42 Questions About Toys with TFG1Mike

It's a pity you Autobots die so easily, or I

might have a sense of satisfaction now. You got

the time! You got the time! Arise, Rodimus Prime.

Optimus. Yeah! Jazz here, and I am so diggin'

the Geekcast Radio Network. Greetings, humans.

This is Starscream, and you're listening to Toycast.

And if any of you call me a partsformer, one

more time! Toycast? Oh, yes. Listen in to the

only toy podcast you will ever need. Hello and

welcome to an all -new generation of Toycast

as we get the origins of any and all toy fans

that we can. I am TSU and Mike and joining me

is Josh the Floor Burger. Hello, sir. Hey, what's

going on, everybody? Yes, and today's guest is

me. It's all about me today. flipping the script

and having Josh ask me our 42 questions that

we have here at Toycast. It's so funny because

I don't know what the document on Drive says

for the intro, but I changed it on my document

that I have on my actual computer, and it's set

for what we already would have recorded and released.

We're recording this in advance of that. So they're

out of water. I always end up recording out of

water, folks. So anyway, yes, I'm here. Josh

is here. 42 questions all about toys. Holy crap.

This is going to be interesting. I've got my

beverage ready. So I apologize if you hear the

ice rattling. There's my first um. Yes, two minutes

in. And I hit it. And it is your show. That's

the only one you get. Now, stop it. Maybe I should

be the one drinking, not you. I think after doing

this show with me, you may. Yes. So is this my

cue to start, or are we going to have more playful

banter between us? No, you can go ahead and start

the grilling. OK. Mr. Michael J. Blanchard. Wrong

initial. Michael D. Blanchard. Wrong initial.

We can keep going. I've got a couple more shots.

Stop it. No, you don't. Number one, what is or

was the first toy you remember having as a kid?

That would have to be the Fisher Price red and

green flashlight. Fisher Price red and green

flashlight. Yeah. Just explain. OK, so it's a

flashlight like any other flashlight. Think of

the Play School flashlights that they used to

have. It's that kind of thing, but it was from

Fisher Price. It took four, to a five -year -old

at the time, five or six, it took four giant

D batteries to power this thing. And basically

- You got to work out with it while you played

with it. Pretty much, yeah. It was a normal flashlight.

It was a regular old flashlight. It just was

yellow and blue, and it had Fisher Price's logo

on it. But the cool thing was, there was a knob

on the side of it, or a switch, or whatever.

And you could switch it from left to right, or

from right to left, and whichever way you switched

it, a film or something would go over the actual

light bulb over the thing, and it would change

it to red or green. Like a light gel, basically.

Kind of, yeah. So I'm looking at a picture of

her right now. It does appear that Fisher Price

or Play School is looking to prepare children

for disaster preparedness. They were in the 80s,

although I'm not sure what they're doing today.

Hey, kids. Do you want to learn how to see in

the dark when a tornado strikes? Well, here's

what you get. White, red, or green. Oh, red is

great for night vision. Yes, even though most

night vision goggles are green. Well, if you're

wandering in the dark in the forest and you're

three years old with your Fisher Price flashlight,

having a red light won't ruin your night vision,

your actual ocular night vision. That's true.

Well, that sounds like a very fun first toy.

Let's move on. You obviously had some adults

who supervised you at some point in time. Was

there a particular adult who was supportive of

you playing with toys as a kid? Was there anyone

who may have been unsupportive? There were family

members that... I don't know. Some thought it

was silly, but most didn't. Most got it. And

most of the time, everybody supported me. My

mom always bought me the stuff that I wanted

for the most part. It's so funny. This is a weird

Christmas story. One year, we decided to do the

whole thing of, oh, let's put all of the immediate

family members' names into a hat. Whoever you

pick, that's who you buy a gift for. My Aunt

Judy, my mom's sister, decided to buy for everybody

still. And that caused all kinds of drama. How

dare she be so giving and generous. Send her

to the yard. We'll put her in the hole. Yeah,

we'll send her to the Undertaker. But no, I mean,

everybody was the Undertaker. No, I said, ooh.

He'll tombstone her and choke slam her. That

Undertaker, right? Well, I mean, you have to

chokeslam a tombstone. I mean, those things are

nasty anyway. Worst frozen pizza ever. Anyway,

yes, most everybody was supportive. I would say,

and this will come up later, as one of the questions

later is actually why that question is there,

is because of me. At one point or another, my

dad wasn't so supportive. It is what it is. There's

nothing you can go back and change about it.

So you had some support. I'm going to be very

gentle about this. Your farts are a lot older

than mine. Wait, wait, wait. My farts are a lot

older than yours? I was finding a gentle way

to say you're an old fart compared to me. Maybe

that wasn't as gentle as you hoped. You're in

your mid -30s. I'm in my early 40s. It's not

that big of a jump. If that gets you to sleep

tonight. So when you were a young lad, a young

planchered, what types of toys were your favorites

to play with? Action figures and play sets. I

did like vehicles, but it was always action figures

and play sets. There is a famous or infamous

picture somewhere. I don't even know if I have

it online anywhere. I think I uploaded it to

my photo bucket a decade ago, but photo bucket

probably no longer exists anymore. Anyway, there

is this picture of me with the original Castle

Grayskull. I have. Two or three He -Man figures,

four Captain Planet figures, three Dick Tracy

figures, two mask vehicles, and a partridge and

a pear tree all around Castle Grayskull. And

I have a box of toys next to me, and I'm facing

the camera. But yeah, it was action figures.

It was play sets. It was Transformers, He -Man,

Thundercats. Yeah. And I feel with your age group,

because I'm not going to say you're geriatric.

I'm not there yet. However, I think with your

age group, you kind of hit that slightly more

sweet spot of 80s toys than I was in. I was born

in 84. There was some great stuff for me as I

got older. But you were born in what year again,

remind me? 80. We're only four years apart, dude.

It's OK. You're not, you know. I broke out my

abacus. I was trying to figure out our age difference

there for a moment. I'll give you an abacus.

I am not Dave Draper. Hey, if you want to take

a swipe at some of our other guests, sir, this

is your show. No, I'm not taking a swipe at another

guest. I'm taking a swipe at you. I'm telling

you, stop acting like I am Dave Draper. I am

not Dave Draper. Oh, I did not make any age jokes

about Dave. No, but you're trying to assimilate

his age with mine. Because I. finally found a

way to rally up. Anyways, so being born in 80,

that's my brother's age, and being born in 80,

you probably were able to catch some of the earlier

Joes. You had the most popular part of He -Man.

There was a lot of stuff you could get at that

point. That was one of the golden age peaks of

toys. They were making everything. Obviously,

you had some favorites to play with. Were there

any standouts? Did you have any childhood toys

that you maybe remember a tad bit more than anything

else? I remember most of them because I only

asked my mom for what I really, really wanted.

I had all of the He -Man stuff. I had a good

number of the Transformers stuff. I had Boulder

Hill. with all of the mask vehicles. Almost all

of them. I think I was missing one of the later

ones that came out, but I had Switchblade, I

had Thunderhawk, I had Rhino. I'm looking at

mine right now that is uh -huh Yes, yes it is

and anyone knows me my two favorite colors are

black and purple and Rhino was motherfucking

purple. So that was my truck as a kid Let's see

I'll say this and this is you know, this may

be a story for another time or later on down

the thing but for me and Transformers I wanted

the Constructicons. I think I only had a couple

of them. I somehow ended up with Laserbeak, but

I never had Soundwave. I had Blaster instead

of Soundwave. So I had Blaster, Eject, Rewind,

Ramhorn, and Steeljaw, which are all his cassettes.

And for some odd reason, I had Laserbeak and

Buzzsaw. I don't know how I got them. Some kid

must have left them at my house or something,

and my mom never returned them to that person

or whatever. But the whole point in saying this

is I loved my blaster action figure. I loved

my blaster transformers figure But I always wanted

sound wave and my best friend at the time had

sound wave Well asshole wouldn't even let me

look at the damn thing let alone touch it You

know I to speak to that sometimes it is very

interesting how growing up you also just find

these random Whether it was from a rummage sale,

garage sale, somebody left it. There's always

that one toy that you're like, I don't remember

where that came from, but it's mine. It goes

with something else that I've never owned. I

don't know how I got it. But yeah, that's always

a piece of growing up. You just have those couple

of toys. Where did you come from? So speaking

of which, when you were a child or even now,

when you're sitting around trying to discuss

and label The pile of plastic play things that

you have laying around Do you go with the label?

Specifically of action figures and I know you're

into pops and we've discussed that many times

and I don't know where if you put Pops in an

action figure category or are they dolls or are

they toys or are they something else? If you're

gonna throw labels around what are you saying?

If it's an actual Figure that has more than four

points of articulation, it's an action figure.

If it has real hair or wears a dress or something

like that and it is not an action figure, it's

a doll. You look at the old, I know Jason's gonna

hate this, you look at Teddy Ruxpin. Teddy Ruxpin

to me was always a doll. He was a talking doll.

But it wasn't a bad thing that he was a talking

doll. My name is Teddy Ruxpin. But yeah, action

figures. With pop vinyls, I would say they're

more collectibles. Pops are, and we'll get into

the whole pop thing later, but Funko Pops are

more collectible figurines or figures. They're

not really action. Let's see, I've got Optimus

Prime right here. His head, the head's turn.

That's... Some sort of action, but at least specifically

with the optimus prime if you turn his head the

wrong way He's not gonna stand up sadly. I was

not prepared well to be fair Maybe now you don't

refer to that as an action figure, but I've never

seen kids playing with pops I actually don't

really know any kids who have pops in general,

but I don't know that many kids. I can tell you

on five different occasions that I've gone into

the local Walmart here in Vancouver, Washington,

at least one of them, the one we always go to.

And I've had to circle the electronics department

twice because some kid was trying to get his

mom to like, and I'm not going to sit there and

say, you know, I'm not a, I'm not heartless.

I'm not going to sit, get out of my way kid.

This is mine. You know, I'm not going to do that.

I have some maturity to my 41 years of age here.

So I mean, generally Pops aren't, and like you

said, we'll get into it later, but generally

it's mostly the adult collectors that are going

after them for the most part, at least the adult

collectors that enjoy them. Well, while I may

make fun of Pops and feel that if they were lit

on fire and hit with a golf club, that would

be the best use of them, I do respect them. I

can't be under the impression that a kid wouldn't

get two of his favorite characters or two of

her favorite characters as Pops and play with

them just like toys. I've seen kids play with

a binder clip and a couple of paper clips and

have a great time. So I would still put Pops

under the toy category. or kindling category,

for that matter. So we live. You can take your

fireplace and shove it. My fireplace and. You

said kindling. I'm just mentally trying to picture

that. You can take your fireplace and shove it.

Next question. OK, I'm going to get my pen. I'm

going to go draw that later. So you collect pops

right now, primarily, correct? Yes, ever since.

OK, so long story short, and I'll tell the longer

version later if it comes up, from 2005 to 2011,

I was collecting Transformers, other stuff. I

think somewhere, I think in 2007 or so, I found

Mighty Mugs, which to me were the essential precursor

to Funko Pops. But yeah, I was I had like Revenge

of the Fallen Ravage from Transformers I had

I Finally like I said, I finally got a G1 sound

wave. I had blaster again I had like I was trying

to read at the time from 2005 to 2010 I had had

a job that was really really good and I actually

had extra cash lying around so I could go on

eBay at the time and reclaim my childhood for

obscene amounts of money, sadly. Well, do you

still collect any Transformers or are you just

Pops right now? Ever since, so I quit, I sold

my collection, my old collection in 2011 because

of finances and things, and at the time I was

kind of okay not being in the... In the collecting

thing anymore and it was fine. It was you know,

whatever I didn't have a huge collection I will

probably link this and most I keep most of my

toy photo albums public So people should be able

to see this I have a whole photo album of my

actual toy collection that I had like again I

had my still my mom had at the time because she

hadn't died yet For 30 years. She's been carrying

around my castle grayskull to every place. She

moved so when she eventually moved to Kentucky

at the time when I was living in Louisville,

Kentucky, she said, here, take this. I'm tired

of lugging it everywhere. And it was basically

a shell of itself. It didn't have any of the

inside bits. It didn't even have the jaw bridge.

It was just the castle. And I always kept it

closed, because the only thing it did have was

it had one of the little placements, one of the

little where Where you usually stand them up

where the where those accessories used to get

like the wind right not Windrater Whatever the

top of the castle where you could stand figures.

I've got a picture of Classics or red or something.

Yeah. Yeah, that's that's what it is. There you

go So yeah, so I had that I I was buying at the

time before I sold the collection I was buying

or trying to buy at least Maddie collector comm

stuff and that's a Whoo that No, it's a nightmare.

But yeah, no, I was buying actual action figures

back then I'm not now because again, like I said,

I got out of it after 2011 and 2013 I had started

the pull bag, which is our comic review show

and ever since 2013 I've been into comics and

Then in 20 sleep December of 2016 basically January

of 2017 is when I started collecting pops So

let's rewind just a second though. I mean obviously

that's kind of where we're at right now. I think

we have an idea of how you collect but Rewinding

you said you had mass you had transformers He

-man. I mean, did you have a flavor of GI Joe

in there? Nope, I had no GI Joe figures. But

for the most part for those lines we talked about

Thundercats. Yeah. Good guys or bad guys? Which

toys were your favorites to play with the most

out of it? Where did you like to play the most?

As a kid, I always liked the good guys. I liked

the bad guys at times, but it was more of a fact

of I like to take Battle Punch or is it Battle

Punch, Battle R, whatever. Whatever the punching

He -Man thing was. take that and hit Skeletor

in the face with it or something. You know, something

like that. I wasn't really a, ah, I'm gonna get

you he -man. I wasn't really a, I like Skeletor

as a character. I like him as a villain, but

I never wanted to act, you know, play with him

as he gets to win. The whole point of the villain

is you need to defeat them and save the day.

So You were more into the good guys you just

kind of had the bad guys there so you had something

to do mmm, okay Well, so you mentioned you like

play sets. So what was your favorite? toy vehicle

or play set what was something that If you don't

have it now, you'd go buy it again, or you just

will never forget it It's more of I'll never

forget it There was a mass car it was similar

to The Manta it was actually the the venom version

of the man. It was called the Raven. It was black

and red. I Loved I loved that vehicle That was

so cool other vehicles that I absolutely loved.

I actually I Remember Christmas of I want to

say 89 whenever I don't because I'm Not even

looking at anything online or on my computer

on my phone whenever the 89 Batman toys came

out As soon as I saw that Batmobile and I'm like

I want that for Christmas Or my birthday because

Christmas as we all know is December 25th My

birthday is February 9th. So whatever I didn't

get for Christmas Would show up on my birthday

most of the time. Oh nice. So yeah When 1989

came around, it was like, yes, I love the Raven,

the whatever. When that Batmobile hit, I was

like, I want that. I played with that thing so

long. As far as play sets go, Grayskull and Boulder

Hill were the only two I had. I wanted Snake

Mountain. I wanted Eternia, the Palace of Eternia.

But Grayskull and, like I said, and Boulder Hill

were the only ones I had at the time. Admittedly,

I've never had Boulder Mountain in my hands at

any point. I've never actually been able to check

it out. I've seen it. I've seen it in toy shows,

and usually there's a little sign on it that

says, do not touch. So I think that's actually

aimed towards people like me. So let's move on.

Did you and your friends ever pretend with your

toys that you had? By this, I'm gonna be this

toy, you can be this toy. You kinda spoke on

that a little bit before, but did anybody ever

take the role of a specific toy when you were

playing? Yes and no. At recess for me in elementary

school, first grade, second grade, third grade,

we would always pretend to be the characters

but we wouldn't act like we would basically run

around and chase each other kind of thing but

we wouldn't actually have the toys. So it was

dangerous to bring toys to school. I'm just saying

like that. Yes. Yes, it was It's dangerous then

it was dangerous then and it's dangerous now.

Oh wait now You're not even supposed to be in

school online learning for everybody Stay home

stay masked get back all that good stuff folks

Sorry, and that was our public service and now

there you go Sponsored by the US federal government

And common sense. This is your brain. This is

drugs. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?

So your friends kind of pretended out of recess

even bring this. What features make a good toy

for you? Which I'm very interested to hear about

this because you collect pops. So how true does

the item feel in comparison to the source material

and lightness for you to say, this is a good

toy? Now you collect pops, so I think I already

know the answer. Go ahead. OK. Now again, we

have a question way, way down the list here all

about funko pops. And I will tell that part of

the story there. But. Again, looking at Optimus

Prime. So I have the Funko Pop GameStop Lunchbox

Exclusive Optimus Prime. Every once in a while,

every couple of years, Funko does these box exclusives

where it's themed. Well, this year's box exclusive

for GameStop was Retro Toys and Lunchboxes and

Transformers and G .I. Joe. You could either

get Duke with Megatron or Optimus Prime with

Cobra Commander. Now the Optimus and Megatron

are an homage to, I want to say, More Than Meets

the Eye Part 1 or 2. Anyway, the first three

episodes of the Transformers 1984 cartoon, Generation

1, was called, the first three part was More

Than Meets the Eye. In one of these episodes

there is a point, I think it's part two, where

Optimus and Megatron, they break out these energy

weapons and they have a battle on Sherman Dam.

So the Optimus and Megatron pops instead of having

the gun hands that they normally have with the

regular versions of their pops they have optimus

has his orange energy ax and megatron has his

purple energy mace i will say now that i've actually

pulled out the optimus out of the box anyway

i will say that what funco did with whatever

hasbro allowed them to do with the optimus prime

pops because there's like you get the transformers

license you're gonna you know repaint optimus

multiple times like i've got a nemesis prime

which is basically optimus in black and and gray

uh but what they did was was they looked at the

actual 1984 action figure so that's his body

it's the actual toy like literally there's a

I don't want to say it's a hole but there's a

space in the back for where his arms usually

fold in and become the like when it's transforming

to come become the back of the cab. It actually

looks just like the actual action figure except

his head because of the way Funko's are and I

love Funko but some of these things if you don't

have them just right if the fan blows them over

if you got a giant head This Optimus has been

knocked over so many times. But yeah. So let

me ask you a question. Back to the scene at the

Sherman Dam. Uh -huh. Did they have a damn fight?

Yes, yes they did. So was there a damn action

scene? No, John Claude was not there. Way to

ruin my next awful joke. Let's move on. Here

we go. What does toy packaging have to have to

draw you in? All right. Damn it. Specifically,

oh stop it. Specifically, only because I'm holding

them in my hands and I have them right here next

to me. Actually, I'm going to talk about three

of these. Man, you're giving me a lot of time

talking about Funko and we're not even at the

Funko question yet. Again, going back to those

GameStop exclusive Optimus Prime. Oh, you mean

I can limit your time? That's the thing we can

do here? No, you can't. This is my show. Moving

on to the next question. Do you open your toys,

or do you? I just opened the toy. Anyway, hold

on. OK. You can skip the roll -up then. There

we go. Oh, no. Knock it off. I didn't do this

to you, Mr. Waterworld. What the hell was the

toy package? You gave me the power of interviewing.

This is your fault. Yeah. This is my show, though.

Anyway. OK, so the classic packaging, the classic

Transformers generation. Do you think you hold

power over me? Yes, yes, I do. The classic Transformers

generation 1 packaging, I absolutely love because

it had the giant Transformers thing on the box

flap. It had all this stuff. You turn around.

Instead of a cross cell in the back, you get

this giant mural. of Transformers at Metroplex

or whatever doing all kinds of cool crazy stuff.

What packaging has to have for me is it has specifically

to Funko it has to remind me of what I used to

see on the old packaging and for the Transformers

pops it does exactly that because it has for

the Autobots It has the red, orange, and yellow

grid for the Decepticons. It has the purple and

yellow, because there's a section of it in the

middle that's yellow. But it has the purple grid.

So absolutely love that. As far as other toy

packaging, whoops. See, now you're making me

throw my pops around. Stop making me do stuff,

Josh, even though you're like 7 ,000 miles away.

I mean, you. OK, yeah, you got it. Do you open

your toys or do you leave them packaged? With

the old toys, yes, I did. I opened up all the

old toys. I kept all the boxes. But I had, again,

I will reference the photo album that I will

link in the show notes. I had a whole shelf.

My mom had a I think it's Cherrywood. Anyway,

my uncle built my mom this moving bookshelf out

of Cherrywood. And it's like, think of the really

expensive shelving units you see at Macy's or

something. I don't know. Whatever. Insert expensive

store here. And obviously, I inherited the shelf

because I love that shelf. Even though I remember

it being much larger, of course then again, I

could have been much much smaller because I was

a kid at the time So I had all my toys on the

whole shelf. I had them all spread out I had

everything everywhere and it was a nightmare

to dust I just I can't imagine what Deval and

Dave do with their basements even though Deval

has already cleared out his stuff But yeah, no,

I open them with the funko pops. I mainly open

them for photography reasons I seriously was

hoping you're going to say you're going to open

them to burn them. But OK. Would you stop it?

I open them for photography reasons. Sometimes

I will leave them out depending on what they

are, depending on what I'm doing at the time.

But most of the time, they do stay packaged.

But what if you were really, really cold and

desperate one day? Dude. Let's move on to the

next question. Here we go. If, as a kid, you

were only allowed to choose one toy franchise

to collect from, only get one, especially the

ones you mentioned, which one would you choose

and why? Transformers. Transformers. Yep. And

why? You had two toys in one. You could do anything

you wanted to with them. You had Optimus G1 Optimus

Prime. He's a giant red truck that has a trailer

that one of the other cars could have fit into.

You had triple changers. You had six changers.

You had all kinds of stuff. I love, my favorite,

if I only had one transformer my entire life,

the one that I would have besides the cassette

stuff, besides the tape decks and cassettes and

all that, would be G1. Purple Astrotrain because

at the time I loved space shuttles. I loved locomotives

and Even though the G1 Astrotrain toy the robot

mode isn't really anything to write home about

The other two modes make up for it and yeah Transformers

because you could do all kinds of imaginary things

with them And I think that is one of the benefits

of Transformers I know that they came from two

separate Japanese lines. One was the tiny robots,

and then the other one was the vehicle robots.

But no, you're right. If you liked Hot Wheels,

how could you go wrong with Transformers? You

got an extra play feature out of it, and maybe

you didn't even want to use it. You still had

cool vehicles. I can't argue with Transformers

being... an excellent choice if you had to stick

with one. Even to this day, they're still that

impressive. So here's the thing. They have coming

out now leader class, or not leader class, commander

class, Rodimus Prime. If I wasn't just collecting

Funko, if I was still collecting regular action

figures, there are two that I would want. That

commander class Rodimus and the leader class

Galvatron because I had the Rodimus Prime toy

as a kid I remember this like it was yesterday

Mom and her boyfriend at the time and I and some

other friends of theirs or family members I don't

remember we all were in Key Biscayne, Florida

And I remember playing with Rodimus Prime in

the bathtub of the hotel. So fast forward almost

40 years later Hasbro is making a commander class

Rodimus Prime looks just like the old toy except

it's today, modern, color corrected, has the

trailer, has everything. It's amazing. The Matrix

has gone and with it all hope. No! Galvatron

has it. Where's Galvatron? Where is he? And the

answer is Unicron. Then we've got to destroy

Unicron. My friend of mine just got that. I have

to say that Hasbro finally is kind of figuring

it out. How do you sell... to everybody including

collectors but also current kiddos right Rodimus

has always been a cool truck cool car cool robot

kind of has everything you could possibly ever

want and a lot of these uh it's not i mean it's

the kingdom sub sub line but it's right the war

for cybertron yeah yeah it's war for cybertron

kingdom yeah yeah and the way they're working

in just There it feels like there's a little

bit of time travel in there. They're working

in the Beast Wars the g1 I think I've seen g2

flavors in there. Am I wrong a little bit? There's

a little bit of g2 flavor there, which I think

they're still waiting to tap into that Yeah,

when neon and pastel colors come back It's soon.

I swear it's soon. Have they ever really left?

I've seen a lot of people out here with where

it weren't some neon stuff at times Anyway, anyways,

so okay. So let's move on to the next one As

an adult collector, specifically looking back

at the last 30 or 40 years, do you have a preference

specifically for vintage toys or modern toys

and why? You gotta pick one. I respect the vintage

and I miss that old astro train but the modern

stuff like we were just saying about kingdom

Rodimus and Galvatron, what they've been able

to do. Yes, there are quality control issues.

There have been quality control issues ever since

toys started being made. So that's neither here

nor there. But no, I'd probably go modern because

they can do more now than they could back in

the 80s. They did what they could, and they gave

us awesome things for the time, but the times

we're living in now, everybody wants 72 points

of articulation. But let me ask you a follow

-up on that, if you don't mind. I'm going to

cut you off because I'm going to ask you a follow

-up. So I just had a conversation with a friend

about vintage video games, and we played games

when we were younger that could be as basic as

pong, and up until certain games came out as

Super Mario 3 was an awesome game, but when you

would play games that were supposed to simulate

more realistic situations, we used our imaginations

to fill in the gaps that the games didn't provide,

correct? Same with toys. So do you think a kid

like if we took little Mike Blanchard and we

gave him a set of G1 toys, what do you have fun?

Absolutely. I did then and I would now. Would

that level of fun be any different with the more

articulated, better sculpted, better painted

toys of today? No. I don't think so. And see,

that's what I think, is that even though, yes,

the toys of today are better and whatever, they're

more articulated. There's so many more parts.

How many steps would it take to transform G1

Optimus Prime? See, that's the thing. Look, OK,

I don't remember actually having Optimus until,

I want to say, 85. I was five years old, I think.

Yeah, I was five. So I don't remember. I might

have had him when I was four and 84, but I don't

remember. But that's the thing. Back then, you

look at those old commercials where they're like,

you know, Transformers, more than meets the eye,

robots in disguise. All of those old commercials

show you how it transforms. There were instructions

on how to transform it. Nowadays, and I understand

because nowadays it's so different. Kids want

instantaneous things. We had to figure out how

to transform. We had to read the instructions.

If we couldn't get the instructions, we had to

figure it out on our own how to transform it

and use our imagination on how to transform it

sometimes. So kids of today, with Transformers

specifically, I know a lot of the boxes say,

oh. This figure transforms in seven steps or

42 steps or whatever many steps you want. Like,

really? Seriously? You're going to tell them

how many steps? I don't know. I don't know what

Hasbro's doing. I almost feel that's like the

warning on those packets you get in your shoes.

Like, do not eat this. Exactly. Because you'll

get one of those newer Transformers for a kid.

Obviously, you have mom, dad going down the aisle,

Auntie, Grandma. Oh, look at this great Optimus

Prime. I'm going to get it for Junior. Gives

it to Junior. Junior tries to transform it. Three

steps in, he gives up. Some of these newer transformers,

especially some of the panelformers, is there

a phrase for that? Is it just panelformer? Like

where there's just, yeah, where there's just

panel after panel. Some of these are really,

really hard and they're prone to breaking. So

it's almost like a beginner, expert level warning.

on some of these newer toys of, hey, if you bought

that for that kid and it says 42 steps to transform

it and he doesn't like it and he doesn't transform

it, that's on you. I feel that's what it's for.

But I do think that, I don't disagree with you,

I'm not saying this to argue with your point

about liking modern toys, but I do find it interesting

because I still think those old toys would still

do really well with kids today because I don't

think that kids today, because they spend so

much time on their smartphones and stuff like

that, they just might not be up to the challenge

of, I'm looking at some of mine, the Kingdom

Megatron, the T -Rex Megatron. That is not an

easy toy to transform. He may get transformed

once or twice a year moving forward, plus he's

a little fragile. So that's the other thing Hasbro

has done and changed since we were kids or since

I was a kid anyway. Everything came in alternate

mode. I'm going to say alternate mode because

that's just easier because there's vehicles,

there's beasts, there's whatever. So everything

came in alternate mode back then. That was part

of the appeal. Okay, I have this cool truck.

I now have to figure out how to transform this

cool truck into getting a cool robot. Same thing

with the tape decks. Okay, I have this awesome

tape deck that I can put these little awesome

robotic tapes in. I now have to figure out how

to transform the tapes and transform the tape

deck. Nowadays, almost 99 % of transformers come

in robot mode. Do you think that's partially

due to just packing packaging limitations? and

appeal of the image of the robot, or do you think

that's something else? I think it is a combination

of two things. It is what you just said. It is

the packaging limitation. It is them wanting

to be more environmentally conscious. It is all

of that, but it's also... I wish it was that,

but I don't think it's that. Well, I mean, Hasbro

is actually doing things to move away from plastics.

Like I recently watched... By the time this episode

goes online, it would have already happened,

but I recently watched a fan first Friday where

they were talking about Transformers and what's

coming up in 2020, the rest of 2021 and some

stuff in 2022. And we've seen the packaging where

it's just, it's basically just loop ties. It's,

you know, but it's, you know, whatever they are.

And next year. in 2022, they are actually going

to a closed, no more window boxes, they're going

to a closed box option for Transformers for next

year. But as far as robot mode versus alternate

mode, I think nowadays it is the packaging part,

but it's also the part of, as we just mentioned,

you know, little Tommy. Doesn't want to spend

20 minutes figuring out how to transform the

thing into 42 steps So here you go little Tommy.

We're gonna give them to you in robot mode So

you can play with the the robot version of the

character? Yeah, right? Right right out of the

box you have you you have a toy that the kid

can play with If the kid wants to try to transform

it into the alt mode he can do that But if he

doesn't whatever and then he'll probably just

throw it in a box and go back to playing on his

iPad or iPhone or Whatever. So seeing that we

are basically on number 13 right now, let's start

moving forward. Yes. What is one toy you can

always play with? Can you grab? See, that's the

thing, because I don't play with the Funko Pops.

The way I play with them is I put them in weird

situations and I take photos. That's how I play

with the Pops. If it was an actual, like, again,

I'll reference that Commander Class Rodimus Prime

from Kingdom. That would be, because that is

essentially an upgraded, updated, modern version

of what I had in 1988. I could play with that

all day. Last big party of the summer, folks.

Let's go out with a bang. I totally just lost

my train of thought. Not sure if you want to

edit that out. Keep it in. Up to you. Oh, God.

Man, you make me do so much more editing than

I have to. Anyway, number 15. Right. Yes, 15.

Here we go. Even though there are always toy

lines that people never purchase, are there any

that you... Sorry, my... Brain was working, but

my mouth decided to take a five -minute break.

Here we go. Are there any that I specifically

and purposefully avoid? How did you know what

I was going to ask? Yes. Specific characters,

et cetera. Because I'm usually the one asking

the questions. And I have the document pulled

up. You would hope that idea. But based on how

I just read it, you might not think so. Yeah,

exactly. As a kid, either from my dad or my grandpa

on my dad's side or my mom's side, I forget.

bucketfuls and bucketfuls and bucketfuls of Little

Green Army men. The old, the original Little

Green Army men. So as a kid, I don't ever remember

asking my mom for any G .I. Joes. As an adult,

when I go down and look in the toy aisle, oh

wait, they're empty. Shit, there's no toys. This

question doesn't even matter at this point. Yeah,

I avoid it all. I just buy Funko's online. No,

but seriously. When I do go to toy stores now,

and if their toy aisles are fully stocked, I

won't do any franchises or any licensed properties

that I am not already a fan of. I have zero interest

in Animorphs. I have nothing against Animorphs,

but I have zero interest in them. Even though

I love the Minions and I love the Despicable

Me movies, unless I get some Funko pop Minions,

which I know Funko does and has done the Minions,

I just don't have any of them. I have zero interest

in those. I didn't even know that a really, really

shitty 1995 film even had a toy line until recently.

So there's that. So how can you avoid what you

don't know? Wait, wait, wait. What movie are

you? That would be Waterworld, sir. You didn't

know they had toys? Not until we started doing

this podcast. Oh. Yeah. Have we talked about

that at all on the show? Yes. Yes, we have. Oh,

OK. Cool, cool, cool. All right. Well, then we'll

move on. Yeah. so are there any toys in the past

or currently that you wish you hadn't bought

or On the flip side of that. Are there any toys

that you have sold that you regret letting go

for any reason? The only one I sold that I regret

letting go is my g1 Astro train that would be

the only one that I regret that I sold as far

as What was the rest of that question? No, not

really, because I only go after what I really,

really want. Again, even though we're not to

question 22 yet, I'll say this now, I don't buy

every single Funko pop out there. Funko is a

company that has their pop mitts in every single

license that they can possibly get, because their

slogan is, everybody is a fan you know everyone's

a fan of something kind of thing so they have

their their mitts into everything but I'm not

gonna sit I have no interest in Game of Thrones

I don't like it or dislike it but I have no interest

I saw the first episode it was not for me I'm

not gonna go out and and find Game of Game of

Thrones pops you know so mm -hmm so bought stuff

you like stuff go Let's talk about some size

at this point. Let's get to the size of things.

How large or small is your toy collection? Do

your toys take up the whole house, or are they

relegated to one room, shelf, or store spaces

in different time zones? Yes, sadly. I probably

have maybe, I want to say 15. or maybe 20 Funko

Pops here in the state of Washington, the rest

of them, the rest of, so in total I have 119

Pops. So I have about, I have basically about

100 Pops in storage. And that's fine. It is what

it is. I couldn't bring them out here at the

time. And I wasn't even sure when I came out

here if I was going to still collect them. Not

that I didn't want to stop collecting them, but

I wasn't sure because, you know, At the time

when we first came out here, we actually did

something rash. We moved somewhere and didn't

really have anything set up. So we had to find

a place immediately. And luckily, we did. But

yes, I have 119 Total Fun Copops. I have about,

like I said, 20 or so of them here. And I only

buy the ones that I absolutely want. So yeah,

I'm not aiming to have. thousand Funko pops because

they just won't whatever the other part of the

question is is how do I display them how do where

do I keep them right now they're all on a table

in my living room in front of a window only because

I haven't like put up shelves or anything it's

an apartment not trying to put up shelves or

whatever I would rather just go buy a bookcase

or or something and I'll you know stick them

in there I can see them looking outside longingly

like they want to go play in the park or something.

We face north. The park is east of here, so that's

not possible. Jeez, I'm sorry. I didn't study

the geography of your apartment. I'm just telling

you. I'm just answering why, you know. I did

a lot to prepare for this interview. I'm sorry.

I just didn't. No, you didn't. Anyway. Yes, you

had to send me the interview questions just before

we started. I sometimes make things up to defend

myself. Let's move right along, ladies and gentlemen.

So how do you keep track of your pop collection?

I've heard there's a thing, an app, a way of

doing it that's easy. What is it? How do you

do it? So basically you go on to whatever store,

whether it's a Rotten Apple store or the Google

Play store and you look for fun, you just search

Funco and the Funco app will come up and you

download it and you log in. And if you already

have an account with them, they'll just let you,

you know, set it up. And basically you go through

like they're like searching. Oh, they don't have

Waterworld pops yet. So I can't search for that.

Let's try this Robin Hood. I sort of feel like

if they made Waterworld Pops, your brain would

have a mild... You would have a moment of struggling,

I think, if they actually did. Uh -huh. Let's

search for something Jason likes. Little Mermaid.

I don't think they had... Yeah, they did. I know

they've done them. But anyway, so... He likes

Little Mermaid? Yes, yes he does. So basically,

you go on the app, you do a search, or you can

look through various, like there's a discover

button, and for some odd reason it's not working

tonight. But basically, you go to a pop, like

I can go in my wish list, okay. So in my wish

list, I have recently added the new pop of Spock

in Chairs. So it's basically, Want to say this

is yeah, this is the Zachary Quinto spot from

the films You know you basically go to his his

listing you can either add to collection or add

to wishlist and You know once you add to collection

you can just go to your collection. You can see

it in your collection So Talking about seeing

things in a collection you sort of mentioned

that Right now you are displaying stuff on your

kitchen table or your dining room table It's

a side table next to my desk, yeah. Side table

next to your desk. So is that pretty much how

you're displaying stuff right now? Our written

question goes into what the overall details of

that. Let me change this one a little bit. Let

me change this as far as how you display it.

If you could have an ideal way to display your

pops, what would that be? I'm throwing things

off a little bit. That's okay. You kind of have

to. I believe it's Michaels. They have baseball

bat cases. They usually run like, I don't know,

20, 40 bucks. I see those, yeah. Yeah. So basically,

they're black. And it's like a plexiglass open

thing. And I would basically put those on the

wall. And I would actually open the pops. and

take them out of the packaging. If I was really

going to make a display kind of like how our

buddy Adas Baron has his toys all over his apartment,

I would get a ton of these baseball bat cases.

And I would just, OK, this one's Transformers.

This one's GI Joe. This one's the ad icons. And

I would just put them all in there. Since I don't

have those, I do have two of them. But again,

they're in storage. Since I don't have any of

that right now, they're just sitting on this

end table thing. Eventually, I want to get some

sort of floating shelves going in my room here

so I can get them off the table and they're more

wall art than anything else. So let's say your

ideal display is up, baseball display cases everywhere

you need them to be. your apartment lights on

fire family is safe cats and dogs are okay parakeets

ready to go what is one toy that you grab to

make sure it stays safe everything else goes

up in flames what would it be and why out of

the ones i have here in the apartment currently

it would most likely be one of two things But

I would only grab one of them. It would either

be Comic Book Guy, or it would be Mace Megatron.

Good choices. Mace Megatron is the purple energy

Mace GameStop pop I mentioned earlier. Yep. No

one does that to me and continues to function!

So, if you had the stuff you have in storage...

Oh, God. Oh, Jesus. If I had all 119 pops here

and I can only pick one, it would most likely

be, if I was gonna lose it all, luckily I don't

have this thing yet to lose it, but if I was

gonna lose it all, it would most likely be the

Batman 66 Batgirl because she was, the one of,

if not the first Pops. She was actually the third

Pop I bought. But she, you know, Yvonne Craig,

may you rest in peace. But the Batgirl Pop is

so cool. It's purple and yellow like her costume

was in the show and just absolutely love that

Pop. Welcome aboard the Knight 2000. Thank you.

What's all this? Looks like Darth Vader's bathroom.

Let's say you can save more than just one and

I give you an 18 by 18 by 18 box To save everything

that fits in there What do you pack into it?

Let's see I would pack in I could probably fit

in all the pops I have here I know I couldn't

all the ones I have here now. Yeah Yeah. That

was easy. Easy question. Here we go. Yeah. So

the next question, are you a dot, dot, dot, dot.

You don't have to say the dot, dot, dots. I feel

like I need to, because this question, I think,

is not only very, very obvious, but. Well, now

it is, because you're making it obvious, because

hello, that's what my collect. Question 22. Are

you a Funko fan? Hello. Duh. Yes, you are. Moving

on to 23. Now, it's one of the things that, again,

I was out of collecting. I was gone. When I sold

my stuff in 2011, I was perfectly fine letting

it go. I didn't have a lot of stuff worth a lot

of money. I'm no Dave Draper. I don't have things

that are worth the price of a jet ski or whatever

kind of thing. I had a small collection so I

got maybe 200 bucks if that so it wasn't like

you know whatever so I was out of collecting

completely out and then somehow someway somebody

showed me The Stone Cold Steve Austin, at the

time it was the 2K Games, because they were doing

the whole WWE 2K whatever year it was, 2K17 I

think, or maybe it was 2K16, I forget. And I

saw that they had a Steve Austin Funko Pop. I've

never I had never really been you know going

back to what toys do I avoid? I just know I had

had some wrestling figures But I was never really

into the wrestling figures as a kid because I

never had the ring or I never I never had any

like for me toys and action figures as a kid

were He -man smash Skeletor on the head. It wasn't

like oh Let's put them in a ring and have them

jump off the top rope kind of thing However,

I still haven't, I loved wrestling as a kid.

I actually went to one of Junkyard Dog's last

matches before he died. Yeah, it was awesome.

So when I saw that they had a, I'm like, and

again, I had had Mighty Mugs in my collection

from 2005 to 2011. And I'm like, oh, these are

kind of cool. They're, they're kind of vinyl

figures and they're, they're whatever. So let

all that go and I saw this this funko pop of

Steve Austin and I'm like, what is that? And

where do I get it? I ended up finding it in my

at the time local comic shop the great escape

and I was like Okay, I can you know, it's like

10 15 bucks something like that. It's a comic

shop. They're not gonna do normal Target 899

prices. It's fine. Whatever. So I bought him.

He was the first pop I ever bought and I haven't

looked back since. Give me a hell yeah! And that's

the bottom line because I said so. So what's

the most money you ever spent on a toy? A single

toy or a box set? I think I remember if I if

I remember correctly I mentioned that it was

Castle Grayskull the classics Castle Grayskull

for me which Is that a single toy, or is that

something else? I don't know. So you take your

own interpretation. Yeah, it's technically a

playset, but it would be a single item. Take

your interpretation all you want. A single item,

a single toy, a single Trance Blaster, or Soundwave,

or Optimus Prime. Again, as I said, from 2005

to 2010, I had had this really cushy job that

paid me a lot of money for not a lot of work.

I did my job. You'll tell me about that job later,

right? Sadly, they don't have that job anymore

because it was a live -in thing and it was really

stressful. Anyway, so again, I went on eBay and

I went nuts on eBay in 2005 and 2006. Between

Optimus Prime, Blaster and Soundwave, I probably

spent... $120 on each of them So Yeah, as far

as the most money I've ever spent on any kind

of toy it was the 2008 Transformers bot -con

set Convention set with all of the additional

exclusives. It was $800, but it got me like eight

or nine figures Wow. Yeah. So it would be the

breakdown per figure. Hell, I don't know. Math

is hard. Let's go on. Yeah, I don't do math.

That's why I became a social studies teacher.

So I'm going to flip 24 a little bit on you.

I'm going to keep you on your toes on this one.

So 24 originally is what was the cheapest toy

you ever bought, which I have gotten toys for

free. So I would say that's pretty cheap. I'm

gonna make you think on this one on the spot.

What's the cheapest toy that had a ridiculously

higher value when you bought it? So for instance,

I was at an estate sale. I got a really nice

wooden toy box of a bunch of toys. And inside

of it, I found I had something that was worth

more than I paid for the entire toy box. So that's

how I'm flipping this to you. OK, so let me ask

you this in return. Are we talking about what

it's worth now or what it's worth when I first

got it? Let's go. Because here's the thing. What's

going to make for better content for our listeners?

Well, hmm. I don't know honestly because so I

mentioned that BotCon 2008 set that came with

the add -on figures. The add -on figures were

Goldbug, Rodimus, and other things. I forget

what the third figure was. And I assume we're

going with listed prices on eBay, not sold options.

So I'm not sold options. So right now, I bought

all those toys for $800. So let's just say Rodimus

at the time. I forget what his actual price was,

because you had to buy it with anyway. Anyway,

Shattered Glass Rodimus Prime. Which is a repaint

of the classics molded Rodimus hot rod, whatever

I searched this about a month ago and The prices

just made me staggering. It's just Staggering.

So right now I'm on my phone. I'm on eBay the

cheapest I assume not in the box. Nothing with

it. I assume it's just that yeah, I'm looking

at the listing now. It's just the figure He is

complete. It looks like but there's nothing Nothing

else here. It's a hundred and thirty nine dollars

now That's the cheapest I have seen it in the

last month Because when I was doing some transformer

streams about a month ago or so this exact thing

came up and I looked on eBay. Every listing was

either over $999 or just under $1 ,200. I'm looking

at two listings on eBay right now. Shattered

Glastronomus, it has the instructions, it has

the bio card, it has him and his missile. they

want, they are asking $1 ,349 .95 plus shipping.

The other listing I see here $725 or $1 ,062

.50. So yeah, Shattered Glass Rodimus would be

the one that would be... Do you actually see

it selling for that much or do you think? I do

not. I don't even understand why people are listing

him for that much. I don't know. I would have

to ask a few of my Transformers friends to actually

find out what his actual value is. I think people

are listing him that high because they think

it's worth that, because it is Rodimus, because

it is evil Rodimus with a goatee. kind of thing.

I don't know, dude. As far as the original question,

though, what is the cheapest toy I ever bought?

So I have a friend of the show, my good buddy,

Bondo Mike. He has been a supporter of mine since

we started the network. And every once in a while,

he'll send me stuff where I'll say, hey, I'd

love to have this, but I can't, you know, can't

really get it right now, whatever. And sometimes

sometimes he will shoot me the cash to get it.

I could not find the GameStop Optimus Prime,

just could not find it. It was just unattainable.

So I found it on eBay for a decent price. I think

it was maybe $3 or $4 more than what it was worth

at the time. Got it and got it shipped to me.

Well, again, I mentioned that I have the lunch

box because I went into GameStop one time and

they actually had normally they sell out of these

things. Normally they don't keep them in stock

because they're specialty boxes. They're exclusive

boxes and they're not really in. You know, they

don't stay in stock. So they had three of them

and I'm like, OK, great. I grabbed one. I said,

hey, how much is this? Because I figured it was

going to be the normal. At least Normal in this

case for this specific box $30 So basically it's

$15 per pop you get two pops Plus some stickers

a keychain and whatever else So I grabbed one

and I took it out to Karen. I'm like, look they

have this they have this I wonder if I can get

blah blah blah the Megatron I was actually hoping

to get the Megatron and I ended up with two optimus

primes so And this is going to come back around

to the whole cheapest part here. I listed or

I put in a pop buy sell trade group. I said,

for trade, Funko Pop, GameStop, Optimus Prime,

Energy Axe, looking for the GameStop sound wave

with the battle damage on his cassette deck.

And somebody messaged me and said, hey, I have

a Soundwave. I'm trying to get rid of my pops,

blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, but

I'm looking to trade this for that. I'm not looking

to actually purchase it. And he was like, oh,

OK. And I hadn't heard from him. Like, three

days ago, I heard from the guy again. Hey, I

got a great deal for you. You can have the Soundwave.

All you got to do is pay shipping. I'm like,

OK, but what am I going to do with this second

optimus? I mean, yeah, I know I can just go back

on eBay and sell it myself. But the whole point

was, hey, I have something that somebody may

not have. Let me trade this for the thing that

you don't want or the extra thing you might have

that I want. So anyway, I paid $7. The thing

will be here. Or as of this recording, it'll

be here Saturday. But by the time this airs,

I will have already had the GameStop. Battle

Damage Soundwave. So $7 for a pop is probably

the cheapest deal I've ever gotten. Not counting

yard sale deals for old army men. Wow. So perfect

timing as far as this question and show is concerned.

So all right, so we talked about the cheapest

toy. We talked about the best deal, yeah. I think

number 25 is pretty straightforward. What modern

or vintage toy lines are you collecting right

now? I think I'm collecting all kinds of vintage

toy lines, considering that they're all modern

toys. Fair enough. Well, because again, here's

the thing. Funko Pops, OK, perfect example. Any

of the, OK, so remember when we were kids? Not

really. Wait. Oh, stop it. You're younger than

I am. I should be the one forgetting this shit,

not you. OK. So when we were kids in the 80s

and 90s, and we would see, like, Tony the Tiger,

or Toucan Sam, or the Honey Smacks Frog, Dick

Diggum Frog, or whatever, or the Rice Crispy

Snap Crackle Pop, or whatever. Don't I do not

remember and maybe there are I'm sure there have

been dolls of these of these these advertising

characters the coolest thing with Funko is What

they're doing with their icons line and their

ad icons line Right now I bought this for Karen

for Christmas last year Funko did a grumpy cat

pop All right, you said cat, so you got me interested.

Yeah, it's grumpy cat, man. Don't you know who

grumpy cat is? Really, seriously? No, seriously,

you're asking me that? So anyway, what the hell

was the question? Oh, so modern and vintage.

So yeah, I mean, I feel like I collect everything

because they are modern. Designed toys, but they

look like you know like grumpy cat looks just

like he was in in all his memes and everything

else and he's got the grumpy face and the tail

and the the colors and You know another perfect

example is the gopher from caddy chat. I Have

a target exclusive flocked gopher I've never

actually opened the gopher to take him take him

out to take pictures So I don't know how good

the flocking is on him But I assume it's really

good. I have now this is okay. This is another

one goes back into the deal So I told you about

the seven dollar sound wave The best deal I ever

got besides that on a Funko pop last January

no January 20 January somewhere when we first

moved out here from from Illinois Dr. Pepper

Diet Dr. Pepper was doing a contest and Funko

was doing a contest with them Where, and this

again goes to where else are you gonna get a

doll or a toy or an action figure of this character.

Where if you collected three bottles, you put

in the UPCs online or wherever it is. Actually

no, I had to take a picture of it and mail it

away. First mail away thing I've done since I

was a kid. So you had to take a picture of the

UPC codes, put it in an envelope, send it away.

In four to eight weeks, you got a Funko Pop,

Diet Dr. Pepper, Justin Guarini, Little Sweet.

I really want a cupcake, but not the calories.

Wait, you said Justin Guarini? Yeah, Justin Guarini

from American Idol. Yeah, he plays the character

the the the icon character of little sweet in

the diet dr. Pepper commercials Or at least he

used to when they were doing that ad campaign

So if you haven't seen little sweet ads, I'll

show them to you later. But basically It's another

mascot. It's another this but basically I bought

three bottles of soda Maybe cost me six bucks

and I got a free funko pop out of it Nice That

that's and you got pop out of it. So exactly

The Funko pop but you got pop in that well, that's

Midwest speak for soda. Yeah soda. Yeah Just

just for our fans who are like wait, you got

a pop and pop that I'm so confused That's why

I put funko in the front of the word for the

pop I'm just gonna continue to confuse people

who Mm -hmm enjoy pop as a beverage and pop as

a collectible. Uh -huh Anyways, so do you visit

the toy shows or conventions anymore? No Good

question moving on Well, okay, so as an adult

no I First of all, I've never even though I've

mentioned I had a lot of excess money with that

job. I didn't have enough Like, I wasn't making

enough to go to BotCon. Now, this is what irks

me the most. Now, I was doing this job in 2008.

BotCon that year, that was the shattered glass

set that I've already mentioned, was in Cincinnati,

Ohio, basically an hour and a half away from

Louisville. And I still didn't have enough because...

I've always felt that if I wanted to go to BotCon

at the time back then, I would need enough money

to do everything. And I haven't had enough money

to do everything since my mom took me to my last

Disney World trip in 1995. So no, generally,

I don't go to toy shows. I don't go to conventions.

Number one, unless it's a really, really small

convention, really small, like 100 people or

less kind of thing, like in and out, in and out,

in and out. I'm not I'm not a crowd person. I've

been to Carl Casper's custom auto show several

times. I've been to several different like older

like that's where I yeah, I went to the Boston

Budweiser Expo when I was six years old. I met

Michael Knight. He gave me a thumbs up and I

got a picture with him. So I've met David Hasselhoff.

I have a picture with David Hasselhoff. So I

used to but ever since I was maybe 25, 30 years

old. I think it's cool. I think it's great that

people can go to them. I think people have an

amazing experience at most of them, but I have

no desire to walk around all that stuff, and

I have no desire to be around that many people.

I would rather sit here on my computer for six

hours recording a podcast, doing live reactions

to San Diego Comic -Con 2012, which I actually

did do. I will add though, if you were to have

stopped going to conventions after meeting David

Hasselhoff at his peak, that's sort of like saying

I got to the top of Everest and peace out everybody.

Deuces, I'm moving right along. Okay, so let's

keep going. We still have, we're a little over

halfway, but we don't have a lot of binary yes

or no questions here. Obviously me being 37 you

being 41 Thank you. I just I couldn't count that

high So, what do you think it is about our generation

that causes our childhood toys to mean so much

more to us Than our parents generation I'm gonna

throw in a little little addendum on to this

not only our parents generation, but even kids

today Don't seem to have the same attachment.

Oh Here's the thing Our parents' toys were pop

guns or water guns or water balloons or rocks

or bikes or skateboards or basketballs or baseballs

or soccer balls or hockey pucks or hockey like

our parents Like my mom might have had some Barbies

because Barbie seems to have always been around.

I don't remember exactly I think it was like

19 oh something when she started whatever but

the point is my parents generation they didn't

have like our Generation the 80s at least mid

to late 70s on into the 80s to today. That's

when toys got their boom You look at Okay, even

though I never had any of the GI Joe action figures

you look at GI Joe that started in Whatever year

it started as 12 inch dolls It went away and

came back as six inch or five inch or three inch

or three and a quarter five and seven eights

or whatever it is action figures And again back

then and I say this and everybody says this and

I know you know I sometimes get mad at it, but

look The cartoons that we loved growing up were

there to get us to say, Mom, I want the toy of

Optimus Prime. Do the cartoons have great stories?

I mean, not so great story, but do they have

content where it's good enough to watch and actually

get enjoyment out of it? Absolutely, they do.

Absolutely, they do. However, With the 80s and

90s generation, it was all about the collaboration

between the cartoons and the toys. If you saw

the toy of this, you would want to watch the

cartoon and vice versa. Kids today, or kids in

this generation, I have no clue. I am not a parent.

I have never ever wanted to be a parent. I...

I believe I've mentioned this other places on

the GeekCast Radio Network, but I'll say it here

again. I was born with a mild case of cerebral

palsy. In the last two years, I have only found

out really what that means. I always thought

it was just, OK, there's something wrong with

my brain. It's not sending signals to the right

side of my body to do what the right side of

your body does. my arm and leg on my right side

are not my arm my hand and foot my arm and leg

are shorter and smaller than my left side two

years ago i had to have brain surgery because

i had excess fluid on my brain i had hydrocephalus

on my brain so they went in and they put a drain

in and they drained off the excess fluid but

they said if i didn't go in for surgery basically

the next day My brain was two inches away from

popping out of my head. Holy crap. So, yep, so

I went in for surgery, they drained everything

out, they drained all the excess fluid and all

that stuff, and I've had some returning symptoms

in the last two years. Execute Order 66. So I've

had some returning symptoms in the last two years,

but in general, overall, it's better. But the

thing of it is is... the brains between needing

brain surgery and going through the year of pain

that I went through literally dude there was

a point where Karen and I were grocery shopping

and I looked up and I had light sensitivity and

whatever else I said we got to go home I need

to be in a dark room we left we either took what

minuscule groceries we had already gotten or

we basically just left it and I went home and

I went into a dark room and went to sleep because

it was so bad now that was before the surgery

After the surgery like I said, I've only had

several Episodes, but they weren't enough to

You know really like I don't think if it's coming

back after two years It's not a good thing so

in saying all of that my point is Not that I

don't think I'd make a good dad not that I think

that I whatever but because of all of that I

do not want kids because I do not want my kid

Going through what I went through as a kid now

going back to the 80s. I Used to get made fun

of all the time I used to get bullied all the

time because I looked because my right side looked

different from my left side Because I walked

funny whatever Kids today already have enough

problems with online and blah blah blah blah

There's no way in hell. I was ever gonna be a

parent Wow. Yeah So Let's awkwardly change tracks

from that response, that very serious, very personal,

very visceral response. Why do you buy toys?

Oh, boy. What is the motivation for purchasing

toys? I would say with the Funko Pops, it's,

again, it's because some of them I want. OK,

as a kid, I had the Rockum Sockum robot set.

I loved my Rock 'em Sock 'em Robot set. I haven't

ever wanted that back again. However, Funko did

put out blue and red Funko Pop Rock 'em Sock

'em Robots. They're actual action figures that

aren't tied to a play pattern of a game. You

know what I mean? Or, you know, you look at...

What's another one over here? Doc Brown, I never

had any of the Doc Brown stuff. Okay, perfect

example. No soup for you. I don't know if the

soup Nazi from Seinfeld ever had an action figure.

Funko has a pop of him and I grabbed him up.

So what motivates me or what keeps me buying

when I can buy, because I don't buy all the time.

I'm not out there. hunting every day. I don't

sadly, I can't do an actual job anymore. I can't

physically, physically and or mentally do the

jobs that I'm qualified to do because I just,

I just can't. I mean, you know, I'm okay. I can

sit at my computer for 12 hours a day editing

podcasts. Great. But I can't stand up 12 hours

in a grocery store or anything like that. So

when I can, when I I'm more selective now, Like

there are plenty of pops that have come out that

I know I can go to my buddy Wes Howard from popping

off toys comm Where he probably has them that

I could probably get a good deal from him off

of them But generally when I see the stuff it's

like, oh, this is cool I'd absolutely love to

have this and I'll save this away for later And

then I never end up getting it eventually, you

know, so it is it is what it is But basically

I buy them what my motivation is for purchasing

them is to display is to take photos. Like, I

wish Das was here, because he can do it better

than I am. Lick my boots, Baroness. God, that

was horrible. I now have - I thought Das came

in the room all of a sudden. No, no, no. Das'

Cobra Commander is way better than that crappy

imitation. That was a, like, mad, whatever. So

basically, like I said earlier, the only two

GI Joe Pops I have are Cobra Commander and Baroness.

I've taken a photo where it is supposed to look

like she is licking his boots, but it might not

look like that. That's why I haven't posted it

online. Yell. So I will admit, speaking of SuperNazi,

the recent Seinfeld apartment set, the build

-in apartment set, I have to say. So I had a

friend visiting up. a couple of weeks ago, we

had the entire set in our hands. He was interested

in buying them. I don't have space for them,

but I will give credit where credit is due. If

I had the space, $8 a set, $8. Yeah, it's not

bad, man. That was incredible. Now, I'm hearing

that if anybody has it at their stores, you're

not going to have the whole set available to

you. but also it's sold out at a lot of places.

But I was massively impressed. I'm not saying

I'm crying that I didn't get it, but that was

really cool. So let's move right along. So we're

getting into the question about buying toys for

kids. You mentioned not wanting to have kids.

Have you ever bought a toy for a child because

of your own opinion on the toy? or based on your

own experience or recent knowledge, have you

used your toy collector expertise to curate children's

playthings for a actual child? No, but I have

donated to Toys for Tots several times. And I

don't think enough toy groups do that, to be

honest with you. No, I don't think enough do

either. You know, again, You know, maybe that's

what I should do this year. If Toys for Tots

is still going on and I see it and whatever else,

maybe I should take this extra Optimus Prime

Funko Pop I have instead of putting it on eBay,

take it down to Toys for Tots and just say, here

you go, you can have this kind of thing. Because

it's no sweat off my back. Well, if you can get

money for it, get money for it, and then buy

more toys. Well, obviously. Then donate those.

Yeah, but no, it's not. No. OK, sure. It's an

idealistic view of things. So let's keep going

with the flow. Let's keep going with the flow.

Ooh. Technical difficulties. Let's move on, shall

we? Let's go to 31. 31 will be easy. Okay, here

we go. I know you have specifically stayed with

with pops some you leave in the package Do you

do any modifications or customs? Have you done

any modifications of customs even painting building

dioramas? Whatever? No, I am NOT that artistic.

I'm not that good even as a kid you didn't you

know throw some silly putty on a toy and Make

them into something else No, not really. Okay

Do you think this is a huge question night? see

this debated almost every day in Facebook groups

and on Twitter. Do you think toy companies should

specifically cater to adult collectors and have

only adult collector toys focus on child toys

or find a way to mix both? Find a way to mix

both because you're aiming for You now have all

of us who were kids in the 80s who want to reclaim

our childhood. And you also have the kids of

today, if they don't have an iPad or some sort

of device, you know, they're gonna want toys

or whatever. And yeah, they need to be mindful

of both things. That's why... That's why Hasbro

has the Transformers BotBots toys and the BotBots

cartoon that's coming out. That's why Mattel

has the CGI He -Man and the Masters of the Universe,

because that's supposed to be aimed at kids.

But now the reaction to that trailer that just

came out is also taking all the hate that people

had for a week or two for Revelations, and now

they are... They're generating a whole new hate

for this new series. Yeah. You know, personally,

I've seen the toys of this new series. I think.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's talk about what

you posted on Facebook. I'm calling you out on

that. What did you say on Facebook? Come on,

Kevin. What did I say on? Oh, on the. Oh. No,

no, no. I got it. On the Toycast page, I'm like,

what did I say on Facebook about this? I don't

remember this. OK. On the Toycast Facebook page,

I said, TFU and Mike here. Clear that voice.

I want you to read it nice and clear. Uh -huh.

Exactly. TFU and Mike here. No, thanks. I'd take

Joshua Dolph's. Waterworld toys over these and

I stand by that I You know what the you know,

and I and I here's the thing Not every new series

is going to be for us They are again going into

the hole should they market to kids should they

market to adults? They have to market to both

Because that's what it is nowadays and I'm sorry

looking at these toys. I just I have If I was

gonna get them the only one I maybe might get

would be Skeletor. But even then, I have zero

interest in Skeletor. Right now, the only Skeletor

I want is on eBay, sadly, and it is way too expensive

for me. So, really quickly, going back to Funko

Pop, Funko has multiple series of pops. Like

they have the... the pops for purpose that they're

doing now. They have the black light pops. So

you can get a black light Batman, or a black

light Superman, or Joker, or something like that.

They had this series called the Artist Series.

So it kind of is supposed to be, I guess, graffiti?

I don't know. So anyway. Can I just point out

one quick thing? Yes. We finally found something

at the depths of the lowest quality of ridiculousness

of just awful artistic style. Yeah. Something

so bad and despicable that you actually gained

the smallest increment of attraction to Water

World toys. I said I would take your toys. I

didn't say I wouldn't sell them immediately.

But I would take them over those toys. That's

fine. I have finally won. I can retire now. That

was all I needed. So basically, the art series

He -Man and Skeletor, it's the He -Man Funko

Pop. But he's painted green like Castle Grayskull.

He looks really really cool Skeletor is painted

purple Looks really really cool the problem He

man at the cheapest I'm seeing here is $30 at

the most expensive is maybe $50 and I just don't

I just don't have the money for it. Would I love

to have these two things? Absolutely, but there's

no way in hell that I'll be getting them any

time soon unless some rich alky dies and leaves

me in his will. Skeletor, his minimum asking

price on eBay that I see is, and that's auction,

but the minimum auction price is two bids, $32.

It has a day left. The highest I see him for

for buy it now is like 80 bucks. and the value

on those is I think 45 and 30 if I'm remembering

correctly. So yeah, what was the question? Oh,

I just was wondering where you are going to display

your Water World toys. That's the question. Where

am I going to display my Water World toys? At

Six Flags in Gurney I guess. I don't know. You

can take them to Hurricane Harbor, and you can

reenact the scene where they meet dry land finally.

All right. So some of these asking prices on

eBay, I don't know if these people actually look

on the Funco app and look at what they're actually,

what Funco and Pop price guide values them at.

The He -Man art series has a Funco value of $43.

The Skeletor has a value of $60. Now I understand

people want to make money. But that's what you

know, whatever it is what it is It's nothing

you can do about it. Alright, so let's go ahead

keep going. Yep Do you have a my parents got

rid of my toys story you mentioned earlier your

mom was just tired of hauling around Well, that

was that was when I was 20. Let's see. That was

2012 So I would have been 32 Okay, when I you

know when I was a kid that kind of thing generally

my mom kept everything But no, so my I come from

divorced parents my parents divorced when I was

two years old in 1982 and Call this a subconscious

thing again. I think I've mentioned this on the

show before For some odd reason I kept all my

good guys all my heat I'll specifically go with

with Masters the universe because those were

the ones that were split up I had Castle Grayskull

and all the good guys at my mom's house. I Believe

somehow my dad got her somebody got a hold of

a snake mountain for me But I had snake mountain

and all the villains at my dad's house now at

the time I was born and raised him all I was

born and raised in Massachusetts at the time

my mom was still living in Massachusetts. My

dad had moved to Providence, Rhode Island. So

I go down there one weekend. I was six years

old. Once again, 1986. Good and bad year for

me. Good because I met David Asselhoff. Bad because

Optimus Prime died and I found out that my dad

sold all my He -Man toys because at six years

old, he thought I was too old to play with toys.

Whoa, that's just the story that my mom told

me my mom has been dead for six years. I don't

know if it's actually true I've never actually

asked my dad about it because I don't it's six

for it. Yeah six. I mean I Yeah Okay, I'm that

Wow ouch, uh -huh. Yep, so Obviously your dad

felt at six that you were done with toys. When

I was too old for toys, yeah. But did you ever

feel there was a moment that you were done with

toys or stopping as a, you made a shift in like

2011. Yeah, I basically stopped. And you sold

your collection. Yeah, I basically stopped then.

I would say because of the life that I've led,

the life that I led as a teenager. So here's

the thing, and oh boy. I tell the story all the

time, but it's weird telling it on a podcast.

Again, my mom and dad divorced when I was two

in 1982. From 1982 to Christmas of 1992 going

into New Year's of 93, they fought over custody.

They fought over child support. And my dad's

a hard -ass worker. My dad works more than anybody

I have ever seen in my life. The man sleeps maybe

eight hours or less, if he does that at all.

He'll go to bed at midnight. He'll wake up at

3 AM and go to work. He's a mechanic. And he's

always working. He's always doing stuff. So it's

not that he doesn't have a poor work ethic or

doesn't earn the money kind of thing. I don't

know. It's a whole parent thing, especially back

then. It was all custody this, or when can I

see him that, or when this, or when that, or

whatever. you know going into my my 13th birthday

Christmas in 92 I did not make a foolish choice

like I did in 1986 so I had the Sega Master System

my mom told me at one point like right before

Christmas I could go into the local toy store

in Massachusetts called Child World. It is specific

to New England back then. And they had the Nintendo

Entertainment System and they had the Sega Master

System. Well, I chose poorly as a six -year -old

and I chose the Sega Master System with Alex

Kidd and the Lost Stars and Bo Jackson Baseball

and Football. So in 1992, Made the smart choice

and I'm like mom. I want a Super Nintendo for

Christmas And I played that's I played that Super

Nintendo for like 72 hours I played the hell

out of that thing from Christmas night all the

way into the next night Like I remember December

20th the night of December 26th going into the

morning of December 27th I was up at 1 30 in

the morning Being as quiet as I could with having

as little volume as I could on this old volume

knob Zenith TV and I'm this good friends Yeah,

it used to be and I'm I and I'm sitting that

laying there playing Super Mario World and I'm

in the middle of Vanilla Dome three or four whatever

the volcano level is and whatever at what I am

And sadly, I let out a burp, it woke my mom up,

and I had to go to bed. So that was kind of the...

And then, in 1993, I turned 13. My mom had a

nervous breakdown, like, right before my birthday,

right before my 13th birthday. My aunt and uncle

got me a Game Boy, because I never had... My

aunt, my other aunt, had a Game Boy that she

would always let me borrow. But I never actually

had a Game Boy up until my 13th birthday party.

had the Game Boy. My mom turned custody over

to my dad. My dad had previously, in 1990, he

had moved from Massachusetts to Kentucky. So

in 1993, he came up and got me because my mom

had a nervous breakdown because her then -boyfriend

of almost a decade turned out he was actually

married and had two stepdaughters in Canada.

Wow. Yeah, so this is a whole big old thing.

I go live with my dad and stepmother. A lot of

bad crap happened with my stepmother that I'm

not gonna get into here. Let's just say, if you

don't put your head all the way in the corner,

she will ram your head against the wall. Or at

least she did that to me anyway. And fine, the

other story I tell which is true. So back then,

some people, at least some weird people, did

not believe in clothes dryers. Did not believe

in dryers. Washer, dryer. They wanted their stuff

hung up on either the clothesline or the clothes

rack. She had me wash a pair of her slippers.

We lived in a log cabin at the time with a very,

very large second story deck. So instead of hanging

the slippers off of the edge of the clothes rack,

I set them on the floor on the deck like a pair

of shoes. And I went away to my bedroom and I

went away to read or listen to radio or whatever.

She comes screaming up the stairs at me or whatever.

Come here. She pulls me by my ear down the stairs.

And I'm like at this point I'm trying to run

away from her. And she finally gets me out to

the thing like, why are the slippers on the floor?

They're not going to dry like that. Why are they

on the floor? I don't know. I thought that's

where you put them. And then she started chasing

me around the house with a slipper until my dad

finally got into it and was like, stop running

around the house. And at that point, we got to

a point of child services had to be called. Yes,

I ended up as a ward of the state of Kentucky

from 1995 till I graduated high school in 1999.

That was the other thing. In eighth grade, grade

was 90 95 97 whenever yeah yeah 94 95 in eighth

grade i got so i was born in 80 i was in kindergarten

in 85 by 92 i was in sixth grade 93 i was supposed

to start seventh grade so anyway i get to the

point of eight because in kentucky they had six

seventh and eighth and then nine ten eleven twelve

i get to eighth grade I am slightly obese. I

have cerebral palsy. And in gym class they want

you to climb a fucking rope. How am I gonna climb

a rope? How am I gonna get up on the goddamn

rings? I'm not an Olympic ring person. Whatever.

So basically one year I failed health and PE.

Instead of graduating high school in 1998, they

had the school hold me back. because I failed

health and PE. I could see if it was English

or math or social studies or science, something

you actually need. And this is obviously before

the time where they had adapted PE for students

with special needs. Oh, hell yes. The only special

needs students we had were wheelchair students,

and they had the special needs stuff for them.

But for the rest of it, for people like me, No,

they didn't. So I got held back. I got in the

state of Kentucky as Award of the State in 1995.

I actually had to, this is interesting, because

I got held back in eighth grade. My senior year

was now 1999. You're supposed to leave being

Award of the State just like you're supposed

to leave your parents' house when you turn 18.

You become an adult technically. Yeah, I had

to sign a paper. saying that I want to extend

my stay as a ward of the state in order to graduate

high school. I would not have graduated if I

left because there's no way I could have, you

know, done any of that stuff. The other thing

about the student policy is I don't drive. So,

yeah, I don't drive. I need rides or I need public

transportation or any of that kind of stuff.

I just can't do it. Watch me. I've got a video

on my YouTube channel playing Grand Theft Auto.

You really can't see the Grand Theft Auto part.

It's more of showing people how I play video

games one -handed. But yeah, basically I drive

like crap. How I would drive in the real world

is how I drive in Grand Theft Auto. I crash into

everything. So I have lost all inclination of

what the hell the question was. But I think the

question was, what was your favorite toy as a

child? No, I think we were on, was there ever

a moment when I was done with it? So basically,

because I was a ward of the state, because I

went through 15 different placements, which included

one mental hospital, four group homes, and three

foster homes, and some other transitional places,

by the time I was 15, 16, I was still into the

cartoons, I was still into that kind of stuff,

but I was out of... I had no interest in toys

or anything like that. By the time, you know,

I grew up and became an adult, from... 18 to...

2005 was 35, so... TF2 and Mike here from the

future, ladies and gentlemen. I was 25, not 35

in 2005. I can't do math very well. Now, back

to the show. Yeah, basically from 18 years old

to 35 years old, I had nothing to do with toys.

Didn't even really buy them. Just went on and

did whatever I, you know, did at the time. So

and then like I've already said, you know, the

job, the excess cash that the job paid me and

whatever, you know. And then again, like I already

said, I sold it off in 2011 and from 2011 to

basically six years. And in those six years,

I didn't miss it. I didn't miss the hunt. I didn't

miss actually having the stuff. Do I miss my

little G1 Astrotrain when I love to have him

again? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Do I absolutely

want him right now? No, not really. It's something

I'd like to have, but it's something I don't

absolutely need. Now, I will say, though, The

one thing, the one non -pop toy I have right

now is the first Hot Wheels car I've had since

I was six years old, and that is the Super Pursuit

kit that they put out recently for Hot Wheels.

Very, very cool. He hangs out on my desk with

my little 3D printed Grogu figure that a buddy

of mine made for me for Christmas last year.

Yeah. And do I want to give, if I had to give

up all the Funko stuff now, if there was something

that happened where I'd have to find my Funko

Pop collection isn't worth more than $3 ,000.

If that, you know, and you got to haggle with

people, you got to go in and show them and say,

oh, well, we can pay you this much. So it's like,

you know, whatever, it is what it is. I mean,

that's why, again, That's why I stick with funko

now because funko as I've already said literally

has everything Everything you could possibly

want as long as you get it in their pop vinyl

thing you can have like I had in storage I have

a Colonel from Kentucky Fried Chicken, I Don't

remember the last time the Colonel had an actual

action figure. I'm sure he did. I'm sure he does

But you know it is what it is I will say Pop

is lacking one very important thing I would want.

Nintendo? No. OK. What a world. Oh, stop it.

Imagine a Pop trimaran boat, the boat he had

in the movie. Can you imagine a Pop version of

that with the big black eyes on it? That'd be

awesome. That would be so cool to have that boat.

Or the Titanic with the Popeyes. I mean, come

on. That would be a little creepy. Let's just

think of all the famous boats that we will have.

No, that's actually a terrible idea. Please,

please, no. We do not need to go into cruise

control mode. Thank you. No speed, too. No, no,

no. Oh, I'm thinking of like the USS Minnow from

Gilligan's Island with eyes on it. I mean, come

on. And we'll call them Popeyes Okay, what is

something that does not have a toy of it and

you'd love to have it in toy form Okay, this

is easy because I Have been waiting four years

now since I started collecting funko Speaking

of toys that they have not made yet Know Alf

has had all kinds of toys and dolls and everything

over the years and he's been back in pog form.

Yep But the one Funko pop the one toy I would

absolutely want them to make No matter what hat

like literally I I'm already a bull in a china

shop at six foot one nearly 460 pounds if Funko

Shared a picture right now at this moment of

coming soon, Alf, get out of my way. Flocked

or not flocked? Both. Move bitch, get out the

way. Seriously, because I will throw down whatever

I have to throw down to get an Alf pop. So would

you actually knock over a small child to get

to it? I think that's the ultimate question.

No, but I'd knock over every other 20 and 30

-something adult who's trying to also get it.

Okay. What was it? It was Bullseye. So I've got,

where is he? I don't see him. Yeah, I know he's

over there somewhere. Where are you, Bullseye?

Come here, dog. I'm right there. There he is,

right there. He's on top of the Baroness. Yeah,

I hear him talking, too. So, target, mascot,

dog, Bullseye. They've had multiple versions

of him They put out a target exclusive because

obviously he's targets mascot. That's why he

would be a target Can you imagine the target

mascot being a Walmart exclusive? That would

be horrible But he is well ever get to talking

about exclusives. We could always bring that

up. We will it's coming He is flocked But he's

the only one I could get I remember the day that

that was announced that was coming out. I was

in line at Target at 7 .45 a .m. The day that

he was coming out, there were nine other people

there. I turned around and I said, hey, everybody

waiting on bullseye? Everybody either said, yup,

or nodded their head. Soon as that manager or

whoever opened the door, I made a beeline for

electronics. There was one person there. Hey,

I'm here for flocked bullseye. I got him. I took

him to the register. I paid for him, and I got

out. But if any of those other people had gotten

ahead of me, I would have found a way to make

my fat ass run faster than them to get to it.

Same thing with Alf. I would push over any adult

to get Alf. Future show topic should be experiences

of running at the opening of a store and trying

to race other people and then finding out in

some of those experiences like I've had where

I was just racing someone who was trying to get

back to like the Digestive section to get themselves

some Diarrhea medication or something like that

like oh we were racing for different reasons

here, sir. I apologize Probably shouldn't have

hit you with that shopping cart as we ran in

So, okay, so What is something that is I have

toy they'd love to have toy form I'm the opposite

now you have a bunch of pops. I'm actually gonna

disqualify pops for this next question. You can't

use pops What is a toy that you'd love to have

scaled up and functional for real people G1 Soundwave

and Blaster, both of them. So the original G1

Soundwave, it was small for a cassette player,

obviously, but it wasn't that far off from some

cassette players at that time. So would you want

a G1 Soundwave cassette player to be a bit bigger

and then actually somehow upsize into a giant

robot? or what are you thinking on that one?

It sounds like you are very confident in what

you envision this being. For the music playability

aspect of it, you know, it has to have Bluetooth.

And I know several people that have made these

things that I don't necessarily think they've

made in a G1 Soundwave, but they've made actual

MP3 players out of Soundwaves. I don't actually

know these people personally, but I've seen people

do this. But for me, it would just be the large

cassette thing so I could play the music. If

it would be the large robot, that would be a

little weird. OK, here's another thing with Funco

that I don't buy. I have only bought one of their

six inch or 10 inch. I only buy the normal. Let's

just say four inch, five inch figures. I don't

buy the jumbo ones. I don't buy the bigger ones.

There are only several that I would want. As

far as specifically the big jumbo 10 inch ones,

there's only one I want. And hopefully by the

time this episode goes out, I will actually have

him. And as I've said on the show recently before,

that is Funko Pop, Transformers, Soundwave, Jumbo.

with four cassettes. He comes with Ravage, Rumble,

Frenzy, and Buzzsaw. And they have a little spot

on his chest where you can set the cassette like

it's inside of him, but it's just sitting there

on him. But yeah, absolutely. Yep. So we're talking

about collections, we're talking about the size

of them, getting rid of them. How have Excuse

me. Let me rephrase that how has your spouse

and we know that there has been some some changes

with your with your spouse's time has gone on

for various reasons I don't know if you want

to get into that, but how have they dealt with

your collection? when I had my original toy collection

from 2005 to 2011 I wasn't really dating I Wasn't

really seeing anybody. I wasn't with anybody

back then I maybe went on one or two dates and

they would come over and they oh that's nicer

oh that's that's cool whatever as far as Karen

goes who you know who I am with currently and

I will be with the rest of my life because that's

a whole other story that I don't need to get

into here as far as Married divorced whatever

it's a story folks. It's it's the government's

fault So it's always as far as I know she's fine

with it You know She doesn't make a fuss about

it And I've actually tried to get her into the

pop game because I've specifically literally

like I said earlier in the show Even though I

I am holding grumpy cat right now grumpy cat

I bought for her for Christmas Last year I've

bought her Like I bought her a Hermione, Harmony,

whatever the whatever the female girl Harry Potter

chick is. Hermione. There you go. Whatever it

is. Whatever that character's name is. I bought

her one of those Oh, this is interesting. This

is funny. You'll like this Mr. Illinois so the

Chicago Cubs have gotten rid of all of their

players They might as well have just gotten rid

of the team at this point Yes, so they've gotten

rid of all of their players, and I believe these

guys were gone way before This this latest thing

happened, but At the time we were living in Illinois.

I bought her a Chris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo

funko pop both of them are currently valued at

$70 on the Funco app. So I've tried to get her

into the Funco thing. I don't know how she would

feel because she's not, at least I don't think

she's sitting behind me or standing. No, she's

in the other room. So she doesn't have a problem

with it. I mean, as long as it's, you know, bottom

line, it doesn't take over the entire place.

And it's so funny, because when we got together,

we really got into the whole looking at real

estate thing, like on Redfin or Zillow, or just

looking. And once I told her about my pop obsession

and whatever else, she found a listing. And just

by happenstance, and I don't know how this house

ever sold. Somewhere in Illinois, there was a

house for sale at the time. The kitchen had two

different shelves with Funko pops on them I'm

like, why wouldn't you take those down from those

shelves before you had the pictures taken? I

Think they add a little bit of flavor to real

estate listings. I agree, but normally most real

estate agents would Look at that as clutter.

I can't argue that but regardless I always think

the important thing with listings, again, my

wife and I just went through this last spring,

not this past spring, but the one before this,

like, hey, let's move during COVID because that's

smart. But I always looked for things that gave

me a flavor of I could see myself in here because

I see this thing. Right, yeah. I agree with you,

but I also, I can see leaving it. So when it

comes to collecting, your spouse deals with it

pretty well. But what is something you struggle

with? Space and cost. I think that's a universal

thing. Yes, I agree. I think everybody that I

ask or you ask or whomever asks that question

to is going to be space and cost. Because as

I've already said, Am on supplemental security

income the poor side of Social Security Where

okay, so Karen and I have been talking about

this recently 23 24 years ago 1999 so let's say

22 years ago, I guess I was before I applied

to have the Social Security benefits for myself

I went out and got a job and I got a job at Rally's

and I was a griller at Rally's for about two

months. Because from March to May of 1999 was

my application time. By May of 99, when I graduated

high school, they're like, okay, you can apply

to Social Security to get your benefits because

the government, because my mom had the benefits

when I was a kid, when I became a member of the

state, those benefits went to the government

to pay for my housing, my meals, my clothes,

all that stuff, because essentially when the

government becomes your parent, they have to

pay for everything. And they have to pay the

facility or reimburse them or whatever. So when

I was working, you know, I didn't make much like

Because of when I worked I worked for five dollars

an hour because five I think 515 was the minimum

wage in 1999 515 an hour for 20 hours a week.

So it was essentially part -time back then Nowadays

most places minimum wage is between 13 and 15

Maybe I don't know because I haven't worked in

years and I don't look at job boards or any of

that kind of stuff Let's just say for shits and

giggles I was getting paid $15 an hour for 20

hours that would most likely put me over the

income limit that social security has for supplemental

security income which means I would lose my benefits

which means I would lose my medical and yeah

no so the cost and the space is most definitely

struggle again I don't buy like there's so many

pops as I've already mentioned on my buddy's

website popping off toys calm that I really like

okay perfect example they have Frazier pops they

have Frazier Niles and they have Martin the old

man with Eddie so they have Martin as a pop and

they have a little dog that looks just like Eddie

from Frazier you know so Would I love to have

that? Yes. Can I afford that right now? No, and

that's okay because I have come to the point

when I sold my collection in 2011 I developed

this mindset of I Don't absolutely need it I'm

okay without it. I took all the pictures I wanted

with the collection at the time You know and

just like now like I wanted the McDonald's five

pack that they put out for Funko pops Yes, they

have them in individual cases too, in individual

boxes, Grimace and Ronald and I think Hamburglar

and was it Birdie or something? I forget what

the other two were. Oh, it was Fry Guy and Mayor

McCheese or something. So they have a five pack

version of those. Yes. Did I want that? Absolutely.

Am I going to go nuts over the fact that I don't

have it and try to find a way to get it? No,

not really. I just... find that if I can't afford

it, then it must mean that I don't need it. We

should make a t -shirt on that because I think

that's one of the things that will, I'm in one

wrestling figure group that FOMO is a big thing,

the fear of missing out. And it's the complete

opposite logic that it's not, well, if I can't

afford it, it must mean I don't need it. And

for them, it's like, well, if I can't afford

it, that's always an option. And we can go into

a whole other side story about this huge, expensive

crowd -funded ring that they did, and there were

a lot of people who didn't have that attitude.

They were just like, I can't afford it, but I'm

gonna find a way. And it's not coming out till

next summer, and pretty much most people that

were saying they were getting it, they were buying

one or two extra to sell, so the market's gonna

be flooded for a while. I have a feeling there's

a few people are gonna take a hit on some piece

of it. Anyways, let's roll along. We're coming

down to the last four questions. What is one

positive memory you have with buying toys, and

then what is one negative? The positive memory

would be the look on Karen's face when I presented

her with Funko Pop Cousin It from the Addams

Family. Now I bought that because I love Cousin

It, but also because... She actually can do a

cousin -it impression. That is a very, very niche.

Yeah, it is. She can do a cousin -it impression.

I believe it's either on Instagram or it might

be on Facebook somewhere. I don't remember off

top of my head. But just the look on her face

where I showed it to her and instantly she took

her glasses off, she shook her hair, and she

made cousin -it noises at me. And I'm like, OK,

here you go. The negative side, I try not to.

Dwell in the negative aspect of toy buying or

collecting or what? I try my best not to like

I said earlier, you know these new He -Man and

the Masters of the universe figures that they

have coming out for the CGI series I Personally

my personal opinion which should not affect anyone

else other than me is that they are ugly. I don't

like them I'm not going to collect them. But

at the same time, if somebody does like the designs,

that's fine. I don't care. I try my best not

to get into things and whatever else as far as

negative. Maybe something I bought on eBay years

ago that I either read wrong or did wrong or

something, maybe something like that. But generally,

I tend to not have negative buying experiences.

And I think as long as you remain pretty picky

and thoughtful in what you buy that Usually I

think we can agree it's not What we buy it could

be the experience of buying it on something like

an eBay Like like the time I thought I got a

great deal on some Japanese imported What were

they some sort of Ninja Turtle figures that were

Primarily Japanese imports and I thought I got

them from like 20 bucks each on eBay and they

were just blatant knockoffs and You know actually

wasn't that bad of an experience because When

I said you never mentioned that these were knockoffs

and not the authentic ones They refunded my money

and I didn't have to ship them back to China

so that was actually positive but Yeah, I think

usually the object is not bad. It's usually the

experience and the issues with the purchase that

become a problem so Going back to if you could

kind of have a the ability to upsize something

that you've had in the past if you could create

any toy You have full full rain Peace of the

kingdom. Yep. Peace of the kingdom any tooling

you want What do you make? Want funko pop elf

god damn it Now does it have to be funko pop

or can you just be a very accurate? No, you asked

any toy line any this any that and I say that

to everybody else that I asked this question

to Because my collection is specifically funko

now. No, I want funko pop elf hell I want funko

pop elf in regular size and in the large jumbo

10 inch size It'd be great if you could talk,

the 10 -inch one. But no, seriously, if I was

going to create anything... They've already created

the Rodimus and Galvatron that I want, so that's

fine. I have no... Even though I'm not going

to get the Kingdom Rodimus or the Kingdom Galvatron,

at least I know it's out there now and it's been

made and it's fine. But if I wanted to create

something, I would want to create something that

Funko has never done yet. And so far, they have

never done ALF. I think they will. Hopefully.

I'm rooting for you. I mean this is the 25th

anniversary of the show, but still. Is it that

old already? 1986 to 1990. Damn. Alright. Yep.

What is one piece of advice you would give to

the toy collecting fandom? Chill the fuck out.

seriously only collect what you enjoy and enjoy

it you know enjoy what you want to enjoy and

just chill the fuck out it's not the end of the

world like I hear about all this drama in these

toy groups and this that and the other thing

and everything else any of them whether it's

Facebook whether it's tick -tock whether it's

Instagram whether it's people getting into fights

over toys on Twitter whether it's people getting

arrested for for things like you know at Target

and whatever just stop stop and think and Don't

be such an asshole To each other be nice to each

other be good to each other be excellent to each

other. There you go That's what I was looking

for. Thank you bill and or Ted both But seriously,

chill the fuck out, people. They're only toys.

It's not the end of the world. loves to hunt

for toys. Well, every time I go hunting for toys,

and see it as a thing, anytime I go into Walmart,

because I do most of the shopping for myself

and Karen and the cat, if I have time, if I'm

not too stretched for time, I will go look at

the toy aisle. I won't just go to electronics

to see what Funko Pops they have. I will go look

at the toy aisle because I am running a toy podcast

and I want to see what's out there and maybe

there's a picture. Like we went to Target the

other day a couple weeks ago and I saw one Revelations

Evil Inn and one Revelations Mossman. Snapped

a picture of it. Great. They actually are showing

up on shelves now because as we all know with

the times we live in the pandemic is still here.

It hasn't gone away. folks and it's I don't want

to turn the show into that but it's just one

of the things that you know I still look at the

stuff do I want any of the actual regular toys

no but that's okay and like oh my god it's exclusive

and we will definitely have it the exclusive

exclusivity exclusions talk at a much later date

but oh my god it's exclusive i have to go hunt

it down or oh my god i have to be on target's

website at uh... five fifty nine a m or whatever

it is pacific time i don't know it just chill

out people they're only toys you can't take them

with you when you leave this earth when you leave

this plane of existence they're not going to

follow you to heaven hell or nothingness So I

think it's interesting that you mentioned that

but you can't take it with us and I'm jumping

to a little aside here for a second, but I'm

gonna jump back to I'm gonna jump to a previous

question where we talked about why do toys Of

our youth but also toys now matter so much to

people around our generation 20s and 30s and

early 40s and maybe even a little beyond that

and I think it is interesting because we're also

talking about a group of people of Are they looking

at the long game? Are they looking at? Am I still

going to be doing this in 10 years? Okay, so

let's say yes, you're doing it in 10 years. What

about 20 years? In 20 years, I'm gonna be looking

at 60. Am I still going to be going to Target

and saying, oh, I'm in my near 60s? That's actually

not how I would probably talk when I'm 60, but

when I'm hitting my 60s, I've been collecting

probably, let's say I'm 37, so I remember I probably

bought my first. collectible toy at 17. That's

when it became being a collector versus being

a kid for me I would say. So do I see myself

doing this another 20 years and what is the end

goal there? I don't know. You're right, I can't

take it with you. Is this my retirement nest

egging? Am I going to put my cats through college

with this? I don't know. But I think we do have

a lot of people who aren't looking at that long

game when they're that angry, when they need

to chill out. In 20 years, are you going to care

about not being able to find Firefly on the shelf?

And maybe that's the question that just needs

to be asked. And people just need to reflect

on that. But no, I agree. People do need to chill

out. But I think more than that, they need to

reflect on You're gonna be 50 at some point.

You're gonna be a half a century old. You're

gonna What is your? What is your view? What is

your endgame? Is there an endgame? But then again,

I Honestly about toys, I don't think they're

putting that much thought into their day. Yeah.

No, I don't have a plan. I don't know if there's

a Again as I've already said I don't buy every

single Funko Pop. I target my collection to the

point of things that I absolutely love or things

that Karen likes or specifically, if I had to

get rid of all of these right now, the only ones

I would keep would be the ad icon and the icons

line. So ad icons as I've already mentioned like

I don't have these ones, but I'm mentioning these

because they're the most whatever like Ronald

McDonald or grimace or birdie or Hamburglar or

Little sweet or you know right snap cracklin

pop from Rice Krispies or I don't have a lucky

from Lucky Charms But I'd love to but like the

cool thing about the ad icon line is because

they are funko pops because they are little vinyl

figures It's that's the fun for me with Funko

Until they put it because they had the Transformers

license for years. They had the Transformers

license since I think Age of Extinction which

was 2014 and they put out a few Age of Extinction

pops They were ugly as sin. I would never buy

those Thankfully with the new retro toys line

that they're doing they can put out the classic

generation one Transformers and hopefully more

But things like Colonel Sanders, or I think I

still have her, but the Target lady. Remember

the ads with the Target lady for Target? Exactly.

Yeah, so they had that. So yeah, the ad icons

line would be the kind of thing that everything

else, if Karen can get money for it, get money

for it. Right now, like I said, according to

the Funko Pop, App the funko app I have 119 pops

total value $2 ,694 if she can get that great

if she can't and she doesn't want to deal with

them anymore Either give them if I'm dead and

gone give them away Whatever it doesn't matter

to me because I'll be gone. I'll be in I'll be

in the nothingness with with Brody and and TS

and Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned for

Sega Well, I do want to jump back just for a

quick second. I'm not trending or what we just

said but You know, I thought about I just said

nobody needs a plan necessarily with their collection

You don't need a plan. You don't need know what

you're doing. They just do your thing I'm not

gonna judge you but I just think it's beneficial

as a human being you have to Think about your

plan at least once. Yeah, no give it one. So

I Don't know if we're gonna get any Angry feedback

in the comments like how dare you tell me I need

to think about what I'm doing Comments feedback.

What's that? I never get any comments or food

Should I just get more outrageous and hope we

have a chance at it just just so we get that

attention sure So All right, here's my most outrageous

comment I'm going to make hot pockets aren't

that good they suck Dude never bite into one

and look into it No, never. It is disgusting.

That is looking into the gaping maw of hell.

Yes, it is. So what is advice you'd give to kids

who enjoy toys now that I've asked that? We're

talking about the gaping maw of hell. Let's talk

to the kiddos. What would you tell kiddos in

this day and age? Don't grow up like we did.

Enjoy the toys, but if there comes a point where

you have to let them go, let them go. Wait, wait.

Pump the brakes. Are you saying you think I grew

up? I'm touched. I appreciate that. Why is Zordon

calling you? Because we've been at it for almost

two and a half hours now. I have to give my cat

his pills. That's why Zordon is calling me. Sure.

I have to go teleport to do that. Yes, exactly.

You know, for kids, ask your parents for stuff

that you know you want. If they get it for you,

great. If they don't, don't be like me and throw

a temper tantrum in the middle of the mall because

you couldn't get the Batmobile two days before

Christmas or whatever it was. And just enjoy

it. Enjoy what you want to have, you know. Be

thankful for what you get. Don't be so harsh

on your parents if you wanted gold -plated Batman

and they got you Arctic Batman. by mistake. is

in hot pursuit. Too late! Without warning comes

Batman's fearsome sky drop airship. Justice will

prevail. Back to your cage, penguin. Batman,

better than ever. Ooh, that gold plated, dude,

I feel like that was a hard spot for a lot of

kiddos. Especially after Toy Guru did a video

about that specific one. That burned as an adult.

I'm like, that's the one I wanted. No, I agree

with you. I am curious and I think this might

take a little bit of research. For kids now,

I am curious because when I was a kid and when

you were a kid, I know based on things I've read

from dinosaur Dracula about trying to hunt down

turtles and stuff like that. There was a relative

difficulty in finding certain specific toys in

the 80s and 90s especially when they're popular

that just kind of goes with it But I feel like

a lot of those purchases were from parents tracking

them down for kids But now it's a little bit

different if little Johnny wants Let's say a

little Johnny really likes the Winter Soldier

from the Winter Soldier and the Falcon Disney

Plus series. Let's just say that happened. Like,

Little John, I want Winter Soldier. Can I have

him for my birthday? And you have an unprepared

dad, unprepared mom, who don't know about the

Big Bad Toy Stores and they don't know about

Entertainment Earth and they don't know about

pre -orders, which... Those are actually hard

to find right now. They're not available in too

many places that I'm aware of. They're not gonna

find it because I never saw Winter Soldier until

it was given to me for my birthday. Here's the

thing. Let me ask you because what parent in

their right mind would let little Johnny watch

Falcon and the Winter Soldier? Seriously. Well,

I just brought that up as an example, because

it's on the shelf. But we can dig into the metaphor,

but we might lose the overall reason. Yeah, no.

I mean, it's one of those things where, I don't

know. And honestly, our kids, our children, let's

say six to 12 years old. Are they actually playing

with action figures these days, or dolls, or

whatever? Or are they on their bikes? Or did

the parents splurge on a $1 ,400, $1 ,700 iPad

and they just got their face stuck in a screen?

I will say based on anecdotal information, based

on what students have told me, that it's been

Legos or video games. Minecraft is still very

popular. I've only met, ironically, I've only

met a handful of students whose dads are actually

collectors. And I've always kind of wanted to

be like at parent -teacher conferences when that's

happening, like, hey, it doesn't seem like something

you advertise when you're meeting people, especially

maybe in my profession. But regardless, I don't

know how many kids do play with toys and I feel

like what I have seen at garage sales of kids

recently, I feel like the toys are just more

disposable. There's nobody collecting, I'm looking

at my Lord of the Rings collection. Those are

obviously intended for kids at some point. Do

I see a kid with a box full of An action figure

line like Lord of the Rings now granted there

has not been one like that outside of Star Wars

or Marvel Am I wrong? No, I don't think so I

could be wrong. And if I'm wrong, I'm happy to

be corrected on that but that was a very expansive

toy line and Star Wars is the only other one

besides Marvel even DC is had its limits Okay

Transformers. Sorry Transformers would actually

have a pretty expansive movie line Sadly those

toys suck in my personal opinion, but yes There

were a couple of good ones that actually there

was a okay another aside. Mm -hmm First movie

wasn't in the movie, but there was a tow truck

transformer. I can't remember his name That was

a really good transformer and I regret ever selling

it I've been trying to find it ever since I'm

sure we can try to figure it out at some point.

Yeah, we'll figure that out off air. Here's the

thing with Origins, especially after I've been

through yours, I've been through Dave's, I've

been through my own. I'm sorry that you were

there for my own as well. We're gonna get to

Deval's soon. No, we already went through Deval's.

Deval's done. It's already out. This comes out

after that. We are in the future. We're into

the time traveling. Okay, sorry. Marty, I'm sorry.

Or wait, you're Doc. Knock it off. Get to the

point. I'm the dog in the backseat. Fair enough.

I think collecting, at the end of the day, is

some people's expression based on their own personal

experiences, their own personal interests, and

I think the best part about doing origins, and

we found out a lot about your past that maybe

a lot of people don't know. I don't know how

much exactly you have shared, but I think the

way we collect and what we collect and why we

collect is often parallel to those personal experiences.

Are they as always, can you look at my shelves

and... Find out about my own personal experiences

maybe to an extent maybe not just pop necessarily

Yeah, I think the more we find out about why

you switched over to pops from everything else

Especially based on your background a lot of

it makes sense a lot of it's like, you know,

I'll give you a hard time I'll say dumb stuff

like there should be bird because I'm a jerk

but But really it's like no I get it. I understand

why pop is pops pop plural single. I don't know

but I understand why you would have that be your

focus, where my lack of focus is different. Well,

the thing with my focus now is I just want to

see the character. I am 41 years old. I've been

podcasting for 13 years. I put a lot of time

and effort into the recording, editing, All that

stuff. Since I got back into toy collecting with

Funko Pops, I just want to see the characters

on a shelf, on my desk, on my computer. I don't

need G1 Optimus to transform. I don't need that

anymore. I had that as a kid. That's great. I've

already had that experience. But I still want

the character in my life. Perfect example is...

Transformers, Funko Pop Retro Toys, Transformers

number 36. This was a Funko Shop limited edition

Nemesis Prime. So this, as I mentioned earlier,

this is the black and teal and silver evil version

of Optimus Prime. This character is a favorite

of a longtime friend of mine, Optimus Scourge,

Gary Clark. Most people will remember him. from

the TFW 2005 forums. I have mentioned him several

times since Toycast had returned because he was

one of the people, one of the three or four people

that started Toycast with me back in 2009. And

his favorite characters are overall Black Optimus

Primes, specifically Nemesis Prime. Thank you

hugely to his widow for helping me get the Funko

Pop Nemesis Prime because as this episode releases

the second week of September at the end of this

month on the 28th marks Optimus Scourge's 10

-year anniversary of his death. When he died

in 2011 I kept this podcast going till 2014 and

by that time I was just Looking at the toys online

and saying what I've said throughout this entire

podcast and what I've said always is I Love it.

I think it's great. I don't need it. I don't

want it I think it's great that they've made

whatever like whatever whatever toy company was

making in in 2014 that I absolutely adored or

I absolutely liked or got excited for yeah They're

gonna make this toy great And then I'm like,

OK, this is kind of fizzling out. This is kind

of dying out. I'm kind of losing interest in

this. At that point, I had been collecting the

Maddie Collector Club exclusive, barely being

able to get them figures kind of thing. And I

was burnt out. So I put Toycast to bed. Gary

hadn't been here in three years because he passed

away in 2011. And I'm like, why am I still doing

this show? And then seven years later, from 2014

to 2021, you know, you and I meet up online and

we have a discussion and whatever, and, you know,

that's how Toycast returned and we have this

whole new format. And by 2021, I had already

had eight years of Origins in the pull bag and

I have the Origins for our Transformers fans,

for our Transformers show. So that's how all

of this started and it comes all the way back

to Optimus Scourge. And I have to do some sort

of tribute with this Funko pop because, you know,

I miss the guy. It's 10 years since he died.

And that's why I have this is because in his

memory, because this was his favorite character.

And again, that's one of the really cool parts

about collecting that I think origins is going

to reveal for a lot of people is that it's such

an expression. in so many unique ways of something

about us as individuals or how we remember certain

things. There was a point when I was collecting

that I could almost tell you where everything

I got, where it came from, who gave it to me,

how I got it. Not anymore. Both just because

of time and my memory not remembering. But quantity

as well, it does get difficult. But I do have

certain things that I can certainly remember.

When my wife and I went and had an amazing trip

to Las Vegas in 2018, I got a Marvel Legends

cable. That one I remember. Because I felt cable

in Las Vegas somehow went together. It worked

in my head at the time. It may have been the

three foot margarita I had. I don't know. But

no, it's very true like you can place these different

things and it's almost like you're creating like

your own museum, right? Mm -hmm. Yep And that's

really the best part about it I think is that

you're creating your own museum your own story

your own memory, whatever it is Just make sure

you get it insured and you know what you're gonna

do within ten years. Like I said before Like

I already said 10 years from now if I'm gone

hopefully I'm not but if something happens to

me and I will basically just Tell Karen to if

you can sell it sell it if you can't you can't

give them away Whatever. It doesn't like to me.

It doesn't really because here's the thing. I

don't have anybody to pass them on to we're not

having kids and whatever. So if all of these

need to go to Toys for Tots in December of 2088,

fine. If Toys for Tots is still around then I

hope it is, but you know, whatever it is. Like

I have never had any, whether it's the Honco

collection, whether it was my original collection,

I've never, like do I have attachments to stuff?

Yes. At the end of the day though, like I've

already said, I don't want to be a lump in the

ground. So basically when I die, I'm going to

turn to dust and infect everybody that ever bullied

me as a kid. So, you know, I don't want to be

trapped in the ground. Thank you very much. With

that, I think we are done. Okay, let's find another

are your plans for this fall? Do you like pumpkin

spice? No, pumpkin spice is the devil. We have

to end on a high note, so just lie. No, I will

never lie about my hatred of pumpkin spice. It's

the devil. Coming up on Toycast in September,

we have got those god -awful movie toys, because

there are plenty of... movie franchises that

have really really crappy toys and then in October

we are gonna try our best to do some Halloween

toy stuff with a display case with potentially

in origins we've got a couple of topic shows

one of them is what are the toys of Halloween

and then the other one is Halloween the toys

that scare or scared us so that'll be as kids

and as adults So that's what's coming up here

on Toycast. Thank you for joining us. If you'd

like to get in contact with us, we'll leave feedback

for the show. There are several ways to do so.

Visit the website, geekcastradio .com, where

you can listen to and comment on all of our content.

Send any email to feedback at geekcastradio .com.

I think I said that right. Send any email to

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am at TF Show and Mike. He is at floorburger553

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as well. Jason, Dave, Puppet Duval, Flava Dave,

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He never liked that, actually. He graduated.

It's OK. Yeah, it's OK. So yeah, join all that

stuff. For now, I am TFG and Mike with... Floor

Burger! ...as next time when we will be talking

more toys here on Toycast. Peace out, everybody.

Be good people. What was that universal greeting

again? Never mind. I remember. Hey guys it's

Rodimus Primal and be sure to check out my YouTube

channel. Join me as I have Transformers discussions,

retrospectives, toy reviews and more. You can

also follow me on Twitter at Rodimus Primal as

well as Facebook and Instagram at Rodimus Primal

Show. Transform and roll out and be sure to check

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the eye with the Triple Takeover Toycast. Hosted

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Sixo and TF Square One, this informal and chilled

out series of discussions cover everything from

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and more, be it nostalgic or current. Whether

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