Interview with Scott Neitlich on Toy Collecting, Masters of the Universe Classics, and Spectre Creative

This is Scott toy guru night like and you're

listening to the geek cast radio network Hey,

this is Scott toy guru night like and you're

listening to toy cast Now toy cast oh yes Listen

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. Joining

me sort of as always is Mr. Floorburger himself.

It is Josh Flood. Hello, sir. Good morning. It's

morning. Really? I couldn't tell. Whatever you

do, folks, do not eat Fritos before bed because

your throat will basically say, hey, you're going

to be awake all night. Yay. Oh, Lord. We are

here with today's guest here on Toycast. It is

the creative director at Spectre Creative. It

is none other than Scott Nylik, AKA the Toy Guru.

First of all, before we even get any started,

the first question I have is where did you come

up with, did you just say that you wanted to

be that, or how did the Toy Guru part come into

play? Good morning, and thank you so much for

having me. It's so great to wake up on Saturday

and just chat toys. It's not like I have to do

that with my wife or my cat or my daughter. It's

either that or we can watch cartoons together,

but we can't stream them online or else we'll

get in trouble. It's true. I tried doing that

with my two best friends from high school watching

Book of Boba Fett. We were all going to like

say, okay, ready? One, two, three, play. So we

could try to all watch it together from wherever

we are in the country and it didn't quite work.

No. Right, Toy Guru, me, name, yes. So, I've

been in the toy industry for well over 20 years.

I now run my own consulting firm, Spector Creative,

which you can find it, SpectorCreative .com,

shameless plug number one, or of course, the

YouTube channel. The name came when I was at

Mattel for nine years and was basically running

product lines aimed at the adult collector with

a service called MaddieCollector .com, which

was a direct -to -consumer website that was like

a figure of the month club for those who weren't

around for it and i needed a way to post on message

boards and for people to know that it was coming

from you know. Me if you will and most people

on message boards use screen name so i was like

okay i have to come up with some kind of screen

name that's gonna show that i am. I guess you

will be not the authority figure but the information.

Figure or you know well, so the might you know,

so I just was like, okay I'll be the toy guru

it like it was literally just meant to be a screen

name it was not meant to be a thing and it became

a thing people just started calling me that and

It just kind of stuck. So it was really just

meant to help differentiate me on the message

boards as Not you know, I mean obviously a member

of the board but also that I was actually speaking,

you know because you were working at the company.

Yeah Right. Yeah, it was just to give myself

some sense of authority regarding my information.

And there they go. So probably a much better

name to set yourself apart than Floor Burger

or something like that that I go by. Well, I

didn't think about that. But no, that name didn't

work too much. Oh, OK. I'm glad it was still

available. And with mine, it's because it's Transformers

Generation 1. And somebody, when I first started

podcasting within the first year, One of my Canadian

listeners was like, oh, it stands, and we do

curse around here, not that we're going to, but

we do. I'm just gonna put that out there. It

stands for the fucking great one. And I'm just

like, no, that's not what it stands for, but

sometimes my ego thinks it does. I had a different

nickname for you, but we won't get into that.

We haven't known each other that long, so don't

start that. All right, so since I did the introduction,

Josh is going to have a conversation with you

for the first four out of 42 questions. Take

it away, Josh. Are you ready for 42 questions

in the morning, Scott? Life, the universe, and

everything. That's how we hook people in. So

Scott, you have said many times, and I really

agree with it, it comes through in your passion.

You're a toy fan first. So do you have a memory

of the first toy that you actually remember playing

with or having as a kid? Oh? Literally the first

yeah, I mean we're gonna start with the easy

question Memory of that like I mean there's I

definitely like you know I still have a lot of

like most of us I have a lot of toys from my

childhood Know the early I mean like the earliest

ones are the Fisher -Price little people with

like the train and the the Sesame Street Playset

like the Clubhouse Like reaching back into my

brain, I can't literally think of Like a memory

of playing with those in particular, but I definitely

I mean I own that I mean I like it sort of you

know, it all Hodges together Star Wars he man

Transformers and there was a a building system

called constructs, which was a bolt and girder

set Those are definitely some of my favorite

toys as a kid. Yeah asking me like literally

a memory. I don't know If you don't mind me asking

just for a frame of reference, how old are you?

43 so I was born in 78 after Star Wars came out

Okay, I'm 38, so we're right in the same area.

So number two, was there a particular adult who

was supportive of you playing with toys as a

kid? Was there anyone who was unsupportive? I

think we all go through those points in our lives

where there may be someone who would say you're

too old for toys or anything like that. So have

you ever had a supportive or unsupportive adult

in your life for playing with toys? Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, no, my parents definitely thought especially

as I was hitting junior high that this was a

little crazy and In fact, I've made a couple

I've actually talked about this on my channel

a few times. I there was a sort of that transition

between being a kid playing with toys and being

a Older or like, you know young adult adult collecting

them I was in it must have been like 13 or 14

and I remember being in Target and I was looking

at a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle tattoo figure.

It was like a big sumo wrestler guy. He used

stickers too. Love that one. Yeah. And I had

it in my hand. I wanted to buy it. And I was

with my father. And he said, you really need

to think about that you're getting old for toys.

And I remember his exact quote. He said, you

can either have the toy or the blonde. You need

to choose. Meaning I wasn't going to get girls

if I was still playing with toys. The toy or

the blonde. He said it exactly like that. And

I mean, which is funny because my mom's a brunette,

so I don't know why he thought I was gonna be

into a blonde, but actually I married a, and

then at my wedding I actually said, see, I got

the toys and I got the blondes and my wife has

long blonde hair. So yeah, so that actually caused

me to walk away from toys for a while and be

like, okay, I need to get out of this. But of

course, Power of the Force II roped me back in

when Chewbacca came out and then it was all downhill

from there. um yeah and when i was getting a

job out of college i wanted to go into the toy

industry and my mother had said to me that collecting

toys doesn't come with a 401k so i need to rethink

that and of course working for mattel and several

other i've worked for jack's large toy companies

i have a very i have quite a 401k that i was

able to take away from mattel so yeah you could

you could definitely say my parents were not

the most supportive But then when I became a

success in the toy industry, suddenly it was

a total about face, and it was like, oh yeah,

Scott, our toy son, and da da da, oh my gosh.

That's a 180. Well, and obviously when somebody

can take their hobby and their passion and turn

it into a career, that's where you often see

the most success for a person. And it appears

that you have done that in many different ways.

So when you were a kid though, You already mentioned

a couple different brands that you played with,

but what were the types of toys that were your

favorites to play with? It seemed like you maybe

went a little bit towards the action figures

primarily, but as far as the types of toys, what

were your favorites? As a kid, action figures

were definitely it, and I used constructs, that

building toy, as kind of a medium to fill in

the gap between lines. So I would build Star

I built spaceships out of constructs that I could

put my Star Wars figures in but then those spaceships

that I built would also transform into robots

So it's cool. Yeah, so it kind of became like

this The glue if you will that kind of held all

my toy lines together. I was also in the Hot

Wheels I mean, I remember I still have it because

I have my hot wheel I had a Hot Wheels playset

which when I was at Mattel I actually met the

designer who worked on it Cause I brought it

into my, I brought in my, my, my actual hot wheel

set as a demonstration for something I wanted

to propose. And a designer in the back of the

room in this meeting was like, Hey, I made that

back in the eighties. And I opened it up and

we were looking at it together. It was like,

see, like I named this thing, like, you know,

Larry's garage. Cause my name is Larry. It was

Larry Wood. If anyone knows who that is, he's

a famous Hot Wheels designer. So, um, I, so I

was, so I did go through, I mean, I was, you

know, as a, I did have carplay, but yeah, action

figures were definitely the big one, and I just

never stopped. So this might be a pretty loaded,

pretty easy question for you to answer, but if

you were to promote a toy line based on your

childhood experiences and your favorite types

of toys, if you could do it all over again as

a brand manager day one, what is a type of toy

that you would push now, knowing what you know

as a brand manager? Like what toy would I bring

back to the market, or? Because you mentioned

that Construx was sort of that medium that you

could use it between different toy lines, would

you want to bring back Construx and push that

as something, or would you want to stay strictly

with action figures or Hot Wheels, like if you

just had that opportunity to bring back something

that was great in your own childhood? Oh yeah,

well, actually, the one I would bring back the

most is one I tried to bring back when I was

at Entertainment Earth. If you remember the old

Fisher Price little people, Yeah nowadays they

have like arms and legs and they're caught there

what is referred to as like a super deformed

squishy form factor where you know it's like

an interpretation the ones we had his kids. Where

takes their pins little heads and because of

the shape they could do things that no other

toy could do like go down slides and go and fit

in the holes in little cars and when i work for

entertainment earth for quite a while. We tried

to bring that back as a toyland called Pinmates

and they actually had the license for tons of

IP from Marvel to DC to Star Trek to Big Lebowski.

Unfortunately, it just never took off. We spent

like two years working on this. We had a huge

launch at Comic -Con and then it just didn't

hit. But it's such a hidden gem that I think

someday someone's going to crack the code on

getting it because... It the old ones the pin

shaped Fisher price figures don't do What the

current ones do like they can't go down slides

and they can't go down trapdoors and that was

sort of all the fun So that's something I would

definitely bring back. Are they not currently

made to fit those old sets? The old sets? Yeah,

so like nobody I mean the pin mates that entertainment

Earth made Yeah, we're completely compatible

with the old stuff. That was okay. Liberally

made shy actually had them when I came in as

the director there the sort of pinmate 1 .0 Wasn't

quite it was about like 80 % Correct. So what

we what I did is I brought in all of a bunch

of my old official price big I went to my parents

house dug him out brought him in and said we

have to and we we made pinpoint 2 .0 And it was

literally an exact one to one of the ratio of

the old ones. So the idea was to make them cross

compatible with whatever was in your parents'

attic. I remember that being a very, very versatile

toy line. As a kid, I really enjoyed it. And

it didn't take a whole lot. You didn't even need

too much of a license to really get into it.

You just had a really, like you said, a very

versatile playset. So I really appreciated those.

And I remember when you were promoting them.

I'll admit. I actually never really saw any the

shops. I was Looking around in but I definitely

admired them Yeah, no, thanks. It was definitely

a labor of love and it was absolutely like kind

of a crush when it didn't hit because I thought

this it was gonna be Such a great line that would

bridge that gap between kids and collectors.

Yeah. Yeah, it is good. I'm sorry. Go ahead Oh,

no, I just said not so much like it didn't yeah

it has that sort of similar flavor to pops where

it's Easily cross Hey, I'm not saying any I'm

not I'm not addition pops in this in this episode

But one of the things I admire about pops and

I think one of the things about fig pins or pin

mates Excuse me is that you can put your spider

-man with your Batman and they would still fit

so That that's actually a really really clever

tactic there. So I'm going to turn it over to

the very delightful and positive bike for the

next section of questions The funny thing is,

as you mentioned, that I have Funko Pop art series

He -Man and Skeletor. He -Man is green like Castle

Grayskull, Skeletor is purple like Snake Mountain,

and sitting right to the right of both of them

is Zombie Hunter Spider -Man from Marvel's What

If. So, yes, they are completely interchangeable.

Anyway. Good guys or bad guys? Which toys were

your favorites to play with the most? I want

to say as a kid it was the good guys, but I definitely

I know it'd be sort of the tail end of high school

in the beginning of college I was all about the

bad guys because I remember when the 2000 X He

-Man line came out in 2001 2002 for the Mike

Young series I only was collecting the bad guys.

I sort of like You know what we all kind of make

up rules for how we collect both to protect our

wallets and our shelves in a way. So I break

them all. But yes. And we yeah. And then we have

we make our own rules until we break them. So

yeah. So my rule to keep me from spending my

entire paycheck on He -Man toys in 2001, I said,

OK, I'm just going to buy the bad guys. And you

know, four buzz off and man at arms Tila later.

Suddenly, you know, I realize I have a bunch

of the heroes. But. I was going to be a completist

when it came to the bad guys was my goal. So,

yeah. Say what you will about that reboot, but

Christopher Nolan and his writers, they were

right. You know, either die here or you live

long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Wow, that's aptly said. What is or was your favorite

toy vehicle or playset? Well, I love that you

like have all your questions ready as a kid Yeah,

both as a kid and as an adult Yeah as a kid it

was it definitely would have been castle gray

skull I used to I was given that when I was four

and I've told this story before about how But

on my fourth birthday, I was very sick. I mean

not like, you know coronavirus or something like

that just you know, okay kids have blues and

My parents had to cancel my birthday party, which

of course, you know for a four -year -old That's

like the worst thing that could possibly ever

happen in the history of ever right on to make

it up for me Well, I mean they didn't cancel

they just postponed it until I was feeling better

So they invited all of my relatives over like

my friend They weren't gonna expose my friends

to being sick, but they had no problem. I guess

exposing And so And yeah, so they gave me my

birthday presents early and what they gave what

was castle grayskull and a handful of figures

he man Skeletor man -at -arms strados and Battle

cat I want to say we're the original gift and

yeah, I mean I just it's amazing to think that

my parents like gave me he man when it was completely

Untested and it's like I didn't even know the

brand or was asking for it. They just saw it

like Scott would like this and I did and Yeah,

I would carry that castle everywhere. My parents

called it my personal luggage. Very cool, very

cool. I carried my toiletries in Castle Grayskull.

I had to get rid of mine because sadly it got

infested somehow. I don't know how that happened.

Quick story. My mom bought me Castle Grayskull

somewhere around my second, third, fourth birthday.

I forget which birthday it was. I know obviously

it came out in 1982. you know, whatever. And

she basically had it in storage with her every

time she moved, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada.

By, I think it was 2010 or 2012, I was like,

oh, I'll take that off your hands. She goes,

oh yeah, I've only been lugging it around the

country for the last 20, 30 years, whatever it

is. And there, I've got a whole photo album on,

on Facebook with pictures with the castle, castle,

the castle with, cause the original castle still

worked. With the classics figures. I have a shot

of a Dora and Orko in the loft whatever, you

know what I'm talking about? Yes, the loss. Yes.

Yes. Well, it sounds better than what it was

actually called or Yeah, so As I'm moving out

of one apartment into another apartment I go

to look at my Queen Marlena and the castle itself

and there were all of these Eternian bugs coming

out of both of them and I'm like, nope, not dealing

with this. Throw it away. At least it lasted

30 something years. I mean, you know, most toys

don't last that long. Most toys don't last that

long. Well, it was a very, very hardy toy. Mine

was left outside, I think, for at least one winter

as we were kids. It lasted. It did great. I think

it was under one of our patio decks. And it's

still durable. I have it. It's in storage right

now, but it still works perfectly fine. I don't

think it would have lasted the three feet of

snow Illinois has currently this year. But anyway,

what features define a good toy to you? How true

does the item feel in comparison to the source

material like this? Now, again, you can answer

this both as a collector and as a Person who

worked on the toys Well as a collector I mean

your kid product and collector product while

they're they obviously blend and there's plenty

of products that are it You know on kids shelves

and kids toy chests that are also on adult collectors

desks But as a collector, yeah, it's gonna add

authenticity articulation Because articulation

is what allows the adult collector to have ownership

over the character. They can pose them how they

want. The more articulation, the more ownership

you have over them, and the more you can, if

you will, control them. That's really what this

hobby is about. It's about feeling control over

things that we can't, like, you know, Millennium

Falcons or, you know, Incredible Hulks, whatever

it is. By putting the figure in the Millennium

Falcon, you control it. By posing Hulk the way

you want to pose him, You now control Hulk. So

that's for the collector, it's authenticity and

articulation and well -done articulation. There

can be sloppy articulation. You know, articulation's

been done where the limbs will fall off. I mean,

you know, all that kind of stuff. I think Marvel

Legends tends to be the gold standard these days,

maybe Black Series. Either way, Hasbro definitely

hits the ball out of the park as far as affordable,

well -articulated figures at mass retail. As

a kid, it's about play value. It's really just

about will the child enjoy this? You know, I

mean the Luke Skywalker we all had in the 80s

didn't look like Mark Hamill I mean, but it didn't

matter, you know, he had a yellow lightsaber.

He had bright yellow hair and there were no facial

features But he could fit into an x -wing and

and and a lightsaber or you know laser sword

Magically came out of his arm and that was cool.

So You know, it's all about play value Absolutely

With your experience, what role does packaging

play into the purchasing of a toy? In other words,

how important is packaging in whether or not

someone, yourself included, would buy a toy?

Oh, excellent question. And considering I got

my start in the toy industry in the package group,

I worked in packaging for a little under two

years. So packaging is there for two reasons.

And they're not necessarily the ones that people

think are the obvious. The first one is they're

there, well actually, it's basically advertising

the toy on shelf to parents. And what he's gotta

communicate the most is price value, that they're

getting a lot of toy for however much they're

spending. It's why you see toys packed out where

every piece count is in a blister. A great example

is there's a new Marvel Legends retro wave and

there's a hobgoblin figure in this wave. Hobgoblin's

satchel purse, whatever you want to call it.

I mean, it was originally tooled as Mary Jane's

purse, but now it's used as Hobgoblin's satchel.

He's not wearing it in the packet next to him.

And that's done to show peace count so that parents

can look and say, oh, you get a figure, you get

a little glider, you get like some little weird

purse accessory. So it makes it feel more valuable.

For collectors, Pat you know packaging is much

more about like am I go do it and do I want it's

a piece of art? You know the figure on the card

is not an action figure. It's a piece of art

You're displaying on your wall It happens to

incorporate an action figure into the art the

way the Mona Lisa incorporates paint or canvas

into the yard It's just part of the material

if you will but the biggest reason for packaging

is Not what people think at all I would say 60

to 70 % of the packaging is done for the stock

person at Target and Walmart to help them figure

out where it goes. That's why the branding is

done like that. It's designed not for the end

user, but for the store to figure out where to

put it. I honestly did not know that. I have

a couple of choice package figures around me

right now. everything you just said just resonates

so loud. Ninja Turtles is a great example of

having the accessories sitting out so you can

see everything that's packed with them. Oh yeah,

absolutely. So in the same vein, what does toy

packaging have to have to draw you in? What have

been some notable toy packages that you have

appreciated? Let me think. I'm like looking around

my office at like the few things that I have

because I don't have that much in package. The

vintage Kenner Star Wars figures really penetrated

pop culture. You have the big photo on the right

and the coffee cluster. Other companies and especially

Kenner replicated this. In particular, I'm looking

at my Robin Hood Prince of Thieves carded collections.

One of the only ones I have carded and not loose

because I just think they're beautiful. I love

seeing the big picture, the actors, and the repainted

Star Wars and Superpowers figures inside. I thought

the Indiana Jones line that Hasbro did for Skull,

Crystal Skull, I mean obviously the movie has

its own issues, but the packaging I thought was

great. The use of the whip as a visual that brought

you from the logo around to the toy. I thought

the old Go toys were great. In the 70s with the

circles with the fake the faces and the bright

colors and yeah Just like me again. I'm just

like literally glancing them out in my office

I like what is in package that I can say masters

universe classics. There seems to be a lot of

those around my office Those were pretty cool.

You think I mean, you know, where did where did

those come from? Exactly. All right, so when

we originally proposed Classics it was originally

was only gonna be a six -figure line like kind

of like the commemorative series of toys for

us in 99. We didn't think there was a big enough

audience because the brand had just failed at

retail with the 2000 X line. So it was basically

thought of as a trite twice failed line if you

will and Because we were selling them online

Management didn't give us any resources for packaging.

They said, well, you know, you're just selling

it off. There's no retail involved. So just put

it in a white box or in a poly bag and send it

out. It's what Hasbro does with the army builder

troops for Star Wars on Hasbro pulse. It's just

come in a white box and they're all poly bagged,

which is actually pretty cool. So that was what

management wanted us to do. And I made a stink

that there was a large number of collectors that

were going to want to display these in package

as art. So we still didn't get any money for

resources, but we were allowed to at least put

them into a blister. So what we did is we just

looked to see what we had. And all we really

had was the green brick pattern that had been

created for the King Grayskull San Diego Comic

-Con figure. We had that art file. So we're like,

OK, well, we'll just repurpose that art file.

And then on the back, in order to fill what is

referred to as real estate, it's like, what are

we going to So I said, well, we'll just fill

it with a cross cell at top, because that doesn't

cost anything, just photos. And then on the bottom,

just slap a scroll there and I'll whip you up

a quick bio. We only needed it for six characters.

I figured that's not that big of a commitment.

I can write six quick bios. I was a writer before

I became a marketing manager. And that's where

the packaging came from. It was just meant to

be a sort of very quick, cheap way to do it.

would also work as a template so that it was

easy to just do each character, just change the

name, change the bio. Like there was no, you

notice there was no original art, if you will.

Stuff like that. So it was just made to be templated

so we could do it as quickly and cheaply as possible

because we had absolutely no money. Geez. And

I think one of the cool pieces about the master's

line that I liked, I wasn't an early adopter,

it took me a little while to get into it, but

There was something pretty cool about having

almost that traditional blister card, but with

such a high quality toy on the inside, it was

an interesting dynamic of this sort of standard

retail style of packaging with that very special

figure on the inside. I felt like I was actually

getting a lot of value for it. It might just

be my perception, but I appreciate it because

of that. We were going for that. We were also

doing everything we could with the limited. For

example those figures you notice have that inverted

belly button. We called it that was the original

figures in the eighties that dimple was created

to keep the figures pressed against the back

card to keep them from jiggling around so it's

no inner blister. We put that on the classic

figures i remember again bringing in the management

for approval and they're like why is there this

stupid indent here and i was trying to explain

how it was a lot and they're like but you don't

need it to hold the figure. In place we have

an inner blister now i was like i know but it's

just it's an homage it's cool they're like fine

we trust you we let you know you're talking about

but they thought it was weird and then the last

one is you'll notice on the side of the figures

are air holes yeah And people have always wondered,

do these figures come alive at night and need

to breathe? But it was, do you keep them from

that white dust that gets on packages? I've done

a video on the Spector Creative channel. You

can see about the science of why that happens,

but it's basically from a lack of oxygen. And

that's why we put the holes there so that wouldn't

happen. I remember that in... in a couple of

figures. I just always wash it off. But the dimple

that you mentioned, I remember seeing it. It's

been years since I've opened a master's figure.

But I remember seeing it. I kind of just always

accepted it. I just felt it was part of the design

and just went with it. So that's I think all

of us, and I'm not going to go too far down this

rabbit hole. I think all of us were just happy

we finally got the figures because of the digital

thing going on at the time. But anyway, take

it away, Josh, with the next set of questions.

Yeah. So Scott, go back to being a kid. Of all

the toys that you already have the knowledge

of, have experienced, if you only had to choose

one of those to collect from, you can't get anything

else. So it's either only Star Wars or only Masters.

What would you choose and why would you choose

that one if you had to? It would probably...

I mean honestly private it would be a husband

in Star Wars and constructs But I would probably

go for Star Wars as much as I loved he man Star

Wars I think was more world -building. I mean

I had more vehicles You know it was really because

of the scale because of the three and three -fourth

scale You could do a lot more. Yeah, that would

that would be the one it would definitely be

Star Wars. That was my first love and In just

referencing vintage toys modern toys based on

your experience as a collector not as a brand

manager. Where do you find your preferences in

what we could consider vintage? So let's say

vintage, maybe everything going up to 2000 -ish,

maybe a little bit before 2000, or modern, so

everything sort of post -2000. Do you prefer

as a collector vintage or modern toys? Modern

toys. The only vintage toys I have tend to be

the ones I own. Very rarely will i buy a toy.

That you like like like say star i never had

the star wars the kenner imperial officer. And

i never let those occasionally i want to like

i want to you know complete my original kenner

collection since i never had those figures but.

I like modern, like literally the latest. I replace

my Toy Biz Marvel Legends with Hasbro Marvel

Legends as better ones come out. Me too. So yeah,

I like having the best version. And I think that's

also something you've spoken to in one of your

videos is that it's always a quest to make sure

you have the best and most iconic version of

a toy. But in terms of everything you have in

your office, you mentioned you have a collection

in your office. What is one toy that you can

always just pick up and play with if you're wandering

past it or it's sitting on your desk? You can

just fiddle with it and you always enjoy playing

with it. Oh, great question, because I am such

a fiddler. And I mean, I actually keep toys just

on my desk as like fiddle toys. Yeah, me too.

I don't have that many Motu origins, but I have

a merman, because he's so easily articulated

and stuff. Other things that I love fiddling

with that are on my desk are, there was a line

called Boom Co. It was meant to be Mattel's attempt

at nerf. It didn't work for a lot of reasons

i mean mainly because it literally didn't work

the darts but that's the whole other thing one

of the items that had in it was this. Like a

better word it was a grenade it was basically

to squishy i'm like a rubber. There's two tortoise

shells and then one on top of another they split

in the middle as a two tortoise shells. But the

way it's designed it's got like finger. not finger

holes, but finger dimples, like all over it.

And it is so much fun to squish and pull apart

and stick together. I mean, it's meant to be

something for kids to like throw, like a grenade

they would split in two, and it's like, I got

you! I kept a few as fidget toys, and they are

just amazing. They are so, it is like so much

fun to fiddle with. Look up Boom Co. Grenade

or Boom Co. Squishy Ball, and you'll see what

I mean. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now, and

fidget toys have been, recent trend for, what,

about six or seven years for students of all

ages. And even adults. And these look just like

some of the fidget toys that they play with.

So that's really interesting. Even though there

are always toy lines that people never purchase,

and in your videos you have interest and appreciation

for a lot of them. Are there any that as a collector

that you specifically and purposely avoid that

you will just never buy for some reason? So this

can be toy lines or specific characters. Just

anything that you have a toy allergy to. Wow,

I don't think I've ever been asked that. I mean

there's things that like I don't care for. I

mean I'm like I'm not that much of a car toy

guy. I mean I have a few Hot Wheels here and

there. Like if someone gave me a toy that I would

like immediately give it away or like not keep

it. No, it's more so like if you go into the

toy shop or you go into the toy store or whatever

and you see He -Man, Transformers, Thundercats,

Silverhawks, Voltron, My Little Pony, Care Bears,

Rainbow Brite, like which one would you not buy?

Which one would you, like no thanks, not for

me, I'll stick with what's over in this pile.

Another way to look at that, too, is one of the

reasons I didn't get into classics early on is

that I knew it would be a black hole I could

never recover from. It would just be one of those

collections I would go big into, and that's what

happened. I had, at one point, a ton of classics,

so that could be the other thing is, are you

trying to control yourself so you don't fall

into it? Because that's what happened with Masters

for me, so either way. G .I. Joe would be it,

by far. I'm not into G .I. Joe. Is there any

particular reason I? Just never had it as a kid.

I mean, I'm not anti -military. I mean, I you

know, I've seen the GI Joe movies I've seen the

cartoon. I do own a few GI Joe figures. I have

a classified Cobra commander On my villain shelf,

but yeah, it just yes never never hit with me

And that's interesting because you have an appreciation

for that similar scale but I do know some people

who Only had Star Wars or they only had GI Joe

and maybe they had a couple of each of the other

one But they were very focused on one or the

other. I Know it weird like you'd think I especially

being into you know, all of the compatriot lines

I mean I even like my little pony and strawberry

shortcake and air bears I just never got into

GI Joe and it's like the one I mean, I like silverhawks.

I like thundercats. I like you know munchy cheese

like there's almost every 80s line just for some

reason i'm not anti -ji joe it just doesn't speak

to me and i never got into it again it's it's

your collection and it's whatever flavor that

you kind of got into there's some major toy lines

i never really got into thundercats as much as

i had a couple but that was a big one for a lot

of people uh so are there any toys that and i

don't know if you ever get much into selling

on ebay or anything like that But are there any

toys that you have sold or let go or gave away

that you regret later on and wish you still had?

Oh, heck yeah, heck yeah. When we moved from

California to North Carolina, I donated just

like a ridiculous amount of toys to my daughter's

school, mainly, you know, just to knock. I mean,

I'd like, you know, I basically pruned my collection,

if you will, before the move. I mean, I sold

some things on eBay, but so many of the things

I have are loose. Time and effort to sell them

on eBay versus let children enjoy them. A lot

of it was Star Wars vehicles from the modern

line, because I don't really collect those. I

have a few, but I didn't buy a sale barge. You'd

think like me being in the Star Wars figures,

I'd buy a sale barge, but I'm into the figures,

not the vehicles. Oddly one of the things I threw

into that pile with a bunch of vehicles I had

to buy to get the figure if you will that came

with the vehicle like that's why I wound up with

a bunch of vehicles If you had to buy an x -wing

to get a wedge, I'd buy the x -wing Just keep

the hedge was the power of the force to Rank

or I figured I had a better rank or in like the

more recent one And I was like, I don't need

the power of the force to one anymore But I do

have all my other beasts like my tauntauns and

you know that you know, right do backs So I definitely

yeah, I feel really stupid getting rid of that

because I really wish I had it back Do you think

you'd ever try to track it down again if you

could? Oh, yeah, I mean like that actual one

probably not but yeah that I'll just buy one

off of you know eBay one day or if I see any

books too I mean, I don't think that thing is

going for that much money. So yeah, I'll rebuy

it but I definitely there's That's probably the

biggest one that I'm like, why did I give that

away? That was part of my It was a place for

them to all hang out and have dinner All right,

how large or small is your toy collection to

your toys take up the whole house or are they

relegated to one room shelf or something like

that? Depends on my wife has to say basically

so I have an office I have an office which is

basically a fourth bedroom since we only have

one child who's wonderful and it is literally

covered like there's not there's no space there's

not a space for a single thing added at this

point probably um i i think i have like one spot

in my marvel legends shelf like reserved for

feral when she comes out to complete exports

but otherwise there's like nothing there's there's

not even a place for dust to settle i have so

many toys in here uh which includes two large

back closets one of which has Like five or six

giant tubs that are filled with my complete DCU

classic and MOTU classic collections as well

as I have a complete collection of every three

and three fourth Star Wars figure that's been

released since 1995 from the original trilogy.

I don't have I have a lot of I have some prequel

figures like one or two Disney, but if it's original

trilogy. And it came out, starting with Power

of the Force 2 and ending with, God, I just got

Bib Fortuna and Lobot the other day. So yeah,

every single one in bins labeled with their accessory

in release order. So that takes up a whole walk

-in closet, just that, as well as my comic books.

I have a few figures scattered around the house.

There's a Swedish chef in our spice cabinet.

Is it the Palisades one or the diamond? The it

was the palisades one with the playset. Oh It's

one of my favorites that playset was Amazing.

I mean that became more accessories than any

it was I bought that place up for the accessories

It's still sitting on my shelf right now. Yep

Yeah, I like and I use those accessories all

over the place because I've been frying pans

and like, you know singing tomatoes I mean it

was just amazing Then yeah, there's Like I joked

in a few videos and my wife's China cabinet is

my spirit of King Grayskull figure, a pinmate

of me and a pinmate of my daughter and a pinmate

of my daughter's cat that were all prototypes

that never got released. Um, as well as a few

other, I have a, uh, unproduced Lord of the Rings,

wild man figure that a friendly toy biz gave

me. It was set to be released and it never came

out. It's the sculpt not the figure and then

I have a few gifts the horsemen gave me I have

the King Grayskull dungeon from Castle Grayskull

in that China cabinet The sculpted dungeon. So

yeah, I mean there's a few toys, you know around

the house I have a Sherlock Holmes shelf, you

know downstairs in our library and in front of

all like the books I have like a few Sherlock

action figures and a Sherlock pop and a Sherlock

Lego that kind of thing But so the majorities

in my room My or my office, but there's definitely

you know, and there there tends to like always

be like some random Marvel Legends figure like

on the coffee table because it was in my pocket

or something Side note that toy biz Lord of the

Rings line. I think is extremely underappreciated

It's one of my favorite lines and I have a massive

amount of it. But it is Oh, yeah, I couldn't

agree more and it also One day I'll do it. I

still haven't figured out the total angle, but

ToyBiz didn't pay for its tooling bill. So that

line skewed so many collector perspectives of

price value and what they should get as far as

original tooling. It was ridiculous. There wasn't

a single piece of shared tooling in that line.

No, and I'm looking at it right now and to see

the level of detail and the pain apps just everything

I've learned from watching your videos about

how the toy industry works it boggles my mind

about how this works because right above it I

have Star Wars black and I see Figures that have

a lot of shared parts and Marvel Legends same

thing. So I would be so curious how this was

produced Without paying for it basically. Yeah,

like is the simple answer. So somebody else Paid

for it. Well, no one paid for it. They stiff

the battery. Oh Oh, so that's why toy biz is

no longer in biz Wow Do you keep track of your

collection if so, what method do you use to do

so? Honestly, I'm impressed with your guys questions.

All right, so With my Star Wars figures. I mentioned

that they're all in individual like sliding bins

like I have like those like the nut and bolt

Then you like drawers. You'll buy at Home Depot.

I prefer you know sprues So I have 60 drawer

cases and I have like 17 of them And they're

all in release order. So if you needed a Star

Wars original trilogy figure from the last 30

years, I could have it for you in about 15 seconds

Other stuff my Marvel Legends I keep out on display

so I know Who's there and who's not my motu classics

and my dcu classics because both of those toy

lines are closed if you will I know they're complete.

I have them all I have like I have my full set

and doubles as needed and they're all In ziploc

bags in individual bins. So again if I needed

one, um, I could get it pretty quickly I just

don't have to I just don't have room for shell

there's just physically you know only so much

you can put out but yeah that i mean that's pretty

much about it i mean the only lines i'm really

actively collecting at this point are continuing

star wars three and three fourth and a very small

number of marvel legends that are i'm still waiting

for like before mentioned feral from x force

with you again which i can visually see and uh

you know check what's going has anyone walked

off um Yeah, mostly bins. That's basically how

I do it. I mean, everything is organized. I've

got my Lord of the Rings figures. I have all

of them in a bin. All my Ghostbusters figures

in a bin. So it's like anytime I need something

for reference or I want to get it out just to

enjoy it, I can get to it very easily. I just

don't have display space for everything. Speaking

of display space... How do you display your toys?

Do you display it with the possibility of others

to view it in mind or is it just for your own

personal viewing? Mostly it's for my personal

viewing in the sense that this is my office.

I also have a desk and this is where I both do

my professional work for Spectra Creative. It's

where I'm getting my MBA. It's where I attend

class virtually, all that kind of stuff. It's

a functioning office and I've got reference books

and material. that I need for clients. But yeah,

it's mostly there. This is my man cave, also,

if you will. It just feels really good to have

my stuff. Every time anyone comes over who has

a child, my wife, of course, is like, you wanna

go see the toy room upstairs? These are things

you can't touch. You can touch those over there,

but nothing over here can be touched, just looked

at. People do come over. Yeah, my wife likes

to show it even if it's I mean, you know not

that she makes fun of me for this But it's like

I go secretly she thinks it's awesome because

she always wants to show it off Yeah, so you

know 80 % me 20 % guests coming over, you know

People have asked me to do a video on the channel

and I might I might video the room sometime So

cool. I love this. Yeah, that would be awesome.

Yeah. All right, Josh. Take it away next to So

you talked about how you stored your action figures

to talk about how you displayed them. So Assuming

that everyone is safe family pets Your valuables

things that you can't do without The house is

on fire You can run in and you have time to grab

a one toy. What would you grab? Oh Only because

I was gonna say I'm actually prepared for that

and I have a bag of figures that is there It's

my apocalypse bag. So, you know if I had to run

out and just grab one thing I would just grab

the bag and it's all saying So what's in your

apocalypse bag? And this might tie into our next

question, so. But if I got one figure before

we get to the apocalypse bag? Yeah. I mean, I'd

probably grab a Mighty Spectre. Like, there's

enough of him around that it'd be pretty easy

to get. Or a Mandalorian. Or I think the Mandalorian

3 and 3 fourths figure tends to be like one of

my favorites right now. Yeah. Yeah, I can understand.

The Mighty Spectre thing, I can totally understand.

So you have your apocalypse bags, so the next

question is sort of like that. And you get an

18 by 18 by 18 box. So one of those boxes, have

you ever gotten HelloFresh or Blue Apron meal

kits? Yeah. So a box about that size. Yeah. OK.

So what would I put in there? The only toys you

can keep have to fit in the box. What do you

pack into it? All right. Well, let's say it's

pretty I mean I can I'd probably clear off the

top shelf of my desk because it's got like all

my favorites, so Let's see. I've got a Marvel

Marvel Legends Venom With the kind of Mark Bagley

head as well as the Eric Larson head under him

Shazam the wizard from JLU Mighty Spectre the

question from JLU Dark Hawk from Marvel Legends

Savage Dragon from legendary heroes Dark Deathlock

from Marvel Legends, Grey Ghost from JLU, a NX

Enterprise, My Walrus Man from when I was a kid,

let's see here, probably throwing a bunch of

pin mates, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, Adam

Warlock, Pip, got a Admiral Ackbar from Galactic

Heroes, Spider -Man pin mate, Mace Windu's, Jedi

fighter as a die cast in that titanium series.

See my Green Lantern ring, my Legion ring, my

X -Men black, black, not Blackhawk. What the

heck is our ship? Darkhawk. No, not Darkhawk.

The X -Men ship. The Blackbird. Yes. I have a

Hot Wheels Blackbird, which I bought. It was

amazing. If you haven't seen this Hot Wheels

Blackbird, it's like. Oh, I have two of them.

Yeah, I just stumbled on that literally. I didn't

even know it was made. I was like, why are they

not telling people this is out? I have a couple

of my figures from the Constructs line that were

the little mini figures that went with that line.

They're like three inches tall. They've got five

points of articulation. There's like alien spacemen.

I definitely grabbed those. Let's see. I still

have a lot of space, don't I? I mean, it's like

- This box is gonna be very heavy. Yeah, it's

basically getting filled with like just lots

of Lots of Star Wars three and three then at

that point like now that I've grabbed some of

my like absolute favorites I would basically

just start pouring in so I have aside for my

complete collection of Star Wars three and three

fourth and DC and mo to classics and even when

I collect for Marvel Legends what's in my apocalypse

box is basically my favorite figures from the

world of six inch from anything mo to Masters

the inner or assume with the same thing Marvel

Legends DC, but you know even like, you know

one -off lines, you know aliens Hunger Games

and like a Futurama Simpsons I mean, I know they

weren't quite six inch but so I have a box that's

basically my absolute favorite characters and

if that figure is something like a Marvel Legends

or a DC you or a bow to classics that I also

have archive collections of, it's a double. So

I don't need to go into my DCU Classics collection

or my Motu Classics collection to get my favorite

Motu. They're all in this six -inch bag along

with some Marvel Legends that are also like Cyclops

from the X -Men is one of my favorite characters.

He's sitting on my Marvel Legends shelf. I also

have a duplicate of him in this bag. I like that

there's somebody else out there who thought similarly

to me. I haven't done the same thing, but if

I Had to that's what the origin of this question

is that I would love to Just have that box ready

to go if everything else had to go yeah, so I

basically have yet, there's a Bag and it's got

a whole bunch of six -inch figures and it's got

a whole bunch of Star Wars three and three fourth

figures But they're all duplicates of ones that

I have in the back in the archive collection

Very cool. Very cool So as the years went by,

if a character came out that I knew I was going

to want to display, but I also wanted like an

everyday playable version, I would buy too. I

used to do that a lot with Toy Biz Marvel Legends

because I was worried about my favorite version

breaking. So that's how I started my Marvel Legends

carded collection for a couple of years, is that

it was my backup insurance policy. And then it

just became my carded collection that I eventually

sold. Yeah, insurance policy toys. I'm running

out of time. I'm going to do a video on that.

That's the whole point of us buying two. You

buy one to keep in the box, and you buy one to

open up and play with. For me, it was always

an insecurity thing. It wasn't about the visual.

It was just, I break stuff. I'm clumsy. It happens.

I think I was more, I don't want to disturb.

But my goal one day is to have a big enough office

to have to have all my stuff on display my DC

my mojo classics So the idea was that I'd be

able to have all of those toy lines the entire

line including my Star Wars 3 and 3 4th Which

is probably like 4 ,000 figures. So we're talking

a lot So that's always been my end goal. But

as part of that, I wanted to never have to touch

those so if I wanted a figure to play with or

touch or display or stick in my pocket or Whatever

that would be a character I would put in that

you know that that insurance policy pile and

buy a duplicate Which is loose in this bin in

my office, right? There's somebody else out there

like me that's many people understand that are

you a funko fan I? Have about six pops in total

you know and mostly the ones that don't read

as pops I guess in a way like Audrey to because

it's the only way to get an Audrey to anything.

That's my point. OK, so I so brief. Everyone

that's listening to the sound of my voice right

now has heard this a million times since we started

this podcast way back in 2009. From the time

I was a kid up until whenever I had toys and

then I didn't have toys or whatever. So in 2005,

2006, I'm like, oh, I was, you know. 25 whatever

25 26. I'm like, oh I want my childhood back

and I would go on eBay and Whatever, you know

at the time I had a job where I had Excess money.

Sadly, that's not the case anymore. But anyway,

so I got Motu classics. I got transformer stuff

I got this I got that and whatever else and I

enjoyed it and life happened and in 2011 I had

to sell it all at least the stuff that I could

sell and then the rest of it just kind of went

away And from 2011 up until Josh kind of had

the idea to bring Toycast back, and until I found

Funco, I was not, from 2011 to 2018, 19, not

really into, I still love toys, I still love

seeing toys, I love seeing the reveals, I love

watching all the videos, whatever else, but I

had no compunction in collecting toys anymore.

At the time, back in 2010, I was like, ooh, Mighty

Mugs. I like those. Those are cool. Those are

easy. Those you either just keep in the box,

or you can open them up out of the box. Same

thing with Funco. But my thing with Funco is,

they are the company that is in everything, like

a McDonald's grimace. Where are you ever going

to get a grimace figure, an action figure, anywhere

that is really, you know, to the character? So

that's always been my point with Funco, is they

do make stuff that no one else will ever do.

Let me just interrupt you for two seconds. Remember

how I said I have like maybe six seven front

goes in total Mm -hmm. Yeah, one of them is the

grimace And that's exactly what you just said,

I mean, yep, that's why I have The grimace Funko

and he's actually on my top shelf What is the

most money you spent on a toy? Probably the Marvel

Legends Sentinel. I'm looking around my office

because obviously I've been very blessed with

an amazing, very lucky, blessed career and all

of the toys I've worked on at Mattel, I got for

free. You know, my Castle Race skull, my Voltron,

my entire Motu Classics collection. Yeah, probably

that I spent more money than that. That's probably

it. Probably the Sentinel is probably the most.

I'm just gonna jump in real quick. I will say

coincidentally the most expensive toy I've ever

purchased and still have it is Castle Grayskull

from classics Well done purchase. Oh, I I treated

it like the best personal investment and my cats

actually enjoy coming out of the mouth every

so often. So yeah, awesome I can't believe how

much it's increased in value, too I don't even

want to look because I'm never gonna sell it.

Oh, yeah. No, neither would I Professional curiosity.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to take a peek Actually

one on display and then I have my playing one

What was the best deal you ever got for a figure

that may have been worth quite a bit more than

you paid for it Hmm. Hmm. It just Wow, I And

I know I've had those experience. Oh, I um, so

I recently alright I had to rip During the move

I Should make a video about how horrible this

was. I it was a problem with my my Star Wars

figures and they got Packaged not the way I wanted

them to be and as a result Quite a few accessories

were lost. I mean, we're talking like, you know

25 years of making sure I have every freaking

gun Yeah, exactly And one of them that was really

upsetting was there was a Kmart 2 -pack for Star

Wars 3 and 3 -4 that had a stormtrooper and a

scanning crew member. And the stormtrooper, it

was actually called on package TK421, the one

that's named on screen. And it came with literally

the smallest star wars accessory ever which was

the conflict that loop talks through and i remember

when that figure came out reviews of it were

like eight in an accessory that's destined to

get lost and low and behold the common was one

of the ones that got lost because it was so small

and i was just crushed i was like it was not

the way that i wanted them to travel but that

doesn't matter i found one for thirty bucks and.

It looks like they're going for much closer to

like $100, $150. So I was pretty excited. I wasn't

expecting to replace that figure so easily or

so inexpensively. Depressing fact, I had that

2 -pack and I'm this year's old finding out that

that came with it. And I don't remember that.

I think I lost it as soon as I opened the package.

It breaks the heart. If you weren't ready for

it, if you will. Although go check it might be

in the guys belt. I sold most of my three and

three quarter Star Wars a couple years ago and

I guarantee That that was if it wasn't batted

by my cat it disappeared into time Fair enough.

Yeah, I mean that accessory was ungodly small

Well, it was there was a GI Joe figure I want

to say low light in the pursuit of Cobra line

Maybe that came with a loose bullet because he

was the sniper It was a loose bullet from a case

of bullets and most people said that went flying

the moment you open up the the packaging So that

that is a box. I have not opened yet. That has

just stayed in there What character what was

that toy lowlight? I think from it might be pursuit

of Cobra I Don't think Yes pursuit of Cobra city

strike lowlight fantastic figure I remember one

of the Lord of the Rings, the Sauron figure,

the six inch, came with three one rings, anticipating

you were going to lose two. Oh. Like the ring

was removable from his hand, from his finger,

so that you, you know. I got mine loose. I didn't

know that was a possible. I don't have the electronic

Sauron. I have the second release that was not

electronic. But he does have a ring on, so that's

good to know. Yeah. When I saw that in package,

I was like, that is unbelievable. They thought

ahead and give you extra rings because they know

you're going to lose one. And the figure's only

cool if he has this ring. That's right. Before

we continue on with Josh's next set of questions,

just because you're a professional curiosity

might be killing you. What I see here on eBay

searching Masters of the Universe Classics Castle

Grayskull. 9999 like a thousand bucks 1500 1600

1800 1995 like it's That castle is expensive

as all hell folks now. Oh my god. Somebody is

trying to 23 Wow, somebody's trying to sell it

for $3 ,000. That's crazy And just crazy still

not enough for me to sell it No, thank you for

the image. Yes Yeah, it's and still not enough

for me to even think about getting rid of the

one that I literally when kids come over bring

out and let them play with This take this as

a compliment but to me it's one of the most perfect

play sets because I it fits so many different

scales I think even GI Joe fits in it if as long

as you don't put them in the throne, but It fits

so many scales, it can go with just about anything

I have in my collection, so I don't have a reason

to get rid of it. The one I have on display in

my office is literally just covered in other

toys. You know, like I have a mini -mate Spider

-Man and his amazing friends coming out of his

eyes. I have Rick Sanchez holding up his portal

gun on the jaw bridge. I have a gloob micro -machine

Millennium Falcon, like, Sticky to the wall like

the way it stuck to the Star Destroyer So similarly

I Moved Pee Wee Herman and his entire cast from

the old toy line into Castle Grayskull That is

fantastic Because of my yeah, because of my toy

universe his house burnt down went away I didn't

have the playset at that point. So they all moved

into Castle Grayskull and So you had Jambi and

you had Conkey, you had all of those different

characters all living inside Castle Grayskull

with a very, very stressed out Skeletor. Don't

touch! Such courage! I believe I'm going to gag.

It's what makes toys so great. The fact that

you can, anything can cross over with anything.

I think of toys as a medium that you can tell

stories with. And whether they're stories that

are on our shelf and are funny or... You're making

images and sharing them online. Toys are amazing.

You could have any character meet any character,

and you have total control of that. I think that's

one of the reasons why I could probably talk

to you for hours about this kind of stuff, because

the level of psychology and developmental psychology

that you pull into toy design is so fascinating

for me, especially as a teacher, and I've taught

child development before. There's so much that

I still want to know so the next question and

I think you're a really good person to talk to

about this because it's something that we ask

everybody and It's something that I take into

consideration. What do you think it is about

our generation of collectors? So you said you're

44, correct? 43 43 excuse me. So 43 I'm 38 There's

this kind of sweet spot of people in their late

30s early 40s right now What causes that generation?

for Excuse me. What causes our childhood toys

to mean so much more to us than our parents generation

for instance? You know again, you guys just have

really great questions. Well There's a There's

there's not a simple way of answering that but

I'll maybe try to just give some large Strokes

one the toys we grew up with were more Connected

to content than they were our parents generation

sure you had your howdy duties and your crockett

hats but. In the nineteen eighty one ronald reagan

work to deregulate the fcc which is what allowed

cartoons like my little pony and masters the

universe etc etc to happen. Because previously

you couldn't do a cartoon that could be viewed

as a tv commercial for a toy that change in eighty

one with the reagan administration is why we

have such an onslaught of toy. to content merchandise

in the 80s and 90s. And that didn't exist in

our parents' generation. So that's meta answer

one. And again, we can spend two hours just discussing

this. The other one I would say would be the

emergence in the 80s of the need for a two -parent

income, the pressure to buy more things and for

women to move into the... workforce, both as

social commentary and economic necessity, pushed

one parent out of the household, which hadn't

really happened before in human history. There

was always one parent at home to take care of

the children. So without that, toys became more

of an emotional crutch for us, our generation,

resulting in the current helicopter parents all

the way through the trigger alert college kids

of today, it all stems from the lack of one parent

being home, whether that was mom, dad, whatever.

Not having that has absolutely changed the emotional

makeup of a generation. Yes, it is a very deep

question, that is to be sure. So I want to delve

more into that, but I'm gonna shift channels

really quick to a different type of question.

I think we can come back to that in some later

questions. The next question is, being a brand

manager, somebody who's worked in the toy industry,

How has that impacted, perhaps, how you experience

toy shows or conventions? Do you look at them

a little bit differently? Do you have different

experiences with them than you probably would

if you never had that job? Oh, I mean, definitely.

That first time that I attended Comic -Con as

a vendor was definitely had a coolness factor,

but then it loses its magic, basically. You know

when you really and it just becomes like a lot

of work Instead of something you enjoy going

to I mean that one I still enjoy it But it's

like you're on your feet like you don't have

it You don't have any control of your schedule

when you're working the show you're on your feet

the whole time You know versus like being okay.

Let's go back to the hotel. Oh, let's go out

for pizza Let's you know, whatever but I I think

I appreciate them more. I miss getting to before

I worked for Mattel and went professional, I

used to cosplay to all these shows. I was in

line to buy Keldor and She -Ra, the 2000X line,

and didn't get Keldor, didn't get She -Ra, one

of them. One of them I couldn't get, because

of the weird ticketing system they were doing.

It's been more just an eye -opening, seeing how

it works behind the scenes, and also realizing

how the expectations I think we all bring to

these shows, a lot of times the companies They're

not exactly as passionate about the stuff as

we are, so that's kind of very eye -opening.

Very cool, very cool. What do we have here? It's

Castle Grayskull! And it's mine! Not so fast,

Beastman! He -Man! You can pit He -Man against

Beastman, playing for the power of Castle Grayskull.

You have to put the castle together. Beastman's

escaping! The throne, Dad! Dad, you saved the

castle. Castle Grayskull from the Masters of

the Universe collection. He -Man and Beast -Man

eat souls separately from Mattel. Scott, on a

recent episode of your YouTube channel, your

recent video, excuse me, recent video, you had

discussed action features. Now, as a child for

me, there was a lot of times I would not buy

toys that had action features that were, I guess

the word would be an encumbrance for the overall

toy. Are there? Are there action features that

you actually felt worked well that enhanced the

toy? Are there action features on toys that you

felt really worked against them? Personally,

any figure where a mechanism has to stick out

of the figure, 2000X Beastman is a perfect example.

There's a giant peg sticking out of his back

in order for him to do his whipping, his arms

up and down. So there were some Star Wars figures

released around the time of Attack of the Clones

that did stuff like that too. I don't like when

anytime there's a button or a trigger that breaks

the skull. Sometimes it's the only... The rare

exception might be something like cyclone in

the vintage or the original he man line in the

eighties how it was a dial on the belt and although

it like totally destroy your thumb from spinning

yes yeah which was like worse than nintendo fingers.

It was still sort of like it fit into the sculpt

a little bit more than a giant trigger sticking

out the back yeah i mean that's just a personal

opinion i mean kids may not care but i remember

even as a kid thinking that like. You know, yeah

the trigger like I like superpowers was cool

because you know, you just squeeze the the legs

together Like the the mechanism was built into

the figure So that's when I could be more forgiving

and kids do love action features. They wouldn't

do them. So As far as one that is just like amazing

the toy biz Lord of the Rings I think we talked

about the the the blind earlier in the interview

I can't remember two minutes ago. So don't worry

about my brain The very first wave of figures

were heavy with action features, and they disappeared

as the line went on because it was more collector

focused than last kit. But that first initial

wave of fellowship figures had mechanisms, and

while the triggers sometimes did poke out of

their back, what the mechanisms allowed the figures

to do were pretty darn amazing. Like, for example,

Legolas and one of the Uruk -Kai and Aragon figures.

could pull back on a bow string and release an

arrow. And that was freaking amazing. So yeah,

you know, it can happen. Cool ones can happen.

And you mentioned you were a fan of the Robin

Hood Prince of Thieves line. And we're going

to come back to that in a little bit. But I was

a huge fan of the Prince of Thieves line because

that was one of the only toy lines I had where

you had a bow string that you could pull back

to launch an arrow. So to have a figure that

could do that automatically had to be pretty

cool. especially considering that a lot of toy

companies and that includes Mattel when I worked

there working on things like a green arrow figure

or bow from from the Princess of Power line and

yeah like you had to do figures with arrows sculpted

into the bow and arrow or you know the bow and

the string so that it otherwise it could be legally

considered a slingshot and like has to have all

this safety it's it's crazy there's a whole that's

a whole thing I'm gonna write that's actually

a video topic I'm gonna write that down Actually,

the funny thing about the Toy Biz Lord of the

Rings line, all those triggers, I took a wire

cutter and cut the triggers off of all of them.

So I have a ton of Lord of the Rings figures

that would be considered non -mint anymore. And

those things shoot across the room when you clip

them off, by the way, in case anybody is wondering.

That's awesome. Yeah, I actually hit my roommate

in the head. And that is why. Exactly why Mattel

makes the designers sculpt an arrow lodged into

the bow. Yeah, there you go. Bingo So I want

to we're gonna be jumping around a little bit

I wanted to jump into the scaling of Masters

the universe. We're gonna go from action features

to scaling So matches Masters the universe classics.

They were larger figures for the time There's

a lot of six -inch figures on the market at the

time especially geared towards collectors and

I believe in one of your videos And if it is

in one of your videos, feel free to throw it

out there. But it was unique to try to set it

aside from other toy lines at the time. It was

a bit bigger, a bit huskier. And I thought I

remember somebody saying that it was to make

adult collectors feel like a kid again holding

a toy scale -wise. So if you're a three -foot

kid holding a master's figure, it is a certain

ratio of scale when you're an adult. Obviously,

holding a master's figure is going to feel a

lot smaller, but a classics figure might make

you feel like a kid again because it's larger.

Is there any truth to that? Oh, definitely. Absolutely.

I don't know if that was done deliberately to

create that psychological connection, but it

absolutely exists. Part of the scaling issue

for motu and the reason that they're about six

and a half inches versus six. I mean the the

scale is determined just to make a figure that

was you know could live in your marvel legends

black series like that world you know that we

all collect. The reason they are larger though

is because in the in the original line the fact

that they were five inch figures and most of

the product at market was three and three quarter

specially competitor star wars. and to extend

GI Joe, so they were made bigger specifically

to be bigger than all the other toys you as a

child owned. So much the same way, Masters of

Classics being six and a half inches versus a

proper six makes them just a little bit bigger

than every other six inch figure you own in your

adult collection. So it was meant to trigger

that reaction. And I remember the first time

I had the Classics Castle Grey Skull in front

of me. It's a massive toy. And I did feel like

a little kid again, and that was a very fun moment

for me when that showed up to my doorstep. Like

I said, we're going to be jumping around a little

bit. I'm looking at my castle right now, so yeah,

all good. Mine actually has the more recent Masters.

These castles don't bounce, y 'all. Don't jump

in the castles. I actually have the Masters of

the Universe mini. They have the little blind

box figures that came in the Tiny Castle Grayskull.

Yeah, I have a little bit of an inception thing

going on where the tiny castles coming out of

the larger castle currently That's great That's

what she said She may have like I said, we're

gonna jump around a little bit The next thing

is is that I'm also a big fan of some obscure

sometimes one series toy lines from movies and

TV shows I'm well known for my Affinity for the

water world toy line and the movie Nice and even

and even the Super Mario Brothers movie line

which I think is very underrated and you mentioned

that you also have the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

line and in previous videos you've discussed

that toy lines are primarily in stores to advertise

properties and movies and I 100 % agree with

that but this is certainly reduced in recent

times because it's more focused on established

properties than sometimes these one -off movies

so in your opinion do you feel there's still

room for even a Or even a demand for child -centered

toy lines for more movies other than just established

brands And is there a movie in the last few years

that you felt would have been a fun toy line

I mean, I thought Green Lantern would have been

a fun toy line if the movie did well Like everything

going for it to make it a fun toy line, you know

with a kid imagination based creations Unlimited

shapes that come out of you know your willpower.

That's very And it was a little Star Wars -ish,

if you think about it, with a very large cast

of characters that you could just keep going

with over and over again. Usually an untested

property like Green Lantern will get a very limited

line at retail. If you look at Iron Man 1, it

had a very small line compared to Iron Man 2

because no one knew the hell Iron Man was at

the time. and the fact that Mattel went so all

-in on Green Lantern was because it checked up

every box as far as what makes a good toilet

like every box I mean it was like this is gonna

be just as big as Batman potentially and then

the movie didn't work you mean Green Lantern

didn't work yeah the Green Lantern movie yeah

so do you do you feel that there's still room

for untested properties something like when He

-Man was first introduced back in the 80s yeah

Absolutely, especially for younger kids who still

need play because they don't necessarily care

as much about the characters. They care much

more about the play, which is why things like

Imaginext, you know, and LEGO continue to do

like, you know, Citi that, you know, sets that

skew young. So yeah, there's, it just takes a

company willing to try. Well, so then in the

late 80s and early 90s, there were several toy

lines that were inspired by R -rated or adult

-natured properties like Terminator 2, Demolition

Man, Aliens, and Aliens is a unique one because

it came out years after the property it was inspired

by. So as a brand manager or even as a parent,

what's your opinion on this upon reflection of

toys being available for these R -rated movies,

and why would toy companies develop toy lines

that are based on movies that may not have been

accessible to kids? Very interesting question.

I've never worked on one, but I've spent time

thinking about this subject. There's many YouTube

videos on it out there, which is one of the reasons

I haven't addressed it, because I'm like, yeah,

it's been covered. But basically, I think that

the reason toy companies make toys of these things

Is because the concept alone is toy attic. Oh,

yeah. So, you know, you've got space marines

versus alien, you know, bug monsters. You have

a police officer robot. You have what's it? What's

another one? Demolition man. You know, you still

Vesta Salone, you know, travel, you know, it's

very, very toy at concepts of sometimes. Yeah,

especially the fact that aliens came out years

later proves that because it was basically like.

Wow, this is a concept that works for kids. The

movie may be years old and inappropriate, but

who cares? They'll like the concept. And I guess

there's something very easy to understand between

army men and alien bugs. Put the two together,

you don't even have to know the plot, you just

know that they fight each other. That's exactly

it. You're always gonna be a part of Rico's Roughnecks.

Oh, and that was a toy line as well. There you

go. Yeah, Starship Troopers had a big toy line

and that's incredibly inappropriate, but it's

just soldiers versus bugs and, you know, kids

can get that. Now, personally, I would have loved

a couple of toys that were inspired at least

by the novel a little bit more than the movie,

but... Oh, Starship Troopers? Yeah. God, that

would be incredible with the body suits and the

jumping. I mean, yeah, but that's... Well, they

tried that with G .I. Joe. Basically, that was

G .I. Joe. That's true. That's true. G .I. Joe

is just Starship Troopers without the name. I

mean, the book. Well, so as a parent, and I know

times are a little bit different, though. I know

that when I was a kid, I got the Terminator 2

toys. So my parents seeing that, oh, let's go

see the movie. And we see the movie and we love

the movie. I was exposed to some more adult nature

movies as a kid. a little bit earlier than you

might see now, but is that... I'm trying to find

the best way to... That's because 40 years ago,

things were wholly different than they are now.

That's true. Like I said earlier in this episode,

my mom let me watch almost anything because she

knew I knew the difference between the fictitious

make -believe that was on the boob tube Versus

going out and actually doing something going

back to was it dark night or dark night rises

the theater? It's horrible the theater shooting

because somebody saw Somebody doing something

in a Batman movie or whatever. It was I believe

it was in I believe it was in Colorado actually

the cut yeah You know 40 years ago. It was wholly

different because 40 years ago. We didn't have

the internet 40 years ago, we could only talk

on the telephone to our friends or, you know,

have our friends come over to our, you know,

homes and play with our, like, it was a lot,

I don't want to say safer, but a lot more disconnected

versus now where if some parent out there was

like my mom was and let me watch anything and

didn't explain to me the difference between Again,

that's why we had Mr. Rogers, and we had the

land of make believe, and he explained to us

as kids in the 80s and late 70s, early 80s, how

make believe is not real. I was also going to

say that we got a lot of our news more from the

lunchroom table in homeroom class where I remember

somebody had convinced me that there were three

more Gremlins movies beyond Gremlins 2 and I

had no way to confirm that. Why didn't you go

to Snopes .com? Unfortunately for me when I was

in fourth grade, the Snopes .com was more of

the I'm going to go tell my mom kind of thing

than anything else. Hey, you're talking to a

guy who in fourth grade got in trouble for talking

about listening to hard rock and liking a girl

So, you know, I got trouble for pretending to

be a Power Rangers So I'm going to stick with

the thing of 40 years ago was a completely different

time Versus what is going on nowadays in the

21st century. So Scott when it comes to these

are rated not adult oriented properties Were

there any in particular that sort of jumped out

at you anything that you really? Enjoyed or is

there anything that said that you felt and you

kind of talked touched on it a second ago that

particularly worked about them Really really

well Well, yeah, just the very fact that they

existed is because like a you know I think it

just goes back to the point that the concept

was just so Like high toy if you will robot cop,

you know space Soldiers versus bugs that you

know, it doesn't need the content It's a good

enough concept on its own or wouldn't exist.

It wouldn't have worked Are there any other?

Classic 80s or 90s movies again. I'm an 80s and

90s kid. That's where a lot of this is coming

from Are there any that did not have toy lines

that you would have actually liked to have seen?

Blade runners on my list back to the future.

Oh Yeah, that like I always wondered why that

didn't get a toy line Well, that is a good question

why it didn't get even just a basic toy line.

I wonder if it was a likeness thing or something

So everyone thought it was gonna bomb nobody

thought it was gonna be I mean come on it's I

mean even if you ever watched the the well Pitch

meeting the the YouTube channel. Oh Where's the

guy kind of talks back and forth between himself?

Yeah. Yeah Yeah, go watch the one on back to

the future and it actually references the original

comedian that did this bit which actually inspired

his channel because it was a whole bit and I'm

sorry I can't remember the comedian's name, but

it's It's when he does the back to the future

episode he talks about it Because it influences

whole channel and it's just about how how in

the world do you pitch back to the future to

a studio? okay, so this kid goes back in time

and his mom falls in love with him and they start

making out in their car and then there's I mean,

it's like What? Like this movie, who in the world

would ever greenlight this thing? Once they tied

in the DeLorean, I think that's where it came

from. Just easy product placement. Yeah, you

put a car that can time travel, or you put a

car that can talk and turbo boost, there's going

to be toy lines from it. Was it though initially

a refrigerator? Wasn't it supposed to be a refrigerator

at first? It was, yeah, it was supposed to be

this giant. It was a time traveling refrigerator,

I think. Yeah, I don't want to say heaven forbid.

No, you're right. That's what the Indiana Jones

was designed to be, a reference to that. Yeah,

I was going to say, I don't want to necessarily.

come down on all of the Whovians that may be

listening to this, but basically Doc Brown was

a Doctor Who fan because he wanted to have a

TARDIS. We just don't want those kids going into

refrigerators though. So last question on this

topic. So of all those lines, let's say you are

put as the brand manager on any of them, one

that stuck out to you the most. Is there anything

of the one that you would pick, something that

you would change, something you would improve?

Is there anything that you would continue to

do because it worked really well? If you could

have your dream eighties and nineties toy property

to pick from, what would it be? I mean, are you

talking about the specifically the R rated ones

or just any? Yeah. Yes. R rated or more adult

natured properties? I mean, I think I think you

could can starship troopers. Well, I mean, aliens

is basically the same thing. It's like why Walmart

has a great little kid alien flying right now.

I mean, with, you know, Space Marines. It's like

that line, absolutely. I get why it's evergreen.

I mean, I would have loved to do more Robin Hood,

Prince of Thieves. I mean, it only had one wave,

but it's because only one wave sold. It needed

more role play, I think, to sell better. I don't,

yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, it's much more

like there's lines like, you know, Back to the

Future or Goonies. And I'm like, why wasn't there

a toy line? But yeah, no, I can't say that's

really something that I've pondered too much.

I know that Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves actually

had a second series planned, and there's a lot

of movie lines that have a second series planned,

but it never hits. At what point in production

is it usually decided that, hey, we're not going

to move forward on this second series? Is it

when the movie starts to fail, or is it in the

ordering process? Do you have any insight on

that? Yeah, it's basically the opening night

of the movie. Wow. how it produces that first

night is going to determine if there are more

toys put out. But because the toy making cycle

is almost three years, you have to have the next

waves ready to go, assuming, you know, you're

basically betting on the movie being a hit. Are

there ever situations where the line is already

in production but a movie fails and then you

just have all these toys sitting around that

nobody's gonna buy? Well, usually you're, I mean,

That's what the yeah, I mean all the time essentially

I mean that happened a ton with with the Star

Wars episode 7 and you know you saw You know

how much that product was going to Ollie's and

and big lots and pick five I mean every time

you see product to pick five that's because it's

product that was manufactured based on a Bet

that a movie was gonna do well and didn't and

now there's too much product happens all the

time every time you see a product at discount

channel That's it And I've heard stories, and

I'm adding extra questions to my line of questioning

here, but I've heard stories of product from

different lines never being sold in the States,

being sent to South America, being sent to Europe

to sort of dump off some of that extra product.

Do you have any knowledge of that ever happening?

Oh, I mean, it happened and more so happened

back in the 80s and 90s, and there's great examples

like the Giants from the Masters of the Universe

line. or yak face from the force one. And it's

basically because most other markets are a year

to two years behind the US. So a line that's

done in the United States still has viability

outside of the US because maybe the entertainment

hasn't gotten there yet. There's many, many reasons

why territories outside the US get product and

entertainment later, especially back in the 80s.

So yeah, that's what happens all the time. Speaking

of which, did you hear about the massive amount

of mask, counter mask toys that were found in

some South American country that people were

trying to get shipped back to the States to sell.

Oh no, that's cool. Like that happened recently?

Yeah, if I can get, I'll try to track down the

information for you and send it to you. But yeah,

several, I don't know what series, but pristine

case fresh mask toys, just tons of them were

found in a warehouse and I know that Justice

Curry, who's a known seller and YouTuber, there

goes my alarm. A YouTuber out here in the Midwest,

he was trying to get in on that and just really

a treasure trove of a time capsule of toys that

were found. That doesn't shock me at all that

that happens. That's really cool. That's like

awesome. That happened with that salacious crumb,

too, a couple of years ago. And that's why there

were so many of those loose, vintage, salacious

crumbs floating around. That's that explains

why I saw a bin of those at a toy show in the

last couple years Yeah, they found I actually

know because I mean I spoke to the person who

was dealing with it Yeah, they found in a warehouse

like, you know 50 ,000 units of just loose salacious

crumb and Jabba's like smoking bowl or whatever.

It's called this hookah His frog hookah. Yeah,

that's like so that's why all those companies

are just because like they basically sold it

for pennies on the dollar just to clear out this

where old warehouse And so, yeah, that's why.

And companies didn't have access to the branding

material or even the name stock. That's so weird.

So you see people selling Salacious Crumb and

creating their own packaging for it and stuff.

Oh, that's great. So I'm going to hand it off

to Mike. I've added a couple extra questions

to our 42, but Mike, go ahead. All right. How

would you describe your collecting style before

and after working for various toy companies?

Did anything change? Hmm Probably less of an

impulse to buy something that I thought was super

rare You know, it's like when you see prototypes

and one -off shots like, you know, just literally

thrown out every day You don't get as excited

like seeing those at shows, right? But other

than that I really the rules that I've always

established for my collection since I was you

know 13 12 whatever I've kind of remained pretty

steadfast. I collect the six inch I want to not

every six inch like Marvel Legends You know,

but I do collect every three and three fourth

Star Wars. So those rules that I set up at 13

still apply today Yeah, that's like as I've said

I believe in this in this in this episode I collect

funko, but I only collect characters that Absolutely

means I like I'm not gonna go, you know after

Game of Thrones funko pops or anything like that

Do you have a my parents got rid of my toys story

much more? My parents made me take all my toys

out of their house like every single one. I wasn't

to leave a thing Which was great because I was

able to rescue a lot of stuff, you know Like

I had my original Millennium Falcon and at at

and dig up a playset and you know Most of my

Star Wars toys from as a kid the stuff that I

don't have anymore I have to just assume got

tossed or like destroyed like I don't have memories

like I mean I had I had an X -Wing, and the X

-Wing wasn't in my parents' attic, but I probably,

I do remember breaking it, and it probably just

got tossed at some point. So, my father had his

mother throw out all of his baseball cards, so

I know what you're talking about. Like, we're

talking Mickey Mantle rookie stuff. But no, luckily,

I was able to get all my stuff, so. So, similar

story to baseball stuff getting thrown out. My

dad was the bat boy for the Cubs in 1968 and

1969. when Randy Hunley Ernie banks Ron Santo

some really well -known Chicago Cubs players

around there and He had gone off to I believe

boot camp for the Navy I'm not sure exactly what

it was But my grandmother took all of the equipment

that he had either signed or just left over actual

used equipment from these Athletes and just gave

it out to the neighborhood kids or threw it out

and he found out when he got back So he he lost

all of this stuff. That would be One -of -a -kind

collectibles right now. He saw as I think two

or three bats, but that's about it Wow, what

is okay? So this question Basically means there

it does not exist. There are no plans there were

there's no secret stock There's no warehouse

in India that might have this What is something

that does not have a toy of it? You'd love to

have in toy form Let's say I almost got like

look at my Most of this stuff gets scratched

off as years go by Like I had Firefly on the

list for the longest time and then Funko made

Firefly toys I'm like actually trying to find

the list, but it's gonna be more difficult. I

love the movie Hudson Hawk It's a terrible 80s

movie, but it's awesome. I would love toys from

that. We just got Princess Bride toys from Mcfarlane

i never thought that was gonna happen so i'm

excited those are coming back i mean it's what

is it so many of my back to the future ghostbusters

all these things that were on my list. Have basically

got made in the last few years really i think

one of the other ones that's almost obvious is

i would love marvel legends ask like you know

six and super articulated figures of. literary

heroes like the Count of Monte Cristo and Robin

Hood and Three Musketeers and Captain Ahab and

I think that that would be really cool. That

doesn't cost anything. Yeah, because they're

all public domain. Unless Captain Ahab is gonna

come see you, I think you're pretty safe. It's

funny you say that and you say Three Musketeers

because all I can think of is... 1993, almost

30 years ago, Tim Curry is Cardinal Richelieu

in the Disney movie. I could just see a toy of

that right now. Oh, Lord. Was there ever a moment

where you were done with toys? Have you ever

considered stopping being a collector or even

selling your whole collection? I didn't get to

the point of selling my collection, but yes,

there was a very specific moment. I know exactly

what it is. It was right before episode one came

out. And Power of the Force 2, which was kind

of ending, and they had the flashback photo and

then Comtac figures that were like a preview

of what we were gonna get with episode one. And

there was a C -3PO figure that came out with

Ant -Baru, and it was like desert -worn or shock

-worn C -3PO where he had a chunk of sand on

his shoulder, and he looked like he'd been walking

around Tatooine or the Dune Planet or something.

I felt like that figure was so close to C -3PO

as we already had that I was like, this is ridiculous.

I'm done. I can't, like, we're not getting anything

original. They've done everything. They even

did Aunt Beru. Now we're just getting repeats.

Obviously years later, like, repeats are accepted

as a normal part of collecting Star Wars, but

I remember that figure made me go, nope, I'm

done. They're just totally gouging me at this

point. Screw this. And then a few weeks went

by and I bought it. That's like again You know

you you look at something like Star Wars and

you have I'm going to say the three main characters

in Luke Han and Leia of Luke has the Bespin outfit

Luke has the Hoth outfit Luke has the Jedi outfit

Luke now has the Mandalorian Glow -in -the -dark

outfit kind of like there's an outfit for almost

like so again repaints and redo's and whatever

That's a whole big business and especially with

a new hat Yeah, but this is joke, oh sorry, I'll

go back in the corner You're up Josh 37 in a

row Alrighty. So Scott, you are 37? Yes, you

are 37. So Scott, you are very fortunate to be

working with your wife as part of Spectre Creative.

So that's sort of the business side of things.

But how does your wife deal with or how has she

dealt with your overall physical collection?

By not letting me make close references. Essentially,

she's been awesome. She basically we're blessed

enough that we have a You know a Multi -bedroom

house in North Carolina and it was just in California.

We have like nothing That's why we moved because

the quality of life what you get for your money

and one of the wonderful things about that was

I have a we had a extra bedroom and I Got to

turn that into my office slash toy room. So basically

she's like I love it. It's what makes you happy

I will never go in there, but knock yourself

out. But she doesn't like clutter. She hates

clutter. She does put up with a few other things

that because I've got a few figures scattered

around the house. I have a Swedish chef in the

spice cabinet and my clear spirit of King Grayskull

in her China cabinet. But her brothers were both

comic nerds growing up, like made her like every

time they would pass. She was the youngest. She

was a little sister to two older brothers, and

they were both comic book nerds. So That's what

she like, like she's used to that. If you, you

know, they made her go to, you know, if they

were driving and they pass a comic book story,

you had to stop. So, and also because I think

a big thing was the fact that I was doing this

professionally. Uh, when, when she, the first

time she came to my apartment, when we were dating

and I had put a lot of stuff away, but there

were some toys out and I had a Lord of the Rings

Narsal prop replica mounted to my wall, which

I now have in my office. I'm looking at it, but

it was in my living room at the time. Because

I was a bachelor like she took a look at that

and was like, oh my god He's got a giant broadsword,

but I explained what it was and then she's like

got it. So like moved on my wife felt the same

I also had Narsal and It took a little while

I finally sold it But yeah, she felt the same

way like why does he have this giant weapon hanging

from his wall? I do miss it but I actually ended

up hitting myself in the chin with the point

of it at one point and so That was motivation

to sell it. So the next question, what part of

the collecting hobby, and you can either focus

on the searching out toys, the physical buying,

the storage, whatever you want to go to, what

part of the collecting hobby do you struggle

with the most now? Honestly, I think it's waiting

to complete teams, like the frustration of still

waiting for that Slimaloo Star Wars figure to

complete the original parted Kenner collection,

you know, Farrell and Wolfsbane from some X -Men

teams from the 90s, and the fact that prices

are really going up. Nothing to do with the toy

industry, everything to do with labor and material

costs. It has nothing to do with COVID, it has

nothing to do with inflation, it has nothing

to do with fly chain issues, 100 % the labor

in China. Like Marvel Legends last year went

up to $22 .99, they just put a wave up for pre

-order that's fall 2022, and it's $24 .99. I'm

glad I own most of the toys I want because we're

about to get into, do I really need this territory

with spending? I'm right there with you. I think

with the recent price increases and just some

changes in my own life, I've really had to ask

myself, is it worth it to have one more thing

on my shelf for $25? Yeah, I mean, inflation

is going to ... I can't even imagine what's going

to happen with that. till this gets worked out.

But yeah, toy prices are really, you know, they

held, I know toy companies held the line for

longer than they should. It's kind of what we

did in Motu Classics where we had to jump from

20 to $25 overnight. And I know they wanted to

go to 25 last year. It was clear, like if you

looked at the X -Men movie figures that Hasbro

put out, they were $25 without a Build -A -Figure

piece. And then right next to them was the basic

figures. Or your comic book based with build

a figure for 20 so and for the most part people

still bought the movie figures at 25 They did

they did except fortunately poor Domino didn't

really she got well, yeah Yeah, that's like I

could go into that but then people are gonna

call me sexist and racist Oh, there's a good

example of an R rated movie sold in Hoya. Wow.

I was this years old when When I just realized

that, yes, that was an R -rated movie in the

toil. That's a great example. So my last question

in my list of questioning is, obviously having

stuff isn't, a lot of people say philosophically,

it's not about the stuff, it's about the experiences,

it's about putting money into large, amazing

experiences you can always remember, but I think

as collectors, we often have good experiences

with buying the toys we collect. Do you have

one positive and one ... Negative memory that

happens to stick out or one positive or one negative

memory that sticks out as as a collector buying

toys i think i'm in my positive so usually around

finding things that especially ones that i was

expecting to find. You know that that's the wonderful

thing is that still happens i mean that happened

to me a few weeks ago when i found the bid for

tuna three and three fourth wave of vintage figures

on shelf like before christmas or maybe right

after it whatever was like a word to ship from

amazon until. Like april or may so getting that

i remember finding in you walk packet toys or

us the multi packs it for star wars three and

three fourth probably ten years ago now and i

found them. Almost what i want to say first in

the country like i'd nobody online was talking

about finding these and i found out oh my god

am i literally. Like like he's just hitting california

because we usually get him california got things

first and if i found the first one and Will I

be the very first person in the world to post

this? So usually it's yeah that kind of surprise

and delight of finding stuff. The agony is losing

stuff The move was not pretty I lost more things

than I wanted to and then I I mean I did such

a good job packing stuff but not all my directions

were followed and That's always that's the frustrating

is losing things you have and having to rebuy

them or the regret of passing on something and

then having to pay a high price for it later

because you didn't pick it up. That right there

is always a hard thing, especially when you're

trying to be more budget conscious or a little

bit more savvy in buying things because we know

as collectors, if you see it there and you know

it's a hot item, that might be the one and only

time you ever see it. It's astonishing because

that's really limited to this hobby. That doesn't

happen with a lot of hobbies. I had to explain

it to my brother once. when I was trying to tell

him about why toy reselling is a thing and why

I can possibly find a toy on the rack at Walmart,

put it on eBay and make a profit off of it. He

didn't understand that because he said, well,

can I just go buy a shirt off the rack at Walmart

and put it on eBay and make a profit? And I said,

no, no, it's very, very different. So trying

to explain that to people who aren't 100 % informed

is always an experience. So Mike, you have the

last. Three questions. Yes, yes, I do. Now, as

we all know, since, you know, we now live in

an age or we have been living in an age of the

Internet and everyone that works at companies

is out there. However, if childhood, Scott, so

basically go back to your childhood, your life

trajectory did not take you into being a Mattel

brand manager. So imagine what your life is currently.

except for that one piece of it is not there.

What would Childhood Scott want to create? If

he could create any toy or toy line, the company,

whatever company it is, basically gives you the

keys to the kingdom. You can do whatever you

want. What would you do? And how would that compare

to what you have actually created in the current

timeline that you were the brand manager at Mattel?

It would be, if I'm talking to six year old Scott,

it would be a flip between working on Star Wars

three and three fourth toys and working on He

-Man. Those were like the two lines I loved the

most and that I had the most ideas of how I would

bring to market. Yeah, like I said, getting to

work on classics literally was a dream job. I

mean, this wasn't just like, oh, it's really

cool. I get to work on He -Man. Like, no, this

is something I would think about as a kid. What

it would be like to work on He -Man toys. So

I feel very grateful, so grateful for the experiences

I've had. Awesome. What is one piece of advice

you would give the toy collecting fandom in general?

You talking about the adult collectors? Yes.

Remember how small we are as a population and

that the internet has a way of making it making

us sound larger or bigger than we are numerous.

The statistical way I have it is that when I

was working at Mattel and we were trying to figure

out how many people were posting on a very specific

He -Man message board that had thousands and

thousands of posts per month and I had Mattel

Analytics review a month worth of posts and found

that it was only like 29 individual posters.

posting thousands of posts. The internet creates

this reverse mirror that makes us think that

there's more of us, that we're more powerful

than we are. Not that we shouldn't be appreciated

as consumers, I'm not saying that, I'm just saying,

we think that there's a lot more of us than there

are, basically. Yeah. On the flip side of that,

what is advice you would give to kids who enjoy

toys? Get off screens, play with toys, play with

toys you enjoy. Tell your parents what you like

kids don't have these kind of conversations with

them that's more with parents but. Play is so

important especially outdoor play and you know

having action figures and dolls to play out.

You know fantasies of being a parent or being

a warrior or being whatever. Is so so important

and screens do not replace that and brains need

to be nourished and play does that so play go

play with toys go play outside go jump go throw

a ball. Get off your screens that's right we're

gonna take a break folks you're gonna hear some

ads and some other stuff and we're gonna come

back to talk about specter creative with scott

and then close it out after this one of the primary

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Discover a world of vintage and modern toys that's

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Because knowing us is half the battle. Like science

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the Mark Who 42's universe podcast is an award

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podcast from the universe and beyond. I got something!

Since 2009, we have been the premiere cartoon

podcast here at the GeekCast Radio Network. We

are Tooncast. From taking you beyond the cartoons

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now we get the origins of toonstars everywhere

as we ask guests 30 questions about their cartoon

watching experiences. Plus so much more. Tooncast

is back. Join me, TF2 and Mike and the rest of

the GCRN crew as we On the Simplistic Reviews

Podcast, we talk movies. We talk TV. We talk.

Hello Julie, what the heck are you doing? Trying

to make our spot sound more exciting by adding

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I'm sure your insurance company will cover that.

No, they won't. No, they probably won't Before

we get the heck out of here, folks, it's been

about two, two and a half hours, something like

that, depending on how I edit this. We need to

talk to Mr. Scott Toy Guru -Nightlick all about

his company, Spectre Creative. First of all,

where'd you come up with the name and tell us

all about what it is that you and your lovely

wife are doing with the company? Sure, so it's

basically a staging ground for our invasion of

Antarctica. We have most of our new, I'm sorry,

hold on, let me go back. Spectre Creative is

a consulting company that I formed when I moved

from California to North Carolina. After I spoke

to a few local companies, you know looking for

marketing, you know, etc networking once I moved

looking for full -time work realizing there were

a lot of companies that said they Needed help

developing, you know toy product etc But it was

a full -time thing and I had enough of those

companies that I was like wait I could do this,

you know full -time by having multiple clients

and actually being a toy consultant Because I

have quite unique experience and that's where

it came from. I mean at least that's why I set

up the firm I've been it's been very successful

last three years I've worked with literally large

national toy companies as well as Inventors and

entrepreneurs that have ideas for toys or just

consumer product in general. It doesn't have

to be toy product I've done beauty care product.

I've done I've done Not knitting and the client

makes a little hand makes quilts crocheting I

guess you could say but yeah, I really I work

on that's the specialty that we we offer clients

is that We work on understanding the emotional

connection between consumer and product, and

my wife, being a child play therapist, works

with me on a lot of the toy products. She also

sees clients and actually teaches at UNCG. So

we both do quite a lot. So that's, yeah, if you're

out there and you have an idea for a toy line

or any kind of product you need help bringing

it to market, branding, marketing, content creation,

prototype development, all of that, as well as

actually placing it at Target, Walmart, Amazon.

building e -commerce sites. That's what I do.

So you can find me at SpectorCreative .com. And

I love, love helping people kind of unlock that

key emotional connection of why consumers enjoy

product and using that as the springboard to

get it to market and sell it. So that's what

SpectorCreative does. Very cool. Very cool. Any

final things you want to say, Josh, before I

run through the closing? No, I'm just very appreciative

of this opportunity. I think it's great to talk

to you quote -unquote in person. And if anybody

is ever looking for any great information on

the toy industry, some really amazing insight

into trends or happenings in the toy industry,

please check out Scott's channel, Spectre Creative

on YouTube. It is an excellent place to just

get some Great education. Absolutely. And obviously

all the links will be in the show notes in the

post on the website, folks. Thank you for joining

us here on Toycast. 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,

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ways you can listen to us nowadays, Apple and

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else you listen to podcasts follow us on Twitter

at geek cast radio for the network at TF toy

cast is for the show I'm at TF to you and Mike

Josh. What is your Twitter? I think I'm at still

at flood burger No, it's floor burger. I five

three. Yeah. Yep. I keep forgetting Scott. What

is your Twitter if you use it? Spector creative

everything is spector creative All right Become

a fan on Facebook, go to Facebook .com slash

GeekCast Radio Network. You can also search out

TF ToyCast over there as well. For now, I am

TF2 and Mike with. Floorburger, who's not paying

attention. Floorburger's here, hello. And. Me,

Scott Toygaroo Knightlick. I'm sorry, I didn't

realize I was supposed to say that. Hi, I'm here.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is 2022 and we are all

losing our minds over the increase of toys. Because

of labor versus the actual crappy plastics transformers

is going to be using anyway. It is what it is

Join us next time when we'll be talking more

toys here on toy cast