1
00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:03,920
Speaker 1: How do everybody. I hope everyone is having a loving

2
00:00:03,960 --> 00:00:07,120
Speaker 1: and warm December with your friends and family. I'm here

3
00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:10,559
Speaker 1: to introduce a classic episode for our twelve Days of

4
00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:13,760
Speaker 1: Christmas Toys playlist. And this was pretty good if I

5
00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,919
Speaker 1: remember correctly, it is a partial history of action figures.

6
00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:20,920
Speaker 1: We all love action figures, and if I'm not mistaken,

7
00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:26,200
Speaker 1: we might argue once again about the superiority of the tall,

8
00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:28,600
Speaker 1: full sized gid Joes that I grew up with the

9
00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:31,600
Speaker 1: little action figures that Josh grew up with. Let us

10
00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,080
Speaker 1: know who's right. Thanks everybody, hope you love it.

11
00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:47,040
Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from HowStuffWorks dot com.

12
00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:49,720
Speaker 3: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and

13
00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,960
Speaker 3: there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Jerry's right there to my

14
00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:56,240
Speaker 3: immediate right, and that makes this stuff you should know

15
00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:02,240
Speaker 3: the podcast the podcast that's right. I'm excited about this

16
00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:05,640
Speaker 3: particular podcast, Chuck, I put together this episode.

17
00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,080
Speaker 1: I should say, well, do you want to go ahead

18
00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:10,600
Speaker 1: and announce the title? For the people that maybe didn't.

19
00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:14,880
Speaker 3: Read it, it is, uh, well, you you're going to

20
00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:16,240
Speaker 3: select the title. What's the title?

21
00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:20,039
Speaker 1: Oh? Geez, I don't know everything you ever wanted to

22
00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:24,679
Speaker 1: know about. Actually some stuff about action figures that you

23
00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,679
Speaker 1: may already know, and some stuff that may delight you.

24
00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:32,280
Speaker 3: Well that's a working title. Huh yeah. Yeah, but we're

25
00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:35,360
Speaker 3: talking about action figures. That's the point of what I

26
00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:37,000
Speaker 3: think that exercise just was.

27
00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:39,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say everything you wanted to know,

28
00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:41,880
Speaker 1: but this, I mean, we could do there. I'm sure

29
00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,560
Speaker 1: there are entire podcasts on action.

30
00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:47,160
Speaker 3: Figures for sure. Yeah, and if you do, if you

31
00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:49,520
Speaker 3: have a podcast on action figures right in, let us know.

32
00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:53,440
Speaker 3: We'll tweet it out for the people who's boat this floated.

33
00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:58,480
Speaker 3: This one definitely follows in the vein of the Barbie episode,

34
00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,200
Speaker 3: which I have to say is one of my perennial favorites.

35
00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:05,320
Speaker 3: I love the Barbie episode. Oh yeah, yeah, and Barbie

36
00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:07,240
Speaker 3: actually makes an appearance in this one.

37
00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:08,799
Speaker 1: Do you like to play with dolls?

38
00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:13,040
Speaker 3: I like to play with action figures. I played with Barbie's.

39
00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,040
Speaker 3: I had older sisters, so like I was, I played

40
00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:17,880
Speaker 3: with Barbie's whether I wanted to or not, So I

41
00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:18,840
Speaker 3: made the most of it.

42
00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:22,799
Speaker 1: But I don't remember my sister having Barbies, but surely

43
00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:23,400
Speaker 1: she did, right.

44
00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,639
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was a girl in America from the sixties

45
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:29,000
Speaker 3: on Yes, she had a Barbie.

46
00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:31,240
Speaker 1: Oh no, my sister grew up in the Soviet Union.

47
00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,360
Speaker 3: Oh well, there you go. She had a Martina.

48
00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:37,640
Speaker 1: There probably was a Martina.

49
00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:40,000
Speaker 3: But I mean that was a pretty good episode, and

50
00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,760
Speaker 3: this one's kind of similar. It's got it all and

51
00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:44,960
Speaker 3: like I said, Barbie kind of pops up in the beginning.

52
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:53,160
Speaker 3: She actually inspired action figures, like basically directly when Mattel.

53
00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:57,639
Speaker 3: I think it was Ruth Handler who invented the Barbie doll, right, yes,

54
00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:02,040
Speaker 3: And when she and Mattel released it, it was just

55
00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:05,760
Speaker 3: a huge, enormous hit. And one of the big reasons

56
00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,880
Speaker 3: Barbie was number one such a hit and number two

57
00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:11,880
Speaker 3: so appealing to toy companies was that when you bought

58
00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:14,920
Speaker 3: a Barbie, your buying experience was an over There were

59
00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:18,760
Speaker 3: always like more clothes and shoes, and like my sister

60
00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:20,680
Speaker 3: had the pool that you could hang out with and

61
00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:23,200
Speaker 3: it had like a shower that actually worked. There's just

62
00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:26,320
Speaker 3: a ton of extra stuff to buy, and so when

63
00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:28,720
Speaker 3: you bought a Barbie, you wanted all the other stuff too,

64
00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:32,120
Speaker 3: And toy companies wanted to figure out how to do

65
00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:35,720
Speaker 3: that with boys toys, but they just couldn't quite figure

66
00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:37,360
Speaker 3: it out, because no one had ever come up with

67
00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:40,880
Speaker 3: a doll for boys, and that's kind of what it required.

68
00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:42,880
Speaker 3: It was coming up with the doll for boys, and

69
00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:46,800
Speaker 3: no one had cracked that nut. But Barbie made the

70
00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:48,680
Speaker 3: whole thing all the more appealing. I guess.

71
00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:52,920
Speaker 1: Yeah. Finally, this dude named Stan Weston who actually knew

72
00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:58,080
Speaker 1: Miss Handler, and he was in the toy racket, and

73
00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:00,760
Speaker 1: I guess I shouldn't go at a racket.

74
00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:03,040
Speaker 3: It's a bit of a racket.

75
00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:05,200
Speaker 1: It's a bit of a racket. So he said, like

76
00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:07,000
Speaker 1: you were talking about, like, you know, there's tons of

77
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,400
Speaker 1: money to be made here. He was a military history

78
00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,560
Speaker 1: buff and so he had this, you know, the light

79
00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:15,880
Speaker 1: bulb went off over his head, and he says, what

80
00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:19,000
Speaker 1: if we could come up with a soldier doll, or

81
00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:23,080
Speaker 1: perhaps even a series of soldier dolls, and maybe not

82
00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:24,240
Speaker 1: call them dolls?

83
00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:25,320
Speaker 3: Actually a big one.

84
00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:28,400
Speaker 1: He didn't come up with the name, to be fair.

85
00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:34,880
Speaker 1: His boss at Hasbro VP Don Levine or Levine in

86
00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:38,479
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, he was pitched this idea and he

87
00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:40,400
Speaker 1: went nuts over it. And he's the one that said

88
00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:42,040
Speaker 1: maybe we should call them action figures.

89
00:04:42,279 --> 00:04:47,640
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, Stan Weston approached. Yeah, Don Levine at like

90
00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:50,720
Speaker 3: that toy Farens, I got a great idea, and apparently

91
00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:54,239
Speaker 3: he gave him one hundred thousand dollars just for the idea,

92
00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,599
Speaker 3: and then he since he worked with Hasbro, he's like, guys,

93
00:04:57,800 --> 00:04:58,960
Speaker 3: I've got a good idea here.

94
00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:03,159
Speaker 1: So that rough translates into about seven hundred and eighty

95
00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:07,600
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars in today money, which is good dough

96
00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:11,440
Speaker 1: for an idea. But of course, yeah, anytime you're the

97
00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,440
Speaker 1: schmuck that comes up with the idea that you sell

98
00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:17,240
Speaker 1: for even seven hundred and eighty two grand and it

99
00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:21,360
Speaker 1: goes on to be like hundreds of millions of dollar business,

100
00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:23,839
Speaker 1: you probably always kind of feel like, uh, I got

101
00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:24,599
Speaker 1: taken for a ride.

102
00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:27,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit. I'm sure Stan Weston is like,

103
00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:29,880
Speaker 3: I'll have millions of good ideas like these that I

104
00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:32,799
Speaker 3: can sell for seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars a piece.

105
00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:34,000
Speaker 1: I'm sure he may have.

106
00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:36,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. It was certainly not one like

107
00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:37,360
Speaker 3: gi Joe.

108
00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:40,479
Speaker 1: Right, Well, that's what we've been talking about. We've talked

109
00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:44,040
Speaker 1: about Gijo a lot on the show, so it feels

110
00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:47,240
Speaker 1: appropriate that we sort of go down that rabbit hole.

111
00:05:47,279 --> 00:05:49,280
Speaker 1: If we're going to be talking about action figures.

112
00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:52,320
Speaker 3: Well so, well, yeah, because Gijoe is the one that started,

113
00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:57,000
Speaker 3: literally started the action figure craze. Every action figure that's

114
00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:04,000
Speaker 3: out there, from like Action Jesus to the Marvel Superhero

115
00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:08,160
Speaker 3: action figures, every action figure came from Gi Joe. And

116
00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:11,159
Speaker 3: if you want to get feminist about it, every action figure,

117
00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:13,440
Speaker 3: including Gi Joe, ultimately came from Barbie.

118
00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:15,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good way to look at it.

119
00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:16,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, so.

120
00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:20,640
Speaker 1: All right, here's the deal that I never knew. Gi

121
00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:24,960
Speaker 1: Joe debuted in nineteen sixty four before Christmas. It's almost

122
00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:28,320
Speaker 1: as if they had planned that the original. I knew

123
00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,200
Speaker 1: all this stuff. The original was twelve inches and had

124
00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:33,600
Speaker 1: twenty one moving parts. And the thing I did not

125
00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:38,839
Speaker 1: know was that Gi Joe was the collective name of

126
00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:42,560
Speaker 1: all four of these Armed Forces dolls.

127
00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:43,760
Speaker 3: You didn't know that.

128
00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:45,440
Speaker 1: I thought the guy was Joe.

129
00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:50,080
Speaker 3: No, for my era, the guy the main guy was Duke,

130
00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:52,640
Speaker 3: and for your era, the main guy was Rocky.

131
00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,560
Speaker 1: Well depends on which one you had. Okay, so there

132
00:06:56,640 --> 00:07:02,880
Speaker 1: was Rocky was the Army and the Marines Skip Skip

133
00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:07,320
Speaker 1: was the Navy guy, and Ace was the Air Force guy.

134
00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:08,240
Speaker 1: The fighter pilot.

135
00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:12,080
Speaker 3: Right, So they they ran out of names. After name three,

136
00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,120
Speaker 3: they ran out back. Let's circle back to Rocky.

137
00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:17,760
Speaker 1: They ran out of names. And they all were identical

138
00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:20,880
Speaker 1: except for their clothing. Yeah, as far as I know, right.

139
00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:24,920
Speaker 3: Didn't wasn't their head different or was that the same?

140
00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:27,080
Speaker 3: Was it the same face for each one? It was

141
00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:28,680
Speaker 3: literally just their clothes were different.

142
00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,440
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. I'm going for my own memory,

143
00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:34,080
Speaker 1: which is that they were all the same dude, and

144
00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:35,760
Speaker 1: they were all Frank o'haris.

145
00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:38,920
Speaker 3: Well, no, well they came up with an African American

146
00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:41,080
Speaker 3: one at one point in like what your great sixties?

147
00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:43,680
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, yeah, they changed with the times. But

148
00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:47,400
Speaker 1: to my recollection, those original dudes, and maybe I got

149
00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:50,080
Speaker 1: in on the second wave. Maybe the original sixties ones

150
00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:54,240
Speaker 1: were different, but I only knew Frank o'harris.

151
00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:57,440
Speaker 3: I got you. So maybe I just had Rocky, maybe

152
00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:00,880
Speaker 3: so Rocky or Rocky which one?

153
00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:03,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had Rocky, not Rocky.

154
00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:08,360
Speaker 3: So they come out with this toy and it's the

155
00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:11,680
Speaker 3: first one of the big differences with G I. Joe

156
00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:14,360
Speaker 3: because there were toy soldiers before. But did you ever

157
00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:17,120
Speaker 3: have those like little plastic ones? A little plastic green men.

158
00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:19,520
Speaker 3: You dump them out of the bucket, and one had

159
00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:22,280
Speaker 3: a Bazuka and he was always the best one. Yeah,

160
00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:26,000
Speaker 3: but they were on like little molded plastic stands and

161
00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:28,240
Speaker 3: you couldn't do anything with them, ex up, slide them

162
00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:30,560
Speaker 3: around or whatever. Those have been around forever.

163
00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:32,720
Speaker 1: Well, you could do a lot more with them if

164
00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:34,040
Speaker 1: you had imagination.

165
00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:36,520
Speaker 3: And a lighter in a can of hair spray.

166
00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:40,600
Speaker 1: Actually was delighted. It was Toy Story right where they

167
00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:44,240
Speaker 1: had those those guys come to life, right. That was

168
00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:47,040
Speaker 1: like really really cool to me when I saw that

169
00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:49,760
Speaker 1: on screen. These because you know, like you said, you

170
00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:52,040
Speaker 1: can never move them, so I see those little dudes

171
00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:54,200
Speaker 1: actually come to life was pretty pretty awesome.

172
00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:58,400
Speaker 3: You were like, I've been dreaming of this day. I

173
00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:00,439
Speaker 3: kind of was, thank you. Dream Works.

174
00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:03,040
Speaker 1: Oh that's where they got the name.

175
00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:06,720
Speaker 3: Was it DreamWorks or was that Pixar? Was Pixar? Right?

176
00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,920
Speaker 3: Probably I got it wrong. That's right, it's one hundred

177
00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:12,800
Speaker 3: percent Pixar. We're still gonna get emails anyway, even though

178
00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:13,600
Speaker 3: we just corrected.

179
00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:18,960
Speaker 1: They're all working dreams. So I read this great article

180
00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:23,640
Speaker 1: called geez what was it called? Now you know the

181
00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:26,120
Speaker 1: history of g I Joe and knowing it as half

182
00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:28,480
Speaker 1: the battle from Smithsonian dot.

183
00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:32,959
Speaker 3: Com written by Jimmy stamp was that his name the Stamper,

184
00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:34,640
Speaker 3: the stamp Stick.

185
00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:40,360
Speaker 1: So I didn't realize this, But you can't. You can't

186
00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:45,680
Speaker 1: copyright a figure like a human figure. So that was

187
00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:48,479
Speaker 1: sort of an issue when people started to do knockoffs

188
00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:52,120
Speaker 1: of g I Joe. But apparently early on in the process,

189
00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:54,840
Speaker 1: g I Joe was well known for that scar on

190
00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:57,480
Speaker 1: his face and I didn't even know this. He had

191
00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:00,440
Speaker 1: an inverted thumbnail. And both of these were because of

192
00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:04,280
Speaker 1: errors in production. But those flaws were what allowed them

193
00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:07,520
Speaker 1: to go after people for copyright infringement.

194
00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:11,599
Speaker 3: That's right, that's crazy, Yeah it is. And yeah, I

195
00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:15,199
Speaker 3: guess they were natural, like they didn't plan them or

196
00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:19,920
Speaker 3: anything like that, but they just were happy accidents, I guess. Yeah.

197
00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:22,959
Speaker 3: And actually I've read also elsewhere Chuck that G I.

198
00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:25,679
Speaker 3: Joe was so successful as we'll see that by the

199
00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:30,640
Speaker 3: seventies there were so many knockoffs that Hasbro released its

200
00:10:30,679 --> 00:10:33,680
Speaker 3: own line of knockoffs of cheaply made GI jobs to

201
00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:37,000
Speaker 3: compete with the knockoffs and dilute their market share. Yeah,

202
00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:39,640
Speaker 3: it was called Defenders, and there were just these really

203
00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:43,280
Speaker 3: cheaply made versions of the Big Gi Jos.

204
00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:46,200
Speaker 1: Well, it was a huge hit though. It says here

205
00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:50,559
Speaker 1: that they accounted for almost sixty six percent of Hasbro's

206
00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:52,160
Speaker 1: profits in nineteen sixty four.

207
00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:55,200
Speaker 3: That's insane, that is nuts. And that was the year

208
00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:56,440
Speaker 3: it came out right.

209
00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:57,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, like right out of the gate. It was a

210
00:10:57,960 --> 00:10:58,720
Speaker 1: really big deal.

211
00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:01,680
Speaker 3: And again one of the reasons why was because you

212
00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:04,839
Speaker 3: had toy soldiers before. But this guy could move. He

213
00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:07,520
Speaker 3: had I think like twenty eight or twenty nine moving

214
00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:12,160
Speaker 3: parts or different parts, and he was articulated so he

215
00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:15,120
Speaker 3: could lift up his hand and karate chop you. Although

216
00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,280
Speaker 3: he didn't get the kung fu grip until the mid seventies.

217
00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:19,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where I came in.

218
00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,360
Speaker 3: Okay, so he had kung fu grip when you knew

219
00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:23,400
Speaker 3: Gi Joe.

220
00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:25,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, very much, gotcha.

221
00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:29,040
Speaker 3: It was so kung fu, right, but he still looked

222
00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:29,960
Speaker 3: like frank O Harris.

223
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:31,480
Speaker 1: But he still looked like frank Gohers. Yes.

224
00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:34,360
Speaker 3: And then the other big innovation was the was not

225
00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:36,760
Speaker 3: an innovation at all. It was following the Barbie model,

226
00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:40,079
Speaker 3: but for boys, it was it was that this doll,

227
00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:43,520
Speaker 3: which no one called the doll. In fact, I believe

228
00:11:43,559 --> 00:11:46,880
Speaker 3: Hasbro wouldn't do business with you if you were going

229
00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:49,600
Speaker 3: to call it a doll. As a retailer, they would

230
00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:51,520
Speaker 3: just be like, well, you don't get any Gi Jos.

231
00:11:51,559 --> 00:11:54,520
Speaker 3: This is an action figure, that's right, but on the

232
00:11:54,559 --> 00:11:56,560
Speaker 3: package itself. And I don't know if you remember this

233
00:11:56,679 --> 00:12:00,080
Speaker 3: or not. I don't because I wasn't born yet. But

234
00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:04,280
Speaker 3: there were pictures of the other dudes and the other

235
00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:07,040
Speaker 3: outfits you could get. So when you bought one Gi Joe,

236
00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,719
Speaker 3: you as a kid were made immediately aware, whoa, whoa, whoa,

237
00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:13,400
Speaker 3: there's other Gi Joe's out there, and I want to

238
00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:16,800
Speaker 3: collect them all. Some little kid came up with that

239
00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:19,040
Speaker 3: collect them all phrase just in his little brain.

240
00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:22,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, some little kid named middle age.

241
00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:24,040
Speaker 3: Marketing executive Don Levine.

242
00:12:24,679 --> 00:12:27,160
Speaker 1: So not only that, but they had, you know, like Barbie,

243
00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:30,560
Speaker 1: they had all manner of other things that you could

244
00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:33,800
Speaker 1: collect and buy. I had. I had the jet pack,

245
00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:38,120
Speaker 1: which you would attach to a string to simulate jet

246
00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:41,360
Speaker 1: packing and send flying out like between two trees.

247
00:12:41,679 --> 00:12:42,280
Speaker 3: Gotcha.

248
00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:47,520
Speaker 1: And then I had the the submarine. It was like

249
00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:49,160
Speaker 1: a sea wolf. It was really cool.

250
00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:51,560
Speaker 3: How big was the submarine if you were playing with

251
00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:54,840
Speaker 3: twelve inch Gi jos It was to take up the

252
00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:56,360
Speaker 3: size of like the family room.

253
00:12:57,120 --> 00:12:58,880
Speaker 1: Well, this is not going to mean anything to anyone

254
00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:00,640
Speaker 1: at home, but it's about the size of this lamp

255
00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:01,360
Speaker 1: on our desk.

256
00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:04,760
Speaker 3: Oh. So it was like a one man sub.

257
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:07,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like it was. I can't remember exactly

258
00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:08,800
Speaker 1: I feel I feel like it was about the size

259
00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:12,480
Speaker 1: of us, A little smaller than a bowling ball.

260
00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:15,360
Speaker 3: How's that like a child's bowling ball.

261
00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:17,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he had to sit in it, you're right,

262
00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:18,800
Speaker 1: And he was a big dude, even though you would

263
00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:21,440
Speaker 1: you know, in a seated position, he was smaller. And

264
00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:25,160
Speaker 1: then I had the six wheel or eight wheel I

265
00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:29,240
Speaker 1: can't remember all terrain vehicle. Well that's nice, and that's

266
00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:32,520
Speaker 1: about all that we were. That's about all we could afford.

267
00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:36,000
Speaker 3: That's but that was probably quite an outlay from your parents.

268
00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:38,559
Speaker 1: No, it was great. And that was over time, you know.

269
00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:39,920
Speaker 3: Right, several Christmases.

270
00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:42,440
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, And this was, like I said, I came

271
00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:46,160
Speaker 1: in on the seventies, but in the sixties they actually

272
00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:49,280
Speaker 1: g I Joe did not do very well because of

273
00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:53,080
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War. Yeah, and it was actually kind of

274
00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:55,760
Speaker 1: I think it was actually went away from production for

275
00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:56,199
Speaker 1: a while.

276
00:13:56,800 --> 00:13:59,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, it did. They just they basically retired him. I

277
00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:03,080
Speaker 3: think the Vietnam War hurt sales, so they took him

278
00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:06,160
Speaker 3: out a little bit, and then they re released him

279
00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:11,000
Speaker 3: again and kind of rebranded him, I think too. Rather

280
00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,400
Speaker 3: than a soldier, they rebranded him as an adventurer. Right,

281
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:18,240
Speaker 3: So this machete's not for cutting off the hands of

282
00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:23,120
Speaker 3: a sherpa who leads us into danger. It's for you know,

283
00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:27,280
Speaker 3: cutting through vegetation and on a jungle adventure to save

284
00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:30,160
Speaker 3: sherpas who were for some reason live in the jungle.

285
00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:32,760
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, and they, like you said, they called them

286
00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:38,040
Speaker 1: adventurer or the naval officer was called an aquaat And

287
00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:41,520
Speaker 1: I very much remember that being the deal. Like, I

288
00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:43,680
Speaker 1: didn't think of him as a soldier. I thought of

289
00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:46,600
Speaker 1: him as you know, well, I thought his name was

290
00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:48,480
Speaker 1: Joe because I guess it was a dumb little kid,

291
00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:52,240
Speaker 1: but I guess Rocky the G I Joe adventure guy

292
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,520
Speaker 1: right slash Franco Harris.

293
00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:57,720
Speaker 3: Right and G I Joe. Actually it was taken from

294
00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:00,800
Speaker 3: a nineteen forty five movie called the Story of G

295
00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:03,960
Speaker 3: I Joe. That's where that came from.

296
00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:04,840
Speaker 1: Did you ever see that?

297
00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:08,360
Speaker 3: No? No? Have you?

298
00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:10,480
Speaker 1: No? Okay, I'm just curious.

299
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:14,440
Speaker 3: So Chuck, G I Joe is, Uh, he starts to

300
00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:16,760
Speaker 3: do kind of poorly because of Vietnam. They take him out,

301
00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:20,840
Speaker 3: they re release him, and he doesn't do very well

302
00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:23,520
Speaker 3: when they bring him back out, even though he's an adventurer. Right,

303
00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:27,480
Speaker 3: So G I Joe left. They stopped making G I

304
00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:30,200
Speaker 3: Joe's for a while, and it created It left this

305
00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,400
Speaker 3: big vacuum that was just waiting to be filled, and

306
00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:36,480
Speaker 3: it was filled by a little company named Mego. And

307
00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:38,920
Speaker 3: we'll talk about Migo after this break. How about that

308
00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:50,560
Speaker 3: sounds good? As watched? Why s k s he should know?

309
00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:03,600
Speaker 1: All right? Is it migo or Mego? I've been saying

310
00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,440
Speaker 1: mego in my head just because I'm a dumb American.

311
00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:08,920
Speaker 3: No, well, I think mego is probably how they say

312
00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:10,000
Speaker 3: it in the UK.

313
00:16:10,840 --> 00:16:11,960
Speaker 1: Oh was that where it came from?

314
00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:16,160
Speaker 3: No, they're American. I say Migo to be honest, I

315
00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:18,840
Speaker 3: have no idea. I'm sure there is a right way

316
00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:21,560
Speaker 3: that Tommy Migo would love to tell you about. But

317
00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:25,280
Speaker 3: uh huh or Tommy Mego. Uh? But yeah, I say

318
00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:27,960
Speaker 3: I've said migo in my head, but I don't know

319
00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:29,680
Speaker 3: which one's correct to tell you the truth.

320
00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:33,360
Speaker 1: All right, Well we'll just proceed fussly. I'll say mego,

321
00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,600
Speaker 1: you say mego, Let's just call the whole thing off,

322
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:43,000
Speaker 1: So go ahead with Migo. So so g I.

323
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:47,280
Speaker 3: Joe's gone. But again, this was you said. It accounted

324
00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:49,880
Speaker 3: for like sixty six percent of Hasbro's sales just in

325
00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:52,640
Speaker 3: the first year, and he was a hit year after

326
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:56,440
Speaker 3: year after year for many years. Right, And even when

327
00:16:56,480 --> 00:16:58,880
Speaker 3: they brought him back, sales were terrible compared to the

328
00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:01,320
Speaker 3: initial stuff, but they were still making money off of them. Right,

329
00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:06,119
Speaker 3: So this first, the world's first action figure, made a

330
00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:08,760
Speaker 3: huge impact. And when the world's first action figure wasn't

331
00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:12,240
Speaker 3: around anymore, well, there was a void that was to

332
00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:16,159
Speaker 3: be filled. And this company called Migo decided in I

333
00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:18,919
Speaker 3: think nineteen seventy one or nineteen seventy two, that a

334
00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:21,600
Speaker 3: pretty good place to start would be releasing a line

335
00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:25,760
Speaker 3: of action figures that were based on superheroes. And they

336
00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:31,600
Speaker 3: released a line of superheroes called the World's Greatest Superheroes

337
00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:35,679
Speaker 3: Action Figures and I think nineteen seventy two, and it

338
00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:38,200
Speaker 3: was a pretty big hit, like right off the bat.

339
00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, And what they did was they were super smart

340
00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:44,600
Speaker 1: and kind of had a lot of vision and said,

341
00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,400
Speaker 1: I think where it's at is not necessarily creating characters

342
00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:51,240
Speaker 1: from whole cloth that kids don't know of, but licensing

343
00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,720
Speaker 1: very famous characters and selling them. So they got a

344
00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:58,719
Speaker 1: hold of licenses for Spider Man and the Hulk and

345
00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:01,880
Speaker 1: Batman and Wonder Woman and an Iron Man and Captain America.

346
00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:04,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, and not just yeah. If you'll notice that's DC

347
00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:07,840
Speaker 3: and Marvel characters in the same line, like that's unheard

348
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:08,399
Speaker 3: of today.

349
00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:09,600
Speaker 1: They did not discriminate.

350
00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:10,879
Speaker 3: I know they did.

351
00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:14,800
Speaker 1: It's a wonderful time. And not only that, but they said,

352
00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:19,000
Speaker 1: you know, we're making money handover fist selling these action figures.

353
00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:23,000
Speaker 1: What if do you think kids would actually buy villains

354
00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,120
Speaker 1: like the Joker? And uh, do you think they would

355
00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:31,160
Speaker 1: buy side characters like Robin and Batgirl and other villains

356
00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,280
Speaker 1: like the Riddler and things like the Batmobile and the

357
00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:36,160
Speaker 1: Batcave play set? And before you knew it, they were

358
00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:41,040
Speaker 1: pumping out things like Bruce Wayne's Foundation building.

359
00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:43,160
Speaker 3: I know that was a real thing.

360
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:45,520
Speaker 1: Or what was the other weird one? The store?

361
00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:49,320
Speaker 3: Oh, they had they had an exclusive with the Montgomery

362
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:53,560
Speaker 3: Ward store. So it wasn't like it wasn't a store.

363
00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:57,440
Speaker 3: But at the at Montgomery Ward only, Oh, you could

364
00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:01,760
Speaker 3: buy the non superhero versions of superheroes like Peter Parker

365
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:06,359
Speaker 3: and Bruce Wayne, which is like, all right, you sit

366
00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:09,120
Speaker 3: there in your cubicle and that's what you do. Well,

367
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:11,359
Speaker 3: the rest of us are saving the world. That's what

368
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:12,679
Speaker 3: you do with that action figure.

369
00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:14,440
Speaker 1: All right, that makes much more sense. I thought they

370
00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:15,920
Speaker 1: had a Montgomery Ward play set.

371
00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:18,600
Speaker 3: That's what I thought at first too, like Bruce.

372
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:21,080
Speaker 1: Wayne worked there or something, which of course he didn't

373
00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:22,320
Speaker 1: even work. I don't know what I'm thinking.

374
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:24,280
Speaker 3: No, so just gave orders.

375
00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:27,919
Speaker 1: They were making tons and tons of money. In nineteen

376
00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:31,440
Speaker 1: seventy three, they moved into movies with their Planet of

377
00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:36,360
Speaker 1: the Apes line, which was some plastic primates, and then

378
00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:39,640
Speaker 1: the Astronaut that was taller, and that was a huge hit.

379
00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:43,680
Speaker 3: Yeah. And the other thing about Migo too was that

380
00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,080
Speaker 3: all action figures have been like twelve inch twelve inches

381
00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:50,679
Speaker 3: tall up to that point, and Migo's line was eight inches.

382
00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:53,080
Speaker 3: So action figures are starting to shrink a little bit.

383
00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:58,000
Speaker 1: Now, that's right. And the one I actually had, even

384
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:00,960
Speaker 1: though I have no idea why, I had the Star

385
00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:07,320
Speaker 1: Trek Enterprise Bridge, and then I guess, man. I know

386
00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:09,280
Speaker 1: I had Spock and Kirk and a couple of others,

387
00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,960
Speaker 1: but you know, I'm well known to not have ever

388
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,680
Speaker 1: seen any Star Trek at all, except for maybe one

389
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:20,040
Speaker 1: movie or something, So I have no idea why I

390
00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:20,399
Speaker 1: got that.

391
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:24,680
Speaker 3: I mean, if it was a cool action figure, I

392
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:28,520
Speaker 3: guess some weird I had a weird wizard action figure

393
00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:29,600
Speaker 3: when I was a kid.

394
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:31,840
Speaker 1: But you're into weird wizards, you still are.

395
00:20:33,119 --> 00:20:35,400
Speaker 3: Well, I am now as a grown up. I wasn't

396
00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:37,280
Speaker 3: as a kid. I was like, what is this thing?

397
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:38,000
Speaker 1: Gotcha?

398
00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:39,280
Speaker 3: Some weird wizard?

399
00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:40,840
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know why I had it. But the

400
00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:44,160
Speaker 1: Star Trek that their collection that was another big hit.

401
00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:48,520
Speaker 1: So they were just they literally kind of I mean,

402
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:50,520
Speaker 1: g I, Joe and Barbie of course kind of spawned

403
00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:53,760
Speaker 1: this thing, but it seems like Mego really took it

404
00:20:53,800 --> 00:20:54,560
Speaker 1: to another level.

405
00:20:54,880 --> 00:21:01,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they kind of. They kind of. Yeah, action

406
00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:04,879
Speaker 3: figures were cool and ged Joe had really started something,

407
00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:10,679
Speaker 3: but Migo, Yeah, they just they established it forever, permanently.

408
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:14,600
Speaker 3: And they also showed other companies too, like hey, man,

409
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,800
Speaker 3: go get yourself a license and stick to it, like

410
00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,959
Speaker 3: get creative. Like with the Star Trek license that they

411
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,880
Speaker 3: had clearly the toy designers had actually watched Star Trek

412
00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:29,080
Speaker 3: episodes because one of the playsets was from one of

413
00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:34,840
Speaker 3: the sets from an episode of Star Trek, the Apple episode. Like,

414
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:37,560
Speaker 3: you don't necessarily see there, You didn't see that before.

415
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:41,240
Speaker 3: With action figures. It was more like, hey, you know

416
00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:44,280
Speaker 3: this guy, just buy him. This is like you're into

417
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:46,800
Speaker 3: Star Trek and so are we, and here is some

418
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:50,600
Speaker 3: awesome playsets based on your love of Star Trek. So

419
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:54,119
Speaker 3: Migo definitely broke the mold in that sense as well.

420
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,840
Speaker 3: But they also like they were it for action figures,

421
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:02,360
Speaker 3: like nobody could compete with They would buy stuff from

422
00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:06,000
Speaker 3: Japan and then turn them into new stuff here. There

423
00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:08,400
Speaker 3: was just no competing with Migo in the US, even

424
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:12,040
Speaker 3: though a lot of people were. But they they also

425
00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:15,280
Speaker 3: dropped the ball in the most spectacular fashion anyone could

426
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 3: ever drop the ball in the action figure world. Yeah,

427
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:23,560
Speaker 3: like they it's almost it's almost an elegant end of

428
00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 3: the story because it literally makes you cringe when you

429
00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 3: read it. And there's two different versions, but both of

430
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:29,480
Speaker 3: them are like, oh man.

431
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:32,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's really only one version. I literally

432
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:34,440
Speaker 1: could not find a single source other than this one

433
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:38,640
Speaker 1: guy's blog who claimed the other version. But what we're

434
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 1: talking about, and if you know action figures, you probably

435
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:45,880
Speaker 1: see this coming. They declined the Star Wars brand YEP

436
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:47,480
Speaker 1: and allowed Kenner to pick it up.

437
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 3: Yes, so how though, which story is true?

438
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:53,920
Speaker 1: Well, the story that I think is true is that

439
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:57,439
Speaker 1: they didn't want to invest and they said that, you know,

440
00:22:57,480 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: we're not going to throw our money at every little

441
00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:01,920
Speaker 1: thing that comes along. It can't be a little more discerning.

442
00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:04,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, that one hurts. That hurts more than the other story.

443
00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:08,040
Speaker 3: The other version was that like the people who could

444
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:11,480
Speaker 3: sign the contracts were out of town when George Lucas

445
00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:13,800
Speaker 3: came by to offer him the franchise. And now that

446
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:16,120
Speaker 3: I'm saying it out loud, like yes, that's a ridiculously

447
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:20,359
Speaker 3: dumb story. Yeah, them actually turning down the Star Wars

448
00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:23,119
Speaker 3: line is it's even better. It's even sweeter, Like, man,

449
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:27,639
Speaker 3: what were you guys thinking? But I mean there's lots

450
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 3: of stories like that, just somebody lacking foresight.

451
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:34,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, the other story is completed by the supposedly they

452
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:38,200
Speaker 1: weren't there. So Lucas went to another toy, went to Kenner,

453
00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:41,199
Speaker 1: who was in the same building in New York and

454
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,240
Speaker 1: I guess the people that could sign their name were there, right,

455
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:46,720
Speaker 1: But I can't find that anywhere else except for this

456
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 1: one blog where this guy says it's true. But I

457
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:52,879
Speaker 1: would love to hear from someone if they have inside,

458
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:54,640
Speaker 1: like verifiable knowledge of that.

459
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:57,479
Speaker 3: Oh for sure, George Lucas, just let us know.

460
00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 1: And I mean verifiable, not that's what I heard.

461
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:04,560
Speaker 3: I read the same blog exactly. I knew your nerd

462
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:06,359
Speaker 3: voice is gonna come up in this episode.

463
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:07,440
Speaker 1: Well, sure, of course.

464
00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 3: So if you have a love of Migo or you

465
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 3: just want to know what we're talking about, also go

466
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 3: check out the Mego Museum online Mego Museum, and it's

467
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:23,160
Speaker 3: just basically like this wonderful online museum dedicated to everything

468
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:25,680
Speaker 3: that Migo ever put out. It's pretty cool. I wasn't

469
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:27,640
Speaker 3: even around when these things came out, and they still

470
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:29,600
Speaker 3: somehow make me nostalgic, you.

471
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:33,120
Speaker 1: Know, exactly. All right, So let's jump back a little

472
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:37,240
Speaker 1: bit to nineteen sixty six, and we're going to explain

473
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:40,280
Speaker 1: how they went from eight inches, even though they were

474
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:43,080
Speaker 1: still making the eight inches after sixty six, how they

475
00:24:43,119 --> 00:24:45,520
Speaker 1: eventually got down to the three and three quarters inch

476
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,400
Speaker 1: Gia Joe was licensing their stuff out to other countries

477
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,920
Speaker 1: all over the place. That was a UK company who

478
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 1: released it under the name Action Man, and eventually they

479
00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 1: licensed it to Japan to a company called Takara, and

480
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,199
Speaker 1: they went on to create some action figures based on

481
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,520
Speaker 1: Gi Joe, and then due to the oil crisis in

482
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:11,479
Speaker 1: the early seventies, they started developing smaller versions. So at

483
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: three and three quarters inches they developed Microman released him

484
00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:20,639
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy four, and that kind of led to

485
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:25,119
Speaker 1: this new thing, which was smaller dudes three and kids

486
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:25,640
Speaker 1: didn't care.

487
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 3: No, no, not only did we not care. So now

488
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:31,679
Speaker 3: we're starting to enter my wheelhouse. Not only did we

489
00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 3: not care, These smaller ones are vastly superior to the

490
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:35,960
Speaker 3: older ones.

491
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 1: Oh you think, yeah, so We've heard me out.

492
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 3: A lot of stuff. But I would say this is

493
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,800
Speaker 3: the one thing that divides us more frequently than anything else,

494
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,159
Speaker 3: is whether the original big Gi Joe's or the second

495
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,080
Speaker 3: wave small Gi Jo's are better.

496
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:53,359
Speaker 1: All right, let me ask you, sir, have you ever

497
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:55,880
Speaker 1: held in your hands and played with a twelve inch

498
00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 1: Gi Joe with a kung fu grip?

499
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:01,120
Speaker 3: I would would not touch one.

500
00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:02,720
Speaker 1: So you can't even say that.

501
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:05,040
Speaker 3: Have you played with the small one?

502
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:07,160
Speaker 1: Yeah? Man, I had tons of small action figures.

503
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:09,280
Speaker 3: Oh okay, all right, Oh did you have the Star

504
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:09,879
Speaker 3: Wars stuff?

505
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 1: Oh?

506
00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, So you think the big one's superior.

507
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:16,600
Speaker 1: Well yeah, it's twelve inches. It's articulates nineteen different ways.

508
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:20,960
Speaker 3: Now, I like the small ones. I always will, even

509
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:22,720
Speaker 3: after playing with the big one, which I have not

510
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 3: and never will. I just know that the small one

511
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 3: is vastly superior. I don't know if it's because I

512
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:32,119
Speaker 3: am nostalgic for the small ones and the old ones

513
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 3: seem weird and dusty and moldy or something like that,

514
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:40,880
Speaker 3: but the small ones seemed better than me. All right,

515
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 3: at the very least you have to you have to

516
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,880
Speaker 3: admit the wave of Gi Joe's that were released when

517
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 3: I started playing with them, just the lion itself was better,

518
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 3: regardless of the size of them.

519
00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: Right, Well, let's go ahead and talk about the thought

520
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 1: because Gi Joe changed a lot once it became a

521
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,120
Speaker 1: cartoon and we're going to talk about some really cool

522
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 1: political stuff that had no idea went into this. But

523
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,399
Speaker 1: g I Joe became a cartoon series. This was in

524
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:11,800
Speaker 1: the early eighties, so this is when I had kind

525
00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:15,399
Speaker 1: of quit playing with action figures for the most part, okay,

526
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: because eighty three eighty four, I was like thirteen, and

527
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 1: you know, I.

528
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,639
Speaker 3: Was moving on to you know, check out this mustache.

529
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: Yeah I was. I was skateboarding by that point, and

530
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: I thought it was like super cool skateboarder.

531
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 3: Yeah.

532
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,399
Speaker 1: Uh, maybe I still played a little bit.

533
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:34,000
Speaker 3: So d your only your neighborhood best friend knew about it.

534
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 3: Your school friends didn't exactly.

535
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,520
Speaker 1: So GID Joe was a cartoon. Then they for the

536
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 1: first time basically it became a commando team, an anti

537
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:47,199
Speaker 1: terrorist commando team that had all kinds of characters, and

538
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 1: they had finally had a common enemy, which was of

539
00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 1: course Cobra.

540
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:53,359
Speaker 3: Yes, led by Cobra commander.

541
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 1: And this was your right in your wheelhouse. Correct.

542
00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, So in nineteen eighty three I was like, so yeah,

543
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 3: this was I was really just primed and ready. I

544
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 3: would just get it now, let's go Joe. And plus

545
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 3: also the other thing too that I had that you

546
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:16,679
Speaker 3: didn't have was the cartoon that not only like blew

547
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:19,679
Speaker 3: up the backstories because each this new wave of g

548
00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 3: I Joe when they released it, they each character now

549
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,159
Speaker 3: had its own name, and it wasn't Rocky or Rocky,

550
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:33,360
Speaker 3: it was things like Duke or shipwreck or blow torch

551
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:38,480
Speaker 3: or barbecue or Dusty. And then the bad guys had

552
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 3: their own their own names too, like Cobra Commander, sirpentor

553
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 3: Tomax or Zaymot or the whole, the whole gang, right tochies,

554
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 3: Who was that? Tomax and Zaymot they were evil twins?

555
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:56,520
Speaker 3: Who were they were? Basically they were like if if

556
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 3: Cobra Commander had hired Patrick Bateman and then cloned him

557
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 3: a mere version of him, it would be Tomax and

558
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 3: Zey Mott.

559
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: Interesting none of this stuff.

560
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:11,520
Speaker 3: Right, right? Okay, so I do because I grew up

561
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:14,480
Speaker 3: with it. But I also had it pounded into my

562
00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 3: head every day after school watching the Gi Joe cartoon.

563
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 3: And that was the huge innovation that really just created

564
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:26,280
Speaker 3: this other world for kids like me to just lose

565
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 3: yourself in with the action figures, because now you didn't

566
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 3: even need to use your imagination. You could just be like, oh,

567
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 3: I saw this on the Gi Joe cartoon today, so

568
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 3: let's act that out right.

569
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 1: And none of this would have ever happened had it

570
00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 1: not been for Ronald Reagan, That's right, and that sounds weird,

571
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 1: but here's the story. So in the late seventies there

572
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 1: was a lot of concern about kids and advertising, about

573
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:57,440
Speaker 1: advertising two children. So the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission,

574
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 1: got a task force together and they say, should we

575
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: ban or regulate this marketing to children. They put together

576
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 1: six thousand pages of testimony from sixty oh the oral testimony,

577
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,520
Speaker 1: sixty thousand pages of expert testimony from all these experts

578
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:18,680
Speaker 1: on child psychology and health and nutrition because it had

579
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: to do with you know, food and sugary candies and

580
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 1: stuff like that too. And the conclusion across the board

581
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: was that young children cannot they are cognitively unable to

582
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 1: understand the intent of selling ads. They can't distinguish that

583
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:34,040
Speaker 1: from reality.

584
00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 3: Right, Like if you dress up a cartoon as an ad,

585
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 3: the kid is he just thinks it's a cartoon, she.

586
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: Does, exactly, Or if the ad is a cartoon, right,

587
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 1: rather than the kid doesn't know. They just think I'm

588
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: still watching cartoons on my TV.

589
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 3: My brain hasn't made that switch. But man, could I

590
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 3: go for some smurf cereal?

591
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 1: Exactly. So it was a big deal at the time.

592
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:00,040
Speaker 1: So there were all these recommendations basically on how to

593
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: regulate and restrict advertising that were They basically said it

594
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: was unfair and deceptive to kids. For older kids, they said,

595
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:10,840
Speaker 1: they can tell the difference, but maybe we should have

596
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 1: warnings on the ads and disclosures saying that this is

597
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 1: a commercial message. And so what happens when you do

598
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 1: this in America? The private sector said no, no, no, no, no,

599
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 1: no no no. I want to be able to sell

600
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: as much sugary garbage to kids as I want. You

601
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:33,480
Speaker 1: can't restrict free trade, free trade in business, yep. And

602
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 1: so we're going to raise a record at the time

603
00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:39,760
Speaker 1: sixteen million dollars to lobby against this.

604
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 3: Well, and they were helped out in no small part

605
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:45,800
Speaker 3: by getting the right guy into the White House.

606
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:48,760
Speaker 1: Right, So, in nineteen eighty, one of the first things

607
00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:51,560
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan did was he appointed a new chairman of

608
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:55,719
Speaker 1: the Federal Trade Commission. And this was a move that

609
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 1: basically said, you know what, there's going to be no

610
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 1: regulation whatsoever. Got to leave these markets free. You can

611
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 1: do whatever you want. And that is basically how all

612
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:12,120
Speaker 1: of these cartoons were born, right Gi Joe, Transformers, Smurf Bears, care.

613
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 3: Bears, rainbow, bright, strawberry.

614
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 1: Shortcase, Yeah, you name it. It basically became marketing and

615
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 1: selling things, and cartoons became one and the same finally.

616
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:23,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, And one of the other things that definitely helped

617
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 3: G I. Joe too was the I don't know if

618
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:28,959
Speaker 3: it was formal or informal, but there was basically a

619
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 3: ban on on warlike cartoons and warlike toys. Yes, that

620
00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,600
Speaker 3: was brought back under the same ease of restrictions by

621
00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 3: the FTC, so that I think the percentage of warlike

622
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:47,240
Speaker 3: toys that was sold in the early eighties went up

623
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:50,080
Speaker 3: like three hundred and fifty percent from one year over

624
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:52,680
Speaker 3: the other, from like nineteen eighty three to eighty four,

625
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 3: I think whereas before it was like no, we don't

626
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,280
Speaker 3: Gjo's an adventurer. Remember, It's like, no, G I. Joe's

627
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 3: going to cut right off.

628
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:04,560
Speaker 1: So that's in nineteen eighty That's one of the first

629
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:06,840
Speaker 1: one of the first big things Reagan did when he

630
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,480
Speaker 1: got into office. Flash forward to nineteen eighty eight. In November,

631
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 1: one of the last things he did was he vetoed

632
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:15,959
Speaker 1: a new measure because basically they saw what was happening

633
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:19,480
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, kids were being bombarded with war

634
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 1: cartoons and just terrible sugary packaged food all over the place,

635
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:30,440
Speaker 1: like the restrictions were nowhere to be found. So Congress

636
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 1: came back and said, you know what, this is out

637
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 1: of hand. Here's a measure that will restrict once again

638
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:41,959
Speaker 1: and impose some legislation on this programming aimed at children.

639
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,160
Speaker 1: It passed the House by three twenty eight to seventy eight,

640
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: passed unanimously in the Senate, and Reagan vetoed it and said, basically,

641
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:52,760
Speaker 1: one of the things they were trying to do, they

642
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: were trying to limit programming to advertising to ten point

643
00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 1: five minutes an hour on the weekends and twelve minutes

644
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:05,120
Speaker 1: an hour in the weekdays, and also provide require broadcasters

645
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:09,480
Speaker 1: to provide educational and informational programs as a condition of

646
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:12,919
Speaker 1: renewing their licenses. So Reagan vetoed that and said, no way,

647
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:15,560
Speaker 1: we're not going to do that. We're going to keep

648
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:18,080
Speaker 1: it as is. People that were in favor of this

649
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 1: went crazy. Basically, they were saying, like, how can you

650
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 1: guys say you're the Party of the Children and Education

651
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 1: and then veto something that is clearly going to help

652
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:30,720
Speaker 1: protect our children.

653
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:33,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was messed up. Man. I had no idea

654
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:34,040
Speaker 3: about that one.

655
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, and not only that. What happened was along with

656
00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 1: this deregulation, the toy companies and the cartoons, they actually

657
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:46,240
Speaker 1: they kind of got in bed together and they said,

658
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:50,560
Speaker 1: you know what, if you show, if you schedule as

659
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:55,000
Speaker 1: a broadcaster, our cartoons that sell toys, will give you

660
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,120
Speaker 1: a profit on those toys. Nice if you run these

661
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 1: g I Joe cartoons, then we'll get a little cut

662
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 1: of what we're selling.

663
00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:05,239
Speaker 3: Plus also we'll buy ads on those cartoons or on

664
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 3: your network too, to sell those those toys when you

665
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,640
Speaker 3: show these cartoons. I imagine you know, yeah, because I

666
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:15,719
Speaker 3: remember watching Gi Joe, a real American hero the cartoon,

667
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:20,920
Speaker 3: which I have to say it was created in large

668
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:23,840
Speaker 3: part to sell Gi Joe, It's true, but it had

669
00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:28,000
Speaker 3: it had great story arcs. It had overarching story arcs

670
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:32,400
Speaker 3: that went from episode to episode. The individual ones were good,

671
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:35,439
Speaker 3: like the voice acting was good, the animation was pretty good.

672
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,000
Speaker 3: Same with Transformers too. Like, it was pretty pretty good cartoon.

673
00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:42,560
Speaker 3: So at least they were putting time and effort and

674
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:46,239
Speaker 3: thought into this. But yeah, it's pretty despicable marketing to

675
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 3: kids in general.

676
00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 1: Actually, I read a blog. I'm certainly glad you were

677
00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:54,279
Speaker 1: a satisfied viewer. Yeah, but I read this blog that

678
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 1: basically said that, man, I wish I could find it.

679
00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:00,200
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll post this when we release it. That that

680
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:05,320
Speaker 1: the deregulation killed the creativity and killed in children's cartoons.

681
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and that they said that before you know it,

682
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 1: there were just like things were knockoffs of one another

683
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:14,400
Speaker 1: they didn't care about I guess. I mean, you were

684
00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 1: a kid, so maybe you didn't realize it, but.

685
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:17,880
Speaker 3: That was too stupid to know it was going on.

686
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:19,680
Speaker 1: They said that, you know, you can see a clear

687
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,920
Speaker 1: demarcation line between really good storytelling and then storytelling that

688
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:25,680
Speaker 1: was clearly just geared to sell things.

689
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:29,920
Speaker 3: I guess I don't. I'm trying to compare like what

690
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,880
Speaker 3: cartoons were in the seventies, and like they were great,

691
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:35,640
Speaker 3: they weren't high art though again I'll go back to

692
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 3: that Hairbear bunch. Well they were loved the hair Bears.

693
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:40,800
Speaker 1: They were drug fueled, but they're yeah, yeah.

694
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:42,799
Speaker 3: That was a big one. But there, I mean, their

695
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:45,239
Speaker 3: plots were pretty simple. It was the same plot that

696
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:47,719
Speaker 3: you would see on a Yogi Bear cartoon or like

697
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:51,880
Speaker 3: a Huckleberry Hound cartoon. Scooby Doo was interesting and it

698
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:55,279
Speaker 3: was pretty cool, but it was basically the same storyline

699
00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 3: every single time, like with Scooby Do. And I'm not

700
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:01,840
Speaker 3: trying to argue in favor of Corporate America marketing to

701
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 3: kids and ruining creativity, but like you don't, there weren't

702
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:10,760
Speaker 3: any overarching storylines aside from Scooby being crazy for Scooby

703
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,200
Speaker 3: Snacks and Scooby Doo. And there definitely was in Gi Joe,

704
00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:16,239
Speaker 3: like when they went around the world and took the

705
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:20,080
Speaker 3: DNA of all of these great these great dictators and

706
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:24,400
Speaker 3: conquerors like Alexander the Great and Napoleon and put them

707
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:28,239
Speaker 3: all together and created Sir Pentor, who was actually the

708
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,280
Speaker 3: new guy who was in charge of Cobra because Cobra

709
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:34,719
Speaker 3: Commander was a bit of a coward. Huh did you

710
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:36,360
Speaker 3: not know any of this? How do you not know

711
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:36,960
Speaker 3: this stuff?

712
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: I was I was trying to kiss girls in the

713
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 1: roller skating rink at this point, and you thought girls

714
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:41,760
Speaker 1: were gross.

715
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:47,520
Speaker 3: Still, It's true, it's true, but it definitely helped shape me,

716
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:49,719
Speaker 3: and I am nostalgic for it in that sense, and

717
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:53,719
Speaker 3: I am appreciative butt, Chuck, I propose that sooner than

718
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:57,359
Speaker 3: later we do an episode on marketing to kids, because

719
00:37:57,400 --> 00:37:59,839
Speaker 3: this whole deregulation story is just fascinating.

720
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:02,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I hadn't. I didn't really know anything

721
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:04,799
Speaker 1: about it because I was still a dumb kid when

722
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:05,400
Speaker 1: this was going on.

723
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:09,120
Speaker 3: Let's do it though, Okay, agreed. So that was Gi

724
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 3: Joe shape my childhood. You don't say it's just a

725
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:18,719
Speaker 3: tad so, but prior to Gi Joe, the first three

726
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 3: and three quarter inch action figure in the US, as

727
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 3: far as I know, was the Star Wars line, and

728
00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:28,799
Speaker 3: the Star Wars line again, when Migo passed it up,

729
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,320
Speaker 3: they quickly realized that we really screwed up. They released

730
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:37,600
Speaker 3: like a Buck Rogers line and a black Hole line.

731
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:40,200
Speaker 3: Remember that movie The black Hole I do from Disney.

732
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:44,520
Speaker 3: It's really creepy even still. But so they tried to

733
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:46,760
Speaker 3: catch up, and they ended up going bankrupt in nineteen

734
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:49,879
Speaker 3: eighty three basically as a result of losing this Star

735
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:54,719
Speaker 3: Wars line, and so Kenner and so Kenner picked it up,

736
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:57,680
Speaker 3: picked up the Star Wars line instead, and they released

737
00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:01,160
Speaker 3: them and right out of the gate in nineteen seventy eight,

738
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:03,800
Speaker 3: which I believe was the first year that they released

739
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:06,160
Speaker 3: these things is three and three quarter inch Star Wars

740
00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:10,919
Speaker 3: line of action figures. In nineteen seventy eight nineteen seventy nine,

741
00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:16,360
Speaker 3: they made one hundred million dollars each year from selling those.

742
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:20,239
Speaker 3: They sold about forty million units a year, and from

743
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:22,600
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy eight to nineteen eighty five, which I think

744
00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:25,040
Speaker 3: was the whole run of the Star Wars lines, the

745
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:29,320
Speaker 3: original run with Kenner, Kenner sold three hundred million units.

746
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,920
Speaker 3: So if they're selling forty million a year and making

747
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:35,879
Speaker 3: one hundred million each year from that, they sold three

748
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:39,799
Speaker 3: hundred million total. So Kenner made some serious bank off

749
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:40,360
Speaker 3: of Star.

750
00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:45,239
Speaker 1: Wars, off of me and my lawnmowing fund. Yeah, h

751
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:48,520
Speaker 1: for sure. I had. I feel like I had at

752
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:52,799
Speaker 1: least doubles of most of the major characters, many of

753
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 1: the minor characters, the Tie Fighter, the X Wing, the

754
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:03,120
Speaker 1: Death Star, Oh you Lucky had the land Speeder. I

755
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:07,239
Speaker 1: also had the big Dolls. I don't know if they

756
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:09,400
Speaker 1: were twelve inch, but what is it with you and

757
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:17,120
Speaker 1: big dolls, man, They're huggable. Yeah. I had the Big

758
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 1: Luke and the Big I think the Big Luke and

759
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 1: the Big Vader and maybe like one other, maybe Chewbacca,

760
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:28,040
Speaker 1: but not all of them. And basically whatever I could

761
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:30,480
Speaker 1: either get for my birthday or Christmas or save my

762
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:34,480
Speaker 1: allowance to buy, I would get. And I was all in.

763
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:37,560
Speaker 1: I didn't know that these were collectible. Of course, I

764
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:40,439
Speaker 1: ripped right into them to pay to play with them

765
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 1: like normal children do. I didn't put it like in

766
00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:46,480
Speaker 1: a box on a shelf to try and keep it

767
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:47,240
Speaker 1: in mint condition.

768
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:50,319
Speaker 3: But that's weird to do though as a kid.

769
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,520
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I don't know. I mean maybe there were

770
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:54,759
Speaker 1: kids doing it. I didn't know any.

771
00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:57,840
Speaker 3: We all played with them, sure, but I mean that

772
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:00,120
Speaker 3: was originally the point. I think it wasn't It's so

773
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:03,560
Speaker 3: like much later that it became evident that you could

774
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 3: sell them to people who wish they had them in

775
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:08,080
Speaker 3: the package still for a lot of money.

776
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:11,759
Speaker 1: Yeah. And should we should we close later on with

777
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:15,400
Speaker 1: the some of the more valuable ones, Yes, for sure.

778
00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:20,960
Speaker 1: So that's a tease, Okay, everybody, you take a break.

779
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:22,879
Speaker 3: Yeah we should. Was that it about Star Wars?

780
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,759
Speaker 1: You think I don't have anything else? Really? I mean

781
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:28,400
Speaker 1: there's a gazillion other things we could talk about, I guess,

782
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 1: But what more do you need to know, besides that

783
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 1: there were huge hits.

784
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:34,279
Speaker 3: That's it, all.

785
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 1: Right, we're gonna take a break and we're gonna come

786
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:38,520
Speaker 1: back and talk a little bit about the how these

787
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:42,440
Speaker 1: things are actually made as why why s K.

788
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,759
Speaker 3: You should know?

789
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 1: All right, So just to put a little bow on

790
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:06,360
Speaker 1: the action figure thing before we get into how they're made.

791
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,920
Speaker 1: You know, Transformers came along, was huge throughout the nineties.

792
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 1: Then you saw Marvel and DC really come on the market.

793
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:18,040
Speaker 1: Every movie you could think of had action figures. TV

794
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:22,800
Speaker 1: shows started having action figures. Older popular movies started having

795
00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:26,720
Speaker 1: action figures, like for nostalgia sake, Like I literally had

796
00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:28,240
Speaker 1: a scarface doll.

797
00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:29,960
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I've seen the.

798
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,040
Speaker 1: Scarface al Pacino that I used to have in the office.

799
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 3: Did it come with a mount of cocaine? It did,

800
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:36,640
Speaker 3: plastic mount of cocaine?

801
00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:40,720
Speaker 1: It did. And now you know, you can find pretty

802
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:44,200
Speaker 1: much any kind of action figure you want, from politicians

803
00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:48,040
Speaker 1: to older movies and TV shows and like things you

804
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:51,560
Speaker 1: wouldn't even imagine people would like Welcome Back Cotter action figures.

805
00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:55,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I didn't realize this, but apparently companies intentionally

806
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:58,840
Speaker 3: will release like a very limited run of some where

807
00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:02,279
Speaker 3: like they're missing their thumb, or like it's mislabeled on

808
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:07,360
Speaker 3: the package. To make these things, to make them valuable

809
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:11,080
Speaker 3: for the aftermarket, the collector's market. Yeah, which seems really

810
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 3: untoward to me, like gaming the collector's market by manufacturers.

811
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:21,120
Speaker 3: That's just it seems that's just the opposite of what

812
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:21,840
Speaker 3: you're supposed to do.

813
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,239
Speaker 1: So that is that verified? That sounds urban legendy to me.

814
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:27,839
Speaker 3: Well, it was in one of the articles you sent

815
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,000
Speaker 3: and I took it. The person who wrote the article

816
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:31,799
Speaker 3: sounded like they knew what they were talking about. Really,

817
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:33,719
Speaker 3: But was it that the same article from the guy

818
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:36,759
Speaker 3: who said, though I don't know that Kennard couldn't sign

819
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:38,879
Speaker 3: the contracts because the right people weren't there.

820
00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 1: I don't know, because the first thing I think of

821
00:43:41,239 --> 00:43:44,439
Speaker 1: is if they're doing that, then what's to keep them

822
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 1: from artificially manufacturing something that's going to be valuable and

823
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:50,319
Speaker 1: just keeping a bunch of them themselves.

824
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:56,120
Speaker 3: Well, most companies like money now rather than a little

825
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:58,279
Speaker 3: more money later, so that would probably do it.

826
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:01,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, you know, all right, So you want

827
00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:04,120
Speaker 1: to talk about how these suckers are made.

828
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:07,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, again, you found some good stuff here when you

829
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:07,840
Speaker 3: put this together.

830
00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:11,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought this was pretty interesting. So it starts

831
00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:12,680
Speaker 1: with design, right.

832
00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:17,080
Speaker 3: Right, which mean's pretty sensible. You say, give us a

833
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:21,600
Speaker 3: Thor character, you sucker, And they're talking to an artist

834
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:24,399
Speaker 3: a sculptor when they say that, So the sculptor gets

835
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:28,200
Speaker 3: to work like creating like basically a skeleton it's called

836
00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:32,520
Speaker 3: armature out of wire and the wires and basically a position.

837
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:35,680
Speaker 3: Thor likes to run holding his hammer, so he'll be

838
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 3: kind of like in a crouched running pose, and then

839
00:44:39,560 --> 00:44:42,200
Speaker 3: they slap some clay around it, maybe bake it a

840
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:44,640
Speaker 3: little bit to make it stiff, and then they mold

841
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:49,360
Speaker 3: very very roughly the general body shape and head shape

842
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 3: of Thor, and then they kind of start to get

843
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:53,799
Speaker 3: to work from there.

844
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, rough thorness, right is what they look for early on.

845
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:02,120
Speaker 1: And this, you know, depends on the action figure. There

846
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:08,040
Speaker 1: are all different kinds that have varying levels of movement,

847
00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:10,719
Speaker 1: and depending on what you're gonna end up with is

848
00:45:10,719 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 1: really going to inform the process. But let's say your

849
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: Thor and you want to move your arms, move those

850
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:21,480
Speaker 1: big pipes a little bit. They may choose to sculpt

851
00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:25,360
Speaker 1: the arms separately, or maybe the legs separately. They almost

852
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:28,000
Speaker 1: always do the head separately because it's got all this

853
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:30,160
Speaker 1: fine detail and you just want to work on that

854
00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:31,240
Speaker 1: by itself.

855
00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:33,600
Speaker 3: Right, And when you're messing with the head, you're just

856
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:36,200
Speaker 3: your wrist is like going into the chest that you

857
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:38,440
Speaker 3: just finished, and yeah, why do I always do this?

858
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:39,479
Speaker 3: Not have to start over?

859
00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:44,680
Speaker 1: Pretty much, so they're working with this torso perhaps only

860
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:47,760
Speaker 1: put him aside. Work on the arms, work on the hands,

861
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:51,560
Speaker 1: work on the head, and eventually, once you've got this

862
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:54,800
Speaker 1: head and face like you want it, you're going to

863
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:57,879
Speaker 1: attach that back on, build a neck, and build some hair.

864
00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:03,360
Speaker 1: And if it's one that's completely plastic, you're gonna do

865
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,279
Speaker 1: the clothes and everything in the suit. Sometimes you have

866
00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:10,680
Speaker 1: real cloth though, like in a cape, so you're gonna

867
00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:13,040
Speaker 1: you're not gonna carve that out obviously.

868
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:15,160
Speaker 3: No, No, they'll add that. They'll add that later. And

869
00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 3: sometimes like an action figure will come with like a

870
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:22,600
Speaker 3: breastplate or boots or Thor's hammer. Maybe they'll they gave

871
00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:25,799
Speaker 3: Thor kung fu grip, so they'll have to mold that

872
00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:29,080
Speaker 3: also separately. But then sometimes and you'll know this already

873
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:31,400
Speaker 3: probably as the designer, they're gonna be like, no, we

874
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:33,400
Speaker 3: don't want any of that weird cloth that's like a

875
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:35,600
Speaker 3: big g I Joe and that's just weird people out.

876
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:38,400
Speaker 3: We want it. We want it plastic and molded. So

877
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 3: they'll they'll basically carve the the clothing out of the

878
00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 3: original sculpture as well.

879
00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:47,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this all takes about two weeks on the uh.

880
00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:49,440
Speaker 1: Of course it depends on who you're working with, but

881
00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:52,360
Speaker 1: sure two or three weeks to carve this this dude

882
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:55,160
Speaker 1: out to its kind of rawest form.

883
00:46:55,560 --> 00:46:57,640
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm always incredulous of stuff like that. It's like,

884
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:00,400
Speaker 3: you know, who does it take two weeks? Is that

885
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:03,480
Speaker 3: really an average? Like how many action figure sculptors did

886
00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:05,560
Speaker 3: you pull to find out that it was two weeks?

887
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:08,120
Speaker 1: They probably just talked to someone at the company and

888
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:09,400
Speaker 1: they say how long does it take? And they say

889
00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:10,280
Speaker 1: about two weeks.

890
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:13,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's good enough for me. Then all right if

891
00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:15,360
Speaker 3: they as long as they spoke to somebody.

892
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:17,840
Speaker 1: All right. So now you've got your little little dude,

893
00:47:18,040 --> 00:47:21,120
Speaker 1: and you're going to use a plastic resin. When it

894
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:24,879
Speaker 1: comes to the actual materials of the thing itself, there's

895
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 1: something called abs acra acro leno. Wow, I thought I

896
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:32,080
Speaker 1: got it.

897
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:34,560
Speaker 3: You want me to try it. Sure, I think it's

898
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:39,240
Speaker 3: a Kryla Nitrial beautidyene styrene abs.

899
00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:39,839
Speaker 1: Nice work.

900
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:42,120
Speaker 3: Three types of plastic in one.

901
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 1: That's right. So that's the harder plastic for the main body.

902
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:48,839
Speaker 1: They may use something like polypropylene or polyethylene for the

903
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 1: various parts or pieces. You got your fabrics if you

904
00:47:54,040 --> 00:47:59,160
Speaker 1: have capes and things like that so weird, well no,

905
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:03,560
Speaker 1: I mean even the little small figures had had like

906
00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:07,920
Speaker 1: the Jawas had capes. Yeah, not capes, but cloaks.

907
00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:10,480
Speaker 3: I know, I remember weird to me ow too. And

908
00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:12,799
Speaker 3: I think, finally I understand what it is that I

909
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:16,040
Speaker 3: don't like about the large Gi Jo's. They had fabric

910
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:20,319
Speaker 3: clothing and it was ill fitting clothing too, Like did

911
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:22,120
Speaker 3: you see I don't know if you had it or not,

912
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:24,640
Speaker 3: but the original g I Joe, like some of them,

913
00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:27,680
Speaker 3: came with a raincoat, but it didn't look like a raincoat.

914
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:29,520
Speaker 3: It looked like he was wearing a sleeping bag that

915
00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:31,240
Speaker 3: had a draw string around his face.

916
00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:32,680
Speaker 1: Are you sure it went that sleeping bag?

917
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:34,880
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be a raincoat,

918
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:36,560
Speaker 3: but I think that's what it was.

919
00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:40,200
Speaker 1: It's just creepy, you know, Yeah.

920
00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:42,360
Speaker 3: That was all. I guess it's not actually the size,

921
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:46,880
Speaker 3: it's the creepy factor brought on by this clothing that

922
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:49,719
Speaker 3: didn't fit quite right. Like you know, it was the

923
00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:53,400
Speaker 3: kind of clothing that you would make for a son

924
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:57,200
Speaker 3: who was a serial killer. But you didn't want to

925
00:48:57,200 --> 00:48:58,920
Speaker 3: turn them in, so you just keep them locked in

926
00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:01,800
Speaker 3: the basement and you got to make his own clothing.

927
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:03,239
Speaker 3: You have to make clothing for him. This is the

928
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:06,040
Speaker 3: kind of clothing you would make him. That's I think

929
00:49:06,080 --> 00:49:07,600
Speaker 3: what creeps me out about it.

930
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:10,040
Speaker 1: Well, you're working through some stuff, so I'll check in

931
00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:12,600
Speaker 1: with you at the end. We'll see exactly what it

932
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:13,960
Speaker 1: is you hate about the tall calls.

933
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:15,320
Speaker 3: All right, cool.

934
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:19,319
Speaker 1: So the manufacturing process, you got to create the mold.

935
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:22,319
Speaker 1: Next you want to master mold, or maybe it might

936
00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:26,399
Speaker 1: be more than one mold. And this requires the most time.

937
00:49:26,640 --> 00:49:28,279
Speaker 1: They say in this article about two thirds of the

938
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:30,720
Speaker 1: whole time is spent making these molds.

939
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:31,919
Speaker 3: Yeah, which makes sense.

940
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:35,840
Speaker 1: And it takes a few months again is that arbitrary?

941
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:36,560
Speaker 1: Who knows?

942
00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:41,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, this guy's like probably just takes a couple and

943
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:43,680
Speaker 3: then once you have the molds, and you also have

944
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 3: to make a decision when you're making the molds. Do

945
00:49:45,560 --> 00:49:49,000
Speaker 3: you want to make the torso and the legs together?

946
00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:50,920
Speaker 3: Is he going to move his arms? If so, you

947
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:53,360
Speaker 3: probably want to do two different molds for the arms.

948
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:57,560
Speaker 3: So there's a pretty decent amount of decision making work

949
00:49:57,680 --> 00:50:00,440
Speaker 3: that goes into just coming up with what mold you're

950
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:02,919
Speaker 3: gonna make. And then once you make the molds, then yes,

951
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:04,879
Speaker 3: you have to make the molds, you have to operate them.

952
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:08,680
Speaker 3: Then you have to decide what kind of what kind

953
00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:11,360
Speaker 3: of what's the word I'm looking for where you actually

954
00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:17,239
Speaker 3: make the plastic figure molding, which I should have been

955
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:19,600
Speaker 3: able to come up with because we were talking about

956
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:20,399
Speaker 3: molds at the time.

957
00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:21,000
Speaker 1: That's right.

958
00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:24,759
Speaker 3: So there's different kinds. I looked up one kind called

959
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:28,359
Speaker 3: rotational molding. I guess that's what Star Wars was going

960
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:31,560
Speaker 3: to try at first, but they lost too much detail

961
00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:34,839
Speaker 3: on the figure, so they went to I think an

962
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:38,120
Speaker 3: injection molding process. But with rotational molding, you've got a

963
00:50:38,160 --> 00:50:41,920
Speaker 3: mold and it's on this computerized arm, and this arm

964
00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:45,440
Speaker 3: just kind of spins around inside an oven, and inside

965
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:49,319
Speaker 3: the arm is like powdered plastic resin, and I guess

966
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:52,920
Speaker 3: it just melts it by kind of slowly spinning it around.

967
00:50:53,680 --> 00:50:55,719
Speaker 3: I don't understand what the problem is, but I guess

968
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:57,520
Speaker 3: injection molding is far superior.

969
00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:02,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess so. I mean with injection molding, they

970
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:05,360
Speaker 1: pump it into two pieces and then they apply pressure

971
00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 1: to those two pieces to mold them together while it

972
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:13,440
Speaker 1: cools and hardens. But I think what you get there is,

973
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:18,000
Speaker 1: which is why probably they wanted to use the rotational molding.

974
00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:20,719
Speaker 1: Is if you have those little Star Wars guys or

975
00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:23,920
Speaker 1: imagine g I Joe, if they were injection molds, if

976
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:27,360
Speaker 1: you look at their body from the side, it's in

977
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:29,840
Speaker 1: two pieces, and sometimes you can see a little seam

978
00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:33,600
Speaker 1: ye on their head or on their arm or something,

979
00:51:34,160 --> 00:51:35,840
Speaker 1: or probably not on their arm because those were separate,

980
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:38,480
Speaker 1: but yeah, sometimes you could see the seam or where

981
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:41,440
Speaker 1: the two halves were pressed together. They wanted that smooth

982
00:51:41,480 --> 00:51:45,320
Speaker 1: look for the for the rotational molding that that provides.

983
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:48,919
Speaker 1: But I always I guess the detail is the trade off.

984
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:52,280
Speaker 3: So that's the that's the rotational molding. You don't have seams,

985
00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:55,239
Speaker 3: but you lose fine detail. With injection molding, you can

986
00:51:55,280 --> 00:51:57,960
Speaker 3: get the detail, but you can see the seams of

987
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:00,359
Speaker 3: where the two sides of the mold came together, guess.

988
00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:02,480
Speaker 1: But man, I mean, how bad could that detail have been?

989
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:04,440
Speaker 1: Because when you look at those early Star Wars figures,

990
00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:06,160
Speaker 1: I mean the detail was not great.

991
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:09,400
Speaker 3: No, you know, like had I been Mark Hamill who

992
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:11,000
Speaker 3: had been like this, this is what you think my face

993
00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:11,520
Speaker 3: looks like?

994
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,600
Speaker 1: Yeah? Like they I mean, they've gotten way better. Like

995
00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:17,359
Speaker 1: the stuff they're making today is amazing, but.

996
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:19,759
Speaker 3: It's almost too good, you know what I mean, Like, yeah,

997
00:52:19,760 --> 00:52:22,360
Speaker 3: there's some amazing stuff out there, but it's that was

998
00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:25,439
Speaker 3: one of the great things about these especially the three

999
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:28,440
Speaker 3: and three quarter inch guys. They just they just they

1000
00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:30,480
Speaker 3: were they were meant to be played with. They were

1001
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:35,680
Speaker 3: meant to have imagination bestowed on them in little child's hands. Yeah,

1002
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:38,440
Speaker 3: not supposed to sit on your desk at work or

1003
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:41,319
Speaker 3: something like that, and just as adornment like, they were

1004
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:43,600
Speaker 3: meant to be played with, and they were. They were

1005
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:49,319
Speaker 3: subtly downgraded from you know, the stuff that's out today.

1006
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:53,560
Speaker 1: They were downgraded to an upgrade. Yes, Like John Hodgman

1007
00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:57,359
Speaker 1: is literally screaming right now into his earbuds because we're

1008
00:52:57,440 --> 00:53:00,600
Speaker 1: nostalgic about something that was Sorry, John decidedly crappier.

1009
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:04,319
Speaker 3: Sorry, but it's true though for me, like I think

1010
00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:07,320
Speaker 3: that they were they were great. Have I told you

1011
00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:09,200
Speaker 3: how I feel about the three and three quarter inch

1012
00:53:09,239 --> 00:53:09,799
Speaker 3: g I Joe.

1013
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:13,759
Speaker 1: No, we should talk about that some more, all right.

1014
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:16,800
Speaker 1: So you've got this mold now pressed together if it's injection,

1015
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:19,359
Speaker 1: and then you have to assemble it. If you have

1016
00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:24,480
Speaker 1: the arms separately perhaps or basically anything else that doesn't

1017
00:53:24,480 --> 00:53:27,560
Speaker 1: come on that original mold, you're gonna have to assemble

1018
00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:31,920
Speaker 1: it together. Put all the little finishing details, maybe the

1019
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:36,840
Speaker 1: clothing that you hate so much, maybe they're painted with

1020
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:39,560
Speaker 1: a little more detail, that detail that you hate so much,

1021
00:53:41,360 --> 00:53:43,600
Speaker 1: and all the things that make a better action figure

1022
00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:44,640
Speaker 1: that you hate so much.

1023
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:48,040
Speaker 3: It's not that I hate it, it's it's just I

1024
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 3: don't know, I'm not quite sure how to put it back.

1025
00:53:50,200 --> 00:53:50,840
Speaker 1: I'm just teasing.

1026
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:54,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So it's I don't hate it, I just

1027
00:53:54,480 --> 00:53:55,440
Speaker 3: really don't like it.

1028
00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,560
Speaker 1: The final the final key to this whole thing is

1029
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:04,000
Speaker 1: packaging and shipping. So you think a big deal, was

1030
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:06,080
Speaker 1: a big deal with the package, but a lot of

1031
00:54:06,080 --> 00:54:08,399
Speaker 1: thought goes into the packaging, like you were talking about

1032
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:11,719
Speaker 1: earlier with the g I Joe. Actually advertising the other

1033
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:17,520
Speaker 1: dudes on the package, but that classic cardboard backed, clear

1034
00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:22,160
Speaker 1: plastic casing the shell. Yeah, the shell that was sort

1035
00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:25,160
Speaker 1: of became the standard and what everyone came to think

1036
00:54:25,200 --> 00:54:26,960
Speaker 1: of as an action figure package.

1037
00:54:27,120 --> 00:54:29,799
Speaker 3: Yeah. And man, that was another thing that with the

1038
00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:31,680
Speaker 3: wave of G I. Joe's that I played with, that

1039
00:54:32,080 --> 00:54:34,520
Speaker 3: really put a lot of time and effort and thought

1040
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:38,320
Speaker 3: into the packaging and that I mean, that was definitely

1041
00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:42,120
Speaker 3: part of it. That really helps sell the action figures

1042
00:54:42,160 --> 00:54:43,360
Speaker 3: in a lot of ways.

1043
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:45,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, even though I tore right into it,

1044
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:48,319
Speaker 1: like I said, I disregarded the package well.

1045
00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:50,480
Speaker 3: With the later G I. Jo's, there was a card

1046
00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:53,239
Speaker 3: on the back that had like their code name, their specialty,

1047
00:54:53,320 --> 00:54:56,520
Speaker 3: their backstory, and like you clip them out and collect

1048
00:54:56,560 --> 00:54:58,600
Speaker 3: those as well. Like it was definitely part of it.

1049
00:54:58,680 --> 00:55:01,920
Speaker 1: I collected the Star Wars trading cards too. It's funny.

1050
00:55:01,920 --> 00:55:04,279
Speaker 1: I went back and got all my old cards not

1051
00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:07,440
Speaker 1: too long ago, and I didn't collect a ton of cards.

1052
00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:09,960
Speaker 1: I thought like, oh, maybe there'll be some, you know

1053
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:13,680
Speaker 1: ken Griffy Rookie card in here worth five grand. So

1054
00:55:14,040 --> 00:55:16,480
Speaker 1: foolishly I thought I had something of value, which I

1055
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:19,480
Speaker 1: did not. Yeah, But I went through and I had

1056
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:23,600
Speaker 1: some weird cards that I don't even remember collecting, Like

1057
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:25,720
Speaker 1: I had Welcome Back Codder cards.

1058
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:29,560
Speaker 3: No, oh, yeah, that's twice that Welcome Back Codder's made

1059
00:55:29,560 --> 00:55:32,600
Speaker 3: an appearance in this episode. I was not expecting either one.

1060
00:55:32,719 --> 00:55:34,520
Speaker 1: I like the show a lot, but I don't remember

1061
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:38,680
Speaker 1: buying these cards. I had Jaws the movie cards. I

1062
00:55:38,719 --> 00:55:45,160
Speaker 1: had lots of Star Wars cards, some weird like I mean,

1063
00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:47,880
Speaker 1: I had football cards. I didn't even collect football cards.

1064
00:55:47,880 --> 00:55:48,399
Speaker 1: I didn't think.

1065
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:51,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, I went through. I did the same thing you did.

1066
00:55:51,120 --> 00:55:53,040
Speaker 3: I got all the boxes of baseball cards from my

1067
00:55:53,120 --> 00:55:55,759
Speaker 3: dad's house, and I was like, I didn't where did

1068
00:55:55,760 --> 00:55:57,480
Speaker 3: I get all these football cards?

1069
00:55:57,600 --> 00:55:57,920
Speaker 1: Yeah?

1070
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:01,680
Speaker 3: Who even collects football cards? You know? It's untowared.

1071
00:56:01,920 --> 00:56:04,720
Speaker 1: It's weird. But the cool thing about the seventies cards

1072
00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:08,400
Speaker 1: is just the look when you could like, yeah, you know,

1073
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:10,160
Speaker 1: you had to back the camera off so you could

1074
00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:13,440
Speaker 1: fit the afro into the card, and all these like

1075
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:16,560
Speaker 1: great haircuts and hairdoos that all these guys had back then. Yeah,

1076
00:56:16,560 --> 00:56:17,120
Speaker 1: it's pretty good.

1077
00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:18,800
Speaker 3: Why is he holding that fist aloft?

1078
00:56:18,920 --> 00:56:19,120
Speaker 1: Yeah?

1079
00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:23,279
Speaker 3: And then chuck. After the packaging, it goes to the

1080
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:26,879
Speaker 3: stores and little kids like us buy it and love it.

1081
00:56:27,160 --> 00:56:27,520
Speaker 1: That's right.

1082
00:56:27,640 --> 00:56:30,120
Speaker 3: That's the end of the manufacturing process.

1083
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:31,640
Speaker 1: Wow, what a journey.

1084
00:56:31,960 --> 00:56:33,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was something we went all the way to

1085
00:56:33,680 --> 00:56:34,479
Speaker 3: China and back.

1086
00:56:34,560 --> 00:56:36,520
Speaker 1: Well he did. I don't think we pointed that out

1087
00:56:36,520 --> 00:56:41,960
Speaker 1: a lot of times. The molding process is an asia.

1088
00:56:42,040 --> 00:56:43,840
Speaker 1: So that's one reason it takes so long.

1089
00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:47,320
Speaker 3: Right, because they put them on slow boats.

1090
00:56:47,360 --> 00:56:47,719
Speaker 1: That's right.

1091
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:54,000
Speaker 3: So you kind of tease this earlier the you found

1092
00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:56,719
Speaker 3: a list of the rarest Star Wars figures.

1093
00:56:57,000 --> 00:56:59,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I looked at other lists and

1094
00:56:59,680 --> 00:57:02,640
Speaker 1: they different figures. So I don't know if that's something

1095
00:57:02,680 --> 00:57:06,040
Speaker 1: that changes a lot as far as which ones are

1096
00:57:06,040 --> 00:57:09,319
Speaker 1: the most valuable, because I literally saw at least two

1097
00:57:09,400 --> 00:57:12,320
Speaker 1: different ones that were described as the holy Grail of

1098
00:57:12,440 --> 00:57:15,880
Speaker 1: Star Wars figures. Yeah, so you know there can't be

1099
00:57:15,880 --> 00:57:19,800
Speaker 1: more than one holy Grail. No, So I do look

1100
00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:23,200
Speaker 1: forward to hearing from those in the know. But instead

1101
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:25,520
Speaker 1: of saying these are the most valuable, let's just say

1102
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:29,200
Speaker 1: we'll talk about some that are pretty rare and fairly valuable.

1103
00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:31,920
Speaker 3: I think that was pretty smart.

1104
00:57:32,200 --> 00:57:34,720
Speaker 1: So no one holds us our feet to the flame,

1105
00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:36,880
Speaker 1: right yak face.

1106
00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:40,320
Speaker 3: I had not heard of yak face, had you?

1107
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:40,600
Speaker 1: No?

1108
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:45,480
Speaker 3: So yak Face was one of Boba Fett's either guards

1109
00:57:45,520 --> 00:57:48,200
Speaker 3: or mercenaries. But he worked for Boba fet No not,

1110
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:52,960
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Star Wars people, stop, stop. He

1111
00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:56,680
Speaker 3: worked for Joba the Hut. He's not the same person.

1112
00:57:56,720 --> 00:58:02,400
Speaker 1: You just caused three car accidents, three Toyota priuses.

1113
00:58:02,560 --> 00:58:05,960
Speaker 3: Just liberty mutual is going to be like this, Josh Clark.

1114
00:58:06,160 --> 00:58:10,160
Speaker 3: You got to work them into our actuarial tables.

1115
00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:12,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, So he was part of the power of the

1116
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:15,960
Speaker 1: force line. He was canceled. And you'll find that here's

1117
00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:20,200
Speaker 1: a common thread here is rarity is what makes something valuable.

1118
00:58:20,680 --> 00:58:24,640
Speaker 1: And something can be a garbage figure and they don't

1119
00:58:24,680 --> 00:58:27,040
Speaker 1: make many of them and then it becomes valuable.

1120
00:58:26,920 --> 00:58:29,920
Speaker 3: Right, And I think he wasn't necessarily a garbage figure.

1121
00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:32,479
Speaker 3: He was just released at a time when, like Star

1122
00:58:32,520 --> 00:58:35,880
Speaker 3: Wars figures, sales in general were waning. So they sent

1123
00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:38,440
Speaker 3: him over to Europe. And this thing says that he

1124
00:58:38,560 --> 00:58:41,520
Speaker 3: was never released in the States. I saw that he was,

1125
00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:43,720
Speaker 3: but it was in for a very brief time, in

1126
00:58:43,760 --> 00:58:46,440
Speaker 3: a very limited run, and then they sent him to Europe.

1127
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:49,200
Speaker 3: I think in nineteen eighty five, where Return of the

1128
00:58:49,280 --> 00:58:51,760
Speaker 3: Jedi had just come out, So they were crazy for

1129
00:58:51,840 --> 00:58:53,960
Speaker 3: anything that had anything to do with Return to the Jedi.

1130
00:58:54,200 --> 00:58:58,280
Speaker 3: America was already like who cares about Return of the Jedi?

1131
00:58:59,160 --> 00:59:04,280
Speaker 3: Were into Temple of Doom. Oh yeah, which I read

1132
00:59:04,280 --> 00:59:07,720
Speaker 3: an article about that recently. Supposedly Temple of Doom was

1133
00:59:07,760 --> 00:59:12,520
Speaker 3: so dark because both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were

1134
00:59:12,560 --> 00:59:15,800
Speaker 3: going through breakups at the time that they were writing

1135
00:59:15,840 --> 00:59:16,800
Speaker 3: and making it.

1136
00:59:17,080 --> 00:59:18,919
Speaker 1: So we said, what can we do here't Why don't

1137
00:59:18,920 --> 00:59:21,600
Speaker 1: he pull out his heart and eat it? Right, That's

1138
00:59:21,600 --> 00:59:26,480
Speaker 1: what I feel like, because that's what Tina did, all right?

1139
00:59:26,560 --> 00:59:30,200
Speaker 1: Wee kway, So this is another Job of the Huts guards.

1140
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:31,560
Speaker 1: Are you sure you didn't get those confused?

1141
00:59:32,000 --> 00:59:35,400
Speaker 3: I specifically went and looked up Yak face and he

1142
00:59:35,840 --> 00:59:37,720
Speaker 3: works for Job of the Hut. They even gave Job

1143
00:59:37,760 --> 00:59:39,880
Speaker 3: of the Huts full name, and I just remember the

1144
00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:40,600
Speaker 3: job apart.

1145
00:59:41,080 --> 00:59:41,960
Speaker 1: Oh he had more than that.

1146
00:59:42,520 --> 00:59:45,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, the hut was he was a member of the Huts,

1147
00:59:45,840 --> 00:59:49,400
Speaker 3: like the race of Huts or the tribe of Huts.

1148
00:59:49,400 --> 00:59:53,240
Speaker 3: So it was Joba the Hut, like you know, Chuck

1149
00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:55,800
Speaker 3: the American gotcha.

1150
00:59:56,560 --> 00:59:59,680
Speaker 1: Well, I think I'm on record as being like I'm

1151
00:59:59,680 --> 01:00:02,720
Speaker 1: a big star Wars fan loved them, saw them many

1152
01:00:02,760 --> 01:00:07,040
Speaker 1: many times, collected the things, but then it ended. I'm

1153
01:00:07,080 --> 01:00:10,720
Speaker 1: not on of the other half that really went down

1154
01:00:10,720 --> 01:00:11,400
Speaker 1: the rabbit hole.

1155
01:00:13,080 --> 01:00:15,600
Speaker 3: Like oh, who are still like into it as much

1156
01:00:15,640 --> 01:00:16,280
Speaker 3: as before?

1157
01:00:16,640 --> 01:00:20,120
Speaker 1: Yeah? And even back then, like new things like Joba

1158
01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:20,920
Speaker 1: the Huts.

1159
01:00:20,640 --> 01:00:22,640
Speaker 3: Full name Oh oh oh yeah yeah, like.

1160
01:00:22,640 --> 01:00:23,960
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I never knew that stuff and

1161
01:00:24,000 --> 01:00:25,560
Speaker 1: never read the books or anything like that.

1162
01:00:26,040 --> 01:00:26,280
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1163
01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:28,360
Speaker 1: Oh I did have some of those comics though, I

1164
01:00:28,400 --> 01:00:29,160
Speaker 1: remember that now.

1165
01:00:29,560 --> 01:00:31,720
Speaker 3: I never had the comics. I was aware of the books,

1166
01:00:31,760 --> 01:00:33,520
Speaker 3: and there was a lot of books when't there.

1167
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:35,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, they still write them too, I think, don't they.

1168
01:00:36,160 --> 01:00:39,720
Speaker 3: Sure? Hey, if it's a good thing, sure right?

1169
01:00:40,280 --> 01:00:40,720
Speaker 1: Is that good?

1170
01:00:41,960 --> 01:00:44,640
Speaker 3: I think so? I think we as swashed the people

1171
01:00:44,640 --> 01:00:45,880
Speaker 3: who are into the books.

1172
01:00:46,640 --> 01:00:48,960
Speaker 1: All right. So Weakway is another guard. Apparently it is

1173
01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:52,640
Speaker 1: not super rare, but there is a limited edition version

1174
01:00:53,720 --> 01:00:59,280
Speaker 1: that is worth more so. The carded mint condition Power

1175
01:00:59,320 --> 01:01:03,360
Speaker 1: of the forest Line in the nineties is worth a

1176
01:01:03,400 --> 01:01:07,840
Speaker 1: little bit more money. He says, thirty five dollars. That's

1177
01:01:07,840 --> 01:01:08,520
Speaker 1: what it's worth.

1178
01:01:08,800 --> 01:01:10,880
Speaker 3: No, no, no, that's what the normal one's worth.

1179
01:01:11,040 --> 01:01:12,960
Speaker 1: Oh okay, the one.

1180
01:01:12,680 --> 01:01:16,200
Speaker 3: That has a special freeze frame slide, which I don't

1181
01:01:16,200 --> 01:01:18,960
Speaker 3: know what that is. Ah, gotcha, that one's worth ten

1182
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:21,080
Speaker 3: times that amount according to this guy.

1183
01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:25,120
Speaker 1: All right, I remember the vinyl caped Jahwa was always

1184
01:01:25,120 --> 01:01:27,960
Speaker 1: worth a lot of money. Mm because they came out

1185
01:01:27,960 --> 01:01:28,880
Speaker 1: with the cloth cape.

1186
01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:30,080
Speaker 3: I know it's creepy.

1187
01:01:30,640 --> 01:01:32,320
Speaker 1: Uh so I'm going to throw that in there, just

1188
01:01:32,360 --> 01:01:33,280
Speaker 1: off the top of my head.

1189
01:01:34,360 --> 01:01:36,440
Speaker 3: There was also I think a vinyl caped in a

1190
01:01:36,480 --> 01:01:43,480
Speaker 3: cloth caped Imperial Guard. Remember the Emperor's red cloaked guards,

1191
01:01:44,040 --> 01:01:46,600
Speaker 3: and I think Return of the Jedi. Maybe Empire strikes back.

1192
01:01:46,760 --> 01:01:48,400
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm afraid to say anything out loud.

1193
01:01:48,480 --> 01:01:51,600
Speaker 3: Now, Yeah, let's just first stop.

1194
01:01:52,480 --> 01:01:55,280
Speaker 1: Uh, let's skip that next one and go straight to

1195
01:01:55,280 --> 01:01:58,800
Speaker 1: Bubba Fet. How does that sound okay? Bubba fat the

1196
01:01:58,920 --> 01:02:04,200
Speaker 1: very famously, in nineteen seventy nine, there was a Bubba

1197
01:02:04,240 --> 01:02:08,880
Speaker 1: Fet that actually shot a missile, which, as every parent knows,

1198
01:02:09,440 --> 01:02:12,880
Speaker 1: is a chokeable. Is it the parent's worst nightmare? Is that?

1199
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:16,080
Speaker 1: The term a chokeable chokable something you can choke on?

1200
01:02:16,360 --> 01:02:19,240
Speaker 3: Is that a real like parents term? Yeah, that's awesome.

1201
01:02:19,280 --> 01:02:19,800
Speaker 3: I did not know.

1202
01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:25,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, supposedly, anything smaller than a the size of a

1203
01:02:25,640 --> 01:02:30,320
Speaker 1: toilet paper roll tube. What is it chokeable?

1204
01:02:31,200 --> 01:02:32,000
Speaker 3: Smaller than that?

1205
01:02:32,240 --> 01:02:33,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, so like if you can fit something through a

1206
01:02:33,920 --> 01:02:36,560
Speaker 1: toilet paper tube, then your kid can choke on it.

1207
01:02:36,800 --> 01:02:40,240
Speaker 3: Gotcha, that's what they say. Who says that?

1208
01:02:40,760 --> 01:02:43,400
Speaker 1: I don't know the Today Show, dump dumb parenting blogs.

1209
01:02:44,680 --> 01:02:48,080
Speaker 3: It makes sense, though, Yeah, can't fit a football through that.

1210
01:02:48,400 --> 01:02:51,800
Speaker 3: Can't choke on a football, That's correct the system. You

1211
01:02:51,840 --> 01:02:54,080
Speaker 3: could choke on a tiny football though, I guess so.

1212
01:02:54,560 --> 01:03:01,120
Speaker 1: All right, yeah, the chokable Bubba fet. Obviously, they said

1213
01:03:01,160 --> 01:03:03,800
Speaker 1: this is a joking hazard, so they scrapped the plans

1214
01:03:03,800 --> 01:03:09,880
Speaker 1: and redesigned it, and so they did eventually release the figure,

1215
01:03:09,920 --> 01:03:11,880
Speaker 1: but it had that and I had this one, not

1216
01:03:11,920 --> 01:03:14,280
Speaker 1: the one that shot the rocket, because they never released

1217
01:03:14,320 --> 01:03:15,160
Speaker 1: that one, right.

1218
01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:22,160
Speaker 3: I specifically remember being in the same room with one

1219
01:03:22,200 --> 01:03:23,120
Speaker 3: that shot a rocket.

1220
01:03:23,560 --> 01:03:24,760
Speaker 1: Or sure it wasn't hacked.

1221
01:03:24,920 --> 01:03:30,160
Speaker 3: Here's the other possible explanation. I saw it on an

1222
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:34,280
Speaker 3: ad and am confusing reality with television again.

1223
01:03:34,160 --> 01:03:36,400
Speaker 1: Because it says here they never released them in stores.

1224
01:03:36,560 --> 01:03:39,160
Speaker 3: I saw that too, But I'm like, I swear I

1225
01:03:39,200 --> 01:03:42,040
Speaker 3: saw one of these things, or maybe we were just

1226
01:03:42,080 --> 01:03:44,200
Speaker 3: playing with it and we're like, this thing sucks. If

1227
01:03:44,200 --> 01:03:46,360
Speaker 3: it actually shot the missile. It'd be so much better,

1228
01:03:46,560 --> 01:03:48,360
Speaker 3: And I imagine what that would be like, and then

1229
01:03:48,400 --> 01:03:52,480
Speaker 3: accidentally formed a memory. Who knows, I'm forty years old now,

1230
01:03:52,520 --> 01:03:54,160
Speaker 3: I can't remember what was going on when I was

1231
01:03:54,200 --> 01:03:54,800
Speaker 3: seven or eight.

1232
01:03:56,600 --> 01:03:58,440
Speaker 1: As far as how valuable these things are if you

1233
01:03:58,440 --> 01:04:01,360
Speaker 1: can get your hands on one, I mean, I've seen

1234
01:04:01,400 --> 01:04:03,840
Speaker 1: things all over the place. One was sold for eighteen

1235
01:04:03,880 --> 01:04:07,640
Speaker 1: thousand dollars last year. But then I also saw one

1236
01:04:07,680 --> 01:04:11,280
Speaker 1: where supposedly one hundred thousand dollars offer at a Sotheby's

1237
01:04:11,640 --> 01:04:15,680
Speaker 1: auction was turned down. What so, I have no idea

1238
01:04:16,400 --> 01:04:19,000
Speaker 1: the value of these dudes, but it's a lot of dough.

1239
01:04:19,280 --> 01:04:20,400
Speaker 3: Is that the Holy Grail one?

1240
01:04:20,720 --> 01:04:22,440
Speaker 1: Well, this is one of the holy grails.

1241
01:04:22,720 --> 01:04:25,080
Speaker 3: Do you remember what another Holy Grail you saw was?

1242
01:04:25,200 --> 01:04:28,520
Speaker 1: Yeah? The other one is supposedly the most valuable is

1243
01:04:28,560 --> 01:04:36,120
Speaker 1: the double telescoping lightsaber for Obi Wan, Darth Vader, and Luke,

1244
01:04:36,120 --> 01:04:39,720
Speaker 1: And I think Luke's is the most expensive. If you

1245
01:04:39,760 --> 01:04:41,880
Speaker 1: remember the little did you have any of these?

1246
01:04:42,560 --> 01:04:43,280
Speaker 3: I had a couple.

1247
01:04:43,640 --> 01:04:48,320
Speaker 1: So the lightsaber guys had a thing on the bottom

1248
01:04:48,320 --> 01:04:52,880
Speaker 1: of their arm, a little groove cut out with a little,

1249
01:04:53,040 --> 01:04:58,520
Speaker 1: you know, plastic knob that you would shove up toward

1250
01:04:58,560 --> 01:05:00,640
Speaker 1: the wrist and a lightsaber on would come out of

1251
01:05:00,680 --> 01:05:05,960
Speaker 1: the hand as if it were turning on the double telescoping,

1252
01:05:06,040 --> 01:05:10,320
Speaker 1: because that's a telescoping feature. A double telescoping means that

1253
01:05:10,360 --> 01:05:14,600
Speaker 1: you could extend it even further out from the original telescope,

1254
01:05:15,160 --> 01:05:19,680
Speaker 1: and those supposedly are super rare and worth a lot

1255
01:05:19,720 --> 01:05:20,120
Speaker 1: of dough.

1256
01:05:20,400 --> 01:05:25,600
Speaker 3: So that one I saw actually online. Oh man, I

1257
01:05:25,640 --> 01:05:28,720
Speaker 3: can't remember the site, but it was it's a great

1258
01:05:28,800 --> 01:05:32,800
Speaker 3: Star Wars action figure sight and they had a picture

1259
01:05:32,840 --> 01:05:34,120
Speaker 3: of it. Have you seen it?

1260
01:05:35,280 --> 01:05:38,400
Speaker 1: Yeah? I thought I had one, but I can't find it,

1261
01:05:38,440 --> 01:05:39,840
Speaker 1: so I think I do.

1262
01:05:40,320 --> 01:05:44,120
Speaker 3: Like the regular lightsaber that they had was just fine,

1263
01:05:44,920 --> 01:05:47,800
Speaker 3: but then the double telescoping part was just like this

1264
01:05:47,880 --> 01:05:52,360
Speaker 3: extra thinner, pointy piece of plastic that hung down at

1265
01:05:52,400 --> 01:05:55,240
Speaker 3: like a weird angle. It didn't keep going straight.

1266
01:05:55,680 --> 01:05:56,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, they always kind of bent.

1267
01:05:57,040 --> 01:06:00,840
Speaker 3: And it looked just it looked broken, you know.

1268
01:06:01,560 --> 01:06:04,080
Speaker 1: Yeah. But even if I did have one, it's well worn.

1269
01:06:04,200 --> 01:06:06,240
Speaker 1: So it's not like I mean, I think all of

1270
01:06:06,240 --> 01:06:09,080
Speaker 1: these things, it's always like mint condition in the package.

1271
01:06:09,160 --> 01:06:09,760
Speaker 1: It's worth this.

1272
01:06:10,120 --> 01:06:12,720
Speaker 3: Don't even talk to me if it's not mint. Yeah,

1273
01:06:12,880 --> 01:06:14,400
Speaker 3: that's the that's the slogan.

1274
01:06:14,840 --> 01:06:17,560
Speaker 1: So I would love some of this cleared up by experts.

1275
01:06:18,320 --> 01:06:19,680
Speaker 3: Oh, well, we'll hear from them.

1276
01:06:19,760 --> 01:06:21,600
Speaker 1: The Bubba fet matter, Yeah, I don't even know why

1277
01:06:21,600 --> 01:06:24,760
Speaker 1: I'm asking the Bubba fet matter the like? Which one

1278
01:06:24,800 --> 01:06:25,840
Speaker 1: is truly the Holy Grail?

1279
01:06:27,160 --> 01:06:30,720
Speaker 3: What happened with the Kenner or not Kenner? The Migo

1280
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:31,800
Speaker 3: Star Wars deal?

1281
01:06:32,080 --> 01:06:34,680
Speaker 1: Right? And did did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone?

1282
01:06:35,080 --> 01:06:39,600
Speaker 3: Yes? We need answers. People. You got anything else?

1283
01:06:39,760 --> 01:06:42,280
Speaker 1: I got nothing else. This is a big overview. There's

1284
01:06:42,320 --> 01:06:44,160
Speaker 1: clearly many more stories to be told.

1285
01:06:44,440 --> 01:06:46,360
Speaker 3: I got a couple couple more. I just want to

1286
01:06:46,400 --> 01:06:50,280
Speaker 3: give shouts out, all right, Yojoe dot com. Okay, if

1287
01:06:50,320 --> 01:06:52,560
Speaker 3: you were into g I Joe's and you want to

1288
01:06:52,600 --> 01:06:57,640
Speaker 3: feel nostalgic, go check that site out. It's amazing. And

1289
01:06:57,680 --> 01:07:00,800
Speaker 3: then I created a gallery a few years ago called

1290
01:07:00,880 --> 01:07:05,800
Speaker 3: Hilarious Knockoffs and Legs of Beloved Toys, And it's just

1291
01:07:05,880 --> 01:07:09,040
Speaker 3: like the slide show of toys from around the world

1292
01:07:09,160 --> 01:07:11,840
Speaker 3: that are it's pretty obvious what they're supposed to be,

1293
01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:14,200
Speaker 3: but they're not, like the name's just a little off,

1294
01:07:14,400 --> 01:07:17,720
Speaker 3: or they they've they've tried to come up with a

1295
01:07:17,760 --> 01:07:21,320
Speaker 3: new brand altogether. But it's just some cheap version of

1296
01:07:21,360 --> 01:07:24,080
Speaker 3: something great. So go check that out too. It's kind

1297
01:07:24,080 --> 01:07:25,400
Speaker 3: of cool. It was fun to.

1298
01:07:25,320 --> 01:07:26,920
Speaker 1: Put together, I bet.

1299
01:07:27,480 --> 01:07:29,360
Speaker 3: And that's that's it, man, it's all I got. Go

1300
01:07:29,400 --> 01:07:32,160
Speaker 3: watch the g I Joe PSAs by Eric Fenzler again.

1301
01:07:32,200 --> 01:07:37,160
Speaker 3: They still hold up. Oh yeah, you remember those where

1302
01:07:37,160 --> 01:07:39,720
Speaker 3: it was like a like just a weird dubs of

1303
01:07:40,000 --> 01:07:43,160
Speaker 3: those G I Joe PSA's like, now, you know, annoying

1304
01:07:43,240 --> 01:07:46,760
Speaker 3: is have the battle? You haven't seen these, I don't think,

1305
01:07:46,800 --> 01:07:50,400
Speaker 3: so okay, I'll send them to you. You're gonna die laughing.

1306
01:07:50,640 --> 01:07:50,920
Speaker 1: Good.

1307
01:07:51,360 --> 01:07:52,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, you'll love them.

1308
01:07:52,520 --> 01:07:54,720
Speaker 1: You've been trying to kill me for years. That's a

1309
01:07:54,720 --> 01:07:55,680
Speaker 1: delightful way to do it.

1310
01:07:55,760 --> 01:07:58,520
Speaker 3: But this time I won't be wearing gloves coming at

1311
01:07:58,520 --> 01:08:02,160
Speaker 3: your neck. That's it for me, man, Yeah, that's it

1312
01:08:02,160 --> 01:08:04,320
Speaker 3: for me. Okay, Well, if you want to know more

1313
01:08:04,440 --> 01:08:07,640
Speaker 3: about action figures, you can type those words into the

1314
01:08:07,680 --> 01:08:11,600
Speaker 3: search bar of your favorite search engine. Since I said

1315
01:08:11,600 --> 01:08:13,920
Speaker 3: search engine and didn't do any buzzmarketing, it's time for

1316
01:08:13,920 --> 01:08:14,600
Speaker 3: a listener mail.

1317
01:08:17,120 --> 01:08:19,320
Speaker 1: We're gonna plug Kiva, which we haven't done in a

1318
01:08:19,360 --> 01:08:20,080
Speaker 1: long time.

1319
01:08:20,320 --> 01:08:21,160
Speaker 3: That's a good idea.

1320
01:08:21,360 --> 01:08:26,400
Speaker 1: Kiva is a micro lending website that we have been.

1321
01:08:26,840 --> 01:08:29,439
Speaker 1: We've had a team now the stuff you should know

1322
01:08:29,520 --> 01:08:33,200
Speaker 1: team for geez, how many years? Six or seven?

1323
01:08:34,080 --> 01:08:36,800
Speaker 3: I think it was two thousand and eight or two thousand.

1324
01:08:36,479 --> 01:08:38,280
Speaker 1: And nine, eight years, seven or eight years? What?

1325
01:08:38,320 --> 01:08:39,000
Speaker 3: It's been a while?

1326
01:08:39,120 --> 01:08:40,720
Speaker 1: All right, So this is from Jordan, and then I'm

1327
01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:42,559
Speaker 1: going to go over a little bit more about how

1328
01:08:42,560 --> 01:08:45,280
Speaker 1: our team is looking. Hey guys, once I listened to

1329
01:08:45,320 --> 01:08:47,880
Speaker 1: a podcasts where you promote a Kiva I've decided to

1330
01:08:47,920 --> 01:08:51,120
Speaker 1: google the Kiva donation thing it eventually found it correctly

1331
01:08:51,520 --> 01:08:54,800
Speaker 1: as kiva dot com. I immediately love the site. It's

1332
01:08:55,040 --> 01:08:57,600
Speaker 1: the epitome of how to take the globalized world and

1333
01:08:57,680 --> 01:08:59,880
Speaker 1: use that for good. So often donations come in the

1334
01:09:00,640 --> 01:09:04,120
Speaker 1: of awkward late night infomercials or five second equips at

1335
01:09:04,120 --> 01:09:06,720
Speaker 1: the grocery line, where you begrudgingly make an enemy out

1336
01:09:06,720 --> 01:09:08,920
Speaker 1: of the seventeen year old clerk for saying no, I

1337
01:09:08,920 --> 01:09:11,920
Speaker 1: don't want to give a dollar to needy children. While

1338
01:09:11,960 --> 01:09:14,639
Speaker 1: all types of donations are generally good, Kiva makes you

1339
01:09:14,680 --> 01:09:19,479
Speaker 1: feel even more personal and once one can certainly give

1340
01:09:19,479 --> 01:09:22,040
Speaker 1: their money to needs that are important to them, you

1341
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:24,240
Speaker 1: probably get your money back, which is great. But no

1342
01:09:24,320 --> 01:09:26,559
Speaker 1: way did that motivate me to loan, and I suspect

1343
01:09:26,560 --> 01:09:29,240
Speaker 1: to most people who use Kiva would also be happy

1344
01:09:29,240 --> 01:09:31,320
Speaker 1: to have their money go to those in need without

1345
01:09:31,360 --> 01:09:34,160
Speaker 1: getting a return. However, if I do decide to receive

1346
01:09:34,160 --> 01:09:36,640
Speaker 1: my money back, I will certainly use those funds to

1347
01:09:36,680 --> 01:09:40,920
Speaker 1: circulate that Kiva site again. Yeah, in other words, reloan.

1348
01:09:40,720 --> 01:09:41,679
Speaker 3: That's one of the keys.

1349
01:09:42,080 --> 01:09:44,040
Speaker 1: I think. I'm feeling preachy now for writing you an

1350
01:09:44,040 --> 01:09:46,000
Speaker 1: email on the basis that I just loaned what amounts

1351
01:09:46,040 --> 01:09:48,240
Speaker 1: to a small amount of cash. But I just want

1352
01:09:48,280 --> 01:09:50,639
Speaker 1: to thank you guys for sharing that site and allowing

1353
01:09:50,720 --> 01:09:53,280
Speaker 1: people like myself to make their lives better. As from

1354
01:09:53,400 --> 01:10:01,240
Speaker 1: Jordan Batchelor, who claims to be a US defector, you can

1355
01:10:01,240 --> 01:10:03,000
Speaker 1: moved from the US. I can't remember where he lives now.

1356
01:10:03,840 --> 01:10:06,720
Speaker 1: He was just it's been cheeky. So we started this

1357
01:10:06,800 --> 01:10:11,680
Speaker 1: Kiva team a long time ago, and right now we

1358
01:10:11,800 --> 01:10:16,800
Speaker 1: have over nine thousand members and we are almost at

1359
01:10:16,800 --> 01:10:17,719
Speaker 1: four million bucks.

1360
01:10:17,840 --> 01:10:19,400
Speaker 3: Dude, it is insane.

1361
01:10:19,439 --> 01:10:22,120
Speaker 1: Three million, nine hundred and ninety three thousand, three hundred

1362
01:10:22,160 --> 01:10:24,599
Speaker 1: and twenty five dollars loan. That is one hundred and

1363
01:10:24,600 --> 01:10:28,240
Speaker 1: forty three thousand, one hundred and fifty five loans, average

1364
01:10:28,240 --> 01:10:31,160
Speaker 1: of sixteen loans per member. And just to give you

1365
01:10:31,240 --> 01:10:33,760
Speaker 1: an idea of how it works, you donate money, you

1366
01:10:33,880 --> 01:10:36,719
Speaker 1: will most likely get paid back, and then they say

1367
01:10:36,920 --> 01:10:38,840
Speaker 1: you can check out and take your money back, or

1368
01:10:38,840 --> 01:10:40,240
Speaker 1: you can roll that into another loan.

1369
01:10:40,400 --> 01:10:40,920
Speaker 3: For sure.

1370
01:10:41,960 --> 01:10:46,840
Speaker 1: I started off with a couple one hundred bucks way

1371
01:10:46,880 --> 01:10:49,880
Speaker 1: back when, and that now, just because I keep reinvesting,

1372
01:10:49,880 --> 01:10:53,360
Speaker 1: it has grown to one thousand, one hundred and twenty

1373
01:10:53,439 --> 01:10:57,880
Speaker 1: five dollars forty seven loans and my default rate is

1374
01:10:57,920 --> 01:10:58,839
Speaker 1: only four percent.

1375
01:10:59,360 --> 01:11:02,120
Speaker 3: Nice. Yeah, the default rate is not bad at all.

1376
01:11:02,240 --> 01:11:04,200
Speaker 1: It's not bad. So you can take a little bit,

1377
01:11:04,240 --> 01:11:07,480
Speaker 1: you can take twenty five dollars even and keep reloaning

1378
01:11:07,520 --> 01:11:10,479
Speaker 1: that and that in a few years, five or six

1379
01:11:10,560 --> 01:11:13,280
Speaker 1: years can be you know, hundreds and hundreds of dollars

1380
01:11:13,320 --> 01:11:16,719
Speaker 1: re loan to people, right, really makes a big difference.

1381
01:11:16,760 --> 01:11:19,519
Speaker 1: We did our research on Kiva. They're not perfect, but

1382
01:11:19,560 --> 01:11:21,000
Speaker 1: we think they do a really good job.

1383
01:11:21,240 --> 01:11:21,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.

1384
01:11:22,000 --> 01:11:25,200
Speaker 1: And you know, we have a stuff you should know team,

1385
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:27,040
Speaker 1: So we would love to see people sign up for it,

1386
01:11:27,400 --> 01:11:30,879
Speaker 1: push us over that four million dollar mark, which is crazy.

1387
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:34,080
Speaker 3: And yeah, yeah, we're not exclusive, We're not snobs. And

1388
01:11:34,120 --> 01:11:36,360
Speaker 3: neither is anybody on our team. It's a very very

1389
01:11:36,400 --> 01:11:39,639
Speaker 3: welcoming group of people who are really active on the board.

1390
01:11:40,360 --> 01:11:45,519
Speaker 3: They're led unofficially but de facto by Glenn and Sonya yep,

1391
01:11:45,760 --> 01:11:49,000
Speaker 3: who have emerged to be these great team leaders that

1392
01:11:49,120 --> 01:11:52,640
Speaker 3: like just keep everybody going and motivated and moderate and

1393
01:11:52,680 --> 01:11:54,400
Speaker 3: make sure everybody's on the up and up.

1394
01:11:54,400 --> 01:11:57,040
Speaker 1: And yep, they send us emails and reminders about how

1395
01:11:57,080 --> 01:11:57,479
Speaker 1: we're doing.

1396
01:11:57,800 --> 01:11:59,680
Speaker 3: Hats off to those guys. Thank you guys for that.

1397
01:12:00,120 --> 01:12:02,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, So kiva dot org I think I said dot

1398
01:12:02,320 --> 01:12:05,679
Speaker 1: com earlier and just go to the team section, search

1399
01:12:05,680 --> 01:12:09,080
Speaker 1: stuff you should know, join the team, throw twenty five

1400
01:12:09,120 --> 01:12:11,519
Speaker 1: dollars somebody's way. You can yep. You can give to

1401
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:14,400
Speaker 1: people that are doing things that are close to your heart,

1402
01:12:14,600 --> 01:12:16,320
Speaker 1: or maybe countries you've been to that you want to

1403
01:12:16,320 --> 01:12:20,240
Speaker 1: help support. You can give to women or men, and

1404
01:12:20,280 --> 01:12:23,120
Speaker 1: it's just really you can really dial down and give

1405
01:12:23,760 --> 01:12:25,240
Speaker 1: very specifically how you want to give.

1406
01:12:25,680 --> 01:12:28,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you want to know even more about it,

1407
01:12:28,040 --> 01:12:31,800
Speaker 3: you can go listen to our episode micro Lending and

1408
01:12:32,000 --> 01:12:34,439
Speaker 3: you can. We've written a couple of blog posts on it,

1409
01:12:34,439 --> 01:12:36,479
Speaker 3: and I think there's something on HuffPo even that they

1410
01:12:36,560 --> 01:12:39,160
Speaker 3: published of ours, but it's I think, like why we

1411
01:12:39,280 --> 01:12:42,360
Speaker 3: land on Kiva. Yeah, and it really addresses a lot

1412
01:12:42,360 --> 01:12:45,120
Speaker 3: of stuff that people have raised and we've said, hey man,

1413
01:12:45,200 --> 01:12:47,880
Speaker 3: it's still totally worth it. So yep, yeah, go check

1414
01:12:47,920 --> 01:12:48,200
Speaker 3: it out.

1415
01:12:48,720 --> 01:12:49,080
Speaker 1: All right.

1416
01:12:49,800 --> 01:12:51,519
Speaker 3: Uh, If you want to get in touch with us,

1417
01:12:51,680 --> 01:12:54,600
Speaker 3: you can tweet to us at sysk podcast, or you

1418
01:12:54,640 --> 01:12:57,120
Speaker 3: can hang out with me at josh um Clark. You

1419
01:12:57,120 --> 01:12:59,320
Speaker 3: can hang out with Chuck on Facebook at Charles W.

1420
01:12:59,439 --> 01:13:02,400
Speaker 3: Chuck Bryant, or you can visit our official Facebook page

1421
01:13:02,439 --> 01:13:04,840
Speaker 3: at Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know. You

1422
01:13:04,880 --> 01:13:07,600
Speaker 3: can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at HowStuffWorks

1423
01:13:07,600 --> 01:13:09,599
Speaker 3: dot com. It has always joined us at our home

1424
01:13:09,640 --> 01:13:17,120
Speaker 3: ONWN the web, Stuff youshould Know dot com.

1425
01:13:17,280 --> 01:13:19,800
Speaker 2: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit

1426
01:13:19,840 --> 01:13:28,040
Speaker 2: HowStuffWorks dot com.