FloorBurger’s Top 20 Toys of the Last 20 Years

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

Network. Greetings, humans. This is Starscream,

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

you call me a parts former, one more time! Hello

and welcome to Toycast. This is episode 170 and

we are officially on the road to 200 episodes,

folks. We got 30 to go. I'm sure we can make

it because I already have episode 171 and 172

planned, so there's that. We just came off of

episode 169 where I kind of talked a little bit

about some inappropriate Transformers and my

buddy Steve Megatron and I talked about the Hasbro

fan stream for Transformers that was on their

Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel January 31st, 2023.

Hey, look at that, folks. I didn't screw the

year up. I am, of course, TFU and Mike. Joining

me kind of, sort of, almost as always is Josh

the floor burger greetings and I'm hoping my

attendance becomes more regular and frequent

so people learn who I am people know who you

are it's just that half the time I'm doing origins

and I prefer those be one -on -one then some

other form of math that I don't want to get into

right now we're here because you have a top 20

toy talk topics for the last 20 years of your

collecting life. I don't think I'm going to nail

that level of alliteration that you just said

there. I'm surprised I nailed that level of alliteration

that I just said right there. Yeah, I don't see

me being able to even attempt that. But what

I'm going to do is explain what I wanted to talk

about tonight. technical difficulties let's move

on shall we all right we are back from the impromptu

break here on toycast josh top 20 toys of the

last 20 years what's your idea explain it to

everybody and then we'll go through it what okay

what what what's the genesis of you wanting to

do this in episode 170 of toycast here on the

geek cast radio network So obviously, every year

is the anniversary of a year. And so I start

thinking about it as we've kind of discussed

in other episodes. After my mom had passed this

past early winter, late fall, whatever you want

to talk about it, the notion of time hit me pretty

hard. And I was thinking about, all right, how

much time has passed since various things. And

it occurred to me that I really I don't know

what defines when you become a collector. I don't

know if that's. Are you seeking out a number

of items and displaying them? I don't know when

you cross that line from just buying a couple

of things that you think are cool to you are

now a collector. I don't know. I think it's when

you have more boxes of your collection than you

do your other personal items. So what I will

say to kind of. pivot off of that is as a kid

in the 80s, slightly older than you, you know,

I had, this is why I say I always have the luxuriousness

of being born in the year 1980 because I got

to go through one -year -old, two -year -old,

three -year -old as the years progressed. And

as a kid, it was all about playing with the toys.

It was all about having fun. It was all about

this. It was all about that. And then, you know,

you go through your teenage years, your high

school years, toys kind of disappear, the cartoons

maybe still there, whatever kind of thing. And

then, in our, or in my personal, you know, timeline

of things, it's like, oh, 2005, 2006, I was in

a job where I was making a lot of money at the

time, and I found eBay. And then you no longer

had money. I still paid my bills and all. I did

all the responsible stuff first, but like I was

spending, I can tell you right now, Generation

1, 1984, Optimus Prime, 1985 Blaster, and 1985

Soundwave. The three of those figures cost me

about $600. 120, 150, and 150. So basically $620

at the time off of eBay. So it was more of a

thing of, oh, I remember this, or oh, I'm in

this community, or oh, I'm in that community.

We talked about, and we'll talk about it here,

because ladies and gentlemen, we've kind of time

traveled in this episode, and there's a whole

other universe where this episode exists, and

we've kind of already talked about this, but

at that time, in 2005, 2006, I was just starting

to get to online communities and things like

that and forums and wherever else. I think for

me, the definition of when you become a toy collector

is when you rediscover the toys that you grew

up with. When you go onto eBay and say, hey,

I really wish I had my old Optimus, 1984 Optimus

Prime from Transformers generation one, or I

wish I had the, you know, alligator. Oh, Steve

Megatron is going to kill me. No. Was the alligator

Megatron and the bat optimus prime, you know,

whatever it is like like back when it was still

supposed to be the original yeah, so again the

same thing with with Masters Classics I had had

that in 2011 2012 when I started getting Masters

Classics it was because for 30 years at that

point because my mom didn't Mom passed in 2015.

Yeah, I know. So mom, okay. So I'm trying to

make sure I keep my own timeline straight here.

2012 was the 30th anniversary of Masters of the

Universe, or at least of the cartoon anyway,

because I know the toys kind of started in 1982,

but the cartoon started in 83, or whatever. You

know what I mean? Yeah. So in 2012, my mom was

like, here, please take this castle. I've been

dragging it around to every place I've lived

for you for the last 30 years. Okay, and my Castle

Grayskull, it was the original Castle Grayskull,

but I didn't have the, it was just the hollowed

out thing that you could open up. The shell.

Yeah, it was just the shell of it. But I loved

the shell of it because the one thing I did have

was I made sure I had that, as you're looking

at the castle, the tallest right -hand turret.

So the toys could, whoever, like Prince Adam

or Adora or He -Man or whatever, Skeletor. Sorceress

I could put I could at least have one figure

standing up there and then the rest of them I

could just kind of post So for me it was rediscovering

toys. It was rediscovering childhood That's how

I define going from being a kid and playing with

toys to Becoming a collector Does that make any

sense? Yeah, I think Like I said, I even though

I made the joke that when you have more boxes

of your collection than you do Your personal

stuff was kind of the line for me. I still have

a memory of I Don't know what year it is I roughly

could guess when it was but I had a two -door

1990 Cavalier that I drove when I was in college.

So it was about 12 years old Tiny little car

you couldn't really fit much in it. And I remember

I couldn't close my trunk when I was moving out

of my dorms Because it was so full of some of

the boxes of stuff I had been collecting in my

dorm, which by the way You wouldn't think this

but you know Having toys up on your shelf don't

exactly get you the the positive bit of attention

you would hope in 2002 2003 so that's a whole

other like I mean, obviously this is your conversation

this is this is your whatever but that topic

that thing of the Ew, you're a toy collector.

For me, it was like grandparents or aunts or

uncles, mostly grandparents and people that didn't

understand it. But it's like, you still play

with toys? I'm playing with toys. But that's

a whole other episode topic that we could talk

about. Where did this negativity towards going

into, let's say, a college dorm room in 2002

or 2003 and someone seeing a Kevin Costner not

really look alike water world toy on your shelf

and the And we'll touch on that briefly because

yeah about how I start collecting in college

That's actually one of the first points, but

yeah, so it's really the genesis of this idea

was I'm actually hitting a point where I would

say it's been 20 years since I started as A collector

since I became a collector buying selling all

that stuff. Yeah, it's been about 20 years and

my freshman year of college started and I was

in this crossroads that some people hit when

they they turn 17 18 they go off to college and

it's a new world you're out of your familiar

place you're you're basically camping for eight

months out of the year you know right and a massive

aspect of that for me was Trying to figure out

my place and to become comfortable I didn't do

well my freshman year of college not necessarily

grade wise my grades were average to decent it

was more I Was just struggling finding my identity

who was I I was not someone who went partying

in high school. I had a small group of friends

I generally preferred playing Nintendo all night

versus going out partying. But a lot of the people

that were in my social circle were people who

went out partying, who hung out, who did all

sorts of things that my sort of social anxiety

-driven sense of the world was not having. And

so I struggled my first semester of my freshman

year. And I went through my first semester almost

considering dropping out at one point, but luckily

a lot of the right people in my life really pushed

me not to and not dropping out, just not returning

for my spring semester, not dropping out. There's

a difference. your first half of, let's say,

freshman year, that fall semester, that first

semester. You've completed it, you've gotten

grades for it, you've gotten the credits for

it, but something has changed and you're not

going to go back to that second semester at that

particular school. You're going to do something

else, yeah. Yeah, and I made a couple of really

bad choices just in terms of where my focus was

supposed to be then. They should they say you

should never live with regrets, but okay, so

I don't live with regrets but I just live with

the knowledge of some really bad choices I've

made and nothing harmful nothing bad just instead

of Taking on a great opportunity. I chose the

easy in the safe and When you do that, there's

not a lot of growth and that's just the reality

of things but regardless when I got back Things

were kind of blah. I was still struggling still

trying to figure out who I wanted to be And I

took a walk one day to go get a haircut right

next to the place where I got my haircut was

a comic shop and I go in the comic shop and It

was the only way I could describe it was called

Acme comics It was a guy who was a hipster before

being a hipster was being a hipster Okay, yes,

I can describe it. Yeah. He was an OG townie

He you know, he bought the shop. He made the

shop his own He I remember talking to one time

and he's like everything in the shop is mine.

I just choose to sell it instead of being like

shop stock and that was my first exposure to

You know a smaller independent comic and toy

shop that just people would bring in kitschy

weird stuff and I loved it. It was it was totally

my Environment it was totally my flavor of I'd

walk in there. You'd be showing Lord of the Rings

or Star Wars or whatever would be on the TVs

in there And he didn't care if I just stood there

and watched Lord of the Rings for two hours It

was just that inviting and comfortable of a place,

but it's also where I started buying figures.

So I started buying everything from Tenor Star

Wars just out of the dig bins or I started buying

Marvel Legends and I still remember my first

couple Marvel Legends that I bought were from

the shop in 2002 2003 and It became my go -to

when I was needing to get out of my dorm because

I was a bit of a shut -in. When I needed a walk,

when I needed to go somewhere, I would just walk

out there in between classes. And for 10 bucks,

I'd have a bag of new toys. And that's when I

started putting this stuff. And I thought it

was more ironically humorous when I was putting

them up on our meager bookshelves. The dorms

we lived in had not been upgraded or modified

since maybe the late 70s or early 80s. And we're

talking about 2002, 2003. Yep. You had your side

of the room. You had three bookshelves, a small

bulletin board and a tiny corner desk. That's

what I had. I had it was maybe. So wait, where

did the bed go? Well, the room, let's say the

room was maybe, I don't know. by 18 by 18 smaller

than that dude it was just a little bit bigger

than some jail cells like at least I had a closet

with a dresser but it it wasn't anything spectacular

you had a tiny little bit amount of space so

this comic shop though was sort of what made

me into a collector I got to learn a lot from

the owner because he knew a lot about buying

and selling toys he knew a lot about a lot of

toy lines that were out there He was very knowledgeable

about comics and he just had he was one of those

guys who you would have thought went to business

school But his business school was just his experience

Working at these places and learning on his own

which a lot of a lot of the best comic shops

are owned By guys who are like that. Yeah I I've

never really gone to a comic shop that was ever

owned by someone who knew a ton about business

and you know ran their own Companies or whatever

and had business degrees. They just could not

run something like a collectible shop It was

the guys who sort of grew up in it that Managed

them the best Yeah, so yeah, so the comic shop

really became a big part of my life because I

would go out check Target Tozer us Walmart I

had no bedtime. I had no concept of time. I sometimes

slept three four hours a night because I was

in late teens, early 20s, so health didn't matter

to me. And so I could go to Target, or not Target,

Walmart, because it was 24 hours, and at 1 a

.m. when they're stocking the shelves, I'd go,

I'd have my pocket knife with me, and I would

be digging through the pallets of stuff that

was being stocked. And I would get the newest,

rarest, hardest to find action figures, bring

them back to the comic shop, he'd either give

me store credit or cash. And that's kind of what

I did for four years in college. And that got

me really ingrained into collecting. And then

to jump on that, I had extra money to spend on

eBay. Just like you said, I started discovering

eBay in 2003. And one of my first discoveries

was that in 2002, 2003, Beast Wars was not a

very popular toy line. It still doesn't sell

for a ton. But at the time, I think I bought

a massive collection of B stores for. I don't

know, 50 bucks, 60 bucks. Wow. And I can't remember

how many were in there, but it was almost every

single one you could possibly think of the big

ones, the little ones. I think the only one who

wasn't in there was Death Charge, who's one of

the biggest. Yes, depth charge depth charge fish

pants He was the only one who wasn't in there

and I eventually got him in another time but

that was my really big foray into buying large

lots and So I had all the trans metals all the

originals I had I I don't remember if Everybody

was in there. But one of the reasons I really

loved these floors is that it was very posable

And the later Beast Wars the trends of the the

transmetal twos, especially Yeah, whether you

left them transformed or you didn't they were

a little bit more cohesive. They weren't really

shell formers I think yeah, I think you know

that phrase. Oh, yeah Yeah, we've been running

a toy podcast for X number of years now. Yeah

Yeah, I mean the beat so Beast Wars is big here

at the GCR and co -creator Steve Megatron You

know Megatron is his his his favorite character

in Beast Wars. He has you know He can actually

do the voice and all that I can't do the voice.

So I just have a button So, you know We know

all about Beast Wars around here This is one

of the reasons why I'm glad this is part of your

journey because I'm interested to hear like You

know, I've never you and I have never we've talked

transformers off -air, but we've never really

talked Talks transformers. So so yeah, I mean

Beast Wars is was interesting at the time it

was a yeah, and I'm looking at some pictures

of Beast Wars figures right now and you can see

that there's a little bit of an evolution and

the reason I like them is that I liked collecting

in almost a gorilla style where it was I Wanted

everything in a combined universe, but I wanted

them to be kind of subtle kind of blend in a

little bit And I can't really come to a full,

strong definition of it, but a lot of the later

transmetal figures, that's what made up the bulk

of this box, were your Transmetal 2 Iguanus or

Jawbreaker or some of these figures that when

you transformed them, they typically didn't have

the giant chunks of animal parts hanging off

of them. They stayed pretty cohesive. and that's

why I got into those later than I did, for instance,

if you look back at the original Snarl or Razor

Beast is a great example that when he transforms,

even though he looks really cool, I'm trying

to find a good picture of him, he just has giant

chunks of a warthog hanging behind him. It's

a great feature where it's a quick auto -transformation,

but those weren't the ones I was after. I was

after the ones that Kind of looked like a character

in either one of their modes and they functioned

with other toys in a similar scale That's just

what I like. That was just me. Yeah, but I remember

getting this huge box now in in my dorm and I

think this is still pretty standard to this day.

We had basically your PO box for your dorm number,

so you'd go down, you'd have your key, you'd

open it up, and you'd have a card if you had

a package, and I remember pulling the card, ooh,

I have a package, cool, and I go to the desk,

and usually it was just some, you know, late

teens, early 20s worker at the front desk, just

someone who lived there, they didn't really care

about their job very much. And he... Kind of

threw the box at me and I ran back upstairs and

I waited until my roommate at the time Was how

because like I still was keeping my my toy Collection

a little a little secretive like I wasn't really

putting it out there to a lot of people It was

I had a couple figures on my shelf, but I did

know that you know again I'm a freshman in college

if a girl happened to randomly walk into my room.

I don't want them to think that You know like

oh, this is not a guy. I want to talk to you.

You know Oh. There it is. Yes, exactly. And so

a lot of those figures I had intended to take

home to do outdoor toy photography with because

I had a huge yard. It wasn't like in my current

house. I don't really have a spot that I can

take a picture where you don't see a manmade

object like a fence or patio table or my house.

But in my old house. Had this huge backyard and

tons of wilderness so you could easily easily

find a spot that You would not see a man -made

object for anything so that was my original intent

and We'll get to it later where I plan things

in depth, but never get to them But when I when

I got the the beast the Beast Wars figures It

wasn't really even so much that I like Transformers.

They're just were really really good figures

and they were cheap and easy to come by and It

was even before I was really going to stores

at the time. I was very much still Just getting

little things here and there at comic shops I

wasn't going to Walmart because I was a freshman

in college or sophomore in college. I didn't

have easy access to go to Walmart yet I didn't

have my car down at school yet. Yeah so Beast

Wars was a very much a gateway into buying online.

And we'll come back to that later because looking

for that huge lot got me into looking for lots

of other older figures that were still cheap,

which are not cheap anymore. But we'll talk about

that later. Yeah, no. So let's fast forward a

little bit to the end of 2003. Yes, the action

figure fellowship. Oh, yeah. Way to sound excited,

but hello. I'm thinking fellowship. I'm thinking

his eleventy first birthday. I'm thinking there's

one ring that that's why I said oh lord, so I'm

trying to keep a lot of these anecdotes in these

stories short when I first was to college when

I was a freshman one of the first things When

last things my mom bought me before I went off

to college was the VHS of fellowship of the ring

And I can't tell you how many times my freshman

year I tried to watch that and failed. Can't

even begin to tell you how many times I would

watch it, I would fall asleep. I don't know what

it was, I didn't know if it was the accents,

I'm not even sure. I was just not a sophisticated

young man at that point. And I go over to the

comic shop, I go over to Acme Comics and like

I had mentioned that he was showing Lord of the

Rings one day. He was showing a bootleg DVD of

The Two Towers because In December of 2003, that's

when it had come out. So he was showing a bootleg

version and it was the Helms Beat Battle. And

I had never seen anything like that in cinema

before. I was immediately taken with this movie

and I was I realized I have the VHS, I have the

first movie. I'm going to go home during break

and watch this. so that's what I do so I go home

during break and I watch fellowship of the ring

and Loved it and I went out to theaters and saw

the two towers and then I go to the toy the toy

stores I go to Target I go to all those different

places and I see the toys that were available

for this and they were incredible The toy line

if you have ever seen some examples of it is

very detailed, has a lot of paint apps, has a

lot of sculpted details that you don't really

see in a lot of toys at that time at that price

point. Now, we would later find out from Scott

Knightlick that the reason why that toy line

was so cheap and so plentiful and so unique was

because Toy Biz was not paying their factories.

Yeah, that's not good. No, not good. So I really

got into it. The toys were affordable. They were

$6 .99, $7 .99, I think. And you got a lot with

them. And I got vibes of the Kevin Costner. God,

I'm saying I'm trying to think. Excuse me. Oh,

yeah. So a lot of vibes of that. Not like not

because of the soft goods, but because. The Robin

Hood figure came with a bow and a bunch of loose

arrows and so did Legolas and so did a lot of

other characters So I started buying up that

line. It was cheap. It was easy to find it was

plentiful and it was very exciting So I'm getting

ready to go back to school And I'm adjusting

better. I'm doing better. I'm more focused on

school and having a better time and I decided

I wanted to create fellowship of my own because

I didn't have all the figures from Lord of the

Rings because even though they were they're plentiful

you couldn't just go out and buy the entire fellowship

of nine. I don't remember who the nine was but

I remember creating my own fellowship of nine

figures both of vintage and modern that would

always travel to and from school with me and

I think at this point I did have my car so I

went back and forth very often And it was just

my own little secretive thing. I didn't go and

tell people about it. It was just my secretive

thing that they would come out, I would put them

on my shelf while I was in a different dorm room

at this point, a different building, and they

were the only nine that I had down there. But

when I would get new toys from the comic shop

or from the Toys R Us down there, they were basically,

they would kind of hang out with the new toys,

I'd drive home, everything would go with me,

I'd bring... I'd leave the new ones up at home,

and then I would come back with the nine and

go back and forth like that. They were basically

there to guide these figures in my headcanon

back and forth. So I just had this massive headcanon

of this journey while I was at school, which

sounds kind of ridiculous, but it's also what

allowed me to sort of cope and keep an idea of

optimism for the things I was doing and give

purpose, and it was my own little secretive thing.

Now, Was that normal for a college and sophomore

at the time? Probably not. Do I care anymore?

Not really. Yeah. I mean, we're 20 years out

of college at this point, so, you know, your

history is your history and what happened is

what happened. Like, there's no going back and

changing, you know, where that history has led

you to today. But it's interesting to see and

hear how, you know, this journey has gone for

you. So this action figure fellowship thing,

this was just you with, you know, creating your

style at the time. Yeah, and I think and I know

we've talked before where I've always had this

sort of headcanon. I've always had this this

running narrative in. my brain of characters

in this larger universe. And that was sort of

the major guiding factor for me when I was doing

a lot of collecting back then was I'm building

this common scale universe that Beast Wars was

still part of. Marvel Legends were part of. Muppets

were part of. What else did I collect back then?

Lord of the Rings was part of. All of those figures

were all part of this common shared universe

that I was And we'll talk about this in a bit.

Writing a figure comic for. Yes. And I would

go through some spare time in classes and jot

down notes of cool story ideas and these weird

crossovers. And when I'd be hunting down new

toys, I would alter the story to to work in these

new characters that would be introduced. And

I still have at least one or two notebooks filled

with all these ideas and all these things I was

writing down that in my head, I'm gonna go home

over summer break, and that's what I'm gonna

spend all my time doing. Now, did I? No, not

in the least. I mean, if you still have them,

you should scan them in and turn them into Word

documents or something, so you have a digital

copy of them, just to see if you could go back

and try to figure out something. That would be

kind of cool to see what you would write from

back then to today. Mean some of it is probably

still very possible some of it It's not because

I've sold a lot of the originals, right? I had

a lot of the Street fighter figures from I think

it was like SOTA or soda or whatever they're

called that and They made up a large chunk and

I sold a bunch of those because those peaked

in value at one point I decided I'm gonna sell

them all Yeah, but I mean, we now live in the

age and we have been living in the age of the

Internet. You could go on like if you've already

had if you already have stuff written, you could

go online and look at a picture of the thing.

And you know what I mean? Like not necessarily

updating it, but like going back to it and seeing

what you can like, I don't know, whatever it's

your picture stuff. So so 2004 start of build

a figures and six inch figures. So I think this

is just one of the biggest switches for me as

a collector. and I think for a lot of collectors

in general was the introduction of the build

the figure and I still remember being excited

for I believe it was Marvel Legends series 9

with the original Galactus and if you look at

the lineup for Marvel Legends series 9 and this

is actually when they used to number them and

they were a big deal and it was exciting and

it There wasn't as much cohesion between figures

in a wave as there is now. So if you look at

Marvel Legends Series 9, and I can't really find

the release here, it's either 04, 05. It's Marvel

Deathlock, Bullseye, Greyhulk or Greenhulk, depending

on the variant you found. And then Bullseye,

you could either get a scowling or a grinning

variant. That was about all there was. You could

get... It really still holds up to this very

day, Nightcrawler, Doctor Strange, War Machine,

and Professor X, and they each came with a piece

to make Galactus. And the bullseye figure actually

would go on to become one of the more standard

base bodies for a lot of later figures, because

it's a pretty good uniform male base body. But

in my head canon, it was, why are these seven

characters with one of them essentially being

a villain, coming together to fight off this

new giant being who was coming to destroy or

control all the other toys. That was the chapter

that got worked in. I would tell you that if

I saw those in the stores without collecting,

I don't even know if I'd even consider buying

any of them. They were not terribly interesting

to me, but the interest came from why are these

nine together? and they come with this giant

figure, which was very uncommon at the time,

to get a figure that was that big and that posable.

So, and I believe I had the Silver Surfer figure

out, and I knew that Galactus and Silver Surfer

went together, so I thought, you know what, this

just makes sense. I should just get it, and I

remember really saving up, having to work, and

really Really being scared about buying such

a large chunk of figures. I think seven figures

at the time plus shipping. Oh wow. Well it was

It was like $90 if you think about it now, I

mean with figures peaking at almost 25 bucks

a pop right now That was a bargain at the time.

Oh, absolutely. It was a bargain. Hell. Yeah,

and The the whole build a figure concept really

changed collecting. I think for anybody who likes

comic figures, because you no longer were just

cherry picking. There was no reason to buy everything.

Yeah. And that was always the problem with Marvel

Legends prior to this series, where you'd have

the the chase figures that would always get bought

up, the single pack figures that would always

get bought up. And then on the shelf, you would

just have 52 Wolverines. Yeah. And much. because

of that they would never restock because most

stores don't really Restock until they get empty

or they sell a certain amount and then they restock

after that So after this was I think the Sentinel

came out after this which was just an amazing

figure and so holds up I think to this day the

the Marvel Legends 10 Sentinel and it was the

same thing the same the series at that point

You would think was going to be very X -Men heavy

Let me go ahead and pull that one up. And images,

give me the images. That one was kind of X -Men

heavy in that it had Cyclops, Angel, Mr. Sinister,

Omega Red, and Mystique, but then it had a really

cool Black Panther and a first appearance Spider

-Man. And at the time, not a ton of Spider -Man

figures out there that were that posable, that

good. for me, I bought several of the Black Panthers

because Not only because I had black cats and

it just kind of worked out But it looked like

it was gonna be a very easy Batman Beyond custom

So I actually had started the process one had

had bottom started painting them it was my own

interpretation of Batman Beyond and It was it

was kind of exciting The overall series was great.

The figures in it were all really well done.

Mystique was a bit of a letdown, but the Sentinel

was amazing, and those Sentinel pieces were as

good as like currency in prison. I could trade

a leg for a Sentinel for anything I wanted. A

torso for a Sentinel, I could go and put that

in one of the trade threads in some of the forums

I was in. You say you had the torso? who doggy

you could I probably could have gotten a kidney

for that, you know and It really changed the

way people traded it changed the way people collected

and hunted and It it just ballooned for me at

that point and that sentinel I hung on to I sold

them in maybe 2014 2015 I hung on to him for

almost ten years and He was still in demand 10

years later and there's not a lot of toys that

do that. If you think about it, there's not a

ton of toys that 10 years later, people are still

saying, yeah, I'll drop 150 bucks on that. Yeah.

So. They would take a break. Marvel Legends would

into for series 11. Because it was the legendary

writers, so it was it was another random grouping

of of characters and they all had. vehicle which

I'm looking at one is Marvel Legends Vengeance

who is a Ghost Rider villain right character

I don't know and he comes with a full -size motorcycle

and you can still buy that for ten bucks now

that would be considered a deluxe figure at 35

40 bucks 50 bucks oh absolutely yeah there was

a Wolverine in that series who came with a motorcycle

same thing All of these characters came with

large size vehicles for ten bucks. It was amazing

It was absolutely amazing for the time and still

is and Then in 12 when they go back to in 12

Out of college by the time they got to 12. What

did I do here? They're not even numbering it.

They're not even numbering it anymore, but the

They would start shrinking down some of their

their waves. They would start shrinking down

their build the figures. They couldn't do the

giant Sentinel anymore. The costs were going

up. I think this was getting closer to when the

economy was starting to change and and not work

out for everybody. But regardless, it was that

was a huge moment for me because it was no longer

I'm just going to buy the Magneto or I'm just

going to buy the one Iron Man. Now it's. Well,

I can't just have this random body part. What

am I gonna do with it? I have to buy the whole

series and make it and Work that into what I'm

doing. So that that that was one of those really

big moments So as I mentioned one of the next

big things was holy cats me running a writing

all of these Comics these fiction stories about

crossovers of evil Toys that were trying to dominate

the toy world and all these things and having

battles between Superman and he man and and I

I did experiment with some pictures of characters

and a lot of it was in my backyard of using that

whole space I think it actually started it had

its Genesis in I'm using that phrase that you

use so I'm gonna use it from now on now what?

Have that Genesis in where No, it's fine, it's

fine. So it started to me running a tournament

in a toy forum of characters at that time and

just who people would think would win. So it

was He -Man versus Superman. And then people

were asking, oh, are we saying Superman from

the comics or Superman the toy? I'm like, I don't

know, dude. I'm just putting these two together

because I'm going to go out and take pictures

of them. I'm not sure. What do you want me to

do? Yeah, and so started with he man versus Superman

and then Superman versus juggernaut and Aragorn

versus the Punisher and Legolas versus Hawkeye

and I probably still have these pictures saved

somewhere and that would eventually develop into

these massive stories and The the two guys who

owned the comic shops I'd go to a lot one back

at school and one back up here the guy who Runs

the one up here still actually he sold owns it

now to this very day. So 20 years later He still

owns the same place, but he knew my buying habits

were based on wanting to write these stories

and what I was trying to figure out and you can't

always make fun of it because he's like hey when

you get it done if you if you get something published

let me know and you know, maybe I'll put it up

here at the shop for people to check out and

I was like, okay cool, but never happened and

Then I would do wrestling figure federations,

which is not uncommon with people who collect

wrestling figures where you create your own little

wrestling company and I would write weekly matches

and stories and I had pages full of just You

know if I had my own weekly wrestling show I

would have had it booked in solid for a year

with matches that I was going to take pictures

of and post and do all the fun things with right

and For some reason I could write these out for

days and I had so much fun doing it. But if you

ever try to say, hey Josh, why don't you sit

down and take some of the pictures? Nope. I couldn't

do it. I don't know what it was. I couldn't sit

down and focus long enough beyond like one match

or two. And so I never really found a method

that worked for me to take the pictures, to post

them somewhere, to edit them, to do all those

things. I never really found that process that

worked. which you probably have a process for

editing shows and getting stuff written and processed

in an orderly fashion. I never found that. So

it took I'm going to interrupt you here because

you're talking about me and it's been a while

since people have talked about me. So for me,

it's taken. Well, we don't have to if you don't

want to. I'm kidding. I know. So for me, like

with podcasting, it's. December 12th was my 14th

anniversary of doing a podcast. June 1st of this

year will be... Yeah, because I'm now in year

15 of the network. So this year, on June 1st,

the Geocast Radio Network will be 14 years online.

And then later in December of this year, I'll

celebrate 15 years. And in all that time, it's

taken me... how to figure out what to do. For

me, it's all about the opening and the closing

of the show. Yes, it's also about the content.

So if I were to post this script that we have

here for this episode of Toycast that we're doing,

people would see the intro, they would see the

breakdown of years of your stuff, and then they

would see the outro. For me, it's all about the

opening and closing of the show. So people heard

in the beginning of the show me saying where...

like before we hit like when we hit record and

I know this is going way off topic but whatever

but it's one of those things where there there

ends up tangents on podcasts or podcasts are

rife with tangents so this is a tangent so at

the beginning of this episode people would have

heard me do the intro normally when I say okay

Josh or okay this person or okay that person

are you ready I will hit record. I will give

myself like, I don't know, 10 seconds, 20 seconds,

whatever. I may, you know, wake up, wake up,

wake up. I may slap myself. I may take a drink.

I may do something. And then I will go into...

Hello, and welcome to an all -new generation

of Toycast as we get the origins. You know what

I mean? Yeah, and you just scared me a little

bit there. Sorry. Well, again, the point is to

bring the audience in. And it's taken me 14 to

15 years to learn that. And at the end of the

show, which people will hear later, but I'll

do it just really quickly now, where it's like,

OK, Josh, that's your history. And we're going

to go to a quick ad break. We're going to come

back to close the show. And then I'll go into,

thank you for joining us here on the GeekCast,

Radio Network, ToyCast, or whatever the hell

it is. So for me, that learning process, like

you're saying, like you've never had, it's taken

me 15 years to perfect my quote unquote showmanship

or personality on a podcast. You know what I

mean? you know we're up to you talking about

the build of figures and writing the comic fiction

and we're about to go into forum stuff but we'll

talk about that in a minute but like the the

writing comical figure fiction and figure fads

that never happened it's like oh this is a cool

topic where we just talked about the the start

of your build a figure in six inch figures and

now it's like okay we're going to go into this

so i'll say something like hey josh tell us all

about your Comical written universe kind of thing.

So it's all about Presentation performance. I

don't know I know I mean like yeah and and and

you said that you just Seem it seems like you

don't have that kind of concentration But you

excel in other areas like yeah again, like you

you'll you'll you'll bring me an idea like this

idea specifically You were like, hey, I want

to do this and I'm like, okay Give me a timeline

and topics you want to talk about I will put

it in order and I will do whatever it has to

be done to make sure it sounds, you know, the

way it's supposed to sound. Yeah. And I guess

for me, it just was maybe because I was younger,

maybe because I was a scattered brain and still

am. But just now I understand the benefit of

having a predictable routine. this is how you

do things, this is the structure you use, and

you stick to it, and it's valuable. I just didn't

have that discipline at the time. And so, you

know, I would always have these grand ideas,

these big stories, and I'd be buying up figures

to do X, Y, and Z. I don't really do that anymore.

I mean, I kind of, I still have fun with it every

so often in my head, but now if I'm collecting,

it's not necessarily about I'm creating this

vast world. I think it's more of just I'm, collecting

as an expression of some theme I'm going for.

But we're going to move on. And we're going to

keep some of these a little bit brief as much

as we can. So the next one is is me discovering

online forums and communities therein. And there

was a small forum or small community in the superhero

hype dot com. I think it was at one point Spider

-Man hype or something like that. Jumping into

this forum and seeing other people, like -minded

people talking about the same thing as me. And

it was my first foray into message boards like

that and becoming active. And there were maybe

10 or 15 of us who were actually very active.

And I won't ever forget just the experience I

had getting to know some of these people, hearing

their stories. This was basically social media

before Facebook and everything took off. People

will always say, oh, forums, they're rife with

idiots. And they are. Sometimes they are. But

forums were social media back then. It was all

about getting on your computer and logging in

and checking. If you left a thread or a comment

or a post the night before, getting up in the

morning and checking it first thing to see if

anyone replied, it's all about the conversation

you're having with people online. And people

were active enough that it wasn't necessarily,

oh, you had to wait a couple hours. There were

some people who sat there and treated it a bit

like a chat, which was pretty cool. And I got

to really know some people who, I still talk

to one person very regularly from those days,

so it's been almost 20 years. And I remember

when I first started talking to him. He he had

little kids or a kid on the way and now his kids

are off to college and stuff So it's absolutely

fascinating to me to know Wow I've been in this

that long and like this guy has kids who are

now The age we were almost at when we first started

talking. Yeah, and So he worked a night job and

I was just a night owl. I didn't really go to

bed and so he would be up and he worked a I think

he worked like the front desk for a emergency

room. So there'd be some nights he'd be obviously

very busy and some nights it would be very slow.

And because he had that ability, he and I became

collecting allies and he would be able to get

up, I would be able to go check stuff late at

night and he'd be able to check stuff first thing

in the morning. So together we started running

these massive trades. His name is Froy. F -R

-O -Y. His name is Froy, and so we started working

massive trades and really getting to know each

other really well, sharing ideas, writing to

each other, and I think I probably, I mean, I

would call him a pen pal, but we really got to

know each other. We actually were talking quite

a bit. I see what you're doing there in the script

right now. Don't. Stop it. And so. that forum

would also then lead me to the foosh and other

forums and really getting out there and and Learning

that's where I got to learn a lot more about

the toy industry and toy collecting as a whole

of Being exposed to other people who are very

focused on this and this is still when collecting

was very niche it wasn't yeah, it wasn't popular

pops weren't a thing yet and It didn't start

till much much later, but the thing is 2004 2005

2006 that was the beginning That was the moments

of us as an online community, like you said,

finding like -minded people to have discussions

with, to have these pen -palish types things

where we are, you know, you know. Yeah, and.

It's a lot different. So as kids in the 80s.

We didn't have the internet. We had, you know,

the telephone or we had letters or we had, you

know, whatever. Or we would just, if they were

close enough, we would just walk to our friend's

houses and we actually hung out with people in

real life. Like I went over to my friend's house

where he wouldn't let me play with his sound

wave figure or whatever kind of thing. in 2004

and 2005 that all changed as we were, was I 25,

yeah 25, 2005, yeah I think that's right, you

know, 25, 26, 27, 28 years old, 2005, 2008, that

was the beginning of all of us finding each other

in these online communities and connecting and

like you said, like I already said, repeated

once, like -minded people to discuss. Toys or

movies or music or video games or whatever? That's

when the online communities kind of started happening.

Yes And the nice thing was is that when it came

to finding figures is that I had other people

we created a network and I'm looking at some

other Marvel Legends that were coming out at

the time that were incredibly hard to find the

variants the chases and stuff and Having these

other people out there that knew that I was dependable,

that I would help them out when I could, that's

how I'm looking at some of the prices. If you

go to Action Figure 411, they do an okay job

having an average. I don't know how current the

average prices are on some of these figures,

but I'm looking at some of the Marvel Legends

that used to shoot for 150, 200 bucks that are

now down to like $15 .25. I in these forums.

I also got to correspond with He was one of the

guys on toy biz Marvel Legends I think he still

works with Hasbro more Marvel Legends this guy

by the name of he went by the name Jesse Falcon

It wasn't his actual name. It just was a stage

name that he picked and he's in the forums But

he gave a lot of background information about

The design of toys how they were built and all

and he would correspond with people if they were

respectful of him so I used to actually ask him

some really good interview questions yeah, and

So I got to correspond with him quite a bit,

and it really was more about the education that

I got from the forums that meant more to me than

some other experiences I had with collectors.

So the education, but also the network I created

was very valuable out of that. Absolutely. So

I'm actually going to I'm going to swap the next

two points on the script real quick. And I'm

going to jump to the epic toy hunt and then I'll

come back to the Toy Fair magazine. But speaking

of this guy, Freud, we still have a trade that

is probably eight years in the making. He's got

some stuff for me. I've got some stuff for him.

We just haven't shipped it yet because he living

in Galveston, Texas, has dealt with a couple

of hurricanes and then there was like the pandemic

and then there's all these things. So it's been

years. We just we still have stuff in. stuff

for each other, but in 2005, there was a summer

day, I wanna say it was 2005, actually this website

might be able to tell me what year. Let's find

out. If it's not 2005, I am just a hot liar.

It was either 2004, 2005, doesn't really matter.

Yeah, doesn't matter. But he had a list of things

he was looking for. I had a list of things I

was looking for. And I think this is why collectors

sometimes get into it. It's not always about

The things it's about the experiences, but it's

also about the adventures. It's about the The

the trip the hunts the the thrill of the hunt.

It's chasing the dragon which yeah, that's okay

That's what it is for most people and i'm not

trying i'm not trying to bring this back to myself

again That's not what it is for me now. That's

what I agree with you That's what it was then

and go ahead continue with your stories Yeah,

and and the thing is as far as action figure

hunting goes. I actually found myself being pretty

good at it. Even to this day, I'm still pretty

good at it. And I don't know how you get good

at it. I think it's frequency. I think it's knowing

timing. I think it's knowing your stores. I think

it's it's there's a couple things that go into

it. But I had a list of items that we both were

looking for. I know on that list was some muppets.

I think there were some Batman figures in there.

There were some Marvel legends in there. And

in my area where I lived, I lived not in the

most southern part of my county, but pretty close

to the southern border of Lake County, which

is borders with Cook County, which is the county

that Chicago's in. But where I was at, if you

went to the southern border of Lake County, there

was a Walmart and a Target across the street

from each other, and you could start from there,

and you could work your way up I -94 and get

off at I think it was Route 60, and then you

could continue up to Grand Avenue, and you could

hit, in total, I think, three targets and three

Walmarts. If you traveled a little bit more,

you could do maybe four of each. Two Toys R Uses,

two KB Toys at the time, rest in peace, KB Toys.

And Toys R Us, that's normal. And Toys R Us.

And a comic shop. So in one day, I just was like,

hey, I have the day off, I have a little extra

money, I'm gonna get up, let's go see what I

can find. And got in the car, had my Mountain

Dew and my Egg McMuffin, and started the morning

at the southern point of the county, worked my

way up 94, hit everything along the way, and

it was just fun. Now I feel like it's such an

aggravating waste of time to go check stores.

Maybe it's because I'm an old man and I'm lazy.

I worked my way up and I found everything that

was on the list. I found at the comic shop a

DC direct, I think it was Nightwing Hush, which

was a rare figure at the time. I found a Marvel

Legends Wolverine from series six. I found Palisades

Muppets at Suncoast Video at the mall. Wow. It

was just an epic hunt. Like you don't have those

anymore. I just don't think it's possible to

just find the variety that I found. And I will

one day find the picture and I'll send it to

you so you can understand how amazing it was.

But I think the reason why that stuck with me

is that when you're first starting out, this

is maybe two or three years into collecting for

me, and It was very very different. I think the

time of collecting in the early 2000s There were

toys of everything and there were still toy aisles

and They were so it was so much more plentiful

than it is Today that it sticks out to me that

one that was just a very different time in my

life. I had less responsibilities I had more

uh more opportunities to do things like that

and that's fine i'm fine with leaving those in

the past i'm not saying i miss it want to go

back to that but the to have an epic toy hunt

like that and to feel very satisfied and remember

that i don't remember every toy hunt i've ever

taken that's one of the few yeah well again you're

doing this like so the way you the way you you

wrote this out cross -country or cross -county

hunt for you know from one side to the other

and finding everything on your list and and and

everything on froy's list as well it's like you

are doing something for your friend you are going

to all of these stores to help him find or finish

or whatever for his collection and that's again

if you're living near someone or even if you

aren't and you know you say like For example,

I'm currently in Indiana. You're in Illinois

and I say oh, yeah the hot topic in Gurney Mills

is gonna have this exclusive insert franchise

here that I love figure for Funko Could you get

it for me kind of thing? And I you know, it's

the whole thing of Hey, this is here. If you

have the time, can you go grab it and I'll shoot

you the PayPal? Again, we live now in an age

where it's like, I could say that to you and

say, hey, this is here. I can't get it anywhere

else. Here's the money through PayPal. But this

cross -county thing, this is an adventure. This

was a Clark Griswold moment for you. Like you

said, it's an epic toy hunt. I still haven't

been able to find the picture. I've looked through

a couple of different, I've looked through some

storage devices, I haven't found, I know I haven't

deleted it, I know I have it somewhere because

it exists. But it's also, I think as we get older,

we stop having brand new experiences that we've

never had before. When you're younger, you have

a whole lot more that's the first time you've

ever done something. That was my first major

toy hunt, but it wasn't I Didn't feel like it

was a race against time I it was more hey if

I go out and I find some stuff awesome If I don't

find it no big deal. I feel like that's a little

less of An attitude now where people are feeling

oh, I need to find this if I don't find it It's

gonna be stressful. It's negative. I hate companies

Hasbro sucks Target sucks Walmart sucks It was

more find what I find. Yeah So what you're talking

about there now is the FOMO fear of missing out

kind of stuff and the FOMO is real folks because

yikes Just in today's standards, and I'm not

sure how much the FOMO was so much real back

then I'm sure it was too, but like I have never

I've said this on this podcast since we brought

it back with episode 100 I don't know if I'll

fully stop, but if Funko ever makes an ALF, ALF,

Alien Life Form, 1986 NBC television series,

if they ever make a Funko pop of ALF, Gordon

Shumway, look out. I will do whatever I have

to do. Like, that is the one thing where I would

feel like the fear of missing out. There have

been several new Nightwing Funko Pops, or several

new Batman things that I've wanted that are still

out there, but I haven't had a chance to get

them yet. I will say the NECA elf totally worth

it. Yeah, no, I know, and I understand that.

But again, Everyone always says oh funko pops

big black big scary black eyes blah blah blah

they stare into your soul well elf had big black

eyes and he has a big nose and they have actually

funko did have the elf license at some point

because They did a what they called a wacky wobbler

back in the day so they've done an elf before

i'm just waiting for them to do one now but they're

so stuck up the animes it's all other things

but yeah i mean the whole fomo thing man it doesn't

really affect me because I think for me when

I stopped collecting and sold my stuff in 2011

and 2012 and I just kind of kept going and Looking

at oh that you know looking at news articles

of this this figures coming out or that figure,

you know It's like oh, that's nice. I don't need

it, but that's nice same thing with some of the

Funko pops right now I'm not able to get a lot

of them and that's fine and I'll get them eventually

if I ever do kind of thing But it's not the end

of the world for me. Whereas some people it's

the end like if they don't have it it is the

end of the motherfucking world and it's so ridiculous

yeah and it's not only that but the level of

like the level of anger they have towards not

finding something oh yeah it it's interesting

because i just had a conversation with my students

and we were playing a game and it was a whole

simulation and and one of my students went was

out in the game really early on and we had a

discussion over the rules. Were the rules fair?

It was a whole it wasn't just about like we're

just playing a game for fun. There was actually

a lesson behind it. And I asked him, I said,

why are you upset? And he's like, well, I think

it's unfair. I'm like, what's unfair? He's like,

well, I lost. I said, what do you mean? And he

said, well, it's unfair that I lost. I'm like,

but you played by the rules. You agreed to the

rules and you lost. by the rules. There was no

shenanigans. And it's just sort of this idea

now of, well, there was nothing on the shelves.

Why are you feeling so much anger and hatred

towards something? That's just the way things

work. Somebody got there before you. And maybe

that's the big thesis out of that Toy Haunt was

that if I didn't find everything I was looking

for, it's okay. But everything I found was just

amazing. yeah you were finding amazing things

both for yourself and for your friend and you

were able to get everything like that's the lucky

thing you go to let's sit let me just put a list

of physical stores together walmart target gamestop

hot topic what else has whatever not you know

what i mean like These places or local comic

shops that may have old action figures kind of

thing again You're going on an epic toy hunt

and you were able to quote -unquote Win and be

successful in finding everything that you both

wanted and the thing is like in the 80s folks

as a child I had so many participation ribbons

because those were a thing and They we were taught

the difference and how you should act when you're

winning or losing yes winning you can celebrate

yes losing you can kind of feel down at first,

but you have to look at it like You tried the

best you could but somebody else was a little

bit better than you were it. So, you know, it's

like again it goes back to preparing podcasts

for me like if somebody tells me an idea You

or Steve Megatron or my buddy optimus solo or

you know insert person here whomever if you guys

tell me an idea and I'm like, okay Give me about

20 minutes and I'll come back with you To you

with something that is like, okay. This is the

format. This is just like this episode here how

we have gone and done Done stuff So, folks, we

are going to end this epic toy hunt talk. We're

going to go to a quick ad break, and then we're

going to come back and talk about the act of

army building right after this. Hello geeks and

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170. We are on the road to 200 episodes. We got

30 to go Josh The floor burger is famous because

he was in Toy Fair magazine place Not just once

but twice and I look silly and I look silly in

both of them So the first thing I remember I

was really big at a Toy Fair magazine. I love

the magazine I thought it was a lot of fun and

A little trivia fact, some of the writers from

Toy Fair Magazine work currently, or at least

they did work at some point, maybe they're still

there, maybe they're not, on Robot Chicken. So

a lot of the original writers from that switched

over, and that's why if you ever read the old

school Twisted Toy Fair Magazine, there's a similar

flavor of using toys, and that was actually one

of the big inspirations for those toy comics

and stories that I always wanted to write before.

was Twisted Toy Fair Magazine, because it made

it look easy. It's not easy by any means. However,

Toy Fair Magazine put out, I don't know if I

was on their mailing list or something, but they

put out a survey, and I remember typing into

it, and it was all about Marvel Legends. And

in this survey, they're asking about, I think

it was series seven, and the first Hawkeye figure

was in that. And admittedly, at the time, I didn't

know much about Marvel Comics. I loved comics,

but I was a very surface level reader. Sorry.

Hold on one second. I have cats who are demanding

attention. Come on now. Do your thing. You might

want to edit this. I don't know. Come on. There

you go. All right. Everybody settle now so You

so there. Hello. Yep. Yeah, cool. So I go into

the survey and I start typing and it's about

Hawkeye and The the quote was somewhere along

the lines of easy easily the coolest character.

I know nothing about he could beat up Legolas

any day of the week and They were they were at

least kind enough in the magazine to frame it

like oh he's a convert because I think there

was a growing appreciation of nerd culture at

the time. It just wasn't there yet. It was still

blossoming. Right, yeah. And I learned to really

like Hawkeye, and I went and did my research

on Hawkeye after I got the figure. Really appreciated

him and thought he was really, really cool. And

he's actually one of my favorite cinematic universe

characters that I have right now. But at the

time, I came off sounding like a massive noob.

So I was quoted... in the magazine as saying

that and it was really cool because they responded

me said hey we're using your line just so you

know blah blah blah i'm like okay cool that's

awesome so that was my first first go in in the

magazine then i go to i believe is the 2004 wizard

world convention in chicago and it was i don't

know if it was one of my first but it was i definitely

was learning about conventions at that point

and i went and there was a super secret toy fair

magazine signing And it was the guys who ran

Toy Fair Magazine, including the editor, Zacho,

who has immensely amazing mutton chops. I don't

know if he's still out there. Maybe he is. I

think he was working for Entertainment Earth

the last time I checked. One of the nicest, most

creative people I've ever met in the toy industry.

So just so nice. And so I met him and he signed

a couple things and I got a picture with the

Mego Spider -Man who was well known in that magazine

and it was really really exciting for me and

I asked him I said hey you have this spotlight

thing in your magazines where people take a picture

holding the magazine with celebrities or something

like that and you post it if I go get my picture

with a celebrity who's signing autographs here

today would you put it in he's like yeah but

it has to be Glenn Shattuck's yeah and and I

look over and I see Glenn Shattuck's if you don't

know who Glenn Shattuck's is His two most well

-known roles in pop culture were he was Otho

in Beetlejuice, and he was Bob in Demolition

Man. I almost said Judge Dredd, but Demolition

Man. Demolition Man, yeah. Almost the same exact

character in both movies. But he just played

this really good role in both. He was very, very

talented. And I go over to him, and I'm talking

to him. I said, hey, you know, love your work.

If I can I get a picture with you because the

guys over at that magazine who run this convention

said they'll they'll publish me in there if I

get a picture with you now, I'm 2021 somewhere

around there I don't know why but I was very

like looking very fresh -faced like I had shaved

that day I had just got a really short haircut.

So I look like I'm 12 I go to take the picture

of them, but I had to like lean over and it's

a very very awkward lean Super weird body position

for me. So it's not a flattering picture and

I run back and I tell Zach out and he's like,

okay, so we traded emails and so I sent him the

picture and I get published and then we start

responding and he was actually really good. I

started asking a lot of questions about how do

you get into the magazine industry? What are

things you like? And so he was very, very friendly,

very communicative. That's what I wanted to say.

Yep. That I really looked at how friendly it

was and unfortunately at that point in college.

Is what he was doing. I was already too far along

in college, just like journalism or communications

or anything like that. So. That's just my one

claim to fame. I was in Toy Fair magazine. That's

awesome. That's very cool, very cool. All right

the art of army building in 2005 So you want

to hear how much of a a Amateur I was at one

point in collecting Sure, oh When I first got

into collecting I Generally shied away from Star

Wars. I wasn't too into it when I started but

I loved the Kenner toys so I explored it got

into it and I remember feeling that Marvel legends

were too are defined wrestling figures weren't

that great and I was like, oh, you know with

this return or revenge of the sif movie line

coming out This should be a really Easy line

to collect because there's so much of it out

of the time this is back when When there was

a Star Wars movie, they used to put toys out.

They don't do that anymore Yeah They do but not

to the extent that they used to they were all

and so When when I started looking around I started

realizing that clone troopers were very plentiful

and that the different color variants of clone

troopers were also very plentiful and That got

my I don't know if you want to call it my ADHD

my OCD, whatever But I started army building

and it was so much fun. It was so much fun because

they were cheap. You could buy a ton of them.

I could buy three or four of them at a time.

And it was like not even 20 bucks. It was it

was great. And and I loved the color variations.

They were yellow, orange, red, blue, different

paint jobs. There were exclusives I could hunt

down and they seemed to be easy to find. So in

my last couple of years of college, I had installed

some white Walmart shelves, just the basic shelves

you could buy. And I went from no stormtroopers

and really not much of a Star Wars collection

to I can't remember the final count, but it was

well over 100, 150 stormtroopers and or clone

troopers rather. OK. And it was just such a fun

little thing to do. And I could go anywhere and

grab one. And I started labeling some. So like

I have some that I wrote. different numbers or

letters on them to kind of signify where they

came from if they came from a friend or if they

came from a significant other whoever and so

I had divisions and they'd start growing and

that was my first experience with army building

and I didn't really know much about army building

prior to that I knew people did it but I never

did it right yeah, and so I had a perfectly like

I took a ruler and measured them out on these

shelves like they were perfectly spaced between

each other and When I graduated college, I had

to take it all down My intention was to always

when I brought it back home was to reproduce

that now I didn't have the same kind of shelves

at home And it was a scale that I didn't really

collect a lot of like I said I tried to keep

everything in the same scale at like six inch

five inch right around there so they just stayed

boxed when I came back from from school and But

I continued buying for Star Wars with the intention

of creating a massive Star Wars display. So I

bought Clone Trooper vehicles. I started buying

more of the Jedi and more characters. And I actually

had a pretty sizable Star Wars collection at

one point. And I think the figure is really amazing

around 2006, 2007, 2008. If you ever look back,

the variety, the articulation, the the quantity

that you could buy was immense. There was. Yeah,

they had everything out. You could find literally

almost everything, yeah. Expanded universe, you

could find comic figures, and they were so unique

and so well done. It was great. It was a ton

of fun to collect. And I eventually got into

army building for Lord of the Rings. And that

meant I was buying a lot of orcs or just the

generic human army characters. And that was also

another line that you could easily collect in

multiple forms at the time. So army building

became a focus at that point because when I graduated

college, I didn't know I was moving. I had this

wonderful home in Long Grove, this large property

that regardless of the time of year was perfect

for taking pictures. And again, I had the intent

of writing and taking pictures of massive action

figure stories. But lo and behold, after about

a year and a half, news came down, my parents

were divorcing, and I had to start packing everything

up. So a lot of stuff just stayed in boxes because

once they start showing the house, you can't

really have an action figure display out, you

just can't. So stuff stayed in boxes for years.

When I finally moved, nothing got put out again,

stuff just stayed in boxes. And eventually I

sold most of the Star Wars stuff, if not all

of it. And then eventually I did pare down the

Lord of the Rings a little bit, but I do still

have a pretty sizable Lord of the Rings piece.

But it did change how I collected in that when

Star Wars Black came out, I started army building

for that, which was a little harder because it

was a little bit more expensive, obviously. But

I had a pretty decent Stormtrooper collection

for that, that I eventually did sell some of

that off because if they're selling for 30, 40

bucks a piece, why wouldn't I sell if I have

an extra five, you know? Yeah, yeah. And I don't

really army build a whole lot anymore. I usually

just go with smaller squads, not armies. So I

had a friend who, the guy we mentioned, Freud

before, he said that he would usually army build

in threes, in fours, in fives or sixes. Because

that way you can have a level of symmetry if

you want it. Yeah So that's kind of where I'm

at I don't really have too many figures that

are not like I think I have four or five stormtroopers

You know three death troopers stuff like that

doesn't really go too crazy but that was another

big phase of just wow look at all these clone

troopers that goodbye and If I find a generic

enough looking figure. So there's the Marvel

Legends scourge that came out a couple of years

ago. I think 2016 he was out. OK. Maybe 2015,

2016. Right. He just kind of he looks like a

random henchman in gear with a gas mask on. I

found him at five below. I found, I think, four

or five of them, and they just make for a really

good army builder, random henchman. So that was

kind of one of the last things I ever. Ever army

-build it at the time Cobra troopers, you know

now, but those are so hard to find it's not even

it's not even funny right, but that's also gonna

bring us into 2006 of This is another big moment

This is the giant man and Walmart Legends wave

that rocked the Marvel Legends collecting universe

And in March of 2006 there are two things on

my mind graduating and Marvel Legends and eventually

when I shattered my front tooth the morning of

graduation that was another thing in my mind

but otherwise it was just graduating and getting

out of there and figuring out what my next step

was and finding Marvel Legends before I left

because my concern about this Walmart exclusive

giant man wave when I found out was that if it

if I didn't find it down there when I got home

my Walmart was awful and I couldn't go there

at two in the morning yeah which First world

problems, right? Yeah, so I Remember it was maybe

around this time 2006 maybe February March 2006

There was a series of pictures that were released

and this is before Twitter Facebook wasn't really

a thing for this yet. Yeah came out in the forums

of a demonstration like mock -up Shipper display

or display shipper, whatever they're called in

at a Walmart in, I think, Kansas or Missouri

or something like that. And it was basically

just those middle of the aisle displayers of

this new line of Marvel Legends that was coming

out, this giant man wave. And it was really,

really exciting because the figures that were

coming out, some of them have never been made

before. Some of them were made before, but they're

updated, which is really, really cool. And the

giant man was just a really, really well done

figure. And it just felt so exciting. But when

you were looking at this mock -up, it went to

this Walmart by accident. It shouldn't have gone

there. It was completely by accident. Right,

yeah. Those things sometimes happen, sadly. Yeah,

and all the figures were on mock -ups of card

backs and stuff like that. But they had some

new guys, like they had this sentry. They had

Captain Britain, who I'd never... who hadn't

really been out in figure form. They had a really

new, really good Thor. They had Kitty Pryde.

They had some really, really cool selections.

Marvel Legends Warbird. Some amazing figures

with this great giant man -builder figure. But

at the same time, they had the Face Off series.

And the Face Off series were two packs of some

really, really unique, very cool characters that

got updates. So it was a new Captain America

that came with a Baron von Strucker or a Red

Skull, depending which variant you got. It had

a new Iron Man. It had a new Daredevil. Just

so many really cool, really amazing figures that

literally would upgrade all of my favorites all

in one release. Like that's basically what happened.

Name any of my favorite Marvel characters. They

all pretty much got an upgrade in that release.

cool and That night when I saw those pictures

posted I was actually in that superhero hype

forum talking to guys. I'm like guys I'm going

to Walmart wish me luck. So you jump in my car.

I'm driving I think it was like a 2002 2001 mercury

sable and I go and I use my Six disc CD changer

that was in my trunk. I don't remember when that

was a thing. Oh, yes, I do. Yeah and I knew that

I had I the tiger in there and I'm blasting that

racing down this empty college street to get

to Wal -Mart and I get there and there's nothing

there. Oh, no. Well, because I thought because

there was this mock up that it was going to be

at my Wal -Mart for some magical reason. You

know, I was I was totally wrong. It was it was

the dumbest thing I've ever done. And so then

over the next couple of weeks, I am checking

Wal -Mart every night. to the point where the

employees knew me, they were annoyed by me, or

they liked me, or whatever, because I always

try to be friendly. You should always be friendly,

no matter what it is, whether it's toy, like

if you as a customer are going into a store and

you're looking for something, don't just go in

there, shake your fist, where's my, where's the

new damn, don't do that, go in there, ask nicely,

become friends with the people, because they're

just doing their job. And they don't get paid

well enough for it. Hell, no, they don't. Yeah.

And so I started going and I don't remember exactly

when it was, but it just became my regular routine.

And my senior year, my last semester, my senior

year, I was very, very clever with my schedule.

I pretty much I think there's only two classes.

I actually had a pass to graduate that year or

that semester and all the other classes were

fluff. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I just. I just scheduled

things right. You know, I did things well. And

so I was working. I was doing that. It was it

was a really good semester. It was a lot of fun.

And like I said, I could go and do this every

single night. I'd wake up the next morning like

eight or nine in the morning. My first class

was 10 or 11. So it was never a problem. You

know, this is just what I did. And I'll never

forget the night I got there. And they didn't

have the shipper out, but they had. I think the

majority of the wave on the shelf. I don't know.

I don't remember who was missing, but I had most

of the giant man wave there and I got it. And

the funny thing about the giant man wave compared

to a lot of other waves now is that now you get

like someone's entire arm from, you know, the

bicep down to the hand for the giant man wave.

it was you get the hand with one figure and then

from like the elbow to the bicep with another

figure. So they started splitting up all the

parts because there were more figures in the

wave. There also were one, two, I think there

are two variants in it. But the funny thing is

about the variance is that the sentry figure

had a bearded and unbearded version. But they

also had two color variants of that figure. So

there were four total century figures and It

was it was nuts it was it was completely nuts

why they had that many but I loved it because

I loved the figure I loved the bright yellow

and blue and the mustard and blue and stuff like

that and I It was at this point that anybody

who could help you know, even even a girl on

my team who would go out of town ever so often

to a small small town with a Walmart. I had people

helping me all over the place trying to get these

and it got to the point where I started actually

getting more than I needed for my own collection.

And I started hooking up people all over the

place between my school and back home because

I just had connections to all these small town

Walmarts that nobody was buying these at yet.

They were. In my town, they're being bought up

pretty quickly, but you drive 45 minutes an hour

away, hit a couple of Walmarts and you'd get

a ton and I could resell them and take, you know,

I would usually charge like two, three bucks

per figure as just like kind of a premium. And

at the time, that was still cheaper than eBay.

So people pay me that side. I'd walk away making

60 bucks off of, you know, bringing people a

set of these Marvel legends. Yeah. But it was

really. Just such a fun time that I can now tie

into another big moment in my life when I graduated

college now granted Two years later. I go back

to get my master's degree and you know I should

have probably had stayed down there to get my

teaching degree But you know, that's the reason

I'm sitting right here in my seat right now is

that I didn't stay down there. Yeah, so that

was sort of a nice Capstone or keystone capstone.

I don't know what do you want to call it? But

like it was it was a nice finish to College being

some of the most important collecting moments

of my life Meeting people changing who I was

getting into this new hobby I finished with one

of the biggest and most important Marvel legend

waves that had ever come out and I still to this

day I think it's probably one of the most important

that ever came out Cool Very cool. Very cool.

And then in late 2006 you found the food fighters

So I think we talked about food fighters before

oh, yes, we have yeah and I In 2006 started feeling

a little burnt out by what I called modern toys.

This is before DC Universe classics. This is

before that's universe Yeah, I was just feeling

a little burnt out and I started getting into

what I called vintage toys and what's funny is

that What I was viewing as vintage was maybe

15 16 years old then now we're now we're getting

into things being almost 30 years older Feeling

but this is before the prices for a lot of vintage

toys took off you could in 2006 to 2009 2010

you could get turtles for five bucks now not

as much no, so Pixel Dan put out a video about

food fighters and it clicked with me that I used

to love food fighters I Had one as a kid. I had

a friend who had the entire series. I loved them.

I thought they were ton of fun and I Decided

at that point that I was going to try to find

the original set Looked on eBay somebody had

a set 10. They were super cheap Bottom and I

loved them and I thought they're so much fun

Because to me, they look like claymation toys.

I think that's really what it is, is that if

you look back at old claymation from the 80s,

not only do they have a commercial that uses

claymation, but they just they just look very

much like that style that I really liked when

I was a kid. So I got them and loved them and

they were a ton of fun. And I thought, oh, OK,

cool. I'm done. Then I met a convention and I

see a guy has me mean wiener on his his in his

booth on card. And that was the first one I ever

got. I'm like, hey, that would actually be a

really cool piece to just have. That was the

first one I got. I don't need the rest. That's

fine. Yeah. Well, those are famous last words.

I buy it from Wizard World from a guy named Mark

Huckabone, who is known in the toy industry quite

a bit. He's a big time buyer and seller. He's

been on the Toy Hunter show that was out on Travel

Channel for a little while. Yep. And really nice

guy, really, really cool. Very, very high energy,

but very friendly. He's got a good energy about

him. But I buy it from him, and then I start

kinda looking around, and I come into a couple

more. I buy a few more, and then I start buying

a few more. Then I eventually, through a lot

of work and a couple years, I have the base set

of 10, all carded. Mm -hmm. I have the two smaller

vehicles still in the box And I have one of the

variants on the box and then I started buying

the coloring book the puzzle the lunchbox At

one point I think I had one of the biggest and

best food fighters collections in the Midwest

I I I later found out that there are guys and

there still is a guy who's got a food fighter's

collection that will rival anybody's. Yeah. But.

I also started army building, so I started buying

up loose lots. So I had enough of the pizza character

to make a full pizza, which it was which took

eight more of the fries. And then I was starting

to get the accessories. And and this is this

is a lot of times how collecting goes is that

you start buying up lots because it's cheaper

to buy up a lot, get the couple of pieces you

need and then sell off the rest. and usually

get money back just to get the couple pieces

you needed. So in 2016, sometimes when I go through

major traumatic moments in my life, I've had

a couple times where I start feeling like I need

to take some weight off of me. I need to get

rid of some stuff or I need to make some changes

in my life. And in 2016, I got really, really

sick. I was hospitalized. It was really, really

a bad time in my life. Needed money because I

also had medical bills So this is right when

food fighters were starting to go up in price

in 2016 really just starting but not bad So I

reached out to pixel Dan who I had talked to

I'd met him a couple times and I said hey I'm

thinking about selling my carted collection would

you be interested and He's like, yeah, what do

you think and so I threw him a number and the

number now is probably half if not you know,

one third of what I could get for him now, but

I don't regret that. Yeah, yeah. And he bought

him off me and he said, hey, what if we did a

video out of this? So there is a Pixel Dan video.

If you look up Pixel Dan and Food Fighters, you'll

see the video where he bought up my carded collection

and everything goes with it. And it was pretty

awesome. And I also started selling off my extra

loose figures, which again, Pixel Dan bought

more of those. And Das also bought a bunch. He

almost bought, I think, almost the entire set

off of me. Very cool. And I still have a full

set. I have a couple extras. And like I mentioned,

I have the playset and it's one of the cornerstones

of my collection. It would probably want to be

one of the main pieces of my collection. I would

not sell if I ever had to sell everything. Right.

So that was that was a really fun little unique

part. of my, that kicked off a lot of major events

in my life of meeting people, making connections,

really exploring a lot of things. I learned that

food fighters were actually probably going to

be aliens if they ever had any sort of content

or media that came out with them. They're supposed

to be like little aliens or something. There

was more meant to be out there and there's still

a lot of a lot of secrets that people don't want

to trade because the person who owns the trademark

or the copyright right now Doesn't want that

information getting out for whatever reason.

I don't know. Yeah There was some drama there

with the with some of the things that occurred

but Moving right along. Well, we will most definitely

because I need to go back and rewatch that video

But I will probably most definitely embed the

video that Josh is talking about where pixel

Dan bought his food fighters in the post on geek

cast radio comm moving right along We are getting

to the totally tubular traveling toys of 2007

So I took one of my first major vacations as

an adult without parents without school just

Me choosing to take a vacation in 2007 mm -hmm

and It was it was kind of a big moment in my

life because it was actually the first time I

flew by myself That was a big thing And yeah,

that was the first time 2007 you were 30 years

old To that no no 20 25 right around there. Yeah.

Yeah, so that's funny you say that because At

that point I had been flying since I was five

years old in 1985. Small little bit of background

on that is so my first vacation, my first flight

I was seven years old and then I took two of

the flights after that but my family didn't travel

a lot and we didn't really go a lot of places.

My last vacation that I flew somewhere for until

this one was ten years earlier. So I actually

hadn't, outside of a one school trip, two school

trips, let me rephrase that, two school trips,

I hadn't flown for a vacation in 10 years. Oh

wow, okay. So the two trips I took were not vacations,

they were related to cheerleading. Hey, that's

a vacation. One day we'll have a non -toy talk

and I'll tell you about those two trips That

can go on good cast radio the flagship show folks

Yeah, we'll see about that yeah, and So this

was one of my first trips it was really exciting

and I flew and it was we were staying around

the Orlando area and I Won't go into too much

detail about it, but I was really excited for

the new transformers movie and i really like

the look at the time of some of these new transformers

and i found a bumblebee when when i was shopping

and i bought it and i was like hey this is really

cool this is really exciting i love the figure

and kind of took it along with me didn't do too

much with it i didn't take any pictures of it

but i had it with me for for that trip and i

got back and it was my first I don't know if

it was my first, but it was definitely one of

my first toys I remember getting on vacation

and traveling with. I was like, oh, this is kind

of cool. So two years later, I planned another

trip back to Orlando and Disney, and I brought

with me these little Pokemon that I like to travel

with, Bulbasaur and Ivysaur. They're small, they're

easy to travel with, they're discreet. You can

have them in your bag, take them out, take a

picture, put them back in your bag, and go about

your day. People had told me that there's like

something called like a flat Stanley or something

where when you're traveling, you just take a

picture of this little figurine in a unique area,

and then you start collecting pictures of the

travels of this figurine. And it's actually a

very popular thing that I found out that people

do. And on that trip, go to Wal -Mart two years

later, guess what was hitting theaters that summer

again? Transformers. Yeah. So I got maybe skids,

I think is his name. He's a silver transformer

and he's got maybe 30 seconds of screen time

in the movie. But I got that and it was really

cool. So I have these two figures now that I've

I've gotten there. And it was pretty much from

there that I started realizing with the Pokemon

and everything is that I really liked traveling

with toys and taking pictures of them in new

places because it was just really fun. And Let's

see so 2009 did I take another trip after that

I can't I said My honeymoon my honeymoon in 2013

so I brought Several figures out to our resorts

a lot of beach related figures out to the resort

and that was really cool I have this Michelangelo

figure from the sewer spitters line where he's

in sort of a tourist outfit So he's got a Hawaiian

shirt on a lay a straw hat. He's just He just

is like a perfect figure to travel to tropical

locations. So he started coming with. And when

I got the Michael Knight figure, these became

my traveling figures and they rotate. So starting

in 2007, I get this first Bumblebee figure that

I was like, hey, I like having this. Part of

collecting now became, I'm getting toys and I'm

remembering where I got them from. So every trip

something goes with me when I went to Boston

I brought a Doctor Who figure with me when I

went to Our honeymoon it was all these tropical

themed figures and a couple other Pokemon When

I would go to Disney and other times I would

bring David Hasselhoff so in 2016 David Hasselhoff

came with me and That that was a ton of fun.

I'll have to send you some pictures of that later

So now that's my kind of regular thing whenever

I travel something comes with me for an adventure

And I think it's an extension of that fellowship

from before where I had this group of figures

that traveled with me Yeah, I think it's an extension

of that a little bit, but pretty much. Yeah,

but I've had a lot of funny moments with it because

I've had to go through security with them and

somebody opens up the bag and they're like what

is this and I'm like I'm a photographer. I don't

know what to tell you. I don't know why I have

a bunch of toys in my Yeah, it's kind of like

it's kind of like Jeff Dunham when he goes through

airport security They open it up and Walter's

there and shut the damn door, you know Yeah,

it's it's the same kind of thing because airport

security is always wary of because they expect

nothing but clothes and other you know Things

to be there. They don't expect toys to be in

a suitcase. But yeah and There is a little bit

of fear in there because I don't want to lose

anything. And I think that's one of the reasons

why I have so many David Hasselhoffs is that

I remember I got I can't I wish I wrote down

I have at least four right now of the same Kenner

Michael Knight figure. And I wish I could identify

one. My mom got me one. I got myself an extra.

You know, I had my first one that I got. And

I was I liked having more because in case I ever

lost them on a trip, I'd have extra. But like

Now I'm so attached to the Michael Knight figures

that I'm more nervous about even bringing the

extras on the trip with me. So that's always

a nerve -wracking piece of if somebody steals

my bag or if I lose my bag, that they're gone.

So now I'm being a little bit more particular

about when I travel, what goes with me, how it

goes with me. Because one time, I can't remember,

I think it was on my honeymoon or it was when

we went back to Punta Cana a couple years ago,

I was taking pictures of figures in the sand

and sand is actually sometimes really kind of

nice to take pictures of figures in because you

can Put their feet in the sand and they hold

the pose pretty well Wet sand works really really

well for this Except when you don't know that

the waves are now getting a little bit more fierce

So there was one time I had a little group picture

of all these figures set up the waves came in

and I'm trying to take a picture of my wife sitting

there like, can we just go get a drink or go

do something else? And the wave comes up and

grabs them and starts dragging them back towards

the ocean. I'm like, no, and I run and I'm able

to recover everything. But I will say the biggest

fear of traveling figures for me is losing them.

So now, sometimes when I go on trips, it's not

so much what I bring with me, it's what I take

back. So I have a Marvel Legends cable figure

I got in Vegas because Vegas is about excess

and 90s characters like cable were about excess

and it just kind of worked So yeah, so that'll

kind of start in 2007 with Disney and doing stuff

there Very cool. Very cool And then it's off

to 2008 with the style of mark and the speed

of Josh on epic toy hunts So my buddy mark, I've

mentioned a lot he and I really started hanging

out a lot in 2007, 2008, and really getting into

toy hunting. And I would go visit him or he would

visit me, and it became very apparent to me very

quickly that when it comes to hunting, we have

very similar instincts. I think part of it is

that he learned it from me, but he also took

what he learned from me, because he got into

collecting after I did. And a lot of it was because

of me. and I think he learned some of that stuff

from me and then he has perfected that style

on his own and he's gotten his own style now

that he could probably teach other people. He's

kind of a Jedi master now. But 2008 and 2009

and 2010 and even up until this very day, put

the two of us in a car, give us some time to

go toy hunt. We know what to do. We know that

we're gonna drive to the next store, we're gonna

park. There's no lollygagging in the car. You're

out of the car. You're into the store. And when

we get in, we know how to zoom and hunt all the

way to the toy section. We know where we go first.

We do our first loop. We always do a double back.

We always check again, because usually you always

find something on the second go around. And we

just have that very strong. We don't lollygag.

We move very fast. Yeah. Like the whole point,

again, so example I can give you for myself.

Was it bullseye? Yeah, I think it was. So a couple

years ago, forget when, but a number of years

ago, Funko released a flocked Target ad icon

bullseye dog. It was me and like eight other

people waiting outside Target to, you know, for

them to open the doors. They opened the doors.

I don't look at anything at the beginning. I

don't look at anything in the registers. I don't

look at anything anyway. I'm like beelining to

the electronics department. I just want one.

I don't want like, you know, I'm not a scalper.

Scalping is wrong, folks. Don't, don't scalp

shit. You know, that kind of thing. But I just

wanted one, one of those figures and I was able

to get one, you know, fairly decently. But like

that's that, that streamline, you know, Not multitasking.

It's it's what the hell is it called? It's like

What it's it's a one -liner it's like, you know

You have from point a to point B kind of thing

and nothing is going to distract you from it

Yeah, and I think just he and I having this that

unspoken style that when I go visit him now,

because he lives in about 45 minutes southwest

of Orlando right now in a smaller town. I don't

know if it's a smaller town, but it's a little

bit more of a developing rural area. So very

close to Bloomington or more. I went to school

is that it's it's developing. It's getting bigger.

There's more stores. There's more traffic. But.

We have a tendency now when I go down there that

we go to Disney first thing in the morning So

we get up at like 5 30 in the morning. We're

out the door by 6 and We're giving ourselves

enough time to go check a Walmart on the way

up there It we might be half asleep, but we still

know as soon as we get down there boom boom boom

Check it back in the car. We're gone if there's

nothing to buy and it's just it's one of those

really fun extensions of that earlier toy hunt

I was talking about of You have these big epic

moments that now are just really part of a skill

and a style. So let's keep going. I'm going to

keep pushing forward, pushing the accelerator

down because we're getting into the last 10 years

now. So when my wife and I first moved into our

first house, we bought a house that little townhouse,

wonderful little place, great starter home for

the both of us. And it was in Gurney in which

I think you were. living in the area, maybe five

minutes from us at the time. Well, when did you

buy that house? 2012. I was not integrating until

2018, so it took me six years. Oh, okay. Well,

we were there in 2018. Right, right. Yeah. But

I was in 2012. Yeah. So it had, so this particular

model of home in this neighborhood had a smaller

It depended on if it was remodeled or how it

was designed. Some people use it as a bedroom.

Some people use it as an office. Some people

use it as a bonus storage room. Some people took

the wall down and just widened the entire area.

But it was this little bonus space that we're

using for storage, but I started slowly but surely

carving out what we called the man cave. What

it would eventually become was simply where my

computer desk was, a couch, a TV, and... Shelves

of most of my toys and then a lot of boxes tons

of boxes And then later during quarantine that

became my classroom. So The the room took a long

time to build I had shelves I had bookshelves

that eventually just weren't doing the job. So

I sold them and I made my own shelving from unfinished

wood from Menards or something like that unfinished

shelving and It really took a long time, and

it evolved from some basic unmatching bookshelves

to putting in some cheaper, unfinished bookshelves

and really developing it further. And it literally

looked like a hoarder's nightmare most of the

time. It was not a clean room. It just wasn't

coming together very quickly. There wasn't a

lot of space. My first three years living in

that home, I was so busy. I was driving. Almost

two and a half hours a day for work roundtrip

was about two and a half hours Two hours on a

good day two and a half on it on a bad day and

It just I never gave myself the time or the dedication

or focus to turn it into something functional

and wonderful and enjoyable and In the whole

time we were there. So we moved in 2020 The whole

time I was there it took until lockdown that

in the first two or three weeks of lockdown where

I didn't know if I was going back to school,

I actually didn't have to work at the time, we

used emergency days, that I decided I was finally

going to just make the display. I was going to

make the room. I was going to put everything

up. I was going to make it what I wanted it to

be with the space I had. And I finally did it.

And I have YouTube videos of it I can share with

you of the completed man cave at the time. And

It wasn't the greatest room. It was not again.

I look at it now. I'm like it wasn't clean. It

wasn't nice. It was very Cluttered it was it

was messy but it was what I had and then when

we moved we picked a house that had a spare room

that we called the blue room because it's painted

blue and I Was like I'm turning this into my

new collection room. This is what I wanted the

man cave to always be Now the man cave was supposed

to be when I had guys over that's where we'd

go hang out because there was a couch up there

TV Video games all that stuff that was supposed

to be the room the problem with it is it was

right next to our bed We didn't have a bedroom.

It was a lofted space in the townhome and The

the challenge would be hey, you know if if Mike

you came over We'd be hanging out Playing video

games late at night. My wife would be just behind

just next to the wall trying to sleep Yeah, yeah,

that's not so yeah, that's kind of like how now

where I'm gonna eventually have my stuff set

up in my bedroom So originally I had my bed up

against the wall where it's the wall where I'm

now sitting where my computer is I switch that

to have that over by Where my actual neighbor

is and on that wall that faces this one to the

living room that's where I'm gonna, you know,

mount my TV because I would rather mount it on

an inside wall than a neighbor wall. And if the

TV's too loud, it might affect the neighbors.

So the same thing with your wife. If the bedroom

is right there and you're, you know, up playing

Grand Theft Auto 4 and Nico is, you know, doing

whatever Nico does and Grand Theft Auto, that's

sound. And plus, you know, if it's two or more,

you know, guys or girls or whatever, hanging

out and whatever else. you're going to talk,

you're going to laugh, and that other person

is not going to be able to sleep. It was a very

open floor plan, so there wasn't a lot of space

to hide. So when we got this new place with the

bar that we have down in the basement, now I

can go play video games and hang out down there.

The toy room is just my toy room. The blue room

is that. And I went and bought nicer shelves

and I started setting everything up. And the

room is still in flux. We're waiting to get new

floors put in. So there's a lot of stuff that

I just like, there's no reason to touch this

because if we get new flooring put in, I have

to take it all out. I had to take out the entire

bottom shelf. And I'm not looking forward to

that. And I might even have to take more than

just the bottom shelf out so they can put flooring

in. Yeah, it's gonna be a nightmare. It's gonna

be a crazy piece. But when that's done, I can

finally this the floor becomes a display display

space. So it's going to really be able to stretch

all that out. And the blue room is eventually

going to become a very proper collecting space

where stuff is displayed properly. There's not

a bunch of junk on the floor and just like empty

boxes. And it will be a lot nicer. But the man

cave, what it was when we got it in 2012, was

supposed to be my dream space that I always wanted.

And it's just funny that it took a worldwide

pandemic to make that happen. Well, a lot of

things happened or didn't happen because of the

pandemic and it's a strange time we live in.

So also in 2012, you were collecting the TMNT

toy line. Yeah, and that was the 2012 Nickelodeon

toy line. And I remember being very skeptical.

I was very I was very much a skeptic of the the

new Ninja Turtles because it was There was a

movie a 2007 movie that came out that I liked

but wasn't received as well as it could have

been The toy line was pretty good. But again

not received as well as it could have been Then

there was the 2003 or so turtle line that I liked

but it wasn't It just didn't gel with me. The

show was better than the toys. Yeah, and well

the toys weren't the toys weren't terrible I

look back at a lot of no they weren't terrible

but I'm saying like comparing the media the show

was better than the toilet like yeah yeah so

they but they were there were pluses and minuses

to it I only got the four main turtles I didn't

get anybody else from it then before that there

was the the next mutation line which was one

rare time well Stop go one go forward in time.

We're not talking about next me Taylor Well next

mutation the toy line was better than the show

you look back at it was better than the show

Yeah, and then before that was the original playmates

obviously original plan is so going back to 2012

2012 I was like, ooh, I'm a little skeptical

of this. I'm not I'm not Not feeling it looks

a little it looks just too different When I got

those four first Turtles and saw how poseable

they were, how well sculpted they were, how well

they held their weapons, I was sold. I thought

this was one of the coolest toy lines that had

come out. It was affordable. The vehicles were

really, really cool. They're very functional.

I didn't like the first Turtle Van -ish vehicle,

the Shell Razor, but then they came out with

a turtle van that was a mix between the original

cartoon turtle van and the van, like the Volvo

van that was driven in the first movie. Yep.

And the play set is amazing. There just was so

much imagination and thought put into this overall

line that I felt that it was one of the most

fun times to collect turtles and collect figures

in general because when they finally caught up

with the man and there were a ton of toys out

there, there wasn't a time where I probably wasn't

buying something from it. They were all very

fun, all very cool. The accessories were amazing.

You just didn't see stuff like that at the time

and it felt like, it felt like the 80s again.

It felt like a proper toy aisle in that section.

I still remember going to Toys R Us and seeing,

wow, they have a lot of space here this feels

like old school turtles and that was great yeah

and that was and i'm really looking forward to

figuring out where to put the five foot playset

that i have somewhere yeah but but yeah yeah

that that that 2012 tmnt toyline and that show

i need to go back to that show i watched like

the first three and a half seasons of it i watched

up until the point where Jason Biggs got replaced

by Seth Green, and I think I've only seen like

the first two or three episodes from season three.

That show was awesome. I loved watching that

show because it was a different version of The

Turtle, obviously different style, different

whatever, but it was so fun. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, and it just had a nice energy to it, and

most people liked it. There were a couple of

figures that just weren't as good as they could

have been. But for the most part, it was exciting.

And actually, I have one of my favorite toys

from that of all time is a remote control vehicle

that you could put two figures on. And I will

always say, if you're going to do a branded remote

control vehicle for a toy line, for an action

figure line, you need to have those figures fit

in the vehicle, whatever it is. So for instance,

right now, there's a Mattel Jurassic Park I think

it's an Explorer or a Jeep or some sort of vehicle

that you could fit the current Jurassic Park

toys in. I was like, that's that's amazing. That's

what you should do. There's a Buzz Lightyear

movie remote control toy that you can fit three

of the toys in. And this Ninja Turtle sort of

it's like a go kart or like a sort of buggy or

something like that. Again, a very cool toy that

they fit in. And that's what I like about. a

functional vehicle. Put the toy in. I don't want

to drive that toy. Give me a controller so that

I can move that toy where it needs to go. And

it's a lot more fun. So, yeah, it just was it

was just very, very, very well done. So another

thing right around 2012 was my discovery of something

that people had already known a lot about. But

that was the Kane County Toy Show. Right. So

this is when you this is from 2012 to today and

ongoing toy shows and you found it. Yep. Yep.

So I remember there was a point in my life where

I was I'm going to go out to this toy show. I

think this was May 2008. Now I'm going to drive

out and go see it. And it just it was a weird

day and I ended up not going and I regretted

it and kind of left it in the back of my mind.

But when I started listening to Dave and Deval.

on their podcast, they would talk about going

to Cane out all the time. I'm like, I know Cane

County. I used to go out there all the time.

I know all about it. And so Mark and I went in

2012 and checked it out and it was amazing. And

Mark and I had gone to so many conventions together

that we had our style of exploring conventions

down that we created a grid. We took notes. We

knew where stuff was. We had our shopping list.

And we generally We didn't waste each other's

time in a lot of booths. We generally went in.

I knew what he was looking for. I knew what he

knew what I was looking for. So it was a lot

more efficient. And I loved my first experience

shopping there. And then I was talking to the

guy who owns Streamline Comics here in Libertyville.

And he says he runs a booth out there. And I

said, I'm looking to sell some stuff. I need

some extra money. And he offered to share his

booth with me. And he gave me a table. So after

only shopping there I think for one or two shows

and this is where I found some of my current

carded digital figures that I have right now

I got a bunch of those for really cheap like

five bucks The comic shop owner Charlie who said

hey, you know sell with me So this was another

great education and learning how to sell because

this guy grew up Selling at flea markets and

he knew the style and the methods and and the

skill behind it and I learned a lot about selling

from him but I also did really well. I made a

lot of money at this first show and I kind of

got addicted to it. So the booth went from just

one little table to eventually having three tables

or four tables and then my wife would help me

or my stepdad and my mom would come and help

me or Mark would come and help me and it was

a great way to be at the show and explore and

experience the show but also make money off it

which is kind of one of those big things. Right.

Yeah. So I did that for a couple of years. And,

you know, I was trying to buy stuff to sell.

I was trying to buy inventory to flip. And that'll

get us to a later bullet point coming up. But.

I get exhausted very quickly from the buying

and selling grind, going out, buying stuff to

resell modern toys. I will tell you my experience

with buying modern toys in retail to try to resell

at these shows rarely ever go. Oh, usually buying

a bunch of stuff, hoping to sell it at the then

I have to go and return it anyway. Right. Yeah.

Service desk at the target. Or like, what is

it saying that says four or five dollars on it?

I'm like, oh, take that off, please. That's not

supposed to be out there. That was an accident.

So I kind of got to the point of being burnt

out to sell stuff now. I still. do and will sell.

I probably am going to be purging a lot of stuff

this year, but I generally don't like going out

buying stuff to sell unless it's a complete coincidence

that I'm at a garage sale or flea market or thrift

store and there's a huge box of toys to sell.

You know, that 10 bucks for this giant box. I'm

not checking Facebook to go find stuff to resell

anymore. It's just too exhausting. Yeah. But

generally with these shows that the best part

about them for me as a collective was networking

and meeting new people and meeting Store owners

and meeting people who are regular dealers and

making friendships and now there are people that

who are There there is this really nice guy named

Nick out of Chicago who? Would buy for me frequently

and just really really friendly charismatic guy

I think he's like a track coach in Chicago, and

he does a really good program out there He I

see him at every show now and we know each other

and we talk and we catch up We see each other

twice a year for about 20 minutes. That's it

but there's a lot of people like that you meet

these shows that you make friendships with and

That's been something that being around Those

dealers and those people and seeing them has

actually become the best part about it saving

not even the toys being around the toys is a

ton of fun, but Being around all of these people

I see on a semi regular basis is great Yeah,

absolutely again like you said networking and

all that good stuff and that's again going back

to like podcasting same thing one of the reasons

why I Did not want our comic book podcast the

pull bag to just be us discussing or reviewing

or Talking about comics. I wanted it to be more

and that's why the pull bag comic origins and

comic reading started and then I expanded it

to toys to cartoons to five other things where

I'm having, instead of reviewing every piece

of media I've ever watched on a show, or instead

of doing a review show of, say, Goldbots or whatever,

like, I love doing the whole camaraderie thing

of bringing people on to Toycast to ask them

the 42 questions or Tooncast for the cartoons

or the, you know, so yeah, you're right. Absolutely.

Same thing, you know, It's not always about,

yes, you want figures and whatever else, but

you're right. The buying and selling aspect of

toys is exhausting. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I'm

still planning on going this April and still

planning to go this October if I can. And it's

just become such a nice little tradition. Now

I'm mostly just helping out with Mike Tommaso's

booth and his shop. You know, he's in in kind

of repayment. He lets me have One table worth

of space, which is always great. I just don't

know what I'm bringing out this year I still

have to plan for that and that's gonna be a whole

nother stressful moment, but let's go ahead and

move on All right up next we are talking about

2014 and the five -year quest for TMNT Figures

from that 1990 Christmas episode we had over

on geek cast radio So this will be relatively

brief. We've talked about this a bunch of times.

But a couple of years ago, I discovered a family

video of a 1990 Christmas where I got Space Cadet

Raf, Samurai Leo, Undercover Don, and I think

it's Sewer Surfer Mike and Storage Shell Don.

And my brothers and I got those for Christmas.

And there was a toy show I was at where I got

the Michelangelo for five bucks. price tag is

still on there. It was a five dollar box figure.

I said, cool, I'm going to buy it. And I should

have bought the entire lot that was sitting there

because I'd be sitting on a small fortune at

this point. Yeah. But but the hindsight being

twenty twenty, obviously. So what I decided to

do at that point was because that's one of the

few Christmases I can remember what I got from

because there's video evidence of it. I was going

to go buy the five figures we got that Christmas.

And I wanted them carted. And so pretty much

it just, I didn't want to get anything from eBay

because prices varied so much. So I started slowly

but surely just hunting down those five figures.

And I just decided it wasn't urgent, it wasn't

a make it or break it type of thing. But I just

started slowly but surely finding them at shows

and getting them for cheap. And. I like doing

that stuff now where I have a theme behind collecting

and I think That's where I'm probably going to

go as long as I'm a collector moving forward

is it's got to have a story behind it It's got

to have meaning behind it. It's not just oh,

I just want this next Marvel legend figure is

what is the connection I have To it and those

are the questions. So I've actually been out

at stores and it found stuff. Oh, this is really

cool But I start asking myself What is the connection

I have to it and if I don't have it? it gets

put away. Yeah, exactly. And that's like me currently.

Again, sorry to interrupt you, but you know,

if I don't have a connection to a character,

I'm going to most likely get rid of it. Well,

it's not even a connection to the character for

the most part. It's also a connection. Like if

it's a vintage toy or modern toy, that's also

a big part of it. So I mean, which for me right

now, because I've been able to semi reclaim a

lot of what I've collected when I was a kid or

had a piece of it, there's not a lot left that

I'm feeling I'm hunting for. So it's actually

making it more fun because I'm not thinking I

need to buy everything. It's just, oh, let's

just try to find something unique and cool that

I have a connection to. And it makes hunting

a little bit more focused. It's not as stressful.

It's not as random and bizarre. So great example

is that a buddy of mine, Brian, he lives in Lake

Zurich. I he's got an amazing basement display

and he he bought a box of stuff off me a couple

of years ago before I changed my collecting habits

and he actually has a counter Terminator 2 figure

of mine sitting in his display that I recognize

because it's missing its arm from the elbow down

and I saw it and I was like at first I was like

oh I remember having a figure missing its arm

like that didn't think it was mine I pick it

up I take a closer look and it's got sticky tack

on it And I always put sticky tack on my toys

growing up because it was the easiest accessory

to do anything you wanted with and It still had

sticky tack in its crevices from when I was a

kid. Oh wow, and So I was like, oh wow, that's

that's one of mine. He's like, yeah most likely

is He's like I kept it because it was missing

the arm and it looked cool because it was battle

damage and I asked him later on I said You know,

I actually kind of want that I kind of want that

like, you know, that was mine when I was a kid

and it's kind of meaningful to me And I so I

made him an offer of like to say hey I'll trade

you this really cool Terminator 2 package figure

that I have like I'll trade it to you You know

just to make it fair and he actually said, you

know, I know that right now you're switching

to a lot of stuff That's more meaningful to you

that has a good story behind it So he was like

you can just have it and that's fine. And I was

really appreciative of that, but but that that

sort of moment of Saying hey, I'm gonna collect

these five figures not because I just want the

series or because I want the figures is Because

they have like they're I I look at them all the

time when I'm in here They're up above my closet

door that I face at my computer. It's it's more

of hey They just have this phenomenal story behind

them and I can look at it and I don't need to

watch the video I can tell you the story behind

how important these were when I was a kid. Yeah.

And so that's that's that's where I'm switching

to with with a lot of my collecting. And so it's.

It's a lot more fun, but that's why that's important.

So let's go ahead. We're going to jump to one

of the crazy, craziest experiences I ever had.

So the 2015 estate sale. OK, so this is in the

heat of when I was trying to become a toy dealer.

Was getting to be pretty well known as a good

dealer as a really nice pleasant guy offering

people good deals and stuff like that. So Jason

Duvall shoots me a message one evening. It says

hey, there's this really great estate sale right

by you and in the estate sale there's let's just

say it's ten carted original Kenner Star Wars

figures, okay and a bunch of other really cool

stuff and he's like you should go to it I'm like

I mean, it's cool, but it's something I need.

And he said, no, no, no, look at all the cool

stuff in there. Like, why don't you just try

going up? And he recommended, if you're going

to go, if it's opening at, let's say it was seven,

you need to be there at four. Yeah. And it just

so happened my wife was working an overnight

camping trip through her job. She ran a summer

camp, and they finished a session of summer camp

with an overnighter. And I pretty much had nothing

to do. And I was like, OK, let's go and do that.

So I get up at three in the morning. I drive

out to Vernon Hills. And it was a nice little

neighborhood. And I pull up to the house and

I'm looking. I'm like, OK, this is cool. It's

four in the morning. It's dark. I'm feeling a

little weird. And I'm sitting there and this

guy comes up my window. He knocks on my window.

And I open it up and I'm like, I'm thinking it's

the homeowner. I'm thinking it's. security, I'm

thinking it's a crackhead. I don't know who the

hell this guy is. And he said, oh, okay, so hey,

so you're here second. So what's your name? And

I'm gonna put you on the list that you're the

second one here. And I was like, oh, okay. And

I'm like writing my name on the list. Like, oh,

do you run the estate sale? He's like, no, I

was the first one here. I'm like, wait. Why do

I have to respect your list that you were the

first one here? And he said, well, that's just

the way these things go. So, you know, if you

don't want to respect that, I'll tell the guys

who run it that, you know, you're trying to cut

me. I'm like. OK, that's that's this is a bit

intense, but sure, whatever. So eventually when

people start showing up, we get out of our cars

and we're waiting in line up in front of the

house. And we're talking and we I start asking

and I start trying to get a sense of what everybody's

after The guy ahead of me just wants the Star

Wars figures I would have considered those if

I could get my hands on them and if the price

was right I wasn't gonna drop a ton of money

on him Right, but I knew that there was in one

of the pictures and I have it down in the basement

right now a wooden Toy chest it's like a cube.

It's about two by two by two and It has a lid

that you can clip off and there's a ninja turtle

toy chest and in the picture I saw it had the

turtle blimp it had a couple of the things So

that's what I was kind of that was what I was

going for So what I told the other guys in line

was hey guys He only wants the Star Wars figures.

He's being kind of a jerk The other stuff if

I go and grab that box, I don't mind, you know

I'm second in line. I'll grab the box to make

sure he doesn't get it, because he's probably

going to go for the Star Wars figures. We can

go and take the box. I'll dig through what I

want. If you guys want some stuff out of it later,

that's fine. I'll take what I want. You guys

can take what you want. So we're all waiting

in line. I watched this guy go over to one of

the organizers for the estate sale, and he does.

And I swear I saw him do this. The $20 in the

palm handshake trick. Jesus yes, so he had some

amount of money in his hand. I couldn't see what

it was shakes hand with the guy see I see them

whisper to each other and The funny thing about

this is that they open the door and they say

everybody's got to take their shoes off So all

these adult men who are the first like ten people

in line we go in we have to step up into the

door we all take our shoes off and The guy in

front of me starts running for the basement where

the toys are I'm right behind him and I'm like,

all right if he's gonna run I'm gonna run. I

don't care about beating him I'm just gonna put

some pressure on him because I'm not getting

these figures. He gets down there We get we get

down there at the same time. I'm two steps behind

him He goes to the table where the ten figures

are and he waves his hand over and he says I'm

taking all of them and there was already somebody

standing next to the table Not by any of the

other toys and there was some other valuable

stuff down there. Yeah So the guy he paid off

was standing down there to make sure he got him

So I grab the turtle box, I grab a couple of

the things, and I go and I check out and I tell

the other guys, including this one guy who's

a buddy of mine now, Eric, hey, I'm gonna go

out, I'm gonna look through this, I'm gonna pick

out what I want, and then if you guys want some

other stuff, that's fine. So we go out there

and we just kind of dump the box out right next

to my car. guys start digging through stuff and

they're like, oh, what about this? What about

this? And I just wanted to make my money back.

I made my money back selling stuff out of that

box. I broke even just by showing up. And I went

home with this box and a couple of vehicles and

some great accessories and I sold even more stuff

out of there. I actually ended up selling probably

about $200 worth of stuff out of that. And I'm

still friends with the one guy from the estate

sale now. He's a really good dude. And it just

I have that one crazy story. But that's the other

reason why I hate doing the hustle of trying

to go to find product to sell. Yeah. And for

me, it's not even about finding product to sell.

It's about finding the things that I want. So

you've talked in this podcast episode and we've

talked about this on the show for the last X

number of years now. The toy hunt. I am done

hunting. I have no. Know what I want and I would

much rather sit here in comfort in my apartment

on my computer Ordering it on whatever website

I have to order it on so I know I'm guaranteed

to get it once I've purchased it Yeah at my at

43 years old now. I have no interest Recently

this is this is recent because I'll probably

release this episode soon probably this week

This past weekend or a couple weekends ago There

was this Funko warehouse thing happening in Buckeye,

Arizona Where the the Funko warehouse was having

this sale and all these and there's video out

there I know gas will cast and a few a few other

people have it About the security guard telling

the people in line back up do this do that And

people shoving each other in this that anything

and the same thing like I said earlier in the

in the podcast now where I was going after that

bullseye Yes, I was running through target to

get to the electronics department But I was not

like pushing people out of my way or anything

like that I was just trying to be the first one

there I ended up being the second one there,

but I still got what I wanted to get but I didn't

you know Didn't do stupid shit didn't do inconsiderate

stupid shit that might get me in trouble with

security or the police or whatever and it's like

they're just toys get the fuck over it please

like it's not the end of the it's not even first

world problems to me if you're gonna be a child

and not like that's why i'm like hunting screw

that i don't care anymore i i would rather sit

here if i can get it online i can get online

if i can't get it online oh well I'll have to

miss out. That's OK. You know what I mean? It's

just one of those things where it's so frustrating

to just enjoy the hobby of going to a store because

you hang. And not everyone is like this. Not

everyone is like those idiots. And not much happened

at the Funko thing in Arizona, but a few things.

But it's like, I would say, 75 % of the toy collecting

community is are saying, you know Respectable

kind of it's just that other 25 % that just make

it horrible for the rest of us because They want

to be babies about it if they don't get it. They

don't get it. It's like sorry about your luck

You know, I don't know man. It's just yeah It's

just one of those things that just makes me so

mad and it makes me to the point where like I

said I'm too goddamn old to hunt for a toy if

I can get it on Funko's website or my buddy Wes's

website popping off toys calm or or eBay or McCarrie

or whatever like I would rather know that I have

the thing versus having to Dig through a shelf

in a store and the employee may or may not even

know what the hell I'm looking You know what

I mean? Like that I'm so over hunting at this

point in my life But back then at the at this

awesome estate sale and whatever else it must

have been really cool Yeah, I think where I'm

entering now in my life is that I don't I would

rather hunt knowing that I don't have anything

to lose and it's just more fun. Going to a flea

market or going to an antique mall or something

like that just a little bit over time I think

is just to see what they have, see what I can

find and not trying to hunt something. It's more

about are you looking for the experience or are

you looking for the desire for something and

I'm more of wanting to shift to looking for.

just the experience and just see what see what

turns up, see what magical things shows up when

I randomly check something every now and then.

I'm not I'm not really there for the stress of

collecting anymore because it's just not it's

not worth it. It's what it makes a lot of people

angry and they put YouTube shows up that are

all about being angry. So let's go and move on.

Speaking of questing for things and trying to

find things. So 2015 was a big year because it

was the year of the Megazords for me It was it

was the year where a lot of things came together

and I finalized Finalized getting the original

Power Rangers Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the

Thunder Megazord getting the Tigerzord I Managed

a lot to finish all of those in the same year

and it wasn't because I was trying it just you

know opportunity pops up Took it, got it. So

as a kid, the only Zord I had was the Dragon

Zord. And the Dragon Zord by itself is an amazing

toy and it's an amazing piece, but it's designed

to go with the Megazord. But that was very hard

to find and I never got it as a kid. But I did

get the Thunder Megazord, but I never got the

White Tiger Zord. So it's really funny that in

the two Power Rangers iterations that I was really

a big fan of, I had the Zord that belonged to

Tommy. in the first series, which was the Dragonzord,

but I didn't have the main Megazord. Then, later

on, I get the Thunderzord, which is, you know,

the five crazy ones, but I didn't get the Zord

that, the white Zord, the Tigerzord. The Tigerzord,

yeah. Belonged to Tommy, so it was like kind

of an inverse situation. And... I just had I

can't remember where I got the white tiger sword

I think I got it at a flea market or a toy show

or something it was missing a couple parts and

I got the parts through a lot of toys that I

bought and I was able to complete them and the

same goes with the Megazord is that the guy who

Charlie who runs Dreamland got it in a lot of

toys he offered me a good deal on it and I said

I got to take it because I've never had it so

I finally got it almost 20 years later. I almost

got it finally finished took me about 20 years

to finally get that so I I have what I feel is

as complete if not the most complete for me Power

Rangers collection that has not only a ton of

stuff that I had Originally when I was a kid,

but also some stuff that I was able to get later

on but It just it was just funny that it took

me almost 20 years We're talking about a 20 year

show, but it took me 20 years to finally get

If not 21 years to finally get the completed

Megazord so not much to mention about that just

the kind of the big moment of coming full circle

from when I was a kid of Never being able to

get that original Megazord Yeah, wanting it so

badly and only playing with it from with a friend

of mine. Maybe twice. Yeah, that was it Yeah,

so I never had the original Megazord or the Dragonzord

or anything like that. But in 1995 when the movie

came out There's a picture of me somewhere I

forget where it is But there's a picture of me

where I'm holding something in my hand and I'm

looking at it I'm not looking at the camera because

I was looking at the toy and 1995 I was 15 years

old Power Rangers was still a big thing as you

mentioned Tommy. Oh God, Jason David Frank. I

hope you're resting well up there, sir But you

know, it was all about Tommy and the white Ranger

and the Tiger Zord like you said, but then the

movie hits and we have the Ninja Falcon Zord.

And this picture is me holding the Ninja Falcon

Zord in my hand and I'm just like, dead -eye

stare. I could care less what's going on around

me. There could be a volcano behind me and nothing

is going to unfixate my gaze on this toy. And

to tie into this, as later in life I got into

Funko and all of that, there ended up being,

I believe it's a six inch version? Yeah, there

is a six inch version of the robot. The robot

part, once Tigerzord transforms there, once he

goes into his little robot mode, they did a Funko

pop of that. I just sent you that picture in

Skype. And I have that, it's still in storage.

But man, anything to do with Tommy Oliver, I

absolutely love, because JDF was an amazing person.

And yeah, that guy rules. And I was a major fan

of his. When I was a young lad, Green Ranger

was everything for me. And I probably brought

this up on a previous podcast, where I went to

a Japanese Superstore big supermarket that had

a toy shop and everything and I saw the Before

Bandai came out with it the Green Ranger and

I was like, ah, there's no such thing as a Green

Ranger There's no Green Ranger in the show right

now But there was I just saw a Japanese version

of it probably at that point He was probably

10 15 years old as a character went in Power

Rangers lore, but I saw it and I was so excited

and when it When I went back to school, I told

my friends, there's a green ranger, guys. There's

a green ranger. Like you're you're full of it.

You're you're a liar. Get the hell out of here.

And then there was a green ranger and he was

my guy. I wore green. I had I made a cardboard

morpher for myself. He was my jam. So I'm going

to keep pushing, pushing the gas down. We're

going to move on to wait. Go ahead. But wait,

there's more. There is. You said you dressed

like him you had the Green Ranger, you know,

whatever. Oh, yeah when he switched over To being

the White Ranger Never do this kids. Make sure

your parents never let you buy white jeans Because

I had white once he went to the white everything.

So we're gonna take a quick break Because I'm

sure I'm probably gonna have to insert some ads

or something here And then we want everyone to

keep their scanners peeled as we talk about another

amazing event from 2015 to the current day. We'll

be right back right after this. Strikes my fancy

and looks cool and feel like checking out. So

come over here. We got some tabletop gaming now

over there, but just a lot of fun Thank you all

for watching. I hope everybody's having a great

time and Just come over and have some fun YouTube

comm slash P off. Thanks Hey, it's Wes from Popping

Off Toys. Wanted to let you know about PoppingOffToys

.com. We can be your number one source for funko

collectible figures to add to your ever -growing

collection. If you're in Nashville, Tennessee,

we actually have a retail store that you can

come by. 5916 Charlotte Pike. And for the rest

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you can check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,

and even TikTok. And the name is just simply

popping off toys. Thank you so much and always

keep it popping. Oh Knight Rider, you gotta love

it. But you've never seen it, you bastard! I'm

working on it. Yes, we have to get back to that.

So anyway, Hoff and the Kit Quest. So I know

we've covered this in the past. I'll do a quick

brief overview. So my friend Mark and I are driving

down to Bloomington Normal from Gurnee. He was

visiting. He had moved to Florida. He flew back

up. He wanted to go back to Bloomington Normal

to load up some stuff to ship back to his new

place down in Florida. So we're on our way down

and on the way down we found this tiny little

flea market right off the Interstate 55. And

we're walking around. They have a couple random

toys. You know most most of the times you go

these flea markets are just a ton of dirty toys

and broken stuff and nothing special. And there

was a guy who had a trailer outside of the flea

market and he had just emptied out a storage

locker that he had paid for and he had a box

of toys and I started going through it and I

had asked him like, hey, how much you want on

this? And it was all vintage stuff, all stuff

straight out of the eighties, like probably was

in a bin for the last 20 years. and probably

was in a toy box before that. And he said, oh,

you know, I don't know, like, you know, I'm thinking

three bucks a piece. I'm like, OK, cool. So I'm

digging through and I start seeing stuff in there

and I'm thinking, OK, this is this is kind of

worth it. This is not something that I should

just buy two or three toys out of. This is worth

buying the entire box. So look at how much you

want for the entire box. And he said 50 bucks

and Mark. Being cautious and being a good friend

was like I that doesn't sound like a good price

and I'm looking at I'm looking in the box. I'm

looking at Mark and I'm looking in and I might

not 50 bucks is a good price. So I gave him 50

bucks. So. We get the box and we drive down and

Mark was getting first thing Mark wanted to do

when he got back into town because he loved it

blew me to normal and he still does. He was a

huge fan of his usual haunts when he was down

there and he wanted to get a haircut from the

same gal who cut his hair almost every year.

He lived there for about eight years. And so

while he was getting the haircut, I mean, what

am I supposed to do? So I'm sitting in the parking

lot and I emptied out the tub of toys in the

parking lot and I'm going through it. And there

was a lot of good stuff. He man I know is in

there. I don't remember everything and I wish

I had more pictures of it. But we're looking

at it and I find what I knew was a characteristic

counter figure of the time. Five points of articulation.

Simple sculpt and I'm and I couldn't quite place

it I'm thinking of what it was and I wasn't really

well aware of David Hasselhoff at the time and

I wasn't aware of Knight Rider But I'm looking

at I look at his belt buckle and it's like a

K and R together and I'm thinking What would

a K and an R be and I'm thinking carefully? Really

trying to figure out what it is. I'm like, oh

this is David Hasselhoff and he was just recently

in the news because of the the hamburger incident,

which is the The genesis of my four burger name.

Yes, and I was so excited for it because oh,

this is fun This is this is silly. This is great.

Like this. This is so wonderful. So I Got down

to my brother where I was staying and I went

and looked through the entire bin I'm like, oh

this is you know, this is so great And I started

having fun with David Hasselhoff. I started doing

funny things where it looked like he was drinking

too much or he was being silly or just ridiculous.

And it was just so much fun. Now, I didn't really

think of, oh, I want to go get the car now. There

was never really a point in my life where I was

like, I want to go get the car and track all

this down. It really wasn't my Motivation at

that point. I just had this really funny figure

He started traveling with me started doing a

bunch of random stuff and I posted pictures of

them and Dave Draper draped a bit of block date

It's like he's here We will say Dave Draper no

Dave Draper Gave me the name for burger and I

just decided I'm gonna own it. That's fine. I'm

gonna take that That's fine with me because I

also have a history and you can ask mark about

this where I have there was one night we were

at Disney and we were a couple of Disney cocktails

in and I dropped my favorite pulled pork sandwich

on the floor twice. Oh no. First time I dropped

it. I went and asked for a replacement, so I

sat down. I put it all back together in the box

that I had it in, and took it back to my, or

no, I gave it back to him. Second time I got

it, I was so excited, and this is a brand new

one, and I dropped it on the floor again, and

I was just like, screw it, I'm just gonna eat

it, because they're never gonna believe I dropped

it twice. And so I already had a history of eating

stuff off the floor, especially sandwiches, so

it just worked. Time goes on and my mom gets

me another Michael Knight figure and Really unexpected

out of nowhere, but I was like, this is great.

I have two now so the one my mom got me was the

one that was supposed to be the one that stayed

home and The one that I got myself was the one

that would travel with me So that way if I lost

it the one my mom got me would be more sentimental

and it would stay so Eventually, I think I got

another one at a toy show. I think I found another

one for Draper, gave it to him as a gift, ironically.

Or it was DOS, maybe, I think I gave it to DOS.

And my mom also got me the Baywatch David Hasselhoff

figure that's out there that I think was in the

Barbie line. And she also got another one, which

after she passed, I got that when I took it back

home with me. It's now sitting, I have two of

them and one of them is sitting up on my random

shelf with the rest of my pops. Including that

Leeloo pop you're telling me about and so Leeloo?

Leeloo pop. Oh! Multi pass. Got it. Yeah. Yes,

so I Decided to be more funny to not spend the

$200 or whatever on getting the kit car and just

finding another car he could fit in so David

Hasselhoff, Knight Rider, would drive in every

other car from Ghostbusters to the Batmobile

to Jurassic Park. Whatever I could fit him in,

that's what he wrote in. And you can link to

the podcast where I go over the story of finding

it at the flea market. But I randomly, this past

summer, just a year ago, find the car at the

flea market. The car he found, folks, just a

quick recap, is the complete 1980 two or 83 Kenner

Knight Rider voice card the kit the Knight 2000.

Yeah and without I had given up on finding it

at that point I didn't care it wasn't like something

I really wanted I didn't really care to find

it I actually liked the fact that he was driving

in the gold Cadillac from last action hero more

than then kit I just thought it was funny or

I just I appreciated the humor behind that because

he just looked like this like crazy drunken person

driving in this gold Cadillac. And just to find

it was such a huge moment because I you don't

really have finds that are that meaningful over

that much time. I mean, we're talking about seven

years here of having this figure of not really

ever thinking I would ever find it. It just was

this massive moment that you don't get in collecting.

Right. And. Bringing it back full circle, you

know, You obviously have been a huge fan of Knight

Rider and Kit your whole life. Between the two

of us, you're the only one who has a picture

with David Hasselhoff. So it's funny. Yes, I

have a picture with David Hasselhoff. And most

people will find this really creepy, I guess.

I don't know why I don't. I also have a autographed

it's not silhouette but like self -portrait you

know how like in the old days you if you liked

a radio like if you like a morning show DJ just

whatever your local town like mine was Peter

B or Jane Norris or whatever it is you could

go to the radio station and you could get a signed

like eight by ten or whatever picture of that

radio DJ kind of thing So when I met him in 1986,

and I had that picture taken, along with having

the picture taken of me sitting in kit, I also

got this framed, like, self -portrait signed

of him as well. So yeah. Anyway. See, yeah. And

so, you know, you kept alluding to me having

some sort of dark voyage on its way. No, no,

no. OK, so the... Let me finish the story from

my perspective and then you can explain So, you

know, we're just a little bit after Christmas

and and and you were doing your best to kind

of support me as I my whole world that had changed

suddenly of You know my mom passing away very

suddenly and you know She was someone who really

supported me in them in the Michael Knight thing

is you know as much as we've talked about it

You know, she's pretty instrumental in me having

a couple David Hasselhoff's, you know And she

loved it. And she always joked about the Hoff

and everything with me and loved it. And so you

start telling me, oh, you have a dark voyage

on its way or whatever we were talking about.

Well, hold on. So I'm humorously thinking that

you know, I'm saying this completely ironically,

sarcastically. You're incorrectly saying what

I told you. is what you're doing. A dark trip

or what was it? No, no, no. See, this is why

you need to let me tell. So. OK, OK, OK. Yes.

First of all, I've lost the two most important

women in my life since 2015. My mom passed away

in 2015. That pain was immense and intense and

everything else. And once I met Karen in 2017

and we had the life that we had for the four

and a half years we had together. My mom's the

death of my mom was still painful, but it wasn't

as painful because I had this new Beginning of

love and yada yada yada and all this and all

that everything else Karen unexpectedly dies

in 2021. So the loss of your mother I completely

Understand where you are coming from because

I've gone through it myself Yeah, and All the

times we've talked, whether it's on these podcast

episodes or whether it's off air or whatever,

because sometimes we will end up talking for

about an hour before we hit record, folks. I

asked you at one point, OK, you like the Huff.

You kind of like Kit. You like, you know, Michael

Knight. You like his characters. You like him.

Have you ever seen Knight Rider? And you're like,

no, I've never seen it. And I'm like, OK. Let

me know when you have some time, I am going to

take you on a shadowy flight into the dangerous

world of a man who does not exist. Oh, shadowy

flight. Okay, that's how I described it. I was

saying dark voyage, I don't know why. No, this

is not Star Trek. So a shadowy flight into the

world of a man who does not exist is part of

Knight Rider's tagline. And that's what they

always use to promote the show and everything

else. And at some point, we are going to sit

down and I'm going to screen share with you or

however the hell we're gonna do it. And we are

gonna watch at least the pilot of Knight Rider

together so you can see where all of this comes

from. Yeah, and you know, I think the the irony

to me and I maybe I use that term incorrectly

or whatever but I think where I sort of get into

it a little bit more is You know in our little

toy community our tiny little toy community.

I actually Became well known for being a fan

of the Hawth yet I had never seen an episode

and that being the comedy behind it is what kind

of kept me going but so it's There there's always

going to be the possibility of me having a ton

of other moments I'm missing or forgetting but

those are the ones that I can remember my brain

doesn't work the way it used to and I'm hoping

as I continue on this mission to collect and

make sure what I collect is meaningful and memorable

and has a connection to me that maybe more stuff

will pop into my brain and I think One of the

biggest moments and I'm going to try not to get

emotional as I go through this just because I

talk a little bit better but Is my mom had come

up in September and this is before the hurricanes

hit Fort Myers and for anyone who's wondering

that she wasn't the hurricane wasn't what caused

her death it was an illness a mystery illness

she picked up afterwards that she just couldn't

overcome and So she had come up to visit before

the hurricanes hit around September 11, 12, 13,

somewhere around there. And it was the first

time she was visiting Illinois since she had

moved prior to that. So it was about two years,

just shy of two years, that she was visiting

for the first time. And she hadn't really seen

her house finished before she moved, as far as

finished meaning like furnished and decorated

and to kind of the point wanted to be. So it

was really an exciting moment for me, because

she was coming to stay with me. And we had Initially

she was coming up to go to my cousin's wedding

because she had even said she's like I don't

know when I'll see these people again and that

and that was kind of one of those moments that

kind of gets you you know when you think back

to it yeah she said this might be my last chance

to see some of the people who are gonna be at

this wedding yeah and unfortunately in the days

leading up to the wedding her godson my cousin

passed away and so you know it gave a very different

meaning to that whole wedding uh, and that whole

weekend of her coming up was, you know, she came

up Friday and my wife was out of town. So it

was just me and my mom and then we got to cook

for her and it was really fun. And, you know,

I wanted to show her the blue room because, you

know, she knew that was such a big part for me,

but unfortunately I had a very crazy week leading

up to that and I didn't get a chance to straighten

it out and, um, it's always perpetually in transition.

So it's always kind of a mess because I'm always

rearranging moving stuff and I, Start it and

then right. It's a mess. So So Friday she comes

up, you know, and we hang out down at the bar

and we grill we cook the next day We get ready

we go to the we go to the wedding And she was

in his body's good health as good as health as

she could have been at that time She still had

her chronic illness, but it wasn't That's a whole

nother podcast. Maybe to talk about one day when

I get more information, but We go to the wedding

and then the next day My mom, my wife comes home

and I have to go take care of some stuff at work

because of the funeral now being Monday, I had

to go make arrangements to be out of work that

day. So I went into work for about an hour or

two and then came home and I was like, ma, I

really wanna show you the blue room. And she's

like, okay, but I'm like, it's kind of a mess.

So give me about an hour. So I raced upstairs,

I straightened up the room, cleaned it up, probably

super quick. and got to bring her up. And I don't

know if this is number 20 or 21 or whatever,

but it doesn't matter. And this is, the room

was about as close as it probably would ever

be to completion that obviously now that she

would ever see, but because I've just been waiting

for us to put a new flooring, I never finished

all my displays. But it was clean enough that

she could walk around and see it and check things

out and. Was able to go and explain so much to

her and point things out, you know We would talk

about whether or not she remembered getting me

some of these things because there's so much

in here that is from That she had originally

bought for me or I rebought and it was something

that she got for me and it was My wife said she

heard a lot of our conversation about me talking

about you know, like like I could point to a

shelf right now and tell stories about You know,

like there's a Kenner aliens figure, this guy

Drake, who was my favorite figure from that entire

series growing up and how he wound up outside.

And I found him tied up by a bunch of pumpkin

vines by the garden one year. Like, I don't know

how he got there, but he was all tied up by that.

Yeah. And, you know, the fact that I have the

Chuck Norris karate commandos figure line, I

have a bunch of figures from that and how I know

there were three variations of Chuck Norris.

And I could tell you which variation was Belong

to each of me and my brothers like we each had

one and I know which one was mine I know which

one was my and which one belonged to my other

two brothers and the food fighters and I could

tell her all these stories about where stuff

came from like the the bots master jungle fiber

and how That was something she got for me when

we went out to the Kenosha outlet mall when she

was taking me on a trip to just sort of you know,

just mother -son sort of bonding trip to get

me out of the house and you know, there there's

just so many different things I was able to tell

her stories about and How important it was to

me that she was in there at that time? Right.

Yeah now granted if she didn't pass, you know,

would I have thought much of that moment? At

the time You know, I was just like oh cool, you

know She'll probably be up and you know Probably

next summer because she wasn't she said she would

never come up during the winter because of her

health But, you know, she'd probably come up

next summer. And, you know, so I didn't really

think anything of it. And I was hoping we'd have

the flooring done by then, so the room would

be done. But, you know, we had a very long conversation

about everything in here. And it, my wife had

even said, she's like, it really sounds like

what you need to do is focus more on collecting

what's meaningful and what you have a connection

to, not just like the newest Wolverine or something.

Yeah, absolutely. And I agree with her because

here's the thing. Like I currently there are

some still in storage at my dad's but my cousins

went down to my dad's and brought up my desk

and a lot of other things and basically pretty

much all of the funko pops that I had in collection

in storage of my dad's and the thing is I use

the funko app to just keep track of what I have

I don't use it for value or anything like whatever

they're worth or whatever I just use it to make

sure I know what I have and I have close to 300

funko pops now That is a lot. However, a lot

of them are characters I love. A lot of them

are characters that mean something to me. You

know what I mean? Like, I'm not gonna go out

and hunt down the entire Game of Thrones Funko

Pop line, because I have only ever seen 15 minutes

of Game of Thrones Season 1 Episode 1. And all

they did was fucking walk. I was bored as hell.

So I'm not a Game of Thrones fan, and that's

fine. But my point is, that's how I've approached

collecting for the longest time, is that I only

go after things that actually, either characters

I love, which apparently I love a lot of characters,

and things that I actually want. I'm not here

to have every, I'm not gonna buy a character

or a figure that I don't even like. You know,

it's not even just it's not even just about like

preference now. It's Mm -hmm, whether or not

I continue collecting, you know wide scale like

I'm running out of space It's you know, those

water world toys take up a lot of space so You'll

send you a picture eventually you'll understand

that you're right. I know I'm right I you know

whether or not like I'm looking through a lot

of stuff now and you know how much am I gonna

keep what am I gonna hang on to how much more

can I get and What it really is going to come

down to is if this is like my effort of having

My entire history isn't toys. My mom's history

isn't just toys. But yeah what what if 20 years

of collecting has kind of taught me anything

is that It's not so much What you have it's Well,

okay, it's not so much what I have everybody

varies and everybody differs in your collecting

preferences But it's not so much what I have.

It's what is the story behind it? And why is

it there? Why do I have a packaged Lord of the

Rings return of the King? Aragorn from the last

Scene where he's in his like King gear and stuff

like that I have a story for that that one day

I'll have to tell you now right now because running

on forever, but yeah It's Why do I have that

one in the package? Why do I have it loose? Why

do I have the Muppets? You know the Muppets it

was one of my mom's favorite collections one

of my wife's favorite collections Why do I have

so I'm really trying to make sure that the things

that I have right now aren't just things that

there's a story with them and and that's where

that's what I'm getting to and that's what I'm

focusing on and it's making my brain work a little

bit better, so there's I could probably continue

to go on to talk more about lessons I've learned

in 20 years of collecting, or I could go on to

talk more. Yes, well, that could be another episode.

For right now, we're going to take a quick ad

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it is your history, the last totally tubular

20 years of toy collecting with Josh the Floor

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Toycast episode 170 and folks we are on the road

to 200 episodes. In the 180s we are going to

have most likely the top 100 toys countdown.

The GCRI, the top 100 toys countdown is coming

this summer. So that's what's coming up for us.

Josh, do you have any totally tubular toy thoughts

for 2023 and beyond? Again, I'm not going to

try to match that alliteration. However, I do

it all without chat GPT. Just to let everybody

know, anytime you hear me alliterate, that's

me on the spot. I ain't got no need for no artificial

intelligence. Well, you let me know when you

get into the next alliteration rap battle and

I'll be there for you. But I guess one of the

big takeaways as far as saying I've been a collector

for 20 years is I'm not the same. person at all

that I was 20 years ago, nor should anybody ever

be the same person they were 20 years prior.

But I think being open to the fact that when

you are collecting today, tomorrow, next week,

if you're going to be collecting or doing anything

for two decades, know that You're going to change

you might not still have that thing 20 years

later. I had almost every Marvel Legends figure

ever made I think there was only a small handful

that I didn't have of that original collection

I maybe have two Like one or two, you know Yeah,

and that was in the process of going through

now Marvel Legends is is maybe a little bit of

a a phenomenon because they've updated. They've

redone a lot of the figures and better, more

modern styles. They look better. And you don't

necessarily have that with something like food

fighters. They never re re release those. So

it's not like, oh, I'm buying a substitute or

replacement. But. It's I even when I think back

to collecting in college, which made up half

this list. That that was only four years of the

20 years of this and. Sometimes when you are

collecting longer you have to remember to keep

certain things You know into a level of significance

don't let stuff just become blurry and and get

away from you and don't go away in a blink of

an eye Yeah figured that I had for I should check

the date stamp on him, but I've had him for close

to 20 years right now. And he's probably still

one of the best Superman figures that ever came

out. But I, you know, I also have a variety of

other things that have come and gone over time.

And try to don't change everything you're doing.

Just try to remember that this is supposed to

be an adventure. It's supposed to be an experience.

It's supposed to be something that. brings you

joy that's fun that doesn't work against you

that doesn't create pain and stress in your life

because then it's not a hobby it's a burden.

Yeah yeah absolutely and it's one of those things

where like I said I know everyone has different

collecting habits and whatever else and everyone

displays their toys differently obviously because

not everyone is the same autonomous robot or

anything like that but I approach it as okay

like right now I only and it's only because of

the cost of the damn thing as far as funko items

between the pops and the sodas I have Every single

version of Batman Beyond of Terry McGinnis Batman

Beyond except for one and that one is the fugitive

toys red eyes Exclusive because that figure is

worth over $300. I will probably never have that

Which is fine I love the Batman Beyond characters

that I have so far, and everything else. You

know, TMNT, I'm doing something really interesting

with TMNT that I'll have to talk about next time,

but, cause yeah, that's gonna be fun. So, folks,

this has been Josh the Floorburger's top 20 toy

talk topics of the last 20 years. That's a mouthful.

Any other things you want to say before I run

through the closing, sir? I just feel old. That's

a pleasant surprise. The fact that, you know,

I'm looking at some figures on my shelf right

now, like the original Beast Wars figures that

survived that initial purchase that are getting

a legacy throwback now. Yep, and at the time

they were just shy of ten years old when I bought

them probably like five six years at that point

maybe a little less than that and Now it's oh,

it's a legacy throwback as if it's when I was

first collecting and oh We're gonna re -release

g1 optimus prime because it's a throwback, you

know, how charming and magical now the stuff

that Was even a throwback when I was getting

it is getting the throwback treatment. It's just

a redundant throwback experience Yes So yeah,

I feel old Yeah, we all feel old folks getting

told for this shit Thank you for joining us here

on toy cast if you'd like to get contact with

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TF Toycast over there as well. Next time on Toycast.

Think we're gonna take it back to basics and

either have an origins or a display case and

then I know episode 172 and 173 are going to

be origins as well I'm not gonna reveal who those

origins are gonna be but they're gonna be fun

as they always are for now. I am TFQ and Mike

with Josh the floor burger the old man in the

room No In my room right now Maybe, because,

well, I don't know how cat ears work. Do they

work like dog ears? Anyway, join us next time

when we'll be talking more toys here on Toycast.

Bye. The things I'm forced to put up with.