Talkin' Toxic Crusaders with Super7's Brian Flynn (Talkin' Troma Extra)
Today on a special Extra Edition of Talkin' Troma, we chat with Super7 founder and owner Brian Flynn. Super7 has been producing collectibles based on The Toxic Avenger and Toxic Crusaders for years, with its latest ULTIMATES! Glow in the Dark Radiation Ranger debuting this weekend at New York Comic-Con 2023. We chat about future plans for the toy line, his favorite character designs, Toxie's unique appeal, the culture of the toy business, and much more in this exclusive interview.
Super7 is a premier pop-culture design house and producer of lifestyle-oriented collectibles, toys and apparel based in San Francisco. Super7 has harnessed the graphics, aesthetics and energy of his youthful obsession with science fiction, giant monsters, comic books, punk rock, skateboarding, robots and rebellion to build a unique and innovative business that crosses all categories and is not bound by traditional manufacturing boundaries.
The company released their first ReAction figure based on the Toxic Avenger in 2017. Toxie made his debut as one of the very first Ultimates! figures in 2019 along with a wave of ReAction Figures based on the Toxic Crusaders. An expanded Ultimates line for Toxic Crusaders followed in 2022.
Mentioned in this episode:
Hosted by Chris Lanphear. Produced by Zack Beins for Loudspeaker Studios. Talkin' Troma Theme Music by J57 and Bald Halfwit.
Featured Music:
- "Radetzky March" by Johann Strauss
- "Meanwhile" and "Bumper " from Toxic Crusaders by Dennis C. Brown and Larry Brown
Connect with Zack:
Connect with Talkin' Troma:
Connect with Super7 and Brian Flynn:
- https://www.super7.com/
- https://www.facebook.com/OfficialSuper7/
- https://twitter.com/super7store
- https://www.instagram.com/super7/
- https://www.instagram.com/brianflynn/
- https://www.youtube.com/@Super7Official
Connect with Loudspeaker:
- https://twitter.com/heyloudspeaker
- https://www.facebook.com/heyloudspeaker
- https://www.instagram.com/heyloudspeaker
Talkin' Troma is a listener-supported production of Loudspeaker Studios. Hear more great shows and commercial-free independent public radio at https://www.loudspeaker.org.
Transcript
Tromaville News on the March!
Zack:Good morning, Tromaville, and welcome to a very special episode of Talkin Trom a with your host, me, Zack Beins . Notice I said me and not I.
Zack:That's because there is no I in team, especially the Troma Team.
Zack:As there's no I in the Troma Team, there's no I in the Talkin Troma Team, especially if you misspell talkin Part of what makes this team so great is my wonderful producer, Chris Lanphear.
Zack:The other day, I was talking to Chris, and he had a great episode idea for the show.
Zack:And, uh And I'm right now, I am deep in the bush, studying the films of Louis Su, and I needed to give that my full attention, no half mass attention there.
Zack:And so, I said, Chris?
Zack:And he said, yes?
Zack:I said, Chris, you'll do anything for this show, right Chris?
Zack:And he said, sure thing, Zack.
Zack:I'll even kill for you, Zack, if you want me to.
Zack:I'll kill for you.
Zack:Tell me who you want me to kill.
Zack:I said, that won't be necessary this time.
Zack:This time.
Zack:But, you have such a great idea for an episode, I think you should take The reins on this one.
Zack:It's such a super episode with founder of Super 7 Toys, Brian Flynn, and what follows this introduction is Chris's wonderful interview with Brian Flynn.
Zack:I've learned a lot about the toy field and not just the toys that are in the films of Louis Su, soon to be Heard about the on Talkin Troma, but this is, uh, more of a all family affair type of, uh, episode.
Zack:So, uh, with that, I want you to sit back and relax and hear the soothing sounds of a wonderful man in Fort Collins.
Zack:Chris Lanphear, Brian Flynn, and Super 7 Toys.
Zack:Let's listen!
Announcer:Founded in 2001, Super 7 is the premier pop culture design house and producer of lifestyle oriented collectibles, toys, and apparel based in San Francisco.
Announcer:Led by designer Brian Flynn, Super 7 has two primary toy lines, reaction figures at 3 and inches that were inspired by the original Kenner Star Wars figures from the late 1970s, and Ultimates, which are 7 inches scale figures with premium decoration, accessories, and interchangeable parts.
Announcer:Super 7 is also designed, Manufactured and distributed officially licensed programs for G.
Announcer:I.
Announcer:Joe, Transformers, Disney, Powell Peralta, and Peanuts as well as for music legends the world over.
Announcer:The company released their first reaction figure based on the Toxic Avenger in 2017.
Announcer:Toxy made his debut as one of the very first Ultimates figures in 2019 along with a wave of reaction figures based on the Toxic Crusaders.
Announcer:An expanded Ultimates line for Toxic Crusaders followed in 2022.
Chris:I want to take this moment to welcome Mr.
Chris:Brian Flynn from super seven to the show, uh, Brian, welcome to talk in Troma.
Brian:Nice to be here.
Brian:We're talking, talking about some toxic.
Brian:We're talking about some stuff.
Chris:Yes, we are talking toxic crusaders and super seven has seemed to have a kind of a love affair with this property.
Chris:Uh, at what I was researching earlier, and there are nine different.
Chris:Variants of the reaction toxi around out there nine.
Brian:Yeah, I would have guessed at least seven.
Brian:I don't know about nine.
Brian:I would have guessed at least seven.
Chris:I do have a list.
Chris:There was the blue one originally.
Chris:Then there was the same one with the toxic crusader color.
Chris:There was the glow in the dark.
Chris:There was the second version.
Brian:The one with like the dirty card.
Brian:The dirty card,
Chris:yeah, the movie variant.
Chris:Then there was the actual re sculpt for the Toxic Crusaders cartoon.
Chris:Then there was Acid Rain Toxie.
Chris:The Braindead Toxie.
Chris:Yep.
Chris:And then the recolor, uh, Remco style packaging Toxie.
Brian:And then there was, uh, the one that came out.
Brian:Well, I guess it was that the acid rain one, the one that came with, um, toys, the time forgot part of their, Oh,
Chris:that was its own color.
Chris:Cause that was the, that's actually this guy that was the toxic crusaders color, but with the translucent green.
Chris:Plastic.
Brian:Yep.
Brian:And you know, it tells me I'm overdue for figuring out another colorway of that guy.
Chris:Well, and the colorways keep going strong because there are currently four variants of the Ultimates Toxi, the most recent of which being the cartoon version, which is quite frankly my favorite version because it's the first time we've gotten one with an actual tune accurate head and a tune accurate blobby, which is very, very cool.
Brian:Yeah, I mean, Toxi is I don't know.
Brian:I hate to say he's the gift that keeps on giving, but that's kind of how it goes.
Brian:It's, it's surprising how well he continues to be received.
Brian:So much so that we, you know, it's like, all right, got to make more Toxie or more Toxie
Chris:za.
Chris:Well, I mean not only that too, but like when you first started the Ultimates line that for a very brief period they were called Deluxe figures.
Chris:It seemed they hadn't quite settled on the Ultimates branding yet.
Chris:And one of the first of those was Toxie as well.
Brian:Well, and what what the Deluxe was originally was Obviously it's our larger size format.
Brian:The difference between the transition from deluxe to ultimates was literally the number of accessories and heads and everything you came with.
Brian:So we started with that line in deluxe and it's like, it comes with some cool stuff and it's like a toy, it's great.
Brian:And then we're like, all right, what if we go bananas?
Brian:What if we just make everything, we just make the ultimate version.
Brian:It's got like three heads and eight sets of hands and six weapons and.
Brian:There's so that was the transition to ultimates for sure were into that like let's just let's just do that
Chris:And and I've got to say as as someone who's been collecting really since the He Man classics days This latest wave of toxic Crusaders wave Officially wave three even though a lot of people consider it wave one.
Chris:I've got to say it's some of the best figures I think y'all have ever done
Brian:there.
Brian:They're they're kind of preposterous.
Brian:I mean junkyard is huge You And then the tongue is massive.
Chris:Yeah, when I, when I got the junkyard box in the mail, I was like, this, this can't be right.
Chris:Like, yeah, there's actually like a scale to this dude.
Chris:Whereas, you know, obviously the playmate ones were all, you know, they were all within scale of each other, but they were very small, very recessed because they had to fit into God.
Chris:What a 3 price point back in those days.
Chris:Something like that.
Brian:I think you would love to think it was 3, but I think even then they were 6.
Brian:99.
Brian:I think
Chris:they probably were, I just remember when the series got canceled, they, they hit the clearance bins pretty quickly.
Chris:And then they were 3.
Brian:I, you know, I think it's an interesting thing with toy lines.
Brian:I find that a lot of the vintage toy lines sometimes that people have great affinity for were the toy lines that ended up on clearance.
Brian:Cause that meant they got a fair number of them cause they were affordable and parents could get them or splurge for them or they got extras.
Brian:Where if it was like a really popular toy line that was always at full price, they only sometimes depending on the people, sometimes they only had a couple, but you, some of those really great toy lines that also went on heavy clearance for a long time, people love, I mean, that's, I mean, Silverhawks kind of falls into that.
Brian:There's lots and lots of waves of silver Hawks and yet that show only lasted a brief time.
Brian:So, but they were all on clearance and you could get them.
Brian:And I think that's the same thing.
Brian:Like for a lot of people, if you ask them about Beetlejuice, they're like, you squeeze his leg together and it pops apart and he's heads on a cockroach.
Brian:And it's like, No, no, we're talking about the movie.
Brian:Like, I don't want, I don't know what you're talking about.
Chris:Yeah, for a lot of people it was the toy line in the cartoon series.
Chris:Which, you know, lasted for several years.
Chris:But, like, Toxic Crusaders is kind of an interesting one because it ran for 13 episodes.
Chris:One season, there were plans for a second series, but that never happened.
Chris:The syndication didn't take off.
Chris:And what's strange is that like the entire crew that made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from, you know, MWS animation studio to Coloronian at Playmates to the people at Anaglyph Studios and Varner Studios, like they were all putting the same energy into this, that they put into Turtles.
Chris:Why do you think Turtles took off and Toxic Crusaders didn't?
Brian:I think this is the thing.
Brian:It's to some degree, no different than pop in a way that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was lightning in a bottle.
Brian:It had never happened before and it can't necessarily be replicated.
Brian:I mean, you had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and people tried to, you know, black belt hamsters and biker mice from Mars and, you know, Here's all these things that are just the same, but it's not the same, you know?
Brian:And with Toxic Crusaders, it's just such a crazy concept because they're like, all right, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Brian:I mean, how that worked.
Brian:And then to think, you know what the sequel for that should be?
Brian:Avenger movie?
Brian:We'll make them gross.
Brian:And it's like, I think they were trying to channel half of Garbage Pail Kids.
Brian:And half of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Brian:And they figured that could be the evolution, but whatever the combination that made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, what it was, was just unique to it.
Brian:It wasn't a formula that could be replicated and clearly they were trying to replicate the formula and that generally never worked.
Chris:Certainly.
Chris:I mean, there's one thing taking like a, you know, a fairly gritty comic book that Eastman and Laird's original Ninja Turtles, where it's another thing to take.
Chris:You know, a, a very hard R type of property where a child's head gets squashed by a car, uh, and try to make that into a, a children's cartoon show.
Chris:It's not going to quite have the same, the same immediate impact, but interestingly, like in the fullness of time, like toxic crusaders, silver Hawks, even biker mice from Mars is back with a new line.
Chris:So it's, we're kind of in this phase of like, what's old is new again.
Brian:There's a little bit of that for sure.
Brian:I mean, that's cyclical to every generation.
Brian:And what comes up, I think the strength, what toxic Crusaders is, which is clearly differentiated from toxic Avenger is just that the toys were so absolutely bananas.
Brian:They were so far gone, but done so well.
Brian:Like I, I, I, I was in college when those came out.
Brian:This was when I started.
Brian:Going back to collecting my toys from childhood.
Brian:So this would have been what, 92?
Brian:91?
Chris:Yeah, they hit a 91, 92.
Brian:91, 92.
Brian:So for me, the summer of 91, which was after my sophomore year of college, I went home and I was like, I want my Star Wars figures.
Brian:And I started, like, going to flea markets trying to find them.
Brian:And I was like, well, what else is being made?
Brian:And I went into the toy store, and obviously I know what Toxic Avenger is.
Brian:But I've seen the toxic crusader toys.
Brian:These are the most nanas screwed up things that have ever been made.
Announcer:Okay.
Announcer:You were warned to back off this toxic crusader stuff and you didn't listen.
Announcer:I've also seen some of you picking up litter and recycling newspapers.
Announcer:What's.
Announcer:If the atmosphere of the earth improves too drastically, you'll lose the opportunity to meet a superior alien race.
Announcer:This toxic crusader thing can only end one way.
Announcer:Either you chill out or you check out
Brian:like that little era, the stuff they made for some of the stuff, the tail end of real ghost busters, the stuff that they were making, or toxic crusaders, the stuff they were making for beetle juice.
Brian:You know, they succeeded in making aliens align for kids all in that timeframe and you're just like these are the most Bonkers toys I've ever seen and for me toxic crusaders is one of those I had everything I had the helicopter all of it and it was just there's just there's no toys like toxic crusaders And I think that that's why it has such a life outside of Toxic Avenger, you know, it's the toys drove it, not the animation.
Chris:Absolutely.
Chris:I mean, there's people who love the toys and grew up collecting those that never saw the Toxic Avenger movies or were way too young, you know, to, to watch them when they came out.
Chris:So, I mean, it's kind of genius in a way, but it's also like perhaps before it's time in a way too, because now there's been this kind of appreciation and this resurgence.
Chris:I mean, there's a video game.
Chris:There's a toxic crusaders video game coming out early next year, which is kind of incredible.
Chris:When you think about it,
Brian:man, please tell me it's like a side scrolling 16 bit game.
Chris:Yep.
Chris:It's a side scroller beat them up.
Chris:Uh, you know, if you've, if, if you've seen TMNT shredders revenge, it's very similar to that, but it's been in production for two years prior to that.
Chris:So that's
Brian:it.
Brian:That's all you gotta do.
Brian:And everybody will just line up.
Brian:Like, here's my paycheck.
Chris:Exactly.
Brian:So chocolate and peanut butter, put it into Reese's peanut butter cup of Toxie.
Chris:Speaking of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, let's not bury the lead, um, part of the reason we're talking today is because you are unveiling a, uh, New York Comic Con exclusive, uh, variant of the Radiation Ranger that glows in the dark, that, uh, Has not been done before.
Chris:I mean, the radiation Ranger itself just came out last year with, with wave three.
Chris:So what made it a good time and a good choice to, to go glow in the dark on this, on this army builder?
Brian:Well, I think first and foremost, if anybody's paid attention to Super 7, They know that we will use any and all excuses to make things glow in the dark, you know, there's, there's never a bad time for glow in the dark.
Brian:And then secondly, whatever reason in the vintage line, radiation ranger was my favorite character in the vintage line.
Brian:Uh, you know, I liked major disaster.
Brian:I like bonehead.
Brian:I liked the other ones, but I don't know.
Brian:Is something about that striking yellow that I just.
Brian:He was always my favorite.
Chris:Yeah.
Brian:And I can always imagine him as glow in the dark.
Brian:Like he just looks like he should glow in the dark.
Chris:The colors on that are so vibrant with the yellow and the pink on the, on the backpack and everything.
Chris:It basically glows without having glowing pigment.
Chris:It's pretty incredible.
Chris:And that figure was sculpted by Varner Studios, who did the entire line, specifically Eddie Mosqueda, who sculpted several figures for the line.
Chris:And he said that the Radiation Ranger was one of his favorites, because when, uh, when Troma tried to get Toxic Crusaders produced, they had Toxie and they didn't really have a lot of other character designs.
Chris:They were basically hoping that.
Chris:Playmates and the team at Varner would kind of help come up with characters.
Chris:And so Eddie Mosqueda essentially invented the, the radiation ranger.
Chris:So everything that we love about that sculpt comes from him.
Brian:Oh man.
Brian:You know, same thing, the pink pinkish purple hoses that you had to connect into the backpack and everything.
Brian:All those little details about that line were just, yeah, I guess they were ahead of their time, but nobody really came back to it later either.
Brian:There was just an immense attention to the little details on those figures that made that line so special.
Chris:I never thought we would get such detailed, poseable characters in a 7 inch scale for Toxic Crusaders.
Chris:I never thought that, like, there would be The figures, you know, other than the playmates ones.
Chris:And now, you know, super seven is kind of first to the dance with toxic crusaders.
Chris:And there are other companies out there, you know, putting out toxic crusaders figures, which is
Brian:trick or treat studios is doing some stuff and look great guys over there.
Brian:They've got an eight inch and I think a 12 inch
Chris:coming out.
Chris:They also just at, uh, New York toy fair.
Chris:They showed off figures for Dr.
Chris:Killamoff and Yvonne and Mayor Grody based off of the original prototypes that were sculpted but never produced.
Brian:Those are, they're really good guys and they're obviously big, big Toxie fans.
Brian:They're big horror fans of anything and everything.
Brian:So, uh, it's great that they're doing it.
Brian:I think there's a couple other things happening as well.
Brian:They're a little, maybe a, ahead of their time.
Brian:That, but it's the same thing.
Brian:It's like, I think a lot of people were like, well, that's not going to work.
Brian:You know, I love it, but it'll never work.
Brian:And it's like, wait, those guys made how many, as you said before, they made nine versions of that character.
Brian:Maybe it does work.
Brian:Let's give it a shot.
Chris:It's interesting, too, within the kind of toy collector communities, you see some people who are like, oh, cool, a new variant, something I hadn't thought of.
Chris:It sparkles or it glows or it, you know, does something different.
Chris:But then there's also that kind of like, Vocal, but small contingent who are like, man, I don't know about another recolor or, or a repaint, like, give me new characters.
Chris:But I think,
Brian:I think that's a poll you're, you're using their words very politely.
Chris:Yeah.
Chris:I mean, they, they, they may feel a little bit more, more different about it, but I, I it's interesting too, because I don't think, I think there are a lot of people out there who collect that don't quite understand the economics.
Chris:Um, of the toy business and how, you know, reuse and redeco's help spread out the cost so that you can start producing more figures.
Brian:It's a multi layered question there.
Brian:The first thing is, I always come back to is, especially with toy collectors now, most, most people that collect toys now have been collecting for quite some time.
Brian:And they were collecting at a time when not as much as right now, there are more toys of better quality and wider variety of every license being made.
Brian:Then ever before that you can imagine.
Brian:So if you coming from the mindset of, I collect and I love this line and I'm searching out every version of it that exists, I'm a completist kind of type of person, you know, you've got that kind of mentality ingrained in yourself.
Brian:And so now if you're in here and we're on colorway nine, you might have that feeling of like, I'm getting fleeced.
Brian:I'm being taken advantage of.
Brian:They're just making this to make money off me.
Brian:And that's not really the case.
Brian:It's just as a collector for myself, and I think for a lot of other people, you get to a certain point where you don't have to have everything, but you have things that you like.
Brian:And when you like them, you like them in multitude.
Brian:That makes any sense.
Brian:And it's sort of like when you go.
Brian:See anything that's installed in repetition, like you can go into, you know, a restaurant someplace and they'll have 400 hubcaps hubcaps, but seeing 400 different ones all lined up, you're like, Oh, that's pretty cool.
Brian:And it could be soda bottles.
Brian:It could be licensed plates.
Brian:It could be anything.
Brian:And so when you get on those sculpts that people just love, it is one of those things where you're like, Oh, okay, let's keep, let's make some more because that person that loves it.
Brian:I do want it.
Brian:I want another.
Brian:And if you're the first person, get your original Toxi, check it off the list, move on.
Brian:If you're the other person, we keep making that for you, uh, and for us so that you can keep having, uh, if you go back and look at like the original alien sculpt that we made now like 11 years ago, we made like eight or nine colorways of it.
Brian:Then we made the blind boxes and alien eggs.
Brian:I think in the end, there's like 27 color waves of that original and it's still one of those where people are like, okay, what is the next one?
Brian:I'm like, I can't make alien right now.
Brian:Well, I'd like some more.
Brian:Same thing with misfits.
Brian:When we did the misfits fiend and reaction, I mean, we were coloring up to match record covers and all that packaging's a big part of it.
Brian:But we got to 23 or 24 colorways of the misfits as well.
Brian:And it wasn't like, it was just like we ran out of weights to color it.
Brian:The customer was still like, okay, I haven't got my misfits this month.
Brian:And so I think it's, it's important for people to understand that there's more than one kind of collector and it's okay that not every product is specifically for you.
Brian:And most of them are coming from a time where they felt like.
Brian:There are so little being made that it was, if that makes any sense.
Brian:Uh, and so, you know, you have that dynamic going on.
Brian:Secondly, with certain lines that we have, don't necessarily say in this one, there are times when we go, I don't think I can sell enough of these to overcome the cost of tooling and the cost of production, but I've got, I know there's a diehard fan base, but if I can four recolors at one fourth the quantity each.
Brian:Then I can get to the number I need.
Brian:And so that's what you see with sort of stuff like the worst, the worst is super fun, but not everybody, not very many people know what it is, but the people that like it are into it.
Brian:You know that we're going to give you at least four colorways in the end over time because I can't sell enough to justify it out of one colorway.
Brian:So there's a bit of strategy.
Chris:That makes a lot of sense.
Chris:And it's, it's not something I think a lot of people consider.
Chris:And also the.
Chris:The fact that like, as a collecting community, we're kind of spoiled by an embarrassment of riches right now, and it's, it's something where they go, Oh man, you know, I'm, I'm angry that I'm getting another toxy and I'm not getting, you know, Dr.
Chris:Killam off or something.
Chris:It's like, okay, that's fair, I suppose.
Chris:But at the same time, it's like you said, like.
Chris:There are different types of collectors out there, and especially with a character like Toxie or like the Ninja Turtles where, you know, the turtles themselves are the core of the line.
Chris:You always have to have some version of that available for people who are coming into it kind of later, right?
Brian:Yes, definitely.
Brian:Uh, and then what you were saying a split second before is, yeah, it's not only for them, but it's like, just because I'm not selling it to you today, it doesn't mean you're not going to get it.
Brian:So that also comes back into people's brains, what they're thinking about, what they X their expectation of your line plan, if they're like, cool, you made choke yard and you made radiation Ranger, that means kill him off his next.
Brian:And when kill him off, isn't next, I get very upset because.
Brian:Clearly, we've been talking about that internal dialogue, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to get to it.
Brian:I just have it yet.
Chris:That's actually one of the most common questions we got from from our audience when I mentioned that we'd be talking was kind of what you can speak to in terms of Super 7's commitment to the line because there is a Unfortunate sentiment out there from among some people that they're hesitant to collect the line because they don't know that they're going to get all of the characters.
Chris:What do you say to people who feel that way?
Brian:I feel like that there's a couple answers there.
Brian:I think the first answer is if somebody is trying to tell us right now, I don't know that I want to collect the line because I don't know if I'm going to get all the characters.
Brian:We started this line four years ago, five years ago, and when people started buying it, it allowed us to make more characters.
Brian:And if you don't buy it, I don't get to make other characters.
Brian:And it's like, and your version of the complete line is an arbitrary statement that you made up in your own brain.
Brian:Are you saying it's the complete line of figures that were made?
Brian:Does that include vehicles?
Brian:Does it not include vehicles?
Brian:Does it include prototypes and unreleased figures?
Brian:Does it not?
Brian:Does it include just the ones you've played with?
Brian:What if you don't like one of those guys?
Brian:What if you don't like too bad or somebody like, is it important?
Brian:Well, I'm not going to collect the line.
Brian:They didn't make him.
Brian:Do you like him?
Brian:No.
Brian:Well, I wasn't going to buy him anyways.
Brian:Well, it's usually what I find that that excuse is not necessarily, and, and, and there's no way to say this where it doesn't sound sort of negative.
Brian:A lot of times is somebody would like to collect the line, but can't for any number of reasons.
Brian:Might be financial, might be space, might be desire, or simply that they feel like they need to speak up in some sort of forum.
Brian:Or some sort of setting because everybody else is talking about it and it's much easier to deflect and say you, you can't because of reason X or Y rather than actually saying, you know what, it's not for me.
Brian:I'm not interested because they want to be a part of the Congress.
Brian:So I don't have anything to say to all those people, but like if you're telling me you're not going to plug the line right now because you don't know where it's going to go, really?
Brian:We've been around for a while.
Brian:It's slow going.
Brian:I agree.
Brian:But if you don't know where the whole line is going, you would have never bought any of them to begin with.
Chris:And it's a marathon, not a sprint, right?
Chris:I think people are, uh, again, spoiled by the frequency with which, you know, certain other more mainstream lines that are sold in retail stores come out.
Chris:You know, you look at WWE and there's 10 new figures every couple of months, you know, you look at Masterverse, there's a ton of new figures all the time.
Chris:Like there are certain lines where they're just being pumped out.
Chris:Marvel Legends, another great example, but.
Brian:And Marvel legends has been making figures now for what, 15 years.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:At least, you know, like they built a community of people just around Marvel legends, but it didn't start that way.
Chris:Right.
Chris:I think people do this kind of apples to oranges comparison where they look at what companies like super seven are doing.
Chris:And they look at what companies like Mattel or Hasbro are doing and they expect them to be the same and they don't quite understand why it isn't.
Brian:This is, this gets brought up a lot where, well, especially when we're talking about price and how I like to kind of phrase this for people, it makes it a little easier for it to understand.
Brian:It's like, all right, everybody, you know, is talking about this, right?
Brian:All the fans are talking about this.
Brian:Everybody I know bought one.
Brian:You guys must be killing it.
Brian:I'm like, all right.
Brian:And you walk out of the door, you wake up in the morning, you walk out of the front door to go to work, take your kids to school or whatever it is.
Brian:The entirety of your day, so you come back home, do you ever run into a single other person that collects toys or is interested in toys or knows what it is that you collect or interested in?
Brian:And the answer is no, unless you work at a toy store or you're sitting there at waiting for the doors to open at target with the other guy, going to run to the back, right?
Brian:Right.
Brian:Go.
Brian:You know, it's the sprint.
Brian:I'm going to beat the hot wheel guy.
Brian:Hold on.
Brian:You know, there, there's far fewer of us than people want to believe because they go back and they, whether it's their Instagram algorithm, their Facebook algorithm, the groups they're in, they're still in forums, forums, they check the YouTube content, they digest, whatever it may be.
Brian:They're in a loop of people that are interested in what they're interested in, because.
Brian:They wouldn't watch it if they aren't interested, but that group is much, much, much smaller than I think anybody really believes because Roomful of a couple hundred people feels like a lot of people But it's still only a couple of,
Chris:well, and also too, I think, you know, there, there are other companies who benefit from economies of scale.
Chris:You know, you look at Marvel legends or even like the playmate stuff with like, you know, Ninja Turtles, mutant mayhem, they're putting one or six or 10 of every figure in a wave in every Walmart and target in the country.
Chris:And that's just the U S
Brian:well, let's back that up real quick.
Brian:So we'll do some quick math.
Brian:So first off, getting a figure up and running, let's just say, or easy math.
Brian:It's going to cost us 20, 000.
Brian:in tooling to get a figure up.
Brian:All right.
Brian:If you make a thousand figures, that means a 2 of every figure is going to have 2 worth of cost.
Brian:And if you make 10, 000 figures, it's 20 cents.
Brian:If you make a hundred thousand figures, it's 2 cents.
Brian:First talk about cost versus how many you make.
Brian:There are roughly a little over 2000 targets.
Brian:There's a little over 6, 000 Lomards in the United States.
Brian:So if you're talking about teenage mutant internals, a peg goes at target and Walmart at 6, 000 pegs, if they're in all stores and those pegs are usually racked four to 60 depends on the, the kinds of store, but let's take it to the bottom side, which is for so initial setup, not replenishment, just initial setup.
Brian:At those stores is 24, 000 pieces, then replenishment.
Brian:So replenishment is usually at least double those guys are banking on 48, 000 minimum, just before they even get started, just to see if the product is even successful, that's 48, 000 for one peg.
Brian:But like the new turtle set just came out and have like a dozen figures, you know, four, three wide, four tall, or four wide, three tall, whenever.
Brian:So 12 figures in a line, or sometimes there's double same figure will be on two pegs, but whatever, say it's 12 different figures.
Brian:You know, they're loading in half a million figures, you know, day one.
Brian:That's why it can be the price that it is.
Brian:So somebody like we're doing is we're not loading.
Brian:If we're not selling through like that, I mean, you talk about some of those, uh, pegs and they're designed to turn like a figure a week.
Brian:So that means a peg stacks with four and they sell a figure to a figure and a half a week.
Brian:It's replenishing every three to four weeks, and then they set it usually twice a year.
Brian:So you can then go backwards and go, okay, if it's four per month to six per month over six months, you know, same thing, that one figure is being made a quarter of a million to half a million units.
Brian:So all the tooling, you know, economies of scale, everything comes into play where we're going to do something, you know, one time, very small run and that's it, all there is, and it's for a very finite group of people, the amount of people as an adult looking for a toxic Avenger versus the amount of eight year olds looking for a The latest turtle is a vastly different number.
Brian:And that's why you generally don't see anything.
Brian:That's why the collector stuff is where the DVDs used to be, because we can't compete with the dollars that they generate.
Brian:I simply cannot move that many things off a peg.
Brian:The peg speed in collector is radically different than the peg speed at the toy aisle.
Brian:But even then, if you're talking about the Hasbro's, And everything else, their comparable product with less stuff is still 29.
Brian:99 these days.
Brian:And somebody's like, yours is so much more.
Brian:And it's like, It's more, but it's not disproportionately more
Chris:right when you, when you take into amount, the amount of plastic, the amount of tooling that goes into it, the, you know, packaging that has a lot more work put into it.
Chris:I mean, there's spot varnish on every package, there's the window box, there's everything.
Chris:And that all adds up when you have something that's designed as kind of a, yeah, I suppose like a premium experience versus a Marvel legend that there's, you know, a warehouse full of them.
Brian:And it is part of that experience.
Brian:Like you, you want everything to be custom, like you don't need what I make.
Brian:So when you touch it, the first thing you're going to touch is the box.
Brian:So the box needs to make you feel just as good as the toy.
Brian:When you finally get it out of the box, I think what people.
Brian:Also, you know, look at, which is invisible to a lot of people is just the extra expense in the kinds of plastics that we use and the different things that we do.
Brian:It's like, you don't hear about our figure breaking limbs, snapping things like that doesn't happen because we're paying for better grade.
Brian:And different materials.
Brian:There's a lot of different materials that we use.
Brian:It's different than what you might typically get.
Brian:It's not, I'm not trying to trash that other stuff.
Brian:I'm not.
Brian:It's just that, that's why it's more expensive because if you get it from me and it breaks, that's a problem.
Brian:Like, you get it from me and it breaks, we immediately replace it.
Brian:But we're also like, how did it break?
Brian:That shouldn't happen.
Brian:And I don't think that you hear about, you know, I'm sure some, you can easily Google it and you'll find two or three examples here and there, but you're not going to find many.
Chris:Yeah, absolutely.
Chris:I, and personally, I, I've probably got about 30, 70, 30 or so separate super seven figures, never had anything break on them.
Brian:That stuff is largely invisible to everybody.
Brian:And.
Brian:The other thing that's always funny to me is people confuse articulation with expense.
Brian:They're like, this thing bends eight more times.
Brian:Like, why is this the same price?
Brian:And it's articulation.
Brian:It's not more or less expensive.
Brian:It's technically a little bit more because of the assembly fee at the factory, but it isn't, it's more, these are aesthetic point of view choices, but just because something can bend into a circle, doesn't mean it's worse more.
Brian:Or more expensive to make.
Chris:I remember seeing another interview that you did where you talked about the aesthetic choice of, yes, you know, you could include another elbow cut that allows it to rotate like this, but the amount of plastic that you have to cut out of the joint to do that, you know, it loses kind of the, the, the overall appearance that you're going for.
Chris:And I think anybody that buys collector figures.
Chris:Should understand like why those choices are made.
Chris:And if it's not for you, it's not for you.
Chris:That's fine.
Chris:But like, there's 8 million other choices out there too.
Chris:So what do you, you know, what are you worried about?
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:I mean, it's, it's that tricky part again, where being able to understand that you don't have to have everything.
Brian:Not everything is designed for you, but there are other collectors out there as a little tricky, uh, for some people, I dunno, it's, it's a, it's a fine line because Nothing that we're making is, you know, essential.
Brian:So if it doesn't hit you in the sweet spot, don't buy it.
Brian:It's okay.
Brian:Uh, and then you run into, once again, for a lot of people, if they've been thinking about something and they want something, let's make it up today.
Brian:Um, you know, whatever this bird has a deluxe figure and I've been wanting that my whole life and then somebody makes it, but it doesn't look like that or it doesn't act the way they want it to do.
Brian:It's almost worse when it's close, but not the way it was supposed to be than if it was completely wrong, right?
Brian:Being 85 percent of the way there is more infuriating than if it was 50 percent of the way there because then they can be like, oh, it's fine.
Chris:I hadn't considered that, but that makes sense.
Announcer:You're listening to a podcast on the Loudspeaker Network.
Announcer:Loudspeaker is a listener supported, non profit public radio service and production studio devoted to amplifying the voices, stories, and artistic expressions of underserved communities.
Announcer:We can't do this without the support of our listeners.
Announcer:If you enjoy our program and become a member of Loudspeaker and support our mission with a donation of your choice, learn more at loudspeaker.
Announcer:org.
Brian:Yeah, it's just, you know, because once again, people are emotional about this stuff.
Brian:I feel like I'm repeating myself, but people buy this for emotional reasons.
Brian:They don't buy it for logical reasons.
Brian:They don't need it.
Chris:You're in the business of nostalgia and, and that's going to, it's going to hit exactly right for some people.
Chris:And for some people it's, it's not going to match what they had in their head.
Chris:So they're going to, you know, either complain or not buy it or both, but you know, okay, whatever.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:You know, and hopefully maybe the next one does hit you the right way.
Brian:Sorry that this one doesn't, but there's also a guy sitting next to you.
Brian:At least I hope there's a guy sitting next to you that's like, I love it.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:Amazing.
Chris:When the first Toxie ultimate figure or deluxe figure got announced, I was that guy.
Chris:I was like, I am buying this.
Chris:First thing I'd ever bought from super seven was, was that figure?
Chris:Well, I had heard of the company before then, um, through the, you know, the moto classics, but I hadn't ever purchased any, so I was like, well, I don't really know who these guys are, but this is like one of the coolest things I've ever seen and I can't see anyone else making it.
Chris:Yeah.
Chris:So hell yeah, here's my money.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:And then when it showed up, it's the same thing too.
Brian:And a lot of people really like having to prepay and wait a year.
Brian:You know, that's a lot for people, you know, cause it feels like an eternity for a lot of people.
Brian:I feel like they're like, yeah.
Brian:I forgot I ordered that and then they showed up like another present.
Brian:Well, it
Chris:feeds into the emotionality of the whole thing for people, right?
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:I mean, like I said, I, I keep blanking on his name and he'll remind me via Instagram, but you know, when we went to power con was right after Toxie had shipped and there was a gentleman there who junkyard was his favorite growing up.
Brian:And he showed up and he had made a necklace to carry his joke yard around.
Brian:He was walking around with his necklace with joke yard, holy gun through it at the show.
Brian:Cause he was just so happy with it and wanted to take it with him everywhere and show everybody.
Brian:And I was, I mean, that, that's, that's the business I'm in right there.
Chris:It really is one of the coolest figures I've ever seen.
Chris:I mean, I, I don't even have the good tongue head on here right now, but like.
Chris:How can you not love this thing?
Chris:It's incredible.
Chris:The painting on it, the sculpting on it, like the details, like the bandages on his tail and how matty and dirty he looks yet still kind of like, I don't know, lovable in a strange way, I mean.
Chris:He's
Brian:still a little cuddly.
Chris:Yeah, I mean that's a hard aesthetic to try to
Brian:hit there.
Brian:Yeah,
Chris:you know, you want to cuddle up with your junkyard
Brian:Exactly.
Chris:So getting back to getting back to the line.
Chris:We're kind of we're kind of going all over the place But that's why we did have Listeners submit some questions to us.
Chris:So I've got a few for you the first one being so far There's only been one Uh, wave of Toxic Crusaders reaction figures.
Chris:And if we are talking about the original nine playmates figures that leaves three characters, uh, still to do, is there, is that something that's still on the roadmap in terms of production?
Brian:We're talking about Toxie in reaction form.
Brian:That definitely Toxie himself seemed to resonate.
Brian:The rest of the Crusaders did not really resonate, they did not do particularly well.
Brian:And what I think happens there is reaction, obviously for everybody listening, if you don't already know, I assume you do, if you've made it this long in this, you, you know, but you know, it's, it's a throwback to the old.
Brian:It's the 1970s to 1980s action.
Brian:When you're talking about something like Toxic Crusader, those kids didn't grow up.
Brian:So if you've got the Vardar figures and you look at those three and three quarter reaction figures, you're like, these regress.
Brian:These didn't really, they don't hit my sweet spot because they're, they're, they're, they're To a degree, I think for that person, they feel lesser than the, uh, original figures.
Brian:We see this the same sort of way with, uh, Power Rangers to a degree.
Brian:That, uh, customer really didn't grow up with three and three quarters.
Brian:So the, the format and the simplicity of it is mystifying to some.
Brian:Now to some of them, they love it.
Brian:They have no qualms on it.
Brian:So that's why I think the Ultimates actually performed better than the reaction in the case of Toxie.
Brian:So.
Brian:Two, the question is, we sculpted them, but I don't think they're going to come.
Brian:It just didn't, you know, I hate to be the guy that'd be like, it, it didn't work out, you know, but it's like, it just was one of those where they came out and they're like, that's neat.
Brian:Okay.
Brian:And then left.
Brian:We're like, Oh man, come on.
Brian:Everybody loves Toxie.
Brian:We've done nine versions.
Brian:And but the rest of it, they were just kind of like, it just lukewarm would be a polite statement.
Brian:I think.
Chris:Sure.
Brian:Sure.
Chris:Yeah, they, they, they didn't exactly set the world on fire, which is, which is unfortunate because like some of those sculpts are, are really fantastic in and of themselves.
Chris:Like the headbanger figure is fantastic.
Chris:The kill him off figure is really great.
Chris:I, you know, obviously it's like, they're just so like the designs are already so silly that like them in that sort of that smaller scale is, is just like absurd.
Chris:And I love it.
Brian:If you have enough to know the reference and understand it and appreciate it.
Brian:That it makes sense.
Brian:You're like, Oh, these things make complete sense.
Brian:But if you don't, you don't.
Brian:We ran into this.
Brian:I'll use the example that may be a little easier to understand.
Brian:Well, we made the Shogun Stormtrooper now like 12 or 13 years, you know what I'm talking about for the, I'll do the, although it was glistening, it was the 1970s Jumbo Machinder, AKA what was brought over a Shogun Warriors format, but done as a stormtrooper.
Brian:You'd have, we had it at San Diego and you know, person after person walk up and go, that's an ugly stormtrooper.
Brian:That doesn't even look anything like it had several people going, you know, like stupid firing fist.
Brian:Why?
Brian:Like it doesn't do that.
Brian:And then you'd have the guy that walked up that grew up on Shogun Warriors, and his brain would literally just melt out of his ears.
Brian:He'd be like, Oh my God, it's a Shogun Please tell me the fist, please tell me the fist shoots.
Brian:You're like, of course the fist shoots.
Brian:You're like, Oh my God.
Brian:You know, but you had to have an attachment to that scale and format and size.
Brian:Otherwise, it was just a weird, ugly stormtrooper and I feel like that's sort of the analogy that I'm trying to make around reaction and, uh, toxic crusaders because I think it was great, but I think most of the people that grew up with toxic crusaders, like I, I don't get it.
Brian:I'm clearly I'm missing something.
Chris:Sure.
Chris:The sad thing is that there, you know, the, the people who just like to complain online, they, they use the, uh, the, the quote unquote lack of completion, for lack of a better term, of the reaction figures as some sort of indication of, of how the ultimates are going.
Chris:And, and I think those people are just trying to find excuses to justify their position instead of, You know, just accepting things on face value and realizing that they're different products for different people and not everything's going to hit.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:And, you know, quite honestly, I think a lot of it sometimes is people feel the need to comment.
Brian:There is something that we noticed a very, very long time ago, mid two thousands in the early days of the internet, we would launch a product.
Brian:If it got massive amounts of comments on it, like, Oh my God, can't wait.
Brian:Got to order this.
Brian:I'll be first in line.
Brian:That product was going to tank.
Brian:If it got a moderate amount of comments, it would do great because everybody that wanted it was like, yeah, cool.
Brian:They didn't feel the need to comment or say something.
Brian:It was just like, yep, giggle.
Brian:No problem.
Brian:Moving on.
Brian:You know, where for some reason when people were like, uh, I'm not going to get that, they felt the need to comment for some reason.
Brian:Mm hmm.
Brian:And usually the comments would be.
Brian:Overflowingly positive and then you'd be like, how did this not?
Brian:So we just over and over, not over and over again, but we noticed that pattern after a while.
Brian:We're like, oh, this one's getting a lot of traction that everybody talking it up.
Brian:I bet this doesn't do well.
Chris:Yeah, it's, it's, it's all for whatever reason.
Chris:It's always the complainers who are the most vocal and they tend to, because
Brian:they feel the need to talk about it where the person that likes it.
Brian:And is interested in it has already completed their journey with it.
Brian:They don't need to comment on it.
Brian:They're like, yeah, cool.
Brian:What's awesome.
Brian:They don't
Chris:need validation.
Chris:Cause they already know this is, this is for me.
Chris:I'm buying it.
Brian:Yeah, exactly.
Brian:So I'll use that as a thing.
Brian:Like that's why the like button is so interesting.
Brian:If you will, in that context, it's like, you know, as you're scrolling through and you see something awesome, you don't need to feel that.
Brian:Oh, hell yeah.
Brian:You just go like moving on, you know, unless you have something editorial that you need to say.
Brian:You don't.
Brian:And so in a lot of ways, the editorializing is either the person that's really in love with it and is like, Oh my God, or the opposite.
Brian:And so you hear a lot of the opposite.
Brian:And that would be the things where people would be like, see this lines die and all you see is negative comments online.
Brian:And I go, and I look at our orders and I'm like, this is the best line we've ever made.
Brian:Like we sold more of this one than anything previous.
Brian:And that's sort of the thing where I will go into social and read the comments because a lot of times there are notes in there that things that we missed, there'll be a guy like, I can't remember his, I'm bad with all these names and I'm going to apologize to this guy.
Brian:But like when we did bebop for turtles, one of the guys on Instagram comment, he's like, you should totally make a variant of this head painted like the toy
Chris:or the pink head.
Chris:Yeah.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:And we were like, we should do that.
Brian:That's a good idea.
Brian:So we did it and then sent, you know, like, Hey man, we're going to make that.
Brian:Send me your address.
Brian:We'll send you.
Brian:So there's constructive criticism where are good ideas that come out of it.
Brian:But when it's just belly aching, then I, I'm not, I'd try to filter that out.
Chris:And one thing that, you know, at least in my experience, super seven has always been good at is saying like, you know, if there, if there is something you miss, if there is a, if there is a mistake or an opportunity to improve, you usually jump on it, Simpson's ultimates, you know, Moe was missing his apron.
Chris:And, you know, y'all immediately were like, his apron's coming.
Chris:We don't know what happened, but it's coming.
Chris:We got you taken care of.
Brian:Things like that invariably happen.
Brian:And that's the part that, you know, same thing people to also don't understand where you're like, I don't know, I have a sample here with Mo's apron.
Brian:This is the one that shipped no apron.
Brian:You're like, where did it go?
Brian:I don't know.
Brian:It was supposed to come with it.
Brian:So we'll fix it.
Brian:And the same thing, like there's time to time, whether it's bad paint or broken, you know, something got through QC, somebody gets in there, look, look at this and this is all off.
Brian:It's like, yeah, that shouldn't be like that.
Brian:Send it back to us.
Brian:Like, yeah, contact Rudy, a customer service, I'll give you a shipping number and we'll send you a new one.
Brian:Cause it's not supposed to be like that.
Brian:If you, you know, if you go to most industry, I'm going to be on a tangent here.
Brian:Like I, you know, if you're talking about printing, it's 3%.
Brian:They expect a 3 percent run rate.
Brian:Like when I sell to target, there's a 3 percent defective rate before I even ship it to them.
Brian:Even though I know I'm shipping theoretically 100 percent on defective, just off the top, 3 percent are defective.
Brian:So if you make, once again, if you were to make a thousand figures and you figure a 3 percent defective rate, that's 30 figures.
Brian:You don't see 30 figures worth of defections from us, but you'll see there'll be a couple that show up.
Brian:It's just.
Brian:No way around it.
Chris:Yeah, any sort of manufacturing you're gonna, you're gonna have that problem.
Brian:Yeah, so
Chris:which is, I mean, it's just, it's not even really a problem.
Chris:It's just, you know, that's just how manufacturing works when you're, you know, making a thousand or 2000 or 5000 or something.
Brian:Yeah, you're just gonna be like, all right, that one's messed up.
Brian:Let me give you a right one.
Chris:Last november in toy collector magazine there was a spread about the history of toxic crusaders, you know, articles by pixel dan and by blake right there were really good and there was an interview with you in there and you had kind of previewed the next wave of toxic crusaders ultimates to include a major disaster bonehead and a mystery under wraps third figure
Brian:i don't know then i previewed and i said that's where i'd like to go.
Chris:Fair enough.
Chris:So a couple of questions there is, is that kind of what's still on the table?
Chris:And if so, can we get some sort of idea of when that might be on the table?
Brian:That is where I want to go next.
Brian:Obviously, as we have discussed earlier, there is a glow in the dark radiation ranger coming out in New York, Colorado.
Brian:Uh, in just a couple of days, by the time this thing gets out, maybe that day, I don't know.
Brian:And then, um, there's another figure for, keeps moving around a little bit, but there's something coming around for either December or January.
Brian:So there's another figure.
Chris:Is that the Patriotic Toxie that I saw the other day?
Chris:Yeah, the Patriotic Toxie.
Brian:Yeah.
Chris:Yeah.
Chris:I saw that and I was like, that's kind of cool.
Chris:Cause that's technically an unreleased figure.
Brian:Completely is an unreleased figure, you know, there was supposed to
Chris:be a series to a patriotic toxi.
Brian:Yeah, you know, and that's a deep cut for a few people.
Brian:It's not wide.
Brian:And then, um, I'm trying to find the spot next year for, for major disaster.
Brian:So the mystery third was patriotic toxi.
Chris:Uh, but that's going to be kind of its own thing.
Chris:And then,
Brian:Yeah, it's, it's coming separately.
Chris:Makes sense.
Chris:Makes sense.
Chris:Yeah, uh, it's, it's really cool to see the fact that at least Toxie has, has such staying power, um, for Super 7.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:I mean, he's a great character.
Brian:It's just so funny.
Brian:Like when we made the first one, we were like, you know, fuck it, we're going to make this.
Brian:No one's going to care, but we care.
Brian:So let's just make it.
Brian:And you were like, well, yeah, Hey, people like Toxie.
Chris:Well, not only that, but then you, like, on the same day or whatever, or the same week that that hit, then there was all of a sudden the, the completely surprised glow in the dark, uh, Entertainment Earth variant, and people went bananas for that.
Chris:That sold out in a few hours.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:And I, you know, you just never know.
Brian:It's one of those things.
Brian:Like we make things that we like, some things hit, some things don't, you never know everybody, everybody's, you know, every time it's like, this is that no greater.
Brian:It's got a slay 50, 50, and some of those things where we're like, who cares, we're just going to make this 50, 50.
Brian:You never know it.
Brian:You never know which one of those things are going to fly.
Brian:There are things that we've made where I'm, I am convinced like everybody's been waiting for this and it doesn't work.
Brian:Same time.
Brian:We, same thing.
Brian:Everybody's been waiting for this and then it blows up.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:You just, there is no rhyme or reason.
Brian:I can tell you after, you know, 22 years, there is no rhyme or reason to any of it.
Brian:None of it makes sense.
Brian:So go with the gut.
Brian:See what happens.
Chris:Yeah.
Chris:I mean, good example.
Chris:Like I, I was shocked that not enough people wanted those rescuers figures.
Chris:I thought those things were gorgeous.
Brian:For me, the same thing.
Brian:I'm like, there's never been rescuers toys ever of any sort.
Brian:And now we know
Chris:why.
Brian:Fair enough.
Brian:Thanks.
Brian:My emotional crestfallen, uh, it's like, how can there not be Disney fans out there who are like, rescuers, yes, let's go.
Brian:I've been waiting.
Brian:Nothing.
Brian:Crickets.
Brian:Crickets.
Brian:But it's the same thing, you know, Power Rangers, we've had a couple Power Rangers figures that didn't go.
Brian:Uh, the Power Rangers fans always like, I want more monsters.
Brian:I want more monsters.
Brian:I was like, all right, we're making Madam Woe.
Brian:She's never been made before ever in anything.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:I don't know.
Brian:That's, that's not what I want.
Brian:Okay.
Brian:That's no Madam Woe.
Chris:I was surprised by that one too.
Chris:Like I, I don't collect Power Rangers figures, but I, I thought that that was interesting that the, the Madam Woe thing, like it was such a cool idea.
Chris:And that's one of the things I love about Super 7 is that y'all, you know, you, you put stuff out, not necessarily that is on paper, like going to be the best selling item, but it's a cool item.
Chris:And in a lot of cases hadn't existed before.
Chris:Um, and the fact that like, you're constantly subverting expectations is something I really appreciate.
Brian:Well, thank you.
Brian:I mean, that, that was the same thing.
Brian:Like another surprise hit for us was Vincent price vehicle.
Brian:Well, we made Vincent price.
Brian:We were like, I was like, just, I think it would be cool.
Brian:Just make Vincent price.
Brian:He's an icon of horror, you know, you know, let's just make Vincent no big.
Brian:And then it was like, everybody else was like, yes, I've been waiting for Vincent.
Brian:I did not know that.
Brian:I am glad that I know that now.
Chris:I can relate to that.
Chris:I mean, I love Vincent Price, but for me, like most recently, I was like, there's going to be a Debbie Harry reaction figure.
Chris:I'm, I'm buying that yesterday.
Chris:Gonna
Brian:be blondie.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:We, uh, the funny part is, of course, is that.
Brian:We're making it and she's like, what about this?
Brian:What about this?
Brian:What about this?
Brian:I'm like, I got to get the first one out first.
Chris:Well, I mean, for the debut, I think the parallel lines, uh, Debbie makes the most sense, but I think that's a great one to go, but yeah, she's got a lot of iconic looks that could, I mean, that could go for a while.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:And the, and the same thing, like, you know, when we did Devo.
Brian:You're, I'm fairly certain, you know, people are going to buy Mark, but are they going to buy the other members of the band?
Brian:And we're going to make all five members of the band and all five different outfits.
Brian:And, you know, so we've got to release Bob too.
Brian:It was definitely a bit nervous, like it's iconic, but you know, Mark is the face of the band and nope, Bob too did great.
Chris:Well, and also, you know, music fans aren't necessarily.
Chris:Toy collectors like there's obviously crossover, but you know, not as much as I think a lot of people might might think
Brian:I would agree that that I think in the in the case of Devo that person that's into Devo likes Devo.
Brian:It's not more superficial thing
Chris:for sure.
Chris:I think a good con exclusive would be although the licensing might be nuts might be Devo as they appeared in heavy metal personally.
Chris:I would buy that set in half a second.
Brian:The licensing would not be that difficult.
Brian:Actually.
Brian:I'd actually considered that.
Brian:See, these are these things like,
Chris:well, see, cause you got Devo, which obviously like you guys, you know, you're working with them, but then you'd also have to license heavy metal from Sony.
Chris:So I know that gets kind of weird when you're crossing over IPs.
Brian:We, we do that a fair amount.
Brian:We've got some really cool crossover type stuff coming where it's gotta be split royalty.
Brian:You just have, that's the hardest part is just getting both sides to agree to take half the money.
Chris:Sure, just making the numbers work.
Brian:Yeah, so you take half and you take half and together we can make this whole.
Brian:They're all like, how about I take one and they take one and we make it two.
Brian:And it's like, well then it doesn't work.
Chris:Right, right.
Chris:So does, so does, totally off topic now, but does that mean that, uh, TMNT Universal Monsters is, uh, is a possibility?
Brian:NECA just made that a little while ago.
Chris:NECA's making it, yes, agreed, and they're making some fantastic stuff, but I'm, I'm thinking in terms of the, with most of the Turtles line skewing towards updates of the Playmates versions, you know, I'd still love to see a Dawn the Dracula updated for 2023.
Brian:Yeah, I, I think that we were hopeful, we were planning on doing some of that, but then neck kind of beat us to the punch on that one.
Brian:So we figured we'd let that one lay for a little while.
Brian:Uh, raining.
Brian:Those guys are great.
Brian:And, uh, you know, usually if, if one of us is playing in one area with the other, one of us goes to another spot, we try to stay, you know, next to each other.
Brian:We're, we're both friends and, you know, They make great stuff as well.
Brian:So we don't want it to be competitive per se, rising tide.
Chris:And it's strange too.
Chris:Like there's, there's, there's a such a, you know, there's, there's always an us versus them sort of component in the, in the collecting world.
Chris:Cause they're like, especially when it comes to turtles, people are like, Oh, neck is better.
Chris:Oh, super seven's better.
Chris:And I always say, why would you compare the two?
Chris:They're completely different types of products for different types of people.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:They, they're, they're definitely.
Brian:In that, that's thing, you know, when we, when we got the license, we thought we had it, Randy thought he had it.
Brian:We both showed up to Toy Fair with the license.
Brian:We're like, we're making turtles.
Brian:They're like, we're making turtles.
Brian:We're like, wait, you're making turtles?
Brian:I'm making turtles.
Brian:You're making turtles?
Brian:I'm making turtles.
Brian:So we sat down.
Brian:You find
Chris:yourself living in a Spider Man meme.
Chris:Yeah,
Brian:exactly.
Brian:We were completely living in the Spider Man meme.
Brian:And, uh, So we just sat down and was like, all right, you've been already doing some of this, this con exclusives that are cartoon centric.
Brian:Why don't you go down that route?
Brian:We'll go down this.
Brian:Sort of more toyatic route and then we're further away from each other and then we can play in our own space Yeah, I think the people that do in us versus them Haven't ever met us or them because yeah, when we go to the shows, we're like, hey, man, what's going on?
Chris:Yeah I mean, you know, everybody's friendly.
Chris:Everybody's like everybody's just happy to be making cool stuff
Brian:completely completely People shouldn't focus
Chris:on one being better than the other.
Chris:They should just focus on the fact that like, we have so many choices as collectors.
Brian:That's
Chris:an amazing thing.
Chris:There's never been a better time to be a toy fan.
Brian:It is completely true.
Brian:100%.
Chris:The licenses go deep as, as evidenced by toxic crusaders, like something I never thought, you know, we would get, but it sounds like to, to start, start to wrap things up.
Chris:And thank you so much again for your time.
Chris:Oh,
Brian:I'm talking about toys.
Chris:Uh, yeah.
Chris:I mean, I could talk about toys forever, but, um, with toxic crusaders, it sounds kind of a little bit like slow and steady wins the race.
Brian:Yeah, it is slow and steady wins the race.
Brian:It's not one of those where I can just.
Brian:You know, and I hate to sound like it's all about finances, but you know, there's a certain bit where you got to make sure that things are, you know, moving along and, you know, clicking along, but we're making more toxic crusaders.
Brian:It's just slow and steady.
Brian:Like I said, uh, I'm sure people would like it faster, but it just doesn't always get pushed in front of the line.
Brian:Uh, and as we've gotten bigger, I hate to say the constraints, cause that makes it sound weird, but it's like.
Brian:You know, there's a lot of things we want to do.
Brian:And when you're really small, no one cares.
Brian:No one pays attention.
Brian:You know, we've gotten to a decent size now that all of a sudden the things that we do people look at and people pay attention to.
Brian:And now it's important for somebody, you know, what's happening in this, what's happening in that.
Brian:Then somebody comes and goes, well, we've got a marketing moment here.
Brian:And so, you know, you're scheduling things slightly differently than you might if no one cares.
Brian:Hmm.
Brian:Hmm.
Brian:If that makes any sense,
Chris:it's a lot easier to make moves when not as many people are watching.
Brian:Yeah, because I'm going to say this and somebody's going to take it out of context and make us sound like a jerk, but it's like, you know, we, we make other people look good sometimes because we do a good job on what we're making and we generate some excitement.
Brian:So there's a lot of people that we have a lot of licenses with a lot of companies these days.
Brian:Those people want to make sure they're getting their shine.
Brian:So we've got to balance everything out and it's not that we're being run by them or anything, but you know, for me to be able to do this weird thing over here in the corner, I sometimes have to do this thing over here too.
Brian:That allows me to do those, you know, we'll get there.
Brian:Like I said, the, the toxic Crusader ultimates finally landed, you know, in August, I believe people's hands were hot on the heels of that August with now that you've got it.
Brian:I got another one for you.
Brian:Here comes glow, glow, radiation ranger.
Brian:So got that right for you.
Brian:There's another one I am right after.
Brian:So a bit of slow and steady comes from the fact that I can't sell you the next one to like deliver you the first one.
Brian:And it took over a year to deliver those first figures.
Brian:So now that you've got them, I've got a couple, a couple more coming for you.
Brian:Then we're going to work on it for later.
Chris:I mean, it's an exciting time too.
Chris:I think, you know, there, there are people out there who, who go, okay, well now I've got junkyard dog and I've got.
Chris:I just called him junkyard dog.
Chris:I hate when people do that.
Chris:Cause that's not his name.
Brian:He's got the, the, the, the chain with the lock on and he's coming off the top row.
Chris:Yeah, exactly.
Chris:And he's, he's, he's, you know, yelling in the middle of the ring anyway.
Chris:Um, so, but like, yeah, I've got these figures.
Chris:I want to, you know, I need bad guys for them to fight.
Chris:I need kill him off.
Chris:I need this.
Chris:I need that.
Chris:And it's like, you know, it's, it's, it's a marathon, not a sprint, right?
Chris:Like you guys have.
Chris:So many licenses, so many things you are working on.
Chris:I mean, we didn't even talk very much about, you know, super showgun and the supersize ones and like everything else that you're doing, all the apparel and stuff you make, like people need to understand too, I think, you know, especially compared to a company like, you know, Hasbro, for example, I mean, super seven is still a small company and you're, you're balancing all of those things.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:A small company would be compared to Hasbro would be a, a humorous anecdote at best.
Brian:I don't know.
Brian:You know, we're a rounding error.
Brian:Right.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:And it's, it's just that thing.
Brian:It's also being cognizant of how much stuff can come out at any given time.
Brian:I can't just make everything all the time for everyone.
Brian:There's not enough people and not enough dollars to support that.
Brian:So I try to be cognizant about how often I come out with stuff.
Brian:Pace people.
Brian:I'm not the only line they collect.
Brian:I'm not the only license they collect.
Brian:I'm not the only company.
Brian:So gotta be realistic about how often things come out, how much you're asking the collector to pay, how often so that They can keep collecting and have fun with it, and that's the ultimate goal is it should be fun.
Chris:Yeah, I always tell people, if you're not having fun, then find something else to do.
Chris:Find something to do that doesn't stress you out.
Chris:You know, if it's not bringing you joy, then really, what are you doing?
Chris:Exactly.
Brian:100%.
Chris:On that note, you can purchase the New York Comic Con exclusive Radiation Ranger Toxic Crusaders Ultimates figure at New York Comic Con this week at the Javits Center in New York City and, uh, online at super7.
Chris:com as well.
Brian:Yeah, there'll be inventory slated for, uh, online as well.
Brian:So.
Brian:Excellent.
Brian:Usually the Monday after.
Brian:You know, so we'll, we'll make sure that we say it a little bit cause we know not everybody's a bit fly in New York, so we'll.
Brian:Have some online for you too.
Chris:The last, uh, listener submitted question that was sent to us was, uh, and I, I feel like I know the answer to it, but we'll ask it anyway.
Chris:Yeah.
Chris:Bonus question.
Chris:Bonus round time.
Chris:I know the license is for Toxic Crusaders, but there are people out there.
Chris:I don't know how many, but more than a couple who would like to see characters from the greater Troma universe, such as Sergeant Kabuki Man.
Brian:Sergeant Kabuki is the one I get asked about the most.
Brian:Yeah.
Chris:Yeah.
Chris:What are your, what are your thoughts there?
Brian:What are my thoughts?
Brian:My thoughts right now is I, I need to get some other Crusaders out first, but I'm not opposed to it.
Brian:And you never know.
Brian:How about that for a KG non answer?
Chris:It's better than a non non answer.
Chris:I think.
Brian:Yeah.
Brian:No.
Brian:And you know, it's like, first up is, uh, is next would be more toxi stuff.
Brian:And then, uh, we'll see.
Brian:We'll see.
Brian:Sergeant Kabuki is the one I get asked for probably the most within the Tromaverse.
Brian:Mm hmm.
Brian:And uh, you never know, never know.
Chris:Yeah.
Chris:I mean, I mean, it's a niche within a niche within a niche.
Chris:So I mean, you have to, people have to be realistic about their expectations, but
Brian:it's a croissant wrapped in a pastry.
Brian:I guess croissant is, I was going to try to think of like three pastries.
Brian:It's a turducken.
Brian:How about that?
Brian:We'll just go with that.
Chris:Yeah.
Chris:It really is the turducken of, of, uh, of IP franchises.
Chris:So.
Brian:Yes.
Chris:Well, Brian Flynn, thank you again so much for chatting with us.
Chris:Um, everybody watching this on the day it comes out, um, look for the radiation ranger glow in the dark at New York comic con or stay tuned until just after New York comic con to be able to get them at super7.
Chris:com.
Chris:Brian, thanks again so much for your time.
Chris:We really appreciate it.
Brian:Thanks for having me.
Brian:This was great fun.
Chris:I'd like to take a moment to thank Brian Flynn for being so gracious with his time and chatting with us, as well as Jen Bezerra from Super 7 for giving us the opportunity to unveil the New York Comic Con Radiation Ranger action figure.
Chris:The future looks bright for both Super 7 and for Toxic Crusaders, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more from them.
Chris:From both very, very soon in the meantime, this has been talking Troma extra.
Chris:I am Chris Lanphier for Zach Bynes and everyone else here.
Chris:This is loudspeaker.
Announcer:This has been a listener supported production of
Announcer:Loudspeaker Studios.
Announcer:For more on this and other programs, visit loudspeaker.
Announcer:org.
