Episode 24A: Holiday Special #2 (Part 1)

Oh kitties, it's Mark here, and I just wanted to let you know that due to the length of our holiday special, we have decided to split it up into two episodes. So you're getting that first part here on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas, everyone, Happy Holidays. Part two will be released in just a week on New Year's Eve, so come back then for the second half of the holiday special. And I will leave you a little reminder at the end of this one.

On with the show Cambridge h M. Shawn is a weirding Way media podcast. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old fashioned family Christmas. No, No, we're all in this together. This is a full blown four alarm holiday emergency.

Here. We're gonna press on and we're gonna have the happiest Christmas since been Crosby Tap Dance with Danny fucking k And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that Jimney Knight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse. You're a goofy. Don't kiss me off our. We got to get some sleigh bells for that last episode.

Don't you worry about it. You always do a great job of coming up with extraneous sounds. Yep, you're right, I do. You're also very humble, Yes I am. Oh man, All right, right, let me know when you're ready.

Hello, and welcome to Cambridge and Washwan, a podcast by two weird guys where we talk about the weird. Things that we like. My name is Ronnie, otherwise known as Skelevator out there in the interwebs, and here with my pal Mark, I'm Mark Bigley. I host some stuff. You know about it already.

If you don't, I don't know what to tell you. You all know who Mark is. If you don't know, do your homework. Yeah, go look me up on that Google. That's right.

So this is our now famous holiday episode, yeah, number two, number two actually, but this is the one that fits into the tradition of Cambridge and with Shawn holiday episodes going back ten thirteen years and. The fuck are you talking about? I'm creating a fictional history for us. Oh my goodness, Gosh, wasn't aware this was happening. I'm really excited about today, this particular episode, because we're going to be going through all the.

Crazy stuff we got over the past year. Yeah, before we get started. Do you have any corrections or anything from the last episode? Gosh, and we. Didn't just record five seconds ago.

I think that's it. I think no corrections necessary. I still haven't thought of any Christmas movies that I could read along. Oh yeah, yeah, well you thought of some. I think mentioning black Christmas is important.

Don't like being put on the spot, I know, nor do I. So I don't know why I did that to you, But no, that's okay, the. Sadest in me. No, I think we did it. I think we did a pretty darn good job in that last episode.

Folks, if you haven't listened to that last episode that we just recorded five minutes ago, go back a few weeks and listen to it. This complicated time, that's complicated, back to the future situation. And we're recording two episodes at once. So this is a little inside joke we're sharing between our ourselves here. AnyWho.

Any who, So I'm excited to jump into this now. Are we gonna do this in chronological order? I'm going to quadeological order or whatever that word is. Chronological. I don't know what the fuck you're doing, but that's what I told you I.

Was doing so yeah, I'm oh, actually I do have an update. Oh good, not from five minutes ago, but I believe I mentioned on the previous episode twenty two whatever that was all about, that we would most likely hit a thousand plays by the end of the year, and we have already done that. That's exciting. We're in the four digit club. Nice congratulations, Mark.

Although this comes with a caveat because, much like when I used to obsessively count my plays over on sound Club for wake Up Heavy, started to notice some trends, you know, like, why is this person in Colombia Zuri listen Like you're not listening to every episode again, are you? So? A lot of these plays, or a good chunk of them over the last few months at least, have been by someone in leads in the UK. Oh, and so I don't know if it's just a matter of like resubscribing, or if that is a you know, sometimes the other platforms that host the show because they just get it off the RSS feed are like, I don't know what it is. So is it really a thousand plays?

Probably not, but that's what the stats say on spreakers, So I'm going with it. We'll take it. That's cool. Whoever it is out in leads, it's listening to us compulsively and on DP. Stop what you're doing.

Either stop what you're doing if you're not doing it, or continue to do it if you are doing it. Sure, so, yes, I am going in chrondological order. So let's do this. Let's let you begin. Some of these things, about half of them have been mentioned or hinted at on prior episodes.

Yes, I tried to be closed mouthed about it because I know we do the holiday episode. Some of these things slipped out where they were relevant to that particular episode. And these first two items, some of these are paired, don't really count because I didn't get them this year. I got them last year. And I most definitely talked about them on episode thirteen when I discussed my obsession with the six million dollar Man Action figure and how I had completed my vintage Steve Austin with the purchase of the engine block that came with the original figure.

I had bought that as a Christmas gift to myself, and then I bought the of one hundred. Balloons so that I could. Fix his bionic arm. So I don't know why I even added those to my list, but what the fuck I did? So it counts.

It counts. That counts. I'd already talked about them, but whatever. How about you? Yeah, I've talked about some of these things too.

I think it's. Important to note the thing I'm going to start off with first goes back actually quite a ways. You and I have a shared interest in the Tuscan Raider from Star. Wars Sand People. The sand People.

If you're a traditionalist, notice I said Star Wars as opposed. To a new Hope. Just to clarify, I've been shopping online for a vintage sand Person Tuscan Raider for quite a while, and I'm being pretty picky about it because I want to make sure he comes at the vinyl cape. And stuff like that. But to satiate my hunger, and this is something I avoided at regular price.

I found this guy just a few weeks ago at ross the Newer Retros style. I talked about him. I know you talked about him, and I was holding off. I didn't. I don't know.

For some reason. I just didn't want. To pay regular price like I did for the Black crysantin Chewbacca character. I did get him for three ninety nine. Oh, that's a deal.

So that solves the dilemma for me for the moment of not having a sand person in my sand people. I'm doing air quotes my vintage collection because I do have a bunch of vintage figures, but I do also have some of these newer versions of the vintage figures too, and so he hangs out in there with them in the glass case. So that's my first item. Alrighty, I'm hoping. We can be We're going to be a little loose with this.

In mentioned things also that are slightly extraneous. Well, I didn't mean to rush. Actually, I kind of did the last episode because I figured this would be kind of lengthy. I have some stories for some of these. A lot of them are just going to be I've mentioned this before I got these this year, but I do have some stories about particular items.

And it may go it may go deep, it may go long. Let's go deep, it may go deep and long, end of that kind of thing, you know. So I'll say that later. And the pedophile action figure that you couldn't wait to get your hands on, Speaking of action figures, Another thing that was brought up previously that I got this year were the Super seven reaction figures of the members of Devo that had been out for a while, but I was balking at the price. But I finally did get Mark and Bob two from Amazon sometime in January, and I believe very shortly after I got those two, the Jerry figure came out and I just bought that directly from Super seven.

Figured I'm going all in on these, so I have those three. They have since released Bob one, and I have not picked that one up yet again kind of balking at the price. I'm sort of hoping to find it at that target that we've been talking about a lot. YEP. I was slightly.

Disappointed that they were rehashing one of the albums that they've already done, and I think a lot of people figured they were going by album even though it's been out of order. The first figure was Mark from Freedom of Choice, which is their third album. Second figure went back to the first album. Figure was the fourth blah blah blah blah. But I think, like many people, we figured that the fourth figure would be from the second or possibly fifth out right, that makes sense it's freedom of choice.

Again, it's a different outfit. That's sort of Another great thing about them is that even for each album, there isn't just one costume like Super seven likes to do. They've got plenty to mine from their history. Yeah, I'm sure I'll get Bob one eventually here, either if I see it at Target and don't have to pay for shipping, or if I scrounge around some other shop that happens to carry Super seven stuff and it's at a lower price, or Amazon when it gets on Amazon free shipping. I know I'll end up with whatever they release of them.

Now this is. I was about to send a message to our listeners that they should get this week Christmas, but this is going to be airing on Christmas Eve, so never mind. Anyways, Yeah, I'll keep an eye out for you too, because well we're not planning any trips in the direction of Los Banos, but that is another. Good target too, So if you ever make it out that direction checked out that target. They may Yeah, we don't have any trips planned either, but yeah, I will keep that in mind.

So what is your next item? Well, the next item is is something that our listeners are already familiar with us, having acquired to certain extent, Twenty twenty four has been for. Me a heavy Sesame Street year. I believe that Wave one of the Super seven Sesame Street figures actually came out at the end of twenty twenty three, but twenty twenty four we've had two waves, Wave two and Wave three of the Sesame Street Reaction figures. And along with that, we've had our blind box adventure stuff that we've gotten to share, and then our little people adventures with Sesame Street that we've gotten to share.

And one of my prized possessions is the count Von Count that you got me. He's right here staring at me right now, and love it. I also found in a bag of little people that I almost just let my wife take to her classroom blindly without exploring completely. Fuck them kids. I got Cookie Monster finally, and mister Hooper Hooper.

Hooper or Hopper. I think it's Hooper. I think it's Hooper Hopper stranger things. That's why I get confessed. Yes, Ronnie got that bag and he said, fuck them kids, I'm taking.

Not only did I score a Cookie Monster and Hopper from that bag, I also Hooper. Yeah, Hooper. Sorry, I also scored a cowboy. Ah. Nice, I was jealous of your cowboy.

I didn't. I don't know if I told you that. So I was jealous of your cowboy that you found on our field trip. And so I got that as well. And I'm just I'm continuing to ride that wave.

There's some things coming out through Mecca. There's a Burton Ernie on the way that I'm really super excited for. They look amazing. We'll talk about those once you get them, because I have my thoughts about Mecca stuff. Neca's going to come up again today, So okay, Well, maybe i'll express my thoughts then and you won't be happy.

Well, I don't know. We'll see that Christmas. We shall see. Oh you know. Also, a friend of my YouTube channel sent me some cake toppers.

I got some cool little PVC Sesame Street cake toppers as well. It's been a good Sesame Street year so far. Yeah, They're going to come up on my list a handful of times as well. Nice. And what does the word cookie mean?

Jarney cookie? Oh, cookie is my very favorite word of all, and it means it's my very favorite desertible. My next item was also a topic on a past episode. Oh shoot, I forgot to write which one it was. The Devo stuff was from episode fourteen when we talked about them.

Six million dollars Man was episode thirteen. Because of me getting this figure, I talked about the big Gem Doctor Steel figure then I was obsessed with. As a kid. So I got that from eBay for a decent price, even though it was oh should I put it not damaged but repaired in a poor fashion? That wasn't made clear in the description, but whatever, I think.

I mentioned that it was written by Ai. It was an AI written description, and I'm seeing a lot of that on eBay. Yeah, write this for me Internet, Yeah, you can totally tell by the wording. But anyway, so that was another purchase this year. Goes with my other big gym figure of Zorak and I've got them standing behind me.

There they are, and see their chests. Those look good back there. That gentle giant Yoda looks really good back there. Certainly get a new setup in here. Yeah, it's looking good.

You've just got some Bob big boys back there. Yep, lots of bobs. What's next on your list? Let's see and then skip ahead to the Planet of the Apes discussion we had. I'm not going to try and remember what.

Episode that is, but this is where we can jump back into talking about Meka, because I was super excited to find a re released Gorilla Soldier Meka action figure at Target Nekkad. You know Super seven. Charges a lot for their reaction figures. Nekka definitely charges a lot for their seven inch figures. I understand why because of all the detail and such, but there's some quality control issues with their joints and things like that that come up every once in a while.

The Gorilla Soldier looks. Like he walked right off of the screen, which is cool, but his hands, if you move his hands slightly, they just pop right off. That's my biggest disappointment with that. I have the Cornelius Migo figure that you gave me several years ago, and I have some of the newer Migo Planet of the Apes figures, and now I have this guy. I'm pretty happy with my Planet of the Apes collection right now, although I do sometimes get a little bit tissed at myself for not jumping on the reaction Planet of the Apes figures on occasion.

But yeah, me too. Of it and they're long gone. Long gone. That playset is the one that is the thing that I really wanted to get that I regret not getting. Yeah, that was the same as my Devo episode, since they were both Ape related.

In a way. Yeah. Yeah, I hate every eight b C from Jimpana to Chimpanze. My issue with Mekka is not because I don't even know if I I have a couple of Mekka figures, but they are the Migo style figures, the eight inch cloth figures, the seven inch figures that I believe that Planet of the Apes figure talking about aligns with, and there are tons of them at Target. That's all I see at Target as far as collectible stuff besides Funko.

Pops, and they never go on sale. I am not interested in that highly detailed, all plastic figure in any way, shape or form just does not work for me. I would much rather have a goofy looking cloth figure. And I have seen the pictures of the Burton Ernie and they're really cool. I just don't like it.

Sort of looks like a real sweater or whatever Arne He's wearing when you look at it from a distance. But then all of the joints and folds are a part of the thing, and I don't like that. That actually started with Palisades Toys came out with their Muppet Show action figure line in the early two thousands, and they did that. It made a lot of fans happy. But I understand the complaint too because it looks like cloth.

Why can't it just b cloth? Well, and McFarland Toys did a lot of that too, Yeah, because and I had back then because it was one of the few things that you could get for certain properties. Yeah. Yeah, and it's just all hard plastic. They look really cool on a shelf or something, but there's just something about it that doesn't work for me.

The part that I'm happy about is I have a few of the Palisades Muppet figures. What got me real excited, and I think has a few other fans excited too, is that they are matching the scale of those Palisades figures with these Sesame Street figures, so they're the same style and scale applies that Palisades never got around to doing Sesame Street. They did release a super Grover. It was like a con exclusive. One of the best things about the Palisades fears is that there's the you know, the muppet foam texture to like their faces is sculpted into the plastics.

So that's something that I think is cool as a person who's a fan of tactile stuff. But I get it, all right. I'm heading back to Sesame Street with some vintage items that I picked up, and I don't think I talked about these. I only hinted at them, but I got a couple of the finger puppets. I was looking for finger puppets and or fissier priced little people at the same time.

They suffer from the same issues where the paint rubs off the eyeballs of most of them, and the ones that I like, like Cookie Monster and Grover, have prominent eyes and noses, and it's hard to find any that are in decent shape. But I actually had I think, at one point three or four different listings that I put on my watch list, different combinations of either Oscar or Cookie Monster or Grover and Cookie Monster, Burton Ernie or even Tougher because of the hair that they have. And I would get the occasional offer from somebody like, oh, you looked at this, so now it's ten percent off or whatever. And I ended up just getting one of the combination sets i'd been looking at that was Oscar the Grouch because I had that one as a kid, and a Cookie Monster, and they're both in really really good shape, both a little bit bigger than I remembered.

Actually, I don't know what kid at seven or eight years old could fit those on their finger without them just completely flying off, because they're huge on my hands in these days. But anyway, I got Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster Vintage finger Puppets. It was just me and nature, and then I saw a little baby worm all by himself. I'll never forget it. He was having a great time playing in the mud and then he saw me.

Those are on my list and when I'm cruising eBay, those are always something I'm looking for too. Glad you're able to find some good ones. There's some like weird color variations for Oscar that I keep running into online where he's blotchy or splotchy or different colors. Well, he has a paint application where he has some highlights, like lighter green highlights, and of course, like many things that were made back then, they're kind of very widely. Also, there are later variations that are slightly different sculpts.

I can kind of always tell like, oh no, that one doesn't look right. That's not the one for my childhood. And I remember having Big Bird two as a kid, But big Bird stuff just doesn't really appeal to me anymore as an adult. I don't know why. Well, I can see cute, compact and stuff like the other monsters.

The big Bird. The one variant that I've seen out there of the finger puppets is Big Bird's eye applications being reversed so that he looks angry. The eyelids are like right slanted off to the side, and if they print the eyes on the opposite side that they're supposed. To be, they look angry. And I've actually seen those out there on eBay.

And so that is a big Bird that I might try and get. Is the mistake big Bird angry version? I had the Finger puppet a Big Bird as a kid. I think that's the main reason why I would like to get a Big Bird finger puppet. But yeah, I'm gonna take a side road off course just a little bit because one of our unacceptable one of our well it's on course still, I guess because he's one of our most avid listeners.

Jeff Martin for my birthday got me and this is ties in in certain ways. It doesn't have to tie in. It's just stuff you got. It doesn't have to tie in. Thank you, Thank you.

Mark. So he sent me the blue Flash Gordon beast Man that has been sort of a Grail piece of mind for ages. So, Jeff, thank you so much. This is an early version of what would become our Masters of the Universe beast Man, and I've talked about that before on here. It's so cool to oh, we know we.

Have just as much as we've talked about the plastic rock balls. Yeah, but that's interesting. So that was a huge one. Actually, there are two Grail pieces that came my way this year, and I'm saving the second one for last actually smart Jeff, thank you so much. I'm just stoked to have him as part of the collection now.

And for those of you who know about the Flash Gordon action figures, they are super weird. That totally fits everything that I love about toys. That's my Blue beast Man for the show. Speaking of Blue, my next item or items, what are you doing? I'm excited.

I think I have this idea of what I think it might be. Anyways, Sorry, I'm excited. I've already talked about these because I think the episode was last season, talked about Saturday Night Live. That's going to come up a number of times here. But I finally tracked down the Blues Brothers novelization.

I know I've mentioned that, yep, and I bought the Blu ray on Amazon around the same time. I guess yeah, pretty much within the same week back in the spring, so I got those items pertaining to childhood obsessions. I still haven't finished the novelization though. It gets a little much. It gets a little much, and knowing that it was based off of Ackroyd's original script makes a lot of sense because the guy did not know how to edit himself.

It's fun to have it, though, just to look at it, like, oh God, I remember staring at this and reading through this so many times as a kid. He's got a cop motor, a four hundred and forty cubic inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters, so it will run good on regular gus. What do you say, is it the New Bluesmobile or what.

It takes a cigarette miner. That's great. Movie novelizations can be funny sometimes because they're filling gaps that especially if they were written based on the script. They're often filling gaps just to get the page count up and oh yeah, get some weird things in there. I always prefer when it goes the other way around, that a movie is based on a novel novel has stuff in there that didn't end up in the movie, rather than the other way around.

I've been meaning to get to one of the items that we found on our field trip, which is Splinter in the Mind's Eye, which is the sequel to the original Star Wars film. I've been meaning to get to that book. It's on my list of things to read. I'm anxious for the weirdness in there. I think the next thing I need to bring up too, because I feel that stop motion animation shows up a lot on this show I talk about it a lot.

Is partially my fault. I guess it's all your fault. Clash of the Titans is a very important movie in my life. When I was able to find the the Oh my god, what I'm blanking on? His name Calibos Calibos, and I was able to find Calibos at a reasonable price when I was down in Los Angeles with my dad delivering the Snake Mountain.

That was a big deal. Finding him was an exciting moment. That's something else that I got to now I clash of the Titans action figures. There are only three items that I'm interested in. So the third item is the Kraken, which I know I'll never be able to find at a reasonable price because those things are usually about seven hundred bucks or more, maybe slightly less sometimes and mostly around that price range.

It'll never happen for me. I was excited to find this guy. Maybe Jeff Martin, I'll get it for you. I don't think he'll be able to afford that. Now is it my return?

I believe I purchased this the same time from Amazon that I got the Blues Brothers Blu Ray. It was one of the retro collection prototype figures that I had missed and wanted because for some reason it fits that idea of having those different colors for each separate piece move piece, and that was the Chewbacca. I think I pointed out to you just how narrow, not narrow, how slim the card is on it because it's you know, it's like just him, So the car, not the bubble, sorry, not the card. The bubble is just like he's like squished in there with the bubble. It's so funny.

The Chrysantin Chewbacca character or the Chewbacca Wookie, yeah, Wookie, I thought you said Chewbacca earlier. Sorry, I was like, oh, they released the Chewbacca that's what I'm talking about. They released the retro collection Chewbacca. Yeah, the prototype oh. The prototype one.

Yeah, yeah, sorry I missed that part. Sorry, I got to cut all that out. That's okay, what are you talking about? The same thing happened with chrysanton too, Like he's huge in that little tiny bubble and he's just basically squished in there. The retro style card back for him.

It's just like he's just in there, and so the bubble is really what's the opposite of deep? Narrow? Shallow? Shallow? Thank you?

I know there's a word. It's very shallow, and he's just like sitting in there. Just made me laugh when I got it. Our show twenty years from now is going to be us just trying to find the words for him. God, Welcome to Alzheimer's and dementia.

We'll have to change the. Name welcome to my life. Basically, what's on your list? Son? Well, you know we talked about a little bit.

Since I didn't talk about the other characters that I got from the playmates, Dick Tracy line, I only talked about Steve the Tramp. I should talk about the Dick Tracy figure that. I got, and the and the I'm blanking on his name, big This is why we make lists for ourselves, Ronnie. I don't know why I'm blinking on. I didn't think I need the list for this.

That was your first mistake. I know that that's always the mistake I make. Big big Boy, Big Boy Caprice. Okay, so I did get big Boy Caprice, which is the super weird character that Al Pacino plays in Dick Tracy. I didn't realize this because I didn't have this action figure as when the movie came out.

I did have Dick Tracy, and he's super generic looking, doesn't even really look like Warren Batty, just looks like a kind of like Thank God for that. I know that would be really weird. There were these eight. Inch cloth dolls plastic heads, but cloth bodies that came out around the time of that movie. I did not talk about in that last episode, and they were very movie accurate face sculpts, and so he does look like Warren Batty.

I didn't mention this when you talked about that movie, but him as Dick Tracy, just looking like Warren Batty in a yellow suit was another reason why I had no interest in that film. Fucking slick your hair back. At least bro do something to look like Tracy. First of all, you're absolutely right, it's such a strange and warm bat Anyways, piggybacking off of that I did. This is a follow up.

I did find the videos that we were talking about one video of Warren Baby dressed up as Dick Tracy in the more recent years, and that's super weird. It was weird enough when the movie came out, but it's super weird to see that. I didn't realize that Big Boy Caprice had a hunchback or like a igre style lump on his back. So that was an interesting discovery with this action figure. Well, he has one in the movie.

I don't remember seeing that in the movie. I just remember him kind of walking weird. He's a hunchback, and I know that I've never seen the Oh, I just knocked over much stuff. I need to see the movie again again. That goes back to what we were discussing.

I was hoping, because we mentioned it on the episode that. The zeitgeist would be activated. In the movie, and it's not always immediate hasn't yet. The zeitguys did work with me getting the cookie monster chase with the cookies in his belly, the Transparent one. Don't talk about all your stuff at once.

I just you know, I'm excited, Mark, I'm excited. You know that's my. Biggest better safe be saving some because I've got at least eleven more things here. Oh yeah, I've got some. I've gotten something.

To say because otherwise I'll just be talking by myself here. Well, I'm a good listener, so I'm okay with that. So those again. I mentioned it in the last episode that we just recorded that came out a couple of weeks ago. The Playmate's Action figures.

They seemed to be be becoming more popular. The Dick Tracy ones. I'm going to continue searching for an affordable flat top. I'm not willing to spend more than ten bucks on these things. Yeah, at flat top was.

My favorite character from the movie. Was my favorite character from that line. William Forsyth is an actor. I'll always be interested in seeing what he does. That's on my list to get next in time.

As you and I always preach, I'm going to be patient about it. Yeah, they're weird figures. I'm looking at the picture that you posted on Instagram. Yeah, and they're all three hunched over. I don't get that there's squat.

I think they were trying to make sure that they could align with the squattiness of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, same company. But they're not even that scale they are. That's they are. They're just the yeah, oh yeah they are. They're right about the scale of the mail.

I still don't get it though, unless they're made for vehicles or something. It's a really weird I agree with you, it's a super strange design choice. They're like, understand that there's squat, almost like they just need they wanted to make them match with the Teenage. Mutant Ninja Turtles. I think that's what they were trying to do.

They all look like they're getting to fart, so I don't understand the appeal of that. Yeah, that's part of the criticism of Masters of the Universe too. They'll look like they're ready to from their bewels. That's disgusting. So my next item isn't disgusting at all.

We can try and find a way to make it disgusting. Probably, I mean, these could fit somewhere. So my next item is related to the Cutie Fruity pencil toppers that I talked about oh so long ago, And during that episode I mentioned that I had stumbled on and discovered that there were other things called Quti Fruities that used the same design as the pencil toppers. I believe these came first, no idea. I hope somebody makes a documentary about this.

Someday they will. So I have been off and on looking for what I'm going to call the original Qti fruities. That are these walking toys. Oh yeah, that were made by Franconia slash Tony and Tony is a Japanese company, and I believe Franconia is an American company that might be another something else UK or something. But so there was a line of these walking toys.

Franconia made a lot of walking toys. There's a peanut and some other things that they have, but there's a whole bunch of these. There's a mister Apple, there's an orange, there's the mister Grape, there's a pineapple, and they're pretty pricey. So I would just keep looking and looking, not sure. Sometime during the summer I was looking again and just happened to find this listing that was for a mister Apple and a miss Orange.

For these are beautiful five dollars, and I think it was an auction. Yeah, I believe it was an auction. So it was starting price of five dollars, and the shipping was five dollars, and so I put in a of five dollars or whatever because I didn't really care. I was just whatever for these types of things. I never had these as a kid, but it's a curiosity to me and won it.

So I basically got these for five dollars apiece. I mean the whole auction with shipping was ten something. There's an apple on there right now that's been up there since I discovered these things that somebody's trying to sell for eighty bucks, and I'm like, why how long are you going to have that thing up there before you drop it? At least half anyway around that same time, though, there was another and I think this was just a straight by it now listing of five of them in their boxes for twenty five dollars, and I believe I would have only gotten one double. It was either the apple or the orange, and the rest were different figures like the pineapple deal maybe the grape, and I missed it completely by forgetting it wasn't a It must have been an auction too, because I was waiting.

So I'm like, remember Mark at one o'clock to go put your bid in, got sidetracked by something on the TV or on my computer or work or whatever, and never got back to it, And that listing has never come up again. It didn't get one by nobody bid on it. It had zero bids when it closed, and so usually sometimes even automatically, yeah, they go back up, and it has never gone back up. So I missed getting five of them for five dollars apiece, with you know, a duplicate that I would have most likely passed on to you, not having really any history with these I was surprised at how small they are. I'm surprised at how big they are.

They're three inches tall. Yeah, it's hard to tell the scale, you know, when you're just looking at pictures on email. Yeah, I figured they were about four or five. It just seems like they're a little more petite I imagined. Again.

You know, when I hold this up to the little apple, it's the exact same sculpt The eyes, yeah, are doing the same thing. He's got arms, they're stuck to his body, but they're doing the same thing that the little pencil toppers do. Yeah, his tongue is sticking out. It's on the opposite side. But it's so bizarre.

I don't know what the etymology is of these things and how they went from these little walking figures to those pencil toppers. All of them are the exact The grape is exactly like the pencil topper, the pineapple, the pear, they're all it's so weird. So I'm waiting for that documentary that you're getting on top of to come out and explain it. Yeah, it sounds to me like we both like the idea of documentaries coming in now. I'm actually just making fun of you.

I know you are, but I think there's some truth in there. That's what I want to do. If for some ungodly reason, I see on my TV the history of Cuny Fruity's explained in great detail, just for you, Mark Bigley, then I would watch it. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened. See, this is the optimism pessimism.

That's a ridiculous statement, Yin and yang. For us, I would be absolutely one hundred percent surprise that any person on this planet would endeavor to do that. I'm telling you, I think I missed my calling. It's just gone to film school. Hey, with our iPhones these days, we can do whatever we may.

I might think it's I think it takes a lot more than an iPhone. You could find somebody that it's gonna be that simple. I'm just gonna take my iPhone to wherever and just make a movie to wherever, to all the people that know about these things. Sure, what's on your next item list? In chronological order?

The next one? The next one is Inner of You. The last time you brought up Migos, it was our last episode, actually not the one we just recorded, but the one we recorded previously. We talked a little bit about how I had a disembodied Spider Man mego. Head, probably as a kid.

It's going to be a while before I get a Spider Man Migo figure. But I've been. Trying to stop in at Ross every once in a while because it's pretty close to where I worked. There's one pretty close to where I work, by fashion Fair. Because then since I worked at President State, it's like right down the street between right, knew where we had coffee.

Right near where I work. It's right across the it's right. Practically, I totally forget about it. That's right, So I sometimes on my lunch break I'll swing by. When I saw this one guy grab the three point seventy five inch hulk right in front of me, I was like, oh, of.

Course, I punched him in the throat. I did, didn't I should have, But I'm like, oh great, I'm so happy for you. I did find a little Spider Man, and there have been like a bunch of versions of this Spider Man, but I wanted the tradition, super traditional red dimple and blue with black webbing, super simple spider Man, the one with the red spider on the back and the little teeny tiny black spider in the front. I love the fact that he's three point seventy five inch for obvious reasons. I just love that for some reason.

Yeah, I think you and I both agree that that scale is just phenomenal. But I got really excited. I found him for three ninety nine. This is what's really crazy. So folks, if you go to Ross, keep an eye out for this, because if you're looking for three point seventy five inch figures on the little traditional bubble card back, you may not see what I found.

I found a two pack for the same price is one figure, and this was like a thing you had to order through Hasbro and it was Electro and Spider Man. Oh yeah, two pack. I remember seeing that two pack at Target yep, and not buying it because I didn't want Electro. Yeah I don't want Electro. But for three ninety nine, yeah.

So two bucks a figure basically exactly. So I'm really excited though, to have the traditional Spider Man the way that I love him, Happy to add him in with my. Other little pieces of plastic. That was just a couple of weeks ago. Afterly cool.

Well, you're not going in chronological order. So no, I you know what, I forgot about all rules. You gave me the freedom to just do whatever. I was like, all right, I'm gonna go just do whatever. Jesus christ Man.

Well, my next items were mentioned a couple times on the show. I'm going to be vague about them still, because this will be something that I talk about in well, not in depth because I don't. I only know much about them. But the daw sci fi books. I picked a couple on our trip in July Tomorrow Bay and got one on our outing to old town Clovis, DA sci fi covers with the yellow spines.

Yep, check them out. Hey, Dan Davis, if you're listening, help me out, man, you're the sci fi book guy. Yeah, maybe I'll message you and see if you know anything about that publisher. It would be really. Interesting if all of those DA sci fi books were donated by Dan back and moved away from Fresno Interestine interesting I should look.

My next thing actually piggybacks off of that directly. I've added something to my wish list to recollect, and it's based on us having talked about James Bond. It reminded me of how when I was in high school, I got pretty deep into collecting the vintage Ian Fleming paperbacks. I donated them at some point in my stupid twenties. Stupid twenties, ain't that Oh gosh, don't.

Get me started. I got rid of all of them, and I pretty much had all of them, and there are some similar to. The daw sci fi books. Some of those covers are phenomenal. I've been really toying with the idea of trying to rebuild that collection, and I'm excited too.

And I've also decided to rewatch all the Roger Moore James Bonds in anticipation of a future discussion that we might have. Okay, well, is that your item that you're talking about? Yeah, wishless item. I'm breaking breaking all the rules because that's not something you have. So I'm really sure what you're talking about.

It's something I'm going to have. I'm excited. Another constant. We've already mentioned them a couple of times, and this is where I might go off on a little tangent. Yay, we've already mentioned the Super seven Sesame Street reaction figures multiple times.

You've talked about them at great length. Has discussed pursuing them, particularly the blind Box, because I have not purchased any of the carded figures because of the price. Right, that's part of what I'm going to talk about. Excuse me. You mentioned finding them at that target.

I went to that target, got bert the first shot, took a chance the next time I was there and looked out on an Ernie. Two of my faves. I'm happy with those. You gifted me the Oscar or the third or fourth or fifth Oscar that you had purchased, I'm happy with those three. If they do another blind Box series, I don't even know if I'll bother because I don't think I'm interested in any of the other figures in the Wave two or the Wave three, or what however many waves they've done.

But who knows, Maybe I'll change my mind. And we've mentioned the price of reaction figures numerous times, and I know anytime you do a review on your channel you talk about it, so we're kind of treading familiar ground here. But when I got them and opened them, it just reminded me of how good a job Super seven does on these figures and how well made they are. I understand enough to know of why they cost what they do because of the care that they take and making them the materials that they use. Also the licensing.

You know, this is still a small company. They are not Hasbro, they are not gon Tel. They have dip their toes in big major licenses, but licensing things costs money. I think that is a big part of the price point, although I will say that on their original stuff, the cost isn't any lower. So you know, the worst figures and some of the other figures that are just strictly homemade by Super seven don't cost any less.

So anyway, you're paying for original ideas. Mark. Sure, you know the card art is great compared to most other action figures of the same scale or even larger. It's going to be hard to beat Super seven with that, and they've got to pay those artists to do that, et cetera, et cetera. So I get it, but I still think they're overpriced.

When I think about the blind box figures versus the card figures and how there is a five dollars difference in price, I think that goes toward my argument because those are still in packaging. It's just a cardboard box, but there is still art that was designed. They're not just slapping the same old artwork on the blind boxes. There's something there that's not driving for me. Still what I prefer them to be five dollars less and maybe cheap out on the card art a little bit sure.

To be honest with you, it's got to give at some point because, like I said, I don't know if it was earlier in this episode or on our last one. Things ain't going to get me cheaper that are coming from China. The days of twenty dollars reaction figures may soon be over. That's very true. They may be considerably more than that.

So that's why I mentioned at that point, get them now if you're interested, and I should be telling myself that as well. Get that Bob one figure. Good. Yeah, probably ain't going to be cheaper next year. That's probably smart.

It's a tough pill to swallow because yeah, it's twenty bucks plus shipping, and you know it can can. Really add up. It's a gift though that some of them do show up on the target shelves. But you're just betting on that. You're just you know, waiting on it and betting on it.

That's tough. I guess my main thing is when I compare them to a Mego figure that's eight inches that has cloth accessories, has other large accessories, the card art is never going to win me over on the new Mego stuff. I just don't really think that they do that good of a job. Agreed, These are the same price or were I don't know what the price. I haven't bought a Migo figure in a while.

When they were at Target they were fourteen ninety nine. I know that some of the ones that I've gotten on Amazon because they've been sort of later, you know, may have been up to twenty That's the same price as a three and three quarter inch all plastic figure with no cloth accessories. When I compare those two things, in my head, it doesn't make sense. Another issue is that rarely do Necka or Super seven figures go on clearance at Target. However, the Migos do go on clearance.

Like I got this toxic Avenger. Well, I got him from Walmart, but he was still a clearance item because he's from twenty twenty one. You know, it's hard to tell what if we're pro or against seven. I will say that the card though the art is not spectacular, it still has cool art and it's a good quality cardboard, similar to the Super seven cardbacks, which are good quality cardboard. So you know this, I think this thing was regularly priced at seventeen ninety nine or something like that.

The migos are still going to be less than the Super seven figures. Yeah, I'm not saying for or against Super seven in any way. I've met the owner of Super seven a handful of times, almost worked with him back when I was doing letterpress stuff, and yeah, he's a nice guy. And you know, they've had major changes in direction on what they produce over the years, completely different than what they started with twenty something years ago. I don't fault them for any of it.

It's just a little too much for a three and three quarter inch figure in my mind, and that's really my sole complaint. If the figures were crap too, then it would just be an easy pass. You know, those Sesame Street figures are very well made, very well sculpted. Generally, the paint apps are spot on. They're not so like a lot of other toys, mass market toys.

I give them a lot of credit. Yeah, I just think they're a little overpriced. Yeah, they're a niche company and probably that kind of price for that stuff is probably always going to be there. They're definitely going to be the only place where we can get Devo figures, right, Paul Peralta. Figures, professional skaters and a Lemmy action figure.

Gosh, I'm hoping they come out with the Melvins one of these days. But the only company that would be doing that, and I guess that's part of what you're paying for, right. How many more items do you have on your list? I have two more? Two?

Oh my god, I've got a ton one two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Nice. Well, a couple of them are paired. I'll pass the baton back to you. Then, Well, in the same vein, and I think on the same trips out to that target, I got some other Sesame Street related items.

You had mentioned seeing these plush figures, either Kid Robot or Neka, and it's one and the same. I had totally forgotten that Meca had bought Kid Robot, so I picked up the funny still hate those names Plush Burt. That same day I got the blind Box Burt and then probably I don't know if it was the same day or not that I picked up the two Ernies, so I have a Burton Ernie reaction figure. I have Burton Ernie. No, it wasn't the same day funny plush from kid Robot.

I know you don't like that cutesified baby style, but I do much like the Baby Garfield that I couldn't shut up about. And I want to make a comparison here to that because I mentioned with that Baby Garfield and it's very low price point, how this will most likely fall apart someday. These kid Robot things are extremely well made. They are seventeen dollars versus nine or whatever the Baby Garfield was, but they are stitched together just amazingly. Oh wow, very well made, much like Super seven stuff.

I get it. And then when we were there on a trip to find something for my grandniece's birthday, we looked through the plush pile again and my daughter Cleo saw Count von Count funny plush grabbed that said I want this. I said, no problem, got up to the counter. Didn't have a tag on it. The girl was like, this didn't have a tag and I said, no, I know how much they are, but she didn't ask me, rang it up, we got out of there.

I looked at the receipt and she had charged us five dollars for it. Nice, so we got a cheat one for her. Cool. Yeah, we really like those little guys. I'm trying to see if I have any other sesame streak that I can throw in.

I have another thing that I could probably mention, but really what the last so to be? The next three items that I discussed are all going. To be star Wars. Oh, split them up? Split them up?

Good? Cool, I'm splitting them up. Here we go. You haven't bought any Masters of the Universe stuff this year? Yeah?

I have, like I have, But what the fuck are you talking about? You've got two items left? Well, because I thought, you know I always talk about Masters and. Oh duh you rial bub. Well, fuck, here comes twenty more items.

I was expecting to like sit here for a half an hour board out of my gorg while you rattled off the list of Masters of the Universe items picked up. I'm going to talk about two different groups of Masters figures, so I don't get too carried away. I know you bought Simpsons stuff too, Okay, yeah, yeah, you're not thinking of all the stuff you got. I know you've got more stuff than what you're all right, cool talking about dude, Thank you. Thank you for the remind I'm looking at them right now.

Actually cool, go on with you? Okay, so bad self. The Jack's Pacific Simpsons figures that have been coming out are super affordable, and I absolutely cannot resist the small ones. I have not yet bought the twenty dollars family pack yet because that would mean that I would have now three Homer Simpsons. I was really excited to get Chief Wigham.

That was the main one that I wanted to get, Chief Wigam. My wife loves Chief Wigam. Every time he comes on the screen, she's like she just can't stop laughing. And also Ned Flanders because when I just had a mustache back when the girls were in elementary and middle school, it was just a mustache and their friends would be behind my back called me Ned Flanders. I did get Ned Flanders and Chief Wigham and these are four ninety nine, and.

The quality of these figures, well, I'm going to go back to this because the Simpsons figures that came out in the late nineties early two thousands were playmates as well as the same company as Dick Tracy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Simpsons figures were substantially higher quality. These tiny versions. They're not even three point seventy five. They're like no figures, They're like two and a half.

Yeah. Yeah, talk about going from Super seven to Jack Specific. It's a huge leap. I feel like the quality of plastic might be a little little bit less. You're getting into what I was going to get into, because my next item was the Ned Flanders Jack Specific Simpson's figure.

It's an amazing figure. They are not anywhere near the quality of the Super seven figures. No, but they're still so good. I'm not gonna argue with you about that. But they're smaller.

Yeah. The articulation as wonky as all get out. It's super weird. The packaging is boring as fuck, and so five bucks a figure. Hell yes, hell yes, But it's obvious as to why these costs a quarter of a Super seven Reaction figure.

I'm gonna come back with this though. If you hold them in your hands and you try and play with them, they're gonna feel like cheaper toys for sure. The packaging makes them look like cheaper toys, for sure, But the moment you get them on the ground and do toy photography or put them on the shelf alongside your other figures, they're just glowing with artistry. They're beautiful little objects. To put on the shelf, and they are simple enough to give us that little nostalgia buzz for people like us that grew up with super simple toys.

I picked up the place that it came with a Homer Simpson. It's the home. It's like the living room, and then the backside of the placeset is the house like the front of the house, which is strange because it doesn't line up. No, it's still cool to have, and it's a pretty high quality playset. Even though it's super simple in design.

It looks like you're looking right at the cartoon. But the Flanders, the Homer, the playset, and the chief Wigum, I'm really happy to have them, and I'm really glad that Jack specific is putting these out. There's larger versions of these characters that are more in scale to the playmate's figures, But because the playmate's figures exist out there on eBay at a fairly reasonable price, still it seems to me like I would rather get these little teeny tiny ones and. Take up less shelf space. I haven't run across the larger ones.

Oh you haven't. Yeah, they look pretty good. They look pretty good. I've only seen the small ones in Target and the plush with the hard vinyl heads. The Plush figures are a direct throwback to the nineties.

I remember those being around, and they. Look exactly like those. You're right, I got the little Simpsons figures. I'd like to get the pets. I almost feel like that twenty dollars set for the whole family is worth it to get Marge and the pets, because I don't think they're going to come out as individual figures.

Yeah. I wonder how long this line will go, if it'll generate enough interest to continue to get into the weird Because for the playmates figure, since you mentioned them, I just got the weird kids. Those are the only things that I was interested in. I got like Ooder and the twins and the little Sickly Boy. Yeah, I just kind of got the weirdo ones and they're all still in their cards.

I never took any of those out. Yeah, Gabby went through a phase. Our daughter, Gabby went through a phase or she was collecting them, so we have several of them on cards, still hanging on the wall and there. But these are cool. I'd like to see some of the Oddball characters show up at this scale.

But you're right, I'm not sure how long this is going to last. Part of me wants it to last longer so we can get those all ball characters. Part of me also wants that family pack that's twenty dollars to go on clearance so I can get them cool stuff. I'll cross that off my list. That's one new.

That means robbing way that the joke that. We already have talked about these, so I'll just mention it briefly, the vintage Fisher Price little People that we got on our excursion. So that's that one down. Now I feel like I'm being rushed. You feel like you're being rushed, Yeah, because you are not going to talk about enough stuff.

All right, But you convinced me to talk about stuff I thought nobody wanted to hear about. I was gonna do. You got it? Well, here comes some Masters of the Universe talk. Mark's already putting on his nightcap.

For those of you that aren't interested come back to this time stamp and I won't blame you, remember kitties. This is just the first half of our holiday special. Come back next week on New Year's Eve for the second part. We start with a on that one with Ronnie getting into Masters of the Universe. Yay, all right, thanks for listening, and please join us next week.

We're gonna press on and we're gonna have the hap hap happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap Dance with Danny fucking Kay. Cambridge. A M. Shaun is a weirding Way media podcast