A. Das Baron’s Toy Hunting Adventure in New Jersey

Jazz here, and I am so digging the GeekCast radio

network. Greetings, humans. This is Starscream,

and you're listening to ToyCast. And if any of

you call me a parts former, one more time! Toy

cast oh yes Listen to the only toy podcast you

will ever need Hello and welcome to toy cast.

This is episode 107. That's right folks. We have

a new record here at toy cast It is 107. Thanks

to April O 'Neil, of course. Oh, I love that

movie I am of course TF2 on my joining me as

always at this point not the floor burger he's

too busy beating a table, elitist, is Mr. A.

Das Baron. Hello, sir. Oh, sorry. Baron can't

come to the phone now. If you'd like to leave

a message after the beep, you can. Sorry. I've

been watching so much G .I. Joe lately on YouTube.

It just kind of wears off on me. Hey, that's

a good cobra. It's funny you mention that, because

actually, as of this recording... This episode

will be out probably way later, but I am actually

listening to The Game's Master, almost famous

in the Geek 80s by Flint Dilley. So I am listening

to Flint Dilley's book. The Game's Master was

an episode title of a G .I. Joe episode that

I believe he wrote. Why else would his book be

titled that? And I'm on the chapter called the

Voltronic Galaxator. Yeah, if you watch He says

in the book that it's in it's featured in blaster

blues and Transformers generation one episode

blaster blues I think blaster blues was in season

two or season three I forget but if you watch

that episode they mentioned the Voltronic Galaxator

Yeah, I don't know but I am loving listening

to flint's book and and just loving hearing his

stories of Sunbow and and everything like that

and Now the question is, is Hector Ramirez involved?

In what? In what you're listening to, since he

shows up. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. He's... Flint

talks about him briefly. You mean the character?

Oh, I thought this was like an audio book for...

It is. Yeah, it's Flint's biography. Okay, I'm

thinking it's like a scripted. No, no, no, no,

no. This is... I only listen to... autobiographies

on audible most of the time like you know, like

if you want to sit here and spend eight hours

telling your story and Most of the time I prefer

when the actual author narrates the book But

sometimes other narrators are not bad and the

guy that is narrating. This is Eric Michael summerer

I've never heard of him, but I've kind of gotten

to gotten used to listening to his voice talking

about, you know telling Flint's story, so No,

this is all about his career his life and and

everything like that and he talks about visionaries

and transformers and GI Joe and and Buck Rogers

and all that all that 70s and 80s animation stuff

and games and Dungeons and Dragons and all that

other stuff so we are here in episode 107 because

Das when did you go on this journey of yours

um let's see this Maybe two weeks ago, two weeks

ago today. So you live in Pennsylvania and you

decided to go to Jersey. Yeah, I live pretty

close to the PA Jersey border in varying degrees

on like where I'm going. So I had a week and

a half off between my old job and my new job

and I thought let's make this worth it. Right.

All right. So you decided to make your time between

jobs worth it. Yeah. So I knew because a previous

friend had taken me to two places in Jersey.

This was maybe like three years ago and they

were really nice places. And I thought, let's

maybe add to this. But looking at my terrible

with maps. So I don't know how far apart these

places were from each other. Uh, it turns, it

turns out they were only like 20 minutes tops

from one another. That's awesome. Yeah. And I

didn't, I only went out maybe about an hour from

where I live. I, I was expecting much further,

right? But we, we made a day of it. I got to

see my friend Brandon who I haven't seen like

most of my friends for like the past year and

a half You know, there was that virus there there

is not was I need to correct myself on that There

is that virus thing no matter even though we

are vaccinated now That that that beer virus

still rears its ugly head Yeah, so it was it

was great to finally see him and like I I hadn't

gone on a road trip with a friend in forever.

And then most of the times when I'm doing things,

toys related, I do it by myself. I'm toy hunting

or I go to a toy show or convention and like

I get in and I get out. And if I find what I'm

looking for, great. If I don't, then I just leave.

So having company was really fun. You know, we

got to shoot the breeze for the entire afternoon.

So we first started out with a small place called

Play With Us Toys and Collectibles in Merchantville.

This is the one I had not been to before. So

I was not sure what to expect. I go in there.

It's a small shop consisting kind of of like

two room, two small rooms. They had a lot of

bagged, semi and somewhat vintage. Most of it

was current Marvel Legends that were bagged or

older Marvel Legends that were bagged. Nothing

that really screamed fantastic to me. I did wind

up getting a Kamen Rider figure arts there because

I'm a sucker for those and then a lot of figure

arts go for much higher on the aftermarket. So

I'm like, ah, this is $45. Let me bring up Amazon

or eBay, see how much he's going for now. Like

I think many of us do. and decide whether or

not to get him, and I did. He's the... the less...

lesser of the writers from the 80s. Mm -hmm.

Sorry, that would be a plane. Ooh! Technical

difficulties. Let's move on, shall we? Yeah,

so he's the lesser known of the common writers.

He was he had a movie in like 1984 to try to

propel him into a new series because in the 80s

and 90s Connor Rider wasn't around that much

as I find I'm going into a long history. I'll

stop because I'm just going to go down a rabbit

hole now. So Brandon and I, we just kind of talked

throughout the store and I had what I wanted

to get. OK, let's go. Let's go. But Brandon is

still talking to me. We can do this in the car,

dude. So we eventually leave and then we make

our way to the house of fun, which Is in Barrington

Turns out they've moved so we went to the new

location and You go in and it's a very clean

storefront and there's a bunch of things in the

first room There's a counter and then there's

some like cartoon openings playing in the corner

with a monitor And I'm thinking to myself I remember

there being a lot more toys in this where did

all their stuff go and then I turned my head

and then there's a hallway which goes into a

I Don't want to say giant not quite like more

like a giant back room of sorts Okay, but but

it's cleaned up to look like a storefront and

there was so many things there. Oh my god They

had more than I had remembered, I think they

have more than the old location did. They have

regular stuff, imports, old stuff, new stuff,

board games. I think there were some models there,

so many Marvel Legends. Practically, if you could

name it, they had it. My friend Joe wound up

going there last week, and he told me they had

a carted Dragon Man there. You don't see those

very often. No, you don't That's sort of those

Yeah, I did I did not see it when I was there

and he's telling me it was going for $400 which

Considering what I've seen other people pay for

it. That's not terrible I think maybe someone

could correct me on that, but I think that's

fairly cheap for what it is So I got lo and behold

I got another Kamen Rider Let's see, I got a

Kamen Rider, I got a Rocko's Modern Life enamel

pin because they had a bunch of enamel pins by

the front register. How were these stores, like

you mentioned this store that you're talking

about now, how it was laid out, how were they

laid out compared to each other? Was one of the

stores better than the other one as far as the

layout goes, as far as being able to get to stuff?

Oh, yeah, House of Fun was the best of them all.

The Play With Us toys and collectibles had things

behind some glass. There were a bunch of things

behind the counter. Here, mostly everything was

out. Unfortunately, a lot of things were not

priced, so I had a small stack in my arms, and

then I had to go up to the person working there,

and then they had to go to the, I guess, the

owner who's in the back, and then just slap some

price stickers on it. Jeez. They also had animation

cells, which... Again, I don't remember in their

previous location and they had a bunch of x -men

ones Hmm and my favorite x -men is beast and

they had one where he's on full display. I think

it's from season two So they I think how much

is this they they took it to the back and then

they brought it out It was like a hundred and

thirty dollars I can't pay for this right now

Back in the bin you go And then behind those,

there were Ewok cells going for like 40 bucks.

Oh, wow. That's wow. Dang. As in droids and Ewoks?

Yes. Yeah. Oh, boy. Unfortunately, Josh is not

with us at the moment, but I had told him I did

run into Waterworld figures there. Not a ton,

but some of them. All right. I'm just curious

because it's a big joke around here between His

love of Waterworld toys and my love of Funko.

We tease each other all the time. Did you see

any prices on these or was this one of those

things again where you would have had to take

it to the back? Yeah, I did. I did take it to

the back. There was a lot of things that did

not have prices on it. That's not... I don't

care what store it is. I don't care how well

the store is laid out. If you're trying to sell

stuff and you want people to know... What they're

gonna be paying for stuff unless it's like some

of the the cells I can kind of understand but

water world toys Take a price gun and just 99

cents those things Yeah I'm sure he'd argue with

that. I'm sure he would too. It's a good thing.

He's not here because he'd have you know lambasted

me by now Oh, he chastised me for not asking

him if he wanted any even I know Even though

I thought he had all of them. Yeah, I thought

he had all of them, too. So why does he need

more of them? Because apparently you can never

have enough. You know. I guess. If he loves it,

he loves it. Yeah, they had a lot of weird bootlegs.

I picked up a bootleg. for one of my friends

who I have not given to yet. Just in case they

listen to this, I don't want to spoil what it

is, but it's pretty weird, it's pretty awful.

The card was pretty pristine, and it was like

$12, when it probably should have been cheaper

than that. Hmm, interesting. So we were in there

for, I don't know, maybe two hours, just... You

know, we see something and then it brings up

memories and then we just start talking about

it. They had vintage mad balls in the package.

Oh, that's cool. You'd think so. However, these

are from 1986 and they're literally deteriorating.

Oh, no. Yeah, it was really gross. Well, I mean,

between mad balls and what was it? Boglins. Those

were the gross toys of the 80s. They had they

they had um, I think they had one of those reaction

My pet monster figures, which I was kind of interested

in but they only had the football version. Mm

-hmm Hockey would have been much better I have

I have enough stuff so the things that like pop

up on the fly. Do I want this? I don't know.

I have to take a step back and then kind of talk

myself out of it because I have toys everywhere

in my apartment. So we went on to the next place,

which was Tiki Tiki Board Games, which again

I had been before there in Woodbury, which is

part of what they considered a nerd mall. It's

basically one big open floor plan for a Don't

know a moderately sized store. Like there's there's

some steps that go up to us another level but

The the area itself is kind of broken into different

mini stores if that makes sense Yeah, so like

there there's there's a corner that has action

figures. There's a corner that has Skateboard

stuff. There's another corner that has Board

games. There's another section that has music

cool Now they didn't have a ton of toys, but

I remember them not having a ton the last time

I was there They had a bin of like vintage turtles

and I got a pretty good knucklehead for a decent

price They did not have bins of vintage stuff

like they did before they had a bunch of bagged

Marvel Legends build a figure pieces none of

which I wanted Looking around, you know, they're

playing like Transformers and some stuff other

stuff that I wasn't quite interested in or already

had and On one shelf they only had like two or

three shelves of stuff One shelf they had Four

count them for Zartan's from the GI Joe classified

Collection really the new stuff the new light

and Wow I already ordered mine off Big Bad Toy

Store, and I've had mine for like a month at

this point. So, you know, if only I actually

needed one, this would be a great opportunity

to grab one. And then they had, you know, like

a Cobra Commander, and the ones that you'll normally

find, like if you find them, like Roadblock.

I'm still looking for those Cobra Troopers, and

they're just... I mean, I see that you can order

them on Big Bad, but I just like finding things

in the wild. Yeah. And so, you know, I'm looking

against the wall and there's still nothing. And

then I walk, I turn the corner of the GI Joe

shelf to the end cap. And then I look down. Six

Cobra troopers. I bought two. I almost got three,

but my money was a little tight if I got a third

one, only to get a sizable final paycheck for

my last job the next day. And I'm thinking to

myself, should I just go back and buy the rest

of them? But again, I'm running out of space,

so I can only put so many GI Joe figures on one

shelf. Yeah, I mean, it's not like you have a

whole basement. Yet. Oh boy. We'll see what happens

in the future. I don't know what my living situation

is going to be like. I don't know. I'm just like,

I think things are fine. It's just like, you

know, who knows what the future brings. That's

true. So that was our day. We left around 11

and made it back probably around five o 'clock.

A good day. You know, just the the regular like,

you know, like most people everyone has anxiety

I deal with anxiety and it was a good way to

keep my mind off things and just kind of focus

on the moment because You know COVID has been

around and you're locked up all day in my case

by myself and you're just left With you know

thinking in your head too much. So you need a

distraction Yeah, so It was welcomed. Yeah, distractions

are good. I don't remember if you are or not,

but are you a Star Trek person? I've started

in maybe 2012 or so. I'm not like a diehard Star

Trek fan, but I know enough. OK, because again,

as of this recording, folks, this episode will

be out. probably a month or so from when we're

actually recording it. But as of 6 -17 -21, ToyNewsI,

ToyNewsInternational, I guess, dot com, showed

off a picture of the new Playmobil Star Trek

USS Enterprise NCC 1701 playset coming in September.

500 bucks. Yeah, oh It's in the toy or toy world

order group. Okay. I I only saw A thumbnail of

it. I didn't realize how big that thing was.

Oh, yeah, it's huge and plus it comes with it's

the ship It's all the chairs. It's the three

four Looks like six figures three. I can't do

any math seven figures apparently and all the

accessories and I'm just like holy crap The adventure

you went on are the like when you go toy hunting

you normally I assume you normally stay around,

you know Your town your area your whatever Is

this an adventure you would repeat to check these

stores out again? Or do you feel like I've seen

these stores unless a few of them? Update or

at least put prices on things. I'm probably not

going to come back kind of thing Or how did you

feel at the end of the day? Oh There there were

still other things that I wish I pulled the trigger

on or peeked my fancy There's so many vintage

toys and toy lines out there that in the back

of my mind I think this would be nice to collect

but you know money in space But there was a lot

which was kind of in my wheelhouse But, you know,

I showed restraint and only walked away with

what little I could. Well, it wasn't that much

little, but yeah. Very cool, very cool. What

other toy things have you found recently? Well,

I did stumble upon, well, I didn't stumble upon.

My friend gave me the heads up that one of the

targets had about seven major bloods. Oh boy,

and you didn't get Josh one? Uh -oh. Well, let

me continue. So I bought mine. I rushed there.

I was coming from, I was in Jersey for another

reason and then I just drove past my apartment

and then went straight to this Target to get

them. Brought them home, made another Target

run maybe Sunday. And there were still four left.

Which is completely astonishing to me. That's

unheard of. Yeah. Because we know how fast these

things fly off the shelf. That and the fact that

G .I. Joe toys are even on the shelf to begin

with, whether they fly off of the shelf or not.

Like, that's crazy to me. Holy carp. So I snapped

a picture, sent it to Josh. This is what you're

looking for. Yes. Get it for me. So here you

go major blood There you go. That works All right

What is a toy store like is there a famous toy

store or something that you've always wanted

to go to Hmm, um, I mean most of the places I

I think of I'm more Associate with comics right?

Yeah that just happened to have collectibles

there. There's um What's the Times Square comics

place that I've been to a couple of times Midtown

there we go Midtown, you know the first floor

is pretty much all comics and then the second

floor are collectibles and I can find some some

okay Japanese stuff that I'm looking for but

they're all going for Suggested or not suggested

retail price, but whatever the market dictates,

right? Yeah Cool cool awesome. Well, this is

kind of been a short episode folks. I think it

Obviously no one will hear the parts I've edited

out But I think it probably would have been a

little bit more funnier if Josh was here But

oh no, he had to work or he had to do something

with his water world toys I don't know. Maybe

he had to water them No clue When I asked you

that question about Like famous toy only I didn't

think of and of course, it's fictional But Duncan's

toy chest from home alone told home alone to

is like the first thing I or you know that kind

of thing. I don't know are there even Famous

toy stores anymore. I mean they killed the giraffe.

So yeah, I mean all all I really want to do is

time travel to Toys R Us in the 80s so I can

see that whole setup again because that is Oh

my god, it is it is such a welcome sight. It

is It is a feast for the eyes for me. Yep Absolutely

is Alright folks, I think we're gonna close off

this episode before it goes too far down the

drain. I Don't know what the heck happened with

this one. But you know, hey we've had We've had

about seven episodes so far that we're back here

at Toycast and they all can't be stellar, I guess.

Don't sell yourself short. I'm pretty tall. I

don't think I could sell myself short, sadly.

Yeah, I'm the short one. For me, it's like I

love seeing all the old stuff I love seeing the

toy hunts and I know I've said this in every

episode at this point I just I'm not a toy hunter

anymore Because I don't like my collection is

one company Like I appreciate everything that's

coming out, but I do not like You have toys all

over your apartment. I'm trying not to have toys

all over my apartment because I'm not single

But it's just one of those things where I don't

have shelves. I don't have this I don't have

that I'm in the process of actually moving all

of the funko pops and which I only have about

Was there like? 15 over there out of the over

a hundred that I have in storage so it's like

Need to rearrange things and everything else

and and I appreciate like, you know when you

showed me when we talked about your in When we

do the first first display case was episode 104

when you showed me the spider -man base and stuff.

I'm like, oh that's cool Zero desire to have

that anywhere in this apartment kind of thing.

It's like, I appreciate it. We wouldn't be doing

this podcast if we didn't appreciate the toys.

I just, I'm at the point in my life where it's

like, I just want something small, simple and

easy that I can put in a corner that I can pull

out of the box every now and then to take pictures

of it and just put it back and just let it be.

Yeah, a lot of my stuff is the half of my things

are kind of that way. But the boxes take up so

much space you should open your toys I do and

then I just put them back because My Japanese

packaging they're just it's so nice. Yes. Yes

it is Alright folks coming up next here on toy

cast. We have got two we got a double shot of

origins episodes My buddy Peacock Michael who

was on a numerous amount of the previous toy

cast episodes before episode 100. He returns

and I get his toy origin story. And then my other

buddy Joe Reed who came up with a couple of the

questions for the origins. He's going to be in

episode 109. So that's what's coming up here

inside Toycast. I don't know what else we're

going to be doing. Maybe 110 will be another

display case or something. I promise it'll be

more upbeat than it is now. I just feel like

I'm in a sl... It's like... I forget which episode

it was, but I have an audio clip that I'll probably

put in here somewhere of Dr. Doofenshmirtz. I

just got in such a funk. I will say, though,

your Baron's Odyssey to New Jersey does sound

like a lot of fun, and, you know, if I had people

like you, like Josh, that were around me, that,

you know, we could go to whatever, like... I'm

gonna turn him into a Funko fan. He may not be

a die -hard Funko fan, but I'm gonna turn him

into a Funko fan. If you guys ever come out here

to the state of Washington, we're driving three

hours to Funko headquarters and we're gonna check

it out. Just make one that resembles him and

then maybe that'll lure him in. Yeah, well, you

know, I could possibly do that. I don't know

if I have the Funko pop yourself online or not.

I have to look into that. Anyway. All right,

where can the people find you online, sir? Not

Twitter. Ados Baron on Instagram. Ados Baron

on Facebook. And I gave in and started using

TikTok, so I'm Ados Baron. Wait, wait, wait,

wait, wait, wait, wait. You picked up TikTok

but left Twitter in the dust? You monster! TikTok

is, ugh, no. I'm more of a visual person. You

can put photos on Twitter and For those curious

it's at a das baron on Twitter I'm of course

at TF you and my you can also follow at floor

burger and follow obviously at TF toy cast For

the show or at geek cast radio for the network

follow all of us folks. We are fun people. I

promise for the most part So we will catch you

next time here on Toycast.