James and Emily on Origins in Toy Collection

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Jazz here, and

I am so digging the Geekcast Radio Network. Cliffjumper,

commence countdown. Five, four, three, two...

Toy cast. Oh, yes Listen to the only toy podcast

you will ever need We get the origins of any

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

and Mike. What does that stand for? Well, it

it is transformers generation one somebody years

ago and everybody listening son of my voice has

heard this before my lovely guests have not heard

this story one of the listeners What does he

think? Does he think he's like full of himself?

Does he have like a big ego? What does he think?

Is he gonna call himself the fucking great one?

And I'm like, no, that's not what it stands for.

Today's featured guests are James and Emily from

Fun Employed and Random Hat Studio. Hi guys,

how are y 'all? Hello. Hello. If it's any consolation

for as fast as you were talking, I didn't think

you were fully yourself. I thought you were gonna

sell me an amazing used car. Yeah. I was about

to say. Hey, you know, $60 ,000 I could use right

about now. You'll get a diesel lemon, but that's

about it. Oh boy. So yeah, 42 questions all about

toy collecting. But first, where did the names

come from? I'll let her start first. based on

the fact that I've had to come up with probably

a hundred different little micro jobs just to

be able to fund my art. That's why I also have

a rooster on my logo because I even sold chickens

and roosters and eggs just for paint and supplies

to get the art and studio started. So the name

comes from the fact that I've done everything

under the sun to try and get the studio going.

That's where that one comes from. That's awesome.

Because the first thing I thought of was, oh,

I guess she just wears a random hat every day.

I was going to do it on the screen, too, but

I don't even have the budget for all those hats.

Mine involved from a potential layoff I had in

2013, and I actually ran out of characters for

my new username for a game I was playing, so

it was going to be expletive f -word unemployment.

I had to shorten it so I said F you unemployed.

Technically it worked out because I am fun employed

still. But you know that's the darker meaning

behind it. Wow. Depends on how your day is. Are

you having a bad one? F you. I'm unemployed.

If you're having a great day then you're fun

employed. Sometimes there's a dash between the

F and the U and sometimes there's not. Exactly,

and then we got into collecting stuff and I was

like, well, wow, that worked out. I was eight

years ahead of my time. That's always the way

it should work out. I fully believe in future

-proofing everything that you possibly can. I'm

still running on the Google Pixel 6 Pro. Would

I like a new Google phone at some point? Yeah,

sure, but... Don't do it. Not yet. I have one.

Don't do it. What do you have? I know this is

toys, folks, but technically smartphones are

toys, because we can play games on them. So what

do you have? I've got a Pixel 7 XL, and I hate

it. 7 XL? They didn't make an XL. You mean the

FE? Oh, I'm sorry. Well, they called the prone

and they want all the pro. OK, they wanted to

compete with that other unknown fruit company.

And yeah, this one's a lemon. So I'm switching

back for the first time ever since the original

iPhone 18. I'm going back to the dark side. I'm

going back to an apple because this thing's terrible.

The tears. Good lord. Yeah that fruit company.

I mean, I know they made underwear, but who knows

Yeah, I mean fruit loom I'd rather buy a fruit

of loom from but I'll have to go with an apple

Yeah, I two fruit companies that just yikes all

right All right toys it is time. Like I always

say it is time We started talking toys here on

toy cast. So the way this is gonna go folks ladies

first. That's how I always do it when I have

couples on the show. So Emily, you'll give your

answer first. James, you'll give your answer.

What is or was the first toy you remember having

as a kid? Oh, probably a rubber band. Does that

count? You're not that old. Come on now. I'm

that old. You guys aren't that old. I'm not that

old, but I'm that poor when I started. I would

say really, actually OK. I don't even know the

name of it, but do you remember that? little

caterpillar thing that had like, uh, leather

on the bottom and fur on the top. And as you

pet it, it would crawl along the carpet. Yep.

I had little eyes on the top. Well, I had one

of those. They were real. Um, no, not the real

ones, dude. I know you're a child of nature,

so maybe the lines are blurred a little bit.

It wasn't an actual living thing. Cause it was

like green and yellow. or something. I remember,

I know exactly what she's talking about. I don't

know. Yeah. It seemed like such a cool magic,

but it really was simple to an adult brain. It's

not Glow Worm, right? No, no, no. OK, just checking.

It was super basic for us poor folk. It was like

one step above rubbing your sock on the carpet.

But I forget what it was called. I have a vague

recollection of that, but I can't think of the

name. It's Glow Worm, but that was like five

years later. Wow, you were five. Yeah. So anyone

listening to the sound of our voices, if you

know what the Naughty Caterpillar was, let us

know. And so it began. Uh huh. Oh yeah. I throw

the innuendos and don'ts around in this show

like it ain't no thing, like a chicken wing.

So what about you, James? What was your first

toy that you remember having as a kid? Little

people, actually. I got the thinking I got the

thinking about that when she was talking I used

to have this really cool barn set and it was

like a little people It was modular and you could

shove all the people in the cattle inside it

take it with you had a handle on it and Yeah,

I think I think that's as far back as I can go

and then the lines just start getting blurred

as I got all those yeah back when they they actually

may oh you want to go to your friend's house

and you want to bring all your toys with you

here just to have all in one place at barn whatever

it's got a handle on it Bob's your uncle there

you go you can go to your friend's house with

all your toys exactly and then we used it for

other things I don't remember what but we used

to store everything in that sucker so that barn

was a multi multifaceted absolutely Was there

a particular adult who was supportive of you

playing with toys as kids? Was there anyone who

was unsupportive? Well, my family grew up in

a very strict Religious background so they didn't

actually allow us to even do Well, I say my direct

parents didn't allow me to do any of the holidays

or anything like that So my toy answers are gonna

be very skewed My grandma's a bit of a rogue.

She was in the Second World War, and she was

a singer for the Forces Overseas and that kind

of thing. So she couldn't really be tamed. So

she never listened to my parents, and she'd always

find a way to sneak us stuff. So she is probably

at the core of most of my toy stories. She was

very supportive in her own vigilante way. My

parents were not, so you could see the difference.

I would say for mine, My mom for the most part

was pretty supportive within the budget that

we had we we got a lot of toys But finding I

think there's very few toys that I ever got that

were like cutting edge for the time like for

example if the new Transformers came out and

you wanted like Optimus Prime now that wasn't

happening you were getting discount Rodimus when

it came on clearance at Big Wheel Discount price

let me clarify Rodimus is no discount optimist,

but I would say my I've had the blessing of having

at least three parental father figures over the

course of 40 years, so my Stepdad was not so

enthused with toys They were more burdened. So

if anything survived the purge, I'm glad to have

been able to keep those as we got older, but

a lot of them were purged. They were just used

to be threatened with. Yeah. Yeah. So go, yay,

mom. Not so yay, dad. That sucks. And that's

going to come up way later, folks, too. Oh, yeah.

There's a whole question and a whole stuff. See,

if you guys actually listen to a whole episode

of the podcast. This you would know the story

by now now I have to repeat myself again and

again and again anyway Yeah, sure, it's fun for

us. I don't know how fun it is for the audience

for me to bring out my own daddy issues with

toys But yeah, it's yeah, exactly What types

of toys were your favorites to play with? so

like action figures like Play -doh that just

general like the generalization of different

types of toys I would say for me anything that

I could eat that was about to summarize it because

Like again, we grew up like pretty low -income.

So I think anything that was food related was

super exciting So things like the easy bake oven

that I dreamed about for probably like five years

Until you realize that when the packets run out,

there's no more baking to be done That for me

that would be the theme. Yeah, you can't throw

a frozen pizza into one of those No, no light

bulbs can't do it. Oh boy. Yeah, no No, I had

I had dreams of doing that with an easy bake

oven because I see the commercials on TV growing

up and as you got older you start to see how

the easy bake oven has evolved for boys too,

but honest to goodness like I I didn't quite

have like an easy bake oven is like I think The

only food related toy I ever got was the Snoopy

Slushy Maker. They had the original one back

in the day. My grandmother snagged one and I

was like, oh, my Lanta, this is amazing. And

then they re -released it when I was like 22.

And I was like, this thing's a piece of crap.

So many cut corners. But when you're five, six

years old, that thing's magic, right? But for

me, it was more anything sci -fi, transformer.

uh which we had go bots you know we we worked

with what we got i had a mazinger figure that

i found out who that was when i turned 32 and

um i was like wow that toy is worth a couple

hundred bucks and i destroyed it when i was eight

that's that's awesome so you know that kind of

stuff is what i ended up with yeah i don't care

if the k -mart knockoffs came first they still

were k -mart knockoffs damn it Yeah, if it was

budget, we had it. No, I mean the fact that GoBots

in itself. I don't care if it came before Transformers

did. GoBots are the Kmart knockoffs of Transformers.

Oh, no, absolutely. I agree. I figured you were

going to be very passionate about GoBots. My

grandmother did buy us a sidekick one day, and

I thought that was the most amazing thing until

I snapped it in half trying to transform it.

And I was like, this sucks. And then once you

figure out how you twist and turn it, life gets

better and you go buy a second one. and then

your friend steals it at school, and then you

lose both. So, you know. Go bots suck. Yes. Man,

this might be the most emotionally scarred episode

I've ever done in the last two years. Three years.

Like, we rebooted this show. When did we reboot?

We hit 100 episodes. Yeah, it's a good thing

I didn't send you guys the 100th episode. That

thing is five hours long, because it's the 100th

episode. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, wow. We're full

of issues, so I mean. We're going to work through

all kinds of therapy with you, Mike. It's good.

That's what the podcasting is for. That's why

I ask these questions to get people's, like,

part of the tagline for GCR and Origins is getting

the stories for many and all fans that I can.

And if that leads down to couches and therapy

bills, don't, you know, I mean, I'm not going

to send you an invoice or anything, but, you

know. If only funko could do actual more transformers

pops that aren't hidden behind stupid NFT walls

And yes, I know some of them are now out in the

real world, but NFTs are evil They anyway as

former ones coming just FYI. Oh, no. Oh, yeah

the Not NFT ones, but you know, I hear yeah,

I saw Sometimes, yeah, I'll deal with that later.

All right. Let's see. We have to start telling

people to put down their drinks soon, I think.

It's all the stress it's for. Yeah. Yeah. If

you're stressed out about toy collecting, take

a drink. Don't put them down. Take a drink. This

week's sponsor. Uh -huh. Good old Jameson. What

were your favorite childhood toys that really

stand out more than the others? That hairy caterpillar?

No, that was a dirty coat talk. No, I would say

when I actually finally got a Barbie. That was

pretty cool because I didn't think that would

ever happen. Not that I like Barbie, but that

I wanted to do some science on it. I'm a very

scientific mind. And so that one stands out because

that's when I first realized the science of hair

on light bulbs and the consequences of that.

So, I mean, Barbies for me hold a different place

than most girls, I think. Dude, you're married

to the female version of Sid from Toy Story.

Probably true. I do like explosives too. She

does. Hey, nothing wrong with that. Gotcha! Alright!

Double prizes! Uh, I guess it's my turn now?

Yeah, you can do normal answers. I won't do the

normal answers. You do normal answers. I lost

my train of thought. Can you repeat the question?

What were your favorite childhood toys that really

stood out more than the others? Oh yeah, actually

getting a legitimate TMNT figure. Because, again,

we always got the figures that were, like, passed

on. So for me, I actually got a real Ninja Turtle

figure. Did you ever get one of those ones with

a little plastic strip that you put in the shell

and then you pull it through the shell and it

makes, like, noises? No, no. Oh, yeah. I didn't

even get a legitimate turtle in the sense of,

like, the OG turtle. We got the one where it

was Donatello and that's my boy. But it's when

they had the shelves that could open up in the

back and store the weapons and stuff. But those

were so cool! They were, they were. But you know

how, like, for us, like, I had Bebop, but not

Rocksteady. We had Fugitoid, but we never got

a Shredder. I only saw Krang once at my friend

Steven Rothwell's house. And you didn't steal

it? And I didn't steal it. But I was like, wow,

it does exist. And then that was, like, the end

of it, right? And it had this little mech suit.

And I'm like, this is nothing like the show.

But the TMNT figures were like, that was tops.

So audience, just fast forward the podcast like

10 minutes. I'm originally from Massachusetts,

born and bred, raised on Boston sports. I don't

care what quarterback is with that team. The

team is the point and all that. But in 1987,

when I was seven years old, We had stores up

there called Benny's the turtles figures the

actual Not the knockoff like the original playma.

Yeah, they were on sale for like 10 bucks I got

them all department store. That was where we

saw them. Yeah, I got them all I had all four

turtles. I had shredder. I had splinter. I had

Bebop and Rocksteady But I didn't like shredder

I didn't like the figure because it didn't match

the animation. Yeah, he had a very weird pose

when he did too. Almost like he had scoliosis

or something. I was really worried for his composure.

Yeah, it wasn't the pose that was the problem.

And I can't believe I'm saying this. My two favorite

colors are black and purple. But he had this

purple. I'm like, that's not the color. I needed

back then and now if you are basing a toy off

of a cartoon it better be show accurate damn

it if it ain't I ain't buying it Yeah, I'll challenge

you with this one too Mike so the other that

I would say if there's one more memorable than

that Centurions yeah, I never got into those

they kind of hit all the right notes really and

I saw somebody there's a Place down here and

ever called Boba cons that they had a full box

and the box obviously being what it is, you know

not in great shape, but it was the The full sky

links like the big space jet slash dinosaur.

Yeah Yeah, like they had it's like only 200 bucks

I'm like, you know, that's actually pretty reasonable

given it's like a 30 year old toy almost dipped

but you know That we were lucky to get some of

those when they were on clearance, but they were

the only toys we ever got that I would consider

first run, right? So yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, TMNT I think second would be Centurion.

Do you prefer the label of action figures, dolls,

toys or other labels when it comes to toy collecting?

I guess it depends on who you are and what you

like to do with them. I don't know. I like toys,

I like everything to be fun, but I know this

is a very divided subject, so I'm gonna opt out.

I don't have enough couches for all the therapy

we're gonna go through in the next 40 -something

questions. Wow! Well, I mean, and the reason

why, and so again, audience, you know, I say

this every time, the reason why I phrase the

question like that, action figures, dolls, toys,

or other labels, is because our grandparents

mostly are not really our parent like my mom

was always oh it's either a toy or an action

figure or whatever or if it was a board game

it's a board because you can't label a yes technically

you play with a board game but it is a board

game it is not a it's the board game section

was separate from the toy section yeah but my

grandparents would always be like mikey's gonna

go home and play with these dolls they're not

dolls grandma yeah stop it So that's why that

question is there I I consider them action figures.

Yeah, but I'm a guy It's more like cutesy and

maybe it's cuz I'm a guy and I'm biased I don't

know but I've always looked at him as action

figures like to me a doll was Barbie yeah something

cute you sit there and you like, you know Buffet

with a comb and stuff like that like dress it

up, you know Although I guess you could do that

with like you really can't do that with snake

eyes or Cobra commander cuz they have helmets,

but yeah Swappable swappable face masks, I guess

Boy Well, I guess we could pop all the heads

off the funko pops or actually funko does that

already they pop Mysterio's head off and put

that idiot Freddy's head on there morons Yeah,

we won't talk about that Oh, yes, we will. Oh,

no, I know but I mean that that one there is

just like that that was a week. That's like the

um Oh, what was I don't even know what they were

thinking of that. That's like the that was just

weak like they didn't even try No, I guess for

dolls. They have the snapsies. That's true The

snapsies you can rip apart and accessorize make

beautiful There you go Good guys are bad guys.

Which toys were your favorites to play with the

most? You know my answer It's pretty apparent.

I mean, she's an evil scientist. What else? You

know, there's my answer. Go ahead. I was going

to say not the follow suit, but yeah, the bad

guys, because growing up like the good guys were

cool and they usually had some pretty awesome

things, but like Megatron turning into a gun

back when you could do that sort of thing was.

Awesome sound wave you had all kinds of Cobra

commander and serpent or you had all sorts of

awesome vehicles and then the Joe's got like

an f -14 with a tiger printed on the side and

I was like You know, I was like I want I want

the Cobra sky, you know Giant snake flying ship,

you know and you guys got the USS whatever which

I only ever saw one person growing up they had

and Again, we never got to go back to his house.

I is like Schrodinger's Schrodinger's I can remember

what the the USS Yeah, if you don't go in it

still exists But if you go in maybe it doesn't

yeah, I can't remember the name of that ship

now the flag the USS flag Yeah, yeah So yeah

bad guys all the way so you want to know something

really funny? Oh, I know a guy right now That

has two of them in his basement. That's disgusting

No, he loves it Tell me he got one one to play

and one this one to stay Yeah, I think it's more

so he had one when he was a kid and then he got

another one later I forget what okay. Where is

Dave's story? I think Dave's story is episode

one. No, I don't remember It's one of the other

podcasts that we already did Yep. All right.

Let's see. So you mentioned vehicles and play

sets. What is or was your favorite toy vehicle

or play set? Oh, man. Yeah, there's a lot of

answers here. No. I don't think I ever had a

vehicle. I think that was too advanced. Not even

a play set? You didn't have the famous Barbie

car? No. Really? I didn't even get like Kmart

Barbies except for that one. I told you I somehow

came across I don't think I stole it and then

I melted it. No, I think it was the Can we talk

about like those big wheel tricycles? I think

I think that's stretching the answer. But yeah

a little bit, but that's all right. No, that's

cool No, that was oh, we did have a turd or one

of my brothers did have a turtle van. So I mean

Yeah, well I didn't but I got to look at it from

afar because brothers don't let you play with

things. That's legend. I've never seen the OG

turtle van up close. I saw the turtle blimp at

school one day and it got stuck on the roof of

the school, but I never saw the turtle van. I

saw it. I didn't touch it, but I saw it. I have

a version of it now. It's not the original, but

so again. I don't think I've repeated this story,

but years ago when they released the 87 series

on complete series DVD set, they did a turtle

van collector edition thing, and it's the single

worst way you could package DVDs ever, but the

fact that it's a hard plastic turtle van that

looks just like the original turtle van did.

Yeah, those DVDs went immediately into my old

school 90s DVD case once I'm like How did the

how are these not all scratched is beyond me

and the thing was factory sealed when I bought

it So I'm like I open it and it was the first

time I ever open I'm like wait a minute. How

do you expect? Playmates and whoever the DVD

No, I don't think it was show I'd have to look

I don't think it was job factory Maybe it was

pre -shopped, but I remember seeing that Best

Buy and I was like, you spider -wrapped it. It's

destroyed everything on. Yep. Absolutely. Like,

have you really moved on? No, I haven't. I think

for me, I'm trying to think back to play sets

and stuff. We used to have these. Honestly, it

was a board game, but it was like one of those

poor ones. It's called ripcord, zip cord sliders

or something like that. They were little cassette

tapes that you would like. Oh, yeah. Pop out

the game board and you had magnetized little

Things and you would like spin the cassette wheels

and they would do numbers and stuff Like the

treasure map one like the gold one was like my

prized possession when I was a kid That's awesome.

I'd have never had those though. They were they're

fantastic There was like I think eight of them

and I got like what you the Indiana Jones version

one and that's like the best thing ever I think

it was only like five bucks at the time now that

sucker be like now for $19 .99. You can revisit.

You're just I'm like I can make one of those

myself But yeah, they were awesome those play

sets were they were like our equivalent to uh

Polly pocket before they came out with like mighty

max and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely I had and

this is just for you guys because the audience

knows this already I had up until 2012. I had

the original castle grayskull and Up until when

I was six years old and my dad sold them all

I had the original snake mountain I come from

divorced parents guess where Castle Grayskull

and Snake Mountain were. Castle Grayskull was

at my mom's house, Snake Mountain was at my dad's

house. Damn. The loyalties are divided. Oh yeah.

Well, you know, when you're six and your dad

tells you you're too old to play with toys, you're

going to make him the villain of your story.

Like, come on. My dad's an awesome person. He

is, but like, Back then I just didn't understand

that telling a six -year -old he's too old to

play with toys. I imagine like visits were interesting

because it's like you know watching an episode

of He -Man and they do the different perspective

shots like you go to your dad's house you're

like in an episode where Skeletor is having that

conversation about how he's gonna kill He -Man

and your mom's house it's like and now we go

to the other half of the episode where we're

talking about how we're gonna kill Skeletor yeah

yeah never never got to put the two together

in the same episode anymore Nope. I think the

crazy thing when I remember most about having

Snake Mountain... I was living full -time with

my mom in Massachusetts. Dad had moved down to

Rhode Island by that point. I think the only

thing I ever used... that's probably why he got

rid of it. Not because I was too old to play

with toys, which is what he told me, but he probably

got sick of me spitting weird raps on that microphone

that actually worked. Snake Mountain, you glorious,

glorious thing. His ears were too old for you

to play with toys. Probably. I mean, you know.

All right. So back in the 80s when we had to

actually go outside and do things that didn't

require a weird game named Pokemon Go, Pokemon

Stop is more like it. We actually had to go outside

and pretend things. So 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 James, you can

be the Coke bottle top and Emily can be the rock

or something or whatever. And closest I got was

really lame was just like stickers and a sticker

album and we had to pull them out And that's

how we interact with each other. That's how bad

we were Sticker albums were a thing and pogs

were a thing. I don't know They came back for

a while yeah, they did they didn't last but they

came back Good you know, I always thought pogs

were like Something you got out of like back

then Pringles were like, you know ritzy people

food No, I thought ponds were like what you would

find in a Pringles can I went to a rogers flea

market in Ohio and I was like all these ponds

for a dollar there's like 50 in a Ziploc bag

and I thought I was king for a day and then I

realized they're worthless and I was like well

trash but you know They were metal ones in those

two man. Those things were oh, I wasn't that

expect I wasn't that that high -end. Yeah Yeah,

good old pugs Yeah, oh Good. No good. I was gonna

say for I think for our outdoor experiences of

the best We tried to play transformers once at

the playground score or whatever And it was always

the scene where the ship was gonna blow up or

whatever But you try running like half cockeyed

and transforming whatever the equivalent imagination

give you like ten years old when you're in third

grade There's only so much you can do at the

playground, but we had glorious explosions at

the jungle gym. So You know what we had in our

schoolyard? We had one of those big round drainage

pipes and myself and a couple other kids swore

that that's where we would go to find the turtles.

It was the funniest thing. We'd sit there and

stare at it for a while and talk about this idea.

If we yelled loud enough, they'd come out of

there. It's pretty funny. We were lame. Hey,

I used to think I saw air wolf in the distance

every once in a while. God bless you Roy Tider.

Absolutely. Oh boy. So yeah, we uh, let's see,

what was I going to say? Yeah, we did the Transformers

stuff and all that, but yeah, I don't know. Just,

I don't know. Good ol' LARPing. What features

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

feel in comparison to the source material likeness?

I'm not really, I do complain a lot about Funkos,

don't I? Yes. About their accuracy, so I can't

really say I don't complain about accuracy, stuff

like that, but I don't know, you can answer that

one. You don't have anything? No, I'm drawing

blanks. Oh, I think for me it was, and again,

low -hanging fruit, I'm just gonna say Transformers,

like. I remember watching the cartoon being enamored

with it I cried like everybody else when optimus

died all that good stuff and it's like he will

be back you know and then as I got older and

I was able to get my hands and see some of the

figures and stuff I'm like this this looks nothing

like the cartoon none of this is what I expected

like um for me it's got to be and I'm judging

it based on like for the time I thought they

were really impressive right they But as I've

gotten older it's got they've got to be the technology

is there to make them Show and movie accurate

like look at some of the studio series releases

that come out from different things over the

years And I'm like so you look nothing like the

transformer that should cost 30 bucks Yeah, and

then there's third -party companies out there

that make Hasbro look like they are the Kmart

equivalent. I'm like Yeah, you know I'd rather

invest in those people because they have You

know some calling so for me, it's articulation.

Is it engaging? Is it can I can I play with it

and put it back in the box and be happy that

it's in one piece or is it going to be like the

Cyberturney and bumblebee I bought at Target

after waiting for like two years and then as

soon as I try to fold him in his arm breaks off

six times I'm like you were $25. You're going

back. Yeah Oh man, I remember the This was when

was this? 2011 I think I think it was like 22.

Yeah somewhere around there. It was like right

before BotCon that year and May the man rest

in peace because he's no longer with us now,

but the the art director Derek J Wyatt from Transformers

animated he Said it like I don't know at 1 a

.m. Or whatever it was. Oh, yeah, by the way

Tomorrow at Target all the animated stuff is

gonna be on sale. You can get Voyager class purple

animated shockwave, which was a target exclusive

for five bucks What ran to that tar? I'm like,

yep Not that I didn't believe him but like Okay,

yay getting a Voyager figure for five dollars,

especially from the animated line that was amazing

All right, what does toy packaging have to have

to draw you in so you go into a store or wherever

or you look online and you look at you know,

you've got a Marvel legend you got a transformer

you got a Funko pop you got this that anything

What are the boxes have to have to make you want

to buy it? Well nowadays, along the lines of

what you're saying, being able to actually see

it, because I think I've really just seen all

those transformers you were looking at this past

year, honestly. I'm very much in agreement with

the third party option. Being able to see what

it is you're investing in is very important.

She's foaming at the mouth right now. Well, she's

not wrong. I think toys is also, or I said toys,

collectibles, whatever, is also important in

that sometimes they're really good for a laugh,

like these owl bears from the con from Funko.

Yeah. How one, my owl bear from New York Comic

Con this year came in upside down and it's staying

upside down because I thought it was funny. So

being able to see this stuff is great for connecting

to it, I think. Yeah, absolutely. I would agree

with that. For me, the packaging is a huge thing

because I think the one thing I liked about a

lot of the old school packaging stuff is they

were true to the cartoon and everything. but

the figures didn't always align with what you

expected, right? You had more imagination looking

at the box than you did the actual figure, but

Transformers did a really nice blend of that,

I think, with the vehicle forms and stuff. Nowadays,

they give you the figure, and it's in the robot

form, and I'm just like, you know, I wanna see

the final form, right? Give me what it looks

like, but I've got some stuff boxed up that...

I can look at the box and appreciate it and it

also happens to reflect what the figure looks

like and stuff right and you can open the box

and see like the figure on display and close

it with a flap it's not just exposed to the world

or you know it's interactive you know what i

mean you can appreciate it you can open and play

with it but it's you know it draws the eyes right

it's not like trying to steer you away or you

know just like cheap cardboard because they wanted

to save on a I was going to say, it's kind of

a hot topic nowadays because of the eco side

of things. A lot of companies trying to save

money in some ways, but losing out on others.

Yeah. There's nothing worse than going to Target

and you're looking at, say, a Bumblebee or Office

Prime, and he looks like he's in bondage in this

cardboard box because he's got twist ties around

him and everything else. And you're just like,

you poor soul. What do you do in your off hours?

I don't know. But we've got to free you. Funny

story. This is before the closed box packaging

happened. This was years ago It was Christmas

of whatever the hell year void again going to

Transformers animated from Cartoon Network and

all that stuff I Was gonna get Voyager Blitzwing.

Oh Yeah, and Voyager Blitzwing Came in a really

nice package came in a windowed box everything

else. I got him out and the twist ties pretty

much took my entire left thumbnail off because

he was... I'm like, I should be able to untie

the twist tie. I should not have to go get a

pair of pliers or scissors or whatever tool people

use to cut these damn things out of their plastic

prisons, but come on. Yeah. Or the ultra -security

with the fully sealed clear plastic that you

have to use scissors to get... Even to the inside

and how many times you rip your hands up on those

shards of plastic just Yeah In the effort to

save a plastic window. They've added so much

other Stress and frustration to enjoying that

stuff. Like you don't even I don't even buy those

anymore I haven't collected actual transformers

off the shelf since like the price shot up to

double in 2009. Yeah Used to get them in about

I have some of the og transformers movie ones

down here and stuff where it was the the J card

with the bubble pop right on the front and you

can see the figure and all that stuff and then

those used to be like eight bucks and then they

shot up to like 11 12 and I was like I can see

where this is going here we are now that same

figure is like almost 20 bucks and it's like

again he strangled in the box and you can't even

enjoy like if you're not careful like you just

pick him up and on the shelf his head will pop

off because it's so tightly wrapped in there

right so I miss the old days You said 2009 prices

doubled I'm like you really have been out of

it because here in 2023 prices have like quadrupled

since 2009 like oh My god, it's just crazy. I

used to be able to get a like the og transform

movie figures I was there day one at Walmart

and I got them for like seven eight bucks, right?

And then, like, I guess doubled is probably an

extreme word. They went up like $4. I remember

Hasbro made a price increase because plastic

was the cost of plastics were going up. And then,

like, fast forward 2015, 2016, you know, that

same figure was almost $15 for like a little

four inch or six inch figure. And I'm like, wow.

So now, like, yeah, it's almost like 25, 30 bucks

and that same. Figure like you look the 86 line

stuff at Walmart. Yeah, they're almost like 40

bucks for some of those I'm like, you're you're

not even die cast. You're not there's nothing

to you. What justifies this, you know It's ridiculous.

It's kind of like the lines getting blurred between

what's in the store and what's offered at McDonald's

Yeah kind of getting closer and closer The quality

Hey McDonald's toys then and now for the most

part still rock for the most part I don't know.

I haven't bought a Happy Meal in probably 15

years or more. What about that Gundam in China?

Oh, yeah, there's a there's a oh, yeah The McBurger

or the Big Mac Gundam last year. No, what was

it the Angus the Angus beef SD Gundam? They have

this year. You can get one for 20 bucks. That

thing's amazing. I won't invest in Japanese That's

hilarious All right I don't believe in the whole

hot take thing. Opinions are opinions. I forget

who said it. If I said it or if somebody else

said it. Opinions are like assholes. Everybody's

got one. So it's perfectly fine. Do you open

your toys or do you leave them packaged? If you

keep toys packaged, do you have a specific criteria

for that? Well, I like opening things because

I like in the world of Funkos, I like flock things.

And for me, flock things need to be touched.

So I open them. I don't know. I have certain

ones I don't open because of value or whatnot,

but for me, I like opening things, but I'm not

really a purist. I just am more about enjoying

them than collecting them. I'm just odd that

way. Yeah, I went a different direction than

that after a couple years. I So I have a myriad

of out -of -box pops because when I started collecting

funcoes a couple years ago I was like, I'm just

gonna have this shelf of amazing like same Ultra

white colored funcoes and stuff and they're gonna

have certain you know, I have them all I'm like,

it's cool with their out -of -box and then as

I started going in that I found out how much

like the Tigers or it was worth and they yelling

the biloba that I saw at Best Buy that was ten

bucks and now like 60 because they realize there's

a Marvel movie for she only ever had one pop

and like oh Oh no, and so like I have some that

are out of box that are awesome and meaningful

But I think for the most part everything I have

is inbox and there's a couple transformer stuff

over the years that I've had out of box, but

I have a I think the first only transformer I

bought in the last 20 15 20 years was a optimist

primal or something that was like from BotCon

2004 and it was a Hasbro pole or Hasbro Yes,

I know what you're talking. Yes. Yeah Like 200

bucks and back then I thought that was outraged

but like, you know, I really like this one It

takes me back to like the one that I broke that

one was my brother's that was Combiner stuff

and then I come to find out like about a year

ago It's worth like over a thousand dollars now.

There's only three. Uh -huh and I'm like Yeah,

200 bucks wasn't bad at all. You get a deal for

a deal there. I'm going to keep that in the,

I only ever took it out once to look at it. And

the box is like, I would consider it like a C9

.5 if we're grading it. And I was like, I'm just

going to slide you back in the original. It's

never been taken out, but twice in 10, 15 years.

And I was like, I'm going to get a custom vinyl

armor to display it because it's one of those

ones you talked about earlier. The box art is

awesome, right? It's really old school. Very

respected in the figure matches what you expect,

but I'll never play with it because if I do,

it's going to be worth about 20 bucks. So. Well,

it's kind of interesting because right now there

is or not right now, but for the last little

while, there's been a big movement in custom

box art for Funko's and that kind of thing. So

it's almost like everybody is saying the box

art isn't good enough. Yeah, and they're not

listening. They're not doing taking care of it

themselves. Everybody else is doing it for them.

and doing much better. Yeah, I think it's cool

if you go to a convention and you have, let's

say for example, and you're only using them as

an example because I know they would do something

like this probably. Let's say you go to the Seven

Bucks a Pop booth and they have a famous artist

there and they also have the voice of the kid.

Okay, one that's still with us that I can think

of that I don't have to get so depressed that

realize it's been a year since that person is

now gone The voice of because they have not a

net to my knowledge and I've looked at diss trackers

and other things They have not shown us any x

-men 97 Wolverine pops yet, but if you got Whoever

is the most popular currently living Wolverine

artist The voice of the original Wolverine from

the 90s series, which is Cal Dodd. He got those

two guys together at a booth signing with the

artist doing a custom art for it. And then Cal,

obviously they would both sign it, but like Cal

signing it as the voice of it. I could see that.

I could get behind that. Yeah. Most of the custom

art stuff on the box. I'm like, you're just.

Hiding the figure that's all the art is amazing

and nothing against the art itself whatsoever

Like I would love to see custom art, you know

of of that on whatever but like not on the I

guess it depends like for me I think that there's

an opportunity for toy companies regardless of

whether it's Funko or Hasbro to like do something

really cool and make the art on the box pop in

a line with you know being just a Oh, here's

pop 1461 dark magician girl and it's like lame

but then you see people out there that can do

it next level and I can't imagine the resources

are much more expensive than what it would cost

to print that same box if you were a multi -billion

dollar company that could take the effort to

try. Well that's two different fields too. There's

two different fields in that too because there's

the window box art and then there's the actual

box itself redone as a new energy and totally

a new look. So there's two different fields of

box art that are different. You know, I'm specifically

talking about the the window or like you still

have the the box art I'm talking about the and

again, it's no ill will towards the artist. I'm

not trying to be mean here I'm not trying to

be a bully to anybody or anything like that bullying

is wrong folks. Stand up. Stop bullying But it's

just one of those things where I don't understand

why people like the custom aren't on the window

when What if they have two copies may have one

oh, okay Okay, that, yes, but generally you're

average. Depends how hardcore you are. Yeah,

pretty much like people, not us, just everyday

people going to one of these conventions getting

something like this. Not us crazy people that

would buy six of the same thing, because that's

probably happened with Funko Pops in the past.

Oh, I have a Sam Delarosa that I was after for

the longest time, and he did a one -of -one with

Anti -Venom. And the art for that is amazing,

but it's on the side window, right? And it wraps

around the front and brings it into a 3D look

with the pop itself. But I think if you do it

right and tastefully like that, it's not bad.

But then you've got people who, they completely

cover the front and the sides and it's like,

well, I could just have had you made a box for

it and now I can't see my pop. You even get that

with Fogo's actual box. itself covers the figure's

face. Yeah, like the winged venom chase, like

you've got this amazing tongue blow and everything

else that's hiding behind this giant wing, and

I'm like, y 'all are terrible. It's my viewing

pleasure, damn it. That's right. Deny, deny,

deny. No stairway, access denied. Damn. 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 franchise, He -Man,

G .I. Joe, Transformers, etc. So Funko really

isn't in this because they have all the franchises.

Right. Not really enough. I don't think this

is really franchise. I'm gonna fail again answering,

but you remember that went goosebumps. Yeah Do

you remember was a franchise? Okay? You remember

when they came out with those like little drop

things that made bugs and stuff like that Yeah,

well, I don't know if that was goosebumps, but

they had like those monster makers and stuff

when I thought maybe not I know you're talking

about the evil scientists again. I have a theme

of this coming out I'm really not intending but

it keeps happening but I liked all those interactive

toy lines that were very creative and I don't

know, it was just my thing. If it was back in

the 40s and 50s, I'd probably be the one that

was dying from it. Creepy crawlers. Creepy crawlers,

that's what it was. Took a minute. Yeah. I'd

probably be the one that was dying from those

like mercury science kits or those saw, like

those mini saws they were giving kids back in

the 40s instead to do science and they were like

maiming children so they stopped making them

back in the day. Okay, I'm gonna apologize now

we're so far into this at this point I'm gonna

apologize now the entire audience that has heard

up to this point because really I'm just gonna

keep putting in the clip of Hey, how'd you get

out here? Oh well, you and I can have a cookout

later Sid just saying it's playtime every time

Emily talks about her evil science ways like

themselves gotten more innocent than they were

back in like... Safety mechanisms have become

too good is what she's saying. No! Alls it needs

is an orange cap, don't you know? No! I just,

me, I enjoy any toy lines that allow you to explore

without worrying about your safety. There you

go. Absolutely, absolutely. I I honestly like

I think I Was gonna originally say board games

because they were always fun But then as I've

gotten older I've gotten away from having people

to play board games with so, you know, I'm still

gonna fall back honestly I would have I would

have gone with go box because for because for

is Cheap as they were they had they had they

tried really hard poking a bear. I'm not trying

to poke the bear Go bots were like they were

accessible. What can I say? Like I didn't get

my first Optimus Prime until I took my brother's

after my Got one, you know Yeah, I'd say like

anything was transformable, you know, then that

whatever that friend any franchise in particular

But I said some go bots there was tons of different

types of knockoffs and stuff over the years Yeah,

no, I'm I'm an adult folks I could put my go

-bots hatred aside, and I don't really hate them.

I just you know whatever As an adult do you prefer

vintage? Yeah, I know right as an adult do you

prefer vintage toys or modern toys I Think I

just answered that didn't they I don't know you

can tell him I don't know I find like Nowadays,

they're finding ways to charge more for things

that do less, it feels like. So I prefer having

more playability, more options, versatility.

Back in the day, it just seemed like there was

more of that than there is now. Nowadays, it's

like even you guys talk about transformers, they

seem to do less and less moves than they used

to do. It depends on the see the problem with

transformers now is as we're coming up on the

40th anniversary Oh God, I'm old. Oh my my head.

I need my pills grandpa But There's multiple

like that they have to Hasbro has to cater to

every part of the transformers fandom. It's not

just us who grew up on it for 40 years It's also

the new kids and I don't mean the ones that are

on the block But it's one of those things where

it's like the younger kids the middle -aged You

know the teenage kids and then the adults and

the adults who are actually really little kids

and whatever But it's like they have so many

different lines that go to each person under

the transformers brand that it's not all just

for one age range and Sometimes they do a good

job and sometimes they don't Nobody's buying

those fast changers to collect them They're buying

the two -step changers or the one -step changers

or whatever they are. You're buying those for

your child or your children or whatever so they

can learn, like, hey, this is what the Transformers

are now. And then when they get a little older

and you can actually explain to them, but this

is what they were when I was a kid. They were

actually made from die -cast metal. Die -cast

construction. it's a lost art i guess because

nowadays they're actually thinking that parents

play with their kids whereas back in our day

that wasn't a thing no here's toys go play they

had to be more durable right nowadays like it's

pretty much yeah dad broke optimists let's go

buy another one for 30 bucks you don't have to

figure it out yeah absolutely I'm torn because

I like the vintage toys, right? But I like I'll

say this with a caveat modern ways If they're

done by respectable third parties Because I like

the third party combiners. I like the third party

Transformers in general. I like a lot of the

third party Figures and stuff that are out there

by companies that take inspiration from the original

figure and do it, right? I'll say So yes, I like

modern toys in that aspect otherwise vintage

all the way because they were diecast and made

of mercury and things like that You know stuff

that would kill you over time, but that was part

of the fun Yeah, I will say though. I will defend

the Hasbro version of War for Cybertron Kingdom

commander class Rodimus Prime because that toy

That literally, it transported me back to 1989.

We were on the island of Key Biscayne, Florida.

And I remember having the original toy, just

playing with it all hours of the day and night

in the middle of Florida somewhere. And I guess

a friend of the show. He just did we do his tour?

No, my buddy Alex. He did a transformers We have

transformers origins where it's another 25 30

questions about about transformers. So maybe

we'll have James back on for that at some point

and He unexpected like it was like during one

of those Amazon sales or whatever. He's like,

what's your address? I'm like what? He's like,

Oh, I'm going to send you something. And literally

like the dude put like rush. I've never had,

I've never done the Amazon like rush delivery

where you ordered at eight AM and it's there

by 10 PM. I'm like, what the hell is this? And

why don't we have Amazon transporters everywhere?

But I got that. I got the, I got that from him

and I opened it up and it's in vehicle mode.

Like it should be. And I'm just like, Filling

around fiddling around like oh my god This is

so like literally it transported me back to when

I was nine years old and I had the original When

it came out, so sometimes the main toy companies

do good I will agree that the third party companies

do a lot of kick -ass stuff though You you make

a good point and I'll give them that's the one

exception right because I did it I love Rodimus

and it's funny because I didn't really I remember

the voice Judd Nelson. I had no idea. He was

the guy from breakfast club. I'm like, holy shit.

Yeah, like we circle I'm like that guy's the

voice of this guy Wow, and then they brought

me back for animate and I was like Wow, you know

And then transformers died to me after they cancelled

animated. So, you know but no, they did that

Rodham's prime figure really well and I saw some

of the The other iterations by other companies

they all had some kind of a they were very similar

or more movie authentic and smoother and very

close to the animated show without like all the

ridges and stuff on it like the prime one did

but They that one had a lot of class because

they did the trailer right as well as the figure,

right? They were two separate pieces. They weren't

wanting us So that what I think made that one

special for me and then I never got it. So Yeah,

well, I mean the original generation one figure

it was two separate pieces. It was just Yeah,

but I mean since then though all the thing. Oh,

yeah, do it Yeah, they they always focused on

the car or they did the figure like there's somebody

had to do a third -party trailer to make To make

it more accurate and I was like that's neat But

then you know and those ones those figures all

had some kind of transforming defect or some

kind of manufacturing defect over time You couldn't

really enjoy it the Hasbro that that war for

Cybertron Kingdom one you that that's like yeah,

that's number one on my list too. I just never

got it. Yeah. Oh man, it's so good Every single

like every single way it is just so good and

I know what you're talking about I had the back

in the day I spent and I think this is fairly

good for those prices in those days, but I only

there was the BotCon shattered glass the original

shattered glass 2008 box set Live figures plus

all the exclusive plus all the show exclusives

I paid $800 for the entire thing. I had a shattered

glass Rodimus the original shattered glass I

know the the new ones coming out because they're

using it off the Studio Series 86 hot rod mold,

but I had the original one and at the time back

then fans project had their city commander armor

and then they put out the Shadow commander armor

for Optimus and then they did something for Rodimus

and I was like, oh my god, this is so cool I

never got the armor, but it is what it is. Yeah

Alright, so out of the entire toy collection

that y 'all have, what is one toy you each always

gravitate towards more than the rest of it? It

sounds like you know my answer more than I do.

My up fun because you mean like enjoy or appreciate

actually just anything like well, I mean the

necessary play with but like what's the one like

this will come later, but Like what's the one

that you enjoy them? Like what's the one you

always like want to pick up and look at and that

kind of like just whatever whether you play with

it or not It doesn't matter but like out of everything

like what's is there one that you particularly

like more than everything else Well, I think

with my up Lego up that movie Lego set quite

a bit cuz that's the truth you question But probably

day to day with my art. It's my this is fine

dog I would say I stared him much more than other

things Probably my answer Very cool. Very cool.

I Don't know I'm torn on this one cuz You know

the questions just get harder after this right?

Oh It's all it's all downhill, right? Yeah, honestly

if I get that if I get that custom case provisioned

one day it will be my optimist that's in the

it's in from BotCon 2004 but honestly like I

always go and look at my Peter Cullen signed

Lego Optimus Prime that I Have one of those like

sealed away that I can just look at and be like

yes How did you get that? So I beat down a lot

of people on a whatnot stream for fan Expo a

couple months back and I Saw that he was gonna

be on there and I cried and I was watching and

I got recognized in the chat I thought that was

really cool And they put up a Lego set that he

had signed. I'm like, wait a minute I was always

gonna get the Optimus Prime Lego one day and

he signed it and it's legit I want I've and I

bid on it and I won after a furious battle back

and forth. So yeah, as far as I know, there's

only one other Lego set that he has signed a

couple months later, I think. And I was going

to bid for that one too, because I wanted to

be greedy and nobody else could share it. You

know what else had the Lego set, damn it. They

paid way more than I did. So I was very happy

to have bid them up to the point where they were

penalized for their insolence. I think they paid

like 600, 700 bucks and I got it for a fourth

of that. So, cause nobody, the people on the

stream were like, Lego, I don't want Lego. And

I'm like, oh, I want Lego, click, click, click.

But I bid the second one up and I stopped at

like 680. So I was very happy to pull the rip

cord and that person paid 725 bucks. So. Oh yeah,

I can't take risks like that. Fear me this mockery

of justice. And so there, as far as I know, there's

only two in existence, but that is my. That's

my that's my grail of grails and it is hermetically

sealed. It will never be touched and it is certified

So you've a couple Peter Cohen thing. I have

a huge I have I have actually quite a bit of

his autograph stuff So but that was a very special

because it was Legos growing up It was like near

deer and then you have Lego office prime and

then now you have Lego office prime with the

man's voice sign So it's like what better effective

can you get? is affirmative. Even though there

are always toy lines that people never purchase,

are there any that you specifically and purposefully

avoid? This can be toy lines, specific characters,

et cetera. Easy for me. Any clowns. 100%. The

only exception for me is the Joker. The Batman,

the animated series Joker. That's really the

only exception. But everything else? Nope. No

clowns. That's my easy answer because no I I

even make him turn around any clown Funkos or

collectibles he has so I don't have to see them.

So that's my answer I mean for me I've had to

avoid for toy lines and stuff. I've had to avoid

I avoid anime for the most part and that kind

of stuff because There's so much out there that

I would want if it's not a particular series

that I'm passionate about or something like on

a show Basically just avoid it cuz I as soon

as I click the Gundam for example years ago I

wanted all the Gundam and as you can imagine

there's a lot of different suits, right? So I

was like, nope, not gonna do that This is when

KB toys and stuff was around they had these little

four inch figures for like six bucks, you know

now they've gotten a lot more immaculate and

Articulate and I'm like, nope not gonna touch

any one of you so I avoid anything like that

like the plague that you know even transformers

to a certain degree because Want them all and

I know completion is complex. Yes completionist

complex. I know my limits and that's where I

pull the record There you go. That's yeah, absolutely

Are there any toys in the past or currently that

you wish you had not bought them? Are there any

toys that you may have sold that you regret letting

them go? Oh a two -part of you. Damn it Did I

wish that I got? Yeah Like I'm guessing today

anything that you wish you'd have gotten growing

up or whatever. Well, no, no, it's like Are there

any that you have? Gotten that you wish you had

not like you hadn't wasted the money on them.

Why did I buy this? There you go. Okay, I know

you can speak to that with what? Funko It's like

why did I get this this pop I Liked it sparkly

Squirtle, that's all I want it looks shiny and

beautiful and then and then my house just became

a giant layer of Funko's That have to be avoided

and worked around a reorganized constant such

as a flock Pikachu angry Which is now got a wonderful

new home One space on the shelf Love -hate relationship,

I guess you could say I think they were good

though in that they were channeling for art and

opportunities and community and family and stuff

like that. So as much as I joke about them, I'm

still thankful at the same time with those. Absolutely,

absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, you can find

all their links to all their whatnot stuff in

the show notes and you can go over and purchase

stuff from them or you can just berate them for

not liking to sell the stuff. Yes, come by regret

Join us for negative energies and regret, please

do Through therapy we shall overcome I Honestly,

I regretted spending the money that I did growing

up I think and to a certain point on on the transformers

I kept rather than offload them Like the movie

like I don't know if you saw the preview we had

like the diecast ones that I have down here that

were like their their last hurrah for whatever

they were doing like the movie series Transformers.

I had a bumblebee like I had a lot more that

was on that shelf and I was like man what a waste

of investment like I was big in the Transformers

still and I was like I just bought him because

the nostalgia and then I got thinking about them

like I destroyed every single one of these in

storage. This is this is ridiculous. I didn't

do anything constructive with them. So now I

you know I'm going to get rid of a lot of them.

So I mean, that's my only regret. But like Emily

was saying, for the vast majority of stuff that

we have collected and stuff, it's been great

conversation pieces. So it's not all bad, you

know. Yeah, no, absolutely. Oh, boy, this is

going to be a loaded question. How large or small

is your toy collection? Do your toys take up

the whole house or are they really get into the

one room shelf or something like that? Once upon

a time, they were one shelf. Mine personally,

I can fit in two boxes. So it's not me that has

the problem. I like how you slid in as a problem.

Well, she's not wrong. Let's face it, dude. We

boys are always the problem when it comes to

this collecting stuff. I don't know a lot of

females that are as anal retentive and jaded

as some of us are. No, you're right. I'm not

denying it. I'm just... I'd say large. If I were

to total everything up including the fun codes

and so forth as the individual items I just say

part close to like a thousand And that's after

we've sold probably six weeks worth of awesome

stuff to people so, you know Or there's no shortage

of inventory, right? But I'm not even counting

like Jurassic Park dinosaurs and things that

we haven't even shown you yet that we're gonna

have You know, it's it goes far beyond fun. Yeah,

and that's just that's not necessarily my collection

That's just a collection I've invested in for

the little one that you know longer, you know

per taking in said journey So those dinosaurs

need to be snuffed out They went extinct once

he's gonna make him go extinct again jeez The

dude who's like oh look at this giant was it

in Dominus Rex or something that target the giant

the giant and Dominus Rex that would have cost

$40 two years ago and is now $69 is pretty enticing

but you know Outside of that and the the endoraptor

giant that they have those three can the t -rex

I'll keep those three the rest can they can be

euthanized and given good homes Now that all

the batteries have been taken out. Yes, exactly

You got to make sure you remove the old batteries

folks or else the acid is gonna get everywhere

How do you keep track of your collection if you

do no We actually keep pretty good track of it

because of the whatnot and Just keeping things

safe and non -damaged and organized and whatnot.

So Yeah, I think organized chaos Yeah, I have

a pretty good memory when it comes to where where

things are at and where things are Stored so

for Mike my stuff that on my collection stuff.

I've invested in I'm just now officially going

through and cataloging it and categorizing it

and parsing through what I want to keep what

I you know So I use like hobby DB and I'm slowly

seeing the not the true value But like what the

appraised values with some of that stuff. I'm

like really they buy it at 24 bucks It's just

sold for like 90. You're nuts I've got a pretty

good idea what I have that I want to keep but

a lot of it's just memory and offline database

You know, I want to get it down to like manage

why I can look at those six crates be like, yeah

That's that's awesome rather than 16 boxes Yeah

He's not wrong I wish fun Co would get their

shit together and fix their damn app I love HobbyDB,

it's an awesome way to keep track of the value

and the sales and all that stuff as far as all

of that. But I only ever used the Funco app just

to make sure I knew which ones I had kind of

thing. And man, is that thing getting worse and

worse every time. I don't think we've ever used

it. I used it once and you can't trust it because

I had stuff in there. I started collecting for

Wishlist and other things that I had. And then

they decided to do a mind wipe on it. And they're

like, no. I'm like what it lost all of my work

and I'm like I spent an hour scanning and adding

and then you just lit up so at least with hobby

DB is janky D as it is for the scan because it's

basically an HTML app and it just yeah it's still

viable then the fun co -op in terms of like they

can't even get the app right yeah Yeah, I don't

even scan them for HobbyDB. I just go search

for them and I find the right one and then I

add it to my collection on my computer. Yeah,

I still do that too, but it's tough, you know,

because they're happy. And when you scan it,

you have to check all the variants. Yeah. Yep.

Yep. Absolutely. How do you display your toys?

Currently, we have different set up because we

have the display for displays for whatnot on

certain shelves. You have your PC stuff on the

wooden shelves I made you, the floating shelves.

Yeah. I mean, where's your stuff? Your stuff's

on the shelf behind. I've got one shelf to myself

over there with my up movie stuff and my big

foot and things like that. And then I have my

art shelf, but the rest of my... to my two whole

boxes are stored in the other room. So for you,

it's more of an endeavor. Yeah, mine's a bit

more of an endeavor. I've got my NFTs, which

I need more shelf space because they're too stacked

on rows. You can't really appreciate them all.

But I've got them. My NFT ones are on display.

And then I've got the rest of it's just in here.

We rotate it week to week on what we're going

to show, display, and sell. And I'm just cataloging

the rest of it and storing it away. until we

get a bigger area to really make a collection

room and appreciate it, I can't put all the stuff

out that I would like. So that's the other reason

for this journey. It's the growing pains, right?

I'm sure lots of people that are listening to

your show go through that, where you have to,

weirdly enough, adjust your entire living situation

to adapt or cope, depending what word you want

to use, to your collecting situation. Absolutely,

I have this new, and the audience probably has

not heard me say this before, but I've started

doing this really, and I'm not a math, math is

evil to me. I don't do math, but I love dealing

with anniversaries and years and when things

debuted. I, for the last few months now, have

been trying to display my Funko Pops, and to

a lesser extent the Sodas, but mainly the Pops.

in either the year the thing was born or the

year that it was debuted. So when I say born,

Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809. He became president

in 1860. So technically he's the beginning of

my display since that's the oldest. You're hardcore.

That's cool. So 1860, let's see, 1950, just off

the top of my head, 1957. 1962 is all the spider

-man stuff 63 is all the Iron Man stuff 64 is

Not Peter Pan is it? I don't know look over there

But yeah, so I'm like I started doing that and

like my cutoff year with the one shelf that I

was doing that with was 1999 Then I started getting

more pops and more pops. I'm like, okay. Well,

I've got so much more stuff now I have four other

shelves behind where I sit and at my desk here

at the computer and I'm trying to reorganize

that but those have now gone into like 2000 and

beyond and I'm just like Okay, I guess I'm not

gonna have a kitchen table unless I just buy

more shelves at some like another collector I

won't name on here who recently told me they

had to decide whether to keep access to one of

their doors in their home or not. No, no, no.

No, no, no. I will send you guys big. No, no,

no. I can freely access my door. Thank you. Both

of my patio door and the front door. No, no,

no. They're like, I can still get out of my house

through my garage. So I'm fine. No, no, no. It's

it's all on one wall. I've got the sodas on like

the bar type counter type because I've got a

pass -through kitchen thing so but no it's all

on one one thing so no no no no not hoarding

no I would sell half of this collection before

I start hoarding more I've been doing this since

2017 and I've sold off a bunch of stuff in the

past so No, I just got it. Why would I sell it

now? Yes, well have things I actually want to

buy and maybe I'll buy them Challenge yeah, exactly

challenge initiated Yeah, I actually I wish they

had an original itchy and scratchy to pack like

I know they have the individual ones But when

they came out with the Treehouse of Horror, when

I was like, ooh, but when are they going to put

the old ones in a two -pack? Because they put

everything else in a two -pack half the time.

It is what it is. They got Treehouse of Horror

minis now, too. I don't know if you saw those

or not. Yeah, I saw them. Those are pretty good.

Yeah, they are. All right. So everybody is safe.

The family, the children, the pets, the whatever.

But the house is on fire. Houses on fire if you

could only keep one toy from your entire collection,

what would it be and why so basically? What's

the one toy you're gonna risk your life to run

it and save? Probably for me one of the Carl

and Ellie up one Yeah, I'd say the up house probably

house probably because I just love that movie.

It's really just kind of like a reminder of staying

positive through struggles, and it's a really

relatable movie for me. So for me, that's one

of my most important collections emotionally.

So I'd say for me, it'd probably be The Uphouse.

I'm going to run and find that signed Optimus

Prime LEGO set. That's right. Your emotions lie

elsewhere. My emotions lay elsewhere. If everybody

else is safe, I'll be back with Optimus Prime,

and I might try to sneak an extra one or two

out, but I'm going after the LEGOs. Yeah, exactly.

All right folks now that I've emotionally scarred

them with fiery houses and everything else We're

doing a quick ad break and you're here some ads

and some other stuff and we'll come back with

the rest of the questions 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.

So basically, my name is Fun Employed, and I'm

here with my partner at Random Hat Studio, aka

Emily, and we stream on whatnot every Wednesday

at 6 .30 p .m. Pacific. We look for family, friends,

rehoming great collectibles to people that are

willing to partake, and we give a portion of

our funds every week to a specific charity and

looking to pay it forward back to the community

that made everything that we do so wholesome.

Yo Joe, and welcome to the Cracktastic Plastic

Podcast, where a punk rock band of brothers get

together to talk about one of our shared loves,

toy collecting. Toy hunt by day, punk rock band

by night. We'll take any excuse to get in the

van. We all collect different toy lines like

those real American heroes. G .I. Joe. To the

toys that are more than meets the eye, Transformers.

To He -Man and the Masters of the Universe. From

vintage to modern and all topics in between,

you can always expect some rowdy and passionate

discussion because we love talking toys here

on the Cracktastic Plastic Podcast. Well, the

Markhu42's Universe Podcast is an award -winning

sci -fi radio show that's been around for over

10 years. We cover everything from Doctor Who

to the MCU to pop culture and everything in between.

A new show drops on Tuesday mornings on the GCRN

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So listen to the Markhu42's Universe Podcast

from the universe and beyond. Hello all sentient

beings! Want the latest on everything going on

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want to miss Empire of Rust, the world's first

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something for everyone at transmissionspodcast

.com. We are back. So on the flip side of the

last question, here's the toy box challenge.

You get one medium sized box, which is usually

18 by 18 by 18. The only toys you can keep have

to fit in the box. What can you pack into it?

Oh. You start. Does that include my customs?

Because this is a whole different category. But

I would say, well again, I could just be boring

and say the up house would barely fit in that,

but. It's 18 by 18. There's at least a couple

things in there. I would leave enough room for

something that's important to you, but not let

you put it in there. Wow. I'm gonna edit this

out, but... This part has been edited. Ha ha

ha. You'll never know what was actually here.

Is that your final answer? Yeah, that's my answer.

That's your final answer. Yep. She's gonna leave

me room just to taunt me. Like, I could've done

something, but I chose not to. I think it'd be

my graded pops, especially that metallic Batman

Beyond fugitive toys. With red eyes. But it's

in my collection. It's on my shelf now. What

are you talking about? Oh, because at that point,

the house was burning down. I sold it to Mike.

That's right. 500 dollars for that pop is like

two nights in a hotel room. Not a very good hotel

room, but it's two nights in a hotel room. No,

I'm just stating a fact. 250 a night is only

going to get you a really crappy mini -fridge

and no bar. two days of sadness and disappointment

That's right, and I and now I have the pop and

you don't so there you go I guess I guess then

I'd have to put the rest of my graded ones in

there At least that mattered to her. I unlike

unlike her who would leave room in there I would

make sure to at least put the Hopefully our flocked

beast and some of the other more desirable ones

that are coming here Yeah, I do have it. I do

have a ruby rod and I have the entire fifth element

collections Let's I'd probably take that to be

honest. Yeah, I would say the graded ones that

have sentimental value and actual value So yeah,

you could fit a lot of it You could feel like

what probably like eight or nine of those in

that 18 by 18 monks. Yeah You probably fit like

I could fit all yeah, you could pray for town.

So yeah first time Yeah, I could fit at least

ten or so grade pops in that box Yeah, that's

not a time to question. It's just like what toys

can you like? What would you choose to put in

the box? Oh, yeah, the graded the graded pops

are coming in office prime would have to be sacrificed

that point I'd have to break it. They go the

Lego setting everything else Oh boy, all right.

Well as you couldn't tell folks in the time that

we've spent with these lovely people Are you

a funko fan? Duh So funko is the 22nd question.

So yay, we can all talk about funko now All the

lean startup decisions they're doing oh god,

oh boy The random hallway to soak is the pop

out of like CD everywhere Okay, Charizard, I

choose you! Yeah, we are. Metallic Charizard

that doesn't exist? Yeah, we are. That one that

made me sell all of my other complete Pokémon

because I got so bitter about Fungal doing nothing

about it. Yeah. And now it's like, what? How

much is that thing going for on average? Like,

800 plus? 1800 ungraded if you find one on grades

like 800 bucks 900 bucks if you find one graded

and it's like an eight and a half to a nine Most

of them are nines and tens probably like about

2 ,000. Yeah, and it fun go just let that one

slide There's only 50 in the wild we have the

rest of them, uh -huh They never actually released

it to deal with the market just flood the rest

of it out Yeah, fun go be making some weird decisions

Made us shake up at the top too, so Yeah, what

he lost his mind so, you know Sometimes that

happens dementia sets in you're like, you know

what? I want to make rewinds My mind is rewinding.

I'm just gonna go with it. Well, no, I'm saying

The literal rewind figures I know They heard

James likes playmobil and he likes fun because

let's combine the two and make a crow that looks

like a 12 year old And throw it in the VHS, and

I'm like, this is not the way to go, Funko. This

is not the way to go. Well, that's because they

went to mimicry instead of originality. That's

a big part of it, too, trying to copy other companies.

Yeah, because I mean, I don't know if you've

seen those Mike and GameStop. They had those

little VHS cassettes that they were play sets.

It would open up like Beauty and the Beast. Yeah.

They were like five bucks, right? So then you

look at this one here and they charge like 15.

The two greatest things about Rewinds, and I

will say this for the record, the box and the

card. The figures can go in the landfill. I just

want the box. I just want the card. Yeah, I think

for the figure, the box though, they could have

made it more rigid. They literally, they stuck

too close to the old VHS plastics that bend and

stuff. Oh yeah. Yeah, but I think if they'd have

made something more rigid like the GameStop ones,

they could have really had something special

with those. That's what they should be putting

in those 25th anniversary diecast BS tins. Oh

god, Funko and their decision. Why do we like

this stuff? I don't understand. Yeah, where did

you want to start with that question? Because

there's a lot of different answers. When did

you each first become a Funko fan? At what point

was it? You said it's only been a couple of years,

but what was the thing that got you into it?

You first. I don't think I ever really got into

it, honestly. Wow. along with some interesting

commentary, but I never really fully invested

it in the same way. I kind of got a little bit

of the itch of the completionist for certain

things, but I've sold sets. I wanted to put the

money elsewhere, but I think I appreciate the

Funkos, but I'm not. I don't know you're more

invested in them than I am I guess yeah for me

like I know for her she kind of tagged along

at first because it was I saw I think I think

it was uh Scanned off the white for hot topic

and I was like, wow, that's really cool and somebody

had priced it like 15 bucks or whatever and it

was like a $60 pop and i'm like i'll Okay, and

then I saw i'm a big spider -man fan. So I saw

like future foundation spider -man and stuff

and i'm like there's like a whole new facet here

and like it's accessible right you know and then

you know like i think it was like six months

later she's like don't you do it i'm like i'm

just talking about black lights you know and

then it's like well i have all the black lights

now and i have you know so i i think for me it

was the mole like it started off like i'll just

be an open box collector and i just like the

unique molds and stuff and then it became Well,

now I understand how valuable this is. I mean,

a lot of cool people and some of these are more

desirable. Maybe I should keep them in boxes,

right? And then as time moved on, it's like,

well, I really like the black lights, but I don't

like these ones. So then you have to separate

the emotional connection with the actual, you

know, does it really matter to you type thing,

right? And then that's where you start. Figuring

out how to pair off your it's the difference

between being a hoarder versus a collector, right?

You know, I can hoard all these but then I'm

also not able to enjoy as we've talked about

passionately many times and then at the same

time Can we sell off the ones that we know? We're

not they were cool, but somebody else might have

more intrinsic value to them, you know like yourself

or anybody else that's joined our whatnot streams

and You know find more value in it than what

we did right so we can put that money towards

other things that are more important like art

and You know buying more desirable grails and

stuff So well, it's the journey to honestly for

me. It's not even so much the fun goes Yeah time

spent like going on like many little mini adventures

places seeing what's out there meeting people

who are doing the same thing for me it's all

about the community and the relationship side

of it and funko just has the for Scalpers aside

and certain individuals aside for the most part

the funko family we have is what it's about for

me personally so for me the funko is just like

It's a bonus. Yeah, it's just a bonus along the

way because I just like the amount of stories

and smiles and relationships that have come from

it and even for us is just Having little fun

adventures to see if we can find something that

somebody else wants or needs that'll make a difference

in their life Yeah, we're finding a chase ourselves,

which, you know, that almost never happens. And

when it did, we sold it. So it was somebody who

loved you sold my huckleberry. Wow. She's got

her train hat on right now. She's got ran over.

You sold my huckleberry the night before closing

at HQ. And I went there and I was like, huh,

there's a giant 10 inch chase huckleberry just

sitting there. That's cool. That never happens.

Yeah, and then like six months later, well, it's

on its way to its new home. Yeah! He called it

to a friend whose wife loved huckleberry. I'm

like, well, okay, if she loves it, so be it.

In full disclosure though, Mike, I got permission.

Sounds like a clean -cut case of termite -itis,

all righty? Yes, you always want to get permission.

Forgiveness is great, but you've got to get the

permission first before the forgiveness. Yeah,

meanwhile, that piece can get edited out post

-production. No, that's not getting edited. Okay.

I got permission to sell the Huckleberry. There

you go, there you go. That was the one time,

right? The one time, right. One time that's right.

There you go. There's all the Batman beyonds

that I have Except the one. Oh, oh wait. No,

I just got it in the mail. Thanks Hey, you two

gonna be having conversations later down, and

it's gonna come back be like well How do you

remember how you store your fun cause like what

have you how do you track them all be like? I

have really good memory and it's like honey.

I can't figure out where I put the Batman Beyond.

Oh You're getting up there. You know the time

fell off a truck. Yeah, exactly We lost it in

transit That's right Oh man, oh boy. You see

folks, we had a whole conversation off air that

you'll never hear. So that's what all this is.

Yeah, exactly. But no, I mean, you know, people

will ask me, like, why are you a fan of Funko?

And yeah, I mean, I don't necessarily think I'm

a fan of the company. I'm a fan of the product.

Like Pops and, and not necessarily to a lesser

extent, but I've come around on sodas and really.

Don't want to buy from Funko for a hundred and

five dollars when they put sodas next to pops

and damage the pop boxes and heavy metal Halloween,

but like, you know Source block there Mike with

that. I know right I Also appreciate the differences

in individual artists who create each mold. Because

there are some artists that I've come across

who definitely stand out for their skill and

attention to detail, although they don't ever

get credit for it directly. You can tell the

different art styles and skill development and

that kind of thing. The Nazgul I have, for example,

that person's like top tier with the ability

to capture texture and fabric and dirt detail

and that kind of stuff. That artist was to me

one of the most standout ones I've seen. It's

a simple pop, but so much attention to detail.

But then other pops you see, it's like, they

just didn't care. Like that Mad Max vehicle,

it just came out. Oh, the Mad Max vehicle for

the 100th Warner Brothers. It's like, I know.

We're just going to take three Duplo blocks and

throw a pop on it. Congratulations. It's got

wheels that sell it for $45. Go. I was so disappointed.

I don't even know what they were thinking that

and then you look at things like the Nux car

and you're like How do you go from the Nux car

to the Warner Brothers Mad Max? Like you couldn't

even get the interceptor. You gave me the the

Tinker's vehicle Yeah, I don't even know what

that is if you ever see it it's just oh Yeah

They they are they are questionable and what

they choose and how they do but when you get

one, it's really special It's really special

to that box thing you noted as well like we got

three of the boxes because i was like man this

would be really cool to see like first time i

could actually order one of each and i kid you

not like all of them came in the way they packed

they gave us free free toilet paper in between

each Thing and I'm like every single one of these

is obliterated and I would love and they're all

the rares like I never hit rares and I hit like

a 500 soda and a 500 Freddie diamond which I'll

partake and get rid of those and when it's appropriate

I can figure out sanity wise what to do with

them, but it's like You didn't even you you didn't

even take the care to like it that I think they

just don't care in a lot of that stuff, right?

And it's not all the boxes, but this one definitely

sucked If you are charging a hundred and five

dollars right for something that is Quote -unquote

limited to the fact of like this is a special

thing This is our even though there wasn't a

fright night this year, you know, this is our

Halloween box. This is the like Camp fun days

great fine. There was like a small section of

the bus which was separate from the pops where

the sodas were like Segmented do something like

do something special with like stop putting all

the special crap into your 25th anniversary crap

that nobody wants Like I don't know anyone who

wants those those 25th anniversary ones. I mean,

it's kind of cool and Yeah, I just want to fast

forward past three ones. I'm hoping by my 44th

birthday in February Rewinds will be dead. I

I think they will I think they were I think we're

the last middle finger that uh, Mariotti and

then becker whoever it was I lost track that

kind of gave him like i'm on my way out guys

piece double finger jump off the cliff, you know,

um, well, I don't want mariotti to jump off a

cliff, but Jumping off the skyscraper from the

last action hero, you know Yeah, exactly But

in general, I mean, you know for me funcos are

and I'm sure for some people as A general thing.

They're the like we were talking about toy packaging

a while ago Most of the toy packaging I like

I don't Like I still have the the key the commander

kingdom Rodimus box. I only have the box I do

not have the insert I only have the box because

the toy is out of it's out of the box But like

with funko pops, it's a nice easy toy for anybody

at any age Normally, it's usually us man children

who collect them but It's one of those things

where you can open it nicely, you can pull it

out, you can display it, you can take pictures

with it, whatever. You can put it very nicely

right back in the box without damaging anything

and it's easy. That's fun. Yep. Yeah, and I like

the art on some of them, you know, there's I

mean that's one of the reasons I really like

the blacklight ones is because they're different

and they're cool and they stand out right but

you know, We see like hoard customs and a lot

of these other ones out there that make some

really badass art and really elevate the product

right and if I had the choice if I were to buy

a fun coat from somebody for 50 bucks Even if

it was an unofficial box, I'd rather buy it from

them if I had to choose right because again We're

talking about third party, you know as much as

I love funko They should be doing these things

not third party third party should be like well

dang. That's gonna be really tough to top It

shouldn't be like low -hanging fruit, right?

It makes me it makes me sad as you know in a

way after all these years collecting some of

the stuff because I have some really awesome

pops but The artwork on the box sucks, you know

But there's at least people out there that can

accentuate that for a price. Yeah, exactly and

I think the thing with me is also it's I Just

need my toys to exist as much as I am a Transformers

fan I have long since grown out of the fact of

being able to transform any action figure from

one mode to the other like I just need it to

sit there like all I need it to do is Oh, you

idiot. That's it. I just need you to sit here

and make noise, R2. That's all. Like, yeah. All's

I need. And that's another line. Like, it's not

super big, but the lights and sounds line, oh,

man. As long as they get the right. Oh, you want

to talk about obsessing over a Peter Cullen thing?

When they announced or they said they were doing

Lights and Sounds Optimus Prime, I literally

scoured every corner of the light side and the

dark side of the internet trying to find something

to make sure I was not going to buy this thing

if it wasn't the man himself. Because if it isn't

the man himself, then uh -uh. It ain't getting

luckily it is I wish and I know this goes to

his contract and I'm sure whatever I wish it

was more than two sayings right it is what it

is I wish it was like it should have Well, it

is but it's it's he it's only two lines from

him all the other sound is that is the tray is

the transform sound so But yeah, like why couldn't

they have done for like I mean, I'm sure He's

not gonna charge them too much more for a third

line like you know what I mean like and I get

it is what it is but like yeah as soon as I saw

that like literally I went like I I'm 6 '1 I'm

480 something pounds I almost did a backflip

in my apartment when I when that was announced

I'm like it but I was also like this isn't right

if they don't do justice to this Funko they did

this Hot damn. Here's my follow -up question.

Did you get it autographed? Well, no, I don't

have any Peter Cullen autographs. Thank you so

much for rubbing it in. You should see a look

on his face right now. It's like, well, I happen

to have one of those, too. What a jerk. I have

one autographed and one not autographed because

I had the, you know. And then you get to the

Indiana Jones one where they had no sound. Yeah,

the Indiana Jones one has no sound. It just lights

up. And I'm like, really? You couldn't even get

Harrison Ford? It was right before he retired.

I was hoping the Darth Vader lights and sounds

one would have James Earl Jones. It doesn't.

It's just sound effects. Look, if I want a lightsaber

sound effect, I can go find it on the internet.

I don't need a Funko pop. Yeah, Raspberry Pi

that one. I'll throw you a curveball though because

I know you're Batman fan, but So I'll tell you

my thought on the Batman lights and sound one

because that was the one that really had my interests

and There's nothing that pisses me off more knowing

that they got great value Kirkland Batman and

not Kevin Conroy Batman for that They couldn't

even get will will our net to do the voice of

Batman That's no disrespect to the person they

got to do the voice of Batman for that lights

and sounds Batman But he is not Batman. He's

the Sam's Club of Batman It's like when you get

a lights and sound pop and you have one like

Peter Collins and it's like wow, this is fantastic

There's a lights and sounds Batman you play goes.

I am the vengeance of this tonight. It's like

that's the best you got Yeah, I know I will say,

because I eventually want to have him on the

podcast, it is Funko's licensing guy, Jason,

and it's okay. Look, nobody knew, because this

is, again, going off the rails here, folks, but

nobody knew, and this is what I love about this,

nobody knew that Conroy had cancer. No, no, no,

no, I know I'm not saying this against you I'm

saying like yes would I have loved for this to

be Kevin Conroy Batman Absolutely, I would have

loved to it to be that but once this was released

and then a few months later the news came out

about how he was sick and he was fighting cancer

I'm like, oh Okay, maybe he wasn't well enough

to to do the stuff and It's a different Batman

voice. It's okay. It's fine It's like I have

no ill will towards Jason who did the who does

the voice for it? I think it's kind of cool.

I think he did like There's plenty of other Batman

voices, huh? It's a couple different Batmans.

Yeah, it's more Keaton than anything else. I

mean, I don't know if I go that far I'm not saying

I'm saying, like, as far as the sound of it,

as far as, like, what he's trying to inflect,

it's more... Michael... It's more Lego Batman

with happy pills. There you go. Batman with happy

pills. But I'll challenge you with this one,

because, I mean, nobody could have known, but

I heard there's this awesome thing called audio

MP3s and files and stuff. Like, digitally, they

wouldn't necessarily had to have Conroy record

those. They could have pulled that from just

about any source, kind of like what Peter Cullen

did. Yeah, I guess. I don't know. I don't know

how fun those licensing works. I'm not trying

to. I think they just didn't have the budget

for it. And they're like, we're going to test

this. And they're like, oh, oh, this is really

good. But now we have to spend money. So who

are we going to do? Peter Cullen. And then when

they approached Harrison Ford, Harrison Ford's

like F off. And so they're like, we're just going

to make it light up. People never know. Even

the guy at HQ is like, this is all it does. That's

so sad. Why couldn't it be snakes or something

like that? Like that would have been amazing.

Or maybe just throw like a boulder or something.

Yeah, it's just the lights in the statue light

up. The HQ guy just made me laugh. His face was

just deflated. He showed my sadness. Does the

flash one even make? It's just lights. You have,

let me see here, not counting the person that

is the crappiest Flash ever, you have Michael

Rosenbaum, you have idiot, Glee Boy, Grant Gustin,

you have those two guys. You could have had John

Wesley Shipp do it. OK, granted, he doesn't have

a hat on. But you could have had him do it. We're

in no shortness of flash voices around here.

Yeah. But yet you get no voice for really? Seriously?

Does he even have electric noises? I think it

does. But that just reinforces my point of how

they kind of like they cut corners. Yeah. Yeah,

they dip their toe in the water. Like, we'll

see if this. tanks or if this is wind and they

slowly ramped it up right and then I think they

ran out of budget with Peter Cullen so they're

like well indeed we're just gonna make your skull

I think that I think that Peter Cullen went actually

terrified them if they didn't do it I think that's

the only one that really terrified they would

have had you such a riot you would have had a

riot on your hands if it like I said the overwhelming

piece of emotion I had trying to find video like

I think it again it could have been diss trackers

it could have been somebody else I don't remember

I finally saw a video of this thing at some convention

on Instagram and I'm like, because everybody

was like, wait, is it? And I'm like, I've been

listening to that man's voice for my whole, I

was four years old when that cartoon debuted.

I know the man's voice. And if I tell you it's

Peter Cullen, it's Peter Cullen, damn it. I know

what the hell I'm talking about. My question

is what other Funko, maybe that's what happened

with the rewind is that they had to take out

of the rewind budget. for Peter Collins voice.

So that's why they were so terrible. It all went

into licensing for Transformers. Yeah, that's

what happened. Everything after that's been recovering.

I love it. They're blaming Transformers now.

What kind of fan are you? Oh, boy. All right.

So getting back to the questions, what was the

most money you spent on a toy or a toy item?

Oh. Across the years that's a I just spent like

160 on a sign Beyond you that's all yeah, I don't

I don't actually don't spend that much myself

He's the big spender not me. I spend a bit on

ones that I love but yeah, I mean Okay, so circa

2004 I spent 250 bucks plus tax on that Botcon

2004 that's worth, you know, yeah, like that

was like the first major purchase I ever had

for collectible and then going forward, I think

when I started getting into funcos and different

things like that, I so off the top of my head,

I think it was, oh yeah, the full set of San

Diego Comic Con Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

funcos. Oh, the four pack, the glow. Yeah, no

the individual metallics. Oh, that's right. Yeah

Close on my list for tomorrow, hopefully No,

that's it's more of a I'm gonna look at it and

decide and probably you'd see what I do But I've

got everything budgeted for the rest of the year

So, you know the the the max I think I paid I

got a really great That was really what put me

in a different level of thinking with collecting

and what I wanted to do with the stuff that I

had I think it was like twenty one hundred or

two thousand about two thousand after tax. And

it's worth way more than that because these ones

graded at eight and a half to nine. I got a back

so I don't know of anybody that has a grade nine

set except for me and. Just in the condition

they would have been in damaged I think go for

like. Donatella runs like what 750 something

like that. So for the faint of heart It's not

for the faint of heart, but that was the most

at the time I spent on a single set of pops And

now like I have like scooby and different ones

like that that all part, you know part with at

some point I'm sure your AP set the oh and I

well and I have the AP soda set for Peter Pan

Disney and I have the AP chase set for Peter

Pan Disney so You know going back just a moment

since you're talking about Peter Pan Yeah. We

have a Blacklight Captain Hook. Why the F do

we not have a Blacklight Peter Pan? That makes

no sense, Funko. Well, because they've got a

two -pack of him in his shadow form. It's so

hot -talking. Well, no, it's because he was part

of the Blacklight villain line. Oh, yeah, Blacklight

villains. He was a part of other lines. That's

why they made one of him. Yeah, yeah, but they

need to now make Peter and they need to make

Tink and they make Toodles and they need to make

everybody else. He needs a Disney heroes set,

right? I want a black light crocodile myself.

I'd be amazed. Black light Loki. Let's go. Wait,

wait, wait. Black light crocodile. What colors

would you make him since you can't make him the

normal colors? Green and yellow. You can do black

light. Really? Yeah. Likely likely shaggy sitting

over here looking for a good home and he's got

pretty much have blue green purple Yeah, I mean

that's your colors it can be done it can easily

be done Green yellow with purple is the chase.

Oh look, it's reptar Don't you dare tell them

to make chase black lights. I will smack you

I don't I don't need there's bad enough. I have

to go after chase soda black lights which I'm

gonna end up selling all my sodas now because

in boycott but I I don't need chase black lights.

You understand like it's one thing have a regular

with a chase black light How many black light

sodas do you have? I have all the TMNT blacklight

chases. I have the regular set I have pretty

much every blacklight soda that's been out including

their rares except for reptar and the Freddy

from this year and I pulled the 500 piece Freddy

werewolf out of the night the fright night box

seal which I'm gonna sell because I'm not oh

So I've got a lot of black like we have people

asking for sodas and stuff every weekend and

they mysteriously disappear every other week

when I have the sodas and except for a rare occasion

so Like the black light sodas I'm very happy

with but I would I'm gonna part with them. I

just it's Logistically, how do I display these

and you know, I'm still debating on the turtles

ones because they're really cool It just seems

like when you have the black light ones You need

to make like an entire room of black environment

just to do them justice. Yes So once again, it's

funny you say that have the original black lights

for the four turtles bebop and rocksteady they

didn't do a black light shredder did they they

did I have that okay I guess I don't have him

Somebody I interviewed for the show number of

episodes about 20 episodes or so ago now I'd

mentioned to that person that I loved the black

light Marvel Kate Bishop because it's purple

hair and I have a purple hair and all that and

everything else And he's like, yeah I triple

dog dare you to buy all of the black light Kate

Bishops and make an entire wall and get a like

a floor black light lamp and just have it displayed

and all. I'm like, really? He's like, yeah. I'm

like, no, I'll work. I've got three Kate Bishops

right now. You're on your way. Good news. They

have tons of them still at HQ a year and a half

later. We can always go get them for you. We

will feed your problem. Oh, man, it's bad. I

don't live out there anymore. It would have been

so much easier. That's a story for off air Alright

on the flip side of the most expensive stuff.

What was the cheapest toy you bought? What was

the best deal you ever got for a figure that

may have been worth quite a bit more than what

you paid? For me, you would be the Iron Man.

No for me it was I I got a Jurassic Park Funko

that Ellie on the with the Jeep And she had no

arms, so I got her for next to nothing. Just

because the store didn't know what to do with

her, and I told them, you know, you can't really

sell this. It's a broken product. So they gave

it to me for pretty much nothing. But I thought

it was funny because it just seemed to go with

the scene that she would have her arms bitten

off by the T -Rex. Yeah, absolutely. For me,

it made sense. 100%. Yeah, amazing thing happened

with the Midnight Suns. Oh, yeah. So yeah, on

my end of things, not once but twice. Thank you

GameStop for being unaware. Um, so a year ago

I pre -ordered midnight sons and I was the only

person in the store that pre -ordered it. We

had a, we had, we, I don't know if they still

work there or not, but one of our acquaintances

that we know had worked there and they were like,

Hey, your pre -order came in. Also the chase

for midnight sons is here and I put it with your

stuff. And I'm like, what, what? That that's

awesome. So I rushed to the store and they were

not. Fancy of holding things for certain people,

but I lucked to get it before the other manager

got in Well, they wouldn't hold it but they just

say if you come earlier then you're better off

better Because they didn't want to prioritize

right which is good So I got that right but then

here we are a year later and they're still apparently

cleaning out their warehouse from all the You

know clearing stuff that GameStop is want to

do now and they stumbled upon like four of these

just sitting in their back room and so I walked

in and I was like Playing dumb. I'm like, oh,

hey, I just happen to know that I have Ghost

Rider Midnight Sun. Are those Iron Man for sale?

Oh, let me take a look, you know, and they're

like, yeah, that's weird. They ring up as a penny.

I'm like, oh, they're like, well, which one did

you want? I was like, well, can I get can I get

all of them? Sure here just I said fantastic.

Here's four cents and they're like, oh here's

here's a cool Halloween tote. I'm like, wow,

this is awesome. You guys are great. I walked

out like this is amazing. So I have for Midnight

Sun Iron Man. Now we can pay it forward. That

we can pay it forward to other people thanks

to GameStop. So that was probably the best deal

I've gotten for a penny. I got four of the pre

-order Midnight Suns. Wow. And that completely

ruins my Nickelback joke. Damn. This is how you

remind me. That's right. That's my follow up

for Nickelback. That's right. this is how you

remind me oh boy all right yeah so and people

again fast forward the show you know the story

by now best deal i ever got and i didn't even

have to drink the nasty ass diet soda that it

came with little sweet You buy three Diet Dr.

Peppers, you mail in the QPCs, and Bob's your

uncle four to six weeks later, you got a Justin

Guarini Lil Sweet Funko Pop. So that's where

that came from. Yes. It was a Diet Dr. Pepper

soda promotion thing. You bought three 12 -ounce

or 20 -ounce bottles, and you sent in the...

Basically, what we used to do as kids in the

80s when... You know, we would go to the store.

Mom, this Kool -Aid packet has a thing on it

where we could get a free thing. How many do

we need? By 10. Yeah. Yeah, basically, by 10,

send it in, wait about three and a half months,

and there you go. Oh, man. I just realized. So

in line with that. Lucky Charms back in the day

in the 80s. They were doing this thing where

if you had enough It was kind of like ABC box

tops like the box tops for schools and stuff

It was similar to that but it was it was the

UPC thing you mailed in like five box tops Three

and a half months later. You would get a personalized

name engraved four leaf clover I missed this

promotion. What year was this? This was 1980.

I am not a fan of the Goldbergs, but I'm going

to use their reference. It was 1980 something.

It was 88, 89, 90. I forget what it was, but

it was like 80. That was a time when like a box

of Lucky Charms back then, the last I remember

that was when they came out with like rainbows

or purple clovers or whatever it was. And I was

like, oh. that's neat and then you know getting

a box that was like mom got paid let's go celebrate

i think we got a box of official lucky charms

for breakfast that's cool it was green clovers

and purple horseshoes thank you very much yeah

yeah pretty much screw you and your marshmallows

It's fluff another don't you know But yeah, the

the Justin Guarini diet dr. Pepper the little

sweet Funko pop because It took me about four

of those commercials to realize. Oh my god. That's

the kid from American Idol's first season state.

Yeah That name rings a bell cuz like nice folding

you deserve a raise. Thank you You do deserve

a raise in the form of a sweet diet, Dr. Pepper.

Ooh, sip it. Mm, that is sweet. These are my

delicates. Tumble dry, extra heat. I'll take

these. He just folds. Isn't she great? How do

you guys know? You're sweet going back and it's

been psycho. Diet, Dr. Pepper. It's the sweet

one. What happened to him? Because I didn't,

like, it's kind of like a show from Kelly to...

Justin from Justin to Kelly that movie came out

and like yeah off and then he just kind of like

cratered He's not he's still around. Yeah, he's

got a Okay music career, I guess and he does

other things. He's I don't know what he does

I've been wanting to get an interview with him

because from Justin to Kelly is 20 years old

this year. Yeah, it is Wow that movie sucked

Movie is so badly so bad in the worst not bad

in a good way bad in the worst ways But that's

a discussion for a different episode of a different

show Well, no, it didn't age well when it was

released Well, I remember his hair that was the

biggest thing that stuck out to me when you know

even I'm like that can't be the same He's a doctor.

What? Yeah, he's a little sweet from diet. Dr.

Pepper that blows my mind. Yeah Absolutely No,

that's a different network The voice oh boy NBC

Oh Lord Yeah, and why don't we have a Carson

Daly pop yet? Like come on. I mean we got Brittany.

We got Christina to be getting Christina I don't

know if we have a Christina, but I know we got

I know we got Britney Pops, I know we got B -Rabbit,

I don't know if we have a specific Eminem Funko

Pop that isn't B -Rabbit, but... No, there's

no, not yet. There may be a Funko album for him

at some point, maybe, but... Maybe, yeah. Alright,

what modern and or vintage toy lines are you

currently collecting? Ooh. We are moving on to

the, more like the bomb roll stuff right now.

Modern vintage toy lines. Modern? Oh, you mean

update the old ones? Oh. Yeah. You'd have to

answer that one. What would you consider modern

vintage? I guess that's where my brain's, like,

short of you. Modern and or vintage basically

modern is anything from 2000 and now vintage

is 99 all the way I was like amalgamation of

both. I'm like wait No, no, no modern and or

vintage got I missed the and or part. Okay There

you go, you can start over now no, go ahead no

you first ladies first I Know go ahead. No, I'm

passing. I'm opting out on this one. Somebody

answer the damn question already We are we're

moving into we found a lot of cool designer toy

and more modern in the modern category like other

companies like gas'll cast and abominable and

dumpster fire and There's this really cool one.

I got from New York coming. That's made. It's

called Jimmy I guess and it's like this foot

tall Skull dude, it's like half Kraken half Skeleton

with a M &M type jacket on it's like blood red

and stuff. It's really neat. So I think for me

it's Brand because we've met a lot of cool people

in a lot of different experiences this Finding

things outside of fun care, right? Cuz fun Co

is not gonna be around forever Especially if

they keep doing VHS rewinds and other things

like that. So, you know being able to Get other

people hooked on that and like mondo Understand

they bought Mondo, but I'm really itching to

get my hands on that urban Aztec Godzilla and

a lot of his urban Aztec stuff for Wolverine

and Boba Fett all so good You know, I want display

pieces. I want things I can appreciate keep the

box but also Know that it's gonna be like a centerpiece

of conversation stuff whether it's on a stream

or just walking by like yeah, that looks sweet

and just Chefs kiss and keep moving. There's

so much up -and -coming designer toy options.

There's so many. Yeah, there is. It's hard to

keep track of them all, honestly. Yep, absolutely.

Yeah, you say display pieces. Oh, you mean like

the giant moments you can put on your wall? Here,

have a home alone moment you can put on your

wall. Have Christmas year round. No, I said display

pieces, not bookends. Funny that's funny But

I just the other day when I was moving the collection

around I just noticed Because I hadn't noticed

it before in that moment with the staircase They

actually they went I will fully praise funko

for the design on this thing because whoever

designed it They actually made the other characters

in the photos They look like funko versions of

buzz and Kate and everybody like where are those

pops? Like, I know we did just get a new three

more Home Alone, but it's like, I don't need

another wet bandit with a Christmas stocking

in his mouth. I don't need a Kevin doing his

little, yes, oh my God, I got the bad guy pose.

Like, I want other characters from the line.

You already have. The wet bandits twice because

they have the individual ones of the two of them

and then they have the two -pack Plus you got

Kevin you get two Kevin's you get the original

Kevin with the with the ironing board and the

crowbar and then you got the Holiday hat Kevin

when he's on his way home from shopping. So that's

more than I existed. So you got me beef there

Well, I have them all they're all over here I've

got the the Christmas vacation moment is isn't

the bottom the home alone moments That's a nice

one. I got the VHS album for that. That's a I

got it because of the mold, you know I am Christmas

vacation complete. There you go. Only thing I

don't have I think is the the wasn't that just

an ornament? Oh wait, maybe that's what it is.

Yeah, maybe that new or yeah, that makes me so

mad They made it a friggin ornament. No make

it a pop ride. You idiots. I'd be amazing. I

would so buy an uncle Eddie 100 % complete shitter.

Yep Shitter's full. That's right but No, they

so they released it's just like the the wet bandits

they released Clark and Eddie individually then

they put them in two -pack I don't have the the

two -pack so technically I guess I'm not Christmas

vacation complete but I am in the sense of I

have every original one they did outside of that

two -pack Mean you can as long as you can justify

I guess you're complete. Yeah, you're still missing

one. Just like that Batman Beyond You're complete

enough for yourself I've got the box right here

It's in the box even comes in a seven book of

pop seven bucks a pop pop armor, you know, come

on now I will say this in defense of the pop

moments because I was gonna get one of those

and it was gonna be the Stranger Things one because

I just loved that scene, right? Mm -hmm. And

then Amazon shipped them and obliterate them.

I'm like, well I'm out for what it cost So then

I was like, I'll just you know But I will say

when we were HQ a couple weeks ago They had the

Beauty and the Beast one that just came out and

I gotta say of all the movie like big display

pieces like that the Beauty and the Beast one

Is the best it's like top notch like that's how

it should be it's the same way like if you're

looking at the movie posters that fun go does

the giant ones like dressing park one okay that's

neat. What the dark night one with the. Legend,

yeah. Yeah that those movie posters when they

nail it Indiana Jones one the big pops. Yeah

Emily even found out the other day She's like,

you know, you can unscrew take those apart safely

I'm like what so like we can actually disassemble

and have those pops like six inch full -size

sitting outside the box and you'd never know

that they Movie poster like they did a really

nice job with those but the Beauty and the Beast

one was fantastic because it has all the little

figures scale to size and Then you have Belle

and the Beast there and you're like wow That's

everything and then you get the stranger things

when the more I look at it. It's like this is

just literally a hunk of plastic ledge inside

a giant plastic with Eddie and Dustin and like

the cheapest Demogorgon bat ever hanging on the

wall for 70 bucks How how did you go from this

all Disney? That's right licensing money. Okay.

There you go Yeah, so, you know, they didn't

spend that Netflix money well, but they did really

top with the with the Beauty Beast one Which

is important because honestly I think they also

do that because that is the biggest audience

for that line is the families the children and

the display purposes like that they're appealing

to the Strongest base for that line. Yeah, right

I am all about the display ability of the pop

moments as long as it's a pop moment thing that

I absolutely want Yep. Yeah, I don't buy them

all but gonna want it Yeah. Well, exactly. But

again, if I'm going to be Christmas vacation

complete, I need the thing. You know, I need

the house. Hello. Thank God it doesn't have this

weird ass tropical bird next to it, though, unlike

some other houses we know. That entire movie,

the most annoying thing is Kevin. It's probably

why I like it, because I know it bothers people.

Yeah, what about the fact that they never made

an elli pop? Don't get me started on the elli

rant! You bastard! Don't get me started on the

elli rant! I am not a divorce attorney. I cannot

help you. who get divorced over Ellie? No, because

I had to do research into this and I found out

that originally they didn't want to have anything

for Ellie because they wanted Ellie to be a surprise

when it released. So they made it so no one could

produce Ellie merch originally. And then also

when they produced the upline, they focused on

Carl and Doug because obviously the most notable,

et cetera, you know, not like a whatever, but

they. have yet to make a standalone Ellie, Soda,

or Funko. They have her paired with Carl, but

not on her own. So that's just my personal thing.

Even if it's her when she's little, that's a

cute moment there. If they did that, I would

be done with my rant, but they still haven't

done that. Yeah, and we won't talk about the

new movie, which completely... No, the short?

No. That's just a cash grab. So anyway. We're

not going there. Well, let's face it. Disney

needs all the cash they can get. But let's not

go there. So do you visit toy shows or conventions?

When you visit toy shows or conventions, do you

have a typical methodology? Do you bring a certain

amount of money for what you're searching for,

et cetera, et cetera? I have never actually been

to one. I don't want to answer that. I'm a shameful

person. I mean, I've been to. One or two conventions

when I lived near Pittsburgh, and it was pretty

poor like we're talking like yard sale level

You know no no disrespect to the Pittsburgh Post

Gazette and whatever the up in Monroe the Monroeville

comic Monroeville PA But it was yard sale level

whatever right you know I got some pictures of

the ecto wanted things outside I thought was

cool, but I was like man I could buy all this

stuff of the yard sale like we're talking like

they were like at a comic con they priced it

like you were at sdcc and i'm like this is my

grandmother sold this a couple years ago and

it was 20 bucks you're asking 10 times that i

know so i mean for me i'm i i haven't been anything

recently but i've got a lot of great friends

and stuff that i've made um through third party

channels and stuff that have gone to comic con

and things and i've been able to like participate

so budget wise i kind of like know okay i i'm

gonna spend x amount i know what i'm in for right

and i trade and do things like that. All legal,

by the way. Oh, of course. And then I did sign

up and get, for SDCC, a friend of mine was like,

well, you should sign up as a volunteer. I'm

like, wait, you can do that? He's like, yeah,

yeah, sure. Go in, fill out your comic con stuff,

because it's a completely random chance to get

into the tickets for these, and it's very tough.

So I was like, well. I can't get the tickets

this year, but I'll sign up as a volunteer and

I got accepted I think to be a volunteer at San

Diego next year and I'm like super pumped because

I'm like Really? I might actually get to go to

my first con and just even if I'm like working

but not working It'll be really cool to like

go in but I would say you just budget. It's not

about budget. It's about expectation, right?

You know, there's a cost to everything but I'm

excited to go in there and get actual autographs

myself and meet people and do things and But

anything local and stuff like a lot of it's just

There we don't live in an area where that's like

accessible I think Vancouver down south has one

coming up or whatever We're like Steve downs

from halo and different things GI Joe people

are gonna be there and what I think is actually

might be down in your area of the woods Either

the answer. Yeah Puyallup has one as well up

in Washington But not had a chance to partake

in those and that's yet but like we've got Emerald

City comic -con coming up this year that Know

last year's kind of skirt and line, but I think

this year for sure We're gonna make a point to

go down and hang out and you know Really getting

great ingrained in a lot of that stuff. So, you

know, this will be a year first for us Very awesome.

Very awesome What is your motivation for purchasing

toys to display play fiddle describe your collecting

style Are you a completionist storyteller cherry

picker or otherwise? My mini collection, I have

a bit of both. I have a box of just quirky weird

stuff that I collect. I just love the characters

like Zombieland and stuff like that, but I only

have a few lines I am a completionist for. You

got your Mad Max. I got Mad Wax. Mad Max. Mad

Max, the other. Fifth Elements, your Up, your...

Big Feet because, or Big Foots. Your Doc Holliday.

Oh, I love tombstone. I like cowboys. I have

a random collection of chicken and rooster related

pops. Like, yeah, I don't really make sense,

but I do. So I assume you have a whole shelf

of Woody's then, huh? No. She said lying. Actually,

no, I don't have one of them. No, you don't.

No, I've got the rough and tumble cowboys. rip

from Yellowstone and the Tombstone guys. I don't

know, Woody's kind of rough and tumble I mean

he had to face your brother Sid Vicious over

there, shirring down the toy house like, oh boy.

He kind of did it in a cowardly way though I

have to say. Wow, shots fired at Toy Story ladies

and gentlemen, you heard it here first. Holy

crap. Wow, he's called Tom Hanks a coward. Well,

I know Tom Hanks is kind of a... I don't know.

He's in kind of shady places these the last little

while. Have you read Tim Allen's book, Don't

Stand Too Close to a Naked Man? I don't know

how much shady you can get than Tim Allen. I

have it! No, I have it! I have! Well, this is

a real thing. Wow, I'm finding out about this

just now. Yeah, this is back in the 90s I think

or early 2000s he released his first book Which

is entitled do not stands too close to a naked

man. I was back in his his his toolman Tim days

because I remember having and reading the book

because I Was interested and see what he I always

liked those autobiographical type type things.

So So you guys have one child currently This

is for context. It's like a long period. No,

no, this is for context. So the question, it

was a hard, we took a hard left turn down a different

road. Trying to move on. For shady people to

children, your mind takes a minute to adjust.

No, no, no. Why are we still banked on waiting

to answer the question about the emotional connection

and stuff with the collection? Cool, we can go.

No, no, no, go ahead. Thought you had already

answered that question. Oh, no, she was still

talking y 'all went down dissing Toy Story and

everything else I just had I didn't just Toy

Story Go on you emotional No, I should say the

reason I started collecting, you know, we talked

about this today actually is there you know,

there's an emotional hook There's a lot of it

that you know, there's characters I like characters

resonate with me and stuff like that and Yes

one of the reasons why i'm selling off some of

the stuff that i have there because when you

first start collecting something i'm sure you

can relate to this transformers everything is

you want to buy everything you want to get everything

and then you start to think and maybe you do

or don't but you start to think well do i really

need all of them which ones matter the most like

that rod of his prime right yeah so for me like

i collect transformers but i really if i had

to keep any of it would be the peter colen office

primes and stuff right i don't care about the

rest of them so. You know um that for me that's

it's an emotional hook and then there's obviously

some really cool sets and things I want to collect

like what if and stuff but you know when at times

right I have no problem parting with them you

know but I wouldn't necessarily say OCD but I

think for like her it was fun watching her like

drool over the fact that there's a fifth element

set you know a big level of care that it took

to get those come back graded and then it's a

matter of the OCD kicks in like well Leeloo came

back in eight. Can we do better? That's how I

am with SDCC Donatello. I have an eight Donatello,

but the rest of the set's an eight and a half,

so it still averages to me a nine. It's like,

I can do better. I'd rather be at that level

of OCD than to be like, I've got to have all

these $5 pops that are part of the set, and then

they are worth, and they mean no value to me

monetarily or emotionally. Yeah, well I've been

trying to make this joke ever since they mentioned

they have a fifth element set folks If you want

another grade on the lilu pop, it's gonna be

a more expensive multi pass I love that movie.

I love that movie so much I so wanted to go to

the, they had it back in theaters for one night

only. I think Fathom, I still wanted to go. I

didn't get to go to it, but it's all right. It

is what it is. I still have it on whatever physical

or digital media I have it on. I only have four

copies of it. So, you know, if you ever need

one. Right. I'm sure that'll cost me another

$500. Right. Got it. All right. It'll come vacuum

rat sealed and wrapped I mean depending on what

I do I would throw a copy in for you for free

because I do have One perfect color grade of

it and then I have the rest of them for like

factory art. So, you know, I can Yeah, no, I'm

good All right So the reason why I asked about

how many kids you guys have is question number

30 Have you ever purchased a vintage toy for

a child because you thought it would be fun based

on your own preferences? answer we can give.

Yeah and that was actually for me but yeah she

took it over and greatly enjoyed it so transformation

is not too difficult on that one. Thanks Gobots.

Yeah original Gobots. Yep gotta love those Kmart

toys. Well this one still had the wheels and

everything on it too which was really neat a

lot of them were breakable. Broken. Oh, yeah

that I think that's the best one that we had

I mean if you count vintage being like the rerelease

of the 90s Jurassic Park dinosaurs Which we're

gonna pardon play with you know get on our show

next week or whatever But well, I mean that movie

is 30 years old this year. So Yeah, yeah, we

could do it. We can do that dressing. We'll have

transformers in Jurassic Park this week I think

like how you guys continually have reminders

to yourselves how old you are It's just the way

I live my life, don't you know? Have you ever

purchased a toy for a child with the ulterior

motive of playing with it yourself? Yes? That

was a slow answer. Have you? Me, no. No, because

I would never have been given the option to play

with it. By vice -letting for her, I never see

it again. That's true. No permission granted.

Access denied. Do you do any toy modifications

or customs? Painting, building, building dioramas,

and this is kind of where your art can come in,

Emily. I don't know what you're talking about.

OK, then question the next one. On to the next

one. Yeah. I do some, obviously I do a lot of

customs of Funkos because of the early days of

James deciding he was going to rip open every

single Funko he got and then thought, hey, I'd

like this done with it. So how about this? So

that was kind of the beginning of that journey.

And then I just found along the way that I kept

coming across people who had wishes of things

that they hoped Funko would have done or things

that they know Funko would never do, like my

Anakin one I just finished. of Anakin slaughtering

the younglings. So I did that one as just a laugh

for custom. I made it from a flash scene, from

that flash baby scene. So yeah, that was a fun

one. So for me, the art and the customizing is

one my own there because I find it very relaxing

and healing. But another thing is people just

keep coming into my life who, for whatever reason,

and I'm thankful for it, they are at a point

in their life where they benefit from Customs

being done that either remind them of her loved

ones or something that makes us smile and for

me That's all the motivation I need so that's

where I'm at with what I do with customizing

Very cool. Very cool Yeah, somebody told me the

other day. Oh you can get you because it my biggest

thing is and I don't know what It was last year.

I don't remember when Funko actually was like

hey Would you like to suggest stuff for us to

maybe do in the future? There was this whole

web page on the website about being able to suggest

something to them to do in the future. Yeah.

The only time I ever filled that out, because

I have been asking since I started collecting

in 2017 with Funko Pops, I want an Alf Funko.

Look, if we can do Gonzo, and Gonzo's nose is

frigging huge. I heard this on Sully's show.

You were very passionate about wanting Alf Funko.

And I know silly doesn't work for him anymore,

but come on That's a toughie because I I grew

up with Alf and I remember missing the season

finale because Like dad like we were the remote

controls back in the day, right and dad did watch

it. I'm like something, you know And there was

this show about a little person That was also

a detective. I don't know. He was like an inventor

and then gadgets They were after this coin this

other dude had it was like a special tracker

like they were on the same night on Monday nights

I don't know. Yeah, but I had an alf stuffy growing

up. Like my brother and I got one each And they

were really cool, but we've never seen anything

like alf I thought he was still around as we're

gonna do the commercial thing But yeah, we what

a missed opportunity. Like why do we not have

a flock 10 inch alf? So Here's my issue now,

since I recorded with Sully, and if you had listened

to the one with Jason from Seven Bucks, I go

into the rant almost every episode. As far as

I know, Paul Fusco, who is the creator of the

character and all that, he still has the rights

and everything else. I'm sure Funko could go

to him and say, Let's do this. I'm sure Funko

and Shout Factory could have teamed up because

Shout Factory just released the complete series.

And if you buy the ultimate edition complete

series, it's like $275, and you get the Blu -rays,

and then this, and then that, and a poster. I'm

like, why isn't there an Al Funko pop in that

giant bundle that Shout Factory has? Like, come

on, Funko. I'd have been there day one. They

won. I mean, I'm still going to get the DVD set.

That's fine. That's not a problem. But like,

come on, Funko. Get your shit together. Yeah,

I'd have been there day one. There's a lot of

licenses and things like that that I wish they

would dive into, right? But that's why I like

the third party stuff. Like, I don't dabble in

customs to the level that Emily does or anything.

But I see a lot of people out there that do have

that. You know, I'm sure someone out there is

slowly like they can cheat in 3d print, but I'd

rather just have a legit funko or a legit Flock

out like be done with it Well, like I said, I

mean I could you know, we could find a Chewbacca

body and I could just you know Pay her to get

all the supplies she needs to make me an actual

elf head to put on the funko body I mean, I've

got a Chewbacca I mean, or you can just go to

the box. I found out there's a box lunch flock

Chewbacca from the solo movie that can be done.

You have to do some clever editing with the bandolier.

That's just a customizer thing I have. I'm kind

of like an old fashioned customizer that I love

kitbashing because for me, it's the creativity

of how you get these things that aren't supposed

to go together. You put them together like a

Frankenstein thing. I really like that. But I

get kind of jaded by all these fancy folk now

with 3D printers who can just print whatever

they want and make it look seamless for me. Where's

the challenge in that? Only thing I have and

I don't have my buddy Steve. He's huge into 3d

printing, but he's doing it for himself more

than anything else He does a lot of 3d printed

Star Trek ships for himself But beautiful I need

I need an original Enterprise, please from Star

Trek 2 I can hear my internal wallet scream I

don't think it would be that like they're small.

What what he's oh, I'm thinking like big desks.

Oh, no. Yeah, I'm like I could I could have a

replica like almost like a 124 You probably have

like an entire bed set. There's Your bed frame

I would do it Don't say stuff like that to us

because you know, we're that stupid. We will

find a way But I was gonna say the only thing

where the hell is it oh it's over there I found

it on Etsy. I again Huge fan of purple. So I

found a guy on Etsy who does Does 3d printings

and he does 3d printings of the Funko sign. So

I have it's just a small like I thought it was

gonna be bigger but it's just a small little

one and I was like oh that's cool it'll work

with the rest of the display that's that's fun

yeah I have I have nothing against 3d printing

at all but yet you know the the AI stuff can

go to hell AI needs to die I want actual intelligence

not artificial intelligence Yeah, the 3D printing

can just be a different way of expressing an

artist's vision they do in modeling and stuff

like that. So I'm totally fine with that. I'm

just being cheeky in regards to personally just

challenging them. And I know my stuff will always

be more rustic than those people who have that

high tech stuff. She sells herself short on that,

though, because, like, I mean, Mike, you like

Pokemon, right? Right? Kind of. I mean, you know

what this sends you some some photos or go to

her website and check it out so you can see like

the cubone that she did and the Digimon that

she did like those to me are things that like

I look at those and I'm like, wow, that is freaking

awesome. You know, no 3D printer can capture

that kind of texture or manufacturing like this

all hand done, right? And this would be a legitimate

licensed Funko if they would just do cool things

like that And then there's a level of people

that do that type of stuff with 3d printing and

they can maybe mirror it with paint special painting

effects and stuff But yeah, there is something

to be said for the practicality of like raw material

and handmade right that you know, yeah That's

just the way it is so I mean for me. I'm biased

I'll always I'll always represent and appreciate

the kit bashing But yeah 3d printing has its

has its perks like there's little signs you're

talking about They they could have something

cool with like digital coins for that kind of

thing for the NFTs and stuff like that You know

and the awesome artists who are making yeah designer

toys and stuff like that That's awesome for them

to be able just at their own desk print their

own designer toy and just run with it like yeah,

that's amazing access to technology and stuff

so I'm not going against it I'm just saying for

basic folk it's just kind of funny to watch it

because for me I get feedback from sometimes

for people who are used to that now so they think

it's just something that was created with you

know like a printer or any something like that

but it's a different reality. Absolutely. Do

you think toy companies should specifically have

adult collector toys child toys or find a way

to mix both? No, I'm I'm all for every like a

community enjoying something so I say both just

for me. Yep Yeah, I would agree with that only

because I'm also still a kid at heart So you're

always gonna have something even if you targeted

at children that adult collectors or you know

Whatever age group is always gonna gravitate

towards so like I was looking at Walmart the

other day and I was like man these Cyberverse

transformers are pretty neat like yeah They're

solid, you know, they have great mold. They've

got texture and articulation in the paint job.

Like Starscream looked fantastic. There was another

one I was trying to look at that I couldn't remember

the name offhand, but it looks really cool, right?

And then you pick up like the itty bitties that

are actual official main line and you're like,

this is 10 bucks and it's two inches tall and

the arm just fell off. Like what happened? You

know, so like, I think, I think for me, The I

agree that it should be both that being said

there are toys out there that those other companies

make that You know, I don't know offhand all

of them, but there's tons of them right that

make the the more articulated like, you know

They oh, yeah Those are what I would consider

more adult But if there's people out there, I

know they get those because they share that experience

with their kids, right? But there's like a caveat

like I'm gonna buy this And you can play with

it with me, but it's still mine. So I own you.

You can have it when I'm either dead or you turn

18 and move out of the house. The house catches

fire and it just happens to fall somewhere and

logistics is living and ends up on your shelf.

All right. So much like earlier in the episode

about the whole bad parents and this, that and

the other thing. And as I mentioned with my own

father telling me at six years old, this is where

this question comes from, that I was too old

to play with toys. Do you have a my parents got

rid of my toys story? I mean, them throwing my

pine cones out the door. Is that getting rid

of my toys? No, I'm just kidding. I don't think.

you know what i think i have to go back to my

original answer with i think a lot of times they

didn't know what toys i had because i had to

keep it secret because my grandmother got them

for me and they weren't supposed to find out

so for me that was kind of a mini game was keeping

my toys hidden i think if they knew where i got

them and why i got them they would get rid of

them it's like my grandma would even do little

things like get those calendars and have the

chocolate in them for each day. Oh yeah. And

that was like a definite no -no. So she she'd

always have it in her her Corvette because she

was like 70 and had a Corvette. No, a Firebird.

Right. She was awesome. But anyway, she went

in her car. She'd always keep one of those calendars.

So every time I'd visit her, she'd give me some

of that calendar. So it's like we had our own

little underground system of toys. and treats

and stuff that I think, yeah, if my parents knew

about them, they'd probably get rid of all of

them. So that was just part of my childhood growing

up, underground. For me, I think it was, we did

The Purge every year, or whenever the stepdad

got very uppity. So the Legos usually survived,

because how are you gonna separate Legos? They're

all in a pile. I still have a... The one and

only toy that I remember they bought in conjunction

for my brother and I we got the Lego monorail

the original space monorail Oh, wow. Yeah, I

don't have the box by sent all that to my brother

Joe I hope you still have the Lego set and the

instructions having been four years removed from

sending it to you because oh man that things

like You know, I have that we have all the space

police ones The black Tron set stuff that Lego

would never be able to release nowadays in the

PC culture just with naming conventions and things,

right? But these were back in the day. Those

those sets were like highly desirable and they

were one of the few if only sets my parents would

get. But then if it wasn't the Lego set, though,

like we had action figures, we had video handheld

video games from Tiger Electronics, that kind

of stuff. A lot of that got lost to the wall.

It's going to go to the yard sale. And I'm like,

crap. You know Star Wars toys. We had the old

Imperial shuttle. My uncle Brian was cool. Like

he got laser tag You know, we had the laser tag

sets with the sensors like you could shoot those

things 30 50 100 yards and they would still hit

targets like we practice sniping, right? I would

love to have those this day, but they all got

yard sale, you know So that was the sucky part

about it. My mom had more genteel approach to

it You know, my stepdad was just like get it

the hell out of here and he would throw him A

five -gallon bucket and it would just go to the

dump and I'm like, well that sucks. So, you know

Yay, mom, I'm dealing with trauma right now So

many so many lost lost opportunities So many

so many other little kids getting happy finding

Them even more bitter Well, you know, yeah, it's

kind of the case Again, we're all children, so

at least the men are, anyway. I'm not jaded.

No. And due to copyright law, I cannot throw

Aerosmith in right here. 90s classic. Good old

jaded. Do you feel you are coming to an end of

your active collecting? If so, what has signified

this phase for you? Was it... Was there ever

a moment where you were done with toys altogether?

Have you ever considered stopping as a collector

or even selling your whole collection? Well,

there you go. I would say so. We actually revisit

that quite often. No, I think it's just more

redirecting or replanting or reorganizing, reprioritizing.

I don't think it's giving up on it. It's just,

yeah, just redirecting it. Yeah, I I stopped

collecting like I told you earlier the transformers

and stuff like circa 2009 just because of price

and things like that I sold off multiple collections

of blu -rays and DVD sets of stuff that funimation

had for you like I collect a little bit everything

over the years and I reached a law where I didn't

collect anything then I you know met Emily and

you know, I started dabbling a little bit before

that like with the Lego back the future set in

the OG one the Ghostbusters set some overwatch

Legos and things and I think it's more now like

having having done collecting with funko and

various vinyls and stuff Realizing that it's

not just funko, right? There's other vinyls There's

other desirable things out there. So the funko's

I want to keep and we want to keep together are

things that have an emotional connection that

we've We really appreciate the characters, but

also, you know resonate with you know, if we

ever wanted to pass them on like that Fugitive

Toys Batman Beyond PSA grade 9 that's sitting

on my shelf behind me, you know one day they'll

find a new home, right but Just kind of downsizing

and not going after everything because you get

that emotional hook and you want to be like Oh,

I gotta have it all and you realize there's like

10 ,000 fun because and you're like shit that's

not gonna be tenable for a certain decision to

yeah, I mean Sometimes there's bigger like societal

or ethical things even when like remember when

the Bob Ross documentary Yeah, I was gonna get

a Bob Ross NFT at first I mean I got them through

other means not and I and I justify it because

I didn't necessarily get them myself directly

So I didn't pay money for them However, I wasn't

gonna go in on those because of ethical reasons

after seeing the Netflix documentary, right?

So I don't want to support that kind of habit,

but somebody else did It doesn't mean I have

to lock myself out of it, but I won't directly

support bad habits with that type of stuff. So,

you know, we try to be cautious of those sorts

of things like with Charizard. Charizard was

my recent theme on it. So that's why I got rid

of my, well, not just that, but I also wanted

to raise money for my art stuff. But there was

twofold on that. The other one was just that

whole Char, metallic Charizard nonsense. I didn't

want to support that. So I just kind of, two

reasons I opted out of the. Pokemon Funkos at

this point What is something that does not have

a toy of it you would love to have in toy form

like elf Oh me it's gladdose from portal 2 I

love gladdose. She's like my spirit form She

does not have you know regards to Funkos I would

love an 18 inch gladdose I would I would be very

happy with with the sounds real sounds and lights.

Could you imagine? That would make me happy.

That's my personal one. Yeah, I'm gonna accentuate

that by saying my equivalent would be a 10 -inch

flocked Super Saiyan 4 Goku from Dragon Ball

GT. Like we've got all these other, I would say

lame molds except for like one or two, but they

really missed an opportunity to do something

unique with some of those anime and various more

popular characters, right? Because a lot of them

like the chases and stuff are very lame, but

We don't have, I want some pops of more obscure

stuff like yeah, GLaDOS. I'll just say GLaDOS.

That's a damn missed opportunity. Let's go. And

then it can be lights and sounds with the actual

voice actress. That would be amazing. Let's go.

She's such a cool person too. Yeah, like that

and they're they're like neighbors valve is right

right there Yeah, no kidding like where's the

where's the partnership and licensing for that?

Like you could have gave like say yes We'll get

you to record voices for a I would pay $200 for

that if you can make an 18 -inch Iron Man for

Vivi for 150 bucks you can make a freaking 18

-inch lights and sounds cell or Gladys with voice

at like ten lines pre -recorded There goes my

budget Yeah, I mean if they can make all that

They really shouldn't be making crappy 18 -inch

Funko gold iron man. No, I Glados with lights

and sounds. Yeah, exactly. I can put up against

an og Chell 4 inch and be like I have the Vader

I have the Boba Fett like and I'm gonna get the

18 inch Loki because I love Hiddleston and everything

but that's besides the point they They don't

stand up. Okay, dark side of the Star Wars universe

here. If they ever made an 18 inch Django Fett,

his head has to actually be removable. Yes. With

little saber scars on his neck. You got to make

it an oblong box to ultra -wide it's got to have

the head on a podium next to him So you can have

a whole headless series. There's Ned Stark. There's

The guy from they have two other ones that are

headless already. So just make a bigger one Yeah,

there you go. I like to see I like where this

is going Funko. I hope you're listening like

If they were, they're not going to let us back

in HQ. No, if they were listening, we're not

going to be able to get back in HQ. It's been

a good adventure. Have fun. Sorry. Oh boy. What

is a toy you'd love to have scaled up and functional

for the real world? So basically, any of these

18 inches, but it actually robotically works.

You're the sound like you have an answer. So

I'm just gonna keep saying glass cuz I want to

mount her to my ceiling So anyone she can insult

like I'm just That's my answer You sure have

like Gundam dreams here I Really I've seen some

really amazing customers these I if it's not

like a giant personalized enterprise drone Yeah,

I want I want a freaking Gundam Funko. Give me

Gundam. Don't give me Hello Kitty SD Gundam.

Give me, cause they, they didn't want - Says

the person who loves Hello Kitty. Yeah, get,

well, to a certain degree. Give, the Blacklight

Hello Kitties are nice, but I want a, I want

a Gundam SD Funko. I think those would be really

cool. One that you can actually go in? Well,

if we're gonna - He's talking about one that

you can actually - Oh, for scaling up? Yeah.

Fuck yeah, I wanna go, I wanna - He's just now

realizing the question. Your fan did it? We can

do it? Wow. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that would

be fun. That would be awesome. That question

is like if Funko had products in Sharper Image,

basically. Anything you go into Sharper Image

to find when Sharper Image was still, that's

where that question kind of comes from is, I'm

like, oh my God, they have a life -size Spider

-Man, but it's just a cardboard cutout. No, I

want real life -size Spider -Man. Damn it. Yeah,

I want Andrew Garfield walking through a portal

randomly. Like, let's go. Alright, question 37

in a row. How have your spouse's significant

others slash partners, mates, whatever, dealt

with your collection? So you're answering for

me, and then I'm answering for you. Oh, this

should be interesting. I think I've moved it

around the house in about 18 different forms

in 20 different types of boxings and integrated

it into different rooms in a way that was a hope

that you didn't notice it so much. I use it for

a divider in the living room once the entire

half of your collection. Wow. It was impressive.

I don't know. I just worked with it. It really

doesn't bother me. I tease about it really doesn't

bother me See, I would never know because there's

there's depending on the emotional day or whatever

emotional month I take things personally sometimes

without realizing it and it makes me sad because

I think but like there's too much and It's not

this too much. It's just sometimes it's disorganized

and so I'm going on I'll get to deal with that

But like for her collection, it's easy to manage

because it basically is integrated with mine.

So Yeah, you know we're We're umbilical like

that. The PSA stuff and everything else is all

of one mind. Oh, you think so, do you? Well,

I like to think so. The latest debate was over

the OG Leonidas. Who's that really going to be?

It's not going to be mine. I'm getting it for

her. So let's be real here. Same with Flockbeast.

I think I'm talking to the board, ladies and

gentlemen. The who? The Borg. Borg, oh yeah yeah.

You should know of all people. Wow. They said

Borg, I was like wow. Borg, not bored, talking

with the Borg. I've mined. Oh boy, that was rough.

Speaking of being, speaking of things that are

rough, toy collecting can have its struggles.

What is one aspect you tend to struggle with

the most? Faith. Pretty much, yeah. Wow Space

goes without saying I wonder if he's looking

for a deeper answer that I think we all struggle

with space to a certain degree disclaimer No,

no, it's a very simple question like But some

people struggle more with space than they do

with the budget or some people but struggle more

with the budget than they Do with the space.

I mean it just depends on how you've set your

your living space up really I mean, I know people

who I know a few people and one or two people

who actually have whole houses in their collection

is Tastefully displayed throughout their whole

house. So you know, I think I think the struggle

is Always gonna be space regardless of what it

is it's more constraining when you have a smaller

area work with obviously but i think the other

piece of it too is when we again we talk about

this stuff pretty consistently it's just. You

know there again that emotional aspect and how

you go about your collecting and why you're doing

it and what is your goal what is your end game

right so. Mm -hmm for me. It's space. So how

do you maximize the space? You know, if I hadn't

voice I would keep everything but I know that

I also don't need to keep everything and I realize

that now So where do we put the things we have?

How do we get it onto a better place, you know?

For people that want it every week and that's

why we started doing whatnot stuff, right? And

we're not own we found out we're not the only

people that have this struggle. Yeah, I mean

it's A lot of it is space, but the other piece

of it is how you manage and what you're gonna

do with it, because otherwise you're, again,

borderline hoarding, right? And so, yeah, I'd

rather have a shelf of cool stuff than a shelf

of garbage. Well, that's part of it, is it's

actually not a bad thing in that it's good for

a source of self -reflection, right? Because

everybody collects for their own reasons, and

to constantly reevaluate your reasons why you're

doing it is a healthy thing, I think. Yeah. Yep,

absolutely. Yeah, I was in an auction a couple

weeks ago or whenever it was and somebody said

something about a black widow And I just kind

of went for it not realizing it's the blue 80th

and when oh god, I got to flip this now The real

black widow, you know the Marvel Studios black

widow not the comic book oh That blue just does

not go well with the rest of I do like that 80th

series line, though. I like the line. It's just

that one pop. I was like, wait a minute. Oh,

right. He did say it was the 80th. Damn it. I

wasn't listening. Did you buy it on monthly pops?

Because I remember someone had one of those for

auction yesterday, and the bottom was torn. Is

that the one you bought? Fine. It was my mistake.

It wasn't your mistake. He said what it was,

and I was like, wait. Black Widow, ooh, Scarlett

Johansson, wait a minute, I got it in the mail

and went, wait, that's not as good, what? Okay,

fine, that's just gonna go in the closet somewhere,

I don't care. Oh my God. So you're more mad at

yourself, that's all right. Yeah, pretty much,

it's my own damn, no, I know it's my own damn

fault. But, you know, I was like, all I heard

was Black Widow, I'm like, ooh, Black Widow,

yay. I'm like, I don't know. Black suit, black

widow. Blue suit, black widow. That does, oh

right. Damn it. You need to get yourself some

aliviro to make up for it. Say Jarvis, is it

that time? The house party protocol, sir? Correct.

If the, let's say Funko, but if any toy company

gave you the keys to the kingdom, you could create

Any toy you want, what would you want to create?

Oh, man. Budget's no option, just anything. I

mean, budget's no, there's no constraints in

anything. Wow. I don't even know how to answer

that. I think you've already answered it. I think

he needs to. Besides my giant glattos. Yeah,

your giant glattos. It's a different thing, yeah.

If there's no budget, I'm going to make it diecast.

That's right. I'm going to have her record lines

weekly for me. Upload with an SD card kind of

stuff. Yeah, like all in. And I'm going to have

an AI, Cave Johnson, just walking around and

yelling at people. Man, I'd be just... I think

for me I would go the Mondo route and just start

making some some two -foot tall like go all -in

on articulation and stuff and start making some

like 18 -inch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie

accurate Funko displays if they again if they

can make a 18 -inch VV if I'm pronouncing it

right beve or Whatever. I don't know. There's

so many people that what I don't even I heard

that on with Gaslacast. It was the first time

I ever heard that I'm like What is this, V .I.

or Schauskier? Is this a Volkswagen gold bug

or something? No, I don't even know what the

company is. I don't even care. Yeah, I mean,

if they can do something like that with the creepy

anorexic looking Tony Stark head but no helmet

and gloves or anything like that to go with it,

then I think we can do with an 18 -inch... Set

a 14 -inch turtle limited like 200 or 250 or

something like that go wild right like make it

Make it all integrated and stuff. So yeah budget

was no constraint licensing out the door. Let's

go And I mean even if you had to get it licensed

that would be fine as long as you've got the

the likeness look the biggest Besides the fact

that it's a gold figure The fact that they that

the damn thing doesn't look like Robert Downey

jr. Like come on It looks like his late 80s Robert

Downey jr. When he was having that really rough

patch before he picked himself back up like that

Oh god, all I can think of in that movie is 40

it will be 40 40 years old in 2025 I think it's

1985 it was him Sibyl Shepard and a bunch of

other people in chances are where he plays He

plays Louie who ends up in a car Lou her Sibyl's

husband Louie ends up in a car wreck and Young

Robert Downey jr. Ends up playing the the version

of Louie who jumps into and out of people's bodies

It's kind of like Bill Cosby and Ghost Dad, but

different. Oh wow. Yeah, it's weird Bill Cosby

kind of did that right except he yeah jumping

and out of people so Maybe I should put the ad

break here and then come back and say, yeah,

I'm going to do that now. I don't put the ad

break right here. We're going to come back with

the final two questions right after this. Holy

shit. Welcome to my throne of future tales. The

Beast Unleashed podcast is over, not gone. You

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to extract your spark and destroy you Yes Alright

folks we are back from the ad break and that

just unforeseen circumstance that happened before

it Final two questions because I was not going

to put these questions right after what James

just said And I'm not editing it out either.

So there's that What is one piece of advice you

would give the toy collecting fandom in general

I Think for me if you keep the passion and the

happiness don't get it to the point where it

becomes a burden For you or the people around

you and the relationships get affected by it

Whoever it is or whatever it is because the joy

should stay the center of it I wouldn't I wouldn't

use your collecting to hide from past things

and I wouldn't get yourself in trouble in the

future Just enjoy it in the moment would be what

I would say yeah, I would I would agree with

that and you know, we've covered different touch

points on it throughout throughout the night

but Just don't get lost in it. You know, it's

easy to Lose yourself fiduciarily as well as

emotionally when you have all these cool things

but then you know the the piper comes calling

whether it's the bills or you know you you have

that follow -up of regret or space or anything

and you forget that you know part of part of

why you collect it and what matters to you right

so as long as it's not a burden then I say go

all in and there's lots of people out there that

collect stuff whether we all have our vices right

whether it's movies or Posters or autographs

and whatever but I think just being grounded

really helps Well and keeping people in that

world, right? Yeah, I think a lot of people I've

noticed over the years they almost Become isolated

by it and that's not a good place to be either

I think just that would be something I would

last question. What is advice you'd give to kids

who enjoy toys? Never lose the passion. That's

what I would say. I would say just keep your

toys as part of a way to keep yourself engaged

and happy. Yeah, find your center. I enjoyed

toys growing up. The toys that I was able and

blessed to have whether it was a very special

toy like the Lego monorail. I know my mom put

a lot of effort into getting us that and you

know, I remember the toys that truly had meaning

because those are the ones that you know, my

mom and dad sacrificed a lot to make sure we

had a really good toy. We didn't get a lot, you

know, but I think kids today have access to so

much more and it's almost ease of use that You

know, they're almost like just throwaway trinkets,

right? So if they were collecting or playing

with toys and stuff like that, I would say, you

know, just have fun with them, enjoy them. If

you if they're things you want to keep, remember

them and hang on to them. And, you know, when

you get older, if there's one that really matters

or resonates with you that you want to go back,

if you didn't take care of it, then get one in

box and pay the money like everybody else and

have it. You know, but well, we are memories.

Yeah. So. What we play with when we're younger

will be what we'll want the people that matter

to us later on to play as well with us because

we want to share that part of who we are with

them so even if it's one or two things that you

enjoy now just keep those one or two things because

who knows one day you might want to share that

happiness with somebody who's not even on your

radar right now Mm -hmm exactly 100 % and whatever

you do folks don't go bankrupt over red eyes

Batman Beyond Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I ain't cleaning

nothing up All right, so give out The the whatnot

information and where people can find you guys

on socials if you're on if you want to give out

your social media stuff Well, you can do yours

Well, mine is well at random hat studio And instagram

and then what not is pretty much the same. Yeah,

and then the website is www .randomhatstudio

.com not dot org. We still don't know what that

website does. I've never gone there. We did that

once and somebody's like, oh my, I'm like, well,

it's dot com. So Eric, it's like when you used

to go to white house dot whatever it was by house

dot com. I don't know if that's still a website,

but Don't go there. It was not a good site back

then. Whitehouse .gov is the actual site you

want to go to. That's why they did the appendixes.

I'm at FunEmployed on whatnot and on Instagram

because someone else took it. It's at FunEmployed

2013 because that's when I had my start of my

employment. So go. And we're streaming a whatnot

every Wednesday, 630. We just hang out, family

chill. Some people buy things they end up regretting

not our fault, you know, we got I didn't blame

you Well, you know, I mean nobody's pointing

blame just we sense it And For everyone who is

timezone illiterate, that's 6 30 p .m. Pacific

time. So 9 30 p .m. Eastern time Yes. Oh boy.

All right Well, I'm going to run through our

closing, and then we're going to get the heck

out of here. 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 several

ways to do so. Visit the website, geekcastradio

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at geekcastradio .com. You can check us out on

many of the podcasting clients like Spotify and

others. You can follow us on all of our social

media profiles. I think toy cast just has Facebook

and something Something with chemicals and X's

in it now. I don't understand any of that crap,

but it is what it is So those links will be in

the show notes as well as all of James and Emily's

links to their stuff Next time until I cast I'm

sure it's gonna be another origins episode or

we might do a display case or something who knows

For now, I am TFG one Mike with Random head studio

aka Emily and James aka fun employed Let us next

time when we'll be talking more toys here on

toy cast I Know I know right I've been doing

this for 15 years you think I know what the fuck

I'm doing but apparently I don't