Top 100 Countdown – TOYS – Part 1 – Introduction

Hi, this is Frank Todaro, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Be a Toys R Us

kid. Once a Toys R Us kid. Always a Toys R Us

kid. Why throw away your life so recklessly?

No, Megatron, we are not throwing our lives away

recklessly. You are now listening to the GeekCast

Radio Network's Top 100 Toys Countdown. This

will be featured on the flagship show GeekCast

Radio and ToyCast. Soundwave, jam the transmission.

Rumble frenzy, ravage rat bat. Inject Operation

Interference. Slag no. I don't think so, Soundwave.

I am one of your hosts, TFG and Mike. Joining

me today is Steve Megatron. Hello, sir. Yo. Yo.

And from some weird hurricane tornado -filled

Florida beach, it's Mr. Optimus Solo. Ho. Okay,

he's the Thundercat today. Unless he's calling

Yo -Ho. Yo -Ho. And a bottle of rum. I could

use a bottle of rum right about now. Today we're

going to break down what the GCRN Top 100 Toys

Countdown is going to be. We're excited to kick

off our Top 100 Toys Countdown. And the very

next episode you'll hear after this, we will

begin revealing our numbers 100 through 76. Before

we do that, though, we have some business to

take care of. We have a lot of people to acknowledge

and thank. that help make the countdown possible.

We've done seven Top 100 Countdowns in 14 years.

The grand total listening time of the completed

and published podcast episodes is 88 hours, 49

minutes, and 26 seconds. And now, without any

further ado, here's Optimus Solo to tell you

all about the GCRN's Top 100 Toys Countdown.

That means we should hit 100 hours after this

one. Probably, yep. so yeah we came up with the

idea of doing our next top 100 countdown on toys

we've done a lot of other things we've done animated

series and movies and tv shows and all kinds

of geek centric topics and we have a podcast

called toy cast but we've never done toys so

it sounded like a good idea stumbled across the

toy hall of fame a few years back i don't know

exactly how many years ago it was And that triggered

this idea, seeing which toys had been inducted

into the Toy Hall of Fame. We did a special episode,

I believe, on the flagship show, PCAST Radio

Network show, with DJ Valentine, I believe. And

we talked about some toys and which ones were

in the Hall of Fame, which ones weren't. And

that triggered the idea to let's just do our

own list. So that is what we have set out to

do. And I'm sure we'll have lots of debates along

the way of what is a toy, what isn't a toy. Which

ones belong, which ones don't belong, which ones

are too high, which ones are too low, and all

kinds of fun stuff along the way. So we're just

setting the stage today, acknowledging those

that participated, asking a few maybe questions

of Mike and Steve on what they think may be revealed

in the countdown or not. Go over how many toys

got votes, things of that nature, so that way

next time we're ready to just get right into

the meat and potatoes of the actual list. Absolutely.

We had... Twenty one lists submitted for toys.

Range of people and podcasts and YouTube channels

and things of that nature that have participated.

So we're going to just kind of make a quick journey

through all those people and thank them and acknowledge

them. And then we'll continue to acknowledge

their websites, their podcasts, their YouTube

channels throughout the countdown. Right, Mike?

Absolutely. All right. So from the Geekcast Radio

Network main host co -host. etc. We have Steve

Megatron Phillips, TFGO and Mike and myself,

obviously. We also have the comic concierge,

Mr. Dan, who submitted a list. We have the former

co -host of the Cinema Geeks and current co -host

of the True Bromance podcast, Amanda. Then we

have John from Iacon Dispatch. We have DJ Valentine

from the Simplistic Reviews. How would you classify

Mr. Jeremy Fine, Mike? His show is called the

Hunnic Outcast Podcast. But is he like, what

do we call him? He's a friend of the network,

yeah. Sister show, so to speak. We have the Toy

Tomb. We have super fan Mr. Tim Silvers. We have

David Baruffi, and I'll let you go through some

of the websites and YouTube stuff afterwards.

We have... the matt stewart from the simplistic

review so we have both dj valentine and matthew

stewart we have the tfu info site we have cracktastic

we have from toy rewind we have michael john

and andrew they each submitted a list we have

rodimus primal we have dan from rock nerd We

have Ryan, The Uneven Flow, and then we have

Ryan and Rachel. Where are they from again, Dan?

So Ryan and Rachel are a couple who do mostly

Instagram stuff. They do Funko photography. He

is DarthRyanD on Instagram. She is your girl,

Rach. I reached out to them because ever since

2021, right before my late wife got really, really

sick before she passed two years ago, I started,

like, really getting heavy into the Funko community.

I've been a Funko fan since about 2017 when I

first found the Funko Pops, and somewhere around

late 2020, early 2021, I started just getting

into the whole Funko community, and that's how

I found them was through other Funko people on

YouTube and things like that. So I wanted to

reach out to them because Ryan does. Really,

really cool Star Wars Funko Pop photography.

He just posted one today of, as we're recording

this, as you'll be hearing this soon, ish. He

posted one today of Darth Vader where he would

be facing off against Ahsoka. And I was, I first

comment on his thing. I said, you know, you really

should do the other view, like what she's, you

know, seeing her. So you have the photo of Darth

Vader, what she sees. And we now need to see

a photo of, of, of what Vader sees as far as

her pop goes. He goes, that's a good idea. So

yeah, that's, that's where Ryan and Rachel are

from. I'm good, sorry. Michael, John, and Andrew,

I said from Toy Rewind, but I didn't give enough

information for that. That's a Toy Rewind podcast.

They also have a toyrewindpodcast .com. It's

a trio of brothers who grew up in the 80s and

90s, and they have a show that basically talks

all about toys, so they fit perfect for this

countdown. Mike, go ahead with the other one.

Yeah, very cool. Obviously, Ryan, Andrew, and

Flo Merkley, he's... Pretty much GCRN co -host

royalty kind of thing I've used, Ryan, for a

lot of years now and whatever else. I'm his primal

big YouTuber. Very, very awesome dude. He's been

on several times. Oh, you just said it before,

Ryan. Dan from Rock Nerd Radio. He's cool. He's

awesome. He does a whole bunch of stuff as well.

And what was the other one? You just said it.

A few info we have. That's Anthony Bricali. Cracktastic?

Yeah, Cracktastic. Jason and the Cracktastic

Plastic Group. They are very interesting. Not

that all these people aren't interesting, but

Cracktastic Plastic is cool. They are a band

of brothers. Literally a rock band that started

their own toy podcast. It's awesome. It's hilarious.

I did a ToyCast Origins with Jason. He's awesome.

I've got to get the other three guys on at some

point. Yeah. And toy tomb is also a podcast all

about toys. So it's a couple of people talking

about toys that they grew up with. And then obviously

the simplistic reviews does a lot of pop culture,

geek related stuff for DJ and Matthew. So a lot

of things represented. We got to get, uh, we'll,

we'll put some of the other guys' information.

I know David Groofy has like a blog that will

promote and a couple of the other people have,

have shows or websites that we'll put in our

show notes and we'll feature in commercials or

different things throughout the time. John. Oh,

my dispatch. You can talk about as well. Yeah,

I haven't had too much interaction with John,

but he's really cool. I've seen some of the stuff

he's done, so I wanted to... Basically, folks,

this is 2023. We are two years removed from the

Transformers countdown that we did back in 2021.

I took that entire contact sheet and just emailed

everybody, and whoever was interested was interested.

What surprises me is we had 33 lists for Transformers.

We only have 21 for toys. Yeah, it's a broad

subject, so maybe a little bit harder. With Transformers,

when you do a list like that, you're going to

get the diehard fans. You're going to get people

in the fandom, and they don't have a problem

doing that. Toys, there's not a fandom for toys

as much. It's a general topic, so it might be

a little bit harder to find those people that

are diehard wanting to dig through a list of

toys. Steve put together an awesome toy catalog

for us to look through, and I'm sure we'll pimp

that out as much as we can. It's like looking

back through an old toy catalog, but it literally

consists of Almost all of the greatest toys of

all time that you can kind of look through. And

we have it separated into different categories,

which kind of leads me to this next point. And

we'll talk about how many toys got votes and

things of that nature later. But we had different

categories within the catalog. We had action

figures. We had balls and bases and board games

and books and building materials. We had cards,

clothes, crafts, dolls, education, electronics,

food, games. Miscellaneous music, outdoors, stuffed

toys, and toys with wheels. Mike, I'm going to

put you on the spot. Which categories do you

think, just kind of a general thought, which

categories do you think will be most represented

in the top 100? It's probably going to be most

of the boys' action stuff. All right, so you

got it. Are you talking about action figures?

Yeah, action figures, Transformers, Masters of

the Universe, all that stuff, I would say. I

don't know. I mean, I can just tell you by looking

at my own personal list that I sent in, most

of the boards and balls and cards and that kind

of stuff, they're all in my... 100 to 50 range,

whereas from 50 to number one is like all the

things I remember growing up that I actually

had and played with. Okay. Steve, what do you

think? What are some categories that you think

will be less represented or more represented

in the top 100? I definitely think we're going

to have action figures pretty heavily in there.

Probably a lot of generic play toys, kind of

like Lego and you know, kind of sport stuff,

board games, things like that. I think those

are going to be pretty heavily in there. I don't

know if we're going to see like, you know, stick

being in the top 10 or rocks or sand, but it's,

it's no, it's hard to say. Right. It's always

hard. I will say is that I put cardboard box

at number 99 only because Oh, I put it at 10.

No, I'm just playing. Well, I put a cardboard

box at number 99 because it's a Metal Gear Solid

joke because you have to use a box for Snake,

Solid Snake, to hide in in the Metal Gear Solid

video game. So that's why. To be fair, you can

do anything with a box. That's right. And I'm

telling you, my daughter plays the heck out of

a cardboard box. Oh, yeah, my son, too. It's

been a car. It's been everything. Another thing

kind of along those lines, because I know we're

going to have this discussion maybe multiple

times throughout the countdown, depending on

who the co -host guests are and which things

actually come up on the countdowns. That's usually

what triggers certain discussions. But I know

we're going to get some comments probably on

the website or whatever about what qualifies

as a toy. And some people are going to say, well,

that's not really a toy. This isn't really a

toy, that type of thing. So I want to just touch

on that real briefly. What kind of inspired the

different categories that have been included

and things of that nature was this Toy Hall of

Fame. and what i was noticing as we were going

as i was going through the national toy hall

of fame which has quite a few inductees and we'll

we'll talk about that during the podcast because

i have notes on that which ones have been nominated

which ones have been actually made it in there

etc but they have a wide variety they have the

stuff like steve was just talking about some

of the basic things like i don't not necessarily

saying cardboard boxes in there i gotta check

my notes but stuff like that they have stuff

like that in that countdown they have board games

in that countdown so basically the the thought

here is is if you could play with it as a child

then we're considering it a toy so that's kind

of the broad very broad definition i know especially

when it comes to some of the different types

of books like coloring books comic books dr seuss

books where's waldo books like people are going

to like question that but just think it's something

that a kid could spend time playing with or looking

through or you know that type of thing that entertaining

children And that's kind of the definition of

a toy is something that they play with that entertains

them, that they spend time with. So it is a very

broad definition. I know some people think toys

and they think, well, it's your action figures,

it's your dolls, it's your cars and things like

that. But we are going to be touching on possibly

things like board games, books, and some other

various things that might come up along the way.

Mike, what do you think about our broad definition

of toy? If you can play with it, it's a toy.

End of story. There we go. I mean. I'm going

to be very interested in discovering what people

voted for and what they considered a toy. One

thing that was difficult with doing my list was

trying to figure out how I wanted to categorize

them and what I wanted to list because there's

so many different categories of toy. Right. Absolutely.

It just kept going. I was like, Oh, there's these

and there's those. Like we, we, I don't remember

the exact count of the toys listed in the actual

catalog, but it had to be a very large number.

Yeah. You'd have to look at the index. I think

you said something like over 350 or 400 toys,

most likely because we wanted to, 400. Yeah,

because we needed to have that many so people

could whittle down their lists to have 100 toys

per list times 20 lists. Right. 21 lists, whatever.

I will say, the one thing I wanted to be able

to do for my own sanity here, and luckily Steve

indulged me to do it, the pictures of the Funko

stuff that people will see in the catalog. Those

are my Funko Pops. I took those photos. I didn't

want to just throw in your standard, oh, here's

what the Funko Pop looks like on the Funko app.

I wanted to actually say, hey, look, I collect

these things. For the record, Funko Pops were

not in the original catalog. Yeah, I had to twist

his arm. I'm like, trust me, you want these in

here because, yeah. Let's just say, just for

the sake of... continuing here that let's say

that we had at least 400 toys listed in the catalog

we'll get the exact number before the next episode

but if we go on that hypothetical that we had

400 toys in that catalog we had 330 toys receive

a vote awesome so 330 toys that means there was

a lot of toys that received votes out of that

so everybody has different stuff they played

with or experienced or different things they

liked or didn't like i don't we'd have to really

look i think we have a decent age variety within

the people that submitted I don't know exactly

how old everybody is but it seems like we may

have a decent at least age kind of I'd say so

and I will say that we really only had two female

voices involved Rach and Amanda so there may

be a little bit of a bias towards some of the

male toys versus female toys we'll have to see

how that plays out but I did keep track of a

couple different things and I will have stats

as we kind of go through this list One of them

is like we just said, which categories had the

most and which categories like another discussion

we'll probably has is within that category, the

ranking of them. So let's say just, I don't know,

for example, board games, like let's say like

six board games or eight board games make the

countdown. I'm sure we'll have discussions on

if we got it in the right order as far as which

one was highest ranked versus lowest ranked just

within that category. So that'll be a fun thing

to keep track. Another thing that we're going

to keep track of is which decade produced the

most toys. Now, something that's different, because

a lot of our other lists, whether it be animated

series, animated movies, TV shows, things of

that nature, when they were popular is when they

came out. So like Transformers, the cartoon,

came out in the 80s. That's when it was popular.

It's very easy to know when. It's going to be

very interesting, I think, for some of you that

are especially involved in the recording of these

episodes, but probably the listeners too. to

learn exactly when some of these toys originated

or came out or hit the market and things like

that. So that's going to be something that's

going to be interesting. I have the pre -1900s,

and then we have each decade, 1910, 20, 30, 40,

50, 60, 70, 80, 90s, and then 2000s or later.

So Mike, I'm going to put you on the spot again.

Which decade do you think produced the most toys

that are going to actually make a spot on the

land on this countdown? I mean, modern toy production

is off the charts, but I would have to say it's

probably going to be the 80s or the 90s. Steve,

any thoughts? I'm going to kind of agree that

it's probably going to be about the 80s. But

some of the items may have had an origin prior

to that. Right. So that's going to be an interesting

thing to reveal as we go along. Some of these

things are not as old as I thought they were

or much older than I thought they were. And then

some of them are, we're not going to have a specific

date. That's why I just put pre 1900 because

some of this stuff is like, you're not going

to be able to come up with an exact date when

they were invented or things of that nature because

they've been around for so long. Another thing

I've done is I have taken certain companies and

tracked how many toys that that company produced.

And I'm not talking about companies that now

own the rights to them or now own the licenses

to them. I'm talking about the company that was

the first one that brought them to market. So

these are the companies that I've tracked. We

have Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley, Mattel,

Hasbro, Ideal, Tonka, Kenner, Galoob, Takara,

Coleco, Playmates, LGN, Bandai, Tyco, and Wham

-O. So those are the different companies that

I tracked that had at least one toy that they

produced that made it on the countdown. I know

what toy companies are most popular now and kind

of monopolizing the space as much as possible.

But again, one more time for Mike and Steve.

Is there a company that you think is going to

dominate this countdown? Mike? It's probably

going to be a war between Mattel and Hasbro.

Steve, what do you think? I'm thinking the same.

All right. All I'm going to say is stay tuned

because that's going to be an interesting conversation

for sure. It's going to be an interesting conversation

because Hasbro dominates the toy space right

now, but they're not going to rank as high as

you think they are. I'll just kind of give that

nugget out. They do have a lot of toys that are

going to be present, but it's going to be interesting

when you guys see which ones reign supreme there.

Mike, anything? If you were to look at your own

personal list of your 100 toys that you ranked.

Which I am. Is there one that you're most worried

about that you're in fear that it might not make

the countdown that you really want to make the

countdown? Honestly, since we have so few lists,

I reached out to every single person in the Funko

community that I know, and I'm like, hey, this

is easy. Just make a list for us. And 90 % of

them didn't. Sadly, I understand everybody's

busy and all this and all that and everything

else, but I'm really interested to see where

Funko does fall because, like you said, not everyone

is a Funko fan and not everyone that contributed

a list may or may not be a Funko fan. Who knows?

So that's going to be really interesting. to

see where they fall. At least I know wherever

Funko does fall, as long as it does make the

list, at least it won't be a debacle like Boy

Meets World coming in at number 50, right, Steve?

Hey, my guy didn't even make the list. Thank

God! Just a side note, in order to make the top

100, you had to average being ranked at least

83rd on every single list. So you would have

had to appear on all 21 lists in the 83rd spot

or higher to make the list. On every single list?

Yeah, you would have had to appear on all 21

lists at 83 as far as making the list. So that

means if you didn't make all 21 lists, then somebody

better have ranked you higher than 83. So that's

kind of giving you the gist of how much you would

have to have to make the list. But there is a

very small margin. in between picks i'll say

that much like the difference between let's even

go down to like 112 like if we take 112 and we

go up to 84 it's like 40 spots 40 points difference

so there's not a lot of points separating these

um until you get to the real kind of cream of

the crop the once we get into like that top 50

Then you had to have a lot of points and it was

not even remotely close between the top. Like

there's like a hundred points difference between

number five and number four and over a hundred

points between number four and number three and

like 80 or 90 points between number three and

number two and 120 points between number two

and number one. So that's wow. really spread

out and there was it was not a close race i will

say that much wow the other thing i did was i

tried to like keep track of um if if the toys

that made our countdown also have been voted

on in the toy hall of fame so i have each one

marked as a as either a finalist or with the

year that they actually were inducted and i'd

say we do a pretty good job of representing a

majority of the the toys that were in the toy

hall of fame i mean we don't have all of them

in there um but i'd say we did pretty good at

hitting the the big ones. So that's going to

be interesting as we kind of go through there.

I also tried to keep track of which companies

own the rights to them now and which country

they originated in and things of that nature.

So we'll, we'll have all kinds of trivia and

interesting stuff to throw out along the way.

Uh, Steve, anything you're most looking forward

to most worried about, most excited about, or

just most interested in. I don't know if there's

anything I'm like excited or not excited for.

Like, I just, I don't know what to expect. Right.

Uh, And I did try to vote on things that I normally

probably would have glossed over. Right. You

know, personal bias. So I did try to vote on

other things, even if it wasn't something that

was my forte, but something that I could see

being big regardless of my opinion. Right. That's

that's interesting, too. And you bring up a good

point of kind of like how everybody formulates

their list. I think this one's almost an easier

one to do that with, because when it comes to

cartoons or movies or things like that, you just

have that much more of a strong bond, I think,

to some of those things or a connection to where

it's like, this is what I like and this is what

I don't like. And it's hard to vote for like

a TV show you just don't like. I think with toys,

it might be a little bit easier to kind of separate

yourself from there. So things I consider just

personally and I'm interested to see what you

guys kind of consider to give you guys a chance

to quickly sum that up. But things that I looked

at was number one, like how universal is it as

far as like, it's not just for boys or just for

girls. It's not just for this age or just for

that age. Like this is something that could be

played with or enjoyed by. So I think the more

universal it was, it got a few extra points for

me. Maybe the longer staying power as far as

like, I did vote on some toys that were like

a fad because just. working in retail as much

as i did like i wanted to give some points to

some like a toy that was just like the number

one toy that every single person had to have

but some of those toys don't last that long like

they're a fad for a year maybe two or three years

at most and then you never hear from them again

So it had to be really super popular if it was

going to be like kind of what I would consider

like a one hit wonder to give a music reference.

Like if it was just like a flash in the pan,

like it was real good for just a short amount

of time. It had to be really, really popular

because I gave a lot more points to stuff that

had like just been around. It seems like forever

and it's not going anywhere like something that

was popular in the 80s that is just as popular

and still flying off the shelves in the year

2023. Get some extra points to me as well. Mike,

what kind of things did you consider? I wanted

to... Well, number one, I'm just going to give

away my number one because it's my personal list

and it's my bias and it is what I currently collect,

and that is Funko. Because what I love about

Funko is that I can look at Batman the Animated

Series Phantasm, so the character the Phantasm

from the movie Mask of the Phantasm. I have this

in my hand right now. I can look at it in the

box. I can see it. I can enjoy it. If I want

to take it out of the box, I can take it out

of the box easily. The packaging is fine. I don't

need to destroy it. That's the problem I have

with a lot of the other toy companies is their

packaging is like, we really have to staple this

in there. We have to do this. We have to do that.

Whereas Funko, it's just a box. You open, you

close, you put it in, you take it back out, whatever.

And then I went to franchises. Okay, I know technically

Mask is pretty much... much a flash in the pan

even though it's very popular for two or three

years back in the 80s but i went to mask i went

to transformers i went to masters of the universe

turtles and then i wanted to branch out and do

you want to talk about the video game thing because

we had an argument necessarily but a discussion

on how we were going to incorporate the video

game systems well it's it's kind of the same

like when you take like a let's just start by

talking because you brought up transformers or

that so Some of those figures, take Star Wars,

because it's been probably the longest running.

Well, Star Wars and Barbie. They've been around

forever. I'm not including Barbie, because it's

basically been this... I know they've had different

lines, but it's not like Star Wars, where you

had the Return of the Jedi line, and then you

had Empire Strikes Back, and you've had the Phantom

Menace, and you've had the classics, and you've

had... So Transformers is very similar, right?

There's been all kinds of different versions

of that toy line. So we did not consider... We

did not allow for multiple within the same franchise,

I guess, so to speak. So Star Wars is Star Wars.

Star Wars action figures are Star Wars action

figures. We're not differentiating between which

line. It would just get too tricky to do that

and for people to differentiate that. And then

our whole countdown would be various Transformers,

G .I. Joe, He -Man lines. So we didn't want to

do that. So that's all encompassing. So we figured

the same formula was fair to also do with electronic

toys. So instead of having... nintendo super

nintendo gamecube nintendo 64 the wii the switch

all be able to be landing in our countdown it's

nintendo it's just nintendo it's just nintendo

or it's just playstation or it's just sega or

things of that nature the exception is because

a console is different than a handheld that you

we did make room for say game boy or like any

other handheld versions of some of those other

companies like the psp or Things of that nature

could have got in there. But otherwise, for just

the actual console, it was just Nintendo or just

PlayStation. Things of that nature. Same thing.

We kind of treated the same thing with some of

the other electronics when it comes to pinball.

We're not going to pick a specific pinball machine.

We're not going to pick a specific arcade game.

It's just arcade games or pinball games and things

of that nature. So as much as we could. Same

with baseball cards. We're not going to differentiate

between one set of baseball cards and another

set of baseball cards from different companies.

It's just baseball cards. um so we tried to do

that as much as we could to add diversity into

the list and to make it easier for people who

are voting because i don't also for me compiling

like i don't want to try to figure out like were

you voting for transformers or alternators or

boss which line were you talking about like i

it would have been too difficult so that's kind

of how we decided to go with that i also sprinkled

my list with a lot of like classic stuff like

goldfish or playing cards or some board games

mousetrap that kind of stuff did you have a limit

because like for me what i decided to do with

certain topics is put a limit on it like for

board games like i only allowed myself to vote

for x number of board games i would have to look

back to see like what number it was but it would

that's something that i used to try to help narrow

my list down was like you know let's say i had

110 or 120 possible and i only have 100 spots

it was like well i already have let's say 10

board games so maybe this number 11th board game

i'm going to leave off um did you do anything

like that or something where like one toy canceled

another toy out No, not really. I went through

the entire catalog and see what I do is I don't,

I know sometimes you'll do like, Oh, here's my

top 150 and then you'll cut 50 out to make your,

I started a hundred and I go to one. If I go

to one on one to one on one, one 51, that's just

going to create more choice for me. So I start

my list every time we do any of these things.

at 100 and then whatever doesn't fit within that

100 where i don't feel like i want to rank them

then they just get cut and i find something else

something that would be easy to do and this is

what i what amanda did was just take the guide

and basically flip through and whether you're

circling them highlighting them writing them

on a piece of paper or typing them on a computer

it was like start just signaling which ones you

think are ones that you would consider for top

100 and then once you get through the catalog

you count up what you have and you see if you

need to add or subtract some so usually usually

it ends up being pretty close like you you do

that count like first time through and like oh

i have 110 so i only have to cut 10 out or oh

i have 95 i got room for five more so and then

obviously everybody has a different strategy

once you have your 100 for ranking them but go

keep going my top sit well number 10 through

number six actually surprised me they don't surprise

me but like My number 10 is the only board game.

I actually still have it somewhere around here.

It's not the original one. Oh, I'm not going

to give it away. Oh, I'm not giving away anything.

But that's like, oh, it's because of that thing,

the reason why that board game is there kind

of thing. Or the fact that we all used to play

with Silly Putty or Slime or whatever. I didn't,

because we were, thankfully, thank God, because

if we did what you had already said, it would

just be a nightmare for you, for us, for everybody.

Thank God we went with action figure franchises

and not the lines, because like you said, everything

would just, like, no. It would snowball into

your favorite line. Very much so. And thankfully,

because we didn't allow that to happen. My list

has so much more on it than I think it would

have if we had done it the other way around.

Well, like mine, I would have had Beast Wars,

you know, or... War for Cybertron or Legacy or,

you know, things like that to list the figures

I have or like, you know, Trans Art Toys for

the, you know, Beast Wars or for the Lightning

Collection for Power Rangers or, you know, it

would get very complicated very quickly with

the amount of different, not only publishers

of the products, but the different lines in each

product, you know, each franchise. So it's beneficial.

I think it made it easier to rank because you

were like, it's all -encompassing. So no matter

what, it's representative of your one thing.

And so you were able to move on much quicker

to other notable Hall of Famers for the top 100.

And for my list, I kind of whittled it down to

about 120. Because some of them, I'll start ranking,

and I'm like, eh, I don't know, and I'll swap

them out with a different one. But I usually

start with my top 25. Where I'm really pinching

numbers here and trying to figure it out, and

then I finally make the decision to do the 26

through 50, and then I go through the next batch.

And then some of them I'm like, eh, I really

don't care. They're kind of a blip. I'll throw

them in the last 25. Right. And kind of maneuver

them based on that. the rest of them like the

top 75 for the most part are like very highly

thought out of you know their prominence and

how well i like them combined yeah i found say

i did that with um sorry kev good i just said

i found something that always is helpful for

me like once i have the hundred is i always just

start cutting them in half so it's either like

you're in the top half or you're the bottom half

Then once I have that, then I take that half,

and then I'm like, okay, you're either in the

top half or bottom half of this. I keep trying

to make that cut, so it's just an either -or

decision, and it seems to help out a lot. Before

you go, Mike, with your next thought, I'm just

going to give one couple other stats out there,

and that's the last stats I'll do for today.

I will say that we have three people's number

one toy that are not going to make the countdown

at all. We have two people's top 100 that are

going to be revealed before we get to the top

25 and then we have all other 14 i think it's

like 14 let's see 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 16 16 people's number one are within the

top eight wow it was a consensus with some of

these number one picks and i will also say that

there was only one toy that made all 21 lists

So it's amazing. Every other toy was left off

of at least one, if not more or less. Nice. What

was your other thought there, Mike? Oh, I mean,

again, just variety, you know, like seriously,

I'm looking at my list and I'm not going to give

you numbers, but I'll give you names like light

bright or my buddy or the elf talking stuff toy

that I grew up with or view master Uno, or like

you said, baseball cards or any sports cards

or whatever, like. Slinky, you know, Water Balloons,

all this stuff. It's just, you know, once you

get the franchises as the franchises stuff with

the action figures, you're then left to do whatever

you want. And how I usually do it is I will get

100 to 90 out of the way first because I know

it's all the ones I think deserve to be somewhere

on the list, but they're not my top. Again, I

said Cardboard Box was number 99 only because

of in Metal Gear Solid. Blah, blah, blah. Number

100 for me was Barbies, because I'm a guy, I

was a boy, didn't play with Barbies, wasn't my

thing, whatever, but I recognized the fact that

it should be on my list somewhere, kind of thing.

And then the rest of it, once I got to, I think,

the top 30, those were the ones where I really

narrowed, like, okay, I want this at 30, I want

this at 25, I want this at, and then I hit the

top 11, and I'm like, that's easy. I know what

my top 11 toys are going to be. Immediately kind

of thing. I tried to weigh mine. I tried to weight

them because certain action figure franchises,

I could have easily listed them all in my top

15 to 20. I tried to find other items to spread

them out because I'm like, am I looking at it

through a lens of somebody who is a super fan

or am i looking at it from the lens of you know

just the grand scheme of things and some of them

you know i i tried to space out some of them

despite it despite wanting to put them higher

yeah it's interesting too because mike you said

the word diversity i said i wasn't going to add

any more stats but it made me so it's okay so

of our categories within our catalog i will say

that only two categories have no representation.

So every other category got at least one toy

into the countdown. I will say that we at least

have 12 different toy companies that have at

least two entrants. And then I will also say

that out of all of the decades, there's only

one decade that is not represented as far as

producing a toy that made the countdown. And

that does not count anything 2010 or forward

because it just hasn't been a time. So if we

take two thousands all the way back, there's

only one decade that didn't produce a toy that

made our countdown. So I think that reeks of

diversity. Like we have all the, almost all the

different decades accounted for. We have almost

all of the categories we included in the catalog

accounted for except for two. And we have a lot

of toy companies accounted for. So it's going

to be, are you going to tell us that one now?

Are you going to make us wait? Which decade?

Yeah. Um, the 1920s. do not well i mean come

on great depression okay they're too busy kicking

a can like right so nothing from the 1920s but

everything else is represented and i'm not going

to tell you which categories in our catalog do

not oh no no that's no no no that'll be interesting

to have everybody screaming and complaining that's

right that's all the stats i got for you i'm

ready to start revealing i don't know about you

guys it's going to be fun It's going to be so

much fun. Everybody's always complaining about

anything the Geekcast Radio Network does. Hey,

at least they're talking about us. So there's

that. Any final thoughts, Steve? At least it's

not an IGN list. That's true. That's the other

part of it. I just listened to the finale for

some reason that we did of our Top 100 television

series. Don't ask me why. I just decided to throw

it on. And I listened to it just within the last

week. So it got my appetite ready for this. It

almost begs the question, do we need an update?

Yes. No, not on TV. Not yet. Animated series

and animated movies got to come first. Yeah,

if we're really going to go back to the well

and repeat ourselves, even though I repeat myself

a lot, we've got to go back to the beginning.

I'm not doing TV series until probably 2025.

There has to be at least a good decade between

countdowns. Got to let the nostalgia wear off.

But hopefully we'll be able to release all these

right in the Christmas season, so as people are

looking at their own toy catalogs and unwrapping

their own toys for their kids, probably, or grandkids,

or whoever. Toy catalogs? Those still exist?

Really? Yeah, they do. My daughter was just looking

through, I don't know if it was a Target or something,

they put out a toy catalog. Amazon and Walmart

still put them out. Yeah, so I think Target,

Amazon, and Walmart at least. Ain't nothing like

the old Sears wishbook and JCPenney toy catalogs,

folks. Yeah, but they went the way of the Dodo.

Well, yeah, but still. Same thing with Toys R

Us, except they exist as a little shelf in Macy's.

This is the saddest presentation I've ever seen

in my life. It's depressing. If you go to Canada,

there are actual Toys R Us. The version of Toys

R Us is ridiculous. Oh no, absolutely. 100%.

It's like Macy's has this thing, you know, they've

got them on a chain and they're like, sell the

toys. Bring the children's. It's so funny because...

A lot of stuff we grew up with. Okay, so for

the listeners, because we all know the information

I'm about to give out. I was born in 80, Kevin

was born in 81, and Steve was born in 86. So

between the three of us, we are... 80s and 90s

kids. In the 80s and 90s, it was all about Sears

or JCPenney or Toys R Us or, in my case in New

England, Child World, which was a local store

for there kind of thing. Now, you only really

see toy stores if they are run by geeks or run

by, you know, privately. You don't see a big

box toy store. Hardly anywhere. And that's one

of the coolest things that I'll come back around

really quick and mention about Cracktastic Plastic.

One of the cool things about their show is every

episode they spotlight an individual toy store

most of the time. It's so cool. You guys should

check them out. They're awesome. But yeah, I

know this countdown is going to be one of the

most interesting ones I think we've done to this

point. Anything else before I throw it to an

ad break, guys? Nope. Alright. You're going to

hear some ads and some other stuff. We'll come

back to close the show right after this. What

was that universal greeting again? Never mind,

I remember. Ba -weep -grana -weep -ninny -bong.

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. Hi, I'm Dan and I'm the host

of the Rock Nerd Radio Show, which airs live

on HudsonRiverRadio .com every Wednesday evening

at 830 p .m. Eastern Standard Time. It also gets

backed up as a podcast, which you can find on

your preferred podcasting platform. Every week

on my show, I talk about all kinds of pop culture.

I talk about music. I talk about movies, TV,

comics, collectibles, and so much more. I also

feature a guest on my show periodically, which

you might enjoy. I have a couple of special segments

on my show, one called the cover song of the

week and my favorite thing in the world this

week. If you think this sounds cool, check it

out sometime. I hope you do. Just an old guy

talking about old toys. It's me, Willie, from

the Toy Tube Podcast. I talk about toys from

the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, through 90s, and some

mixtures of other toys in there as well. If you'd

like to hear me talk about some old toys in podcast

form, I'm available on Apple, Stitcher, iHeartRadio,

just like an infectious earworm, I'm all over

the place. If you like to see videos on old toys

and old retro games, check out my YouTube channel

at ArcadeUSA. Thanks for listening. Want to learn

a bit about the Transformers? Think you know

everything about Cybertron. but are looking to

learn a little bit more. Enroll today at Transformers

University Podcast. Each episode, we'll tackle

a piece of Transformers history, starting in

1984 and marching our way up to today. Hosted

by me, Anthony Bercali, three -time Emmy Award

winner and consulting producer on Netflix's The

Toys That Made Us, and lifelong Transformers

fan. We'll go on a journey through cartoons and

comics, toys and movies, and all the weird esoterica

from around the world, chronicling the adventures

of everyone's favorite robots in disguise. Listen

to Transformers University on iTunes, Google,

Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you get your favorite

podcasts. Transform and roll out! Do you ever

catch yourself wondering about those old retro

and classic toys you grew up with? Maybe reminiscing

about the amazing toys you received. For your

birthdays or Christmases? Yeah, we do too. So

we created a podcast to talk all about those

amazing toys. Catch the Toy Rewind podcast each

week as the Brothers Newland discuss and learn

the history behind some of the best toys from

years past. You can listen on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, or pretty much anywhere you get podcasts.

Also, be sure to check out ToyRewindPodcast .com

for more content about those classic toys you

love. Give me a hell yeah! I thought that's what

you would say. Yo, Joe, and welcome to the Cracktastic

Plastic Podcast, where a punk rock band of brothers

get together to talk about one of our shared

loves, toy collecting. Toy hunt by day, punk

rock band by night. We'll take any excuse to

get in the van. We all collect different toy

lines like those of real American heroes. G .I.

Joe! To the toys that are more than meets the

eye. Transformers! To He -Man! And the masters

of the universe! From vintage to modern and all

topics in between, you can always expect some

rowdy and passionate discussion because we love

talking toys here on the Cracktastic Plastic

Podcast. Hey, toy fans, this is John, also known

as Iacon Dispatch. You can find me on pretty

much every social network at Iacon Dispatch,

where I share cool Transformers and Star Wars

stuff that I like. Thanks so much to the great

people at Geekcast Radio Network for putting

this awesome project together and for once again

letting me contribute to it. Definitely had a

lot of fun with it. Take it easy, everyone, and

I'll see you around online. 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. Car, car. Download the show

on iTunes or at simplisticreviews .blogspot .com.

I'm sure your insurance company will cover that.

No, they won't. No, they probably won't. All

right, folks. Top 100 Toys Countdown coming soon

to the Geekcast Radio Network Part 2. Numbers

1 through 76 will be coming soon. So come on,

everyone. Get your toys out of those toy boxes

and get ready because in Part 2, as I mentioned,

176. For now, I am TFG with Mike with Steve Megatron

and Optimus Solo. We're going to close out with

a classic toy commercial. Catch you next time,

everybody. We're hungry! Play Hungry Hungry Hippos!

It's fun, fun, fun, by the tongue, tongue, tongue!

They're Hungry Hungry Hippos! It's a wild, wild

way to feed your hippo's face! They're Hungry

Hungry Hippos! It's Hungry Hungry Hippos! Whoever

gobbles up the most marbles wins! You better

eat fast, fast, food, food, fast! They're Hungry

Hungry Hippos! It's fun, fun, fun, by the tongue,

tongue, tongue! They're Hungry Hungry! Don't

touch.