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00:00:01
An Interview with Jazwares' Magic Olmos
369 Plays3 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik sit down with Jazwares' Lead Designer, Magic Olmos to talk about his history with toys, AEW Unrivaled and Unmatched, UFC, and so much more!
Follow Magic on Instagram @magicolmos and look for Jazwares' UFC and AEW figures on Walmart and Target store shelves, now!
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. We're back.
00:00:31
Speaker
We're back. It's Monday. Hi, everyone. So, Dave, I feel like it's kind of appropriate for us to say it's Monday, and you know what that means. Yes. Given our guest today. So as usual, Dave, with a guest on. Eric, please do not bury the leaf.
00:00:54
Speaker
I'm not gonna bury the lead, Dave. So jazzwares, right? They are very literally nearly everywhere in the toy world these days, with the likes of Halo, Fortnite, Pokemon, Roblox, and even UFC figures dominating the toy aisles.
Guest Introduction: Magic Olmos
00:01:10
Speaker
But with all of those IPs that we just mentioned, nothing is quite as hot as their current AEW unrivaled line.
00:01:17
Speaker
of wrestling action figures. And joining us today is the man who has the task of turning your favorite AEW superstars into highly articulated, highly detailed toys. I, of course, am talking about JazzWare's lead designer, Magic Olmos. Magic, thank you so much for joining us on Adventures in Collecting. Hey guys, thank you so much for having me.
Break and Hobbies Discussion
00:01:37
Speaker
Excited to be here.
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, we are excited as well to have you. Very much so. Very much so. So how's everything going? We were talking a little bit before we hit record here. So did you enjoy a nice little restful period here before you kind of kick it back into high gear?
00:01:58
Speaker
Most definitely. With the Chinese New Year, things slowed down a little bit, so it's been a little easier these last two weeks. It's been really stressful, obviously, getting all this stuff done, but it's been really worth it and definitely rewarding in the long run. It's nice to hear that you got to come up for some air for a little bit. That's important. Yeah, definitely. I've been catching up on some video games. What are you playing?
00:02:22
Speaker
I've been replaying God of War 4 on a PS5. Nice. It's gorgeous, isn't it? Yeah, it's mind-blowing how much better it is. Yeah, between the graphics bump and the frame rate, it's worth the upgrade for sure. It's almost like my favorite game on PS5, just in general. It's pretty insane how good it is.
00:02:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's probably, I keep hopping back and forth between finishing the Miles Morales game with my daughter. She likes watching all the Spider-Man stuff. And then when she goes to bed, I fire God of War back up and I play through it again. I have not played the newest one yet, but I am a fan of the series. That's excellent. You got to try it out.
00:03:07
Speaker
So before we jump into your history with toys and of course the AW figures, we ask all of our guests, what are you currently collecting? I'm currently collecting a lot of stuff. I'm pretty all over the map when it comes to collecting. I just usually, whatever I like, I'll try to pick it up, even if it's like random things. But lately, I've been kind of on a six-scale kick, so I've been buying a bunch of random six-scale figures.
00:03:36
Speaker
There was this anime that
Magic's Career Journey
00:03:38
Speaker
came out, I don't even know what it's called, but they had like a lizard face dude. It looked pretty cool, I'll just pick that dude up. And just like random, random IPs. This one's called Mind Game, I don't know what it's called, it's by Damn Toys. It's like this dude in a big puffer jacket, it's awesome, just really detailed. So I kind of just pick up a lot of inspiration from all over the place and just look at that stuff I like and definitely try to incorporate it into like my work, usually has inspiration.
00:04:04
Speaker
That's interesting. So, so you, it's almost like, uh, it's, it's the equivalent of, of somebody who is, is walking through like a liquor store and they buy a bottle of wine because the label looks cool. Yeah, basically. Um, no, that's awesome. Cause I mean that, that must create, you know, a, a really cool, uh, you know, and very textured display with all the, just the different, you know, the different figures and like the different looks and everything.
00:04:28
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah, I'm looking at it now. I'm kind of getting lost in it. It's just a bunch of stuff. Like you said, texture is a good word. It's all over the map. But yeah, I try to just think about it as inspiration and try to just think about what I like about certain things and why I like this versus that or why something is more successful than something else and just really just try to soak it all in and see what's out there. Yeah, it definitely sounds like a very cool, very eclectic
00:04:56
Speaker
collection of toys, which is really awesome. Magic, how did you find your way into the toy industry? I actually had always wanted to be a toy designer since I was pretty young.
00:05:09
Speaker
I think when I was like 11 or 12, I like was playing with the Ninja Turtle and I realized like, this is like some artwork, like someone sculpted this and someone created this. And that actually could be like a line of work to get into. And like, it's part of like, it's like a type of art doing this type of thing. And so I was really driven just by that thought. And I kind of focused all my efforts towards
00:05:31
Speaker
This path of toy design ever since like eighth grade really and then high school did a ton of art classes sculpting I made my own clays and ceramics and stuff and lots of drawing and then in college I was really fortunate that LA has a college Otis College of Art and Design that actually has a toy design program and It's really well connected and really probably the best thing you can do to get into the toy industry so I focused on efforts into getting into Otis and going through there and then It's been working in the industry ever since
00:06:03
Speaker
That's awesome. What were some of the early things that you like when you when you first broke into the industry? What were some of the first things that you got an opportunity to work on? When I was still in college, I interned at Jack's specific specific. So I put I work on I worked on the men in black and real steel with the
00:06:26
Speaker
Hugh Jackman the the the Rock'em Sock'em robots movie. Yeah. Yeah, exactly It kind of came and went it's kind of sad didn't really last too long same thing with men in black 3 Those things kind of came and went but I did that stuff and I was pretty like informative and then I also Got a chance to work on a girls team when I was there. So ended up doing like wink stalls and different like glitter Fairy stuff. That's pretty cool, too, I guess
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, man, I mean, well, that's the it's crazy to think about it like that, because of course, we'll get into the wrestling figures in a little bit. But I think, you know, having a background like that, where you've had the opportunity to work on vastly different lines, it does inform, you know, future things, like, I'm sure, like, working on, you know, a line that was more so about, you know, you know, like you said, like,
00:07:21
Speaker
glitter and fairies and stuff. It teaches you, I'm sure, more of the delicate end of things and the more dainty aspects of toy making, like smaller joints and that issue. And now you're working on wrestling figures that have these very small details. And I'm sure you're drawing on some of that for some of those details.
00:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Especially with the soft goods. I think that was my first time actually getting to see how soft goods were manufactured at that point and like picking patterns and
Designing AEW Figures
00:07:53
Speaker
like those types of different things and textiles and all the stuff that's out there in that world that I've never had known before. So that was pretty cool too. What was like a surprise from maybe like working on an IP that you weren't expecting to be working on?
00:08:12
Speaker
When I got out of college, I worked at Jack's Pacific. I got hired after college and actually worked on Mon-Suno, which was a Jeremy Padar creation. I met Jeremy for the first time then. I don't think he remembers me, but I worked for him for about three months doing that on Mon-Suno, which was kind of a Pokemon-esque battle game. You guys remember that. So then from there, I went to Wham-O.
00:08:35
Speaker
which was a ton of outdoor play stuff like Slip and Slide, boogie boards, general sports equipment, inflatables, pool toys, really all over the map with that stuff. That was kind of eye-opening actually because I got to do a lot of stuff I never thought I would be doing, which is pretty cool. Going back to the idea of the textiles and
00:09:02
Speaker
the Deco aspect of toy making. Each release in the Unrivaled line, the AEW Unrivaled line, which you're now creating for now, represents a specific appearance that each wrestler has made. So what goes into the decision to represent
00:09:21
Speaker
you know, one episode of dynamite, you know, that a wrestler appears in versus a pay-per-view show and, you know, recreating some of those those outfits that like the wrestlers themselves were responsible for creating. Do you work with them directly? Do you work with the the people that made the costumes originally? Tell us a little bit about that kind of whole process of deciding what outfit the a given wrestler is going to wear.
00:09:51
Speaker
Yes. So we work with AW to get photo reference and usually that's all the extent to what we'll get. We haven't worked with the costume creators yet, even though I think that would be tremendously helpful if we could, but I don't think we have access to them just yet. But what we try to do is just represent the look as accurately as possible. So the challenge would be obviously it's a miniature. It's not a real size person. So there's a ton of details that we can include. There's a ton of details that we can include just for costuming reasons.
00:10:20
Speaker
or even just because maybe like the sizing doesn't work or something. It's just really detail oriented. So I tried to.
00:10:29
Speaker
literally just make his things as accurate and authentic as possible and try to bring all of the details we can into these things and then cut out what we have to, but still try to maintain the original look of them and try to capture the spirit as best as possible. And I think actually we've been really successful so far in these first five waves of representing them really well and not cutting too much out. Or if we have doing it in ways that's not noticeable. And yeah, so far we haven't gotten in trouble for it. That's good.
00:11:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the the costuming has been outrageously good. And like, you know, full disclosure, you know, Dave typically handles the wrestling figure end of our of our podcast. You know, I watch AEW, I watch WWE, but Dave is more so that the collector of the wrestling figures. But today I was fortunate enough on my on one of my toy hunts, I found
00:11:23
Speaker
a full case of Way of Three. So I am, I'm currently, it was like, um, as, as our friends at the major wrestling figure podcast say, uh, it was figure feet.
00:11:34
Speaker
Um, the target gods knew that, that we were interviewing you tonight. So they, they left me in orange Cassidy. Um, but you know, going into what you just mentioned with the detail with the, you know, the pockets, the fact that he can put his hands in his pockets, the t-shirt, the fact that the, like what you guys did so that you didn't have to make a full t-shirt, you know, the, the Velcro so that he, that way he can have the t-shirt with the jacket or just the jacket. I was going to mention both of those things. Like that's just cheer innovate innovation right there.
00:12:04
Speaker
Thanks, I'm glad you guys dig it. That was always gonna be a challenge, but we knew he had to put his hands in his pockets. He had to do it. We had to figure out some way, hell or high water, that we made his hands go in his pockets, just because he's so known for that. It'd be such a big missed opportunity if we didn't try. The jacket thing, too, was mostly because we didn't want the shirt to be super bulky, so we wanted it to be able to fit nice and tight on him, so it's not too big and doesn't look too funky on him, because he's kind of a small figure.
00:12:34
Speaker
So we did that, tried to think of ways to make everything work. For those pockets, my main concern really was that we would pass some sort of QA testing because Jazzverse has really high standards when it comes to quality assurance and the quality testing. So my big concern was like, oh, this isn't going to pass a pull test or it's going to tear easily or it's going to do something and then we're not going to do it. So I was kind of really worried about that originally, but
00:12:59
Speaker
Thankfully it all passed and it all worked out. And then my original vision for it actually came to fruition. So that was really exciting to see. And then the fan response has been really awesome to see two people really, really dig it and like appreciate that aspect of it. So it's been well worth all the effort put into it.
00:13:16
Speaker
Oh, yeah, the lazy thumbs up and the hands that go straight into the pockets. I mean, it's it's and and, you know, going back to the idea of Cosme, right? Like he's a figure where like you once you nail it, like that's it. Right. Like he doesn't have any alternate looks. He's he's just that's him. Right. And you can hit the old look because you don't have to put the T-shirt on him. Yeah. Like the alternate look is he doesn't wear a T-shirt under the denim jacket.
00:13:40
Speaker
Yeah, or you can take the sunglasses off. You know, like you you have you have everything that you need to for an art like it is. It's it's it's like the ultimate Orange Cassidy figure. It really is like it has everything that that you could possibly ask for.
00:13:56
Speaker
But going back to the idea of the costuming, right? Stars like the Young Bucks. How did you decide like, okay, this is the outfit that we're going to do for the Wave 1 figures and then this is the outfit we're going to do for the Wave 3 figures because they seemingly have a new costume or a new variation on their ring gear every episode of Dynamite. Yeah, those guys change it up a lot. It's pretty cool to see.
00:14:22
Speaker
For Wave 1, it's actually pretty easy because that was the first event they did, Double or Nothing. So we were trying to capture all of those looks from their very first appearance in AEW, the first event, Double or Nothing 2019. So that one was kind of easy. And those were pretty spectacular looks, to be honest. Those Elvis costumes are awesome. Oh, yeah. The jumpsuits are great. Yeah. So that jacket was, I love seeing that come to production because that was a real challenge to make those jackets, just costing wise.
00:14:49
Speaker
pull test-wise, safety-wise, all that stuff. There was a lot going into those. I'm happy they actually came out pretty well. Even the printing on the back was hard to do and hard to get accomplished, but you fight a lot of battles and try to get things looking as good as possible. Sometimes you don't win, but then I felt like with Wave 1, we got a lot of wins in there, so it was pretty cool. For Wave 3, those outfits, I had seen them do a lot of public publicity photos in those specific outfits.
00:15:19
Speaker
So I wanted to choose something that they would be well known for and like really recognizable as the bucks in. So those ones we chose because not only are they kind of simple, so they're a little bit easier to make and not so much details. So we're going to like have the cheap out on them or cut a bunch of details out to not do properly. I thought they were like really iconic to the young bucks as well as being a really cool look, just gold and blue. Like I can't really go wrong with those colors. I thought.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah, and having now seen them for in person the first time today, they really do pop. You know, it was one of those things where I was like, I promised myself I was just going to get an Orange Cassidy for the photo photo promotions. I can't buy this whole case. I can't do it. They already has the figures. If I got to borrow them for photos, I'll just bug him. But I need an Orange Cassidy. I needed him.
00:16:10
Speaker
Something about seeing them in person, even when I see them in stores, I feel like I need to buy them. Oh, I can't just leave them here. They're hard to find. I need them for myself. But then I think I have so many of these. I have to leave them for someone else.
00:16:23
Speaker
The collector community appreciates it. One. And two, that feeling has to be surreal. I can't imagine. We've talked to other designers, and I ask them all the same question. It's like, what does it really feel like to be walking in Target? You walk into Target for ice cream or milk or toilet paper or whatever, and you're like, let me just poke in the toilet and look at the stuff that I made.
00:16:53
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's different for me because I definitely go to Target just for the toys. Like ice cream and toilet paper will come secondary, but like it's definitely straight to the toys. I'm like, okay, what do they got here? One of us, one of us. Yeah, they did it today. I got, I'm really lucky. There's a Target literally around the corner for me. They just built it like a year ago. So it's pretty awesome. Yeah. So that was actually cool walking in there seeing the figures.
00:17:19
Speaker
In the local target. Cause I was thinking like, man, these things were made like around the corner from here. Like, I don't know. Anyone will think of that. Like, Oh, these were all designed five minutes from here. Well, yeah, I, the first time I did see him, I did buy two. I felt bad. I bought a Phoenix and MJF because they were the only ones left. And I was like, I need to buy these. Just have the experience of buying my own figures.
00:17:40
Speaker
and something I was so intimate with and starting the line and being so crucial to these developments. These are kind of my babies more than anything else I've ever done. So I had to have that experience purchasing them. So I'm sorry, fellow collectors. Two figures you're missing out on because of me. You earned it. You earned it, man. Yeah, that's cool, though. That's cool, though. So which wrestler has been the most hands-on so far?
00:18:05
Speaker
Uh, there's been a lot. So last year at Toy Fair, we had all those wrestlers come by. They've been really hands on liking their stuff. Kenny Omega got him paid in the young bucks. Uh, but I would say to me directly, it's probably Santana. He actually followed me and like messaged me and stuff and said how much he liked the figures, which has been really cool. He's just an awesome guy. So I'm glad his figure came out so well. It's definitely deserving. Yeah. It's easily the Santana and Ortiz are
00:18:34
Speaker
my favorite of the series four ones. 100% definitely on the early could make the top 10 of the year list.
Selection and Collaboration Process
00:18:45
Speaker
For me, those are just hands down amazing figures. But not to mention just seeing some of the stuff too that Santana has put on Instagram with
00:18:55
Speaker
showing the toys to his daughter and just, you know, his being a collector for his life too and just being able to kind of see his own figure is amazing. Yeah, that's what's really special for me too, just seeing these guys that are avid collectors and who have been working in this industry for a long time, like they're finally getting their, like all their dues paid and they're coming up and they're getting all the exposure they deserve and they're finally getting their figures and yeah, seeing that's been really, really special, especially for Santana.
00:19:24
Speaker
And the other cool thing too is especially with the AAW roster, seeing a lot of just being from like this, the New York, New Jersey area, seeing a lot of the AAW roster from back when they were just coming up in like their indie days is amazing to now see them be in a figure form is awesome too. Yeah, that's cool. There's definitely a lot of East Coast guys in the AAW, aren't there? Yeah. Got MJF, Silver, all them.
00:19:54
Speaker
Eddie Kingston. That's awesome. Alex Reynolds, yeah. Santana Ortiz. So, so many. Joey, Janela. So what goes into the selection process for each series? So there's typically lots of like rounds of it. Like we'll choose what we like for a wave, then we'll go back to AW. They'll either prove it or say it takes people out or
00:20:21
Speaker
offer suggestions of who should go in there and we'll go back and forth. Because there's kind of a lot of stuff that goes into decision making really, not only just costing, but like what we have existing, what's new, how to weigh out all the different aspects of it. So we try to weigh everything as evenly as possible and like try to make really exciting waves that make sense from a storing tele perspective.
00:20:42
Speaker
So you have tag teams that are grouped together. You have rivalries that are grouped together. You have people that kind of work within a wave. Like when you see them all together, like it makes sense in a way. It's not just necessarily all just random guys.
00:20:55
Speaker
So it's a long, complicated process. Has there, has there been, um, and I mean, granted we're, we're only five series into the, and a couple of, you know, special box sets, right? Has there really been instances where you guys have presented a wave of figures and AEW has been like, well, actually, could you, this guy instead of this guy, like they really are that hands on to like the character selection?
00:21:17
Speaker
Oh yeah, absolutely. There's been a couple, there's been probably every wave, there's people that AEW would suggest instead of, or maybe the timing is not right on them. So yeah, it's a collaborative process for sure. That's awesome to hear actually. Cause like, you know,
00:21:33
Speaker
it's been a long time since we've had, um, you know, uh, another, uh, major wrestling company produce action figures, right. And, and another company that has really kind of, you know, risen high enough to compete with somebody like, you know, like the WWE and the fact that like they, you know,
00:21:54
Speaker
Tony Khan and the rest of the people in charge at AEW, the fact that they are being this hands-on with their toys, it really kind of gives you those old warm and fuzzies from the rivalries of the 90s. It's fantastic. And frankly, I love to hear stuff like that. That makes me very happy.
00:22:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. I really enjoy working with AWW. They've been nothing but great to all of us. From the top down, being there for our events, giving us support, recording stuff for reveals, they've been really, really great. Yeah, that last set of reveals was awesome. The last reveal was really cool. Yeah, right. I wasn't expecting that. I was surprised by it too. It was pretty cool to see.
00:22:37
Speaker
And I loved that the first, the first one that, uh, that Jeremy shared was, uh, karoshida. That was like, I like double fist pumped in the air. When I saw that, I was like, yeah. Um, so you guys have, have produced a lot of figures so far, you know, a lot of different superstars. Um, if you had to pick, pick one, uh, who's, who's the favorite one that, uh, or your favorite design so far? Uh, you know, I would have said Pentagon maybe like a month or two ago.
00:23:06
Speaker
Because I just love Pentagon. I've been watching him for years now, seeing him at indies, and seeing him up close, wrestle, and getting to see him on TV is really, really special, and making his figures been awesome. But I'm probably leaning more towards Santana right now, mostly because I feel like his outfit's not super crazy. He's more of a straightforward wrestler versus Darby Allen or Pentagon, who look really cool on their own. So it's kind of hard to mess those guys up.
00:23:34
Speaker
But like Santana Ortiz, like they're normal guys, like getting them to look as good as they did. I'm kind of really stoked about that and like really proud of those two in particular. You know, I was I was hoping that was going to be your answer only because, you know, and kudos to you really seriously because there are so many Toyota.
Fan Influence and Feedback
00:23:55
Speaker
personalities on AW. One of the ones that you guys just announced for Series 5, I believe, Luchasaurus. I mean, we haven't seen the final product yet, just the renders, but you want to talk about a toyetic guy. I mean, you don't get really more toyetic than a guy that's a lucha dinosaur. I mean, it's fantastic. I can't wait to see the final image of that.
00:24:24
Speaker
But taking it to your point, like somebody who's more of just kind of an old school, you know, normal guy wrestler and making an incredible toy out of that is a feat. Like that's that's a feat. And you you really did accomplish that. I mean, both of those proud, proud and powerful. They're they're fantastic. Both both both Santana and Ortiz. So, yeah, kudos to you, man. Thank you so much. I'm glad you feel that way.
00:24:51
Speaker
Like down to the sneakers that Ortiz wears. The amount of detail is unreal. Yeah, I love those footshoe things. I'm sure they were very tedious to design too, right? It's like, God damn it, I gotta give him toes. When I saw that, I was like, he really wears these wrestling? I didn't even notice. That's pretty cool. And of course, we can't talk about them without talking about the single greatest accessory that any wrestler has ever come with.
00:25:22
Speaker
The chancla? Yup. Yeah, I knew as soon as they pulled that out of that birthday bag thing for Jericho, I was like, that's going to be in the figure. Oh, so good. I nearly peed myself when the impact shots came out that day and I was like, oh my God. Yeah, that was immediately what I thought of was back to the Jericho birthday bag, yeah.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Like I'm growing up Hispanic. I've definitely been at the wrath of the end of one of those chanclas. So I feel the fear of seeing it. So I knew like, yeah, we have to do that. That's the most powerful weapon of all in history.
00:26:04
Speaker
So going from your favorite design to one you're looking forward to, is there a member of the AEW roster that has not been announced yet that you are just looking forward to taking on somebody that you'd really love to work with and work on a figure for? Definitely Brian Cage. He's going to be awesome.
00:26:27
Speaker
He's got to be in there soon. I can't say anything more, but whenever we get to Drew Brian Cajun, I'm really looking forward to doing him. He's just an action figure just looking at him. He is a human action figure. He is a living He-Man figure, thinking about it. I'm thinking people should just do customs and pop a custom head on a He-Man torso. It might actually work.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah, especially with the Wolverine sideburns and everything. We've seen many clips of the AEW wrestlers reacting to seeing their figures for the first time. We actually got to see one at Toy Fair when we saw Dustin Rhodes see his figure. Which reaction stood out to you?
00:27:18
Speaker
You know, MJF was pretty surprising. Like, he was really gracious about it and really, like, loved his figure more than I thought he would. I was thinking he was going to not be very nice about it, but he was pretty good. Yeah, I mean, hopefully he doesn't hear this because if he hears that you called him gracious about anything, he's probably not going to be very happy with him. I'm going to get in trouble.
00:27:43
Speaker
Well, we'll leave it in, but we'll also send you, uh, send you our, our information for, uh, the witness protection program, because, you know, or you could just talk to Jeremy because Jeremy got out of hot water with him with the, uh, with, with the whole chase situation. So you just have to, you have to shoot him an email and figure out how to stay out of, uh, MJF's path. Man, we were in Chicago after like, I think last year for resolution, like they were doing a signing and then he signed some kids forehead, like MJF, like he autographed it.
00:28:13
Speaker
And I asked the kid, did you want that? He's like, no, he just did it. I don't know why that made me laugh so hard. He is next level. Talk about living, sleeping, breathing, eating what he loves. He's MJF. Yeah. Kneel to the core.
00:28:38
Speaker
Do you see fan input ever becoming involved in helping design a wrestler for either unrivaled or unmatched?
Industry Insights and Cross-Brand Play
00:28:45
Speaker
Oh, definitely. We've always been listening to the fans and definitely taking all the input in and trying to fix things as we go along. Jeremy especially is really on top of listening to people, trying to get things improved just based on feedback.
00:29:00
Speaker
Yeah. And we've seen that from, you know, from skin tone to faces to, you know, accessories to everything. Like, you know, the line has so quickly evolved from series one to where we are, you know, where we are now. It's it. And that's one of the things I think, and Dave, correct me if I'm wrong, but like, you know, having somebody like Jeremy, um,
00:29:27
Speaker
who has such a long history with wrestling figures, right? I mean, he's often referred to as the godfather of wrestling figures, right? Having somebody like him with his experience, I think it must be comforting to know that you kind of, that he's got your back, right? That he's gonna listen and he's going to help you get what you need to produce the best possible product.
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent. Like you nailed it on the head. Like it's really, really comforting knowing because he knows exactly what these figures need to be and like the expectation levels from consumers and fans of what they want. And like what's expected by now, because dressing figures in particular have evolved so drastically over the years. Like now they're like, you have to do top notch or not even competing anymore. But another person too, like doesn't get enough recognition. I think it's Greg, Greg Mitchell.
00:30:22
Speaker
Like he works like over time and he really is like the biggest spokesperson for this brand and really pushing to make it as best as possible. So I'm really thankful to work with him too. Yeah. And you guys are all, it's fantastic. And I mean, we are fortunate enough to be sitting here having this conversation with you and we've spoken to Greg, we've spoken to Jeremy here on this podcast.
00:30:47
Speaker
But we watch you guys interact with the wrestling toy photographers. We watch you interact with just kind of the fans who have questions, the collectors. You guys are so transparent and approachable. It's almost like...
00:31:03
Speaker
like at first it's almost like is this truly sincere like I can't believe that these are real life you know creative people in the positions that they are answering the really getting into the weeds of the whole thing and it's I think that's part of the reason why you can't find these things anywhere you know because people know
00:31:21
Speaker
the amount of work and like you know if you're somebody who started collecting wrestling you know these wrestling figures in wave one right and you were vocal about feedback you could almost go as far as to say like you know part of your feedback is the reason why wave four and wave three are the way that they are because
00:31:41
Speaker
You know, you guys listen and I think more people need to understand that and need to need to kind of hear that you guys really are paying attention and that you guys are listening and you know, and things are very obviously improving. You know, you're taking a great thing that was great to begin with and you're, you're constantly making it better and it's, it's awesome to watch, watch the process happen.
00:32:03
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Like I think that's what is what's cool is that Jeremy did encourage us to be like open with people and to interact with people online and be spokespersons for the brand because we do love this stuff. Like I eat, sleep in whatever AW is like my life basically right now, especially being in lockdown.
00:32:21
Speaker
Like I'm surrounded by the figures. That's kind of all I do all day. So when I hear other people as passionate about them, or people like as invested into getting them and making them even better, like we definitely gotta listen. I enjoy the interactions for sure. And the other thing that's cool about it is, you know, you're seeing like,
00:32:37
Speaker
Not only is the line evolving, but you're also seeing the wrestlers themselves evolve because AEW is only a new company and these figures, this is a new line. So you're seeing like, okay, we've seen now Cody with
00:32:55
Speaker
with the ringside one that's coming. Now he has his neck tattoo and the original TNT title coming from the original Double or Nothing Cody. Chris Jericho has changed his look and now we're getting a new Chris Jericho. So the line is evolving with the company, which is great to see. Yeah, definitely. And we definitely need them to keep evolving too because we're going to get stuck pretty soon, making the same figure over and over if they don't. I'm happy. Cody changes his look almost every week, it feels like.
00:33:26
Speaker
And like Jericho too. Yeah, like Jericho now he's got the scarf and the bat and you know, like, yeah, there's, there's always something new. Yeah. That's really good for us. Cause we could keep making more and like do more exciting stuff and then recreate these like looks that are really iconic from the, all the upcoming future iconic moments that happen to me. It's pretty really fun. Yeah. I still, I still am hoping that you guys put out that joke wave of just all Cody's
00:33:56
Speaker
I wouldn't mind it. I like it. He's a cool guy.
00:34:00
Speaker
Before we get into some of the future stuff for AEW, I feel like if we fail to mention the UFC figures, we're missing an opportunity here because those are incredibly awesome too. And you guys just announced the way of one of the new UFC figures that are the different scale now. So tell us a little bit about that. How did we go from that one specialized smaller scale UFC figures to what we can see now in the future?
00:34:32
Speaker
Yeah, so I think last year Jazz World gave me a pretty good opportunity to take over UFC as well as doing AEW. So what I wanted to do immediately was just make them all in the same world and keep what we were going with AEW, do that with UFC and keep them in that same scale and try to give them the same articulation just to keep them playable with each other. So you could set up dream matches between wrestlers and UFC fighters.
00:34:58
Speaker
And with those guys, it's pretty much the same approaches with the AEW guys. We just want to recreate moments. So if you look at the UFC wave ones, they're all from specific dates and they're all from specific times. For instance, Conor McGregor is from when he won his double belts, or the two belts, and became the first double champion in UFC, or one of the first, I'm not sure if he was the first. So we gave him two belts, we gave him that attire from that night, we gave him hair, everything, his look from that specific night, so we can recreate that specific moment.
00:35:28
Speaker
and just create different play patterns and create different worlds of UFC and celebrate these times and celebrate these moments in history. Yeah, I love that you guys moved them to the same scale as what you're doing for the AEW figures because of course, too, and we talk about this all the time with the Fortnite figures, it's like,
00:35:51
Speaker
It's so cool that you have figures that are the same scale with stuff that other companies are doing. So like, you know, wrestling, Fortnite, they're great examples where you can really kind of have the matches of your dreams. And we've all been doing that, you know, as when we were kids, whether it was with Hasbro Hasbro's WWF guys at the time and you know, the WCW gloop figures.
00:36:12
Speaker
Or, you know, the toy biz WCW figures and the Jax, you know, bone crunchers and then Titan Tron figures, right? Like we were always taking all of the figures and kind of mashing them together in the ring. And now, you know, you can do the same thing, but with UFC, you know, WWE's entire catalog, AW wrestlers, like everybody scales together so nicely. And it's, it's just like, I love it. It's, it's like an unspoken handshake.
00:36:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good way to think of it. I like that. It's fun too, because Fortnite, every license is in Fortnite now. Star Wars, Mandalorian, all those guys, they're in Fortnite, so if you have Fortnite figures and you have these other figures, they kind of just work together.
00:36:56
Speaker
And it's pretty fun to play with them. Yeah, I've been I've been losing my mind the past few weeks with the Fortnite stuff because it's like they announced like Ripley and the Xenomorph from Alien. So like I immediately like ripped out like I was like, all right, well, I can take the the six inch Master Chief figure from Jazzwares and I can take my Jazzwares Fortnite figures and then my NECA Alien.
00:37:18
Speaker
And, you know, Marvel Legends Captain America, like, here we go. Like, everybody get in the lightbox, we're gonna have some fun. Yeah, that's awesome. Now, just, you know, thinking of UFC real quick, and you were saying like different moments in UFC history, is there anything, you know, any idea or any plans of going like kind of back towards, you know, older UFC is almost more like legendary stuff?
Future Developments and Fan Involvement
00:37:45
Speaker
Absolutely. Like that's definitely key to get their bunch of legends. There's so much like a rich history of UFC to pull from. We definitely want to go back and do as much as we can that way. But also we want to celebrate the new guys, the up and comers and people that are currently like on the roster. So it's like a trying to strike a balance between them for sure. What Dave is trying to tell you is he really just wants like a, like a, like a, like a greasy figure. Oh, nice. Right. Or, uh, or Chuck Liddell.
00:38:14
Speaker
Yeah, it'd be fun to do Gracie with a gi. That'd be pretty cool. Hey, I mean, if you could do a denim jacket, you could definitely do a gi. Frank Mira would be cool, though, too. Yeah. It's like a beat up Brock Lesnar. Yeah. Sweet.
00:38:34
Speaker
Speaking of legends, something that also comes up quite frequently, and again, not to keep bringing up Jeremy, but something that he's kind of mentioned on Twitter a few times, mentioned on Instagram. And that he's outright famous for.
00:38:49
Speaker
the legends lines, right? So like the wrestlers that are not currently, you know, basically the ones that are not contracted by WWE, right? Like, do you see the possibility of even kind of re-exploring that legends line that he was so famous for, you know, the superstars line?
00:39:11
Speaker
Absolutely. I think Jeremy has gone on record saying we're going to do legends. Celebrating the history of wrestling is definitely what we're trying to do. There's still so much out there that never got figures or haven't gotten modern figures. That should be really fun to do for sure.
00:39:28
Speaker
super excited for it. I mean, that that line was absolutely iconic. And to see the quality that you guys are putting into the AEW figures and to some of these, you know, really kind of like forgotten, you know, superstars and get them into hands of like the next generation and new generation of collectors and tell us, you know, it's an exciting, it's an exciting prospect.
00:39:51
Speaker
Well that and it advances history. It's basically giving a history lesson to everyone. Hey, this person was somebody of note. Now do some research and watch some old stuff. Definitely more access to it now than ever too with YouTube and whatever else you can find online.
00:40:13
Speaker
Yeah, I just watched for the first time. Dave, I'm gonna screw it up. Oneida and Terry Funk? Yep, you're right. Right, I got it. Oneida and Terry Funk's Exploding Barbed Wire match. I watched that for the first time last night and it was amazing. Yeah, I wanted to go back and watch the Terry Funk mankind or Mick Foley Barbed Wire match. Ooh, I don't... Yeah, that's a good one. I gotta go back to that one too.
00:40:40
Speaker
Um, so, so talking about things in the future, we've, we've, you know, we've seen the, you know, the unrivaled, you know, five, five series of the unrivaled line. Um, and you guys have talked about the unmatched line. What can you tell us, uh, about the AW unmatched figures?
00:40:57
Speaker
So yeah, so this is where we're actually going to start to see some legends pop in, and some people, old timers, I don't know what a better word to say than pop in, that you wouldn't necessarily get in the arrival line. You're going to get more different stuff. Can't really give too much away, but there's a lot of surprises in Unmatched, which are going to be really fun for people. I think collectors are going to really dig them.
00:41:20
Speaker
Awesome. We love surprises. And just you telling us that there are surprises coming is more than enough news to keep us happy. Well, I hope there are surprises. Jeremy said a bunch of stuff on Twitter, but I'm not following him super close. So maybe he already revealed it. I don't know. We are on him like hawks. There has been no name droppage yet as of yet. Good.
00:41:45
Speaker
So here's a good question. Are we going to see the tag team titles come to the line in the near future? I know that the first tag team champions SCU were announced for Wave 5. Well, I can't confirm or deny anything, but I'll just say that we'll definitely see the tag team titles eventually in the line, 100%. Yeah, it's the only one we're missing now, right? Because we have the women's title, we have the TNT title, we have the championship title.
00:42:15
Speaker
We need those tag titles. Yep, definitely. So this is the short portion of our show before we really kind of wrap it up and let you go where we posted a story on our Instagram. Thank you by the way for sharing it on yours as well. And we got a series of questions.
00:42:40
Speaker
and we also got a series of suggestions. So what I'll do is, we'll break this up. Dave is going to ask you the first question from one of our followers, and then in the middle, before we do the last question from our followers, I'm just gonna hit you with,
00:43:00
Speaker
Just the suggestions of a bunch of our followers that just wanted you to hear their opinion. And they will not be in the form of a question. You don't have to answer anything just so that people know that they were heard. Does that sound good? Yeah, perfect. All right, Dave, let's hit magic with the first question from our followers. All right.
00:43:29
Speaker
I'm just going to spell this, uh, handle. I think it's at a, at a lytics at at a lytics. What's your earliest influence in action figure or toy design? Um, usually, uh, Ninja Turtles, like I was a growing up, I love Ninja Turtles. Like I still do. They influenced my life like hugely. I don't know why. Uh, but like I was obsessed with them growing up. I was obsessed with them when I was a teenager when they brought them back like in 2000 or 2004.
00:43:59
Speaker
And that line actually really kind of inspired me. That's the one I was talking about earlier, where I saw a figure had kind of clicked in my head, like, Oh, someone made this and I could do this for a living. So that 2014 NT line really kind of inspired me to go for it. And I can collect a ton of them. I'm yeah. And then seeing now the stuff neck is putting out, which is like a thousand times better than any Ninja turtle toy previously. That's just been insane. Just to see the level of detail we're at now, like how much things have evolved from the eighties till now.
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah, people have heard me make this claim, and I swear, to this day, I still swear it's true. So I love the Ninja Turtles. I played with Dave's Turtles once I was older, because those first Turtles were dated the year I was born. So I always made the joke, because for me, the Ninja Turtles were the two movies.
00:44:51
Speaker
turtles and then secret ooze came out like that was a perfect time for me so ninja turtles like film Jim Henson turtles right? I always make the joke that the NECA stuff is so beautiful I can't fall down that that rabbit hole but if they ever make Kevin Nash super shredder
00:45:09
Speaker
Or if they make the absolutely insane coming out of their shells tour turtles, I'm in. I will buy those turtles, I will buy that shredder, and then I'll hunt down a movie splinter and I'm good. And NECA asked me to put my money where my mouth was last year. And I got them. And they are no joke.
00:45:35
Speaker
Immediately like so Star Wars is really my big thing in terms of collecting. I I completely demolished one of my Display cubes that was previously all Star Wars just so that I could have those turtles on display Permanently like they're never gonna go anywhere. That's it like they are perfect action figures They're absolutely
00:46:00
Speaker
Insanely crazy, I love them, and to your point, yes, it is absolutely incredible. I actually just found my original Super Shredder this past weekend from Playmates Toys from 1992 or whatever, and I took a picture of it next to the new Super Shredder, and it's amazing how far we've come.
00:46:23
Speaker
It's kind of like weird. It's kind of like video games in a way. It's like in the 90s, like the video games were playing, like Mario looked awesome. And then you go back and it's like, wow, just pixels and stuff. It's kind of like the same for toys, seeing them. It's like where they were incredible in the time. And then now it's like just been super HD'd and brought to life.
00:46:40
Speaker
It's like such an insane fashion now. It's really cool. Speaking of video games, you see that Turtles video game that was announced today? The Shredder's Revenge one? I did not. I heard the name. I thought it was a cartoon, though. I didn't see more about it. That sounds awesome. I'll share a link with you, but it's like an old-school, like, Turtles in Time beat-em-up that's in the style of the animated series. Awesome. That's incredible. Yeah, it looks amazing.
00:47:06
Speaker
Well, I could think about when we were talking about the coming out of their shells turtles is just going to Pizza Hut Pizza power takes me back Well, I think it's pizza power flying saucer Something to light. Yeah, it's absolutely insane I don't remember I I recently rewatched it with with Maddie if and she loved the entire concert. I'm sure I
00:47:34
Speaker
When I think of those, I always think of those hardcore edits they made from the turtle thing. It's like a hardcore band and they just edit together. Amazing. I don't know why. I love those. All right, so I don't know what we'll call this, but here's a bunch of suggestions.
00:47:54
Speaker
All right, so I have these in order of the amount that they were suggested. Believe it or not, every single one of these that you are about to hear are all repeats. So there's nothing you're about to hear that was just requested by one person. Okay, it's here. All right, lots of requests for the figures to be in Malaysia. To be in Malaysia? Yeah, the AW figures to be sold somewhere in Malaysia.
00:48:24
Speaker
Interesting. Apparently, they still have Toys R Us there. That's awesome. Lucky. Malaysia. Second, yeah, that was the most suggested one, Malaysia. Second most suggested one is people would really like a scale octagon for the UFC figures. Absolutely, that'd be awesome.
00:48:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think that would be great, too. At Toy Fair, we saw the figures in last year. We saw the figures in an Octagon, but that was the original figures, the smaller scale figures. And the Octagon, honestly, was probably just part of the display. But they would look awesome with an Octagon. The third most requested one, the Young Bucks in their Street Fighter outfit. So that's, there you go. That's a good one.
00:49:18
Speaker
I mean, you would need the Kenny to go with it, though. Yeah, because if you don't... He was dressed up as Ken, right? Or Ryu? He was Akuma. Akuma, right? They were Ken and Ryu, and he was Akuma. They were Ken and Ryu, and he was Akuma. Yeah, he actually wore the same thing that he wore in the Wave 1 version. He just had different hair. Like, kind of dyed red a little bit and tied up. And he had the cymbal painting on his back. It's pretty cool looking. It is. Yeah, those are really cool outfits. And then...
00:49:46
Speaker
The last one is, so we talked about legends. So I'm actually gonna, yeah, we talked about legends already. So this is part legends. But the other one is we had three different people ask, will there be legends? And all three of them want the Steiner brothers. So some big Papa Pump love. Yeah, the numbers don't lie.
00:50:13
Speaker
So there you go. So I'm going to let Dave do the last question here from our followers. OK. And this is a mashup of just a bunch of different questions. So are you considering more playset-like items outside of rings? Absolutely. There's definitely a whole world we can build. Yeah.
00:50:38
Speaker
Awesome. Well, there you go. That's not necessarily to say anything's necessarily coming, but definitely considered. Considered. That's why we worded it that way, considering we don't want to lock you into something that you don't want to lock yourself into. So you are considering
Conclusion and Gratitude
00:50:55
Speaker
it. Cool.
00:50:59
Speaker
All right, well, magic. Dave also, outside of being co-host of this podcast, serves as our James Lipton. So, Mr. Lipton, would you like to take the final question? Yes, last question of the evening. What is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection? Favorite and or strangest?
00:51:25
Speaker
Doesn't have to be one thing, could be two things, but, you know. Could be both. Either one. Last guest had an answer for both, and it almost put us on the ground. We were laughing so hard, so I mean, it's...
00:51:37
Speaker
But no pressure, I'm just saying that that was just an instance where somebody had a very, very strange Aunt May figure that just so happened to check literally every box that's ever been, oh wait, before you tell your answer, I just, I need to say this. So I found out real quick, Magic, we had Brock McLaughlin on from Spin Master Toys, and he told us about this Toy Biz Aunt May figure
00:52:05
Speaker
that he had, and I looked into it. Not only did I find that it made one of Toy Galaxy's most WTF figures ever made, it was on one of his lists. But Jesse Falcon, who works at Marvel and worked with Toy Biz and made a lot of those Toy Biz figures, apparently to this day, that figure haunts his dreams.
00:52:30
Speaker
to the point where he has not approved an Aunt May figure in that style for Marvel Legends because of how poorly that one came out.
00:52:43
Speaker
So not only does Brock have a really creepy figure in his collection, he has one that potentially has ruined all future attempts at an anime figure from anybody connected to Marvel, as long as Jesse still lives and breathes. So there you go. That whole line is a lot.
00:53:06
Speaker
That's the best way I can describe it. So I'm not going to pepper you with pictures now, Magic, but I'll send you some pictures of this toy and some of the other ones that were in this line. And it will make you feel a lot better about what you do as a creative person. That's awesome. They definitely send those on to see it. All right, so now that I've distracted you from thinking about your answer. You've distracted me from sleeping, too.
00:53:37
Speaker
Come on. I think my strangers figure, it's not even, it's not that good compared to that anime figure. So be disappointed now. But I have an Enzo Amore, a talking smack figure, I think, whatever it's called from WWE, from when I worked there, but it has a sound chip of John Cena in it. So when you push it, it just says like, you can't see me. But I don't know. It's coming out of Enzo's face, like just something pretty weird about that.
00:54:03
Speaker
No, that's really good. That's good. Oh, man. And I'm assuming that was just a packaging mistake, right? Like the wrong chip ended up in the wrong figure. I think it was just like an earlier FEP model or sample, and they just put the wrong one in there. But yeah, I loved it. I mean, I still love Enzo. I think he's great. I know he gets so much hate, and people do not like him and his character, but I thought he was awesome and really hilarious and really good at what he did.
00:54:34
Speaker
So I would get all the Enzo merch from WWE. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, magic. Listen, thank you so much for taking the time out to be with us tonight and be on Adventures in Collecting before we let you go. Is there anything you'd like to plug? And please let everybody know where they can find you online.
00:54:55
Speaker
Online, I'm always just magic almost. It's usually my handle for a lot of stuff. So Instagram, Facebook, whatever you can find. I'm not really on Facebook, but Instagram is a place to contact me if you guys want to come suggest more figures, more messages. But yeah, the AEW Unrivaled in the UFC and Unmatched coming up too. That's the only thing I got going. I love those. It's on my heart and soul right now. So I'm really appreciative of all the support you guys have been giving us and the positive feedback. So thank you guys. Thanks for having me.
00:55:25
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.
00:55:42
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.
00:56:06
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.