Jada Toys VP of Marketing - Mike Jimenez

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Today, it is my absolute pleasure to introduce Mike Jimenez. That's it right?

You got it, right? Yeah.

So this is Jada. Toys, Mike, we collected and

dude, I just, I'm doing great. I'm glad we finally got this

thing rolling. I know, man.

I mean, we've been trying to do this and so, with fuel fast?

Yeah, every semester is owner. Yeah.

How the hell are you? So you were moving before.

Ye yeah. So the one of the reasons why we

couldn't get this thing going is you know, one jada toys is kind of in a growth pattern right now and we're moving offices or also moving to a bigger. A showroom and at the same time,

it just so happens that in the middle of buying a new house.

So we're like everything is just kind of all over the place.

And right now, my whole family, mom brothers sisters their kids.

All went to the Philippines all supposed to go with them and but because the house was supposed to be closing this week I couldn't go but they delayed my house for another month and now I'm stuck taking care of my mom's dog.

So what kind of dogs it's a what is this dog?

It's a guard. Dog.

Multi multi poo motto. Maltipoo.

Okay yeah my daughter has a Maltese and I had a yorkie poo.

Oh Yeah, that's a really fun sized, dog.

One was much smaller, but it's there, there.

I mean, to me, I love big dogs, but this, this dog is pretty amazing, man. It's like she, she's a, you can

teach her something in 15 minutes and she will retain it, like, like I was driving around in my truck and she would climb all over you at. And when I first brought her

home, because I brought her home from my old neighbors, who had a dog that they just couldn't take care of anymore, So, they gave it to us because my mom wanted another dog, and I brought her home and as I was driving, it was like a 30 minute drive and this dog is like climbing all over me while I'm driving getting on all the buttons in the middle Center accountable money, dude, it was a joke. And then, during this time,

while we're taking care of this dog, my wife and I went out and she went into a store for 15 minutes.

I stayed in the car with a dog. And I taught her how to sit on

the center console on the, the padded area, right?

Be above the, the little container of the area where you store stuff Fahrenheit. Yep.

And in 15 minutes, she got it, she sat there and sat there the whole ride home and then the next day we drove about an hour out to go. Visit a friend sat right there

on the on the whole ride. So yeah, she's pretty awesome.

That's an issue young she's I think three years old.

Oh wow. Okay.

Well how long ago was it that this happened the story within the past week because I don't know.

I've been thinking And this third one wasn't getting along with that, my neighbors cats.

My mom's dog that she had previously.

They had to put down because she had, he had a lot of health issues, like, maybe like six months ago.

So, they're about ready to have another dog.

So I offered it to my mom and she said, yeah, so she got it, of course. Yeah.

And she needs it. I mean, she's just she's, you

know, Is she needs that a companionship?

She's there by herself pretty much most of the day.

So yeah, it's a, it was a good thing.

That's good, man. I mean, dogs are great.

Oh yeah, so it's if to Jada Toys really quick so you're the VP of marketing right now or I am the VP of marketing.

Actually, when I start, I've been working at jada toys for now going on. 19 years have been there awhile.

I started on the package. Yeah it's crazy.

And I still feel like the new guy because things.

The way I kind of view every one of my job's is like, I'm always trying to feel like I'm the new guy.

I always have to prove myself, right?

Because I don't want to get complacent.

I don't want to get comfortable where I'm at and feel like I'm just, you know, just going through the motions now because I feel comfortable, you know, my mentality has always been to try to work hard and show my worth for to the company, no matter how long I've been there and, and it's paid off, you know, It as a packaging designer when I got in I didn't do one lick of packaging. I started doing some graphic

design work for all the collateral material doing like PowerPoint presentations, doing print ads, then I got into the website, this apartment and started designing all the website while I was doing all the other collateral material.

So, I mean, I move throughout the, the, the company multiple times like that I've was in the, the PD Department, which was my position prior Prior to becoming marketing.

But prior to PD I was kind of in the marketing department, doing a bunch of stuff because my background before jada toys was market, so I think I did it. I've done I'd only thing I

haven't done is sales and and Licensing.

Those are the only two things. I really haven't done in the

company. Both look like or sound like

they could be kind of a Kind of a don't want to say a pain in the butt, but sound like, they could definitely be a pain in the butt when it comes to licensing because you guys, I mean, jada toys, you know, when I think of Jada Toys, you know, I obviously I think of stuff related to cars, but they do so much more than just cars and everything.

Yeah, work for consciously, that's one of our biggest things is, is trying to venture out into different categories.

You know, where we have our foundation is Vehicles.

That's what we were founded on. That's what we're basically.

On. That's our bread and butter and

the main thing about Gia toys is that we cater to the inner city kids that, you know, the urban kids, we weren't, you know, doing the mainstream stuff. Not the, you know, we don't want

to really do the cars that are just replicas of what you see on the showroom floor. We wanted to do the custom stuff

that you see on the street are very first custom vehicle.

That we did was a Chevy Astro van.

And that's what everyone. And every block in l.a. hat,

someone had a custom lowered Chevy Astro van, and that's what we saw. That's what we did and that's

what put Jada on the map, you know, that's how we started.

And that's what we're striving to keep that core for jada toys.

But we also want to venture out because we are at its very Soul Is Us True Toy Company. We don't want to just be known

as vehicles and that's become kind of a stigma that we've had for as long as I've been there. You know, we it's hard for us to

break out and do different things because oh, jada toys your the your those guys that make vehicles that Diecast cars.

Like yeah, we are. But we also do plush.

We also do action figures. We also do Collectibles.

You know, it's, we do a lot of other stuff now and it was it was hard to kind of, get out of that funk, which flat really fun, you know. It's not a bad position to be

annoying, but it's something where we felt that we needed to do to grow the company, you know, because there's only so much you can do with With with, with diecast vehicles and we wanted to be, you know, a mainstream vehicle company.

We are a mass-market player, we're not just catering towards the hobby crowds, you know. But at the same time we want to

keep that that edge to us, where we can grow in the hobby areas and to the mains the hardcore, like diecast collectors, who really wants something special rather than having to go hunt for it over at the Walmarts and the targets of the world.

It sounds kind of like. Now, I don't know the work, and

I have a question for you later on.

So, yeah, it's a perception versus reality question.

So, think about that instead of, you know, necessarily answering that right now. But it sounds like it would be a

really cool job. Do you have to travel a lot?

Does it impact with the family? Oh, she'll I mean, so I don't

have any kids. It's funny.

We just hired a new guy at our in China.

He's our I'm calling, he's one of our inventor engineering type guys, but he's a really good designer and his he constantly reminds me. Never stop playing never stopped

playing and and I love that because, you know, he's the same kind of same as me where he's not married.

He has a wife, he has no kids. So, but he does it because, you

know, he doesn't want to stop playing because he knows that once he gets a kid has a kid, he's he has to.

He has to, you know, redirect his focus and he He, you know, he's not prepared for that yet, you know?

So once he is prepared to have a kid and I'm sure he will, but, you know, right now, I don't mind my wife and I don't have kids. We're she'll still trying to get

settled down with, you know, our lives and we're getting pretty close. And but it's, you know, it's

cool being educated toys as well in the positions.

I've been because, not, everyone does get to travel, but I've been lucky enough to be able to go travel to Hong Kong.

You know, one of my The things I was doing as marketing and PD was designing the showrooms for our for here in LA and the previous owners of Jada Toys because we have we were purchased by another company from Germany.

We when I did the show room, he liked what I did so much.

He said, next weekend, you're going to go to Hong Kong to do the same thing for Hong Kong sonar Hong Kong.

Office is. Yeah, so a 1 week, you know, if

If you're talking about is it, is it a problem with the family?

It can be but because I don't have kids and it's just me my wife. It's a lot easier to deal with

that stuff so on. So yeah, I got had the I get to

go to Hong Kong. I was able to go to Italy to

shoot commercials for some of our product.

So sir going to go on a China checking out factories, you know, and with this new parent company that that owns jada toys. Now there's a possibility of

going The Thailand because we have factories in Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Madagascar even the.

So there's there's a big opportunity to do some really cool traveling. Which I'm pretty excited about

this. A kind of sounds.

Well first off, you do so good design in the showroom and they said, all right. Next week, you're going to go to

Japan to do it. Yeah.

Like hell yeah, but party is like, oh shit.

Are you just like, let's just goes do this.

When I, when I, when I, that was the first time I had to do that was an I was still, maybe about five four years into working at jada toys. Okay?

Um, and, and not like and I At that time in my life, like I didn't have a credit card with with with a big budget on there.

You know, I was like shoot how am I going to pay for that, that hotel room? You know I was worried about

that kind of stuff, you know. And because most companies this

is what, you know, you you pay for everything and then you get reimbursed, you dip you. Yeah.

You know I mean not all yeah especially at the level I was at at the time you know they don't have corporate cards or whatever. So because I was really low

level at the time I was is, you know, I was pretty much entry-level, not even a like a manager or anything or senior designer. It was just a designer and I

went out there. Luckily I did have enough I was

able to do everything and had a great time and it'll shoot.

It was it was it was awesome. Like I'm really fortunate to be

able to do all that stuff because I was at the right place at the right times and doing the right things for the company.

Oh that's fantastic man I did it sounds kind of like a dream job if you know if you have understanding people in your life you know because I would imagine a lot of people would love to do what you do and that's all you amazing, man.

It's oh I can't write. I couldn't ask for any more.

It is it is definitely a dream job.

You know, you get to play with toys all day.

I mean, literally playing with them.

You know, you're getting buying toys, checking them out, you know, playing with them, making sure it's trying to break them.

So, you know, seeing where the weak points are, you know, and And then, you know, figuring out and try to make the best product that you can. It's rewarding, it's fun.

It's yeah, dude, I couldn't complain.

That's why. I still feel like I'm the new

guy, 20 years into this or 19 years into this.

You know, it's it's never the same.

It's always different. There's always new challenges

and it's always a learning experience.

Speaking of toys, let's talk about your super.

Oh yes, just saying still, I don't want to say wrapped decaled up. That's it's white, right?

Or is it actually different color?

So it's a different color. It's fully.

It's a full wrap. Yeah.

Okay. Let's talk about your am super

then yeah, yeah yeah. Yep.

It's still currently wrapped. It's still has the the Macross

The Livery on it as co-leader just like yours.

Yours was a little bit more detailed.

Mine is more simplified because it's made to look like a toy him produced. Yeah.

And yeah it's still rolling like that.

It's crazy. It's it's a little loud

originally. The car is my wife's usually

driving that to work and I told her what I want to do, she's like yo I'm not going to dry it out to work.

Just kind of garage, it will sort of time, and we take it out to Cars and Coffee. Take it off to little local

shows here, and there, and, you know, whatever big show that we are attending that we're exhibiting at old, will take it out there. But yeah, it's, I love it is

because, you know, a big thing, a big fan of Robotech out here and watching Macross as well on VHS back in the day, dude.

Like it was a dream come true. It's crazy.

Do you ever get Kind of tripped up, because you're not quite sure if you want to say Robotech or Macross.

When people start talking about your car.

It's, I kind of try to gauge who I'm talking to and seeing if they're like one of those, those people that like, like, oh, you, you watch the Robotech its own solo.

Another people are, you know, back and forth, people, you know, I grew up, you know, because I was watching Robotech as it came out here in United States, right?

That was my first anime. That was the someone I really

watch and I was really into, I would religiously watching Saturday morning cartoons, you know, but I was never into it.

I was just there for the, you know, to the Escape, you know, and just to be entertained for a few hours before, get on my bike and ride my right down to my friends house.

But robo tech was something that I like oh it's afternoon after school. I gotta get home to watch this,

you know, it's something that I had to do it and I'm not one of those guys who write was deep into the story because I'm kind of an artistic person. I was more about the design of

the mix. Yeah.

You know, the results, the, you know, the VF ones the the all the way up to the the the the Cyclones at know, the do Cyclones are so no, dude. I am so, like, everything in and

it's what's crazy to me is that in all three of the different Generations. They were different cartoons.

Yeah. And that and but we didn't, we

didn't know as kids. Yeah.

We didn't know what his kids but and it felt right.

It felt like the right progression.

All these experts know? Yeah, yeah.

Exactly, you do. But except for the, you know,

Dana Sterling, you know, with her as mom, with the green hair and the dad with a moo moo here and she came out belong.

A little truth about that. Like, wait a minute, but other

than that, I mean, everything kind of worked, you know?

And I guess it was also because we were kids, you know, we were younger that back then and it really didn't.

We didn't take everything so seriously.

But but what looking at those designs how they transform and then looking at the toys and that the toys transform just like how they did in the cartoon, was amazing to me because you know you've seen Seen other Transformations and and things where you can't really translate it to reality because it was just so Fantastical.

Yep. But these these did it just like

the cartoon. And that's what really drew me

to Robotech at the time. It felt real, right?

It felt like, yeah, you're sitting there and you're in up talk. I've talked about this before,

not necessarily on my podcast, but maybe, as a guest of someone else's, you know, you're sitting there and middle school and just will be paying attention and you're staring out the window and just waiting for your vf1. Land outside.

So you can go in there and save the fucking day exactly.

Reserve. Their Max are there piloted,

right? Yeah, yeah.

Transformers, were probably my all-time favorite cartoon over like a duration but it was always hard for me to imagine how, you know, sound wave. I can walk around with Soundwave

in my hand. All the sudden.

Yeah, 40 feet, all stomping, shit.

It's never the math. Never worked for me, right?

Yeah, you're exactly right. It was very, it was really based

on fantasy. We're Robotech almost felt like

it could be real and not that far into the future, you know, because they were using modern at the time airplanes.

Yeah, it's though it was and you know what's mine, my favorite things to do right now is seeing and searching out all the photo shops of like like real Tomcats And and whatever that are Photoshop to look like the the VF ones, just even just the plain form, you know, Not in the mech format, the robot or not.

Not a guardian mode, just the planes.

And and to me it just like, man that looks freaking amazing.

I want to see it. I am hoping that they do if they

do the live-action version. Yeah, right.

Thank you. Adjust this and do it, right?

And not. Don't go too crazy and make it

all look futuristic because I mean, I think that's going to be the hardest part is to make sure that they do the fans Justice when they, if they ever do make this movie.

Yeah, it's kind of like And I'll go back to the Transformers really quick is, you know, growing up, loving it so much.

And I'm not trying to crap on the Michael Bay movies, but when you see it, you're like what? That's not optimal but that's

probably is it. He's not a badass.

He's our Recon. 65 micronized botton.

Only has one friend. It's a human like what are we

doing? And then now, right now they're

coming out with stuff to seems more G1 and that's my fear, too.

For Robotech. I'm like, I don't want to see a

rowboat. Take them all out.

I will I do want to see any robots.

We but I don't want them to make a rotate moving around like this, so weird and futuristic. I mean, other than a couple

names like what do we know? No, but ya know, Hollywood weird

like that, man. Yeah, I know that, you know,

that's what I'll do. That's the one thing I'm really

worried about is how they're going to portray it and like, yeah, went. So which one it was, it was it,

the the Bumblebee movie, but where we felt G1?

Yeah. Yeah, that's when it started

like, and but they didn't even call that one.

Character, Starscream, when he looked just like, Starscream, right? I know that was kind of weird to

me. Yeah.

You did you have you watched on Netflix?

I think it's called war for Cybertron.

No, it's a 3. You have Netflix?

Yes, I do. Okay, it's a three.

I don't know. Necessarily want to call it.

Like Seasons, but it's like three chapters broken off by maybe five to eight episodes. Mmm.

You need to watch it. It's it's kind of like a modern

anime but it looks super weird because it's robots.

Yeah, almost real. And it takes like an episode or

two to get used to it. I promise you you're going to

watch that you were like this is the best thing they've done really for the whole thing. I mean, that's the only reason I

even know about these. The new movie coming out with

the primals or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Beast Wars. These two words.

Yes. It's kind of that.

That purest knucklehead. I'm like, what the hell is?

I'm not watching. No, Optimus Prime is a fucking

monkey, you know, but he's a truck.

He's not a fucking monkey. Exactly.

Right. One, having watched that.

I just watched it last. Like, probably in the last year.

I was like, this isn't. This is amazing.

This is really so cool. So, now, when I was coming out,

I'm like I know what that is. Because, you know, we've been

talking to, you know, we work with has worked quite a bit where we really do a lot of work with them and they've, you know, help, let us know some of the things that we're going on.

So I have done a little bit of the research before Optimus primal, and it's pretty cool, you know, II do like what's going on there. But this I've never I haven't

heard of that. What you're talking about.

So I'll put that on my Cube. Sure, I'll send it to you when

we get off of here. Oh yeah, going back to the F-14.

Expired, you know, bear attack. I did that I went to different

Air and Space Museum's. Just to see these wrapped up

front. So on so that when I designed it

it was kind of like half cartoony.

Have realistic stuff. Yeah.

And so somewhere I do have a photo where I kind of keep in mind. We're talking about Photoshop

where I barely know how to use it but I do.

There's a photo of me standing in front of an F-14.

I do have kind of the school year thing on there, so I'll I'll send them to you. It's, it's fun.

Yeah. Yeah, that's that's that's

what's fun about this whole, you know, doing this kind of stuff, you know. And you you were the first one

to do it your and you went out and did it right.

You know, doing the research, that's I admire that and I'm not just going on, just trying to you know, just do something really quick. You actually took the time and

did it justice? That's that's the big thing.

If you're going to go do it, do it right?

You know, you did it right? Thank you.

I appreciate it. Funny, story on that is I didn't

even think about doing that rap. I think I was out and I saw a

Ferrari replica fighter jet once I go that's super badass and I got up and I was looking at and I go, you know what, I bet you I could do better and then I was at I was I think I was a seaman, there was a Corvette, it was really cool.

But everything was like in the wrong place.

Yeah. It's like no step here or do not

unlike. What is this?

Why is this? Why is this caution are entry

thing like, on the door handle? Like, what is this, right?

I could do better. And so I started playing around

and I design like a really Loose one and send it to a few friends and like, oh, yeah, you should totally do that and I thought, well, maybe I get nassima. So once I got accepted into

Seema, then I went full Ham on it, you know, all the way.

So then that just became the challenge, you know how?

Yeah. Cool.

Can I really make this, you know, and then going back to what we're talking about earlier between the whole Mac cross across and in Robotech. I'm like, okay, because my

original design was kind of like the Macross version and I never really watched Macross. I was I was 100% robo, tech guy.

We just I just wasn't available and then when I got older it just wasn't that, you know, I didn't like gravitate to it.

Yeah but I had they had what's his name's not Rick?

What's Rick's. Oh, Ichiro or something?

Ichigo, yeah, I had that instead with the red black and white and I go No One's Gonna recognize this, right?

I'm gonna have to do you know the ROI / Rick's goal leader because that's Universal between both Brands and yep.

You know, that's what we ended up going with.

So, will your design like what are some of the challenges?

What are some of the challenges that come with being a jada toys, coming up with some stuff? Well, so the our design I didn't

design it for Personally, I had one of my because I had the time I was the director of product development for the vehicle side, okay? And I'm talking about on your

Supra. Yes, super.

I didn't have time to do much of the designing.

I was doing a lot of the more that administrative stuff and talking with, with license, oars and doing a bunch of different things. Because, you know, when, when

you're the director of the head of the department, you have, you know, a team that does most of the design work, and I just told, Hey, this is the vehicle and he's he knows about Robotech. He was, but he's a lot younger.

He's like he was maybe three, four years out of graduating, from from college. Yeah.

So he's pretty young, but he went in and we went, he went through with me, maybe three, four, five, different iterations. Before we said, okay, this is

the one that we want to go with and then had to go back and forth with the harmony gold and the people who approve for Robotech, right? At the same time, So they had to

go through and do a lot of their tweaks and stuff too.

So a lot of it is the sum of the original iterations were quite different from what you had and I think your your design influenced ours because through the license or because they wanted to do so they were they were they were referencing yours quite a bit when we were doing ours and and we can see that and we're like going I knew there was going to be a little bit of a backlash with Bose, I know you know, you just copy that because of how much they wanted us to do similar to yours like certain

details but we couldn't go into detail because of the process right for the decos. You know, it's it's called tampo

printing where it's basically a rubber stamp that gets the graphics onto the vehicle. So you can't do a lot of the

like, you know, the the the the dirt and the grime that you had on yours doing All the the little paneling and the rivets, it starts to get really expensive when you start doing all that kind of stuff. So we have to simplify it quite

a bit before we were able to get it approved and to a point where it was affordable to do and it could get approved at the same time, right? Because that's that's a

difference, you know I can understand that.

I went to school for industrial design before I failed out.

You know, it's funny because the last class I had was a science class, it's not that I it's not that I couldn't do it.

I just wasn't the right timing for me.

Yeah. You know, I understand that

process and it's got to be mass-produced.

And, you know, yet every, every extra line on on like a diecast, right? Something is gas every extra

Design Line. It's one more thing that's going

to cause money. Yep.

So, you know, the level of detail so I get that.

Yeah. But no.

That's and that's, and that's the time to at the time.

Things were changing in our factories, you know?

Like, I'm sure you're aware liking a lot of factories in China, because of the A net, which is, you know, I think is awesome. They're starting to see like how

much, like, how different Western countries are compared to theirs, and they're now asking for more money and they're there the you know, things are getting more expensive and I'm all for it. You know.

I want them to make their money because that's their, they work hard. I've been out there and I seen

them, they work hard and they do their stuff and it's just the government is, you know, kind of holds them back a little bit but They the was only my world, I lost my train of thought, but we're talking about the design process and the constants and stuff like that. So okay, yeah, so the cost of

things started going up because we were paying Factory workers more money cost of goods and materials started going up.

So we had to even cut back even more so the the toys could have been a lot more detailed than you know we when we first pitched it to to the robo tech people that licensors it Quite different and then we had to cut back quite a bit because of the cost material cost, the labor costs, all that stuff, started getting more and more expensive. So it was what we see.

Now wasn't the same as the original designs for sure, but I'm still very, very happy with what we got out of it.

And I think it looks really cool.

It was a good compromise and, you know, I can't complain.

I think we do good with it. Did you get a lot of blowback, a

lot of comments and stuff. It wasn't really like us not on

our pages. So on are like social media

Pages, you know, we didn't get a lot of that but it was when they were starting to show up on the like the Robotech and the Macross groups and stuff, you know, because and then, you know, and I get it, I understand it because there's there's a lot of people out there, you know, they they know your car, they didn't want at the same time. They didn't understand what we

were doing. You know, ours.

The whole thing was just like a reimagining of what if they were race car drivers instead of Pilots mmm, right?

Yeah. And that's, that's kind of the,

you know, the whole thing of our that toy line that we're making, which is Hollywood rides. Most of it is, is replica

vehicles. But when there is no rep, no

vehicle that is associated with character, we do what's called inspired by well. There's actually three kind of

categories. There's inspired by where we

take the character and then Put the like make the vehicle and extension of the character so we try to find vehicles that have similar characteristics. So, for example, a Spider-Man,

we use the new 2017 Ford GT because the headlights kind of resembled what the hell, the eyes of Spider-Man look like.

So when we designed it with the, the graphics were like his suit.

And then around the headlights we put that like, eyeliner shape that he has on his on his mask. So it's An extension of

Spider-Man. Then there's the replicas which

is like Batman will do the Batmobiles.

And then there's like the etosha stock type stuff, where she has billboarding the character on the side of the vehicle.

We didn't want to do the the billboard and we didn't want to do that for Robotech because we found we saw the opportunity to to use the same Graphics from the from the ships on the on the vehicles. Very much inspired by your

vehicle from when you, we Originally, I mean, I when I first saw it, what how she was? So long ago when I saw your car,

I was like, man, that would be cool as a model but we never had the license for, for any of the anime properties.

And with this Hollywood ride learning, it gave us the opportunity to do and I jump on it quick.

I'm shocked, they gave me the nod on it.

I mean, you know, we won't have to get into too much detail about HG. I mean I've have good

relationships with them but yet still shocked that they gave the nod on it. There's, you know it's kind of a

personal expression. In which they like, but as

people from China started, making Miniatures of it.

Yeah. Then it I mean Tommy was like

what do you want us to do you want us to kill it?

I go. Well, let me let me talk to

these people and see if I can strike out some sort of a deal because it would be a loss. Because who doesn't want a

fucking miniature, their car right?

Yeah, right. I'm like, well, I don't know.

Let me just talk, let's see. You know, I've talked to a few

people and, you know, everyone was like, I too bad.

It sucks that I, you know, Is what happens when you get ripped off? And I said, look, it's all going

to work out and it did, you know, I think any financial gain from it but people got the product but I'm right, I'm still surprised. They're like alright cool, you

know. But yeah, I think it's awesome.

Dude, what you guys are doing when they first started popping up, you know, it's kind of mixed, right?

It's like oh man. Yeah.

And then it's like, well, I'm going to get, I'm gonna get a new NSX and then maybe I'll do a version two, but then everyone's going to think I'm top. I'm copying this jada toys

Supra. Seriously was going through my

head. Boo, dude, you know, what's

funny? Hmm, two hours ago, a friend of

mine Ozzy sent me a picture of him holding.

The skull leader Supra. Jada toys.

Yeah, from Target. Am I get it?

I haven't talked to this guy in like three years ago.

Hey, funny thing. I'm talking to Jada Toys, Mike

and a few hours. Yeah, that's okay.

But when I first started popping up, I'm like I think is awesome because I never thought I'd see the day where we see anything Robotech license in our stores. You know?

And that's, that's another thing.

You know, the reason why we went that direction because there was other directions that we could have went, we do, you know, miniature diecast figures that are not non possible.

We could have done figurines in that are certain scale.

But the thing is, everyone's doing that kind of stuff already, you know, that we got kid logic out there.

We got, you know, the band I hear there's a bunch of companies that are doing some cool stuff and we wanted to do something a little bit different and we wanted to stand out And you know we still have the license is I think it's still a great license. There's a there's a following I

mean dude how long has it been since there's been any real content for Robotech and that first generation stuff is still selling like crazy. You know there's yeah you're

like Yum Yum Yum motto is still making you know the original you know skull leader all of them even like been Dixon's car like ship. He's in there, they're doing his

and and people are all over it, you know, it's It's crazy how much of a how popular Robotech is with the fans that grew up with, you know, the people who are hardcore rented, they'll buy what you know what's available for sure, dude bendixon.

Yeah, that guy that guy never got to take a bite of his steak.

He took one kind of you know, man and he died five minutes later, do that scene hurt. That was Heavy when I saw that

that scene I was like oh my God I think that was the first Time, I watched a cartoon where one of them like we're a big character died. No, it was no that like legit.

That was the first time on American television that anything like that was allowed and that's what took so long for it to happen is because it was too violent for us.

Yeah, I do I've done. Yeah that's that's the first

time because we it taught us kids about death and consequences. Yeah.

I'll I remember going back to school that after that episode.

I'm like dude you guys see that? We're like we're all in shock.

We're just like I was dropped in like, wow, that was that was nuts. And then, Roy like to, dude.

Yeah, man. Spoiler died.

Spoiler alert, people if you're about, you know, 40 years late on this one, but spoiler. But I mean, think about what we

had, we had g.i., Joe Transformers, and the worst

thing that ever happened to someone.

Judge Jose going to a coma for a couple episodes.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Right. You know you ever watched um

Resolute, maybe he had Joe. The GI Joe Resolute that that

one version where it was like, pretty pretty more adult-oriented? No, I don't actually know, I

don't think so. No, I think it's called

Resolute, you should check that out because that was the way.

Like we started, I was watching that probably, you know, eight nine, ten years ago. It's that's what we know is out

and I don't we have seen it then I just I just want down.

It's it's it's it's good. It's, it's the way that, you

know, it's Way, we always thought that g.i., Joe should be

being older now. Yeah, like, you know, if that's

it was Ill, you know, how it like, there is like cartoons now that are, you know, a little bit more violent and look more in caters to more to adults, right? That's what this was.

And, and, and it was, it was really good.

We were like all over an enemy action figures for it, and it was just now, we are all over that.

As in the toy ended, the department here at Point a jada toys. We are all about it.

It was really good. You know, you said that's pretty

cool. I guess I wrote it down.

I can't wait to watch a. So you gave me that and I gave

you the Transformer sang earlier, so they do you very much right back at you. That'll be the homework?

Yeah, a lot of people ask me if I'm going to rewrap my car and I'm just going to be breaking right, breaking news but I've thought about actually Decal in it up based after you guys a super has, dude. So wait up.

We are, this is also kind of breaking news.

Is we might be Working on getting your ear NSX.

The OG that OG the the new one. Well, that'll be cool.

So Mom is something that could probably be in the works between us. I don't know that, that would be

super cool. Do you think you said it, you

know, making it kind of, you know more about like this if this artificial character, whether its Power Rangers, right? If it's artificial character is

driving this car as an extension of them.

And that's one thing I kind of wanted to do is instead of making it look like a fighter jet making it look like, what if it was a car. And so that's what some of my

more recent. You know, Liberties have been

like what? If what if it was a Varitek race

car instead of a very tight. Yeah.

And it's okay people that don't understand.

Like what the hell is that shit? What are you?

But the people who know? Yeah.

Oh dude, yeah, there's there's people like to me as I can when I go Cars and Coffee like 90% of the people don't know what it is, right? Yeah.

It's just I get I'm I'm more than excited.

When that one person comes up and says huh Roy.

Yeah. It's and I'm not doing it for

anyone else, really, you know, I did it.

Well, I did it for the company to, to help promote the product, right? But at the same time, you know,

a selfishly, it's someone of my, the things that I would have, you know, I've been wanting to do for a long time and, you know, realistically, when someone fixes up car, you're not really doing it for everyone else, you're doing for yourself, right? You shouldn't be doing for

everyone else. You should be doing it for your

own your own pleasure, your own, you know, because you really like cars and you really like, whatever you're putting into it and design you're putting into it, right?

You're not you're not just doing it just because you want people to say oh that's cool. I don't know.

Invalidate it though you know I guess you know you do it for you but it's feels great. When you put all that work or

whatever it does like this is a gift that I've given to the fans and I just have to be a part of this as well.

But then if you Appreciate it. Do you is it really something

that you can prepare out of? No.

You know, because you want to do something that you can appreciate and then, and if someone else does appreciate it as well, I think that's more rewarding than just doing it for everyone else and you not like really liking you know there's a lot of people like that actually in the car Community, we could probably count on our hands people that we persuade know that we're probably friends with we're just kind of like look, I don't really that's not really how I do stuff but you know, right that's cool for you. I get it.

Yeah, I mean I get it. There's iron were you know Oh

it's there was a there was a guy who fixed of his car and nothing then say the car because it's it's you'll be known as we could say. It's as soon as you say.

But he's like like you sings like he was criticizing how someone fixed up their car. But he did his car it was such a

unique vehicle that that it was super like it was it was either you loved it or hated it. Oh yeah.

All And yeah, it's super polarizing and people were like the who didn't like it would constantly say, you know, like oh why did you do that? You know, he should have done it

like this or like that and then he was like, I don't do it for you. I do for myself but I'm honest

on the flip side. When he's looking at other

people's cars, all he's doing that wrong, you should have done it this way, you know, I mean. Yeah.

So it's you know you do I that's the one, you know, I don't get along with like, I will I stop, I don't know him that well.

To say, I get along with our, don't get along with them, I just know, we're acquaintances. We sure he know the same people,

it's just that kind of rub me the wrong way because you know that's that's you know, if you're going to do something that you think is original and you do it for yourself because you liked it, you wanted to get people's eyes on it, you don't talk shit about other people's stuff you know because re or or if you get you know if someone criticizes you you should accept that criticism if you're going to criticize him.

One else. No, I agree.

I think so, yep. Yeah.

So it's either that's why you know, when when we are when I was hearing a lot of lash back from, you know, from showing you the super off, you know, it was something that I'm happy with and then a few people will get it.

And though the my biggest fear though was was meeting you for the first time and it couldn't have been any better the club's either you. You you made it a lot easier

when We first met because I knew that that time was going to come but one day this motherfucker I'll be ready.

If you keep your gun ready and everything I was like man, I know you kind of recognize this guy and then you didn't even when you mention it it all click on like, oh my heart's kind of jumped in there. And then as we started talking

about this guy's cool. No that was lucky dude.

It's mutual Mike. Holy shit.

That's the Supra. Yeah.

Like that's my car. I'm like holy shit.

This is your car. You know what?

I don't know who jada toys Mike is, you know, I know Gina Torres is but I'm like, wait. This is this is, this is fucking

bad ass, you know? I just, man, I was bumped

hearing that, you got rid of. Yeah.

You let that cargo and the car just went to Chicago.

So it really My friend that I sold the car to I did remove the wrap before but he sold it after like a year that really gets, he's a good friend of mine but he's, you know, he's a car guy but not really, but is because there's so many different types of car guys, right? Yeah, yeah.

Just, he just wasn't prepared to take over a, a 90s gdm.

That's been heavily modified, you know, he's right, right?

Right. And stuff like that.

Basically, turn keys because he'll buy a really nice card.

No, throwing Awesome wheels. And he always gets rid of things

better than he got him. Yeah.

But when it comes down to the little things, as I came in, my radio doesn't work or my seat doesn't work.

I'm like, what have you checked the fuse?

No, where's the getting sighs? All right, I'll be over in a

little bit type of deal. Yeah, it's kind of Bittersweet

seen the cargo because it never felt weird because it had to had to go for my type S. Yeah, but I also knew it was 20

minutes down the road. Yeah, right ever wanted to see

it. You know, I might I see two cars

& coffee or, you know, sexpo but you know it's and you sold it.

Someone, you knew. So it was like, it was

accessible still, it's in the Kuran family.

So to say, I could have driven it whenever I wanted to.

Yeah, he would have happily throw me the keys cool.

But it's, it was a dream car. And like, what were your dream

cars? You know, where you into cars is

a little kid. I know you're in a robe attack.

You know what? Some people get into things

different times of life. Sometimes cars are just their

job. This isn't the case of you.

Your job is toys that It kind of focuses on, you know, Transportation. But yeah.

Cars were a big thing. Growing up for me.

My dad had a 67 67 or 68 68 Chevy Camaro horse.

Yeah, and still in the family, which is nice and my cousin who owns it right now has been done a really good job.

You kept it really clean restored.

Slide We modified not too crazy. Then my dad got into Z's.

He had a 280Z and that was really cool.

Is the first car that I ever heard talk and said, door is slightly ajar yeah had one of those those automatic seatbelts.

It was like super high-tech, it was crazy.

And then but after when I got into high school that was when like the the whole I don't know if you are familiar with Battle of the Imports. Mmm Battle of the Imports was

well, it actually started with the the street racing scene out here and California in Southern California, La Sylmar area Gardena. Those are like the street racing

thing. Those kind of like what we had

in our generation as to what today is the the street takeovers are it's like yeah. Yes or no, we weren't that.

You know, but it was underground drag racing.

Yeah, yeah. It was.

Yeah, it was before anyone really knew what the hell's actually got from. If I, you know, if those those

videos I watch on YouTube are correct.

The, you know, that's the scene that kind of spurred on The Fast and Furious movie, it was actually called Red Line in the beginning, right? So anyways, I was during, you

know, right before that time in high school, it was of all About many trucks. So I was my car that I really

want to get was a Mazda. Be 2200.

Yes I didn't have it. One of my best friends had it

but yes shut up really? Yeah Mike my girl Mike Howard if

you're listening shout out to Mike Howard and his hand his tan be 2205 my friend. The one reason why I wanted one

is one of our friends. Jay had a tan be 2,200, that's

funny. Dude.

It was the freaking coolest thing.

I, in high school I djed I used to date.

Jae-min white crew used to DJ the high school dances.

Like with within like, I don't know, maybe a 20-mile radius, you know, from where we are, all the high schools we would do.

And in my high school, we would do the halftime event, you know, for the football game. So, we would bring doubt our big

speakers and to bring them out, we rolled in with my friends D, 2200 with the speakers, and the equipment in the back to set up and like the all the eyes, Turned as we're driving down the track next to the football field to set this stuff up.

It was, it was amazing. Keep you could hear people like

man, that trucks cool at times. Rad it was, it was crazy and

that's why I wanted that truck because it looks so good.

Slam awesome, 13s, she has sir wire wheels if you can afford anything. Exactly, dude, it was, it was,

it was good. It was just freaking nice.

And then after so the JDM stuff started coming in shortly after that, so that the thoughts And five tens, Celica Civics, all that stuff started getting getting big.

And then, at the end of high school, right after I graduated, actually, I was able to get one of my, my dream cars, which was a 91 Toyota MR2 non-turbo do, but it was a narrow tube.

And that's what I drove to college for for the first couple years. And like I was, I never really

dreamed big when it came to car. Until I got older and started

making little bit more money where those Big Dreams?

Vehicles were more attainable. Sure.

And then I started to think, you know, maybe you know because I never really dreamed for things beyond.

My means always like try to think get, you know, like think big but but not too far away where I can't get it.

You know, it's it was always a goal.

It was like, you know, like when you have goals, you always try to do your little Milestone. You get here, then you Then you

reach a little farther. After you get to that point,

that's how I always kind of felt with my, my selfish goals is always get something that I can obtain.

So it's baby steps rather than big leaps, like it.

Yeah. It's that's, but yeah, that's

kind of where I was. And how about you were?

You were you big on the vehicles when you're younger, you know.

I I've always liked cars, I think, you know, you watch and I wanted the generally obviously, a White Knight Rider.

I wanted to fall. Right, right, right.

Yeah, anything on TV, you know, I wanted those Vehicles.

Fucking I wanted Airwolf, you know, dude, are 12s theme song ever. But I, yeah, I mean, I, you

know, like a lot of kids, I think I started getting in the middle school and, you know, maybe in high school and I had the posters on the wall. May, I'd like, Lamborghini or

vector is nothing. But I still didn't really know

that much and then I know subscribe to Road and tracks is on our cars cordially and autoweek because we didn't have that. Right?

When we write our, our consumption was these monthly or quarterly magazines, right? Yeah, or we would go what?

I'm sure you did the same thing. You know you go to the car

dealership and you posed next to cars late at night and I get the brochure. And that's what you're staring

at that your dream car. Yeah.

It wasn't until high school that I I saw and fell in love with an NSX and that became my attainable dream car, but I also wanted an RX-7, you know, and FDR extol, you know, so I had that pamphlet and then obviously here, which if B, if C it wasn't the 93, right 93.9, or whatever? Yeah, because I didn't, I didn't

have a car dolls like 20. Yeah, but I had friends cars,

but no one really a car, Eric will Erica.

Yeah like an FTE like I don't know if you had like a 92 you know, RX-7 or whatever. But that's I think to me that

car is like the ultimate like JDM modifying a car.

You want to modify because it just like, there's so much cool thing. It looks like a Mech just

driving. Well, so you get the right stuff

for the conquest in the stereo on, right?

Yeah, yeah. Hello goes to.

That's right. Dude.

Transformers dad told me that Oh, yeah, I love those cars, you know. And then I'll tell you, that's

just kind of how it but, you know, we had to dream, right?

So everything, it's almost like the Michael Jordan effect where you didn't have access to it. So you clung onto any access you

can get right, which kind of built the Mystique and the aura of this awesome dream car, you know?

And it's, that's kind of the challenges when I wanted to ask you as well. It's like what do you think kids

do that? Because every everything they

want is in front of them and it's not their fault.

Yeah. But it's what do they Him about,

you know, it's tough, man. It's like, it's crazy.

I don't I don't know. I because for a while there kids

didn't even know, cars, it felt like it.

Yeah, well I can tell you firsthand.

Like we would go to shows like say la Auto or or even go to like, smaller car shows that were were families.

Would bring their kids out and the kids have like not interested. The only cars that they know, oh

that's bumblebee, they don't know what kind of car is.

They'll they know Bumblebee. That's it.

But now it's time to change a little bit.

I, you know, just even last that at the fuel fast I were at, we had cars. I mean, it might be a little

different kind of demographic because those are hard core, you know, car people. But kids like 12 years old and

younger, baby down to eight years old.

One kid, I think it was about 10 years old came over and said, oh, that's an R34 Ximena. Yes, yeah, that's when I was

like. Okay, they're coming back here

because there is a while there that no kid like you.

Cars with it. Had to be something that they

saw on. Transformers, you know, they

didn't they didn't know any of it because people who buy our Fast and Furious stuff. It's our age.

That's it's not the kid. Yeah, we're the ones dumpster

diving at the toy store as well for exact ours.

Yep, has grown. And it's grown men right now and

right now, it's kind of, it's transitioning.

There's this like this whole between collector that's starting to emerge now, which is really Be good.

And and it's we're seeing that, you know, these kids.

These younger kids that are not like the pre-college guys are now but the they're they're starting to go again, it sighs.

Well maybe middle schoolers are starting to no cars.

Again, they're starting to get into that collecting and seeing value in good quality product, you know so it's we're hoping that Connie continues rather than Society carry changing their mindset a little bit again and Going a different direction.

It's to me, it's like, right, when like the fixing bicycles came into play, is when every call the kids stop wanting to drive as soon as they got, you know, of age to be able to drive its before, when we were younger.

It's like, as soon as you got, were able to get your license, I want to get my license and, and go, you know.

Yeah, couldn't wait. But now kids, like, for during

that time, they could care less about getting their license.

Because, you know, they were just Just riding their bikes around or just in their house just playing on the computer the whole time. Or I think I think it was a

study that came out and there's kids like, a certain age.

They don't want to drive, they want to Uber everywhere.

Yeah, yeah. But your beer, right?

And it's refreshing to see. It brings a smile on my face

when I go to a car event and I see kids like, little kids, like my grandson. Yeah, I'm Granddad.

So, my grandson Zeke is four and a half and I mean, he knows what an NSX looks like weather. It's a big one or a little one.

Yeah and he's excited about cars.

See that's cool. Yeah yeah I mean there's still

car so there's there's two kinds of kids that we're seeing.

There is the collector the kid who knows what he's getting and wants to get them. All right?

Whether it's Pokemon or cars, it's they want to get them all.

Then there's the kids that are compilers, they just want a bunch of whatever it is that they're into at the time and they don't necessarily need to know what it is.

It is they just want as much as they can, they can get their hands on. And, and we're seeing before it

was, mostly the compilers that our kids, that just want a bunch of stuff, and I think it has a lot to do with this whole new format of, you know, of TV shows that are.

Especially in Netflix, they don't do, you know, there's no more Saturday morning cartoons. They just give them the whole

season and then they can binge watch it in.

Yeah, when we were younger, we had to wait a whole week for the next episode to come out, right? So, what do we do in between the

time of each episode, we wanted to go buy the product to be able to act out that last episode and and hold us over until that.

Next episode came out. Yeah.

They don't have a chance now, to, to get emotionally invested into a cartoon or a character or whatever because they can just binge watch it. Now, they're on to the next

thing. So, when they binge-watch

something this like all these are cool and that the hype at that time, Is wants them to just get a bunch of like product real quick. I have it right now, I got to

have right now and then there that wants that next cartoon or whatever comes out. They're done with it and they

don't want to buy it anymore. And that's not the way retail

stuff works. We have to have things on shelf

or at least three four five months or a year for it to be successful, you know. So we can't just put something

out for free or for a couple months and then take it off the shelf and replace it with something else.

It has to have longevity and that binge-watching style of cartoons. Nowadays is killing the

industry. It's the instant access.

Yep. For sure.

You know everything is now in So you're, you're, you're seeing that have an impact on your industry directly?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, for sure for sure.

Definitely. You know, because like, like

man, I remember watching, you know, like g.i.

Joe when I was younger like you, you had the whole season was was, you know, you're going, you're waiting for the next week to see that next episode. And then you, you know, what do

you want to do in between the whole time that you're waiting?

You you know you want to still experience that that cartoon and you so you get the toys, you get the product.

Yeah. Or if you're into Comics, you

know you get that next comic book and you're waiting for that next Comics Come Out. Imagine if comic books came out

with all the whole series in one shot and you know, you just sitting there and reading the whole time I mean, that could work but in the like me, terrible.

Yeah, yeah, II, there's no anticipation, there's no build up anymore, you just, you know, it's all there.

You don't, you may not even read them all, because all I got them all. I can read them whenever I want

to, you know, it's you know, it's funny.

Is there anything worse? And a lot of people can identify

with this now, but you get home from school.

You watch your show on Friday or it'll be Thursday, and then you get home Friday. And it's not on because some

other stupid things on. Anyways, it was continued from

Thursday, but then Monday, it's not even the continuation of Thursday. It's just some other random

fucking happy. Yeah, thanks, I learned that

g.i. Joe was, it wasn't even because

it's funny, you think back, like I said, watch that every day after school I used to watch Transformers and raise a washer over Tech every day after school for like six years, right?

Yeah. And then you learn.

It's just a bunch of like miniseries, all slap together back to back. Yeah.

And only only designed to sell a shit.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

It's it, you know, it's like oh, there's a new character.

Oh, I guess I can say about my GI Joe points and mail it in so I can get a fucking William the fridge Perry character.

Right? Yeah, that's right.

Remember that shit dude. You can even invite you to mail

your shit off and wait you four to six weeks to get it in the mail and yeah. And it seems like nowadays if

you were to do that for Squeaks. You're not interested in that

product anymore or that property.

You're asking for a Rihanna in a tracking number.

Yeah, you're like, oh, what's this shit?

I wore this for weeks ago. I'm done.

What's the? Let's next thing, I'll tell you

a real life of a version of that.

So I'm a huge MCU guy, loves movies.

Like I love the movies, I don't have hardly any that when I guess I have a bunch of like little Superchip but when Sideshow comes out with stuff. Yeah and it's like oh my God,

this you know Mark 50 this is preordained Order.

Damn, its water and 50 bucks a fucking right, you know, up on my deposit down. I've never got anything always

cancel like six months later before eating.

That's funny. But that's, you know, collectors

these days. They'll wait a year out, dude,

it's crazy. I don't know if you're into

Voltron but it's I took, is essential.

I think they just announced their their Voltron go lion.

It's it's it's nice. It's really nice.

I love the Voltron. But did you know the Voltron

cars? And And the Lions actually have

nothing to do with York with each other.

Yeah, yeah. Hi.

It's like only the know. You probably do know and your

industry. It's just, it's the name.

It's like what it's the name. Yeah, they have nothing to do

nothing other than the name, that's crazy.

They did try to do a crossover though.

I think in American cartoons where they did, they kind of were in the same episode. I think, I think I remember

seeing that there's a third Voltron that they tried to put, it was like this, this three robot thing in his robotic.

Combined to have six arms. It was.

Yeah, that's enough. You know.

You're watching the Lions. Yeah, and on Monday, you're

watching cars. Like, what the fuck is this?

Exactly. Dude.

Don't get me wrong, though. Do you?

I'm all about the cars. Went to, I collect the, I have a

bunch of the Voltron stuff, you know, all about that right now.

Well, not any right now. But you know what?

I'm actually. Looking for is a really good

quality SDF. One viewed I want to not do.

The what I really want is that freaking 120 scale Gerlach dude that good smile Max Factor whatever?

Yeah you that big one. Have you seen it?

And it's like it's probably about two and a half feet wide, nothing like the guardian form, 3 Grand or whatever.

Dude, when it was the first came out 500 bucks.

Now you can find it for anything less than three grand.

That's a model, right? Or is it the sculpture model?

Yeah, I know exactly. I've seen pictures of it on

those pages but then the who makes someone makes us a month.

I think prime. One makes like the, I think Rick

Hunters. Yeah.

And it's going through and they I think they have an SD of 12.

Yeah, he's been hot as hell is this dude.

We do like the SEF one of those. Like for me, one of the coolest

things I saw was a model of the SDF one but with a cityscape in scale to it as if you dude that thing is so cool.

Like if I were to see and and seeing these photo shops that look photorealistic where they have like a cf1 in the background and and and the and the Tomcats are the four teams in front. Do they get me all kind of

giddy, dude. It's like, I want to see this

movie already. If it is going to be like that,

if it's not gonna be like that, I'm going to I'm not going to boycott that shit. But at least with your wife

like, you could justify the honey, it's for work.

Yeah. Yeah.

Works to locate a toy. It's a work-study right off some

of this stuff, dude. Good.

I'll just yeah, don't even get me started on that.

It's crazy Mike. This is this has been great.

I oh yeah. I got one more question for you

and then we'll sure hit you with some fun Q&A.

Quick fire stuff. But yeah you know I mentioned

earlier, perception versus reality.

So and I think I would liken that to what you do at work.

You know what's And you may not know the perception, well maybe just reading the forms. You, you do kind of pick up on

it, but what is a big perception out there of of you and Jada Toys, you know, your position and what's the reality?

So, okay, I have one, I think that's a perfect example of that. People think that we can because

we're manufacturers of toys that we can just make any product, especially their own cars. Mmm.

Right. And the thing is they call they

contact us all the time saying, hey, you should make my car.

I little I know it'll sell for sure because it's so popular at the car shows. Right?

Mastema car. Yeah.

So there's that I mean We're totally down to do stuff like that. We have done stuff like that but

on our end of it we need to one. Make sure that the that it's

able to be made into toy format, right?

Some, some things are just really difficult to do.

Like, I don't know if you've seen that that gold Skyline GT-R with all the etching in the every channel.

Yeah, that thing that would be really difficult to do justice for. We wouldn't be able to do

something like that. That would be ridiculous.

Yes, but it would be awesome to do.

We would love to it's just not doable, you know, especially unless we do it and and charge like 300 bucks for it to 1:24 scale because that's, you know, probably how much it would cost is be able to. Yeah, exactly.

They're also so that and then we have to make sure that we have the license to be able to do that vehicle, you know?

Yep. If I if if Our car is say, you

know, some crazy exotic that's modified and customized.

For example, Porsche doesn't really like us to do anything other than their factory models. We can't or if unless it's on

the race circuit, so if you see it on the race circuit, we can replicate it. But if it's just a show car that

that has like heavily modified and may look awesome and cool and right up our alley. They might not approve us to do

it because it's not they have their their their image to uphold, right? So they want to make sure that

it's on brand for them because people think I own the car it's customized is creative. But once you start getting big

business involved in jada toys is big business in all the red tape rolls out. Exactly.

Yep. So it's not that easy does not

like we don't want to do it because we want to because we think That's you guys are those all those guys who are asking for this are the demographic that we're looking for.

Those are the guys who are keeping us in business and we want to do stuff like that for them.

Sometimes you just can't, you know, so it's tough so it's not that easy the you know, they can ask all they want.

Sometimes it's easy though like for example, I don't know if you know Alan. Who has that a the gold AE86?

I don't. He's so Ali Island.

He has a It's cool Toronto with what's a Nabi wheels and, and it's gold. It's been a bunch of magazines.

Like his car was a perfect match for us because it's not too crazy. The graphics aren't too much.

The body Kate was something that was you know that we see on a lot of cars. So we can use that tooling and,

you know, make other versions, other Graphics other liveries and we can make his car. It will fit right into Our

Brands and that not have any like it'll be seamless but other cars like you know some guys will want us to do there there there. I'm not going to I'm trying to

think of a vehicle that something one off with custom everything on it. Yeah yeah it's like something to

eat. Maybe it's a you know a Yaris.

You know that's a wide-body Yaris that and you know there's for us we know our Market there isn't any Market but I've seen Some really cool. Why / yaroslav about?

I wanted a Yaris for a long time because I like small cars and yeah, yeah, I mean I would love to do it but, you know, our Market, our demographic, may not pick up on it, you know, and my if we have one car that doesn't sell and it sits on the shelf that can be that end of that brand on the line on the mass Market. Mmm, so we have to be really

smart about We put together and what we put out and it could be as simple as the wrong graphics. You know, if we put bad graphics

on a car and it doesn't sell, it'll sit on a shelf and it will socks are coming. So imagine we have what we

really scars and waves, right? So each way for 1/24 scale has

four vehicles. And one of them is a dog that

doesn't sell, all three of them sell the other three sell, but that one gets left on the Shelf. They open up another package,

they put all four out. Out all three, the three cell,

the one that doesn't sell. Now, there's two on the Shelf.

Oh yeah. So it just keeps piling up,

piling up, piling up to a point where it's all.

They can't put any more new product out.

It's all the bad product that doesn't sell, and it sits there on a shelf for 34 weeks. And now, Walmart and Target or

calling us today. This is not selling.

We're going to drop that item. I've experienced that as a, as a

shot when I'm shopping for toys for other people.

Obviously, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Other people. Yeah, I'm like, let me just go

see what they have. You look at the back of the box

and see the whole collection, you know, like I want this car but there's 15 of these fuckers. Yeah.

Yeah. One exact don't want even one of

these. Yeah, so that's that makes a lot

of sense. I never really thought about it

that way, but that makes a lot of sense.

Why I look at it like six of the same one and zero of the one I want. Yeah.

So So when you know those those whatever, if there's a bunch of one item on the Shelf, nobody's wanting that one.

Yeah. That's that's going to be X.

Could be an issue unless you're like a Hot Wheels who, you know, who owns that space. They're never going to, you

know, drop Hot Wheels because of the price point and and the popularity, you know, but when it's a, you know, a company like us who have who's always constantly every season fighting for the spot that we have. Yeah, it's easy for them to drop

us and bring someone else in. So we have to be really, really

careful. Awful with what we put out.

Let's do some quick fire Q&A sounds good PB and J or grilled cheese ha, dude, I'm kind of like those so PB&J.

Oh you're lactose. We can't be friends, dude.

But I love dude. I'll sacrifice though.

You know all everyday thing if I'm gonna if I have to it'll be P into p b and j but guilty pleasure if it's there and it's it looks good. I'm all about the grilled cheese

for sure. I'm with you You have to go with

the PB&J because it's more portable.

Yep, and you can take, you can't do, you can't just take a grilled cheese anywhere. You just, you got exactly.

That's period. You have to eat it right away.

It's got a guy that goo you know you can't, you can't let that stretch go away. Have you ever taken a bite out

of a grilled cheese sandwich? Been sitting there for a while?

I have I have. Yeah, it's it's not like old

cold pizza, it's not the same cold pizza, I'm good with but cold grilled cheese. You need that crunch.

From the toasted bread. You need that pull that cheese

pull. You know, you're the first

person I asked this question to, I'm surprised I haven't put it up on social media or made to real about it but I I can't be the. Have you ever gone to the

fridge? Now I'm keeping in mind that,

you know, your family structure may have been different being raised and knowing that your kind of lactose, although one could argue, this isn't even real milk product, you ever go to the fridge and just open up a slice of cheese and eat it.

Pick it up, dude. I'm all about, I still do.

This day, you know, I, if I'm home, I'm in a safe Zone.

It's so, you know, I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to go out and seek it and eat at her at a restaurant or, but it's all at home and there's a slice of cheese in there. I'm all about it home on.

I'm dude, I'm opening the bag of shredded cheese and grabbing a handful like, like, it's a fucking Big League Chew or something. Yeah, exactly.

Am I some things just discussing?

I'm like, this has gotta be normal for people to open up the drawer. And these are just the more

civilized version of that 100% pancakes or waffles.

I like texture, dudes. I'm about to the waffles fair.

This is this will be a good one for you.

I think Star Wars or Star Trek Star Wars.

I started getting into custard track a little bit, but I think it's too scifi4me. I like sci-fi but I'd can't get

deep into those crazy. Like, dude, And all those other

ones. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Almost Star Wars guy because it

was kind of easily. I can easily get it.

It's not in too much thinking for me.

It really Mass Effect. No, I have it.

You probably don't have nothing. I know about it, I know it.

I know the brother, I never play so that.

And, and play the most recent one and when I say recently probably five years ago now but yeah, that game is so sci-fi third person yet immersive. Of I like I swear I live that

life, like I fuck him up. That's what I thought about.

When you said star trek-like from, that is one of my top video game franchises ever as a PC Gamer.

But I'm with you. I love Star Wars.

I like Star Trek. I've never not like Star Trek

but I've never, it's never challenged my imagination.

I've never wanted to be the guy with the little stupid little phaser, right? Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I always wanted to

have the laser pistol from Star Wars or always wanted to have the sword or fly the millennium. And it's just it just challenges

you differently. I guess also like, I think

visually because of all the fight scenes and all the special effects in Star Wars. That's what Grace gasps me like.

Like, I was saying with robots like that.

It's the design of the, of the of the mechs that really got me, and I really like the design of the Star Wars stuff.

What's a pet peeve of yours pet peeve?

When people say I dear instead of idea they've been when they Bend words of calmness ending words, it's like a microaggression of showing you that they're more, you know, educated than you are. Oh my God, that's hilarious.

All right, Mike, I'm how can people follow you to your 7, 14, s were first off. Where does that come from 714 is

it's a way. I had a photography company,

okay? Kind of retired from that.

We saw was 714 photography, but the have came from the fact that 7, 14, July 14th is my wedding anniversary.

Oh, so hard to forget that. Exactly, that's why I did it,

dude. That's all.

That's, that's a heady play right there, dude.

And then you have a TRD, you have a truck version of because you're so your 714 is your main Instagram, guys 14s.

Yeah so seven fourteen thousand Supra 7 2014.

Yes. And the asks really is for the

small car because that's the super as a small car and then I have it 714 dot Excel which is the The tundra reminds me of my vanity plates on my cars. Yeah.

So obviously the NSX is V. F1 s NSX.

Yeah. We're gonna have an Infiniti FX

50s and well and that license plate is my fat X.

I'm pretty people see that they're like, especially with my wife dragged, my car like, oh, I love your license plate.

It's like, it's pretty fun. I'm sure that offends someone,

but it actually has With the X 50s, it's just a fad Infinity, you know, it's funny because I was just looking at this one post that I did like 10 years ago on my Facebook memories and it was it was I just reposted a picture.

Someone who had a license plate that said, a new start a and you sta RT. But if you look at it looks it

says anus tart. It does so good.

But the actual I don't think it worked out to it.

I love it. I'm surprised.

It hasn't been turned in yet either pretty.

Funny love wrapping with you again, for sure, dude.

Anytime animal, I'll be available for you, man.

All right. Long as I moved in, and this

whole big J to move to different locations will or done.

But yeah, I'll make time sounds good.

But remember out there, I'll let you know and hopefully the Stars will align and We can only come for a grilled cheese sandwich or something. Sounds good to me.

Thanks Mom. I want to thank Mike, Jimenez

for taking the time to have a long phone call.

A fun phone call, as with all conversations totally unscripted. I was just like calling up a

nobody, although, we just met and talking about whatever a lot of fun. Hopefully, we can do that again.

If you have any questions for anything, you've heard hard-working broadcast at gmail.com one of the right,

Hannah, and right Toyota for will online Sell Shop Wireless Services. Also, can't forget my patreon

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A beater.

Jada Toys VP of Marketing - Mike Jimenez

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