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REBROADCAST: Episode 24 Feat. Jazwares' Jeremy Padawer
610 Plays3 years ago
Dave and Erik are taking a week off, but we still have something for you to listen to! Since AEW FanFest and Double or Nothing were this weekend, let's go back... WAY back to the beginnings of Adventures in Collecting by revisiting our interview with Jazwares' Jeremy Padawer. Enjoy this trip down memory lane; we'll be back next week!
Follow Jeremy and Jazwares on Instagram @jeremypadawer and @jazwares for the latest news across the brand!
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting
00:00:02
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.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
Eric Records Solo During Memorial Day Break
00:00:31
Speaker
We are not back and we are not here. In fact, it is just me, Eric. So after three years and a hundred full-length, a hundred-some-odd full-length episodes and a bunch of news briefs, Dave and I have never taken a week off.
00:00:49
Speaker
And with Memorial Day and a long weekend and some travel planned and just some scheduling conflicts, we figured, yeah, life is telling us to take this week off. However, that doesn't mean that we're not going to have something for you to listen to.
Replay of Special Episode with Jeremy Padour
00:01:01
Speaker
So we figured this would be an opportunity since it's been a few years now and, you know, a whole lot of people, new people are listening to the show. We would turn back the clock and play an old episode for you and not just any episode, but
00:01:13
Speaker
an episode from two years ago that is near and dear to our heart with AEW Fan Fest and Double or Nothing having just happened as you are listening to this in the future, and I am recording this in the past, we thought it would be a great opportunity to replay our episode with Uncle Jeremy, with Jeremy Padour of Jazzwares. And this episode is really special because it was during the pandemic,
00:01:39
Speaker
We had next to no following on any sort of social media platform. We were a new podcast, a new presence, and we cold messaged Jeremy Padour on Instagram. And by God, the man answered and then gave us the time of the day to talk.
00:01:59
Speaker
he even gave us a reveal that went completely unnoticed because nobody knew who we were uh... but it's still a really fun episode because it was right after the you know the a w jazz where's line had kinda debuted
00:02:12
Speaker
Um, and, and, you know, at the time UFC. So, uh, yeah, uh, I hope everyone is having a, uh, a reflective and healthy Memorial Day holiday. We will see you back next week with our regularly scheduled programming, uh, Eric and Dave from the past. Take it away.
Jeremy Padour Joins to Discuss Toy Collecting
00:02:32
Speaker
Hello everybody. And welcome back to adventures and collecting. Uh, it's, it's Eric and Dave and we have a special guest, right, Dave? We do.
00:02:41
Speaker
So we're going to go right into things because our guest today is very special and is a long time pillar of the figure community and the collecting community. You may know him from his time with Jack Pacific and is one of the co-presidents of Wicked Cool Toys. He's now a partner at Jazzwares. We of course are talking about Jeremy Pedour. Welcome to the show, Jeremy. Thank you very much. Glad to be here. Great to talk to you guys.
00:03:08
Speaker
We're so happy to have you. Again, thank you for taking the time to join our little toy collecting show today. This is really cool. Thank you. Of course, I'm at your service. I'm ready to chat. Let's chat it up. So before we dive headlong into things, when we have a guest on, the first thing that we like to do is we like to ask them what they're currently collecting and what toy line or collectible has you most excited at the moment.
00:03:38
Speaker
Well, I see I'm currently collecting, uh, Pokemon cards, primarily vintage cards. Uh, I just bought a 1999, uh, base set, the first series shadowless, uh, PSA 10 card one through one Oh two. And, uh, that's that, that really hit the news big this week. I don't know if you saw it, but, um, it was the highest price paid ever for a, uh, original base set.
Jeremy on Pokémon and Wrestling Figures
00:04:04
Speaker
We did indeed. Congratulations, by the way. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. That was, that was a lot of fun and I'm glad, uh, I'm glad I had the opportunity to, uh, to do that. Um, but you know, I will say that, that I, uh, Pokemon is a special place in my heart. You know, they, I've been part of the brand for the last 15 years and had the opportunity to see it grow and, uh, what it is today, which is one of the most important, uh, brands in the history of, uh, entertainment.
00:04:34
Speaker
Um, but I also collect, um, vintage, you know, sports cards. Uh, I like, uh, some of the TCGs from the early 2000s. Like I bought a couple of Harry Potter booster, uh, boxes, um, some Neopets booster boxes. Um, and, uh, projects tops project 2020, which is a very cool card concept, like card meets art concept. And of course, you know,
00:05:01
Speaker
I manufacture action figures of all kinds, Fortnite, Roblox, Pokemon, AEW, and Halo is launching this year. So there's just a lot going on. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things where I think when people talk to you and mention your name, I think a lot of times you are kind of synonymous with the wrestling figure community because of what you did previously with Jax and what you're doing with AEW now.
00:05:31
Speaker
But yeah, Pokemon is such a cultural phenomenon. I'm 32 years old, so I was right in that butter zone when Pokemon landed here in the US. I remember getting my yellow tag out of the Toys R Us wall.
00:05:51
Speaker
and getting it on on Gameboy originally like the red and blue games and you know trading the cards at school so it's very nostalgic for me and I I still kind of dabble in Pokemon like Pokemon Go and and and and some of the more modern iterations of things but yeah when I when I saw that uh... that you had um... that you had purchased that lot of cards I was... it brought me back. Well I'll play this so uh... interestingly enough so 1999 is when they launched
00:06:20
Speaker
So if you're 32, that means you are 11. And if you think about it, the Pokemon set that I bought, I mean, it's public. I paid $129,500 for it, okay? Now, I'm going to set that into context in a moment. But $129,500, this set
00:06:40
Speaker
in all PSA 10 condition five years ago was probably around $35,000. And five years before that, it may have been 10. And five years before that, it was more like two. So the reality is, whenever you look at a collectible system, it's really only as valuable as the most emotionally impacted people have the money to purchase into it. So what I mean by that is in 1999,
00:07:09
Speaker
The average age demographic for Pokemon was probably, I don't know, six to 12 years old, or maybe 13, which means today, they're between the ages of 25 and 33. And when you're between the ages of 25 and 33, the odds that you have the kind of expendable income yet is not significantly high. Now, there are some people that have some serious cash walking around money, and a lot of them earned it on their own. But the reality is,
00:07:37
Speaker
Like people my age, I'm 46. You're sort of in the prime of your career. You may have sold a company. You may just be crushing it one way or the other. But given another 10 or 15 years, and I think you're going to see Pokemon valuation spike tremendously because you'll see that the individuals who are part of that brand are now fully, deeply into their careers and lives.
00:08:03
Speaker
yeah i mean i i definitely had some you're just just looking at it had some a little bit of fomo because i recently sold some of my cards like i have still had the might there were no wonder and like i know that i definitely got hosed on the deal cuz i just i didn't know that there was a a market for pokemon cards cuz i definitely had i didn't have like a shadow a shadow list charizard or anything but like i hads you know shadow list first-gen cards um... you know you actually had tweeted out you know what was your favorite pokemon
00:08:32
Speaker
I actually had a shadowless first edition foil Dragonite in that set that I definitely sold. So, you know, it's it's you know, it's it's fun to think about cards. And I know Dave could could speak to it more than I can. But he, you know, and my father, they they collected baseball cards like almost religiously baseball cards back in the day. Yeah.
00:08:55
Speaker
And so, like, what what sort of stuff did you did you collect into? What were you? You know, I'm thirty nine. So it was the, you know, mid late 80s. So that was when, oh, yeah, every everything, everything was worth something, but everything wound up being worth nothing. So let me give you let me give you let me flip that switch for a moment.
00:09:19
Speaker
So the late eighties cards, so I've recently bought some cards in the highest grade condition from the late eighties. Like for instance, I think I paid $1,300 for an upper deck Ken Griffey Jr. 1989 rookie. I think that card looks like just kind of can visualize it, but it was a PSA 10 perfect condition card. And so what I would say is it's interesting. The highest level cards from each one of those sets,
00:09:46
Speaker
has value as long as it can be graded in perfect condition. The difference between a PSA 10 and a PSA 9 could be 7, 8, 9, 10 times. And you keep going down. All of a sudden, you've got something that has even the slightest flaw, and it becomes worth a few bucks, where if it was perfect condition, it's worth a real grip of money.
00:10:09
Speaker
And so what I would say is revisit those binders and catalogs from the late 80s and early 90s and look for the very few superstars that may be rookies in those years. And if you can find a pristine card, it may or may not be worth getting it graded. It's definitely something to think about, for sure. I'm sitting over here. So we're in two different places right now.
00:10:33
Speaker
both in New Jersey, but, you know, practicing social distancing, all that good stuff. Um, I'm sitting here smiling because I know what's sitting in our mother's basement. Yeah, I know it's there too. I do. They would buy full cases. So there's cards from those, those years that are in original cases have never been opened. Excellent. And so again, take a look at the latest, I would say look at PSA card.com.
00:11:00
Speaker
and look at the population reports for the very specific years that you're talking about. And while these sets don't have a tremendous amount of value from the late 80s, you might want to pull the two or three most valuable cards out of it and get them graded. If you get back a PSA 10, heck, it might be worth, you know, 10 times what the set was worth, just that one card, because it's graded so favorably.
00:11:24
Speaker
So outside of baseball cards, you have been, and card collecting in general, which has been, it's been fun to watch you open up some of those booster packs and stuff on social media. But your
Using Social Media for Community Engagement
00:11:38
Speaker
social media presence as of late has been very much so about giving back to the community. And that kind of all started with the showing off the one out of 100 Ultimate Warrior.
00:11:50
Speaker
So what spurred the kind of, uh, redirection of your social media efforts and the amazing generosity? Yeah. Well, I mean, life, life changed. I mean, I, so for, for so many years, I, I was, uh, an executive and you guys hit on an executive Jackson before that Mattel. And, um, I was, uh, you know, it was, it was great. Uh, but.
00:12:17
Speaker
We got involved with an early stage startup that I partnered in and we grew significantly and we sold it. And now we're partners at Jazzwares, but we've grown a really large company. I mean, we were the global master partner for Pokemon and we have, like I said, AEW and Halo and Micro Machines and just some tremendous brands. So that turned out very favorably for me.
00:12:47
Speaker
And I'm not the type of person that likes to sit on all the donuts. I don't enjoy just consuming. I like sharing. And so for me, I had the platform. We had AEW launching. I knew that I had a bit of a community within the old classic superstars with this aggression, adrenaline, deluxe.
00:13:10
Speaker
uh aggression all those wonderful things that we did back in the day and i knew that there were still some folks that may want to hear from me and i thought wow what a great opportunity to pair what i want to do which is to give back to the community that i really dearly love and and feel so much indebtedness to um because i can now uh so yeah i mean like my objective is to build a social media presence
00:13:36
Speaker
But to do it, talking about the business of collecting, but also to share some fun stuff. And if it's merchandise, then it's merchandise. But that's my philosophy. And I think a lot of people who have succeeded in business tend to hide after they succeed. And I think that that doesn't do any good for the next generation of people that are trying to accomplish the same thing.
00:14:03
Speaker
And so I'm definitely going to do the exact opposite. I'll be way more visible now that I've, you know, feel like I've achieved, you know, a lot of the things that I had dreamed about achieving. Now you mentioned the classic superstars and that was a game changer back in the Jax days because there'd never been anything mainstream like that with with classic superstars that celebrated the history of wrestling.
Developing the Classic Superstars Line
00:14:30
Speaker
What led you to pursue that idea?
00:14:32
Speaker
So when I, when I started at Jax, I was 29 years old and, um, I'll take you back, but as a kid, I grew up in the South. Um, and, uh, a Jewish little Jewish kid from the South, right? Mississippi, Tennessee. And, and I just loved wrestling. I really loved it. And so we had regional wrestling and especially in Memphis, USWA and, and Mississippi, whoever would come through, dare come through Columbus, Mississippi.
00:15:01
Speaker
But you would see all the regional wrestlers and you got a real good taste for these self-made personalities. And then in the early 80s, WWF at the time came on the scene in a major way. And I just had a really good sense for that business. So when I got to Jaxx, it was one of the very first things I did at 29 years old was say, listen, we need to celebrate the legends.
00:15:28
Speaker
And so interestingly enough I had the opportunity to have conversations with Vince McMahon and he gave me the green light to approach legends because really the toy business was challenged at the time. You can imagine the attitude era was just over and toy sales had plummeted because toys had been treated like toys and not collectibles.
00:15:55
Speaker
Um, the challenge was, you know, signing these superstars because they, there was no real alumni roster. So I had to figure out a deal mechanism where I would go out and sign these individual athletes, um, or the estates of, and then if WWE should ever have an alumni program, they could then take over those contracts, create a new contract and the athlete would essentially get paid twice, but we didn't care because
00:16:25
Speaker
we were going to get to make their figure one way or the other. And so that gave them the flexibility to allow us to do a program. And, um, it was, uh, it was really great. And if you remember the first wave included red heart and ultimate warrior. And that was also a huge signal to the collecting community, you know, ultimate warrior, like, wow, like, come on. Cause warrior at the time was at real odds with WWE.
00:16:51
Speaker
And that's a whole other story, but we had some very colorful conversations at that time. So you can imagine what a fascinating time it was for me having the opportunity to lead the charge on something at that age and just kind of taking it on without really knowing any better, that it could be such a big deal later on. I'm really thrilled that it is, that we're still talking about it today.
00:17:21
Speaker
Now there were a lot of personalities in that line. Um, and you talked about a lot of the, the main kind of now hall of famers. Um, we've heard stories about wrestlers that you did sign, but who was the one that you couldn't sign that, um, you wish you had. Well, I mean, look, there were the big three for me and that was macho man, Ricky steamboat and Owen heart. Those, those were the ones that I felt.
00:17:46
Speaker
where the biggest misses and for various reasons, whether it be intellectual property issues or whether it be other issues, it just has stopped us from being able to do those figures.
00:18:02
Speaker
The one thing that that line was very clear is it was such a broad line i mean we literally did hundreds of classic superstars figures. I think that's one of the things that was truly embraced by the community is like wow like we did a b and c level characters we just knew how to sort them so that you know if we had.
00:18:23
Speaker
Someone that otherwise would not be all that necessarily popular we could celebrate them by maybe doing one every two case facts versus having another very popular a level character being you know two out of twelve or two out of whatever in the assortment and being very well.
00:18:43
Speaker
And so we, you know, we knew just enough about economics and how supply and demand work to make this thing really cool and work with a B and C, I would say level characters. So now with somebody like, you know, the warrior and we mentioned him as, as part of the giveaway, how do figures like that get selected for
00:19:03
Speaker
the kind of level of promotional items that they, that they were. So like that one out of 100 or that the one out of 10, um, ultimate warrior, like how, how does that come about? So I will tell you that, you know, some of it was just me sitting on my desk and going, okay, I think this is what's going to create excitement. It certainly was stupid in, in, in strategy.
00:19:30
Speaker
because the objective was to continuously create excitement. And I don't think I overdid it. I mean, there was only a certain number of super limited figures over the seven year stretch that we were doing classic superstars or the entire line. Um, but I just like to keep collectors on their toes and keep them really surprised and like, you know, ready to buy something on the secondary market, or at least cursing the fact that it exists because by doing that,
00:19:58
Speaker
You know, you always keep the line, you know, at the forefront of people's minds. And here we are today, you know, celebrating some of the items that people cursed at the time because they were so limited. But yeah, look, that one of 100 2004 New York Toy Fair Ultimate Warrior exclusive is a legendary figure.
00:20:22
Speaker
I was really thrilled to give it away. And I think the gentleman who received it has now been displaying it on socials. I hope that he really enjoys it. Yeah. Yeah. It's so interesting because it hearkens back to kind of like the
00:20:41
Speaker
I guess like the, the mail away culture, you know, of toys, like it was always nice to have like that full set. And then all of a sudden you'd see the commercial or you'd see an ad in a magazine or on the back of a cereal box where, you know, you had to clip the UPCs and send it away and, you know, kind of hope that you had sent away fast enough to be one of the people to get it. But, you know, when you're, when I feel like it's, it's almost, um, it's almost like an, uh, an homage to something like that. When a, when a company,
00:21:10
Speaker
like Jax did and what you did with Jax with those figures, where it's almost like just knowing that it exists is enough. It's such a fun concept and such a huge part of collecting that's kind of missing now. There are variants and chases and things like that, but those really, really super exclusive toys, it's the best part of the process.
00:21:35
Speaker
You know what, I agree with you. But it also signals something else. It signals that the people who are managing the line are also fans of the line. It signals like, wow, there's crazy stuff that could happen here. And it just keeps you excited. And honestly, there's a lot of boring stuff in the world of collectibles. And you've got to keep people on their toes.
00:22:04
Speaker
Yep. And, and now, you know, with, with online culture, you know, half the time you're not even going to stores to like hunt for these figures anymore. You're just, you know, pre-ordering them online and waiting for them to be shipped. So I feel like there's, you know, to your point, you know, that, that element of excitement is, is missing. And the, and the fact that you are, you know, behind so many fun lines now with, with wicked cool toys and or jazzwares, excuse me.
00:22:28
Speaker
Um, you know, I'm curious, like, do you have plans to do similar things for, you know, Pokemon or for Fortnite or for, you know, AEW?
Exciting Plans for AEW Toy Line
00:22:38
Speaker
I was going to ask, isn't there, isn't there something coming for AEW that's along those lines? Absolutely. I mean, there, let's just put it this way. All the tricks are going to be pulled out of the bag when it comes to AEW, um, and we'll reveal them over the course of time.
00:22:53
Speaker
You know, I've always had a lot of patience. Remember, I pulled out the Warrior America after what, 15 years? Because I just, I personally, like I said, I like to keep people guessing and excited over the course of a duration. And, you know, just when you think that you've seen it all, then you see something new. It is an art form. And it's not just, okay, here's the next wave, there's,
00:23:21
Speaker
two of these and two of these. That's that's just not the way to to run a relationship with the collector community. You should always expect the unexpected. So one of my favorite. I'm just going to outright say my favorite, but I know Eric really liked it, too. And it was very unheralded as far as I think it was the wicked cool toys, micro maniacs, the figures. I loved that so much. Awesome.
00:23:50
Speaker
Yeah, I was like looking for different exclusives and stuff like that. I managed to find the vast majority. And it was a really cool original kind of fight style game. How did that idea come to be? And now that jazzwares has AEW, could we see something along those lines for AEW or really for anything else? I think so. Look, it was a very short lived thing, but
00:24:19
Speaker
It wasn't, there's definitely potential there. I'm curious, are you seeing, I mean now that it's out of the marketplace, are you seeing that there, did you feel like there was a significant demand for that particular business?
00:24:35
Speaker
I honestly couldn't tell you, but it was just something where. You completed it, didn't you? You have everything. Yeah, I looked for different exclusives and whatnot and the different paint schemes. But yeah, that was one where I was like, I think this is cool. It's it's it was a good price point, to be honest. And I liked the way that the figures look. Yes, they were small, but they were very, very standardized.
00:25:06
Speaker
Very cool. Yeah, I'll tell you what. I'm looking on eBay as we speak, and I'm looking at sold items. And what do I see? There's definitely a market. There certainly is secondary market. Randy Savage Series 1, 30 bucks. I mean, that's definitely many, many multiples over what we had in the marketplace. Fascinating. That's great. I love that.
00:25:37
Speaker
And I mean, in terms of, of playability too, like tabletop gaming is, is huge. When, when, when we were at toy fair and we'll get into how awesome we thought the jazz wear booth was in a moment. But when we, when we were at toy fair, we were kind of taken, taken aback by how front and center tabletop gaming is becoming again, like we're, we're coming back to like almost, I don't want to say a new renaissance of tabletop gaming, but almost like there's,
00:26:05
Speaker
You know, a billion different versions of Dungeons and Dragons, which is, you know, never goes away. That game has been around, you know, Gary, Gary Guy acts, you know, he created a literal monster with that. But just in general, like the, the presence of tabletop gaming is, is so big right now that, you know, maybe something like an AW micro maniacs would, would do really well.
00:26:27
Speaker
Good idea, really good idea. You're opening my eyes here. I mean obviously we're always looking for another way to experience the brand that doesn't cannibalize from the main item.
00:26:43
Speaker
And I think what I'm seeing here as we speak is that there was certainly enough demand for micromaniacs to sell through and then for there to be a really nice, like I said, secondary market business. I mean, as I look at this, it's very clear to me that it was something that could have continued to survive.
00:27:09
Speaker
Well, staying, staying on the topic of, of AEW, um, and, and, and wrestling toys, we know the unrivaled line is, is nearly upon us at this point. Um, and you've hinted at a couple of things. Is there, is there anything else that, that you guys have in store for that line that you, you know, maybe can throw a hint our way? Um, you know, what I would say to you is that,
00:27:36
Speaker
we're going to be delivering a new wave of product approximately every two months. And I think that we'll be even going faster than that as soon as we extend it, you know, we're launching it at, at Walmart and also at ringside. So, but I think that it is going to very quickly extend beyond
00:28:04
Speaker
those retail outlets and at that time you'll see even more development because when you have more retailers you have to give exclusivity and opportunity for everyone to sort of shine. I would say that the first season of the launch is about making sure that we get it right and then we extend and it's been a very interesting time from a manufacturing standpoint
00:28:36
Speaker
It's a situation where you're launching brands, and for me I'm launching several brands, right smack dab in the middle of a global pandemic that happens every hundred years. And the factories are kind of like in the epicenter of where everything began.
00:28:53
Speaker
It's been exceptionally interesting. I would say that the product's great, but there certainly are nuances, and I think that you'll probably see variations and variants in running changes in ways that you probably wouldn't see
00:29:11
Speaker
normally like I think they'll probably be and I haven't said this yet, but I think there's probably going to be a Second variant of wave one. I think the skin tones are good. They're going to be better So we'll launch and then there'll be a second variant as soon as we can implement a running change Just to make sure we get those skin tones a little bit more Rich, I would say so there you go. So there's a there's a
00:29:40
Speaker
There's one for you. And actually, interestingly enough, it reminds me a little bit of
00:29:46
Speaker
I'm sitting here next to this Pokemon set, and the reason why this set is so valuable is because it is the first edition shadow-less version. And what does that mean? It just means that the first edition stamp is on it, but also Pokemon decided early on in the run that they needed to add a shadow to the box to make it look a little bit more 3D, I guess, or give it more dimensionalized.
00:30:13
Speaker
And I was actually having a good conversation with a weekly executive meeting with Pokemon. And I was taking them through that today. And it's amazing, you know, it's been 20 years, so no one remembers why that was done. But here, I'll tell you.
00:30:29
Speaker
It's done all the time and every time it's done, you think back and you go, oh man, I should have kept my shadowless cards. Nobody knows who you know what I mean? Who knows what to look for at the time? It takes time for that to bed out. But I will tell you, we are very likely going to do.
00:30:45
Speaker
a variant run of Series 1. Lighter skin tones to start, darker, more ripsed skin tones towards the back half or end of the run. I don't know which one is going to be more rare yet, but that'll be something to look for. And now, a word from our sponsors.
00:31:11
Speaker
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00:31:27
Speaker
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00:31:51
Speaker
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00:32:21
Speaker
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00:32:39
Speaker
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00:33:02
Speaker
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00:33:30
Speaker
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00:33:56
Speaker
and use the code AICPOD12 to get 12% off your order and free two day shipping. Shop today to get the best deal ever. And now back to the show. It's, you know, it's, it's incredible, you know, and, and again, I'm going to, I'm going to hint again at how awesome our toy fair experience was.
00:34:21
Speaker
It's incredible speaking to you and we spoke to Mike to camp. Oh yeah. In the Fortnite, the hidden Fortnite room. It is very obvious the enthusiasm that you have for what you do. And the fact that you are broadcasting or running change shows that
00:34:45
Speaker
frankly, that you care. That you really care about making sure that the best product possible is out there for not only collectors, but I'm sure you. You want to make sure that what you're putting out is of a quality enough that you're happy with.
00:35:02
Speaker
It's just it's I personally I love seeing that I know like some people get like ticked off like there was the most recent one I could think of was Mattel had a running change on that the the baby Yoda the child plush like there was one that came out that was more pale and that's the one I'm looking at and then they put out one that was a little more airbrushed and had some some darker details on it.
00:35:23
Speaker
And for me, it's like, okay, well, as if you're collecting them and you're leaving them in the box or whatever you're doing, now you have another one that you have to get, which is awesome. Cause now you have a reason to buy a second one or two. Now you can compare and you can figure out which one you want, which look you like better. So, I mean, like I love, I love that stuff. And what's fun about it is every one of these running changes has a story behind it, but most people are afraid to approach it.
00:35:51
Speaker
But the way I look at it is you guys are invited to the table of product development. I'm not afraid to say that things change and things evolve. I'm not afraid to say it because I want the product to be better and better. And in order to do that, I mean, sometimes you got to catch something as it goes and make improvements on the run.
00:36:12
Speaker
That's probably what happened there. You're likely not to find out until 10, 15 years from now when someone's talking about it on some sort of retrospective. And then you go, oh, that's why Baby Yoda had the second look. But it's always fun. I love it. As a collector, I do. I love it. So I'm not afraid of it. And I've always told my team that issues in production are just opportunities.
00:36:36
Speaker
Because ultimately as long as you're honest with the collector community. They're cool with it It's when you try to like avoid it and or you try to pretend like it's not part of the process or you don't that's it's almost like it's almost like Pretending like the people that are collecting your product. They're not smart enough to handle it
00:36:59
Speaker
I think it's so dumb because what I found is most of the time the people that are collecting the product would do a better job managing the line than the people managing the line. I've always taken that approach and because I've taken that approach I feel like I've been able to leverage the strength of the community and so I think you'll see more of that too.
00:37:20
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, look, we are definitely going to be do some super limited edition stuff. Um, and I'm going to try to figure out a way to include the community and stuff like that as well. So that, I don't know how we'll do it, but if we did like a employee edition one day, we'll reserve one and make sure that, you know, some member of the community is, is the employee, uh, consumer of that one.
00:37:45
Speaker
I mean, I don't know yet. We'll see. Sometimes these things happen on the go. And, but I, again, when you manage a line closely, you have to give a little bit of room to spontaneity. And because again, that's what delights people that, and it drives them nuts, but it also delights them. It makes it fun. It's, it's such a level of attention to detail too, that we as collectors look for. Totally.
00:38:13
Speaker
When Dave and I were at Toy Fair and we got the tour of the Jazzwares booth, we were fortunate enough to be in there when Kenny Omega and Adam Page were in there with their plastic likenesses. And we were asking them questions about as they were holding their own figure. And it was clear too that
00:38:36
Speaker
Not only are you letting the community in, but the personalities, the wrestlers themselves have a lot of input into the toys. Kenny was telling us in detail about how he suggested with a color, he's happy that the outfit fits the way that it does and that he can bend this way. How much consideration do you give to some of the personalities that are going into the product?
00:39:07
Speaker
Well, first of all, I just want to speak to AEW specifically. I have never seen a organization embrace the licensing partner and the collector community
00:39:25
Speaker
the way I've seen AEW do it. Cody and those guys get it big time. Like they just get it. They, you've seen them promote on their show. They do commercials for us.
00:39:38
Speaker
We're going to be doing some really fun stuff with them very shortly where you see, you know, some, it'll feel like old school throwback, uh, embracing of the product. And I think you kind of get a sense of what I'm talking about, but when you see it, it'll be like, remember the old LJ inner Hasbro spots. Like there's going to be some amazing things on the horizon, uh, in that regard, but they just get it. And, and they know that, um, the more their talent are attached to what's going on, uh, on the consumer product side,
00:40:08
Speaker
the more savvy the talent will be in terms of communicating with fans. And so yeah, I'd say we're all tied in. I don't know the inner workings in terms of very specifically, does each athlete get to weigh in?
00:40:25
Speaker
Um, but I will say that I think that we've had a tremendous amount of integration with the talent pool there. People seem very, very happy. And, uh, um, I think it has a lot to do with the seats that they have at the table. Yeah. And it's, it's obvious that they do care like that, that commercial that they had at the, the pay-per-view, um, and that they had in the empty stadium was unbelievable. Like that was, it was so cool to see, uh,
00:40:52
Speaker
wrestling figure toy commercial like that it had a major event it felt like it had been forever for sure it you know even think of like the little bit of the bubbly set like that's oh yeah when how often do you see something like that down to like the you know it's the plates on the table well we're gonna be doing more of that my friend there's no doubt
00:41:16
Speaker
So the one thing that we didn't mention about toy fair and we were not allowed to take photos of it was the little UFC display that you guys had up. Yes. Do you have can we talk about that at all? Do you have any updates on that line?
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah. And I'll actually break something with you on that. So, um, and I think that, I think that again, this is about respecting the collector community. And this is about sort of like giving you a behind the scenes peek as to decisions that are made. So UFC wave one, the scale of the figures are not in scale with the traditional WWE, AEW scale.
00:42:03
Speaker
It's not exactly scaled proportionally. They're more like five and a half inch. And, um, we are going to celebrate that because there's, there are Japanese style figures that are in that scale. So we're going to be calling that like the beta wave or the, the version zero wave. Um, and it will be the only wave that we do in that scale. And it will be very limited edition in scope and in availability.
00:42:30
Speaker
And then after that, we're going to be able to go into wave one with the more in scale to the traditional figures. It also gives us a little bit more flexibility in terms of tooling. Almost everything that we're doing is specifically for the character. But as you know, when you're developing human bodies, and especially when you're developing them more realistically, especially now versus the way we used to, they're a little bit more super heroic scale in size.
00:42:59
Speaker
that you can use parts and pieces and allows a much more efficient use across brands. But yeah, there's a little feed for you there. We had something we haven't announced, but it's something that I think will be fun. And I want to give you the rationale as to why we did make that change in the first place.
00:43:19
Speaker
So that update on UFC is incredible. We both loved the way that they looked. Like I said, we couldn't take photos of them, but we're excited because they're very cool. The cage looked great. The likenesses looked awesome. So very excited to see how that line develops. Awesome. And you heard me here first in terms of the scale. And like I said, rationale and everything else, I hope that you
00:43:46
Speaker
Again, because when you see the beta wave and what we're celebrating, you'll know that it was you'll know why we made that switch later on. It's it's kind of one of those things where it's like the hint is kind of given is got the wheels turning a bit. But yeah, that's that's going to be cool. Yeah. So what the other thing that we like to ask that we generally wrap up with is what's the coolest thing in your collection and what's the weirdest thing in your collection?
Rare Collectibles and Philosophy of Giving Back
00:44:18
Speaker
There's a lot of cool stuff. Again, I've been in a business that allowed me to have cool stuff for a long time. I think my coolest wrestling thing is probably the fact that I have the Warrior America that I think is the only one. It's a one of three, but one of them was given to the CEO and one of them was given to Warrior. I don't think either of those exist anymore.
00:44:46
Speaker
And so actually, I'm 99% sure that neither exists. So the one that I have is probably the only one. And then my Hogan America, and seeing those together, it's just really cool. So from a wrestling standpoint, I will say I love those two items. In terms of collecting in general, every year, I do
00:45:15
Speaker
a partner summit with Pokemon. And Mr. Ishihara is one of the creators of Pokemon. And there's a golf match. And I'm terrible at golf. And when I say terrible, I mean, like, you've never seen someone as uncoordinated with golf as me. Like I am. Challenge accepted, man. Challenge accepted. I don't know. If you think you're bad, just imagine slightly worse and it's probably me.
00:45:42
Speaker
So they never put me on the team with anybody that's looking to actually win. But at the end, they kind of raffle the individual posts, the flagpoles, the little fabric component that's at the top. It says Pokemon in the whole number and the partnership year.
00:46:03
Speaker
And I've been lucky, I've won the raffle twice. So I have two of the flags from these Pokemon partnership meetings signed by Mystery Shihara. And that is some, I mean, those are so cool. I'll have to show one on social media soon. It's one of my favorite things that I have for sure.
00:46:24
Speaker
That's very credible. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So I love that. And then honestly, there's, there's so much, there's so much. Where do I get? Like when I was a kid, um, one thing that I haven't really gotten into, but when I was a kid, I wrote a thousand letters. Uh, I was 16 years old.
00:46:44
Speaker
And I didn't know what to do with my life. Like I said, I grew up in Mississippi and Tennessee, and I didn't have a real specific vision. I just knew that I wanted to be successful. And so I wrote a thousand letters to some of the most known and remarkable and achieved people in the world. And I received, of the thousand letters, I received like almost 200 of them back.
00:47:10
Speaker
with answers. So I have letters from Mother Teresa and presidents and massive, you know, entertainment stars like Jimmy Stewart from back in the day. Oh, man. That's all. They're shockingly cool. And I'm just I'll start sharing them too, on my, my Twitter and Instagram.
00:47:34
Speaker
Well, Jeremy, is there anything that you'd like to plug before we let you go for the evening? Where can people follow you? What do you want them to know about? Anything else that you wanted our audience to know? Oh, my gosh. What do I want you to know? I just want you to know I care. And I want you to know that we're going to make mistakes. But when we do, we'll figure out a way to make them at least fun for the collector.
00:48:04
Speaker
Um, and that, you know, we'll always be forthright, uh, in terms of what's going on, uh, especially now, because right now, again, like if, if, and again, I'm not saying, cause I'm not in the background of what Mattel, uh, does or doesn't do. I worked there 20 years ago, but if you see a variant of baby Yoda, and that's probably one of the biggest items they've done in decades, it's a real good indicator as to how challenging manufacturing is in COVID years, where.
00:48:34
Speaker
you really even can't have your designer sitting there at the factory, which on a launch is like a mind number. Um, but yeah, like that's what I want you to know. I want you to know that we're going to be forthright. We're going to tell you the way it is. We're going to do things that probably make you happy most of the time and occasionally piss you off. And, um, but we're going to be accessible. And so, you know, whether it's on,
00:49:00
Speaker
Halo, Micro Machines, Fortnite, Roblox, AEW, UFC, and so on, Pokemon, and so on and so forth. But interestingly enough, the biggest thing might be the launch of a preschool property that I signed called Cocomelon. And you know Cocomelon if you have like a two-year-old,
00:49:28
Speaker
But you don't know Coco Mellon if you have like a four year old. Essentially, you know, you see ratings and you're like, wow, you know, that showed it a one point two or whatever. But Coco Mellon last week did one point one billion views on social media. Oh, my God. Yeah. And that's crazy. That's one of the coolest things about toys and being in the toy business is that you really get to chase crazy, crazy dreams.
00:49:57
Speaker
You never know what's going to be next. When we started this company, we went from being a secondary licensee on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their relaunch
00:50:09
Speaker
to having a Girl Scouts oven, cookie maker oven, to bringing back Teddy Ruxman, to being the global partner in Pokemon, to being the global partner in Pokemon and Cabbage Patch Kids and Micro Machines and Halo and Cocomelon AEW, to selling the company and still retaining an ownership share that we could then drive one of the top 10 toy companies in the world. And that's what we're doing with Jazzwares. So I guess what I just want you guys to take away from this,
00:50:39
Speaker
is that anything that you dream, if you really, really, really go after it, and you stick to it, and you get your ass kicked, that you could achieve it. But it takes a tremendous amount of stick to it. You've got to stick to it, because it's going to try to shake you. It's like riding a buck in Bronco. And you have to stay on it. And if it kicks you off, you've got to figure out how to get back on. And that is the key to success. Follow your passions.
00:51:08
Speaker
And then I tried it, everything you can to achieve them. And if you do, you've got to give back. And, uh, I think I'm in the give back mode right now as, as, uh, like I said before. Well, certainly thank you for everything that you you're doing to give back to the community. Thank you for taking the time to be here. And you guys heard it here first. Stick to your dreams. Never give up. Jeremy said so. That's
Conclusion and Thanks to the Community
00:51:33
Speaker
right. That's right. And if you, uh, if you guys, if anybody's interested in finding me on, uh,
00:51:37
Speaker
Twitter it's at Jeremy com And if you're looking to find me on instagram, it's at Jeremy pedour p-a-d-a-w-e-r And there you go Awesome. Thank you so much. Jeremy. We appreciate it great chatting and to the collector community Thank you so much looking forward to great years ahead
00:52:00
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.
00:52:16
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.
00:52:40
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.