Interview with Ryan The UnEvenFlow Merkley on Toy Collecting Origins

Jazz here, and I am so digging the GeekCast radio

network. Greetings, humans. This is Starscream,

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

you call me a parts -former, one more time! 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'm, of course,

TF2 and Mike. Today's special guest is someone

who is hailing from the great white north. It

is Mr. Ryan the Uneven -Flown Merkley. Hello,

sir. Hello. This is your first time. ToyCast,

I believe. I don't believe I've had you on before.

That's weird, but okay. Yeah, I'm pretty sure,

because I've reached a lot of stuff. No, I know

that, but so, for you, so you can, the listeners

already know the history. A buddy of mine that

I started the show with, Optimus Scourge, had

passed away about 11 years ago. I only kept it

going until about 2014, and then I was just like,

yeah, no, it doesn't, it's not, I don't want

to do this anymore. So I shelved ToyCast for

seven years. And then last year I ran into a

couple of friends online and whatever else, and

they're like, oh, we should do this, we should

do that. And I'm like, oh, well, I already have

a built -in audience for it. Let's bring the

show back. And since I had already brought the

origins to the pull bag and everything else for

the last eight years or so, I'm like, oh, how

can we? translate that into toy collecting and

we end up with the answer to everything because

this episode is 142 and there are 42 questions

all about toy collecting. So yeah. Yeah, pretty

much. Alright, what is or was the first toy you

remember having as a kid? What is a toy? The

first ones, I mean, Transformers are the first

ones I remember, and most of them were inherited

from my brother, who is six years older than

I am. So he would have been around nine or so

whenever I first remember Transformers and the

like. For the first ones that are mine, or that

were mine, personally, That I remember at least

anyway Would definitely be the junior headmasters

and it's one of the reasons why I had such affection

for nightbeat Mm -hmm Because I think the I must

call them senior headmasters the actual sort

of headmaster line the initial one They had hard

head and highbrow, but I'm fairly certain they

were my brothers And so the first ones I remember

that were mine were Nightbeat and then Hosehead

of the juniors, the smaller headmasters. And

yeah. And then, yeah, Nightbeat would eventually

show up in the Marvel comics where they actually

sort of used him, et cetera, et cetera. But yeah,

those are the first ones I remember. Obviously,

God, a number of different things. He -Man, but

that was mostly my brothers because we're talking,

you know, same era. And the other big one we

had a lot of was... I'm drawing a blank now.

We had a lot of He -Man, a lot of Transformers.

Those are the main two. Oh, geez, yeah. And these

were all mine. Ninja Turtles. Of course. TMNT.

The other one that was mine that I had a lot

of, too. And I still have affection for this

line, even though it's basically a trivia question,

but Dino Riders. I love them because I loved

dinosaurs as a kid and the dinosaurs themselves.

Those molds are so good. They're still being

used today by actual museums and the like to

make merchandise. You can still find like a lot

of the Dino Rider molds around. It's yeah, it's

just amusing to me that that's what caught on

or that's what has sold all this time. And somehow

Dan Larson talks about it on. toy galaxy but

a lot of people have over the years like how

did that fail you've got dinosaurs you've got

laser guns it was an expensive tv show it kind

of had they had comic books it kind of had everything

and somehow it just failed miserably frankly

well it's really sad yeah it is very sad and

i also think that things that are and we've seen

how this has happened over the years. Things

that are that expensive to produce or to make

or to, like, name a TV show or a cartoon that,

well, look at Sunbow. Look at Transformers. Look

at this. Look at that. Look at all the animation.

Like, yes, the first two seasons were amazing

animation. Third season was... okay but by the

time we get to rebirth they went to you know

whatever you know what i mean but we talked about

it when we recorded a show for another one of

your podcasts but x -men the animated series

yeah oh yeah season five boy the last season

the hey let's just That was some bad animation.

It was not good. That's one of my favorite examples

of it because you could tell that they just dropped

off. Even Ninja Turtles, which those initial

episodes, which were essentially a miniseries,

were so well animated. And the normal series,

the animation's not bad, but it was such a drop

off. But yeah, Dino Riders, it still breaks my

heart because they were good figures. And I mean,

you compare the early ones. For the early figures

for Dino Riders to say the early Transformers,

it's not much of a comparison. I mean, the first

wave of G1, special place in my heart. Some of

the figures are amazing. I mean, Soundwave is

still one of the best versions of it. Yeah, Soundwave

and Blaster, both. Yeah, X number of years later.

And even Optimus Prime is great. I mean, you

have the repair bay slash trailer slash. roller

everything else and like that was a great figure

but then you know you've got ironhide and ratchets

and he's not so good but yeah dino riders another

one i remember well but yeah for me i mean transformers

that's probably part a large part of my attachment

for them yeah i always i you always said at least

for me there was always a decision to make Like,

you have two things. What are you going to decide

to do kind of thing? And I never had to make

a choice between He -Man or Transformers or Turtles

because by the time I was five, when I was three

when He -Man started, I was four when Transformers

started, and I was seven when Turtles started.

So I was, like, right in that equal age of, okay,

He -Man's over, I move over to this. Okay, Transformers

is in, did I move over to this? But with Dino

Riders, I had a choice between those or Dino

Saucers. And I like the Dino Saucers cartoon

much more than the Dino Riders. And that's something

I'm sure you'll get into with one of the questions

eventually. But I never lost the love for Transformers.

I never fell out of it. I was still interested

when... Generation 2 came out with the ugly neon

color and the horrendous cube effect on the cartoon

show, which was still just the same cartoon show

I watched before, obviously. But when Beast Wars

came out, I was all about that, even though I

didn't know there were toys or anything. Because

I lived out in the sticks. I don't know if it

just didn't catch on in the medium -sized cities

near me, but Beast Wars, I loved the show. I

was always eager to watch that, and it kept getting

better and better. Then I moved out of the sticks,

and Internet and things like that were invented.

My favorite was finding out on the Internet that

Transformers was huge. that i wasn't the only

one that still thought about it yeah yeah absolutely

i still remember like realizing that yeah there

was this whole community of people that at the

time i'm sure there were plenty of people who

were like the people of today where it's like

oh no you can't it's g1 only oh my god those

beast wars like there were plenty of morons back

then trust me Was it really? See, I never had

that experience. The truck, not monkey threads.

Oh, yes. Toys .transformers are epic. Oh, God.

Was there a particular adult who was supportive

of you playing with toys as a kid? No. Next question.

No. No, there's nobody remotely supportive. There

were not. They disliked my enjoyment of video

games. So the other part of the question before

you interrupted was, was there anyone who was

unsupportive? Yeah, everybody there. Really?

Oh, yeah. And I mean, like I did remembering

that. And this would be fun to me if you're talking

to somebody younger. I'm 41. I'm an old man now.

But. If you're talking to somebody younger, I

think it'd be a lot different. But when I grew

up, all this stuff was not remotely cool, especially

once you get past like eight. You know, it was

comics, video games, toys. All that stuff is

not cool. It was not in. In my local area, you

had to love hockey, which was another problem

because I latched on to. football big time i

always liked football more than hockey i was

just destined to not be cool when i was younger

and i and i tried to be into the things that

were cool or hot like i would try to listen to

new kids on the block i would i would try to

watch toronto maple leafs games and all this

other stuff and i just didn't care i was spent

too much time trying to be something i wasn't

Now, when you say football, you're talking about

NFL stuff. You're not talking about soccer, right?

I will never be talking about soccer. Okay, good.

Okay, good. No, I'm kidding. If you enjoy soccer,

enjoy it. Well, yeah. But, yeah, no. It's so

funny you mention all of that because I was the

exact opposite. Like, I was in, like, coming

from Boston. If you didn't – you were born into

the sports in Boston between MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA.

You bled all of those teams. And the same thing

with new kids because they were from Boston.

It was like, oh, I remember I had like two different

new kids on the block shirts at one point or

another. And for me, what you're talking about,

about things being uncool by a certain age, I

would say around 11 or 12 for me. So 91, 92,

kind of at the Simpsons height when that started

and whatever, was when it kind of like was. So

I was in a hick town. You have to understand

that too. So stuff that was so musically, the

stuff I liked was, I liked stuff like Public

Enemy, NWA, and Heavy D and stuff like that when

I was younger. So that wasn't remotely popular.

What was popular in the area was either a, what

was ultra popular in mainstream stuff. So pop

music, you know, I mentioned like new kids on

the block and stuff like that. Or B is country

music and stuff like that. Like I was in the

sticks, I was in hazard County. Um, wow. And

So, yeah, none of the stuff I liked was even

remotely popular or likable. I did dabble in

some of the stuff that was popular. Ace of Ace,

The Sign, you know, still fantastic. Oh, God.

It's a great album. But not a lot of it. Oh,

90s pop. Oh, my God. So what types of toys were

your favorites to play with? Action figures,

vehicles, play sets, like that kind of stuff.

What types of toys were your favorites to play

with? Got to be the stuff that is essentially

vehicles slash action figures. So the Transformers

obviously are a little bit of both, right? Yep.

I liked Mask. I liked that a lot in the later

years and stuff. Again, that's basically a little

bit of both. Yep. I did enjoy He -Man, and those

were kind of the play sets, that kind of thing.

We had Castle Grayskull. Never had Snake Mountain.

I had Snake Mountain for about a year, I think,

and then I don't remember what happened to it,

because I remember playing with that microphone

all the time. That's probably what happened to

it. Somebody got sick of it. That's probably

true. So yeah, I probably lean towards the action

figures and stuff, and I probably, not probably,

I definitely still do. Yeah. Was there a particular

toy from your childhood that really stood out

more than the others? Nightbeat is one, because

it was mine. I deeply regret selling all my old

G1 Transformers. Mm -hmm. in a weird coincidence

i decades later bought back some of the ones

that were mine and i didn't even know it at the

time it was when i got them home and i looked

at everything i just realized like hey wait i

mean it's possible that you know somebody chipped

one of their micro masters in the exact same

place that i did as a kid but I doubt it. But

yeah, I think the Headmasters in general, which

is probably part of my affinity for them. Those

are ones. That's probably it. I don't hold an

awful lot of nostalgia, believe it or not. Transformers

and my love for them wouldn't have been sustained

if it wasn't good. There's a reason those characters

have lasted so long, right? I mentioned it again

when we recorded, but there's been nearly 40

years of Optimus Prime now. If Optimus Prime

wasn't a good character, there's no way he sticks

around to that time. There's no way that anyone

cares about Darth Vader if he's a crappy villain

30 years later. Yeah, there's a reason that they've

hung around. So I am on the amazing TFWiki .net,

and I'm looking at Nightbeat's toys, and Nightbeat

with Muzzle, Headmaster, 1988. No, no, no, no,

no, no. I'm just saying, I'm looking at this,

and I'm like, oh, that's really cool. And then

I look at the caption under the main image. They

have an image of Nightbeat in his vehicle in

robot mode. With Muzzle next to him. The caption,

too cool for play school. Yeah. Cool toy. It

was a cool toy. It wasn't a great toy. He envisions

a lot of what wasn't great about a lot of the

G1 stuff in that his legs don't move at all.

There's no possibility. The arms can move up

and down just at essentially a bald shoulder

joint. And that's it. Yeah. Nothing else moved.

And what's funny is I have purchased every version

of Nightbeat since. I would argue the best one

until what I'll get to momentarily was probably

a recolor of Energon Hotshot that came from the

Fun Pub fan club. You can actually see it as

part of the timeline. Yeah, 2008. I don't hate

it, but I don't know. So that's the other problem.

Every other Nightbeat has been a recolor of somebody

or a redesign. And anyway, Nightbeat was a retool

of... Hot shot. Yeah, that Nightbeat was. And

then there's a Generations Nightbeat, which would

be the next one. And he was a retool of jazz

and kind of a retool... of a bumblebee version

yeah the thrilling 30 bumblebee yeah they eventually

switched over to the bumblebee but initially

i feel like the jazz might have worked better

but whatever they switched to bumblebee and then

yeah that was that's basically it for actual

nightbeat ones the tiny head and stuff doesn't

count uh and then i had to finally buy a third

party nightbeat to get a good one all these years

so Like I said, I'm looking at the stuff that

TFWiki has listed and I'm like, poor Nightbeat.

To be fair, the original Nightbeat isn't who

he was. He's actually I keep wanting to say Athena.

No, it's Minerva. It was the Japanese version.

Minerva was female, the first released female

Transformer. But that was in Japan when they

brought the Minerva character over they switched

it to male and yeah we got Nightbeat instead

for whatever reason because I guess because G1

just could not release any female Transformers

because obviously Arcee wouldn't get one until

decades later but yeah Nightbeat hasn't had great

luck with figures and At some point, I'm sure

you're going to ask what my favorite figure is.

I have had to go third party for a lot of figures.

And that's going to be part of the discussion.

It's funny because I seem to like obscure enough

characters that they just can't get. Although,

anyway, one of them will end up talking about

how this had a billion characters. Anyway. And

it's, you know, we've worked together for years

now on the comic stuff with the pull bag and

whatever else. And every time I read anything

that Nightbeat says, for some odd reason, I always

hear it in your voice. And I'm looking at his.

Oh, you poor soul. Hearing anyone speak in my

voice. Stop it. Stop it. You know, I see the

quote here on TFWigi from Omega's Conundrum.

For me, it's all about the details. Look closely

at something and it'll make sense. If it doesn't,

look closer. That is pretty accurate to me, yeah.

Thanks to More Than Meets the Eye, I now hear

Idris Elba. Ah, wow, yeah. What? I mean, he's

got a great voice, too. Oh, yeah. But, yeah.

Yeah, I'm agreeing. That, of course, is a reference

to, in more than meets the eye, his hollow avatar.

Yeah, it bears amazing resemblance to Idris Elba.

Yeah, it's very cool. Do you prefer the label

of action figures, dolls, toys, or other labels?

Don't care. I mean, I wouldn't say dolls is accurate.

I think dolls is a subsection of them, but to

be fair, like they're all action figures, really.

Like if you have a doll and you're playing with

it, you're still making it do actions, I guess.

Like, I don't know. True. And they're all toys.

It doesn't bother me or anything anymore. I mentioned

it before. It probably used to, there was probably

a time when. I said, like, no, this isn't a comic

book. It's a trade paperback. When I cared about

any of that stuff. It's a graphic novel, yeah.

Yeah, I eventually got old enough and I was like,

yeah, I don't care if people look down on me

on what I like. That's their problem. Yeah, exactly.

For me, it's a toy or it's an action figure.

It doesn't really matter. I think I definitely

used to care. I probably said action figure or

no, no, it's a collectible. That only applies

to Funko now. Anyway, that's a whole other story.

Good guys or bad guys, which were your favorites

to play with the most? As a kid, good guys. Growing

older, getting older, I had more of an appreciation

than some of the other ones. Like Shockwave,

Soundwave became sort of favorites. Yeah. What

is or was your favorite toy vehicle or playset

as a kid? As a kid, playset? Oh, Thunder Mountain,

which is from Mask. I believe it's Thunder Mountain.

You mean Boulder Hill? Boulder Hill. Dang. Yes.

Boulder Hill from Mask. Yep. Favorite vehicle

or toy? God, G1 Soundwave is fantastic. He's

technically not a vehicle, though. That's true,

I guess. That's a good point. I mean, unless

they're going to put wheels on him somewhere.

I guess. Vehicle, then Optimus Prime. There you

go. I played with that G1 thing so much it wore

out some of the joints and everything. Yeah.

Did you and your friends ever pretend with your

toys that you had? By this I mean, did you say,

I'm going to be this toy and you can be that

toy? Like, you know, Ryan, you can be the piece

of glass and I'll be the Coke bottle top or something.

No, that stuff happened. That was a schoolyard

thing, so yes. Yeah, absolutely. That was so

schoolyard stuff for me as well. What features

define a good toy to you? How true does the item

feel in comparison to the source material likeness?

I grew up with G1 and that era, so if it wasn't

accurate, it didn't bother me. Let's be honest,

a lot of those Generation 1 toys just really

didn't look like their cartoon counterpart. Some

of them did. But a lot of them didn't. And it

never bothered me. It was always about the imagination,

that kind of thing. Now that I'm older, the biggest

thing for me is probably some type of posability.

You know, you got to be able to make it look

cool. Yeah, I think the difference is when we

were growing up, you know, four or five, six

years old in the mid 80s, we were watching Bumblebee

and Spike on TV. and bumblebee was like even

though he was the smallest bot amongst the autobots

at least in the beginning at least in the you

know the early you know there would be other

smaller bots later but you know you look at him

and you know next to spike and spike is a human

like us and bumblebee is gigantic and then you

look at bumblebees you know i it wasn't a micro

master what was the rich it was mini bot mini

bot thank you You know, you look at the Bumblebee

toy and all of the Generation 1 Bumblebee slash

Goldberg stuff, and it's like, this thing fits

in between my thumb and forefinger. There's something

wrong here. Oh, yeah. Scale was never the strong

point. Well, right. Metroplex was not city -sized

and for the other figures, that kind of thing.

Yeah, there's that. What does toy packaging have

to have to draw you in? So you go into a toy

store or wherever. Okay, well. No, I'm serious.

That's about it. I don't care about the packaging.

So one of the things, too, and again, this probably

goes into why I like this sort of action figures

and that sort of stuff. It's just a box if I

buy it and leave it in, so I generally don't

do that. Okay. So, I mean, I don't care about

the packaging. You know, it's what's in it. It

doesn't make a difference to me. So, you know,

I'm sitting with Highbrow beside me from the

G1 packaging. And the G1 packaging is neat. Yeah.

This is the recent sort of re -release. Right.

And it's Titan Master Highbrow that's inside

slash Headmaster recent. Anyway. And it's a neat

touch, and I like that. But, yeah, I mean, I'm

still going to take him out. Well, I guess you

answered the next question then. Uh -oh. Do you

open your toys or do you leave them in the package?

If you keep toys packaged, do you have any specific

criteria? So if I keep toys packaged, it has

to be because it looks better in the package.

That's the only criteria. Punisher stuff, because

it's not superposable, sits in the package because

the packaging looks cooler. It improves it. Another

personal favorite is a... God, I can't remember

which con, but anyway, it's a con exclusive of

Captain Kirk from Star Trek II, The Wrath of

Khan. And it's him with the bloody tunic, etc.

And it just works better with the big Star Trek

slash Enterprise insignia that he's sitting in,

that kind of thing. It's mostly just for aesthetic.

I don't keep them in so it's worth more or anything

like that, because I don't really care about

that. If as a kid or an adult you only were allowed

to choose one toy franchise to collect from,

which one would you choose and why? I think we

both know. Yes, but the reason why I find this

question funny for you is because you have such

a love for the Punisher as a character. Yeah,

but it doesn't matter. I like a lot of the Marvel

Comics characters, don't get me wrong. I like

a lot of, you know, I've got different Batman

Beyond figures, for example. Anytime they get

around to releasing a Terry McGinnis and other

series and that kind of thing. But no, it's still

Transformers. I mean, I still think they are

some of the best toys. Even the stuff being made

now. Yep. That, granted, like I lean... towards

the third party stuff part of that's character

part of that is there is no mainline yeah yeah

and part of it and the mainline stuff is getting

so damned expensive that it's almost cheaper

for a yeah so yeah there's it's all it's a combination

of different things but even without that the

transformers being released now are awesome so

true As an adult, do you prefer vintage toys

or modern toys? Modern. So I mentioned it before,

like posability, that kind of thing. I sell the

G1 versions. If I get a recent one, I like more.

I think it was Offair that was mentioning it.

Yeah, you were selling something. Yeah, I got

Siege Crosshairs. Yep. And I like him a lot more

than G1 Crosshairs. So G1 Crosshairs getting

sold because I only have a certain amount of

room. And yeah, I'm going to display the stuff

I like or that I think looks best with the exception

of. So that's one of my rules is I can only have

one of each character unless it's a favorite

and the favorite. classification is only like

a handful obviously Optimus Prime and Megatron

you know essentially can't have just one no yeah

but beyond that you know it's Shockwave uh Fort

Max and Nightbeat and that's about it I try to

keep only one of a lot of the others even like

Rodimus Prime there's only there's only one Rodimus

Prime anyone needs now hands down i just i have

the dx9 third party one i like it but yeah anyway

have you seen kingdom yes have you seen kingdom

like literally this thing is what i wanted as

a six and seven year old like 30 40 years ago

like it took them 40 years so it's really nice

it's a great figure but the dx9 one's fantastic

too I'm not saying it's bad, it's just... No,

no, no, I know you're not. Yeah, I know you're

not. I got the DX9 one first. It's DX9 carry.

I got it first, A. And then, so, B, during that

time, I had the option and ability to get the

repro labels and everything else put on them,

and TA's gorgeous. And the Siege one is gorgeous.

Sorry, Kingdom one is gorgeous, too. I keep lumping

them all in, by the way. Earthrise, Siege, and

Kingdom. It's the trilogy. It's annoying. It's

basically just one line. And so, yeah, I just

call it either Siege or whatever. Anyway, what

is one toy you can always play with? Since I

got them, the third party, I haven't been able

to put them on a shelf yet. Cause I just toy

around with them all the time. Uh, including

right now, but the, uh, now I can't even remember

the name. That's not good. It's the third party

night beat that came out recently. Absolutely

love it. It's not perfect, but a terrific representation.

Yup. Why can I not remember the name? Anyway,

there's a couple others, but that's one. As a

kid, G1 Optimus Prime was kind of my jam. Even

though there are always toy lines that people

never purchase, are there any that you specifically

and purposefully avoid? This can be toy lines,

specific characters, etc. Not really. I don't

think there's anybody. Or any of them that I

specifically dislike or stay away from. It's

Fans Hobby Nightwalker. Damn it, there. There

you go. I could not live with myself without

finding that, so I was looking it up while I

was answering. There's nothing I specifically

avoid or stay away from. If I'm just not interested,

I don't buy it. If there's a line or something,

I'm not interested. Even for Transformers, I

just don't get any. But I don't get mad at people

who like it or anything like that. It's not for

me. A lot of the Cyberverse stuff is amazing,

and I'd love to get into that. It's fantastic.

Kids growing up with the Transformers are so

lucky. They've got so many different lines and

versions and stuff to choose from. If by some

miracle, they can afford it. I haven't picked

up much of the Cyberverse stuff. It's funny.

I always buy some and I donate it to various

charities around town that give to needy families

so the kids get something for Christmas. I always

buy the Cyberverse stuff and I always want to

take it home and play with it instead. That's

also why I always make the drop at the same time

when I go to... It's in the same building as

the Toys R Us, thankfully, or else I'd run home.

Yep, start playing with it yourself. Yeah, start

busting it open myself. Are there any toy lines

in the past or currently you wish you hadn't

bought them? Are there any toys that you may

have sold that you regret letting go? G1 Transformers.

Never should have got rid of those when I was

a kid. Sold by Ninja Turtles at the same yard

sale, which, eh, I mean, I would have gotten

rid of them at some point. I just wish I had

sold them for more. Those are the main ones.

There's nothing I really regret picking up. I

don't know. I'm trying to think of ones I've

never liked. Some of the Transformers classics,

the early ones, I know people love it, and I've

never understood why, but the big one for me

is probably Classics Octane, and I can't remember.

They couldn't use Octane. I can't remember his

name now. But yeah, that was one. There's not

many. There's stuff I've sold, but I don't regret

it. I don't know. I don't regret purchasing it,

I should say. Tankor. Transformers Classics Tankor.

That was right. They couldn't use Octane as the

name. I don't know why. Never liked it. His Universe

2008 figure is... Kinda cool. That's probably

the one I'm thinking of, yeah. I don't know what

it is. Yeah, that is Tankor, yeah. It's kinda

cool, but... Yeah, I'm weird. Yeah, I always

liked... I always felt that some of the Season

3 characters that got introduced never really

got... a good shot and then no one else will

use them. And I think octane is one of those

characters because he never, like he had the

one episode with him in sandstorm, like the couple

of episodes and then, um, with him and trip to

con hanging out. Yup. That's about it. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh, 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 something

like that? They're on every flat surface or something.

Just looking around, it won't necessarily cover

them, but every flat surface generally has a

Transformer or Punisher or Batman or something

on it. If you keep track... And then there's

some of the large ones, too, by the way, I should

which are just filled with... The entire bookshelves

are just comic trades, but on top will be some

of the large Transformers, like my super oversized

knockoff Predaking, which I adore, or... armada

unicron and yeah you're about to ask me uh what

it is in numbers i have no idea i used to keep

track i don't have a clue yes if you keep track

how do you keep track of your collection yeah

i've pared it down like i don't bring in anything

without essentially getting rid of two like i

have a bunch of rules and then the other rule

is if i find something or something like that

or Essentially, if I wasn't aware of it or I

forgot about it, I have to sell it. That's kind

of the rule I made for myself, so stuff doesn't

just sit in storage or whatever. How do you display

your toys? My favorites are in cases, and they

are the Ikea clear glass cases. The Detox, yeah.

Yeah, and I've lined the front and back with

LED lights, and the LED lights have a remote,

and I can change the colors and everything to

them, so they're multicolored. And yeah, that's

how my favorite ones are displayed. So the Transformers,

a lot of the third parties, including my absolute

favorite third -party Transformer, are in the

cases. There is one case which the top level

is just Punisher statues and stuff. So it's stuff,

ways like that. That's most of it. If you could

only keep one toy from your entire collection,

what would it be and why? Yay, all right. One

I haven't mentioned, and he's one of my favorite

characters, which I did mention earlier. It is...

A third -party toy. And it is Perfect Effect

Warden. He is better known. It is the IDW version

of Fortress Maximus. Ah, yes. I adore that figure.

I think it's one of the best third -party figures.

It is one of the best. He's phenomenally poseable.

He has a design that I never thought they would

actually be able to do. And they eventually released

an upgrade kit for him, which added sort of a

little more height to his legs and made the leg

guns a little more prominent. I don't know. I

just love it so much to the point that I ended

up unloading the... actual like initial original

fortress maximus because i liked this version

so much more right and yeah i just it is one

of my favorites uh looks fantastic and he's on

the shelf with my other ones that are my favorites

which is i mentioned dx9 carry which is a third

party rodimus prime that i'm going to make you

look picture look at pictures of as soon as we're

done and then sort of one of the other best figures

ever released for Transformers, which is official,

and it's Masterpiece Optimus Prime, which is

just, he is a near -perfect figure. Masterpiece

Optimus, are we talking MP01 or are we talking

MP04? I'm talking about the initial MP04. I have

more than one version of it. It's the Japanese

one. They released one in America with the battle

damage, which I ended up getting rid of that

one. Because I hated the battle damage. It was

kind of lazily applied, frankly. And so I was

able to get one without it. And I really like

that. So yeah, those are the ones. Those are

the main ones, but yeah, Warden is... God, I

love that. And I smile, so I feel good every

single time I look at the guy. Very cool, very

cool. Yeah, I'm looking at DX9 now, and he is

very, very cool. I just... It's the fins on the

back. I prefer that they're a little bigger.

I've always liked that weird sort of back fins,

too. The wings, yeah. Yeah, whatever you want

to call them, the wings, the fins, whatever.

And I like how prominent they are. I also like

that he comes with the larger sniper rifle, which

is a little more accurate, too. They show rifle

because you can also make it a little smaller.

Also, the rifle is a Targetmaster, a reference

to the fact Hot Rod was a Targetmaster at one

point. I don't know. I always like that. I don't

think there's a wrong answer or anything because,

yeah, Kingdom, Rodimus Prime is fantastic. Yeah,

it really is. Really, really is. Let's see. Here's

the toy box challenge. You get one 18 by 18 by

18 box. The only toys you can keep have to fit

in the box. What can you pack into it? Man, I

just mentioned three of them. There you go. Is

that the only ones that'll fit? Oh, probably.

No, I mean, I'm pretty sure I could get a few

more of the Masterpiece ones in there. I tell

you what, we're mentioning Hot Rods and Rodimus

Prime and the like. The third -party IDW version

of Rodimus is absolutely fantastic. And now,

of course, I can't remember his name either.

No, there's no chance I'll remember that one.

All right, anyway. So there's that. The third

-party Nightbeat. He goes in. That's about it.

There's no chance my oversized Predaking is going

to fit in. Because I love that one, too. But,

yeah, he's not fitting in. Not with anything

else. No, he's way too big. Way, way, way too

big. Are you a Funko fan? No. I mean, I don't

have anything against them, but I think they

are great for the niche stuff. Stuff that I don't

think will necessarily see a re -release. Although

some of the Funko stuff I've been surprised by.

I mentioned to you before Darkwing Duck. I never

expected Darkwing Duck to get re -issues or new

figures. So I picked up the Funko ones. So yeah,

that's a good example. Yeah, I don't have anything

against them. I've seen some people that are

just... real nuts about not liking them, which

I don't get it. I don't see how it affects you

if people enjoy them, but hey. But yeah, just

for the most part, they're not necessarily for

me. Yeah, I mean, for me, and I said this in

my episode, I say this in almost every episode

of ToyCast Origins, for me, Funko has never been

like, oh, I want to, like, yes, as long as they

make Transformers ones, I'm going to try to buy

them. you know kind of thing but for me it's

about characters that i would not normally see

have an actual toy like i'm sure back in the

day when home alone and home alone 2 and all

of that came out i'm sure there was some sort

of toy doll whatever thing but the fact that

i can sit here and look at a regular version

of kevin mcallister And a Target exclusive here

in the U .S. version where it's him in his winter

gear when he's walking home from the store when

Harry and Marv chase him. So he's got his hat

on and, you know, he's he's holding his whatever

he's holding. And then, you know, you get things

like Christmas Vacation with Cousin Eddie and

Clark. And in the original. original clark griswold

he's holding the reindeer mug and it looks like

it has the eggnog in it there was an fye exclusive

where it's him in his winter gear and he's holding

the burnt out sled from the sled scene so for

me and i will say this every single time maybe

next time i'll use different examples because

i can always use different examples for me that's

why why funko is so great is because they're

making things that normally would never get action

figure line kind of thing. What's funny to me

is some of the stuff that became in that I thought

I would end up having to look at a Funko for

something like that. And then, nope, turns out

that it's really popular. My favorite example

of that probably is Gargoyles, which all of a

sudden has got just a ton of merch to the point

that there's a board game with miniatures and

everything else now. But it's nuts to me that

That is so fondly remembered because it came

out essentially before Internet was normalized.

So I guess I didn't know how big the fan base

was for it. And apparently Disney didn't. And

yeah, now it's everywhere. Yeah, it is very much

everywhere. What was the most money you spent

on a toy? So non -toy -wise or figure -wise,

I spent $300 getting the Hard Hero Unicron statue.

And then for actual toy, though, I think Warden

with the upgrades cost me about probably just

shy of $300 as well. And part of that was because

I jumped on getting him, which I'm glad I did.

But because of that, I paid a lot more than I

would have if I had ordered through a different

site. Basically, I bought him through an American

site, and it cost me an arm and a leg because

of that, because shipping. And then I got smoked.

It's one of the few that I got nailed on at the

border. Oh, no. They didn't mark it as a gift

or as something that would be sort of duty -free.

And so, like, I had to pay for that, which, oh,

I smoked on duty on that one. It happens every

once in a while when I order stuff from the States,

like Transformers, but usually it gets through

without a problem. But, oh, well, I don't care.

Still money well spent. Still love it. There

you go. What is the best deal you ever got on

a figure that may have been worth quite a bit

more than you paid for it? The best deal was

probably I got a Masterpiece Starscream for under

$50. I would end up selling it a few years later.

for about $200 because I got a Starscream I liked

more. So that worked out really well. It was

during that weird time where Starscream, Masterpiece

Starscream was on clearance everywhere in the

States. And everybody had all these extra ones.

And then a couple years later, he became harder

to find and people were going nuts trying to

find it. I still remember telling the guy, like,

are you sure you're okay with, like, paying this

much for it? And he's like, oh, yeah, it's still

getting a good deal. All right. Exactly. What

modern and or vintage toy lines are you currently

collecting? Transformers. That's it? I mean,

even then, the Transformers stuff is kind of,

I'd pick and choose. It's got to be a really

good figure or a character. that I really like.

Cause I'm really happy with kind of where I'm

at. I used to have this thing and God, I mean,

you probably tell back in the TF wire days, that

kind of thing that I thought to be a fan of something,

I had to have merchandise of it. I had to spend

money on it or something like that. And I've

kind of grown up that, no, you can be a fan of

something. You just have to enjoy it. It doesn't

matter how much money somebody spends. Like,

nobody's going to accuse me of not being a Buffalo

Bills fan. But I don't get to go to the games

very often because, I mean, it's, you know, over

the border. It's expensive. I get there and back.

And then I got work on Monday. Exactly. But nobody's

going to say, like, oh, you're not a Bills fan.

If they do, they're dumb. They do not know me

at all. Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah, they

do not know you at all. They have not spoken

to me ever. So, no, I mean, I've kind of grown

out of needing stuff all the time. So I just

sort of collect. And it's kind of relaxing now.

It's more of a hobby instead of a compulsion

to prove that I enjoy something. And for the

Transformers, it's just kind of looking at characters

and figures that really interest me. So, for

example, one of the more recent ones that I really

like, Kingdom Megatron. And when I say Kingdom

Megatron, I mean Beast Wars Megatron. Right.

I always wanted Beast Wars Megatron when I was

a kid, as in the original version of him. But...

Now with the re -releases and with the new figures,

I kind of took a look at both of them and I grabbed

the actual Kingdom one, not the re -release.

And it's fantastic. And it's a character I always

wanted one of because I loved that character.

And so, yeah, I picked it up. Same with Kingdom

Dinobots is another good example. Dinobots had

a bunch of figures over the years. None of them

that great. we will say, and then finally had

a masterpiece, which is fantastic. So Dinobot's

on my list of guys that I can have more than

one of. But he also finally got a good mainline

Transformer. Yeah, I think that's the interesting

thing about Hasbro now, and we'll talk about

that here in a little while, where it's like...

They are now at a point in the company's history

and they are now at a point with technology and

building and, you know, tool and die and all

that where it's like, hey, we can actually make.

Not to say that the toys at the time, 26 years

ago, were horrible, but they're limited by the

times of what they had back then. It's tough

because today we went to. and they have an entire

display of Beast Wars Tigatron. And, you know,

he's a nice figure, but for the same price beside

him are the Kingdom figures, which frankly are

a lot more poseable and look more accurate. Now,

obviously Tigatron's not the best example because

he doesn't have one, but... I'm trying to think

of who a good example is because there's some

good. Rhinox is close. But having said that,

the Beast Wars Rhinox figure is awesome. So this

one, we originally wrote some of these questions.

They were written before the pandemic. So do

you visit toy shows or conventions when you visit

toy shows or conventions? Do you have a typical?

methodology do you bring a certain amount of

money for what you're searching for kind of thing

how do you deal with that kind of stuff or do

you just yeah so no i definitely go uh i absolutely

adore cons uh we were talking about again last

night we actually had one uh back in november

when things had completely quieted down briefly

here and i got to go and it was fantastic it

was great to go out again in terms of money just

whatever I can, I usually it's somewhere between

like four and 800 bucks. Uh, I take with me.

Cause I mean, I'm also trying to buy comic trades

cause it's a good place to get out of print one

stuff like that. But it's frankly, yeah. The

first thing I look for is always the transformers

and for no, it's always the transformers. Yeah,

no, it's definitely always Transformers. No,

that's the first thing I check every single table

for on my first go around. That's true. There's

nothing else. I guess unless there's something

super specific I desperately am looking for or

want or haven't seen. But no, it's always them.

Even if I'm not all that interested in looking

at them, I don't know. There's something about

seeing them. Like the con I was at had... one

of the Technobots complete in box. I have no

interest in buying it because I've got versions

of them that I'm happy with. But it's still pretty

cool to see. I just enjoy looking at them and

kind of remembering what it was like to see those

on the shelves in the 80s. That kind of stuff.

So yeah, there's... There's an enjoyment in that.

I like seeing the vintage Ninja Turtles stuff,

too. Same sort of reason. It's kind of cool to

see. Yep, absolutely. A lot of it's the packaging,

too. I feel like, I don't know. I said before,

the packaging isn't what makes me buy a figure

or not, because I don't care about it. But I

got to say, some of the earlier stuff, it kind

of drew your eyes to it a lot more efficiently.

I don't know. Yeah, I mean that's the thing.

That's why I asked that question is because –

and I ask that question to everyone is because

you look at the old Turtles packaging or the

old – specifically the old Transformers and Masters

packaging. They had full -on artists doing –

there's that whole famous scene of Metroplex

with all the Autobots and Decepticons and everything

else. So packaging – I'll say the artwork now

is actually better. I would argue that. But the

whole aesthetic of Siege, Earthrise, and Kingdom,

it's just sort of dull. The colors are very dull.

It's supposed to be dark, and they look beat

up in the pictures and that kind of thing. It

doesn't lend itself as well to some of the colorful

artwork of the 80s and early 90s. Yeah, absolutely.

What do you think it is about our generation

that causes our childhood toys to mean so much

more to us than, say, for instance, our parents'

generation? God, I miss cons. Oh, anyway. I don't

know. I think it comes from... I have no idea,

honestly. Well, I mean, I think it comes from

the fact that we actually had toys, action figures

when our parents were kids in the 60s and 70s.

It was, you know. Yeah, we were also kind of

our generation was the first time where they

were allowed to directly market to us. So every

toy had a television series. And that's not always.

for the best but that's true but yeah and in

terms it's kind of insidious i mean to be blunt

like it was all about marketing that kind of

thing but the stuff that's hung around like transformers

is a great example has hung around because there

was a love and a quality to it that hasbro couldn't

quantify a and b they couldn't ruin and I think

that's a lot of it. And for our parents, for

example, I'd say I'd argue that's sort of similar

to there was just fewer options. Like Star Trek

is still around. Yeah. You know, 60 years later.

Yeah. And Star Trek is a good example, actually,

too. Like that had a lot of items for it. And

that means a lot to people. But yeah, I think

it's different now because we have so many more

channels. And then in the 80s, there were so

many shows. Like I said before, everybody had

a cartoon show. You'll find somebody whose favorite

toy was Exosquad or Thundercats or one of the

shows that hasn't gone or series that hasn't

gone steadily. Thundercats is one of the good

examples because... Every few years or so, or

essentially every decade, I'd guess, you could

say, it gets some sort of reboot. And so far,

they really haven't taken hold. And I'm not trying

to knock the series or anything, but that's different

from Transformers, which never really went away.

The closest it went was G2 to Beast Wars. There

was a bit of a lull. And then after that, it

has just never stopped. Well, with Thundercats,

the thing is it ran from 85 to 89, and then they

had the reboot in 2011. Yeah, it disappeared

for quite a bit of time. Yeah, and then they

had, I mean, I'm sure not necessarily LJN, but

some other whatever, something came up with some

sort of anniversary thing or whatever else. Thundercats

has never, sadly, been a – it never turned into

a franchise of 40 years of constantly – like

Transformers is constantly reinventing itself.

We went from G1 to G2 to Beast Wars to Beast

Machines to – That's funny because the one I

haven't – talked about because it wasn't as big

in my area and I think it's probably because

I'm from Canada, not the States, but G .I. Joe

is an example. G .I. Joe hasn't, even it hasn't

been as steady. It gets rebooted every few years,

but then it kind of goes away again. Yeah, G

.I. Joe has, I think, let's see, Real American

Hero for the cartoon. They had Resolute. I'm

mixing it up with extreme Ghostbusters, and I

know that's not a thing for G .I. Joe. I mean,

that would be interesting. Maybe we can finally

figure out if Duke was supposed to die or not

in the movie for real. You really want to trod

that? Oh, God. Oh, Lord. We just got a call from

the hospital. Duke's okay. I mean, he got stabbed

through the heart. I mean, it was pretty, they

animated it like he was dead. And I know he was

supposed to. Optimus Prime kind of ruined everything.

So, anywho. That's because he's the worst leader

ever. Is your motivation for purchasing toys

to display, play, fiddle, describe your collecting

style? Are you a completionist, storyteller,

cherry picker, or otherwise? Cherry picker, and

it's got to look cool. If I think it looks awesome,

I have some Spawn figures that I couldn't really

tell you much about, despite I've got a decent

amount of knowledge of Spawn. But some of those

McFarlane figures just look awesome. Even Sarah

has some of the McFarlane stuff, and we don't

even know what it's from, but it just looks cool.

Have you ever purchased a toy for a child with

the ulterior motive of playing with it yourself?

No. No, we don't have any kids or anything. I

don't buy... True. I don't buy fun toys for the

cats. I told the story earlier. I mean, I buy

the Transformers every year, and I wish I could

play with them. Yeah, and then you donate them.

Yeah, some of the Cyberverse ones, like I said,

are just awesome. Do you do any toy modifications

or customs, painting, building, build dioramas,

that kind of stuff? I do not. Sarah will paint.

miniatures and stuff like that from the board

for my board games and things but i do not i

do not have the i don't know i don't know if

it's i was about to say i don't have the technical

skill or anything but no i could do it i just

don't i don't know yeah i don't have the time

i guess is the biggest thing yeah between all

the podcasts i'm having you doing working and

life and anyway video yeah my video games My

love of figures, reading comics, and playing

Marvel Champions and other board games. Do you

think toy companies should specifically have

adult collector toys, child toys, or find a way

to mix both? I feel like they've done a good

job of... all of that i mentioned cyberverse

and i haven't jumped on it i know people who

have and it's they love it it's great some of

those figures are fantastic and then hasbro's

got you know the kingdom and the other lines

so i feel like they have already sort of separated

them and in terms of if they should or not if

there's enough support for it Obviously, you

know, I don't think there's a point to doing

the other stuff. I will say I do not like a lot

of the collector stuff Hasbro has been doing

in terms of there's something really gross to

me about a multibillion dollar company asking

for money on crowdfunding. It's kind of icky.

I don't know. Not a big fan of that. And I know

they did it with Unicron. I understand the reasoning,

which is they're worried about mass producing

these figures and it's expensive and that kind

of thing. But to me, the crowdfunding should

be kind of kept to smaller companies and independents

and the like. It's kind of, I don't know. It

just feels kind of gross when you see somebody

who clearly has the money. and could easily afford

it. Yeah. I agree with you in an overall sense,

but with special items like Unicron, like Victory

Saber, that they're actively promoting that to,

like, that's not... See, Victory Saber I'm more

okay with, though, but I mean, everybody knows

who the hell Unicron is. No, I'm serious. Like,

Victory Saber, and I'm not trying to knock him

or the fans of him, but he's definitely not as

well -known as Unicron. And there are people

who maybe haven't kept up with Transformers or

whatever, but they remember Orson Welles as Unicron

from the movie 35 years ago. I don't know. That

one, to me, I just... Yeah, I don't know. My

feeling is just if they're doing a limited run

of something that is... To use a different example

from Hasbro, the G .I. Joe stuff. You know, the

fact that they're doing a really nice version

of the Carrier. I am perfectly okay with that

because I think that's a huge sort of niche collectible.

Yeah. But again, like Unicron really, you know,

Transformers is a multi -billion dollar franchise

that doesn't go away at all. True. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's funny that I, you know, I can think

of all of the major ones that have been done

so far. Unicron was crowdfunded. Both Castle

Grayskull and Snake Mountain were crowdfunded

at Mattel. I remember Snake Mountain was like,

Same as Unicron, $500, $600. Yeah, I'm more okay

with stuff like that, too. He -Man's another

example of he has, until recently, not sustained

success. And again, it's unfortunate. You know,

I loved the 03 series. That is still probably

my favorite series overall. But until recently,

yeah, there wasn't... There wasn't much, and

so I was okay with Mattel doing the crowdfunding.

They're also not the same size as... Who the

heck owns Mattel now, actually? I think Hasbro

may actually own them. No, Mattel is still its

own thing, I'm pretty sure. No, I'm okay with

that, because they're smaller, too, and I don't

know. I can kind of live with that one. Yeah.

I'm pretty sure Mattel is its own thing still.

They are, yeah. They have a lot of subsidiaries,

but... Yeah, they changed distribution things.

That's why most of the He -Man stuff now you

can actually find in stores because they're not

doing the club stuff anymore, but that's a whole

other discussion. I'm not wrong. Yeah, Hasbro

tried to buy them. Yeah, they did. I'm just saying

it didn't work. No, it didn't happen, no. Do

you have a My Parents Got Rid of My Toys story?

No, I did. I wish I hadn't. I thought I wanted

to get a Super Nintendo more than anything else

at the time, so I sold a lot of my old Transformers

and He -Man and Ninja Turtles. And to be fair,

I don't regret getting rid of the stuff that's

not Transformers. I regret that I didn't get

more money for them. x number of years later

they're worth a lot more and i had some rare

stuff but uh nah yeah that's the main one it's

me it was my fault the worst was uh selling comics

collection oh boy for a girl who would like we

ended up breaking up not too long after but like

oh that one hurts because i had some rare stuff

in that i had Yeah, whatever. Anyway. Do you

feel you are coming to an end of your active

collecting? If so, what has signified this phase

for you? Was there ever a moment when you were

done with toys altogether kind of thing? No.

In terms of the active stuff, I don't know. I'm

less active than I used to be. There's a joke

there, but that's not what I'm going for. I'm

less active collecting just because I kind of

have. have most of what i want you know uh and

then the other thing you know we talked about

it last night uh the prices are insane it's 36

.99 for the kingdom figures and for like the

beast wars re -releases which oh boy that is

those beast wars figures are initially were i

want to say like 12 or 13 bucks canadian and

Now they're selling for $37, essentially, plus

tax. The prices are a nightmare. Kingdom Megatron,

for example, $69 .99. That's $70. And I got them

from Toys R Us, which still exists and is still

going strong up here. The pricing is bad. In

terms of frequency and that kind of thing, that's

dropped, but that's pandemic -related. Yeah.

So yes and no. I mean, I still keep an eye out.

There's still stuff that I see and pick up. What

is something that does not have a toy of it you'd

love to have in toy form? A good Nightbeat from

Hasbro? God. There's not a lot left, is there?

Like, I would have said, no, I mean, I would

have said, you know, Gargoyles is one. But all

of a sudden, there's some really good stuff.

The, geez, seems like everybody's got, seems

like everybody's got them again now. I can't

think of anything. What is a toy that you'd love

to have scaled up and functional for real world

use? I'd love to have my own Optimus Prime. I

mean, imagine driving that around. Yeah. That

would be interesting. The only downside is if

he transforms with you inside him. Yeah. But

he wasn't bad because the cab doesn't really

move much, so he'd probably be safe. Well, I

don't know. We did have that whole thing where

in one of the episodes he did transform with

Spike inside his cab or something, and that didn't

really – there have been several cartoons that

have actually – Prime. miko was hiding in the

back of bulkhead and she and you know she ended

up puking all over him or something because of

his transformation in the cartoon but anyway

it's something i mean we didn't do a transformers

related podcast recently uh something i'll bring

up but you mentioned it uh Although, different

series, but it's something that just occurred

to me again, too. The passing of Derek Wyatt

is heartbreaking. I loved Transformers Animated.

It was on the air when I started podcasting on

TFWire. And the first season was up and down,

but man, did it get better. And the show, the

toys, and his passion for it, it was infectious.

so sad he was so young yeah steve and i had mentioned

it and i talked about it briefly on all things

transformers and i was actually gonna talk about

it here as well and yeah i mean that guy he was

so awesome i only i think he has three toy cast

appearances And most of them were with him and

me and Callie talking about Callie's Puggleformers

at the time back in 2010, 2011. But yeah, Derek

was awesome, awesome dude. Gone way too soon

kind of thing. Yeah, and he loved Transformers.

It wasn't just this. Yeah. It wasn't just this

line that he worked on. No, he loved the whole

franchise. He has said as much. He grew up with

it as a kid and he loved the entirety of it.

He said in several other interviews that people

have done with him, specifically some of the

TFCon stuff, it's like he had his dream job.

His dream job was to work on the show that he

loved. franchise that he loved and he got to

do that. And, uh, I remember part of that interview,

I forget which video it is, but, uh, you know,

he, he would go, he would go on to tell the person,

you know, because Sue blue was the, the casting

director for animated. He's like, he would go

up to Sue and say, can you get this person? Can

you get that person? Can you get this? You know,

that's how we got Judd Nelson as hot rod for

the, or Rodimus is, you know, the first like,

two seconds before oil slick comes in with some

cosmic rust. But yeah, no, Derek was awesome.

Awesome, dude. How has your spouse dealt with

your collection? Good. How do you feel about

my collection, dear? Okay. She says, I think

I've, I think you've made great strides. There

you go. I'm not sure what that means. Anyway.

No, she's good. I haven't taken over the house.

I'm working on it, but... Toy collecting can...

No, it's fine. On our first date, she was able

to correctly identify a Transmetal 2 Megatron.

She had Air Razor. Oh, awesome. Very cool. Toy

collecting can have its struggles. What is one

aspect that you tend to struggle with the most?

Used to be money. That was the biggest thing,

right? Especially during the early 2000s when

a lot of the Generation 1 stuff was getting re

-released for Transformers. The internet was

really starting to kind of take off. Again, this

was an era where I thought I needed stuff to

prove that I liked something. So I needed Futurama

figures. I needed the Generation 1 Transformers,

etc., etc., even if it was stuff I wasn't super

interested in or that I knew weren't great figures

or stuff like that. So, yeah, that was tough.

And I was balancing, you know, working some of

my first jobs and that kind of thing and going

to a comic shop and paying hundreds, hundreds

and some odd dollars for Japanese G1 reissues.

Not my finest moments in terms of finances, but

I got better. There are Futurama Funko Pops.

Yeah, exactly. Nowadays, I think it would be

easier, but no, because I just mentioned how

expensive the actual Transformers are. True,

very true. What is one positive and one negative

memory you have with buying toys? positives is

all of it right now like i look around and i

love the stuff i've got i don't know just sort

of breathing joy i think it looks awesome house

looks cool stuff on the shelves negative memories

uh i mean my childhood sucked so i try to avoid

that but okay What? No, no, no. I'm just saying,

okay, that's, yeah. That's probably why, like,

the nostalgia, and I got a weird love -hate relationship

with the Generation 1 packaging, things like

that. Yeah. Yeah. So, basically, and I know what

the answer to this is going to be, but Hasbro

gives you the keys to the kingdom. What is one

toy you would want to create? Yeah, good night,

Pete. it's funny because everybody else you know

eventually got one there have been good shockwaves

in different lines like uh tf animated uh shockwave

for example was really good the most recent ones

were really good during the siege or whichever

anyway line you want to call it was really good

uh fort max obviously has a couple really great

ones I'm surprised they haven't. I know they

did some of the More Than Meets the Eye characters

from the comic into toys. Maybe that was a third

-party company that did that, but I'm really

surprised that they don't take the More Than

Meets the Eye IDW comic version of Nightbeat

and make a really good damn toy with him. I don't

know. It's weird. They've picked and chosen some

of the stuff. You'll notice. It's interesting

to me, and this is something that you'll probably

talk about in the future, at least someday in

the future, on one of the Transformers podcasts,

but IDW's had a weird effect on the entire franchise.

Yeah. it's interesting to me. So obviously the

stuff like wind blades, never going to go away.

I mean, that was a new character that was established.

Yup. And so, yeah, there's stuff like that. There

are some of the characters have kind of been

brought back into the limelight, like Chrome

dome and some of the others do not get re -releases.

If it doesn't, if, If IDW doesn't use he and

rewind in... Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, unless they're going to use them in something,

most of them are not going to get, which kind

of sucks. Yep. Oh, well. It is what it is. What

is one piece of advice you would give the toy

collecting fandom? Just enjoy it. Calm down.

Not everything has to be for everybody. True.

It's kind of like Funko's motto. Everyone's a

fan of something, which to me basically means

that Everybody has their thing, but also not

everybody has to like everybody else's thing.

What is advice you would give to kids who enjoy

toys? Just enjoy it. Be yourself. Enjoy it. They

are, frankly, very lucky now, to me at least,

in terms of the stuff is in. Like comics. uh,

this sort of nerd culture and everything else

is cool. Now you don't have to hide it. It's

everywhere. It's so awesome to me to see people

of all walks of life go to cons. You know, I

am as a, you know, 41 year old white dude in

the minority at comic cons. And frankly, that's

awesome. Yeah. I think it's so cool. They get

to, you know, grow up and enjoy what they enjoy

without the, criticism or having to hide it or

anything the way we did yeah at least i did it's

not necessarily i shouldn't speak for yeah i

mean yeah there were plenty of kids in the 80s

that felt that they had like there like there

were plenty of us that felt that way at one point

well not necessarily the 80s because transformers

in particular was huge but definitely in the

90s yeah In the 90s, it was definitely not cool.

And the early 2000s as well, too. It took some

time for it to turn the page. Yeah, well, by

the early 2000s, we were growing up. We had already

graduated high school. We were either supposed

to go to college or go into the workforce or

do whatever because we're adults and we're supposed

to do adult things now and all of that. Yeah,

the thing about... pop culture and geek culture

and nerd culture is that it has come so far but

sports now like it was always cool to enjoy sports

right right yeah it was always quote unquote

cool to like the local team or whatever and it

was okay and that was accepted you were allowed

to geek out and be a dork and be able to list

you know the starting QB stats from Sunday and

people would go like, man, that's neat that you

know that. Yeah. But it wasn't cool if you knew

like when the Punisher first appeared or what

Wolverine's first appearance was and that, you

know, he showed up in the Incredible Hulk comic

and before he even had his own and blah, blah,

blah. Like that stuff wasn't neat. Now it is.

And now people are interested in that or. You

can talk to pretty much anybody about the latest

Marvel movie. And that's great. I don't understand

the people who are mad about this. I remember

how damned hard it was to find merchandise or

anything in the 90s for a lot of the stuff I

liked. It just didn't exist. Now I can get Punisher

stuff at the local drugstore. I mean, it's nuts

to me to think about. that, and frankly, how

neat it is. Man, I didn't know CBS started selling

swords. I don't have CBS. What the hell are you

talking about? Whatever. Anyway. It's a drugstore.

Yeah, I know, I know, but... Anyway, but the

point is, drugstore, Punisher merchandise, and

the fact that no guns, only swords. Anyway. We're

going to take a quick break, come back to close

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so much, and always keep it popping. 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,

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and Instagram at Rodimus Primal Show. Transform

and roll out, and be sure to check out my content,

till all are one. All right, folks, we are back

here on ToyCast episode 142 with Ryan the Uneven

Flow. Do you have any final thoughts before I

run through the closing, sir? Like what you like,

don't be a dick. On that note, thank you for

joining us. That's the main sort of thing. No,

absolutely. And I was worse at that when I was

younger, but then I got older, and yeah, you

don't like the toy line or... the toy or the

comic or whatever that that's out now. If there's

one thing I've learned is he can just wait a

bit and there'll be new ones. Everything that's

old becomes new again at some point. Yep. And

the same thing with me. It's like, you know,

I see all this stuff. Like, again, I will use

just as an example, not to pick on the franchise

or to, I'm not picking on the fans of the franchise,

but game of Thrones. No interest. I don't care

about Game of Thrones either way, whether it's

good, bad. I've seen ten minutes of the first

season's first episode, and it was all walking,

and I was like, okay, I'm done with this. And,

you know, I can go on and find other things that

I do enjoy and just, you know, just don't. It

doesn't have to be either or, and that's become

really frustrating. Pro wrestling is a great

example of it. You apparently can't, you know,

like more than one promotion. But what doesn't

make sense is it doesn't cancel it out. One doesn't

just eliminate the other. So who cares if somebody

likes something different? Just because I like

Optimus Prime, it doesn't mean there's never

going to be another figure of Goliath from Gargoyles.

It doesn't make sense. Why would you be mad at,

you know, one or the other? It doesn't make things

disappear. It's always... Anyway, yeah. It took

me probably longer than I'd like to admit to

figure out that stuff. I used to get incensed

or annoyed about just the dumbest things. But

yeah, it doesn't... Anyway, yeah. One doesn't

make the other go away. It's so weird to me that

there's this weird tribalism between... toy lines

and toy fans and stuff there's so many people

with irrational hate for funko pops just because

there's a funko pop of optimus doesn't mean there's

never going to be another finger figure so you

don't like it don't buy it yeah exactly and it's

so funny that you mentioned wwe i'm like even

though this is the uh this is the toy show i'm

like hey wait i'm podcasting with ryan again

We still have to do WWE Volume 4 and Volume 5

from Boom Studios over on the Bull. I feel like

that's the best. So if you're not into wrestling,

there's more than one promotion now. There always

was, but now there's two on television again

and in significant light. And if you go on the

internet just for funsies, search WWE and AEW,

and people are going nuts. About like, oh, you

can't say anything positive about one without

somebody from the others getting angry about

it. It's so odd to me. People are so incensed.

And actually, a great example for nerds, too,

consoles. Can't say anything nice about the Microsoft

Xbox without PS5 people going nuts. Can't say

anything nice about PS5 without the Xbox. Folks

going nuts. Can't say anything nice about the

Switch. You know, it's so... It's very exhausting.

This is why I prefer PC gaming. No, but you can't

say anything about that, or else you'll hear

about it from everybody, too. It's so... Yeah,

it's just weird. That's the thing. It's like,

because we're now at a stage of the Internet's

lifespan where not only does... But it should

be the opposite. I remember when I was a kid,

right? You had... a feeling of ownership. I needed

to defend Sega or Nintendo or whoever, because

that was the only console I could get. Right.

That's the only thing I would ever have access

to. And so it had to be the best. Because if

it wasn't, that meant like I chose poorly or

something that's not the best and I'm not the

coolest and blah, blah, blah. But as you get

older and with the Internet, you have access

to everything at your fingertips. Yeah. And the

funny thing is, is that I had a similar choice

and I've told this story. I told this story a

few episodes ago when I did my own origins episode.

I don't remember when it was. I'll have to look

it up. I think it was Christmas of, I want to

say it was Christmas of 86 because that's when

Master System came out. But my mom took me to

the local toy store and basically, you know,

a month or so before Christmas and said, here,

make a choice and whatever you choose, Santa

will drop it off on Christmas. I'm like, oh,

okay. I looked between the Master System and

the Nintendo Entertainment System and I chose

poorly. And I ended up with a Sega Master System.

Well, when Super came out, I was not going to

choose poorly. And in Christmas in 92, I had

a Super Nintendo and I was playing Super Mario

World for like 48 hours straight from Christmas

Eve all the way into December 26th. Yeah, I chose

poorly a few times with stuff like that. So some

of my favorites were, I had a lot of the LJN

licensed NES games. Because I liked the property

or something, but obviously we didn't have the

internet or anything to tell us that those games

were crap. But I would play them and try to convince

myself that they were good. And now I look back

at it now, and I look at them, and in my head

I'm going, I do not have any good memories of

playing this pile of crap. I should have played

something better, but oh well. Marketing worked

on me. That's the other thing, man. The marketing

for all of this stuff over the last 40 -something

years of our lives. Marketing, obviously, is

what sells the shit to us. It is what it is.

It does, and it's funny because it shouldn't

work, but then you look at video games, which

is probably the best example that somehow they

do work because so many games get... released

in garbage condition or that are bad and somehow

still sell a bunch of units before people figure

out that, gee, I shouldn't have bought this,

or gee, all those videos that made it look good

lied to me. Yeah, pretty much. Don't pre -order

games. That's what I'm getting at. Exactly. All

right, folks. Thank you for joining us here on

ToyCast. If you'd like to get in contact with

us or leave feedback for the show, there are

several ways to do so. Visit the website geekcastradio

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go to facebook .com slash geekcastradionetwork.

You can also search out ToyCast or TF ToyCast

over there as well. I deleted Facebook. Oh, anyway.

I did. Yeah, I know you did. It's okay. Next

time on ToyCast, no clue. I'm flying by the seat

of my pants, folks. So we'll see what happens.

It could be a Funko episode. It could be an episode

where Josh the Floor Burger and I talk about...

something i don't know for now i am tf2 and mike

with brian the uneven flow me guy at night beat

yes him that guy over there join us next time

when we will be talking more toys here on toycast