WEBVTT - POGs: The 90s in a Bottle Cap 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.880 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.960 and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant over there, and Jerry's 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.640 lingering somewhere out there, and this is the stuff you 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:27.639 should know. It's POGs. It's POGs. That's right. That's other 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:30.000 theme song. Way. Actually, I think it's a little more 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:34.519 extreme and in your face than that. Yeah. You know 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.560 who is a big pog enthusiast is friend of the show, 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:42.559 Jesse Thorne of the Maximum Fund Network. I did not 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:44.960 know that. I've heard him talk about it. I mean 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:49.160 he's he's the right age for that wheelhouse and uh, 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:52.879 I've heard him talk about it on Judge John Hodgman 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:57.120 and with great enthusiasm. And Mom always like, what are POGs? 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:00.560 I've never even heard of these? Because I'm an old Yeah, 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.000 I mean i'd heard the word before, but I had 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.920 no idea what really they were, what you did with 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.399 them or anything. Okay, so a little before your time too, then, 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.240 oh yeah, a lot after my time. I mean you 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:18.160 had to basically be ten eleven, maybe twelve, I'll give 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:26.400 you thirteen between and nine four very specific niche window. 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:28.400 But these things were so big that it's just like 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:30.399 if you were a kid in the nineties kind of thing, 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.600 like you played POGs, Like everybody was playing with POGs 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.200 for like two years, and it was kind of like 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.640 the definition of a flash in the Pan fad. Yeah, 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:45.559 and we should think how stuffworks dot Com mental floss. Uh, 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.240 first we feast dot com. That was a good article. 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.480 It was pretty good. And then military dot Com for 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:57.520 a little cherry on top at the end. That's great. 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.560 We'd like to thank the military industrial Complex for the 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:05.240 cherry on top as a whole. So, Um, you're a 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:07.480 child of seventies. I'm a child the eighties. We had 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:09.720 our own thing. But again, this is a thing of 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:14.720 the nineties. And with POGs, um, it's like if you 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:16.720 I'm trying to think of a fad that was like 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.160 big when when we were young, and I really honestly 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.639 can't think of anything, not nothing akin to this. I mean, 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.919 like I want to say Nintendo maybe the original any yes, 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.520 but I would hardly call that a flash in the Pan, 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.440 you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, POGs to 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:37.720 me represent something different because they were they had two functions. 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:41.640 They functioned as kind of trading cards of sorts, but 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.880 it was also a game. Uh. And if you're listening 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.960 and frustrated already, we should say very quickly that POGs 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:54.600 these little circular discs, and we'll get into, you know, 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.240 the ins and outs of them, and this is our 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.720 one shot at explaining it right here. And there was 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:01.799 a played around them, which we will get into as well, 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.280 but they also functioned as things that kids would were 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.800 just obsessive about trading, like you have a a Pope 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:09.680 John Paul Park and I really want it, so I'm 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.880 gonna trade you my McDonald's pug and my I don't 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.919 even know what was popular in the nineties, but yeah, 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.720 that was probably be about it. There definitely were I've 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.600 seen pictures of them on the internet. Sure that means 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.520 it's real. I don't know if anybody went to the 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.520 trouble of photos shopping that, but I guess it's possible. 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:33.640 We should question everything we see on the internet, I guess. 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:38.119 And this also crosses over with The Simpsons because very 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:42.640 famously Millhouse traded Bart's soul away for a set of 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.960 POGs in one episode. That's right, and it comes full circle, Chuck, 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:50.360 because there were a lot of Simpsons POGs as well. Oh, 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:54.040 I'm sure can you name the character of um that 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:59.600 were on the POGs that Millhouse traded for? Do you know? Yes? 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:06.000 What alf h there were Alpha's back and pog form. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.080 That's pretty funny. Yeah. So what I was trying to 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.360 get out earlier was like there was like this, um 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.120 the POGs were like a huge, huge flash in the 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:18.719 pan fad that just burned white hot and then just 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.360 went away very quickly. But the thing that makes them 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:24.480 interesting is not so much that there were some you know, 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.320 neat to year trend in the nineties, but that they 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:32.080 were actually based on a much older game, and that 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.599 that was actually based on a much older game as well, 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.440 and that it was just almost like this the most 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:41.320 recent iteration of this idea for a game that just 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.080 keeps popping up every few hundred years and makes you 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.159 wonder when it's going to pop up again in the future. Yeah, 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.560 which I think make is a good distinction that makes 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.520 it kind of cooler and more interesting then Definitely your 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.240 average Furby or unless there were ancient Furbies that we 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.239 don't know about, they've yet to be discovered. A kettle 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.920 hy Yeah, that's a movie you have. Furbie was discovered 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.120 ancient Furbies. Those things were kind of nineties too, right, 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:09.920 They were after our time, I think, so. I don't 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:11.800 know much about Furbies, but this is, you know, this 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.200 is in a long line of our sort of pop 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:19.040 culture toys Forgotten Toys episodes. Yeah, now that you mentioned it, 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.960 we probably should have saved this one for Christmas. Yeah, 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.360 we'll find something else. So we were talking about how POGs, 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:29.520 this game, these little discs that you you play with, 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.680 were based on a much older game. And uh, it 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:36.360 turns out that there was a person, a woman who 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:40.560 was a teacher and a guidance counselor in Hawaii at 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:45.320 um Way, a Lua elementary school in Oahu who in 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.480 to gather around children. I noticed that you guys are 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.760 playing a little rough on the playground. That dodgeball has 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.560 been coated with um tar and broken glass, and I'm 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.359 not very happy about that. I want you guys to 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:02.560 try something different. Let's try something that my grandparents used 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:04.520 to play and that I played when I was a 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.560 little kid your age, and it's called milk caps. I'm 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.160 gonna show you how to do it. And she introduced 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:13.280 these kids to this game of milk caps, and you 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:15.159 would think it would be kind of snoozy, but I 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:20.400 think this demonstrates just how engrossing but also simple the 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.440 game of poggs actually is that this old timey game 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:31.160 captured these school kids attention and then just spread like wildfires. 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.920 It's been put. Yeah, her name was She's got a 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:38.600 great name. Her name was Blossom Galbiso, fantastic name. And 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.159 this is like you said in and sadly she passed 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:47.279 away in so she, I guess got to see some 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:51.400 of the light, bright burning of kind of what she 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.960 brought to the forefront of the children's She did playgrounds, 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.640 she did. I've seen interviews with her, and um, there 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.400 were plenty of photos of her, like people knew where 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.039 this came from as it was going on to maybe 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:04.920 she didn't see it die off, which would be kind 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:11.720 of really nice. Oh, yes, last to live. It would 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.200 be really nice, actually, it would be. Yeah, she burned 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.280 bright and hot and short like her creation. Should we 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.840 do we go back to Japan or should we talk 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.360 more about this? And then? Yeah, I think we should 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.480 talk more about milk caps and then take it back 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:30.000 from there, because um, she used to play this as 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.800 a kid, and I think she was born in nine 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:34.840 and so say she was playing this in late fifties, 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.800 early sixties. But like I said, her grandparents. I guess, 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.240 like she said through me, her grandparents had played it 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.360 as well. So this game of milk caps was just 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.120 like POGs. They were, um, you would use these little 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.920 cardboard discs, and they were called milk caps because they 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:54.200 were actually the caps that you would get on a 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:58.280 bottle of milk. They would use a cardboard cap to 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.440 seal the bottle of milk, and and I think they 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.640 would put like a rubber thing around it to hold 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.960 the cardboard cap on. But for all intents and purposes, 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:08.800 the cap was this little cardboard disc and it would 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.160 have like the dairy's name on it and the information 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.480 and probably like you know, the latest day. It could 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.320 be sold by that kind of thing. Um. But when 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.440 you took these things off and you stacked them up 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.000 into a pile, you could make a pretty good game 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.520 out of them, a game called milk caps, right, And 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:28.120 we'll get to the exact game play in a second. 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:31.480 But they were playing with milk caps mainly. Uh. They're 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.600 on MAUI from or I'm sorry in a wahu from 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:40.160 these milk caps from Maui, the Leia Khala Dairy who um, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.000 you know they were they were sending this milk all 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.200 over the place. They were actually packaged by a or 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.280 getting packaging from a Canadian company that were actually manufacturing 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:53.120 these caps, and they were making the milk. It was 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.600 just fine. Sure, they did a great business. But then 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:01.200 they decided to make a new drink called Passion Orange 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.520 Guaba or Passion Fruit orange guava p o G. And 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.319 it was like, it sounds it's a little mixed juice drink. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.840 It sounds amazing. It does, doesn't it. Yeah, I can't 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.200 wait to try it one day. I bet it's good. 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.079 So those little caps, you know, that's where they got 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.240 the name. It was Passion food orange guaba. So they 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:24.640 became known as pog caps. And even though you know, 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.839 as the years trickled on the very few years that 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:32.000 it burned white hot, there were many other caps. It 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:34.679 was sort of like the Kleenex, Like, everyone called him poggs, 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.320 regardless of where they came from. Right, I'm sure there's 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:39.560 plenty of people who played with POGs as kids and 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:42.520 had no idea that it was an acronym for passion fruit, 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:45.320 orange and guava. You know, I bet most kids didn't 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.560 know that. But because it was that dairy, Um, what 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:50.920 is it? Uh? I practiced saying it a bunch of 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.200 times because we just screwed up so badly on our 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:57.840 Hawaiian Overthrow episode. I would say cola, I think it is, 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:03.400 but I think the accents actually on the last syllable. Yeah. 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.160 But so this because it was a dairy, they were 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.200 just using milk caps for their pog juice as well, 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:15.040 because they're packaging it very similarly. But because people didn't 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:19.600 really buy milk and bottles anymore, the pog caps were 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.880 much easier to come by because everybody was drinking pog 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.880 because ostensibly it was just this delicious drink, so so 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:33.199 um exactly. So Blossom Galbiso and her Young Awards started 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.720 like bringing these caps in from school and then eventually 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.960 writing to Um the dairy and asking for them, and 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:42.000 then eventually writing to stand pack like you were saying, 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.320 and saying, do you have any more of these caps 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:46.760 that we can get? Because we're we we could use them, 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:48.720 and we don't. We drank so much pog we all 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.800 have diabetes now, but um, we still want to play, 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.640 but we just can't drink anymore. Pog that's right. And 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:56.440 Stampac I don't think I named it. That was the 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:59.720 Canadian packaging company, Yes, yeah, which is still around today. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.640 Yeah yeah, I looked him up. You can buy all 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.160 sorts of lids. I cannot find those cardboard Paul inserts 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.080 any longer. But if you want some um to go 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:14.000 coffee lids, STAYM pack is your company to This episode, 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.800 by the way, is brought to you by Stampa. Uh. 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.280 Do they still have the pod juice? You can still 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.400 get that, right? I think it's like in a carton now. Yes, Um, 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.280 I could not find it anywhere. I don't know if 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:28.160 you have to be on the West coast to find it, 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.439 but you can make your own. It's just equal parts 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.960 passion fruit, quava, and orange. I've also seen that's best 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.319 served ice cold, and um, I bet it's good with 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:44.120 the vodka. I saw a recipe with vodka, yes, and 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:48.360 then also one with aquavite and rum, which sounds pretty great. 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.320 It does, And now I'm seeing it's on a big 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:56.880 box website that we dare not name. Okay, that is 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:01.319 not I don't think that that is Jlakla Dairy's version. 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:03.440 I think that's another company's because I saw that on 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.240 the same big box website and they can call it 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:12.560 pog Yes, and we'll get to y well, gosh, good point. Yes, 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.520 we see it full circle on this big box website. 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:19.960 All right, I think we should take a break. This 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.880 is too much intrigue even for me to take. Uh. 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:24.880 And then we'll come back after this and talk about 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:47.480 it's more ancient traditions. Right after this. Boo, yeah, all right, 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.720 so we're back. We got Bloss. It's early nineties. Blossom 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:57.440 Galbiso is worried about violence on the playground, introduces these 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:01.520 kids to this sort of antiquated silly game and they 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:05.040 love it, they do. But how did this thing get 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.760 to Hawaii to begin with? I can I can tell 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:10.920 you how it got there. I can actually tell you 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:17.959 the date, Chuck. Let's hear it. February a ship called 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:22.400 the City of Tokyo spelled t ok Io arrived in 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:27.240 Hawaii um with nine hundred Japanese immigrants aboard looking for 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.640 work in the sugarcane fields of Hawaii. And that was 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.280 the first Japanese immigrants in the modern age who showed 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.000 up in the late nineteenth century and began this huge 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.160 influx of Japanese immigrants. And you might say, well, what 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:41.839 the heck does that have to do with milk caps? 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.839 And I would say, calm down, subtle down, I can 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.640 tell that, uh, And then I'd I'd wait a little 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.760 while until I had gotten to the to the point 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:52.520 where I feel like you have calmed down, and then 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:56.319 I would proceed with It's actually based Milk Caps is 0:13:56.360 --> 0:14:01.600 based on a Japanese game that these Japanese immigrants presumably 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.240 brought with them because it was that popular in Japan. 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.600 That's right. It was called Manko, Emmy and Ko, and 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.320 it was a card game in Japan that came about 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:16.240 in the Kamakura period from about five three b c e. 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.720 That's pretty old. And so what happens in that game 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.840 as a player puts down a card and then their 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.120 opponent tries to flip that card over by throwing their card. 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.520 It sounds really difficult because it sounds like it's just 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.280 one card that you're throwing it another single card. It's 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.840 way harder than pog and if you flip the card over, 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:42.440 you get both of those cards again. Not like POGs 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.960 in in one way in the gameplayway, which we'll get to, 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:48.800 but Minko was very much like Pog and that these 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:54.080 little uh cards actually had symbols of cultural icons in Japan. 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:58.200 They had warriors on there and wrestlers. They were not uh, 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:00.880 they were cardboard later on by I think they were 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.160 like wood or ceramic or clay earlier on. Yeah, and 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:08.360 when they were a game called I think mang Ghetto, Uh, 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.320 they were made of clay. And they actually more resembled 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:15.280 pog chips um or disks before than they did than 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.160 Manko did, because Manko turned them into like what looked 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:23.560 like I think they are considered the predecessor of trading cards. Um, 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.920 these Manko cards, right, So, but before that, when they 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.840 were little clay tablets, they were little disc shapes and 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.160 they had like pictures and everything on them, so they 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.480 seemed more like POGs then than they did by the 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.080 time they arrived in Hawaii. But again, just trying to 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.680 flip over a disc by throwing another disc at it, 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:45.880 it seems really difficult to accomplish to me. It definitely does. So. 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:48.960 Um what the kids in Hawaii did with this game 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.840 of Manko was they They turned it into this milk 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.760 cap game using milk caps, which were widely available to them, 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.800 and rather than one milk cap trying to overturned another 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.240 old cap, you just stack a bunch of them together 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.920 and try to overturn as many as you could. Blood easier, 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.520 way easier, so much easier that like you could really 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:15.400 get the interests of some like six twelve thirteen again 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.680 is as high as I'm going to um year old 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.600 kids attention, you know, Yeah, And it probably matters about 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.680 your family and birth order, because if you're I could 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:27.920 see maybe if you're a fourteen year old only child 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.640 getting into it, But if you're fourteen and you've got 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.280 a nine year old little brother or sister, you're gonna 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:36.920 make fun of their POGs. Yeah, if you're a what 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:43.320 was it a Juliet, right, you're allowed to play POGs 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:49.120 at fourteen? No? No, no, that's what child, Poor little Juliet. 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.560 So she's got this game going, Blossom has got this 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.080 game going, or I guess they called her Miss Albiso. 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.760 And there was a man named al In Rapinsky who 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:06.280 saw dollar signs. It is crazy because, like we said, 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.840 stand Pack was making these bottle caps in Canada and 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.000 he said, you know what kids are really like in 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.679 this game. I'm really curious how he had his fingers 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:17.800 so on the pulse. That's what I'm saying. He was 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.960 in California and this is just going on in Hawaii, 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.359 and it's not like Hawaii and California don't communicate at all, 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.600 or didn't in the eighties or early nine. Well, it's 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:28.520 it started to come over. And when it did start 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:30.480 to come over to the mainland, it definitely started in 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.359 California first, so right, but I have the impression that 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:35.680 he brought it over to the main land, that he 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:39.040 found out about some hot trend that had just started 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:41.560 in Hawaii and got in on it from California. That's 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:43.920 my take on it. Well, you know, it doesn't help 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:47.680 is every article I read says he somehow caught wind 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.879 right exactly. He might have gone over their own business 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:54.560 or something. Who knows, what's what all these kids doing 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.000 throwing these bottle caps all around? That's yeah, either that 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.320 or else somebody told them about it and he was like, wait, 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:02.560 what are you what are you talking about? I want 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.160 to know more about it. He was a guy who 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.600 had a real nose for potential. Like he was the 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:11.159 man who bought the patent for a little leather protectant 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.080 um that was called trying on I think at the time, 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.480 but he turned it into arm all. He was the 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.720 guy that brought the world armor all. He didn't invent it, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:21.880 but he figured out how to market it and turn 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.879 it into something huge. Um. Remember that non wrinkle spray 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:27.760 you could spray your clothes and it would get the 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.760 wrinkles out. I think it was called wrinkle Free or 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:35.159 something like that in the eighties. He marketed that just 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.920 a bunch of like interesting stuff. So he found out 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.720 about POGs. He caught wind of it one way or another. 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:43.800 I bet I know how it happened how. I bet 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.680 he went to Hawaiian business is always kind of keen 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.760 to his you know, goings on around him because he's 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:53.359 always looking for that next million dollar idea. And he 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.440 saw the first fist fight breakout with these kids over 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.280 a set of POGs that they wanted to trade or 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.919 or a winner take all game. And he saw this 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.359 bloodthirst and was like, I can make money off of that. Yeah. That, 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.120 And then he did the other thing he was well 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:10.200 known for. He ran over and broke up the fight 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.960 by spraying both of the combatants with armor all and 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.359 they just slipped right off of one another and couldn't 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.040 land a single punch, And when they got wrinkled up, 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:23.200 he sprayed then with Wrinkle's great story. So, yeah, you're 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.680 probably right, because that is kind of what the ultimate 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.520 destiny of poggs was, and he was largely responsible for 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:32.800 that because um if if blossom Galbiso was the mother 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.679 of poggs. This guy was the father of pos. He 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:37.600 was the guy who and as far as I know, 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:40.600 you know, they were not in any way meritally related 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.080 or anything like that. They were just related by POGs. 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.560 But he took it and just introduced the world to it, 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:52.120 um just as this marketing guy. And he actually formed 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:57.280 a group called the World Pog Federation within I think 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.679 a year of Blossom gal Beasts introducing this for the 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.880 first time to her students in Hawaii. The World Pog 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:09.879 Federation had been created by Alan Rapinski and his his company. Yeah, 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:12.479 and he did something very very key to this story 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:15.600 or in this story, uh kind of when you mentioned 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:19.720 about Jakala and the fact that they did not have 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.399 great financial gain from this, it's because Rapinsky saw the 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.320 writing on the wall and said, hey, why don't you 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.840 sell me that brand name, that Pog brand name, because 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.399 like who cares? Like you don't care, right, you're just 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:35.040 pumping out this juice. You can still pump out that juice. 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.680 And they said sure, and they sold them the Pog 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.080 brand name, and that was it. They were sort of 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.480 cut out of. Uh. I mean, I guess for a 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.400 little while they still people were maybe buying their stuff 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:50.840 a little more than usual to get these Pog caps, 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:55.440 but that they weren't like getting juice. Uh No pun 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.640 intended from you know, from like the rights to sell 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.000 these things. They were as a matter of fact, from 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:02.960 what I from what I can tell, I think I 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:06.280 saw in like an l A Times article or something 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:14.000 from the nineties that they got Yes, so it wasn't 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.280 like entirely like you know, this l A businessman fleeced 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.840 some Hawaiian dairy farmers entirely like they were cut in. 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.960 But I think the big thing is like that as 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.720 far as the dairy was concerned, they had no real 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:32.399 role in this other than accepting, you know, some money 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.879 and that for a few years. I guess, sure, yeah, sure, 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:38.720 And that's a bit of a it was ultimately a 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.920 misstep on their part. But Rapinsky, you know, he's very 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.760 much credited with, you know, introducing this to the world, 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:49.000 but he's also credited with making this thing burned so 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.320 hot that it was just inevitable that it was going 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.879 to last a very very short time. And a lot 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:57.000 of people kind of say, you know, that was a 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:58.880 screw up. He shouldn't have done it like that. But 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.119 I also had the quesssion that he knew that this 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:03.600 thing no matter what he did. It's not like POGs 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:05.480 were always going to be around, that they were the 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.120 new baseball cards or anything. So I think he came 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:10.040 along I was like, we need to get as much 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.720 money as we possibly came out of this because it's 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.640 not going to last for very long. And he proceeded 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:19.080 to do that. Yeah, So he created the pog man, 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:24.320 the mascot. Like he said, they started having these tournaments everybody. 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:26.840 I mean, I was not kidding about Pope John Paul. 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.080 I think they bought like fifty thousand the Catholic Church 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.639 POGs when the Pope came to New Jersey to give 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:37.440 them out. Um Bill Clinton was on one. They had 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:41.800 altruistic campaigns had that Dare the Dare Not to Do 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:46.240 Drugs campaign started making POGs, and of course the major 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:48.760 chain restaurants got involved in Del Taco and Taco Bell 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:53.159 and McDonald's, Disneyland, everybody, anything that you could put on 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.080 a pog because you know, these kids are holding these 0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:58.840 things and tradeings these these things. It was like liquid 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:03.240 gold to an advertiser because they were everywhere and kids 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.239 were fighting, like literally fighting over them. So anyone and 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:10.160 everyone tried to get an image on a pog cap, 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:13.120