FunEmployed and Random Hat Studio on GameStop Customer Service and Physical Media

Jazz here, and I am so digging the GeekCast radio

network. Greetings, humans. This is Starscream,

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

you call me a parts -former, one more time! Toy

cast? Oh, yes. Listen in to the only toy podcast

you will ever need. Hello, folks. TF2 and Mike

here. I just wanted to give a warning. This is

a rant cast. These are going to be rantings of

toy collecting, media, and otherwise, as well

as dealing with purchasing said items at certain

stores. So... As y 'all know, I like giving people

a voice here on the podcasts. And yeah, Random

Hat Studio, along with Fun Employed, joined me

once again. And we ranted about the GameStop

situation. So there's that. And apparently I

was wrong, as you'll hear in the episode, about

this being a new thing. It hasn't been a new

thing, apparently. So there's that. And this

is going to be kind of raw and unedited a little

bit. So enjoy the next two hours. Thanks for

listening. As always, keep playing with your

toys. Hello and welcome to an all new generation

of ToyCast. As we don't get all the questions

and the fans and the stuff and the whatever,

this is a ToyCast rant episode. We haven't had

one of these in a long time, folks. So I'm just

going to say right now, the cursing is going

to be a lot more than usual. So there will be

an explicit tag on this show like there is on

every other one of my shows. But GameStop, in

their infinite wisdom, has decided to do something

stupid as hell, apparently, which doesn't surprise

me because it's GameStop. Hello. Like I already

said, I'm TF2 and Mike. I'm barely awake. Joining

me is Mr. Fun Employed himself. Hello, sir. How

are you? Oh, I'm fucking fantastic. See, folks?

We're already in the fucking fantastic realm

of GameStop. Oh, boy. And, yeah. So, why is this

a ToyCast episode, you might say, folks? Well,

video games are toys. I don't care what anyone

says. You play with them, they're toys. And plus,

you know, you can buy Funko Pops and probably

Funko Sodas. I don't know. I haven't been on

a GameStop in over a year and a half, so I wouldn't

know if they carry sodas or not. But... GameStop,

in their infinite wisdom, decided to do something

about their return policy. Take it away, sir.

You have the pulpit. Oh, yeah. Let me tell you

about this delicious journey, Mike. We do these

things called pre -orders from time to time.

It's bad enough that you pre -order something

and you know how GameStop is going to ship it.

You have a chance to receive something from the

warehouse, blessed be. um or you have a chance

to receive it from the store itself which you

kind of pray for that now because they tend they

say they care more when they pack it but they

don't i've watched how that works um so you pre

-order something say september and you know you

wait and you wait and they ship it and then you

get it and it's crushed because there's no love

and care And I'm talking like just pinball machine

in the box. Right. You get a box the size of

the Grand Canyon with, you know, three, four

inch Funkos or whatever is in there could be

about whatever. And it's just bouncing around

like a pool pool pinball machine pool balls.

So you go back to the store and you're like,

yo, fam, I need to return this because, you know,

things happen. And they look at you like, cool.

Is this an online order? And I say, well, yes,

yes, it is. And they look at me with like. utmost

terror like we're talking like 1970s michael

myers terror you know um so the person and every

time i go in the game stop it's always a fucking

new training and i don't fault them one bit because

again they turn style through employees more

than a rotisserie chicken turns on a spit so

you know outside of the four or five people that

i've come to know you know up here in the last

three four years everybody else is fucking incompetent

So they always have to call somebody. They have

to call a district manager. They have to call

a senior manager. They have to call KFC. I don't

know. But they never seem to know how to do a

return for an online order, right? So this is

like the third time I've gone through this process.

And it doesn't matter if it's like the downtown

or the one in the mall. But I'll focus on the

one in the mall in Bellingham specifically because

they're complete asshats. So they made the fatal

mistake this time of putting me on the phone

with. whatever the district manager is. I don't

know if it's Stacy or whomever, but I think I

took her name down. Yeah, we don't need to reveal

her name. You can bleep that, but either way,

I don't really remember. It could have been Susan.

I don't know. It's inconsequential. She doesn't

matter, right? But she matters in the sense of

making me feel like a criminal because they could

have made whatever adjustments they need to make

it point of sale. But any time you do a return

at GameStop, it's a constant game of back and

forth. You give them the receipt. They tell you

to go pound salt. You tell them to take the order

back because customers told you, and they once

again hand you a bottle of Morton salt. After

about 10 minutes of trying to explain policy

to the rep and quoting the GameStop policy, which,

to your point, except as provided below, sad,

sad, sad, unopened products, Funkos, and things

like that of that nature now have a seven -day

return policy. To be fair, that's not a new policy.

That's always been the policy. That's always

what they've been instructed, right? So what

they told me is that, sure, we can help you because

that's what good customer service is. But because

you ordered this in September, you're past the

return date. I'm like, hold up. Now, meanwhile,

there's a family in there trying to buy games

that were also on pre -order things. This was

a very interesting conversation for them to listen

into. And I explained to them, I said, listen

here, young man. I'm twice your age, and obviously

I'm a little bit more skilled at math, but I

said I'll try to help you. I preordered this

in September, and I can't return something if

I've never received it. Well, I understand that,

but the point – I said I understand what the

point sale system is. I understand it's how you're

trained, but I said think critically here. If

I preorder something today and I don't have it

in stock, technically if I were to return it,

how can I return that which I do not have? And

it's not slated for a future dated time of X

amount of weeks down the road. Right. So after

about 10 minutes, it finally broke through music.

Oh, I've got to call my manager. And I said,

well, please do that because that's what they

have to do every time. I'm used to this. So 45

minutes go by. He goes, my district manager would

like to speak with you. And I said, well, that's

unprecedented, but OK, cool. You know. And so

she gets on the phone. He maybe I don't know.

We're just playing anonymous here. Right. And

proceeds to ask me how my day was as to her opening

question. And before she could finish saying

that she was about to get that question jokingly,

she was seriously asking. I professionally asked

her what seems to be the problem because, you

know, went through the policy for the return.

Yada, yada, yada. Did everything I need to do.

And she didn't like that. And she said, well,

I've talked to my manager. And I said, well,

why would you have to talk to your manager for

something as simple as a, you know, $70 return?

This seems absurd, right? And, you know, after

about 10 minutes or so, you know, I gave her

some very choice words, professionally, no cursing,

but, you know, had to keep it PC because there

was young children in the store. Right. You know,

I explained to her, I said, well, there's at

least four or five other people in your district

who seem to know the job better than you. And

I said, why is it that I come to your store as

a customer and I seem to know more about the

job than you do? And I said, you seem to be the

third alleged district manager you've had in

this area in the last three years. And I said,

there only seems to be a problem every time there's

a regime change. So she quoted me policy and

I said, that's great. I quoted her policy back.

And, you know, my response. Essentially, after

talking with my significant other and everything,

was that the skill and knowledge level used to

be something in an employee who has somehow survived

long enough to be a manager. But in today's world,

I guess a high school degree is kind of like

how it used to be. A university degree was the

baseline. Now that is the equivalent to a high

school degree and so on and so forth. And she,

the district manager, didn't seem to like that

very much in summation. And after chastising

me for like about 10 minutes on the phone, you

know, she's like, we're done here. And I was

like, well, we were done 20 minutes ago. I already

told you what was going to happen. She goes,

well, I told you what was going to happen. I

said, well, that's great. I'll be letting corporate

know. But I also know that she goes, you aren't

going to any of my other stores. I was like,

well, I have a car and I'm on the phone. I can

absolutely go to another store, I said. And I,

matter of fact, will if I talk to the person

that I know knows how to do their job. The end

of the story is I got my justice and we had to

drive like 40 minutes out of the way to go to

the next closest GameStop where a very kind and

knowledgeable manager on duty had already made

a call for me to confirm policy. And their district

manager gave them a completely different answer

than what the young lady that I spoke to. And

I used the term young lady loosely. And I walked

in. She goes, you shop here all the time. Why

was it such a problem up there? Because she didn't

know who I was when I called, right? Right. And

I said, well, and I explained to her just five

minutes what happened. She's like, what? No,

this is simple. We just changed the date in the

system to match the current date that you would

have gotten the order in based on the shipping

label. And we process the damn return. It's that

fucking simple. Why? You know, I don't understand

why. And I was like. I don't either. I could

have gone to Seattle and done this, but you know,

it's that. And that's the thing random is telling

me. Emily was telling me is key point here. She's

been in, she's been with the company long enough

to know the ins and outs of the systems, Mike.

So when you go into retail anymore, whether it's

Walmart target, anything like that, they always

quote policy for things, but they don't know

their company. It's like, I'll give you a good

example of this. I know I'm on a bit of a ramp,

but this is all going to make sense, right? Yeah.

Somebody, There was a big news story a couple

weeks ago about the Stanley Cups. You know the

pink Target Stanley Cups, Mike? I know the blue

one with Stan Lee, the comic creator, on it.

That's what I know. Not good old Stan and not

the hockey Stanley Cup. This is the amazing Target

pink Stanley Cups that were like Starbucks. Yes.

Funny story, right? This is about entitlement

and just knowledge and appreciating company work

and things going back to GameStop. So in this

one article that I was reading, I laughed because

everybody was like, oh, those innocent workers.

You know how you're not supposed to buy stuff

and use your position and work to get an advantage

over a customer, right? Right. Yeah. So if you

take the story at face value, you would sympathize

with the employee. Because they got fired from

Target for buying a pink Starbucks Stanley Cup.

And you would think, hmm, that seems awful, neglectful

by the company. They've lost people of 20 years,

yada, yada, yada. My first question is, well,

wait a minute. Let's look deeper, right? You've

been with a company for 20 fucking years, Mike.

How do you not know the policy? I know, right?

If you walk up to a counter and I say, Mike.

How are you today? And you're like, I'm freaking

amazing, James. By the way, I happen to have

some Stanley Cups here behind the counter. Would

you like to buy one? Well, yeah, Mike, that sounds

fucking amazing. I would love to get one. They've

sold out everywhere. How did you procure them?

Well, James. I happen to not check them into

the system yet because two online orders were

canceled and they're sitting right here by my

register. Would you like to get one now since

you're on a corporate break for lunch and clocked

out? Well, yeah, I would love to get that. Cool.

I haven't put them on the counter for the customer

yet. Give me just a moment to check them into

the system and I will happily sell you one because

I am a loyal Target slash Starbucks employee.

So here you go, James. This is your cup. That'll

be. X amount of dollars because you're about

to get fired. Cool. Hey, my manager's standing

right here and she sees that I'm buying this

cup as well and said it was okay. You know, oblivious

to both of us that I'm buying something that,

you know, was not put out for the customer to

see visibly first on the floor and give them

a fair shot as well as myself coming off of said

lunch hour. That's okay. Irrelevant. You know,

it's irrelevant, James. Yeah, cool. I got my

cup. Thank you. Three days pass. You and six

other employees get shit canned. Oh, woe is me.

I got shit camped from Target after being there

for 20 years. I don't understand. This is corporate

greed, yada, yada, yada. Again, policy states

you can't use your position to get a leg up over

the customer, right? So if those Target cups

were put on the shelf before you as an employee

were to go purchase said cup, then you would

have no, you know. argument against your company

you would be able to sue them for wrongful termination

right or at least the very least argue your case

right yeah the employees come back and said we'll

return the cup but that's not the point target

has at unemployment discretion policy yada yada

yada my point is if you're with somebody long

enough and you're committed that much as those

employees said they were in the article and everything

else you would know the policy and you would

follow it right so when it comes to game stop

taking the long way back around This policy has

been on their website for a long time. These

managers and these employees in a 100 -mile radius,

it only seems to be two specific stores in a

single district in the Northwest. They all know

the policy. They all know the systems because

they've been there long enough. So when you have

terrible customer service, and I'm talking like

I don't fault the people on the phone. They have

their own job and script and everything. They're

in their own ecosystem, right? But when you put

the customer in a way that they feel like they're

treated like they're doing a crime for wanting

to return something, and then you go to customer

service, customer service is like, well, this

is what the policy says. I'm like, I know. You've

been here long enough, right? They're like, well,

yeah, I've been here long enough. I've been here

three years, but I've also got my buddy here

who's been here five months, and even he knows

the policy because it's in the script, and it

tells him the same thing I'm telling you that

I've learned for three years. But, hey, if you

want to return that stuff, we'll charge you $10.

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

And they're like, but you can go to a store and

return it. I'm like, well, I just tried that.

And so and so told me to go, you know, have fun.

And they're like, well, that's that's a darn

shame. Click. See, folks, it's not it doesn't

always pay to be fun employed. It doesn't, but

it pays to it pays to know how to get a resolution

for something. Right. But that's that's the thing

with like. It permeates the other retailers.

I know the focus on this primarily at first is

GameStop, but if you work for something and you

pay attention and you have loyalty to your company

and everything else and things like that, you

hope that your employees and your management

specifically know what the policy is. I'm not

asking for anything, you know, a special exception,

a return policy. I'm just asking to... Do what's

right for the customer. Put customer first. And,

you know, my experience with GameStop, to your

point, has been abysmal, you know, and it's to

the point now where I've canceled all pre -orders

and everything else. If I go into their store,

I will go to one location now and shop if somebody

is working. Otherwise, I just I'd rather pay

a scalper. or somebody else to go get it for

me because I can't patron their locations. They

make it too much of a hassle as a consumer to

do anything, right? But that's also why they

clearance out three -quarters of the location

every week for the terrible decisions of ThinkGeek

and everything else that they've done over the

years. Take a breath now. That's a lot. All right.

Well, folks, what you really should be doing

every Wednesday night or every third Wednesday

or whenever the hell it is is going over to WhatNot.

And checking out certain auctions. It won't be

purchased from GameStop. Exactly. I don't...

What are your thoughts? Seeing as how you've

never stepped into a brick -and -mortar store

for GameStop for a while, what was the last good

experience you had? I mean... Jeez. That's thinking

deep. I used the word good in there and threw

you off. Yeah, yeah. Well, if I had gone in a

week earlier, I would have gotten Unicron for

$9 instead of the MSRP of $40. Oof. But it is

what it is. I was going to buy it anyway. But,

yeah, no, like, I mean, the last time I was in

there, like I said, it was probably a year and

a half, almost two years ago. I went in and I

got the Paul Bearer and Undertaker two -pack.

It's fairly simple. Just hand them the thing.

They scanned it. I slid my card and left. It

was fairly, you know, they were, you know, cordial

and nice and whatever. Like, we weren't, you

know, shooting the shit or anything. Well, reading

stuff sounds easy, Mike. Yeah, I've never tried

to do returns at GameStop ever. I know better

than that. Yeah, the last time I went to McDonald's,

it was a pleasant experience because I used a

self -service kiosk and I didn't have to interact

with a human. So, you know, we all have our pluses.

Those things are dirty as hell. Don't use those.

I don't want you to die from that. There's too

many germs on those. I use the app, which is

a whole different rant. Okay, well, you know.

Oh, boy. See, I thought the way that this was.

because originally I saw this in an Instagram

post about the new seven and I'm like, Oh, so

the way, the way that the, and I'll see if I

can find the post folks. I think I took a screenshot

of it or whatever else. Yeah. And it was like

kind of specific to Funko pops and Funko. And

I'm like, Oh really? Huh? Interesting. Like the

way it came across to me was there was a new

public right now. Is it, is it right now? Yeah.

Usually at the end of the year, November, December,

whatever, the end of every year, every website

or everything that you have ever bought from

or subscribed to or whatever, these are our new

terms of service or these are this or this is

that or we're updating this. Like, you'll get

an email from Starbucks or whoever the hell saying,

hey, we're updating. We're updating stuff, but

we're doing this. You need to pay attention to

the... Like, I thought this was something new.

I didn't think that this was just the same old

policy, just putting a polishing turd on it.

Like, God, if this is the same policy they've

had for years, then that just makes even worse

sense. Am I being conceited to think that that

post is oddly coincidental to my epic rant? Location

of a particular stance. And trust me, folks.

That's true. That's also true. Yeah, but GameStop

staffing has always been an issue. I mean, people

just don't want to work there, apparently. They

don't have fun. I had the best time, Mike, on

one of my return experiences a couple months

back, right? The awesome employee that I talked

to, super cool dude, like 6 '2", he clearly was

not built for GameStop, right? You could tell

this guy was going places. He looked at me and

he goes, this is only my second day on the job.

And I was like, oh, my sweet summer child. I'm

about to request of you. And, you know, he couldn't

do the transaction, but he was very upfront with

it. And I said, that's cool. I'll go to X location

to get it done. Because at that time, the other

competent person that was also friends with friends

of us that we knew was working. So it was the

ECPZ swap. Right. And they had a completely different

district manager. Now, mind you, this is in a

five month period. So, again, turnstile. He was

gone within a week. Oh. Now, the night that I

the night that I was there, too, it was very

explicit to me that he had no vested interest

in being in that position. This is like the second

day on the job. He was at a mall of a GameStop

during the holidays by himself as it's ramping

into like end of October. He was on like the

stint of a 10 hour shift and he hadn't taken

a lunch yet. Fast forward to like a month later

when I had to go in and we were in the mall stopping

by. During Black Friday week, the one lady that

was a really awesome manager, I believe she was

on her way to quitting or working to quitting

at the time to become a tattoo artist. But she

was on her 11th hour because she was the opening

manager and also the only person there all day

with all the logistics and inventory and also

the closing manager. And she had had a break.

We went and got her a Cinnabon and a coffee,

which I found out it kept her up till five in

the morning because she works two stores. Wow.

She is no longer with the company, right? So,

I mean, at some point people move on and it's

good to see people move up and over. But you

have a culture that, you know, I've watched them

berate customers, not just myself, but other

people and put them on the spot. And the employees

are just standing there like, I can't handle

this. I'm being told they're being told what

to do by management on the phone. And they're

not able to make those decisions autonomously

in the store to do what's right for the customer

because they're bootstrapped by. a lack of knowledge,

and support from upper management. And the ones

you have that help you, right, they're like,

man, this sucks. I'm out, you know. And I'm like,

well, it's been a good run. Yeah. And I'm just

making a joke here, and this is not a joking

matter as far as some of these employees and

their mental health and everything else, but

I am sorry. If GameStop went out of business

today. I would not miss the current Funko Pop

exclusive GameStop sticker at all. No, I don't

think anybody would. Again, I don't want to see

anybody out of a job. I understand completely

where you're coming from. Yeah, that's the other

thing, too. When you walk in, they're like, look

at how we rearranged everything. I'm like, yeah,

she made the clearance stickers more prominent.

Good job. But, I mean, they're laughing with

the customer at the expense of their company

rather than taking offense to it, right? Whereas

if you were to walk into a Target, it's even

worse, but that's, again, a whole different rant,

right? Can I put a funny note in there? Oh, what's

the funny note? The funny note is every time

we go in there, they talk to us about theft,

but nobody ever steals the Funkos. That's true.

They steal everything else in the store except

for the Funkos. That's the best thing, Mike.

I don't know what they could steal, man. I walked

in and I saw the Loki cosplay set that they had

and I was like, wow, that's neat. If I liked

toddler plastic for... It was $150. I'm like,

nobody's going to steal this. Why are you worried

about this being locked up? Nobody's going to

take that. The box looks better than the actual

prop. But she's got a point. Nobody's going in.

I don't go to GameStop and be like, man. What

could I thief today? It's not like the early

days of GameStop where they used to have the

boxes of the games on the shelf, right? Then

what they did is they said, well, we sell the

game new. But then they cleverly open it, and

then they put it in the drawer. And then I find

out, like in the early 2000s, yeah, well, in

the drawers, if they're open, the employees can

take them home and play them and then bring them

back and put them back in the disc and be like,

ah, no, no, no, no, no. So they start getting

stuff at Walmart, right? And then when you go

and you buy a pre -owned game, what it was was

a game that they opened. Marked down $5 and sold

as used pre -owned because it was one of the

employees would buy and things like that. Mike,

I'm shocked that their entire system crumbled

on them in the late 2000s. How could anybody

have ever predicted this to happen? Yeah. And

honestly, I don't think anybody would miss, again,

no disrespect to any of the people that have

worked at GameStop. in the past or currently

y 'all are doing an amazing job for the crappy

job that you're, that you're working at. But

I don't think anybody would miss GameStop if

it was gone. No, I really don't. Like, I mean,

the only time I ever hear besides Funko Pops,

the only time I ever hear about stuff happening

at GameStop is if a huge, huge, like PS5 or Xbox.

S or X or whatever, or if something like breath

of the wild comes out or what, like a big, big,

big game or game system. Cause hello, they're

a video game retailer for, they should be a video

game retailer first and a toy company or toy

retailer second. But yeah, not like the, and

the one story I remember is cause I'll always

remember this cause it was stupid as hell. The

two guys getting into a fight in front of Target

over – was it – I know it was Target, but I forget

what Funko Pop they were fighting. I don't know.

It was Jeffrey or something, which Jeffrey isn't

even at Target. I remember, oh no, I know what

it was. It wasn't Jeffrey, duh, because Jeffrey's

from the, it was Twinkie the Kid. That's what

the fuck it was. Oh my, are you serious? Twinkie

the Kid? Yeah, yeah. These two guys, this is

like back in 2019. This is before the pandemic.

Oh my lanta. And there was a story about two

people getting in a fight over a Twinkie the

Kid Target exclusive Funkle Pop. Because it was

the last one. Uh -huh. You know the best part

about that? There's two sad results of that.

Number one, any one of us, and I would have done

it too because in 2019 I was exceptionally cheeky,

I would have gone to the snack aisle, grabbed

a box, put toothpicks in it, and put a little

cowboy hat from Toy Story on it and said, here

you go, buddy. Second piece of that is fast forward

four years later, and it's still only worth about

$13. Yeah, exactly. And honestly, I mean, Twinkie

the Kid's an okay mascot, but he's not the best

mascot. And I just recently bought a box of the

chocolate Twinkies. I don't know what the hell

Hostess or whoever the hell owns Twinkie nowadays,

what the hell they did to that. That was the

nastiest chocolate I have ever had in my entire

life. Twinkies suck. Don't they have a gold Twinkie?

Like the kid soda or something like that? It

looks like a freaking suppository. Yeah, it does.

And he's got the rope and he's like, I'm going

to go clean things. That's the size. That's the

soda. What's going to happen now that Best Buy

is getting out of physical media? Will that help

or hurt GameStop? oh yeah let's pivot to that

mike because i was gonna she read my mind what

are your thoughts on gamestop liquidating the

one thing that kept them anchored or i'm sorry

there are they not one oh i'm sorry yeah gamestop

and best buy are two separate entities they're

not the same company um the same company they

act like it that's again just perception uh yeah

they're getting out of physical media too so

like gamestop that's your chance you can come

back this is you can redeem yourself Oh, they

can't. There's no redeeming GameStop at this

point. Well, okay, so... As far as Best Buy goes,

I mean... When's the last time I bought physical

media at Best Buy? When was the last time you

bought anything at Best Buy? What do you remember

from Singular Purchase? Well, I'll actually tell

you. It's mounted on my wall in my bedroom right

now. it's a shark 55 inch uh whatever television

uh this is back in 2018 oh i thought you said

shark i was sharp not sharp sharp okay the p

not a k yeah p not a k uh no if there was a 55

inch shark on my wall i wouldn't be living here

I'm with you on standing, though. Yeah, no, not

really. So back in 2018, my late wife, Karen,

who passed away in 2021, we normally didn't really

do the whole surprise gift thing where we'd be

like, what do you want? What do you want? Can

we afford it? Can we afford it? Okay, okay, okay,

not okay, whatever. She wanted a new laptop,

and I wanted because I wanted to eventually mount

this in our bedroom on our bedroom wall because

we had in the house that she owned at the time.

You got to watch using the term mount, Mike.

Yeah. Honey guy. Mount the television on the

wall. 55 inches is a lot to take. Yeah. I'm not

even going there. Can't even. Nope. Just nope.

I mean, you know your limits. Yeah, exactly.

So, because the bedroom in the house that she

had owned that we had, this giant master bedroom,

which is essentially pretty much half the house.

It had built -in surround sound into it. So we

were going to eventually mount it and have this

amazing, you know, whole entertainment system

in the bedroom. And that didn't happen. And the

TV ended up in storage for a couple of years.

She ended up passing away. I ended up moving

from, at the time, before apparently it devolved

into the Pacific Ocean. I will say at the time

when I left in 2022, the great state of Washington,

apparently I've heard rumors that it's not so

great anymore, which I'm glad I got out when

I did. I moved from there to Indiana and I just

looked up an electronics guy that was local there.

And I'm like, look, I want this mounted on the

wall. But the point to bring it back around to

Best Buy is 2018 was the last time. I purchased

anything from Best Buy whatsoever. Before that,

the last time I remember purchasing anything

from Best Buy was probably 2008, because it usually

took about a year or so for movies to hit DVD.

And this was really the only good thing about

most of the Best Buy media releases when it came

to DVD, Blu -ray, whatever you want to call it.

they would do the steel book or they would do

the limited edition, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. Yep. Well, they did it for transformers

2007 and it was this giant transforming optimus

prime case thing. Yeah. Yeah. It was movie. Yeah.

Yep. Yep. They had one for all three of them.

Or they had three separate, well, yeah, anyway.

But yeah, I mean, and the funny thing is, is

since Karen passed in 2021, I find myself on

the line of digital media and physical media,

especially now since they're now in 2024. They're

like, oh, well, you don't own this digital media.

Even though you bought it from us, you don't

own it. We can take it away from you at any time.

I'm like, okay, fine. Give me the physical. I

have. I don't know. New DVD collection, probably

10 different Blu -rays or 4K DVDs now. So, yeah,

I'm back on the physical media train. But if

I have to get it from Amazon or eBay or whatever,

fine, because you ain't going to catch me. I'll

be croaked on the outside right before I get

to open the door to Best Buy before I ever go

in there again. Well, you're in luck because

there's no reason to really go back to Best Buy.

I mean, when we walk in there, it's basically

an Amazon warehouse anyway. I go in there to

look at what I would like to buy, and then I

buy it elsewhere. I thought that was Kohl's that

was the Amazon warehouse, or is that just the

returns? Well, that's the graveyard. Yeah. Best

Buy is having a run on their movies and physical

media for CDs and things the last couple weeks

because they're getting out of the game this

year, right? And so my rewards program with them,

they're like, oh, you can sign. I'm like, I'm

not signing up with shit with you folks. I was

like, this is like an abusive relationship. I

now have an out. I'm using all my credit. I'm

using all my money. I'm taking it and I'm running.

I'm bringing the dog, the backpack of what I

can carry, and I'm getting out of town. And they...

Trying to return stuff there was actually getting

worse and worse because they kept changing their

policy on their total tech and everything and

making it to a point where if you – kind of like

how GameStop, going back to the trash in them

for a bit, they have everything tied now to their

pro – nobody goes to GameStop and says, man,

I can't wait to renew my pro membership. We don't

give a shit about your pro membership. You can't

even give us – you can't even afford a physical

– to wipe my ass with, and you want to tell me

that one of the perks of getting your pro membership

is that I'll get a subscription to Game Informer,

which became irrelevant about 15 years ago. Longer

than that. It'll be in a digital PDF, and you

can't even put that out on time anyway. So I

was like, why? And they're like, well, that $9

Unicron, before the changes to pro back in October,

You could have gotten the Unicron for nine bucks

walking and be like, yeah, I'm a little customer.

I hope you know how to do your job. I'd like

to buy these things here. And then I maybe hopefully

don't have to return them and experience excruciating

pain. And then you would be very happy, right?

Because you'd never have to step foot in the

store. You got it for nine bucks. Life goes on.

Now, if you want that $9 deal, you have to spend

25 bucks or whatever to have a pro membership.

And someone would say, well, you get access to,

I was like, listen, I don't get early access

to shit. And then second of all, if I do want

to take advantage of any pro membership perks

like there's 30 % off, 50 % off, 90 % off clearance,

you have to order it online because none of the

stores ever have anything in stock that you would

want for set sales. And if they did, it's destroyed

anyway, right? So I would just rather go buy

it from a flea market or Facebook. And then they're

like, but you get the $5 off coupon. And I'm

like, well, that's fantastic. $5 of nothing is

nothing. So I'm not going to spend it there.

Therefore, it is not a perk for me, right? What

else do I get? Well, video games. I'm like, the

fuck am I going to buy a video game at your store

when you charge absolute above MSRP and you can't

even guarantee that my pre -order is going to

come in right? Granted, everything's going digital,

but I'd rather play it on a PC on Steam because

at least customer policy and service on there,

it's PC. It's mine. That and at least Steam.

abides by the sales that like yeah funny that

i mean they they have 60 off 70 half off what

the steam has all kinds of sales all the time

throughout the year and at least they abide by

it the the only advantage the physical media

for games and it's kind of funny how this works

right so for movies I gave away most of my early

collections, digital movies. I don't regret it

because at that time you had movies anywhere.

You had Voodoo, you had Fandango, you had fucking

Timbuktu. Everybody had their hand in digital

media, right? So it's like, well, unless there's

a standard, like through Google, iTunes, like

I'm not getting into it. Here's a movie code,

have at it, right? Now they do it the smart way.

You get the digital code with the Blu -ray, yada,

yada, yada. And movies anywhere pretty much is

the de facto equivalent to iTunes, right? You

redeem it and there it is. Now, besides Warner

Brothers sucking ass and having a set finite

time on their redemption. So I've lost a couple

of movies there. You know, I accept that. But

digital media for movies makes sense until you

start seeing things get changed or whatever that,

you know, and a low hanging fruit. We use George

Lucas and E .T. and Steven Spielberg and I'm

right with Indiana Jones. But that's besides

the point when it comes to games on the other

side of the spectrum. Games are funny because

GameStop, to me, is dead. They're on life support

and nobody wants to pull the plug. You go to

Steam and you say, wow, that game that GameStop

has for $60, Marvel Midnight Suns, the game's

awesome, but it definitely isn't a $60 game.

I can get it for $10 on Steam in six months.

I'll wait until the fall sale. That's how people

are starting to think now, and for good reason.

It's funny, though, because you go to, like,

the Xbox store, right, or the PlayStation store,

and you would equate yourself to thinking, man,

I can't wait to get the – wait, what? The Steam

sale deals aren't on the same Xbox? Yeah, this

week on Xbox Live, get this game that's $60 for

$45 digital. And it's like, well, I suppose that's

a good deal. But then if you wait and go to GameStop

when they have their pre -owned sale, you can

get that same game that's $45 to $60 on Xbox

or PlayStation store. For $20 is a buy three,

get one free, right? So it's funny in the way

that digital versus physical works because digital

is cheaper if you're a PC gamer. Hello, Master

Race. If you are a console gamer, then you are

screwed unless you take advantage of market,

the physical market, right? Because nobody wants

to hang on to physical media. Now, if Microsoft

and them get their hands on the same thought

process as Steam does, physical media for games

is dead because there's no – like now you've

got a competitive market. That's why PC, hello

again, is doing better in my opinion when it

comes to gaming. But GameStop phased out PC games

years ago because they're like there's no money

in it. They just haven't woken up to the fact

that nobody gives a shit about GameStop when

it comes to games at all either. They're just

called Stop. Stop at the door. Don't come in.

And that's also equally true because most of

the time when you go there, they're on lunch

and the door is locked anyway. So you just be

like, cool. You say, thank you. Stop. That's

awesome. And you keep on walking. You go to Hot

Topic across the street. That's right. 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. Hey, toy fans, this is John,

also known as Iacon Dispatch. You can find me

on pretty much every social network at Iacon

Dispatch, where I share cool Transformers and

Star Wars stuff that I like. Thanks so much to

the great people at Geekcast Radio Network for

putting this awesome project together and for

once again letting me contribute to it. Definitely

had a lot of fun with it. Take it easy, everyone,

and I'll see you around online. Hey, it's Wes

from Popping Off Toys. Wanted to let you know

about PoppingOffToys .com. We can be your number

one source for Funko collectible figures to add

to your ever -growing collection. If you're in

Nashville, Tennessee, we actually have a retail

store that you can come by, 5916 Charlotte Pike.

And for the rest of us, PoppingOffToys .com is

always open, and you can check us out on Facebook.

Twitter, Instagram, and even Tik TOK. And the

name is just simply popping off toys. Thank you

so much. And always keep it popping. Absolutely.

And sometimes hot topic has better sales on Funko

pops than, than game stuff. I'm pretty sure hot

topic probably has better deals on games. They

don't even sell them. That's how, that's how

amazing hot topic is. Yep. Absolutely. Oh boy.

GameStop, what are you doing? Just. There's been

a lot of things lately in the news and just toy

collecting and otherwise. It doesn't matter what

it is, but just in the news where it's like,

I feel like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck arguing

in front of Elmer Fudd. Would you like to shoot

him now or wait till you get home? Shoot him

now. Shoot him now. Quiet, you. He doesn't have

to shoot you now. He does, too, have to shoot

me now. So shoot me now. I was thinking more

of them. pulling the sign off of the... Yeah,

no, no, no, no, no. This is not weapon season,

duck season. No, no, no, no, no. But I like your

analogy better, but the other one was also floating

around in my head. Shoot me now. Who else besides

GameStop pisses you off, Mike? Let's just go

down the rabbit hole. You know, honestly, I was

just, like, the reason why I thought, like, when

I saw it, I'm like, oh, fuck. here we go again

with GameStop because I thought it was a new

thing I didn't realize yeah I didn't realize

it wasn't new and then you went through I wonder

how long it took you to type all that into Instagram

chat message folks you should have seen what

he spewed at me there was there was some some

very Much passion into the voice chat that I

was expressing. I went back and made tweaks because

of the OCD grammar, but that was voice chat.

I'm not going to try. If I was on the computer,

I would have just typed it out. Keyboard warrior,

that's right. Oh, God. I understand that they

went towards more of being a pop culture store

than a video game store. But if that was the

case, okay, when you go into a closet that's

a GameStop, and I'm not talking about the closets

that are in the mall. I'm talking about the actual

stores that are in actual, like, mini shopping

center places. The first thing I see normally

is I'll see maybe one or two game demo things.

I'll see a bunch of games on the wall. I'll look

to the left or the right or whatever. Oh, there's

the Funko Pop wall. Okay. go away video games

like it's completely different when i walk into

a game stop the first thing i see is the clearance

rack at the beginning of the store right okay

well yes there is but that immediately sets the

tone because then when i walk in i've never seen

a game station in any of the game stops that

i've looked at they've taken them out because

of anti -theft um they have a tv that plays propaganda

up on their wall for like this you know two and

a half d over over -the -shoulder Nintendo Switch

RPG or whatever it is, a flavor of the month

Nintendo. I never see any games except for empty

boxes or a couple like, you know, plastic display

pieces. And it's usually like carnival level

toys that are just everywhere. Like the GameStop

that we peruse in our store, like the plaza down

here is usually, it's like the anchor store.

So if like they took it out, the whole plaza

would collapse. That's kind of like the last

thing keeping it alive. You walk in and you're

just like, huh, this is sad. I feel depressed

now. This is the closet. See ya. The Funkos are

in the back right of the store next to a wall.

We walked in, I think it was a year ago. They

had the Ghostbusters movie, right? We all love

the Ghostbusters afterlife. And we're like, man,

the little one would really love this miniature

Stay Puft. It's like the size of your thumbnail,

right? But whatever. And you're like, oh, it

comes in this marshmallow toxic glue thing or

the squishy glue thing. I'm getting ahead of

myself when I say the word toxic. And it's like,

oh, this is so cool. Let me ring one out. And

then we get to the car and it's like, oh, oh,

God, what the fuck is that smell? It's terrible.

And it's chemical. And like you can see the skin

turning red. And then you you like immediately

get a headache. Right. Imagine imagine you're

in kindergarten. Right. And they've legalized

sniffing glue. Six years old, you're sitting

at the table and you're like, you know what?

The playground was a fucking rough day today.

I need a hit. You grab the Elmer's glue stick

and you just take the biggest whiff of that stick.

And you're just flying high at six years old

in the playground for like a half hour. But you've

got to not care in the world, right? And, you

know, that is basically what happened. but to

us all three as a family in the car in like a

30 second span as soon as opening that thing

out and trying to like get it back in because

it was it went everywhere mike it was literally

liquid uh whatever the what are they cement liquid

whatever that it was like slime it was a slime

but it was like um what what's that super powerful

glue they used to use in school and stuff it

had like had like a wand in it and you would

take it out it was like you not elmer's but like

the more powerful stuff that kind of glue that's

literally what this was in like a white slime

form come to find out gamestop was selling a

toxic toy and it was well known and it was a

huge recall like you go on amazon look for these

things and people were like no no no it's like

if there was a negative review that product had

it right the mini stay puffs with the slime yeah

it was like actually hurting people oh my god

That's cool. We had one manager there that was

like, oh my gosh, yeah, I see this. They gave

us a refund exchange. They helped us out and

everything. They pulled all 20 of them off the

shelf. They kept it for their manager. We went

in a week later. They're all back on the shelf.

No, they put them to the other store. Oh, that's

right. No, I'm sorry. They took them off the

shelf. They took them to the other GameStop location

south of us and sold the thing. And so we walk

in and we're like, hey, did you guys hear about

that? Yeah, these came in from Bellingham. They

didn't tell us why. I'm like, oh, let me tell

you a story. So they pulled them off the shelf.

I don't know if they got shipped back north or

what, but GameStop's answer to customer safety

and especially that of a little one, because

these were advertised for kids like three and

up, mind you. Oh, wow. Yeah. Like it's on Amazon.

Little mini stay puff with the slime public service

warning. It's toxic glue is what it's pure glue.

Like don't let a six year old or a three year

old, anybody touch this. You will get a contact

high. Like you've never believed I had such a

headache. Mike, like I've never done hard drugs,

but I assume that that's what it probably felt

like if I had to come off such a cocaine high.

Like, it was that bad. And it was only the size

of, like, you know, the container wasn't much

bigger than, like, your two thumbs put together.

But GameStop's policy for customer safety was

completely thrown out the window for that, too.

So I have no respect. I have respect for the

employees that work there, but I have no respect

for the way they treat the customer or their

upper management or anything like that, right?

circling back to movies and stuff um in that

whole process that i was at the stores anytime

during that incident or anything else i've never

walked in the game stop and said what can i buy

here today because i go there to see what's left

like that's you know that yeah i'm thank you

i'm a vulture so i guess and then i walk out

they're like you can hear them like have a good

day i'm like yeah that's help Yeah, exactly.

If Funko did not do GameStop exclusives, I probably

would not have been in any of those stores in

the past. Well, we found out they do. They do

them at HQ. You can go to GameStop. You can go

get your exclusives from GameStop or any of them

at HQ now. We picked up all kinds of stuff from

GameStop, like, turns out, two weeks ahead of

time. Hot Topic, all of them. I have no need

to go to a retailer unless I'm super desperate

or I need to do an exchange for a damaged pop

that I found at HQ early, right? It's one of

those things where you're at the mercy of what

I want to do now, not the other way around. Well,

you're lucky enough to live close enough to HQ

to do that. Yeah, once we relocate or do anything

of the sort, that becomes a non -option, but

I'll take full advantage of where I can. Yeah,

exactly. Not unless you want to, you know, waste

a bunch of money and rack up some airline miles

traveling back and forth. I mean, sometimes that

might be a thing. They're going to probably move

that to Arizona anyhow, so, you know. I love

how Funko started out in the Pacific Northwest

only to end up dead in the desert. Look, it's

a landfill, everybody! Yeah. You saw what happened

at the end of Breaking Bad, didn't you? Yep.

Yeah, they're going to be out there with the

barrels of money. Yep. Just like that Jason,

whatever the hell his name is. Oh, God, that

thing is ugly. I don't mind supporting that charity,

but I would not buy that Funko Pop. Oh, that

one. Yeah, I was going to get one just for the

novelty. And then Twitter was like, sorry, not

Twitter, but the Funko Twitter was like, You

have X amount of time to get this pre -ordered.

I'm like, I do, huh? Click. Oh, well, that tweet

was an hour late. You know, I just it wasn't

I would have gotten it for the uniqueness. But

the problem is it's not shipping till July. And

then it's like, well, if we. relocated do anything

different like how do i change my address can

i update my address can you know what what do

i do if i need to circulate it elsewhere right

at least things like drop and stuff i can go

in and make an address change or something you

know but i heard that speaking of customer service

yeah there's one company worse than gamestop

mike And it's not Funko. That's just, that's

low -hanging fruit. From where you go on this

journey, you're, you know. Hey, if I have to,

like, if I have to get stuff off the secondary

market, I don't care at this point. As long as

I'm not paying too, like, I understand they all

have value. I understand they all have a monetary

value. That's fine. there's a certain line that

I draw, and it's only for certain characters,

where I'm like, I can't go over this, because

if I do, I'm going to be screwed, and one Funko

Pop is not worth all of that. Well, no, but I

mean, that's the thing. Everybody has their limit.

They know what they want, and like you said,

they all have a value, right? I don't go to GameStop

thinking, man, if I don't get that pop at GameStop,

I'm fucked. That time, unless the Sonic Super

Shadow 2 pack again comes out or whatever, which

is pre -ordered or whatever, unless that is the

next big hot thing, which Sonic is about the

only thing they've got going for them. There's

nothing at GameStop like there used to be with

the Death Stranding and God of War thing. There's

nothing that they really have that's like, oh

man. The Yu -Gi -Oh pops, it's like, whatever.

You can get those anywhere. The six -inch ones,

they got like... There's nothing exclusive to

GameStop that I couldn't get better and cheaper,

and I'd rather buy it on a secondary market anyway

from somebody I know or do the vetting myself

because then I know the box quality is not going

to be complete shite. By the time you spend the

time and effort to go through the hassle of doing

it yourself, it's actually better. to pay the

secondary market the fees because that cost is

baked in with your gas. It's already baked into

the shipping and stuff that they're doing. They're

doing all the legwork. You just have to click

a button and maybe scroll through some photos

and be like, yeah, this guy's good. He's got

6 ,000 rating. He's not going to screw me, and

he's going to pack it in a protector, and it's

going to get here. And if something does unfortunately

happen, I'm not out of anything because there's

protection policy, right? You do that same thought

process at GameStop. You flip through some digital

promo figures, and you're like, Man, I hope this

thing doesn't fucking suck. Man, I hope it's

packed good. $10 for shipping because I didn't

hit the $59 .99 limit. Oh, crap. Okay. You wait

six months and you get it. You're like, who the

hell sat on it? And then you go into the store

and you spend 45 minutes to an hour getting accosted

by a district manager. who you just want to just

punch in the face, but you just want to do a

return, right? I would have even done an exchange,

but they, you know... An exchange being a punch

in the face. Yeah, an exchange. No, I was going

to do an exchange for an actual pop, and I was

like, no, screw you, I'm better than this. Exactly.

I'm with you. Now, that being said, there are

a lot of the pops that GameStop has that, you

know, you go to certain places in the secondary

market that... It's better to do it that way

because you get it for $3 or $2, right? Certain

sellers on certain platforms have tanked the

market to a point where they have made that platform

the Walmart of Funkos, right? Well, it depends

on which auctions you're in. I can tell you that

right now. But the reason why I will say this

is I was in an auction. This is, oh, God, over

a year ago. And I had already got, from this

auction, three of the, what are there, are there

six black and white TMNT comic chases? Yeah.

Yeah, there's six chases total. So, four turtles,

Casey and Shredder. I already had in my collection

two of the turtles. I insert whichever names

I don't remember. They're all black and white.

It doesn't matter. They all have red bandanas.

It doesn't matter. It didn't matter until 1987

when they actually got color bandanas, which

is superior. Anyway, so Funko Pop Toy, blah,

blah, blah, black and white comic chases for

turtles. The seller who was a friend of mine,

whatever else they had at the time in their auction,

they had three of the ones that I still needed.

lovely chat room in the auction noticed that

I was going after these things and they made

me pay for it. Devious. Yeah. Well, so the first

two, I, again, again, not of the six, I don't

remember which was, I think it was Leonardo Casey

and shredder. Maybe I'd have to look at the old

slip. If I even have the old slip, I usually

throw those out. Yeah. So anyway, I paid for

the first two, and the first two were fine. It

was like $25, $30, fine. I know some of these

whatnot auctions are going to go at least that

high. That's fine. The last one was like, oh,

you need to pay $74 because everybody has finally

realized that you need to complete your set.

I'm like, oh, it's a good thing I had the money

at the time. But yeah, you're right. Some of

these auctions on whatnot, you know. You look

at a mystery tag, pay $10, and you get a $500

autograph. That's great. Awesome. Cool. Thank

you. Yeah. I mean, to that one, a year or so

ago, I had that happen when I was going for the

TMNT autographs for the first set of them that

I have, right? Right. And I got all but Leonardo.

And the very last one, the guy bidded up some

absurd amount. We're talking probably $200, $300.

And the guy that was running the auction was

like, listen. I'm going to cancel that and I'm

going to give it to you for this price because

I know what the other guy was doing. And that's

not right. You know what I mean? And so you've

got some honest people out there that are like,

and again, it's one of those things where it's

like that dude had no idea what he was doing.

I wasn't asking for any favors, but at the same

time, it's like, have some respect. You see somebody

who's going after a set of something like that.

If you legitimately need that one, that's one

thing, right? But you know what you're doing,

you know, that's very bullish. it is but i just

found that funny because at the time when i was

going for the black ones yeah i mean i'm not

saying it doesn't happen but you know yeah that

that's where i mean the what i'm referring to

when i'm talking like the the the bottom of the

bottom yeah when you have such a massive volume

of and i'm not going to name specifics or anything

i'm just no no no no it's one of those things

where it's like There are certain retailers that

have such a massive influx of common pops, like

the GameStop pops that you would see for $10,

$15. They can take the hit on selling it for

$3 on their auction, and if it comes to you damaged

and you report it, they're going to just write

it off. You know what I mean? They don't. The

problem with that is that when you become the

Walmart of a platform, you drive out the smaller,

more honest sellers, right? risk as a platform

with whatnot and things like that of alienating

lower and you know not lesser quality but your

smaller sellers right um from trying to make

a name for themselves and so forth i'm not putting

that as like we're struggling or anything because

we're not i'm just simply analyzing the market

from my own experience so when it comes to gamestop

there's nothing in gamestop that i would want

that i couldn't get elsewhere for cheaper And

by that same token, going into those auctions,

usually when I go in there, I'm looking for those

deals because they have such a large quantity

of things that a lot of times they don't even

know what they're running. And it's just, you

know, you can get a great deal with something.

It's like, yeah, that's cool. Not for resale,

but because I don't want to deal with GameStop.

You know what I mean? I advocate towards those

auctions because I don't want to deal with GameStop.

And look. I will say specifically the plot, what

not auctions are great. Most of the time, 90

% of my experience with it has been great. There's

only been... Okay, so again, going to YouTube

and everything else, I watch a bunch of YouTube

Funko creators like Slapshot Pops and Poppin'

Duo and Professor Josh and all this and all that.

I will buy anything from any of those three creators,

whatever it is. As long as it's something I want

and they have it, I will buy it from them as

long as I can get it at a decent price. And when

I say decent price, I get it. You do $1 starts,

you do $3 starts, you do $5 starts. If people

are going to bid it up, bid it up fine. To me,

whatever that ends up being, and you guys can

talk about this because you're whatnot sellers.

Let's say... What am I going to use for an example?

Okay, I know this would go for more money than

what it's whatever, but I'm looking at my Top

Pops Tristan U2s figure. If you all had one of

those that was mint in the box, it would probably

go for an enormous amount of money, whatever.

But my point in making that, or hell, Cyclops

Chase. Cyclops Funko Soda Chase. Let's say that

goes for 50, 60 bucks. Hey, I look at that as

saying I'm getting a cool ass soda and the people

I'm buying it from are getting paid. I don't

know what the percentages are versus what whatnot

takes versus what you all get. And if you want

to say, you can say. If you don't want to say,

you don't have to say. But I would much rather

support people. And buy from people I know, then

number one, buy from strangers on Mercari that

I don't know, even if they have a great seller

rating or eBay or whatever. GameStop. Exactly.

i'm at the point now in my collecting if i'm

buying anything as long as i can source it from

whichever person that i know or if they can put

me in touch with somebody who has something that

i want except i would rather do that than actually

go into any store and and buy it off the shelf

because man this toy collecting stuff folks it's

it's a hard knocks life sometimes out here with

these these Stop stores and stuff. Well, in a

lot of those stores, Mike, they have to have

toys in order for you to buy. Yeah, exactly.

I saw a video from a couple of years ago where

like Walmart actually had things on a shelf like,

oh, man, I remember those days. And there was

actual people working there, too. And it was

all clean and tidy. And like you didn't have

snot on the floor or puke on the shelves and

boxes and things. Now you walk in. It's like,

all right, kids, lock and load. this way and

watch out for the landmines in the middle of

the matchbox aisle go yeah and there's not like

i almost ran over two kids today just because

they wouldn't move and i was stuck because one

was behind me and the other one was in front

of me and the mom's sitting there just bent over

like almost in tears just trying to figure out

life and i'm like are you okay you know and she

eventually gathered up her little kid and everything

and moved she didn't speak english so i was at

a disadvantage but It felt bad because it's just

like that's the kind of sadness Walmart brings,

you know, and I felt better when I left the store.

So, you know, but they didn't have anything in

the time that I was in there in the shelves.

It's like all bare, like the tags are just like,

here's something you could have bought and it

would have been this price. I think there's a

loss in faith between Funko and their distributors.

That's a big part of it because Funko is silently.

putting all their once -exclusives with the stickers

at HQ, and they're not showing up on the shelves

of, say, the Target as much or the Walmart or

that kind of thing. So I think there's, like,

a quiet quip between the partnership, honestly.

Yeah. And honestly, it's probably a good thing,

because I would much, as long as I can get it,

okay, and Jason Kelsey notwithstanding, because

crap. But, like, Because I'm sorry. Okay. Again,

like I said a little while ago in the episode,

I don't mind directly supporting whichever charity

it was that they were going to be supporting

by selling the Jason Kelsey Funko Pop. But the

Jason Kelsey Funko Pop itself, I do not need

some white guy with his. hands out a beer in

one hand and looks like he's screaming with Funko

shaved into his chest hair. Like, I don't need

that in my life. I really don't. Did Funko really

shave into his chest hair? Yeah, you didn't see

that? Fuck, I missed out on an opportunity. That

would have been the ultimate Freddy head swap.

Yes, it would have been. Could you imagine an

underage Freddy with a beer in both hands and

like an emblazoned Freddy hair chest? I'm pretty

sure. I don't think I'm making that up. I'm pretty

sure. Because everybody was talking about his

stupid hat. I'm going to do a Freddy head swap

with one of those. Everybody was talking about

his stupid hat because they're like, oh, it can't

say the Chiefs on it because then you get the

Kansas City Chiefs involved, and then they're

going to want a cut of the charity money and

blah, blah, blah, blah, which I'm sure the Chiefs

would not take that big of a cut from charity.

Mike, I got the Mariotti 2 -pack. We're going

to do a Mariotti. Oh, no! They have me smashing

beers into his head. Oh, my God. If you're going

to Arizona, if you're going to do that, at least

use Mike Becker. Mariotti has enough problems.

Mike Becker looks like the Green Goblin without

the mask. He's got that William Dafoe, but like

he's got William Dafoe. My God. Why is it? I

would love to meet the guy and shake his hand,

but like, dude, you're my like. If there's ever

like a, now you're going to say, let me hear

it. Let me see your chest hair. Yeah. Yeah. Can

you just go like this and like pull the shit,

like almost like you're going to Superman it,

but not. And I need to get a photo. Thank you.

And then autograph. Um, he does have the wildest

face. Like if they could just take, like, I feel

like if you could just take the green goblin,

the metallic green goblin pop from the movie

with the foe and just turn that in with the mask,

mind you not be like the massless version. and

just put that as a Becker Pop, that's his facial

structure. He's got that chin line. Yes, he deserves

a Goblin butt, though. That's true, though. Goblin

has a mighty fine butt. Yes, they did his derriere

nice. The second runner -up being the Robert

Pattinson Batman from Pop in a Box. What about

Slimer? That's just terrible. That's for fun

when he does a pop myself. Oh, maybe it was.

Maybe I'm lying because I'm looking at the picture

on. Maybe it was the car. That's what it was.

It was the concept. It doesn't actually. I swear

I saw somewhere on. Instagram. I swear somebody

had put Funko. I'm looking at the website. Out

of stock. $25. But it does not. Damn. Lies and

deception. They did the derriere for Slimer on

the Stay Puft Mini. The mystery figures for the

new movie that's coming out. That's a whole different

bag of nightmares. Uh, vinyl golden rewinds.

No, thank you. Get the hell up. Popsies. Blah.

They're going in with more popsies this year

though. They're going in with more, um, obscure

things, all, all things that GameStop will never

carry. So we can be thankful for that. I mean,

it's, I don't know game. I don't go to GameStop

for collectibles. It's in the same way that I

don't go to, like, Walmart for groceries, though.

Yeah. I actually don't go to Walmart for much

of anything, really. I mean, I pick up a bag

of chips and some sticky notes. How's that for,

you know? I don't know. Like, this discussion

has been very therapeutic because now I'm all

out on Fury against GameStop. I just feel bad

for them now. They still drop. I just want them

to die. They're still dropped. Yeah, they're

still dropped. Yeah, I don't... Look, I don't

mind the physical side, and this is how I think

most everyone feels about it. I don't mind the

physical side of NFTs, but the NFT process in

general just sucks. In order to get the physical

thing. So you have a company who says, listen,

we have a really cool concept, right? Throw all

this bullshit out with the kiddie pedophile looking

crow playmobile. rewind figures right get those

out of here we're past that now get rid of the

the popsies that you click a button and people

just throw them in the trash no no we're going

to nfts baby so you have a company it has that

kind of forward thinking mentality right and

they have unlimited licenses at their disposal

and so not for long right they they they have

licenses available and so You know, over the

last year or so, you've noticed probably the

decline in, like, demand. Think GameStop, but

on nuclear level. So you go to buy a pack, and

I'm just going to skip over all the BS that's

involved. Just assume you buy a pack. You're

like, wow, this is awesome. And NFT in itself,

it's an awesome – the way they've done the digital

collectibles is an awesome concept, right? Concept,

execution, two different things. Right. So a

year ago – if you were to launch a series that

was well -respected or new, even if it was complete

shite like Hanna -Barbera or whatever, the first

run that they did with the character selection,

right? Not the series. Hanna -Barbera was awesome.

But their character selection was terrible. They

would sell out. Like, the packs, you'd burn maybe

like a thousand packs or something. You're like,

eh, whatever. It's a minor hit. We got most of

them sold. Now, they're like burning 50, 40,

50, 60 % of their packs. The demand is not there.

So what do they do? They double down. They keep

making more high value, high count releases.

And then like today they had the spastic plastic

and you're like, well, that's a very niche thing,

even more niche than like Steven universe and

stuff. It's like, yeah, but the spastic plastic

is like one of their mascot. They did some really

neat things with it. Yada, yada, yada. And, but

they, instead of making it a limited 15 ,000

per pack release, like they would have done with

the April fools and some of the more niche. things

that funco exclusive specific characters would

have done they made 30 000 mike and then they're

like well normally after like two hours they

would burn and close the auction down the sale

was such shit that not only did they the last

three drops burn 50 of the packs and extend the

drop to like an extra hour to redeem the redemption

period i kid you not for today's packs went for

seven hours and they still burned almost half

the packs now as someone who figured out the

nft system and enjoys the collectibles and things

regardless of whether they're shit or not because

i like the nft series you know i will say that's

a business problem because it like on paper yeah

i made a lot of money but you still lost and

burned half your product. You're still going

to manufacture those pops because you've committed

to it, right? It's not like you're going to the

manufacturer and saying, well, we only redeemed

XML, time to make this one. I'm pretty sure they

committed to that. That's why that whole Arizona

scandal happened, because they had those pops

out there, right? They exist somewhere. But then

you talk about, to your point, and this is the

rant portion, right? there we go they five redemptions

in so the first now granted i had a little bit

of a hiccup with star trek two years ago whatever

they got that fixed lickety split you're like

wow this is great like early game stop right

customer service peak level performance everything's

functioning perfectly good fast forward a year

later they got they got lackadaisical so i had

my entire Sid and Marty Croft, right at the time

he passed away, the whole thing was obliterated

shipping. Somebody got pissed and just destroyed

the box. And I was like, okay, guys, what's up?

Help me out here. Based on previous examples,

I was expecting them to help me. Four months

later, I got them replaced, right? Now, at that

point, I've received House of Dragon, all completely

crushed. Game of Thrones, over half of them crushed.

Steven Universe, crushed. Hanna -Barbera, over

half of them crushed. And then my Game of Thrones

pops, crushed. And my Dungeons & Dragons, all

but the High Elf Freddy, crushed. So I've gone

through five redemption periods now where they've

all been destroyed. Even my Adventure Time one,

Lady Rainicorn, suffered massive damage. And

they have improved their packaging. They've got

new packaging and things now. But you've now

narrowed it down to being somebody's complete

asshole at the warehouse where they're just like,

I fucking hate NFTs. And they crush the box,

then they pack it very gently in the box and

send it to you, right? And so you don't know

that it's damaged until you open it. That's the

kind of stuff that really, again, to GameStop,

ticks people off because you don't even do a

quality control at your warehouse to make it.

enjoyable and funko even came out and said we're

going to include protectors now with all of your

shipments really fucking when are you actively

doing it because the last four fucking redemptions

you've shipped me have been destroyed blessed

that my batman dark knight rises nfts all came

in mint condition you know that's the exception

out of six redemptions right but at what point

when you say you're going to do these things

do you actually fucking execute on it and then

We're going to six is not good odds. Yeah. Then

you come out and you're like in your seventh

redemption in a row where you've burned 40 %

of your packs. You kind of have to ask yourself

as a company, the fuck am I doing? You know,

pretty soon they're going to invest in a movie

theater and it's going to become a meme stock

and they're going to get amped up. And I'll talk

about GameStop, but that's where Funko is going.

Yeah, exactly. Or I should say drop, but drop

is an extension of Funko. Yeah. So. And the crazy

thing about the whole – okay. So we know, as

Funko collectors, we know if we go on Funko .com,

for eight additional dollars, eight additional

United States dollars, you can buy – Don't get

me fucking stirred on this, Mike. What? Don't

get me fucking stirred on this. You talking about

the gift box? Are you talking about the piece

of shit gift box? What? Are they gift boxes or

are they hard stacks? I mean, they don't remember

me. Because, okay, I'm just making sure, because

the Funko gift box can go shove one. Okay, well,

we might get into that. I'll let you finish now.

I got stopped. It's good. We might get into that.

I haven't heard about this gift box stuff, but

no. I'll shut up now. I'm going to go grab a

drink. I'm listening. Okay. So, you know, you

spend whatever it is from one of the Funko -branded

pop hard stack things. So you get that in addition

to your pop. The one time that I've purchased

this is, I don't even remember what pop it was,

but this was before they started doing their

amazing cardboard sorters. Yay! This is back

when they were still using, like, literally less

than 2 % grade bubble wrap. Yeah, craft paper?

Yeah, pretty much. The pop! Came in the box,

but it wasn't in the hard stack. I mean, how

hard is that, Funko? How fucking hard is it?

The hard stack is what ended up crushing it,

right? Huh? Yeah. The hard stack is what ended

up crushing it? I don't know what ended up crushing

it, but it ended up not good. Good thing I didn't

really care I was going to have it out of the

box anyway, but it's just one of those things

where... If you're telling me that I can buy

one of your products on your website, Funko,

and whatever product that is, whatever license,

whatever line, whatever, whatever, whatever.

Let's just say Funko Pop because that's what

usually hard stacks are for. But whatever license,

whatever, whatever, Batman, Superman, Spider

-Man, Idiot Man who purchases stuff on Funko's

website, whatever. If you're going to tell me

I can purchase a protector for my item, then

the goddamn item better ship in the protector.

Yep. You know who else did that, Mike? Walmart.

Who else doesn't sell Funkos anymore? Walmart.

Oh, Walmart. Oh, Lord. So funny thing about Walmart

is. I wasn't sure how this was going to play

out. I think it was last year, either right before

or right after my birthday. Well, God, I need

to look at that box again. The Rodimus and Galvatron

Transformers 2 pack that was the GameStop. It

was GameStop. It wasn't Walmart. It was GameStop.

Okay, that's fine. It was bringing it back around.

Point is, I had had enough money in my budget

to get it. But I had already told somebody, hey,

I'd like to get this for my birthday or whatever

the hell it was or whatever. And that person

was like at one point or another was like, what's

your address or what's this or go? Actually,

no, it was my buddy Alex. And I love you, Alex,

to death. He after I got my copy of the damn

thing, which the box that I got, the shipping

box was damaged all the hell. But the pop was

fine. But the pop. was basically in crepe paper

from gamestop literally no bubble wrap no nothing

and it was in a box that was like so goddamn

tight like i could barely get the pop out i'm

like what the hell you people doing and the one

that he purchased for he he well so i already

had mine i already i was already excited about

it i already had it like the next night He messages

me and says, oh, yeah, you should have a delivery

outside your apartment. I'm like, wait, what?

What are you talking about? Okay, I go out and

I get another box, and there's a box from GameStop.

What did he do? So I basically have, in and out

of box, I have basically two copies of the Rodimus

and Galvatron 2 -pack, which is fine, absolutely.

He wanted to get me a gift, whatever. I'm absolutely

appreciative of that. That isn't the problem.

The problem is, how in the world? Did GameStop's

warehouse or multiple warehouses that GameStop

may own, how did they screw up one box and not

screw up the other one? Now, I will say that.

What? They pack some of them at the warehouse

and some of them at the store. It's up to the

discretion of whoever's packing it is what we

were told. We've seen them packing them at the

store for customers. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's

bad. They pull it off the shelf at the store.

You should be out of business. No. If you are

selling something on it. Okay. Why do you think

Hot Topic had that huge scandal about a year

ago with Chases? So let me give you an example

of context on how it varies depending on warehouse

or store. When you order something from Hot Topic.

You have to pay attention to where it comes from.

If you get a distribution center, you have a

good chance of getting a chase. If they fulfill

your order from a store and ship it to home,

which is what they can want to do from time to

time, you are not getting a chase. They pull

that from the store inventory and send it to

you. And stores do not send the chases to people.

They send the regular pops. They keep the chases

for their stores. people came and caught on to

this real quick and everybody that got a chase

got their order from a warehouse everybody else

that didn't get a chase they saw that they took

a sample size and read it because reddit does

math like this like nobody's business and like

two thousand some people they had oh like three

quarters of them got their orders from stores

and they were all non -chases everybody else

that got their store their their chases from

their order got them from a warehouse right so

they come to find out like that was one of the

reasons because the stores were selling from

shop. That's what GameStop does. They walk over

and they're like, oh, you want that Captain Carter

GameStop exclusive? There's that damage on a

shelf. I'm going to grab that, throw it in a

box, bam, it's on its way. It's completely up

to the discretion that the employee doesn't give

a shit if it's like good condition, bad condition.

They just see product, grab it, box, ship, you

know. And then if you get somebody like we've

witnessed where they take the extra TLC to do

it, like. They still don't look at that level

of quality. They just say, oh, good condition,

product, box, ship. But I'm going to put a little

extra care in it because I don't want to get

obliterated in transit, right? Warehouse is just

all automated or whatever it is that they do.

They don't care. They just take the biggest boxes

available and throw it in there if it's a tin

can, whatever. So, yeah, that doesn't shock me

one bit what you're explaining. But I was just

like – and at the end of the day, both – copies

were fought like there was no box damage on either

one of them i mean it's possible yeah but no

well i'm telling you it's but like these box

like i don't know where like i don't know where

these gamestop employees whether warehouse or

store got the these were the weirdest oblong

long ass box i'm like it's a two -pack it's all

leftovers yeah well it was weird I've seen what

they received from their warehouse for launch

days. I was there the day they had the two packs

for that Galvatron launch. Two different GameStops,

mind you. Both of them had them. They pulled

one box fresh off the pallet, opened it up, and

they were all crushed. They were already crushed

from transit. And it was a mint box. You're like,

why? And then the other store was like... Yeah,

we just crammed them in this drawer. I'm like,

wait, what? And they literally shoved all of

them into a drawer the size of, you know, like,

you know, three, three, 12 packs wide. No. And

just crushed, you know. No. And so, again, that,

whether it's shipping or the, like, it's every,

it's a failure at all levels, right? Mm -hmm.

To your point about the box, like, when you buy

the pot protector and stuff like that and Walmart

and all that thing, imagine being me and I bought,

a Funko from Funko .com. Nobody wants to imagine.

Yeah, nobody wants to imagine. And I bought the

gift box for $3, thinking, wow, this will be

a great fucking gift. It'll come in a nice little

blue box. It'll have extra protection on it.

Let me order three more of those and put them

on all my pops. They shipped me the fucking package.

And they shipped me the gift boxes inside the

box. The tops were in their own protectors of

disorder type. Gift boxes were conveniently in

the same box, bouncing around, doing shenanigans.

So I paid $9. I got the refund, but I paid $9

for basically to have three other boxes slam

into the other boxes in transit. At what point,

again, with Drop and all these other things,

you give me the option to buy something. I would

expect that to be put on the pop before it's

shipped. Yeah. And my other thing is, one of

the reasons why I don't like the NFTs is, and

I don't like the headache of the NFTs, and I

don't like the headache of chase hunting. if

i want the chase let me just buy the again this

goes to my point of going on to lovely auctions

onto whatnot and buying from people that i know

because i know that they'll say oh well we've

opened these sodas these are the chases you you

know obviously as long as you bid enough you

could win it kind of thing at least in that aspect

i know As long as I check my budget, you know,

I know I could potentially get a chase, which

is fine. But the whole chase hunt in itself,

it's like, no, I want to buy what I want. I don't

want to have to purchase something for the potential.

This goes to more of the NFT. I don't want to

have to purchase a digital thing for a potential

chance at getting a physical thing. I want the

physical thing, damn it. Makes sense. And you

can still buy the physical thing, whether it's

secondary market or buy the redemption. True.

Right. But most people say that because of that

point, that my argument is mute. Well, no, you

have a valid point. It's just not your cup of

tea. You'd rather wait till the you'd rather

wait till the pops are in hand with somebody

else and do all the vetting like you're talking

about there. Yeah. To do your diligence. I am

taking a step prior to that and saying, well,

I'll be the one that redeems it. Someone have

mercy on my soul, you know, if they show up in

good condition. Right. But that I'd still a better

still I'd rather do that than to worry about

GameStop shipping or anything of that nature,

you know. And honestly, you could when you could

legitimately hunt for things in person because

you knew the quality of them. Yeah, I just like.

Right. You knew the potential. So, again, let's

just say. I know it used to be one in 36, but

let's just go with the one in six because that's

just easier. It's better math. But one in six

chases, okay? Sodas you're not going to know

because it's sodas. But pops you'll know because

of that giant sort of giant yellow sticker that's

on the box. So if you're at Hot Topic, let's

just use Hot Topic because I'm kind of getting

an aneurysm talking about GameStop. Bastards.

The store. Not the employees are bastards. The

store is the bastard, not the employees. You

go into Hot Topic, you see, I don't know, Spirit

Spengler. And let's say Spirit Spengler has a,

to borrow a Star Wars term, holographic chase.

Uh -huh. Then, you know, you can root through

the boxes to see if there's any chases. You can,

you know, and calmly. I'm not saying, you know,

go in there like a bear and just kind of just

take your claw and just rip all the other. No,

you go in there respectfully. You know you want

to look for the chase. You pick one up. You pick

another one up if it isn't. You keep hunting.

That is fine. That is absolutely fine. If stores

say they have, I don't know, 40 chases of whichever

figure it is, that means as long as you get there

when they first open, because usually that's

what you have to do, you have a potentiality

of potentially getting one of those chases. You

just have to find it in the store. That is fine.

I was surprised. I'm glad this happened, but

I was surprised. I got lucky. I purchased, what

did I purchase? Five or six? I forget. I have

like a bunch of extra of the flying Batman Beyond

around here somewhere. I forget where he's flying

around at. But when they were doing the flying

Batman Beyond, because it was a... Xavi exclusive

at first. Thankfully, Xavi went the hell out

of business. We don't need that company anymore.

Well, they finally switched it over to the Funko

Shop. And while I love the flying Batman Beyond,

and I do have it now, because I am pretty much

Batman Beyond complete, except for one 8 .5 graded

red eyes that somebody has that that's a whole

other... Well, and a nine metallic. Whatever.

Same thing. yeah yeah same thing but the point

is i went and they said oh if you buy whatever

i don't know i think it's six so you buy you

buy a case essentially you have i was shocked

that i got the invisible chase from batman beyond

which is great because There's only a few times

that the very, very clear chases make sense to

me, is if you're referencing something. Anyone

that's seen Batman Beyond knows if Terry does

a little dial thing on his belt, he can go into

camouflage mode. And he basically blends into

whatever background he is. So he's kind of very

translucent, which makes sense. For that chase.

Same thing with John Cena. With the you can't

see me. And the invisible Amazon. Which again.

That makes sense. Because you can't see him.

Kind of thing. I get it. But yeah. I mean. I

don't mind doing a little hunting. But I don't

want to have to work my ass off. For the potential.

Of getting something. Right. I don't mind working

my ass off to get something. That's a whole other

story, a whole other podcast down the road somewhere.

You don't like the gambling aspect. Yeah, no.

Don't like the – The last time I did anything

with gambling was 2000, 2001 at Treasure Bay

Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, or was it Gulfport?

I forget if it was Biloxi or Gulfport. My ex

will remember. She knows. So, yeah. But, yeah,

GameStop, you suck. That's the summation of this

last hour and a half. GameStop sucks. Yeah, GameStop,

you suck. And drops coming into the close second.

Yeah. Again, I can't. I can't with that whole

process. You have to put your actual money in

it. actual money into being digital money and

you have to wax your wallet and you have to this

and you have to that it's like i feel like rafael

when mikey said wax on wax off raf said back

to him wax on mouth off i was gonna say it's

not for everybody but when it works it works

but i think that i think the good news is that

If they continue on this path, those NFTs are

going to be super cheap and more accessible to

a lot more people. Maybe they'll just start freaking

making it. What I'd like to see is where you

go in and you actually pre -order it. And you

get away from the digital NFT aspect of it. Like

Jason Keltz. You go in and you say, I want that.

And I buy the whole set. And then you buy it

and they make it. And it's like Kickstarter.

And then that way the piece counts are set. And

you can't F it up. And then there you go, right?

And then you also can replace if need be on demand

and destroy the others. I think that's where

they kind of meet you in the middle, right? If

they were smart about it, but you know. Man,

let me tell you, the rewards, because again,

it's guaranteed rewards. It's not gambling. You

just pick your, like, I've backed, I think, since

2019, I've backed probably six different Kickstarter

campaigns over the years. And only one of them

didn't get funded, but they reran it and it got

funded. But you get cool shit. Boom Studios for

the comics, they did a whole – I didn't contribute

to this one. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that

at the time. But they did a whole Power Rangers

special thing for the 30th anniversary kind of

thing. They did this whole – What was it? The

Keanu Reeves Berserker comic book was a Kickstarter

project. Fine. Hey, great. I'll gladly give you

$10, $12 if it's a tier that's specifically special

that gets me a whatever. I think when I backed

the Cybertronic Spree Ravage project, it was,

I don't know. 20 bucks or 30 bucks to get the

USB and the CD and the poster or whatever the

hell it was. Like, yeah, no, I don't mind doing

that because at least I know I'm getting something.

So, yeah, I would love it if Funko would do.

They probably wouldn't know how to fuck do it,

but... Kickstarter soon? Yeah, they may do Kickstarter

soon if they can get on his path. Although I

will say you'll be very pleased to hear not necessarily

a rant, good rant. Remember the last time we

spoke, they asked me like, you know, the fuck

kind of project would you do if you had unlimited

resources and you would make a Funko of your

size? I want, I want Gundam. They're actually

making fricking Gundam pops. They got the license

for Gundam. They got the license for... Oh, wow.

They got the license for... And they're starting

with the RX whatever from the original Gundam.

So somebody out there is listening and said,

you know what? That's a genius fucking idea.

Let's make Gundam pops. So we're going to get

Gundam. I also heard they are going to make an

Ellie one, too. So my rant is also complete.

Hooray! I mean, I don't mind her being in the

two packs. That's fine. It's not a problem, I

guess. I don't know. Too many Carls, though.

Too many different Carls. There is another Carl

coming for the Ed Asner Foundation that I will

invest in. Yeah, well, okay. In that case, yes.

And that's a pop that people would want. Let's

get the fuck right off of that sequel. Wait,

what? Okay, we may have to talk about that off

air because I haven't heard of... Oh boy, now

I've got to do research. You didn't know they

made... So yeah, and it's probably GameStop's

fault too since they're in bed with AMC. They

made a sequel to Up and it was like a short film

for Carl going on a date after Ellie passed away.

Oh, that's right. They can go fuck themselves.

Carl is Carl and Ellie is Ellie. You don't mess

with that ecosystem, right? Do all the movies

you want with Doug. Do whatever you want to do

with Kevin in the house or whatever, but you

don't touch the characters. Thankfully, this

new pop that's coming out is a tribute to Ed

Asner as far as the foundation and everything

else, but if it was a pop for that new movie,

I would buy it and burn it. There'd be one less

on the market. We have Batman the Animated Series.

We have Batman Beyond Pops. We kind of, sort

of have Justice League, but not DCAU, can you

imagine a Superman the Animated Series pop line

with a Granny Goodness going to the Ed Asner

Foundation because Ed Asner was the voice of

Granny Goodness in Superman the Animated Series?

That would be amazing! Yeah, that'd be a good

one. Okay, cool. I'm down with that. I watched

the Flash movie last night, too, and I was just...

They completely wasted a perfectly good plot

line. Once you get past Ezra Miller, everything

else wasn't too shabby. Such a missed opportunity.

Again, all GameStop's fault because they have

their hands in everything. I'm starting to make

it sound like the Colonel from KFC conspiracy.

With his wee beady eyes. Oh my god. I'm having

shades of Mario Lopez in my head from 2019. Ow.

And that was only a five -minute short. What

else do you want to rant about, Mike, or have

we exhausted all that? Recipe for seduction,

my ass. Oh, my God. Yeah. Okay, folks, toy collecting.

Be responsible. We're going to an ad break. We'll

be right back right after this. Like science

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it's Rodimus Primal, and be sure to check out

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and be sure to check out my content, till all

are one. On the Simplistic Reviews podcast, we

talk movies. We talk TV. We talk... Hello, Julie,

what the heck are you doing? Trying to make our

spot sound more exciting by adding explosions.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could have got the

point across with sound effects, not the real

thing. Download the show on iTunes or at simplisticreviews

.blogspot .com. I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't. All right, folks, that's going to do it

for us here in episode 193 of ToyCast. We hope

you enjoyed this ToyCast rant session, and it

went beyond toys and things like that, but that's

just the way rants go around here. We are tangentially

yours at the GeekCast Radio Network. Uh, anything

that you lovely people would like to promote,

like your whatnot auctions and things like that.

GameStop is the pentabric. It's like, it's like

mama always said, GameStop is the devil. No,

we, uh, we're actually working on a very, um,

nice mystery box for whatnot. We're still streaming

on Wednesdays, like seven 30 Pacific roughly,

but, um, We've taken a step back the last couple

weeks. We've got a nice mystery box of stuff

that we're working on. The Instagram is still

valid. We're posting most of our updates there.

We're just kind of hanging out and having fun.

Fuck GameStop. Random fun is our new tag. Yeah,

random fun. Do you want to read what you wrote

on Instagram for that post? I saw part of it.

I saw a sidekick at the end. I'm like, don't

kick me. Oh, I think it was something about thank

you for being by my side. Kick like it was. Yeah.

Yeah. So, I mean, it was very wholesome. Sure.

It was. We've got a new logo now, which is nice.

That's awesome. Yeah. I'm waiting for one of

those stickers. Damn it. I've got a list of that,

too. I'll put on my hat and decorate it so you

get to see that, too. Yeah. You're a wizard,

Harry. Who gives a shit? All right. Well, that's

going to do it for us here on this episode of

ToyCast. If you'd like to get in contact with

us and leave feedback for the show, there are

several ways to do so. Visit the website geekcastradio

.com where you can listen to and comment on all

of our content. Send an email to feedback at

geekcastradio .com. You can check us out on any

of the podcatching clients you choose to use.

I prefer Spotify, but that's just me. Follow

us on all of our social media profiles. It's

either tftoycast on Twix or toycast over on Facebook.

Next time on ToyCast, I don't know. It's episode

194. That's all I know. I have no plans. So,

for now, I am TF2 and Mike with someone who's

no longer pissed at GameStop for the time being.

And I still ran a bet, too. Join us next time

when we'll be talking more toys here on ToyCast.

Remember, folks, remember Batman's advice. Block

it out and power on through.