#209. 'The Beanie Bubble'
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The main event is The Beanie Bubble (Apple TV+), the Ty Warner/Beanie Babies biopic co-directed by OK Go frontman Damien Kulash and Al Gore's daughter Kirsten Gore, and the trio lands somewhere between disappointed and grudgingly charmed. Sonny is the most negative, calling it a "lean-in movie" that fictionalizes its three women leads as composites under different names, never explains why the toys actually became a phenomenon, is lit like an NBC sitcom, and closes on vague, perfunctory title cards — though he singles out Zach Galifianakis, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook, and Geraldine Viswanathan as genuinely good. JVL clocked the vanity-project, OK Go-adjacent vibe from the opening slow-motion truck-crash sequence, found the Christopher Nolan-esque interwoven timelines undercut by hand-holding year-marker title cards and an inconsistent tone, but still calls it a solid-for-what-it-is vanity project elevated by Galifianakis's performance. Mike agreed the cast was terrific, especially Sarah Snook acting in a noticeably different, more pathos-driven register than everyone around her, and spent much of the discussion noting the film's obvious Atlanta locations and riffing on real Beanie Baby nostalgia (McDonald's tie-ins, the Princess Diana bear, Teddy Ruxpin) before the three veer into a long tangent about collectible bubbles — comic books, Funko Pops, Atari cartridges — and how markets like eBay actually form. All of that comes after an unusually long, heartfelt opening: roughly the first half-hour is devoted to remembering Weekly Standard publisher Terry Eastland, who died that week at 73, with JVL recounting how he misjudged Terry's slow, deliberate manner before realizing he was one of the wisest men he knew (and replaying Terry's legendary 1988 press conference announcing his own firing by Ed Meese), Sonny telling how Terry personally struck his birth name off his first published byline and substituted "Sonny," cementing his professional name for life, and Mike recalling bonding with Terry over Braves fandom and Vanderbilt along with the private wisdom and career favors Terry extended to him. Before the movie itself they also run through box office numbers, debate Star Wars versus The Conjuring as intellectual property, discuss the fate of Donald Glover's Lando project, and riff on whether Jason Momoa should pivot from acting to becoming a full lifestyle brand, complete with Sonny's "Jason Momoa's Margaritaville" bit and JVL's secondhand story of The Rock crashing a friend's family Thanksgiving dinner.
From the show notes
Before we got to The Beanie Bubble , we spent some time talking about a colleague and a mentor, Terry Eastland, who passed away this week. Thank you for indulging our reminiscences.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00You know what the greatest thing about America is you can make things happen here like nowhere else You have the power to create your own future you can be anything you can do anything You want to sell high-end stuffed Himalayan cat under stuffed actually for a greater possibility. We're professionals We're giving the people what they need
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Mike00:00:32Welcome to the sub beacon podcast. I'm your co-host Mike Warren Joining me as always are my under stuffed and poseable co-hosts Jonathan V last and Sonny Bunch I love that about them. Join us over at sub beacon calm to become a patron and get first access to new episodes every Friday exclusive access to bonus episodes join in the conversation in the comments and just in general become a part of the sub beacon online community That's sub beacon calm. Thanks for listening. And thanks for being a patron We'll be talking about the beanie bubble later in the show. But first We wanted to take a few minutes here at the top of the show Just to reflect on on the loss of somebody that was very close to all three of us and and to so many other People in our world at Terry Eastland our friend died this week at the age of 73 Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Jill his Daughter Katie and her husband Robert Terry's grandsons Jonathan you wrote a very nice tribute to Terry over at the bulwark and you don't need to repeat everything folks You you can and should go read it But talk to us a little bit to start us off JVL about what Terry meant to you and why he was such a special person
JVL00:01:50So I I mean I really underestimated Terry when I met him when I first saw when I first met him was playing basketball with him because when I first came to the standard as a 22 year old I connived and convinced a bunch of the grown-ups to like come play basketball with me once a week and Terry was a friend of everybody's from from the Reagan administration but more approximately from The American Spectator where he'd been publisher the American Spectator and so he and Vladi plush insky Names that nobody who's listening to the show would possibly remember They came out. It was like David tell David Brooks Paul G go Like it was just a weird collection of people coming out to play basketball once a week the dream team really the dream Yeah very much the dream team and Terry came out and then he wound up getting who's brought into the standard as a Consultant and then was hired as a publisher and I was like, who is this guy? He talks so slow And like is he just a moron or a hayseed or what? What is this? and then I Think this is this is how far we didn't have a website Like websites were something that not every business had and we just had a stay learned in the media, by the way. Yes Yes, so it was just a web page. It was like the weekly standard. It was purple and green and you know a web presence and so I Anyway, the point is I worked for Terry for it was about ten weeks before I realized that I had him totally wrong he was this very wise guy and a wonderful guy and Just I would have fucking run through walls for that guy. I was a Terry guy I was interested in something you said Sonny you said that you owed your career to him in a weird way and I was trying to remember that And why that would be and I could
Sonny00:03:49Okay, I'll tell that story Hold it. Can you guys hear me? I feel like my mics a little far away. Yeah Sure, I'll tell that story. Well first I've the website thing is funny JBL cuz do you remember do you remember how I got onto your good list? Because you have you have a good list in a bad list. Most people are on the bad list I think it's first you start off on the basis. I have you the I mean this is like saying like there's ever
JVL00:04:18There's the whole world and I'm just like seven people who I like, but do you remember initially how I got onto your good list?
Sonny00:04:24It was it was with it was with the website. Remember we we had Had to build the archive of the actual published Magazine yes, and I like I was the one who was like filling in the little I would like I would I would like highlight the box of The that was like the title of the story and then put in like what the title was and like what the actual story was about like keywords was like title and keywords and
JVL00:04:51Yeah, you're copying and pasting files into an HTML field
Sonny00:04:57I at that point so that at that point it was 2002 I guess I did eight years of magazine back issues over the course of like a month As part of my internship Something like that just like and then my under if I remember correctly we ended up not actually using that system at all It ended up not it ended up being something else Was was anyway, it didn't neither here nor there, but that was I just remember I just remember you being impressed by the fact that I was an intern who actually Did work like actual actual like shit was like annoying?
JVL00:05:31Scott were like that was true most interns come in and they were like I have thoughts about the Iraq war that I would like to publish Can you please publish my feelings about Iraq? No me me it was me
Sonny00:05:47It means Lee me it was me it was just here. I'll put words. I'll put words into boxes. I can do that That's a that's a thing. I am qualified. Did you want to?
JVL00:05:57Here's something scary. I bumped into a former weekly standard intern a couple weeks ago up here in Jersey And she is a mom of a kid at my school And so she's like an adult and she's like you probably don't remember me. I entered at the weekly standard I was like, okay. Hey, I don't remember you But but be how terrifying this is that whenever you and I met you were a child
Sonny00:06:27And now we are just parents at the same school together in the 20, you know, that's she was not probably in college That's an adult, you know, 19
Mike00:06:36I think we would all have kids at the same school. Uh, that's possible So we have there's a there's a wide range between my age and your age JBL. So
Sonny00:06:47Anyway, so Terry Terry The The medium-length version of this story is Fred Barnes So I was an intern at the Weekly Standard. This is 2002 This is the summer of 2002 Fred Barnes has asked me to write a profile of Connie Morella Who was at the time the Maryland I forget which district in Maryland, but a Maryland House representative a representative In in the House of Representatives the United States House of Representatives from Maryland not not the Maryland House And she was it. She was a moderate. She was No relation to Santino Morella. No, no wrestler as far as I know But uh, she was she was a she was you know, she's a moderate Republican who was in trouble because she was in a you know pretty pretty liberal District in in Maryland, you know long story short. I like I wrote the piece and I Gave it to Fred. I was like I wrote this piece. I wrote it. I wrote it in a day Here's the here's the piece and Fred was like well, this is did you go to the district? Did you did you go dude? Did you go knock on doors? No, can I do that? Is that allowed even anyway long story short this piece ends up this piece ends up getting you know ready for publication On the the first anniversary of September 11th. That's the issue it ran and it was like one year was One year later was the the I guess whatever the second weekend in September the second week in September 2002 is when this piece ends up running. So I you know, I'd been back at school for a month or so and I Fred also a The other person the one of the other people I owe my career to is Fred Barnes rewriting that entire piece Like after I had gone and done after I I did go to the district I did talk to Connie Morella and we knocked on some doors and I talked to constituents and But and I turned in the piece and it was much better the second time around and it was much better still the third Time around when Fred just rewrote it from the ground up But so I so I I turned in this piece and he probably I'm sorry
JVL00:09:12I'm gonna interrupt you to make a joke that only the three of us will line Vic I bet he rewrote it to the exact same word length Word you probably filed it at 976 and he probably clocked that
Sonny00:09:26And rewrote it would not be surprised it was that would that that is that would be a very very Fred thing It was about to say it was certainly about the same length anyway So I like I filed this piece, and I you know I signed a contract a release a contract you know and my byline was my Actual that I had filed it under my like actual legal name And this is this had been something I was considering for a while so like pulling back the curtain slightly on my life I am the fourth. I'm a my name is my name ends in bunch the fourth and But I have literally never been called that in my entire life. I like never it has never been a It has never been a a name. I've gone by I've gone by sunny literally since the day. I was born all through elementary school middle school high school I've always been I've always been sunny. It's the only name I've ever had answer to if somebody Like yelled my real name on the street. I would not turn around like I just wouldn't even But I I had been thinking about this prize like I guess I you know, I put time to put away childish things You know, they got my professional name on my first professional piece in a real magazine This should be my byline going forward not the byline. I was using in college by the way in college I was still Sonny Bunch And I I was like this is I feel good about this decision. I feel good about this decision and then I got the copy of I got the copy of the magazine from you know, like the printed magazine came to me with the you know The release form and everything in it. It was like sent to me, you know It was mailed to me in an envelope, but I got it. I was like, oh Sonny Sonny Bunch Okay, and I looked at the release and Terry had scratched out my real name on the release form and put in put in Sonny and had done the same on the on the you know on the the galleys That's what that's an industry term. That's what we call the the pieces that circulate Yeah, he he had he had done the same thing on the galleys So from that point on it was just that was it that was and I really do and I think look I To say that I owe him my career is maybe overstating it slightly, but I do think that I
JVL00:11:46Don't know how things go if I'm not Sonny Bunch nomenclature is I think it matters
Sonny00:11:52I think it matters. I think being I think my ridiculous name Has helped me more than it has hurt me is my point I guess and so I I like that was a that That's what some of that exactly that JBL JBL talks about the the the slow wisdom of Terry Eastland was 100% evident there as he looked at he looked at this situation, and he realized I was making a terrible career Malforming mistake was like we're gonna fix this for you
JVL00:12:18You know it's funny Fred Barnes tried to change my byline With my first button when he was walking galleys, and he walked past me He goes ah was this middle initial garbage shouldn't be miss initial should be Jonathan last I
Mike00:12:32Said but but George will uses a middle national yes in fact shouldn't even be Jonathan V
JVL00:12:37It should be John last John last that's sure do that. I was like but Fred no Nobody's ever called me John like that's too long and usually kept moving. That's so good. That's so funny
Sonny00:12:49I wouldn't let him well he I get once again I just want to say like Terry Terry did not consult me on this there was no there was This was just like she was just done for me, and I am frankly I appreciate that I should have
JVL00:13:02So Mike did you you overlap with Terry some right he hadn't driven out by right you have a lot from for a few years before Clarity media and Philly and Schutz decided to fuck him. Oh no no I was I was I was with him for
Mike00:13:17That was that was a good six or seven years of my time at the standard Yeah, I mean and he had a Office really until the end so and you guys were Braves fans we were so I was gonna say we Terry and I We had a lot in common. We're both Braves fans. We're both southerners both very wise. We both went to Vanderbilt University and We bonded very quickly over those things it was something that That he and I could talk about pretty pretty easily we You know shared certain things about that I have this memory of Sort of the way Terry Terry would approach sort of inside jokes is he would simply repeat them every time he saw you Which was his sort of way of kind of acknowledging camaraderie and there was one I remember he he went back I don't think I went back this year, but I believe he was getting an award at Vanderbilt And he went back for a homecoming And he attended us a speech by the Chancellor such as the school president at the time and in this speech One of the things this Chancellor who's no longer at Vandy said was that at Vanderbilt we are endeavoring to change humanity and For Terry this was about the most ridiculous hilarious thing that anybody could ever say about about their Abilities or their mission in in life let alone an institution And so he came back and I said how I said I said Terry How was I was Vandy and he's he told me that story and he from then on basically and every time I saw him since He would ask me some version of are you changing humanity yet? And I love that we talked about the Braves there are so many things they're not in this room But there are so many things that I have in my house Braves related that are Terry's that he Gave to me as as we were moving out of the weekly standard offices that I really cherish The you know essentially knickknacks, but things that I will always think of Terry when I see We he he also did a lot for me and I don't want this to become a you know, let me talk about myself too much, but but He was as publisher, you know so much of the business of the weekly standard all of the business really kind of went through him and he looked out for me because There was I'll say this there was a kind of by the time I came around there was a kind of People in terms of Salaries and raises and stuff. It was a little Behind the times and I won't mention any names, but just people were maybe not in tune with like How inflation and things had changed things and Terry was and I'm not saying Terry you know gave me big big pay bumps or anything like that made me a rich man or anything, but He understood What was going on again and that that you know? to retain people that he you know that that I was in need of Some bumps and he helped me out in in those ways, but I think more importantly We would have these conversations in his office, and I think he always felt isolated particularly in the old office Way down the hall away from the rest of the editorial Team and I would come down there and sit in his office and we would chat and we just talked about Vanderbilt sports or the Braves Or barbecue. He was a big barbecue fan and I Got so much wisdom about Washington in those conversations about journalism in those conversations about about life, you know, and I think For all of the sort of hey, you know Well, I'll help you get a little bit of a pay bump here and there which seemed like a the most important thing When you're 22 23 24 years old You know, I just think back to those little nuggets of wisdom the friendship That I had with Terry And you know his wife Jill is such a lovely person obviously, we know we know Katie and Robert and and and love all of them as well. It just he was a decent man and a traditionalist in a world that he didn't always understand in terms of the changes and and and the way things were changing and he was I think able to identify some of the You know the flaws in in how things were changing in a way that wasn't strident and wasn't angry But you know he I'm just rambling here. He just looked at the world In in a unique way, and I always will treasure the wisdom again. I keep bringing that word up
JVL00:18:33So he's he was a stone-cold stud though, which is so did you guys? I'll just recapitulate this for anybody listening who didn't read my thing so Terry first got famous in the 1980s He was the chief spokesman for attorney gen Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese Ed Meese was a very bad guy and he was not quite a crook but he was under constant investigation and his behavior was at the very least unethical and Terry was tasked with defending him and Terry did that to the extent he could using the truth and Eventually Meese fired Terry because he believed the Terry was not defending him vociferously enough As a for instance Terry only defended in me against some of the allegations against him not others Terry declined to attack the special prosecutor who was investing it was investigating me and Terry declined to attack the investigators findings the prosecutors findings before he had released his report and Terry's position was I served three different Institutions here well you know I work for Ed Meese but my job here is to serve the attorney the office of the Attorney general also the Department of Justice, but also the American people and You know like I can only conduct my myself in the pursuit of any one of those jobs in such a way that it doesn't violate the trust placed in me with the others and so me fire me fires him and so Terry goes and Gives a press conference in DOJ announcing his own firing and he's 38 years old. He's a baby, right? I mean these he's a child at 38 And if you watch his press conference, it is this unbelievably, I Mean, he's just he's simply he's totally calm He's totally clear-headed and good faith and you know, he's taking questions from Nina Totenberg and and he's not throwing Sam Thomas Doesn't throw me in fact alibis meese He blessed the guy who replaced him had been working to get him ousted so the guy who replaced him was I was an absolute snake who was trying to get him and Terry blessed him anyway and said, you know, you guys are all set to the pressers there cuz it's a huge gaggle It's like, you know, you guys are gonna work well with him. He's a professional, you know you can you can trust him to do his job well and Thank the press is like, you know, I really appreciate it working with you guys
Sonny00:21:10You do your jobs very professionally and then he takes questions and it was like no spinning. No
JVL00:21:15It's just it was it's an amazing heroic performance. It's on c-span. Yeah, it's it's great
Sonny00:21:22It was funny because I only watched I watched Like the first 10 minutes or so of it because I didn't have time watch whole thing But it really is just amazing watching him talk because he's just he's just just saying things He's he's just saying he's just saying he's just like it was like speaking It was like watching him speak to people in the weekly standard is is the only way I can describe it Yes, he was like he was just like I'm look. Here's here's what here's what I was no fun I've been asked. Here's what I'm doing. You know, I Can't do this. I Believe the Attorney General has the right to whichever Spokesman he wants that's totally fine. I get it. I'll pack up my stuff and go home It's okay, and it was it was just it was I mean, it was just amazing to watch. I don't know
Mike00:22:08it's like yes, so I asked Terry about that press conference once and Because it was a legend, you know when I was at the weekly so I think JVL you probably told me go watch this
JVL00:22:18And I did our buddy Adam white is the one who found it. Oh Originally, yeah
Mike00:22:25It's great. Well, but you know, it was a it was a big deal the run-up to it. I mean, I think her block Did a cartoon? No kidding because it was it was that kind of how many words and to describe what was happened How many labels did he put on I actually couldn't see it. I could I couldn't see any of the illustration
Sonny00:22:44The illustration of Terry is it's like it's like it looks kind of like Terry, but then underneath it It's like the beacon of the it's a Texan
Mike00:22:54text servitive spokesman
Sonny00:22:57man Texan from the Attorney General for people again
Mike00:23:04For people who don't have dreams of conservative Reaganism. Her block was this
JVL00:23:10unbelievably awful political cartoonist for The Washington Post for like 70 years or something who is absolutely revered despite the fact that I Just think he was talentless and nothing he did was either funny Or incisive like it was the most didactic and it was ugly
Sonny00:23:30terrible artist
JVL00:23:32Couldn't draw that's the you know, and it's one of these things where I never understood Why and people up? It's just an institution people worship. I remember the Corcoran had like a year-long a her block Exhibition and people so it's so Washington and I just never understood it, right? That's what Michael is talking about. Well, but by but I
Mike00:23:53Didn't mean to get off on a her block Sidebar, but my point was that I asked Terry about I said I said man That was that's an incredible press conference and he said he goes, you know, I didn't call that press conference He said I was getting ready to leave and they told me everybody's down there. They want to talk to you They haven't they don't they have questions because you essentially you need to go talk to all these people and When you watch the video you just see I mean it also tells you how full the press corps at the Justice Department was you know 35 years ago, but it He just went down there again not preparing to Meet the press and he just did it and the thing about I want to say one more thing about Terry that I'll let you guys finish up and then we'll move on but The amount of respect that he had he was he was a conservative He was on the on the conservative side of things and the Reagan administration In terms of conservative moderate the sort of movement conservatives loved him and obviously all of our friends the American Spectator Which became the weekly standard it was all he was sort of a part of that crew But he was really well respected by the press and yeah, and it was because of the straightforwardness with which he approached that job and I will just say that I texted a I won't name this person, but a sort of a high-ranking executive in DC at a media company About what when I heard that Terry had died because I knew this person also knew Terry and You know in fact, you know what? I should just pull it up here because his name is Mayan Rick Ibn
Sonny00:25:40I
JVL00:25:41Don't that it respected and that's the joke. That's the joke. That's what makes it funny
Mike00:25:47All right, Rainier wolf castle. That's the joke This this is the response. I loved Terry this is from this unnamed person. Thank you for sharing. He was such a good journalist and even better human being I Just don't think like you like that sums up Terry Eastland for me and I just thought that was You know something that should be said any other thoughts guys? Yeah one one more thing
JVL00:26:13If you look in the towards the left side of the frame in that c-span video, do you know who you see Brad Barnes? No Jill Eastland. Oh, yes. Yes young Jill Eastland Smokeshow Absolute smoke show and I loved it. It made me smile just thinking about Terry and Jill as like a young couple and I It made me smile. I'll tell you this. I I that mean Terry's a Deeply committed Christian Terry should have been Catholic. It is only by the accident of his birth in Texas that he wasn't Catholic I think he's Presbyterian. He was Presbyterian
Mike00:26:56And he's a member of his church. He was a member of church
JVL00:26:58He was very involved in and as you say is sincere if he'd been born on the in the Northeast. He would have been Catholic I I think there are very few people who are as prepared to move on to To you know to go home. Yes as Terry would have been and I am very sorry for his family and I understand that Jill and Katie and Robert and the boys will have great deal of grief, but my Overriding feeling just all week has been one of absolute joy and gratitude for having gotten to intersect with his life
Mike00:27:38Agree and and and I'll added that the Atlanta Braves our Atlanta Braves Terry clinched the NL East just a couple days after he died and The last the last time I talked to him over email. I regret that we didn't stay in better touch since then was Celebrating the last time the Braves won the World Series. So I'm hoping the Braves will do it again this year They're gonna do it again this year or not. Yeah, so Rest in peace. We love you Terry All right. Let's talk a little bit about should we is there anything to talk about the box office? I mean other than Barbie getting bumped down in this weird kind of limbo stage of the box office Sonny the nun to Number one that equalizer three at number two my big fat Greek wedding three at number three and Joe job on
Sonny00:28:31That's a Indian film there. It's it's a very oh It was a much anticipated Indian film I I've not seen it. I I didn't it's not my not my thing, but the the folks who are very into Bollywood We're very excited for it. No, I mean, there's not really that much interesting the nun to I It's the latest Conjuring movie. I don't I can't oh, okay I I actually stopped watching horror movies for a while after the first conjuring movie because it annoyed me so much Because it was a very effective. It was very effective at what it did It's just that I hated what it did the the stupid jump scares and whatever then the nun to the nun Annabelle all these movies are the same. I I can't I they're not for me Annabelle creation is all part of the same The the Annabelle movies the nun movies and the conjuring and then there's one I think it's called the curse of La Llorona, which is also part of this. Yeah, anyway, I'm already bored. Yes question
JVL00:29:34Yes question Which cinematic universe? right now is Worth more as a piece of intellectual property going forward not the library going forward Star Wars or the
Sonny00:29:53conjuring cinema, well Star Wars probably because the like the Well, it depends on how you want to look at it if it if you're talking If you're talking about return on investment the conjuring movies are a better return on investment because they cost You know the nun probably cost I don't know 25 or 30 million dollars to make It probably cost less than I probably cost like 15 million to make and it'll make you know a 50 something like that worldwide So like it on return, but the the Star Wars movies are still going to make you more money in the in the long run Assuming we ever see any I saw I saw news today that the Donald Glover TV show that was supposed to be from the from the guy who made a The Dear white people that that thing apparently that is The dear white people guys no longer involved with that now. It's Steven Glover and his brother who did Is this gonna be a Lando Lando? It's gonna be a movie a Lando movie. Oh, it was supposed to be a Lando show It was supposed to be a Lando show from the dear white people guy and my understanding is I Actually can't say I'll tell you off the show But anyway, long story short dear white people guy not involved anymore is my understanding. It's gonna be the Glover brothers And they're gonna and that is actually probably the best way to go with it because I did you guys watch it Lana? Did you watch I?
JVL00:31:29Heard great things. Yeah, I loves it and I want to watch it
Sonny00:31:33I ended up watching the whole thing on on treadmills I would watch an episode or two every time I went to the gym for for like six months It took me a while to get through it and it's it's very good. It's very it's very very good It gets like a little surreal in the second and third seasons It maybe it was at four seasons. I don't know after the first season. It gets a little surreal I'll put it that way But it was it was very good and entertaining and I recommend it
Mike00:32:00Well, I remember Donald Glover was on like was doing online sketch comedy like in like 15 years ago And it was very clear like early on that. He was yeah frickin
Sonny00:32:11so I mean he was great on community and he you know, he had the And the child you know stuff is all very good. So um
JVL00:32:21So is this turning from a supposedly from a streaming series into a theater? That is my understanding. Yes
Sonny00:32:26It was supposed to be a show. Okay, and I think it's gonna be a movie now instead is my again I don't think any of this is the I Wouldn't I would put zero dollars on any action any announced Star Wars thing becoming a real? Show or series until we start seeing like production stills
JVL00:32:48How many more Conjuring Cinematic Universe movies will be released before the next Star Wars theatrical release
Sonny00:32:56There's gonna be another there's gonna be another And and I say I'm like an Annabelle three in the case something or other maybe we'll get a nun crossover with Annabelle
Mike00:33:06Does the does the nun ever play with Annabelle and do a conjuring? I think my under my understand
Sonny00:33:13Well, I don't think so. I don't think the nun plays well with others because the nun is the most powerful evil force in the conjuring universe according to the poster that I've seen a bunch of times that the
Mike00:33:24You could call her the mother superior. I guess I guess you could do that if you wanted to you could
Sonny00:33:31anyway, I don't
Mike00:33:34Sonny talk more about this cinematic universe. I
Sonny00:33:38want to talk like I I Really I lived I legitimately stopped going to see horror movies in the theater for like a solid two years after I saw the conjuring Because again, it was like it was it was it's very good for what it is. It's a very effective Jumpscare horror movie and I was just like I hate this. I don't I don't enjoy this is not this is I I want Elevated horror I want the I want the you know a 24 horror and so an a 24 got into horror in a real way that's when I kind of started coming back more to the to the genre, but like I Fucking hate those. I hate all these dumb movies James James one very effective filmmaker. I hate him speaking I'm James one did you guys see the trailer for Aquaman 2 that movie looks like dogshit? No, that movie that movie looks not good at all
Mike00:34:27But I could I could have told you that yeah
Sonny00:34:29Well, I to be very different visionary director exactly what I thought about the first one and then that movie made one point one four billion dollars, so I don't know what the it's still this is my favorite my favorite footnote on the whole Zack Snyder DCEU thing Is that the highest grossing of all those movies? Was not Batman movie was not a Superman movie was not a wonder man Well our Wonder Woman movie is an Aquaman movie Aquaman highest grossing DC movie Maybe ever it may be higher grossing than the Dark Knight Rises. I know I would have to check that I'm not I'm not a hundred percent sure but
JVL00:35:08so I want to throw something out to you guys I If I were a life counselor to Jason Momoa Mm-hmm. I would suggest to him that his future should not be as an actor, but as a lifestyle brand Please I just get the sense that the Jason Momoa thing is a very powerful brand and He could have like his entire own universe of products and like the what what Jessica Alba did with like the honest soaps and stuff there should be a Jason Momoa line of solo cups and you know, just bro stuff You know see Jason Momoa additional see do right see do's and Harley dad my mom And that if he would just go and like say I'm gonna lend my brand and I want to fix the action on something
Sonny00:36:01He could be worth basically what you're describing is a Margaritaville, but for Jason Momoa Yeah, we need like a Jason Momoa's Margaritaville, whatever that would be. I don't know I don't know what tropical island drink that would be Jason Momoa's coconut island
Mike00:36:16I don't know, but yeah, Momoa Momoa was mimosas. He Jason Momoa I
Sonny00:36:26Could see that I happen What that's the thing though is he is like he's lovable in a way that the rock isn't in theory they have very similar They could occupy very similar career spaces. They're both like jacked like Pacific Islander origin Yep Superhero types like I could see both of but I really think that I think that Momoa is genuinely liked By normie audiences in a way that the rock just now he's too sterile
JVL00:37:02no, the rock is the problem is that rock is a tryhard and Momoa is just like brief. Yeah, Morganic You know like he just sort of is the rock you can tell has like planned every move He's ever made the rock is hustling and it shows right and you know This is you know, I think but it's a different kind of appeal Like I don't think the rock could sell product in that way like the Rockets a rock t-shirts I don't think could be a little wants to be the one the way that I think Momoa nobody wants to be the right
Sonny00:37:33But you could see yourself like hanging out and being Jason Momoa with Jason Momoa
JVL00:37:38We did I tell you guys the the rock story that I I was told secondhand by our buddy Howard who used to run the news authority mm-hmm, so So my my buddy Howard his wife is a gym rat and she Just was always at the gym at like 6:00 a.m. When they open. That's when she liked to work out and She all of a sudden Like you know one one fall The rock is in the gym working out in the same as her is in suburban, Atlanta And you know, it's very sparsely attended That time and they become like the equivalent of like hand hand waves up, you know raises like hey What's up with that ever like speaking or something and the the Monday before Thanksgiving? They're both like, you know getting water or something and she says, you know, just make a small talk like, you know So what do you you got the plans for Thanksgiving and he's like no actually? I'm just gonna be sitting in my sit in my hotel room because you know, we got a shoot on Friday, you know an early call and so I can't really fly home and So, you know, I'm just gonna just gonna be sitting in a hotel and she says to him
Mike00:38:49Oh, why don't you come over to our house? And he's like, could I?
JVL00:38:55So The Rock comes over to to Howard and in this house for for Thanksgiving dinner And he shows up and Howard's dad is there so and he is in his mid to late 70s and he has absolutely no idea who the Rock is and The Rock sort of come, you know He rings the doorbell and he comes inside and like, you know enters himself to Howard and introduces himself to the kids and Takes hands with the grandpa grandpa goes. Oh, you're a big fella, aren't you?
Mike00:39:28Amazing if the the thing that I would insist on him doing and saying if The Rock came to my Thanksgiving It's just pulling some casserole dish out of the oven and saying you smell what the rock You got to you got to all right. Well, you could tell by all this like discursive box-office talk that they really
Sonny00:39:53Did you guys
Mike00:39:57Stop Sonny. Yes, so so much. We are watching a movie that came out on streaming. Did it ever run in theaters? I don't know. No the beanie bubble It was on Apple TV. That's how I watched it Sonny give us a review of
Sonny00:40:14The beanie bubble is like it's a brand movie about beanie babies kind of except it's a movie that is Doesn't tell us anything about beanie babies or why they were popular except demand That's that's that's like the extent of what we like It's a brand movie that doesn't care at all about the thing that it's supposed to do that It's nominally the brand is about it does not care at all about Why tie figures? became incredibly popular we just see some early scenes of Zach Galifianakis who plays ty warner is that that's his name ty warner and Elizabeth banks, I don't even care about her character's name Selling these things at toy conventions. They're they're great because you you can move the head around and they're understuffed and like that's that's the extent of What we get about the appeal of these things which is frustrating to me because I don't Understand. I don't understand the appeal. I would like to know more about the appeal, but this is not
Mike00:41:18My contact this is were you I can't act were you alive in 1998 sunny?
Sonny00:41:23Yes, I was what what no, but no, but no, but these are I'm not talking about beanie babies. I'm talking about the tie Things that were around before the actual beanie babies which like created the whole I mean like it's not like beanie babies Just sprung from the head of Zeus right there was a there was a company that was around it was Very successful they had done they had done very well for themselves, and I we learned absolutely nothing about that that portion of the business Instead it's it's it's it's a it's a lean in movie. That's what this is It's a movie about these three women and how they were they got screwed by this Ty Warner guy and they all came together to screw him back and they got theirs and blah blah blah and Everything about this movie is perfunctory Down to the actual technical elements of it the lighting you know This movie is lit like a NBC sitcom you know to the To the to the screenplay which has kind of an interesting structure It's almost structured like a Christopher Nolan movie you have all these timelines on top of each other and they all kind of converge on One point except and here's my real problem with how the film is structured They don't trust the audience to get there on their own instead We have these these year markers that keep coming up and spinning us through the year
JVL00:42:41Well some of the years should have been in black and white or you don't even have to do it that way
Sonny00:42:46You just do it you you could just you just have them You you let us trust how they're dressed and we could see that they're in the different eras and and Ty Warner looks different He's talking to different people like again. It just doesn't it it it holds our hand until it decides to stop holding our hand and at that point I had like kind of I Was so annoyed by it that I just I had I anyway um I I really disliked. I really disliked a large portion of this movie I like here's what I liked. I'll say what I like. I like the actors. I like Zach Galifianakis in this I think he's very good. I liked Elizabeth Banks. I think she's very good. I like Sarah snook Who is very good the the? Indian actress whose name I don't know can somebody effort that she's she's yeah, I'll look at that very good, and she's very funny
JVL00:43:40Geraldine
Sonny00:43:41Swannathan, I wouldn't have even tried to pronounce that um I she it's She she's these are the these actresses are all very good the problem is they are given the the slightest Weakest material to work with nothing's really funny in this Nothing's really shocking. There's no it just everything kind of happens and like when I say it's perfunctory The way it ends is the most perfunctory Aspect of it to the extent that alright, so it closes with Each of the women gets a title card explaining how they you know have There the one for Elizabeth Banks is she is now one of the highest paid executives in Europe or the world and then the one for for Miss visible this one. That's I this this one that I She she has she has a title card saying she's a she's a consultant who is pioneered internet sales And then the and for Sarah snuck I don't even remember what it was but like the the the my point is these these title cards were so Usually with a title card of this sort. There's something very specific It's like she founded X company and is now worth 3.2 billion dollars or whatever and here It's just like she leaned in I swear to that's what they literally
Mike00:45:03That's because that's because the people are not real. They are did you read the first title card? No?
Sonny00:45:10What is
JVL00:45:12In the first title card in the movie is I mean I have this exactly right Sometimes you can't make up the truth or you know, sometimes the truth is so crazy. You couldn't make it up, but everything else
Sonny00:45:25Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did Well, I just assumed that was like a funny way of being like based on a true story But not you know some fudging but all through the same way cocaine none of those none of those women is real They're all they're all composites like a New York
Mike00:45:39They're composites They are all composites or they are just different names
Sonny00:45:47Than the actual people they're based on completely different names see that that actually annoys me even more now. I like I like I Am I look I'm on the record is and and this is true like a movie doesn't have to be real I do a movie of this sort doesn't have to be entirely accurate to still get to the basic truth but like if you're Why even bother making this movie if you're not gonna? Use the real I assume there are rights issues very and I can tell you why why?
JVL00:46:21This is a rare this is a rare occasion where I pegged what was going on within the first 90 seconds so the movie begins with a Crash of a tractor trailer truck right that is carrying beanie babies And it is a very elaborate scene where the beanie babies are Flying out of the trailer truck and the camera is pivoting around them and everything is in super-duper slow motion and With very bright primary colors, and I said to myself. What is this a fucking okay? Go video? Nailed it JBL we get to the first credits and there are co-directors One of the co-directors is Damien Koulash who is the front man for? okay, go and I did not clock the other co-director all I thought I saw Damien. Don't don't jump the gun here Michael. Let me do it So Damien Koulash who I know a little bit about because I kind of think okay go is an interesting art project I'm not quite sure It's a band. It's more of an art project Damien Koulash is a rich kid He went to st. Albans and he went to Brown and he hooked up with some RISD kids while he was up there and they formed this band and They got super famous by doing viral videos They did the treadmills video and then a bunch of art installation videos and that's really their thing Like they don't they're not really a music group so much as they are like they create these multimedia. I had their first
Mike00:48:08CD thank you very much. It's fun. Some of it rocked
JVL00:48:11Some of it's fine. Oh, yeah, I'm not bad. Right and everything they do is it's like genre They're single their singles are all very much like they'll they'll decide they want to do a genre fresh for a song and then they'll Move on to something unimportant So I'm like why is Damien Koulash? Co-directing a movie that's bizarre and and and then so the movie like Goes and it does this thing. I actually liked it a little more than you did Sonny. I didn't hate it I was annoyed by by some parts of its other parts of it. I really liked especially I Especially like the Ty Warner character is portrayed by skinny Zach Galifianakis. Oh Zempik Zach Galifianakis Not quite as funny as fat gazelle than a Zach Galifianakis, but like close Anyway, Damien Koulash who the the boys from ok go often used to joke about is terrible relationship He's a fairly young guy. He's already been divorced a couple times, but he is remarried and He married a girl who he knew in high school at st. Albans
Mike00:49:22Who herself he was not at st. Albans because that's a boys school. But yeah, sorry the sister school, right? And
JVL00:49:28and You see she has been working in Hollywood and this is a project they did together and Her name is Kirsten Gore And she is Al Gore's daughter one of the Gore daughters. How in the world did a Middling project by the daughter of Al Gore get picked up and made by Apple TV Plus Studios
Mike00:49:52Who can say see I think of her as the daughter of Tipper Gore, but that's just me
JVL00:49:58So there that is my and I again I clocked this thing from the fucking opening scene where I said, okay go what's going on here? And that's what this is. It's a vanity project. But as Vanity projects go it's quite good Better than a movie that Elizabeth banks would have dragged. This is better than it would have been had Elizabeth banks directed it
Mike00:50:18That's true. That's true. I think but but here's the thing about this movie Do you have anything else to say about a JVL? Is that well, we'll talk some more later. We'll talk about we'll talk more about but okay, so I'm initially totally taken in by Zach Galifianakis performance And I agree with you Sonny that the all the actors are Terrific and and winning in their own ways and and the whole You know, I don't I assume there is a lot of truth in Galifianakis portrayal of Ty Warner. He's you know You know, I think at one point at a character even asks essentially a CK or something, you know but he's very flamboyant and he's obsessed with image and he does a great job with that the structure of the movie Kind of left me Cold in the end because I agree with you Sonny it felt like it was moving It felt like somebody attempting to do Nolan ask Stuff without the without the goods So it just kind of falls flat kind of interesting. Um, I felt like the tone of the movie Was not consistent and it so it made everything feel weird and I'll give you an example. There's um Like they should have decided is this going to be a realistic biopic or you know a brand pick Or is it going to be kind of a heightened? uh over the top Uh portrayal to to make some kind of point about feminism and capitalism or whatever they want to make the point about and there's a scene where Ty warner is in The bullpen of the office at ty company and there's a man at the door Banging on the door to be let in Uh, yeah, it was like So what toys r us or walmart or something? Yeah toys r us. I think you're right And he's like who is that? It's like somebody from toys r us I've been trying to talk to you and he makes this big thing in front of everybody in The office and he says, uh, no We'll never be with the big boxes because we type products are only in mom and pop stores And he makes this whole pronouncement and it's for the office, but it's also for the audience right to get this information across and Then he immediately walked with the assistant who comes up to him and says um I assume you want me to to call target and say no and call mcdonald's and say no and he goes wait mcdonald's Yeah, we want to work with them. So the joke is like oh he says he's against the big box stores, but then he says uh, he'll work with mcdonald's and I thought like Like that's like a that's like a really broad funny. Haha joke but it's like all set up like that conversation actually happened because we're in like realistic what you know this you know biopic world and it's just like maybe it did maybe it didn't right maybe it did but like But the totally I was it was like wait was that supposed to be funny? or was that supposed to be like what actually happened and it just felt like a It felt like somebody's first time directing a movie Um, frankly, so, um, I I don't know. I I thought it was fine It's very is it getting obvious to you guys that they're filming all these things in atlanta. I mean I'm from atlanta so I reckon I sort of recognized the the milieu and the feel of it But I was reading that people in chicago are like bitching about another movie set in chicago filmed in atlanta like it's not you know, but it it's I'm starting to wonder if if it's if it's obvious that these sort of Relatively cheap movies are being made in atlanta and and and the state wasn't obvious to me, okay? Okay, I'm just I that's just the thought of thought I had I assume every movie is shot
Sonny00:54:08Yeah, I mean that's that's the thing is that like well
Mike00:54:10That's what I'm wondering like like in the same way that toronto was like the stand in new york and people started to notice Um, but anyway, I don't know. I don't have any other thoughts on the movie other other than like sarah snook Why who I really liked? She felt like she was in a different movie than than everybody else Just sort of like acting at a little more pathos. Yes, she was doing and that was another weird thing. Yeah, I
JVL00:54:35Yeah, there's a means a weird structure it's I mean it it's a business movie structured like it's a Romance movie where the you know as if he's got these three relationships and he's three timing these three different women, right? Like it's he's like he's Alex Keaton with three dates to the prom But but he's not fucking all of them like what it's really about is that is that mean he's fucking them But he's fucking them with business and but it's not clear again Which of this is how much of this is real how much did not? I think you do like if if it's about the Beanie Baby thing and tie ink Then it does have to like with the blackberry thing like it does have to hold pretty close to it Or it's like otherwise just make a fictional movie right make it make it all fiction about some other That's what I don't like you know the the juice for it is that we we will all remember this and we saw this and we'd like to hear the inside story of it right and I think that and I get a little annoyed when Grand pics do like you know with air like with air air, you know air brushing out the Jordan family and mr. Jordan and with blackberry and in the weird games that movie was playing and That stuff bugs me. I'm hoping that dumb money doesn't do any of that because that movie looks fucking I've seen it. It's not
Sonny00:56:08I don't need I didn't need beanie bubble to like you Precisely to these people's lives I didn't I didn't need like I just would have liked a little more about the actual The actual process of turning these things into a cultural phenomenon and maybe when we get we get more of that with the actual beanie Babies like the the rise of eBay and you know and and how all this stuff kind of worked, but like I don't
Mike00:56:37well that you think Sonny there's a little bit of that in the in the scenes where Ty is talking to the little girls and it's sort of Trying to understand what it is that appeals to them because he points he points out that they fit in the backpack Yeah, you know that that was as an elementary schooler when the beanie babies were out. That was a huge thing. Yeah That they know
Sonny00:57:00there there are little bits of it all over like There's like this one scene where he meets the woman who's running the beanie baby price guide and he gets like real the Fence that he's like, why am I not making money from this and like and like right again? They're like they're a little hint. There are little hints of a more interesting story here than the story that they're telling which is just Like not it's not interesting. It's just not interesting
Mike00:57:24Have any of you guys read the book that this movie is based on? No, is it good? Did you I have no idea I've never read it I was gonna I was hoping somebody had and maybe maybe the real stories in there and they just they just fucked it up when They made a movie but maybe the real story is Actually, not is actually not that interesting that that the Beanie Babies themselves are more interesting than the backstory which is Which doesn't make for a good movie? Not on them. Yeah
JVL00:57:49I mean I was I was fascinated by the extent to which he seemed aggrieved that anybody else anywhere could be making money off of the Beanie Babies and you know, he's like eBay Why aren't we getting a cut from that wait if these people are buying them from retailers and reselling them? We should be getting some of that money too. And it's Yeah, and that combined with the you know, there's a moment He's like I made seven hundred million dollars last year and then the you know, he's Indian Internet sales girls like I'm making twelve dollars an hour and he's like, you know A lot of people would be lucky to have it would love to have a job where they made twelve dollars an hour I was like, oh yeah, just making minimum wage
Sonny00:58:29Yeah, no and like again that part those those parts ring true the guy who is making nine figures And then gives his arguably his most valuable employee an eight dollar an hour raise and it's like this is good now Like I like what do you think of that? Like that rings true that feels that feels real but the I don't know I just again I like for a movie that is Titled beanie bubble the beanie bubble. It is weirdly uninterested in the actual mechanics of making the beanie babies popular
JVL00:59:10And like even it did a very poor job of explaining why the bubbles will even pop Right. So there's a scene where she's trying to explain the mechanics of like why she believes they're headed into a bubble That you know it's best and that that is a moment where that that is just poorly executed as a matter of writing because You the audience don't really understand the mechanics of it. She's just like chart. She's just like she's just like chart
Sonny00:59:33You are making too many and if you may and look maybe that's all it is. Maybe maybe it's Just not interesting at all Like we were making not enough and people were excited for them and that drove up demand Then we made too many and people want not as much and like maybe that's just it Maybe maybe it's a very simple supply and demand thing and that that and that's not cinematic but what we what we were left with was Weirdly, I like to the extent that even that I didn't entirely It did a I don't think the movie did a very good job of making clear exactly what the UK's deal Was except that he was mad because Sarah Snook was running it No, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. That's right that he was mad that Elizabeth Banks was running it
Mike01:00:18Yeah, so he like signed but we don't learn that in the end, right?
JVL01:00:22This is one of the reveals is he flips out anytime anybody mentions the UK we don't talk about that country here And it's our occurring and this is one of those are tying all the the things together towards the end I I liked that I thought it was but was That was well executed, but but I didn't under I but again
Sonny01:00:41I just didn't understand like what was the distribution deal that he had apparently she was working a separate company
Mike01:00:48And she was gonna host. I just again I like yeah, how did she how did she sort of how did she figure out? How did she?
Sonny01:00:57Maybe the things I'm complaining about I would be complaining about if they explained too much I'd be like oh well There's just too much detail here and we get bogged down in it and like I just didn't I just didn't like I just didn't care for So much of this that I I maybe I was just annoyed by it. I don't know. I don't know Fucking I wanted more what it is just a TV movie
Mike01:01:23Well anything else about the movie do we want to talk about baby babies would this have been better as a Netflix documentary? Oh
Sonny01:01:32Absolutely, maybe but then it would have been like six hours long
Mike01:01:38It would have been too long, but like like as a like 90 minute or a better hour long documentary
JVL01:01:44yes, like the LuLaRoe right if this had been like a 90-minute version of the LuLaRoe documentary series Lulu, I guess not Netflix, but that that found that more interesting and more interesting I think but His tie in jail. I should look that up. I'll effort. He was he was convicted. I don't think he's in prison
Mike01:02:04I don't see what Wikipedia says
JVL01:02:08Am I the only one who I had always thought that the the the company was called ty and it never known to me that it was
Sonny01:02:14Actually, yeah, I knew it was time. Yeah, it was time time. He might not even very into being go ahead We would there are there almost a collector boxes and boxes of McDonald's beanie babies in my basement my childhood basement somewhere there 100% the McDonald the
Mike01:02:32the thing about the McDonald's beanie babies is they were like to me that was There wasn't it was even obvious to me at age 10 or whatever that there was no there was no like value in those because oh anybody can go to McDonald's and get a Happy Meal and get get one of get One of the you know, the red dog or whatever it was that came the crab And everybody had those because you could put them on you could like put them on your backpack like his little You like tie him onto the zippers Do you guys remember the Bears as well? Like they were like had all the different There was like the American bear like I feel like there was like a whole line of Beanie Baby
Sonny01:03:13Bears that took over the Bears were I forget what what was the most valuable? It wasn't a bear, but it was like the
Mike01:03:19It was the Princess Diana, but maybe the Princess Diana bear Yeah, they issued a Princess Diana commemorative. May she rest in peace Beanie baby and a wind bear so I know and Elizabeth Banks, I guess got got rich from it. I don't know JVL any other thoughts?
JVL01:03:38We he never went to jail. He paid a 240 million dollar fine and he is still the sole owner of tie ink
Sonny01:03:48So he's doing how is how much what is tie inks revenue like these days today?
JVL01:03:53Yeah, I'm sorry a 53 million dollar fine a 53 million dollar fine I will Hear you guys talk and I'll look at that
Sonny01:04:04Sunny what was your favorite beanie, baby? I didn't I didn't I We didn't do any McDonald's when the beanie, baby thing happened. I was like an employee at McDonald's when that was a
Mike01:04:17Did people try to to people try to like pay you
Sonny01:04:23They were like it's There were there were more than enough of them there were there were more than it was not I mean there was definitely some craziness like lots of people coming to get Happy Meals who were Clearly had no children But like at the same time it wasn't they weren't that they weren't that rare
Mike01:04:45That that really did feel like I remember that felt like okay beanie babies have gone corporate You know like they're not there. They're not cool anymore because like they're at McDonald's so
JVL01:04:56It looks like they're making somewhere around a hundred million a year
Mike01:05:00From what what are they? What are they so many factors? Just stuff. I'm lucky cats plushies plushies
JVL01:05:06If you go to any independent Toy-store you you they're lousy with tie ink Bears my kids have a bunch of tie ink Stuffed animals, and they are none of them are beanie babies They're just like other stuffed animals, and they are they're not they're not gunned quality quite, but they're pretty pretty nicely made
Sonny01:05:26Yeah, see again. This is what I would be more interested. I don't care about I don't care about You know women in the workforce. I care about the stuffing levels Toys and what that what those you know what the standards there are well
Mike01:05:43The whole there's a whole part in the at the beginning of the movie where that kind of shows what ties life is like Before all of this before tie and you know he's like living with this father Who's I guess I gathered was in the toy business, and he's like got a stuffed animal kind of riveted you know like Vivis Teddy Ruxin and like Exactly did you have a tenor?
Sonny01:06:07I did not I did not oh
Mike01:06:09Teddy Ruxin that was that was some really cool shit Teddy Ruxin and the books and the tapes you put in his back Oh, I'm so cool I did not have a Teddy Ruxin um but the What was I saying oh just like that he's like his like Process is like sort of like manic. You know interest in like making a better making an innovation in stuffed animals without That would have been more interesting to see a little more of that, so I agree with you Sonny. I agree
Sonny01:06:42All right any other thoughts on the did you have thoughts on the beanie baby bubble itself JBL you
JVL01:06:48Yeah, or do you want to do that and I I'm just interested in in Collectible bubbles because this is something I have searingly close personal experience with With my comic books which were I I wrote about this for the weekly standard I smuggled a five thousand word piece into the weekly standard about the comic book bubble of 1991 And as a child I my collection was worth probably about twelve thousand dollars and I still own all of that all of those comics, and they are worth today Maybe five bucks. Maybe twenty bucks. Maybe twenty bucks. There are a couple that have held their value and it is Man bubbles are crazy, and I I'm the Funko pops I've seen these the the Which are everywhere. They're they're like these little vinyl figures about like I don't know six inches tall and They sell them. I don't understand. They sell them everywhere, and it is a huge collectible market And you can even now have your Funko pops graded Meaning you said this and see you said but the box when you said But you have to send the entire box to CGC and so what they're grading them on is they're grading on like the quality and condition of The box that they're in Which is to my mind the single funniest line in across the spider-verse is when Gwen Stacy is visiting Miles Morales And she's like I have the same action figure But why is you're still in the box and she rips open the box with his action figure and you see the look on his? face is like
Sonny01:08:28Nope, that's fine. That's okay. The Funko thing is a total bubble too like you saw you saw that they they had to send like hundreds of thousands of Funko pops to a dump, right?
JVL01:08:41Why I have not seen that but I assumed that these things are gonna be floating in the ocean for thousands of years because they've made
Sonny01:08:47They're just gonna be there they're gonna be like massive burial pits of them and like when the aliens come to earth in a million years and they find the like mounds of Funko pop skulls, they'll be like this is some sort of religious ceremony where the Buried they buried idols to their gods
JVL01:09:06This happened with Atari The E.T. game, right? They just Atari when Atari was hot. They were like we need people keep buying Atari cartridges We don't just keep making more of them. And so they just licensed fucking everything and they printed to the moon and you know it's Part of the bubbles is I mean supply is part of it But the other part is that gets tied into is that as supply increases quality almost certainly goes down and eventually people get Wise to it and that's what happened the comic book bubble I mean, you know Marvel went from printing 19 titles a month to 150 titles a month Because people get buying them and to make 150 comic book issues a month You are doing some really bad shit Because you're just like you're hiring all these fourth and fifth rate writers and artists And you if you go back and look at some of those issues you page through them You're like, holy shit. This panel has no backgrounds in it Like it's just it's just like Morbius and daredevil stand in there and stare at each other and their stick figures and the person who's drawn them can't even do feet And there's nothing in the background. Don't talk about Rob Liefeld
Mike01:10:16But there's But is it there's something I mean there's something else going on with say the beanie baby bubble as opposed to that because The thing I was thinking about watching the movie and remembering what what it was like is like Okay, comic book bubble happens because comic book readers start collecting Right the Beanie baby bubble it's not the kids who are collecting them. It's their mom
Sonny01:10:42Like that's so weird books. It was it was the same Kind of thing where you had you had a you had an older cadre of collectors Who I'm not I'm not like it wasn't it wasn't so I was nine or I was eight in 1990, you know, I was I was between the ages of eight and 18 from 1990 to 2000 so like right in the biggest meatiest part of comic book bubble And it it was definitely like I was definitely buying a lot of stuff but like when I would go to the comic book stores, it was like Twenty twenty five to thirty five year olds. Come on guys. Yeah, it was comic book guys
JVL01:11:25But here's the weird thing is that comic books were produced for like 60 years without anybody thinking to collect them And this is you know, people just read them and pass them around and threw them away. This is one of the Reasons that there are so few copies of action comics number one It isn't they didn't print a lot of them They printed tons of them that nobody thought to collect them right right and nobody starts like Collecting comics and then like selling old issues of them until the late 1970s as early as as late as like 1975 I think you can buy a copy of action comics number one for a hundred bucks Which is insane, right? It isn't just people haven't decided That this is a thing you collect and once this is about the formation of a market Right and markets are all notional and once people think oh, well, there is a market for something then they start buying them for reasons of our of financial incentives that are not intrinsic to the items themselves and so like a Market for Beanie Babies formed and it's not clear to me that it would have absent eBay right the comic book market formed pre eBay Like it did it on its own. I wonder if if Beanie Babies form a market without you babies are also a total reflection of
Sonny01:12:46comic books and baseball cards and that market right like This is so this is so this is like the scene when I write this is the scene with the Beanie Baby guide This is why I find this so interesting because I was like I recognize that that's a Beckett. That's a Beckett That's a second card guy or it's a it's a wizard or the over street Overstory or it's a wizard price that whatever it's like it like I was like, oh, I know what that is That is 100% a thing that existed and it is a reaction to The way these markets work in other bubble type situations Again, this is why I would be I would I was I was like give me more of this sad woman. I
JVL01:13:31Want more of her? I yeah, I could have done documentary about her right documentary about the woman who ran the beanie bunny Who had a radio show I love that
Mike01:13:42That's what that's right. All right. Well, look, I think we've exhausted this conversation a bit, uh All right. Well go to sub beacon comm I guess and check us out become a patron and We'll talk to you next time So, do you guys know the name Of the original nine beanie babies, why would I why would I know that? Well, I remembered some of them but I couldn't remember all of them so I looked it up so I am cheating on this but They mentioned a couple of them in the in the movie, but there's legs the frog Squeak, I love that by the way when like the naming of legs The frog is like this big seminal moment in the roller rink like it's so ridiculous legs the frog squealer the pig Brownie the bear who was later renamed cubby the bear flash the dolphin splash the whale patty the platypus chocolate the moose spot the dog and number nine Pinchers the lobster, but like this was something I knew At a certain point it was like a thing where I was like I knew all those names At a certain point my life and that's so weird, but I mean, I don't want to freak you guys out
JVL01:15:01But do you know how much you would pay for legs the frog right now?
Mike01:15:04How much I would pay for it nothing. I don't
JVL01:15:08Mean I mean, but I mean if you were to go down to the bay
Sonny01:15:16That's a steal Really, I'm gonna buy five of them and go back in 1996. So the bubble the bubble has popped
JVL01:15:25You know like I'm sure like the frog was selling for a hundred thousand dollars once upon a time gosh, but even so It's you know, like it's not nothing. It didn't go to zero. It's not like the NFC like this is like what we're
Sonny01:15:37Talking about with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books, right? Like once once you like once you hit a certain price point Yes, the price is gonna come down after the bubble burst, but you're still gonna be in that like if you want that thing If you if you are a nostalgia based person who wants that thing, you're still gonna pay a fairly pretty penny for it
JVL01:15:57I'm looking at the Princess Diana BBB So am I still sealed in case and graded mint one million one hundred ten thousand dollars
Mike01:16:10Look at the exact same
JVL01:16:13Pinchers the baby beanie pinchers from 1993 seven hundred seven thousand dollars But it clearly the Princess Diana is the most Valuable of all the beanie babies Princess the bear. Yeah Princess the bear. Did they only really was this put out like following her dad?
Sonny01:16:32I did following her dad. They only released like in the UK where they're only like a thousand of them or something, what was the
Mike01:16:39It was there. I think was obviously a very limited release retired
Sonny01:16:43Did they hand them out at the funeral just like toss him into the crowd?
Mike01:16:49Elton John was throwing them out, you know, and it seems to me you live you. Yeah, I'm sure it's fine. I
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