Interview with Chris Sully on Toy Collecting Origins and His Time at Funko

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

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Jazz here, and

I am so diggin' the Geekcast Radio Network. Cliffjumper,

commence countdown. Five, four, three... Toycast

oh yes Listen to the only toy podcast you will

ever need Hello and welcome to an all -new generation

of toy cast as we get the origins of any and

all toy fans that we can I'm of course THU and

Mike and today's featured guest is someone I've

been wanting to have on the pod for a while and

I blame 6 -0 from Triple Takeover for saying

on the pod, because that's something he says

on Triple Takeover, his show. But this person

is a former, sadly, Funko employee. It's Sully.

It's, I don't want to say the face of the company,

because you weren't the face of the company,

but like, you know, you were the marketer. You

were the guy. You were the, you know, hey Sully,

why isn't there an Alf pop yet? There's Knight

Rider. There's MacGyver. There's Alf. Come on,

Funko. Alf, how hard is it? What's up, everybody?

Thanks for having me, Mike. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I've heard that for many, many people who

still to this day, some think I still work for

the company, but a lot have called me that and

I consider it an honor because I love that company

so much. Well, that's why I said former, sadly.

Yeah, but you know, it is. And sadly, folks,

I can't do a Billy Crystal voice. So there's

that. So no Mike and Sully? I mean, we can have

Mike and Sully, it's just not gonna sound like

Billy Crystal and John Goodman. You see, Sully,

there's a difference between you and me. Yeah,

I'm tall and you're short. No. I'm blue. You're

green. No. Awesome horns, little nubs. No. Furry.

Not furry. No. Huggable? Less huggable. No! And

stop! Yeah, I don't do a John Goodman either,

so we're even. We're good. You're too young for

that. God bless you. I mean, I don't mean to

say the man is old, but... But there are certain

people out there that have certain voices that

there is no matching that voice. Look, she needs

to be driven! Bye baby! I'll call you! Hey, genius,

you wanna know why I bought the car, huh? Not

really. To drive it! You know, like on the street

with the Hong Kong and the vroom vroom and no

walking at all. Give it a rest. William, come

on. You can use the exercise. I could use the

exercise. Look at you. You have your own climate.

Yeah, he is a legend. He should be a voiceover

artist all the time, but he's also so good on

screen. I mean, how do you choose? I'm sure he

gets paid better for his face on screen. Probably,

most likely, usually. So today folks yes we're

gonna go through the forty two questions all

about toy collecting but it is also going to

be a fully loaded fungo episode so you have been

warned if anyone doesn't and why you're listening

to this and the fact that my entire collection

right now is fungo why you're listening to this

and you don't even at least you know have some

sort of ambivalence towards fungo pops is beyond

me but. It's time we started talking more toys

here on Toycast. First question, what is or was

the first toy you remember having as a kid? Well,

you know, I tried not to listen to the question.

I listened back to your previous episodes and

I tried not to listen to the questions for fear

of prepping too much this I heard and I was like,

oh my God, what is the answer? I've been thinking

about it all day and the earliest memory I can

think of with toys was probably like I've always

been attracted to electronics even as a kid.

So probably like speak and spell or I remember

having a little 45 record player and play in

the Robin Hood Disney film. uh songs like uh

little john and robin hood walking through the

forest that kind of stuff yeah yeah that's the

earliest i can remember yeah and it's funny you

mentioned that i just mentioned this on a podcast

recently next year november and i only know this

because i looked it up but next year november

8 2023 will be the 50th anniversary of that film

wow that's crazy It was still fairly recent when

I started listening to those albums. That gives

you some context, doesn't it? You're not old,

but you ain't that young either. Was there a

particular adult who was supportive of you playing

with toys as a kid? Was there anyone that wasn't

supportive? Yeah, my dad was always the fun one

of my two parents, and he was definitely a kid

himself. We played video games together back

on the Atari 2600 days, and he was always supportive

of it. My mother was also supportive in the fact

that she would buy stuff, but she was a bit of

a clean freak. So we had the yearly purge, whether

we liked it or not, of the toys that were in

our room, and I can still remember to the day.

grabbing her around the bottom of the leg and

begging her not to get rid of my Star Wars toys.

And she did. And I still give a hell about it

to this day. Every time I see something Star

Wars, I'm like, remember, Mom, I had those toys

and then you sold them in a garage sale. And

now there's some other adult my age who's super

happy with this collection. Yeah, I would have

said something like see what you did to me mom

I've spent my whole adult life trying to reclaim

my childhood because you sold these for Less

than what they were worth. I'm pretty sure I've

used those almost exact same words before So

true, yeah absolutely What types of toys were

your favorites to play with like action figures

vehicles play sets that kind of stuff? I mean,

I have vivid memories of action figures specifically.

He -Man, Transformers, G .I. Joe were real big

when I was a kid growing up. But my brother and

I also had just this box full of crappy beat

up Hot Wheels cars that I loved playing with.

We had the track and if we would get in trouble

and get sent to our rooms, we would roll out

the track and put it between our two bedrooms

and then just push the Hot Wheels back and forth

on that track until they were all lost in the

middle of the hallway. So I, a little bit of,

a little bit of each, honestly, but I think Transformers

are the fondest memories for me, that and He

-Man. Oh boy. Well, then you're going to end

up being on two more podcasts with me because

I have origins for Transformers and I have origins

for He -Man. Count me in. I can talk about those

all day. And I'm, it's, it's all the way over

on my, my counter here, but, and I actually have

two of them because I. I don't know why I thought

I lost one so earlier this year maybe it was

last year I forget Hot Wheels released a super

pursuit mode kit and I am a huge Knight Rider

fan I met the man when I was six years old in

1986 so you know and I'm like oh cool great and

I've you know I usually for me I'll take pictures

in package and then I'll open some of the toys

And I'm like, oh, I want this sitting on my desk

and I've moved since then and I don't know where

the other one was. So I went back on Amazon or

wherever the heck it was. And I'm like, yep,

buying this again for whatever, like 10, 11,

whatever Hot Wheels cost. So yeah, that's over

there. I haven't opened that one yet because

I want to make sure I can find the other one

first. And then I'll be like, Hey, look, I have

one open and I have one packaged. Yay. Cause

that's how toy collectors roll. That's what we

used to call one to rock one to stock when we

were doing the fun cast. Yeah. It's so perfect.

Yep. Absolutely. What were your, so you mentioned

He -Man and Transformers. So what were your favorite

childhood toys that really stand out more than

the others? So were those two like your top tier

and then everything else was just kind of there?

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I got into sports

cards and collecting as well as I got into my

teens, but as a child, but below 10. Those were

definitely the focal points. I remember my...

Every family has their own traditions around

birthdays and holidays or whatever as far as

how they handle the gifts. And for birthdays,

right around Thanksgiving time, we always got

money. So mom and dad would take us to Toys R

Us and say, you can spend X amount here in the

store. Go get what you want. And inevitably,

I ended up over there getting He -Man and Transformers.

And I remember one year getting the Power Glove

for the NES, which turned out to be a total POS.

I think we ended up returning it and getting

something else. But yeah, I remember specifically

going down those aisles. I just wish, every once

in a while I'll see a photo that somebody has

from that era. And it's usually like a store

took a photo or maybe even a licensor who was

taking pictures of a display. Like photos of

me in front of those areas of the toy aisle.

Yeah, that would be awesome. I mean, our parents

did take a lot of pictures of us, but I don't

think they took many pictures of us in the toy

stores. Nah, they were always posed or like holidays.

I think the best ones I have, there is one of

me that I circulate or republish every year and

it's me opening a Star Wars ship. and next to

me on the floor I'm wearing I think I'm wearing

a Star Wars shirt or pajamas and on the floor

next to me is a plush gizmo I mean it's the perfect

80s photo it's so great me in front of the tree

and that that is the encapsulation of my childhood

in that one photo right there yeah there you

go that's awesome do you prefer the label of

action figures dolls toys or other labels because

let's face it everybody Parents in the 80s didn't

care like oh, why are you playing with those

dolls? It's a three and a half inch action figure

that turns into a truck. That's not at all Yeah,

I prefer toys in general. I think it's a better

term a lot of times I'll call them collectibles

too, but it really depends on the context of

the conversation You know, there's there's the

conversation around the value of the stuff now

Those are collectibles but the conversation around

playing with them as a kid. Those are definitely

toys Yeah, absolutely Good guys or bad guys,

which toys were your favorites to play with the

most? Oh, I I think it was straight down the

middle even you couldn't have a proper battle

Under the sheets with the flashlight when you

were supposed to be going to sleep unless you

had a balance and you know So the Smurfs had

to go up against Skeletor and they could escape

in their Hot Wheels But you had to have balance

so you couldn't you couldn't just go all good

or all bad. Where's the fun in that? Dear Hasbro

and Mattel, please make this happen. The crossover

we've all wanted but been scared to ask for coming

this number. That's right. What is or was your

favorite toy vehicle or playset? Now this obviously

cannot be a transformer because they're not just

vehicles, they're other things. Oh boy, that's

a tough one. I mean, playset, do you count the

army? uh army men mountain uh like uh they had

the action the figures we could put the army

men on there to pose for fights and stuff i had

that i had uh castle gray skull i love those

snake mountain those are great as far as vehicles

go i mean all my instant memories that come up

are for transformers But again, then there was

the Hot Wheels and I don't remember a specific

Hot Wheels standing out because I think we got

them all like garage sales and stuff. They were

beat up, paint chipping off. I don't have a visual

on one that really stands out, sadly. Yeah, I

know that there are a lot of even obviously the

before times and even now that we're getting

back to actual in -person conventions, which

personally I Hmm. I don't know. But, uh, but

yeah, no, I know there are plenty of Hot Wheels

conventions all over the country and all over

the, you know, all over the world and everything

else. And I'm like, how do you, how, how have

you kept a Hot Wheel car in pristine condition

for the last, let's say 30 or 40 years when half

the time I would see them, they were already

beat up and. Yeah. I mean, some people just have

that collector. mentality from I did early on

I remember having my Star Wars toys and I had

some of them that I had duplicates of I already

was was using the one rock one to stock before

I ever knew what that meant I had Han Solo in

package I remember him sitting at an angle on

the shelf and I had sent off the UPC codes for

the Emperor and I had received him and he was

in package because I knew he was special I already

did that and and I knew that was a thing and

then my mom still went and sold him God, would

they be worth today if I still had them? Yeah.

Did you and your friends ever pretend with your

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

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

toy like. Mike can be the Coke bottle top and

Sully can be the piece of glass or whatever kind

of thing. Of all the toys, you're going to pick

a piece of glass. I love it. It's an old... That's

an Elskit Jotty Switch. I say this every time

because I've raised this question. It's an old

Cosby thing from one of his... Oh, yeah. I remember

those standups. Yeah. Yeah, those are good. Yeah,

those are those are really funny. Yeah, I remember

vaguely playing like that. I mean, I was pretty

fortunate. My dad had a fairly successful business

when I was a kid that later tanked when I was

in my junior high and teen years. So I lived

on both sides of the tracks, if you will. I had

a lot of fun, really cool toys when I was a younger

kid. And then we went without when I was junior

high and high school. But yeah, I vaguely remember.

uh having to make do with what was around us

to have some fun playing in the dirt uh playing

with marbles or digging holes and running like

you know sticks and stones through there to emulate

his vehicles and stuff yep yeah kids today will

never know the uh the excruciating pain of having

to find your marbles in the dirt We were all

toodles as kids. I've lost my marbles. God, those

marbles were resilient and easy to watch off.

Yes, they were. Were they glass? No, they weren't

glass, but they were of a harder substance than

normal. Toy type things out of their style. I

think they might have been honestly just polished

smooth You couldn't crack them without getting

a brick to them or something. We didn't do that.

So Yeah, you'd have to throw them like Goku or

something, you know Super Saiyan Goku or whatever

the hell that is What features define a good

toy to you? How true does the item feel in comparison

to the source material likeness? Oh, well, I

mean, going again back to my favorites with He

-Man and Transformers, they needed to have poseability.

You had to have, I didn't know the term back

then, but they needed articulation. And I love

being able to make He -Man stand up with that

pose with the sword in the air and the shield

on the other arm, or Skeletor holding that staff

up at a funny angle. I remember all that. And

Transformers, my God, we didn't, I don't remember

if there were instructions that came with those.

If there was, I'd never read them. Being able

to easily transform the toy from one to another

was important. That's one of the main reasons

I hated GoBots. GoBots were the cheap ripoff

that I never wanted to own, but somehow got a

bunch of. Transformers were like, they were heavy

duty quality metal feeling like an automobile

or a robot should be. Uh, so that, I guess there's

another difference is I didn't want stupid cheap

plastic. I wanted heavy duty American build.

I'm sure it wasn't built in America, but that's

what I would have thought. Right. Yeah. All right,

folks. It's, it's official. Mike and Sully, you,

you are my brother from another mother because

I, I have a healthy distance, distance respect

for GoBots, but GoBots are essentially. Kmart

transformers like thank you like no like don't

don't don't bring that crap in here leader one

side kill give me a break I've commented on this

on the Funko Funcast back in the day and some

of the fans thought it would be really funny

to coordinate with the rest of the team and they

sent go -bots like dozens of go -bots to HQ and

they went and they hid them all over my desk.

Well, they didn't hide them, they placed them

all over my desk. I came back and was working

at my keyboard for a few minutes and I looked

around and there's all these stupid fake transformer

eyes looking back at me. And I looked around

and the whole office floor was watching me as

I realized that they were on the desk. I'm like,

what are these stupid things? Get these away

from me. I will say, and I don't know if I've

said this before, I've been podcasting for 14

years, so I have no idea if I've said this. I

usually remember most of the stuff I say in past

episodes, but I don't. I sort of liked the cartoon,

but I never liked the toys. Never. Like, you

know, Transformers were a puzzle. Like you said,

like who really read... I mean, I remember looking

at several of the instructions, the instructions,

but... Back then we just sat there and played

with them whichever way, like, oh, Optimus Prime's

headlight opens up and becomes his arm. Oh, his,

his, um, I'm going to call it the hitch, but

it's not the hitch, but like where, where his

waist is, where the bumper is on the front. Oh,

that folds so he can stand up. The legs come

down. Like we just figured it out. We didn't

like. That's how we were. It was intuitive and

user friendly. Whoever designed those smart.

There were a couple I struggled with and wanted

and but I knew better than to put too much pressure

on and break them because God forbid I wasn't

getting a replacement when I got to a certain

age. But then again, back then die cast construction

is a lost art man. Yeah, isn't it though? There

is one company now, I don't know if you're familiar

with them, called Metals Diecast, and they make

some really nice stuff, but none of it is like

Transformer type. It's all just cars and figures.

I have a few of theirs and really appreciate

the weight of the product. Yeah. No, I haven't

heard of them. I know of Jada Toys because they

just released series two, but they have series

one of their nano metal figures of Transformers,

and they're just... Yeah. standard figurines,

but they are diecast metal. That's what I noticed,

which I'm trying not to go down the, the, the

Funko route route so early, but I did notice

that Funko kind of dipped in a couple of times

to diecast. And there are a couple of diecast

Funko pops. Yeah, that's that's amazing. I think

there should be a lot more they did Yeah, they've

done a few of the DC and Marvel so far, but I

would love to see that evolve into More lines.

It's just that price point is what 50 60 bucks

on those little little things. Yeah, very steep

Yeah, very, very respect. I mean, I like, I like

premium designer type toys and that's kind of

their, their foray into that after Hikari didn't

do so well. Uh, so, you know, I'd love to see

that if they go into Motu, I'm on board. I'll

be there. If they do transformers, I'm on board.

I'll be there. Yep. What does toy packaging have

to have to draw you in? So you're in. Let's say

a Toys R Us, and this is both as a kid and as

an adult, so if you're in the toy aisle or if

you're in the toy store and you're looking at

Masters or Transformers, what's that one part

of the packaging that just makes you run over

and grab that toy? This is a great question,

and it's something I've actually put a lot of

thought into over the last couple years, last

five years. And there's two different answers.

As a kid, I wanted bright colors. I didn't care

about keeping the packaging intact, with the

exception of those few Star Wars figures I had.

I wanted stuff that drew my attention. And of

course, already looking at Transformers and MOTU

and maybe the occasional Outlier, it was about

bright. bright colors and about accessibility.

Like how quickly can I get into the package?

I despise twist ties. Keep those out of every

package ever. Like I would rather the toy shake

around in there than be that twist tie, be between

me and playtime, you know? As an adult, however,

it's altered slightly and that is, I think...

The secret to Funko's success, aside from those,

as some people put them, the soulless black circle

eyes, is the packaging. It is genius. They moved

from those plastic bubble domes that you can't

stack and are made to hang to those square boxes

with no seal on them so that you can easily take

your toy out, your collectible out, photo, play

with, do whatever you're going to want, and then

put it right back like nothing ever happened.

I don't know why other companies aren't getting

towards that. Like I love the Star Wars black

series. I don't collect them, but looking at

the package, I'm like, okay, that doesn't look

like something I could take out for photos and

easily put back. So that's not for me. That's

not my, that's not my thing. Now occasionally

I'll still get something different. Like I have

a really cool, I have a big Sully collection,

shocking, Monsters Inc. And I have a big statue

behind me where the packaging was actually really

nice. It's a big box. It was from a sideshow.

It's a big box. It's beautiful, but they didn't

put a window in there. Why not put a window in

where I can appreciate the packaging and the

collectible? I think a window is very important.

Yeah, so let's go ahead and get this out of the

way now everybody and their brother for the most

part is Going to closed box packaging. I'm going

to specifically call out Hasbro because they

are doing that with transformers and If you can't

see it's not about oh my god. What if the toys

even there? What if somebody got to the store

before me and and figure swap? It's not about

that. It's about going into the store and being

able to like, like they're making these things

out of plastic. The landfills are still going

to be filled with plastic. You just removed a

window. Like that's not. Yeah. That's not saving

anybody that little thin sheet of plastic. Yeah.

I mean, you know, like, I, I don't know. Yeah.

I mean, that's the difference between something

you can display and something that's simply going

in storage. Yeah, yeah. Alright, apparently you

do, so apparently question 11 is irrelevant,

but do you open your toys or do you leave them

packaged? If you keep toys packaged, do you have

any specific criteria for that? Well, yeah, basically

answer that. But I will say this in continuation

of that is I often take out product on my streams.

I used to do a segment called What's It Worth

Wednesday, where I take out old vaulted pops.

Some of them are worth that pops that are worth

between two and five thousand dollars a piece.

Right. I will open that box and take them out

and show them. And people absolutely freak out.

They're like, you just decreased the value of

the toy. Like, no, I didn't. Why? They're like,

you touched it. I was like, that toy is not going

to be influenced by me touching it. I didn't

just eat Cheetos or a burrito. It's gonna be

fine. You know, I'm taking care of it. I'm being

careful. But those packages were made to do that.

And you can't look on a shelf and go, that one

was opened or that one has never been touched.

It makes no difference. With the pops, with so

many other lines, it does. And I totally agree

there. Yeah. They're beautifully crafted. Figures

as simple as they are, especially now the artworks

amazing and sometimes there's some really cool

stuff on the back or the sides that you don't

get to witness in the box. So it's you got to

get it out and take a look at least once. Yep,

at least once. Like for me with pops, I. Most

of the time I keep them in boxes and when I had

to move from Washington, sadly, to Indiana. There

was only and he was kind of his box is kind of

already damaged but during the move sadly the

soup Nazi Yev did not his box didn't Didn't come

out so well. It's not as bad as some of those

stupid Walmart videos you see on YouTube and

like oh my god the Walmart employees stepped

on this been in the boxes like if I want to keep

the box I could keep the box but the box has

out of all the almost 200 pops I have It's the

only box to my knowledge to this point because

the rest of them are in storage the only box

that actually has significant damage to it and

before we did this for serve recording i was

like you know what's good i'm just gonna have

him out of the box because it's much easier.

To just have him out of the box and i don't know

if i'm throwing that box away or if i'm just

gonna put it in my in my closet and just not

you know just cuz right now i have. And I say

this, and I'm not saying this to be depressed

or anything like that, but I don't like moving.

I don't like change, whether it's life changes

or getting change. I'll give you plastic before

I ever give you cash. I just don't like change.

I will die in this apartment. I am never moving

again. The only way that they can get me to move

out of this place is if it burns down or something.

Anything like that happens, but I'm never moving

again. So, you know, it's perfectly fine that

I don't have one out of 200 pops out of the box.

And besides, it's the soup Nazi. He's pointing,

you know, like, you know, no podcast for you.

or whatever. That's good. That's good. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm the same way. I don't want to move.

I had to do it twice recently and that's pure

hell. So now most of my stuff is in storage.

I just started to get a few things out again

to display at my latest place. But it's moving.

There's a reason they say it takes years off

your life. It does. It's too much, especially

for those of us insane people who are collectors

on the verge of hoarding. That's where I land

anyway. Oh boy, well, the questions coming up

later will be interesting. All right, this is

going to be interesting. If as a kid or an adult,

you were only allowed to choose one toy franchise

to collect from, which would it be and why? One

toy franchise as in a license? Probably. Oh,

God, that's so tough. It's going to be a toss

up between Monsters Inc because of Sully and

Masters of the Universe. But there's so much

more that I can collect with Motu. And I think

that I've had, of course, a longer love for Motu.

I think it's going to be Motu. I mean, there's

just so many cool He -Man, Skeletor, She -Ra,

Orko. I mean, God, yeah, Motu all day. Awesome.

Very cool. Very cool. As an adult, do you prefer

vintage or modern toys? Oh, dang. I think modern

just because of accessibility. I do love going

down the rabbit hole of going on eBay or going

to cons or toy stores and looking at the older

stuff. But I feel like it usually comes at a

higher expense and it's harder to locate the

things that you want. I'm much more about let

me get it at a fair retail value. and then maybe

one day that turns into something that's of greater

value. So when I first started collecting Funko,

Masters of the Universe was one of the lines

that really got me in. I remember when they sent

out the email slash press release saying, we've

got the first wave of Masters of the Universe.

And I was like. Oh my God, this is a must purchase.

I pre -ordered the whole set. I even got spike

or for free because I ordered from Gemini and

that was part of the package deal. And you know,

those things now are worth hundreds. I was hoping

they might be worth dozens of dollars. Never

did I think that an original mainline toy or

figure like that would be worth. 500 to $1 ,000.

Looking back, it's insane. It's still insane

to me. As a longtime collector and an employee

for the company, I don't understand anyone spending

$2 ,000 on a pop. But guess what? I'm all for

it because if I ever sell my stuff, I hope those

people come out of the woodwork. Exactly. Yeah.

All right. So we're not going to go too deep

into this because it's for later, but Just to

get this out of the way, you worked at Funko

from 2016 to 2020. Were you the main influence

of them not losing the Motu license? Did you

fight for that? No, no, I wish I could say that

I We didn't have much of an impact on the licensing

discussions if any every once in a while We were

able to pitch like ideas and I can say that I

didn't save mo to But I did make letter Kenny

happen And there would not be letter Kenny pops

if it weren't for myself and another co -worker

who were so passionate about it We wouldn't let

it go Yeah After question 21, folks, we're going

to get so deep into the rabbit hole of Funko.

So in about 15, 20 minutes, you might want to

tune out if you're not a Funko fan. And if you're

not a Funko fan, then what are you doing here?

Crazy. What is one toy you can always play with?

Um, wow. I don't think I. play with toys much

anymore. I definitely love my video games, but

I don't think that's the question you're asking.

Um, so basically you have a display and we'll

talk about how you display your stuff. Yeah.

A few questions down the line, but you know,

you have a display and on that display, let's

say is most of your favorites, but if you had

to pick the one out of all of those, what is

the first one that is going to be the one that

you pick out to say, do a photo shoot with her?

And I'm not like, We are all too old and personally,

I am too old and too fat to be sitting there

in a Darth Vader suit, like Rick Moranis, and

pew, pew, pew, pew. No. Yeah. No. Yeah, no. So

photos, you know, that kind of stuff. Like, what's

the one toy in your collection that will always

make you... Gravitate towards it more than anything

else. Oh man the crown jewel still has to be

my SDCC flocked sully the og 2012 Like impossible

to come by limited to 480 pieces in the world

I've taken it out of box a few times for photos

and it's oh god If I wish I'd bought multiple

just so I could have one out all the time. Not

even to touch, just to have sitting there. Cool

piece. Just that little superhero pose with his

arms out to the side. He kind of looks tough

and angry like a bulldog. Just freaking love

it. So cool, man. Yeah, absolutely. Now we don't

like being negative, but we kind of have to because

there are certain negative toy questions that

we have to ask. 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.

Well, first thing that comes to mind is anything

from Walmart. I absolutely refuse to step foot

into Walmart, much less buy their exclusives.

I almost always I don't even have them in my

collection unless somebody gives them to me.

So I know I didn't spend the money at Walmart.

But as far as a license goes, I haven't seen

GoBots anything. So thank God, because I'd avoid

that like the plague. I don't. I can't say I

don't hate or despise anything. No, this isn't

about, no, no, no, no, this isn't about that.

I don't have a passion for anime. Uh, I appreciate

it. I think it's great for those that are collectors,

but it doesn't do anything for me. So I don't

go down that rabbit hole. Yeah. Yeah. That's

what this question is. Like you purposefully

of like You haven't like, you're not going to

go destroy a box. You're not going to go destroy

merchandise or anything like that. But like you

go into the target or the GameStop or the Hot

Topic or the insert, whatever here. And you see

all the Funko lines that they have. And they're

like, for me personally, I have only ever seen

the first 27 minutes of season one, episode one.

Game of Thrones and all as they did was friggin

walk. They didn't do anything I'm like, nope.

So for me Game of Thrones pops are not my thing.

I'm going to avoid those. So that's technically

what Yeah, what the question totally fair. Yeah,

totally fair Are there any toys in the past or

currently that you wish you had not bought them?

Are there any toys that you may have sold that

you regret letting them go? No, I don't think

I have any regrets on purchases. I'm pretty careful

on how I spend my money. So like when it came

to pops, there's plenty of ones I bought that

don't have value now, but that doesn't mean I

don't like them. They don't have to go up in

value for them to be fun. Yeah, and then as far

as selling stuff, believe it or not, I'm sure

people will call BS on this one. I have never

sold one of my pops ever. In 10 plus years of

collecting Funko, I've never sold one. I've given

some away to people who are either viewing my

stream or a bigger fan of a license than I am,

and I just knew it would be better in their collection.

Now, I need to. I want to sell some to bring

in some money, but I can't bring myself to do

it yet. It's just, I know I will have regrets

down the road, whether it's, you know... uh,

because it goes up in value or I just wish I

still had it for a photo or, or to give as a

gift or whatever. But, uh, I have not sold anything.

I've never been a, I've never been a flipper.

I've never been a seller. It just hasn't been

my thing. All right. Well, then that's going

to make this question easier. Usually I say how

large or small, but How large is your toy collection?

Do your toys take up the whole house or are they

relegated to one room shelf or something like

that? Well, I used to when I had the I had a

house before I was renting before they sold the

house. They decided when the market was high

to get out, which I don't blame them. I had a

it was a two story and up in the what I guess

would have been a game. landing area, size of

a large bedroom. That was everything was there.

And then a few shelves behind me in my office

for streaming. But now I've moved a couple of

times. And sadly, like 99 % of my collection

is in a storage unit, which scares the hell out

of me because of the value. But I have no choice.

I had to do it. Uh, so yeah, if it were up to

me, if I had a house again, they'd all be under

my roof and they'd be out and they'd be displayed

in every room. But, uh, you know, sometimes a

roommate or a significant other may not appreciate,

uh, what you collect. And sometimes you gotta,

you gotta put those away. That was my issue before,

uh, wife wasn't into it. So they weren't out

in the adult. living room area and kitchen. None

of that stuff was out there. You wouldn't even

know I was a collector until you went upstairs.

Interesting. Very cool, very cool. How do you

keep track of your collection? Memory. Which

sucks these days. I don't have everything cataloged

per se. Now, when I did move this last time and

put everything in storage, I did take out my

phone and I would stack As things went into boxes,

I would take photos. So I do have photos of everything

that I owned at that point, which is good in

case there's an insurance issue, a fire, a flood

or whatever. But no, I have never been one to

go in and put them all in the app. I'm always

impressed when people have their app. like the

Funko app or PPG or whatever, and they have them

all cataloged. I never have. I can remember most

of the stuff I have. There are the occasional

like, oh, did I pick that up or not? I know I

wanted to and thought about it, but did I buy

it? And then like I do collect comics as well.

Not to read, sadly. I'm not a comic book reader,

but I love the art and the investment potential.

I started looking at it like stock. I can't tell

you what comics I have. I don't remember all

that. So that would be a loss. I should have

cataloged those. And since, you know, you mentioned

it and this is the perfect time to talk about,

you know, keeping track of things. Whoever is

on the team at Funco that is in charge of the

app, please do your job better or get people

in there that can do the job better. You know,

I think we said this off air and I'll say it

on air because I'm not ashamed about it. My buddy,

Wes, who was in episode 107 .5, I believe, of

this show, he runs a Funko store popping off

toys in Nashville, Tennessee. And one of his

social media posts a couple months ago was a

brand new J. Jonah Jameson with, you know, Spider

-Man, you know. threat or menace and whatever

it is jjj holding up a newspaper and i was like

oh is that new or old he's like it's brand new

i'm like oh okay immediately went to his website

immediately you know paid the money and i got

the pop i'm holding in my hand right now it's

part of the beyond amazing uh whine yet this

pop is not in the app at all like What's going

on out there in Everett? Because they can add

every single anime pop, but yet. One of Spider

-Man's greatest characters that nope. Not there.

Yeah, that one I'll never understand, because

there's even that feature in there. Like if you

were to scan the barcode and it doesn't show

up, you can submit it. How does this not show

up? Like, you think there'd be a queue on that

person's desk or that team's area that would

be like, Hey, we got an alert. Let's get that

one in there real quick. Cause I know they have

an internal system that tracks it. Yeah. And

I'm like, a lot of the pops I've, I've purchased

in the last X number of months. Cause I don't,

I don't purchase stuff every month, but I've

gotten things here or there over the last. seven,

eight, nine months. And I'm like, Oh, it's like,

first thing I do is I'll search on the app for

it. If I don't see it immediately in the most

recent editions. And if it doesn't come, okay,

well, there's the scanner and I'll pull out the,

the, the camera and do the thing. Oh, that's

not sure. Like what the hell? How do you not?

I, you know, I, I, I know too much about the

processes inside of Funko. And sadly, the communication

between departments is not very good. It seems

to me like the most logical thing to do would

have that to be a part of the process for revealing

pops. Like the second the social posts go out,

somebody's job should be go, hey, okay, well,

let's make sure that's in the app because people

are going to want to add it to their wish list.

And then by virtue of doing that, we can notify

them when it's available for sale. And like there's

so many steps that would behoove them to make

even more money, but somehow it's lost in the

shuffle. Yeah, and I'm gonna say this now and

this is me personally. This is not Sully saying

this this is Mike Blanchard saying this and It

isn't about who I'm gonna say this about but

in all the streams that Hillary and Ashley do

and all the reveals they do on the streams specifically

if they would just scan those code like it like

it doesn't have to go in the app and meet but

like For employee, I'm sure somewhere in the

fun code, whatever there's an app team or an

app person or whomever that, Oh, you've tried

to scan. Like you're saying you've tried to scan

this. Let's like, it should automatically be

added before the stream is over that way. Like

you've already just said, when we go to whatever

there it is. Yep. That would make sense. That's

one of the main issues you have with a company

becoming so big, so fast. In 10 years, that company's

gone from 40, 50, 60 people to several thousand.

That's just monumental growth. Those kind of

things, while to you and me, the consumer, seem

so very important, that's one of a million things

to them that's not that important, sadly. Okay.

So that, so that confuses me because they want

you to have an account on their website so you

can purchase things from their website. They

want you to have an account. The same account

is also for the app kind of thing. If I'm tracking

my collection, I assume they are also tracking

like. They, I'm sure they see which things come

on, you know, which things are get hearted or

which things get crowned to add to the collections.

So they would know they would have that data

and. Oh, yeah, I don't. It's a disparate system

that they don't connect. Sadly, one person has

to manually look at the internal system and then

connect that and then go in a separate database

and put in the one that's in the app. And it's,

you know, sadly, that's the way it is. That could

be in the ultimate world. They'd be connected

and it would be automatic. But that's not how

it works. I assume. Are you a Marvel fan just

in general? Absolutely. Yes. OK. So what I'm

about to say is. And I know you get the reference

I Feel like stick needs to take a visit to headquarters

and you know, just tell them get yours together

You know The way I know how that company works

everybody be head down working their butts off

and they wake up and hear him yell and then just

go right back to What they were doing because

they have a hundred things to do already Well,

in that case, then you send in Vincent D 'Onofrio

as kingpin. Good Lord, that'll get some attention.

That's a big fella. Yeah, you have him make a

statement. How do you display your toys? Is your

like, do you mix and match? Do you, do you just

have a Funko collection currently or do you have

other stuff as well? I don't know. I collect

all kinds of stuff. Common books, Mondo posters,

namel pins, stickers, pops, sideshow, like you

name it. I'm just a collector at heart. Um, I,

when I had my room set up for all that, uh, at

first, the idea was when I got moved into the

house, I'm going to set it up by, by areas. And

I had an area for Motu. Had an area for Marvel

area for DC. I had an area for Disney and Pixar

and then an area for Star Wars Those are my main

ones but then there was like I had kind of like

a television and movie section and then eventually

a music section and then eventually it was just

this giant room with a tiny path that I could

barely get through to go get something and I

couldn't make out what was what I tried so hard,

but I was collecting and getting new stuff in

so quick that before long like I would show the

occasional friend the collection and always when

I literally had a curtain in front of it to keep

it you know where it wasn't on prying eyes that

would come in the house would see it and I would

show that and when I would pull the curtain back

the most common response was usually a curse

word. Uh, somebody would see it and go, Oh my

God, like, how do you know what you have? And

I will look over there. That general area is

this and that general area is that. So it turned

from a display into storage quickly was the,

was the moral of that story. Uh, but given, uh,

you know, the right space and the right parameters,

I would definitely do that. I would separate

by, uh, the type of license or type of collection,

like, you know, uh, movies and TV, stuff like

that. Yeah, absolutely. And keep talking about

curtains, all I can think of is, pay no attention

to that man behind the curtain. I need the man

behind the curtain to protect and catalog the

collection. Couldn't afford that on the staff

though, you know? It's a staff of one. Oh boy.

That's what the giant Sully statue is for though.

He's there to scare them away. Oh man. If only

I could get that one off the outside of HQ, I

would put him right in front of the collection.

about it at the I went up for fun con too during

Emerald City comic -con and we were sitting right

in front of it I was like man one day I might

get that thing I don't know but one day all right

so if you could only keep one toy from your entire

collection what would it be and why and basically

how I phrase this to people is The house is on

fire, but you somehow have time to run back in

and save one thing. Well, based on my previous

answer, you'd think it'd be the Fox Sully, right?

It's not, it's not. It's actually, I was gifted

at Emerald City Comic Con in 2017, no, 2018.

I was gifted a custom of me. made by a fanatic

and friend and she made the Sully with a giant

orange cowboy hat that has turned into my brand.

The literal artwork that they teach, because

they went so far as to make the pop as a husband

and wife pair that actually runs the Geek Together

podcast and network. She made the pop and it's

just wonderfully done. She did such a... a great

job of blending a Sully body with a different

head with the big cowboy hat. And then he did

the graphics for the box. That's Damian. And

the head that he put on that box, the Sully with

the orange hat, I still use in all of my branding

and marketing, if you will, for my streaming

and my products and stuff. So that Sully custom

would have to be the one that goes with me because

it just means so much. It just it's irreplaceable.

I can go buy another 480 Flock Sully, but I could

never buy another one of these, so it's got to

go with me. Very cool, very cool. Yeah, I just

added their show to my Spotify follows on Spotify,

so I will have to check them out. Oh, they're

great people. Above all else, they're just they're

just good people, really good collectors. And

and she actually makes her own toy line now,

which is cool. I don't know that she's made anything

recently, but but yeah, they're in it so far

that they're not just collecting, they're creating

and and evolving themselves, which is really

cool. That is very cool, very cool. All right,

folks, we're going to take a quick ad break.

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Toycast. All right, we are back here on toy cast

and the flip side of the only keeping one toy

from your collection Here's the toy box challenge.

You get one 18 by 18 by 18 box The only toys

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

you pack into it? Oh Man She's well, none of

my Mondo posters can go in there. So those are

out Definitely going to be Pops. It's going to

be the majority of it. I'm going to get my Motu

in there, my Disco Skeletor and some of the other

Skeletors that are super rare, my OG He -Man,

a few Sully's. I could probably put in stickers.

I could put a lot of stickers, which this is

the thing that, I know you want to laugh and

it sounds crazy, but during COVID. When I started

streaming myself and a bunch of our other friends

all really got into making our own custom stickers

and Collecting those from our friends. In fact,

I have a friend that runs in Sacramento. He has

a store called beehive collectibles That's Av

and he has an entire wall where his register

is that's covered in fan made stickers from all

of us. So I have a bunch of mine that are up

there and a bunch of my friends. I could put

a bunch of those stickers in there because I

don't want to lose those. They have sentimental

value. And then somehow, some way, he only takes

up a little bit of space. But of all my Star

Wars toys that got sold in that garage sale so

long ago, making some other man my age very,

very happy, he made it through. You must unlearn

what you have learned. All right, I'll give it

a try. No, why not? Do or do not There is no

try. Yeah, so we have the stickers which are

you know, they have the not only are they fun

But they're they're also sentimental so I don't

want to lose those but then also the one Figure

that made it through the wrath of mom's annual

purge of the collectibles a tiny 1978 I believe

it was Yoda one of my first collectibles. He

was so small he escaped The purge and made it

through it. I still have him to this day He still

travels with me everywhere I go So so little

Yoda is gonna go in that 18 by 18 by 18 box as

the as the crowning figure The representation

of my childhood that's got to go in there Very

cool. Very cool. All right, folks. We are up

to question 22 and Usually this is a short answer

but since Sully Spent four years there or five

however many that this is going to be a fully

loaded funko question Are you a funko fan? Yeah,

but but it gets What would surprise a lot of

people is there aren't a lot of actual funko

fans at funko They weren't collectors before

going there. I started collecting in 2012 and

Immediately got immersed in all things funko

Like by 2013, 2014, I had like 500. pieces in

my collection. Loved it. I was going to buy everything

they made at one point until that release schedule

got so crazy. Still a Funko fan, believe it or

not. A company that laid me off and threw me

out and didn't bring me back. You'd think I'd

be just completely bitter towards everything.

I'm not. I still buy. I still collect. In fact,

I am probably one of their largest collectors

of their new NFT projects. that they've been

doing and I've got dozens of pops on the way

from those NFT redeemables and I don't see I've

only slowed down on my purchases because of funds

But you know if the money starts rolling in again

by virtue of my own endeavors or a job I will

continue to collect Funko because I love it So

what was the process for you going from a Funko

fan to being a Funko employee? That's a good

one. I get this ever once because people would

also ask, you know, how could I work at Funko?

For me, it was started as a fan and around the

time that I got into Funko was when a buddy of

mine approached me and said, hey, I want to go

to San Diego Comic Con. Would you go with me?

And I honestly thought it was at that time it

was a industry thing. I didn't know that fans

could go because I knew so little about it. But

fast forward a couple or after our first. year

there. The second year, we decided to start a

podcast. We made it into a business called NerdFu.

We did that for 230 -something episodes of the

podcast. Still, technically, the business exists,

although we don't do much with it here 10 years

later. That passion, in the beginning, one of

the things we talked about a lot was collectibles

and Funko and going to the conventions. We did

prize giveaways. When we would go to the cons,

to meet some of the employees and I got to know

Cameron and Yoko, who were the face of the company,

the social media marketing team before I went

there, still friends to this day with them. I

looked up to them so, so much because I was like,

that's the kind of job I want one day. And so

I would talk to him at the cons and stuff. And

then I was doing social media for a company during

the day. And that company ended up doing a main

lay a big layoff. Unfortunately, I seem to be

right in the middle of all of these when it happens.

And so I got let go and I sat down and I made

a list of companies I wanted to work for. And

it was one company long. It was Funko. That was

the only company I wanted to work for. No lie.

That's exactly what happened. And so I pushed

into making as much content as possible during

that time where I was unemployed for NerdFu and

that included the podcasts and photos and giveaways

for stuff and a lot of it was Funko related and

I was constantly looking to see if there were

any jobs and lo and behold, nine months later,

they put up a marketing position and I applied

for it and I sent an email to Cameron and I said,

hey, I know we only know each other a little

bit. But I really think I'm the one for this

marketing job. I'd love to do it. He immediately

passed that on to his boss. I was up there a

week later, had an interview. I was hired six

weeks later. I sold my house. All my stuff got

packed and we moved from Texas to Washington

state where I still live and started the job.

And boy, I don't regret it one bit. It's unfortunate

how it ended, but I don't regret it at all because

it's been one of the greatest journeys in my

life and I've learned so much and I've met so

many amazing people and I wouldn't be doing what

I'm doing now if it weren't for that. Right.

Yeah. So like I said, folks, this is the Funko

section. I've done one of these. I've done interviews

over the years all the time, but you know, I'm

like doing these origins things now. And like

I said, at the beginning of the show, getting

the stories of any and all fans that we can.

So it doesn't matter whether you work there or

whether you don't work there. We had already

talked to an episode one 44. We had talked to

Scott toy guru, Nyluk, who used to work for Mattel.

So. This is essentially me interviewing Sully

about his time at Funko. What was the first pop

or product that you first worked on when you

were there? I mean, as far as being a part of

the marketing and social media team, we didn't

have a lot of input on the actual development

of any product. We would occasionally get asked,

Hey, can you pull our fans and find out what

they're looking for? Cause in the early days,

the social media was pretty quiet. They would

do some occasional videos. They would do a little

bit of Twitter, like Q and a type stuff. But

as the, as the fan base grew more and more people

had opinions on what Funko should make. And so

we kind of started to embrace that and use the

social media channels for, Hey guys, what license

should we go after? And, and so there was a lot

more of that. and feeding that up the chain,

the data to go, look here, we polled an X number

of thousand people said they wanted more Harry

Potter, because that was really popular at the

time. Pre -anime, now anime is super popular.

But the things that I was most proud of that

we worked on was the Funko Funcast and the videos

that we did in the lives. Because when I was

brought on, they didn't have a podcast. That

was my main focus. They asked me to come in and

build that. And then as it turned out, I had

been on camera before, but I didn't know that

I had any real skill set there until they were

like, hey, do some unboxing videos and see how

it goes. And I loved it. And then before long,

I convinced them, hey, we should we should be

doing live stuff. Let's do this in front of Twitch

audience. Let's do this in front of a YouTube

audience. I was most proud of those engagements

because it turns out that I have a knack for

that. I love talking, clearly. I don't shut up.

Like I see on my screen right now, it's just

me talking for five minutes. But I love that.

I love engaging with fans. I love creating content.

And that's what I was focused on most of my time

there. And I'm very proud for what we produced

while I was there. Yeah, absolutely. I mean,

that's awesome. And yeah, generally the marketing

team obviously doesn't have like, I know you

weren't a sculptor. I know you weren't a painter,

like, but I'm saying like, you know, there had

to have been like, what was the first pop you

marketed for them? Like, you know, so that, so

that kind of thing, like, you know. Yeah. So

when I came on that, my focus was the Legion

of Collectors box. The DC subscription box was

still, they had separate channels for that and

for the Marvel Collector Corps and then eventually

for the Disney Treasures box. But for Legion

of Collectors, that was mine for the first six

to nine months. And so I did marketing in the

box and showing that off. But I think one of

the first ones I did was a Superman box. And

I actually went, I was just telling my friend

the other day, I went back and I created a different

little, which now would be considered NFTs almost,

the way I made them. It was these images that

had video in them or GIFs of like Christopher

Reeves pulling the suit open to reveal the Superman

logo. And kind of like here's the history of

Superman as we get ready for the Superman box.

So I think that was probably one of the first

things I worked on. Very cool, very cool. Well,

I have to admit, and I hope this doesn't, I just

want the pops. I don't care about the NFT factor

of it. And somebody told me, and you can say,

this is your episode, this is your show, it's

whatever. Somebody told me the NFT stuff is environmentally

unsound. Inaccurate. Okay. Yeah, this is a big

sticking point for everybody as we move towards

a, I would call it a hybrid between physical

and digital collecting. And I'm glad that you

give me an opportunity to talk about it. There

are... NFTs in the world on different blockchains

that are bad for the environment because they

use so much computing power. The wax blockchain

where Funko has decided to put their stuff, rightly

so, they made the right decision, is carbon neutral.

It uses very little processing power because

it uses a different method to validate the NFTs,

for lack of a better word. It is totally safe.

carbon neutral, and it's a lot of fun. I love

the idea of cracking packs. I used to do it with

baseball cards. People love doing it for Pokemon

cards now, and you get to do that when you buy

the Funko stuff. And not only can you get the

lottery win of pulling a grail or a legendary,

which assures you a physical pop delivered in

the mail several months after, but you also have

the chase for one of ones. There's literally

some that there's only one of in the world. There

are low mint numbers, which would be the kind

of the equivalent of a few collected Mondo posters

those are hand numbered and if you got number

one of 700 it would be highly sought after same

thing exists in the NFT world and then you can

build sets if you build what they call royalty

sets you can actually get a physical redeemable

Freddy Funko like right now the latest one is

DC series 2 and you can get Freddy as the Riddler

And it's a really cool pop. And I have been collecting

them. Actually, I got into NFTs because of Funko

and a couple of other projects. Tops was doing

it back in the beginning of 2021. And Funko has

since done, what, 15 drops? And I've been there

for every one of them. And I absolutely love

it. I have turned into, and I'm not saying this

to toot my own horn because I don't like doing

that, but I have turned into the single biggest

resource and educator for the Funko NFTs of anyone

probably in the world at this point. And I dedicate

a lot of my live streams to that, to educating

people on what is accurate about NFTs and also

how to get on board and start collecting. And

most everybody that's ever come by and given

it a chance has gone, oh, this is different than

what I thought it was. And I actually really

enjoy this. Some people still are like, no, not

for me. I want to be able to hold that figure

that I bought five minutes ago at the store.

And you know what? That's fine. It's not for

everybody. But I just hate that there is the

negative connotation around it and that there

is so much misinformation. Yeah. And that's one

of the things that, you know, again, I was on,

I was a viewer of one of your streams where you

were putting on one of your NFT educational seminar

things and That's when I asked you on, I'm like,

Hey, you want to be on the show? Like it's 42

questions all about toy collection. And I knew

we were going to get into this because it is

what it is. It is, it is what you do. For me,

I, I'm one of those, I don't care people at the

same time. I want the physical pop. I want the

gold Optimus prime. I want the Devastator. Why

in the hell these I'd talk to me about the decision

-making of Funko. As a company being, you know,

putting, is it the company or is it the licensor

saying, okay, you can do this character as an

NFT and a eventual physical pop, but you can

only do these characters as actual physical pops

in an actual store that I can go to in the next

10. You know what I mean? Like what's the difference?

It's both. Every single license is unique. I

learned this. I wasn't involved in a lot of the

licensing conversations, but I was involved in

enough where let's take DC as an example. DC

used to be one of the most lenient licenses.

In other words, they would give Funko free reign

to do pretty much whatever they wanted as long

as they got approval of the final art. Since

then, and over the last 10 years, most of these

companies have really started to embrace or own

what is their greatest asset and that is these

licenses. They realize that every time Batman

goes on something, it's a representation of their

company and a great opportunity for them to make

a ton of money. So they've started to have more

control and input in these conversations like

Harry Potter is owned by Warner Brothers as well.

They are notoriously difficult to work with,

but it's because they protect that brand so carefully.

They do not allow Harry Potter to go on something

that looks stupid like go back to Star Wars in

the 1980s You can buy Darth Vader spatula at

the dollar store You know like there's just these

crappy stuff that we have those licenses on there

that that doesn't happen Now you may deem something

crappy, but the other other you know million

people are like this is fantastic Every license

is individual Some may say look you can only

make these characters You can only make them

as pops, and we have to approve everything. Star

Wars? Every single Star Wars sculpt, unless it's

changed during COVID. Reese O 'Brien was in charge

of the Star Wars stuff, and he's just an amazing

artist. He also makes Tiny Ghost on the side.

He had to take a mold, get on a plane, go to

Lucas, show them the mold in a room, take notes,

bring it back. Correct the mold and repeat until

they approved. Oh Wow. Yeah, and they Completely

dictated which characters Funko could do there

was even a panel so this you could go back and

find the video for this When we did Star Wars

celebration in Chicago years ago Reese was on

a panel with a couple of the other artists from

Funko and the guy that was in charge of merchandising

for Star Wars That guy I don't remember his name

don't care for him one bit. He was, oh my God,

so full of himself. But he dictated what exclusives

they had at Star Wars Celebration that year,

and that was the year that Funko did all the

chrome. And a lot of people went back and go,

ugh, all that chrome. Well, that was that guy.

That wasn't Funko. Funko had a cool lineup of

stuff they wanted to make, and that guy from

Star Wars said, nah, don't do all that, just

make a bunch of chrome ones. So that's just an

example of all the times where people are salty

or angry towards Funko for what you could have

done this other character You know, like Funko

probably had no choice. They probably had to

like this recent DC They did Connor Hawk, which

is the Hawkeye of the DC universe. I don't I

don't remember ever hearing anything about this

guy. I don't know why he was picked to be a pop

instead of Wonder Woman or Harley Quinn, but

there might be a reason. Maybe somebody at DC

was like, we're going to go hard on Connor Hawk

this year. Go ahead and get a pop out there and

let's see how it does. I don't know. I wasn't

in that conversation, but a lot of times there

is licenser influence or just straight up them

demanding something. It's a very interesting

process. And what I can clearly tell, which I'm

kind of happy and I'm not kind of happy about,

but what I can clearly tell with Hasbro and the

Transformers license is that with the Retro Toys

line... You there? Yeah, still here. Okay, I

heard some weird static. Alright, that was weird.

1744 edit. So, what I've just... piecemealed

in my own opinion about Funko and the Hasbro

Transformers licenses, they can only do the action

figure style pops. So they can only take the

1984 Optimus Prime and like they're not, they're

not going by animation. They're not going show

accurate. They're going toy accurate to what

the original toy is. And they can do that all

day long. Yes, so far. I mean the other part

of that too is they do these in waves. They do

these in series So they'll put out wave one and

if wave one doesn't perform They're not gonna

go to wave two anytime soon if wave one does

really well Well, they'll go to it time and time

and time again because you got the you got the

bean counters involved, too You know, you got

people that are going. Hey, we we spent ten thousand

dollars a mold on six figures and we only made

a hundred K That's not worth our time and effort.

Let's move on to the next thing Those molds are

expensive. Everybody probably thinks it costs

pennies on the dollar to make those pops, but

on average, I think it's like four to six dollars

in production costs for every pop. And you multiply

that times every license and every character

they have in each individual license. And that's

a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. And before we talk

more on money, because number 23 is all about

money, but One other funko question while you

worked there. I assume at some point or another,

you met with Brian and Mike. Yeah, for sure.

Okay. We all have characters online, folks. We

all put on personas at times. Brian seems very,

like he's like, he's not really putting on it.

Mike, on the other hand, he a little nuts. Well,

Brian is who is he seemed. I got the chance to

interview him twice for the Funcast. Me and him

in a room for an hour plus. And he is exactly

the person that you see on the videos and stuff.

He's very straightforward, doesn't kid around,

very business oriented. He is definitely a fan.

His love for the - Oh no, absolutely. Yeah. No,

no, no. Yeah. Yeah. Mike is, he is a complex

guy. He definitely loves acting. That is a big

part of him and so when he does the videos or

fun days or that stuff He takes his he's also

a huge fan. He just turns that into an opportunity

to present to Make it bigger than it is and that

is not just a schtick. That is really who he

is. Like he is a very very artsy Unique guy,

I don't know how to word it exactly except for

to say he is who you see too That quirky, fun

presenter guy is Mike. He just dials it up to

11 when he does a video or fun days or something.

Very cool, very cool. I love Mike to death. What

he created in Funko, it's honestly a shame that

he stepped away when he did. He sold the company

after three or four years of doing it. I think

it's even in the documentary where he just got

burned out. It was just too much. Brian steps

in and pumps that thing full of adrenaline and

steroids and whatever else he had and turned

Funko into a billion dollar business. Now Mike's

involved in it again so much. And it wouldn't

be what it is without both of them, but it all

started with Mike. If it weren't for Mike, we

wouldn't have Funko. Yeah, no, absolutely. And

yeah, I mean, Brian came in and he pumped that

gas so far that it didn't matter if it was $7

a gallon or not. Exactly. Exactly right. And

he killed it. I mean, regardless of any decisions

made, because plenty of people can look at that

history and go, oh, you messed up there. You

messed up there. You messed up there. But look

at all the success. Oh, my God. How many people

can ever create a juggernaut like Funko? Yeah,

absolutely. So there's two other Funko things,

and then we're going to get back to the regular

questions. Why the black soulless eyes or the

insert color soulless eyes here? Why that? So

that's one question. Right. I don't know exactly.

I know that the original style of the pops. was

in fact a plush. It wasn't a vinyl toy. And they

took that to DC. Again, DC back in the day was

much more lenient. And DC said somebody there,

genius, whoever they were, they deserve an award,

went and looked at that plush and went, okay,

I dig what you're doing here, but this would

be better as a vinyl toy. And thus the pop was

born or Funko Force 2 .0 as it was originally

called and then they made it into pop and changed

it to that cardboard box. It has always been

a stylization. in the chibi form. So a lot of

influence from Asia. And so they've stuck with

that. And I never saw, I just referenced that

earlier as a joke because so many people commented

on that. I never saw a black soulless eye. I

saw, oh my God, there is this little like overblown

characterization and somehow that speaks to me.

So maybe whoever said that it's more in the eye

of the beholder than anything. I laugh at it

all the time now because there are some people

who are so adamantly against Funko Pops that

like I think they're the same people that get

mad at a band when a band goes mainstream. It's

like you just don't want anything to be everybody's

thing. You want to have something that's unique

to you and that's totally fair. But you know,

don't yuck my yum. If you don't want to get just

move along and go do your thing. I'm going to

be over here and join the hell out of my Pops.

So as of this recording, and as I said earlier,

this will be the most recent episode of the podcast.

So I basically have to turn this around and edit

it immediately. But anyway, that's, that's how

I roll around here, but it's one of those things

where as of this recording. Nickelback just released

their latest single after six years. Feed the

Machine was the latest album from 2017. So it's

been about five or six years since we've had

any new Nickelback. I have been a Nickelback

fan since 2000 or so. And when they released

that the other day, I said, you know what folks

this, you know, it's my thing. I don't talk it

like it's not like I'm on Facebook talking about

Nickelback. At least once a day, I'm not. But

this is the excitement. Holy crap, they're making

us wait a couple of months, but between the new

single now here in September, I keep wanting

to say August, but September. And the new album

coming out in November, I'm like, oh, okay, it's

fine, whatever. You know, the whole thing is

it's Nickelback. Everybody's like, like you're

talking about this whole thing of yucking people's

yum and all this and all that. So, and because

you've been the toy collector you are, do you

remember Mighty Mugs? Oh yeah, definitely. I

have some. I was a huge Mighty Mug fan. I still

am to this day. And I went. head over heels for

when they did Transformers Shockwave. Cool. And

then Funco, years and years later now, for the

2021 summer convention, I forget which, I assume

it was, I forget what that alternate sticker

is, the - SDCC. Was it? Okay. I wasn't sure if

it was or not. Funco releases a Shockwave and

I'm like, oh my God. both companies, Funko and

Hasbro, because I think Hasbro was doing the

mugs at that point still, they got G1 Shockwave

down to a T, even both figures have the wire

for his hose for his gun. And I'm just like,

how can you not? Just at least appreciate like

if you like it if you don't like it fine if you

don't like it fine But at least give it the respect

of you know, hey, that's an amazing and genius

thing. That's a detail that Not a lot of toy

companies are gonna put into those things Yeah

agreed. I It's amazing what they can do when

they have to stick within the confines of a certain

type of art to be able to bring that to life.

I couldn't fathom. I try doing my own art now

for NFTs and I have more respect for those Funko

artists than ever. One of my least favorite questions

at cons and stuff was, what's your least favorite

pop? Or when people would dog on something, I'd

always be like, hey guys, remember. An artist

worked really hard on that, and I guarantee you're

hurting their feelings, whether or not they ever

let anybody know. They had a passion for that

thing, and they went as far as they could within

the confines of what they were allowed to design,

and all you can do is tear it a new one and just

talk bad about it. It's like, can you remember

there's real people behind this process? Most

people are incapable of doing that. They think

that their voice ... needs to be heard by the

world or their 11 Twitter followers. Uh, and

I'll never understand it. I don't get it. Let

me choose to be happy. It's a lot better life.

I promise you. Yeah, absolutely. And like I said

earlier, like, look, but at times there have

to be negative, not negative things said, but

negative things asked and things like that, nor,

you know, controversial coin flip type questions

and things like that. But like I can sit here

and say, like I said earlier about Game of Thrones,

it's not that. Like I have no disrespect towards

the person that worked on that Funko line. It's

just not my thing. And I will just state it at

that and walk away from it. Like I'll go find

something else. Absolutely. You spoke with your

money. I talk about that a lot on my, on my stream

is if you don't like something, the most impact

you can make not buy it. It's that simple. If

they sales don't happen. they'll stop making

it. But the fact that they sell out of all these,

you know, things like the NFTs, there is interest.

There are a lot of people who are into it and

they're buying and they're selling and they're

enjoying it. So if you don't like it, go find

something else you want to put your money into

and move along. Yep, absolutely. So speaking

of money, what was the most money you spent on

a toy? This will boggle your mind, I think. I've

talked about this a lot. Most people assume that

because I'm so deep into Funko that I have, like

I talked about earlier, spent hundreds or thousands

of dollars. When it comes to Funko, the most

I've ever spent on one item is 120 bucks, period.

I bought an Ivan Drago Proto from the Rocky Collection

back in 2014, maybe? And that and then I bought

a four pack of pop minis from Disney D23 back

in the day that had Wally and Ratatouille and

Buzz Lightyear and something else in it. And

that was also 120 bucks. Never spent more than

that on a single anything. There are some other

collectibles in my life. I think that statue

I just bought from Sideshow was like 300 bucks.

That's probably it. I don't really go nuts on

the high end stuff. Like I said, I'm more about

the buy and see if it goes up in value than I

am, let me buy that grail that I've always wanted.

Now, one day if I get some better income, there's

still a few grails I want. Hollow Darth Maul,

Gold Loki, things I passed up on back in the

day. And I would spend the money, but it's got

to be relative to my salary. My salary needs

to be a hell of a lot more to spend that kind

of money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

So on the flip side of that, what is the cheapest

toy you bought or what was the best deal you

ever got for a figure that may have been worth

quite a bit more than you paid? I mean, that

too is a tricky one because I bought a lot in

2012 and 2013, back when Funko was still relatively

just starting to increase. and value and, uh,

and fans. And, uh, I would buy, you remember

Hot Topic used to have the buy one, get one or

buy two, get one on all their pops in the early

days. And so I bought like, um, kind of what

are some, I bought a couple of wrestlers like

mysterious, Rey Mysterio. I bought, uh, who was

the guy that was in the wrestling and then went

to the WWE? Uh, I can't remember. But stuff like

that, White Raven, some of those early Hot Topic

exclusives that are worth a ton of money now,

I bought for, you know, buy one, get one free.

So they would cost me like $7 .50 and now they're

worth like $700. But probably the best overall

was my Fun Days ticket in 2013. I bought a, I

think it was $75 or $100 for a ticket. You got

dinner, two drinks. a box of fun that included

three pops and then whatever they gave out in

the audience. If you took all the items, not

counting the dinner and drinks, because those

have been long processed and gone through, if

you take the figures and stuff I got that night,

it's probably worth about $5 ,000 for a $75 ticket.

That's a good return on your money right there.

And I had one of the best experiences of my life

because that was my first fun days. Yeah, that

by far had to have been my best investment. Wow,

very cool, very cool. Mine was a little sweet.

I only had to spend six dollars and die at Dr.

Pepper. Nice! What's a little sweet go for these

days? I haven't looked. Oh gosh, I don't even

know what he's... I don't think he's on the top

because I've got mine sorted by highest to lowest

right now and he's... Somewhere in the low side.

I think Let's still fun. Yeah, I remember that

one coming through. I never did get one Because

I didn't have the time to send off for it and

we didn't get samples at Funko that I could grab

one He's only 14 bucks. Hey still six bucks to

14. That's a you more than double your money

I still absolutely love this and I have to bring

this up because this is awesome my buddy again

Wes from popping off toys He gifted me because

I'd missed the I missed the and I'll ask you

I should have asked you this earlier But I'll

ask you now in a minute, but he gifted me the

scrappy do because I am scrappy doos ultimate

defender Everyone else is like who scrappy do

he's the worst thing in cartoon history. No,

he's not That belongs to Ren and Stimpy. But

Scrappy to me as a kid in the eighties was like

Scooby and rightfully so. That's the way Scooby

is. Scooby and Shaggy were always so scared and

so whatever. Scrappy was like, let's stand up

to these bullies, Uncle Scoob. Let's get them,

whatever. So Wes gifted me that. He is today.

My most expensive pop at $110. Nice. Yeah, that's

a good one. It's hard to go wrong with Scooby

Doo. It's going through such a great resurgence

now. I'm surprised that something that old is

resonating with today's fans of all ages, it

seems to. Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. All

right. What modern and or vintage toy lines are

you currently collecting? Modern Still Funko,

definitely. I love my Mondo stuff. As far as

licenses, I stick with Disney, Pixar a lot, Marvel,

Star Wars. Those are my big ones. Vintage, really

not going back and buying anything old, honestly.

I don't have the funds for it right now, and

it's gonna sound crazy. I don't have the time.

I basically, I work for myself now and basically

I work from the time I wake up to the time I

go to sleep and about the only time I don't work

is if I'm catching up on a TV show or one of

the few times that I play a video game off stream,

which is rare. I did it last night for a change,

but most of the time I'm either answering emails,

talking to people, streaming, creating something.

I just don't have the time to go and spend a

lot of time on that right now. Yeah, absolutely.

So obviously this is more about the before times

and Like I said, obviously we're getting back

into it But do you visit toy shows or conventions

and waiting when you visit these things? Do you

have a typical methodology? Do you bring a certain

amount of money for what you're searching for

that kind of stuff? Yeah, I guess there's two

answers to that too because pre Funko When I

would go to cons as a fan, I had pretty good

income with my day job. And I tried to go to

at least a half dozen cons a year because I was

also doing it for my side business, nerd food.

And I would, I guess I'd give myself a little

bit of a budget, but mostly it was more about

like, here are the certain items I want. I'm

going to go after it because I feel confident

that these things are going to be worth more

in the future. And as it turns out. I was pretty

good at predicting it because a lot of those

early SDCC exclusives I have are worth hundreds

if not thousands of dollars now that I spent.

10 to 15 bucks on. It just took a little while

for it to come to fruition. Now, in a post -Funko,

post -COVID world, I am getting back to the cons.

I've been to this year, WonderCon, Emerald City,

San Diego Comic Con, just did PAX last weekend,

and a few others. And really, it's a different

world. There's less people there. There's less

to buy. There's less free swag. These companies

are still trying to figure out what they're going

to do. fortunately slash unfortunately, I don't

have the budget to go crazy. So what I've been

doing instead is working to increase my audience

by giving away free stickers and talking to people,

doing panels, things like that. And in the rare

case where I get to buy something, it's truly

just a quick one -off purchase of something that

I just have to have, like a Ted Lasso pop or

the He -Man. Exclusive from SDCC that pop that

was a Metallica man had to have that, you know

to continue that collection But just not going

nuts. I even did Star Wars celebration this year

and I didn't even go in the Funko booth There

was nothing that I thought I had to have And

that's that's basically the criteria that I've

got to go with now is either a cheap $10 -15

thing that I that I like or something I absolutely

have to have there's not a bunch of just oh I'll

grab it and see what happens. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely What do you think it is about

our generation that causes our childhood toys

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

our parents' generation? Oh, that's a great question.

Everything I do, I realize gets summed up by

this great speech that Will Wheaton gave at a

con years ago in answer to a question at a panel.

And basically, the short version is something

you said earlier, and that is we're all trying

to recapture our youth. Uh, we growing up as

kids had far more toys and license type stuff

than our parents did. You know, my mom, I think

she liked, uh, God, what was the name of that

kid? I know she liked Betty Boop and I can't

even remember the name of the little actress

that she liked, but they had very few things

that were like that. They didn't they didn't

focus on it. They didn't wake up on Saturday

mornings and watch cartoons. They didn't for

Christmas get a whole bunch of toys like I bet

she got little woodblock cars as a kid. Like,

you know, that's not a license that people are

clamoring after now. But we as kids had that

stuff. Our parents sold it or we moved on or

it was destroyed or whatever, you know, lost

in a move. And here we are as adults, many of

us with real income and a chance to recapture

those moments from our childhood that means so

much. And then for those of us with kids, I don't

have any, but my friends with kids, it's all

about them introducing Star Wars. or He -Man

or whatever to their kids. Like, look at this

thing I loved as a kid. Do you love it, too?

We can bond over that. It kills me. My niece

doesn't like Star Wars. And every time I'm around

her, she reminds me. She's 12 now. She goes,

yeah, I don't like Star Wars. I'm like, why are

you doing this to me? I want to love you so much.

But you don't like Star Wars. This is not OK.

It's all about recapturing our youth. And we

have access to so many cool things, man. There's

so much out there. If it were up to me, I'd spend

a million dollars a year on all the things I

wanted. I'd have a house that has 80 rooms of

collectibles. Luckily, I don't have that. So

that would be insane to try and manage. Yeah,

my buddy, Proto Man, he's big in the Transformers

community. He actually bought a house specifically

to house his collection. He has over like 10

,000 figures, I believe, of everything. Yeah,

sadly, sadly, the one thing we do differ on is

he's not a fun go fan. Oh, well, hey, you know,

he does. He does transformers news segments on

his podcast and does them as YouTube videos.

And every once in a while he'll like when that

shockwave and what was it? It was shockwave.

And was it the GI Joe trooper or what? When the

shockwave pop got announced, he's like, oh yeah.

And by the way, from fun co, if you're into that

kind of thing, I'm like, shut up. This is Shockwave.

How illogical can you be when you're talking

about Shockwave? Pick a side. You're Transformers.

Exactly. Yeah, it's Transformers. It doesn't

matter. What is your motivation for purchasing

toys? Display, to play, fiddle. Describe your

collecting style. It's always been display and

value. I do look at my purchases and most of

these as an investment for the future. I'm not

stupid enough or crazy enough to think that it's

going to be my retirement one day. It's not that

kind of thing. I hear people say that and I'm

like, you probably should find out about 401ks

because you're going the wrong route. but it's

fun and it does, it can return a value if you

know when to get out. I've never been good at

that. But I do buy and I do look at the values

and now it's turned into more of content. I buy

and show off on my streams and eventually when

I get my button gear make some YouTube videos

and things like that, TikToks. But right now

it's a lot of, hey, look at this thing I got

at the con or let's see what the value of this

thing is. I get a spinner out, put it on there

and I focus the camera right up on it. We look

at eBay and see what the value is. I like to

educate people on, I can't believe that this

is a thing, but educating people on how to properly

open a Funko box blows people's minds. I don't

get it. I have shown this trick off. I don't

know how many times and every time I show it,

somebody's like, Oh, what really? That's so smart.

I'm like, I don't know how this was such a secret,

but okay. If you like it, let's go. You know,

I'll show off whatever I can to help other collectors.

And that's a lot of what I buy now is to, is

to educate and create content. All right. Even

though this is not, is an audio podcast and people

can't see you doing this, explain the process.

OK, so I've got this down now. You take a pop,

flip it upside down on the bottom. Take that

opening side and aim it towards you. Take a old

business card that's heavy duty, an old credit

card. The best thing is one of those key cards

from a hotel that you never returned. Slide it

in under the flap on the right hand side and

pull towards you. just enough to release that

corner of cardboard away from the other piece

of cardboard and just kind of wiggle. And that

corner will pop up. If it doesn't, don't apply

too much pressure. Flip over to the left side,

try it there. But that should pop that corner

right up without causing any damage or tearing

the cardboard in any way. And then once that

one corner pops up, you can easily open the whole

pop with no damage. Sadly the business card I

have in front of me is not gonna work for that,

but it's not heavy -duty enough. Yeah My friend

display geek actually makes these he took the

idea and made card openers And they are basically

like a hotel key card that says how to do this

and you slide it under there and pull towards

You and it's got his logo on there, and I thought

that was genius I wish I'd done it myself, but

he's smarter to the business side of things than

I am But I mean these things are supposed to

open like on the top of them They have an open.

They're like any other like actual box. I mean,

uh -huh, you know but opening without the damage

is tricky because that cardboard is pretty flimsy

and it doesn't take much to you know crease the

cardboard on bending up the corner or Possibly

tear it at that little that little area that's

cut out there on the side, and that's where people

freak out about me opening it. It was like, oh

my goodness, you damaged it. I was like, no,

it didn't look mint. It's just as good as when

I first bought it. It's beautiful. Yeah, it's

just weird things like that that I, you know,

and now the education on NFTs, it's like, hey,

it doesn't have to be all big and scary. Let

me show you some stuff that's going to make it

fun for you. And if you can want to do it, do

it. If not, don't, that's fine. But I want to

help you if I can. But I just want the pop. I

don't want an empty side of it. I just sell me

the pop Damn it. Yeah, you can have to go you

can do it on the tertiary market, but you're

gonna pay a premium Well, that's funny because

like It's a whole other thing. I gotta wait until

I I think somebody and I it was the most whatever

the most recent could I think it was Emerald

City or whatever it was. Uh -huh somebody put

up a I guess he did it himself Eglacius put up

an Instagram story, I don't follow him, but Fluffy

Eglacius put up an Instagram story and behind

him were all of the, and I'm like, wait, what?

Yeah, people are flipping out over this for no

reason. It's a one -off and he is an influencer

and The world does that it's just part of the

thing, you know, but people are like I'm gonna

sell all my NFTs This is bulls bull BS. Blah

blah blah. I'm like calm down. It's gonna be

okay I just like out of like just off memory

without actually having to do any research or

click any buttons or do any anything just sitting

here off the top of my head Gold Optimus Prime,

Hot Rod, and Devastator would be the three that

I would want out of what they've done for the

NFT Transformers. I don't remember what the other

ones were. They were super cool. I unfortunately

never did score the Grail Optimus, but that is

one of the ones I would happily trade for. I

just pulled the Batman Asriel Grail the other

day, and that could easily be a thousand dollar

pop. I'm more of a Transformers fan than I am

a Batman, and I bet I could get somebody to make

that trade for me, so I might do it. They're

going to win in the deal, and I'm fine with that

because I want Optimus. Yeah, yeah, you want

the Optimus, yep. Right? Yep, yep. So you mentioned

your niece. have you ever purchased a toy for

a child with the ulterior motive of playing with

it yourself yeah absolutely it was my brother

when i was little my niece now uh yeah absolutely

i'm i'm still a kid i always will be so if i

if i buy something for someone of that age it's

chances are it's because it's something i wanted

to and yeah absolutely yeah for sure On the same

token, have you ever purchased, and we mentioned

about vintage earlier, you don't really do vintage,

but have you ever purchased a vintage toy for

a child because you thought it would be good

for them based on your own preferences? I don't

think I've ever done it with vintage, no. Well,

let me take that back. I didn't buy it for a

child, but I have a cool story. I had a friend

when I worked at the electric company back in

Texas, go on 10 years ago probably, we went to

a happy hour one day after work and this woman

about my age was talking about her love for Star

Wars. Instantly I'm like, how cool that a woman

my age is also into this. So we're talking up

and she was talking about when she was a kid,

her and her sister. Her mom would take them both

to Burger King and they had a set of Star Wars

glasses. We're talking about early 80s, right?

These actual glass tumblers with Star Wars all

around the outside and they both were huge Han

Solo fans. So they got no fight over the Han

Solo glass and eventually it either broke or

mom took it away because it was causing too many

fights. A glass, right? But she couldn't get

two of them. Well, she told me the story and

then I drew her name as a Secret Santa that year

and I remembered the story. So I went on eBay

and I found a set of two Han Solo Burger King

glasses from 1982 or whatever. I bought it, gave

it to her. We were best friends after that. She

thought that was the coolest thing she'd ever

received in her life. But I knew that's what

it was. I knew she would appreciate it. And it

was such an easy gift to give, and it was worth

a little extra expense. But I knew that was going

to be a big moment for me, too, because she was

going to enjoy it so much. So absolutely, it

was for me as much as it was for her. Very cool,

very cool. If you want to continue your niece

along the dark side, you just teach her about

Jar Jar Binks and how cool he actually is. Oh

my gosh, she already doesn't like Star Wars.

It turns out she does like Jar Jar. I'll take

it. If it gets her into Star Wars, I'll take

it. Poor Jar Jar. Poor Jar Jar. He gets no respect.

Misa thinks he deserves more respect. That's

right. You do any toy modifications or customs,

painting, building dioramas, that kind of stuff?

Oh, I never have, but I've always been very intrigued

by it and I would love to try one day. Some of

my favorite streams, some of my favorite artists

are people who do either exclusive or uh mods

on pops or they make their own line of toys i

just i'm so amazed by by all that process i haven't

i think i could i just i have to dedicate some

time to it and try it one day yeah absolutely

now this i cannot wait for your answer on this

because i mean okay so i don't talk to like Two

times so far. So toy kit for your own people

listening to the sound of my voice know the history

of this podcast. But from 2009 to 2014, I had

this podcast going. A buddy of mine that helped

me start it passed away in 2011. And I only tried

to, by 2014, I was out of, out of toy collecting

because I had sold all my original collection

in 2011. And I was just like, yeah, no, I just,

I can't go on. And then a buddy of mine last

year was like, Hey, let's do this. And what he

wanted to do, and we are still planning on doing

this is creating the toy cast police department.

What he said was my buddy, Josh, Josh, the floor

burger. Um, and the nickname there is based off

of David Hasselhoff and his, ah, yes. So, so.

Josh came up with this idea of what would toy

crimes be? Like obviously scalping is one. Don't,

don't be a scalper. There's a huge difference

to me in someone who is reselling or doing like

whatnot. Like if you already have the pop in

your collection and you want to resell or you're

buying this to get, that's not no, a scalper

is somebody that goes in there. and cuts in line

of every seven -year -old, even those 42 -year

-olds that are in disguise as seven -year -olds,

and buys all seven of the eight that are there,

and then we're all left to fight over the last

Target -exclusive Funko Pop Pikachu that's left.

Yep, I agree. That's exactly right. You know,

so that's a crime potentially hiding, like, taking

a Funko Pop flocked Sully from the electronics

department to, like, ladies lingerie or guys

socks or, you know, you know, so we were trying

to come up with this, that, you know, the thing

and everything else. And so that's, that's going

to be interesting. But basically the whole point

in me saying all that is to say question 32,

do you think toy companies should specifically

have adult collector toys, child toys, or find

a way to mix both? Hmm. Well, that's a great

question. I think, I think you keep them separate.

Maybe they bleed over into one another, just

that's the way things go. I know plenty of people

who their kids love their pops, even though they're

quite valuable. But I think you aim them differently.

I mean, kids' toys are usually going to be things

the packaging doesn't matter. It's going to get

beat up, abused as they kind of learn to navigate

collecting themselves. And for adults, for us,

it's much more about, you know, it's going to

be in pristine condition. Is it going to meet

the art expectations I have for this license?

So I think separate. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because

I was at a Walmart one, a couple of years ago.

And I go into the electronics department and

I'm just waiting and waiting and waiting. And

there was a mother there with her kid looking

through. Like seven pops, because apparently

at that point in time Walmart hadn't restocked

her. And I'm like, there's seven figures here

from all various different things. You don't

need to spend 20 minutes. Get out of the way,

lady. Get your kid, go to the real toy aisle

and buy him a real toy. When I say that, it's

because it's time. I'm just like, I don't want

to stand here for 20 minutes. I just want to

get my Cobra Commander and go, damn it. All right.

Oh boy. But then again, it is Walmart. Don't

get me started. I already mentioned it. I'm going

to leave it there. You already mentioned this

too. You've kind of already answered this one.

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

Oh, God. Yeah, you heard the big one. But many

were lost along the way. But that was the big

one. Yeah. Do you feel like you are coming to

an end of your active collecting? If so, what

has signified this phase for you? Was there ever

a moment when you were done with toys altogether?

No, absolutely not. I mean, when I was in high

school and college, I was just too busy to be

into this kind of world and also had no money.

I mean, any money I made from working was going

into to, uh, going out with friends or dating

or whatever. Once I got out of college, and before

I even found Funko or anything, I collected McFarlane's

Austin Powers toys line. I collected sports cards,

got big into that again. I think I'm in my prime

for collecting. The only hindrance I have now

is income that's keeping me from buying more

stuff and space. One day, I hope both of those

are remedied and I'm back on the track I wanna

be on. And I just see myself continuing to collect

for the rest of my life in some fashion. I don't

know if that's gonna be physical toys, digital

stuff, if it's gonna be a mixture. I imagine

a mixture. If I'll get more into cards, then

I will collectibles. But I do know, again, even

after my weird pass with Funko, I just can't

get enough of the pops and now the sodas I like.

I'm not as into it as some other people. The

new NFTs. I'm anxious to see what they do next.

I mean, I have a lot of faith in the new CEO,

Andrew Peterson, Andrew, not Peterson, Perlmutter.

I know the guy. I know he's a real fan and I

know he's going to lead the company in the right

direction and I can't wait to see what they do.

I see myself being a fanatic for many, many years

to come. Very cool. So, what is, did Brian leave?

Is he still, like... No, the official press release

that I read basically said that he wanted, his

passion's always been the production of products

people like. And as a CEO, I imagine, this was

my speculation, that he was getting pulled to

do way too much like talking on financial shows

and touring the country to sell the company and

stuff like that. Not sell it to other people,

but... promoted. Yeah. And so this he just did

a lateral move essentially and now he's in charge

of creative on that side of the company was still

he still owns part of the company. So it's not

like he's gone and Perkmutter who they were already

grooming to become CEO stepped up into that role

because he has more of a background in business.

He came from a business background and so I think

I think it's probably what's best for the company

in the upcoming years as well because Growing

a company is one thing keeping it big and continuing

to grow when it's public is a nightmare And I

hope he's able to do it me too because there's

one license And I think you know where I'm gonna

go with this. Yeah There is one license that

could keep funko in the in in the rich coffers

for at least another ten years one license however

That license is more difficult to crack Than

the entire star map All is they need is Nintendo

Yep, that's it. That's the one and they've been

trying for at least that I know of seven eight

years without any luck The argument I've heard

I don't know if it's true or not is that Funko

doesn't like the stylization of their characters

They don't want Mario with the big black soul

as eyes. They didn't say that, but that's what

I've heard. That's what Nintendo has an issue

with. That's what I've heard. I haven't heard

that from a Nintendo employee, but through the

grapevine, that seems to be the state. Right.

I will give the designers and the artists and

the painters and the whatever. I still want,

I'm still coveting it. It's not super rich, but

it's too rich for my blood. I want that killer

frost with the white eyes from the flash. Like

when that got announced, I was like, give it

to me now. That's very cool. That was New York

Comic Con that year. Yeah. And I'm just like,

yeah. But, um, but, you know, and they've done

other, like, I've seen things recently where

they're doing, they're not just black, soulless

eyes. They might be red or purple or, you know,

whatever. The arts come a long ways. I think

the Nintendo code will be cracked in the next

few years. And here's why they just recently,

uh, the original investment firm that purchased

like 20 some odd percent of Funko back in like,

uh, it must've been 2000. 15, 16, something like

that. They sold their chunk to another investment

firm that's made up of some executives from like

Nike and several other large companies and the

guy who is I think LeBron James agent. Okay.

And they have contacts out the wazoo. They are

looking to take Funko to the next level. That's

the only reason you make a several. I think it

was if it was billions or hundreds of millions

of dollars, I forget, you can look it up, it's

public. They invested big money and you only

do that if you think you can make big money when

you're those kind of players. They have all the

contacts in the world and I wouldn't be surprised

at all if an executive from Nike head knows an

executive from Nintendo and they can find a way

to come to a happy medium. It may even not be

a pop. It could be a whole separate line. But

any way to get them in the door at Funko and

to make a Nintendo product, you're absolutely

right, would be money, money, money for years

to come. Yeah. And I, you know, you mentioned

earlier, so does Couple of years, this is over

a decade ago now. I went into my local comic

shop at the time and I saw a Simpson's Duff beer

can, similar to how the Funko sodas are done.

Yeah. And all that was in there was a Simpson's

stylized standard 52 card deck of playing cards.

Oh, that's smart. Okay. But the Duff Beer can,

same metal can, same thing that you would see

whatever with the sodas. And my thing is, the

sodas are almost worse than clothes box packaging

because you don't get the whole point of the

pot. Like, I can look right at J. Jonah. I can

look right at his pickle puss. I can see him

in the thing. How are you supposed to enjoy an

even more super deformed toy in a can when you

can't even see? Well, I guess I'm contradicting

myself here because I'm fine with that. I realize

the irony in my earlier statements now. The soda

was a genius line because of the chases. Well,

yes, yes, and and when I was still at Funko when

we premiered that product at Toy Fair, which

is when all the buyers come in and decide what

they want to put on their store shelves and they

would come in and they would look at soda and

I would explain it and they would seem unimpressed

and I'd be like now take this thinking about

this the collectors and I'm one of them. We want

the chase. We don't know what's in the packaging.

We can't open it at the store even though some

people do and we really really want it. We won't

buy one will buy six. Yeah, and they would look

at me baffled like there's no way you're right

and I'm like trust me I'm absolutely right because

I've done it. We want the chase We don't want

to pay for the premium on the secondary market.

We will spend the what does that come out to

like $85? $75 whatever it is to buy six of them

so that we have that one chase and the regular

and that's what will happen And that's what did

happen. I was absolutely right Yeah, I mean that's

a that's a really smart product move now in the

secondary market You know you can buy some really

cool displays to either put the figure on top

of the soda or in a case with the soda I should

have a friend that manufactures these and now

Funko has even started selling some For display

purposes with those metal discs that go on the

top and that's a really cool way to show those

off But it is troublesome. It doesn't take much

for those to come tumbling down off a shelf.

Yeah. Yeah Yeah, somebody please cue crumbling

down already, because I can hear it now. Oh,

I've had it happen so many times. So I would

say, and this does not have to be Funko specific,

but outside of the Nintendo license and outside

of me wanting an Alfpop, what is something that

does not have a toy of it you'd love to have

in toy form? Oh, space balls. Space balls anything.

Unfortunately, there is a licensing restriction

that they had to sign away product when they

made that movie because Lucas had issues with

it being a Star Wars knockoff. But if any company,

if Disney ever bought the own Spaceballs and

they made Spaceballs product, I'd buy it in a

heartbeat. Anything. There's never been an officially

licensed Spaceballs product. Period. Isn't that

a shame? Yes. It's such a good movie. My brother

and I did an episode of our podcast on it and

I've seen some great customs. I've seen some

great t -shirts sold on eBay and Etsy and sites

like that, but I want some officially licensed

real merch. Can't wait to get my Spaceballs flamethrower.

Yeah, exactly Spaceballs the flamethrower. Yeah,

it'd be so good Lucas they could just give the

approval Disney could just say do it or I wouldn't

be surprised to find out that because of all

the acquisitions They've done over the year that

Disney actually owned space balls in some way

shape or form and they could do it Yeah, yeah,

that's crazy Yep, so You're coming from a place

where you've seen things that are scaled up for

not necessarily functional, but they are scaled

up for the real world and real people because

Funko has, you know, giant statues of pops and

things like that. But what is one toy you'd love

to have scaled up and functional for the real

world? Oh, good Lord, that would have to be a

transformer. Absolutely. Bumblebee or a real

Optimus Prime or God, that'd be so awesome. Hell,

yeah, man. I want my car to really transform.

That would be so cool. As long as you're not

in it when it happens. I don't know. They pulled

it off with Bumblebee and in the movies. I thought

that was really cool. Very true. Very, very true.

How have your spouse's significant others, mates,

partners, et cetera, dealt with your collection?

Yeah, my wife was not a fan. I slowly but surely

tried to get her into the world. She was a huge

Harry Potter fan. And so I tried to get her into,

but she even kept that collection of hers in

a separate little area. She didn't want it being,

you know, a big part of life that was too childish.

And luckily now I have roommates that are very

much into it. And so we just moved into this

house and I have all these really cool Mondo

posters. And I was like, where am I going to

hang them in my room? And one of my roommates

is like, dude, you could put them up all over

the house. Remember, you can do whatever you

want here. It's our house. I was like, oh, yeah.

So now I have the freedom to do that. So there's

big decisions to be made. But unfortunately,

yeah, sometimes the significant others or whatever

are not into it. And that's a real shame. I really

wish I could have shared that, but unfortunately

we didn't. My late wife, obviously I had my room

and whatever else and I don't have. Back then

I had maybe just over 200 now. I just have under

200 pops. I would also get her various. She got

into it. You can look at any of my social medias,

Twitter, Instagram, whatever. I think it's probably

most recently on my Facebook because an it pop

she has, she had, I should say had, she's, she

had hair long enough to where she could essentially

put it in front of her face. Literate like this,

but it's spitting image. She looks like it. She's

holding the cousin it pop in front of her. And

she used to be able to make the noise. And I

was like, okay, you say you're not into this

stuff, but as long as it's characters that you

like and enjoy and care about and what it like,

you can hit like she was never going to have

the hundred of figures that I have, but you know,

I would always, you know, find like Dar I'd like

I had literally just looked at the value of Daria

because I thought about selling it at one point

or another I looked at the sold listings on eBay

and I'm like the value on the funko app and the

actual sold listings aren't really meshing You

know, it's very interesting that you say that.

I mentioned earlier I do a segment on Wednesdays

or I did. I haven't been able to do it much lately

because my collection's in storage where I would

take old pops that have been vaulted and I would

show what the value is and you do it exactly

right. You look at the eBay sold listings and

I've kind of developed my own formula now by

using only buy it now as I think the auctions

kind of throw things off. But there is definitely

a difference at times between the Funko app and

eBay. And but most people they they're like,

well, it says in the Funko app or PPG that this

is it. And I'm like, well, that's that's cute.

The value of something is what someone will pay

for it. And I've got proof that they'll pay more.

So that's what I'm going to sell it for. Take

it or leave it. You know, I don't sell. So I

haven't really tested this theory fully. But

yeah, the Funko app lists Daria and Daria is

just this machine. New York. Don't think so.

I don't think she was ever an exclusive Unless

there was a version that I don't remember but

yes, I mean there's only been one I believe okay.

That was mainline then yeah Yeah, I don't I don't

think she has It should say in the I'm looking

it up to you now It should say down below release

2019, but it doesn't say anything about what

con it was for so that's a mainline Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah, but you know, the Funko app lists her

value as a hundred dollars. The sold listings

are anywhere from 30 to 80. Interesting. Because

the Funko app is supposed to pull from PPG, which

does take a average of recent sales. But sometimes

that data doesn't come across right. I personally

think if you want to get a real value, look at

the, look at the buy it now sold items. That's

usually the best way. Yeah. Toy collecting can

have its struggles. What is one aspect you tend

to struggle with the most? Money. Yeah. I would

own a lot more if it weren't for the restrictions,

both buying and selling. I want to buy everything.

I would love to sell to prove my theories on

what the value is and to get money back from

all the stuff I've invested in over the years.

But the emotional connection to these items is

stronger than my need for money, as it turns

out. I need to get over that hump because I need

to pay bills. But it's such a hard thing for

me to do because there is such a connection.

There's a story for every piece I own. It was

at a con. It was with friends. I got it via this

thing or that thing. It's an odd thing. I guess

in some way I need to be more of a flipper mentality.

I won't, but I guess I need to be a little bit.

Or you could start your own pop business. I mean,

why not? I've debated that. Yeah. You could,

you could turn nerd food into a pop business.

It's, it's already, it's already established,

right? Mine as well. That was the conversation

that was on the table eight years ago. We talked

about that. At that time before HQ and Hollywood,

we were like, would they do a store franchise?

And we were wholeheartedly like, if they ever

do, we're opening a store in Houston, because

that's where I was at at the time. Man, if we

had, come on. Yeah, absolutely. What is one positive

and one negative memory you have with buying

toys? Positive memory a lot of them Probably

one of my most positive memories was getting

in line at SDCC 2013 that was the first year

really blew up the year before you could walk

into the booth by 2013 and it had grown so much

and We went and stood in line and made friends

that I still talk to you this day. And we got

in and that was a year where you walked into

the product area and you could scoop the product

into a bag. You could buy as much as you wanted,

multiple of each if you wanted, and check out.

And believe it or not, Brian Mariotti was there

working that day and I got a chance to chat with

him for a few minutes. It was very, very cool,

especially looking back on my path and the years

following that I got to go work with him. He'll

never remember that moment, but I certainly did,

and it meant a lot. The fans and him at the time

were one of the main reasons why I was like,

this is going to be a successful company. People

are really into it. They treat each other well.

At least they did then. There is a lot of toxicity,

unfortunately, now because of flippers and and

entitled people. It's unfortunate, but there's

still a lot of good people to negative memories.

Yeah, dealing with people online. As an employee

and as a fan both before and after there are

just way too many people who take it way too

seriously and they are entitled and think that,

you know, Funko should bow to them and that other

fans should cater to them. And it's just a real

shame that they can't. Get past that and see

the beauty and the fun and the friendship that

can come from being a part of something bigger

than yourself And that's for true fanatics. That's

what it's about. It's not just about the soulless

black -eyed toys on a shelf. It's about getting

friends meeting meeting new people and becoming

part of a community and also recapturing your

youth It can just be so much fun if you let it

but so many people seem to fight that aspect

of it Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's what sucks

It does it does but you got to hone in and find

the good people and make them family That's what

I've done. Those are the people that watch my

streams. Those are the people I hang out with

at cons Those are the people that we we have

discussions every day. The word Funko does not

escape my mouth. Every day it's said at least

10 times and it has been for a decade. That's

a long time to be a part of something. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Absolutely. If you could. Here we

go. This is going to be a good one. Oh, God.

Obviously, marketers are not designers, but if

you could create Any toy, what would you want

to create? Whatever company gives you the keys

to the kingdom and says you can do whatever you

want, no matter what. I think there's this is

going to happen. And I think we're on the cusp

of it all right now. But I want to design my

own line of toys and figures that straddle the

lines between physical and digital collectibles.

I think if you buy a physical product on a shelf,

it should come with ownership digitally as well

and should be able to be transferred and change

hands and all the way the digital follows the

physical along that journey so that not only

do you have the cool product, but if you do sell

it, you're still a bit of the history of that

product. People can look back five years later

and go, oh, I get this pop. Sully owned that

pop or. Brian Mariotti on that pop or you know,

whatever I want to I want to do something like

that and I and I want to create a community around

those Figures, whatever they are. I mean, I'm

working on some things myself right now But I

want to I want to I want I want to develop a

community again that reminds me of the early

days of Funko I don't need it to be a billion

dollar business. I would never go public I want

it to be a functional business where the people

that work there are paid fairly and treated fairly

and that the fans are also that the fans are

at the forefront of it. I think that community

is more important than the product itself, but

you've got to have something at the middle of

it. And that's the product I want to develop,

whatever it might be. That's probably not the

answer you were looking for, but that's the answer.

I mean, yeah, everyone has a different answer

to that. No, there is no specific. No, I mean

that that's that's your answer Yeah, I've developed

my own character called hoot who's an owl which

if you've ever been by my stream you've seen

and I've been selling NFTs of them and I just

recently made a Poster and I think that he might

have some legs down the road if I can figure

out how to do it properly And it's you know owning

an original IP if it takes off is is your is

your lottery ticket? It can be the biggest thing

in the world. Just look at Hello Kitty or any

of those type of licensed characters that just

take off. I mean, hell, Mario from Nintendo is

a billion -dollar character, a ten -billion -dollar

character. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, now, if Funko

went the way of, like, oh, like, say comic books,

for example, because, I don't know. Decade or

so ago and I'm sure they're still doing it now.

Maybe maybe I don't know but Marvel in DC back

in 2012 2011 2012 2013 2014 You go out to your

comic shop. You buy the physical book. There

is a digital code for a digital copy Mm -hmm.

If that was the way NFTs were done Might change

your tune, huh? I don't mind knocking a few people

over as long as I can get the physical pop first.

I've said this to everybody. I am telling you,

the first time I hear news of Funko making an

Alf pop, everybody just get out of my way. That's

your one, huh? I bet money it happened. Pull

in the China shop because just move. Yeah, I

love it. The day I see it posted and it will

happen. It's got to. I will cheer for you, Mike.

I don't understand why. Like, we have cheers.

We have Frasier. We have every... Okay, we don't

have family ties yet. We probably won't get Cosby

show and that's fine. Whatever. But like we have

every... Alf is an 80s icon. How do you not?

How do you only have... And I'm sorry. I apologize,

this is my first. How do you only have a crappy

wacky wobbler figure from like a decade and a

half ago? I wonder who owns the license for that.

That's gotta be the sticking point. Yeah, I would

assume it's... I know that Paul Fusco has some

sort of rights to it, but I don't know if it's

NBCUniversal, I don't know if it's Comcast, I

assume because that's... where Alf came from,

but I don't know. Yeah, that's a good question.

What is the one piece of advice you would give

the toy collecting fandom in general? Have fun.

It's that simple. Mike Becker talks about it

all the time. I mean, if you're not having fun

in collecting or even playing with the toys,

then what's the point? Don't do it. If it gets

to be just work or just flipping or you get into

fights over it, what are you even doing? Have

fun. That's the center of it all right there.

Everybody's a fan of something. Yeah. I mean,

it's a great line. I wish I had come up with

it, but who did come up with it? I don't know.

I would imagine that's a Mike Becker. Uh, thing,

but because Fonco didn't really like higher marketing

agencies like a lot of big companies do. They

might now, but when we were on the team, that

just came to us as like, Hey, this is the new

theme. And I was like, Hey, I like that. That's

good. Yep. All right. What is advice you would

give kids who enjoy toys? I guess same have fun.

Uh, you know, it's if you. For kids, it's tougher.

They're not going to look forward at the value

typically. I do know some kids that are into

it and they're going, oh, that could be worth

a lot of money one day. I think that's the wrong

message to send early on myself. But if that's

something they naturally come to, that's fine.

But I think it should also be have fun because

a lot of most kids take from their parents. at

least some, and they of course learn a lot from

their parents. If their parents are having fun

with it and they've got the right attitude, the

kids will too. And I've been fortunate enough

to meet over the years several kids from fans

who have grown up since I first met them. They

were like five and now they're 13. They've become

their own people like my niece. And it's really

interesting to see that they are still in to

Funko. As long as they're having fun with it,

that's the key thing. You don't want it to feel

like it's pushed or expected of them to be part

of Funko. Yeah, no, absolutely. Or whatever they

collect. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. All right,

folks, we're going to take one final break. You

can hear some ads and some other stuff. We're

going to come back and Sully's going to promote

himself and everything that he's doing currently.

And then I will close the show after this. Let's

see if you're really ready to watch this movie.

Okay, popcorn? Check. Soft drink? Check. Warner

Brothers ball cap? Aha! You can't watch a Warner

Brothers movie without a Warner Brothers ball

cap. Listen, Doc, what if they ordered a Warner

Brothers ball cap so they had it next time? Well,

uh... Here's all you have to do, folks. Just

send for this. A new Warner Brothers catalog.

Use it to order your Warner Brothers ball cap.

And while you're at it, you can order stuff like

t -shirts, posters, movie books, ties... That's

neck ties! It's all in the catalog, which you

can get now by dialing this 900 number. So when

you get a change, call... No, no! They have to

call now! They can't watch the movie until they

order their new catalog! You're despicable! Don't

forget to call, folks! You are receiving this

transmission from the Rod Pod. Upload pending.

Stand by for soundtrack transfer. I am Maggie.

And I am John. And we are trapped, hurtling through

space in a ship shaped like Rodimus' head. The

ship, for reasons we haven't been able to determine,

contains the entire run of the IDW Transformers

Phase 2 comic. Which chronicle the events following

the end of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons.

So we figure we may as well read them all in

order and report our findings to you. Stand by.

Stand by. Upload complete. Now. Look for us at

marriedwcomics .lipson .com, at iTunes, at Stitcher,

or wherever good podcasts can be found. So, uh,

tell all or one. Tell all or one. Because the

world needs another movie podcast. The Geekcast

Radio Network presents for your listening pleasure,

this scenario. Kevin, Matt, and Dan. Each week

we dive head first in the landscape of movies

as we discuss movie news, play movie games, go

in depth on reviews, and even have a top 10 countdown

or two. Also, don't miss our director retrospective

series where we review noted director's movies

film by film. Bottom line is, if you love movies

and love podcasts, you need to experience the

Cinema Geeks. You can find us on iTunes, Blog

.Radio, or GeekCastRadio .com. So let's say you're

looking for a podcast of your favorite 80s comic

books, G .I. Joe, Transformers, Ninja Turtles,

He -Man, etc. Where are you going to go to find

us? Welcome to Star Joe's Podcast. I'm your host

Ryan. And I'm Chuck. That's right everybody,

we're the Star Joe's. We host a podcast called

Star Joe's Podcast. where we talk about your

favorite comic books, your favorite toys of all

the 80s properties. Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers,

M .A .S .K., Thundercats, Voltron, you name it,

we cover it. If it's in the 80s, we will cover

it at some point. Yes, so what you want to do

to find us, you can go to iTunes, you can go

to www .starjoes .com. And remember, the Force

will be with you. Because knowing us is half

the battle. Alright folks, we are back here on

Toycast Episode 154 with Sully. What are you

doing currently? I know you mentioned your Twitch

channel, but basically run down everything you're

doing in your social media life. Yeah, yeah,

so I am on twitch. I'm a full -time streamer

a twitch partner and most recently a gold wax

ambassador I play video games. I talk about NFTs.

I do art I do tons of giveaways including Funko

products and stickers and stuff like that if

anybody wants to watch Twitch is absolutely free

to watch. Some people think it's a paid thing.

You can come watch, I am CS Sully on Twitch.

So you can just go to twitch .tv and type in

C -S -S -U -L -L -Y and you can come watch. I'm

live five days a week. I have a varying schedule.

Sometimes I'm on a little earlier, sometimes

a little later so I can help out friends all

over the world on East West Coast of the U .S.

and so on. It is an interactive thing. So if

you come by and you're watching me play a game

or talk about NFTs and you have questions, you

can jump in. A lot of times I try to get the

audience involved in things. It is more of a

hangout than anything else. So I encourage you

to come by if you want to be a part of a safe

space where friends can talk about collectibles

and stuff like that. There are no angry people.

It's not the YouTube comments. I, you know, if

you want to come by and be a part of it, please

do. And then I'm on Twitter. That's my primary

social media focus. I do Instagram and some other

channels, but I spend most of my time on Twitter.

I am also CS Sully on Twitter, C -S -S -U -L

-L -Y. Please follow, I try to engage with everybody.

If you mention me in a tweet or reply to me,

chances are I'm gonna like your tweet or respond

to you. I share all kinds of fun stuff on there

about my streams and collectibles and just my

thoughts. and try to be nice to everybody, try

to be respectful of everybody. And then I've

been getting into the NFT space like I've been

talking about. So if you guys are interested

in finding out more about that, you can do so

on my streams or through Twitter, or you can

just go on the wax blockchain and look up my

collection. It's called Nerds Unite Us, N -E

-R -D -S -U -N -I -T -E -U -S, Nerds Unite Us,

where I've got Nerds Unite logos kind of featured

like stickers. I've got my character Hoot. I

do all kinds of fun stuff there and I even give

away free NFTs all the time. I just gave one

away on my latest stream about the DC Series

2 drop from Funko where all you had to do was

come by and fill out a quick form and you got

a free NFT. I'm all about community and connecting

people and that's what I'm gonna continue to

do As long as I can and then I go to a lot of

cons So if you're ever at a con look up on Twitter,

I may be there. I'd love to say hello get to

meet more people I'm always looking to to hang

out with new fans and and then share my thoughts

just like on this podcast Very cool. Very cool.

Alright folks that's gonna do it for us next

time around. We've got two weeks of display cases

So display case, everyone hearing the sound of

my voice knows this already, is basically audio

toy reviews, audio toy discussions. It's basically

we break open the display case and we each talk

about one toy and we just have this toy round

table. So we got two weeks of that coming up.

Thank you for joining us here on Toycast. If

you'd like to get in contact with us, we'll leave

feedback for the show. There are several ways

to do so. Visit the website geekcasterio .com.

where you can listen to and comment on all of

our content. Send an email to feedback at geekcastradio

.com. You can check us out on any podcasting

client you choose to use. I prefer Spotify, but

that's just me. Follow us on Twitter at geekcastradio

at tftoicast. I'm at TF2 and Mike. You can also

search out GeekCast Radio Network and TF2toicast

over on Facebook. For now, I'm TF2 and Mike with

Sully. Join us next time when we will be talking

more toys here on Toycast.