James Gunn & Peter Safran Out at DC, McFarlane Toys Sold & Streaming Fatigue

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

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve Megatron,

and joining me on this adventure into geekdom

is TFG1 Mike. That's right, I'm here. So this

is going to be an interesting episode just because

it's a good majority of it covering some streaming

stuff and specifically the... DC regime change

with the Skydance direction instead of Paramount

or Warner Brothers. Yes. And yeah, some toy related

stuff. And yeah, we're just going to get right

into it with that discussion. But first, we have

a bunch of stuff before we get into the news.

Yeah, so. I'll touch on mine briefly first. I've

been publishing a bunch of articles. I have more

on the way. Some of them are going to ruffle

feathers, and I am well aware of that. Heaven

forbid we ruffle feathers here at the Geekcast

Radio Network. We've never done that before.

So part of my beef with the podcast industry

is it's gotten very corporate. And I've been

following a lot of the stuff, and I've been discovering

new things over the last week. Some of the companies

that actually tried to pitch us their service,

like PodView and PodSEO, are owned by the guy

that used to own Spreaker before it was sold

to iHeart. And I found that out this week while

I was doing research, mostly because when I published

the article about PodSEO and how much it sucked

or wasn't accurate, long story short, it boiled

down from... our podcast host rss .com partnered

with them yeah and with pod seo to help people

and they gave a promo code and i jumped in the

group and i'm like not to you know or pee on

the cheerios here but uh i don't have that great

of a uh impression from this group and i posted

my why and i posted a link to the article and

the the rep at RSS was like well did you reach

out to them and I says well they've reached out

to me multiple times sending me a blanket email

for multiple shows with the same crap keywords

and and I said and I responded to them and I

heard nothing back and then they were like well

I'm gonna hit him up on slack and I says okay

go for it I still have not heard anything it's

been a week and so I posted on LinkedIn because

I usually post a lot of my podcasting related

industry stuff to LinkedIn just to see if it

gets traction, but also because majority of it,

I'm trying to facilitate the knowledge base of

I'm a podcaster. I've been here. I've seen it.

I know the game. And I've seen it on multiple

fronts. They still can't define a view or a download

or a listen. All three of them are metrics that

they use for podcasting, which means it's very

difficult to advertise with. One platform over

another will define it differently. And so it

creates this weird way of measuring, which is

not 100 % accurate. And I've been saying that

since I worked for a radio organization that

produced podcasts back in 2016. And I noticed

that because I had close ties with the advertising

department and I was in charge of the metrics.

So I learned some insider stuff there. And between

that and radio, I learned that. It's not very

measurable and it's still not to this day. And

so it's very hard to advertise with, although

they say that, you know, it's booming. The return

on investment is not there. And so like I've

even not had the company I work for advertise

because the money that they want for this is

not there for the value. And so anyways, I posted

about pod SEO and LinkedIn. Well, the creator

of both of those companies. happened to check

my profile uh so i i did because i did some digging

and i was like oh that's who you are uh but it

was funny because people hadn't even done any

research on it and it led me to another rabbit

hole of just kind of going back through some

of the stuff i've had the pleasure of checking

a lot of the podcast industry is based on perceived

need and what i mean by that is There is some

genuine need. There is some genuine stuff that

is innovative, that is good. But for every good

thing, there's a bad thing. So, I mean, we talked

about Spreaker with the doubling of RSS feeds,

and they're trying to downplay it now. But there's

a new initiative to fix it before the end of

the year to require an email to the RSS feeds.

email address on file to see if that's okay to

port it in which i'm like okay that's somewhat

of a fix but it's not in some cases because in

a lot of places they don't actually post the

email address anymore with the rss feeds so that's

that's one thing the other thing is a lot of

the podcast industry is very i want to say manipulative

it's like it's there's there's a side of it that

they kind of prey on a perceived FOMO of like,

Oh, there's this thing wrong with, with my show.

Uh, you know, and it's like, it, they, they create

this, this urgency of like, there's, there's

something wrong with my show. There's, there's,

yeah. Let us help you fix it. Yeah. Yeah. And,

but the thing is, is like, I'm dialed in enough.

Yeah. On all of it. Because one, I read it, but

two, I, I, in addition to reading all of it,

I know the game. So it's, so I'm sitting there

and I'm, I'm watching this software as a service

solutions trap. And I posted an article about

it, you know, five hours before recording this,

how it's, it's basically become a predatory ecosystem

of, these third -party SaaS services that are

trying to bombard podcasters of all levels. Like,

oh, we have this automated AI tagging. We have

this automated optimization. This scoring, oh,

you need this monthly subscription. The problem

isn't necessarily the lack thereof. They give

you an automated dashboard that grades your RSS

feed like a 6 out of 10. says your website is

unfindable or, you know, it's like, are we, are

we chasing the right things here? Like, why are

we putting all this crap behind a paywall and

telling these new indie podcasters? Like, they're

almost like trying to raise the barrier like

they did with radio. Yeah. And, and create this

atmosphere where it's difficult or impossible

for someone new getting into the industry or

even, or even somebody that's been in it a long

time. They're like, you know what? I'm going

to bow out like this. it's very it's supposed

to be you know more of this raw come as you are

like speak you have a voice platform and it's

become more of a pay us or else you don't matter

and it and it does in a lot of cases like there's

award shows and then they're like 200 to submit

your show and not that I'm like against award

shows in that regard. Like, I mean, I think it's

great if a podcaster wins it, but most of the

time it's these guys that have money anyway.

Like it's these people that have these big production

companies. It's these, you're, you're not going

to get the indie getting noticed. And so to me,

like I, so I'm starting a whole like blog series

about, you know, being creatively independent

and what I'm doing about it and utilizing royalty

free or standalone stuff that doesn't expire

when your credit card changes or uh yeah or needing

a credit card like because and that's partially

why I started developing altered audio editor

was which is kind of a mouthful uh I may rename

it later but for right now that's what it's good

it's gonna be that's good but either way like

I was looking at it and I'm like, I remember

being a college student and being told you need

the Adobe suite. And I'm like, dude, like Adobe

is expensive even for a student. Like, yeah,

I, it's expensive for a business and they don't

innovate on the stuff that people want. They're,

they're messing around with putting AI and literally

everything. And everything. That's why I posted

the thing about the AI slop. It's like, well,

maybe we should attack the companies that are

stuffing it down our throat. Not the ones that

are using it for general entertainment or their

craft or whatever. Blame the ones that have been

shoving it down our throat for the last four

years. And so I've been developing this editor

and taking community feedback of what they want,

what needs to be fixed and things like that.

But I'm looking at it too like... As a college

student, I would have loved having access to

the same almost industry standard of software

and having it readily accessible at my fingertips.

And that was kind of the problem with Adobe.

I had an old, outdated version of Premiere when

I went to college. And then my teacher had a

newer version. And once it was put in that new

version, I could no longer edit it on my old

one. Right. And so it created this conundrum

that it's like, Oh, so I have to upgrade. Yep.

So I, I'm just kind of, and this is where I kind

of take inspiration from like Todd Cochran when

he was around, like before he passed, he was

very much a proponent for the indie podcaster

for, you know, making things accessible for making

things easy to understand or to find, or just,

you know, he was always reaching out. to anybody

that was needing help in the podcasting industry.

I mean, there were multiple times I lost my job

and he offered to cover the hosting for three

months. Yeah. And to move us over to his platform

if needed. Like, yeah, I mean, I was like, you

know, and I kind of want to be that beacon for

like the podcast industry, like where we are

today. Yeah. Just because this disgusts me on

so many levels. So that's why I'm doing what

I'm doing. Yeah. I don't know how, the podcast

industry has gotten to where it's gotten. And

we're old school folks. We are old school audio

only podcasts here at the GCRN. I mean, as much

as we've said in the last maybe couple episodes,

last maybe couple of months, we've tried video

in the past. We have interest in doing video,

but you are never probably going to ever. see

us doing this what we're doing right now in video

format i i listen to various different podcasts

that are also that also have a video version

at the exact same time of the audio version and

i'm just like as much as i love listening to

y 'all i do not need everything wants to be the

same and i'm speaking in general terms here i'm

not singling anyone out content wants to be all

the same thing netflix insert whatever here everything

wants to be the same thing like For me, I watch

YouTube videos like I'll watch insert tech creator

here videos or whatever. If that tech creator

tells me they have a podcast that I can get on

Spotify or whatever. Cool. I'll listen to your

podcast, but I'm not going to also watch your

podcast. Like if you have a tech video, if you

have a tech YouTube channel and you do tech YouTube

videos, that's a separate thing to me. Like,

it's just like, even though we publish these

to the GCRN YouTube channel and they are technically

video versions kind of thing, unless like my

point in saying video versions is neither one

of us are currently on camera. That's what I

mean when I say video versions. Yes, I know we

publish these to our GCRN YouTube channel. We

both independently have YouTube channels of each

other. I still use mine for various things. I'm

sure you'd still use yours if you actively wanted

to create with your own personal YouTube channel.

Even if you wanted to create with the GCRN YouTube

channel outside of this, that's fine. My point

is, is that podcasting, the whole point when

Steve Jobs created the... okay he didn't i don't

want to heaven forbid i'm gonna get in trouble

because he coined the term ipod and broadcasting

that was the whole point when he said it on stage

ipod and broadcasting podcasting it was an audio

interface that he coined the term for now you

know it is what it is and that happened in 2005

you know so I've always thought of it as an audio

interface and I always will think of it as an

audio interface because for me, it's all about

doing other things while I'm listening, whether

it's sitting here at the computer, writing up

a script for the next episode or playing games

or whether it's going around the house, cleaning

the apartment or whatever, whether it's going

out doing laundry or going out grocery, whatever

it is, it's like. I'm sitting here listening

or I'm out and about listening as I'm doing other

things. It's, it's not like for me to sit here

and watch something, anything, it doesn't matter

what it is. I am, my phone is down. My phone

is, you know, to the side. Usually my phone's

in the other room currently, but like I'm tapping

on my computer tower here, but like, it's literally

right next to me. I'm not paying attention to

my phone. I'm on YouTube or I'm on Netflix or

whatever. And I have my screen up and I'm watching

the thing and I, I'm not, you know, it's full

screen video and I'm watching whatever I'm watching.

Like I'm not doing other things. I'm not like,

I'm not in the kitchen doing dishes while Beverly

Hills cop four is on or whatever insert movie

here, whatever, whatever, whatever. That's my

point. So it's like somehow in the last 20, what

are we at? 2026. Somehow in the last 21 years,

people have aped the term podcasting in with

their video versions of what they think a podcast

is. And I don't like it. Yeah. I mean, I, I am

not opposed to. I'm not opposed to the video

aspect, but it's still not a podcast. A podcast

is something, you know, mobile, offline, audio.

Yep. You know, I don't have a problem with people,

you know, doing one or the other. What I have

a problem with is when people expect every show

to have a video content, because like my wife,

for instance, absolutely cannot stand. Uh -oh.

cannot stand podcasts that have video because

she's like I don't want to watch them like she's

like I'm trying to work out I'm trying to you

know and she listens on Spotify and then it wants

to play all this garbage and stuff she's like

I just want to have my screen off and not deal

with this like not have the video playing not

you know and even on YouTube like she's like

it like and I'm like well it's YouTube and she's

like yeah I get that but like on other platforms

like on their own websites or whatever. She's

like, I just want the audio. And I'm like, no,

I get it. I'm like, part of the reason I don't

have a video show, I'm lazy. I work all week.

I have other responsibilities. And then in audio,

I can literally sit down, I can knock it out

in 30 minutes and edit. And once I get my editor

dialed in more, I should be able to do it in

less time. And, but I mean, it's, it's kind of

that, that whole moat there is like, I'm, I'm

trying to, I'm trying to, you know, put out content.

I'm trying to be entertaining. I'm trying to

be educational with it, but I don't want to necessarily,

by the time I would get around to actually editing

the video, the content would be old. And so I'm

not, I'm not trying to go that route. Yeah, that's

the problem. I do plan on doing some voice impressions,

doing M wire and doing some other stuff. That's

going to be short form. What that looks like

when I'll have time. I have no idea. It's on

the agenda and it's been on the agenda for over

like two years. It just, it's again, it boils

down to a timing thing. And so like, I think

I'm constantly trying to wait until like the

timing's right, which the timing's never right.

Uh, so I mean, it may come down to me just sitting

down and actually just doing it and then kind

of figuring it out as I go. But. Again, like

when it comes to a podcast, it's still, yeah.

Yeah. And the thing specifically to Spotify,

since that's where I listen to my podcasts, and

I'm only going to call this show out because

this is the show that I specifically notice it

with the most when I see their downloads come

through or when I see their new episodes come

through. The Colin and Samir show, they're a

tech show. Well, they're more than a tech show,

but they're whatever. Uh, I'm not calling them

out. I'm calling Spotify out because it's a show

where Spotify has leaned into. We don't just

want to be an audio platform. We want to be a

video plat. We want to be the next YouTube kind

of like Spotify and Instagram and everybody else

wants to be the next YouTube. Please. No, don't.

And stop like, no, like I wish the. I wish I

could make my Spotify be the auto default playback

for podcasts, be audio player. The fact that

I have to, when I go to click on any of my podcast

episodes and I have to actively, and I know this

is so simple folks, I get it. But the fact that

I have to click switch to audio player, like

video should not. be the number one thing in

an audio platform if your platform the main thing

you do is music and podcasts video for podcasting

should not be your number one go -to spotify

get your together so yeah there's that and then

uh you got anything else you want to say about

uh version uh 20 0 .20 .1 of the altered audio

editor. No, just I'm putting out a bug fix, which

we'll have that. And then I'll probably be on

version 0 .21 before we finish. But yeah, it's

I got a lot planned. A lot of features that still

need to hit it. But yeah, it's going strong.

Very cool. Very cool. So I think we're going

to go to some topics. Well, so really quickly,

I went up against Nacelle Toys on Instagram.

Which Nacelle Toys, if you're listening, I would

love to review some Star Trek figures. Well,

this ties into one of our stories, but specifically

I went up against them and I'm like, since when

is four years an era? And they're like, Oh, according

to Miriam Webster dictionary defines an era as

a fixed point in time from which a series of

years is reckoned. Which I can see that, but.

And I even went to the Miriam Webster website

to make sure it was factually correct. Cause

I don't trust anybody on the internet. And that's

what it says. I replied to them, which they did

not reply back, but. I've just always considered

an era to be 10 years or longer. I'm sorry, four

years at a company does not, that's not exactly

the best era of your life. That may be the best

four years of your life or one part of the best

parts of your life. But yeah, I don't know. And

then my first thought was, I forget, what's the

good part of the batting earns? What's the best

part of the earned run average in baseball? Is

it supposed to be the lower part of that or the

higher part of that? Because if it's the lower

part of that, technically he's doing good. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. I know I went to baseball. And then

I wanted to really quickly mention before we

get to the news, some audio books that have come

out over the last month or so. Uh, Chuck Lorre's

book released, uh, back in October, October 12th,

uh, sitcom and memoir, which I've been listening

to. I'm, I think I'm on like, Oh, chapter five

or six, which is very, very interesting. Uh,

he does talk a little bit about stuff you might

like. He mentions a lot of people and things

like that, even though he did escape the church

of Scientology. uh but he does mention a lot

of cool stuff uh and then in the last couple

of days actually since this well by the time

this podcast airs in the last couple of days

we had take my word for it a memoir by lavar

burton so lavar burton's memoir came out we had

um we had uh my pressures the bizarrely true

story of Andy circus that came out. So that's

going to be interesting to, to listen to. And

then book meets world, uh, Danielle official

writer, strong Wilfred L the, uh, uh, the definitive

inside story of the hit sitcom boy meets world

that finally released as well. So I've got a

bunch of audio books. I'll, I'll be listening

to. between now and Thanksgiving. So at least

maybe over the next couple of weeks between now

and the holidays, I can give you guys quick book

reports as long as I get these things listened

to by that time. But yeah, let's get into the

news because Gunn and Saffron are out. And some

people, I'm sure, it bothers. Myself, it does

not. I didn't and you know I'm not saying he's

not talented or whatever by any means but I don't

I don't love James Gunn the way a lot of people

do and I wasn't thrilled when he took over I

do like that he flipped DC back to its old logo

and then added studios you know so that it's

reminiscent of Marvel he did kind of get it going

and he did jump started faster than any other

endeavor has and it's i saw a meme it was about

how uh how often warner brothers changes hands

it was kind of humorous it was like in 2018 wb

merges with another company and replaces the

heads of dc 2022 wb merges with another company

and replaces the heads of dc it's 2026 wb merges

with another company and replaces the heads of

dc And I had to chuckle at it when I saw it because

I'm like, it's like, you get to be DC and you

get to be DC. So, you know, either way, I'm not

going to talk crap about him. No, no, no. I know

some geeks are going to go that direction. I

didn't personally love any of the stuff he had.

I didn't love the fact that he focused on, you

know, tertiary characters and then the characters

that were primary. Their films were kind of...

while they were trying they were brighter than

the Snyder verse I will give them that they were

more like kind of a crossbreed between if you

put like if you mix like Smallville with Snyder

you had guns universe essentially as far as colorations

not tone or anything I would have gladly taken

CWDC over this stuff Just because, like, the

CWDC, even though it was very, like, teen heartthrob

type crap, it was more, felt more grounded and

more, like, I don't need my superheroes drunk

and cussing up a storm and, you know, doing all

kinds of stuff that they shouldn't really be

doing. And no, I'm not like, oh, they have to

be, you know, to my standards, they have to be,

like, you know, because people are knocking.

Jeremy Lacham who replaced them because he's

Christian and they're like oh he said he's going

to put Christian and it's like dude he's saying

like not like the beliefs he's putting the standards

of having like an upbeat moral superhero like

in that sense like they're set to a higher standard

as the superhero you know for one if say what

you will like if you don't you don't care about

the religion angle fine But you do want your

kids looking towards, you know, the 90s Star

Trek where it's a utopia, where people are genuinely,

you know, if you're for any type of the diversity

or any type of the inclusion or any of that stuff,

you need the utopia. You need the people finding

a common goal. You need the moral upright people

that are putting that place there. You don't

need the people that are talking crap or swearing

up a storm or the lowest common denominator with

it. Like you need, if you want the role model,

you have to put them in the highest of standard.

And so I think that's where he's sitting at is

like, if you're going to have, you know, these

heroes like Snyder had, you know, people give

Cavill's Superman a problem because he broke

the neck of Zod. and Batman was shooting people

with rubber bullets and then breaking their neck

and throwing them against a wall with his grappling

gun. So you got one end of the spectrum, and

then you got this one where Superman is dog snot

weak and Supergirl gets trashed. So you got to

find that both of those were wrong. I didn't

enjoy both of those the way I should have. I

feel like this new endeavor, I'm willing to give

another shot before I count DC completely out.

The only thing they seem to be able to do right

is, is animation or adaptations of comics into

animation because their live action stuff has

been terrible for years. And the, the thing that

I am hoping for is we get the morally upright,

like give us the Christopher Reeve Superman,

like give us, Some of that, like give us some

of that, you know, not the hokiness stuff of

it, but give us like, you know, that goofy moral

upbeat. And I know he was trying to go for that

with his new Superman, but it would be nice to

have kind of this. Honestly, they've had the

formula for years. They've had the DCAU. Just

use it. You own the stories. Yeah. Adapt it.

Like do what you can to adapt it. If the goal

is to get, and I know Ellison's like, We need

the Justice League as soon as possible. We need

all of the original leaguers. We need Batman.

We need Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern,

Martian Manhunter, The Flash. If that's the goal,

just use the DCAU. Like, you don't have to copy

everything verbatim, but just, I mean, you got

the blueprint. Use it as the guideline. Use it

as the framework. And then build around it. So,

according to the Hollywood... So, I found, again...

I don't know if I mentioned this on air or off

air, uh, through my, um, never ending Instagram

reels scrolling inside James gun and Peter Saffron's

DC ouster exact tensions and fateful David, David

Ellison. I almost said Zaslav, uh, Ellison, uh,

visit, uh, from the Hollywood reporter parts

of this basically break down the article and

says, uh, at the end of it, it says, um, Pretty

much effectively, if Gunn was the F -bomb guy,

Latcham is pretty much the down -the -middle

-straight -shooter kind of person where he's

going to give them what they want versus what

Gunn was, where supposedly, according to the

sources in this article, that... And according

to this, Gun and Saffron will still have direct

links to the studio, just less control. It sounds

like they won't have creative control as far

as that's concerned. They'll just have... They're

just fired as the creative. That's what it is,

I think. Well, I don't know. Whatever. I love

how this article ends. For DC fans, Monday's

Tumult was another reminder of how the franchise

cannot catch a break. In the 21st century at

this stage, the only movies on the horizon are

Man of Tomorrow and The Batman Part II, which

recently saw Steven Soderbergh step in, which

we've already talked about at great length. And

I don't know. It's just one of those things where...

But yeah, yeah, it's it's crazy. So, you know,

Marvel keeps keeps moving along and DC keeps

stumbling along. And good. Yeah. No, I was just.

Yeah. Mented. take a photo of this earlier but

the the cord cutters article i have here uh one

of their their main photos of this is of the

remotes of all the buttons on the remotes now

the quick buttons netflix hulu sling amazon i

meant to take a photo of my remote earlier to

see which actual buttons on it but this is another

one cord cutters are canceling streaming services

in record numbers as costs climb I know we've

talked about this before, but it just seems like

we all know streaming is turned into cable. It

just has. You don't need a cable box to incur

the costs of a cable package anymore. Which reminds

me, I need to call Xfinity tomorrow because apparently

my Xfinity Flexbox or Zumo box or whatever the

hell they call it. There is like my TV, my actual

big screen, 55 inch sharp television I bought

in 2018. The volume works on the TV. It does

not work on the box. I've unplugged it. I've

plugged it back in. I've reset it. I've done

everything. This has been going on for a week

now. It does not have volume control. I've checked

every setting on this box. Might have to call

customer service in the morning. But anyway,

cord cutters are canceling streaming services

and sharply cutting back on paid subscriptions

with a record share now limiting themselves to

just a handful of platforms at a time. A new

survey by cord cutters. News of more than...

1 ,800 cord cutters found that just 54 .1 % paid

for three or fewer services. When the threshold

expanded to four or fewer services, the share

rose to 69 .8%. The results mark a clear retreat

from the higher subscription counts. Common in

earlier years of the streaming boom, when many

households routinely maintained five, six, or

more paid options to cover a wide range of shows,

movies, and live events. Well, here's the problem

with this. The reason why more people are cutting

streaming services, guess what? Streaming services

decided to do the dumbest thing ever. We're going

to put ads in every single tier. Um, hello. The

whole point of me paying you for ad free watching

is so there's no ads. So why would I then pay

you if you're going to put an ad tier into my

no T hurts? Why am I going to pay Netflix $25?

If they are going to then tell me that, and I

know this is not Netflix, I'm just using them

as a cost example. Why am I going to pay Netflix

$25 if all of their ads, if all of their tiers

are now, if they no longer have an ad -free tier?

That was my, from day one of streaming services,

whatever ad -free tier there was. $7 .99, $8

.99, $9 .99, $10 .99, whatever it is, I've said

this for years, I will pay it as long as I don't

have to deal with advertisements. I should not

have to watch seven ads in an episode of Star

Trek TNG. When Star Trek TNG is... 39 year be

40 years old next year a 40 year old show on

a streaming service does not need seven ads per

episode oh i agree with you now i'm not saying

that that's what it is i'm just saying usually

and the ads are like who's they must be using

the wonkiest of artificial intelligences to place

these ads because these ads are placed at the

most inopportune times that was the whole point

of the tv shows having the bumpers like when

the networks were selling the shows to these

streaming services why couldn't they have sold

them the show versions with the bumpers so you

could then build in these advertised like let's

just say i've subscribed to insert streaming

service here and it has this show here that i

like from 1980 whatever And put all your ads,

whatever ads you're going to put, let's say it's

four or five, six of them. Match them up to where

the bumpers are. So that way you don't actually

have like take Knight Rider. For example, you

got kit going out, driving away and you got kit

coming back. Okay. That's where the ads end.

That way you don't have random. Oh my God. It's

so stupid. Recent price hikes have been the central

force behind the pullback. Major platforms have

repeatedly increased the cost of ad -free tiers,

and even ad -supported paid plans have grown

to more expensive. Yeah, exactly. And of course,

in response, cord cutters are shifting towards

cheaper free ad supported plans and whatever

else. Yeah, it's like that's one of the things

why which this will come up a little bit later

when we talk about Roku. But I watch two different

shows now. One of the shows I actually have on

DVD, but I guess I'm too old and too lazy to

get up and switch the DVDs out of my DVD player

now. But Numbers is now on the Roku channel,

the TV show Numbers, with Rob Morrow and what's

his name? Bernard, damn it, from the Santa Claus.

David Krumholtz. It's now on the Roku channel,

so I can watch the six seasons of that show on

there. But even the Roku channel and I don't

this is one I won't complain about because I'm

not actually paying. I don't pay for the Roku

channel. It's free. So, you know, I'm not going

to complain about that. But there are ads. I

wish the ads were placed better. That's all.

But but yeah, no, it's just crazy. I do really

wish that some of these places would would figure

out how to. Place their ads in these shows better.

I think it's all dynamic. I think that's the

issue. I don't think that there's actually humans

doing it. Yes, I realistically think that's what's

going on with the commercials. But anyways, it's

it's not surprising that people are just sick

of cord cutting or not cord cutting, but sick

of the streaming platforms because we already

dealt with it with cable. Nobody wants to do

this twice. So, I mean, people are cutting anything.

If I'm going to have to watch commercials, I'm

just going to get the free stuff like Tubi and

Roku or JustWatch or any of these services. What

is the point in paying if you're going to have

to watch commercials? Amazon Prime is notorious

for their crap practices. I get it with like

Amazon prime. You'll watch like a commercial

before the show. Okay. I'll, I'll tolerate that.

Cause it's, it's before during the middle of

it. It's like, please know. Uh, but they also

charge more if you want the ad free. And then

they show you stuff for other platforms that

they don't even have. And you have to subscribe

separately too. Yeah. No, I use, I use primarily

free stuff. I, yeah, I, I, And honestly, if there's

alternative methods to see a show, that's what

I do. I use my Amazon credits for the Prime by

delaying delivery sometimes so that I can get

digital credits. And then I'll use those to rent

a movie, which $5 to $7 to rent a movie, it is

as bad as going to the stuff. And I was bringing

that up to my wife and she goes, and I said about

the meme about, you know, I would rather go to

blockbuster and have, you know, have to walk

through the aisles and figure out, you know,

what I want and look at the back of the movies

and scan there. Because although I used to walk

around there just as long as it takes me to find

something on streaming to watch and it ends up,

you know, again, takes the same amount of time,

including with drive time. And, but I usually,

I found stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have.

Because I could rent it for a buck, like for

the old stuff. Yeah. So, I don't know. She did

mention, though, that while that may be true,

we can also rent it for the comfort of our own

home, like the old pay -per -view model. Yep.

And I was like, yeah, I mean, I get it, but I

also don't want to spend it. Yeah. Because we

recently watched a super old movie on Amazon

Prime. more so just because I couldn't find it

anywhere else. I, we were looking for based on

true story movies and, uh, one came up and it

had a bunch of awards and it was chariots of

fire. And, uh, I was familiar with it because

of the, the, the soundtrack song, but I'd never

seen the movie. Uh, and then we sat there and

watched it and we were kind of like, I mean,

she fell asleep like 30 minutes in and she was

like, yeah, it was boring. And then, me and the

kids watched it the kids about fell asleep and

then I got bored like halfway through and ended

up going to mess with my app and then coming

back in and out in and out watching it and stuff

but it was it was good it was just felt like

dragged out yeah yeah chariots of fire was released

in 1981 March 30th 1981 in London and then in

the US later And it's funny because I think it's

Alice Kriege was in it. And she plays the Borg

Queen in Star Trek First Contact and Endgame

of Voyager and in the finale of Picard Season

3. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. So anyways. Moving on.

I just use whatever streaming service it is.

I just use like you're talking about Amazon specifically.

Over the years I had bought so much stuff on

Amazon. So whatever I like, and that's the other

reason why I love movies anywhere. Cause movies

anywhere will take whatever library you put into

it and it will compile it of whatever you actually

own. So half the time I'm on YouTube and I'm

like, what's this Batman beyond return of the

Joker. And I'm like purchased. Oh, right. That's

the movie I actually own. Okay, so that isn't

some news fan theory, whatever video. That's

the movie I actually. Okay, let's do that later.

But moving on, coming from Bleeding Cool, Image

Comics founder, Spawn creator, Todd McFarlane

sells McFarlane toys. Oh, no. Well, you sold

majority stake. Well, yeah, I'm going to get

to that. Yeah. Gladstone Investment Corporation,

which I found out. is the exact same corporation

that bought Toys R Us. Yeah, so they're going

to run it into the ground. It doesn't matter.

They lost the rights to DC stuff, so I think

we're fine. Yeah, so they have bought a majority

stake in McFarlane Toys, the collectible action

figure company founded in 1994 by Todd McFarlane.

Yeah, him and Steven Tetrault will retain meaningful

minority ownership and will continue to play

active roles in guiding strategy and growth.

It'll be interesting to see how this kind of

plays out. I mean, the dude's getting old. I

think he's just kind of watching stuff and he's

like, I've done all I can. It's time to wind

down. That's one weird Batman. Yeah, the kryptonite?

The red one. Oh, the red one? Yeah, the red one's

weird, but there's also a kryptonite Batman in

the image below it. But I don't know. I really

liked McFarlane for giving me accurate Batman,

the animated series and new adventures of Batman

figures. And they're actually coming out with

before I think before the end of the year or

beginning of next year or something there or

middle next year. They're coming out with Justice

League. Yep. Animated series figures. And I'm

ecstatic because I'm like, oh, I want Batman.

because then I'll have all three editions of

Batman and you know I don't know I'm looking

forward to that just because I don't I don't

care to own any of the other figures those are

those are kind of my my grail figures I'm like

oh those are those are what I like and granted

my kids are like they're like you gotta stop

buying crap they're like your cabinet's full

there's no room they're like you're gonna have

to get rid of some of your Dragon Ball Z and

Power Rangers I'm like no They're only saying

that because they want them. That is partially

true. I do have some Doomsday figures, and I

have some V1. Like, I got Studio Series 86 Starscream

and Megatron and Prime, and my youngest actually

is getting a knockoff Studio Series 86 Megatron

for, I think he paid $30 for it, and it's got

die -cast metal in it. Die -cast construction?

And all kinds of accessories, too. So, like,

he's like, ooh. And I'm like, well, it just landed

in the U .S., so it'll have it probably by end

of the week. There you go. We got a previous

set of knockoffs, which was a two -pack. And

with Prime and Megatron, and the Megatron was

such brittle plastic. Yeah, it was horrible.

I had to do research. There's three different

knockoff Megatrons. And one of them, the one

that he got initially and the one that I have

is actually the first edition, which is the thinner,

cheaper plastic. And then they had one that's

kind of a mid grade, which is more like Hasbro

level. And then they have the premium one, which

is $30 and it's got die cast and it's got all

kinds of upgrades and like extra pieces and stuff.

And I was like, okay, that's, that's cool. That's

worth it. Definitely. So he, He's going that

route. Yeah. There is one McFarlane toy is the

only McFarlane toy I've ever wanted. And it is

that light up. It has to be the light up version

of the Batman beyond Batmobile. It was a Walmart.

Oh yeah. Oh my God. Like that does look cool.

Out of all the damn toys that they have released

in the last. Freaking 27 years since that show

premiered. Like, that would go with the rest

of the Batman Beyond stuff that I have. Oh, my

God. That is the only McFarlane toy. I like all

the other stuff, all the other Batman stuff and

everything else that that company has done. And

I appreciate all the stuff that all the toy companies

do. But, like, oh, if I could get my hands on

that, that would be so cool. But it has to be

the light -up version. Because there were two

versions. There was a non -light -up and a light

-up. And it has to be the light -up version.

Oh, God. But, yeah, no. And like you said, I

understand the man's getting old and whatever

else. I just hate seeing, especially, like, think

of what we talked about last week with Toys R

Us and think about what we're talking about now.

This is a man who owned his own toy company and

is now basically sold it off to the poachers

that got toys or us. And it goes back to the

whole thing of, there are no individual, like

outside of mom and pop or individually owned

toy stores, like that kind of stuff. Like there's

no, there's no name brand toy stores that we

can go to anymore. That isn't, uh, section in

walmart or target or whatever anymore and i know

mostly mcfarlane was online which is fine but

it sold them at uh walmart and uh yeah i understand

target too but mostly walmart yeah i understand

i'm just saying like it just as a brand it just

as a name brand thing even though there were

at least to my knowledge without looking it up

there were like when i hear mcfarland toys i

would like to imagine there was a brick and mortar

at some point i don't think there was but in

my memory there was falsely yeah so back over

to variety speaking of uh things uh Deals and

things. Fox closes $22 billion for the Roku takeover,

says streaming platform will remain open ecosystem.

Surprise! Fox Corp said Friday it has closed

the acquisition of streaming platform Roku, a

deal valued at $22 billion, well ahead of its

expected 2027 date. Roku founder and CEO Anthony

Wood will join the Fox board of directors. He

will serve as a co -chair Fox digital platforms,

a newly formed division that includes Roku to

be Fox one red seat ventures and other digital

products and services across the company alongside.

What the hell time is it? Because I swear I read

that as Paul Cheeseburger. Alongside Paul Cheeseboro,

bro, who assumes the role of co -chair and CEO

of the division. The closing of this acquisition

advances the long -term strategy of Fox. Merdoch,

executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp, said in

a statement on Friday. Fox Corp emphasized its

pledge that it will preserve Roku as a leading

open ecosystem for the broader streaming industry.

That means it's promising that, for example,

it won't kick off competing content providers

or give exclusive positioning to Fox News or

the Fox One streaming package on Roku. which

has customer base of more than a hundred million

households. Now that's good because the other

thing that I've noticed lately with Roku is that

I've seen advertisements on the Roku channel

about Roku saying, bring all your subscriptions,

meaning Netflix, Disney plus Amazon prime video,

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera to Roku. And

you only have to worry about one place to manage

them all. So doesn't surprise me that Fox did

this just because they sold off all of their

entertainment stuff to Disney. True. And they

kept their news and sports. And now they're like,

we'll just own the platform that your crap goes

on. Exactly. So you pay to be on the platform.

Exactly. The Roku deal will dramatically beef

up Fox's streaming. and give the opportunity

to increase scale in the free ad -supported streaming

space through Fox's Tubi and the Roku channel.

With Roku, Fox Overnight is now a much bigger

player in digital video advertising as well as

key distributor of premium subscription streaming,

like I just said. So beginning today, our top

priority for the combined company is to continue.

to relentlessly, oh, Mike Seibert, you bastard.

Relentless, relentless, relentless. That's for

you, Mike. Serve audiences and partners while

reinforcing the openness and choice that is the

essence of the Roku platform, Murdoch said. Our

shared entrepreneurial passion and clear conviction

toward building The future together with our

new Roku colleagues gives us the great confidence

in the opportunities ahead of us. Under Fox Digital

Platforms, Roku will be led by CEO Mustafa Ozengin.

Formerly Roku's president of device products

and technology, according to a memo from Cheeseboro

obtained by Variety, among other exec changes,

Charlie. Collier, president of Roku Media, and

2B CEO Anjali Sud are departing the merged company.

Dun, dun, dun. Hey, look, as long as I can still

watch Cold Case and Numbers on the Roku channel,

I'm good. So let us know what you think of this

episode on the website, thegcrn .com. You can

find this episode posted there and leave us a

comment as always. think that about rounds us

out for this episode of altered geek so until

next time get altered get geeky with the altered

geeks oh yeah classic icons and new sci -fi dreams

with every episode we'll unwrap discussion let's

dive into lore from star trek to transformers

we're ready to soar superheroes clash as we spark

up the flame alter geek podcast remember the

name