batman toys line up with my old Star Wars toys I had as a kid like they're the same size my Darth Vader can go toe-to-toe with
00:13:42
Speaker
my Batman could go toe-to-toe with Darth Vader. But what I'm trying to say, and we just wanted to try something different, like bring back that four-inch figure and revolutionize the action figure. And then we added an enhanced unboxing experience, which is totally new too, which I think is really cool with the hidden accessories and things like that, and just gives a more surprise and play value for the buyer.
00:14:09
Speaker
Yeah, I actually just opened, just before our interview, I was sitting here fiddling around and I opened the brand new Mr. Freeze, the Target exclusive Mr. Freeze. Man, I'm jealous. I don't have that one.
00:14:24
Speaker
So I have to shout out our friend Khalil over at Caster's Corner. He found it in Target in Connecticut and knew I was looking for it. So I got a text message and he was like, I found it, should I ship it to you? Yes, the answer is yes. You guys get way more characters than we do, cause I'm up in Canada, so we don't have like the Target exclusives. So I used to either get them when I was down the States or hopefully they end up at our office. But because we're not there, I can't get my hands on them right now.
00:14:53
Speaker
Well, I have to I have to say it this this is fantastic I love the redesign of the box and like you mentioned that unboxing experience It's cool because now there's actually like two layers you pop off the back and then there's like a second layer you have to
00:15:08
Speaker
You have to pop through. But no, I love the I love the whole accessory thing because it really takes me back to like I don't want to say like the glory days of of action figures, but like the 90s when Kenner was producing Batman figures and they came with these like insane like bazookas and like backpack stuff and they all could interchange and interact with each other. And yeah, all the all the different armors and stuff for the best.
00:15:35
Speaker
And that's, I love this figure line because it really kind of captures that essence of like what made toys so cool when we were kids. I have, I gotta pop back a question to you guys. How do you store all those accessories? As like a fan of this line too, I'm like, what do I do with all these extra pieces of armor and weapons and stuff? I'll just keep them in a bag or on my floor.
00:15:59
Speaker
So what I actually do is I have many of them out on display, each of them holding something so that they each have some sort of accessory or multiple accessories in certain cases. But then what I actually do is I have a bag that I just, all of the accessories go straight into the bag with the characters that are not out on display.
00:16:21
Speaker
And when I'm doing toy photography or when I'm, you know, resetting up the, you know, a diorama for something, I just pull out that bag and I it's literally like I have a field day. You know, I can have any character hold anything, throw any kind of backpack on if I need, you know, Batman with a jet pack, I can throw the jet pack on or, you know, it's it's really just kind of I have them all in one place so I can grab what I need. Yeah, rotation is key. Yeah, I have the bags.
00:16:51
Speaker
I got the bag. That's how I do it. Dude, the Court of Owls is like my absolute favorite figure because I think his accessories are just wicked. Yep, the two blades and the pegged on owl is just the best. Right?
00:17:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's actually, it's funny you say that. That's actually, if not my favorite, my second favorite figure. It was probably my favorite figure until the Bane came out. Bane might be my favorite now, but just
Character Selection in Toy Lines
00:17:19
Speaker
because he's so big. Yeah, that was one I only saw from you, but I had never seen it myself out anywhere. But Batwoman is probably my favorite from that first wave.
00:17:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, how cool is it just like in 20 days, like I try to put like my 10 year old's hat on, right? And think like,
00:17:38
Speaker
You know, the fact that there is, there are two, there are two Court of Owls figures, you know, cause if you're collecting the 12 inch scale or the four inch scale, like what an awesome villain to have out there that like, there's really not been any outside of like collector grade, you know, like, like DC direct, uh, DC collectible stuff. There hasn't really been a Court of Owls action figure ever. And now there are two and they're both great.
00:18:05
Speaker
We got that we got that feedback a lot. I fanboyed out man when they when I first saw that it was so cool. It's really cool to be at the at the front and be the first to do something like that.
00:18:19
Speaker
So this actually goes into one of the questions that we wanted to ask you. So there's an ocean of characters in the DC world to choose from, right? And you guys have not been sheepish in embracing some of the lesser known ones like the Court of Owls like Bronze Tiger or Copperhead before including
00:18:38
Speaker
You know, some of the more popular A-list characters, like we still haven't seen a four inch Harley Quinn or a four inch penguin. You know, Mr. Freeze just came out and the Riddler just came out. But, you know, we've seen some of these. We haven't seen Batgirl yet. How does the team decide on what toy or what character to make next?
00:18:59
Speaker
We work obviously pretty closely with Warner Brothers on each character design. And at the end of the day, our designers themselves are just super fans of this Batman universe and just bring their creativity to the drawing board. They pitch ideas and hope they come to life. And it kind of really shows, Spin Master as a whole has meticulous attention to detail. It's like a lot of these stylized sculpts and
00:19:24
Speaker
that are just cool for both children and hardcore collectors. And I think that's what this line does really well is it appeals to both. We have like our classic Batman characters, Deckos, you have tons of Batman. We know boys love Batman, but it's also really cool to just bring new characters in to keep this line fresh and exciting and try something new that no one's done in the past. I mean, Student Master as a whole is really good at paving the way for new ideas and new innovation. And I think this line really does a good job of that.
00:19:54
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, there is definitely texture to the line for sure. And yeah, we kind of have come to expect that there's going to be a Batman in every wave of these figures. There has to be. There always has to be a Batman on the show. Yeah.
00:20:09
Speaker
But it's just like, I remember one of those early waves like seeing Firefly in there and thinking like, you know, what like, like, this is incredible because I totally bought Firefly and he's an amazing figure. But like the boldness to put out a Firefly figure and like a bronze tiger figure before a penguin figure. And like, you know, again, like I mentioned, like Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, like some of those
00:20:35
Speaker
those A-Lister Batman figures, it's just mind-blowing. And then to watch them sell and watch them restock and sell again as we continue to go through toy stores, it's incredible. That Firefly figure is so wicked. Oh, it's so cool. And there's just an amazing roster of villains that are possible.
00:20:55
Speaker
Like that's the one thing is like Batman has literally hundreds of villains. Like you can, and there's so many, so many characters to just like dive into. Like when you think of like somebody like Firefly, like it's like, Oh wait, now this reminded me of like 10 more Batman villains.
00:21:15
Speaker
I was going to say some of these characters, you don't necessarily like, like some of them bring you to some of the more like darker aspects of Batman, right? Like when you think of certain characters, you think of the things that maybe on the surface you wouldn't think are necessarily like a kid friendly character.
00:21:31
Speaker
But then you see, you realize like the design is just so kind of toyetic and it harkens back to, you know, again, like going back to those old school, like Kenner figures that were just toyetic and fun to play with. And maybe this is how kids are being introduced to these classic Batman characters for the first time. Right.
00:21:51
Speaker
But that must like, how does that balance work? Like, how do you guys strike that balance between making something that is super fun for a kid and like attractive to a kid, but also attractive to somebody that's that's collecting these from a collector standpoint? A lot of brainstorming and back and forth, I think would be the key kind of answer here.
00:22:15
Speaker
I mean, when we're working with WB, we look at aligning it like key temple events that they have as well in the main franchise. And if it works for one of their movies or their shows or something on their app. And then from there, we get to expand on our own and do our own thing. And that's when we bring in strange characters like Bronze Tiger, who was, I think at Toy Fair last year, the most asked about
00:22:44
Speaker
uh toy we had because people are like who is that who is that guy and i'm like i think it's bronze tiger and they're like what's he from and i'm like the 70s he hasn't been around in a long while he looks very different now what's he from the 70s i love that
00:23:05
Speaker
I think we had a similar moment where we were looking at the 3-in-1 Batcave, and I think Copperhead was on there. And I looked at Dave, and Dave is much more well versed in specifically the comics stuff than I am. And I looked at him, and I was like, who's the snake?
00:23:29
Speaker
And he was like, I think that's Copperhead. And then we had to take our phones out and Google it. And we're like, they're making a Copperhead figure? What? And there it is. He's a deep dive for sure. And different than the version we're kind of used to seeing now. 100%. Yeah. 100%. Yeah, if you get into those like 60s and 70s weird bat suits and like
00:23:57
Speaker
Things like that. I want a rainbow Batman suit. As a fan, I just want a ridiculous rainbow Batman suit. And as a fan, we have a Solomon Grundy and a two inch. I really want that as a six inch. Some of those two inch figures, the designs on them are fantastic. That was where Bane made his first appearance, was in the two inch figure and then the 12 inch. That's such a wicked two inch figure too.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, I'm like, I'm fanboying on my own product that I work on because I do really love it. I think that Bane is sick. The two entered like for the price. They're just so well done. There's so much detail and just such a strange selection of characters.
00:24:39
Speaker
Yeah, and that's, I mean, and we're just so far, we're just talking about Batman, right? I mean, you guys also do the Heroes United, just kind of the DC Comics line as well, though, you know, it's a more limited offering, but talk about an ocean of characters. I mean, now we're talking like the entire DC universe and the world is your oyster, I guess I would imagine at this point.
00:25:06
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of possibility and a lot in the pipeline too on that one, which is really exciting.
00:25:14
Speaker
So we have a couple of other questions for you, but before we jump into those, Brock, let's talk a little bit about the questions that we have from our followers. So we posted a story and we got a ton of responses back from it. A lot of them were kind of similar or in the same realm. So we kind of smushed a few together. Are you ready for some surprise bonus questions here? Dude, I love a good surprise.
00:25:44
Speaker
All right, so the first one. We're blind box in these questions. The first one, I think you'll actually have, I think you'll have a fun answer for this because there was something already revealed just a few days ago, but are there plans for additional playsets that are similar to the three in one backave? Yes, yes, there sure are. It's huge. It's absolutely massive.
00:26:11
Speaker
Don't quote me on this, you can quote me. I believe it's almost three feet and it's a size of like a small child and will allow for all kinds of play. And that's coming this fall. Yeah, that thing looks insane with the elevator and it, yeah. And it folds into Batman. Like it is Batman. Like that's the other cool part about it.
00:26:35
Speaker
See, this is what we're missing, not at Toy Fair. Otherwise, we could be looking at this actually in person. I've only seen it on video and presentation screens, but I'm very excited for it. It's just huge. I forget who said it, but I had a spit take when I saw the post come up, but it was like, instead of I'm Batman, I'm Batcave. Yeah. I thought that was pretty clever. I like that. I'm Batcave.
00:27:03
Speaker
And it's such an easy way to kind of, like, what do you do next after that Batcave, which was an awesome Batcave? Well, you make Batman. Yeah, you just make it as big as possible. Yeah.
00:27:19
Speaker
And I mean, again, the long history of DC Comics figures and Batman figures has been about accessories, costumes, playsets, and vehicles. And with every new thing that you guys are introducing, one of those elements is included. The new RC bat tank that was announced alongside of that bat cave.
00:27:44
Speaker
the Batmobile that launches Batman across the room out of it, which is amazing. So I'm hoping, and I'm not going to push you for spoilers here, but I'm hoping you guys have more playsets in the future too. Legion of Doom would be great. Oh man, that'd be so cool. As a fan, I hope so too, because I love playsets. I think back, my first playset was probably the Ninja Turtles, like Krangs,
00:28:13
Speaker
or Krang's Lair or whatever. And it was just so cool. We need more playsets in general. Oh, one of my favorites from when I was a kid was the Kenner Hall of Justice, so.
Challenges in Large-Scale Toy Production
00:28:25
Speaker
Oh, nice.
00:28:27
Speaker
And it's tough, you know, as a lot of these companies move to larger scale figures like that 112 scale, it's tough to make vehicles and especially like playsets. Like, I mean, in order for them to stay in scale, they have to be massive, like these massive, massive things. But when you're making smaller figures, I feel like you have a little bit more leeway and, you know, not only the shelf space that you take up at retail, but also, you know, for people to actually use and enjoy.
00:28:55
Speaker
You know, it's you know, you're working with something a little bit smaller Is there? Possibility for more like we were talking about like the rainbow Batman anything for more like older more historic Comic comic characters
00:29:12
Speaker
I mean, yes, there's lots more to come. That's what I can say on that one. I mean, we'll be showing off a lot of toys you probably would have seen at Toy Fair in the near future.
00:29:28
Speaker
Excited, we are excited for that. Yes, very much so. Me too. We're just getting to start it on kind of what that's going to look like in terms of like on social and marketing. So that is in the pipeline for soon.
00:29:44
Speaker
Yeah, I got to imagine it has to be very challenging for you guys without Toy Fair because I know how big Toy Fair is in terms of not just for consumers, but for actually getting buyers for the product and the purveyors of toys, if you will. Are there plans to do kind of like little virtual events or is it kind of just as things come out, they come out at this point?
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah, we did a few virtual events last year. I thought they all went really good and it was fun. It was great to see faces again. I know there's Zoom fatigue too and people are burnt out. But we're definitely looking at doing more virtual events over the course of the year. It's just about making sure that the
00:30:32
Speaker
we have the right product and it's a good experience. I've definitely been to a few Zoom events that are like, wow, this is really cool and innovative. So we just need to look what's out there and try and make something just as cool and memorable. It's such a strange thing, like toys are such a thing you put your hands on and touch. So to do it all virtually is just such a different experience. So yeah, we'll see.
00:31:00
Speaker
So, we saw a Brainiac figure on display last Toy Fair. Is he still coming? Oh boy, I forgot about that. I don't know, I'll find out though.
00:31:12
Speaker
That I can get an answer for. I just can't right now. Awesome. Well, we'll make sure that we post the results of that question. Yeah, that's one of those ones where every now and then, because there has been a community that has developed around this toy line, a collector community. And every now and then, somebody posts a picture of a blurry shot of Brainiac from
00:31:37
Speaker
from Toy Fair. It's like, has anyone seen him? Is he coming? Because that DC Heroes, the Heroes Unite line, some of those figures have been extremely hard to come by. Some of those two packs, and Darkseid, and I think one of the Aquaman figures, and Reverse Flash, some of those from that specific line, because they were a Target exclusive for a considerable amount of time, were very hard to come by.
00:32:05
Speaker
I'm sure people were just kind of like, did I miss him or? Yeah, I'll find out. I mean, I've that line has definitely been harder for even, you know, me to get. But there's so many cool figures I want. And there's a girl that God I really want.
00:32:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's an awesome one too. Any of those, like, bigger, like, chunkier villain figures, they're so much fun. There's just, there's so much plastic and they're, they're very toyetic, so. Right? I just love a big chunky villain. Like, the Clayface guy looks so cool on my shelf here. Yup. Yup, Clayface, the, uh, that's my whole back line of figures in my display is like- King Shark. Manbat, King Shark, Clayface. Manbat is massive.
00:32:49
Speaker
And then there's Albino Manbat. That was a Target exclusive. Yeah. Yeah. That was a cool one. Again, like such a weird deep dive. I mean, when was the last time you'd really seen a Manbat and then an Albino version and you're like, wow, I honestly don't even know where he came from. Yup. But again, at one point in a comic.
00:33:10
Speaker
But that continues to go back to the like, it almost doesn't matter, right? Like the Batman that's out now. There's a few different new Batman figures that are part of that bat tech series that they have like the glitched out looking bat costumes. That's like Batman's never worn that before. It doesn't matter because it looks cool.
00:33:31
Speaker
You know, it's just a cool design. Like one of the most famous Batman figures he was wearing, I always forget what it was called and I'm gonna get roasted for this, but that like all gold Batman. The one that had, I wanna say it was like armor tech or something like that, but he was all, it was from the Michael Keaton era of Batman and he was in like an all gold and black outfit. Like reverse of his normal colors and it has gone on to be like one of the most famous Batman figures and like one of the most beloved.
00:34:02
Speaker
But that's the thing that's graded by figures. You know, if it looks cool as an action figure, it doesn't have to have existed anywhere else previously. And Batman has like a million outfits too. Mm-hmm.
00:34:12
Speaker
I mean, we have the orange suit Batman in the two inch line. And then I look at my Lego Batman lineup, which is massive. And there's so many weird ones. I have Batman in boxing gloves and yellow shorts for some reason. Why he needs boxing gloves, I don't really know. And vacation Batman, which I also think is hilarious. Vacation Joker and vacation Batman are just amazing figures.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah, we need a spin master Batman in a Hawaiian shirt and like flip flops. I agree, and an Alfred. Just give me an Alfred. Yeah, we need an Alfred. That's a good point. We need an Alfred. I want a jacked Alfred, vacation Alfred, just normal butler Alfred.
00:34:58
Speaker
And while we're talking about like unmasked characters, right, like a Bruce Wayne, a Dick Grayson, an Alfred, just like casual, like the casual Wayne family. Just hanging out with him in the picture. Tim Drake. Yeah, why not, man?
00:35:18
Speaker
Think about all the people that make that like a chase figure instead of like an all gold chase variant Batman, make like just Bruce Wayne in sweatpants, the chase variant figure.
00:35:36
Speaker
Um, no, no, I can't get that image out of my head. All right. So we've, we've now seen, uh, you know, the, the first part of spin masters new offering, uh, for Batman figures for, for 2021, um, the, the bat tech, uh, and.
00:35:54
Speaker
Inside the bat tech there is a you know a cross cell for the the freeze tech With the figures yet to be revealed. They're just kind of some silhouettes there Is there anything that you can tell us? You know anything fun that you can reveal or tell us what we can what we can expect for for 2021 Other than it's gonna look awesome not so much and
00:36:23
Speaker
Other than stay tuned, it's gonna be sweet. Yeah, there's a lot of exciting characters coming. And again, we're gonna see characters that just make you go, whoa, all righty then. That's a must-have.
00:36:39
Speaker
That's the thing I'm looking forward to most, because like we've talked about ad nauseam is the weird selection of characters. There are characters, I'm sure, much like when we saw Copperhead, we had to stop and think for a minute, that there are characters that we have not thought of in the Batman universe that I'm sure you guys are going to surprise us with. For sure.
00:37:05
Speaker
Just like Batman surprises Commissioner Gordon. That's what we do. No one expects Killer Moth. And it's one of the best ones. Killer Moth is an awesome figure. Honestly, I think the last time I saw Killer Moth mentioned was in the Arkham video games and he was on a murdering rampage.
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, yep. Killer Moth, Victor Zazz, all those, again, like all of those like deep cut, weirdo, calendar man. Yeah, they're the best villains. Calendar man can be kind of cool. I mean, he has a good little story. The toy would be very interesting. Or Kite Man. I would love Kite Man. Only because Harley Quinn has made him so popular.
00:37:49
Speaker
I was going to say he's got a new resurgence as Poison Ivy's on-again, off-again boyfriend. Man, I love that show. It's so good. It's so good. And that's the other thing, too. I was like, do I need King Shark? And then I started watching Harley Quinn. I was like, yeah, I need King Shark now.
00:38:08
Speaker
Yeah, they totally revitalized King Shark and brought a whole new version of him to the forefront. I'm so curious to see what Suicide Squad is going to do with him now and how similar he's going to be.
00:38:21
Speaker
Well, he looks great in that, uh, in that Suicide Squad, uh, video game. The like, the, we have to kill Superman video game that they showed the trailer for. Um, that looks interesting. So more, more love for King Shark, man. Kids must love them though. Like kids must just eat them up. I mean, they, they sharks are huge with kids and then make them like funny and superhero in Batman's world. Like, whew.
00:38:47
Speaker
It's any of those anthropomorphic characters, like combined animal and person, monster, supervillain or superhero, easy. It's an easy sell for a kid that doesn't even know what it is, right? It's a shark man. Perfect. I love it. Yeah, like Crocodile Man, like Killer Croc. Like, come on. Yeah, you can't go wrong with it.
00:39:11
Speaker
Um, the last question that we had from our, uh, from our audience, um, is, is just about that. The, the DC specific line. So like not the, the Cape crusader Batman line, but people want to see more of that DC line. Do you guys have additional figures planned for that line as well?
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's coming. And we definitely wanna spend more time focusing on it. Batman's the big one, but we definitely wanna show off more of that DC line, because I think it's super unique.
00:39:44
Speaker
Awesome. I think what ended up happening was, at least here, in our particular region, it kind of dried up at Target and became just kind of a peg of Superman figures. And a lot of people were not able, like I'd mentioned, were not able to find some of the
00:40:02
Speaker
Villains like the Lex Luthor's and and everything and then all of a sudden the first two waves started showing up at Walmart now Now that it's no longer a store exclusive But I think a lot of people were worried that when when it showed up with the same stuff again Was that maybe the line was was not continuing? So I think everyone will be very happy to hear that that line is in fact continuing
00:40:26
Speaker
Yeah, I have a big saucepot in that for that line too, because I just love the black costume Superman we have. And I love Shazam's little Billy figure that comes with it as well. Yep. It was awesome. Yeah, it was a nice little touch. Right. I opened that up and I was like, that's a good surprise. Got to love that unboxing experience, right? Got to love that unboxing experience.
Brock's Favorite and Unique Toys
00:40:53
Speaker
So one thing that we always ask all of our guests before we wrap things up, Dave, do you want to do your best James Lipton? Yes, I can do my James Lipton. Last question before we let you go. What's your favorite and or oddest piece in your collection?
00:41:14
Speaker
Oh man, all right. Oh, I know exactly what it is. It is a 12 inch figure of Aunt May that I still have in the box. It is absolutely terrifying. I can send you a photo, you can put it along with the cast, you can share it out. It is disgusting. It's like,
00:41:37
Speaker
I don't know, it's just Aunt May and she's like, her hands are all like weird and like grotesque and scary and her face is like melting. It's bizarre. I think that would be my absolute favorite. I'm just so proud of how awful it is. Oh my god, I'm trying to picture it. Is it like the Spider-Man the Animated Series Aunt May? Yeah, like really old Aunt May.
00:42:03
Speaker
That's the first time I've seen like the answer be, it could be either answer, like it could be favorite and oddest. Yeah, usually we get one or the other. Sorry, it's eight inches. And it's yeah, it's something else. I mean, I don't know what a little boy wants to pick up an Aunt May figure. But here we are.
00:42:26
Speaker
I mean, hey, I may be a 33-year-old man, but if a Marisa Tomei, Aunt May, Marvel Legends figure was announced tomorrow, I would 100% buy it. Okay, well, that's a little different story. That's more exciting. But Peter's inexplicably extremely old aunt makes not much sense. She's always been super old. It's true. She's always been like a woman of a certain age.
00:42:56
Speaker
Which never really made much sense. Oh, I saw you just said wait I gotta look at this makes for this makes for great radio as I say look at my phone to see this picture I had to say I gotta do this. I keep it very close to my desk. Oh my god inspiration No, all right wait Who made who made this what what who is this is by toy biz? Oh?
00:43:20
Speaker
My good Dave. I'm sending this to you now. This is all right. We are like her accessories are high socks and like a pink bib She looks she looks more like something out of Evil Dead then
00:43:34
Speaker
Spider-Man. You can see why that's my most coveted toy. Even her hands. Why did they give her hands that look like they're like, I'll swallow your soul. They gave her like claw hands like she's going to like like that's weird. This is fantastic. Everything about it is just bizarre.
00:43:57
Speaker
Wow, what? I found it at like a Comic Con here in Toronto and it was like, I don't know, $10 and I'm like, that is the most beautiful toy I've ever seen. I like those weird deep cut those, like I like really weird, you know, the weird stuff. I think it's hilarious. It tells more of a story and it's just funny to look at.
00:44:18
Speaker
Like this went through so many people's like Brainstorms and design sessions and like people worked on this for you know a while and it's like how did this come to be? Yeah, I can't I've never I've never seen this before in my life I think the weirdest part though is like is I keep focusing on her left hand Mm-hmm, which is like that like It like it's a hand that I would give like a
00:44:48
Speaker
Like almost like a baseball toy, like if it was throwing a ball. It's not proportionally right, it's too big. And it's also, so you just sent me the front of the box and I just sent this to Dave as well. The front of the box is, it says famous covers. So it's supposed to be her from this cover of Amazing Spider-Man, looks like 115. Brandishing a gun towards Spider-Man.
00:45:15
Speaker
But there's a few things here, okay, I wanna point out. On that cover, she's in a purple outfit and a white smock. She's wearing pink on this, on the toy, so it doesn't match that. But there's also a cartoon picture of her next to that where she has like a pendant and a blue blazer on and a red shirt. Doesn't match that either. Like none of it adds up. No, none of this works. This disposable figure with authentic fabric costume.
00:45:42
Speaker
I think this is what the kids in the internet would say is a cursed image. Yes. Yes. It is cursed. It's just weird because when you open it up, you're right, it matches nothing on the front of the box. No, nothing. Not at all. Doesn't even come close. Which makes it even better. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. This is perfect.
00:46:12
Speaker
You're welcome. You're welcome. This is a wonderful way. I should have just bought the whole collection because why not? Brock, if you had extras of this, they would come to life in the middle of the night and end your life. They look like they belong in the movie Small Soldiers.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yes, yes they do, yes they do. This is the kind of doll where if you get this in the mail and you try to burn it in your fireplace or throw it out in the garbage, it just shows back up in your mailbox the next day. That's what happened with this one. I could tell.
00:46:54
Speaker
Oh man, all right, Brock, thank you so much for joining us on Adventures in Collecting and Talking Shop with us and maybe giving me nightmares with an Aunt May figure from the early 90s. Where can we find you on the internet and is there anything that you'd like to plug?
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah, you can find me, I'm on at Brock McLaughlin and everything. I talk a lot about, I don't know, books and gaming and fun stuff like that. What we call nerd stuff, which is very super mainstream now, nerd stream on Twitter, Instagram, things like that. And then I like to talk about the Sandman on a weekly show called What Dreams Cost, which is a little fun little side project I've started.
00:47:40
Speaker
Awesome. Is that a podcast? Yeah, I'm there. It is. Yeah. All right. Well, you can hear more of Brock on his podcast. Make sure you go and subscribe to that as soon as you're done listening to this. There you go. Thanks. That was cool.
00:47:57
Speaker
Yeah, so Brock, thanks again. We are super excited for all of the stuff that's coming this year from Spin Master. We can't wait to see what secrets you guys and surprises you guys have in store for us. And thanks again for joining us on Adventures in Collecting. Thanks, Brock. Guys, thanks so much for having me. This is really fun. And I really hope I give you nightmares, because otherwise I did not do my job right.
00:48:27
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:48:43
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
00:49:07
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.
00:49:36
Speaker
you