Back-to-Ghoul Toys (ft. Steve Casino)

[00:00:00] The most thrilling, spitingly series ever!

[00:00:05] From the pages of Ariel Stein's best-selling books,

[00:00:08] our screens go on forever and ever.

[00:00:13] We now return to Goosebumps.

[00:00:31] Greetings Goosebumps fans, young and old, big and small.

[00:00:55] Welcome back to The Goosebumps Crew Podcast.

[00:00:57] As always, I'm your host, Isaiah Vargas, also known as The Goosebumps Channel on YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.

[00:01:01] And I'm joined as always by the rest of The Goosebumps Crew.

[00:01:04] Goosebumps Aussie fan, B-Horn Panelik, Shaw and Nick Shaw, and the ultimate Goosebumps man, Michael Oakless.

[00:01:09] And we're back to talk some more Goosebumps.

[00:01:11] And you know, for the past few episodes that we've done, we talk a lot about the TV show,

[00:01:16] we talk a lot about the movies, video games, that sort of thing.

[00:01:21] But one thing that we need to desperately talk a little more about is Goosebumps merchandise.

[00:01:26] It was everywhere in the 90s.

[00:01:28] There was Goosebumps everything.

[00:01:30] There was Goosebumps clothes, there was Goosebumps candy, there was Goosebumps board games.

[00:01:35] There was, I don't know, wasn't there Goosebumps soap?

[00:01:38] I'm pretty sure there was Goosebumps.

[00:01:40] There was shampoo soap.

[00:01:42] Shampoo soap.

[00:01:43] Shampoo soap.

[00:01:45] So there was everything for Goosebumps.

[00:01:47] And of course, there's a lot of Goosebumps toys and products made at that time.

[00:01:52] And joining us today to talk a little bit about some of those toys is...

[00:01:56] Steve Casino.

[00:01:57] How are you doing?

[00:01:58] I'm doing good and welcome to Goosebumps Crew.

[00:02:01] And we're here with Steve to talk a little bit about some of the Goosebumps toys and products

[00:02:07] he helped create for Happiness Express in the 90s.

[00:02:10] And there's quite a few of them, so we're going to get into that.

[00:02:14] But first, as always, if you are not following the Goosebumps Crew podcast on YouTube,

[00:02:18] Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio, then you are not a real Goosebumps fan

[00:02:24] because if you were a real Goosebumps fan...

[00:02:26] This is where I get my accusatory finger out.

[00:02:29] If you were a real Goosebumps fan, you'd be following our podcast.

[00:02:33] Not only do we have new episodes every Tuesday on our audio platforms and every Wednesday on YouTube,

[00:02:38] but we also talk about everything.

[00:02:41] Goosebumps books, movies, TV shows, merchandise, the whole shebang.

[00:02:44] And we've had some incredible guests on the podcast, including actors from the 90s TV show,

[00:02:49] writers, directors, artists, other Goosebumps fans just like us.

[00:02:54] And it's been an amazing experience for us.

[00:02:57] And it's going to be an amazing experience for you to listen to all of it.

[00:03:01] So make sure you follow the Goosebumps Crew podcast on our audio platforms and our YouTube,

[00:03:05] wherever you can find podcasts.

[00:03:08] All right, let's get into the meat and potatoes of today.

[00:03:11] So, of course, as we said, Steve Casino is joining us and he is a toy designer

[00:03:16] who helped create some of the Goosebumps toys and products from the 90s.

[00:03:20] But before we talk about the Goosebumps toys, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, Steve?

[00:03:25] I'm still in the toy industry.

[00:03:28] I'm a toy inventor.

[00:03:30] Kind of Goosebumps sort of launched me into toy inventing

[00:03:33] because I had to invent a lot of things for the line.

[00:03:36] And it was such a great business to be in that I've never left.

[00:03:41] And currently, you know, I work on things from Barbie to Hot Wheels, just whatever.

[00:03:49] You know, we work for big toy companies and probably a lot of toys that you played with, I had a hand in.

[00:03:56] Probably.

[00:03:58] And before the show, talking about even when the Goosebumps stuff was going on,

[00:04:02] you were working on toys for other like series, like you mentioned, Aureo Monsters for Nickelodeon.

[00:04:07] Yes.

[00:04:08] Yeah. And that's I mean, those toys were everywhere in the 90s,

[00:04:13] like just the Nickelodeon and the Goosebumps.

[00:04:17] And so, you know, kids, you're right, kids probably did play with them quite a bit back then.

[00:04:22] So it's crazy how, you know, those things kind of spread to audiences out there.

[00:04:30] And Goosebumps is no exception.

[00:04:32] I mean, like, you know, we were joking at the beginning, but it really is true.

[00:04:36] Goosebumps was everywhere, especially in the late 90s.

[00:04:40] I mean, that's when the books were just soaring in popularity.

[00:04:43] The TV show was out and just everybody wanted to like read Goosebumps

[00:04:48] and there was Goosebumps products all over the place.

[00:04:50] And of course, Bjorn, as always, he owns everything Goosebumps related.

[00:04:56] He had some of the toys designed by, you know, Happiness Express on display there.

[00:05:02] Steve, can you tell us a little bit about some of the products?

[00:05:05] Slappy Love. That's what it is.

[00:05:07] I mean, my slappy is my favorite.

[00:05:08] So I was like, well, we're going to bring out the patty.

[00:05:10] We're going to bring out the tape dispenser.

[00:05:12] But you just lift this up.

[00:05:14] We also have the Stay Out of the Basement hand, which is a personal favorite also.

[00:05:20] But as a kid, like I was just saying to the guys earlier how I went to a market

[00:05:25] and I picked up like boxes and boxes of old stock that had like three of these tape dispensers,

[00:05:32] desk caddies, the Stay Out of the Basement one, but also like the protractors and the compasses.

[00:05:39] I think Nick has the Hornet Mask one probably on hand. Yes.

[00:05:44] And this guy had all this stuff.

[00:05:47] It was like dead old stuff, right?

[00:05:49] Because this was 2005 or 2006.

[00:05:52] I remember exactly when, but it was around that time and I was only like nine, ten.

[00:05:56] And Goosebumps, as we know at that point, was well truly dead.

[00:05:59] So he was selling them at like $3 for this, $4 for that, $2.50 for that.

[00:06:04] And now you go on eBay, you're paying $150, $200 for something like this.

[00:06:10] It's just like I came in just at the right time, I think.

[00:06:14] Oh, definitely.

[00:06:15] So yeah, no, and I love it. I love the design of it all.

[00:06:18] Yeah, you did such a great job. It's just so nostalgic.

[00:06:21] Yeah. It was really cool because there wasn't any products really designed when they came to us.

[00:06:30] Scholastic, R.L. Stein's wife, I can't remember the parachute or some parachute press.

[00:06:36] They had their own company and they came to us and they presented Goosebumps to it.

[00:06:42] It was only the books at that point.

[00:06:44] And they just told us, we had a meeting with them and they said, you know, kids love the covers.

[00:06:49] So basically there's no style guide, nothing at all except the book covers.

[00:06:53] So we had to base all this on the book covers.

[00:06:56] And at first, and so they just said, and we're lazy.

[00:07:02] We didn't really feel like reading the books.

[00:07:04] But I read The Haunted Mask, I remember, and I kind of got the gist of it.

[00:07:07] But we started making this stuff and since we didn't know a lot of the story, we would just make up.

[00:07:17] We'd take characters like Slappy and Curly.

[00:07:20] And we did like a set where Curly was sawing Slappy in half.

[00:07:24] Where is that?

[00:07:28] We did sketches of it.

[00:07:31] And the thing was, it got past the approval in the sketch stage.

[00:07:36] So there's this really awesome sculptor named Sal DeNero.

[00:07:42] He used to work for Henson.

[00:07:44] He was a Muppet designer and he was the one who sculpted these or took my drawings.

[00:07:50] There's a couple other artists but he made these clay prototypes.

[00:07:55] And then when we presented the one of Curly sawing Slappy in half,

[00:08:00] I remember getting the notes back and they're just like, they're screaming off the page.

[00:08:05] Like, Curly would never do that!

[00:08:10] I guess my question for that is what was the product?

[00:08:14] Was it a toy? Was it a stationary item?

[00:08:17] Well, that's the thing. They were a toy company.

[00:08:19] But everybody wanted part of the license because the books were so hot at that point.

[00:08:23] So everybody wanted...

[00:08:25] And the only sliver Happiness Express could get was these back to school category.

[00:08:31] So they're making toys in back to school because they're a toy company.

[00:08:36] Well, there's a funny story about that that I should probably mention now because you're saying school.

[00:08:41] I've told these guys in the past.

[00:08:44] My sister, she was born in 1990.

[00:08:48] She was well and truly a kid when this stuff was coming out in 96, 97.

[00:08:53] So she actually was told at assembly school assembly that all Goosebumps stationary products will be banned because kids were getting distracted.

[00:09:05] So playing with everything like a kid would just sit there and open and close Slappy's mouth on the caddy.

[00:09:12] Because they look like toys, you know.

[00:09:14] So apparently the only thing they were actually allowed to have at school were like the notebooks and folders and pencils and pencils.

[00:09:22] A lot of the toys at this school were banned because they just resembled toys.

[00:09:28] But I love it.

[00:09:29] Like apparently the tape, not the tape dispenser, the battery operated sharpener of like Curly and The Barking Ghost.

[00:09:39] Kids used to just get the like pencils and just drill it in and be like, yes, eat it.

[00:09:45] Eat it.

[00:09:48] I think it's just so funny, but not all schools did it.

[00:09:50] She said particularly their school.

[00:09:53] But that's another thing that just made it so iconic is how they looked.

[00:09:59] You know what I mean? And they just became so collectible.

[00:10:01] Kids just collected them.

[00:10:03] You know what I mean? They loved it.

[00:10:05] Yeah, it was good.

[00:10:06] It's like it's not often that you get the opportunity to just go hog wild on something and do these like weird, you know, I'd never seen a desk caddy that bit the desk and like the slappy ones.

[00:10:19] And I couldn't believe they approved this stuff.

[00:10:21] And it was just crazy.

[00:10:24] But I don't know if they're just money hungry or they just didn't care.

[00:10:28] You know, I had to get I had to go as far as having him sawed in half for them to even reject anything.

[00:10:36] I like that.

[00:10:37] I wish that came out.

[00:10:40] That would be really cool.

[00:10:41] I'm out.

[00:10:42] I think that could have been like what do they call it?

[00:10:44] Like a paper cutter.

[00:10:48] Oh, yeah, it was very elaborate, too.

[00:10:50] It had all kinds of different like accessories and like a severed head that was like an eraser, just like everything.

[00:10:58] There's probably about 10 pieces the whole set.

[00:11:01] Oh, that's cool.

[00:11:03] Yeah.

[00:11:04] Wow.

[00:11:05] Shame they didn't make it long one.

[00:11:08] Can we get it off the ground?

[00:11:11] Right.

[00:11:14] Yes.

[00:11:15] There's very little there's very little back and forth on it all.

[00:11:19] We just kind of went with the idea and they liked 95 percent of everything.

[00:11:25] So well, it's just incredible.

[00:11:28] Like again, like some of those designs because they do look like the books.

[00:11:32] And I personally really like I love the desk design just because.

[00:11:38] And I've said this before in a previous episode, but I always loved how Tim Jacobus always drew Slappy with his mouth like slack jaw open.

[00:11:47] Oh, yeah.

[00:11:48] Honestly, it's kind of creepier when it is because it just looks like more inhuman when your mouth is just hanging open like all the time.

[00:11:59] But yeah, I just the fact that you can have a slappy that bites in your desk and then you can open his head and put pencils inside of it.

[00:12:08] Oh, yeah.

[00:12:10] The other one was that the coffin that had the mummy in it opened up and sat up with your pencils.

[00:12:17] That was that was a lot of fun to make.

[00:12:19] But it's the lamest pencil case ever because it only holds two pencils.

[00:12:23] Can't really put anything else in there.

[00:12:25] But if they're sharp and they come out like weapons.

[00:12:31] They just lie out.

[00:12:34] He's scatting each other with them.

[00:12:37] They make like the sound when you like shoot a dart.

[00:12:40] It's like, yeah, I remember getting them back from the factory and I'd walk around the office and just like mess with people having it pop out and scare them.

[00:12:50] The mummy's got my pencil.

[00:12:52] One of the coolest things.

[00:12:55] I got to go to the premiere of the first episode, the Haunted Mask.

[00:13:01] It was called the Limelight in New York.

[00:13:03] It was this like gothic church that was converted to a club.

[00:13:06] And so they had the opening night premiere there and R.L. Stein was there.

[00:13:11] We met him and it was just a really cool time.

[00:13:14] I took my friend who was an aspiring children's book writer and he was like shaking hands with Bob Stein.

[00:13:22] He was shitting his pants.

[00:13:28] It was really funny.

[00:13:30] Yeah, it was a giant screen.

[00:13:34] No, that's the way I watch Goosebumps, especially that.

[00:13:36] I want to see R.L. Stein on the big screen.

[00:13:39] Yeah, that's so great.

[00:13:43] But I mean, it makes sense.

[00:13:45] So what was one of the things that like you design that you just still remember being like the favorite one to design?

[00:13:52] What would you say it's the desk caddy or is there one that's a little more obscure that you had a fun time designing?

[00:14:03] I like that protractor you have there.

[00:14:05] Yeah, I mean, the really lousy is a protractor.

[00:14:11] But it was really fun.

[00:14:13] You know, I think the salesman had a lot of fun trying to sell those into like Walmart and stuff because they're like, this isn't really functional as a protractor.

[00:14:24] Like, well, I find geometry.

[00:14:27] Yeah, it makes geometry rest boring.

[00:14:31] I think that's why kids just collected the stuff because it just they look like toys.

[00:14:36] Like for me, I used to just display them on the shelves, you know, well, I still display them on the shelves.

[00:14:40] But, you know, when I was a kid and I just I just like looking at them, it wasn't even I never used any of the stuff.

[00:14:46] So I guess that answers that question.

[00:14:48] I mean, it looks nice.

[00:14:51] You know, so pretty much the desk caddy works as well as a coffee can.

[00:14:56] That's true.

[00:14:57] Coffee coffee.

[00:14:58] Just open his head.

[00:15:00] Mmm, delicious.

[00:15:04] Yeah, well, there's some products that we've we've seen pop up over the years that I'm assuming were never actually released.

[00:15:13] Like there's one of the barking ghost and like the dog and it's like biting onto an arm and it looks like I think it was an underdog.

[00:15:22] I don't know what that was meant to be like a pencil holder or something.

[00:15:26] It's a pencil case.

[00:15:28] Yeah, and you could take off the art with the hand, right?

[00:15:32] Right, right.

[00:15:33] So I asked I could swear that this one guy does I didn't do that one.

[00:15:38] But this one guy, Larry, who designed a couple of the things and I asked him and he doesn't remember it.

[00:15:46] But I just think his memory is failing him because it looks exactly like how he draws hands.

[00:15:51] Yeah, and I mean, I could see that I could see a sketch in my head.

[00:15:56] Yeah.

[00:15:57] And I like the the other barking ghost one where it yeah, I think you you mentioned it, Bjorn.

[00:16:04] It's where you put the pencils in the dog's mouth.

[00:16:07] So it looks like the dog's like the sharpening the pencils.

[00:16:11] Yeah.

[00:16:12] Oh, is that a sharpening pencil?

[00:16:13] The pencils?

[00:16:14] Yeah. Oh, is that a sharpening?

[00:16:15] I thought it was just a pencil holder.

[00:16:17] I think no, I think it's a it's a pencil sharpener, right?

[00:16:20] That's a pencil battery battery operated sharpener box.

[00:16:25] And I think because like I'm guessing because you had the pencil case one and then you had that one.

[00:16:31] So I'm assuming maybe that was like was that trying to decide which one to go with?

[00:16:36] Like because obviously here's the yeah, that's the one the pencil case.

[00:16:40] It's just that's so cool.

[00:16:42] Yeah.

[00:16:43] But it looks identical to the sharpener, the battery operated sharpener, the actual sculpt of the head and everything.

[00:16:48] Well, here's another one that just came up.

[00:16:51] This one is of Cuddles.

[00:16:53] Oh, yeah.

[00:16:54] Oh, that's cool.

[00:16:55] Yeah.

[00:16:56] I think this guy Brian McGee designed that one.

[00:17:00] Yeah.

[00:17:01] It's a pretty cool.

[00:17:02] Oh no, no.

[00:17:03] Actually, this artist's name his name is Lawrence Christmas.

[00:17:06] You can look him up.

[00:17:07] He's a really good artist.

[00:17:09] He does a lot of like style guide work now.

[00:17:12] But he did that one.

[00:17:14] Oh, well, it's funny.

[00:17:16] There's people sometimes post it in my ears.

[00:17:19] Excuse me.

[00:17:20] Did you say Lloyd Christmas or did you say Lawrence?

[00:17:27] W L A W R E N C Christmas is his last name.

[00:17:32] Christmas.

[00:17:33] Sometimes I see people post photos of like that barking ghost dog pencil case and the and the cuddles like pencil holder and they go, oh, these are some really rare Goosebump items.

[00:17:45] And I usually comment and say, I don't think they were released because we would have seen one by now on.

[00:17:52] And here you're right.

[00:17:56] So, yeah, you put you would put it in the holes and then yeah.

[00:18:01] And then the mummy would go down and open it up and then the mummy pops out with the right.

[00:18:06] But you could use one for your pen and one for your pencil so you could have a pen or pencil.

[00:18:11] Yeah, we probably feel a little racist.

[00:18:14] Probably feel one of those pink erasers in there too.

[00:18:17] I also did that little mummy coffin that goes on the tip of the pencil with the little rubbery race for mummy inside.

[00:18:24] I don't know if you saw that.

[00:18:26] Oh, yeah.

[00:18:28] Did they ever do prototypes of like the because there's also one of the mud monster.

[00:18:32] I don't know if Isaiah's got probably probably blue dispenser.

[00:18:37] Is it a blue dispenser?

[00:18:40] Oh, is that what it was?

[00:18:41] Yeah, I think that's yeah.

[00:18:43] The mud monster.

[00:18:44] Yeah, Lawrence Lawrence designed that one too.

[00:18:47] He's really into that mud monster.

[00:18:49] But it's so.

[00:18:51] Did they ever make a prototype of them?

[00:18:54] Because like those photos look like cool.

[00:18:57] You know, prototypes.

[00:18:58] Yeah, they made prototypes.

[00:19:00] I remember they showed them at the is either toy fair or the I think the gift fair in New York.

[00:19:09] I do remember seeing that online.

[00:19:11] Yeah, that's cool.

[00:19:13] Yeah, I wish I had I had all the sketches and I don't know where they are.

[00:19:17] But I had not just my sketches, but I had copies of everyone.

[00:19:21] Well, I don't even know how mine survived.

[00:19:24] I know there was one that was I believe you posted on Facebook of the of the desk caddy and it was the original sketch.

[00:19:35] Yeah.

[00:19:36] Yeah.

[00:19:37] Yeah.

[00:19:38] And I mean, how long did it take to like really go from a design to a finished product?

[00:19:47] It was so so that guy Sal, he he's just we'd send him the drawings and he would just come back like two to three weeks later with all these prototypes.

[00:19:59] You know, mostly out of clay.

[00:20:03] I'm looking for my sketches.

[00:20:05] Wow.

[00:20:06] So that mud monster was a glue like I didn't know that just from looking at I always wanted.

[00:20:11] What was that mud monster one because like the others were pretty obvious like pencils and stuff.

[00:20:18] Yeah, there's oh cool.

[00:20:20] Yeah.

[00:20:21] Oh, that's awesome.

[00:20:22] That's the best one anyway.

[00:20:24] It's the best one.

[00:20:26] We met with Slappy so I'm happy.

[00:20:27] It's all good.

[00:20:28] Slappy's happy.

[00:20:29] Slappy happy.

[00:20:30] Yeah.

[00:20:31] But I can't remember if I have it.

[00:20:34] Yeah, but that's the thing.

[00:20:36] It's like and especially since they were based on the book covers, it was just cool to just have them because it looked like you were holding like a 3D version of that.

[00:20:47] Oh yeah.

[00:20:49] Well, even the Slappy tape dispenser is like it's basically just Slappy holding the tape.

[00:20:55] What character is that?

[00:20:58] I can't tell.

[00:21:01] I don't know.

[00:21:02] Wait, this is still Goosebumps right?

[00:21:05] Yeah, it's a Goosebumps character but it was much more.

[00:21:09] I was going to say it was a lawn gnome.

[00:21:10] I don't know.

[00:21:11] I have to hold it.

[00:21:13] Yeah, maybe a lawn gnome.

[00:21:15] Maybe Cry Me the Troll.

[00:21:17] There's another glue dispenser.

[00:21:20] It was like tombstone.

[00:21:22] Oh that's cool.

[00:21:23] Whoa.

[00:21:24] That's awesome.

[00:21:25] I thought that was the cuckoo clock for a second there.

[00:21:27] Squeeze me for some ghastly glue.

[00:21:34] But they did the little glue sticks, the little Goosebumps glue sticks.

[00:21:38] This glue is a vampire and then you open it up and he has a Nightwing.

[00:21:46] Wow.

[00:21:48] That's really cool.

[00:21:49] It was even a product for Count Nightwing?

[00:21:51] Holy moly.

[00:21:52] Like these are awesome.

[00:21:54] It's so great because obviously being a big Goosebumps collector, seeing this stuff is just like to count what could have been or what went to prototype stage but never got released.

[00:22:05] I would have loved to have got that Mud Monster now that you mentioned what it is.

[00:22:08] I think out of all the ones like the Barking Ghost and the Cuddles and the Mud Monster, I easily would pick that one over the three because we got so many Cuddles products.

[00:22:18] Mud Monster we got a few things but not as much as Slappy.

[00:22:23] Slappy and Curly were my favorites.

[00:22:29] Out of your sketches that didn't get made, which one do you wish did get made or which one if you had the opportunity to actually get it made would you go back and do?

[00:22:41] I could actually make it now.

[00:22:44] I didn't have the capability back then.

[00:22:46] Let me see what I have.

[00:22:49] Make like unofficial Goosebumps merch.

[00:22:52] People do it all the time.

[00:22:54] I wanted to do this line of notebooks where it had worms and stuff but they were 3D like hanging out of the notebook on the cover.

[00:23:04] Oh, that's awesome.

[00:23:07] I want to do like 3D notebook covers where the haunted mask was rubbery.

[00:23:13] I really like that idea.

[00:23:15] I'd buy one.

[00:23:20] That's just the cool thing about all those products is they weren't just like they weren't just like you know plastering a photo on like a book or something like that.

[00:23:31] It was like how do we like make this like the product that's supposed to be but still like add a twist where it's really like it's something that a kid would want.

[00:23:41] Like if you just brought a regular tape dispenser to a kid and be like I want that but if you brought them that slappy one right there to be like I want that or that stay out of the basement one.

[00:23:53] Which I really like.

[00:23:55] I actually really of the two I actually prefer the stay out of the basement one just because I like just the green hand and the Goosebumps G-Splat.

[00:24:06] Yeah, it's cool because of the G-Splat on it.

[00:24:09] Slappy's just got like a little one on he's got a little one but it's on his foot like the bottom of his foot like a green G-Splat.

[00:24:14] Yeah, like he stepped in poop.

[00:24:18] There was another product that we did I don't know if it came out you might have seen it they were like locker covers lock covers.

[00:24:26] Yes.

[00:24:27] Yeah, I've got this.

[00:24:28] They did come out.

[00:24:29] Okay.

[00:24:30] I think there's a couple there's a Mud Monster and Cuddles.

[00:24:36] Yeah, I remember.

[00:24:38] I should have brought them out.

[00:24:39] I got too many things.

[00:24:40] I was like I had to bring them out.

[00:24:41] Here's the Mud Monster.

[00:24:42] Yeah, I didn't know.

[00:24:44] Yeah, Lawrence worked on this.

[00:24:46] Wow that's so cool.

[00:24:48] That's the only one I can pull up right now.

[00:24:51] But yeah, so those would go around the around the lock.

[00:24:56] The lock, right?

[00:24:58] Mm-hmm.

[00:24:59] Yeah, yeah.

[00:25:00] We're just making we're just making up things to try to sell more products.

[00:25:06] It's like nobody needs those.

[00:25:08] No they don't.

[00:25:09] Interesting how collectible they are now.

[00:25:11] We also did something called Bow Biders and it was just a blatant knockoff.

[00:25:14] I think a Gloob had these things called Bow Biders and you just put them over your shoelaces.

[00:25:20] So it was the you know like slappy on your shoelaces but I don't think those weren't made.

[00:25:26] I think they got in trouble.

[00:25:28] I don't remember seeing that.

[00:25:30] Yeah, they got in trouble because Gloob got wind of it and those were never done.

[00:25:37] Yep, Gloob also known as the company with the weirdest sounding name.

[00:25:42] Yeah, I know.

[00:25:43] We're not a sound effect.

[00:25:44] We are a company.

[00:25:48] And even just like the scissors, the Goosebump twisted scissors look so cool.

[00:25:52] There was a Mud Monster one and I think Stay Out of the Basement for the twisted scissors.

[00:25:56] Yeah, I did that.

[00:25:58] I love that you did Stay Out of the Basement stuff because there isn't really a whole lot of merch other than what was brought out in the actual like stationary line.

[00:26:08] That's kind of what it really was, Stay Out of the Basement stuff.

[00:26:12] I love it.

[00:26:13] Yeah, it's so cool.

[00:26:14] Because in a way it also got a lot of love.

[00:26:17] Yeah, I mean we just did.

[00:26:21] Like if it was done today, they would have, you know, they totally know exactly what characters to make things of.

[00:26:27] They wouldn't let you do Stay Out of the Basement anything.

[00:26:30] It would be Slappy Curly, whoever and you know, Cuddles.

[00:26:35] Maybe Honda Mask and that would be it.

[00:26:37] They went straight from those core ones but you know they didn't really know what they were doing which is great for us.

[00:26:44] Yeah.

[00:26:45] Yeah, I mean.

[00:26:46] I'm glad they gave you guys so much creative freedom with it because yeah, you're right.

[00:26:51] It brought stuff that we probably wouldn't get today.

[00:26:54] Even looking at products that are coming out now from like Trick or Treat Studio O's or Cavity Colors or anybody else.

[00:27:02] Like there's nothing from Stay Out of the Basement.

[00:27:05] You do have a Mud Monster item but and a Curly one which is great.

[00:27:10] But you're right. You see more like the Honda Mask, Slappy, you know, the common ones that everybody really remembers from the 90s more than anything.

[00:27:20] Right. Horrorland 2.

[00:27:22] Yeah, the dude with the horns, right?

[00:27:28] Yeah, there was a few items of him like the Sharpener, the horror and the stamp.

[00:27:33] Stamp and yeah, a lot of those sort of things.

[00:27:37] There's like a pencil topper?

[00:27:39] Yeah, Pen Topper, Pencil Topper.

[00:27:43] Did Toy Max did some too, didn't they?

[00:27:46] I think so.

[00:27:47] Did they do like squirters?

[00:27:50] Yes.

[00:27:51] They called them inksers.

[00:27:53] And they squirt like invisible ink so it's one of those things where it's like oh you got it on my shirt and then it's gone.

[00:28:01] I think about like the Roger Rabbit where he squirts Eddie Valiant Marvin at me and then he grabs him and he's like why'd you spray that with me?

[00:28:09] And he's like look, look, it's gone.

[00:28:14] Yeah, I actually worked freelance designing more Goosebumps products for Toy Max but I don't think anything ever got made.

[00:28:24] There was a feeding frenzy because everyone was making money from it and that's how it usually is.

[00:28:35] There's a bunch of like sleazeballs in the toy industry.

[00:28:39] And so very, you know, these little flyby net companies will just start making stuff or just try to get like one tiny piece of the pie.

[00:28:49] You know, like Goosebumps dice, you know, just stupid things.

[00:28:54] Yeah, again, it would be like the weirdest things but if it was a thing that existed, there was a Goosebumps product of it most likely.

[00:29:06] It's like a sponge bob or stuff like that.

[00:29:13] It's like a recognizable IP, you know, got to have one of everything.

[00:29:18] Yeah, they even had a couple of POG books back then too with the collector's caps.

[00:29:23] Remember Goosebumps? It's back in POG form.

[00:29:31] Pretty much anything that the Simpsons slapped on something, Goosebumps tried to do it.

[00:29:37] Yeah, no, I mean, again, that's just a testament to how big Goosebumps was back in the 90s.

[00:29:46] It was like so many things. It was like, do you really need this or do you really want something like this?

[00:29:52] But it's like, no, but I can want it.

[00:29:55] Yes, we want it. We want all of it.

[00:30:00] Okay, and we don't want one of it. We want like 10 of the same thing.

[00:30:04] No, it's like, there's the inevitable point in every toy designer's career when whatever you work on is going to be on a closeout in that bad aisle where everything, or in a flea market with some guy selling them for $4 apiece.

[00:30:21] It's like, you remember back when you're so excited to start working on it and then flash forward a year and it's like nobody wants it.

[00:30:30] But now, and it's expensive.

[00:30:34] Right, right. I know. No, it's so cool because in my mind, it was as dead.

[00:30:40] I didn't even realize anybody was into this stuff.

[00:30:44] I just randomly posted some of those scans of my artwork online like a couple years ago and people were contacting me trying to buy artwork from me and stuff.

[00:30:55] And I thought that was pretty funny because I didn't think anyone was into Goosebumps at all.

[00:31:03] It's more of a cult following now.

[00:31:06] But now that it's hit that 30 year mark for the books and next year for the show, now it's got the nostalgia factor.

[00:31:14] Nostalgic, yeah.

[00:31:16] So I mean even outside of you know...

[00:31:18] Everybody loves nostalgia.

[00:31:20] It's like even outside of super fans like us, I mean there's people that are rediscovering this stuff every day.

[00:31:26] Oh, sure.

[00:31:27] And yeah, and then they get nostalgic and then all of a sudden interest spikes up.

[00:31:31] It's the ironic thing.

[00:31:33] What you were saying is what may be in a flea market at the time, all of a sudden 10 or 20 years later, all of a sudden it's being sold for hundreds of dollars.

[00:31:46] It's like where was this back then?

[00:31:50] That's exactly right.

[00:31:52] It's crazy how nostalgia works.

[00:31:54] You know, things you used to watch as a kid, we've become even more passionate about as adults, which you feel like it would be the opposite way around.

[00:32:02] You feel like as you get older you'd be less passionate about the stuff that you watched as a kid.

[00:32:06] I don't think I was as obsessed with toys as a kid.

[00:32:09] Growing up adult Power Rangers fans and things like that there are.

[00:32:13] There's so many...

[00:32:15] It's just cool to see that.

[00:32:17] Oh yeah.

[00:32:19] It's weird because I do a lot of commissioned art and I can tell what people are into but with what they hire me to make.

[00:32:27] And Goosebumps, somebody hired me to make a Goosebumps, you know the Tiger game?

[00:32:32] Yeah.

[00:32:33] Okay, yeah that handheld thing.

[00:32:36] They hired me to make, I think Slappy coming out of it like he's bursting out of the game.

[00:32:42] Yeah, that's it.

[00:32:43] So basically what I do is I take those toys and ruin them.

[00:32:48] So I'd have it cracking open and have Slappy emerging from it or Curly or whoever.

[00:32:53] Well actually I wanted to bring that up.

[00:32:55] Yeah, I do remember seeing that on your Instagram page.

[00:32:57] Not the Slappy one but that would be really cool to see.

[00:33:00] But you do it with like Nintendo cartridges and other products.

[00:33:05] Like I think I just recently saw one of a Barbersol can and a Dilophosaurus coming out of it.

[00:33:12] Oh yeah, yeah.

[00:33:13] Oh here, I was just about to bring this up because I was going to ask about that.

[00:33:17] But one of the ones I just came across was this Kinder Egg with a little goblin coming out of it.

[00:33:24] Oh.

[00:33:26] Like that's cool.

[00:33:27] What do you think of like Madballs?

[00:33:29] Anybody ever remember that show?

[00:33:31] Oh yeah.

[00:33:32] Yeah, I collect those.

[00:33:35] Oh look at, look at.

[00:33:36] Oh that's awesome.

[00:33:37] I used to love that show.

[00:33:38] Look at all these.

[00:33:41] I like the Nusferatu coming out of the peanut.

[00:33:47] Like that sort of stuff is cool.

[00:33:48] Not to say.

[00:33:49] I wish we got some Goosebumps products that were like that, that were sort of like,

[00:33:53] like the 3D sort of like jumping out of a, out of something.

[00:33:58] That would have been really cool.

[00:34:00] Someone put on your wall or something would have been really, yeah, would have been really cool.

[00:34:04] You can make sort of like a decal, like a 3D decal where it's like,

[00:34:09] you can stick it on like, have you guys ever seen like those,

[00:34:13] those like remote control lights that look like,

[00:34:17] they sort of look like baseballs or tennis balls.

[00:34:21] And they come with a decal that looks like a big crack.

[00:34:24] So the light looks like it's a baseball that's midway through your wall cracking the wall.

[00:34:30] Oh yeah.

[00:34:31] Oh yeah.

[00:34:32] Something like that.

[00:34:33] You know what I mean?

[00:34:34] Yeah, I saw somebody did a T-Rex like head coming through the wall.

[00:34:38] Like that.

[00:34:39] It's pretty cool.

[00:34:40] Yeah.

[00:34:41] I want that.

[00:34:42] A cool idea would be to have just the Goosebumps books,

[00:34:45] like Tim Jacobus' Goosebumps books with the monsters just breaking out of the books.

[00:34:50] That would be, that would be an epic piece for the wall.

[00:34:53] Oh yeah.

[00:34:54] Or even like,

[00:34:55] Or even like,

[00:34:56] Or even like,

[00:34:57] Or it also would have been really cool.

[00:34:59] It's like, around the time like during the Goosebumps movies,

[00:35:02] like they're gonna have like wall clings where it's like in the open manuscript

[00:35:04] and you have the monster like crawling out of it.

[00:35:06] Yeah.

[00:35:07] Who owns the original art from those books?

[00:35:10] Uh, that was Tim Jacobus who did the original art.

[00:35:14] Did he sell the paintings or does he have them?

[00:35:17] He sells actually, he sells prints of the art.

[00:35:20] Yeah, he sells prints but what he said was he,

[00:35:23] all the paintings he did,

[00:35:25] Scholastic has somewhere like locked up.

[00:35:28] Oh.

[00:35:29] So they own the paintings but he's able to, yeah,

[00:35:32] so he's able to sell prints of them.

[00:35:35] Yeah, because a lot of things when you do that,

[00:35:38] it's like they get first publication rights

[00:35:40] but then you get the art back.

[00:35:41] So that's kind of sad that he doesn't have that art

[00:35:45] because he could buy him an island right now.

[00:35:49] Yeah, that's what we say,

[00:35:51] like a Goosebumps sequel movie idea would be like all the monsters,

[00:35:54] instead of coming out of the manuscripts,

[00:35:56] they will come out of their original illustrations

[00:35:59] hidden locked up somewhere in the Scholastic house.

[00:36:02] No, no, I like that.

[00:36:04] That's a good idea because those paintings started it all.

[00:36:08] I remember them telling us that the kids didn't,

[00:36:11] half the kids didn't even read the books.

[00:36:13] This is like before Harry Potter

[00:36:15] and they just bought them for the covers

[00:36:17] and it was like, it was prestige to have those covers

[00:36:20] and there's something like, kind of like taboo about them.

[00:36:25] It's weird because-

[00:36:26] Especially when you started young.

[00:36:28] I don't want to sound blasphemous saying this

[00:36:32] but if it really wasn't for those covers,

[00:36:35] chances are I don't think it really would have been as popular.

[00:36:39] It's like you have the stories and yeah, the stories are iconic

[00:36:43] but if you don't have that really good hook of that cover art,

[00:36:47] people won't read it.

[00:36:49] So Tim always said it was like a good one-two punch.

[00:36:52] He hooks you in with the cover

[00:36:53] and then Stein gets you with the story.

[00:36:55] That's like the one-two punch of it all.

[00:36:58] I was telling that.

[00:37:00] So honest to God-

[00:37:01] The great thing about that is like,

[00:37:03] even if the book sucks, the cover's still good.

[00:37:06] Yeah, Barking Ghost.

[00:37:08] Barking Ghost is a prime example,

[00:37:11] the terrible book for great cover.

[00:37:13] You know what I mean?

[00:37:14] Like the Barking Ghost is in my opinion one of the most iconic.

[00:37:17] Sorry to all the Barking Ghost fans out there.

[00:37:22] I haven't read the book yet but yeah, I've heard it's good.

[00:37:25] I'm afraid of bees.

[00:37:27] I mean Chicken Chicken doesn't have that very good of a cover though.

[00:37:30] Why did they get a Gary the Bee toy?

[00:37:34] Why did they get a Gary the Bee action figure standee?

[00:37:39] We should have got a Chicken Chicken toy.

[00:37:42] That's one thing we should have got.

[00:37:44] Yeah, I read The Haunted Mask

[00:37:47] and actually I'm a big Stephen King fan and I really liked it.

[00:37:51] I liked how it was itching underneath,

[00:37:52] just like all the little details in the story.

[00:37:55] I thought it was pretty good for kids literature.

[00:37:57] I hate the idea of something crawling under your skin.

[00:38:03] I think Scary Stories of Telling the Dark did that where it was like...

[00:38:07] The red spot?

[00:38:08] The red spot, it was the giant pimple

[00:38:11] and then all the spiders start crawling out.

[00:38:13] Yeah, that's great.

[00:38:15] And even adapted that into the movie which is really cool to see.

[00:38:18] Yeah, I saw that scene in the trailer

[00:38:22] and I was like...

[00:38:26] I know the thing about this.

[00:38:28] Itchy.

[00:38:29] So, I was watching, maybe it was Goosebumps

[00:38:35] and I could swear Ryan Gosling was in one.

[00:38:38] Is that true?

[00:38:39] Say cheese and die.

[00:38:41] Yeah, I recognize that kid.

[00:38:44] Well, very recently, and I posted this on Instagram,

[00:38:48] but very recently he was doing an interview for Fall Guy

[00:38:51] and he brought up that...

[00:38:54] He made a joke how he still has the camera from that episode.

[00:38:57] He later said he didn't,

[00:38:59] but he just was talking about how great it was to be on that.

[00:39:03] And it's so weird, it's like Ryan Gosling was on Goosebumps.

[00:39:07] That was one of his first roles.

[00:39:09] He was in Hating Christensen.

[00:39:11] Yeah, Anakin Skywalker was on Goosebumps

[00:39:15] in one of his first roles.

[00:39:16] Oh, cool.

[00:39:17] Yeah, it's strange.

[00:39:20] But when we talked to Ron Oliver, Ron was like,

[00:39:24] kid, you're going to be a big star one day.

[00:39:27] You just wait and then there he went.

[00:39:32] So, honest to God question,

[00:39:34] did anyone ever enjoy playing these things?

[00:39:37] I certainly did.

[00:39:38] Oh, they're terrible.

[00:39:39] They're horrible.

[00:39:40] I'm a roll package, so I couldn't...

[00:39:42] I'm not even packaging,

[00:39:43] so I couldn't honestly say I played it.

[00:39:46] I never had a Goosebumps.

[00:39:47] You're one of those kids.

[00:39:49] I think those are worth money now.

[00:39:51] I think those are highly collectible, right?

[00:39:53] Yeah.

[00:39:54] All of them, like certain licenses.

[00:40:00] The most expensive one is the Slappy Intimidator.

[00:40:04] That one generally sells for the most, I've noticed.

[00:40:07] But there is also a little miniature pinball one as well

[00:40:12] that also sells...

[00:40:14] Those two are probably easily the most expensive.

[00:40:16] I'd say the pinball one actually is probably more expensive.

[00:40:18] The curly one, it's like a little miniature pinball game

[00:40:23] and that one generally sells for quite a bit.

[00:40:26] But of all those electronics by that company,

[00:40:29] I am pretty sure that Intimidator is always like 300 plus

[00:40:34] if it's in the packaging.

[00:40:36] That one I can see for like 180, 200 usually if it goes up.

[00:40:41] And they're sheer garbage when they came out.

[00:40:45] I just remember those being in close out at KB Toys.

[00:40:49] They couldn't give them away for like $2.

[00:40:52] Wow.

[00:40:53] Rose and Rose.

[00:40:54] That's why you didn't think about what they're worth now.

[00:40:56] Yeah.

[00:40:57] Kind of like we were talking to Tim Chakobis.

[00:41:02] His autobiography came from New Jersey.

[00:41:06] He said that he couldn't get rid of those things.

[00:41:09] Like they were on Amazon for 25 cents.

[00:41:11] So what he did is bought them, signed them, and sent them out.

[00:41:14] But now the book's worth 200, 300 bucks in some places.

[00:41:18] Wow.

[00:41:19] So it's crazy to think about like some of these things even like

[00:41:24] whether it's the desk caddy or the Honda Mast Protractor.

[00:41:28] I mean, it took me a long time to find the Protractor

[00:41:32] let alone in a box like in the packaging.

[00:41:35] So it's really wild to think that like KB Toys and Toys R Us

[00:41:40] and all these places probably clearance all this stuff out for pennies on the dollar.

[00:41:45] You could buy a house now with it if you just sold it all.

[00:41:48] Nick, finally you knew me back then because I had a couple of those

[00:41:52] protractors in the packaging.

[00:41:54] Oh wow.

[00:41:55] You knew me before you bought it.

[00:41:57] Here's the I found the Terror topper.

[00:41:59] Mine is not in the greatest of shape, but it's literally the only one I've ever seen online.

[00:42:04] So there's the Terror topper.

[00:42:06] So you got the mummy, Slappy and the Horror.

[00:42:09] That's cool.

[00:42:10] That was cool.

[00:42:11] Yeah, and I did the two on the right.

[00:42:14] Yeah.

[00:42:15] And it's cool that the mummy is like it's not just the mummy.

[00:42:18] It is like the little sarcophagus.

[00:42:22] I don't... could it close though?

[00:42:25] It looked like it was...

[00:42:26] Oh yes.

[00:42:27] Oh yes.

[00:42:28] I had another one.

[00:42:29] I had another one.

[00:42:30] I think Slappy, he was originally holding onto it and you take the pencil and go like that

[00:42:36] and it looked like he was holding on and swinging around your pencil.

[00:42:39] Oh that's cool.

[00:42:40] I guess there's issues.

[00:42:42] Yeah, there's issues with that.

[00:42:45] Wow.

[00:42:46] Probably go flying into someone's face.

[00:42:48] This is great hearing all this because like I always sit there and look at all my toys

[00:42:52] and I go what was the concept to making that?

[00:42:56] It was so much fun to make this.

[00:42:59] It was like... with those two lines that are real monsters, I've never had an opportunity

[00:43:05] like that to do something that cool because everything's so corporate now.

[00:43:10] You just can't have that much freedom.

[00:43:13] Yeah.

[00:43:14] So another line I worked on, this is after that I started inventing toys.

[00:43:19] And do you remember the whole Tamagotchi craze?

[00:43:22] Oh yeah.

[00:43:24] It was this thing called Giga Monsters.

[00:43:28] So it was like totally late in the whole life and lifespan of those toys.

[00:43:35] So I came up with the idea that if you...

[00:43:39] With those things you're trying to raise an egg and nurture it and everything,

[00:43:42] but these you're trying to kill them.

[00:43:45] And then these monsters are trying to...

[00:43:48] They come at you all the time trying to kill you.

[00:43:50] So you have to like stab them with the steak and stuff.

[00:43:55] And they're a huge flop.

[00:43:57] And I remember I bought a whole bunch of KB when they came out

[00:44:00] and now they're $500 apiece.

[00:44:03] Whoa.

[00:44:04] Weird how that works.

[00:44:07] Yeah.

[00:44:08] That is crazy.

[00:44:10] Yeah, they're a huge flop but apparently just because of the monster thing

[00:44:14] because they're licensed for Universal Monsters.

[00:44:17] But yeah, every now and then I try to do like a little horror based thing.

[00:44:22] I think I might have found the glue stick.

[00:44:25] The stuff you've been making is like right under your alley.

[00:44:28] Oh yeah, that's better.

[00:44:30] Yeah, there's a curly glue stick.

[00:44:32] I have that in the packaging, the exact one.

[00:44:35] Oh, let's see that one.

[00:44:37] Yeah, so the curly glue stick.

[00:44:39] So it looks like you put the curly head on top of the glue stick.

[00:44:43] Oh yeah.

[00:44:45] I was just looking up, I just looked up Happiness Express Goosebumps

[00:44:48] and there's a lot of, there was a lot of binders that came up.

[00:44:52] It looks like...

[00:44:54] Yeah, we had a whole department making those out.

[00:44:58] Yeah, so we got...

[00:44:59] Every graphic and package designer in the company was making those.

[00:45:06] So you had like the horror and the mummy and then...

[00:45:09] Yeah, they had folders and binders.

[00:45:12] These two.

[00:45:13] The only thing I never saw was a Trapper Keeper and that was unfortunate

[00:45:17] because that was the big thing back in the day for people too, was Trapper Keepers.

[00:45:22] Yeah.

[00:45:23] Was there ever an idea for a Goosebumps calculator?

[00:45:26] Because I've seen some calculators for like all sorts of different products

[00:45:32] like even like A Night Before Christmas, Harry Potter,

[00:45:35] they brought out just a calculator and it was just themed around whatever it was.

[00:45:39] Was there ever like an idea for, we're going to do a Goosebumps calculator?

[00:45:43] I think we assumed that Goosebumps kids were so smart they didn't need a calculator.

[00:45:50] I don't think my brain will work so...

[00:45:52] If you were on our business meeting last night, you would know that's not true.

[00:45:57] No, I think what they did do is they take...

[00:46:02] In that case, they would have found one that was already made

[00:46:06] and just slap a sticker on it.

[00:46:08] They wouldn't get, with something techy like that, they wouldn't do a whole case, new casing.

[00:46:14] Yeah.

[00:46:15] That could have been the Kerling Soaring Sloppy one.

[00:46:18] It could have been like a calculator somehow.

[00:46:21] No, if they would ask me to design it, it would have been crazy.

[00:46:25] Now here we got...

[00:46:27] Bone-chilling bookmarks.

[00:46:29] Bone-chilling bookmarks.

[00:46:31] That's a cool idea.

[00:46:33] I got all those.

[00:46:35] There's nothing you can show me I don't have.

[00:46:37] You see the body itself is 2D, but the hands and the head are 3D.

[00:46:43] Which is pretty cool.

[00:46:45] That's what we were talking about earlier, combining the two together.

[00:46:51] Yeah, that's something I made up.

[00:46:53] I still make stuff like that today.

[00:46:56] Yeah.

[00:46:57] Just...

[00:47:00] It's so unique.

[00:47:02] If you're reading your Goosebumps book,

[00:47:05] that's gotta be the coolest bookmark to ever use for.

[00:47:10] Also, I didn't mention that I didn't know what the hell I was doing either.

[00:47:13] So I think that made it better.

[00:47:15] Because I had never designed any toy line in my life.

[00:47:20] I kind of BSed my way into the job.

[00:47:23] I was working in a sweatshop clothing factory.

[00:47:28] But I could draw.

[00:47:29] I could do stuff.

[00:47:30] One of my friends was working at this toy company.

[00:47:33] He said, they're looking for an opening.

[00:47:36] They're looking for an artist.

[00:47:38] I went there and I just BSed my way into the job.

[00:47:41] I got there and I really didn't know what I was doing.

[00:47:45] In two years, I was running the boys' department.

[00:47:50] I was crazy into toys.

[00:47:52] Nobody there liked toys as much as I did.

[00:47:56] You gotta have a creative mind to make toys.

[00:47:59] You gotta really think outside the box of

[00:48:01] how can we make this the coolest thing ever?

[00:48:08] I was a toy freak, but I had never worked in the toy industry before.

[00:48:17] Go ahead, I was just gonna show up.

[00:48:20] This is probably before all of your times.

[00:48:24] Before YouTube and all this,

[00:48:26] every year Sears and JC Penneys and companies put out a Christmas catalog.

[00:48:31] It would have a whole toy section in it.

[00:48:35] All I'd do, I didn't have a lot of toys,

[00:48:37] so I would just read that thing over and over again.

[00:48:39] I'd read all the features and all the things.

[00:48:42] That's how I memorized pretty much the feature of every toy in those catalogs.

[00:48:49] I carried that information with me throughout my life

[00:48:52] and I didn't even know I had it until I got the opportunity.

[00:48:56] I could take this and put it with this and I got this product.

[00:48:59] That's how it went.

[00:49:06] One thing we never actually got,

[00:49:08] and we kind of discussed this a few times,

[00:49:10] is we never really got a full-scale action figure for Goosebumps in the 90s.

[00:49:15] We got a lot of other products that looked kind of like toys,

[00:49:18] but we never really got a full-scale action figure of Curly or Sly P.

[00:49:23] The closest thing was these collectibles,

[00:49:26] but they were stationary statues with a little button,

[00:49:29] and it would light up and it would make a noise.

[00:49:34] Is that a premium from Burger King or something?

[00:49:37] It isn't.

[00:49:38] They came in these little boxes that were called Goosebumps collectibles,

[00:49:43] and they had the book cover and you open it up,

[00:49:46] and here it had the little statues,

[00:49:49] and this was the slappy one,

[00:49:51] but they had a ton.

[00:49:53] They had a whole first wave, which was more easier to find,

[00:49:57] but then they had a second, which was way harder to find.

[00:50:03] They even got weird ones.

[00:50:05] Of course you had Curly, the mud monster, Slappy and all that,

[00:50:09] but then you had the Executioner and the Masked Mutant.

[00:50:17] We had Buddy from Jelly Jam.

[00:50:20] The Abominable Snowman.

[00:50:25] It was weird picks,

[00:50:27] but that's the thing, you had Slappy and Curly and Cuddles were so around.

[00:50:33] They were the main ones.

[00:50:35] When you had something that wasn't from one of those stories,

[00:50:39] it was almost weird.

[00:50:43] Out of the Basement or Cuckoo Clock of Doom

[00:50:46] or Night in Terror Tower,

[00:50:48] when toys of those were coming out, it was like,

[00:50:51] wow, you don't see those a lot.

[00:50:55] Also, the funny thing I think about too

[00:50:57] with the series one collectibles, the Curly one,

[00:51:00] have you noticed that label is the Say Cheese and Die?

[00:51:03] Yeah, it's incorrect.

[00:51:07] Was there a company, I can't remember if I imagine this or not,

[00:51:11] but wasn't there, they had Slappy and the Mummy

[00:51:15] and they were on a rod and their sound activated

[00:51:19] and they danced?

[00:51:21] Yeah, the Motion Creatures.

[00:51:23] All the Candid Games I think is the only one I can think of

[00:51:28] that made those, but they were the same company

[00:51:30] that made the Inksters, but they were called Motion Creatures.

[00:51:35] You'd clap or snap your fingers and then they would move around.

[00:51:39] And then they also made little hand puppets,

[00:51:41] they called them Freaky Faces.

[00:51:44] It was almost like the Boglins.

[00:51:49] They were like, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.

[00:51:51] So you would just kind of move them around.

[00:51:55] But those are pretty good figures that were on those rods, right?

[00:52:00] They're all jointed and stuff, they're almost action figures,

[00:52:03] but they were stuck in there.

[00:52:06] Yeah, you would have to take them off the rod.

[00:52:09] They just have the rod up their butt so they can dance.

[00:52:14] I had one of them like that, I remember.

[00:52:18] I love the way you put that thing.

[00:52:20] Well they did have those, I don't know if they were in the States though,

[00:52:25] the capsule ones, you open up as like a Mr. Mortman,

[00:52:30] Scarecrow, Monster Bags.

[00:52:34] I don't know if we got those in the States,

[00:52:36] I think that was Australia.

[00:52:38] They were literally just called Goosebump Monster Bags.

[00:52:41] And essentially you would basically put them in water,

[00:52:45] and then there was basically like green monster blood ooze,

[00:52:49] and you were given a little knife,

[00:52:51] and you would cut into the bag,

[00:52:53] and then the creatures would come out,

[00:52:55] and then you would just take out the pieces.

[00:52:58] You'd wash them off, but again, I never opened mine,

[00:53:01] but I've seen very old YouTube videos of someone doing it,

[00:53:05] and yeah they literally said,

[00:53:07] I wonder if this would still work if I put it in the water now and do it all.

[00:53:10] It still worked.

[00:53:11] I think this was maybe 12, 13 years after they'd come out when this video was up,

[00:53:16] but yeah it's like a little mini knife you just cut in,

[00:53:19] and then the arm falls out, the head falls out,

[00:53:22] and then you put them together.

[00:53:24] They were almost like action figures as well, kind of,

[00:53:27] but we never got like what something movie maniacs would have brought out.

[00:53:32] We didn't get those full scale action figures.

[00:53:36] I feel like if it didn't get released...

[00:53:38] Did Super 7 do anything?

[00:53:41] Super 7?

[00:53:42] No.

[00:53:43] I don't think so.

[00:53:44] Okay, I figured they'd eventually get that.

[00:53:47] I don't know why this image is making me giggle so much, but...

[00:53:51] Just the...

[00:53:53] Just seeing it from that angle,

[00:53:55] trying to get the lights on.

[00:53:57] Tasty table.

[00:53:58] It's like you're just seeing Slappy Chomping on your table.

[00:54:03] You see why kids in school were probably like

[00:54:06] distracted from their schoolwork.

[00:54:11] Like, oh man, I could just imagine.

[00:54:13] Because they look like little...

[00:54:14] If you had the little like stamps or the sharpeners of like,

[00:54:19] I think it was Cuddles and the Horrorland guy,

[00:54:23] they just look like toys sitting on your desk.

[00:54:26] There's another one.

[00:54:27] The Gator stapler.

[00:54:29] Oh yeah, from Deep in Carvalhorus.

[00:54:33] The box changed.

[00:54:34] Yeah, the box art changed.

[00:54:37] Yeah, but I mean it is basically the...

[00:54:40] The head of the book is right here.

[00:54:41] It is basically the Gator in the front of this Carnival Horrors book.

[00:54:45] Is that the only piece of merch for Carnival Horrors?

[00:54:49] I think it is.

[00:54:50] I'm willing to bet so.

[00:54:51] I don't think those books were getting much merch.

[00:54:55] That made me think of Cathy Gilmore though.

[00:54:57] You know, the mini figure.

[00:54:58] Oh yeah, the Gator bit Chubb's hand off.

[00:55:04] Always made me think of Cathy Gilmore.

[00:55:06] Oh, and then these Back to Ghoul sets.

[00:55:09] I love these names.

[00:55:10] Back to Ghoul sets.

[00:55:13] Now those I have heaped.

[00:55:14] I have four of them.

[00:55:15] And they have like all different mini notes.

[00:55:17] But the only reason I bought so many is because they come with the little notebooks inside.

[00:55:20] So you had a Slappy one.

[00:55:22] Oh, Creature Compass too.

[00:55:23] And you had...

[00:55:25] Oh yeah, the Mummy.

[00:55:27] But you know what one of the coolest products was?

[00:55:30] The Goosebumps alarm clock with the mummy hands coming out of the ground.

[00:55:35] Oh yeah.

[00:55:36] Such an epic piece man.

[00:55:38] Here it is, so yeah.

[00:55:41] That was so cool.

[00:55:42] Oh yeah, I love them.

[00:55:44] Always loved that.

[00:55:45] And the bookends.

[00:55:46] You guys designed so many interesting and unique things like...

[00:55:51] It's so crazy to think that like you just had this free reign and like you said you didn't even...

[00:55:58] You kind of biassed your way to the job.

[00:56:03] But it was also like kind of spoiled us because you expect...

[00:56:07] Since it was my first line that I worked on, I expected everything to be like that.

[00:56:12] After that there wasn't...

[00:56:13] It was like oh, I think after that we did like My Little Pony.

[00:56:17] It was like a nightmare.

[00:56:20] That was the real scary stuff.

[00:56:23] Yeah, it was the 80s My Little Pony.

[00:56:27] That is so...

[00:56:28] Oh yeah.

[00:56:29] So when they came to you, like they said just...

[00:56:31] Did they just give you like a list of stationery stuff and they just said make whatever or was it like...

[00:56:36] Make this.

[00:56:37] Actually like okay well we want a desk ady and you got to use...

[00:56:41] No, they had no idea.

[00:56:42] They had no idea.

[00:56:43] We didn't even know what back to school stuff was so I went to the Staples or something.

[00:56:48] I just looked at like what was out there, like what kids used and like a compass and stuff.

[00:56:55] So we just made it up.

[00:56:57] We showed them what was out there.

[00:57:01] That's funny.

[00:57:02] Like the desk ady.

[00:57:03] I don't even know if it does...

[00:57:04] Did they have Staples there?

[00:57:06] Yeah, but I don't even know if the desk ady is real.

[00:57:09] I don't even know.

[00:57:10] We just made that up.

[00:57:14] It's just an excuse to have a giant severed head on your desk.

[00:57:19] Which is a common sense.

[00:57:20] You don't get that opportunity too often to have that so...

[00:57:23] No.

[00:57:25] I don't think I've seen another desk ady like that either.

[00:57:28] I've obviously seen desk adys but nothing like...

[00:57:31] There were more of them and I can't remember.

[00:57:35] I'd have to like sit down and like really think about it.

[00:57:39] But I know there...

[00:57:41] I did at least three of each thing, you know.

[00:57:44] So I did three desk adys and that was the one that got made.

[00:57:49] Makes sense.

[00:57:50] The other one was probably...

[00:57:52] I would love to have one of the mask ones.

[00:57:53] I think that would have been a really cool one.

[00:57:55] Yeah.

[00:57:56] That would be cool.

[00:57:57] No, Curly was the most fun to draw so it was probably him.

[00:58:02] He was a cool...

[00:58:03] I can see Curly being in that too.

[00:58:05] Yeah.

[00:58:07] But I mean, Slappy's head is just amazing to just have in your hand

[00:58:12] and then just hook them to your table again.

[00:58:14] Just hook them to your table.

[00:58:16] I think it works in the ventriloquist dummy aspect,

[00:58:20] the whole up and down mouth.

[00:58:22] I think it just would work for a caddy.

[00:58:24] It's just so on the nose.

[00:58:26] Like this one works very well because of what it is, I guess.

[00:58:30] You know?

[00:58:32] Yeah.

[00:58:33] There was a horror film that Anthony Hopkins was actually in

[00:58:37] in the 70s called Magic.

[00:58:40] And it was about...

[00:58:42] Yeah, and it was about...

[00:58:44] Slappy reminded me of that

[00:58:46] and that used to scare the crap out of me as a kid.

[00:58:49] It's a very creepy movie.

[00:58:51] Oh yeah.

[00:58:52] 70s horror was on a different level.

[00:58:54] It was like eerie.

[00:58:55] He was rolling his head.

[00:58:57] Yeah, the music was really sinister, I remember.

[00:59:01] Yeah, I remember that movie.

[00:59:03] That movie actually made my dad scared of ventriloquist dummies.

[00:59:06] What's that big stuff?

[00:59:08] Goosebumps.

[00:59:09] Yeah, I was going to say...

[00:59:11] What's the ruler based on?

[00:59:14] Do you remember?

[00:59:16] A monster.

[00:59:17] That just made up.

[00:59:18] That was one of the few ones that they just let us...

[00:59:22] Kind of like that other one I showed you with that old guy.

[00:59:27] And I think my friend Larry...

[00:59:29] No, no, this guy Brian McGee designed that one.

[00:59:32] And I don't know why they let that pass,

[00:59:34] but it wasn't actually a Goosebumps character.

[00:59:37] Yeah, I always wondered about that one too.

[00:59:39] When I had it as a kid, I was like, what book is this from?

[00:59:43] A book of an alien other than Zaptid Space and Old Man's Room Outer Space.

[00:59:47] It was the secret unwritten book that you'll never read.

[00:59:51] Yep.

[00:59:52] Those were the lost Goosebumps books.

[00:59:54] There's a couple of those, so you never know.

[00:59:56] No, it's like you guys have ruined it because now I'm going to buy a Goosebumps slappy desk caddy.

[01:00:03] Oh really? Is there one on that?

[01:00:05] It's loose, no package. It's $80.

[01:00:08] Then there's one missing a bow tie.

[01:00:11] I mean, I get that one.

[01:00:13] You got to get the bow tie.

[01:00:15] I just make a bow tie.

[01:00:17] I love that the bow tie was the way that you would...

[01:00:20] I love even just the images on the back of the box.

[01:00:23] Like, I love everything.

[01:00:25] And I love how you've got the pencil toppers in the actual...

[01:00:28] Like, in the box.

[01:00:30] If you're advertising the other products on there,

[01:00:33] I just think it's just so cool.

[01:00:38] Oh yeah, and that Toyama Company Happiness Express,

[01:00:41] it was like way too many people crammed into two rooms.

[01:00:45] The whole company was two rooms in New York.

[01:00:50] And I used to call it asses and elbows because we were so crowded.

[01:00:55] I had an anchor next to me and someone drawing next to me.

[01:00:59] We were all in this big cubicle. It was a really strange place.

[01:01:03] Happy Ass Express.

[01:01:07] Happy Ass and Elbows Express.

[01:01:10] Oh man.

[01:01:12] Was there any other monsters that you can remember

[01:01:15] that were sort of thrown into the mix?

[01:01:18] Like, oh, we could make something on this,

[01:01:20] but then just decided, nah, maybe not one.

[01:01:23] I mean, I would have to go through the book covers

[01:01:26] and kind of look them over and try...

[01:01:28] And it would trigger some memories.

[01:01:30] But I just remember just looking at them

[01:01:32] and saying, what would make a cool toy?

[01:01:35] What would this character do?

[01:01:38] I'm honestly surprised.

[01:01:40] There wasn't more Monster Blood.

[01:01:44] Usually whenever Monster Blood was involved,

[01:01:46] it was Cuddles because it was the hamster.

[01:01:48] But just the idea of having toys that dealt with the slime in general,

[01:01:54] just sort of slimy, goopy sort of things.

[01:01:57] I mean, that was...

[01:01:58] Every time I think about Goosebumps,

[01:02:00] you got to have the really gross, slimy sort of aspect to it.

[01:02:06] But that's why I really like that pencil holder of Curly,

[01:02:09] or Curly Cuddles because he's got all the Monster Blood

[01:02:14] just dripping out of his mouth all over everything.

[01:02:17] And then he's holding...

[01:02:18] I don't know if you guys noticed,

[01:02:20] but he's got a little box of crayons in front of him

[01:02:22] and he's holding crayons in his hands.

[01:02:24] So it's only a great thing.

[01:02:26] That wasn't produced?

[01:02:29] I wish it was.

[01:02:30] I don't know.

[01:02:31] I wish it was.

[01:02:32] Where's the prototype?

[01:02:33] Where's the prototype?

[01:02:34] It's got to be out there, right?

[01:02:36] No.

[01:02:37] Yeah, I remember seeing the drawing for that.

[01:02:40] I'm like, yeah, Larry knocked it out of the park.

[01:02:42] Yeah, so that is the one.

[01:02:44] But yeah, he's got a little box of crayons in front of him.

[01:02:46] Would that prototype still exist, is the question?

[01:02:48] Would that still exist out there?

[01:02:49] No, everything that company filed Chapter 11,

[01:02:53] it was like a nightmare.

[01:02:55] I actually bailed out of the company before they went under.

[01:02:58] Really?

[01:02:59] Yeah, they had like a meteoric rise

[01:03:02] and then two of the people embezzled everything from the company

[01:03:06] and they went to jail.

[01:03:07] Oh, dang!

[01:03:09] You got out.

[01:03:13] Honestly, all this stuff they're talking about,

[01:03:16] yeah, is amazing stuff.

[01:03:18] So it's a shame that a company that actually made good products

[01:03:22] and gave creative freedom to the people to make those products, too.

[01:03:26] At the end of the day, you give that credit to the people who make those products.

[01:03:31] Yeah.

[01:03:32] Well, that's what I'm saying.

[01:03:33] They have to work for that company to do it usually.

[01:03:36] Right, right.

[01:03:37] I never would have had that opportunity.

[01:03:40] I probably would have never been introduced to Goosebumps

[01:03:43] if it hadn't been through that.

[01:03:45] It's weird where places take you sometimes, you know?

[01:03:49] Yeah.

[01:03:50] But now, I mean, like, you know, that was back in the 90s,

[01:03:54] making all those products.

[01:03:57] But I mean, now, and you've even alluded to this,

[01:04:00] just the discovery of how much of a fan base Goosebumps has now.

[01:04:07] Like, it must be pretty weird,

[01:04:11] like all these years later, how it makes a resurgence and then,

[01:04:16] you know, all of a sudden all the stuff becomes popular again.

[01:04:20] Yeah, it's funny because I think it's all about managing the brand.

[01:04:25] And if you can manage a brand, like, it went so high and then crashed so low

[01:04:31] because it wasn't managed correctly.

[01:04:33] But now, like, say the Turtles, right?

[01:04:36] Like Nickelodeon bought the Turtles from the creators

[01:04:39] and they, you know, they totally manage it well.

[01:04:42] They have this much product and that,

[01:04:45] and they reinvent it every three or four years and it keeps it going.

[01:04:49] And they kind of should have done that to Goosebumps.

[01:04:51] And I know they have done it, you know, but now the film's out.

[01:04:55] If they keep managing it correctly or whatever, it'll do well.

[01:05:00] It'll stick around.

[01:05:02] It won't be any dark days.

[01:05:06] We've talked before, we kind of thought that like,

[01:05:09] at least I did for sure back in the 90s,

[01:05:12] like once Harry Potter came out and Goosebumps took that dive

[01:05:16] and just I thought it was dead, like dead, dead.

[01:05:19] But there was a lot of legal stuff going on too around that time

[01:05:22] with Stein and Scholastic and Parachute Press and all that stuff, I guess,

[01:05:26] with his contract and everything.

[01:05:28] So I thought for sure it was dead.

[01:05:32] You didn't really see much of anything come out at the time,

[01:05:35] at least here in the States.

[01:05:36] I know Bjorn said that like it died there, but kind of it had a later response

[01:05:41] because there were other companies in other countries still producing Goosebumps stuff.

[01:05:46] Cool.

[01:05:47] But not here, unfortunately.

[01:05:49] But yeah, we literally had Goosebumps clothing.

[01:05:52] It's still alive.

[01:05:54] We literally had Goosebumps clothing that I have found,

[01:05:58] like Australian-made shirt.

[01:05:59] And they still say Parachute Press and they say 1999 on it.

[01:06:03] I'm like, 1999?

[01:06:05] Like that's weird.

[01:06:07] But Australia, even when I was at school in 2001, 2002,

[01:06:11] Goosebumps was still popular, like the books.

[01:06:14] And kids still had the toys from their older siblings.

[01:06:17] I remember kids still walked around school with a backpack or a hat

[01:06:21] or something, you know, primary school.

[01:06:23] So it was still, I think it might have had longer legs in Australia

[01:06:26] and in Europe, definitely in Europe,

[01:06:28] because there is Goosebumps products that had the year 2000 on it.

[01:06:31] And you're like, what?

[01:06:33] 2000?

[01:06:34] Because they even had the, because they used to bring up the calendar every year,

[01:06:37] 95, 96, 97, 98.

[01:06:39] But they continued the calendars over in, I think it was in Italy,

[01:06:45] they continued the calendars to 99 and 2000, 2001.

[01:06:50] And they've got like Series 2000 artworks for like the months on it and stuff.

[01:06:55] And I think, man, like some countries just kept it going for as long as they could,

[01:07:00] I guess, you know, like the popularity just,

[01:07:03] but it sounds like the US, it died quicker than anywhere else.

[01:07:08] It died overnight.

[01:07:10] It was like overnight.

[01:07:12] What is it?

[01:07:13] What's the holy grail item that nobody has that was produced?

[01:07:19] I think it's the, I have,

[01:07:23] I've had an offer of $2,000 on one item.

[01:07:27] And it's because I've seen only one other one loose,

[01:07:32] but I have it in the packaging and it's the Goosebumps Cuckoo Clock of Doom wall clock.

[01:07:38] And I have seen, I've had higher offers on that

[01:07:42] than I've seen on like a Series 2000 fan club pack that's sold,

[01:07:45] which I always thought was the grail.

[01:07:47] But this item was only produced in Australia.

[01:07:50] And it was a company for Crystal Craft.

[01:07:52] And even they didn't produce a lot of things that they made.

[01:07:56] And that item, I've never seen another one in the box

[01:08:00] in the 24 or 5 years that I have been collecting.

[01:08:04] So I'm going to say that's,

[01:08:06] it may not be in the number one item, but it's definitely in top three.

[01:08:10] That's really cool.

[01:08:11] So are you making a book of all of Goosebumps collectibles?

[01:08:15] Is there a resource of all your collections?

[01:08:19] My Instagram.

[01:08:20] I guess I just put it in the one.

[01:08:22] He's done videos where he just,

[01:08:24] I remember there was one and this was years ago,

[01:08:27] but there was one where you just took the camera,

[01:08:29] no dialogue, just went through every single thing.

[01:08:32] It was like an hour long.

[01:08:34] Kizzo was going through every shelf, every product so much.

[01:08:39] But that was like six years ago.

[01:08:41] He's probably like doubled all that now.

[01:08:43] What's your Instagram?

[01:08:45] Goosebumps Ozzy fan and the YouTubers.

[01:08:50] Yeah, Goosebumps Ozzy fan.

[01:08:52] So I'll...

[01:08:53] Well, slow down.

[01:08:54] You're getting way too confused with these names.

[01:08:57] Yeah.

[01:08:58] It's like, but yeah, I'd say that's up there.

[01:09:01] I'd say another item that's like a Holy grail.

[01:09:04] Like if we were talking like actual licensed products that were released,

[01:09:07] I mean, you've got items like original,

[01:09:09] like store displays, like Nick and you know,

[01:09:11] we know like these, they fetch a lot of money.

[01:09:13] But if we're talking licensed products,

[01:09:15] like I got to say it's probably that clock.

[01:09:19] The series 2000 fan club pack, I would say,

[01:09:21] would have to be in the top three, top five rarest items.

[01:09:26] Yeah, like our series two collectibles just are in there.

[01:09:30] All of them.

[01:09:31] Every series two collectible is expensive.

[01:09:33] Is there.

[01:09:34] And the scare packs.

[01:09:36] I actually ended up finding the pencil sharpener, the electronic one.

[01:09:41] Yeah.

[01:09:42] So it looks like...

[01:09:43] Yeah, those are taken from an existing one and they just put new skins on it.

[01:09:49] But there was a gorilla that ate your pencils and they shopped,

[01:09:53] they found that, they sourced it in Hong Kong.

[01:09:56] Well, I actually didn't know about the curly one.

[01:09:59] I knew about the barking ghost one with the dog,

[01:10:02] but the curly one, I'm actually just finding out was a thing that exists.

[01:10:08] Yeah, it's cool.

[01:10:09] I love the packaging on those products too.

[01:10:12] Especially like you could see there with the desk caddy and the tape dispenser.

[01:10:18] I just love the pattern of like blue and purple contrast with the green logo.

[01:10:23] It's kind of like the VHS pattern.

[01:10:25] It's kind of like that pattern in the old VHS tapes.

[01:10:27] Yeah.

[01:10:28] I don't know why it's just like so pleasing to the eye.

[01:10:32] It's like you look at that and you're like, oh, that's a Goosebumps product.

[01:10:35] Like that's always important too.

[01:10:38] I remember the first time I saw the battery operated sharpener was actually a teacher had it at school,

[01:10:43] like on her desk and kids used to just want to sharpen their pencil even if they didn't want to sharpen their pencil.

[01:10:50] They'd break them on purpose.

[01:10:53] This was 2002 because I remember it was my grade two teacher and she had it and it was the curly one.

[01:10:59] And I remember I always used to ask her if I could have it.

[01:11:01] She's like, no, no, this was my son's and you know, it's something that, you know,

[01:11:05] because he's not at school anymore and I was like, oh, okay.

[01:11:08] So she basically was like, no, it wouldn't let me have it.

[01:11:11] And then he performed a heist.

[01:11:16] Do you think that's a dreary insane image you collect all that stuff just because that one incident?

[01:11:22] I feel like that definitely played a factor.

[01:11:27] There's a lot of, yeah, like, I don't know, like as a kid, I saw a lot of Goosebumps stuff, you know,

[01:11:33] that people owned, like from their childhood.

[01:11:36] I had things passed down from my older cousin and I think that, yeah,

[01:11:41] like just all those stories and memories, you know, of these items just.

[01:11:47] And I mean, I love Goosebumps anyway, but, you know,

[01:11:51] I just used to look at them and think how cool are they?

[01:11:54] Like, how cool does that look?

[01:11:55] How nostalgic? Oh yeah.

[01:11:57] And I just had to have everything.

[01:11:59] That was the villain arc.

[01:12:06] I'll take it to my grave, man.

[01:12:08] Like 100 percent.

[01:12:09] I will have it all and no one else will get any.

[01:12:12] It's going to be.

[01:12:14] I'll be buried with it all.

[01:12:15] It's going to be a giant hole.

[01:12:18] It's going to be a big one for everything.

[01:12:21] They're going to have to custom order a casket for you.

[01:12:24] I know.

[01:12:25] Well, you know how they say like,

[01:12:26] It's just an open casket funeral.

[01:12:29] You're just laying there with your sloppy dummy next to you,

[01:12:32] all your sloppy dummies next to you just for the whole,

[01:12:34] I want to have them like around my arms and I just like,

[01:12:37] they're just like, yeah, then my bro is like,

[01:12:40] you know, they say, yeah, you can't take it all.

[01:12:43] You know, they say, yeah, you can't take everything.

[01:12:45] You know, can't take things with you.

[01:12:47] I am going to change that.

[01:12:49] It reminds me of the Toy Story comics.

[01:12:51] We have them with you in the afterlife,

[01:12:53] but you'll have them in your grave.

[01:12:55] It reminds me of the Toy Story comic where like Andy is like on his deathbed

[01:12:59] and he's like, I'll never leave you guys.

[01:13:01] And then it shows them like Woody and Buzz buried with him

[01:13:04] and they're all freaked out.

[01:13:07] Oh yeah.

[01:13:08] They're like, ahhhh.

[01:13:09] Because they're like trying to do anything.

[01:13:11] I remember that.

[01:13:12] That's going to be you with your Goosebumps stuff.

[01:13:15] It's love, it's life.

[01:13:17] Yeah.

[01:13:19] You're going to find some way to end up possessing your sloppy dummy.

[01:13:23] You're going to take control of it.

[01:13:26] You're going to reincarnate as sloppy.

[01:13:28] He's coming with me.

[01:13:30] He's coming with me.

[01:13:32] I guess one last question.

[01:13:34] If you had the chance to like make any Goosebumps products now,

[01:13:39] would you go back to like those old designs

[01:13:41] or would you like maybe take a stab at doing some new ones?

[01:13:45] No, I definitely do new ones because I've been a toy inventor for a lot longer now.

[01:13:51] I know a lot more tricks.

[01:13:56] That was my bag of tricks for the time.

[01:14:00] Yeah.

[01:14:01] Yeah.

[01:14:02] So what would you say?

[01:14:03] I mean it does have Goosebumps.

[01:14:06] Animatronics.

[01:14:07] Well, we do a lot of animatronic toys and stuff.

[01:14:13] It would be great to do like just a freaky alive,

[01:14:17] sloppy crawling across the floor or something.

[01:14:21] Yeah, like something like what you'd find in like a Spirit Halloween

[01:14:24] or something like that.

[01:14:26] Yeah.

[01:14:27] Yeah, definitely.

[01:14:28] Oh man, that would be so cool.

[01:14:30] It might be really cool actually.

[01:14:31] It's like an interactive sloppy.

[01:14:32] Like some of those interactive toys where you speak to it

[01:14:34] and he like responds back to like a pre-recorded message.

[01:14:38] That'd be really cool.

[01:14:39] It's the time too though, like with those whole new Disney shows coming out

[01:14:42] and there's a season two coming out.

[01:14:44] I feel like now is the time to bring out some Goosebumps stuff again like this.

[01:14:49] Triches Studios is doing it.

[01:14:51] Well, that's the thing.

[01:14:52] There's many companies now that are making even if they're not officially,

[01:14:56] well, I mean most of them are officially licensed.

[01:14:58] It's a legal thing.

[01:15:00] But Goosebumps toys are sort of making a bit of a comeback.

[01:15:05] Now there's like action figures and merchandise collectibles coming out now.

[01:15:11] So I mean, if there ever was a time to go back to the wheel well,

[01:15:16] it might be now.

[01:15:17] Yeah.

[01:15:18] Yeah.

[01:15:19] It's like if anybody can make money from something, it's going to happen.

[01:15:23] Goosebumps.

[01:15:26] I think there's still money in Goosebumps.

[01:15:29] So I'm sure we'll see a lot more stuff.

[01:15:32] Absolutely.

[01:15:33] There's definitely money in Goosebumps.

[01:15:35] I can't believe some of the nostalgia stuff I see in like Target.

[01:15:40] It's crazy like what comes back.

[01:15:44] There's always like new Ninja Turtles stuff and like horror movie action figures.

[01:15:50] And then of course you got like...

[01:15:52] There's little rumors going on that we're getting Goosebumps Funko Pops later this year.

[01:15:56] I was actually just about to bring up Funko Pops.

[01:15:58] It's like now you got those.

[01:15:59] But yeah, there are going to be Goosebumps ones.

[01:16:02] So, you know, it makes a comeback.

[01:16:06] Well, one thing I want to quickly actually ask really quickly

[01:16:09] because he said you did like R-Real Monsters.

[01:16:11] Did you ever get the opportunity to...

[01:16:13] Because I'm a huge, and Isaiah is too, huge Spongebob fan.

[01:16:17] Love Spongebob.

[01:16:18] I love Spongebob, especially the old green label era of Spongebob.

[01:16:22] Did you ever like design or get the...

[01:16:25] Or have like an opportunity to do anything within the Spongebob world?

[01:16:30] Like for this stuff?

[01:16:33] Yeah, we worked on a lot of stuff for Spongebob,

[01:16:36] but nothing ever made it to shelves because there are so many companies making it.

[01:16:42] We did like dancing Spongebobs and we did, you know,

[01:16:46] trying to think.

[01:16:49] Yeah, we...

[01:16:50] Wait, you know what?

[01:16:51] I'll have to get back to you on that because some...

[01:16:54] I think one thing did make it to the shelves

[01:16:57] and it was from a Chinese toy company.

[01:17:01] Yeah.

[01:17:02] That would be the eye of my eye.

[01:17:04] Spongebob toys were always fun.

[01:17:06] I remember I came across like it was a shower radio for Spongebob.

[01:17:11] It's like a radio that you put in the shower

[01:17:14] and it was like Spongebob in his bathtub.

[01:17:16] But you could actually listen to the radio like you could...

[01:17:20] I don't know how they did it without, you know, water and electricity,

[01:17:24] but must have been battery powered.

[01:17:27] That was an original item.

[01:17:28] That was a green label Spongebob item.

[01:17:30] That was like the 90s, 2000s sort of thing.

[01:17:32] Great sculpture.

[01:17:33] Yeah, because back even like back then,

[01:17:35] like some of the sculpts on some of the old Spongebob toys just looked great.

[01:17:39] Like the actual molds and stuff was really good.

[01:17:42] Well, again, it just was there.

[01:17:44] Was there one from Mattel where you went like this and he went...

[01:17:48] Yeah, the babbling sponge.

[01:17:50] Yeah, that was one of my favorites.

[01:17:53] And that was like...

[01:17:54] He literally says that tickles.

[01:17:56] Yeah.

[01:17:58] Well, I got a little one up here that's like...

[01:18:02] He's like a little bouncing Spongebob.

[01:18:05] So you like he's on like a little thing and you push the button

[01:18:08] and I think the batteries are dead,

[01:18:10] but he basically like you push it and he'll say something

[01:18:13] and he's like he moves like up and down.

[01:18:16] Oh yeah, he's such a great character.

[01:18:18] It's like it's such a recognizable.

[01:18:20] Again, it goes back to that familiar IP.

[01:18:22] Once you have an IP that...

[01:18:24] Yeah, I remember seeing that and it was called,

[01:18:31] I don't know, it was a children's programming magazine

[01:18:36] and Spongebob hadn't come out yet.

[01:18:38] And all I saw was a photo of that and I'm like,

[01:18:41] that's going to be a hit because it kind of had their

[01:18:44] like the Ren and Stimpy kind of irreverence,

[01:18:47] but it was cute and you know.

[01:18:49] Yeah, no, it definitely was.

[01:18:51] It was pretty much addicted to it for the first couple of seasons.

[01:18:56] Oh, it was that was when it was golden,

[01:18:58] kind of like the Simpsons era.

[01:19:00] Spongebob had the golden era which was seasons one to three

[01:19:03] and people also regard the first movie as very iconic as well.

[01:19:07] Great.

[01:19:08] Yep, absolutely.

[01:19:09] The sculptures were great on those toys, those old ones.

[01:19:11] They just looked so good.

[01:19:12] They look like ripped out of the show, man.

[01:19:14] Yeah.

[01:19:15] I love this.

[01:19:16] Nah, it's criminal that you can make designs for toys

[01:19:20] and then they just don't get picked up

[01:19:22] and they could be some of the coolest things ever

[01:19:24] and then they just get left on their own.

[01:19:27] No, the type of work we do now is a toy company will come to us

[01:19:31] and say, hey, we need a $60 Spongebob

[01:19:35] and it can only have one motor, but it has to do something amazing.

[01:19:38] And then we just sit around and brainstorm it

[01:19:41] and can we do this? Can we do this?

[01:19:44] Can you do a cartwheel?

[01:19:46] Whatever, and that's how.

[01:19:48] And then they do it and then it goes down the line

[01:19:52] and they can't sell it to Walmart and then it gets dropped.

[01:19:56] Or it gets made.

[01:19:58] Yeah.

[01:19:59] Either way.

[01:20:00] Well, anywho, that's going to...

[01:20:03] Wait, one more thing. I got to plug one more shameless plug.

[01:20:06] Oh, I have a new game that I worked on with our company

[01:20:10] and it's called Pickleball Blast.

[01:20:13] Oh.

[01:20:14] So it's a pickleball game and the pickle is a character.

[01:20:18] It sort of looks like Spongebob.

[01:20:20] The pickle.

[01:20:21] And it's tabletop pickleball.

[01:20:23] That's pretty cool.

[01:20:25] That actually sounds great.

[01:20:27] That's the only thing about pickleball is like

[01:20:29] it's pickles and balls.

[01:20:31] It's pickleball.

[01:20:33] No, it's...

[01:20:34] That sounds great.

[01:20:35] The company Moose from Australia makes it.

[01:20:38] Oh.

[01:20:39] I'll probably see it on the shelf here like before anywhere else.

[01:20:43] It's called Pickleball Blast.

[01:20:45] Yeah, it just hit the shelves and it has a big pickle on it.

[01:20:48] Awesome.

[01:20:49] It hit the shelves already?

[01:20:51] Oh, so like Tamer, we got like toys.

[01:20:55] I'll find it. I'll find it.

[01:20:56] Yeah, it's everywhere.

[01:20:58] I'll find a link to it and I'll put it in the description below

[01:21:02] for our audience to take a look at.

[01:21:05] But no, that's really cool.

[01:21:07] That's awesome.

[01:21:08] And that's going to do it for today's episode of the Goosebumps Crew Podcast.

[01:21:12] Steve, thank you so much for coming on the podcast

[01:21:14] and talking about toys and Goosebumps with us.

[01:21:16] Okay.

[01:21:17] Absolutely.

[01:21:18] Great. It was a great time.

[01:21:19] Nice meeting you guys.

[01:21:21] Yeah, absolutely.

[01:21:22] Yeah, nice meeting you too.

[01:21:23] Is there any other place that our audience can find you?

[01:21:25] Social media or website?

[01:21:27] Steve Casino, at Steve Casino and Instagram, Stevecasino.com.

[01:21:32] Just type in Steve Casino, you'll find me.

[01:21:36] And I'll go ahead and leave a link to those profiles in the description as well.

[01:21:43] Go follow Steve. He's awesome.

[01:21:46] He posts pictures of toys and designs all the time.

[01:21:49] Really cool stuff. Absolutely.

[01:21:52] And yeah, thank you again for joining us and talking Goosebumps.

[01:21:55] Oh, you're welcome.

[01:21:56] As always, make sure you follow the rest of the Goosebumps Crew

[01:22:00] on our YouTube social medias and Instagrams,

[01:22:02] Twitter's and all that.

[01:22:03] Goosebumps Aussie fans,

[01:22:04] Shawin and the Ultimate Goosebumps Man

[01:22:06] as well as here at the Goosebumps Channel

[01:22:08] and the Goosebumps Crew Podcast YouTube channel.

[01:22:10] Also make sure you follow our audio platforms.

[01:22:12] All those links are in the description below.

[01:22:14] And until next time, this has been the Goosebumps Crew Podcast.

[01:22:17] And from all of us here at the Goosebumps Crew Podcast,

[01:22:19] I want to wish you all to take care, stay safe, and have a very scary day.