Interview with Michael Ausiello on Toy Collecting, Smurfs, and Spoiler Alert

Hi, this is Tom Bergeron. You know what you're

doing? You're listening to the Geekcast Radio

Network. We need a hundred Smurfs! Do we have

a hundred Smurfs? I'd better find out. Oh, Clumsy,

what are we going to do? 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, TFJ Mike and today's featured

guest... Was a senior writer at TV Guide and

the respective website. After that, he launched

his own website TV line. He is a television industry

journalist, author and actor. He is also a huge

Smurfs fan. It's Michael Osello. Hello, Michael.

How are you? Hello. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for being here. It's time we started

talking toys here on Toycast and Michael is here

because he wants to talk toys but Michael wrote

a book called spoiler alert the hero dies. And

that is going to be it actually already is because

I've seen it been made into a feature film featuring

Jim Parsons. as as michael in it to a chronicles

part of his is a very heartbreaking part of his

life and we're here to. discuss parts of that

without spoiling it. We're not going to spoil

the spoiler alert. Why would we do that? Come

on now. It's in the title of my book. I mean,

the title does say it all. I mean, it's like,

oh, okay, why do I even want to? The movie you'll

notice it's just spoiler alert. So I imagine

there are going to be some folks who go see the

movie and aren't going to be aware of the outcome.

Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. So what is

or was the first toy you remember having as a

kid? Miss Piggy doll slash puppet. It was definitely

the first toy that I was truly obsessed and loved.

And it was. I mean, it was like, this is the

late 70s. And I think I was maybe seven, maybe

six, seven and sevenish. And I'm sure I had toys

before that, but none as memorable as this Miss

Piggy puppet. And I was obsessed with the Muppet

Show. Denified with miss piggy although i did

not know why at that young age i now have come

to realize that you know she was a kindred spirit

in a number of ways but i was obsessed with miss

piggy and i remember getting this plush. Puppet

for christmas and being beside myself and and

it was i was it was i was inseparable from it

for at least two years. Wow that that is awesome.

Yes. Miss piggy is definitely She's definitely

a personality isn't she? He certainly is yes,

I loved I mean I loved everything about her But

I also one of the things that I loved about the

stuffed animal was that miss piggy Came her the

doll came with like very realistic blonde hair

that you could play with. And I was not allowed

to collect Barbies because I was a boy. And that's

just what the gender roles were back in the late

70s, early 80s. But I found sort of ways around

the no Barbie role and getting this piggy. doll

was one of the ways that i could have a doll

with natural hair and put berets in it and and

curl it and play with it. And my my dad couldn't

didn't really know what was happening. That's

that's very interesting cuz the next question

was there a particular adult who was appreciative

of your playing with toys. as a kid, was there

anyone who was unsupportive? Yeah, my mom was

completely supportive. In fact, she was the one

who would buy me not just the Miss Piggy doll

for Christmas, but although I thought Santa got

it for me at the time, but also take me to the

supermarket to get barrettes to put in Miss Piggy's

hair. My dad was not supportive of this. And

I imagine that it caused some tension between

them back then. But he made his discomfort with,

um, my preference of toys. Pretty well known.

I remember one time he was playing cards with

his buddies and I walked in with my Miss Piggy

doll. And I just remember my dad must've made

some kind of crack and they all laughed. And,

um, uh, it was not as support. He was not supportive

of, of, of my choice of toys. That sucks. Yeah.

So other than Miss Piggy, what types of toys

were your favorites to play with? Like action

figures, the dolls, this, that, whatever. I like

stuffed animals. Like I was a big, you know,

fan of stuffed animals for whatever reason. But

I also did like action figures. I was very much

into Star Wars. I was obsessed with Star Wars.

And, uh, you know, definitely for the first one,

then when Empire Strikes Back came back, it really

ratcheted up and I had, you know, all the play

sets and was collecting all the figures, um,

you know, and, uh, you know, and eventually,

you know, that, that would lead to the, the Smurf,

um, infestation. I was going to say obsession,

but okay, infestation, that works. You saw my

bedroom when I was a kid. Definitely an infestation.

That's awesome. So, since we're talking about

this, what were your favorite childhood toys

that really stood out more than the others? Well,

definitely Smurfs. I think when I started collecting

Smurfs, in the early 80s, probably like 82 or

whatever. I don't know what it was about them,

but there was just something about those little

figurines that... Drew me in I don't know if

it was the color. I don't know who this was the

size I think part of it was that my friend across

the street Linda suito introduced me to them

was collecting them and I felt I think a little

bit of competition with her I remember going

to the store for the first time in like seeing

the collectible case on the counter and realizing

that there were just so many of them and I and

I had to have them all so I think The Smurfs

definitely stand out because it was an obsession.

It started as a curiosity that developed into

an obsession and one that persists to this day.

Who is your favorite Smurfs character? Probably

Vanity Smurf is one that I say often just because

I feel like he's the gay Smurf and I identified

with Vanity Smurf, you know, just sort of a little

bit of narcissism mixed with sort of sweetness

and snarkiness. I also, I mean, I was partial

to Smurfette because, you know, again, the long,

beautiful blonde hair. But I also was a big fan

of Osriel. Gargamel's sidekick, the cat. The

cat, yep. He was a little pisser. Yeah, he was.

Yeah, he was. Oh, man. So not that we all like

labels, but toys are have several labels to them.

Do you prefer the label of action figures, dolls,

toys or other labels? I mean, toy, toys, I think.

is would be my preference. It's a sort of all

-compensing action figures. I feel like it's

very sort of a narrow label. I definitely don't

consider Smurfs action figures. I would say toys.

Absolutely. All right, awesome. Good guys or

bad guys, which toys were your favorites to play

with the most? Oh, I mean, It went back and forth,

but my favorite Star Wars character was Darth

Vader. My favorite Muppet was Miss Piggy. I think

a case could be made. She was a little bit of

a villainess. But at the same time, I loved Princess

Leia and Han Solo. It went back and forth. I

would say if I had to pick one, though, I'd give

the edge to the bad guys. I don't know if Miss

Piggy really was a villainous though. I mean,

she was beating up Kermit all the time. She was

hitting a lot of people. Yes. Well, okay. Kermit,

I understand that I can say, okay, yeah, that's

not good. You shouldn't beat up your future frog

husband. Some of the times when she was karate

chopping people, it's because they did something

to her. So my thought is, oh, she's standing

up for herself. She's not going to take any shit.

She's not, you know, so that's yeah. Yeah, no,

I know. That's why she's very complex. She's

a very, she's a very complex individual. Absolutely.

What is or was your favorite toy vehicle or playset?

Favorite playset would be Cloud City from Empire

Strikes Back. I was obsessed with that set piece

in that movie. Partly because I remember Carrie

Fisher looked so pretty in that gown. I thought

the whole, everything about Cloud City, there's

just something so magical about it and so different

from any other set piece in the Star Wars universe.

And I remember when the toy came out, I was just

like, oh my God, I have to have that. I have

to have it. I wish they still had it. Yeah, that's

one of the things about... Fictional media film

television whatever they create these amazing

amazing things in certain films and you're like

oh that's going like back to the future. We should

have all had you know. All the you know the the

self adjusting jackets and then we should have

had that by now but we don't and that's fine

but like you know. The entertainment industry

creates all the stuff for us. It's like, ooh,

that's what the future is going to be like. And

sadly, it's not. But yeah, Cloud City was, oh

man. That whole, you're right, that whole scene.

I wish there was just one, you know, they always

talk about now about, oh, what's the next Star

Wars thing? What's this? What's that? I want

the Mandalorian to go to Cloud City. I want to

see what Cloud City's up to. Oh my God, I keep,

I was just watching Andor. And I was like, I'm

waiting for it too. I'm like, why has no one

come into contact or, you know, sort of passed

through Cloud City? I have not started watching

Andor yet. I need to. It's fantastic. It's the

best of all the Star Wars series. It's a little

bit of a slow burn, but wow, I it's so well done.

And it feels like such an original idea. Even

though I know that it's a prequel to Rogue One,

it feels more than any of the other Star Wars

shows like just a wholly original, but also very

much in the Star Wars universe. Uh, and I, it's,

it's incredible. I can't recommend it more. I

don't even, so I, so we covered, we've covered

over, we've done in 14 years here at the GeekCaster

network over 10 hours of Star Wars content from

the original trilogy to the prequels, to the

sequels, to this, to that, to whatever. And.

We covered Rogue One and Force Awakens and I,

and that was back whenever they, 2015, 2017,

whenever they originally came out, I do not remember

a single thing from Rogue One. So me starting

at Andor now, I like that this is the one time

that I don't mind something as a prequel because

I can start at the prequel without having to

have already seen What comes after because I

can then watch, you know, after after I watch

and or I can go and watch Rogue One is, oh, OK,

this movie is actually good. I'm not saying the

movie's bad. I'm not saying that at all. It's

just I don't remember us. OK, I do remember a

single thing from that movie. I remember the

end when Vader shows up. That's what I remember.

That's all I remember. I mean, I remember loving

Rogue One. I remember that one feeling the most.

Like the original three movies just in terms

of capturing the the the tone and the visual

spectacle of this of star wars it just it felt.

I don't know it was there was just something

about it but i agree i like i don't remember

a ton of it and i guess i watch and or you know

certain little easter egg things are like oh

yeah i remember that i remember that but for

generally speaking i feel like. I'm in a whole

new world. Yeah, absolutely. And that's what

I'm loving about most of the... The only Star

Wars television thing I have not enjoyed so far,

because I've only seen a half episode of it,

because I don't care about the character, he's

useless, is Boba Fett. He's just the... I don't

know. I've never liked him. Well, I felt for

me, I felt a little bit like after seeing the

Mandalorian and loving the Mandalorian that,

you know, I already had a little bit of a been

there done that and been there and done better.

And so I felt like Boba Fett just paled in comparison.

It wasn't a bad series, but I just felt like

Mandalorian is is better, more interesting version

of that story, I think. The one that I didn't

love was Obi -Wan, to tell you the truth. I was

so disappointed with that one. And that was the

one I thought I would love the most because it

had Darth Vader and so much of the original sort

of trilogy. I love that Ewan and Hayden came

back. I love the... the Darth Vader battles.

I thought that was great. But the best thing

about that show is even though everyone is going

to say, Oh, it should have been Luke. It should.

Oh, I see all these from websites that just want

clickbait articles to just explain everything

to everybody that half of us are. Most of us

that are in the Star Wars universe or know about,

we already know half the stuff, but like, Everybody's

like, oh, it should have been Luke and Obi -Wan,

not Leia. I like that it was Leia because that

little girl that played her, it's like a mini

Carrie Fisher. Like it was so, that's the part

of Obi -Wan that I like is her and him. And I

thought that was cool. I know that. futzes with

the actual timeline and things and the new hope

and all that, but I don't care. I thought it

was fun with the two of them. The rest of the

series, yeah, I kind of agree. It wasn't great,

but I don't know. And who knows what they're

going to do next. I mean, I know currently as

of this recording that we're doing here, they

just released Tales of the Jedi, which I have

not watched yet, but I know that Ahsoka is in

that and Ahsoka is awesome. I'll watch anything

with Ahsoka. I have not seen that yet. Yeah,

it just came out on Disney+. Yeah. All right.

Did you and your friends ever pretend with your

toys that you had? By this, I mean, did you say...

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

toy like, you know, Michael can be the the Coke

bottle top and the other friend can be the piece

of glass or whatever. I don't remember us ever

doing that. And I don't know. I remember. I don't

know if this answers the question or goes out

in a terrifying different sort of detour, but

I remember pretending to be Wonder Woman. I remember

during my Wonder Woman phase that I thought if

I just kept spinning that I would suddenly be

wearing those bracelets and have that whip and

all of that. But I was kind of hardcore into

it. I don't even know if people saw me spinning

and being like, what the fuck is this crazy kid

doing? But there was like a couple months there

where I was like very much into wanting to be

her so much that I just kind of spun around day

and night until I made myself sick. Jeez. Wow.

That was a pretty good show for the time, though.

I mean, that show had some good stuff in it.

Yeah, I mean, it was amazing. And can we just

talk about how incredible Linda Carter still

looks? Oh, absolutely. Even nowadays in 2022.

What shocked me was back in 2005, she showed

up as the principal at Sky High. In the Sky High

movie, I was like, what's Wonder Woman doing

here? And I was like, oh, that's awesome. Yeah,

it's amazing. Like, you know, as sad as it is,

I wish Yvonne Craig was still here. Hmm. I love,

as soon as Batgirl came on the scene, Batman

and Robin, forget them. Like, just show me, and

there's a, there's an episode where the Penguin

wants to marry Barbara Gordon and he ends up

kidnapping her and she ends up, it ended up being

like this whole Barbara Batgirl Alfred adventure.

I'm like, this is great. They should have done

more of this. Not necessarily kidnapping Barbara

every week to marry her off to some villain,

but like the Barbara and Alfred hour. I love

that. That's awesome. Forget Adam West. Forget

Burt word. And I don't, I don't mean that, you

know, natively, but like just, yeah, more of

that. That was fun. What features define a good

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

to, say, the source material likeness? As it

pertains to the Smurfs, I will tell you that

I'm sort of precious about the kind of Smurf

merchandise I collect, and it all has to be from

the 80s, because the new Smurf merchandise...

You know, that a lot of it that is spawned off

of the movies, the new animated movies, they're

just so CGI heavy to me that they lose all their

magic. And there's just something like so for

now, to me, it has to have sort of a vintage

retro quality and literally be vintage. Like

I don't collect any Smurf merchandise that was

produced with some exceptions here and there

after the 80s. And particularly, I don't collect

any of like the movie, current movie merchandise,

because I don't recognize those Smurfs. Those

don't look like Smurfs to me, they look like

a computer program or a video game. And so that's

sort of my litmus test these days in terms of

when we're talking specifically Um, about Smurfs,

I have, I have a very sort of like, and not everybody

knows that. So there are often people who are

like, they'll be in a store and they'll see,

um, you know, a Smurf, something in target or

something, and they'll send me a photo and I'll

be like, no, this isn't doing anything for me.

Stop what you're doing. You're ruining it for

me. Stop wasting your, your phone space with

pictures that I don't want. Yeah, it's it's so

funny that it's it's one of those things where

Smart like I haven't even seen the new animated

movies. I didn't even see the Did they ever release

the live -action one or the the supposed live

-action one? Well, the first film was mix of

live -action and animated with Neil okay Yeah,

and then it went all animated after that. Yeah.

Yeah, I haven't even I think I've seen maybe

the trailer for that first film And I've seen

the trailer for the second film, but. I want

I saw the first film, but then I that was where

it ended. Yeah, yeah. For me, when it comes to

Smurfs, I want flat 2D 80s Smurfs. I don't want

CGI Smurfs. I don't want. Realistic blue people,

that's what avatars for. Right. Because so much

of my toy love is from my childhood, that's where

a lot of it remains. In many ways, when it comes

to my love of toys, I'm very much stuck in the

80s still. There are very few more modern toys

that I get excited about. Yeah, I'm not going

to spoil it. But there is a scene in the film

where we see your bedroom. Yes, that's in the

trailer. So you can talk about that. So we see

your apartment, we see your bedroom. And we like

when I was watching the movie, I was like, Oh,

that's a giant Papa Smurf. Like out of everything

that was in there. I'm like, Holy crap, that's

a giant Papa Smurf. Is that Was that all stuff

from your collection? Yeah, so first let's just

be clear. The bedroom in the movie is for adult

Michael. It's not a flashback. Right. That is

an adult, that is a room filled with toys of

an adult man who is me. Right. So I just, I need

to own that. And I, yes, that entire collection

that you see in the movie was, all of it was

mine. including the giant size Papa Smurf. That

is so awesome. It's incredible and it's one of

my favorite pieces of my collection. It's a gift

from my late husband, who the story is about,

the book and the movie. He found that for me

in Germany. I remember when that box arrived

and I did not know what was inside, but it was

humongous. And there were two of them because

there's, I have a Papa Smurf in that, you know,

it's like a five, four, five foot size statue.

Um, and then there's a regular sort of quote

unquote normal Smurf. It's called version of

it. So I have, uh, I have both of those. Very

cool. Very cool. Yeah. There's no, I'm 42. I

have just under 250 Funko Pops in my current

toy collection, and they're all various characters.

There's no shame in saying that your apartment

or your living space is filled up with toys or

collect like, I do not like, look, we're all

fans of toys here at this show and on this network.

the adult Michael, the kid Michael, it doesn't

matter. But in the context of the movie, yeah,

that's what I was saying was that, yes, as an

adult, going into that, I was like, hmm, that's

interesting. And I was like, oh, that is the

way that we had his entire, not entire collection,

but a portion of his collection in the film.

And that's just, that was so cool. I mean, that's

all that happened, you know, that, that. Yeah.

That was what my bedroom in Bloomfield, New Jersey

looked like in my living room. It was an explosion

of Smurfs. And I'm not ashamed of it. I think,

looking back, I developed a better ability to

curate. and display than I did back then. And

a lot of that is because of my late husband,

Kit, who was a designer and just had impeccable

taste. He basically showed me that here you can

collect these things, but you don't have to make

it look like your home is a flea market. Yeah.

You can make it look like it's a museum. You

can make it look like it's just the coolest shop.

In the world, you know, you don't have to make

it look like it's the metal lands flea market

on a Saturday in New Jersey. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

And I was saying this to your publicist, Clay

Off -Air. I said, oh, I just, it's not a joke,

but the way my brain works is I make all kinds

of connections. And in the movie, in the beginning

of the movie, your character or Jim Parsons playing

you says, He's talking about Knight Rider and

up until the point where he said, Oh, 90 episodes.

It was such a silly. It wasn't that great of

a show up until then I was with you. Cause I

am a huge Knight Rider fan and I just, before

we started the recording, I just realized Michael

and Kit. So technically you had your Knight Rider.

I met the man when I was six years old. I have

a picture of me and the Hoff in Boston and I

sat in the car and I was just waiting. And sadly,

William Daniels was not in the trunk. So Knight

Rider was like a huge part of your childhood?

Knight Rider has been. everything in my As Michael

would say, thanks pal. Knight Rider, Transformers,

He -Man and the Masters of the Universe, to slightly

a lesser extent, G .I. Joe, Mask, Gem and the

Holograms. I defend Gem and the Holograms as

an action cartoon for every gender, no matter

who you are. It's not just a girl's cartoon.

The first five parter, the misfits are trying

to kill them. They're trying to blow up their

car. They're trying to sabotage them. That's

not just, you know, what's Barbie's adventure

of the week today? You know? I have to admit,

I don't know what you're talking about. What

is this? Gem and the Holograms? I don't know

Gem and the Holograms. Really? How do I not know

that? What year was that? 1985. A total blind

spot for me. I went deep into my Smurf obsession

there, so I did not see anything else. Yes. 1980,

I believe it was 85 to 87, but without actually

looking, I could not tell you. Gem and the Holograms.

Gem in the holograms. Yeah October 6th 1985 to

May 2nd 1988 Yeah, that was that was pretty much

I was I was hunkered down in in in my smurf cave

It had 65 episodes ran three seasons So just

enough for syndication. All right, but basically

just just for you American animated musical television

series that ran from 85 to 88 this series is

about record company owner Jerrica Benton her

singer alter ego Jim and the adventures of jamming

her band the holograms. And they they they have

rivals called the misfits and and and it's just

a fun fun thing I'm fairly certain you can get.

the complete series DVD set on on Amazon or something

like that. But yes, Gemini. I think you would

really enjoy it. Is it sort of like Josie and

the Pussycats? Sort of. But not really. It's

a little bit more action than that. OK. Yeah,

the truly outrageous complete series on DVD.

I'm looking at it right now. Thirty four sixty

eight on Amazon. I will send you the link after

the show. All right. So let's see what features

define a good toy. No, I already asked you that.

Wake up, you idiot. All right. Let's see. Let

me get an edit point here. 36, 19, 20 edit. What

does toy packaging have to have to draw you in

so you're in the toy store and you're in? Whatever

aisle you want to be in and you see this toy

this toy this toy and that toy What is the packaging

have to have for you to go towards one of those

toys more than the others? I think it needs to

be sparse. I think there needs to be a lot of

dead space, lack of clutter, clean lines, just

something artful about it. Very cool, very cool.

Do you open your toys or do you leave them packaged?

If you keep toys packaged, do you have any specific

criteria for that? It depends. I think, you know,

if it's a If it's a toy that is worth money and

worth more money if it remains packaged, I'll

leave it packaged. If it's something that I don't

really think is ever going to appreciate and

I would rather display the actual toy than the

box, then I'll take it out. There are a lot of

pieces of my Smurf collection that I are mint

in package. And one of them is actually one of

the more modern Smurf toys that I have is actually

a piece of art that was made that are basically

Smurfs as Star Wars action figures. Oh, wow.

Yes. And they're extremely limited. They're worth

a fortune and From some stroke of luck, I managed

to get my hands on these right out of the gate.

They were Comic -Con limited edition toys. And

I remember getting my hands on a bunch of them.

And now they're going for thousands of dollars.

on eBay. But those are those I will never open,

those I will never touch. And what's so great

about that modern Smurf toy, and again, it's

more art and toy, and that's sort of the artist

gets around producing them is by calling it art,

and not a toy is the Smurf figurines look like

the Smurf figurines from the 80s. You know, they're

just like it's that Princess Leia version of

Smurfette. It's the, you know, Papa version of

Obi -Wan. And they're exquisite and they're so

well done. But anyway, those are mint on card.

I think that's the is that the correct lingo

that I have those tucked away and I won't I will

never open those as much as I would like to open

them and like to have the actual figurines like

displayed. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There's

just certain things that that should just be

If the packaging is, it looks good enough, it

looks what, like I have, I've got the second

set coming from a friend of mine, but I have

these things called, they're from Jada Toys.

They are Transformers Nano Metal Figs. They are

all die cast and they're like little. 3 -inch,

4 -inch figurines of Transformers characters,

but they're all diecast, and they're all in this

giant 18 -pack box, and this box with the figures

inside looks so good, I have been struggling

to figure out if I'm going to open them, because

I'm worried about the fact that if I open them,

I may never get them back. In the box, I may

never have the box look as good as it looks without

opening them. So that's not an issue of you wanting

to protect the value as much as it is you think

the actual toy is enhanced by the packaging.

Yes. Yeah, I don't think there's my I mean, that

set was like, I want to say somewhere between

15 to $35. I forget what I paid for. It wasn't

that. But for 18 nano metal for 18 die cast toys

that are three, you know, two three inches They're

like they're little figurines like they're you

know, they're not they're not Papa Smurf size.

I don't know. You know what I mean? They're they're

little little tiny things and Yes, it is the

thing of I think they look great in the package,

but I also want to experience them without Just

not that I'm gonna sit here and rip open the

package and destroy it But just the way I'll

send you a picture after but just the way the

the way that they are displayed in the package

I'm my worry is get being able to get them back

in the package afterwards So that's a whole other.

Why were we so dumb? When we collected like why

didn't it dawn on anybody or why didn't it dawn

on more people that maybe? leave it in the packaging,

maybe get two Star Wars action figures of each

one, play with one and keep one mint in package?

Was it just because toy collecting was just not

as ubiquitous as it was back then? Well, okay,

so you were born in 72, I was born in 80, so

we're eight years apart. And yeah, the thing

of it is, is we were kids. Our parents wanted

us to have something to do, so we wouldn't bother

them at times. And that's what toys, I mean,

besides for us, toys are everything. Toys, the

fictional world of the Smurfs or the Snorks or

the Transformers or whatever it is. You know,

that was our world. We weren't as kids, we weren't

taught collecting. We weren't. I mean, some people

might have been because if you had I had a stepfather

or a step something at some point or another,

he had a or maybe it was a foster dad. I don't

remember. He had a whole like classic Star Trek

action figure collection that he wouldn't let

any of us touch. Half the collection was in package

and the other half was, was open and displayed.

And he always told us, don't touch the packaged

ones. Don't touch any of them, but don't touch.

You're going to ruin the, that was the first

time I ever heard about ruining the value was

with that Star Trek collection. But as kids throughout

the eighties, not seventies, eighties and nineties.

We just wanted to play with the stuff and then

we I know and then so there's part of me that

You know is filled with regret for not taking

better care of these toys, but then the other

part of me remembers What that was like that

sort of childlike innocence where it was never

about? The the money or the value Yeah appreciation.

It was just about the sheer joy of playing with

those toys And I feel like we that doesn't maybe

exist as much as it did Well, so we're all older

now. As you pointed out, I'm older than you.

You keep bringing this up. Not trying to... You

can keep bringing up a heck of a lot younger

than I do. So you know, whatever. No, you do

you you look a heck of I'll show you a picture

of me. You look at hell eight years younger than

me as as everyone listening to this no no no

no no. But it's one of those things where we've

gotten to the point now where that that has now

been a thing with toy collecting over the years

has become a thing. And it has been a major thing,

I would say, since about 99, 2000. It got really

a big bang in 2005, 2006, especially for me.

At that time, I had a job with some really good

benefits and really good pay and everything else.

And I was like, ooh, I want to get my childhood

back. I think between generation one, 1984 optimus

prime 85 blaster like four different transformers

toys i spent over a thousand dollars on them

at the time at different times throughout those

those few years and it's just one of those things

where we are now in the toy collecting community

as toy collectors we do look at the like i don't

collect for value I never have and I never will,

but with Funko Pops, most of the time, unless

I'm taking photos of them, they stay in their

boxes because it's easy to, and it's fun to view

them in their boxes because it's kind of like

a TV screen a little bit. There are only, right

now there are only two that I have out of box

and one of them, I know there are three actually.

I have a now funko pops generally are three and

a half to four inches tall so they're your standard

pop vinyl figure thing but they make ten inch

ones and I have Soundwave and Unicron out of

package the only other one I have out of package

is because his box is kind of destroyed a little

bit in in in my move across the country from

Washington to Indiana this year is the soup Nazi

from Seinfeld so but I mean the thing is is.

We're all in this tea the way I look at the toy

collecting community is we all have different

opinions we all have different things we like

or don't like and that's fine that makes us all

unique but we are all in this together if we

are in it together. For whatever reason it is

like that we are. in it at all, in my opinion.

It's just one of those things. It's all right.

Plain and simple. The toy collecting community

is the three musketeers, all for one and one

for all. You know, so I think I know what the

answer to question 12 is going to be. But if

as a kid or an adult, you were only allowed to

choose one toy franchise to collect from, which

one would you choose and why? I mean Smurf's

an obvious one. I can't even entertain any other

possibilities. Right, yeah, absolutely. As an

adult, do you prefer vintage toys or modern toys?

Yeah, so vintage all the way. Not to say that

I can't be drawn or that I haven't purchased

more modern toys, but to me it's all about It's

all about the throwback, the nostalgia. Yeah,

absolutely. Now somebody said to me recently

that that question, like we don't, like as adults,

we don't really play with the toys. Like we don't,

we're not sitting here like dark helmet from

Spaceballs and just like pew pew pew. But what

is one toy you can always play with by this?

What is the one toy out of your entire collection

that just gives you the most ultimate joy of

all time? Oh, like present day. Yeah, or or or

is it? Yeah, I mean, in any point, it doesn't

matter. I don't really play with any of my toys.

Right. I will say is, you know, talking about

packaging. So the Super Smurfs, I don't know

if you remember, but so there were really two

types of, there were many types of Smurf collectibles,

but the two big ones were the Smurf figurines,

and then the Super Smurfs. And the Super Smurfs

were basically the Smurf figurine comes with

an accessory, like a fireman. So it's a Smurf

fireman figurine, but you actually get like,

the hose, the whatever it's called, the water

hose. Or a jailed smurf, and he's actually in

a little prison. But the boxes that those super

smurfs came in, I remember being obsessed with

them as a kid, and to this day, still obsessed

with them. And that's the one thing that I don't

play with them, but I like to display them. I

like to just stack all of those boxes, those

little super smurf boxes up and for whatever

reason, it just conjures up the feeling and imagery

of the 80s retail experience of walking into

a store as a kid and just seeing these hundreds

of mint in package super smurf boxes behind the

counter and thinking I want them all. Um, and

to this day, whenever I, it's the part of sort

of the Smurf display that I'm most excited about

putting together is like, how am I going to display

these super Smurf boxes? Right. Interesting.

Yeah. I don't remember those. I, I've been Googling

them and I'm like, Oh, that's what they were.

Yeah, they're, they're very cool looking. Those

boxes are awesome. Yeah. 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, specific character,

etc. So you're in the store and you see the Snarks,

the Smurfs, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,

the Transformers, G .I. Joe, Star Wars, Star

Trek, whatever. Like what's the one that you're

not gonna go towards? You're not going to like

this answer, but transformers never had any interest.

They don't do anything for me. They never did

do anything for me. Yeah, I have no interest.

You know, that's okay. Yeah, it is. Thank you.

Yeah. It's not like. Thanks for not coming at

me. I felt like I was in a little bit of an unsafe

space. No, no, no, no, no. Look, look. Just because

we are transformers, transformers literally helped

us start the network. That's what started it.

We were sitting all over no no no no no hey look

if it doesn't do anything for you doesn't do

anything for you That's that's fine. I mean,

it's no big deal You know, I think I had one.

I think I had a couple of them. I just It didn't

do anything for me. I Mean, you know The thing

with Transformers is it's all at least generation

one. It's all vehicles, Beast Wars is animals.

And then there's this all this other stuff throughout

the last almost 40 years. But you know, if it

if it didn't do anything for you didn't do anything

for you. That's fine. It's not the movies. Oh,

sorry, subject. No, it's not. I Those movies

met like I love that. They made the brand a bunch

of money the movies themselves the first movie

was Okay ish the second movie was horrible. The

third was okay, and then four and five like So

I'll say this because I've said this before I

Didn't even I stopped going to theaters. I haven't

the last time I was at a theater my former wife

and I were at at the 30th anniversary of of the

the original animated 86 film when they started

doing like special like events for that. That's

the last time I was at a movie. I don't like

I'm When it comes to my media, I'm one of those

control freaks, like give me the remote, let

me do my thing kind of person. And I prefer to

sit at home in my own space. If I want to pause

the thing, I can pause it. If I want to stop

it, if I want to go do something else, or if

I want to sit here and watch it for two and a

half hours or whatever it is, I have the control.

Whereas going to a theater, as great as it is

to see the stuff on the big screen, you have

no control. And especially if you get a drink,

then halfway through, you're gonna have to go

to the bathroom and you're gonna miss something.

So yeah, no, I don't. But the funny thing is

with that fifth, the last night, the last film

and whatever, but like, I watched it here at

home and I'm like, I got maybe 15 and a half

minutes into that. I haven't even finished watching

the fifth live action film. I won't. I mean,

I will, we're eventually going to cover all of

them because we're going to do the winter of

Bayhem at some point. But, but yeah, no, those,

those movies, man, there's so many other good,

like if you want to find your, I'm not saying

your, you, Michael Ossie, yellow are going to

find your entry point into transformers. I'm

saying if you wanted to, there are so many other.

better entry points than the Michael Bay films.

Please stop trying to force your transformer

obsession on me. I don't want them. I don't like

them. Absolutely. I'm not forcing anything on

you at all. I'm just saying if you were interested,

I'm not saying you are, and you've told me you're

not, and that's fine. We're going to move on.

Nobody already did that. 16. Are there any toys

in the past or currently that you wish you had

not bought them? Are there any toys that you

may have sold that you regret letting them go?

So toys that I didn't buy and regret not buying

them, toys I bought that I wish I hadn't? So

toys that you wish you had not, like you bought

something you got at home and you're like, why

did I buy this? Or toys that you might have sold

that you regret selling? I regret selling a lot

of the Muppets stuff that I had as a kid. I regret

selling the original Miss Piggy stuffed animal

that I referenced earlier. I think I was of the

mind where I'm going to just hang on to the Smurfs

and get rid of everything else. And I regret

that. And I definitely regret... Getting rid

of a lot of this the star wars stuff even though

it wasn't meant in package it would be nice to

still have hung on to some of those action figures

or the large size action figures. That would

have been cool to still have. I think some toys

and this is more recent that I regret the times

where I have purchased a more modern piece of

smurf merchandise. because I thought that it

passed the litmus test, like I thought it had

enough nostalgia in it, but then I brought it

home and I'm like, no, this is a modern Smurf

toy. You know, I recently did sort of a decluttering

of or downsizing of the collection when I was

moving it across country for the movie and I

made some cuts and almost all of the cuts that

I made were things that I had gotten in modern

times that, uh, I thought maybe looked cool,

but at the end of the day, you know, ultimately

didn't, didn't have the same sort of nostalgic

pull as the primary collection. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I can see that where, you know, like you said

earlier, you're at the time it's several times

you've curated the thing. And I've, so for me

just. I mean, other listeners, the people listening

probably know this already. I've done 160 something

episodes of this show in the last X number of

years. But just for you, I, when I was, I was

talking earlier about buying the optimus prime

and the sound wave and the blaster and whatever,

I had a toy collection from 2005 to 2011. In

2011, financial things came up. I had to sell

the stuff. I was perfectly fine without that

collection because I had to take care of the

start the financial stuff and everything else.

I still appreciated the toys. I still ran the

podcast up until I think 2014 and then I stopped

it until it came back last year with this very

format that we're doing right now. My buddy Josh

had a couple ideas. of doing a toy podcast and

i said to him i said dude i already have a built

-in audience i can bring the show back in and

we brought it back and it's you know it's it's

still going we do toy talk episodes we do this

thing called display case where myself josh and

somebody else or whomever it is me and two other

people it doesn't matter if it's josh or somebody

else we will each talk about like for you michael

it like if i. Said oh, I found the Funko pop

Smurfette toy and you have your own Smurfette

figurine and then somebody else has something

else we sit here and Essentially do a audio version

of a YouTube video review of the toy like just

talking about how What we like about it. What

is so cool about it, etc, etc, etc Uh, it's just

one of those things where it doesn't matter,

like, who, you can like whatever you want to

like and whatever. We all have various things

and things like that, but it's just, you know,

it's, I completely lost my train of thought.

Damn it! God, I hate when that happens. It's

because you're 42. Ha! Ha ha! Yeah? I know, I'm

not the answer to everything. Imagine how it

is for me, being eight years older. Oh, stop

it. Stop it. Stop it, stop it, stop it. Yeah,

no. I've realized as I'm on my way out of 42

and into 43 next year, I wasn't the answer to

everything. Not that I ever thought I was in

the beginning, but yeah. All right, question

17. How large or small is your toy collection?

Do your toys take up the whole house? Or are

they relegated to the one room shelf or something

like that? So, I mean, it changes, it evolves.

I will say that prior to the production of the

movie, my Smurf collection was housed in my garage

in Los Angeles. I have a little place in LA and

I transformed the garage into a retail experience,

basically a vintage Smurf toy store of my dreams.

And there are photos of these online if you want

to Google it, but it was always a dream of mine

to have a Smurf room, but not a traditional room,

more of like a museum slash store. That dream

became a reality a couple of years ago. And so

the majority of the collection And I would say,

when I say majority of the collection, majority

of the collection was still in storage. There

was a very curated selection of the Smurf collection

in this garage space, but it was definitely confined

to one area. And then, you know, the rest of

my home and the rest of my apartment here in

New York, there are little Smurf touches here

and there, but... Gone are the days where my

living space is just, you know, sort of overrun

with Smurf collectibles. And again, a lot of

that is I have learned how to display the collection

in a way that is more artful. Absolutely awesome.

Very cool. Very cool. If you do, how do you keep

track of your collection? Well, I mean there

it's such a huge collection that i know there

are there are points where i'm like. Start to

inventory and i just get so overwhelmed and it

just is too much so really the way i keep track

of it now is all of the display bins. For the

collection are see through. So it's much easier

for me when I'm carting the collection around,

particularly from coast to coast for me to visually

see, oh right, that's the container that has

the super Smurfs. This is the container that

has the regular Smurfs. This is the container

that has the Christmas Smurfs. So that's sort

of where I'm able to sort of keep a mental sort

of checklist of everything versus an actual physical,

tangible checklist. It's so funny you say that

about having certain ones at certain, like your

New York apartment or your place in LA or wherever.

It reminds me of what I did when I was a kid.

My parents got divorced when I was two years

old in 1982. By 1986, 87, when I was six or seven

years old, I would keep several bad guys at my

mom's house, but it was pretty much overrun with

the good guys. I would keep maybe one good guy

and then all of the bad guys at my dad's house

in Rhode Island. Oh my god. Yeah, it was - Not

too hard to unpack what's going on there. Well,

and it was funny because I had a whole He -Man

and the Masters of the Universe collection, and

Castle Grayskull was at mom's house, Snake Mountain

was at dad's house, and yes, I used the microphone

all the time. Oh my god. Oh, the eighties. I

miss the eighties. Same. Where's that time machine

that they promised us? I know, right? Come on,

Doc Brown. Where would you go? I'm sorry. I know

you're asking the questions. If you could have

big access to a time machine, what year would

you go to and where, and keeping it sort of in

the toy world? Well, that's easy. 1986. 1986

and where? Boston, Massachusetts. Just outside

of, just south of Boston, Massachusetts. Kingston,

Plymouth, Plimpton area. That's where I grew

up. And as of, oh God, December of this year.

Holy shit. As of December of this year, it will

have been a decade since I have been back in

Massachusetts. So in December of 2012, my mom

wasn't doing so well health -wise. She was staying

with someone where the apartment that she had

was upstairs. It's New England, folks. It's Boston.

It's New England. It's Massachusetts. These are

like, you know, Cape Cod homes on the edge of

Hull, Massachusetts, right on the beach. And

they have these old rickety stairs. She fell

down the stairs one too many times. And I said,

look, send me the money or buy me the plane ticket.

I will get up there. We will, I will bring you

to Kentucky and you just need to come back down

here. And that was in December of 2012. She came

back down here. We made a go of it as far as

living together and things like that and everything

else by 2013 and 2014. She started getting sick

and then in 2015 she passed. But yeah, it's been.

But yes, if I if I had a time machine right now,

I would go back to Massachusetts 1986 because

that just 1986 was. the year for me, because

there were so many things in 1986. You had, like

I mentioned before, you were in like the second

or third season of Jam. I think it was probably

the second season of Jam. You had Transformers

was just ending, plus the movie just came out.

You had Alf starting with Knight Rider ending.

So for me, and it's one of those things where

I've said this in every podcast that I've done

recently. The 80s to me is a virtual timeline

of things starting, doing what they did, stopping,

and then there's something that comes next. So

if you look at let's say 1983 to 1987, 83 you

had He -Man, 84 you had Transformers and Voltron,

85 you had G .I. Joe and Mask and Jim and all

that and Thundercats and Silverhawks was in 86.

By 87, you had Turtles and Turtles ran through

till the 90s. So it's this moving transition

of time. But yeah, if I could go back in time

right now, I would immediately go back to 1986.

Is there a specific toy store that you would

go to? Child World. It was a local Massachusetts

-based store that eventually Toys R Us and KB

put out of business. That was the place that

I absolutely loved going to because it was kind

of like this, if I remember right. I've looked

at several pictures of what the buildings were.

That was the coolest thing about Child World.

Like yes, Toys R Us has Jeffrey and Jeffrey is

awesome. And yes, we all want to be Toys R Us

kids. Fine. Whatever. Child World was a castle.

The outside of the building looked like a castle

and I have always ever since I was a kid Ever

since I saw the sword in the stone. I was always

about that Arthurian legend castles Knights,

you know magical swords that are supposed to

do all this stuff, you know Being the chosen

one of being able to pull the sword out of the

stone and all that and everything else So the

store the outside of the store looked like a

castle The inside of the store, I couldn't tell

you. But I don't remember the inside of the store

at all. Wow. I don't I have no memory. After

all the toys were. Yeah, well, yeah, I know.

I understand that. But works. Yes, yes, I know.

But I really I assume it was just like every

other toy store. So do you do? Do you have, I'm

sure pictures exist online of what that exterior

looked like and do you like have a framed picture

of it like in your living room? No, I don't.

No, I like the store, but I wasn't like, you

know, like, yeah, no, I've seen, I've seen pictures

of it. But I have like, yeah, no, I haven't built

my, my whole replica of it in your backyard.

Yeah, no, no, no. Okay, yeah. Yeah, it was Yeah,

so child world sled child world children's palace

corporation retail Founded 1962 it went defunct

in September of 92. So pretty much years after

30 years pretty much and And yeah, it was it

was really it was just one of those things. It

was just But yeah, I couldn't tell you if it

was, like, I assume, obviously, just like every

other toy store that we had back then. You had

an aisle for Barbies and the girls' stuff and

all that and everything else. You had the remote

control car aisle. You had the action figure

aisles. You had the sports stuff. You had the,

you know, and of course in the 80s, you know,

video games were just starting to become a big

thing. But man, Toys R Us just took over. I said

Toys R Us put them out of business. I had forgotten

that it wasn't until 92 that they actually went

out of business, but it's just one of those things

where... All right, let's see. You've mentioned

several times about curating and displaying your

toys. How do you display your Smurfs collection?

Well, again, I display them in this sort of store

environment. So one of the things as a modern

Smurf collector that I do is I buy multiples.

I buy a lot of the same thing. Like recently,

I mentioned to you that I love the Super Smurf

boxes. Well, I saw on eBay about six months ago

that someone who clearly worked in A store in

the 80s and had all of this dead stock of Smurfs,

but had like hundreds of the same super Smurfs

all in there. Like they would come like in five

packages from the from the wholesaler. They'd

come in like packages of five. Um, and I, uh,

I, uh, I, I bought them all. Like I bought, I

bought all of them and the reason i bought all

of them was because i have this idea of you know.

Wanting to recreate that retail experience of

walking to the store and just seeing that display

of all of the things. Toys but there's something

about you know the repetition and the duplication

of it like that that that is a retail experience

you go when you don't see you don't see one of

the same toy. you see like 60 of the same toy,

you know, cause they've got all this stock. Well,

I want all that stock. I want to visually look

at all that stock. I want to, I want to touch

that stock. I want, I want all of that. So that's,

that's really how my, my, the way I display my

smurf toys now and the way I displayed it in

the store was just a lot of the same thing. Like,

like I had a plush section and I had 30 of the

same small blue plush toy all in one thing because

it just reminded me of what it looked like in

a toy store back in the day instead of like 60

different stuffed animals. Yeah, it reminds me

of, and I don't know if you ever saw this, I'm

sorry to keep bringing up those giant robots,

but what you're talking about reminds me of the

Pawn Stars episode where this this guy had like

six different version, not different versions,

but like six of the same version of like Tripticon

or Fortress Maximus or whatever. And I like the

idea. The way you just explained it just reminds

me of Woody and Buzz going through the toy aisles

in the movie. And I like the idea, but there

are so many Different characters for me in the

funko world that I love that I could not just

buy The same toy over and over and over again

Right. Well you you don't have to buy the same

toy, but you could pick ten toys whose packaging

you really love and By those ten by ten of those

ten boys and then have a like a little area I'm

not telling you how to display your toys here.

You could have like a little section that sort

of conjured up that visual image and that feeling

of an old school like toy store. Anyway, that's

when I'm always chasing that high. That high

of walking into my favorite store called Gift

Expressions that sold Smurfs or even walking

into a Toys R Us during the Smurf Hay Day and

seeing like just a whole whole wall of Smurf

toys. There's just something that's so magical

about that, and I want to recreate it. Absolutely.

And I think... Even though I'm probably not going

to do this because it was hard enough for me

to find this one but actually a friend of mine

sent it to me because I haven't been able to

find it but It's funko pop Kate Bishop with lucky

the pizza dog. It's the funko black light series

So basically, you know you shine the the the

black light or the UV or whatever and and she

and the dog glow Well, this pop box is not your

normal white on gray with other artwork. It's

all black. Like this toy right now, and I'll

send you a picture afterwards. This I could see

having a whole wall of because that way I could

just put a giant black light above it and we'd

have all kinds of glowing Kate Bishop's Lucky

the Pizza Dolls. Yes, you need to do this. If

you take anything away from our conversation

today, it's that you absolutely need to create

that wall. I will try. No promises. It's hard

enough to find her. Like I said, I had to have

a friend in Louisville, Kentucky. He just sent

it to me and I was like, oh, thank you so much.

I've been looking for this. Some of the eBay

people. It's not even resellers. It's just some

of the people that are selling some of the fun.

Oh, man. It's a whole thing. Do you go to toy

fairs? No, I don't. I don't really go to and

that's a question later. Actually, we can wait.

We can wait until we get to it. Yeah. All right.

So everybody is safe, but Something happens to

the apartment or the house or the garage or whatever.

If you could only keep one toy from your entire

collection, what would it be and why? That's

tough. That's tough. I mean, I would probably

be one of the sort of special rare figurines

that my late husband got me for Christmas. He

would always like I had a list of like super

rare smurf figurines that I was always on the

hunt for. And one of them is called the Green

Surprise Bag Smurf. That's the name of it. It's

a smurf holding this little sort of European

gift bag. And it was super rare. And I remember

he got it for me for Christmas one year. And

that's special for me because it has a lot of

sentimental value. I suppose If that one was

easily accessible and I didn't have to dig too

deep to get it, that would be the one that I

would grab. All right, folks, we've gotten through

20 of the 42 questions. We're going to take a

quick ad break and we're going to come back right

after this and get Michael's, more of Michael's,

Toy Story and Life Story after this only on Toycast.

We'll be right back. Hello Geeks and Geekettes!

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the myths of Etheria, become Masters in space,

evolve into the Masters of Grayskull, and finally

reveal the revelation of Masters of the Universe.

We'll also be finding out the origins of how

guests got into or out of watching the Masters

of the Universe cartoon. and so much more. You

can find the podcast at geekcastradio .com and

any podcasting client you choose to use. By the

power and for the honor of Grayskull, we all

have the power. We are back here on Toycast.

on the GeekCast Radio Network with Michael Ossiello

talking about toys. So on the flip side of the

last question before the break, here's the toy

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

The only toys you can keep have to fit in the

box. What can you pack into it? I pack the Star

Wars Smurfs art figurines I referenced earlier,

and then I would I would put all the super valuable.

Smurfs, like the ones with the other there are

only 100 of them that were made. The ones that

that have actual monetary value, and then the

ones that have sentimental value. Very cool.

Very cool. Are you a Funko fan? No. Okay. That's

fine. I will say though, they have three, six,

seven, they have seven Funko pop. Smurf figurines,

and they've got Papa Smurf, they've got Astro

Smurf, they've got Smurfette, they've got Brainy,

they've got Gargamel with Asriel, and I believe

most of these are probably all vaulted. Yeah,

they all came out in 2017. No, I've seen them.

I've seen them, and they're aesthetically...

I like, they're nice. They're nice to look at.

I just, I can't go down the road of modern Smurf

toy collecting. I can't, I mean, I'm so sort

of off my rocker with the vintage stuff that

I have to draw a line somewhere. And a lot of

it is that's where I want to draw the line. This

is what I like, but also it's just sort of like

self -preservation. I just, I can't, I need to

have boundaries. No, absolutely. Absolutely.

Awesome. Very cool. Very cool. What was the most

money you ever spent on a toy? I think there

was a playset about a year ago that I got on

eBay, a Smurf moon landing playset. That was

$400, a couple hundred dollars. That is up there.

The large sized Smurfs, like the one you see

in the movie, the Papa Smurf one, those were

more, but those were a gift. I didn't spy those,

Kit got me those. I actually don't know what

they cost, but I have to imagine they were over

$500 each. But I think the Smurf landing one,

which is a super rare mint in package, super,

super Smurf, I think that was probably one of

the most expensive ones. Very cool. Very cool.

What on the flip side of that? What was the cheapest

toy you bought? What was the best deal you ever

got for a figure? Well, it wasn't a figure but

several years ago I found on eBay that someone

was selling a Smurf sticker display retail display

from the 80s one that my favorite store gift

expressions had and it had not only the six Smurf

stick full sticker rolls mint in package but

it had the whole retail cardboard display And

basically it's like these rolls of stickers come

out of like this mushroom house and it's beautiful

and i remember seeing it on ebay and i don't

remember how much it was but i remember it was

a steel steel and i and i oh my god i snapped

that up immediately and it's one of the coolest

visually one of the coolest things that i had

my my quote unquote smurf store and and. I would

have paid a lot more money for that. I mean,

I think it was just maybe a little over $100.

And it's huge. It's big. It's like it's considerable

in size. Very cool. Very cool. I mean, I know

the answer to this question, but I'm going to

ask it anyway. What modern and or vintage toy

lines are you currently collecting? None. Yeah,

it's just Smurfs for you. Yeah, it's uh And that's

that's cool. That's awesome that you like you

were saying about you know when I was mentioning

the the Funko pops marks where you were talking

about, you know having to have Limits on yourself.

Yeah, like for me. I don't buy it Like I don't

have every slick like I had mentioned. I think

I mentioned this offer. I might have mentioned

it on air I know I've mentioned it on air before

currently I have about To just under 250 Funko

Pops. I know people that have way more than I

do, but I am curating my collection to the characters

that I absolutely love. And with you, with your

toy collecting, you have curated to the one franchise

that you absolutely love. And I think that's

awesome. You don't, you don't, and I'm not. I'm

going to say this and I'm not trying to put words

into your mouth, but you don't feel like you

need, like you have no interest in any other,

like you may say, oh, that's cool. Or, oh, that,

that looks great. That's fun. That that's amazing.

Whatever. But it's just, you have no real interest

in having it yourself. Right. And that's not

to say that I won't buy modern toys like one

-offs. but not part of a collection. And usually

what will happen is I'll see something that's

cool. And usually it's a custom toy. Usually

it's an artist. There's some really incredible,

incredibly talented action figure artists that

one of them goes by the handle deathbytoys on

Instagram. His name is Dan Polydoros and he makes

basically these card back action figures modeled

after sort of the 80s Kenner Star Wars figurines,

but the toys themselves are really funny and

really dark and kind of dirty and I'm obsessed

with his stuff. He's so funny and so smart and

I'm regularly spending way too much money on

these one -off action figure pieces of art that

he makes because they make excellent gifts around

the holidays. That's awesome. That's great. Just

to give you an example, he made an Abraham Lincoln

present -day action figure with a card back and

everything, and it's basically just a skeleton.

Oh. I know. Does the skeleton Abe at least have

the top hat? It does not have the top hat. Oh,

it would take so much. Oh, God. It's, they're

so, I mean, they're so wrong, they're right.

But anyway, you should check it out, Death by

Toys. He makes some incredible things. He just

made, he made a Smurf card back figurine. He

took an old vintage Smurf figurine that had an

axe or like a, like some kind of tool and he

put blood over it and he put blood on the axe

and he made it a Shining themed Smurf. Wow. And

his stuff goes so quick. I saw that pop up in

my feed, and it was a one -of -a -kind. I bought

that immediately. So that kind of stuff, I'll

buy. Those kind of really super unique pieces

of art. Here's Brainy. I know it wouldn't be

Brainy that had... Oh, that's all I can think

of. That's awesome. Yeah. That is so, so cool.

All right, so you brought it up a little bit

earlier. Here it is now. Do you visit toy shows

and 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, et cetera? For me, I don't do crowds. I

hate crowds. So I don't do conventions. The last

convention I was at was. Botcon 2016 and I was

only there for the Stan Bush concert, which wasn't

even it was separate from where Botcon was actually

happening. So I Don't do them anymore. I did

them in the 90s and in the early 2000s before

eBay exploded on the scene and and and when you

could actually Go to a toy show and find things.

I think the advent of eBay really cut into the

toy show market. And I think a lot of the toy

shows now, it's a lot of modern toys because

all the vintage stuff will just be put on eBay.

In the 90s, I remember there was an annual toy

convention in Atlantic City called Atlantique

City. I don't even know if it still goes on now,

but I remember going there and just finding so

many cool vintage Smurf pieces that I... That

i think i would never find a toy show now because

they would just it would be on ebay people wouldn't

be selling these at those kind of toy shows and

then i go to sort of one on one off sort of more

smaller local. Toy shows as well and i did at

one point. Can i went to belgium. which is where

the Smurfs were born. Because every year there

is a Smurf toy fair there. And I've always wanted

to go and this is, you know, obviously years

ago. But we went to Belgium for this Smurf. It

was basically a toy show with just like Smurf

merchandise. It was incredible. And sort of to

answer your question, like with Atlantic City,

what I would do is my process would be I'd do

a loop, one quick loop, and I would be looking

for that sort of the Smurf blue, you know, because

it really sticks out. So I would just pass booth

after booth looking for, you know, that Smurf

blue and to see, you know, who had Smurf merchandise.

And I do sort of a quick pass, clock the booths

that I needed to go back to. And then I would

do another pass going slowly through the booths

that I have identified. Very cool, very cool.

What do you think it is about our generation

that caused our childhood toys to mean so much

more to us than say, for instance, our parents'

generation? I don't know. I mean, I would...

Only I think all I can speak to is like why I

think toys were more special Then than they are

now is just I think the the arrival of video

games You know, we we had fewer options when

we were kids. Oh, yeah, we there was much less

We could do you know, it's like playing with

our toys was one of those things that we could

do We did not have the internet, you know, we

did not have At a certain point in my childhood,

we couldn't watch movies at home until VCR came

out. So I think they made the toys more precious

and special. Yeah, absolutely. What is your motivation

for purchasing toys to display, play, fiddle,

describe your collecting style? Are you a completionist,

storyteller, cherry picker or otherwise? I find

as much... new old stock that I can find. That

is the collector that I am now. There aren't

really specific pieces I'm after. I'm looking

for the person who used to run a gift store in

the 80s and put all of the dead stock in storage

and is now taking it out of storage and is like,

I'm gonna put this on eBay and sell it. That's

what I'm hunting for. Very cool, very cool. Have

you ever purchased a toy for a child with the

ulterior motive of playing with it yourself?

Nope. Okay. Have you ever purchased a vintage

toy for a child because you thought it would

be fun based on your own preferences? Not for

a child but adults like now I'll find fun 80s

toys like I recently went to a Vintage store

in New Jersey that I've been wanting to go for

a while and I was walking through there and I

just I found some really cool sort of 80s toys

that I Didn't want for myself But I I admired

them and I liked them so much that I was like

I'm gonna get these and then give them as a gift

And I don't know to who And I don't know when,

but I know I need to share this magic that I

found. Right. Absolutely. Do you do any toy modifications

or customs? Painting, building, building dioramas?

No, I don't. No, I don't touch or. Taint any

of the the toys what I will do is like I'll mention

If there's an artist that takes a smurf and does

something really fun and artful with it I will

buy that from them, but I yeah, I I wouldn't

do it myself Yeah Do you think toy companies

should specifically have adult collector toys

child toys or find a way to mix both? Yeah I

don't really have a strong feeling about that

Either way, to me, I feel like the toys that

I buy are the toys that I had as a kid. So I

wouldn't really be drawn to toys that are marketed

or packaged for an adult. Yeah, I think I'm more

of like a one size fits all kind of thing. You

make the toy and then anyone who wants it can

have it. Yeah, very cool, very cool. Do you have

my parents get rid of my toys story? I don't.

Okay. I think I only have myself to blame. Okay.

Is there a story behind that? Not really a story,

but I you know, I don't like I don't actually

remember where my Star Wars action figures went

Okay, I do remember we had some flea markets

or garage sales yard sales as a kid where I'm

sure I probably You know cuz we all were like

we all had our little section and we could all

sell our own stuff I'm sure I sold I'm sure I

sold them there for for whatever but um, I don't

really have I don't have I don't like have this

like cool story where you know You know someone

came in in the middle of the night and stole

all my our action figures, right? Right. Okay

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 ever done with toys all together? I

do feel like I'm getting to a point where I have

all of the Smurfs that I need and then come.

And part of that is, you know, just space. At

the end of the day, I'm only going to really

display so many Smurfs at any given time. So

I do feel like I'm getting to the point where

I, you know, the days are over where I would

go, I think on an eBay frenzy or even go to a

toy show or even go to Belgium to a smurf fair

and like buy all these smurfs. Um, I think, I

think now it's just more of like, like seeing

one offs or something that I, or, or seeing this

sort of, again, this someone selling all this

amazing sort of dead stock from the eighties.

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

what is one toy you'd love to have scaled up

and functional for real people, for the real

world? Scaled up and functional, what do you

mean? Like a giant statue, like a giant Stay

Puft Marshmallow Man walking down New York City.

Oh, I don't know. I feel like if we're keeping

staying in the Smurf thing, I feel like everything's

moving. when the Macy's Thanksgiving parade happens

and I see the giant Smurf, you know, walking

down Sixth Avenue, I feel like, you know, I feel

like that that's sort of my, the marshmallow

thing. For me, I don't know if I that's something

I need or won't be on a parade. How did Kit deal

with your collection? Not well. Okay. Is that

a source? Do you want me to not? No, I mean,

no, I mean, it's like it's in the movie. I mean,

it's in the trailer. You can see it. It's it

was it was an issue. It was you know, because

as I mentioned, you know, Kit was had a very

refined taste. And very refined visual palette.

And walking into my apartment in Bloomfield,

New Jersey, and seeing what was essentially a

flea market display all over my apartment of

Smurfs was challenging and brought up some stuff

for him. You know, and I think looking back on

it, it's funny. It's very, you know, very funny

because we just are seeing our two very different

tastes sort of crash into each other. But at

the time, it was, you know, it was a little scary

because because it really did highlight our differences

and And I think in the beginning, he had a very

antagonistic relationship with my Smurfs that

became over our 14 years together, a very loving

and affectionate relationship with them. Well,

that's good. That's always good. Yeah, it's always

hard to introduce. Sounds, no matter who I'm

talking to, this always sounds so stupid in my

head, but it's always weird bringing somebody

home knowing you're a toy collector, knowing

you have a collection set up, whether it's museum

style, whether it's flea market style, whatever.

It's like, oh, by the way, I'm a toy collector.

This is one of the reasons why. When let now

there weren't any pictures of of my collection

on the dating site but when can i met on ok cupid

i filled out over a hundred and fifty i wanted

my profile to be as specific and as honest and

as open as i possibly can get it i said i was

a podcaster i was a toy collector i was this

i was that. And we connected and you know everything

else but it's really is difficult you know showing

people. Toy collections when we are supposed

to be grown adults in quote air quotes, you know

kind of thing but It's what we enjoy. It's what

brings us joy. It's what you know, we look at

and we see and we Have whatever memories that

we have from having those Toys and for kid the

issue wasn't the toy collecting it was the how

I displayed it. It was the lack of curation and

the lack of artistry, I think, which was, you

know, offended him more than anything. You know,

it's like, I don't have any problems, you know,

Smurfs per se, but why are they just like laying

all over your dresser? You know, like why you

could do such a better job displaying this and

have more fun with it? And he taught me how to

do that. And I think that makes a big difference.

I think it can make a toy collection seem scary

and the difference between it being scary and

being sort of admirable. And I feel like I'm

more at the stage now where I would proudly show

off my Smurf collection because it doesn't look

like a flea market anymore. Before things started

going south, he really did, you know, you guys

really kind of came together with the whole aspect

of him helping you curate it to the point where,

you know, he was an artist, was he not? Photographer,

designer, yeah. So as a designer, he can look

at that and say, okay, what if we try this? and

you look at it and you say whatever you might

have said kind of thing. And it's one of those

things where as a couple, as when you're in a

relationship with someone, whatever the interests

are, you help each other. You figure it out.

You do whatever is, you know. You compromise.

Yeah. And for me, it felt a little bit like an

education. because I didn't particularly love

the way I was displaying my Smurfs before I met

Kit. And I certainly wasn't, I felt I knew I

could do better. And I eventually did do better.

And when we had our first apartment, you know,

you see the difference, like it's depicted in

the movie. When we move in together, the Smurf

display in our apartment, is very different from

the Smurf display that Kit stumbled on in Bloomfield,

New Jersey, or in the movie, it's Jersey City.

But you can see the impact he had on me when

you see how the Smurfs are displayed in our first

apartment. And that's just one really, really

awesome aspect to your whole story. Like, again,

you say compromise, I think of it as more of,

you know, helping each other out to, like you

said earlier, education kind of thing, you know,

and that's great. Toy collecting can have its

struggles. What is one aspect you tend to struggle

with the most? Can you hear me? Yep. Okay, sorry.

I mean, whether to buy it or not, I mean, the

indecisiveness when I'm getting ready to click

buy now on an item on eBay and just for 20 minutes,

do I need this? Do I want this? Do I have to

have this? Is it worth the money? those little

decisions are becoming increasingly harder to

make because as I sort of realize that I have

more than I need. Right. What is one positive

and or one negative memory you have with buying

toys? Well, positive memory, you know, it all

comes down to my experiences at this store called

Gift Expressions that I had as a kid where I

bought the lion's share of my Smurfs when I was

young. I have such fond memories of walking into

that store in Union, New Jersey and seeing the

Smurfs in the yellow hexagonal rotating case.

You know just wanting them all and knowing that

I Could really in that not given day probably

only by one and I had to make a decision and

Just the excitement about that experience Those

experiences and gift expressions are are my happiest

toy memories my least favorite I think are about

the the ways in which I was made to feel ashamed

of the toys that I liked and the toys that I

wanted by my father. You know, whether it be

Miss Piggy or, you know, I wasn't allowed to

have Barbie dolls, but I had the Princess Leia

large -scale action figure and I treated her

like a Barbie doll. And I knew that it wasn't

a popular thing to be doing, like playing with

girl toys. Right, yeah. Quote unquote. Yeah.

If you could create any toy, whatever company,

I don't know who owns Smurf's Curr, I assume

it's Mattel. But I don't know. It's not. I think

there are several different companies, but basically

the family of the payo who created Smurf still

owns the brand. Okay. So basically if you could

create any toy, what would you want to create?

They give you the keys to the kingdom. What Smurf

are you making? I think it'd be fun to make like

a Smurf. like a Michael Osiello smurf, like a

like a smurf, like a smurf, like a smurf TV journalist.

I don't know what that would look like, necessarily.

I think like a TV scoop smurf would be cool to

to have because that does not exist. There's

a journalist smurf. There are versions of that,

but nothing specific as TV journalist smurf.

That's what I'd like. Very cool, very cool. What

is the one piece of advice you would give to

the toy collecting fandom? You don't have to

display your entire collection. What is advice

you'd give to kids who enjoy toys? Rip the packaging

open and go to town. Play, play, play. Play with

that thing whatever it is and don't worry about

appreciation monetary value or any of it Absolutely,

that's that's what kids are for Like kids nowadays

whatever toys that their parents are getting

them compared to what we get like Kids today

are like just like what we were You know, back

in the 70s, 80s, it's, you know. Although I do

feel like there's some of their parents, like,

and I know this with my own brother, with his

nephew, it says like, there are some where he

pressures them to keep them mint in package.

My advice would be like, don't listen to your

parents, rip it open. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Alright folks, we're gonna take a quick ad break

here. Here's some ads and some other stuff. You're

probably, I'm probably gonna put the audio from

the spoiler alert trailer in here somewhere as

well, just so you can get a feel for what the

movie is like. The movie is out in select theaters

December 2nd. We will be right back with Michael

Osiello after this. Do you like retro cartoons

then Saturday morning rewind is the podcast for

you Join them each month as they talk about classic

cartoons and interview legendary voice actors

like Jim Cummings Cory Burton Rob Paulson, Nancy

Cartwright and many more. So grab a bowl of Lucky

Charms. Put on your hammer pants. Go to SaturdayMorningRewind

.com and be prepared to feel like a kid again.

Once again, that's SaturdayMorningRewind .com.

Saturday Morning Rewind was voted best podcast

ever by its host Tim Nydale. So it's gotta be

good! One of the primary themes of Toycast is

that we focus on... Time's Past. We are who we

are today because of the nostalgic memories and

experiences from our childhood. Obviously we

wouldn't be doing this podcast if it weren't

for the toys that make us so addicted to nostalgia.

Time's Past Collectibles in Chicago, Illinois

is your primary go -to collectible store to reclaim

the toys that drove those memories and experiences.

Specializing in action figures from all of your

favorite toy line, like Star Wars, G .I. Joe,

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TMNT, Mask, and more, get your dose of nostalgia

with a shop run by collectors for collectors.

Whether you are looking for Loose G .I. Joe,

Ice Cream Soldier, a packaged Leonardo, recent

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you back to your childhood. Visit the shop at

1450 North Ash Ashland Ave in Chicago, just two

blocks south of Ashland and North Ave. Call the

shop at 847 -830 -1031 or email timespastcollectibles1982

at gmail .com. You can also find them on Facebook.

Just search timespastcollectibles because folks,

it's past time that you get your collectibles.

So let's say you're looking for a podcast of

your favorite 80s comic books, G .I. Joe, Transformers,

Ninja Turtles, He -Man, etc. Where are you gonna

go to find us? Welcome to Star Joe's Podcast.

I'm your host Ryan. And I'm Chuck. That's right

everybody, we're the Star Joe's. We host a podcast

called Star Joe's Podcast. where we talk about

your favorite comic books, your favorite toys

of all the 80s properties. Star Wars, G .I. Joe,

Transformers, Mask, Thundercats, Voltron, you

name it, we cover it. If it's in the 80s, we

will cover it at some point. Yes, so what you

want to do to find us, you can go to iTunes,

you can go to www .starjoes .com, and remember,

the Force will be with you, because knowing us

is half the battle. Middle child, two brothers.

We're actually very close, but they live in different

states. Only child. Childhood obsessions. Christmas?

Magic. My name is Michael. You're a great dancer.

You're a terrible liar. And that's kid. I've

always imagined that my life was like a typical

romantic comedy. You were so confident. I mean,

you just stripped off your clothes like you're

stripping a bachelorette party. And I basically

shower with clothes on. I'll just shut up now.

Shall we go to your place tonight? Here's my

door. Before we go in, just open the door. Okay.

What is this, Michael? Oh, you don't want to...

Oh my God, they're in there too. Oh, Papa. I

think you're very cool, and I'm worried that

you're going to break my heart. No, Dad, this

is my friend, Mike. A friend? Yes, Mom, just

a friend. What is going on here? Who is this

guy? He's my boyfriend. Your boyfriend. I think

he's a great kid. We may not look like it, but

we are actually kind of hip. Oh my god. We were

going to go to Woodstock, you know. Flynn? I

am. Let's just take a moment to appreciate this

beauty. Kit, what is going on? Are you alright?

Calm down off the ledge, Mike. I'm seeing a doctor

tomorrow. I'm afraid the news isn't good. I was

always afraid Kit would break my heart, and eventually

he did. He broke it open. You have to run the

race in front of you because that's all there

is. Looking back, this is less of a rom -com

and more of a love story. He can't sit for four

hours. We promised a bed. All the beds are occupied.

Give my husband a bed! All that was Oscar -worthy.

Work for Shirley MacLaine. I'm sorry I never

told you how good your ass looks in your khaki

pants. I was afraid if you understood how beautiful

you are that you'd leave me. Thank you for inviting

us. It was Kit's idea. I was vehemently opposed

to it. And like all love stories, it never actually

ends. All right, we are back here on Toycast.

Michael, this has been an awesome Smurf -tastic

journey. Hey, I grew up on Smurfs. I like the

Smurfs. You have any Smurfs? No, I do not have

any Smurfs. Hence why I was looking up the Funko

Pops for the Smurfs. Why don't you have any of

those for Funko Pops? I have not, I've only been

collecting the Funko Pops since late 2016, early

2017. And I just haven't. Number one, I haven't

sought them out. And number two, I haven't even

seen them in stores at the time. And I think

most of them at this point are probably, you

know, we've been talking about it the last hour

or so eBay, I'll go on eBay at some point and

find some. Well, don't do it for me, do it for

yourself. Well, yes, no, I mean, because like

I said, I remember watching the Smurfs. I remember

that evil old man and his crazy cat trying to

find the Smurfs. I never understood why Gargamel

wanted to eat the Smurfs. That made no sense

to me. I feel like we're going to get a standalone

Gargamel movie, sort of like Joker. Oh my God,

can you imagine? Like a really dark live action

Gargamel movie that tells us why he is the way

he is. You need to go and you need to write that

right now and then pitch it to Hollywood, dude.

Seriously. That needs to be your story. You need

to come up with that. I think you're right. I

think you're right. When does this come out?

End of November? How many weeks to write this

script? Yeah, absolutely. All right, so where

can people find you online if they would like

to interact with you, sir? I'm on Instagram and

my handle is my full name, Michael Osiello. I'm

also on Facebook and Twitter, but I would say

Instagram is the best place to reach me or to

read about what I'm up to and see stuff from

the movie. Absolutely. Speaking of the movie,

today, as of this recording, October 28th, I

almost said 2019. What the hell's wrong with

me? November 28th. Wait, no, it's not November.

Today, as of today, as of this recording, October

28, 2022, I saw your story. It's been one year

since you guys started working on the film. Yes.

So from you writing the book and making your

memoir and getting the book out there. To having

it become a film, is that something that you

wanted to do? How did that, how did making of

the film come about? It was not something I set

out to do. Um, it became something I wanted to

do when I found out that there was interest.

Um, but it all, it was sort of a funny story.

You know, Jim Parsons and I have known each other

professionally for, uh, for many years, mostly

from me interviewing him at events. Big Bang

Theory was a big show, a show that I loved, and

various award shows and whatnot. He came into

our offices several times and I interviewed him.

But anyway, we had a really fun rapport. And

when my book came out, I needed moderators at

these book signings to do Q &As with me. And

I reached out to Jim and I was like, hey, would

you do this? And he said yes before even reading

the book. And then he read the book. And then

we were backstage at Barnes & Noble before going

out to do this Q &A when him and his husband

mentioned, what was his husband that actually

mentioned that they were interested in optioning

the book for it to become a movie. And that was

the first moment where the idea of that really

became a reality for me. And that sort of You

know, set in motion the events that got us to

where we are today. Very cool. Very cool. Before

I run through the closing, is there anything

you want to say about the movie or is there anything

I haven't asked you about the movie yet that

you want to tell people? The scene in Michael's

apartment. When Kit comes in, there is a comforter.

There are bed sheets. Michael's bed is fitted

with vintage Smurf bed sheets. It's important

for me to tell your listeners that while those

vintage bed sheets were mine, that was a creative

choice that differs from reality. I didn't actually

have Smurf sheets on my bed. And it's important

that everyone knows that because even back then,

I had a line that I wouldn't cross. We all have

a line that we never are going to cross, right?

Absolutely. Smurf bedsheets were my line, but

for the purposes of the movie, Dramatic License,

whatever you want to call it, there was something

very visually fun about seeing Smurf sheets on

the bed. Absolutely. It's a movie that has heart,

it has everything you want in a movie, folks.

Even though there are sad points in it, I will

say that I had a lot of fun learning about yours.

As of this podcast recording, I have not been

able to get the audiobook yet. I'm going to do

that at some point in the next few weeks or so.

Cause for me, I do everything in audio book form

now. I can't, I just can't read books anymore.

I can't concentrate on them. So anyway, but yeah,

spoiler alert. It'll be out in select theaters,

December 2nd. And it was just an amazing piece

of film. Your story and kids story. I'm so sorry.

It really sucks losing people and I mean, I guess

technically I just spoiled the entire film but

that's your story and that's it just I'm just

so sorry, man. It just oh God, but in the film

folks you you people listening to the sound of

my voice you will enjoy this film because Before

up before you came on the line. I was like, oh

Jim Parsons like I've already said He has done

three things that I absolutely love. Now, sometimes

I get frustrated with Sheldon, but Sheldon's

a character, but I love the Big Bang Theory.

I loved him as Oh in Home from DreamWorks, the

animated movie. And I loved him in the play,

playing God. Oh, I didn't see that. Oh my God,

I'll have to see if I can find some YouTube clips.

I wish I could find his whole thing, like the

whole play that he does, but yeah, playing God.

When I first found out about this, I was like,

Oh my God, it's like Sheldon, but he's supposed

to be God. And then for like whatever like follow

up performance, and I'm not dissing the person,

but they got Sean Hayes instead of him for the

second version. I don't like, I personally don't

like that version, but yeah, Jim Parsons in playing

God was, I just love it so much. Spoiler alert,

like I said, folks, I've been said it like four

times now since we came back from the break.

December 2nd, check it out. It's an awesome movie.

You'll enjoy it. I'm going to run through this

really quick because Michael has dinner reservations

and we're going to get the heck out of here.

So 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

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personally use Spotify. Cause it has the best

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Twitter at geek cast radio for the network at

TF toy cast for the show. I am at TFG and Mike.

You can, as he said, follow him on Twitter at

Michael Osceolo or Instagram at Michael Osceolo.

Become a fan of Facebook, go to facebook .com

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out TF toy cast over there as well. Next time.

What do we have next time? I think we have the

poppin duo. Vince and Brie, but I'm not sure,

so we'll just have to wait and see for that.

For now, I am TF2 and Mike with... Michael Osiello.

Join us next time when we'll be talking more

toys here on Toycast. All for Smurf and Smurf

for All! All for Smurf and Smurf for All! Where

are we going, Michael? We're going home, kid.

under the foundation.