Fandom of Fandoms Podcast
Fandom of Fandoms is a podcast that dives into the worlds that fans love most — from galaxies far, far away to magical schools, epic quests, and everything in between. Each episode spotlights a different fandom, exploring its history, what makes it special, and why people are so passionate about it. We’ll chat with real fans, share wild stories, and invite you to geek out with us, one fandom at a time.
Fandom of Fandoms Podcast
Get Your Brick On: The Fandom Guys Talk LEGO!
There's something almost magical about the satisfying click of LEGO bricks snapping together – a sound that transports many of us straight back to childhood. But what makes these colorful plastic blocks maintain such a powerful hold on our imaginations well into adulthood?
In this episode, we dive deep into the world of LEGO with our resident expert Michael, who shares his lifelong passion for the iconic building system. From LEGO's surprising origins as a wooden toy company in 1930s Denmark to its near-bankruptcy in the 1990s and remarkable resurgence through licensed sets, we unpack the fascinating history behind the world's most beloved building blocks.
Michael guides us through his personal LEGO journey, from childhood creative builds to his current impressive collection of Star Wars and superhero sets. We explore the phenomenon of Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOLs), examining how the company has brilliantly pivoted to embrace grown-up builders with sophisticated sets designed for display. The conversation takes unexpected turns as we discuss valuable vintage sets, the thriving secondary market where retired pieces can fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars, and personal connections with the Brickiverse.
Whether you're a dedicated collector with organized display cases, someone with fond memories of a childhood LEGO bin, or simply curious about this enduring cultural phenomenon, this episode celebrates how these interlocking bricks continue to spark creativity and joy across generations. By the end, you might just find yourself eyeing that LEGO store at the mall with newfound appreciation!
Links:
Go Chatter Studios (Bible in LEGO)
https://www.youtube.com/@GoChatterStudios
FlapJack Films (Star Wars The Office)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTqCOzVL_Lw
LEGO Studios Monsters theme stop motion software
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep4d9B3X620
Kelton Davis (reviews vintage LEGO themes)
https://www.youtube.com/@keltondavisLEGO
LEGO Master Sam:
https://www.youtube.com/@UCrqDcwLssaU6YyzzQioxxdQ
LEGO Master Alec:
https://www.youtube.com/@UCiZKQvmrtQzecByWmMg7fnw
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All right, gentlemen, here we are, episode five, yeah.
Speaker 2:Lego. Yep, I'm excited man.
Speaker 3:I am excited as well. Yeah, this is a. You guys have much more of the knowledge base on this one than than I do, and so it's kind of cool to be in the shoes of Michael, really, for the last few episodes.
Speaker 1:You guys have exposed me to, so much. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. We've only just begun, michael. Yeah, so what's been going on, nick? How's your?
Speaker 3:trip. It was nice. Yeah, we had a fun time with my family out in Gatlinburg, did that. Last week. Ben watched my dog. He's not here this time, sadly, but yeah, we had such a fun time out in in tennessee with my, like my sister and my family, uh, my parents and uh just going and doing all the things that you do in the mountains, really eating a bunch of food and getting fat, that's mostly what I did?
Speaker 2:yeah, I heard, and I heard no bear sightings, which is always a disappointment no bears sadly my wife was very disappointed.
Speaker 3:But I was like I've honestly seen enough bears that I'm like, I'm kind of set. I stayed in the cabin.
Speaker 3:One of the last times that I went was with a group of guys and this bear came like right up to our cabin oh my gosh right there and then it was a cabin, so it was a guy's trip for church and so it was like 40 some guys in this cabin and they all went down and of course, like once you hear there's a bear out there, like all the guys are out there hanging over the the handrails and stuff looking at this bear, my pastor's like trying to get up real close to it, take pictures and stuff. I'm like what the you?
Speaker 1:guys. He probably wanted to use it for a sermon illustration what about you, michael?
Speaker 3:what you been up?
Speaker 1:to yeah, oh gosh, I wish I every time we get to this. You know the intro small talk. I wish I just had something interesting to share.
Speaker 2:But you're preparing for a kid. That's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:I I did. I think I did eight hours of yard work over the weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah and uh, yeah, my hands all messed up, uh but the yard's looking good now so yeah, and we put a couch together, right yeah, so I gotta give a massive shout out to Ben.
Speaker 1:He came over on a Saturday nonetheless, which is, you know, prime day of the week.
Speaker 3:For couch building.
Speaker 1:yeah, Helped me move furniture, helped me put together a couch.
Speaker 2:When I said to you while we were doing it for me, Ikea is adult Lego, so I'm all for it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'm excited for it. You should have recorded it.
Speaker 3:It could have been content, yeah.
Speaker 2:So what it could have been? Yeah, yeah. So what about you, ben? What have you been up to? Uh, biggest, like exciting thing this week I did is I went and saw the new jurassic world, which nice I think I've talked both you about separately, but I really enjoyed it again.
Speaker 2:Like I'm big into the jurassic series in general and I know some people they have things they don't like about it and there's a couple I was talking to nick the other day. I won't spoil anything right now. But like about one of the tropes that they used several times, I'm like okay, once was fine, twice was like okay, but then they used it a third time. It was like okay, we need to think of something a little bit more creative. But other than that, like I really enjoyed it, it was fun. Yeah, I know lots of people didn't like it, but I need to.
Speaker 3:It's passed me by. It wasn't even on purpose. It's not like I'm choosing not to go watch it. I just have not made an actual effort to go out and see that movie. So, Michael, if you're bored, we can go and watch.
Speaker 1:it Sounds good. We'll go on a man date. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:No, I definitely do want to see it, though what about you? Are you going to see it or no? Wait until it comes out on streaming? Hit me up, all right. Well, I think you said you've only seen the first one in the first chris pratt one. Yeah, yep, that's, that's all. You need more exposure really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, so you've, you've seen like two out of the seven.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, seven, yeah, two trilogies and then this one yeah, well we'll go do it because I think the last we saw jurassic world together.
Speaker 2:For right before your wedding we did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was my uh, I guess, technically, my bachelor party went and saw the midnight showing of of jurassic world the first one and back when people actually like that was a thing, you went and you saw midnight showings and I gotta tell you right now, hot take of the of the podcast, I miss midnight showings yeah, so everyone does it's.
Speaker 1:It's not an event anymore. You, it comes out Wednesday at 3.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's no longer any fun. It used to be this big thing that you would go and do, and it was a big deal too. I mean, I remember I worked at a movie theater. I'm sure I've told you guys this before, but I worked midnight showings and it was huge. I mean thousands of people showing up and every single one of our 17 screens showing the same movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was crazy it was so much fun and when people really people dressed up in costumes too especially I remember the harry potter ones, like yeah it was so much fun.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, we need to need to bring those back.
Speaker 1:Honestly, that would be so great all right to our three podcast listeners sign our petition.
Speaker 2:We're bringing it back yes, I'm not sure what all that would entail, but anyways, we just need to get more, more studios, but like, this is what we're going to do and yeah yeah, okay, they want to do.
Speaker 3:What's what's going to make them money right? Yeah, and our listeners are going to bring that all right, so let's uh again.
Speaker 2:We already talked about lego a little bit, so let's get ready to dive into today's episode so so.
Speaker 2:Michael, let's hit our intro. So, if you're joining us for the first time, this is Fandom of Fandoms, where every week we talk about something different that we all love. We'll have guests on, we'll have experts quote, unquote, even self-appointed and that's what we're here to talk about today is Michael is our self-appointed Lego expert, so we're really excited to talk to him about it, and I know nick mentioned this, that he doesn't know much about it yet. But, um, I mean, I I've, like it's been a thing since I was a kid to get lego for, like, my birthday, and I will almost always like I'm buying them now and we'll talk about that a little bit but like, yeah, I'm still buying lego and I don't care, like it's I, I love it, but yeah. So, nick, what's your exposure to it?
Speaker 3:for me, um, I'm even even as a kid growing up I didn't play with a ton of lego. I had like the one random box of lego that you know I'd get into yeah, the bin of yeah, um, that I'd occasionally dive into it just wasn't the thing that I I got into either.
Speaker 3:You guys remember a thing called connects oh yeah, yeah, you guys remember connects vaguely yeah that was if I was doing something like I didn't have near as much lego, but I did have a decent amount of connects and those were things like. I played with those, but definitely not even anywhere close to the. I don't know just the level of lego and the, the fun that I think you can have with it. But, um, yeah, lately, I don't know, I mean we. So for the listeners that don't know, we've we've taken a trip together specifically to play with lego.
Speaker 1:I think we talked about in our first episode, where we went, saw a friend and did that, um and that's.
Speaker 3:That's been kind of fun, like spending time with you guys and getting to you.
Speaker 3:I am getting into it by the, the proxy, I guess I'm enjoying the fact that you guys enjoy it so much and then I'm kind of like, oh, that's a cool set, I'd like to have that like kind of cool. So that's my background a little bit, not not a lot. Um, you know, and I've participated in some of like the other parts of the ip that are not the actual building of the lego bricks, the movies and games and such. So that's my, my background in it yeah, very cool, nice.
Speaker 2:Well, I get. Like I was saying I've been, I'm still buying them. Um, yeah, I I'm buying the quote unquote more adult display worthy ones right now but I'm still enjoying the heck out of them and yeah, yeah, very cool, all right. So, michael, why don't you get us started with, like just a little background on lego in general? I saw on your notes you put some extensive history in, so I'm looking forward to hearing about this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's actually pretty cool because there is a. There's a brickumentary out there uh if any of you have heard of tubi, you can get onto tubi watch for free, uh. But basically, yeah, it's, it's just the history of lego and kind of you know, uh, throughout the year. So I I gleamed a lot of information did you watch that in preparation for this. I watched it for fun last year.
Speaker 2:I don't doubt that.
Speaker 1:And then I watched it again to prepare? Yes, I did, but yeah. So Lego, okay, lego brand founded in 1932. Old Kirk Christensen, a guy from Denmark. It actually started off as a wooden toy company, so the name Lego comes from a Danish phrase, legalt which I kind of said that in a French accent which means play well, so pretty cool. So Christensen didn't even transition to plastic bricks until 1949. But the crazy thing is he had three warehouses burned down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I heard about that had three warehouses burned down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I heard about that. Yeah, so during the you know the fade, like the early phase of the company and developing toys and bricks, uh, so 1924, 1942 and then again in 1958, his, his, uh, warehouses burned down. So crazy.
Speaker 3:Seemed kind of strange honestly was there more to the like. Was this a mystery?
Speaker 2:was somebody out to get him mega bricks was no people knew yeah, trying to stop him.
Speaker 1:I don't know yeah, exactly, but anyway. So, uh, it was christianson son who patented the interlocking design. You know, kind of making the lego system as as it's known today. Uh, but the first lego minifig didn't. It came out nearly 20 years later, in 1978. It was a police officer, it was the first minifig. So during the early 90s, you know, the Lego company began to rapidly decline, nearly went bankrupt. But it was Lego's introduction to license sets, you know, among other factors. So license sets like Star Wars, harry Potterter, that helped kind of save and turn around the company.
Speaker 1:Now it's worth 45 billion dollars, yeah so it's uh not surprising yep, going from almost bankruptcy to 45 bill is is impressive, I'd say in 30 years, yeah, yeah yeah, but lego produces. I mean, they produce 36 000 pieces per minute, um, and as of 2025, they're estimated to be 86 lego bricks for every single human on earth.
Speaker 2:So do that math that's simultaneously less than I expected, but more than yeah it's probably blown away, honestly, like the thing about that that is a lot of lego bricks well, you mentioned your lego bin.
Speaker 1:I mean that like. I mean it's so classic, the lego bin, it's it's in every mom or grandma's basement or attic. You know, there's just that bin of like a thousand yeah like multiple thousands of lego pieces that no one could possibly figure out. You know what what they actually go to right? I feel like everyone has that, you know I had that growing up.
Speaker 3:But so what? What is the? Did you actually do the math and figure out what that adds up to? If you got 86 per per, what the 8 billion people in the world what is?
Speaker 1:uh, I did do the math and I forget what it was a big number.
Speaker 3:I was curious yeah oh man, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, michael, um, why don't you talk to us a little bit about, like, how you got into lego? What are your some of your first memories of lego, then?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, definitely so, my. So I actually got into it through my parents, um, specifically my dad. Um, he was always very much into Lego when I was growing up. Um, I can't remember if he would do this when he traveled or if it was just kind of random, but he would buy like a small Lego set and then bring it home and then, you know, we build it and we eventually, you know, accumulated like a massive, you know massive tub of bricks. Um, so when I was a kid, I, when I was a young kid, I was mostly into what is called mocks, which we can kind of get into that later, but my own creations, um, so just building random things. You know, I was in the lego club throughout my whole childhood and I would send in photos of my magazine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get in the magazine. Yeah, I did that too. Yeah, there was a thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, there was a lego magazine that you get once a month and they would feature but people's mocks, people's own creations, like from around the country and Canada, I think, too yeah, it was a big thing as a kid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember like trying to like get in the magazine yeah, lego magazine like specifically.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that's all that was in. It was I.
Speaker 1:It was like featuring new sets and you know some sometimes little comics featuring lego figures doing things, or like yeah, was this like you were subscribed to it?
Speaker 3:okay, okay, but it wasn't.
Speaker 2:It was like 12 bucks a year. It was like a dollar.
Speaker 3:It wasn't like. Yeah, I mean, I remember magazine subscriptions in general, it didn't cost like tons of money. Yeah, yeah but anyway.
Speaker 1:So uh, anytime I would make you know some kind of creation. My parents would get the disposable camera. Take a photo mail because you had to mail the photo in. You know it's not like you could email it in, we'd have email back then, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the 90s before the turn of the century.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, seriously. So, anyway, um, yeah, so throughout my whole childhood that's, yeah, uh, huge part of huge part of childhood there. So, yeah, I think for me, you know, it was just a fun like family activity, um. But then after we moved to from new mexico to indiana this was in 2000 um, that's when I began getting into like the licensed, uh, lego sets, specifically star wars, and so we can kind of like talk about that a little bit later, but yeah, that's kind of my background nice.
Speaker 2:So I mean, okay, can you remember any of your own creations that you like, really wanted to get in the magazine? Is there anything in specific that you're like this one that I built and spent so much time on?
Speaker 2:oh my gosh, that's a good question we always like it was always like castles, spaceships, boats, you know just kind of like I remember stuff yeah, I remember spaceships being like an easy one to just kind of go to because they can be whatever they literally can't be like if you just put wings on it, yeah, or just slap some wheels on it and call it a car too right, yeah, exactly, yeah, that's yeah, well, again no pressure to remember because again it was 20, 30 years ago now so yeah, been a while all right.
Speaker 2:um, I mean nick, do you like? Do you have a first memory of Lego then, since you had a bin, Not specifically.
Speaker 3:Again, I had the bin. We would break it out occasionally. I can remember having other friends that were into Lego and had a lot more than me. So just to kind of give you some background, to you guys and to the listeners, I guess I never thought of myself as being and still to this day being a real creative type. That's just not me entirely, and so it wasn't as big of an appeal to me personally, because I think that that's what Lego does appeal to and it did. Back then it was the people that wanted to be creative and make these things and have these cool ideas about things that they could put together, and I just I never really thought of myself as being that way and I think it sounds sad, but like it's just, I don't know, it's just me and my kind of personality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everyone's brain is different. Yeah, yeah, I mean. So then on to you, michael. Then like, do you feel like that was, that's, an accurate representation for you, that it is or was at least a creative outlet for you as a kid?
Speaker 1:yeah, well, it's kind of funny because I feel like I've I've transitioned a bit in that when I was a kid, like I said I was, I was doing mocks, my own creations out that stand for I was doing mocks and exclusively. But then I think when I got into the licensed lego sets, I really transitioned from like just wanting to create my own stuff, doing things random, to really just building the sets as they came and like being really into that.
Speaker 1:And even now, I mean as an adult, I've never done a mock, I've only like built sets, you know, like as they come. So I think I would generally describe myself as a creative person, but with this hobby specifically, I just don't have like a strong desire. And so my wife and I we watch Lego Masters, which I'm sure you know you guys, you guys know about. And sometimes she'll ask me like, oh, like, what would your idea be for that Like, if there's?
Speaker 1:a competition that we like think is really cool. Genuinely, I don't know, like I would have no idea where to start, you know. And then you, you know, these contestants come out with just the most incredible ideas and I'm like I could not think of that kind of thing. So it's definitely my, my brain, I think, has like transitioned, you know no same.
Speaker 2:I think it's a very natural thing to do as you age in general, like there's something about us that just gets like locked behind, like the, the fear of bringing out that imagination out of that, or just like I don't know, an unwillingness to commit that brain power to it almost. Um, yeah, I think it's a well, it's so much for me, at least it tends to be.
Speaker 3:We're gonna get deeper from lego for a second but for me it's like this idea of comparison yeah like I. I constantly get stuck up in this idea of like dude I. There are people that are too much better than me at this particular thing, even if if I was putting all of my creative energy into it, it doesn't seem to be that. I don't know. I was just thinking when you were saying that that's what comes to my mind is that creatively. What is the thief of creativity? It's comparison. This is true.
Speaker 3:And so when you stop doing the comparison, you're just doing it to the fact of like this is just what we love and we're having fun with it. We're doing it.
Speaker 1:That's when you're going to have the most enjoyment of it, and I think that goes with lego or anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really yeah, definitely, yeah, all right. Well, michael, um, one of the things that we definitely like to talk about is what made lego so special to you back then and even now, like what? What continues to make it so special that you you're here with all of your sets that you brought from your house?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So to our non-YouTube listeners, I brought some collectibles here Some sets I didn't say all your sets.
Speaker 3:Some sets.
Speaker 2:What did you bring for?
Speaker 3:us today I'll give you a quick rundown.
Speaker 1:Yeah For the YouTube watchers. So I have the original Jango Fett starship. So you're not allowed to say Slave 1 anymore.
Speaker 2:So they took away that name.
Speaker 1:They canceled it, so now it's just his starship.
Speaker 3:It actually says it on the instruction manual. There too, slave 1. It does, it's there.
Speaker 1:I brought the original instructions with the sets you know, just for showmanship. I've got the 1990s Batman animated series, Batmobile version, and I brought this set because it's the set that I wanted most as a kid. I wish it existed when I was a kid. I mean, I would have just loved it so much because I was into that show my whole childhood. It's one of my favorite shows.
Speaker 3:I've honestly almost bought it a couple times. I bought it when we our lego build night, because it is, oh man, the lego batmobile, just the 90s animated series batmobile, oh so cool dude it is, I just just buy it tomorrow, yeah when you wake up and then, uh, I I brought my original 1999 x-wing.
Speaker 1:this is this is the very first Star Wars Lego set ever released. This was actually given to me by a friend, my friend, tyler Wolford and Tyler, if you're out there listening to this yeah, thank you so much for that. We are going to take a quick break. We'll be back in just a second. Oh my gosh, I love this song all right, we are back from our our little break unplanned yeah, so just for to fill everyone in.
Speaker 2:Apparently my tv just decided to turn on randomly and yeah, I don't know, I live alone. So I don't know exactly what that would have been. So yeah, anyways, michael, thanks for sharing some of the sets you brought in, including, like I see your like original Star Wars minifigs as well. But yeah, and we can get into those. But I do want to go back to my original question. So, like, what was so special to you about LEGO as a kid, and how has that changed to you as an adult now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, definitely. So I think for me you know I kind of mentioned earlier was a family activity. So I think, like you know, bonding with my, my dad, parents, you know, siblings, um just through that shared activity, um that was like significant you know. I think that was uh just like it's a fun childhood memory. You know that I kind of think back on and just um, yeah, I think getting that magazine once a month was just like the most incredible high, you know it just like I just look forward to that all the time.
Speaker 3:So was everybody in your family into it, or was it?
Speaker 1:mostly you, or so family. If you're listening to this, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we were all into it, I'm pretty sure, and my sister, emily, even now is still very much into Lego and Lego sets and yeah so, and her kids are super into it, so it's kind of being passed on, uh, through through the generations. Um, but I think what makes it special for me now to answer the second part of your question is, I don't know, it does feel like a connection to my past and childhood, like a like a positive one, um, and so I think like, and yeah, having that positive connection just feels good, you know, for me.
Speaker 1:And so you know, like I said, we moved around a lot when I was a kid and so I think, for me, like Lego, you know, having this hobby was just, it was a great way for me to kind of like I don't know deal with some of that stuff. Maybe in some sense, just for me as an adult now, it's a very constructive hobby. You know it's, it's um, it's something that I like to do. You know it's something with my hands that I'm doing and there's like a, you know, kind of a good sense of creativity about it. Um, you know, having, like you've seen my lego display on saturday, you know, putting that all together and like, yeah, it's just, it's a creative outlet for me and just and very constructive. You know, um, I was never really into, like, video games or stuff like that. I was kind of more of like a hands-on type person. So, um, and then I think too, like the last thing I'll say is just lego and building lego kind of connects me to other fandoms.
Speaker 1:So like, true for me when I was a kid and you kind of mentioned, something similar actually been in our star wars episode, but for me, like building the star Wars sets like literally connected me to that, like world yeah and you know like, yeah, watching the Star Wars movies and then being able to play out those scenes like myself, like with my hands, you know like kind of physically doing that, like really like connecting me to that, and so I think I've said this in the past but like my love of Star Wars is like somehow intrinsically linked to my love of Lego and vice versa. Like I feel like one is kind of like informed by the other. You know like I love star Wars because I played with star Wars like as a kid, but I love Lego because of all the star Wars Legos. You know it kind of like goes back and forth. Um, so yeah, I think that's, uh, yeah, my answer to your question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no great answers all of them. And I definitely think that there is something to say about, like, even if you are building a pre-made set, like there is some creativity in it, you know it's engaging parts of your brain that you don't get to touch on a regular day-to-day basis, especially with it being such a tactile thing of putting this stuff together, as opposed to you know, again, like I'm a graphic designer, so I do a lot of creative stuff, but a lot of digitally creative stuff, so like to be able to do something like physical that I don't always get to do. That's it.
Speaker 3:It does trigger something different well, coming from an outsider's perspective, so to speak yeah, I found, I mean when I was building the sets and when the few that I've done so far like there is a relaxing aspect to it too I mean, I think that there's it's a simplicity to it, like you're just kind of following instructions.
Speaker 3:It does require you to use your mind a little bit, but, like you know, you're just kind of going through and doing it and it can be a really chill experience. So for me at least, that's what I enjoyed in our you know our getting together to build.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. And there's kind of like an escapism too about it. Like you know, for me, like in one sense I'm kind of shutting off my mind to certain things you know, like work stress or life stress or whatever, but then I'm kind of activating my mind in another way, like with what you're saying, ben, with like it being kind of this like tactile, you know physical thing that you're doing. Um, so yeah, for me there's definitely like a lot of escapism in it too. The positive positive, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, well, that kind of brings us into our next like little section is for those of those people who aren't into lego and, like you know, nick is just getting into it as well like, so where would you suggest they start? Uh, is it better for them to go buy one of those big buckets of just random bricks and just start making stuff on their own, or is it better to go buy a licensed set?
Speaker 1:yeah, that is a great question. Uh, I would say, if you're, if you just want to get into it, you're ready to begin, uh, buy a small set. So if you're in columbus, I'm telling you we, we have an incredible advantage having a lego, an actual lego store here. You know these youtubers.
Speaker 2:You mean, like we have a lego discovery center here, because, like, there's several lego stores here. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, an official, like an official lego store um, you know, there are these youtubers that I'll, I'll see, um, you know posting content and stuff and they'll travel like 200 miles to go to a lego store and you know they do these like big halls and stuff and it's like, ah, I live 15 minutes away Like I could just hop over there whenever I want, you know. So I feel grateful for that. But I would say, yeah, head to the Lego store. It's definitely an experience going in there and it's right next to Jenny's.
Speaker 1:And so you actually get the scent of the waffle cones when you're in there.
Speaker 3:Talk about going to Easton here.
Speaker 1:Shout out Easton, there we go. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:Easton with.
Speaker 2:Jenny's and Lego right next to each other.
Speaker 3:And I mean at Easton. You have the second again. The Discovery Center is right there with a second store pretty much attached to it. It's kind of crazy when you think about two Lego stores that are literally within walking distance to each other.
Speaker 1:And they both bring in enough money.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure to get no doubt functioning?
Speaker 1:obviously, no doubt. Well, uh, we'll get into the expense of lego in a little bit. Okay, yeah, absolutely. But so step one, buy a small lego set and then step two is, while you're building that set, watch the lego movie or maybe the movie that your set is from. So you know, if you buy a har, buy a Harry Potter set and watch the first Harry Potter while you're building it. You know that type of thing. That's what got me really into. It was again just like that connection to the world, you know, whatever world that was. So if you're going to start out, I would, I would recommend those things.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Love that OK. Well, in general then, like what's your elevator pitch to get someone into Lego in general? Like we've definitely touched on a lot of it already, but like, give us like 30 seconds to a minute of like straight up, like looking at the camera right there, talk right to our audience, give us the elevator pitch all the pressure right now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the thing is, though, if I look up at the camera, I can't see my notes.
Speaker 2:You can look down, All right all right, anyway, so elevator pitch.
Speaker 1:So Lego is a creative outlet. Enjoyable there, it stimulates your mind as well as your physical motor skills, awesome way to connect with your favorite IPs and worlds and whatnot. It's an awesome group or family activity. So for those of you who didn't listen to the teaser trailer for Phantom of Phantoms, me, nick and Ben went to our friend Uncle Joe's and had a Lego building party and for me that was like one of the most fun nights I ever had. Basically, so well, just sorry, I hate to.
Speaker 3:I didn't want to interrupt your, your elevator pitch, but here I am coming in anyways and I was just thinking about this because I posted a little video on social media when I bought the bluey set for oh, you did.
Speaker 3:Oh nice, like us playing around with it and stuff like that. So I can definitely hit on the fact that, like, oh yeah, family activity, I'm even though I haven't been as into it as you guys have been, I've been, I don't know like it's kind of cool to see them releasing these cool uh ips and putting them into these lego sets and things that my son's into, and so we're kind of connecting in that way as well. So I don't know, I just I would say that's, that's my amen yes, you got like I agree, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Um, last part of my elevator pitch you're going to get a huge dopamine hit when you buy a lego set. You know, just spending money to change the way you feel it's it really works.
Speaker 3:They do say, that's the saying right money can buy happiness, right when it comes to lego.
Speaker 2:When it comes to lego, yes it is true.
Speaker 1:It is true, yep, I'm talking from experience well.
Speaker 2:So we were just talking about like the ages, like and you're getting your son into it a little bit I just had me sitting here looking at some of the sets on the table and I noticed something that is a fun change, that, um. So if you look at like these modern sets that we bought and we'll we about this at some point but they all say seven up, eight up, six up, like it has a starting age and up, yeah. But then you look at the one, the original one you brought in from like one of your original Star Wars ones ages seven to 12. So you weren't supposed to play with it after you're 12.
Speaker 2:But nowadays Lego wants any age to play with it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's a thing for any adults too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. I feel like that's a good uh segue into the fandom culture right now. Let's, let's talk especially um adult lego fans now, or adult, what do they call them now? It's adult fans, adult fans of lego, yeah, so that is definitely a big subculture now and they are directly targeting this subculture of of people like they are not trying to get. I mean for a lot of this, like there's a bunch of sets that are like 18 plus, like they're trying to target adult fans of lego, for sure.
Speaker 3:Why, why is that like? Why have they moved more in that direction? Where the money is, where the money adults have money, so it's funny.
Speaker 1:I was about to say I have a cynical answer and I have like a speculative answer. I want the cynical answer. Cynical answer Adults have money.
Speaker 3:Kids do not have money Fair point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, anyway, yeah, good, good question there. Um, you know, it's kind of funny how people like me I think I'm I'm the target demographic, like my age, like you know. Like my age, like you know, mid-30s, whatever demographic I am, because so I grew up like, so I mean, lego hasn't been the Lego that we know today, hasn't been around for like 100 years, you know, it's been around since like maybe the 80s. So I think I mentioned, you know, 1978 was the first time the minifig came out and then from there it kind of developed into what we think of now, as you know, like the traditional Lego sets. So really, you're really talking like mid 80s on having sets like we know today, and so people like me grew up with those and we don't want to stop, you know. And so I think, from a like just a business standpoint for lego group, it just makes sense for them to continue targeting, like you know, as as I'm growing up, they're also targeting me, you know, like continually or like you know, me as in, like my demographic millennials.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly going around like looking at the sets that they offer in target or where you know wherever you're going shopping for things like it's just so many that are in that. Yeah, you know those specific properties that are going to be geared more towards the adults.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Like I mean yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I'm not gonna say that there aren't star wars fans that are kids, because there certainly are, but like it's been around for a long time, so they're certainly targeting adults with that too.
Speaker 2:Well, that brings up an interesting point, like if, like we were just there looking the other day and some of the ones we have on the table are harry potter ones that have come out in the past year or so, and even though they're from like the movies, which it's been 10 years 15 years since the movies like 20 or well, no, maybe 15, okay, yeah yeah, but and yeah, we've got the new show coming out, but like, yeah, they're still producing sets from that world, even though they haven't really put out that much ip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, besides the books and movies, like I mean yeah, we can get another stuff like yeah so, yeah, there's definitely something to be said about, like definitely our demographic does seem to be the target for this sort of stuff, because it's that tie between nostalgia and adult jobs where we can actually pay right for these things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and I think too like, I think what I was saying earlier too is like the positive connection to your you know, childhood like yeah, I've still, like you said, the nostalgia factor is so strong. I mean it's. I think what I was saying earlier too is the positive connection to your childhood. Yeah, like you said, the nostalgia factor is so strong.
Speaker 2:I mean it's you know. Yeah, okay, michael, here's a question I didn't write down, but as we've been going through, it's come to my mind how much of a Lego purist are you in terms of nomenclature?
Speaker 3:Are you okay saying Legos?
Speaker 1:This is good, because this is a hot take for some people, yeah, and I, I have been guilty of this, as well, I will say but go on.
Speaker 2:I do not say legos, yeah, um, I say I say lego, lego, brand, lego bricks yes, lego sets yes, I have not said you do not have. You do not have a bin of legos. You have a bin of like bricks. Yes, exactly, yep. I have not said legos. You do not have a bin of Legos. You have a bin of Lego bricks. Yes, exactly, yep.
Speaker 1:I have not said Legos like with an S in a couple years, maybe A year and a half, I really got back into it like a year and a half ago probably.
Speaker 3:Would you correct somebody if they said Legos in front of you?
Speaker 1:Like actually it's Lego. I would not. I am pretentious and uh, you know, I, I, I don't mind coming off as pretentious, but that's, it just barely crosses the line. You know so.
Speaker 3:But I, I do not say legos, I don't well, any other hot takes coming to mind when it comes to lego right now?
Speaker 1:uh, you know, I myself don't have a ton. Uh, I'm pretty, you know, middle of the road. And in terms of the fandom, um, there are some people out there, though, that believe that the original lego theme, such as castle, space pirates, those represent the true lego and anything outside of that, you know, you name it like duplo, bionicles, all the licensed stuff. That that's not really like what lego is about.
Speaker 2:Like it really is about those like core themes, the purists I mean, I can understand that to some point because again, they weren't relying on other things, that they're modeling things after they're coming up with their own stuff essentially, which I can appreciate, and that goes just back to the mocks in general, just like is it still creative to build something that someone else gives you the instructions for? Like it can be.
Speaker 1:But yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that some people are very much like no, like when they got into the IP stuff, it's just kind of like they're not really like putting as much effort and it's not as creative as it used to be no-transcript.
Speaker 1:The time commitment to, like you know married baby on the way, you know homeowner and stuff, like yeah, there's a, there's a time factor of like I can't, you know, sit down for five hours, like in a week and you know, dedicate to some crazy mock, like for me, like being able to just have the set from my favorite ip and build it, you know it's is is uh much better for me.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, so do you have any favorite uh lego creators out there? Because there are people, plenty of people who are out there making their own stuff. Do you have anyone out there that you follow closely and would recommend to our fans? I've got a few, actually yeah, uh, so youtube.
Speaker 1:Uh, I'm not in their social media besides youtube, so I'll just I'll say what's on youtube. Uh, flapjack films is just a animator who's out there. He does stop motion animation with, uh, with lego. Um, I thought at some point we could actually pause the podcast. You and I will watch like a short video and then we'll come back and I'll get your reactions to it.
Speaker 2:Great.
Speaker 1:But Flapjack Films Go Chatter Studio is actually a nonprofit studio that's creating the entire Bible in Lego bricks and stories. I think they probably have like six or seven videos out there now. Incredible, I mean just super creative.
Speaker 3:Like they're creating sets of like Bible stories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're telling the Bible through like stop motion. Lego animation yeah, oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think at some point I saw like an actual Bible. That was like a comic of Lego figures. Yeah so it's probably an adaptation of that or an evolution of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that actually was kind of a controversial thing. Okay, uh, that was that's. That's widely, uh, uh, frowned upon now, oh, but this is amazing and yeah, and it's very yeah, well, I'll have to send you guys, we'll link that in the in the show notes, uh, and then uh, the other youtuber I follow pretty closely, this guy, kelton davis.
Speaker 1:Um, he reviews like sets from different eras. So like he'll do, uh, like the star wars theme, like the original sets that came out, or like you know, the space ones, or um, like the adventure ones, like, and he'll just do like the top 10 you know from that era and and he adds in like little animations and his stuff is awesome. It's just super polished Like it's so nostalgic to watch Like cause I still have many of those like again sets from like the nineties and a lot of those old themes that were out like out there originally. I still have a lot of sets from those. So, yeah, very, very much taps into the nostalgia.
Speaker 2:But I'll call out to that. I follow that. I really do enjoy and I'm going to wow. I'll have to link them. But one is a master builder named Sam and he works at one of Lego Discovery Centers. And there's another one master builder that's either Alex or Alec I'm blanking right now but both of them, like, they work at Lego Discovery Centers, which are, you know, places where kids can come in and like there's rides and like shows and stuff like that, but there's also like just interactive elements of like there's a huge pile of bricks you can go build with and like. There's master builders there to help educate kids or challenge them or give them tips and that sort of stuff. So like, it's really cool following them and seeing the stuff that they do with kids and like comparing that to like. Like uh, the master builder Alec has this one where he's like taking kids models that they build in the discovery center and then upping them to like his level.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really cool, like yeah, cool, so yeah it's again like the evolution of creativity, almost. Like, yeah, it's really nice to see. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll put links to those in as well.
Speaker 1:All right Well.
Speaker 2:I mean, why don't we take a break right here and watch that video you were talking about? We can come back and jump into that.
Speaker 1:Sounds good. I like it all. Right, guys, flapjack films, the lego office. What do you guys think?
Speaker 2:that is quite the crossover yeah, no, for sure, like the three fandoms in one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah fandoms there is just like interlocking.
Speaker 2:Good, yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3:Yes, is that was that the buzzword for today?
Speaker 2:no, just bricks you know the interlocking okay now I'm with you.
Speaker 3:See, I didn't pick up what? You're putting down. That was sorry, that was, that was not intentional.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a bummer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but no, that was. That's crazy. A office star wars lego intertwined there, man wild. I did love it very funny.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that, michael yeah, yeah, that brings up something interesting that like, okay, we're gonna get into some of our questions that we've prepared for you, but one that kind of ties into um, something that I noticed at your place and we talked about was you had like one of the monster maker like movie sets and that's like it's.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting thing that lego tried to branch into for a while that I feel like they're kind of they're missing out on right now. I can especially like, with the rise of youtube and just creators in general of just like uh, for a while, nick, they were putting out sets where you could, it came with like a stop motion app and stop motion camera and they're encouraging people to make their own movies and stuff like that, yeah, so like tell us about the set that you've got, then yeah, exactly well, to kind of, to kind of piggyback off that real quick.
Speaker 1:Um, I've, I've seen youtube creators and I I couldn't remember off the top of my head exactly which ones, but I I've heard youtube creators in the past say that, like, their introduction into stop motion animation was the, was that era, so that was like early 2000s. Um, yeah, like you were saying, they, they were releasing these, it was lego studios, was the theme, and uh, yeah, they're encouraging you to make your own stop motion and animation and whatnot. So the set that I had I actually had a couple sets from that, uh, from that era or from that theme specifically, but I have a yeah, it's like a lego monsters, like you know, castle set, um, and so there was a software that came with it that I downloaded on my computer and it was an actual like cd-rom. You had to, you know, plug in and download.
Speaker 1:It was the old days, yeah, the old days and uh yeah, and I created my own movie, you know because? And and they had pre-loaded clips, like you don't have to film anything yourself. They would give you pre-loaded clips you could just splice together and then you splice the sound on there and stuff. I spent like days, I mean years of my life like I was going to say days, years of my life, like on that software.
Speaker 1:And I've gone back and I've searched that on YouTube and I've found other people that have uploaded those videos on. We'll link one in the show notes like some old video from that software but it was amazing. But yeah, that theme, in particular with the monsters you had like Frankenstein, dr Jekyll and Lister Hyde Werewolf, it was an amazing, amazing sub-theme and I love the sets from that theme.
Speaker 2:All right. Well then, what's an IP that LEGO hasn't made that you would be excited to see and would go buy immediately?
Speaker 1:I would love to see the Chronicles of Narnia actually Interesting. So Lego. So they have a program called Lego Ideas and you can submit your mocks to the Lego Ideas. If you get 10,000 votes, you get pushed up to the review board, where they bring together a team of people to review your set and they approve. From the actual Lego committee like Lego company yeah yeah, so like, uh, the office lego set that I have, that was a lego ideas, um set that someone created um just as an example.
Speaker 2:But I feel like the lego botanical stuff started as ideas and then I feel like, well, after one or two, like we're really submitted, I think lego kind of like. We're like oh, people want these sort of things and like yeah, yeah, but um.
Speaker 1:So I went on to the lego ideas site and there what? There have been a couple people that have put up chronicles of narnia sets. One of them did get 10 000 votes, did get pushed up to the review process and eventually got denied, sadly well, part of part of that, like when it's a license sort of thing, like it could come down to just getting the rights to it, which I mean there's a chronicles of narnia movie or series uh series, series okay
Speaker 3:yeah, so maybe there could be a tie in there very soon, I think too right, amazon next year, okay, nice yeah, I haven't heard much about it recently.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like I feel like it'll come up, you know, every few months, like ah it's coming and then it'll disappear but yeah anyway, uh, but definitely chronicles, and already I mean, that was one of my favorite you know stories growing up and books and stuff, but is there a particular like scene or like building or like diorama that you would want to see from that?
Speaker 1:I think the dawn treader ship would be incredible like just, I mean that, I mean you can imagine like how detailed that could be, and I mean lego.
Speaker 2:Lego has made some incredible ships in general, like yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. Actually, one of the first one of my like earlier memories of lego was saving up for a pirate's ship yeah, and I remember going to like. At the time there weren't, you know, lego stores everywhere in malls and stuff like that, so you had to go to like the mall of america so like yeah, is that minnesota or something like that.
Speaker 2:I can't remember now I think it is minnesota, okay, yeah so you had to go there to go to the lego store. And I remember saving up my money, like knowing this trip was coming up, and I'm like, oh, we're going to a lego store. Like I'm saving up my money, I'm gonna get like a big set, yeah, as a kid, like yeah and that that was a special memory for me yeah, that's really sweet yeah nice nick. Do you have any questions for michael right now?
Speaker 3:I do, but I'm gonna I think I'm gonna save at least I'm gonna hold back a few of mine anyways because we're gonna do a little uh little, build maybe a post episode uh thing as well. So I'll hold some of mine back, but I will give you one. Um, what is the most complex set that you've ever built and what made it, uh, so complex?
Speaker 1:that is a great question. My most complex set was the daily bugle which I got for christmas um this past year, and I mean it is an unbelievably detailed set. And I mean you, I, I know you've seen it. I don't know if you've seen a nick actually at my house I've.
Speaker 3:I haven't seen your house, but I I know the set that you're talking about yeah, uncle jo had one, he did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, he did have one, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, shout out, uncle Joe. So I loved Spider-Man. Growing up as a kid I had a bunch of the original Spider-Man sets, which thankfully well, actually some of the minifigures in my case now a lot of them are from those old Spider-Man sets. These are some of my most valuable minifig for the YouTube watchers. So getting the Daily Bugle and kind of having that updated version of Spider-Man was just amazing and it took me a week or two to put together. I just worked on it for 30 minutes an hour every day. It was magical.
Speaker 2:And I watched the Spider-Man movies while I was doing it the Tobey Maguire.
Speaker 1:Spider-Man trilogy. I watched those while I was building it.
Speaker 3:That is a great set. It was definitely a nice looking set.
Speaker 1:Oh it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you ever sit in awe of it Like every day. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, one of the one of the things that we kind of talked about a little bit, we just touched on earlier and that we were like like, I definitely have questions around for you. So one of the things I talk about that I think makes you more of a LEGO fan than me right now, is that you follow the LEGO stock exchange essentially, or the cost of sets, the value of sets. So what got you into that? Because he's a finance man.
Speaker 1:That's a good question. Honestly, I think it kind of started from a place of like just how the heck do I like, responsibly, like, engage in this hobby? Um, because for me, like same as every other collector, like you want to go after, you know, the retired sets that's from your childhood, and they're just, they can be insanely expensive. Um, you know, just as an example, you know this set that I brought here with us today, the Jango Fett Slave 1. No, I'm sorry, starship, not Slave 1.
Speaker 2:So I mean, used this goes for $430. Wow.
Speaker 1:And new goes for $1,200.
Speaker 2:And it was probably selling for what like $60, $70 originally. Nope, I bought it for $49.99 when I was a kid. New goes for 1200 bucks.
Speaker 1:It was probably selling for what like 60 70 bucks originally.
Speaker 1:Uh, nope, I bought it for 49.99 when I was a kid yeah and so, yeah, so you know you want to find, like those sets from your childhood and stuff, but, like you know, to really again just responsibly engage in the hobby and you gotta, you gotta, be super careful with that. Especially, you know, this past year we had a lot of transition, my wife and I, like know, with buying the house and all that stuff and now with the baby on the way, so, yeah, it's it's not easy to to stay like super engaged with buying new sets or retired sets, but anyway, so for me, like, yeah, it was just nice to be able to, like you know, go on this platform. So I use brick economy. There's uh platforms out there you can use to track the value of sets and kind of track your own collection.
Speaker 1:Um, so I use brick economy and, yeah, just being able to like track down sets, see what they're going for, you know, see if, where, and get them used, they'll actually link uh all of the not all, but most of the places you can buy these sets, like on ebay, other like you know, third-party sites. So it just it's it's a nice like centralized uh hub for like, yeah, if you want to buy a set, where can you find it. You know how much can you get it for it's literally all here, so you can export all of your data.
Speaker 3:This to like figure out what set you should buy next and like oh, can I buy?
Speaker 2:it. Are you buying it, selling your?
Speaker 3:buy low. Yeah, like let me I.
Speaker 1:I have not gotten into trading and selling yet. I'm still kind of in the like building my collection phase. So I've been. I've spent the last year and a half rebuilding my old set, so I actually took my lego bin that everyone had you know growing up as a kid and I, um, I organized it and I've, like, methodically been rebuilding, like all these old sets from my childhood. So I've not gotten to selling, and part of the reason, too, is I can't part with them.
Speaker 2:Like if.
Speaker 1:I have the set like I just love it and if I buy something now, I'm buying it because I love it so much, so like selling it. I mean maybe a few years from now. But so I've not sold it or trade anything yet. But I'm sure at some point I I probably will.
Speaker 2:But um well, so you're talking about sets from your childhood and I we're. I don't want to leave this podcast without you telling the story of your prized minifig, that you're missing right now I know nick hasn't heard it, so why don't you talk us through what happened to what which, which minifigure was it and what happened with it?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely that's. That's a great question, um it. It does pain me tremendously to to tell this story, Um, but so so again, I've been talking this whole time. You know very into Lego as a kid. Um, when I went I believe it was when I went off to college um, my parents and mom and dad if you're listening, I do not fault you for this, it's all good, you know we're we're square, but, um, it's all good, you know we're square, but my parents took my Lego bin to the church and to the kids' room, and so I believe that my most expensive minifig, which it was the original Django Fett from the Django Fett Slave 1, currently worth $397, just the minifig by itself, nothing else that minifig disappeared during that time period.
Speaker 1:you know, some kid ate it, maybe they stole it I I have no clue put it in their pocket um, and so that's been been pretty sad for me to uh yeah so listeners, if anybody has an original jango fett.
Speaker 2:Yes, this is. This is an incomplete set. Right now, then right, incomplete, it is now the good thing about.
Speaker 1:The good thing about like very old sets is even if they are complete. Django Fett yes, this is an incomplete set, right now, then right. It's incomplete. It is an incomplete set. Now, the good thing about very old sets is, even if they are complete, they'll still go for a good price I've found so, thankfully.
Speaker 3:I don't think I could sell it for its full value but if I did want to sell it, I'd get a pretty good price out of it just because it has so many unique parts that didn't come in any other sets. Uh, what would? What would?
Speaker 1:have to come along for you to be willing to part with your, your slave, one set there. Oh my gosh, um wow, like a really a really good set that came out.
Speaker 3:That would be like, oh yeah, I'd have to.
Speaker 1:I'd have to consider getting rid of it so I could go buy this new set that came out no I I think I'd have to consider getting rid of it so I could go buy this new set that came out.
Speaker 3:No, I think I'd have to maybe crash my car and have to get a new car. Be down to your last $300.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some life catastrophe, I think would have to happen. Wow, even a brand new LEGO set that I absolutely had to have, I don't think would make me sell it, because there are sets out there right now Like the Avengers Tower, for example, like I think it's a $400 set, like I would love to have that. I mean, it's just incredible, like it would go perfectly with the Daily Bugle, but even something like that, like I don't think I could part ways.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of sentimental value there, yeah.
Speaker 1:And my wife she'll attest that that I am a packer at.
Speaker 2:So it's yeah tough to make her read stuff awesome. So okay, I I asked you this question often. I had I had my own white whale lego set that I was looking for and then I ended up getting but, um, what's yours? Do you have one that's like a retired set, that's like super rare that you're looking for, or like is the childhood one that you're on the hunt for? What do you have?
Speaker 1:That is a. That's a super great question. Um, I would say my white whale. It's an X-wing set. Um, and I actually found it in a store out in Pataskala, called out of this world collectibles. It's right down the road from me. It is, yes, it is. I know. I think I passed your house when I was getting there, so you got it. I did not get it, it is very expensive, but it is the X-Wing fight from 2004. It's the version that's from Star Wars, episode IV Empire Strikes Back.
Speaker 1:It's when Luke Skywalker crashes in oh five, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, five oh, wow, uh, it's when Luke Skywalker crashes into Dagobah and he meets Yoda for the first time. And this set, for me, I never had as a kid. Uh, I never got the chance to buy it, um, but just very nostalgic, uh, obviously, luke Skywalker is, you know, as we talked about in our previous episode, you know, my favorite star wars character, um, but this set has has definitely eluded me and, uh, but again I found one, uh, but the expense was it built or was it no?
Speaker 1:no, it was brand new, brand new inbox, yeah uh, so this set on average goes for 376 dollars, which for me right now is just cost prohibitive.
Speaker 2:Sure, get on the way.
Speaker 1:It's hard to part with that kind of money yeah, yeah, yeah, hard to justify but I would say reasonably right now that's my white whale. I mean you could say like some rare, crazy expensive set, you know, but like in reality, like I someday could you know could own this one.
Speaker 2:That's at least attainable. Yeah, so if you, if you bought it about again new in, would you build it?
Speaker 1:I would not build it at first. I think I would resist the temptation. So I have a new in box 1999 Star Wars Snow Speeder, which I have managed to resist building to keep its value.
Speaker 3:How long have you had that?
Speaker 1:one Like two weeks, I think oh.
Speaker 3:I bought it like two weeks ago. It's a recent.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, no actually it's been like three weeks. Okay, all right, Fair enough. Fairly recent, I have resisted opening it. I mean I want it Right now. I want to open it so badly. But I am resisting, you know, to hold its value. I would resist for as long as I could.
Speaker 2:I think I have that set at home but built from really you do Wow. Okay, amazing, could ask my parents and I could dig it up for you.
Speaker 1:You could have a new one and an open. That would be incredible Actually. Thank you, thank you Awesome.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, so we haven't even really touched on like some of the other. Nick mentioned them a little bit, like some of the other Lego media out there or Lego media in general. Instead of the sets themselves, do you have a favorite Lego movie? Or they've done a couple animated series as well, or game even.
Speaker 3:There is a correct answer to this question, Michael, obviously.
Speaker 1:I think the correct answer is the Star Wars Lego game.
Speaker 3:Well, that's also good Games-wise, yes, but movie- movie wise. There's a correct answer okay.
Speaker 1:So movie wise, for me it is the lego movie, the original. That's not the right one. You're gonna say lego batman movie, yeah, I I know, I know I do love lego batman movie. It's, will arnett, believe me, he's, he's incredible, spectacular, movieacular. But I think, for me so movie-wise, the Lego movie, I think because again, it's like the first one that came out.
Speaker 1:I don't know of any other movie of that scale that had ever been produced, I mean, let alone Lego, you know, let alone like just any creator. So that was pretty cool and I think I played the sample earlier of our Michael's been so caught up on talking.
Speaker 3:this time he hasn't been working our soundboard so I'm sorry I I've let people down. I should have been the person that's there like actually helping michael out, but so this is a sample from the lego movie oh my gosh, I love this song everything is awesome.
Speaker 2:Everything is indeed awesome, for sure uh anyway.
Speaker 1:So uh, lego movie, but then uh series rebuild the galaxy. So that came out.
Speaker 2:Uh, I think it was like a year. I think it's the end of last year or maybe like middle of last year.
Speaker 1:So rebuild the galaxy. You know retold star wars story and it's just amazing, super funny. It has a ton of heart. The Lego sets that came out with it were like. I bought a couple of them. They were great.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I want the Dark Falcon on it, the Dark Falcon is incredible.
Speaker 2:A white Darth Vader. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 3:Nice I think we're coming up here on the on the end of time here a little bit, um, we could go. Do we want to talk about what's what's next in lego before we move on? So? Oh, yeah, bring this to a close yeah, definitely so.
Speaker 1:Uh, next big thing in the fandom um, I'm not 100 sure, so I myself would love to go to a brick con someday. Um, so there are massive brickCons out there. There's some smaller ones, but like, I mean, there's one like San Diego, I think there's a New York version, probably Chicago. So I hope someday to go to a BritCon and actually see, like these mocks Because you know they do awards and, yeah, some of the most like I've definitely seen pictures of like the Hogwarts castle, but to an extreme level where they're building every single room and all these details.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a 10 by 10 space of just one mock.
Speaker 1:I can't remember if you sent us the video or if I sent you guys the video, but it was the Battle of Geonosis Star Wars mock, and so this guy, I think he took it to different Brit cons and if I haven't sent it to you, I'll send it to you guys. But just like these incredible builds and this is what they do, you know, like this is their thing. But yeah, someday I'd love to go to a brick con and maybe meet some other AFOLs.
Speaker 3:Are there any upcoming sets that you know that are on the horizon here, that you really are hoping to pick up at some point?
Speaker 1:there are two in particular um. One is from the start, is from spider-man 2, tobey maguire, spider-man 2. It's the train scene oh nice with doc ock.
Speaker 1:So I have the original of that uh. It's one of my favorites. It was one of my favorites as a kid. You can see my doc ock and spider-man minifigs here. So they have not released a set from that era or even from that that uh movie, especially since the early 2000s. So I think to get the updated version of that would be would be amazing. Um, so that one. And then they are releasing a new version of the django f fat starship yeah, they released these at the ucs.
Speaker 2:They released that earlier this year, but they're releasing a smaller like play scale, set um nick ucs is ultimate collector series.
Speaker 1:I forgot about that.
Speaker 2:Okay, so those are the big, big ones that are several hundred bucks and, like you know, this is 600 pieces or something like they'll be like six thousand pieces, like yeah, the u sets, yeah, but they're releasing like a smaller, so it's going to be massive.
Speaker 3:Is the one that's coming out? No, the one that came out recently, the one that came out recently was the big one, the UCS one, and they're doing a smaller version.
Speaker 2:Probably closer to this. Yeah, probably about that size.
Speaker 3:And it's you know.
Speaker 1:There's only been two iterations of Jango Fett version this one and the UCS set that just came out.
Speaker 2:Now there have been many A couple Boba Fett ones yeah.
Speaker 1:Boba Fett ones. There's probably been five, like five or six over the years. But to get again the updated version, I have the original. The updated one would be pretty sweet.
Speaker 3:I sent you guys one that's coming up. I found out it's coming out in September the Batman Arkham style one that's going to be crazy.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you sent that to me actually, he might have sent it to me Did I just send it to you, do you?
Speaker 2:guys talk without me. Sometimes that's all the time we've got.
Speaker 3:No, it's coming out in September. I think it's $300 or $400.
Speaker 2:It's expensive. I think it's expensive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's uh, but I think it's like 16 minifigs yeah, I was gonna say it comes with, like all the villains, it does look really cool.
Speaker 3:If I was going to buy a massive set, I would love it to be that one, because it's pretty cool awesome.
Speaker 2:All right, well, I mean, thanks, michael, for sharing your passion for legos for us and, uh like, before we, before we like close the episode, I'm excited that our next episode we're gonna have our first guest which will be great.
Speaker 1:It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2:Michael, why don't you introduce who our guest is going to be?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so our first official guest quote unquote because we've been the guests- so far is going to be my wife, dana Grenier, and we're going to be talking about Harry Potter, the Harry Potter fandom, yes, and she's super excited to come on. We'll bring some of our Harry Potter memorabilia. Maybe I'll bring another Lego set to show off and yeah, we're really excited for that.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a lot of fun, awesome, it's going to be a good time, yeah, so we hope that you'll join us next time, so why don't we?
Speaker 3:I had one more thing just housekeeping that I wanted to say. First of all, if you're not watching on YouTube, you're missing out, because we got all these cool things that we're trying to bring and show off our nerdy collection of stuff and I'm hoping to continue that as a trend with our guests too, almost like a show and tell. If you will Give you something interesting to look at as we're talking. And then, in addition to that, make sure you go and give us a subscription on YouTube, and we definitely. Addition to that, make sure you go and give us a subscription on YouTube, and we definitely would appreciate that.
Speaker 3:We want to hear more from you and be able to have the conversation in the community here. That's going to be a big thing where we're able to, I hope, do more shout outs and things like that on the show. And then, in addition, I know that we're going to be planning to do a giveaway of some sort here pretty shortly, so be on the lookout for that on social media. And yeah, yeah, we've got pretty cool stuff coming up. We just got these awesome stickers yeah, so our fans are fans of stickers.
Speaker 3:Those are pretty sweet. Uh, these, and along with, uh, these cool fandom of fandom flags, these are going to be a part of our gift, uh, whenever we've got gift. Uh, sorry speakers, what?
Speaker 1:am I saying right now yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Speakers, guests, whatever, yeah, when guests come on the show, um, we definitely want to give them a gift. So that is part of our, our gift set. We are planning on doing a giveaway, uh, with some of those and uh yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's you guys. So much for listening, michael. Again, thank you for thank you bringing in your sets, especially I. I know they're valuable and you brought a lot of cost here.
Speaker 1:So thank you guys, thank you so much all right.
Speaker 2:Well, we hope you enjoyed hearing about today's fandom. Thanks for joining us. Give us a follow on instagram or threads at fofpod to stay up to date with all the latest and check out the video version on youtube at fandom of fandoms. Have a fandom that you want us to dive into? Send us an email at fandom of podcast at gmailcom. Till our next adventure, keep being passionate, keep being curious and keep being a fan.
