Origins in Toy Collections with Erik Braley

Jazz here, and I am so diggin' the Geekcast Radio

Network. Greetings, humans. This is Starscream,

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

you call me a parts former, one more time! Toycast.

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

will ever need. Hello and welcome to an all -new

generation of Toycast as we get the origins of

any and all toy fans that we can. I'm, of course,

TF2 and Mike, and today's featured guest is Eric

Braley from Toy Robot Magazine. Hello, sir. Hey,

how you doing, man? Thanks for having me. I'm

doing sometimes I wish I wasn't doing anything,

but I'm doing So people should go over all things

transformers about a month ago or so maybe a

month and a half ago at this point We had Eric

on there for the first time talking about toy

robot magazine For those of the listeners on

this feed that didn't listen to that one well

first of all go listen to that one and second

of all Let everybody know about what toy robot

magazine is all about All right, well, Toy Robot

Magazine is one of the only magazines right now

in the world who's solely devoted to transformers

and transforming robots. So that can be Transformers,

GoBots, Power Rangers, Mazinga, all that stuff.

It's a 44 -page magazine, articles, interviews,

posters. It's a blast is what it is. Absolutely,

absolutely it is. All right, so we have 42 questions

here at Toycast all about toy collecting. Okay.

And yeah, what was, what is, or was the first

toy you remember having as a kid? The earliest

toy that I can remember having as a kid, that's

a tough one, man. Holy crap, right off the bat.

I'm trying to think here. Man, probably a plush

dinosaur that came in a house it was a little

cardboard house like pound puppies and it was

a little purple t -rex that's one of the earliest

ones i can think of otherwise uh it might have

been a spattering of like uh maybe some thundercats

or he -man toys were my earliest earliest toys

yes folks and this was before the age of barney

so it ain't that purple dinosaur no this is yeah

yeah For a second there, I thought you were going

to say Battle Beasts, because honestly, I remember

having Battle Beasts. I'm probably misremembering

this, but I swear I had those before I had some

of my Transformers, or maybe I just had them

at the same time. Even though Battle Beasts were

by far and large one of my favorite toy lines,

those weren't until like, 87 or so. My earliest

stuff was probably something from like 80, 81,

82 because I was born in 82. Was there a particular

adult who was supportive of you playing with

toys as a kid? Was there anyone who was unsupportive?

Amazingly, my father, he was always about me

getting cool toys, never spoiling me because

I was kind of the only kid out on the farm. No,

he would coordinate with my grandparents, all

my aunts and uncles, all my great aunts and uncles,

and everybody was really supportive. So like

when Christmas would roll around, I might get

a big Diner Rider Triceratops. And then like

another family member might got me one of the

Diner Rider Chew Packs with the figures. And

then somebody else might have gotten me like

a smaller Diner Rider. My grandma would get me

the... club memberships to Dino Riders. So all

my family was always supportive of my joys. That's

very awesome. And it's funny you say you're an

only kid out in the out in the farm. You're an

only kid out in the country. I'm an only kid

in the city because yeah, only children, man,

we get everything we want. Yeah, most of the

time. What type of toys were your favorites to

play with so action figures play sets vehicles

that kind of stuff my favorite toys Obviously

Transformers were huge on my list Anything dinosaur

so Dino riders was big I wasn't big in the play

sets. I had made play sets as a kid My dad would

usually get me more of like the medium -range

figures And then action figures, so He -Man.

I had a few Thundercats, not a lot. But I would

say the predominant figures was Transformers,

He -Man, Dino Riders, and some LEGO. Very cool,

very cool. So out of all of those, what stood

out more than the others? Well, my first transformer

I ever got was a G1 astro train so that was always

important to me. I remember that for my Dino

riders I had the big Not the apatosaurus which

was like a three foot long one I had the diplodocus

but that was like a foot and a half one and that

was Huge and then I had a couple of the mtron

Lego sets that had the little magnets and I had

the big Spaceship for that. So those are ones

that stick out in my mind Yeah, very cool. Very

cool. It's funny You mentioned astro train. I

have him right here. That's not the same one

I had, you know for almost 40 years ago, but

it It's obviously the original Astro train and

they've come up with some pretty decent modern

versions of him. But oh, yeah this old one this

this original one man is just so good even though

it's I mean, the train mode is good. The shuttle

mode is good. The robot mode is good, but you

have to get his legs like right in the right

position to be able to stand properly. Well,

they kind of bow out a little bit, so you can

have them like saddle stand. It works. If only

Battle Cat was a little slimmer. Astro Train

could ride Battle Cat. do you prefer the label

of action figures dolls toys or other labels

um i've always been kind of a purist that um

action figures was the original 60s gi joe forward

to describe a figure with accessories and stuff

like that geared towards more boys obviously

that's changed over the years whereas a doll

was a larger uh 12 inch or taller uh figure so

if you bring me 12 inch tall GI Joe I will call

it both a doll and an action figure because you

know, that's kind of being nitpicky but um, you

know, it's never bothered me any I think it's

a little boy though. Yo, it's somebody's like

always got some dolls over there. They're action

figures, you know, exactly I don't care. I just

I enjoy them. Absolutely Good guys are bad guys

which toys were your favorites to play with the

most? Bad guys day in day out Ninja Turtles got

there was another toy line Ninja Turtles always

the bad guys I never really cared to get the

good guys. I only wanted the bad guys Yeah, those

those original 87 toys were great at the time

but looking back on those oh man That cloth cape

was shredder, and I never had Krang. Krang is

his robot. I mean, okay, I had Krang, but I only

had Krang, the little android body. I never had

the big winged thing. His little stilt stalker

walker thing, yeah. Yeah, yeah. What is or was,

and I know you said you didn't have many play

sets, but what is or was your favorite toy vehicle

or play set? Would say I had both the captain

power Spaceship and the captain power bad guy.

It was like a Castle base thing that he sat on

and so I had both of those deluxe vehicles Those

were a lot of fun yeah, you know for me like

okay, so and I and I know this is a Distinction

that doesn't really have a difference. But for

me transformers were transformers. They weren't

Vehicle or action figure even though they are

action figures, but they're transformers So when

I see like toy toy vehicle, I'm thinking of like

like we're trying what you're talking about with

Captain Power or Technically mask is a toy vehicle

with a you know that kind of stuff So I also

had the 57 Chevy Bel Air mask car. I loved I

love yes Yes, that was a good one Did you and

your friends ever pretend with your toys that

you had by this I mean did you say I'm gonna

be this toy and you can be that toy like Eric's

gonna be the Coke bottle top and Bill's gonna

be the piece of glass so uh Sadly, I I don't

have much memories of ever playing with I was

very much to myself I was a very mature child

I do I remember playing with other kids on the

playground, but I don't remember How our play

pattern worked, but I'm sure I remember more

of we would always role play like Ninja Turtles

So not much with the figures, but we'd be like

I'm sure and I'm Mike Landrieu I remember doing

that but when playing with toys, I hardly ever

played with toys with other kids because they

were so violent with their toys and they would

chuck them around. And I was like, I don't want

you to wreck my go -bots. And I don't want you

to wreck my He -Man figure. Because kids would

like chuck them at a tree or bury them in the

dirt. And I was like, I don't want that. Yeah.

Yeah. No, absolutely. I completely get that.

And I understand that. And sadly, my only rebuttal

to the go -bot thing is, well, they came wrecked

off the Kmart assembly line. What does it what

okay, so What features define a good toy to you?

How true does the item feel in comparison to

the source material wetness? Like you want to

know if I feel that toy needs to represent say

the cartoon show or just what makes a toy good

both Okay As a kid and as an adult, I never really

cared if it looked exactly like the TV show.

I didn't care about accuracy that much. As long

as I knew what it was, that's all I cared. What

made a toy great was if it had play features

that didn't feel forced and gimmicky over time.

So what I'm saying there is Ninja Turtles, as

a kid, I started losing interest in Ninja Turtles

when it was like Ninja Turtles with wacky features,

Ninja Turtles with capes, Ninja Turtles as undercover

agents. I just got bored of that. Whereas He

-Man, every figure that came out, even if it

was a new version of the figure, had something

unique to it. Yeah. The only caveat I will give

Turtles is that when they did the turtle disguises,

Undercover Don was always my favorite, and the

only gimmick that I absolutely loved on the Turtles

was the pop -up heads. When you push it down

and it pops up, that was the only really good

gimmick for me as a kid. That was kind of neat.

I liked the mutating ones, and I liked the storage

shell ones. Yeah, the storage shell ones were

really good. Those were awesome. What does toy

packaging have to have to draw you in? So basically

this is... And I'm only using today's standards

because that's all we can do now because it isn't,

I mean, you can give an answer as a kid, but

like if you go into like, you know, whatever

big box to Walmart target, whatever, what, when

you go through the toy aisle and you look and

you scan the stuff that you know, you love, what

is something that toy packaging has to have for

you to immediately gravitate towards it? Uh,

artwork still always has been, always will be

artwork of some sort, even with Obviously, back

in the day, He -Man toys, second you saw that

gorgeous fancy artwork, boom, you were there.

Transformers with artwork by Mark Watts, you

were there. Today, you don't quite get that.

It's a lot of digital, kind of quickie, slapdash

stuff, but for me, when I see indie products

like, say, the Dumpster Fire toy, it's a cool

concept, but the artwork is just some silly cartoon,

that doesn't quite grab me. But if you look at

currently the Transformers Legacy stuff, it's

very bright and colorful and it grabs my attention.

Or if the packaging is presented in a bubble

and a way to really get my attention, the current

He -Man stuff has a really nice way to show off

the figure and the accessories and it brings

you in, it brings your eye to it. So it's still

artwork or presentation of the figure. If you

don't do that right, It sucks and it looks generic.

Yup. I absolutely love and I know this is somewhat

controversial because, oh, but they're trying

to do their best for the environment going from,

you know, bubble to closed box. And my thing

is, look, if it's a closed box, that's more room

for artwork. Now granted, and I know Stupid idiots

out there have done this recently with some of

the clothes box though They'll mix up figure

and don't do that folks like that's worse than

being a scalper Yeah, don't don't do that crap,

but that clothes box like that Kingdom Rodimus

artwork. Oh God, I wish I had that in 1986 or

seven or whenever the original one came out because

that would have been awesome yeah, I the the

clothes box stuff I know makes a lot of people

upset but like If you've collected stuff from

overseas, there's a lot of times they'll do closed

box and the artwork is what sells it. Transformers

has traditionally had a way to look at the figure,

but I get what they're doing and I don't have

a problem with it because everybody's like, well,

I don't know what's inside of like, you don't

have the internet. You can't look at a picture

of it. I'm pretty sure. Like it's all these super

fans like, well, how am I supposed to know what

the toy looks like inside? I'm like, come on,

you're an adult. You know, you've already looked

at what this figure looks like. Have you not

seen all the quote -unquote leaked or even the

official images kind of thing? But my like my

I guess my biggest sticking point on closed boxes

first of all Scalpers are just like They are

rad. They're more rabid now than they were ten

years ago And either you're gonna get the figure

you want to get or you're not gonna get the figure

You're gonna get more you're gonna get there

and like I just said you're gonna find a box

get it home and wait a minute this crappy 1992

go bot is not supposed to be the 2022 figure

that you know what I mean? Well I tell people

is then if you're a die -hard collector already

and this comes up a lot of times like everybody's

like well I don't like scalpers and stuff like

that yeah there's certain times pre -orders are

tough but If you just are willing to pay, you're

already paying $23 for a regular figure. At this

point, let's not lie, cost is the thing. So if

you're already spending that much money, if you're

spending $90 on a current motor master... Just

support a website of your choice, whether it

be Hasbro, Pulse, TF Source, Big Bad Toy Store.

Just pay the extra few bucks. You're going to

get the item you want. You're not going to have

to deal with scalping. Big Bad Toy Store is really

good about packaging. I haven't had too much

issue with Hasbro. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

But as an adult, you have the capability to go

out, pre -order stuff. You're going to get the

items you need, and it's going to arrive usually

in good shape. and you're going to get the item

you wanted so I mean as an adult and you want

to be a diehard collector quit going to Walmart

every five minutes and looking just support a

website pick one and go it'll be guaranteed better

I mean and and that's been my biggest thing since

I started this show back in 2009 is that from

2009 and even slightly before then if you absolutely

want whatever figure it is Like you've just said,

you know, go there support whichever one you

want to support and you're guaranteed like I

don't like toy hunting used to be a thing for

me. Yep. I don't want to go out to a people.

No, I'll just sit here in front of my computer

and just wait for it. I'm in the town of 30 ,000

people. That's not very big. There are no less

than 45 people who just buy toys to resell. I

have a list of all these people and so when you

go to a toy store it's kind of a bummer because

the kids don't get the toy they want and I do

feel bad about that but at the same time I'm

like I have people who are like dang dude I was

really looking for this guy now I have to wait

for like six months I'm like you could just pre

-ordered him and I'm aware cash is a problem

too so if that's you know there are people who

are stuck just going to stores and I don't want

sound elitist and I'm sorry that's come to that

but there comes a point where you got to step

up your game and decide am I doing this casually

or if I want to do this on a higher level and

the people that are getting angry are people

who already spending you know five six seven

hundred dollars a month on this hobby they need

to quit going if you're spending that much money

you need to quit going to Walmart every day looking

for that item to come in you should just pre

-ordered it ahead of time yep absolutely do you

open your toys or do you leave them in the package

if you keep Toys package, do you have any specific

criteria for that? I do. I have a really weird

system for it. So if I go out and buy a brand

new toy on the market right now, 90 % of the

time, I'm going to open it. There are a few occasions

where I get a set in where I don't want to open

it. One of those was this really nice box set

of the junkie and trial from the Transformers

movie. I don't remember the name right now. It

came with like. a shark to con guard and it came

with a quintesson and it came with krainix the

little guy who gets killed uh and it's in this

gorgeous gorgeous presentation box i couldn't

get myself to open that i was like i like it

in the box otherwise when i buy vintage figures

if i pay i went to a comic shop one time and

i bought like 25 package transformers for like

less than 500 bucks Maybe it was even 30 and

it was a really good deal. So I said screw it

even though they were like 15 years old I'm opening

all of them and I open all of them. I didn't

care But if I'm buying a g1 toy, that's mint

in box. I'll probably leave it in box yeah, the

only exception I've had like that was I bought

a a meteor robot very vintage old 80 like 1980

81 toy and it came new on card, but the bubble

was slowly coming off and As I went to hang it

like three quarters of the bubble popped off.

I'm not mad at the seller sounds like script.

I'm opening them I hated to do that. I paid next

to nothing for it. So all the older about 15

years or older I don't like to open the packaging

Yeah Yeah, I mean and honestly sometimes that's

I mean, I know there are plenty of either mint

on seal card or mint and seal box or just mint

and box or mint on card collectors out there

You're not always going to find those on eBay

or in most in most comic shops most like you

just said, you know you buy five ten fifteen

bags of Figures like just like when I bought

the saster friend a couple months ago off eBay

I Knew it was coming loose. It came with everything

except the box. It came with the instructions

It came with a decoder it came with all of it

It just didn't come with the box and I was fine

with that because I knew I was gonna have it

sitting here on my desk in one of the three modes

that he has. Absolutely. If as a kid or an adult,

you were only allowed to choose one toy franchise

to collect from, which would you choose and why?

It's tough, bro. You already know what my answer

is going to be. I swear to God, man, it's gotta

be Transformers over Battle Beast, but that would

almost be a coin flip. Yeah, but I mean, I don't

know man. It's just like look battle beasts are

great I absolutely loved them when I was a kid

and I love seeing what you're doing with the

unofficial battle beast guy that you're putting

together But yeah, like those to me are more

like you were talking earlier about you know

You're worried your friends would screw up your

toys because they always smash them together.

Yeah, like Battle Beast to me never looked like

you sat there with your thumb on their stomach

or chest or whatever trying to get the rub sign

to rub or whatever. Like that's what those were

for. Those were not for like hardcore playground

playtime. They are there to look at display and

figure out if water or fire or air is going to

come out of any of them at any point in time.

I took every single one of my Battle Beasts into

the tub with me. Oh, that's a damn shame. Yeah.

Wow. As an adult, do you prefer vintage toys

or modern toys? Vintage. It's that nostalgia

feel. It's being able to hunt down what I got

as a kid. I have a shelf that's just dedicated

to toys that I had as a kid. So it's a Tootsie

Toy SR -71. It is a... I think it was Matchbox

that had a fabulous Thunderbirds vehicle from

one of their music videos. I have one of those.

It's just items that were specifically things

I loved as a kid. So the vintage is more fun

for me, especially when you get into like the

old tin Japanese toys. Those are just... There

was so much more love put into a toy then. Hmm,

yeah. Out of all the toys that you do have, what

is one toy you can always play with? Dude, any

of my battle beasts I love picking up. There's

a reason why I have them next to my workspace,

because sometimes I'll have writer's block or

something. I'll just pick up a few and just look

them over. Also, I have a couple of D &D minis

and like a little wind -up Godzilla that shoots

sparks out of his mouth. And then I also have

my G1 shelf next to my desk, so any G1 toy I

can just pick up and fidget with a little bit

and just enjoy. Very cool, very cool. Even though

there are always toy lines that people never

purchase, are there any that you specifically

and purposefully avoid? This can be toy lines,

specific characters, etc. There was a time where

I thought McFarland was saving the world of toys

with renovate just reinvigorating what it was

to collect toys However, he started getting to

where all of his figures were like stactions,

you know statue slash action figures and He just

hit a point where I just quit touching any of

his stuff Today there's a lot of toys out there.

I just avoid I only I can't think of one off

hand But if I walk through the toy all I'd like

yeah, no, I'm not touching that Are there any

toys in the past or currently that you wish you

hadn't bought them? Conversely are there any

toys that you may have sold that you regret letting

them go? So there used to be a toy line called

Barnyard Commandos and I was like all about the

advertising I was like heck yeah I'm gonna go

get these and I bought them and they were made

out of this hollow Like blow mold plastic and

then the accessories were like this weird crap.

I didn't like that Nickelodeon Gak was single

-handedly the worst thing I ever bought as a

kid Ever because that crap stank to high heaven

and it had plastic chips in it that would cut

you up Yep, I remember Gak And then what was

the last half of that question? Are there any

toys that you may have sold that you wish you

hadn't let go of them? Not counting a prototype

tidal wave, I would say my micro machines. I

kind of regret having sold those as a kid. Those

were really cool. I had some cool sets. Very

cool, very cool. How large or small is your toy

collection? Do your toys take up the whole house

or are they relegated to one room shelf or something

like that? I have, let me think here. I probably

have about 15 to 20 books, 8 foot bookshelves,

completely filled with action figures. I probably

have about 17 totes filled with action figures.

I mean, I have well over 10 ,000 toys of some

sort, a good majority of that being Transformers.

They take up an entire side room in my house,

my whole office space, and then a lot of room

in the storage area. That just, I don't have

room to display them. Wow. But yeah, and then

my original collection, way back in the day,

I had well over 50 ,000 pieces in my collection

with my dad. Whoa. And that's not just Transformers,

that was anything and everything nerdy. Yep.

So how do you keep track of your collection?

So I used to keep kind of a mental list, but

when you start getting up in those thousands

of numbers, Uh, there are so many times I've

repurchased something. Uh, so I've only recently

started actually cataloging everything. So I'm

redoing all my Transformer shelves, organizing

them by series. And as I take five figures out

to put on a shelf, I'll write them down in a

list. So that's what I'm working on right now.

Uh, because it kind of sucks. I just went and

bought a G1 Transformer case while I was on a

trip from a friend. came home and I was like

crap I don't have a place to set this on the

shelf right now so I was like okay there's a

spot and I set it right on top of another g1

transformer case that I didn't even know I had

oh no so I was like well I only spent 10 bucks

but uh I really I really gotta get this collection

organized yeah I I don't know, but we now live

in an age of technology where you would think

that somebody out there would have some sort

of toy catalog that they could then turn into

an at like, this will be a question here in a

few minutes, but with Funko. Funko has their

app. Anytime you either want a Funko pop or a

Funko product, not just pops, but anytime you

put it on your wish list or if you add it to

your collection. And it's right all right to

all like I know I have 188 funko pops. That's

cool. Oh, okay. Great. Why doesn't somebody else

do that with any other like just a whole toy

app? Like, you know, I bet there is but it's

probably buried in bad programming and micro

transactions. I'm sure there is something out

there that it's just I don't want crap on anybody's

project if it is out there, but... Right, right,

right. But, yeah. So, like in your office and

in your side room and in other places where you

have the toys displayed, how do you prefer to

display your toys? I try to conserve as much

space as possible. So, when you look at my shelves,

it's very claustrophobic, very crowded. big stuff

in the back down to medium size stuff and smaller

going towards the lip. So like a lot of my transformer

shelves average between 25 to 35 figures. I have

to min max space. So it's like right now all

my Dino Rider stuff right now was taking up too

much room so it's just in storage. Because I

just don't have room to display it my D &D minis

that I have I have hundreds upon hundreds of

D &D minis I don't have a way to display those

right now, so they're just all in storage So

yeah, that's how I display them is big stuff

going towards the front and then anything That's

boxed or carded either goes up on the wall or

up on the top of the shelves right absolutely

If you could only keep one toy from your entire

collection, what would it be and why? Now, usually

how I preface this is everybody is safe, humans,

pets, other living things are safe, but the house

is burning down and you have to run in to save

one thing. I would want to say my HasLab Unicron,

but honestly, God, it would be a handmade little

felt animated. I think it was Blitzwing. I'd

have to check now. but it's a little handmade

felt doll transformer that my wife got for me

as an anniversary gift. And I just would feel

like garbage if I picked a giant expensive thing

and not a gift from my wife. There you go. So

on the flip side of that, here's the toy box

challenge. You get one 18 by 18 box, 18 by 18

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

fit in the box. What can you pack into it? Transformers,

Armada, Minicons, or Cybertron, any kind of minicon

figure from like the Armada saga. One's based

on that mold, my battle beasts. Transformer decoys,

and probably a few D &D minis. I would find a

bunch of small stuff and make a lot of it. Yeah,

that's the smart thing to do. I mean, now, of

course, if we had that dishwasher slash washing

machine box that Unicron comes in, you can put

whole rooms in that thing. So when I got my HazLab

Unicron, the guy just dropped it off directly

in front of my door. And so I was like, okay,

oh man, it's here. And I was like, I got to go

out in the lobby of my apartments and grab it

real quick. And I opened my door and I was like,

oh no. And so he put it right up against my door.

and then when I opened the door there's a radiator

on the outside and the box is so dang big it

hit that so I had to shut the door go and unlock

a side door that we never use go around this

big long hallway down some stairs come back up

into the house and get it that way and come all

the way back with this giant two -foot box it

was hilarious Jesus that's crazy but now it takes

a massive section like in my storage so wow Are

you a funko fan? Uh Casually, I don't have a

lot. I do have most of the transformer funko's

My wife is more of a funko fan than I am. She

has a bunch of them Not like anywhere near 100,

but she collects a lot of the Lord of the Rings

and the Disney stuff Yeah, very cool. Very cool

Yeah, it's always it always surprises me now

what they're gonna do next with transformers

and funko and I'm not really a fan of NFTs, but

man, some of those potential, like they put Devastator

in that, they put Hot Rod in the NFTs, I'm like,

really, seriously? There's NFTs, Funkos? Yeah,

so they had a Funko drop. Yeah, they they did

nft funko pops and if you open a certain, you

know What I don't know how the nft things work

a buddy of mine explained it to me, but I don't

remember so basically yes, eventually you can

get a physical funko pop of I believe it's golden

optimus prime. So there's that there's hot rod.

There's Devastator Devastator is a six inch pop.

So he's larger obviously and Yeah, it's a little

crazy, but The, the latest thing that they announced

that's coming, well, it actually came earlier

this month was the 10 and a half inch Unicron.

That is actually cause with, with Hasbro's, uh,

license with Funko is that Funko can make pops

or transformers, but they have to be based off

of toy design. Like you look at optimists, you

look at set. That's why sound wave will never

probably have red eyes because it'll never be

animate. It'll always be toy accurate. And the

ten and a half inch unicorn is based on has lab

unicorn So I'm sitting here thinking ten and

a half inches versus two feet tall I can find

somewhere some point somehow I'm looking at these

so you paid thirty dollars for 15 NFT trading

cards Yeah, it's a whole yeah NFTs are I'm too

old. I don't understand it Yeah. Somebody explained

it to me and I know a guy who is really big into

them and whatever else. And I'm just like, can

I just wait a year or two when the actual physical

pops or show up on eBay or something? Because

like, yeah, it's, it's a whole, you know, so

I assume, but I could be wrong. because you know

what happens when you assume things i assume

what was the most money you spent on a toy i

assume it was unicorn and nothing you belong

to me no i belong to nobody perhaps i misjudged

you yes no no yes so it's technically the most

i have ever spent on it's technically multiple

toys but was a single item but not a collection

if that makes sense. So I spent four thousand

dollars on a battle beast refill kit. This was

a item only for a promotional event in Japan

where you as a representative of Takara had a

punchbox display and kids could get little prizes

from it. But if you ran out of prizes you could

order a refill kit and This, what I have here

is a refill kit. So it came with 25 packs of

weapons. It came with two incredibly rare Battle

Bees, a third pretty rare Battle Bees, and a

little vehicle that went with it. And that vehicle

also was only available in that punchbox display.

So by getting all this together, there's maybe

five of these in existence that are known to

be complete. I saw it come up for sale. I was

like, I'm buying that. So it's multiple figures,

but not because it's a complete set Otherwise,

I have spent five to seven hundred dollars on

figures many many times Yeah, I think the biggest

purchase I ever did was again It was it was the

yeah, it was the did I also get the add -ons?

Yeah 2008 Shattered Glass BotCon set Okay, I

think I spent Yeah, well I can now back then

back then it was when it originally came out

it was just north of eight hundred and sixty

dollars shipped so Yeah, and I got obviously

the five figures plus the rota mess and the whatever

the other two whatever the other two souvenir

figures were What so all right, that's the most

expensive. What is the cheapest toy you bought

and what was the best deal you ever got? went

to a garage sale one time with my dad and He

got the car a little bit ahead of me because

this is before we had phones with GPS and crap

on So I had my newspaper out and I'm circling

like I'm figuring our battle plan for the day

where we're all gonna go across in this town

And I see my dad lean over a free box and I see

him hip check a smile small kid I don't mean

violently but he leaned down and gently pushed

a kid out of the way and then picked up a box

and like pointed his fingers to his eyes to me

like do you see this and I was like oh what'd

he do why'd my dad just push a kid out of the

way like what the hell and I get up there I'm

like what's up and as I walk up he pushes the

box into my gut and he goes you owe me and there

were 20 Mint G1 figures all complete inside.

Six or seven jets, the complete Dinobots, and

Optimus Prime with trailer for free. Holy crap.

And this was in around 2003 to 2005 -ish. So

you know, at the time even then it wasn't as

expensive now, but I was like, well yeah. So

I was in debt to him for a real long time. That

was easily the best deal I've ever had. Yeah,

wow, that's that's awesome Other than like friends

giving me certain things because that's not you

know, that's that's gifts It's not you know,

whatever but I think the best deal I got was

I ended up spending like five dollars on three

bottles of dr. Pepper and you could mail away

for a Justin Guarini little sweet funko pop from

diet dr. Pepper So what modern and or vintage

toy lines are you currently collecting? Obviously

Transformers, Battle Beast. I'm kind of sort

of doing Dino Riders when I can afford to. I

collect any of the D &D minis from the 3 .5 up

to 4th edition because at 5th edition they switched

companies and I'm not really after those right

now. What else do I do? I collect anything Joseph

Michael Lindsner artwork. So he does a character

called Don. I collect all of his stuff. And then

there's a few other minor things in between,

but those are my main ones. Oh, and Godzilla.

Jeez, I don't know how I forgot that. Godzilla

stuff. Anything Godzilla. For listeners, I'm

sorry. I have to tell this story every time.

I have no disrespect. to the King of Monsters,

but the only thing Godzilla related I absolutely

crack up and laugh at is in Goldmember. Look,

it's Godzilla. Due to international copyright

laws, it isn't. But we should run like it is

Godzilla. I forgot about that. That's great.

Yeah, I love that. That is one of my favorite

lines from any of those films. I forgot that,

yeah. Do you visit now? Obviously. I, so for

me, even though people are like, Oh, COVID's

kind of blah, you know, it's, it's what we're

still in it. I personally, this is my first,

like, look, this has nothing to do with the podcast.

It has nothing to do with the GeekCaster. This

is my personal opinion. If we had not. You know,

if certain people had not done what they did

during the first lockdown, we may be on the other

side of this thing now, but with this whole new

variant thing and everything else. So I don't

go anywhere. I don't do anything. I don't do

that in general. But did you before in the before

times go to toy shows and that kind of thing?

And what are your thoughts on the whole convention

thing before and after? So I used to own like

a larger toy store. And now it's just all online

stuff. I do a storage, but So going to conventions

was life. So I didn't go to big, big ones like

in Minneapolis or anything like that. We did

a lot of local day cons or three day conventions.

And, you know, those supplement my income pretty

well. Like a good three day con can make me the

same amount of money in a month as, you know,

three weeks worth of eBay stuff sometimes. But

when the COVID hit, my wife is a she works at

a nursing home. So we had to take it incredibly

seriously. And when I say incredibly seriously,

I am talking she would come home. I wouldn't

even get near her. She would strip down, hop

in the shower, scrub off like it was radioactive

material. All of her clothing had to go in plastic

bags and immediately be sequestered from the

rest of the house. Because if we bring that in,

realistically, people die and not to be a Debbie

Downer, but you know, people in her work didn't

take it seriously, brought COVID in. And that

started a trend where they might have 12 deaths

a year. They were having over 24 deaths a year,

double the death rate, all because of this, all

because some people had to go out and get drunk

and party. And I mean, that's really irresponsible.

But where I live is South Dakota. And if you

haven't been to South Dakota, it's the Wild West.

So there was, unless a company Like Walmart made

the effort. There was no restrictions in our

state whatsoever. And when I say no, I mean,

we probably had the freest, if not one of the

freest states to move around in. Our population

actually went up during COVID because people

actually moved here because they thought like,

yay, like this is, this is fight the system stuff.

So again, not to be too political here, but we

took it very seriously. And thankfully all the

day cons around here took it very seriously.

So everything shut down. for two and a half years

only now have we started slowly coming back starting

with october of last year people still taking

it very seriously then with masks and stuff um

i am now however you know i'm triple vaccinated

my wife is she's been exposed i've been exposed

so we uh you know we don't wear masks anymore

but uh we still take it seriously so like once

in a while if we know there's gonna be uh like

when we go bigger cons like coming up here in

october we're going to one We will have masks

with so if we think there's getting to be too

many people at the booth we're gonna pop on our

mask We will have hand sanitizer. We'll shower

when we get back to the hotel. So yeah, I Mean

I get it. It's go at your own risk If you want

wear a mask definitely wear a mask if you are

not vaccinated personally, I kind of ask that

you don't go to these events Yes, you could be

Amy and I were asymptomatic There's no way you

would know that we had COVID if it wasn't for

that that they tested her at work Yeah, yeah,

that's just crazy. Everybody just needs to be

careful and be safe for everybody not you know,

not just like, you know, if I'm gonna and I don't

and people people listening to this show have

heard me say this before. I'm not a I'm not an

in person people person. Okay, you and I you

and I can sit here for five hours until you're

ready to pass out and talk all night long, and

I'll be fine and happy and dandy. I may have

to stand up and stretch, but I could do that

more than I want to leave my apartment, my comfort

zone. Half the time as I was, and it wasn't just

because I was becoming a teenager, half the time

I didn't want to go to my grandmother's house

because it's like, oh, my mom is here. This is

here. But they didn't want to come home. I'm

like, I want to go home. I want to go to bed.

I'm young, damn it. it's like everybody's always

like oh the early bird special at 4 30 i'm like

okay fine 4 30 early bird special i'll be in

bed by 8 30 see ya later and that was like when

i was in my 20s not not even now when i'm in

my 40s so you know so when i go to conventions

see i'm not much of a people person i'm really

introverted i have my little office space here

my wife likes to just come home from work and

go tv like as a married couple we are almost

always in two separate rooms not because it's

cliche it's just that's our comfort level uh

but when we're at a convention we can be very

sociable as long as we have that table of space

between us because then it's like you're an NPC

you're in shop mode you're like I got this separation

between you and me. You can't be next to me.

You can interact with me. But it's usually pretty

good until we get that one guy who lingers around

our table forever. And then we're just like,

oh no, we've got to quit talking because suddenly

there's a box of stuff we need to organize. Oh

no. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, as long as I have

that separation between me, I seem to do OK.

Yeah, there you go. What do you think it is about

our generation that causes our childhood toys

to mean so much more to us than, say, for instance,

our parents' generation? Uh, that's a tough one.

I think marketing is different. Uh, it started

with, like, you know, like, my dad would get

comics and trade them for cigarettes. He'd read

them, destroy them, play with them in a fort,

trade them for some cigarettes. Uh, toys were

meant to be played with and played with hard,

okay? They were tin, they were beat to hell.

That litho the the design on tin toys wears off

over time. They weren't meant to last sans You

know Tonka Tonka's were like, I mean, that's

the slogan but on In the 1970s and 80s you saw

a big shift where like toys start being like,

you know the living commercials and I think that

they had storylines with them that really just

created an attachment so when you ask a GI Joe

fan like what do you love they will go on for

the next 40 hours. You ask me what I love about

Transformers, I will not shut up. And it's because

there's this stronger connection to the toy.

They're no longer just some random toy you had

as a kid. When you look at Optimus Prime, when

you look at Strawberry Shortcake, when you look

at She -Ra, He -Man, Thundercats, you have these

stories that replay in your head. Not just from

physical play, but from TV, movies, shows, books,

advertising. Yeah, absolutely and you know in

as a generalization everyone always says oh The

80s were just the big commercials for the toys

and look not look any cartoon series from the

80s that has at least Two -parters in it is not

jit like those writers wrote stories because

they wanted to write like I think it's both He

-Man and Transformers that David Wise wrote Day

of the Machines. That's the episode title for

both shows for both individual episodes with

like Day of the Machines for Transformers I believe

was Tark 3 or whatever he was called. He -Man

I don't remember but like I remember when You

know, may the man rest in peace. But we actually

got a chance to talk to David Wise a decade and

a half ago. And he was talking about, well, yes,

technically these are just toys and whatever,

but you still have to put a story behind that

and you have to make it mean something. Again,

asking GI Joe fan about the battle for the weather

dominator. Holy crap. That was a thing, man.

That was a thing as a kid, even on the playground.

I can't watch G .I. Joe, but when that unfolded,

kids were talking about it. That was our news.

We're like, holy crap, did you see? Cobra built

the damn thing. You're like, oh my god. What

the hell? That wasn't a commercial to us. That

was our sagas. That was our soap operas as children.

Yep, absolutely. What is your motivation for

purchasing toys to display play fiddle describe

your collecting style? Secretly and heart I am

NOT a human. I am a dragon and I need to hoard

That is my I've never really questioned it it

is a desire to collect and represent and preserve

I want to Anytime people come in, I feel bad

for them because I'm like, dude, you got to look

at my collection. I'm like, oh, that's cool.

I'm like, I'm like, okay, now the history lesson

begins. And you can sometimes see people like,

cool, I want to go in the other room now. Like,

no, no, this is where you live. This is important.

And you need to know, like, you need to know

why the backpack on Boba Fett was different several

times and then never got released that way. And

then just didn't have a firing backpack. By God,

you need to understand why that's so important

35, 45, 55 years later. And that's that's my

reasoning. I just want to serve and tell the

stories. Right. So why is that so important to

a character that doesn't really matter after

we get eaten by a sarlacc? You know what, though?

But to this day, ask any toy designer and be

like, you know, like, how about a faulty little

trigger? And you can bring up Boba Fett or Battlestar

Galactic, and they're like, yeah, we're never

doing that crap again. They're like, yeah. I

have, even like, so they're, as a kid, I remember

this, like, just, it's, it's stuck with me my

whole life. And I, at the end of Star Wars, I'm

like, wait, that's it? They get medals? They

go home? That's it? Where's the rest of this

story? And then obviously Empire and whatever

else, but between that point of, oh my God, it

just ends? And then with Boba Fett, it's like,

why am I as a... I want to say I was either 87

or 88, obviously I know, 77, 80 and 83, but by

the time I saw the trilogy, I was anywhere from

six to nine years old in the 80s. Between Empire

and Jedi. I'm like, why am I supposed to care

about this stupid bounty hunter? And I felt like

that. Yeah, like I just never cared about him

eat, you know, and whatever else. It's only there

are only two times in the past 14 years that

I've podcast that I've actually ever said that

I actually liked or care. And that was when they

did. Oh, it was was it before? Django and Boba

and then Boba Fett is dead the comics I forget

which ones it is but like there's a there's like

a whole episode of the other podcast the pull

bag where my buddy Ryan and I review some Boba

Fett comics and I said to him this was back in

like 2014 or so I said to him I'm like okay finally

I get it and I can kind of care about him but

I'd prefer Luke or Han, or hell, I'd prefer Greedo

over Bulbafit. See, I always loved the B and

C characters. Like, I was one of those kids who,

what are they called, the Tanika sisters or Tanika

sisters or whatever? They're in like five seconds

of the damn movie. As a kid, I was like, I want

to know more about them. Those look awesome.

And then I had to wait years for them until they

showed up in a short storybook. the second I

found out that short storybook got written I

immediately went out and bought it because these

guys and my dad's like why do you care they were

in the movie for four seconds I was like I don't

know they look cool I want to know their names

I want to know about them so that's why I like

I'm not big Boba Fett fan but I just like yeah

I mean I'm all about Bosque but again why should

you care about a guy who's in like four seconds

of the movie but honestly Bosque is a hell of

a lot cooler you know Do you do any toy modifications

or customs, painting, building, building dioramas,

that kind of stuff? Well, I have a condition

called essential tremors. So my hands shake a

little bit. So it looks kind of like Parkinson's,

but it's different. It's not like life threatening.

It's just super bloody annoying. So any kind

of work with my hands is really, really tough.

Like I used to be able to draw, I can't anymore.

Like right now I physically can't even write

longer than about a sentence before I have to

quit. So I was never one to do a lot of medium

stuff like modeling or painting or anything like

that. And then nowadays, I don't know what it

is, but like people always have these upgrade

kits and that's fine. For me, I've never seen

the desire. for an upgrade kit once. I just I

don't modify anything I have really. There are

only two instances and I never had a chance to

have them because I just never did. It's Shadow

Commander and what was the Shattered Glass one

called? So Fans Project, which I don't even know

if they're still around or not, they put out

City Commander, Shadow Commander, And then I

know at one point or another they put out an

upgrade kit for the BotCon 2008 Shattered Glass

Optimus. Never really cared about City Commander

because it's Ultra Magnus, and Ultra Magnus is

fine and all, but that Shadow Commander for the

Nemesis Prime Classics figure, I was like, ooh,

I would love to have that one day. Never got

it, but that's as far as I had ever gone with

upgrade kits, as far as checking them out and

see what they're for and seeing what it's all

about. Do you think toy companies should specifically

have adult collector toys, child toys, or find

a way to mix both? Whatever works for that company.

It's going to be varied on what kind of company

is going out there. Hasbro, Takara have found

a beautiful balance of continuing children's

toys while still appealing to the adult collector.

Funko Pop somehow hit it right out of the park,

right off the bat. But I liked companies, too,

like McFarland, who was like, hey, kids, you're

cool and stuff, but I'm going to do some of these

badass Viking things, and they're going to have

blood on them, and you're going to have to deal

with it. I was a big fan of the Playboy figures

that came out way back in the early 2000s. I

had a few of those. And then there's some current

lines now that are... you know some people might

see them as like oh it's just a naked doll or

whatever but there's this company that does these

like super detailed 100 % legitimately accurate

toys but the costumes are like all hand sewn

and stuff so they do popular characters and you

can be like this is cooler than a statue because

now it's a statue that instead of just stuck

in the same post wherever I can be like okay

I'm gonna switch it around that looks like this

now and I kind of think that's cool, too. So

it depends on the company on how they want to

present themselves. They gotta find the right

balance. Yeah, absolutely. And that's the thing

with what with Funco, like, I just want the characters

I love, like, the characters that I care about.

I don't care about actually playing with them.

Okay, yeah. You know, so it is that. Do you have

a my parents got rid of my toys story? Uh, yeah.

Yep. Yep. Yep. So my dad, my dad would never

have done that to me. However, he reconnected

with an ex flame. She came in and I came home

one day from school and she's like, well, I donated

a bunch of stuff. And I was like, are you out

of your damn mind? And I yelled at her. Like

I told her that as like, so I am. 13 I'm like

look your dad the face I'm like are you are your

damn mind and she about laid me out for that

one and I did my dad came home and he's like

you did what he's like that is his stuff you

don't touch his stuff and He's like what if he

came in our room and wrecked our stuff. She's

like, well, he can't he's a kid He's like in

this household going forward. You don't touch

his stuff. That's his stuff He wants to get ready.

He gets rivet and that's the way I was raised

was my stuff was my stuff My dad never got rid

of stuff unless Uh, like, I lost all my stuff

one time, but he locked it up in a room. He didn't

throw it away. Uh, I had to earn it back, but

like, uh, so that was the only time. Uh, so a

lot of my original, original Transformers, about

a half of them disappeared one day. So if you

were in Sioux Falls in 1994 and you went to a

Goodwill and you found all that, I hate you.

Yeah, damn. Oh God. Do you feel like you're coming

to an end of your active collecting? If so, what

has signified this phase for you? No. My collecting

has changed a bit. Right now, my money situation

is good as it was, say, 10 years ago. But I am

stepping away from collecting modern on -the

-shelf figures, unless they're exclusives through

Hasbro polls. Mainly because a really good example

is There's going to be, there's a Stunticon set

coming out over, like some of it's out right

now and some of it's coming out. So you gotta

spend $90 on the main figure right off the bat,

$90. And then say what, $25 times four figures,

that's $190 for five figures. The other day my

dad went out into an antique shop and for 160

bucks came home with 30 or 35 vintage figures

from G1 through machine wars. I would rather

have that 100 times over for 190 bucks. I could

buy a really rare laser beast from 40 years ago.

I just that's a better use of my money. So I'm

stepping away from buying new new stuff until

the prices settle down a bit. I can't justify

that much money. I can't for one year when I

I mean $90 for a motor master or for $125 you

can probably get a Stunticon set in rough shape

missing a few weapons. Would you rather have

one modern figure or like the original vintage

set? Yeah, true. Yeah, that is crazy. Was there

ever a moment where you were completely done

with toys and have you ever considered stopping

completely? A couple of times I've had to sell

my collection. It wasn't because I was done with

them I was in a situation in my life where I

needed money and I had to sell it all and I Regret

it every time and I will tell you I'm a die -hard

so I came back in 2007 and I made myself a personal

promise I said I will never sell my collection

again And since then I sold all my D &D books,

but I never I never did anything with them anymore

for like seven years So I was like they need

to go to someone else and that was so I could

buy that $4 ,000 set and I gave you know, and

I gave the rest of it to my wife So I was like

whatever so now I will I will never stop collecting

not once ever yeah, I think for me it was more

of Like you said, for me it was back in 2011

because from 2005 to 2010 I had a pretty decent

job, pretty decent money coming in. When you

want to recapture your childhood, back then in

those days you ended up spending $120 per figure

for a vintage figure on eBay. Either buy it now

or sometimes you get into a weird auction or

whatever. But by 2011, my mom was having issues

and I was having issues and I just had to sell

it all. I just kind of walked away. My buddy

who helped me start this podcast, he had passed

away that year and I was like, why am I continuing?

I continued the podcast up until about 2014 and

then it's been dormant since last year when we

brought it back because I had a new direction

and obviously we're doing this origins thing

now. Yeah, by 2011, did I still love toys and

still enjoy toys and still want to talk? Yeah,

absolutely. And I love looking at them, but I

didn't need to have actual action figures. And

then I saw late 2016, early 2017, I saw the WWE

2K16 Stone Cold Funko Pop and I'm like, oh. It's

mighty mugs, but way later and much better I

mean mighty mugs were awesome for the time, but

Yeah, what is something that does not have a

toy of it you'd love to have in toy form um These

are hard -hitting questions we don't have any

punches around here Man that's tough to say I

think someone already did do this though, but

I would be really down with a PVC like say about

three inch PVC figures of deities from around

the world like collections of like Buddhist goddess

and Christian religious characters and uh say

indo -american characters and native american

characters i just for some reason i'm really

obsessed with like mythology and religion i think

that would be like a really cool figure set i

mean you could do a muhammad obviously that's

not even a joke that's like a very important

thing to them so yeah i mean i don't know how

you would do that one Maybe like a picture of

the dome on the rock or something But like I

think it would be really cool because I I'm Buddhist

so it'd be cool to have action figures or little

mini figures of some of the deities and my pantheon

You know, it'd be it'd be neat Yeah, that would

be kind of cool What is a toy that you'd love

to have scaled up and functional for the real

world? Oh, man. Well, my original guess, I was

like, hell yeah, I know what to say. And then

I was like, because I figured like four or five

feet, but functional in the real world. Yep.

Okay. So my original response was going to be

Tidal Wave, but that would be like a, you know,

400 foot long battleship that transforms with,

yeah, I don't think that's, I think that would

put me as the enemy of worlds, like nations.

So, yeah, you'd have to be like a thousand miles

off the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, you build one of

those that I think any nation can openly fire

on you and anybody would be like, yeah, he was

kind of asking for it. Real world scaled up.

Damn, dude. I don't know. These are good questions.

I like this. All my stuff is like monsters and

giant killer robots. You know, it's kind of cheating,

but I would love to have a transformer car. just

one of the real cars that the Transformers are

based on. I don't have any of them. Like I always

wanted the Lamborghini Countach because like,

you know, Red Alert, Sunstreaker and stuff. So

I guess I don't know if that counts. So no, yeah,

absolutely. Like for me, if I was going to have

a real life Transformer, obviously minus the

robot mode, which then wouldn't make him a triple

changer anymore. But AstroTrain. You could travel

the rails without having to worry about paying

for train tickets, or you could get on a shuttle

and, you know, fly across the country without

having to worry about the cost of airline tickets

or, you know, whatever. Yeah. And I know people,

and I said this on a couple of, a couple of episodes

ago, I know people have done this, but like anyone

who is technical enough to build a working streaming

sound wave or blaster, that would be amazing.

holy crap right i know there was one guy there's

a video i'll have to see if i can find it to

show it to you but there was one guy on youtube

or somewhere where he actually like put all of

that together and ran it off his ipod you know

kind of thing so that that i would love to see

that kind of stuff in stores that would be really

cool oh yeah how has your wife dealt with your

collection patiently No, I mean she gets annoyed

with some of my antics for sure, but she's very

patient and she understands and supportive and

She's bought me some really cool things for my

collection Like I said, you know, I had that

little yarn transformer that she found a while

back She bought me a little pink baragon figure

from Godzilla theater exclusive I had sold an

orange one I had way back in the day and it killed

me, so she found one for me just because she

could. And a lot of times she'll find weird dollar

toys that are just absolutely hilarious. Like

Target had these stupid little PVC dinosaurs

with like pajamas and party hats, like birthday

dinosaurs. And they were like, look a piece.

And she's like, Eric, we've got to buy these.

I was like, hell yeah. And we bought them all

up. And so she's been supportive and patient.

I don't think she's a big fan of losing so much

room to all of them, but I mean, I couldn't have

a better wife if I asked. Yeah, absolutely. When

Karen was still alive, I eventually got like,

she was never going to be the Funko fan that

I was, but she had certain characters, certain

things that meant something to her that, whatever,

there's a... I think it's still on Facebook.

I'll have to look it up. There's an infamous

picture on Facebook of her with the Cousin It

Funko Pop because her brown hair was so long

like she could literally turn her whole face

into Cousin It. That was a fun memory. Toy collecting

can have its struggles. What is one aspect you

tend to struggle with the most? balancing my

finances, I'll be honest. There have been many

times where I'll be like, Eric, you gotta pay

bills, we gotta do this, and then I'll be like,

ooh, ooh, ooh, is that guy selling a bunch of

Transformer comics for a buck a piece? Hell yeah,

I'll buy them, and I'll just like, you know,

like a reply sale, and I'll be like, bid. bid,

bid, bid, bid, bid, bid, bid, bid. And then I'll

be like, cool, I won them all. And then like

invoice will come in and be like, cool, man,

that'll be like 280 bucks. I'll be like, hell,

I'm in trouble. Oh, damn. And it's like, I don't

even question it sometimes. There have been times

where I've been on eBay and I'll see something

for like 200 bucks. And if I have it on PayPal,

I'll be like, well, I haven't seen that for that

price in a while. Bye. And then Amy will be like,

Eric, did you really? I've done it right in front

of her. And she's like, Eric, are you serious

right now? I'll be like, yeah she's like eric

we needed to pay this i'm like they can wait

a week oh boy what is one positive and one negative

aspect or one positive one negative memory you

have with buying toys positive memory uh one

of my favorites was uh stumbling upon a tidal

wave test shot and working on a deal and getting

that uh or finding a battle unicorn from beast

machines a store when those were recall they

weren't recalled but the production run of them

was incredibly short so not a lot hit shelves

and I was one maybe two or three people in our

state to find one so that was just fun you know

the thrill of finding the item in the store negative

experience was only a few within the last year

I think maybe year and a half went into a target

with a friend of mine Co -writer or a co -writer

and photographer for the magazine build free

tag we went into a target and they had the new

panther that just come out I don't remember the

exact line and So they had a case sitting on

a cart and I was like, I'll do this a case like

just buy it and set aside because he's like a

die -hard He -man fan and he's saying well won't

they yell at me? I was like, yeah, I take crap

off the carts all time. You just make sure to

scan it you know like look how many are in the

carton scan the carton and if they ask up front

be like hey man said like inventory two in the

box i scanned it twice you know here's my receipt

i've never had an issue 25 years now doing this

we go do that and a lady comes around corner

now again this is mid -covid so you know we have

our masks on and lady comes around the corner

and slaps it off his hand like slaps it and rips

it out of his hand and start screaming ass. And

she's like, you guys can't do that. You're stealing.

And we're like, whoa. And I'm not going to lie.

We may have gotten a little bit grumpy, a little

bit Karen. Right. Because I was like, lady, you

can't touch people during COVID. You're a bloody

mind. You're an employee. You can't touch customers.

That's a big thing in retail. And she's like,

well, you can't do this. You're doing this. And

the manager came over and yelled at us. She's

like, well, you guys are always asking our employees

when stuff comes in. And we're like, because

we know it's in your back room possibly and we

just wanna buy stuff and she's like well you

can't take stuff in the cart cause that's stealing

and I was like what? and so the lady opens the

box with her like she puts the exacto knife out

as far as it can rips into the box and she purposely

scratches both of them like she goes through

the plastic and damages both boxes and she's

like good now you guys can't resell it and we're

like well we weren't gonna resell those and even

if we did why do you care? you just damaged your

own product And so like as we were walking out,

you know, it's kind of one of those like, hey,

since that's damaged product, can we buy that

for 15 % less? And then they may have yelled

at us. But like, I mean, that was near PTSD for

me. Like I was like, I didn't want to go back

in that store. We had like, I had talked to a

lawyer about that stuff because I was like, dude,

that was like near lawsuit. It was, that makes

me sound really Karen -ish, but like that was

the most negative thing I've ever happened. Whereas

for 20 years, I've been able to go into a place

and be like, hey, Can I just buy that whole damn

kit? Or I'll be like, can I open this case? And

I'll be like, cool, here's a full run of figures.

Can I just take those out? And 90 % of the time,

a guy's gonna be like, yeah, I don't want to

stock them. I'll be like, cool, thank you. Yeah,

and I mean, look, like... The only way that that

could have been considered stealing is if you

were putting it under your coat versus putting

it in your cart. The only way that that's stolen

properly property is if you get out of the store

with it under your coat. And that's why they

have tags and the thing goes off and like, wow,

like, damn that sucks. Right? Yeah. All right.

So This can't be anything that has already been

made and this can't be anything that has been

recently announced that is coming. If Hasbro

gave you the keys to the kingdom and you could

create any toy that you would want, what would

you want to create? HasLab Tidal Wave. Not even

a question. I don't care how many times you hear

the word Tidal Wave in here. You will hear it

a million times from me. I am obsessed with it.

Why would you not make a HasLab Titan class or

larger tidal wave there's a thousand play features

you could do reintroduce mini cons but of full

size transformers so could you imagine a mini

con optimus prime and megatron like so they'd

be mini con size but they'd be in scale to that

figure otherwise you say it can't be anything

they have made or haven't made but i'm gonna

break the rule on that and say okay release therancor

How dare you how dare you not fund that you fans

that was a beautiful product Yes, well, you know

it is what it is I mean no Can you can you can

you imagine half the people That pony up that

600, but it didn't get funded. Oh man, we'd be

having transformer riots all over this country.

Yeah. But I mean, you get, that's a nice thing

about crowdfunding. If it doesn't get funded,

you get your money back. I just don't get why

you would limit yourself when you could just

leave it open. They're not out anything by leaving

it open until it gets funded. That made no sense

to me. You know, over time it will get funded.

Like why not? You already put all the time and

effort into designing the dumb thing. Hasbro

needs to fix their HasLab project windows. That's

all they need to do and they would have one of

the best concepts out there. Yeah. Poor Rancor.

Oh well. What is the one piece of advice you

would give the toy collecting fandom in general?

Obviously budget. I know I'm in a position where

I've kind of - gone beyond that, but I will bite

you in the ass if you don't budget. There are

times where I have to cancel pre -orders because

I'm like, you know what, I don't have that. Like

Cybertron Metroplex I had slated for November.

It came out early. I had to cancel mine because

I was like, I really shouldn't be spending 200

bucks right now. I had it planned for November,

but not now and not yet in the world. I would

say if you're just starting collecting, pick

a theme. start small. Do you want to get into

G1 Transformers like okay what about G1 appeals

to you are you like well I like the toys I like

the figures I like the characters but I don't

have a lot of room I would say go with the decoys

start off small they're cheap you're not going

to spend more than about 25 bucks on one you

can find lots for really cheap and the entire

set takes up two feet of space and they look

cool and they're very detailed or like if you're

like man I miss having those I miss this comic

line I used to read but it's like all this crazy

stuff I'd like go get a trade paper back or two

those storylines you enjoyed that's it's a hunting

down all these original issues and worrying about

condition just get a trade paper back or two

and see if like you actually sit down read them

or if you go back and go like okay the appeal

isn't there start small and pick a lane and just

Try to stay in that lane for a while and see

how you feel. Feel it out. Yeah, absolutely.

And I guess I would say as far as picking something,

I would say just go with the jump starters. There

were only ever two of them. No, when people like

I want to start collecting in box transformers,

I'd be like, dude, jump starters, 35 bucks in

box still. You can find a decent one with box

for 35 bucks. They are some of the most common,

easy to get things on the planet. I love them.

You know, that's a good spot to start Yeah, absolutely.

Alright folks. We're gonna take a quick break

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yeah one of the primary themes of toy cast is

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Hello all sentient beings! Want the latest on

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Triple Takeover Toycast. On the Simplistic Reviews

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- Hello, Julie, what the heck are you doing?

Trying to make our spots sound more exciting

by adding explosions. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're

gonna get the point across with sound effects,

not the real thing. I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't. We are back here on Toycast with Eric

Braley from Toy Robot Magazine and it is the

end of August, folks. We are two days away from,

we're actually in the middle of Power Rangers

weekend because August 28th is Power Ranger Day

because that was the day, you know, 29, yeah,

29 years ago this year, the Power Rangers debuted

here in the UA. Next year is 30th anniversary

of Power Rangers. So yes, Eric does, Eric and

Bill do Toy Robot Magazine. And as of this publishing

of this episode, you are about to release your

ninth issue of the magazine. First of all, who's

on the cover and what is one thing that's going

to be in the ninth issue? So issue nine will

be available for pre -order on September 8th.

And it's our biggest issue yet, because the cover

will be Frank Welker, Peter Cullen, and we have

a massive interview with them. So that's the

big one. This is going to be it. This is going

to be probably one of the coolest interviews

we will ever get to do. And so the cover is them

holding our magazine. That's awesome. That is

so, so awesome. Alright, let people know where

they can get the magazine. Alright, if you go

onto Facebook and look up Toy Robot Magazine,

that's T -O -Y -R -O -B -O -T as one word, and

then magazine, that is where we do all of our

interaction with the fans. On there you can find

the website to order all of our stuff, or if

you want to reach out and talk to us, that's

how you get a hold of us. Awesome, awesome. Thank

you for joining us here on Toycast. If you'd

like to get in contact with us or leave feedback

for the show, there are several ways to do so.

Visit the website geekcastradio .com where you

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Send any email to feedback at geekcastradio .com.

You can listen to us on all the podcasting methods,

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use. Follow us on Twitter at GeekCastRadio for

the network at TF ToyCast for the show. I am

at TFG1 Mike. Aren't you or isn't Toy Robot on

Twitter too? We are, but we're not. We don't

do anything on there right now. We should. We

just, I'm kind of, we're both kind of in that

age where we're too old to figure it out and

we need to get somebody on there. Younger and

better understanding than us. Twitter's easy.

That's, I mean, I'm two years older than you

and I could teach you. All right. Anyway, become

a fan on Facebook. Go to Facebook .com slash

GeekCast Radio Network. You can also check out

TF ToyCast or ToyCast over there. As I say at

almost the end of every episode, I have no idea

what's coming up next. It was just pure luck

that I fell into recording episode 150 through

153 and that I knew what was going to be coming

for each of these episodes for this month. So,

in September, we may do some sort of sewer -surfing

September thing and talk turtles. I have no idea

what we're doing. So, for now, go ahead. Oh,

I was going to say you should hunt Farner Studios

on Instagram. He's the guy who did all the molds

and designs for the Ninja Turtles figures. Oh,

very cool. Very cool. For now, I am TfU and Mike

with... Eric Fraley. Join us next time when we'll

be talking more toys here on Toycast.