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Oh So Very Surreal: 2023 New York Toy Fair Thoughts and Interview with Nacelle's Brian Volk-Weiss
513 Plays1 year ago
Dave and Erik took on Toy Fair and came out the other end! Join the brothers Weinbrecht for some quick thoughts on 2023 New York Toy Fair and then listen as they sit down with friend of the pod Brian Volk-Weiss from Nacelle as they discuss the latest toys from the company and get some updates on Biker Mice From Mars LIVE from the Toy Fair floor!
Follow Nacelle on Instagram @nacellecompany and keep up with all of their goings on and preorders right here!
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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 and Summer Activities
00:00:01
Speaker
The summer is here. That means outdoor festivals, comic-cons, and the perfect weather for toy hunts. As the weather heats up and you're out there enjoying yourself, stay hydrated with our show's sponsor, Liquid IV. Liquid IV hydrates two times faster than water alone and three times the electrolytes of traditional sports drinks, and it's easy to use. Just rip open a pouch, pour one of their delicious flavors into a water bottle, and shake it up.
00:00:30
Speaker
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00:00:56
Speaker
and use code AICPOD at checkout. That's 20% off anything you order when you shop better hydration today using promo code AICPOD at liquidiv.com.
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 Theme
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.
00:01:48
Speaker
Hi. We're back. It has been boy. Boy has it been a weekend. What a weekend it has been. Toy fair. We did it. Toy fair.
Toy Fair Experiences
00:02:02
Speaker
We did it. Our feet. Our backs.
00:02:07
Speaker
and our hearts. I don't think our hearts are broken. I don't think they're in pain. I think our hearts are filled with love. Yes, our hearts are full. Our bodies are broken. Our bodies are completely empty. We're husks. We're mere husks of Eric and Dave. Hearts full, bodies empty, no more fuel.
00:02:37
Speaker
make sure to smash that like button. So we we're not going to bury the lead. We do have an interview for you. We're not going to bury the lead. Eric, are we going to bury the lead? Nope, not going to do it. But we do have an interview for you shortly. We had the pleasure of once again sitting down with three time, three time. It's a very special episode.
00:03:04
Speaker
three-time returning guest, Brian Volkweis of the Nacelle Company. We had the opportunity to sit down with him once again, this time at Toy Fair, to talk about all the things that are going on.
00:03:17
Speaker
before we cut to that interview and let you guys hear that. We just wanted to give you some of our kind of takeaways of Toy Fair. So I'll kick us off just some things that jumped out at me that I really, really enjoyed. I'm going to start with one of the last booths that we visited, actually. I don't want to call it recency bias, but Diamond Select had a bunch of things that really kind of checked the boxes for me.
Diamond Select and Trick or Treat Studios Updates
00:03:47
Speaker
It was really nice to see that they are continuing with the Lord of the Rings line. We saw the next wave. The next wave is actually going to be three figures. So we've already seen Saruman and Samwise. They had those on display, production models. And then we saw Gandalf the White and the two-pack of Merry and Pippin.
00:04:08
Speaker
So really cool that we're getting some more characters from the initial fellowship and we're starting to kind of bleed into the two towers a little bit. Really, really cool. Hopefully we go back to fellowship and continue to kind of see some of those characters, would love to see.
00:04:23
Speaker
You know, Galadriel would love to see Elrond. I mean, there's there's just there's a very wide variety of characters that would be great. Sticking at the booth, though, alongside those those those Lord of the Rings figures are really cool to see that Archangel, the Marvel Select Archangel that they had.
00:04:42
Speaker
It really kind of took us by surprise. Unfortunately, our good friend of the pod, Zach, from Diamond Select was a little under the weather, but the crew there did a great job of going through the booth without him. But his presence and his sideburns were definitely missed. One of the other things that really kind of jumped out at me, too,
00:05:09
Speaker
was over at Trick or Treat Studios. So I'm sure Dave is going to want to talk about some of the things that he saw as well at that booth, as both of us really, really definitely enjoyed the booth. But the thing for me was the build a figure wave of Goosebumps five inch figures. Really, really cool to see some of those iconic Goosebumps novels, the cover art jump off the page and into plastic form.
00:05:38
Speaker
on
00:05:53
Speaker
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, again those five inch retro style figures. It's the whole family at the table. Really, really, really cool set to see. They absolutely, we spoke to somebody from Trick or Treat Studios and they mentioned that they are really
00:06:17
Speaker
you know, lasering their focus in on action figures in the coming years. And you can see that. It's very, very evident. Dave, was there anything else at their booth that you wanted to talk about? There were the Terrifier figures that were really cool. The Scared to Death figures that looked really cool. True Romance figures coming soon. Something that's not horror, but still very awesome.
00:06:45
Speaker
What's something else that I liked that we saw this weekend? We saw Handmade by Robots. We saw and learned a lot about the kind of creation of those figures and that they're really designed from actual knitting, which was really cool.
00:07:08
Speaker
Yeah, it was neat to talk to them. Expect the folks from Handmade by Robots to show up on this feed soon. We had a chat with them. They're interested in hopping on the pod with us. They have a really, really cool story and a really different product.
00:07:25
Speaker
Um, we also saw that was really cool. Um, super seven reaction Motley crew is coming soon. Um, that was shown off. Um, just some unpainted prototypes for those. Um, what else? What else?
00:07:45
Speaker
Well, sticking with Super 7, switching over to there, even though it wasn't something that either of us backed, it was really cool to see the party wagon, the production party wagon in person. And a friend of the pod, Kyle, was kind enough to actually open up the glass case and let us kind of get hands on with it. So much detail in that thing, the removable jukebox, the fact that the designers actually spoke to somebody who works as a mechanic
00:08:14
Speaker
and wanted to know the things that you would have. You would want to have on hand to like, you know, mess with a van and make any kind of changes. So, you know, that's why you see the acetylene torch and the helmet and the goggles and stuff with it. So super cool. Super seven, as always, had a ton of stuff. We finally got to see those those misfits, the the dancing and Jerry only masters of the universe kind of styled figures and then the mothership.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, the the Cobra mothership looked really cool. It was good to see kind of the first. I guess version of it, the first prototype of it that looks really cool.
00:08:59
Speaker
Something else that was kind of in that realm, because I'm just kind of trying to think in my head, the booths that were kind of near each other down there, our friends Ricky and now Mike DeCamp over at Plunderlings had the Plunderlings on display. They had the Plunder Longs, which are coming soon, to backers.
00:09:19
Speaker
the Plunder Strongs, and then the new, not yet named, I'm just gonna call it the Plunder Mount, giant iguana lizard thing. It was very cool. It was very much so a 3D printed, painted prototype, so it was held together.
00:09:39
Speaker
you know, with glue. But again, something that was really, really cool to see that they're expanding, you know, that line even more. And now with the mind power of Mike DeCamp and his new company supporting Ricky and the Plunderlings gang, you know, really, really cool to see them continue to grow.
Upcoming Toy Releases
00:10:00
Speaker
Oh, we saw Mega Man from Jada. That was really cool. Very much looking forward to see that Mega Man.
00:10:09
Speaker
Yeah, and we actually got hands on with that, too. Got a chance to pose it. They're going to come in. The entire Mega Man line is going to come in at a slightly lower price point than the Street Fighter figures, which are, you know, edging closer to 30 dollars. They did tell us that the Mega Man figures are going to retail for 20. And let me tell you guys, for those of you that are the toy photographers and people who really like to pose pose out, you're going to have a blast with that Mega Man. The cuts are all in the right places.
00:10:38
Speaker
The joints move really well, he holds poses. If you head to our Instagram and our YouTube channel, we have a ton of coverage from Toy Fair, lots of walkthrough videos, lots of photo galleries, just of all of the things that we saw.
00:10:59
Speaker
Dave, actually, this is a perfect opportunity for you to remind our listeners, how do they find us on Instagram? Yeah, you can see all of the stuff that we put up on Instagram and eventually YouTube. Just by hitting those subscribe buttons, smash that subscribe button, hit those likes, and leave comments and subscribe on YouTube. We are near 2000.
00:11:30
Speaker
of 2,000 lovely subscribers on the YouTubes. So just make sure to smash that like button, or I'm sorry, like those videos, smash that subscribe button, and hit the little bell so that way you know when we post something new on YouTube.
00:11:53
Speaker
and then it'll come directly to you. You'll get a notification, it'll pop up, and then it'll be at a time when you can't really watch it right now, but you'll have that notification to remind you at a time when you can watch it to watch that video. Exactly that, all of that.
00:12:14
Speaker
Something else that I thought was actually really cool. So one thing just to kind of address this again, if you see us on Instagram, you'll see us standing next to Uncle Jeremy Padour, previous guest, you know, legendary all-star guest of the pod, one could say.
00:12:33
Speaker
We we were able to get into the what we were referring to as the jazz where's Castle at Toy Fair. And while there's there's not anything that we are at liberty to discuss about what we saw in there, what I can say, we can say how great it was to see Uncle Jeremy and and Greg Mitchell and and Aaron Margolin. Yep.
00:13:01
Speaker
And what I can say is not to over-hype anything, but we saw a lot of what was coming in the pipeline. And there is some... I wouldn't even say that we saw that. No, we're allowed to say that we saw things that we can't talk about. But that there's a lot to be excited about.
00:13:25
Speaker
I think, I think that's fair without, without getting into any, any detail. Um, but a lot of the things, the news that's out there about the deals that jazzwares has have signed the brands that they're representing. There is a lot of really, really cool stuff coming in the pipeline for all of those, those things that you saw. So from, you know, uh, licenses that you've already seen products from.
00:13:49
Speaker
to licenses that have been announced and you have not seen product from, there's a lot of really, really cool stuff in the pipeline. And we were really appreciative that we were given the chance to see that. And actually, while we're talking about things that we can't talk about, we also saw things from Playmates that we can say that you should be excited about. They announced, of course, that there is an animated series coming from the Ninja Turtles from Mutant Mayhem. And there is...
00:14:17
Speaker
Obviously, as you could probably assume, product that's coming to support said animated series. And you are going to be very, very excited when you can finally see some of that stuff. Just again, like really, really cool experiences at at toy fair. And a lot of really, really cool things to see. Another thing that we got to see, Dave, was the McFarland booth. Yeah, we got to chill.
00:14:47
Speaker
at the booth. I actually can't even remember what we can't talk about. So at the McFarland booth, we can 1000% talk about the thing that you just quoted from. So we got to see the Batman and Robin build a Mr. Freeze wave. And I can say objectively, those are some of the best likenesses that McFarland has ever done in the DC multiverse line.
00:15:15
Speaker
Yeah, they were fantastic. I'm sorry, I'm exhausted. It's all good, Dave, it's all good. So I think with that, that's been kind of a recap. We literally just got home like an hour ago. I've not been this tired in a long time.
00:15:34
Speaker
So I think with that, I'll just reiterate, you can head over to our Instagram and our YouTube. Again, that's at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and YouTube to check out the booth walkthroughs, Toy Fair as of the recording of this podcast, or I should say airing of this podcast. Toy Fair is actually still happening. So it continues Monday and Tuesday.
00:16:03
Speaker
October 2nd and 3rd. So we will still be showing you toy fair stuff at that time. But what we're going to do now is we're going to take a super quick break. You're going to hear from our sponsors and you're going to get dumped back into this show. And you're going to hear from CEO and founder of Nacelle Brian Voke Weiss. Oh, also, we only had one microphone and three people. So if there's any weird audio, that's why.
00:16:32
Speaker
We did our best. We are, we are a professional. Uh, we are a professional operation. Yes. So with that, uh, here's, here's a little word from our, uh, our show sponsors.
Interview with Brian Volkweis
00:16:46
Speaker
And, uh, and then, uh, a wonderful interview featuring friend of the pod, Brian Volkweis of the Nacelle company. And now a word from our sponsors.
00:17:03
Speaker
This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:20:06
Speaker
So we are here with Brian Volkweis of Nacelle, again, the three-timers club. I love it. So tell us, it's been a little while since we've chatted last. We're sitting here at Toy Fair looking at a couple of new IPs. I think we should probably start with the biker mice. Let's do it.
00:20:25
Speaker
Yeah, so we're doing biker mice. We got the bikes here. They light up, so the prototypes at San Diego didn't have the electronics yet, so they also have a different paint job, a more expensive paint job. They just went on sale Friday at I believe 10 o'clock.
00:20:45
Speaker
And it's funny, I was on a flight yesterday, 6am flight LAX to, believe it or not, New York. And, you know, I don't know how much experience you have with LAX, but very slow. So we're starting to head to the flight line and I'm like,
00:21:03
Speaker
I probably have two hours to fucking kill. So that's how slow, oh, can I curse? Can I have a curse? You have a three timer, I can curse. But what do you call it? If you're a four timer, you get to kill somebody on air. Any slots next week? Anyway, so yeah, so I'm like, eh, you know, I'll check the numbers. You know, I had looked at the numbers, the sales numbers, before I went to bed. And you know, I had another flight line, I opened my phone,
00:21:32
Speaker
It was one of those cliched moments where I was literally, I mean, again, this is real. I was literally like, where's the comma? I couldn't believe it. I literally could, and that was overnight. So like when I went to bed, you know, I was happy. I don't know who, again, I went to bed at like midnight. I don't know who's buying toys between 1201 a.m. and 6 a.m., L.A. time.
00:22:00
Speaker
Anyway, that is the long way of telling you, like I was saying, you know, we upgraded the paint job, now we have the electronics in.
00:22:09
Speaker
They're doing well. They're doing well. This whole thing with biker mice has been amazing to watch because you've proven, as you've done in the past, how kind of nimble you are. Those original figures came out and they didn't have the ab crunch and the articulation and everything. They did have those David Vauner abs from... He does have the best abs in the business. Tell us about that. What was it like to have to kind of pivot based on that feedback?
00:22:37
Speaker
You know, it's so funny, like, as you know, I am a toy collector. I've been, technically I can say I've been collecting since college, but making toys that made us definitely, I mean, this is probably something I should keep as a deep dark secret.
00:22:59
Speaker
The day Toys That Made Us was green lit, my collection, maybe. And if anything, I'm low or I'm high. Maybe. It was 400 pieces. Maybe. Could have been 325.
00:23:15
Speaker
I mean, it's now over 4,000 pieces. Because what happened was, and I didn't really know this about myself until Toys That Made Us, I'm all about knowledge. So the day Toys That Made Us got green lit, I did not own, people are shocked when I say this, I didn't own a single He-Man, anything.
00:23:37
Speaker
I know I have probably an 80-100 piece He-Man collection. And She-Ra. You name it. So that's what happened to me. So anyway, the reason why I bring it up is because I consume my own product, you know,
00:23:52
Speaker
I see what other companies do when the fans are upset. And I never understand why Hollywood understands that if you put a trailer out and everybody's mad that your X-Men villain looks like he's out of Power Rangers, or the thing with Sonic the Hedgehog, the first movie, like to me, fucking take the hit, scream that you fucked up, and move.
00:24:22
Speaker
So it was a no brainer for me. You know, I'm on Instagram all day long. I'm on Instagram before I go to bed for probably 30 minutes straight. And when you see the same comment coming up over and over and over and over and over, even though I don't give a shit personally about ab crunch, I could care less about ab crunch. I put my figures on a shelf and that's where they stay until I move houses.
00:24:47
Speaker
But if you see people so passionate that they're going crazy about something and we're talking about toys and not curing cancer, well, you should probably listen. And like I said, they're selling so well, it really becomes, it comes down to, well, do I want to make an extra couple thousand bucks a profit in a year?
00:25:08
Speaker
Or do I want my fans, the people who are shelling out their cash, to be happy? First of all, let's leave it at that for a second. You just want people that spend their money on your product to be happy. But more than that, we'll probably make more money if more people are happy. Call me crazy. By the way, same reason of our price point. People are shocked we're selling those bikes for $49.
00:25:33
Speaker
I want more people to have them. Like the joy, I mean you know enough about our company, the majority, the vast majority of our money comes from producing TV shows. So we're very lucky that like I'm okay making less profit on a bike
00:25:53
Speaker
I'm not gonna lose money. I mean, that's a huge no-no for me personally in the way I run the company. I don't wanna lose money. But like, I'd rather make less profit and have more people having joy of the bike on their toy shelf than make a couple, you know, make an extra 10 grand in a year and have maybe a couple thousand fewer bikes in people's homes. Who cares? About 10 grand. And I feel like, too, you're building
00:26:23
Speaker
It's almost like if you are vocal as a fan and you expect a change to happen and then you see the company make that change, it's like, well, shit, now I'm on the hook. I got to get this thing. I'll be on the comments. I'll go back. Again, this could tell you I'm the best or the worst CEO, depending on your point of view in life.
00:26:46
Speaker
I'll go back. I'll go to Toy Shiz and I'll see all those comments being mad at us for not doing the, what do you call it? I'm having a brain fart. Abcrunch. Abcrunch, thank you. I was about to say knuckle crunch. Having the Abcrunch. That's a different thing. Hey now. This is PG, this is PG. So I'll go back to all those. First of all, first I'll see all these people complaining that we don't have Abcrunch.
00:27:12
Speaker
but then I'll go back a week, two weeks later and be like, we're adding abcrunch. I'll copy and paste it. We're adding abcrunch. Because I want them to know we listen. And again, I have nothing to hide. We've been doing this for two years. So I'm not Hasbro. Maybe they should be embarrassed by something like that. I'm not embarrassed. We don't know what the hell we're doing. And we're learning with each toy line. Hopefully I had to do it better. Those two robo forces cost more.
00:27:42
Speaker
than all three bikes combined. Because we didn't know what we were doing. So there's a learning curve when you enter a new business, and I was aware of that before I got into it, and as long as you keep moving, you'll be fine and there's no reason not to admit you made a mistake.
00:28:02
Speaker
You talked about like, you know, even seeing the surprise of how the numbers went up and the surprise of kind of like the knowledge when you were making the toys that made us have seen your collection increase. Has it been kind of a pleasant surprise or shocking in a way to see that there is still, there is an appetite for these lines that have been away for so long? Yes and no.
00:28:28
Speaker
So I'll give you a great example. I saw something here yesterday that I don't own yet. I saw it at the Diamond booth. And I went to Midtown Comics at 9.45 at night and bought it. It was $70. So on the one hand, I spent $70 on a piece of plastic. And it's a 50, 60 year old IP.
00:28:58
Speaker
On the other hand, I wanted that so badly my whole life, it has never been made before, that I was very happy to spend 70 bucks on a piece of plastic. And that's why I'm not surprised. What I'm very curious about, because as you know, we're just next year starting to get into our second waves. So it's kind of easy with sectors to sell enough Dargon and Stalara to make money.
00:29:26
Speaker
What I'm curious, and again, next year we'll be doing the bugs, so that'll also be quote unquote easy. What I'm curious about, to your point, how is wave three gonna do? How is wave four gonna do? How deep does it go? Yeah, that's what I'm curious, and you know, curmudgeon right over there, the little orange guy with one arm.
00:29:47
Speaker
So, Comudgeon, that's our first original character. Comudgeon comes from the Robo Force cartoon, he's kind of like a bartender type, like Norm. He's not a bartender, he's a customer, but he's like Norm, he's always there. And as you may be aware, there was no Comudgeon in the original line. And as you also may be aware, the cartoon hasn't come out yet.
00:30:12
Speaker
So you could argue that's very risky, putting out a character with no pedigree, no backstory, no nothing, for a cartoon that's not gonna be out for months after the toy comes out. But I'm doing it because A, I'm passionate about it. B, it's our first original character, so I wanted to really see if and how that would work for us at this point in our evolution. But most important to me, I believe in it and I love it and I wanna see what happens.
00:30:42
Speaker
And also too, so for those that are not seeing this, it's a low barrier of entry. He's a small guy. Oh, okay. So if you look at the package, and this is my fault, the guy who designed it did a great job. Nobody should have their feelings hurt. But he's too dark. The wash was too dark.
00:31:08
Speaker
in the cartoon, we have since added eyebrows, so obviously he's missing eyebrows. But I made the decision, some of my staff was like, hey man, maybe we shouldn't bring it.
00:31:20
Speaker
He's too dark and he's too small. And I'm like, you know what? Let's just bring it. Let's just bring it. So it's that kind of, to use your word, nimbleness. That's what I like to call it. Other people might call it, you don't know what you're doing, Brian.
00:31:38
Speaker
I would rather have that there so I can talk to you about it and tell you we're now making original characters. Soraya, she's about to go in production. She's the human lead from Robo Force. So we don't know if any of this is going to work. But if it does, then we have a good foundation and we can keep building off of it.
00:32:00
Speaker
So from kind of your now owned IPs and the original characters and products you're putting out to something that's a little more familiar to those in the sci-fi space, you also recently announced The Expanse is joining the Nacelle universe. So tell us about that.
00:32:20
Speaker
It's like I know we're friends on Instagram, so you're probably sick of hearing me say everything is surreal, but I don't, and I hate writing that. I wish there was a stronger, better word, but I can sum it up to you perfectly with the expanse. So we do the deal, which I still, and by the way, I had a meeting at Alcon that had absolutely zero
00:32:48
Speaker
to do with the Expanse. 0.0 to do with the Expanse. It was connected to, you know, every now and then we make TV shows. So it was the part of that part of my life. And one of the dudes in the meeting, are you a fan? I've seen a few episodes. I'm not super ingrained. So there's a spaceship in the Expanse, we're on the side of the ship. It has, starting with the Wright Brothers plane, it goes from the Wright Brothers all the way to the ship. Yep, I've seen that, yep.
00:33:17
Speaker
This dude had all of that on his arm. So we started talking about the expanse. That led to this. But to make my point about surrealness of all this, you know, I moved about a year ago. And I'm still not even done putting my collection back together. I'm probably now at around somewhere between 96 and 97% done.
00:33:43
Speaker
So I'm rebuilding my Battlestar Galactica section and this is like three or four months ago. We did this deal like eight or nine months ago. So I am in my collection room on a Sunday morning putting my NECA figures, you know NECA did these beautiful Battlestar Galactica figures.
00:34:04
Speaker
and I'm putting them up and I just involuntarily say to myself, God, why has nobody done this for the expanse? And for 10 seconds, and then I'm like, oh, we're doing it. That's how surreal this is. So, do you mind if I give a massive spoiler? Do you care?
00:34:28
Speaker
So these two characters at the beginning of the show and for the first five seasons are mortal enemies. She's the head of Earth, that's Avasavara, that's Drummer. At the beginning of the show she starts off as like a low ranking belter and by season six she's like the number two belter. At the second to last episode of The Expanse they unite and that's what ends the war.
00:34:58
Speaker
They literally shake hands. And by the end of that episode, the war is over. Our launching product, which to me was inspired by what Lucasfilm did with Phantom Menace, where Mace Windu, if you remember, they did a Mace Windu sneak peek and a STAP sneak peek with a battle droid on it. So that was my inspiration. But we're launching with a two-pack of them shaking hands.
00:35:26
Speaker
And if you look at the toy collector issue in the background, that's the actual set where the handshake took place. And then we're launching Wave 1. It's our biggest wave ever. Eight characters, a trillion billion accessories. I mean, it's the craziest thing you've ever seen or that we've ever done.
00:35:47
Speaker
I feel like their smallest wave ever was 97 figures, maybe 197. I don't know what they're doing, but thank God they're doing it. But that's what we're doing there, and it is massive, massive. I know, again, full transparency. I'm not a huge fan.
00:36:12
Speaker
I have not seen much of the expanse. I'm aware of it. Are you an Alactica fan? Yes. If you like Alactica, this is better. And I am a huge BSG fan. Huge. This is better. You know how BSG went up and down? Yeah. This just keeps going up. Well, you sold me. Yeah. Try it again. And of course, I need to watch it before the figures come out, because I've got to get ingrained. I think it might be why Alcon wanted figures.
00:36:42
Speaker
Maybe, just maybe. Makes sense.
Nacelle's Future Plans
00:36:45
Speaker
So moving from sci-fi, the legends of laughter, they're here. They're arriving in people's hands. Tell us a little bit about what's in store for this line. You know, this line is doing very well, but it's not a home run. So it's funny, a lot of our lines, by the time the boat gets to the port of Los Angeles, they're already profitable.
00:37:12
Speaker
This one, we shall see, and obviously some are selling better than others, but if this ends up becoming profitable, which I'm sure it will, the question is how long will it take? If that happens, just on general principle, we'll probably do another wave of two or three. I'm a huge, a lot of people don't know this, but we produce stand-up comedy more than anybody. Yeah, that's how we knew you before we knew you.
00:37:40
Speaker
So, yeah, a lot of people are like, why are you in the toy business? Or they're like, why do I see your name on, that's my favorite, is every now and then I'll get a comment like, why is your name at the end of an Ali Wong special? And I'm like, well, how do you know Jim Gaffigan?
00:37:56
Speaker
So we have a record division. It's actually our second oldest division of the entire company. And we distribute all their audio. So that's how it happened. People are like, how'd you pick them? What scientific research did you do? And I'm like, I did no research. I was already in business with them. And that's how it happened. But like, I want to do Richard Pryor.
00:38:20
Speaker
I want to do Kinnison. I want to do, I mean, I want to do Bill Burr. I want to do, you know, anyway, I'll shut up now. I want friends of mine to be like, how come you didn't say me? So, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, Jim Gaffigan will tell you, you got to join the manatees and get a job, right? Seahorse. Seahorse is a seahorse. It's my favorite joke. It's a seahorse joke.
00:38:46
Speaker
but uh... yeah i mean that these are very much so in the category and and dave you're actually saying it before the
00:38:52
Speaker
I didn't know I needed a Bill Hicks figure until I saw there was a Bill Hicks figure. Yeah, and it goes back to, you know, the knowledge thing. This is going to bring three kind of classic comedians back into the realm of like, oh, who's this? Let me look this up and just find out about everything Lenny Bruce went through. Or, you know, Bill Hicks is like how his life was unfortunately cut short. Or just, you know, the history of Joan Rivers.
00:39:21
Speaker
Are you a comedy guy? So half the comments, so funny, half the comments about Bill Hicks are he would kill himself if he knew you made a toy out of him, to which I'm always like, well, his brother and mother and sister seem to be okay with it. And then I don't say the rest of what I'm thinking. But the other comment we get is something along the lines of
00:39:46
Speaker
Well, I know Dennis Leary isn't buying one. Are you a comedy guy, so you get that reference? Not as much as him, but I got the reference. Well, everybody says he's ripped off bellhips. And me, see, I just want Joan Rivers to judge all of my other figures, like to stand there and just judge them. If we had any here, I would give them to you, so I hate saying this, but yeah, they're for sale. Go grab them.
00:40:11
Speaker
Well, we're super excited to watch the success of all this. We didn't even mention the Roboforce figures sold through. That's it. We still have a couple hundred. And we have, what do you call it in the, like in comic books, it's reprints? What do you call when you make more of the same figure? A rerun. Thank you. So we have the first rerun.
00:40:34
Speaker
of Max in production now, and they're supposed to hit the boat this coming week. And we hope to have more before the holidays.
00:40:43
Speaker
And we know New York Comic Con is coming up very quickly, which is weird saying that at Toy Fair. It's so weird. Don't worry, we don't have one next year, so it won't be weird twice. Yes, this is good. Will we find out more about the cartoons, the media at New York Comic Con? We have a lot of partnerships we're announcing at New York Comic, so we have a comic book deal, we have some
00:41:13
Speaker
Let's just say we've partnered with a couple companies that are more well known for us than making toys. We have a couple other secret little things we're announcing.
00:41:25
Speaker
If I get the deal signed, I assume you know Ryan Reynolds is attached to biker mice. We will be announcing, God willing, we get the deal done. We will be announcing an equally big name for robo force. So the idea is that we're going to attach a massive star to every line.
00:41:47
Speaker
That was going to be my follow-up. What's it been like working with Ryan on biker mice? What you see is what you get. If you've seen Ryan on doing interviews, he's that cool. If anything, I would argue he's even cooler. Again, when he's doing interviews, he can't probably say certain things. Getting to see the raw Ryan Reynolds
00:42:13
Speaker
I mean, and it's his whole company, too, by the way. It's, again, going back to that word, I wish I could stop saying, it is so, so, so surreal. And does he have a deep connection with Biker Mice? He has the toys. He's a huge motorcycle guy, and he's one of his favorite cartoons. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:42:37
Speaker
Well, as always, we're excited to see how things go. We know you're a busy guy, so we're going to let you go and get you back to the rest of the people at Toy Fair. And it's been a pleasure talking to you like always, man. Thank you. And conversely, you guys have been there almost from day one, maybe even day one. So thank you.
Closing Remarks
00:42:58
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:43:14
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.
00:43:38
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.