Speaker 1: Yo, ho, What is up everybody? How's it going? Is
Speaker 1: she young? Boy? You heard that? Boy? You know what
Speaker 1: it is. It's nerdificent and I'm your host if you
Speaker 1: wad way and uh, Danny is sitting it out. Yesterday
Speaker 1: she was at the Record Ralph premiere, living that high life,
Speaker 1: getting autographs. I was right there, riding the coattails, you know,
Speaker 1: in there, just chomping up on the free food. I
Speaker 1: came in. Your boy knows what to do, Act like
Speaker 1: you've been here, you know. But yeah, so she's sitting out.
Speaker 1: But I have two illustrious guests here today, actually good
Speaker 1: friends of mine, not like those strangers we usually have
Speaker 1: on uh. Today, I'm sitting with Rope, Calm and Kwong.
Speaker 1: How you doing? How's it going? How you feeling? How
Speaker 1: y'all feeling? I mean I'm pretty good. Good. Um. Just
Speaker 1: to be clear, I had McDonald's today and then never
Speaker 1: do that. Oh no, was it like a long time
Speaker 1: since you've had McDonald's. I can't get into that either.
Speaker 1: I guess it's a long history. But I actually did
Speaker 1: have McDonald's while watching the movie The Founder, Like I
Speaker 1: felt like that's something that I had to do. Ye
Speaker 1: oh yeah, definitely. Yeah, I'm trying to think of other
Speaker 1: foods you can eat while watching certain founder other movies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like if you're like watching Harold and Kumar, maybe like
Speaker 1: closing out with White Castle. I feel like, if you
Speaker 1: eat it, you know what? That movie made me so
Speaker 1: sad there was on the West Coast. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how I felt about Sonics until I realize you
Speaker 1: can go behind the orange curtain final, right, you know
Speaker 1: your boy was in Compton, like, you know, where's the Sonics?
Speaker 1: I keep seeing the commercials. I don't know why I
Speaker 1: talked like that, but yeah, but yeah, so let's get
Speaker 1: into yeah, yeah, great song is a photographer? You do?
Speaker 1: You do it all? You you design toys, you work
Speaker 1: at stance. You like, what is there anything you don't
Speaker 1: do half free time? Yeah? Yeah, I'm pretty busy. And
Speaker 1: we're actually getting ready for a show called dcon Um
Speaker 1: that should be This comes out this weekend. It'll be
Speaker 1: this weekend if you're listening to it. If you're in
Speaker 1: that general l A area, drive down to Anaheim, go
Speaker 1: to d com and come meet them in person. If
Speaker 1: you're like I like those voices, let me go see
Speaker 1: them in person. Yeah, it's gonna be pretty great. It's
Speaker 1: it's three times the size of what it was last year. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they've brought some pretty incredible vendors. So for people
Speaker 1: who don't know what dcon is or Designer Con, uh,
Speaker 1: can you explain it to them so they can give
Speaker 1: them like a quick T L d R. Yeah, Um.
Speaker 1: Dcon is a it's a great convention that has a
Speaker 1: lot of like different products made by probably some of
Speaker 1: your favorite favorite artists, you know. Um, And it's a
Speaker 1: way to sort of interact with them outside of like
Speaker 1: like a comic con where it's like, you know, jam
Speaker 1: packed your sardines, and their dcons a little bit more breathable,
Speaker 1: a lot more personable. You know. It's a way to
Speaker 1: just get to know and like really handle and see
Speaker 1: things like up close and personal and have like everybody
Speaker 1: has essentially their own boots, so it's like a personal gallery. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like hundreds of artists they are showing
Speaker 1: off all their best stuff. They've they've everybody's worked towards
Speaker 1: this like all year long. So it's pretty incredible. That's
Speaker 1: awesome because on the Comic Con episode, we talked about
Speaker 1: how we feel comic Con has pushed artists to like
Speaker 1: their artists Alley Corner, and really it went from celebrating
Speaker 1: art to more celebrating television and media companies and things
Speaker 1: derivative of you know. Yeah, we call it like we
Speaker 1: kind of you know, make fun in our own way.
Speaker 1: Just called it like pop culture con at this point
Speaker 1: because it's it's like, it's interesting when I'll look at
Speaker 1: like artists that draw, you know, all the books and stuff,
Speaker 1: and they'll sell pages for you know, very affordable amounts,
Speaker 1: and somebody there's somebody selling like a cute version of
Speaker 1: of the character as a print for like twenty bucks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, basically like hurting the bottom line of the
Speaker 1: guys that are actually creating, you know, creating the products. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So oh man, let's let's I'm gonna turn over to
Speaker 1: my main row com but we go still here, way back.
Speaker 1: We go so far back. I think you were in
Speaker 1: high school. Yeah you know what we u We were
Speaker 1: on a podcast when we first met. Yeah yeah, and
Speaker 1: I then I just latched on you. I was like
Speaker 1: this this rapper right here, this is my guy. That's right,
Speaker 1: I know. And then you finally re released those tracks
Speaker 1: on Spotify right, just a couple of weeks ago. That
Speaker 1: stuff had been stashed away forever, and um, I I
Speaker 1: looked at it. You used to be very expensive to
Speaker 1: put your music up on streaming services, and then, um, now,
Speaker 1: since it's really the only way people are listening to music,
Speaker 1: I found a place that does unlimited albums for twenty
Speaker 1: bucks for the whole years. It's time to do this.
Speaker 1: It's okay if no one listens, I could, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: could skip an action figure in twenty dollars into uh
Speaker 1: into my music being on lines. Yeah yeah. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you're listening to the podcast on Spotify, how about
Speaker 1: you go ahead and click over and uh go listen
Speaker 1: to some of roll comps of music after you're done here.
Speaker 1: But that's not all you do years ago. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: So um so the reason I think I'm here for
Speaker 1: this episode, uh kick started a vinyl toy um back
Speaker 1: in February and it was funded and so um the
Speaker 1: toys finally come from the factory maybe a month ago
Speaker 1: or so, and it's gonna debut at Dcon this weekend.
Speaker 1: So um that'll be at blitz Creek Toys. UM. At
Speaker 1: the end, I'm Convention Center so it's been a ton
Speaker 1: of work. Quong Um does all of the custom work
Speaker 1: on the toys we do for the limited runs, and
Speaker 1: so he's been super busy painting. And I'm not the
Speaker 1: only guy who's toys he's doing. So there's Um, there's Mishka,
Speaker 1: there's Quangy could probably speak to this. Oh yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: paying up some toys for Blitz Creek Toys of course,
Speaker 1: Um Mishka as well, and Real Calm some things for
Speaker 1: Ish justin Ishmael's toy brand. So I'm pretty busy. I
Speaker 1: think that's part of the fun thing with the community
Speaker 1: at Deacon or for designer toys in general, is that
Speaker 1: community because there's not really that many people out there.
Speaker 1: You know, Dcon is a huge show. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of people at that show as vendors, but I think
Speaker 1: as a designer vinyl scene, there's not that many names
Speaker 1: like Um, I mean Designer Con. When it started, it
Speaker 1: was the smallest room. It was like a five dollar
Speaker 1: entry fee, and it's just exploded into this thing that's
Speaker 1: like three full halls. It's probably the same size as
Speaker 1: blizz Con now for this year, and we've never seen
Speaker 1: it like that. Well, it's crazy to see how designer
Speaker 1: toys have kind of blown up. And I know we're
Speaker 1: talking all around it, and we'll get into the origin
Speaker 1: and deep stuff now, but this is the kind of
Speaker 1: interesting combo and just a little background about y'all. Um,
Speaker 1: but I feel like it kind of in the most
Speaker 1: quote unquote mainstream way, like when people started seeing pop
Speaker 1: and got comfortable collecting those, it just went from there,
Speaker 1: because at least that's how it was for me. Like
Speaker 1: I had a pop and I was like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: this uh this, uh what is it? The I'm gonna
Speaker 1: mess it up? The Bunny one? Yeah? Right, so kid
Speaker 1: Robot back, I think around early two thousand's they had
Speaker 1: the Dunnies, which were all artists driven designs. It was
Speaker 1: kind of it's I think it's a mix between Devil
Speaker 1: and Bunny is how they got that. And then there
Speaker 1: was the blank custom versions which are called money, which
Speaker 1: was kind of like a monkey done type thing. But um,
Speaker 1: those were the ones that really kind of set off
Speaker 1: an artist series of this is kind of the blank template,
Speaker 1: which fun Copop definitely is um and then using an
Speaker 1: artist angle at each one. The only thing is fun
Speaker 1: code is all license driven whereas Kid Roebout, its origins
Speaker 1: were all artists driven right fun fact with the with
Speaker 1: the duney itself, I believe it was Tristan Eaton. Um.
Speaker 1: He's a graffiti artist and a phenomenal artist. I think
Speaker 1: when he was eighteen he helped co create that toy
Speaker 1: um with Paul Paul. We got infull on that. We
Speaker 1: got some notes on about Paul, But the Donny, it's
Speaker 1: kind of incredible, you know, just to think of, like,
Speaker 1: you know, an eighteen year old like help co creating
Speaker 1: this toy that all these people bought and collected and drove.
Speaker 1: So dope. But let's just go in just for some
Speaker 1: of the people whose heads are spinning. Was like, hold on,
Speaker 1: y'all are talking all about the deep stuff. I need
Speaker 1: to get the origins, all right, what's a designer toy? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we we got we got lots. But I'm gonna kick
Speaker 1: it off with this quote, uh that Dan put up top,
Speaker 1: which I'm which I'm sure is to set off the
Speaker 1: tone of the episode because he also highlights it's so
Speaker 1: uh so for you to no, no, I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: you on, blast you on, blast you on the blast zone. Now,
Speaker 1: what's the most important quote for the whole show. For
Speaker 1: you to dig Urban Vinyl, you have to dig what
Speaker 1: it's about. Not everyone can relate to Loud because they
Speaker 1: may not live the lifestyle depicted. But now there are
Speaker 1: so many creations and themes that it's not hard to
Speaker 1: find an artist and toy that you would like. But
Speaker 1: remember these are artworks and are usually made in limited runs,
Speaker 1: so expect the higher price tag than a figure you
Speaker 1: can pick up at a chain store. But you're buying
Speaker 1: a piece of art, so you can feel good about it.
Speaker 1: And that's why that actually good job, Dan, That actually
Speaker 1: is a good quote, because I do want to talk
Speaker 1: about that before we fully jump in, because art is
Speaker 1: in a weird place right now where it's it's so
Speaker 1: easily manufactured in some facets that the value of it
Speaker 1: is lost to some people. Like it's so interesting to see,
Speaker 1: especially on Tumbler, a lot of people complaining about just
Speaker 1: how often people are like, oh, that's how much you're
Speaker 1: charging for this commission. That's and it's like that is
Speaker 1: so disrespectful to me, you know, to to something any
Speaker 1: like as someone who has started who wanted to do
Speaker 1: art before their Nigerian father was like get into computer science,
Speaker 1: and then I made them even more mad by becoming
Speaker 1: a comedian. Like the work that goes into just a
Speaker 1: simple line work, so then to see it jump off
Speaker 1: the page and to be on a actual like for
Speaker 1: the sculpture or a toy like that takes a lot
Speaker 1: of effort, just even full disclosure project that was back
Speaker 1: I bought the Doom and just seeing the work that
Speaker 1: Quang put and it looks so good, and you can
Speaker 1: tell the difference when you get like a mass printed
Speaker 1: toy and then like I can pick up like I
Speaker 1: just pick up and look at it because the paint
Speaker 1: job is so good and you just don't you're not
Speaker 1: going to get that from anywhere else, but like someone
Speaker 1: who puts the time into hand paint stuff. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think even how subject how subjective art is in general.
Speaker 1: You can pick up one of Quong's painted toys and
Speaker 1: see the hours that went into getting that finished done
Speaker 1: on the metal, and the different colors that he used
Speaker 1: for the palette. And you can also look at a
Speaker 1: toy that might score double triple times that and it
Speaker 1: has like three paint slashes, you know, just just kind
Speaker 1: of as it would seem just kind of messy put up,
Speaker 1: but that has its own intrinsic value in the creator
Speaker 1: that put it out in their style and how it
Speaker 1: is so um. I think vinyl toys are just as
Speaker 1: subjective as any other part of the art world. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think if we want to even go back
Speaker 1: to bunco and like simplify it, it kind of is
Speaker 1: that way where like one license property will fetch so
Speaker 1: much more money versus like something people don't don't care about.
Speaker 1: And let's not even get into how available it is.
Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, we'll get into all of that, but
Speaker 1: let's start with bubble heads, because you know, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, question of did to start with
Speaker 1: bobble heads? You know, bomble hands are kind of the
Speaker 1: first kind of nick knack patty whack that people were
Speaker 1: posting up because during the seventeenth century, figurines of Buddha
Speaker 1: and other religious figures called temple nodders were produced in Asia,
Speaker 1: and the earliest known Western reference to a bubble head
Speaker 1: is thought to be Nikolai Gogel's short story The Overcoat,
Speaker 1: which was dropped in eighteen forty two. I like to
Speaker 1: talk about short stories like their mixtapes uh, in which
Speaker 1: the main character's neck was described like the neck of
Speaker 1: plaster cats do uh like the neck of plaster cats
Speaker 1: which wag their heads, which I think is one of
Speaker 1: the most we all know what that's talking about. The thing?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, swinging back and forth. By the way, doesn't
Speaker 1: it sound like kind of a low blow to Google's
Speaker 1: thing like they saw and they're like, oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: describe this real rough. Yeah, oh man hater, yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 1: well um. By nineteen sixty, the Major League Baseball had
Speaker 1: gotten in on the action and produced a series of
Speaker 1: paper mache babbo head dolls, one for each team. And
Speaker 1: it's crazy because like till this day, like bad, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the night. Oh yeah, I got a what's his name? Losorta,
Speaker 1: Tommy Losorta Dodge, and I don't have the heart to
Speaker 1: throw it away, even though it's like I'm like, you
Speaker 1: don't fit in with any of my other toys. It's
Speaker 1: like it really genuinely well, I have Death Jaguar and
Speaker 1: all my DBC stuff on a separate thing, and I'll
Speaker 1: have like Overwatch something from Desny and Tommy Losorta. Go see,
Speaker 1: that's what I love like that stuff sticks around, Yeah,
Speaker 1: didn't didn't he just transfer himself into like being a
Speaker 1: spokesperson for food or something down there. Tommy Losorda's Trattoria
Speaker 1: is a restaurant that he he has a Dodgers Stadium restaurant.
Speaker 1: So I guess maybe that was very specific to that place. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: very well. But so he was a bubble head, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I Funco was founded as a bubblehead company by
Speaker 1: Mike Becker in Washington, and in two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: Beckers sold Funco to its current CEO, Brian Mariotte, who
Speaker 1: moved its offices to Lynnwood, Washington. I got so hyped
Speaker 1: for a second because I thought it was going to
Speaker 1: be in California and I was majorly wrong here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and significantly expanded the company's license product lines. So then,
Speaker 1: you know, so maybe maybe that that that was like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I'd like this bubblehead if its head wasn't
Speaker 1: moving all the time. But what we do know is
Speaker 1: that designer toys also called art toys or novelty toys
Speaker 1: and collectibles created by independent artists and designers, which they
Speaker 1: usually produced within limited editions. Artists use a variety of
Speaker 1: materials such as a bs plastic, vinyl, wood, metal, latex
Speaker 1: and resin. Many designer toys are plush toys. Creators often
Speaker 1: have backgrounds and graph design, illustration, or self described low
Speaker 1: brow art. Some artists have classical art design training, while
Speaker 1: others are self taught. I think that describes both of you.
Speaker 1: If I'm not correct a little bit. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: not the low brow art. I realized the timing in
Speaker 1: which I said that we love lowbrow art. It's funny
Speaker 1: because when a designer toys obviously coming from an artist, right,
Speaker 1: and artis has a vision for something they created, they
Speaker 1: want this three D version of in vinyl and um,
Speaker 1: so that's gonna change per artist. So there there's artists
Speaker 1: that know the whole Adobe creative suite and they're like
Speaker 1: putting stuff in vector and really doing it up for
Speaker 1: their sculpture to make. And then sometimes there's a dude
Speaker 1: that has a kin, like a sharpie napkin thing and
Speaker 1: he's like, make this a toy for me. People that
Speaker 1: make toys right, and they do it. So it's pretty
Speaker 1: fun to see how things get translated, because you could
Speaker 1: be that guy that's just nitpicking and like it has
Speaker 1: to be no the hand isn't not the wrong angle.
Speaker 1: That's me by the way it took me what I
Speaker 1: was going to jump off to. I remember when you
Speaker 1: were showing me every step that you took for Death Jaguar,
Speaker 1: which I will take a second to describe what is
Speaker 1: Death Jaguar for the people listening, So for for the
Speaker 1: toy that I had put out first of all, in
Speaker 1: in the history of of just people making toys, because
Speaker 1: another facet of of these artists created designer toys is
Speaker 1: resin toys, which are things that people can make at
Speaker 1: home because they could do a silicone sculpt make something,
Speaker 1: sculpt something out of clay or monster clay, and then
Speaker 1: create a sculpt to pour resin into, and then they
Speaker 1: can make their toys that way. Um. A lot of
Speaker 1: collector toys are done that way, but the ones from
Speaker 1: the sixties and seventies were all rotocast and vinyl and
Speaker 1: so um that's kind of the thing that everyone collects
Speaker 1: that's vintage and old, and everyone wants a vinyl toy,
Speaker 1: and when you don't have the means for it, you
Speaker 1: uh often do resident. So I really wanted to do vinyl.
Speaker 1: The startup costs for any toys always ballparked around ten k.
Speaker 1: And so at that point, there's so many people that
Speaker 1: before Kickstarter and um crowdfunding sources, they would go in,
Speaker 1: they dropped ten k to get a mold. Yeah, they'd
Speaker 1: wait whooever knows how long because Japanese production can take
Speaker 1: three or four plus years because you're waiting in this
Speaker 1: line of very limited factories that can make molds for you,
Speaker 1: and who knows if there's favoritism in that or um
Speaker 1: if things just get mixed up and someone jumps the
Speaker 1: line or however it goes, you could have ten grand
Speaker 1: out and you're waiting four plus five years. We have
Speaker 1: a friend that's been waiting three like three plus years
Speaker 1: years just to just to get his molds made, not
Speaker 1: even like a toy back. So I found a manufacturer
Speaker 1: that was pretty quick and did limited numbers, and I
Speaker 1: needed that ten grand. I went to Kickstarter. That's why
Speaker 1: I went there because I wanted vinyl instead of resin
Speaker 1: and so once that is raised, So my toy is
Speaker 1: actually based on the Godzilla character. So there's a Godzilla
Speaker 1: robot character called Jet Jaguar that was in God's Deliversus
Speaker 1: Megalon and uh, it's it's kind of an uncommon um
Speaker 1: toy to come across. So I did a flip of it,
Speaker 1: like an evil version called death Jaguar, and so that's
Speaker 1: what I ended up making through the help of friends
Speaker 1: and fans. Yeah, yeah, you know, guys, I dropped a
Speaker 1: million dollars on it, and that's that's how. So you
Speaker 1: all can thank me. I can definitely thank you for
Speaker 1: open that car. No, but yeah, no, just seeing the
Speaker 1: it all come together. It's just you showed me every
Speaker 1: step of the way and you had to design it,
Speaker 1: and then you kept you would have like samples come
Speaker 1: and you'd send it back and you're like it's almost finalized,
Speaker 1: and my dang, this is taking so long and what's funny?
Speaker 1: Iss oh man. So so that's so that's on the
Speaker 1: short side. Based on Quang's tone there, No, it's laughable
Speaker 1: because with the manufacturing how it is today, which is
Speaker 1: much faster, Chinese factories are able to do a lot
Speaker 1: more um and better than they have in the past.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people are turning that direction. And
Speaker 1: then you know, there's a really great company called Unboxed
Speaker 1: that that produces some of the top stuff right now,
Speaker 1: even even Japanese companies are starting to like look to
Speaker 1: Unboxed to create things for them, and you know, and
Speaker 1: with the turnaround time so quick, it's insane. It's unbelievable
Speaker 1: to me, somebody who's very familiar with things, like, oh,
Speaker 1: your toys done. It only took a year and a
Speaker 1: half because they're always has been this rift and quality
Speaker 1: where people are like, they want their vinyl to be Japanese,
Speaker 1: asked me, Japanese made. Um, there's that quality and it's
Speaker 1: still there, but Chinese manufacturing is really catching up to
Speaker 1: it to where you can get a really good quality product.
Speaker 1: Like when I when I held mine in my hand,
Speaker 1: I was like, this is I don't want any different
Speaker 1: like this? That's perfect. We'll get it. Actually, I feel
Speaker 1: like we keep jump into the future because it's so interesting.
Speaker 1: So like this is like one of those like Damon
Speaker 1: Lindelof is directing this episode of the podcast, because we're
Speaker 1: jumping in the future and jumping back. But we're gonna
Speaker 1: start off at the origin, Michaelo. First, we gotta hear
Speaker 1: a few messages from our sponsors and we're back. I
Speaker 1: hope you like those messages. Who knew was it one?
Speaker 1: By us or one from one of the other freaks
Speaker 1: over here at how stuff works. I don't know. It's
Speaker 1: randomized too, so everyone has their own flavor. So hopping
Speaker 1: the discord and talk about your favorite ads or not.
Speaker 1: I have my favorites. Yeah, okay, I see catch me
Speaker 1: on social media here about those, Yeah, to make sure
Speaker 1: you catch roll com. But yeah, let's kick it off
Speaker 1: with Michael law who. You know, this was interesting because
Speaker 1: you know, you and Dan we're kind of talking about
Speaker 1: Michael laugh and you're saying that there's you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's not just as straightforward as it may come off
Speaker 1: from the page of Michael Lou being like it seems
Speaker 1: like the godfather of this, right, and I think Kuang
Speaker 1: had mentioned that, um, that was kind of what was
Speaker 1: going on on the Chinese scene. But there's also the
Speaker 1: story of Bounty Hunter and how they kick things off
Speaker 1: in Japan. Okay, well, I'm gonna jump out of Michael
Speaker 1: Loo and then we'll cut into Bounty Hunter when you like,
Speaker 1: let me like, yeah, let's let's see what Mikey is about,
Speaker 1: you know, on this, and then we'll jump into so
Speaker 1: a thirty four year old with a ponytail and whispy
Speaker 1: suggestion of a goatee. This another I know who wrote this?
Speaker 1: This is a mad early out the gate roast was
Speaker 1: this was this bounty hunter who wrote this? It's so good?
Speaker 1: All right? Well describe it again. Yeah, thirty four year
Speaker 1: old with a ponytail and a whispy suggestion of a
Speaker 1: goatee Like that's how someone would describe my facial hair.
Speaker 1: And it hurts my allow looks like an artist, and
Speaker 1: he seems to think of himself as one. To goodness,
Speaker 1: where is this from? It's such a bird? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: know it is. This was New York Times, New York
Speaker 1: Times with that he Low was one of six children
Speaker 1: born to a chicken farmer in Hong Kong's New Territories.
Speaker 1: The family letter moved to a public housing project in
Speaker 1: the Capitol. They couldn't afford store bought toys. I sculptured
Speaker 1: Yoda out of cheap soap and made furniture out of
Speaker 1: a newspaper. And on September the Wan Shi neighborhood off
Speaker 1: Hong Kong, a line of people snaking the street from
Speaker 1: fourth floor showroom awaited a mission to an exhibition of
Speaker 1: ninety nine customized action figure by a young designer named
Speaker 1: Michael Low. Look, that's what that sounds like a supreme
Speaker 1: line right there, right, yeah, oh my god. Lines are
Speaker 1: such a part of just collecting. If there's no line,
Speaker 1: I don't want it. Oh man. But in the combustible
Speaker 1: world of Hong Kong trends, this was something seriously new,
Speaker 1: transforming hard plastic twelve inch action figures in the pop
Speaker 1: culture icon. But but let's let's let's go over the
Speaker 1: fact that they were saying he was sitting there making
Speaker 1: Yoda out of his soap, right and he's making furniture
Speaker 1: out of paper. And then they jumped to this kid
Speaker 1: with all his creativity doing that stuff. Then moved on
Speaker 1: to have this crazy art show with these ninety nine
Speaker 1: figurines I wonderfuls, a jay Z reference Fi raines, but
Speaker 1: soap aint one. Um, and he jumped to that. So
Speaker 1: you take it on from there, just do it a
Speaker 1: quick yeah. Um. But then you started doing grown up
Speaker 1: toys using bodies he scavenged from dolls like g I.
Speaker 1: Joe's and molding different heads, hands, and feets out of
Speaker 1: hard plastic. Loud created skateboarder, surfers, and snowboarders decked out
Speaker 1: in baggy shorts, clamp camouflage jackets, tent lights, sweatshirts, and
Speaker 1: of the moment sneakers adorned with this sounds like New
Speaker 1: York time of the moment sneakers that you look all right.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it, my brother didn't write this. Adorn
Speaker 1: with chains, earrings and tattoos. Their hair and dreadlocks are
Speaker 1: pressed beneath bright colored caps. Street culture and hip hop
Speaker 1: culture and skateboard style. We're coming up loud, explained when
Speaker 1: he met with him not long ago. In Hong Kong,
Speaker 1: the culture included fashion, music, graffiti. It seemed really fresh.
Speaker 1: It's like a uniform. People in Hong Kong and Tokyo
Speaker 1: and Britain and the States all looked the same. I
Speaker 1: feel like that's like a take that people still try
Speaker 1: and use now about streetwear. It's like, y'all out of here,
Speaker 1: spending so much money just to look alike. I was like, no,
Speaker 1: we not look clok. These are blue? Yeah, these are blue.
Speaker 1: I got a different color way. Uh, but yeah, it
Speaker 1: seemed like, you know, he just kind of like it
Speaker 1: started off as like these cool toys and kind of
Speaker 1: grew into being part of the culture, and you know,
Speaker 1: the culture when at least I'm referencing it all the
Speaker 1: time is like streetwear and fashion and designer toys. Uh,
Speaker 1: and so this is going on like it seems like,
Speaker 1: you know, in the late nineties, sent is when that
Speaker 1: toy show kind of happened, but allows gardeners inspired other
Speaker 1: Hong Kong comic book illustrators, graphic designers, and ad agency
Speaker 1: artists to start making their own figures. While a few
Speaker 1: Japanese cult boutiques had previously issued some limited edition collectible
Speaker 1: toys to Hong Kong designers in gender to craze, over
Speaker 1: the next five years, riding on the wings of the Internet,
Speaker 1: such toys quote unquote, which is like definitely, how I
Speaker 1: have to describe them to my wife. They're not toys.
Speaker 1: Their art, as their enthusiasts called them, spread from Hong
Speaker 1: Kong first to Japan, then the web. So you know,
Speaker 1: we had lou and we're talking about that big show
Speaker 1: in which was from the New York Times article kind
Speaker 1: of kind they're kind of retelling of you know, designer
Speaker 1: toy culture. But actually if you go back a little
Speaker 1: three years earlier, uh, in it's set that collectible violent
Speaker 1: toys were popularized by Bounty Hunter, a cult boutique based
Speaker 1: in Tokyo that combined the production of limited edition urban
Speaker 1: clothing with the fetish for seventies pop music. And then
Speaker 1: that year Bounty Hunter began selling limited edition numbers of
Speaker 1: vinyl toys that boards discernible resemblance to such cultural landmarks
Speaker 1: as Frank and Berry or a sailor on a Captain
Speaker 1: crunch box. Which that's that sounded a lot more like
Speaker 1: the designer toys, I know, Like that's also that's really
Speaker 1: mirroring fun Co's beginnings, right, Yeah, that's true, And that's
Speaker 1: kind of like you know, when you're talking about hip
Speaker 1: hop in in in clothing and sneakers. That's really how
Speaker 1: I got introduced to designer toys. Is like streetwear for
Speaker 1: me and designer toys kind of went hand in hand.
Speaker 1: Like I remember, I have a great friend named Takafumi,
Speaker 1: who you know, it was kind of a crazy story
Speaker 1: where he's this Japanese kid in like junior high and
Speaker 1: high school, living alone in this giant, giant house by himself,
Speaker 1: and he would fly back and forth and you know,
Speaker 1: his parents trusted him, and he would just buy stuff
Speaker 1: in Japan and just bring it back for us, and
Speaker 1: you know, here we are in like the late nineties,
Speaker 1: and he had like like Babe gear and he and
Speaker 1: he basically would hook me up with like bape t
Speaker 1: shirts because I liked the plan of the apes. I
Speaker 1: had no idea what Babe was at the time. And
Speaker 1: then he had toys from Bounty Hunter and things like that,
Speaker 1: and that was like my introduction to these two designer toys.
Speaker 1: And I really loved him. I mean, they looked like
Speaker 1: like a Captain Crunch character or whatever, and there's all
Speaker 1: soft vinyl. And it was really interesting because during this time,
Speaker 1: a lot of companies, like art toys were like appearing
Speaker 1: and and I didn't really correlate Bounding Hunder being like
Speaker 1: the first, but I knew it was like the earliest
Speaker 1: thing that I ever had. But then artists like puss
Speaker 1: Head he you know, famously he did a lot of
Speaker 1: art work for like Metallica and things like that. He
Speaker 1: he was having toys pop up. Um. He had this
Speaker 1: thing called the Posty traction car, which was like a
Speaker 1: car that you would push and there was a little
Speaker 1: motor inside that would cause it to move forward, and
Speaker 1: it was just it was amazing because I had never
Speaker 1: seen anything like that before, like Low run like it
Speaker 1: was definitely not made for kids. Um. And then around
Speaker 1: this time, I think Medicom had popped up, um, and
Speaker 1: they were producing like really great toys some more somewhere
Speaker 1: in the Michael Low style where it was like the
Speaker 1: twelve inch figures, um. And I remember like, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if it was a Medicom toy, but like
Speaker 1: they had produced figure somebody had produced figures of the
Speaker 1: Beastie Boys and that was like unreal, Like it looked
Speaker 1: exactly like them. They had full outfits. Um, there's like
Speaker 1: a Daft Punk from the Discovery album I believe figures
Speaker 1: that had come out and and these things were unreal
Speaker 1: because it was so detailed, um, and it was it
Speaker 1: wore the clothes, you know, the jackets were perfect from
Speaker 1: music videos and things like that. And that sort of
Speaker 1: helps set off this explosion within the culture where you're like,
Speaker 1: as an adult, you you really appreciated the craftsmanship and
Speaker 1: it wasn't it wasn't for kids. Yeah. I mean that's
Speaker 1: kind of how very similar to me, how I kind
Speaker 1: of my first taste of designer toys because kid Robot
Speaker 1: had a run of Guerrillas figures and they were dropping
Speaker 1: them and I'm a huge Guerrillas fan, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is nice. And then just kind of falling down
Speaker 1: the rabbit hole, you saw stuff like you know, Donny
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, and really I got what was it.
Speaker 1: It was like an event that was at It was
Speaker 1: like a designer content and it gave me a gift bag. No,
Speaker 1: it was the one I went for you Yeah as
Speaker 1: the monkey Yeah, Monkey King art show. And that's when
Speaker 1: I really it really snapped for me. So, uh, Roe
Speaker 1: com does a Monkey King. I think you've done it
Speaker 1: every year. It used to be a battle. It started
Speaker 1: as an art battle where where you're doing these four
Speaker 1: ft by four ft canvases against other streetwear not streetwear
Speaker 1: but a designer toy artist kind of kind of going
Speaker 1: versus on that. Yeah, let me give give the outsider
Speaker 1: kind of run down how it is for me because
Speaker 1: this event, it's there's nothing like it, and to me,
Speaker 1: it's my favorite thing. I think I've made it this year.
Speaker 1: In the last year, I wasn't down for comic Con
Speaker 1: and I missed it and I've just regret it. So gosh,
Speaker 1: it's like the coolest thing. You there's no real way
Speaker 1: to describe it unless you're there, because it's like so
Speaker 1: perfect being at comic Con because it is like truly
Speaker 1: celebrating art in a way that I don't think arts
Speaker 1: being celebrated down there, you know, like not to say
Speaker 1: that it's not but too literally literally thing and and honestly,
Speaker 1: like you know, I always wait, um every year for
Speaker 1: San Diego to do that event and see something like that.
Speaker 1: But honestly, there's a there's an event called Secret Walls
Speaker 1: that's been going on forever that does these versus battles
Speaker 1: and what our friend Greg judges them off tonight, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he m sees them and um, And so they happen
Speaker 1: in l A sometimes. So if you guys are interested
Speaker 1: in that type of that part of the culture, it's
Speaker 1: it's usually graph artists, um or anyone in in kind
Speaker 1: of more the low brow arts scene, and they just
Speaker 1: go head to head on these giant walls and it's
Speaker 1: really fun. Yeah. So so this is let me set
Speaker 1: the scene for you. It's in what's the name of
Speaker 1: that bar that's always Bar Basic, Bar Basic. It's always
Speaker 1: the Tope Pizza And it's like, imagine you walk into
Speaker 1: a bar and you think a rap battles going on,
Speaker 1: but you look and it's just dudes painting on the
Speaker 1: wall because everyone's surrounding the walls because it's happening live
Speaker 1: in front. And it's cool because y'all know what y'all
Speaker 1: are doing, but everyone else is just trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what y'all drawing. And and there's like like roe
Speaker 1: Com said, almost called you by your government, Like roe
Speaker 1: Com said, you know, good pizza, flowing, drink specials. It's
Speaker 1: it's a party. It's an art party and it's way packed,
Speaker 1: so prepare for that. But it's so fun. I highly
Speaker 1: recommend if you're down if you're down there, it's usually
Speaker 1: like that. It's always Thursday, Thursday, Thursday night. Make sure
Speaker 1: you're there. It's been there every year. I don't see
Speaker 1: it stopping anytime soon because it's not gotten smaller. If anything,
Speaker 1: it's gotten bigger. And you did this baller piece this
Speaker 1: year where it was it was the Cobra. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So this year was nuts because we used black light
Speaker 1: reactive paint, which I've never painted with. But that's pretty much,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just these hot highlight colors and so
Speaker 1: I've never painted with that, so I just went about
Speaker 1: it how I usually do. But um, yeah, I did
Speaker 1: a full Johnny like in Skelton costume from scart Kid.
Speaker 1: And so what's dope is Golden Apple Comics, which is
Speaker 1: right down here right. They had posted a picture of
Speaker 1: me painting that on Twitter, so I just kind of
Speaker 1: I retweeted that and hit up William Zobka, which is
Speaker 1: Johnny on the show, and he retweeted it and he's like, yo,
Speaker 1: I need one for the dojo. Yeah. It's just like
Speaker 1: it was the best compliment you get. Yeah, but he
Speaker 1: hasn't hit me up as I'm going to be like, yo,
Speaker 1: if we can get that on season two, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Let's hashtag Roe com in season two. So back to
Speaker 1: the back to Bounty Hunter. On the day of the
Speaker 1: toy's release. At Bounty Hunters, people would line up for
Speaker 1: blocks outside the store, like we said, and the collector
Speaker 1: culture waiting is nothing. I think two people don't mind waiting,
Speaker 1: collectors and people who eat food. Like I don't know
Speaker 1: if you have been a milk bar down the street,
Speaker 1: but your I went to the New York one, buddy, Buddy,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, it's it's that's that heat you Okay,
Speaker 1: I felt like you did. Can I tell my milk
Speaker 1: bar story about I know there's it's a designer toy.
Speaker 1: People are like, all right, so I've heard great things.
Speaker 1: I'm in New York for New York Comic Con. So
Speaker 1: my friend Jesse, she's a food critic out there, I'm
Speaker 1: in line with her. I'm like, I want this dessert,
Speaker 1: like I been waiting all night. I'm in line and
Speaker 1: we get there and I'm thinking, like, you know, we're
Speaker 1: on the West Coast, so if you want dessert, you order,
Speaker 1: you hang out. You're just like chilling inside, or you
Speaker 1: find a place on the patio. This dude just like
Speaker 1: hands me a bag and I gotta go. Like I
Speaker 1: just like, oh, we can't eat here. They're like, no,
Speaker 1: you can't. He was mad. I didn't know what was up.
Speaker 1: It was that usual like soup Nazi type thing, you know,
Speaker 1: sup Nazi situation. Classic. Yeah, so I got my crack
Speaker 1: pie is good. But what was weird like a loser
Speaker 1: on the curve. What was weirder that night was that
Speaker 1: couple that broke up right where we were sitting or
Speaker 1: eating food. That was the most new York thing. My
Speaker 1: friend told me that too. You can't walk around New
Speaker 1: York without walking by people. Breaking up happens everywhere. There
Speaker 1: was like, there was like eight of us at a
Speaker 1: four person table, and we need we needed more people,
Speaker 1: like more room. Yeah, and this couple was breaking up there,
Speaker 1: the girls full on crying. We didn't know though, ye
Speaker 1: were just didn't eating. We're talking about partying and with
Speaker 1: a comic con and whatever else. And two of our
Speaker 1: friends walked up and they needed room. So I just
Speaker 1: lean and I'm like, hey, can you guys move down
Speaker 1: a little without knowing that they're breaking up? And then
Speaker 1: and the quote, the quote was the girl tear eyed,
Speaker 1: was just like no, no, no, no, I gotta say
Speaker 1: like this. So our friend was sitting at the table
Speaker 1: before we joined the table, so she heard most of
Speaker 1: the breakup. So after they like they eventually leave, right,
Speaker 1: so she's like, yo, I heard most of it. And
Speaker 1: during a point of their breakup, she asked him do
Speaker 1: you think I'm funny? Like a funny person, And he answers,
Speaker 1: It's not the first word I'd used to describe you know,
Speaker 1: you know, who is this man? Who is this horrible man? Dude?
Speaker 1: They had a dog with them, were like, who keeps
Speaker 1: the dog? Just like but we just kept diving into
Speaker 1: their story, like what if she's a stand up comedies
Speaker 1: like her life and he had to sit in front
Speaker 1: of every show and she's like, you think I'm funny?
Speaker 1: Not the first word? I what is the first word?
Speaker 1: That's so very pretty by the way that look that
Speaker 1: must be that's when you're just going for the jugular,
Speaker 1: because that was like it was punched up to be
Speaker 1: that really trying to end this and go get in
Speaker 1: line for some toys right back. Yeah, look brought it.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, so so like we're y'all pointed out
Speaker 1: that there was a difference between the brands that Bounty
Speaker 1: Hunter was doing and Loo was doing. Um, I think
Speaker 1: it's all it's all designer art for sure, but right
Speaker 1: oh those were Yeah, if you've heard of like uh three,
Speaker 1: well the big the big difference between what they're doing
Speaker 1: is Lou was working on like twelve inch body like
Speaker 1: articulated figures, and what Bounty Hunter was doing was like
Speaker 1: soft vinyl figures closer to you know, like like Godzilla
Speaker 1: toys and things like that, um, like Monster toys that
Speaker 1: kind of vibed with things that had come out you
Speaker 1: know in the fifties or sixties, seventies kind of thing,
Speaker 1: and so you know, they're they're very different, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: but they all kind of fall under the helm of
Speaker 1: like art toy or designer toy. And then and then
Speaker 1: with that there's like sub sects of like designer vinyl.
Speaker 1: Um you can get into um like sufubi. That's something
Speaker 1: that I'm more um in line with with what I
Speaker 1: do is like soft vinyl toys that are airbrush and
Speaker 1: you know, painted and various things like that custom work
Speaker 1: where like you can get into the other style of toys. UM.
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of what Ashley Wood does. Was
Speaker 1: it with his company three A? He's a he's a
Speaker 1: tremendous artist like a painter and does a lot of
Speaker 1: comics and things. And he has his brand where he
Speaker 1: does like highly detailed like they look like miniaturized versions
Speaker 1: of real people. You know. Was with some of the
Speaker 1: work that he does. And then when you get into
Speaker 1: his art stuff, it's like his paintings are are jumping
Speaker 1: off like like like the characters are walking off the paintings. UM,
Speaker 1: It's it's like so good and how detailed they are,
Speaker 1: but they're done in very low quantities. The clothes are
Speaker 1: probably better constructed than my actual clothes. I think those
Speaker 1: are the toys where you could have anyone off the
Speaker 1: street looking at him and being like, oh, this is art,
Speaker 1: Like you don't play with this, you know, whereas I
Speaker 1: feel like in Sufubi culture and soft Final toys, you
Speaker 1: can just mistake them as like, oh, that's a toy
Speaker 1: from the seventies. Yeah, you know, um, well, yeah, because
Speaker 1: the reason I was asking is because I guess loud
Speaker 1: uh eventually had small vinyl versions of his twelve inch Gardeners,
Speaker 1: and he was wondering, like he was kind of worried
Speaker 1: about if that would change it, if that'll move, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they'll move, And of course it did. Smash smash, cell.
Speaker 1: I need less room to collect more of this, I'll
Speaker 1: take it. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, we've been talking
Speaker 1: about other brands, more known uh, more known brands too.
Speaker 1: I feel like the more mainstream audience, like kid Robot uh,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna kind of dip into them a little bit,
Speaker 1: then talk about a little bit of uh the competition,
Speaker 1: then talk about a little bit of the competition, and
Speaker 1: then kind of step and really have an open conversation
Speaker 1: about y'all role in the world and kind of things
Speaker 1: you've learned and and stuff like that, because that's pretty
Speaker 1: much the history. And then after that it kind of
Speaker 1: runs wild, uh and not in the sense of like
Speaker 1: it's crazy, but it exists. Well, a lot of people
Speaker 1: had seen the popularity with this stuff, like the lines
Speaker 1: like the mayhem that was brought on, and then you know,
Speaker 1: companies like like Toky Doki and kid Robot we're kind
Speaker 1: of popping up um and I wouldn't say like mass producing,
Speaker 1: but in more quantities than what had been done prod
Speaker 1: you know. And then they're they're creating stores and and
Speaker 1: that was the big thing is that a lot of
Speaker 1: the stuff was going on in Asia and being imported
Speaker 1: over here as part of the culture. You know, Scarcy sneakers, everything,
Speaker 1: like people were going crazy for it all. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: this is where you you know, the introduction of Cause
Speaker 1: and his art and his art toys and things like that.
Speaker 1: But I'm a big I'm a big Cause fanboy, and
Speaker 1: it's funny for me because I know that's not that's no,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't I don't know him personally. I've
Speaker 1: just been a huge fan of his art for I mean, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: would you sharing that patient gun in your house? That's insane? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, like one of one of my my better pickups. Yeah, cause,
Speaker 1: let's say cause Kuang is doing the thing that I
Speaker 1: like to say in a streetwear culture is old, these
Speaker 1: old things, which is when you have an insane piece
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh yeah, battle, I got that. But
Speaker 1: we're gonna go into all that, uh and just a
Speaker 1: lot about y'all, But first I'm gonna take another break.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, y'all. Sitting here with my two fams. I
Speaker 1: keep one to say, you're going No, I'm gonna say, rocam,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep it a mystery. No one knows you're
Speaker 1: being You did drop earlier, really just leep it out,
Speaker 1: Leep it out, believe it out as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: believe it out and keep yeah, believe it out and
Speaker 1: keep this in. I did drop it earlier, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I won't know what it is. And Quang, which I
Speaker 1: pulled up your website. I don't know uh why at
Speaker 1: the beginning, but there's this super dope pick you tek
Speaker 1: a Gucci Maine and I was like, damn it, you're good.
Speaker 1: It's in his book, it's in the Gucci main Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is yeah, this is kwang. Yeah, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of burgers. Yeah, it's so good. Yeah. We actually have
Speaker 1: two different versions of that. Yeah. The the photo shoot
Speaker 1: actually had to be extended even longer because I wasn't
Speaker 1: really happy with the look of the burgers. This is
Speaker 1: my moment where they got the set designer. I was like,
Speaker 1: I need like at least fifty cheeseburgers. Whatever. He goes
Speaker 1: out gets these burgers, but the the buns are flat,
Speaker 1: they don't have sesame seeds on him, and I freak.
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, these don't look like like burgers.
Speaker 1: You know, these look like McDonald's cheeseburgers kind of. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it didn't look right. So I made I made them
Speaker 1: go out and get like buns. It was sesame seeds,
Speaker 1: and I had to have them doctored to like look
Speaker 1: like they're burgers. Yeah. Um, And people were just like, seriously, dude,
Speaker 1: I wish you like took those burgers off the plates, like,
Speaker 1: spit it. What is this you call this a burger? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean it was already a pretty hectic shoot, just
Speaker 1: having somebody of his profile and in this it was
Speaker 1: a huge mansion, um, and I didn't want to freak
Speaker 1: in front of him. I didn't want to like have
Speaker 1: the energy of the set change. So I had to
Speaker 1: pull people aside like hey, guys, right, But but it
Speaker 1: was it was kind of one of those weird power
Speaker 1: trip moments where I was just like, you hired me
Speaker 1: for this job, like, and I'm just gonna give you
Speaker 1: my two cents, and I just feel like these burgers
Speaker 1: aren't quite right. I mean looking at the burgers, like
Speaker 1: I definitely see that. Yeah, it would look way different
Speaker 1: if it was like that McDonald's burger. No, I think
Speaker 1: you went the right way with that. Guys, just go
Speaker 1: It's photos dot com, qu A and g If you
Speaker 1: want to see the photo, well, I'll put it in
Speaker 1: the footnotes. So I've been if you google search Gucci Mane,
Speaker 1: it's one of them. That's probably I was a complex
Speaker 1: con and this is a gal who painted like a giant,
Speaker 1: like ten ft wide like oil painting of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's really incredible. Um. And it was one of
Speaker 1: those moments where I was just like, you know, everybody's
Speaker 1: like that's your photo was like, no, that's her painting,
Speaker 1: Like like I'm not taking away into that because like
Speaker 1: something that was just a couple of clicks. You know,
Speaker 1: it took while to build the set, but like there's
Speaker 1: no oil painting, and she knew who you were, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was really cool moment, like she I
Speaker 1: walked into her booth to look at it and then
Speaker 1: she like looked at me. She's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's you. And I was just like, uh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And it was really funny because she thought I was
Speaker 1: going to be bombed or whatever, Like I've never like
Speaker 1: you put in so much hard work and like you know,
Speaker 1: you knew what it looked like, which is kind of
Speaker 1: funny because you know photographer, who know, Yeah, it's all
Speaker 1: celebrating it. Yeah, honestly, one of my biggest fears of
Speaker 1: me doing my death Jaguar toy because it's really made
Speaker 1: as this companion piece to the m one Go jet
Speaker 1: Jaguar toy, which is like a really celebrated Sufubi toy
Speaker 1: company from Japan, and so Quong has become friends with
Speaker 1: the creators of that brand, and I remember I gifted
Speaker 1: him my toy and so giving it to the guy
Speaker 1: that had the inspiration toy. I was worried. I was like,
Speaker 1: this guy's gonna get mad. He said, you took my stuff,
Speaker 1: and he was just so thankful. He actually gifted me,
Speaker 1: um a jet Jaguar piece I was missing from my collection.
Speaker 1: He gave me this glow in the dark one that
Speaker 1: I'd never had, and so it was really a beautiful moment.
Speaker 1: It's actually a good moment to talk about m one
Speaker 1: because they're a vinyl toy company. Um, they in a way,
Speaker 1: they kind of fit that designer vinyl thing, and they're
Speaker 1: part of the inspiration. Like a lot of people definitely
Speaker 1: like buy their stuff and um vibe with it because
Speaker 1: what it is is they're done to look like toys
Speaker 1: that would fit in line with the original toys from
Speaker 1: like the seventies, but their modern takes of characters and
Speaker 1: and things that you wouldn't have originally received back in
Speaker 1: back in the seventies, because you know, you're you're taking
Speaker 1: you know, as you you know, you lay out a
Speaker 1: toy line, you pick the most popular characters and then
Speaker 1: you make toys of them. And what Ugi and Nietzsche
Speaker 1: would do is they would take the c list characters
Speaker 1: Like obviously over the years growing up watching a film
Speaker 1: and being like they never made one of you know,
Speaker 1: the twins of from Mathra and they would make those
Speaker 1: toys that would fit as a companion to piece, to
Speaker 1: fit fill the whole that you had as a collector.
Speaker 1: Um and you Gi is like when you use the
Speaker 1: term super collector or somebody who's like it, he embodies that,
Speaker 1: like at you know, anybody that pretty much collects anything
Speaker 1: excite for a side. Maybe Forrest Ackerman is like, you're
Speaker 1: like a duplicate of this guy, because this is a
Speaker 1: guy who will go and he will collect every version
Speaker 1: of everything down to movie props, you know, um, like
Speaker 1: signatures from actors. It's like molds from movies. Like you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: here's a mold from a gremlin arm. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have that, um and and it's pretty incredible that
Speaker 1: he has taken that sort of fandom. And then he
Speaker 1: has like this toy company, um and there's there's actually
Speaker 1: a really great story that he uses because he was
Speaker 1: the first guy, from what I understand, to create a
Speaker 1: wonder one replica of the of the Terminator and UM,
Speaker 1: I believe it is Stan Winston that that that created.
Speaker 1: Maybe you guys can factor that. Yeah, yeah, so so
Speaker 1: does that movie never have a full scale prop or
Speaker 1: you just replicated it? Well, he he created the model
Speaker 1: kit that you could buy of the of the end
Speaker 1: of skeleton head, and he had put some little things
Speaker 1: in it because when you when you actually when he
Speaker 1: when he actually visited and looked at it in the workshop,
Speaker 1: you know, it's made as an on screen prop, which
Speaker 1: is much different as than something that you can walk
Speaker 1: up to and look at and touch and paint on.
Speaker 1: And so he he took some liberties with the blessing
Speaker 1: of of of the creators, of like how to how
Speaker 1: to make the details a little bit more sharp and finer,
Speaker 1: and so he put little things in there so that
Speaker 1: he'd know if somebody ripped off his sculpt So he'll
Speaker 1: look at modern sculpts and he'll be like, oh, somebody
Speaker 1: just casted the head. They molded my thing. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you were right. It is Stan Winston and he uh yeah,
Speaker 1: he did the T T twos T eight Indo skeleton.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and and you Ge is credited, I think
Speaker 1: is the guy. You know, he he created this kit,
Speaker 1: the one to one replica, and it was just really
Speaker 1: funny that he has this like oh yeah, like I
Speaker 1: put I put little things in there, and he's like,
Speaker 1: I still see I'll go to toy show, so go
Speaker 1: to conventions and all look at it, like people are
Speaker 1: like I sculpted this, and they're like, no, I put that,
Speaker 1: Like that's intention. Yeah, there might as well have been
Speaker 1: his signature on the bottom of it. So you mentioned
Speaker 1: Yugi a few times. Who is Ugi? For those who
Speaker 1: may not now, he's the um owner of a company
Speaker 1: called m one Go UM. It's a it's a vinyl
Speaker 1: toy company, and they they primarily do licensed toys of
Speaker 1: Subariah UM Productions and a Toho so Godzilla, Ultraman, those
Speaker 1: kind of characters, and like I said, they this Power Rangers,
Speaker 1: Supers or something. No, no, that's that's that's something different.
Speaker 1: But and I've always loved that company UM, and it's
Speaker 1: it's one of the top things I actually collect UM
Speaker 1: because he focuses a lot on the weirder characters, the
Speaker 1: things that you just that were never really made back
Speaker 1: in the seventies. And and obviously he makes like new
Speaker 1: versions of some of the older seventies toys, but it
Speaker 1: was always is like the fact that he would make
Speaker 1: figures that just fell in line with the original toys
Speaker 1: from Bullmark Um and they Bullmark is one of the
Speaker 1: original UM vinyl toy companies from Japan and POPI uh
Speaker 1: that did that? Did like Godzilla toys and things like that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just saw Eugene Nishi mirror, right and uh, well,
Speaker 1: of course since you brought up we're gonna stop and
Speaker 1: talk about Kuang's toy collection, because you know, everyone has
Speaker 1: a collection in mind when you think of someone's toy collection.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you my experience of witnessing the
Speaker 1: glory that is Kwang's toy collection. I was that who
Speaker 1: was it? Was it a birthday? Christmas party? Knows the
Speaker 1: Christmas party? Yesterday's christ All have the best Christmas party?
Speaker 1: And I am waiting for my invite for this suh man,
Speaker 1: it's and that secret saying I got sniped. I don't
Speaker 1: think I'm not still mad about that. It was the
Speaker 1: it was so good. It was the Mickey Mouse uh
Speaker 1: toaster where it scores Mickey Mouse ye. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is dope. It's gonna be for Naomi. She's good
Speaker 1: and someone and so just so people understand what we're
Speaker 1: we're doing Secret Santa in the sense where everyone brings
Speaker 1: a gift. It's in the Pilephant, White Elephant. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it gets pretty pretty vicious. Yeah. So everyone can swap
Speaker 1: two times, so you and if you know, and everyone
Speaker 1: can only get stolen from two times, so if after
Speaker 1: you get stolen from the second time, you're safe. So
Speaker 1: stolen from once, it was like the last round two
Speaker 1: and I was like, I think I'm good. I had
Speaker 1: this Mickey Mouse toaster and then nope, I someone stole
Speaker 1: and gave me this creepy doll that's a light and
Speaker 1: you know it's a cool doll but also very creepy.
Speaker 1: It comes with a ghost. Yeah. Actually know someone stole
Speaker 1: the ghost for me because that was because I think
Speaker 1: that was my first thing. And I was like, oh no,
Speaker 1: it's almost like, oh no, this is my bag light.
Speaker 1: But so we go um and uh. I think it
Speaker 1: was Quang who was like, you want to see my
Speaker 1: toy collection. There were like, yeah, we kind of creepy.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean yeah, but I was I was game.
Speaker 1: After the ghost doll, I'm like, let's go. Uh and
Speaker 1: we go to like your basement and you turn on
Speaker 1: a light, and it was the most toys I've seen
Speaker 1: in one place. And this is someone who's been to
Speaker 1: melt down, rest in peace. Uh, and like it was
Speaker 1: just so many and I was like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: what I need in life. I wish I can have
Speaker 1: this many dope toys. You know. I was really lucky
Speaker 1: that my mom just really didn't throw anything away. Um.
Speaker 1: And and in all honesty, I've gone through like a
Speaker 1: lot of different times of collecting. I've I've been collecting
Speaker 1: like designer Vinyl toys for a very long time. And
Speaker 1: I actually weirdly went through a phase of where I
Speaker 1: got so over it when you know, um ebase have
Speaker 1: took hold of of it, and like the prices just
Speaker 1: went out of control, uh, you know. And and so
Speaker 1: I actually stepped away from the hobby for a long time.
Speaker 1: And then I took a trip to Japan. And then
Speaker 1: there's a store kit called and Drack out there, which
Speaker 1: is you know there there's like it's a chain, there's
Speaker 1: a few, Yeah, there's a chain. Yeah, there's a chain
Speaker 1: of them. There's a you know. But the one that
Speaker 1: I was first introduced to is basically like an eight
Speaker 1: story mall where each floor is like a different like
Speaker 1: era of toy wo um and and the shelves are
Speaker 1: just packed and you can only fit like one person
Speaker 1: through at a time through the aisles and the prices.
Speaker 1: At the time, we're very um good and I basically
Speaker 1: was just like I'm back in Yeah, you're like this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking I'm back yeah yeah yeah. And well you know,
Speaker 1: I I never asked this because you just kind of
Speaker 1: started doing it. But I mean, you're an artist that
Speaker 1: you've always been around the toy culture. But when was
Speaker 1: the moment You're like, I'm jumping in this. Uh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make a toy ro com needs a toy out.
Speaker 1: It's it's honestly, um being friends with Quong and uh,
Speaker 1: you know we we've we've skipped this, but Kwang and I, um,
Speaker 1: we started this thing with our friend Dja when an
Speaker 1: animal pin company called Yesterdays and so you started four
Speaker 1: years ago and slowly we became the official pinmakers for
Speaker 1: the band The Misfits, for The Walking Dead, comics for Saga,
Speaker 1: a bunch of a bunch of comic books, and so
Speaker 1: it takes us to all these comic conventions. Um, but
Speaker 1: aside from us hanging out all the time for through
Speaker 1: through that company. Um Kuang and our friend Justin Justin Ishmael. Um.
Speaker 1: He he makes really great license toys. Um. He's worked
Speaker 1: with Famous Monsters Magazine. He's working on a Billy Bob
Speaker 1: toy right now, which is from show Biz Pizza. It's
Speaker 1: like and um and also the Deadly On Yeah and
Speaker 1: so and so they're always painting and working on toys
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting here, dude, that's supposed to be the
Speaker 1: artist and I don't have my toy, and some them like,
Speaker 1: where's my toy? Yeah? And so, Uh, Jet Jaguar had
Speaker 1: been a huge thing in my collection, so I wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of create that thing where um, here's here's
Speaker 1: my addition to that, you know, because um, I think
Speaker 1: even if you look at fundmaker Mike from Fun Cooke,
Speaker 1: he was looking for a Billy Bob bobble head. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm not Billy Bob's Big Boy bobble head and um
Speaker 1: he was on eBay looking at it and it's just
Speaker 1: so expensive. He's like, for these prices, I'm gonna make one.
Speaker 1: And so he went to Bob's Big Boy and he
Speaker 1: got his first bubble head done and so for me
Speaker 1: looking for Jett Jaguar toys all the time, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make my evil version and like I can
Speaker 1: have all of them. That's so dope. There's so many
Speaker 1: dope variants too, because you because there's the doom one
Speaker 1: that we talked about that only I got. Sorry, people
Speaker 1: keep asking quong To. They're like, yo, like can you
Speaker 1: do another one? I was like, we can't do if
Speaker 1: you're wrong, like he's got the one off. Look you know,
Speaker 1: I would never be managed all, but don't do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, so we are running low on time, but
Speaker 1: I just want to I guess we'll tr T L
Speaker 1: d R kind of just some of the basics some
Speaker 1: of the quick questions we have because there are some
Speaker 1: things that you know, knowing y'all and talking to you
Speaker 1: all about toy you know, culture that there's like all
Speaker 1: these like different things without like quote unquote spilling tea
Speaker 1: or anything, but just like you know, honor things that
Speaker 1: I thought was kind of cool. Like, so, uh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you guide that one. So I don't like,
Speaker 1: you know, say too much. So you just mean in
Speaker 1: collecting and uh everything. Yeah, basically um uh as as
Speaker 1: a maker, I think there's there's always that thing between
Speaker 1: you know. When I was getting my toy made, the
Speaker 1: number one question was like, where's it being made? Is
Speaker 1: it Jeff Benese as a Chinese, you know, like because
Speaker 1: some collectors are very particular in that stuff and that
Speaker 1: they kind of hate on different things. And what's funny
Speaker 1: is they don't understand that collectors in Japan don't care
Speaker 1: if your toys dope. It's dope, and then we're in
Speaker 1: their collection, and so there's little things like that are interesting,
Speaker 1: but it's slowly watched away. It's definitely an old school mentality.
Speaker 1: Well that's so funny because I feel like that happens
Speaker 1: to a lot of like westernized fandoms because I feel
Speaker 1: like it's the same way with uh with the anime
Speaker 1: questions exactly. It's it's actually something that's being addressed with
Speaker 1: a lot of people that it is. It is a
Speaker 1: Western thing that that they definitely see like, hey, like
Speaker 1: in Japan, they're like, oh, I don't care. You know.
Speaker 1: I think that the words of fubie was for a
Speaker 1: long time exclusively used as like high end Japanese kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and then the people in Japan are like, no,
Speaker 1: it's all called food. It's all soft. It's legitimately just
Speaker 1: soft vinyl, just like anime is literally animation, and people
Speaker 1: are like, no, it has to be in Japan, it
Speaker 1: has to look metal, lackwleness. Uh, yeah, that's so crazy.
Speaker 1: So how is it? Um? So we talked about kind
Speaker 1: of like the creation as a pain as a paint
Speaker 1: or how is how is it for you? Quang? When
Speaker 1: you like what Obviously I think that the answer to
Speaker 1: this is going to be like things that look cool
Speaker 1: to me, but like how do you decide, like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's a toy that I want to paint, and how
Speaker 1: do you kind of come up with the design? It
Speaker 1: comes with textures and a lot of it. You get
Speaker 1: really high and I mean that because of the there's
Speaker 1: like a lot of chemicals involved and so you've got
Speaker 1: to be really careful. Um there's yeah that you have
Speaker 1: to wear gloves. There's like you know, after a respirator,
Speaker 1: you know it's it's not I wouldn't call it dangerous,
Speaker 1: but there is a lot of chemicals involved and that's
Speaker 1: something that like as a toy painter, you have to
Speaker 1: know because there is a responsibility to your customers. And
Speaker 1: the paint that I use specifically, it's designed for toys,
Speaker 1: final toys and chemically bonds um. And that's why when
Speaker 1: you know, you'll take your your Marvel Legends action figure
Speaker 1: and you'll paint on it with the critics and it'll
Speaker 1: just rub off. Well, part of that chemical mixture is
Speaker 1: making sure this is the right amount of thinner and
Speaker 1: everything that goes along with it, so that it's just
Speaker 1: adhering correctly to the figure. Um. And and if you don't,
Speaker 1: you know, you can spray. You know. I've had guys
Speaker 1: that will will paint figures with the critics and they're like,
Speaker 1: oh clear code them all. But your figures end up
Speaker 1: like sticky, you know, and like things like that, um
Speaker 1: that you know, for anybody that buys one of my toys,
Speaker 1: I like, you know, and Rocom has definitely seen me
Speaker 1: like like really like toil over this kind of thing
Speaker 1: where I'm like, oh man, it's not right, Like I
Speaker 1: need another day to make this perfect because somebody's gonna
Speaker 1: go home with this and this is my reputation. Um right,
Speaker 1: you can't have them paying like three dollars take this
Speaker 1: thing home and then the paints flaking off. Of it,
Speaker 1: you know, And so that's something I take very seriously.
Speaker 1: And so when it comes to like color combinations and
Speaker 1: various things. When it comes to the toys, I'll just
Speaker 1: look at something and see how it's textured, what it
Speaker 1: vibes with. If there's a lot of like painting something
Speaker 1: that looks like something else, like your death Jaguar painted
Speaker 1: to look like Doom because I looked at it and it,
Speaker 1: you know, it has like this vibe of like the
Speaker 1: iron mask, you know, um, you know, with the robot
Speaker 1: face and everything else, and and Doom as a character
Speaker 1: that I like, I'm I'm a big Jack Kirby fan um.
Speaker 1: And that's a that's another thing people like a nerd
Speaker 1: out when they come over, is I have like a
Speaker 1: Jackkerby original um. And so you know, I always try
Speaker 1: to pay homage to those guys, you know, the things
Speaker 1: that I love. And I think when people look at
Speaker 1: some of my custom work, they kind of get like
Speaker 1: if they would like me as a person, you know,
Speaker 1: like like I try to put a little bit of
Speaker 1: that in my work to where they might be able
Speaker 1: to get my personality a little bit more or like
Speaker 1: oh yeah, he he obviously really likes like John Carpenter
Speaker 1: movies or think things like that, like you know, certain references. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so him well as a good wrap up question, you know,
Speaker 1: and a good question to give back to the nerd
Speaker 1: fan listening. One thing that I think you'll notice a
Speaker 1: lot of if you are inspired by this podcast and
Speaker 1: you'll start jumping into the game and buying Vinyl toys,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of blanks, Like we're talking about
Speaker 1: the money's and the other blank figures. So what are
Speaker 1: some tips calling that you have for it would be
Speaker 1: artists out there who are like, I'm gonna trying my
Speaker 1: hand in painting this um blank. After I start with
Speaker 1: don't you know, I think it's it's a lot of
Speaker 1: it's doing your research and taking it easy. I so
Speaker 1: this is this is a weird thing that's from me
Speaker 1: because I actually, in a strange way, I don't paint
Speaker 1: toys that people like. People give me toys to paint,
Speaker 1: and I obviously like, well I buy them off of
Speaker 1: them or whatever, but with the awareness that like, I
Speaker 1: will paint them because well, I guess because I paint
Speaker 1: toys to sell them, where I guess if you're painting
Speaker 1: him to keep yoursel elf. Like that's cool, but if
Speaker 1: you're buying them to sell them again, I just feel
Speaker 1: kind of dirty, you know, like like purchasing something from
Speaker 1: somebody and then I'm basically just painting all over it,
Speaker 1: you know, and then trying to flip it for more money.
Speaker 1: That's like I I personally look at that is a
Speaker 1: little disrespectful to the artist, you know. Where a lot
Speaker 1: of the artists I work with, I know personally, we
Speaker 1: we we talk a lot. I discussed with them what
Speaker 1: I like because like you know, a lot of the
Speaker 1: paint jobs I like are like from classic Japanese characters
Speaker 1: as well. Um, And you know, I'll let them know
Speaker 1: and and a lot of times we'll be like, oh
Speaker 1: that's great, I love it. I love the idea, like
Speaker 1: the way you do things. And then you know, we
Speaker 1: hit it off and I go and I and I
Speaker 1: do it all. Um. Where if you're doing it to
Speaker 1: keep it, then obviously you're allowed to do whatever you want.
Speaker 1: But I would really study the medium a lot more
Speaker 1: than because there's a lot of trial and error. You know.
Speaker 1: I probably went through like five different air brushes because
Speaker 1: I just kept busting them and then um and then
Speaker 1: Eventually it was like, okay, like I just need to
Speaker 1: sit and study, you know, I really need Like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not the guy that's like a savant that just
Speaker 1: like picks it up and just like it does it.
Speaker 1: It's like there's a lot there's a lot of chemistry involved,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, um, and you have to
Speaker 1: kind of be ready for that. You know. You you
Speaker 1: go into my garage and it smells like kind of
Speaker 1: like a toxic waste up. And also, I mean we're
Speaker 1: talking about this this crazy high level end of Sufubi
Speaker 1: collecting and and blanks and painted runs in that realm,
Speaker 1: which you'll see a designer can this weekend if you
Speaker 1: go to that show. Um. But I think the idea
Speaker 1: of the blank coming from kid Robot with the money
Speaker 1: and once I saw Rose Art and different like kids
Speaker 1: craft companies coming with these little blank plastic toys you
Speaker 1: can paint on. So it depends on what you're coming at.
Speaker 1: Like if it's something you're picking up at Target, there's
Speaker 1: not much to go with, and that may even be
Speaker 1: a good way to practice. Our friends actually grab old
Speaker 1: vinyl dinosaur toys they might find and practice painting on
Speaker 1: those and that's kind of a good place to start.
Speaker 1: But it's really just finding the different avenues of where
Speaker 1: that blank lives and treating the rules differently per per place,
Speaker 1: because if you find you know, those I think they're
Speaker 1: doing vinyl Stormtrooper helmets for a while when they brought
Speaker 1: stuff into Target when the new movies had dropped, and
Speaker 1: I mean, you could do whatever you want. You're not
Speaker 1: going to disrespect anyone, um. Yeah, and that that those
Speaker 1: those are made for the purpose of like painting on
Speaker 1: and making some cool stuff. And I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of there's a lot to be learned with all that.
Speaker 1: I just think that before you you jump into it
Speaker 1: on the deep end, it's like, just practice a lot.
Speaker 1: You know. It took me a long time to get
Speaker 1: to the point of like where I'm even confident enough
Speaker 1: to like put myself out there, um, because a lot
Speaker 1: of it is reputation. I don't want to be the
Speaker 1: guy that's like I remember like when people and I
Speaker 1: hear it from a lot of guys like I remember
Speaker 1: when you sucked. You know, I was there. Oh man,
Speaker 1: Oh well that was dope. That was a lot of
Speaker 1: info And y'all really just laid it down. I've loved
Speaker 1: talking Designer Toys. I love talking with y'all. Y'all that
Speaker 1: the homies, but for the new homies, how much you
Speaker 1: tell them where they can find you. First of all,
Speaker 1: thanks for having us on, you know, fans of the show,
Speaker 1: and so it's great to actually be in here. We're
Speaker 1: missing Danny right now. But I caught that crazy jumpsuit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was wild, don't work, it was shining. I was
Speaker 1: trying to look for that app that makes things for
Speaker 1: shining good and find but you can find me guy
Speaker 1: on all social media as ro com r O c
Speaker 1: O M and uh. My toys will be at the
Speaker 1: blitz Creek Toys booth next to a lot of Quong's
Speaker 1: painted works at Designer kanin Anaheim this weekend. Oh and
Speaker 1: Quang Yeah, I'll actually be mostly at the Yesterday's An
Speaker 1: Animal Pin booth and that's booth N and on social media,
Speaker 1: I'm just photos all of Quong. That's q u A
Speaker 1: n g yo yo, So definitely check that and you
Speaker 1: know me, it's your boy. If you y I F
Speaker 1: Y n W A d I w E on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram, if ds on Twitch, come through, drop that
Speaker 1: free Twitch Prime sub if it's been a month, because
Speaker 1: you know your boy loves to keep streaming and when
Speaker 1: y'all do that, and that's how I do that, you know,
Speaker 1: So don't forget about me. I'll never forget about you.
Speaker 1: Definitely make sure you hop on the Spotify. I know
Speaker 1: ro Com hates when I do this just because it's
Speaker 1: old music album. As a matter of fact, we're gonna
Speaker 1: close out this episode with one of his songs, uh,
Speaker 1: because I remember Close Heart Surgery, I remember, I'll go
Speaker 1: way back to Box Ninja's, I know all of them.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like we and always do the things you love,
Speaker 1: by the things you love. Support your local artists, pay
Speaker 1: them what they're worth, and stay nerdy on. I'll see
Speaker 1: you later.