How We Collect Our Toy Collections

Starscream here, and I am the lord and master

of the GeekCast radio network. Don't tell Megatron.

Cliffjumper, commence countdown. Five, four,

three, two, one. And now, ToyCast. Oh, yes. Listen

in to the only toy podcast. you will ever need

into the ocean must be daring the last one in

is a rusty herring you know kids a lot has changed

since your old uncle mickey has been away but

now i'm tanned i'm rested and i'm ready to give

this old podcasting town a wedgie again hello

everyone i am tf21 mike This is Toycast episode

100. We are going to start this journey with

remembering Optimus Scourge. So I'm gonna play

a few clips from episode 1 and episode 5 way

back a decade ago when we first recorded those

so you all can hear. who Optimus Scourge was

and what he was about. I'm also gonna end this

four -hour journey with his advice to toy collectors

and his advice on toy collecting in general.

I want everyone to know that I have worked months

and months on this episode of the podcast. I've

spent hours upon hours getting the audio just

right, getting it all leveled. We recorded each

of these segments at different times from January

to June of 2021. And sometimes the environments

weren't exactly kosher or whatever. I've done

my best. So I hope you guys are interested and

you guys will listen to the just over four hour

journey. of how we like to collect our toy collections.

I want to thank Pia, I want to thank Proto Man,

I want to thank Mike the Bird Man, Steve Megatron,

Dave Draper from Toy World Order, Optimus Solo,

Pecan Court Michael, and the new co -hosts that

are going to be joining me after episode 100

in future Toycast episodes, Josh the Floor Burger,

and a das baron so i hope you're ready because

it's time for toy cast episode 100 oh and i repeat

myself a lot folks because the clips were recorded

at different times over the last six months so

there's not much i can do about that enjoy one

cent auctions yeah Those were the days. Just

hold off if it's an expensive item because chances

are they're going to reissue more stuff. We got

Omega Supreme, we got Metroplex, we could get

Tripticon, Scorponok, so don't go spending three,

four, five hundred dollars because I think Encore

is going to keep pumping out those ones that

they know people want. Mean think about it from

Hasbro Takara told me standpoint, you know Here's

these people on eBay getting three four hundred

dollars for a box toy when they can't get any

part of that and they can just reissue it and

then there goes the the secondary market unless

you're pure vintage which I don't believe in

because the thing about reissues is they're cast

from the same mold. This is Toycast episode 100

and it wouldn't be Toycast 100 without the one

of the very first guests we ever had here on

Toycast. I'm of course TFJ and Mike. Joining

me is Pia, hello, sir. How are you? Hello, I'm

doing fine. How you doing? I'm doing pretty good,

and I never ever thought, like, I think the last

episode of Toycast I posted, and I say this in

other clips, folks, so I'm sorry if I'm repeating

myself, I recorded these clips out of order.

The last time I posted an episode of this show

was, like, 2014, and going back through it, because

we've had several website moves and things like

that, so I've had to go back and fix all the

audio links and everything else, and I'm like...

Oh, Toycast episode one. That was me, you, and

the late great Optimus Surge. And I'm like, fuck,

I shouldn't have listened to that before we started

recording this. Yeah, it's rough. I liked Gary.

He was a good guy. Yeah, he was awesome. All

right, so we are here. And the subject of this

episode of this 100th episode is basically the

Toy Stories of how you collect your collection.

Don't sue me, Pixar, please. You know, but basically,

you know, I've, I've watched you on YouTube for

a year. You know, that first podcast was 12 years

ago that we did, but I think I had been watching

you on YouTube for a couple of years before that

12 years ago. That pod. Yeah, it was 2009. So

yeah, I think I started in 2007. So yeah, I've

been on YouTube for a couple of years at that

point. Geez Christ. Has it been 14 years since

I'm, oh man, it doesn't seem like I'm, I guess

it has been because I got, yeah. My daughter's

about to turn 15 and the whole reason I started

YouTube was because I got A little zoom camera

so I could send videos of her when she was born

to my parents easily So yeah, I guess it's been

about 14 years cheese. Yep. She ain't so niblety

anymore. Is she? No, no Oh boy. So how do you

like having your collection? Are you a mint on

sealed card, mint and sealed box? Do you open

everything up? I know you open it up for the

reviews, obviously, but after you're done filming

a review, do you just display it or do you...

How do you like having the collection? Oh, it's

all opened. I mean, like I might... I generally

don't save a lot of packaging. Like every now

and if I get like a rare... Japanese or more

expensive, you know, like figure from Japan or

overseas or, you know, foreign market, I will,

I will generally see the packaging like retail

stuff. I generally just toss the boxes, some

third party stuff, like a really nice third party

figure I might save a packaging for, but for

the most part, I every few, I keep, I will save

them for a while. And then every few months I'm

like, I got too many boxes and I'll like that

one stay in, but I got to clean out some of these

other boxes. And it's just kind of a hit or miss,

but I generally don't keep boxes. I keep them

out. Cause I like to be able to just. Whenever

I want, I'm like, I haven't played with that

guy in a while. I like to be able to just grab

it and mess with it versus having to dig it out

of the box and all that. True. I save boxes for

iron factory stuff. Oh yeah. Their stuff is amazing.

And their stuff's amazing. And also like they're,

they're smaller so that their boxes don't take

up a whole lot of room. Like some of the bigger

third party stuff does. Yeah, true. Then of course

there's always fun co yay. I don't, I don't,

I have, I have two Funko's up on my, uh, On our

shelf my mother -in -law got my wife and I for

our last anniversary was apparently in some state

in some On some list is like the crystal anniversary.

So we've got Some Dark Crystal, Jen and Kira

Dark Crystal Pops that are up on the shelf. And

I have a Flash Pop that my daughter got me. Oh,

that's cool. Yeah, they're doing real Transformers

now. They've had the Transformers license for

a while, but those old movie pops were... Thankfully,

they're doing G1 now. Yeah, I saw Jazz the other

day. I don't think I saw it in person. I think

I saw an ad for Jazz Funko Pop. It couldn't be

on Twitter or Facebook. Something but I don't

have any of them. So yeah, I mean so you open

everything you play with everything Are you just

strictly transformers or do you do other stuff

or um, I don't I've kind of confined my reviews

lately to just transformers, but I collect Super

sevens got some ninja turtles coming out and

I've been picking those some of those up I did

pick up i guess it's technically transformers

later i started i picked up a couple and i have

a couple of pre -order of. Some of those new

to car a diet clone stuff i just got a little

reader soldier guy the other day i'll collect

a few things like every now and then if there's

like a. A marvel legend of a character i really

like i'll grab one of those you need to tell

stuff there's a new joseph haven't those seem

like such a pain in the butt if you really want

to track down and collect the whole line that

i have not bothered. Declassified series the

whatever the new six inch line is. Yeah, I think

it's declassified. I could be wrong I'm not looking

at any information. So don't Cobra Island or

there's I've seen it Yeah, there is a set of

bats coming out and that I will have to hunt

down. I do want some bats So yeah, 14 years on

YouTube, I never thought I bet you never thought

you'd you could say that I I did it as a lark.

I still kind of do it as a lark and like I would

not I honestly didn't think it would last as

long I figured Truthfully like I mean and they've

been doing it slowly. I figured by now YouTube

would have been like, yeah, you know, we've decided

we're not gonna pay anything anymore and and

it wouldn't have been worth it and and Or either

would have gone away or just devalued creators

to the point that it wasn't worth it anymore

So I'm kind of surprised it's still going I like

doing it Yeah it's funny man it's just so funny

and i know this is devolved into a youtube conversation

but it's just one of those things where it's

like. I think they tried going before strong

big streaming really hit i mean streaming now

we've got. Anything from netflix to hulu to disney

plus to discovery plus to everybody hbo max everybody's

got an app but i think you know it's you know

back in. Whatever 2010 2013 somewhere around

there you know YouTube was like oh let's try

to aim towards television and then they realized

oh wait no that's not gonna work for us because

that's not what we're what we started with. Yeah

well it just depends on who the creator is it

doesn't matter if it's a toy review or a tech

review or whatever it depends on who the personality

is really yeah I like it when it was like like

Netflix was good. I'm like having something like

Hulu is great, but then everybody's like Oh people

like that and then everybody's scramble to get

a piece of the pie and now you're right back

in the same situation like people liked Hulu

because for you know eight nine bucks a month

you could get just a couple of channels you wanted

without having to pay a whole bunch of money

for a cable subscription now just to get all

the content from all the different channels you

have to pay as much or more than a cable subscription

To how all these streaming services. Yeah, it's

it's crazy So what is one thing in your collection

right now that you absolutely love? That I absolutely

love in my collection one I just got that that

fans hobby our moda convoy or modern optimus

Mm -hmm, and he's fantastic. Like I am loving

that one a lot Yeah, he's actually literally

like I'm like within arm's reach. He's right

here on the end table next to me right now something

What was something else? I picked up recently

that I really really liked Oh, I have this is

not super recent, but they got Titans they did

that Titan Scorponok and I managed to get my

hands on the Japanese version of the Titan Fort

Max they did recently that has the more like

just I just feel like it represented the older

toy a little better with the paint scheme. And

I've got both of them standing next to each other

in the computer room. And those two are every

time I walk in there, I just like looking at

them because I build still two of my old school

favorites. And the fact that they're now comparable

in size, like they stand next to each other.

And it's not like Fort Max is not towering over

Scorpion and it looks fantastic. Those are those

are some of my favorites right now. That's amazing.

What are you expecting to collect in the future?

We've seen with Earthrise, with Siege, and with

Kingdom coming, and whatever else. What are you

hoping that they eventually do? whether it's

Hasbro with Transformers or any other toy company,

what's one toy, if you could have one toy that

has not been made yet, what would it be? One

of the things that I know is coming is Super

7 has announced Silverhawks. And i am go i'm

looking for those those and there's another company

that has that is doing centurions and those turn

out really nice so those are two lines i'm looking

forward to like i would love if i could pick

one toy for hasbro to make i would love. A tiger

hawk in. Like within in line with like the kingdom

figures we've been getting. Tiger Hawk as in

Air Razor Tigatron's combined form. Yes, that

would be amazing Oh, I would love one that fit

the new aesthetic because the new Kingdom line

is something I'm super excited about right now

too because like those of all those so far have

been great Yeah, except for Rattrap man. He looks

so small. I really like Rattrap He is small,

but he's a fun little figure and I think like

I said, they're they're not straight up cartoon

aesthetic, but like they look really nice together

on a shelf and I dig him. He said Primal and

Megatron are my favorites so far out of what's

been released, but I like all of them. Yeah.

Kingdom Megatron man looks just as good as Masterpiece.

Honestly, he's not quite as refined as Masterpiece

visually, but like he's way less chance of anything

cracking and he's way easier to transform than

the Masterpiece. Oh, that's crazy. All right.

I think we are going to move on to the next clip

and in the next clip, because as I said, folks,

I've recorded these out of order. I really have

had no plan for this. I'm just like, Hey, I used

to podcast with you, you, you, and you. And instead

of trying to get everybody together on one call

and everybody talking over everybody, I'm like,

let's do individualized segments. Yada, yada,

yada, yada, yada. So coming up next, we have

the goddamn proto man and. That was a two hour

conversation that I cut down to 20 minutes. It

does. We'll be back after this. This is Toycast

100, and it wouldn't be Toycast 100 without starting

off with someone that basically started the show

with me. Of course, I'm talking about the goddamn

Proto Man! Hello sir, how are you? I'm doing

great, I'm doing great. Glad to be back. I don't

even remember when was the last time I did one

of these. It's been... Good lord, I don't even

know. It's gotta be five years if it's been ten.

It's probably close to 10 like the last episode

I remember airing was like 99 in 2014 I think

and I'm still going through as of this I'm still

going through fixing all the links and everything

else but it's like I'm up to fixing episode 25

26 you've been on like half of those already

awesome kind of thing but uh yeah this is toy

cast 100 we're getting the toy stories because

somebody was like hey you should tie it into

pixar not really but we're getting the toy stories

of how people collect their collections now if

you don't know who proto man is you've been living

under a rock and you shouldn't do that even though

we all have to go in the transformer world in

the transfer well yes but i mean come on you

know proto man uh you've been a friend for a

long time and I was curious to know how how do

you like having your collection like I've seen

your a few of your collection videos I've seen

a few things that you've done but are you meant

on seal card mints and seal box or do you just

open everything up and let it collect dust well

you know just to like like go backwards a moment

like my father is a toy collector And there's

a great video online that I recorded on YouTube,

not to plug anything, but it's called a Proto

Man Father's Day special, where I just did a

video interviewing my dad and his toy collection,

because so many people would be like, your collection's

so cool, how did you get inspired to do it like

that? My dad. And my dad, who still is a toy

collector amazingly still to this day, he collects

1950s and 60s die -cast cars and stuff like that.

I saw through him. that you open the box. He

keeps the boxes, but you open it, you display

it, you enjoy it that way. And my argument that

used to always be, especially with Transformers,

because is there Transformers in my collection

that are mint on box? Yes. But if I had to put

that in a percentile, it'd be like 2%. And you're

talking a collection of over 10 ,000 figures.

So it's a very small 2%. But that being said,

Transformers as a toy line, if there's one toy

line where leaving it mint on card is only half

the story, it's that one. Because if you have

a mint on card Star Wars figure, even on the

bubble, if you look at the figure through the

packaging, you have a pretty good idea what's

going on there. You could see where the lightsaber

is going to go in the hand. The imagination isn't

too lost there. When you look at a Transformer

toy mint on card, especially like how Hasbro

used to do it back in the day, where they used

to do it more with the alt mode, where it'd always

be in the truck mode or whatever, you only got

half the story. Now, granted, the way Hasbro

did things, they made sure that the robot mode

is still somewhere featured on the package, so

the mystery isn't lost there. But the enjoyment,

tangibly in person, is lost. Meaning, when you're

holding that mint -on -card astro train, and

it's stuck in shuttle mode, you only get to see

that. And you can never see the other two modes

that are available to it, the robot mode and

the train mode. And that's where I feel Transformer

toys, you got to open them combined with the

fact that it's a play pattern toy, it's a puzzle

pattern toy. So it's something where it's like

owning like a video game minted package and never

opening it. It's like, really, bro? You know

what I mean? You open it and you play. the game

and it's the same thing transformers it's all

about that that tactile transforming thing that

you have to open it you have to open like having

a mint on card like if i do have stuff mint on

cards usually doubles or their specific collectibles

where it looks nice on the packaging and then

there's you get you fall into the whole historical

reasoning behind keeping stuff mint on package

especially when you're talking a brand that's

35 plus years old now but that being said i i

almost open everything And I've said this many

times to people, like after I open it, then it's

really like, what do I keep of the packaging

and what do I throw out? Because when you have

a huge collection like that, I've seen guys that,

and it helped inspire my own choices, but I've

seen guys that they have huge toy collections

and then they have like a storage unit that's

just packaging. And I go, what a waste. you know

like what like like the amount of like to give

an example for anyone who knows like you have

that new unicorn that's coming out the has lab

unicorn and the box that it comes in is like

the size of a washing machine and i just know

there's going to be hardcore collectors that

are going to keep the box that it ships in and

that means they're going to have something the

size of a washing machine taking space in their

house You know just because they don't want to

get rid of that original shipping box of unicorn

You know and which already the unicorn toy is

gonna be taking space on its own Outside of the

box and that's the biggest plight of any toy

collector is space space is the biggest issue

the whole reason why I Like what really pushed

me to moving out of my parents is as crazy as

this sounds and buying my own house a twelve

and a half houses Beautiful big house was because

I started running out of space. It was just a

that 2007 movie came out And by 2009, that bacon

was cooked, man. It was done. I was already like,

all right. And not to mention, here's my father,

who's a collector too. And it was this convergence

of his collection's still growing. Mine is growing

faster than it ever has because of those Michael

Bay movies at the time. And we were just hitting

a wall. We were just going like, we're running

out of space. And here's me just going, you know

what? I'm going to buy a house. I work as a car

mechanic. I have the money. And I was like, it's

time. It's time. I'll buy my own place and I'll

literally turn into a giant museum of madness

and the rest is history with that. I like to

open it for number one, and I collect other stuff

too, but even with other toy lines, I like to

open it. You got to let them breathe. You got

to enjoy the product. There is a time where it

makes sense to keep stuff minted in package from

an investment standpoint, speculative standpoint,

or historical standpoint. But considering how

most toys are, I use the term, printed into oblivion

today, where you pick up the latest Optimus Prime

toy off of Walmart shelves, there's only going

to be a billion of those made. Well, maybe not

a billion, but a million of them made. So you're

not exactly going to be preserving something,

leaving it minted packaged. That's going to be,

you know, it's like the 90s boom of comic books.

Everyone kept them sealed in a poly bag with

a cardboard backing. you know thinking that one

day it's going to be worth millions while on

there's millions of them printed how rare is

it how much history are you really preserving

yeah so yeah read the comic just enjoy it yeah

god damn this is why i you know prefer digital

that way i don't have to worry about preserving

anything oh god like yeah the amount of space

that books take exactly all those long boxes

good lord yes but yeah so you you've mentioned

so far that you have And I assume this is just

Transformers. You have 10 ,000 figures. The last

time I counted, I used to have a spreadsheet

back in 2010. And that spreadsheet, you know

your collection is huge when you're not keeping

track of what you have, but what you don't have.

Like that's when your collection flips over to

the dark side. Like when you collect something,

first you're making a list of what you have.

then you reach a point where you've collected

so much, now you're just making a list of what

you don't have. And it reached that point where

my spreadsheet was going like, and spreadsheets,

because of how they work, you have columns and

stuff, and my spreadsheet's like, yeah, you got

like, at the time, in 2010, about 10 ,000 columns

going. And I was like, Jesus Christ. And it's

just because when you think about it. G1 is,

I think, 608 figures last I checked. You count

all three regions. Then Beast Wars is another

300 -something with all three regions. Beast

Machines is another 68. When you get into G2,

you're talking another, if I remember offhand,

280. And all of that is small potatoes when I

get into the movie stuff. There is, in 2007,

there is more movie... toys and merchandise then

there is all transformers up to that point which

is like i don't want to swear but madness absolutely

madness so that's absolutely crazy now fast action

fast action battleers robot replicas robot heroes

there was like all these exclusives through radio

shack not even counting mainline stuff not counting

deluxes voyagers you know scouts there is a real

tech gear real gear like there is so much that

it was like and imagine I was buying it all like

I kind of slowed down since then because it got

a little crazy but there was a point you know

so that you would slow down I mean your house

is only so big kind of thing imagine here here's

the thing I buy a 12 and a half I get cocky I

go well I have all the space in the world I'm

gonna have a room just dedicated to video games

I'm gonna have a room just dedicated to like

miscellaneous comic books I call it the library

that's comic books manga miscellaneous stuff

and then I start the transformer floor. Yes,

floor. And everything's going good in 2010, 2011,

but this line was not letting up. I got cocky

because I got used to, like when you think about

Beast Wars 1996, 32 figures, Beast Wars 1997,

maybe another 40 figures. Now it's like each

year Hasbro puts out easily 150 to 200 products.

of transformer stuff a year minimum minimum and

that's not counting masterpiece and everything

on the other side of the globe so it started

to really and and imagine if i even dived into

third party that's a whole other animal which

i actually kind of avoid you know so it's imagine

if you dived into the best toy line out there

funko pop anyway well everything's kept everything's

kept mint in box and a funko collector Collector

sleeve or whatever those boxes are Well, that's

just it imagine if I kept every transformer in

the in the box I have no space after just g1

because it takes it takes so much more space

when you keep it mints in box It looks nice,

but you know, so let me ask you this. I know

you are a Completionist yes, but there's only

isn't there only so far a completionist can go

aren't there? Transformers toys that you look

at it and be like That's great, but I don't need

to be that much of a completionist if I don't

like the design of the toy. I hit the wall in

around 2010, 2011 with Dark of the Moon, where

I started realizing that Hasbro was milking the

proverbial cow. There was so much product that

just didn't need to exist, but it did. And and

and I was picking it up. I would I have like

there's I posted on my Twitter once in a while

Like I it's like I have the transformers animated

children's shaving kit and it's just a no joke

It's like an optimist prime razor blade with

them with an optimist prime mirror from animated

with like fake shaving cream Like they were just

throwing it on everything Transformers the movie

Fishing Rod, you know, Transformers the movie

Tackle Box, like 2007, 2008, like just everything.

And I was buying all of that. It got to a point

where I was like, okay, this is getting done.

This is like, it's getting to a point where it's

getting done. And I started really just really

focusing specifically on just proper representations

of character to film or character to screen or

character to comic. And that's it. I started

to really dial it back because I realized if

I kept up at this, I'd have to buy a new house

probably, which is kind of nuts. And that's where

it gets to a point where I always feel your collection

should never be your burden. My father said a

lie many years ago because me and my sister were

like, you know, what do you want us to do with

all of this when you pass away? And my father

said, well, I can't take it with me. You know,

so do whatever you want with it and enjoy the

money. It's primarily because his collection

is so big too. It's daunting even from our own

perspective. It's something like when he passes

away, God forbid, it's going to be one of those

things where me and my sister are going to be

like, where do we start? Like, okay, 1947 Chevy

on eBay. It's going to take our whole lives just

to sell all, or we do something foolish and some

picker comes in and just. you know, buys it all

and at a cut. But I don't necessarily think if

Mike or Frank showed up at your house, I don't

think that would be foolish as long as they gave

you a good price for the value of what it. Well,

that's that's that's always that's always the

thing is that it's something where, you know,

you know, you could get your maximum value because

I see what my father still buys for these. He

still buys to the stay on eBay and what he pays.

My God. some of the numbers it's like it makes

transform like you would think like a guy in

his 60s going into his 70s you'd think his hobby

is is dialing it down at this point no man those

guys still got like you know i guess retirement

checks and stuff and they're spending just as

much like i'm like looking at like g1 minerva

going man two thousand dollars that's expensive

and then he's like looking at like some die cast

car that still has its box of some 1960s vehicle

and it's going for three grand and it has like

17 bids and you're going like what the heck you

know like they're still they're still kicking

those dudes so it's something where it's me going

like i see what they still go for and it's me

going man like i don't know It's something you

got to educate yourself and be smart with it.

And that's just his diecast collection. He has

a vinyl record collection. If you ever have the

time and watch that video, it's going to give

you a really good perspective of where my base

of collecting knowledge came from and my application

to it when you see what my dad has and what he

does and how he displays it too. You'll see the

way he displays it also. And it's like, let me

tell you something, when I moved out, it was

probably the greatest day of his life because

then he could take over my space. And then he

started, he took over, like no joke, I move out,

he right away started building shelving, like,

you know, it was just like, wow, he didn't waste

no time, you know, but anyway. That's crazy.

Yeah, I'll put that in the show notes for this

episode. It's a nice funny little, it's a nice

fun video. I just, I always wanted to do that

just because he's a very mild -mannered man.

despite the fact you know he has a very like

his son me is very like outgoing and talkative

and stuff and he's someone that's like he has

this crazy collection and no one knows he just

kind of like kept it to himself and i was just

like man someone's you know we got to talk about

this one day because like of just how like imagine

i'm like a five -year -old kid and seeing something

that like when you see the image of the video

you're like i saw that like almost every day

of my life these glass cases with cars in them

at five years old And I was taught like, you

know, these are daddy's toys. You don't touch

these. And it showed me to respect the hobby

and stuff, too. But you'll see what it was like,

man, like I grew up around that. There was no

garage sale where all the toys were sold. You

know, like that didn't exist in our house. And

that's what I'm kind of grateful for, too, is

a lot of my childhood toys I still have to this

day because my father. had a mentality even back

then of, hey, this 1985 G1 blaster might be worth

something someday. Because my toys right now,

well, you know, I was like five years old at

the time, my toys, my dad's toys right now. We're

already had increasing value and those were like

20 years old at the time from the 60s to the

80s. So anyway, we'll move on. Yeah. It's just,

it's crazy. It's interesting to hear. And I hope

people will check that video out. Yeah. I mean,

I was just kind of curious to, you know, hear

your thing on your collection and hear your thing

of how you, you know, what is your toy story

kind of thing. And that's kind of what Toycast

100 is going to be, folks. It's going to be me

talking to various people. I think next up, I've

got Steve Megatron. After that, I've got Mike

the Birdman Dodd. At some point, I'm going to

have Pia on here and we'll see what goes from

there. But it's just nostalgia going back and

looking through the archives of this podcast

and being like, oh my God, the conversations

we had on this show back in the day. Just where?

Where and again this started to cast started

out as transformers toy cast it was exclusively

talking about the transformers toys we were buying

and getting in collecting and playing with and

we were all. 10 to whatever, how many years younger

than we are. Excuse my ignorance, do you still

call yourself TFG1 Mike on this? Of course. Okay,

just making sure. I think so. I don't remember.

Well, that's just it. Well, because that's why,

because back then I remember it was TFG1 Mike.

So it's like, do we still go by that? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. That's,

that's a thing I will never get rid of. Cause

it's like, I just know you as Mike or Michael,

but the screen names sometimes I wonder people

still go by them. Oh yeah, absolutely have to.

It's just one of those things where once it,

and this is why, you know, this is kind of behind

the scenes here, folks. This is why if you look

at our website posts, they'll say whatever your

first name is, whatever your last name is. And

in the middle in quotation marks, it has. the

goddamn proto man TF2 and Mike, whatever it is

or thing. And it's like, because we all have

online personas and personalities that we may

not. I mean, me, I'm just me. And, you know,

it, you know, I am the way I am online, offline,

whatever, I don't know any other way to be kind

of thing. So, yeah, so yeah, I've been going

by TF2 and Mike for the longest time. And thankfully,

I've had no imposters pop up. I noticed that.

He'd be like, oh my God, it's a scam. Don't believe

the contest. It's not real. I'm like, okay, we

get it. We know who you are. You know, you should

know who we are. But yeah, no, it's just been

a fun thing going down memory lane and going

down all this road with toys and everything else.

for me another reason why i wanted to have you

here was because at least in this beginning part

here is because my toy collecting changed exponentially

like i was collecting i'd say for i mean i had

toys from when i was a kid and stuff my mom had

all that stuff until she gave it to me i think

in 2012 but from like 2005 to 2011 yeah no she

gave me 2012 she gave me before then you know

2011 because of financial things i had to sell

it off and honestly they were just Sitting there

i wasn't transforming them i wasn't like i wasn't

sitting there like you know rick moranis playing

with his dolls or whatever you want to say kind

of thing from space balls and i'm like i do like

these i do enjoy these i love having them i love

the fact that i did have them but it's one of

those things where i'm like yeah i need the money

more than i need the toys right now kind of thing

and well and also it's it's it goes to that saying

i think her name is mary condo who was like she's

all about space i mean does it bring you joy

yeah you know like it's something where if it's

just sitting and taking space and it doesn't

bring you joy then in all honesty, it should

be paying rent. You know, like if it's, if it's

taking space in your life at that point, it should

legitimately be paying rent because it's just

sitting around doing that. Where in that case,

if you sell it and you could get something for

it, I mean, that's, that's one of the things

that I do on my podcast is I like looking at

the price margins of transformer toys, older

ones. And when I say older, I mean, like let's

say 2010 to now. And if something that came out

in 2011, All of a sudden spikes to like a 50,

70, $80 toy. I like to talk about it on my podcast

because then if there's anyone that just has

it in their collection and they don't need it

anymore, and now it's a $70 figure, but they

paid like $10 for it back in the day. Hey, go

get your money, brother. You know what I mean?

Go get your money because now's the time. And

that's something that I always practice a lot

with people is if there's an opportunity to make

money and you don't care about it anymore, go

get your money. you know, especially in these

times that we are today, you know, so go get

your money. Absolutely. And yeah, I mean, like

the whole reason why, like, I had kind of heard

of Funko, but I was like, when I sold my stuff

off in 2011, I was out of the toy game. I could

still look at, let's say San Diego Comic -Con

or whatever, you know, whenever toy companies

would make their announcements throughout each

of the years after 2011. So I'm like, that's

cool. I don't want it. I don't need it. Yeah,

vicariously lived through the images, pretty

much. Right, right, exactly. I'm like, oh, that's

a cool toy. That looks really great. I have no

desire to actually... have it. And then somehow,

someway, I don't know what it was, somebody pointed

out Funko Pops to me in late 2016, early 2017.

Oh no, it was my buddy Doug. Well, I'll probably

have to throw on here. He has, he and his wife

have a whole Funko Pop collection. That's kind

of how I found out about them. So when I came

back to Kentucky at the time when I was living

out there, I was like, Oh, let me go find these.

And the two, I still remember the very first

two I ever got. One I found in a, in a, in a...

Comic Shop and the other one I got at GameStop.

It was Stone Cold Steve Austin. Cause you know,

hell yeah. And it was 66 Back Girl. Because honestly,

how many 66 back girl action. I'm sure there

are plenty of Yvonne Craig. Probably not much.

Yeah. Probably not many. Yeah. But I mean, there's

not, there's not much and there wasn't much kind

of thing. And that's like those first two figures.

Like I will never get rid of those because those

are my first two Funko pops. And then I'm just

like, Oh, dark wing duck. Oh, this, all that.

But there are plenty of Funko pops that I won't

buy. Like I have zero interest in any of the

Game of Thrones stuff. They did that. I'm glad

they did it I'm glad that the fandom has something

There there's a lot of them that I always say

if if you didn't have like the name under it

or the the logo You and that's my rule. I would

imagine what especially with Funko collectors

if you can't even guess what it is Yeah, you

know what? I mean some of them are pretty vague

and it's like I think like well the ones that

are so great are the the ad icons because you

don't get action figures of like buzz the honeybee

from Cheerios. You don't get like, I'm holding

in my. Oh yeah. Well, that's how Funko started.

Well, right. That's how Funko started with they

were focusing more on, on all of those, like

all of those kind of like just ad icons and like,

again, those, those mascots of those different

companies and those ones, those ones make more

sense. Again, like I've said about, I've had

this discussion with you off the air, but it

was like, to me, uh, Funko pops primarily. what

I enjoy about it is when they do stuff that doesn't

have merch, that doesn't have that, because that's

a real staying power. Like I said to you before

off the air, like the Kool -Aid man, you know?

Like getting the Kool -Aid man as a figure, and

it looks great too. Like, even if you're a Funko

Pop hater, go check out the Kool -Aid Man figure.

It doesn't even look like a Funko Pop. It's that

good, you know? Yeah, exactly. It just looks

like a good, solid figure. You know, if you would

have found that thing loose, you would have never

known. You know, so I'm sitting here holding,

and I have most of... just because we moved from

Chicago to out here to Vancouver, Washington.

I have most of my Funko stuff in storage with

my dad, but like I have from actually as of this

recording from a year ago, I have, uh, they were

doing a Dr. Pepper contest where you could send

away for a free little sweet Funko pop. So basically

I have a little miniature Justin Guarini little

sweet from, from the diet Dr. Pepper ads, Funko

pop. It's right here sitting next to me. And

I'm like, That's why I like Funko, because of

cool shit like that, because it's one of those

things where, how else are you ever going to

get that? And that's why I enjoy it. Yes, I still

enjoy the Star Wars stuff. Yes, I still enjoy

the Marvel, the DC, all of that. That's great.

But there's so much of that, whereas there's

only one. Yeah, I was about to say, I'm sure

you enjoy it reasonably, because there's so much.

Well, yeah. I mean, I have maybe four Star Wars,

and maybe... I go for the silly things when it

comes to Funko. Here's the thing. Yeah, yeah

for Star Wars. How many Star Wars are there like

600 something like that? Yeah, well then you

were being very reasonable if you have only four

or six hundred that sounds reasonable to me Yeah,

yeah, but it's like It's just one of those things.

I don't know. So alright. I want to thank for

them in for joining me here It's a little longer

than normal, but you know, we talk a lot and

we haven't talked in a long time. Yeah, we did

together so Uh, like I said up next is going

to be Steve Megatron after that'll be Mike the

Birdman and we'll keep going on forward with

Toycast 100. Where can the people find you online,

sir? Oh, well, right now, uh, Proto Man, uh,

Proto Man on Twitter. So just, uh, twitter .com

forward slash Proto Man. Um, also I have a podcast,

Transformers Slag podcast, the number one Transformer

podcast in the world, according to analytics

apparently now. So that's, uh, you know, go to

youtube .com. Forward slash transformer swag

podcast or you could just search it on there.

That's probably the two best ways I also have

like a I call it my portal hub So the protoman

.com where it kind of just links to all the stuff

that I work on I work on professionally with

stuff, too with Hasbro and licensors so you can

check out the stuff that I've worked on with

them. My podcast, all my other little segments

and stuff, all the little things here and there.

I've had a very fun life so I try to document

as much of the adventures that I've had throughout

the years. But my podcast is probably the most

active thing. It's a daily podcast. Every day

there's a new episode of something and then on

the weekends I do live streams where I answer

questions from the fans and stuff like that.

So really cool stuff, but yeah. Very cool, very

cool. We'll be back with Toycast 100 after this.

I love you. Shut up, bitch. I'm not done. I,

uh, I come in peace. You're about to leave in

pieces. No need for violence, Rhinox. I merely

wish to talk. Stop it, Maximal Fool! He'll soon

regret this impertinence. Yes, folks. This is

Toycast 100, and joining me now is Steve Megatron.

Hello, sir. Ah, yes. It is I. Kelvatron. No.

Yes, and we are here to talk about toys and the

toy stories of how we like having our collections,

as you've already heard in this podcast so far.

Steve, how... Did you have your collection when

you had a collection and kind of thing? Because

some people are like, well, I like mint and box.

Some people like mint on card. Some people were

like, ah, open everything and play with it all

until it breaks. So how do you, how did you as

a kid do it and how do you do it now as an adult?

Well, as a kid, as a kid. Opened everything and

I played with it, but I was very careful like

very meticulous I was one of the few that didn't

have their trans metals like the I don't know

if anybody remembers the Beast Wars trans metals

they had the problem with the Metallic paint

flaking because it was vacuum sealed on it wasn't

like actually yeah back metal So what happened

is after a while or if you hit it just right

it would flake and then it would continue to

do so sequentially until it was no more. I had,

trying to think, I had Transmetal Primal, I had

Optimal, I had Megatron, I had Transmetal 2 Megatron,

and I had Rattrap and Tarantulas. The only one

that started to flake was Rattrap, and that's

because I was more rough with him than the others.

The others, like, I was very meticulous on not

letting them punch anything. not letting like

doing simulated hits. My brothers, on the other

hand, which is beat the living tar out of each

other's toys. And the first time he did that

to mine, I like I let him know. I'm like, that's

not going to happen. So you have two two brothers.

You're so you guys are three kids. You are the

oldest of the three, correct? Oh, yeah. And I

took care of my things. Right. There's had the

limbs that were all like noodles. And mine were

the ones that were like stiff as a board because

I was very like I kept them posed like I moved

the arms. I moved the heads, I moved the torsos,

but I was very careful with the legs because

I'm like, that is your support system. If it

goes, it's gone. And so I was very late, very

careful with my stuff. And so a lot of it survived

many, many years. And I ended up with a lot of

it through my adult years. And I had bought,

because I had a weird situation growing up where

my parents got divorced and we had to split.

Our toys we weren't allowed basically we weren't

allowed to bring toys from one house to the other

So there were it was just a weird situation So

my brothers if you ask them today will tell you

that it was just messed up But we ended up buying

some of the same toys twice So so when We moved

back like we moved on our own. I ended up with

two optimal optimuses two transmetal Megatrons

two Transmetal Optimus Primals, although I traded

one of those to my brother for... I think he

had Inferno, and I traded it for that. And somebody

else, I traded something like... One of my Megatrons

broke, the arm... It had a weird cheap plastic

gimmick that eventually the pin would freeze,

and you'd go to transform it, and it would snap

off, and you would lose like the entire... like

whatever arm that was the whole portion and the

transformation was totally shot after that and

so yeah, and it was sad because that was my favorite

Megatron other than the Transmetal 2 and but

he was never like Scalable like his size was

not up to scale with everything else and so it

always irritated me and then eventually my second

one broke and I just I ended up pawning them

to pawn shop when I ended up needing money. That

was one of the casualties and the one primal,

the one optimal I tried turning into. the Megatron

Optimal from Beast Machines. I tried to alter

the head except for the fact that the faceplate,

the face would not come out because the way they

were designed, both of them, I ended up shattering

both faces on one of the broken Megatrons and

the one broken Optimal. So the one had no head,

the other one had no head. So like I said, eventually

I got rid of all the broken ones and then I was

left with my good ones. And I had like a masterpiece,

Optimus Prime is the only masterpiece I had because

it came out for like 60 bucks when that program

first started. And even that like... I was very

careful with everything and I played with them

and I played with them again when, you know,

my boys were younger. And then I hit a point

where I was just like, I don't need all these

things because I had collectibles. I had signed

pictures on the walls. I had mint on the card,

Hot Wheels, and some of the figures that I didn't

want to open. All my transformers were open though.

uh, because part of the fun was getting to get

them out and play with them and sometimes transform

those sometimes not but then I eventually like

for whatever reason I just lost interest and

I got rid of all of them got rid of everything

except for No, actually I got rid of all of them

and I sold them on ebay and I managed to like

the the transmetal tube dragon I I quadrupled

what I paid for him because I bought him for

20 bucks at walmart back in the 90s and then

I flipped it for 80 on ebay and then the the

masterpiece prime I bought him for 60 I flipped

him for 220 and and then like I mean I flipped

a lot of them and it was it was surprising how

much I got for him although now I'm kicking myself

because three years later some of them are worth

more than what I sold them for and uh like tarantulas

you can't get him cheaper than 100 bucks oh no

you can't it's metal and oh yeah no you can't

and he was that's the thing I get to give him

the train's metals were at least somewhat show

accurate compared to the other one. I mean, when

you get to the Transmetal 2, maybe they were,

like Megatron really wasn't, but Cheetor was.

Cheetor was not. I was very disappointed. I actually

searched out Transmetal 2 Cheetor and it was

not, it was not show accurate at all. And then

all the Dinobots were terrible. Rattrap was kind

of half and half. Tarantulas was really good.

Primal was really good. Megatron was kind of

so -so, but I mean, overall they did a pretty

good job for what they had in that time. And

then looking at the stuff that comes out now,

I mean, you get third party, fourth party, knockoffs.

They're actually doing like you get Hansbrook

Takara is doing the masterpiece line of season

one of these doors. Trans Arts Toys is doing

season two of the trans medals because they've

got Ravage, Cheetor, Primal, and Trans Mutate.

And the Primal and Cheetor and Ravage are spectacular.

Their masterpiece scale there. They take what

the original did, but amplify it, making them

and masterpiece scale. And then the quality is

so much better than the originals in many cases.

And they come with all kinds of cool stuff like

stands. So you can make it look like primals

floating in his hover hover portion or the jets

or the cannons and stuff. They have light up

features and then you have perfect effect and

jang X or something like that. And they do optimal

and transmittal to Megatron. And they're spectacular.

They're not completely show accurate, but they're

they're inspired and they look what you remember

it as. More so than what it actually is. And

so they're very good. So you get between the

three companies you get season one, two and three.

And so before I sold off all my stuff, I did

trade in a bunch of things to TF source. And

I know I got raked over the coals, but I ended

up getting Masterpiece Optimus Primal. And what's

funny is, is he was like, he was 120 when I got

him. Do you know how much he goes for new now?

200? 299. It doubled in price and I was just

like, oh, I got him at the right time. Although

I'm sure Megatron was the same way when he first

came out. I'm sure he was cheaper and then it

skyrocketed after because I was kicking myself.

I was like, man, I want Megatron. But no, I mean,

I, so I have, I have now, like I'm, I have some

things I'm starting to replenish. Like especially

with the kingdom line coming out the you know

Megatron I've read trap Megatron if studio series

86 scourge That was one thing I had the titanium

of him and I hated it because it was never show

accurate And that's one thing I'm a stickler

for is if it's not show accurate. I just don't

want it Yeah, I would rather have something that

looks perfect. You know perfect. Oh, you know

very perfect compared to the original. If I'm

going to not keep the original, I want it to

look like the show. If I'm going to keep the

original, I'm just going to deal with the fact

it's original. But no, I mean, so I have them

and then I have a few other studio or not studio,

like Kingdom Figures on the way and Thrilling

30 Waspinators again, even though I had them

years ago. Yeah, I mean, so I mean, and right

now, especially these tours with it being 25th

anniversary, a lot of the stuff is so much better

than what we had back in the day. Granted, Quality

control due to factories is not as good as it

was back in the day Like the plastic is limbs

here. It breaks easier I've been reading like

tabs on blacker acting a cheater for the new

line broken already. They've had Various issues

with that when you transform them for the first

time sometimes, right? Yeah, and how what you

know what shipment that was and you know like

Megatron they're talking about the some of the

the rubberized they're saying are very flimsy

and well, I never intend to transform these again.

They're display pieces. Yep, that's the good

thing now that. Most of the things now Hasbro

is doing for transformers is they're packaging

them in robot mode. Now I know as kids awesome.

It is awesome. And now I know as kids, you know,

back in the eighties, they packaged them in vehicle

mode. Cause the whole point is to transform them,

to discover the rope, you know, to have that

thrilling feeling of getting through the, however

many steps transformation is. And that's the

other thing I like about Hasbro, what Hasbro

is doing now. They're telling you, this figure

transforms in 27 steps. And here are those steps

in order for you to do it. Back in the day, the

instruction manuals were there, but they weren't

very detailed. Well, to some degree, some of

them aren't today. Um, and some of the things

I like about like, for instance, the trans arts,

uh, toys, the trans metal figures, they transform

their, they're like upscaled and upgraded versions

of the original toy. So they transform in the

exact same way. So you don't, if you know how

to do the one 25 years ago, you're upset. Whereas,

you know, in the masterpiece things, like I have

primal, I've transformed him from beast to a

robot. Once and I've left him in robot. I've

never even changed the face plates because I'm

too afraid of breaking it and so You know, I've

I've got it. It works. It does what it needs

to do. But like I have no intention I'm never

transforming it and the same thing goes if I

get any of the other masterpieces whether third

-party or the regular line I don't intend on

ever transforming any of them. They're gonna

stay in robot their display and then that's it.

Very cool. Very cool. All right, well I think

that's going to do it for Steve's segment. I

don't know what's coming up next here on Toycast

100, folks. I honestly don't know. I have no

clue. I'm just loving doing this with everybody

between Steve Megatron, between Pia, between

Octobotomus. Oh wait, maybe he's coming up next,

because I've got to get him on here at some point.

Frodo Man, just everybody I've had on so far.

I've absolutely loved the discussions. I hope

everyone continues to listen to Toycast episode

100, and we'll be back after this. All right,

we've gotten Steve Megatron's Toy Story, and

now it is time to get Mike the Birdman's Toy

Story, Mike the Birdman from This Week in Geek

up there in Canada. How the hell have you been?

I am doing all right, living the proverbial dream,

as you might say, keeping busy with school activism

and all sorts of other things that begin with

other various letters of the alphabet. Just keeping

busy, not sleeping, you know, the usual. I've

known you since late 2006, early 2007, whenever

it was that Twig got launched, and I remember

listening to you and Steve Snowball Sailor and

everybody else over at Twig back in the day,

and I remember over these last almost a decade

or more kind of thing that you love collecting

toys. Now, you have had several times in this

time where you've had to sell off your toys,

but how do you approach Collecting toys for your

collection. Do you like them to be mint on card,

mint in box? Do you open them? Do you only open

them for display? Do you open them, transform

them, put them back in the box? How do you do

it, Mike? How do you like your toy collection

to be? That depends on what I'm collecting specifically.

As you mentioned, I've had, I have had to sell

my certain toy collections off over the years,

uh, to pay for like my wheelchair or other certain

medical expenses that aren't covered. But, uh,

in the last couple of years, I've been able to

restore some of my collection and I'm only focused.

focusing on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Specifically,

I focused on the Legacy collection done by Bandai.

Now I'm focusing on Mighty Morphin as done by

the Lightning collection by Hasbro. I've started

to collect some Transformers recently, but I

have two Transformers in box. I've got Gigawatt,

which is the one based on DeLorean from Back

to the Future. Yep. Ectotron, which is based

upon the Ghostbusters Ecto -1 car. They're still

mint in box on my shelf. I'm never going to open

those probably. I'm never going to say never

though, but I prefer to open my toys to display.

Uh, as for transforming them, it depends on how

complex the transformation is, whether I want

to break them. Uh, I, I'm 40 years old or my,

my patience is remarkably low. But that being

said, sometimes I prefer the vehicle mode. Sometimes

I prefer, uh, the robot mode. One of the, one

of the lines I've been collecting for transformer

specifically. is a line that doesn't transform.

And that is the Transformers Red series by Hasbro.

And I've got Soundwave and I've got Megatron

and I've got a war for Cybertron. I think it

is, or maybe it's Earthrise Starscream. He's

the only one that transforms. Oh, and I have

an ultra magnet too, but I've never transformed

them into vehicle mode. I don't like the way

they look. So I'm like, I just want a really

cool looking robot mode and the only other one

I have is an Earthrise Trailbreaker because I'm

trying to collect the ones I had as a kid, but

I'm only collecting the best looking robot mode.

The only other toy line I'm focusing on and it's

hyper focused because when I collected Star Wars

toys for two or three years, I collected everything,

vehicles, play sets, role play. It didn't matter.

I got everything I could. Now I'm collecting

Star Wars Black series, which is a bottomless

hole, but I'm more focused. I'm only collecting

Imperial Stormtroopers, like not just, but I'm

collecting all the kind of various versions,

like be they scout troopers, snow troopers, incinerators,

et cetera, or Mandalorian type figures, but I'm

not collecting bow katan because i don't like

her armor i'm collecting mando in his original

armor and beskar and i open those suckers the

only of those toys i have not opened is i have

a snow trooper That is on the 40th anniversary

of Empire Strikes Back's black series card back

because it looks like the original Kenner one

from the 80s. And that's because I've got a double.

I got a double that I could open. I guess I forgot

that I ordered it or I got it for Christmas or

something. And I'm like, you know what? This

guy looks great on card, I'm just gonna leave

him. But for the most part, I open my toys, I

display them, I might fiddle with them on my

desk for a couple of days, but otherwise they

find a nice place on a shelf where I can display

them. The only ones that are in storage right

now are my Power Rangers, because I had a small

flood last year. I'm not quite comfortable putting

books back on the floor. so I can clear out a

spot for them. Right. Because I'm only hyper

focusing on Mighty Morphin, I can afford to spend

$30 here and there. The most expensive set I've

bought in for Power Rangers is I spent $60 for

a two pack. So I'm getting two figures of Power

Rangers SPD. Cause that's the only other series

I really dug. I suppose if they do Power Rangers

RPM, maybe I'll have to rethink that approach,

but a big fan of SPD. So, yeah, I mean, it's

cool. One of the coolest figures I ever got was

through a friend of mine. He's a fairly big YouTuber

named Linkara, and he's a Power Ranger nut too.

He went to Power Morphicon a couple years ago

and got me the exclusive Lord Dragon figure.

from the legacy line and that was never released

at retail. So that's really cool. People were

saying, Oh, leave them in the box. Leave them

in the box. Nope. Fuck that. Look them out. I

kept the box as a just in case. But now there's

a lightning collection Lord Drakken, which Oh

yeah, I actually have one of those in box because

there was a pricing error on amazon .ca and you

could pick them up for like 13 bucks. So I picked

one up. as a trade bait for later. And that's

something I used to do. I don't do it now because

of financial, but maybe pick up a figure I know

is going to be sought after later and I'll just

one. And that's my thing with, with like toy

collecting. Don't be a jerk off because there

are people and we know this in toy circles. That's

scalp They'll find the most desirable figure

from a line if it's transformers. It's almost

always gonna be an optimist It's almost always

gonna be a sound wave stars or a Megatron and

They're gonna sit on them like right now as of

this recording. I don't know when this is coming

out Netflix's Earthrise sound wave is highly

sought after. You can buy that figure in Canada

for about I think about 40 bucks. I see people

scalping him on average for about 120 plus. Yeah,

you're an asshole. I mean, sure, what the free

market decide? No, man, fuck you. Ultimately,

share the wealth. If you want to buy one to trade

for something, I don't see that being a problem

because both people are happy. But if you are

sitting on these and hoarding them like a jerk,

you're a jerk. I mean, there's no other way around

it. I used to collect certain vintage things

and I do have some vintage items in my house.

One of the things, this is a really fun story.

I had to sell off my Ghostbusters stuff years

ago after I restored a 1980s vintage Ghostbusters

firehouse. I had, I went through all the process

of finding the doors on eBay. I got the sign,

which is the piece that is most often missing

from the firehouse. And I had to sell it because

I had to move or I had to pay for something.

And the guy I sold it to sent me a message one

day is like, Hey Mike, I know you're moving.

You've always been a good dude. You've been a

great guy to me. Send your wife to come grab

something. And I'm thinking, Oh, okay. And then

Devin gave me back my Ghostbusters Firehouse.

Oh, wow. Yeah. So I was super surprised about

that. And I've still got it. It sits with my

vintage Echo One, which I restored. I picked

up a junker on eBay for like 10 bucks. and I

followed the instructions from a YouTube channel

called, I think it was retro blasting, showed

you how to remove the yellowing from plastic

using peroxide or something. So I had this thing

sit outside in the sun for like two days using

this particular chemical treatment. And so I

took apart the vehicle, I scrubbed it, I did

everything I could. This thing looks like it

came off the shelf in 1988 or whatever. Um, that's

cool. Another cool thing that I have is trying

to think what's another neat piece. It's not

necessarily a toy, but it's a 3D print I have

of something. Uh, for Valentine's day, my wife

got me a clone trooper helmet from Star Wars

Republic Commando. So the local 3D printer guy

here that I use. printed me the clone trooper

sev which is the clone trooper helmet that has

the bloody handprint across it and this 3d printed

helmet i'm surprised at how good the quality

is and it's heavy like it's cosplay ready now

i didn't take the measurements for my head right

so it doesn't fit but it looks cool like it's

got a welder's visor in it so you could basically

put a flare off in my face But yeah, I mean,

I love collecting toys for display. The only

other really cool vintage items I have is I have

a vintage Megazord that has all the parts. I

have a vintage Dragonzord, but because I put

them in the storage improperly, the tip of his

tail broke off. So he's complete except for that

little bit of damage. So I'm always on the lookout

on eBay for a new Dragonzord tail. I love roleplay

items. If I had to say I love anything like I

love guns, I love blasters, I love lightsabers.

The thing I used to collect for years, and this

is what I was really known for in the Star Wars

community, I used to collect a lot of Star Wars

FX lightsabers, and I had every one from Master

Replicas except one variant of Luke's return

of the Jedi version. The lightsabers, I only

have two sabers left now, maybe three. One is

a Luke ESB, so that's Luke's from the Empire

Strikes Back. that is a restore project I'm working

on right now. Cause a couple of years ago, and

this is, this is something important for collectors

to keep in mind. Take the batteries out of your

toys. If you're not going to use them because

because corrosion had crept into the battery

compartment of my lightsaber and had eroded the

wires connecting the speaker. So a friend of

mine, Liam next door is performing microsurgery

on this 20 year old lightsaber thinking, okay,

I can get you a replacement speaker. Can we do

the wiring without fucking it up? Um, and the

other lightsaber I have is the first ever not.

First ever, but the first production model master

replicas attack of the clones, Anakin lightsaber.

And that's before they started using the sequential,

uh, LEDs they would use with Anakin's attack

of, uh, revenge of the Sith saber, which was

the one you could buy at best buy for like $20

at one point. They had so many of them. I used,

um, EL wire. EL wire is the stuff they put underneath

cars to give it that really cool, um, Uh, after

glow, you see it in, in, uh, in, uh, computer

cases now. And then I have a Darth Vader. I think

it's a new hope lightsaber, but that was the

Hasbro version, which the components were a little

different compared to the master replicas thing.

And master replicas was always, in my opinion,

the better one, but they couldn't get certain

dimensions. Right. Cause I know they're cause

with the Hasbro ones, you can remove the blades.

From them, which is something that the master

replica ones could never do Although if you still

duel with these things, which you can do you

can still fight with them But if you hit them

hard enough, you'll break the LEDs and then the

blade only only lights up so far I've been a

huge fan of those I've owned a Master Replicas

Revenge of the Sith Obi -Wan Kenobi lightsaber

which I sold in college still kicking myself

in the ass over that because that thing I think

retails for over $2 ,000 now. I think I paid

a little over four for it. And you see, that's

what happens when you give a young college kid

money. I was like, oh, wow, I get to use this

money on school. Let me buy a toy. Obviously,

I don't do that anymore because no. But yeah,

like there's so much about toys I love and some

of the best work is being done in the little

kid toys. And here's what I mean. Playmobil.

That's right. Playmobil has one of the best DeLorean

toys that you're not paying over $100 for. You

can get this thing at Walmart for like 30 bucks.

It lights up. It doesn't make sounds, but you

get Doc Brown, you get Marty, I think you get

Einstein and the doors light up or not the doors,

the DeLorean lights up. It's got all these cool

effects with the flux capacitor lights up. And

the Ecto -1 and the Ecto -1A. The Ecto -1A is

the rare variant because there weren't too many

produced. You can find it, but it has Ghostbusters

2 decals to it. The attention to detail on those

lines is phenomenal. And they're little kid toys.

Hell, even the Ghostbusters Playmobil's Firehouse

puts the other one... to shame. You get Louis

Tully, you get Janine, I think as a figure, you

get a ghost and you get all these little things

that work in that firehouse. I think there's

a video on retro blastings channel that shows

off the firehouse and it's really impressive.

Like I'm I would love to see them do a, um, night

rider or an air wolf or something like that.

I mean, if they're going to keep farming these

kind of legacy franchises, I would love to see

them do something like that. Cause an air wolf

helicopter, a proper in scale model would be

really awesome. But the last time we heard from

the air wolf, there was like a comic book a million

years ago and it didn't look anything like the

classic 1980 series for me. toys are meant to

be opened. They're meant to be played with to

a certain extent. And if you're a high end prop

guy, or if you have a 3d printer, you cannot

beat the feeling of holding a blaster in your

hand. feeling the weight, feeling the trigger

move if you happen to be smart enough to 3D print

that mechanic into it, or you know how to assemble

your own kit. I love that type of interactivity.

I think it's neat. I mean, when else am I ever

going to get the hold an M41A pulse rifle that

isn't sitting in a museum somewhere? It's never

going to happen, nor am I going to pay thousands

of dollars to have someone make me one. I love

3D printing what it has brought. I love the fact

that if you collect vintage Kenner, you can make

your own weapons to get reproduction weapons

for certain things. I think that's really great.

You get all these things that you couldn't have

experienced for like toy collecting now has never

been more accessible. Because of eBay, because

of Etsy, because of Facebook marketplace. Sure,

toy collecting is expensive, but if you're like

me and you hyper -focus on something, it's completely

doable. I remember at one time I only collected

Obi -Wan figures because I love the look of Obi

-Wan. And now that I'm super focused on just

a couple of Transformers and some Power Rangers

and maybe some Star Wars, it's completely doable

and it's completely within budget. Also, I'm

going to say something really controversial here,

Mike. You better prepare. I have bought some

knockoff transformers on eBay. Blast for me.

You can't tell the difference unless you're a

super dork. I have a sound wave that sits by

the Walmart blaster. Transformed. And he looks

great. And you know what? I'm going to continue

to enjoy that. Cause you know what? That was

worth 30 bucks to me. He's just going to sit

there and transformed. You know, Steve Megatron

probably already said this in his clip, but Hasbro

is really coming around to the whole must be

in, like if you're doing specific to like transformers,

the movie or beast wars, they have to be hyper

focused animation model, real kind of thing.

Cause if you look at the kingdom figures. Oh

my god, Beast Wars Megatron. He never looked

so good. He's the only one that I got. I'm getting

him for Valentine's Day. Oh, wow. Yeah, he's

the only kingdom figure that I wanted. Optimus

Primal. If I happen to come across him, we'll

talk. But Megatron, I had to because that looks

so on model. Yeah, and I gotta say this is from

another recording folks that we were talking

about this But a buddy of mine or somebody that's

in the star Joe's group I don't know if you're

in there and I don't have to invite you but anyway

star Joe's is a podcast that Ryan Drost and Chuck

Everett started so they have this group on Facebook

and someone posted in there oh my god look i

found a star wars black series jar jar and i'm

looking at the picture of of this guy with the

figure and i'm like oh cool i gotta send that

to mike so i'll have to send that to you uh so

you can see the figure yeah so i don't know what's

gonna happen next here in toy cast 100 folks

i don't know whose toy story i'm gonna be getting

next at some point during this you're gonna hear

my own toy story because i don't think i've said

it yet mike before i let you go where can the

people follow you online sir Okay, so if you

want to follow the actual show of This Week in

Geek, you can follow us at thisweekingeek .net.

New episodes, multiple posted weekly. If you

want to follow my socials... My personal Twitter

is at Birdman Dodd. My Instagram is also at Birdman

Dodd and my TikTok is also at Birdman Dodd. I'm

available on those platforms. You can also look

for our fan pages on Facebook. There's this week

in geek as well as my own personal one. And I

try and keep those up to date as much as I can.

And one final thing to pitch. is we are starting

a new actual play podcast for a tabletop role

playing game. We're going to be starting a Stargate

twig, which stands for tactical weapons integration

group. which is powered by Wyvern Gaming's Stargate

SG -1, which is basically D &D fifth edition,

but with Stargate. So if you ever wanted to shoot

a dragon in the face with a P90, you could probably

do that now. So yeah, that'll be launching sometime

very soon. As of this recording, we just recorded

episode zero. So I'll be looking for that rather

soon. Very cool, very cool. All right, folks,

we'll be back after this. Respect my authority.

My hero Oh get down toy cast 100 continues on

as Always this time around returning is peak

on court Michael. Hello, sir. Hey, how's it going?

It's going and we've had so many cool people

stop by the show at this point now toy cast 100

originally Back in the day because this show

has not had an episode since 2014 however back

back in the day Toycast 100 was going to be this

big video production because you were going to

get out your Fort Max and your Brave Max and

all this other Maximus Transformerness and do

some sort of weird video thing is what I remember

you saying way back when. But yeah, I'm doing

this instead. So basically, as you've already

heard, folks, it's time to get Michael's story

of how he likes having his collection, whether

he's mint in box, mint on card, or whether he

opens up his toys and, you know, destroys them.

As soon as you pull them out of a package, you

lose 50 % of the value. That's true. But then

again, most people don't go into the back of

Target and try to steal them. Well, that was

just the one time. I still love that story. You've

embellished us so much. And then Wilson swung

in on a vine and had a sword and he said, army

hearties, hand over your booty. And the target

employee was like, what? In my case, if I tried

to do that now, it would be all about Funko pops.

I'm so over Funko pops anyway. So yes, how do

you prefer to display your collection, sir? I

have, um, I like to say I have one of each of

all the Transformers, right? And so I have an

entire wall of, uh, shelving units. And, uh,

when I bought my house, you know, I specifically,

you know, picked my office because it had like

a, uh, an alcove type thing. Um, and I knew that

I wanted to put shelving units in there. So my

shelving units are, let's say, six feet tall,

two feet deep, and about 12 feet wide. And there's

like four of them here, and they're about the

size of very large industrial -sized refrigerators.

And they're all built out of oak, and I've got

plexiglass covering so I can see. Uh, and then

we've got lights in there so I can turn on the

lights. There's a hidden switch over here You

can't see it because this is audio, but if you

go this is audio But uh, you know you hit the

switch and the lights come on. I got two levels

of lights and it's it's nice It's a nice setup

and you know, i've got You know 84 85 86 87 i've

got uh beast wars beast machines My god, a bunch

of japanese stuff up in the top shelves and Transformers

animated, I got Armada and all pretty much anything

up through what like 2005 -2007 are in these

shelves and then I have another closet that's

you know it's a closet it's like 12 feet of space

and I've got a bunch of shelving units in there

too and that's where I put all the stuff that

I haven't taken out of the box so I have all

my mint and mint on card stuff and all my Uh,

it's in box stuff in the closet. You might remember

a couple of years ago. I had a flood in the basement.

Yup. And which is why I have everything on the

bottom shelf is in plastic Tupperware bins because

I used to store it all in, uh, apple crates,

you know, just like from the grocery store and

cardboard. And I had two big apple crates full

of really well i'll say really old well some

of it's really old it's just um instruction booklets

and card backs and boxes that were folded flat

and the sad thing is is the oldest stuff was

on the bottom so i had a lot of like transformer

collector points you know clipped off from the

boxes and old owner's manuals and a lot of tech

specs you know clipped from uh transformers like

g1 stuff and all in the bottom of these boxes

that got ruined. It was heartbreaking and throw

it all away. But yeah, so now the bottom of the

of the closet is all, you know, plastic bins.

And then on the shelves above that, you know,

I'm not so precious about it, but I got a lot

of box stuff in there. And then I've got cubicles.

They're like, you know, it's the type of thing

you get at Target. It's just like, yeah, bins.

It's like bins. Yeah, and I've got bins. So I've

got was a four by four I had 16 bins just full

of transformers And these are all open You know

some of these i've got for my rescue bots because

we used to do rescue bots rolled to the rescue

I've got a lot of the uh, you know the power

of the prime so the later stuff the latest stuff

that came out in the last couple of years i've

got a lot of Uh, transformers prime. That's what

I got in there. Oh, oh, oh, um, it's combiner

sets. What were those called? Power core combiners.

Yes. Yeah. I got a whole bin of power core combiners.

You want to know how I know that is because in,

uh, in preparation for Toycast 100 I am going

back through All of the old toy cast links and

fixing them so I can promote all the old episodes

from that old show And I'm up to episode 70.

Let our power cores combine I really liked power

core combiners at the time. I I mean I really

like combiners in general, so power core combiners

were huge for me. Even though the arms and legs

were just drones and they kind of had a weird

spring gimmick. The Power of the Prime stuff,

the combiners, were really just like a renaissance

in combining. I've got all of those on display

in my oak shelves. Not to be confused with the

old stuff, but the new stuff, I've got a I've

got a an office kind of furniture set up here

where I've got if you remember you pricing pictures

of it up the upstairs in the living room I used

to have like a Huge oak entertainment center.

Mm -hmm that with a TV in the middle of it. Well

downstairs and now it's downstairs so on that

I have more toys now stack because books and

toys but that's where i keep my uh power core

combiner power the primes not power core combines

the uh you know the new ones and my desk this

is the funny thing uh the desk unit you know

is is you know it's taller than me it's probably

about six feet tall not not quite as tall as

the uh the shelving units it's it's kind of like

an entertainment center except there's there's

cabinets but behind the behind these and this

is the The funny thing I have stacked like all

the deluxe size toys. So i've got i've got probably

about uh Oh, man, if I can stack them about seven

or eight tall behind there. There's probably

room for Yeah, i'd probably say maybe maybe about

a hundred good hard man. Yeah, probably about

a hundred uh carded uh figures behind my desk

that i'll probably never see unless I pull the

desk out. Uh, and then on top of the desk, I

have all my titanium series, the, uh, die cast.

The real question is where does Dr. Doofenshmirtz

fit into all of this? Oh, he's on, he's on my

entertainment center in front of my book. You

know, it's funny. I've got, um, uh, I have, uh,

you know, um, this is a, huh, an optimist prime.

Punchy pop so it's he's got a he's got a sucker

sticking out of the top of his head And and he's

got little levers on his on the back and if you

push him eat this little punchin punchy things

And it's just a novelty item and then next to

that I have some doctor who paraphernalia this

is a sonic screwdriver a couple of them and then

We went to Disney World and and they have the

droid factories where you can put together your

own little r2d2 Right. So I've got a couple of

these in different colors and then right next

to that is my different smurts pointing a frog

gun at Perry the platypus Very cool. Very cool.

I remember I had to basically twist your wife's

arm to get you that for your birthday I'm only

allowed one collection. So, you know, give me

I cuz I like I like the 80s stuff when I grew

up I would come home from school and watch GI

Joe Transformers and he man And I had a sizable

He -Man collection when I was little. And my

best friend, his dad bought him all the G .I.

Joe. So, I mean, we had a lot of toys to play

with after school. And if I went back and I mean,

yeah, sure, I could go back and buy a bunch of

G .I. Joe, you know, because I love G .I. Joe.

I mean, it probably wouldn't be that hard to

get a full selection of He -Man stuff, too. But

my wife only allowed me to have one. She's like,

Nope, you're not going out. You have a lot of

one. Yeah, I have one of each of all the transformers

But you know one of each of all the he man or

one of each of all the GI Joe We'd be in the

poor house Well, you know since you need one

of each of everything and you have power core

combiners of all things You do realize you're

gonna have to get the transformers funko pops

at some point, right? Well, that's the funny

thing is I haven't bought anything since Oh,

um, not earth. What was the one before earth

rise? It was a siege. No, that's siege. Yeah.

It's war for Cybertron siege. And then there's

earth rise and then there's kingdom. I was going

to say, cause I've got a whole bin here of war

for Cybertron, but those are older. Uh, so siege.

Yeah. I pretty much stopped buying stuff around

siege or before siege. So I, I don't have any

siege. I don't have any earth rise. You should

be getting those Storios Studio 668086 things.

Yeah, maybe. I haven't seen them in stores. I

really, I've been looking actually for the Kingdom

because I'm really interested in the updated

Beast Wars figures. You could always just pre

-order them on Big Bad Toy Store, I'm just saying.

Part of the fun is the hunt, right? If you really,

really want the figures and you don't mind waiting

for them. You know, at least you're guaranteed

to get them versus driving yourself insane to

I I just went to Target. Oh, it was a Walmart

We stopped into the Walmart and I looked and

they had all the Netflix figures so they had

wheeljack and they had Alita one and And I was

sorely tempted. I'm thinking, you know, I I could

probably pick these up but Part of me was like,

yeah, I'm not gonna do that You never know. That's

where I'm at right now. I'm at the realization

now that I'm sitting on just a metric but ton

of toys. Plastic, yeah. Yeah, and I don't really

know what I'm going to do with them. Well, you

know, you leave them to your children. That's

why you had kids in the first place. You can

leave all your shit to your kids. I think I...

Yeah, I had expected to like sell them so that

I would have like cash to have my kids as opposed

to A burden that they're going to have to carry

through the rest of their lives, you know It's

like oh great. What are we gonna do a death plastic?

You know, I don't know throw it away burn it.

I don't care. Yeah It's like but you know, i've

got a japanese fort max, what are you what are

you doing? You can't just Give it away for pennies

on the dollar Yeah, you kind of can't Well, that's

the sad thing is you know, I there are there

are Probably a few people and I know most of

them right few people who could actually value

this set Yeah But You know, it's it's hard it's

like I I don't know. I mean they're more valuable

to me because they're mine, but You know, how

would you go to somebody and say, hey, I have

an orange, you know, G2 Devastator with all of

his stickers and all of his accessories. You

know, I'll give it to you for $300. It's like,

wait a minute. It's a chuck of plastic. What

does this, what does this mean? It would be hard

to sell. It would be harder to sell than it would

be to part with, to be honest, because I'm I

I see myself getting to the point in the next

decade or so where I might be looking to unload

it I Mean, you know, but like you said, you know

throw it on eBay and people will go nuts for

it, especially with those, you know Throw it

on eBay with a reserve obviously and if it meets

the reserve then boom. There you go money in

your hand Yeah, and then and then eBay gets 10

% Geez, I hate eBay now. It's not like you can,

you know, take it to a convention or something

because those don't exist anymore. Well, you

know, it's funny. I, I know a guy who, well,

I know a few guys, but one guy in particular,

she goes to conventions and sell stuff. He invited

me to go with, and he said, you know, we can

split a booth and you can just bring like your

toys. And he's like, dude, you'd be surprised

how much money you'd make in a weekend. And I

thought, well, that's, you know, it's, it's a

big responsibility because it's like, you have

to know how much things are valued and, and price

them accordingly and put them out and then sell

them. And I'm just not much of a salesperson.

True. But again, regardless of whatever eBay

takes off the top, you still get a goodly chunk

of them. Again, you set a reserve. If the reserve

is met, then, you know, I mean, All the stuff

you have is the big bucks is, is worth like your

collection. You know, if Rick from pond stars

came in there and be like, okay, I'll give you

a $50 ,000 or you know what, whatever, you know,

well, there was a transformers episode. There

was, and that collection was awesome. I mean,

you know, I like to say I have one of each, but

that the guy in the pond stars had. five or six

of each yes and and he had them lined up on a

in a room is this you know and the collection

was huge and granted maybe one or two of each

one was complete yeah but he still had five or

six that's like holy cow why would you why would

you keep those you know i mean if you got one

that's complete just keep that maybe two tops

so you display them in both modes but Why keep

five or six? But the guy came in and said, I'll

give you a bottle cap for this entire room. And

it's like, what? I would, I think he offered

him like five grand or something. Yeah, something

like that. I don't know. Yeah. I would have told

him. I think he did tell him to get the hell

out, but that's, yeah, he, he didn't sell. I'm

pretty sure he did not sell to Rick from Pawn

Stars. Thanks. Yeah. Cause that's, I, yeah, I,

I would be. I'd be disgruntled. You're like,

what do you mean? And I'm sure he was the guy

that was trying to sell it. Probably. And if

part of me was like, wow, maybe if I just sold

him like one shelf at a time and You know, like

I have one shelf that's all micro masters What

if I sold just my micro masters or what if I

sold just my g2 shelf or what if I you know just

sold off my You know, probably wouldn't get nearly

as much money for like transformers animated

but You know because these are mostly guys just

right off the shelf, right? Yeah, right, you

know a target. Yeah You can you so get those

pretty handily, but yeah, I I don't know I get

a lot of toys and I just don't know what to do

with them. And like I said, I'm not sure if I'm

ready to part with them. If anybody wants to

make Michael an offer, send it to feedback at

yecastradio .com. Alright, I think that's gonna

do it for us. We are gonna take a quick break

and come back with Whomever else I have on this

episode toy cast 100 100 episodes When do we

start the show 2009? Yes almost 13 14 years,

even though it hasn't had an episode since 2014

We do have plans to do the top 100 toys on GCR

n so I'm sure that would be syndicated here at

some point, and of course, this is the first

time you've heard about this, and I'll have to

give you all the details off air. But yeah, so

Toycast 100 continues on next. I'm rather embarrassed,

General Solo, but it appears you are to be the

main course at banquet in my honor. Everyone

else, transform and roll out! Alright, we are

back here inside Toycast 100, and... This guy

might be the guest that was on the show the least.

The least, but maybe the largest impact. I don't

know about that. I'm just kidding. I was busy.

I don't know about all that. Yeah, you were busy.

I peaked in 2010 with three episodes. That's

right. And of course we're talking about none

other than Mr. Optimus Solo. Hello, sir. Hello.

That's not what the name of my thing is on this

record, though. Yes, well that doesn't make any

damn bit of difference. Oh, okay. You know, I

mean I see you treat your guests I see what it

really says, but it really says is solo Mac It's

no, you know a new flavor of mac and cheese coming

soon from the GCR and the effing great one That

would be me. That's the only lights up when I

talk though You know, I have a mute button for

you over here too, right? Good. You're gonna

need it. So we are here as always and as ever

and whatever else you can tell we just love each

other here at Toycast, don't we folks? Getting

the toy stories of how you keep your collection

and I've been asking everybody that's been on

so far what their story is. Obviously when we

were kids the whole collection. Collecting didn't

really... Become a thing for us until like the

late 90s when we all graduated high school, I

think in a way I Mean boy I've always been a

collector for my entire life our parents actually

Kind of started us all on our own individual

collections when we were really little for like

vacation purposes so like whenever we would visit

a new stage or go wherever. I mean, we didn't

go a lot of places, but whatever we did, my brother

would collect shot glasses. I don't know why

shot glasses, but that was his thing. And my

sister would collect those like souvenir spoons

that you see everywhere. And I collected key

chains. I still have all of them actually. So

I probably have like, I don't know, 50 key chains,

100 key chains, something like that. So I've

always been somewhat of a collector. And then

I think what really probably solidified that

with me was baseball cards because I was definitely

a collector of baseball cards. And I guess cards

are a little different than toys in a way. I

mean, I guess you could try to put them in the

same boat, but it's a little different because

part of the part of just getting baseball cards

is a collector aspect of it. Like not everybody.

I mean, some people put them in their bike spokes

and let them, you know. make them sound like

they're driving a motorcycle instead of riding

a bicycle or some of them maybe got manhandled

a little bit more, but part of me buying baseball

cards was collecting them, putting them in, you

know, protective things, logging them, you know,

alphabetizing them, doing stuff like that. Yeah,

absolutely, yeah. So I think I kind of had it

instilled in me a little bit. I mean, I agree

with you though, like when it came to actual

toys, action figures, things of that nature,

like it definitely was more playing with them

until I got to the age where I started working

at Target. And that's probably when I started

collecting. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying that

we were never collecting things, but we weren't.

We weren't going out to KB Toys or Target or

Walmart or Toys R Us. We weren't going out there

to get a mint in box, Optimus Prime 1984, and

just leave it in the box. We were going to rip

that thing open. We were going to twist his joints

and have him fight Megatron and whatever else.

That's kind of the point of me saying that we

weren't really, as kids, we weren't collecting

the actual action figures. The shot glasses thing

is interesting because I now have a connection

to you and your brother because I used to do

that. Every airport I visited, I would get it

from whatever city I would end up being in because

I used to fly a lot. And it wasn't about the

fact that it was a shot glass. It was just about

something small from that city that I could just

put up on a shelf and be fine. I don't even think.

Yeah, I always found it odd because like you

literally growing up in the house that I grew

up in, you couldn't even find a drop of alcohol

anywhere. Like nobody in my family drank. There

was no alcohol ever in the house. So it's just

odd that one of the collections was a shot glass

collection. but whatever. To each their own.

To each their own, I guess. What was your first

big purchase as a kid? I didn't make a whole

lot of big purchases as a kid. I had to rely

on birthdays and Christmas for the most part

maybe the occasional Easter We might have got

something but a lot of the times it was birthday

parties You know, whatever my friends would give

me and whatever my family would get me and then

Christmases ended up being a big deal because

that's when I probably got a majority of of my

items and I want to say the first big present

I got if we're talking about just big I Had to

be probably Metroplex. Oh wow So I remember what

my parents did while I was growing up, while

my dad was still alive, was for Christmas we

would have all kinds of presents that were wrapped

and underneath the tree, which we would investigate.

We would size up. We would shake. We would try

to predict in our heads what they are for however

many weeks it was between when they went up and

when Christmas came. So two, three, four weeks,

whatever it was. And then we would go to bed

on Christmas Eve, wake up Christmas morning and

there would be one... larger package, well not

package, there would be one larger present that

was unwrapped sitting under the tree, you know,

your so -called Santa present or whatever you

wanted to call it. And so I do remember at a

very young age that my Santa present the one

year was an unwrapped Metroplex sitting under

the tree. Oh, wow. So I do remember that specifically.

That was cool. Most of the other toys I got,

I remember them being wrapped. I think I had,

for like the Santa presents, I don't remember

a lot of them. I remember Metroplex. I remember

like a train set. And there was probably some

other, I remember a hamster one year. So things

like that. But most of my other toys, toy wise,

would have been wrapped and things of that nature.

I do remember that there was a moment in time

past probably my younger years, but maybe my

fourth, fifth, sixth grade years type thing where

there was, I wasn't, the internet didn't exist.

So it's not like we had this plentiful information

source that we could just go and find what was

what and what's going on with the world. So in

my mind, I'm a kid. I don't know how the world

works yet. I don't know. What decides what toys

are on the shelves? I don't know that they're

tied to, you know, what's popular and what's

making money and what's on TV and things of that

nature. Like for me, it's just when you're at

the toy store, you go find the action figure

aisle or you go find the boys toys aisle or whatever,

and you would walk down and see what was there.

And I remember at one point I did have somewhat

of a kind of on the hunt mentality where I would

needlessly go through these aisles looking for

Transformers toys that didn't exist. Because

they weren't on the shelves there for a little

bit of time. And I do remember always, I still

would always check. I would always check. I would

always go see if there was any Transformers.

And, you know, we're in the era where it was

probably more like, you know, Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles, you know, Power Rangers, Pokemon,

you know, stuff like that. But I do remember

always being on the hunt and at least checking.

Like I always was hoping like I would. I think

what happened one time is I was at like a Kmart

or something. And at least at that time in our

area, Kmart was almost known as like. They were

like behind like they were still holding on to

stuff that was popular like a year or two ago

or something like that So I remember being at

Kmart once and finding a transformer toy that

I hadn't seen on shelves in like a long time

So then I was like it might have confused me

as a as a child because then I was like Well,

it can always happen like it could always be

there, you know There's no set thing that says

there can't be a transformer on the shelf when

I walk in there So that's the earliest I remember

being on the hunt, but Metroplex would have been

the first big toy Yeah I, it's so funny because

I remember things like my Christmas is evolving

until they finally culminated in 1992 when I

was 12. But basically each year that I remember,

like from I'd say the time I was five until the

time I was 12, obviously. So seven years, 85,

86, 87, somewhere. at those points was some sort

of transformer thing, and it wasn't even the

big ones. It wasn't a Metroplex, it wasn't an

Omega Supreme, it wasn't Devastator, but it was

like characters that I liked or that I wanted,

like Hot Rod or Blur or Rodimus Prime or whatever,

that kind of thing. When Turtles hit, it was

like, okay, I have the four Turtles, I have Splinter

and I have Shredder. For Christmas, I want Bebop

and Rocksteady, that kind of thing. For 87, 88,

89... 89, 90, and 91 were probably Simpsons stuff

because, hello, I mean, Bartman was everywhere,

and then 92, it... Oh, no. Somewhere in the 85

to 89 somewhere, I ended up with a Sega Master

System one year... Oh, there you go, there you

go. Oh, I do remember then one of our other Santa

presents was a Nintendo. Oh, worst decision I

ever made. I went into the, I went in, I remember

this vividly and I'm probably, I don't think

I've told this story on this, on episode 100

yet, but I know I've told it in the past. That

earlier that year, they were, I think advertising

for the Nintendo or the Nintendo Entertainment

Center system, the Sega. Whenever they were supposed

to come out at whatever holiday it was, they

were advertising that these are coming soon in

the, in the. in the store and the store was a

thing called Child World. I had never been in

the Toys R Us. We always, in Massachusetts, it

was always Child World. That is the creepiest

name for a store that I have ever heard in my

life. It was actually very much similar to Two

Toys R Us, except it didn't have a giant creepy

giraffe stalking children. Until that store went

out of business, whatever happened to it kind

of thing, that was the store that I would go

to. I remember that year, my mom was like, okay,

if Santa got you either one of these things,

which one would you want? And I told her the

Sega Master System and I went on a... It's like

I always say, I watched Transformers more than

I watched G .I. Joe. I watched Thundercats more

than... I mean, I watched Silverhawks, but like

it's that choice of which one do you want to

watch? And it was like, it set me on this path

that I don't even know what would have happened

if I had an NES when I was a kid. Seeming wrong

since the beginning. I don't remember ever Specifically

asking for like a specific toy. I could be wrong

I might not just be remembering right but I don't

ever remember asking for like Optimus Prime Bumblebee

You know this that and the other it was more

like a theme like what show or what? Property

were you into so like my mom just kind of knew

like there were certain years that were transformers

years There was certain years that were Star

Wars years. I remember one year. It was like

a micro machine year I got all kinds of different

micro machines and play sets and different things

like that You know, there was probably a turtles

a year or two, you know GI Joe in there somewhere,

etc But it was more so I guess my mom just would

like pick and choose what she wanted to get Oh,

I remember when you're being a Lego year, too

But I think she would just kind of pick and choose

out of you know, the different different price

points and whatever the case may be. Maybe she

watched some of it with me and knew some of the

characters. I don't know. I didn't ever have

a list of the specific people. I have to give

my mom kudos because she was always very much

in tune with what I wanted or what I needed.

That being said, it's weird because there was

certain toys that I always wanted. I don't know

why I never made that known to them. You know

what I mean? I really want this specific action

figure. It's one of those things where you're

like, oh, I always wanted this and then I never

got it. But I also never told anybody I wanted

it, probably except for my friends. It's kind

of just weird. I could probably piece it back

together because one thing that my mom was pretty

good about, at least for the younger years, was

once birthday, everything was unwrapped or once

your Christmas presents were all unwrapped, she

would always take a picture, a Polaroid picture

of me sitting with the hall. You know what I

mean? Like here's me and all the Christmas presents,

here's me and all the birthday presents and I

have those pictures and it's like some of it

you have to have a pretty good eye for what was

what because it's trying to take a bunch of things

in one picture and none of them are close up.

But I do remember being able to look back and

see, well, okay, that's the year I got that or

that's the year I got that. So it's kind of cool

to try to piece it together when I got what?

Yeah. I can always kind of piece together what

I wanted compared to what I actually got by looking

at the old Sears wish books. Okay. Nice. All

right. So you're an adult now. Somewhat. Yes.

We assume. How much of a collection do you have

now and what goes into like how long have you

been building up now I know specifically your

collection story, but I want you to tell it to

everybody else the listeners because You have

told me in the past that you were just hero villain,

that's all you needed, but now you seem to be

getting a multitude of others as well. Well,

no, I was always a big collector of a couple

different lines, so I never threw away any toys,

I never gave away any toys, anything like that,

so I had a decent amount of J .J .Os. small amount

of turtles, small amount of Thundercats and Silverhawks.

I didn't really have many mask toys. I had quite

a bit of Transformers, and that was probably

the biggest part of my collection as a youth.

And then I do remember at one point that it's

the classic story where I came home from something,

I don't know if I wasn't made aware or if I wasn't

paying attention, but somehow my... mom or my

mom and my sister or whoever put on a garage

sale and gave away or sold a good portion of

my He -Man figures, some of my GI Joes. some

of the other random toys. She knew enough not

to put any of the transformers in there because

I didn't lose any transformer during that, but

I did lose a few dozen of some other things.

I want to say it was mainly GI Joe. I don't know

if she had asked me which lines I wasn't into

and then she just assumed that that was okay,

but that was traumatizing nonetheless. So everything

that didn't get sold in that garage sale, I've

still held onto. So I still have probably...

five or six, you know, ten at the most G .I.

Joe figures from my childhood. I have a couple

of the vehicles from my childhood, not the big,

you know, ones that everyone wants, but like

the Snow Cat and some other things. I still have

a couple of He -Man figures. I still have two

Silver Hawks. I have... Just a small amount of

those, but I still have all the Transformers

from my childhood. So that's always stayed with

me. And then once I got to the age of employment

where I was making a known paycheck and buying

things, I continued to collect. Transformers

and Star Wars because I had inherited, when I

was a child, my brother gave me all his Star

Wars, which was the big Darth Vader helmet action

figure case with a lot of the 1970s and 1980s

Star Wars figures. So I inherited that and then

I started buying those at Target and the stores.

The thing was at that point there was no movie.

It was before The Phantom Menace. And much, you

know, it had been a long time since the original

trilogy had aired. So it was more like shadows

of the Empire, powers of, you know, Jedi type

lines. So it was kind of more generic lines,

but like I would buy stuff there here and there

for that. Transformers, it was more so ones.

I remember buying up the a lot of the Beast Wars

figures right away. during my middle school or

high school years whenever it was that they were

on the shelves. I tried to buy up a bunch of

those because I had just discovered that and

kind of gotten back into that. Because I remember

it being a time post -beast wars where we had

like the unicorn trilogy and things like that

happening And I was not interested in buying

the toys for those because I didn't know what

they were I didn't understand the connection

You know what? I mean they those weren't my transformers

type thing Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, but if there

was a line that came out that was more aesthetically

looking like the original line like the classics

line or like the alternators or like things like

that I would scoop those up whenever I saw them

at Target like if we had something like that

I would buy it and I did buy a few of the Unicron

trilogy toys just because a couple toys here

and there like I had a friend and if we thought

they looked cool he worked at Target too you

know if we had one that we just thought looked

cool we would buy it but we weren't buying them

like in mass because it was a show we didn't

watch and it was not the Transformers we grew

up with but anything that resembled the the original

stuff we would scoop up for sure. Like that classics

line was one of my favorites. And then when I

had graduated college, that's when I started

trying to put together, I thought it would be

cool to kind of have like a little series of

figures where I had the main hero and the main

villain and I had shelves on my wall and I was

starting to put those together. So I had He -Man

and Skeletor, had Optimus Prime and Megatron,

had Cobra Commander and Duke. I had, let's see,

I had Moanstar and Quicksilver. I had Lionel

and Mumra and I had Miles Mayhem and Matt Tracker.

I think that's almost as far as I got. I was

trying to put together a few more duos when I

ended up moving into the house and, you know,

a whole bunch of life changes and things like

that. But it was starting to get harder and harder

to find some of the figures. I also had the main

hero and the main villain for Centurions. So

I had those. It would be something that I might

go back to again. I'm not talking about any remakes

or classic versions. I'm talking about searching

and finding the original figures that are intact,

whole, as good as I can find them type things.

I've kind of gone back and forth because of financial

reasons. I go through phases, I think. There's

sometimes where I'm just straight by in Star

Wars and that's the only thing I'm looking for.

Then, if there's just a drought as far as new

figures or whatever, and all of a sudden there's

a new line of Transformers, then I might do that.

It just kind of all depends. The new Netflix

series has got me buying Transformers again,

even though it had been years since I had bought

the last one. I had only been buying Star Wars,

and then right now Star Wars are super hard to

find. I kind of go back and forth between the

two. As far as numbers go... I don't have a number

on the Transformers collection. I need to do

that so I can have an actual count of how many

Transformers I have, so I would strictly be guessing,

but I have a ton. I would guess that Transformers,

I got to be close to four. No, not that far.

I'm probably closer to like 500, but I could

be wrong. I'd have to count them up. I have so

many of the original G1 figures, like a ton of

them. I remember when I graduated college, I

started searching online for ones that I was

missing from the G1 line. I wasn't necessarily

trying to complete it 100%, but just any of those

figures that I knew that I liked that I'd never

had, I was searching out for, so I added a few

that way. Then I've gotten most of the classics

line, a handful of alternators, quite a few Beast

Wars and Beast Machines. I have quite a few.

I'm probably getting close to 500. For Star Wars,

though, if you're counting everything, like the

vehicles, play sets, the 6 inch figures, the

12 inch figures, the regular action size figures,

the 3 and 3 quarter figures. I'm right around

950, so getting real close to 1 ,000 and of that

1 ,000, almost 700 of them are just the regular

action figures. Oh wow. So I have quite a few

of those. Some loose, some boxed. So I have about

500 loose and about 225 or 250 of them still

in the box. Wow, yeah, so that's that's the that's

the biggest part of the collection obviously

and I know it's it's a big thing in the collecting

world whether you Take them apart or whether

you keep them in the box For me it kind of comes

down to a couple different things nothing in

my youth state in a box I Believe then and I

still believe to this point for the most part

that toys are made to play with toys are made

to You know pose display, you know do different

things with So I've always been more prone to

open them The ones that I don't open are more

so whether it's like an exclusive like for example

in the Star Wars world like if it's a You know

a Star Wars convention figure or something like

that where I was the only place you can get them

then I keep those sealed up or if it's like more

of like Something that displays well in the box

and I don't think regular action figures display

well in the package I know you can see through

it. I know it's just a clear plastic and I know

you can see the figure but it's also on a hanging

card You know what I mean? Or certain things

like that. So that's not what I mean by display

well. I mean like it's a box that sits up straight

that has a whole clear opening window that the

figures are displayed well within. So like for

example the Star Wars, throughout time they've

had lines where it's almost like a diorama where

they have the background graphic and then it's

like three or four figures that are enacting

a scene. So if it's something like that, that

you can see it very clearly, I'm more prone to

keep that in a box. But if it's just like a straight

individual figure, most likely I am opening it.

That's the cool thing what Hasbro is doing now

with the Transformers, with the Kingdom line,

with the Earthrise line, the Studio 86 series.

They're including background cutouts that you

can take out of the box and pose with the figures

and whatever else. and Optimus Prime, some of

them from the studio series, some of them from

the War for Cybertron series, and even Amanda

just, I think it was today or yesterday, she

said, what's all this stuff in this bag over

here? And I'm like, oh, yeah, those are some

of those, some of the Transformers. And she's

like, oh, you're too cool to open them or something

like that. And it's not that, it's just that

sometimes it takes me a while. Like I've even

gone... You know when i've been organizing or

sorting things and found stuff that i hadn't

opened yet that wasn't intentional i just never

got around to open it you know they get bought

and they put somewhere and then and then they

don't get open so sometimes it's by accident

i guess our good buddy who's already been on

this episode of pecan corn Michael Michael Wilson

he used to have a whole i used to make fun of

him all the time like why don't you open that

like. You know, we've known him for a decade

or more now kind of thing. And it's like, you

know, back then when we were doing this show

originally back in 2009, 2010, he would tell

me he has this whole closet just filled with

unopened transformers. I'm like, why don't you

open them? I don't know. They're either duplicates

or whatever. And I'm like, There was a brief

moment in time when I worked at Target that I

would buy two of a figure, very brief because

that just becomes super expensive, but where

I would buy two, one to open and one to keep

in the package. I knew there was one line of

Star Wars figures, for example, where you can

look at the back and figure out if it's the first

wave or not that it was ever released based on

the numbers on the back. And working at Target,

I knew that that was the first box we'd ever

gotten. I checked the numbers. They were all

the initial release. You could tell that I'm

getting too deep in the weeds. But you could

tell based on the UPC code and everything else.

So I bought the entire line and kept it in the

package because I knew it was the first run.

And then I would go back and buy them again for

it to be opened. But I only did that once or

twice. And then I was like, I can't do that because

it's diminishing how many things I can buy. Yeah.

Buying two of every figure of every line that

you've ever owned. Right. It would be crazy.

or you've ever wanted, it's just crazy. It's

again, and I've said this throughout this entire

episode, I'm trying to keep it different each

time each person I talk to. That's why I love

Funco, because I don't need to buy two of everything,

because I can just take it out of the box, take

the pictures that I want to take with it, put

it back in the box, and Funcos are the only ones

that I personally think display in the boxes

super well. If I wanted to be super... anal and

Super you are super crafty. I Have a weird trait.

I guess amongst collectors. Maybe not. I said

I've opened everything Which is true for most

things. I also though still have all the packaging

That takes up a lot of space I have probably

I don't know what I have a lot like I in our

storage area. There's one section that is literally

made up of of containers that hold all of the

loose packaging and the boxes that stuff came

in I'm talking about I have like some of the

packaging from the 19 the 80s transformers still.

Yeah. So I have all of it. I could put it back

together and make it look like it was still in

the box if I really wanted to. That stuff does

take up a lot of room. So it does. You have to

kind of pick and choose which one of those you're

going to keep. I've eliminated most of it except

for I think Transformers and Star Wars packaging

is the only stuff that I still have and only

specific ones. But I also remember as a kid thinking

back now. that it might have been one of the

bigger presents. I don't know, but at one point,

talking about the diorama reminded me that my

parents got me like this playset, but it was

like cardboard. like a diorama type thing that

you could put together that was like a Transformers

like headquarters type thing that you could put

together and that was huge that you could then

have like backdrops and things like scenes for

your Transformers. I'd have to look up online

what that actually was but it was Transformers

branded and things like that but it was a big

ordeal that you could put together. Very cool,

very cool. Alright folks, I want to thank Mr.

Optimus Solo for stopping by. I don't know if

this is the end of Toycast 100 or if it's just

the beginning because at this point we're probably

over two hours long for this podcast. I've gotten

a lot of toy stories of how people keep their

collections. I do have a quick question for you.

Yes. Because I haven't heard your other bits

and whatnot. No, you haven't. When you were a

kid, were your friends or anybody else that you

played with allowed to touch all of your toys?

Oh, yeah. Okay, so I don't know if I've told

this story on this episode or not, but... Because

for me, it depended on the line. Okay, so like

I do remember having a huge like there was me

and two different friends and we ended up getting

all of our GI Joe's together and the one guy

just had a ton of them and we went to my one

friend's house who had a pretty decent -sized

yard with like six trees in it and a little bit

of a slope at one point and we literally took

them outside and had a real -world GI Joe -like

huge setup. We'd set up a whole damn battle,

it seemed like. And I do remember that some of

them had dirt in them and some of them got broken

and some of them whatever, whatever. But we were

outside just not even caring about anything.

So certain lines I didn't care about, I was super,

super snooty when it came to my Transformers,

though. because G1 Transformers, if you give

to the wrong person, are going to get broken.

And I did not trust some of my friends. to not

break them. I think it only took once or twice

where a friend broke one of my Transformers and

that was the end of their ability to play. All

friends lost the ability to play with my Transformers

at that point. I was the one that was going to

transform mine. We could play with them together.

We could have them in the same room. You're not

transforming mine. But you don't touch mine and

I don't touch yours. No, I can touch yours because

I'm not going to break them because I'm careful.

Certain people, it's the classic Transformers

thing where you can't force anything. If it's

not moving easily, it's not meant to move and

they would just take somebody that didn't know

that to try to force something and then crack,

you know, it's broken. And so I did not let my

friends play with my Transformers much. Well,

we used to do, and this is just basically what

I remember, and this is why I have in the Transformers

Origins thing something about... You know pretend

You know cuz back in our day folks. It was called

you know Let's play pretend or let's pretend

to be it was not called this live -action role

It was not called LARPing. Oh talk about a creepy

word You know what we used to do is we would

like Discuss each day of what characters we wanted

to play with, whether it was each other's or

our own. And we, if we, if we had that character,

we would bring that character to school to play

with at recess. So if I had my blaster toy and

my buddy Jonathan had his sound wave toy, we'd

be fighting it out at recess. Kind of thing.

And yeah, Jonathan Bond. Oh man, that guy. Like,

I always wanted Soundwave when I was a kid. I

only ever had Blaster in his cassettes and John

had Soundwave in those cassettes. Dude would

never let me even touch the thing to look at

it. Like, I wasn't trying to play with it. I

just wanted to hold it in my hand and look at

it. I never could. Because he would never let

me, asshole. Right. Good note. Yes, good note.

Where can the people find you online, sir? My

Twitter is at Optimus Solo. There you go. And

we'll be back after this here on Toycast 100.

I thought you were made of sterner stuff. All

right, everybody. We are back here on Toycast

100. I have got with me Mr. Optibotimus. Hello,

sir. How are you? Hello! I don't know. Was gonna

like I was gonna try to do my mrs. Dot flying

impression, but that's actually terrible So I

decided not to do it. Please I do not need a

run Please I do not need a run by fruiting. Thank

you very much By fruiting Right, you know, it's

it's really That film takes on a whole new meaning

once you watch it as an adult versus watching

it as a kid. No, I'm not even gonna lie. There

are a lot of things that take on a whole new

meaning that you watch as a kid. That just completely

blow over your head and then as adult you watch

it again. I don't remember what it was. It was

something... It was a Christmas movie I was watching

recently. Please tell me it wasn't Die Hard.

No, no, no, no, no. It was like Planes, Trains,

and Automobiles or something like that. Uh -huh.

It was like, it was an obscure holiday film and

literally I was watching it, I was going through

and plenty of stories and all that's just an

example. I mean, I don't know if it's necessarily

in that, it might be, who knows. As I was watching

it, I had to stop and rewind it and re -listen

to something. I don't remember what it was for

the life of me, but I just remember thinking

like, holy shit, I didn't even notice that. as

a kid, it just flew over my head completely,

and now that I'm an adult, I'm like, I can't

believe they put that stuff in there. But again,

these are movies, all these holiday movies that

I grew up with, because I'm an old fart, all

these holiday movies are now, by today's standard,

archaic, and there's a lot of things that happened

in them that you would not be able to get away

with saying in normal society. today. Holy shit,

where's the Tylenol? Don't even, I hit 42 a few

months back and I feel like parts on me that

I didn't know that I had had started hurting.

Well, I hit 41 a few weeks ago and out of 206

bones in my body, I think 41 of them are broken.

It's a possibility, I mean, like I said. You

know there are parts on me that I didn't know

that I had and You don't realize that how old

you are until you have to sit on the ground and

then try to get up. Oh Yeah, absolutely. Oh What

the shit is happening and you're stuck there,

you know, it's like you're a turtle You just

sit there and roll. I'm trying to get your ass

back up That's why you shouldn't play with your

toys on the floor anymore. It's fun It might

be fun, but it ain't fun to try to get back up

after you're done. Why you just stay down there

Yeah, you just you know there on the on the stinking

floor all as I remember is that in floor? Now

you get Chris rock in my head stop it lethal

weapon for all right. Yes, so we are here to

talk about your Toy collecting and how you like

having your collection whether it's display only

whether you play with them whether you open them

out of the box or whether you just keep well

I I clearly sit on the floor and play with them,

based on what we were just talking about. True.

For me, it's one of those things where, okay,

so as a 42 -year -old man, I had the luxury,

and I'm sure a lot of your guests have had this

as well. We've had the luxury of growing up in

the greatest time for toys ever. Which is right

now. Well, I mean, I mean, we're still part of

that. I mean, so it's I mean, boys before us

sucked. Toys and toys in the 70s, in the 60s,

50s, those toys sucked. Come the 80s when cartoons

were getting really good and cartoons wanted

to advertise toys and make good toys and all

that stuff, we had we were at the beginning of

the best toy boom. history and I will argue all

day long with any of these stupid young kids

nowadays I apologize to any or apologies to any

of you stupid young kids that are watching right

now but there is watching this is this is audio

probably or listening to this idea but there

is there is there is no substitution in my opinion

for sitting down, having some Masters of the

Universe figures, punching your transformer figures,

and creating epic battles and adventures in your

own mind, sitting there talking, I am Skeleti,

and you're like, I'm He -Man, and then just smashing

your toys together, and having that wonderful,

wonderful joy. And what I'll say is that back

then, People did not collect toys No, it wasn't

it wasn't something that people were doing then

even when all those 80s toys were coming out

You know the the Masters figures the transformer

figures the thundercats Whatever the case may

be People weren't collecting them for the purpose

of a collective. I mean they were toys They were

meant to be played with it wasn't until maybe

95 96 I want to say I was at some foster home

somewhere in my you know statehood of Kentucky

at the time and The foster father there had an

entire original collection of Star Trek stuff

that he wouldn't let any of us touch, but that

was 1995 1996. What you're talking about is when

we're three, four or five years old in the eighties

and we wanted to play with everything. And I,

yeah, you're right. I don't remember. Well, I

mean, you know, the, the, the toys that we were

buying in the eighties were for kids, you know,

I mean, they, they were things that were coming

out then. You got to remember, a lot of collecting

kind of thing stuff now is because, and I have

a lot of friends of mine that are in the industry

and they talk to me about this kind of stuff,

that we are in the age right now where the people

that started these toys. So when I was a kid

and playing with He -Man, I keep mentioning He

-Man because I got the new wave of Origins figures

that I'm sitting right here or that's sitting

right here with me on my desk. that i'm working

on my videos for and it's it's these figures

that came out in the 80s they were for us kids

and now that we're adults it's we're in that

generation where the the kids at that time are

now adults and we're the ones that now have money

and we're the ones that are driving the collecting

market So because we don't ever want to grow

up Well that well, yeah, and it just it just

reminds us of our childhood, which is it's you

know There's nothing wrong with that. But back

in the 80s, like I said, we were playing with

these toys We weren't there there was like one

out of a million kids the the 40 year old virgin

I forgot that the actor in that movie Girl yes,

Steve, you know Steve Carell who you know bottom

and then didn't open them I mean kids open their

toys and played with them. So it wasn't until

like you like you said the mid 90s when things

started coming out where more people started

kind of Paying a little bit more attention to

them. So if you were a little bit older so like

the mid 90s I would have been Like 15 16 or something

like that. Yep So, I mean, I'm still a kid, but

you have more of an appreciation. You want your

toys to last. Your parents taught you how to

take care of your things a little bit better.

They were still open. You still played with them.

But, you know, you'd pick up your toys. You wouldn't

just throw them all over the place. You would

take care of them. You know, and now, you know,

the 1995s become the 2000s. and now you're looking

at we are with the 2000s you're 16 years removed

from transformers coming out so in 2000 I was

I don't even know I was 20 21 years ago yeah

I was I was like 20 yeah I was like 20 21 yeah

uh back then so now you're an adult now you're

enjoying stuff now granted I didn't start collecting

really, I mean, I'm sure a lot of people did,

but I didn't start collecting until the Michael

Bay movies started coming out. And by that point

in time, that's 2007. So now I'm 28, 29, and

now you're getting into that. age group where

you want to go back and you see these nostalgic

sort of things like the live action movies coming

on. Older people are nostalgic for Transformers,

young kids are excited because you know, booms

and blowing ups and you know, explosions and

Megan Fox boobs and all this kind of stuff. And

it creates a whole new kind of collecting sort

of thing and now you're entering an age where

Companies are recognizing the collector market,

the adult collector. I don't remember what year

it was, but you got companies like Maddie Collector

with Mattel releasing the Masters of the Universe

classics. That was 2000, I want to say 2008.

I mean it's probably closer around that time

because around that time you also have the introduction

of the Transformers masterpiece line which again

going all the way back to Transformers and Revisiting

that kind of stuff. So I mean you you arguably

have two of the biggest franchises in history

Transformers and Masters of the universe, right?

collector style figures and then it just exploded

then you get companies like Hasbro Mattel that

are doing them then you get other ones like sideshow

collectibles you got hot toys and now now everything's

exploding now is the sky's the limit because

like I said those people that were collecting

he -man figures or transformer figures or DC

superhero figures. I mean that was that was a

big line too way before Marvel Legends and things

like that Yeah, so now now you're coming into

a time where these kids are now the adults and

they're the ones that are driving the market

and they're the ones that want higher -end figures

and Companies are starting to make them. So it's

not until like I said around the mid 2000 2000

to 2007 8 where I would say that the the collecting

market exploded and For me, it's always been

about open. I there there are maybe two things

that I have in my collection that remain sealed

and Those are only things that I have duplicates

of because I really like the way that the packaging

looks And that's a whole nother aspect. Oh, yeah

toy packaging is what packaging I mean you look

you look at San Diego Comic -Con What they do

with the they're basically re -release figures

of some you know, whatever brand it is But they

put forth a really compelling package that almost

dares you to keep it in package and From a business

standpoint, it's genius because they know that

if somebody really likes it They're gonna buy

two of them maybe even right so that they can

keep one pristine They can keep one displayed

in the box on a shelf and have another one that's

completely open. Now those pieces are obviously

a lot more unique and more limited in their release.

So it's always going to be special and keeping

those in package, I think it's totally understandable.

I don't necessarily agree with keeping things

in package nowadays. I see a lot of people that

are running out trying to buy figures in stores

that are mass released and they ended up displaying

them in the package and never open them. And

that never really gelled well in my mind. It

honestly depends on how well the packaging is

done. Like I remember this was like, like we've

been saying a number of years ago now. Yeah.

The cyclonus Rodimus two pack. I forget which,

but it was the two pack with the. They were trying

to do move. This was not studio 86. This was

this was at least 10 years ago now. Maybe I think

I know the one that you're talking. You know

what I'm talking about, right? Yeah. So you know

they were the universe 2 .0 whatever. I think

I was going to reveal the shield buying. Maybe

could be I don't know. I just remember having

that Rodimus cyclonus two -pack and I remember

before I even opened it I just looked at it in

the package and I'm like, oh if I didn't want

to open this I could leave it in the package

because it had a really nice background to it

It was just a nice background color. It didn't

right. It actually had like that's the other

thing about some toy companies They don't really

put a whole Sometimes they don't really put a

whole hell of a lot of interest in the in the

background of the packaging like the insert Obviously

now they're doing Much better. But yeah, I just

remember having that and I'm like, ooh, I could

leave this in the box if I wanted to. And then

I just pulled the little card thing out and I

just had him sitting on it. Well, yeah. I mean,

a lot of company, I mean, one that comes to mind.

Well, you mentioned the studio series stuff and

now they're actually specifically designing things

where you can remove those inserts for backgrounds

and backdrops and things like that. So I mean,

like they're taking that and going a step further.

But again, They're recognizing the collector

in this. The studio series figures are mass -released

target Walmart releases. But they are ultimately

geared towards adult collectors knowing that

kids are still going to buy them. I know a company

that is really good about their packaging and

putting a lot of thought into things like the

backgrounds is NECA. NECA does that a lot. That's

another company that exists solely because of

the collector market. So you see a lot of care

and attention put into things nowadays because

collectors want that. They want screen accurate

paint jobs, sculpt, all that kind of stuff. Another

market that I see and I mention it because one

of my best friend works for factory entertainment

and one of the one a bit a big market for collectors

are prop replicas and That's something that that

prop replica market that never existed 30 years

ago. I mean that's that's something that is Come

to fruition as again as I said younger kids in

our age group Get older and now have the money

and say yeah I grew up watching Star Trek the

Next Generation in 1987 or 88. So I love Next

Generation. And I can tell you right now, when

I got my hands on a Star Trek Next Generation

tri -quarter prop replica, I about crapped myself

with excitement. Just having that in my hand,

You you instantly are connected to that memory

as a child same thing with these toys. So that's

why I think it's so fun now I'm not gonna hate

on people that Buy them to resell. I mean that's

yeah, it's not why we're here. That's we're not

even here to talk about that really but no, but

I'm saying like there's a lot of people that

are in you can't talk about the collector market

without talking about that kind of stuff that's

it's naturally part of it, but You know the business

aspect. I should say a find their figure Flipping

it you know and charging double or whatever.

I mean, that's that's all part of the the game

and it's again a situation where You get these

people that absolutely love these figures that

are willing to pay just about anything to get

the damn things It's that connection. It's it's

what sort of reaction emotional reaction to having

a Skeletor in your hand, or a Transformer character,

or whatever. I mean, I had a very visceral reaction

when, and it's not a licensed one, but I came

across a guy that was making, and I always said

that I was gonna do a video on it, and I never

did, but I bought a prop replica of the HandLink

from Quantum Leap, which that was a show that

I loved. Growing up as a kid and it's got the

lights and the sounds everything that you can

imagine this thing is about a screen accurate

as you can possibly get and When I got that and

I was holding in my hand. I was instantly transported

to that kid that wanted it when he was However

old I was right so all of this stuff I mean,

that's the that's the fun thing about it And

I feel like you don't really get it if you just

collect them and keep them on On a card back

or in a box. I almost would bet you money that

Those people that collect mint and box mint on

card. They have another one that they can open

and play with Oh, I'm sure they do. Yeah, I'm

not saying that there are just mint on card mint

and box collectors I mean the fun of it is to

open them up and for me like Like I've said before

in the show, I repeat myself a lot folks, you

know, I was collecting up until 2011 and then

just life just happens and you have to stop and

whatever else. And then, you know, I, in 20,

late 2016, beginning of 2017, I find Funko and

yay, here's all this Funko stuff. And I only

take them out of the box to take photos. I just,

I don't have currently. I do have them, but they're

in storage. I don't have options to display the

Funko stuff, and I know that there are baseball

bat cases out there that make really good display

pieces for Funko Pops, and I'm not opening these

things until I have my cases kind of thing. And,

you know, I mean, the Funko boxes are cool for

the most part. You look at them, and even some

of those have some really nice art on there for

display purposes and such. Yep. So I mean, it's

a interesting thing. But like I said, it all

is a primal and you mentioned it. It's a primal

thing that we have that we don't want to grow

up. We want to go to a happier time in our lives.

I mean, God knows we're in the beginning of 2021

and the beginning of 2021 ended or began the

same way the end of 2020 ended. We're in the

middle of a god -awful pandemic. There's political

turmoil everywhere. There's social turmoil everywhere.

It's such a volatile world that we live in. It's

almost like, I mean, I'm not trying to get all

deep or anything, but literally I feel like we

are a stone's throw away from somebody saying,

fuck you, and like launching a nuclear missile

because I don't, people just don't care, but.

It's it's a thing where like we can if I can

sit there and play with merman and for a few

minutes Just escape that world that we live in

and go into that world when I was an eight -year

-old or What what oh no eight? No, I would have

been like what we wouldn't when the Masters come

out that came out what 85? Master the toy though

masters came out 83 it ended in 85 the toy line

came out. I think 81 82 Okay, so I mean I was

I was an absolute baby because I was born in

yeah, you know You know, I mean massive the universe

transformers Those were those are what I grew

up with Ninja turtles thundercats silver hawks

all that stuff Captain Planet Captain Planet,

that was, you know, I like, I like Captain Planet.

I mean, I've always been a very, my mom always

used to tease me because as a teenager for Earth

Day, I would go out and pick up garbage around

the neighborhood. I'd take a garbage bag with

me and, I mean, you didn't have to worry too

much about stuff, but I would just go out and

grab it with my hands and throw it in the garbage

bag. And I was always into that kind of stuff

when I was younger. So, Captain Planet that was

that was super cool. Love Captain Planet, but

I mean that's one that needs to come back I mean,

we're not getting when was the last time we got

Captain Planet shit? 1991 I think yeah, I just

I just saw that super seven Who's been doing

a great job with the the end of the Masters of

the universe class? Classics Mandy collectors

no not doing it super seven stepped in finished

it off is doing a great job. They're doing Thunder

cat figures. We're doing silver box. We've gotten

thundercat figures, which is fantastic They're

doing I saw they did they've done one where it's

a it's a Toxy from talks. Is it toxic Avengers

or Crusaders? I mean, I don't remember what I

mean the same thing but like the movie was called

toxic Avengers Avengers and the Tarsier Crusaders.

Yeah, I think that's what it is. So they're there

They did a Toxy figure which I always thought

was kind of fun And I just saw that they announced

that they're gonna be doing Silver Hawk figures,

which you know, who's last time that we got Silver

Hawk figures I mean if 1986 yeah, I'm like I'm

on board for that kind of stuff because again

Silver Hawks I loved Silver Hawks growing up

and yet we haven't gotten it. So again now here

I am 42 years old I'm gonna have a whole new

line of figures because somebody finally decided

to make them and they're not cheap figures. Their

figures are like $50 a figure. That's the crazy

thing about the toy market now. I go in and when

I've gone to the toy aisle out here and... in

walmart and some targets out here in vancouver

washington it's like there's either nothing there

or what is there is the stuff that nobody wants

and it's so sad like okay look i love funko pops

i love them for the character like okay i can

reach right now right here and even though this

is an audio podcast nobody can see this i can

pick up the flocked target exclusive gopher from

caddy shack and be cool, you know, and be awesome

and whatever else and whatever. I don't care.

Like the transfer there. Finally, Funko has had

the Transformers license for God knows how long

now. They did movie pops years and years ago,

which were ugly as hell. They're finally doing

real Transformers generation one stuff. And I'm

like, oh, I want all of those. I don't care.

I'm 41 fucking years old. I don't care if it

transforms anymore. I don't have time. I just

want to look at it. Whether it's in the box,

whether it's out of the box, I don't care. I

just want to look at it. And that's why Funko

for me is like where I'm at in my collecting.

If I hadn't found Funko in 2017, I probably still

wouldn't have any toy collection anymore. Because

I just, at 2011, you know, 2011, 2012, I just

kind of lost interest in it. And then, you know,

back then you had Matty Scalper and Digital River

and Battle Cat was a... Huge mess and all that

and everything else and you're old enough to

remember my my battle cat video Oh, yes, I might

actually link that in this episode So yes, I

want to thank Maddie collector and I had a very

tumultuous whatever that word is Relationship.

Yeah, I mean whether it be Maddie or whether

it be the massive universe Classic stuff their

Ghostbusters stuff shit the the shit that I went

through With the trap. I mean oh for the love

of Jesus Okay, so heaven forbid anything happened

But what is the one toy that you would want to

save if something happened to your entire collection?

What's the one toy that you would want to keep?

You know a lot of people have asked me that over

the years And I always kind of say the same thing

that it would come down to probably one of two.

If I can only pick one, I would have to pick

one of the two. And I don't know how it would

pick between the two. But I say this. I mean,

I have more expensive things in my collection.

But the one one of the two that I would take.

would be my G1 Reflector or G1 Predaking. The

reasoning behind that was, and again, you got

to think years ago, things were a lot more expensive,

especially when you're talking about reissues.

We've gotten reissues of Predaking. Fortress

Maximus is not as expensive now because we've

had reissues of the G1 Fort Max. You know, I

mean that thing is something that could easily

have gone for seven seven hundred and fifty a

thousand dollars back in the day They reissue

it makes the thing worth about three four hundred

dollars but back back in the day When I first

started getting into things my aunt Peggy had

passed away and She had left She didn't have

any kids of her own, but she left all of her

nieces and nephews A sum of money. I mean, I

don't remember how much it ended up being but

I ended up buying her SUV and Then I had a little

bit money left over and I ended up buying a Reflector

and Predicting and that was because they were

expensive back then to get a hold of you know,

I mean a G1 vintage G1 Predaking would have easily

have cost 500 bucks back then and I decided I

was gonna buy that because I said I want to get

something that I'll be able to always be able

to remember her by. So those are two things that

I would probably never want to get rid of in

my collection because of that connection to that

memory of her and how I was able to actually

get them for my own personal collection. That's

now, like I said, if you said that I could only

have one of those two, I don't know how I would

pay. I'd have to flip a coin or something to

to pick that. That's just I have no idea what

I would do. It's so funny that you talk about

masters and we talk about turtles and whatever

else. I'm just scrolling through Facebook here

and my buddies over at the Star Joe's podcast

group. They shared an image. from Italia TMNT,

Skeletelo. It's basically a Donatello figure

with Skeletor's head on it. Oh, for the love

of Jesus. You know, that's that's something you

could probably do because the the new or is it

is it on the Origins body? It's on. No, it's

it's Turtle's body with with a Skeletor head.

Oh, gotcha. I mean, that's something you could

probably do because most of these figures nowadays

are just ball joints. True. At the head? So...

Hell, I might do that just for the hell of it.

Like I said, I'm working on the new wave of Origins

figures. And you can pop the heads off and everything.

Like I said, they're just ball joints. Which

Donatello body are they using? I have no idea.

I'm sharing it to you on Facebook so you can

see it. Oh, okay. I think that's the Playmates.

Probably. That might be the playmate. Oh, well,

you know what? Looking at the knees that that

might be super seven. No, no, no, no. Well, I

don't. It might be super seven. Anyway, that's

definitely a possibility, but that that's kind

of hilarious, though. Yeah. Hello. That's funny.

Hello. I like how they even got the little s

on his belt, too. Yeah. Yeah, that was funny.

That's cute. All right, sir. Well, I want to

thank you for stopping by. I don't know who they

are going to show up on this show after this.

And like I said, folks, my original goal was

to get as many of the old Toycast hosts back.

I've put out feelers to Bulk Matrix, but he hadn't

talked to me in years. I don't know why. Anyway,

but, you know, who knows? Maybe this will be

the end of the episode. Maybe the episode will

continue. I don't know. Stay tuned. We'll be

back after this. Alright folks, Toycast issue

issue. Wow, this is not a comic book podcast.

Holy crap. God, I suck at this. Toycast episode

100 continues on. This is the penultimate clip

of the episode. You people have probably been

here for about... Two and a half hours at this

point, because we've had so many people come

back and talk about how they like having their

toy collections collected. And this guest in

this part of the episode, he is super famous.

I'm sure, right. He... My shirt is... Do you

want me to tell that story? That's one of my

favorite stories is... is we did a video, I think

reviewing a JoCon box set or something, it was

something GI Joe related, and I had on a t -shirt

that had the classic, the pie diagram of the

battle, right? Half of it's knowing, and half

of it's blue lasers, and half of it's red lasers.

And we went, it was the Ohio Toy Show. and i

went there and this guy uh actually we know him

now he was like oh i saw this video the other

day this toy review of like the the joe con box

set and a guy had the exact same t -shirt and

i was like is he kind of a big fat guy and i

was like oh i'm like yeah my my my shirt is very

famous yes yes and the voice you are hearing

folks is mr dave draper who used to deal in a

lot of flavors uh he Hey, come on now. It's just

I know And he is one half of toy world order

the other half I don't know what he's doing.

I have no clue. I tried to get him on here Cat

-related, dog -related, it's all pet -friendly.

He got a lot of stressors at home. He mostly

just likes to chill out these days and paint

his miniatures. We've all had a rough year. Well,

yeah. It's been so long since this podcast has

actually been on the air because, as I've said

throughout this entire podcast, folks, if you've

been listening for the past two hours, this is

the second episode in seven years. Yeah. Toycast

ended kind of sort of in 2014. We are bringing

it back. You'll hear all about that when the

floor burger and the Baron join me later. But

Dave Draper, how do you... First of all, what

was the first toy you remember having as a kid?

Oh, wow. I don't know. I, uh... No i don't i

don't i mean you know i was a pretty you know

average middle class kid i had a lot of toys

a i never two or three that really made a memory

with me one is like an old. Tonka my now my brains

but RV. It's a giant Tonka RV with like they

had like little bendy figures I have another

one I don't have mine but are the one that I

had but I have a one that I got at a toy show

and I had that forever and that was my sandcrawler

because you know when when Star Wars finally

came out another one that I had that I really

loved was was a playset by Marx Call it not marks.

They don't make it the plastic dinosaurs and

I, but it was a, the was a giant dinosaur mountain

play set. And I had no idea that it was rare

at the time. And of course that was another thing

that I ended up like trading actually. And to

another kid for an ad at, and it turns out that

he got the better deal. Cause that's like the

rarest place that they ever did. And it took

me forever to track one down. Oh no. But yeah,

I was a huge dinosaur nut as a kid. I still love

dinosaurs. I'm still pretty obsessive about them.

And then the other one that I really remember

as a kid was G .I. Joe took a weird detour in

the late 70s and it became Super Joe. And he

was like a superhero who fought aliens and they

were eight inches. They were trying to compete

with Migo and they had this monster that kind

of looks like Tundra from the Herkuloids. called

Teron, the beast from beyond. And a lot of people

don't even know that's a G .I. Joe toy. I never

knew that was a G .I. Joe toy. Like, I just had

it as a kid and it was this cool dinosaur monster.

And again, it's another thing that I chased down

as an adult and realized, oh, wait, there's this

weird connection. Super Joe's kind of apocryphally

connected to G .I. Joe. They don't officially

consider it G .I. Joe, but it failed so miserably.

This is the famous story about it failed so miserably

that Hassenfeld felt he had disgraced his father's

legacy. What's your job and that's why i think

it's in the toys that made us talk about how

he resisted. The pitches for real american hero

because because he just he felt he had embarrassed

his father and he did not want to bring back

and embarrassed again and everyone's like you

gotta bring it back. Some of that i'm pretty

sure is in the toys that made us yeah but that's

like it's the weirdest giant six legged dinosaur

monster. And you're like, this is the G .I. Joe

toy, kind of, technically. It's amazing. So those

are three that I really distinctly remember loving

as a kid, having as a kid. I don't know which

one came first or which is the earliest. I actually

have a picture from the Christmas I got the RV.

So I've got a picture of it in the box. Oh, wow.

Very cool. Yeah. So you are probably one of the...

Only people I know that has an entire basement

full of toys. Really? I know a lot of toy collectors,

but I don't know a lot of, like, they have a

couple of rooms. I think there's only one other

person that I know that has actually an entire

house filled with Transformers. And that is someone

who has already been on this show in this episode,

Proto Man, who does a lot of the Transformers

stuff. He does Transformers Slag podcast. but

his entire house is filled with Transformers,

but you have quite literally everything. When

did that start? When did your, when did you start

collecting your collection? Uh, it would be about

a year out of college. So 1994. And even then

it's a little, I mean, cause 93 was when Jurassic

park came out and like I picked up some things

just cause I was, again, I was a dinosaur nut.

So, but I don't think I was. It was just like,

hey, there's this big, cool Tyrannosaurus toy.

I'll pick one up. I really didn't start until

about a year after, and then I started picking

up some Star Wars figures, some vintage Star

Wars figures, because I had lost most of mine,

stupidly. I'm not going to tell that story, but

I was an idiot and just literally left them at

somebody's house. Basically, so I started picking

up those and you know, it's funny because in

the back of my head I actually told someone I

told a friend I was like I'm gonna write to Kenner

and say you should bring back Star Wars figures

because you know Like there are a lot of collectors

out there and the prices are going up and it

seems like there's a demand and the guy was like

Yeah, nobody's gonna make toys for a 20 year

old movie and like the week later. They announced

power of the Force 2 And my plan, my brilliant

scheme was, oh, I'll start collecting this Star

Wars line from the beginning, I'll have everything,

and then when it's done, I can go back and pick

up the vintage stuff. And, you know, like, SpongeBob

25 years later, it won't go away. Like, it almost

went away for a little bit right after the Disney

deal. Like because I and to be specific I collect

foreign figures. I collect the 118 scale. I have

a lot of other stuff But my heart is in the 118

scale. So like if they ever stop that for good

It will probably like I'll be winding up any

line that stops that for good I kind of wind

up and walk away with the exception of Marvel

and I don't know why Marvel gets a pass but I

do buy way too many Marvel Legends, although

that that also is Like when we get to talking

about displaying the collection like there's

just there's no more room at the end It's that

that shelf is full it's done and it a thing is

it's starting to look bad It's starting to look

like just a mess of stuff and I don't like that.

So that's that's funny So if they stop making

the scale that you like you will stop buying

that part of You're collecting so if Star Wars

stops making that and they only make let's say

six inch figures from now on You'll no longer

collect the Star Wars stuff is what you're saying

Not as heavily. I mean, you know, I can't say

that I haven't bought any black series figures,

but like a Big it's cherry -picked. It's sort

of like the the four inches my focus and then

everything else are like extra like like pops

like lunchboxes like, you know Roleplay items

all this stuff that like I I I get because it's

Star Wars, but in my head I'm collecting the

four inch line and all this other stuff is like

peripheral and It's not essential like I will

never go hunt the stores for a Star Wars black

figure You know like if there's one that I want

like the The one that they got me with now is

the stupid rabbit from the Marvel comics Jax

Lepus coniferous because I'm like, I can't believe

they made that figure Like I just, I can't. So

I got him. Now I would have been much, much happier

if they'd done him for like the vintage line

or the retro line would be even cooler. Cause

he literally was a character from that era when

they were doing classic Star Wars figures. But

you know, like the only one, I think the only

time we're ever going to get that character made

is as a black series figure. So, so I ordered

him, but like, you know, again, I have a lot

of black series figures, but it's not a focus.

It's not something I chased down. And if they

kind of ended the vintage line, which is like

the only four inch they do, well they do retro.

Yeah, I would probably, that would be a good

stopping point for me. And believe me, at this

point in the game, I'm looking for any excuse

I can get to get out. So you've been collecting

for almost 20 years now. Has there ever been

a point? Where you were like, screw it all, I

gotta stop this. I gotta get rid of all of this.

No. Well, that's a two part question. Part A,

yes, often. Part B, no. I will never be that

guy that just like sells everything because I

don't want to like then a year later go, oh wait.

Gee, you know, I kind of wish I had that. I wish

I had that Shogun Warriors Godzilla. That's gonna

be cheap tracking down. You know, yeah, and I

like the collection. I just, you know, I don't

like the act of collecting. I have never been

a guy that was big on the hunt. I hate the hunt.

Because, you know, I am a big fat guy and I'm

slow and like, you get two other guys at the

door when it opens and they're gonna get what

they're gonna get. You know, Springfield has

a couple of characters, let's put it that way,

who like to buy everything that's popular. So

it's just, it's hard. It's a pain in the butt.

You know, we've had this big issue lately with

a lot of exclusives being a pain in the ass to

get. And it's just like, it's not fun for me

to like go to store. I mean, it's kind of pathetic.

You know, especially like I'm pushing, I am 50.

Like a grown man going from store to store, please

sell me a small plastic man from a space movie,

please. It's sad. Like, so yeah, like if at this

point, there are very few things that I care

enough about to like make the effort to chase

down. And if it's not on Big Bad Toy Store, other

than that, I'm just not bothering with it anymore.

Yeah, it's like, it's so silly. Like this whole,

and we, I actually plan on in the future, doing

a topic on the podcast, exclusivity exclusions,

because all of this exclusiveness, not just Funko,

not just Hasbro, not just, but just everything

in toys. That's like, Oh, this is exclusive to

our website. If you don't get it here right now,

you're probably never going to get it or you're

going to spend, or you're going to. Look at spending

or potentially spend God knows how much on eBay

for it. If you actually really want the damn

thing and it's just not, it's not worth it. Like

I didn't like, and I've said this in this episode

already probably, but I started collecting in

2005 and I stopped in 2011 because of finances.

I had, I didn't have much. I didn't like. I think

I might have gotten 500 bucks for the collection

I had at the time. I didn't have anything that

was super valuable or anything like that. But

from 2011 until 2017, I was like, you know, you

see all the SDCC stuff or, you know, toy whatever

convention stuff. I respect it. I love that it's

there. And I love the people like you and others

who collect toys that you guys can go out and

get it. But I had had net like Pick an exclusive

from any year between 2011 and 2017. I might

have said, that is very, very cool, but I have

no need to have that in my life right now. And

then in 2017, I went into a comic book shop and

I saw a Stone Cold Steve Austin Funko Pop, and

I have been down the Funko rabbit hole ever since.

That's a bad rabbit hole to go down, my friend.

I don't collect them all. I'm not a Pokemon here.

I don't catch them all. For me, Funko is characters

that we would never actually get an action figure

of. Like Alex Trebek from Jeopardy! May the man

rest in peace. Like Justin Guarini as Lil Sweet

from the Dr. Pepper commercials from a few years

ago. Stuff like that. But at the same time, I

still have a bunch of Batman's and that kind

of things and characters that I like or lines

that I like. I don't have any Game of Thrones

pops because I have no interest. I don't dislike

Game of Thrones. It's not my thing. I respect

the people that like it, that enjoy it, whatever.

That's their thing. Fine. It's not mine. I don't

I don't have the need to have every single Funko

pop that they've ever made. Yeah, you can't.

You literally just know it's impossible. We actually.

Pixel Dan, like when I think Pops first came

out, I think he did have everything. Like in

the early days, he was really keeping on top

of it. And I think within like a year or two,

it just, you know, like he was coming home from

Comic -Con with a suitcase full of Pops. And

I think at some point, like he kind of said,

this is ridiculous, you know, because there's

just, there's, you know, the joke we do on our

show is that you're more surprised when they

announce a license that they didn't already do

it. You're like, wait, they haven't done that

yet? And, you know, I mean, this is the company

that's done like golden girls and friends and

all the different sports teams. I mean, you showed

me a Larry Bird that you picked up and I just

got a Michael Jordan because I was like, I should

probably get a Jordan because I had part of my

collect. There's one little section of my collection

that's actually from my mother, who was a huge

Michael Jordan fan. So I've got like, you know,

the space jam toys. and the cards and some basketballs

and stuff and little beanie babies that weren't

even actually Benny the Bull, but they looked

like Benny the Bull, so she wanted him. And I

was like, yeah, if she was around, she would

want a Michael Jordan pop, probably. There is,

and I don't know if I will, you know, no one

can hold me to what I'm about to say. If Funko

ever, ever makes an Alf pop, I'm 6 '1". Four

hundred and sixty pounds. Yeah, I will be a bulldozer

at whatever shop I have to go to to get that

because that to me is my childhood. I watched

that show with my mom all the time. She has been

gone for since 2015 now. So six years. But it's

one of those things where if Funko ever made

an elf pop, I'd be the first in line. I sign

up for illegal bot service to get all kind. I'd

buy 20 of them with illegal bot service online.

Not that I'm going to do that, obviously. I'm

not going to do anything illegal, folks, but

it's one of those things where... Allegedly.

In Minecraft, he would do this. Uh -huh. In Minesweeper,

I would do it. It's just one of those things.

When you're saying naughty things, you say, in

Minecraft, because that way it helps the algorithm.

Yeah, there you go. That's the trick. But it's

one of those things where that's a... A character

from my childhood that like, uh, you know They

have uh frazier pops they have yeah Um, um, what

was his dad martin again? I'm more surprised.

They don't have an elf than yeah I I am too and

I don't know why they can't get that license

But like they have Martin with with Eddie and

that is just awesome to me I absolutely love

that and my mom loved Frazier and yeah, so it's

one of those things when it comes to Funko So

let's get back to you and your collection. So

you say certain things are not your main focus

What is your main focus because you have a lot

of stuff? Well, yes, I would say my main focus

is like the 118 scale My hope my heart is with

star wars star wars is the biggest part of the

collection you know like. I also love g .i. joe

g .i. joe came a little late in the game but

i have a lot of i mean the eighties g .i. joe

like i was kind of in between joe's age wise

like adventure team was kind of winding down.

And real american hero. kind of kicked in in

my teen years, like early teens. But I was a

fan of it because, you know, the cartoon was

on after school and it was that or Oprah. So,

you know, you'd watch the G .I. Joe cartoon when

you got home. But yeah, like I love action figures.

I love toys. I love the 118 scale. I do like

Star Wars, G .I. Joe. I have Transformers. Transformers

are weird. I've cherry picked them, but I've

been cherry picking them since like 1984. So

I have a lot of them. but they're not as... Jason

is a bigger Transformer fan than I am. Even if

our actual number of toys might be pretty similar,

I think he's a bigger fan. I mean, you had invited

me to do the 100 best Transformers and I said

to you, I don't think I can list 100 off the

top of my head. And I actually tried and I couldn't.

There are Transformers in my collection. I don't

even know their names. He's a no, this is true.

Like well this point is true. Like there was

a Beast Machines bull guy I don't know his name.

He was just kind of cool back whenever Beast

Machines was out He's gathering dust ever since

but so yeah, I have a lot of the big lines I

have some Master stuff not a whole lot, but I

have some like like once you get past Star Wars

in GI Joe There's a lot of cherry picking. I

have a lot of Marvel stuff a lot of I have the

DC Universe classics and Marvel Legends They're

all on one shelf It's a big shelf. You know,

like I do, I collect almost any, like I collect

a lot of stuff and anything I don't collect,

Jason does. I mean, between me, Jason and Danny,

I think Springfield's got like the eighties.

If there's a toy line from the eighties that

you remember, one of us at least has like a representation

of it. I do have a section that's like what I

call the Kenner section, which has like, Maybe

not complete collections, but like pieces from

Kenner like random lines like Predator I have

Knight Rider, you know another one that is steel

monsters, which is a Tonka line Oh a fascinating

Tonka line that basically like hey, this road

warrior stuffs kind of popular why don't we take

our Tonka toys and like put some armor on it

and some guns and Say it's a Mad Max kind of

thing and those figures are 118 scale actually,

but I have those because I just like what the

hell is that? That's amazing. I want it I have

another bookcase that's just all like old 70s

toys, some MeeGo stuff that I had as a kid. There's

a line that I loved as a kid called Legends of

the Old West. And the figures actually kind of

are like Joes where they're held together with

like elastic bands. And the thing about them

is the, I won't say vehicles, but the wagons.

They have these wagons that like came with tons

of stuff. Then you get the peddler wagon and

it has like tons and tons of stuff and there

it's a cool fun line And I I have that one. I

have every character I don't have every variation

and I have all the wagons. I have the town. That

was another apparently like Infamous story that

I don't even I barely know about because I just

know that I bid on a thing and won it and it

was it was the the town for the legends of the

Old West and it was sealed and Apparently this

thing was mythical And like in these groups,

people are like complaining and angry and, and

I'm like sitting there like, Oh, I shouldn't

have opened it. Then should I? Oops. I have,

I have desecrated. I have desecrated the lost

arc. Oops. Okay. So that brings me to another

question and I already know the answer to this,

but do you leave them in the box or do you open

them up? I open most things just because at this

point, like I would need an airplane hanger.

to display everything mint on card and mint in

box. It eats up a lot of space. Even though I

have a whole basement dedicated to it, there's

just not room. I used to have, in the Marvel

Legends display, I had an original Magneto and

an original Silver Centurion Iron Man, which

I kept on the card. It's not a card, it's a clamshell

thing, but I kept it in the display in the thing,

in the packaging, because it was expensive. Well,

it ate up so much real estate that like eventually

it's like no, we need to get some butts in the

seats. We need to get some butts on the stands.

Like this has got to go. It's got to get opened.

So I open almost everything. Hasbro has been

really, really vicious about reissuing stuff

on vintage style cards, which is a weakness of

mine. So it's the only thing that I buy just

for the packaging. But I have like the 40th anniversary

star wars and the 40th anniversary empire black

series figures Those are on display in the packaging

because that's the whole point And then I have

a lot of the I have as much vintage What they

call the vintage collection and the retro collection.

I have as much of those as I can get on the walls

That I have on the walls, but as a rule I I try

to open as much as I can because it's just it's

a space thing. It's just unless it's really expensive

Uh, and even then, like, like a lot of times,

like there's like this moment after I buy a toy

where you just sort of take a deep breath and

it's like, it's either going to get opened or

it's not. And you just, you got to do it. You

just got to do it or it will never get opened.

And a lot of times those guys end up in the closet

of shame because there's no room for them. So,

okay. So you have an entire basement filled with

toys. First of all, do you call them toys, action

figures or dolls? I mean, toys are action figures.

I don't call them dolls. Like, I don't know.

I always have like a... Dolls are a different

thing. I don't have a problem with dolls, but

like, you know, I think they're a different thing.

If you want to call them dolls, my mom called

them dolls. Like, my mom would not buy me the

12 -inch Indiana Jones figure because she said

it was a doll. She had some weird... She's from

here in Springfield, but she had some weird accent

where she called them dolls. It's a doll. As

a kid I actually asked for a dollhouse because

I wanted to use it as a base, right? And she

would not these years like no, I'm not gonna

buy you a dollhouse. She bought me a She bought

me a big gym. I want to say vinyl airplane thing

instead I can't remember who had the vinyl airplane

But like one of the one of the one of the macho,

you know line and of course it was bought at

a garage And of course, it's it's the wrong scale

so I can't use it for anything But it was it

was very macho and masculine. Yeah, I I think

it's all of our parents that parents and grandparents

that don't they just consider them dolls or what

like they won't use toy or action figure that

it's it's oh him and his he man's dolls and all

that and everything else everybody's all about

the he man's yeah it's just it's just crazy now

you say you have a marvel legends and a dc Shelf,

how is your collection sorted? How do you display

like do you have all the Simpsons stuff in one

thing or the Simpsons playing with Family Guy

or How do you figure out how you're going to?

This is this line and that's all that's on this

part of the display Well, it depends. I think

21 years ago There was a plan 21 years later

It's it's gotten messy But yeah, they're there

I try to have a logic to it I try to like It

just is a lot of it is just where it ended up.

So like there's one wall That's got shelving

and like, you know, I mean I do try to keep things

together It bothers me sometimes there are a

couple of things that are split up Star Trek

is split up which like drives me I always say

that collecting is where Asperger's and OCD meet.

And so the fact that there's Star Trek stuff

over here and Star Trek stuff over here, it kills

my soul slightly every time I go down there.

But there just ain't no room for that next generation

playset. That bridge playset ain't going anywhere

near the other stuff because it's too big. Okay,

let me ask you is it split into Series like this

is the no, it's the the Star Trek stuff is all

mixed up like like where it is It's all mixed

up. I collect like I do our friend our friend

slick McFavorite from his podcast open your toys

has a phrase called focus characters and I think

especially with like outside of Star Wars although

even within Star Wars I have a lot of focus characters.

So with Star Trek it's like The Gorn. Like I

said, I was a huge Dinosaur fan, so I love The

Gorn. It's my favorite episode. So I have as

many of those toys as I can get. I like the Klingons.

I have a lot of Klingon figures. But they are

kind of all mixed up. Within their display, they're

all mixed up. So you've got like Picard and Kirk

standing next to each other and that kind of

thing. And then the other part of the collection

where Star Trek is, it's a little more complicated.

It's a bookcase. Like the top shelf is actually

the old Mego. from the 70s from the first through

motion picture like all the figures from the

motion picture and right play set and then the

rest of the bookcases aliens and Then the bottom

shelf is the next generation play set the bridge

play set because it's huge So the idea there

is it's space. It's it's that that bookshelf

is space even though I want that trick stuff

all together It's it's space and space stuff.

Like I think I have more up there on that shelf

and you know a couple random space toys But yeah,

they're there To go back to your question, yeah,

there is supposed to be, well, I try to keep

stuff together. I try to keep stuff thematic.

Sometimes the themes only mean anything to me.

I have like, there's this wonderfully bizarre

line of Bible based toys that are four inch scale,

that three and a quarter inch scale. And I kind

of have, I have most all of those and they're

here. And then the very next thing is that dinosaur

mountain place that I mentioned. And then that's

like all the, a lot of the dinosaur toys. So

it's like. the Bible and then dinosaur toys and

then there's actually this thing you could get

the field museum that was like these little miniatures

and it was it was the classic darwinian evolution

you know like fish reptile you know chimpanzee

human so it's like the evolution play sets i've

got that there but i also have like a couple

of back to future back to the future figures

there because you know time travel so yeah it's

it's uh it's a weird mishmash the sentence figures

are interesting because they're actually kind

of on the same shelf as uh like once you get

like they're on the shelf all together and then

you get to a part where it's uh it's cobra and

the logic there is if you know anything about

gi joe and cobra one of their home bases is called

springfield so that whole section is in my head

called little springfield that's that's awesome

it's just so awesome did you know and i'm sure

you did know but did you know that Funko has

the dinosaurs. They have Earl, they have the

kids, they have the baby. You know, I was never,

like, I love dinosaurs. Like, I love dinosaur

dinosaurs. The show was okay. I was never a huge

fan. No. He's true. Uh, heaven forbid, anything

happen. Everybody is safe. If the house, something

happens to it. Do you think you could pick one

thing to save? Well, I mean keep okay. First

of all, keep in mind. I gotta like run downstairs.

I understand No, no, no, I even yelled like when

we first moved in we got yelled at by the safety

inspector because like there was no There's no

like secondary access to the basement. You know,

there's no like escape. Well, right there's like

there's no bulkhead Yeah, so if you run down

there, you're not getting back out Actually,

ironically, the one thing I probably would save

is upstairs. It's not a toy. It's a friend of

mine. It's a movie poster. It's a poster for

Empire Strikes Back, but it's signed by the entire

cast. Oh, wow. That's awesome. Including Alec

Guinness. It's signed by everybody. Alec Guinness,

David Prowse, Frank Oz, Frank Oz's assistant,

the dude who used the Wampa arm. It's got Lucas

and it's got John Williams. I think it might

not have Kershner. I got a look on that. That's

right here on the wall. I'd probably just grab

that and run out. When I was making the deal

for that with the nice lady, I guess her husband

collected them and I guess they were getting

divorced. She also had raised a lost ark and

I'm like, oh, do you take PayPal? Oh, wow. What

is the most expensive item in your collection?

What's the most money you ever dropped on a single

toy or a playset? It would probably be the second

USS flag, which is mint in box. That was about

a grand. You want me to tell the stupid story

behind that where David is dumb? Oh, you sure

I mean in our little community. It's kind of

a famous story It's so there's a show called

toy hunter, which I'm sure a lot of people are

familiar with remember and the whole thing is

it was supposed to be this episode where he goes

to see to e2 and Jason and Danny had filmed stuff.

So I'm and I was never a big fan of the show

I've met Jordan I'm actually friends with one

of the guys from the show David Gall who's a

very great guy But I was never a fan of the show

per se I just I wasn't into it. It's one of those

things like, you know, I'm not really interested.

I don't watch a lot of toy based YouTube videos

because it's you know, I already know it like

it's it's I'm more interested in something that

I don't know about or that I don't have a basement

full of if that makes sense. Like I felt Toy

Hunter was a show that would have been for like

my mom, my girlfriend, you know. Wow, this stupid

little hobby of his actually has value and merit,

like weird. These things aren't junk, you know.

But anyway, so he's supposed to go C2E2 and Danny

and Jason are supposed to be in it. Spoiler,

they weren't. But anyway, well, the whole show,

it's like the Poochie episode. It's like, when

are they getting to the fireworks factory? When

are they getting to C2E2? But he stops at this

guy's house. And the guy has a Ballastar Galactica

land ram. And I was like, wow. And part of the

reason I don't like the show is because Jordan

would go to these places and like, hey, what

do you want for that? And I'm sure it was all

pre -arranged. But on the show, it feels like

he shows up at your house and he buys your stuff.

And you're like, I don't want to sell you my

stuff. And the guy actually said, no. He said,

I don't want to sell you that. And I was like,

yay. He's like, but I got something else to show

you. And he takes him to this other room and

it's the flag. And Jordan explains what the deal

is with the flag. He's like, so you want to sell

this? He's like, well. And he shows him that

he's got a second one that he does want to sell.

And Jordan says, nobody has two. And I posted

on Facebook immediately, challenge accepted.

$1 ,000 later, I have a second one in the box.

Wow. That was back when I had $1 ,000 to drop

being an idiot. You know, it's one of those things

where those those toyed like mainstream media

or any of these cable networks that want to like

Oh, this is popular now. This is geek culture.

This is whatever now we need to get in on this

We need to figure this out and I don't know Jordan

personally I've never met the man I've never

talked to him all as I know is how I saw he was

portrayed and how the format of his show was

done and It was okay And i believe it was on

travel channel at it was there's a fascinating

story behind that it was that was during the

post bush economic crash and travel channel.

Didn't want to do travel channel felt awkward

about doing shows about go to the river take

a cruise cuz nobody had money. So they thought

well let's do this show about hey you might have

something valuable in your attic and that's why

they. And it was actually like the biggest show

they had. At the time, I know it was the biggest

ratings they ever got. And then suddenly the

economy got better and they were like, yeah,

okay, take your little nerd stuff and go away.

It's not funny, but it's ironic at the same time

that that was going on with Travel Channel and

Toy Hunter. A &E, of all networks, arts and entertainment.

Did a show called Collection Intervention. Yes.

Now, Toy Hunter, I understand he's trying to

sort, like you said, the deals are probably pre

-arranged, whatever. As far as the show, as far

as the final product, as far as what the viewer

sees. He's going to people's houses. He's making

deals. He's talking to people who used to work

at Kenner or he used to work at Hasbro. Fine.

Whatever collection intervention. Oh my God.

That show was insulting. That show was this chick

going around and basically doing an intervention

for no offense. Someone like you who has so many

toys, but yet you need to pay for $2 million

worth of medical bills or something. It was some

weird feeling. We want to refinance our house.

We want to do this, but he has all, and most

of the time it was, I think there was one episode

where it was a female and she had a bunch of

old time, I don't remember what they were, old

time dolls. And I know this part of the podcast

has kind of gone off the rails, folks. That's

what happens here on Toycast. But it's just one

of those things where it was like, I got angrier

and angrier. every episode of Collection Intervention

I watched. After the Sean Long episode, I just

had to stop. Yeah. Well, from what I understand,

they ambushed him. He did not think that's what

that show was going to be. That's ridiculous.

It's so weird that the mainstream of media and

other things that they think, oh, the toys are

popular now? Oh, we need to get in on this. No,

you really don't. Your are there toy lines you

don't collect are there toys that aren't in your

collection? Oh, yeah Yeah, again, that's that's

what Jason is for he But I think that's why we

get along because it's very rarely that we compete

for something I can't remember what it was He

gots he just went to King County and he got something

and I was like, oh I kind of wanted one of those

But it's very rare, you know, like I I don't

collect the Rambo line. I don't collect Like

a lot of the more obscure, you know, kind of

to be a jerk about its second run toy lines from,

from the eighties. I'm not a huge fan. Like he

does, he has a complete police academy collection.

He has, you know, like a lot, you know, like,

like the, a lot of the weird knockoff lines.

Trying to remember. Do you have any knockoff

stuff? Oh, sure. Um, a few. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But I mean, like, You have some knockoffs i have

some reproductions like i was saying really about

focus characters one of my focus characters is

boss you've been teasing me with this game stop

boss again dinosaur guy star wars just was utterly

in love with him from from day one but i have

like a russian one a russian knockoff that's

like pink i have a couple of mexican ones that

are just gloriously weird colors So, you know,

I think knockoffs are like really expensive nowadays,

but like I I do have a few You know, and I have

some you know, I like I said, I've got that weird

Cowboy line that I really love. I've got a few

things But yeah, like, you know again Jason does

the girl toys Like strawberry shortcake and herself

the elf which I would never have heard of if

it were not for Jason Deval My Little Pony, he

loved My Little Pony. I never had a My Little

Pony until this last year and they did a D &D

set, a D &D crossover set with My Little Pony.

I remember seeing that. They got me. But the

thing is, the details, the Wizard Pony has a

bag of holding and the art on the bag of holding

matches the art. I can't remember which book,

I can't remember if it's Player's Handbook or

DMG, but it matches the art. And I'm like, like

somebody really made an effort to like, somebody

who cared about D &D made this. This wasn't just

some dumb thing to like sucker you in, like,

oh, it's, you know, we slapped a D and a D on

the, you know, the cutie sign is D &D or a D20.

There was thought involved. So I'm like, this

is kind of a cool set actually for being such

a stupid thing. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm glad I got

it. I, you know, yeah, I, I've never been like,

if I can't afford something, even back when I

was working, cause my collecting days from 2005

to 2011, I had this, I don't want to say it was

a cushy job in the social work field, but the

way the job worked, I was a live in resident

and basically only had to handle emergency type

stuff with. the place I was at kind of thing,

but I basically lived there with the rest of

the clients. I can't say too much about basically.

Think of a group home. Think of the overnight

staff. I was basically there 24 -7, but when

the other case managers and other staff weren't

there, I was the person there that needed to

handle stuff or call people if I couldn't handle

it kind of thing. And that job, paid me a decent

amount of money. At the time, that's how I got

my Transformers collection. That's how I got

this collection, that collection, whatever I

ended up collecting. That's how I got into Mighty

Mugs as soon as I saw Redhead Henry. I understand

why you say you don't watch the YouTube toy reviews.

Redhead Henry, Jason Henry, his... I don't think

the channel is around anymore. I wish it was.

He had a series called superhero mugs. So he

would take the superhero mighty mug stuff and

either he or people that he friends of his, they

would voice, like they would come out with it.

And I know this is not a Wolverine voice folks,

but they would come out with a Wolverine voice

and the Wolverine mighty mug would do all this

sarcastic, funny stuff. And I thought it was

really cool. So I started and then I found out

that at the time. I forget who Mighty Mugs was

originally under, but they eventually went out

and went with Hasbro or something. Yeah, it was

Hasbro. It was Hasbro from the start, I think.

Okay, maybe it was. I don't remember. I just

remember seeing Mighty Mugs. I don't remember

seeing... But anyway, they had Transformer ones,

and I'm like, oh, cool. And they released a Shockwave

Mighty Mugs. I have that. And I'm like, uh -huh.

I'm like, oh my god. I am waiting for Funko at

this. We've got Optimus, Megatron, Jazz, Soundwave.

Starscream, Grimlock, I'm waiting for a Funko

Shockwave at this point because that would be

super, super cool. So anyway, back when I was

doing all of that, it's like, oh, I like this,

I like that. And usually anything, I even had

some of the robot hero transformers, the little

tiny ones. I might have all of them. Oh, wow.

At least the ones released domestically. And

then another funny story is I have one that I

got from Japan, and I was called a liar. I was

called a liar on another podcast that I said,

and the guy was like, what was the other figure?

What was the other figure? And I'm like, I don't

know what the other guy was. It was Predaking.

Because Predaking is one of the characters that

I like. I have a vintage Predaking. And I saw

this guy post that that wasn't going to come

out in the US. Like, so I immediately went to

eBay and bought one from Japan. Didn't think

about it. Right. And then like six years later,

this guy is calling me a liar because I can't

to this day, I can't tell you who the other guy

is. He's white and blue. I don't know who he

is. I don't care who he is. He's the other guy

in the package with Predaking. And every year

when I do like when we do the walkthrough of

the collection or I post pictures on Facebook,

always because I'm still butthurt about it, point

out that this is the one toy that no man can

own. If you say you own this toy that I'm pointing

at because I clearly own it, you are a liar and

will be called out upon it." It was so weird.

This guy freaked out on me. Because the whole

conversation was just casual about the hero's

line. I may have all of them. I had a friend

who collected them and he kind of gave me his

when he got bored with it. I may actually have

them all. I'm not sure. My point though when

I was talking about is that I actually forgot

my point, hence why I kind of transitioned. You

were talking about Mighty Mugs. Right, it was

a big thing, it was a big deal, whatever. For

me, whether it was Mighty Mugs, Transformers,

whatever, if I couldn't afford... Even back then,

even now, obviously, I have never had a masterpiece

Transformers figure of any of them. Now, I love

all of the Transformers masterpiece stuff because

Transformers masterpiece is the ultimate level

for a Transformers character in my mind. I've

never had any of them, but at the same time,

I've never ever needed to go to any other website

to find a knockoff cheaper version of it because

I just don't need knockoffs in my life. If I

can't have the genuine thing, I might as well

not have it. Yeah, I get what you're saying.

I think like when I was talking about like knockoffs

and stuff like They're an addition. They're not

like right. No, no, no, right exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, but it's like For me, it's like I'd rather

have the real thing and if I can I can at least

you know admire it from afar and I'd be okay

that's the thing I what I've noticed since Toycast

is coming back and since we're doing this whole

new thing and whatever we're going to be doing

in the future. From the time I started it in

2009 to the time it ended in 2014, I have this

detachment to a lot of things. Like, yes, I love

my Funko Pops. I love each one of the characters

for a specific reason. Like the ones that I have

here in in Washington state, because the restaurants

storage back in Indiana, I can specifically tell

you. The flocked gopher from Caddyshack is one

of my favorites, even though I prefer Caddyshack

2 over the original movie. I know sacrilege,

whatever, but like that's a character that I

absolutely love because I love the way he interacted

with Dan Aykroyd in the second film. I had Rockum

Sockum Robots as a kid. They just released Blue

Bomber and Rocket Red, the Rockum Sockum Robots.

Now those are probably the only two I might actually

take out of the box and keep out of the box,

only because I had to find Rockum Sockum Red.

Actually, no, I found it on Amazon. You'd think

for as rich as their CEO is, they could do a

better job of packaging. came in a box was not

wrapped in another box or it was, it basically

just came with the standard film wrapped around

it. And I'm like, shit, this box is damaged.

What the hell? So the bottom of the, of the red

rock them, suck them robot boxes damage. It's

only on the bottom. You can't tell, but the figure

looks so cool and so unique and it's not your

standard Funko pop. It's not just a, you know,

It's not just. It's not. No, I think it's not

a pop. It doesn't look like a pop. It looks like

the robot. Yeah, like it's different. Yeah, I

get it. Yeah. Yeah. And the same thing with like

Optimus Prime. I took him out of the package.

He quite literally looks like the actual 1984

robot mode version of the toy. He has all the

stickers on him, but because it's Fun Co. And

they have big head little bodies. Optimus Prime's

head makes him way too top -heavy I took him

I only I only take these things out of the box

to take pictures of them and then I put them

right back in the box once I have decent pictures

that I can put online they go back in the box

and they go you know on my shelf or on my table

or whatever and as soon as I took optimus out

first of all he's His legs are posed in a way

that one leg is forward, one leg is back. And

it's just a weird, it's a weird molding that

Funko did with it. And I'm like, what the hell?

And then all of a sudden his, his face plate

starts hitting the back, the back of my desk.

And I'm like, Oh, okay. So he's way too top heavy,

but it's like, you know, stuff like that characters

like that, like you can get. Big bang theory

pops, but big bang theory pops. You look at a.

Unless they're like in the Comic Con stuff, which

I actually have Leonard and Sheldon in their

Green Lantern and Flash Comic Con stuff. But,

you know, regular characters, regular people,

it's a face, a head, a hair, you know, hair.

And then to most people will say this to black

soulless eyes. Yeah. That's why every time I

see Funko Pops that have Like orange eyes or

purple eyes or I'm like, oh, that's different.

That's cool. That's interesting I don't know.

It's just it's just the way it is. It's just

I got a I have a quick little story because you

were talking about pops and taking them out of

the box I I do that most of mine the most of

ones that I have are out of the box not all of

them but a lot of them but they did they just

did a series of pops for critical role, which

is a D &D podcast thing. That's very popular

very big And I'm a big fan. And they did pop

for the season one cast. And I only got one.

I was like, wow, I love this show, but I don't

like any of these characters. That's weird. But

my favorite character I did get a pop of, which

is Grog, Grog Strongdraw, played by Travis Willingham.

And I was just going to open it up and put it

on the shelf, like any other pop. I opened it

up, and on the back of the flap, he had his catchphrase.

They have his catchphrase, which is, I would

like to rage. And I was just like, aw. They actually

made the effort, and it's so hidden. You have

to open it up to see the little catchphrase.

I was like, oh, so he's, I don't have a good

place for him because he's in his stupid box

and he takes up too much space. But I'm keeping

that one in the package because they added that

little detail and I was like, okay, that's cool.

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm having fun with it.

I've probably mentioned in this episode, folks,

already, I'll probably mention in the next clip

with Floor Burger and Das Baron about how a buddy

of mine runs a pop store in Nashville, Tennessee.

They actually just opened their first official

brick and mortar store for a while, for the number

of years that they've... been in business, it's

been online. But you know, if as long as they're

not exclusive to Target or Walmart or whatever,

and it's something I want, I know I can go to

this guy and say, Hey, I want this eventually

kind of thing. And he does have a lot of stuff

that does sell out. But like, right now I can

go on there and not saying I'm going to do this.

But if you really wanted the Frasier Pops, I

could send you the link to it. And you could

buy Frasier, Niles and Martin. basically father

and the two sons kind of thing. Like, you know,

so it's one of those things where I don't need

to have it all. I don't need to have it all right

now. But it's one of those things where I'm slowly

looking at each one at each thing and, and deciding

whether do I really need that or not. And most

of the time with my quote unquote detachment

to a lot of things, it's like, Nah, I don't really

need it right now. But again, they make a 1986

Gordon Shumway alien life form pop. Yeah. Oh,

oh, man. I'll be like a bulldozer in a china

shop because get out of my way. I want that thing.

Your collection. Do you know the actual number

of toys you have? No. Do you have a spreadsheet

or anything or really? No. I had a friend come

over once and he saw my bins that are just like

random weapons dumped into them, hickly -pickly,

and he literally shrieked like a girl. It was

so horrifying that it was so unorganized and

messy. If I die, Jason is my executor. Mean he'll

be actually he'll be in hog heaven because he

loves that but it'll it's gonna I've actually

had someone who owns a store say I don't want

to buy your collection Like cuz it would to put

it all together and to figure it out the prize

everything would be a nightmare No, I I do not

my my insurance is woefully laughably Out of

date, so hopefully the house does not burn down.

Well, yes. I mean, that's that's always the hope

Yeah, that's always the hope. I mean, really

though, you never had an inclination of making

a record of everything you had? Or everything

you have? Really? No. No. No. I thought there

was some grand plan here. No. Oh, man. Dude,

I tried to dust it once. 20 years, not 20 years

ago. It'd be like 18 years ago. I got one shelf

done, like half of one. When I say shelf, you

gotta understand that these shelves, because

the basement itself is, the walls are finished,

but there's nothing else to it. So there's no

rooms. It's like a big donut. Think of a big

donut with walls that are finished. So when I

say a shelf, these shelves run the length of

the wall. Like, you know, like, God, I don't

even know, 20 feet, 30 feet? I don't know, you

know, however long the wall is. Because the basement's

the size of my house. So these shelves are, like,

ridiculous. These giant industrial shelves you

get from Menards. So when I say, like, I took,

like, a half a shelf, like, we're talking three

bookcases worth of length, probably. But even

that was, like, just putting it, like, getting

it all down, dusting it, putting it, that was,

like, three days worth of, you know. And then

nothing ever goes back on right. Like, I don't

know if you've ever had this happen. Like, you

take something down, right? Or even if it's just

a figure, you take it down. That figure will

immediately decide, even though he's been standing

at attention for 10 years, every joint now won't

work right. His feet are suddenly cattywampus.

Like, you take a bunch of stuff down and you

put it back in the exact same spot. Suddenly

there's no room. Like, you're two figures that

you need to put somewhere and you're like, you

fit there before. Two days ago, you fit there

fine. Why won't you go back? Yeah, I remember

when I had the dust the small one little shelf

collection I had back in the day. It was always

a nightmare and I would just never end up doing

it. Yeah, because you know what? Hey, as long

as they ain't in direct sunlight. Yeah, I was

fine. You know, as long as you know, no yellowing,

no whatever. And the Funko pops, I mean. I've

sold a few. I actually, I'd have to get my phone

out and look, but I think as of right now, I

have 106 in total between here in the apartment

and what's in storage. Most of it is in storage.

These are just all ones that I've gotten since

we've been out here in Washington state the last

two years. And the funny thing is, and this will

kind of be the wrap up here. Cause I'll ask you

one more probably question in a second. You wanted

to know about the Black Star Castle. So just

I'll remind you of that. Yep. Because we are

now in Washington state at the bottom of the

state in Vancouver, which is quite literally

right across the river from Portland, Oregon.

I am literally three and a half hours away from

Funko HQ. I could go up there right now or not

right now, but In the, in how you were talking

off air about how you have to plan out your days

and this is what I'm doing today. And I have

to get this done today by a certain time. I'll

do it tomorrow. You can go to fun co either HQ

here in Washington or Hollywood down there in

California. You have to show up really early.

There's a line you can get yourself popped. You

can have, they had the, it's like 25 bucks to

get yourself. an actual Funko pop of yourself.

It's something I'm hoping to do at some point

before I die. Yeah. Many, many years from now,

as long as Funko is still around. I don't know,

man. They haven't had that Beanie Baby crash

yet. I was expecting it. Everybody is expecting

it and everybody wants to laugh when it happens.

But I think because they still either retain

licenses or get let like the retro toys line.

I never thought we would get funko transformers

never in my life. What I ever thought we would

get funko pop transformers because they only

they had that they had the license and then they

must have read it. They did it. They did it like

at the beginning. Yeah, because they were doing

funko pop movie funko pops and I'm like, I don't

want guts out of no anyway. So yes. in the video,

which the 2019 David Draper toy collection walkthrough

video will be in our episode post so people can

watch and see all of Dave's awesomeness in his

toy collection. When I was watching through this

video, you had mentioned the Black Star Castle

and that there was some story behind that. Well,

it's it's not a great story per se, but like

first you have to know that that that place that

is notoriously fragile. It's it breaks very easily

You rarely find one in good shape and we were

at King County and you know, I'm The the division

is Jason's very good with people. I am NOT Just

it just is I'm I you know, he he I took charisma

as a dumb stat He he pumped it up. So he knows

all these people. He's always talking to him

and he's talking to this guy was a dealer there

and the guy has a box for the crystal castle

and and I Of course, I'm like black star was

always one of those lines. I kind of want to

collect Just because it seemed interesting to

me, but I've always been like, yeah so I kind

of wander over and Jason's being Jason about

the price which was like and I'm like, well,

how much do you want for it? He's like $200.

I'm like sold Well, I mean, it's like, is it

in good shape? It's like, oh, yeah, it's nothing

broken, which was not quite true. And but like,

I think was missing one gun. But like, he's like,

yeah, it's all it's all in really good shape.

Like the pieces that are broken, you don't notice

they're like little connectors that hold piece

A to piece B. And if you have a display, you

don't notice. Like, it's not like a tower snapped

off. Right? So and he's like $200. I'm like,

sold. What are you insane? Wait, like, this is

this is a grail piece. in really good condition.

You are a madman, sir. And you are not allowed

to come near it. And that is to this day, Jason

is not allowed to come within six feet of that

toy or I will stab him because Jason is infamous

for breaking things. Like the classic story is

we were at a mall, a mini mall. I think we told

this one in the last, I can't remember if we

told this on the last podcast with Danny or we

just told it to Danny, but we were at this mini

mall and Jason saw some master's figures and

he picks up Saurad. Which is also notoriously

fragile and he's lecturing the guys at the counter

about how this is a very delicate toy You have

to be very careful. You got to make sure the

nut and he drops it and it shatters on the floor

Like this is this is this is vintage J. So Jason

is not allowed Anyway, I don't like him breathing

in the direction of the Crystal Castle because

it's one of those things that just I came here

for that was the one that Belomo ordered three

of because every time they'd show up they were

shattered There was one place that Mark Belomo,

every time he tried to get it, it would be shattered

by going through the mail. That might be the

one. What it is, is they used metal in the plastic

because it's kind of a clear plastic and they

would use metal in it to give it a sparkly kind

of, this is why any gold plastic, there's metal

in it. I think there's metal and plastic anyway.

That's why bubbles turn yellow. part of it why

and they get brittle and well the yes what happens

is it rusts the metal rusts and it leaves the

plastic kind of you know without part of its

component it becomes very brittle right so but

yeah it was it was just basically like Jason

was just like I don't know and I'm like oh my

god this is a grail piece and you were balking

at two hundred dollars which is to be fair you

gotta understand that's Jason's entire budget

for a King County yeah about two hundred dollars

that's a I bring a lot of money to King County,

and I save up for it during the year to make

sure that I have a lot of money for King County.

So yeah, it was just basically like he was being

him, and I just swooped in like, I'm sold. Do

not come near this. You are not allowed. Do not

touch for fear of death. I mean, in real life,

I won't stab him. I will punch him in the kidneys

if he comes near it, because he is a klutz. Like

I love him. He knows he knows to stay away because

he knows he breaks stuff So I just I don't like

it would be heartbreaking man because it's in

such good shape It's yeah, it's in such good

shape and it's a toy that He I don't want to

say you probably can't just go on eBay and find

but it's a yeah, it's one of those that once

every decade, one really, really good one like

you have that might only be missing a certain

thing or something. And you're fine with it missing

or what, you know, whatever little piece. A gun.

Yeah, a gun. Okay. That's not taking away from

the overall display factor of the main part of

the castle. Like it'd be different if the jaw

bridge or something was missing, but a gun. Okay,

sure fine. Whatever. Yeah, because like you said,

it's a Holy shit grail piece and they don't even

if even if you do find it on eBay You cannot

that that seller cannot guarantee that it will

get to you in the condition shipped it in if

he just he can't like he can do everything he

can to like protect it and wrap it and mm -hmm

You just you cannot Guarantee that someone somewhere's

not gonna drop it. It's not gonna get kicked.

You can't know like until you open it whether

it got through Okay, and this was like, you know,

we were able to bring it back ourselves and very

carefully So yeah, like it was it was it was

Yeah, that was a real kind of like a rare moment.

Like it was like this thing is so amazing and

to be fair Jason's the one that made the fine,

but then he Then he bought the price and I'm

like, you know, okay It's like $200, but I have

so many. The box wasn't pristine, but it had

the box. Like I said earlier, and again, I'm

not trying to make this your whole segment here,

me just talking about Funko, but that's what

I have. For me, getting the red robot from Rockum

Sockum and it getting to me and the bottom of

the box is damaged. the rest of the box is fine

i don't display them bottom of the box like i

don't just lay them flat and look at them on

my table they're standing up so people can see

hey you have this you have john wick with his

dog you have um uh bob with i'm i'm so local

from what about bob you know you have bill murray

you know what i mean so it's like yeah part of

the like but as long as the box is coming uh

you know Decent shape as long as you know, nothing

major major is wrong with them a little box damage

isn't the end of the world If it if it doesn't

take away your enjoyment of what is actually

in the box, then you're good Well, no, and it's

displayed loose. Anyway, it was just like right

at the box, right? You know, like it was just

It was it was it was I I feel it was a really

good value. I feel I got a really good deal Probably

because he was a friend of Jason's side. Again,

Jason's thing is supposed to be like he's the

friendly guy. He runs the interference and then

I'm the money guy. Yep. Jason's the PR guy. He

is. He's good with people. Yeah, he is. And you

are too. I mean, we've recorded... No, you're

not. Stop it. We've recorded, I think, three

episodes of this very... Episode ninety... 495

or 95 and 96. Back in the day, way back when

in 2012, I think, we recorded - And this is episode

100? Yep. So basically, we killed your podcast.

I'm so sorry. No. No, no, no. No, no, no. At

the time in 2014, we had reached up to episode

99. Episode 99, if people would like to go back

and listen to that, that was the art of toy packaging.

It was us talking about Jim Sorensen and Bill

Forster's Transformers art of toy packaging book.

And then by that time in 2014, my mom had gotten

really sick and by May of... Six years ago, she

was gone. So May's a really difficult month for

me, even though people won't actually hear this

until June. So I'll probably come out of my funk

in May or June. Hey, June's a really June seconds

when my mother passed. So my favorite. Yeah,

like I have what I call the triangle suck, which

is Mother's Day, June 2nd. And then August, your

birthday was in August. Yeah, I just found a

buddy of mine's birthday is somebody I podcast

with a lot. We're actually trying our best to

finish up our... I had this, and this is completely

off the wall, folks. I know, but whatever. I

had this idea back in 2015, 2016 to do a daily

Phineas and Ferb cartoon review podcast where

we would watch the cartoons. We would sit down,

record the episodes. podcasts, because 104 days

of summer for Phineas and Ferb in an entire summer.

Well, 2017 rolled around, things happened. We're

finally getting back to it, so I recorded with

him for years now, even before then. But it's

just one of those things where I find out that

his birthday, which is June 2nd, is also... It

is also the same date of birth with, you know,

not necessarily the same year, because obviously

the person I'm going to mention now is a little

older, actually much older. It's also Stacey

Keach's birthday. I'm like, holy crap, you share

a birthday with the guy that voices American

Creed. Everybody knows who Stacey Keach, everybody

has heard Stacey Keach's voice. You may not know

the name, but you've heard his. Deep, deep voice

that he uses. He was a big actor in the 80s.

Yep. He's the same one I'm thinking of. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I'm old. That's how I

remember things, not from these cartoons you

millennials listen to. I remember he was actually

like an actual actor who acted in movies. He

was in a Cheech and Chong movie. Well, the reason

why I mentioned this to my friend was because

I had just watched an episode of Law and Order

Special Victims Unit. in season 16 and he was

in it. And I'm like, it's so weird hearing his

voice and seeing him on because I only ever have

really ever heard his voice because I've only

ever really watched American Greed, which is

the true crime show that he does narration for.

And he was the voice of Robert Vance. Yeah. Robert

Vance, senior, the grandfather in the Batman

Beyond episode Lost Soul. Okay. Yeah. Again,

voice actors. Yeah. Yeah. Voice actors. That's

the point. All right. You can hear Dave along

with Deval every week or every other? Most every

week. Okay. Most every week on Dave and Deval's

Toys and Collectibles over on toyworldorder .com.

Go check them out. Listen to their show. They

have some great stuff. I find that ironic that

a decade ago Jason told me that you guys weren't

really about reporting news and then Here we

are a decade later. Episode 431 is him talking

about every single news story he could find.

I don't know how it's become. I mean, we're not

about breaking news. I think that was the thing,

especially back in the early days. It was like

everybody wanted to be the one that broke the

story. Hey, they're doing a Quicksilver figure

and everyone wanted to be the first site or webpage

that broke that story. I think that's what he

means. We're more like... Don't even know what

was just like hey, here's this thing coming out

The way I explain it to Steve Megatron who is

essentially my Jason if you want to equate it.

Oh stop it You know, I I say to Steve Megatron

I say, you know what we're like, he's like, oh

we need to talk about this news Everybody else

is talking about this news and I'm like, dude

We are news reactors. We are not news breakers

we just we just give like $700 self -moving self

-driving talking Peter Cullen Optimus Prime it's

18 inches taller however tall damn thing supposed

to be I will never have it because I will know

I think it's really cool I think it's fun I think

it's awesome that they got Peter Cullen to do

the voice but in practicality I will never have

that thing I don't know. This is what it is.

All right, folks, that's going to do it for this

part of Toycast 100. You've got one hour left

because up next... Oh, yeah, this episode is

probably right now. As of this, without editing,

I can say we're at about three hours and 45 minutes.

And we got another hour. I'm so sorry, people.

I'm so sorry. Oh, stop it. I'm so sorry I talk

so much. Oh, stop it. We love your stories. There's

nothing like sitting around the fire listening

to old man Dave tell toy stories. Well, thank

you for having me on, Mike. I appreciate it.

Absolutely. And you know, we're going to have

you back eventually too, because there's a whole

new plan here at Toycast and you'll hear about

that a little bit later. So we're going to head

over to me, Adas Baron and Josh the floor burger.

as we close out Toycast episode 100 after this.

Alright folks, it is time to wrap up Toycast

episode 100. This is the Toy Stories of our collections

and I am of course TFU and Mike as you've heard

me in the past two hours or at this point maybe

three hours. I don't know. I don't know how long

that segment with Dave Draper was because Dave

has a lot of toys. Dave has a whole basement

full of toys, as you heard. Joining me are my

new cohorts and the people that will be going

forward with me in Toycast's future. You heard

him on episode 99 .5. It's the floor burger,

Mr. Joshua. Hello, I am the floor burger. I am

not nearly as extravagant and glamorous as our

next co -host, but I will pretend like I am and

hold my pinky out. Yeah, why do you want to eat

burgers on the floor? It's a cleaning thing,

I will tell you. It's a cleaning thing. Oh, and

here I thought you weren't a table elitist. No,

no, I'm not a table elitist. It's it kind of

goes back to ancient cultures where chairs were

not yet invented Chairs were invented after the

wheels. So I'm just referring back to those.

Anyways, let's talk about the new guy Yeah, the

new guy the new guy is actually an old guy because

people have heard him on 15 episodes of my other

podcast the pull bag our comic book review podcast

that's right, it is the amazing the awesome the

Drag Race fan himself, Mr. A. Das Baron. And

we had to drive 15 miles to the local KB Toy

Store. Hi everyone. KB Toys, really? Eww. Toys

are rust forever. You don't, you never had um...

Oh, we had KB Toys. Did you have KB Toys? No,

we had KB Toys after Toys R Us kind of went away

for a while, but... I'm sorry, KB Toys... You

brought it up, I wasn't going to go there, but

KB Toys... You want to go anywhere, three for

ten dollars of who knows what toy line... Crappiest

Marvel figures you could possibly imagine. You

know, but... Now those are collectible. Actually,

toys that have KB stickers on them are more collectible.

Just throwing it out there. That's kind of...

depressing. Alright, we are here to wrap up Toycast

episode 100, and I am here to talk to these gentlemen

about how they like having their collections,

how they like having them displayed, how they

like whether they're in the box, out of the box,

whether they still play with their toys... Wait,

Das, he said, gentlemen, is there somebody else

who entered the chat with us? Not that I'm aware

of. Who are you talking to? These mongrels, these

rabid mongrel rabi -filled dogs. These dastardly

duo. See, now I feel more comfortable. Thank

you for calling me by my proper name. Thank you.

That's what my mom has called me all this time.

Mm -hmm. Sure. So let's start - Thanks, Mom,

I know you're listening. If your mom can get

through, well, she can fast forward through two

hours of other people talking on this episode.

I know your mom can do a floor burger. Oh lord,

let's not. Dude, my mom's an angel, so, um, you

know, she could probably, nevermind. I can already

tell you folks, with the chemistry that the three

of us have, this podcasting thing ain't gonna

be no thing, cause this is fun, this is easy.

Cool Lord. So, Mr. Barrensir, how do you, when

did you first kind of as a kid notice toys and

as you grew up, at one point did you want to

start collecting the toys that you had as a kid

or did you have your toys all your life? Um,

I still have a lot of the toys that I grew, well

not a lot, a handful of toys that I grew up with.

I still have my original Four Ninja Turtles.

I have the Party Wagon. displayed. He's got his

sticks and rocks that he played with as a young

man. I did I did. Yeah, so like I continually

call bought collected figures, there there was

a specific moment that I could pinpoint becoming

a collector, like the sign, the writing was on

the wall at the time. But this specific moment

cemented it. And that was in 97. maybe 98 when

Marvel put out the original X -Men box set. I

don't know if you remember this. They did an

original X -Men set. They did a giant -sized

X -Men set. Was that the first appearance one?

Yes, and the original Avengers set. Yeah, I remember

that one. I still have this set. I love the presentation

of it. Unfortunately, my Marvel girl came with

a stump of a pinky ring. Thank you finger though

they're still in the packaging and everything

they. I still prefer that over the all new original

x -men set that came out a couple years ago which

used a lot of old bodies and it was really sloppy

on the pain and whatnot so I actually got that

as a Valentine's Day gift years ago and unfortunately

it was not up to snuff and I returned it. Your

turn to the story return it to the person who

gave it to you. I returned it to the store. My

ex knew what was going on. Oh, okay, okay. I'm

sitting there, patroning you, receiving a box

set of Toy Biz Marvel figures, just saying, sweetie,

you haven't met my standards for toys, so I'm

just going to get back to you. Let's try again

next year. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I could

see that being a thing. I can get snobby when

I want to. Oh, I know you can. I know you can.

I still have that set. As to my collecting patterns,

at the moment, I pretty much have my toys in

every room of the apartment. There is a ledge

or if there's the top of furniture display space,

there are toys on it. I'm primarily an out of

box. Collector there a couple of things I keep

in the box I have my Richard Simmons still in

the box as tempting as he is to take out Josh

I know you you wanted me to take lots of photos,

but just the presentation was so nice I just

have him hanging on the wall the fact that you

have not taken him out of the box gone to the

gym and Had him duplicating the exercises you

were doing makes me feel like I think you hate

me I could just take him and put them on the

various machines and then walk away and see what

the people's reactions would be I Mean compared

to what you and I have typically seen at gyms.

I think you doing that would be not only more

normal, but Probably more inspiring for some

people but yes, I You need to do that soon, but

not only take them to the gym But then go to

some like fancy bars or something and just put

them at the end of the bar like he's having a

drink Simmons get charcuterie. Ooh I like it

Young one having what would you like Richie hot

dogs hamburgers? Hey bartender? What's a little

guy down at the end of the bar having? I'll have

one of those. He's a plastic toy Yes, I know

and he enjoys a classic drink. Oh My god, they

still have it in stock. Are you serious? What

though? No, you guys are talking about Richard

Simmons and I know I know not everybody is a

funko fan that's fine but funko has three versions

of richard simmons as a pop the target exclusive

is still available. To get delivered at least

in my area and the target exclusive is basically

red shirt richard simmons with sweating the oldies

on the shirt. I've seen one of them at my local

target. If you wanna buy that for all of us as

sort of a welcome to the show gift, I'll send

you my address off air. That would be excellent.

I'll take him to the gym with me, I'm not kidding.

If we wanna take Toycast to the gym. I'll do

that. Oh, boy, folks. I think this is the most

exercise this podcast has gotten in over a decade.

Work those glutes. I mean, I'm just, Das, I'm

just saying, if we don't see you doing squats

next to Richard Simmons, I'm done. I'm done.

I'm not talking to you anymore. and honestly

out of the three that they made basically the

target version and the regular version are the

same stance they have a dancing version and honestly

this one with the sweat and the target exclusive

is the best one because hello it actually says

sweat into the oldies on the shirt because that's

what he used to do all the time anyway okay so

Das, what is your go -to toy line, what was your

go -to toy line, either as a kid or now as an

adult? I would go through phases as a kid. So,

you know, each line would last a couple of years.

I think my Marvel obsession has lasted the longest

because it started in the early to mid 90s with

the Toy Biz figures and then it became gradually,

you know, they started getting more and more

detailed and the sculpting got better and then

they switched over to Marvel Legends. And I've

kind of been following it ever since. But I definitely

started out with real Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles,

which begat Batman, all the Batman. Same figure,

different colors. But nowadays, if it's not a

Marvel legend, I'm primarily collecting Japanese

toys, which can be a very, very pricey game to

get into. Yes, yes, it can. But we could always

have another show talking about how I feel that

it's such a worthwhile investment for what you

get. And it's one of those things just like with

some of the legends, not all of them. You kind

of have to buy them immediately because you don't

know what the aftermarket markup is going to

be. And a lot of these Japanese things are web

exclusives and you have to find certain retailers

that will carry them because you have to go through

a middleman service to get them. I think this

month I have a... Essentially two diorama sets

which contain all sorts of bits and pieces to

make your own miniature city that you can stick

like your godzilla or your ultraman figures in.

And this is something i've always wanted cool

all right josh what about you what is your toy

collecting kind of story like when like you remember

the first toy you had as a kid. So i do remember

the first time i had as a kid and that was the

GI Joe. Charbroil we talked about this the other

day and I looked it up and that is the first

one I have a distinct memory of being my Toy

I got I picked it out. My mom got it for me.

My brothers each got their own version of GI

Joe being the youngest of three I know that my

mom had to always focus on how do I keep this

equitable between all three when I get toys.

So something like GI Joe or Ninja Turtles always

kind of worked out because we all got our version.

So I got Charbroil. I remember that. And I remember

I had like the slight like lenticular sticker

on the backpack. And as like a three year old

or four year old when I had it, I thought it

was the coolest thing in the world. So. When

it came to early toys my brothers and I were

He -Man and GI Joe to start off with my oldest

brother And I think I mentioned this in the previous

show my oldest brother started with He -Man moved

to GI Joe and those were the two lines that were

very very popular in house not a We didn't hate

Gia Transformers. We weren't against trans formers.

We just were not a transformers family for whatever

reason and then when it came to moving into Ninja

Turtles, that was sort of a natural transition

because we all picked our own turtle that we

were drawn to, which was very easy when you had

three brothers and you had four turtles to work

with. So we had that transition. Ghostbusters

was a very interesting thing for us where I think

my dad had sort of an innate fear of the supernatural.

So he didn't really like us having a lot of ghosts

or anything, but we were a Ghostbusters family,

because that one was also easy where we all had

our own Ghostbuster that we could apply to. So

anytime we had a team, any sort of team -oriented

toy line, we were great with. What characters

were you? So G .I. Joe would rotate a lot. I

usually stuck to the very brightly colored GI

Joe, so Charbroil is one that sticks out to me

because he's that sort of brighter burnt orange

color. I also really liked Flint, later runs

of Flint when he was neon green and like Eco

Force. In Turtles, I usually switched between

Michelangelo and Raphael. My other brother would

switch between Donatello and Raphael. So we shared

Raphael. Ghostbusters, that was Peter Venkman.

Typically, and is there another team I'm forgetting?

I usually stuck with like the more light -hearted,

not like badass leader, not intelligent, not

anybody who had any sort of marketable important

skills to the team. I was typically the goofy

one who made the quips in the back of the room.

Because Michelangelo's the party dude. And I'm

the party dude. Yeah, we all know that. I go

to work every day with an orange bandana on my

face. Sure, you do has the toy collecting Advanced

through life for you. Josh has have you? Gotten

to a point where you're like, I'm set or do you

still want to get more stuff? so I think I'm

kind of at a at a stopping point of a lot of

reflection and I think every collector kind of

hits that at a point My wife and I moved into

a new house. I have had the opportunity to have

my own room for my collection and I have my shelves

up. I have my shelves loaded, but there is only

so much you can fit on shelves and have it look

good and have it look like something you want

to be presentable and something you can share.

And where Das has an apartment where he has stuff

on everything, we have consolidated everything

to one room. And it's not that, if I had my own

apartment, I probably would be just like Das,

where I would have stuff coming out of everything.

I would have the Ghostbusters terror toilet.

I think that's what it was called. Fearsome flush.

Yes, fearsome flush. I would have fearsome flush

sitting on top of my toilet. I would have...

Any sort of scuba underwater figure in my shower

if I could but I don't so I have everything kind

of relegated to those rooms as far as expanding

it's when you when you have when you have a when

you're a homeowner and you're an adult and you're

also a public school teacher your budget is limited

and So I have to start looking at okay. Well

Marvel Legends just announced that they're increasing

their price point at retail? Do I really want

to continue spending $25 per figure for the privilege

of putting it on my shelf? That's where I'm getting

to with this. So I'm still curating my vintage

section, but I think I'm really slowing down

quite a bit as I'm getting to what is 2021. Yeah,

yeah, so I have been a pretty constant adult

collector for 20 years now and You get to that

point of like okay? I'm gonna slow down and be

a little bit more careful on what I'm doing.

It's kind of like the other podcast mascot I

have over on the pull bag life well spent oh

I don't regret what I'm doing. It's just I don't

know I'm saying the whole life well spent thing

like That's the point. There are no regrets,

but you're at a point now where it's like, okay,

gotta stop or gotta refocus or gotta figure out

what I want to keep and what I don't want anymore

or whatever kind of thing. And again, like, again,

like we talked in episode 99 .5, you have specific

memories tied to certain toys. And there may

not be certain toys that you still have from

your childhood. Hence why we did the Kane County

recap thing in the last episode of the show.

So, you know, it's just one of those things where

it is just what it is. And as I've said throughout

this entire long ass podcast episode, cause for

me, this show has been just recorded. Over about

three and a half four hours of my life over the

various last few weeks and months Right now my

collection is Funko and most of them are in storage

in Indiana. That's fine. It is what it is But

I have been Buying new ones and now that they

have the transformers license. It's like oh my

god I need to find all of them now. I do only

want one version of Optimus Prime and one version

of Megatron The problem with that is, the ones

I want are GameStop exclusives and their blind

box GameStop exclusives. That's a toy crime that's

coming up. Fucking blind box. Anyway, so basically

- Our case files are getting filled before we

even get to - Oh yes, oh yes. Basically, the

blind box Transformers GI Joe box that GameStop

and FunCo did this year is Duke and Cobra Commander

for GI Joe. Megatron and Optimus for Transformers,

but the Megatron and Optimus, even though they

are the exact same mold as the regular ones,

the additions that they put on those to make

them exclusive to that box set is Optimus has

his orange energy axe from the first episode

when he and Megatron fought. Megatron has his

purple energy mace as weapons attached to their

arms. Well, I think an important thing for us

to eventually talk about is What are the ultimate

editions of some of the most iconic characters

that we either? want to have ourselves or just

that are out there somewhere and That is one

of the hardest parts about collecting is Do you

want 14 different Batman's or do you want just

one really good version of Batman? It depends

because there are multiple versions of Batman

and there are multiple versions of Robin and

they're not all Bruce Wayne and they're not all

Dick Grayson for example I have the, what is

he called? It's, they call, Funko called it Red

Wing Robin. It is essentially the new 52 Tim

Drake Robin from the new 52 series. So that to

me is not the same as finding the Batman, the

animated series, Robin cartoon version of Robin,

which is Dick Grayson, two completely different

characters. That's fine. As I just said, I only

want one Optimus Prime and one Megatron of the

original G1 versions, and for me, having the

Energy Axe and the Energy Mace versions would

be really cool. I don't need Megatron with his

fusion cannon as a Funko Pop or Optimus with

his rifle. Now, if they were to repaint Optimus

in shattered glass colors, that would be a whole

different thing. However, I am perfectly fine

with the ones that I'm going after. And luckily,

so far, Funko has only done the big seven, I

think. Yeah. Optimus, Megatron, Jazz, Soundwave,

Bumblebee, Grimlock. Who's the other? Jetfire,

Skyfire, whatever you want to call him. He's

Matt Cross. Anyway. Well, I think a big conversation

Das and I have had several times is what is our

Ultimate Batman, because I know Das, you're a

big Batman fan. Yes. And I just got the recent

Hush Mafex Batman, which looks so good. And right

now, that's my ultimate Batman. And I think we

all have what our version is of our definitive.

And for me to kind of go back to your question

of like, how do I collect? I'm right now trying

to hunt down what is the definitive version of

all my favorite characters, because I don't have

the space for 10 Wolverines. I just want one

really good one that covers all my bases. I mean,

as long as it comes in yellow and blue spandex,

you're good. Unfortunately, sometimes that involves

park sharing, which I am. I have the yellow and

brown Wolverine, which is good for like my 80s

stuff. But I also want a fully comic accurate

giant size team. So I have. the first appearance

Wolverine that came with the Hulk, which is a

great body and perfect for his first for his

giant size appearance. However, the head is different.

So I need to hunt down the love triangle three

pack or just get the Wolverine from that so I

can swap heads. God you want to talk about a

three pack that I regret getting when it was

even on sale was that love triangle three pack

but that had the ideal version of so many different

figures. I have a cat climbing up into my face

right now. But yes, no, I agree with you, is

that you have to do a lot of part sharing, you

have to do a lot of customizing. So that's why

for my modern collecting, I'm trying to come

up with what is the, who's my ideal Superman,

who's my ideal Batman, because how many of each

do you need? For me, it's all about show accuracy.

And that runs into a like if you want a show

accurate movie accurate Batman 89 Michael Keaton.

You're probably looking at the hot toys figure

would be the definitive version when they put

that out with the batmobile when hot toys did

that When it comes, oh, we need a go -kart sized

toy Hey now you leave that batmobile alone I

even though I would never get it there I'm too

damn poor to even be able to afford getting the

hot toys batmobile when I saw a video of that

I was like This is what I wanted in 1989 when

I was nine years old. Damn it. Why did it have

to wait 40 years? No, don't get me wrong. I think

it's a beautiful piece. I'll never own it. And

I think it's great. I just loved how back in

the 90s with the Toy Biz Marvel figures, they

came out with so many versions of characters,

they started naming them like sequels. So we

got up to cable five. We're just not even cable

channel five. Yeah. We're not even gonna get

into what channel he was from or what episode

he was from. It's cable 22 This time he's Aqua

cable. He has floaties and flippers and then

space cable like they could have just gone with

that No, just cable five. They couldn't even

have gone with his mood when he was wearing that

outfit This is slightly gregarious cable This

is the quasius cable Nope, can't do that. For

me, as long as the X -Men are from either the

blue or the gold team, I'm fine. I think that's

actually something we should come up with, is

Grigaria's cable. Preposterous cable. Well, they

are all preposterous. We have an idea. Every

single channel of cable is preposterous. But

I think we have a merchandising idea. Grigaria's

cable. Emotional cable. Okay, so for me when

it comes to the character of cable and I know

we're going off the rails here folks But this

is a preview for you folks who were listening

to this because look forward to going off the

rails Oh, yeah, like I said earlier these guys

are the new team So keep keep track of how often

we are on the rails. That's what you want to

count for It's a good thing you said, edit that

out, because now I have a clip where I can throw

in, edit that out every single time you do something

now. Oh, good. I'm the king of sound bites. Oh,

you have no idea. Das knows me and Das knows

most of the time what I do, but Das and I haven't

recorded stuff in at least, I want to say three,

maybe four, 2018 was the last he meant. card

that comic episode we did came in thunder cats

it was was surprisingly well done uh... but it's

one of those things where uh... you know from

now see how you may be lose my damn train of

thought the hell dude yes like it's it's like

a toy infirmary over here hello nurse come on

let's go don't worry he's flatlining if it starts

to struggle i'll i'll show up in the middle of

the night but a pillow over your face and jump

out the window And race off into a field or you'll

die too, so I just was making a not if you're

wearing one shoes. Oh, can they be neon purple?

Of course they can. The Nickelodeon ones, they

need to be. It's it's too bad that grew blew

up the moon. He didn't want to just he didn't

want to collect it this time. He wanted to blow

it up. Yeah, damn it. I still don't know where

the hell I was taking that. Anyway. I don't know

where you were either. I'm just going back to

the script. Back to the script everybody. What

script? There's no script. Then what am I reading?

I don't know what you're reading. I have a 500

page document sitting in front of me right now.

Then that's something you wrote in your sleep.

It is called the bibble? What is the bibble?

Oh lord. It's something orange troglodytes should

never hold in their hands. Oops, sorry. Anyway.

What is DOS 316? And the Lord saith may his suit

be fabulous. May your suit be ever so tailored.

May your suit be tailored to your butt cheeks.

I have no butt cheeks. So, I've been telling

you dude, squats. Come on. You've been hitting

biceps all the time. You gotta do leg day. My

legs are big enough as they are. But you have

no butt. I know, that's the... We had that a

separate time. What has Richard Simmons been

trying to teach you the whole time since you

bought him? Sweat. Or hold on. Sweat! You don't

want swass though. You want to avoid the swass

as much as possible. But we'll get those gains.

We'll get those pants just bulging nicely. You

won't even realize just how much the ladies are

checking you out as you go and you put Richard

Simmons in your back pocket. You could rest a

book on that. And I think this podcast needs

some turtle wax right about now. That's all we

can I can talk about waxing a lot if you want.

Oh, you'd be surprised how much my back needs

Okay, that was I was just talking about waxing

poetic, but yeah, I mean oh It's only turtle

wax. I mean Mikey uses it for his shell for crap

sake You know what you know what you guys just

don't understand the challenge of having a very

thick forest To carry around each day. Yeah,

well As long as it isn't on my back, I'm fine.

If it's on my face, sure, fine, whatever. But

no, thank God. Anyway, toys! Oh, wait, we were

talking about toys, not back hair. Okay, cool.

Cool, cool, cool. I want to make sure that we

were all on the same page on that. I'm sure there

are Bigfoot toys or... We could make a list of

hairy toys. We got Beastman Stratos. Flocked

Panther. Mm -hmm is okay. So if panther is flocked

does that really mean he's more hairy than when

he's not flocked He's double hairy I mean, I

could try to use flocked in a way that you probably

you're gonna feel like you need to bleep out

later on so, you know, I'll you Dude if people

are still listening to us right now, they're

all gonna be our catchphrase with the flock Yeah,

probably, most likely. We are flocked two ways

this Sunday. Yes, yes, we are. All right, folks,

I think that's gonna do it. Wait, we're done?

We had old script? What is going on? I thought

we were gonna actually get to serious questions.

We've overstayed our welcome. It's been fun.

Goodbye, everyone. I start talking about my back

hair. We're just done. What the hell? You know,

I mean once a show jumps the shark It can never

come back from it and you got to blame Henry

Winkler for that. What is this jumping the back

hair? Is that what we're doing? Please no, I

don't want to come anywhere near your back here.

Thank God I'm out here in Washington State and

now we're nowhere near Illinois. Well, I know

I never So i can i can start fine fine fine fine

you want more questions fine. Yes i think we

should go with more questions because if you

have to edit out the junk at least you have content

to use that makes it sound like a legitimate

toy show. Yeah well you know. Legitimate anything

i've done the last thirteen years right anyway.

Alright so here is a teaser for the origins on

toy cast technically. Yeah, technically desk

you go first cuz a comes before J or F so action

figures or dolls What do I refer them to as yes

action figures? However, I had many adults in

my upbringing who would mock me and refer to

them as dolls What about you Josh action figures

or dolls? Oh Action figures and and not just

for the fact that it's like I'm trying to maintain

my masculinity and they call them action figures.

Their purpose is to create some sort of non...

Okay, so I'm gonna get myself into trouble in

semantics here, so maybe I shouldn't go further,

but they're action figures. They're set up to

create a difference between action movie characters

and... Baby doll characters. There's there's

a difference. There's a difference in the purpose

and that's okay Doesn't make them any better

doesn't make them any worse. It just indicates

their purpose Hardware store is different from

a lingerie store for a lot of reasons even if

the behaviors can be somewhat similar So it's

okay to label a hot piece Okay, I think I think

that says way too much about you that it does

about us no one remembers wasp as Demetri Martin

said The difference between an adult toy and

a child's toy is location, location, location.

So some of these and both Josh and Adas Baron

will have separate episodes for this, but some

of these do come from the 30 questions. Well,

yeah, again, one on one. The whole point is one

on one to get the anyway. What? Well, OK, so

what was the most? Money either of you have ever

spent on a toy and the advice of my attorney.

I'm not saying anything Incriminating evidence

that your wife should not find out about I'm

gonna have to say What I threw down for the has

lap sentinel which in in the in the grand scheme

of things isn't that much But for someone, you

know who mainly spends, you know 20 to 30 dollars

on like a standard action figure 350 is a lot.

Yeah, kind of. And I'm pretty sure, and I know

I haven't, because I don't have that kind of

money, nor do I have the damn space to even,

you know, you talk about 350 for Sentinel, it's

700 for Unicron, oh my god. And the Transforming

Optimus? Oh my god. Oh no, that one's 700. Unicron

was 595 or something. Plus $100 shipping or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so 60... Well, yeah, close

that... That Transforming Optimus, though, man,

holy crap. My jaw dropped when I saw that full

video. I know that that's been around for at

least three or four years now. Like, they did

another version of it before, but now that they

actually have Hasbro's backing on it. Like, holy

crap. That thing is crazy. Yeah, so if I were

to throw in how much I have spent I would say

I'm still under $100 on a single toy and that's

usually been tough and If I'm gonna spend that

much it's something that I I'm going to keep

the box. I'm keeping the accessories I'm keeping

everything in place because I want to make sure

if I'm I think once I hit the $50 mark if I'm

spending about $50 on something it's got to be

something that If the time comes that I need

the money or it's time to sell it's gonna be

something I can flip You know, so I I've never

spent over $100 on a single toy, but I've spent

Oh Definitely over $100 on lots. I know I bought

a lot of transformers for $200 and sold them

all and It but I've always had my limits on that

but Could have the space for something like a

unicorn if I had the money for it or for the

sentinel if I was really that in x -men I probably

would have gone for it. So the answer question

probably no more than I think for me in the last

let's say five years the most expensive thing

I've bought was I just had to win a Funko pop

auction for the cereal monsters for Count Chocula

Frankenberry and Boo Berry and that I'm paying

like $95 plus shipping for the three of them

because they're Kind of, they were Funko shop

exclusives back then. They still are, but you

know, it was one of those things where you weren't

really going to find those anywhere, especially

sold together. So I was like, okay, sure. Before

that, back when I was working from 2005 to 2010,

I think the most I ever spent was maybe $125

on the original G1 Blaster. I think between G1

Blaster, Soundwave, and Optimus, I spent just

south of 400. So I will say I have to make a

correction on what I said originally. When something

gets a little bit larger like a playset, I often

forget that is a toy in itself. So I got the

Masters Classics. Castle gray skull when it came

out through Maddie collector for whatever the

price was I pre -ordered it saved up for it so

that's probably the most I ever spent on an individual

toy my Ghostbusters firehouse was 75 bucks my

Ninja Turtle layer was and target accidentally

price all their initial layers at $15 I I did

that too It was amazing greatest $15 so I would

say the the Masters Castle Grayskull was the

most ever spent on something and I have no regrets

having spent that much. And I don't think I ever

will regret that. Let's do more questions. Okay,

more questions. What features define a good toy

to you? So what is a toy? What kind of features

like action features kind of thing? What makes

that a good toy? Like I'm not crazy about action

figure features. So I would probably define it

as like the iconography of the character that

it's based off of. How good does it get down

to the root of the character? Like, you know,

there are a million Wolverine figures there that

use like the same body, but what has like the

greatest face? I have to agree with that. I'm

a big Captain America fan. The original Marvel

Legends Toy Biz Captain America that I got, I

still have it on my shelf. And I also have the

Power and Glory or the worthy Captain America,

whatever it's called, from the Avengers Endgame

Walmart exclusive. Does it capture a... Image

that is the best image of that figure that if

they updated a little bit. I wouldn't care to

get it is it great just how it is that even with

a mild change I wouldn't care and that that's

a big thing for me for modern toys right now

vintage is obviously really different, but then

modern stuff I don't need the new Disney Plus

Winter Soldier that's coming out because I I

have the Infinity War figure that does a job

perfectly for me. Meanwhile, the only Sam Wilson

Captain America figure I want is the Amazon exclusive

Funko pop version from Winter Soldier from my

only comment about Sam Wilson is Captain America

because I think it's awesome. I think he looks

great. My biggest complaint dude needs to put

a helmet on. He's flying in the air. Put a helmet

on. Come on. Okay, okay. What have you seen?

What message are you sending to children? Have

you seen Marvel Assembled? After we're done here,

go to Disney Plus, go watch Marvel Assembled.

They released a second episode doing the behind

the scenes of Falcon and Winter. I watched it

yesterday. Yeah, OK. So you know what I'm going

to bring up? The faults? No, not the faults.

They showed how he actually was, how the suit

basically And I'm not saying anything against

Anthony Mackie. The man is a better physical

specimen than I could ever hope to be. But when

they were showing how they were making him look

on screen and how they were making him look in

the cowl and he actually called it a cowl and

in the suit. They did digitizing over that so

it would look seamless it actually wasn't it

was every time he moved it moved so we had the

movement while he was doing his scenes as captain

america. What. They digitally enhanced it to

make sure it didn't look like you could see the

inside of his neck because it's a mask You're

not supposed to know even though everybody knows

who it's just he needs a helmet like put it I

I wear a helmet to bike to down the street put

a helmet on this guy. He's flying through the

air I know it's comic accurate. It looks fantastic

the fact that we have The Falcon wearing that

outfit is such a huge leap forward for superheroes,

comics, whatever you want to call it. I think

it's great. I'm embracing the whole thing. I

think his message was fantastic. I just want

a little safety. Come on. Put a helmet on. You

heard it here first, folks. Captain America needs

a helmet. I wear a helmet to go down the stairs.

Leave me alone. OK, let's see. Let's move on.

All right. Well, okay. So every everybody is

safe. Uh huh. Everybody is safe. Nothing is going

to happen to you and your loved ones. However,

your house, apartment, whatever is on fire. It's

destroyed. It's whatever your collection is going

to go with it. What is the one toy you would

run into safe? One toy I would save. I did everything.

Just one individual toy out of everything you

can only you only have time to for one or else

you're gonna die I mean I can easily answer this

because I feel like I always have the the knee

-jerk reaction and that is my original Michelangelo

with the rubber head not the solid plastic head

I would Hmm interesting He's missing his belt.

He's missing his weapons, but if I could go in

and I didn't have to worry about saving my cats

or anything like that and they were okay and

they were safe and I would have to say I have

a Shogun Godzilla that has been in my family

as long as I can remember. My uncle got it for

me, my brother's to play with. When my uncle

passed, my mom had it in her garage. When I finally

got my own house, my mom said you need to have

this now and so it's come to my room. I would

say my Shogun Godzilla because it's been Out

of everything, probably the most recognizable

toy in generations of my family. Awesome. For

me, it's not here, but if something happened

to where my funcos are stored, I would have to

I would die for this. I'd have to save the pop

rod, the funco pop pop rides. Kit with Michael

Knight, because as soon as Funko announced that

they were doing that figure, I'm like, okay,

if I don't get individual Knight Rider figures,

if I'm only getting this one Knight Rider figure

from Funko, I'm like, okay, sure. Great. That

would be the one that I would save. Out of the

ones that are here with me right now, one of

the ones, uh, probably Christmas Vacation Clark.

because uh christmas they released the it's supposed

to be a wal -mart exclusive but i don't have

a wal -mart uh they released the station wagon

from when he grabbed the from when they took

the tree home in the movie so that one because

christmas vacation is my number one christmas

movie oh i can watch that six times in a row

without any problem kind of thing so well yeah

i mean hallelujah holy shit where's the title

of course anybody can watch that movie Alright,

so what is one toy you'd love to have in the

real world? So let's just say, for example, you

could have any action figure be a real world

thing. Might need you to clarify that one a little

bit more. Think of the Lantern Core was real,

and the Green Lantern Ring was real, and you

could actually use it. What toy would you want

to be, like... If you could have a life -size

Actual like small soldiers the movie small soldiers

if Tommy Lee Jones came to life Like if my Grimlock

comes to life and it's voice so if I could have

a toy come to life for real Probably optimal

optimus beast war no beast wars beast wars the

vibrant origin blue caught my eye on that and

Are we talking about it being like That toy coming

to life at that like. Foot and a half height

or are we saying like it would be life size.

Oh. It would be like yes, I I would love to play

in real life and just look at my coworkers be

like what I'm driving a giant truck monkey. What

do you what do you want with me? And I would.

I would go with the big blue and orange monkey

truck. That'd be my vote. Let's do it all day

long. For me, like this is kind of a grail piece,

but if it worked, too, that would be great, which

would be the Super Sentai Mask Man Masky Brace,

which is basically their transformation device.

It is one of the most difficult, sought after,

uh, Henshin devices that you it's damn near impossible

to find. And if you do find it, it goes for like

fifteen hundred dollars. Wow. But it's like it's

a communicator, it's a transformation device,

it flashes. One of my favorite things about the

show, the show is it's a communicator. But when

they they're communicating to the headquarters,

they get the POV screwed up every single time.

So it's a full it's a full on shot of the actor

talking into it. As if there's a camera on him

not look like he's I mean, he's still looking

down at the brace. Yeah. I think any Sentai kind

of toy would be absolutely ideal. I have a belt

buckle that turns me into an armored character

and then I get a giant robot to go right around

in. I'm good with that. Like, I could see that

being a thing. Yeah. Yeah, we just need two more

people and we could have the five lions. So these

are the two questions that are going to close

out every episode of origins when I eventually

start doing the interview episodes if You could

any toy company doesn't matter if they gave you

the keys to the kingdom If you could create any

toy, what would you want to create? What rating

are we going with right now? It's an explicit

podcast. So it doesn't really matter. There's

gonna be a way to I ever wanted to create Okay,

give me a second to think. I should probably

have read these questions before we hit the show.

See, this is why I didn't want to do previews

of these questions because now I do your single

-handed episode for this. I'm a big fan of Disney

World. I don't really care for Mickey Mouse.

I don't care for Goofy, Donald Duck, whatever.

It's not that I dislike them. They're just not

what I like about Disney World. I like Disney

World for the ambiance, the escapism, the illusion

it creates, the storytelling and everything.

And I had an ill -fated idea for a podcast years

ago, and one of the topics I talked about was

what are the top five theme park rides we would

want as a play set. And if you've ever been to

Disney World, you've ever been on Pirates of

the Caribbean, it is a wonderfully themed, designed

ride. And if I could have... A good chunk of

that to become like a seven foot long like us

is flag size. Play set of the different scenes

you see throughout there because there's a pirate

ship in a fort scene there's a there's a port

side you know sixteen hundred seventeen hundreds

colonial. Set up there's a treasure room there's

not necessarily a beach but there's like a cave

sort of set up. I would love a seven foot long,

three and three quarter inch scale Pirates of

the Caribbean play set with water, like a working

water feature through the center. That would

be my jam. Kings of the kingdom. No budget. Let's

go for it. Let's make it. That would, that would

be where I would go. Got anything to ask. Okay.

So my, my first idea is another Sentai one, but

do we have two options or are we just sticking

to one? Do whatever you want, man. Just answer

the question. In layman's terms, if you remember

the original Power Rangers, there's Rita Repulsa.

In Japan, she's known as the witch Bandora, who

is played by the actress Machiko Soga, who is

a prolific tokusatsu Sentai Kamen Rider metal

hero actress, and she is known for her over the

top performances. And she's played multiple characters

throughout like late seventies to mid nineties.

If they did a box set of her most iconic roles.

That would be awesome and it would have to actually

look like her because every time they put a reader

figure out it doesn't look like either her or

the the US actress they always look terrible.

My second go -to would be hot toys now like I

don't have any hot toys. They're so freaking

expensive. I always wanted the 89 Batman Jack

Nicholson Joker and he was at my local comic

shop and I was like, I'm going to save up and

by the time I had the money, he was gone. They

eventually had the black and white outfit that

he had. But I didn't want that one. Oh yeah,

every time. Man, his career is really getting

lax right now. But in terms of over the top performances,

I would want a hot toy. Yes, version of Julia

as m bison from the 90s. Yes, he made that movie.

I know a lot of people have a lot of hate for

that movie. I adore that movie. It's so fantastic.

So many 90s films, but as I've gotten older,

I have just learned to say I love it. And yes,

Raul Julia, especially he that was his last performance

of his life. He was dying of cancer while John

Claude Van Damme is snorting. He is processing

more snow than my snowblower this past winter.

And he is giving the performance of a lifetime

in a bad situation. And yes, 100 % yes, he needs

to be just immortalized in that role. Because

how many different scenarios in our lives can

we think of where it's the day... God, what is

the line? The day Bison came into your village

was the most important day of your life. But

for me, it was a Tuesday. There's so many scenarios

in our lives that we can come up with, like telling

people like, you know, if we're just like, oh,

you're just an asshole every day. So when you

piss me off, that was a Tuesday to you, but that

was like a big day in my life. But yes, I agreed

to us give him his immortal incarnation as a

hot toys figure yes hundred percent for me it's

very simple they haven't done it yet to my knowledge

and I haven't seen any announcements yet and

I'm waiting and I wish they've done every other

most every other 80s they they have eight 70s

and 80s TV shows they have Cheers they My point,

my point, well obviously, my point is they have

Cheers, they have Sanford and Son, they have

all this stuff. I want a Funko Pop Alf, dammit.

That's what I want. Would he be flocked or no?

Yeah, both. He was a Shag Muffin, so I don't

know about him being flocked. I think he would

have to be, there would have to be some other

style with him, almost like, what's his name?

Beast Man, not Beast Man, Grizzlor. Give me a,

give me a, give me a Masters Origins Alf as Grizzlor.

Alfor, oh lord. Alright, final question. Step

up your game. What is the one piece of advice

you would give the toy collecting fandom? Okay,

I'm sure there's plenty of pieces of advice,

but what is the one main overall final thought

for toy collectors that you, what is the one

thing that you would tell the toy fandom? It's

like collecting fa - whatever. You know what

I mean. Keep it fun and collect the things that

you enjoy. Don't get things just so you can say

you have them. Okay. So I don't know if I can

offer one. So I'm going to offer a couple. Here

we go. You ready? Number one, if it doesn't fit,

don't put it there. I think that's something

we can all agree with. If it doesn't fit, don't

do it. Number two, if it doesn't fit, and it

doesn't go there, don't try to make it go there.

And I'm talking about shelving, just so we all,

are we all on the same page on that? Okay, okay,

because I'm talking about shelving. Because I

have eight by 12 shelving, like, you only get

so much space on these things. Beyond that, I

would also say organize, organize, organize.

Keep. everything organized. If you got extra

hands, if you got extra heads, if you get extra

accessories, keep it organized in some shape

or form because when you start getting into 25

different Ironmen, they've got 25 different pairs

of hands and everybody's got like, you know,

spider thwipping hands and wall climbing hands

and fists. Keep that organized as much as you

can because If you're gonna try to sell it later,

organize it later, just try to figure out your

life later. Don't put it in a box. Don't put

it into a bin unless you have it in little baggies.

Ziploc baggies are your best friends as a collector.

Do that. And then my last final bit of advice.

If you are going to try to hold a relationship

and be a collector, find a really good flower

shop. and be awesome to your spouse. That's all

I can say. Sorry, I spent the rent. Sorry, sweetie.

Our mortgage is going to be a little bit behind

because I found a bat landing with a new cape.

He's got a new cape. He's got a new cape and

he can fit in our living room because he's life

size. Just communicate with your with your spouse.

That would be the big thing. Communicate with

your spouse. I'm sorry, Mom, for everything you

heard. And maybe we do need to apologize because

it's so funny that you bring that up because

even though I've always tagged my podcasts explicit,

apparently some of the - this is a long time

ago now - some of the very early episodes of

Toycast that one of my co -hosts was on or wasn't

on, I started with a couple of guys doing this

and one of them had kids and one of the kids

wanted to listen to the show, but it wasn't -

His dad on that, his dad wasn't on that episode

and he listened to it anyway. And it's me and

my buddy, Pecan Court Michael. And we're just

cursing up like left and right. Every, not every

other word, but every seventh word. And the mom

heard this and apparently he got super pissed.

And I'm like, Hey, it's tagged explicit. Like

seriously. Anyway, I want to thank everybody

from Pia to the goddamn Proto Man to Steve Megatron,

Mike the Bird Man, Pecan Crumb Michael, everybody

that stopped by, to ADAS Baron, to the Flora

Burger here for being the new crew coming in.

I also want to thank and remember Gary Clark,

aka Optimus Scourge. He was the person who passed

away in 2011. was the reason why I only did the

show up until 2014 and then ended it. But we

have a whole new direction. You can listen to

the previous episode to hear about that. We will

be teasing more about that in the next episode.

And it's just going to be a bunch of fun talking

about toys. If you're looking for a toy podcast

that doesn't do too many semantical things or

doesn't Dive too deeply into the bibble or the

or the the the Politico so don't come here. It's

toys folks. There should be no wait. What wait?

Are we? No, or should they come here? Wait, don't

come here. No. I don't even know now you see,

you know. DOS is happening again. Where the hell

is the damn thing? He lost his memory medicine.

It's his fault. I'll give you some memory medicine.

Thank you for joining us here on Toycast. If

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

feedback for the show, there are several ways

to do so. Send an email to feedback at geekcastradio

.com. Please send us mail. We need to hear from

you as we go on this new journey. Visit the website

geekcastradio .com where you can comment on this

and all of our other episode posts. Here are

all the ways you can listen to us. Nowadays,

Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and of course,

the home where our files exist, Spreaker, as

well as any other podcasting client you choose

to use, but I prefer you use one of these. I

really like Spotify for podcasts because I already

pay for Spotify anyway, so it's one of those

things. iTunes is still a thing, folks, for PC

users, so please, leave us reviews in iTunes.

Toycast is back, and we hope you laughed your

ass off throughout this entire episode, or whatever.

We tried hard to save stupid things to laugh

at. What are you talking about? Follow us on

Twitter. At Geekcast Radio is the network Twitter.

You can also follow the show at TF Toycast. And

I said that before. The reason why the Twitter

is at TF Toycast is originally seven years ago,

this was all about Transformers, not just toys

in general. I am of course TFG1 Mike. Das, would

you like to give your Twitter out? I do not have

a Twitter. However, I still have Facebook and

Instagram under Ados Baron. You have a Twitter,

it's the same damn thing. Well, okay, technically

I do. I have not touched it in like six or seven

years. Well, that's how long this podcast has

been on, I hate it, so I guess you're gonna have

to start touching your Twitter because I'm gonna

be tagging you on Twitter. Hey, what I do with

myself and my Twitter is none of your damn business.

I actually don't remember my Twitter handle at

the moment. Mr. Floorburger, how about you? I

really don't, I'm on it. You've tagged me on

it. That sounds about right. It could be Floorburger

or 553. It could be Floorburger, it could be

Floodburger. I'm not sure. It depended on my

mood when I made that handle. If you really want

to get to that point, yes, you can look me up

on what we've been tagged on. Actually, if you

really want to find me, you can find me on Venmo.

Under a Joss Barron. Thank you. I'm available

on Venmo as well So basically you want them to

send you money. I'm not saying anything. I'm

just telling them where to find me Become a fan

on Facebook go to facebook .com slash key cast

radio network And I'm thinking about setting

up a toy cast page. Hopefully I can actually

get the name I may have to actually call it TF

toy cast, but I think I should be able to leave

anyway I don't know sometimes when you have a

podcast for as long as I have had podcasts people

try to Use the same name as you have had for

the past 13 years. Anyway, for now, I am TF2

and Mike with... The Floor Breaker! And Ed Asparan!

And somebody has a vibrator. Oh, that's my phone.

Yeah. Or is it? Or is it? Exactly. Dun dun dun.

I'm just gonna steal Deval's line. Keep playing

with your toys, gang. We'll catch you next time

here on Toycast as we enter this new era. Is

this thing still on? Is anyone still listening?

Well, we are gonna end this five hour and ten

minute journey or so with the wise words of Optimus

Scourge who died September of 2011. I consider

the man one of my best friends and every time

I hear his voice I think of fond memories and

I still end up crying. But I hope everyone enjoyed

this five -hour journey into how we like collecting

our collections. I want to thank once again all

my guests, Mike the Birdman, Steve Megatron,

Pia, Protoman, Optimus Solo, Pecan Court Michael,

Optibotamus, Dave Draper, and my new co -hosts,

as I said at the beginning of this 5 -hour journey,

Josh the Floorburger and Adas Baron. We are going

to be bringing you a whole new toy journey here

on Toycast, and I hope people will tune in. I

promise, no more 5 -hour episodes. So keep playing

with your toys and we'll catch you next time

here on Toycast and now the wise words of the

late great Optimus Scourge aka Gary Clark Okay,

I'll go first myself I've been around TFW for

quite a long time before it had its own website

actually in either 2000 or 2001 when Tony started

an RID site and It was the only one that had

car robots And back then, YouTube -sized videos

that were pretty decent quality was almost unheard

of back in that time. So I've kind of been there.

I've been to a bunch of BotCons, hung out with

the TFW crew at BotCon, and had some stuff with

that. And got to know Pia over new animated toys,

which we shared a thread with a bunch of other

people over on TFW. You know basically it started

off very simply and became obsession really for

a lot of us and I Don't know it's kind of come

full circle now. I'll pretty much just wait Yeah,

just because financial situations and you know

money being what it is today You know I just

try to have to be a lot more careful I can't

go completists like I used to so and if I do

buy something a lot of times I'll sell it off

or if I really don't like it I'll sell it for

cost plus shipping and that's always been my

thing with me and I've always gotten kind of

you know people don't want to believe in karma

sometimes but I kind of do and you know Pia will

tell you a lot of times I've gotten stuff for

him in retail and it's never more than cost plus

shipping and a PayPal fee because they charge

it to me so and what comes around goes around.

There's going to always be something that you

need someday. I've been on the receiving end

of deals from other people and him as well. I

think that that's the way it should be. Collecting,

unfortunately, is kind of a greedy thing to a

lot of people, and even to myself, to an extent,

can realize that. I try to, instead of say, okay,

I got this guy, he's worth 20 bucks on eBay.

There's a guy on the boards who'd really love

to get this guy. If I have the money to pick

it up and I know someone wants it, I will. I

know lately that's less going on now, less people

buying toys and stuff like that. For me, I've

always been the kind of cosplay shipping guy,

if you ever see my feedback on TFW. I don't know.

I just like to put good karma to other people

and try to do right by other people and hopefully

it comes back to me some way. That was fun! Till

all are one.