Origins in Toy Collecting with Mikel Andrews!

Greetings, humans. This is Starscream, and you're

listening to ToyCast. And if any of you call

me a parts -former, one more time! Cliffjumper,

commence countdown! Five, four, three, two, one!

ToyCast. Oh, yes. Listen in to the only toy podcast

you will ever need. And welcome to an all -new

generation of ToyCast as we get the origins of

any and all toy fans that we can. I'm, of course,

TF2 and Mike. And today's featured guest is a

maniacally motivated writer, podcast host, as

he is one half of the Safeguardian team that

makes up Two Mics, Two Furious. Please help me

welcome, in loving memory, Brian O 'Connor, a

.k .a. Mike by the Slice, a .k .a. Michael Andrews.

Hello, sir. How are you? Hey, thank you. God,

that was quite the intro. I need that in my life.

Yes. Now you have half of your eulogy. I think

that's the whole eulogy. I think we're good.

I think that covered everything I've done in

my whole life. Yes, folks. ToyCast is back after

a couple of years. It was not planned to be off

for two years between the end of 2024 and the

beginning of 2026. Well, it was only off for

a year. I was trying to get a specific set of

guests for episode 195, but that just didn't

work out. And you and I and the other four -hour

Gilligan. I'm going to call him Gilligan because,

you know, he's stuck on his four -hour tours

usually. You know, because between us three mics,

we've got Italian jobs and other things we have

to do this year. That's right. That's right.

That's right, that's right. So, yeah. But, yeah,

folks, ToyCast is back. We're going to be talking

more toys here on ToyCast. This is ToyCast Origins.

And, yeah, starting it off. What is... First

of all, can I scale back a little bit? Can I

do a question zero, if you will? No. I just want

to say, I'm glad you took a hiatus. And we had

talked about doing this a long time ago. Yeah,

hold on. There's context for that. I'm glad we

took the break because we had talked about doing

this a long time ago. And I was just not in the

best toy collecting headspace. Like, my collection

was starting to feel like a burden. I had just

moved into a new house. I wasn't like... emotionally

jazzed about being a toy collector at that time.

Now I've had time to grow back into it. I've

put up new shelves. I've stacked things up. And

just recently, just in the last few months, I've

kind of rediscovered my love of toy collecting.

So I think we waited for the perfect time for

this. There you go. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah,

you know what usually happens when I find that

my collection becomes a burden? I sell everything.

You just burn it to the ground and start again.

Burn it to the ground, baby. Cue Nickelback.

Burn it to the ground. That's very Kylo Ren of

you. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're just like

Kylo Ren, Mike. No, no, no, no, no. Kylo Ren

in Last Jedi, the best Star Wars film. Get out.

Get the fuck out right now. Get out. I stayed.

Hit me. Hit me with these questions. Hit you

upside the head. Pizza. Oh, yeah. It's going

to be pizza. This is supposed to be pizza. Frisbee.

Also good. Zing. I didn't hit him. It was Mike.

That's right. It was me with the thing. Hit you

right in the head with the pizza pan from whatever

year that was in Turtles 3. You know, there is

one little... We're talking franchises here,

bud. All you got to do is keep your delivery

to under 30 minutes. Let's see what we got here.

We got a... Pizza. Got that, dude. Pizza. Frisbee.

Also cool. Frisbee me in the face. I'm out of

here. Where's Mike? Where's the thing? Yes. That's

right. I'll take it. I'll take it. That's right.

Zing. What is or was the first toy you remember

having as a kid? Yeah, so I'll preface this one

by saying I didn't know the names of these at

the time. I had to look them up. It took me a

long time to know. But I vividly remember owning

a Krix Maydean from Return of the Jedi. One of

the vintage Return of the Jedi figures. Skull

Scavenger from Voltron. And I had to Google this

just yesterday. I realized I had never looked

it up in my whole life. But the Skull Scavenger

from Voltron was the other one. And Rio Blast

from Motu. Those were the big three. Those were

like the bathtub toys. Okay, then. Are you familiar

with any of those? Yes, I am. No, I don't have

any of those now. I probably had some of those

then when I was a kid. I think it's really funny

that my one Star Wars toy as a kid was Krix Maydean.

You know, everyone's favorite beloved Return

of the Jedi character, Krix Maydean. What scene

was that character in? I don't even remember

that character, honestly. It was in the same

scene as like Mon Mothma. He was one of the ones

talking to the rebels, getting them prepped for

their upcoming mission on Endor. Okay. Yeah.

All I remember about that scene is many Bothans

died to bring us this information. Yes. Yeah,

exactly. Krix Madeen was not one of those Bothans.

He was there and alive. Well, yeah, no, I'm saying,

but. What I remember about that scene is just

what she says. That's all I remember about that

scene, about them getting ready for that mission.

Yeah. I don't remember any... We watched... When

did we do the... Over on Studio 2009, we've done

12 months of Star Wars for the last five and

a half years that that podcast has been going.

We covered all of the films. Oh, that's so cool.

I didn't know that. I'm going to go check that

out. That's awesome. Dude, geekcastradio .com.

We've got over 4 ,000 podcast episodes. Oh, man.

In 17 years. Yeah. I didn't know you knew the

Star Wars thing, though. Okay, all right. Anyway,

but yeah, it's me and my buddy Dave. Dave is

a huge Star Wars nerd and everything else. He

actually has a revenge of the... Jedi poster

in his house. Whoa. Yeah, he's big Star Wars

fan. That's a big fan. He's older than us, but

being his friend is kind of worth it because

he has all the knowledge. He's kind of like the

Yoda in the room a little bit. Oh, I love it.

Yeah, very cool. He's kind of like the Seabird,

but older, and he doesn't care about talking

for four and a half hours, thank God. You know

I'm going to throw him under the bus every freaking

time. But I will say this. In defense of my co

-host, Mike Cyber, when I went to listen to your

episode of ToyCast, TFG and Mike, yours is about

three hours long. So you came pretty close. It's

so close. It's like three hours, 56 minutes,

and four seconds. I was four minutes shy. I still

count that. If it's three hours, 56 minutes,

it ends in a six. You round up, that's four hours.

It's very Han Solo of you. Technically, it was

four hours. I just edited it down to get it under

four. What you and Mike's hybrid are are a pair

of twins, and you were born four seconds later,

and you call him the old one. Well, he is the

old one. God, how old is he? He's... I'm not

going to dox him here. I'll dox. I don't care.

He's my partner in crime. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All

right. Was there a particular adult who supported

you, who was supporting... God, all right. It's

only question two, folks. Stop, book, bridge.

Yeah. The bridge let me off. Literally, the bridge

just... Oh, God. The bridge just drive right

over. Just zoom all the way. Now I'm getting

the Fast and the Furious moments in my head.

Too Fast, Too Furious. That's right. The bridge

is open. Was there a particular adult who was

supportive of you playing with... toys as a kid,

was there anyone who was unsupportive? Nobody

was wildly unsupportive. I'll say that. My parents

waffled a bit, especially as I got older. They

were a little concerned that I didn't grow out

of toys as fast as they would like. But I don't

know. Before that and even on and on, everyone

was pretty supportive. I would say everyone bought

me toys at one point or another. All the adults

in my life contributed to my... Kind of toy addiction.

My grandma Bonnie, I don't think she was particularly,

like, a toy lover, but she was obsessed with,

like, she was addicted to, like, shopping. And

she would go to KB Toys and, like, buy out their

entire clearance section and come home with,

like, three garbage bags full of toys from all

different toy lines, vehicles, play sets from

stuff that I'd never heard of, and just dump

them out on the floor. And it was just like,

it was very overwhelming, but it also kind of

made me like, like every toy line because I had

probably one of everything from that situation.

And this was just any old day. It wasn't Christmas.

It wasn't your birthday. It was just, yeah, it

wasn't like weekly, but yeah, it happened more

than once. And it happened in not in connection

to a holiday. Wow. Pretty crazy. That was very

crazy. What types of toys were your favorites

to play with? Now, when I say types, like, okay,

we know what action figures are, but like toy

guns, like squirt guns or Lincoln logs or Legos,

or were you more of a, like a bicycle or, you

know, like, okay. But like, not that one. Okay.

But like, maybe not a bicycle, but like a...

What am I trying to think of here? The other

bike. The big wheel. That's what I was trying

to think of. Ah, okay. Yeah, I know. That was

too rich for my blood, too. Okay, fine. But anyway,

I think I get the question, though. But I guess

the only real... way i could qualify it maybe

is like sci -fi stuff i don't know if that's

the type you're looking for are you looking more

for sure that's technical space stuff space stations

uh that sort of thing anything with aliens uh

not as much fantasy i don't know like the like

fantasy like sword and sorcery stuff knights

didn't interest me but like but space stuff really

got me going So you're more Star Wars than He

-Man. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That Rio Blast

was my one and only Motu figure. And I did not

pick it out. The sad thing is, is that I was

the opposite. I didn't dislike Star Wars. I just

never had any of it. I had Transformers. I had,

and again, this isn't my, people can go back

to episode 113 of the podcast and listen to my

story, but I'm just saying that I found Star

Wars a lot later in life than everybody else,

I guess. And I had more He -Man stuff. Whatever.

Anyway. I'm with you there, actually. I didn't

really discover Star Wars until I was 13, I remember.

And I just kind of bit in hard after that. But

no, they weren't in my toy box as a kid, except

for that one random Crix Madeen. Jeez. What were

your favorite childhood toys that really stood

out more than the others? So you take that entire

garbage bag and you see it dumped out all over

the place. Let's just say it's a garbage bag

of all of your favorites or whatever. what stands

out more than anything else? What gravit, what

is gravitating you towards one or the other over

everything? Yeah. Uh, I would say probably, uh,

Ghostbusters, anything Ghostbusters. Uh, I remember

that being, I was very obsessed with that as

a, as a IP, or I guess I didn't know it was called

that at the time, obviously, but, um, but I remember

like as a kid, I had Berenstain Bear books. And

in the margins of those books, I was always drawing

Ghostbusters. All the time. Labeling it Egon.

And I'm pretty sure that I was probably basing

them off my toys more than I was the cartoon

or anything. Because I didn't have access to

that as much. But man, those toys. That's the

thing I remember. Everything else was just like,

here's a big bag of stuff. I don't remember being

like, oh, this is that. I now, I now know that

there was army ants in there. I now know that

there was a barnyard commandos in there. Um,

I remember vividly getting that like one of the

GI Joe, uh, snow vehicles in that, in one of

those KB toy bags. Um, but they were all just

like, Oh neat. But like Ghostbusters, I knew

what that was. Yeah. You Ghostbusters guy at

all? A little bit, a little bit. Not so much

of the toys. Uh, if I, if i actually had like

if i sought out some of the funko pops i would

but i haven't i don't know i i'm more into the

like the movies are fine the first two movies

are fine to clarify sure i haven't i haven't

seen some of the other like i I saw the movie

that happened 10 years ago, and then I was like,

okay, well, that's Ghostbusters. Okay. I saw

Afterlife, and I was like, okay, they're trying,

and I have not seen Frozen Empire as of yet.

Yeah, there's mixed reviews on that from people.

I like it. It is what it is. It is what it is.

I just know we're never going, because obviously

several people are no longer with us. which is

fine. Right. You know, it is what it is. I still

have, that's the thing. Like I try to look at

the two things I try. One, I try to look at things

at the time that they're made. And two, just

because something new has been made, doesn't

mean unless the rights holders or unless something

happens where it's gone, but it doesn't mean

that what came before it has. You haven't taken

that away. That still happened. You haven't erased

that from history unless it's been erased from

history by the rights holders saying, oh, sorry,

we're never going to have this anywhere ever

again. You're never going to have a DVD of this.

You're never going to have this. I mean, we still

get re -releases of stuff on 4K, Blu -ray, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah. Physical media matters.

Physical media rules. The streaming services

stuff, you know, you have all this stuff hopping

from one for years. We've had it hopping from

one streaming platform to another streaming platform

to another streaming platform. As of this recording,

all of the James Bond movies are about to hop

to Netflix coming January 15th. Hopefully I'll

have this podcast out by January 15th. But the

point is, is that, you know, it all. as long

as everything that came before or whatever the

new thing is, is still there. If the new thing,

isn't your thing, you can still go back and rewatch

the old, like what's the, if only in your mind,

even too, I mean, it doesn't change how you felt

about it and doesn't feel change what it meant

to you. Yup. Even if they, you know, destroy

every copy of the streaming show. Yeah, exactly.

I have some, Before we move on, I have a couple

honorable mentions for this question. Sure, sure.

I have to bring up. Ninja Turtles was huge. Like

that was my other Ghostbusters and Ninja Turtles,

probably neck and neck there for a while. But

I wanted to mention this one because this is

probably the first toy line that wasn't kind

of foisted upon me by consumerism. It wasn't,

you know, it wasn't my parents going out and

being like, this is the cool thing and bringing

it home. And then that's how I kind of fell in

love with Ghostbusters and Ninja Turtles. The

first thing I saw on TV that I remember actively

like begging my parents for was Power Rangers

stuff. I couldn't find them in toys at all, but

I would see the commercials and I would beg for

Power Rangers stuff. That was my first real,

like, I chose it want. I don't know where the

picture is. But I have a picture of 15 -year

-old me in my mom's apartment in Florida. Because

that's what all New Englanders do when they get

old and they want to, you know, whatever, they

go to Florida. Yeah. Well, it's true. It is what

it is. Yeah. But we were down in Florida. It

was 1995. The movie just came out and I saw the

movie and the first day there are like multiple

times in my lifetime that I've done this. I see

a thing in a movie. I immediately have to go

out and get the thing. Yeah. And the two biggest.

instances of this that i remember in my lifetime

when i was 15 the other i was what the hell year

was that 2003 i was 23 i'll tell that story in

a minute uh but i was 15 as soon as i saw the

ninja falcon zord oh close up its wings and do

the shot the money shot of Mighty Morphin Power

Rangers, where the entire budget went. Because

my buddy Jesse and I just did a commentary at

the end of last year for the 30th anniversary

of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the movie, the

commentary. We were talking about the budget

and whatever else, and we both agreed. 90 % of

the budget for the production went into that

money shot for that Falcon coming at the screen

with the rockets and the ding and the wings.

Oh, my God. As soon as I saw that when I was

15 in 1995, I'm like, I have to go find that

toy right now. I don't care if it's Toys R Us.

I don't care if it's KB. I don't care if it's

a hole in the wall at the end of the jetty. on

daytona beach i need that mother toy yes so yeah

and we we go out and we find it whatever my mom

went out and found it whatever and there's a

i don't know it's floating around here somewhere

and all these photos that i have that i haven't

scanned into my computer yet i haven't found

it anywhere yet but there's a photo of me with

like like Anyone see me online now, you know

that I either have a full wolf man out of control

beard or luckily right now it's shaved down and

actually in control. I have half a peach fuzz,

more sideburns than actual facial hair in this

photo. And I'm just looking at this toy. So I

have the toy in my hand, its face looking at

my face. And I'm just like, yes. And the other

time at this moment happened where I had to go

out and get something. And I know this is supposed

to be your story. No, no, I love this. I just

can't help tell this story. Look, I promise,

folks, this is not going to turn into a Mike

Seibert four -hour podcast. I promise. Lies.

Right. It was February 14th, 2003. You know what

happened on February 14th, 2003, Mike? The end

of the world? No! Valentine's Day. Bummer. Yeah,

but you know what they released on February 14th,

2003? No, what? Daredevil! I do know this. Daredevil.

Hell yeah. I was there. I was at it. So was I.

The problem was I almost didn't go because the

next day, my cousin Rachel and her fiance Joe

were getting married. Now, my cousin Rachel is

three years younger than me. She is the cousin

who I was most close to throughout our childhoods.

And I'm like, it is your night before your wedding.

I am not going to ruin the night before your

wedding by going to see a superhero. Like, no,

you should be with your fiance. I'm like, she

practically beat me over the head and said, no,

we're going to this damn movie. You're going

to go with us. End of story. Love it. When a

Massachusetts woman, whether she's your cousin

or not, says shit like that, you just shut up

and listen. So we go to the movie. We go and

we have whatever dinner. Because at the time

it was at Kingston Independence Mall. It was

at their movie theater. That's where we went.

So we went to the food court. We did the whole

mall crawl food court movie theater thing. And

we go to the movie. And in the movie, now, mind

you, this is 2003. It had been a full two years

since Nickelback had released Silver Side Up.

With the hit, How You Remind Me. So I had just

been waiting two full years, not counting Hero

from Spider -Man in 2002. Not counting that,

but a full two years since an actual Nickelback

album. So I'm watching the movie. I'm watching

the movie. Kasada gets off and he goes to the

bar and we get the bar scene. yes and my ears

perk up and i'm like wait a minute no because

it's a it's a distorted music it's a distorted

distorted and i'm like right no uh -huh through

the fan yep i'm like no no and i listen i was

yes yeah it's nickelback learn the hard way and

i'm like what the is this and why is it in this

damn movie and yes i did bleep fuck but i don't

give a fuck that i bleeped it because i'm used

to doing it sometimes and throughout the whole

movie i i mean i i kept it i filed it away i

kept it in the back of my mind and luckily it

was a 7 p .m showing most of the mall stores

didn't close till nine the movie got out at something

like i had like something like 15 minutes before

the mall was going to close movie gets out i'm

like i'll be right back i gotta go to record

town I literally, I it's 2003. I'm 23 years old.

I'm probably 300 pounds right now at 45 years

old. I'm 458 pounds. Anyway, it doesn't matter.

I move as fast as I could. And it's probably

the fastest I had moved in four years. I'm booking

it to record town. Like you guys got the daredevil

album, the new soundtrack for the movie that

you just played in the theater down the street

there. Yeah, we got it. Okay, here's my money.

Basically, fat fry, shut up and take my money.

Like, give me that. The writers of Futurama were

there behind you going, that could be something.

Yeah, that could be something. Yeah, exactly.

Even though Futurama came out earlier, I'm pretty

sure. Yeah, I think so. But yeah, those are the

two instances where I was like, yeah. Just from

a movie standpoint, I need that. Exactly. So

I get it. I completely understand it. And to

tie it back to the Falcon Zord, that toy did

not disappoint. Oh no! They had to make sure

that was fully accurate to what you saw on the

screen. Because if they didn't... we were going

to riot. The children of 1990 were going to riot

if that was not toy accurate to the film. Metallic

in the right spots, the gold. Gorgeous. Absolutely.

And honestly, out of those Zords, the Falcon

Zord, the Wolf Zord, and the Frog Zord were the

only ones that mattered to me. The other two,

the bear and the ape, I did not care. The only

thing the bear was good for was when she said,

oh, you want to boogie with the bear and kicked

him in the nuts. I love the bear. I love yellow,

though. That's my jam. What about the crane?

You're missing the crane. Oh, the crane. Crane

George, main Jordan. To quote Ivan. Yeah. Oh,

boy. All right. Back to business here. Are we

on question two? No, we're on five at this point.

Do you prefer the label of action figures, dolls,

toys, or other labels? You know, I... In my younger

days, I probably would have gone to bat over

action figures. But now that just sounds kind

of pretentious to me. I'm fine with toys. I say

toys. I wear toys proudly. There was that weird

time where toys had more of a sexual connotation.

You had to kind of watch yourself when you said

toys. But now I think we took it back. I think

we've reclaimed toys, so we can say it. I will

say, though, don't call any of my stuff that

I own dolls. Dolls are their own thing. I won't

go to bed for dolls. I don't own any dolls. When

someone calls my action figure, they can call

it a toy all they want. But if they call it a

doll, get the fuck out of my house. I mean, if

it's 12 inches and it's cloth, it's a doll. Yeah,

well, I don't know. I feel like if there's a

bottle sticking out of its mouth or its eyes

shut when you lay it down, that's a doll. Yeah,

that's what I'm saying. Right. But my giant Michelangelo

from the live -action 2014 movie, that's not

a doll. That's not a doll. No. Good guys or bad

guys, which toys were your favorites to play

with the most? Good guys. Always good guys. Still

good guys. Uh, can't, can't beat it. I obviously

had some bad guys. I think everyone does, but

I don't remember a time in my life of like choosing

to own a bad guy. Um, actively, actively did

not. Really? Yeah. I do understand the irony

of like, how do you play properly if you don't

have a bad guy? Right. Yeah. Never, never sought

them out, but I'm glad my, you know, Family did.

They just grabbed whatever was on the shelf.

Luckily, that probably spurred my imagination.

If it were just me choosing, it'd just be like,

all good guys, and then they sit here and talk

about their day. They have no one to fight. It's

a utopia. Now, the only way it wouldn't be a

utopia is if somehow a certain good guy's personality

chip would fall out, and then he would become

an annoying little prick. And then he would technically

be a bad guy, Gears. Yeah. Right, right. It's

like life would find a way. It's like chaos,

period. Like an enemy would be created. Yes,

exactly. I don't know. For me, it's more like

you need to have the... I don't see Blaster fighting

anybody else. Like, you know, like, there are

certain good guys that have specific, like, the

whole honor thing. Like, the whole, like, Ultra

Magnus is Mr. Honorable, must follow all rules

or else. Like, he's a stick in the mud. Yeah.

Because he is. But I'm saying, like, G1 Ultra

Magnus specifically. I'm specifically talking

about Generation 1 Ultra Magnus. Same thing with

Cyclonus. Cyclonus is another one of those types

where he's not a stick in the mud, but he's a

type of bad guy that he has honor among him where

he will follow the rules no matter what. So you

have those two go up against each other. That

kind of thing. Two tape decks and their armies

going against each other just makes sense. I

mean, come on. Right. Yeah, you can't beat that.

No. Can't beat that. They're breakdance fighting.

That's right. That was the first breakdance fight.

That's right. Breakdance fighting. That's right.

Okay, so this... Oh, no, wait. What is or was

your favorite toy vehicle or playset? So this

is another one I had to look up. I had this amazing

space station play set. It turns out it was the

1984 Playworld Little Playmates space station

set. I want you and everyone out there to Google

this when you have a chance and take a look at

it. It was the space station itself, plus five

vehicles, plus aliens and astronauts. It had

the most badass looking UFO. with this huge gun

on it. That I remember. That stuck out to me.

Like I said, my grandma would bring home stuff,

and usually that stuff was not a character. It

was their vehicle or something. So I had lots

of these random playset pieces all over, but

that's the one I remember. I was just so happy

playing Space House with that. Very cool, very

cool. Question eight's a little strange. And

trust me, folks, there will be a question nine.

I've never seen that show at all. I have no interest,

but that shit is all over social media. I had

to make that joke. Did you and your friends ever,

quote unquote, pretend with your toys that you

had? By this, I mean, did you say, I'm going

to be this toy and you can be that toy? this

might can be the piece of glass and Mike cyber

can be the Coke bottle top, et cetera, et cetera.

You know, I've heard you ask this question a

few times now on other shows, and I feel like

there's some sort of like projecting going on

or, or some repressed memory you're trying to

get out, but maybe we don't have to cover that

today. No, but it feels like there's something,

it feels like your most loaded question in this,

in this lineup. Okay. Okay. Perfect example.

I have them right here. You're not going to be

able to see it cause I'm not turning on the camera,

but like, like, okay. So say you came up, oops,

way to fall down. Batman. Say you came over to

my house and I said, okay, I'm going to be Batman

beyond and you can be blight. So we're going

to be fighting each other kind of thing. And

I, as Batman Beyond, have to now defeat you as

Blight, but we are holding the figures kind of

thing. But I am going to take on the characteristics

of being Batman Beyond. I still say there's something

there. There's some dark story you're trying

to get out. But I get the question. And to answer

it, I would say I was always... Because of my

name, I would always get to be Michelangelo for

Ninja Turtle purposes. And I had a lot of...

I still, to this day, I have an entire shelf

of just Michelangelo. That was kind of my thing.

But on the flip side, that worked for me, but

when... Then later, when Power Rangers came out,

my friend Jason was named Jason. That didn't

work out in my favor. Obviously, when those first

few episodes come out, everybody wanted to be

Jason. But he got to be it because of the name.

But it was like a double standard. But I didn't

get that. I was just like, what the hell? How

do you get to be Jason? Just horrible, horrible

human at that age, I guess I was. I also. you

know i was an only child i was always doing weird

stuff um i don't know if this adds up to this

question but i did act out like an entire made

-up season of beast wars with my beast wars action

figures like uh they had like characters and

personas in this role and it was like a multi

-day storyline that that was like building to

so this is probably like I don't know. I was

probably like right into the age where I was

starting to get into like writing and storytelling

and maybe should be kind of moving away from

the action figures. But it was right kind of

like middle of the Venn diagram moment. And I

ended up like making this huge story. I just

remember very vividly. That was just me by myself.

I didn't have any friends helping me. I was just

like acting it out on my own. All the characters.

Yeah. very cool very cool yeah i'm also an only

mike so oh no oh god yeah but then i just have

in my head only mikes oh yeah that would not

be a good let's start a podcast people can start

an only mikes account om send me your om oh my

god Oh, my gosh. No. If this wasn't the ToyCast

Origins of Michael Anders, I would call this

episode Only Mike's. Oh, my God. That's just

not even. Oh, God. The next episode, the three

of us do. Oh, God. Only Mike's. No. Why? Next

question, next question. What features define

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

in comparison to the source material likeness?

You know, when I heard this question, I was all

set to say character likeness and articulation,

kind of a flat answer. But really, my favorite

toy lines, one of my favorite toy lines was...

um, power of the force, you know, the star Wars

figures that were a little more buff. Yep. Uh,

I like those and those were just, you know, five

points of articulation. Um, but I look at those

like in my collection, the ones I still have

and the ones I've re re bought. Uh, and those

make me like 1000 times more happy than any of

like my black series figures that are like so

hyper accurate to the character. Uh, I just think

maybe those, So I don't know. I guess I don't

know. I don't know how to articulate, I think,

what I like in the toy line. It's not hyper accuracy

stylized, I guess maybe is the word. Interesting.

Like I don't I actually I'm one of the few that

like don't care for screen accuracy. Like I want

it to be like a little off from what you see

on there. And I think that's what I loved about.

You know, the Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters

toy lines is there were so many toys that were

like they never appeared in the cartoon. It was

just imaginative, imaginative toy designers just

coming up with crazy ideas. Yeah. And I just

see you just accepted it. Yeah. What does toy

packaging have to have to draw you in? So you

go into whatever. Let's just imagine a world

in 2026 when there actually are real toy stores

that aren't Walmart and Target. You go into a

toy store, you go into whatever section you want,

Masters, Ghostbusters, whatever it is, and you

see all the things. What's the thing that the

packaging has to have to make you pick this one

over that one? Oh, bright colors. Like bright

neon colors. I heard Aaron Archer say this once

in one of his podcasts. He was talking about

how like yellow toys and the color yellow has

been known to sell more toys. And that's the

whole reasoning behind Bumblebee and Hotshot.

And that's most appealing to kids. And that was

100 % me. Yellow Ranger, Michelangelo, bright

yellow. Or neon green stuff, as I got a little

older. Like, anything neon green. You know, I

think, what's that, what's that toy line, like,

the G .I. Joe offshoot that's really, like, hyper

-colored? Pixel Dan collects it, but not a lot

of other people do. Oh, God. Ninja Force? Yeah.

Is it Ninja Force? I don't know what it is, but

I know it's, yeah. It's like the bastard child

of G .I. Joe, but he and I are in the same boat.

Like, I'm just, that's the G .I. Joe I really

like. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. I know because

we don't live in a world where there are actual

toy stores anymore, folks. I mean, there are

some mom and pop shops. Don't you dare say this,

but there is no more Toys R Us. And when I say,

don't you dare say, oh, it's in Macy's. No, I

don't get Macy's bullshit. Shut up. It's in Macy's.

There are no standalone Toys R Us stores anymore.

There's no KB. There are no standalone toy stores

anymore. It's Walmart. It's Target. It's online.

And hey, that's the world we live in, and that's

fine. But I think if there were standalone toy

stores now, I think for me, the thing that would

get me to... notice things that i would want

more and i know a lot of people would be like

oh no that's too garish blacklight blacklight

everything you need a blacklight section So you

know how when they go down the toy aisles in

Toy Story 2 when they're in Al's Toy Barn and

there's the Barbie aisle and there's this aisle.

An entire aisle that's like tinted off from the

other aisles that is nothing but black because

you have to have the black lights in there. So

you have the black lights in there that is...

Compare that to... Oh God. Gone in 60 seconds.

Black light? Black light. You want to hide a

whole bunch of information? You need a black

light. You remember the 70s? too young thank

god oh god i love that fucking movie anyway oh

yeah what is like i have a whole bunch of blacklight

funko pops i have a whole fun just oh god blacklight

man i love there was a point and i might still

do this when they released the this is so silly

when hawkeye first came out on disney plus Funko

released a purple -haired... It was all Blacklight

colors, but her hair was purple. Dude. I think

you're about to name my one and only Blacklight

Funko Pop that I own. Kate Bishop. Kate Bishop

with Lucky the Pizza Dog. Yes. Okay. Now imagine

a wall of 30 of those. Okay. Yeah. With giant

black lights around them. Amazing. Lighting them

up. I had an idea to do that in my apartment

when that show debuted, when that pop was released.

I never did it. I think I have currently three

black light, Kate Bishop, Lucky the Pizza Dog

Funko Pops in my collection. That's as close

as I got. Well, I think you should still do that

idea. I think you should get other characters.

I think that would make that wall more impressive.

But I like where your head's at. Maybe you're

not more impressive, but maybe more socially

acceptable if you have company. You never know.

Oh, boy. Where are they? Well, while you figure

it out, to tie it back to... Toy packaging? Yeah,

the toy packaging part of it. So, like... Here's

an example of toy packaging that really appeals

to me in a modern sense. I know the Toxitron

one. I won't call it G2 packaging, even though

those technically were the G2 re -releases. But

you know the Transformers Legacy Toxitron and

all its buddies? The Orange Jazz. That toy packaging.

That sort of Nickelodeon slime splatter. Oranges

and greens. That was where my heart was at when

I saw those. When they released... Is it the...

Before the current Toxitron release, what was

the... Was it BotCon? What was the original Toxitron

release? Oh, yeah. I think it... Right. It was

like a BotCon. Was the BotCon animated? Because

it was Optimus Prime, wasn't it? I don't think

it was animated, but yeah, I think... Because

animated Drew there is based on Toxitron already

existing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't remember

off the top of my head. I have pictures of it

somewhere. We'll have to find it after the show.

But I remember there being... Oh, man. When they

put out... Look. You give me a purple Optimus

Prime and a black and purple Rodimus shattered

glass? Uh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Hello. Duh. It's...

Oh, man. All right. Age -old question. Do you

open your toys or do you leave them packaged?

If you keep toys packaged, how do you have...

Do you have any specific criteria for that? Man,

if you would have asked me this question, like,

ten, maybe even five years ago, I would have

been like, Only idiots keep their toys in packaging.

Toys are meant to be opened. What's wrong with

you people? But I don't know. Recently it's been

getting harder and harder. To keep them in the

packaging. I don't know. I don't know if it's

just like. Getting older and wiser. And thinking

about resale value. And all these other sad depressing

things. But I just. It gets tough. But I still

think. To answer the question. I still think

in my core. 50 -50 coin, I have to choose, open

them. Open your toys. This is why I absolutely

love Funko. We're not jumping down to question

21 or 22 or wherever the Funko question is, but

this specific question is why I love Funko. Because

regular toys, what does a regular Ghostbusters

toy have? In package. It has. Whatever the box

is. Whatever the cardboard is. Whatever the plastic.

Insert is. And then all of the toys. Have twist

ties. All of them. Every fucking toy. Has twist

ties. Funko only has. The outer. Paper. whatever

cardboard, it's cardboard, not paper, cardboard

box and a plastic insert. I have never had any

issues taking out or getting Funko Pops back

into their boxes and they look fine unless you

accident, unless there's something, unless you

don't see a piece of tape that's on the box from

a recent, like if I go onto whatnot and I buy

a, Funko pop from somebody and they tape up the

box for support or something. And I missed the

tape and I ripped the box. That's on me. Hello.

That's my issue. But generally I can open them,

take them out, put them back in. Literally. I

have, I took a, I've done a whole Batman beyond

photo shoot. Cause the other day it was the 27th

anniversary of Batman beyond. I literally am

looking at blight and damage, a battle damage

chair, a Batman beyond right now. Out of box.

But I can put them back in their boxes and they're

fine. They don't lose their value. They're fine.

They're still there. The boxes are still whatever.

Normal toys? I don't know. Those twist ties are

really, really hard. The most careful toy opener.

You can't get it back. You can't. put Humpty

Dumpty back together. But Funko Pop, yeah, I'll

agree. I know we're not fast -forwarding to the

Funko questions yet, but I also have been bitten

by the whatnot bug. And Funko Pop's off there.

And that's where one of this big problem, this

is where my philosophy is coming from right now,

is that I still have all the boxes that they

came in, even though I've opened most of them.

I'm just like... They might help me display them

later. I don't know what to do. It's the first

time where it's like, this is aesthetically is

better. Yeah. It's tough. It's tough. Yeah. Inbox,

inbox display out of box display. It, it does

not matter. They display well, no matter what.

And, and just, you can stack them, right? Absolutely.

They there's so many times where I'm like, well,

I can't I can fit four toys here because they

they have to stand on flat ground and they can't

stand on each other's heads. And that's the end

of it. Bunko stacks. Yep. And this is not a promotion,

folks, even though I am friends with one of the

people that works there. But if you go to seven

bucks a pop dot com and check out their pop armors,

they are the best hard stacks in the game. You

can actually stack them very evenly. They have

magnetic lids. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's the entire,

all 12, every Batman Beyond Funko Pop that Funko

has released. I'm sending Mike this picture in

Discord, folks. You can't see it in the audio.

But that's every single Batman Beyond Pop that

Funko has released. My collection is complete

for Batman Beyond, and those are all in line.

They are just, I mean, that's a great inbox display.

Yeah. You know, it's amazing. It just, it looks

so freaking cool kind of thing. At the same time,

I can still, you know, do something. Okay. There's

that photo. I can do something like this with

them out of box. And no, folks, I'm not editing

this part out of the show because this is how

we roll around here. That's right. That's a top

down shot. Oh, yeah. You know, so that's what's

great about Funko and their boxes. If as a kid

or adult, you only were allowed to choose one

toy franchise to collect from. Which would you

choose and why? Ooh. So I've been thinking about

this. I'm going to answer as both a kid and an

adult. Okay. As a kid, I think if you would have

asked me this and I was a kid, my gut answer

would have been Ninja Turtles. But then... Later,

when Extreme Ghostbusters came out, I would have

wished I would have said Ghostbusters. So I would

have retroactively said Ghostbusters, because

when Extreme Ghostbusters came out, I was a little

bit older, obviously, but wow, it just rekindled

my love of toy collecting. So I feel like that

would have made me extra... happy if if i would

have been extra sad let's say if i didn't if

i didn't say ghostbusters um i don't know extreme

ghostbusters made me so happy uh that's one of

my happiest toy collecting times ever so nostalgic

for it and because like even though i was older

my parents were trying to like get -me -off toys.

They also had nostalgia for Ghostbusters, so

they were more eager to buy me them for my birthday,

for example. That was a really special time for

me. And also, strangely, Batman Forever era Batman

toys. I have a weird small window there where

Batman Forever Batman toys were my jam. I have...

I don't know what it is. There's something...

Is it in my Amazon wish list where... It's in

one of these things on here. I forget. Is it

an Amazon or Walmart? Hopefully it's an Amazon.

Hopefully Amazon will let me scroll. I think

it was a Jada Toys thing. There was something.

Funko Pop, Dino Thunder, Tommy. I need to get

that eventually. It makes me think of all the

stuff I need to buy that's on my wish list that

I can't afford. Anyway, there was a... Do you

have any of the JadaToy nanometal fig things?

I think I do. I can't remember which ones. I

think I've got a couple. Yeah, you know what

I'm talking about, right? As long as you know

what I'm talking about, that's all that matters.

But they came out with Where Are You? Why Can't

I Find You? Anyway... I was looking for... That's

the Knight Rider car. I'm almost there. That's

the Voltron DVD set. Smallville's coming to Netflix

soon. I don't know where it is. It's in here

somewhere. It was in here somewhere. You have

a giant fin attached to the back of your car.

Wow. I reached the end of the list and I didn't

find it. Holy crap. Anyway, but they have a Batman

Forever Jada Nano Metal Fig action vehicle thing.

Love the Jada Nano Metal Fig stuff. Yeah. And

that's a cool Batmobile. Oh, God. My cousin,

actually, for Cousin's Christmas, one of the

things we do is build Legos, and my cousin did

the Lego Batman Forever Batmobile this year.

Oh, nice. And it looked good. Damn good. That's

so cool. That's so cool. Yeah, the... Yeah, Batman

Forever, man. People hate me for this opinion.

They just do. But I know what the correct opinion

is, and that's fine. And I generally will go

with that for the most part. Which one will it

be, Batman? Bruce's love or the Dark Knight's

junior partner? There is no way for me to save

them or myself. This is all one giant death trap.

Judges. I'm sorry. Your answer must be in the

form of a question. Thank you for playing. I

love the first Batmobile. We'll always love the

first Batmobile from 89. And I love that movie.

I remember in 1990 sitting in JCPenney watching

that on the TVs after it came out in theaters

in 89. But, and as much as I love that movie,

when Forever came out, I was all about Forever.

Again, this is, I was 1995. I was 15 years old.

It was the year of just awakening everything

kind of thing. And that poster. Oh my God, that

poster. You want to talk about an awakening,

folks? You know what poster I'm talking about.

Dr. Chase Meridian. Oh, my God. Oh, my. Yeah.

I'm right with you. I'm right with you. But the

poster, the song, the movie, just everything

about Batman Forever. So for me personally, it

goes Batman Forever, Batman from 89. batman and

robin and then batman returns because i think

batman returns is out of the four of them for

me personally it was the i was 12 when that came

out and i actually saw it in theaters when it

came out it didn't scare me but it kind of bored

me at the time like the scariest the scariest

part of that movie was the beginning With the

birth of the penguin kind of thing. Yeah. Well,

you know, she screams, he screams, they die.

You know, kind of thing like that. That's a horror

movie. Yeah. Batman Returns is a horror movie.

It is not a Christmas movie. I'm glad I didn't

say it, but I was going to say it is for me.

I'll give you Christmas movie power right now.

All right. As an adult, do you prefer vintage

toys or modern toys? Oh, well, okay. First of

all, this reminds me I wanted to... My adult

answer to the last question was... Oh, oops.

Sorry. No, no, no. That's fine. I forgot to.

Transformers, obviously now. yeah i'm glad that

would be my one thing as an adult i would say

because because not maybe my wallet wouldn't

want me to collect transformers but like my life

is transformers like i've met I've met you. I've

met so many people because of my Transformers

line. If something happened to the Sacred Timeline

to stop me from collecting Transformers, that

would be the most devastating thing in my life.

So some days the collection of mine is kind of

a burden. But overall, the podcast, the whole

last three years with Mike Seibert and I, Mike's

Too Furious, wouldn't exist without my Transformers

collecting. So it has to be that one as an adult.

Looking back. Absolutely. All right. And now,

uh, prefer vintage or modern toys. Um, I will,

I will echo Jason from cracktastic plastic, uh,

about transformers on this. Uh, I don't, I don't

know. I think there's a lot of people now that

it's very popular to complain about modern transformers,

but for me, they're just getting so good. Yeah.

I'm, I'm so much more attached to modern transformers

than like the G one toys. You know, I'm the Bayverse.

I'm the Baypologist. Like, I like the Bayverse

movies. I like the toys from the Bayverse movies.

I like Studio Series. Podcast over. You're fired.

That's my litmus test with friends now. I just

drop that out there and see who walks away. The

Friendship Grenade. Do you like Bayverse Transformers?

You're fired. Yeah. Okay. So if you're going

to elaborate on this, I'd love to hear it. Nobody

wants to see the robots insides on the outside.

Like I get it. That's how they had to do it for

the movies. And I understand toy accuracy, film

accuracy. The only one of that entire line of

the all five, six, seven, eight, whatever many

fell. The only one that I ever had because the

only one that I ever thought was cool enough

to have. And the only reason why I thought he

was cool enough to have is because he had a purple

eye was Ravage. Yeah. Revenge of the Fallen Ravage.

I had him. He was the only one that I ever wanted

out of. Any of those toys. I never liked the

look of those toys. That Optimus Prime. You can

keep your face. Fair. No. Just no don't and stop.

I will say this. I will say this. To get us off

this topic. You know. The Bayverse movies. People

are still talking about them designs for better

or worse. They're talking about the Bayverse

movie designs. And I personally think that was

what we needed to see on the big screen. The

last couple of movies that came out, Bumblebee

is a good movie. Rise of the Beast is a good

movie. But no one's talking about those designs

anymore. They made them like how people, the

fans demanded, toy accurate, made them look like

the 80s versions, closest to G1 we'll ever get

on screen. And people just kind of forgot about

them. And those movies did lackluster. Oh, I

agree. I mean, you know, I like Bumblebee. I

enjoyed Rise of the Beasts for what it was, but

I think Bumblebee was the better movie out of

the two of them. Yeah. Yeah, a lot more heart

and soul in that one. Yeah, absolutely. But before

we move on from this question, I also want to

say, though, there were some great vintage toys.

And I guess one of the things that I miss about

vintage toys, because really, I mean, the the

word vintage so like every year since we're old

guys now like there's going to be a lot more

vintage toys that fall under that vintage category

um but you can't compete with like the old old

paint apps from like 90s early 2000s when they

were just putting all sorts of you know bells

and whistles on action figures and they weren't

worried about the pricing of it now it's like

Transformers come out and they're like, we can

afford three colors to keep it at this price

point. And they're looking more and more like

shampoo bottles than they are action figures.

You can't compete with some of those super detailed

and there's, you know, every little button is

like dotted red. Yeah. It's hard to beat that.

God, and it's funny you say that now because

now that I'm thinking about it, vintage toys.

Where's the cutoff now between vintage and modern?

Because my thought always was vintage stops at

1999, December 31st, 1999. Modern starts at January

1st, 2000 forward. And now that I think about

it, 2000 to 2010 is almost more vintage. It almost

leans back. Like, I don't know. If you think

of vintage as 20 years old, and I think a lot

of people do, we're talking 2005 toys are in

that boat. The year was 2005. Yes. It all comes

full circle. That's right. It is the year 2005.

The treacherous Decepticons have conquered the

Autobots' home planet of Cybertron. But from

secret staging grounds on two of Cybertron's

moons, the valiant Autobots prepare to retake

their homeland. What is one toy you always gravitate

to more than the rest? Yeah, this is an interesting

question. You know, if you're talking by volume,

I'm an Ultra Magnus collector. It's the only

Transformers character that I have a whole shelf

of. Why is that? Ultra Magnus. I don't know.

Something about that character. Ultra Magnus

was my Chase Meridian. It's something just inside

me. What a way to. Wow. Okay. All right. Ultra

Magnus is going to stick his leg out for you.

Great. When they ripped his limbs off and put

them back together, ooh. You're all alive. Some

of us want to see robots' insides. Ew. Too far.

Ew. No, but anyway, to clear this up. Just the

colors or something. I don't know. I know he's

sort of like an inverse Optimus Prime, but Optimus

Prime's color scheme always just came off so

Captain America Boy Scout to me. The Ultra Magnus

version of the coloring was just like this cool

kind of frozen look. I just like that. And Ultra

Mammoth is kind of like that... The Collectors

Club Ultra... Magnus as a mammoth, ultra mammoth.

He's like this big frozen blue and white mammoth

based on the Beast Wars Neo toy. That one just

kind of cemented like, that's what I like about

it. Like someone had the same thought as me as

like, this kind of looks like this big frozen

soldier. I don't know why, but that's why I gravitate

towards that. I think it has something to do

with looking like, like a frozen guy. Hmm. Interesting.

Weird, right? But I have to ask, though, was

this question about what's your favorite single

toy? Yeah, so the difference between this one

and the one earlier is that out of your entire

collection, what's the one toy you gravitate

to the most? Like what's the one toy you're always

going to have on your desk kind of thing. Then

that, uh, that would probably be, this is kind

of a weird one. Cause it's kind of a newer toy.

The concept, the concept Braun from the studio

series from the Bumblebee movie. Oh, cool. Concept

Braun. Whenever I see that and it's always, I

always put it on my desk. I always take it off

my shelf and put it on my desk. Whenever I see

it, it just makes me happy. Like, I don't know.

I don't know why he's just this cute, chunky

little, uh, snowman of a guy. Whenever I see

them, it's like I go, okay, I'm a Transformers

collector. Whenever I'm feeling down about Transformers

collecting, it's like I look at that toy and

I'm just like, no, that's why I'm in it. Stuff

like this. Yeah, very cool, very cool. So even

though there are always toy lines that people

never purchase, are there any that you specifically

and purposefully avoid? This can be a toy line,

specific character, etc., etc. Yeah. We kind

of hinted at it earlier, but like Motu He -Man,

I've always been like, don't touch that. Don't

go down that road. That's not for me. But now

as an avid listener and subscriber of Cracktastic

Plastic, you know, that's Elgin's MO. And Pixel

Dan, obviously, big fan of it, wrote the book.

Watching those guys more over this last year.

I'm just like, damn it. And am I going to start

collecting Motu? I mean, come on. And I dipped

a toe in because they had that Transformers crossover.

So actually, I'm looking at it right now. I do

own the Megatron armor Skeletor. And I got to

say, cool toy. No, no. No, are you just trying?

Do you not like it or are you trying to keep

yourself from buying it? No, I am not trying

to keep myself from buying it. I don't like it.

It's new. It's just, no. What about the Starscream

armor Scare Glow? Have you seen that? Yes, I've

seen that. I've never liked Scare Glow, so putting

Starscream armor on him is not going to help.

i like glow -in -the -dark toys though i gotta

tell you i like i like glow -in -the -dark toys

but i've just never gotten the appeal of scareglow

for map for moto i just have never isn't that

like the all -time most popular one too like

that's the one like everyone needs to complete

their collection yeah supposedly i don't know

i've never i i don't know because i don't remember

like because for me with motu it's all tied to

the animation and i don't remember him be like

i think i i don't know i don't want to say the

wrong thing here heaven forbid all of the Not

that I think I'm going to get an email from Pixel

Dan. You said the wrong thing in your podcast.

Oh, my God, Pixel Dan, listen to my podcast?

Holy crap. That's great press. If you can get

in there, maybe you should talk away. I mean,

the great press was I had him on a couple of

times a number of years ago. So, I mean, it's

not like it's not that big of a thing, but, you

know. Well, I just bought some of his Star Wars

figures on whatnot. So that's my Pixel Dan claim

to fame. There you go. uh i to throw back to

this question though i also for a while it was

very much i'm not touching there was like a like

the like the rubber band around my finger telling

me not to buy star wars black series and marvel

legends i was like those aren't for me not gonna

happen ever uh but then i bit into that so oh

no you have a couple shelves of of those characters

i have a shelf of Marvel Legends, and I have

a shelf of Black Series Star Wars. Not big shelves,

but yeah, I fell for it. See, this is why I stick

with one company that has almost all of the lines

of whatever, all the characters. I can pick and

choose my characters, and I know which lines

I don't want. Are you talking about Funko Pop

by chance? It's not a Funko Pop podcast, folks.

It's always a Funko Pop podcast around here.

Are there any toys in the past or currently that

you wish you had not bought them? Are there any

toys that you may have sold that you regret letting

them go? Yeah, I won't focus on the regrets as

much because I don't like that sort of nihilism.

But I will say recently the Legacy, Transformers

Legacy crankcase was a big one. It was clunky.

It didn't tab in places. It has some features

I don't love. That's one thing that I kind of

look at when I look over and I sort of sigh.

It's kind of the opposite of the concept brawn.

I look at that and I go, ugh, I shouldn't do

this anymore. And then I have to look over at

the angel on my shoulder concept brawn and go,

oh, all right, I'm still in it. But that one

and also the buzzworthy bumblebee version of

Pterosaur from Beast Wars. Just a piece of garbage.

I don't know if they used a different plastic

or something, but boy, that's fiddly junk. Regret

getting rid of is a bigger deal. I got rid of...

This was my most TFG1 mic. I got rid of my Power

Rangers collection all in one swoop. Sold it

all off. And I had a... At a garage sale, and

I had a stacked Power Rangers collection. It

was very pristine, barely played with. Lots of

Megazords complete. And I sold the whole lot

of my... Power Rangers collection with a bunch

of my other toy lines, TMNT, all this other stuff.

Cause I thought I was out of the toy game. I

thought I was done. Yeah. And I just moved and

I needed the cash. I sold it all probably for

about a hundred bucks. Oh no. Yeah. And I, I

mean, now you can't even buy a single Megazord

for less than a hundred on eBay. Exactly. And

I had quite a few. And I think the thing that

got me, and I don't know, tell me if you've heard

this or if you've heard this from other toy collectors.

Because I think I still can't figure out if I

got scammed or not. But before our garage sale,

me and my dad, before it even opened for the

day, this lady showed up the night before. And

she's like, my brother works at a, you know,

like a boys and girls club. And we just want

to get a bunch of toys in bulk so that we can

share with the kids and gave me this whole sob

story. And that's when I ended up being and she

was like, how about I'll do 100 or I think she

maybe went up to like 150. And I was like, oh,

all right. And I ended up selling them. You know,

it was a bummer. I ended up selling them before

the garage sale even started. And I just keep

thinking back on the day. Did I help a bunch

of kids or did I get taken to the cleaners? I

mean, the only way you could really find out

is go down to the Boys and Girls Club and check

in with that lady and see if she actually works

there. Yeah. I think she mentioned it was out

of state or something. Oh, shit. Is that the

nail in the coffin there? Yeah, damn. No, you

needed to get way more information. Yeah. Because

what I would have done is I would have. Okay.

So you had a whole garage sale. What else were

you like? I'm assuming you're selling a whole

bunch of other stuff besides your toys. Yes.

Okay. So what I would have done. The toys are

the big thing. I mean, that was my big. Okay.

But no, no. I know that was your big ticket item,

but I'm saying. You set up the garage sale to

sell a bunch of other things as well, right?

Yes. Okay. So instead of selling the toys at

the garage sale, I would have signed up for whatnot.

I would have applied to be a seller. I would

have gone on and done live auctions. Yeah. If

you did a live auction, you don't have to be

on camera if you don't want to be. You pointed

at the toy. You say, hey, if you have a spinner

or whatever, you show off the toy. You take pictures.

You set a price. Some people usually start bids

at $5. Some people start at $0. You can set a

reserve price of what you actually want the toy

to reach up to. Sometimes it reaches that reserve.

Sometimes it doesn't. I don't know what the fees

are or anything, but I'm saying that's what you

should have done because each toy could have

gotten you. a number of amount of price of money

more than $150 for the whole damn shebang. Well,

and I'll, I'll layer on some tragedy here. Oh

no, this is, this is 2015. They're obviously

what? Uh, But like a year later, probably a year

later, I discovered that Minnesota has this group

called the Minnesota Toy Posse. And it's like

this big community of like toy sellers. And that's

when I really started learning the value of stuff.

If I just would have waited one year, I would

have had a whole group. And every month they

have like a toy swap. I could have sold them.

I thought this was like recent, dude. And then

I'll go one step further. In 2020, pandemic hit.

I needed something to get me through the pandemic,

and I latched on to Power Rangers. I got back

into it big time, and it hit me in the night.

It was like Angel getting his soul in Buffy.

I was like, what have I done? I let them all

go. I wish I had every one of them back in my

collection. That hurts. Oh, God, dude. Hurts.

Now, see, the way I would have described that

is smile time. That's how I would have described

that when Angel is beating the shit out of Spike

Puppet. Yeah. That's a great episode. Absolutely

it is. Hey, big guy. Need another car. Afraid

this last one ended up in the drink. Spike, look

at you. Just turn around and walk away. You're

a... Spike! You're a bloody puppet! You're a

wee little puppet, man. Ow! Hey, that's enough.

Angel, what the hell happened to you? You look

ridiculous. Get out of here, Spike. Oh, my God,

Angel, you're a... Shut up! What are you people

looking at? Well? They're looking at the wee

little puppet man. Yes, I'm a puppet. Doesn't

mean you don't have work to do. Oh, man. Before

we get off that question, because I haven't talked

about Transformers animated enough, and that's

my bread and butter. But if you listen to that

show, almost every episode, I bring up Resky

Ratchet. That was the yellow version of animated

Ratchet that was exclusive to Target. That's

my big regret. I'll probably never own that again.

I miss it every day. I got rid of it just purely

for a cash thing. I was in a moving situation

and I needed to free up some space and get some

money at the same time. I will regret that forever.

Famously, Mike Seibert and I, he found an unopened

one. an unopened rescue ratchet, and it comes

packaged with two activators. And Mike Seibert's

a big activators collector, and I just wanted

this rescue ratchet, and it was $40. We could

have split it $20, put in $20 each, and got what

we wanted out of the thing. And we just didn't.

We just couldn't come to that conclusion, and

we just let it go, and someone grabbed it, and

we've never seen that again. OK, you're you're

selling me this story like the thing is like

four thousand dollars. You're never going to

get it. And I'm sitting there thinking 40 bucks.

Come on, guys. Well, no, that was a steal. That

was like the right. Like someone didn't know

what they had kind of priced it just right in

the box. But we were just like it didn't it didn't.

We're such bad collectors. We didn't think about

splitting the pack. We were just like. It was

more like, who's going to get the doll situation?

The king wasn't there to say, you can split it

in half. Okay. For some odd reason, I don't know

who is who, but in this situation, I am Moe,

and I'm knocking your heads together, Larry and

Curly. Yes. We need that. Morons. Yeah. Oh, my

God. How large or small is your toy collection?

Do your toys take up the whole house, or are

they relegated to one room shelf or something

like that? Yeah, I think most people would think

it's a huge collection, specifically my Transformers,

but really compared to other Transformers collectors,

it's probably small. I haven't counted, but I

guess I estimate I have around 300 Transformers.

So I think... normal people that have zero transformers

would be like oh my god this is the biggest collection

of anything ever but it's not probably not that

big compared to other transformers collectors

and and transformers stay to my office they're

not there are toys all over the house but uh

i keep the collection proper to my office and

uh the basement in my house which my partner

doesn't really care for so i can kind of go wild

down there I do keep, here's a weird one, I do

keep BotBots around the house. Like, I keep,

like, food ones, I keep them in the fridge, and

I'll keep, like, appliance ones in cupboards

by their bigger versions, just as, like, a little

Easter egg, I guess. Oh my god. I miss BotBots.

Bring them back. Oh god. That show was crazy.

Great show. Oh. Good show. The show was crazy.

How do you keep track of your collection? In

my mind. That's not good. No, I know. I've been

meaning to get at least a spreadsheet going.

At least for my Transformers. I just haven't

got around to it yet. What do you do out of curiosity?

I have a list. Like pen and paper? Or do you

use a spreadsheet? I use Microsoft Word because

I hate spreadsheets. All right. So it's essentially

pen and paper. I haven't updated the list in

a while. I probably should do that. I mean, if

you're going to keep the list, you got to keep

it up to date, right? Yep. Probably should do

that. How do you display your toys? Do you do

it like all the Transformers are in one section?

Does the, do the heroes go to one side, the villains

go to the other side or they all mixed in? What's

your, what's your display preference? Yeah. Well,

first of all, my, my aesthetic is, is kind of

white bookshelf or Kalex. Like I feel like I've

narrowed on that is like the best highlight of

the toy collection, at least for transformers.

But yeah, I kind of, I don't, I won't say like,

I'm not a completionist, you know, so I don't,

I don't have enough to necessarily fill a whole

shelf of this is one show or this is one episode.

But I do kind of for the movies. I have the different

movies on different shelves. I have a Transformers

Armada shelf. I have a Prime and an animated

shelf. But everything else, everything that's

not connected to a show, like legacy generation

stuff, they're just kind of all over. I like

to put... I have, there's a couple of shelves

that it's like, these are the ones I got for

my birthday in, you know, 2019. And this is,

these are the ones I got for my birthday, or

these are the ones I picked up at TF con in 2014.

Like that's kind of a weird aesthetic I have

going. Very cool. Very cool. I have to rework

all of mine, but my general, this is the strangest

thing. And I tell this story every episode. So

most Funko Pops are characters. Some are actual

people. They did an American history line at

one point. So they did George Washington, Abe

Lincoln, yada, yada, yada. So they've done real

people before. Right. So when I say this, I mean

at any point when the character was, quote, unquote,

born or created. Oh. So how I try to do my Funko

Pops is whatever the earliest year is. So technically

Abe right now would probably be the earliest.

And then the most recent would probably be something

like... Well, the most, most reason I can think

of would probably be like, what if from 2021,

that line would be the most recent of those characters.

So I try to do it by year. Cause I, cause everybody

like what you're saying now, what you just said,

transformers by the line transformers by this

or by that, like everybody does that. And I'm

like, I don't want to just put all my Funko Pops

and just have the Transformers on one shelf.

I want to do it as they're all Funko Pops, but

let's just do it by the year that whatever the

thing was. Sesame Street started airing in 1969,

so Ernie goes over right next to... Whatever

was in 1968 or 1965 or whatever kind of thing.

I like it. It's almost like you have your own

secret code in your head for how to organize

it. If someone had to come in and do it like

you, they couldn't duplicate it. Oh, God. And

yet there's still organization to it. There's

organization to it. You know what I just realized?

You know what it really is? And I thought of

this before any of the podcast shit happened.

It's number legislation. Fuck, it's number legislation.

God damn it. You assholes. Now you've said it.

You assholes. So you say you'd legislate your

Funko Pops by number. Is that correct? No, I

do not. It's not legislation. It's just a, it's

number order instead of alphabetical order. Oh

God. If I had to try to put them in alphabetical

order, that would be, that would be cringe. Cause

do I put them in alphabetical order by what if,

or do I put them in alphabetical order by character

name? Yikes. Let's not go there. No, that number

order much easier. Yeah. I have to say this though.

Cause you, something you said kind of unlocked

it. When you were talking about the. historical

figure pops. One of my Holy Grail Funko Pops

is Lafayette from Hamilton. I want that. That's

what I have my sights set on. Very cool. Very

cool. I was worried you were judging that pick

really hard. No, I have no judgment on Hamilton

thing. I just don't care. Sure. I'll take that.

I mean, people liked it. It's like, same thing

with Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, whatever

else. You like it, you like it, fine. For me,

I don't care. Hey. Again, I tell the story of...

At least you're not persecuting people for liking

it. Oh, no. You know, you like what you like.

I like what I like. That's fine. You know, we

like two different things. It's fine. Like, you

know, whatever. Like, for me, it was like...

I make choices. So, when I was a kid, I was shown...

And I like both of these things. I like one better

than the other, but... When I was a kid, I was

shown Transformers and G .I. Joe. Giant robots

or the military? Okay. Military is all right.

It's a nice cartoon. It's cool. You're fighting

a guy dressed in blue with a metal mask and whatever.

Cool. Fine. He's got a voice that sounds like

this. Yeah. And then you have giant robots from

a planet that nobody knows about. Blah, blah,

blah. Because it's four million years before

Earth civilization and their planet. Well, it

doesn't blow up. It's not Krypton for crap's

sake. But they have to leave their planet because

it's basically dead, sort of. It's not blown

up, but it's dead because it has no more resources.

They crash land on Earth and they have to interact

with humans. So humans and robots. That's much

more interesting. I'll take Transformers over,

G .I. Joe, any day. Yes, please. So you fast

forward to December of 2000. I end up moving

to Biloxi, Mississippi. And every new town that

I ever moved to, and I still do this to this

day sometimes, but back then more so, every new

town I ever moved to, the first thing I ever

did was go to whatever the local bookstore was

and say, hey, I'm new in town. I'd like to buy

some new books. Do you have any recommendations

for me? Awesome. I'll never forget this. A slightly

older lady named Angie was there as the bookseller.

She goes, I'll give you two options. I'll give

you a magical world with this boy wizard or a

former lingerie buyer turned bounty hunter. Now,

at 20 years old in the year 2000, can you guess

which one I chose? I was just going to say, I

didn't know. And for those that want the answer

to the riddles, the boy wizard with the magic

and the whatever, obviously, is Harry Potter.

The former lingerie buyer turned bounty hunter

is Janet Ivanovich's long -running series, Stephanie

Plum. Yeah. I went the Stephanie Plum route and

I have never, I've never read any of the books.

I've never, I've seen clips and trailers of the

movies, but I've never watched any of the film.

I don't have an interest. It's not my thing.

It's like, you know, Star Wars or Lord of the

Rings or whatever. Lord of the Rings, whole other

thing. 14 years old. My dad, he's been a mechanic

all his life. He's worked on buses all his life.

And when he's working on these buses, and these

are coaches. I mean, he does work on school buses,

but he mostly works on motor coaches. What do

most motor coaches do? Like, you know, greyhounds

and things like that. They're usually taking,

no offense, the elderly, the old people. They're

taking them to, like, Gatlinburg, Tennessee to

gamble. Or they're taking them to Las Vegas.

They're taking them here, there, and everywhere.

So these people will sometimes drop stuff or

leave stuff on the bus or whatever. 1994, I'm

14 years old. He brings me home a copy of The

Fellowship of the Ring. Okay. And I was an avid

reader by that time. Let's see, by 14, I was

in the middle of my Hardy Boys phase still. I

was out of my Berenstain Bears phase, thank God.

Not thank God, but I had moved past that. I had

already had too much TV, and I had already cleaned

up the messy room. Look, man, I didn't draw in

the margins of the books, but, you know, I had

a Berenstain Bears as an only child. I got my

lessons from Mama and Papa. Yeah, yeah. Beat

the crap out of brother and sister was just too

annoying. Just push her in the mud. I think you

need a few more books hearing that. Maybe you

should have got a couple more. No, I had them

all. I don't remember. Too much TV and The Messy

Room are the two that I remember the most because

those are the TV specials that I watched the

most. But I remember reading those books as well.

So I moved all past that. So he brings home The

Fellowship of the Ring. So I'm reading this book.

And it's like the first chapter. It must be either

the first, second, maybe the fifth or sixth or

eighth page. Notice I skipped a number because

I ain't doing that shit here. It's 2026. We need

to leave that other stuff back in 2025. Fair.

Yeah. Thank you. And we get to the line. It was

Bilbo's eleventy first birthday. My 14 -year

-old brain could not get past it was his eleventy

-first birthday. My 14 -year -old brain is fairly

smart for the most part. It couldn't really do

a lot of math, but it had a good comprehension

of reading. I was at a pretty good reading level

at that point in time. But eleventy -first, like,

that really, like... like math broke into reading

and writing and arithmetic. Don't get, keep your

arithmetic out of my reading. 11 D first. What

the fuck is 11 D first? He's 111 years old. 111

years. Just say he's 111. Like. Now, folks at

home, I just want to remind you, this is not

numbering legislation, which Mike hates. We are

not doing numbering legislation. Yes, we are.

It's all your fault. You're there, baby. You're

there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So his 11th birthday

turned me off of Lord of the Rings. And again,

I don't dislike the Lord of the Rings. I have

nothing. in my don't care pile. I just don't,

I avoid it. I don't care if you like it, if the

next person likes it, if the whole fucking world

likes it and I don't, that's great. I have a

bunch of other things over here to the left or

to the right or to the center or to the up or

the down or the upside down that I can like that

I don't need to pay attention to Lord of the

Rings. Yep, that's true. Something for everybody.

Where the hell were we? We're on the 11th minute

of question 19. Oh, God. Any other ways you display

your toys before we go to question 20? Nope.

Nope. Got it covered. If you could only keep

one toy from your entire collection, what would

it be and why? So basically, the house is on

fire and you have to save one toy. Yeah, I know

exactly which one I would grab. Transformers

Armada Hotshot. And I'll tell you why. It was

a Christmas gift for my mom. In fact, it was

the last one she ever gave me before she passed

away. It's a beautiful figure for one, but it

also kind of cemented Hotshot as my favorite

character, probably tied to, you know... My parents

weren't working. I've told this story on other

shows. My parents weren't working going through

chemotherapy with my mom. I didn't even know

that they knew I was into Transformers still

and into Transformers Armada specifically. I

was hot and heavy into it. And all of a sudden,

at Christmas time, under the tree, wrapped up

a Transformers Armada hotshot. Uh, it's one I

didn't have. I don't know how she knew it was

one of the ones I hadn't been buying for myself,

but, but there it is. And I, for years that like,

as I can, you know, kind of got rid of my collection

and got it back, ebbed and flowed. I held onto

that one. I still have it. Um, I took it with

on every road trip. I used to live far up North

Minnesota and had to drive down to the cities

often. Um, I'd bring those with on road trips.

Um, it was like my good luck charm. Definitely.

Definitely. That's the one I grabbed. Very cool.

Very cool. Very awesome. All right, folks, before

we go to the first ad break of the podcast, because

that's how I split these up, because question

20 is the halfway point, because 42 questions

is a lot. I want to quickly go back to the packaging

question, because I forgot to say part of that

story is the other reason why Funko Pops are

so easy is because animated Blitzwing is a bitch.

All right. Roll the commercial. What is that?

I will choose this fighter jet. No, the assault

tank. Shit. Tank. Shit. Tank. Shit. Tank. Why

not scan both? I wanted animated Blitzwing. And

animated Blitzwing and his twist ties literally

nearly ripped my entire thumbnail off. I could

not get him out of the packaging. It was nuts.

We'll be back right after these messages. You'll

be hearing some ads from Mike's Cybert Radio

program, Two Mics, Two Furious, and other podcast

ads right after this. Thank you very much and

I'll miss you guys. We are Two Mikes, Two Furious,

a podcast where we watch every episode of Transformers

Animated and discuss from two different points

of view. I'm Mike Seibert, and I've never watched

Transformers Animated before. And guiding me

on this journey is author Michael Andrews. Hello.

Yes. Long time Transformers Animated fan. Serial

rewatcher. Seen it plenty of times. So if you've

never watched Transformers Animated, but always

wanted a reason to, now's your chance. Likewise.

If you've binged the series several times, it's

a great reason to watch through again with us.

Because regardless, if you're a seasoned vet

or a newbie, there's something for every fan.

Because I ask questions. Why is Prowl such a

dick? So that he can be not a dick later, I think

is the answer. Subscribe to 2 Mike's 2 Furious

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an episode. Are we coming off furious enough?

I feel like we're not living up to the... Are

we supposed to be like... More angry, more fired

up. We're really in a good mood. We really enjoy

talking to each other. What's up, folks? My name

is Mike, and I am the host of the Mike Seibert

Radio podcast, your favorite Transformers -adjacent

podcast. And I've got 60 seconds to tell you

all about my show. Good thing I've got a catchy

theme song to do most of the work for me. Mike

Seibert Radio. We talk about stuff and things.

I also talk about the Transformers the movie

about as much as I talk about Boba Fett. My guests

are independent artists who tell their stories

and give terrific advice about pursuing your

creative interests. And I encourage you to do

the same thing, even if I can't take my own advice.

Gravity is not my first best strength, but you

can subscribe to Mike Seibert Radio on most podcast

apps so you never miss an episode. Make good

choices. Well, that's just prime. Welcome to

my throne room, future tales. The Beast Unleashed

podcast is over, not gone. You can hear more

of this great podcast. Discussing all the episodes

of Beast Wars and Beast Machines on geekcastradio

.com. We include voice actor and writer interviews

with stellar hosting by Steve, Mike, and Michael.

Head on over to iTunes or the net or else I will

send you my vehicles to extract your spark and

destroy you. Yes. What was that universal greeting

again? Never mind, I remember. Bah -weep -grana

-weep. Hey guys, it's Rodimus Primal and be sure

to check out my YouTube channel. Join me as I

have Transformers discussions, retrospectives,

toy reviews, and more. You can also follow me

on Twitter at Rodimus Primal as well as Facebook

and Instagram at Rodimus Primal Show. Transform

and roll out and be sure to check out my content

till all are one. Last big party of the summer,

folks. Let's go out with a bang. Wait. I have

a riddle for you. For me. Really? Tell me. I

see without seeing. To me, darkness is as clear

as daylight. What am I? Please! You're as blind

as a bat! Exactly. On the Simplistic Reviews

podcast, we talk movies. We talk TV. We talk...

Hello, Julie, what the heck are you doing? Trying

to make our spot sound more exciting by adding

explosions. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could have

got the point across with sound effects, not

the real thing. I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't. All right, folks. We are back here on

ToyCast episode 195 with Mr. Mike by the Slice,

Michael Andrews. And we are going to get through

the next set of questions right now. Here's the

Toy Box Challenge. You get one 18x18x18 box.

The only toys you can keep have to fit in the

box. What can you pack into it? So the main three,

Hunt for the Decepticons, Bonsaitron, Animated

Bulkhead, and 2000 Movie Ratchet. Because when

I sold off the bulk of my Transformers collection,

I kept those three. And those were like... the

foundation of my current collection. And they

were kind of like the, I put those out and then

I rebuild a little bit, but I always kept those

three. I feel like, uh, those are the really

foundational figures. I also just to take up

room in the box, I guess I'd also grab my two,

uh, I have two versions of Republic Commando

Scorch from Star Wars. Um, Dash Rendar and Chewbacca,

my vintage Shadows of the Empire figures. I'd

probably grab at least one Michelangelo from

my Michelangelo shelf. I think probably the storage

shell version. Do you remember those, the storage

shelves? Yes, yes. I need the I like my Mikey

one. Oh, and I'd also grab the vintage Astro

Megazord from Power Rangers in Space. I don't

have the new Ascension one from Lightning Collection,

but the Astro Megazord. The Transformer of Power

Rangers. Yeah. Definitely grab that. I know this

doesn't make any sense because of how they're

made, but I kind of wish there was a version

of the disguise and the storage shell turtles

meshed together. Because I always love the disguise

turtles. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I can see it. I always

love those things. Yeah. Yeah. In my head, I

think maybe like Donatello in his trench coat

as a storage shelf figure like that. That seems

to check a box for me. I don't know why. Yeah,

absolutely. All right. Question 22. Oh, boy.

Here we go. Here we go. I don't think people

know that. Everybody's going to turn off the

podcast right now. I know it. I know it. I know

it. Are you a Funko fan? Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. I

was I was a mild fan over the years and just

over the last couple months. I've my collections

exploded partially because of the discovery of

whatnot, but partially to tie it back to Ghostbusters

earlier. Yeah, I found I was I can't remember

where I was when I was at a store and I found

the the real Ghostbusters Egon. As a Funko Pop.

And I just went. I have to have it. Oh my god

it's beautiful. And I grabbed it off the shelf.

And then I don't know what happened man. I just

kept buying them after that. So there was. They're

over there on my shelf. But the. So. I'm assuming

you know this. But Funko Pops have. Usually they

have regular figures. And then they'll have chase

figures. Like everything has chase figures. I

don't know. I was actually going to ask you.

I don't know what chase means in the sense. How

can I do this? Let me see here. Okay, let's see.

Sorry, folks. We're live testing this thing here.

All right. All right. Hello. Normal. Wait, that's

the wrong one, but he's over there in his box.

This isn't the one that actually is this, but

this would be a normal Batman Beyond figure.

Okay. But this is the convention version. This

is not the one that goes with this. So they came

out with Batman Beyond, and then they came out

with his chase version, which is... Without the

mask. So it's Terry without the mask. So the

other version of this is him holding a Batarang.

So it's kind of the same mold, but it's him with

the mask. Is there usually that much difference

between the original and the chase? Oh, God.

They're right by each other. Wow. I should have

known that. Okay. Here we go. I'll hold him by

his ear. This is the original. This is the main

version that you get. Yes. This is the regular

version. Okay. So there's nothing different on

the back. I don't think the wings, I don't think

are different. Yes. Fall over. That's what you

do. No, the wings are not. So those are the wings

on the back. That's not different to me. But

on this one, he's not holding the Batarang. So

his hands are just out, but his mask is off.

But this is the chase to this figure. And that's

a big difference. Yeah. Because the mask is off.

That's the point, is that the mask is off. But

let's say, like, is there that much difference

between, like, the Big Bird Funko Pop and the

Big Bird Chase Funko Pop? I'd have to look that

one up. I don't. It usually chases the differences

sometimes. They could be maskless. Normally,

sometimes the chases, like I can tell you what

this is. I guess maybe what I'm trying to get

at is they're a different mold. There's something

different about them. It's not just like the

number's different or the packaging's different.

Yeah, no. So the thing is, where's the box? Where's

the box? Where's the box? Oh, crap. Where's the

box? Little boxes are all over there. No, the

numbers are the same. I'm pretty sure. Oh, interesting.

I think. But if you look at Blight here, Blight

is supposed to glow in the dark. So normally

a chase might glow in the dark. But he's not

a chase. He's a regular released figure. But

sometimes you would get a chase that is glow

in the dark kind of thing. Got it. I don't know.

I have a glowing Moon Knight, Mr. Knight, coming

to my house shortly. It glows in the dark. That

might be a chase. Might be. I don't know. Okay.

All right. Good tangent. Thank you. Since I still

have the camera on, I will show you the only

Ghostbusters Funko Pop I needed. Had to have.

And the only reason why I had to have it is because

of this and because of this. Oh, I think I know

which one it's going to be. Yes. Boy, that is

a tough one to get on. What not? I'll tell you

that right now. Really? Well, people fight tooth

and nail to get that one. Really? Yes. Uh, glad

I have him then. And, and I've like last week

I bought pretty much the entire Ghostbusters

afterlife run because no one was bidding on them

in like a 200 person channel. But that is that

the mini puffs come up and people are chomping

at them. It's crazy. So the point of me asking

about the chase is because I was going to tell

you a whatnot story. One night I was on whatnot

and this is turtles related. Love it. They, a

buddy of mine at the time was doing an auction

where he had, they were, they did comic versions

of, they did the comic versions of the turtles

at the time. Oh, sure. They, the, the regular,

the regular, releases of them were the the the

whatever colors they were in the comic like you

know what i'm talking about right yeah oh yeah

yeah yeah okay so that's what the regular releases

were but the chases were all black and white

yeah oh i'll i'll take a picture and send it

to you okay so if you've already seen them you

know what they are okay yeah they're yeah they're

gorgeous so I won three of them at a decent price

in this auction. And he had one left. Everybody

bid me up. Oh, my. Because they knew I wanted

that because I had to complete the set. Yeah.

I had to complete that. I could not complete

the set. Like, if you're in an auction on whatnot

and you get one of the set. Oh, my God. Great.

Awesome. You get two. that's nice you get three

oh my god i got one and look whatnot to me i

love whatnot i'm not not disparaging them when

i say this but whatnot is gambling yeah look

the same thing with ebay their auction websites

it's just it's just like if you were on storage

wars yup yup Just like if you were Dave on storage.

Look, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm saying

it needs to be done responsibly. That's what

I'm saying. Yes, it does. I got the first three.

I think the first one I got for like 20 or 30

bucks. Second one was maybe 15, 16, depending

on who was bidding. And I could be wrong. But

that fourth one, I think I paid close to like

$75 because everybody bid me. But dude, I was

so close. What am I going to do? Not. And this

was years ago when I did this. This was like

2018, 2019 when I did this. So this is like years

and years and years ago now. So this is no consequence,

but it was like. At that time, it was like, oh,

my God. Maybe it was 2021 or 2022. I don't know

how long ago it was. Maybe it was last week.

No, it wasn't last week. I know it wasn't last

week. I've had those for a year. I'll have to

look and see when I first posted those pictures

of those. But the point is, though, going on

whatnot is very. I have friends that do auctions

on Whatnot. I would love to be able to go onto

Whatnot, like their auctions, and just leave.

But I know if I go onto Whatnot and they have

an item that I want and I know I don't have the

money for it, I know I can't go onto Whatnot

and support them because I know I'm going to

want to stay and wait for that item that I want

and then bid on it. You know what I mean? I have

to avoid it at all costs. I'm going to tie together

everything we've talked about so far with this

whatnot story I'm about to tell you. I did this

horrible, wonderful thing for my family for Christmas,

which is I decided for my Christmas present to

my cousins at Cousins Christmas, I was going

to give them all my referral code. For whatnot.

And in that way, I would be buying them all a

Funko Pop because they would get a free $10 credit.

And it worked out great. And then I got the referral

credit back. So it was a win -win for me. Big

win. But they bit in hard. And he ended up buying

a lot of Funko Pops over Christmas weekend. It

pretty much stole the whole show. We sat around

for a long time. We were all watching the same

auction, bidding against each other, through

dinner, through things where we would normally

be having loving Christmas time. We were just

like, get it, get it, get it. Damn. But it was

so fun, though. It was really fun. It was like

a sporting event. We were all watching the same

feed. and bidding on stuff and, and finding out

what we liked, what animes we liked, stuff we

hadn't heard of that, you know, other cousins

liked, like it was fun. And then I ended up walking

away with 60 bucks referral credit. So I felt

pretty good about that. Hey, there you go. That's

awesome. But yeah, I don't know. I, some of them

are still using it and my partner is still using

it actively. And I don't know, that's going to

come back to bite me. I feel like if I have the

money and I know that, and I don't, I don't go

on to whatnot and into random auctions. I've

been on there long enough to where I go on to

the sellers that I follow the sellers that I

trust. And I know what they're like and how they,

how their systems are kind of thing. So, so yeah,

absolutely. We'll have to become friends on there

so I can stop your activity. There is no activity.

There's no activity to stop. Funco, what's so

easy about it, as I showed you on the camera,

it's just the... Oh, here, I'll do it again.

What's so easy about it, as long as you don't

do your thing, Mr. Matrix Bearer, it's just the

character. Yeah. I don't have to transform this

damn thing. Yeah. And I'll also say this. The

detail and the paint job on them is better than

most Transformer toys. Yeah. Currently. Like,

they can go all in on that. Yeah, absolutely.

But for me, it's just the character. Voice activated

or head activated or touch activated. Lights

and Sounds Optimus Prime sits here on my desk

along with the best droid ever. Hey, there you

go. Oh, you're supposed to show me BB -8 when

you say best droid ever. That's what you have

the camera on for. Hey, I want to ask while we're

still on this question, do you remember your

first Funko Pop? What it was? Yeah. She's over

there, I think. It was... Oops. What the hell?

Oh, that's the wrong thing. That would be 66

Batgirl. That would be Yvonne Craig's 66 Batgirl.

It was her and it was Darkwing Duck. The original

Darkwing Duck. That's awesome. I think my first

was Michelangelo from Ninja Turtles. But for

years I only had four of them that I would take

with me everywhere. It was Michelangelo, Morpheus

from The Matrix, Drift, actually, from Age of

Extinction. And Gogo Tamago from Big Hero 6.

Those early movie pops are woof. Yikes. They're

a little rough. But at the time, that was what

was great about Uncle Pop and still is. Sometimes

that was the only representation of that character

you might have. It might not be a movie that

gets a toy line. Absolutely. I've shown you my

camera several times. I'm not turning it back

on. You can't see it because my other chair is

blocking it. Maybe you saw the giant shredder,

the super shredder over there that was there.

Here, I'll turn it on again. I don't know if

you'll be able to see it, and I don't know if

I can enlarge it, but over right over there.

He's over there somewhere in the background.

See him? I don't know if I can enlarge this.

There we go. He's over here. Oh, yep. Now I see

him. Behind the chair, I have the entire art

series. They used to do artist series, Funko

Pops. Yeah. They would do all these weird designs

on the Turtles figures. I have all of those.

Oh, cool. I am like... Like they have the, on

the funco .com right now, they have the translucent

turtles. So they have all four of them translucent.

I want to get those. Cause I'm also a turtles

guy. Like those look so good. Transformers turtles.

Like literally my, my history goes from, I was

three years old when he man came out. But by

the time I found it, it was like, 85, 86, 87.

I was 5, 6, or 7 years old. He -Man, Transformers,

Mask, Silverhawks, Gem. Ah, yeah. You know, all

that stuff. But when 87 hit, it was like, ooh!

Turtles. Turtles, yes. Tonight I died on turtle

soup. You know, and all the... Like, no, seriously.

Like, where is it? Where'd it go? Oh, it's over

here. You should be able to... Where? Oh, no,

it's blocked. See? You can't see it. Nope, I

don't think I can. There it is, right where my

finger is. Oh, yeah, Turtle Van. Yes. You know

what that Turtle Van is? That Turtle Van is the

Complete Series DVD set Turtle Van. Oh, man,

I want that. That is the dumbest... DUMBEST TURTLE

VAN EVER! So this turtle van is the dumbest turtle

van in turtles history. But first, the whirling

nunchuckus. Love it. Have you got him yet? No.

You have to get him. That's so cool. Yes, you

have to get him. And the reason why I said where

is that stand is because he comes with a stand

on his right foot is where you put him. So that

way he can stand up. Oh, is this supposed to

go? Hey, now. So he can actually stand. He comes

with a stand. So that way when you set him down,

he will stand up. And you don't have to worry

about him falling over like every other Funko

Pop in history. Okay, so this turtle van is DVD

turtle van. It's, you know, well, the back does

say Heroes and a Half Shell. But it is the stupidest

way to store DVDs ever. How they got away with

this, I will have no clue. So it has padding

on the top. And this is how that whatever many

discs came. That's the discs came just like this.

And that's it. No covers, no protectors, no nothing.

They're just raw dogging in there. They're raw

dogging in the turtle. Yeah. So when I, when

I got that, like. The van itself is great because

it's a great display piece. Yeah, it looks good.

But as a thing to store the DVDs, the first thing

I did, and for those who are listening to this

podcast, I'm sorry for all the visual things

that you can't see. I'll take pictures, but yeah.

the greatest thing about this is that I actually

have a turtle van still now and I can use it

to display with other turtles, figures and things

like that's great. But the first thing I did

when I got the, I immediately took these out

and put them in a old style DVD flip floppy case

that you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. First thing I did, I'm like, you

gotta be. me. This is ridiculous. That's hilarious.

Why the hell? But yeah, they were raw dogging

it, right? Oh man, that's rough. Yeah, it was

very rough. It was crazy. That's cool. That's

cool. You got it. I missed my chance. I feel

like that was a one done for me. That's a cool.

I bought that in 2021 off of eBay for like a

hundred and something dollars. I bought it that

way, way after the fact. Okay. Yeah. I mean,

I don't know what the price of it is now, but.

The Ghostbusters one's worse. The Ghostbuster

Firehouse DVD set. I'll never own that. Oh, God.

That's crazy. Yep. That's crazy. All right. What

was the most money you spent on a toy? Yeah,

I was thinking about this. I think, I think.

Actually, I know. It was Ultra Mammoth, the one

we were talking about earlier. I think I got

it for $200 or $250. Mike Seibert found it at

Cybefest for me, texted me about it. It's once

in a million you come across that for sale. And

he had one that had never been transformed, never

been opened. And I think he offered $200 and

the seller took it. So that's not bad as far

as other Transformer toys collectors go, but

that's really high for me. But I did. I was like,

this is my one shot. I got one shot at this.

Wow. That's awesome. Yeah. It's so cool that

Mike found it. The fact that Mike found it and

kept an eye out for it, I was like, this is a

good souvenir. Well, that's what mics are for,

man. We look out for each other. Right. Only

mics. Oh, God. Only mics. It's going to be the

legacy of 2026 now. Only mics. Only mics. Only

mics. Only mics in the building. Oh, God. There's

no way we could turn this into micro things.

No way. No way. No way. No way. What was the

cheapest toy you bought, or what was the best

deal you ever got for a figure that may have

been worth quite a bit more than you paid? I

mean, I'm a pretty thrifty guy when it comes

to Transformers, but I think probably the one

I can point to is Armada Unicron. I got it for

$40 just a couple years ago in the box, unopened.

I think they had 50 on it and Alfred 40, which

is insane. And they took it. Cool. That was a

heck of a deal. Awesome. And so I'm now an owner

of Armada Unicron. Yay. What about HasLab Unicron?

No, I never will. I think it's cool. That price

tag on that was insanity. Yep. What modern and

or vintage toy lines are you currently collecting?

Yeah, I'm not really a I'm not much of a completionist,

so I'm not really like I feel like I'm never

actively collecting anything. But this question

intrigued me because it kind of made me go and

look inside myself. And I realized, like, if

I had the chance, if someone said, hey, you have

to start collecting a line today, what would

it be? It'd be the. It'd be the Star Wars line

that's like the retro 70s and 80s inspired. Okay.

The Kenner style figures where they're modern

characters. You know, they're Ahsoka and they're

Ned B from Obi -Wan series. But they're done

in that style of the 70s early toys, which is

just really simplistic. You know, just pretty

much a dots and a smiley for a face. Five points

of articulation. Have you seen those? Do you

know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I think I

have. Yeah. For some reason, that really, you

know, appeals to me. I'd like to collect all

those. Yeah, those look cool. And I think I'd

only get them... From the new stuff. I wouldn't

go back and be like, oh, I'm getting this vintage

line of Return of the Jedi toys. I'd just get

the new stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Do you visit

toy shows or conventions? When you visit toy

shows or conventions, do you have a typical methodology?

Do you bring a certain amount of money for what

you want to spend or what you're searching for,

etc., etc.? Yeah, I kind of mentioned earlier,

but very lucky here in Minnesota, we have the

monthly toy swap with the Minnesota Toy Posse.

So I can any month go to a toy show pretty much

in my backyard. It's kind of nice. Now I bring

my methodology there is I bring about as much

cash as I can take out max from one trip to Target.

So that's 40 bucks. That'll keep me by because

I know in a month I could be back there. So I

don't want to go crazy. In my TFCon days, I used

to, I was working as a server at a restaurant

and I had cash tips. And I would always, if I

knew I was going to TFCon that year, I'd probably

save like around 400, 500 bucks. And I'd put

it in an envelope and I was like, I am going

to spend this all at the dealer room at TFCon.

That wasn't a great methodology. Maybe you wouldn't

even call it a methodology, but that's what I

would do. And now, I guess since we've been talking

about whatnot, I keep my Funko Pop purchases

to single digits. I don't go over $10 when I'm

getting a Funko Pop. That's where I draw the

line. Yeah, but if it's something you really,

really want... Yeah, I will say I've broken that

now when I got my credits. I used my credits

to get some of those higher -end ones that I

wouldn't normally get. Steve with sunglasses

from Stranger Things? Yeah, there you go. I had

no chance to get that for under... Yeah, no.

You're not getting Stranger Things pops for under

single. Not for a while, probably. No, not in

hell. Cold day in hell when that happens. But

yeah, I think... I'm trying to remember. I'd

have to go back and look through my whatnot receipts,

but for a single pop, I don't think I've paid

more than 50 bucks. Okay. Only because what did

you spend for that turtle that you were talking

about? Well, that, yeah, but again, that turtle

was a little different. That turtle ended up

being $75, $80, but that was because people were

bidding me... Yeah, I did that. No, I get it,

but you paid that price, right? Yeah, that's

true. What do you think it is about our generation

that causes our childhood toys to mean so much

more to us than, say, for instance, our parents'

generation? You know, I think we can all... agree

that we had uh you know more more like cartoons

and stuff backing it up and all that and i think

that's the the standard packaged answer but honestly

we just had cooler toys our parents toys were

were basically you know one step above like wooden

horses and those hoops that you poke with a stick

to keep it rolling you know like our grass yes

exactly now our toys are like Our generation's

toys, it was like the first generation that they

were like, all right, let's go all in. Let's

make some cool toys with accessories and all

these things that modern toy collecting hangs

their hats on. We were the first ones that had

that, really. Yep, absolutely. What is your motivation

for purchasing toys to display, play, fiddle,

describe your collecting style? Are you a completionist?

We know you're not. Storyteller, cherry picker,

or otherwise? Yeah, definitely not a completionist.

Display mostly. I'd say I often buy one to commemorate

a favorite character or a movie moment or something.

Like now it's very much if I see something. And

that's really how I got into Marvel Legends.

There were some great hero moments in some of

the MCU. And I was like, I just need this guy

on my shelf. I need Shang -Chi on my shelf. I

need Spider -Man. Far From Home, or No Way Home.

That got me into it big time. Very cool, very

cool. Have you ever purchased a toy for a child

with the ulterior motive of playing with it yourself?

What a question. I don't know that I've done

it with that intention, but I've definitely bought

a toy that I would have wanted for myself. And

in the case of... My partner's nephew, I ended

up getting some of the Transformers back that

I gave him as toys over the years. He grew out

of them hard, and he turned into one of those

kids that's just like, I want BB guns and footballs,

and that's it. And I got them all back. His mom

came to me with a box and was like, here. Hey,

at least he's wanting BB guns and footballs instead

of an iPad. I guess. That's right. Get them out

of the house. Yeah, exactly. Get out of my house

until 5 p .m. when the lights come on. You don't

want him becoming a podcaster or anything, for

God's sake. Heaven forbid, no. Oh, my God. That's

the worst thing in the world to become. The worst

crime. Yeah. Have you ever purchased a vintage

toy for a child because you thought it would

be fun for them based on your own preferences?

No, I think that's where I drew the line. I knew

that they would not. I didn't want them cutting

themselves on diecast metal or anything like

that. But I do actually have this great story.

I technically did buy. So I got really into collecting.

And during the pandemic, another thing I got

into collecting was vintage tech decks. And by

vintage, I don't know if we're still juggling

that definition around, but the first generation

of tech decks, which are very different from

the modern tech deck. So circa 2000, 99, 2000,

I was buying those off of eBay. And it turns

out those are quite expensive, those original

ones. They can be very expensive. Before that,

before the pandemic hit, I was at a Savers. And

I found what I would go on to find out was a

bag of vintage tech decks, a whole bag of them

for like three bucks. And I got up to the counter

to buy them. And the lady at the counter, the

checkout lady, was like, oh, my son loves these.

And I just went, here, after I paid for them.

I was like, give these to your son. Oh, wow.

I don't know the Michael Andrews that found out

how much some of those were worth later. Oh,

no. But at the time, I was pretty proud of myself.

There you go. Do you do any toy modifications

or customs, painting, building, build dioramas,

etc.? No, I'm not good at that really at all.

I did add a red dot to the IDW. version of Rewind

for his little camera that's up by his eye. I

famously not famously, I turned a Titan Master.

You know the Titan Master toys? Did you see those

when they were out? They're like, you just get

a head guy plus a little tank type thing. So

I turned one of the tank jet combos into Overlord's

alt modes. So on one side it was like color accurate

jet and on the other side was color accurate

tank. I was pretty proud of that, but that took

a lot out of me. And I was like, realized customizing

was not for me. Oh boy. Yikes. But I'll find

pictures. I'm actually really proud of that little

thing. That's awesome. Do you think toy companies

should specifically have adult collector toys,

child toys, or find a way to mix both? I think

both. I think they need, I think. Toy companies

need to keep a finger on the pulse of their target

audience, which is kids. And the younger, cheaper

toys, they're twofold, right? They hook youngsters

in to kind of create a new generation of fans

that ultimately keep things going. And they can

be cheaper made, a little more hollow. You're

able to turn a higher profit on it to offset

some of those cooler adult toys. I don't know.

I mean, hopefully. That's the goal, right? I

wish Hasbro would take the massive profit they

made off of selling these shampoo bottle transformers

to kids and add a few more paint apps to my $54

transformer I'm buying. But maybe that's wishful

thinking. And compared to something from the

restaurant world, I used to work at a restaurant

and we would keep, uh, we, we had this great

craft beer selection on tap and we were really

proud of it. Um, and we also, but on the end

of the thing, we had Coors Light and I was always

so embarrassed by that. Like we had this crappy

beer with all these good beers. Uh, but my manager

explained to me like that, the, the profit we

make off selling just a couple Coors Lights pays

for us to have all the craft beers on. Uh, and

I feel like that could be, translated to the

toy game absolutely that silver bullet man pays

for everything yep uh the uh the the funny thing

is is that and i don't blame evan or ben or anybody

that does the the live streams but when they're

doing the advertising for the toys i look at

some of that and i'm like I don't have kids,

but if I had kids, I would not be buying my kid

that certain toy. And specifically. And this,

I guess, was on their script or on whatever,

but I remember Evan or whoever it was specifically

saying, hey, parents. And I think this was in

an Instagram reel after the stream, but. Hey,

parents, you can go to whatever Hasbro website.

I don't think it was directly Hasbro Pulse, but.

Oh, right. You can go to your toy stores. You

can go to wherever. You can go to this to order

Tarn for your kids today. And my thought is.

What kid knows who Tarn is? Right, right. The

obscure, demented assassin from this one comic

book. All the kids want. My head is tilted to

the left. My eyebrow is raised halfway into my

hairline. And again, I don't blame Evan or Ben

or anybody on the stream team or anybody in the

marketing or whatever. I'm literally asking Chris

Cox, whoever. The people are running the show.

That's my thing with the adult collector version

of Hasbro and the kid version of Hasbro. Where's

the split? What is it? Rescue Bots. Rescue Bots

to me is a kid's toy line for Hasbro. Like, yes,

adults can collect it too. Yes, adults like the

show. I know plenty of people that loved Rescue

Bots, love the show, love the, you know, some

people love the toy line. Fine, great, awesome.

But to me, that's for kids. That's the, you know,

that's the kids line. I know I haven't listened

to all of it. I need to go back and listen to

all of it. But the third Mike who is not here,

Mr. Gilligan, him and his Earth Sparkles. Ah,

yes. I am one of such. Yes, you are one of such.

That's part of the kids section of Transformers.

You're not going to find a Tarn in there. But

again, it just surprises me how Ezra does some

of the things with Transformers and whatever.

Do you have all my... Sorry, I was going to say,

that's funny because I do feel like Transformers,

for example, needs both kids' toys and adults'

toys in it, but at the same time, I'm the guy

that's grumping about my... Like the Hulu menu

screen combining with the Disney plus menu screen.

I love that. I love that. I just think it ruins

the sanctity of the Disney plus line. When you

see, you know, aliens on FX. Oh, no. Okay. That's

what you mean. Okay. Yeah. See what I love about

Hulu. combining is that i can get to hulu easily

you're talking about the slider i agree with

you on the right right the slider is yeah that's

weird but i love the fact that i can scroll down

and get to disney plus oh yeah spn and then and

like that's that's the easy stuff for me Honestly,

we'll be here all day. We'll talk about that

later. Streaming with Michael Andrews on Geekcast

Radio coming soon. Seriously, we can do that.

No problem. At some point. Do you have a My Parents

Got Rid of My Toys story? No, not a tragic one

necessarily. My dad actually saved a lot of my

toys when he moved, which surprised me. I thought

that'd be the one thing he'd be like, ah, forget

it. But he really packaged them up nice and kept

them all. But I did at that same garage sale

I was talking about earlier where I maybe got

scammed, maybe not. But I did. One of the things

I wasn't going to sell was my. A Star Wars collection.

I just I took that bin and I set it aside and

I was like, nope, I'm not selling this. It means

too much. And it disappeared. I don't know. I

don't think my dad accidentally sold it. I don't

think he was responsible for getting rid of it.

Maybe someone came in and grabbed it. But for

whatever reason, that garage sale lost me my

Star Wars collection so that I don't blame my

dad for that. But I also can't completely absolve

him of the crime. Oh, no, that's not good. But

that's one thing to tie it back to Pixel Dan.

A lot of the Star Wars toys I mentioned that

I bought from him were some of those ones lost

in that set. So I'm slowly accepting that they're

gone for good and rebuilding. There you go. There

you go. Do you feel you are coming to an end

of your active collecting? If so, what has signified

this phase for you? Was there ever a moment when

you were done with toys? And have you ever considered

stopping as a collector or even selling your

whole collection? I think deep down I've never

considered myself not a toy buyer. I feel like

I thought it was going to be a lifelong thing,

whether or not I could put it to words. But I

do, as I look around my room, I have a finite

space in here for shelves. And I think that's,

like, I'm comfortable with it. I like the way

it looks. I like the aesthetic. I'm literally

at a point where the next Transformer I buy,

it's going to get uncomfortable fitting it on

the shelves. So in that way, I am sort of like,

all right, maybe I'm not. The next one is the

last one. All right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah,

yeah. And I will also say there's been times

where I'm sitting around and my entire Star Wars

collection figures that I have bought of the

sequel movies topples over like a set of dominoes.

And I'm like, that's it. I'm out. I'm out of

the game. Forget it. I mean, you know, the sequel

movie toy collection topples over just like the

sequel movies did. Right into the black hole.

Right into the black hole. That's right. Cruel.

That's right. What is something that does not

have a toy of it you'd love to see it in toy

form? Oh. Well, alright. Found as a G1. Sorry,

a G .I. Joe vamp. As a vamp? As a vamp. I have

it. Now, it does exist in, if you play mobile

games or if anyone does out there, Transformers

Earth Wars. Hound is a vamp, a G .I. Joe crossover

in that game. And it looks so cool, I just want

a toy of it. Why don't they make it? So that's

a big one. I would also want, I'm really pissed

we never got a Siege Detritus. From the War for

Cybertron Hound. They made Detritus, obviously,

but it was more based on the G1 version of Hound.

I want the futuristic space jeep version of Detritus.

I've... When I was bigger on Twitter, that was

my hill I would die on. I was constantly... I

normally think people are pretty atrocious to

do this, but I was constantly tweeting at Hasbro

and Hasbro Pulse accounts like, just make this

toy. You have it. You made a thousand of those

Lambros for Mike Seibert. Why can't I have a

third hound? Yes, they made a thousand of them

just for... Gilligan. Yes, exactly. It worked.

It worked. Oh, maybe he campaigned a little harder

than you did. Maybe, maybe he's got more presence.

You know, this was pre pre two Mike's too furious.

Maybe I have some clout now. Who knows? Who knows?

Maybe. I mean, you've talked to Marty Eisenberg.

I mean, come on. That's right. I've talked to

Eric Siebenahler and he's back. Hey, Hasbro.

Use the clout, man. Use the clout. Here's one,

too, actually. I guess I kind of just thought

of this, but it's something I was on about a

while back. For Transformers crossovers, like

officially the crossovers, I want... You're maybe

not going to like this, but I think you might.

I want Cameron from Ferris Bueller as his father's

car, the red convertible. Oh, the Ferrari? Really?

Yeah. And then the robot would be sort of Cameron

in his red jersey. Yeah. You can see it, right?

Yeah, I can see it. I'm trying to think. Okay,

so we've had Cloudraker. I'm trying to figure

out what his name would be, and all I have in

my head is Fried Redwing. Because Cameron Frye

and Red Wings because of his jersey. But they

would never name it that because that's not really

a robot name. Camitron? Yeah, that's probably

what they would name it. That's Lame -a -tron

is what that is. Yeah, I'll admit. No, I'm saying

that's probably what they would... What you just

said is probably, I'm not saying it's a bad idea

because it came from you. I'm saying that's probably

what they would come up with. Yeah. God. But

come on, admit it. You'd like to see that, right?

That'd be a pretty cool one. Yeah, that would

be. I think you're sort of famously not a huge,

you're hit and miss, right, for Transformers

crossovers? Yeah. I like the idea of them, but

sometimes they don't really... Everybody thought

I was going to go gung -ho for the Knight Rider

one because I'm a huge Knight Rider fan. And

that robot mode sucks. The car mode isn't much

better. It's okay, but there are better... And

I get it. They had to do certain things in order

to get the transformation. But like... They tried

to say that the blue paint on his thighs or knees

or whatever on the front of his leg. They tried

to say that was Michael Knight's jeans. And I'm

like, it didn't look like fucking blue jeans

at all. What are you talking about? Give me a

frigging break over here. Have you ever seen

blue jeans before? Yeah, I have. They haven't.

I will say, because I have no connection, almost

no connection to Knight Rider whatsoever. I thought

that was a cooler one. But that's interesting

that you, as a super fan, are obviously more

hypercritical of it. It just, like, I don't know.

It just didn't, I don't know. I hear you. I get

it. I don't know. I don't blame you. Yeah, I

don't know. What is a toy that you'd love to

have scaled up and functional for real people?

So this question, question 36 is, have you ever

been to, and I don't know if they're still around

or not because I don't go to malls anymore. I

don't even know if they're still in malls, but

there used to be a store. Back in my day, kids,

when I was younger, in the 90s, there used to

be this store in the mall. called sharper image

you remember sharper image yes yes okay in sharper

image every sharper image i would ever go into

there used to be one two or three life -size

electronic statues of a character a couple of

times it was spider -man there might have been

a batman there's usually like a grizzly atoms

or something else but usually most of the times

i would see like a life -size spider -man in

there So that's kind of where this question comes

from. What is the one toy you'd love to see scaled

up and functional for real people? Now, when

you say functional, do you mean functional in

that, like, if I choose a spaceship, I could

actually go to space in it? Because if so, I

would choose a Gundam. I think I'd choose a Gundam

either way, but I would prefer to choose the

Gundam that I can actually pilot. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, that's cool. That'll work. All right. How

is your significant other, mates, partners, et

cetera, dealt with your collection? 37. This

is question 37. 37 in a row? And it's about spouses

and partners. That's right. That's right. I love

it. Mine has always been pretty good. Kate is

really good at it. She's very supportive. She

buys them for me. She buys some of her own. What

does she collect? Well, she also got the whatnot

bug. She has been big into labubus. Much to my

chagrin, but they make her very happy. And I,

you know, I've had like a decade plus now of

getting toys delivered almost weekly. I guess

I can't poo poo her. Oh, no, I know. But. But,

yeah, she you know, I think she's always sort

of had a thing for like little monsters, not

not any sort of trademark, but just little monsters.

And boo boo came out and it was like, oh, boy,

this is exactly what I've been waiting for. But

yeah, so the toys are scattered around and cool

with it. I actually try to be more reserved about

where I put the toys, but I think she'd be fine

wherever I put them up. Very cool, very cool.

So she likes monsters. Is it specifically little

monsters? Is she all monsters all the time? Is

she universal monsters? Is she monster high?

She does have some. universal monsters i would

say no no monster high but she does kind of like

she has a monster high sticker she likes the

symbol of monster high i know that but she's

not into the actual she's not into monster high

specifically okay right the reason why i ask

is because there are universal monsters and monster

high funko pops yeah I like those. Actually,

I think. Oh, my God. Wow. But do you remember

since we're talking about toys and this is a

toy cast a couple of years ago, I got her this

as a present thinking this would be a slam dunk

and she wasn't super that into it. But monster

in my pocket. Do you remember that? Yes. I thought

this was it. These are literally little monsters

in your pocket. That's right. Right. I got a

bunch for her and she was like, Oh neat. And

kind of just put them in a drawer. Yep. They

just go in a drawer. Yep. Yep. Yep. Some, sometimes

it's a hit. Sometimes it's not. I love those

things as a kid. And I also love that Nintendo

game. Nintendo. Was there a monster in my pocket?

I don't remember that. Yes. Yeah. It's incredible.

It was almost like that micro machines game where

like you're going through the levels are like

a pool table and someone's desk, the kitchen

sink. Oh, interesting. But it's almost like a

Metroid style, but instead of a castle, you're

in a kitchen. Oh, God. That's crazy. Toy collecting

can have its struggles. What is one aspect you

tend to struggle with the most? I think the big

one is space. That's a pretty easy, short answer.

And of course, whether to open sealed toys. Obviously,

that's a tough one. But value and stuff aside,

I guess with opening the sealed toys, I do sometimes

feel responsibility when I get a vintage toy

that's still in the box. And if as an opener,

it's like I'm unpreserving something, I'm breaking

this little piece of history in a way. Does that

make sense? Yeah, yeah. Like, I'm opening it

so someone else can't. Some inbox collector would

die to have this, and I'm just like, get it out.

I don't know. I do weirdly feel some responsibility

for that, and that's why I always try to buy

loose, find it on eBay loose, opened. I don't

have to take that out of my hands, but every

once in a while I get something in the box for

a good price, and it's like, I know it's not

a big, super expensive toy, but... Someone else

is going to want this package, and here I am

tearing it open. Yep, there you go. What is one

positive and one negative memory you have with

toy collecting? Oh, I remember finding animated

Ultra Magnus at a random Target when I was on

a road trip. That was burned into my memory somehow.

I think this is a negative memory, but my grandma...

almost bought me Energon Optimus Prime, which

is a toy I still don't own and would love to.

But it was in her hands. We were almost to the

register. And then for whatever reason, she just

decided not to and put it away. I wasn't being

a bad boy. I wasn't acting up. She just had a

change of heart. And I remember that being very

devastating. But good memories, I guess, to end

on a positive note. I have good memories of spending

hours in KB Toys waiting for that same grandma

with my grandpa at the mall. He just wanted to

sit on a bench and do grandpa stuff. And he let

me wander around in KB Toys for hours. That was

a good memory. And that same grandpa, who wasn't

ever very into me being a toy fan, he helped

me collect all of the Power Rangers movie toys

from McDonald's. Do you remember those? They

weren't the ones that came in the Happy Meal.

You had to buy them separately. Yeah, you had

to buy those ones. They were like, we're not

giving away these things for $2 a meal. You have

to pay like $5 a toy. Exactly, yeah. He helped

me buy all of those. And that was the only toy

-related thing that he ever did. And I still

have them to this day. The original ones. I've

never had to replace them. um the ones he bought

me but i remember i have these vivid memories

of like him going through the drive -thru and

where i barely i don't think he barely knew what

a power ranger was he was like what do you ones

you got back there you got the red one you got

the bear you know like asking asking them to

look in the back for that and i was like the

one one and done time he was like we're gonna

get you this collection completed wow that is

so awesome Do you have any of those still, or

do you remember having them? Oh, no. I remember

having them. I remember seeing them, but I don't

have any of them. The McDonald's toys that I

have, the only McDonald's toys that I still have

somewhere there, I think they're in a closet

somewhere now, are the Super Looney Tunes. I'm

talking Super Bugs, Wonder Pig, Bat Duck, and

Taz Flash. That's so awesome. Yeah. Those were

by outside of the foodies outside of the, the

foodie ones where it was like McCheese and the

fry thing that the transforming food ones, the

super Looney Tunes were my McDonald's happy meal

toy things. And I never got into most of the

other ones that they ever had. That's awesome.

I, I love the McDonald's toys. That'd be one

thing I'd almost consider collecting. And I do

have, I do end up, let me, let me give a little

plug for my friend who has an Instagram account

called bitch and fines. And her whole thing is

selling like vintage. She not just happy meal

toys, but she does do those a lot. And I am buying

a lot from her because they're just so cool.

I just, it just sparks some nostalgia. But if

you're into that stuff out there, bitch and fines

on Instagram. very cool very cool all right well

if you if you had the keys to the kingdom whatever

toy company doesn't matter which one if you could

create any toy what would you want to create

man i tried to think of like a brand new toy

like an invent one like a good idea and i couldn't

think of it but i think the the comfortable answer

is for me the animated omega supreme out of the

arc. If I could just force Hasbro to make something,

I just want that. They never made that one? No.

And they made that one that's like the arc that

turns into a big robot. Yeah. From the Siege

line, I think it was. No, never a proper animated

version. Interesting. I thought they did make

that. Recently, someone created a very good -looking

3D -printed version of one of their own design

that looks just like it and does, in fact, transform.

But there's no official release for it. Interesting.

That is so... Yeah, very, very cruel. I don't

know how that's not a HasLab. I think that...

university would be accepted as the best. What

are we at now? What was that official... Oh wait,

we're in 26 now, not 25. We are 19 years away.

So 20th anniversary next year? Why not do it

for a HasLab? You know, maybe that's what they're

holding out for. That could be. I don't think

they have that much future vision. I don't, I

don't know. I don't know. That's why they brought

Steven Aller in though. Maybe let's hope. Come

on, Eric. Do your job. Yep. Yep. Oh boy. All

right. Last two questions. What is one piece

of advice you would give the toy collecting fandom?

Uh, easily, I guess if I was telling a person

considering toy collecting, I would say buy for

pleasure, not for financial gain. I think where

you run into trouble as a toy collector is obsessing

over, you know, what is this going to be worth

and who's going to resell it and who am I going

to sell it to? And then you end up at the slippery

slope of like, well, I don't even want this toy.

I don't want this character, but oh man, this

is going to be worth some money. I can flip this.

I just think that's a bad road to go down. Just

buy for pleasure. Buy what you want. And also

learn to love what you love and not hate on everything

else. If you don't like it, just like you, TFG1

Mike, move on from it. It's not for you, whatever.

But don't sit there and shit on what people like

because you don't. Yeah, exactly. What is advice

you would give to kids who enjoy toys? I would

say be yourself. Don't give in to pressures.

I mean, I think that's just generic good advice,

life advice. But if we want to tie it specifically

to toys, keep playing with toys as long as you

want. Give it up because you're personally sick

of toys. Don't feel bullied into giving up toys.

I think that's something that happened to me

as I got into middle school and everything. I

was one of the few kids in my very conservative,

small, hometown that wanted to keep being into

toys but i had to hide it like you know i couldn't

take him to school anymore i i didn't have a

avenue to talk about them with my friends because

they would make fun of me um i just had it just

had to be like this closet thing or sometimes

i would just be like well i don't like him anymore

because i you know needed to be in the cool crowd

uh that's my advice i guess keep doing what you

know and i think that's one of the nice things

about you know, a lot of things suck about 2025

and 2026, but, um, there's, I think kids now

are, you know, they're allowed, everyone's allowed

these things that maybe, uh, 20 years ago would

be considered like, you can't do that because

of your age. Um, now we can do what we want.

Age mage. I'm going to do whatever I want. Yeah.

Life's life's too short to, to make decisions

for other people. Um, do it, do what you love.

Yep, absolutely. What's that line from that one

movie that's 40 years old this year? Life moves

pretty fast if you don't slow down and what the

hell does he say? God damn it. Life comes at

you pretty quick. If you don't slow down, sometimes

you'll miss it. Yeah, something. God, Ferris.

Oh, my God. My best friend's brother's sister's

girlfriend told me Ferris Bueller died last night.

Oh, God. That movie. All right, folks. Yep, yep,

yep. We are going to go to a second quick ad

break. We'll come back for other promotions from

Mike and other things, and we'll close the show

right after this. Okay. Yes. Shut up. Beyond

the Night is the GCRN's latest review podcast.

We are covering everything in the Knight Rider

television universe, from the classic 80s TV

series to the 1991 reunion film Team Knight Rider,

and the 2008 relaunched series as well. So join

TF2 and Mike and Dion the Music Man as they go

in -depth in Beyond the Night, only on GeekCast

Radio Network. You can find Beyond the Night

on iTunes and on www .geekcastradio .com. Kid.

Yes, Michael. Just keep driving. Hey, I'm Gary.

I'm Greg. I'm Chuck. And I'm Justin. Join the

four of us every week on the Internet's number

one G .I. Joe podcast, What's on Joe Mind? That's

right. It's Joe news, reviews, and special guests

like you've never heard them before delivered

right to your MP3 player. Think of it as Joe

talk meets sports talk. And we make fun of Chuck.

Right. Hey. We're just kidding, Chuck. Kind of.

Yeah. Sometimes Chuck makes fun of himself. Right.

Hey. It's What's On Joe Mind. Every week on the

Geekcast Radio Network, InsidePulse .com, Stitcher

Smart Radio, and iTunes. Download and listen

today. Can I say something about Transformers?

No. Discover a world of vintage and modern toys

that's more than meets the eye with the Triple

Takeover ToyCast. Hosted by toy writers and photographers

Toybox Soapbox, Sixo and TF Square One, this

informal and chilled out series of discussions

cover everything from vintage Transformers to

Mask, Diaclone, Microman and more, be it nostalgic

or current. Whether you're a seasoned collector

or a casual robot enthusiast, all are welcome.

Triple Takeover ToyCast. Alright folks, that's

gonna do it. For ToyCast, Mr. Andrews, what would

you like to promote, sir? Promote yourself. Well,

we've kind of wrapped up our run of Two Mics

Too Furious because we did our thing. We got

through all three seasons of the show and talked

about every episode with me and my co -host,

Mike Seibert. But... We've we're not done. We're

still talking to the creators after the show

ended. Head writer Marty Eisenberg reached out

to us. And in the last episode, he brought along

a lot of his friends. There's still more meat

on the bone to borrow the catchphrase from Mike

Seibert. We're still talking Transformers animated.

So find find us wherever you find your podcasts

to Mike's too furious. And. Me personally, I'll

also be getting back to doing some writing. I

have a few books out there if you look me up

on Amazon. And I'm hoping to get back to that.

I'm hoping to put out a fourth novel here soon.

Absolutely, absolutely. Very awesome. The thing

about being daring, Mr. Anders, is you don't

choke on the bone. Ooh, I like that. Good old

Dead Poets Society. Got to bring it back to Robin.

Absolutely. Oh, love it. Love it. Yep, yep, yep.

All right, folks. That's going to do it for this

episode of ToyCast. Thank you for joining us.

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ToyCast, I have no idea. I have no plan. The

only plan I have is what's coming up in episode

200, and I'm not telling you what that is just

yet. So, for now, I am TFG1Mike with... Michael

Andrews. No TF, no G1. Well, yeah. No, that's

me, you moron. Right. I'm more of a TFBW Beast

Wars. That just doesn't roll off the tongue as

much as TF2. No, it's not as cool. Yeah, no,

not as cool. You just keep slicing that pizza

up there, Mikey. All right, join us next time

when we'll be talking more toys here on ToyCast.

This was great. Thank you. This was a lot of

fun. You know, there is one little... We're talking

franchises here, bud. All you got to do is keep

your delivery. To under 30 minutes. Let's see

what we got here. We got a... Pizza. Got that,

dude? Pizza. Frisbee. Also cool. Who frisbeed

me in the face? I'm out of here. Alright, I'm

getting up. I'll edit this part out. But I'm

getting up. I gotta see how dumb this damn thing

is. Wait, it's over here. Come on, Mickey. You

can come too. Well, lost that. Where'd that go?

Crap, now I can't see it. Edit point, edit point,

edit point. Where am I putting this thing? Thank

God Craig does not record video. Because all

of this is... Oh, there it is. Thanks, Craig.

There it is, there it is. Get over here. Get

over here. Get over here. Stupid stand. Got it.

Okay.