Chrissy on Origins in Toy Collecting

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 an all new generation of Toycast

as we get the origins of any and all toy fans

that we can. I'm of course TFG1 Mike and what

does the TFG1 stand for? Well most people listening

to this know, but it is Transformers Generation

1. Not what somebody thought it stood for a couple

of years ago, which was the fucking great one.

Sorry folks, I'm not that, you know... I'm not

that egotistical. Today's featured guest is someone

I've been following on Instagram. She is a cool

Funko creator over there. She does all kinds

of stuff in her Funko bliss. It's Chrissy. Hello.

Hello. How are you? I'm doing pretty good today.

How are you? Pretty good. Pretty good. I could

complain, but it doesn't help. Yeah, I understand

that. Exactly. So it's time we started talking

toys here on Toycast. And this is as everyone

knows is origins and it's 42 questions all about

toy collecting. What is or was the first toy

you remember having as a kid? Oh, man. Okay.

So one of my favorite memories, I would say There's

like a few different paths that I could go with

this there was a toy that I made when I was a

kid because I was very creative and Constantly

busy with wanting to make stuff is I once made

like did you ever watch the show Yu -Gi -Oh?

Oh, yeah Okay, so remember those hysterical like

wrist sword things that they would have on their

arms And they would put the debt like the cards

in yeah the dual discs. Yeah. Yeah I like and

it was like giant and long and it looked like

a sword. I made one out of um a sweat wristband

cardboard and duct tape and taped in like the

plastic sheets for cards and made it like dual

leveled so I could put different cards into different

slots and it could like hold my whole deck as

well so like that was one of my favorite things

that I just like went with everywhere and Played

with that, but I would say probably my first

toy ever was a aerial Barbie doll Really? That's

yeah. I loved a little mermaid. That was like

my jam. Very cool. Very cool No, I say really

because I wouldn't think that Disney and Mattel

would would do a collab like that, but I guess

they would obviously if it's gonna make them

money Yeah. I mean, they've been making princess

dolls forever, which I know dolls are not toys,

technically, but I kind of mixed and matched.

Like I would have my like X -Men action figures

playing with Barbies and G .I. Joes. Look, I

just didn't care. Like I just wanted everyone

as crossovers. Yeah, absolutely. I had Castle

Grayskull and outside of Castle Grayskull I had

standing next to it He -Man. Lionel Dick Tracy

and Batman. So I know exactly what you're talking

about. Great combinations, too. I know, right?

All right. Was there a particular adult who was

supportive of you playing with toys as a kid?

Was there anyone who was unsupportive? Oh, I

would say that no one was super supportive in

particular, which is sad. I know. But, um, I

was a weird kid so I would say that everyone

just thought that I was odd to be playing with

the toys that I did and how I was playing with

them because I'm just a very creative like inventive

person in my head like I just have a very good

internal world and when I'm playing with stuff

it becomes real to me um so I wouldn't say anyone

was super supportive but I just did it anyways

I just didn't give a shit I was like, I'm going

to make, like I once made a toy duck out of coffee

filters and tape and like named him and put a

leash on him and walked him around the house

and my like mom and dad's workspace, like where

their offices were. I would like walk around

the building with like a fake toy duck made out

of coffee filters. Wow. That's crazy. Cool. That's

awesome. That's, I don't know what it. duck made

out of coffee filters would look like. Do you

have a picture of that? Um, I'm pretty sure I

could find one, but it's like, just imagine like

a coffee filter flattened out. Yeah. And multiple

of them taped together to make it thick. And

then stapling one on each side of its body with

like, so you'd have the wings and then doing

that again to make the head. And then I use like

a foam cup that I just cut and like taped on

as the mouth. Oh wow. Yeah, all I can think of

is to make the head. It would look like the cones

that animals have to use when they go in for

like the dog cones. That's all I can think of

is that. Oh, that's funny. That's awesome. Maybe

I'll find it and I'll post it on my social media

and be like, this was my first ever Chrissy's

Funko Boys made toy. That's cool. That's awesome.

What types of toys were your favorites to play

with so action figures dolls, etc, etc I Would

say it is pretty even between Dolls but I would

like I I didn't like big dolls like I liked Barbies

I liked the idea of being able to change the

clothes and I would even like alter my Barbies

like I would cut their hair if I didn't like

it and I would like style them differently and

put clothes on different things. And then I would

say like my X -Men action figures. Like I loved

my like X -Men. I feel like they're called like

legends now. I don't know what they were called

when I was a kid, but that similar like I think

maybe six inch style action figure. And I had

like all the X -Men and I had like Angel and

Storm and Rogue and all of those. And I would

just like do, I would just like hang out with

all of them. Those were my favorite. That's cool,

that's awesome. So which ones stood out more

than the rest? You mentioned X -Men, you mentioned

Barbie, but are there any others that stood out

more so than the rest of your toys that you had?

I would probably say my X -Men are like the biggest

iconic thing that I would collect. Those were

just my absolute favorite But I had this really

cool Invisible woman doll from them like or action

figure from the from the movies And she was like

half turning invisible and stuff like that and

it's Jessica Alba As it and it was just awesome.

That was like my favorite thing. I took that

everywhere That's so cool. That's awesome Well,

we've been talking about it all fair folks and

we've been talking about a little bit on air

and the whole reason for question five is because

in my family as a kid in the 80s My aunts and

my uncles and my grandparents. They're all they'll

be like Okay. Well, I see you're playing with

your dolls again But do you prefer the label

of action figures dolls toys or other labels?

That is such a good question because I like all

encompassing things because I feel like there's

a lot of people out there that like to bully

or make fun of people for certain things that

they like. And then there are people that find

pride in what they do. So I'm kind of 50 50 on

that. I like the overarching term of just like

toy because I think that that's where it comes

from. Like it comes from either like trauma and

you're trying to heal and it's bringing you back

to a childlike experience that you had or you

just enjoy them and that's great or you're trying

to hold on to your childhood in some way. So

I feel like toy is great but I know that some

people are really particular like it's an action

figure or it's a collectible or it's a doll like

that's okay but we don't have to be like aggressive

about it either it's totally fine. Yeah true,

very true. Good guys or bad guys, which toys

were your favorites to play with the most? Good

guys, I would say. I think it was just because

there was more of them in stories and they were

easier to find those toys. When it comes to the

X -Men characters, there weren't a lot of Magneto

and Apocalypse. There were some, but they weren't...

a lot of those types of villains. Right. Because

it'd be like the whole team going against like

one enemy. Yeah. Well, I mean, but that. Then

that enemy usually has an army of his own, like

Magneto has the brotherhood and all those guys

and everything else. But yeah, sometimes they

short pack various characters, whether it's hero

or villain. Sometimes in toy lines, you could

only find the villains or you could only find

the heroes, which was weird. Yeah, because I

didn't remember getting a lot, like seeing a

lot of brotherhood figures. Yeah. Which kind

of made me upset because I really liked them.

Yeah. What is or was your favorite toy vehicle

or playset? Okay This is so cool. I had the Jurassic

Park The second one was called the Lost World,

right? Yeah, or is that the third one? Okay Yeah,

I had the Lost World Like giant bus thing that

could open up and had the operating table for

the baby t -rex. Oh wow. And it was like the

giant van bus and there was like two parts. You

had the front and the back and they connected.

And man, I just loved the shit out of that thing.

That saw so much time. That is so cool. Yeah.

Cause I would use it for everything. Like it

wasn't just for T -Rex and like for like my Jurassic

Park toys, but because I also had a lot of dinosaurs.

I loved animals and dinosaurs. So. Yeah. Yeah.

I was a huge dinosaur fan as a kid. I had, I

had dinosaur bed sheets. There's a picture of

me somewhere on, on Facebook of, of, cause I,

I'm usually fine taking pictures of myself now

if I'm taking the picture, but usually when anyone

else was taking the pace, like, no, don't take

my picture. Go away. And I remember my mom wanted

to take my picture one day and I just threw up

my pillow and my Pteranodon pillowcase was on

the pillow at the time. So yeah, dinosaurs are

cool. They always have been. Yeah, no, absolutely.

Did you and your friends ever pretend with your

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

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

toy? Chrissy can be this and her best friend

can be this thing, whatever different thing,

like, you know, kind of like live action role

play, but it's not really live action role play.

I did both. Um, I did live action role play all

of the time, um, with my friends and also like

role play as toy like as characters and stuff

like that with the with my action figures and

stuff like that. But what is a little interesting,

which I'm going to share with you, which is kind

of is a little interesting. It's scary to talk

about, but I want to do it anyways, because I

think that here is a safe space to talk openly

and honestly about like who we are as people.

Absolutely. Maybe the first one to know this

throughout all my social media is that I actually

am trans and I did not get to grow up playing

with girls. I had to play with boys. And what

was interesting is that I always played as the

girl characters. Like I would always be Jean

Grey. I'd always be Storm. I'd always be Rogue.

And everyone else was like the guy characters.

or like I would be Tomb Raider especially like

I love those video games growing up and I always

wanted to be like girl characters like Yuna from

Final Fantasy X or like Tifa from Seven like

I just loved female characters and I think that

that's like definitely part of who I am especially

when like coming out and your whole family is

like wait what and I'm like you didn't see any

of the signs yeah I liked everything girly Like

I liked everything that was girl related so like

I played as much as possible with like the idea

of being a girl character in every aspect and

That's absolutely fine because that's who you

are and that's that's what you like like, you

know, yeah like And we're going to get into this

way, way later, folks, because question, I think

it's 22 or something. That's usually when we

start with the Funko stuff. But like, I remember,

and this has nothing to do with orientation or

any of that. It has nothing to do with that,

but like, I think it was, what was it? 2009,

2010, 2011, when Hasbro came out with Mighty

Mugs. Mighty Mugs are essentially the precursor

to Funko Pops before Funko did Pops. And they're

essentially the same types of PVC vinyl characters.

Uh, their heads moved, their arms moved, that

kind of stuff, you know, and everybody was like,

Oh, you like mighty mugs. But it was like, you

know, that's an inaction figure. That's not a,

that doesn't have 27 points of articulation.

What's wrong with you? And I'm like, I don't

want 27 points of articulate. Same thing. Why

I collect Funko. Like I don't want to like sit

here and, you know, Darth, uh, Darth helmet,

my toys. I'm not like sitting here smacking them

together or whatever else. Like I just want to

look at the characters. Like, you know, and it's

like, who the hell is, you know, anyone that

judges anyone on what kind of toys did they like,

or that's just, I'm, I'm way past all of that.

Like, yeah. Like I have statues that are like

DC girls and I have old DC like figures. I mean,

I forgot what the name of them are called, but

I have like the whole set of them. And then I

have even Play Arts Kai. The superpowers figures?

No, it's like they're like six inch tall action

figures. DC was coming out with them a while

ago and they kind of stopped. It was like the

new 52 run of a lot of their main, it was like

Justice League something or other. I always get

confused between like legends because that's

like Marvel specific, but like it's the same

thing. I even have a Play Arts Kai Catwoman from

The Dark Knight Rises. I like everything. If

I like something, I'm going to get it. I like

Transformers. That's my boyfriend's favorite

thing. He loves Transformers. He loves Dragon

Ball Z. That's his realm. I have Marvel and Star

Wars and stuff, but we like each other's things.

It's really fun. Well, that's the whole point

of being in a relationship with anybody is that

you each bring something to the table and you

each start liking what the other one likes and,

you know, you share in the experience. That's

the whole point. Yeah, I love that. Absolutely.

What features define a good toy to you? How true

does the item feel in comparison to the source

material likeness? Repeat that question, that's

a good one. What features define a good toy to

you? How true does the item feel in comparison

to the source material likeness? Oh, this is

a good, like that's such a good question because

I'm like, I love Funko Pops because I love all

the small intricate details that they put into

the Funko Pop and I feel like it looks like the

character even. Like, so accurately. Man. I stumped

her, folks. We're not even... I know. We're not

even that far. Oh, man. All right. Question number

nine. What features define a good toy to you?

How true does the item feel in comparison to

the source material likeness? I am going to go

with... The clothing Okay, I really like the

like fashion of a character and that has to be

like spot -on for me to really like it But if

I get a toy or a Funko pop and it's like It really

doesn't look like the character because of the

clothing's off. It just, it throws it off for

me. I kind of lose interest in it. I went to

fashion school and I've always been really into

like drawing anime characters when I was a kid.

And clothing has just always been a very important

thing for me. So I would say like the clothing

of a character is really important. Very cool.

Very cool. What does toy packaging have to have

to draw you in so you go to the store whatever

store it is of course nowadays there are no such

things as toy stores anymore but you go to the

store you go to the toy section you see. Funko

pop whatever it is you see this this you see

like four or five different things what is the

packaging have to have to make you pick one over

the other. Oh, nothing. I don't care about packaging.

I don't give one flying fuck about packaging.

I just don't care. It's going in the trash. Unless

it's like a Play Arts Kai or it's like a figure

where I'm like, okay, this is really fragile.

I want to make sure that I keep the box for safety

purposes if I'm moving. But other than that,

I don't care about the box. To be honest, unless

it comes with, like, small parts that you can,

like, replace, you know? Yeah. That's it. Yeah.

I'm drawn to the character. Yeah, no, exactly.

And my twisted mind goes, yeah, small parts you

have to replace because some kid ate them. Here,

little Johnny, we're going to go pump your stomach

at the... And I know this has happened before

because that's why they put the... choke warning

on there because, you know, keep your toys away

from little kids, folks. Yep. So you are an open

person collector. So question 11 is essentially

frivolous at this point, but I'll say it anyway.

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

If you keep toys packaged, do you have a specific

criteria for this, which you just kind of answered

that unless it's something specific for the,

you know, to keep the the fate that code of a

key or whatever the hell it is, but, but you

are a fully open box person. I am. I fully open

box everything that I have. Yep. Very cool. If

as a kid slash an adult, you were only allowed

to choose one toy franchise to collect from,

which one would you choose and why? X -Men for

sure. Because like there's so much variety with

them. Yeah, when I was a kid I would say now

Funko pops, but like that's not really a franchise

I would say Marvel because it's so broad now

everything But in particular, I would probably

say the X -Men action figures back in the day

were my everything. Yeah, absolutely As an adult,

do you prefer vintage toys or modern toys? modern

because they're more accurate and like have those

small details that I really look for. I'm a very

observant person and so I really like to break

things down. If you see my TikTok at all, I don't

know if you're on there at all, but I do have

a TikTok and I do break down videos of every

new Funko Pop that I get. and I try to get as

detailed as possible. I do research on it to

make sure it's as accurate. I watch the source

material while I'm writing my script. So then

that way I can really make sure that everything

is as accurate and detailed as possible because

there's so many cool things to talk about with

a character. I don't want to just be like, yeah,

that's cool. Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. I want to

do something different. I just want to talk about

them. Yeah, absolutely. Because I'm an old man

and my mind usually ends up in the gutter and

somebody always usually comments about this folks

I guess I really need to rephrase question 14

But what is one toy you can always play with

now usually when I ask people that their minds

all go And I don't mean sit here and play with

the but like what is one to it? That's I'm actually

gonna Oh, what is this? Yeah, I'm redoing this

right now on here. I'm not even gonna edit this.

You can... You always gravitate... I don't even

care about that. Gravitate towards? Yeah. There.

Alright. So what is one toy you always gravitate

to more than the others? Okay. So I would say

that there's like two, it's the Invisible Woman

action figure that I had of Jessica Alba because

I grew up in that period where like Jessica Alba

was everywhere and I absolutely loved her, adored

her and was like, she is an icon, she's a legend,

she is the moment, I absolutely loved her. And

then I also had an X -Men Emma Frost action figure

and she was clear with like, besides her clothing.

And she's just so freaking hot. Like she, I love

her heels. I loved the posing that I could do

and stuff like that. And she had a cloak that

could come off and it was just really cool. So

those are my two that I would say I always gravitate

towards and can fiddle with when I'm anxious

or needing something. But nowadays, I would say

it's my Scarlet Witch Funko Pop. The Multiverse

of Madness one where she is levitating with her

powers, that one is my go -to fiddle with. Yeah,

which one do I have one of the spell book ones?

It was the entertainment. I think it's the entertainment

earth glow -in -the -dark one that I have Oh

sure. Yeah, I think that was that was from WandaVision.

I think mm -hmm. Yeah Yeah, I'm hoping that the

red glow -in -the -darks get better. Yeah Sometimes

there's a week. Yeah, sometimes they do glow

-in -the -dark really well and then other times

it's like they don't even care Yeah, or they

don't try hard enough So even though there are

always toy lines that people never purchase,

are there any that you specifically and purposefully

avoid? This can be a toy line, character, etc.

I don't think so. Like, I don't think there's

anything that I would avoid on purpose. Like,

if I could, if I had the finances, I would have

so much random shit. I want lightsaber hilts

and I want helmets. I never got into brats, but

I wouldn't say that I avoided them. It just wasn't

my thing. I was at a certain age where it just

didn't intrigue me enough, but I didn't avoid

anything, I would say. Very cool, very cool.

Are there any toys in the past or currently that

you wish you had not bought them? Are there any

toys that you may have sold that you regret letting

them go? I don't think I ever sold anything because

I'm just not that type of person, especially

because I don't keep any of the boxes. So the

monetary value is probably pretty low. I would

say that I gave my nieces and nephews, or nephews,

sorry, my nephew action figures when I was like,

oh, I don't know if I'll ever have these again

or use them. And now that I've finally gotten

into a place where I'm like, I want to be proud

of being a collector because of the shame that

I felt for so long that I was like, I don't want

to have these anymore because people make me

feel like shit for it. But now I'm like, no,

this is going to be my life. And I absolutely

love it. And I love collecting. So it's sad that

I let things kind of go because there are things

that are missing now and toys that I'll never

be able to get back. And that's sad. Yeah. I

would say. Absolutely. That sucks. Like I was

a kid. Yeah. Well, yeah. I was like 21. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. We didn't know what we were doing

back then. Yeah. How large or small is your toy

collection? Do your toys take up the whole house

or are they relegated to one room shelf or something

like that? They are delegated to my office and

I have display cases. I have shelves on my walls.

I have like book cases with like display stands

to put up all my Funko Pops and then I have So

I actually just went home recently to my parents

house and I picked up this crate of my old DC

figures that I was telling you about earlier

and I'm about to be moving so I'm excited to

be able to Put them on my wall and so I got some

nice shelving for that as well But they are usually

delegated to like one room Just so then that

way like when I'm making content, it's all there.

Yeah And since you said you were going to be

moving at some point and my thought is, Oh, I

just saw your rearranging your room video on

Instagram. Like, yup. She's going to have to

rearrange it all over again. I love rearranging

stuff. Like it's just, it brings me joy to like

come up with new things. I don't like things

to stay the same. I want to alter, readjust,

change things. Cause it's just. I love it. It's

so much fun to do so. Yeah, no, absolutely. While

most of my stuff is still in the box when it

comes to the pops and stuff, I do still take

them out for photos and things like that. The

first time I took the 90s, the 1994 Spider -Man,

Black Cat, and the Iron Man, I almost said Hugh

Hefner as Stan Lee, but Stan Lee as Hugh Hefner.

Uh, I took those out in order to take a picture

to promote us doing this podcast and. Spider

-man does not stand up. Black cat comes with

a stand, which I was not expecting. And Stanley

may the man rest in peace. That Funko pop. He

drunk. Don't drink and pop folks because like

seriously it. The, the thing slipped out of my

hands twice trying to get it back in the box.

Like maybe he, maybe Stan had too many trips

to the Playboy Mansion or something. I don't

know. You know, but like, yeah. So I took those

out and I, and I took those out and I took my

J. Jonah Jameson out and this is the, the classic

JJJ, the beyond amazing JJJ that just came out

recently. And he is. Marvel non -bobble. Everybody

was freaking out when this pop was announced

in this, I believe is an entertainment earth

exclusive. He's non -bobble and I know exactly

why. And I'm actually planning on doing a YouTube

video on my channel about this, but I think I

know exactly why he is non -bobble because he's

holding the copy of the Daily Bugle up where

it says Spider -Man threat or menace. There's

no good option for Spider -Man when it comes

to J. Jonah Jameson folks, but his hand, his

right hand is basically touching the. What would

essentially be his chin normally, but it's basically

touching the very bottom part of his head. So

there's no way. And I guess technically they

could cause bobbles move around or whatever else,

but what if that moved around too much that it

affected his hand? So maybe that's it. I don't

know. Maybe it's because of some, you know, whatever

movie it is or because of the line. Yeah, there

have been a few and we'll talk about this a little

bit later as well. But like there have been a

few where it's like, Oh my God, a non -bobble

Marvel Funko pop. The world is about to break

because that's not supposed to happen. Yeah.

You know, okay. So as much as I love the Bobbleheads,

I don't really care that their Bobbleheads are

not. I know that some people might. just like

that I'm saying that but it just doesn't it doesn't

bother me because sometimes the bobbleheads are

fucked. Yeah. Like they are they're up high they're

down low you have to twist them sometimes like

it's bent and it's like and it falls it collapses

like I don't mind if they're just attached in

a position but like I get that it's cool it's

a nice feature but it just I don't think that

would deter me away or not as a collector of

Funko Pops. And of course, if you left them in

the box, it wouldn't matter. It wouldn't matter.

Why would you care? Exactly. There's so much.

Yeah. And that's why half the time I don't care

because when I'm buying Marvel pops, it's because

I want to see them in the boxes. The box art

is on most of the Funko pop boxes. The box art

is great. And some artists did that and made

that up. And especially those black light boxes.

I know Funko went a little too crazy with the

black light, but Blacklight Kate Bishop with

Lucky is probably my current favorite Marvel

Funko Pop. Oh, that's awesome. See, I've not

gotten in the Blacklight ones because it's like,

I don't want to, I don't want to start down another,

another trendy product, you know, like I'm going

to stay in my lane and do like MCU and keep it

just the basic plain ones and not branch out

too much. Cause like I can't, I can't. If I get

one, I'm like, I gotta get them all now. Yeah.

Well, for me, I have, I have a specific, like,

like I said, obviously, and I've been saying

this a lot lately, apparently, but, uh, I usually

focus on characters I absolutely love. Well,

apparently I love too many characters because

I have almost 300 of these things. But the other

part for me is my two favorite colors for my

entire life, 43 years on this planet. Have always

been black and purple and when I say purple,

I don't mean light purple I mean like dark purple

not so dark that it's black but like, you know

Dark dark purple and she has purple hair and

lucky has purple fur or I mean, they're cute.

Yeah. No, absolutely Yeah, I'm not But like,

you know, you look at the Funko Pop of Grimace

from McDonald's, that's the purple that I like.

That kind of like a, you know, that kind of dark.

That's a good one. Yeah, that's a real guy. If

you do, how do you keep track of your collection?

I actually have an Excel spreadsheet of every

Funko Pop I own. And I tried to have, and I only

just started doing this once since I started

creating content. I was like, OK, I want to have

a log of everything. And what that means, let

me pull it up, because it's quite extensive.

I keep a log in one spreadsheet that is, anytime

I'm ordering something new, I have the. Item,

the Funko number, where is it from as in like,

is it My Hero Academia? Is it Marvel? Like, and

then which project is it from? So like, is it

Captain America Civil War? When is the purchase

date? What category? Is it MCU, anime, Disney?

What's its exclusive? What's the cost of it?

And where did I purchase it from? So I have that

all on an Excel spreadsheet. Just because One,

it's nice to have this and be able to look at

and reference if I need to. But also, if something

were to happen, I would want to know everything

that I had. Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. God forbid

something happens. There's a flood. There's a

fire, an earthquake, some natural disaster. I

have to flee the country. You never know what's

going to happen. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Why would you have to flee the country and not

take your pops with you? I want to be respectful

of the fact that you said you don't want to get

super political on your page. I want to respect

that. There's a lot of anti -trans laws and bills

that are trying to be passed. There's kind of

an out for us. People want us to be genocided.

I'm not okay with that. And not everyone's going

to have the privilege of fleeing the country.

But if I need to, I'm going to do whatever I

need to to survive. Oh, absolutely. And that

stinks. But if that means I have to leave my

collection behind, that's what I have to do.

I'm hoping that we don't get there. I hope we

get some sense in this country to see people

as people and human beings that we all deserve

a peaceful, stress -free life. That would be

nice. But there are people that hate us, and

there are people that fear us. I am constantly

on edge to make sure that like everything around

me is okay. Well, it shouldn't be that way. And

it, it just, um, that just sucks. That just absolutely

sucks. Do you want me to cut any of that out?

Just so I know. It's okay. You can leave it.

It's totally, I will leave that up to you as

like the creator of the podcast. I'm okay sharing

that information, but I also want to be respectful

of like. Yeah, no, absolutely. Like, yeah, I'm

not. Well, yeah, I mean, we're, we're talking

about plastic here, folks, but usually when people

say to me something like they give me those three

types of options, it's like this, this and this.

Oh yeah. And if I have to flee the country and

I'm like, why would you have to, and most of

that is usually just like, Oh, because of this

or Oh, because of that, or it's because of something

stupid, not because of, Oh my God, we are being

hunted yeah just so why can't we all just get

along that makes no damn I'm so sorry that sucks

that just sucks all right I really appreciate

that thank you it means a lot absolutely I have

support no absolutely like I mean for me like

again I'm going to probably edit most of this

what we're saying here out obviously but for

me it's like Not to sound like I'm not ambivalent

to any of it But it's like if it doesn't like

the way you are the way you want to be the way

you want to live your life It's not effect like

has no effect on me like again I'm not trying

to sound negative when I say that but it's like

do you know? It's like that old saying you do

you do what makes you happy do whatever you need

to do and it's like I'm here to support whatever

that is. You know what I mean? Like I I don't

like It's not that I don't pay attention, but

it's like, I don't have that much of an emotional

investment on other people's lives that are not

directly connected to me. Like, I just want to

have fun talking about toys. I don't care. But

I agree. Like, I would love to do that. I would

love to just be able to enjoy things and not

be like, oh, cool. Okay. Awesome. Terrifying

news. Well, like you said a second ago, you know,

when you, when, when you said about, you know,

this is the first time that, you know, people

are going to know that you're, you're, you're

trans. And I'm like, wasn't that I wasn't, you

know, whatever, but I was like, okay. Like I

wasn't like, Oh my God, this is the word. No,

that's so like people can be whatever, like I

could turn into a. purple people eater tomorrow

and nobody will care half the time. You know

what I mean? Like, yeah, we shouldn't care. Oops.

Oh, now JJ's drunk. Great. Oh, great. Stand up,

you fool. All right, let's, let's see here. So

you were talking earlier about how you like to

move your, your collection around and various

things, but in general, how do you like to display

your, your collection of stuff? So I have. my

like kind of homemade light up displays. So I

have the, I did like a whole breakdown video

actually on my TikTok about how I do my display

setup. So I have the typical Billy bookcase that

everyone gets from Ikea. I have them in white

because I really want to make sure that the Funko

Pops can stand out. So I was originally going

to go with like red because that's my favorite

color. And I also love Scarlet Witch. She's my

favorite character. In basically anything like

I grew up just loving her and reading her comics

so she's always been the one I've drawn to but

I didn't like the idea that you wouldn't be able

to see any of the detail. So I chose white and

I also installed like LED light strips that are

like adhesive from Amazon and I just put them

around the glass drawers so the light is facing

all of the Funko Pops. So that way they can light

up and I can change the color of them. And I

usually do that for a lot of my breakdown videos,

which I feel like you've seen some of them on

my Instagram. So I choose like a color to match

the theme of whatever I'm talking about. And

that's kind of what I usually do for my displays.

I also get those three tier, like a plastic acrylic

stands. So now they can stack the characters,

but since they don't keep any of the boxes, they're

just kind of. Design in a certain way based on

either who's my favorite who's the lead or like

when were they introduced into the project. And

that's usually where a lot of my like anime and

marvel stuff is and then I have some like homemade

I got some wood that's about the thickness of

the star wars bases of the funko pop the star

wars funko pops. And I like stained those black

and then mounted those on the wall with some

screws. And so like my Star Wars collection is

all on those shelves because it just matches

perfectly like size wise and quantity. Yeah,

absolutely. That is so cool. Very cool. Yeah,

I've seen most of your reels when you're doing

your Funko Bliss and you're talking about whichever

character I've seen the background of your shelves

and stuff. And it is it's very, very cool. I

just want you. Well, those lights like everybody's

always like, oh my God, don't put sunlight on.

Well, obviously you don't unbox this, but on

toys too. But like those lights aren't going

to hurt the like they're not going to yellow

the pops or anything, right? I've been doing

it now for three years and I have not seen any

color change. That doesn't mean that it's not

happening, but I have not experienced that. And

I don't know if LEDs can. Do that? Like, I'm

not a scientist. Like, I don't know. Like, I'm

not a doctor. I don't know. But, like, I hope

not. But it's something that I guess I've never

thought of that I should maybe look up, but...

Okay, only LEDs which produce no ultraviolet

light completely protect fabrics and art from

fading. So, as long as there's no ultraviolet

light, you should be fine. Cool. Yeah, I don't

really have a lot of sunlight in this room to

be honest, so that'll work that'll work So you

mentioned earlier about fleeing places if you

could only keep one toy from your entire collection

What would it be and why so basically? The house

is on fire every human and pet and everything

is safe, but You're about to lose the collection.

What would you run in and save? I'm going back

in the fire. No, no, no. Okay, I would probably

say if there was one I would need to grab. This

is really hard. It's not a Funko pop. It is my

Scarlet Witch from WandaVision sideshow. Like

a statue absolutely is beautiful like. The way

that they did it it's like she's on this acrylic

red like. Spinning of red energy while she's

floating there reading the dark hole and she's

got her powers and it's like and it's the typical

powers that you would see in the comic books

like it's hex circles. And it's so cool and beautiful.

And it's probably my most expensive item that

I have, but since she's my favorite, like I saw

it and I was like, I don't give a shit. I'm getting

it. And I would probably say that because it's

the most beautiful thing that I feel like I've

ever seen as a collector of things. I wouldn't

say that. Very cool. Very cool. Well, on that

cliffhanger of an answer, folks, we're gonna

head to a quick ad break. You're gonna hear some

ads and other stuff from other podcasts that

I help promote and all that good stuff. And we'll

be back with Chrissy with the rest of the questions

right after this. Hi, I'm Terry Smith, the host

of Music Talks, the podcast where I ask guests

a simple but beguiling question. Choose a song

from each decade of your life and tell me why

these songs mean so much to you. Guests and listeners

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You are receiving this transmission from the

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

with Chrissy and her funko bliss and on the opposite

side of you can only keep one thing Here's the

toy box challenge you get one and I assume this

is inches because I don't know measurements And

I don't know math you get one 18 by 18 box 18

by 18 by 18 box 3 18s The only toys you can keep

have to fit in the box. What can you pack into

it? Oh So I get three of these boxes? No, you

get one. One box that's 18 by 18 by 18. Okay.

Everything Scarlet Witch related. Everything

Spider -Man and Black Panther that I have. My

Toomis Marvels and Avatar The Last Airbender

and Ahsoka. Nice. That's awesome. Those are like

my favorite things. I would say that. Very cool,

very cool. Alright folks, the whole reason why

we're even here, because I already know the answer

to this question, but we are going to be talking

about a certain F -word that apparently everyone

in the toy community hates nowadays unless they

are actually a fan of this, but are you a Funko

fan? Yes I am. Hell yeah. What was the first

franchise you got a pop from, do you remember?

The MCU, it was, so I believe my first ever pop

was either Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy,

the first one, or it was Scarlet Witch from Age

of Ultron. I don't remember because they came

out at such similar times and I didn't know what

Funko Pops were until then. And I was like at

a comic book store and I saw them, I was like,

What are these cute, adorable, amazing things

I've never experienced? I want them all. Yeah.

I had known this was 2016. It was Christmas of

2016. I was staying with a buddy of mine in California

and he had told me he had a few of the Funko

Pops and he and his wife actually had, at least

back then they had a good number of them. But

he told me about the holiday group ones that

they had out. there's a couple of versions of

holiday group now but at the time there was only

one i was like oh that is so cool so when i got

back home in january of twenty seventeen i started

trying to find funko pops and my first one was

technically it was stone cold the uh... to case

sixteen video game version one and then that

girl sixty six and then The original Darkwing

Duck Pops were my firsts. So yeah, I absolutely

love that. So what is it about Funko Pops that

you love the most? I just don't even know what

there is to not love about them. Like it's so

hard to think about something specific that I

do love, but I like the posing. Like a pop that

has an action pose, I'm sold. If it's kind of

just bland and boring, it's like fine. But if

I like the showing of powers and you don't always

get that with an action figure, like my Katara

like action figure, it's her controlling a wave

of water. Scarlet Witch, she's got energy floating

and it's, I like that sense for the figures.

I know not everything has powers, but like, you

know, some Star Wars man, like Mandalorian has

jet pack and there's like fire coming out. Like

that's freaking awesome. Yep. Yeah, absolutely.

I was completely shocked when, because normally

I was, I'm one of those people that I'm just

perfectly fine with the four inch stuff. I don't

need, and I have a few of the larger ones. I

have a few of the six inch ones. And I mentioned

the Metallica black pop album with the four of

them in white. But when 10 inch sound wave came

out, I was like, Okay I have to have that and

at first when those glam shots came out every

and I tell the story every episode so the listeners

are probably tired of me telling this but when

that first came out everybody was freaking out

because it's like wait he only has three cassettes

in the box what did they do oh my god well obviously

one of them was in his chest And then you had

the other three sitting down on the thing. And

then people were like, okay, he's got the four

cassettes, but how come you only have buzzsaw

there? Where's laser beak? Oh my God, it's the

end of the world. So I'm just sitting back waiting

to be able to go to GameStop to get this thing.

I go to GameStop, I get the 10 inch sound wave,

I take him home, I open him up. First of all,

I thought that the cassettes were just going

to like, there was going to be like this little

cnc lathe insert where you could just set them

in front oh no that tape deck opens i was surprised

i didn't think they were going to do an open

tape deck but they did and i took out Buzz saw

and I flipped him over and I'm like, Oh, there's

laser beak. So they got away with essentially

five characters on four cassettes. Cause you

got rumble and frenzy on two cassettes. You got

ravage. That's three. And then buzz saw and laser

beak on the final fourth cassette. Cause they're

just reverse of each other. Everybody's just

freaking out over nothing. I'm like, give it

a break guys. Yeah, people are very complacent

about that kind of stuff, but it's like. I understand

you're a fan of the stuff and you want it to

be exactly the way that you envision it, but

also like, I don't know, maybe we just have to

be okay with what happens and who knows, maybe

they'll come out with more and all of those characters

as separate Funko pops that you know, those like,

I don't. I think they're called like bitties

or minis like the new ones. I don't think the

bitties though, because those are just really

small, but maybe like they could come out with

like a pack of all of those characters. Yeah.

As many as like that would be cool. Cause like

even for me, I was like, Oh man. Cause my partner,

he has the sound wave cause he's a big transformer

fan and I love it. It's so cool that it has like

a cassette that you can actually like take in

and out and it opens up. Like I think that's.

But that's something that I love about Pops,

you know, that like, I wish that more of them

could be like that, but it's pretty cool. I like

it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Anything else you

want to say about Funko and why you're a fan

of them before we move on with the rest of the

questions? Let's see here. So, I mean, if you

want to, again, I can edit this, obviously this

part out, but if you want to talk about, you

know, what you think Funko should do differently,

that's That's fine. You can put that here. Cool.

Awesome. Okay. Yeah. I would say if I could add

anything to like fungo collecting is I just wish

that there was a little bit more powers, like

showing of actual abilities or like any pop that's

a flyer. Like I think that they should be flying.

I think like most Ironman pop should be flying.

I just, I love that you can really see and get

like a figure that is really showing off something

cool. Like one of my favorite ones is the Azula

pop or Aang when he's in like his avatar state

with like all four elements floating around and

like that's the stuff that I love and I want

to see more of that when it comes to pops. I

want to see something that really showcases more

detail and has that effect for them because it

just It makes them more exciting for me. It makes

me really want to go and collect them and not

just, oh, it glows in the dark. I'm like, cool.

Or like, oh, here's the, here's the Tobey Maguire

pop three times. Did they have it three times?

Yeah. They have a plain one, a metallic, and

then the collector corpse one was like, just

unmasked in the exact same mold. And I'm like,

are you guys that lazy? You couldn't come up

with something that was more iconic, something

that was really interesting for that box. There

are so many cool ideas that they could do. And

I just feel like they choose something that's

really basic a lot. And that kind of bothers

me. I wish that they were more experimental.

They used to be when they were a collector company.

Now they're just a toy company like everybody

else because they're going mass market to everything

now. Yeah. Uh, yeah, the, the Tobey Maguire thing,

I would mostly, if I, cause I don't have that

any of those yet, I would probably get the metallic

one. Cause I think that one reflects the, the

actual suit from the film, the best most likely.

Yeah. But people are saying that it's not even

that metallic, but I have the plain one and it

looks similar to the metallic. It's very interesting.

Yeah. Strange. Uh, you mentioned earlier that

you're. Scarlet Witch statue is probably the

most expensive toy you have, but what was the

most money you spent on a toy? Oh, let me check

my list because I'm going to say that it probably

is that. Yeah. Okay. Oh, there's a close running.

Oh, that's interesting. Okay. It is the yeah,

the sideshow figure and it is. $252 .18 and that's

probably the most expensive thing that I've purchased

on my own. That is like a figure or statue. Very

cool, very cool. On the flip side of that, what

is the cheapest toy you bought or what was the

best deal you ever got for a figure that may

have been worth quite a bit more than you paid?

I honestly don't know if it was cheaper than

it probably should have been, because I just

don't pay attention to that stuff. I don't know.

I'm sure that there's a Funko Pop that I collected

that was probably four bucks. And that's probably

one of the cheapest figures, toys that I've ever

purchased. But I don't know which one. Yeah,

for me, it's like I have a list of like 400 pops

and I'm like, I don't know if I want to organize

that right now for you and be like, no, no, no.

But like, you know, you, you go to a garage sale

or you go to a flea market or you go to a convention

and you find something for. Let's say one 50

and you put it into hobby DB or the Funko app

or whatever. And according to them, they're like,

Oh, this is actually worth $700. Like, you know,

that's a good, that would be cool. That would

be very cool to have that experience, but I've

never done it. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't either.

The closest I've come is I had to buy three bottles

of diet diet, Dr. Pepper to get a little sweet.

So I basically spent $7 .50 to get a little sweet

in the mail away thing that they did a couple

of years ago. That's awesome. Good old Justin

Guarini. Hello. From American Idol to soda commercials,

that's amazing. Love that guy. So are you...

Okay, so... What modern and or vintage toy lines

are you currently collecting right now? So I

guess technically for you, it wouldn't be modern

or vintage. It would be like, what lines from

Funko are your go tos? Yeah. Um, so MCU, I try

to not collect anything outside of the MCU because

if I start to dabble, I'm going to want to get

everything. But I would say that. And star wars

and anime are my like go to use cuz i really

love my here academia jiu jitsu kaizen demon

slayer and then avatar the last airbender which

i want. More i want so many i have so many ideas

of what funko like could do and make for characters

for avatar last airbender and they just. It's

a massive franchise. I mean, the whole show now

has its own studio that is making multiple projects.

And they're like, no. Like, Korra came out with

a four season series and you have, I think, like,

maybe four pops from that entire thing and it's

not even all the lead characters. It's very weird.

Yeah, that is very, very crazy. Yeah, for me,

where anime starts and stops is Yugi. I love

that show and I love those pops and I need to

get more of the Yugi pops. Currently, if I remember

off the top of my head without turning around,

I have the giant Pharaoh pop where it's him on

the throne. I've got my Valentine. I've got blue

eyes, white dragon and red eyes, black dragon.

I loved red eyes, black dragon. That was my jam.

Yeah. Red eyes was awesome. Do you visit toy

shows or conventions when you visit toy shows

or conventions? Do you have a typical methodology?

Do you bring a certain amount of money for what

you're looking for, etc, etc? I've actually never

been to one to be honest. It makes me very sad

I want to go but I want to go with friends and

I want to go someone that has experience and

I just I don't know anyone here in Chicago specifically

that I that I might close with or know that well

I wish that I did like I wish I had a local toy

friend that we could go on like field trips to

different things and go collect stuff and talk

about it and Go to events together, but I would

love to like I would love to go to San Diego

Comic -Con I'd love to go to the actual like

Hollywood Funko store. It'd be awesome What about

your partner? Don't you guys want to go to conventions

together or no? Yeah, we would love to, but we've

just never done it. You should look into, I don't

know when the next one is. Either it's either

Kane County or C2E2. That's right. Yeah, I know

C2E2. It's in Rosemont usually, I believe. Yeah.

So I think I want to go this year. It would make

me very happy to do that. Very cool. All right,

let's see here. What's next? What do you think

it is about our generation that causes our childhood

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

instance, our parents generation? Hysterically

and sadly, trauma. But also I think that There

was a massive population spike and as technology

changed, like video games, someone saw that there

was a possibility to make a shit ton of money

by not just coming out with something, but coming

out with something someone could hold and play

with and not just be like a stuffed animal. Because

even if you look through history, like toys have

always existed. Dolls have always existed. people

were drawn to little mini means of them. And

even if they were made out of sticks, like, we

still did that. But I think as our population

grew, and resources, you know, grew, we just

decided to have companies make a shit ton of

money off of us. And we still do it, you know,

because we're fans. And we like expressing ourselves

in this way. Yeah. C2E2 is going to be way after

this episode airs, but it's going to be March

31st to April 2nd, 2023. So it's coming up. To

April 2nd. Oh my God, my birthday. April 6th,

but now I want to go. Oh, that would be awesome.

I'll shoot you the website after the episode.

Oh, please do. Yeah. Let's see. Okay. What is

your motivation for purchasing toys to display,

play, fiddle, describe your collecting style?

Are you a completionist, a storyteller, cherry

picker or otherwise? I want to know what is a

cherry picker. Cherry picker is basically like

I'm only interested in Soundwave, so that's the

only Transformer character I'm going to get.

I'm only interested in Spider -Man, even though

they're like a million Spider -Mans, or I'm only

interested in Bat. You're only picking up like

one or two characters from each of the lines

kind of thing. I am, I wouldn't say I'm a completionist

because I don't need a whole set. of something.

But I would say I'm close to that when it comes

to certain characters. So I have every Ahsoka

pop besides her hologram one. Because I didn't

know every pop existed, because there's no way

to know that. But I would say I'm almost a completionist,

but I stay within the realm of characters that

are really inspiring to me, that I'm really drawn

to. that make me feel something inside that makes

me go like, oh, I am now bonded with this character

in some way. Like T 'Challa's Black Panther from

the MCU. Black Panther and Wakana Forever are

probably my top two favorite Marvel movies. Even

though I love Scarlet Witch, there's nothing

against her for that. But the moment Black Panther

was on screen, I was like, I am... hooked to

this character. And same with the MCU's version

of Peter Parker. Like I grew up with Tobey Maguire,

but I just love Tom Holland. I love his Peter

Parker. I love his Spider -Man. I think he just

like is so good at it. So I would say kind of

completionist, but more so storyteller. Very

cool. Very cool. Have you ever purchased a toy

for a child with the ulterior motive of playing

with it yourself? Oh, man. I don't know, maybe,

like maybe with my nieces, I was like, oh, that's

a cool toy. And we could play with it together,

but I know it's theirs, but it like makes me

feel good to play with that toy with my nieces

and my nephew back in the day when they were

like actual kids. Absolutely. Have you ever purchased

a vintage toy for a child because you thought

it would be fun for them based on your own preferences?

No, but I did get my niece into Funko collecting

but she really likes it I mean that was kind

of that's like one of our things together is

like she really likes Funko so I wouldn't say

vintage because like Funkos are modern or I don't

know if they're modern. I don't know what to

call them. Yeah, they're they're pretty modern.

Yeah. Cool. Okay. So like me and her started

collecting Funko Pops together, like when she

was pretty young. And so she loves collecting

them. And that's definitely one of our bonding

things. Very cool. Very cool. You mentioned earlier

about creating this this crazy duck as a child,

but do you do any toy? Modifications or customs

painting building building dioramas, etc. I Sometimes

do it kind of depends. Um I'm not good at it

because I don't know how to fully Alter something

if I really wanted to but I did paint so I have

the Billy and Tommy WandaVision Funko Pop the

double set and I painted Billy's eyes blue to

match his powers and I got like a metallic blue

paint and I painted them and I also did that

with my Scarlet Witch Civil War pop that's like

the old one not the new one because that one

just has not even like shipped yet for some people.

But I did paint that one like her eyes red because

I'm a big, again, like I'm a detail person. Like

I love these details and I kind of wish that

Funko would like mix and match material a little

bit more. Like I think it would be really cool.

Like you know the facet material that's now coming

out? Yeah. I'm not into those pops really, but

I did get the Black Panther one because I love

him. Do you know how cool it would be if Vision's

head, the mind stone was actually facet material?

That would be so cool. If they did a faceted

Vision, that would be awesome. So far - Even

with the mind stone, that alone would be cool

to actually have a stone looking item in his

head and not just plastic. Yeah. The faceted

stuff that they're doing now, like you, for me,

Black Panther so far is the only one that I've

absolutely really, really wanted because I think

with the way that the faceted design is and the

way the purple is on that, it works really, really

well. It's so beautiful. Yeah, absolutely. It's

so pretty. Yeah. Do you think toy companies should

specifically have adult collector toys, child

toys, or find a way to mix both? I think that

they should have both. And again, I know that

it's one of those things where it's like, there's

a fine line between how much a company should

be able to make of something. But I think that

there should be everything for everyone. Like

I think that there could be kids toys that are

feel very kids toyish. And then there can be

adult ones as well. And there should be a branch

between the two of them. So as someone's getting

older and wants to go into more collecting as

it as you know, a young adult, they can without

it being, you know, to $300, you know, for them

quite yet until they like, you know, unless they

can't afford that, which is like cool. um but

yeah I feel like there should be a variety of

things like there are kids toys that are just

kids toys you know but I think adults still collect

them if they're a fan of that and that's cool

absolutely absolutely do you have my parents

got rid of my toys story yeah it's horrible oh

boy Yeah, I'm sorry. It's gonna be very sad.

Do you want to tell it or do you not? Yeah Because

I think it's important. I think it's important

to my story. Okay Yeah, so I since I'm trans

I did not present as a girl at a very young age

But I wanted girl stuff so bad. I wanted Barbies

and I had I had somehow convinced my cousin who

was babysitting me by throwing a temper tantrum

when I was like a young, young child to get me

the Ariel Barbie doll that I wanted so bad. And

I was looking at it every day at Target or Toys

R Us, I think at the time, like I was looking

at it every time that my mom and I would go to

that store and I was so uncomfortable asking

her to get it. And she would say no. And I finally

got my cousin to get it for me by throwing a

fit. And I had to hide it so then no one would

know about it. But of course, my cousin told

my dad and my dad is very conservative and was

like, no, you're a boy and you can't play with

girls things. And he took it in the middle of

the night and threw it out. Oh, I'm so sorry.

And I never saw it again. And it was heartbreaking.

But it was it taught me a very sad but important

lesson is that if you're going to do something,

you're going to have to find a way to manipulate.

to get what you want. And I hate that lesson.

It's not something that I want to promote in

any way. But because of that, I found a way of

playing with girls things the way that I could,

which was I found boys that were in my grade

that had younger or older sisters. And I would

ask to come over to their place for play dates.

And I would ditch the boys the instant that door

closed and my parents left. I was playing with

the girls and I was playing and I was playing

house playing with Barbies and dolls and stuff

because it's like I needed that. That was my

safe space to be myself. And the girls loved

it like the girls that I was friends with like

they loved it and they didn't see it as being

weird. It was the parents. It was the older parents

that then would shame me for it and like tell

my parents behind my back and stuff. But it's

like. Also, it was like during the 90s, like,

it's not going to be great, probably. But I know

it still happens today, I'm sure. But yeah. And

I think it's because our parents and our grandparents

and older relatives, they come from a generation

where none of what's currently going on in the

world was going on. Like, there was no, you know,

gender identification. I mean, obviously, there's

gender identification, male, female, whatever

back then. But like, there was no specific other

gender identification kind of stuff. They come

from a completely different generation than what

we've grown up in. Sure. I hear that. There were

trans people way back in the day. There always

have been, and people knew about it, but it was

just shunned upon. It's not that it wasn't there.

It's not that it didn't exist. It's that people

saw us on TV and They were afraid. And so they

tried to like, not let their kids get into that

realm. You know, it's, that's just what it is.

It was a different time back then. And hopefully

today things will start getting better. Like

hopefully things have gotten better now and hopefully

they continue to do so because, you know, you

can't, you got to move forward. You can't go

backwards in certain things and whatever else.

All right. Do you feel you are coming to an end

to an end for your active toy collecting? If

so, what has signified this phase for you? Was

there ever a moment where you were done with

toys altogether? Like I'm selling my collection.

See you later. No, absolutely the fuck not. I'm

nowhere near being done. I, I love it. Very cool.

Very cool. What is, am I allowed to swear? Oh

yeah, that's fine. I don't care. Cool. Yeah.

that's what the explicit tag is for yeah what

is something that does not have a toy of it you'd

love to have in toy form oh man i have a list

um let me pull it up okay i i legit have like

a list of my favorite or like somewhat favorite

ideas that I think should be Funko Pops. Let

me... You are the first person answering this

question that basically doesn't stutter, doesn't

whatever says, oh wait, let me pull my list out

and let me tell you. You were the first. Let

me tell you. Yeah, exactly. Okay, let's see here.

Okay, it's called Blissie's Funko Wishlist. Okay.

So a lot of it is Avatar the Last Airbender.

Like, I would absolutely love to have a Toph

when she is covered in rocks as armor. But as

a chase version of that I want it to be when

she is wrapped in her metal armor when she is

in the final season and she learns to metal bend

and she like these poor firebenders are just

like we're flying an airship and then there's

this little blind girl who just blasts down a

metal door And we've never known that metal bending

is possible at all. And she throws herself on

the door and then wraps it around her body, gets

up and then just decimates this team. Like what

an iconic moment to have in a show. And like,

I want that as a Funko pop. I just think it would

be absolutely killer. But I think that it would

be very interesting if they did a rock version

as the normal and then the metal as the chase,

just cause. She does this a few times in the

show and I just think it would be absolutely

amazing. And I would say that's like my avatar

one for Marvel. There's one that I know. Okay,

there's actually, I'm gonna say that there's

two. And they're both really important. One is

Pietro from Age of Ultron. I don't know why the

fuck we have not gotten one yet. I think it's

so odd. I think it's such an odd choice. He literally

was on the team fighting with them the whole

time and he died. And that's it. Why does he

not get a Funko pop if he died? We got a Captain

Carter from Multiverse of Menace and she gets

ripped in half. You know, um, so I would say

that and then I want so bad an iron monger like

six or ten inch Funko pop from Iron Man 1 because

like that's our first villain in the MCU Why

do we not have an iron monger? Like why do we

not have an iron monger Funko pop where it could

be like him and the bottle head is Obadiah's

stain like inside the suit and that's the bottle

head version or even having two where the Ironmonger

helmet is a bobblehead and Obadiah's stain is

inside the suit and it's opened up and he's also

a bobblehead. You can have two bobbleheads and

one Funko Pops. That would be interesting. That

would be cool. It would be, but I don't know.

Who do I send this to? How do I get in touch

with Funko? Because I have a list of over a hundred

ideas of what I think Funko should do as Pops.

There was some. And I just want to know. There

was something recently in the last few months

where they were like, send us your ideas or send

us your suggestion. There's something on the

website somewhere. I'll have to see if I can

find it. But because I remember, uh, when they

first announced that they were doing that, it

was like, my first thing was, okay, I want an

Alf pop. You give me an Alf pop from 1986 and

I'll be happy. That's awesome. Oh, I love that.

Could it be flat? That could be the chase, but

yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What is a toy that you'd

love to have scaled up and functional for the

real world? Do you say toy or Funko pop in particular?

I said toy specific, but yeah. It's a weird one

because I did not mention it. So my favorite

DC character is Black Canary. And I would love

to be able to have this like statue of Black

Canary that if you want people, like if you're

hosting anything or you're going to like a protest,

bring it with and you literally like tap a button

and it's just like the sonic scream. the canary

cry like that that would be so interesting to

have because it would just be really cool i think

because i love her she's my favorite in the dc

world and there's not enough funko pops of her

i don't there's only like two or three i think

there's two or three yeah there's just i don't

know It's just the way it is I guess I don't

know if it's the way the license is or the way

whatever is with funko and with the company that

you know the Licenser and all that but it is

what it is. I'll have more variety for the characters

and less same ones like there's too many Pikachu's

you can come out with other Funko pops like We're

ready for more variety of characters. Yeah, absolutely

How has your partner dealt with your collection

and collecting? I think it was hard at first

because I didn't have a massive collection until

the pandemic really started and like blew up

because that's just like when I was like, cool,

I'm gonna start really diving into this because

this is where I want my money to go. And at first

it was hard. Like he didn't really get it at

first, but now he does. He's so supportive and

he loves my content and he loves every time I

get something new and I show him and he gets

so excited for me because he sees the joy that

I have about it. Like he sees my enjoyment and

pride and excitement for something. And so he

has really grown to love and appreciate it. But

at first it was hard. I think that it's hard

anytime you're like questioning, you're like,

well, what's the point of this? Or is it an addiction?

Like, where is there an issue with it? Is there

not an issue with it? Um, and those are always

going to be tough questions to have. Yeah, absolutely.

So speaking of tough things, toy collecting can

have its struggles. What is one aspect you tend

to struggle with the most? I don't know. I really

don't know if I have an answer for this because

like, I don't think that I overspend, I don't

think that I go above and beyond to get everything

that's out. Some people collect fungal pops of

a franchise that they don't even know. That bothers

the shit out of me. Yeah, I don't do that. Why

are you getting the really cool, awesome looking

one piece and you don't even watch the show?

Yeah, exactly. Let the fans that are fans of

something get that. I would say if there's one

problem in the collecting world, that's not me,

is people that buy a massive amount of pops to

up the price of them to like 200, $300. I hate

that. You should have a limit to like how many

you can get from any place. It just bothers me.

I don't know. I just hate it. It pains me to

know that there are people out there that are

new to collecting and they have no idea that

there's even a Funko website. that you can get

them from Hot Topic or other stores and they're

going to look for them and then they're going

to spend more money than they should on something

without having any idea. And it's just taking

advantage of people. And I hate it. It, it, it

just boils me. Yeah. It just sucks. Like I remember

when I think it was flock bullseye from target.

It was at icon bullseye the day that that came

out. There was me, I was literally right at the

front door and there were like eight other people

around me and I just kind of looked back and

I'm like, everybody here for bullseye? They all

nodded yes. And I just beelined it to electronics.

I'm like, I just want one bullseye. If I need

to pay for it here, I'll pay for it here. If

I can take it up front, I'll take it up front.

I was able to, luckily I was able to get my bullseye,

but most of the time sometimes on those drops,

they're like, yep, nope. Everybody already got

it. I was like, oh crap. Yeah. And there are

people that are walking out with like more than

one. Yeah. It's crazy. I mean, I, okay. So yes,

more than one, more than two, I don't get two.

I understand if you want to keep one in the box

and open one fine, that's just toy collecting

in general that I understand that. But with Funko

Pops, you can take these things out of the box

and put them back in the box. There's nothing

in the box that is going to like, if you take

like a transformer or a DC like one of the the

McFarlane DC toys now where it's like it has

a has a strip here has this here has that here

holding the figure obviously you're not gonna

be able to give but the Funko pops you can get

these things in and out of the box is fairly

easily so you shouldn't really have to bite yeah

Yeah. Well, okay. Can you explain to me what

is the point of getting two of something if one's

going to stay in the box and one's going to come

out? That I just don't understand, I think. With

regular toys that are not Funko Pops, like with

Transformers specifically. If it's packaged in

vehicle mode, maybe you buy two so you can transform

one into robot mode and keep the vehicle mode

one packaged kind of thing. That's always been

the mentality of that kind of thing, but that's

specific to other, like specific to transformers

is for that. It is what it is. Interesting. Okay.

What is one positive and one negative memory

you have with buying toys? Okay, positive. There's

so many. There's so many good memories of it.

Like I remember, okay, one really big one I would

say was going to the comic book store with my

niece and like looking at all of the Funko Pops

and just seeing the joy. Oh, sorry, hold on.

One really good memory I would say was going

to the comic book store with my niece and also

my nephew at certain points and being able to

look at the Funko Pops and just be overjoyed

with seeing these like youngins see something

that they just absolutely love because it was

like a mirror. Like I got to see myself in them

and see the joy that something was bringing them

brought me joy. So that was a big one. But I

would also say getting a specialty pop that I

was not thinking of that existed. And seeing

that in the world and being like, whoa, that

just blew my mind. And I would say recently,

that would be the Ahsoka Rebels pop, where she's

in her white cloak with the hood. I did not know

that that would ever be a pop because it's an

epilogue of a show. And to see that, I'm like,

oh, thank God. Very cool. Very cool. If you could

create any toy, what would you want to create?

So basically Fun Co. gives you the keys to the

kingdom. No budget is too high. What would you

want to make? That is such a cool question. This

is probably my favorite one so far. And it's

like one thing you're talking about. Well, I

mean, you know, they give you the keys to the

kingdom. What's one toy you would want to create

if you had the power to create one of the toys

for them? I'm going to look at my list again.

It's so hard to pick one. Um, because again,

like I have a full list right now of like 70

or something like that of ideas. Okay. I would

love to have a really cool, honestly, like an

awesome build a scene of Avatar The Last Airbender.

when it is the Aang gang. So it's Aang, Katara,

Toph, Sokka, and Zuko. I think that there's some

extra characters in this, but I can't remember

when the villain that's like Combustion Man or

Sparky Sparky Boom Man or Sparky Sparky Boom

Guy doing his like head blast at them when they're

in the one of the air temples. I just think that

would be awesome. to like have them all together

and like he's blasting at them. Cause it's kind

of one of the only, like they do a lot of fighting

as a team, but like the final battle is just

Aang and Ozai. So this is kind of one of those

cool battles where they're actually like up against

someone pretty tough. Yeah, it's kind of like

the Avengers build a scene or you know shwarma

or something except it's the it's the full -on

Yeah, that would be really cool. That would be

awesome to see actually. Yeah, I would say like

that or just like my entire Avatar setup that

I wish existed Yeah, absolutely, that would be

awesome What is the one piece of advice you would

give the toy collecting fandom chill? Relax.

Relax. Like, stop being so uptight about it.

That's what everyone says. It's okay. Have you

ever seen the 2003 remake of The Italian Job?

Yes. Okay, in that movie, Mark Wahlberg's character

and Charlize Theron's character go to see Skinny

Pete. Skinny Pete is a fat guy, and it's the

whole thing, and his little girlfriend there

is telling him to do this and do that, and he

just turns to her and says, baby, go relax. Sometimes

that's all I can think of is some of the things

that happen in the toy collecting fandom. It's

like I mentioned earlier about the sound wave.

Let's wait and see what the product actually

is. Give it a chance don't like there's certain

like what like when funko comes out with announcements

or when diss trackers shows off things early

it's like, okay, I Kind of like that, but it's

not a character. I absolutely have to have or

for me. It'll be like oh, I'm not really into

that so it's not for me it could be for somebody

else kind of thing and Then for me with funko

lately. It's like oh Another art, like you were

mentioning earlier with the same molds. Another

R2D2. Here's something they should do. I don't

think they've done this yet. If they have, I,

I'm sorry, listeners. I haven't looked this up.

Have a, was it episode two or episode three?

Have a flying R2. That's the, that's the R2 Funko

Pop. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. Like

stop doing the same shit. You can come up with

new inventive things like. I don't know if there

is one, but is there a Pikachu like Pokemon Funko

Pop that's actually shooting electricity? There

are other options than using the exact same mold

over and over again just to save a buck. Yeah,

it's crazy. Crazy, crazy. What is advice you'd

give to kids who enjoy toys? Don't let anyone

ever tell you shit. Like just ever. Just keep

doing you. And don't listen to them. They're

liars. They're fucking liars. They're jealous.

They wish that they could be you. Yep. Absolutely,

absolutely. Alright folks, that's gonna do it.

We're gonna go to one last quick ad break and

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All right, we are back here on Toycast. This

is episode 174. I think this is going up sometime

in April, most likely. So folks, I am here with

Chrissy in her Funko Bliss. Anything else you'd

like to say before I run through our closing

here? You can find me on Instagram and TikTok

under Chrissy's Funko Bliss. And I just want

to say thank you so much for having me be here.

This has been a great experience. Absolutely.

Absolutely. That's the thing I aim for every

time is to get the stories of any and all fans

that I can, whether it's toys, cartoons, podcasting.

What else do we do around here? Comics. We do

all kinds of stuff. I have all kinds of origins

around here. So thank you for joining us here

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

us, we'll leave feedback for the show. There

are several ways to do so. Visit the website,

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Follow us on Twitter at geekcastradio at TF Toycast

for the show. I am at TF2 and Mike. You're not

on Twitter, are you? I have one, but I don't

really use it that much besides following Distractors

and Funko News. Okay, no problem. Becoming a

fan of Facebook, go to facebook .com slash Keycast

Radio Network and also check out Toycast over

there as well. You're on Facebook, like a Facebook

page? No, I don't like Facebook. It's scary.

Yeah, yeah, social media in general. They're

so mean. It's like, can't we all just get along?

Next time on Toycast, it is 175 episodes. And

I believe, I think, my good buddy Optimus Solo

is going to return. And he was featured in episode

100, where we spent five and a half hours talking

about various toys and the history of the podcast

and all that good stuff. But since I've been

doing Toycast Origins, I was waiting for him

to move and to move his collection and wherever

else. And he actually, it's funny, he moved from,

where did he move from? He moved from, where

the, oh god, McChesney Park. Whatever, he moved

from Illinois to Florida. I don't know why, Florida.

Too much, too much heat. Need that snow. So my

good buddy Optimus Solo is gonna be here next

time. Oh yeah, and folks, coming up soon. We

are going to be doing the GeekCast Radio Network's

Top 100 Toys Countdown. We've done seven countdowns

so far and toys will be number eight. So for

now, I am TFU and Mike with Chrissy's Fungo Bliss.

Join us next time when we'll be talking more

toys here on ToyCast. Bye.