Episode 20: Puttin' on the Ritz

Cambridge em Sean is a weird way media podcast. I'm not to Sunny California sun Shine down. Shine, so. You've called been up since four forty five. Cleo had Senior Sunrise.

So I had a bit of a school at like six o'clock. Faith had that this week too. I fall asleep while you're talking. It's because of that, and because it's boring whatever you're talking about, you have to clip that in. All right, Hello and welcome to Cambridge and with Sean, a podcast by two weird guys where we talk about the weird things we like.

I'm here with my very good friend Mark Begley from Wake Up Heavy. How's it going, Mark? I'm doing well. How are you doing? Ronald Zuriggian aka Skelevator, I'm doing good.

That's another thing I forget to do is say our names. I haven't done it in like the last ten episodes. That's all right, I mean, you know it's pointless by now, and people are listening to this. They've been listening to us. I mean for the new folks out there.

I'm Ronnie, this is Mark. We're here to talk about stuff, crap, talk about some crap. Yeah, things are good. It's busy. We're you know.

Last year we took a break from August because it's the beginning of the new academic year, and you and I become extraordinarily busy during this month. Me in particular, my job was really hectic this time. In fact, I had to postpone our recording session from last week to this week because of that pastard. But yeah, we're you know. I'm doing good.

I just I feel like a weight has been lifted in a way because of I delivered Snake Mountain that I'd been working on. How are you doing okay, I'm enjoying the weather. Shall we talk for twenty five minutes about the weather again and alienate the other five listeners that we have? Yeah, well, if they don't enjoy the weather, if they don't enjoy weather talk. It's supposed to be eighty three today in Fresno, and that is thirteen degrees below the average, Yes, as opposed to thirteen degrees above the average, which we had last time.

Windows are open, doors are open. It's seventy three in the house. I've got a cool down and I'm loving it. It's not going to stay that way forever, but it's nice when we get these breaks. Yeah, it's spectacular for us in Central Valley when it's eighty three in August, we're enjoying it too.

It's great. Yeah. So today we have some exciting items to discuss. It depends on how you see how you perceive the word exciting. I'm excited.

But why don't we start with you, Mark? What do you have on your agenda for today's discussion? Well, my first little item is something that I've never really had, always wanted, was obsessed with for a good while as a kid. I don't know where this came from, what it was born of, if it was from watching like old time shows like Little Rascals or some of their comedy duos or groups like I mean, I was never big into the Three Stooges or Laurel and Hardy, but I just I put this item in with those things because no one wears them anymore. Yeah, I had an obsession and really wanted to own.

A top hat. Ah, that's so awesome, A huge chunk of my childhood. I actually brought this up previously on the show. Yes, and I could just insert that little clip here. But when you were talking about Disneyland, I had a commonality with that in regard to this item.

So, like I said, I don't know where it came from, and it was specifically, and I think I've kind of conflated two different versions of the top hat. But I was struck by the swirly circular pattern of the silk on top of a top hat. Absolutely, you know, a fancy top hat. But what I really wanted was a foldable top hat. And I think this is why I think it was, you know, an episode of Little Rascal or something like that where somebody punches their fists and then it and.

A hat pops out. Now, yeah, a top hat. And I don't know, I feel like I've seen old movies though, where those fancy ones also popped out, And I may be making this up. So I wanted, though, a silk I didn't know silk at the time, a silk top hat with those fancy swirls on top that would pop out that I could pick up, put. My fist through, throw on and do god knows what.

I don't know where it hit the town, yeah, but not the writs. I don't know putting on the rits exactly, I'm sure. And I thought about this when I put it on, and it is this is an item we're doing. I'm doing minor obsession things today that don't take long to talk about since it's our August show. I did have this on my list, and I looked at it and thought, what in the world am I going to say about that?

I wanted a top hat? Okay, end the story, you know. Yeah, But as I thought about it, I thought about something else that has been brought up on the show. Oh crap, and now I've forgotten the name of it. The novelty store Intel Valley Novelty, Valley Novelty, And I was like, I mean, we.

Talked about going there. Did I ever look for a fucking magician's top hat there? Apparently not? Maybe I did, I don't know. It seems like that would have been a place to get one, at least a cheap oh, because Amazon has them now, and they're I think they're They're not even made of fabric, it's like paper or something.

They are made well, good ones are made of felt. You can still get them. In fact, it's crazy that you're bringing this up, because when I went to deliver Snake Mountain to Vincent, the guy who commissioned this. He has a huge collection of beautiful, brightly colored. They're brightly colored.

I know you and I would probably go for gray or black, but black, brightly yet blackly colored felt top hats. Huh. I was just like blown away by his collection anyway. Who interesting? Yeah, yeah, silk fancy black top hat that could also pop out.

But my connection to the Disneyland story, when you talked about that, oh gosh, like episode five. I think I went back and listened to it the other day. Yeah, my goal was and I don't know if I knew this beforehand or if I just sort of spotted it when we were there, but they used to have those little kiosks where you could buy hats and get them embroidered with your name on them. Yep, they still do. And I'm like, I think in my head, I thought, well, the Mad Hatter, that's a Disney character.

He wears a fucking top hat. Yeah, they've had them in the past. You know, we were there with family, and it wasn't like I could just say, hey, I just want to hit every kiosk in Disneyland and. Get a top hat. Now, it probably would have been lavender or whatever.

The color his hat is, but still I may have been satiated by that. But my point of the story then was that, you know, I acted like a little prick the rest of the trip because my plans were foiled on getting a top hat, and I you know, it was miserable the rest of the day, along with some other things that made me miserable, miserable about that trip. Never never got a top hat until today. Until and this. Is something I've also spoken about on the show, is that covetousness that would lead me close to and this time over the edge of Thievery Oh, where there was a kid that lived down the street from us.

I think he lived right next door to some family friends of ours who we were good friends with, and their kids were like roughly Julie my sister and my age and grew up going to school together, in church together and all that. But I think right next door to them was a kid that also went to our school. Wasn't a friend, but I think every once in a while my mom dropped me off over there when she had to do stuff. He had some mego Wizard of Oz figures for the wizard. He came with all the Wizard of oz characters came with accessories, pretty cool accessories too, and their beautiful action figures.

This is when they were getting like much more detailed and inventive with stuff. And I have a bunch of that. I think I might have the whole set now, except for the Wizard. But the Wizard came with guess what, a little rubber top hat. And I was over at that kid's house one day and we were playing with those migos, and that top hat man bit into me, and you know, it was an inch or so tall would fit.

My migos, So I stole it. That's so hilarious. Do you remember if that was the first time you ever swiped something, or do you remember the first time you swipe something. I don't know if that was a first time, but it was definitely. Yeah.

I'm trying to think if I actually ever did steal anything else from a kid or a friend, because I know I wanted to steal that Tomlin cyclops from my friend. Yeah, my best friend actually, and that would have been much much harder to do and like keep away from him. But where'd you get that? I lost mine? Oh, I found it belongs I don't know, but it may have been the first thing I took, probably wasn't the last, but it was so small, you know, I'd probably just put it in my pocket had it.

I never gave it back. I never owned up to it. I don't know if he ever missed it or cared. I mean, probably just figured it got lost in his closet or something. And I had it until I got rid of my egos, you know, and I'm assuming I put it on some of them.

I could see it fitting like the Spider Man that I had or something. That's exactly Oh my god, that's exactly the character I was thinking about Spider Man in his top hat. I don't that's hilarious. I love that little thing too. It was great, just soft rubber, perfect size for my egos.

And I probably pretended that someone was a magician or something. And I've actually been looking on eBay and thinking, you know, a lot of times people part these things. Out, and all I could find was actual wizard figures. Most of them came with the hat. I'd like to just have the hat again, right, and put the hat on Spider Man.

I've got so many migos. I put it on Cornelias for Planet of the apes. You know, when you get one, I might have to borrow it because I just got a toxic avenger Amigo, and he would look great in the top hat. And I saw that on your video. If I'm not mistaken, that's one of the larger headed modern megos.

He's got a gigantic lumpy head. He's top heavy. It might not fit on his head. That's my simple top hat obsession. Never really fulfilled it except for stealing Amigo Rubber Wizard of Oz top hat from a poor kid who probably cried himself to sleep that night.

Where's my top hat? We got to get you a top hat. I mean that this just has to happen. The problem is, I've looked at the ones on eBay and they're just not quite right. You know.

I've got that thing in my head that I needed to be what I imagined when I was a kid. And the other thing is for a lot of hats. Man, I've got a tiny pin head and if something isn't around a size seven or so, it's just gonna go over my ears. Well, okay, so you're actually in luck that you're talking to me today because you have a size seven top hat. No, but what I do know is I have a large cranium.

Look at the sason that boys heat. I'm not a kidding. That's like an orange and a toothpaste. She's gotta give the boy a complex. Well, that's a huge nuggain.

That's a ventual planetoy Haw's its own weather systems. I'm always looking whenever we go to antique stores, I'm always looking for a straw boater. So I have a similar obsession with hats, and that is that eventually I would love to own a real, authentic straw boater, the kind with a thick band around it and thick woven straw, none of this lame styrofoam artificial boater hats that are floating around. And again going back to like you walk around Disneyland, those dudes in the boater hats, those are real boaters, and they're really, really really hard to find. I'm sure there's some like super expensive habitashery where I could get one made, right, but I'm thinking too yes, and it can go all out.

You're going to be kicking yourself because there used to be. It was a fashion fair mall for about a year when I was a senior junior in high school. There was a store there that's seized in old timy men's clothing, and they had top hats derbys. I don't remember that. It was super weird.

No wonder they didn't last. Yeah, And in fact, you know, I think we probably knew each other back then. I don't know if maybe I wore I mean, that's right around the time where I met you, I actually would wear I got a Derby. I asked for a Derby for like my birthday or something, and wore it to school. And that's you know, the name calling at a mountain school was pretty hardcore.

I had a cheapo felt derby when I was a little kid. I actually was at my mom's the other day looking through our a picture albums, and I wore that fucking thing all the time. I think it was the closest thing I had to a top hat. We'll take a trip to LA or New York and go hat shopping. We got to do that.

And I know those stores are I know those stores are around. There's got to be something out there. It's just they're gonna be pricey. Yeah. The thing that I do want to tell you and reassure you on is that every time I find a really cool antique hat at an antique store, it's always too small for me.

So people's craniums were smaller back then, I guess, and they might better match the size of your skull. There you go, could be, could be. I'll keep looking. I haven't actively been looking for a top hat. I mean, there's nothing quite like it.

I went through a really distinct phase. We've talked about it on the show. I was really into silent films and silent comedies in particular, and hats always played such a significant role in those films. I loved Laurel Hardy, I loved W. C.

Fields and Laurel and Hardy had they wore this particular kind of Derby that had a shallow brim, like this little teeny tiny brim around this tall round top. I love that particular kind of Derby. Charlie Chaplin wore the same thing, and then W. C. Fields were top hat.

Maybe that's where I saw it from. W. C. Fields wore the top hat and he also wore the straw boater. Yeah, yep.

The top hat that I was really obsessed with as a young man. That was never available, not even at the novelty places was the stovepipe top hat, which is the kind of W. C. Fields war most often and Abraham Lincoln obviously that just giant tube on the top of that. So that's like, that's right up my alley.

Mark. I love hearing this. I'm kind of glad I got that one out of the way on a on a short show. This may not be short, but no promises, people. No promises.

It's a who knows where this might go to? Mayor donkey with Toto. So separately from ego, Ernie, what what are you? What are you doing with those cookies in bed? Huh?

Well the cookies? Well, I was just hungry bird, so I thought i'd I have a few cookies before I went to sleep. Because you brought up the hat, I need to talk a little bit about Burton, Ernie, and the main reason why these are associated to the hat is that they are little tufts of hair at the top of their heads. I've always thought that that was such a brilliant decision design wise, and the thing that I'm going to talk about a little bit today, and you know that this came across the transom for me recently with all of the Sesame Street announcements being made. Necas coming out with some Super seven has some figures out, and I've done reviews on Super seven figures.

I've been really itching to get the versions of Burton Ernie that have the most distinct hats. I'm doing hair quotes and if you know what I mean, which I know you do, But folks listening, getting a Burt and Ernie vintage Fisher Price little People without their hair pieces chewed up is really difficult. As a kid, I was completely We've talked about this tactile quality of something plays a really significant role in nostalgia for me and I know for others, like how did something feel in your hands? I had seen the Fisher Price Little People Bert and Ernie characters at a friend's house or something, I don't know, maybe even school. They were ubiquitous, exactly.

They were in every preschool or daycare that Sesame Street set. Yep, everything about that Sesame Street set I can remember by touch. I mean, it is crazy whenever I see one in an antique store and I absolutely cannot afford it. All I have to do is handle the thing that sounds weird. It all comes back to me and I think it's because my encounter with those items happened when I was like three or four years old.

Yeah, and it really affected me in a significant way. I'm also one of those kids that chewed on the hair of Burt and or Ernie. Right, So, and these are little hats like if Super seven or Neka or one of these companies put out Burt and Ernie caps so you could have the tuft of hair on the top of your head. I think I would totally fall for that and buy one or two, one for you and one for me. It's one of those characteristics that has a through line through most of the toys.

The Little Finger puppets also have actual fur. They have actual tufts of hair. Yes, yeah, again usually is missing. That little plushy I have that survived my childhood has this exact same fur as those little ones. Whatever that fabric is if they use for the hair, but I'm positive that the Burt one did as well.

Yeah. I think some later Finger puppets had molded plastic hair, but for a lot of the toys back then, they really I don't know if it was like a oh what do they call those the books? A style guide, Oh, a style guide. Yeah, you know, Hinson was like their hair has too prominent somehow. I don't really care about so much that kind of stuff back then, but who knows, maybe he was specific.

They have to have hair that is separate from their head. It's an integral design choice for these characters. They both have black hair, too, which is interesting because not all muppets have hair that matches the color of human beings. I mean, there's some brown haired humanoid muppets and things like that. But the fact that Burton Ernie had these bright colors and then tufts of black hair on the tops of their heads, it really reminds me of like Zippy the pin Head, or well, Zippy didn't have hair up there, but I just imagine hair being up there that I can remember.

Now I'm like questioning my memory on Zippy the Pinhead, which we should probably talk about in the future. The lego figure. Have you know a little conical hair that I have The Sesame Street lego set. I know, folks, you don't know this, but every time Mark and I are talking, I'm staring at his Sesame Street Lego set, which is right behind in the background. There in the background, a really cool set it really is.

I it went on clearance once at Target, and I just kicking myself. I didn't pick it up. I know it was d that was done. I should have gotten it. That and the Simpsons sets are just broh.

Yeah, I did find after searching and searching and searching. I know this is a through line for our show. That's the whole point. Always take your time searching on eBay. Folks, don't rush it.

Don't rush it because finding burden Ernie with very few paint scratches and with unchewed tufts of hair on the tops of their heads is extremely difficult. And then the ones that look good, the folks that are selling them on eBay, they know they're look they look good, and they know that that's what people want, so they will charge an arm and a leg for these. But I did find these for a very good deal. In fact, I sent over an offer to the cellar and they went for it, and I was shocked and awed by it. But yeah, I got the Burton Ernie.

They're sitting on my desk. Their hair, their little hats on the tops of their heads are in perfect shape. Ernie has a little tiny scratch on his eyeball. But other than that, they're like in amazing shape. And I swear, if I'm having a bad day, which happens frequently for most of us, all I have to do now is come over here and hold these two guys, and they really make me happy.

In fact, it's a weird thing their hair. Both of them have like little divots on the tops of their heads. The hair goes out to the sides on them and then there's like this little divot where you can put your finger there. Just that movement is a nostalgic wave of tactile familiarity. It's just amazing, and it.

Always reminded me of carrot tops or beat tops, you know, the. Sort of shoot out of their heads. Totally, they're very organic. It's true. You know.

I'm glad that you had a top hat as your subject for today because it aligns pretty well with these guys and their significant tufts of hair at the tops of their heads. I'm stoked. And that was my little, my little first foray, Ernie. Ernie, don't eat those cookies while you while you're in your bed, Huh? Why not?

Because you get crumbs in the sheets. That's why I think we got a hand me down set. I don't think we had the playset, but we had a ton of the figures and a lot of the furniture from the set, because when I look at it online, I'm like, oh, yeah, we had that little table and chairs and this thing and that. I don't remember which Sesame Street figures we had. They were mixed in with other generic little people, little kid with the freckles or with the little red hat.

Those things were built for play and they got played with. That's why it's so hard to find then without line to their faces, and they got banged around. I mean plastic on plastic, and some of them have wood parts, like some of the heads are wood or the bodies are wood. They got played with, and like I said, they were in daycares and preschools and kindergarten classrooms all over the country. I mean, I would say ninety percent of those places back then in the early to mid to late seventies had those They're fun to play with.

They're small, what like two inches tall, yeah, two and a half. Maybe they're easy to play with. You know, everything fits in those little slots. And there was a company, I think it may been Bipping pow. We're doing some little figures like Marble, and but they didn't quite have it because they were just just like the round ball and the two tiered body just painted up as Spider Man or I think I have a couple of them, found them toys r Us or something.

I remember seeing those. Yes, yeah, they. Don't quite have that's what they were going for. They were going for the little people look, but they didn't quite have the character of those. They didn't have the little plastic flipped up bill yeah, baseball cat with the freckle faced kid boar, or a little red plastic cowboy had.

Or thank you, or the molded red bobbed hair of the girl. All that. Yeah, when I see those, and I may just start getting some some of the generic little people figures because they're great. And you know, we talk about Dustin Crop's boy on here, but he's made those large versions of those. The dog that everybody had, an Ernie and I think maybe one other one, and those are really cool.

They're one of those things from the seventies that every kid remembers either having or playing with at some point, and they were kind of indestructible except for the pain applications and people chewing. On hair hats. That's hard temptation to avoid as a kid. Oh yeah, when I handled these things, I went straight for the hair oral fixations, yes, exactly, oral fixations. Not to venture into critique territory.

But the contemporary little people just don't do it for me, like I don't. I don't know what they're thinking, and I actually they're the hidious. They are hideous. Well, I think it's a choking hazard thing because they're just so wide. It must be.

It has to be those old little people. You get one of those stuff in your throat and you're a fricking goner. And you know, kids are going to put those They did put those things in their mouths. That's probably it. I think that Fisher Price should take a note from Hasbro and other companies that are putting out versions of the vintage stuff for adult collectors, because yeah, I for one would absolutely love like a set of those iconic characters, the freckle faced boy with the hat with the upturned bill, and you know, and then of course the Sesame Street characters.

And you know, I've got two others on my list to get eventually, which is Oscar and the count which were iconic to me as kid too. I know I had Oscar, that is one I definitely know I had because I kind of ruined him. I stuck something I don't know, I messed it up somehow to where it didn't close anymore. Uh yeah, Oscar is spectacular. What an achievement in toy making that little Fisher Price toy woo not would anyone want to be happy when you could be gritchy?

The Super seven to one I told you, reminds me of that, the one that pops out of the can, and then even the little lego guy is reminiscent of that because it's just a ball, yeah, with his face on it that you stick into a garbage can and then put a lid on. Top of his head. Yeah, it's a really little thing, but it still it's great though. It's inspired by it, and he came with Slimy. Yeah.

Now Super seven just announced that they have more Sesame Street figures coming Wave three, which is like amazing. They have Super Grover, which I would prefer for myself a regular Grover, But I mean, there are a lot of characters that I'd prefer them to do, but I would prefer regular Grover too, but I may have convinced my wife to get that for me for my birthday. So also, I wasn't going to tell you, but I threw in a because my wife said she'd get that for me, and that means that I'm going to be ordering it. So I did throw into the cart another mystery blind box Sesame Street figures. So just forewarning you.

If it's Oscar, it's yours, buddy. Let's take a quick break and then talk about that for a second. Maybe talk about it at the end, because I have a little frustrating story I will tell about that. Stupid right, Let's come back to that. Then we'll come back to that at the end before we do our vacation log.

All right, Ernie, what are you doing? I'm gonna eat cookies in your a bit, Bert Mark back to you. Yeah. My second item is more closely toy related. It's kind of an action figure and it's definitely related to a larger topic that we'll get talked about at some point in probably multiple episodes.

This is a Marvel comic book character that I don't know if I was obsessed with him, but he was very popular at this time. And that is The Incredible Hulk. So in nineteen seventy eight, one of the first majorly successful ventures into TV and or film was the television series The Incredible Hulk with Bill Bixby and Lou Friigno. Doctor David Banner, physician scientists and searching for a way to tap into the hidden strengths that all humans have. Then an accidental overdose of gamma radiation alters his body canister, and now when David Banner grows angry or outrage, a stargling metamorphosis occurs.

And I remember watching it and loving it as a kid. It premiered and I think late seventy eight. The Incredible Hulk actually premiered in November nineteen seventy seven, and it was just. A whole comania, not Hulk Hogan, Hulkamania, fuck that guy comedia, The Incredible Hulk from our comics who had premiered in the early sixties and the comics, and you know, it was a very popular figure for decades. It's interesting to think about it now because.

It was such a dour show. It really was. I was thinking about it the other day in regard to The Hulk, and I'm like it was kind of like The Fugitive, I think, and I never really watched The Fugitive, but my understanding of that show is, you know, he was on the run, and in this David Banner, not Bruce Banner, but they called him David Banner, and the show was on the run because they thought he had killed somebody during this accident that happened that turned him into the Hulk, and would go from town to town, take on an alias, and do stuff and then help somebody, and there was always the possibility that this investigative. Reporter would find him blah blah blah. So it felt to me like the same thing as the character and the Fugitive, going from town to town and being and hiding, and.

It was exactly that mark. I hadn't thought of it that way, but it is. It was so everything had the Hulk on it starting in late seventy eight seventy nine. That show ran until eighty two. I think bed sheets, curtains, pajamas, plates, lunch pails, anything that you could slap the Hulk on.

A whole lot of really weird rack toys, cheap toys came out because of that. You know, the Hulk on a bike, or the Hulk in a parachute. I love that so much, the Hulk in a little car or whatever, just everything, just put Hulk on anything. The same happened with Spider Man because he had a popular cartoon and a TV show. I don't think they did nearly as well as the Incredible Hulk did.

I'm going to take a moment and just say, we definitely have to talk about that. In nineteen seventies Spider Man Live Action TV show down the Line, I watched that too, and was me too blown away by him walking up the walls. I'll just say that for now, so cool. So of course, toys, I believe the Mego figure predates the TV show. I could be wrong, but I believe that was mid seventies for the figure, which I had and loved, one of my favorites, which we'll get.

Talked about at some point. I got, I think it must Oh no, I know. It was my tenth birthday, so March of nineteen seventy nine, so this was not that long after the show premiere, not that long after whole Camania happened, and I don't know if it was a gift for that birthday, but I have pictures of that birthday where I have this item. It's a little five and a half inch rubber. Oh wow, I, oh my god, Mark, No, I'm freaking out right now.

I had that. I have been looking for that version of the Hult for Ages. Now, well, I'll tell you how you can find it. It was one of those things that I had that I played with. It's out of scale with most of my other stuff, but it was a fun little figure.

The pictures that I have for my birthday, I was obviously entranced by it because I have two pictures where my friends and I are sitting at our kitchen table eating our Baskin Robins. Yeah, grasshopper pie my favorite. Yes, I do mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yes, yeah, I think like a fudgy yep underneath fudge underneath that, and then the cookie crust and whip cream. So you're doing it to me today, Mark, I don't know.

I don't know if I'm gonna survive this. You would get that or there was a mud slide one too, I think, yeah, like jomoke almond fudge as the ice cream, or the little clown ice cream cones that were ice cream cones. Flipped over so that the cone was sticking up, and then they would do the icing clown face. So true. It was always one of those for birthdays back then.

Yeah. So you have two pictures where he is. I'm holding him up in one picture, and then on the other picture he is sitting right in the middle of the table while we're eating that grasshopper ice cream pie. I had him until I didn't have him, had him until all my toys were gone. It wasn't one of those things that like crept up all the time, but every once in a while I'd be like, I had a little rubber Hulk.

Yeah, And I think it was because of the Mego Museum. I don't know if I saw it on there, because people would post pictures of their toy collections and not necessarily always Migo related, but other vintage toys, or if me searching for Migo Incredible Hulk figure brought this up at some point, though I figured out who had manufactured it, not helped. It was from a company called Vick's Novelty. They made monster figures. They made rubber monster figures, the classic Universal, so they had the Mummy, the wolf Man, Dracula, and Frankenstein.

I don't think they were the kind that had the wire frame in them, but maybe they were. You know, Incredible Hulk is as about as close as you get to a monster in the comic book world at the time, So they somehow got the license to produce a little rubber Hulk. And he does not have a wire frame, so he's just barely movable, but he does move. He's got his purple pants, yep. And that's it.

No other paint application, that's it. I remember there's a five and a half, there's a five and a half inch version, and there's a smaller version. There's like a three and a half or three and three quarter inch version that is completely unpainted. And so if you look up Vick's rubber Incredible Hulk, you will see them pop up. And this one's in really good shape compared to the ones that I see on there.

Now there's paint rubs and stuff, and the paint application itself, which was factory done, is not very good. It's like off register. But I got this probably for five or ten bucks thirteen fourteen years ago. His face sculpt is goofy as shit, but yes, kind of wonderful, and his muscles look funky. But you know, I loved I love the appeal of the sort of off style guide.

It's like a rack toy, but it was definitely licensed. It wasn't to knockoff. It was something you would see on the racket long Drugs or Safe Marred or Safeway or whatever and buy for probably a dollar ninety nine or something. For me, it was all about that face sculpt. So I've been looking for that for off and on whenever it pops into my mind a cruise e Bay looking for I don't know, I've just been typing in in the search engine like weird vintage hulk toys and stuff like that.

Like I don't know what the keywords have been, but I still haven't been able to find that. And that's the one. This is really weird, going back to oral fixations and tactile memories. I remember chewing the fist off of mine. It's just so weird.

I know I had nervous energy, I think as a good but wow, thank you for that mark. That's amazing, And also thank you for bringing up the grasshopper cake because that was my favorite one. Well, I know there are some on EBA right now and there are some carded versions, which are. Of course incredibly pricey. The prices go up and down.

Some people want fifty bucks for a loose one that that's not even really in that good as shape. A lot of them have lines through them and striations and stuff from stress. But this one's in a really good shape. And actually, as I was talking about him, it reminded me of another obsession I had, which I just have to I'm not going to talk about this on a separate episode. I wanted a pair of purple pants, like nobody's fucking business when I was a kid, because of that goddamn show and because of this figure, and because of the Migo, and.

We would go to wind Stocks. That's where I got a lot of my clothes that weren't hand me down or secondhand or whatever. And every time we would go, I would look for purple tough skin in Winstocks and never found them. It was all about the cut off pants for me as a little one. I wanted I wasn't going to cut them off, but oh I was going to cut them off.

I wanted the purple pants. I wanted the purple cut off. I wanted to cut them off. I wanted them to be frayed at the edges where I'd cut them off, and I also wanted and I could never ever find these whenever we went shopping for clothes, denim pants with a rope tie instead of a belt, so I could have cut off animal jeans from the muppets. I mean, you can make a rope tie, dude.

Yeah, I never thought about that as a kid. I was like, I'm surprised. I know arts and crafts, I know, I'm surprised I didn't do it. I made my own lightsaber out of a broomshake. I'm surprised I didn't come up with anyways.

I this is great, Mark, thank you so much for bringing it up. So look up vis Rubber Hulk or that's what I'm doing today. I did find one site. I couldn't find a lot of information about Vick's novelty, like how long they were around or what else they produced. There was one site that had examples of the monster figures and of this Hulk on a card, and the card art's pretty great, kind of comic bookie.

It's just one of those funky, cheap o toys that probably thousands and thousands of kids had to satisfy that Hulk craving back then. For sure. That's some of my favorite illustrations of the Hulk too, is from that era seventies comic book Hulk is some of my favorite design choices for him, and it always comes back to the super weird face. I had definitely bought him. I don't know if that was one of the comics I had a subscription to, but I would buy him off the rack pretty regularly.

Incredible Hulk was one of my favorite comics. I just figured out. I just had a revelatory moment. You're listening to this in real time, folks. Ronnie's brain is kicked in.

It's kicked in, flying to find a hear cranking sound effect right now, smoke and yeah, exactly. All right. So I've been talking for a long period of time with my toy collector friends. I probably even talked to you about this, the original action figure he Man toy no face, you bring my sound effect? I know, here we go.

Come in, you rial bulb that face sculpt. I'm realizing why I loved it so much, because I was already exposed to the face design of The Incredible Hulk by the time I met the toy version of he Man, and the toy version of he Man is very much influenced by and I can tell now influence Grimace, grimacing, tough, sort of lumpy face which modern versions of he Man and other action figure forms have not quite been able to accomplish. That is it. It's very reminiscent of the Hulk. And I think that's why I'm so attached to that original he Man face sculpt.

All right here done, all questions in my life have been answered today. Masters of the Universe again, Can I talk about the one plastic rock ball? Then? Since you brought that up, I think he should. Now's the time.

I mean, that's another lumpy face. If we want to get into it. There is There is a bagged version on eBay right now for fifty bucks. Oh Man, not a sealed bag, but it comes with its bag. The rock Ball and Masters of the Universe are definitely through lines here, folks.

So and it's actually tempting me, but there's no way. Still, it's kind of funny. AnyWho bagged is tough. That's a tough thing to resist. I know we're going to talk now a little bit about maybe oh I got one other, you got another thing thing to talk about, and then we'll get into some of our travels.

Actually, this last one is a good way to weave in our travel stories because it began with travel. For me this summer a new obsession. I've almost completed my journey with this new obsession because there aren't a lot of characters in this particular line that I feel like I need beyond what I have already found out there. I went through a lot of my collection and I went to a couple of different toy stores, one in Fresno and then one in San Jose. The trip to San Jose where I took a box of toys and asked to do a trade with them, They accepted it and they allowed me the opportunity, see how I'm wording that to get this figure that I've been wanting for a long long time, and that is one that I did not have as a kid, and that is the Kenner Star Wars twelve inch line of action figures the storm Trooper.

And so I was able to trade some items for this storm Trooper, which led me down the path of nostalgia to the Darth Vader figure that I had as a kid, which was of that line, and Darth is like the Stormtroopers close to twelve inches, but Darth is right about about like I feel like he's almost thirteen inches or something like that. I haven't measured him. He is the tallest Star Wars figure other than Chewbacca, so he is absolutely now the Chewbacca. Now that's one that I might be interested in. Thanks for reminding me.

This summer I started down this other path, and I've been thinking a lot about vintage Star Wars lately. That always comes back to me. I don't go on binges of purchasing just simply because I can't afford it. I do keep my eyes open for particular things once I've got the itch, and it goes back to being patient and stuff like that. Able to get that Stormtrooper for very reasonable price, and I didn't have to pay out a pocket because I just traded stuff that I already had, And then I started looking on eBay for Darth Vader.

Darth when he's complete and in good condition, when he comes with the Cape, when he comes with the Lightsaber, he's very expensive and usually once again, not to keep saying this, like I feel like I'm bragging a little bit here, but I found a really good deal on eBay, a surprisingly good deal. Part of the reason why it was a good deal was that the lightsaber was a replica. To be honest, the replica's amazing. It looks just like the lightsaber from the vintage figure. I was able to get that.

The transition to the travelog is that I did swing by another toy store, this time in Capitola and found this twelve inch C three po which is on my life and now now I've got R two D two on my list because that one's a very special figure. His back opens up and inside there are the death Star plans that their own little plastic squares that insert into his back, and finding him with that, with those attachments is really difficult. So I'm not rushing any of this. But toy Ploi did a series of fixing up some twelve inch R two D two's and he recreated those plans that slot in there. I love toy POLOI I watched that stuff and I'm just like, man, good on you, man, because I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to tackle something like that.

What do you make it out of? How do you know blah blah. It's just it's so fun to watch those things soothe me. Not to use a trending phrase, but I'm totally going to like toy ploy videos are like ASMR, very relaxing. It's the making, it's the narration, it's the visuals of the I mean, watching him restore I think, yeah, he restored a vintage Millennium Falcon.

Watching that whole thing and getting the plastic to d yellow and all that is so done. Quite a few masters of the universe, I know, sets and figures. I know I've watched a lot of those. Yeah, it's amazing. Since we're talking about him right now.

Yes, when I discovered that channel, I think it came up because of something micro not related. I believe. I don't know if Carlita and Clio were out of town. They were gone like all night. I feel like this was one of their overnight trips somewhere concert or something.

And I watched like thirty of his videos. Yeah, oh man, I think I did the same thing when I first discovered him in one city. Maybe it wasn't thirty. It was a lot though, it was a lot. Anyway, Yeah, I love it, love it, and he has fixed some of those twelve inch figures.

You're talking about. I know, the Darth Vader that I had as a kid ended up falling apart. I played with him like crazy, I took him everywhere. I don't know how I got that twelve inch Darth Vader or who gave it to me, going back to that whole tactile memory holding that even though it was a replica lightsaber, holding that lightsaber in my hands, and looking at that translucent red plastic, seeing the design of the handle, how different it is from the movie design of the handle of the lightsaber, and holding Vader himself in my hand, and feeling the cloth of the cape, all that stuff. It just really took me back to significant memories and it was really great to have that experience again by getting him.

I never had C. Three PO. I always wanted C three Po because I loved the vackmetal of the vintage action figure of C. Three PO. It just had in my mind my little brain was like, well, imagine how cool that would be to have this twelve inch vackmetal C three Po.

And it's exactly it, like holding a giant golden C three Po is amazing. And then the Stormtrooper. I always wanted that too, because I always love the Stormtroopers. So I don't have any recollection of the twelve inch figures. Like I'm sure I saw them in toy stores, never had any desire to own them.

I don't remember any friends having them, never played with them. Twelve inch figures were never appealing to me. Gi Joe, I'm surprised I had the six million Dollar Man. Yeah, yeah, that's something about that scale held no appeal to me. And still now, even though I have some twelve inch figures not my favorite, I just don't like that scale.

I don't think I ever would have had. I mean, I was just head over heels in love with the three point seventy five inch figures. Yeah, and I don't think I had any urgency to get I don't recall any urgency to like go and point out a twelve inch Star Wars figure to my parents or any thing and say, hey, that's something i'd really like. So that's why I do think that someone must have given it to me as a gift, probably a grandparent or something, and then I just I grew attached to it. It was is my little it was my little partner for a long time, just carried him around everywhere.

I did have a couple of twelve inch figures that I really really enjoyed, which we'll get to it at some point on the show, but all right, can't wait for that. Yeah. For the most part, though, twelve inches was just too big for me. Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. Not many people can handle twelve inches.

Yeah, tell me about it. Real man. Today we salute you, mister foot long, hot dog and better. This begins our vlog portion, I think, right, yeah, travel log. That's what vlog means, right now, that's video log.

Oh yeah, that's right. We're missing the terminology travelog, travelogue. I'm an oldie, Yeah, we're old. Yeah. So I mentioned on the last episode that the next day after recording, we were going on a trip.

We haven't been on a trip like this in years, and we hadn't been to this particular part of California in at least six years. So last time we went, Cleve was in sixth grade. We're going into sixth grade this time. She's now a senior. So we had gone to Carmel once for a short little trip a couple of years back, but part of that was the pandemic, but even before then it had been a couple of years since we had taken a long trip.

We went to the central coast of California, in particular the south central coast of Pismo. Oh yeah, San. Luis Obispo, Moro Bay and that area. My sister, I don't know if it's her or her husband that has either a friend or a coworker that has a place in Shell Beach, and they had a place prior to this in Shell Beach that we would go to. Pretty nice, right, I mean, it's just west of them are the beach front houses, so they're one street back from the beach, and now they are two houses down from where they used to be, in a much bigger, much nicer house, and there's a little.

Park right there, walk through the park and head down to the beach. I mean, it's amazing, and we get to stay there with them. So we planned this out like almost a year ago, and we would be going this summer. We were there for a whole week from Saturday to Saturday. That's awesome.

Got out of a heat that was the most important thing. But I was sort of hoping, you know, to hit some antique stores and stuff and maybe find something cool. There are some used bookstores in the area. Yep. I have a particular thing that I look for and use bookstores now, And we didn't do a whole lot of antique shopping.

We went to one place in Arroyo Grande, which is the town just south of Pismo, like literally two or three minutes down the freeway, and there's a whole cool little street with lots of shops and restaurants and stuff. And at the far end of that street we went into an antique store and really the only thing I saw in there were a couple of those Disney plastic marks figures, which I know you have some of. I think it was Peter Pan and a Jimmy Cricket in both in Green. Oh God, I would love to get one of those marks Jimny crickets speaking of top hats, Yeah, Jimminy Cricket. I was kind of pushing to go to Cayukis because they have a strip of antique stores and one that I think is a couple stories tall, and no one wanted to go do that, so we didn't go to those all.

One of our ventures Intomorrow Bay, there are against some antique stores and one pretty good size one that's close to the steps that you take down to get to Arcadero. So we walked through there for quite a while and just nothing. Nothing worth. I wanted to find a bionic woman because my wife is having hip replacement surgery. Oh wow, yeah next month, and so I need to get a bionic woman for her, for sure.

Nothing though. That was it as far as antique stores the bookstores. We went to Phoenix Books in San Louis. Which is a great use bookstore. It's amazing booboo records.

I always go in there, and what I look for these days are science fiction books from a specific publisher. Luckily, Clovis Bookbarn here in town always has some yeah, and so I look for that. And this is I'm being vague because this is something that I will get to eventually on the show, because it's a more recent obsession. So there's one particular publisher whose books I look for, which are super easy to spot because their spine is always a certain color. I can spot them easily.

We went to the last bookstore in LA a while back. I found a bunch there. That's always a fun store to go to. I found one in Phoenix Books and grabbed it. And then there's a bookstore in Moral Bay called Coalesce, yep.

That had the science fiction section. And I actually looked at their website before we went. They have pictures and they're old, I realize. And I looked at the science fiction section and I saw a bunch of those spines in the pictures and I'm like, oh goodie, they. Had squat somebody went in and bought them all out.

I mean, who knows how old that picture was. Yeah. The other thing we always do when we're in Moral Bay is go to Wavelengths, especially now since we don't have one in town yep. And so I got my new ooh yeah, three stacks and a rock shirt and. It's so cool.

God to love it. South Carlia just did a load of laundry this past weekend. I was folding my T shirts and realized, oh, I have five Wavelengths shirts and they had all been recently washed, and I had worn a bunch when we were over there, and I just purchased and I hadn't bought one in years, and one of the first ones that I bought, you can't even like see the design anymore. It's so washed out. That's great.

So Morro Bay, Morrel Rock, you know, famous landmark there, part of the Nine Sisters Hills and run inland from there. And then the three stacks from the power plant that's there that's been decommissioned iconic. Unfortunately, by twenty twenty eight they are going to tear those down. Oh no, what yep? I mean it makes sense, but there goes these the symbol of God.

I gotta get my I gotta go down there and get my T shirt then, because I don't want to I don't want to have no no stacks rock. Yeah, I gotta get I love that. There was one day they all went to the outlets in Aroya Grande. I think they're no, maybe they're in Pismo sort of on the way. To Roya Grande.

There's a ton of ye outlet stores. And I stayed home and sat on the patio of this place the whole time they were gone, and just did nothing but sit there and drink coffee. And breathe that air. I looked for whales. We had whale sightings and dolphins and otters and seals, kinds of stuff and good food.

Got a shout out to Dell's Pizzeria in Pismo. We got that for Kurlida's birthday, which. Happened while we were there. Oh nice. It was freaking delicious deals that's incredible, had tons of good food, relaxed into the beach.

It was great. No toys, no really cool stuff. Bought one book and a T shirt and that was it. Those are good. Those are great.

Like I loved hearing this journey because I've been to every single one of those places that you just described. I mean, who in Fresno hasn't really it's a destination place for people to live in Fresno, in the valley to go to cool off. The week prior had been just like one of the busiest years for Pismo, and none of that was happening while we were there. While we were there after the fourth of July. So it was kind of nice.

To be more specific. I've been to every single one of those stores you mentioned. In fact, I've found a lot of interesting things that that one antique store at the end of the street in a Royal Grande. A lot of items that I've spotted there that I couldn't afford that I thought were cool, and I did pass on a lumpy, dirty old Hamburglar stuffed animal or stuffy vintage stuffed hamburgler passed on that even though it was very tempting, but he just looked like he had been through the ringer. Whenever we go to the South Central Coast, we visit those spots that you've mentioned.

Now Dell's Pizzeria have not been there yet, but we are every fall. Faith our youngest who's also a senior, has her marching band performs at Pismo, and so we're going to definitely try and hit up Dell's now that you mentioned it, we uber eat stit or door dashed it or whatever. Because no one wanted to drive and it had moved, I think it had moved into onto the main strip in Pismo, and like, no one wanted to drive and try to park there and pick it up. So we just had it delivered and they were super quick and super hot and just fucking great. Yeah, there's a little deli in Shell Beach right by where this house is that we go to a lot, And I mean that's pretty much what our trips consist of, as lots of eating and hanging out.

That's the way it should be. But We didn't go see the Elephant Seals this time, which we do a lot. You know, drive up north, always close to Big Sir, not quite to Big Sir, maybe not quite there. But yeah, we didn't that north and we never even made it to Cayukas. The farthest north we went was San Louis, Yeah, which is always fun.

Sant Louis is a great little town, happiest town in America. Apparently saw a cool movie while we were there in Arroyo Grande. You can hear about that on Wake Up Heavy. Oh yeah, I had to turn it off. I was just telling you I had to turn it off because there were spoilers.

I've been anxious to see this particular film as well. We all want to go back, like immediately. So yeah, Dell's pizzeria. We go to the Hofbrow in morro Bay every time there. We went straight there when we drove in that Saturday.

Anyway, it was fun. So talk more about your travels running. You know, we didn't go on any lengthy trips this summer. We were planning to do a little bit of a lengthier trip and it just didn't work out. We all had a bunch of stuff going on the family, and I did do a couple of day trips, and I've i mentioned that a little bit.

So my wife just started teaching. She's been teaching third grade for the last two years and she just transferred in the same school district to teaching TK and so she's really excited. She had been really excited all summer to get cool things for her little ones. And so there's this store in San Jose, and there are a few of them throughout California called Lake Shore, and it's like the educational supply, Like it's the best. I mean, it's such a cool store and everything's built really sturdy for kids play.

And she got a couple of really cool playsets like a pirate ship and a treehouse and a couple other things. But in San Jose is a particular toy store. So that's where I took some of my a box of my toys and traded those in for the storm Trooper. They did have a mint condition in box, just like the other. Just like the other store had brother that I'm going to talk about in a little bit.

They did have a mint condition inbox stripe, the LGN twelve inch stripe. Oh my god. On your video. I just like every time I see those, I really got to buckle down and save for that, because you can't find it for less than one hundred and seventy five bucks at least right now. I just got to buckle down and save because that thing's like, that thing's amazing, certainly on my list.

Anyways, we went there, had some good food. We ate a this deli in San Jose that was delicious. I can't remember the name of the Delhi for some reason. And that was just the day trip. We came back.

Then about a month later we took a day trip to Capitola and Santa Cruz. We didn't even do you know, both of our daughters are really into shopping right now, clothing and stuff that they just can't find in the Fresno area, and so rather than what we would normally do in the past is go and walk around the boardwalk or see the ocean, we went straight to Urban Outfitters and we got the Santa Cruz. There's a huge mall in San Jose. Did you go to that? No, did not go to the huge mall in San Jose.

That's so funny that you mentioned that we did not do that. It's pretty great. Next time, next time, we'll do that. The mall in Capitola that we went to was small, but it was you know, it was really cool to go to a mall. It's always fun.

I don't know why we're you know. I guess we're part of the generation that has an affinity for malls in a way, like a nostalgic affinity. Perhaps. I think malls are fascinating. Yeah, we'll go to the one in Santase eventually, I'm sure.

But we went to the one in Capitola, and that's where I discovered this store hadbro which was an absolute epic discovery, had pros and a store because they not only have new stuff, but they also have a ton of vintage stuff as well. And people should go watch that on your channel because I was looking at my chops at some of the stuff there. Uh huh. You texted me, You're like you. Picked up something towards the very end of your yes, and you were unfamiliar with it, and I knew exactly what it was.

It's from a line called metal Man. I think I texted you metal men. I always call it metal Men, but it's the line is called metal Man. And I had one of those as a kid. It was the right scale to fit in with Star Wars and some of the other three and three quarters figures I had, again probably a rack toy purchase that it just sort of looked intriguing, these little.

All die cast. They weren't partly die cast, like some of the figures were all die cast, just a weird line that lasted for you know, half a decade or something. And yeah, I've looked them up in the and of course I looked them up after your video and are just ridiculous. Now read those prices, and I. Know when I looked at them prior, I could have gotten the figure I had for a pretty decent price.

And I just never thought, isn't that the truth? Right? But I and I believe it was on top of some of the die cast Showgun Warrior figures in that pile that you were scrounging through that pile. I mean, his piles in boxes were like phenomenal vintage stuff that I hadn't seen in ages, stuff I've never had, never held in my hands before. A MetalMan figure looked familiar to me, but I was like, what the heck is this?

And such a weird I just love the weird toys, Like, it's such a weird guy because he's die casts. You could tell his joints were very loose. I'm sure you can't even stand him up. Maybe sit him down. Mainly just for play and for rough play too, which would be fun, you know, just throwing them around.

That's where I found the C three po. The owner of the store gave me a really good deal on that. Our daughter Gabby, she found some anime toys that she was really excited about. She picked up a couple of things. But yeah, they had a bunch of new stuff from Trick or Treat Studios, like the new Toxic Avenger action figures that are based on the Playmates figures that came out movie props made by Trick or Treat Studios as well.

Just a lot of really great stuff. And there's Simpsons. There are Playmate's Simpsons collection. You know, those things are fairly reasonable, to be honest with you, I'm surprised they're not worth more at this stage. But they had like a huge, huge collection of those.

Yeah, that was a lot of fun. The final summer trip was just this last weekend where I went down to La the La area with my dad, who helped me transport this four by four foot snake mountain to a collector in Los Angeles who already talked about him today as a top hat collection but also like a massive Massive Killer Clowns out of Space and Alice in Wonderland and mass video games. Video games yeah sorry, arcade games, vintage arcade games, and walking into his place is like walking into a vintage toy store is pretty cool. Then we went to Frankinson, which you and I have talked about a few times. We got to do a trip one of these days that's been on my list for a long time.

It was mind boggling how amazing this place is biggest what flea market, I guess that's the best way of explaining it. But it's it's like a toy collector convention, right every weekend every week. I mean it's it's opened three days a week. I think it's Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday or something like that. There was a line out front.

We got there right when it opened. There was already a line out front. There was a guy dressed up as the professor from McDonald land, which blew my mind. He told me, I was the only one that's ever recognized with character is wow. I was like, that's embarrassing for our world, but I mean he is obscure, right, He was like the first character discontinued from that run of characters.

I probably wouldn't even have caught on like it's supposed to be and real they gave it away as he had a giant wrench in his pocket, which is like basically one of the interesting aspects of the Remco toy. If you go to the Skelevator channel, you can watch the walk through, but that doesn't even like accurately portray the scale experience of it. I mean, yea, some really cool things, and there's a particular store in there that somehow gets Masters of the Universe toys before they're available big bad toy store or in the retail stores. So I got to see some things that haven't been released yet, which was kind of cool. They didn't let me shoot video in their store.

I'm not mentioning them also, which they requested, so I can respect that. But like, just amazing, amazing stuff did pick up. I was this close to talking about Job's Palace today, but I refrained because that's a whole episode of just talking about that. But I did pick up one of my favorite characters, that three eyed weirdo re Yea's and he didn't come with his golden rifle, but he you know, that figure was one of my favorites as a kid. Got him, and I got Calibos from Clash of the Titans, which was like, it's always been on my list to get.

Got him at a very reasonable price, uh huh. And then I got a couple of new Masters of the Universe Master Verse figures that haven't hit the shelves yet, so uh huh. I know always come back to that. They didn't have any rock balls. I didn't see any.

I'm not going but it was amazing. Folks. If you're ever in City of Industry, which is just east of Los Angeles, you should go to Frankenson. It looks like it was it. It looks like it's in what used to be an old Costco or something of the sort.

It's a huge building. It's massive if you watch the video walk through. I talk a little bit about this, but the family used to own some McDonald's franchises back in the our favorite era in the eighties late seventies early eighties, there was a lot of McDonald land stuff. I haven't gave you a shout out in the radio when I saw those Hamburger burgers were beautiful Yeah, and great shape too, just straight out of the restaurant. Yeah, Dustin crops, they wouldn't have to do any work on those, exactly.

I was thinking that, actually every item on that wall looked like it was straight out of the restaurant. Yeah, yeah, probably probably from their so I'm assuming yeah, probably, Yeah, we'll have to do that sometime. Yeah we should. Should I get into my frustrating retearch. I've been waiting for this.

Let's hear it. Those fucking blind box super seven Sesame Street figures. Yes, I watched your video on that, and I should have asked. I don't know why I didn't ask you which one you had gone to, but I saw you open them in your car, and behind you I saw the sign for hobby lobby, so I assumed it was the River Park Target because I, oh, yeah, it was another hobby lobby in town. Yeah.

I had no intention of really going and looking for these, but I had to get Cleo's stuff for her lunch since school started. Yeah, and I usually do that after I go into the office on Sundays and I go to the Bolder and Blackstone Target. I'm like, okay, you know what, I'll go to River Park because I think that's where Ronnie was. Yeah, and it's not that much further up the road, So I went there. Nothing.

They actually have split their collectible section. So now part of it's in one of the aisles. I didn't know that until that day, and then I discovered. I saw all the plushy stuff, the kid Robot plushies. Down there, saw a count of yeah, funny, kind of cute.

They're very cute. I like you brought that up previously, and I had looked them up after that, and I'm like, oh no, I like this is the stuff. I like, yeah, yeah, yeah, when they're cuteified and and look like little kids. I hate them up at babies, but this stuff, I like, yeah, I don't whatever, you know, and I want them to look like the original characters. This is how my brain works.

Yeah. So anyway, no blind box thing there, and I'm like, well, I'm leaving and I'm going to go back up to Bullert and Blackstone and get her stuff there. Yeah. Look, this store. I'm going up there, looked at it, looked in Bullard and Blackstone, nothing, nothing there.

It's just all funk O pop, just like hundreds of Funko pops. Yeah and yeah the occasional Neca figure which holds no interest for me per. Suday yep, for sure. And then I. Dropped Cleo off at school on Wednesday.

Her schedule is changeable, not that anybody gives a shit about any of this, but. On Thursdays I used to go after dropping her off, I would go to the office and pick up my work and come home. So now it's going to be Wednesdays. I'm like, oh, well, I could go buy the Willow Target because that's between here and my work. And as I was driving, I'm like, wait a minute, they're not even open.

Oh yeah, she's going to Clovis Community for a couple classes and she gets dropped off earlier. I'm like, well, by the time I get there'll only be like ten or so minutes that I'll have to wait. So I did that because I'm an idiot, and went to the Willow and Herndon Target, sat in my car for twelve minutes before they opened, went straight back to the collectible section. Nothing, So I left and I'm like, here I am again. I don't even really care about these things.

I mean I do, but at the price as like, why did I do this? Why did I do this? I hate this thought I showed. I showed how much fun it was. Why does Ronnie find this shit?

And I don't? And I'll tell you. I'm about to tell you exactly why. And we should have chatted about this, because there's a secret. I should have texted you which one did you find those?

At? Which target did you find those? I should have told you this. This should have been part of our should be part of our regular discussions. But I know how much you don't like to go toy hunting at targets in particular.

So here's the truth. For folks who are from Fresno or Clovis. There's one target that far exceeds the others in availability of interesting new toys. I don't know why, but that's where I showed you the picture of the Devo reaction figure. I was like, hey, do you want this?

This one target always has the interesting shit, and it's pernedon N ninety nine, the one that's furthest away it's my wife's absolute least favorite target and my absolute favorite one to go to. It's about a twenty minute drive from where twenty five minute drive from where I live, straight shot up the ninety nine. When I get the wild Itch, it's kind of a fun jaunt because then I can swing by ross. There's a ross there, and there's some discount toys in the toy section that are pretty cool. Recently, that's where I got a little small miniature tie fighter for like three ninety nine.

There's the five below, which sometimes has interesting little items too, a hobby lobby which I don't go to, but as you saw in the image, that target, for some reason has this really interesting stuff. I wonder if it's because it's right off the ninety nine, maybe as far as truck route. Actually that that makes a lot of sense, because the other most exciting target to go to is in Los Banos. I always find something interesting there. At that Los Banos target, it's pretty much guaranteed there'll be something that is showing up on shelves that people in the area are just not looking for, and so they're there on the shelf.

I'm giving away my secrets now, so I'm glad that our listenership is still fairly small for Fresno folks that listen to this, But if you're interested, that's what that stuff is. I haven't been back there to the ninety nine and Herndon target since I posted that video, so I'm not sure which blind boxes are there still or not. I may go on Monday after I drop her off because I cross over Herndon on the way home and I can just go out Herndon instead of going straight home. But I always have to go places, like when I'm doing something else. Yeah, like I'm in the middle of the day, I just don't want to leave my house and get in my car and go.

I don't blame you, I don't blame you. I like Fridays when I work from home, I don't want to go anywhere else. It's like it's an opportunity for me to not have to go somewhere. Usually when I go to work, I'm driving from here to Fresno, and you know, and of course it's like, hey, would you mind picking this up from from wherever? Or I got to pick up groceries on the way home, or whatever it might be.

Because I'm in Fresno. Since I live slightly outside of Fresno, it's always I have a tendency to have opportunities to swing buy stores. Yeah, Herndon and ninety nine target is great. I have had some luck at the Sierra Vista Target. But my favorite target for just like regular shopping is the Blackstone and Bullred one because it usually has less people there and yeah, that's where I always go.

Yeah, fun stuff, more exciting local ship from Ronnie and Mark, Fresno Target secrets, talk about the weather, talk about our targets. Okay, next time we'll talk about our favorite grocery store. Yeah. Good stuff. So with that being said, I think we can transition to closing out the show.

What do you say? Yeah, let's do it, all right, get out of this mess. Let's get let's get out of here. Happy August everybody. Wait, no, this is posting in September.

Happy September folks. All right, So remember until we meet again, have fun, stay weird, and keep collecting. Thanks for listening out and shapourl. And have you ever been on the Morrow Bay, the South coast, clouds, the sea. And the people the boroughs read He's an actressity.

Water Water South episode's by Sea Horizon and just squeak up the mountains us Wed. Have you ever been downsling a sway where stand back bounds the valley and he rode a valid the way it was in the travel List with Charlie. And have you ever walked down through the sycamores where the farmhouse used to be. There? The motto's bad journey.

In ben smith Sapri Street. Walk again, get yourself and that catcher's having that. I can't sell that's a set backwater. Yes, take your bad wad the wind. Have you ever been to the festival the big cir Congregation where country jokes will do him the.

Show and seeing about the Numbersteen and the people there in lobn. Air one big family. Yeah, the people there loved to scene share the new found number. Cambridge Rashaun is a weirding Way media podcast