Jason Swoboda on Origins in Toy Collecting

Hi, this is Jason Swaboda from Seven Bucks a

Poppin' Mystery Grill, and you're listening to

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 to the only

toy podcast you will ever need Welcome to an

all -new generation of toy cast this week at

the origins of any and all toy fans that we can

I am of course TfU and Mike and today's featured

guest is Jason the social media guy from seven

bucks a pop calm mystery grail and everything

else he does I would try to pronounce his last

name, but I just can't something to do with FETs

and It's I don't it's pronounced swabota, but

the yeah, I might online moniker forever has

been Swaboba FET which is just Boba Fett with

an SWO in front of it Yeah, I think I was like

practicing it like for like two days leading

up to this. I'm like, okay I think I got it.

I think I got it. I got to the recording. I'm

like, holy I froze I'm like, no can't do it back

out slowly. It's okay. You got Jason, right?

So that that's well I mean that's I I talked

to a lot of Jason so it's good. Well, there you

go Absolutely. Absolutely. So you are the social

media person for seven bucks a pop comm Yeah,

I'm the director of marketing and social media

for seven bucks a pop and mystery grill it started

just I had met Lee since we're both local and

I always say I had a bad day at work and I was

just like hey I know you were looking to hire

somebody I'll do whatever and he's just like

well hold on I think I got something better for

you and a few months later he was like hey how

would you like to come on and do this role and

I was like Yes, that sounds perfect because it

was like the first time I ever got a job without

like someone like trying to help me out or get

me a referral. It was like I got a job because

it was me because I had collected Funko for so

long. I've been in the community. I knew what

I was talking about. So it was it was nice to

to be hired to be me. So that's that's all I'll

say. And it's been fun so far doing this and

seeing the company grow and just seeing You know

now that we're doing like the Seeing the signature

series grow and just all these like really cool

convention experiences that we're having and

you know having live signers and then working

with Fog Code like You have them appear at their

booth and every it's just it's a lot of fun.

That's what we've been doing That's very cool.

Very cool. Yes folks We are going to actually

be publishing this sometime after May the 4th

not necessarily revenge of the fifth, which I

don't Okay, I get revenge of the fifth. It's

supposed to be Sith, but you think it would make

more sense if it was revenge of the sixth Yeah,

and just have Cinco de Mayo Exactly and just

you know have something in between there. Is

there any Star Wars characters that would go

with Cinco de Mayo like Cinco de grito like I

think that would be a good That would work. So

just put like grito in like a sombrero and I

think that would be a I think that's what that's

what we're gonna do and I think we should start

it you should to help get this out. Absolutely.

Cinco de Grito. Hashtag Cinco de Grito, we got

it folks. And then Revenge of the Sixth, so there

we go. Yeah, absolutely. I just, I mean, I kind

of understand it and I just never, like I get

it, it's back to back days, blah, blah, blah,

but I don't know, whatever. All right folks,

we're gonna start talking toys here on Toycast

and we have 42 questions and surprisingly a lot

of people have been getting through these faster

than normal. Usually when I advertise this or

when I, send people emails about this this this

specific origins format because we have stuff

for comics and cartoons and all the other stuff

you can think of but this when we started this

back in 2019 or 2021 i wanted it to be as an

in -depth toys of your life kind of thing so

we ended up with 42 questions because apparently

according to some movie in some book 42 is the

answer to everything Yes, and some people will

end up going two and a half three hours other

people lately in the last I don't know six months

or so They'll be like, yeah, and I look at the

time and I'm like crap. It doesn't even been

two hours yet Where's like what? Okay. Sure.

Fine. Great. I don't know four hours editing

the thing so you know, it is what it is, but

Question one what is or was the first toy you

remember having as a kid? Oh ma 'am the first

toy I mean obviously I remember like all the

toys that we grew up in the 80s with but I think

the first one I'm gonna change the question the

first one I remember collecting was GI Joe and

Specifically, it was the Cobra eel that had flippers

like you could like put them under water if you

wanted to and ruin it Yeah, but the Cobra eel

And that got me into G .I. Joe's and I think

part of it was I think my mom liked collecting

them for me. I think she but she got me hooked

on it totally. But it was definitely G .I. Joe.

G .I. Joe is one of my first that I remember.

Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. People tend to sometimes

like I don't normally sometimes if people ask,

I will send the questions in case they want to

have. But normally I'm just like. Let's just

go with the flow and see what happens. Lately,

people have been answering questions in advance

of it. Now you're just changing them all around.

I'm like, wait a minute. Huh? OK. No, but that

would be great. I'm practicing for a career in

politics at some point, I think. Well. What's

your favorite collectible? Instead of that, let's

talk about the situation over here. Pop or soda?

Soda or pop? You drink them both, so it doesn't

really matter. And they're both Funko products.

Is that question two? No. Like I said, this is

more of like this is your life through toys kind

of thing. So Funko does come up, obviously, but

it comes up way, way later. All right. You mentioned

your mom. I assume she was the particular adult

who was supportive of you playing with toys as

a kid. Was there anyone who was unsupportive?

No. I mean, I stayed at home a lot. But even

my friends, they all played G .I. Joe. We had

no internet, so we didn't know what the heck

that was. Yeah, exactly. There was no internet.

Yeah, we played outside. We had toys inside,

and then Nintendo eventually came around. But

even still, But you know, she is the one who

I think she liked going to Toys R Us every day.

I certainly liked going to Toys R Us every day.

So it was it was nice to to go there and then

collect G .I. Joe's and Transformers and all

that cool stuff that Toys R and Ninja Turtles.

Eventually, that's what they gave us. Well, they

had to give us something because I mean, I technically

the Transformers toys continued on past 1987.

Obviously, we're almost 40 years. But the cartoon

at the time in 87, it was like, yep, nope, we're

done. Bye. I'm just like, wait, what? There's

got to be some. And then I found the green machine.

And I'm like, oh, OK. That'll work. That'll work

for me, yes. Yep, that'll work. So what types

of toys were your favorites to play with? When

I say types, it's obviously action figures. But

there's various types of action figures. You

know, some people will be like, oh, what about

the old like like fisher price like flashlight

or something? So, I mean I again it was always

I would play with transformers and I still have

them and they're very well played with The GI

Joe's they were the ones I would I would basically

reenact movies specifically the movie predator

and I would reenact the movie with GI Joe's So

I never played G .I. Joe in the sense of, this

is Flint, and he's gonna go against Cobra. It

was always, these are the characters from Predator,

or a Predator kind of movie, where I'm gonna

create them, and then I would pick which order

they would get killed by the Predator, which

I didn't have anything to be a Predator, so it

would be this invisible thing killing off my

G .I. Joe's. And yes, I really love the movie

Predator, so. Very cool, very cool, very cool.

So the GI Joes were the childhood toys that stood

out more than the rest I believe I believe that

is the most accurate. Yes Yeah, I I liked Joes,

but they didn't like that wasn't the heart of

my collection. I I'm You know you give me two

two roads in a wood and I'm gonna you know choose

the one that I want to choose and I chose Transformers

over G .I. Joe as far as toys goes. Look, I had

a great amount of those too. I saw the movie

in the theater. I bought all the new ones. I

remember being shocked that they killed Optimus

Prime. You were the kid in the closet that cried,

right? I didn't cry, but I was just like, wow,

I can't believe they killed Ironhide. They killed

Wheeljack. Like all the ones that they kill in

the beginning of that movie and it was just like

this is the coolest thing I've ever seen in my

life Like a sadist as a child, okay. Yeah, I've

just like wow I there they're actually murdering

robots and then like, you know later on and Well

when they released on VHS it was through family

home entertainment and they edited out spikes

line When he was yeah, they edited out his line

And they edited out ultra Magnus saying, damn

it. Damn it. I'm just like, why don't they put

that on here? And it was so years later we got

it. But yeah, like I loved I thought Transformers

was great. But then like the G .I. Joe cartoon

tied in more with the action figures. And I hold

the G .I. Joe cartoon in such high regards. But

as far as movies, Transformers movie was better

than the G .I. Joe movie. Yeah, cuz people there

was actual weight to the story. You don't just

you know, get to the end of the movie and oh

he woke up Yeah Well, you know originally they

were in gee I know yeah, they were they were

supposed to kill Duke But then they were just

like well, we better not I'll bear not do that.

We better not do it on camera Yeah, exactly good

off camera exactly Do you prefer the label of

action figures dolls toys or other labels? Don't

care. I just I prefer act their action figures,

you know Funko pops or vinyl figures. They're

dolls. I always considered me like baby dolls.

Yeah but or like Barbie dolls, you know because

that's what they're called, but I Think it'd

be great Barbies were considered action figures

now. I'm thinking about it Barbie and Ken action

figures and Transformer dolls. Oh well I believe

they do have doll -like Transformers things,

or they've had them in the past. And it's funny

you say about Barbie and Kenna's... And we're

not too Funko yet, folks. We will get there.

But I have to say this now because I just finally

realized why I never get... I've only been collecting

Funko since beginning of 2017. So... It I think

I have enough miles on my tires to say this but

I finally figured it out I never could put my

finger on it why I never gave two craps about

Freddy Funko as the mascot of the company I never

cared about Freddy as Batman or Freddy as Superman

or Fred Freddy dressing up Freddy's just a freaking

Ken doll. That's all he is He's a Fred doll Yes,

there you go you heard it here first folks Fred

the doll Fred's job. Oh, God. Yeah. And I have

several Freddys now, only because I lived out

there for a while in Vancouver, Washington. And

I'm like, OK, well, at the time, I had to move

away from Washington two years ago. No, last

year. In 2022, I had to move to Indiana, which

is where I am now. Was like, okay. Well, I never

got a chance to actually go to HQ I might as

well just buy the pop town So at least I can

say I have it with me all the time and obviously

that comes with a furry funko and whatever else

Yeah, so it's funny because I never opened it

before and when I finally opened it I was like,

oh, you mean he's not like super glued or attached

on like literally I open the box and I pull the

thing he falls out onto the floor. I'm like Freddy

you idiot That's how you break things Luckily

pop vinyls aren't aren't sue. I mean unless they're

bobbleheads. They aren't super breakable Good

guys or bad guys, which toys are your favorites

to play with the most? I Mean I guess I played

with the good guys more but the bad guys were

always more fun and they had more features to

them like I mean for example Destro He was awesome

He had like a metal head and Cobra Cobra commander

either had like the helmet or like the towel

Megatron had a gun on his arm a sound wave was

a cassette player They were just always cooler

they had the cooler features Yeah, so I mean

I and again like I said I would always play Like

move I would act out movies with my GI Joe's

So it didn't matter I could make anybody the

the bad guy in that sense, but If we're gonna

talk about like the the things that grew up with

I guess I Don't know. I would always play with

the good guys and like have the heroes win at

the end But I always like the bad guys like they

looked cooler if that makes any sense. Oh, yeah.

No, absolutely Yeah, yeah, absolutely What is

or was your favorite toy vehicle and playset?

So you mentioned one of the GI Joe vehicles earlier.

Is that one of, is that your favorite or is there

another toy vehicle that you like more? Um, I

got to look up the name of it, but the, uh, the

dread knocks. I remember that. Yeah. They had,

they had a vehicle. Um, I'm looking it up right

now. It was the Dreadnought ground assault. That

wasn't a very good name for it. But that wasn't

the day of it. Hold on here. It was it was the

thunder machine That was like the coolest thing

because it had like the the gun turrets where

the engine should be Which doesn't make any sense,

but I always so like I would use that if I would

make like a post -apocalyptic Movie, that would

be the vehicle they would use in like some sort

of bad max scenario where they would just blast

through So I always like the dreadlocks and I

liked that vehicle, but I think that Quite possibly

the coolest one and I think that's only because

I never owned the USS flag Outside of that. Yeah,

they were pretty cool. I Know a guy who I believe

still to this day. He owns two flags in his basement

Yeah, and those go for too much money now Yes,

but I mean he's had it for he's had them both

for years. I've known this guy for years, but

I remember when I, when he initially told that

story to me, I'm like, really? Wow. Okay. Can

we go play with it right now or? Yeah. Well,

I mean, this is the internet and I was in Kentucky

at the time and he was in Illinois. So not, no,

not really. You can't go play with it right now.

Yeah. I'm, I'm all about the. Getting close to

people at a distance. As long as I'm in my space

and whoever else is in their space, I'm perfect.

I don't do crowds. I don't do conventions at

all. I just can't. It's just, nope. What about

play sets specifically? Set aside toy vehicles,

but we just mentioned the flag, but you didn't

have that. So what would be your favorite play

set? This is an maybe the technodrome get to

I mean well that technically counts as a playset

because it was yep So I think we'll say that

one there you go Did you and your friends ever

pretend with your toys that you had by this?

I mean did you say I'm gonna be this toy and

you can be that toy like Jason can be the Coke

bottle top and Lee can be the piece of glass

or something. I don't know So not necessary.

I mean that came later on with like squirt guns

and stuff in the pool Where we pretend to do

things there? And we'd play with I also had those

LJN rubber wrestlers for the WWF back then. Oh,

yeah and the ring so he would do that but Yeah,

I mean we would have there would be a lot of

pretend we had laser tag I had a lot of really

cool fun like toys that you could play With each

other with very cool. Very cool What features

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

feel in comparison to the source material likeness?

Are we talking about like original toys or like

how new toys compared to toys in general? Like

what features define? Like you can talk about

it in vintage. You can talk about a modern. However,

you want to do it I don't like how they I don't

like it if they're cheap looking or feeling But

so for example, one of the things that I really

really like is super sevens reaction figures

I think those capture a complete vibe and I just

love the way they are I think it's great. It

captures like a feel of that time I don't like

the fact that their arms don't bend and again

I keep going I think I just I don't like them

to feel cheap like if it feels like a solid toy

like for example, I have a it's the spider -man

and it's like 12 inches, I think now he's like

18 inches tall and he has all these points of

articulation. He wasn't terribly expensive, but

it feels like a legitimate thing. Like it feels

like it should be expensive. Like if they wanted

to charge $80 for it, I could see that, but it

wasn't that much. And I think that for me, at

least a toy should match the price point. So

that way, if you're going to pay, you know, $40

for something or $60 for something, It better

have like sideshow type of accessories and all

kinds of cool things with it. But my my ultimate

my favorite toys, like even to this day that

if I were to get are just the simplest ones,

I would say. Do you remember when McDonald's

did the adult Happy Meals a couple of months

ago? Yes. With the the cactus. Yes. Market. I

love those things and they're simple. You can't

do anything with them, really. But I love them.

They're just so. neat looking and weird and unique

and I think that's what we need more of is weird

and unique stuff. Outside of that, like stuff

that NECA does, is it NECA or NECA? It's NECA.

Yeah, NECA. The stuff that they do I think is

top quality. I have no room for it to collect

it but I love them and I think those are, that's

good money for your dollars because some of those

are getting up to like $40 now at retail. But

it's worth it. Yeah, no the NECA figures any

of them are definitely worth it and they put

a lot of care and love into them I Don't so from

just other listeners know this already you don't

I had a toy collection from 2005 to 2011 2011

things came up needed money toys went bye -bye

from 2011 until late 2016 I still enjoyed toys.

I still liked looking at them. I still like being

in the know on the news, but I had zero desire

to collect them. And then I saw a buddy of mine

out in California. I went out and visited him

and his wife and he had a holiday Groot Funko

Pop. And I'm like, wait, what is this? And when

I got back home to Kentucky at the time in January,

2017, I immediately started hunting pops and

I'm just like, I haven't looked back since and

I have a few other non funko product things in

my toy collection now in 2023. But for the last

five or six years, it's been all funko pops and

sadly now I have a 24 pack of funko soda. What

am I doing with my life? It's that you're investing

in something. Because they're not going anywhere.

They're not going anywhere. And if you open them

out of the box, they lose their value, folks.

Don't open them out. Yes. Open your toys, people.

I will tell you. We will get into that. Taking

them out of the box does not ruin them, trust

me. No, I'm not. But there are some people out

there, and they're like, you idiot, you took

it out of the box. You just shaved off 75 % of

its value. Or whatever it is. I don't know. People

are strange So you're in a This hurts my head

and my heart I'm gonna say you're in a toy store,

but those don't exist anymore So you're in a

Walmart target or whatever or maybe you're on

your own website, whatever it is What does toy

pack so you're in a store? What does you go to

the toy aisle? What does toy packaging have to

have to draw you in for me again? It's I'm very

specific where it has to draw me in with some

sort of It has to appeal to the retro side of

me hit me in the the member berries if you will

Which is why like I said, I really like the reaction

figures from super 7 I think those are like really

really great. They draw you in I like being able

to see what it is Packaging is all It's every

it's pretty much the majority of what gets you

to buy it. I really do believe You look back

at those old Transformers figures, the artwork

they had on the outside of the box, and you'd

lift it up with a tab, like you'd lift the front

up so you could see what it looks like inside.

The G .I. Joe's had like that really amazing

artwork behind him and they had the figure with

all their accessories and the card on the back.

Stuff like that that really like draws you in

and like that. That's what gets me. That's what

got me with Funko initially, too, with the wacky

wobblers way back in. Gosh. The year 2000. The

year 2000. It's been a long time. But it was

the packaging and the neat stuff on the outside

that draws you in. It's almost like the figure

or whatever's inside of it's secondary to the

presentation. And I think that really to me is

the biggest selling point. It's sad. I don't

see that anymore. It's a lot of times like I'll

for example the zip Mattel who makes the WWE

figures now. Yep Their box like the the packaging

is all like it looks like you could damage it

So easily like way too easily versus how it used

to be with the blister pack on the card It just

seems like it's it's there's too much to be hit

and dinged and I don't it I don't feel an attachment

to it. And then they're just like, oh, it's $20.

And I'm like, whatever. I don't care. I don't

care about that enough. But yeah, to make it

something cool to bring you in and sucker you

in for life. Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. And

obviously now and now in May of 2023, thankfully

somebody at Hasbro woke the hell up and reversed

their open window. I understand wanting to try

to save the planet, but at this point, isn't

it a little late to remove a single plastic piece

of window and have kids, you know, come up into

toy stores and ripping bulkheads head off and

like, Oh God, I get it. I pre -ordered, he's

actually sitting here in front of me, the Transformers

Core Class Sound Blaster, only because my two

favorite colors are black and purple, and I'm

only ever gonna have him in cassette mode, and

he's a Core Class figure, so he's like, I don't

know, he's about the same size, he's not even

the size of a Funko Pop, he's tinier, he's about

the same size as like the Jada Toys, they're

all metal figs in cassette mode, but. Windowless

packaging you can just reach in there and rip

the whole thing out let alone rip the heads off

of the thing. Hmm sadistic kids Yeah, I don't

care for that. No No So I'm glad that they are

going back to Glad they reversed their decision

on that packaging as they finally came to their

senses Do you open your toys or do you leave

them packaged if you keep toys packaged? Do you

have a specific criteria for that? Hmm good question

so Typically, I'm opening them unless it's something

I know that is going to Mature in value at some

point. Uh -huh. You know, it's that whole What

do the sneaker heads say wonder wonder rock one

to stock or something like yeah, yeah Sometimes

I'll do that and then it turns out that I stock

both of them and then they don't ever become

like the It's like they're overproduced, they

don't have any value, and I wind up either giving

them away or selling them for less than what

I paid for it. But usually, because I decided

years ago that if I'm going to collect something,

I'm going to just collect one thing, and that

was Funko for a number of years, I take most

of mine out, unless they're autographed or something,

and I can think of a different way to repackage

them. Right. Usually I'm taking my stuff out

and displaying it. Very cool, very cool. Yeah,

and the beautiful thing about, and we'll get

into this way later, folks, probably in about

10 questions from now, but the greatest thing

about Funco is, at least Funco Pops, and sodas

too. But again, why would you want to put sodas

back in the can? That was my initial hesitancy

about sodas. I'm like, I can't just ever see

it in the packaging anymore. You got to take

it out because the packaging is a can. That's

correct. But with the Funko Pops, I was like,

oh, this is the easiest thing. You open it up,

you take it out, you put it in whatever you want

to do, and you can just easily box it right back

up and put it right back on your shelf and you're

fine. Correct. Yeah, if as a kid, this is funny

because some people lately have been actually

answering the fun code of this question just

so they can cheat with it, but if as a kid or

an adult you were only allowed to choose one

toy franchise to collect from, which one would

you choose and why? Toy franchises in like G

.I. Joe, Star Wars, Marvel, Transformers, He

-Man, Voltron, Thundercats, Silverhawks, all

that. I would be collecting G .I. Joe's still.

I would still be doing that. I'd have like all

tons of them. They would still be in the card

hanging on the wall. And I'd be at G .I. Joe

conventions instead of regular conventions. As

an adult, do you prefer vintage toys or modern

toys? Vintage. A lot of it is the simplicity

of it. I don't know. I mean, I had a lot of toys

growing up. But I just I like them better. Yeah,

we had rubber dolls basically with the like the

wrestling figures and that was cool But I don't

need all of them. I Just have it. I had a whole

I had the majority of them I sold them and I

paid for a nice vacation with that cool and they

were well played with but like Yeah, I I like

vintage. I like vintage stuff. I like stuff.

That's even older than me I have a few like really

old toys that I keep around. Someone had sent

Mike Becker, no not Mike Becker, someone had

sent me a, they were called Soakies, and they

were like old, I think further than the 1960s,

and they had like soap in them, like bubble bath,

and like were supposed to take them in there,

but once they were empty, you had this thing

that just would, you could sit on a shelf or

do whatever. And I like those things. I have

one. I have the Dick Tracy one. I don't need

more. I have the one. That's all I need. Very

cool, very cool. So out of all your collection,

your entire collection, what is one toy you always

gravitate to more than the rest? Well, it's always

going to be. I got to think about this one for

a sec. That's actually it's a hard question,

believe it or not. Believe it or not, the question

used to be phrased differently because I know

too many people like myself who always have their

minds in the gutters. Originally, the question

was, what is the one toy you can always play

with? Gosh, you know, I guess it's for me. It's

the original Dick Tracy Wacky Wobbler. Oh, very

cool. Years ago, when you joined the Funko Fun

Club, They had a thing on there and they were

just like, what's your dream wobbler? And I put

Dick Tracy. And like six months later, Dick Tracy

came out. I was like, huh, bet I did that. But

to this day, it's my favorite. I have like three

of them and I have all the prototypes and everything

for it. So, um, that's, that's the one that was

my, uh, that's my favorite. Yeah. six years or

so I've been screaming at the top of my lungs,

FUNKO, you've done everything else 80s. Do an

ALF pop. They have a wacky wobbler, that doesn't

count. I know they have a wacky wobbler, that's

great, that doesn't count. Can you imagine? They

could probably get ALF into the four inch line,

but maybe a six inch, I don't know, I'm really

trying to think. Don't you remember, I was just

going through this today about Alf, because I,

for whatever reason, the McDonald's menu song

popped in my head. You remember the McDonald's

menu song? Good morning, class. Today, we're

going to learn the McDonald's menu songs and

give a listener out there a chance to win a million

dollars. So repeat after me. Repeat after me.

No, no. No, no. Okay. Okay. Here goes. Here goes.

Big Mac McDLT, a quarter pounder with some cheese

fillet, a fish, a hamburger, a cheeseburger,

a Happy Meal, McNuggets, tasty golden french

fries, regular or larger size, a salad chef,

or garden, or a chicken salad, oriental, big

big breakfast, big big muffin, hot hot cakes,

and sausage, maybe biscuits, bacon, egg, and

cheese, or sausage, dainty hash browns, two and

four, dessert, hot apple pies, and sundaes, three

varieties, a salsa, corn friccans, or shakes,

and chocolatey chip cookies, and a drink, a Coca

-Cola diet, Coke and orange, drink, a Sprite

and coffee, decaf, two, a love fat milk, also

an orange juice, I love McDonald's, good time,

great taste, and I get this all at one place.

Got it? Got it! Okay, now you do! Big Mac with

DLT and Quarter Pounder with some GLS! Ah, too

bad! Because if this class can do the McDonald's

menu song all the way through, a listener out

there is going to win a million dollars! Win

a million dollars? Yeah! So let's try again.

Big Mac McDeal to your quarter pounder with some

cheese. Big Mac McDeal to your quarter pounder

with some cheese. Filet -O -Fish, a hamburger,

a cheeseburger, a happy meal. Filet -O -Fish,

a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a happy meal. You're

on a roll! Keep going! We've got the 60 golden

french fries ringing in our largest size of salad.

Chef or gardener, chicken salad, oregano, baby

breakfast, It's awesome! Danish has been doing

for dessert, hot apple pies and sundaes, sweet

varieties, a soft drink, coffee, Kansas shakes,

a chocolate -eat chip, cookies, and a drink,

a Coca -Cola guy in Coca -Cola, it's free to

splat and hop, he can't do it without Coca -Cola,

so I'm going to show you how to do it! Oh, we're

so sorry. The person listening to this record

didn't win the big prize. But tell him to check

out those coupons. Check out those coupons. And

get him down to McDonald's now to save money

on great McDonald's food and give him more chances

to win more prizes. More prizes. And you guys?

Yes. Sing something else. Good time, great taste.

That's why this is our place. For the good time,

great taste of McDonald's. Yes Barely, but yes

Yeah, so that that popped in my head and then

I was like looking it up because no one knew

who it was what it was that I was working with

and Then I came across the elf Winston Burger

King and I forgot they also came with records

like the puppets Yeah, so there was like a chef

elf a baseball elf a surf out But they all came

with like a record of some kind that you could

play. Yeah that had him like singing, like, you

know, whatever. Yeah, it was very wealthy. Really?

Oh, good old Paul Fusco. Yeah. But yeah, I would

I I second that in third it. Alf would be amazing.

It would be Alf Mazin. Yes, it's probably out

of all the 80s pops that they've done to this

point. It's probably the only 80s pop that I

would absolutely go to jail for. That and Mack

tonight. Oh Mack the knife. Yes. Yes. Yes Mack

tonight. Yeah him too I'm gonna go to jail for

him. But but like I told my late wife I said

to her when First I said there's one pop. I don't

like they haven't even made yet, but there's

one character if they ever make a pop I'm going

to be like a bull in a china shop and every say

I'm going to be on the news every night some

strange guy in Chicago bulldozed seven targets

just to get this alpha and it still hasn't came

out yet maybe that's funko is in fear of me because

they know the bull in the china shop is going

to happen if uh if they release now now I think

look I'm with you there but I'll just send you

one. You don't have to do any sort of damage

anywhere. That'll be my promise to you. Hit me

up when that happens. And then you can help me

get the Mac Tonight made and then I can get a

signature series with Doug Jones to sign all

those. So that's what I'm looking at. That would

be so cool. Yeah, I had to... Sometimes it's

really hard knowing younger people. When I say

younger, I mean people in their 20s. Because

I had to explain by showing somebody a YouTube

video of who Mack the Knight or Mack the Knife

was. And they're like, wait, what? I'm like,

yeah. Oh, yeah. How do you not? Oh, right. You're

20. You just turned 30. OK. Yeah, they're not

going to have that same association. Well, no,

because I'm old. I get it. It's OK. Oh man, so

we don't like being negative around here, but

sometimes it happens. But 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, a specific character,

et cetera. I mean, I kind of purged myself of

Disney for the most part. I had a pretty extensive

Disney collection of... Pops and then just one

day. I'm just like I don't want these anymore.

So usually Usually I stay away from those But

there's nothing out there that I really like

avoid on purpose like it's not Like where I'm

just like there's no way don't get me anywhere

near those because I realize I mean I I Understand

there's a lot of stuff out there for people to

buy that are people are really into And if you

pick one thing, it's just like, well, I'm not

gonna collect Paw Patrol because that's not for

me. I'm not gonna collect Bluey stuff because

it's not for me. I'm not gonna go after kid stuff

because it doesn't appeal to me at all. So I

guess you could technically say that. I only

like to collect the things that I like, so I

will avoid things that don't interest me. So

if I walk down, I guess the closest toy aisle

that's filled at least a little bit is Target?

Is Target like the best? I don't know. I can't

even begin to think. It depends on the time of

year for both stores. Walmart gives me agita

every time I walk through there. I don't like

the lighting in Walmart and the blue and the

gray and the yellow. It's depressing to me, so

I don't go there. But I'll go to Target and then

I'll walk around there and then I get to the

toy aisle and I'm like, what is this? What's

going on? What happened to toys? And I blame

I blame Toys R Us for that. They and Amazon,

their relationship with Amazon. But that's a

whole different rant. So we won't go into that.

Right. You know, somehow Toys R Us, you know,

embraced Canada and they left us in the dust.

Oh, no, they're at Macy's. So, you know, well,

whatever that is. So if you get to buy some some

socks. a belt and some Paw Patrol toys at the

Toys R Us in Macy's. So behind the scenes here,

folks, I'm 6 '1", I'm almost 500 pounds. There

ain't no way in hell I'm buying clothes at Macy's,

sadly. I have to use kingsize .com, but that's

just me. Oh, Lord. Yeah, but and like you're

saying, but, you know. I'm the same way like

I'm only gonna collect what I like or what I

but like they're just certain like again, it's

back to though you go into the Into the toy store

into the whatever store and you look at it and

it's like I prefer this over this and I would

never bought like You're never gonna catch me.

I don't care how much they're worth I don't care

if whoever the lead actor or actress is signs

the thing in blood is they're on their deathbed

you're never gonna catch me with a Game of Thrones

pop because I watched like the first 15 minutes

of the first episode of the first season during

an HBO free trial weekend and I'm like All they

did was walk. They didn't even do anything like

what's the point of this like no, so yeah, I

I got sucked into Game of Thrones. I had all

of the pops. I recently just sold the entire

collection with the exception of the headless

Ned, the Hound Aria and a couple others. I kept

a couple, but I realized after I finished the

show that after I was separated from for a while,

I was OK with how it ended. But I was just like,

all right, I don't love this show. There's other

shows I love more. Yeah. And I had. I'm like

why do I have these pops I can use that to like

buy something I want like a good like a nice

meal Which that has gone to I had a really really

I've had a couple really nice meals that were

you know and a cocktail that went with it it

was great and I enjoyed that more than I enjoyed

my Sam pop And Jon Snow, I am what I enjoyed

that more than those two things. So yeah, absolutely

And the funny thing is for me and I wish that

Look, there's only one way that they are ever

gonna get me to buy something that's Funko pop

branded Game of Thrones the only way is if they

put Grover Bluejoy in the chair as like a ten

inch or a six inch or a TV moment because when

sesame street came out with game of chairs i

was like okay that's my game of thrones they're

actually doing something there and even though

i've never at that time i hadn't seen the show

and even though i still hear all the references

and i understand all the references and whatever

winter is coming and yada yada yada and all this

mother of dragons and whatever but yeah Boy 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? Oh Man Yeah, there's a bunch of original

Funko pops that I regret letting go at the prices

they went for For anyone who knows I had a flock

Chewbacca that I sold for $100 at the time. I

thought that was a really good deal. I had a

Glow -in -the -dark Darth Maul. I sold for $450.

I was just like, well, that's pretty cool Wow,

yeah and like some of those This old -school

Freddy pops. I I'm look I needed the money at

the time. They went to people who wanted them

I was surprised at the price. I'm just like there's

no way these are gonna ever be $20 ,000 But other

than that Those are my only regrets. I wish I

still had my old Masters the universe Because

my mom had thrown them out because they didn't

play with them For a little while because one

day I was just cuz I found this I had the sword

I still have one of the Hayman's Swords. Mm -hmm.

I was like mom. Where's the rest of these? I

was a little kid. She's like I threw this out

You were done playing with them. I was like,

but why? Alright that that that and garbage pail

kids cards the originals. I wish I still had

those cuz oh wow Well folks we have severely

jumped to the end of the show because much later

there is a question on here because I'm just

gonna tell the story now and we're gonna skip

that question later, but the question later is

basically Do you have a my parents got rid of

my toys story? Okay, so my story is that it's

so weird like Jason is the first time Jason I

have ever converses all it's amazing. It's fun.

It's it's whatever but like how close we are

and what we like and what we collect and whatever

else as far as like the old franchises. I come

from divorced parents. They divorced when I was

two in 1982. I had most of the heroes and maybe

a few villains at my mom's house. I had all of

the villains and a couple heroes at my dad's

house. So read into that what you want to read

into that folks. Psychology 101 for toys. But

in 1986 when I was six years old my dad was living

in Rhode Island at the time and I'm gonna tell

this story the way I Remember it happening. I'm

not gonna maybe tell it the way it actually happened.

But this is just what I remember I Went down

there Or my mom took me down. Well, however,

I got down from Massachusetts to Rhode Island.

I don't even know Normally back in those days

you could put kids on planes and trains and automobiles

and they could get there by themselves through

you know Airline attendance and train whatever

anyway, I go down there all like I cuz I had

Castle Grayskull at my mom's house I had snake

Mountain at my dad's house. I had both play sets

They were the only two Masters play sets. I had

I never had Palace of Eternia, which is fine

Whatever. No big deal But I had the I had the

two main good guy bad guy, whatever Walk in one

weekend to go visit my dad all my all of its

gone Oh, Dad, where are my toys? What's... You're

six years old, Michael. You're too old to play

with toys. Six? Six? 1986. I was six years old.

Why didn't you have a job yet? No. No, and I

love my dad to death. I absolutely do. My dad

is single -handedly the hardest working person

I have ever seen. This man, he's a mechanic by

trade. He was born in, mom was 54, he was born

in 55. So by the time he was 13, 12, 13, 14,

15, 16, he was working. And he has been working,

he's just over, he's like in his mid to late

60s now. He told me, he's like, oh, I'm retiring.

You should look into blah, blah, blah. I'm like,

okay, I will then. And I didn't, whatever else.

It's had to do with retirement and whatever else.

And he goes, yeah, I filed for retirement to

get benefits, but I'm still, like, he's still

going. The man can wake up at 3 a .m. work until

midnight the next day. And I'm like, I have a,

like, that's where I know I get my work, because

I will spend, so. For context for the the passing

down of his work ethic to me Two years ago. We

did one of our top 100 countdowns and it was

the top 100 transformers characters countdown

It was our seventh one that we've done in the

past 14 15 16 years now here at the geek cast

radio network and I Put it for what ended up

being 11 and a half almost 12 hours of published

audio I put in 100 hours of audio editing work

For the entire thing, it was six episodes of

podcasting. Ends up being just under 12 hours

of published audio. I kept track of it, I wrote

a blog about it, whatever else. So trust me,

the work ethic is there. I just can't do the

physical work like he does. So I get it. Six

years old, like, come on, give me a break. No,

but I mean, that's impressive. I do video editing.

In college, I tinkered with radio editing, but

film took me away from it because I was just

like, why like this? So I know the difficulty

that goes into editing down audio, and I used

to do it with a razor. And an actual razor is

the best tool. Yeah. No, like yeah, the actual

razor and actual reel to reel audio. I had to

cut that. And my favorite thing I did is we had

to take a song and make it 30 seconds and from

the get and have it fade out and everything.

So I took a song and I had to sit there. It took

me about an hour and a half to figure out where

to cut it. I did two cuts and it was perfect.

30 seconds. It was What song was it? It was Average

White Band, Pick Up the Pieces. I made it a 30

second song and it was perfect. I got an A plus

on it. Average White Band, my first thought was

like, Green Day's not average. Aren't they though?

It depends on taste. And it's funny because by

the time this episode releases, folks, this will

be fine. This will be spoiler free. But as of

this recording, as you listen to the sound of

my voice right now, have you watched the Flash

trailer 2 that just released today? I haven't.

But from what I understand is I don't have to.

Because I figured out of just like, let me guess,

it probably starts with Michael Keaton. And then

it's probably like a bunch of other stuff. The

more they show Michael Keaton it to me means

that it's gonna be not as good because they're

just like look at this small part of this movie

and we're just we want you to buy a ticket to

this please Please buy a ticket to this and and

I completely understand that and I won't be buying

a ticket to it until it comes on to video on

demand, but I When you think of Michael Keaton

1989 Batman there three lines three or i'll say

four there are four lines everyone remembers

what do you think the four lines are i'm batman

uh -huh you want to get nuts let's get nuts uh

-huh that's that's stop right there that's the

i'm batman you want to get nuts let's get nuts

those are the four things he says yeah so all

right i'm watching this trailer and they're telling

he's telling his story We get to the points of

and me personally. I don't care about the person

whatsoever My personal opinion is I think Grant

Gustin would be a better person in that role

than the person that they have in it But that's

just me personally I don't care about any of

the flash bits in the flash movie All as I care

about is the Keaton and the Supergirl and whatever

else that they're gonna show us And I know it's

it's essentially just flashpoint all over again,

but in the new trailer in trailer 2 he says The

nuts and I'm just like, okay fine So right before

we started this episode of the podcast Because

I've had this for years in audio you want to

get nuts. Let's get nuts I took that and I took

the new thing and I spliced them together into

one track and I Leveled the audio leveled it

as best I could and I now have one clip of the

classic and the current and I titled it MK nuts

then nuts now Still nuts after all these years.

That's right. Now you wanna get nuts? Come on.

Let's get nuts. You wanna get nuts? Let's get

nuts. The only way they could have done it better

is if he said, give the Flash a grant. Yes. Oh

my God. Yes. That would be amazing. Oh boy. Yeah,

we're just over here flashing Batman, folks.

Boy this is this is hilarious. I'm gonna have

to have you on more often Give the flash a grant.

That's super girl grant. Give everyone a grant.

Mm -hmm That's how you can get me to the movies

to that one. Give me a grant and then I'll go

Absolutely I assume it's fairly large, but I'll

say the question the way it's written. 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? So

my house, we had it, it was built in 2009. And

there was, I was gonna take over the basement,

like that was my whole thing. For those of you

out there who have Funko collections, a cool,

dry environment is the most perfect spot for

them. And what's cooler and drier than my basement?

So they're down here. There was a whole room

that was supposed to be a utility room and then

just like a spare room for storage. And I said,

why don't you finish that out? And that's my

toy room. So that's my toy room. So I have a

Funko room. It's dedicated to Funko. It has vomited

out into the rest of the basement And upstairs

like there's like little remnants of it. There'll

be a pop in on a bookshelf in a corner They just

make their way in but mostly I'm confined to

the basement And yes, it is It's a pretty Significant

size collection. I'll just leave it at that Over

4 ,000. No, I don't think so anymore But but

maybe you know, maybe I'm gonna go with a definite

maybe yeah, it's over definitely It's because

I have pretty much I'd say the majority of wacky

wobblers that were made I have a good collection

of pops that I've scaled down several times over

the past Six years. I keep scaling down, but

they keep putting out other stuff that I get,

and then I hold onto it, and then I sell. It's

a perpetual cycle, but once you find the one

piece you want, it's sort of just like you get

comfortable and you're just like, okay, now I'm

gonna be picky about what I collect. Kind of

picky about it now. So if they ever do more Scott

Pilgrim stuff, I'm gonna go crazy for it. But

yeah, it's a pretty big collection, I'll say.

Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, I just have and I'm

probably gonna have to cut back but I'm I live

by myself I'm in one bedroom apartment. I Have

my apartment set up like an office because I

podcast and I have back in 2010 my mom my Three

years before that in 2007 my grandma passed away

and my grandma left everybody certain amount

of money to the the the remaining children that

were alive as far as my mom and my uncles and

whatever else. My mom was like, okay, you can

get one present from your grandmother with this

money. What do you want? And at that time in

2010, a number of years earlier, I had a buddy

of mine who had this giant L -shaped desk. He

had the whole top part of it with all the cabinets

and everything else. I'm like, I don't want all

the top part. I just want the L shape. I want

the large L shaped desk so I can have enough

room for at the time I was still collecting toys.

So I can put my toys here and there, whatever

else. I can have the computer. I can do the podcast,

whatever else. So yeah, I have my... God, it's

over a decade old now. Wow. So I have that here

and and and that's how my living room is and

I have bookshelves and other things around it

So I just keep the pops on there eventually.

I'm gonna go to a different company and get some

sort of Display vault air. I don't know what

those are. But you know, it's not we're not here

to talk about that Seven book seven bucks a wall.

There you go You know we had talked about that

at one time, and it's just not it's not something

we want to do It's fine It's a it's a fine product

it Our whole our whole motto is there's enough

room for everybody So there's no reason to sit

there and bring each other down. That's that's

that's my opinion on it That's my my very um

what's the word I'm looking for there me being

diplomatic It's true, but it's true. There's

enough room for everybody Yeah, absolutely. How

do you display your toys? So do you do it in

like, like these characters are with these characters,

these characters are with these characters. Do

you keep them all separate? Now I'm like a slightly,

they used to call it anal retentive, but they

don't call it that anymore. No, I still call

it that, so it's okay. Yeah, that's what it is.

But like, you know, my ad icons have to go with

my ad icons. My Funko originals have to go with

my Funko originals. Scott Pilgrim and letter

Kenny, they all have to be segregated toward

their own thing there I try to do it that way.

We're like, you know movies or movies televisions

television Yeah, that that's how I have to keep

it especially in the Funko way But yeah, they

line up better that way all the Freddy's are

with each other Yeah, just has to be that that's

that's that's my that's my way to do it now occasionally

Does like the 8 -bit sneak out to where my actual

video game setup is? Yes That's a no -brainer,

I mean, yes like right now for me the way I have

my Specifically the food based ad icons the ones

that I have What do I have over there? God, I'm

half blind. I can't Kool -Aid man Colonel Sanders

big boy McDonald's five pack in the lovely seven

bucks a pop five pack protector uh the cereals

and what like i have all so the way my apartment's

laid out is my kitchen in my my living room there's

a pass through and there's like it's not a bar

but let's say it's a bar it's a it's a it's a

step up counter thing so i've got all of them

like oh it's all food related we could just have

it facing facing out from the kitchen into the

living room and it's it's fine it's it is what

it is yeah You know, Freddy Funko should just

be by himself. You only have the one. Well, no,

I have more than one. I did say I do have. I

do. I mentioned that I had the HQ Pop Town, but

that's right. You did. I do have. I do actually

have more than one, sadly, because some of them.

And for me with Freddy, it isn't about him as

Batman or him as. Darth Maul as cool as that

blacklight one looks from the blacklight battle.

That was the last year. I think I don't remember

when but anyway For me, it's about Freddy in

everyday life like the Freddy Hollywood one with

him with the Hollywood star the officer Freddy

from NYCC Have that one. I have birthday Freddy

because it's just him and them not in the actual

birthday suit folks, but a birthday suit I was

gonna say the blink 182 set they could totally

make that with you know, somebody somebody made

I saw it at WonderCon they brought it up to show

me and they wanted to get Mike and Brian to sign

it they took the Mike and Brian heads from the

Fun Olympics two -pack you have Freddy and they

put him on the blink 182 three -pack. Oh my god

and it looks great. I have a picture of it. Oh,

you'll have to send me that so I can put it in

the post. It looks great. Like I was like, this

is amazing and they should totally do this. I

doubt they will. Yeah, but they should. All right.

So obviously everybody is safe, humans, pets,

whatever you have in the home, but If you can

only keep one toy from your entire collection,

what would it be and why? And basically how I

explain this to two people is, the house is on

fire. What is the one thing you would run in

and save? Oh my God. The one thing. One thing,

one toy, one whatever you want to call it. My

God. Without killing yourself. That's the thing.

You have to survive. Oh, I have to survive. There's

no walking dead. No. As far as, I'd probably

grab the Dick Tracy prototype. I think that's

what I would grab. Because I can replace the

other stuff more than likely. It would take a

lot of money, but that one, I feel that took

me so long to track down and get. I think that's

the one I'm doing. All right, folks, we're going

to go to a quick ad break. You're going to hear

some ads and all this stuff, and we'll come back

to finish off the last part of the questions

with Jason right after this. 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. Because

the world needs another movie podcast. The Geekcast

Radio Network presents for your listening pleasure,

The Cinema Geek. Hosted by Amanda, Kevin, Matt

and Dan. Each week we dive headfirst 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

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. Well, the Markhu42's universe podcast is

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One of the primary themes of Toycast is that

we focus on throwing it back to the past. We

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right, we are back and on the opposite side of

the question that we left with the ad break,

here's the toy box challenge. Now I've been prefacing

this by saying, I assume this is in inches. So

you get one 18 by 18 by 18 bucks. The only toys

you can keep have to fit in the box. What can

you pack into it? My goodness. I mean, you could

fit in like a bunch of Funko pops for sure. I

could especially out of box. So they don't have

to be in there, but I would probably keep my

autographed pops in that box Is this is this

just like the pack away forever or just yeah,

it's just like you can only you know, The only

toys the only toys you can keep Have to fit in

the box. So You feel these toys in this box and

then the rest of your toys are poof Yeah, that

makes me wish I like collected like versions

of like flat Stan Lee's or something that I Give

it a lot more in there Yeah, I would definitely

do that and I would probably put in my original

Nintendo Entertainment System And a couple of

really good games that I have to I'd have to

think about and that's a definite Sophie choice

situation for sure. Oh, yeah You got your Donkey

Kong, you got your Super Mario Bros. 3, you got

your classic SMB with Duck Hunt, you've got Excitebike.

Yeah, all that stuff. Mega Man 2. Mega Man 2.

Ninja Gaiden. Geez. So much. Castlevania. My

goodness. So many. So many. All right, folks,

lately with all the guests, because most of them

are this. This seems like a redundant and stupid

question, but are you a Funko fan? A what? What's

that? I don't know what that is. Why would you

have me on this toy podcast to talk about it?

Yes, yes I am. I have two tattoos to prove it,

and yes I am. Yeah, you are also a Funko Hall

of Famer. How did that happen? Tell that story.

Not only am I a Funko Hall of Famer, but they

awarded me the Lifetime Achievement Award in

2021. So I've hit every possible milestone you

could get. I never got Collector of the Year

or whatever, had fun days, but I got Hall of

Fame. Essentially, I was collecting before there

was even a Hall of Fame. That started in 2005,

and that was the year that Mike announced he

was selling the company to Brian, and they had

five inductees. I got in on the third year, so

it was 2007. I was inducted. I was inductee number

18 So yeah, it was it was really cool I didn't

wasn't expecting it and when they called my name

I was like I was completely blown away and it

was it was an honor because there weren't that

many of us at the time and to be recognized 17

other people so 70 other people but yeah, it

was It was something else. It was great. And

I mean it was another honor when I got You know

where they told me that they were gonna give

me the lifetime achievement of where and I was

just like, you know Wow, like that was such It

really was an honor because you know you I've

collected a lot of stuff over the years You know

and you don't get that same connection. I didn't

meet as many You know lifelong friends that I've

had in Funko like I have now You see it's a it

was a unique experience to be a to that could

still be a part of this It's a it's been wild

ever since that happens. But yeah to be in the

Hall of Fame It's it's fun doesn't come with

many benefits, but that's alright It's you're

you're part of something that there aren't that

many people there aren't even a hundred inductees

yet So I think we're coming. I think we're coming

up on a hundred this year whenever the next next

ones go to yeah Very cool. Very cool. So what

is it about funko pop or soda or whatever? They're

currently doing that you like the most I Mean

initially it was I started collecting the wacky

wobblers and got what got me was initially like

the it was bone Daddy was the first one I got

and then El Diablo and then I saw these ad icons

that they did and they had like Popeye and like

all these like really old cartoons that I used

to watch when I was a kid and I'm just like Those

are great. I really enjoyed this stuff. But the

ad icons were awesome, like Count Chocula, Frank

and Barry. So it was like all these things that

I remembered as a kid. I'm just like, these are,

you know, I enjoyed it. And then I stalked a

board and they had a message board called Wobble

World. I was like, you know, lurking in the shadows.

Then I joined in and everyone was really nice.

And we all got together in Vegas in 2003. And

then once you actually meet the people online

which they say never talk to strangers online

and especially don't go to vegas with them we

did all those things and i lived and no one tried

to kill me so that was a good thing and i was

just like okay i think i'm gonna continue to

collect this and um i've never looked back really

you know i've questioned what am i doing like

why am i spending all this money on this stuff

but i i had i've had a lot of fun doing it and

It's just something again about the simplicity

of what what Funko puts out down to its core.

I mean, I don't watch anime. I don't collect

a lot of the stuff that they put out because

they put out so much it's impossible to keep

up with everything. Yeah. But, you know, it's

they're they're saying is, you know, there's

something everyone's a fan of something. So they're

eventually going to get it. Right. So, yeah,

I don't like Yu -Gi -Oh! I don't like all these

different animes. It's not my thing. But hey,

I love Letter Kenny and Scott Pilgrim, and I'm

like, that's great. Like, I'm like, I'll be super

into these particular things, and that's that.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You are the first

person I have ever heard bring up Yu -Gi -Oh

first and say, and that's fine. I'm not going

to say, oh my god, he's not a fan of it. I watched

the show in my 20s when it was on, and I liked

it, and I have. Well, we'll talk about that later,

but but it's like usually people are like, yeah,

I don't watch anime I'm not a fan of my here

like oh my god anime is on overload right now,

which is great for those anime fans That's awesome.

That's great that they have their yeah, I'm over

here in the corner. Just like can I have an elf,

please? I don't want it to wacky wobble. I want

it to pop. Oh Man, yeah, no, I and that's the

thing like I always tell people, and I've been

saying this for the last six years, yeah, you're

right. They're saying, obviously, is everyone

is a fan of something, and that is absolutely

true. And for me, it's all about character. It's

not about, I don't need every single Transformers

pop because, well, I can't even afford the NFTs,

even though I want at least three of them. I

know I can maybe afford two of them, but that

third one. I know he's supposed to be limited,

limited, but Gold Optimus Prime, the price on

that thing. I have a heart attack every time

I look at that. Oh, God. But for me, it's like

it comes down to the character. Over the past

15 years or so, we've interviewed Greg Berger

three or four times or two or three times. Greg

Berger, voice of Grimlock from Transformers.

I have Greg Berger. Actually just got I I've

had the shared and I'm not since we're still

talking about Funko folks So we're gonna talk

about this. I know several people who are and

I'm gonna say it this way about in general Who

are sticker whores and will oh my god. I need

to have the same character with this different

sticker Are you a sticker a holic? No, I'm not

I don't I have never I've never cared about the

sticker because I always would I would always

be like kind of snotty with people I just feel

like I don't collect stickers. I collect Funko

But it's true. It's I don't So I don't care as

long as I get the pop it doesn't matter, you

know If I get it loose no box like okay, but

if I'm keeping it, that's fine who cares so when

I What was this? Was this 2020 or 20? Wow, really?

It was only 2021. Grimlock was a 2021 back when

they had ECC, when Funko had a presence at ECC.

Grimlock was a shared exclusive through GameStop.

I had the shared exclusive sticker for the longest

time. Recently, I was able to get the Khan sticker

at a fabulous price. I don't even remember what

it was, but it wasn't. It wasn't rent. So that's

good But I got the cons sticker the first thing

I did when I got my lovely seven bucks of pop

.com order in I threw it in a pop shield protector

and I have the other Shared sticker Grimlock

also in a pop shield protector. I'm giving that

away to a friend of mine her son just had a birthday

in the last couple of months and I'm gonna pass

it on to him because I don't need two Grimlock's.

Now, if Grimlock had blue eyes instead of red

eyes, maybe I would keep it, but because it's

the exact same pop in the exact same box, just

with a different sticker, yeah, no, I don't need

them both. Yeah, and that was, we did a signature

series with him too. Oh, did you? Yes, we did.

That is awesome. Very cool, very cool. What else

about Funko do you want to say? Anything else

you want to say about Funko? I'm still a big

fan of Funko and I probably will be forever.

It's something that it's too ingrained with me,

it's too associated with me at this point. You

know, over 20 years, that's more than half of

my life has been spent now with a particular...

Colleague and that's not to say I don't have

interest elsewhere because I do I don't sit here

all day and just talk like wake up It's just

like a funka funka funka funka, even though I

work around it and you know most of my day is

spent like adjacent to it, but I'm You know,

I have other interests as well. I'm more than

just that. Yeah, I'm a person. I'm well -rounded

Yes, you may be well -rounded, but I'm a keg.

Again, it isn't my original one, but I have the

1985 Astro Train Generation 1 Transformer sitting

on my desk. I have, like I said before, a bunch

of the Jada Toys Nano Metal Figs, which are just

the die -cast metal figurines of the various

Transformers characters. I have a Hot Wheels

Super Pursuit Mode kit from Knight Rider. So,

yeah, I mean, all of our interests vary. It's

not just Funko. And this show, before I even

knew about Funko existed, so, I mean, it was

all about toys in general. Well, Astro Train

is one of the... one of my Transformers that

isn't broken that I still have. So Astro Train

is the bomb. Yes, he is the bomb. I love Astro

Chain, especially like in the cartoon when Astro

Train was like shorter than Starscream. But when

he transformed into the shuttle, you know, everyone

could fit inside. I always love stuff like that.

It was my favorite. Mass shifting folks. Gotta

love it. Is this the fate of the mighty Decepticon

Empire? In the days of Megatron, it was not like

this. You mean Galvatron? Hail Galvatron! Hail

Galvatron! Hail Galvatron! Well, they were the

same guy. All right, what was the most money

you spent on a toy? So it was probably a wacky

wobbler. Believe it or not, the most I've ever

spent on a pop was $140, and I've only done it

once. And it was for Snake Plissken. Over I got

a good deal on it and I'm just like I want this

one so escape from New York's one of my favorite

movies I'm like I want this. Yep, but I think

I spent three hundred and fifty dollars on a

Freddy Funko wobbler and That was the most I

don't count prototypes because yeah, no, no,

no, that's no Protos and APs and all that that's

a whole other Echelon of game. Yes, but I the

most I have spent was the Let's bet 350 on a

wobbler pop wise. It was a hundred and forty

for Snake plus skin before that it was ninety

five dollars for ghost from Game of Thrones Which

I didn't make my money back on that when I sold

it, but whatever It was a FOMO. I was just like

this is the only one I'm missing and I want it

right now Who has it and if I had waited like

three more months, it would have been like thirty

dollars. Oh, wow Whatever you live you learn

You live, you learn when it comes to scammers,

folks. So I have, again, I'm not pretty obsessed,

but there are specific ones of him that I'd like,

ooh, I would love to have that in my collection.

I was new to McCarrie and I've not been new to

the online selling market. I mean, eBay, there

have been plenty of eBay scammers out there in

the past and whatever else and all that. So,

but I saw and there were plenty of pictures and

there was certificate of authenticity and all

this stuff. Social media freddy funko pop for

like 200 bucks or two hundred and twenty five

dollars or whatever it was I paid the money Mercari

sent the and that's what I love about Mercari

they automatically send the sellers the oh hey

by the way we sent the seller a reminder that

they need to still ship your item a month Then

I'm just like screw it give me my money back.

So Mercari refunded me I still don't have a Freddy

Funko social media pop and I probably never will

and I'm okay with that now I wasn't then during

the transaction because I'm like Ship it you

have these photos. You've shown it to me ship

it you have the money. Hello, like I paid you

Give me my shit Yeah, especially if you can't

like there's no point of scamming if you can

get your money taken back from you. That's silly

Exactly like like isn't that the whole point

is we give you money you give us stuff. That's

right Like like I mean come on and it's really

not the end of the world I just think it's really

cool that they did a Freddy Funko that's very

Funko with the with the jean jacket and the dark

blue and the phone in his hand and because I'm

Like I said, I've been a podcaster for 15 some

odd years now I'm on social media all the time

promoting and talking about and whatever podcasts

and all this and all that and everything else

So I figured hey social media Freddy that would

be kind of cool for me to have like and I know

again We've already talked about this a little

bit with all the value. I would probably have

him out of box sitting right here next to That's

cool Guess I don't know. Oh, I was so and we

I promise we will move on but I was so worried

and Luckily when they announced like okay, so

lights and sounds Batman is I forget what his

last name is but it's another Jason It's the

licensing guy at Funko that does the voice for

Yes, we know You know, I Was he did the voice

on that? Yeah, Jason the licensing guy I had

no idea. Yeah. I saw the whole video of him talking

about it and whatever else. I would love to get

him on the show. That would be cool. That's probably

never going to happen, but it would be cool.

Hey, did you ask him? Ask him. I think I did

ask him on Twitter, but I never got a response.

It is what it is. Maybe I'll send him an email

or so. I don't know. Whatever. Anyway, so lights

and sounds Batman. It's his voice. And Lights

and Sounds Vader, I don't think has a voice,

and Lights and Sounds Flash, I don't think has

a voice. I think it's just sound effects. They

announced Lights and Sounds Optimus Prime. That

sounds like Peter Cullen's voice. I got excited,

and then I got scared before I ever saw the Distrackers

video. And by now, by the time this episode is

online, people are hearing the sound of our lovely

voices here, it's already been out. But... Saw

the video that this trackers posted and I'm like,

yep. Okay. Bye now. Yeah, it's him like and I'm

like commenting on this trackers post I'm telling

everybody and all the groups I'm in I'm like,

yep I know because I've paid attention to the

man's voice for 40 years of my life It's a very

it's it's a very distinct voice. It's like part

John Wayne part Robot it's great My only, and

I'm not really disappointed with this, but again,

I went back and I looked on the Funko website

and I'm like, oh right, they have a description

here. Lights and sounds, Optimus Prime says two

phrases. More than meets the eye and Autobots

roll out. And I'm like, you have Peter Cullen

in a voice booth doing lines. You gave, not complaining

and I'm not saying anything against the licensing

guy that I eventually want to have on the podcast.

You gave the licensing guy of your own company

three lines. You couldn't give Peter Cullen three

lines to say you only gave him two? Well, they

probably could only afford the two because Peter

Cullen's a union voice actor, so he probably

had something he had to get for it. Yeah, that's

true. I don't know. Again, I'm very happy that

it's coming out or that it is, but again, by

the time people hear this, it'll be out. I'm

very happy with it, but that initial thing of

the news being announced and them not saying

anything right away about it, and then obviously

seeing the distraction, I'm like, okay, fine,

I'm good. Yeah, I was worried it was going to

be like a Hallmark situation when they did a

vacation, but didn't use Chevy Chase's voice.

Yep. And I was worried it was going to be something

less like, all right, Autobots, roll out, or

something like that. Hey there, Ultra Magnus,

how you doing? All right. Hey buddy, it's me,

Optimus Prime. Do you got a Canadian voice actor

to do that? That's right, buddy. Yeah, well,

I mean, there is a Canadian voice actor that

does Megatron in Beast Wars, and that's amazing.

And he eventually did do Optimus in Transformers

Animated, so that's even cooler. I've talked

to him three times. Love, David Kay. Oh, wait.

That's not the right saying, you idiot. I have

all kinds of voice things around here, folks.

Are you yelling at your toys? Yes. So on the

flip side of the money aspect, what was 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? Other than

free. which is always nice. That was worth something.

That's a really hard question because it's hard

to say. I can tell you that I got a good deal

on a movie poster, I thought. So I'm gonna call

it that I got a really good deal on a original

Scott Pilgrim versus the world poster and I thought

that was an excellent deal I got an original

movie poster for 20 bucks I think and I thought

for Scott Pilgrim versus the world which is I

thought that was a good bargain in My opinion.

Oh, here's another good one Somebody years and

years and years ago was selling some Funko stuff

And I don't think they knew what they had and

they listed it wrong And I ordered it anyway.

And it it wound up being for a a forty eight

piece lefty lime, which at the time was like

a three hundred dollar wobbler. And I got the

entire box of fun for like one hundred bucks.

Oh, wow. Because he said, no, it's just lefty

lemon. And I was like, OK. But then I got it

home and I'm like, son of a B, look at that.

I like finding that. And it's they're getting

harder to come by, like trying to find. old wacky

wobblers. There were a couple that eluded me

for years, like the gray -haired beatnik and

the gray rat fink that was only in Japan without

spending too much money. So I still managed to

spend under $100, which is my general rule. Don't

spend more than that. But finding those pieces

you've been looking for for like, you know, 16,

17 years and then finally getting it at a price

that's reasonable is amazing. Yeah, absolutely.

What modern, which I know there probably aren't

any, but what modern and or vintage toy lines

are you currently collecting? Funko. That's the

answer to both of them. Yeah, pretty much, yeah.

It's the answer to everything. Not only is 42

the answer to everything, Funko is the answer

to everything. That's correct. Yeah, I'm always

looking to add pieces of my old Wacky Wobber

collection outside of that. Gosh. I don't know.

There's nothing like I'm really like actively

searching for because like a lot of stuff I had

filled in the gaps for or forgot that I had like

I was I thought I had missed an entire member

McDonald's Happy Meals used to have the Transformers.

Oh, yeah. I thought I was missing an entire set

of those. And then I opened up a box at my parents

attic and there they were. And I was like, oh,

well, now I have them. At least your mom didn't

throw those out. No, she would never throw out.

anything from McDonald's With the exception of

she threw out I think because they got water

damaged the McNugget buddies that you could like

put cowboy hats to own and stuff Yeah, but yeah,

other than that I'm trying to I will occasionally

piece together like old movie posters that I'm

Trying to find there's not that many I need anymore

But there's a couple like old movies that I'm

just like I really would like a movie poster

for this But I've managed to find like good deals

a couple of them, but I'm trying to think of

what I'm I'm trying to find an original reservoir

dogs poster because the one I have I found out

some reproduction So I would like to I would

like to get an original original one of those

And then whenever he releases his last movie,

I want that too. Yeah, I have the It's probably

not a rate. It's the original poster, but it's

not it's like It's the original poster, but it's

probably not the one from 1986, obviously, because

they're everywhere. I have the original Transformers

the movie poster. I've got that framed behind

me. I still need to hang it up on the wall. I've

only been living here a year, but I've got that.

I've got a Generation 1 cartoon poster for Transformers.

I've got the two Shout Factory movie posters

that if you bought both versions of the Transformers

the movie, I think it was the 30th. anniversary

edition or 35th anniversary. Oh nice. That's

awesome. So I've got both of those. I've got

those framed now. I've got a buddy of mine sent

me an artist friend of his did a side by side

of Batgirl and Nightwing. I've got a naughty

Batgirl and Red Nightwing because New 52 Nightwing

is my favorite because the black and red is just

it just pops more for me and plus I love Kyle

Higgins' writing. What else do I have? I have

the... I forget which year it was. When they

were just about to hit issue 50 for IDW's Turtles

comic, they did the whole big poster. I've got

that signed by Eastman and Cronow and Walz. Oh,

cool. And I've got a friend of mine, Camillo

Artist. I forget what his name is off the top

of my head, but... He's overseas, and he did

a Turtles in Time character select screen homage.

And it's him and Jamie Johnson. It's a really

cool... I'll have to send you a picture of it,

because it's so cool. But I have to hang all

these up, and I haven't had a chance to do so

yet. Then you're going to run out of wall space.

Yeah, well. I don't have that many, which is

good. No, the only way I'm running out of wall

space is if I get some of those air things we

were talking about earlier. 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 searching for, et cetera? Yeah. So I mean,

I go for work. So, uh, see, I'm usually at the

big ones. I'm usually at NYCC. I'm usually at

San Diego Museum WonderCon. We didn't do Emerald

City this year, but we were at C2E2 in Chicago.

The thing I like to look out for at these shows

because, you know, I'll pick up some like cool

exclusives if they're there, but I usually look

for artwork. Like really, really, I like artwork.

I like things, posters, that kind of stuff that's

unique. I found there's this one company that

makes these like pixelated arts it's basically

you could take your phone and scan the QR code

and like put your camera at it and If you scan

their QR code, it'll reenact the scene from the

game that it's in and I can't remember the name

of their their brand right now But those are

like really really great and like anything 8

-bit old -school Nintendo stuff always sucks

me in like a hundred percent So I'm a sucker

for old video game stuff. So usually if you have

that or something cool with Scott Pilgrim, I'll

buy it. I'll just I'll buy it right away. But

yeah, I have to have a game plan. I have to know

what I'm spending like I have my Funko item set

aside. I'm just like, OK, I'll get that. But

usually I don't run around. It's crazy like I

used to. Like the first Comic Con was in 2004

at San Diego and I was like. I had no money,

but I spent a ton of it. I don't know where you

went. But you see Kidrobot for the first time.

You're just like, what the heck are these? All

these vinyl toys. And you just want to bring

home everything. And then you're just like, how

am I getting this home? Oh, no. I don't have

enough money to ship it home. I don't have enough

money to ship it home. And I didn't bring 17

large duffel bags. Exactly. That's why it's really

cool to get into enamel pins as well, because

you can Fit a lot of those in a bag. So Absolutely

and since we're on the convention thing talk

about how seven bucks does conventions when you

guys go to conventions Well, you know we when

we first when I first started we the first one

we did was in that I was part of was awesome

con and I was in DC and We we haven't done that

in a couple years now but it was just basically

we're selling pop shields and it was very You

know and a couple pops that we had there but

now when we go because new york comic con 2021

was the first time that we ever We had dmc come

in our booth and signed and he wound up signing

for three days And like that was a huge deal.

I'm just like we dm I said I was hanging out

with dmc all weekend. You know, what did you

do? um, so that was like cool and You know once

we did that then the next show we did was emerald

city and then we had a couple more signers that

year So we started and we met brice pappenbrook

that year. So that was like our first, you know

getting brice We were all nervous about her just

like oh my god, we're gonna have a huge crowd

We just don't want to look like schmucks, you

know doing this, you know, right? We want to

be prepared and now we have it down to you know,

what we did new york last year. We had uh gosh

There are 15 different, we had a lot of signers

and Elvira was there. We had Kevin Eastman there

for a day. We had DMC again. So we had like a

lot of people there signing for us. And last

year we had David Desmalchin. He was at our WonderCon

booth. We just did, we had John Glover at our

Chicago booth at C2E2. Last year we had Ashley

Eckstein. So we've done like, we're getting...

Like big so we're getting bigger so like celebrities

to do these signings and a lot of voice actors

and you know it's giving fans an opportunity

that they don't have to wait in line you know

for hours spend their whole convention sitting

in like a room. On the floor waiting six hours

to get like. Ten seconds with somebody signing

their stuff. Yeah, they can go up they could

talk to them You don't have to get a lottery

ticket just go up and you know It's it's great

and it's been a great way for us to connect to

the fans and give them an opportunity to Kind

of set us apart as a company Mm -hmm. Whereas

we're not just trying to sell you something.

We kind of just want you to you know Look look

out for us. It's just like oh, you know every

time that they show up somewhere They bring it

like it's you know, they don't They're not just

selling you something they they want to they

want you to come back. Yeah Yeah, that is so

so freaking cool Yeah, it's it's and it's I tell

you it's it's been eye -opening to see how that

part of the the business works and just to see

again like to see the look of people's faces

like we had I like telling the story, but we

had Damon Mills at Emerald City last year and

He did the voice of Frieza and this guy comes

walking up the aisle and he just starts screaming

like oh My god, and he's like I guess I can't

ever believe this Oh my epic and he's like flipping

out and like jumping up and down and like screaming

He's so excited because Frieza was his favorite

character and there's Damon Mills in front of

him just in front of this and he like it was

this wonderful moment that we caught on camera

too and But it was just great to see it. He just

like after he's just like, thank you so much.

Oh, I can't believe you had him here. You know,

he's the freezes like it meant every he meant

everything to me as a character. And you just

you see that connection. And that kind of stuff's

cool. You don't get to experience that. And it

makes you less jaded because you could get jaded

so easily. Just, you know, collecting just being

around it all the time. But they. These characters

mean something to people, you know, the experience

means something to people. And, you know, he

didn't have to buy anything. He just got to meet

the guy. And that was it. That would have made

his whole trip. And to facilitate that. Awesome.

I love it. I'm glad I was there for that. Yeah,

that is so cool way back As much as I have a

bad 1986 story. I obviously have a good one,

too My mom took me to at the time. It was the

Boston Budweiser Expo and Think of basically

Carl Casper's custom auto show is one of those

things where you get the Ghostbusters car You

got this you got that you get all these things

and remember this is 1986 I believe Knight Rider

was just about to be off the air. They had opportunities

to sit in the car and to meet David Hasselhoff.

We got to do both and it's probably lost to the

sands of time. I'm going to tell the story the

way I remember it because I know if the picture

is out there somewhere, if any of my family members

have it, I hope they have a copy of it because

I need to see it. Sitting in kit as a six -year

-old, All as I wanted to do, I'm like, hi, kid.

I didn't care about having my picture. I was

in the car. I'm like, let's go, SuperSumo, whatever.

The lady that was trying to get me to look at

the camera was so pissed because I wouldn't look

at the damn camera. I just kept looking at the

dashboard. I'm like, does this button work? Does

this? Oh, turbo boost. Oh, no, I pressed it.

Oh, crap. Nope, didn't work, obviously. Yeah,

you wanted to have fun. Yeah, exactly. So the

picture of, it's funny because I recently just

found the full, I have the Polaroid that they

ended up taking of me. I've had that for years

now, but in my mom's or other old things that

I've just now recently found in the last couple

of years, I found the full photograph that she

took of the entire section of where the car was,

a giant black Trans Am. all red velvet carpet,

all around, I'm like. And then there's this lady

in a white shirt and black pants just pointing

at the camera. And you can see the look on her

face and I'm like, sorry lady. And then the picture

I have with him, with David Hasselhoff is, because

I have cerebral palsy on my right side. So at

the time as a kid, I had a brace on my arm. He's

got his left arm. It's like he's be I'm in front

of him and he's behind me. So he's got his left

arm around my left side He's got his right arm

Basically holding my right hand with cerebral

palsy and I just absolutely love that picture

the picture he took with my mom that I cannot

find He hero rescued her if you basically the

hero for the the damsel in distress like He basically

held There goes the sodas. Oh, no, basically

held her in his arms and took a picture with

my mother and I'm like, oh my god It was one

of the greatest things ever how dreamy. Yeah,

I was only six at the time Never put a funko

pop on a soda can folks good old. Mr. Owl He's

mr. Owl funko pop is too big for a soda can That's

a box and insert. I'll never get back. Of course.

Mr. Owl is well When I moved from Washington

to Indiana last year. Mr. Owl's box is the only

box that didn't survive the trip and yeah, sadly

I've been trying to find a box and insert for

him and I at this point I might as well just

buy another one. Yeah, I think he's still pretty

yeah, he's still pretty affordable. Yeah, he's

Thanks GameStop Wait, was he a GameStop Exclusive?

No, he was a Funko Shop Exclusive, but then Stop

started carrying him with a GameStop sticker.

Oh, that's what I thought. I figured he was a

Funko Shop Exclusive. And I was looking at it,

and I was like, well, maybe his lollipop is different.

It's like, nope, they're both yellow. It's like,

son of a B. All right. And that's funny, because

I actually am going to post in a chat group.

I'm in on Instagram with this. I haven't done

it yet, I don't think. The reason why I had the

pop sitting on the soda can for, I don't know,

I haven't opened Crash yet. I know it's Chase,

but I haven't opened him yet. He's open. I just

haven't. Anyway, I have the, the soda, the flocked

Chase soda for, for Mr. Owl. And I was looking

at the pop and looking at the soda. Oh, good.

There is a difference. The soda, the pop is a

yellow lollipop and the soda is a red one. So

interesting and plus the soda is flocked. So,

you know a huge difference between plastic and

then furry All right, 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 um, I don't know

if it's more so I think that at least Most Gen

X and Gen Zers and Zenia, whatever you want to

call them, the people that were born in the late

70s to the mid 80s, we were the first generation

of kids who had advertisements on television

targeted directly toward us. I've done a lot

of research on this, and I find it fascinating.

At least our parents' generation, they would

get toys and whatnot. And the reason their toys

were so valuable, especially in the boxes, because

everyone took them out of the box. And that goes

a lot for us as well. But by the time we were

like, you know, Ninja Turtles had run its course,

I guess, so early 90s. Yeah. Like people started

to keep things in boxes because they were looking

for their old toys. And then you have a generation

like all these like toys that are. kept in boxes

from the late 90s that aren't worth anything

because no one cared about them. They had no

connection to them, but it's all about that connection.

It's all about getting those original Masters

of the Universe. It's all about getting the G

.I. Joes that are still on the card because we

opened them up and we played them and we destroyed

them, but a lot of my childhood memories and

the toys that I played and the stuff that I watched,

it was all advertisements. I mean, Transformers

and G .I. Joe. They were made to sell toys to

us like the transformers movie, you know this

the transformers movie was made So they could

kill the old transformers. So you'd buy new ones

So your parents would buy you new ones like that

was what they were made for and We were that

first generation that was they were legally allowed

to advertise directly to children. That's why

our happy meals were better That's why all of

our like all of our toys were were so like that.

So now If you look at the majority of the more

mid -priced range collectibles, your NECAs, your

Super 7s, Mezco even, to a certain degree, and

Mattel's, they're all just repackaging the stuff

that we grew up with in a bigger format. The

G .I. Joes have more forms of articulation, but

they still look like the old G .I. Joes. They

try to redo the artwork and everything. It's

weird. It's really strange when you sit and think

about it. And Funko really tapped into that as

well with just getting your nostalgia. They did

that from the very beginning. I mean, the entire

company was founded because Mike Becker wanted

a big boy bobblehead. And he founded a company

because it was cheaper to do it that way than

to buy one. Yep. Let me think about that for

a second. It was cheaper to make it than to buy

it. And nostalgia is probably the, if it was

a drug, it would be the strongest drug out there

because it tricks you into thinking that, you

know, nostalgia will trick you, whether it's,

you know, memories between other people or just,

you know, how things were better. And they weren't.

We just didn't know any different. If I had the

Internet in the 1980s, I probably wouldn't give

a good gosh darn about a lot of the stuff that

I care about. But because I didn't have it, because,

you know, if I liked a movie, I had to go like.

get magazines at the grocery store or the bookstore

to see what was coming out or read about your

favorite director or read about whatever movie

or even read about what toys are coming out.

Remember Toy Fair magazine? It was a great magazine,

but you had to read about stuff. There was no

Google. There was none of that stuff. I think

that defines it in a way. I'm interested to see

what kids today, like when they get older, what

they're going to gravitate towards from their

past, you know, is it going to be Shopkins or

Roblox or, you know, what is it going to be that

they're going to go back and collect, if anything

at all, does the, does the entire collectible

industry die? Like in when, when our generation

gets in their seventies, like who is that? What's

going to happen? I'm interested to see what that's

what's going to come of that. Yeah, let's hope

not. Let's hope, you know, parents out there

are raising their children right. I recently

tried to go to record store day over the weekend.

Record store day, they sell records. The line

was four blocks long. I would have been in line

for four hours that I waited. He's like, you

got to get here at 5 a .m. and I'm just like,

for that? Like it's cool. I get it I would totally

get swept up into that if you know if that was

my thing and I've waited longer for God, I waited

in line for a bottle of beer once so I get it

like I get it like it's what you're into but

physical stuff physical representations of your

things people are going back to vinyl people

are collecting VHS tapes it's a weird deep dive

into old stuff and I'm I am very curious to see

how it's gonna go, but everyone seems to love

the past and having lived through it I'm just

like, you know, it's a lot of cool stuff now

too. So let's not get let's not get too crazy

Yeah, I mean, I mean vinyl has been making a

comeback several last several years and everything

else, which is great Like it's not a dying form

of of media as it was a while ago And the thing

is, like, you know, you're saying about how,

you know, I wonder what, you know, the kids of

today are going to, like, want to, like, sorry,

kids, your iPad Air version 2023 in 2075 is not

exactly, it's way outdated. You're not getting

updates on that thing anymore. You know? Well,

I mean, look, old iPods, like the original iPods,

those are... People they're collectors for it.

Yeah. No, I know there are I'm just saying like

the whole use case of having children play with

toys Going into the future and today's kids most

of them play on electronics not mm -hmm with

actual Action figures, but hey look people are

collecting squishmallows. So what the hell do

I know? That's true. It's just it's just a squishier

beanie, baby. Let's face it Join the Squishmallows

Squad with Cam, Winston, Fifi and more! With

hundreds to collect, original Squishmallows are

ultra soft, snuggly and squishy! Did you know

every Squishmallows comes with a unique hang

tag? This tells you their name, all about their

personality, and Squish date! With so many styles,

colors, and sizes, every Squishmallows collection

is unique! And all authentic Squishmallows come

with a sewn -in label, so you can look for the

logo and know it's legit! Squish, collect, and

squad up with original Squishmallows! Oh my god...

Hey, maybe that's what they needed to add so

they wouldn't just die off immediately. They

could have been squishy babies. That didn't sound

right. Don't say that. Would you like me to edit

that out? No, leave it. What is your motivation

for purchasing toys to display play fiddle describe

your collecting style? Are you a completionist

storyteller cherry picker or otherwise? I am

a cherry picker, but I'm also a storyteller I

guess as I'm staring at a 27 by 40 poster of

my wall of Christian Slater in cuffs the 1992

masterpiece I have very particular likes And

I like to have things that accentuate that. I

like NES sprites, so I used to do Perler beads.

I still do them. So I have like Perler projects

of different NES characters that are around my

bar. I also have, you know, my Funko Pops that

are here. I guess when I collect, I like to collect

things that are interesting and complement things.

I also like I like collecting furniture. which

you could only have so much room for, but there's

interesting things that I like. I like going

to antique stores. It's one of my other joys

that I have, and seeing what I can find, because

sometimes you just find something that's like...

Like a glass or something that's from like the

night, like milk glass Pyrex. Oh yeah, absolutely.

That's awesome stuff. Stuff that's full of lead.

This weekend, I'm going to something called Pyrex

Fest. It's up in a place called Haber de Grace

in Maryland. And it's a huge festival of Pyrex,

like old Pyrex from the 60s and 70s. And it's

going to be just a huge retro weekend. And I'm

like, I'm already excited. I have like a budget

planned out. I'm like, I want to look for these

couple things, that kind of stuff. I find very

interesting. So I can display it. And it's an

interesting conversation piece. It's not just

a bunch of crap. And I used to have not to say

that it's crap, but I'm just say it's not just

stuff because I used to just have stuff. I'm

like, oh, look, I have all these wrestling figures

on a card in a box that no one can see. Why do

I have them? It's not bringing me any joy. I

guess I should probably sell these and get stuff

that I want to display. And that's just kind

of how I do. You have to want to like it. It

has to be something that meshes with my personality,

something that I like. You know, I'm going to

have if it's a choice between like vinyl figures

or pops of Wayne's World versus something else

that I don't really care for, Wayne's World is

going to win. You know, I'm going to I'm going

to buy a Wayne's World pop before I buy a Groot

because, you know, that's more me. It's something

that I would do. Game on! That's the ones I have

right in front of me, too. It's the Hockey 2

Pack. Okay, tell me, please, because I've been

seeing pictures, and I have an old picture of

the original advertisement that they used for

the Hockey 2 Pack. Was the Hockey 2 Pack a Target

exclusive or not? Yes. Yes, it was. I have been

seeing hockey 2 -packs from Wayne's World recently

where there is no sticker. There's no special

edition. There's no Target. And I'm like, I know

I'm not hallucinating. I know it was a Target

exclusive. It was a Target exclusive. But when

they did it overseas, it may have been a non

-stickered one. I have that with, I have the

Rush 3 -pack. Nice. And I got it at a GameStop.

And that was originally a Fan Expo exclusive

in Canada. But I had... the one at GameStop,

which didn't have a sticker. So I almost let

I I have a I have a couple of friends who were

Canadian. If I talk to them, I'll just slowly

develop their accents. So I'll just be like,

it was down at Fan Expo in Toronto, Toronto,

Toronto. You know, I have friends who are on

Ontario. That's how they, you know, go get a

pop and some ketchup chips. Yeah, it has been

31 years. Yeah. It's been 31 years since I went

over the falls in a barrel. Did you actually

go over in a barrel? That seems dangerous. 1992,

I was 12 years old. My dad had a great aunt or

a great uncle or whatever that lived in St. Catherine.

And we went to Skylon. We went to Panasonic.

At least those are the tower names that I remember.

I don't know what they're called. It's kind of

like The Sears Tower will always be the Sears

Tower. Willis be damned. I don't know who the

hell Willis is other than different strokes,

but Willis be damned. It's always going to be

the Sears Tower to me. So Skylon and Panasonic

Towers in whatever, and they had a whole segment

in front of the falls where you could go get

your picture taken behind a backdrop of you going

over the falls in a barrel. So you didn't actually

know you didn't plunge to your death. No, I'm

still here. I mean, hey, if I can survive brain

surgery in 2019, I'm pretty sure from 32 years

ago, I survived going over the falls. Yeah, I

always love telling that story because sometimes

people think I actually did. And that's the whole

point of me telling the story. Well, I play the

role because I was just like, that's that's deadly.

I think there was a Three Stooges episode where

they did. Oh, yes. I enjoyed my trip to Niagara

Falls. That's one of my favorite trips. Yeah,

Niagara's cool. There's your bonus answer to

a question and ask, my two favorite trips were

Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. Two places

you can fall off of, great. Two places you can

plunge to your death. That's right. But one is

more wet. Yes, at least it will cushion the fall.

Sort of not really you hit water at that velocity

you ain't cushioned in anything. Oh Boy, have

you ever purchased a toy for a child with the

ulterior motive of playing with it yourself?

I bought video games for my kids for the purpose

of me getting to play it as well, but no because

like No, that's not true because like I might

I think years ago I Got one of my kids a remote

control car of some kind I think we wanted to

play with that because I liked I always liked

remote control cars The best do you remember

back in the the 80s? They had the the ones that

had the claws inside of the wheel. Yeah, you

know what there I forget what they were called,

but they were If those those were probably I

have I still have it car with what is it with

claws that's that's a That's gonna bring up all

kinds of different things that's it that's a

GI Joe thing. Oh, I think there I think it was

called the claw That or the animal it was the

animal But yeah, that was the thing and the claws

would come out of that. Um, so yeah, that's That's

probably the one thing I did and maybe the first

Legos they ever got But they've moved on to that

since then. So now I have to buy their own video

game if they want it. So we're getting ready

for Zelda. So I have two copies reserved. So

that's $140. Holy moly. For two copies. Huh.

I'm looking at this and I don't. I'm looking

at several versions of it. I do not. Like I had

a lot of RC cars as a kid, but I do not remember

this one. You don't remember the animal? I'm

looking at a red version of it with yellow claws

in the front of the tire. It's yeah It would

drive and then if it came toward a rock or something

in its place the claws would come out Yeah, climb

over it. Yeah, I'm looking at the camera The

commercials always made it seem a lot cooler.

Like there was a commercial for something called

um, oh What the heck was it? It was like a game

where you could you were like shooting like metal

balls at each other Oh, I can't remember the

name of that my goodness, this is a tarot I'm

like tired. So like I keep losing it. No, it's

not your fault. I just didn't sleep well It'll

come to me it'll come to me in the middle of

another and thing so we could just we'll move

ahead Boy have you ever purchased a vintage toy

for a child because you thought it would be fun

based on your own preferences Yes, and they didn't

care about it Yeah, I was just like oh it was

usually board games it was like oh, let's play

this and they just Didn't give a rat's But about

that at all. They didn't care. They didn't care

about at all Oh, by the way, I remember the name

of it. It's called Crossfire. Oh. And like, yeah,

it made the game look a lot cooler because they're

like, Crossfire! Like, it was insane. I remember

that now. The game was not as fun. Soon as you

went into super rock voice mode, I'm like, yep,

I remember that advertisement now. Didn't even

buy the damn game because, nope. It's but so

it's really weird with kids nowadays at least

with my kids like I growing up I was really into

movies I was really into like all kinds of stuff

my kids couldn't give To two crafts about movies.

They don't care. So like I'm just like hey you

want to watch this movie with me? Like you want

to watch this movie that I know this is good

They won't what they won't watch it. I got him

to watch the Jurassic Park movies only because

we had to watch those awful new ones My son like

Jumanji, but like they just don't I don't know

they have a different relationship with with

music and movies and all kinds of stuff So anytime

I would buy them something that I've remembered

liking as a kid, even if it was a toy form They

just really didn't for the most part care Yeah,

except if it was like a powerboat like you put

in the pool like they like that kind of stuff

Yeah, very cool. Yeah, you know, you mentioned

Jumanji and that book. I grew up on the book

and then you have the man, the myth, the legend

show up as Alan Parrish in 1995. And I know there

is because I have the the regular one where it's

just him. I don't have the chase with him and

the knife, but it's it's Alan, the Alan Parrish

pop. And I'm just thinking, you know, Funko 2025

isn't that far away. We could do a 30th anniversary

movie moment where and this would be amazing

to me. 30th anniversary movie moment. They're

in the car. They're at the crossing. They're

at the they're at the traffic light with this.

and the animals come by but the only animal that's

in it is the baby rhino that's struggling to

get yes that would be great be amazing movie

moment come on funko do your job do your job

that's right do you do any toy modifications

or customs painting building building dioramas

that kind of stuff No, cuz I'm not good at it.

I tried before they used to have custom contests

at Funko fun days. I entered two of them by making

a diorama and trying to paint them, but I don't

have that's not in my skill wheelhouse. I built

a I built a bowling sign and it's a it was okay.

It was just okay And then I did a tiki one and

it was just okay it wasn't because you know you

get blown away by people with like really incredible

talent and You just you feel like you've made

a piece of dung in comparison Someone's like

oh, that's neat here. I baked this and I did

this and that and I'm like, wow I just used spray

paint and some tape and yeah yours is better

than mine. Oh Boy, but I bet they I bet they

I bet they couldn't edit down the Pick up the

pieces to 30 seconds like I could though. So

there you go. I got him there You know, we all

have varying skills and everything else Do you

think toy companies should specifically have

adult collector toys child toys or find a way

to mix both? I think if you're going to be successful

as a toy company, you need to appeal to all audiences.

I think that's, again, where Funko kind of found

its niche. But I think that, you know, the the

toys that are intended for like kids are too

babyish almost. And they're meant to be like

thrown around and destroyed instead of. I mean,

they had those when we were younger, because

there was like the Fisher Price phone and like

stuff like that. Yeah. but now like it just seems

like the toys that are made for like kids that

are under six are like really babyish looking

and look like they could break in two seconds

and then they get into the adult toys and then

they're just like not as good either but i think

that i think there could be a nice middle range

where you could have like gi joe's for example

they were good for me when i was like six and

seven and eight and nine and 43. They're perfect

for that kind of thing. But yeah, I think you

need to have both. I think you need to have some

for you need an adult collector mindset and you

can see some of like, you know, like you're you're

with NECA does with Mezco does super seven Funko,

they have stuff that's geared toward more expensive

adult stuff. And then you have like, you know,

the regular stuff that's that can anyone is it's

accessible to anybody. So I think you can find

both. Like parents today, if you want your child

to have a false hope of growing up to be a superstar

basketball player, go buy every Funko Gold figure,

but leave my pops and sodas alone. I don't think

anyone's buying those. No, that's the point.

I got you. Like I told this story on the show.

I repeat myself a lot. and it's just the way

I am. But I was in Walmart a couple of years

ago, and most Walmarts, unless they have attentive

people in the electronics department, most of

them don't care. Or they don't pay attention

to it, or they don't know what they have in stock,

or they don't know what's in the back, if there's

anything in the back. And I was walking up to

the Flinko Pop section, I saw a mother, father,

and two children. That her brother and sister

they were the kids were probably somewhere between

seven and eight Okay, I'm gonna walk away for

a little while and let them and I'll look over

the pops or whatever else. I come back like 10

minutes later and they're still there. And I'm

just kind of like stepping off to the back and

to the left, the side of them. So I'm not infringing

on their space. And I'm just mumbling to myself,

get away from my Funko pops, get away from my

Funko. It's mine, go away. And I probably didn't

even buy anything that day. I just wanted to

be able to see what they had. And of course it's

Walmart. They barely have anything half the time,

but it is what it is. Alright, hard question.

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 done with toys altogether and have you

ever considered stopping as a collector or even

selling the whole collection? I've had fantasies

about selling it all, but I would miss some things

too much about it. I'll go through everything

once a year and remove things that Don't spark

joy as the that saying was just like stuff. I'm

just like, I'm not that attached. That's why

I got rid of all the Game of Thrones. Yeah. Game

of Thrones stuff. All the Disney, all the Marvel.

I was just like, it's not most of my Star Wars.

I'm just like, it's not I don't care about all

this stuff. Like it's not part of me. Like if

I show it off, I'm just like, oh, here's the

stuff that I spent months complaining about.

Whatever. I don't need Rey Skywalker anymore.

I'm fine. I'm good with just one physical representation.

I don't need 20 Reys. I don't need 80 Groots.

Just one. I'll have one Star -Lord, one Groot.

No, I'm probably never going to stop. If anything,

I'll just have a couple things here and there.

Pieces that mean something to me, pieces that

were handed to me, gifted to me from Funko themselves.

I have a one -of -one color reject Boba Fett

holiday wobbler. that was actually the reject

was signed on the bottom by someone at LucasArts.

It was like a reject. It's a one of one. And

it was one of those things where Brian was doing

something. He's just like, I have this one of

one color reject Boba Fett holiday. And Jason,

this is for you. I was like, oh, really? I'm

like, holy mack. This is awesome. Thank you.

So there's stuff like that that I'll just keep

with me and then once I depart this mortal coil,

that'll be someone else's problem, I don't care.

Or I'll wind up just giving it to somebody, because

I've done that too. I've given away things that

were way valuable, just given them away because

I know someone wanted it more than I did. So

it's like, you know, I've gotten enough. I've

gotten a lot of good stuff, just, you know. by

chance. So I'll put it back out there. I'll put

the karma back out there. And that's the whole

point of collecting, in my opinion, is helping

others. And eventually that'll come back to help

you too. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I don't

even need one Moray figure, let alone a billion

of them. My personal opinion, Finn got screwed.

I don't need any more Fins. Like one Finn. I

had the one with the bloody head. That's a good

one. Wow. That's crazy. What is something that

does not have a toy of it you'd love to have

in toy form? Space balls. But it doesn't matter

what kind either. Space balls. I'd buy any space

ball stuff in a second. They had all the merchandising.

How do they not have any toys? He made a deal

with George Lucas. Oh, I'm sure. In order to

get the To use like the models that they did

and the the way they shot it He agreed to never

do any merchandise like a handshake agreement

and he's he wants to stick to it So I imagine,

you know, well Mel Brooks is 96 Mm -hmm Yeah,

he's 96 gonna be 97 this year He's actually gonna

be I think it's birthdays tomorrow actually,

so he'll be 97 tomorrow a few months from now,

but it'll be April 26th. Yeah, I believe that's

his birthday. So he'll be 97 and You know, he's

still kicking and I really wish that you know

There would be spit cuz baseballs pops that'd

be amazing And of course, there's you know, three

stooges if they made Funko stuff of them or more

stuff than the three stooges Those are like a

dick Tracy like those are things that Funko needs

to make but I think in general space balls or

More John Candy stuff in general I'll take any

John Candy stuff, won't they? I don't want to

have to print a retraction on this, so I just

put in Mel Brooks into Google. I'm sorry. We're

wrong, folks. June 28th, 1926. June 28th. He

is still 96 years old. Unless this gets really

delayed. Yeah, no. This is coming out May 10th.

2017 something like yeah, we're like a month

out from his 90 whatever birthday. Well, I was

close It was 20 something at just the wrong month.

Yeah And you know, you'd think that that handshake

deal would go out the window now that Lucas has

no rights anymore Right, but he's uh, no old

school. I completely understand that and I and

that's fine. I'm just saying In order to make

your dream come true that handshake gonna have

to go out the window But I tell you they did

there was a custom artist who did a a barf like

a custom did ten of them Wow, that's so cool

barf and they went for they were I was like I'm

really interested in this but they were like

I think fifteen hundred dollars each Yeah, and

that's you know, I've I have an appetite for

things but I'm not You ain't that hungry. I'm

just a local celebrity. I'm not that kind. I

don't I don't have the money for that. You're

hungry, but you're not lobster thermidor hungry.

Right, right, right. I'm like, OK, that's cool

and all. But good luck to the 10 people who got

them. That's awesome. It was really great. I

mean, the detail and the articulation on it was

amazing. Yeah, so those are cool. Very cool.

Very cool. What is a toy you'd love to have scaled

up and functional for the real world? We just

talked about I would love I would love the Kit

I think that would be freaking awesome. I would

like kit and I would probably like Megatron in

gun for like if if I was into If I was into guns

and stuff like that, I would probably get like

a custom Megatron gun or a zapper den. Like,

I think those would be super cool, but I don't

want him to transform into a giant evil robot

to destroy it. Yeah, that would not be good.

But I think that would be really cool. And then,

of course, the the dreadnoughts thing we talked

about, I would drive around in that as like my

regular car. Easiest way to go four -wheeling

an off -roading. That's right And then be able

to hunt down stuff in front of you with the the

gun turrets in there. Oh Boy Wow, all right.

Well who knew there was a dark side folks there

is You know, I want the thunder but who's that?

Oh, that's Jason. He's just driving his thunder

machine to work again Now get out there, I was

going on. Wow. How have your spouses, significant

others, mates, partners, et cetera, et cetera,

et cetera, dealt with your collection? How have

they? Yes. Well, it's sometimes a point of contention.

But once I started, once the value of Funko Pops

went up to a certain amount, it softened a lot.

I've basically been collecting Funko since I

met my wife. We'll be together 20 through 22

years this year in June. And I had my first Funko

piece by the time we had already met. So she's

been around with it. She was there on the very

first trip out to Vegas in 2003. So she's been

around it long enough. She knows it's just...

It's just that's just how it is. So she's she's

very supportive We're getting we did a we're

getting ready to do fanatics day out in a couple

weeks here and You know, she's like do you need

help with anything? You know, we have something

else to do that day, but I'm just like now I'll

be fine. Thank you, but they you know, she'll

help me out. She'll uh, so it's very supportive

They're all very supportive of me. Very cool.

Very cool. So your anniversary is coming up in

June That's our yeah when we first went on a

date Well, happy pre -anniversary and it's not

June 28th Thank you very much 20 22 years in

October October will be married for 17 years

so oh well, very cool. Very cool. Happy anniversary.

That's awesome. Thank you. Yeah, I again folks

I know I It's back to the repetition, but he's

never heard this story before So when I met my

late wife because sadly Karen passed away two

years ago Very sorry to hear that. Thank you

When you know at the time in 2017, you know,

it's 2017 how do people meet at all anymore?

It's not in a bar and they meet online So we

met on whatever we ended up meeting in person

and we ended up between the time we started talking

online, August 6th of 2017 to the time we met

in person, September 8th of 2017. We had talked

like thousands of hours. Like there was, I remember

what the first weekend, the only time we were

not on the phone with each other is if we were

in the bathroom or taking a shower or sleep.

Like we were on the phone with each other for,

I want to say maybe 52 of the 72 hours. And we

were just talking about anything and everything

and and all this and all that and you know When

we met in person one of the things we bonded

over was real estate I've been watching HGTV

since I don't know when whatever else and I'm

not a real estate person at all But I like just

looking at the homes and wherever else so and

she did too and we went on this house tour in

Louisville Kentucky at the time she was living

in Chicago I was in Louisville and I was like,

well, you know, if your company wants to transfer

you here, blah, blah, blah. And then we go see

this house and we see the, it was one of the,

it was a split level home. So upstairs, all the

stuff, basement, all the stuff, finished basement

with also a separate side that was unfinished.

That was all the utility or whatever else. So

we found a place for her in the house. We found

it. I'm like, Ooh, I can do all the podcasting

stuff down here in the basement. As we go to

turn to go back upstairs to leave, I just turned

to her in front of the fireplace and I said,

well, I know what I'm doing for the next 50 years

of my life. She looks at me and says, what? I

said, well, we've talked so much. We've covered

every minutia of our lives at the time. She was

76, 80. She's four years older than me. She was.

I'm like, do you want to spend your life with

anyone else? Because I don't. She's like, oh,

OK. So the joke always was with us was, oh, well,

we're going to spend the next 50 years of our

lives together. Sadly, her liver and kidney failed

in 2021, and she passed. So we got four and a

half years. But I bet those were the best four

and a half years you could think of. They're

the only four and a half years that currently

matter to me at this point like I love everything

else I've done in my lifetime for the most part

except for some of the bad stuff that has happened

to me and that's a whole other podcast, but like

Yeah, like I'm still in the whole mindset of

and I and I can It's two years since she passed

at this point this coming November But I can

kind of still I can kind of joke about it now

where it's like when she passed I'm like crap

you owe me 46 years at the time in 2021, but

it is what it is. Well, thank you for sharing

that with me. It's a really nice, I mean, it's

unfortunate, it's sad, but at the same time,

you realize what you have, so that's good. It's

just one of those things where I put it, I said,

look, when we first started talking on the dating

website we were on, I said, look, Let's put it

all out there. Cards on the table. What do you

want? What do I want? Is it something we can,

you know, do you have feelings? You know, it

kind of wasn't, it kind of wasn't the old, you

know, 80s and 90s thing. If you like me, check

here. Yes, sir. You know, all that retro stuff

back then. But we went into it knowing what we

were like. We got married four months after we

met. We were that, you know, we were that you

know together we were that whatever and yeah

there's a 90 10 or a 70 30 or whatever there's

always give and take in a relationship there

always will be you're never ever going to always

be 50 50 but at least we were always getting

through it together that was the point no matter

what we ended up facing you know so all right

uh emotional time with tf2 and mike is now over

ladies and gentlemen let's get questions we're

almost done i promise the This process should

not be this painless or painful or whatever.

Oh, it's been painless. Very cool. Very cool.

Toy collecting can have its struggles. What is

one aspect you tend to struggle with the most?

FOMO. Really? I do. I still get this. I get that

itch on occasion where I'm just like if I don't

have this now, I'm going to I'm going to explode.

I'm going to explode everywhere. Yeah, it'll

still catch you on occasion and but I've got

the mindset It's usually for stuff if I'm there

for it So like if it's like a con exclusive or

something and I just happen to be in the vicinity

and I can't get it and I'm just like But I've

gotten to the point where I've trained myself

to just be like it's okay At least when it comes

to Funko. I'm just like it's alright It'll show

up in a collection soon if I don't get it if

something happens to sell out It'll show up in

the warehouse in about three to four months like

I know I know it's on its way But there are like

other things if I miss out on something and I

get really I'll hunt it down and it all goes

back to When I was a kid and it was the second

storm shadow came out when he was a GI Joe Yeah,

and he had like the camouflage Guy and everything

that I hunted for for like six months or more

and like I'm calling Toys R Us like every week

and just like bothering everybody like I'm but

I finally got it I finally tracked one down and

That was a good feeling and unfortunately I chase

after that sometimes If I get it in my head I'm

just like oh wait this thing went out of print

like if it's a DVD or blu -ray like oh this went

out of print oh no I got to find it now oh I

didn't know this existed till just now but I

won't give up but I will sometimes I get a little

obsessed about finding stuff until I finally

get it and then I'm just like all right what's

next yeah what's the next thing I can acquire

Yeah, absolutely What is one positive and or

one negative memory you have with buying toys?

Well, the positive is the one I just told you

about us right shadow, you know hunting the thrill

of the hunt and then finally catching it The

negative side of it. I think that has to go with

wasted money over stuff that I no longer collect

for example chasing after chases for McFarland

sports picks. Oh, wow. For example, like I wasted

a lot. I got good negotiating skills out of it

and like sort of I knew when to hunt for things.

But after a while, I just I started seeing the

same people and I didn't like them. They were

just trying to hunt after all the chase pieces

and, you know, flip them. And I just wanted them

to collect them. And then they wound up all not

really being worth much in the end. So. It was

like I was a bunch of wasted time and money.

I could have done other things but you know Absolutely,

absolutely if you could create any toy, what

would you want to create? Basically funko gives

you the keys to the kingdom. No budget is too

high Etc. Etc. What are you gonna make? God well,

they sometimes they use my ideas. So I Careful

on what I would say ALF, ALF, alien life form.

I'll tell you one better. The running thing has

been that I take responsibility for 8 -bit pops.

I forget what they were, they got the license.

I was waiting for them to come out with the NES

color Jason and Freddy, like from the video game

in the pop form. And I'm just like, are you missing

out? I said, you could do all the foot soldiers

and Ninja Turtles. You could do all this stuff.

And Brian goes, can you email that to me? So

I emailed the list. And then at New York Comic

Con that year was the introduction of the 8 -bit

pops of all the Ninja Turtles in the arcade colors

and everything. And I was like, I did it. I made

8 -bit pops. and then no one liked them and I

was upset. But I like to tell everyone, I'm like,

that was my deal. I don't know, if I had my own

toy company, I would make a lot of just really,

I like a lot of the old rat -fink type of stuff

like that. I forget what you would call that

sort of artwork, but the demon looking stuff.

you know, wrenches, like a lot of the old spastic

plastics looked like that, and a lot of the Ed

Roth, just like cool retro stuff that, you know,

piques my interest and that I like, like stuff

from the 60s and everything, like that cool era

of stuff. That's what I would gear toward. Yeah,

I think that's what I would, if they, I would

have my own like line of that. I would do more

like Ed Roth stuff. I can't remember what you

would call it exactly, but it would be just cool.

I think it would be cool looking. I like that.

Very cool. Very cool. What is the one piece of

advice you would give the toy collecting fandom

in general? Have fun. Enjoy what you collect.

I know I just said I struggle with FOMO on occasion,

but I would say have patience because some of

my favorite pieces that I have, it took, you

know... One of them took 12 years, another one

took 18. There's some that are gonna be a 20

-year search to get, but then you'll eventually

get it all. You just gotta be patient, but you

gotta enjoy it. I see so many people that, and

yeah, there's some things that come out that

if Funko does something, and I'm just like, eh,

it's not my favorite, but whatever. I would like

them to occasionally release more stuff that

I get really, really excited over, but some people

just complain about everything. Oh, that's lazy.

That's a lazy mode. Oh, that looks stupid. That's

terrible. And it's like Do you collect this stuff

or do you just complain? Oh, they made too many.

Oh, they didn't make enough Why is this all the

flipper all that it's like just enjoy what you

collect and be happy Just be happy with it. That's

my advice and take your time You'll get there.

Yeah a friend of mine who does YouTube, Slapshot

Pops. I know him. Yeah, John and Joanna. Love

those two. He has a t -shirt. Bro, do you even

collect? It's a black t -shirt with white text.

And so for those that don't know Slapshot Pops,

they just, because this is coming out after they

did this, they just did their May the 4th and

Revenge of the 5th, our charity auctions and

all that stuff. And I took that image and I took

another image, images that I've taken of other

stuff, but I took that screen cap of him in that

shirt. I took an image of the pucks. Cause if

you subscribe to their Patreon at the $10 level,

you get a foam puck every month that is from

them with their logo or they do various versions

of their pucks. I took a picture of all the pucks

I have. I took two pictures of those, and then

I took a picture of myself. So it's in a four

square collage. It's him on the top left, puck

on the top right, puck on the bottom left, and

then me on the bottom right, where I actually

had to type this in through text. It was not

on my shirt. I'm like, of course I collect. Because

it's him asking the question, me showing all

the pucks, and then it's me saying, of course

I collect. So yeah. Love them. Yeah, that's that's

I like that saying though. I think I'm gonna

I might steal that Sorry John I'm just gonna

start telling people that you'd collect bro.

Yeah, exactly Alright folks, that's gonna do

it for us. We're gonna go to one final ad break

You're here some stuff and other things and all

that good stuff and we'll come back to we're

actually gonna come back We're gonna talk about

Jason and seven books of pop calm and then we'll

close the show out right after this Party of

the summer, folks! Let's go out with a bang!

Hey everybody, it's Jason with Seven Bucks a

Pop in Mystery Grill. In case you didn't know,

Seven Bucks a 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 Mystery Grill .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 sevenbucksapop .com and mysterygrail

.com. Plus on social media on Facebook, Instagram,

Twitter, and YouTube. That's sevenbucksapop .com.

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,

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by Amanda, Kevin, Matt, and Dan. Each week we

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film by film. Bottom line is, if you love movies

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which airs live on HudsonRiverRadio .com every

Wednesday evening at 8 .30 PM 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 of them 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. Hey, it's

Wes from Popping Off Toys. Wanted to let you

know about PoppingOffToys .com. We can be your

number one source for funko collectible figures

to add to your ever -growing collection. If you're

in Nashville, Tennessee, we actually have a retail

store that you can come by. 5916 Charlotte Pike.

And for the rest of us, PoppingOffToys .com is

always open, and you can check us out on Facebook.

Twitter, Instagram, and even TikTok. And the

name is just simply poppin' off toys. Thank you

so much, and always keep it poppin'. 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

coulda got the point across with sound effects.

Not the real thing. 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

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right, we are back and it is time to Have Jason

promote himself and promote all the stuff he

does. I I have to say because seven bucks a pop

calm I So initially when I started buying pops

of six years ago, I sadly was not putting them

in vectors I know that is oh my god, it's so

horrible But as soon as I started having to dust

the top of the boxes, I'm like, okay, I need

protectors. I know I didn't want to dust the

protectors, but recently, I've only made one

order so far, but I plan on making more, because

at some point, I want to transition out of all

of the pop shield soft protectors into the armors,

because the armors are the best. Magnetic lid

and all that good stuff. But I have a single

like I said, I have Grimlock convention Grimlock

here with the soft shield protector How did you

guys like these are like super premium? How did

you guys come up with the soft shields? so that

was all Lee's doing Lee buyers who owns and Owned

seven bucks a pop in mystery grail. He he just

again. It was one of those things he saw a need

for it in the market and It's I mean we're we're

one of the top suppliers of pop shields. And

once we did armors and you get that for our price

point, you're not going to find a better protection

for your high end grails or for your lower end.

It doesn't matter. Anything can go in there.

And it's a good quality product. And when we

take them to shows and it's one of those things

where you're just like, well, I'm not going to

spend $15 for. you know something to put this

in but then you like go no here you put it in

their hands and like you know do the magnetic

click on the lid and they're just like huh no

that's great uh yeah i'll take two you know it's

it's just one of those things like once you actually

see it there's just no question it's it's one

of the the cooler ones but yeah i mean he's we've

been doing that that's a huge part of our business

and of course the buying and selling of uh funko

pop collections giving them another life in someone

else's collection It's one of the things that

we do, and we're one of the top buyers and sellers

of collections, and a lot of those also go into

Mystery Grill, mysterygrill .com. We do boxes

twice a week. We have a couple big ones coming

up for Star Wars Day, which may or may not have

been passed by the time this comes out, but...

Okay, since I know and I've said multiple times

in the last two hours, I've said this episode

is coming out past Star Wars Day. Normally, I

don't do this. Normally, when I do do this, if

I interview a voice actor, perfect story. Again,

people listening to the sound of my voice, fast

forward a few minutes, you've heard this before.

I think it was 2011, whenever Arkham City was

about to come out. I can only beg your forgiveness.

So back in 2011 when Arkham City was coming out,

was the first time and the only time sadly, I

wish we could get him back, we got Maurice LaMarche

for an interview. And this is over on our Tune

podcast called Tunecast. And one of the questions

we ask all voice actors is what type of voice

acting is your favorite type. There's anime dubbing,

there's actual voiceover animation like Transformers,

G .I. Joe, whatever, and then there's video games,

there's commercials, there's narration, whatever.

He said, oh, the funny thing about video games

is it's just you in a room for X number of hours,

screaming lines, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, And I'm like,

okay. He goes, yeah, I played Mr. Freeze. And

I'm like, okay, can you give us a sample of the

voice? He said, I'm pretty sure I've already

said too much and no, I can't do a sample of

the voice. We actually broke the news. Nobody

knew at that point. Everybody knew Kevin Conroy

was coming back. May the man rest in peace at

this point. But everybody knew Kevin was coming

back as Batman. Nobody knew who was going to

do Freeze. We broke the news. Some unknown site

picked it up. IGN picked us up. And then once

IGN picks you up, there's no stopping that train.

all day and I even asked him and I asked people

at the end of every episode I record now to this

day because of this. We asked him at the end

of that interview, is there anything you would

like us to edit out or not have in the final

product? He said, no, no, I'm pretty good, pretty

good. I edited that episode so fast, got it online.

My mom and I at the time went out grocery shopping.

We're in the middle of Kroger and my buddy, Steve

Megatron, who is the co -creator of the GeekCast

Radio Network with me, Starts messaging me and

saying what did you do? Why are we getting blown

up? What is going on with Batman Arkham City?

Mr. Freeze Maurice? Well, what is going like?

Oh, I'm out grocery shopping. I don't know. I

put the interview go online I don't know what

you want me to tell you. I don't know They picked

up the news it went viral. So as I'm and keep

in mind back in 2011 I wasn't super into the

smart like I just getting out of the iPhone market

because I am not Too much of an ecosystem for

me It just is So I'm trying to message people

and I'm trying to message his management I'm

trying to message him and I'm like, oh my god.

Do you want me to edit this? Do you want me to

take this out? Oh my god He eventually like seven

hours later replied to me on Facebook saying

well, it's already out there. Nothing we can

do about it now ever since then I ask at the

end of every episode, is there anything you've

said in the last x number of times? And even

now, what I will do is when I get this edited

before I even publish it, I will send you a copy

and say, listen to this. If there's anything

you want me to remove, give me timestamps, and

I will remove it, just in case, because oh my

god. Well, then it won't matter, because at this

point. Exactly. If this comes out. Finally. after

and it doesn't matter and you can tell us all

the stuff that seven bucks a pop had right you're

gonna be like well this mystery girl that came

out the head of Hall H Ahsoka is the top hit

that's amazing but yeah we have a Hall H Ahsoka

that's gonna be in the top hit for Star Wars

day so nice yeah and it's a it's a real one I

know where it came from so yeah sometimes people

sadly like to do stupid things and try to fake

them no I We that's another thing. It's like

a lot of what we do a lot our customers can trust

us that we're oh no, absolutely No, no, but I'm

just saying we you could trust us that we're

sourcing it out We're have a bunch of eyes on

it and especially with a high A piece like that

which has so many eyes on it I mean we we've

had three of them in our possession now and it's

yeah, and I know where they came from and I'm

sworn to silence so no But they're they're all

legit and it's it's it's really cool and we're

really excited to see how you know at this point

yeah how it's gonna show up and like how the

the reaction is gonna be for it because we're

gonna make a really big deal out of it so that's

the good thing with our mystery grail so and

you'll be able to catch us this summer if you

want to come say hi to me come say hi to us at

San Diego Comic Con in New York Comic Con And

those are definitely going to be out after this

air so yes, obviously No, we don't want to spoil

San Diego mystery grail But yeah, so if anyone

wants to find us online at seven bucks a pop

calm. It's mystery grail calm We have all kinds

of great stuff. We're on YouTube Instagram Twitter

And Facebook, that's the other one, Facebook.

But you could find us on there and come say hi

to us online. I put out videos almost every single

week for our new signature series that comes

out and we get authenticated signatures. This

week we have Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, which,

you know, he passed. We just had a Chris Evans

one last week. There were some people who were

complaining about the price saying it was too

expensive, but then it sold out in 70 seconds

So okay. So since you're here and I you know,

if I'm overstepping again, I will edit out whatever

What went into the Chris Evans drop and why was

it that price? Because there is a lot of times

like there's I mean, there's no secret. There's

bulk pricing for some people There was no bulk

pricing. So it was we had to source out all the

pops. And since there's some top hits in there

that are a little bit more expensive, you have

to account for those. But it took a lot to organize

that signing when we were in Chicago, especially

for getting as many pieces as we got done. So

I mean, it just went into that. And what we try

to do is we try to price it in such a way that

it's close to what market value would be. Because

if we so if we went out there and we sold them

for, let's just say, I don't know, $300 each,

right? So if they're $300, everybody's gonna

scalp them and then flip them for a much higher

rate. So we can't do that. Plus, we don't make

any money off of it, and a business has to make

some money off of it. That's just, that's kinda

how businesses work. But I mean, it's not like

we were charging like $600 for it. I mean, we

charged what we thought was reasonable. for who

he was. Yeah. I mean, you could see it sold out

in 70 seconds. But that's a lot of our pricing

goes into it like that. It's you know, we value

we factor in what it takes to get it prepped,

what it takes, the actual cost of the actual

signing event and the time that's spent going

into it. It's not like we were, we went to Chicago

and just waited in line for six hours and just

like, hi Chris Evans, here's, you know, 200 items

or something. Well, yeah, obviously you, again,

you have to go through his management or him

or his, you know, whatever. And you know, it's,

it's a whole, I don't want to say brand deal

because he's a person on a brand, but it's one

of those. celebrity deals that you have to make

the deal and that's just the way business works

and whatever else. Yeah I looked at that and

I was like oh that would be so so cool but it's

so far out of my price range and I'm okay. Yeah

and look we did Johnny Depp and the last Johnny

Depp we did was almost $500 because his price

went up. That's and every time we put it out

there it would sell. So I mean we could have

and we don't want to we want to give our customers

an opportunity to get something With it's within

reach and then you think about it went to Chicago

Let's just say you went to you paid two hundred

and fifty dollars for his autograph, right for

that time slot at C2e2 You paid that money there.

You have to get to Chicago. You have to wait

in line You have to get a con ticket. You have

to get lodging more than likely and you have

to spend your entire day there That is like yeah,

you spent 250 for the autograph, but you spent

a lot more to get there and to wait there. That's

how I look at it. I would love a Harrison Ford

autograph. I wasn't going to spend $1 ,200 on

it. That's just me personally. But if someone

else got it and was just like, I'm selling this

$1 ,200 autograph for $1 ,700, I wouldn't sit

there and just go, whoa. You know, what are you

doing guy? It's someone put that it's it's just

how it is and you know I I think honestly because

I thought we were gonna charge more for it I

think 395 was a very reasonable price for An

a list superstar. I mean yeah, he a list who

didn't need who doesn't need to sign Yeah, so

so what was it like hanging out with America's

ass? I didn't get to meet him. Oh really? You

did all this stuff and you didn't even get to

meet the guy? I didn't get to meet him, but I

did get to hang out with John Glover who was

the voice of the Riddler for a few episodes on

Batman and a fellow Maryland native and that

was a lot of fun. It was great. We had a mini

Naruto reunion too in our booth. All the voice

actors were there. They pose for pictures in

front of our booth. Yeah, but it was cool. I

have a cool job. I never thought I would have

a cool job, but here I am. I have a cool job,

and it's like, what's your job? It's like, well,

I'm me most of the time. I go to a convention,

and they have the list of everyone's responsibilities,

and under mine, it's Jason. Responsibility is

Jason. You get to do your thing that you have

to do. I'm like perfect. I love that I'm gonna

go eat a hot dog That is so cool. Yeah, but it's

you know, it's it's a it's a crazy journey and

I'm I'm grateful that a Weird bobblehead purchase

at a Spencer's on a lunch break at the mall began

all of this stuff has got me to where I am here

and you know, I I can I could count my blessings,

that's all. It's great. Mike Becker is a friend

of mine. It's like a legitimate friend. I could

call him up and just like, hey man, how you doing?

Stuff like that. I don't know. It's crazy. It's

just crazy. That's awesome though. That is so

cool. Now that I'm thinking about it, since we

talked about Chris Evans, I'm like, okay, Funko.

I know this is going to be probably just me that

wants this, but he did his directorial debut

in 2014 with a film called Before We Go with

him and Alice Eve. I want him and her as pops

from that movie. That would be awesome. Can you

imagine what was his name? Oh God, what was his?

Nick, Nick something whatever. He was a trumpet

player. Can you imagine a people pop Chris Evans

trumpet player funko pop from that? Oh, I want

that. So, okay. Alpha is number one on my list.

Chris Evans is number two. What about something

from not another teen movie? Well, we have a

Lucas Lee from Scott Pilgrim. So there you go.

And I'll tell you something. That's the one I

got signed. So I did get it signed. The only

Lucas Lee in the set that we handed him, that

was mine. Oh, wow. Very cool. I want the prototypes

I could put in the box because I have all my

Scott Pilgrims out of box. So it's going to be

silly looking or I have to get another Lucas

Lee to go in box or out of box rather. So yeah,

it's so weird. Yes, as Funco Collectors folks,

most of the time we are keeping them all in the

box. Most of the time we are either putting them

in pop shield armors from 7bucksapop .com or

pop shield protectors, two, three, four, five

pack protectors, et cetera. But then there are

times where you have to actually open the things

out of box to take a photo. So I had to take

a photo for our top 100 toys countdown. So that's

the eighth countdown we're going to be doing.

This year. We're actually just finished the toy

guide today as far as like what people are gonna

see in the email that we send out about how the

toy guide is whatever else and I'm like Steve

the only thing that's not in the action figure

section is anything about Funko like that Like

we have a section for action figures. We have

a section for dolls. We have a section for Bases

and balls. We have a section for board games.

We have a section for electronics. We have a

section for everything and I'm like there is

no funko representation here at all I said look

right I this was like 6 a .m. today before we

even this is like 14 hours ago I'm like look

if I get it in the right light and if I get it

in the right way and I take this picture will

you just add it to the action figure section

so we can at least have one and he's like yeah

sure fine so I took out Just bought this and

I luckily it's only like worth 22 bucks So I

don't mind and honestly pop towns are better

out of the box than they are in the box They

surprisingly take up less room out of box than

they do inbox So I opened up Wayne Manor with

Alfred oh Nice and then I took I took death of

the family Joker Red Wing Robin 66 batgirl obviously

Alfred came with the Wayne Manor white knight

two -pack Joker and Batman and flying Batman

Beyond and I put them all around Wayne Manor

and I took several shots and I'm like here look

I sent Steve like like a bajillion images this

this morning and I said look okay these are all

the shots I've taken Next message was these are

the three I like. Oh wait No, I've edited the

fixed pictures a little bit like I've cropped

them or whatever else a little bit I've done

a little magic eraser on my Google Pixel 6 Pro

Do some blemish removal and whatever else I'm

like, okay These are the top three pick whichever

one you want and I have a 3d printed funko sign

It's just a small little purple fun It's just

the funko logo as a 3d printed sign and I put

that in front of it And I wish I could have attached

it to the wall, but I didn't have anything to

attach it to the wall So who knows which one

he's gonna pick to put in the toy guide But yes,

we have the top 100 toys countdown coming up

and we collaborate with multiple people, websites,

all kinds of places. We usually get anywhere

from 20 to 40 people. Like all of us at the GeekCast

Radio Network submit our personal lists and then

everybody else in the world that we end up collaborating

with, they all submit lists. So then that eventually

once my buddy Optimus Solo does the math on that,

because math is evil and I refuse. Once he does

all that we end up revealing the top 100 toys

countdown Through it's gonna be this year. It's

gonna be a seven part series one part for the

intro one part for the outro and then parts two

through six are 100 to 81 80 to 61 60 to 41 40

to 21 and let's have 20 so yes Well, I look forward

to that I look forward to hearing about that

Absolutely, absolutely. Anything else you would

like to say before I run through the closing,

sir? No, thank you for having me on here. It

was a nice long talk. I'm sorry. Look, it's fine.

I'm just as guilty as that as you are, I'm sure.

We didn't even really get to touch on Transformers

as much as we should have. It's funny you say

that. Great questions. All about Transformers

takes less time than this does. I have origins

for everything. We have them for Transformers,

Masters of the Universe, cartoons, comics, toys,

podcasting, and something else. Well, let me

ask you one quick question, then. My one question

podcast I'll present to you. Which one was your

favorite Transformer? Oh, hands down. Hot Rod

slash Rodimus Prime, definitely. Until the end

of time. Right in style. That's right. I still

think my favorite my favorite character is always

gonna be Starscream But my favorite transformer

is a shockwave Yeah, that's I mean that yeah,

he was the coolest looking one and sound wave

of course is great but stars Starscream was was

probably one of the funniest characters Of all

time and I have one of his palisades toys busts

of him with the crown when he crowned himself

king. He just terrorizes all of us. Such heroic

nonsense. That's right. Well, that was Megatron.

But still, I love Starscream. He was the coolest.

Well, cool. Thank you for being on my mini podcast.

No, no, that's great. Look, dude. Every time

I have anybody on any of these origins. I'm like,

okay, so you've done toys Do you want to do this

one? Do you want to do that? Like you can come

back any time you want as long my ultimate goal

with any of this stuff that I do Did you have

fun? I did I thank you for having me on here

I didn't know what to expect and you it was it

was everything I could have wanted. So thank

you. There you go All right, folks, that's going

to do it for us. Thank you for joining us here

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

us, leave feedback for the show. There are so

many 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

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Podcasts. Leave us reviews, please. Spotify and

any other podcasting client you choose to use.

Follow us on twitter at geek cast radio for the

network at tf toy cast for the show. I have at

tf to a mike I believe they are at seven bucks

a pop Yes at seven bucks a pop and at mystery

grail and if you want to find me personally i'm

at swoboba fet most overrated character in star

wars But i'm but i'm very under i'm rated where

I should be. I think yes You're awesome. He is

underwhelming I'm sorry. He died in a sorrow.

He the sorrow that killed him Well, according

to the new revisionist history now He's still

here the new revisionist history is blind He's

still here. He's just in a BAFTA tank He loved

baths in that show, didn't he? He's just like

all right I'm going in the BAFTA tech again.

It's just like what are you doing for this next

couple episodes? I just watched the first five

minutes of the first episode. Nope. I'm out Just

put on the Mandalorian. Episode five or episode

eight or whenever Din and Luke returned are probably

the only two episodes I will ever check out of

that show. Become a fan on Facebook, go to facebook

.com slash geocastradio .net where you can also

check out Toycast over there as well as Seven

Books a Pop and is Mystery Girl on Facebook too

I assume? They are, yes. We share the same Twitter

though. Okay, well that's fine. Next time on

Toycast, what is this? This is 177, 178 is a

friend of mine, Teresa. She is the Funko Soda

Queen, ladies and gentlemen, and you'll hear

all about her story next time on the podcast.

For now, I am TF2 and Mike with Jason Swaboda.

Join us next time as we'll be talking more toys

here on Toycast. Merchandising, merchandising.