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Kickstart My Heart: Series 2 of Animal Warriors of the Kingdom
372 Plays6 months ago
Friend of the pod Jason Bienvenu from Spero is back on the show to talk about his latest successful Kickstarter campaign for Animal Warriors of Kingdom Series 2! With just a few days left, see why you should back this campaign before it's too late!
Back AWOK Series 2
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thekingdomcomic/animal-warriors-of-the-kingdomtm-primal-series-2?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=animal%20warriors%20
Follow Spero Toys on Instagram @sperotoys
Save 20% on Liquid I.V. by using our offer code at liquid-iv.com
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting
00:00:03
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Where we talk toy news, culture, and hauls. Along with our journeys as collectors.
Post-WrestleMania Reset and Wrestling News
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:34
Speaker
Hi, Dave. Uh, we are, we are back and, uh, we are, we are post WrestleMania, which is always kind of like a reset for us to, for
Podcast Feed Glitch and Multiverse Theory
00:00:45
Speaker
a little bit. Um, as, as we kind of, we gear into all the, the, the wrestling action figure news. Uh, Eric, I have a question. Dave, please.
00:00:57
Speaker
Unless you wanted to talk about something else real quick first. Well, I mean, I just wanted to say this, you know, I wanted to apologize to everybody. Something really strange. For me, for me being in charge for a week? No, no, no. Something really weird happened with our podcast feed a couple weeks ago. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:01:20
Speaker
Some poor weird portal opens. Yeah, you know, maybe the multiverse is real. But I hope I hope that didn't, you know, that a strange, you know, one off episode didn't didn't completely upend your your toy enjoyment. But we're going to we're going to leave it there for posterity purposes somewhere, somewhere. People who are listening to a food podcast were like, why is this about toys this week?
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't even think about that. There's always a yin to the yang, as they say.
Toy Farce Antics and Lego Brick Shoes
00:01:52
Speaker
Hey, Eric, I'm going to ask you a toy farce-inspired question. Oh, boy. Did you bury any leads at sea? Oh, that toy farce. First, he kidnaps our mascot, then he
00:02:09
Speaker
He quite literally shows everyone where the bodies are buried, or in this case, the leads. I think he might have some Lego brick shoes built for him in the future. He might find himself sunken with Lego brick shoes. Honestly, you'd cause more harm putting a Lego brick in his shoes.
00:02:33
Speaker
solid point is solid point, but no, I, I did not bury any leads at sea and I am not going to not by sea, not by air, not by land. No, no leads will be
Interview with Jason Bienvenu on Toy Kickstarter
00:02:46
Speaker
buried. Uh, we do have a guest joining us on the, on the podcast this week. Um, and I think I tried to do the math on this and I, I
00:02:58
Speaker
Anyone that knows me knows that math is not my strong suit, but I'm pretty sure, um, this week's guest is the first guest to have like two episodes in such a brief amount of time, um, on adventures and collecting. So like we're all, we're all about setting new records on this show and.
00:03:17
Speaker
and trying to read you those stats. It's my best, best in, in, you know, impersonation of Michael Cole. Um, adventures and collecting by the numbers. Yeah. By the numbers. Uh, so not too long ago, we sat down with Spirotoys, Jason Bienvenu to talk about animal warriors of the kingdom. And, uh, he told us that a Kickstarter was coming and that Kickstarter is very much so here and also very much so fully funded. Uh, so returning to the show with just a few days left on said campaign,
00:03:47
Speaker
Jason, welcome back to Adventures in Collecting, buddy. Thank you all so much for having me.
00:03:54
Speaker
It is, it is always a pleasure. Um, you know, congratulations upfront, uh, on, on a wildly successful, uh, campaign. And there's, there's still time for that campaign to be even more wildly successful. And, you know, we'll, we'll get into that shortly. Um, Eric, that was like leadception you in within not burying the lead. You also did not bury a second lead.
00:04:18
Speaker
that the campaign's already funded. Both leads up there. Yeah, I think by the time this episode airs, the campaign will have just a couple days left, two or three days left. And there's always with Kickstarters, everybody knows with Kickstarters, there's always that the last 24 hours is always huge, because everybody that wants to save those charges very, very, very end, get their orders in.
00:04:44
Speaker
You know, one could argue that the two most important windows of any Kickstarter campaign, the first 36 hours in the last 36. So, uh, yeah. So the timing is, it's very true. This, this is the butter zone to have this conversation. But before we get into the Kickstarter itself, we're still in the marathon phase of the Kickstarter.
Jason's Toy Pickups and Marvel Legends Discussion
00:05:04
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Um, let's check in. Uh, what is, what is the most recent piece you have added to your personal collection?
00:05:14
Speaker
Um, so I've actually been getting a lot of stuff lately, but let's see here. So I actually, I moved a couple of things just now because the cat's been knocking stuff over, but I got this particular master verse. He man, and he was so good. I got, I had to get a second one cause it came with two different, uh, alternate, uh, you know, the, the traditional, uh, metal plating.
00:05:38
Speaker
And then I got a two-pack with Sabretooth. I've been waiting for this Sabretooth to be reissued or another version. Essentially, I started collecting Marvel Legends about eight months after this figure. Version one was impossible to find. So I got that guy. And I got pretty much all the Marvel 97 X-Men stuff. And then the last thing I got recently was
00:06:03
Speaker
This, I didn't realize that this was a Walmart exclusive and I didn't want to, I was like hoping to find it in the wild. And once I realized it was an exclusive, I went ahead and ordered it. Um, and then I think like two days after it came in, I saw that they were offering the, uh, the retro card back. So I'm going to wait till that hits stores to get two more so that I can have like a little squad of Cobra eels. But, uh, those are my recent pickups. Yeah. That saber tooth is.
00:06:30
Speaker
Unbelievable. It's gorgeous. My only little, I do have one little nitpick, and it's super little. I just wish he had fisted hands. He's got alternate hands of, he's got claws, but then he's got more open claws, which is cool, but I wish one of them would have been a fist. But again, dude, it's a 9.5 out of 10. It's fantastic. Yeah, I agree. I actually would have preferred fists over the second head. If I had to pick,
00:07:00
Speaker
Like, if I had to pick, yeah. I'm on the same page. Because both heads are very good, but it is nice to have fists. And you know what? The sleeper in that two-pack, I mean, there's only two in there. But the Logan is really good, too. He really is. I was surprised at, you know, it's funny with some of the, I know some people, I don't prefer, I don't like the term, but I know some people call them hostage packs.
00:07:30
Speaker
That's funny. He is a, he is a, um, more, more than like, I mean, it's, it's a great, it's just a great two pack heat. There's, there's something very unique about that the way that they sculpted, you know, the, the Logan on that too. Um, it's mostly new sculpting on that. They're both beautiful figures. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm displaying it. I don't know which version of Wolverine it is, but he looks like the classic Brown and yellow. Um, so that's who I'm displaying him with right now.
00:07:59
Speaker
But, uh, yeah, the, the, the cowboy Wolverine is just outstanding. And it is a shame that it does get overshadowed in the way that it does, but it's just such a good figure. And it just happens to be packaged with an outstanding figure, you know?
Kickstarter Success and Unlocked Tiers
00:08:13
Speaker
So, yep. I'm calling it now though, that, that Logan figure is going to people, a lot of people are going to want that figure in probably, I'm going to say like six to eight months when that Wolverine video game comes out.
00:08:26
Speaker
people are going to go back and if anyone did like part with the Logan as part of the set or whatever, they're going to have some regrets. It's funny you say that because I got the his tank and I am leaving the Cobra commander on card because I just have no interest in it, which is hilarious because that's what made me back the Hazlab in the first place. And then I got it and I was like, you know what? I'm going to keep it on the card.
00:08:55
Speaker
Left there's a third figure that I left on the card as well and I was like, you know what? I'll hold on to them and maybe it could be a good Christmas present or something for somebody or birthday present, you know But I'm sure they I'm sure they probably going for like a hundred bucks right now on eBay I just I don't bother look so I look at the moment. I saw that Cobra commander I Immediately wanted to put the snake supreme deep cape on him that cape looks outstanding. Is that from super 7? I
00:09:23
Speaker
No, this is the one from, I think it was, I want to say it was like the first Hasbro pulse con or maybe it was San Diego comic-con. There was that like dark blue snake Supreme Cobra. And the moment, moment I saw this figure, I was like, uh,
00:09:40
Speaker
You know, you know, that they're going to put this out again, you know, probably the updated Cobra commander, we're the updated Cobra logo. Like not that. That's actually why I didn't open it. Cause I'm waiting for them to re-release it with the, uh, with the accurate, not the Mickey mouse, uh, Cobra logo, but I couldn't, I couldn't resist. He looks great. He's cool. I love the point of hand too. That's cool. So that's, that's the, my, my primary display Cobra command. Nice. There you go.
00:10:11
Speaker
So, getting right into it, like we said when Eric had the leadception going on, the Kickstarter campaign for Series 2 of Animal Warriors of the Kingdom has been a smashing success. So far reason more than double the goal. How you feeling about that?
00:10:30
Speaker
We feel awesome. I mean, we don't take anything for granted, but, you know, we're extremely humbled and excited that we've essentially unlocked everything except for one figure that we showed on day one. We did it a little bit different than the last time. The last time we kind of like trickled stuff out. And honestly, because they were like scrambling to show stuff.
00:10:49
Speaker
But so far we've unlocked, let's see, one, two, three, four. We've unlocked four additional figures. We've unlocked head pack-ins. So the last time we did head packs that were just sold separately, this time everyone so far that is released is getting an alternate head pack-in. So we've unlocked all of that.
00:11:12
Speaker
we're about to unlock another body type with which is a bird figure and that opens up the possibilities for so many more characters because it's just so many different kind of birds so that's what we're working on right now during that kind of marathon part of the Kickstarter that everyone you know who's done a Kickstarter is familiar with it's kind of slow going in the middle and then right at the end it really ramps up and kind of takes a really skyrockets onto the finish line so
00:11:39
Speaker
We've got three birds total to unlock, another ox figure, and then the big figure that everyone's super excited about is General Mamba, which is our elephant figure. He will be $89 on the Kickstarter, so a lot of people are just backing right now with the $89 so that whenever he unlocks, they'll have that either
00:12:04
Speaker
Select it as a reward while the kickstarter is live or have it roll over and just select it in the backer kit but The important thing is to make sure that people back during the backer or during the kickstarter So that they have access to all the kickstarter discounted prices The backer kit will be open for about 40 days after the kickstarter ends
00:12:24
Speaker
And then after that, it will revert to a more traditional pre-order model where everything's just normal retail price. So we've got a ton of great savings built into every reward level. And we'd love everyone to just kind of head over and check it out before the Kickstarter actually ends. And we're sure there'll be something for each person to enjoy. And I'm sure several characters will speak to most collectors.
New Character Types and Design Challenges
00:12:51
Speaker
So you mentioned some of the tears being unlocked already. And at the time of this recording, we're close to those avian figures and, let's say, more bulkier characters. Why don't you give us a little bit more detail about, because these new body types, the birds and the, there's a rhino, an elephant, a hippo. Tell us a little bit more about these characters.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah, well, let me recap what all the characters that are unlocked are first. So the first three figures are reptiles. We've got three different reptiles. They all feature opening and closing jaws. One of them is a chameleon. It's got 360 eye movement.
00:13:34
Speaker
They all have over 27 points, 28 points of articulation. And then we move on to our next body type, which is a beefier, more muscular body type. That's the brawler body type. We've got King Hannibal, which is a lion. Then we've got Kali Prime, which is a muscular version of the main villain. And then we've got Grimes, who is our second canine character that we revealed.
00:14:02
Speaker
And they all come with additional weapons. They have the same articulation as the reptiles. And then after that, we move on to our Vixens or our female characters. We've got three female characters. One of the main characters is Mother Mala. She's the leader of the Chenari, House Chenari. She has magic effects on her weapons. So you'll be able to remove the flames on her sword and the ice effect on the shield. They all come with alternate heads as well.
00:14:30
Speaker
and then after that we move on to the speedster buck which is a little bit more kind of streamlined like a flash type body type and we've got kanji a rabbit who's got the 360 degree ball jointed ears he's also got a toe articulation and then after that we've got boon who's a fox he features a
00:14:51
Speaker
a mechanical arm and then we have a horde assassin which is an army builder for house horde he will come with an additional head as well and then we kind of move on to the birds which will have all the same articulation that i mentioned before but they will also feature wings and
00:15:10
Speaker
What's cool about it is if you want to remove the wings, you can do that. So we actually showed off some renders of him. I think we started showing them off yesterday where he actually doesn't have the wings attached. So I'm anxious to see what kind of display people are going to choose to do. It was going to have the wings on or off. I'll probably get several because I want to do both versions. And then after that, we move on to the big boy, the big chunky
00:15:36
Speaker
Tater Todd, I like to call him. That will be General Mamba, who is an elephant. He is absolutely huge. I think he's the same scale as the mythic ogres to kind of give you a point of reference. Oh my God. All right.
00:15:51
Speaker
What's that? Oh, yeah, it's quite a big figure and it's about as wide as it is tall. So it's going to be a very imposing figure. I'm kind of picturing fans displaying, you know, smaller figures kind of like clamoring on him. You know, he'll be able to hold figures. It's going to be just a really cool showpiece figure. His articulation will be limited, but you'll still have a great range of motion. He's going to have, you know, articulation in the trunk. There'll be a limited articulation on the ears. The tusks will move.
00:16:21
Speaker
I don't think we're going to get the butterfly joints on him just because of how big the arms and chest are, but he'll still have the biceps swivels. He'll most likely have the double-hinged elbows.
00:16:34
Speaker
Rocker rocker ankles. He's gonna he's gonna be packed with articulation He won't have stuff like an ab crunch, but he will have like the like right under the breast That's where his his torso articulation will be and then he'll of course have like a waist Swivel, but it won't be like the bowl that you see on wave one and two figures Yeah, I was trying to think of when I was looking at those the the pictures of those unlocks how big He was compared to say like Thane
00:17:02
Speaker
right yeah he's probably you know if we if we say it in feet i wish i could drop you an image but uh let's see here let me let me look it up while while we we discuss real quick it should only take a second and i can give you a little bit more of a like a a visual description with my magical velvety voice
00:17:22
Speaker
So he is about three heads taller than Thane, just to kind of give you an idea. It doesn't sound like it's that much bigger, but when you see the image, you're like, oh wow, that's going to be a presence on my toy display shelf. For those that are not necessarily, maybe not that familiar with the line, Thane is a very large gorilla.
00:17:45
Speaker
wearing a gladiator helmet and he's about the size of say like a one of like the larger Marvel Legends build a figure like sailor or like the thing maybe yeah the thing or incredible Hulk you know so we're talking two to three heads larger than that so you know I think that should give people my good my thinking like like almost like Swamp Thing
00:18:12
Speaker
I would say that's a good indication, yeah. Yeah, jeez. That's a big boy. Yeah, there aren't enough elephants. What's that? There aren't enough elephant action figures. Agreed. We got to get some elephants in there. Yeah. Especially elephant sized, you know? Right? I mean, come on. Yeah, we need to address the elephant in the room, finally. That's just...
00:18:42
Speaker
He needs to be in the room though. Yeah. So after, after him, who's who's next.
00:18:53
Speaker
Okay, so that's the kind of big figure literally and figuratively that we're shooting for the stretch goals for the majority of the Kickstarter. But we recently just revealed two more, and that is going to be a Rhino and a Hippo, and they are actually going to be part of the House Packadine Army. So we've got General Mamba, who's the leader of House Packadine, and then
00:19:21
Speaker
The two army builders of the hippo and the rhino who will kind of make up the brunt of the army. So cool and formidable. So we definitely yeah they're big they are bigger than thing as well so.
00:19:37
Speaker
So, so we just went to, I have a recent like obsession with hippos. We went to, uh, here in New Jersey, we have the, the Camden state aquarium. And, um, we went and saw, and we were, we were there during hippo feeding and they were just calling full, full watermelons into the pool with them. And just watching these things eat, it's like,
00:20:02
Speaker
They're popping these watermelons like they're great. Right. I don't think I think they kill way more people than like lions and stuff like that. But, uh, you know, everyone kind of thinks of them as big old fat butterballs, but under all that fat, they're just like a, just a locomotive of muscle. So they're definitely not to be, uh, underestimated.
00:20:23
Speaker
Yeah, they said that at the aquarium. They said the one stat that people don't realize about hippos is hippos kill more people a year than any other animal. Because we just think of them as like a board game that eats marbles. Right, exactly. They can run real fast, and if they get you in the water, forget it. Right. You dead.
Character Design Insights
00:20:48
Speaker
So taking a look behind the scenes, what's the design process been like this time around with such diverse characters? It's definitely been a challenge because you know the last time we basically had essentially one template body type to go with and this one
00:21:04
Speaker
We've got, you know, starting out the gate, we've got four different body types. And that means, you know, we've got weapon accessories. So we've got to think, okay, these weapon accessories have to work, even though we've got like specialized weapon sets for each body type. And it's more of like their fighting style. Those weapons still need to work for the most part with every single one of those figures. So a lot of that stuff factors in. And we got to think about it, you know, and then of course, we wanted to try to pack in as much articulation as possible.
00:21:33
Speaker
Luckily the four that we have unlocked at the moment, they all share the same articulation, which is just jam-packed with just, we like to call it hand candy. I think Adam coined the term hand candy.
00:21:47
Speaker
They just pose so well and coming from someone who's not, you know, kind of poses vanilla, even I tend to get like really cool dynamic poses out of, you know, the stuff that we have in stock. So you can expect the same kind of treatment and like materials and posibility in the new items as well.
00:22:07
Speaker
And now, as somebody who loves birds, I'm really excited for the the avian characters to kind of come into play here. But that's that presents kind of a whole new challenge like you said with the wings and you know the feather textures just
00:22:24
Speaker
Your whole different world from you know that the other kind of like skin based i cry you've done so i know where there any kind of distinct challenges there you know like sacrifices yet to make any any kind of like a battle there to get the others the way you want to know. It did not affect any kind of articulation but i will say that like the bird is definitely the most detailed figure we've done. Dan just knocked it out of the park i was.
00:22:52
Speaker
looking at all the feathers and stuff and I was like, man, this looks like a headache, you know, but he just absolutely killed it. It looks, it looks so cool. I can't wait to, you know, play with it as a fan of toys, you know? And I know people are going to be really excited. And another thing we're doing with the birds is we're adding a clutching feet. So he'll be able to, you know, like when he's in a flying pose, he'll be able to hold his weapons or some of the weapons with his feet, which I think will be a really kind of fun way for people to display them.
00:23:21
Speaker
Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. That's really cool. Talons are important. Uh, you know, you mentioned Dan, uh, for those unfamiliar, uh, Dan, Dan Mitchell, uh, is doing a lot of the, the, the design work for you guys. Um, you know, he's also recently been posting, I think it's kind of news to, to most people, you know, in the community that he's, he's doing a lot of work for the, the, the marble legends line. Is it, is it really cool to see, you know, somebody that's doing work on such a, you know,
00:23:50
Speaker
I don't want to, you know, oversell it, but such a cherished, you know, toy line and the thing is, you know,
00:23:59
Speaker
Dan and Arlen and I are all really good friends and, you know, we've got, you know, Arlen Peltier is doing a ton of work for Marvel. I mean, excuse me for Hasbro as well. So, you know, they, we can't talk about it until it's out, but like, it's so cool. Once we can finally talk about it, it's out to the public, you know, but they do like a bunch of GI Joe classified Marvel legends. And now we've got a Carter who works for Hasbro too.
Dan Mitchell's Impact on Toy Community
00:24:25
Speaker
He's been,
00:24:26
Speaker
Banging out some awesome accessories for us. So You know, we're all good friends and it's cool. You know, we really genuinely root for each other. So I've got like I think I have like three of the figures he sculpted on the table next to me. I know he did the Nightcrawler the
00:24:45
Speaker
I always forget his name. He's the Cajun X-Men, which is sad. Oh, Gambit. I was going to say, you of all people. I know, right? I keep wanting to call him Gumbo, because I remember Wolverine would call him Gumbo. And I think he also did Bishop as well, but I'm not positive. Yeah, he's been posting the renders now that the series is lighting the internet on fire. They look amazing.
00:25:14
Speaker
Yeah, they're gorgeous figures. I have just about all of them. I was avoiding opening up the can of worms of X-Men animated, like I was kind of sticking to MCU and Spider-Man animated. And then once the show started airing. I got like one or two and that was it. Yep. Yep. And, you know, Babyface Magneto has been so...
00:25:38
Speaker
It's just so good. The show shows.
X-Men 97 Series Praise
00:25:40
Speaker
Yeah. If you're not watching X-Men 97, that's the one I'm not watching the cartoon. Okay. Oh yeah. I have that figure. Yeah. Yeah. So I love Disney plus, but I got, I just got frustrated and canceled it because like for sometimes like a whole month at a time, I wouldn't be able to access my account and I pay, I would pay yearly.
00:26:03
Speaker
Uh, and I've had it for like three years now and I was like, well, you know what? I'll just buy all the Disney stuff that I watch off of Amazon prime. So now I still watch Disney movies. I just buy them off of prime videos. So I don't have to worry about it. Dude, you've got to watch nineties. If you're, if you are a fan and I mean, this goes for, this goes for anyone listening.
Liquid IV Promotion and Kickstarter Support
00:26:23
Speaker
If you are even half a fan of the original animated series X-Men,
00:26:29
Speaker
You've got to, you've got to see this. Like you've got, it's like mandatory. Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. I was trying to put it into words the other day and I guess, I don't know if this makes sense or if it's confusing, but it's like X-Men, the animated series took 27 or so years off to come back and be as important and be as important to us now as adults as it was to us when we were kids. Like it's just, it's
00:26:58
Speaker
It's wild. It's absolutely, absolutely wild. And now, a word from our sponsors. This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
00:27:27
Speaker
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00:27:53
Speaker
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00:28:18
Speaker
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00:28:39
Speaker
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00:29:08
Speaker
So you mentioned it a little bit before about the importance of backing the Kickstarter now and kind of getting it now, but if there's anyone that's on the fence about backing the project, and maybe they're assuming that these are headed to retail in the coming months, what's one thing you'd say to have them hop on board in these last couple days of the campaign?
00:29:30
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, there's a couple things. So the first thing I'll mention is with any like with this Kickstarter and any Kickstarter, you're not going to get billed until the Kickstarter ends, which is actually on the 17th. We tried the time where there's like three pay periods and then also two days after your tax returns are in.
00:29:48
Speaker
So that's one thing. But the real thing that I think is appealing about the Kickstarter is the savings that you'll incur if you back during the Kickstarter. So we're doing like our standard figures. Right now they're 33 on the Kickstarter. After the Kickstarter, they'll revert back to $38. And that goes across the board. If you're getting a whole bunch of them, you'll see how the savings really add up quickly.
00:30:16
Speaker
and all the Kickstarter people are going to get access to the figures first. You will be able to get them at retail eventually, but again, you're going to be paying the retail price and you won't get them as quickly as you would if you're back in the Kickstarter.
00:30:30
Speaker
And of course it helps us figure out exactly what the base minimum is to order from the factory. So that kind of stuff is very beneficial for us as well as the factory because we're going to order additional SKU numbers for each SKU to make sure that there's stuff left over so we can have stuff on our website and other websites as well.
00:30:52
Speaker
Really, it's very important to back during the Kickstarter. It's a big thank you to us. And we want to thank those backers by passing on the savings to them while the Kickstarter is actually live. So there you go. If you needed any other convincing, I mean, we, we can tell you, you know, from our experience, you know, the animal warriors of the kingdom, if, if, if you have not ever had one in hand, um,
00:31:18
Speaker
They're unbelievable figures. They made my top 10 of 2023. They are unbelievable. They compete in quality. And I like that phrase, hand candy.
00:31:37
Speaker
They scale with your other 112 figures and they play and look just as nice as anything and in some cases better than some of the things that you can get on shelves at your local retailer of choice. If you're into cool looking animals that move really well and come with cool accessories, Animal Wars the Kingdom is definitely where it's
Upcoming Bushido Line and Pre-orders
00:32:05
Speaker
at.
00:32:05
Speaker
You know, I know I'm excited to get some of these these new animals and in my hands Yeah, not to mention, you know five bucks is five bucks. Like if you're getting those that's yeah Yeah, it's gonna add up to like it's gonna add up to a whole figure over, you know, if you get like several of them, you know Mm-hmm for sure So before we head into the Q&A, do you have any updates for us on the upcoming Bushido line with Dan Mitchell? I
00:32:34
Speaker
So we're super excited about the Bushido line. What I will say is we're going to be offering them in waves of two.
00:32:43
Speaker
Uh, each, each wave will feature a samurai and an oni. So, uh, we're going to start, I believe we'll start doing pre-orders for those and the end of 2024. So, uh, we showed off, uh, non-painted scopes of them at legions con. I would say expect to see like fully painted versions of them, uh, at this coming legions con in 2024.
00:33:11
Speaker
Awesome. Awesome. Very, very excited. And, and, you know, now, especially with that, uh, with, uh, Shogun on, on FX being absolutely enthralling television. Uh, it's never been a better time to make some, some cool ass samurai figures. So very much so looking forward to those. What's funny is whenever we announced the video games too.
00:33:34
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we were watching a blue eyed samurai, like the same weekend that we announced the figures that legions kind of, we were like, man, this was really good timing. So yeah, we, we've got all kind of really awesome characters planned out. Well, my fingers crossed because no one has announced that it's another amazing show. No one has announced blue eyed samurai figures. So maybe, Oh man, we would love to do those. That would be amazing. You know, I think whenever the, the Bushido stuff comes out, it'll be hard for them to tell us no.
Listener Q&A and Color-Changing Features
00:34:02
Speaker
You know what I mean? Yeah.
00:34:03
Speaker
Yeah, they're going to have to fork it over. The Kurosawa family is very excited. All right, so that takes us to our Q&A section. Dave, why don't you tell our listeners or remind our listeners, how do they submit questions for our Q&A section?
00:34:29
Speaker
Okay, so everybody, heading into any new episode recording on our Instagram, which is at AIC underscore podcast, as is all of our social medias, there will be a story that says, this is who's coming on. Like for example, this week we had a story, Jason is coming on. Do you have any questions for Jason? And then there's a little box that you tap on and you type in your question and we get it.
00:34:58
Speaker
And then we put it in this list that we're about to read off of. And you get to hear that question. And you get to hear that question when the episode airs on Monday. And you get to listen to it on your favorite podcast implement of choice. You can also hear the podcast on YouTube. You can also make sure that when you go to those places to hear the podcast,
00:35:27
Speaker
you slam those subscribe buttons, hit those likes, ring those bells, make sure everything's getting to you because the algorithm sometimes doesn't let things get to you if you don't subscribe. So make sure you subscribe.
00:35:43
Speaker
that pesky algorithm. Dave, thank you for reminding everybody how to participate in our Q&A. And with that, it's time to get some of these burning questions answered. So I'll start us off here with the first one. It comes from at the glowing ghost and they ask, is color changing plastic in the cards for any of the chameleon or lizard characters?
00:36:12
Speaker
Uh, you know what? I would love to do something where there's like, uh, I don't know if you guys remember this, but, um, I think it was the first Pirates of the Caribbean where like you, that came with this little blue or black light when you shine it on, it would reveal a markings on them. I think doing something like that would be cool. Um, I'd also like to do like a translucent one. That's cool. Uh, that's, uh, that glows in the dark. So I guess that would count as color changing, right? Maybe.
00:36:39
Speaker
I think I was going to ask that as a follow up. So yeah, yeah, glow. I mean, there's well, so in the kind of like grand scheme of history of color changing toys, right? You have, you really have three main ones. You have glow in the dark, you have UV reactive and you have, um, and you have heat reactive heat and cold. So, yeah. So, um, I guess I like to figure out what is best for the figure. You know what I mean? But I would love to do something like that.
00:37:08
Speaker
I will say in recent times, the only ones I have seen, um, are the water, the wall. So a lot of like dolls and small, smaller toys, they use like the cool water. Like, I mean, it's like a Barbie thing, right? Collect Shopkins. And then I think it was little as pet shop as well. That had like the color changing items on it.
00:37:32
Speaker
Yep. So that that's, that's what the water one. And then super seven, um, two years ago. Oh yeah. They did the lion. Oh, didn't they? They did the lion. Oh, and they did. Radioactive, um, toxic avenger avenger, which has both glow in the dark. It's glow in the dark and it has the, if you leave it out in the sun, it turns red. Um, Oh wow. That's pretty cool.
00:37:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's really very, there's, so there are still some interesting options out there. And yeah, I mean that could be something maybe down the road, a little, little con exclusive or something. Yeah. That's a cool idea. I like that. Good question.
Future Animal Species and Distribution Considerations
00:38:16
Speaker
All right, Dave, why don't you do the next one?
00:38:19
Speaker
Um, so at Wilfredo underscore pork chop asks, um, are there any species of animal you'd like to incorporate into the world of animal warriors of the kingdom that you haven't yet?
00:38:34
Speaker
Um, so I won't, you know, in this Kickstarter, we've unlocked a lot of the body types right now. I'm kind of focusing on body types because that allows us to do so many different kinds of species. And, uh, so I'll say this, the next one that I want to do is like a dwarf size body type, but as far as like animals go, let me think, I would like to do.
00:38:57
Speaker
Uh, it would be really fun to do like amphibians or maybe some turtles that aren't, you know, that don't resemble or look anything like other famous turtle action figures that everyone knows and loves, which will be a challenge. I think that's why I've put it off for so long. But yeah, I'd really like to do those turtles would be, you know, I was thinking about this when I saw this question. Cause of course, you know, everyone, there are those particular anthropomorphic teenage turtles that people, you know, right.
00:39:27
Speaker
know and love very well but like so steven king is one of my one of my favorite authors and i i always think about the giant world turtle from um from the uh the the the gunslinger uh the the dark tower
00:39:44
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, the dark tower and the dark tower. Yeah. All, all that kind of universe turtles could be like a really cool Mount in, in that world, like a turtle, like just right. Yeah. Yeah. Like a big, like a big ass turtle that can be like that. Um, the vehicles. And also the other thing I was thinking too was bears.
00:40:09
Speaker
Love a good, you know what? We actually started handing out bears. I forgot to, you know, I didn't mention it cause we're actually working on something. So, but yeah, we've definitely got bears on, on the brain. Awesome. Love, love a good, love a good bear. All right. Next question. This one's more of like a logistical question. I guess you could say, um, at acorn 30 asks, can you consider putting animal warriors of the kingdom on
00:40:39
Speaker
Amazon Canada So we have just so diamond distribution runs our Amazon store I can absolutely ask them about it. I don't see why not I'll email them tomorrow and see if we can't have that figured out for you guys There you go. Get them to the great white north Okay
00:41:08
Speaker
Mistakes may be made in this one, but I'm going to give it my best shot at wreck ship underscore 85 asks, is there going to be a King Cobra character for Verana day house in the near future? Um, you know what? I'll say because we're doing the reptile buck, you know, we're going to just do a ton of reptiles. So I can neither conform nor deny it at this time. I'll say that that's my answer.
00:41:36
Speaker
follow-up question did i get that correct yes yes okay nice that was going to be my question i was going to say my question is did dave pronounce that right and i fill it out phonetically veranda yeah i mean i guess i guess it is it isn't it isn't as hard to say now that i've heard you say it is not hard to say
00:42:00
Speaker
And with that, that brings us to the end of our Q&A section. So thanks to everyone who submitted questions.
Crossover Character Ideas and Kickstarter Details
00:42:09
Speaker
It's always nice to make sure that our followers and the community have a chance to ask a question when we have people.
00:42:19
Speaker
like Jason on the show so with that before before we let you go as is customary on on adventures in collecting we do have a final question but since you this is your second time on the show you have already answered
00:42:35
Speaker
our standard final question. So, um, okay, Dave, but this time you get the voice. Yeah, that's, that's true. Um, I, that's right. I have the voice of Kermit the frog, which is funny cause I was in Disney world last time. That's right. Dave, you weren't here last time. Kermit, where did you come from? Uh, Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask, uh, our, our,
00:43:06
Speaker
Alternate final question. Why, yes, I would. So Jason, since you've already answered the standard final question, we have prepared a new final question for you. Your new final question, if you could have one established character from another franchise cross over into the animal warriors of the kingdom, who would it be and why? Man, that is a really, really good question. Hmm, let me think here.
00:43:36
Speaker
Oh, man. I'm stalling for time, stalling for time. I feel like it would have to be... Man. I think it'd be cool to do Beast Boy from DC, because he could turn into animals, you know? That would be kind of cool. Okay. You know, you could... Now would it be like Comic Book Beast Boy or Teen Titans Go Beast Boy?
00:44:04
Speaker
Definitely comic book Beast Boy Okay, I like Teen Titans go as it as its own thing but I've got a bit of a grudge against it because it essentially like Kicked off the young justice anime which animation cartoon which I thought was amazing Yeah, I'm with here
00:44:26
Speaker
Though that movie was fantastic. And I have to say that the Teen Titans Go episode about rent controlled apartments is one of the funniest things I think I've ever seen. That and I was like crying from laughing so hard in the movie theater like.
00:44:40
Speaker
laughing during the movie. Yeah, Michael Bolton making some sweet tunes. Very, very funny movie. Now, one of the things you could do is you could like do an homage to Beast Boy, right? Like you could kind of do one of those soft homages like the folks at Four Horsemen do with the Mythic Legion sometimes where they do colorways. Yeah, I think those are really fun. Yeah, where you do like the same color palette or such.
00:45:05
Speaker
Yeah. So like you could do like any, literally pick any one of your characters and just make him like fully green with like, you know, purple, purple gear and, you know, kind of blue, purple hair. And it's fun to be like, this is beast mode version of this.
00:45:25
Speaker
There you go. Um, yeah. So with that, uh, it's time for plugs. Um, we did it. Jason, uh, let us let, let our, our listeners know, um, where can they back most importantly, where can they back the Kickstarter? Where can they find out more about animal warriors of the kingdom? Uh, and, and where can they follow you on social media?
00:45:46
Speaker
Sure, so you can go to Kickstarter if you want to back the Kickstarter and get some awesome action figures. You can simply look under the action figure tabs, we should be like in the top results, or you can search Animal Warriors of the Kingdom and Primal Series 2 and that will pop up as well.
00:46:04
Speaker
You can follow us on Instagram at spiritoys our website that we've got three waves of items in stock is spiritoys.com We also have a Facebook page animal wars of the kingdom and I think that's about it Actually, I got one more thing. We just started getting our comics in the comic shops across the country The first issue was released on March 6 so make sure you go to your local comic shops and ask them to carry the book and
00:46:36
Speaker
Yes, definitely do that. If you're in our area here in Northern Jersey, make sure you check out Zap Comics. We already told them to carry it. They should have it. But yeah, we'll make sure we put links to all of those, you know, straight to the Kickstarter campaign, you know, straight to the
00:46:59
Speaker
the Spirotoys website and Instagram account and all that. We'll make sure we have it right in the show notes so that way you can tap and back and follow and do all of those great things. Jason, as always, man, it is an absolute pleasure having you on. We are so thrilled to see how successful the campaign has been. And we can't wait to see in these last couple days how far this goes. The sky's the limit, man.
00:47:29
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure. And I'd love to come on and do a victory lap after the, uh, the kind of craziness of the Kickstarter has settled down. But yeah, just, you know, everyone just kind of sit back and enjoy the ride and watch this thing go bananas in the last 48 hours. I'm going to be unlocking a bunch of figures. Let's do it. Let's get it. Let's get all the way to that, uh, that rhino and that hippo. Yes. Let's unlock some figures. All right. Uh, Dave send us home.
00:48:00
Speaker
Let's unlock some figures.
00:48:20
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.
00:48:44
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.