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Gwenpool, Dr. Aphra, Penguins, and Breaking Toy Barriers: An Interview with Heather Antos
389 Plays5 years ago
On this episode of Adventures in Collecting, we welcome Heather Antos to talk her relationship with toys. During her time with Marvel Heather helped bring to life fan-favorite characters Gwenpool and Dr. Aphra; she is continuing her work with Valiant comics. Heather and Erik talk about toys, characters becoming plastic, and what it's like to be a woman in the world of action figure collecting.
Follow Heather (and send her pics of Penguins) on Twitter & Insta:
@heatherantos
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram & Twitter
Intro by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, Dave. Hi, Eric. Hey, Dave. Do we curse on this podcast? Yes, Eric. Yes, we do. 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.
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors.
Interview with Heather Antos
00:00:36
Speaker
All right, so this is a special episode. It is our first interview episode. So the other voice you're used to hearing, my brother Dave, will not be with us tonight. But I have a special
Gwenpool Origin and Success
00:00:50
Speaker
guest. You might know her from her work on Dr. Afra and Darth Vader and Gwenpool at Marvel Comics. She's now a comics editor and writer at Valiant. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, Heather Antos.
00:01:06
Speaker
Thank you. What a lovely, no pressure. I mean, first guess. You know, now I'm kind of sad that I didn't listen to the last episode because I would do an impression of your brother. That way they have a familiar voice. I mean, just go as deep as you can and pretend you have a really big beard. No. Or don't, or just don't.
00:01:32
Speaker
I mean, it's fine. It's fine. Whatever you want to do. The world is your oyster, Heather. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for taking time to be on our little podcast. And as I know you have not listened, we like to talk about toys. I like to look at toys. And I hope we're talking about the same kind of toy. Oh, man. I wasn't even going to go there.
00:02:00
Speaker
I figure I had to. The first time I told somebody that my brother and I were starting this podcast and we were going to talk about toys, my brain is thinking about the action figures and everything that's around me and people are nodding and they're kind of squinting at me and I'm like, not those toys. I'm talking about action figures. Get your mind out of the gutter. I mean, we're going to curse a lot, but we're not going to talk about those toys. Those toys are cool, but there's probably another podcast for that.
00:02:26
Speaker
What if what if they were geek those kind of toys? Because you know, they're out there. Yeah, I'm sure there's ones that are shaped like lightsabers and stuff. I mean, you could do a crossover episode one day just saying just put it out there. It's all about that cross promotion. It is. It's the only way your podcast
Creating Iconic Characters
00:02:41
Speaker
grows. We get ahead of ourselves. We get ahead of ourselves. But Jared a dream.
00:02:47
Speaker
So the first thing that we talk about when we're on here, my brother and I, we talk about what is currently exciting us, what we're buying our halls. So tell us a little bit about what you collect.
00:03:02
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Everything, a lot. I know you guys specifically talk about toys, but being in comics, one of the things I do collect too is books, right? So I collect a lot of comic books, a lot of original art. And if you walk into my apartment in general, it is
00:03:26
Speaker
Basically, I would say 60% Star Wars and 40% Marvel, mostly Gwenpool. The majority of the stuff I collect now, just for money's sake, is just anything that Gwenpool is on. For the listeners at home, Gwenpool is a character I created at Marvel. I was gonna say, why don't you tell us a little bit why you have this preference for Gwenpool? Yeah, she's my baby.
00:03:54
Speaker
Um no uh yeah she's uh so yeah she's I don't know like she's my baby uh I I was an editor at Marvel for several years and during my time there I co-created the character Gwen Pool uh Gwendolyn Pool um and
00:04:13
Speaker
you know, I was fortunate enough that she resonated with the fandom and took off and got her own series and is now appearing in toys and merchandise and video games and statues and fans have
00:04:29
Speaker
made me jewelry featuring her comic art or collages or even a hand knitted me a Gwenpool doll. I know we're jumping ahead here. Yeah, you're actually you're you are providing a perfect segue that I can't let go. Uh huh.
00:04:46
Speaker
You have this experience where you've created this character, and she has resonated with all these people. And it must be one thing to see your character blossom in the original format. But what is it like to... I'm looking at the Gwenpool Marvel Legends figure, and she's currently photobombing behind Thor.
00:05:09
Speaker
with her tongue out, the peace signal up, and a smartphone in her hand. What is it like to be able to actually hold one of your characters?
Significance of Action Figures
00:05:21
Speaker
weird. Like, I'm sure for people who have been in the industry much longer, and I've had this happen, you know, time and time again, it's, you know, they're a little bit more used to it. But even even I was I was talking with with my boyfriend the other day, just about even like Deadpool characters that I worked on or different versions of Deadpool and Deadpool is a character, you know, who's been out for decades. And
00:05:46
Speaker
but specific, you know, arcs of his that I worked on have gotten, you know, different costumes or whatever. And there are now Funkos of that. And it's it's so it's so amazing. It's so weird. I like to I like to equate it to, you know, as a high school or college kid, you're hanging out with your friends, you're sitting around a table and you're you're talking about, you know, Star Wars or Marvel, or
00:06:11
Speaker
you're pitching your dream stories. Wouldn't it be cool if Han Solo married Princess Leia? Wouldn't it be cool if they had a kid and he became the next Darth Vader? Wouldn't it be cool if yada yada yada? And that's my job is to do that. I get paid to do that. And then to see that stuff come to life and resonate with
00:06:35
Speaker
people because that's why we do it, right? We do it for it to resonate with the fans. It's absolutely incredible and surreal and then for it to resonate so much that people want to buy stuff with that character, wear stuff with that character, dress up as that character, it makes it so much more real. I actually have a really great story.
00:07:00
Speaker
specifically regarding that Marvel Legends wooden pool figure that you have, Eric. That's her first action figure she had, is that one. And I first learned about it three years ago at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando. I was at a dinner
00:07:18
Speaker
with a bunch of writers, artists, and some Lucasfilm people. And I'm there when we see the Rogue One trailer drop, and I get to talk to Mark Hamill and all of these things that should be the biggest deal of that show. But I'm at this dinner, and John Tyler Christopher, who does all of the designs for the Marvel Legends action figures, turns to me and he goes,
00:07:40
Speaker
Oh, hey, I just did one for Gwenpool. Do you want to see it? And he shows me the design for this action figure. And I literally, I shit you not, I just burst into tears. Because, you know, it's not only is it her there, but he included the Penguin backpack, which
00:08:04
Speaker
is, as you know, very special to me because I adore penguins. I love penguins so much so that I suggested to the artists that Gwen have a penguin backpack and the penguin backpack has made it into the toy, which makes it so much more real that I contributed to this character.
Dr. Afra's Impact
00:08:25
Speaker
It's just it's very self-indulgent, but it's also amazing.
00:08:30
Speaker
Well, I mean, I get it because even even as a person who, you know, I had obviously had nothing to do with this character, like I just enjoy her. But looking at these, especially with the Marvel Legends, you know, that scale and the amount of work that goes into them, I look at them as pieces of art. Like I don't want them to live in the box. I take them out. I like to pose them. I like to inspect them, see all the details, like even down to and especially on that
00:09:00
Speaker
on that Marvel Legends figure, the details on her shoes, the backpack, the different heads, just the nuances of her eyes and her face. And I went out and bought the figure. I remember seeing her on the pegs, I think at Walmart or Target, and I knew of the character. And this was before I met you.
00:09:23
Speaker
I met you, you told me about the character and I went out and I bought volume one and I read it and I closed volume one and I calmly walked downstairs, put my shoes on, grabbed my wallet, my keys and drove to the store and I was like, I need to own that figure. And as soon as I got her out of the box, I'm like flipping through the pages of volume one and I'm like, man, like,
00:09:45
Speaker
damn, they fucking nailed this. Like look at how how perfect like even like little things like the shape of like the way that the mask bends when she smiles, like the amount of care that went into the sculpt of that figure. It's obvious.
00:10:03
Speaker
And there are some where you can see they're phoned in. They know that they have a wave of figures that they have to put out, and they have to build the figure pieces and all of them. And it's like, all right, we're going to do Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. We're going to do Star Lord, and we're going to do Gamora, and we're going to do Rocket. And it's just like, OK, there's that figure that's just thrown in where you can see it's reused parts. She was clearly a labor of love. That was very obvious.
00:10:30
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's just incredible. And even beyond, I think...
00:10:37
Speaker
I was even more elated when Dr. Afra and Triple Zero and BT, when some of the Star Wars characters I worked on were created because I'm not sure if you're aware, but the first Dr. Afra figure that came out, the Hasbro Six-inch, she was a fan boat.
00:11:05
Speaker
And she, I voted for her. Did you? I don't even, I don't even collect the six inch figures, but like I'm on all those websites where they were having the polls and everything. And I definitely voted for her. I wanted to see her come to life. Well, and she was up against like Ahsoka and the Emperor and she was up against like
00:11:24
Speaker
fan favorite, like legitimate fan favorite characters. And so I was just flattered that, you know, she was included. But I didn't think especially up against Ahsoka, I didn't think that she had any shot of winning whatsoever. And then she won and
00:11:40
Speaker
And she's a toy and like to have, I don't know, like there's something about like Star Wars fans are some of the fiercest fans out there. And Lucasfilm is very picky about what they choose to put out there, especially now as they're, you know, reestablishing canon.
00:12:01
Speaker
And so for Lucasfilm and the fans both to acknowledge Afra and Triple Zero on PT as a very important part of the new saga, it's very affirming. And it's very validating to all the work that we've put into creating her and telling her story. And I'm staring over at my collection of Dr. Afra and Triple Zero figures right now. They look lovely.
00:12:31
Speaker
I'm doing the same. I currently have my single carded Dr. Afra is sitting on the edge of the Millennium Falcon. Nice. And then the San Diego Comic Con exclusive three pack. It's actually the only Star Wars action figures that I have not opened. I love the vintage packaging on it. And even though that's the only way to get triple zero and BT at the moment,
00:12:55
Speaker
They're living in the package because I it's just I can't I don't have the heart to open it for some reason I don't I just can't touch that one. I don't well, it's yeah, I don't open I open my Funko's but my Gwen pool action figures I have the I have the may effects Gwen pool and evil Gwen pool and then the Marvel Legends Gwen pool like those are all still in their boxes my black series afra is still in boxes and
00:13:20
Speaker
Yeah, but Funkos, I don't care. Funkos, I'll check out of the box. I'm sorry, all you Funko people. I feel like we didn't give enough justice to Dr. Affer just now. We mentioned her and talked about how cool she is, but where did... I know the story of where Dr. Affer came from, but I don't know if a lot of other people do. Tell us a little bit about your Indiana Jones of the Star Wars world. Well, she's the Indiana Jones of the Star Wars world.
00:13:47
Speaker
All right, cool, let's move on. All right, so no. Yeah, it's, I don't know. Again, it's all self indulgent.
00:14:01
Speaker
Indulge. Indulge away. Yeah. We're, we're, uh, talk, you know, planning the new Darth Vader series, uh, Jordan, uh, Lucasfilm story group, Kieran and everyone involved. And, um, Kieran started talking about he wanted to do this like space archeologist character and
00:14:20
Speaker
I had just come off very recently, having just moved and graduated college and moved from Michigan over. I had just completed a six-year Star Wars tabletop RPG game of a tech specialist
00:14:38
Speaker
droid creator named Alatiya, who's very similar to the things we were talking about with Dr. Afra, and it just kind of morphed into this character that I've played in a Star Wars D&D campaign for six years that was
00:14:56
Speaker
I've always been fascinated by the Star Wars characters that aren't Jedi, that don't have force abilities. I've always been fascinated by those stories of the, for lack of a better term, normal people in these abnormal situations. How do they survive? How do they get by?
00:15:20
Speaker
And I feel like Afra is a very, very good example of a survival or a survivor in a very, very risky, scary war-torn situation. You know, she's not
00:15:38
Speaker
necessarily good and she's not necessarily bad, she just wants to live and get by. And I think that's very relatable and fun. And to have someone who has the balls to stand up to Darth Vader is crazy? I think crazy.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, yes, yeah. She's definitely a little crazy. She's a little fly by the seat of her pants. A little bit, a little bit. But also not, right? Also, she very clearly, because I mean, the spoiler alert for those of you who don't know and haven't read, but she very clearly planned out her way to fake her death, right?
00:16:22
Speaker
Yes, if one could be extremely calculated while also flying by the seat of their pants, they would be Dr. Afra. I feel like, and this is a thing actually, I think she and I were very, very similar, is she's extremely smart and extremely capable. So when she knows she needs to plan something out, she's very good at it. But she also doesn't like putting in a lot of effort into things if it's not worth it.
00:16:50
Speaker
She's very lazy. Work smart, not hard. Exactly. I'm very much the type of person where I'm like, I really want this, but I don't want to get it. So it's not worth it. So I'm not going to do it.
00:17:08
Speaker
but I still really want it, you know? But it's just not worth the effort. But I feel like staying alive was worth the effort for Afra and so she put the plan into motion. I mean, life is kind of important. Yeah.
00:17:26
Speaker
especially when you're roaming the galaxy and selling off artifacts. Well, there you go. One, she did still owe a black percent and a lot of money. Yes. Yes. Everyone's favorite other Wookiee. Yes. So speaking of things and wanting things, right?
00:17:42
Speaker
One of the things that we always talk about, my brother and I always talk about as collectors, and I feel like it's one of those things where when you're on the web and you're in one of the, you know, like either a subreddit or one of the forums, you know, talking about toys, one of the first things that comes up is, what's that toy that you want? Like, what's that toy that, you know, Hasbro or Mafex or SH FigureArts, that toy that you wish that they would just make already? I want a Dr. Afrofunko. They haven't made one of those yet?
00:18:12
Speaker
They haven't, no, they haven't and it's driving me crazy. They have like three different versions of Chandler from Friends at this point. Yeah, but they don't have Dr. Afra, they don't have Tripp Zero, they don't have BT, they don't have those Funkos and I feel like Triple Zero and BT Funkos will be very easy because they're just R2 and C-3PO repaint. Absolutely. Like they already have the molds, they don't need to make a new mold.
00:18:38
Speaker
And even for Dr. Afra, her mold is very easy. I feel like it's very similar to other characters they've already done. Again, it's just a repaint. They haven't done it yet. And I'm like, Hasbro's done it. Why can't they just get off their ass and do it? I also do really want an Afra Coda Bikia statue, because BT and Triple Zero have them.
00:19:03
Speaker
Wait, what? They made the droids before they made the maker? Yeah, exactly, right? That's a little backwards.
00:19:12
Speaker
Right? David, yeah, what was it? Star Wars Celebration Orlando, Triple Zero and BT were the Coda Bikia exclusives for the show. And so I jumped on those, you bet your dollar, your bottom dollar I did.
Female Representation in Toys
00:19:28
Speaker
And literally while I was there picking them up, I talked to the reps and I was like, guys, what the fuck? And they're like, no, we know, we know. I'm like, no, no, no, you don't understand. I made her.
00:19:40
Speaker
I only collect her now. If you want my money, you will make her. I think she'd be a hot seller. To your point, right? The first time that she appeared as an action figure through Hasbro, she was up against
00:19:58
Speaker
I mean, literally, that that vote started as a blue sky vote, where before they whittled it down to like that final, I want to say it was like eight characters. It was literally comment here and comment with the character in the entire Star Wars universe, canon and non canon that you want Hasbro to make. And out of
00:20:20
Speaker
all of those. I mean, that's hundreds and hundreds of characters. If you think about even some of the characters in Return of the Jedi that are hanging out in Jabba's palace or on the sail barge, that get FaceTime in the films that have not been made into any scale figure, whether it's six inch or three and three quarter. And this, I don't want to say relatively obscure, but a comic book character beat out all those characters and she's not a Funko Pop. That to me is like,
00:20:49
Speaker
It's absurd. It is it is kind of crazy. It's kind of crazy. Yeah, no, it's it's it's super, super crazy. Fans have been asking Funko for it for years. I have been every like once every couple of months I put it I poke a thing on Twitter and I'm just like what the fuck Funko. And you get responses on Twitter too. So I do.
00:21:14
Speaker
I do. I used to collect all of the Star Wars Funkos. I own about 100 Star Wars Funkos. Then they got to the point where Force Awakens was coming out and then they're like, now we're going to have six different versions of this one character. I was like, I don't make enough money to do this. Once I actually thought about how much money I had spent on these Funkos.
00:21:43
Speaker
My Star Wars Funko collection, I'm very proud of it. I want a Dr. Africa, God damn it. Well, Funko, if you're listening, which you're probably not, at least not yet. Not yet. This is another request. We'll get you that sponsorship. Oh, boy. My brother would be through the roof.
00:22:08
Speaker
If you're listening, we want our Dr. Afra, goddamn it. We do. Through gritted teeth, we want our Dr. Afra. It's important. So we've gone over the major characters here. We know what you're collecting. We know what you want. But I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you, right?
00:22:32
Speaker
So I feel like the majority of these toys, these action figures, even the Funko Pops, I feel like there is kind of this aura around them or maybe that's not the right word, this perception that these toys are for, and I'm doing air quotes here, for boys, right? Action figures have always been, even in the commercials going back to when we were children and, you know,
00:22:55
Speaker
My brother, who's a little bit older than we are, when he was a kid, we're always boys playing with these action figures. The girls' toys are reserved for the dolls and the fairy things and just a whole different world of pink and lavender-colored plastic.
00:23:14
Speaker
How do you think that these strong, or how do you feel about these strong female characters being turned into like action figures? Do you think that this is opening up doors for, you know, full disclosure, my daughter will be four by the time this episode airs, and I encourage her to play with my old action figures, and she helps me set up my new Marvel Legends, and she loves watching, you know, helping me go through all of my Star Wars figures, and
00:23:42
Speaker
she plays with them and she takes them and they mix right in with the little Disney princesses that she has and the other toys. They all play together and I love watching that. I absolutely love, love, love watching that. I would love for this perception to go away, but I don't know how we get there.
00:24:03
Speaker
So it's an interesting thing, like you bringing this up because it made me start thinking about my childhood and what my toys were that I played with. And I did have my Barbie collection as a girl, but I was the only girl in not just my immediate family with my brothers, but even my extended family. So I had all boy cousins, I was the only girl.
00:24:32
Speaker
And so though I had my Barbies that I played with, their houses were built out of Legos. And I took my brother's Legos and I made, you know, the stable for my Barbies horses was made out of Legos and they had a Lego car and I had
00:24:53
Speaker
my own collection of action figures that were based off of all of the classic Disney films. So I had and I had a giant tub filled of these that all the Aladdin action figures and all the Lion King action figures and all the Hunchback and Notre Dame action figures and all the Pocahontas ones and all of these. So for me, action figures were a very normal part of my childhood. And so in my brain, there really isn't a
00:25:24
Speaker
a wall or a barrier between what's meant for boys or what's meant for girls. That's very clear when you walk into a toy store or a Walmart toy aisle and you see, oh, clearly the boy isles, the one with Batman and Power Rangers and all of this stuff and it's black and blue and action. And then the girls' isles all pink. But again, with Star Wars and the Marvel films,
00:25:54
Speaker
Wonder Woman and Batman with all this being in the cultural zeitgeist right now Those lines are getting blurred a little and I think that is just so so cool because You know
00:26:09
Speaker
they want, you know, you have the Justice League film. And so Wonder Woman is going to be in the action figure pack. So the girls are going to want that Wonder Woman. So they're going to wander into that aisle. And and vice versa, right? You're going to have that crossover. And
00:26:27
Speaker
I think it all comes down to, and I would like to praise you because I think you're doing it right where you're normalizing it with Maddie, with your daughter. And it's a normal thing, it's a celebrated thing for her to mix and to play and to just, you know, there's no, you know, toys are toys. There's no distinguish between what a boy or girl can play with. And I think we're seeing that too with,
00:26:57
Speaker
the new films featuring strong female leads, specifically in Star Wars, one of my favorite experiences I had.
00:27:09
Speaker
when Force Awakens came out. I was still working at Marvel at the time. And one of the higher ups and creator services brought his like four year old son around just to the different offices and to, you know, check out Marvel. And so he brought him to the Star Wars office and I was talking with them and I was like,
00:27:32
Speaker
uh asking him if he'd seen the movie and he said he had and i asked him whose favorite character was and he goes ray and his dad goes he even uh wants to be ray for halloween and i just thought that was so cool that you know here we have the future basically um and this little kid who doesn't see
00:27:58
Speaker
Oh, this is a girl I can't, I can't like this character because I'm a boy. It's someone who just sees a character doing cool things that he thinks is badass. And so he wants to emulate that and be like that and it's and it just happens to be a woman.
00:28:14
Speaker
And that's so cool. And like, that's how we normalize it.
Diversity in the Star Wars Universe
00:28:20
Speaker
That's how we get there is, you know, we as adults need to show the younger generation that it is normal and it is okay and it is fine and not make a big deal out of it.
00:28:33
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, it's it's tough, especially when it comes to Star Wars, because, you know, there's really no easy way to tiptoe around it. But the community is these new films that the Disney the Disney backed films have been very unfortunately very divisive amongst the community. And you have a lot of this
00:28:54
Speaker
extremely toxic behavior. And, you know, people who are down so hard on some of these characters, like poor Rosemarie Tran, like everything that she went through after The Last Jedi having to like, pretty much disappear. It's just it's
00:29:11
Speaker
I have always been a very big proponent for like defending Star Wars, where like, I'm, I'm into the I'm into the story, you know, I've lovingly embraced with opening open arms, the gaping plot holes of the prequels, and, you know, like, and all of it. And when these new movies came out, and people reacting the way that they were, it was just like, I almost felt like I didn't belong in, in the community anymore, even like, looking at the going into the toy aisle. And it's like,
00:29:41
Speaker
just rose and rose and rose of rose figures and, you know, asking why like why like she's pretty much one of the she's she's one of the main characters in The Last Jedi and her role was beautiful. Like she was the beacon of hope when everything was failing.
00:30:01
Speaker
when every single thing was failing in that film, she was the one that kept everything going, whether it was the scene when they were on Canto Bight, or whether she stopped Finn from killing himself. Without her, we would not have the story. And that's not an issue of poor writing or bad character development. She is as important to the story as
00:30:28
Speaker
you know, for a lack of a better comparison. I mean, in that those original films, she's as important as Princess Leia was. Oh, yeah. The story is not going anywhere if you don't have characters like that. And I love seeing these strong female characters. I don't know whether it's just my personality or the fact that I have a daughter and I want her to have the same thing that I had growing up.
00:30:54
Speaker
You know, being a white dude, you have tons of white dudes to look up to. Like, just fact. Like, we do. Take your pick. Take your pick. Right? And, you know, I'm very fortunate and I don't take that for granted. I know that, you know, things are a whole hell of a lot harder for a lot of other people. But I want my daughter to have those strong characters. And when I realized sitting, opening night,
00:31:20
Speaker
watching Force Awakens going, Oh, man, this is like, this is no joke. Like Ray, this this is Ray's story. Like, yes, it's part of the Skywalker saga, but this is Ray's story. I still I'm getting chills just saying that right now, knowing that, you know, when Maddie grows up, if she decides to continue down this dorky road, I've set her upon that she'll have these characters to look up to and
00:31:47
Speaker
Who knows? Who knows what's going to happen in the next film? There's that moment in the trailer where it looks like she might be a little going either dark or it's some sort of vision. But still, she has these extremely strong, extremely intelligent, extremely admirable characters to look up to. And I wish there was a way to unite as strongly as the toxic crowd has.
00:32:14
Speaker
to kind of try to undo what they're doing. And it boils down to everything. It goes from the storytelling and the film all the way down to the action figures. It's just, it's incredible. No, I agree. I 100% agree. And I think, you know,
00:32:35
Speaker
you know, say what you want about the storytelling or, you know, if things happen the way you wanted to, whatever in the Star Wars movies, like the coolest thing is, you know, for women right now is before we got, all we got was Princess Leia in the original trilogy. That's it. That's all we got.
00:32:58
Speaker
Um, we got her, um, and in the prequel trilogy, we got Padme and that was it. That's, that's who we got. And this new onslaught of movies we have, not only do we have multiple women,
00:33:15
Speaker
But we have an age range in those women. And that, I think, is one of the coolest things, is we have Carrie Fisher and Laura Dern wrapping your more fine lines of ladies. And then you have the new, and oh my gosh, Star Wars fans kill me, but I can't remember the lady in the solo film.
00:33:42
Speaker
Val, Val, Sandy Newton. We have her. We have this range of races and ages of all these very, very talented women, which is a thing we've just never had before. It's so
00:34:01
Speaker
It's awesome to see. And even in the cartoons, in the TV shows too. The Ahsoka's and the other members of the Jedi Council that are out there, the Barasafis. And this being presented as normal to the next generation, it's only going to make things more inclusive and better. And seeing it in our films means we're going to be seeing it in our toys.
00:34:30
Speaker
So not only do we see them on the screen, but the kids are going to get to play with them and see that normal too. And that's so, so, so beautiful to see that despite the toxicity that we experience in the present, because this wasn't normal for those people's childhoods, it is going to be normal for the next generation. So hopefully with that, that toxicity will subside.
00:34:59
Speaker
Yeah, nothing made me happier than when I bought... I have wanted the Graflex, you know, the standard Skywalker lightsaber for a very long time, and I always kept passing on it and passing on it and passing on it. And finally, I got a really good deal on it. I actually found it on clearance, the most recent Black Series one, and I just had a big, shit-eating grin on my face when I picked up the box and I saw that it was Ray's lightsaber. Yeah!
00:35:26
Speaker
And I picked it up and I was just like, I can feel your hate. I can feel your hatred flowing through you. It just made me so happy to see that. And then I, of course, took it out of the box and it's the same lightsaber that we've known and loved for 40 years. Oh, it's the exact same one.
00:35:46
Speaker
And I was just like, ah, you brilliant bastards. You are absolutely brilliant. I hope this didn't cut that deeply into your sales, but just seeing her face and it's saying raise lightsaber was just like, ah.
Upcoming Projects and Farewell
00:36:00
Speaker
Yeah. Perfect. Yep. Make those fanboys angry. The little wins. It's all about the little victories. Yes, I agree.
00:36:13
Speaker
So Heather, what can we plug for you? What do you have going on? Oh man, when is this going to be live? This is going to be live September 30th. Oh my gosh. So next Monday. Next Monday. So the thing I want to plug technically then doesn't get announced till tomorrow. So I guess I would say follow me on Twitter.
00:36:42
Speaker
and Instagram, Heather Antos, so you can see the thing that I'm going to announce that is really big and I've been working on all year and I'm very excited for it. That's it. That's it.
00:36:57
Speaker
Should they send pictures of penguins at least? Send pictures of penguins and if you're going to New York Comic Con and you see me, come say hi. I have bright pink hair. Listen, thank you so much for joining me again. I know I've thanked you like six times already. I'm not even going to edit them out. I'm going to leave them all in because I want to fanboy a little bit.
00:37:20
Speaker
I think I'm allowed. Yeah, and shout out to Heather's boyfriend with whom I would not have met this wonderful human being that you're hearing from on this episode. There you go. Rub his ego. He'll be thrilled. Well, if I do it enough, his head will get so large that he will not be able to exit his apartment. So we got to be careful.
00:37:47
Speaker
We got a little bit, just a little bit. Just a little bit. There you go. There you go. Thank you so much for having me, Eric. This is so much fun. 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.
00:38:13
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.