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F*@kit Friday! We discuss The Toys That Made Us!

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Nov 29, 2019
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Drunk podcast discussion of Netflix toy documentaries and nostalgia.

Summary

Drew and Scott Ian discuss Netflix's "The Toys That Made Us" documentary series, exploring how toy lines like He-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony, and WWF action figures were created and marketed. They reflect on toy pricing inflation over the decades, arcade machine collecting trends, and nostalgic pop culture memories while getting progressively intoxicated.

Key Claims

  • Nickelodeon paid $60 million for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rights after one co-creator sold his stake

    high confidence · Scott Ian and Drew discussing The Toys That Made Us TMNT episode; specific figure cited as definitive

  • G.I. Joe playsets cost $50-60 in the 1980s, equivalent to approximately $200-300 in today's money

    high confidence · Drew comparing toy prices to Nintendo ($89) as reference point for 1980s inflation

  • Ren and Stimpy original creators only did season one before Nickelodeon took over and fired them

    medium confidence · Scott Ian stating the creators were not happy with Nickelodeon's direction and the show was 'canned'

  • TMNT comic creators drew tails on turtles that resembled penises, which toy companies rejected

    medium confidence · Drew discussing details from The Toys That Made Us TMNT episode

  • Arcade machine prices have inflated dramatically since early 2000s; Simpsons 4-player went from $300 to $2000-2500

    high confidence · Drew comparing his early 2000s arcade purchases to current market prices

  • WWF action figures evolved from small prototypes to 8-inch figures due to retail demand and manufacturing costs

    medium confidence · Scott Ian and Drew discussing The Toys That Made Us WWF episode details about figure sizing decisions

  • Wrestle Buddies had profit margins of 80%+ due to low manufacturing cost versus $19.99 retail price

    medium confidence · Drew speculating that pillows cost <$1 to make but sold for $20 at Toys R Us

  • Poor Man's Pinball Podcast has nearly as many listeners for 'Fuck It Friday' as their main episodes

    medium confidence · Drew commenting on podcast metrics and audience engagement for the show

Notable Quotes

  • “It never occurred to me that they were making these cartoons to sell toys... It's so stupid now that I think about it.”

    Drew @ unknown — Core insight about how 1980s cartoons functioned as 30-minute toy commercials

  • “You can just get some equipment and start podcasting. You don't even need equipment. You can do it on your phone.”

    Scott Ian @ unknown — Meta-commentary on low barriers to entry for content creation

  • “Nickelodeon offered $60 million. 60? 6-0.”

    Scott Ian @ unknown — Astonished response to the massive TMNT licensing deal from The Toys That Made Us

  • “She's like, oh, that's just a wood box you brought home. Another dumb thing.”

    Drew @ unknown — Humorous marital perspective on arcade and pinball machine collecting

  • “My best one was... For $200, I bought a Punch-Out, Nintendo cabinet... made some good money on that one.”

    Drew @ unknown — Example of arcade flipping profits from early 2000s acquisition era

Entities

DrewpersonScott IanpersonNetflixcompanyTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesproductHe-ManproductMy Little PonyproductNickelodeoncompanyRen and Stimpyproduct

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Poor Man's Pinball Podcast achieving significant listener engagement with 'Fuck It Friday' format almost matching main episode numbers

    high · Drew states 'we have almost as many listeners for this as we do for our normal podcast'

  • ?

    content_signal: Netflix documentary series 'The Toys That Made Us' generating substantial discussion and engagement in pinball/arcade collector communities

    high · Extended discussion of multiple documentary episodes; hosts recommend series to audience; multiple specific details cited from episodes

  • $

    market_signal: Significant arcade machine market inflation and supply constraint since early 2000s; shift from buyer's market to scarcity-driven pricing

    high · Drew documents specific price increases: Simpsons cabinet $300→$2000-2500; Pac-Man $250→$1000; attributes to hoarding and restoration

  • ?

    collector_signal: Demand for vintage arcade machines and childhood IP collectibles remains strong despite price inflation

    high · Daycare parent requesting $2000 arcade machine budget; hosts noting continued market interest despite prices; nostalgia-driven collecting behavior

  • ?

    industry_signal: Documentation of vintage toy manufacturing economics: high profit margins (80%+) on merchandise like Wrestle Buddies; low production cost to retail value

    medium · Discussion of Wrestle Buddies costing <$1 to produce, retailing $19.99; Toys R Us markup patterns; toy company profit margins discussed

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.098

0:00
Cause it's Friday, you ain't got no job, and you ain't got shit to do. You're just in time for the after party that is Fuck It Friday, starring Drew and Ian.
0:18
Welcome to Fuck It Friday, everybody's favorite Black Friday holiday. Here we are. Five, right? Five of these fucking things. Five Fuck It Fridays. You know what? It's going well. It is. People seem to like this thing. I don't know why. You know what's interesting? It's not very... What? Most... Yeah, we have almost as many listeners for this as we do for our normal podcast. You people are sick. Yeah. You people are fucking sick. It's awesome. Thanks, guys. You know what we need? What do we need? We need a Fuck It Friday t-shirt. Yeah, pull that up. Do we now? Yeah. We can't sell a Poor Man's Spinball podcast t-shirt. Well, no. Instead of one, we'll sell two. Oh, I like it. Yeah. I like it. Two t-shirts. You can see dollar signs on our fucking faces. Fuck it. Fuck it, Friday. Fuck it. We just want to get some audio equipment and video equipment. That's all we want. Yeah, we're not trying to make money. We just want... We just... We just need video equipment. That's really what we're doing. But anyway. Let's move fast. SilverBallSwag.com. Fucking Friday. Yeah. It's Friday. God bless it. I can't wait for this weekend. Thanksgiving's over, man. I know. I'm so full. I know. Stuffed. We're recording this on Monday, guys. We are hammered, by the way. I don't know what you guys think of the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast episode that we just put out. It was a good one. We were so fucking drunk at the end. Solid. That was solid stuff. It was so good. Right? I don't know. I felt great. Sometimes we finish recording and we're like, yeah, that one wasn't so great. There's times. Yeah, there were times where you're like, fuck. I mean, we're pros now. We have almost 40 episodes on our belt, and we're like, eh, this one wasn't good, but this one was great. And we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves, because we've listened to other people's 40th episodes, and they're not that great. Yeah. And we're doing really fucking good, I think. Because our joke is, but it's not really a joke, is that there is no prerequisite for podcasting. No. You can just get some equipment and start podcasting. You don't even need equipment. You can do it on your phone. Yeah. You can podcast. That is equipment. Oh, no, I just gave up our secret.
WWF Royal Rumble
product
Legocompany
Toys R Uscompany
Poor Man's Pinball Podcastorganization
Godzillaproduct
?

licensing_signal: TMNT co-creator retained comic book rights in Nickelodeon $60M deal; strategic licensing separation between cartoons/toys vs print media

medium · Scott Ian describing deal where Nickelodeon paid $60M but creator kept comic rights; Nickelodeon indifferent to print media

  • ?

    design_innovation: 1980s WWF action figure design evolved from small 4-inch prototypes to 8-inch figures due to retail demand and manufacturing cost optimization

    medium · Discussion of toy companies requesting bigger figures despite higher production costs; manufacturers finding size/cost balance

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Reflective realization about 1980s cartoon function as toy marketing vehicles; hosts express surprise at discovering entertainment's commercial underpinnings

    high · Drew: 'It never occurred to me that they were making these cartoons to sell toys'; expressed shock at 30-minute commercial model

    • 2:23
    Years of training, kids. Years of training. And everyone out there is like, I don't want to do this shit. You think you can drink and podcast at the same time? Yeah. Try it. Yeah. It's not easy. It's difficult. We're professionals. It's very fun. We are true professional alcoholics. But anyways, so what do we got? We actually have some topics today. Let's do, you wanted to talk about Voltron. Well, not Voltron. That just reminded me. Oh, the toys that might have made us. Yeah. Ian, this whole time I said, write this down. And he wrote. I'm sorry, guys. Because Voltron was the thing that got me thinking about it. Netflix. Yes. Netflix, the toys that made us. Have you guys been watching this? Great series. And even the stuff that you didn't play with as a kid or are interested in, the stories are amazing. Like, I watched the My Little Pony one. Yeah. And there was this older guy who, you know, he supposedly came. Well, first they made this thing called, like, My Pretty Pony. It was, like, a bigger, like, 18-inch, you know, this huge big pony that girls could, like, comb the hair or whatever. and um he's sitting in his chair all smug and then they show like the real godmother of my little pony and they kind of had this big like debate even to this day of who who actually came up with the idea oh shit because you know that's what i'm saying the stories are better than the toys themselves and then right and one i'm only i'm only season one into it so i didn't go into season two because season one had what it had uh barbie gejo barbie he-man man star wars yes so i'm i'm i'm i'm balls deep in those and i think maybe star trek was in that one if i don't maybe not so then season totally wrong of course i'm wrong season one had those four so then season two would have been it was star trek um my little pony um turtles which that one was amazing here here was my takeaway from that okay sure so uh eastman and laird yeah is it is that right laird i think so fuck if i don't know okay well the two guys who did the comics like i know these guys yeah he talked to me all the time one guy his name's laird dude one guy one guy was like 10 or 15 years older than the other guy maybe maybe that's not quite But he was older. But anyways, that was Ian trying to make a drink. He sounds like Drew now. So anyways. That bottle of booze hit every microphone on this table. You know, they have this comic. That's true. He was like, boom, boom, boom. Sorry, everybody. Dragging it along. um you know they make this comic and then they try selling it to um you know to some toy companies and the comic was dark and gritty ian just made a terrible pour i saw he poured like five ounces of whiskey and like a half ounce of his red bully i left or whatever it was squirt whatever it was like it was like a splash of squirt and like oh much and it's just awful you know what i find interesting about the turtle story is the fact that it was in their garage that is so it is but the cool man the cool well two the two greatest tidbits of this and you still need to watch it even with i'm not spoiling anything but when uh they were drawing the comics they drew tails on the turtle.
    5:55
    So when they were looking at them from the front, they looked like penises. So the toy companies are like, nope, no tails for these guys. It ain't happening. Yeah, they did. So they had these. Or maybe it was the movie or something because they were like, should we have tails? Oh, no, it had to have been the comics. No, no, the comics definitely had it, but that's why you don't see them anymore because when they were making these toys and doing this stuff, they're like, nope, can't do that. Oh, my God. That sounds like it should be a comic strip. Yeah. So that was just funny. And it was just like this little, tiny, little, like, looked like a two-inch penis. And it was just hilarious. But after they made the movies, you know, they made the original Turtles live-action movie in, I don't know, 88 or whatever. And then they made the sequel in 1990 or whatever it was. You know, they made a bunch of money. They made toys. one of them i think i can't remember if it's the older guy or the younger guy but whatever one of them wanted out so they had made some money they were doing well but he's just like i don't want to do this anymore i want to do some other stuff so they said okay there's no profit at ninja turtles dude well they made they had they had been fairly successful and they made some money and he said hey can i just buy your your portion so he said sure so he he bought the portion for you know not a ton of money and then this is when the cartoon started and they ended up um after the cartoon success nickelodeon wanted in on this okay so nickelodeon's big right yeah so guess how much nickelodeon offered after the guy sold his half to the other guy all right so he sold the half Yep, he just wanted out. He had made some money, but not a ton. But he's like, yeah, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm going to go do some other stuff. I'll sell you my half. So Nickelodeon then comes knocking a couple years later and says, hey, we want to pay you $60 million. 60? 6-0. So you know how you see all those cartoons and like Claymation Not Claymation but you know computer animation ones now Jesus are you having Sorry I drunk He dropping shit everywhere He is so drunk So they paid I'm useless. They paid $60 million. You know what surprises me, dude? Big time. And the only thing that he retained that he wanted, which was cool, he said... Well, they didn't go for it. No. Oh, he did. There's no turtles on Nickelodeon. Oh, absolutely there is. Yeah, all those, like, little... Oh, not the original? No, I'm talking about those CGI ones. Yeah, all the newer stuff from the last 50 years. So he was with them throughout the 90s. Yeah, the cartoon, the movies. And he was making all that money. No, not a ton. That wasn't making them a ton of money? The contracts were different back then. They got paid a little bit. You know what I mean? The movie studios were taking all that money. I've got to watch this. Yeah, it was so fascinating. So cool. I knew you would dig it. It was so awesome. That's fucked up, man. But anyways, he said... All right, go ahead. I just... Sorry, the last little part. He maintained... The guy who sold for the $60 million, he said, I want to be able to keep the rights to make a comic if we want to make comics again. And they said, okay, fine. If you want to do comic books, we don't really care because we just want the cartoons and the toys.
    9:23
    But yeah, no, it's super cool. What's so surprising is when you think about Nickelodeon and their whole shtick, it's very kit-friendly. Do you remember Ren and Stimpy? Oh, yes. So Ren and Stimpy is a very interesting history, too. I don't know if you're 100% familiar, but the originator, the guys that created Ren and Stimpy, they did only season one. Who's also the guy who does SpongeBob's voice. Yes. Well, they did SpongeBob. They went on to SpongeBob. No, but I'm saying the guy who does the voice, he's the creator. I'm pretty sure that the guy who does the voice of SpongeBob is also the creator of SpongeBob, is what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, he is. Okay. But originally, yeah, he was doing Ren and Stimpy. Yep. And they did the first season. As adult cartoons. And Nickelodeon did not like that. No. And they canned them, but kept Ren and Stimpy. Did you ever see those original ones? Well, that's the best season. Yeah. Season one is by far The best season of Ren and Stimpy It's not even close There's two or three episodes That will go down in Cartoon history as being The best cartoons of all time Hilarious Space Panic was one The one where The other one where Stimpy becomes the president And Ren's like These hands these hands hold the faith of millions and he was gonna strangle stimpy yep yep i was because stimpy was so fucking stupid everyone was driving he was going nuts yeah we had cable when i was really young and then we got rid of it so like when i was like prime age to like watch that stuff yeah so like running stimpy and beavis and butthead yeah you know i had to go over my friend's house to watch and i was obsessed with it remember the game they had the video games that it was so cool because that was some of the first video games that looked like the cartoon. It was just really neat. And yeah, oh, I love running. It's Powdered Toast Man. Oh, yeah. The horse. No, sir, I don't like it. Yep. They do the commercials. Log. Yes, log, log. It falls downstairs over your neighbor's dog. Everyone, yeah. It's on your back. It's great for a snack. It's log, log, log. Yeah. Oh, it's so great. That's awesome. It's long. It's big. It's heavy. It's wood. See? Oh, man. So cool. Yeah, Ren and Stimpy are fucking out of control. Yeah. The coolest season of all cartoons. Yep. Season one of Ren and Stimpy. You can't beat it. Those adult cartoons, they were just like drawing nipples and stuff. I mean, it was risque. Yeah. It was big time. Big time. It was super R-rated.
    12:07
    Well, it was like a hard PG-13 for sure for that time. Oh, yeah. That time it wasn't that different. But yeah, they're on the beach and there's all these naked, topless women. What? I don't remember that episode. No, this is before Nickelodeon. That's what I thought you were talking about. If you go the year or two before Nickelodeon. I was just talking about the first season of Nickelodeon. No, they had actual nudity. Shut up. Look it up. I will. Actual cartoon nudity. It was crazy. I'll do it sometime in November. I'm sure you will.
    12:39
    That's all I need to do is look up fucking Nickelodeon nudity. No, just look up Ren and Stimpy before Nickelodeon. Where were they?
    12:48
    You have to look it up. They had a documentary. Yeah, I have a hard time believing that, Drew. It's all there, man.
    12:56
    I know my cartoon nipples. No, it's okay. No, they're on the beach with these big busty women. No, they're just topless. Shit, really? Yeah, it's crazy. It's nuts. It's nutty. People need to know this. Like, Ren has all, like, the hearts in his eyes. He's, like, looking at these women. He's just like, oh, this is great, you know. Oh, wow. Oh, no. It's, like, hardcore. Not hardcore, but, you know.
    13:23
    Sounds hardcore, Drew. Yeah. Like, wait. Was Ren fucking these women? No. But. Yeah, he's a dirty bastard. He can do it. Yeah, Ren and Stimpy and Beavis and Butthead that time. But, anyways, going back to this Toys, Toys That Made Us. Yeah, sorry. Sorry. So, yeah, watch the turtles one. Super cool, the stories. And like I said, that My Little Pony one, the little like tiffs that were going on in between. And then how they, when they, like I said, they made this big ass pony that was pretty big, but it was like expensive. Yeah. And then, you know, they weren't selling a lot because they were expensive. So then this woman's like, what if we just shrunk it down? And then the interesting thing was this woman was really into like ponies, right? Yeah. So she said, well, there's only like six different colors that ponies come in in real life. Yeah. So they're like, well, we need more than that. So someone's like, what if we do pastels? And it was like mind blowing at the time. They're like, pastels? Well, what? Yeah, they're like, not a brown pony or a black pony. Yeah. It was just crazy. Yeah. And they do this and then it becomes, yeah, and still to this day they're selling them. I mean, it's just nutty. Yeah, they had a documentary about the bronies. and you know they mentioned them in there and they had some guys i was like i was watching this with my wife and i'm like watch they're gonna interview some bronies she goes what the hell's a brony i'm like you just wait as soon as they come on screen you're gonna know and this guy's wearing a shirt and they show this convention and there's like all these like weird looking dudes there sorry if anyone's a brony out there and whatever they're it's if you are please email us at poormansgmail.com And of course they interviewed some and they're like, oh yeah, I love My Little Pony and the stories speak to me and I'm like, okay dude. Do you. I don't care. Oh yeah, dude, I don't care. There's no judgment on this show. Kidding me? We're not judging anybody. Anyways, super cool. I just loved, well, what I got out of that for a whole first season, and that whole first season was mind-blowing because I'm a grown-ass man. I'm an adult. It never occurred to me that they were making these cartoons to sell toys. No, we're just like, oh, it's so cool. It's so stupid now that I think about it. Yeah, they had a toy and how do you get them to sell to kids? You can't do animated commercials. That was the thing. But you can do animated shows. You can have a 30-minute commercial, you just can't. Which is ironic because in that 30-minute show, there were other commercials for cereal and selling sugar to the kids. It was one big selling thing. Oh my God It crazy Insane Our parents didn go completely broke buying that stupid shit for us And that was the thing But that how it is That nostalgia baby What were they you know if you saw some of the prices of some of these things back in the day when they made, like, some of those GI Joes you were talking about, some of these big play sets, they were, like, $50, $60. Yeah. And this was, like, in the 80s. Yeah. When that was probably, like, $200, $300. You know, I mean, it wasn't cheap. Oh, yeah, dude. Yeah. It was. Yeah, the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier comes to mind. That was an expensive-ass purchase. Well, not even that. I mean, I'm saying some of the smaller ones. If it was $50, I mean, just to give you guys a reference point, a Nintendo was like $89 at the time. Yeah. So like $50 for a little plastic toy was pretty pricey. It's insane the fact that just, like I said, it blew my mind watching that first season. You guys got to watch it if you haven't seen it yet, The Toys That Made Us. but it it was like somebody like came up with an action figure and they're like and they're trying to sell it to the toy stores like toys r us and i think what was the other one the uh oh like castle toys or the kid castle i don't know i forgot what it was but they essentially went this is what we want to sell okay so there's star wars but our guys are stronger there's more muscles out and And they're like, yeah, but we don't know anything about this guy. What's his name? And they're like, oh, it's He-Man. Well, how do the kids know? Oh, the next. And then they go, oh, well, didn't I tell you? We have a comic book that sells He-Man. And then they're like, oh, you have a comic book? And he's like, yeah, totally. We have a total comic book. We have a comic book. We have a backstory. We're going to put the comic book in with the figure, in fact. Oh, really? Tell me more. I will when I figure that shit out And then it turned into The whole thing with The cartoon It was just crazy Everything was to sell the toys To the big manufacturers The big toy stores And then all of a sudden boom before we knew it We had cartoons that were pretty badass By the way That sold toys And seeing the toy wars between some of these companies Was crazy So you're a parent now if your son or daughter wants a playset and there's a cool G.I. Joe playset what would you pay for that?
    18:45
    at what point you say playset I don't know what you're talking about G.I. Joe doesn't have playset they had fucking tanks they had aircraft they had boats what would you pay for a hovercraft $40 Okay. $40 in today's money. Today's money, $40. Okay. That's what I'm saying because back in the day. 80s day, it was $40. I was going to say it was probably $29.99 or something, which was fucking expensive as shit. No, it was. I mean, that's just nutty. Well, I don't know.
    19:21
    My daughter isn't into Legos, right? But when I go down the Lego aisle. All the Legos are silly. It's a whole other thing. I shake my head. half of it is like 90 of those lego kits are like legit just one piece like then you just add like a couple blocks here and there and you get hogwarts it comes like pre-built and then the other one that was see when we were kids it was 3 000 pieces figure it out it's a castle you'll get there yeah just just build and one thing at a time but now it seems like there are a lot of custom pieces It's crazy now. And you're right, because in the old days, it was just a multicolored wall you could build. You would, nine times out of ten. You could just build a multicolored wall. All right, let's go into that. Let's go into Legos. What kind of Lego? See, I can judge a lot from a person who bought Legos, like what kind of Legos he bought. So what kind of Legos did you have?
    20:16
    Well, we bought the, like I said, the standard Legos. Yeah, everyone had the standard. But I'm talking about the Lego sets. Which ones? we didn't get many of the Legos really? you didn't get into it? no no I love Legos but we just had a bunch of like regular Legos really? yeah we didn't have a lot of the sets see I would have pegged you for like uh Joe Blow the gas station guy and then there's the airport and then there's like the jeeps yeah I know what you're saying and you're probably right at the time but hotels or whatever my parents didn't buy that they just bought the you know see we had the Yeah, we had the big, like, you know, you can get the canister full of Legos. But we also, like, I was real into the castles. So I got a lot of the medieval castle Legos. And then I got real stupid into the pirate ones. I've always been into pirates. So, yeah, the pirate Legos. So I assumed you were either a castle pirate guy or Joe Blow gas station guy. Like, there's just two people. Like I said, we had buckets and buckets of Legos. And then you're the third. Yeah.
    21:25
    You have to make your own. Oh, yeah. Well, this is a pirate ship. Make it. Yeah, exactly. And you're like, I don't know how. There's no instructions. Yeah, this is my yellow, blue, and red church. That's what I said. We built a lot of multicolored walls. That's why I said that. That's what it was. Fucking Legos are crazy, though, just in general. I remember I was just at that age where I had expendable income, and that was the same time i haven't got to that age yet let me know that was the same time lego came out with like the 4 000 piece star destroyer for star wars how much was that thing when it was like three feet long when it came out it was like over like about a hundred four hundred dollars oh was that much when it came out four was that in a bro i had my hand on that buy it now button yeah like a year when did when did that come out ah dude that was probably 2000 2004 okay i want to say that that is like the our friend michelle michelle i remember her brother and he bought one yeah and uh he was bragging about it and i was like i'll get one eventually i never did but yeah 4 000 piece star destroyer and now those things are even crazy right more expensive oh i have no idea you want one they're probably i won't look it up nah don't worry about it but yeah dude that was for those of you out there that have actually done that congratulations that's pretty sweet but i'll have to live vicarious promise with those kind of builds though what do you do when it's done yeah i got that is i got enough bullshit yep do i have three feet worth of like empty space i can fill it with a star destroyer lego set no yeah you better figure I'm a grown ass man I got shit to do oh yeah as I'm looking around his basement well this is different this is my area of domain yeah cause the wife knows the difference between a hanging beer sign and a hanging star destroyer sign you think I'd fucking hang that thing you think I would do anything of the sort with that fucking thing a three foot star destroyer 4,000 pieces it doesn't matter No, fuck. You know what matters? Is your drunk ass hitting that fucker on your way out. Totally. Hey, Ian. Hey, cool Star Destroyer, bro. And you just high five the fucker right down onto the ground. Yeah. But it's like. You know how many times I've got to rebuild that thing with you drunk fucks around here? No. No way. I bring home. No way. I bring home an arcade game. I bring home a pinball machine. Like I said, for my wife, there's no delineation. She's like, oh, that's just a wood box you brought home. Another dumb thing. Yeah. Exactly. I had a room full of arcades. Now I have a room full of pinball. She doesn't give a shit either way. It's the same shit. You're in that room doing what you're doing. I haven't done much with arcades lately, but I had... No, I got rid of all of mine.
    24:21
    One of the moms on Facebook No sorry One of the moms at my daycare my kid daycare she wants me to get her an arcade machine Oh, that's right. She doesn't know the prices of them. She said she had two grand to spend. You're like, here's your Pac-Man. Well, she likes Burger Time. She likes Centipede. Yeah. She named a few. If you go to that Nice Burger Time for like $1,200 or $1,500, that would be... I was like, okay, alright. And I've been looking.
    25:02
    So our background, Drew and I's background, is arcade machines. We built a lot of arcade machines. We've finished them. We've rebuilt them. We've done a lot to them. but there is a huge difference from now to like two years ago it's out of control you can't find anything anymore like there it's dead like it's everything's been bought like it's crazy like there's no yeah there's mom and pop selling their shit anymore that's half working it's all like high restored you want it you gotta spend you know eight nine because that's what happened over the last 10 years is everyone kind of got the shitty ones and they've fixed them it's crazy the price has gone up so much i'm not trying to spend all two thousand dollars over money but yeah just just to give you guys an idea when i first when i bought my first couple arcade games in like the early 2000s i bought like a simpsons four player that was halfway decent all working for like 300 bucks or something you know now that's like two grand 2500 right uh i had an original pac-man an original cabinet it was beat up but same thing like paid like 250 for it now it's like you know a grand and uh what else uh yeah i bought yeah i bought a galaxian that was not working for $200. I bought a... I bought a ton. And that used to be a giveaway, too. They'd be like, here, just take it. Galaxians, yeah. And then all of a sudden, they turned into a thing. Galaxians, Galaga, yeah, they all turned into a thing.
    26:51
    And I bought a... My best one was, I bought a... For $200, I bought a Punch-Out, Nintendo Cam. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that fixed that up and sold it. That fixed that up and sold it and made some good money on that one. But that was probably the best thing I've ever done. But, yeah, dude, arcade machines. So I just tell the lady, like, yeah, I'm still looking.
    27:13
    Every once in a while, a centipede will come up, you know, for 500 bucks. But it's just outside the sphere of influence. No I get it man It's Sphere Getting back to that stupid Toys that made us though The other one Just to I won't go into great detail with this one But They had the WWF one Oh yeah And that was super cool too Because they It was the whole time when WWF was turning into WWE And the WCW And all these different I don't know what the WWE is It's always been the WWE Yeah, well, exactly. That was our era. But, you know, it's just this whole thing, you know, business thing. Well, it had to do with that World Wildlife Foundation. That's why they changed it. I can't believe they lost to them, by the way. Yeah. Fuck those pandas. I know. Crazy. But that one was cool, too, because they, you know, they were talking about the molds. Remember how they were, like, rubber?
    28:16
    Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, like, the 80s ones were, you couldn't bend. They were just rubber, just hard rubber. And they were talking about that. and why they were like that and how they got bigger because they brought prototypes with them to the thing, and they were going to make them smaller because they all made them small, these four-inch figures like Star Wars and shit at the time. And they're like, oh, yeah, these are great. We like them how they are. And they're like, these are expensive. We can't make these big-ass figures for you. That's how they became the big eight-inch figures because the small ones were expensive. No, no, no. it was they they want they brought prototypes with them that were bigger just to show yeah and all people wanted them big toys r us is like yeah we'll take like a thousand of those and they're like yeah we can't afford to make all these yeah it was a cost thing and they're like they're like well if you make them smaller we don't want them and they're like uh okay well let's figure it out yeah so it just became this whole thing and then then they started making them to size you know like if someone was taller they they were like the first ones to say okay if this guy's taller we're gonna make him taller yeah you know what what a fucking cash grab was though for the wwf at the time was the uh the wrestle buddies the the pillows no they talked about those those were in there yes there was just pillows yes they were pillows they had like a little nose sewn on them like a 3D nose. I had the Ultimate Warrior. Yeah, so did I. My buddy had the Hulk Hogan.
    29:47
    We beat the shit out of that thing. And that was what you were supposed to do according to the commercials. And they said those were some of the highest profit margins because, yeah, like you said, they're a pillow. They were selling them for $19.99 at the time. This was back in like the 80s when it probably cost them like less than a dollar to make. So they're selling it to like Toys R Us for like $5 or $8. They're selling them for $20. Just stupid. Yeah, dude. Those plush toy pillow things. They were awesome. And everyone either had one or knew someone who did. I felt bad for the kids that had the Macho Man because he was the bad guy at the time. Like, who bought your kid a Macho Man? Now I love the Macho Man. Don't get me wrong. Oh, yeah. But everyone had to have either a Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior. If you didn't have those two and you had somebody else, your parents didn't love you. Then watch the newest. Sorry, not to get off on another tangent, but that's what we do. When you said that about Macho Man, watch the newest episode of South Park. There's a Macho Man character. He identifies as a woman in full Macho Man gear. Yeah. He says his name is Heather. Oh, shit. Oh, my God. It is so funny. Oh, yeah. Heather, brother. Yeah. He starts participating in women's sports. Oh, dude, that was our thing. It was hilarious. Didn't we talk about that last week? About women in sports that are not women and they should not be doing this? He looks, sounds, he has the beard and everything just like Macho Man. And he goes, yes, my name is Heather whatever. And the whole episode. And he, what sport were they playing? I don't know. It doesn't matter. He just dominated. And then he like rose in her face. He goes, oh, yeah, do you like to compete? Oh, it was so funny. It was hilarious because, like I said, he looked exactly just like Macho Man. My name's Heather. Yeah. You know what? God bless him, man. Yep. I think we should end it there, man. That was good. All right. Well, thank you very much for listening to Fuck It Friday. Episode number five. Five? Four? Five? Five.
    31:58
    We've done a few of these now. We don't even know. Don't even worry about it. Yeah. Email us at poormanspinball at gmail.com. Let us know. Like us on Facebook. Poor Man Spinball Podcast on Facebook. We should make a Fuck It Friday page. Why don't we have one? We should do that. We should. All right. Well, like us on Fuck It Friday. It'll be up by the time you hear this, probably. Fuck It Friday. Love you guys. Thank you so much. I hope you had a great turkey day. Yeah. Eat some turkey. Be safe. We'll talk to you next week. And don't fight anyone at Target, all right? Shit ain't worth it. Oh, yeah. My name's Heather. Slug it, buttholes.