SDCC 2012 and the Challenges of Convention Attendance

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No, I am. I'm not allowed to, like, not. Oh,

you can hear Jason sphincter clenching right

now. Moving on, hey, how about that thing we're

going to talk about? Yes. All right. So here

on Toycast, we've already gone through. Octobotamus

has already done his SDCC pre -show and post

-show. TFCon has come and gone. And as I said

before, even though this episode will air later,

we are recording this the day the Thursday of

San Diego Comic Con 2012 and because Jason and

Dave are ToyWorldOrder .com and they have the

West Coast boys out there, Flynn and BC, doing

the coverage, or I don't know how much Flynn's

doing, but we're gonna talk about some of this

stuff and Jason, apparently before the show started,

has said to me he's not in a very good mood so

this might turn into a rant cast, yay. Well,

part of me is just pissed that I'm not there.

I should be there to help them. And the shitty

thing is that there could have been a pass for

me. But the problem is that had I have taken

it, Comic -Con made it very clear that they were

going to randomly start checking IDs for badges.

So I'm like, well, screw that. What happens if

you're like, hey, that's not you? Nope, sure

isn't. Sorry, guess I won't come in. It's like

what? What do you do at that point? It's like,

son of a bitch. It makes it so hard to go to

this. SDCC and E3 are, at least nowadays, they

are the two hardest conventions to get into,

because E3 a number of years ago, like three,

four, five years ago, went to strictly. You know

press or street, you know strictly, you know

people in the industry versus allowing every

Joe Schmo to come in I thought is it not still

press and industry or is it? That's what I'm

saying it went from every Joe Schmo to being

just press and industry that are allowed in right

and I don't know that just doesn't If you want

people to see your product, wouldn't you? Well,

hang on, because Comic Con was a convention for

comic fans. I mean, it was the average schmo.

That was a point. I mean, if anything, the problem

is the thing's gotten so big and so corporate

that it's pushing the average fan, especially

the average comic fan, kind of to the side and

out the door. Well, yeah, when you look at the

faxes, and we talked about this on one of the...

a few weeks ago right before Comic Con on David

Duvall is that you look at the fact that just

in 2008, which was the first year Dave and I

both went separately to that convention, you

could still manage to secure a four day pass

a week before the damn show. I mean, there was

no problem with just logging on and going buy

my pass. But what has happened since then is

Twilight has happened. And I'm not kidding. Twilight

has happened. And you have just this major explosion

of people paying attention to this convention

and wanting to go. So whereas they were able

to have many thousands of four -day passes up

until the show and single -day pay. You could

buy single -day passes in 2008, I think, like

the day of the show. I think you could buy a

single -day pass. And now you've got all of these.

Basically, they sell out. The minute they go

on sale in November, they're gone in 20 minutes

or an hour. I mean, literally, they're gone.

Part of that is because they also sell passes

at the convention. So the people who know they're

going to go next year, by the time it's actually

up for sale to everybody else, a chunk of that's

already gone, probably a big chunk. Well, if

you think about it, though, they just started

doing that. They just started selling those passes

last year. 2008's not that. No, no, no, no. They

did that in 2010. Did they do that in 2010? Yes,

because I actually thought about getting passes.

Ah, I got you. But I mean, the fact is that when

you look at it and you look at the overall, I

mean, like you said, we're recording this the

first full day of Comic -Con. And I follow off

the bottom us on Twitter. I know Paul. We've

talked a number of times. Oh, yeah. And I'm following

his tweets, and he's just like, holy shit, this

is ridiculous. And I'm like, well, I asked him,

is this your first year? And he's like, yep.

I'm like. This is, I'm like, well, you get the,

it's fun to see the experience of the first timer

witnessing hell on earth. Because that is what

Comic -Con has become in every aspect. And the

fact they've got over 150 ,000 people attending

that convention this year, you can see from just

the pictures that were tweeted during the convention

to the pictures that are out there that it's

just overcrowded. Yeah. And my question is, though,

is, OK, you said there's. Probably over a hundred

and fifty thousand people there what percentage

of that you guys think is people from websites

or from the press or How many like okay like

say me? I'm you know okay? I I have my website

you cast radio calm, but I would never in my

right friggin mind go to comic con to do to work

i would never do that i would go out there to

see and experience what it is how much do you

guys think is actual you know people from you

know to world order people from mtv geek people

from tfw two thousand like helm Much of the internet

is actually there versus the regular con goer

of wanting to actually enjoy the convention Oh

a lot. I mean if you look at you can you can

basically go to any any toy blog or You know,

I mean you got to look at it. It just it's not

just toy blogs It's toys and and comic book sites

and movie sites and all of these other sites

probably a good you know, 40 % of those sites

that cover the stuff that ends up in Comic Con

or at Comic Con is there. They have a presence

on the floor. And the thing is when you break

it down that if you're a new company, first time

getting press passes, I know when we did it in

2008 for PCN, they limited the passes to four

people. You literally could only have four people

from your site attend that convention. And then

the following year, it opened it up. You could

have basically your whole staff, if need be.

Good Lord. Figures .com, when I was going in

its heyday, and you're talking this was, you

know, that was 2008, there was a... 14 of us

from figures .com that went to that convention

that had press badges from figures .com. And

I know to this day, they still have a large group.

You've got to look at sites like slash film.

They have a presence. And who knows how many

people are going from their site? It could be

five to 10 people that are attending it. Because

you've got to think those guys have got to go

stand in the Hall H or all these other lines

to get in these presentations to cover it for

these sites. And press. Press, they don't get

any special privileges when it comes to Comic

-Con. Back in the day, preview night used to

just be for press. That's what preview night

was. The press got in. Preview night was Wednesday

night. It was the same time as it is today. And

then they opened it up to everyone else. And

that's just become like, that was the perk of

being press, was you got in preview night to

take pictures and stuff and kind of walk the

floor and see where everything was and get an

idea. And then Comic -Con was like, screw that.

Why are we doing? We can sell. You know, we can

chalk more money onto our four -day passes by

including preview night for the public. And suddenly,

it's just, you know, I think that's when it started

to become even more. It became even bigger than

San Diego can handle. Yeah. I love, you know,

Dave said it earlier that Comic -Con was originally

for comics, comic book artists, comic book writers.

And I know that they've kind of. pretty much

gotten away from that i mean they're there there

is a comic presence there i know cuz i i watched

the uh... the ticker on tfw two thousand five

dot com for the transformers panel i know that

i d w was talking about the transformer stuff

in the hasbro brand panel but it just seems to

me that sdcc is now a multimedia event it's not

just comics anymore and I don't know. I like

it. I like certain aspects of it. I pay attention

to certain aspects of it. But at the same time,

I don't think I would ever want to attend it.

I think one, Kerry and I have talked, my wife

Kerry and I, for those of you who don't listen

to Merit with the Collection, only found on toyworldorder

.com. We have talked and we've spoken many times.

Had we gotten press badges. She was going to

journey there as well because she's always wanted

to go and see it because she's a big celebrity

geek. She loves seeing celebrities in person

and all that stuff. And she really wanted to

go. So we had been talking about doing that.

But my thing to her was. I want to go one year

as a fan. I want to go one year and not have

to fucking work. I want to go one year and not

have to worry about, I got to take pictures of

this booth. I got to be in this panel. I just

want to go and enjoy the convention. And in all

my years of going to this convention, I have

never got to physically enjoy it. Now, whether

you can actually enjoy this convention because

of the crowding or not is a completely separate

aspect because I don't know how many of these.

It's hard. Yeah, Dave went as a fan the first

year he went. The first year, yeah. I know just

from meeting up with Dave several times that

it was a huge pain in the ass. Just a huge, huge

pain in the ass. Now, you guys mentioned this

a couple weeks ago on your own show, Dave and

Deval's Toys and Collectibles. Do you think that

it's because of it's still in San Diego? Do you

think it's because of the space of the convention

center that the convention itself has essentially

outgrown that? Or do you think it's because of?

The fact that there's just so many people that

want to go I Think that it's it's a number of

things. It's that they've outgrown the San Diego

Convention Center Completely outgrown it which

is why there are stuff why they have stuff in

the Hilton next door and the other hotels surrounding,

as well as why it's some of the things that branched

out to the downtown area as well. Because there's

no more room. They're out of room. They literally

are out of room. That's part of the reason why

the capacity and the tickets were capped a couple

of years ago. Because they were like, we just

can't allow any more people here. And that's

the major, major factor. And Dave and I talked

about this on our show. And the fact that I think.

the Comic -Con people made a mistake by, you

know, like Dave said, like you said, Dave, that

San Diego probably just threw shit ton of fucking

money at them to get them to stay for who knows

how many years, but that was a mistake because,

you know, we also had, you know, had they moved

to Vegas, there might have still been some problems,

but the fact is that, you know, look at how many

hotels and how many, you know, open. Well, this

is a debate that we have because my argument

is that there is a uh... fit there's an aura

there is a mistake about the san diego comic

-con and if you move it to las vegas i think

it's going to be one of these things is going

to be another one of these cons like you know

new york comic -con like c two e two it'll be

las vegas they probably won't call it comic -con

because it's it's such an entertainment you know

the las vegas entertainment expo and people be

like well what the hell is that right what what

comic -con was oh Because San Diego will still

have a fucking Comic -Con. I'm sorry, even if

the San Diego Comic -Con juggernaut moves to

Las Vegas, the city of San Diego will get someone

to put on a Comic -Con in July in San Diego,

just because it's San Diego Comic -Con. I mean,

it's a thing. It's a brand name. It's an idea.

It's a concept. And if you move it to LA it becomes

the LA Entertainment Expo and nobody knows what

the fuck that is and Nobody's gonna care and

want to go. I mean seriously, right? That's that's

that's kind of my argument is once you change

it. It's becomes new coke and people like well,

what's that, you know For what I mean, it's bloomed

it's become too big and I think that's You know,

I thought the convention for bringing in all

this extraneous crap, you know, the shows that

have nothing to do with, you know, really the

comic, you know, the geek experience, but they're

just trying to glom onto the whole entertainment,

blah, blah, blah. Well, see, the thing is, well,

if you're talking about, like, shows like television

shows, the thing is a lot of those television

shows that are there this year have... created

a geek following, Fringe, Walking Dead, Big Bang

Theory, well, Big Bang Theory is centered around

geeks, but, you know, a lot of those shows have

now... Well, fuck Death from the Comic, so...

Well, right, but what I'm saying is like, a lot

of those shows that go to the convention every

year to have panels or to do whatever, they are

a part of geek culture now, because of the geek

community latching onto them so much. Yeah. I

mean, like I say, the year that I went, I wanted

to go to a panel for the last Airbender cartoon.

And in order to get in that room, I had to get

in line for the 24 panel. And I got to the door

right when the room filled up. So I then got

into the prison break panel. You know, that classic

nerd favorite, Prison Break. No, that's not a

nerd favorite at all. That's a favorite TV show

of some people, but that's not... I'm not saying

it's a bad show. I'm just saying you think of,

you know, Comic -Con, and you think of Star Wars,

Star Trek, Prison Break, you know, Adventure

Brothers. You know, one of these kids is not

like the other. And there's a lot of that going

on. I mean, they do try to, like... You know

pump up these shows that really don't have a

lot and movies to some movies that really don't

have a lot to do with you know, I See Marvel

and Warner Brothers having a big presence Not

only this year, but in Marvel especially in the

future years with all the potential sequels that

are supposedly quote -unquote in development

But that was an issue last year. I don't know

if it's gonna be the same this year. Is that

because Marvel's owned by Disney Disney has its

own convention. They're kind of holding back

a little. But see, I think that Marvel and I

think Disney would allow Marvel to go to the

Comic -Con because D23 is essentially just...

Disney is separated. It's so separated because

you have Walt Disney Studios or Walt Disney Pictures,

the actual, you know... And then you have Pixar

then you have touchstone then you have this and

it's like so many different branches of The Mickey

Mouse ears that you know the mouse has got a

tree growing out of his ears But it's one of

those things where I think that they would allow

Marvel to attend the comic cons in the future

Because that's where they get the most press

for that for that company. I wouldn't think that

a D23 or a D24 or whatever the hell they're gonna

call it in future years. I wouldn't think that

Marvel would get so much or so many people wanting

to come there unless you have a Marvel and a

Disney fan all at once. Well, it's, I mean, you

gotta, Disney lets Marvel run itself. Disney

actually has very few feelers in a Marvel. They

basically let it run like they let Pixar run,

which is... Right. Marvel was running fine on

its own before they... bought Marvel, why change

what is already a successful business model?

Just let them continue what they're doing, and

then they just add to Disney's bottom dollar.

The thing is, though, is that Disney has enough

feelers in to go, you know what, like last year,

all right, at Comic -Con, we'll show off Thor

in Captain America, which had Thor come out by

Comic -Con last year? Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, no,

no. It was the Avengers. It was the Avengers

and Spider -Man with the two big panels. Because

remember, they got the whole Avengers. They got

everyone on stage. Well, that was at the end

of the Captain America panel, though, I thought,

because they brought... Cap was out by then,

I think. Cap was July. Yeah, Cap was July. So,

I mean, it would have either been out or just

come out. Because I know they didn't show anything

from Avengers. They held any of the footage they

had... Well, that's what I'm saying. ...until

the following month at D23, and that's when we

first saw the... My point. That's where we first

saw that lock, that low key Tony Stark scene

with low key saying, I have an army and Tony

Stark saying, we have Hulk. That was where you

first saw that footage. Again, my point. Right,

right. I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think

where you're going to see more of that, like

Dave said, is that they're going to hold more

and more back for D23 because D23 is growing

into a very, very large convention for Disney

fans. I mean, it's in the Anaheim Convention

Center, and it's getting bigger. It's only going

to be in its third year or fourth year. And if

you're Disney, why wouldn't you? If you're Disney

and you own Marvel, why would you not? Why would

you want to help some other convention if you've

got your own? I mean, it's like, you know, they're

talking about the Star Wars panels are going

to kind of suck because they've got Celebration

coming up. Yeah. And Hasbro's going to hold everything

back for Celebration. Exactly. I mean, why would

you show up? It's generally sucking anyway. Yeah.

It's like, why would you show off anything for,

you know? Had JoCon have been next month instead

of last month, they would have done the same

thing. They're not going to show anything off

anyway. In fact, they used the same goddamn diorama

at Comic Con that they used at JoCon. I saw that.

I was like, oh, I can't believe they used the

same damn diorama. Let's talk about this. BotCon

and JoeCon versus the SDCC. BotCon and JoeCon

are each Transformers and G .I. Joe respective.

This year, specifically, there was that big fuck

-up. We had bad test audiences, and we want to

put it in 3D, so we have to wait until next year,

which fucks Hasbro all the shit with the toys

and everything else. I've always said, since

I've been doing podcasting and being a personality

on the internet, botcon is has bros thing of

revealing almost everything and they save several

things for sdcc there's very rarely anything

that you're gonna see in july at sdcc that you

hadn't already seen the previous months of botcon

it's very rare and i don't think that they'll

ever do this that a botcon will be scheduled

after sdcc Yeah, why would you because because

STCC would just steal your thunder. Yeah exactly.

Yeah, I Mean you you talked about GI Joe though

and you talked about the fact that you know They're

they're holding it back. We say bad test audiences

That's only half the truth because the fact is

is that Channing Tatum star blew up this year

Whereas when the first movie came out no one

gave a shit about it They're like, yeah. All

right, great Channing Tatum Yeah, and then you

think he said three huge films this year with

the last one being matched Mike Which has made

a shit ton of money. So they're like, oh You

know, spoiler alert for those of you who didn't

know, they killed Duke off in the first 10 minutes

of this movie. Like, he's dead. They killed him.

And then suddenly they're like, oh. It's 1987

all over again, isn't it, Dave? Yeah. Well, I'm

thinking, I'm thinking, I keep saying that if

he's still alive, they ought to get the voice

actor who did Doc. And just dub him in at the

very end. Hey, everybody, Duke's OK. He's going

to pull through. He's going to pull through.

Oh. But yeah, it's like, you know, they're like,

oh shit, we should. Well, and the 3D, I think

the 3D thing was a legitimate, like, freak out.

Because, I mean, that was one thing at BotCon

is another podcast was actually handing out,

like, their business card with 3D glasses. Yeah.

So, because everything's better in 3D. But see,

that's the thing. OK, like, when did Retaliation

first go into production? Do you know, Dave?

You know, I have no idea. I know it was literally,

they changed the date a month. four weeks from

when it was supposed to premiere, which has never

happened. Right, but what I'm saying is like

when they first started making the movie, when

they first started filming, when they first started

all this stuff. It would have been the four,

it would have been last spring, because they

had stuff at Comic Con. All right, spring of

2011, everyone still knew at this point what

if, even though I think it's just a fad, how

explosive three d has become and how much more

money you can make at a box office with the three

showing they knew that in the spring of twenty

eleven why didn't they just shoot the shit in

three d then and still releasing on june twenty

ninth verses and i'm just going off the three

d thing i'm not going off we have to get this

everything i mean it's you know it's it's it's

back at uh... That test scores. It's not being

in 3D. It's battleship tanking. Mostly it's battleship

tanking. Mostly it's battleship tanking and panicking.

Well, come on. The timing is just. Battleship

tanks and two days later, they do this unprecedented

move of pulling the film four weeks before it

premieres. I mean, you cannot not connect those

two things. Right. but i don't know the one thing

i don't mind by about the uh... about the move

is old dark nights coming out the month after

if you look at june twenty ninth to july that's

not one of the next week right well i don't think

that the thing is like okay june twenty ninth

jason just said it magic mike you know june twenty

ninth it's made a shit ton of money has it gone

number one i don't know i'm not looking at any

information it probably hasn't spider -man came

out the next week spider -man obviously is going

to get the bigger draw i don't think uh... you

know i think it would force people to choose

which one they're gonna go see and i think it

would have made a tie uh... very rough tie between

retaliation and amazing spider -man if they'd

come out with a week of each other i don't think

it would you know i can see them being you know

shaking in their boots being like oh god we we

can't release a week before batman no well part

of our system and that that's a no -brainer and

the other part of it is that they they they they

made the claim that doing 3d would increase foreign

sales. Because when you really, I can see that

part of it because when you look at it, sorry,

foreign people aren't going to go see a movie

about G .I. Joe, which is, you know, America's

highly trained specialist. No, no, no, no, no.

It's United Nations. United Nations now, yes.

Well, but still, it's like, okay, well, you know.

foreign to the for market didn't react to well

the first one so they're obviously a direct well

that this one but you but you put it in three

years of it is a call for a deal us a lot more

uh... i thought it was like five million people

but you know races but what are some of the uh...

announcements that you guys are looking forward

to or some announcements that we've already gotten

that you guys are really liking about us to see

see this year I find it funny, one, that Mattel

was showing. We don't know at this point recording

this. By the time this comes out and you hear

this, all the answers are going to be there.

But the fact that looking at these last night

at preview night, as the West Coast boys were

putting it up on the side, I was looking at the

pictures and looking at the Mattel booth and

going. Why does Mattel have major Matt Mason

figures on display? What's up with that? I mean,

and they're all vintage figures, but you're looking

at it going, OK, they got major Matt Mason, unless

they're finally going to reveal that they're

going to open up the Mattel Museum, which they

hyped. In 2008, when mattycollector .com first

started, part of that site was going to be an

online museum to where you could look at. the

past toys from Mattel from the past 70 some odd

years of Mattel's existence as well as stuff

from you know some of the other brands they bought

like Tonka and stuff like not Tonka but um some

of the other brands that they picked up um but

it's like why are they showing you know I saw

the I saw Major Matt Mason I cannot think of

his name, but there was almost a 14 -inch tall

figure. He got a big radar dish on the top of

his head. Look at that guy. He reacted to lights.

The villain had a flashing light. If you hit

each other, they would fall over. That figure

was in that display case. It's like, Mattel,

what are you doing? And of course, again, we're

going to know the answers to this, but I find

it fascinating that they've been hyping a new

secret. not secret but they've been like hey

we're gonna we're gonna announce a new subscription

service at the Matty Palooza panel and people

have been speculating is it gonna be Thundercats

since Bandai shit all over Thundercats and the

Thundercats license to rumor is out there again

for someone to pick up or is it going to be Back

to the Future because they bought the Back to

the Future license you know they they pulled

the license for that You know a couple years

ago now is it are they finally going to show

off back to the future figures? Now another speculation

with these pictures as are they going to put

a major map Mason line in since they've seen

how well the outer space man from O 'Neill design

what you know using O 'Neill designs Gliot system

in the four horsemen and store horsemen have

done for the horsemen because those those they

sell out those things As soon as they go up now.

It's like are they suddenly realizing? Hey these

toy lines from the 60s and 70s could make us

a lot of money. And then my other thing is, the

license for the Adam West Batman shows out there,

Hot Toys just showed the teaser of this 1 -6

scale classic Adam West Batmobile. It's like,

is Mattel going to do a line of movie masters

or a line of that nature as a Maddie Collector

exclusive line for the 60s Batman show? Yeah.

There's a lot of questions out there that, like

I said, we'll know the answer to, but. Yeah.

As we record this, it's fascinated me. I don't

know if Davis thought that far into any of that,

but it's just fascinating to go, what has Mattel

have up their sleeves that is either going to

make fans happy or is just going to throw the

whole fandom into a pissed off rage? I think

honestly for me, and I'll let Dave answer that

in a second, I think honestly for me what would

make me happy as a 66 Batman fan, because I used

to watch the reruns in the 80s. Everybody did.

That's how we knew about the. The 66 show was

the reruns in the 80s. Well this is if they fight

well Well, you're older than dirt dude, so What

would make me really happen happy is if Warner

Brothers or whoever has the rights announces

Either seasons or a complete series set of Batman

66 DVD. Yeah, honestly what would make me really

happy Well, I mean, the issue with that has always

been that Fox produced the show, but Warner Brothers

owns the rights to Batman, and they've never

come together on any kind of profit sharing agreement.

And I think everyone's really getting excited

about all this hot toy stuff, because it sort

of makes the suggestion that maybe an agreement

has been reached, that maybe the impasse has

been broken. So we'll see. Yeah, that would be,

if they announced the original 60s Batman series

on DVD, that would probably My opinion would

be the biggest announcement out of that column.

Yeah, I would agree. I mean, that's like the

main, you know, everyone's been speculating.

I mean, yeah, I mean, if they finally come out

and like Shout Factory or somebody's like, hey,

you know, because Shout Factory seems to be releasing

a lot of odd stuff that's from different companies

in different studios. But Shout Factory would

be the only one I could see that would be able

to. Release that Batman show because I don't

see that's probably how if there has been an

agreement that Fox and Warner Brothers is like,

okay Well, neither side could release this on

DVD some third party company has to release it.

No I don't think they because you bring in a

third company. That's just making things worse

It's gonna be one good. It's gonna be a profit

-sharing thing cuz they do that with movies all

the time Well, you know, I mean if you can do

it with actual like theater release movies, you

can do it DVDs. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, it'll be one

or the other. I don't know. I don't know like

Shout Factory does really well because they make

deals with people Like they've they've got to

deal with Hasbro for GI Joe stuff for transformer

stuff They've got to deal with Saban brands for

the Power Rangers stuff You know Shout Factory

is probably the best television slash cartoon

DVD company today But I don't know If as Dave

said it would most likely either be a Fox DVD

or Warner Brothers DVD I just hope that Warner

Brothers Does not shift it off to their mod department,

which is moving on demand Which is you can only

get it from their website and it's this You know

crap crap Lee made packaging and it's only X

amount of episode Well, no, I think if they did

it they'd go I mean it would be the big box Yeah,

they'll go on it. I mean, they'd go all out.

That's just too much. That's too much money to

be pissed away doing something weird, a little

obscure online thing. If you think about it,

all the stuff that she ends up in the Warner

Brothers shop for them in that video on demand

service is stuff that really, when you think

about it, is a very niche audience. Because I

mean, look at the stuff that's on there. Chuck

Norris and Karate Commandos, Pac -Man animated

series. I mean, some of these I bought because

I'm like, oh, but how many more of them? like

me are out there that it's like, I want the entire

series of Chuck Norris karate commandos. Not

many. Exactly. So yeah, I agree. It'll be a big

thing. I think it's fascinating that we get to

see new 52 in Justice League figures and the

fact that they're bringing out this giant -sized

dark side figure. Yeah. That fascinates the hell

out of me. I'm not even a huge. I don't even

collect DC toys anymore. You know, Big Bad Toy

Store finally put up, thanks to Dave showing

me and pointing it out, they finally put up a

pre -order for my damn Super Powers Penguin.

Bastards. Well, because apparently they're doing

another Batman individual line, which they had

one that was doing just fine and selling well,

and then they killed it for no reason. Yeah,

I know. So now this new line has Black Mask in

it. Does it? Yeah, they've shown a picture of

Black Mask. He comes with a little Batman cowl

that you can put on him. Black Mask? Okay, that's

weird sure I think for me what is most exciting

to me this year for SDCC is not like Well, okay,

the Avengers is out. We know Iron Man 3 is coming

next year or yeah, it's gonna be What aims gonna

be in it? Advanced idea mechanics. Oh, yeah Yeah,

yeah, um, so we know of all that's the thing

it's like And I think that's the blessing and

the curse of the internet nowadays is that We

can seek out all this information about a month

ago. I did a Full kind of write -up of the most

popular mainstream Marvel in DC films DC I went

from 1978 to 2013, essentially talking about

the most famous ones that were in theaters that,

you know, not the made for TV stuff, but just

like from Superman to Man of Steel, essentially.

And Marvel, I went from Blade to, at the point

of the writing, it was Amazing Spider -Man. And

it just amazes me of, while looking ahead in

Marvel specifically, that they've got listed

you know for to cap to iron man three and i think

spider you know they've got them listed as you

know developmental stuff but it's like of course

we know they're going to come i mean this but

you know especially avengers look how well of

you know about billion friggin dollars you know

uh... it and doesn't know that this is happening

oh no i don't know i don't know if i can just

asleep because of avengers you know i have a

lot of things like when I wrote these blog posts

up it was there's no what I found out writing

them up is like okay you know you guys said it

2008 Iron Man everyone was surprised as hell

and happy as hell to see that Iron Man teaser

yeah yeah at Comic Con what I'm saying is with

the you know the blessing and the curse that

is the internet there's no real surprise anymore

in anything lately at least for me personally

there's no real surprise in anything anymore

because obviously i can go to comic con but i

know you know twenty minutes after a panel is

done i can go on youtube and i can look up a

teaser trailer for whatever it's gonna be in

our main uh... and but the one thing the things

that i'm really looking forward to a comic con

is actually a friend of mine is actually out

there another friend not not paul someone else

uh... is out there And she was able to pick me

up the La La Land Records four disc CD set of

Batman the Animated Series volume two. What I'm

really looking forward to from Comic -Con in

the next few years is seeing how La La Land releases

their DCAU soundtracks because I've read press

releases and stuff like that, not press releases,

but I've read informational pieces on worldsfinest

.com, or worldsfinestonline .com, get the website

right, damn it, that La La Land Records is going

to be continuing to release BTIS soundtracks,

they're going to be releasing an STAS and possibly

future Justice League music. it was just amazing

is in two thousand eight they had the doesn't

doesn't have to get those years uh... they'd

just roll in records dot com had just released

limited edition uh... batman the animated series

soundtrack it was two desks it had you know I

think 65 tracks from the show. It had multiple

themes. It actually has one track called Music

of the Bat 101 where at the time before she passed

away Shirley Walker is actually on the track

walking you through how they created the music

of Batman the Animated Series and it was just

so awesome. That's pretty cool. it was just so

friggin awesome uh... and that's really what

i'm looking forward to a comic on it you know

i'm you know i expect the movie stuff to eventually

come back i expect you know big bang theory panels

and all that stuff i just It doesn't have the

luster that it once did and you know as Jason

said earlier with Paul You know being there being

a first -timer there and seeing his tweets of

oh my god This line is hell. You've got to be

shitting me kind of things. It's like yeah, it's

it's cool big I mean that you know cuz I went

to joke on this was my first joke on and it was

like okay the lines were pretty bad the first

night, but people were actually saying hey, this

is You know unprecedented that the lines were

really bad, but it was a smaller con you could

get around people knew each other You know, it

was a nicer experience. Comic Con is really just

too big. There's too many people, there's too

many lines, there's too much crap, there's too

much to do. It's just, it got too big for its

own good, and it's sort of, it's just, it's not

a fun thing, even if you're not covering it.

It's not really that much fun to attend. Because

you know, when I went there the first time, my

whole thing was, gotta get the Hasbro toys. And

that was, ugh. In squeezing blood from a stone.

I mean that was you know I mean the second second

time around I did a little better I thought I

had people to help me Yeah ended up having to

pull them along with me kicking and screaming

yeah But uh you know Okay, yes, but that's for

the subscription service not for the weird off

Batman line. Sorry I finally found a picture

of the black master show Dave and the Okay, well

the thing with comic -con is because you know

The thing with their okay, and you know, you

know Jason and I can go back and forth, but I'm

gonna throw him under a bus here. Oh good Jason

is Like when I first found pop culture network,

I knew Dan was the the Mattel the the Ghostbusters

the Maddie and jason through the earlier videos

of that it was not a fellow he's the transformers

guys the superheros guy that's that's great i

like that and i knew at the time when they've

came in i knew dave was the g i jones star wars

i'm like okay cool that's that's great scotty

does power rangers everything else and killing

does you know kitty lego things whatever uh...

school Legos cool, but it anyway, let's not I'm

not gonna Yeah, so like when I first approached

Jason to start working with you know geek cast

reader Now we're gonna toy cast and whatever

else when we did that first episode of toy cast

episode 78 Superman it ended up being more of

a pop culture discussion than Superman toys because

come to find out Jason as I said in the intro

to this show is a very unique toy collector,

and he doesn't go after the main things I know

he likes transformers. I know he likes the superheroes

stuff But he's you know more into the talking

toys and where I'm kind of going with this kind

of thing And you know the girls toys and all

that stuff where I'm going with this is San Diego

Comic Con has so much stuff That's someone of

Jason's caliber someone of my caliber. I don't

just like transformers. I like Knight Rider I

like a team airwolf, you know Power Rangers all

that stuff Comic Con is it's too much choice

and not enough time to get it all in another

friend of mine the television is out there as

well and she uh... she was you know comic -con

schedules panels they scheduled the fringe panel

and another panel that she wanted to go to at

the same time yeah it's like And the reason why

they do it is because, as Jason said, and as

Dave said, it's gotten so big that they have

to schedule stuff at the same time. So it forces

you to choose what you want to go to. And sure,

you can go back to your hotel room or whatever.

You can go back home after the convention. You

can look online to see a video of the panel that

you missed. But that's still not the same as

experiencing it. And I don't know. I just think

the experience of it all, it's just too much,

especially if you don't live in that state or

if you don't live in that city. It's too costly

to go out, you know, sure, you know, I'll pull

a I'll pull a trick out of mrs. Deval will save

the money up for it. Well, of course You're gonna

be saving for three years to go to comic -con

for one year. Yeah, you know, I mean, that's

How much did you pay for that hotel that year?

Oh God, um, and this wasn't even a hotel anywhere

near the Convention Center. No, um At least 600

bucks. Yeah Just $600 total or $600 a night?

No, it was at least $600 total. It wasn't $600

total. Okay, okay, okay, I was gonna say. I didn't

have that kind of money. No, but keep in... As

I've repeatedly said, there was a different plan

at the time, and it was like I was not going

to be rooming with four... Yeah? ...flatulent

drunkards. It was a beautiful woman who was supposed

to be with me, so the idea of getting away from

it all was part of the plan! That's true. But

yeah, no, it has gotten too big. And the problem

is with them making you decide which panels you

want to attend is you could choose which panel

you want to go to and then go to that panel.

You're probably not going to get in because they

don't know. Oh, no, no, no. You've got to get

the program as soon as humanly possible. If it

gets up on the web, you get on top of that. have

to have a plan. You cannot go in there and just

assume that you're gonna walk into the panel

that you want. You have to know before, at least

the day before. But I mean, as early as humanly

possible, what panel you wanna go to. And the

thing is, it's deceptive, because the main hall,

they keep clear. Because I remember, this is

one of my most vivid memories of 2008, is I was

like, I'll go to the Venture Brothers panel.

That'll be fun. So I walked down the hallway,

the hallway's totally clear, and I walk up to

the door and I'm like, is this the Venture Brothers

thing? He's like, yeah. I'm like, okay, is there

a line? He's like, yeah, and he points down a

side hallway that's filled with people and takes

a turn and goes out the door and goes along the

side of the convention center. So essentially

it's like Black Friday. It is, it is Black Friday,

but it's always Black Friday. Everything is Black

Friday. When you get in, it's crowded. Before

you get in, there's a huge, huge line. I mean,

I'm not joking. If you want to buy something

from Hasbro, you have to wait in line to get

into the convention center before it opens up.

You've got to wait in line to get to the Hasbro

ticket thing. You've got to wait in line to get

into the hall, the exhibit hall. You've got to

amen. Ha ha ha. After all that you think you're

home free no no no no then it's the Hasbro line

Yeah, which is like the giant boss monster at

the end of the fucking game that no one told

you the combo move how to beat Yeah, so you can't

just jump over it and rescue the princess to

find out that she's in another no Good example

this year is BC rec has been collecting the Green

Lantern exclusives every year from I want to

say graffiti designs has been doing them for

several years now And BC Direct is a huge Green

Lantern fan. So every year he tries to get all

the convention exclusives. And he had to get

up at 6 this morning to go stand in line to get

in the raffle drawing to get a wristband to be

able to buy one of those figures, which means

he'll have to go stand in another line if he

wins the raffle, which he did, and buy the figure.

But at least he's guaranteed his figure. But

the fact is he had to stand in two or three different

lines. I hate that raffle shit. I hate that raffle

shit with a passion. It's like. When people are

gonna... The raffles make no fucking sense to

me. Well, they just don't make enough. It's just

that we didn't make enough, so we gotta raffle

off the thing that you came here to buy. Yeah.

And people, I mean, people listening to this

are gonna be like, listen to these haters because

they're not at Comic -Con. They're all pissing.

No, no, we've been to fucking Comic -Con. Yeah.

Several times. Dave and Deval have been. I have

not, I'm not hating on the convention at all.

I just think, as we've already stated... It's

gotten too big for its britches, and there's

so much choice that you know your brain goes

on overload I wouldn't say that I'm hating I'm

just like I honestly think right if you're if

you're into this culture It is a thing to go

to it is like a Mecca to do a pilgrimage to at

least once what I'm saying is be Prepared have

a game plan because the thing is I had gone to

New York Comic Con before that like that that

same year and you walk into panel room i mean

that they had stanley stan the manly we just

walked into the room and i got a seat and that's

the second largest convention in the world i

mean you know i don't know what i would like

when the hall was open there's a line to get

the hall got in the hall walk right up to the

hotel booth bought the exclusives i mean you

know and then i went to comic con and it was

like utterly unprepared for what it was like

and all i'm saying is It's not what you think.

It's something to experience, but don't expect

it to be as much fun as you think. And if that's

hating, then that's hating. But I'm just saying,

you've got to have a game plan, or you'll be

frustrated and unhappy and miserable. And that's

why, like Optobotamus, who has gone to get, I

know he stood in the Hasbro line when we recorded

this today. I know he was standing in the Hasbro.

And I know he had to go get in the line. in order

to get a ticket to get in the fucking Hasbro

line. And that's what it's like. And I feel no

pity for him. And I say that not a mean way.

Dave and I both know what that's like. I wasn't

kidding about the line for the line for the line.

That's exactly what it is. It's the line for

the line for the line for the line. I am not

kidding. And the Hasbro line is the worst when

you actually get in there, because they cut that

off. And they have a buzzing hoard of security.

that will always show up when you try to get

in the line and show you away. And then they'll

go away, so like 10 other people will get in

the line. And then you go, OK, well, then I'm

going to get in the line. And then they show

up and kick you out again. And I swear to God,

I am not making that up. That happened over and

over and over again. And finally, in 2010, man,

I waited until they had done their shooing people

away and did their moving off. So I was the first

straggler to jump back in line. And I just come

back in line and pretend like I belong there.

Yeah, I am more than happy to sit here at home

on my computer stalking websites of news that

I want to know about or, you know, for the Transformers

panels, for whatever panels I want to see. I'm

more than happy to sit here and not have the

headaches and the congestion that is SDCC. If

I was going to go to a quote -unquote Comic -Con,

one of their conventions, it would most likely

be New York Comic -Con that I went to because

every year that that is happened so far, and

all the friends that I've had go there. It just

seems like it's way more relaxed and laid back.

And plus, New York Comic Con usually is in October,

so it's like one of the last things of the year.

They moved that, though, because the year I won

it was February. Yeah, it was in February. And

apparently before that it was usually like in

April, because they had pushed it up a little

bit. They've moved that after. Last year it was

in October. Yes, I know. I just said they moved

it. They've been moving it around since they

started doing C2E2 in Chicago near us because

they wanted to have that ability to do two conventions

a year. So in order to do C2E2, they had to bump

because New York Comic Con had forever had been

in February. Anyway, anytime between February

and April. Yeah, it had forever that had been

the scheduling. And then they moved it to October,

the year before C2E2 started because they knew

they were going to have to do that move in order

to make it work. See it makes more sense to me

to have it in October because okay if you look

at the overall can like convention scope of the

year you have New York Toy Fair you have You

know C2e2 or whatever else come at some point

between New York Toy Fair and SDCC and then you

have BotCon, JoCon, TFCon you've got SDCC and

then whatever happens between SDCC and NYCC I

don't know, it just makes more sense to me to

have New York at the end of the year. Yeah. I

guess. I haven't really thought of it. I mean,

I would almost think you would want to get in

before San Diego, because San Diego sucks all

the air out of the room. Oh, it kills everything.

I mean, it literally does. Once Comic -Con is

over with, everyone's just looking to Toy Fair.

All the Toy fans are looking to Toy Fair. All

the comic fans. you know, movie fans and everything.

They're just kind of like, well, whatever. You

know, we're going to hear about stuff throughout

the year now. But for us, for toy fans, it literally

is Comic -Con, and then what are they going to

show at Toy Fair in February? I mean, there's

no one gives a shit about New York as a toy convention

or anywhere to, although they do show stuff off

at New York Comic -Con, it's not nearly as big

as it used to be. But even back then, it was

Toy Fair, New York Comic -Con. So it's like,

OK, we've already seen the shit that's at Comic

-Con at New York. But New York is slowly starting

to become bigger and bigger, because they're

starting to get some exclusives and reveals and

such. But yeah, Dave's right. Comic Con just

kills anything and everything out of the air,

because it's so big. Comic Con is to conventions

as to what iPhone is to cell phones. Yeah, pretty

much. More so meant was, as far as where New

York Comic Con falls, is if I would want to attend

it. As far as Dave said, Stan the Man Lee went

there one year. As far as being able to attend

the convention, I would want it to be at closer

to the end of the year. Cuz I don't know it just

makes more sense to me that way all right, so

we've rattled on about this long enough Jason

do your spiel for toy world order net oh wait.

No, that's wrong. What the fuck is wrong with

you? Listen to the damn shows every week. You

can't even tell the website. I'm so ashamed of

you right now Mike I'm so sad on purpose. You

know that I know you guys you can find you can

find Are you gonna? Let me do the spiel you're

gonna keep talking over me Okay, are you done?

Okay. I don't like it when mommy and daddy fight.

Mommy and daddy fight. Quiet, you. You can find

Dave and I every week, every Thursday on toyworldorder

.com with David Duvall's Toys and Collectibles,

a new episode every week, unless I'm suffering

from some kind of plague, and then usually there's

somebody to sit in with, Dave. You can also find

me and my lovely wife, Mrs. Duvall, at Mrs. Duvall

on Twitter. I'm married to the collection every

Tuesday on toyworldorder .com. And then you can

find lots of other great stuff on toyworldorder

.com, such as Flea Market Finds, which is a semi

-regular ongoing series that I do whenever I

happen to come across a lot of cool stuff on

flea markets. Yard sales, garage sales, rummage

sales, auctions, and so much more. There's always

lots of cool stuff going on there. Dave has actually

started to tip his foot back into reviewing.

Thank God, finally. He's been very missed. People

are like, oh my god, Dave Draper's reviewing

again. I mean, it literally has been that. Since

he started reviewing GI Joe, he reviewed the

GI Joe box set. And he's also reviewed the add

-ons, which has been up for a while now. But

people are very excited to see Dave back reviewing,

because as we've tried to tell Dave and increase

his confidence, his stuff has always rocked.

And he has a good large number of fans, because

his shit is awesome. Plus Dave is the single,

at least to my knowledge, the single largest

toy collector that I know, as far as overall

quantity of toys. People keep saying that, but

like, you are, dude! I'm not saying I'm not trying

to pretend like I don't have a lot of toys, that's

not where I'm going with this, but like, at JoCon,

you had these dealers with these huge booze,

and they're like, no, I don't have a store, this

is my extras. And you're like, oh my god! The

biggest booze were guys like... no i'm not a

dealer i don't have a store i'm just a guy this

is just my collection yeah it's like holy shit

of course maybe they just focused on the joes

but you know just like before i saw you on pc

and when you guys were with pc and it was like

i think the largest toy collector i knew was

you know p on youtube and and bald matrix on

youtube and my buddy pecan court michael he has

one of the largest transformers collections that

i know of and also a proto man has quite a large

transformers collection. But when I saw your

videos, and I was like, that's an entire basement

of toys. That's the single largest toy collection

I have ever seen. Oh, yeah. And video literally,

I mean, we could show you video every week. It

doesn't do it in injustice. Well, it gets bigger.

I mean, because that was 2009. Yeah, and we haven't

shown anything updated since then. And let me

tell you what. You walk down those stairs, which

we're going to do after we're done recording.

You walk down those stairs, and you're just like,

Jesus Christ. Even somebody like me who. Dave

will tell you that I have a substantial amount

of stuff. It's not all toys, but it's nowhere

near what is in Dave's basement. I think we just

need to do a show called What's in Dave's Basement?

No, no, no, no. We've been talking about this.

I know we have. Tales from the Toy Crypt. Tales

from the Toy Crypt. The one thing I want to see

Dave bring back is life in plastic. I know. I've

heard that a couple times from people. People

want him to bring Disorder of Battle back, too,

which I think we're going to do. We're going

to call it the real Disorder of Battle. Yeah,

we're going to call it everything that we used

to do. We're just going to put the real in front

of it. Oh, god. Well, I've been talking to Happy

Harry, and we're getting - Yeah. He posted a

thing on Facebook saying, hey, when am I going

to get to do this? Yep. We're going to start

up the real animated world. So there you go.

We're just going to recycle the things we used

to do with PCN and just put the reel in front

of it and be like, ha ha ha. Not in a mean way,

but just so we can be like, eh. Slightly mean,

Mike. Oh, well, Dave might. Dave still has some

spite left in him, but I'm all spited out. Life's

too short to be carrying grudges. Fuck all that.

Yes. so thank you for joining us here on toycasters

always get in contact with us to leave feedback

for the show visit the website geekcastradio

.com leave the show's feedback in itunes please

do this you can follow us on twitter tf toycast

is the show twitter minus tf joe and mike uh...

become a fan on facebook go to facebook dot com

slash geek caster radio network call the wasteman

line 502 -526 -5821 be sure to leave the name

and the show you want to talk about We hope you

enjoyed this episode of Toycast, and we hope

you'll join us next time. For now, I am TFG1

Mike with... Dave Draper. Oh, and you can't see

me, but I'm doing the Kermit Arms. Yay! It's

the vault! He is doing the Kermit Arms. Thank

you for listening. Until next time. I don't think

human arms are supposed to do that. I think I

tore something. No, that's whether it may have

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