Episode 31: Food and fun in a box (Part 1)

Cambridge Emshan is a weird way media podcast gets food. And fun in a box. Now, my son Boogie b. If I had a tiny microphone stun inside my heart, it would have my love for you. Stop.

Stop, Hello, and welcome to another exciting episode of CambridgeMA Sean, a podcast by two weird guys about the weird stuff that they like. And we have been doing things a little differently recently, so we're doing something different today as well. Although we do this or have done this for our holiday episodes, and we are just going to talk today about the stuff that we got. What did you get? What did I get?

What did we get? I'm sure that's the most exciting stuff for all of y'all, but whatever, this is our show and we're going to do what the heck we like. Yeah, we're going to do what we want. And I know since the last episode aired, we've racked up dozens of new listeners, so we're real excited that everyone's on board for the weird stuff us weirdos like. The reason we're doing this, though, is because we recorded two special guest episodes.

One that's already released with our pal Jeff Martin. That's out you can listen to it. Two weeks later, we recorded another one with our friend Dan Davis from The Dungeon Dive, and you will get that as our October episode. And so I kind of realized with that and the David Lynch episode that we're going to be spanning a wide gap here two or three months where without a regular episode where we talk about the things that we got. If we did it on a regular episode, it would take up way too much time.

We're just getting from mid May to yesterday out of the way here of what did you get? It's a catch up episode. If that's not your thing, you know, don't listen. I don't know what to tell you. Apparently, apparently Ronnie is mister money bags because he has twice as many things as I did to talk about.

So he'll talk about two things and I will talk about one. I also have, along with the physical objects that I have purchased, I have three updates to talk about, or three things that relate to topics that we have talked about, I have talked about, or we have both talked about. I know one of the things is something we're both very interested in. Yeah, I have not seen them yet. In stores, but.

I'm hoping too soon and we'll get it either. We'll say that for the end and get into that. And yeah, hopefully by the time this errs, we'll have seen them and gotten them all right, So let's stop with all the gobbledygook and get into this. Ronnie, give us your first two things. So, for people who are regular listeners, Jeff Martin, some.

Of this stuff is repeat the only regular listener apparently. Don't we have some listeners in Europe? Yeah, I think maybe. I don't know if they are sticking around or not. Are they real?

That's another good question. Yeah. Yeah, if we sound bitter, we're not bitter. We love doing this and that's all that matters to us. It's just really cool when someone does listen in, and that's amazing.

I will say that some of this stuff has been taught talked about. Actually, most of this stuff in some capacity has been talked about over on the e Sclevator YouTube channel. Of course, some of the stuff that has been mentioned hinted at at least in our previous discussions here too. The first thing that I got, so we're going back to early May. The first thing that I got was something that I pre ordered about a year and a half previous to it showing up, and every one, what was that?

I said, geez, yeah. Well this is kind of a special item. Every once in a while, through my YouTube channel, some people in the community are starting their own toy line or starting new projects and they put these things up on Kickstarter or wherever they put it, go fund me and things like that. A friend that I met through the Sclevator channel, Matt Rodriguez, who's a fellow Masters of the Universe fan. He did some collaborative work with four Horsemen Studios.

This is a toy company, independent company that has made some amazing things and for Masters of the Universe fans. You know who for Horsemen Studios is They did the two thousand and X Mike Young Productions Masters of the Universe figures in two thousand and two. He's been writing comic books and he's an illustrator, and he thought, well, I'm gonna make some action figures of this comic book series, Armies of Ashmore, which are these dinosaur warriors. They're not that cheap, I mean, not that affordable, and that cheap is not the right word. They're not that affordable, and that this is an artifact of unique significance.

I pre ordered one. I really wanted to go for the whole collection, but I just couldn't. Mark's calling me money bags, but I wish I got this one figure. He's a blue triceratops and his name is General Serros ce RRS. He's a huge figure.

He's about almost ten inches tall, solid plastic. The sculpt on him is amazing. And I do know for those of you who out there listening, if you're interested in these highly detailed action figures, that's a new character line, something made by independent artists outside of the realm of these big toy companies. Matt Rodriguez's line of toys Defenders of Eden, Armies of Ashmore. All you got to do is type those words in and it'll pop up.

And I think he is selling stuff through big bad toy store and Entertainment Earth. Maybe not Entertainment Earth. I talked to him last night and he's actually got some more things going to be popping up for people who do want to get on board with something like that. It's an amazing toy. And I did a review on my Sclevator channel, and then another gentleman that I talked to last night, Curtis Ackerman.

He's got a YouTube channel Art by Ackerman, and he does customizing and he goes on these little road trips every once in a while for his work. And he ran across this super Friends mcfarr CARLN Toy's Batman figure. That's all read. It's in reference to an episode of super Friends where they're evil versions of the superheroes and this red Batman just like I've been looking for him and I hadn't seen him out there at targets, and he found one and sent it my way. So those are my first two items.

I love super Friends, Oh yeah, it's good stuff. Their mission to fight injustice, to write that which is wrong, and to serve all mankind. Well, it's your first item. My first item is something that we have talked about on the show. I'm gonna be saying this twice, so apologies to you, Ronnie, because I did not get this from the Super seven store.

I got my Roosevelt Franklin reaction figure on Amazon. So no affiliate money headed your way from That's all right seven, mainly because of the tariffs. Mainly because the last two times I have ordered something from them. It has sat in their warehouse for a week where they shipped it. I can get stuff from Amazon in two days, yeah, without the tariff cost.

So anyway, this popped up on Amazon. I had just done a search to see if they had him, and it was a pre order and it gave a date in late June or something for the availability, and I just happened to be on there to get my daughter a couple of blind box figures that she likes, one for her graduation and one when she helped me the day that she helped me trim the tree that eventually tried to kill me. I had promised her, you know, I'll get you one of those things on Amazon or whatever. Took her a while to decide. While I was adding those to my cart, he popped up as available, and I was like, well, I'll just add that now and buy him too.

It was early, it wasn't the date that they had originally given. It's like, there's no point not getting. Yeah, I mean Amazon, Amazon makes things so much easier. It's prime, you don't have to pay for shipping. I mean, come on, I hate doing it.

I hate them, I hate Zuckerberg, but whatever, I mean, I don't know Bezos. Oh yeah, Bezos. I do hate Zuckerberg too, but whatever. Yeah, all those guys. These idiots that are ruining the planet for their own legion of doom, the Legion of Doom.

Oh yeah, and they're all chuds that shipping is the main thing getting stuff quick, and they haven't added any tariff costs. I don't know what this made me think of something. I'll get to that in a bit. Yeah. So I got the Roosevelt Franklin reaction figure from Super seven via Amazon.

He's pretty adorable. Yeah, I've got him sitting or standing right next to his Fisher Price Ittle People version. Yeah that's awesome. Yeah, I got mine ahead of yours. So yeah, you got yours when it came out, right when it came out.

See that's the other thing. I don't feel the need to do that for any of this stuff. I don't. I just and that'll come up again here. That used to be a problem with me, and I really try to avoid it, like actively, try to avoid having to have something the second it drops.

For people who are interested in toys and stuff like this, managing fomo is a real important mindset because you can't let that stuff bully you into making decisions you might regret later on, and I've definitely had to navigate that, and it's hard. There are things that I see out there I'm like, oh my god, that's amazing something I'm going to get to in just a little bit. But man, if you just push that patience button and just silence those voices in your head, you never know what you might find on clearance or on Amazon for a lower price later on, or whatever it might be right, or somebody selling it on eBay five ten years later for a fraction of the price. All that needs to come into play, and so fomo can be real dangerous for folks like us who are interested in having these items.

Yeah, I think I've pretty much gotten over that. Yeah, that's good. I still fall victim to this, and I pre order things sometimes and I think about it. Yeah, pre order is not even in my vocabulary anymore. Hardly.

Recently, I pre ordered some things that were announced at San Diego Comic Con, and then I canceled them like a four days later because I was like, do I really need another Castle Gray School just because of a different paint application. No, I'll get into the pre order stuff in a little bit here. Yeah, for another item down the road, but it's a different scenario and a dumber reason to not do it, but it keeps me from doing it. What's your next stuff, dude? Sometimes the initial feeling we have about something is not true to ourselves.

Well's about Franklin. So this is a good example. The next thing I got was a clearance item at Target, and I initially had wanted to get this just because they were different color ways than I had previously gotten before, and I really kind of liked the subdued colors for these items. There's a Stranger Things Masters of the Universe two pack that showed up on the shelves at Target. All four of us in our household are fans of Stranger Things.

We've been watching it since the beginning. We try and catch each season as soon as it pops up. There's the demo Gorgon Skeletor two pack and the he Man Vecna two pack, and I was hesitant to get them. And then they went on clearance for like six dollars. This is an item that was normally twenty five ninety nine or something crazy.

I picked up the he Man and Vecna two pac and then Aaron Davies's friend of the e Sclevator channel, and he sent me the Skeletor Dema Gorgon two pack. That counts as one item, but that's an example of waiting, being patient, wait for the clearance stuff and get it for a fraction of the price Rial bulb item. I'm going to combine two items as well, because they were both on a trip, two separate trips with Jeff Martin to the antique stores. I ran across the clash of the Titans Perseus figure, which I've had my eye on for a long time. Anytime I can run across a clash of the Titans figure for a reasonable price, I get excited.

I picked that one up for fifteen dollars. And then the gentleman who ran the booth, he got to talking to us about it, and he's like, oh, I got some Star Wars stuff in the back. He brought out this box full of twelve inch Star Wars figures from nineteen seventy eight. And I got the Jawa for twenty bucks. The Jawa, he's like an immaculate shape, except for one hand is chipped.

He looks great. He's got the cloth cloak. Those are the kind of rewards for people like us that are totally worth the weight. I don't know if you're perusing these things lately, Mark, but those twelve inch stinted Star Wars figures are not cheap. It was cool.

We'll find that. It only comes up when I search for the gentle Giant h Jahua, which I missed out on the f fomo for that didn't buy those when they were a decent price. Whatever. Yeah, no, that's a good deal on that. Twenty bucks for a vintage figure of that size for any line is a good deal.

Really for sure. I mean, regardless of what eBay says or whatever. Regardless of what I mean, maybe they're not that expensive, but twenty bucks for a fifty year old or a forty something year old toy that's in good shape is a deal. It's a deal navigating between eBay deals and in person deals and talking to store owners, and none of that exists when you buy stuff new right off the shelf. You don't get the opportunity to navigate or make deals or measure one price against another.

And maybe that's the theme. Of today's episodes Patience me clip in Guns and Roses Patients Patience. I don't know her. You don't know that song Patience by Guns and. Roses, I probably do.

I mean I had a couple of their albums when I was younger. But it's not ringing any bills. I'll give it a listen, Yeah. Said woman jun Ye. You in junny, So what's next on your list?

This is a new toy. I still hold a place in my heart for Japanese toys designer Vinyl, that area that I got into pretty heavy in the early two thousands, blind box figures and stuff, even though they're very frustrating, which is the case for my little story here. But like many things that I discover these days, I was going through the Explorer section of Instagram. I saw a post about this little Burger guy I love them, a little Burger figure and I was like, oh, who made that? So I clicked on it and looked sessed out the designers or the makers of the toy, and I thought, okay, well, I'm never going to see these.

This is Japanese. I'm not going to try to navigate foreign sites to get something like this, right, So whatever looked it up. I think I did an initial cursory eBay search just to see with the name of the keep wanting to call them food junkies, but it's junk foodies and they're buy human robot toys. So I use those search terms and nothing came up at all. And then I searched just a general Google search.

It just led me to like Instagram posts and I was like, okay, sort of forgot about it. Then I got an email from a toy store in New York who I've bought things from in the past. I've bought Kleo and I stuff from them a number of times, and I get their I always take a little glance through what they have available. A lot of the vinyl stuff is just out of my price range these days, you know, sixty to two hundred and forty dollars for a toy. I'm not just not doing.

And I look at the blind box stuff out of curiosity for her and for me, scrolling through and lo and behold they had them. Nice didn't immediately purchase them because there's three figures. There's a little burger guy called Burgie. There's a little guy with a chicken drumstick head called Cheeky. I love it.

There's a little guy with a box of fries as his head, and he's called Potato or Patati, depending on how you pronounce it. You like potato and I like Rotato. They're all cute, but of course I want the burger guy, right, And they're supposed to be zombies. I guess they do a bunch of other different figures. They do them with heads that look like pieces of bread, like a croissant or just a regular slice of bread, and I kind of get it, but I think for me, it's mainly the burger.

And then they've got those heathcliff eyeballs again, like the lickety splits, which I love it. So I kind of hammed in hot because I'm like, I want the burger. I ordered two from them, and I put in the they have a space for the note. I was like, well, I'll give it a shot, like, if there's any way to secure the burger, please do so I ordered them. And then here's a fun story because on the last normal episode I talked about my mail obsession, right and chasing postal carriers down.

Well, this happens twice. Supposed to be out for delivery, mailman comes by and I know this every day because they clunk down lid on our box and our boxes on our house by our front door, and it makes the dog bark. So I always know when the mail comes. So I go out there, open up the box, no package, and I'm like, what the fuck? Shame?

So, like I said on that episode, you know, they go up our street, across the street and go back down the other side of the street. So I flagged her down and I said, are you still delivering packages? Because sometimes they'll do they have a lot of packages to do on your street. They'll wait because they don't want to lug them all around, and then they'll drive to your house and it's like, oh yeah, I forgot my scanner, so I'm kind to have to come back. And do okay.

About ten fifteen minutes later, it was on my porch. Open it up, Open up the blind boxes. Got the other two figures. May French fries head, this is unheard of, right, I mean, you and I have had enough. We'll get to McDonald's in a little bit.

But blind boxes can often be super disappointing. So you lucked out. No, I didn't luck out. I got the other two figures. Oh I thought you.

Said you got the other ones, the ones that you wanted. No, no, no, no no, I got the chicken and French fries. Yeah, And I was like, God, damn it, I'm not gonna I'm not going to order again. I'm not doing this. I forgot about it.

It was really fat, and I kept feeling that pole to try again and ask more specifically, if you have an open box, can you send I'll pay more or whatever. Forgot about that. I did search on eBay. I'm like, I'll pay double the price on eBay for a specific figure. So I looked on eBay and none of them were selling the burger for one thing, and they were selling the other two and they were all coming from, you know, across the ocean for forty something dollars.

I'm like, absolutely not, no, not even the burger. I'm not paying forty dollars for the burger. These are eight dollars seven dollars figures. So I kind of forgot about it for a little bit, and then I kept getting that pole. Oh yeah.

So I did another Internet search for them, and a different toy store that I've purchased from once before came up and they had them for two dollars cheaper, and I'm like, okay, I'm going to try it again. I'm going to buy two more and see if my luck holds that, you know, not out if I get lucky. So they come same scenario though with the mail I had to chase down and it was a different carrier. It's a different carrier out for delivery. He stops by nothing.

So I do the exactly I'm sorry, I do the exact same thing. Hey man, are you still delivering packages? Oh yeah, I've got a bunch on the truck on getting to them. Open it up. Exact same figures.

Oh god. Now here's the thing about that. So there's only three figures, but there's two color ways of each figure. I didn't even get different color. Waves blind boxes.

I'm like, well, whatever, I gave them to Cleo and Carlita. Which one do you want here? You take the chicken one, you take the French fries whatever. We've all got some now. So that's not the end of the story, because a little while later I went back to the original place who I have ordered from in the past, and I explained what happened.

I said, I've ordered two from you ordered two from another store. I really just want the burger. Is there any way you can send me that? And I had given a note to the other store too, like please make sure one of them is the burger if possible. Somebody messaged me back.

They emailed me back and said, well, we have one in the store. We'll just send you that one. Just make a note, send the store display burger figure and just order from the site. So I did. Thirty something dollars later I got I got the burger, and I was like still nervous of you know, it shipped quickly and got here and I didn't have any and you know, it just got delivered this time.

And I'm like, I'm going to open it and the person is not going to have read the note, right, I mean it might not be the same person. Yeah. No, So it was the burger, and thank goodness. The weird thing was, though, the second place that sent them, they were gatch upon balls. They sold them in both ways, in blind boxes like you would see in a store on display, and then in gatch upon balls that you would go and put your coins in and buy.

And this is exactly why I hate blind stuff. I was super tempted when I saw the new colorways of the Yip Yip Aliens from Sesame Street and the blind Boxes, and I really was thinking seriously about getting one and to see if i'd maybe get the bright green oscar of the Grouch. You know, I'm just not doing blind boxes anymore. It's unless I come across like a super great deal they're on clearance for three to five dollars, then I'm not doing that. It's too much of a gamble, and it's very rare that I get the thing that I'm hoping for.

Yeah, it's super frustrating, and I suffered through that a lot because of these kinds of toys. And unless you really don't care which figure you get, or you're interested in all of them, then it's yeah, it's a big gamble. I used to actually buy cases of bare Bricks and Kubricks Wow from Tower Records because they would sell them on their website, especially early two thousands, mid two thousands, because then you're going to get all of them. You're not going to get out every like super rare chase, but you're going to get all of the regular figures and a good handful of the rarer figures. And they were selling them for a decent price.

So it's like, well, why go through this? What am I going to get? Thing's my whole fucking case of them. So I have dozens and dozens of bear bricks and kubricks and packed up in a box over here. In so many ways, gone are the days where toys are a good.

Deal new Oh yeah, yeah, we can get into all that stuff too. Well, I have something I'm going to talk about in a little bit. Some toy companies are rebelling against this a little bit, which is kind of great. I was hoping that this would happen in some capacity. New toys now are just going to be skyrocketing and price.

That's unfortunate. Well that's one blind box story. We'll have more later. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And with both.

That is thang, what's your next five items? Runnie? My next five items are? You don't have to do five. Actually, this is going to go.

On to listening, So whatever do you have the any you want? This is listen to each other? Yeah, exactly. You know about these. I talked about them on my YouTube channel, and I think I even talked about them briefly on here, maybe not the first one, but the second one.

For sure. In May May the fourth. There's a group of toy tubers that do made the Power of the Force series of videos and they always invite me to join in. Last year I did Grito, and then this year I chose to talk about jar Jar Binks. And this is an example of being patient.

When I first saw the black series jar Jar Binks on the shelf at Target, you know, it was like almost thirty dollars new, I thought, oh, that would be hilarious, you know, like a tongue in cheek purchase and then talk about it on my channel. And jar Jar Binks is such a difficult character to appreciate, but I've learned to appreciate him over the years for a variety of reasons. A year or what maybe two years later, I decided to choose jar Jar Binks for my May the Power of the Forest for twenty twenty five, and I found really good jar Jar deals on eBay. I got a black series jar Jar Binks for five dollars, Oh my god, and the retro collection if jar Jar had come out in the vintage line for the same price, so ten dollars.

I got two jar Jars. That was fun. I watched the behind the Scenes Imagineering documentary on Disney Plus, and there was a big chunk of information about the experience of Ahmed Best performing jar Jar and all the shit that he went through. I've really learned to appreciate his efforts as an actor playing jar Jar and dealing with George Lucas asking him to be this cartoon version of essentially an unacceptable depiction of how. Do I say this particular kind of character?

Missy got that thanks miss is our humble seven. There's mixed feelings about all that, but I definitely appreciate what Ahmed Best did for those movies, did for that character and getting those action figures took me on that journey, and previous to twenty twenty five, I was always like, I can't watch those movies because of jar Jar, and now I have a whole different level of appreciation for what happened with all that. What's next on your list. Mark, Well, we're heading into June for me, so we're getting close to Father's Day and my nephew he kind of does what I did in my twenties, and he takes trips down to La with his buddies and goes and sees movies and occasionally stays at famous people's houses.

They were down there and he sent me a picture and said guess where I am, And it was the case in the Burbank Bob's Big Boy. I was like, oh, find some cool stuff. Yeah, that's cool. And he's like, oh, there's lots of shirts here, and so he intimated that he was going to get me a shirt and I said, well, just remember keep it simple. I like simple and white not black, and ended up getting me a Bob's Big Boy shirt.

First one never had a Bob's Big Boy shirt till now. It's white, very simple design. I said how much do I owe you? And he's like, ah, don't worry about it's Father's Day gift. Oh that's cool.

Speaking of I'll just mention this Forefather's Day. Really. The only other things I got were a couple of a eBay gift cards, which will come up later. eBay gift cards are the gift that keep on giving until you run out of money. Yeah. I love that.

I still have about just a little less than eight bucks left on my gift cards. Hey you got something cheap to buy? A vintage Happy Meal toy? Yeah, it's right around the right. Yeah, pretty much, I'll come up yep.

As everyone knows that we've talked about Bob's Big Boy back on our epic at Icon episode. He is one of my all time favorites. It's so good. When you you and Cleo visited me at work, you were wearing the Bob's Big Boy T shirt and that reminded me, like, first of all, I've never been to any Bob's Big Boys down South, especially not the main one. You know, one of these days, Mark, you and I got to go down there check it out.

Yeah, and go to Frankinson's. Yeah, and get a big Boy and just be super happy. Yeah, some swag? All right? What's up for you?

Since you just talked about Father's Day, I'll talk about Father's Day. Other's day comes around and my wife's always like, what do you want? It usually ends up me like just getting myself something and then selling her. Maybe you and the girls want to get this for me. This past Father's Day, I ran into something months previous and it was something I absolutely wanted.

I saw it. It's rare for me to buy mint on card toys, Mint on Card action figures, but stink Ore is one of my favorite Masters of the Universe figures, and I have fond memories of opening up that new stink or as a kid and smelling that Petuli smell and this antique store and Vicelia had had a mint on card stink ore at a reasonable price, I mean reasonable for what it is. I splurged on that, and my wife agreed, like, yeah, okay, this is a good gift. I've already talked about that. I'm pretty sure I don't think.

So, not on here, not on here. I talked about it on my YouTube channel. The Royal bulb oldest daughter got me a Mars Attax Funko pop from a convention in Arizona. She went to visited her boyfriend and picked that up for me for Father's Day, which is cool. This is one of those situations where bunko pops satisfy the itch for things that you probably won't find any other way.

Or so. This glow in the dark exploded head Mars Attacks alien was real exciting. Loved Slim Whitman, so every time I look at it, I think about that moment in Mars Attacks when they discover that the voice of Slim Whitman kills them. Brilliant and I got myself a vintage Lando Kelversian in the job of the Hut disguise too, at that Vicelia antique store for a very very good price with the helmet. That Lando figure is usually pretty expensive.

Really excited to get him. I think I mentioned it on here, but I picked up a sipper cup from Disneyland. I had to get it on the eBay and it was of the Herald the Abominable Snowman and just absolutely love that thing. Alrighty, this Father's Day, I really went all out and I spent more than I usually do, so I don't know what I was thinking, but I just went for it. I don't know that's an interesting way to do it.

I guess I'm just going to buy all this stuff for myself. Don't worry about it. Guys, Well, it's hard for them to buy for me. Sometimes they don't want to go into the stores and buy me a Masters of the Universe toy, and I don't want to make them have to do that. So they actually they are always the ones that are like, what do you want to get?

So what do you do? Give it to them to wrap up to give back to you. Now, my wife has done that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good arrangement.

Sometimes I get surprise gifts and that's nice. Then you're never disappointed. It would take a lot for me to be disappointed. They usually know what I'm interested in, even if it's something that is not toy oriented. All right, what's next on your list?

I have this thing about completing the set of Cutie Fruity pencil toppers that relate directly to the Cutie Fruity Franconia wind up toy walkers. Once I found out those things were designed exactly the same way, I was like, I need all six of those, not of the walker. I mean, I'd like all six of the walkers, but that's ever happening. But I need to match up with the little pencil toppers. So I had early on back when we talked about that, I had gotten a small set on eBay that included the banana and the grape and the pineapple, oh and the orange and or lemon whatever she is, she looks more like a lemon to me, and so the only one I really needed was miss Pear.

I had kept one on my list for a long time, and I think it eventually sold. Somebody bought it, and it was one of the things that I look for quite often on eBay, even if just to sort of upgrade like my grape or my apple or whatever. And so I was looking for a Misspair off and on for a while, and then found one that was with another Miss Orange or Miss Lemon, Miss Citrus for a decent price. And I had the EBA gift card and it had its little stem and I was like, Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and do this, so bought that. While I was doing all that, it made me think about the connection or what is the connection between the two different, completely different toys that are designed exactly the same way.

And I remember that I had first seen that Apple Walker wind up figure on Dan Goodsell's Instagram page TikTok Toys two. Hey that three times fast? Yeah, I mentioned back then he's the guy that created Mister Toast and I did a card with him during the letter Press days and stuff. So I messaged now on there, I said, this is going to seem like a strange question, but do you have any idea how this apple that you have became those ubiquitous pencil toppers. This guy, if you look at his instagram page, just all this old advertise stuff and catalog stuff and if anybody might know, you know what happened, like some guy left this company and went to this company and just kept his desire whatever.

Yeah, He's like, I really don't have any idea. I'm not an expert on this. He directed me to go look at like Marx toy company message boards to see if anybody there knew, because he felt like the Franconia walkers were a ripoff of some early marks and walkers that were anthropomorphic fruits, which I have seen when I have done these searches for those wind up toys, and I was like, oh, that's interesting. They're similar, but they're not, you know, they're not the same designs as the little pencil toppers. So he didn't have an answer, And I haven't explored the Marx thing because kind of seems like a stretch to me that anybody would know the lineage of a completely separate toy company's line that ended up turning into these weird little pencil tooppers that everybody had.

So there might be some YouTube mini docs out there about this, all right, it's surprising, but people explore and document on the YouTube. This is true. I kind of feel like that would probably run across my feed. They're probably pushing all kinds of shit on me every day when I open up that page, we're seeing anything about When I have looked up munch Bunch quote unquote pencil toppers, Google Search has sent me videos on them, but it's just people talking about look remember these remember this, that kind of shit. I don't pay any attention to them.

What's next? You know, you mentioned gift cards and we were just talking about Father's Day. How I pick stuff up and then show it to my family and they're like, okay, we'll give that to you. You know, what's the difference between gift cards where people get you that and then you get to buy the stuff for yourself, or you getting it for them and then they just give it to you. It's like, oh, you're getting the stuff for yourself.

Anyways, I wasn't dissing your arrangement. I'm not dissing your arrangement. If that's what you're taking away from that. I'm trying to understand how it works because it's a good idea. It is a good idea.

Wrap this for me and give it to me, and I'll be surprised. On another trip to the antique store with Jeff otherwise known as HP Brown sauce Craft. Yeah, I'm never saying that name. I'm never saying that name. It's way too long.

Sorry, Jeff, I am never saying your. Name, HP Brown sauce Craft. I would never say it, right. I couldn't do it, can't do it. It took me a while to get it.

We were there. He spotted this, and I would have not noticed it for some reason. It was on its side. There was a lot of stuff on the shelf, and I would have passed by it on the shelf at this antique store. Was the Probot or the Probe Droid, the vintage Probe Droid from the Hof the Empire Strikes Back haf playset.

There were a couple of Hoff playsets, but this one was the one with the giant laser cannon and the turret with the Probot or the probe Droid as I used to call it when I was little, the Probe Droid. It was fifteen dollars. I had seen these on eBay before, and they're always very expensive. So another one of those moments where I was like, holy shit, that's a really good price. Of course it didn't come with the playset.

I picked up that hof probot and I was so excited, and then he and I were both talking about now he got to find the playset and good luck with that, because those things are always super expensive, and I found one for a really really good deal on eBay. It's a little bit warped, but that's probably why I got such a good deal. And that's something that I can I've been researching and I can fix. Yeah, just boil some water exactly. And I got a pot big enough for it.

It's actually bigger than I thought it was. It's because it's a very simple set and that probot does it have all its bits and bobs on it still, because. It has its legs and it has its stickers, and that was the main concern. Doesn't have things that poke out too though. That are molded in well good.

It's a pretty simple, pretty simple figure. The legs are all hanging off of little joints. You know, you can't really articulate it, but they're all there. It's cool that shit gets broken pretty easily. Yeah, that's true.

I think it was late May, early June. I can't remember. Exactly when it was. My wife and I went down to fig Garden. They had yard sales for many of the houses.

They were having these yard sales. I saw the sign when I went when I was in fig Garden previously that week, and so we went that morning and we were walking around. We didn't find a lot of stuff. I got a cool little bronze roadrunner figuring for her. We were just about to leave, I saw this yard that was fenced in.

You couldn't really see what was in there, and just wild hair told me to swing by, and so I pulled over. I was able to pick up three vintage wall hangings, so the Sesame Street cardboard, thick cardboard wall hangings for bedrooms, kitty bedrooms. I can see Big Bird back there. There's Big Bird, there's Burt and Ernie and there's Auscu the Grouch and it's like a marching band motif. They all have instruments and they're doing their thing and they're not in very good shape, but they're beautiful and I was super excited to find and I got them for like three dollars.

Yeah. I found the Together Book, which is a golden book Sesame Street class Book and Love it. So I'm walking up to the table where these elderly ladies are sitting there and I'm buying these things. They're like, oh, that's so interesting that you like that at your age, you know. And so I'm talking to them about it, and they're like, what are you gonna do with these?

And I'd like, well, I collect them, and I have a YouTube channel and sometimes I talk about Disney stuff, and you know, I don't want to mention Masters of the University, but I did mention Star Wars because I knew they would probably get on board with that, and they're like, oh, that's interesting. One of the ladies was like, I have a Disneyland ticket for admission. She didn't tell me what year it was from, but she said from back in the day. I was like, oh cool, you know, are you thinking about selling it? She's like, I'll just give it to you.

So she asked me for my address, and I gave her my address, and I thought, you know, she'll probably be forgotten. But a week later I got it in the mail with a nice little note. It's from April first, April Fool's Day, nineteen ninety five, the year I graduated high school. It's somewhat faded, but it's an entry to Disneyland ticket cool from back in the day. That was awesome.

That was a really, really amazing fortuitous stop. Well, now you can flip it on eBay and get big bucks. I don't want to do that. It was such a rewarding experience just chatting with somebody. They're like, oh, I'll send it to you.

My kids aren't interested in this. I was like, oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Then the kid comes home was like mom, the mom, where's that ticket kick? And I'm going to sell it.

It's worth like five thousand dollars I know, right, So what's next on your list? Well, this is something I've never seen before in my life. Had no idea these existed. I have no connection to this company or this item, but I saw it in my Instagram explore feed and it caught my eye. I don't know if you remember these or not, orcan the Bug Company?

Oh yeah, yeah, call the. Orcan man those ads they're. Still around, don't risk it oh or yeah? I guess I don't really or see them anymore. But I mean, when I was growing up, that was the only pest control ads like national ads I remember seeing, Uh, apparently they used to have a little I don't even know if I can get you a good view of this or not.

Oh, I'll have to send you a picture. So I saw it on my feed and I'm like, what the fuck is that? And it just caught my eye because it was a little plastic keychain guy. It kind of almost looks like the old Crackerjacks prizes, you know, when they actually had something other than tattoos, and they're stickers or rub on tattoos of paper game. Yeah, so when they used to actually have little plastic toys, That's what I was thinking of.

That's what it reminded me of. And so what it is. It's a little bug sprain rig. Oh cool anthropomorphic bug sprain rig. Wow, how are you gonna do that?

Right out in a car? I happen to have some old overalls on a bug spraying rin. The spout is on the top of its head and so his arms are reaching up to operate the bug spray rig. I love this. He's called auto auto the orcan man or man.

So when I discovered this, I figured, oh, it's going to be one of those things that are impossible to find or super expensive. Now there were like a dozen or so on eBay and all relatively cheap, and it was just a matter of finding one that wasn't all ganked up. But they all came with the little ball chain to I guess put on your keychain or whatever else, or I guess if you're an Orcan man, you put it on your rig. I don't know, imagine you're like, I got this great idea. This is how we can get kids to tell their parents about Orcan.

We'll create this anthropomorphic bug spray guy. This has got Williams Burrows written all over it. And say, boom, do you think you could rub some of this pounder on my lips? Sure? That was the first thing that came to my mind.

And then also the scene in Blue Velvet when he acquired Oh yeah, screen rig. So I did a little search and Auto Orkin is the guy that's the actual man's name who started the Orcan company, which was at one time the biggest pest control company in the country. This was their little logo. And there's a few other items that they made. I think one of them was a bronze ash tray, and so those come up on eBay, but without the ashtray part.

Just a little bronze guy. And there are commercials with this little wow guy in them. That is what their bug spray rigs looked like. Apparently the nozzle in the handle right on top of the rig instead of a tube connected to a thing like they are now. Don't know.

It just fascinated me and it reminded me a little bit of my Freaky's guys and yeah, or like something you would get at the gas station when they used to do that, when they used to have the little plastic dinosaurs and things like that. I think it was five bucks or something, and since I had eBay gift card money, I went and ahead and got him and he's hanging on my. I love it microphone. I love I absolutely love that. That is so cool and such a weird idea.

I don't have any clue as to what they use, if they were promotional items or if they were just given to employees rig bug spraing guys. To be this is not intended to be a pun for bug spray, but to be a fly on the wall in these meetings and hear the discussions surrounding, like I know what will be great, but will allow us to get more clients. Little plastic bug spray guys. I mean, this is crazy. I love crazy ideas like this.

Fantastic would a find. Companies used to do that kind of stuff and they still do that kind of stuff in Japan. Like every company has a mascot in Japan, and guess what, every one of those mascots has been turned into a toy. Love it. I mean you can find just toys for the oddest things over there because they love mascots.

I swear to God, everything has a mascot, and every mascot has its toy. I love it. That's the way the world should be. Every mascot has its toy. Come on, America, get back in the swing of things.

Bring back mascot toys. I mean, seriously, Bubble bath toy. Think about the stuff we used to have mister Bubble and kids wanted them absolutely. That's that insidious thing that we talked about with the Cereals stuff. Back on that ad icon thing.

But you know, mom, buy me mister Bubble because it comes in a cute bottle that looks like a figure, and you want that and you're going to play with it in the tub and mister Bubble's gonna sell shitloads of bubble Bath to kids because of it. I mean, who's doing this? I guess you know now McDonald's Disney toys to sell products, toys to sell, amusement park tickets, what else. Yeah, we need more of that Serial monsters. If you've run in an electric store, make a toy out of your Sparky of the electric figure?

Why not? Yeah, I'm ONNDE the organ Man, Monde, the organ Man, orgond call the organ Man. The next thing on my list starts me down the path of the recent Ross visits I've been doing. It's always been in the back of my mind a place to go find cool things. And the last two years I've done lots of different trips, but recently I feel like there's been more interesting things at Ross lately.

For some reason, As I talked about in a previous episode, finding the Migo, Wolfman and Fly and the Penguin was really exciting. Then recently, the last few times I've gone in, I've seen some really cool things. I found this Masters of the Universe figures, recently, the Hoard Act cartoon collection action figure, and the hord Prime. It's like a Hord Trooper, kind of like Masters of the Universe version of Stormtroopers. Found those for cheap at Ross.

Right around the time that I find those, I came up with this idea for another sort of sub YouTube channel where I open up toys and don't talk, and so I started the Skelevator ASMR Toy review channel early June. And so I've since reviewed a few of my new finds there where I don't really talk about them. I just it's the sounds of opening the toys and exploring those toys. I'll get to more of these in a little bit, but I've found some pretty significantly cool things at Ross lately. Those two Masters of the Universe figures following close on the tails of those finding those Migo figures, those Masters of the Universe figures were really exciting.

Cool Royal bo. This is my second apology for not ordering from Super seven with your affiliate link. Come on, Mark, I. Usually see these first on Instagram and it's the latest Devo reaction figure. Yeah, this one got me super excited.

Yeah, it's amazing. It's not one of the Wow, it is one of the members. It's not one of the member toys though, it's not Bob one, Bob two, Mark, Jerry, or Allen. It's the infantile spirit of de evolution. Boogie Boy yay, and now my son boogie Boy.

And I was super excited. There's a couple of Boogie Boy items that I want that I can never find, and I don't like bobbleheads in any way, shape or form, but there was a bobblehead done. I'm not sure how many years ago. Wade Krause has one, you know, Wade, right, yeah, yeah, Okay, it came out. I posted something on Facebook and he's like, oh, I have this bubble head and I was like, oh, that's amazing.

And I even at the time that he showed me his, they were like fifty dollars. Now they're hundreds of dollars. So anyway, I've never really been able to find any Boogie Boy merch to buy, and so this was perfect. I did a search on Amazon, I think the minute I saw it, and it actually was on there, which I was surprised, but of course it was a pre order. So here's my little pre order story that's going to be of no interest to anyone, including you.

Never know. I couldn't figure out I may have been on my phone. I just wanted to add it to my cart. I didn't want to actually pre ordered it, and it made it seem like I could only do the pre order, like I couldn't add it to my cart. And I eventually figured it out, but I didn't want to do a pre order because I have to lock my debit card and my credit card because they have been hacked multiple times over the last few years, and so I have to unlock and lock them as I use them, and they're not in use.

So I didn't want it to try and run my card if the pre order happened prior to the date that they were giving, and then have it be declined because I've got my card lock, et cetera, et cetera. I'm like, okay, I'll just wait. It said July twenty eighth was the date it was going to be available from them. With the Roosevelt Franklin experience in mind, I'm like, it's probably going to be sooner than that. It'll be July, but it'll be earlier.

And so I would pop in every once in a while and see, and it kept saying pre order July twenty eighth, you'll get it the thirtieth and whatnot. And so one day when I was looking at it, it was available, but it had kind of an extended weight to ship, like I could purchase it, but it wasn't going to ship out. And again, I know they don't run your card until it ships, right, I was like, well, I'm still not going to do that. I'm going to wait. And I kept looking back and I thought, you know, this will probably change as the days go by here to where it'll just be buy it today and it'll ship today, not buy it today and it'll ship in two days.

So as I was refreshing every so often, it kept changing, and then it got down to where there was only one left. Take that however you want. Are they being honest or not? But would ship immediately? And so I was like ah, I went and got on there and when ahead and ordered unlocked my head to unlock my card, and then I replaced the order.

I think they ran my card pretty much immediately, and then it shipped within a day or two. That's nice, Yeah, it should up. He's awesome. I really wish they could have figured out a way to actually have it be a mask. Yeah, that would have been cool, which I think.

They could have probably done. I'm sure it would have added to their cost quite a bit. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that. You know what they could have done this because I just saw on the shelf at Target Lex Luthor three point seventy five inch action figure, same articulation as Star Wars, just like reaction figures made by a different company.

I can't remember, it's been master. I think the Lex Luthor is the gene Hackman Lex Luthor. So it's nineteen seventy eight's Superman. He comes with a wig, right seven ninety nine? All right, so super seven.

I mean, I'm a fan of Super seven because they are able to accomplish things that other companies maybe don't have the guts to do, or are afraid to do, or whatever it might be. Like, they do fun things that we wouldn't have ever had before. But if another company can do that and give that kind of an accessory, a wig that actually fits on the bald head, Kenner did that with those masked figures, the Princess Leah Bosh and Lando Kelrizian Return of the Jedi figures, it's entirely doable. It's surprising that they didn't do that. Their Jerry figure comes with a removable that's right, tots right, absolutely, So that's what I was thinking of.

I would have loved that, and it would have been oversized, and that's fine because every other Boogie Boy toy that has a well, I can think of one. There's a little Japanese keyring figure that it comes with a removable mask and it's amazing. But he does come with a little microphone and this toy synthesizer around his neck. I love that so much. That is so good.

So that accessory is pretty one of the cool and I actually this is the only one that I've busted out of his packaging and I'm like, oh, I got to have him over here. Yeah, you got to have him on your desk looking at you. That's amazing. I probably told this story already when I talked about Divo, But it is boogie Boy. It's spelled bougie boy.

But yes, that's right. It's not a jiff GIF thing. They were doing it in electro set and they ran out of G's and didn't have any ease either, so they just used what they had and it stuck. Yeah, I didn't know that until sometime within the last ten years or so, I always thought it was Bougie Boy. I'm glad you got him because he's a great figure.

Yeah. So both of those were the normal retail price of twenty dollars without terraffs, and Amazon didn't impose a tariff on me. There you go, And that was the thing I was going to bring up about, not necessarily terrorists, although that is a real thing. But I have been to five targets in the last couple of months since our last normal recording, which was episode twenty nine. Been to the Willow and Herndon target.

I've been to the Herndon and ninety nine target. I've been to Bullard and Blackstone. I've been to Sean Marks, I've been to River Park. None of them have a decent selection of toys right now. Yeah, the only thing I'm really looking for is that Planet of the Apes Neca Ben Cooper thing.

Don't have other targets do. I have seen it on Instagram multiple times people are like, Oh, they're showing up a target now, like, not ours, not any of the ones I've been to, And I'm not going to keep going to them just for that. Have you tried ordering it through Target online? I haven't tried that yet. I don't think they do that stuff online, but probably not.

Yeah, those specialty items are usually in store purchases. You can't even hold them to buy them in store for the most part. Yeah, the Super seven stuff is completely wiped out. I have a feeling that's part of this whole deal, because I can't imagine that a company like Super seven or even Meca really You know, when we think about wholesale, you always are as a younger person, I always kind of assumed, oh, well, the store is buying it for like fifty percent or less of the cost, right, because that's how you make your money. But once I started doing letter press and dealing with people who were making toys, and even me trying to get places to stock my cards, you don't sell something for less than fifty percent of what you're going to sell it for.

It's like the employee discount. So I don't think that Super seven, who charges twenty dollars for most reaction figures, they're not selling their stuff to Target for ten dollars. They're probably selling it for fourteen or fifteen, So Target's only making five or six dollars on maybe not even that much, and so I'm curious if that is part of why they're not in those stores, because now Super Seven's profit margin is even less because of the tariffs stuff, and so they're not going to sell Target a toy for even sixteen dollars that Target wouldn sell for twenty because they probably have because the tariffs would have to sell it for work. I don't know. That ran through my brain as I've been exploring these targets and stuff and not seeing any Super seven things and very few new Neca things on the shelves.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on. I know that in June mid June I noticed that a lot of stuff was going on clearance at Target. So I'm beginning to feel like it and I always forget that this happens around this time of year. They clear it all out, they bring in the new stuff for fall, and it could be the case there. I do know that they are still selling Super seven stuff, but it's not stuff that I'm interested in.

It's like their reaction Godzilla figures. I haven't even seen those. Yeah, I've been seeing those, but not any of the other stuff. And I haven't seen any of the blind boxes showing up. No more Sesame street stuff, so I don't know.

Yeah, that one wave that was supposed that I asked about, like, where the hell did Wave three go? And they're like, it's a target. I'm like, never saw it turning, never saw it once. That's a Fresno problem. I did see the alligator figure based on the animated sequence in Sesamestro from that wave.

He doesn't have any resonance for me. For some reason, I never caught any of those shorts. I did see that alligator guy at the target in Los Banos once, but that's it. None of the other figures. I don't know what's going on.

It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. Yeah, it's not good whatever it is. Yeah, so we meet again. This is General Boy for Devo Incorporated. Duty now for the future, and now my son Boogie Boy.

What's up next on your list? Guy? You talked about Marx earlier. I got the wild Hair the start search on eBay the early nineteen seventies solid color Disney Marx figures, and I found this guy who was selling a bunch of these, some duplicates and different lots small lots of these Marx figures. I found one grouping of six figures because I was thinking a lot about Jimminy Cricket recently, and I love Jimmy Crickett.

It's one of my favorites. And Donald Duck as well, it is one of my favorites. So I got a lot of six Marx Disney figures. I got an Orange Mickey, Orange Goofy, Pink, Pinocchio, Pink, Jimminy Cricket, Green Pluto, and Green Donald. They are in immaculate shape.

I got them for fifteen dollars. Wow, that's an incredible deal. These are usually twenty dollars a pop if you run into them at antique stores at least or on eBay. I was like, almost like, this is a one and done collection for me. If I run across any more good deals, some of the Seven Dwarfs or Mini Mouse or Daisy Duck or things like that, that I might be able to find out there.

But that deal was spectacular. I could not resist it. I just love the bright colors. I love bright colors when it comes to toys, and I love the. Two fifty figure.

Yeah, ridiculous, right, it was an amazing and amazing deal. I mean there was shipping, of course it was. I think it was right ten dollars shipping. I don't know. I try not to add that stuff up.

Speaking of money bags, I will say that I've got five Patreons and they're paying three dollars a month, and my YouTube channel accumulates about one hundred dollars every just to be super transparent, one hundred dollars about every four to five months, which is not a lot. Yeah, what I do is I really try to put that back into the channel in some capacity. So I got that little microphone and got those Marx figures, and trying to be very careful about what I spend. As you saw with the Father's Day thing. I splurge every once in a while.

This was just like a spectacularly good deal. And I love them. I have that blue wolf Man that I've had for years that it marks There's just something about the basic design and basic colors that they use for the plastic bright colors. It just really does something for me. Really excited to get that.

Whenever I see those, I just kind of want to eat them. Yeah, they look delicious, right, they look like that kind of plastic I rarely run into I think I sent you a picture when we were at the coast last year, I ran into a was it a Pinocchio or a Jiminy cricket at antique store in Oh shoot, Now, I forget the name of the town over there where all the roosters are Cocktown. Yeah, it is not Cocktown, but rather the queen town of Arroyo Grande on the beautiful central coast of California. Yeah. I see them every once in a while, and they're always way more than I'm willing to spend.

Yeah. That plastic, though, is so appealing. The thinner parts are almost trans parent. Yeah, Like right now, I've got lights shining through Jiminy. Yeah, he's kind of glowing.

So there were speaking of those little dinosaurs that used to give out or sell at gas stations or you could get in a gumball machine at the grocery store. They were that same kind of plastic. And I had a little green one that's very similar to those Marks toys green, that kind of electric grain, and I just absolutely loved I've been looking for one of those forever. But that combination of the brightness, the translucence, and the candy look to them is awesome. And they're hefty.

You're solid plastic for one thing, so they're hefty, and they're what five or six inches. They're like five five and a half inches tall. Depends on the character too. Some of them are taller. Goopies, like five and a half inches tall.

He's like the yeah, the only thing I have. Or the knockoff Marvel figures like Spider Man and Captain America. They did real ones, but those molds ended up in Mexico or something, so there are just like thousands of knockoffs, and I'm like, aah, that's okay. I don't care. I don't have it.

I love the knockoffs. I love them. I don't have a connection with Marx. You know, I'm not like a Marx collector, so I'm not going to try and find you actual Marx toys. They were cheap on eBay and I was going through my Marvel phase, so I'm picked up a set.

Those Disney ones and any of the other ones that use those bright colors are just so I appealing. Jeff and I were talking about these and how cool it would be to cast them in bronze. Be pretty easy to do. The shapes are so simple and you just make molds and then do the lost wax technique. They're amazing.

I don't know. I'm really hooked on these figures and I keep staring at them and I just love the color. It does something for me. Orange is my favorite color, so the orange ones always appeal to me. Yeah.

Cool, good stuff. Yeah, that was a delightful moment this year the Wonderful World of Disney. Hey there, this is Mark and this is Ronnie and we're here to let you know that we decided to split this fairly long episode into two shorter episodes. Yeah, into two shorter episodes. So you're listening to the first half.

And if you want to hear the second half, which you definitely want to hear, then tune in next week, same Cambridge and with shon time, Same Cambridge and with Sean channel. Come back for part two where we get into the meat of the episode per se. Yeah, yeah, figure that. Come back next week for the meat today. You got the buns.

That's good, all right, that's good enough. Cambridge m Shan is a weirding Way media podcast