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Let's Talk About 2023 San Diego Comic Con with the Reluctant Adult Podcast
707 Plays2 years ago
This week's episode takes a dive into the excitement of the 2023 San Diego Comic Con event - from the biggest reveals, most disappointing moments, and surprises that caught us off guard, dive into one of the biggest collectible events in the world with Dave and Erik, along with Paul and Bill from the Reluctant Adult Podcast!
See Paul's weird AI legs and more Reluctant Adult Podcast on social media @thereluctantadultpodcast.
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
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Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor Highlight
00:00:01
Speaker
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00:00:56
Speaker
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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.
Podcast Introduction and Humorous Florida Anecdote
00:01:28
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and hauls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:01:47
Speaker
Hi, Dave. Uh, it has been, you made it. Yes. Yes. I had to, I thought I was going to have to send out life preservers or a big door. Oh yeah. My travel was, I, I still, it still feels weird saying it because while I was stuck in Florida, I was like, I was like stuck at the beach. So I feel bad. I just meant you were on a boat and that was like a,
00:02:17
Speaker
I was going to send you a door to float a door, uh, uh, some sort of, Oh, you're making a Titanic reference. Now I get it. Sorry. It's like Jack and Rose late. Yeah. The waters were really warm though. I would have been like, yeah, it would have been a nice, like, I would have just laid back. Hands behind my head, you know, floated. All
Toy Events and Personalities
00:02:37
Speaker
right. I would have sent you a volleyball.
00:02:41
Speaker
better like it like it but it's you missed you missed some stuff so I caught up and then Comic Con happened you missed a few events oh yeah I had to I had to speak in public you had to go venture out you you got forced out of the out of the nest you had to go fly and I had to be the person who started conversations it was weird so before we we are in
00:03:09
Speaker
Unlike our our shows usual stick. We are gonna bury the lead for a moment. Um, just real quick. Oh, uh, Sorry, tell our guests. No, no, no, it's okay. They'll be they'll be fine. They're they're good. They're good. Tell our guests or our listeners are both everyone our listeners. Okay real quick. Just uh, you went to two pretty three actually events, right? Yeah
00:03:33
Speaker
I went to three things. One toy adjacent. I would say it was a toy event. It was 100% a toy event. OK. So Sweet Sweet was first. That was fun. Got to see Pat, who was recently on our podcast. A couple other people. JC, who we haven't had on in a while. It's nice to finally meet him in person. Yeah. You got to see the rock father himself.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, of course. I was on the GI Joe thing. Our friend, our friend James Zahn, who eventually needs to be on this show. Yeah. I'm surprised we haven't, he hasn't yet. Um, then what was next? Uh, the major IPA launch at Bolero snort brewery and toys. You're in toys. Got to see, uh, Kanek and, um, zombie and John Carlo.
00:04:31
Speaker
and Matt, and Brian, and Smart Mark, and Stang. Stang. Talked to a bunch of people. And then you finished it up with another yearly one. Toy Pizza Con. That was fun too. You still have my Glios goods. Yeah, I have a lot of stuff for you. I need that new Nights at the Slice in my life. Yeah, Jesse and I talked about Sparks. And it was great. Very good. Very good.
00:05:01
Speaker
Christina and I played pinball. That place is awesome. I'm sad I missed. Happy Valley, I believe it's called. Yes, in Beacon. In Beacon, New York. I'm very sad I missed all those things, but your coverage was lovely. Next time. Your videos and your posts, making me all jealous. Making me literally sweat trying to use the internet.
00:05:27
Speaker
You make yourself sound so old, and you're not. You're really not. But then, of course, right on the heels of all that, came San Diego Comic Con, which brings us to where we are today, and time to introduce our guests.
San Diego Comic Con Overview
00:05:43
Speaker
No more burying the lead. No more burying the lead. We are here to talk about San Diego Comic Con, which was
00:05:49
Speaker
a blast from afar, seeing as how none of us here, including our guests, got to attend this year. Maybe one of these years we'll get out there, but brethren of the toy blogging, toy podcasting world, we have Paul and Bill from the Reluctant Adult podcast with us today. Paul, Bill, welcome to Adventures in Collecting, guys.
00:06:20
Speaker
I can't follow that one at all, but hi. Is that how we still greet each other in 2023? Anything goes here. I take that back. Not anything goes here, but that fits. We'll take it.
00:06:33
Speaker
Welcome, guys. It's a pleasure to have you. You know, we failed at being rivals, so let's succeed at being friends. I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We can try. Bitter, bitter enemy. What is it from like when Sean and Diesel thought like. Oh, good friends, better enemies or something. Reverse is like good enemies, better friends. I like it. I like it.
00:06:57
Speaker
So, uh, that could be our, uh, our, uh, Raven and Tommy dreamer. Yes. We need, this will be the podcast heard around the world. Ooh. Right. Instead of the chair. There was the two of them, right? Wasn't the Tommy dreamer hit Raven with a chair chair shot, heard around the world. Sure. That happened at some point in there. Um, Oh, in the steel cage. Yes. No, that was like, that's like a famous thing.
00:07:20
Speaker
Um, but yeah, Comic Con guys was, uh, was unique this year and the fact that it was happening during a kind of, uh,
00:07:31
Speaker
momentous strike that that prevented Hollywood from being a part of Comic Con for the first time in a long time, which kind of forced the event to go back to its roots, you know, and making it about the comic book artists and the publishers and the collectibles. And boy, there was a lot of stuff.
00:07:52
Speaker
There was a lot of stuff. And then there were some surprises in lack of attention, I guess you could say. And I'm sure we will get into that. And maybe the reasons behind that. Yes. Yeah. There were a couple of things that were curiously absent as well as some things that I think kind of went under the radar. There's a couple of things that I saw like, again, not being there in person, thinking that I was
00:08:22
Speaker
you know, pulling the coverage from the people that were there as, uh, accurately as I, as I could. But, um, there were a couple of things that I, that I missed and I was like, Oh, how was nobody talking about this? Yeah. And then there were a couple of things that were like, Oh, that's it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and we will definitely get to, there's, there's one, Oh, that's it. That I think, I think, I think crosses all of our streams here, but, uh, you know, I think,
00:08:51
Speaker
Let's start off with something that did surprise each of us. Let's go around and talk about some of the more surprising things from this year's show.
Syndicate Collectibles and Comic Con Exclusives
00:09:01
Speaker
We'll open it up to our guests. Bill, Paul, was there anything in particular from this year's Comic Con that really kind of jumped out at you?
00:09:09
Speaker
So there's a new company on the block. The former head of soda, which is a company I always like to refer back to because I love those street fighter figures. Jerry from soda is starting a new company and I can't remember the name. Do you remember what it was? They're the ones that had the blood sport figures. Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:33
Speaker
It was like something like dynamic syndicate. I think it's syndicate. I think it's syndicate collectibles, like ghost syndicate or something. And they're actually not even on Jerry's, not even on Instagram with the company. Like the company doesn't have any social media presence. It's it's syndicate collectibles. Yeah. Yeah, syndicate.
00:09:53
Speaker
There we go. Yeah, so they showed off a ton of stuff. Those blood sport figures, I don't know what the final product's gonna look like, but I'm always a big fan of the engineering of the figure, and does this look like a real person's body? Does it look like it could move? And these look amazing.
00:10:09
Speaker
Like if this is how the final product looks and I don't know what scale these are in, but these look fan friggin task. They are seven inch figures. They say seven. Yeah. Okay. That's great. So wrestling DC multiverse that kind of scale. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They really do. And just, you know, to your point, like the way that they, the abs are cut, especially, you know, I'm looking at the bolo figure. Yeah. They kind of have that like ultimate slash.
00:10:40
Speaker
Supreme. I guess ultimate Supreme. Cut where it makes sense on the body. I will say the ultimates do not have a great cut, but I think the jazz wears AEW figures do a much better job of using the natural curvature of like the chest to to put the cut line in. Yeah, and I like how and looking at the two of these like the again, the one on Bolo, how it kind of comes up to like above his I guess that's his navel like I got like the chest plate like it really does come up like
00:11:10
Speaker
It makes sense. It's an it's in a good spot. Yeah. Yep. And along with those seven inch figures, they also had seven inch figures for true romance. Well, OK. So what one of these and pumpkin head? Yeah. Yeah. But OK. True man. True man. True. Excuse me. True romance. I am not even familiar with this. Really? So at first when I saw the four inch figures, I was like, what are these?
00:11:33
Speaker
So then I you know, I saw people talking about them and it's like these six inch or seven inch figures You know, they're like people in street clothes and like there's like I just don't know the movie So is this one of those things where it's like a cult classic? Yeah, I would say yeah. Yeah, it's it's a film Dave and you're gonna have to correct me on this It's not directed by Tarantino, but he wrote it. He wrote it and I believe Tony Scott. Yeah
00:12:00
Speaker
OK, so this is like 90 90s, like the middle. Yeah. OK. OK. Yeah. Like early to mid 90s. I feel is Brad Pitt one of the figures because I see he's in the. Yes.
00:12:12
Speaker
I didn't see why that looked like Christian Christian Slater is like the lead in it James Gandolfini's in it Gary Oldman's in it, and I think that's yeah that one's I think those are the I forget the the female lead in it I'm drawing a blank sure sure it is Patricia. Yeah, so the figures that they have are Slater our cat Gandolfini walk-in and an old man are the
00:12:37
Speaker
There's this four inch line too, seven inch and three and three quarters. So like they think this is gonna be a big license for them.
00:12:44
Speaker
It's it's an interesting one. I mean, that's I have it's it's definitely jumping into that, like the three and three quarters jumping into that reaction. Yeah. Yeah. And I think they look good. I think they went the more detailed route rather than, you know, trying to stay faithful to those like 70s Star Wars figures. They had Golden Girls in that three and three quarter inch scale, which reaction did them, I believe. I think you're right. Yeah.
00:13:11
Speaker
These look better, I will say, especially Sophia, like they really captured her expression.
00:13:17
Speaker
They're, they're good sculpts, um, you know, across the board. And I think that that pumpkin head figure that they showed off the pumpkin head looks great. And I mean, that's one of those classic, uh, I don't think there's really been one since McFarland McFarland, um, trick or treat studios. So, uh, okay. They came productions is that the guy does their, their sculpting work. Um, they announced one at,
00:13:45
Speaker
Might have been your comic-con last year, but it hasn't it hasn't been made available yet, but theirs is more of that Kind of that take on movie maniacs. It's like mostly statuary with with like minimal articulation And then a property that I admittedly I have never I know these movies I have never seen them but ghoulies 2 is the other the other one that uh, not ghoulies 1 ghoulies 2
00:14:11
Speaker
No, that's just like, yeah, not Billy's one, which is the one that has the famous VHS cover where he's in the toilet. Is that the original one? OK, yeah, I think was to the one with Leonardo DiCaprio. Or is that one? That's a different movie. Oh, that's critters. He's not a critter critters. My bad. Oh, there you go. My bad. Yeah, I'm screwing up my my tiny.
00:14:38
Speaker
Ghoulies too, I feel like. Yeah, your grandma. Oh yeah, for sure. But I feel like that was like an, you know, mid to late eighties HBO staple. Yeah. Yeah. I remember seeing, I remember being young enough seeing that that was like the like 10 o'clock movie over the summer. Like it was coming up next and I was like, Oh, too scary for me. I don't even think I think that was one of those ones that like made mid afternoon. Oh, really?
00:15:08
Speaker
Oh my god. Yeah. Well, I definitely remember seeing it coming up and going, this one's not for me yet. I think Sven Ghouli just covered both of them the past two weeks, if you guys are familiar with his show. I'll have to, I'll have to check it out. I got an ETV. Yeah, Ghouli's two is a PG-13. So that was definitely like a mid day. That was because the first one was R. So the second one was like, oh, we want to get people to see this. Got it. Got it. Got it.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah, maybe that's what I'm thinking then. Maybe I'm thinking the first one. I don't know what their thought process was. The first one scared me off. Maybe that's what it was. Yeah, that company definitely, Jerry's work definitely jumped out. And I think credit to at least the first person that I saw posting anything about it, Toysius was all over it and posting about it. So that's where we picked up the coverage from.
00:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, that was a surprise. I think if you had told me that one of the big hits from Comic Con this year would be Bloodsport Ghoulies and True Romance figures, all of those would have been a bingo card breaker.
00:16:21
Speaker
And a lot of those, at least so I know that I believe I saw that the Golden Girls and I want to say true romance were sculpted and I always forget his name. But if you go on X, which we used to know as Twitter, he does a lot of the Hasbro stuff like he always posts his 3D renders of that and he works with DC too. It's not Paul Harding, right?
00:16:44
Speaker
Yes. There you go. Paul Harding. Yeah. I believe I saw that he said that he was responsible for those. Interesting. Yeah, because he does a lot of the G.I. Joe stuff now, too. He does everything. He does everything. Yeah. Here he is. He said he sculpted them for a syndicate collectibles. Yep. Paul Harding, super nice guy, too. I had the opportunity to chat with him because he also does a lot of work with Diamond Select and they had him on their panel at New York Comic Con last year.
00:17:13
Speaker
along with a couple of other sculptors and afterwards I was just kind of chatting with him. Really, really nice guy. So I'm happy to see that his work is starting to be that present across everywhere. I'm curious to see what price point is for most of these or for all of these. Well, if these ever get released.
00:17:37
Speaker
I mean, I'll say one thing about this year's Comic Con. There may be the record for the most things shown that never actually get out into the hands of collectors. What makes you say that?
00:17:48
Speaker
Well, let's let's run down the list. We have Mattel with their Jurassic Park, the gate, which is not happening. Mattel or the other. Yeah, Mattel again. They had that nitro arena, which has already failed. Rubbin's salt and the wounds. There's just a few anytime. Oh, and then, of course, Super Seven with the the cat's lair, which I am.
00:18:10
Speaker
I am not super confident about, even though I think it's already a third, which is good, but a big, heavy price point on that one. So I'm just saying not to be negative, but just to be a little realistic here. It's all lots of cool stuff. I wouldn't until we see the pre-orders. And even then, as we've seen recently, that's not a guarantee that you're going to have this in your hands.
Unreleased Items and Crowdfunding Complexities
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's, that's a good point. Uh, I think with, at least with the stuff from syndicate, usually on those little placards, you know, usually you get the pending license or approval. And that can usually mean a little more like, Hey, we're putting the car before the horse a little bit here. Uh, good sign is those for all of those figures, those seem to be kind of past that point. Um, so fingers crossed, but, uh, yeah, it's not looking good for those, those Jurassic park gates.
00:19:04
Speaker
And I don't know if we'll get into that in depth. We've definitely talked about that in the Reluctant Adult podcast. There's a lot to say, and there are a lot of lessons to be learned from that. The question is whether those lessons will be absorbed with the lesson from that will be absorbed and used for future offerings. So while we're just while we're on the topic, though, I think, you know, because
00:19:28
Speaker
Crowdfunding and yeah, these these crowdfunding projects are I they're not going anywhere anytime soon. I don't think they are but no, they're not going up but but I I think
00:19:42
Speaker
It's interesting because I think there have been enough successes and enough failures at this point where we can, where we can now start to kind of go back and like look at the data, right? And see like something like the ghost, which just got announced that San Diego Comic Con has, has reached its initial funding goal. So like it's, it's going to happen. Um, whether it gets all the way up to 17,000 backers in order to unlock the special
00:20:09
Speaker
Notice how they're also positioning the figures as on special cards. So they're not saying exclusive figures this time. They're saying on- Well, are these first time in the lines, like for all these characters? Yeah, in the vintage line. So the-
00:20:28
Speaker
The members of the ghost crew previously have only been on the, the five POA three and three quarter inch. Okay. Yeah. And they're all the animated designs. So remember with the vintage collection, even if it's something that's based on animated source, they give it a real spin. Um, but they, they specifically said, and I, it caught my ear during the presentation when they were announcing it, they said.
00:20:54
Speaker
They didn't say exclusive figures. They said on exclusive card backs, exclusive presentation, which they did that. They did that with the act face to with the sale barge. He was on the power of the force card with the coin, and then he was subsequently released on a standard card after that. Because I think it's protecting them for.
00:21:20
Speaker
The instance that it doesn't reach 17,000 backers. Cause I mean, if you, if you buy the ghost, you're gonna want the whole crew. Like you, you're, it's like, you're not going to be like, Oh, we only got to 11,000 backers. So you only get.
00:21:38
Speaker
Hera and Ezra, you're never going to get a cane and you're never going to get a zeb. Sorry. It's not realistic. It's not going to happen. It's not like you're going to get burnt like the Razor Crest when like two episodes later it exploded. Well, you don't know. It's going to be an Ahsoka. That's the thing. And that's what I was going to say.
00:22:01
Speaker
But these figures, like this lineup... Well, the Hera figure that you're getting is... Oh my goodness, I just forgot the actress's name. From Scott Pilgrim. She plays Ramona Flowers. Yeah, that's Mary Elizabeth Winstead. It's Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Like, it's from Ahsoka. It's the ghost from Ahsoka. Oh, is it? Yeah, it is.
00:22:23
Speaker
Because we were talking about this and we thought that it was supposed to represent these characters during the cartoon because Ezra looks old as hell to me as the figure. But the character at that time would have been much younger. That's that's the the special card back. Right. So like the card backs on these are. They feature the design from that mural at the end of rabbis. Yeah. So presumably somewhere down the line, again, like
00:22:53
Speaker
whatever ends up happening in Ahsoka, you'll get, I can't imagine you'll get Kanan on Ahsoka card, almost just some kind of flashback. He's dead, right? Spoilers, he's dead. But presumably, you could get, we saw Zeb show up in the Mandalorian, so maybe you get him on a Mandalorian card, maybe you get him on
00:23:17
Speaker
on the soca card maybe he'd like the team comes back together for whatever event happens in in the soca series but like the the ship is from a soca like it is the the
00:23:31
Speaker
the ghosts of real life. Like that's represented in live action. So either so. Well, whether it's one or the other, I mean, it leads the door open to re-releasing it, I guess, in the other portion. But they are. I think it's smart to put the figures in there that, you know, they're going to release those characters another way because
00:23:53
Speaker
bonus tiers were never intended to give you like integral parts of the of the the kickstarter like these were always supposed to be like fun extra things if we don't reach them that's fine we could still have a complete toy but it got to this part where even with the the proton pack the fact that the hose yeah
00:24:12
Speaker
What's one of the tears? Like, what are you doing? You're going to release this thing? You already have the wand out there. You're going to have like nothing connecting them. Like, no, you can't you can't do stuff like that. So I do. I applaud them for finding a way to give desirable tears, but not make it something that if we don't reach it, it ruins the whole thing. And I think it's again, I think it's smart the way that they worded it, because typically like, you know,
00:24:39
Speaker
When we were talking to, uh, the GI Joe team, right? With, with the dragon fly, like the reason why they picked the characters that they picked and like, you know, they're transparent upfront about this is like the kind of like the rules of engagement for these things are. The way that they have set the precedent is like, if we don't make this, if we don't make this goal, we don't make this figure. So that's why they're not putting, you know,
00:25:08
Speaker
a main G.I. Joe character. First time in the line in that in that iconic look, they're doing the night ops versions of this character or or, you know, like otherwise you wind up in the situation that we're that we're in with what happened with Marvel Legends. You know, like they positioned the classic version of Mephisto, the one that everybody wants in Marvel Legends form was a tear in that project and now
00:25:38
Speaker
like or like Robbie and those figures cannot be made available in that design because of well I I know that's like the offering and that's a way to get people to do it but like there's nothing stopping like legally what are we gonna sue them
00:25:54
Speaker
You gave us a figure we wanted. It's all about precedent, right? It's just about no, I get it. But at this point, they've done all these companies have done this so many times. They're like starting to learn what not to do. Like Mattel, a little bit more slowly, I think, as you saw with the WCW.
00:26:13
Speaker
tears. Yeah. But still, Hasbro has always been very smart about this. And you're like what to the to your point, putting it in the wording, saying this is just exclusive card back, you know, protects them from anyone being like, wait a minute. You said, yep, yep. Yeah. As soon as I heard that, I was like, oh, OK.
00:26:35
Speaker
But it's you're the best you wouldn't want to miss out like you know they're gonna sell a lot of these are already 8,000 but that pales in comparison to how many Single figures you're gonna sell at Walmart Sticking with with surprises though going back to kind of that original question something that uh
00:26:57
Speaker
You know, honestly, I was not expecting and, you know, shout outs to our, our friend Toyfars and his, his borderline toy Nostradamus, uh, post from like a year ago. How about, how about a Mr. Freeze Batman and Robin? Yeah. Fantastic. When that came up on the screen, I really, I really thought it was going to be followed by like a, a just kidding.
McFarlane's Surprising Announcements
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:26
Speaker
No, that's that rule. No, I love I it's it's honestly it's one of my Favorite announcements of the show, but I just I think I think McFarland especially with DC did so well except for the NFT thing But he needs to let it go man. He's gotta let it go At least it's real figures and it's like real Wonder Woman or like not real Wonder Woman, but OG Wonder Woman isn't it kind of messed up that like
00:27:54
Speaker
He knows he knows that everyone's been asking for like a classic Wonder Woman for Oh since the line started and it's like I'm gonna give you class. I don't even think the classic Wonder Woman there There's it's been like every variation the closest thing we have to classic Wonder Woman is the yeah Yeah, people have just like their comic It's not even been there hasn't even been like new 52 Wonder Woman, which I would gladly take like it's been like metal and gladiator and
00:28:22
Speaker
gladiate and the mcfarlane design one which is actually pretty cool i have it did she come with a chainsaw at some point no that's the isn't that the metal one that's that's metal yeah this is my issue with mcfarlane's dc line
00:28:38
Speaker
It's all dark knight's metal. Well, if you are collecting this line, there's no sense of cohesion between the releases. It's like you'll get 75 different bat variants and like some of them will be really cool. Like there's that hush Batman that came out and then there's that other like really nice blue and gray one that they did the repaint of for the nightfall.
00:29:01
Speaker
But there's like like you're saying there's no classic Wonder Woman and like they just put out the Riddler but like what Joker do you put with all these guys? Like it's just like he it's just so madcap like it's so random like this is what I imagine the inside of Todd's brain looks like it's just ping pong off one line to the next and I
00:29:21
Speaker
Those three jokers jokers are like your yeah one of the you're probably your pink jacket Joker goat goes with with that Riddler that's the closest those because that original Joker I have and it's not great Yeah, I mean my favorite why I'm kind of I'm not off of I like skin mask Joker I thought that was I just liked that storyline. Yeah, which one? The skin mask one when it was like in the family
00:29:49
Speaker
or death of the family. I think it's death of the family. Yeah, that's in the family is is you decide who you decide. Robin dies. Well, maybe they'll do a jokerized version of that joker and then it'll look more like the Joker. No, it'll be inverted color. It will be they'll be wearing black with purple accents. Yeah, I think I do jokerized sonar vision Joker and then it's just the normal figure.
00:30:26
Speaker
We stumbled ass backwards into the opportunity to talk to Todd at Toy Fair back in 2020, 2019. Yeah, 2020. And I was like, that's right. That's when Toy Fair was in January. Like it was stuck in there before everything shut down. We were at a super spreader event. And you started cleaning. Yeah, we somehow did not get ill. The thing that you have to remember is everybody who was most of the industry people who were at
00:30:39
Speaker
I have to think about that one for a second.
00:30:56
Speaker
that toy fair had just gotten off of a plane from Hong Kong too. So like, it was like, it was real, it was real sketchy, but we just didn't know what was going on. Um, but yeah, it was, it was funny. Cause like, if you go back and listen to the, like the little clip that we had of Todd from, from that, where we sat down with him, we were asking questions about the DC multiverse cause it had just launched and literally has answered every question on it. Like this is no, you know, it's, it was, it was like,
00:31:23
Speaker
So you have this ocean of characters to choose from, and he's like, so imagine if Batman, and then it was literally like, imagine if Batman looked like this, and I could do whatever Batman I want to do. And we were like, huh, all right. And I think he even said, I might even design a Batman.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yeah. And he did. You and I, Paul, had a theory that he was just like he pitched he pitched the the multiverse wave to DC and was like, here, I could do all these characters. And then he was like, yeah, here's the license. And then he's like, I got him. Now it's Batman. Yeah. Yeah. Here comes more Batman is on it. He is unabashed in his love for the Caped Crusader. So.
00:32:11
Speaker
You know, and it's, you know, it's works for him and I think it makes sense. There are some fantastic figures, though, in that announcement. Yeah. And that Hawkman looks unreal. Iron Storm, which is somebody who I wanted. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, based on what you're trying to accomplish with your DC multiverse collection, you had you had a couple of big ones in there for you. Yeah, movies or stuff that I could say would have been would have been superpowers.
00:32:40
Speaker
Yeah, because Sinestro. Well, you can get the actual superpowers. He's making those, too. Well, that was before he's too deep in the other one. I'm too deep. Oh, you're not you're not you're not going to get the the new superpowers, the new superpowers. So what's funny is the stuff he's added to superpowers is stuff I don't want in superpowers. There you go. Like short of Jon Stewart. Like, yeah, I don't need a Batman who laughs. I don't even know what that it like. I've never read that.
00:33:09
Speaker
What goes better with Jon Stewart than Batman Who Laughs? 90s Nightwing. The other Jon Stewart. I'm sorry. Jon Stewart, incredible ad. 90s Nightwing. 90s Nightwing is a great one. I can't believe that disco. I love that outfit. I hate it, but I love it. I wish it was 80s Nightwing with the big collar. 80s Nightwing with the 70s collar. Oh, yeah. New Teen Titans.
00:33:39
Speaker
No, but it's at least better like him being in the Nightwing suit that looks like the the like circus suit is way better. I don't know. I like the big gold. And it's the 90s one, but also a six pack of Batman. Yeah, that's cool. Do you pre-order that? I did.
00:34:03
Speaker
I don't I feel like a chump though because I know that like I'm already you already got a double dip on the ones that are Released now and like you already saw the Clooney's come in the only difference is the cloth capes Which I think are probably gonna look like trash So I feel like I'm buying an inferior product like from the start. I like the cloth cape on the flash movie Batman
00:34:27
Speaker
Okay, I haven't opened that one yet. It's nice. I know this is an audio only podcast, but I happen to have it. The close cape on the ear. It's nice. The ear one is great too. That's pretty large. Yeah, that's better. Okay, maybe I will hold judgment. He already has my money, so what does he care what I think? Yeah, my only thing with that said is I didn't get patents.
00:34:47
Speaker
so I was like okay, you know, I have a patents and the the Ben Affleck Batman in that set looks awesome and the only one that I have is the Snyder cut one with the I got the The silver or platinum one with the goggles up. No. Oh, okay Yeah, so I'm excited to have just kind of like a normal normal bat suit And then you know that said
00:35:11
Speaker
And I was going to say, and you know, I was able to get this bat, the flash Batman and the, the Batmobile. So now I can, I don't have to worry about hunting down that other, um, the set of the 89 Batman Batmobile. Cause I don't need to, I do. Well, you can have my pre-order then, Dave. Oh, you pre-order. I have, I have both right now sitting in my Amazon pre-order. So you're, you're, you're welcome to my, my Batmobile.
00:35:37
Speaker
You could probably sell the preorder because people Todd keeps being so benevolent and giving us more opportunities. Well, I heard the collectors. Here's another one. If if the preorder means anything, when I preorder the original Batmobile, mine got canceled. So from Amazon. Yeah. Oh, that usually doesn't happen. That's like a Walmart. That's random. That's very random. No, I got canceled. You know, maybe I maybe I'm in a figure shift and I was like, oh, good, the Batmobile should be shipping. And then it got canceled. Hmm.
00:36:05
Speaker
I'm sorry, but it worked out better because you're gonna get the better one. And now, a word from our sponsors. This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:39:02
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. I think it's no surprise that there was a lot of Batman in the McFarlane presentation.
00:39:28
Speaker
Sure. But what was something that maybe you were hoping to see from Todd or anyone else in the convention that didn't happen? So with Todd, I never go in with any expectations because he'll throw your curve ball and he'll give you a Batman and Robin. Now that I've seen Batman and Robin, I want Batman forever, obviously. Yeah.
00:39:54
Speaker
But other than that, I didn't even pay attention to these NFT things because I just have such disdain for that whole snake salesman, snake oil salesman aspect of all that. So I'm just like, I'm not any part of this. When Funko does it, I'm not any part of this. I'm buying into that.
00:40:12
Speaker
In terms of being disappointed in something that I didn't see, Jazzwares just didn't show off a lot of AEW, but I think that's sort of their modus operandi for Comic-Con. They used the show before the pay-per-view, the fan event, to show off their stuff. So I can't say I was surprised, but they still had a presence. They had that Sting exclusive, which I...
00:40:35
Speaker
It's kind of disappointing because of two but like I really like this ae w line so much and like I'm just like very concerned for its future like they've shown us a lot of renders.
00:40:50
Speaker
They showed us a lot of renders. And we were all familiar with the problems, getting that stuff into stores. And I think on the podcast, on the major wrestling figure podcast this week, they talk about it having trouble selling through. And I just want these figures because I feel like they are superior to Mattel. And I know that is not always a popular opinion.
00:41:11
Speaker
But if you get a good one, you'll see like this Ricky Starks figure. I got a Burlington for six bucks or whatever, like such a good design. It's like I want this company to do well, both AW and the Jazzwares AW. And I just, you know, you didn't see anything, nothing new. And I think it would have been a nice place to show off something cool. And we didn't get it. I just would have liked to have seen some
00:41:34
Speaker
you know, prototypes or sculpts of the previous thing is 3D. Like, yeah, let me put my hands on it. See that it's real. That's that was mine, too. So I was like, oh, we hear the same ones. I think they snuck a new Scorpio sky in there. Yeah. In the actual. Why would you do that? He has a TV. Well, I guess he did pop up recently, but he's on collision now. He's one of the collision guys. Yeah.
00:41:58
Speaker
But it was like, and here's the thing, the figure was in there, but from the way the figure was positioned, you couldn't tell if it was the Amazon one or the new one. Yeah, because he was like on his belly or like weird pose, yeah. You know, the one thing that I... Come on, Jeremy. The one thing I did like though, and I'm happy that they're going the same route as Mattel and Hasbro, I think it's important for a specialty company like them to have a direct consumer
00:42:28
Speaker
website. How about that? The vault? Yeah, the vault. So I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward
Jazzwares and Consumer Vault
00:42:35
Speaker
to that. And I think too, it seems like that, I don't know if they specified with the AEW, uh, releases, but I know I caught a little bit of, cause they actually streamed it from, um, from their account, from the jazz where's account on Instagram.
00:42:54
Speaker
I think they were saying that like for those Star Wars micro squadron, uh, releases, you're going to be able to like guarantee yourself the chases by ordering the vault. Well, that's a game changer. That is a very smart idea. And they're still going to be the same. They said like, it's still going to be the same run count. So like, if it's a one of 5,000 or one of 10,000, whatever, um, it's still going to be that they're just going to make.
00:43:23
Speaker
specific bundles available where like if you want all the chases and like the whole way of like you can just order it directly from their site and however many of those that they allot for the site they allot and that's that's it and it gives you the chance to to get that so well they're definitely gonna have to do that for for the AW line because did you see that they've announced that the bunny is going to be a chase figure not in every case
00:43:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's the first time that they've done that for the line. Mm hmm. And it's. I don't like that precedent. I don't like it in that it's going to be harder to get. I do like it and that she definitely would not have sold well, and I wouldn't want to have to see her for as long as I've seen Anna Jay on the pegs.
00:44:12
Speaker
We have around by us, we don't have too many energies. We have a lot of- Nyla. We had a lot of Nyla. A lot of- Lance Archer. In regards to female talent, the one that was surprising was we had a ton of Supreme Brit bakers. Well, my stores don't even carry the Supremes, so I've never seen that.
00:44:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think right now my target still has like six of them.
00:44:46
Speaker
hanging out that was not she was not a good choice for the supreme because she has superior figures like that scott hall inspired look it's a better figure and you can get that through the amazon 2 back or the single and then the alternate look was just not alternate enough like i don't know if that it was just not like i know they had to go with like names they knew were going to be there but that was just not a good i thought her alternate was like interview yeah it's promo gear she's in heels and she's got like a
00:45:15
Speaker
like slacks on the shirt. Yeah, she's in promo gear. She got the like the wrist brace like permanently on there. Yeah, it's it's definitely. Well, that's the one thing with those is there. It's always the the the AEW figures are always like a specific event. Yeah, right. But I think that's that in this case, at least was a mistake because you don't want that if you're just like switching up the looks because she didn't have that in both books. Right. I don't think.
00:45:47
Speaker
Yep. I just want that punk figure. Just keep this line going, because now they announced that they're doing the Walmart exclusive ultimate punk, which I think looks great. I don't know if that other one that got announced and we saw the renders is ever coming now. Maybe that's the general release one. They never said what four is yet, which was supposed to be punk and Thunder Rosa. OK, yeah. Thunder Rosa, please, for the sake of the line, don't release that figure. Like, again, the single one coming out with the Wolverine colors looks much better than the ultimate was going to look.
00:46:18
Speaker
I think too with going back to the idea of them having vault that could explain the move that they made with bunny you know force people to sign up for vault guaranteeing that you have access to the chases or rares if that's the case then yeah I'll do it but like
00:46:35
Speaker
Well, let me see the price point first. I know the ROH figures are going to be on there and they are in plastic free packaging, which is, you know, what are you doing? So that's not how collectors want this. That's another thing. I don't. Those could be the slip cases because they mentioned. Oh, you think that's just an additional piece? I think it's a slip. They say mentioned when you when you buy from vault again, this was during the Star Wars portion of it. They mentioned that when you buy
00:46:59
Speaker
a product from vault, it comes in a Siok box, comes in a shipper, basically, to ensure a higher quality, collector quality, since you're ordering directly from Jazwear. So I'm thinking that's the equivalent for those. I think it's going to be like the Cody and the Logan Paul altars. OK. OK. Well, that's bad, man. Because they showed the Aleister Black had like a slip case looking box, too. I think that's one of the other plus ups of ordering
00:47:28
Speaker
from vault they're using that as as kind of like they're uh more trash more or like like zoom like the layers like the stay exclusive um for for me my my biggest disappointment were things that were just kind of not present um i i have loved what hasbro has done with ghostbusters
00:47:50
Speaker
So far, like I love all of those figures. I was really hoping, especially with like, you know, granted, I'm sure filming has has paused, you know, based on. No, they're done. They're done. Yeah, they just made it. Well, like the company that like financed it is like filing for bankruptcy. So I don't know what that's going to do. But they're they're long done with. But honestly, I was hoping and I think reshoots, too. I was hoping we'd get, you know, maybe a look at
00:48:19
Speaker
Honestly, I was hoping the strategy was the same that it was for the last movie, where you have the original Ghostbusters movie figures that kind of come out prior to the new ones. I was hoping they would do that with Ghostbusters 2. I really want them to do like a VEGO build a figure wave. Mattel not good enough for you? I didn't get any of the Mattel ones. Matty collector on? Nope. I think Hasbro is probably a little gun show.
00:48:49
Speaker
You've right. Exactly. Hasbro, after what happened with the first movie and how the toys came out and then the movie got delayed a year, I think they're probably like, well, I'm not I'm not showing anything until it's in theaters. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. I don't think you're going to see anything till at least there's a trick. OK, fair. But I know it was Comic Con. I was hoping. Let me be near Comic Con. Maybe New York. But like, yeah, definitely. We're Toy Fair, but definitely not. When is Toy Fair now? Shock two weeks before. Yeah. September and October.
00:49:18
Speaker
So they're like back to back and the other thing too was, um, was Indiana Jones. So, you know, there's no word on, you know, whether that line is continuing. I think people are making the assumption that it's like, what you see is what you got at this point, but there are still some characters that, you know, would have been awesome to have been included from.
00:49:38
Speaker
Oh yeah, there was a shot of Indiana where his shirt was a little bit open. They haven't done that figure yet. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I think we're, I think we're, did they do any from the new movie? Oh yeah. Yeah, no, no, I think we're good. I think we got our basis covered with, with indie, but, but the, but there's like, you know, no young indie, right? Well, I love actually, I would love to see that, you know, I actually, in the Boy Scout outfit, I would, I would actually 100% be into that.
00:50:06
Speaker
And I love those retro ones. Like, I would love to see the last two movies in retro in some form. I still think the San Diego Comic Con exclusive for indie should have been a refrigerator with Indiana Jones inside of it.
00:50:22
Speaker
Man, I just watched Oppenheimer tonight. That would be the perfect, like, side-by-side viewing. Like... Oh, could you have survived an atomic bomb in a refrigerator? Um, yeah. No, I don't need crystal skull figures, but what I'm alluding to is I was hoping that there would be, you know, Molaram, you know, any bad guy for, like, my action figure of Indy to actually physically fight with, because...
00:50:51
Speaker
Didn't they tease him or something got released that shouldn't have? Probably. There's probably some sort of render. He must have been wearing a suit. Was he wearing a suit? Yeah, he was wearing a suit. That's all it is. It's Indian Jones and villains in suits. He was a bad German at the time. Bad German. That's the thing with the figures that's kind of...
00:51:10
Speaker
you know, unfortunate, and we talked about this a couple weeks ago when we were doing our list, you know, like I love the Raiders indie that they put out. I'm really excited to get the Last Crusade indie and Henry. But like, I have nobody for them to really interact with. Like, not even like the hangar pilot or hangar mechanic. Like, give me somebody for my... That's why you gotta get the retros. I don't want the retros. You got everybody you need.
00:51:39
Speaker
Listen, it's not called a random thug in the Crystal Skull. It's Indiana Jones. All right. I guess I guess I was just hoping for a little bit more out of that. I wanted them to.
00:51:52
Speaker
I wanted them to squeeze one of the other utters. It could. It could. I think that thing's shooting out dust at this point. They've done a lot like I was surprised to see as they did as many as they did. Somebody there asked the question like what's going on and they got back a pretty generic like we're exploring options like it's not done. I think it was Dan.
00:52:16
Speaker
Dan V. I can't pronounce his last name. I'm sorry, Dan. Dan V's Visemeyer is the comic book artist. He did the artwork for the VHS, the X-Men VHS. Dan very big on on my Twitter feed, my ex fee. He's always popping up. He's involved. But I think he's the one that he's he's a huge indie fan. And I think I saw him post about that, that he
00:52:42
Speaker
He talked to somebody and they gave him the PR answer. Well, I think the fact that the last movie didn't do well definitely didn't help. Definitely didn't help. And here I am saying I'm a huge Indiana Jones fan and I haven't seen it yet. Wait, it didn't do well? The Indiana Jones movie? It broke even. Did it break even? I mean, it didn't do so much. It didn't do Flash bad. Oh, poor Flash. I haven't seen that yet.
00:53:09
Speaker
I did see that. I actually saw a flash. I thought it was all right. Yeah, I was excited to see it and I almost did. And then something happened. We watched it all on TikTok. That's true. I sent you that one video and then all of a sudden it was everywhere. Yeah, that did sort of ruin it too. Yeah, you're welcome.
00:53:34
Speaker
Remember back when Wolverine had his own movies and someone released like the whole thing, but the VFX wasn't done and I watched it and I was like, oh, this looks like crap, but I did see it in theaters and it wasn't much better. I should have just released that was one of those like that was an infamous leak. Very, very, very big leak. Yeah.
00:53:56
Speaker
Anything else that anyone was particularly disappointed in before we moved to the next one? Well, it wasn't a surprise, but it's still sad to hear that Power Rangers isn't going to have a lot going on for it until we get that new show, if that ever happens. Because especially for me, if you can see behind me, I have the Power Ranger helmets, but I have an incomplete team.
00:54:18
Speaker
because there's no yellow, there's no black. And then I really wanted a green Power Ranger, a green Mighty Morphin helmet because they finally figured out what the helmet looks like. If you look on the remastered green Ranger, it looks great. And I really want that one to one helmet to put on the shelf behind me, but it's going to be a minute, it seems like.
00:54:37
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it seems like that that that line is on is at rest on pause, whatever, whatever on ice, I see. So, yeah, but I mean, that's one of those things where at least like Hasbro owns that whole. IP, you know, it's not like, well, until they don't like that sort of worries me to play hot potato with that thing. It's going to go back to Saban. I think he doesn't. I think he still has a piece of it.
00:55:06
Speaker
as part of like their deals of everything that guy. I think he's like executive producer for executive producer emeritus emeritus. That was the deal he struck. Because he bought it back from Disney, right? And then he sold it to Hasbro. Was that the lineage of that? Yeah. Yeah. OK. Not a dumb man, not a dumb man. I think he still gets executive producer credit on stuff. There you go. That's where the money is.
00:55:34
Speaker
So speaking of the money, who do you think made the biggest splash this year at the show? I have my thoughts. I mean, if it's anybody but Hasbro, please enlighten me because I feel like this was their show and then everyone else was just living in their show. I think even more specifically, I think the GI Joe team.
00:55:58
Speaker
I think what they had to show, it was kind of like a, a no nonsense presentation, really, you know, like they hit with like a few name only reveals of like big name characters, especially, you know, one that I've been hoping for for a long time with jinx. Um, and then, you know, then they showed off the thing that everybody, like the thing about the GI Joe line that I have,
00:56:27
Speaker
so much respect for them is they've listened. So like when people say like, hey, we want more of this and less of this and like we want this to look like this and like give us vehicles and smaller vehicles and you know, they they respond. And the fact that they announced the vamp and clutch, like one of the most iconic
00:56:47
Speaker
toy vehicles of all time, you know, is coming to the classified line, you know, no prices, of course associated with it, but it's going to be something that's available at retail and, you know, general Hawk. And, you know, when you, they have such a, you know, with, with very few exceptions. When you see a render like 99.9% of the time, that's the figure you're getting. Like they've had a couple of issues with some faces, um, on the renders, but like for the most part, when they show that that's like,
00:57:17
Speaker
Part and parcel, that's what you're getting at the end. And, um, I just, I think they had a really, really strong presentation, you know, going through like the different Hasbro ones like
00:57:28
Speaker
Sure. The Star Wars team crushed it with the Ghost Paz Lab, obviously. We talked about it. It's funded. I think the Marvel Legends team showing that the plastic-free packaging is gone, and the windows are coming back, and the Build-A-Figure and the Teases, one of them being Doc Ock.
00:57:50
Speaker
from the Alfred Molina one. I think each of them had moments, but then also the Star Wars panel had the holiday figures that everyone is very divided on. That are my favorite. I love them. Do you really? That was my pleasant surprise. Oh, yeah. Yes. So that was my pleasant surprise. I love to see the variety. I love to see what they come up with. It's one of those creative things. Yeah. I have all the Christmas ones so far.
00:58:20
Speaker
Yes, same here. But it's like a guy like me who I've been collecting, like my parents started collecting me back in back in 83. I wasn't even born until like well after the third movie came out. But they were buying stuff for me. So like, I have like literally everything. And it's like, what do you get the guy who's got everything you get them something completely different. So this little sub line just like scratches that itch so well, because it's so weird and stupid.
00:58:46
Speaker
And like Life Day Chewy, I kind of want that. That one. Oh yeah. Life Day Chewy, I am 100% in for. Like that. But like otherwise, my only Star Wars figures that I have, because as much as I love Star Wars, like you can't do everything, is, you know, KOSKA. Oh yeah. I have the election in the Black Series, Sasha, or Mercedes, but
00:59:10
Speaker
Oh, right, right, right. Yeah. Dave gets wrestling figures, figures of wrestlers in media outside of wrestling. Did they ever make a Triple H in that blade line from Toy Biz? Not that I know of. Oh, man. We got to look at that. We got to look at the chaperone. Did that get toys? But I absolutely love the Christmas figures like. Give me all the the snow borgs.
00:59:41
Speaker
Precious little snow corks, you know, I I just I I I think yeah Paul to your point Like I think it was definitely, you know Hasbro commanded the most attention just because of the amount of brands that they had represented, you know transformers They had a great panel, too Yeah, I think if I had to pick like a winner with inside the winner it would it would be GI Joe
01:00:05
Speaker
It's so funny that you say that because I was hearing the opposite where it's like, G.I. Joe was like, was it on Sunday? It was like very late in the show. And then people were mad that it was just like a PowerPoint presentation. And then like the jinx reveal didn't even have a render to go along with it.
01:00:20
Speaker
So it's like what you saw just blew you away so much that none of it, none of anything, nothing else even matter. No, I think outside of the ghost, too, they just had a Star Wars. They had a PowerPoint for Star Wars. They did have a display out. Yeah. And they did with G.I. Joe. But yeah, Star Wars was also just a weird PowerPoint. Yep. Mm. OK. Yeah, most of them were most of them were formatted that way. I mean, you know, even Mattel's W.W. Lee was was a PowerPoint. Yeah, but they were like a giant auditorium, Paul.
01:00:49
Speaker
Like I want to call H Hall H was empty. They should get everybody in there. But I thought Mattel WWE stuff was great, too. Like, yeah, they always do a very good job on presentation. And I think that's the like, you know, who made the biggest splash? Well, you know, with Mattel with WWE, it's like, well, they did what we thought. But like a lot of it was great. So like an unexpected and there were some surprises and
01:01:17
Speaker
stuff that they announced that's already showing up places like there has been now forever together pack i can't believe that it's like the logistics of how they swung that
01:01:29
Speaker
That is going to be that. And the six pack of Batman's are going to be neck and neck for the most big swapped item of all time. Oh, what do you listen that from the. So for the four pack, you got Austin, you got Becky Lynch, Hogan, Hogan, Rocky, my via. Yeah. So for me, I want that Rocky, my via.
01:01:53
Speaker
They so there's like you want something from it. You probably don't care about Becky Becky Lynch I would love to have that Austin and Jean shorts So like you're gonna see this on the shelves and like one figure is gonna look a little weird Cuz like someone bought it returned it with another figure in there Well, here's here's the thing with that Austin. I don't know if you know what that is That's the last that's WrestleMania versus KO Austin. Yeah old man Austin Is it new like new Jean short molds though?
01:02:20
Speaker
But it's also the T-shirt is the Dallas one and it's he's he's got like he's old. Yeah, he's got. I mean, you know, props to him because he looks he he looked good like in that match. So it's not like he's got gray hair. Like he's not like old old Hogan compared to new Hogan. Like it's all looks like Austin.
01:02:39
Speaker
So I want that figure, but I'm not going to buy it until, but it might hit clearance because it's a target exclusive. I believe it is a target exclusive. What I'm hoping for. So the listing hasn't popped up yet. Um, we've been looking for it. Apparently our, our local targets have them, but don't know where they are sort of thing. Um, but, uh, I'm hoping it's because it's been a little bit. That they've done the 25, the 25% off or what is it usually it's like,
01:03:08
Speaker
50, 50, 50, 75 and 20 off. Oh, you want the coupon? Hoping that one of those coupons is coming up soon because I know a lot of the stores are doing resets. We got some new waves of stuff coming out. If you go in the app right now, they have 20 percent off if you're a teacher or 20 percent off if you're a student and you can stack them. So if you have some other coupons heading in there, I could be a student.
01:03:49
Speaker
We all be students.
01:03:53
Speaker
Maddy collector? Yeah, Maddy collector. No, Maddy adventures and collecting daughter. She has a little collection of basics and she's mad that none of her male action figures can do like a super kick. She's like, why does everyone kick forward and backward? Can't spring for the elites? Well, she bashes them together and the two and a half year old picks them up and bashes them together and like,
01:04:19
Speaker
Get them some $6 Samoans from the target sale right now. I could. I could. Those are good figures. My fear is that if I get her the elites, she's going to love the articulation play with them so much that the basics are going to be completely out the window. So I'm trying to tamp down enthusiasm. Yeah, no, I guess. Yeah, that's a big price jump. It's like double the price. So that and the basics are, frankly, they're more adorable.
01:04:47
Speaker
Honestly, once you're rolling through Target and she sees a Danhausen on the shelves, you're done with that. Well, don't worry, you have about three years before that's going to happen. Yeah, we're going to get the Amazon one first.
01:05:00
Speaker
hundred percent. That's what's going to happen. We're going to get the ring side is going to be out at the end of the month. Wow. That's a whole other thing. Yeah. Yeah. I want that punk MGF set, but like after last year's ringside sale where I was getting like a W figures for like a dollar or whatever it was. I'm like, is this going to go on clearance? Like if I just wait till my birthday haven't, no, they haven't. Okay. And that set rules. It's, it looks so great. It does. So speaking of, uh, of exclusives,
01:05:29
Speaker
Like, you might get a little dip, but you're not gonna get, like, the half off. Half off, I know. I know. It might drop five bucks, ten bucks. You probably should. Um, I don't think that one's gonna sell out. I think that's gonna be one of those, like, ones that they kind of just have perpetually.
01:05:47
Speaker
Yes, and that's I think that's already what's happening, like, because it's like, oh, the next order is coming in next. But I just dropped 100 on that. The power town, Matt and Brian. You got those same. Yeah, I think they. Well, it's funny because I didn't I got to see these figures in person and I don't care about those other characters they've done. But I like Matt and Brian and I'm not not waiting for those super sevens any coming anytime soon. So the power towns are ridiculous. They're ridiculously good.
01:06:18
Speaker
Are they heavy? People keep saying how heavy they are. They have. They have some weight they feel, but it's not like. Go ahead. It feels like I was going to say there, I feel like they might. They're definitely heavier than what we're used to with other stuff, but it's not like like. You know, it's not like picking up an LJN. No, they feel closer to a storm collectibles figure or like, yeah, in that kind of that they have.
01:06:48
Speaker
There's like the texture to them.
01:06:51
Speaker
feels like premium or even like a NECA. Yeah, I like that a lot when you get that nice texture on the skin. Yeah. Yeah. That's one great thing about the 3D printing or the 3D modeling that everybody does now. You can get that in there. Yeah. And and these. Yeah, those are fantastic. They do. They do feel premium. I don't have heavy is the right word. I don't. The only one that I've I've gotten hands on was was Magma Tia. But it was I was I was impressed.
01:07:20
Speaker
They do have a little bit of Rigidity to them in terms of like their articulation, but as you Matt and Brian have said, you know countless times like They look great posed on a shelf
01:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, their whole like sort of just justifying like not moving them. I call BS on that because like these are still toys at the end of the day. Well, that was with the whole leg. Yeah. No, no. Yeah. Right. I just mean in terms of like even then after they were six, the legs now that they're fixed, though, are they're great. They move without a problem. It's just, you know.
01:07:54
Speaker
But is it like my Super 7 Rangers where I put the leg forward to sit and it snapped right off because it's hard plastic against hard plastic? No. No, they changed it so it wasn't hard plastic against hard plastic. Okay, good. Good. Good. Somebody send Brian a memo on that. All my Super 7s are breaking. Are they really? Yeah, I like just put them... I had a Green Ranger, I put them in a sitting pose. It snapped right off because it's just like hard against hard. That's just what's going to happen. Yeah, I have still sitting in the box. I haven't opened it yet.
01:08:23
Speaker
I have the Bruce Lee, the warrior, the one with the soft goods jacket and tank top. It looks awesome. Like I'm happy with the way that like the faces came out and everything. I'm just. I'm not I'm not quite ready to opening it.
01:08:44
Speaker
No, yeah, it's safer in there. Very quickly, while we're talking about, you know, either surprises or disappointments, Super 7, their big thing was the cat's lair for Thundercats. We didn't see the Simpsons. We didn't see TMNT. What's going on with all those licenses? Yeah, we saw the cat's lair and we saw the new Misfits figures.
01:09:06
Speaker
That's it. Which I'm excited for the mystery. I'm just glad they're doing those he-man style figures again. I love the savage world. I think that's what they're called. Savage world. With the ones with Funko? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that was Funko. But I'm pleased as punch. If Glen Danzig was ever meant to have an action figure of himself, it's definitely on a he-man body. But yeah.
01:09:36
Speaker
Paul, you're right, there wasn't really a big presence when it came to, there was no presence. Nothing, not anything. And those Simpson figures were like five series deep in pre-orders. They just teased Marge and Lisa, which is what people have been asking for, begging for, the classic family. And we don't even have pre-orders on those yet. Getting a little scary. You know, it's...
01:10:04
Speaker
Clearly, it's been a little rocky for them. I mean, they've lost a couple of figures now to not having enough orders, right? They lost the... Oh, that Tigerzord. That was a surprise. Tigerzord, Madame Woe, the Rescuers. Brothers.
01:10:20
Speaker
The rescuers, yeah, a Disney license not getting enough orders. Gallows and Anderson. Good Brothers. I'm fine with that one. I don't know who they thought they were going to get to buy that second set, but you know, got to try, I guess. I have the first ones. They're fine. They're fine. You're going to get elites of them. Well, I don't know. At the rate they're getting TV time, maybe not.
01:10:45
Speaker
So, uh, yeah, but I think that was, uh, that was also interesting. What, you know, what their focus was, but you know, at the same time they were focusing on the stuff that they, you know, that they had to show, uh, you know, I guess that's the, uh, the vac metal silver Hawks. I know we're a little controversial. The fact that they're doing, Oh yeah. Yeah. Are people mad? It kind of seems like it. Um, have your cake and collect after, after saying, uh, they did say that it was not feasibly possible.
01:11:15
Speaker
to do that, so. That was the old technology, there's new technology now. Yeah, it is what it is, right? Personally, the Silverhawks thing is not my bag, so. No, me neither. I just enjoy the drama of it more than anything else because people were told, you gotta have this because you can't have it the other way, and they're like, fine, I'll buy it. Now it's like, just kidding, buy it again.
01:11:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think I saw people saying that they should have an exchange program where if you bought the original, you should be able to trade it in. It's only fair. That's not how business works. Who's company? What is it? It's like we're changing the way business is done. It's not a toy company.
01:12:04
Speaker
It's not a company. Yeah. I think it's Elon at this point. He's changing it for the worst. Yeah. Super seven is now branded as X. That's. Oh, no. I'm sure another company owns that. Someone in the 90s had to try doing like X X taking it to the extreme. X dream. Probably the adult superstars company. That was soda, right? Or that was like another Jerry company. And. Somebody referenced him as doing those figures on on X.
01:12:36
Speaker
I can't. I still can't. Is it is it is it Zeet or is it XE? Well, so that's not real. That that thing that was edited or that was, you know, Photoshop. But I'm sure we're not far away from still really good. Fake or not. It just makes me sad. I love the thing that name's taken off, though. We're calling it a Zeet. What name? Yeah.
01:13:01
Speaker
I don't think it ever. I think that was somebody playing a joke and we just all believed it because everything else in this timeline is so insane. Yeah, but I think like people are actually using it in the kind of pop culture sphere. Well, sure, because it makes fun of how stupid this all is. Right. Yes. Yes. Right. If you're if you're listening, Z that Z just please. Z does what you need us at.
01:13:27
Speaker
So is this where we pound the subscribes? No, we don't have Q&A. The whole thing has just been a conversation. Bill, you've been very quiet. I feel like you have some thoughts about... I usually am.
01:13:45
Speaker
Those the straight man in this called us all does all the talking. Yeah, I did the fact check. I'm not allowed to touch my computer during our recordings. Well, listen, any like I said, if you want to update your technology or for you to reference my Star Wars insiders, that's the best I can do for you right now. You have it all inside your head, though. You don't even know. Do I? I don't know. You know what? I'm going to tell you right now. I should tell you. I should have given you guys a disclaimer if it comes to wrestling.
01:14:11
Speaker
I'm dead silent. Got it. Well, if it comes to what else? We have our our soft spots in terms of power Rangers. Quiet. I just keep getting distracted by the vintage collection display that nobody listening to this gets to hear.
01:14:28
Speaker
That's right. You can see a nice little square of it on TikTok. And a lot of people always ask for a room tour, but the room in its current state is kind of messy. And I myself have two kids and it's just impossible to get down here to tidy it up. But.
01:14:45
Speaker
Bill's always afraid someone's going to break in and rob him if they know. That's the other thing, too. If you want to see weird A.I. versions of Paul's legs. Yeah. And a square of Bill's display.
Social Media Reactions and AI Content
01:14:57
Speaker
People think it's real. I keep getting people on YouTube being like, oh, you have an awesome set up there. I'm like, thank you. Cave? What are you doing in that cave? Why are you squatting the whole time? You're squatting. That hurts. I got to say the one where you were on the toilet really like it.
01:15:13
Speaker
It threw me off like I didn't like it. You should have seen the ones I didn't use. I do like 70 versions and picked the best. Oh, because I, you know, I, I, I scroll through it. I love, I love the way that you guys, you know, present your show on, on TikTok. I think it's, I think it's awesome. Um, but like, since you started doing the AI ones, like I'll, I'll, which is the point of it, right? The TikTok, then to watch it several times and be like, what the.
01:15:38
Speaker
just see so like you know I was like he's on a toilet I hate it scroll I'll send you I'll send you some of the ones that didn't cut because it got a lot worse a lot worse than that I'll at you so you have to see you'll you'll see them to me I'll see you I'll see them right at you
01:15:58
Speaker
Look at this. It's great. I was quietly looking up X toys and seeing if X toys ever existed. And and they did X toys. X toys did exist. They did Wild Wild West. Oh, oh my God. And they did the Saturday Night Live figures. They did Goat Boy. Oh, my God. I remember that. Do you remember these? I remember those.
01:16:17
Speaker
Do you guys remember I was gonna say X reminds me of shocker toys because they did something like shocker X or something Do you remember shocker toys?
Shocker Toys and Toy Production Quirks
01:16:26
Speaker
Jeff Beckett? Oh my god We're gonna have to do a whole episode someday about about Jeff Beckett and shocker toys like you'll go down a rabbit hole You'll never escape
01:16:36
Speaker
I won't, I won't, I won't say anything more. I want you to discover this on your own. The wonder that is this man and this, this quote unquote company that has swindled so many friends for so many years. All right. I have, I have a note. Um, so before we, we kind of, uh, we, we kind of wrap up here, um,
01:16:58
Speaker
Now that San Diego Comic Con is in the rearview mirror and looking towards the rest of the year that the next two big events are Toy Fair and New York Comic Con in the fall, what are we hoping to see at a New York Comic Con? What's something that you're hoping gets revealed at either Toy Fair or Comic Con? Because like we said, they're weeks apart from each other.
01:17:24
Speaker
I don't know. I feel like we have enough, right? We can just stop. Stop production of toys at this point. Yeah, I don't. I feel like I mean, how many how many X many animated Wolverines do I need at least one more? But after that, no more. Come on. They still haven't made him in like his in like his his his his jacket, like the jacket and jeans like the model one. That would be great. Marvel.
01:17:49
Speaker
Well, they will, I'm sure. This reminds me of when they did X-Men evolution toys and they really tried to do like every iteration of Logan. Like he came with the bike and he was in his civvies. I'm like, that was a weird time.
Retro Star Wars and Toy Company Ambitions
01:18:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, they I'd probably I think I would like to see at least in New York, I'd like to see some physical copies of the the retro phantom menace figures. Yeah.
01:18:19
Speaker
I think that's happening. Yeah, they do it. They have a character list. They have a character list of them, right? Maybe Anakin six. They got Qui-Gon and not any of this. They got Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Maul, Padme, Battle Droid and Jar Jar Jar. Oh, they're doing Jar Jar, but not Anakin. They're doing Jar Jar. No Anakin. And it's not a box set. They're individual. So I am 100 percent buying. I don't.
01:18:43
Speaker
I haven't gotten into any of the retros, but I'm 1,000% buying Jar Jar Binks. Do they come with a Comtech reader? No, because they're based on the retro.
01:18:57
Speaker
Well, think about what the retro Comtec reader would be like a walkie talkie or something. It's one of those. Oh, it's a backpack that you put on the back of the figure. And yes, there it is. Like like those toy biz, a toy marble figure. Yeah, those and the venom. That was great. Yeah. Now, those would be that's like the Jack's Titan Tron.
01:19:21
Speaker
Guys, do you want to start a toy company with us? What are we going to make, Paul? I feel like we should do it. Let's just do it. Let's just start a toy company. We can have Paul Harding sculpt our stuff. I think he's too busy at this point. We'll pay him more. We'll pay him in love. We'll pay him in... I can afford love. Yeah, we've got a lot of love to give. Break his legs. Jesus, Bill. You're freaking loud. Break his legs.
01:19:51
Speaker
You know we everybody Everybody tries to start a toy company now. That's like the new that's like the new thing But like, you know unparalleled universe. He was successful with his his odious his mascot odious figure with his Kickstarter, but um chart chart of his prime was not so successful when he tried to do his his toy line, so
01:20:17
Speaker
Here's why we will be successful, because we are a student of the game. We see what works, we see what doesn't work, and we're not afraid to copy what works.
01:20:37
Speaker
Oh, wow, that's nice. I'm going to put that on a T-shirt. Yeah, I was going to say that's got a T-shirt. Amateurs borrow. Let's just bring back pogs. That's easy enough. Oh, that's the first thing we do. Pogs, just of our faces. He's back. Pogs are, I mean, with this trading card boom, I can't believe the pogs didn't even try to come back. Yeah.
01:20:58
Speaker
That's a NECA thing. He should have packed a pog with all his elf and whatever figures. Good of Ninja Turtles pogs. Yeah, a shredder, a shredder slammer. Ninja Turtle pogs wouldn't sell like hotcakes. Like give them away in this market today. Yes. Yeah, I want that pog maker make my own pogs. Oh, my God. I can't be that difficult to make pogs. We're going to find out because that's our first item.
01:21:24
Speaker
From the Reluctant in Adventures Collectibles store. Pogs. The Reluctant Adventures. Oh, Reluctant Adult Adventures. That sounds... Yeah, that's easy. You gotta take the adult out of that one. Just Reluctant Adventures. Oh, no, it stays. That sounds like a late night Cinemax show. That's right. Up All Night. Yes. Wow. I Reluctant Adult Adventures. I guess. Unzips.
01:21:53
Speaker
Yeah. Sound effect here.
Reluctant Adult Podcast and Conclusion
01:21:58
Speaker
Well, guys, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of the Reluctant Adult podcast. Tell tell everyone where they can hear from. I literally was just about to say the same thing. I know. I saw your mouth start to burst for that. Damn it. So you can find us at adventures in. No. How many how many versions of Instagram are you on at this point? Just the two.
01:22:21
Speaker
Instagram thread. We got that first one back. Yeah. Oh, what happened? Um, we still have no idea. Oh, you didn't find out what we did. That was, that was the rival Bravo. Well done. Bravo. So, uh, so, so, so tell, it was the long game. Yep. Damn it. Um, so tell our, our listeners, that's right. Our listeners, Paul and Bill.
01:22:50
Speaker
Um, all, all six of us, uh, seeing double for where, um, where, where can we, where can we hear the reluctant adult podcast? Where can we find you guys on, uh, on the social medias?
01:23:04
Speaker
So you can find us at pixel Dan on Twitter. That's where we spend most of our time. Just type in the Reluctant Adult podcast will come up. If you want to see visual stuff, Instagram is good. TikTok, we usually post the same videos on each platform. New episode every Sunday afternoon or whenever I can get it ready. We record Saturday, try to get it up the next day. So it's nice and fresh popping, piping hot right out of the oven.
01:23:35
Speaker
You can follow me on Twitter at feet mittens. That's my personal account. I gave up on doing a reluctant. But yeah, I gave up on the podcast Twitter because, you know, it's hard to break into. You got to buy it, apparently, to get people to see your your tweets or your seats seats. Bill, you can just come to his house and he'll show you his toys in person. Yeah, I'm along for the ride. That's about it.
01:24:04
Speaker
What a ride it's been. Dave and Bill are sharing a lot of the same energy. Cut from the same cloth. Yeah, I know. It's funny. You were talking earlier before the show about how similar our stories are. It does. We're very mirror image here. It's very funny. I even got the mustache to have gone. Yeah, this was fun. Let's definitely do this again. But Dave, do you want Bill to send us home?
01:24:35
Speaker
Ooh. Yeah, Bill can send us home. That is home, Bill. Have a good night, guys. I have to wake up in three hours. Oh, my God. Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
01:25:03
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.
01:25:27
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.