Latest / The Bootleg Kev Podcast / #243 - Kai Cao of DesignerCon

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#243 - Kai Cao of DesignerCon · The Bootleg Kev Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Boutleg Heap podcast special guests in here. We got the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Homiekai from three D Retro and from Designer Con. How
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: you doing checked in? Thanks for having me, Yes, sir. Uh.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: So for people who don't know, well, one, I went
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to your store. You have a store in Glendale. Is
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: it technically Glendale? It's technically Glendale one block away from Burbank.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Literally walked across the street as Bourbank right. Uh. It's
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a crazy toy store. And we have a mutual friend
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: named dj Amen who's a psychopath. Uh just buys every
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: just toy imaginable. His house is uh insane. It's it's
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: kind of like a toy store. Yes. So he's like, Yo,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: you should come over here check it out because I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: kind of like toys. I'm kind of like, you know,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: not like that though. And I walked into the store
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and there's so much shit And I didn't know that
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: you also were the guy behind designer Con. So now
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you've got designer Con coming up. What is designer Con
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: for people who don't know? So for people I don't know,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Signer Cons the annual collectible convention. This is our seventeenth year.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: So Ben is the founder. I run the show with him.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: So we have artists from over the world, from Asia, Europe,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: and off of course the United States, independent artists, illustrators,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and world renowned toy makers and painters. So all of
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: them usually come to our show either exhibit or have
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: exclusive or have collaborations. We support everybody from the top
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to the bottom, emerging artists, everybody. It's kind of like
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the end of the year party for collectors and artists.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Is it pretty? Is it kind of like revolve around
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: It's like kind of like the the underlying theme of
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: it is like if you're a because it's called designer Con,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: it's not called toy Con. So there's there's kind of
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: something there for everybody as long as you're kind of
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: into like creative shit. Like you said, there's people who
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: are painting detainers, illustrators, toy makers, and there's the collector,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and then there's the guys that started just making shit
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: out of the garage, like hey, I want to make
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: something exactly like so we it's for everybody everything in
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: terms of design. So what got you initially involved in
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the toy industry? So I told this story a couple
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: of times. I was in high school. I walked into
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Stucy the Fairfax of Libreri area. They had this little
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: figure of their mascot holding a skateboard. So that's my
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: first thing. That's pretty dope. And then went to kit
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Robot they started coming out two thousand and three, twos
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: So going to their store and be like, this is
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: dope Japanese stuff, and they just told me that's their
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: original design. I started buying and they just got hooked.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Just been buying, buying, and became a seller later on,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: just got wholesale count and all that stuff, and then
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: got into working with different artists and then Designer con
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: came around and basically just that's my whole life. So
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: you started collecting around two thousand and two. Yeah, at
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: what point in time did you decide to get involved
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: in the commerce side of it where You're like, Okay,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I'm a fan, I'm enthusiastic about just collecting, yeah, but
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I also want to make this, like two thousand my business.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Oh wait, So two thousand, two thousand and eight, around
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: that time, I was working at Disney Disneyland, so I
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: was I went to school for hospitality Oh shit, I
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: went to school for hospitality management. So coming out of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: school a court on blue right. So coming out of school,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I got hired at Disneyland doing what basically food service
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: for employees. Got you, So basically I'm the I'm the
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: guy behind the restaurants. So if you go to Disneyland,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: you see restaurants, there's restaurants for their cast members employees.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: So I was one of the managers running you see
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: aproach over there. I still know a few people there. Actually,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: what's funny is that you did get disneyl the ill
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: tell is something. The guy that designed our mascot designer
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: com mascot, Scott Tollison. Yeah, he's still a Disney imagineer.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Oh wow. So he is super busy right now because
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Disney is doing some cool shits on some new cruises.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: So he got designer con that he's doing, he got
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: he's been working on our membership program project that we've
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: been doing the last six months, and then he's got Disney. Wow.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So we do have some people that works doing designer Con.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: We know a lot of people in different studios of course,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: artists and all that. So you go from working at
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Disney this is what you went to school for. Went
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: to school for? Yeah, yeah, and Uh, I think it
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: was the recession, the first that recession two thousand and
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: seven and eight. So I was laid off. I got
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: laid off, and at that point in time, I'm like,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I have all these toys, and I have all these
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: vinyl figures. I feel like people buy them. I buy
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of them. Let me see if I can
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: get a wholesale count and then start a business myself.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: So at that point, I actually sold all my sneakers
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: in Troy and seven to get funding to buy more
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: toys to sell. How much did you get for all
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: your sneakers, like at that point was like ten to
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: fifteen red. The price is not like what it is
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: now back in the days, kind of crazy back in
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the day. And that I think I have mostly a
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Spees in Jordan's as Speeds was on its way down,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: so I was like, just got rid of it, just
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: got off of them. But that's what funded you being
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: able to buy more toys through your wholesale account, right,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: So at that point I decided to get a wholesale
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: account and buy stuff, uh, to to make money instead
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: of you know, I'll collect, I'll keep some, but mainly
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: to sell and try to make a living out of it. Yeah,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and yeah, that's when I became like a lot of
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: artists knowlls like White Line Collector shit, and now it's like, oh,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: here Kai selling stuff. Yeah. So was that the beginning
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: of three D Retro Three D Retro. So Ben Funded
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: founded three D Retro around the same time in two
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: thousand and three. So he basically and I were business partners.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: So what we did is he ran an online shop.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Three D Retro was online, and I was basically buying
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: with him. I was the guy behind the scene. So
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: let's say there's a new product came out for wholesale,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: you have to buy a certain amount to get a
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: good price, and Ben only wanted like, say ten, you
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: buy the difference to get the better price. Yes, and
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: then I would you would flip and do your thing. Yes,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: I will do my thing. So that's what I how
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: most artists know me, and I would be supplying not
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: just three D Retro, I personally, I would be supplying
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: other stores too, because I got an account overseas at
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: that time, a big company and artists called Ashley Wood
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: doing three A stuff. So yeah, so that's how I
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: kind of got all connected with everybody and through the retro,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Ben decide to open the store. Yeah, and Designer con
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: started growing, so he he asked me to come on
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: board nice with him. That's basically the story of how
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I with Ben and through the retro and Designer coom.
• 7:26
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  Speaker 1: get back to the interview. Now, what is the most
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: expensive toy that you guys have sold? Not retail? I
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: mean maybe it is retail, I don't know. They like
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: let me know what is like the biggest to you
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: guys sold after market? And then obviously a single item,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: right yeah, single item, A single item that the most
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: expensive single item we've ever sold is about ten thousand.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: It's a one thousand percent barbrick, and that was retail.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: That was the retail. That was retail. It's made out
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: of wood. Wow. And we only had one and we
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: sold it in the pandemic. We decided, we don't know
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: if then we're going to put it up. So we
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: had our designer come twenty twenty during live stream. So
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: we put it up, sold it within like under a second.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: That was gone wow. Right, But the last two years
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: we sold like eight thousand dollars ones. There was a
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: carbon fiber one thousand percent barbrick through the store. I
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: sold it to a musician. I don't know if I
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: can say, okay, I don't think they care. Mustar Mustard, Yeah,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: he special ordered it because I was like, if you
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: want this, this is the price, you know retel. Yeah,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: so Mustard bought an eight thousand dollars bear break carbon fiber. Wow.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: That's pretty. It's light, but it's specially made. You know.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Would you say Mustard's got a pretty crazy toy collection. Yeah.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I think I helped him a little bit on that. Yeah.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: He he liked the one thousand percent so uh, he
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: comes to me like, hey, what you got? Yeah, you know,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: we we are store carriers like you saw. Yeah, you
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: guys have a lot of bunch of stuff, but certain
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: special ones. We only get a few pieces. So I
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: will call the special people. Hey, you know I only
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: got two, right, you know, if you want him? What
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: about Ben Bollers huge with the bare bricks and he's
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: got a crazy toy collection. Is he somebody who you've
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: supplied the four in the past? Yes, we we we
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: we work we in the past. I got him a
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Nike speed Bear bricks like, we got like three, and
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: obviously I keep one, Ben keeps one. I got one
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: for sale. So so when you guys keep stuff, you
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: are you are a collector still to this? Oh yeah yeah,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: So what's your house looked like a mess? A mess? Uh,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: A lot of toys and sneakers. I'm a sneaker that
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: all the sneakers and you brought them back? Oh yeah yeah.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Obviously what got me back was the Kobe Eights. Actually,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: so I got into sneakers in two thousand and one
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: or two for from Sb's right, But I got back
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: in from the Kobe Eights because they were all about art.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: At that point in my life, I like designers, toys, art,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: So the Kobe Eights were all about art and Tristan,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: which is a friend and artist he did something with
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: at that time. There's a Nike vault as Stable Center,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Crypto dot com whatever, there's a store there. He did
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a special sock with the one of the preludes. So
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: like everything's a about art, the whole model, you know.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: So I just got back into it. Somebody who might
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: not be famous, just a customer you have in mind,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: like who who? Like how crazy is like your guys'
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: biggest customers toy collection? So I'm sure you have a few,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: do we do? We have a few regular people, right.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know what they do. I don't know what
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: they make, but they spend every time we do live streaming.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Still for the store, they spend about two k per show. Wow,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: and we sell stuff from ten dollars blind boxes to
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: forty to fifty dollars toys to you know, one hundred
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and fifty two hundred dollars bear bricks. They will spend
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: like two grand wow every show per show that we
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: do twice a week, twice a week live streaming, think
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: about and look. So Designer Con is obviously this coming weekend.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: If you're watching this, it'll be this coming weekend. It's
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: in Orange County. Where's Anaheim and ah Heim coming as center?
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  Speaker 1: and let's get back to the interview. So you guys
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: do every year, you guys do one of these. Yeah,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: So this is series four artists, series four every year.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: So the idea behind it is in twenty eighteen, when
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: we moved to Anaheim, Meticom came and said they went,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: they're looking for a North American partner like Convention, right, Yeah,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: So they loved our show. They came out, the President
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: came out. So in twenty nineteen we started our first artistry.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: So what we want to do with our platform is
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: we want to give American artists that usually don't have
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to put their art on on this platform
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: because they're from Japan. Right, So a lot of like
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: for people wo don't know Baybrick's Japanese companies, a lot
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: of Japanese arts probably getting mostly Japanese Asia Company because
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: when they see it, like their department, they're scouting people.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: They left certain artists. It's a lot of Asian, a
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: lot of Asian artists. So what we did is we
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: decided to put artists that's affiliated with designer comn that's
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: been doing designer com for years or done collab with
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: us in some kind of capacity and also mostly Americans.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: This year we have someone from the UK. But but
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: but he's been supporting Designer Come for over ten years. Wow,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: so doctor A is to the thing. Yeah. So doctor
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: A does a lot of like those robot style mech
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: figures and he does everything in resent. He'll be at
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: designer Com this week this weekend. Bobby and then Bobby
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: hundreds that's the cool one, you know. The one hundred
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: was actually at the Designer Come twenty eighteen with a
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Mister cartoon collapse and capsule. So they were part of
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: our show. And Bobby's been coming to design Com for
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: over ten years. He will always come with his son
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: and all that. Just have fun, just have fun. And
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: then we reach out and say, hey, you know, we
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: know that you're an artist yourself. Like he draws, he
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: does design graphic te's for his brand. So yeah, we
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: did this for our show. And then this is the
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Obey the Obey guy Shephard Ferry. So this is one
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: of the proud moment. I would say, Ben will tell
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: you that it's a I love Obey everybody I think. Yeah,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, listen, can we talk about iconic and iconic
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: American artists, right, I mean all the way to the
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: clothing line to this. Yeah, I mean I think back
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: to the Obama hope stuff. Yeah yeah. Yeah. And what's
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: funny is we did not realize that he's never done
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: a bear break before, and he's never done one. So
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the opportunity came, i think earlier this year, and we
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: asked him if he was, you know, be willing to
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: do something like this. He's seen them, he wasn't sure
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that he his art will work on this platform, and
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: we told him how a lot of different artists are
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: applying there are onto this platform, and uh, there you go.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: So this is basically every bear brick is unique. This
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: is a water dip technology, so it's those are Yeah.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: So it's one big image and then every time they
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: dip the figure into the process, it lands on there differently.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: So every piece one, every single ones unique. There will
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: be no not this, not same one. The only thing
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: on here that's constant would be the logo right here.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Everything else will be different for every single one of them.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: So this is the four hundred and one pack and
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: will be exclusively at Designer Con this week. Yeah. So
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: when people people show up and they really like, uh,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: is it pretty frantic to get like to get some
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: of these items you guys do excluding or to collectors,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: not crazy people like sneaker people, because you know sneaker
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and like like when you when people go to complex Con, Okay,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: there's a fucking wild like there's always like exclusives and
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: you'll see I've seen people. I mean, it gets it
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: can get hairy. But like our toy people is a
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: little more measured than sneaker people. Yes, so uh we
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I've been to complex Con obviously. Uh, there's a two
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: different vibes. I can tell you that for people that
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: have never been to Designer call our thing is when
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: you go there, you're going to meet your favorite artists,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: if you if you like a few artists, and a
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: lot of artists have like gallery openings throughout the year
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: throughout their career. You know, they get busy, right So
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: at our show, they're usually chill at their booth. They
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: just want to meet their fans and they're selling stuff.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: They're selling stuff. A lot of them are selling stuff
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: that like they brought from their archives, like I have,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: like Steve, I don't know if you know who Steve
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Caballero is yeah, of course. Yeah, So I met him
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: a few years back and then we started making pins
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: like just for fun, like we're friends and yeah, but
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: he's an incredible artist. I didn't know that he's an
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: incredible artist. So he's been doing Designer can ever since.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, you can draw like that,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: like rat fing style, like that di era. And so
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: he will come and he will bring like shit that
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: you've never seen before. He'll be hey, I got the skateboard, right,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you know, stuff like that. A lot of artists this
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: year we have like Sean Claver as well, so from
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the skating world, dirt artists everywhere. They're artists in every
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: you know, part of the industry. So that's that's what
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: you'll see Designer Car. Hey what have y'all? Bootleg keV
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• 21:24
  Speaker 1: get back to the interview. What is your Because another
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: thing I feel like like a surface level toy. Fen
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: usually collects fun Co pops. Yeah, because you go to Target,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: they're there you go, like, there's always fun Co pops
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: at wherever you go, right, the Disney store, wherever, et cetera.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: What is your take? Do you collect fun Co Pops? Uh?
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I don't collect them like crazy, but I do like
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: them in terms of the ipiece that they have because
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: there's certain movies, great great movies, movie waiting for them
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: to do the Big Lebowski fund Go Pops. I don't
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: know if they've ever done one, but I think they have.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: That's my favorite. I mean, there's so many things, but
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: like they get every license, yeah they did, they do.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: You go to the store and you're just like Jesus,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: there's so many you can't so what what I like about?
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: So we don't really. We did one Funko exclusive a
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: couple of years back with Mark Hamill so his team,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: so we decided to release two three out of the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: four as designer con exclusives. So with his team that
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: that that we released those three and they're very limited.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: They're like only a thousand of each design. They're like
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: compared to what you buy at like Funko wise, that's
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: super limited. So we have like two of them that's
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: one thousand pieces. But for me Funko, and then we
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: did in twenty eighteen, we did a collab with Funko
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and Metacom. It was Funko's twentieth anniversary, so we made
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: a bad break with them and put it into Cereal.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: So that year they did a bunch of different Cereal
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember. So what we look for,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: designer come look for. We're not comic Con. We're not
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: like when those shows. We're not looking for that big
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Funko booth. We're looking for an experience and an activation.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: So when Funko came to us like hey, we want
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: to build this supermarket to launch our brand new product,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: which is the cereal or like that's a cool idea.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: We love it and we collaborate on that. So we're
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: not looking for that like standards. You know, you just
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: go into any shop buy Funko Pop. But we're not
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: discouraging vendors. Like we have toy stores from around the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: world coming like Toy Tokyo from New York. They have
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: a bunch of exclusives with Funko. They always bring some
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: stuff to Designer Con, and we're not saying that don't
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: bring that. We say, yeah, it's part of the world,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: you know, but with Funko For me, also, it's a
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: gateway drug. That's how I see it because it's a
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: now what twelve dollars Funko pop. Yeah, you get like
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: six of them, right yeah. But when you come, when
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: you get into it, a lot of people discover, oh
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: there's different artists, there's different toys. Now you get the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: platform like bear Berry, you get the kid Robot, like
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: these guys that have never been like not from where
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I'm from, like back in the early two thousands, they'll discover.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Then new kids will be like, oh, there's more to
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: just this, right So I'm hoping. I mean, we've seen
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: it is a lot of people collection grow beyond past
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the Funko Pop. You know, they'll be like, oh, I
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: have a thousand Bunkle Pop now, but now I like
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the Barbricks both started that, right, So, like it goes
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: up to the next level. Your personal toy collection. What
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: is the most expensive toy if you were to sell
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: it on the second market or reseale market right now
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: that you own probably twenty five to thirty thousand, which
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: toy is that I have three of them? What are they?
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I have three cars, one thousand percent. Wow. Yeah, so
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: now it's about thirty twenty five thirty cage each each.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Fuck what did you pay for those three hundred that's
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: one thousand percent? Barberg is be three hundred bucks. So
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: that's what I sat on. One hundred thousand dollars seventy
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: five to one hundred k worth a fucking yeah, that's
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: just just in three toys, Just three toys in my
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: living room, in my display case. That just three So
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: if you what would you estimate your toy collection is
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: worth if you were to sell it a million? I
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: mean I don't know, like wow, you know, I mean
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I would say, like I would say, if I sell everything,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I could probably buy a house in La. It's just
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: like an offensive house. Yeah, nice house. Yeah. Part of
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: so I would say, if I sell everything, you know,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I would get to me it's a To me, it's
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: a it's a hobby. Yeah, and it's also uh an investment.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: You know, you buy our you buy collectibles, you buy sneakers. Yeah,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: people by I mean people by paying people buy yeah, exactly.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: And for me, what's funny is so the thing I
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: tell people's story is Ben is very two D three
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: D person. So he he knows a lot of painters
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and artists that does flat two D stuff. I wasn't
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: that person. I got into it from the toy side.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I got into it from the three D side, right,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: So I got to learn by doing design and con
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I got to learn different artists. I got to meet
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: different artists. I got to appreciate the two D stuff
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, and then I have a print
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: problem too, by prints original art. I just bought an
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: original painting off of Ben Frost recently, and I'm like,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: why did I buy that? But it's like, you know,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: so some it just kind of got into what I do,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Like I think, I mean, if you love what you
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: do that much, yeah, it's also your job exactly. It's
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: just got to you just gotta make sure you don't.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: You know, you save more than you spend on toys,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: you know, sell them the toys. Hey, we got to
• 26:53
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  Speaker 1: socks and the podcast at the same fucking time. Let's
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: get back to the interview. So that's that's the balance.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I think when you say what my house look like
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and then what we were just talking about before the
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: show started, like it's crowded, it's packed. I have hundreds
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: of pair of shoes, I have thousands of toys, I
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: have hundreds of bare bricks. I have stuff that's not
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: open because I have no room to display, you know,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: but I know I have it. Like, Okay, I got
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: a death stock, completely new, sealed in the back of
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the storage, right, I always want to keep one, you know,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: when all these things are limited editions. Now, yes, like
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: this weekend, you might be finding a couple hundred of them. Yeah,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: but in a year or two, price is gonna double
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: triple because you're not gonna find them. People keep them.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Imagine ten years from now, I'm telling you those caused
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: bear bricks I had, those were from two thousand and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: seven or eight. Damn, it's thirteen years ago. That's fourteen
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: years ago, right, But who knew, like cause prices was
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: gonna go up by that time either too. So I
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: just liked them. You still have that og toy Stussy one? Yes,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: you still got the first toy they got you? Still? Yeah?
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Still do do you have it like in a special place. No,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: it's in a box somewhere in a box someone So
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the toy actually belonged to my cousin got you so
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: I saw it actually with him. He had it. So
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: at that time, I wasn't even like buying anything. I
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: was just like, this is really dope. And then he
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: gave it to me a few years ago. Real quick.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: If people want to go to designer Con, there's still tickets,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: there's tickets, there's VIP tickets still in VIP tickets still
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: available at designercon dot com. But we are We do
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: have a hard cap, but we're not like super expensive.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: It's like ninety dollars for the VIP, but there is
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: a cap for Friday night. Usually it's pretty chill Friday night.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: The only booth that's probably gonna be a headache is
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the medical booth. It's always because people want to get
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: their first shot at the exclusive and that's what the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: VIP night's for. But yeah, we we keep the tickets
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: really uh affordable for the family. So Saturday and Sunday
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: and kids twelve and unders always free with a paid admission.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: That's dope. Yeah. So we never we have We never
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: charged for kids twelve and that's super dope. Yeah. And
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, kids love toys. We
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: we want to. Our whole thing has always been about
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: trying to keep as much money in the tendees pocket
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: to spend with the vendors and artists, right because they're
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: going to show up a lot of a lot of
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: these conventions are expensive. Expensive, yeah, super expensive, Like we
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: don't want that. We want to we want to do
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: what we can to keep money in their pockets so
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: they can spend mondy at the convention for our our
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: artists and our vendors. And then do you guys have
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: a uh this three D retro have set up there
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: every year? Yes, you guys, yeah, you know we know somebody. Yeah,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: so we we we have a few exclusives every year,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and then we have products from the store. We do
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: special deals, and then Metacom actually has a brand new
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: booth that we've been designed with them for the past
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: year and we have actually something really though I just
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: saw it this morning. Actually haven't seen it in person. Really,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I just saw the box. We have a three thousand
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: percent size like so it's like a ten feet statue
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: jeesus of a barbrick. That's gonna be at the medical booth.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: So I love everybody to come out and check it out.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Three thousand percent. Yeah, that's pretty big, pretty because what
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: is the like, the the big ones one thousand, okay,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: and then this is four hundred, got you yeah, and
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: that small ones one hundred. So it's three thousand of
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: that Jesus Christ. Huge. Well listen, man, go get your tickets,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: appreciate your pulling up. When you guys do your stream,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: where can they go in the stream? And is that
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: on Twitch? Actually we're on Popshop Live. So just follow
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: us on Instagram at three D Retro. I think that's
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the easiest work we have. All that pret D Retro follow,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: designer con follow, designer dope stuff going on. If you're
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: a hip hop head. Deaf Jam and DJ Amen are
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: doing their Blessed Deaf Jam booths. Yes, Steph Jam and
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Amen's doing some stuff. I'll be DJ and Uh. I
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: think Amen's trying to convince me to do the podcast
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: from out there with somebody. I'm trying, which we're trying
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: to figure it out, so I think it'll be cool,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: you know, I figure it out. I think you'll like it. Yeah,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I know, I like the convention. Yeah yeah,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: you don't know if you want to do do it?
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: I just don't. I'm like trying to figure this out
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: with Amen, like Okay, what do you who do you
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: want me to talk to there? He's like, well, we
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: got to figure that part out. I'm like all right, Well,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: just let me know man, we'll go because Dept. Jam
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: will be there. A lot of people are flying in.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be an easy weekend, a lot of people
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: all over the world. Yeah, there it is man, next week.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Appreciate you pulling up man, Thank you so much. Yes, sir,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: And it's this weekend, because when you're watching this, it'll
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: be this weekend. Come this weekend, November eighteenth, nineteenth, and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: twentieth in Anaheim, Anaheim, there is Conn Designer Con. Go
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: get your tickets. Thank you.