339 – SDCC 2024 Recap With FunEmployed and Random Hat Studio!!

Hey, this is Frank Todaro, otherwise known as

Starscream, and you're listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. You're listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. This is GeekCast Radio, episode

339. I am, of course, THU and Mike, and joining

me for the first time on this show is Funemployed

and Random Hat Studio, as they went to San Diego

Comic -Con 2024, and we are going to do a Comic

-Con catch -up, recap, convention attention,

whatever we're calling this thing. Hey, all y

'all, how are y 'all? I'm doing well. Just out

of curiosity, you made it 339 episodes? Mm -hmm.

Oh! That's awesome. Are they all Comic -Con related?

No, no, no. Geekcast Radio is our flagship show.

It's where everything goes. It's where the countdowns

go. It's where all the big stuff goes. And as

we all know, San Diego Comic -Con is the biggest

convention in the United States. At least one

of them. Okay, just check. The sad thing is,

we've had this show for 15 years and we're only

at 339 episodes. Quality over quantity. There

you go. Absolutely. All right. So if y 'all listen

to ToyCast, y 'all have heard Funemployed and

Random Hat Studio over there and all their hijinks

that they do over there with me. And like I said,

today it's SDCC 2024 recap because they actually

attended San Diego Comic -Con this year. What

is your history with the con? Random, you can

go first. That's easy. Nothing. I've never been

to a con before. There's my answer. I'm boring.

Fun. Oh, it's my turn? Okay. Yeah. I've been

to two conventions in my life. One with the Emerald

City down in Seattle where I was almost scammed

out of two and a half grand. So anything in San

Diego is going to be a step above. This is my

first major convention. It was very fun. It was

very enjoyable. Interesting, interesting. Now,

do you all pay attention to San Diego when it

happens, even though you've only been once? Like,

online, it's everywhere when it happens. So do

you all pay attention to it, or do you all just

not deal with it at all? Well, when you say pay

attention, you mean like watch the trailers and

the news? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you keep up with

the stuff? Do you look to see what they're announcing?

That kind of stuff, yeah. I do. I mean, last

two years or so, I attended virtually, so I had

like a virtual ticket or whatever. I had a couple

friends that were there, and I watched a lot

of it live, so there was that. But this is the

first year actually attending in person. So how

many days did you all go out of the – Five days

that it usually happens. All the days. I had

preview night plus through Sunday. Oh, sweet.

Yeah, I got a lot of stuff done Wednesday. By

stuff, he means buying things, folks. Yes. So,

okay, when you all got there, what was your overall

experience when you first got on the floor and

stuff? I mean... Wait, you didn't join us. I

was going to say, this is mostly going to be

funds answering because I didn't have tickets

to go in. So he's going to be the one you're

in charge more than I. I mean, I abandoned her

for the first day outside. Yeah, you did. Forgot

to leave a debit card and charger. So, you know,

she was kind of wondering aimlessly there for

about eight and a half hours, but we got it sorted

out. I had security check on me a couple of times.

Okay, folks. Welcome to Dr. Mikeo's couch therapy

session here. Great. Good for that. Other than

the sense of abandonment, the first day at the

con was actually pretty tame. It was still fairly

busy, but preview night is... is one you definitely

want to go to. I went in and I had the ADA badge

and I had the pleasure of hanging out with some

friends and going in to a couple of the areas

that I normally wouldn't have been able to go

into on preview night with the vendors and meeting

and greeting some people. But I think preview

night, I can see why people gravitate towards

it because you do get access to certain things

much sooner. And even though the stock is much

more limited on a preview night, getting as much

as you can on Wednesday so you don't have to

deal with the bullshit on Thursday through Sunday

is much more preferable than the alternative.

Yeah, that's always been the cool thing when

I've talked to people about preview nights, not

just with San Diego but any convention, but specifically

to San Diego. You buy everything you want to

buy that they have available if you want to buy

it, and then you take it back to the hotel room

and just store it until Sunday when you leave.

Well, and you've got to be strategic about it,

too, because there's a few places that I went

where the stock was, we'll say like Plastic Empire

had 20 of something, right? And $7 a pop brought

like 12 of something, which is, in the grand

scheme of things, sounds pretty asinine. Like

you've got hundreds of thousands of people running

through there, and you bring 10 or 30 of something.

But it's preview night, man. You're not expecting

to load up everything. You're still setting up

your booth in some cases. Yep. Yeah, exactly.

Preview Night has never been about everybody

get everything all at once. And see, that's the

thing. With San Diego, you have to, and I've

never been. My buddy Doug, which he never responded

to me. I was going to have him on this. I was

going to do two separate clips with this podcast,

folks, and I may still do that. I don't know.

So we're probably going to end up recording two

endings to this. He has been going to San Diego

Comic -Con over the last 30 years of his life

kind of thing, and he and his wife actually live

out there. But it's just one of those things

where you definitely have to plan what you want.

San Diego is essentially Disney World, Disneyland,

Disney Paris, whatever. You definitely have to

plan what you want to do on each day. Like, okay,

we're going to go buy this, this, and this. This

booth has this, which I want. Take it all back,

like I said, take it all back to the hotel, leave

it in the hotel room, and then you go out and

you go to the panels or to the whatever displays

and actually, you know, the autograph sessions

or whatever kind of thing. You can't do everything

all at once at San Diego. You just can't. It's

too big. No, it is. The preview night was great

because the few people that I did get to talk

to that were working there kind of got a heads

up on where and what to go to plan for. Because

Thursday, I think, with the exception of Saturday

morning, I was up at, I want to say, 4 .30, 4

-ish, 4 .30. And we were down there ready to

go by 5 and in line. And we didn't go in until

about 9 .30. somewhere around there to go into

the actual convention and it was a mad dash to

wherever you wanted to go so you would go in

but i think like on thursday not if i'm jumping

ahead i don't know if you'll stay up you know

you're not but thursday is when the real fun

begins yeah yeah yeah we can jump to thursday

that's fine yeah thursday is uh a zoo yeah thursday

so we lined up at hall d And I was I want to

say maybe 10 people away from the door. So it's

one of the few places because of the access that

we had where you could sit there and kind of

chill out for a bit. You didn't have to stay

outside or stay in line. And they would open

the doors and then you're not supposed to run.

But thankfully, I'm a power walker. So there's

there's like all these people like I'm going

to make it to the booth. I'm like, get out of

my way, old lady. and uh kept on trucking and

i got to the lounge fly booth um on thursday

and it was the greatest thing in the world because

i never thought i'd make it to the lounge fly

booth for as fast as i was walking and right

as i got there they had concurrently let the

people down in the uh far end of the like hall

a or whatever it was wherever they were lining

up right and they were going a different direction

right but i had traveled so fast from i want

to say a half mile quarter mile on the other

side of the building, I got there right as the

security was starting to wrap the first group

of people around the corner. So there's, like,

imagine you're standing in front of your door,

right? And that is the entrance to Lounge Flot,

Funko. So the line is going to the left of your

house and has to go around the back of your house

to come around the front. And there's a tape

that is right there at your door that is supposed

to cordon off, like, you know, where the line

wraps. I'm watching the crowd and I'm like, I

have two choices morally. I can be like everybody

else and follow the line like I'm supposed to,

like a good little boy, or I can do what needs

to be done and go under the line. That's what

I did. Line jumper, you line jumper. Now, in

deference, fuck that, in deference, I was the

third person in line, well, fourth person in

line because three people I mean, when there's

nobody in the line, Mike, why am I going to walk

all the way around the line? So there's nobody

there. I'm coming up to this building. I'm like,

there's nobody coming around the back corner.

There's nobody in the line. I'm just, why am

I going to go around and walk a circle that's

unnecessary? So I went under the railing. Well,

as I was coming under the railing, this very

petite, spicy young lady. You said there were

three or four people already had done that, though.

Right. They were already in the lounge flight,

but the line was starting. So there was two guys

younger than I was. They, like, bolted. So I

just basically followed them, and I'm like, eh.

And I limboed under the line. Like, I almost

fell on my ass, but it was great. I made it.

My backpack got caught and almost took out the

bear. And this woman came around, of course,

like, oh, my God. I can't fucking believe it.

And she sounded like, if you ever watch Dark

Crystal, the witch hag or whatever it was, the

creature. Didn't it get the deep voice? It's

like Oprah, except Oprah's without coffee. She

sounded a lot like that. And I just looked at

her. She's like, really? And I'm like. they did

it and i just kept on going i just stood in line

i wait like what are you you gonna fucking stop

me i made it you didn't you know shame on you

for not doing the things that need to be done

and it turns out like my buddy that was with

me couldn't figure out why there was such a commotion

in line he was the person behind the woman he

never looked in front to see it was me in front

of him so i'm furiously like what do you need

from lounge fly i mean he's like you made it

i'm like yeah he's like dude there's so many

people here now i'm like i know and i get in

there and i turn around like jack he goes yeah

i said the fuck he goes oh you made it cool i'm

good just get me like uh karumi i'm like that's

awesome cinema roll and i want my stuff But had

I not done that, it would have been like 40 people

deep before I would have got to the line. So

shame on them for taking their time and walking

in a circle. That was my experience within 10

minutes of the door opening on Thursday. It was

quite exhilarating. Yeah. Yeah, you've got to

be super quick with San Diego. And the funny

thing is, the whole time you're doing that voice,

I'm like, holy crap, that's mama from Throw Mama

from the Train, Owen. Oh, man. Yeah. You say

the ground from that old dinosaur. Yep. Mike

Wazowski. Yep. Frost from Monsters, Inc. Hey,

there's going to be a Monsters, Inc. land at

whichever Disney. I don't know if it's Disneyland,

Disney World. Hey, Mike, there's going to be

an Avatar land, too. You know what's awesome

about that? It already failed once, so it can't

go south twice. Oh, it could go south twice.

You can always go south twice. That's sarcasm,

Mike. It's going to bomb. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

I'll watch Jenny's reviews on YouTube. There

you go. All right. So that was Thursday. What

panels or anything did you all attend on Thursday

if you attended any panels? I didn't attend any

panels on Thursday. I'll be real with you. Getting

to the panels was a real pain in the ass. It's

one of those things like I would. So I was there

at Ground Zero when all hell broke loose because

Thursday was the panel that that evening they

were going to do the Wolverine Deadpool, Deadpool

Wolverine movie. Right. They have Q &A with Hugh

Jackman and Ryan and all them. So the trick was

you were supposed to register for your ticket

online. I didn't get chosen. I wasn't blessed.

Had I been more devious in my actions, what I

found out had happened was pretty – it was pretty

sad. I felt bad for a lot of people. They had,

I think, about 1 ,500 seats reserved because

you had to sign up for your tickets online. A

bunch of assholes decided it would be prudent

to go ahead and bully security. So what they

did is the legitimate people that had tickets

and wristbands to get in were in line waiting.

Somebody took it upon themselves to break through

with a barricade. uh and a bunch of people and

overcame the security people and they basically

lost control of the line so there were a couple

hundred people that didn't get to go in they

had their ticket reserved it was full and rather

than san diego obviously it's a tough spot because

you have that many hundred thousand people were

there or whatever how do you enforce it well

they couldn't really delay the event so they

just let it go like and there was a couple hundred

people that were pretty pissed off and stuck

outside because they couldn't get into the event

granted it's a free event but That really sucked,

and I shame on them for allowing that to have

happened in whatever capacity. Those people probably

should have been kicked out if they didn't have

a band. That's just all there is to it. Take

their lanyard, stamp it or whatever, the hole

in it, and just kick them out. But it is what

it is, right? That was the only shenanigans I'm

aware of. that legitimately sucked on Thursday

evening was the Deadpool Wolverine thing. The

event that they did in the parking lot after

the fact was pretty badass with the Fantastic

Four teaser and everything, but I didn't go to

any panels until I think Friday. I tried to do

the Funko Fusion panel. I think it was okay,

but it was – I don't know. It sucked. Let's be

real. It sucked. I could have watched the footage

on YouTube, and it was neat to be at a panel

where Robert Kirkman showed up. Well, there was

a lot of false hype and promises and whispers

about it, too, because a lot of whispers were

going around that if you went to the event, you'd

get a QR to get access to the game that they

were playing. Or a proto or something. Yeah,

there was also whispers that people who got in

a certain amount of the few first ones would

have protos. So that created a lot of hype and

false expectations toward even walking into the

event. So you get there, like, And I got there

right as the line cut off too. I barely made

it because – here's my biggest gripe. I signed

up to be a volunteer at SDCC, right? Thank you.

I had legitimate tickets so I didn't have to

work, which is fine. You only would have had

to put in like two, three hours a day if I found

out, which is pretty cool. But it's completely

random how they did it. My problem is that the

people they had that were volunteering didn't

know their head from a hole in the ground. So

– They were responsible for literally standing

in their spot. If you needed directions, if you

needed assistance with anything, if you needed

to be pointed to somebody who knew something,

they had no clue what the hell was going on.

I can't fault them for that, but trying to find

the panels to get to the various meetings and

the showcases they were doing, unless you knew

somebody that knew somebody, you weren't going

to find it in time. A lot of the places upstairs

were filled up hours before. And I finally got

to the Funko Fusion panel Friday morning. It

was like 10 .15, and I got right at the cutoff.

Oh. Yeah, and then I got an applaud from security

because these three guys tried to jump in. But

to be fair, again, terrible implementation of

security and where they drew the line for cutoffs

because they had so many people lining up. They

had to get this guy and his kid moved out of

the way because the line was actually behind

me. The next line was starting, and I was the

end of the line. And they tried to jump in behind

me, and security was like, thank you for calling

that out. I was like, listen, I'm just here to

do my job and get in the thing, deal with them.

They were trying to attache to me. And I'm like,

I don't know these people. I came here alone.

I left my other significant other abandoned outside.

Wait, wait. Did you just say your other significant

other? How many other significant others do you

have? There were some tempting cosplays out there.

Honestly, I think that was the biggest. I know

it's jumping ahead to one of your other ones,

but that was definitely one of the biggest issues

overall, I think, was the security. And you would

think, as a convention that's been around for,

God, what is it, like 50 years? I don't even

know how old San Diego is. But you would think

that one of the biggest conventions in America,

biggest Comic -Cons, biggest whatever, would

down pat by now. You really would think that

they would have a, you know... system in place

every year that runs smoothly. Well, they do,

but I think part of the problem is human nature.

Humans are assholes. I watched a lot of people

go in there that if they would have done this

outside of the convention, probably would have

got their ass beat. Here's something, since I

was locked outside and listening and watching

people all day, something I really noticed. was

that there was a lot of anxiety and stress and

emotion related to how unenjoyable it was for

children and family, sadly. Because of things

not being managed in a way where flows were kept

efficiently and that sort of thing, families

weren't able to go in as groups and stay as groups

in having the ability to stay thoughtful with

a little stuff like that. So there are a lot

of very stressed out couples, a lot of very unhappy

kids. Even one girl got separated in a wheelchair

somehow from her mother, of all things, and was

upset, crying. Somebody had to come help her.

And so, I mean, there's one of those things where,

as an event, it's kind of, from an outside perspective,

the first time going, it's kind of sad how much

it's more like survival of the fittest. And,

like, you should really only go if you're by

yourself. Yeah, like, I, she was like, I was

like, I'm glad you're here. But I'm actually

better off running solo. Like I honestly didn't

even meet up with my friends terribly much during

the event except for after or like a few breathers

in between, Mike. Because for what I wanted to

get and what you had to go do to get in line,

having somebody with you, they weren't waiting

on me. So I was either with them or I lost them,

right? Yeah. So if you're with me and you're

the leader. And you keep trucking. My goal is

to stay behind you. If I stop to turn around

and look for somebody else, I'm done. You're

not looking for me. You're fucking gone. You'll

find me. And that legitimately happened multiple

times. So I was like, fuck it. I'll just set

a rally point, and we're going to spread out

and go get what we need, and we'll meet there

in like an hour or two, right? And it wasn't

because – I didn't want to be with anybody or

anything like that. It's just it was better.

It was more efficient. Yeah, it's very much more

efficient unless you are in a group of, let's

say, five people. And you're all going to the

same fucking place. Right. Again, that's the

thing where I said earlier, you have to pick

and choose what you want to do and what you want

to get. Because, I mean, the limitations of tickets

and access divide groups, too, right? You can

go as a group of friends and only one or two

you actually have access to that everybody wants

to go to. Right. So at that point, like if I

my friend Chris and a few other people, he's

from Australia and, you know, he had access to

the Funko booth on certain days. So or he was

going to a certain spot in the morning. So he

tried to get like the 100 percent soft dumpster

fires and stuff. So I said, OK, well, I'll go

get the chomps or I'll go get the. mind style

pops or i'll go get this anime you know whatever

we you know we split up and divide and conquer

right yeah um and then like saturday sunday was

kind of our day to just kind of like okay there's

a few little odds ends we're gonna get but we

can kind of breathe a little bit just walk around

see what we can see but a lot of people seem

to avoid saturday all together yeah saturday

like One of the guys outside was, I've been doing

this for 16 years, and I tell you, Saturday's

the one day that I try to avoid, if anything.

Yeah. It's the chaos of everybody descending

upon the con. Well, if you think about it, that's

probably when, unless people, like most people,

when they want to go to San Diego. They will

pre -plan, like, we're not going to be working

this week or we're going to have this off or

this is our vacation or whatever. And then you

think about the people that actually live in

San Diego, California that go to the convention

or that may live just north or just south of

San Diego kind of thing. all of those people

who have taken off work to go to the convention,

and then it becomes a congestion nightmare. It's

almost worse than Spaghetti Junction in Louisville,

Kentucky. Spaghetti Junction, for those that

don't know, 64, 65, and 71 all converge into

one giant road. No, it was, I mean, overall,

going back to Thursday, it... Wednesday was was

cool, like just getting there, being able to

walk around, experience it and talk to certain

people and see the booths and kind of how what

was going to set up kind of lay out your plan

of attack. It was nice. I think without without

preview night, I'd have been fucked. I would

have never had a chance in hell figuring out

what I wanted to do. So for me, like preview

night is going to make or break how I approach

next year, because without preview night, I've

got to change everything that I do to a certain

degree. Um, cause you don't know where stuff's

located really like the map they give you is

cool. But the, the map that they give you is

you, you have to get one in person. The digital

one online sucks. Like the SDCC blog was cool,

but God bless them. They didn't do anything to

help the average person. Um, their PDF file was

terrible and the, I got to give them credit for

the application they made. The SDCC app has so

much potential. It's like a mini GPS, right?

But, The interface sucks ass. As someone who

does user design and everything for that, like,

if I'm typing stuff in, it just needs to be intuitive.

It's not responsive. And it's not really an internet

problem. It's just a shitty app problem. So if

they could fix the application problem, then

I think that's a win. They did have internet

problems. Oh, no, they had internet problems,

but I'm talking strictly, like, this is just

a shitty app. Strictly, the app, yeah, the app

is crap. I'll be back in a minute. You have fun.

Oh, random interlude. Yes. Okay. We'll be right

back right after these messages. So basically,

my name is FunEmployed, and I'm here with my

partner at Random Hat Studio, a .k .a. Emily,

and we stream on WhatNot every Wednesday at 6

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

rehoming great collectibles to people that are

willing to partake, and we give a portion of

our funds every week to a specific charity. And

looking to pay it forward back to the community

that made everything that we do so wholesome.

Yeah. Yeah. See, like Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday,

maybe Wednesday, Friday and Sunday are the easiest

days. I don't know. Left already. Yeah. I don't

know. Thursday's not bad. Once you get through

the initial three hours, the worst part is just

being in line. Once you get into the first hour

or so of Thursday, you kind of take a breather

and assess, OK, what else can I achieve today?

I can't do anything else. All right, time to

go piss around for the afternoon and just kind

of unload what you can. I think they're all pretty

easy days. Saturday really is just the shittiest

one overall because that is – it's the weekend,

right? So everybody is out and about. Yep. There

is no Saturday. Yeah, Saturday seems to be the

day that, like I said, and like I said, you got

to think about it. Maybe people couldn't get

work off, so people that actually don't work

on Saturday, that only work Monday through Friday

maybe, and have weekends off. Well, then that's

all of those people, that's when they are going

to converge on the thing if they want to go to

the thing. Yep, exactly. Oh, yeah, this year,

well, they had two Fun Days events this year,

Tuesday, they did a Friday, Saturday, so Friday

was kind of calm there after 3 o 'clock or so

because everybody was getting ready for Fun Days

to start lining up at like 4, 35 o 'clock. Yeah.

if I was to get everybody in there. Yeah. Did

you all go to fun days? Uh, we did not, but we

knew some people who did go. So I partook through

their, through their adventures. There you go.

Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. I, I don't know.

Like for me, if I was in the, this is not just

for San Diego. This is for any of the conventions.

If I can like, You guys, let's just say, for

example, if I can say, hey, fun and random, I

need this, this and this if you're going and

I'll be over here at these panels meeting these

people that I'll probably never meet again. Or,

you know, I'll come home and go on the secondary

market and buy whatever I may have wanted that

I missed out on kind of thing, because it just

again, it just it's its choices. You have to

choose what you want to do. And if you want to

go to the panels and meet the people versus buying

all the stuff, you already bought the ticket.

You might as well go to the panels. So that's

the other thing, too. The panels, I tried to

go to one because John Leguizamo was supposed

to be there on Saturday, I believe it was. And

it was the diversity, equity, and inclusion.

of artistry and something else panel right and

you so you had all these i'm sure famously well

-known people in their industry up on the wall

and then you had john leguizamo who is notable

in his own right and uh i was all excited you

know to go medium and go to that panel specifically

that's kind of where my frustration landed with

the the guides because nobody knew their head

from a hole in the ground for especially for

the people that actually ran the panel and then

come to find out after spending an hour and a

half trying to figure out where it was located

he had cancelled like two days prior before the

con oh my god never advertised it to anybody

so I show up to this panel and I'm like well

I can see why this place is a ghost town and

I just kind of walked away like you know my head

down and just said alright back to the floor

There was nothing there of value. And that's

not a knock on the people that were at the panel.

I'm sure they had a lot they wanted to say. For

you personally. For me personally, it was worthless

because there was nobody up there I wanted to

talk to except for him. I had no concept of anybody

else up there to talk to. Meanwhile, you look

like three panels to your right and there's Farland

Booth just rocking with their balls out, having

all these graphs and a grand old cosplay party

and everything for Spawn and all that good stuff.

And he actually had two signings that weekend,

both on the upper floor in the mezzanine and

then downstairs on Sunday, which I couldn't make

it to. But it was like a ticketed event at 12

o 'clock that I want to try to get the OG Spawn

reprint signed. But he was really the flashy

part of that whole event there. Absolutely. You

did get the voice actors, though. Oh, well, that

was for something completely unrelated. Yeah.

All right. So let's talk about that then. Okay.

It's part of the convention. I mean, I don't

want to jump around too much. Where are we at

in the questionnaire? No, it's fine. It's fine.

We keep going. Like I said, we might as well

talk about it now since it's part of the experience.

Okay. Wild child living wild. I, um, so my, my

celebrity introductions, I basically, I didn't

get to the Udon booth until I think Friday evening,

something like that. No, Saturday afternoon,

I think. Somewhere. It was Friday or Saturday.

That was a blur. But I'm a big fan of Bubblegum

Crisis and a lot of the original Gainax and Sentai

anime. And they had the – I can't remember offhand

the guy's name. Mr. Omura and somebody else was

signing there. He was the key animator, and the

other gentleman was in charge of the actual design

and concept of the series. So I got the bundle,

as you would say, to get the book and everything

else. I had him sign that, but I also had my

Kickstarter Bubblegum Crisis disc signed by him

and the other gentleman over on either side of

the booth. You don't get an opportunity to get...

The signatures from the people across the sea

very often, and they're not terribly fond of

signing certain things as well, which is respectable.

They have a very high merit for what they want

to put their name to. And the reason why that's

important is because at Comic Collecticon or

whatever recently, there were some jerkwads that

decided to be some real abusers with the policy.

The VA for the Japanese voice actor for this

anime basically did it to placate him. But the

best part about it was he didn't want to sign

the windows of the Funko Pops and stuff. He signed

the boxes. And anybody that does the VA signings

knows that's the worst thing you can do to a

collector because you can't do window swaps.

You can't really sell them. And they were personalizing

them, right? Ended up making some concessions

for it, but it ruined the experience for a lot

of other people there because they put limits

on it and they stop certain things. But if you're

going, you're getting it signed because you want

it first. If you're going there to do what they

were doing and what a lot of people doing at

San Diego in some cases, you're doing it because

you're flipping it. And that's not cool because

the BAs know. Yeah, they know. Some of them were

super sneaky about it because they would sign

like. on the side of the box, like where the

white is, but not the window. Or they would sign

on the bottom of the box or the back of the box

and, you know, different things like that. Or

they would only do it if you gave them their

first name. So they were very clever about it.

I commend them for that. See, for me, if I want,

like, yes, obviously, as a fan, as a collector,

yes, I would want an autograph on, obviously,

the window because I'm not, like, Personalize

it. I've seen people... I've seen Funko Pops

where people have signed the window, but they've

written out this whole freaking... They take

up the whole window. I've seen that. And for

me, it's like, if I wanted to be sneaky about

stuff, I would... For me, if I wanted to be sneaky

and have something just for me that no one else

can see, I would have, I would go to whatever,

let's just say, let's say Will Friedle is at

San Diego. I would take all of my Batman Beyond

Pops, and I would have him on the inside flap

of the top of the box when you open it up. I

would have him put Batman Beyond quotes that

he has said in that show on every single one

of my Batman Beyond pops. So that way I know

it's just for, yeah, it's just for me. It's just

for whatever. But what you're talking about,

oh gosh, flippers. Look, I get it. People want

to flip stuff. I understand that, whatever. And

there's a huge difference in flipper, scalper,

whatever. Scalper, I think, is more notorious.

Flipper is, oh, hey, I got, let's just say, well,

there are four boxes of fun because there's four

mascots. Let's just say I got two sets of boxes

of fun, so that's eight boxes. And I'm going

to sell this second set of four boxes, and that

essentially pays for my trip. I don't mind people

doing that because that is them helping somebody.

or whatever, but you get these people that go

in there and buy all of the stock and then throw

it up on eBay. No, don't and stop. Well, and

keep in mind, too, that when you go to get voice,

like the people that I met were really cool.

They were very humble. They were just excited

to meet those of us that were there to get our

stuff signed because we actually understood the

appreciation for what they put into it, right?

Right. And these were the people that I were

meeting. I don't want to say they're not mainstream

people, but they're not known to anybody outside

of the fandom that would know that anime, right?

Most of the people that were in those lines or

were talking to those people were probably in

their upper 30s or older. I only saw a couple

people that were younger than that, and they

knew of it because their parents or their friends'

parents had watched it. They were like, oh, that's

badass. But the other people that I met there

that were celebrity, they had Leilani. I can't

remember her last name, but she played the Jawa

in Mandalorian and a few other things. They had

the voice of Betty Boop and Sailor Chibi at one

of the awesome movies I'll talk about later.

But they – all of them were very kind. All of

them were very chatty. They were more than welcome

to strike up a conversation. But yeah, the Collecticon

thing. I know it's not related to San Diego because

it just happened recently, but that's the thing

that irritates me the most is whenever I've gone

to get a signature or talked to anybody of a

celebrity status or anything like that, there's

a level of respect you have to have because they

are there even of their own volition to do a

job, but it's still their time, right? And so

you make arrangements to do private signings

and get them at a discount and sign like 50 to

100 pops. These were people that showed up without

a private signing to show up in the general populist

line. And so imagine you're behind me and I walk

up to Johnny Bravo and I've got 100 pops. That's

not fair to you or the rest of the people, right?

So it's within the VA's right to say, you're

an asshole. I'm going to sign it this way or

no way. These guys were just being bullies. But

everybody that I talked to at the con for SDCC

was very friendly. I got some really one -of

-a -kind autographs that I will never be able

to achieve again. If they have similar people

show up next year, I now have some stuff that

I got this year that I can take back to get additional

signatures on or get new signatures to add to

it. So that was the big win for me. I was very

targeted in who I wanted to meet. I did get to

meet the voice of Master Chief, which was really

badass. Which Master Chief? There's two of them.

Not Pablo Francisco from the Halo. Jennifer Hale,

Femme Chef, hell yeah! Don't get me wrong, he's

awesome. He's been in some really good movies

too, I saw him in the years. Not from the Halo

TV series, but actual Steve Downs and Jennifer

Hale from Cortana. I didn't get to talk to her

directly, but he was lingering at his booth,

I think, on Friday evening, Saturday evening.

Just, you know, it was like five thirty ish.

And I was like, it's kind of nonchalantly played

dumb. And I walked up and introduced myself.

I was like, are you so and so? And I got to talk

to him for about 10 minutes or so. Really down

to earth, dude. Really cool. He used to be a

DJ, all that good stuff. And one of the things

I at least tried to consider when. talking with

people of that nature is what are the things

that they don't get to talk about often right

because this guy was a dj um he's had an extensive

history obviously 20 some years doing halo but

he i remember playing a game back in 1999 called

septera core is actually the first game that

i had bought for pc after i got out got out on

my own and got a job and everything never did

get to finish it yet but He was the voice of

one of the characters in that game, and you'd

have seen the look on his face when I freaking

mentioned that game. You'd have thought he aged

half of his life. From what I understand, there's

only one person that ever brought him that game

to sign in 30 years. Oh, wow. And you love it.

So my goal, I made a commitment to him, I will

go to the Halo Championships in Seattle in October,

I will bring a copy of the game down there, and

he wants to show it to his... publisher or whoever

and say look somebody at least one of the person

you guys besides yanni from 30 years ago yeah

also terror core is because everybody brings

him master chief yeah all these various things

right but i'm the only dude at san diego comic

-con that like said hey buddy like do you remember

this game i'm old enough to remember this game

and he's like hot damn that's awesome so he was

having a blast with it i Did not go back and

get his autograph because I didn't have a pop

that would have, I think, been worthy enough

to do it. But I thought it over. But I wasn't

– I didn't feel the need to pay for something

like that. I was more happy with the handshake

and the experience just chatting for 10, 15 minutes.

Yeah, absolutely. Like you don't always have

to have something autographed. Like if you buy

something that they autograph, like if you buy

it, they're not necessarily Funko Pop. But if

like – a comic or a whatever, and they sign it.

That's awesome. Great. But that's the thing about

not just San Diego, but all conventions. You

go for the experience. You go to meet these people,

like you're saying, by talking to him or even

though you didn't get a chance to talk to her,

but getting the chance to talk to Jennifer Hale

or whatever kind of thing. It's for the experience

of doing it. It's not for... Hey, will you sign

this thing that is now going to be valued at

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. Zeros, whatever

thing. And I'm going to sell it tomorrow. Not

that you would, but you know what I mean? Like,

that's not the point, but it wasn't, um, it wasn't

like high priority. Let's put it that way. Yeah.

Well, the priority was you wanted to talk to

the guy you wanted to have a conversation. Like

if I was going to, I've done it twice in 15 years.

If I was going to have Larry Kenny on, voice

of Lionel from Thundercats and Bluegrass from

Silverhawks from the 80s, if I was going to have

him on, again, he was also Sonny the Cocoa Pups

bird as well. I think the one thing I would probably

bring up to him, since I've already interviewed

him twice about those various things, I would

probably bring up the fact that Larry Kenny was

the voice of VH1's Best Week Ever. Most people

don't know that unless they watch that show.

But he was the narrator for that. And yeah, you

go to these conventions and you talk to these

voice actors and people and bring up the stuff

that no one's talking about because that's going

to brighten their day because that shows them

that you as a fan are paying attention to just

more than. whatever the thing that they're doing

is in the spotlight that they're most famous

for. Oh, hell yeah. You guys are sitting at a

table signing things over and over and over.

Not saying that they don't enjoy it. Right. But

I'd like to think I played it strategic because

I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get

an autograph from him in the way that they would

have preferred, like as far as buying a VIP package

or anything. I knew that at that time frame of

the day. It was slow enough that he would have

been able to have a conversation. And he's just

sitting there chilling, hanging out, recording

some stuff for a GameStop thing. Sorry, GameStop,

you're going down. That's another podcast altogether.

I can understand why GameStop can take the publicity

they need. But talking with him was very genuine.

He's a really cool dude to chat with. So that

was probably the highlight over the Japanese

voice actors. being secondary now, um, to that

experience and then going down and meeting, uh,

you know, a few other odds and ends people, uh,

a few other boosters. I, you know, wrapped up

the weekend. Don't forget Mike Becker waved at

you. Are you sure that wasn't your highlight?

Did Mike Becker wave at me? I don't remember.

You told me that you waved at you from afar.

Oh. Oh, yeah. I got a half wave when I was walking

by. The day before I was able to go in and get

a photograph with her inside the convention through

some nefarious means, I did get a half wave from

Mike because they kind of had him on lockdown.

If you didn't have a pass through the Funko booth

or whatever, you weren't talking to Becker. And

then getting to meet him throughout the event,

it's like he would do a pop -up. And you're like,

that's where he's at. And you go over there and

it's like he's already gone. You're like five

minutes behind wherever that man is running.

He was fast. Mike is Mike is everywhere. And

now we don't know where he is. I want whatever

I want, whatever he was sniffing, smoking, whatever

it was, because he was he was on stuff. It was

amazing. Yeah, that dude is everywhere. He was

so positive, like. It was just cool to see how

hyped up he was throughout the whole event. Like,

in the times that I did get to catch him in passing,

you know, walking by the booth or just, you know,

seeing him on the videos and stuff, he's a very

positive guy. So there's no mistaking that. I'm

not saying he's taking influencers or anything

to up himself or whatever. It's more of just

that. He doesn't need to. He doesn't need to,

right? Yeah. It's funny because when you look.

Some of the screen captures we've got from his

videos and things where he looks like he's having

a hard crash, you could infer that that is what

is happening, but that is just literally bad

clips of the video. No different than if you

caught a commercial at the most awkward time.

I've got some very awkward Transformers. Ones

where Hound's behind Spike and he's like, man,

you better watch out. You're going to blow your

radiator. Spike's like, uh. He's got hit by a

bomb. You're like, that's pretty lewd for an

80s Transformers cartoon. That's also very out

of context. Hound is not taking Spike to town.

You know? Wow. Oh, God. Why are you putting the

Hound took Spike to town? No, no, no. That's

what's going to happen. No. No, no, no, no, no.

Well, I mean, you know, Transformers in the 80s,

they had their references and their fun there.

I think it's in – is it in Prime Target? I forget

which episode it's in off the top of my head,

but I should know this. I think it was in Prime

Target where Optimus is like, ah, a booby trap

made for boobies. Like he literally – Peter Cullen

literally said that as Optimus Prime. I have

the clip. That's fabulous. There's a new meme

template for me. I'll send you the one of Spike

and Hound later and you'll be like, oh, your

Google algorithm is going to be like, okay, more

terrible things to put in the search engine.

Oh, I do not need terrible things to put in my

anything. So many already. Yeah, no. Absolutely

not. All right, so what was each of your favorite

part of the con? I would say for me it was...

Just meeting all these people that we know from

whatnot and other social medias in person and

just hanging out. For me, that was the highlight.

Nemesis and Chris and Jasana, all these people

that we know for a couple of years now. For me,

that was definitely the highlight. It wasn't

even the con itself. It was the human side of

it. Yeah, I would agree. All of that was awesome.

And then the secondary piece was. cutting in

line of the 56 year old woman at the lounge fly

booth that was pretty satisfying she took you

out with her wheelchair in the no no that was

day two so oh the second the second piece i'll

say that was rank three mike so as far as like

events um we almost got run down by a woman in

an accessibility chair because um we were in

line and um it's not my proudest moment but After

the line dodging? Yeah, so standing in line,

we were on our way to get in line at the main

gate again. This is like day two of Friday. And

you're in a fucking line, man. There's not a

whole lot I can do. It's not a straight line.

When you're outside, you're in line. When you

go through the doors, you're a mob. Let's be

real here. There's no straight line. There's

a fucking straight line. You'd have had ropes

up. You'd have had people say stay in line. No,

it was basically you getting to point B. Yeah,

it's a free -for -all. Some people had an advantage

because they had wheels. Other people had an

advantage slightly less because they had canes.

Other people had way more advantage because they

had two feet. So there's a different level of

skill from each person to get from point A to

point B. In our case, we happened – and my feet

were killing me, so I wasn't very advantageous.

But I walked as fast as I could to keep up with

my friends because, again, like I told you earlier,

it's either you or them. So we got into the pace

to get to the gate, and this woman I guess that

was in front of us at some point with her – I

call her her handler. They were getting her and

her compatriots to the gate, but – They were

expecting everybody else to stay paced behind

them. And that's what the crowd is doing. So

it's the difference between expectation and reality.

Expectation is you want everybody to stay in

line. The reality is, fuck you, I'm going. So

we got in line. Well, at that point, they started

to funnel you into a line. And she was like,

OK, the first day with Lounge Fly Lady, she was

visibly upset. But like it's everybody for themselves.

Right. And besides the fact that, you know, there's

nobody there, I'm not going to be like, well,

let me wait here for 10 minutes to see if the

line comes around the corner. You know, the line

was empty. I jumped in. In this case, there's

a little bit of wiggle room for arguing, but

I'm with mob mentality. I have to follow the

crowd or I'm going to get run over. So we actually

ended up being in front of her. Well, she pushed

her way to the front. And then she started running

over the back of our feet and trying to like

break check our heels. And that's where my other

friend Chris kind of drew the line because at

that point, like the second time that she hit

his heel and like clipped mine, we were about

to throw a wheelchair over. Now, I would never

incite violence against someone who is handicapped

or, you know, physically challenged or anything

of that nature. But when you're intentionally

running people over because you're upset, that's

where I draw the line. You are now at the same

level I'm at. because you have now challenged

the authority. My feet already hurt at that point,

so I wasn't in a position to kick the chair over

or anything, but by golly, I had a stick that

would have gone under the wheels. Are you being

so dramatic? I am. It's a fulcrum, people. It's

a fulcrum. You put the stick in the wheel, you

make a fulcrum. She wouldn't have flipped the

wheelchair anyway, Mike. She had somebody holding

the back of the wheelchair down. My point is

that we legitimately followed the rest of the

mob and got to where we needed to go. It's more

dramatic than what it sounded like, but she was

very angry, and I've never seen somebody try

to intentionally run over somebody's feet. The

first time it hit, it caught me off guard, and

I almost fell. Had I fallen forward, I would

have probably grabbed onto my friend Chris's

backpack, and he would have lurched forward,

in which case we wouldn't be falling like dominoes.

So I bring it up as a joke because I can joke

about it because I was there, and it was not

like anybody was doing anything malicious, but

she was legitimately going to cause a problem.

Had she continued to be that aggressive. Right.

And the most hysterical part really of the whole

thing is that by the time we got to the door,

guess what? We were all in the same damn spot.

There was no advantage to anybody in any way,

shape or form. Right. So if anything, she should

have been more pissed at the woman who had the

hover around in front of her that had a motorized

vehicle with four wheels instead of two big ones

and two tiny ones and somebody pushing her. because

she had the advantage. And when it came push

to shove, guess who I was behind? I was behind

that lady, because she plowed the road. That's

how I made it to Plastic Empire on day two. They

really need to have some attachments that are

like Mad Max for some of those vehicles. And

all I can think of is Beverly Hills Cop, Axel

Foley. Of course we're in a snowplow. What's

the fucking problem? That's exactly it. Well,

so that reminds me, too. So on Friday, we talked

about, you know, memorable things at the event.

They're all going to be like terrible things

that you would never laugh about in public in

front of people, but there they are. So you've

seen Game of Thrones, haven't you? Have you seen

Game of Thrones? I've seen the first 25 minutes

of the first episode of the first season, and

all they did was walk, and it bored me to death.

I've never watched the show since. Cool. Are

you familiar with Hodor? No. Fucking hell, Mike.

Okay. So, Hodor is the guy that, without spoiling

the show, oh, fuck it. Okay, so for years, Hodor

was like, Hodor, Hodor, that's all he says, right?

And the phrase is actually, hold the door. Right.

So, again, imagine you're staring at your wall,

your house, whatever, there's a boat. There's

like 10 doors in front of you, right? And we're

all in line. I'm behind the woman in the hover

round and everything else. I'm like, oh, please,

heaven, don't reverse. And I've got the woman

in the wheelchair behind me and her handler.

And everybody's like, yeah, you got to move forward.

I'm like, I can't move forward. There's a fucking

hover around in front of me. And I've got a crowd

of people like impressing me. So they jumped

on it like a chariot. So Friday was a madhouse,

like more aggressive than most, because that,

like you said, Mike, that was the weekend. Everybody

was off their booze and they were ready to rock

Friday morning. So. What happened Friday was

– it must have been the rumor that everybody

had from what happened in the Wolverine Deadpool

the night before where they're like, hey, guys,

I got this great idea. So we're going to go to

Hall D, right, because clearly they don't fucking

care about security. And we're going to go ahead

and we're just going to form a mob and just start

pushing through the line. So once you get to

capacity at the front, like these inlets at the

doors – you kind of have to sit down they've

got like six rows like a through g or whatever

you start you actually line up at like 9 30 or

9 o 'clock whatever and then you wait to move

forward so they were gonna open the doors but

at that point security was yelling in the back

for like 10 minutes to tell people to knock it

off because they were actually there was about

a hundred and some odd people pushing their way

forcibly to hall d and pushing their way to the

front of the line and knocking over those of

us that were already there right And so we had

to call in backup, and they actually made a human

chain behind the cutoff of the alcove to hold

people back. So now here's where the fun begins,

right? So we're kind of sandwiched in between

the doors and the mob of people. Had they not

opened the doors, we could have had some serious

injuries because people were assholes, and they

were literally going to crush us against the

doors. That's how much they were pushing. I commend

security on actually saving our lives in that

case because the people in the back had no idea

what the hell was going on. They were going to

get trampled. They were yelling, hold the door,

and they were yelling, ho door. So they basically

– that's what the translation was. So they were

opening the gates. Those of us in the front that

were getting crushed were getting pushed through

the doors, but they were telling us not to move.

I'm like, buddy, I can't stop moving. I'm being

pushed this way, and I've got to hover around

in front of me. What do you want me to do? So

I basically at this point, like Ram said, I basically

grabbed the hover around and held my as an anchor

because I was getting pushed around the hover

around. So they closed the they closed the doors

until people would back off. And then finally,

like five minutes later, they said, F it. Well,

the best part was they let those of us in the

alcove go through and then they shut the doors

behind us. So. Now you might say, well, Mike,

that doesn't seem like a very – or Jane, that

doesn't seem like a very smart prospect to do.

Here's the brains behind it. Those security people

sacrificed their lives to save ours. I don't

know if they made it. I think they were permanently

stained and pushed up against the doors and they

are now fixtures at SDCC for next year. They

will be bronzed in the memoriam. But they actually

– no, in all seriousness, it was a bunch of jerks

again going to cause a safety issue. And had

they not done what they did – More people would

have spilled in because they were that uppity

to get through the doors and knock everybody

over at the expense of safety. And so they shut

the doors behind us. And then once everybody

chilled out, they opened like two or three doors

at a time and let people through. The reason

why that's important, too, is because that same

morning I was supposed to go at two o 'clock

on that afternoon to go to a signing by Wilt's

Portacio over at the PSA booth. And they were

going to have a. or not the PSA booth, but the

upper deck booth. They were going to have a Bishop

card because he's the guy that created Bishop.

And the PSA booth that morning at 9 o 'clock,

right after this all happened, and again, dumbassery

on PSA, shame on them, great company, terrible

logistics. They're just an itty -bitty tiny booth,

right? And they had all these same people rushing.

Now I understand why there was a crowd. They

were rushing to the PSA booth for some kind of

shoe release or something. Nike? And so they

overwhelmed the PSA booth to the point where

– I think it was the Nike Wolverines. Yeah, Nike

Wolverines. So how could you not predict that

it was going to fucking disaster? But they didn't

have enough security and people to stop the rush

of people that went over there after the gates

opened. And so the PSA booth basically got shut

down. They had to call security, set off the

alarms, all that good stuff, and disperse people.

So then what they did is they shut down the whole

thing and they ticketed. Well, all the subsequent

events that they had for the day because of those

idiots at the PSA booth that caused the riots

or whatever, they forced all the subsequent events

for that afternoon to be ticketed. But they didn't

tell, and how would you know, right? So I showed

up at 2 o 'clock to go to my event, and they're

like, oh, yeah, the tickets were like at 12.

I'm like, wait, what? They're like, yeah, because

the PSA shooting is where we gave out tickets

at 12 o 'clock. I'm like, what? This sucks. So

I missed out on the event that I did want to

go to because people were just jerks, right?

So that sucked. Those are two instances where

whether – well, not intended, but people got

rewarded for doing things the wrong way and the

people legitimately who were waiting as they

should have missed out, whether it's that or

the Wolverine and Deadpool thing because if you

– happened to be drawn for those tickets that

was super exciting because huge thing to be able

to go experience and then you were denied entry

into the deadpool wolverine thing same thing

with you on a smaller scale yeah yeah no agreed

and i mean there's there's a difference between

doing what i did the lounge fly line where there's

like literally nobody there mike and be like

okay i'm just gonna go into the road fuck this

i'm not gonna walk around right versus i'm gonna

drop everybody dead to get to the psa booth and

i don't care if i step on a small child you know

There's a bit of a disparity there in severance.

So what was it, back to the voice actors? So

aside from all those shenanigans, yes, I met

a lot of cool people there. But it was hell.

Yeah, I can imagine. And I'm sorry, there's no

way in hell I would wear yellow Nikes. I don't

care if it is Wolverine. I don't care if Hugh

Jackman signs the goddamn shoes. There's no way.

And those are ugly. You probably only get one

on an eBay sale anyway because the shoes are

scattered everywhere. So someone probably just

grabbed one and put it on eBay. Yeah, pretty

much. Yeah, probably. Pretty much. One random

size six or something. Yeah, that's the other

thing you got to be careful of with shoes on.

Yeah. Whether it's going to be in your size or

not, geez. All right, so we've mentioned some

of the negatives, but the first thing from your

all's experience, well, the first thing from

your all's experience that I can tell that they

need to do for next year, for 2025, and they

probably won't do this because this convention

has been going on for 54 years, started in 1970,

but they need to rope off. The entirety of the

line, all the way around the block, however long

the line is, whatever, into the doors, into the

thing. So you don't just have this giant sprouting

flower of people trying to get through those

front doors on whether it's preview night, whether

it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Like,

they need to figure that out. They should do

wristbands with built -in little electro things

that if you go close to you get electrocuted.

Or basically Disneyland. You have your wristband

with the Disneyland thing on it. You stepped

out of the lawn. Yeah. Crowd control. Absolutely.

So what can they change after you all had this

experience? What can they improve upon for next

year? I think for me it's the – it's just the

– they've got things roped off and organized

outside. It's just I think they're going to need

more people to help temper expectations for security.

They – some of the stuff that happened should

not have happened, right? And I think they needed

more people there to escort people off and get

them out of there or get them under control.

And a plan to rectify the letdown for the people

who are wronged, I think. Yeah. I felt terrible

for, like I said, Thursday for the people that

were supposed to go to that event. That kind

of set a bad expectation because going into Friday,

they had similar experience. Like I said, there

was a lot of us that were – in all seriousness,

it was very dangerous for what could have happened

had security not stepped in to stop the crowd.

Because they just didn't care. Like I said, it's

you or them. I mean, for me, I was in a position

where I would have had to jump over the hover

round or whatever to get around because I was

going to get crushed. Thankfully, this woman

hit the gas and plowed the road, but that's besides

the point. If she hadn't been there and they

didn't have security there, we would have got

toppled. But I think more people, more volunteers,

and more – I think just – that type of logistics

is going to need to be done the second thing

too is um like m said making it more accessible

in the aisles because i like when you're walking

down those aisles they're very packed they're

very busy and they had a lot of i say decent

line management but it literally was a lot of

line management there were people there that

where they were guiding us to line up and everything

else was blocking aisles. Or, you know, you'd

have people stop in the middle of the aisle that

didn't understand. Like they were getting pissed

because they like, why can't I stop here? And

it's like, buddy, I'm about the, okay, I'm just

going to hit you. And I just kept on going. I

was shouldering people because your stop, if

I don't get you out of the way, I'm going to

get trampled. Right. So it wasn't, it wasn't.

friendly for movement or anything of that nature.

Well, and one of the funny things that I noticed

just observing things was, say, Funko, for example,

they give you these big -ass bags to put stuff

in, but if you actually carry around... Like,

they had the little backpack ones that were good,

but they also gave these huge carrying bags that

if you were to actually use that to go through

the con, you would never make it through any

of the... No, I know. For, like, an entire day,

and it was rough. They were, like, four -foot

-by -three -foot bags kind of thing. They were

as big as me. I could have lived in one. They

were dragging behind him while he's carrying

it. Yeah. They were very helpful, though, but

damn, they were big bags. Honestly, I would say

that if it were at all possible logistically

to have, well, one, the internet lapses in the

actual building, but two, for families and stuff,

it would be nice to have a slow lane option.

Yeah. For people who aren't just... wanting to

race from opportunity to opportunity to maximize

it to like the amount of stuff they're getting.

Like once you just want to experience the booth

slowly or the art, for example, because when

you're going through that at a forced pace, you

can't actually stop and admire all the artwork

that's there. Like for me, that was one of the

sad things was like basically, you know, getting

shoved past things. Yeah. Yeah. Sunday was the

day to go in and really appreciate a lot of the

artists and see those things last minute because

it was slower. You didn't have to worry about

it on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday was at

least somewhat manageable. Or late Saturday afternoon

once people were like, oh shit, the Funko event

is going to start. Everybody dip, you know. 5

o 'clock to 7 o 'clock was pretty much prime

time to go look at the odds and ends stuff if

you were worried about getting shoved around.

And honestly, I would imagine if you were there

with children, one of the things that I noticed,

if you didn't have tickets or whatever, I watched

people, they had no access to any restrooms and

stuff. People who have little kids, that would

have been a nightmare if you were outside and

you couldn't use any facilities with little kids.

That would have been terrible. There were no

outdoor restrooms whatsoever. You were screwed.

The venues that they had around there were cool.

They had a lot of things for the Penguin and

Dexter and Spongebob and stuff like that, but

Spongebob didn't have a toilet. You go to Spongebob

to fill up your water bottle, but then if you've

got to go wee -wee in Bikini Bottom, you're out.

There's nowhere to go. You're in the bushes.

Just go hide behind the stadium. Right. Go behind

the stadium and just go. Find a statue and hide.

Absolutely. All right. We are going to take a

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Edit point. We are... All right, folks, we are

back here on Geekcast Radio, episode 339 with

Random Hat Studio and Fun Employed. Remind everybody,

what was each of your favorite things from San

Diego Comic -Con 2024? For me, it was definitely

the people. I also met some nice people outside

just randomly, which I appreciate. It was not

all chaos. There are some funny stories with

chaos at Fun Hat, but for me, it was definitely

meetings. friends that we've had for years in

person yeah i would agree it's the it's the p

it was the people first um the collectibles a

very close second uh he says is he buys every

single expensive thing he wanted at the convention

not not everything but i found a couple i found

a couple really good treasures it was worth it

so but no the people people first and then obviously

the The collectibles and physical items and things

were second. So that was – we went down with

a mission to meet some people, and the con really

just kind of helped through that. Well, and I

think, yeah, there were a few pieces that you

were definitely excited about and you had to

have. And they are nice pieces, but a lot of

it also was like we were talking about earlier.

There is an aspect of offsetting a little bit

of the expense of the trip by what you get when

you're there. So you always have that in your

mind too. That's why I've got – Deadpool dumpster

fires. Thanks, 100 % Soft. And with this being

the first convention you all attended, would

you be wanting to go, not just specifically San

Diego, but other conventions? I would go to New

York if I had absolutely no commitments to return.

I would be going to New York with no personal

vehicle, no assets of anything except the backpack

and whatever I could carry, right? And it's one

of those things where I don't like that kind

of trip because unlike San Diego, I would have

nowhere to basically safely store my stuff and

I wouldn't trust the shipping. So I would probably

not go to New York except I would go to New York

for one day. All my chips in the basket to go

one day because that's about all I can stomach.

I would take what I can carry and run. But San

Diego, abso -freaking -lutely. Yeah. And, you

know, you all have – because for those that don't

know, folks, they're – Fun and random, they're

located somewhere between Washington and Canada

on an island. So you all have ECCCCCCCC. You

all have – they just did Washington State Summer

Con. I think Rose City is coming up down in Portland

in Oregon. Later this year. So you all have conventions

out near you besides San Diego. So, again, the

question is, would you all want to go to other

conventions in general? I would go to Emerald

City only if there were people there that I cared

to meet. Otherwise, it's a cesspool and I would

never step foot in Emerald City again. Emerald

City was poorly mismanaged compared to what I

heard they did last year. And knowing what I

know now about Emerald City, no. They put two

buildings within six blocks apart from each other.

There was lots of shady people down there. It

was not secure. And if you left the main building,

you don't know what you were going to run into.

I can see why they put a lot of the other things

in the other building, but that's a whole different

discussion. Yeah. So, no. I would only go to

ECCCCCC if there was somebody there or a couple

of things I wanted to do specifically. the fuck

out and getting back north i that place was terrible

yeah emerald city you've lost your shine all

the no yeah they're done well they don't have

they didn't have funko down there either funko

dipped out of their booth and everything too

so yeah i was surprised i was like whoa Yeah,

I was very happy to have been able to participate

with the stuff that I could do for Funko this

year and what I got at the con and various things

after. But Emerald City, as far as conventions

go, I'd rather drive down to Puyallup or someplace

new down the West Coast than to try to play with

Seattle. Aside from the Halo convention, nothing

else down there matters. I will say, if you...

I don't remember if it's specifically Transformers,

and I'm sorry, Mike Seibert, that I don't remember

that it's specifically Transformers. They just

did Cyberfest Northwest, because my buddy Mike

Seibert from Mike Seibert Radio Program, he's

out there in Seattle. That's a pretty good convention

as far as I know. So you all might want to look

into that, maybe. Maybe not. I don't know. Yeah,

but it all comes down to, folks, how the organizers

organize the events. And if they don't organize

them, I don't want to necessarily say properly,

but if they don't organize them well, then you're

not going to have people that are going to come

back and say, I had a fun time there. I think

for me, I would just think I would summarize

it as safe and pace. Like, is it a safe place

or it feels safe and the experiences are overall

safe and positive and the pace of the event,

can you enjoy it at a reasonable pace? pace for

the amount of time you could be there. As far

as what you're able to get out of it. Absolutely.

I would say your Emerald City experience was

mostly tarnished by the safety aspect of it.

Emerald City was kind of like if I had to compare

that to San Diego Comic Con another two different

scales, right? San Diego Comic Con I think for

what they do and how they do it, I think they

did it very well. I'm being critical only because

obviously there's always things you can improve

more. But what they do achieve with it year over

year, I enjoyed it. I think they did very well.

And they're always going to have to work on the

manpower and the security power. I can't say

manpower. The people power and the things that

you need to get those cons moving, right? Emerald

City reminds me more of like – you know how back

in the day, Mike, ice cream trucks were actual

ice cream trucks? Yeah. Hear the jingle and they

would drive around like, oh, it's ice cream,

man. Grandma, can I have coin to go get the Pac

-Man thing that, you know, I had? I'm like, cool.

I can't get coin. This sucks. But anyway, I got

to see that. I get the ice cream guy. That was

that was San Diego, right? Emerald City is kind

of like the janky van that they use now. It's

like the Honda Odyssey or whatever it is. They

plug a standing freezer inside of it. They plug

a standing freezer inside of it through a converter

in their ashtray, and it's all rusted, and it's

got stickers and billboards attached to it that

you can clearly see are not legit. And it looks

like it's been sitting out in an acid rain for

like 30 years. That is Emerald City Comic Con.

And that's not a slight against the people that

are celebrities that attend there. That's just

the way they present the convention. It's a slight

against the people that are organizing the kids.

It's a bad organ. Yeah. Ice cream van, not the

ice cream truck, the ice cream van, or better

yet, you're the guy running. Like, it's like

saying, come to San Diego comic -con and it's

some push cart with the umbrella. Right. Well,

that would even be a step up. That's more like

New York city comic -con. Yes. Yeah. But. Yeah,

I just, you know, I really enjoyed San Diego.

I want to go back again. There's no hesitation.

I want to go back again. I can give two shits

less about Emerald City Comic Con. I went down

for a day, and I was, you know, had I not had

a sour experience, I'd probably be more excited

to go back, but there's really nothing of interest

down there unless you're an artist or, you know,

there wasn't anything for me outside of one or

two very specific instances to go in, and that

was it. So, yeah, no regrets. I enjoyed my time.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. All right, where

can the people find y 'all on social media, and

what have you got going on with those lovely

whatnot auctions? Oh, you first. What? You go

ahead. The whatnot is your thing. Oh, he's talking

about social media. I'm deferring to you. Oh,

my social media is the same as my name you introduced

me. Random Hat Studio on Instagram, and I have

a website, randomhatstudio .com. Yeah. For my

custom art. Yeah, which you've got some really

badass jimmies on there. Yeah, you should talk

about. Oh, those ones I will talk about through

my Instagram because I need to work that out

with Jelly Sunshine Project. Yes. So there's

cool stuff that she has working on the art aspect.

What not is what not. So Fun Employed on what

not or Fun Employed 2013 on Instagram. We just

kind of go live whenever we feel like at this

point. It's more of a leisure to me than it is

a requirement. Well, that's the way it should

be. I mean, if you want to sell, if you need

to sell, sell. If you don't need to sell, don't

sell. Well, I just want to show up, and if there's

nobody there, it's like I'm cool to hang out

for an hour or whatever, but just cut the ripcord

and move on with life. We're working things out,

and we'd like to do something different than

just showing up to whatnot and just kind of hanging

out. I think Instagram Live is going to be the

preferable method going forward. And doing things

through, like if we did sell anything or whatever,

doing it more through the Instagram channels.

And plus being able to sit there and actually

talk to people through Instagram Live, whereas

a whatnot platform, you're kind of at the censorship

in behest of... corporate authority whereas instagram

live is like hey this is my house fuck you we're

not forced you to click you know yeah we're that's

why we're playing around still with the idea

of random fun being just a place where everyone

could come to the instagram live and talk about

whatever offend everybody equally just get some

good laughs In good spirit. There will be no

offensive material or any intentional maliciousness

or anything like that, but if you come in with

a closed mind, that is more your problem than

mine. Well, you know, the one true offensive

character in all of Star Wars... That would be

R2 -D2, because it's nothing but beeps. Oh, God.

All right, folks. Check them out on Whatnot.

Check them out on Instagram. FunEmployed2013

on Instagram. RandomHeadStudio on Instagram.

And FunEmployed on Whatnot. They are awesome.

They'll be back, I'm sure, at some point or another.

And you can catch them over on ToyCast at some

point here in the future. For now, thank you

for listening to us here on Geekcast Radio. If

you'd like to get in contact with us or leave

feedback for the show, there are several ways

to do so. Visit the website, brand new, all new,

geekcastradio .com, where you can listen to and

comment on any of our content. You can check

us out on all the podcasting clients that you

choose to use. I prefer people who use Spotify,

but that's just me. You can follow us on Twitter.

Yes, we still call it Twitter because Elon isn't

going to give it to us anymore. At Geekcast Radio

is for the network. At TFG1 Mike is my Twitter.

Become a fan on Facebook. Go to Facebook .com

slash Geekcast Radio Network. We hope you enjoyed

this episode of Geekcast Radio. I wish you'll

join us next time as we'll be talking about yet

another geeky topic. I have no idea what the

hell I'm doing next time. So, for now, I am TFG1

Mike with... Adam at Studio, a .k .a. Emily.

And... I'm bringing Caltrips to protect myself

from wheelchairs next time, a .k .a. if unemployed.

Thank you for listening. Until next time. Autobots,

roll out. All right. Badges? We don't need no

stinking badges. God, no. I don't want... Comic

-Con 2025 already. I'm anxiously keeping an eye

on the hotels and stuff. I have to go in and

start booking ahead of time just to make sure.

It worked out very well last time. I don't want

to wait for the announcement. I already know

when the event's going to be. Yeah, 24th to 27th

of July next year. Yeah, let's go. I'll just

stay at home. It's okay. Okay, what the hell?

Publications? No, I don't want to volunteer.

No, I need all kinds of help, but that's beside

the point. Okay. SanDiegoCon .com 2024. No, not

2025. 2024! 2024! Come on, really? That's not,

here we go. That's, oh shit, that's on Facebook.

Fuck. Come on, come on. come on get it on get

it on let's go damn it the hell load you i hate

load times all right no that's just the event

on facebook i don't want the event on facebook

i want the actual convention okay There you go.

Let's try this. How's everybody? Doing all right.

That's good. That's good. I don't trust that.

Trust what? So, when you do Google, obviously,

it shows you what websites the stuff, the links

are coming from. Uh -huh. Something called Frazetta

Girls. I've never heard of that website. I'm

not clicking on that link. Hello. Exactly. I

didn't do shit. I didn't click on it. The algorithm

did. It just reads what you wrote. I did no naughty

searches, no nothing. San Diego Comic -Con 2024

Recap is not in the BDSM area at all. Okay. Yeah,

I don't know. They have to have... Okay, what's

this? Is this actual? Wait a minute. Hold on.

The Beat. Anybody heard of that website? I don't

know what you're looking up. I just want to.

What I wanted to do was go to the actual SDCC

website and look up the guests and everything

else so I can just have it in front of me. No,

just go to the unofficial SDCC blog. Unofficial.

cccblog .com There you go. Good luck finding

anything. Gee, thanks. Guys, no, I don't want

WonderCon, dammit. Yeah, that's not helping.

That's not helping. Annals and autographs, well,

I guess that's close enough. Alright, whatever.