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Episodes

Episode 252 “Fullyposeable’s Return of the McRib”

Episode 252 “Fullyposeable’s Return of the McRib”

November 15, 2020

Scott breaks the bad news to Jef that he is now watching the office. Jef tries a new Bang. Scott and Jef pay respects to the passing of Alex Trebek. Scott talks about the new AEW game in the news. Jef goes over some questions answered by Steve Ozer on the wrestling figs message boards. And the boys round out the show with questions from the listeners.

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Episodes

Episode 251 “Fullyposeable’s Ray of Light”

Episode 251 “Fullyposeable’s Ray of Light”

November 8, 2020

Scott and Jef go over their week of toys. The boys do have an omission from last week’s episode. Scott does talk about his recent purchases. Scott has news from Super 7. And the boys go over everything that was shown from Ringside Fest. What did you guys think?

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Episodes

Episode 250 “Fullyposeable is celebrating 250 years”

Episode 250 “Fullyposeable is celebrating 250 years”

November 1, 2020

Jef unboxes an Amazon package he received. Scott talks about the latest showing from Boss Fights umbrella academy. Scott talks about a new documentary coming to Netflix. Jef goes over the new venture between AAA and Marvel. They also go over the Wrestlemania figures that were shown on card. They also go over series 9 of the Mattel Elite legends. And the boys round it out with the listeners.

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Toying With Words

#2: AEW Unrivaled is Fine

#2: AEW Unrivaled is fine

OCTOBER 25, 2020

Has there been a hotter topic of discussion in the wrestling figure community over these past two weeks than that of talk about AEW Unrivaled variant Chris Jericho and chase Cody? If you’ve just returned from Parts Unknown where there’s notoriously bad internet, let me catch you up.

On October 7th, Ringside Collectibles hit the collectable community with an RKO outta nowhere in the form of a surprise drop of the AEW Unrivaled 1 of 1,000 variant Chris Jericho, a week later on October 14th they did another surprise drop of the 1 of 500 chase Cody. Ringside charged a premium for the rare figures, both which sold out swift like. Naturally, not all of these went to homes of passionate collectors, some made their way to eBay selling for up to five times higher than bought for. This result was like a 2007 John Cena win, inevitable. Yet, some people were blindsided.

A common part of microeconomics is supply and demand. We all know what this is. If something has a low supply and high demand, that thing fetches a higher price. Collectors have known since February that there will only be 500 units of the Cody figure and 1,000 units of the Jericho. Unless you’re living life like a Jake Roberts/Rick Martel Wrestlemania 7 match, most of us could have guessed that there are far more than 500 – 1,000 people interested in these figures. The demand was far higher than the supply. Anyone thinking about being a completist should have known that this was going to be harder than getting Roman Reigns over as a babyface. Which is to say, very hard.

Completists are the minority anyhow. How many people buy every single Elite? How many people own every single Bone Cruncher? Every single Classic Superstar? Do they exist? Absolutely. But any completist of a line will be more than happy to tell you it wasn’t easy or cheap. Why would Unrivaled be any different, especially knowing who runs the line.

The Classic Superstar line is the most adequate line to compare the Unrivaled series to. The “Vince McMahon” of both of these lines is Jeremey Padawer. If you’re unfamiliar with that Classic Superstars, just know there are even rarer figs to come in the Unrivaled line. Classic Superstars had 1/100 figures, 1/25 figures, employee exclusives, etc. You can best believe that Padawer will employ these same tactics with the Unrivaled line. The amount of people that will be able to be true completists will be slim if this line lives for a long time.

There is a lot of frustration with the secondary market as well. It’s easy to be bummed that there are really cool figures that are out of price range. Trust me, I have a wish list full of things that will forever elude me like a WWF tItle reign for Roddy Piper. For fans of the Unrivaled series that want the line to live a long time, this is good. You’re seeing passion from fans, you’re seeing collectors help these sell out in quick time, and you’re seeing passionate collectors with a large stream of income willing to pay a premium. This is showing a lot of excitement in the line.

It’s the excitement that gets people talking too. This is a topic of conversation. The collecting world is all talking about the same thing. More eyes are on these figures because people are seeing the collectability of the line. Will it deter some people that wanted to collect every single figure? Sure, but there’s countless other lines begging for peoples money so that’s bound to happen for one reason or another. Excitement and value will drive people to the line as well.

Scalping is Thanos, it’s inevitable. We’re only a few months removed from a time where you could search eBay for toilet paper and Clorox wipes only to see them at an incredible markup. If butt wipe isn’t immune to scalpers, collectables won’t be either. It sucks. As someone that was hoping to be a completist, it’s a bummer. Yet, there are so many other places that I can put my money towards that it’s not the end of the world. It’s definitely not the end of my collection like some people are declaring.

We’re collectors. That’s what we do. Our collections are never finished. These rare figures just give us new grails to hope for, new figs to hunt for, new treasures to see. Don’t focus on what you don’t have. Try not to get hung up on what you don’t have. If your collection will never be complete then there’s no reason to get worked up about what you don’t have right now.


Toying With Words is written by Corey Yuman

Corey has been a lifelong figure lover, short time “serious” collector. After attending Minnesota State University, Minnesota to pursue a creative writing degree, he’s since spent his time writing short stories, poetry, articles, and reviews. You can find more of his work on Instagram @thecoreyyumanlibrary where he nerds out about the books, movies, toys, games that he’s loving while using it as a platform to post poetry or on Twitter @coreyyuman.

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Episodes

Episode 249 “Fullyposeable’s Baby Come Back”

Episode 249 “Fullyposeable’s Baby Come Back”

October 25, 2020

The boys go over their toyspotting for the week. Jef talks about how his Targets are flooded with the Bobby Heenan elite legend figure. Scott and Jef talk about bad childhood memories regarding Scott’s Kiss Mego figures. In the news Scott has news regarding Loyal Subjects. There is a new Snake Eyes figure coming out.  Jef has some news regarding Boss Fights showing at virtual Expo Lucha.  They also have news on the new showdown line. And FTC reveals their Francine figure. The boys go talking to the listeners and round it out with Points of Articulation.

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Episodes

Episode 248 “Fullyposeable’s Profit Director”

Episode 248 “Fullyposeable’s Profit Director”

October 18, 2020

This week Jef tries the new Bang flavor of Key Lime Pie, does he like it or is it in the trash like Skaddadle? Scott talks about his recent purchases. Scott has news regarding Boss Fights Umbrella academy figures. Scott also talks about Transformers The boys have possible spoiler regarding Dark side of the ring season 3. They discuss new WWE Ultimate Edition Fan Take over. Which wrestler can you choose from? What do the boys think about the latest reveals of AEW figures? They have a coupe listener questions. And they round it out with their new segment Points of Articulation.

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Episodes

Ep 247 “FullyPoseable’s Unchained”

Ep 247 “FullyPoseable’s Unchained”

October 11, 2020

This week Scott and Jef are saddened with the passing of Eddie Van Halen. They go over some of their favorite Van Halen songs. Scott talks about his finger poke of doom. Jef talks about a huge box he got from the GBM of GI Joes. Scott has news about Super 7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The boys also have news on the Thanos box set from Amazon. Jef talks about the New York toy con from Funko. Jazzwares unveiled 2 new figures. Steve Ozer did an IG live videos and answers fans questions. And the boys round it out with the listener segment.

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Episodes

Ep 246 “FullyPoseable’s Gripes”

Ep 246 “FullyPoseable’s Gripes”

October 4, 2020

This week Scott is not happy with Target…Again. Scott has some issues with Target’s handling of the GI Joe’s that went on Targets website last week. In the news Boss fights studio’s Umbrella Academy rendering were shown. Super 7’s Megatron and Opitmus Prime Reaction Transformers figures are starting to pop up at Target. The Royal Rumble series was announced. FTC’s Kenny Omega variant has surfaced. Kenny Omega gives an update to the AEW video game. And Chella toys releases the card art for the Nick Aldis figure. And the boys round it out with the listener segment.

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Toying With Words

#1: The Origin Story

#1: The Origin Story

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

I’m a collector of collections. I have my own personal library of books, enough DVDs and blu-rays to start a home theater, Stephen King books, a coffee cup from every place I’ve visited over the last five years, ticket stubs from events I’ve gone to, and the thing that we can likely all agree on, action figures. While the things mentioned are collections that have been growing for a double digit amount of years, my journey into becoming a ‘serious’ figure collector was a long road.

A part of my soul becomes filled with an uncontrollable envy when I hear people recount a childhood that came with an abundance of toys. My childhood certainly wasn’t void of toys, I did come from a poor family so I wasn’t being bombarded with new things each week. Plus, I was a shitty kid that had wrestling matches that were only slightly less violent than an ECW match, soooooo that didn’t help a thing.
I adored action figures, especially wrestling, but my Figure Federation wasn’t limited to wrestling. Between the infrequency of new figures and my penchant for putting on wrestling matches that would leave figures injured (aka broken), it was up to me to include Swamp Thing, Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, or whatever bootleg toy I found at a garage sale into play. I made it work though, and never cared about different scales or lines. Figures were about using my imagination, something I had a surplus of.

If there was one thing more rare than getting figures, it was getting a ring. As a child all I ever wanted was a wrestling ring. Unfortunately my little badass ways left the one ring I did get looking like the end of a Big Show and Brock Lesnar match up. Never one to give up though I’d make rings out of clothes baskets, Lincoln logs, or pure imagination on that Willy Wonka swag.

I don’t remember quite when I got to a point where I stopped playing with the toys, but I never stopped swinging by the toy aisle. As I got older my figures went from something I played with to something I displayed. That is until I became a teenager and my friends came over to my place only to insist that they pose figures to be performing sexual acts on each other. Lots of butt play and fellatio poses. Teenage boy humor at its finest.

For about 10 years after my teenage years, I bought sporadically. A wrestling figure here, a figure of a movie character there, nothing too insane. There weren’t any specific lines that I felt I needed all of though. Eclectic collecting if you will [/Dusty Rhodes Voice]. While I’ve always been faithful to my relationship with wrestling figures, I did have a brief affair with Funko Pop. I went from one or two all the way to 15-20 fairly quick, especially falling in love with anything from the comic book SAGA.

I would have likely let that fling turn into a lifelong romance, but wrestling figures popped back into my life like Topanga showing up at Cory’s door in the rain, except in the form of podcasts.

It wasn’t until I discovered the world of wrestling figure podcasts that I learned there’s not only an entire community of people that collect wrestling figures, but a whole culture around it. I was in awe learning that people not only knew what figures were currently out, but discussed figures coming out later, or reminisce about the figures I used to love. This thing that I always felt weird about loving because I didn’t know anyone else loved suddenly had a place to go where I could be a nerd, and not even the biggest nerd to boot.

Humble beginnings as a book and figure collector.

Everyone’s official collection has to have a start. Mine started with a collection I completed and a collection that’s since been abandoned. Being a Minnesota boy, I wanted to collect a figure of every wrestler born or lived in Minnesota. I quickly abandoned that large task as I started to realize how many wrestlers from Minnesota I don’t even like.

The collection that gave me that chase the dragon feeling was the retros. When series one hit I saw a set at Walmart, the feelings of nostalgia smacking me like a chop from Walter. I grabbed Kevin Owens, never thinking of buying another. Knowing that was sitting in my closet I decided I was going to collect retros of my favorite wrestlers released. Then out of boredom I bought a Goldberg, someone I have no real love for, and as I walked I out of the store I could only think one thing. God damn it, now I need every single one.

Since then I’ve completed the retro collection, amassed around 50 Elites, backtracked to grab some of my old favorites from other lines, big shout out the the Saturday Night Live Nat X, Simpsons Stephen King, and all the Saga figures to name a few, and now you could say I’m “all in” on anything All Elite Wrestling has released. I know it’s not the biggest collection, I know it’s not the fastest growing, but I can’t help but to feel wonderful when I lay on my bed looking at my library with my figures hovering above.

My current view when I wake up.

I worry about where it will grow. With only about two years of serious collecting I’ve already run out of space. By the end of wave three of Unrivaled I’ll really have run out of space. At some point something will have to give…or I’ll get a bigger space. One of the two. I’m sure collectors will know which one.


 

Toying With Words is written by Corey Yuman

Corey has been a lifelong figure lover, short time “serious” collector. After attending Minnesota State University, Minnesota to pursue a creative writing degree, he’s since spent his time writing short stories, poetry, articles, and reviews. You can find more of his work on Instagram @thecoreyyumanlibrary where he nerds out about the books, movies, toys, games that he’s loving while using it as a platform to post poetry or on Twitter @coreyyuman.

 

 

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Episodes

Ep 245 “FullyPoseable’s What a Rush”

Ep 245 “FullyPoseable’s What a Rush”

September 27, 2020

This week Scott and Jef devote the show to Road Warrior Animal. And the boys celebrate the life of Animal by playing who did it better Road Warrior Animal. Scott reflects on meeting Road Warrior Animal in Atlanta for Wrestlemania 27 weekend. The boys talk a bit about Hasbro Pulse Con. Scott announces Funko’s exclusive for New York Toy Con. Jef discusses deepdiscount.com and new names they dropped. And the boys round it out with listener questions from Justin Sumners and JT.