Optimus Solo on Origins in Toy Collecting

Jazz here, and I am so digging 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! ToyCast.

Oh yes. Listen in to the only toy podcast you

will ever need. Hello and welcome to an all new

generation of ToyCast as we get the origins of

any and all toy fans that we can. I'm of course

TF2 and Mike. Today's featured guest is someone

who is returning. We actually heard part of his

toy story in episode 100. So if you people want

to go listen to the five hours that that episode

was, go back there and listen to that. But he

has been on the GeekCast Radio Network for 13,

14 years for probably as long as the network

has been around because he joined in TFG1 episode

16. It is that mac and cheese loving fool. It's

Optimus Solo. Hello, sir. How are you? The one

and only Optimus Solo. Yes, yes, yes. One and

only. I'm good. It's funny because I know you're

not that big on this whole social media thing,

but... At one point or another, I was going to

set you up with a Facebook fan page, just, you

know, facebook .com slash profile slash Optimus

Solo, whatever else. So I actually went out because

you have to go out and you have to look and see

if any names are taken kind of thing. There is

some, I don't know, some other person who is

a different nationality, a different whatever,

called Optimus Solo out there that his page is

not in English. And I'm just like, wait, what?

How do you even know? Anyway, we're here to talk

toys. Toys? Yes, toys. This is ToyCast, you know.

Foreign subject to me. Yes, foreign. Exactly.

Well, you know, you did just, you know, you haul

your entire collection from one state to another

in the last year or so. That is true. You know,

this is what it is. What is or was the first

toy you remember having as a kid? Oh, Lord have

mercy. Yeah, we don't pull punches around here.

We just throw you right in the defense. Probably

that bench that had little things that you could

hammer down that you had when you were in preschool.

Or like a xylophone, maybe? I don't know, man.

Maybe a rattle? Is that really a toy, though?

Oh, you'll find out it is. Oh, Lord. Maybe. I

bet you have a whole ultimate rattles list somewhere,

don't you? No, but it's probably up there with

dirt and sand and rocks and blocks. We are that

old, folks. We are older than dirt over here.

Some of us. Yeah, exactly. I know. Oh, boy. That's

your answer? You said first. If we want to not

count preschool stuff, I'm going to count this.

This is going to sound weird to people probably.

My bedroom, the first bedroom that I ever remember

having, and I'm not saying there wasn't a different

one maybe when I was first born or something,

but when I was a wee little lad, I had a bedroom

that was done in a Care Bear design. and it had

it featured on my walls there was like i think

clouds and not just on paint some of it stuck

out like clouds and rainbows and stuffed care

bears that i think velcroed to the wall maybe

and that has i'm gonna count that as like a stuffed

animal as a toy as probably the youngest version

of something that wasn't just like a preschool

like not preschool but like an infant rattle

or something like that yeah yeah i remember something

similar to that where it was like you could throw

it It was a Velcro wall. The piece that you could

throw had the other piece of Velcro. You throw

it and it's stuck to the wall. My whole wall

wasn't Velcro, but they had a little rectangular

thing that was on the Care Bear and that would

go a specific spot on the wall. There might have

been more than one. Maybe there were two or three

Care Bears or whatever. I remember there being

clouds and rainbows and stuff. A vague memory.

Very cool, very cool. Was there a particular

adult who was supportive of you playing with

toys as a kid? Was there anyone who was unsupportive?

My mom was pretty supportive, actually, for most

of my youth. She would latch on to whatever...

franchise i was collecting or liked at that time

and would definitely support it by getting me

all of that type of thing for my birthday or

for christmas and it was kind of probably interesting

because my birthday and christmas are only about

a month apart so whatever i was into at my birthday

i was probably also into at christmas so you'd

get like that double like here's a bunch of that

type of thing for your birthday and then here's

a bunch more of that type of thing for christmas

so i ended up with lots of whatever i was into

at that exact moment so yeah my mom was pretty

supportive and she it didn't seem to matter what

my interest was she would just go to that whether

it was one franchise or a different franchise

or this type of toy or that type of toy she would

just i think she enjoyed helping me collect that

type of stuff maybe i don't know i think my whole

family has collector genes in them and i have

a brother that's uh 10 years older than me so

he would have supported it because i was playing

with some of his toys and then sometimes we had

similar toys like in the same line uh so to speak

so like he had the 1970s star wars action figures

with the darth vader case and things of that

nature and he would let me play with those eventually

those became mine he gifted them to me because

i was developing a very large star Wars collection.

And I remember he had some transformers and I

had some transformers, which all ended up being

coming mine and things of that nature. So there

was kind of an older brother supportive. There

was a mom supportive. I don't really recall anybody

else anywhere being pro or negative. Okay, cool.

Cool. What types of toys were your favorites

to play with as a kid? I went from one thing

to another most realistically. So the earliest

group of toys outside of just one -offs would

have been Transformers. And then my brother had

the big 12 -inch old -school G .I. Joes before

the G .I. Joes of our generation became a thing.

And he had the Star Wars figures. But I think

the first one that was really... I would say

was mine was the transformer stuff. Like I started

developing a transformers collection. I got into

Legos at some point, pretty hardcore. I was,

I had a lot of the castle like medieval night

type sets. My older brother had some old school,

like space. Legos and things of that, but my

collection was the knights and the castles and

things of that nature. And then I transitioned

into a little of everything, a little G .I. Joe's,

a little Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a little

Thundercats and Silverhawks. And then Star Wars

actually came a little later. I had my brothers

that I played with, but I didn't really start

buying Star Wars until after all of those other

phases. So it was like middle, I want to say

middle school. high school was really my star

Wars years. Whereas when I was a kid, it was

all the stuff that was current, the, the key

man, the GI Joe transformers, et cetera. So out

of all of those, as your childhood toys, which

ones stand out more than the rest? Which ones

as a kid, did you gravitate towards more than

any others? I never had as big of a collection

of. anything as i did transformers so transformers

is easily the the biggest collection i had i

think after that i actually probably had more

starting lineup figures than anything else my

my motu collection was fairly small like probably

a dozen or less but i had a cousin that had like

all of them So I would play with those at his

house and I had a friend that had a ton of GI

Joe. So I didn't have a ton myself again, maybe

like 10 or 12 and turtles. I probably had a few

more. I probably had like, well, about a dozen

or 15 of the different turtles. So I think starting

lineup figures, I probably had close to 15 or

20, but it was, it was definitely. That was the

majority. And then after that I had like Legos

would probably be my next biggest collection.

And then micro machines, maybe I had a lot of

micro machines back in the day. Very cool. Very

cool. Do you prefer the label of action figures,

dolls, toys, or other labels? Um, it depends

on what you're talking about. Action figures

and dolls are two different things. And you're

not going to convince me otherwise. So there's

a distinct difference between an action figure

and a doll. And I think that's something that

we'll probably get into more discussions of when

we do our next Top 100 because there's different

categories and I have them separated into dolls

and action figures. But to me, an action figure

is plastic. In the case of Transformers, die

-cast, metal, plastic, hard, think rubber maybe

could be an action figure. Whereas when you have

a doll, you have real hair. Not real hair, but

you have hair. In some cases, real hair. And

you have cloth, or you have softness a lot of

times, or at least features that would be like

that. So to me, it's a Barbie doll. Because it

would have hair, right? It would have soft clothes.

It's a different type of posability and articulation.

It's a different size, typically. I know that

there's gray areas. I know there's arguments

that could be said, well, that fits your definition

of action figure. Or this action figure fits

your definition of doll. But I guess for me,

the example was, I consider... The 12 -inch G

.I. Joe figures, the old school ones, and maybe

even the ones that were around. But I'm talking

about the ones from the 60s, 70s, whenever that

was. Those 12 -inch figures, to me, are dolls.

They're not action figures. The 3 .75 -inch are

action figures. And same thing with Star Wars.

Star Wars had 12 -inch things. Those, to me,

are more dolls. as much of an action figure.

I know it's gotten a little bit more blurry in

the last 10, 15 years because scales and size

have gone a little bit different. There's this

big fad now for the 8 -inch or the Star Wars,

the Black Series, G .I. Joe, the classic series,

classifieds. Those are kind of in that middle

ground, but I think there's still more action

figures than dolls. I don't know. I call... Everything

that I have almost as action figures, I didn't

collect a whole lot of dolls for my definition.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And again, audience, I'm

sorry, but I'm going to say it in every episode.

The genesis of the question is, you know, my

grandparents, it's basically our parents, our

grandparents, any relatives that were around

us in the 80s as children. Oh, little Mikey's

going to go home and play with these dolls. They're

not dolls, Grandma. They're action figures. That's

essentially where the genesis of the question

comes from is because our grandparents and family

members would not name the specific – Transformers

were not dolls. They were not. Like you just

said. It's kind of how you're going to do it.

If the main function is to dress it up in different

amounts of clothing or different types of clothing

or mess with its hair and brush it and do things

like that, that's more stuff you would do with

a doll. Feeding it, the babies that you go...

p or whatever like that those are all doll features

and action figures are more like opposable things

they have weapons they have different you know

i don't know that's how i view them and i and

the toy toy company has definitely made a distinct

effort to separate that because they knew that

a boy didn't at the time the stereotype you know

the boy wouldn't want to be playing with a doll

so that's why they started calling them action

figures etc so there's definitely a concerted

effort to try to gear one towards a female audience

and one towards a male audience Absolutely. Good

guys or bad guys, which toys were your favorites

to play with the most? Wow. That's a hard question.

I think it depended on the figure for me. If

the figure was cool, I don't care if it's good

or bad. Soundwave was one of my favorite characters,

so I liked that toy even though he's a bad guy.

Ironhide and Ratchet were good guys, but those

toys weren't very good in the original G1, in

my opinion. They have no heads. It was weird

for a child, so I didn't want to necessarily

play with those. Transformers is a tricky one

because kids like certain things, like all kids

that go through a phase, right? There's the phase

that kids like dinosaurs. And I do remember having

a lot of like dinosaur, like fake, that wouldn't

be figures, but I don't know what you would call

them. Like the, the toy animals, like the barnyard

stuff, but there was dinosaurs. I remember having

a lot of those. So kids go through a dinosaur

phase. And I think kids also go through an airplane

phase. Sometimes some of them where they like

paper airplanes, they like, planes they can fly,

like maybe like a remote control type plane or

other different actual moving planes. They like

toy planes. They like watching planes, you know,

whatever it is. A lot of kids go through a plane

phase and transformers like flip the script because

they take one of those favorite types of things.

And they're all bad guys for the most part. I

mean, I'm not saying there wasn't the aerial

bots and jet storm. Came later. Right, but all

the Seekers were planes and a lot of the bad

guys were planes, so it was kind of weird because

that's something you wanted to play with. With

Masters of the Universe, a lot of those figures

had elements that you could do something with,

whether it be squirting blood through Mosquito

or Leech with his suction cups and things like

that. Ram Man, you know, obviously had the spring

action. So it really depended on which one of

those features you liked on the figure. So I

tended to like some of the bad guys in the Masters

of the Universe based on their little gimmick.

And then, like, G .I. Joe, for me, they don't

really have gimmicks as much. Their figures didn't

do stuff like Masters of the Universe. They didn't

transform like Transformers. So it was really

just the person. And it all came down to, did

you like the look of the person or not? Cobra

Commander figures or some of his foot soldiers,

like the Vipers and things of that nature, had

cool looks. Destro has a silver head, so you're

going to like that. It really just depends on

the actual line. I didn't find myself playing

more so with good guys or bad guys. I usually

had them both out and was trying to do a story

with all of them interacting. Yeah, absolutely.

That's cool. That's cool. Did you and your friends

ever pretend with your toys that you had by this?

I mean, did you say, Kevin's going to be the

water bottle and Steve can be the piece of glass

kind of thing? Like, it used to just be called

pretend, folks, but apparently in today's society

it's called live action role play. But, you know,

did you ever do anything like that? The bottle?

we would pretend that we were characters from

these shows. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it helped

because a lot of the lines put out stuff. Like

I had the claw from Thundercats that you could

wear on your hand and you had like a Lionel claw.

And I think we had, there was other pieces. The

Thundercats, I remember did quite a few things

with kind of role play pieces. So I think that

existed. And then obviously every Halloween you

pretended to be one of the characters of whatever

show you were talking about. So I guess that's

a little bit of a cheat, but you kind of did

that. But I do remember doing it with Thundercats.

I don't remember ever pretending that we were

Transformers. That seems like it would have been

weird. And I don't know why, but we never pretended

to be a G .I. Joe. I think it was literally Thundercats.

That was about it when it came to my role -playing.

Very cool, very cool. Yeah, the Transformers

stuff, it was... I can't picture myself being

like, hey, I'm Optimus Prime, and I'm about to

transform, and now I'm going to roll around.

Well, yeah, I mean, it was more about the robot

part than the actual transformation. I'm not

saying I didn't do it. Maybe I did, but I only

remember the Thundercats. Because we had the

claw and I think we had a sword and maybe some

shields or something. Oh, I take that back. And

turtles. Because of... You could pick up a stick

and you had a bow. Like you were Donatello. And

my father was a police officer. And at one point,

he... It's a small town police officer. So, I

mean, we had like less than 2000 people and there's

not any crime, so to speak, besides maybe drunkenness

or whatever. We had like a, we had a quote unquote

gang and that would not fit the definition of

a gang in any realm whatsoever, but they hung

out at a certain place on certain nights. That

was about it. But anyways, at one point he confiscated

an actual pair of numb, numb chucks from somebody.

And I don't know why, but he, I don't know why

he, I guess you didn't have to turn it in or

something. So he brought them home and like,

they were sitting in our garage. And that was

during like the time when turtles was like turtles.

It was 1987. So I would have been like, When

it came out. But by the time I was into it, I'm

seven, eight years old or whatever. And there

was these nunchucks that were sitting in our

garage. And I for sure decided I was going to

be Raphael until the first time you hit yourself

in the face or in the head with one of those

that you don't know what you're doing with. Because

that hurts like hell. You mean Michelangelo,

right? Yeah, that's what I meant, Michelangelo.

So I pretended I was Michelangelo until the first

headshot. And then I was like, oh, these things

are painful and dangerous. I'm putting these

down. And that was the end of that. But I do

remember us playing as turtles because it was

easier. Like I said, you picked up a stick and

you had Donatello's bow. We didn't have knives

like Leonardo or anything, but you could play

a little bit more like that with turtles. So

Thundercats and turtles were the only ones we

pretended. Oh, fellow checker, eh? Not a thing

that anybody should try to do if you're not experienced

or have training. Yikes. Nope. John Wick is crazy.

He has mad nunchuck skills. Go watch John Wick

4. Yes. Or in my case, wait for Voodoo. Yeah.

I'm telling you, when you watch it, wait for

the nunchuck scene. Well, yeah, obviously. But

I remember when I was a kid and the movie came

out and it was like, oh, okay, I think I did.

And I'm like, wait a minute, why are you talking

about a foul checker? I could never get, as a

10 -year -old in 1990, I could never get what

the line was. And of course, it would be forever

until we had the internet and quotes. I could

have helped you out back then because I had every

line of that movie memorized. I had most every,

yeah. The movie was playing. I watched that movie

probably more than any movie during that time

period. I can do it now. And I had the CD. It

wasn't a CD. I had the tape. The tour. The Heroes

in a Half Shell tour or something. I don't know

what it was, but it had Ninja Rap. Coming out

of their shells. Coming out of their shells tour.

Yes, I had that tape. I played that a lot. And

I pretended to be the Turtles as I rapped and

sang. Out of our shells. Out of our shells. We're

coming. Out of a shell. Very cool. What features

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

feel in comparison to the source material likeness?

So by feel, you mean look. I assume like you're,

you're saying how much does it, I mean, does

it have to be, it definitely plays a huge part

of it. Like there are so many that are so bad

that don't look anything like what they look

like. So that makes it really hard. Ironhide

and ratchet, for example, they don't look like

their show counterpart and it's, I get it. They

were a toy that already existed, et cetera, et

cetera, based on the different mold from blah,

blah, blah. But. it's very much like when you're

playing with a toy, you want it to feel like

you're playing with the cartoon character you

had or the movie character you had or whatever

you, the comic book that you read, like it, it

should match that. So I think likeness is huge

and certain lines were way better at that than

others. But for me, the first part of your question,

I think you said something about like what features

do. Yeah. What, yeah. What features define a

good toy? So to me, I, and you kind of, went

right into it so first factor is how much it

looks like it's supposed to look like the second

part is if it does something cool like i talked

about that's why transformers have a built -in

advantage over so many because they transform

just in that in that in of itself it doesn't

have to do anything else it transforms it does

more than a static action figure but even within

that Then you had Transformers that did other

stuff. So you had the Throttlebots, and you had

the Pretenders, and you had the Headmasters.

So then they do something else, and it makes

it even better. Like we talked about already,

Masters of the Universe had a lot of figures

that did other things, or playset -type situations

like the Slime Pit. could do other things you

know with the figures you had moss man who had

a just just a different feel he didn't necessarily

do anything but he had a different feel so things

like that really for me separated those lines

from something like most gi joes did not do much

most star wars figures at that time did not do

much so that helped the turtles necessarily didn't

do a whole lot some of now when i say that don't

do much a lot of figures have like the swing

motion or the the arm that you can make go like

you know in one direction by pushing a button

or by winding it up i'm not necessarily counting

that too much as doing something because that

was just kind of a lot of them did that but yeah

but the thing that the turtles had that even

separates it from like say star wars or whatever

at that time because when you got a star wars

figure it had a either a lightsaber or a gun

like a blaster or a rifle or something of that

nature and that's about it they didn't come with

a lot of accessories and the turtles to me the

turtles were like one i mean obviously transformers

had multiple guns or missiles or armor pieces

you know body parts that you could do different

stuff with but turtles was one of the first one

where it was like they came with a lot of accessories

like they came with a piece of pizza they came

with their main weapon they came with another

weapon they can't you know and there was different

all the different types of turtles. Like there

was the baseball turtles or the sports playing

turtles or the, all these different things. So.

Or the, or the sewer spitting turtles. Yeah.

You could fill them up with water and have them

spit water at each other. But so for me, the,

the turtles. had a lot of cool accessories. So

if it's not going to necessarily do something

or have an action or something like that, then

if it comes with a bunch of accessories, that

helps. But otherwise, I think the main thing

is how close they look to something. And if they

did do something, this is kind of more specifically

talking about Transformers, how easy or hard

is it to do what you're doing with them? was

more for like later on in life but when i remember

when the alternators came out for transformers

very cool looking line right like they look awesome

they make these cool looking cars they look cool

as in the robot form etc however what really

stopped me from continuing to buy that line is

you need to study the instructions for probably

a good month before you try to transform those

because it's like the most complex transformation.

And I get it. If you did it a bunch of times,

you'd have it memorized, but like the old school

transformers, you didn't need an instruction

book. Probably you could just figure it out by

looking at it and by testing a couple of things

and you could figure it out. Like you can not

do that accurately with an alternators if you

have no prior experience with them. So because

you're, you're, you're technically turning a

realistic. I'm not saying the other transformers

were not realistic looking when it comes to their

alt modes, but the point of the alternators was

let's throw Nissan in there. Let's throw Hyundai

in there. Let's throw this in there. Let's throw

the, like they were going after a realistic car.

and playing and whatever else mode you know you

know designs so you could have that complexity

of well i'm just where would the gear yeah but

as a kid if if that had come out when i was a

kid i don't think i would have been something

that i spent a lot of time on not because i lacked

the attention span but just because i want to

be able to do it without going to the instructions

for step one going to the instructions for step

two going to the instructions for step three

like i don't want to do that as a kid that much

i want to just play Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned

the slime pit earlier. What is or was your favorite

toy vehicle or play set? Toy vehicle or play

set. I think that my answer for that, and I'm

not going to know the right name. The GI Joe's

had a collection of snow like vehicles, tiger.

something but they had like they had like four

or five maybe even six different vehicles that

were for this like snow area snow land and uh

and i had this one that was like almost like

a look at it It's not SUV because SUVs didn't

exist, but it was basically like this truck that

wasn't really a truck, but it had a compartment

in the front that you could put figures. And

then it had missiles on the side, missiles on

the back, like a rotating missile thing. I'm

going to have to look it up because I can't remember.

I think frostbite came with it. Maybe the character's

name was frostbite that came with that. My GI

Joe knowledge right now is a little rusty, but.

Yeah, you're right. No, you got it. The snowcat.

Yeah, the snowcat. And the reason I liked it

is because not only was it a vehicle and it looked

cool and it had lots of missiles, but you could

fit, if memory's serving right, you could fit

two people in the front, in the cab, with the

little plastic glass that shut down over them.

And then there was multiple spots on the side

and on the back that you could peg the characters

on from a standing standpoint. So you could actually

carry like one, two, three, four, five, six,

seven, like maybe eight characters, I'm guessing,

on that thing. And it was one of the only I had

a few. For some reason, I didn't have like a

ton of G .I. Joe figures. But that line specifically,

I had more vehicles than any of the other lines.

Like I had maybe six or seven of the G .I. Joe

vehicles and maybe like. four of the he -man

vehicles otherwise i mainly had figures but that

was one i just thought it was cool because of

the number of missiles and the number of people

that you could fit on it and then drive around

yeah the snowcat is pretty much your super duper

what would you call that though it's not an suv

and it's not a truck it's it's a well that's

what i was trying to say it it's kind of like

it come it's kind of like It's crossover folks.

It's a combination truck and snowmobile all at

once, but it's like, like the Ford F one 50 in

the front and a snow mobile, like snowplow type

thing in the back. Cause it has the tank treads.

I'm looking at the picture right now. Yeah. So,

you know, but yeah, no, a snowcat with frostbite

was, yeah, no, that, yeah, that thing came with

so much stuff. My God. two four five six seven

eight like nine large and small guns and missiles

oh that's and yeah there's another one though

so there's a snow cat and then the but the one

that i had must have been a variation of it because

it's called the tiger force cat So if you look

up the tiger force cat, this thing was like a

yellow and black, like tiger stripe pattern with

jaw, like, um, like a mouth in the front and

then eyes like where the door was. And it still

came with frostbite, but he had like a yellow

and black, uh, pants and stuff like that. And

the tiger force cat, um, was the one that I had.

And the other reason I liked it, I think was

because my dad was a big model plane person.

He had literally, like, my mom says that he had

over, like, 200 or 300 that he had built, painted,

and sold before I was around. And our basement

had over 150 of them. Like, all sizes. Like,

he was an expert model plane, like, assembler

slash, what do you call it? Not spray paint.

airbrush paint like all that kind of stuff yeah

and and a lot of the planes of the time because

he would do like the world war ii planes or whatever

would have like these teeth mouth eyes kind of

like this tiger force cat does so it also reminded

me of kind of those planes which was very cool

but again you could still like i said you could

you could fit you know probably one two three

four at least six figures on this thing Yeah,

three on one side, three on the other, and then

two in the – basically, you could fit eight figures

total, two in the cockpit or one in the cockpit

if the cockpit only has one seat. No, it has

two. Okay, so two in the cockpit, and then six

total on the back, three on either side. Right.

Yeah. So that was the one that I had, and that

was probably my favorite one. Very cool. Very

cool. What about a playset? I don't think I ever

had any playsets. I'm trying to think. Really?

I didn't have Castle Grace, Grawler, Snake Mountain

until I was an adult. What? I didn't have any

turtle playsets. didn't have any gi joe play

sets i think the closest i'm gonna come is if

i stretch for transformers and metroplex doesn't

count but i had him and the space shuttle kind

of counts but because it had like some places

that i usually don't let people count yeah transformers

but but then this is something that you had just

seen in social media of mine i had that cardboard

graphic stand for transformers. That was basically

like this big, it was basically a play set, but

it was a hundred percent cardboard with different

cutouts and different designs and different places

that you could put characters. And it was very

big. And so that's like the closest I came to

a place that I think my parents, especially my

mom probably because she had a set budget. Like

when, when we were, when she did Christmas presents,

or whatever it was, she had three kids and she

was going to spend the exact same amount on all

three kids. And, and we didn't have a lot of

money. So maybe that was like a hundred or 200

bucks or something like, you know, I have a hundred

bucks to spend on all three kids. Like, so I'm

going to spend a hundred on him, a hundred on

him, a hundred on her or whatever it was. There

was some number and it wasn't a lot. So I think

the fact of getting a place that, which was going

to be like, here's your one present or, you know

what I mean? Versus I can get him 10, 15 whatever

figures i don't think i ever got 15 but you know

what i mean like i can get them some socks and

some clothes and these six figures and this other

figure from this line she could just there was

more presence to open if she did the individual

figures so i think that's why she stayed away

from play sets and i wasn't buying anything i

had no money yeah the uh the funny thing is in

our in our family the most of the time yes my

mom would get me you know the standard kid stuff

that no kid wants at Christmas. No kid wants

Santa Claus coming down. That's what the grandparents

and the aunts and uncles are for. So all the

practical things come from other people and then

the toys and all the other goodies come from

your parents. We had one thing that was so we

would have That's that number of things. She

would try to maximize the number of presents

you got probably. And we also had stockings.

So there was some money that would go to like

the little things you threw in stockings, like

candy or whatever. And yeah, I mean, but that's

like, you know, like you said, this candy that's

stocking, but it's still, but she would have

counted that towards the total. I know it. So,

you know what I mean? Like it would have been,

I'm spending this much because she's very fair

and she's very by the book when it comes to that.

But then we got one present that when we came

out Christmas morning, there was one present

that would be open. not wrapped. And that was

our Santa Claus present or whatever you want

to call it. And I'm trying to remember if I,

so that, that would have been like a Metroplex.

You know what I mean? Like that would have been

something bigger, like a more expensive item.

So there was a train one year. It was, you know,

something like that, like a bigger Lego set than

the other ones. And, but I still don't think

there was ever a place that I don't remember

any toy play sets. Yeah. I, I know you had a

lot. Well, I tell it all the time. I had, I had

Boulder Hill. I had Castle of Grey Skull at my

mom's house. I had Snake Mountain at my dad's

house. All the Masters figures at my dad's house.

He ended up selling them on me and whatever else.

All this and all that and everything else. That's

probably why I'm so jaded 40 -something years

later. But, you know. Alright. So as a kid and

as an adult, what does toy packaging have to

have to draw you in? So as a kid, you go into

Toys R Us or KB Toys or whatever. As a kid, you

see Transformers, Mask, He -Man, Thundercats,

Tiger Sharks, Silverhawks. What is going to draw

your eye as the child that you were over everything

else? And then the same thing now as an adult.

Probably two things. Number one, the box art

is huge. You could probably sell me a toy today

based on just the box art if it was cool enough.

Maybe. That's a strong – that might be a stretch.

But it goes a long way, I'm telling you, especially

some of the very cool art that you get like with

the G .I. Joe or Transformers line. They can

just be – make or break right there. I have to

be able to see the figure. If it's a box that's

totally shut that doesn't have a flap for me

to view, doesn't have a bubble for me to look

through, it's really hard for me to pull the

trigger on that. Nowadays it's different. You

have the internet and you can see what the figure

is going to look like. But back in the day, that

would have been too risky for me to buy something

that I couldn't see. I like the ones that were

boxes that you could flip the top up. you know,

just your standard bubble figure, you know, as

far as like an action figure goes. So being able

to see it, the box art and then the transformers

and GI Joe were very smart. And I think turtles

had a version of this too, but transformers,

you had the, the spec, the spec, what'd you call

it? Spec card. GI Joe, you had like the file

card. whatever case whatever it was called personnel

file or something like that and i believe turtles

had another they had something you could cut

out as well that was like a profile type deal

yeah and so things like that i think went a long

way as far as like because you wanted that piece

it was like another bonus it was like you have

the figure you also have this little thing that

you can look at or read or compare stats with.

It's like having a baseball card of the figure

that you just got. So I think those types of

things also helped on a packaging. The packaging

today with no plastic sucks. You know what? I'm

just going to say that I know it's better for

the, whatever the world or whatever, but the

amount of thievery and switching of names and

damage and all that to the packaging and to the

action, like it's just a bad, I hope they come

up with something different. So it's funny you

say that because I just got, where is, Oh, he's

right here next to the radio chick. I just got

core class sound blaster. And Core Class Sound

Blaster is one of the Transformers figures that

comes in a windowless, plastic -less box. Yeah,

Transformers is the major one doing it. Well,

obviously, yes. But my question is, why did they

wait 40 years to worry about the environment?

We have 40 years of plastic, you know, windowed

boxes out there. And you just mentioned it about,

you know, the box being one of the, like, Transformers.

believe it was classics or it was some sort of

special edition trailer. This was back 2008,

2009, 2010. It was, I think it was the commemorative

series where it was book box where it was both.

You had the Velcro box. So it looked like a closed

box. You pull the Velcro open and you see the

figure inside of a window on the inside of the

box. But the inside of the box, you had the flap

that had all the other information or whatever

else. Now from, anything under a commander class,

maybe, or maybe a Voyager. I forget, I forget

which one it is. Like I have commander class

Rodimus that, uh, my buddy Alex sent me, uh,

that's closed box. You don't know what, you don't

know what you're getting in. I mean, and that's,

and it's fine, but like, it's not, I, I don't,

I don't understand like not having, if you're

going to have a box like that, they should have.

part of it that peels off or on Velcros or folds

over or whatever to me, it's just to me. And,

and the other thing without the plastic on it

is the sturdiness of the packaging loses so much.

Like it's just so much more flimsy. The corners

are so much more damaged and bent. And like I

said, it's just one less step for thieves. Like

they just yank that stuff right out. Oh yeah.

There was all kinds of stories when, when Hasbro

first did this about people yanking bulkheads

head off. When the bulkhead came out. Yep, yep,

yep. All right. Do you open your toys or do you

leave them packaged? If you leave them packaged,

do you have any specific criteria for that? All

right. So notwithstanding the last. two years

of my life where i have not had time to open

anything there will be a mass obviously a mass

opening and i've also been saving a lot of them

because i want to record the openings and stuff

like that but whatever um so so not counting

that if it was just normal stuff i guess the

best way to do this is to look at my star wars

collection probably so almost i would say 90

to 95 percent of the actual three and three quarter

action figures i open They're all open. I can

stand them up. I can display them, etc., etc.

Right. When it comes to different... There were

some of those, though, that came in multi -packs,

like diorama -almost style, where it was three

or four action figures that were in a backdrop

of a scene. So let's say in Star Wars, the Mos

Eisley Cantina, there's a multi -pack of the

Max Rebo's band that's like... three or four

of them and then the the canteen is in the background

or there's like the phantom menace has one that's

sebulba and or no it's uh yeah sebulba and jar

jar and something like where the the fish is

getting caught in jar jar's tongue from Wado

or Sebalba, whoever it was. And it's actually

showing a scene. So stuff like that, if it's

got a good plastic window that you can see through,

I tend not to open those because they're already

perfectly posed and in the scene. So it looks

cool to me. There's some that are more like a

limited edition type thing or a commemorative

or something that's more rare that I keep sealed.

But I prefer to open. I think for me, the fun

is opening them is... holding them is posing

them is putting them all together. Like a shelf

with 25 Luke Skywalker's of different styles

standing together is much more impressive to

me than 25 carded figures making wallpaper on

somebody's wall. But I get why people do it,

but I'm not concerned about the value of them.

I'm not concerned that I opened them and lose

some value. I'm not trying to make my fortune

off of these things. I mean, somebody might make

some money one day off of them, who knows, but

they'll curse me because most of mine will be

open. And I think that's how they were meant

to be. And I guess it also depends on how many

you have. Like for a collection as large as mine,

you're going to have some that are sealed still

and some that are open, but majority of mine

are open. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, I

mean, it just depends on what you're collecting

and how you want to collect it. That's all it

really boils down to. If as a kid or an adult,

you were only allowed to choose one toy franchise

to collect from, which would it be and why? I

guess Transformers. That's hard, though. That's

a situation. Well, Transformers is going to be

the answer for more than one reason. Number one,

because like I said, they have a little bit more.

stuff that you can do with them so they're gonna

keep you entertained longer than a gi joe figure

could i'm sorry i love gi joe but how much can

you do with the figure you can pose them a couple

different ways you can put them on a vehicle

put some weapons in their hands different things

like that that's all you can do all right transformer

you can do a lot of different things like i said

they had all kinds of different things where

you could more do more than just transform they

have combiners they have you know all this different

stuff um so number one they do more number two

you there's more of them it seems like out there

like transformers has been around for so long

like that's why i would so like the only thing

that would come close like moto would be a close

pick i would even even though i didn't have very

many of them mask would be one that i would consider

because again they do different stuff but you

could have all the mask figures cars play sets

etc like there wasn't that many produced like

there's a limited number of those that you could

collect. So you, you eventually would be done

with the collection and that would be it. So

if I could only do one, I want to do one that

has a wide range of stuff and you have beast

wars, you have alternators, you have transformers,

old school G one prime, you know, like there's

so many different versions of transformers. So

you would never get, you never get bored with

them. You would never complete it. Like you could

never have every transformer that's ever made.

Like it's just impossible. Star Wars is about,

you could, You could try, but you'd be. Yeah.

And star Wars is about the only other one. And

then maybe, maybe like a GI Joe or power Rangers.

Maybe. I don't know how they hit. They seem like

they had a long line, like the wrestling figures

that that'd be hard to get all of those. Yeah.

So you'd have to pick from one of those that

has such a wide array of things to choose from.

I say transformers, even though I own way more

star Wars. Yeah. But again, you know, you. If

you're only allowed to collect one of these things,

you're going to want that thing to be as, as,

as diverse as you can have. And like you said,

I think that's something too, that you, if you're

a big time collector, like there's toy people

that like toys at certain ages. And then there's

very like casual toy collectors. Right. You're

probably a little closer to a casual toy collector.

You see something that you like outside of Funko.

I'm not talking about Funko. We'll get to that.

Certain Transformers you like, so you grab them,

but you're not trying. It doesn't seem like you're

someone that's trying to complete a set. Yeah,

no, I was never like, for me, it has always been

about character. Right. It has always been like,

even when I was collecting animated, even when

I like when I started collecting, collecting

back in late 2005, early 2006, because my collection

at the time ran from that time to 2011 when I

sold it all because of financial things. But

like. I wasn't going after every G1 figure. I

was going after the G1 figures I either wanted

as a kid or the ones I had as a kid. So I went

after Optimus Prime. I never had Soundwave, so

I went after Soundwave. I went after Blaster

because I had him. You know, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah. And now it's all about character,

even with Funko. You're never going to see me

with a Game of Thrones Funko Pop collection.

It just ain't going to happen. I've seen... 10

minutes of the first episode of the first season,

and all they did was walk. So I'm not buying

the Funko Pops for Game of Thrones. But like

I said, where'd he go? Oh, here, he's right here.

Core Class Sound Blaster. I like the black and

purple. It's Sound Blaster. It's a version of

Soundwave, but I like it because it's black and

purple and silver. And that's okay, and that's

fine. I just have gotten into the 3 .0 MDLX line.

I have Optimus Nemesis. I have Cliffjumper in

my pile of loot on bigbadtoystore .com. They

do not sponsor the show. I have Megatron and

Rodimus on pre -order because I like the MDLX.

Basically, MDLX, it's more of a... It's not a

model kit. It's more of a mini statue where you

can pose them, but they don't have alt modes.

It's just the robot mode. So for me, with the

way that I am at the old -ass age that I'm at,

I just want to look at the characters. I don't

want to transform the shit anymore. I don't want

to have to work to play with the toys anymore.

My point though is like, so I'm, there's definitely

people that have larger toy collections than

me. I'm not like the diehard, like rich person

that has everything, but I have a large toy collection.

And with somebody that has, is as big of a toy

collector as I am, my budget. Makes me face that

question a lot. Like I have to decide. Which

line am I collecting? Which lines am I collecting?

And for example. Right now there's a retro. Style.

Branded Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I'm not

talking about Super 7 bullshit. I'm talking about.

Actual Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the style

of their original. Playmates style. And any other.

If you would have taken the 17 year old me, the

18 year old me, the 23 year old me, et cetera,

I would be scooping all of those up. Right. Yeah.

But where I'm at as a toy collector, I have,

you have to start choosing because for the longest

time there was nothing retro out. There was nothing

that was going to scratch that itch except for

a few Transformers, Star Wars, et cetera. So

you didn't have a lot of options. So when something

like shows up that. would have been like that

you would have been like oh i'm getting all of

this like i have to like that that's you know

and it wouldn't have mattered what else you were

collecting but i have to limit myself because

i cannot collect every line my budget just my

pocketbook will not allow it um there's too much

out there you'd be broken you'd be you know ruin

your relationships and not have a house to stay

in and etc etc so like i am very choosy right

now no well i say that i'm collecting more things

right now than i ever have but, but I still have

to be very choosy because of that. So like I

collect any star Wars three, three, three quarter

action figure, no matter what, like that's just

given. Like if there's a new star Wars figure

that I don't have in that size, I'm getting it

right. Transformers. I will only get something

if it's G one ask like it's G one or it's a G

one look. So like the classics, the, there was

a bunch of the stuff. that was done for the War

for Cybertron that has more of that look. I'm

not getting anything that has any type of Bay

look. If it looks like something from a movie

that Bay was involved with, I'm not touching

it with a 10 -foot pole. And I would honestly

probably sell the ones that I already have that

are like that way before I would sell anything

else. So I have to be very particular about Transformers.

That helps. MOTU, I'm picking anything up right

now that hits the shelf. If it's Masters of the

Universe and it's out, except for the CGI bullshit.

Anything else? Like that's being made in the

classic revelation, new Eternia, any of that

stuff. Like I'm buying it. Um, GI Joe is like

the hard one right now for me. Luckily, most

of the stuff out there that is in the stores

that I go to a super seven so I can avoid it.

But the classified series is very tempting, but

I'm picking and choosing which ones are those

I'm getting just because I don't want to start

collecting that whole line. And like the black

series for star Wars, I'm not collecting that.

Even if you're just a Star Wars fan, you cannot

collect everything. There's the micro machine

type spaceships in all the different vehicles.

There's the three and three quarter inches. There's

the eight inch. There's all these different series.

And it's very hard to do all that. So I stick

just to the three and three quarters. So I have

to ask myself that question that you kind of

asked me. If I can only do one, what is it going

to be? And I know it's not just one for me, but

it's like if you only have this, if you want

to keep it constrained, which ones are you? Gotta

have. And if you run across the Dungeons & Dragons

1980s retro version and they happen to be like

50 % off, then that helps. Because they are all

at 50 % off at Target right now, so I got to

pick up three of them. That must mean they are

very unsuccessful if they are... The weird thing

is, Avenger and Dungeon Master are still full

price, but the only three characters that I've

seen, Hank and... the little kid and the acrobat.

Those are like the only, I haven't seen any of

the magician or the blonde chick. I don't know

if they didn't make those or if I just wasn't

paying attention, but the other three were 50

% off. So I bought them. As an adult, do you

prefer vintage toys or modern toys? A vintage

look. It can be a modern toy, but it needs to

be a vintage look for me. So I like both. So

there's certain things that I only want the vintage

of, and then there's certain lines that do such

a good job of capturing it that I'm willing to

do that. But for my cream of the crop collection,

it has to be the original vintage toy. And that's

my heroes and villains collection. And it cannot

be any type of... redo, reboot, redone, modernized

version. It has to be the original of these guys.

It's one hero and one villain from every 80s

cartoon show that I can come up with. It's ongoing.

I was going to ask you to explain your heroes

and villains, but I think you just did. I can

tell you. I have the original Optimus Prime and

the original Megatron. That's the hero and villain

for Transformers. I have the original Skeletor,

the original He -Man. This is just a separate

collection. all together so i have the so right

now i have gi joe masters universe transformers

done teenage mutant ninja turtles is done silver

hawks and thundercats is done go bots is done

i have mask is done um i think visionaries and

centurions are done brave stars done black stars

done i have one of the two for cops i have Big

Boss, but I don't have Bulletproof yet. I have

one of the two for Voltron. I have one of the

two for Dino Riders. So that's kind of what I'm

doing. I'm trying to get the main hero and the

main villain for each one. And I know sometimes

you have to kind of fudge it. Like, who's the

main hero for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? For

me, it's Leonardo. But I know that could be debated.

Well, I mean, all four of them are heroic. But

when you look at it... If I have to choose one,

it has to be the leader. Yeah, but again, when

you look at it really in the context of the 80s

and the cartoon series, it was always usually

Leo versus Shredder or Splinter versus Shredder,

but obviously you're going to pick the turtle

over the rat. And like Voltron, I can't decide

what I'm going to do. I have King Zarkon. King

Zarkon is my villain, and I can't decide if I

need the actual put -together Voltron to be the

hero or if I pick one of the actual characters.

but that's if you're yeah that's for display

purposes it would be much easier to just go with

whoever was vulture voltron's huge though so

it's kind of hard i don't know yeah but i mean

there are plenty yeah i don't know it yeah it's

crazy yeah voltron is a is a difficult one i

mean at least with with Yeah, and the reason

I don't have bulletproof from cops is because,

number one, there's not a ton of them to choose

from on eBay. I don't check all the time, but

occasionally I'll go on. But I'm also kind of

being somewhat picky because he came with a cloth,

like, cape type. Well, like, it's more like a

trench coat, like a whatever. And a lot of them

are missing that or a lot of them are in bad

shape. So I'm trying to be fairly picky because

I like. i'm trying to get a good version of each

of these i don't want just like a ramshackle

like wobbly version of whatever i guess i have

shira done too i have shira done that counts

i got those two so yeah so that's my ongoing

quest and and i've gone a couple years now without

actually Well, probably a year and a half without

looking. So I haven't made any progress, but

it's something that when the occasion comes,

like every once in a while, I'll look and see

if I can grab one more of something, some set

that I want to complete out there. And eventually

I'm going to have them all together and displayed

and it's going to be cool. And I'm going to make

a video about it. Oh my God. Yep. Yikes. Bulletproof

looks like he, he ain't wearing no pants, man.

There's some versions that aren't very good.

Well, I mean, I typed in cops 1988. I didn't

type in cops and crooks. I just typed in cops

bulletproof 1988 and complete one, which is the,

I assume it's the $120. Yeah, they're expensive

too. That's the other reason I haven't bought

it. God. Wait, come on, people. Yeah, you're

not going to get the trench coat at $25. Wow,

that sucks. Yeah, so eventually I'll find them.

Oh, man. Yeah, you're going to have to yard sale

that shit. Yeah, absolutely. No, eventually somebody's

going to see my videos and know that I'm missing

that and gift it to me. Just kidding. Well, let's

hope. GCRN listeners, if you'd like to gift 1988

Cops Bulletproof Cops and Crooks Bulletproof

to Optimus Solo, send your email to feedback

at geekastradio .com. Yeah, do this. All right.

What is one toy you always gravitate to more

than the others? Now, I originally wrote this

as a different question, but it just... We're

all perverts, folks. And we were all just going

down the rabbit hole of being perverted old men

when I would read this question. So that's why

it's changed to what it is. But basically, what's

the one toy you can always play with? What's

the one toy out of everything that you gravitate

towards the most? That is a hard question. Yeah,

we're only 14 questions in, folks. I don't know

if I have one. Okay. That would be hard. The

toy line I'm gravitating right now towards is

Masters of the Universe, but there's not like

a... I guess it would probably end up being Optimus

Prime, but that seems like a cheap answer. No,

I mean, hey, look, if that's the one that you're

always going back to, I mean, if that's the one

you always feel like... For me, in that case,

it would probably be... Out of all the toys I

had as a kid, thinking of nowadays, what would

be the one that would keep me... It would probably

be Power Master Optimus, because you could do

so much stuff with the original Power Master

Optimus Prime. Yeah, actually, mine probably

would be a combiner. I don't know which one,

but probably a combiner. Technobots, maybe? Oh,

very cool. Defensor, yay! That's not a Technobots.

Yes, it is. No, it's not. Defensor? Yes, it is.

Technobots. Yeah, Defensor is Technobots. I'm

pretty sure. I thought Defensor was the one with

the ambulance and the police car and the... Yeah,

that's the Technobots. The Technobots are...

God, what's his name? Oh, Computron. Thank you.

You and your math. All I had to look at was...

It wasn't quite as well put together. See, the

difference was the original combiners were a

little bit more flimsy, like Devastator and the

Aerialbots and the Protectobots and the Stunicons

and the Combaticons were all a little bit flimsier.

And then when they did the Technobots... and

the Abominus, the Terracons, and those were a

lot better put together. They're so sturdy. And

then they did the Predacons, and those went back

to being not. They were so big that they actually

weren't as sturdy. So there was like a sweet

spot with a couple of those combiners that just

in combiner form were just so much more stable

and sturdy. And that's why I kind of gravitated

towards the Technobots and the Terracons. Very

cool, very cool. Yeah, I got those. That's right.

We'll forgive you. 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 mean,

you wouldn't catch me dead with a Power Ranger.

And the only reason I have a Hot Wheel... The

only Hot Wheels in my collection or Matchbox

cars or anything like that were either ones that

I had as a kid that someone bought me and I had

a case of them, which my daughter plays with

like crazy right now. Or when I worked at Target,

I would buy the Treasure Hunt Hot Wheels when

I saw them. Number one, because there was a family

of Hot Wheel collectors that was like some of

the worst people on the planet. So I would buy

them so they couldn't. And I know that's mean,

but I did it. And I bought them because I knew

they had some value. But I was definitely like

collectors would hate me for this because I worked

at Target. I could open up the brand new box

in the back room and take the treasure hunt out

and just buy it myself. And so I did that. And

so I have probably like 15 or 20 treasure hunts

still mint in package. But otherwise, you would

never catch me with a Hot Wheel. I would not

buy those otherwise. And I don't buy Power Rangers.

And let's see. Anything else? Oh, I don't buy

any. Nothing against them. I just don't buy DC

and Marvel figures. It's just a rabbit hole.

I don't want to go down. Well, you've never really

been a superhero person as long as I've known

you. And the only wrestling figures I have are

two Tatankas. Because that could be a rabbit

hole that I would get lost in. I would start

buying a lot of those if I ever let myself go

down that road. So Tatanka's enough for me. Yeah,

there you go. Are there any toys in the past

or currently you wish you had not bought them?

Are there any toys that you may have sold that

you regret letting them go? Yes, to both. I didn't

sell them. My mom sold them in a garage sale,

no matter what she says. Don't believe it. She

sold... A majority, not a majority, maybe half

of my He -Man figures in the garage sale, I think.

And a few other things that either that or they

just disappeared off the face of the earth. I'm

pretty sure she sold them in a garage sale when

she decided I was too old for toys for just like

a brief second. And then she learned the errors

of her way. So yeah, there was some that got

sold in a garage sale. And then as far as toys

that I wish I hadn't bought, when I worked at

Target and when I was younger and didn't have

as many bills, I bought like every Transformer

that came out. and that was dumb and I shouldn't

have done that because I really don't want any

of the ones that are tied to the live action

movies. I just don't like the looks of them.

I don't like their faces. I don't, I don't like

how they look. They're in my collection, but

they serve no purpose. I have no sentimental

tie to them. I don't have any appeal to them,

so I should just sell them and I will someday.

Yeah, there you go. 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? Yeah, I don't have a

house big enough for my toy collection. And they've

never, I've never, the old house kind of had,

we had built in a ledge all around the basement

that I had a lot of my Star Wars vehicles on.

So that was kind of cool. And in my apartment,

I used to have those floating shelves and I'd

have some displayed. But no, my toy collection

is too big to be, it would take over the whole

house. Right now it is. Currently taking over

the whole garage. So there's probably, I don't

know, 20 some Rubbermaid, big Rubbermaid totes

full. And that's a lot. It might not seem like

a lot, but can I just tell you, I already told

you that I open most of my figures and an open

Star Wars three and three quarter figure takes

up no space. So to have 20 plus totes of them

is a lot. In my opinion, I know there's people

that have thousands and thousands and thousands

of toys. And that's fine. And their displays

are usually pretty epic and make me jealous.

But I have a rough estimate because I haven't

updated it since before the move. And I bought

a bunch of stuff down here. It's probably about

1 ,700 figures. And that's about 1 ,000 Star

Wars figures, probably about 400 Transformers,

probably about 150 He -Man, a little over 50

G .I. Joes. Everything else is less than 20,

but there's another 20 categories I could go

into, but they're all less than 20. Oh, very

cool. Oh, except the starting lineup. I have

over 30 of those. Did they make more than 30?

I know they came back. There's a ton of starting

lineup. There's probably thousands of them. I

only had starting lineup as a kid for the teams

and the players that I absolutely love. Mine

are almost all Cubs. All baseball ones except

for a few random ones that I got. As long as

it was a... In the 80s, a Red Sox, a Patriot,

a Bruin, or a Celtic. I probably had a starting

lineup version of it. Most of mine are baseball.

Yeah, so you mentioned a spreadsheet. So is that

how you keep track of your collection? Yeah,

I have a couple different ones. I have one that's

just for Star Wars, but then I have one that's

like a master list. The main page, which just

gives me the total count and then all the total

counts for the categories. And then I have a

tab for each category. And then I have a tab

for the heroes and villains collection and things

like that. So it's pretty detailed. Like it has,

for example, it'll say if it's loose or if it's

in box, it'll say what line it is. It'll say

if it's a basic or deluxe or whatever. It'll

say what company it's from. Kenner, Hasbro, Mattel,

whatever. Um, it'll say the name of the line.

It'll say how many I have the name of it. Yeah.

It's pretty detailed. Cool. Very cool. How do

you display your toys? Like what is your display

style? Um, I mean, if I had my way, they would

all be in glass cases with lighted glass cases

that are more like, not just like a square pedestal

type thing, but like a long horizontal. Like

you would see like in a, like a jewelry case,

almost like a store where all the rings are,

something like that. But like multiple shelves,

that would be ideal in a perfect world. Right

now there's not much on display. I have a couple

little Funko things that I've been gifted that

are sitting up here by my lightsaber from Disney.

And then I have currently nothing else displayed.

I have my, my bobblehead of myself and that's

it right now. So I don't have anything displayed,

but eventually I will. Down the line. All right.

Everybody is safe. The wife, the child, the pets,

if you have any pets, but everybody is safe.

The house is on fire. If you can only keep one

toy from your entire collection, what is the

one toy you would run back into the house and

save? Are baseball cards toys? No. Your baseball

card collection is gone. It's been burnt up.

That is a sad, sad state of affairs. It's crappy

plastic. It's paper. One of them is very valuable

to me, so I would grab that. I'm sure it is.

I'm going to grab my – I can only grab one thing.

Well, that means I can grab my Rubbermaid tote

that has all my G1 Transformers in it. Okay.

I don't have time to open it up and grab one

thing. I might as well grab the whole tote. They're

all in the same tote. They're all in the same

tote. All right. Well, that works. Good thing

they are all on the same toad, because if we

did this episode two years from now, I'm sure

you'd have them displayed somehow, and you'd

actually have to pick one. If I had to pick one,

it would... I don't know. The obvious answer

is Optimus Prime, but I'm going to say that that's

probably not the one I would grab. I would grab

either Metroplex or Cliffjumper. Even though

Cliffjumper's tiny. He was my favorite as a kid.

I always thought he was always the more deserving.

I was always mad that Bumblebee got way more

spotlight, and that's only exponentially increased

over the years. Cliffjumper was always the cooler

one. Yeah, first voiced by an amazing radio DJ

and then voiced by a wrestler later in life.

Oh, boy. Cliffjumper. All right, folks, we're

going to take a quick ad break. You can hear

some ads and some other stuff. We'll come back

to continue on with the questions without doing

a solo right after this. 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. 5 9 1 6 Charlotte Pike. And for the

rest of us, popping off toys .com is always open

and you can check us out on Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, and even tick tock. And the name is

just simply. Popping off toys. Thank you so much

and always keep it popping. Because the world

needs another movie podcast. The Geek Cast Radio

Network presents for your listening pleasure,

The Cinema Geek. Hosted by Amanda, Kevin, Matt,

and Dan. Each week we dive head first in the

landscape of movies as we discuss movie news.

Play movie games. Go in depth on reviews. And

even have a top ten countdown or two. Also, don't

miss our director retrospective series where

we review noted directors' movies film by film.

Bottom line is, if you love movies and love podcasts,

you need to experience The Cinema Geeks. You

can find us on iTunes, blog .radio, or geekcastradio

.com. Oh, hey! I got something! Since 2009, we

have been the premier cartoon podcast here at

the Geekcast Radio Network. We are ToonCast.

From taking you beyond the cartoons we grew up

with to seasonal saucy ToonTalk, and now we get

the origins of Toonsters everywhere as we ask

guests 30 questions about their cartoon -watching

experiences, plus so much more. ToonCast is back.

Join me, TF2 and Mike, and the rest of the GCR

crew as we give you all the toon talk you will

ever need only on the gcrn and wherever you consume

your podcasts we are beyond good beyond evil

beyond your wildest imagination we are all toons

all the time here on tooncast yeah what was that

universal greeting again never mind i remember

Hey guys, it's Rodimus Primal, and be sure to

check out my YouTube channel. Join me as I have

Transformers discussions, retrospectives, toy

reviews, and more. You can also follow me on

Twitter at Rodimus Primal, as well as Facebook

and Instagram at Rodimus Primal Show. Transform

and roll out, and be sure to check out my content,

till all are one. Like science fiction? Of course

you do, or you wouldn't be listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. Well, the Marku Fortitude Universe

podcast is an award -winning sci -fi radio show

that's been around for over 10 years. We cover

everything from Doctor Who to the MCU to pop

culture and everything in between. A new show

drops on Tuesday mornings on the GCRN website

and all of the major podcast platforms. So listen

to the Marku42's Universe podcast from the universe

and beyond. Hello, all sentient beings. Want

the latest on everything going on in the Transformers

multiverse? Check out the Transmissions Podcast

Network. We've got weekly podcasts covering everything

from Alpha Trion to Omega Supreme, from old school

G1 all the way up to Cyberverse and beyond. And

you don't want to miss Empire of Rust, the world's

first and only Transformers live play role playing

game podcast. If you love Transformers, there's

something for everyone at transmissionspodcast

.com. So let's say you're looking for a podcast

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

Transformers, Ninja Turtles, He -Man, etc. Where

are you going to go to find us? Welcome to Star

Joe's Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan. And I'm Chuck.

That's right, everybody. We're the Star Joes.

We host a podcast called Star Joe's Podcast.

where we talk about your favorite comic books,

your favorite toys of all the 80s properties.

Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers, Mask, Thundercats,

Voltron, you name it, we cover it. If it's in

the 80s, we will cover it at some point. Yes,

so what you want to do to find us, you can go

to iTunes, you can go to www .starjoes .com.

And remember, the Force will be with you, because

knowing us is half the battle. On the Simplistic

Reviews Podcast, we talk movies. We talk TV.

We talk... Hello, Julie, what the heck are you

doing? Trying to make our spot sound more exciting

by adding explosions. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you

could have got the point across with sound effects,

not the real thing. Car. Car. Download the show

on iTunes or at simplisticreviews .blogspot .com.

I'm sure your insurance company will cover that.

No, they won't. No, they probably won't. One

of the primary themes of ToyCast is that we focus

on throwing it back to the past. We are who we

are today because of the nostalgic memories and

experiences from our childhood. Obviously, we

wouldn't be doing this show if it weren't for

the toys that made us so addicted to nostalgia.

Throwback Toys Chicago is your primary go -to

collectible store to reclaim the toys that drove

those memories and experiences. Specializing

in action figures from all of your favorite toy

lines like Star Wars, G .I. Joe, He -Man, Transformers,

Silverhawks, Ghostbusters, TMNT, Mask, and more,

get your dose of nostalgia with a shop run by

collectors for collectors. Whether you are looking

for a loose G .I. Joe ice cream soldier, a packaged

Leonardo, recent Star Wars Black Series, figures

or an AFA -graded Boba Fett, Throwback Toys Chicago

is all about throwing you back into your geeky

obsession with toys. Visit the shop at 1450 North

Ashland Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, just two

blocks south of Ashland and North Ave. Call the

shop at 847 -830 -1031 or email them at tbtchicago

at gmail .com. Visit them and give Throwback

Toys Chicago a chance to throw you back to your

childhood. Discover a world of vintage and modern

toys that's more than meets the eye with the

Triple Takeover ToyCast. Hosted by toy writers

and photographers Toybox Soapbox, Sixo and TF

Square One, this informal and chilled out series

of discussions cover everything from vintage

Transformers to Mask, Diaclone, Microman and

more, be it nostalgic or current. Whether you're

a seasoned collector or a casual robot enthusiast,

all are welcome. Triple Takeover ToyCast. All

right, we are back from the ad break, and on

the flip side of question 20, number 21, is here's

the toy box challenge. Now, I assume this is

inches. I don't do metrics. I don't do measurements.

I don't do math. But you get one 18 by 18 by

18 box. The only toys you can keep have to fit

in the box. What can you pack into it? 18 by

18. By 18. 18. No clue. All right. I can fit

all of my heroes and villains in there. So we're

putting Cobra Commander and Duke. They don't

take much size at all. They can fit in there.

Matt Tracker and Miles Mayhem are super tiny,

so that could fit into any box. He -Man and Skeletor

are a little bigger, but they'll fit. Leonardo

Shredder, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Monstar, Quicksilver,

they're all going in there. Mumra and Lion -O

are pretty big, but they'll fit in there. Psych

Kill Leader 1, going in there. My two Visionaries,

my two Centurions, my two Brave Star figures,

my two Black Star figures, Hordak, She -Ra, King's

Archon. So basically your entire collection outside

of Star Wars. No, no, these are just the heroes

and villains. Right, right. And then once they're

in there, I should have some room because there

was no big vehicles, no big play sets, nothing

of that sort. So after that, I'm going to put

a few of my Cubs starting lineup figures, basically

like Ryan Sandberg and Andre Dawson in there.

And then I will add in my Star Wars characters

that were convention exclusives or like some

of the more rare store exclusives, because those

are just still the three and three quarter inch

figures, but they are in cards. So that'll take

a little more space. And then I think I will

have room for. One of my two Tatanka figures,

I'll have to pick which one is the best and throw

him in there. Very cool, very cool. So this starting

lineup stuff, no Sosa, huh? No, it was all stuff

that I got. Oh, I didn't get my mom or whoever

in my family got them for me. This was like 1987

to 1989 -ish, 1990 maybe. Yeah, I don't... Outside

of Sammy and outside of Rizzo and who's the other

one? Bryant. Those are the three main Cubs players.

Yeah, no, these were all old, old school. Yeah,

yeah. Like, you know, whoever the Ozzie Smith

of the Cubs was in the 80s. You have Sandberg

and Dawson, the two Hall of Famers. I'd throw

them in there. Yep, yep, yep. All right. This

isn't an age -old question, but it usually elicits

some sort of... cursing by some people and it

is an F word. So are you a Funko fan? I am indifferent.

I have some, I, I think they're neat in some

ways because they represent all kinds of different

things. I mean, you can get them on just about

any type of movie TV show, you know, anything

that was in pop culture, obviously. So I have

a few, I have maybe like three or four star Wars

ones. I have a Roddy Piper one. And I think,

I have something else. I don't know if it's a

He -Man one. I don't think so. I think it's just

mainly Star Wars and wrestling. My wife has a

few, though. She has a Supernatural one, a Batman

one, Harry Potter ones. So I don't have anything

against them. I was never necessarily a collector

of them. I didn't go out and buy them for everything

or whatever. But I have a few, and I don't dislike

them. I don't understand the hate for them, necessarily.

But at the same time, it's not something that

I would – I'm myself going out of my way to collect.

There's too many of them. And when I'm a collector,

if there's something that's just like something

that you would never even come close to getting

all of or something like that, it turns me away

from it a little bit. And see, for me, that's

why I love the company so much as far as what

they've released since I've – I first learned

about them mid -2014 because our buddy Doug.

who does Talking About My Generation, he had

a bunch of them back then. And when I went to

California in 2016, the best part about that

trip was staying with Doug and Doug's wife at

the time. They're still married, obviously, but

at the time of the trip is what I mean to say.

He had a whole bunch of them. It's funny because

I don't even have this one. As soon as I saw

the Funko Pop, Baby Groot in like Christmas potted

plant or whatever. I was like, oh, okay, cool.

And then I got back to Kentucky in 2017 and I

started with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Batgirl

66, and a bunch of others. And I haven't looked

back since. And you're right. They do, you know.

But I'm not like. I'm not collecting Star Trek

ones because I'm a casual Star Trek fan, so I

don't feel like I need to have those. I don't

collect all of the Star Wars ones. What I like

about them is that you're going to get something

from somewhere that you don't ever... Did we

ever have cereal toys, like actual action figures

or toys of like Lucky the Leprechaun or Trix

Rat? No, I don't remember it from the 80s. I

remember them being on the boxes of cereal, but

I don't remember there being like actual action.

So they have, you know, those and that kind of

stuff. So that's why I like Funko is that it's.

I go after the stuff that you really can't get

anywhere else, and that's what makes them cool.

Yeah, I guess. What was the most money you spent

on a toy? I'm not a big spender on toys, so let

me think about that for a second. I believe maybe

the most expensive thing that I've bought. Let's

see. Thinking here. I would guess that the most

expensive stuff I bought has been a couple of

the hero and villain things that I've bought

because I've had to go to eBay, just some of

them that I didn't already have. So there was

probably one or two that were somewhere in the

realm of $100, maybe $125. have a real problem

spending anything above a hundred dollars on

a toy. So it would, it would be hard. So maybe

a couple of those eBay, like just rare purchases,

but otherwise if it's that much, like even the

transformers that are like $50 on like store

shelves, retail shelves, target Walmart, whatever.

If it's like the leader class or above Titan

class or something, and it's above $50, I typically,

unless it's just blowing me away, I'm not going

to buy it. And I'm going to hope that eventually

it goes on clearance. Yeah, absolutely. Again,

listeners, you all know I repeat myself a lot,

so if you don't want to hear this story again,

I had a fairly decent job that was paying me

a decent amount of money from 2005 to 2010, and

I spent, I think, in total, somewhere around

$400 for a original G1 Optimus, Soundwave, and

Blaster. Each, or $400 for all three? All three.

Okay, that's a little better. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's still pretty expensive. 400 for all three.

Yeah. Optimus and Blaster, I think, were 125,

and then Soundwave was a little more. I hope

they were complete and in good condition. Oh,

yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't have

them now, but, yeah, they were at the time. And

then the most, and, of course, you're going to

be paying premium for this because it's an exclusive,

whatever else, but the most I ever paid was $800.

for the entire 2008 Shattered Glass BotCon box

set and the three or four, whatever it was, additional

exclusive figures that are not in the box set.

And in that set was Shattered Glass Rodimus,

which is a repaint of Classics Rodimus. So it's

basically just black and purple. What's so crazy,

and this is the reason why I'm bringing this

up, is because you go on eBay now. You can't

find that just the Rodimus by himself. You can't

find it for anyone asking under $1 ,700. It's

crazy. Not that I want it back or anything, but

I'm just like, hmm, I'm curious. It's been almost

a decade or so since, well, it's been a decade.

Yeah, 2018. It's been over a decade since that

happened, and I'm like, hmm, I wonder. Oh, wow,

yikes. How much did you sell that Rodimus for?

I ended up selling the whole set. I think I got

$600 for it, so I only lost $200. It's not bad.

It could have been worse. But you could have

also made $1 ,700 on it. Yeah, if I had kept

the damn thing, yeah. Of course, if I had kept

it, I would have just kept it. I wouldn't have,

you know. Yeah. All right, on the flip side,

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 what

you paid for it? well a couple times here let's

see at the same time i was looking for some of

those hero and villain addition to my collection

on ebay i found somebody that was selling same

seller that was selling basically their whole

collection or a whole collection that they came

on i don't know if it's theirs or one that came

about but of he -man figures all the original

vintage ones it wasn't like every single one

but it was a lot of them and at the time the

it was an auction one on ebay and the prices

were not very high so i put in bids on almost

every one of them just low bids because i'm like

well if this is as low as their price. I'll at

least try. And I got a couple of them for like

a dollar or something or $2 and something. And

so that was kind of crazy. Um, and then I was

at a flea market yard, like a, our town used

to have this massive flea market for the whole

County or whatever. And there was a guy that

was selling the He -Man line. That was like the,

it wasn't the current classics line. It was like

a, kind of like a classics line that came out

back in the, mid two thousands ish, I want to

say. And he had like maybe eight or 10 of them

and he sold them for way less than he could have.

Um, it was like the last day of the flea market

right before they were closing up. And I think

he just didn't want to like pack them up and

go back with them. So I got, I think I spent

less than $50 and I got like, I don't know, between

eight and 12 figures. So that was pretty good.

That is awesome. That is very cool. Yeah, it's

always good when you can get deals. But when

you get a 1980 He -Man figure, it wasn't He -Man.

It was like, I can't remember which ones. It

might have been Ram Man. There was like three

figures that I got for less than two bucks a

piece or something. It was stupid. Yeah. Yeah,

that is very cool, though. Yeah. Very, very cool.

Let's see. What modern and or vintage toy lines

are you collecting right now? I think I probably

already mentioned it, but I am collecting the

Revelations. or the master verse He -Man stuff.

I'm collecting the, what's the other one called?

Like classics, the whatever it is or something.

So both, both He -Man lines that are currently

going, I'm collecting both of those. I did buy

three of those dungeons and dragons retro lines.

Um, I buy all star Wars stuff. So some of those

are retro, some of them aren't. And then, you

know, if I, the transformers lines that are basically,

updates of g1 stuff i always buy you know studio

series yeah any of that type of stuff yep Unless

it's the core figures. I don't understand the

core figures. I know a lot of people like them.

I know you have some. I know people online go

nuts over them. I only have one. If it's a core

figure, it better be one of the figures that

was originally also a tiny figure. I picked up

the wheelie one because he was originally one

of the smallest figures you could get. If it

was one of those Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Windcharger,

wheelie, those. Like Megatron or Optimus Prime

in a core size, that makes no sense to me. So

I avoid those. The only one that I wanted, which

I have, I'm holding it in my hand right now,

was the Sound Blaster. So basically the black

and purple Soundwave. And, you know, I mean,

it's a Soundwave. You saw him yesterday at the

store, and I thought about you. I didn't pick

him up, though. I do the small ones. I did all

the robot hero ones, like the little posed ones

and stuff like that. But when it's the core figures,

to me, it's weird because those same figures

are available in the right size, so why do I

want to buy the miniature version of them in

the regular toy line? I don't know. I think for

me with core class, it's more of specifically

to sound wave, sound blaster, even though it's

a sound blaster and not sound wave, but technically

they're kind of sort of whatever. Like when you

first saw sound wave in generation one, like

spike trips over him. Oh, what's this tiny cassette

player. And the, the juxtaposition of the mass

shifting size between spike is a human and sound

wave as a micro cassette. That was like, oh,

it basically fits in the palm of his hand. This

thing, obviously, fits in the palm of my hand.

And I'm only keeping this in cassette. I'm only

keeping this in tape deck mode. I didn't buy

this for the Sound Blaster robot mode because,

like you're saying, if I want a Soundwave or

a Sound Blaster or whatever, I'll go out and

get... the actual full size robot, but for a

cassette, like somebody to walk into my apartment

and see, Oh, you have a mini cassette, blah,

blah, blah. You know, what's the, you know, somebody

that doesn't know, you know what I mean? Like,

so whatever. kind of thing yeah it's just maybe

i'm too stuck in my nostalgic old old personal

ways but like you know back in the day in g1

they wouldn't have done that they wouldn't have

put out a sound wave in the same size as wheelie

they just put them out in the regular size and

you each each character had one size available

and that was it and i kind of like that so 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 that'll

be a quick one i've only gone to one convention

i went to a star wars convention that was in

chicago that was pretty cool um with my friend

matt and that's the only convention i've ever

been at i took a certain amount of money with

me that was all i was going to spend and we just

went from one end of it to the other and you

know if there was some we were pretty relaxed

about it if there was something somebody really

wanted you know we kind of planned our day accordingly

as far as order of things but i just was basically

going through all the different little boost

and looking for stuff that I had neither never

seen before or convention exclusives that somebody

was selling or just, you know, something that

was unique because everything else I already

have. So I'm not just kidding, but it seems like

it. So he has all the toys folks. There's no

more reason for him to buy all the toys because

he owns all of them. But I do. But, but the weird

thing is, is I have some type of, I don't have

like a full on photographic memory, but I have

like, a variation of photographic memory so basically

if you show me a three and three quarter inch

star wars action figure or if you show me a baseball

card i know if it's in my collection or not even

though there's a thousand star wars figures in

my collection and you would think that would

be hard to keep track and even though there's

I have like over whatever, I don't know, 30 ,000,

50 ,000 baseball cards, whatever it is. Like

I still know if it's something in my collection

based on the fact that I've seen it before in

my collection. Right. So when I'm going through

those conventions, I can just kind of look and

I'm like, have it, have it, have it, have it.

What's that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, got

it, got it, got it. Don't got it. I need it.

Mine. Got to get it. Mine, mine, mine, mine,

mine, mine, mine, mine. So like the last, I think

at that convention, I picked up a couple of those,

like, I picked up some convention exclusives.

I think there was a George Lucas figure that

I hadn't had. There was a few of the prototype

figures that I didn't have. Otherwise, it was

just different con exclusive figures that I kind

of grabbed. Yeah, absolutely. So this isn't something

we've ever really talked about, but your baseball

card collection, what are you going to do? What's

your ultimate goal with that? Right now, I'm

just indexing it all online. There's a website

that you can index it, and it tells you the most

recent average of eBay prices that that card

is sold for and things like that. And it keeps

a tally of how many you have, what the value

is, what the top 50 most valuable are, et cetera,

et cetera. So I was in the process of trying

to get all of that loaded into this website before

we moved, and I'm not quite done. So I need to

eventually pick that up and get it all complete.

And then, I don't know, I'll sit on them for

a while, maybe. I don't know. I don't know if

I'll ever sell them or not, or if I'll just pass

them down to whoever wants them after me. Hmm.

Cool. Cool. Yeah. It's not worth that much, but

there's some cards in there that are pretty good.

I have a Ryan Sandberg who was my favorite player

growing up, who was a hall of fame player. Uh,

I have his rookie card autographed that I got

at spring training one year and it was the year

he made the hall of fame. So he inscribed it

with HOF and whatever year it was. uh, Oh five

or four or something like that. So, um, so that

one's pretty cool. It's a unique card and you

know, probably one of a kind type thing. So stuff

like that I would probably hold on to, but I

don't know. I have some interesting cards that

are worth some money. And then like most people

that collected cards in the eighties and nineties,

a whole bunch of cards that are worth nothing.

Yep. Oh, baseball cards. Oh, boy. 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?

Do we think that? Do we think that the parents'

generations don't value their toys? I don't know.

Did they have toys? Yeah, they did. I mean, squirt

guns and sticks and rocks. No, they had the 12

-inch G .I. Joes. Oh, those are dolls. Those

aren't toys. Those are dolls. They had the original

Star Wars figures. the original Planet of the

Apes figures, things like that. I just think

for us, there was such, and I know some of it

was a marketing campaign, some of it was strategic,

but there was a business model that made us connected

to those toys. It wasn't just toys like, for

example, for some people that would, I don't

know, this is a bad example because Barbie's

super popular, but back in the day, if you had

a Barbie doll, that was the end of it like it

was the doll and whatever attachment you had

it you had to based on what was available for

you through that action figure through that doll

line through that toy line and that was it but

you know during the 80s especially for boys you

had the comic books that were connected you had

the cartoons that were connected in some cases

you had some either animated or live action movies

that were connected so it wasn't just like it

was a toy we played with. It was something we

watched on TV, something we consumed, something

we read about, something we pretended to be or

made our own stories about, et cetera. And then

the other thing that obviously is not, again,

it's all business related, et cetera, but it's

not like a lot of these lines just existed in

the eighties and disappeared and never were heard

from again. There was those, but there was so

many of them that originated in the eighties

that have sustained and kept in pop culture.

Either just because they've always had properties

that current shows, et cetera, et cetera, or

like a lot of the business people have done,

tried to bring them back when these kids were

parents so that they would buy them for their

own kids based on nostalgia. That's why you get

a lot of the reboots is just to try to cash in

on the nostalgia. But when you have something

like Star Wars Transformers, there's almost never

been a time where they haven't been on toy shelves.

So it's not like it's something that's gone away

and you forget about it. It's always there. So

you always see it. You're always aware of it,

things of that nature. And then we've had the

progression of more shows, more movies, et cetera,

et cetera. So I think it's just something that's

easier to gravitate towards. And I think regardless

of if it's toys or if it's other types of memories,

I think all human beings. have a attachment to

things that they enjoyed when they were children

it's just it's a time when you don't have responsibilities

hopefully it's a time where you don't have as

much stress for the average child or etc i mean

i know there's stuff that happens yeah whatever

but you know you don't have bills you don't have

a job you don't have responsibilities you don't

have broken relationships and things like that

as far as significant others yet you don't aren't

even interested in the opposite sex usually by

that you know at that point so so it's just like

it's a reminder of a time where life was easier

so whether it's it's action figures, whether

it's computer games, whether it's Atari, whether

it's something you did outside with your friends,

whether it's card games, board games or whatever.

I think all people have some attachments to stuff

they enjoyed as a kid. Yeah, no, absolutely.

And it's one of those things where while yes,

as you said, there were toys before the eighties.

However, the 80s was the decade that basically

launched what toys would become 40 years from

it today. Like you said, Transformers, Star Wars,

even Masters, even He -Man, because there was

one time so far in 40 years, I think, yeah. The

only time that we didn't really have He -Man

stuff was after that crappy new adventure show

up until 2002. And the other thing is it's a

wholly unique generation. I know that's weird.

It's something that you'd say, oh, you're just

saying that because you're part of it. But I

do believe it is. I believe it's the only generation

of kids that action figures held the amount of

prominence in the child's life as they did with

us. Because before us, there just wasn't as many

action figures around. So it would have been

impossible. There just wasn't stuff. So, so kids

were exposed to a variety of things. Like I said,

whatever games they played in their yard, whatever

Commodore 64, Atari and television games were

out, stuff like that might, might be, but there

wasn't action figures like there was, we had

a big boom of action figures, obviously in the

eighties. And although we did have, you know,

the beginnings of the Nintendo and the video

game thing. It was not what it is today. Like,

yes, video games existed. And yes, I played the

heck out of some Mario and some Zelda and things

like that. And then in high school, obviously

Bond and all those other things. But we did not

dedicate the number of hours to video games as

children do today. And I really honestly think

that the action figures that are present on shelves

today, in our time, it was 100 % for us. Every

action figure that was on that shelf was marketed,

directed, put out there, built, designed, developed

for kids. And that is not true anymore because

they know the amount of collectors that are out

there. They know the segment of population and

the money that collectors will spend. And they

are gearing things towards adults, towards parents,

towards collectors, as well as kids. I'm not

saying there's not toys out there directed at

kids, but it's probably closer to like a 50 -50,

60 -40, something like that. And then on top

of that, so they're not as developed for just

kids and the kids that they are developed have

a lot more competition for their time now because

of this sheer amount of hours that they're spending

on video games, on the internet, on their smartphones,

on everything else that's going on. So I don't

think any generation will have the experience

with action figures that we did. Yeah, exactly.

And ladies and gentlemen, he's kind of already

answered question 32, so I don't know if I'm

going to skip that one or not. No, no, no, it's

fine. You haven't seen them, so you don't know.

But essentially, you're very close. What is your

motivation for purchasing toys to display, play,

fiddle, describe your collecting style? Are you

a completionist, a storyteller, a cherry picker,

or otherwise? Well, I have a disease. yes my

name is optimus solo and i am a collector no

um so i don't know i there is most of it's because

i'm a collector and because two reasons i was

brought up as a collector like we all had our

collections as as kids my brother my sister and

i at the time it was small simple stuff like

keychains and shot glasses and spoons and whatever

you souvenirs you would buy at wherever you went

type stuff but I just have always been in it

and it's weird cause I can see it in my daughter.

She's only two years old, but I've always been

someone that would prefer to grab every, like

a completionist in certain respects. Now it's

not true with all of my collections. Like there

are some that I just know that it's physically

impossible or monetarily impossible to do that.

So I, I'm a little bit more of a cherry picker

with what lines I do, but certain lines I'm definitely

trying to. There's definitely a goal of having

everything that I want for that line and to complete

my vision of it. Now, whether it's going to sit

in a box forever, whether it's going to be displayed,

whether it's going to be something I make videos

of, you know, however I'm going to do with it

is secondary. And then I also have a second part.

So it's not only that I'm a collector, but it's

also there's like a retrograde, not retrograde

amnesia. I know that's the phrase that retrograde

usually goes with, but there's some type of thing

that, you know, the last time that. that my father

was alive the last time that we were a complete

family last time that, you know, I had the innocence

of childhood, you know, I was nine, 10 years

old. So if there is something that is from that

time or before I have a, I have a undeniable

connection and attachment to that. I'm not going

to let go of without like some type of physical,

like some therapy or some counseling that I'm

not going to. So like certain things like we'll

just always. have that attachment to me from

a mental standpoint. Like it's the, you know,

whatever TV shows I was watching at that point,

whatever cartoons, whatever movies I was into,

whatever sports I was into, that stuff will always

be attached to me. So I have like a deep attachment

to these things. Plus I'm a collector and that's

not a good recipe for your budget or your pocketbook.

Yeah, no, see, I'm. But I'm not like the collectors

that I see online, man. Nothing against them.

I'm in a lot of different groups, whether it

be social media groups or whatever, that I'm

exposed to a lot of collectors. And they're buying

stuff nonstop. Everything that comes out, they

buy. They don't miss a figure. And I do not have

it that bad, thankfully. I mean, more power to

them, but I'm glad I don't have to deal with

that. Yeah, so that's the interesting thing.

For me. At 43 years old, I don't need to play

with the toy. I don't need to transform the toy.

Maybe I'll pose it if it's poseable, but I don't

need to have that play factor anymore. Hence

why I have a Funko Pop collection, because all

I do is take a picture of it in the box, take

it out of the box, take a few pictures, put it

back in the box. I don't have to transform it.

I don't have to move it. I don't have to do anything.

It just stands there. Same thing with the Jada

Toys Nano Metal Figs, which are essentially just...

I'm going to drop this, folks, so be forewarned.

That's a die -cast metal Rhinox. Die -cast construction.

It's a lost art. When I saw the Jada Toys Nano

Metal Fig Transformers Series 1 and Series 2,

I'm like, oh, cool. I get to have the characters

without having to do any of the work that I did

as a kid. you know, playing with them, transforming

them, whatever. So I get to enjoy the care. That's

what it all comes down to me is characters. Like

you said, you're not going to buy every figure.

You're not going to, you know, you don't have

the need to get everything. I don't have the

need to get it. Like, like I said before, like

there are plenty of Funko pop lines out there

that I am not collecting because I have no interest

in them. I'm not just going to get them to get

them. I'm not a Funko hoarder. I know plenty

of people who are Funko hoarders, but I'm not

one of them. And I am someone that would open

them and pose them and set them up and look at

them and et cetera, et cetera. But even being

that type of person, I still have like, I don't

know, maybe 200, maybe that might be 100 to 200

figures that I haven't opened yet from the last

five years because I just haven't gotten to it

yet. Yeah. And again, the perfect thing, I know

this is probably sacrilege to you since it's

not red and black and it's not a number 23, but

I have purple and yellow here, number 32, Funko

Pop Magic Johnson. And like you said, I like

Magic Johnson. Take it out of the box, take a

couple pictures of it and whatever else, put

it back in. Like the Funko Pop boxes and the

inserts that they use, it's the easiest toy packaging.

to unbox the thing and then rebox the thing.

You don't have to worry. Yeah. You don't have

to worry about, Oh my God, I have to cut these,

these horrible, whatever is the downside of the

plastic recyclable. Well, yeah, the plastic bubbles,

but I just opened the, well, like I said, I just

opened the core class sound blaster. He had some

sort of like recycled wire holding him in the

little, and I'm like, This feels like an electrical

cord that I'm cutting here. What's going on,

Ezbro? Two things, though. Number one, you can

check out Geek Showcase, the Instagram, Facebook,

or Twitter account, and you'll see a picture

that was just posted of all of the most recent

He -Man figures that are still in the boxes.

Not quite all of them, but maybe 80 -90 % of

them, so you can see that I'm way behind in opening.

And the other thing is, even when I do open them,

even if it is a plastic bubble type, you know,

shell or card figure, I still have the card of

those figures for every, almost every toy ever

going back to the original G1. I kept them for

the art. I kept them for whatever was present

on the back. The plastic bubbles for 90 % of

them have been removed carefully, like by a scalpel,

by an exacto knife or something, the razor blade,

but I still have the card for all of them. Yeah,

very cool, very cool. Have you ever purchased

a toy for a child with the ulterior motive of

playing with it yourself? Well, that would be

something that I would just now be experiencing

within the last two years. I don't buy them so

I can play with them. No, I haven't bought anything

for my daughter that was bought so I could play

with them. But I do I have bought things from

a completionist standpoint for her. So, for example,

like we bought her a little. I bought her like.

I think she picked them out maybe when she was

shopping one time, a little, I don't know, it

was probably like eight inches or something stuffed

animal, but it was a Care Bear. And then the

next time I was at Target, I picked out like

all of the other Care Bears in that line that

she didn't have. And we've been giving them to

her for like different holidays just so she can

have them all. So I will do that. And I will

buy her something that's more of the nostalgia

thing, like a Care Bear or a Pound Puppy before

I'll buy her just a random thing. But I don't

do it with the intentions of myself playing with

them. Yeah. Yeah, it's more. And you may or may

not do this once she gets older, but it's more

of like. you know, if, if Steve Megatron or Michael

Wilson or whomever go into a store, they find

a thing that their child wants. And then all

of a sudden they look at it and like, I want

to play with this too. So, you know, I did play

with her. I did play with her, my wife's. light

bright that we got out and showed her for the

first time i did play with well of course i mean

you know that yeah anybody's gonna i don't care

how old you are you put a light bright in front

of anybody that knows what it is which most people

at this point should know what a light bright

is you know they're gonna want to play with it

absolutely they're just yeah oh wow i had to

show her how to put it together Oh, geez. Wow.

Oh, Lord. Some people were so sheltered back

in the 80s. That's not cool. That's not good.

No, I meant my daughter. I had to show my daughter

how to put it together. My wife knew how to put

it together. Yeah, but your daughter's only two.

I mean, I know she's learning and everything

else, but yeah, that's a teachable moment there.

do you do any toy modifications or customs painting

building okay all right i understand that people

do it and i understand that it's fun for them

and i understand why they do it but for me it's

like against everything that I stand for when

it comes to toys. I don't, I not only do not

customize things, I do not buy third party or

knockoffs or anything. It is the main line. It

is how it was sold, how it was designed. That's

the only thing I will have. Okay. So let me ask

you this. And, and Steve, if you're listening

to this, I'm sorry. No, I think it's fun that

some people do that. And I think that's cool.

I know you do. No, no, I know you do. But the

reason why I'm saying Steve, I'm sorry, but you

know, Steve is, working on or he has been working

on a certain particular version of Beast Wars

Megatron. It is pre -Beast Megatron, what he

was like on Cybertron before the Beast Wars thing.

In that case of a figure that has never existed

to this point, I think that's cool that he's

going to take... In order for me to ever get

down that road, and I did used to do models because

my dad did so many model airplanes and I did

some model planes and model cars when I was nine

or eight or whatever. I was just so bad at it

compared to my dad. That's because I was eight

or nine. In order for me to do it custom, if

I ever went down that road, first of all, it

would have to be a duplicate figure that I owned.

Like it would have to be doing it to the main

figure. And like, yeah, no, you would go out

and you, yeah. Yeah. And, and my other, you know,

Fridley sent Matt, he, he did some, he got some

cool stuff where he was making his own action

figures by doing the 3d printing and the painting

and the cutting and all of that kind of stuff.

And that's cool. I am not good enough or. nor

do I have the time to invest in something like

that with all of my other things going on. So

I could never get down that road, I don't think.

And I am very much against knockoffs and third

parties. That's more of an actual belief, like

a stance. And not that I'm against somebody else

buying them or owning them. You should buy whatever

you like and have fun with whatever you want

to have fun with. But for me, I don't want to

support the non -mainline. I don't know. It's

weird. I mean, the thing with the customization

stuff is like, yeah, obviously you're going to

buy a – like if you want it customized, like

you said, you're not going to use the one fake

– like G1 Optimus Prime, if you wanted to paint

that as Nemesis Prime black and teal, you're

going to go out onto eBay or wherever and find

another G1 Optimus Prime. Like for me right now,

I want to because I understand – at least I think

I understand how the – The license that Funko

has for Transformers stuff is they can only make

designs that are toy accurate. And the toy accuracy,

Soundwave's visor is yellow. It's not red like

it is in the show. So for me, I'm going to end

up going onto GameStop's website, purchasing

another 10 -inch giant -ass Soundwave because

that's the one that I want. And I'm just going

to have somebody paint the visor red to make

it show accurate. So, you know, I don't know.

It is. I do absolutely love, you know, the fact

that there are. And these third party companies

aren't just doing this to do it. I mean. Hasbro

must give them permission because, you know,

if they didn't, there would be all, you'd hear

about Hasbro lawsuits every hour on the hour.

It's also different today than it was back in

the eighties when you'd get like the, whatever

the knockoff from the country or something, somebody

that was trying to take advantage of the, something

like close to it or whatever. And go farts. Yeah.

Or something like that. But yeah. And, I don't

know. It's not that I, it's not that I have something

against the companies, I guess. I, it's just,

I don't know for me, like I'm, I would have a

hard enough time collecting the mainline stuff

of whatever I'm collecting. So I don't want to

like add to the stuff I'm collecting by starting

to open the door to knockoffs or third parties.

And I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,

ever, ever buy a super seven, anything. Yeah,

no, screw that company. Yeah, screw that company.

Screw that guy that runs that company. And screw

that company's prices. He might be a nice guy,

but the prices are absolutely ridiculous. I've

heard rumors and stories about that guy. The

fact that people pay that amount of price for

the action figures for the size that they are,

I don't care if it's the only Silverhawk available

for you to buy. It's maddening that you're supporting

the pricing of that. And I know it costs more

because it's more of a custom and less of a,

you know, they're not making millions of them,

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I just can't

support action figures that are that size selling

for over $20 a piece. Yeah, that's ridiculous.

So as I alluded to earlier, you've kind of answered

this already, but question 32, do you think toy

companies should specifically have adult collector

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

You've kind of already talked about this a little

bit. Yeah, I do. think that i probably prefer

though if they would keep the lines separate

i think it's weird sometimes sometimes they don't

do a good job when they're mixing it or blurring

it and like yeah i i would prefer that a line

stuck to a certain type like i'm not a big fan

of what transformers does sometimes where they

have like a classics or an origins or a retro

line and then they have like g1 stuff and then

they have bavers stuff and then they have uh

unicron trilogy stuff all mixed within that like

i get what they're doing i know some people probably

enjoy it but i would rather there be a separate

line for each like or something i don't know

like and then i think there should be the main

line that that's for the kids and it's pretty

obvious like what that is like the, the buzz

worthy Bumblebee stuff is all kid. Like to me,

the, the new line for the, the new movie with

the beast wars, uh, rise of the beast is all

kid like looking. So I think that's a good job.

And then I think there should be that collector's

line. Like, like we had with the studio series

for a while or for the classics line or the origins

line of the different properties. I think that's

the collector's line. And then the other one

is the kids line. Yeah, absolutely. I'd like

them to keep a little more defined line between

the two. Yeah, I mentioned this recently. Again,

sorry listeners for repeating myself, but I watch

a lot of Instagram stories and every now and

then ads will pop up. Even though I follow Hasbro

and I follow Hasbro Pulse on Instagram and everything

else, just sometimes it'll be an ad instead of

a... Whatever. But in the ad, it'll say, like,

parents, swipe up now to get Tarn for your kids.

And I'm sitting here thinking, what parent today

is teaching their children about the villain

Tarn from the comic book? Look, I love that they

made Tarn. Absolutely. It's amazing. He was a

great character in the IDW comics. But no child

should want that toy. Unless you just think he

looks cool, I guess. Well, I mean, yeah, but

like, I don't know. It is what it is, I guess.

Do you have a My Parents Got Rid of My Toys story,

which you kind of do? Yeah, I already shared.

It's the garage store where I lost. I wish I

knew which ones I lost, but there was a few Turtles,

He -Mans, G .I. Joe type characters I think that

I lost. I don't know if I lost any Silverhawks,

but I know they didn't touch any of my Transformers.

I knew better. Wrinkle, wrinkle, wrinkle. This

is going to be interesting for you because I

don't think I already know the answer to this

one. Do you feel you are coming to an end of

your active collecting? If so, what has signified

this phase for you? Was there ever a moment when

you were completely done with toys? And have

you ever considered stopping as a collector or

even selling the whole collection? There's never

been a time where I've been done with toys. That

answers that. I've never not been in the market

for toys. Part of that was because I worked at

Target for 10 years. Um, but there have been

times where I go in and out of phases for certain

properties. So there have been times where I've

no longer been collecting transformers and I

was only collecting star Wars. And then there

would be a time where I'd kind of phase in and

out of the star Wars a little bit and transformers

would come out with a line that would grab my

attention. So I have kind of phased in and out

of different lines, but I have never stopped

collecting altogether. And maybe unfortunately,

I don't know. I think currently, I'm collecting

more than I ever have before, and I probably

need to stop that. But I would say only because

of the amount of lines that are out there between

the regular Star Wars figures that are out there

right now, the Studio Series and a few of the

other Transformers lines, both of them He -Man

lines, the classified for E .G .I. Joe, I'm staying

away from the Retro Turtles because I can't add

another one. So it's just like there's too much

out there right now, and I really need to scale

back and stop at some point. I don't know. I

could see myself getting down to the point where

I just do Motu maybe, or I just stick with Star

Wars. I don't know. Would I ever sell my collection?

I don't think so, minus the Bayverse Transformers.

I would sell those, and I don't know if I would

sell any of the Unicron Trilogy ones that I have

or not. I am not selling any of my G1 or any

of the vintage toys for sure. Or any of the classic

lines for now. Maybe someday. I could probably

piece mail them all off and do an auction like

Whatchamacallit did and make enough money to

pay for a whole bunch of stuff. But that's a

lot of work and that would require me to pull

the trigger on that. Maybe someday. Never know.

Never know. What is something that does not have

a toy of it you'd love to have in toy form? That

is a good question. What have other people answered

for this? I don't remember. You think I remember

every episode after I record, edit, and publish

it? I don't remember. Man, man, man. See, now

I know he doesn't listen to the podcast, folks,

because he doesn't know what other people have

answered. I think I probably have listened to

at least one episode of this specific series,

but I sure don't remember what the answer for

this question. I'm trying to think if there was

some unreleased. characters that existed for

some of these lines, but they've probably been

made in a classic line since then, especially

when it comes to Motu and Star Wars. Wow. That

is a tough question. Maybe back in the day when

these shows were first airing, the lines only

consisted of, for the most part, the main heroes

and the main villains and maybe some of the recurring

ones. They didn't produce a whole lot of guest

stars or memorable characters that existed. They

have since then. But I'm talking about a vintage,

I don't know, for lack of a better term, or for

not wasting too much time on here, like Count

Marzo for MOTU. There wasn't one of those in

the vintage line, I don't believe, if my memory

is serving right. But that's just one example.

that was kind of more of a side character. He

wasn't on the main team, he wasn't on the main

villains, but he was... They didn't do Spike

or any of the human characters for Transformers

in G1. Not that I necessarily needed those, for

example, but they also didn't do... Okay, here's

an example. They didn't do the ones that just

came out recently in the more classics line.

uh, Orion packs and yeah, Dion and Ariel and

all that. And I do remember that I wanted those.

And I do remember that from the transformers,

the movie, there was, uh, the characters that

were in the thing that we're going to get killed

with, uh, watch McCall. Uh, that's terrible podcasting.

Cause I'm not giving the right names, but you

don't want to talk about Kranix and, and those

folks. I remember wanting those. And I remember,

And I know they made these, but I never saw them,

so I guess this doesn't answer the question right.

But the live -action He -Man, those characters,

I wasn't aware that they had existed. Like Blade

and Gwildor or whatever and some of those characters,

I didn't know they existed. So I would have liked

to know that. Very cool, very cool. What is a

toy that you'd love to have scaled up and functional

for real people? I mean, I think that would...

My mind goes to the vehicles in that point. Like

a different... Like a turtle van or like all

the different... Absolutely. The Wind Raider

or the Sky Sled. That would be great. The Sky

Sled. I'm going with the Sky Sled. There you

go. Yeah, that would be awesome. That would save

some traffic jams. How has your lovely wife dealt

with your collection? Better than I would expect.

Nobody should have the patience to put up with.

Especially, I think the most trying thing was

probably the moving that we just did all the

way across the country. Because it's like, well,

here's an extra, whatever, 25 Rubbermaid totes

that are exclusively toys. And I think the other

thing that got her was... So here's the, I don't

know, six extra large size or large size boxes,

movie boxes that you would buy that are strictly

full of empty cardboard boxes and cards. Like,

yeah, honey, the only thing in this is packaging.

So they're real light and easy to move, but it's

going to take the space of six more boxes and

whatever truck or trailer. semi or storage unit

we're putting them in so that was probably the

the biggest thing was coming to terms with the

fact that i wasn't getting rid of those yet but

she does pretty good i think and she did let

me display quite a bit of the star wars stuff

in our basement at our old house um and i think

she would have allowed me to display more had

i gotten around to it i don't know in this new

house if there will ever be a display anywhere

just because of the space but maybe someday so

is the new house smaller than the old house well

i mean the old house had two stories so it was

like a main level in a basement and each one

each one was like you're in florida they don't

have basements in florida and they very rarely

have a second story like going up up there's

a few here and there but not very many so you

basically sacrifice like a second level for a

pool and things of that nature so um but we'll

see i mean there's room for us to expand our

house and make it bigger if and when our budget

can allow it and if and when we decide to do

it in the future but we'll see if i get there

but we do have like a guest house that's basically

their own little bedroom and bathroom and stuff

like that so i don't know we'll see that's my

toy sorting area right now and recording studio

very cool very cool So you kind of already mentioned

it, but toy collecting can have its struggles.

What is one aspect you tend to struggle with

the most? Say that one more time. Toy collecting

can have its struggles. What is one aspect you

tend to struggle with the most? I would guess

cost. Yeah. Most people say cost space. You know,

it is what it is. You're right. I think the other

thing would probably be the fact that I don't

buy. current lines on i don't pre -order them

i don't buy them off of websites i don't do any

of that so there is a struggle in actually finding

some of the pieces in retail stores but that

to me is the part of the process and what makes

collecting fun is being able to find it and it's

like to me it's almost cheating if i just go

on and order everything i want offline like what

was the there was no like hunt there was no like

moment where you found it and we're like oh there

it is like there was no excitement it's just

like oh yep ordered it coming to me so i don't

do that so there is at times where finding the

figures can be trying because sometimes stores

aren't very good at rotating stock and things

of that nature so yeah and see for me i'm the

complete opposite in my old manitis where it's

like oh 3 .0, MDLX, Optimus Prime, Cliffjumper,

Rodimus, and Megatron. Okay, I'll pre -order

all of those on BBTS, and I'll just wait until

they show up. So that way I know I have them,

and I don't have to work for it. Because that's

what I think toy hunting is, is it's work to

try to find... You were mentioning recently in

the last... I don't know whenever the hell this

episode's going to go up, but you were talking

about the new Masterverse movie -style Skeletor

and other... figures that they may or may not

have done from the movie line. And I'm just like,

yeah, I don't remember seeing those. Yeah. Yeah.

Toy runs are really interesting. What is one

positive and or one negative memory you have

with buying toys? I don't think I've ever had

a negative experience buying a toy. Well, maybe

like an eBay purchase that came in and that wasn't,

quite as high quality that it looked like on

line, but it's usually not too, too bad. I'm

usually trying to do as much due diligence as

I can when I'm doing that. And I have had times

where a vintage toy has come across through eBay.

That's been way better than I could have ever

hoped for as far as quality goes. So I guess

it would just depend on those eBay purchases.

If I'm doing something like in person physically,

I've never had something that would stand out

as overly positive or negative. Very cool. Very

cool. If you could create any toy, what would

you want to create? Basically, they give you

the keys to the kingdom. What are you going to

do? My guess may be a classics line not done

by Super 7 of Silverhawks and maybe, I don't

know, Gobots? Silverhawks? Tiger? Sharks. Thundercats.

Oh, God. I was really feeling my age the other

night. Somebody asked me in a whatnot stream,

what are tiger sharks? And I'm just like, oh,

God, you're so young. Oh, God. 29 years old.

Just don't call them tiger hawks. Yeah, no. It's

tiger. Hawks and silver sharks. That's what it

is. Could have been. Could have been. You never

know. In one of my videos, I accidentally said

tiger hawks, and somebody felt the need to correct

me on that. Yeah, well, you know, we all make

mistakes. Oh, boy. What is one piece of advice

you would give the toy collecting fandom? It's

any fandom. It doesn't have to be toys. It could

be a movie fandom. It could be a franchise fandom.

It could be whatever. Just stop being mean to

people. Stop being mean to each other. Stop hating

on people for liking something different than

you like. Just stop the negativity. Absolutely.

Absolutely. What is advice you'd give kids who

enjoy toys? Don't start collecting them. That's

right. Leave that to your parents. That's our

job. Save your money. That's right. Go to college.

Buy a house with it. There you go. All right,

folks. That's going to do it for us. We're going

to go to a quick ad break here, some ads, and

some other stuff, and we'll come back to close

the show right after this. Last big party of

the summer, folks. Let's go out with a bang.

Hey everybody, it's Jason with 7 Bucks of Pop

and Mystery Grill. In case you didn't know, 7

Bucks of Pop is your number one stop for buying

Funko Pops online. In addition to the thousands

of Funko Pops that you can purchase right now,

we have our popular Pop Shields and Pop Shield

Armors. Plus our Signature Series Collection

featuring authenticated signatures on Funko Pops.

And join us on MysteryGrill .com for your weekly

Funko Mystery Box. We have our Sunday drops every

week at 3 p .m. Eastern and our theme Thursday

drops every Thursday. at 6 p .m. Eastern. What

a time to be a Mystery Grailer. Check us out

on 7bucksapop .com and mysterygrail .com. Plus

on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,

and YouTube. That's 7bucksapop .com. Ha ha! Hey,

that was fun! Hello, geeks and geekettes! Looking

for a podcast that covers a vast array of topics?

Then check out Altered Geek Unleashed, where

we discuss our thoughts on this week's geeky

news, tech, gaming, television shows, movies,

cartoons, comics, and more. So, get altered,

get geeky with the Altered Geeks, every Friday

on the Geekcast Radio Network. Hi, I'm Dan, and

I'm the host of the Rock Nerd Radio Show, which

airs live on HudsonRiverRadio .com every Wednesday

evening at 8 .30 p .m. Eastern Standard Time.

It also gets backed up as a podcast, which you

can find on your preferred podcasting platform.

Every week on my show, I talk about all kinds

of pop culture. I talk about music. I talk about

movies, TV, comics, collectibles, and so much

more. I also feature a guest on my show periodically,

which you might enjoy. I have a couple of special

segments on my show, one called the cover song

of the week and my favorite thing in the world

this week. If you think this sounds cool, check

it out sometime. I hope you do. All right, we

are back here on ToyCast, 175 episodes of this

podcast. We are 25 away from 200, and ladies

and gentlemen, we are six episodes away from

the top 100 toys countdown here on the GeekCast

radio network. Got anything you want to say about

that? That I'm looking forward to it. It's going

to be a very fun countdown. I think it's going

to be a lot of fun. reminiscing and talking about

the toys. And I can't wait to see how it all

shakes out. Absolutely. Absolutely. That will

run as far as I remember from my scheduling,

whether it is what it is, but I wrote them down

as episode 181 to 187 because it's the eighties

folks, even though it's 181, but it's still the

eighties. All right, promote yourself. What do

you got going on? What are you doing online?

Is it something about a showcase of geeks or

something? Yeah, you should check out Geek Showcase.

It's a YouTube channel. It also has a Facebook

page, an Instagram page, and a Twitter. account

and you can keep up to date i post pictures of

toy hunts and things i've purchased i take pictures

of geek stuff i post anything geek related and

we're getting into all the videos on the youtube

channel i would suggest checking out the ultimate

saturday morning cartoon lineup as we're making

our way from 1983 to 1989 there's only two episodes

that haven't been posted so there's whatever

five that you can, you can view currently. And

then there's going to be some other fun stuff

going. I'll tease my next video after the ultimate

cartoon showcase is going to be me going through.

I have a book, a little picture slash storybook

of Thundercats. That was like, based on one of

the episodes of the cartoon. And I am going to

go through comparing the book to the actual episode.

You're going to see pictures of all the pages

of the book, almost like a comic book, but it's

an actual book and just like a little kid's book.

And I think it's going to be fun to look at that

compared to the episode and what they cut out,

what they didn't, what was in one and what wasn't

in the other. And we're going to be doing that.

And there's going to be some other fun stuff.

I'm going to be doing some Star Trek related

content soon. So look out for that as well. Very

cool, very cool. Yeah, the Thundercats book sounds

a lot like Wheelie the Wild Boy of Quintessa.

Yeah, probably so. Yeah, it's that similar Marvel

storybook type thing. We did, Steve and I did

an episode of All Things Transformers about that

because that's how I remember finding out about

Transformers the movie was I saw this book at

my school library and I'm like, oh, and it's

got Wheelie, it's got Hot Rod, it's got... But

it's like nothing like the movie at all, obviously.

But it was really, really. We only had parents.

Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a funny thing. I do have

two other things that I'm going to try to get

back to before the end of the year that I'll

keep. everyone posted and we will at get cast

radio network as well. But that would be the,

my trip through the ultimate guide to the cartoons

of the 1980s, which are just written articles

on the website where I'm going through and watching

every episode of every cartoon that aired on

in the eighties. So that I'll get back to, there's

about five or six of those out already, but I'll

get back to that. And then I am going to do my

darndest before the end of 2023 to have maybe

three, four, five, six episodes of, of the, intro

to themes podcast where I go through all of the

cartoon theme songs and a special way. Very cool.

Very cool. All right. Thank you for joining us

here on ToyCast. If you'd like to get in contact

with us to leave feedback for the show, there

are several ways to do so. Visit the website

geekcastradio .com where you can listen to and

comment on all of our content. Send an email

to feedback at geekcastradio .com. Here are all

the ways you can listen to us. Nowadays, Apple,

Google Podcasts, leave us reviews, please. Spotify

and any other podcasting client you choose to

use. You can follow us on Twitter at geekcastradio

for the network I am at. TFG1 Mike. You can also

follow the show at TFToycast. Is it at Geek Showcase

or is it at Geek underscore Showcase for Twitter?

I forget. It's just at Geek Showcase. There you

go. You can check out Geek Showcase on Facebook.

I lied. It's Geek underscore Showcase. That's

what I thought it was. My bad. Everything else

is Geek Showcase. No problem. Absolutely. You

can also follow us, GeekCast Radio Network and

ToyCast over there as well on Facebook. Join

us next time and we'll be talking about something.

I don't know what we're doing in episode 176.

I really have no clue. It could be a display

case. It could be an Origins. It could be a Toy

Talk episode. I don't know what we're doing.

So for now, I am TF2 and Mike with Optimus Solo.

Join us next time when we'll be talking more

toys here on ToyCast.