Speaker 1: Boutleg Heap podcast special guests in here. We got the
Speaker 1: Homiekai from three D Retro and from Designer Con. How
Speaker 1: you doing checked in? Thanks for having me, Yes, sir. Uh.
Speaker 1: So for people who don't know, well, one, I went
Speaker 1: to your store. You have a store in Glendale. Is
Speaker 1: it technically Glendale? It's technically Glendale one block away from Burbank.
Speaker 1: Literally walked across the street as Bourbank right. Uh. It's
Speaker 1: a crazy toy store. And we have a mutual friend
Speaker 1: named dj Amen who's a psychopath. Uh just buys every
Speaker 1: just toy imaginable. His house is uh insane. It's it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a toy store. Yes. So he's like, Yo,
Speaker 1: you should come over here check it out because I
Speaker 1: kind of like toys. I'm kind of like, you know,
Speaker 1: not like that though. And I walked into the store
Speaker 1: and there's so much shit And I didn't know that
Speaker 1: you also were the guy behind designer Con. So now
Speaker 1: you've got designer Con coming up. What is designer Con
Speaker 1: for people who don't know? So for people I don't know,
Speaker 1: Signer Cons the annual collectible convention. This is our seventeenth year.
Speaker 1: So Ben is the founder. I run the show with him.
Speaker 1: So we have artists from over the world, from Asia, Europe,
Speaker 1: and off of course the United States, independent artists, illustrators,
Speaker 1: and world renowned toy makers and painters. So all of
Speaker 1: them usually come to our show either exhibit or have
Speaker 1: exclusive or have collaborations. We support everybody from the top
Speaker 1: to the bottom, emerging artists, everybody. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: the end of the year party for collectors and artists.
Speaker 1: Is it pretty? Is it kind of like revolve around
Speaker 1: It's like kind of like the the underlying theme of
Speaker 1: it is like if you're a because it's called designer Con,
Speaker 1: it's not called toy Con. So there's there's kind of
Speaker 1: something there for everybody as long as you're kind of
Speaker 1: into like creative shit. Like you said, there's people who
Speaker 1: are painting detainers, illustrators, toy makers, and there's the collector,
Speaker 1: and then there's the guys that started just making shit
Speaker 1: out of the garage, like hey, I want to make
Speaker 1: something exactly like so we it's for everybody everything in
Speaker 1: terms of design. So what got you initially involved in
Speaker 1: the toy industry? So I told this story a couple
Speaker 1: of times. I was in high school. I walked into
Speaker 1: Stucy the Fairfax of Libreri area. They had this little
Speaker 1: figure of their mascot holding a skateboard. So that's my
Speaker 1: first thing. That's pretty dope. And then went to kit
Speaker 1: Robot they started coming out two thousand and three, twos
Speaker 1: So going to their store and be like, this is
Speaker 1: dope Japanese stuff, and they just told me that's their
Speaker 1: original design. I started buying and they just got hooked.
Speaker 1: Just been buying, buying, and became a seller later on,
Speaker 1: just got wholesale count and all that stuff, and then
Speaker 1: got into working with different artists and then Designer con
Speaker 1: came around and basically just that's my whole life. So
Speaker 1: you started collecting around two thousand and two. Yeah, at
Speaker 1: what point in time did you decide to get involved
Speaker 1: in the commerce side of it where You're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm a fan, I'm enthusiastic about just collecting, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I also want to make this, like two thousand my business.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, So two thousand, two thousand and eight, around
Speaker 1: that time, I was working at Disney Disneyland, so I
Speaker 1: was I went to school for hospitality Oh shit, I
Speaker 1: went to school for hospitality management. So coming out of
Speaker 1: school a court on blue right. So coming out of school,
Speaker 1: I got hired at Disneyland doing what basically food service
Speaker 1: for employees. Got you, So basically I'm the I'm the
Speaker 1: guy behind the restaurants. So if you go to Disneyland,
Speaker 1: you see restaurants, there's restaurants for their cast members employees.
Speaker 1: So I was one of the managers running you see
Speaker 1: aproach over there. I still know a few people there. Actually,
Speaker 1: what's funny is that you did get disneyl the ill
Speaker 1: tell is something. The guy that designed our mascot designer
Speaker 1: com mascot, Scott Tollison. Yeah, he's still a Disney imagineer.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. So he is super busy right now because
Speaker 1: Disney is doing some cool shits on some new cruises.
Speaker 1: So he got designer con that he's doing, he got
Speaker 1: he's been working on our membership program project that we've
Speaker 1: been doing the last six months, and then he's got Disney. Wow.
Speaker 1: So we do have some people that works doing designer Con.
Speaker 1: We know a lot of people in different studios of course,
Speaker 1: artists and all that. So you go from working at
Speaker 1: Disney this is what you went to school for. Went
Speaker 1: to school for? Yeah, yeah, and Uh, I think it
Speaker 1: was the recession, the first that recession two thousand and
Speaker 1: seven and eight. So I was laid off. I got
Speaker 1: laid off, and at that point in time, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I have all these toys, and I have all these
Speaker 1: vinyl figures. I feel like people buy them. I buy
Speaker 1: a lot of them. Let me see if I can
Speaker 1: get a wholesale count and then start a business myself.
Speaker 1: So at that point, I actually sold all my sneakers
Speaker 1: in Troy and seven to get funding to buy more
Speaker 1: toys to sell. How much did you get for all
Speaker 1: your sneakers, like at that point was like ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen red. The price is not like what it is
Speaker 1: now back in the days, kind of crazy back in
Speaker 1: the day. And that I think I have mostly a
Speaker 1: Spees in Jordan's as Speeds was on its way down,
Speaker 1: so I was like, just got rid of it, just
Speaker 1: got off of them. But that's what funded you being
Speaker 1: able to buy more toys through your wholesale account, right,
Speaker 1: So at that point I decided to get a wholesale
Speaker 1: account and buy stuff, uh, to to make money instead
Speaker 1: of you know, I'll collect, I'll keep some, but mainly
Speaker 1: to sell and try to make a living out of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and yeah, that's when I became like a lot of
Speaker 1: artists knowlls like White Line Collector shit, and now it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: here Kai selling stuff. Yeah. So was that the beginning
Speaker 1: of three D Retro Three D Retro. So Ben Funded
Speaker 1: founded three D Retro around the same time in two
Speaker 1: thousand and three. So he basically and I were business partners.
Speaker 1: So what we did is he ran an online shop.
Speaker 1: Three D Retro was online, and I was basically buying
Speaker 1: with him. I was the guy behind the scene. So
Speaker 1: let's say there's a new product came out for wholesale,
Speaker 1: you have to buy a certain amount to get a
Speaker 1: good price, and Ben only wanted like, say ten, you
Speaker 1: buy the difference to get the better price. Yes, and
Speaker 1: then I would you would flip and do your thing. Yes,
Speaker 1: I will do my thing. So that's what I how
Speaker 1: most artists know me, and I would be supplying not
Speaker 1: just three D Retro, I personally, I would be supplying
Speaker 1: other stores too, because I got an account overseas at
Speaker 1: that time, a big company and artists called Ashley Wood
Speaker 1: doing three A stuff. So yeah, so that's how I
Speaker 1: kind of got all connected with everybody and through the retro,
Speaker 1: Ben decide to open the store. Yeah, and Designer con
Speaker 1: started growing, so he he asked me to come on
Speaker 1: board nice with him. That's basically the story of how
Speaker 1: I with Ben and through the retro and Designer coom.
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Speaker 1: get back to the interview. Now, what is the most
Speaker 1: expensive toy that you guys have sold? Not retail? I
Speaker 1: mean maybe it is retail, I don't know. They like
Speaker 1: let me know what is like the biggest to you
Speaker 1: guys sold after market? And then obviously a single item,
Speaker 1: right yeah, single item, A single item that the most
Speaker 1: expensive single item we've ever sold is about ten thousand.
Speaker 1: It's a one thousand percent barbrick, and that was retail.
Speaker 1: That was the retail. That was retail. It's made out
Speaker 1: of wood. Wow. And we only had one and we
Speaker 1: sold it in the pandemic. We decided, we don't know
Speaker 1: if then we're going to put it up. So we
Speaker 1: had our designer come twenty twenty during live stream. So
Speaker 1: we put it up, sold it within like under a second.
Speaker 1: That was gone wow. Right, But the last two years
Speaker 1: we sold like eight thousand dollars ones. There was a
Speaker 1: carbon fiber one thousand percent barbrick through the store. I
Speaker 1: sold it to a musician. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: can say, okay, I don't think they care. Mustar Mustard, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he special ordered it because I was like, if you
Speaker 1: want this, this is the price, you know retel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Mustard bought an eight thousand dollars bear break carbon fiber. Wow.
Speaker 1: That's pretty. It's light, but it's specially made. You know.
Speaker 1: Would you say Mustard's got a pretty crazy toy collection. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I helped him a little bit on that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He he liked the one thousand percent so uh, he
Speaker 1: comes to me like, hey, what you got? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: we we are store carriers like you saw. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: guys have a lot of bunch of stuff, but certain
Speaker 1: special ones. We only get a few pieces. So I
Speaker 1: will call the special people. Hey, you know I only
Speaker 1: got two, right, you know, if you want him? What
Speaker 1: about Ben Bollers huge with the bare bricks and he's
Speaker 1: got a crazy toy collection. Is he somebody who you've
Speaker 1: supplied the four in the past? Yes, we we we
Speaker 1: we work we in the past. I got him a
Speaker 1: Nike speed Bear bricks like, we got like three, and
Speaker 1: obviously I keep one, Ben keeps one. I got one
Speaker 1: for sale. So so when you guys keep stuff, you
Speaker 1: are you are a collector still to this? Oh yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: So what's your house looked like a mess? A mess? Uh,
Speaker 1: A lot of toys and sneakers. I'm a sneaker that
Speaker 1: all the sneakers and you brought them back? Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: Obviously what got me back was the Kobe Eights. Actually,
Speaker 1: so I got into sneakers in two thousand and one
Speaker 1: or two for from Sb's right, But I got back
Speaker 1: in from the Kobe Eights because they were all about art.
Speaker 1: At that point in my life, I like designers, toys, art,
Speaker 1: So the Kobe Eights were all about art and Tristan,
Speaker 1: which is a friend and artist he did something with
Speaker 1: at that time. There's a Nike vault as Stable Center,
Speaker 1: Crypto dot com whatever, there's a store there. He did
Speaker 1: a special sock with the one of the preludes. So
Speaker 1: like everything's a about art, the whole model, you know.
Speaker 1: So I just got back into it. Somebody who might
Speaker 1: not be famous, just a customer you have in mind,
Speaker 1: like who who? Like how crazy is like your guys'
Speaker 1: biggest customers toy collection? So I'm sure you have a few,
Speaker 1: do we do? We have a few regular people, right.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they do. I don't know what
Speaker 1: they make, but they spend every time we do live streaming.
Speaker 1: Still for the store, they spend about two k per show. Wow,
Speaker 1: and we sell stuff from ten dollars blind boxes to
Speaker 1: forty to fifty dollars toys to you know, one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty two hundred dollars bear bricks. They will spend
Speaker 1: like two grand wow every show per show that we
Speaker 1: do twice a week, twice a week live streaming, think
Speaker 1: about and look. So Designer Con is obviously this coming weekend.
Speaker 1: If you're watching this, it'll be this coming weekend. It's
Speaker 1: in Orange County. Where's Anaheim and ah Heim coming as center?
Speaker 1: November eighteenth to the twentiethst CD Yeah, Friday's VIP Night
Speaker 1: presented by eBay. What happens Friday Friday Night is a
Speaker 1: very limited amount of tickets sold for VIPs and every
Speaker 1: box you get a VIP box, there's lanyards, limitedtion pins,
Speaker 1: and you get a limited and bare break inside that
Speaker 1: all for like ninety bucks. Nice, and then I'm going
Speaker 1: to be on that list right. Oh ya, got you? Everybody? What?
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Speaker 1: and let's get back to the interview. So you guys
Speaker 1: do every year, you guys do one of these. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So this is series four artists, series four every year.
Speaker 1: So the idea behind it is in twenty eighteen, when
Speaker 1: we moved to Anaheim, Meticom came and said they went,
Speaker 1: they're looking for a North American partner like Convention, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So they loved our show. They came out, the President
Speaker 1: came out. So in twenty nineteen we started our first artistry.
Speaker 1: So what we want to do with our platform is
Speaker 1: we want to give American artists that usually don't have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to put their art on on this platform
Speaker 1: because they're from Japan. Right, So a lot of like
Speaker 1: for people wo don't know Baybrick's Japanese companies, a lot
Speaker 1: of Japanese arts probably getting mostly Japanese Asia Company because
Speaker 1: when they see it, like their department, they're scouting people.
Speaker 1: They left certain artists. It's a lot of Asian, a
Speaker 1: lot of Asian artists. So what we did is we
Speaker 1: decided to put artists that's affiliated with designer comn that's
Speaker 1: been doing designer com for years or done collab with
Speaker 1: us in some kind of capacity and also mostly Americans.
Speaker 1: This year we have someone from the UK. But but
Speaker 1: but he's been supporting Designer Come for over ten years. Wow,
Speaker 1: so doctor A is to the thing. Yeah. So doctor
Speaker 1: A does a lot of like those robot style mech
Speaker 1: figures and he does everything in resent. He'll be at
Speaker 1: designer Com this week this weekend. Bobby and then Bobby
Speaker 1: hundreds that's the cool one, you know. The one hundred
Speaker 1: was actually at the Designer Come twenty eighteen with a
Speaker 1: Mister cartoon collapse and capsule. So they were part of
Speaker 1: our show. And Bobby's been coming to design Com for
Speaker 1: over ten years. He will always come with his son
Speaker 1: and all that. Just have fun, just have fun. And
Speaker 1: then we reach out and say, hey, you know, we
Speaker 1: know that you're an artist yourself. Like he draws, he
Speaker 1: does design graphic te's for his brand. So yeah, we
Speaker 1: did this for our show. And then this is the
Speaker 1: Obey the Obey guy Shephard Ferry. So this is one
Speaker 1: of the proud moment. I would say, Ben will tell
Speaker 1: you that it's a I love Obey everybody I think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, can we talk about iconic and iconic
Speaker 1: American artists, right, I mean all the way to the
Speaker 1: clothing line to this. Yeah, I mean I think back
Speaker 1: to the Obama hope stuff. Yeah yeah. Yeah. And what's
Speaker 1: funny is we did not realize that he's never done
Speaker 1: a bear break before, and he's never done one. So
Speaker 1: the opportunity came, i think earlier this year, and we
Speaker 1: asked him if he was, you know, be willing to
Speaker 1: do something like this. He's seen them, he wasn't sure
Speaker 1: that he his art will work on this platform, and
Speaker 1: we told him how a lot of different artists are
Speaker 1: applying there are onto this platform, and uh, there you go.
Speaker 1: So this is basically every bear brick is unique. This
Speaker 1: is a water dip technology, so it's those are Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's one big image and then every time they
Speaker 1: dip the figure into the process, it lands on there differently.
Speaker 1: So every piece one, every single ones unique. There will
Speaker 1: be no not this, not same one. The only thing
Speaker 1: on here that's constant would be the logo right here.
Speaker 1: Everything else will be different for every single one of them.
Speaker 1: So this is the four hundred and one pack and
Speaker 1: will be exclusively at Designer Con this week. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: when people people show up and they really like, uh,
Speaker 1: is it pretty frantic to get like to get some
Speaker 1: of these items you guys do excluding or to collectors,
Speaker 1: not crazy people like sneaker people, because you know sneaker
Speaker 1: and like like when you when people go to complex Con, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a fucking wild like there's always like exclusives and
Speaker 1: you'll see I've seen people. I mean, it gets it
Speaker 1: can get hairy. But like our toy people is a
Speaker 1: little more measured than sneaker people. Yes, so uh we
Speaker 1: I've been to complex Con obviously. Uh, there's a two
Speaker 1: different vibes. I can tell you that for people that
Speaker 1: have never been to Designer call our thing is when
Speaker 1: you go there, you're going to meet your favorite artists,
Speaker 1: if you if you like a few artists, and a
Speaker 1: lot of artists have like gallery openings throughout the year
Speaker 1: throughout their career. You know, they get busy, right So
Speaker 1: at our show, they're usually chill at their booth. They
Speaker 1: just want to meet their fans and they're selling stuff.
Speaker 1: They're selling stuff. A lot of them are selling stuff
Speaker 1: that like they brought from their archives, like I have,
Speaker 1: like Steve, I don't know if you know who Steve
Speaker 1: Caballero is yeah, of course. Yeah, So I met him
Speaker 1: a few years back and then we started making pins
Speaker 1: like just for fun, like we're friends and yeah, but
Speaker 1: he's an incredible artist. I didn't know that he's an
Speaker 1: incredible artist. So he's been doing Designer can ever since.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, you can draw like that,
Speaker 1: like rat fing style, like that di era. And so
Speaker 1: he will come and he will bring like shit that
Speaker 1: you've never seen before. He'll be hey, I got the skateboard, right,
Speaker 1: you know, stuff like that. A lot of artists this
Speaker 1: year we have like Sean Claver as well, so from
Speaker 1: the skating world, dirt artists everywhere. They're artists in every
Speaker 1: you know, part of the industry. So that's that's what
Speaker 1: you'll see Designer Car. Hey what have y'all? Bootleg keV
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Speaker 1: get back to the interview. What is your Because another
Speaker 1: thing I feel like like a surface level toy. Fen
Speaker 1: usually collects fun Co pops. Yeah, because you go to Target,
Speaker 1: they're there you go, like, there's always fun Co pops
Speaker 1: at wherever you go, right, the Disney store, wherever, et cetera.
Speaker 1: What is your take? Do you collect fun Co Pops? Uh?
Speaker 1: I don't collect them like crazy, but I do like
Speaker 1: them in terms of the ipiece that they have because
Speaker 1: there's certain movies, great great movies, movie waiting for them
Speaker 1: to do the Big Lebowski fund Go Pops. I don't
Speaker 1: know if they've ever done one, but I think they have.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite. I mean, there's so many things, but
Speaker 1: like they get every license, yeah they did, they do.
Speaker 1: You go to the store and you're just like Jesus,
Speaker 1: there's so many you can't so what what I like about?
Speaker 1: So we don't really. We did one Funko exclusive a
Speaker 1: couple of years back with Mark Hamill so his team,
Speaker 1: so we decided to release two three out of the
Speaker 1: four as designer con exclusives. So with his team that
Speaker 1: that that we released those three and they're very limited.
Speaker 1: They're like only a thousand of each design. They're like
Speaker 1: compared to what you buy at like Funko wise, that's
Speaker 1: super limited. So we have like two of them that's
Speaker 1: one thousand pieces. But for me Funko, and then we
Speaker 1: did in twenty eighteen, we did a collab with Funko
Speaker 1: and Metacom. It was Funko's twentieth anniversary, so we made
Speaker 1: a bad break with them and put it into Cereal.
Speaker 1: So that year they did a bunch of different Cereal
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember. So what we look for,
Speaker 1: designer come look for. We're not comic Con. We're not
Speaker 1: like when those shows. We're not looking for that big
Speaker 1: Funko booth. We're looking for an experience and an activation.
Speaker 1: So when Funko came to us like hey, we want
Speaker 1: to build this supermarket to launch our brand new product,
Speaker 1: which is the cereal or like that's a cool idea.
Speaker 1: We love it and we collaborate on that. So we're
Speaker 1: not looking for that like standards. You know, you just
Speaker 1: go into any shop buy Funko Pop. But we're not
Speaker 1: discouraging vendors. Like we have toy stores from around the
Speaker 1: world coming like Toy Tokyo from New York. They have
Speaker 1: a bunch of exclusives with Funko. They always bring some
Speaker 1: stuff to Designer Con, and we're not saying that don't
Speaker 1: bring that. We say, yeah, it's part of the world,
Speaker 1: you know, but with Funko For me, also, it's a
Speaker 1: gateway drug. That's how I see it because it's a
Speaker 1: now what twelve dollars Funko pop. Yeah, you get like
Speaker 1: six of them, right yeah. But when you come, when
Speaker 1: you get into it, a lot of people discover, oh
Speaker 1: there's different artists, there's different toys. Now you get the
Speaker 1: platform like bear Berry, you get the kid Robot, like
Speaker 1: these guys that have never been like not from where
Speaker 1: I'm from, like back in the early two thousands, they'll discover.
Speaker 1: Then new kids will be like, oh, there's more to
Speaker 1: just this, right So I'm hoping. I mean, we've seen
Speaker 1: it is a lot of people collection grow beyond past
Speaker 1: the Funko Pop. You know, they'll be like, oh, I
Speaker 1: have a thousand Bunkle Pop now, but now I like
Speaker 1: the Barbricks both started that, right, So, like it goes
Speaker 1: up to the next level. Your personal toy collection. What
Speaker 1: is the most expensive toy if you were to sell
Speaker 1: it on the second market or reseale market right now
Speaker 1: that you own probably twenty five to thirty thousand, which
Speaker 1: toy is that I have three of them? What are they?
Speaker 1: I have three cars, one thousand percent. Wow. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: now it's about thirty twenty five thirty cage each each.
Speaker 1: Fuck what did you pay for those three hundred that's
Speaker 1: one thousand percent? Barberg is be three hundred bucks. So
Speaker 1: that's what I sat on. One hundred thousand dollars seventy
Speaker 1: five to one hundred k worth a fucking yeah, that's
Speaker 1: just just in three toys, Just three toys in my
Speaker 1: living room, in my display case. That just three So
Speaker 1: if you what would you estimate your toy collection is
Speaker 1: worth if you were to sell it a million? I
Speaker 1: mean I don't know, like wow, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: I would say, like I would say, if I sell everything,
Speaker 1: I could probably buy a house in La. It's just
Speaker 1: like an offensive house. Yeah, nice house. Yeah. Part of
Speaker 1: so I would say, if I sell everything, you know,
Speaker 1: I would get to me it's a To me, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a hobby. Yeah, and it's also uh an investment.
Speaker 1: You know, you buy our you buy collectibles, you buy sneakers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people by I mean people by paying people buy yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And for me, what's funny is so the thing I
Speaker 1: tell people's story is Ben is very two D three
Speaker 1: D person. So he he knows a lot of painters
Speaker 1: and artists that does flat two D stuff. I wasn't
Speaker 1: that person. I got into it from the toy side.
Speaker 1: I got into it from the three D side, right,
Speaker 1: So I got to learn by doing design and con
Speaker 1: I got to learn different artists. I got to meet
Speaker 1: different artists. I got to appreciate the two D stuff
Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, and then I have a print
Speaker 1: problem too, by prints original art. I just bought an
Speaker 1: original painting off of Ben Frost recently, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: why did I buy that? But it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: so some it just kind of got into what I do,
Speaker 1: Like I think, I mean, if you love what you
Speaker 1: do that much, yeah, it's also your job exactly. It's
Speaker 1: just got to you just gotta make sure you don't.
Speaker 1: You know, you save more than you spend on toys,
Speaker 1: you know, sell them the toys. Hey, we got to
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Speaker 1: socks and the podcast at the same fucking time. Let's
Speaker 1: get back to the interview. So that's that's the balance.
Speaker 1: I think when you say what my house look like
Speaker 1: and then what we were just talking about before the
Speaker 1: show started, like it's crowded, it's packed. I have hundreds
Speaker 1: of pair of shoes, I have thousands of toys, I
Speaker 1: have hundreds of bare bricks. I have stuff that's not
Speaker 1: open because I have no room to display, you know,
Speaker 1: but I know I have it. Like, Okay, I got
Speaker 1: a death stock, completely new, sealed in the back of
Speaker 1: the storage, right, I always want to keep one, you know,
Speaker 1: when all these things are limited editions. Now, yes, like
Speaker 1: this weekend, you might be finding a couple hundred of them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but in a year or two, price is gonna double
Speaker 1: triple because you're not gonna find them. People keep them.
Speaker 1: Imagine ten years from now, I'm telling you those caused
Speaker 1: bear bricks I had, those were from two thousand and
Speaker 1: seven or eight. Damn, it's thirteen years ago. That's fourteen
Speaker 1: years ago, right, But who knew, like cause prices was
Speaker 1: gonna go up by that time either too. So I
Speaker 1: just liked them. You still have that og toy Stussy one? Yes,
Speaker 1: you still got the first toy they got you? Still? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Still do do you have it like in a special place. No,
Speaker 1: it's in a box somewhere in a box someone So
Speaker 1: the toy actually belonged to my cousin got you so
Speaker 1: I saw it actually with him. He had it. So
Speaker 1: at that time, I wasn't even like buying anything. I
Speaker 1: was just like, this is really dope. And then he
Speaker 1: gave it to me a few years ago. Real quick.
Speaker 1: If people want to go to designer Con, there's still tickets,
Speaker 1: there's tickets, there's VIP tickets still in VIP tickets still
Speaker 1: available at designercon dot com. But we are We do
Speaker 1: have a hard cap, but we're not like super expensive.
Speaker 1: It's like ninety dollars for the VIP, but there is
Speaker 1: a cap for Friday night. Usually it's pretty chill Friday night.
Speaker 1: The only booth that's probably gonna be a headache is
Speaker 1: the medical booth. It's always because people want to get
Speaker 1: their first shot at the exclusive and that's what the
Speaker 1: VIP night's for. But yeah, we we keep the tickets
Speaker 1: really uh affordable for the family. So Saturday and Sunday
Speaker 1: and kids twelve and unders always free with a paid admission.
Speaker 1: That's dope. Yeah. So we never we have We never
Speaker 1: charged for kids twelve and that's super dope. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, kids love toys. We
Speaker 1: we want to. Our whole thing has always been about
Speaker 1: trying to keep as much money in the tendees pocket
Speaker 1: to spend with the vendors and artists, right because they're
Speaker 1: going to show up a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: these conventions are expensive. Expensive, yeah, super expensive, Like we
Speaker 1: don't want that. We want to we want to do
Speaker 1: what we can to keep money in their pockets so
Speaker 1: they can spend mondy at the convention for our our
Speaker 1: artists and our vendors. And then do you guys have
Speaker 1: a uh this three D retro have set up there
Speaker 1: every year? Yes, you guys, yeah, you know we know somebody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we we we have a few exclusives every year,
Speaker 1: and then we have products from the store. We do
Speaker 1: special deals, and then Metacom actually has a brand new
Speaker 1: booth that we've been designed with them for the past
Speaker 1: year and we have actually something really though I just
Speaker 1: saw it this morning. Actually haven't seen it in person. Really,
Speaker 1: I just saw the box. We have a three thousand
Speaker 1: percent size like so it's like a ten feet statue
Speaker 1: jeesus of a barbrick. That's gonna be at the medical booth.
Speaker 1: So I love everybody to come out and check it out.
Speaker 1: Three thousand percent. Yeah, that's pretty big, pretty because what
Speaker 1: is the like, the the big ones one thousand, okay,
Speaker 1: and then this is four hundred, got you yeah, and
Speaker 1: that small ones one hundred. So it's three thousand of
Speaker 1: that Jesus Christ. Huge. Well listen, man, go get your tickets,
Speaker 1: appreciate your pulling up. When you guys do your stream,
Speaker 1: where can they go in the stream? And is that
Speaker 1: on Twitch? Actually we're on Popshop Live. So just follow
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at three D Retro. I think that's
Speaker 1: the easiest work we have. All that pret D Retro follow,
Speaker 1: designer con follow, designer dope stuff going on. If you're
Speaker 1: a hip hop head. Deaf Jam and DJ Amen are
Speaker 1: doing their Blessed Deaf Jam booths. Yes, Steph Jam and
Speaker 1: Amen's doing some stuff. I'll be DJ and Uh. I
Speaker 1: think Amen's trying to convince me to do the podcast
Speaker 1: from out there with somebody. I'm trying, which we're trying
Speaker 1: to figure it out, so I think it'll be cool,
Speaker 1: you know, I figure it out. I think you'll like it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I know, I like the convention. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't know if you want to do do it?
Speaker 1: I just don't. I'm like trying to figure this out
Speaker 1: with Amen, like Okay, what do you who do you
Speaker 1: want me to talk to there? He's like, well, we
Speaker 1: got to figure that part out. I'm like all right, Well,
Speaker 1: just let me know man, we'll go because Dept. Jam
Speaker 1: will be there. A lot of people are flying in.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be an easy weekend, a lot of people
Speaker 1: all over the world. Yeah, there it is man, next week.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you pulling up man, Thank you so much. Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: And it's this weekend, because when you're watching this, it'll
Speaker 1: be this weekend. Come this weekend, November eighteenth, nineteenth, and
Speaker 1: twentieth in Anaheim, Anaheim, there is Conn Designer Con. Go
Speaker 1: get your tickets. Thank you.