Interview with Dr. Pants on Toy Collecting Origins

Nice. 20 bucks? Really? I'm curious to see what

that... Ooh, yikes. No, no, no, no, no. That's

not... No. That's not going to work. Alrighty

then. I'm all good now. Jazz here, and I am so

diggin' the Geekcast Radio Network. Greetings,

humans. This is Starscream. And you're listening

to Toycast. And if any of you call me a POTS

-former, one more time! Toycast oh yes Listen

to the only toy podcast you will ever need Hello

and welcome to an all -new generation of toy

cast as we get the origins of any and all toy

fans that we can I'm of course THO Mike and today's

featured guest is a co -host of the transmissions

podcast You've heard his Transformers origins

over and all things Transformers, but today we

are featuring a beastly bot that doesn't like

war. Maybe? I would assume so. And he apparently

is a doctor of pants. So Dr. Pants is here. Hello,

sir. Hello. How's it going, Mike? It's going.

Sometimes I wish it would stop, but it's going.

I agree. I agree. Yes, yes. Uh, for people that

didn't listen to the other episode you were on,

explain the Dr. Pants name, please. So, uh, Dr.

Pants is just a nickname that came about when

I was in college. Uh, it's not as, it's not as

what's the word I'm looking for. Explicit as

some people think it might be. Um, cause I'll

throw in an extra little fun fact here at the

end, but basically I got called by my last name

a lot in high school. Cause I share a first name

with one of my best friends. So I got called

swank. Then swanky, then swanky pants. And then

one day in college, my best friend just goes,

yo, Dr. Pants. And that's the origin. And my

favorite thing is my license plate also reads

Dr. Pants. And when I put it in to get that,

I got a call from the DMV and they had to ask

me why. And when I explained it to them, they

laughed and they're like, okay, that's fine.

And that was the end of it. Cause apparently

they want to make sure it's nothing explicit.

Right. Yeah. I mean, you can't have, you know,

ass man on your license plate. Well, I've seen

it, but I'm pretty sure that was a joke license

plate. So yeah, that was a movie, I believe.

No, no, no. Somebody had it in real life. I saw

it at a convention. Oh, really? Isn't it from

an episode of Seinfeld? I think so. I don't,

I don't remember. But I'm pretty sure it was

just like a fun vanity plate on the front. And

that was it. Like it was not the legitimate license

plate. So obviously. Yeah. So it's time we started

talking toys here on Toycast. All right. 42 questions.

Darrell made it through. Let's hope you can too.

What is or was the first toy you remember having

as a kid? Oh boy. Um, so The earliest toy I can

remember playing with was, I want to believe

it was the Dino Rider figure that was the Styracosaurus.

Okay. It was like for for like anybody who knows

it was the one that opened up like a big like

blooming onion kind of thing in the back. I think

I remember that. Okay. I'm sure there were other

ones. I know I had transformers and stuff back

then, but like I remember vividly that and I

remember playing with it in our first house,

which we moved out of when I was like three.

Yeah. So yeah, I was, so you, you mentioned Dino

riders and my first thought is that Dino saucers

was better. I never got into the Dino riders.

I always get into the Dino saucers. Well, I was

such a dinosaur kid. Like growing up that like,

I love Dino riders. I love Dino saucers. I mean,

Dino saucers is one of those shows that had the

most kick ass opening theme. And then the show

wasn't bad, but that opening theme animation,

everything was great. Wow. Yeah, absolutely.

It was. All right, let's see here. What do we

get next? Was there a pit? Fuck that up. Ow.

Was there a particular adult who was supportive

of you playing with toys as a kid? Was there

anyone who was unsupportive? No one was ever

what I would call unsupportive of me playing

with toys. No one was ever upset about it, but

I remember that growing up, my dad always referred

to toys as plastic junk. That was his... Slur

for toys and he was never happy like with me

getting like a lot of new toys or anything. My

mom wasn't like upset about it but she wasn't

like I wouldn't like she was unsupported but

she wasn't like super supportive I don't know

anybody being holy supportive. Yeah, she wasn't

like driving you to the toy store every week

to get the new, the next new turtles figure,

transformers figure, whatever it was. No, no,

no. It was mostly like, if we went to Walmart

or somewhere, I'd be like, I'm going over to

the toy aisle and look around. And then I'd look

around and I, if I bugged her enough, she'd be

like, okay, fine. We'll get you that. When was

this? How old were you? Probably like 10. So

like 1996, maybe when I was nine. So 1995. Really?

Yeah. Yeah. See it every time. So for me, like,

I don't remember when it was that I first heard

about Walmart or whatever, but it always surprises

the hell out of me every year when I watch Christmas

vacation and the sled goes into the, I'm like,

there was Walmarts in 1988, 1989. Really? Well,

and see. The thing is, is like there was not

one near me until I think I was like nine or

10. We had a Kmart, not a Walmart. There was

a Walmart, I think the closest one to us when

I was growing up before that was like 45 minutes

away. And it was like this magical special place

that had like these huge toy aisles and this

big electronic section with all the video games

and whatnot. Yeah. But it has since lost its

magic for me. Yeah Considering you know, it's

a it's a nightmare to actually have them stock

toys sometimes. Oh my god. Yeah, that's a whole

other discussion What types of toys were your

favorites to play with? I Action figures like

any and all action figures. I mean when I was

when I was real young, like talking like four,

five, six, it was Transformers. The late 80s

stuff, early 90s stuff, like I absolutely fell

in love with all of that. Power Master Optimus

Prime to this day will be one of my favorite

toys I ever had as a kid, but - You still have

him? I don't have that like my original one.

He was lost to the sands of time somewhere growing

up, but I have - A Power Master Optimus Prime,

an original one. So he's on the shelf. I re -bought

him a few years back. But I mean, yeah, it was

any and all action figures. I got Ninja Turtles.

I got the Batman animated series action figures

and the stuff from the movies. Yep. God, I remember

having, I had a bunch of the real Ghostbusters.

The Terminator 2 action figures. I had some of

those and like that blows my mind looking back

and be like, how did a Raider R movie? Get toys

for kids. But that, that was a thing back then.

We just don't do it now. Yeah. So I don't think

we've done this topic. So for those listening,

you all probably know when I brought the show

back last year and I create, so Toycast originally

just for you, cause you probably, you know, this

show has been around since 2009, 2010. So Originally,

it was just me and three of my other friends

or two of my other friends. We would each pick

a toy from our collection and we would discuss

it. So essentially it's audio YouTube reviews

without the video kind of thing. We would just

sit here and talk about it, what we liked about

it. If the others liked our, like my toy or if

I liked their toy or that kind of thing, whatever.

Well, when I brought the show back in 2021, I

was like, Oh, I want to do. Other things, yes,

because I actually call it display case because

that's just what we call it. Because we all have

things that we, whether it's cases or shelves

or whatever. And I said, I wanted to do more

than just that. And that's where this 42 questions

of the origins came up. But we also do topics.

And my buddy Josh, who helped me bring the show

back, he's like, Yeah, we should do one about

a Rated R thing. And we had on former Mattel

employee, Scott Toy Guru Nightlick, and we got

into half of that discussion in that, in Scott's

origins back then when we did it in episode 144.

So yeah, the Rated R movies getting action figures.

I don't understand it either because it's a Rated

R movie. Kids aren't supposed to watch Rated

R movies. No, but - But in the 80s, we did. Well,

yeah, and like, and it branched into the early

90s. Man, some of those toys were cool, too.

Yeah, they were very cool, very cool. What were

your favorite childhood toys that really stood

out more than the others? Ah, that stood out

more than the others. Oh, boy. The original run

of Jurassic Park dinosaurs with the dino damage.

I absolutely fell in love with that. I said before

we started this, and I don't think it's on the

recording, but I was such a dinosaur kid. A lot

of us were, you know, but I wanted all of them

so much because it was so cool that they had

like little parts that could, you could fight

with them and then rip a piece off and like,

Oh no, he got bit, blah, blah, blah. It was,

it was so, so cool. Also power Rangers and anything

similar. to Power Rangers, like the Megazord

figures. I fell in love with that stuff. I had

I had Power Rangers. I had the superhuman samurai

cyber squad stuff. I'm sure there's others I'm

forgetting, but any basic like robots that combined

into bigger robots. And you know, Transformers

was a part of that too. And I love combiners

to this day. But like all those toys stand out

as me playing with them a lot to the point that

they were so loose. They couldn't stand up anymore

by the time like I was done and older and I mean,

Beast Wars to any Beast Wars toy like was just

some of my favorite stuff. Was it? No, that was

later. I was going to say even the Supreme Cheetor,

but that was Beast Machines and he's very inappropriate.

Has anyone ever introduced you to Voltron? Oh,

yeah. Yes. Sorry. That was one I was forgetting.

Spur of the moment, just can't think of it. I

had a Voltron growing up, of course. I watched

that and I loved that show and I love those toys

too. Yeah, absolutely. I look at the high -end

Voltrons nowadays and I'm like, Do I want to

spend the money? Can I schedule it for when the

wife isn't here? Yeah, absolutely. Do you prefer

the label of action figures, dolls, toys, or

other labels? Now you've already said your dad

called it plastic junk. And the way I usually

explain this question is, you know, when we were

kids, our parents or grand, like I remember my

grandmother saying, or my grandfather saying,

Oh, what are you going to go play with your dolls

now? Dolls, grandpa. They're action figures.

Get it straight. I mean, toys in general worked

fine for me. No one ever called them dolls to

like, you know, to that negative extent. It was

it was plastic junk. That's what I heard in my

brain. I mean, nowadays, like if you ask me what

I collect, I'd be like, oh, I collect action

figures like specifically that like it's not

just toys. Yeah. Yeah. Because there are also

other toys like, you know, when I, uh, how I

answered question one, what is, or was your first

toy? My question was back to the person asking

me was, well, are you talking about when I was

a kid kid? Like when I was three, four, five

years old, or are you talking when I was like

from six to 13? Because if you're asking me for

the answer, when I was between three and five

years old, I would have told you the red and

green Fisher price flashlight. Cause the red

and green Fisher Price flashlight is basically

just a flashlight and then you turn the dial

and it puts like this green paper over it. So

it makes the light. Was that an actual green

light? It was just like a film that got put over

it. Once you turn the knob kind of thing. Yeah.

So, you know, is what it is. Good guys or bad

guys, which toys were your favorites to play

with the most? Oh boy. Um. Probably probably

good guys. I was always a goody -goody growing

up. I always you know Obeyed the rules. I never

got in trouble in school and I always like I

always like more related to the heroes and everything

So probably the good guys. I mean I always had

some bad guys I really liked but yeah way more

good guys than bad guys. Very cool. Very cool

What is or was your favorite toy vehicle or playset?

Boy, oh boy See we're only seven questions in

folks. They only get more difficult than here.

Oh my god It is either either in terms of play

set I can do a play set in a vehicle. Yeah Play

set the Jurassic Park from the first movie with

the sounds and the pen and everything like that

was really really cool Plus I had all the dinosaurs

so I had my own little Jurassic Park set up in

terms of vehicle the pizza thrower from Ninja

Turtles The disc pizzas, I love that. It's so

cool. Look here, Ralphie, you don't know nothing

until you shoot your eye out with a pizza from

a pizza thrower. Oh, man, I love that thing so

much. The pizza thrower and the technodrome were

the two best vehicles. Like the turtle van is

the turtle van. Like that's a given. But out

of all the vehicles they made for turtles, the

pizza thrower and the technodrome were the two

best. The technodrome is a close second in terms

of vehicles, but the pizza thrower was just like,

you could shoot your friends with it. So yeah,

absolutely. Like I said, you'll shoot their eye

out kid. Absolutely. Well, this is a silly question,

but this is something I did on the playground,

but whatever. Did you and your friends ever pretend

with your toys that you had? Basically, did you

mean, did you say I'm going to be this toy and

you can be that toy? Like, you know, Doctor pants

can be the coke bottle top and somebody else

can be the piece of glass or whatever This is

hard to answer because the truth is is like we

didn't really play with our action figures out

in the playground It should be told like I very

rarely played with my toys with other people

I didn't have any brothers or sisters growing

up and most of my closest friends lived fairly

far away the only time we saw each other was

at school and That I couldn't have toys at school

so yeah Yeah, so we more we more played pretend

where we would you know be different characters

and whatnot Yeah, that's the thing, but I just

remember and You and I are both only children

so that that makes this easier But I just remember

bringing my even though you weren't supposed

to bringing my toy at least one toy to school

like I was going to be that like 1980 Yeah, cuz

I graduated sixth grade in 92 Yeah, so 89 when

I got Rodimus in Florida when I got Rodimus Prime

in Florida at the time You know, I brought him

back home to Massachusetts and he was going to

be the character I was going to be because he

is the best Autobot leader ever kind of thing,

you know, in school. So 40 years, folks, I will

never not say that. So, you know, this is what

it is. What features define a good toy to you?

How true does the item have to feel in comparison

to the source material likeness? I have thought

a lot about this lately, because it's come down

to, with a lot of collecting nowadays, it feels

like there's something missing. And particularly

because most of what I collect toy -wise is Transformers.

And an important thing for any toy is always

a really good gimmick. Um, like we talk about,

you know, the pizza thrower, it shot pizzas.

It was really cool. Um, the Jurassic park place

that had all kinds of like hidden features in

it and sounds and everything. And that was really

cool. And like transformers, you could say the

gimmick is that they transform, but I want more

than that. I want like, I want hidden features.

I want spring loaded missiles. I want sound effects.

I want, um, so. Was thinking about this with

with with also this thought was back in like

2004 2005 I bought Alternators side swipe Okay,

it was it was the only alternator I ever bought

but I had not seen anything about these and I

was like, oh man It's a Dodge Viper. This thing

looks really really cool. Mm -hmm And I remember

opening up the hood and I'm like, oh cool. It's

got like a chromed out engine and I pulled out

the engine and then I realized it turned into

the gun and I'm just sitting there and I was

with my friends and I'm like oh my god the engine

is a gun and I was just like just that little

like that little stuff like makes me so happy

um and like I don't, I don't know. I just, I

want like cool little hidden features. I want

gimmicks. I don't want it to just be what it

is on the screen. I want more than that. Like

with the Jurassic Park stuff, the Dino damage,

the opening jaws, the, the kicking feet that

some of those had, like I want extra stuff. And

as far as how, as far as how true it has to be

the source material, I mean, you and I grew up

with transformers. How close were those G1 figures

to the source material? Not very. No, not very.

Well, because that's the problem with the eighties

is that in most cases, the toys came first. It's

not like today. It's not like, and I know Hasbro

has already done this because they've already

seen the design, but it like, as we're recording

this, even though this is going to come out later

than when we're actually recording it, as of

right now, the sound of my voice folks, EarthSpark,

Transformers EarthSpark, the new Nickelodeon

show has just premiered. We spent about 20 minutes

before the show searching websites to try to

find the actual toys. They're not out yet. Uh,

they'll probably be out by the time people hear

this podcast, but as of this recording, they

are not out yet, but so it's like the show came

first. Let's do the toys, you know, or, or at

least the show designs came first. Let's do the

toys. Whereas back in the, in our day and our

hay days, you know, the toys were first and then

the show came. So, yeah. And. This goes back

and i'll take a moment to talk about this i just

did a retrospective with editor mike from transmissions

robo polo on the other. Guess we did a retrospective

on that and one of the things i talked about

was i'm such a big beast wars fan but i was not

a fan of kingdoms beast wars figures. And I realized

it's because they don't have any of the gimmicks.

Beast Wars was so cool because all of those figures

had some kind of hidden gimmick in them. Whether

it was the transmittals that had a vehicle mode

or, you know, body parts that became weapons

or spring loaded random things. And it makes

me sad that none of those new figures really

retained any of those gimmicks. Yeah, like. The

original author is Primal. Flip out shoulder

cannons, an arm that transformed into a cannon,

hidden mace in the forearm, the hands that beat

the chest and everything. Like I miss when toys

did stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. When toys were

fun and not just for display. Exactly. Exactly.

So what does toy packaging have to have to draw

you in? This is basically you're in Walmart or

Toys R Us or wherever and you see A Transformers

figure, a G .I. Joe figure, a mask, Thundercats,

Batman, Superman, whatever. What is it about

the packaging that makes you go to one over the

other? Oh, I don't know that I've ever thought

of this. I would merely say it's just got to

be the aesthetics. And what aesthetic? I have

never been able to pin down what it is that draws

me in. I honestly I'm still a child so bright

colors laser shots in the air like stuff like

that's gonna draw me in but also like in this

day and age I know what I'm looking for but back

when I was a kid it was just anything that like

just looked cool yeah most of the time it was

anything that was sci -fi or robots or dinosaurs

like anything that looked big and just exciting

Yeah, absolutely Yeah, yeah toy packaging like

it's gotten better over the years and there have

been some great packaging pieces from back in

our day, but I Mean generally as kids. We just

wanted to play with the toy and as kids We didn't

really care about the packaging now X number

of decades later. We are like, ooh This is cool.

This is great. I just wish that they would go

with a more Find a way to Go with a better way

to put the toy back in the package if you want

to cut like again We'll talk about this later,

but like Funko pops it's a window box. It essentially

is a piece of cardboard with a window box. That's

what it is So you see the figure inside you can

open it up at the top of the bottom You can pull

it out and you can put it right back in There

are plenty of I remember as a kid and even as

an adult with regular action figures Plenty of

blister cards that I'm just like, oh well, I

guess I'm not putting that toy back in the box

Yeah, yeah Especially with nowadays like anytime

you buy a figure Especially with Hasbro cutting

back on plastics, you know, they're tied in there

with like those those like I hate those things

I I do too and at this at this point like nothing

is going back in the box But I will say this

I think toy packaging art has gotten really Oh,

really great. I mean, don't get me wrong. The

original Transformers art was amazing. But yeah,

I cannot wait. Like I just I just want the evolution

stuff just for the evolution art. I don't even

care. Right. Toys. Yeah. Like I do not care that

the leader boxes anymore do not have a window

that you can see the figure in them because the

art on the outside is so good. Yep. Absolutely.

Uh, and those, so there have been two times in

my adult life that I've had difficulty with toy

packaging other than, you know, like I said,

you know, not counting Funko, cause those are

just easy, but it was when my buddy Alex, he

actually was like, Oh, how would you like it

if I, he air dry, he essentially airdropped me

a Commander Rodimus. He's like, Oh, I got free,

you know, rush shipping. Like he was telling

me this. And like three hours later, the thing

showed up. I'm like, what? I figured it was,

it was a, well, it was an Amazon prime thing

at the time, but, but it's just one of those

things where. Those ties man, like literally

I almost ripped off my entire thumb back in 2010

or 2011 whenever animated Blitzwing came out

because his ties were so tight and so in there,

especially with how he's packaged because I believe

he's either packaged in tank or plane mode. I

forget which one, but like, yeah, those men,

man, those they're evil. Yep. It's just crazy.

Well, I mean, you've kind of already answered

this, but do you open your toys or do you leave

them packaged if you open? There's nothing else.

The minute I get home and I have a toy, I rip

that thing open. Even as an adult, I do not keep

boxes because it just adds to more clutter that

I don't need. I rip it open. Which of course

I find hilarious when I'm on transmissions and

you've got people like Charles who have toys

that are in the box for like a year and I'm like,

how do you do this? How do you how do you have

the control to do this? So you leave nothing

packaged everything is open, huh? the only things

I have packaged in my display is I have a Drew

Carey and Mimi doll from the Drew Carey show,

still in the package, up on my shelf. Wow. I

love the Drew Carey show so much. My wife found

them through a Facebook marketplace post and

I was like, I need these in my life. That's awesome.

That is so cool. Very cool. Very cool. So weird.

It's a good show. I mean, so again, we'll get

into this later, but That's the crazy thing like

when Hasbro or whoever originally did I believe

was Hasbro did Mighty Mugs back in the day Mighty

Mugs are essentially what funko pops are now

kind of they're a little different but but it

was a vinyl figure and I'm thinking funko has

all like why isn't there an elf funko pop like

there's an elf wacky wobbler that funko did but

like there's all like they have all these Seinfeld

pops they have all these commute I swear to God,

the next time I see an office pop, I'm just going

to explode. I have never watched the office.

I don't care about, I don't dislike it because

I don't know about it, but I don't care. Like

I'm staying, like no one's ever going to see

me buying game of Thrones pops. Cause I just

don't care to watch that show or what, you know

what I mean? Like there are just certain things

you don't. Whatever. But I'm like, how does fun

come not have Drew Carey pops? Like seriously,

there are just some things that you're just like,

this is a no brainer. It ran for, I believe,

nine seasons. So like, come on. Yeah, exactly.

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

to choose one toy franchise to collect from,

which one would you choose and why? That should

be obvious right now. Yeah, I mean, you and I

know it's obvious, but the audience doesn't.

Well, hold on. Let me throw this out there. Do

model kits count as toys? Well, this is asking

you a franchise. This is not asking you about

a toy. Well, that's the thing is, of my collection

right now, it is broken up into two things. There

are two main things on display. It is Transformers

and it is Gundam model kits. Gundam is a franchise,

so you have to pick. Oh, this is like Sophie's

choice. Oh, man. I would probably say Transformers

just because I have so much more history with

it. Yeah. But just, I want everyone out there

to know that that would, it would be the hardest

decision of my life. Like I said, the questions

only get, this is not mission, this is not mission

difficult, Mr. Hunt, this is mission impossible.

Oh, Anthony Hopkins, we love you. As an adult,

do you prefer? Vintage toys or modern toys? It

depends. This is just tough, but like I just

mentioned with the Beast Wars figures, I prefer

the vintage Beast Wars to the modern ones they've

put out. Because I feel like the modern ones

are missing something. Like when it comes to

G1 transformers, I think most of the time I prefer

the modern interpretations because they look

like the they look like the characters now and

they're better articulated and also the transformations.

I think are more complicated, but at the same

time more interesting. Yeah. So I. So with that

I would go that way I think toys in general now

are like I would I would much rather have them

because I Keep saying oh, that's the only thing

I collect but I also collect the Marvel Legends

spider -man figures because I'm such a huge spider

-man fan Okay, and I had a bunch of those growing

up when the animated series was on Fox kids like

that show Oh my god, I loved it but Like I would

not go back to the mob to the vintage spider

-man figures. I want the Marvel Legends for the

pose ability Yeah, and I'm still getting the

kind of characters. I liked back then like they

just made the armored spider -man I think this

past year. Yeah, they did I think yeah, and and

like I love that design and it's a better toy

than the vintage one so It's like I said, it's

it's it's piece by piece. I think what I would

prefer Yeah, absolutely cool cool So apparently

I have to explain this, I have to explain question

14, because it doesn't mean that we're sitting

here like Darth, Darth Helmet, you know, pew,

pew, pew, like we're not doing that. But the

question is, what is one toy you could always

play with? And by phrasing it that way, what

I mean specifically is out of your entire collection.

What is one toy that you can point to that you

can just? admire the most or Grab grab it over

everything else kind of thing and really really

enjoy it As he's looking at his collection trying

to figure it out folks you can't see me you don't

know that's what I'm doing I heard your chair

turn damn it I it's gonna go back to power master

prime that is yeah, because like it was I don't

know if it was my first transformer, but it is

the first one I remember having and it is a toy

filled with gimmicks. It is like I can't say

if optimus primes my favorite character from

transformers or not, but he's he's definitely

up there in the top five at least and yeah, I

have so many fond memories with that figure and

the gimmicks. The the chunkiness of it and everything

just blows me away and I admire it It's the only

I think it's I don't own many g1 transformers

anymore But it's one of the few that's up there

and I'm like, yes, that is my optimist prime.

I love how it looks I love just taking it and

like transforming it back and forth and just

air quotes here posing it yes, because you can't

pose it but He doesn't have legs, he doesn't

have knees. But that would probably be it. I

just, I love that figure. It's a good thing I

don't have an eBay tab open because you keep

talking about Power Master Prime and it's making

me want to go do stupid things on eBay. Hey,

of all the toys I could be talking about, that's

not one of the worst ones to go do stupid things

with because I think by the time I finished like

I'm getting all the pieces and everything and

even doing the toy hacks label set for I think

I only spent 90 total. Oh Wow, very cool Yeah,

and that's I got a really good one For 60 the

only piece that had to be replaced was the power

master high Q the one that came with it was disgusting

Yeah, and I found him on eBay for like 20 and

then I bought the toy hack set for I think like

1015 Oh, that's very cool. Yeah, so I and maybe

I just made out lucky but you can probably find

a decent one out there for not too bad yeah probably

there's just so much stuff just so much stuff

i know all right so i mentioned earlier about

certain things that i don't collect out of eat

funko and everything else but even though there

are always toy lines that people never purchase

are there any use specifically and purposefully

avoid this can be toy lines characters etc like

again you go into the toy store and you see a

A Transformer, a G .I. Joe, a Thundercat, a Batman,

a Superman, whatever. Which one are you avoiding?

Is there anything I avoid? Wow. I can't think

of anything that I specifically avoid. There's

stuff I'm completely just disinterested in. I'm

not a - DC person really at all when it comes

to comics and movies. So like I was big into

Batman as a kid because of the animated series.

But since then, I'm not as in love with DC anymore.

So I kind of just ignore it. And I think the

only time I would ever even look at the DC section

is if I saw a cool animal man or swamp thing

figure and that would be it. Really? So My only

real stint with DC reading and enjoying it was

when the new 52 hit and I got so or I fell in

love so much with the that run of animal man

and swamp thing that I went back and read the

older versions of it. And I love both those characters

and what's happened with them. Very cool and

very interesting. Not a lot of people say. those

characters to me on any podcast. I mean, I'm

not saying the characters are bad, but like everybody's

usually going like Transformers or this or that

or, oh, Batman or, oh, Iron Man or, oh, Spider

-Man or, oh, like very, like, I think he might

be the only person that I've talked to in the

last 14 and a half years that has ever, so wow.

That's cool though. That's awesome. Very cool.

Very cool. I'll throw it out there any man or

anybody who has not read like the animal man

comics from the 80s and 90s Like if you want

a messed up read do it. It's so good Grant Morrison's

animal man one of my favorite things I've ever

read very cool very cool 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 you regret letting go? I Can safely say

that when it comes to toys I've bought The one

that sticks out my brain most as regretting buying

and because it's a recent thing was I bought

Kingdom tracks from Transformers. And I hate

that figure. I hate it so much. I think the transformation

is garbage. He is kind of a mess in robot mode.

The vehicle mode looks great if you can, you

know, actually get it to work. But I just I,

I regret that figure so much. And it got me to

the point where I was originally trying to collect

a season one and two cast for Transformers out

of the current generations lines. It made me

stop because I'm like, it's not worth doing this.

Wow. So I regret it. And I am looking to just

get that figure out of my collection, along with

a couple of others, because it made me look back

and be like, I don't need three of the Datsuns.

I'm good with just one regret selling. I'm trying

to think if there's any figure I've sold that

I've been like, oh, I should re -buy that. I

don't know if there's any I regret getting rid

of. I don't get rid of too many figures, so I

don't think so. I don't think so. How do you

keep track of your collection? I don't. That's

the best way to answer that. There's what's on

display. And then there are boxes with stuff

that is not on display. And that's it. I should

keep a log of things. So I know what I have and

don't have, but I think I'm just too lazy to

do it. So it's like, I can look on the shelves

and be like, oh, there's that. And I'll be like,

I think I own that. Let me go digging through

all these boxes to see if it's in there. And

that's, that's really all I can do. Absolutely.

How do you display your toys? Like, do you have,

you know, is it one of those things where all

the Autobots are on this side? All the Decepticons

are on this side? Are they mixed? That kind of

thing. Uh, it is, there is a method to my madness.

I wish I knew what it was. There's like a shelf

that is all of the season one and two Decepticons,

a shelf that is season one, two Autobots. Then

it is a shelf of. Sound waves, because sound

wave is my favorite Transformers character. He's

the number one, probably movie figures. Then

it's like seasons three and four Autobots decepticons.

I have two details. It's like all my masterpiece

third party figures and whatnot. I have another

shelf that's all Unicron trilogy stuff. I have

to look three details full of Gundam model kits.

I have a detail that is all Spider -Man Marvel

Legends figures. And then there is a shelf going

around near the top of my room that is a mishmash

of other things I have, where I've got some superhuman

samurai cyber squad stuff. I've got some Robotech

slash Macross stuff up there. I've got a Weird

Al figure up there because I love Weird Al. And

basically any miscellaneous figures I have are

up there. So there's an organization to it. But

sometimes I look at it and I'm like, is there

a reason why this is here? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Okay. So everybody is safe. The wife, the pets,

the, if you have kids, you know, all that good

stuff, everybody's safe, but the house is on

fire. If you can only keep one toy from your

entire collection, what would it be and why?

I think you asked me this during the transformers

one too. Now that it's not just transformers.

Now I'm thinking more. Uh, I, it's a toss up.

It's a toss up for me. Um, it is, it is definitely

a Gundam model that I've put together cause those

are toys. They're action figures. I just put

together. It would, it would either be the mega

sized original Gundam that I bought on my honeymoon

in Japan with my wife. or the perfect grade GP01

Gundam because that was a holy grail model kit

for me for ever since I started building that

like it's now up there it's complete it looks

beautiful and after all these years if I let

that go I feel like a part of me would die so

it would probably have to be one of those two

very cool very cool that is that is awesome Alright

folks, that's twenty questions down. We're gonna

go to a quick ad break. We're gonna come back

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ad break. And on the flip side of the ad break,

we've got the other, you know, Toy question where

you can only keep one earlier in question twenty

question twenty one here is the and i assume

this is inches but this is the toy box challenge

you get one eighteen by eighteen by eighteen

box the only toys you can keep have to fit in

the box what can you pack into it. Eighteen inches

by eighteen inches oh man. I could get my entire

Marvel Legends Spider -Man collection in there,

because it's not that big. Not enough. Not enough.

That's the answer. Quick plug, if anybody who

is a Donatrian on transmissions, Darryl and I

have been doing We Like Big Bots, where Darryl

and I talk about big robot figures we have. That

extends to pretty much all of my collection,

where I love the biggest figures I can get, and

I'm pretty sure an 18 by 18 by 18 box is not

going to fit a whole lot. Yeah, no. So probably

I could get a lot of my Transformers Generations

collection in there. Very cool, very cool. Probably,

yeah, that's the that's the key word there, isn't

it? Probably. The age -old question that I always

dread asking people, unless I already know that

they are, but are you a Funko fan? I am NOT a

Funko fan, but I'm not a Funko hater. Okay, well

that's good then. I am of the mindset that like,

Funkos are fine if that's what you want to collect,

but the only Funkos I own are of things that

I'm either very, very connected with, and I want

every possible piece of merchandise I can have,

or it's of something I can't get a collectible

of elsewhere. Yeah, Funko has done a lot of that

kind of stuff. Now, let me ask you this, Mr.

Soundwave fanboy. Do you have all of the soundwaves

that they've put out so far? No, I don't. What?

Well, there's a couple of... There's a couple

of older ones that I do not have that if I came

across them I would pick up or I look on eBay

every now and then to see if I can find a decent

one Like I do not have the g2 go bot sound wave.

I don't have the beast war sound wave I don't

have the machine war sound wave anymore. That

was another one that was lost during my childhood.

Oh I was meeting the three funko pops that they've

put out. Oh those no, yeah that sadly no, I don't

have any of the funko pops just because what

Well, it's mostly because I think the big one

is the only one that even has the chest opening

gimmick, right? I was shocked. When they announced

that, I was like, oh, so originally I thought

the cassettes were just going to have a little

bit of a ledge and they would just sit on his

chest. When I got mine, And I realized it was

an opening. I'm like, Oh my, I don't give a crap.

How many solas black eyes, big head, little bodies.

You say these figures are. I don't care. That's

awesome because I was not expecting that on a

Funko pop. Now I will say that I do believe the

big one, the big version of the sound wave Funko

pop is on sale at GameStop currently for half

price. And if I see it at my local GameStop,

I may just pick it up. You should go to the website

right now and buy it. I triple dog dare you.

This is holiday season. Oh, dude, I paid MSRP.

If you don't go to this fucking website right

now, as I'm yelling at you, $16 .98. Oh my God,

he's that cheap? Are you kidding me? If you don't

buy this right now. I will end this podcast.

I'm putting this in our Discord message. Go get

that. That's ridiculous. I paid $40. Oh, that's

hilarious. I'm not pissed that I paid MSRP because

I love the figure, but Jesus Christ. I almost

want to buy a second one so I can have somebody

repaint his eye visor red to match the show.

Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, wow. Uh oh. I triple dog dare

you. Can you hear me? I'm working on it. But

right now it is, it is, oh there it is. It was

only telling me, it's only letting me order it

from the store. It doesn't, it's not letting

me order it online. Oh wow. Find it, oh you bastards.

Oh, hold on. That sucks. Nope, I found one that's

not far from me. Okay, good. Do it. So we're

okay. We're okay. Don't worry. Yeah, we're okay.

All right. All right. Moving on. I feel like

Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Okay, moving on. I

don't know because this is going to be a question

24 is going to tie into what we were just doing

here on the podcast, but question 23 first though.

What is the most money you spent on a toy? Probably

a little over 300. What did you buy? The third

party transformer, the fan sobby power baser

and god armor combo. Very cool. And it's one

of my favorite things out there. I absolutely

love it. Very cool, very cool, very cool. That

is awesome. On the flip side of that. What is

the cheapest toy you bought, or what was the

best deal you ever got for a figure? When I was

about 11 or 12 years old, at a yard sale, I found

a G1 Optimus Prime, the cab and the trailer for

a nickel. What? Yep. It had none of the other

accessories, but it was the cab and the trailer

a little over 10 years after its release, and

it was a nickel. Wow. Yep. And to this day, I

will forever be upset that my dog chewed it.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Chewed one of the arms almost

right off. So what's the dog's name? Oh, well,

this was no. The dog chewed it has long since

passed. It was probably Jack. Probably Jack did

it. No, gotta watch out. I, yeah, thankfully,

thankfully the dogs we have now are not chewers.

They do not steal my stuff and shoe it. So that's

good. Oh yeah. And I would think, uh, with that

story being told, I would think my Funko Pop

Soundwave Dare would be the cheapest toy he's

bought recently. I mean, compared to what the

MSRP of it is. I mean, come on. Yeah. Like, you

know. Yep. Yep. What? Modern and or vintage toy

lines are you currently collecting? Modern toy

lines, again, Marvel Legends, Spider -Man, the

Gundam model kits and Transformers Studio Series

and Legacy. Vintage toy lines I am currently

working on trying to get as many of the Power

Masters from the late 80s Transformers I can

get. So far, I think I have all the Autobots.

I still need to get the Decepticons, so I still

need Dread Wind and Blackwing and Double Dealer.

I'm also always, and I guess it could be vintage

because they're all about 20 years old now, I'm

always looking for Unicron Trilogy stuff to fill

in gaps and stuff from RID 2001 Transformers.

Always looking for that stuff. And if I can ever

find it, there's always parts to the superhuman

samurai cyber squad, the bigger combined figures

I can get. I'm missing parts of Xenon. I need

to finish him. That's probably about it that

I'm like actively collecting. Other stuff is

if I come across it at a convention and I go,

oh, that's cool, then I'll pick it up. Yeah,

yeah. Is there anything specific? This is a side

question that isn't on the list. Is there anything

specifically in the upcoming legacy evolution

line that you're absolutely wanting? Leo Prime.

Holy crap. I don't care that the lion face looks

terrible. The fact that they are giving us a

Japanese Beast Wars figure in the main line.

Yes, 1000 times. Yes, because they've also given

us things like Minerva. Like we're getting some

of those Japanese figures in the main line and

I want all of it. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, when Steve

and I did the all things transformers news episode

after that got announced, my first thought was,

and I don't know if it's the way the transformation

is. I don't know if it's the way the photo is

or whatever. All as I could look at was his left

arm in the photos that were provided and his

claw is like up under his armpit. I'm like, oh

my God, he's monkeying around. A Leo Prime is

monkey, a lion is monkeying around. I'm like,

oh my God, I just can't even do it. Just can't.

Very cool, very cool. So you mentioned toy shows

and conventions. When you visit toy shows and

conventions, do you have a typical methodology?

How many toy shows and conventions you normally

go to kind of thing? It's hard to say anymore

because, you know, the past years have been actual

absolute trash. Yes, obviously. But like when

we were still going to conventions, usually it'd

probably be about maybe four to five conventions

slash toy shows a year. A lot of small stuff,

because surprisingly being where we're at. There

is a retro toy show every year about an hour

and a half away from me that I will hit up a

retro con in Oaks, Pennsylvania. That's a great

place to find some cool stuff. A lot of retro

toys, media, that kind of stuff. I've been to

TF Con twice. I would like to go again, and I'm

planning to go again this coming summer. And

then usually my wife and I will hit up maybe

two or three anime or comic book conventions,

depending on what's around and what we feel like

going to. Very cool, very cool. That is awesome.

Excuse me, sir. 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? This is a question I've

actually thought about a lot. It's something

that's come up a lot. He hasn't even seen, I

don't show people the questions unless they absolutely

must see them folks. So the fact that he's thinking

about this is nuts. No, it got brought up because

I think somebody mentioned some somebody mentioned

something to me somewhere or I saw it in like

an article I was reading, but I want to say it's,

it's simply because, uh, our toys. had character

and also we had what I believe to be like. More

time with our toys where is I wanna believe like

our parents they spent more time just playing

with their friends outside and doing that kind

of stuff where is that a lot time with these

things and they were they were so formative for

our childhood that we develop these attachments

to them and nostalgia. I every generation has

nostalgia for things in ours I think just comes

from toys because. You could argue that the seventies

and eighties were like the big boom of like these

amazing toys that were coming out. I mean, there

is no argument. It was. Yeah, that's, that's

the thing. Cause like you said before then fifties

and sixties, and I don't know what the thirties

and forties would do, but fifties and sixties,

like bike rides or playing in the sandlot or

whatever, you know, playing field hockey, doing

whatever kind of like, like you said, outside

stuff, whereas, you know, the eighties hit toy

companies came along and said, Hey, Here's all

this plastic. This is awesome. Your children

can entertain themselves kind of thing. And for

me, what I think about the most is the fact that

at least for you and I specifically on this specific

episode of this podcast, we're both only children.

Unless we had friends close enough that could

come over and play. We were just there making

up our own shit. Exactly. Exactly. So. I, it's,

it's the fact that like, these were so formative

to us. Plus we made up all these like stories

and games with these figures that were a part

of us. We created it. So absolutely. I have this

whole story in my head as a kid where I thought

at the time, and I figured this out earlier this

year, it might've been last year. Originally,

a buddy of mine told me that there was a version

of transformers, the movie where. hot rod got

the matrix immediately. There was no ultra Magnus

there was no nothing yada yada yada and what

it was was my child brain. Kind of combining

that with what the story book was so the story

book was really the wild boy of quintessence

that was the ultimate. It wasn't the ultimate,

but it was the main Transformers storybook I

remember as a kid at the library. And in that

book, you only have certain characters. You have

Hot Rod, you have Wheely, you have Cup. Like

you don't have Ultra Magnus. You don't have,

you know, you have the Quintesson part of the

movie in that book. And that's why I always thought

that screw Ultra Magnus. Ultra Magnus old friend,

my ass. Get out of the way, boy. Get out of the

way, you old fool. Let the young hot rotting

punk come in and do the job correct or whatever.

Anyway, sorry. No, no, no. That's the kind of

stuff we did. That was the kind of stuff we did.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. What is your motivation

for purchasing toys? Display, play, fiddle, describe

your collecting style. Are you a completionist,

storyteller, cherry picker or otherwise? Cherry

picking completionist i'll explain i have in

my head like sets i wanna own but it's not i'm

not trying to complete like full waves or series

of figures like right yeah i'm not trying to

complete transformers legacy or legacy evolution

or the studio series i am trying to get. Like.

They they announced needle nose in legacy evolution

I want to get needle nose because I have spinister

and I have quake so there are the the Decepticon

double target masters if They do a Minerva I

want them to do a go shooter and a cab and like

get those like I want small little sections Filled

in but I don't want entire like Like I said,

I was trying to season one two Autobots for Transformers.

I'm not doing that anymore with the generations

And it's also a little bit cherry -picking, like

if I see a figure that looks cool, I'll be like,

cool, I want that figure. Like, what was one

I just got? Override, I got the Velocitron override.

Like, I'm not gonna complete the Velocitron set,

but I wanted override because that figure just

looks cool. But yeah, it's just little sets.

complete but it's a cherry pick set subset of

a bigger set that's basically how I collect and

then going on with what whatever just whatever

makes me whatever makes me happy if if they put

out a scarlet spider figure I will buy it if

they put out a symbiote I will buy it it goes

in the collection yeah very cool very cool wait

a minute hold on Okay, here we go. Have you ever

purchased a toy for a child with the ulterior

motive of playing with it yourself? No, because

I Again, I don't really have any brothers or

sisters. So nieces and nephews were not really

a thing I don't have any children of my own and

My when when I got married I did game two nephews

and I never bought we never bought them toys

Really the one we bought a couple of toys, but

it was when he was really young and there was

like it was baby toys Yeah, the the older one.

He always wanted video games. So that's what

he bought. That's what we bought him. So Very

cool. Very cool. Never are never ulterior motives

And the flip side to that is, and I'm sure this

answer is going to be no as well, but have you

ever purchased a vintage toy for a child because

you thought it would be fun based on your own

preferences? No. Yeah. See, for me, if I was

going to do that for any of my, uh, my cousins

who have children, I would buy them like Astro

train or like do you want Astro train? Cause

I, I love, I'd love. Oh my God. He's sitting

right here and I'm just like, wait, it just.

Just resisting the urge to just pick him up and

just start fiddling with him and get him into

plane mode out of train mode and all that good

stuff. Such a perfect fiddle figure. Yes, exactly.

It is. Do you do any toy modifications or customs,

painting, building, building dioramas, that kind

of stuff? Not building dioramas. I have not gotten

that far into into my toy collecting. Right.

Customizing. I have done. Some things here and

there where I've done little splashes of paint.

My Power Master Prime, the front bumper was very,

very scratched up, so I did do another layer

of chrome paint on that. I know I've done painting

on other figures. I honestly couldn't tell you

what anymore, but I have done it. If there's

something on there that I feel like is easy enough

to paint and I have the right paint to do it,

I'll give it a shot. Yeah, yeah. Uh, with the

model building, I will go above and beyond with

that. I won't just snap them together. I will,

I will do the lining. I will paint them. I'll

even weather them. I just, I just finished building

the flame toys for I model of Leo prime and I

weathered it. I shaded it. I detailed it to just

make him pop a bit more. So yeah, but normal

toys typically not. Uh, and the only other modification

I'll do is if there's a third party add on kit

for something, I might go that route, but yeah,

nothing, nothing on my own typically. Very cool.

Very cool. Do you think toy companies should

specifically have adult collector toys, child

toys, or find a way to mix both? Find a way to

mix both. Cause that leads to my problem with

the toys. This goes back to transformers cause

that's my biggest thing. So I'll just, I'll just

use that as an example. My so currently there

is a more adult collector oriented line for the

normal Transformers with legacy. And then we've

got the toy lines of cyberverse and the upcoming

earth spark right and. The cyberverse earth spark

toys you can argue have more gimmicks and are

in general more geared towards fun. Whereas there

is the the legacy figures are. Character accurate.

Yep, more complex transformations, more part

count, more solid. And they're great for display

and there's some fun transformations, but I feel

lacking. But I always go back then in my mind

to the mid 2000s to the like or early 2000s to

mid 2000s, like RID 2001, the Unicron trilogy.

We didn't really have a generations line happening

then until probably the end of the Unicron trilogy.

Yeah. And like Those figures are solid. They're

chunky. They're well -built. They have some interesting

transformations, but they also have some really

cool gimmicks. And I think you get the best of

both worlds with that. Like, the RID 2001 Optimus

Prime figure is one of my favorite figures of

all time. I love that toy. The Fire Engine Optimus

Prime that, like, does all the armor and everything.

Good God. That toy is... it's hearty. It's chunky,

the transformation's great, and it looks and

has this amazing presence to it. It's not hollow.

It has everything I would want in a Transformers

toy, and we're not really getting it in either

line now. So I want to see them just do one line

focused. Right. Yeah, yeah. Do you have a my

parents got rid of my toys story? I told this

on the last podcast I did with you Mike and I'll

tell it again when I was younger I did not actually

I don't remember this I was not I don't know

how I don't remember this but apparently I didn't

clean my room after my parents told me many many

times so they threw out all my Transformers toys.

And this was like G1 stuff like I had a Peronicon

oh yeah I got that one that one kills me because

I love Peronicon and like. Oh God, but and a

couple of others I can't even remember anymore

and and even in my like older age. I remember

in the past year my dad even said to me is like

I really wish we hadn't thrown out your transformers

toys that like that would have been a cool collection

to have it's worth something now I'm like yeah

you shouldn't have done it should you. Yeah,

that's the regrets. The regrets loom as large

as Cybertron was over Earth in the ultimate doom.

Yeah, well, jokes on them. I'm an adult with

adult money and no kids and I can buy whatever

I want. I will relive my childhood. Oh, God.

That's hilarious. So no little pantaloons are

in the plans at all. No, no, they're not. I'll

be frank with you. If my wife and I have kids,

we will most likely adopt and we will probably

look to adopt someone older. Okay. There's always

kids who need that. Yeah. And if you want me

to cut that out, I'll cut that out. But like,

oh, you can leave that in. I'm very open and

honest about that. That's perfectly fine. Do

you feel you are coming to an end of your act

of collecting? If so, what has signified this

phase for you? Was there ever a moment when you

were done with toys altogether? Have you ever

considered stopping as a collector or even selling

your old collection? Uh, I am not near the end

of my collecting. In fact, I'm pretty sure over

the years it has only ramped up. I have gone

through waves of toy collecting but it has never

bottomed out. Yeah. I I cuz honestly and it always

comes back to Transformers cuz it's my biggest

thing and I'll just keep saying that I I don't

think there is a single Transformers series.

I didn't buy a toy from at least one. I mean

at least one. Yeah, like I honestly believe Transformers

Prime is the one I only ever bought one figure

from, and I regret that a lot because I know

that series had a lot of cool toys in it, but

I just didn't jump on it. That's what eBay is

for. That is what eBay is for. Well, hold off.

There was an earlier question. I talked about

what I was buying. Transformers Prime is not

at the top of the list right now. I'll get there.

I don't think I even own an Optimus Prime for

my Optimus Prime collection from Transformers

Prime, which seems like a sin. And also the sound

wave. I really want the sound wave from Transformers

Prime. Oh yeah, the drone. The drone, yeah. I

think there's a third party company redoing that

figure. I think it's like APC Toys, and they're

almost scaled to what the Prime Toys were, but

they're more detailed now. I kind of want that

one. Very cool. Well that goes in line with question

35. What is something that does not have a toy

of it you'd love to have in toy form? That doesn't

have a toy that I would love in toy form. That's

a great question and I'm sitting here trying

to think what do I want a toy of? The truth is

is I think anything I've ever wanted a toy of

it exists somewhere, okay I mean if you had asked

me this like a month ago. I would have said tarn

from the IDW comics, but let's face it He's not

he got one great. He's coming. Yeah, he's he's

coming. So that's great Man oh man oh You know,

you know, it would be it would be dumb but it

would be really cool Uh, from anybody who was

reading the Transformers comics, last bought

standing, there was a combiner in it that was

like a grotesque monster combiner of a bunch

of random pieces. I would love that. I don't

even remember what he called himself. It was

a dumb name, but I would love that. Very cool.

Very cool. Yeah. If I was going to, and I, and

I think there's a model kit out there, but it's

like, like I would have to ship it. I don't do

model kits. I would have to buy it, ship it to

you. Have you built it for you and send it back?

But there is a model kit of IDW Rodimus, but

I would love to have like a kingdom or legacy

or whatever, like a deluxe or a Voyager of IDW

Rodimus because I know Rodimus rules. Yeah. And

you know what? I was so disappointed when Velocitron

said, Oh yeah, we're going to get a hot rod.

And it was not just a redo of like override to

be IDW Brodermus. It was just different colored

hot rod. That's that's crazy. Absolutely crazy.

Well, listen, man, if you ever want to do that,

I am down because I love to build stuff and I

can promise you I would put all the love and

care into that to make it look good. Oh, I know

you would. What is that? Wait, no, I didn't.

Wake up, you idiot. Wake up now. What is a toy

that you'd love to have scaled up and functional

for real people in the real world? A Toy to be

scaled up to its real size like not to like one

100 scale but like scaled up. Oh Like yeah any

any pilotable mech you give me anything from

Macross Gundam Mech warrior you give me any pilotable

giant robot Anything. I want that. I want a robot

I can sit in and pilot. Very cool. That would

be awesome. That would be awesome. Oh, it's not

as expensive as I thought. This is all your fault.

I'm trying to remember what the hell. It's Flame

Toys Transformers Furai 17 Ronimus IDW version

model kit. Oh, it's not that. Yeah, it's not.

It's 40 bucks. Yeah, that's not bad. The Leo

Prime I did was 80. Oh, wow. Yeah, but that that

is the first model kit I built that came with

a cloth cape that had wires in it to pose it.

Oh, wow. That's cool. It's a sexy kit. But the

Flamethrowers ones are good. I've built the Leo

Prime, Starscream and Nemesis Prime. Very cool.

Very cool. Yeah, I'm not a I'm not a builder.

I can't. I can barely do regular, this is why

my collection now is Funko Pops. Anyway. All

right. Question 37 in a row. How has your spouse

dealt with your collection? She is, uh, for the

most part, fairly supportive. Uh, as long as

I have enough money to help cover the bills and

do stuff around the house. She is She's pretty

okay with it. She has at times, if she goes to

Walmart or Target without me, she will FaceTime

me in the toy aisle and say, hey, what do you

need? And yeah, she has also been an enabler

at times. My favorite thing she did is when Earthrise

was out for Transformers, she showed me what

was there. And I don't remember what figure I

told her I definitely wanted, but she's like,

well, they also have a Starscream. Do you want

that? And I'm like, Oh, I don't know. And she

says, there's only one Starscream. I'm going

to buy you Starscream too. It's like, thanks,

honey. Great. So yeah. No, she's, she's fairly

supportive of it. And she does not care about

it in the way I do. Yeah. Yeah. But she's, she's

supportive of it and she will help me with it.

Cause she knows that I'm passionate about it.

Yeah, absolutely. When, uh, when, when Karen

was still here, uh, you know, And I, I, I love

this and it's something I will net like talk

about a toy that I will run into a fire and save.

It's only because I had to sit in the car or

something was going on where she was just going

to run into Walmart to get something. And I was

either maybe we had just gone to fast food or

something or other, but I was in a car and she

was in Walmart. And for some odd reason, she

stopped at the electronic section and saw that

the Funko pop national Lampoon's Christmas vacation

pop ride of Clark in the station wagon with the

tree. She's like, it's on sale for 25 bucks.

Do you want it or not? Like, yeah, I want. So

my wife who did like, I was always the one like

looking for pops. Like she wasn't super into

it either, but she. Like you, you know, like

you said, kind of thing, but like I bought her

several, like I bought her like Cubs players

because she's a Chicago, she's from Chicago and

all that history, whatever. I bought her the

target lady from SNL or, or cowbell or drunk

uncle. So Daria, cause she's a fan of Daria.

So I've bought her all this stuff and whatever

else, but it's like, it was always me searching

for the funcos. It wasn't her. And then she goes

into the store. I had just heard that it had

got released and maybe it wasn't on sale. Maybe

the 25 because usually I think pop rides are

that much but Yeah, so that pop I will never

get rid of that pop because she found it for

me It was like oh and like I've said before on

other shows and maybe I said earlier today maybe

whatever but national Christmas vacation is Like

out of all the Christmas movies I've seen in

my entire life, that is number one, no matter

what my personal opinion. That's a damn good

movie. It is very much so. Nobody should watch

Eddie's adventure. Don't watch that stupid sequel

date that they tried to do morons. Toy collecting

can have its struggles. What is one aspect you

tend to struggle with the most? FOMO. Fear of

missing out on something That has driven a lot

of purchases where I'll see something and I'll

be like, oh there's only There's only one of

it on the shelf and or it's one of those figures

that everybody says Oh, this is an amazing figure.

You have to play with it You have to you have

to mess with it and I'll be like, well, I guess

I got to get it But then in the end I'll be like

I don't even care about this character or I don't

care about this series Why am I getting this

figure? So that's that's probably what led to

a lot of purchases back in the last Transformers

line because War for Cybertron had a lot of people

talking about a lot of really great figures and

I bought a lot of stuff. Yeah. And in the end,

it's like, do I need all this? No. Yeah. So it's

I think FOMO is the biggest thing, especially

in the digital age now where anyone can post

pictures, their opinions of something, their

review of it, their video, and you're just like,

Oh no. Yeah. Like I said before, for me, it has

to be like, like I've said this on every episode

of the show. Since I brought the show back when

it comes to Funko pop. I haven't bought everything

I've slaked I want the golden girls fucko pops

all of them not just the original ones but they

also released ones where they're they're in bowling

uniforms and holding bowling like I want all

that stuff but like if they ever make an. Alf

pop. I'll stop I'll be fine I'll be happy I.

I have my Knight Rider pop. I have my 18 pops.

I have MacGyver. I have all this 80 stuff, 90

stuff. I have Batman's. I have Spider -Man's.

I have whatever, but if they ever, if Funko ever

made a Alf pop, I'd be done because that's the

one out of everything they've made in pop form.

That is the one thing they have not gotten to

yet if they ever do. But yeah, that. And FOMO

is real and FOMO sucks, but I don't have it.

There's so many, like I could go on my buddy's

website that I always pimp out, poppinofftoys

.com. I could go on there and I could look at

the stuff he has in stock and I'd be like, oh

my God, I want this, this, this, this, and this.

It's so funny. Somebody dared me to do a Blacklight

collection, a Funko Pop, because they're doing

Blacklights with Funko Pops now. Some of them

are cool and some of them are whatever. I've

seen a couple of them. Yeah. Some are cool. You're

right. Otherwise. Yeah. I've only seen three

and I have two of them currently. Uh, uh, Kate

Bishop with Lucky from Hawkeye and they just

did an Elvira one and Kate Bishop and Lucky are

like, doused in purple and, and, and Elvira has

a purple dress and stuff. So, so me and black

and purple, it's always been a thing. What the

hell was I talking about? Oh, but like the, like

the whole FOMO thing, like I see all these pops,

like I see all the releases from Funko and all

the leaks and it same thing, like with Transformers

for any of, you know, someone like yourself,

like. Okay i'll get that when i can if i you

know if i can but it's like half time okay well

that's cool i can't get it right now but i'll

get it eventually kind of thing it's like i don't

have like i don't have that. Just need to buy

it immediately like i've said this before the

only thing that i would be a mac to a mac truck

about is funko if they ever do funko pop elf.

Kids get out of my way. Adults get the fuck out

of my way. I want one of those things. I I completely

understand. And I think the deal is is it's it

again comes down to everybody talking about everything.

And when you hear that something's good, you

don't want to miss out on it because I feel like

an experience you missed out on. But I think

any more the FOMO hits with. Like right now legacy

Minerva, which is an exclusive and I'm really

worried I'm not gonna find one, but I love the

Japanese g1 transformer series I want that figure

and now I'm worried I'm gonna miss out on it.

Um, I Got the studio series sludge today It's

the only one I've seen and that figures been

out for a while and I had to get it right away

when I found it because otherwise I might not

see it because We all know as toy collectors

Waves of toys are weird where like the first

wave that comes out, you're going to see that

wave forever. Yep. But then wave three, wave

four, it's almost like they're mythological.

Some people somehow get them, but you never see

it in the wild. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, that is,

that is so, so awesome. All right, let's see

what's next. What is one positive and one negative

memory you have with buying toys? Hmm I'm like

going through the the I'm going through almost

a Rolodex or a card catalog in my brain going

through is this positive is this negative? What

am I doing? And this is a real this is a hard

one just because I don't have anything that stands

out my brain That's that's the big issue. I would

probably say like a positive memory for me Is

is any time it's any time? whether it's in the

store, it's that rush you get when you find something

you've been looking for. That hit of adrenaline.

That's always a positive memory. And I know there

are times it's happened where I've just walked

in the store and been like, oh, there it is.

And you grab it or you find something at a convention.

You're like, oh, I've been looking for this for

what feels like a thousand years. And you finally

have it in your hands. Negative. I can't think

of when it's happened, but I know it has. It's

any time you have spent a lot of money on an

expensive piece and it breaks. Or if it has even

the slightest imperfection in it. No one's gonna

see it but you. I hate that. It drives me nuts.

If you could create any toy, what would you want

to create? So they give you the keys to the kingdom.

You can do anything you want. Keys to the kingdom.

Anything I want. Hmm. Any toy. Any toy. I would

love. I would absolutely love an affordable range.

of Macross Veritech jets. Wow. Yeah. Because

they exist, but they are not affordable in any

way. They are like, like, I want a normal retail

release. Like, just give me the Veritech fighters

from Robotech. I actually can't remember what

they're called Macross if it's still Veritech

or something. I think it's a Valkyrie. The Valkyrie.

That's what they're called. Okay. But but like,

I would love that because I love Robotech and

Macross, and I think they have some of the coolest

designs ever, but if you want to get any merchandise

from that, it's so stupid expensive. Yeah. I

would find a way to make a Transformers Generations

or Marvel Legends or Star Wars Black Series price

point of Macross figures. Absolutely. Very cool,

very cool. All right. Final two questions. What

is one piece of advice you would give the toy

collecting fandom? You don't have to buy everything.

Buy what makes you happy. Buy what you want.

You don't need everything. Yeah, absolutely.

That's I think that's the best advice that I

even kind of dawned on myself lately. It's like

you don't need to get everything just get the

ones that. Get what sparks joy, whatever that

lady was who was popular for a hot minute there.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things where,

again, for me, it comes down to character. It

comes down to attachment, whether I have an attachment

to the character or not. No spoilers, no spoilers

at all, because Dr. Pants hasn't seen it yet

and most of the audience. Well, by the time this

goes out, the audience will have seen it. But

as of this recording, I just finished watching

Transformers Earth Spark on Paramount Plus. And

the only thing I will say is that my favorite

new character that they introduced is Twitch.

She is the drone that they did. And I absolutely

love her. But yeah, no, just relax everybody,

please. It's okay. That's what it is. And don't

be the kind of person who buys five of something

to resell all of it. Don't do that. If you want

to buy one extra one for resale value, fine.

I understand that. I have a friend who does that.

That's how he fuels his toy hobby. Yep. And I've

done that a couple of times myself, but do not

be one of those people who walks in, buys every

version of a figure just because it's rare or

something, and then sells them all on eBay for

marked up prices. Don't do that. Yeah, yeah.

Don't be a dick. There you go. That's life advice

too. Don't be a dick. Well, yes, I mean, come

on, that should go without saying. It should,

but it doesn't. Well, you know, the luck is gone,

the brain is shot, but the liquor we still got.

I can't believe I just quoted Doug Coughlin from

Cocktail right before asking you the final question.

What is advice you'd give to kids who enjoy toys?

Number one, you're a rare breed anymore. And

number two, just have fun playing. It's tough

to tell kids not to worry about what other people

think because when you're a kid, it's so hard

to do. it's so hard to do. I'm a high school

teacher. I see that kind of stuff and I try to

tell kids like, don't worry about what this person

says but we know what it was like back then.

It's hard not to but enjoy the time you have.

Enjoy doing what you love. My advice to everyone

is if it doesn't hurt anyone, have fun. It's

not bothering anybody else. Play with your toys.

Play with what you want. Toys are not, you know,

the Toys are not they say they have an age range

on them But don't worry about it. I still play

with my toys. Now. I'm not sitting here with

Optimus and Megatron going I'll rip out your

optics once. I'll stand watch. I'll fall Like

I'm not doing that. I should like Occasionally

take a take a car and just go do to do to do

because Few atoms infects my brain all the time.

So but uh Yeah, just have fun. Just have fun.

Yeah. I watched, I watched his review, his review

of Robo Synoptimus. I'm like, just know, even

if I had the money to buy that stupid thing,

there's no way I would ever buy it. And like

everybody talks so highly of that figure. Like

anyone who's had is like, this is the most amazing

thing ever. My friends still send me videos of

it and they're like, have you seen this? It's

like, yes, I'm good. Yeah. I'm in the Transformers

community. I'm, I don't have my. ear to the ground

on a lot of, you know, majority, you know, but

for the most, you know, famous type. And for

me, I just want the damn voice chip. That's all

I want. Oh yeah. Exactly. But that's all I want.

But no, Thieu's video on Robosen, like that,

that Optimus Prime, perfect. Cause he says like,

it's a cool display piece, but what do you do

with it then? Cause it doesn't, you can't play

with it. It plays with itself. Yeah, absolutely.

Alright folks, we're gonna take another quick

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Snake Mountain with echo microphone new from

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Shut up. Beyond the Night is the GCRN's latest

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Beyond the Night in iTunes and on www .geekcastradio

.com. dot com yes michael just keep driving Alright

folks, we are back here on toy cast with dr.

Pants from the Transmissions podcast and he also

does something on their patreon calls. They love

big butts and they cannot lie. Oh, I'm sorry

bots True I also have my own YouTube channel

too, but that's mostly video games and not toy

related So yes. Yes, you can promote that in

a moment, but tell us all about the transmission

stuff first if you remember any of it I know

Charles usually does the promotion, but. I think

I've listened to it enough. I think I got a handle

on it. Transmissions podcast is, of course, a

bunch of guys talking about upcoming Transformers

figures, whether they are official or third party,

all Hasbro announcements and stuff. There's two

shows every week. There's the toy show on Wednesday,

and then there's the media show on Friday, where

they would normally review comic books. But I

think we all know who reads Transformers comic

books. They're running slim right now. Yeah,

they also have a couple of other shows on their

feed. One is a tabletop role playing game based

on Transformers. There's the we like big bots.

If you join as a patron, you get a bunch of other

exclusives. It's it's a lot of fun. It's just

a bunch of guys who have been doing this. And

yeah, they have a discord. You can come join

it and talk about Transformers. Very cool. Very

cool. And tell us all about your YouTube channel

then now. OK, so. I originally started on Nerdstradamus,

which is where I will stay. That is my baby.

That is my friend's baby. We have been doing

that now since 2016, so we are jumping into our

seventh season of that show coming up. It's mostly

video games, but in all honesty, it's a bunch

of guys just having fun. We stream video games.

We talk about video games. We do music, music

videos. We do funny skits. We'll talk about random

other nerdy stuff too. Our mantra is basically

what I said near the last question. We like to

have fun. Yeah, we don't we don't want any negativity

or any of that. We just yeah, there's a bunch

of guys who like to have fun Yeah, I mean look

I understand there are Negative opinions and

things like that, but you know opinions are like

assholes. We all have them, but we don't always

have to use them to you know just just I 100

% agree, and if you watch nursery Thomas you

will see me rage out a couple of times But it's

for fun and like everybody can have a negative

opinion But we just don't like to see anybody,

you know, go up against someone just because

of what they like. I mean, I raged out on you

on this podcast and I'm like, why are you not

buying this already? Dammit. Did you buy it yet?

Actually, it won't let me buy it on the website.

The only way it's letting me do it is like I

have to ship it and it won't ship it because

it's not available at my store. Doesn't matter

if I change the store and I can't say it to pick

up at the other store. So I'm going to drive

out there tomorrow and pick it up. She's all

right. Yeah, I know, but I am going to get it

because $17 for the 10 inch sound wave Funko

pop. Yeah, that's, that's amazing. Yeah, exactly.

I will, I will send you a picture of when I buy

it tomorrow and be like, look, look, I got it.

Now I have to tell you, and I know everyone is

already has already heard me say this, but It

may only show three cassettes. There are four

cassettes. Right. There's one. There's one put

in the chest, I believe. Right. That's right.

But everybody was bitching and complaining about,

Oh, why is it only buzz saw ravage rumble and

frenzy? Why? Where's laser beaks? So I didn't

bitch about this. I looked at the pictures and

then I went to my game stop and I got it home

and I looked at it. I'm like, Oh, There he is.

That's cool. So frenzy and rumble. Sadly, in

this case, rumble is red. Frenzy is blue. It

sucks. It is what it is, but cause they're, cause

the thing with the, and I, again, I say this

every episode, the thing with the fun co license,

they can do almost any kind of transformer as

long as it's based on the toy design, not the

animation models specifically. So rumble and

frenzy each have a flip side to them that shows

what their original cassette shows. Okay, Ravage,

same thing. He has a flip side front and back

where his legs are on the front and whatever's

on the back is on the back. How they got away

with being able to do Buzzsaw and Laserbeak without

having to make two individual ones, they're flip

sides of the same cassette. So one side is Buzzsaw,

the other side is Laserbeak. You can pick your

choice. Oh, that's interesting. So it isn't like

they didn't put laser, his most famous cassette

in there. They did. They just did it in a different

way. Oh, that's interesting. I actually kind

of like that. Yeah, me too. Again, I wasn't pissed.

I was waiting on seeing what they were actually

seeing what Funko was actually going to give

me. And when I got at home and I found that I'm

like, Oh my God, this is kind of shocking. This

is cool. And it's a way to have all five cassettes

without having to spend extra plastic. Exactly.

Yeah. I mean, the only, the only cassette I would

say you're missing is rat bat, but I think he

only showed he first shows up in the movie. Yeah.

He shows up in the movie and then in parts of

season three. Yeah. And then nobody really gives

a crap about not skull cruncher. That's a whole

other thing. Uh, slugfest and whatever the other

one is. Yeah. I mean, I know people care about

those characters, but still. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah,

folks, check out transmissions, check out nerd

Stradamus and all that good stuff. Dr. Pants

is an awesome, awesome person. Every time I talk

to him, we have so much, so much fun. It's a

blast talking with you, Mike. I love being here.

So thanks again for having me. Thanks for inviting

me. It's just nice to BS about toys for like

an hour and a half, two hours. Great times. What

else are we going to do? More of this, obviously.

Obviously, yes. Thank you for joining us here

on Toycast. If you'd like to get in contact with

us, or leave feedback for the show, there are

several ways to do so. Visit the website, geekcastradio

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Follow us on Twitter at geek cast radio is for

the network at TF toy cast is for the show. I

am at TF 2 and Mike, are you on Twitter? I don't

even know if I am. I am. Okay, good. I am Dr.

Pants 1412 on Twitter. No period, no space. Just

D R P A N T S 1412. Very cool. Very cool. become

a fan on Facebook, go to facebook .com slash

key cast or do you know where you can also check

out TF toy cast over there as well as I believe

there's a transmissions Facebook page, but I

don't remember off top my head. There is one.

Yeah. And they are also on Twitter as well as

turns missions. There's no a so T R N S M yeah,

whatever. The link will be in the show notes,

folks. Next time I know Josh and I did something

I forget if it was a display case or if it was

it was we did something so 165 is is gonna be

gonna be something so I had no idea what what's

going on there. For now I am TF2 and Mike with

Dr. Pats. Join us next time when we'll be talking

more toys here on Toycast.