Waterworld Toys and Why Josh Loves the Film

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... ToyCast.

Oh, yes. Listen in to the only toy podcast you

will ever need. Hello and welcome to ToyCast.

This is episode 149. I'm, of course, TF2 and

Mike. We are back talking more toys. A toy topic

this time around. Not a display case, not an

origins, but a toy talk topic. And this is something

that my... co -host has been wanting to do since

I brought him on, and we are now entering, as

much as I don't want to, the watering hole of

Waterworld Toys, and I welcome Mr. Floorburger

himself. Nothing's free in Waterworld. Dryland

is not just our destination, it is our destiny.

It's just fucking dirt. Like, come on, get over

yourselves. Kevin Costner, The Mariner, and oh

my God, this movie. So I have not actually seen

the film since probably 1997. It came out in

95, right? Yes. Yeah, so by 97 it was on VHS

and all that. So I saw the film when I was 17

years old, barely remember it. I've watched the

trailer and the Honest Trailers trailer for it.

four different times because I had to record

the audio, and later on after we finish this

recording, I will have to separate sections of

the audio to throw into the podcast. But this

is your bag. This is your thing. This is, you

say, a small part of your collection, but you

never stop talking about Kevin Costner and Dennis

Hopper, may the man rest in peace, about Waterworld.

What is your fascination? With this film and

with this toy line. So I'm going to quote Dennis

Hopper in that film where he said, let's have

an intelligent conversation here. I'll talk and

you listen. Boom. Burnt. Got you. Burnt. You're

supposed to react there. You're supposed to say.

You're supposed to just answer the question.

Oh, okay. So the long running obsession, let's

just say obsession. I think it's going to be

easier than trying to open up the source on my

computer. The long running obsession with Waterworld

actually goes back to, I would honestly say maybe

1996, maybe 97, maybe 98. I actually don't remember

when I first saw the film. I couldn't tell you

if I tried. I did not see it in theaters. In

fact, when it was first up for being rented,

I remember my brother watching it. It was rented

from Blockbuster, I would assume. If not Blockbuster,

one of the local chains, I think a Palmer video

or something like that. And I remember seeing

him watching it and having zero interest in it.

I was watching it during the scene where... Do

you remember when the Mariner takes Helen underwater

in the diving bell? Sort of. Yeah. I've seen

that scene like four times now, but yeah. So

it's a famous scene because it's sort of a turning

point in the film where the people in water world

realize, or at least one person starts to realize

that the earth has been flooded and you can still

access some higher altitude cities because the

city that they go through is actually Denver,

which is higher altitude, obviously. And I watched

it from upstairs. I could see down in the living

room from downstairs and nothing about it seemed

interesting. It seemed implausible that somebody

could even dive 50 feet with a diving belt like

that. I don't know the physics behind the diving

belt, but nothing about it looked interesting

to me. And this maybe was, I think it came out

summer in 95. And rentals at the time were a

little delayed. So it could have been winter,

spring of 96, at least I think for that time

timeframe. And I just was like, poof, I do not

care. I didn't care about the toys when they

first came out. I remember seeing them. I remember

at one point in my life, really not caring about

these movie tie -ins. I think during our conversation

with Scott Knight, we kind of learned that the

toys that come out for a lot of movies and TV

shows, they're really just advertisements for

the shows. They're not really anything else beyond

that. And I remember not caring about them. They

were not my speed for toys in 1995. So I was

probably 11. So I was still kind of into toys,

but not really anymore. We're talking fifth,

sixth grade. So not really seeking out toy lines

that were anything more than the big iconic lines

that were out at the time. Spider -Man, for instance.

I would still do Spider -Man. Maybe a little

Power Rangers. But to spend time or interest

in something like Waterworld, not my jam. And

then seeing them at KB Toys. KB Toys is where

toy lines went to die. It's kind of like Florida

for toy lines. Yeah. So ignored them there. I

actually, I think, do I have any that have, I

have a couple that have KB stickers on them still,

which is kind of fun. Whenever I go to a toy

show, if I see something that's really, really

cheap and it still has a KB toys sticker on it,

I usually try to pick it up anyways. So I think

I borrowed a copy of it from a friend of mine.

I remember the VHS. had a slightly torn up, slightly

beat up sticker. You know how the VHS had that

center, maybe two by three, two by four sticker

on, on the, the largest portion of it, not the

side. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like

the middle? Yeah. I remember it was kind of torn

and I can't remember my first experience watching

it. I can't remember probably the second experience

watching it, but there was something very, about

the cinematography that got me. Now, I know you

haven't seen it. And like I said, I kind of wish

I was watching it as we were sitting here. We

could do a full three -hour watch -along of the

Ulysses cut. No, we will never do that on any

of the podcasts here at the GeekCast Radio Network.

Now that you're living closer to me, I might

just have to drive down and force you. I watch

things on my phone. I have a TV. It ain't hooked

up. So, nope, that ain't going to work either.

Okay, fine. But I've seen the movie. I know,

like, okay, for me, and I said this recently

on another podcast. I don't know which one it

is. But I personally am not, and this has nothing

to do with Waterworld, but this is just me in

general. respect the horror genre, but Freddy

Krueger and Jason scarred me as a 5, 6, 7, 8,

9 -year -old in the 80s. I do not do horror films,

and yes, I know technically Doctor Strange and

the Multiverse of Madness is a superhero thing,

but it's Sam friggin' Raimi, and Sam Raimi also

does horror stuff. So, for me, Even though I

love those characters, even though I would love

it, I probably will never watch Doctor Strange

in the Multiverse of Madness. Maybe if I was,

you know, eventually down the line kind of thing.

So my whole point in saying all this is I can

go read a Wikipedia article about a movie versus

actually seeing the movie and be okay with knowing

what the movie is about. So I know. what Waterworld

is about. And yes, like I said, I did see it

on VHS in 1997, but I have no memory of that

because Batman and Robin was just superior. You

can't respond to that, can you? So there are

certain objective metrics that I could bring

up to compare. Batman and Robin to Waterworld.

Let's start with a little bit of history on Waterworld.

Let's just go there. Then I can bring up what

appealed to me about it. Absolutely. Waterworld

was actually a script that was shopped around

for a couple years before it went into production.

It had its roots actually in Roger Corman productions.

The low budget, sort of horror film dude. He

did some pretty crazy stuff. So that was like

the first attempt. Uh, they couldn't do what

the script was asking for, which is really funny

because the script basically got butchered over

the length of his existence. And even during

filming got butchered far more times. So when

Kevin Acosta finally picked it up, Well, so the

studio was looking for a big actor. They actually

found the director first, which was Kevin Reynolds,

who had just recently come off Robin Hood, Prince

of Thieves. So he was an established director

and the studio was trying to figure out, oh,

who do we want to helm this? Kevin Reynolds,

sort of having some foresight and some challenges

with Kevin Costner prior, said, no, I don't want

Kevin Costner. They did not get along on Robin

Hood, Prince of Thieves. They said, no. I would

rather maintain my relationship with him and

not have him as the current most bankable star

of the early 90s. He was, of the big bankable

stars that studios wanted to take a gamble on,

one of the only ones that probably could do this

role. So they pick up Kevin Costner. They actually

approach Samuel L. Jackson to do the deacon role,

the big antagonist. which I think would have

been amazing. It would have been amazing. And

you know why I know that is because recently,

okay. So I've, I've moved from Washington state

to the state of Indiana. So you know how, when

you move, you get all these, you're moving, add

this to your new home. You know, you know, those,

all those things. All right. I had a audible

thing and the thing was like, Get Audible free

for three months. And I've had Audible before.

I've actually been an Audible member since 2011.

So with my one credit for this current month

of the new subscription, what did I choose out

of my wish list to buy and listen to? Bad motherfucker.

Oh, I thought you were going to say the Waterworld

audiobook. No, hell no, hell no, hell no. It

exists. There is an audiobook. Yeah, I know.

I'm actually looking at the Wikipedia article

right now. I know there is. So, Bad Motherfucker,

which is written by somebody I don't remember,

and it is narrated by Phil Lamar. And Phil Lamar

is Phil Lamar. I mean, he's Green Lantern, he's

Samurai Jack, he's all these characters, and

he can do a... Sort of pseudo Samuel L. Jackson.

So I'm listening to all Samuel L. Jackson's story

in Phil, and he actually talks about this in

the book. And I was like, oh, wow, that's really

kind of cool that they wanted him for the role.

Because as soon as I heard Phil started talking,

I just almost laughed out loud to myself. Because

at first I'm like, oh, God, I know Josh is going

to bring this up, which is fine because it's

part of the history and it is what it is. Yeah,

as far as bankable star, you're right. I mean,

you know, you look at the late 80s to throughout

the 90s, at least through the mid 90s. So from

87 with the Untouchables all the way to, let's

just say, play it to 1999, you know. That whole

era of Kevin Costner, yes, very bankable. Yeah,

so you think about who was big in the late 80s.

You've got Schwarzenegger, you've got Seagal,

and I say that kind of throwing up a little bit

in my mouth, but Seagal was, he briefly was a

popular star in that time. You've got Stallone,

you've got, what's his name, Bruce Willis. So

there are some known action stars, but as far

as who could really convincingly and were available

to play this role, there really wasn't anybody.

I really do feel that Kevin Costner was the best.

His portrayal in this film is not good, but he

was two things on this production that, based

on my very astute amount of research has shown

me, is that one, He was one of the hardest working

guys there. He was pulling six days a week as

a working man. He was on set six days a week

filming, doing all the work. He was doing script

writing. He eventually would take care of some

of the editing. Rumor has it he actually directed

whatever the last shots of the film were because

he and Kevin Reynolds got into a fight and Kevin

Reynolds quit. So he was working really, really

hard on this film, and it was a 157 -day shoot,

which is a very long shoot. And then he also

was really expensive. He had a huge house rented

out to him. He was on a yacht going to and from

set in the ocean. That cost a ton of money. So

a lot of people know this to be one of the most

expensive movies of all time, but also one of

the biggest flops of all time. It no longer,

I think, holds the title as one of the most expensive

movies. At the time, it was. Yeah, at the time

it was. But see, here's the thing. So I'm only

looking at, again, I'm looking at the Wikipedia

article. I'm not going to go try to find Box

Office Mojo or any of that kind of stuff. And

according to the sideline of Wikipedia of just

the overall information of the film, the budget

was $172 to $175 million. It made Box Office,

it made $264 .2 million. So even though it was

a critical and audience flop, the movie made

its money back. Well, not in its original Box

Office run. It did not break even in its original

run. It would actually do better overseas, and

then it would pull a lot in from... vhs sales

and and later yeah later pieces it so it would

actually recoup its costs and then some but yeah

it was a flop now one of the problems was during

production this was sort of that transition point

where studios were trying to start saying hey

one of the selling points of this movie is that

it's very expensive as if something that's really

expensive is going to be worth going to go see

this is also during a time where theaters were

no longer showing just two movies at a time.

Theaters were now showing 15 movies at a time.

We were getting those mega theaters right in

the 95, 96 era. So it was a very different cinema

economy than what we're used to. I can't remember

what beat it in its first run. I think it was

top of the box office first weekend and then

got trounced whatever the weekend was after that.

Not sure what it was, but it was getting really,

really bad press. And this is the internet at

this time was really not a thing. It was really

just inching along. So there weren't a lot of

people going online to learn about the production

of this Mad Max on water film. A lot of that

was coming out from Entertainment Tonight and

newspapers. trade magazines and stuff like that.

People were starting to hear about this huge

budget that was coming out that was originally

set up for a hundred million and then continued

to balloon beyond that because so many issues.

Right. So when the movie came out, it was getting

bad reviews. People had already heard all of

these problems with production, like Joss Whedon.

Yeah. You know, whatever, whatever you feel about

Joss Whedon now in his, in his post, he got canceled

life, went out to do a script rewrite. He was

a known script doctor. So he went down to try

to fix the script. Apparently did not do very

well. Did anything that Kevin Costner had his

fingers on Joss Whedon couldn't touch. So as

far as the editing and the script going, I will

tell you, I have a, I obviously love this movie.

This is a movie that is very sentimental for

me. The original theatrical cut is a mess. It

really is. Yeah. The, the story, the plot, the

editing, there's glaring issues that you really

cannot. If you really spend some time, you really

just can't wrap your brain around. There's so

many scenes that just don't make sense because

they edit out really crucial pieces. to try to

shorten it down. So when the movie finally comes

out, as far as I know, historically, it just

had a really bad vibe to it. So people didn't

go to see it. It just, it didn't do very well.

I will say it was kind of that last big budget

film though, during that era before everything

was about special effects. Everything was about

CGI. After this, you start seeing Lost in Space,

and you start seeing Independence Day, and you

start seeing these giant special effect CGI extravaganzas,

and that's why you should go see it. Jumanji

was, look at all the money we spent on this and

the special effects that go with it that do not

hold up in the least anymore. Hey, you leave

that baby rhino alone. That baby rhino effect

running across the intersection still holds up.

Oh, that's adorable because that was basically

me trying to run track in gym class in 1996.

It's fine. You know, that rhino came out and

I'm like, I get you, brother. I get you. So I'm

trying to find information here and I... I went

on and I muted myself here on the recording.

I went on Google and I'm like, 1995 box office.

And of course, guess what it brings me to? Box

Office Mojo by IMDb Pro. Okay, so in -year releases,

wide film releases, 1995, okay? The top 13 films.

According to gross and all of that. Yeah, I'm

just going to say, yeah, gross amount. Number

one, Toy Story. 100%. Batman Forever, Apollo

13, Pocahontas, Ace Ventura, When Nature Calls

is number five. Oh, gosh. GoldenEye, Jumanji

is number seven. Casper is number eight, seven,

with Freeman and Pitt is number nine. With a

Vengeance, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis is

number 10. Crimson Tide, number 11. Waterworld,

number 12. And number 13 is Dangerous Minds.

Now, this list is 148 films for that year. I'm

not going through all of that, but any of those

11 films before Waterworld, any of them could

have trounced it the second week. Maybe not Ace

Ventura when nature calls, but Die Hard with

a Vengeance, Batman, Goldeneye. I mean, Goldeneye

was huge. 1995? Oh, my God. James Bond is back.

We haven't seen James Bond since 1989 with License

to Kill and Timothy Dalton. And all of a sudden,

here's Pierce Brosnan. Oh, but don't get me wrong.

But if you look at the trend for a lot of the

movies you just mentioned, a lot of them. are

that start of that transition to special effects,

extravaganzas, Batman. Absolutely. Yeah. Apollo

13. It was Jumanji was on that list, which Jumanji

was marketed as check out these amazing special

effects. That's right. Yeah. A big piece of it.

And water world was one of those movies that.

started using that new technology but had a lot

of practical effects the biggest the biggest

practical effect out of that entire film was

the atoll set which you can't forget that because

that was one of the main sets of the whole thing

it was the size of a football field it was several

tons of steel apparently it sank at one point

they had to raise it back up and Steven Spielberg

would go on record to say that after Jaws, he

would never film on open water again. He would

film on lakes or he would film in a studio with

like a water tank. He would never go back out

to sea again to film. And he put that warning

out there. And whoever made that decision, whether

it was Kevin Costner or Kevin Reynolds, did not

listen. And that was one of the reasons why the

movie struggled so much throughout production.

People were getting attacked by jellyfish. People

were getting washed out to sea. Kevin Costner

was like tied to the top of the mast of the boat

and the boat just caught a squall and he went

open ocean. Oh God. Yeah. And it was apparently

a nightmare of filming the co -star Helen, uh,

who played Helen. Um, what's her name? Um, Oh

geez. It's, uh, not Elizabeth. Uh, Jean Triplehorn.

Yeah. Jean. Yeah. Geez. Jean something. And the

funny thing is, is I go ahead. You read a rumor.

I was going to say, I read a rumor that she would

actually not go near a swimming pool for months

afterwards. She just said, no, I just hated being

in the water. I don't want to go in the water.

She hated it so much. Um, but. Oh, that's who

she is. Okay. She's into, I mean, I like these

movies. I'm going to say they're my favorites,

but they're two of my favorite 90s films. She

was Dr. Beth Garner in Basic Instinct with Michael

Douglas and Sharon Stone. And she was the wife

of Tom Cruise in The Firm. in 1993 so i because

some of these some actresses i just like i hit

like i saw i like i've heard her name like five

times now since i've been watching the trailer

stuff and whatever else i'm like jean triple

horn jean who is like what has she done kind

of thing and everything else so yeah um so go

ahead she was pretty solid i she was pretty solid

i'll admit there's a couple of moments in that

movie where she's really convincing and good.

And then there's other scenes where I feel like

she was just going crazy at that point and didn't

know what else to do. Right. And she did her

best. I think the movie kind of went downhill

a little bit when she got all of her hair cut

off and she out of nowhere fell in love with

the Mariner. And even my wife watching water

world with me said, why on earth would she start

making out with this guy? And even when they

started making out in one scene, it looks like

Helen or Jean Triplehorn, whatever her name is.

Yeah. Helen. Yep. Yep. Yep. I know. Yeah. Yep.

I got it. It looked like she was trying to make

out with like a statue. Like Kevin Costner, I

think just showed up that morning, woke up and

chose to be cardboard during a lot of his scenes

because he is. as monotone and unemotional as

you can imagine. I don't know what his situation

was. I don't know what his motivation was, his

character choices, but he, if he was looking

to try to come off as being not human, he did

a great job, which I know that's part of his

character. Cause it's supposed to be a mutant

of some sort. Yeah. So with all of this being

set with, why is it with all these production

issues? I admit. There's editing issues. There's

some script issues. Why do I like it? So as I

was kind of mentioning before, I actually have

about six different things as to why I like this

film. Okay, before we get into your top six reasons

of why you like Waterworld, just to kind of close

out the box office thing, I've looked on here.

By year, dates for the year of 1995 for film

releases. I'm not going to go through all of

these. In July, hey, this works because we are

in July here on ToyCast. July 7th to 9th, July

14th to 16th, and July 21st to 23rd, Apollo 13

was number one all of those weeks I just mentioned.

Waterworld comes in July 28th to 30th and August

4th to 6th as the number one film. What knocked

it off the next August 11th to the 13th? This

is going to kill you. I'm shocked at this, but

this is going to kill you. For one week, Dangerous

Minds was number one and Dangerous Minds knocked

Waterworld out of the number one spot. Oh, wow.

After that, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat, Apollo

13, Mortal Kombat, and then Tu Wong Fu, Julie

Newmar, and then Seven spent a numerous amount

of money. So Mortal Kombat and all these movies,

you can really tell that these are all movies

that had to incorporate a little bit of CGI,

but CGI was so expensive at that time to use.

Waterworld does use it. So the scene with the

D's at the end where you see the giant oil tanker

was shot in a parking lot. Which I had no idea.

So that's just how well done some of those effects

are that you may not even tell. That this giant

oil tanker that's rusted out and filled with

all sorts of holes and people in it running around.

It was filmed. A lot of those scenes were filmed

in a parking lot in LA. No water nearby. Yeah,

and that's the thing. Waterworld, for all of

its story faults and all of its whatever, it

is one of the last films. One of the last. I'm

going to throw up in my mouth if I say great.

But it's one of the last films that uses practical

effects because by the time 1996 rolls around,

you've got. All the special effects and everything

else in the 97, 98, 99, and all that. So, yeah,

no, absolutely. Waterworld, perfect practical

effects. Well, and that goes into literally my

first point of why I like it so much. Okay. It

is not a well -written, well -directed, well

-edited movie. It is not. It's not bad. It's

really not bad. There are worse out there. But

their dedicated production quality. And the uses

of tons of practical sets and effects really

sets it apart. Even by today's standards, the

level of depth and care that they put into all

of these characters, everybody has their own

unique costume and design and story. I will admit

sometimes seeing these people in a post -apocalyptic

flooded earth, all having very nice, shiny white

teeth, especially Dennis Hopper, doesn't really

make sense. Maybe he had toothpaste. They don't

really ever go into it. But he had neon white

teeth in this movie. I don't know why they couldn't

just have him chew on something yellow or black

or something. I don't even know. But especially

because he was a smoker and his teeth are neon

white. Just check it out. Trust me. Every costume,

every character had so much unique detail and

design that you almost have to look at it and

see what is that reused from? Whether it was

Kevin Costner walking around in what I think

were ski boots, which as a kid, I'm thinking,

oh, those are just cool boots to realize they're

just rusted out ski boots. And why was he wearing

ski boots in that scene? One of the reasons why

he was wearing ski boats. I keep saying ski boats.

Is there a such thing as a ski boat? Bat ski

boat. Oh, the bat ski boat. The bat ski boat.

Yeah. The ski boots. I don't talk about ski boots

a lot, but he put those boots on, not because

it was just a random scene, but he had to hide

his webbed feet. And it was something that didn't

really occur to me until much later in watching

that stuff. But the weaponry that they used,

the fact that the people in the eight hole didn't

have guns, but they had shark teeth, spears and

shark teeth. And they were using water to shoot

at the smokers as they came over. The smokers

all had all of this machinery that was salvaged

and put together and kept together. There's a

lot of stuff that doesn't necessarily make sense

about that because I've heard you actually need

to flush saltwater engines out with fresh water

upon using them. So where do they get enough

water to do that? I don't know. But everything

has a story. The actual boat itself. One of my

other points about the trimaran boat that Kevin

Costner goes around in fascinated me as a kid.

I loved it for every single second because it's

a giant, cool toy. It's the hero vehicle. It's

the Millennium Falcon, the Batmobile. Think of

any massive, well -known vehicle, and that's

what it was supposed to be. And I loved that

thing. Now, there was actually no... actual functioning

boat that did everything depicted in the movie.

It's just impossible to do that with a boat.

Yeah. But there are two or three boats that were

created for it. I think one was the actual racing

boat that could sail and go really fast. Right.

There was the trolling one that went a little

bit slower. And then I think there was the one

that had all the mechanisms built into it that

you see in the film that a nostalgia critic.

on Channel Awesome just said, it's just a movie

about things doing stuff. There's things, there's

stuff. And he really gets into that. But the

boat is fascinating because it does look like

a vehicle that this guy has lived in. He's been

in it for a while. There's junk hanging up. There's

random items that play no piece in the entire

movie. If you watch some of the scenes where

he's in the lower cabin of his boat and you see

the stuff hanging in there. there's stories to

be told about everything that he has found, why

it's in there, what he uses it for. Doesn't come

into play in the movie, but it's there. And it

kind of helps tell that story. And in the later

cuts of the movie where they add more scenes,

like the Ulysses cut that I've mentioned in the

past, you get to see a little bit more of the

boat, a little bit more of the stuff he does,

some of the stuff that he's rigged up, the technology

he's recovered. And a lot of this is assuming

that The world ended in 1995 or so, 1994, because

the peak of technology that he finds is a CD

player, a Walkman or something like that. That's

the peak of technology. Yeah. And he somehow

reconnects and gets a CD player to work again,

and he's playing jazz music off of it, which

wasn't in the theatrical cut, but it's a really

cool part of... the overall film. So having that

really dedicated production quality, especially

into that boat is something that still impressed

me that day. I wanted that boat. I wanted to

sail that boat. And one of the things about me

during the time that I was watching it, like

96, 97, I was an adolescent. I was 12, 13, 14

years old. I wasn't exactly having the best go

of it. Having that little feeling of solitude

of just, you know, I'm kind of done with people.

People kind of suck. Kind of want to just go

out and sail the world nomadically, like seemed

like a really good alternative to what I was

dealing with at the time. I'm not trying to play

therapist right now with you because I think

you'll probably just tell me to suck it up and

go cry in the corner. But. It really helped me

feel like there was more out there than what

I was dealing with. And I gave a speech about

this when I was in a communications class. We

had this class called communications in middle

school or junior high, whatever it was. Right.

And I remember kind of just pouring my heart

out saying, I kind of envied this lifestyle of

just sailing nomadically and kind of doing this

thing. And the teacher actually made fun of me.

in front of a class that I was already very sensitive

in front of. So what part of your schooling was

this? This was either seventh or eighth grade.

Okay. So, no, I'm not going to tell you to go

sit in the corner and suck your thumb and suck

it up and not, no, hell no. Because here's the

thing. Something sort of similar happened to

me in first grade. where I was at school. I could

keep my backpack in its cubby, and that's fine,

or in my locker or whatever. This was first grade,

so we had cubbies, and we didn't really have

lockers yet. But I never could keep the inside.

You know those old desks that you could sit at,

that desk opens up from the whatever? You know

what I'm talking about, right? Yeah, it opens

from the front. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, so I'm

sitting there in my desk and I'm rummaging around

looking for a pencil so I can write down what

the teachers try to say. And I had everything

in my desk. I had I was the Jolly Rancher salesman.

I was this. I was that. I was, you know, I was

I was kind of king of first grade for a little

while for about a week or three. And but my inside

of my desk was a mess. Mrs. Weston. How this

old -ass teacher lady was married, I have no

idea. She gets fed up with me. Michael Blanchard,

what are you doing? I'm looking for a pencil,

Mrs. Weston, so I can write down what you're

saying. Oh, okay, you want to find your pencil?

Here, get up, Michael. She makes me get up, stand

behind her. And this is like Mrs. Weston had

to be somewhere between... late 40s early 50s

but she was an old lady teacher and of course

us at you know five six seven years old and in

first second third grade kindergarten all that

most of the old teachers look like they're you

know 80 90 whatever you know because as a kid

anybody over 25 is old to a kid kind of thing

yep this lady my students say i'm 55 this old

lady picks this desk up and dumps it out onto

the floor. So just so I could get my pencil.

And so when you say that this teacher made fun

of you in front of the, trust me, I have all

the sympathy in the world for you. And we can

probably unpack those issues on a different podcast

altogether somewhere else in the network. But,

yeah, I mean, go ahead. Continue. I'm sorry.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I was bullied seventh and

eighth grade. It was not fun. It was not easy.

And I think that's why the movie kind of appealed

to me was, here's this guy. I was not a very

outgoing social person. I had a couple of really

good friends, and they're people who kind of

helped define who I am and always will be. Right.

I really was at a point where I'm like, I kind

of prefer disappearing, you know, and not in

a, that sounds kind of morbid. Maybe even edit

that out. I sort of just felt like I would be

okay surviving and being on my own and having

this nomadic lifestyle out there of sailing in

a boat and being in places that I wanted to be

in. And I think sometimes as adolescents, that's

not an uncommon feeling of, I want freedom and

I want to be where I want to be. And for whatever

reasons I want to be there. So it kind of fed

into that a bit. Yeah. And I'm not going to,

yeah, no, no, no. And I'm not going to edit that

out because that's not a bad thing because everybody

as a kid has had a moment where they just want

to disappear. They don't want to die. They don't

want to whatever. They just want to be invisible.

There are all kinds of Disney. I don't remember

what the actual plot line is, but I know there

is a Disney Channel original movie, a DCOM out

there, called The Invisible Sister. I know that

in Home Alone, one of the Home Alones, either

one or two, not any of the other remaining. Five

or six or however many Home Alones there are

now. But in the first two films with Macaulay

Culkin, in one of them, he says to his mother,

sometimes I wish either my whole family could

disappear, which that's kind of a little morbid,

or I could disappear. Because he's having a moment

where, and you were having a moment where you

were like, yeah, I either want to sail away like...

Robin Hood is in this movie you know going up

against King Koopa and you know I just want to

be by myself dude I have been a loner my entire

life I always say that I don't mind being by

myself or being alone, even though at times I

get lonely because there are two completely different

things. So I completely understand what you're

saying. And it's not something that, again, these

podcasts, even though we're supposed to be talking

about action figures, I want my podcasting to

go beyond that. And if we have to unpack emotional

issues that fucked you up as a kid in middle

school. Let's do it. Well, and I think that was

a big piece of it though, is that I think now

as an adult, having that similar emotion of wanting

to disappear, I understand that there's different

coping mechanisms I could have. There's different

ways I can approach that. Back then it was, let

me just jump on a boat and get away and go do

something and be able to not be dependent on

anyone else. to jump kind of back into things.

I mean, I can, I can go into the psyche I had

in, in middle school quite a bit, but I think

on a side note, one of the things that really

appealed to that movie, when we started this

podcast off, you had mentioned something. I don't

think we were recording at that point. You had

said something about, you're just looking forward

to winter and it being darker. Yes. I, I hate

the cold. I hate the, The darkness, I like being

in tropical areas. I don't mind heat as long

as I have the things I need to survive. Like

if it's 94 degrees out and I don't have any water,

I'm going to be pretty grumpy. Yeah. If not dead.

And yeah. And for me, it's the complete opposite.

You know, you don't. I've told this story before,

too. I don't know if I've told it on this podcast,

because we just started doing this podcast X

number of episodes ago. But when Karen and I

met in person for the first time, when she first

came to see me in September of 2017, it was...

September of 2017. And it was still hot in Kentucky,

Indiana, Illinois, whatever. It was still, you

know, it was like 85 degrees, 89 degrees, whatever.

And for some odd reason, the air conditioner

in her car didn't work at the time or something

happened or whatever. And I got too hot. We were

on a side road or whatever. We were on some back

road. Like literally the only thing that was

like right next to us was a pizza hut. That seemed

to be closed down because there was this was

the middle of the day. It was like lunchtime

and there was nobody at this pizza hut. Maybe

it was closed down for good, whatever. Anyway,

I got so hot and sweaty sitting in her car. I

said, you need to stop. I need to get out because

I don't want to puke in your car. And I ended

up puking all over the sidewalk because heat

and I do like. I can freeze myself and I'll be

fine. I have no problem with that whatsoever.

So yeah, we are essentially, you know, the hot

water, cold water handles on a, on a, you know,

whatever it is, what it is. Well, and a big thing

for me was I used to bust this movie out when

it was the dead of February, negative 13 degrees

out pitch black at four 30 in the afternoon.

And I would bust this movie out. on a cold day.

And I would feel like it was summer again, because

I used to watch this movie a lot in the summertime

when I just would be up all night. I'd pop the

VHS in. My dad would refuse to turn the air conditioning

on in the house. So I'd have all my windows open.

So it's 83 degrees in my room and I'm watching

a movie that feels like it's 83 degrees all the

time. So I do tend to not actually watch it in

the summertime anymore. I tend to only watch

it in the wintertime these days. I might still

watch it this summer. I don't know. But it started

becoming my go -to comfort place because I knew

the movie so well that I attempted to write fan

fiction for it. I'll admit, I tried writing Waterworld

fan fiction. I knew the dialogue so well, I didn't

have to look it up or watch it. I could actually

walk myself through a couple different scenes.

And it was that movie I just glommed onto. I

knew the format was actually very predictable.

Obviously, it's a movie that's based off of Mad

Max, but it's a very predictable, very known

structure to a film where... It's this lone hero

who comes into a situation, doesn't want to be

part of it, finds out that he is now either willingly

or unwillingly forced to be part of the solution.

And it's fascinating. And there's a lot of connections

to a lot of other classic action films. So if

you like action films, you said you like horror.

If you like action films, this has a lot of those

common tropes that you can study through a lot

of action movies. Actually, Jumanji, if you think

about it, there are some similarities in the

actual plot of this. Guy who comes into the life

of some people who want his help and he doesn't

want to help them until he finds out he has no

choice. Yep. I will also add, to go back to the

connection to my adolescence, the movie ends

with them finally finding dry land. How nobody

found dry land, I'll never understand. Maybe

there's something in this world about sea currents

that keep people only in a certain area. That's

always a possibility, right? They have to float

for the most part. They don't have a ton of oil.

Maybe most of human civilization is caught in

certain sea currents that they can't get out

of. And that's why nobody's ever found dry land

and dry land is actually the peak of Mount Everest,

which there's all sorts of ecological questions

there. The script writer actually knew that the

water available water on the planet wouldn't

actually flood it. If the polarized caps melted,

they'd only go up. maybe a couple hundred feet,

but not enough to flood everything. Yeah. But

again, this is a work of fiction. This is, you

know... It's an Elseworlds piece. Yeah. There

was actually a consideration at one point that

there were going to be two moons visible, that

all of a sudden another moon entered Earth's

orbit and caused this to happen. So there is

a lot of backstory, actually, to this. There's

a ton of backstory that was... added into the

novelization of the movie, which that happens

a lot. And then there was a very short comic

series that came out after the movie that was

supposed to be an extension of The Mariner. There's,

I think, four issues for it. I have them somewhere

in storage, I think, somewhere. I don't know

where they are. I haven't read them in forever.

But there's a great YouTube channel that goes

through the comic and gives you the whole plot.

And you find out that The Mariner, I think it

was in the novel, not in the comic, but you find

out that The Mariner when it was discovered that

he had this mutant ability to swim underwater,

he was abused by his dad and like dragged underwater

and all this stuff. So there, there's a whole

lot more there that the movie just doesn't get.

It's like somebody who goes in to get a, a meal

at a gourmet restaurant and he decides to order

a burger. Everybody knows a burger. Everybody

likes burgers, but he orders a burger. And on

this gourmet restaurant's menu, the burger has

all these fancy accoutrements. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

And some of them play a larger role into the

burger. Some don't. And he just says, I just

want a burger well done with American cheese

and ketchup. And that's kind of what happened

with the movie. There's all these little things

that add to the universe. Now, there's been talk

of having a show. about water world i think it's

supposed to be like on the sci -fi channel or

something there's been talk of that for a while

there's the the uh the stunt show that is at

some of the universal studios parks that i still

haven't seen that are on my bucket list there's

video games all sorts of video games and and

all sorts of things that came out that build

this whole universe almost as if I was never

really quite sure. Were they hoping to maybe

one day write a sequel? Was this a one -off or

was this something to build a universe for a

sequel? Obviously it didn't make enough money

to have anybody interested in the sequel. And

the fact that they're talking about a TV series

is hilarious. Yeah. And the fact that like, again,

going to Wikipedia in July of 2021, it was announced

that universal cable productions was an early

development on a follow -up TV series to be directed

by Dan Trachtenberg. Okay. I do not recognize

Mr. Trachtenberg's name, and looking at his filmography,

Black Mirror, an episode of Black Mirror, an

episode of The Boys, and an episode of The Lost

Symbol, whatever the hell that is. He's done

two films, 10 Cloverfield Lane from 2016, and

has that been released yet? Prey in 2022. So,

I don't know this guy. Never, yeah. Oh, well,

that's quite literally as we're recording this,

folks. Prey is supposed to come out July 21st,

2022. So, Prey is on its way. It looks like he

did the boy's name of the game. I don't remember

that specific episode. I've never seen the show.

Oh, it's great. It could be a fairly good concept.

I mean, it's not very hard. You just need boats

in the water and you don't have to film it in

Hawaii and spend a ton of money on Kevin Costner.

It could be actually relatively cheap. They could

even film it at Universal Studios because that's

what some shows did around Disney World for a

few years. At the end of the day, the movie is

just kind of a soft spot for me. You could probably

tell me that you like Batman and Robin. I will

disagree with you, but I would love the fact

that if you find comfort and enjoyment in that

film and you enjoy it and you like it, great.

It's a fever dream. Yeah, it is very much a fever

dream. So here's the thing. I have, ever since

I was a kid, I've been into two things. Movie

novelizations. Movie novelizations take leaps

and bounds, just like other things, like prequel

comics and things like that do. So actual written

prose books, movie novelizations, and movie posters.

Okay? And I... 1995, I was 15 years old. I'm

sure one of the, or... One of the girl groups

that were in one of the group homes I was in,

I'm sure one of them are like, oh, you know,

they went and saw Clueless. Oh, Clueless. Oh,

this. Oh, that. And then in 96 and 97, I eventually

saw Clueless, and then I saw some other things.

And then in 97, holy crap, it's Alicia Silverstone

as Batgirl, because it doesn't matter who's playing

Barbara Gordon Batgirl. I like the character

of Barbara Gordon Batgirl. And I'm just like,

holy crap, it's Alicia Silverstone. That's amazing.

Best casting ever. So that's the main reason

why the original posters for that film and the

fact that it was Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl,

that's the main reason why I like the film. I

also like the film because of Alfred Goff, Michael

Goff, who played Alfred. I'm glad he stuck through

all four films. But yeah, no. Batman and Robin

is, like you said, it is a fever dream. It's

not as, personally, my personal opinion here,

it's not as bad as Waterworld because I think

it's two very different levels of bad. It's superhero

bad. It's not practical effect, bad story bad.

Well, Waterworld... I would say my, my opinion

of the story has changed a lot. When you see

all of the versions of it that have come out,

if you watch them back to back, which I'm not

saying I've done that, but I've seen the three

different versions from the theatrical to the

TV cut to the Ulysses cut. Yeah. And you see

the glaring issues with the theatrical when you

see the Ulysses, but you watch the Ulysses cut

and there's. its own glaring issues in that because

Kevin Costner's Mariner comes off as a terrible,

terrible, terrible person or whatever you want

to call him, a Muto or whatever. He comes off

as a dick is what he comes off as. Yeah. He,

when in the theatrical cut, it's not a hundred

percent sure if he's actually trying to sell

Enoa and Helen off to slavery. It's not clear

because the editing and the script is awful at

that point. But it is very clear in the Ulysses

cut that not only was he going to sell Helen

into sex slavery and possibly the little girl

for a couple scraps of paper, but then later

on he probably was going to sell them into slavery

of some sort and just leave them be. It's not

until like the last fifth of the movie that he

actually decides that, eh, I should probably

not let them die. It's ridiculous. Yeah. I will

say though, looking at the toys now, so I I'm

turning around in my room. Cause my back is to

my water world toys as much as I hate to admit

it. I wish I could see them every single day.

Okay. So I'm looking at the line and I have the

entire line carded and loose. I think I might

be missing one accessory, like one missile or

something like that, but I'm not very concerned

about that. Yeah. So in the line, This is a pretty

traditional Kenner line from, I would say, 96

and earlier. You have a five -inch scale. And

I'm going to go a little in -depth in each one

right now. I'm not going to go crazy with it.

But you have the five -inch scale, which is pretty

typical of toy lines at the time, from Terminator

to Alien to... What else was out then? Even Super

Mario Brothers, which came out, I think, two

years before that was around that scale. Toy

Biz was at that scale. Everybody was doing the

five inch scale. So if you see these figures,

the figures themselves, and I'm sure you've seen

pictures of them and I've sent you pictures.

The actual figures themselves have no shared

parts with any other Kenner toy line, which is

a bit unique at that point in time. Now I'm saying

the figures themselves. The Kevin Costner's in

the line to share a couple of parts. And I think

it's kind of funny to mention that because there

are one, two, three, four, there's technically

five different Kevin Costner figures. And I say

that because one has a variation, like there's

a torso variation between the same figure. And

I finally got both of those. Thank you. $5 sales

at Kane County toy show. But. Looking at the

line, not only is Kevin Costner very clearly

depicted in the sculpt, you look at that, you

know, it's Kevin Costner. If you know who Kevin

Costner is, the packaging is actually really

pretty unique. It doesn't have a bunch of glaring

graphics of with fire launching action or anything

like that. It's a pretty nice logo for the movie.

And that's about it. You can see the character's

name in the upper right hand corner. And that's

about it. It's only the deluxe sets, which is

the Smoker Thunder Ski and the Mariner Wave Ripper,

which are like little jet skis. Those are the

only ones that actually have a graphic of the

figure on the package, which I don't know why

you necessarily need that. I'm not sure. Right.

But the packaging is actually pretty unique,

pretty clean, pretty nice. It's pretty eye -catching.

It's great colors at the time. And the figures

themselves. don't have any built -in action features,

which to me, I would have loved these as a kid

because they would have been very straight -up

figures. Kenner did a really good job with most

of the Batman Dark Knight Collection figures.

There's only a handful that had action features

on them, like kicking or punching or something

like that. Right. So you just had a basic five

points of articulation, well -sculpted figure.

And then you get other accessories. Everybody

comes in with a pack in fish, like a translucent

fish of some sort, an octopus or a barracuda

or something, nothing that was ever in the film,

but pretty cool little items. And I still have

them. And I often mix them in with my Ghostbusters

figures because they kind of look like fish ghosts.

So it's kind of cool. But the weapons they came

with are one of the only things that are reused

from other toy lines. And I just had Adas Baron

here, or Adas Barone, as I like to call him.

And he was taking a look at him, and we kind

of agreed that a lot of the gimmicks were borrowed

from other Kenner lines. Like, there's a weapon

from Jurassic Park, a weapon from maybe Predator,

and I think another line I can't think of, maybe

Kongo or something like that. The Deacon's weapon

is from a Batman figure. Some of it looks like

it's screen used. Some of it looks like it's

not. I think a few of the weapons for the bad

guys look like they could have been used in the

movie. But the actual gimmicks are pretty functional.

They're ridiculous. They were not in the film

whatsoever, like the bola attack mariner. He

did not have a twin bola attack thing ever. But

knowing that gimmick, if I were to try to shoot

it at another figure, it would work. The net

function works. The Power Bow Mariner, he's got

an actual bow and arrow that functions and works.

It's really cool. It's not spring -loaded. It

actually uses the string to fire. So they're

really cool functional toys, which at that time

in the 90s, you got some pretty unusual weird

stuff. And the boat, the Tremarin, I feel like

I'm working off a script right now. I'm just

kind of looking at them and riffing. Right. Yeah.

The boat itself is not only a vehicle, but a

functional play set. It's got multiple pegs and

I'm not holding it. I just know it really well.

You know, I can't remember to grab stuff at the

grocery store, but I can tell you all the features

on the Tremarin. But it has multiple pegs on

the boat that you could put. all of the figures

on. So you could have multiple figures on the

boat. The boat has wheels on the bottom of it.

So if you didn't have water, you could just use

your floor and just roll it across your floor.

But if you did have water, the boat functions

in the water and it did have the sail that comes

out of the hole that you could actually pull

up and tie to the top of the mast and the mast

extends. It's actually quite a large toy. I can't

really find a place to display it anywhere in

my room. And the one time I actually had it out,

I accidentally stepped on it and crushed the

front hull. Oh God. How did you do that? Complete.

I just, I fell, I was setting stuff up on the

top shelf and I fell off the step ladder and

stomped right on it and shattered it. So I was

able to glue it back together for the most part,

but I don't think it'll ever be water worthy

ever again. but it does float and it does move

across the water pretty well. And I remember,

I don't remember exactly when I got it. I think

I must've still been in high school when I got

the toy line because it's always been dirt cheap.

And a couple of people do try to sell it for

way more than it's worth. Like none of these

figures are, should be sold for more than 10

bucks right now. I love them. I hope one day

I can make a million dollars off of them, but

they should never be sold for more than 10 bucks.

So, I know I got the entire set in college packaged.

It was either high school or college packaged

off eBay for probably $40. Whoa! There goes my

microphone falling off my shelf. Hi. Ooh. Technical

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

geeks and geekettes! Looking for a podcast that

covers a vast array of topics? Then check out

Altered Geek Unleashed, where we discuss our

thoughts on this week's geeky news, tech, gaming,

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more. So, get altered, get geeky with the Altered

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What was that universal greeting again? Never

mind, I remember. Ba -weep -grana -weep -minibong.

Hey guys, it's Rodimus Primal, and be sure to

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Transformers discussions, retrospectives, toy

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miss out you have the power the future the polar

ice caps have melted and the earth lies beneath

a watery grave those who survive have adapted

to a new world. Enter the watery world known

as Waterworld, a post -apocalypse where everyone

looks like they sleep in SpongeBob's dumpster,

full of makeshift vehicles, resource -hoarding

warlords, and here, I'll save you some time,

it's Mad Max, but wet. So I think I was saying,

the boat is very, very functional. There was

one time I put it out in our pool that we had

at the time. And I did have to do a lot of these

experiments when nobody was home. So I had to

wait till I was by myself at home as a teenager.

And instead of doing things that you would typically

assume teenagers would do if they're home by

themselves, I was out in my pool with the trimaran

trying to see if I could get the sail to actually

function to propel the boat across the pool.

And it worked. It didn't work well because the

sail doesn't have any sort of tension or anything

like that, but it worked. The worst part about

the boat itself, though, is that it does have

the netting, just like in the movie, but it's

really hard to attach. I never figured out a

good way to attach it. And it's really weird

that they only have these little nubs in there

that you're supposed to hook it onto. It's pretty

annoying. But if you can get it set up, it does

work pretty well. And as a kid, I always wanted

to customize the boat because there was only,

like, I'm sure you're shocked by this. one or

two websites that had any sort of dedication

to water world about it there nobody cared about

it for years and just lately in the last few

years of people actually starting to care but

somebody did a custom job where they repainted

it made it look like it was worn and rusted and

it was beat up and i've always wanted to do that

and i'll probably try eventually now that i have

glue and stuff right but the toy line Compared

to a lot of other, like even comparing to other

Kenner toy lines, like I'm looking at the Ghostbusters,

which again, a couple of years earlier, but same

really deep, like, excuse me. Let me rephrase

that. The same concept of eye -catching packages.

You've got your figure. They've got a pack -in

creature of some sort. And a functional accessory.

And it just works for kids and toys. You open

it up, you have an instant adventure. You have

Egon versus the ghost. You've got the deacon

versus his piranha. Or whatever you want to have

him do with his piranha. Right. Maybe he's going

to be chased by his piranha. I don't know. But

does it hold up as one of the greatest toy lines

of all time? No. But is it a good toy line? Yeah,

and I've heard a rumor that the only reason Kevin

Costner signed off on his likeness, sorry about

my key noise, the only reason Kevin Costner signed

off on his likeness for it was because the people

at Kenner showed Kevin Costner what they were

doing with Han Solo and Luke Skywalker at the

time, who were, if you remember, really buff.

Yeah. And said, hey, these are selling. They're

really buff. And he's like, okay, cool. So that's

why Kevin Costner in this toy line has pretty

big biceps and pretty big pecs and he's looking

pretty svelte. So, you know, it was that era

in the 90s where everybody suddenly was muscular.

Yeah. And it's just it. Look, like I mentioned

earlier, when I was listing off all the 1995

films, that list is. a list that has some really

good films on it. At the same time, there's also

water world. There's also other things that came

out in 1995 that weren't really good, but water

world for you is something that affected your

life. And that's absolutely fine. That's, you

know, that's, you know, just like, you know,

going to see Pierce Brosnan in the theater with,

you know, seeing, because look, James Bond, to

me, in the 80s, was Roger Moore. And there's

nothing wrong with Sir Roger Moore, but there's

only so many times you can see the man with the

golden gun and not, you know, whatever. And then

1995 rolls around like a whole new era of Bond.

You know, so we all have our histories. We all

have... what makes us who we are and who we've

been for X number of years that we've been alive.

Waterworld is one of the things that brings you

enjoyment and you actively acknowledge that it

is a bad film as far as story and plot and all

of that, just like everybody else does. But at

the end of the day, they're cool toys because

like everything you just said about being able

to take the boat in. How many toys, even though

we all took our toys in the tub, but how many

toys in the 80s and 90s were actually made, like,

strong enough or made to be taken in the bathtub

when we were 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 years old? Not many.

Did we still do it anyway? Well, yeah, we're

kids. We're stupid. We're not going to leave

the toy mint in box. So, you know what? That's

your history, and that's why I wanted to give

you this episode to talk about the watering hole

of Waterworld. Because it's something that is

personal to you and that is part of your toy

collection, and that's what I want ToyCast to

be, is not just the origins, not just the display

cases, not just us having a toy topic, but being

able to talk about these things that affected

us. Even though they're just toys. I will also

add the soundtrack. Have you listened to it?

No. There's a couple songs on there that I really,

I can't, I think one is called Escaping the Smokers.

If you want a song to, I used to, I had the CD,

I would put it in my Walkman and I'd go ride

my bike with that one song on repeat. Because

I was like, the only cool thing my Walkman could

do was play the same song on repeat. It would

skip all the time, but I could do it. All right,

I don't normally do this, and here's hoping none

of the podcast things strike me, but here you

go. Sounds a little bit like a Western, right?

Mm -hmm. And that's all I can play, because if

I play anything more than that... Oh, it doesn't

even get to the big crescendo, but I recommend

checking it out. The movie, like I said, Kevin

Costner basically turned it into a bland burger

from a gourmet restaurant. There's accoutrements

with it. If you even have a passing interest

in the movie, I do recommend checking out some

of the deleted scenes, because they add a lot

of context. They add a lot more sense. They add

a lot of unique character development bits. There's

a scene in the theatrical cut where all of a

sudden Kevin Costner has a water ski. Not a water

ski, a jet ski. He all of a sudden has a jet

ski and a shotgun and races off to go rescue

Enola. Nobody knows why. Nobody knows how he

got it. He just races off in a jet ski into the

distance. There's a whole added scene. where

he legit drowns two smokers who come to harass

a bunch of survivors and is able to steal their

jet skis and go off. And like, you don't even

see that. It's just like, where did he get those

all of a sudden? It's interesting to just see

that there was more, more put into this movie

than they actually got. Hey, wait, Mighty Morphin

Power Rangers, the movie also came out this year

too. Yes. Yes, it did. There was a lot of stuff

that came out in 95. Holy cats. So this is a

topic for Studio 2009 where we talk about any

audio and visual media. But the 80s and the 90s

– and I'd have to really investigate for the

70s. But the 80s and 90s, there was movies obviously

all throughout each of the years of each of both

of those decades. But like there was a lot. Again,

I will go back briefly very quickly. Between

1972 and 1984, Hall & Oates released an album

almost every single, one album every single year

in that almost 12 years. That's just what media,

what entertainment was. The 70s, 80s, 90s, you

know, in the 90s, you know, you look at 1996,

you look at it, all kinds of stuff. Like, yeah,

we can do a whole separate non -toy edict podcast

about films and releases and whatever. And I

think comparing those releases to toy lines that

came out. So, for instance, I'm looking through

the 1995 list. I'm guessing gross is what we're

looking at because total gross probably includes

VHS and stuff like that. I'm not 100 % sure.

Because the numbers are all over the place. But

of the following top 10, let's just go with 20

movies. Top 10, 20 movies. Which ones of these

had action figures? So, Batman Forever. Yes.

Apollo 13. I don't think so. Toy Story. Yes,

of course. So, I got two. Pocahontas. Yes. Ace

Ventura and Nature Calls. Not that I'm aware

of. I think Casper had some sort of toys. Maybe

just from Pizza Hut. Die Hard with a Vengeance

needed toys, but never got it. Crimson Tide would

have been really funny toys. Yes. Goldeneye got

a late -released video game like two years later,

I think. Yep. Waterworld had a toy line. Dangerous

Minds would have had a very funny toy line, but

it didn't get one. Seven did not, which, again,

would have been ridiculous, but didn't. Okay,

okay, okay, okay. Hang on, hang on, hang on.

Stop. Seven. Imagine... What hot toys can do

with Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and the head in

the box. No, this is going to be one of the most

morbid things I suggest on the show. But if you

know that was made by Kenner, you know, the head

in the box would have been spring loaded. Just

throwing that out there. Oh, absolutely. It would

have been because spring loaded was Kenner's

thing. So then there was Congo, which had a toy

line, which awful. Awful toy line, but fun and

borrows a lot of gimmicks from so many other

toy lines. While you're sleeping, did not have

a toy line. Get shorty, didn't. The Bridges of

Madison County. Hilarious, but no. Mortal Kombat,

the movie, I don't think had a specific toy line.

I think there was like the G .I. Joe Mortal Kombat

toy line that came out for that. Dumb and Dumber.

I would love, would love the Shaggin' Wagon or

whatever they called it. The sheepdog van. That'd

be a great vehicle. Yes, that would be. Nine

Months, no. Outbreak, no. Braveheart, no. Less

than half the movies that hit the top 20 actually

got toys. I don't remember if Jumanji did, but

Jumanji's number 32. Pulp Fiction... No! Pulp

Fiction does not need a toy line. Casino. That

would have been great. You know what? And again,

talking about today's standards, today's articulate,

you know what? Insert company here, like a Hot

Toys or a NECA or somebody like that. We need

basic instinct figures, especially to relive

a certain scene in a certain interrogation room.

Again, spring action, all I'm saying. What a

squirt. Okay. Not where I was going with that.

I was thinking of... What's his name? Wayne Knight?

Yeah. Wayne Knight, his jaw would be... Yeah,

that's true. Like a Fright Features jaw from

Ghostbusters. He squeezes his arm and his jaw

just drops. That'd be great. I think that would

actually be a fun episode to do in the future

where we pick a movie year and we go through

and we pick two or three movies that need toy

lines and describe what they would get. As far

as I can tell, the original 95 movie did not

have a toy line. And I know there are Mortal

Kombat figures. I know there are. So Hasbro made

some G .I. Joe compatible ones. And it's actually

a pretty fun little toy line. And then a company

called Toy Island took the molds. made them a

little bit bigger, and reproduced them. So they're

about four and a half or five inches. I've got

a couple of them around here somewhere. They're

actually pretty fun. But the funny thing is that

I'm looking at the Mortal Kombat franchise article

on Wikipedia. It lists everything other than,

like, it's like, obviously the games, because

the games are what started it. You know, plot,

characters, development, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. Games, other media, films, comics, novels,

music, television, stage, show, online gambling

game, and collectible card games. It does not

list the action figures at all in this article,

and it makes me kind of upset that it doesn't.

No, but Hasbro and Toy Island just shook the

whole computer desk. Hasbro and Toy Island did

make, in the 90s, Mortal Kombat toys. I had a

couple of them, and I still do. they were compatible

with the Street Fighter line. So anybody who

wanted to do mixed Street Fighter and Mortal

Kombat finally could. There's actually some really

interesting movies that came out in 95. Yes,

yes, there is. Casper was actually not a bad

movie for the time. I love Casper. Some of those

effects still hold up. Yeah. But I do appreciate

having the option to talk about this. I could

probably still go on even more. You know, it's...

It is a fascinating time in cinema. It's probably

a fascinating movie. Did you know Jack Black

has a small role in it? No, I did not. Jack Black,

when he was trying to become an actor, that was

one of his roles that he got. It's a very small

role. He's the pilot for a water plane in it.

He has maybe one line and it's terribly delivered,

but it is what it is. Yeah. All right. You can't

really ask for great line delivery in that movie.

So no, but there's a lot of little bits and pieces.

There's actually a really funny scene. And if

I can try to get the clip and if I can try to

get the time on it, I'll, I'll tell you, it makes

me laugh every time. So there's a small scene

and I'll probably close off with this because

I'm sure people already tuned out by now, but

there's a small scene where Helen and Enola were

complaining about not eating. So the Mariner

ties himself to his boat somehow. has a spear

gun jumps in the water and he's dragged behind

and this giant sea creature bites them. And he

shoots the sea creature. And the next scene is

that they're, they're grilling up some pieces

of this fish that they harvested. Yeah. And they're

eating it. And the food, the meat looks actually

kind of delicious. I don't know what they're

eating in the movie. I I'd actually be curious

to find out like, was it chicken? Was it tofu?

What were they eating? Because it actually looks

kind of yummy. And there's a, some character

development between the Mariner and Enola. They're

going back and forth and there's just a random

shot of her opening and closing her mouth. Enola.

It looks like she's maybe taking a larger bite

or something like that. And it gets synced up

with, I want to say maybe a sound of a wave or

a sound on the boat. And it sounds like. if you

watch it and you're watching for it, it looks

like she just takes this huge, loud bite of air.

And it's, to me, it's just, it's always made

me laugh. And it's always hilarious because Enola

comes off as this sort of feisty, stubborn, but

little girl. And she's sitting there eating this

fish. And then she just goes, and I don't know

how else to describe it. I'll see if I can find

it and send it to you because it's just beyond

hilarious to me. Again, probably not a big deal

to anybody else, to be honest. All right, so

Josh has had his watering hole filled. And, yeah,

what a world. The toy line, like I said, from

what you've shown me and from what I've seen

online, for $19 .95, pretty damn good toy line.

Movie? It's subjective at best because some people

may like it and some people may not. Look, Dennis

Hopper has done worse. I mean, you know. He was

fun. He was a fun bad guy. He really was. No,

absolutely. And I don't mean to disparage the

man, but I mean, like, okay. So, and as I'm saying

this, I'm thinking of. I'm not thinking of him.

I'm thinking of, what's his name? Nielsen. Leslie

Nielsen. Oh, yeah. So seeing the, what's his

name? Aster, Master, Caster, Daster, the Deacon.

So seeing the Deacon in this, I'm like, hmm.

It kind of reminds me of, like I said, Leslie

Nielsen as the bad guy in Surf Ninjas. Oh, that's

another movie we need to talk about. Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, most definitely. But yeah, I mean, Dennis

Hopper's career, I mean, you look at his filmography

and yeah, it's... I think he just kind of became

one of those actors who... legit got to the point

of, I need a payday. This, I can do pretty much

any role you give me without any effort and still

come off as bankable at this point in his career.

Like, I really think that's what he got to. All

right. So do, I believe this is 40 years, but

do the math for me. 1995 minus 1955. Yeah, that's

40. Okay. In 1955, He debuted in Rebel Without

a Cause as Goon. Okay, 40 years later in 1995,

he plays the Deacon. All right. In between that,

he's had films such as, I mean, all of his 80s

films, I don't recognize any of these 80s movies

at all. Okay, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, he played

Lieutenant Lefty Enright. Okay, I recognize that.

River's Edge, Hoosiers, I recognize that. But,

like, really, seriously, okay. What, you didn't

see Space Truckers? No, I did not see Space Truckers.

So, seriously, the first time I ever really noticed

him was 1993 in Super Mario Bros. And then, obviously,

he was in Speed in 94, and then Waterworld in

95. Space Truckers was not... Oh, goo. I mean,

he's had, but he's one of those actors that he's,

he's that in like right in the camera. He's one

of those speakers. Like, you know, you know how

he speaks and you know how, you know, whatever.

I'll throw a whatever line in here from him.

But he's one of those in your face types of speakers.

And really, honestly, past 1995. I don't think

I know of any of his other... I know of EdTV,

but I've never seen it. But, like, 2001, he did

something called Ticker. Easy Riders, Raging

Bulls in 2003. The Night We Called It a Day in

2002. Like, he's... I don't know what happened

to his movie career. He's working great. He's

getting movies, but, like... I don't get it.

But again, he's one of those actors that's shown

up in several really interesting, important...

Look, Super Mario Bros. is bad. Waterworld is

bad. Just overall story -wise, alright? But between

Super Mario Bros. Speed and Waterworld, no one

is ever going to forget Dennis Hopper. No, and...

Like I said, I think he's just one of those actors

who was good enough that give him a script like

Waterworld, he'd make it his own. And he'd be

just fine. Speed, Super Mario Brothers, if I

remember correctly, because that movie has a

lot of parallels to Waterworld. It was his acting

choice to hold his hands up close to his chest

like a T -Rex. Yes. Walk around like that. Yeah.

It doesn't, it makes no sense otherwise, but

he was doing that. That was his actor's choice.

I could be wrong about that if I am great, but

it was, he just kind of did these little things

that just worked and he just made money. I mean,

there's a lot of actors out there who just take

roles and they're like, all right, you'd like

Bruce Willis towards the end of his career before

he just retired. Bruce Willis was just doing

a bunch of random stuff. none of it really all

that good, but he just, I think he just had a

salary that worked. We had contracts requirements

that made sense. He'd probably come to work two,

three days, get paid a million bucks and leave.

You know, if I could, if I can make a million

bucks for two to three days of work doing a bad

movie, I'll do it. Yeah. You know, did you see

American siege with Bruce Willis? No. Gasoline

alley. No. Out of Death? No. Ooh, Cosmic Sin.

No. Oh, that looks amazing. Is that Elijah Wood

in Space Armor? Please tell me that's the case.

I have no idea. Motherless Brooklyn, 10 Minutes

Gone. He just was in all of these direct -to

-video movies. Because like I said, he probably

was just trying to get a paycheck, and they were

not very difficult movies. He probably read the

script on his way to the studio in that morning.

Yeah, most likely. So anyways, that was fun.

Thank you very much. I do hope you give the movie

a chance one of these days. Give it a watch.

If you want, there's actually a great YouTube

channel called The Atoll that does a great job

going over in detail any of the known information

about Waterworld that's out there. And even showing

off some of the very crazy... Tie -in products

that I didn't even know existed, like a water

-powered watch. Did you know that was a thing?

No. A watch that could use water and certain

diodes to work. It's fascinating. There was a

theatrical release promo collection that included

a leather water bottle or something. All sorts

of unusual stuff. So I do recommend checking

it out. It actually has a full review of all

the toys, which are fantastic. I will most definitely

put in the show notes the clip or the link to

the YouTube channel. All right, folks. Next time

on ToyCast, it's the 150th episode, and we have

a very special guest coming on the show. And

no, sadly, it is not Pixel Dan, but... Let me

ask you this, Josh. Okay. Would you say, just,

you know, unmathematically sound, okay, that

toy collectors are 95 % male and 5 % female?

I mean, I wouldn't have any information to...

No, I'm saying, like, your guesstimate, what

is the male to female ratio for toy collectors?

Because every... episode of origins that we've

done since we started it it's been all of us

guys and i know there are plenty of females out

there that are toy collectors that like collecting

things and like action figures and all of that

so you know i would say the demographic right

now for action figures like things we designate

as action figures and not dolls i would say i'd

be comfortable like 80 20 Okay. I would say if

we expanded that to stuffed animals or other

toys or other things, I think, you know, obviously

that percentage would change. Like Barbie dolls,

you know, it's going to reverse. Yeah, you're

looking at like 60 -40 at that point. Well, not

Barbies. Barbies would be... 60 -40 the other

way. 60 % female, 40 % male. But, yeah. So, my

point in all of this is the special guest that

is coming on is going to be our first female

toy collector in my good friend, Heather Hahi

Prime. I... So, we've all seen Charlie's Angels,

right? We're all old enough to remember the original

Charlie's Angels show. Right, audience? Yes.

Okay, but you know, you know, they go in, the

thing, the intercom starts. Good morning, angels.

You know the whole bit, right? I saw the terrible

movies that came out with. Good morning, angels.

Good morning, Charlie. Stop it. No, I'm not.

Okay, yes, yes, yes. But my point is, is that

I have a group of female friends. who have been

on other Origins episodes in the past. They've

been on the Transformers ones and things like

that. So it's myself, my good friend Amy, Heather,

and Nicole, and basically I'm essentially their

Charlie. So the group that we have on Facebook

is Charlie and his robotic angels because we

are all Transformers fans. Angels, I suggest

you begin. By flying immediately to Kane's Corners.

So Heather is a part of this group, and she is

very stoked and very excited to be the first

female guest to talk about toys and answer the

42 questions all about toy collecting. And I

am very excited about this next episode because

it's going to be very interesting. Well, very

cool. Yeah, absolutely. I look forward to that

one. And anyone listening to the sound of my

voice, if you are a female toy collector, you

can always email us feedback at geekcastradio

.com. If you'd like to be on the show, just let

us know. It's like I always say in the Origins

episodes, I am trying to get the origins of as

many fans as I can, whether it's toys, cartoons,

Transformers, Masters of the Universe, Power

Rangers, anything. So, you know, whatever it

is, just get in touch with us and you can be

on the podcast too. You'll get the t -shirt,

right? I'm still waiting for the t -shirt, you

promise me? No. First of all, I never promised

you a damn t -shirt. Second of all, people can

find Josh on Twitter at Floorburger553 unless

he's changed it since the last time we recorded.

You can also check out ToyCast on geekcastradio

.com and wherever podcasts are listened to. And

for now, keep playing with your toys, and we'll

catch you next time here on ToyCast. Later. I

know I got the entire set in college packaged.

It was either high school or college packaged

off eBay for probably $40. Whoa, there goes my

microphone falling off my shelf. Hi. All right,

well. This is an edit point. Yeah, what the heck

just happened? I don't know. All right, so we're

going to put this... Let me see if I can clip

this right here. Maybe it'll go better. I had

to send my PC into the shop, so I'm working with

my work laptop right now. Not that that plays

too much of a role. Oh, shoot, this isn't going

to work. Let's go. Where are we going to go with

this? This is a good time to stop recording as

I figure this out. This is just edit material

and I'll put it in at the end because you're

starting to sing. That's probably better for

all of our listeners. If they don't hear me sing,

that's not going to work. Well, now I have to

use it because you just sang that. Well, you're

just asking for trouble. All right. It might

be because it's getting really hot in the room

and the metal's getting soft or something. I

don't know. All right. Let's try this again.

Is this going to work? All right. Please don't

fall. Please don't fall. Okay. Well, we'll see

what happens. If it falls again, I'll sing again.

There we go. You're never too old for video games.