Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots and Food Fighters

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Jazz here, and

I am so digging the Geekcast Radio Network. Cliffjumper,

commence countdown. Five, four, three, two...

Hello, ToyCast. Oh, yes. Listen in to the only

toy podcast you will ever need. Hello and welcome

to ToyCast. This is episode 145. I'm, of course,

TF2 and Mike. Joining me, sort of as always,

is Josh the Floor Burger. Hello, sir. Good evening.

Yes, and returning, because I don't remember

when the hell the last time he was on this show,

is Mr. Adas Baron. Hello, sir. Was it really?

Good lord. That's why I was looking at the call

log. Yep, Toys of Summer. Yeah, because we started

doing a whole bunch of origin stuff. Yep, yep,

yep. So the three of us are back. This is a display

case episode. And holy crap, folks. Let's just

break the glass. Don't touch! All right, so.

Episode 145, I kind of sort of mentioned off

air that I was going to cheat. We usually bring

one toy per person per episode, but since these

kind of go together, how can I not talk about

the Blue Bomber and the Red Rocker, Rock 'em

Sock 'em Robots Funko Pops all at the same time?

It's a mouthful. You know, say what you will

about Funko. And I do. And I ignore you or I

beat you the hell up. If they ever do a Funko

Pop moment, like just recently they released

the Funko Pop moment of Cena and The Rock in

the ring from whatever, whichever. Cena looks

like he has hair this time, so I'm assuming it's

one of the earlier bouts they did. But basically,

if Funko ever did a Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots

moment where they were in the... Game Ring. These

individual pops literally look like, talk about

ripping the game pieces right off the board.

It looks amazing. And I didn't even know, and

I had been a fan of Rock 'em Sock 'em when I

was a kid. I do not remember them having names

back then. I know they did, but I did not remember

what the hell they were. They have names? Yeah,

Red Rocker and Blue Bomber. Because Funko came

out with these in, when did they release these?

I don't know. It's on the bottom of the box,

and I can't read that small, tiny print. I don't

remember those names at all. I don't know. Maybe

they just made them up. I'm not sure. I don't

have a Rock 'em Sock 'em Wikipedia link pulled

up at the moment. I love how it says on here,

the world's only fighting robots. Technically,

that's not true because the Autobots and Decepticons

fight each other for four million years. But

anyway, like I said, for me, what I like about

these is I just I love that they are not because

they're morphing the Funko Pop style with the

Rock 'em Sock 'em Robot style, even though, yes,

they do have the black soulless eyes. It doesn't

look like it is that soulless because the head

is. The heads on them are so not your standard

Funko Pop head. So that is very, very cool. See,

I did not have an actual Rock 'em Sock 'em robot

set as a kid. However, I had the Ninja Turtle

version, which had Michelangelo and Shredder.

Those were fun until the locking mechanisms of

the head stopped working. Yeah. I didn't have

the turtle versions. There was the Karate Fighters

sort of, no pun intended, spin -off later on.

The figures that had the little gun things that

you plug into their backs? No, you would put

them into, you'd peg them into handles, basically.

And you would spin a knob on the handle, and

then they would flip around and kick each other

in the chest and go flying. Interesting. Rock

'em Sock 'em Robots. Yep. Those are my choices

for this evening. Absolutely love them. At some

point or another, I will take them out of their

boxes, but that's going to be after I eventually

find a new place to live. Yay! According to this

eBay listing, they tried to do an actual action

figure series of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. I

could have sworn there was a cartoon series and

another type series as well. It's no Super Soaker

Man. No, it is not Super Soaker Man, but it looks

like they took some stuff from, what do you call

it, crash test dummies, and it looks like just

robot wars, and they fall apart and they break

apart as they punch each other, so they took

a basic kid's boxing game and turned it into

kind of a Terminator -type thing. Yeah, I mean,

that's the whole point. As you find folks will

hear in this audio right here, that's the whole

point of the commercial. They're slugging it

out in the middle of the ring. And there's a

hard drive to the job. And Blue Bomber's block

is knocked off. His block is knocked off? Sure,

but you can press it right back on again. It's

just part of the action where the world's only

boxing robots, the Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots by

Marks, takes two managers to handle the fighters

and lots of skill to win. With these control

levers, you can keep your fighters in motion

to duck punches. When you press this plunger,

he throws a right uppercut. Press the other plunger

and there's a left jab. Lots of exciting action

and fun for everyone when the world's only boxing

robots battle it out. The Blue Bomber's looking

for an opening. And there it is. That's the end

of round two. Just push the flying head back

and you're ready for round three. Boy, this is

the greatest. You bet. The world's only boxing

robots. At the end of it, I'm going to knock

your block off. And that's how you beat the game.

That's what it was. I just threw it in our chat.

Yep. Oh, Mattel 2000. God, that was 22 years

ago. Jesus. I remember them a long time before

then, too, because looking at the game was originally

available in the UK in the 1970s. Although under

the name of Raving Bonkers, because, oh, my God,

anything that says war in the United Kingdom.

I mean, you can't have Ninja Turtles. You have

to have Euro Turtles. I never quite understood

what the issue was with nunchucks. What was it,

in the 70s? And then working your way into the

80s, where they were banned? I don't know. A

sword is more lethal than a nunchuck, technically.

So this is episode 145 of ToyCast. If you go

over to the pull bag, episode 470, my buddy Ryan

and I talked about the Punisher and his new...

change of weaponry and things like that because

morons here in the United States are using the

Punisher logo for things that they shouldn't

be using it for and whatever, whatever. Have

they re -edited them to look like phones? I don't

know. No, I don't think, I don't know. Anyway,

point is, is they changed, Marvel has now changed

the Punisher's weapons from guns to swords or

knives or whatever, and I'm thinking to myself,

A knife and a sword. Like, I've seen some stuff

recently with knives and swords in media, like

Mortal Kombat and other things, where it's like,

that's a lot more bloody than getting shot in

the head. I don't know. It is what it is. But,

yeah. Like I said, I really think... I mean,

we can split hairs with it, but... Easier to

reattach. Oh, Lord. Okay. Josh, what do you got?

All right, so for my first one, I'm going to

talk, and I've mentioned this one in previous

podcasts, the 1988 -89 release of Food Fighters.

I'm going with the leader of the refrigerator

rejects, and that is Mean Wiener. Mean Wiener,

if you have not seen Mean Wiener, is essentially

what feels like and looks like a dog chew toy.

So it's that soft, rubbery material that you'll

get for a chew toy. And it's hollow and it's

very squeezable. It does feel like squishy kids'

play food that you might see in a little kitchen

play set. It's got sculpted on eyes, nose, a

weird little tongue dangling out of what would

be the mouth, and some military garb. Sort of

a military hat and backpack. He comes with a

little blue pistol, and he was a random toy I

got, and if memory serves me right, I got it

at a Dominic's grocery store in Chicago, which

is now gone. But I got it with my grandmother

one time, and... I think I was too young to really

understand the background of the figure, that

he was actually a bad guy. And he just worked

his way into the rest of my toy universe. He

just happened to be a hot dog that was quite

popular with everybody else. He was a hero just

like anybody else. And didn't know there was

a whole line to it until I go to a friend's house

two, three years later, and he's got all of it.

He's got every single figure, every single vehicle.

And he didn't care about it. It was just another

toy to him. And I loved it. And I actually started

writing stories. So when you're in fourth grade,

third, fourth grade, fifth grade, you start writing

narratives and creative stories. And I wrote

stories about the food fighters and created my

own. And it was the only one I had for years.

And unfortunately, we lost him, sadly, to an

exploding soot pipe. Toilet pipe, whatever you

want to call it. The pipe that takes the waste

out of the house. That would be the sewage pipe.

Yeah, burst. And my dad used a big plastic bucket

of toys to catch it, and it just also happened.

And obviously, if it's raw sewage going into

something like that, you pretty much can't salvage

it. But it was worse because it had one of those

blue toilet cleaning tablets in the toilet tank

at the time. Oh, no. Yeah. What a crappy predicament.

So it could have legit just been just the blue

water that burst. Like there might not have actually

been any waste in it. But unfortunately, a lot

of toys were lost to. I never really came up

with a snappy name for that. The crappening.

I'm not sure. But it was one of the ones that

was lost in the crappening. And it was sad because

it was a toy that my grandmother had gotten me,

and she passed in like 2001. So years later she

passed, but it was always just kind of one of

these really fun, really random kind of toys

that were commonplace in the late 80s, early

90s. And then it wouldn't be until I got into

college that I got the full set again, got them

back. So the one I have right now is not my original,

but he's good enough. He kicked off a huge collection

for me for a while where I was collecting every

food fighter I could get my hands on. So he's

one of my little favorites. And I enjoy him.

And I actually, as much as I give Pop a hard

time, I really think Funko Pop should try to

grab the food fighter's license. Oh, they absolutely

should. There's no reason for them not to. It's

their style. It'd be easy. I mean, just looking

at this thing. And I can hear, and I wish I knew

the guy's name that did it because I heard it

recently when I was editing the last episode

of the podcast with Toy Guru. The guy that did

the old Mattel commercials when they're going

through the preamble at the end, like, you know,

only from Mattel. Like, I'm looking at this picture

you sent us and the front of the packaging of

it, and I'm like, yeah. You do mix it a little

differently and maybe put a little relish in

there. And Funko, there you go. You got a whole

new thing. And I love the art style. And when

you really dive deep into the line and you see

the coloring book and the puzzles and the card

back stuff, somebody really took a lot of time

and passion into doing this. And I believe it

might be a French artist. I should have done

a little bit more research before coming into

the podcast. There was some thought to this,

and I've heard rumors that there were supposed

to be aliens. That was the whole background of

the actual toy line, should it have gone on any

further. Which would explain a lot, but it's

one of those very random toy lines that I think

was just out at the perfect time. It really exposed

my love for anthropomorphic food. And that that

came out of that was born in Pee Wee Herman.

That sounds really weird to say it like that.

But you know what I mean? Pee Wee Herman's Playhouse

had the claymation anthropomorphic food. And

I always love those scenes. And this thing was

just like having one of those little puppets

in my hand. So that's that's Mean Weiner. That's

he's my guy. I'm fist bumping him right now as

I sit here and he stares at me. That's kind of

creepy. Das, what do you got? So for today's

episode, I happen to have the Marvel Legends

Colossus Juggernaut 2 -pack Juggernaut. So let's

go back to, I don't know, 2017, 2016? We had,

like, no X -Men representation in Marvel Legends

because of all sorts of legal brouhaha. And then

by then, they started trickling them in because

of rights acquisitions and what have you, and

Marvel was... lessening their grip on what they're

licensing out and whatnot so there was that juggernaut

build a figure wave which of course i got uh

juggernaut is probably one of my favorite x -men

villains and at the time you know i thought it

was a really good figure he had some really nice

dents in his helmet and everything you know there

were figures in the wave which i didn't want

but i want i wanted all of them to build juggernaut

and then a couple years later they announced

this two -pack and i'm thinking You're trying

to sell me on the same damn figure again. Well,

they sold me on the same damn figure again. Oh,

yeah. But this was mainly so I could get a classic

Colossus. And then upon examining this new juggernaut,

yes, they used the same mold, but they did a

number of additions and alterations to this,

which make it the superior juggernaut, which

I hate to say dethrones my Marvel Selects ones,

which I still love to this day. It's just, you

know, articulation and what have you. So for

this one, they got rid of the belt. They gave

him more comic accurate colors, different pairs

of hands. His initial helmet is not ball -peened.

so to speak. It's smooth. He has, he has pupil

-less eyes. I can go without that sometimes,

but his teeth are all kind of messed up. And

then he has an alternate Cain Marco head with

a busted up dome that you can put on top of him.

Like he just had the crap kicked out of him.

And this is a big chunky figure, which I just

love posing. I do like those really bulky figures

because often you'll get a bulky figure, but

because he's so massive, he can't move or do

anything. I've, I've run into that with figures

before, but this juggernaut is. Fully poseable.

And I have no complaints over that. Hey! That

was fun! I actually never got that one. I got

most of the figures from the Build -A -Figure

wave, I remember. And I think I ended up just

selling those at a toy show, because I still

had the original Toy Biz one. You wanted the

little chest armor? Well, there was the X -Men

Classics one that everyone wanted, which in hindsight

is super hideous. It's hideous now. It was pretty

well done for the time. But I also had the Toy

Biz, the original Marvel Legends Series 6, I

think it was. Deadpool was in that wave, too.

And I still found that one to be an excellent

figure, even if its proportions by today's standards

are ape -like, to say the least. But I do like

those big, chunky figures, and I always admired

that one, but I just... I couldn't pull the trigger

on it, because I always had that one version

that I liked, and I don't even know where it

is right now. He comes with so much already,

but the one thing that's missing, which would

have been really neat, is a to -scale Crimson

Gem of Sidorak to go with him. They always leave

the one accessory you want out, don't they? It

would be a cool addition. I don't necessarily

need it, because in the end, what would I do

with it? But it's nice to have. You'd probably

lose it, but yeah. They would probably give him

some sort of action feature to throw it or launch

it or something. That's what I'd like to see.

Can we get a Marvel Legends from the – since

we're getting X -Men animated figures, let's

get the guy who got Juggernaut's powers in that

one episode. Not in the Juggernaut outfit, but

in his disco boogie outfit. His white disco boogie

outfit. Oh, Lord. I have to go with this now.

Wow. That was one of my favorite episodes. There's

a Power Rangers reference in it. Yes, there is.

I just Googled Juggernaut disco outfit. Wow,

the search results are interesting. You might

want to put X -Men in there somewhere. I don't

think that X is going to help. It's already pretty

bad. For anybody listening at home. If you really

want to see some interesting results, just Google

Juggernaut disco outfit. Go right to images.

And I think my safe search is is not on. So,

yes, that would explain what I'm seeing. Moving

on. Wow. Damn. All right, the last thing I will

say about the Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, I have

looked this up. Yes, Blue Bomber, Red Rocker

were always their names from the beginning. And

the only reason why I know this is because the

article says that they were renamed in the UK

in the 70s, Basher Bonker and Biffer Bonker.

What the? Sounds right. Feels right. I just don't

even have any idea anymore, folks. No clue. Yeah.

Anything else you want to say about your, your

ketchup toy, Josh? I just, I like a lot of toy

lines that, that take these risks into the bunkers

and obscure and random and just do something

fun that can catch the imagination of, of a kid

who doesn't know anything better about it and

doesn't know the lore, doesn't know the history

of it and just gives them a chance to, to enjoy

it and just be a kid with it. And I, Food fighters

always stick with me for that because what's

easier to play with than a food soldier in your

fridge that you can just leave open for hours

and increase your family's electric bill. And

spoil all your food. Great. All righty then.

Das, anything else you want to say about good

old Jughead there? This was a figure earlier,

quote unquote earlier in the line, where – They

started giving us variants, so to speak, of different

characters or different versions where, like,

if you didn't like it the first time around,

they're more than likely going to reissue it

in a better looking way than it had initially

been shown or in your ideal version of it. Now,

that being said, I'm still waiting on a decent

Hobgoblin Hasbro. You keep giving me this extreme

demorphed face with a shred cape. I don't want

that. I still have my Toy Biz one, which, if

it weren't for his scrawny legs, still holds

up. It's over on my other shelf, and I'm sitting

at my desk, so I can't actually go over and get

it. The most decent Hobgoblin you're going to

get is from Funko, honestly, because there are

two versions of him. This is from Spider -Man,

the animated series from the 90s, and I have

the glow -in -the -dark version of him riding

on his glider, and it's the only Hobgoblin I

will ever have because I've seen some of those

normal figures of him, and they are very indecent.

I've seen that one at Target recently. Just like

the color, like the brightness that they used

on it. Very nice. Yeah, that glow, man. That

glow is like literally every... Funko has done

good and bad things with their glow -in -the

-dark things, and sometimes they only put the

glow stuff on one part of it, or sometimes they'll

put it over the whole thing. This thing, man,

it like... It's like whatever you do, don't put

your gizmo next to it because you can't have

gizmo exposed to light after midnight. Anyway.

I think you just combined two rules there, sir.

Two rules? I don't live by any rules. What are

you talking about? You can't feed gizmo after

midnight. You just can't expose it to bright

light at any time. Oh, well. He's not like okay

at 5 .30 p .m. to just flash him. I can tell

you right now at 5 .30 p .m. here in the Pacific

time zone, the sun is still out, and it is bright

as hell in this apartment, and that hobgoblin

is not going to glow. So in order to get my hobgoblin

glow -in -the -dark reference, you kind of had

to combine two different rules. It doesn't matter.

I break the rules around here. Well, I will say

I liked the Toy Biz Spider -Man hobgoblin. I

want to say maybe 2000, maybe 2002, just because

he had one of the best gliders for any of the

goblins. It was pretty big. I'll see if I can

find a good picture of it. Is that the one they

repurposed for Demogoblin? I think so, yeah.

And he just had this really nice -sized glider

that just worked really well. And, of course,

I sold it. Of course you did, because you sell

everything. You even sold your soul before. All

right, folks, that's going to do it for this

episode. That's how I got on this show. No, because

I would have actually charged you money for that.

Anyway. You think I'm worth something? Yes. I'll

take the compliment when I can get it. No, it

just means I know you'll sell out. Hey, I don't

sell out. I buy in. Oh, God. All right, Mr. AEW.

Ha ha, that's actually a Seth Rollins reference.

Yes, I know, but they also used it over on AEW

a couple of times, too. Well, I don't have TNT,

so what? I don't have TNT either, but I still

know. Anyway, that's going to do it for this

display case. As you can tell, folks, we are

all really shattered around here. Das, where

can the people find you online, sir? What do

I use nowadays? He doesn't even know. No. Facebook

and Instagram for a period. Das Baron. There

you go. Josh, what about you? Floorburger553

on the Twitters. You'll never see anything creative

because I just try to be funny to respond to

other people's tweets, and that's about it. We

know. Yes. Wait. Follow me. Oh, the jig is up.

Ah, damn it. Shoot. At ADAS Baron on Twitter

as well. Anyway, I'm at TF2 and Mike, and we

will catch you next time here on ToyCast.