Toy Collecting Origins with Darryl from The Transmissions Podcast

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

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Jazz here, and

I am so digging the Geekcast Radio Network. Cliffjumper,

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

and welcome to an all -new generation of Toycast

as we get the origins of any and all toy fans

that we can. I'm of course TF2 and Mike and today's

featured guest is someone you've heard before

here on the GeekCast radio network. We got his

Transformers origins. A little while ago, but

today's featured guest is the number one Beast

Wars fan, the Cybertronian Beast, Daryl from

the Transmissions Podcast. Hi, Daryl. How are

you? I know that's a loaded question right now.

Hey, I'm good. I'm very well now. How's it going

with you? It's going. Sometimes I wish it would

stop, but it's going. All right. We are going

to be talking toys here on Toycast with The Origins

42 Questions, all about toy collecting. What

is or was the first toy you remember having as

a kid? Oh man Boy oh boy you think that question

is difficult. They only get even more difficult

after this I Have a very early memory of Lego,

okay III I have a vivid memory of sitting down

on the floor in my living room sorting it by

color. I still own a plastic train set that was

one of my very first toys. Obviously, we all

had stuffed animals and shit like that. I have

this train set that Later on in life, I asked

my mother where I got it from, and she said,

well, my parents brought it back for me from

Paris. It was bought for me in Paris, so yeah.

It stayed in the family for a long time. Wow,

very cool, very cool. You mentioned your mom

and your parents. Was there a particular adult

who was supportive of you playing with toys as

a kid? Was there anyone who was unsupportive?

No, not really. I mean All through my childhood.

I had all kinds of different toys and Yeah, there

was a A lot of varying degree. I mean what we

all went through different stages, I guess they

the the vast amount of my childhood was probably

taken up with Transformers and then as as you

do it it it did progress into uh i i mean i i

very clearly remember uh the transition for me

going into ninja turtles after transformers so

yeah the there was really no uh no person trying

to you know direct me in any particular way but

It was it was really you know it was a really

welcoming kind of childhood for me for that a

very creative space as well. What's good that's

awesome what types of toys were your favorites

to play with so. Action figures card games play

those silly putty that kind of stuff. Maybe until

i got no i didn't get really get into card games

until i was in my teens. And that, I mean, when

I was in high school, I got introduced to Magic

the Gathering, and I really kind of took off

from there. But when I was younger, I remember

when I was 10, I was given a Nintendo entertainment

system for Christmas. And that was kind of to

I don't know, I guess grease the wheels with

me and of course my brother because my mother

was about to get remarried. So, you know, it

was kind of like a little, you know, a little

way to say, hey, you know, here's something to

kind of, you know, take you away while I, you

know, take your mother away kind of a deal. So.

Oh, geez. I mean, it worked. I was 10. I was

an idiot. Video games, they were introduced to

me at that point. I never had an Atari. I did

know a couple of kids who had the Atari and they

were fun, I guess, but the Nintendo really changed

the game. Yeah, it did. It essentially ended

the video game downturn from all the Atari. 1983

was a bad year for video games. What were your

favorite, you mentioned Transformers, you mentioned

Trolls, so what were your favorite childhood

toys that really stood out more than most of

the other stuff? I mean, as a Transformers fan

still, it was always Transformers. Even after

I got Out of transformers and into turtles and

there was a point in there where mass kind of

got in there a bit Yeah, it was it always came

in. It always came back to transformers I always

always had a box of transformers even after I

moved out and moved in with my Girlfriend who

eventually became my wife. I always had a box

of transformers So it was always, always, always

transformers. And I mean, the box of transformers,

you know, it got smaller and smaller as, you

know, I just I I focused down to like characters

and figures I wanted to make sure I always had.

But it was there was always a transformer in

the house at some point. Very cool. Very cool.

Do you prefer the label of action figures, dolls,

toys or other labels? I mean, they're there.

They're action figures, I guess. They're really

just, I mean, toys is an all -encompassing term

for everything. I mean, it includes dolls. My

brother actually collects dolls. He has an incredible

collection. It's an extremely impressive collection

of a toy line called Cherry Mary Muffin from

back in the 80s. They are he has i think every

he was only the series only ran three years and

i think he has every single figure sealed and

it's gotta be one of the most impressive collection

i've seen of any of any toy line and he just

he always used to like the toys when he was a

kid and now he he's gotten to the point where

he can he can own all the figures and yes so

i mean are those dolls. Are those toys? I mean,

they're tiny little action figures, I guess,

of these things. They're not plush, right? But

are they dolls? They're girls' toys. Are they?

But he's a boy. You know, they're toys. Yeah,

it's a whole thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no,

absolutely. And the point of that is because,

and I say this in every episode, is that because

when we were all kids... Oh, Billy's gonna, it

didn't, it could be a GI Joe. It could be a transformer.

It could be a mass kill. It could be a captain

planet action figure. Billy's going to go play

with his, his dolls. They're not doll. Like the

way I always say anything six inches or under

is a, is a action figure toy. Anything, anything

over 12 inches is a doll. Like, you know, unless

it's a hot toys thing or something, I don't know.

Those things are whatever. You're breaking your

own rule now. I know. I know. That's what we

do around here. We always have the glass shatter

sometimes. Good guys or bad guys? Which toys

were your favorites to play with the most? I

think I always gravitated to the good guys. They

always had more story. Sure, the bad guys definitely

looked cooler, but the good guys were always

on the screen more. And that's who I would always

gravitate to. They always had more toys, too.

The good guys generally always had more toys.

Yeah, I mean, I noticed when I had my old master's

collection back in the day, it was honestly,

it was a... about even there were at least five

good guys and five but like they that was the

thing back in the eighties with masters and with

a few other things they wanted if you're buying

10 if you get 10 figures out of whatever line

it is they want you to they wanted to teach you

oh it should be even it should be this it should

be that and eventually the bad guys sometimes

would outnumber the good guys and vice versa

but yeah yeah i mean The good guys were the ones

you were supposed to use as the role models,

not the bad guys, because that's how you end

up in jail, folks. Don't do that. What is or

was your favorite toy vehicle or playset? A vehicle.

That's a good question. And technically, Transformers

don't count. Transformers are vehicles, right?

But I don't really count them. Yeah, no. I've

always had a soft spot and I'm not a GI Joe fan,

but I I fucking love that that killer whale from

GI Joe always always wanted it as a kid and When

I when I grew up and you know had money and I

you know, I bought one so I own a hundred percent

complete GI Joe killer whale and it's awesome.

It's so awesome So yeah, it's just one of the

greatest vehicles. I've you know of all time

and sure Yeah, I would have loved to have had

the you know, the the USS flag But who has the

space for that? You know, so, you know, I take

the one of the smaller ones and you know I go

with the the killer whale because it's just so

awesome It's a hovercraft. Come on. It's a hovercraft.

Yeah. Because I don't have it in the box, I have

it out. I thought, you know what? I'm going to

look at the box art, and I'm going to buy all

the guys that are in the box art picture, and

I'm going to put them in it. All the figures

that are on the box art, I have in this killer

whale. I think there's four grunts. uh so i have

four grunts and then i have all the uh all the

like named gi joes which off the top my head

i cannot remember who's in it but they're all

they're all there i bought them all very cool

very cool yeah i'm just now looking at it uh

oh all as they list at least on the on the file

card with the one that i'm seeing here they just

list him as hovercraft pilot like they don't

list him as an actual named But on the front

of the box art, there's like there's there's

like four guys in the yeah. Yeah Yeah, but yeah,

I just I don't remember who it is, but it's there's

there's a bunch I had to buy like nine guys for

this thing. So Yeah, this thing is this thing

is awesome hover crafts were big thing back then

I mean, you know They were they were everywhere

Did you and your friends ever pretend with your

toys that you had by this I mean did you say

I'm gonna be this toy and you can be that toy

and blah blah blah like you can be the Coke bottle

top and your brother can be the piece of glass

or something Okay I Don't think so, okay My brother

and I, we really didn't get along too well when

we were kids. I'm the oldest, so I used to beat

the hell out of him. Oh no! But we're good friends

now, but the relationship was pretty strained

when we were younger. With me and my friends,

we didn't really do that kind of stuff either.

I know that my cousin and I, we used to play

Transformers a bit, but we would just, you know,

we used to bring our characters, you know, our

figures over, you know, to each other's houses

and stuff. But yeah, other than that, we really

didn't, we really didn't do all that kind of

stuff, no. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. What features

define a good toy to you? How true does the item

feel in comparison to the source material likeness?

I mean, as far as action figures go, I need a

head sculpt to be kind of, you know, at least

look like the character it's depicting. With

Transformers, the transformation needs to be,

you know, somewhat intriguing. It needs to, you

know, at least make me think a little bit. You

know, can't just fold the guy in half and you're

done. I don't generally... Mind it if there's

soft goods involved on any kind of action figure.

It's you know, it always makes for an interesting,

you know higher quality thing And an articulation

it needs to know any kind of any kind of action

figure or toy or something like that needs to

be able to pull off of a decent pose You know

and and probably at this point in time in my

collecting Almost 50 % of my collection is still

in box. So The packaging needs to be pretty dynamic.

If it's going to stay in its packaging, it's

got to look good in it. Some of the newest stuff

from Hasbro coming out right now with the windowless

packaging or the no window packaging, it looks

good, but I sometimes want to see the figure

inside too. Okay, since you mentioned that, let

me ask you this, and I talked about this in a

recent episode, because this episode actually

won't be out until... beginning of November?

I've recorded stuff ahead, folks. So anyway,

let me ask you this. With Hasbro specifically,

and the windowless boxes, and the clothes box,

and this, that, and the other thing, and everything

else. What? Really, do you think, in your personal

opinion, what part of the environment do you

think they are saving from removing the window

part when the rest of the actual toy is plastic?

I mean, that's a good point. It's just, I mean,

it's delaying the inevitable, I guess. Because

if you are throwing away the packaging right

away, then... Obviously, you're not recycling

the plastic, but you can't really recycle the

toy. I guess they're just trying to avoid any

kind of plastic ending up in the landfill because

the toy will eventually end up in the landfill.

Everything's going to end up in some kind of

landfill eventually. It's it's It's a small it's

a small move and you know they I guess got to

make it they got to show some kind of of Willingness

to change You know, it's it's something I don't

know I I get more frustrated with the the pictures

of the headless figures than yes, I mean, yeah

the I I I You know, I guess I applaud Hasbro

for rolling with this and kind of saying, okay,

well, if you're gonna tear their heads off, then

we're gonna package them in alt mode then. Because

I personally prefer them packaged in alt mode

because it forces people to transform them when

you open them. And if I am gonna open it, then

I gotta at least do something with it. Yeah,

exactly. And I understand Hasbro at some point

in their infinite wisdom decided to change from

packaging in robot mode or from packaging in

alt mode to robot mode. But the thing is, when

we were kids, that was the point. You're advertising

it as a vehicle that transforms into a robot.

So you get it like every to my knowledge almost

every single transformers toy of the original

g1 toys sound wave came in cassette mode blaster

came in cassette mode megatron came in gun mode

optimus came in truck is you're trying to the

like the robot is the exciting part like oh i

can take this truck and turn it into this giant

red idiot that got himself killed come on like

that's cool. Now you're just ruining it like,

talk about spoilers, you're just ruining the

surprise by packaging in robot mode. Yeah, I

mean just looking I mean I can turn around and

look at my the the few packaged g1s that I have

on my shelf behind me and the only There's only

two that I can see that I own that are packaged

in in robot mode And that's top spin and twin

twist. They were well Yes, because yeah top spin

and twin to the jump starters because they were

packaged in robot mode because of their gimmick

and because they had the image of the of the

like That was the thing. You have to take that.

The surprise of that was, okay, yes, they're

in their robot mode, but the point is you transform

them or you fold them down and then you just

pull it back and then let it go and it jumpstarts

and does the transformation for you. So I can

kind of see why those two were, but everything

else, you know, I don't know. So you mentioned

stuff about toy packaging and what what is like

you said for you it has to be a dynamic So what

does toy packaging have to have to like you go

into? Let's pretend. This is when toy stores

were still around like a Toys R Us or a KB toys

I mean we have Toys R Us still here in Canada.

So yeah, sure lucky you was for us. Yeah, lucky

you Canadians Well, then again, Canada does have

the greatest rock band of all time and Nickelback,

but that's just me. All right, anyway. Hey, the

new album's coming out. I can't help but bring

it up in almost every podcast, so get rolling,

folks. I thought you'd say Rush, but okay. Okay,

well, yes, technically it would be Rush, because

I don't think anybody would vote Tom Sawyer.

Or is that the song? Anyway, Canada, Toys R Us.

Okay, so Toys R Us. You walk in, you go to whatever,

like the Transformers aisle, whatever aisle,

let's just say the Transformers aisle, you see

seven different packages. What is the package?

You pick one out of those seven. What does that

box or that bubble whatever have to have to make

you go to that particular one over the other

six? A discount sticker. Really? Really? Come

on. I mean, we can talk about it later, but the

pricing on toys right now is driving me nuts.

But as far as dynamic packaging, the colors,

some of the packaging, as far as packaging right

now with Transformers packaging, There was a

bumble buzz worthy Bumblebee packaging is just

it bores the hell out of me So I I mean, I don't

think I own a single buzz worthy Bumblebee toy

I mean It's just no. No, sorry. I do I own one

I own one of the the small little bees the one

that kind of look like Bumblejumper but the yeah,

it's so The the the the velocity tron search

for the speed of five hundred stuff that's a

walmart exclusive that's some pretty dynamic

packaging it looks good it's bright it's blue

you know boxes and stuff like that there are

they stand out on the shelf the adult. The retro

stuff that Walmart just announced during their

Walmart con or collector con or whatever the

hell they want to call it, where they're reissuing

the G1 toys so far of Hot Rod and Starscream,

and they're coming in windowless packaging, but

the boxes are incredibly colorful with some really

great art from Marcelo Mater on it. Uh, those

looks, those boxes will sell just because of

the art on those. So really quite nice. Yeah.

So some of those are, are really quite, quite

popular, uh, looking and, uh, um, you know, as

far as the, uh, the other boxes, I mean, some

of the, some of like the shapes, like they've

gone to this kind of like, Geometric design and

it's it's it's it's cool. It doesn't stack very

nicely So if you're a do an inbox collector,

it kind of sucks, but you know it they're they're

they're neat Yeah, I mean they've done some really

good stuff the the legacy the the colors for

this current legacy line are really quite nice

Yeah, I mean, uh, you know, I I like I like the

way this stuff looks. It's, you know, it's, there

is some, there is some current, some, some really

nice stuff with the, uh, the way that they're,

they're being designed right now. Yeah, absolutely.

And the buzzworthy Bumblebee line. Yeah. Yeah,

you're right, man. This packaging is just kind

of like, like I'm looking at the world's collide

five pack. Okay it's a five pack it's got a window

it's it's okay you can at least see the figures

that are inside but the rest of the packaging

is the same. Because it's under the buzz where

the bumblebee line it's the same yellow packaging

and whatever else i think the coolest one for

me is actually bubble be himself the origins

be the original cybertronian be one cuz at least

you see. him in the in the thing and then you

see the various art from from the show kind of

thing. So that's cool. But yeah, I mean, yeah,

it's too much, too much yellow when you have

like I'm looking at the another the Optimus Prime

Bumblebee Megatron Starscream four pack and it's

like that's at least put a black background on

the inside. Like I understand they're trying

to go with this honeycomb look, but no. Don't

do that. But yeah, like you said, the packaging

has to have something to draw you in. It has

to be dynamic. It has to be like you're saying

with Marcelo's art. Oh man, I would buy that

hot rod just for the box. There's this... Ever

since 1986, there has been this debate over what

color hot rod actually is. And everybody's like,

oh, a pink hot rod. And I'm just like... Oh god,

give me a break And just thought to just kind

of put a cap on the pack stuff the I've been

kind of collecting Not all of them but most of

them the the collaborative line and the packaging

on those has just been phenomenal Yeah, so, you

know, we've got ectotron and gigawatt in in the

you know, kind of g1 esque packaging and with

the the the Try Tyrannicon Rex in the the the

Jurassic Park, you know, Transformers packaging

the top gun in the completely different looking,

you know, kind of top gun packaging. And then

you've got the expanse in the X -Men animated

series kind of packaging. Oh, yeah. You know,

and then you've got this this Dracula one. So

it's got this it's like this VHS tape. You know,

you kind of slide it out of its own case. It's

very clever packet. There's some there's some

really cool packaging ideas out there, you know,

that are happening with within the Transformers

line. And I mean, I don't really collect a lot

of other stuff right now, you know, as far as

toys go. Yeah. But, you know, there are some

really neat, some neat packaging ideas out there,

you know, to kind of draw you in as far as, you

know, you know, just to buy the thing off the

shelf. Yeah, absolutely. They're. Like you said,

the collaborative stuff, man, that is amazing.

I love the way that Top Gun package looks. And

like you said, the X -Men package, I mean, come

on. And even though I'm not a Jurassic Park person,

the way they have that packaged is really, really

fun. I think that's super cool. Yeah, it's genius.

Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. So you mentioned that

you are a closed, you know, you don't necessarily

open your toys, but do you have toys that you

do have open and out of the packaging? Oh, of

course. Yeah. You know, I've got, uh, I've got

hundreds of toys and, uh, there are, there are

lots of them that I still have unopened, but

I've opened a number of them. So, you know, I

have, I've got lots and lots of them opened,

uh, here in my, uh, my studio here. Cool. So.

With the ones that you keep packaged, what is

your... Do you have a specific criteria for that

kind of thing? Well, it's getting more and more

of a bit of a pattern that I generally just kind

of leave the mainline stuff in the boxes. Not

because it's not worth opening, it's just that

I... i get bored with it i'm just you know the

the they do a lot of the same kind of things

over and over again and it's just like okay well

that's another one of those and you know do i

need to actually you know you know check that

one out okay well i'm much more excited about

this legend scale devastator or legend scale

you know you know figure that i just bought or

a masterpiece scaled this and that and that i

just bought or this you know moon studio raiden

that i just put together or something like that

like this you know these kind of things that

are are just you know bonkers that i'm just you

know kind of obviously also spending a lot more

money on that i really want to experience rather

than the main line so yeah i'm buying you know

main line still but i i am much more excited

about the stuff coming from third party So if

you're not excited about the main line, do you

feel like you're missing out if you don't purchase

mainline stuff? If you're not excited about it.

No, yeah, sure. Yes. Yeah sometimes so with for

example The Netflix bumblebee that came out that

was almost impossible to find I never got one

so and that was kind of the first symbol to me

that they're doing something that is making mainline

more exclusionary so I was lucky enough to be

able to find a Netflix sound wave actually my

brother found it he was at a Walmart and he came

across it and I said you better pick that up

for me and I he did so I got you know I was able

to get that and then after a while you know I

was like okay well if I can't get Netflix bumblebee

then you know this is going to become a lot more

difficult to actually collect main line because

the main characters are getting harder and harder

to find, or they're getting... I'm going to have

to pay scalper prices, which I'm not doing. And

then the last kind of straw that broke the camel's

back was I had a pre -order down for the Conehead

2 -pack on Amazon that And this happened to every

single person in Canada. We all had it down on

the pre -order for Amazon. And we all kept this

pre -order for a year. And then Amazon canceled

every single Canadian's pre -order. Because they

obviously, they couldn't get the product. So

they just canceled all the pre -orders. So nobody

in Canada got it unless they actually came about

it some other way. Now that kind of... Screwed

everybody. So now I'm out. I'm not out Bumblebee,

which is a mean like a top four character. Yeah.

I had sound wave, but I'm now on the fence of

whether I'm going to keep them or not because

I can't find Bumblebee. Uh, and I, and I, now

I can't get the cone heads. So I'm like, okay,

well what's, what am I doing here with the with

the main line. Am I going to keep running main

line? And yeah, I'm going to run main line, but

I'm going to, I'm not going to chase it as hard

as I am, you know, uh, anything else because

it's, it's getting too exhausting, right? And

they're there. And, and with everybody having

their own exclusives, it's getting much more

difficult. So, um, while I was on, I eventually,

I did sell the sound wave because it was going

for like 200 bucks or something like that. I

was like, why'd be stupid not to sell this thing?

Yeah. And so I did. So now I don't have Soundwave

anymore, but there's a new one coming out. So

I'm like, whatever. It's, they're always going

to make another one. That's the thing about transformers

is there's going to be another Bumblebee. There's

going to be another Soundwave and the two, the

conehead two pack appears like it's coming back

in December. So, you know, so, you know, that's

something that's happening. But while on vacation

this year, we were driving around And I thought,

you know what, while we're driving all these,

you know, desolate little shit towns that I'm

going into, we're going to check out these Walmarts

and see if I can find a cosmos. And I did, I

found a cosmos. So like, okay, well, hey, maybe

I can find one of these things, but it doesn't

the fact that I'm still here in my town and nobody

can find a fricking cosmos is just a sign that,

you know, this is still a big problem. You know,

I just lucked out and nobody can find these things.

So, you know, I don't like the state that Transformers

is in right now with this exclusive, you know,

character set for stores. And then even with

these exclusive characters being, you know, one

packed or a single pack to, you know, things

like that, it's making collecting really, really

difficult. Yeah, I'm really not happy with the

state that the things are in right now. So that's

why I pivot to third party and stuff like that.

Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes, not all the time,

but sometimes the third party stuff that they

do is stuff Hasbro may never get to or may never

do at all. Well, that was the conversation we

had a long time ago with regards to Tarn. Tarn

was the poster boy for that conversation. Quite

literally, for next year's line, he is the poster

boy for Asbro. That's right. They said, well,

you said we wouldn't do it. Well, guess what,

motherfuckers, we're going to do Tarn. That's

been a big thing, right? Okay, so now they're

going to do Tarn. Well, are they going to do

the rest of the DJD? I mean, I guess you can

never say never, but can you actually imagine

Hasbro putting a figure out that turns into a

sniper rifle? Well, they don't do Megatron anymore

as a gun, so why would they do Voss, right? And

what about a guy? Okay, so not the sniper rifle

guy, but what about Kion? Well, Kion turns into

an electric chair. Will they do him? Maybe not

an electric chair, maybe a lazy boy. Well, that's

not as menacing, but maybe something like that.

That's going to tie into a question that's way

down the line, but it's going to be interesting

to hear what you have to say about that. You

open your toys, you leave them packaged and all

that good stuff, just like a lot. For me, I have

just... Over just under 250 funko pops half of

them are in storage, but the ones that I have

here From when I moved from Washington to Indiana

I have two no I have three that are open because

one Sadly the soup Nazi from Seinfeld his box

kind of got a little damaged and I'm like, okay

Yeah, you can come out and you can you know take

your pointy finger and point at people and just

say no thing for you and Then I've got the 10

inch unicorn or I should I should say the ten

and a half inch Unicron jumbo and the ten inch

sound wave out of box. So yeah, I'm perfectly

fine paying 40 bucks for a Unicron that looks

like Haslam Unicron without having to pay 600

bucks for the actual planet that I wouldn't know

where to put it. All right, if as a kid or an

adult and I can already tell what the answer

is gonna be to this question You were only allowed

to choose one toy franchise to collect from which

one would it be and why I? Mean we we know the

answer to this one Yeah It's it was just you

know as far as the why is just it was able to

to give me, you know, a lot more things to do

with the, you know, with time and there, there

are multiple facets of, of, you know, play value

with those toys. And, uh, you know, yeah, it's

a, it's a, it's a fun toy. So, you know, I, I

was able to, uh, to, to have a lot of fun with

the, with them growing up. And, and then I was

able to parlay that into a, a fun little community

that I, uh, I still enjoy now. Absolutely. It

really, really is just the ultimate toy line

when it comes to play pattern stuff. As an adult,

do you prefer vintage toys or modern toys? Vintage,

100%. I'm currently sitting at about 315 G1 toys,

and even with the the re -releases of the Beast

Wars toys, I'm still I'm still preferring the

original Beast Wars figures to the re -releases

and anything like that. So yeah, I'll still chase

the vintage stuff if I can. And yeah, there's

a charm with the vintage stuff. It's got its

flaws, but you don't judge them on it because

that's what they had access to at the time. Yeah,

and it was made in the time that it was meant

for. It was meant for the eighties. They were

using die cast construction and now it's all

plastic and that's fine. You know, okay, it's

not all there are certain toys out there that

do use whatever, but you know what I mean? Like

we went from having certain toys be all die cast

versus now majority of them are all plastic and

it you're right. It just depends on when the

thing is made, you know, 40, 50, 60, 70, 100

years from now, I'm sure Hasbro's still gonna

be around. I'm sure Transformers are still gonna

be a thing. And who knows, maybe they'll all

just be pumping the action figures into our brains

like the PS9 or something. Oh, that commercial.

There was a commercial for the PS2 years ago

where they started out like some sort of future

thing. Oh, this is the PS9, you just... put this

plug into the side of your head and the video

games are just beamed into your head. Oh, Sony.

All right. What is the one toy you can always

play with? Oh, um. There's a joke there. There

is, and I can't believe I say that question with

a straight face every single time. Yes, I was

born with that toy but I I Don't know I guess

that the toy I Always I never have a problem

picking up a g1 optimus prime and messing around

with it. It's it's kind of fun There's Yeah,

I mean I don't really play with the toys anymore

though you know yeah but like i mean just you

know just in general like you know okay for example

i'm just gonna use this but like i have the.

Night rider hot wheels super pursuit mode car.

Just in front of me on my desk and i got this

thing recently over the last six months or so

yes i'm not gonna sit here and roll it across

my apartment floor but at least that you know

i can. At least as an adult, I can pick it up,

I can look at it, I can look at its construction,

I can whatever, and I can set it right back down

to my 3D printed Grogu that Piyo gave me. So

it's like that kind of thing when we're adults.

Basically like what's the one toy that you always

gravitate towards in your collection more than

the others? Like if you only, like the one you

always want to pick up and look at or that kind

of stuff. Hmm Yeah, I just I'd probably go with

my g1 optimus or no, you know what it's probably

gonna be my my my g1 Sky fire or jet fire. Yeah,

it's I mean, it's in a box now, but it's it's

gorgeous Yeah, yeah that old that old jet was

always fun Yeah So even though there are always

toy lines that people never purchase Are there

any that you specifically and purposefully avoid

this can be a toy line a specific character,

etc? Yeah I am I am NOT a fan of Star Wars as

far as the toy lines goes I I Try I tried to

get Into the black series when it first started

and and ended up finding like the first Boba

Fett figure for really cheap It was at a discount

outlet. I think I got it for like Seven or eight

bucks. So wow, it was you know, and I think it

shot up in value really quick But then they released

like 85 different variants of it. So it's it's

worthless now But just like Boba Fett himself.

Yeah. Yeah, so the But Star Wars toys, I could

never ever get into. You know, it when I was

a kid, it just seemed like it was the it was

the G .I. Joe toys in space. So, you know, you

know, I liked the only thing I liked about the

G .I. Joe toys were the vehicles. And and then

the Star Wars toys were that. But. In space in

the space toys weren't as cool to me as the gi

joe toys so yeah that was that was it star wars

i just. It's one of those two lines i just can't

can't can't get into. That's cool you know i

i don't know yeah i mean i. If it like we already

said it comes down between transformers and almost

any other toy line like i just. Are there any

toys in the past or currently that you wish you

had not bought them? Are there any toys you may

have sold that you regret letting them go? Oh,

there's a lot I wish I never sold. And there's

tons I wish I had bought. But as with wish I

never bought I Mean with with regards to you

know transformers and stuff like that you always

You know, there's there's always a figure that's

going to replace another figure. So it's You

know, so are you gonna be the early adopter right

so what I mean by that is with with transformers

there's this there's this movement to you know

to go with legend scale right now so there's

a lot of these third party companies are creating

legend scale figures and they're very cool um

but are they you know there a lot of them are

third you know third party and and so you know

do you um Do you buy in, you know the do you

pick one kind of? of brand to chase or do you

Do you just buy everything or do you buy the

ones that you like kind of thing? That's always

a choice you make so yeah, I first started into

it I was like, you know what I really like You

know, I really like this Megatron and I really

like this Devastator. So I bought I bought a

Megatron and a Devastator both from a company

called DX9. They were the only figures out of

those two characters at the time. The DX9 Devastator

came in one box and the Megatron came in a separate

box. It was easy enough to get everything. Now,

it's four years later probably, they have been...

uh elapsed eclipsed by uh newer figures like

beyond eclipse they there are newer figures out

that are way way way way better you know so do

you do you say well i wish i never bought those

because i've had four years of those being in

my collection and experiencing those but now

there are something way way better you know so

you know i don't really feel like You know, I

really should say that I'm I wish I never bought

them because now they're like they're almost

garbage by comparison. But, you know, the the

original DX nine Devastator was fun. It was a

really fun figure. I'm sitting here staring,

you know, staring at it because it has no place

on the shelf anymore because I've I've I've replaced

it with the the the Magic Square one. Right.

And it's it's a. it's a magnificent figure right

and it's you know it's bigger but it still qualifies

as legend scale right but who's to say that in

another four years there won't be another one

that's way better than the magic square one you

know in my head i can't imagine that but you

know whatever yeah but i couldn't imagine that

four years ago Yeah, there's always going to,

whether it's Hasbro or whether it's any of the

third party people, there's always going to be

another new version of whichever character. And

that's the thing with me. Like for me, it's like,

I go after the characters, whatever the, at that

time, the best possible version of the character

that I can get. That's what I would want. Sure,

as a pop collector, you're dealing with many

different variations of a character, right? Funny.

Funny guy. Yeah. Okay. Technically, I mean, unless

it's Batman, because there's like a million Funko

pop Batmans. But yes. But no, I had... Just like

everybody else, I grew up with toys. The Funko

wasn't a thing for me until five, six years ago.

From 2005 to 2011, I had... Like literally, I

went out at 8 a .m. I was in, may the man rest

in peace. He's been gone a little while now,

but it's still a little raw. I had a 3 a .m.

Saturday morning Eastern time conversation on

Twitter with Derek J. Wyatt about Purple Shockwave,

which was the two pack Target exclusive animated

toy. And he's like, yeah, it's five bucks at

Target. And I'm just like, wait, what, really?

I was at Target at 8 a .m. that day, grabbed

that, I didn't care about the damn bumblebee.

I just wanted the purple shockwave for five bucks.

That was easily, out of all the toy deals I've

ever gotten, other than stuff people have sent

to me, that was easily the second, one of two

best deals I ever got. And it's just yes or no

i know i remember even though just cuz i'm collecting

pops now doesn't mean i don't appreciate the

rest of the toys that i've either had in the

past or the toys like i look at it i look at

that poster and the poster that i'm referencing

folks for the listeners just in case you know

is the one that they revealed recently for the

transformers velocitron legacy liner no no it's

transformers legacy evolution that's what it

is. And I look at that poster and I'm like, that

is so cool. That's, that's awesome. I look at

that, those images of the Tarn figure. Holy crap.

I can't believe that. That's amazing. So no,

I have an appreciation for it, but you're right.

I don't necessarily have to worry about that

kind of thing with the mud go by. Thank God.

Cause that would just be a little too much. Yeah.

And that poster is another great piece of art

by Marcel Overture. Absolutely it is. It's not

that hard to give credit, people. Always give

the credit when you know what the credit is.

Nah, it's one of those things I get mad at people

on Facebook about when they just say, oh, I really

like this picture. I'm like, okay, cool, who

drew it? Yeah. Most of the time they don't know,

or sometimes they do, but they say something

like, oh, it doesn't matter, it's an awesome

picture. And I say, oh, it does matter because

- No, it does, yeah, it does matter. I'm on on

drawing it so yeah you know absolutely yeah and

like I said I've always as long as I've known

who the credit is or as long as Google has told

me who it is if I didn't know who it was kind

of thing you know you always give credit like

I said unless you absolutely don't know or no

one know like that's one of the reasons why I

do these things sometimes on Twitter like Google

is failing me who did this and nine times out

of ten somebody will know yeah takes two seconds

to do a reverse image search Yep. You've mentioned

that you have your, your office in your display

room. So how large, you also mentioned you had

350 or something or other, but how large or small

is your toy collection? Do your toys take up

the whole house or are they relegated to one

room shelf or something like that? The, um, the

room is, uh, well, it would be probably, I consider

it the fourth bedroom in the house and it's,

uh, it was taken by me because when we moved

in, we only had the one kid and we couldn't imagine

needing a fourth bedroom for anybody. So I snagged

this room and I put a computer in it and a bunch

of shelves and started putting stuff up here.

But I filled it pretty quickly and I have been

told numerous times by my wife to say, hey, why

don't do you, you know, why don't you move out

of that room and take over the, uh, the larger

room next door, you know, the, what we're using

as a TV room and kind of a, uh, of a secondary

living room. And, uh, and I've, I've told her,

I, I said, no, I can't, I need to stay in the

smaller room because if I take the larger room,

I will also fill that room. Yeah. You're going

to want to fill that space. Exactly. Yeah. I

can't fill it. I need to stay limited. So if

I keep myself limited, then we stay in this house.

So if you, if you, if you free the beast, then

we're moving. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. That's, that's

the thing. Like, you know, you were like, for

me, when Karen was still alive and we, she had

bought the house that we were living in in Gurney

and out of all the, so there were there were

look like yours there there were four bedrooms

technically our fourth bedroom was also the laundry

room so we didn't really count that as a fourth

bedroom even though it should be counted as a

fourth bedroom but So out of the three other

bedrooms though, you know the master bedroom

and then there was two other ones and I was like

Oh, I like this one the best and of course at

the time I didn't realize that oh Yeah, the Western

Sun comes in right where you're putting your

computer So and I didn't have the blackout curtains

up yet. So I'm like, oh god, I can't record podcasts

from like 12 noon to five. I have to wait until

like seven PM because the sun will be in my eyes

for all that time. But yeah, no, I had them all

in, in that, you know, I had like, there's pictures

online, three or four shelves of all the Funko

pops and everything else. And I had various display

things and I, I just kept them all in there.

And some of the ones that she had wanted, you

know, we, we've kept them where she wanted them

and stuff like that. So yeah, no, there, there

are people out there though that. I know at least

one person bought a whole house just because

that person knew that they had such a giant toy

collection that it was going to take up the whole

house. Yeah, it's a lot. So, you know, there's

a couple things that have kind of bled out. Like

I've got some original comic book art that's

on the walls outside of the room. Some pictures

and stuff like that. I've hung some comic books.

Outside of the outside of the wall outside outside

of the room, you know It's one of the things

we haven't talked about because it's not toy

related, but I'm quite a large comic book collector

too. So Yeah, but yeah, it's you know, they're

everything if I can contain it within the room

then I do Yeah, very cool. Very cool. So how

do you keep track of your collection? Do you

have a spreadsheet? Do you have an app? How do

you make sure you don't buy what you already

have? Well that that is a good question because

well for one I mean I just mentioned at the comic

book collection the I'm closing in on about ten

thousand comics that I need an app for so there

is an app that I use it's called League of Comic

Geeks and it's a free app so you know if anyone

out there is looking for kind of a help with

with you know collecting their you know. their

collecting of comic books. League of Comic Geeks

is just a really great little app. And it's just,

you know, it has seemingly no end in the amount

of books you can add to your collection. So I

mean, I've got almost 10 ,000 on there myself,

and you can add like... It helps you add like

your want list and stuff like that, which is

troubling for me because every time I go into

the store, I just pull up my want list and I

start hitting the back issue bins. But yeah,

so this, this app is great. And, uh, yeah, it's,

uh, like I said, it's free the, as far as the,

the transformers go there, there is no app. So,

uh, so I mean, there's a, there's a site, um,

there's a couple of sites, but, um, I mean, the

one the one that is probably the the best and

it i mean i i say best in quotations because

it's it's by best it's pretty shitty it's it's

schmacks i think is it it's you know and that's

i mean it it has everything listed and there

are very few pictures so I mean, when I say that,

they also keep a list of every single variation

of every figure, which is insane. So, you know,

you want to say, okay, well, I bought, I don't

know, let's say G1 Optimus Prime. Okay, cool.

Well, they have a picture of that. Okay, great.

But what version of G1 Optimus Prime did you

get? Oh, there are different versions? Yeah,

there are. Okay. Well, I bought mine in Canada.

Okay. Well, what year did you buy it in? Because

that's also going to determine, Oh my God, Jesus,

shoot me in the face. So yes, there are many

different versions. And then it's also going

to ask you how much you paid for it and that

kind of stuff. So it helps a lot when you're

trying to keep track of like the value of your

collection and stuff like that. It can also say

like, you know, Oh, I bought You're going through

your current collection and you know that you

bought, let's say, thrilling 30s, I don't know,

skids off the shelf. You bought them new from

a store and you're saying, I'm going to add this

one because I have them. You're going through

all the questions that's on this site because

it's not an app, it's a website. It's saying,

okay, so what was the value of it when you bought

it? And you say, I don't remember what it was,

but I know I bought it off the shelf from the

store. Well, it's curated by the community. So

you may not have to remember if the community

remembers what the retail price of this thing

was, right? So you just look to the side and

they'll say, okay, well, this thing was, I don't

know. 22 bucks or something like that when you

bought it out the shell off the shelf. Okay.

Well that probably because it's got 45 people

saying they paid 22 bucks for this thing when

they bought off the shelf. That's probably what

retail was for it. So I'll just put in that I

paid 22 bucks for it. So yeah, so you can, and

that helps you with your, you know, if you're

off by anything, it's probably a couple cents.

So it's, it's pretty reliable that way, but it's

definitely not an app and it's, it's a lot more

work, especially if you have like me, like multiple

hundreds of figures. So, yep, absolutely. That

is awesome. That's yeah, and I wish you would

think with everything that Anybody does that

there would be a toy Hey, maybe all things transformers

and transmissions can team up and make a transformers

collectors app so you can have a that's a lot

of work though We would probably have to get

Ant from tfu .info because he has all the info

and all the past releases to populate all of

that. You'd think there's money in it. There's

got to be some money in it, right? Yeah. Buck

29 download or whatever it is nowadays, probably

$5 .99 download for premium stuff. Oh, inflation

and digital things. Oh, boy. How do you display

your toys? So, with your Transformers, are there

ones that you prefer, like, grouping together?

Or, like, do you enact scenes? Do you have Optimus

getting shot by Megatron while, you know, arm

-holding Hot Rod? That kind of stuff. Why throw

away your life so recklessly? Yeah, the... I've

got... I've got five detolfs and they generally

are reserved for my higher -end stuff so the

one that's right beside my desk is housing my

let's see here my my g1 countdown base is on

the bottom I've got I've got some third -party

toys Phoenix of fans boys Phoenix and the deformation

Starscream on this next shelf up Then I got my

my unicorn on the middle shelf so I stare right

at him almost every day he's the the The third

party one not the has lap one. Yeah Not the big

expensive one. Yeah Yeah, cuz he this one fits

in the in the shelf. So Top shelf is my my super

expensive Beast Wars toys. So So they're right

there and nicely protected in the back. I have

Along the four along the bottom four shelves

of the four details. I have I have four giant

put combiners so they're all they're all in the

back four shelves and then and then along the

top they uh the two shelves uh the top two shelves

on the the right no the left are autobots and

then the the two shelves on the left two uh details

are decepticons and the middle the middle two

shelves for both um do contain some G1s, some

higher -end G1s. So the Decepticon one has my

reflector in it, and my stalker, and... I can't

remember the name of the other one, but he's

almost all gold plastic. And then I've got the...

Yeah, I've got the... My Monstructor Thunderclash.

My Predator Jets, the rest of my Turbo Masters,

my Red Face Slag, and my Bumble Jumper in the

other one. So yeah, there's some nicely valuable

stuff in those ones. And generally, I... I do

tend to put Autobots on one side and the Decepticons

on the other. That's the way I've got my G1s

sorted out. My G1s are sorted on the shelves

by year, by release year. Soundwave superior,

Decepticons inferior. It's kind of funny to look

at the 1984 release year because there was only

like nine Decepticons released that year. to

like the two dozen Autobots. Yeah. And I, you

know, you look at it and I, I remember thinking

about it at the time and like, how the hell did

the Autobots not destroy the Decepticons that

year? Like, how did they lose? So yeah, I mean,

the Decepticons obviously got a lot of reinforcements

the next year, but so did the Autobots. Like

they shouldn't, the Autobots should not have

even had been like you know, had a problem with

the Decepticons in those first two years, but

they did. So, you know. But yeah, so that's generally

how I display them with, you know, opposites,

not really any kind of stories playing out. It's

just kind of just showing, you know, the different

teams. Yeah, like these are the good guys. These

are the bad guys. You know, yeah, that is very,

very cool. You mentioned your most expensive

Beast Wars toys. I think that would probably

be a. Good place to tell your number one beast

wars fan story. Okay. Basically i just i mean

i just bought the. I just you know the guys on

the podcast they are. They are admittedly very

very big beast wars fans are fans of the cartoon.

And they also really enjoy all the other fiction

that comes along with it. And I'm not. I very

much dislike the cartoon. I can't get over the

look of it. But what I do enjoy about Beast Wars

are the toys. What I had an opportunity to buy

one of the most expensive Beast Wars toys that

came around and it was the the it card and taco

tank and it's just a fun crazy little, you know,

Beast Wars figure. And I mean, the taco tank

is really it's just a giant, you know, squid

octopus thing. And it's honestly it's just an

accessory to the figure, which is just You know,

just a tiny little figure, but, but, uh, you

know, it's expensive. So, uh, you know, when,

uh, when I, when this thing came in, I, I told

the guys on the show, I said, look, unless you

guys are going to pony up the, uh, the money

to actually buy a better, uh, more expensive

Beast Wars toy than me, then, uh, then from this

point on, I'm the biggest Beast Wars fan. So,

uh, you know, and, uh, and, you know, and they

still haven't. So, I mean, I, I, uh, the title

of number one Beast Wars fan because, uh, They

have yet to try and take it from me. So yeah,

it's a title that I don't necessarily want, but

will happily take because it irks seemingly so

many people. Yeah. Yeah. You'll happily sell

out for the title. That's right. It's a purchasable

title. Anyone can take it. They just got to buy

a figure and they got to be a host on transmissions.

That's the catch. So do you think they will ever,

like you mentioned that they're doing the Beast

Wars reissues and stuff like that. Do you think

they will ever do a new Ickard and taco tank?

Never, never. It's too obscure. And I mean, it

was a Beast Wars, I think it's Beast Wars Neo,

right? So it's a Japanese exclusive figure too,

right? So yeah, it's one of those figures that

it's... you know it's it's very cool but uh yeah

it's sorry it's it's not beast wars near it's

beast wars second second i yeah yeah sorry everybody

i got confused with my beast wars is I don't

know the show is that well. I know the toys.

Um, but, uh, yeah, it's, uh, it's a beast for

a second and it's, uh, it's crazy. Like, I mean,

um, I can run through the rest of the characters

on that shelf just because, you know, if people

are thinking that, uh, uh, you know, I'm, I'm

claiming it just because I just have one character

or one figure. So I do have in that shelf, I

do have a dirge gun. I do have, uh, uh, hell

scream. I do have max B. I do have Thrustor.

And I have Galvatron, who's just a cool, he's

a cool figure, that one. And Moon B, or sorry,

Moon, just Moon, it's not Moon B. So Moon as

well. So that Moon who just made an appearance

in that last bot standing comics. Yeah, very

cool, very cool. Yeah, I've always wondered if

they were ever going to make a squid a la the

movie, and they kind of did, except it's in Beast

Wars 2, not the G1. That's right. Every Hot Rod

slash Rodimus toy they've ever made, at least

most of them, you have to have the saw blade

accessory for his hand, and almost all of them

have them, except we don't really have the squid.

to go along with it. Like if they can make a

quintesson judgment thing, they can make a squid.

Like the only thing they gotta do is repaint

this thing. Yeah. So it's, I mean, a lot of the,

the, the tentacles are all this soft plastic,

right? So it's, it's, it's probably not as, uh,

not as easy to make as, as it was back in the

day, but it's doable. I mean, the, it's got a

water gun in it. So, I mean, it's, it's really

of its time. Does the water shoot out its nose?

Please tell me the water shoots out. OK, that's

what I thought. Yeah, I'm looking at this thing

in squid mode. I'm like, oh, that would be hilarious.

For sure. Oh, that's so cool. All right. If you

could only keep one toy from your entire collection,

what would it be and why? Oh, we've talked about

this before. And as much as I do like my G1 Optimus

Prime, and I've got a lot of expensive toys,

I'm probably going to be walking away with my

01 Studio Cell, the Unicron. It's just awesome.

I like it so much. It's got a lot of presence.

you know i've i even i've modded it out so it

has a little voice chip in it now so yeah it's

cool it's awesome it's it's a really great figure

and uh yeah it uh it transforms into a ball so

yeah it's easily pack up pack awayable yep absolutely

on the flip side of that 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 are

you putting in there What's 18? 18 by 18 by 18.

I don't know. Yeah, what is 18 inches? Yeah,

probably. Okay, I don't know inches. So. Oh,

I don't know metrics. So. So I'm just I had to

bring out my tape measure here. So that's 46

centimeters. Okay, so 46 by 46 by 46. I don't

know. That's it. So so anything I can put into

that. Mm -hmm Yep, interesting. All right, I

mean I could fit a lot of transformers into that

I Have I have a sentimental one that I've kept

even though it's all broken and My I have I've

I've I may have mentioned it the last time I

know I've mentioned it on a couple episodes of

transmissions, but there's a There's a mask toy

that I've kept. It's called the Meteor and it's

a white jet thing. And I've kept it for a number

of years. It's broken, but it was the last toy

that my dad gave me before he passed away. So

I've kept this thing forever. I've recently,

last year, bought a working one off of eBay.

And I've been hoping to get a nice set of stickers

for it, but the ones that I found were not the

proper type of stickers. So I'm looking to get

the proper ones. But yeah, so that would be the

one I would want to make sure I got in there

for sure. Other than that, I mean, there's a

bunch of other ones. I mean, I'm looking at a

room with probably 500 Transformers in it. I'd

probably transform a bunch of them down to their

smallest sizes and fit as many of them in there

as I possibly could. Yeah, absolutely. All right,

this is going to be interesting. I know you tolerate

them, but are you a Funko fan? I mean, not overly.

How do I say this? They absolutely take over

the collecting space now. I mean, of any con

that I go to, every single booth has got Funko

now, and it drives me nuts. I don't understand

the collectability of them. And I mean, it's

fine, I don't need to. Right. And I'm glad that

people like you out there do. And that's, you

know, there's nothing wrong with being into them.

Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm older than

you. So the way I look at them is I see beanie

babies when I look at Funko's. So, you know,

I just... You know, the Funkos have lasted a

lot longer than Beanie Babies have, though. So,

you know, I just I look at these things and I

see, OK, well, they're just marketed better and

they're it's run better. So, I mean, Beanie Babies

had to had to crawl. So be so Funkos could run

and I think so. It's it's it's it's just it's

the next evolution of of mass collectibility.

Yeah, so I mean, it's fine. They don't have to

be my thing, but I'm glad that people are finding

their niche in them. Yeah. You're born in 75?

Me? No, I'm born in 80 actually. Oh, then we're

the same age. Okay, cool. Yeah, I was born in

February of 80. I'll be 43 in a few months or

whatever the hell. Later next year. Yeah, no

the thing with funko for me and I and I understand

and I get your point and I do agree conventions

Every booth has at least one wall if not more

walls And then there are specific places at conventions

now where that that's what they are. They are

a funko booth They don't have anything else For

me personally what it what it is about them is

it's an easy way for me to collect the characters

that I love that's like Like I mentioned earlier

about the you know spending the forty dollars

at GameStop for the ten and a half inch Unicron

that because the way the Transformers license

with Funko works as far as I've understood it

from what I've seen released they can make any

Funko pop out of a Transformers character as

long as it is the toy design. So, all of the

multiple Optimus Primes they've made are all

variations on the original 84 robot mode. This

Unicron is a version, a smaller version of the

HES Lab design. He has these, ugh, those teeth.

Ugh, teeth. Um, you know. But for me it was more

about like characters that i was never gonna

have a toy of like the and i'm sure there have

been toys over the years but like the cereal

mascots like how chocolate blueberry frankenberry

that kind of stuff like you know specific thing

like. Out of every single McDonald's Happy Meal

toy there has ever been I don't think there really

has ever been a grimace toy I don't remember

if there was there probably was but like You

know, you know, so that's what it is for me and

I've said this in all these episodes But that's

essentially what it is, but you're right it is

It is taking it over, and I think the only way

that they are not gonna fade away in the next

couple of years is if they get a Nintendo license,

because if they get a Nintendo license, Funko

will just explode even more than they already

have. As you mentioned earlier, you do have a

lot of expensive toys. What was the most money

you spent on a toy? Well, I mean, I did buy the

HasLab Unicron, and that was about, well... in

canadian it was probably about 800 bucks the

um i mean i've also finished the the moon studios

radiotron so i mean it's it's what it's it's

six figures so is that because it combines into

one but it's six is that count as one i mean

i'm not taking it apart anytime soon so yeah

i mean like just overall Like, it doesn't have

to be a single total. Like, for me, right now,

I can safely say the most money I ever spent

was on the entirety of the BotCon 2008 set. So,

whatever the box, whatever the five figures cost,

plus the exclusives, I think I paid just over

$800 US. So, and that was for eight figures,

you know? So, what did that taco tank cost? That

was about just over just over 200 bucks. It's

not much Yeah, no like like the fact that these

guys they don't want to do it. That's it's kind

of sad Come on. Dr. Pants. You're the number

one Beast Wars fan according to you. Come on.

Dr. Pants. Let's go the But I mean the the radio

moon studios radiotron probably is is just over

900 Canadian the Like I mentioned when we did

the transformers focused one is I own a lot of

figures that have appreciated in value since

I bought them or have acquired them. So, you

know, like I said, I have a red face slag that

I picked up from a store that didn't know it

was a red face slag or didn't care that it was

a red face slag. So they just sold it to me as

it was a a g1 slag which was like 45 dollars

like you know okay yeah i'll buy that in a minute

and you know so yeah it's probably worth 250

bucks you know but you know i didn't pay that

so my collecting has been all about finding deals

yeah you know i have i have a uh a complete 100

% complete G1 monster. Yeah, what is it? Monstructor

and He's probably 300 to 350 dollars worth, right?

But I just I I got him from working at the the

comic book store store So, you know just I worked

it off. So, you know Does that I didn't pay any

money for it, right? Yeah Yeah, does that count

like I mean I have a lot of figures that are

worth a lot of money but I didn't exchange real

money for it. And I mean, most of us aren't in

it for the value. The value in the toy is, like

you said, the fact that you get to claim this

title or the fact that you really enjoy G1 Opti.

Most of us are not in it just because they have

value to them monetarily. So on the flip side

of that, you... You say you like finding discounts

and getting stuff for cheap. So what was the

cheapest toy you bought and what was the best

deal you ever got? That's an easy question to

answer I used to work at Toys R Us and that was

the real really there was the impetus of me getting

back into Transformers that I could not help

myself when I was working at Toys R Us and At

the time, I think it was probably around Dark

of the Moon, so 2011 or so, 2012. There was a

line of deluxe figures that came out, and a Bumblebee

figure was on the shelf that had racing paint

job on it. He had a number and everything. I

don't remember what it was. I never kept the

toy because I got it so cheap, I donated it to

children's charity. It was around Christmas time.

These things were peg -warming and nobody was

buying them. There were tons of them on the shelf.

The merchandiser from Hasbro came in. They always

They do and every now and then if you're in the

store, you'll you'll know these people they come

in and they kind of you know rearrange the shelves

and they put up product that are in the back

and stuff like that and This person came in and

they see all these things here and they they

say, okay We're gonna we're putting these stickers

on these these particular figures because we

need them to move and I I Asked him. What is

it? They said oh, it's a it's a nine dollar discount

sticker. Oh, I said, okay and I you know And

I thought, well, knowing that this thing is like

a $16 deluxe right now, this thing is going to

bust it down to like five bucks. And I'm like,

okay, that's pretty good. And I'm like, I really

still don't want it, but now it's like five bucks,

might as well buy it. I'm thinking, I still get

my employee discount. So the employee discount

is actually going to come off of the price before

the coupon. Right. Like, oh, okay. Right. So

I go and get the thing at the end of the day

and I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to do this

properly. I'm not going to try and run it through

myself. So I had the shift supervisor or the

manager on duty or whatever run it through and

they ran it through and the total price on this

thing was 24 cents. Holy crap. So I'm like, Oh

my God. So I went out to, I went and grabbed

a quarter and I paid for this thing with a quarter.

And this thing, I mean, it was incredible. Like

I, like I went from a figure that I was like,

all right, well, maybe I'll buy it to like, yeah,

I'm going to go and I'm going to get a couple

of these and I'm going to donate them to the,

like the, the children's Christmas charity and

stuff like that. So, yeah. Yeah. That's cool

though. That's absolutely, that's great. Yeah.

Especially with a deal like that. And a figure

like Bumblebee, like you said, Bumblebee is one

of the most recognizable, you know, top tier

Transformers characters. Every kid, no matter

when they were born, you know, as long as they're

old enough to have their parents introduce them

to it. You know, every kid knows who Bumblebee

is. Do you visit toy shows or conventions? When

you visit toy shows or conventions, do you have

a typical methodology? Do you bring a certain

amount of money for what you're searching for?

Well, yes, sir. I do visit toy shows and conventions.

I went to TFCon in July here in Toronto, and

I just recently went to London Comic Con here

in London, Ontario. And I will be going to TFCon

Chicago later this month. So I'll be driving

up your way soon. But yeah, as far as my methodology

goes, it's changed a lot over the years. It depends

on the kind of convention I'm going to. Like

if I'm going to a straight up con, I'll... I'll

go with a bit of a plan. Generally, I like to

talk to, like, comic book creators and stuff

like that and kind of get signatures and whatnot.

When I'm going to, like, a TFCon or something

like that, I try to get the... I try to maybe

be a little bit more in the background. Since

I've been in the community and in the fandom

for such a long time, I go to these conventions

mainly just to be around friends that I've met

over the years and just to kind of participate

in the convention. So with regards to this upcoming

TFCon in Chicago, we're going to have a panel

at the end of the show. And we're just going

to kind of interact with listeners of transmissions.

But mainly we're going to go and see what's up

and not really looking to buy a lot of stuff.

But if we do see something, then yeah, maybe

we'll buy some things. But generally, the other

guys and I from transmissions, we really don't

get to see each other all that much. So when

we do get a chance to actually see each other

in person, we really like to take the opportunity

to do that. Yeah. And Chicago is really close

for all of us. Yeah, it's a really good opportunity.

And Chicago is a fun town. When we were there

last, we really enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah, Chicago

is one toddling town. That's right. I am three

hours and 30 minutes north or technically southeast

of Chicago. So yeah. So you're going. No, I'm

not going. If I was going, if I was going. I

would have had to have found a way to get a certain

ticket that they have for a certain person that's

going to be there because that would be the only

reason why I would go is to get a chance to talk

to the man. Look as much as I dis Optimus Prime

as a character there is no lost love like I love

Peter Cullen like that man. gave the voice to

the character and, you know, I would love to

be able to meet him, but no, sadly, I'm not going.

Oh, he's he's a nice guy. I met him when he came

to Toronto the one year. Yeah, yeah, he's yeah,

Peter is is awesome. And the reason why I paused

at the beginning of question 26 is because I

skipped question 25. What modern and or vintage

toy lines are you collecting right now? Well,

I do collect transformers, both modern and vintage.

Over the course of the pandemic, I thought, you

know what, I'm going to collect Hot Wheels because

they're cheap and I can get them at the dollar

store, which is within walking distance from

my house. And I've always had an interest in

Hot Wheels. I mean, which kid growing up didn't?

you know kind of thing you grab a hot wheel and

you go and play with it in the dirt outside but

uh uh you know over the years being especially

being at toys or us for the years that i was

i would see uh i would see hot wheels on the

on the shelf and i would kind of grab a couple

because they just they would look cool especially

when i'd walk by the shelf and they'd see holy

shit there's a batmobile on the on the rack you

know so i'd grab that one and kind of thing so

um So I would start to amass this small little

collection of Hot Wheels over the years. But

when the pandemic hit, I really started to say,

you know what, let's kind of dive into this,

because they were like $1 .50 each year. And

I thought, this can be really cheap, and I can

really kind of get into this. But I did get into

Marvel Legends for a while, and it got out of

hand really fast. And I had to stop myself, box

them all up, and take them to the comic book

store and say, look, you give me something for

these because I cannot collect these and Transformers

at the same time. But those are the only toy

lines. Cannot understate the the fact that I

collect comics as well. Yeah, it is almost at

this point is almost 50 -50 with Transformers

Well folks you're gonna be hearing Darryl in

2023 because the whole point of all of these

origins that I've now expanded to started with

the pull bag we have 25 questions about reading

and You getting into or out of comics. So Darryl

is gonna be a three Peter around here sometime

next year 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? That's another good question. I think

I talked a little bit about this when I interviewed

Izzy Franzese on our one -on -one show that we

did. We dove into a little bit of the nostalgia

fact. But I think there's a there's an aspect

of just just the the wanting to relive your youth.

But you don't necessarily need to actually, you

know, go through the motions of reliving it.

You can just have it by you beside you. And just

by looking at it, you can say, OK, well, that's

comforting. And just you can kind of sit in it.

You know, it's like a like a comforting soup.

that you can kind of have and, and just kind

of be in, in the nostalgia, right? You just kind

of surround yourself in it and it's, and it's

kind of comforting. I find that, you know, sometimes

when I've had a stressful day, I don't necessarily

need to do anything, but I can come down here

and sit, you know, in my chair here in my, you

know, my office and just kind of just being in

this room relaxes me. You know, there's nothing

particularly relaxing about this room. It's a

mess. It's an absolute disaster, nine times out

of ten, but just the amount of nostalgia in this

room, the amount of, you know, just memories

and, you know, stuff that's, you know, kind of

takes your mind away from, you know, your current

problems, that helps so much. And that's, you

know, the fact that, you know, our parents' generation

didn't have that or they did, you know. They

definitely had something because I know that

for a fact, my mother has a real nostalgia for

her Beatles collectibles. She has a lot of that

stuff still and laments the fact that her mother,

my grandmother, got rid of a lot of her stuff

when she was younger. That kind of nostalgia

just That kind of sits with her. So yeah, she

you know, she has that kind of thing sitting

there too, but you know That generation there

was a different impetus put on you know Responsibility,

I guess and and so she doesn't need really need

to you know sit in her soup of the Beatles for

relaxation. She can put her music on, I guess,

and work away on whatever she needs to do. She

doesn't need to embrace the action figures or

toys that she might have had at one point. She

doesn't have to rebuy all the stuff that her

mother threw away. If my father was still alive,

I have no doubt that he will have bought some

old car that he probably would have had. I have

no doubt because he was a bit of a nut job that

way. There are stories I get told of him going

after old cars and stuff like that. I have no

doubt that there would be an old car sitting

in maybe on blocks or something in my driveway

or something like that because yeah, he would

have chased it around. But yeah, so there is

nostalgia there. It's disguised differently for

that generation. Yeah. Yeah. It's more under

the radar whereas us having... Because for us,

it was more of, oh, this is just like... I honestly

believe and i've said this in every episode i

honestly believe the nineteen eighties late seventies

up until the eighties and all the way through

the nineties to today. Is when the whole boom

of toy collecting started even though we were

kids and we were just playing with them at the

time but you have brands that started back then

transformers gi joe he -man mask jam whatever

you know insert you know all of that you know

the star wars stuff. You know. and they are now

continuing 40 to 50 years later. I'm Canadian,

but I still recognize the importance of what

Ronald Reagan did. Sure, he was a Republican,

but he still changed the way that cartoons were

marketed. That had a huge effect on us here in

Canada. especially you guys there in the States.

That was not a thing for our parents' generation.

Nope. So, you know, so of course it's going to

be different for them. Yeah, absolutely. So what

is your motivation for purchasing toys to display,

play, fiddle, describe your collecting style?

Are you a complete completionist, a storyteller,

cherry picker or otherwise? I've evolved recently.

I mean, I'm definitely more of a cherry picker

now. Like we discussed earlier, I used to be

a bit of a completionist going after everything,

but recent events in, you know, our recent discovery

of Hasbro policies and their exclusivity agreements

have lended me to be more of a cherry picker.

I do still enjoy a lot of the main line. I used

to buy Almost everything except for like the

really really childish stuff Like I'm sitting

here and I'm looking at a bunch of like the RID

2015 toys and stuff like that But I stopped I

stopped it with those I would have really liked

to have bought the cyber verse warrior class

toys But I told myself you're not buying Anything

other than the generations line anymore out of

mainline. So you can't afford to buy everything.

So I had to draw a line somewhere and that was

one of the cuts. So yeah, I look at it fondly,

but yeah, I had to get rid of something and I

really wish that some of that stuff would stay,

but it had to go. Absolutely. Have you ever purchased

a toy for a child with the ulterior motive of

playing with it yourself? Yes Yeah, I mean I

have I have two kids now and one of them's 13

So yeah, a lot of my daughters are first toys

were were kind of bought in the you know Under

the guise of like, okay. Well, this is for you.

But you know until you're old enough I'm just

gonna keep this myself. Yeah, I'm just I'm gonna

hold on to it for you On the flip side, my son,

who's 19 months old now, is currently playing

with an Optimus Prime from, what was that, the

kid show that just ended recently? What was it?

BotBots? No, no, the other one, the one that

was on TV. RescueBots? RescueBots, yes, RescueBots

Optimus Prime. Honestly, I bought that when my

daughter was quite young as well. Well, maybe

it was for her originally, but once she grew

out of it, it ended up in my collection and now

it's with my son. So it's kind of, it's kind

of cute that it's, it's kind of made its way

to him. So he loves it now. Made all the rounds.

Yeah. Yeah. So kind of on the flip side of that,

have you purchased a vintage toy for a child

because you thought it would be cool based on

your own preferences? Yes. Reissued. though.

I do not buy original G1 toys from anybody but

myself. The reissue line that went to Walmart,

my daughter currently owns the hot rod and I

think the tape two pack with Ravage and one of

the One of the tape bros that might have been.

Well, frenzy or rumble, whichever one you decide

the red ones, but that's the the tape packs you

got. I think those are the G ones that she has

in there. Yeah, so it's a reissue, but it's it's

it's still it's technically still vintage because

those those old reissue toys now that what came

out and. Early 2000s late 2000s right before

the 20s. I forget when the commemorative series

started It was like whenever they started doing

like you said generations and the splits on the

splits off of that kind of stuff Yeah, so It's

not I mean, it's not even that those are the

those are the reissues that just happened though

These are the those are the ones that just happened.

So these toys are only like like three years

old four years old Oh, really? Yeah, cool Cool

cool Do you do any toy modifications or customs

painting building build dioramas that kind of

stuff? No, so I I Generally stay away from painting

my toys because I'm not a very good painter okay,

there are there are some aspects to I Don't really

call it customizing more of like fixing So sometimes

there is a figure that does come out that needs

a little bit of a helping hand. Like it came

from the factory, misassembled, or there's some

kind of like little tweak that it needs to just

kind of do what it needs to do right. So every

now and then I'll do something like that. There

was the Thrilling 30. Blitzwing I think it was

whose shoulders didn't peg in right so there

was a little fix that needed to happen and I

remember making a video on my YouTube channel

about that and then that put that out there there

was I know that I made a video recently about

the siege Galvatron on just how to how to take

off the the damage Paint like the just the the

wear. Yeah Then they went ahead and released

one without the damage anyway, so But yeah, I

mean I'd like to to repair the shoulders on them,

but I just haven't got the You know haven't gone

ahead and done anything like that myself yet

But there are you know, so basically those are

the kind of things I'll do I'm you know, I'm

technically inclined so Usually I have no no

problems tearing apart a figure and and putting

it back together that's part of my job when I

go to the the comic book store is to kind of

take all the broken figures and and kind of part

part them back together with other ones and kind

of you know kind of Frankenstein one You know

one good one out of a bunch of busted ones. But

yeah, it's uh, you know, I'm pretty decent at

doing stuff like that Very cool. Very cool Do

you think toy companies should specifically have

adult collector toys child toys or find a way

to mix both? Hmm okay, so there when if you if

a company were to Were to dedicate itself to

making adult collectibles then at some point

in the future that company will eventually go

out of business. If you aren't seeding your future,

you are destined to just die. So you have to

continuously build towards your future audience.

Unfortunately, even building towards what they're

doing right now, building towards their future

audience is still Is still getting smaller and

smaller and smaller. So it may seem that to us

as the collective collecting market that you

know Hasbro or Mattel or whoever is not paying

any attention to the kids who should be buying

Transformers as you know, because that's where

more my eyes generally go they are they're paying

an awful lot of attention to the kids market

because not because You know, we need them to

as collector collectors But because they as a

company need them to because, you know, we, you

and I being 42 years old, you know, we're not

going to be collecting transformers forever.

Right. You know, you know, in in 10 years, are

we going to still collect transformers are in

20 years? Are we going to collect transformers?

Right. But they've got these kids who are, you

know, six to 10 who are just in the starting

to want to get toys from the toy store, right?

Who they need to now grab ahold of and say, look,

you can get a toy and those are the kids who

will buy toys, you know, for the next 20 years,

right? Or who will be given toys, right? That

kind of thing. And, and that's, that's just,

that's just economics. They just, they need to,

you know, They need to see the future. And that's,

uh, there are companies out there who are, who

are marketing to just adult collectors. And that's

perfectly fine. Let those, let those smaller

third party companies, the ones like super seven,

the ones like Funko, like Funko is fine dealing

with what they're doing. Those, those, those

figures can go to kids, you know, I've never

seen a Funko collector more upset. when they

watch a child open up a Funko pop though. It's

crazy when you see when I've watched a Funko

collector watch a child open up one. It's kind

of funny. Yeah, it's a little ridiculous. But

yeah, there are the larger companies, Hasbro,

Mattel, Playmates, those kind of companies. They

need to allow for both and And they're you know,

frankly, they're doing a well right now with

with what's happening It's the it's the way that

everything is is kind of playing out. That's

kind of doing those companies a disservice you

know and Unfortunately, I have no ideas as to

how to fix it. Yeah I mean, you know, I'm actually

as you're talking about this. I'm Trying to cuz

usually at least once every time i open instagram

i will end up swiping over to a hasbro ad of

like shattered glass sound wave that's coming

out and the first thing on there is obviously

the picture of the toy and then the little caption

that parents swipe up to order now so you know

they are telling you hey swipe up to get this

either for yourself or for your kid kind of thing

and that's yeah Honestly, everybody's answer

to this question is probably going to be they

need to find a way, like Hasbro, Mattel, they

need to find a way to mix both. Look, the origins

line is great, not only for us who grew up on

it, but it's also great to be able to give a

child that feeling that we had when we were kids.

You want to be able to give your son the feeling

of having a 1984 Optimus Prime. Without necessarily

buying a 1984 Optimus Prime, you know what I

mean? Yeah, so yeah, I mean, yeah find a way

to mix both Do you have you you mentioned your

mom and your grandma getting rid of your mom's

stuff? But do you have a my parents got rid of

my toys story? Yeah, you had yet this question

was in the last one as well and and personally,

I don't I think that my answer is the same. I

don't remember anything specific. It just kind

of happened. So it was one of those things where

there were, I, I remember, I remember having,

um, like I was a Cub Scout when I was younger

and I remember there was a, a meeting where we

did some kind of a show, show and tell type of

day and I thought, you know what, I'm going to

bring in my Transformers collection because I

was really proud of it. And it was a larger box,

large for me as a small boy. And at some point

after that, I mean, I had a good time with it.

The point of the story is to just mention that

it was a large box of Transformers. But at some

point after that had happened, the toys were

just gone. You know, I had stopped playing with

them. I had gotten into, you know, turtles and.

The transformer toys just kind of went away and

I didn't lose them all. I didn't, you know, get

rid of them all. They it was never my choice,

but they just kind of they just kind of didn't

they weren't around anymore. So my mother obviously

decided at some point that they weren't. You

know, this one's broken. This one's missing a

wheel or something like that. And, you know,

it's like, oh, garbage, garbage, garbage. And,

you know, I'm like, so it was never I was never

a party to, you know, the clean out. It was just

it was done probably while I slept or at school

or something like that. And and it was, you know,

it was just it was in the middle of the night.

It was, you know, my transformers were taken

from me. Yeah. Soundwave and Starscream and all

of the Decepticons came in and like, yeah, I'm

taking these toys. Do you feel 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 completely done with toys

all together? I mean, I think so. I think I am

starting to slow down. It's marked by the fact

that I just don't have the space for the stuff

anymore. It's also marked by the fact that I

really am not into the fact that the quality

is not there for the mainline anymore. I'm really

upset and not... not happy with the quality that's

coming out from mainline so my attention is getting

drawn to third party now I still you know I'm

much more focused on you know what you know third

party does or you know if my if my dollar is

going to go to something it's going to go to

like maybe a cool comic that I'm getting you

know maybe something like that or finishing off

the the g1 see you know toys because I need very

few of those. And the ones that I need are now

getting quite expensive. So, you know, so do

ones do you need? Oh, man, that's a good I got

to pull up a list for that. Yeah, so I have it

I have it on a spreadsheet because there's was

no way I was going to be able to keep this up.

Give me a second here. Yep. Okay. So, all of

84 is complete. Okay. I only have, I need chromar

and zetar of the power dashers. Okay. So, I have

one of them. All of 85 is complete. All of 86

is complete and Now and into 87 we're starting

to find some some missing ones now. So I need

head I need target master blur Okay I need a

fortress Maximus. Oh boy Uh, and that one, I,

I, I don't care if it's a, um, a reissue or not.

I'll take a reissue. So that's, that's, you know,

but, uh, out of 87 Autobots, I, uh, I need two.

I need a, uh, I need a target master cyclonus

and a target master scourge. And I need a slug

slinger. Okay. And. For trigger happy I need

blowpipe. So I need his I need his target master,

right? Which is a hard one to find Into 88 I

need Cotilla cloud burst Land mine cheese sky

high So I don't down Oh, there's still a lot.

Yeah, I know. Out of all of those, though, what

is... So you're saying a lot of these are really

expensive. What is the most expensive one that

you've seen online? Oh, I mean, Forgeus Maximus

by far. He's going to be the hardest one to find.

Yeah. I mean, I guess, you know, if you were

looking... I think this happened back in... Let's

just say somewhere between 2005 and 2010, there

was an episode of Pawn Stars where this Transformers

collector was on there. He had a whole room full.

He had like seven Fortress Maximuses and I'm

like, what? I understand the whole thing of two

figures per - per character. One for inbox, one

for out of box. I get that. Why do you need seven

of the same toy? I mean, order. Well, yeah, he

was. But yeah. So, I mean, yeah. So, I mean,

if I were to count them up, there's probably

probably two dozen figures in here. If I count

the headmasters and stuff is that I need. So,

you know, there's. I'm getting, I'm getting really

close and actually I'm, I was off. I had, I had

told you 315, I'm at 326 total G1 right now.

Cool. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. But I mean, there's,

there's a couple of them here that are really

getting harder to find. Like there's a, there

is a pipeline and gusher and retro and surge.

These are a micro master combiners and, and they

are quite, quite difficult to, to get. Well,

that's not good. You'd think that they would

be, especially with eBay and everything else,

of course, then you get into prices. Oh, I mean,

they're there. They're just expensive. Yeah.

But I'll get them eventually. So usually with

some of these things, they get down to about

being like once a year. So it's slowed to a crawl.

But you have all of the stuff that you want.

You don't feel like you need to hunt for anything.

Like you said a few minutes ago, you're not that

thrilled with the current production quality

of the new stuff, so you've got exactly what

you want. You're never not going to not be a

collector because you're going to collect comic

books, you're going to collect other things,

or you're going to whatever. There you can apply

collecting as a term to anything. Like, you know,

so yeah, absolutely. What is something that does

not have a toy of it that you'd love to have

in toy form? Oh, man, I mean, I think Funko is

taking care of most of those at this point. Funny

guy. If if you can call them toys. Stop it they

are The probably the the human figures the from

g1 So spike and spark plug have gotten enough

and our spark plug I guess really hasn't but

Daniel spike and Daniel have gotten a bunch over

the years with masterpiece and stuff like that,

but like Carly has gotten like some kind of weird

thing that came in a masterpiece Then there's

a chip one in, you know, that came with, uh,

I think it was Sunstreaker. Oh, he came with

Sunstreaker. Oh, that was weird. I thought it

was Sunstreaker, but yeah, it's, uh, you know,

so yeah, it's there. There are little things

here and there, but then like, you know, the,

uh, Melissa Fairborn or something like that.

I think there was sure. It's yeah. Okay. Sure.

It's official because it, uh, it, it, it came

in, it was a GI Joe crossover with, yeah. So

yeah, but that's, you know, it's not. It's not

really real. Yeah, but yeah, so something along

those lines where they did like the human characters

So yeah, they were they were proper They don't

need to scale with the masterpiece cars or anything

like that because they just they can't do that,

right? You know, so just just do the I don't

mind if they're in the GI Joe scale because they

can actually make them look properly at that

scale But just just do them just do them once

Do them in a pack. You know, they like doing

these massive mega packs at this point, right?

Do like a mega pack of like eight or nine characters

and just, you know, let's go. Like, let's get

this done. Can you imagine you got, let's just

say the entire Witwicky family spark plug all

the way down to Daniel. And then you got Carly.

Technically she is a Witwicky because they. eventually

in some continuities are married. Then you got

like you said Chip and then you get into stuff

like Dr. Archibald or what was the oh god Astoria

we need a masterpiece power glide with Astoria

that's what we need. There are a lot. Sean Berger,

Mr. Idiot from Megatron's master plan. Yeah,

surprisingly, just off the top of my head, there

are so many humans in the original Generation

1 cartoon that were specifically involved. In

a lot of those Season 1 episodes, you'll see

background construction workers that kind of

have the same outfit as Spike and Sparkplug,

but they are just background characters. But

there are various Like, can you imagine with

all these Beast Wars reissues, if we got an actual

like modern day version of, oh, what was your

brother? It's Luna. And what's the, what's the

boys? God, why am I asking you? You're not a

Beast Wars fan. Or you are, but like the, the

two kids, um, from that episode, uh, God, when

they, when Mega, anyway, I'll look it up later.

But yeah, I mean, stuff like that. Like, you

know, yeah, absolutely. So on the flip side,

what is a toy that you have that you'd love to

have scaled up and functional for the real world?

Oh. And not G1 Megatron? I mean, technically

you can go to any pawn shop and get a version

of that, but. Yes. I wouldn't have to buy it.

It would just come to me. Okay, probably some

kind of supersonic jet There's so many cool ones

like like a Space shuttle a supersonic jet fucking

robot dinosaur. Come on. Like there's awesome

ones here Skylinks Jesus space shuttle man Yeah,

I don't know if I would want Skylinks is kind

of a bastard. He's very arrogant. Yeah, but he's

smart. And his bottom half is a kitty. That's

that's very true. It is very, very true. I probably

stick with like a car or jet or something. Yeah.

Not Luna, Una. Una and Chack are the two. It

was gonna drive me nuts if I didn't find it.

Thank you, TFWiki. And surprisingly, their supposed

father, voiced by Gary Chalk, only goes by Leader

Neanderthal. He doesn't actually have a name.

That's kind of sad when you think about it. How

has your wife dealt with your collection? Well,

she, uh... She keeps, uh, she keeps it, uh, you

know, relatively, um, at an arm's reach, I guess.

She allows it to exist in the house, which is

as much as I can expect. I, you know, um, uh,

she knows that. On Sunday nights is generally

the the night that we podcast. So she's gonna

be she's gonna be off for for Sunday nights and

she can do what she wants and And then yeah,

you know every now and then maybe once twice

a year I'm gonna go away for the weekend and

She'll get the house to herself You know But

with TFCon Toronto for the last few years, we've

gone together. We share the room. And then she

takes off into Toronto for some family fun without

me. So it's best for her, too. So she doesn't

mind it. The fact that there's a door on this

room and I can just kind of close the door to

kind of hide it all is probably the biggest thing.

If it were spread out amongst the rest of the

things in the house and made it kind of a bit

of a deterrent within the house, it would be

a lot more difficult. But I keep it pretty contained

and that's important. There was a time in which

my collecting was was really um hurting us financially

and uh and we had to have a little bit more of

a of a sit down and you know but we we got through

that so it was uh you know you got to have communication

in a relationship you know absolutely so has

she ever gone to any of the conventions with

you like tfcon toronto and that kind of stuff

or does she just have no interest I mean, like

I said, she comes to the hotel, but she doesn't

attend. She has no interest in going into the

convention just to see it. On the last day of

the convention, generally is when we will have

our podcast panel. you know, she'll kind of sometimes

sneak into those, uh, panel rooms because those

are where all the chairs are and, uh, she'll

just kind of take a seat at the back of the room

just to kind of listen and hear what's going

on. But, uh, she generally has zero interest

in what's going on and that's fine. It's, uh,

I think it's, it's better to have, you know,

a partner with, with completely different interests

than you. Yeah, I mean is like you said she's

you know supportive and that kind of stuff and

you know as long as that You know happens is

you know, like you already said, you know equal

things in in the relationship, etc Toy collecting

can have its struggles. What is one aspect you

tend to struggle with the most? Well, it's space

I mentioned that a couple times and I did mention

that I had bought the HasLab Unicron and I never

even opened it. I had to sell it. It came into

the house and then it left the house. There was

no space for it here. It was a great thought,

but I simply could not find room for it. You

know, so even when I buy a new a new masterpiece

scaled figure something has to Move something

has to give up its space. So it's It's gotten

to the point where I don't I cannot display everything

I own at this point There are many boxes in my

basement filled with with figures. So it's something

that You know, that's a that's a daily struggle

Yeah Yeah, absolutely And yeah, I mean space

is always gonna be an issue and again This is

why I don't think any one person unless you're

going out and specifically buying a house for

your collection which I think like I mentioned

earlier only I only know of ever one person ever

doing that but like You have to pick and choose

like you said and you know As long as you're

not super emotionally attached to it, then you

can make room for the next thing kind of thing,

whatever you're next interested in. What is one

positive and or one negative memory you have

with buying toys? I made a lot of friends through

buying toys. So, you know, there's friends that

I still have to this day who I've met just walking

down toy aisles and stuff like that. And, uh,

you know, we, as collectors, we tend to, uh,

when we're in a toy aisle, we will kind of stick

to ourselves and not really say anything to anyone.

But if, uh, if you're, if, if you're observant

enough and you're in a toy aisle, if you're looking,

say at transformers and you notice another middle

-aged man also looking at transformers, um, there's.

Might be a good chance, especially if they're

kind of digging through the shelf, a pretty good

chance this is also another collector, right?

And you may have something in common with this

person. And if you're in your hometown, maybe

you can start some kind of collector group or

something like that. So that's been good. It's

tough to reach out and do that first little introduction.

but it can be very rewarding once you do. A bad

one? I don't really have a bad one. The community

is always very welcoming. If I had a bad thing

about the community or collecting toys, I guess

it would just be The gatekeeping, there's a lot

of gatekeeping that goes on in the communities

of all of them that I'm a part of. You really

don't want to discourage anybody new from collecting,

but what I find right now is that a lot of people

are getting into it because they think it's the

new way to make a bunch of money. Toy collecting

is not even close to that. You can't make money

that way. There's a lot of gatekeeping and there's

a lot of people willing or really trying to get

into it because they think it's a way to invest

their money. You really can't do that either.

When I say that, I probably sound like I'm trying

to gatekeep, but I'm not. I'm just trying to

warn people off. This is not a way to invest.

No, I mean, that's the thing, you know, you're

not trying to gatekeep the people you're trying.

Like you said, you're trying like, we're here

to give tips to people that may or may not want

to get into this. And if you want to get into

this, the ultimate tip that anyone would have

for them is get into it because you like the

stuff, not because you think you can make money

at it. That's like, like we've said already in

the last two hours, like the monetary thing of

yes, it's one aspect, but for the most of us.

in the end of the, at the end of the day, we

want the kingdom commander Rodimus. We want the,

for me personally, the one Galvatron want I have

is the reformatted version. So I don't have to

worry about the battle damage and all that, the

reformatted version, that exclusive version that

was all purple. Cause I just, I absolutely love

that thing. And the negative thing on my, on

my side is like, and this is just the way the

Funko community is sadly. I was at, it was, it

was flocked bullseye target day. It was one of

their target counts that they did. They were,

I never got the original bullseye. Cause for

me, like I said already, Funko pops for me are

characters that don't have it like. The target

dog, when's he ever gonna have a toy? Like no,

Mattel isn't gonna make one, Hasbro, like none

of that. So okay, Funko, great. I never got the

original one. So they released a flocked version.

Okay, it's the exact same thing except it's a

little fuzzy. Okay, it's a dog, it's supposed

to be fuzzy, hello. But I remember the day that

those released. Me and about six other guys were

standing outside of Target and I just kind of

looked over at a couple of them. I said, you

guys here to get the bullseye? They're all like,

yup. I bullet. I've never moved so fast in my

life. Bullet trained to the electronics department

in Target. Like I didn't push anybody over, but

like I made sure I was the first one there because

sometimes with the Funko pops, they don't all.

Especially exclusives, because there is a huge

thing in the toy company aspect. At some point,

I keep saying this and maybe I'll have you on

as one of the guests for this. I want to do a

topic on this podcast talking about exclusivity

exclusions, where the exclusiveness of whatever

toy it is basically kicks you out of even getting

a chance to have it kind of thing. But like you

said, mostly it's positive. Mostly, you know,

you make deals with people you fight. Like if

you're going on eBay and you're searching for

whatever you're searching for, and as long as

you're willing to pay that price, as long as,

you know, you pay the person and the person actually

sends you what they're supposed to send you and

you don't end up on a episode of Judge Judy,

then hey, everything's gravy, you know. If you

could create, so if Hasbro gave you the keys

to the kingdom, you could create. Any toy, what

would you want to create? I'm doing a really

good job right now putting out stuff that is

pretty wild. So. I don't know. Honestly, this

is all your fault. I want a repainted taco tank

to imitate the 86 squid. Like seriously, like

I look at that thing and I'm like, they could

do it. All they got to do is just repaint it.

Like they don't like just take the old toy. Somebody

repaint it to look like the thing in the movie.

You know, give it a little ink spot and there

you go. Yeah, I don't know they they've been

doing a lot of good a lot of good stuff right

now recently and You know, you know other than

the the aforementioned DJ D that they haven't

really able to really Do because it's just you

know, they're not doing a gun or they're not

doing an electric chair Yeah, you know, they're

gonna do tarn now. So You know, there's doesn't

seem to be anything off the table Like, will

they do a Cybertron? Will they do a new Primus?

You know, that kind of thing? Maybe? Maybe they

will? In the next Half -Life project? You know,

Unicron seemed to be the big guy that everyone

kind of wanted. It took a little bit of, you

know, massaging to get it to happen. But, you

know, Cybertron might not be the project to kind

of go into next. but you know i would you know

maybe if i if i had the keys to the city you

know what i'd want to see i'd want to see a reissue

of g1 overlord because that's a figure i want

but i don't want to spend the the money on a

brand new one so that's what i'd want g1 overlord

re interesting yeah now would you want that to

be specifically reissued from the original toy

or would you want it to be comic accurate original

toy. Yeah. Yeah. They can always repaint it too.

And yeah, like, they've already done Unicron.

Why can't they just do a slight bit of retooling

on Unicron and make Primus? Like, that would

be, that would be interesting. What is the one

piece of advice you would give the toy collecting

fandom in general? There's another one from the

last one Just yeah Don't collect for value collect

because you like it and Patience really you got

a you got to be patient. It's You'll Right now

we seem to be in an era of everything is crazy

valuable nostalgia is key again. It has a lot

of feelings like the early 90s, but there's no

product out there to support it. So things feel

like they're super valuable and super collectible.

So everyone's out there trying to amass all these

collections and then trying to flip them really

quickly because they're worth a bunch. It's not

you got to you got to put your time in right

you gotta wait So yeah, it's all about patience

and and I I mean we talked about this on the

transformers one that we did but you know when

people find You know stuff on the shelves and

they've you know, they talk about seeing it and

they say finally I found this and it's only been

out right for 20 seconds. People got to settle

down. Wave one is always the first wave to sit

around and start to peg warm, and then they'll

start to sort wave one into the rest of the wave.

There's already talk that Cosmos will make it

into additional waves and start being a little

bit more available. You know if he's not then

you know Oh, oh well then then everyone else

is in the same boat as you are you like I mean

we're all kind of stuck, but you know if if he

is then Then you know the people out there that

are spending 80 to 100 dollars on a cosmos They're

screwing themselves right there. They've got

this FOMO and don't you know don't fall for the

FOMO right There's a guy No, go ahead. Sorry.

I was just gonna say and with Transformers as

well as any other toy line, GI Joe, Star Wars,

anything like that, any of them, they're always

going to do another version of that character,

right? Always, especially the big ones, right?

There's always gonna be another Luke Skywalker

figure. There's always gonna be another Duke

figure. There's always gonna be a transforming

Optimus Prime figure. Always. always always always

if you cannot find it wait and there'll be another

one probably better or with less damaged paint

like I mean that's what they did to screw all

of us last year so yes yes Yeah i mean there's

always gonna be something in like everyone says

to that question just calm down and it's funny

because we're talking about this now and eventually

i'm hoping to get this guy on here there's a

guy in the funko community called doctor applesauce

and as of this recording your comic con is kind

of fresh in. In everybody's mind about everything

else and there was a funko exclusive for that

convention where. The prices on eBay were like

a thousand nine hundred dollars this and by five

days later It's gone down to like 250 bucks and

he's doing the same thing You're doing saying

don't give into the fear of missing out don't

do fear of missing out should not be a thing

even though it is But you know all of that. So

yeah people don't don't Don't give in to the

fear of missing out. You'll whatever you were

wanting to get you will get eventually And the

final question, which was not on the previous

one, what is advice? I have a tip. I have a tip

for people who with fear of missing out. Okay.

Right. So this thing, this, uh, this, what is

it? Uh, what was this Dr. Applesauce he's talking

about? What, what's this thing? Yes. Yes. So

it's, so this item, whatever it is, right. So

for people who are looking for this item, right.

If most of these people are gonna have a phone

if not everyone is gonna have a phone Yeah, right

you take a note in your phone and say Note this

item is right here. You put your date in Alongside

it. It doesn't even have to be a fancy note just

in your frickin notes, you know pad, right you

put the note in there Six months after you've

written this note. Yeah Then you look on eBay

for it. Yeah, right Right actually part of it

You can put a bunch of details with this note

as well like you could put what it's selling

for when you put them when you make the note

Right, but right six months afterwards, right?

You can even put a reminder in your phone to

look for it, right? Because you know you wanted

it super super badly, right? Because yeah, the

FOMO is strong it it really does pull you right

so Put that reminder to say oh, yeah, I wanted

to look for X on you know on eBay just because

I wanted to see there was a There was a comic

book that I wanted that had Elsa bloodstone on

the cover. She was just in this werewolf by night

Special that was on on Disney Plus and when the

book book came out It happened to have her sister

it as a first appearance and I was like oh well

shit this is no good and I missed it so and they're

like well this sister may appear in an upcoming

thing and they're like oh well crap so this book

jumped up to like 45 dollars instantly I'm like

well I'm not paying 45 fucking dollars for this

comic book when I just want the picture that's

on the cover right yeah so so I waited and I

waited and I waited and I waited and maybe about

a month and a half ago, I sent a guy on eBay

and offer and I said, he's asking like 30 bucks

for it. I said, look, I'll give you $15 for it.

And he took it. Exactly. The book, the book is

$5. Right. I said, look, I'll pay you 10 extra

dollars for this fucking thing. Right. And he

took it. So yeah. So if you wait, Sometimes you're

gonna lose something might happen and you will

lose and the thing will shoot up and it'll be

crazy valuable and you'll just say look I should

have bought it at the time but Most of the time

I'm gonna say 75 % to up to 90 % of the time

You are gonna make out like a bandit because

those prices will come crashing down Yeah, and

you'll be you'll be able to get what you want

or six months down the road You'll think why

the hell was I after this thing so badly? Yeah,

exactly Yeah. So the, the thing, the Funko Pop,

and I have zero interest in this because it's

not a, it's not a franchise I follow, but it's,

it's one piece, Luffy with Going Merry. And it's

one of the pop rides. So it's one of the, it's

Luffy on some ride. And that's what he was, he

was talking about as far as like, don't give

into the FOMO. Cause when it was like he. made

two videos on this. And he basically said when

it initially went up because they were at people

were at the convention, people were listing it

on eBay for a thousand dollars or best. Why would

you list something for a thousand dollars or

best offer? Like, cause yeah, whatever. But as,

as you know, he was tracking this and as it,

you know, as the days progressed, it went down

to four 50, three 50, two 50. it's a funko pop

ride funko pop ride so general funko pops the

the four inch pops range anywhere from 10 to

20 dollars the pop rides maybe 24 .99 us the

bigger the larger ones like unicorn and soundwave

and optimus prime and all that those are usually

40 bucks so this thing is probably somewhere

between 20 And forty dollars msrp and people

are willing to pay like over a grand for and

i'm not there. Like i love funko i love the characters

that i love that they've done but i will never

ever be that like that. No even if it was even

if it wasn't funko if it was a normal toy like

if it was a like the very last g1 optimus prime

that is ever in existence from 1984. I still

wouldn't pay a thousand dollars for that. No.

So, you know, it is what it is. All right. Final

question. What is advice you'd give to kids who

enjoy toys? To show them to other kids, to enjoy

them with other kids, to pass it along and to

not be precious about them. You know, I'm guilty

of keeping everything all Caged up and being

super precious about him, but When I get the

opportunity to play with the my son with the

toys, I'm going I take it I enjoy it. So as he

gets older I'm scared to death that he's gonna

come in here and bust up all my cool shit, but

It's you know, I'm gonna that's when you worry

about the value You have no idea how scared I

am of a toddler coming in here and destroying

my stuff while I'm at work. Yeah, it's a real

fear. But the joy of playing with toys through

the eyes of a kid again is really here. I'm very

much looking forward to that. So for kids who

still play with toys, put them in the hands of

other kids, right? Absolutely. Show your friends

why you think this is cool. And don't be scared

to be a fan of toys. They are cool. If you like

Transformers, And somebody says, well, I really

don't, you know, if you want to say, well, I

like Transformers and say, well, if your friend

says, well, I really don't like Transformers,

we can say, well, you know, I actually really

like their their engineering or I really like

how they transform. You know, I don't watch the

show all that much. I just like how they turn

into different things. Right. That's you know,

you don't have to be into the cartoon to like

the toys. Right. Yeah, I just I got into them.

with the toys first and then the cartoon came

second and then the comic came way way later

so yeah you can you can kind of you can kind

of work it differently you know but getting them

into the hands of more kids is is key because

you know we as collectors can keep them all to

ourselves and keep them very precious and and

close to our chest but it's it's like i mentioned

earlier it's gonna go nowhere if these don't

get into the hands of kids. Yeah, absolutely.

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Game Podcast. If you love Transformers, there's

something for everyone at transmissionspodcast

.com. Alright folks, we are back and you just

heard Daryl the Cybertronian Beast's Toy Story

in Toy Collecting. You are one of the team members

over at Transmissions. What's going on with Transmissions?

Oh, we're still lugging away and producing two

shows a week. But if you are a Donatrion, or

that's how we refer to our Patreon patrons, we...

We are producing some exclusive content for for

those people and you should be getting well.

One should one exclusive show week and then then

there's also the the empire of rust show which

is the life play rpg and there's also. The we

like big box that's a doctor pants and myself.

That's one of the Patreon exclusive shows. It's

the show where Dr. Pants and I just grab a character

and the figures associated with it, and we just

kind of go nuts for about half an hour. It's

pretty fun. That's generally what's going on

with us. Awesome, awesome. Very cool. Very cool.

Where can the people find you online sir social

media if you want to give it out? So yeah, so

I mean we've got you can find the whole show

over at transmissions podcast comm but me personally

I'm on Twitter and Instagram at Cybertron beast

so you can head on over to those and I generally

use Twitter a lot more and Yeah, so Twitter is

mainly my vehicle. Instagram, I do as much as

I can, but I do throw a few other different things

out there. So I post some comic stuff over there,

and I post some toys and some other wackadoo

things over there too. So yeah, but mostly it's

just Twitter for me. But yeah, so Cybertron Beast

should get you to me. Very cool, very cool. All

right, folks. As always, I have no idea what's

coming up next on this show. It could be a display

case. It could be a toy topic talk. It could

be another Origins episode, no clue. And we are

winding down for the year for 2022, and we may

take a couple of weeks off. I'm not sure. I've

tried since I brought the show back from episode

100. This is episode 161. So yeah, I brought

the show back last year. We've done 61, 62 episodes

since I brought it back. I'm not sure what's

coming up next, but 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,

geekcastradio .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 platform you prefer,

Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google, whatever it

is that you use. Uh, for us on Twitter, it's

at geek castry of the network at TF toy cast

for the show, because originally back in 2009,

when the late great optimist scourge myself,

Proto man, general techno, and a couple other

people started this podcast, it was actually

transformers toy cast. And we only talked about

transformers and somewhere like year three or

year four of the show. We're like, Nope, we're

going to open it to everything. So it just became

toy cast. I am at TF2 and Mike on Twitter, become

a fan on Facebook, go to Facebook .com slash

GeekCast radio network. You can also check out

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

TF2 and Mike with the Cybertronian Beast. Join

us next time when we will be talking more toys

here on ToyCast.